Chapter 480

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Protagonist:

Lv Muzhi

Prime Minister of Thailand and Army Marshal Lawan did not know that the Japanese army was charging toward his troops.

At this moment, as head of government and Army Marshal, he was already immersed in the joy of victory.

Lawan was now seated comfortably in the Luang Prabang Grand Palace in Laos.

Just a few days ago, the Thai army had expelled the French colonial officials here.

【Laos is a territory of French Indochina, which consists of three parts: Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia】

【Among them, Vietnam is divided into three parts: North, Central, and South, from north to south respectively Tokyo, Annam, and Cochinchina; to avoid confusion with Tokyo, Japan, this novel refers to Tokyo as North Vietnam.】

Lawan captured Pecha, a core member of the Laotian royal family, and quickly announced the establishment of an "independent" Kingdom of Laos.

The so-called independence was merely a play directed and acted by Lawan himself.

Royal family member Pecha, under the threat of bayonets, ascended the throne and ceded vast border territories to Thailand.

Progress in Cambodia was equally smooth; young King Norodom Sihanouk became another puppet in Lawan's hands.

Vast fertile lands, under the seal of the puppet royal family, were easily incorporated into Thailand's territory.

Lawan did not need to seek the consent of the French Indochina colonial authorities at all; as long as the puppet he supported nodded, he could cede as much land as he wanted, and the cession agreement would have legal validity.

His staff had once suggested Lawan swallow all of French Indochina in one go amidst the chaos, but Lawan shook his head and refused.

"Steps cannot be taken too large; the French have not completely left, the Japanese are still here, and now there is an additional Youth Army."

"First support puppet royal families everywhere, put the meat in our mouths, and raise the banner of opposing French imperialism; the remaining parts can be slowly gnawed at later."

Lawan turned around and looked at the army general standing to the side.

"How is the situation in Annam? Has Bao Dadi in the Hue Imperial Palace been captured?"

"As long as we control Bao Dadi, we can establish a puppet in Annam as well, and in the future, coveting Vietnam's land will be justified."

The general being questioned had a somewhat unpleasant expression and a hesitant tone.

"Marshal Lawan, there has been an accident in Hue; our vanguard troops encountered the Japanese army there."

"Some friction occurred between the two sides, and they are currently in a standoff."

Upon hearing this, Lawan felt somewhat uneasy in his heart.

How could they run into the Japanese army? Could it be that the Japanese defeated the Youth Army and still had the energy to help the French?

This made Lawan, who had always wanted to profit from the cracks, feel for the first time that the situation was out of control!

Inside the Hue Imperial Palace, Thai Major General Phraya Shunli had taken Vietnamese royal family member Bao Dadi hostage.

Thai soldiers were building sandbags and fortifications around the Imperial City when they suddenly received news that the Japanese army was advancing.

More than ten thousand troops of the Japanese Fifth Division, driving tanks, automobiles, and motorcycles, and simultaneously riding trains, advanced along both railway and road from north to south toward the Hue Imperial Palace.

Fifth Division Commander Lieutenant General Nakamura Akito knew that Thai troops were blocking the way ahead; eager to flee, he chose to negotiate with the opposite side.

A Japanese liaison officer drove a motorcycle with sidecar to the front of the Thai troops and shouted loudly.

"We are the Japanese Imperial Army Fifth Division; we now need to pass through Hue to retreat to the southern port of Saigon!"

"The Locust Army has no intention of engaging in armed conflict with your troops!"

"Please open the defensive line and let us pass!"

Major General Phraya stood on the city tower of the Imperial City, looking at the Japanese army in the distance—though disheveled, still full of killing intent—and muttered to himself.

He had not received Marshal Lawan's orders; how could he dare to privately allow a foreign army of over ten thousand to pass through his defensive line?

Who could guarantee that these Japanese were not using the pretext of retreat to seize the Hue Imperial Palace along the way?

"Tell these Japanese to wait patiently; I am requesting instructions from my superiors!"

"If the Japanese dare to force their way through, the Thai Royal Army will open fire and counterattack without hesitation!"

Probably because they had defeated the French, Major General Phraya spoke very toughly.

For a time, both sides were on the verge of conflict; the Japanese were eager to pass, while the Thai dared not easily let them through.

Among Lieutenant General Nakamura's subordinates, someone had already suggested forcibly breaking through the Thai defensive line, lest they be caught up by Sun Liren's troops from the rear.

While the two sides were communicating, several P-40 fighters painted with shark mouth markings swooped down from the clouds with a howl.

They were the Flying Tigers' P40 fighters, specially sent to search for Japanese movements; upon seeing the Japanese on the railway line and road, they directly pressed the machine gun button.

Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat—!

Bullets from the aircraft machine guns poured down like a rainstorm onto the Japanese marching columns, tearing apart both the earth and human bodies together.

This caused the entire area outside Hue City to erupt in chaos.

Someone fired at the sky in panic, trying to shoot down the plane.

And some Japanese, their eyes red with killing, subconsciously thought that the Thai troops inside the city were coordinating with the planes to pincer attack them.

No one knew who fired the first shot at the Imperial City; immediately, a shootout between the Japanese and Thai troops broke out.

A great melee erupted instantly within the Hue Imperial City.

Lieutenant General Nakamura Akito, hearing the gunfire ahead, was furious.

A staff officer ran to report that the Thai troops inside the city had opened fire on the Japanese first.

"Damn it! These southern monkeys really think that because they defeated the French, they can strut arrogantly before the Imperial Army?"

Nakamura Akito drew his command sword and slashed forward fiercely.

"The Thai troops number only five or six thousand; give me a fierce beating! Trample the Hue Imperial City flat!"

The Japanese had been holding in a bellyful of anger, and now they found an outlet.

Although routed before the Youth Army, against Thailand's light infantry the Japanese Fifth Division was nothing short of a dimensional strike.

Japanese howitzers and mountain guns took turns bombarding the city walls of Hue Imperial City.

After the bombardment, the engines of Type 97 Kai medium tanks and Type 95 light tanks roared as they charged straight toward the city walls.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

As for the Thai soldiers' equipment, their rifles were Japanese-made Type 66 rifles; the Japanese had changed the Type 38 rifle's 6.5mm caliber to 8mm and sold them to the Thai army.

Machine guns came in all varieties—French, Japanese, and British—while artillery consisted of only a small number of useless old cannons.

The Thai troops defending Hue Imperial City could not withstand the Fifth Division's ten thousand-plus Japanese troops' combined infantry-artillery offensive.

The battle lasted less than half a day.

Originally smug with victory, over five thousand Thai troops, facing the Japanese bayonet charge glinting in the light, were so frightened they abandoned the city and fled.

Thai Major General Phraya, dragging Emperor Bao Dadi along with him, led his defeated remnants in headlong flight toward the Thailand-Laos border.

Nakamura Akito stood on the smoke-filled walls of Hue City, watching the fleeing Thai troops, blinking his eyes as he said: "With fighting power like this, the Thais actually forced the French to cede land and sue for peace?"

The staff officer beside him calmly glanced at his watch and urged: "Divisional Commander, although the Youth Army's main land force hasn't caught up yet, we still need to seize the time and continue retreating south toward Cochinchina, lest we invite trouble by delay."

Nakamura Akito nodded in deep agreement.

"You're right. Send a victory report to Tokyo Imperial General Headquarters at once!"

"Say that my Fifth Division, while redeploying, in the Battle of Hue wiped out over five thousand elite Thai troops in just three hours."

"This is the second major military achievement of the Imperial Japanese Army after stepping into Indochina and defeating the French Army!"

"At the same time, ask the Navy to rush the escort fleet into Saigon Port; we will board ships there."

After sending the report, over fifteen thousand remnants of the Japanese Fifth Division once again crammed into automobiles and trucks, boarded trains, and vanished southward in a cloud of dust.

Outside Hanoi, at the Expeditionary Force camp, troops pitched camp along the railway line.

Lv Muzhi divided his troops into two camps, stationing them respectively at the strategic chokepoints of the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway and the Guangxi-Vietnam Railway.

The camps were right beside the tracks, and military trains from Xia Guo within the country could deliver ammunition, parts, and supplies directly to the camps.

Sun Liren, who had originally been pursuing behind the Fifth Division, upon seeing the clear trend of the Japanese retreating south at full speed, withdrew to the vicinity of Hanoi according to Lv Muzhi's orders.

Sun Liren stood in the headquarters and, with some regret, drew a circle on Saigon in the south with his pencil.

"From Hanoi in the north to Saigon in the south, over a thousand kilometers north to south, all of those thousand-plus kilometers are coastline—a frighteningly long coastline."

"That old fox Nakamura Akito ran far too fast. Over a thousand kilometers of distance, and we only have twenty thousand men; if we pursue, our supply lines will be stretched endlessly long."

Lv Muzhi sat in his chair, holding a teacup, and looked at Sun Liren approvingly.

"Exactly."

"Over a thousand kilometers of coastline—the Japanese Combined Fleet could land reinforcements at any beach."

"Once you lead a lone army in pursuit, Japanese reinforcements will land by warship behind you, and the pursued Fifth Division will turn around and strike you; you, Sun Liren, will be surrounded front and rear."

"We are fighting abroad; our primary objective is to open the railway transport line. As for other matters, we need not take such a great risk."

Sun Liren nodded in agreement, only feeling it a pity that this time they had failed to wipe out the zombie-like Fifth Division.

Rumble—!

The roar of a train came from outside.

Lv Muzhi walked to the window, watching a long military train belching black smoke as it headed toward Guangxi.

On the flatcars of the train, crude oil barrels from Indonesia were neatly stacked.

Inside the boxcars were crammed canned food and scarce medicines from the United States.

These supplies were being ceaselessly transported back to Xia Guo within the country.

Lv Muzhi pointed at the northbound train: "The initial strategic objective of the southern advance has been accomplished."

"The railway is opened, the lifeblood of domestic resistance is revitalized; now as long as we hold onto this fruit of victory, we will surely be the winners sooner or later."

Sun Liren nodded, but thinking of Governor De Gu in Hanoi, he still felt uncomfortable.

"Lu Commander, we are working ourselves to death here, fighting the devils to the death, while his Governor De Gu, by repeatedly surrendering, still gets to be his governor!"

"Now he has transformed into a man of Free France, wearing the same pants as the British."

"If we want to use the railway in the future, won't we have to look at his face? What if he is frightened by the Japanese again and closes the line?"

Sun Liren frowned with some concern.

After listening, Lv Muzhi looked toward the direction of Hanoi City outside the window.

"The ancients said: when virtue does not match one's position, disaster must follow!"

"Just watch; we need not lift a finger—he already has a path to his own death!"