Chapter 50: Hu Biao, It's Time to Show What You're Made Of

...Before receiving the order and leading my hundred or so Sichuan Army brothers onto the battlefield, my fellow time-traveler companions and I scrambled like hamsters preparing for the harsh winter, making every possible effort to prepare—even though we had no idea if most of these preparations would actually prove useful.

As later events demonstrated, these preparations were indeed mostly useful.

This also instilled in me a habit that stuck forever after: sparing no effort to acquire equipment and supplies before a major battle, which naturally led to no end of wrangling and brawling with allied forces...

...Excerpts from Hu Biao's Diary Collection, "Talking Nonsense"...

Just before the time-travel event, Hu Biao had crammed intensively on the history of the War of Resistance. While it was impossible to remember every single detail, he knew that the Sichuan Army was slated to enter the fray in its entirety within these few days.

Therefore, he dared not waste a single second of the limited time available.

After calling over the cooking squad to whip up a pot of rice porridge spiked with canned beef chunks, giving the entire 3rd Company a bit of extra nourishment, Hu Biao, along with Black Star, Uncle Bo, and Sledgehammer, busily set about selecting the elites of the company to formally establish an assault group and a sniper squad.

The other newly arrived time-travelers were naturally not left idle and were given various assignments.

For the remaining soldiers of the 3rd Company, Huang Adi focused on field fortification construction—such as teaching them how to reinforce and position machine gun nests and how to build bomb shelters.

Chaozi was put in charge of anti-tank warfare techniques.

This included digging anti-tank trenches and traps, and using simple materials like gasoline, white sugar, and rubber granules to make Molotov cocktails for attacking tanks.

It also covered loading light and heavy machine guns with steel-core bullets to target the vulnerable tracks and side armor of tanks.

In short, the goal was to avoid repeating the scenes witnessed at Position Number Seven, where men rushed forward clutching explosive packs or even attacked tanks with kitchen cleavers and rifle butts.

Even AT, who looked physically the weakest among the young white-collar workers, was assigned a crucial task:

Manufacturing two "heartless cannons"—meaning flying-thunder cannons made by reinforcing large iron barrels to hurl oversized explosive charges.

Regarding these heartless cannons, the modern time-travelers were well aware that their accuracy belonged entirely in the realm of metaphysics, and whether they could hit a target depended purely on luck.

The key issue was, did they have any better options?

Hu Biao would have loved to acquire a pair of mortars or even anti-tank guns.

The problem was that their supply of pearls and penicillin was limited; if they wanted to trade for more goods, Section Chief Sun and the higher-ups behind the scenes probably wouldn't agree.

Driven by necessity, they had no choice but to jury-rig these crude, easy-to-make, yet sufficiently powerful cannons.

The premise was that during combat, the young white-collar worker AT would actually be able to calculate angles, propellant charges, and erratic flight trajectories with enough precision to hit the target.

Thus, once the assault group and sniper squad were formed, the entire 3rd Company dared not waste a single moment, hurriedly drilling in anti-air, anti-artillery, firepower assault, and targeted sniper tactics.

Because the time was terribly compressed, the training results could not be guaranteed, but they were still a vast improvement over the old 3rd Company.

***

Perhaps the commotion from the 3rd Company's training was simply too loud, as it soon attracted Commander Xiang and other officers of the regiment.

After watching for just a short while, they discovered various brilliant aspects of the training and immediately proposed to Hu Biao that the squad and platoon leaders of the 804th Regiment be allowed to come over and learn as well.

Once mastered, these tactics would be promoted throughout the entire regiment.

Operating on the philosophy that tending a flock is no harder than tending a single sheep, Hu Biao agreed.

After all, while their tactical methods might be considered the height of amateurism by future standards, in this era—especially within the Sichuan Army—they would provide a very substantial combat boost...

******

Unawares, two days slipped by, bringing the time to October 13th, 5:45 PM.

Inside the National Revolutionary Army's command headquarters for the Battle of Songhu in Nanxiang Town, Chen Xiuci stood before a large map, meticulously studying the current operational situation. Suddenly, a voice reached his ears:

"Reporting to Commander Chen, urgent telegram from the front line: Dunwu Temple position has fallen.

The defenders at the Chenjiahang position have suffered heavy casualties and are barely holding on. They are making a desperate plea for reinforcements."

Upon hearing this report, even a civil-faction heavyweight of Chen Xiuci's stature and standing within the Nationalist government felt his expression shift drastically in an instant.

This was because Dunwu Temple and Chenjiahang were two of the crucial nodes along the current Yunzaobang defense line.

A brief explanation is in order here: the people of Shanghai liked to call rivers that weren't particularly large by the name "bang."

The Yunzaobang, in fact, was the third-largest river in the Shanghai region, second only to the Huangpu River and Suzhou Creek, with its widest sections reaching 100 meters across and its narrowest points no less than 50 meters.

Ever since the little Japanese devils successfully landed in early September and numerous strategic strongpoints such as Wusong and Luodian fell one by one,

the 20-kilometer-long north-south stretch of the Yunzaobang river channel running from Jiangwan Town through Miaohang and Dachang to Nanxiang had become the National Army's most critical defense line.

Should the Yunzaobang fall as well, the National Army would likely be forced to retreat all the way to Suzhou Creek to fight the final battle for the defense of urban Shanghai.

By then, hundreds of thousands of troops would be trapped and confined within a small area, making the strategic situation even more passive; and the Battle of Songhu would truly reach the brink of total defeat.

With so many lives lost—including elite troops directly under the Generalissimo himself—such an outcome would spell absolute disaster for the Nationalist government from top to bottom.

Consequently, Chen Xiuci quickly realized that the Chenjiahang position must not be lost under any circumstances; it had to be held at all costs.

At the same time, Dunwu Temple—a shrine built during the Zhengde era of the Ming Dynasty—along with the surrounding positions, had to be recaptured from the hands of the Japanese devils.

Otherwise, it would trigger a cascade of disastrous chain reactions.

Knowing what needed to be done was one thing, but a tremendously difficult problem lay directly before Chen Xiuci.

The immediate crisis at Chenjiahang was manageable; he could order his artillery units to launch an emergency round of suppression fire and send in a relatively small force to stabilize the position first.

Then, when night fell, the battered garrison at Chenjiahang could be relieved and rotated out.

But as for Dunwu Temple, which force should be dispatched to retake it and hold it against the inevitable frantic counterattacks of the Japanese?

One had to bear in mind that in the preceding battles, the Tutorial Brigade, the German-equipped divisions, and various Central Army elites had already suffered catastrophic losses. Was he supposed to deploy the Sichuan Army's 20th Group Army?

Yet the beggar-like state of the Sichuan Army's equipment made even him frown in dismay.

They had arrived in Shanghai merely three days ago, and their bodies, fatigued from the long march, probably hadn't even recovered yet.

After weighing his options, Chen Xiuci—whose available troops had suffered such heavy losses that he was nearly out of reserves—was forced to issue an order tinged with immense helplessness:

"Transmit my command: the 2nd and 10th Artillery Regiments are to open fire immediately on the Japanese facing Chenjiahang.

The Tax Police Corps will dispatch one battalion to reinforce Chenjiahang, and they must hold out until nightfall when new troops arrive for the relief.

In addition, inform Yang Sen that the Sichuan Army's 20th Group Army is to throw its entire force into battle after nightfall, plugging the line at the Dachang and Chenjiahang front, with the crucial objective of recapturing Dunwu Temple and clinging to it tenaciously."

Minutes later, General Yang Sen of the 20th Group Army ripped open the collar hook of his military tunic and cursed aloud:

"Son of a bitch, it's finally our Sichuan Army's turn to fight."

Now, how should Yang Sen be judged?

The later historical accounts branding him as extravagant, luxurious, and ruthlessly cruel were not entirely wrong; after all, he had a total of 12 wives and concubines, 43 children, and actually took his 12th concubine when he was 90 years old—those were all facts.

Yet, flawed as he might be, his performance on the Songhu battlefield was genuinely commendable.

Ever since he led his forces thousands of miles through twists and turns to reach Shanghai, the way superiors and allied troops looked down upon them like beggars because of their crude equipment and unkempt appearance had caused a deep resentment to smolder in his chest.

He had long since resolved to fight a splendid battle to let the people of the nation know that the men of the Sichuan Army were fine warriors too.

Without hesitation, he ordered the 20th Group Army—leaving behind only two brigades as a mobile reserve—to commit its entire force to action once night fell.

As for the mission to recapture Dunwu Temple, after brief consideration, it fell upon the shoulders of the 804th Regiment.

A short while later, after receiving the latest orders, Colonel Xiang Wenbin of the 804th Regiment cast a glance at the dimming sky.

He thought of the massive windfall Hu Biao's scoundrel of a boy had mysteriously acquired yesterday morning, and the state of the 3rd Company's equipment, which even he found enviable.

He also recalled the tactics practiced and the targeted training conducted over the past two days.

He instantly decided to let that fellow and his 3rd Company serve as the vanguard for the entire regiment.

Beckoning one of his orderlies closer, he gave these instructions: "Go tell Hu Biao of the 3rd Company that the time has come for him to prove himself..."