Sima Qian
太史令
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2006
- Messages
- 732
Chapter 36: Operation Kan-She-Tou, Decapitating the Snake
Over Zhong Mountain swept a storm, headlong,
Our mighty army, a million strong, has crossed the Great River.
The city, a tiger crouching, a dragon curling,
outshining its ancient glory;
In heroic triumph heaven and earth have been overturned.
With power and to spare we must pursue the tottering foe
And not ape Xiang Yu the conqueror seeking idle fame.
Were Nature sentient, she too would pass from youth to age,
But man's world is mutable, seas become mulberry fields.
"The People's Liberation Army Enters Nanjing," Mao Zedong (A.D. 1893-1976)
Matsuyama was famous for its beautiful mountains and pine forests, as well as for the numerous hot spring resorts in the vicinity, but during the winter of 2009 AD no Japanese tourists dared visit the area. The Chinese tank corps was camping safely right outside the city, and Tokugawa ordered no counterattack. Whether he had the resources to actually launch an attack or if he was still in shock over the landing of Chinese troops on mainland Japan was unknown, but Agent Tong reported from Kyoto that Japanese cavalry regiments had been boarding transport boats, possibly on their way to relieve the besieged city.
"Quite strange that they aren't taking the railroad," mused Commander Zhu De of the People's Liberation Army. "Perhaps they are actually bound for some other location..."
The general now had a new aide with him as the watched the scene from their headquarters at Kaohsiung. Commander Lin Biao had been given the onerous task of directing PLAN and PLAAF while Zhu was in charge of everything else on land. "They can't possibly be bound for Kaohsiung," continued Zhu. "The entire island is fortified with mechanized infantry, and Agent Tong hasn't said a word about marines."
"They could be trying to come for the Chinese mainland," suggested Lin. "A truly absurd mission, with no chance of success, but Tokugawa has been known to do some very irrational things with his military." He paused for a moment. "I suspect we'll probably never find out, since I've already ordered our battleships to engage them at sea, and chances are the transport ships will never reach their intended destination."
Indeed, January of 2010 AD was a triumphant month for the PLAN. Two battleships, one submarine, one frigate, and two transports, along with all troops on board, were destroyed with no losses for China. Air support was crucial for their success, as usually the PLAN vessels would arrive to find their enemies already badly damaged by PLAAF bombing missions.
But this success was quickly overshadowed by Zhu's successful assault on Matsuyama, which easily fell on February 21, 2010.
After the battle of Matsuyama, Zhu found that the vast majority of the tank corps had not even participated in the fighting, and there were enough resources to target the next city, Nagasaki in the southwest. This battle was somewhat more difficult, as the Japanese had an artillery battery in the city, which damaged some of the attacking force before they could attack. But the riflemen stationed in the city were no match for the Chinese tanks, which sped across the open grassland with ease. By August 9, 2010, the last of the Nagasaki garrison was gone, and Zhu incorporated the Nagasaki artillery into his own forces.
Nagasaki harbor was left intact by the fleeing Japanese forces, who had no time to carry out Tokugawa's orders to destroy all city improvements if the defense effort failed. The barracks, marketplace, aqueduct, hospital, and coastal fortress all survived the Chinese bombardment, and Zhu could now use them for his own purposes.
The fall of Nagasaki left the city of Shimonoseki isolated from the rest of Japan, and without resources and low on morale, the defenders could not expect to have any chance against Zhu's invasion force, even after he had left enough troops to garrison the two cities he had already taken. On September 30, 2010, Chinese tanks entered the city, and the cold northern tail of Japan was now firmly under PLA control.
Shimonoseki and Nagasaki were the famous spice cities of Japan, and now the shipments of Japanese spices could be done safely through Nagasaki harbor, as the PLAAN had cleared out almost all of the Japanese naval presence in the northern oceans. No more would Chinese cooks ever have to import expensive spices from foreign markets.
Since the war had ended the luxury trade between China and Japan, it was now possible to trade the excess dyes, gems, and newly acquired spices to India. Mahatma Gandhi offered a hefty price for these goods, and sent his best military specialists to train the Chinese in amphibious warfare.
Yet while the citizens celebrated Zhu's victories at home, Commander Lin was secretly planning another even more ambitious assault. Emboldened by how Zhu's forces had so easily overcome the Japanese defense, Lin was ready to send a larger force, this time directly to the Japanese capital. And he was bringing with him the largest collection of artillery ever seen in the world. They embarked and sailed eastward from Dalian, approaching Japan at their less well-defended western coast.
Operation Kan-She-Tou, the largest overseas landing of troops ever staged in human history, was launched at the end of 2011 AD, when Lin's forces landed on the hills northwest of Kyoto. They met with little resistance, as the Shogun only sent longbowmen and samurai to engage them.
But the siege of Kyoto took the better part of a year, as the capital had been heavily fortified with riflemen and artillery, giving the most important Japanese government offices plenty of time to escape before their defenses finally crumbled before Lin's tanks. The artillery battery at Kyoto was three times as strong as the one at Nagasaki, but they could not be withdrawn in time, and soon became the property of the PLA.
Shogun Tokugawa took the last train out of Kyoto in the wee hours of June 20, 2012. His new government set up a "temporary" capital at Kagoshima to the northeast, the largest of the remaining cities of Japan. Agent Tong, China's spy planted in Kyoto, managed to follow them without being noticed.
In the north, Zhu renewed his attack, pushing southward from Matsuyama and Nagasaki. His advanced had been slowed when Japanese aircraft had destroyed the railroads leading out of those cities, but after the fall of Kyoto in 2012 AD the PLA tanks had made it as far south as Satsuma. Assisted by fresh troops airlifted to Kaohsiung and brought in via transport boats, on July 15, 2012 Zhu's forces had no trouble defeating the riflemen defending the city, which had already been seriously damaged by bombardment from the air and sea.
Satsuma had been the air base of Tokugawa's bomber squad, and with the loss of those planes all that remained of the Japanese air force were fighters flying air superiority missions in the south. The Japanese pilots were quite skillful in foiling the bombing runs done by PLAAF aircraft based on carriers off the coast, but bombers continued to roll off the assembly lines in mainland China, and any losses in that arena were quickly filled by reinforcements.
The arrival of new units by sea meant that the Japanese city of Izumo was now doomed. Putting up only token resistance, the Izumo garrison could not hold back the onslaught of Zhu's tanks, and surrendered the city on September 8, 2013.
Izumo was home to a famous shrine frequently visited by the religious Japanese people, but unfortunately it was destroyed in the attack, along with the harbor. So although the quality incense that was burned at the shrine was now under Chinese control, there was still no way to bring it back to mainland China. It would not reach Chinese markets until the worker crews repaired the roads leading north to Matsuyama and Nagasaki.
Also in 2013 AD, the resistance in Matsuyama ended, partially from the Chinese military presence and partially because of several years of starvation. After getting Chairman Mao's approval, the citizens of Matsuyama were forced to construct an airport immediately. Many of them died from being overworked, and others fled the city for fear of their lives, but the job was done and by the beginning of the next year the PLA now could airlift troops onto the Japanese mainland.
But amid all these victories, Commander Zhu had made one terrible mistake. In his ambitious push to the south, he had neglected to keep strong garrisons in the northern cities, particularly the distant outpost at Shimonoseki. In the winter of 2013 AD, while his troops relaxed there with not a single Japanese unit in sight, the citizens revolted. Taken wholly by surprise, the Chinese garrison had to abandon their tanks while they fled the city, with angry Japanese citizens flinging homemade grenades and jeering at them as they made their hasty exit.
Zhu, however, could not be distracted. His troops had finally pushed far enough to the south that he caught up with Lin's invasion force from Operation Kan-She-Tou. They converged at Tokyo, with Lin's artillery bombarding the city from the southwest while Zhu's tanks attacked the city from the north.
The fall of Tokyo, on May 16, 2014, left Tokugawa's capital at Kagoshima encircled by the Chinese. The Shogun was furious but completely helpless, and with the PLAN fleet in Kyoto bay he could hardly even get in touch with the rest of his country. The distant city of Shimonoseki was retaken by Zhu's forces on March 4, 2015, making quick work of the poorly trained militia that had gathered to oppose them.
Surprisingly, the Shimonoseki branch of the Bank of Japan had some more gold to offer, even though the Chinese military had ransacked it when they first entered the city five years ago. Tokugawa is a generous man, Mao said to himself with a smirk. He doesn't send any new troops to defend his city, but gives us another gift. How nice of him!
There were now only five other Japanese cities left on the mainland: Osaka, Nagoya, Nara, Edo, and Yokohama. The four cities on the southern islands were comparatively undisturbed, with only a passing Chinese ironclad or battleship bombarding them from time to time. For Mao, wiping out the Japanese on the mainland was his priority, and his commanders were doing a fine job of it.
Over Zhong Mountain swept a storm, headlong,
Our mighty army, a million strong, has crossed the Great River.
The city, a tiger crouching, a dragon curling,
outshining its ancient glory;
In heroic triumph heaven and earth have been overturned.
With power and to spare we must pursue the tottering foe
And not ape Xiang Yu the conqueror seeking idle fame.
Were Nature sentient, she too would pass from youth to age,
But man's world is mutable, seas become mulberry fields.
"The People's Liberation Army Enters Nanjing," Mao Zedong (A.D. 1893-1976)
Matsuyama was famous for its beautiful mountains and pine forests, as well as for the numerous hot spring resorts in the vicinity, but during the winter of 2009 AD no Japanese tourists dared visit the area. The Chinese tank corps was camping safely right outside the city, and Tokugawa ordered no counterattack. Whether he had the resources to actually launch an attack or if he was still in shock over the landing of Chinese troops on mainland Japan was unknown, but Agent Tong reported from Kyoto that Japanese cavalry regiments had been boarding transport boats, possibly on their way to relieve the besieged city.
"Quite strange that they aren't taking the railroad," mused Commander Zhu De of the People's Liberation Army. "Perhaps they are actually bound for some other location..."
The general now had a new aide with him as the watched the scene from their headquarters at Kaohsiung. Commander Lin Biao had been given the onerous task of directing PLAN and PLAAF while Zhu was in charge of everything else on land. "They can't possibly be bound for Kaohsiung," continued Zhu. "The entire island is fortified with mechanized infantry, and Agent Tong hasn't said a word about marines."
"They could be trying to come for the Chinese mainland," suggested Lin. "A truly absurd mission, with no chance of success, but Tokugawa has been known to do some very irrational things with his military." He paused for a moment. "I suspect we'll probably never find out, since I've already ordered our battleships to engage them at sea, and chances are the transport ships will never reach their intended destination."
Indeed, January of 2010 AD was a triumphant month for the PLAN. Two battleships, one submarine, one frigate, and two transports, along with all troops on board, were destroyed with no losses for China. Air support was crucial for their success, as usually the PLAN vessels would arrive to find their enemies already badly damaged by PLAAF bombing missions.
But this success was quickly overshadowed by Zhu's successful assault on Matsuyama, which easily fell on February 21, 2010.
After the battle of Matsuyama, Zhu found that the vast majority of the tank corps had not even participated in the fighting, and there were enough resources to target the next city, Nagasaki in the southwest. This battle was somewhat more difficult, as the Japanese had an artillery battery in the city, which damaged some of the attacking force before they could attack. But the riflemen stationed in the city were no match for the Chinese tanks, which sped across the open grassland with ease. By August 9, 2010, the last of the Nagasaki garrison was gone, and Zhu incorporated the Nagasaki artillery into his own forces.
Nagasaki harbor was left intact by the fleeing Japanese forces, who had no time to carry out Tokugawa's orders to destroy all city improvements if the defense effort failed. The barracks, marketplace, aqueduct, hospital, and coastal fortress all survived the Chinese bombardment, and Zhu could now use them for his own purposes.
The fall of Nagasaki left the city of Shimonoseki isolated from the rest of Japan, and without resources and low on morale, the defenders could not expect to have any chance against Zhu's invasion force, even after he had left enough troops to garrison the two cities he had already taken. On September 30, 2010, Chinese tanks entered the city, and the cold northern tail of Japan was now firmly under PLA control.
Shimonoseki and Nagasaki were the famous spice cities of Japan, and now the shipments of Japanese spices could be done safely through Nagasaki harbor, as the PLAAN had cleared out almost all of the Japanese naval presence in the northern oceans. No more would Chinese cooks ever have to import expensive spices from foreign markets.
Since the war had ended the luxury trade between China and Japan, it was now possible to trade the excess dyes, gems, and newly acquired spices to India. Mahatma Gandhi offered a hefty price for these goods, and sent his best military specialists to train the Chinese in amphibious warfare.
Yet while the citizens celebrated Zhu's victories at home, Commander Lin was secretly planning another even more ambitious assault. Emboldened by how Zhu's forces had so easily overcome the Japanese defense, Lin was ready to send a larger force, this time directly to the Japanese capital. And he was bringing with him the largest collection of artillery ever seen in the world. They embarked and sailed eastward from Dalian, approaching Japan at their less well-defended western coast.
Operation Kan-She-Tou, the largest overseas landing of troops ever staged in human history, was launched at the end of 2011 AD, when Lin's forces landed on the hills northwest of Kyoto. They met with little resistance, as the Shogun only sent longbowmen and samurai to engage them.
But the siege of Kyoto took the better part of a year, as the capital had been heavily fortified with riflemen and artillery, giving the most important Japanese government offices plenty of time to escape before their defenses finally crumbled before Lin's tanks. The artillery battery at Kyoto was three times as strong as the one at Nagasaki, but they could not be withdrawn in time, and soon became the property of the PLA.
Shogun Tokugawa took the last train out of Kyoto in the wee hours of June 20, 2012. His new government set up a "temporary" capital at Kagoshima to the northeast, the largest of the remaining cities of Japan. Agent Tong, China's spy planted in Kyoto, managed to follow them without being noticed.
In the north, Zhu renewed his attack, pushing southward from Matsuyama and Nagasaki. His advanced had been slowed when Japanese aircraft had destroyed the railroads leading out of those cities, but after the fall of Kyoto in 2012 AD the PLA tanks had made it as far south as Satsuma. Assisted by fresh troops airlifted to Kaohsiung and brought in via transport boats, on July 15, 2012 Zhu's forces had no trouble defeating the riflemen defending the city, which had already been seriously damaged by bombardment from the air and sea.
Satsuma had been the air base of Tokugawa's bomber squad, and with the loss of those planes all that remained of the Japanese air force were fighters flying air superiority missions in the south. The Japanese pilots were quite skillful in foiling the bombing runs done by PLAAF aircraft based on carriers off the coast, but bombers continued to roll off the assembly lines in mainland China, and any losses in that arena were quickly filled by reinforcements.
The arrival of new units by sea meant that the Japanese city of Izumo was now doomed. Putting up only token resistance, the Izumo garrison could not hold back the onslaught of Zhu's tanks, and surrendered the city on September 8, 2013.
Izumo was home to a famous shrine frequently visited by the religious Japanese people, but unfortunately it was destroyed in the attack, along with the harbor. So although the quality incense that was burned at the shrine was now under Chinese control, there was still no way to bring it back to mainland China. It would not reach Chinese markets until the worker crews repaired the roads leading north to Matsuyama and Nagasaki.
Also in 2013 AD, the resistance in Matsuyama ended, partially from the Chinese military presence and partially because of several years of starvation. After getting Chairman Mao's approval, the citizens of Matsuyama were forced to construct an airport immediately. Many of them died from being overworked, and others fled the city for fear of their lives, but the job was done and by the beginning of the next year the PLA now could airlift troops onto the Japanese mainland.
But amid all these victories, Commander Zhu had made one terrible mistake. In his ambitious push to the south, he had neglected to keep strong garrisons in the northern cities, particularly the distant outpost at Shimonoseki. In the winter of 2013 AD, while his troops relaxed there with not a single Japanese unit in sight, the citizens revolted. Taken wholly by surprise, the Chinese garrison had to abandon their tanks while they fled the city, with angry Japanese citizens flinging homemade grenades and jeering at them as they made their hasty exit.
Zhu, however, could not be distracted. His troops had finally pushed far enough to the south that he caught up with Lin's invasion force from Operation Kan-She-Tou. They converged at Tokyo, with Lin's artillery bombarding the city from the southwest while Zhu's tanks attacked the city from the north.
The fall of Tokyo, on May 16, 2014, left Tokugawa's capital at Kagoshima encircled by the Chinese. The Shogun was furious but completely helpless, and with the PLAN fleet in Kyoto bay he could hardly even get in touch with the rest of his country. The distant city of Shimonoseki was retaken by Zhu's forces on March 4, 2015, making quick work of the poorly trained militia that had gathered to oppose them.
Surprisingly, the Shimonoseki branch of the Bank of Japan had some more gold to offer, even though the Chinese military had ransacked it when they first entered the city five years ago. Tokugawa is a generous man, Mao said to himself with a smirk. He doesn't send any new troops to defend his city, but gives us another gift. How nice of him!
There were now only five other Japanese cities left on the mainland: Osaka, Nagoya, Nara, Edo, and Yokohama. The four cities on the southern islands were comparatively undisturbed, with only a passing Chinese ironclad or battleship bombarding them from time to time. For Mao, wiping out the Japanese on the mainland was his priority, and his commanders were doing a fine job of it.
... to be continued
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