Chapter 215: Japanese Army Halts the Pursuit

The rotting corpse smell in the air made many Japanese Army soldiers begin to vomit.

Even when the sergeant whipped the vomiting soldiers, they still could not be restrained.

Not to mention the ordinary soldiers, even some officers could no longer keep from vomiting.

"Tell me! What on earth is happening!" Fan Tian Xiang'erlang whirled around, his blood‑red eyes fixed on his subordinates, "Intelligence said it was just an isolated force, Dai Anlan's 2nd th Division! How could they possibly achieve this! They are just a regiment's soldiers."

The Southern Army's intelligence was supplied by the Southern Agency, and the agency's reports always indicated that only a few regiments' strength existed toward Lashu, and that they were untenable; in fact that was true, and along this route the Expeditionary Force's garrison troops had all been defeated by the Japanese Army's 56th Division.

Watanabe Masao only hit a brick wall when they were about to approach Lashu.

The first to speak was Lieutenant General Zhu Nei Kuan of the 55th Division. His troops had been entangled with the 2nd th Division under Tonggu City the longest, and had suffered the heaviest losses.

His voice was hoarse, tinged with incredulous fatigue: "Commander, we underestimated this force. Their defensive works were built extraordinarily solid, and their firepower far exceeded our expectations. More importantly, their soldiers… possess a ferocity we have never seen in Chinese troops. They would rather pull the pin on a Hand Grenade and perish together with us than retreat a single step. This army is no longer the ragtag mob that collapses at the slightest touch that we encountered on the Chinese mainland."

Lieutenant General Ying Ji Shengsan of the 33rd Division added, his troops tasked with a flanking maneuver had also met fierce resistance: "Yes, Commander. Their commander Dai Anlan employed tactics with extreme flexibility. They actually launched an attack at dawn, when people are at their most exhausted, catching the 144th Regiment off guard. Had we engaged in a frontal battle, the Chinese 200th Division could not have easily taken Tonggu. We had originally planned a celebratory banquet in Mandalay for you and the Southern Army Commander… now that mood has completely vanished."

Lieutenant General Mukoda Koya, the commander famed for his zeal and audacity, now also restrained his usual flamboyance.

He came as a reinforcement, intending to showcase his prowess, but was confronted with such a grim scene. In a deep voice he analyzed: "This is not merely a problem of the 2nd th Division. I suspect that although the British Army suffered a collapse on the Western Front, the arrival of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, with Americans arming the Chinese, these damned Americans' weapons are reshaping the entire Myanmar battlefield. According to soldier reports, their troops are equipped with American weapons, and their officers' command capabilities are also very strong. If we continue to underestimate them, the next 'Jingguan' could appear on the front of any of our divisions."

In fact, Mukoda Koya was wrong, because those defeated soldiers misreported; Jiang Anguo's weapons were mostly German, with only a small portion of 60 mm mortars being American.

Three division commanders' analyses, like three daggers, pierced Fan Tian Xiang'erlang's fury, making him feel a bone‑chilling cold.

He finally realized that their opponent in Myanmar seemed to have changed, and the Chinese 200th Division was like a dagger that plunged straight into the heart of his 15th Army.

One could say, if it weren't for the Chinese 200th Division, his own 56th Division wouldn't have been defeated; now they might already be drinking tea in Kunming.

All that puzzled Fan Tian Xiang'erlang was whether his own troops had become this hopeless.

Relying on Tonggu's defensive positions, they actually failed to stop the Chinese 200th Division's advance.

It was simply absurd.

"Relay my orders!" Fan Tian Xiang'erlang's reason was replaced by a flame of revenge, "All forces, rest and prepare to pursue! I will crush these clueless Chinese troops utterly, and use their blood to honor our fallen heroic souls!"

Fan Tian Xiang'erlang, with three divisions in his hand, and more importantly the ace 18th Division, that was his confidence.

He did not believe that a single Chinese division could fight against his three divisions.

However, just as he was about to issue the pursuit order, a staff officer, his expression frantic, clutching a newly received top‑secret Telegram, hurried over.

"Commander! Southern Army Headquarters, Terauchi Hisaichi Commander urgent Telegram!"

Fan Tian Xiang'erlang snatched the Telegram, his eyes scanning rapidly. As he read deeper, the anger and murderous aura on his face faded, replaced by extreme shock and bewilderment.

The Telegram's content, like a bolt from a clear sky, shattered all his battle plans.

Terauchi Hisaichi, in the Telegram, ordered sternly: the 15th Army shall immediately cease all offensive operations in Myanmar and shift to a full‑line defense.

Cease offense? Shift to defense? Why?

The Telegram quickly provided an answer. Just a few days earlier, the Japanese Navy had achieved a 'brilliant victory' in the Battle of the Coral Sea, sinking two United States Navy aircraft carriers, the 'Lexkestron' and the 'Yorktown'.

This 'victory' greatly stimulated Tokyo's headquarters.

Headquarters' staff believed that the United States' carrier strike force in the Pacific had been severely crippled, making it the optimal moment to expand gains into the South Pacific and completely sever America's link with Australia.

Thus, headquarters gave Southern Army Commander Terauchi Hisaichi a new strategic task: pause the Myanmar offensive, concentrate naval and air forces, first seize Morisby Port in New Guinea as a springboard, and then threaten or even invade the Australian continent.

Once Australia is captured, the United States will lose its most crucial base for a Pacific counter‑offensive, and the Imperial Japanese Army can establish an impregnable absolute defense ring in the South Pacific, then gradually engage the United States—an industrial giant—in a war of attrition until it yields.

Fan Tian Xiang'erlang slowly set the Telegram down, his hand trembling slightly.

He lifted his head, looking again at the 'tower of skulls' built from Imperial Soldiers' skulls; the fury in his heart had gone out, replaced by a sense of absurdity and helplessness.

The Navy's 'victory' now demanded the Army's disgrace and strategic stagnation as its price.

To pursue a vague 'Australian Dream', they must abandon the hard‑won Myanmar gains, allowing the Chinese Expeditionary Force that had just inflicted such a humiliating defeat to catch its breath and regroup?

"That intelligence was actually true." Perhaps Lieutenant General Ying Ji Shengsan was unaware, but the other Japanese commanders all knew that some time earlier they had received a Telegram from the north, transmitted via the Japanese 56th Division's radio.

The intelligence indicated the exact number of US aircraft carriers deployed in the Coral Sea: two.

Fan Tian Xiang'erlang glanced at the three equally stunned division commanders and said bitterly:

"Order… cease pursuit. All forces, shift to defense."

The celebratory banquet in Mandalay naturally fell through, but what stung Fan Tian Xiang'erlang and all frontline Japanese commanders even more was that the flames of war they had ignited themselves were abruptly snuffed out by a higher‑level strategic decision, based on erroneous intelligence, from thousands of miles away.

Tonggu's tower of skulls stood silently under Myanmar's scorching sun.

It was both a testament to Japanese atrocities and a bizarre symbol, the disgrace of a localized battle concealed by a grander, more arrogant strategy.

And the Chinese Expeditionary Force that had exacted such a painful price now gained a precious breathing space, having withdrawn to a safer location.

The course of the war, at this very moment, quietly shifted.