20: Chapter 20: The Eighth Route Army is in an uproar! At all costs!
"Hai!"
Tada Shun's orders were quickly dispatched, and the type 95 heavy tank units set out immediately.
A 70mm caliber main gun was no joke!
But at this moment, the atmosphere inside the meeting room had changed completely.
The initial ease and arrogance had vanished, replaced by an unprecedented tension and a faint sense of unease.
At first, they thought they had just been caught off guard; while embarrassing, the overall situation was still under control.
But when this tank, which could defend against 37mm anti-tank guns, appeared, the nature of the situation changed entirely!
If there was one, would there be a second? A third?
If the enemy truly possessed an armored force that even anti-tank guns could do nothing against, then the situation on the North China battlefield, and even the progress of the entire Huaxia battlefield... would be completely rewritten!
At the thought of this possibility, the faces of all the Japanese generals turned extremely grim.
No one knew better than these beasts how much pressure an advantage in weaponry could bring!
Tada Shun's expression was so dark it looked like it could drip water.
"Kasahara-kun!"
"Immediately contact Tokkō and activate all our high-level intelligence networks in Shanxi Province and even toward Chongqing!"
"At the same time, mobilize all secret service agencies under the North China Area Army!"
"At all costs, find out the origin of that tank for me! Right now! Immediately!"
...
Meanwhile.
Shanxi Province, Eighth Route Army Headquarters.
The atmosphere was similarly oppressive.
"Reporting to the Deputy Commander! Urgent intelligence! There are abnormal movements in the tank units directly under the North China Area Army!"
"Report! Urgent telegram from Central Hebei Military Region! Units of the Japanese 110th Division are massing toward the Pinghan Line, with unprecedented blockade intensity!"
"Jinchaji Military Region reports! The 2nd Independent Mixed Brigade is highly active, with reinforcements sent to multiple strongholds!"
"Telegram from Taihang Military Region! The 36th Division has dispatched at least two battalions, advancing west to construct a blockade line!"
"Report! The 41st Division and 27th Division also show signs of large-scale deployment..."
Communications Staff Officers hurried back and forth, constantly summarizing intelligence from all directions for the Deputy Commander-in-Chief, the Chief of Staff, and the other Chiefs.
With every report, an operations staff officer would draw and mark the map according to the intelligence.
Gradually...
On the map, blue arrows representing the Japanese Army spread out from every direction. Especially around the outskirts of Beijing, they almost formed an airtight iron barrel!
The Deputy Commander-in-Chief's brow furrowed tighter and tighter as he paced back and forth in front of the map with his hands behind his back.
The Chief of Staff's expression was also exceptionally grave as he stared intently at the map.
"Leader, the situation... is not optimistic at all," the Chief of Staff spoke up.
"Looking at this posture, that Old Devil Tada Shun is truly desperate! Almost every Japanese soldier in North China that can move has been mobilized! This is no longer a simple pursuit and interception; they intend to sweep through everything!"
Another hot-tempered Leader slammed his fist on the table: "Damn it! Just for a few people, is this necessary? Has that Old Devil Tada Shun gone mad?"
When they first heard the intelligence that Tada Shun had ordered a mobilization across "all of North China," The Chiefs thought it might be an exaggeration by the enemy, or perhaps words spoken in a fit of rage by the Commander.
After all, to launch a military operation of such scale for just a few people and one vehicle was logically difficult to understand; the cost-effectiveness was too low.
But the intelligence flying in like snowflakes, corroborating each other, all proved one thing—
Tada Shun wasn't joking. He had truly mobilized almost every force the Area Army could muster to set this inescapable net!
In fact, the information The Chiefs had received was limited, and most importantly, they had overlooked one point—
If it were just to capture a few people, Tada Shun might not have made such a grand display.
But the key was that the tank's sudden appearance in Beijing had truly frightened Tada Shun, which was why he was making such a huge fuss.
"The comrade who stepped in to save them, and the comrades in Beijing... this time, I'm afraid..." One Leader didn't finish his sentence, but the meaning was self-evident.
Under such a massive military encirclement, the hope of survival was simply too slim.
"Never mind them, even the support units we sent out are likely to..."
One had to know that although the three units sent out were small in number, they were all elites!
The atmosphere in the command post was oppressive. The Chiefs were not only worried they couldn't save the people, but also feared losing the support units and the underground intelligence network.
However, in this atmosphere that had reached its breaking point—
It was that intelligence chief with the black-rimmed glasses again, walking in with quick steps.
"Deputy Commander! Good news! Great news!"
"Good news?"
The Deputy Commander looked up sharply. At a time like this, what good news could there be?
The intelligence chief pushed up his glasses and didn't keep them in suspense, saying directly:
"I just received top-secret intelligence forwarded from the West Beijing Guerrillas! They... they discovered a large number of routed Japanese soldiers in the direction of Fang County Pass!"
"Upon investigation..."
The intelligence chief swallowed hard; even he found the weight of this intelligence difficult to bear.
"Upon investigation... the Morita Battalion under the 7th Independent Mixed Brigade was... was routed at Fang County Pass by a mysterious tank!"
"According to preliminary verification, over six hundred Japanese soldiers were annihilated on the spot! Three anti-tank guns and dozens of light and heavy machine guns were destroyed!"
"The entire Morita Battalion... has basically been crippled!"
"..."
Silence!
A deathly silence!
In the command post, every Leader and every staff officer had the same expression written on their faces—
This is impossible!
Crippling a battalion?
Annihilating over 600 enemies?
You must be joking!
It took several full seconds before the Deputy Commander suddenly snapped out of it.
"You... what did you say? Say it again? Which Morita Battalion? Is there a mistake?"
"No mistake! Deputy Commander! It's that Morita Battalion, equipped with three anti-tank guns and a full complement of over 1,100 men!" The intelligence chief nodded heavily.
"The comrades of the West Beijing Guerrillas verified it repeatedly! Japanese corpses are scattered all over the mountains, and weapons and supplies are left everywhere. That scene... it's as if it had been covered by the artillery fire of an entire division!"
"Hiss—"
The Chief of Staff sucked in a breath of cold air, feeling as if his worldview had been overturned.
"One tank... crushed a Japanese battalion?"
"How... how the hell did they do that? What kind of tank is that? Did heavenly soldiers descend from the sky?"
The Eighth Route Army had fought tanks before.
While those iron turtles were indeed fierce, if they didn't have infantry support, could a single tank really crush an entire battalion?
And a battalion with anti-tank guns at that?
Even without anti-tank guns, in the Chief of Staff's mind right now, there were at least a thousand ways for 1,000 men to destroy a single tank.
It wasn't just the Chief of Staff who didn't believe it; none of The Chiefs present believed it either.
"Good heavens... over six hundred Japanese..."
"I've been fighting the Japanese for so many years, and I've never heard of such a thing!"
"Who did it? Has it been cleared up?"
All The Chiefs looked at the intelligence chief again.
The intelligence chief smiled: "Although it's not yet clear who did it, based on the analysis of existing intelligence, I reasonably suspect... it was done by the hero who caused the uproar in Beijing!"
"What?"
"You mean... it was Ding Zhijian and the others?"
The Chiefs were stunned!
Shock! Ecstasy! Disbelief!
The haze that had just been weighing on their hearts and making it hard to breathe vanished in an instant!
They had originally thought that the mysterious hero and the three comrades were struggling to survive in a desperate situation, and might even have sacrificed themselves.
But they never expected that not only were they fine, but they had turned around and given the pursuers a slap that echoed throughout North China!
They had directly crippled an elite Japanese battalion!
What a brilliant record! What terrifying combat power!
This was no longer escaping from the tiger's mouth; this was directly pulling the tiger's teeth and giving it two slaps for good measure!
"Hahaha! Good! Well fought! Well fought!!"
The Deputy Commander-in-Chief finally couldn't help but laugh out loud.
"No matter who did it, they are a credit to us! A hero of my Chinese nation!"
"Pass down the order: at all costs, we must find out this comrade's identity and... find him!"
It wasn't just because Shen Wang had saved the comrades and routed a battalion, but more importantly—
The Chiefs all really wanted to know: how did he use a single tank to crush an entire battalion?