Chapter 534: Republic of China: Starting from Whampoa Class One Chapter 544 British Infantry: What Are You Xia Guo Airmen Doing!

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Protagonist:

Lv Muzhi

When Mountbatten received Lv Muzhi's dispatch, Colonel Patterson had just returned to the command post, looking bedraggled.

Seeing Patterson standing before him, covered in mud, Mountbatten's anger flared up at once.

"A disgrace!"

"You chased a group of Japanese routed troops, yet were ambushed by those very routed troops instead."

"Over eight hundred casualties — how will the Xia Guo people look at me? How will they look at the British Army?"

Patterson did not dare raise his head.

After Mountbatten finished berating him, he lifted his hand and glanced at the map.

The British Indian 17th Division's troops had all arrived at the frontline and were standing by for orders.

Lv Muzhi had also dispatched fighters to destroy all the Japanese pontoon bridges and ferries, which created an opportunity for the British Army as well.

"Commit the entire 17th Division."

"Pursue at full speed along the Japanese retreat route; you must intercept them before they completely cross the Chindwin River and annihilate them on the Chindwin's north bank!"

Under Mountbatten's order, the British Army began to move.

The British Indian 17th Division's troops were all pulled out and pursued southward along the traces left by the Japanese retreat.

This time they pursued very cautiously; the vanguard regiment dispatched large numbers of scouts to search both flanks, fearing another ambush.

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On the Chindwin River's surface, the wreckage of the pontoon bridge rose and fell with the waves.

Shattered wood from bombed boats mixed with Japanese floating corpses, drifting everywhere on the river.

These Japanese corpses and body parts would follow the Chindwin River, merge into the Irrawaddy River, flow downstream over eight hundred kilometers, and empty into the Indian Ocean.

Iida Shojiro stood on a piece of high ground on the Chindwin's north bank, watching the Japanese corpses on the river, and did not speak for a long while.

The Engineer Regiment was deploying in a dragnet search, doing its utmost to requisition civilian boats from nearby fishing villages.

The Imperial Infantry were logging anew in the surrounding woods, stripping door panels from every household, dragging everything that could float on the water to the riverbank.

Engineers standing in waist-deep river water shouted cadences, attempting to reconnect the blown-apart pontoon bridge.

Takeuchi Hiroshi walked quickly to Iida's side and reported: "The Army Aviation Unit has already settled in Rangoon; they can dispatch air support to us, covering our river-crossing operation."

"Additionally, the British Indian 17th Division has caught up from behind, twenty kilometers from our rear guard."

Iida Shojiro turned his head to look at him; Takeuchi Hiroshi's expression was complex.

"British Indian 17th Division?" Iida Shojiro repeated this designation.

"In the last Burma campaign, they were driven by us, routed and chased all the way to India; now they actually dare to counter-pursue us?"

"Yesterday's defeated subordinates, now they want to take revenge on us!"

Takeuchi Hiroshi did not speak; the British Indian 17th Division had been defeated by the 33rd Division last time.

But the 33rd Division was now totally annihilated; Division Commander Araki Shinji had committed seppuku in Mandalay city.

Iida Shojiro's hand rested on his command sword's hilt, and he slowly drew it out.

"Takeuchi-kun, you lead the 55th Division's main force to conduct a blocking action; I will also go to the frontline to supervise the battle — we must stop the British Army at all costs."

"The Engineer Regiment and a portion of the infantry will remain here to continue preparing for the river crossing."

Takeuchi Hiroshi was stunned: "Commander, you should stay and hold the riverbank; leave the frontline blocking to me and the 55th Division!"

"No." Iida Shojiro cut him off, "I have had enough of one defeat after another; being wiped out by yesterday's defeated subordinates is something I cannot endure!"

Iida Shojiro pointed at the Chindwin River behind him:

"I will fight with my back to the water; our army's consecutive defeats have driven us into a desperate situation — have you not heard that a sorrowful army is bound to win?"

The 55th Division's Imperial soldiers soon received the order; hearing that the British Army had dispatched a division's strength to hunt them down, and that the Chindwin River ahead blocked their escape route.

The Imperial soldiers could not help but become desperate; under Commander Iida Shojiro and Division Commander Takeuchi's brainwashing, the Imperial soldiers were whipped into a frenzy, deciding to engage the British Army in a decisive battle north of the Chindwin River.

Jiaoji Town lies north of the Chindwin River, a tiny town almost impossible to find on a map.

The Japanese 55th Division will fight a decisive battle against the British 17th Division in this small town.

Ten kilometers southwest of this town, the Japanese Engineer Regiment and several hundred infantry are busy preparing the river-crossing work.

The British Indian 17th Division's vanguard appeared on the northern front of the Japanese defensive line around noon.

The British Army had learned their lesson this time; they did not charge up grandly like Colonel Patterson.

Knowing the Japanese were waiting by the river to cross, they fired exploratory shots with artillery, then sent two companies of infantry to press forward from the front and search.

Takeuchi Hiroshi, at the observation post behind the town, saw the British Army's advance method: "The British have come to die; wait until they get close, then open fire."

When the British infantry advanced to less than three hundred meters from the town's outer perimeter, the Japanese still had not fired a single shot.

As the British drew closer and closer, the Japanese could no longer hold their fire.

The long-prepared firepower poured out at the British Army with full force.

The moment the Type 92 Heavy Machine Guns opened fire, the British platoon at the very front was directly stunned.

Dense bullets came simultaneously from rooftops, bamboo groves, and both sides of the embankment; the crossfire curtain sealed off the advancing British tightly.

British infantry lay prone in shallow ditches by the roadside, not daring to lift their heads.

Mortars and grenade launchers followed immediately.

The British Indian 17th Division's commander probed the Japanese firepower, lowered his binoculars, and said to the staff officer beside him:

"The Japanese main force is inside the town; concentrate all strength, and wipe out the past humiliation!"

Half a year ago in the Burma campaign, the British Army was routed by the Japanese Army all the way, and the 17th Division was the one that ran the fastest.

Now the situation has reversed; Japanese remnants are trapped defending a small riverside town — this is the best opportunity for revenge.

A British division deployed its formation, and the artillery began a firepower strike on Jiaoji Town.

Shells landed among the wooden houses in the town, and the rising firelight and thick smoke merged into one.

After the artillery strike ended, British infantry launched a charge from three directions simultaneously.

Soldiers shouldered Yingyingqi Rifles, advancing on the town in skirmish lines.

They all wanted to use a splendid offensive to recover the face the British Army had lost.

The wooden houses in the town had already been blown to pieces; it looked as if nothing could block the British charge.

When the British infantry charged to within a hundred meters of the town's outer perimeter, the distinctive gunfire of Type 92 Heavy Machine Guns exploded from the ruins.

Takeuchi Hiroshi's troops had not been broken by the artillery strike at all; they hid in trenches and behind rubble piles, waiting until the British Army approached before opening fire.

Crossfire came from different directions, and the British skirmish line was instantly torn apart.

Soldiers dropped prone one after another; bullets grazed over their heads, pinning them down so they could not raise their heads.

A whistle sounded from the rear; British officers on the position ordered the troops to continue advancing.

The second wave of British infantry rushed up from the flank, throwing hand grenades to suppress.

The frontal troops seized the momentum and charged into the town's outer perimeter, engaging the Japanese Army in close-range firefight amid the ruined walls.

A British commando broke through the outer defensive line and penetrated into a bamboo grove on the town's eastern side.

A Japanese squad was positioned in the bamboo grove; they directly rushed out from cover, leveling bayonets and lunging at the British commando.

This was the first time in this battle the British Army faced a Japanese bayonet charge; they were completely caught off guard.

Gunfire and the sound of bayonets clashing mixed together; the British commando held out for less than ten minutes before being pushed out by Japanese bayonets.

Fewer than half of the British soldiers retreated alive; dozens of British commando corpses were left in the bamboo grove.

The other British units that had penetrated the town suffered the same blows.

Every Japanese position thought to have been smashed by artillery fire suddenly came alive when the British charged in.

Japanese soldiers leaped from ruins and shell craters, brandishing gleaming bayonets and lunging at British infantry, suppressing the British firepower superiority and dragging the combat into the bayonet fighting they excelled at most.

The British commander had to order the troops to temporarily withdraw from the town.

The first all-out attack was repulsed.

After a brief reorganization, the British Army did not abandon the offensive; a second attack was launched immediately.

This time the British charge surprisingly did not encounter fierce Japanese firepower suppression.

The reason was simple: the Japanese Army was running low on ammunition.

After consecutive river crossings, many supplies had been abandoned in the panic; the Japanese Army could only start conserving ammunition.

The British watched as they were about to rush the position, yet the Japanese Army themselves charged out from the position.

Several hundred Japanese soldiers, bayonets fixed, vaulted the low wall and directly launched a counter-charge at the charging British Army.

British soldiers were stunned — aren't we the attacking side? How come the Japanese Army charged out from their positions!

With bayonets fixed, Japanese rifles stood taller than a man; the gleaming bayonets skewered several British soldiers in succession.

The foremost British soldiers routed on the spot; those behind were swept back in the rout, and officers shouted themselves hoarse but could not stop them.

The entire attack line receded from the town's edge like an ebbing tide.

Two charges were both repulsed; the British 17th Division never managed to take Jiaoji town.

Just as the British Army was reforming, the boom of engines came from the sky.

Over twenty Japanese Type 1 Fighters appeared on the southern horizon, flying fast and low.

This was the Japanese Army's air support arriving.

Japanese planes dived, dropping bombs on the British Army on the ground, then strafing with the two machine guns in the nose.

Bullets struck the ground kicking up rows of dirt; soldiers who had no time to scatter were mowed down in swathes.

Shrapnel flew in all directions among the British formation; there was nowhere to hide on the ground.

The British Army took cover in nearby shell cratches and grass clumps; their organization was blown to pieces.

Mountbatten in the rear command post received word of the frontline airstrike and immediately signaled the China-Burma Theater Command, requesting emergency air support.

Staff officers ran in and out; radio calls continued without pause.

Lv Muzhi's reply came quickly: have Mountbatten wait half an hour; fighters are still being prepared.

Mountbatten had nothing to complain about; fighters flying from Mandalay over a hundred kilometers away, the previous round of attacks on the Chindwin River had just ended not long ago, Lv Muzhi's fighters needed refueling and rearming — waiting was normal.

But for the British Army, they were being pinned down and beaten by Japanese fighters; every minute and second passed in agony.

Japanese Type 1 Fighters circled in the air for nearly forty minutes, bombing every concentration of British vehicles and personnel.

British soldiers on the ground lay flat, daring not to move; wounded soldiers' miserable cries came from all sides.

By the time the Youth Army's P47 formation arrived over Jiaoji, Japanese Type 1 Fighters had already expended all their ammunition.

Japanese pilots spotted the P47 formation flying in from the north from afar and, without a word, turned tail and left.

Lv Muzhi's P47 formation circled over Jiaoji twice; the sky was clean — not a shadow of a Japanese plane.

Unable to find Japanese aircraft, the P47 formation struck Japanese ground targets inside Jiaoji Town.

P47s began diving on Jiaoji Town.

Bombs and rocket shells poured onto Japanese positions; this time it was the Japanese Army's turn to be pinned down and beaten.

The town was blown so that bricks and stones flew, firelight soared to the heavens; Japanese soldiers on the positions had nowhere to hide, and losses were not small.

Having expended their ammunition, P47s waggled their wings and turned for home.

British soldiers poked their heads out of cover; confirming the planes had left, they were just preparing to organize a third charge, forming up ranks ready to attack.

The engine roar in the sky came again.

This time it was Japanese Type 1 Fighters returning again, in even greater numbers than just now — a full thirty-plus aircraft.

Japanese planes continued ground attacks on the British Army, strafing and bombing in alternating waves, forcibly driving back the British offensive.

The Japanese planes flew off after one round.

The Youth Army's second wave of fighter planes flew back again.

The pilots found no Japanese aerial targets, so they had to unload all their ordnance onto Japanese ground positions.

Both sides' planes came and went, fighting from afternoon to dusk, yet there was not a single aerial engagement — all ordnance was dropped on the ground.

British soldiers in their positions cursed loudly: "What are these Xia Guo plane guys doing, watching enemy planes bomb us right before our eyes!"

Youth Army pilots also cursed in the air: "What are these British infantry guys doing, we've wiped out so many devils, how can they still not take the position!"

It can be said the Youth Army pilots sortied multiple times, and their battle results were extremely rich, inflicting heavy kills on the Japanese Army.

Of course, the British side was also killed in significant numbers by Japanese fighters......

Regarding the British Army's prolonged failure to take Japanese positions, Lv Muzhi sent telegrams urging Mountbatten repeatedly:

"Send another telegram to Mountbatten's department, coordinate with the Youth Army's air offensive, take the Japanese positions in one vigorous push!"

"Night is falling, fighters will be unable to provide effective support; the British side should attack with full force, strictly guard against a Japanese night escape."

At headquarters, Mountbatten was in a very bad mood from Lv Muzhi's constant urging and pressure.

But he could not directly refute Lv Muzhi this War Zone Commander; what if Lv Muzhi got angry, gave him a hard time, and stopped air support?

In Mountbatten's view, his troops had already gone all out, yet still could not break the Japanese defensive line.

Mountbatten could only urge his subordinates, escalating demands layer by layer, ordering the British rank-and-file to attack with full force.

After nightfall, the British soldiers' performance became even worse.

The Japanese dispatched a company to probe the camp, nearly causing the British to panic-fire.

After a battle, the British could be said to have suffered heavy losses — bombed by planes, shot and bayoneted by devils plus night raids; the British Indian 17th Division directly suffered over two thousand casualties.

War Zone Chief of Staff Stilwell was very dissatisfied with the British Army's performance.

Du Yuming and his subordinate Dai Anlan, hearing of the British performance, considered it par for the course for the British.

Du Yuming also sent a telegram to the old man, reporting Mountbatten's and the British Army's various incompetent performances in Burma.

This made the old man feel vindicated for the first time; at least this round Xia Guo's international reputation was earned.

The sky grew completely dark, and both sides' planes finally stopped coming.

Before dark, Lv Muzhi worried the Japanese would bridge the Chindwin River to escape, so he dispatched fighter units to launch a raid targeting Japanese engineers.

However this air strike happened to run into Japanese fighters coming to support; the raid on Japanese engineers had to be shelved.

This also gave the Japanese remnants the chance to cross the Chindwin River.

At ten that night, a messenger ran all the way from the riverbank into Jiaoji Town, reporting to Iida Shojiro and Takeuchi Hiroshi:

"The Engineer Regiment has completed river-crossing preparations; the whole army can cross!"

Iida Shojiro immediately arranged a rear guard to hold, and each unit crossed the river in batches according to sequence.

The Japanese Army and British Army fought a major battle, both suffering heavy losses — a mutual mauling.

Because the Japanese employed suicidal tactics against the British, repeatedly initiating close-quarters combat voluntarily, their losses were even greater than the British.

Plus Lv Muzhi's dispatched fighters striking repeatedly, Iida Shojiro's forces suffered another three thousand-plus casualties.

55th Division soldiers formed long queues, using the night to move toward the riverbank and begin crossing.

After two river crossings the devils lost almost all heavy equipment and the vast majority of grain; the retreat had covered barely one-fifth of the distance, yet a ten-thousand-plus force had already lost half its strength.

By daybreak the British launched another attack.

Killing a hundred-odd Japanese who had not retreated in time, the British only then discovered the Japanese had already crossed the river and escaped under cover of darkness!

The shore was left with large numbers of Japanese wounded and baggage that could not be taken away.

When retreating, the Japanese also blew up the pontoon bridge on the Chindwin River.

The 17th Division's casualty statistics reached Mountbatten; north of the Chindwin River, all told, British casualties reached over three thousand.

A British division commander stood in place, asking Mountbatten whether to cross the Chindwin River and continue pursuit.

Mountbatten held the battle report and thought for a long time, finally saying: "Forget it, no pursuit!"

"Send a telegram to the China-Burma Theater Command and London: say my unit fought a fierce battle with the Japanese Fifteenth Army main force north of the Chindwin River, annihilating over ten thousand enemy!"

"Japanese remnants fled south across the river; leave to friendlies to handle."

"I feel the situation is somewhat off; our army will immediately proceed to Mandalay."

Orders were quickly passed down; after a day's march, Mountbatten led the British Army back to Mandalay.

Upon arriving at Mandalay, Mountbatten discovered this was already a city that had changed hands.

Youth Army guards stood sentry at the city gates; the Xia State Army's military flag flew on the city walls.

Streets were orderly; houses damaged by war were already being cleared and reinforced.

Local residents walked the streets; shops not yet fully open, but the streets showed no chaos.

All city departments had been taken over by the Youth Army; the City Hall entrance bore the China-Burma Theater Command sign; those entering and leaving were all Youth Army and United States officers.

Telegraph office, train station, post office, warehouse — every key position had Youth Army soldiers standing guard.

Unity Party cadres within Burma handled civil affairs, communicating with the populace; Mandalay's local residents quickly accepted Xia State Army garrisoning.

Rather, British soldiers wearing bowl helmets appearing on Mandalay's outskirts terrified local residents, clearly unwelcome.

Mountbatten pondered carefully.

The British Army gained no great advantage in this battle; Burma's major cities had also been seized first by Lv Muzhi and the Unity Party!

Inside the Mandalay headquarters, Lv Muzhi said to Stilwell:

"Although the British were ineffective, letting the Japanese escape, I have already ordered Xie Jinyuan to arrange forces to intercept the Japanese retreat route."

"The Japanese absolutely cannot leave Burma alive."

"Furthermore, Thailand's Victory is also within reach!"