Major Gu Huang, 50th Tank Battalion, 18th Heavy Combined Arms Brigade, 104th Special Army Group, People's Liberation Army Ground Force.

Shunan City

August 20th, 2025, 05.00

No sleep was given, as what was left of my tanks was basically a mobile fortress of sort, contesting the crossing of Tonda River by the Japanese and their allies. Behind us were steel plants and oil facilities that we took care not to hit for sake of our future use.

Alas, it was only a dream - those sneaky Japanese had rendered many part of it non functional before we even entered this city!

Nevertheless, this is a strategic objective and right now, the Japanese is merciful enough to allow evacuation boats to dock on its piers, mostly clearly marked with red cross to take along the wounded. along with a ferry port on the other side of the river - held by what was left of our 3rd Mechanized Battalion. Meanwhile, what was left of the 9th Medium Brigade - probably half of it's strength - plus element of the 109th IAIB were holding the only functional bridge up north.

Two days ago, what was left of 2nd Tank Company finally linked up with the rest of the battalion group and other surviving commanders in this city's industrial district, largely evacuated, if you discount armed civilians that are more often an annoyance as well as constant Coalition airstrike covering their advancing troops.

"We can no longer head for Xiaguanshi (Shimonoseki), comrades, as it would be a certain death of us in the hands of the Separatists... Instead, this area will be our last stand. Tank crews." Colonel Junhua looked at us, here deep inside this steel plant, where a big Five-star Red Flag has been raised in defiance accompanied by multiple cracks indicating our snipers at work. "All of you will fire until we cannot fire anymore. Even if it means that we have to fight as infantry. Your order is simple, directly pre-written by the Group Army command. Normally this message will be opened only in exceptional circumstances, and our situation is exactly what it means... We'll hold until everyone is evacuated, a miracle of negotiation from our higher ups, or this very place will be our graves."

I remembered our history lesson about the 800 Heroes (1). Despite the different regime, we're to re-live their struggle.

Then came a soldier, part of Captain Xiaojun's company from his insignia, who reported. "Comrade Colonel Junhua! The Coalition had breached the outer perimeter and they are about to reach Tonda River bank!"

"And so it begins, get to your units, comrades. Long Live the People's Republic of China!"

Back to the present.

"Fire!"

"Rounds away!" hollered Sergeant Zhangxi. A direct hit, as one of the Japanese' Type 89 IFV burst into flame and smoke.

Come sweet death. I mumbled as our sight caught more and more Japanese and Coalition armored vehicle massing around the river bank.

"Incoming!" The radar caught the telltale sign of ATGMs from across the river. In the meantime, light AA batteries, even when no resupply was forthcoming, kept firing at enemy swarm drones that was trying to detonate at us or designate targets for precision fires of theirs.

"Switch position!"

With only one bridge in this area is accessible for those who dare enough to break out from this sector into the said ferry port - something that was no longer possible according to the Comrade Colonel - the allies has no choice but to confront us methodically while their engineers were on their way.

We're lucky that several helicopter flights managed to deliver us ammo, fuel, and even charges for our APS.... until two Mi-26s were shot down and high command called the airbridge off. It was their sacrifice that allowed a number of my tanks a higher chance of survival until now. Space support from Tiangong also did their part by aiding the targeting of Rocket Forces and cruise missile-armed submarines as well as occasionally, our bombers, but those things alone won't turn the tide, being a more limited resource overall.

"Pick your targets carefully" I hollered at what was left of the 2nd Tank Company. Radio chatters indicated several Japanese armor fell, but also increasingly other nation's armor, like the British, others reported Indians and Italians, some of them were unmanned vehicles.

"Keep firing, no mercy!"

"One enemy drone down!"

That's what our radios caught on how the always eager Captain Xiaojun were covering our blind points. I wonder if he will break, somehow... or myself first?

To add to the dread, the British brigade in particular had committed their reserve infantry battalion - reinforced with medium wheeled armor ready to cover Japanese heavies if necessary.

With the fact that our tank had the advanced helmet sight similar to that those Japanese are using in terms of technology, when every crew try to get used to the growing pile of the dead, we'll see more of it and dogs eating them. This tank might had ran over some of these strays, but it's better than to let it threatening our foot bound comrades. Besides, the carcasses can still be edible - proved that it's cooked well - to supplement our increasingly meager rations.

Each time the air and missile strikes and artillery stop echoing and everything goes silent, even if it's only lasted seconds, it's almost possible to remember how peaceful it was before here until it gets interrupted by more explosions and hums of drones. I won't lie, either the silence; as peaceful as it is...also gave me anxiety, and I am sure that my crew believed the same. At least when there's shooting you know what's going on. When the enemy was silent you don't know what they were planning. Or when our turn to be evacuated finally came.

Just as I ordered one of my platoons to cover the 9th Brigade sector when the clock struck half past seven, the scream of rockets from their lines rocked the ground, but instead of explosive warhead, it dispersed smoke.

"This is it, comrades." I said, and ordered the driver to bring this ZTZ for somewhere with good cover.

And all hell broke loose, as the Coalition removed any restraints that they still have with a barrage of incendiary rockets, so intense that I had to order the company to reposition. To make things worse, our fuel gauge was only two bar above red line that would render the relatively better state of this tank's ammo in term of number irrelevant.

Autocannons were the first to open up, when we realized that the first crossing was being led by combat robots, mostly tank like units that we recognized as being a licensed Estonian design. This must be the reason why my cousin, who served in the Strategic Support Force told me that his cyber ops unit is mainly focused on Baltic states and Eastern Europe before the war. Speaking of him, the last time I am in contact with him was 10 days ago when he reported being wounded by an American long-range missile strike targeting the city. The good thing was that he's recovering somewhere in a Shanghai hospital and with an adequate network connection, could still discharge his duties.

To our astonishment, several drone sorties that managed to cross the river confirmed no crossing took place. Maybe because our missile strikes on their highways and railways actually worked in some degree (related to supply)? Their defenses are dense, but not impenetrable, just like our own back in the Homeland.

The question then, "what are those Fascists are going to do now? Starving us out, it is certain, but what's next?"

"To all units" It was the Colonel. "They must be waiting for the American Stryker infantry reinforcements to get ready. Remember, comrades, those are fresh troops."

I ordered the activation of the APU to conserve the fuel and still inside the tank, we're lying low, as outside, our forward recon comrades were trying to delay the concentrated Coalition forces facing us with fire and maneuver, while we are ready to roll if they need us. Our enemies, to be fair, did acknowledge that personal initiative had it's place in China compared to the old Soviet Union and the current Russian military that initially influenced us during the early days of the People's Republic. It was especially helpful with our sailing comrades, that yesterday's update showed their success in bouncing back from two defeats by successfully destroying an American destroyer group around Northern Philippines as well as the intensification of unrestricted submarine warfare beyond the First Island Chain.

The first call was from 109th International Anti Imperialism Brigade's recon - one of their companies reported Japanese wheeled light tanks on their way and their HJ-12s were running out.

A short hop to their position revealed everything. Their combat had been brutal. When the Japanese forward infantry and combat robots pulled back upon being engaged by our foreign comrades, they would lob mortars plus direct fire support with their wheeled Type 16s - air transportable like our tracked ZTQs hence their rapid deployment capability. I had the Sabot loaded and opened fire on the lead wheeled tank that immediately burst to flames.

The assigned 3rd platoon of the 2nd Company were taking casualties - added with the Japanese' penchant to fire a single round and quickly displace, knowing the limitation of the Type 16, but our heavier armor saved the day for them. For now.

"All units, cover your ears!" that's what the Colonel suddenly said on the radio just as roar of our jets and their drone companion approached the industrial area from the south, must be by napping the earth, or in this case, the sea.

"Never expected air support, comrade Major"

"Indeed, but we can talk about it later, driver." I said. My men were dying, and our assigned evacuation ship were nowhere to be seen, as more and more wounded men from Yamaguchi and others that were given safe passage by the Japanese were loaded each passing hour.

Ripples of air to ground missiles signaled the presence of supersonic FL-71 combat drones that were the first to pop up behind us just as their anti air opened up with the inevitable loss of some while J-31s following their wake was there for escort, firing long-range anti-air missiles towards targets of opportunity before turning back to the safety of our missile umbrellas. I hope they made it.

But when this see-saw ends, with the fact that there were still no crossing yet from their part?

A/N:

(1). In Chinese historiography, both People's Republic of China and the Taiwan-based Republic of China, 800 Heroes referred to the Defense of Silang Warehouse, an episode during Battle of Shanghai in the Second Sino-Japanese war, when a rearguard defense of a Chinese battalion, deliberately declared it's strength to be 800 soldiers hence the name but the real number was only 452 successfully covered Chinese withdrawal from the city as well to gather support from Western powers back in the day.