Chapter 64: Shocking the Capital: Is This Really the Eighth Route Army? They Are Too Powerful!

"Hahaha, motherfucker, this is the national capital!"

"Never in my wildest dreams did I think I, old Li, would one day be able to march into the national capital in broad daylight."

"Damn it!"

"This time, I, old Li, am going to make my name shake the entire Great Xia!"

"Old Ding, Old Kong, you bastards better be green with envy!"

"Motherfuckers!"

"Those goddamned little Japanese devils are finally going to taste old Li's wrath."

Peering through his binoculars at the national capital in the distance, Li Yunlong was brimming with absolute confidence.

Standing beside him, however, Long Wenzhang frowned as he looked toward the city.

While the national capital possessed the majestic terrain of a coiled dragon and crouching tiger, that was a thing of ancient history.

Long Wenzhang was a military commander of natural genius; at a single glance, he saw through the grim reality that the capital was far from easy to defend.

The Great Xia forces retreating from the Songhu battlefield were crippled in morale.

Conversely, the over two hundred thousand troops of the Japanese devils were riding a wave of surging momentum.

The national capital.

There was virtually no possibility of holding it.

Yet, Long Wenzhang felt not a shred of fear.

He had grown far too accustomed to seeing the Japanese devils running rampant across the sacred soil of Great Xia. Even if the capital could not be held, those devils would be forced to pay a catastrophic price.

To make them understand!

The nation of Great Xia was not so easily conquered.

Clad in the uniforms of the Eighth Route Army, the two-thousand-strong Special First Column marched in meticulous alignment toward the national capital.

When these Eighth Route Army soldiers—shouldering M1910 Mosin-Nagant rifles, M1910 Maxim heavy machine guns, Maxim-Tokarev light machine guns, and PPD-34 submachine guns—appeared on the outskirts of the capital, the retreating Great Xia troops from the Songhu battlefield were instantly struck dumb with shock.

After all!

The elite caliber of an army could always be gauged by its marching pace and physical composure.

This truth was reflected vividly in epic military films.

If an army were truly as formidable as depicted on screen, failure would be an absolute impossibility.

In ordinary circumstances, even a formation of a hundred men could easily fall out of step on a parade ground.

Yet this army marched with absolute unison and discipline, without the slightest trace of disorder.

Furthermore.

The sheer volume of M1910 Mosin-Nagant rifles, M1910 Maxim heavy machine guns, Maxim-Tokarev light machine guns, and PPD-34 submachine guns was staggering. A single platoon alone boasted five heavy machine guns.

Even a three-man mortar squad was equipped with a 50mm mortar.

With gear like this, even the German-equipped divisions, renowned as the undisputed ceiling of Great Xia's elite forces, paled in comparison.

"Good grief, what kind of army is this?"

"Such incredible equipment, this is beyond insane!"

A veteran of the Sichuan army stared at the suddenly materialized force, his eyes nearly popping out of his head.

This hardware... holy mother of god, was this luxurious or what?

"I recognize those guns, I recognize them! Those are the gear of the Polar Bear nation, what were they called again? Oh, I remember now, the Mosin-Nagant rifle."

"They're a match for the Chiang Kai-shek rifles used by the German-equipped divisions."

"Now those are fine weapons. Compared to these, our Hanyang rifles are nothing more than wooden fire pokers."

"Right, right! And look at the M1910 Maxim heavy machine guns, the Maxim-Tokarev light machine guns, the PPD-34 submachine guns—those look like Soviet-standard gear. Absolute top-tier weaponry, devastating firepower."

"Where on earth did an army equipped with so much Soviet-standard gear suddenly spring from?"

"It's not just the rifles, look at all those artillery pieces!"

"Not just rifles, damn it! The caliber on those cannons is massive—even the Japanese devils probably can't match that."

"You said it!"

"Whose army on earth is this?"

Everyone was so stunned by the sudden appearance of this force that they were left speechless for a long time.

"It looks like the Eighth Route... the Eighth Route Army."

"Look at their armbands, I recognize a few characters."

"That's the Eighth Route!"

"The Eighth Route Army!"

If they hadn't said it, it would have been fine, but once spoken, everyone was utterly dumbfounded.

The Eighth Route Army?

"Isn't the predecessor of the Eighth Route... the Red... the Red Army?"

In an instant, pandemonium broke loose among the crowd.

The Red Army?

Could it be that same Red Army that wore straw sandals and endured the Twenty-Five Thousand Li Long March?

Everyone knew all too well what kind of equipment the Red Army had possessed.

They barely had a few rounds of ammunition to their names!

Rifles were so scarce that men had to share them.

As for artillery, don't even joke about it.

They hardly had any, and whatever they did have had been captured from the Blue-Shirt Party's troops.

If there was one thing universally acknowledged about the Red Army, it was their poor equipment.

Yet the Red Army—how had this very Red Army transformed into the Eighth Route Army overnight?

And directly upgraded their entire arsenal with a generation leap in technology?

Judging by the aura exuding from this Red Army detachment, their elite standing was likely no less than that of the German-equipped divisions that had shone so brightly on the Songhu battlefield.

Meanwhile.

At the invitation of Su Changqing, Madman Qiu, Senior Scholar Wang, Senior Scholar Song, and others had arrived near the national capital.

Accompanying Su Changqing, they came to welcome this Eighth Route Army contingent as it reached the capital.

Initially, Madman Qiu had assumed this Eighth Route Army would be no different from the impoverished image etched in his mind.

Wearing straw sandals!

Shouldering crudely manufactured firearms and artillery.

Perhaps even carrying primitive melee weapons.

Therefore, whether it was Madman Qiu or the various instructors of the Whampoa clique, none of them held high expectations for this Eighth Route Army contingent rushing in from the Wutai Mountain base.

Still, given the dire situation of the capital, the arrival of any military force to assist in its defense was welcome support.

Just as everyone held minimal expectations for this Eighth Route Army, the 782nd Regiment led by Li Yunlong suddenly marched into view.

It instantly shattered everyone's worldview!

M1910 Mosin-Nagant rifles, M1910 Maxim heavy machine guns, Maxim-Tokarev light machine guns, PPD-34 submachine guns...

And artillery!

All manner of mortars!

Heavy artillery!

Anti-aircraft guns!

Some of these pieces weren't even in the inventory of the German-equipped divisions.

Are you kidding me?

This was the Eighth Route Army? An Eighth Route Army reorganized from the Red Army?

Senior Scholar Song was so dumbstruck by the scene before him that his jaw dropped wide enough to swallow an ostrich egg.

As for Madman Qiu, he rubbed his eyes furiously, refusing to believe that any of this was real.

The Eighth Route Army?

You motherfuckers call this the Eighth Route Army?

How on earth could this possibly be the Eighth Route Army?

"Changqing, you rascal!"

"You little bastard!!" Madman Qiu pounded on Su Changqing's shoulder, his voice trembling slightly.

"Is this what you called the Special First Column?"

"The Special First Column from the Wutai Mountain base?"

"Is this goddamned thing still the Eighth Route Army?"

"Where on earth did you pull such a terrifyingly formidable army from?"

Naturally, Su Changqing had no intention of telling Madman Qiu and the others the truth.

If he actually spilled the beans, the old man in the capital would probably lose his mind on the spot.

"Hehehe!"

"I made a little fortune recently, you know."

"Those Polar Bear bastards are greedy as hell, but I practically hollowed out a mountain of gold in Wutai Mountain."

"Those stingy Polar Bears only shipped me enough equipment for two regiments this time for the Defense of the National Capital."

"With the survival of our nation hanging in the balance, I, Su Changqing, have emptied out my entire family fortune."

"In this defense of the capital, our Eighth Route Army will not lag behind. When bitter battles and hard fights come, we will never take a step back."

"We will live and die with the national capital!"

"Together with our brother armies, we will display the true backbone of the Great Xia military."

Hearing Su Changqing's words, the officers of the Whampoa clique felt a surge of heroic pride welling up in their chests.

"Brothers may quarrel at home, but they unite to resist insults from abroad."

"This time!"

"We're going to show those goddamned bastards the backbone of Great Xia soldiers."

"To let them see if it's hard enough!"

"Even if those bastards are tigers, I'll wrench their fangs straight out of their jaws!"

"Right, let's rip their teeth right out!"