At 6:00 AM on October 10th, 69 hours after the Northeast Army launched its attack at 9:00 AM on the 7th, the staff officers of the Japanese General Staff Office, after roughly three days without sleep, finally produced a troop transport plan and submitted it to Chief of General Staff, General Uehara Yusaku.

The operations staff officer suppressed a yawn, forcing himself to appear as energetic as possible while reporting to General Uehara. General Uehara, usually prone to excitement and quite strict with subordinates, was not overly harsh at this moment, having also failed to rest properly for three days.

"…Given that mobilization orders were issued to all units three days ago, all personnel on leave have terminated their vacations and quickly returned to their units. Starting from the 10th, we can begin transporting troops in port areas to board ships for Korea. Among these, the units in Kyushu and Ryukyu will depart first…"

The staff officer's report was highly actionable, arranging boarding times according to when each Japanese unit could arrive at the ports with their equipment. The Ryukyu garrison was not considered a main force of the Japanese Army, but due to the convenience of boarding, they became the first batch of troops to urgently depart for Korea.

General Uehara naturally hoped for as many troops as possible to enter Korea and fight the Northeast Army. The larger the scale, the smaller the resistance to the war against China would be. Those spineless dignitaries had long forgotten the arduous conditions under which Japan committed to the First Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War, and how Japan won everything it has today through those victories.

General Uehara was not the only one with such thoughts. In the general and field officer ranks, very many Japanese officers looked forward to the rapid expansion of the war to promote Japan's great cause of expanding its territory.

In Korea, Second Army Group Commander Hu Xiushan already knew he would face increasing numbers of Japanese troops. To achieve his goals, he had to cleanly resolve the two Japanese divisions before him.

Every half hour, the corps provided the positions of the penetrating units, and magnetic flags on the large map board displayed the latest locations. Clearly, the efficiency of movement varied among units. Even with guides, the completely unfamiliar Korean mountain ridges reduced the marching efficiency of the Northeast Army, who were accustomed to plains.

These problems would naturally have to be solved later; Hu Xiushan offered no criticism at this moment. Distant artillery fire roared once again with the rising morning sun; the battle to annihilate the Japanese Korea Army had officially begun.

The Japanese troops did not sit and wait for death. In the span of a day, they desperately constructed frontline fortifications and arranged combat positions. As the Northeast Army's shelling began, the frontline Japanese observed the Northeast Army's assault troops beginning to move toward their positions.

"The best positions are the high grounds held by our side that are easy to conceal, where geological conditions facilitate the construction of fortifications. In front of our positions is open ground with no cover. When the enemy attacks us, they must cross through a hail of bullets to get close."

Thinking about such things is easy, but such terrain does not exist widely in nature. Just like the current Japanese defense system: although they occupied the high ground, the open ground leading to it had many rocks, making it very suitable for cover. Most importantly, it was very suitable for the Northeast Army's 60mm mortar teams to hide.

120mm mortars took the lead in bombarding the Japanese positions. No Japanese strongpoint could withstand such artillery fire. While suppressing the Japanese artillery, the infantry's attack began.

From the departure point 4 kilometers away up to the 2-kilometer mark, the only threat to the Northeast Army was Japanese artillery. Since the Japanese artillery was currently unable to conduct dense bombardment, the Northeast Army's advance was quite smooth.

Starting from 2 kilometers, within the Japanese firepower range, heavy machine guns could begin to exert their power. Frontline company commanders, after observing the enemy's defensive positions, immediately began organizing 60mm mortar positions.

How to deploy positions to most effectively utilize firepower is a technique. In the Northeast Army's construction over the past few years, goose-stepping and target practice occupied only a very small part. Most time was spent on military techniques such as position deployment and firepower integration.

Over these years, the Japanese Army had never undergone large-scale re-equipment. The Northeast Army conducted in-depth research based on these equipment characteristics. The 60mm mortar squads of each company, based on research results, opened fire fiercely on potential Japanese strongpoints.

The power of mortars lies in rapid-fire coverage. A mortar squad with three mortars could fire more than a dozen shells at a potential strongpoint in less than a minute, blasting those locations until rocks flew and smoke rose.

By this time, the infantry squads had moved to a position less than 1 kilometer from the Japanese lines. From this distance, the Japanese heavy machine guns and Type 38 rifles, with an effective range of 600 meters, could exert their power.

The Japanese defending the front faced immense pressure. Since the establishment of the modern Japanese Army, they had never suffered such fierce and precise strikes. The strongpoints supporting the battle line were destroyed one by one; even those just deployed came under attack from Northeast Army artillery.

Having lost the support of strongpoints, even if the Japanese occupied good positions, they could only use rifles to oppose the Northeast Army. In such times, the Japanese advantage was greatly weakened, leaving the frontline Japanese commanders burning with anxiety.

The Northeast Army gave the Japanese no time. A company split into over a dozen three-man combat teams in the blink of an eye, covering each other as they began the attack on the Japanese positions. The Japanese squad and platoon leaders on the front line were dumbfounded. In a Northeast Army company, the number of combat infantry was only three squads, 30 men. At a distance of around 400 meters, 30 men were already very small targets. Broken down into combat teams, they disappeared from the Japanese field of view.

Although the soldiers' figures were occasionally exposed briefly to Japanese view while the combat teams moved forward, these fleeting figures made it impossible for the Japanese to determine the combat teams' positions or judge their objectives.

There were clearly enemies on the field, yet they could not be confirmed. But the feeling that these enemies were approaching the Japanese positions without pause made Japanese commanders at all levels feel terrible. The only thing that made them feel slightly better was that the bombardment from the 60mm mortars had weakened. But this was only after many Japanese strongpoints had been destroyed. The machine gun firepower the Japanese had remaining to suppress the enemy charge was not much.

The reason the mortar squads of each company were not bombarding as densely as before was simply that the mortar squads had received battlefield terrain information transmitted by the combat teams and were moving forward quickly to set up in suitable positions less than 500 meters from the Japanese lines.

Firing from 1 kilometer away, the accuracy and support time were naturally far inferior to firing from 500 meters. Providing suitable artillery positions for the artillerymen was one of the tasks infantrymen needed to complete while approaching enemy positions.

At this moment, the three-man combat teams closest to the Japanese positions had already maneuvered to a distance of over 100 meters. The positional advantage of the Japanese positions finally came into play. Machine gun points that hadn't been shelled temporarily held their fire. Following their combat habits, under the command of squad leaders, the Japanese concentrated their fire on the locations of the three-man teams, attempting to use high-density fire to increase their hit rate.

No longer needing infantry to provide fire guidance, the mortars about 500 meters from the Japanese positions opened fire on these locations where the Japanese were firing densely. Shells hit the concentrations of Japanese infantry, directly causing significant casualties, forcing the Japanese infantry to hurriedly hide in anti-artillery shelters.

The Northeast Army combat teams, having been suppressed by Japanese fire, took this opportunity to continue pushing forward, shortening the distance between themselves and the Japanese positions from 100 meters to about 50 meters. Relying on rocks and depressions, the Northeast Army machine gunners who had moved up occupied positions where they could exchange fire with the Japanese.

By this point, the mortar crews extended their artillery fire further out. With enemy and friendly forces only 50 meters apart, continuing to bombard the front lines would greatly increase the probability of accidental injury to friendly forces.

Departing from the starting point 4 kilometers away, within half an hour, the Northeast Army had closed to within 50 meters of the Japanese positions. Such speed not only astonished the Japanese commanders but also surprised and encouraged the Northeast Army battalion and company commanders seeing their first real combat.

Just as the exercise department had said at the training summary meeting, "We understand the Northeast Army's operational model, so we naturally took advantage. The real Japanese Army doesn't know our Northeast Army's tactics. When the real war starts, everyone relax. It won't be strange for us to defeat the Japanese Army."

Everyone hadn't quite believed it at the time. They hadn't expected those words to actually be true.