Chapter 361

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Protagonist:

Lv Muzhi

"Wake up! Baron Tokugawa!" Xiaolin Feicao shouted inside his fighter plane, but the slumbering Tokugawa Yoshitoshi turned a deaf ear, sleeping like a dead pig inside his Hell Baron!

In the eyes of Xia Guo airman Liu Cuigang, that "Hell Baron" tumbled down like a drunkard, while beside it a Japanese fighter plane was inspecting nearby.

Liu Cuigang initially suspected it was a trap, but seeing no signs of correction, he immediately realized this might not be a lure—perhaps it had lost control!

"Falcon Three, this enemy plane's condition is wrong; the pilot may be incapacitated. I'll go down and finish them off, cover me!"

Liu Cuigang briefly reported over the radio, then pushed the control stick, and his BF-109 dove down like a falcon.

Xiaolin Feicao, inside his Type 95 Fighter, separated by two panes of glass, desperately shouted at the unconscious Tokugawa Yoshitoshi in the cockpit of the Type 97 Fighter.

Completely at a loss!

Liu Cuigang's shells came screaming in.

The 20mm cannon shells first tore apart the fragile Type 95, which exploded midair into a fireball.

Next, Liu Cuigang adjusted his angle, fired a clean short burst, and hit the Hell Baron still spiraling downward.

The bullets penetrated its fuel tank and engine; this Type 97 Fighter personally piloted by Lieutenant General Tokugawa Yoshitoshi instantly became a burning meteor, trailing long black smoke, and plunged nose-first into the wilderness northeast of Huangchuan.

Baron Tokugawa Yoshitoshi never woke up again; he was shot down while in a coma.

"Baron Tokugawa... has fallen!!!"

Nearby Japanese pilots witnessed the fall of that fighter of special significance, and the last shred of support in their hearts collapsed instantly.

Even a Lieutenant General Excellency, Baron-sama, Air Corps Commander, the number one of the Army Air Force... a great man bearing so many halos—must he burn himself out in this war?!

The death of a commander, especially falling in such a near-bizarre way, dealt a devastating blow to morale.

Although the air battle did not end immediately, the outcome was already decided.

The remnants of the Japanese air force, having lost their will to fight, fell like autumn leaves under the joint encirclement and annihilation by the Youth Army and the Soviet Volunteer Air Force's BF-109s, I-15s, and I-16s.

The battle lasted from daytime until the sun set in the west; when the last few lucky Japanese fighters, covered in wounds, disappeared into the southeastern horizon, the skies over Huangchuan finally returned to calm.

Lieutenant General Tokugawa Yoshitoshi expended the entire resources of the Air Corps, along with himself, and they were all directly wiped out under this sky.

The Air Corps assigned by the Imperial General Headquarters for the Wuhan campaign—its main force can be declared annihilated after this battle.

The Central China Expeditionary Army fell into a state of lacking air support.

On the ground, at the Forward Observation Post.

Lv Muzhi lowered his telescope; he saw the outcome of the air battle clearly.

The sky now belonged completely to our side.

His voice was calm and powerful, spreading throughout the command post: "Artillery units, based on aerial reconnaissance markers, conduct the final round of fire coverage on the Japanese core positions inside Huangchuan City!

All units, under tank guidance, launch a general assault on Huangchuan City!"

"Tell Qiu Qingquan, at any cost, seize victory!

I don't want casualty figures; I only want Huangchuan City!"

The orders were transmitted, and a single stone stirred up a thousand waves.

The artillery positions roared again with earth-shaking fury, pouring the last of their steel and flames into Huangchuan City.

Hundreds of thousands of Xia Guo soldiers, under the cover of artillery fire and tanks, like a bursting flood, rushed into Huangchuan City through every blown breach in the city walls and every low ruined wall.

Leading the charge were over thirty 38T and Sanhao Tanks; their tracks crushed rubble, their machine guns spat tongues of fire, clearing the road for the following Xian Bing.

Inside the city, what greeted them was a scene of ruins and scattered but stubborn resistance.

After days of aerial bombing and ground artillery coverage, Huangchuan City had been reduced to ruins.

Fortunately, more than a month earlier, the residents inside the city, because of the war, had already temporarily evacuated before the Japanese arrived.

The remaining soldiers of the Japanese Imperial Guard Division and Fifth Division, relying on shattered houses, street barricades, and cellars, fought their last cornered battle.

Intense gunfire, explosions, shouts, and screams instantly filled every alley and every ruin of Huangchuan City.

Central China Expeditionary Army Headquarters.

Hata Shunroku paced back and forth before the map, hoping for some good news from the front.

A staff officer ran in, holding a telegram just translated.

"Commander Excellency! Urgent telegram from Hefei! The fighter group sent by the Air Corps to Huangchuan... totally annihilated! Fewer than ten fighters returned!"

Hata Shunroku's body swayed, and he collapsed directly into a chair.

"What about Baron Tokugawa Yoshitoshi?! Is he back?!"

The staff officer swallowed hard and said with some difficulty: "According to eyewitness confirmation from the returning pilots, the Baron's personal plane has been shot down...

Baron Tokugawa... has fallen!"

"Fallen..."

Hata Shunroku never expected he had overplayed his hand; this Wuhan campaign might end up being a futile effort in the end.

Earlier, when he angrily scolded Tokugawa Yoshitoshi as a good-for-nothing over the phone, it was mostly pressure and venting; he never expected that this proud noble general, who valued honor as life, would actually fly a fighter himself and thus fall.

"Another Baron killed in action..." Hata Shunroku felt ice cold in his heart.

He recalled the earlier death of Major General Fushimi-no-Miya Takeo (Prince Fushimi family), and Baron Kurojima Morita (Imperial Guard Cavalry Regiment Commander)... In this campaign, one prince (family leader) and two barons had already died.

What kind of shock and questioning of his command ability would the deaths of these royals and nobles cause domestically?

This thought made Hata Shunroku shudder.

Before he could calm down, another signal soldier rushed in, holding another urgent telegram.

"Urgent telegram from Huangchuan! Lieutenant General Iida Sadakazu, commander of the Imperial Guard Division, has sent a farewell telegram!"

Hata Shunroku snatched the telegram in one hand and scanned it at top speed:

"The Youth Corps has entered Huangchuan City; my forces and the Fifth Division are relying on the ruins, fighting the enemy house by house and street by street in fierce combat...

Though the battle situation is not optimistic, all officers and men of my Imperial Guard Division and the Fifth Division will fight to the last soldier...

Hereby I implore Your Excellency the Commander to order Prince Tōgū Toshihiko to hasten his crossing of the Dabie Mountains!

I beg Your Highness not to hesitate further, but strike straight for Wuhan!

Only thus can the sacrifice of fifty thousand officers and men of our two divisions have meaning! Do not let us die in vain!"

The telegram slipped from Hata Shunroku's hand, fluttering down onto the sand table, exactly covering the position of Huangchuan.

The command post was deathly silent, save for the crackling static of the radio and the distant, muffled thuds symbolizing that the Wuhan direction was still locked in bitter fighting.

Hata Shunroku slowly closed his eyes; once Huangchuan was lost, Tōgū's rear in the Dabie Mountains would be completely exposed!

This campaign, in the end, was my own move one step too poor!

At this very moment, within the Dabie Mountains.

The dire situation at Huangchuan was already known to Prince Tōgū Toshihiko.

Below Xiaojieling, the Japanese Army was being tormented by Huang Wei's poison gas shells to the point of unbearable agony!

In the mountains, logistics and supplies were cut off, medicine and doctors lacking; the Japanese soldiers wounded by poison gas could not receive effective treatment—truly unable to live and unable to die!

"Both of you! I said long ago that General Hata Shunroku's plan is not highly executable! We should have joined forces with the Imperial Guard Division and the Fifth Division at Huangchuan!" Prince Tōgū said to Nakajima and Lieutenant General Shimomoto.

Sixteenth Division Commander Nakajima faced Huang Wei at Xiaojieling Mountain with utter helplessness; now Huangchuan behind his buttocks was about to fall at lightning speed, and he couldn't help but begin to regret.

"Indeed we should have disobeyed General Hata Shunroku's orders! Our army is in extreme danger in these Dabie Mountains!"

108th Division Commander Shimomoto asked: "Your Highness, what should we do now?"

Prince Tōgū Naruhiko said: "The campaign objective can actually no longer be accomplished; while Huangchuan is still pinning down Lv Muzhi's main force, we should leave the mountains now, along the mountain foot at the north foot of the Dabie Mountains, head west immediately to break away from the Huangchuan battlefield, and return to Hefei!"

"Your Excellency, Du Yuming's 200th Division is watching us right at the mountain foot!"

"There's no choice; break through Du Yuming's defensive line with full force, break out with full force, we must do our utmost to preserve the 16th Division and the 108th Division!"