Podcasts about armies

The line of kings in Israel began with Jeroboam who built golden calves for a more convenient worship experience. After him came Nadab, Baasha, Elah, Zimri, and Omri, all of whom were evil in the Lord's sight. This brings us to King Ahab, who should be worshipping the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God who brought Israel out of Egypt, but instead he marries a Baal worshiper, turns to serve Baal himself, then builds a temple to Baal in Samaria. Elijah boldly confronts the king in the name of the Lord of Armies. God works wonders through Elijah, and by God's strength, Elijah performs miraculous signs. 1 Kings 17 - 1:06 .  1 Kings 18 - 10:18 .  Psalm 119:33 - 17:12 .  :::Christian Standard Bible translation.All music written and produced by John Burgess Ross.Co-produced by the Christian Standard Bible.facebook.com/commuterbibleinstagram.com/commuter_bibletwitter.com/CommuterPodpatreon.com/commuterbibleadmin@commuterbible.org

Welcome to Day 2907 of Wisdom-Trek. Thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom. Day 2907 – Wisdom Nuggets – Psalm 144:1-8 Daily Wisdom Wisdom-Trek Podcast Script - Day 2907 Welcome to Wisdom-Trek with Gramps! I am Guthrie Chamberlain, and we are on Day 2907 of our Trek. The Purpose of Wisdom-Trek is to create a legacy of wisdom, to seek out discernment and insights, and to boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before. The title for today's Wisdom-Trek is: The Cosmic Warrior's Sanctuary – Bowing the Heavens to Rescue Frail Mortals On our previous expedition, on Day Two Thousand Nine Hundred Five, we bore witness to David's heavy, cumulative exhaustion in Psalm One Hundred Forty-Three. We stood alongside him in the dark, feeling the suffocating, numbing weight of a long-drawn-out wilderness campaign, as he pleaded for the morning light of God's unfailing love to rescue his failing spirit. Today, as we crest a magnificent new ridge along our multi-month journey through the psalter, we advance directly into Psalm One Hundred Forty-Four, verses one through eight. This text serves as an incredibly powerful, triumphant answer to the dark paralysis we analyzed in our last study. David is no longer sitting frozen in the dust, wondering if the darkness will permanently consume him. Instead, he bursts forth with a magnificent, high-energy anthem of praise, recognizing that the very hardships he endured were the training grounds for his ultimate destiny. As we explore these eight verses together, we will discover a dynamic mosaic of royal warfare, cosmic geography, and profound theological humility, viewing this entire battlefield through the brilliant, ancient worldview of Yahweh's sovereign heavenly host. The first segment is: The Divine Arsenal: Training for the Frontiers of Chaos Let us open our minds to the opening movements of this royal liturgy, as recorded in the New Living Translation, grouping together the deeply connected, contiguous thoughts found in verse one and verse two. Praise the Lord, who is my rock. He trains my hands for war and gives my fingers skill for battle. He is my loving ally and my fortress, my tower of safety, my rescuer. He is my shield, and I take refuge in him. He subdues the nations under me. David begins this segment with an unshakeable, rhythmic blast of absolute adoration, declaring, “Praise the Lord, who is my rock. He trains my hands for war and gives my fingers skill for battle. He is my loving ally and my fortress, my tower of safety, my rescuer. He is my shield, and I take refuge in him. He subdues the nations under me.” To fully appreciate the vast, panoramic scope of these opening lines, we must view David's military reality through the fascinating, complex lens of the Ancient Israelite divine-council worldview. In the ancient Near East, kingship was never viewed as a purely secular, administrative function. The king of Israel was understood to be the earthly representative, the unique viceroy, of Yahweh Himself. When David addresses God as Yahweh Sabaoth—the Lord of Heaven's Armies—he is recognizing that his earthly battles are intimately intertwined with a grand, unseen cosmic conflict. The hostile surrounding nations were not just political competitors; they were groups aligned with rebellious, territorial spiritual principalities who actively sought to subvert the cosmic order established by the Most High God. Notice that David does not boast in his own inherent athletic prowess, or his natural military genius, even though he was a legendary warrior who defeated giants. Instead, he attributes all of his kinetic capability to his Creator, shouting, "He trains my hands for war and gives my fingers skill for battle." Yahweh is depicted here as the Master Commander, personally mentoring His earthly king, tuning his reflexes, and sharpening his tactical focus so that he can effectively push back the frontiers of chaos. David then layers title upon glorious title, describing God as his rock, his loving ally, his fortress, his tower of safety, his rescuer, and his shield. In the ancient world, a tower of safety or a fortress on a high crag was completely unassailable by infantry. By running into the character of Yahweh, David enters a fortress that sits completely above the reach of both earthly weapons and dark, cosmic forces. It is from this secure, celestial vantage point that the true King of the universe executes judgment, subduing rebellious human assemblies under the feet of His anointed servant. The second segment is: The Radical Contrast: Cosmic Majesty and Fleeting Shadows Right in the middle of this high-stakes military declaration, David pauses to display a stunning level of philosophical and theological humility, combining the logical thoughts found in verse three and verse four. O Lord, what are human beings that you should notice them, mere mortals that you should think about them? For we are like a breath of air; our days are like a passing shadow. David pivots his gaze away from the grand geopolitics of his kingdom to look directly into the mirror of human fragility, asking, “O Lord, what are human beings that you should notice them, mere mortals that you should think about them? For we are like a breath of air; our days are like a passing shadow.” This exquisite, highly poetic exclamation directly echoes the haunting cosmic questions raised in Psalm Eight. As a king who sat in council with the elders, and who regularly contemplated the vast tapestry of the night sky, David was acutely aware of the mind-boggling scale of reality. In the ancient cosmic geography, above the physical dome of the sky rested the glorious, burning palace of the divine council, populated by majestic, immortal spiritual beings who had witnessed the very foundations of the earth being laid. In comparison to these enduring celestial hosts, and in comparison to the eternal, uncreated majesty of Yahweh, what is a human being? David uses two incredibly vivid Hebrew metaphors to describe our mortal condition: hevel—which translates to a mere breath of warm air, a vapor that appears for a microsecond in the winter cold and then vanishes completely—and a passing shadow, like the silhouette of a bird flying over a field, gone before the eye can even track its movement. Yet, the profound mystery of biblical wisdom lies right here in this juxtaposition. The transcendent Sovereign Lord of the cosmos, who rules over billions of stars and commands legions of heavenly messengers, actively chooses to step down into history to notice, think about, and harbor deep affection for these fragile, breathing dust-creatures. He doesn't just tolerate humanity; He partners with mortals, inviting them to participate in the restoration of His cosmic order. The third segment is: Cosmic Theophany: Splitting the Fabric of the Sky Having established both the supreme majesty of God and the radical dependence of man, David now launches into a dramatic, high-impact prayer for an immediate, supernatural intervention, weaving together the cosmic warfare motifs found in verse five and verse six. Open the heavens and come down, Lord. Touch the mountains so they billow smoke. Flash your lightning and scatter your enemies! Shoot your arrows and confuse them! David calls down the ultimate cosmic cavalry, crying out with immense urgency, “Open the heavens and come down, Lord. Touch the mountains so they billow smoke. Flash your lightning and scatter your enemies! Shoot your arrows and confuse them!” This section contains some of the most concentrated, highly dramatic theophany imagery in the entire Old Testament. When David prays, “Open the heavens and come down,” the original language literally means to bow or to bend the heavens. In the ancient mindset, the sky was seen as a solid, physical separation between the celestial realm of God's throne room and the terrestrial realm of human history. David is asking Yahweh to grab the fabric of the cosmos, bend it downward, and rip open the boundary line, invading earthly geography with the raw, unfiltered glory of His heavenly presence. When the Most High steps down, the physical geography of the earth cannot sustain His weight. He touches the mountains—which in the ancient near eastern worldview were considered the pillars of the earth, the cosmic boundary stones where the gods met—and they instantly erupt, billowing smoke like volatile volcanoes, completely unmasked as fragile structures before their Creator. David then describes the weapons of this cosmic combat: lightning bolts functioning as divine spears, flashing across the dark sky to scatter the entrenched armies of the wicked, while supernatural arrows of thunder confuse and disorient the adversaries. 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Last time we spoke about the battle for Dayun Mountain. Chinese forces  under Xue Yue, believed they were encircling an exposed Japanese regiment. Acting on that assumption, Chinese units concentrated attacks to crush the "trapped " force, hoping to annihilate an elite enemy formation. Their pressure briefly seemed to succeed: on the 13th–14th, Chinese assaults compressed the Japanese positions to a small area, and individual fighting around ambush and prepared defenses produced moments where "victory appeared close." But the Chinese command misunderstood the target. The Japanese had layered deception: Dayun Mountain was held to draw attention, then replaced at night with another unit to maintain the appearance of continued occupation. Despite heavy fighting, the Dayun Mountain battle ends in stalemate by Sept. 17, and Chinese attention turns back to the primary offensive around Changsha.   #210 The Miluo River Catastrophe Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. On the morning of September 17, 1941, General Xue Yue, commander of the Ninth War Zone, sat at his desk at the headquarters on Changsha's Yuelu Mountain and fell into deep thought. Spread before him were a series of intelligence telegrams dispatched by the reconnaissance teams of his war zone and by General Yang Sen, commander of the 27th Army Group operating to the north. What they described was unambiguous and alarming. Along the north bank of the Xinqiang River, stretching westward from Yueyang, reconnaissance had identified a massive Japanese build-up: the 3rd, 4th, 6th, and 40th Divisions of the Japanese 11th Army, along with five additional detachments, had taken up positions facing the river. On the afternoon of September 16th, General Kanda, commander of the Japanese 6th Division, had personally toured the north bank accompanied by a retinue of staff officers, training his binoculars across the river for a long and deliberate survey of the Chinese defensive positions on the southern bank. Perhaps most conclusively, Chinese operatives working behind enemy lines had tapped Japanese military telephone lines and intercepted a direct communication from the 11th Army to all of its divisions, ordering them to prepare for an attack on September 18th. On any reasonable reading, the evidence pointed in one direction: a massive Japanese offensive was imminent. Yet Xue Yue, one of China's most celebrated wartime commanders and a man renowned for the tenacity with which he had defended Changsha, arrived at a different conclusion. He had been studying the record of 11th Army Commander Korechika Anami and came away convinced that Anami was a general who habitually used a mix of truth and deception in his operations—a man for whom the most obvious sign was precisely the most suspicious one. The scale of the preparations, their openness, the conspicuous presence of senior officers on the riverbank—all of it struck Xue Yue as too theatrical to be real. He concluded that Anami was feigning a frontal attack on the Xinqiang River in order to draw the main force of the war zone forward, leaving the flanks exposed for a surprise breakthrough elsewhere. Once this interpretation took hold in Xue Yue's mind, it became immovable. No subordinate could dislodge it. When intelligence reports then confirmed that the Japanese had transported the equipment for building pontoon bridges to the very banks of the Xinqiang River—a detail that left virtually no room for doubt about what was being planned—Xue Yue remained unmoved. He told his chief of staff with quiet certainty: "No rush. Let's see tomorrow." He was unaware that he had already lost his tomorrow. At dawn on September 18th, after 11th Army Commander Korechika Anami presided over the routine silent prayer ceremony that opened each day of active operations, he drew his gleaming ceremonial sword and pointed it towards northern Hunan. The battle had begun. On the Chinese side of the Xinqiang River, the first indication that this was no ordinary morning came from the sky. Air raids were a familiar occurrence along the front; the veterans of the 4th Army had grown accustomed to Japanese bombing runs. But this time was different. The number of bombs was greater, the density higher, and the bombs themselves heavier than anything the soldiers on the south bank had experienced before. Two successive waves of air attack struck the fortifications with crushing force, destroying positions that had taken months to construct. Then came the infantry. At Xiaotang, Siliufang, Tongxi Bridge, Shanmu Bridge, and a string of other crossing points along the river, dozens of tanks led the assault, pushing forward with unstoppable momentum, their treads churning up the riverbank mud as the infantry followed closely behind, advancing through fire, forcing their way across the water. On the not-so-wide front in Xiangbei, four Japanese divisions had lined up side by side—like four ferocious beasts pouncing forward simultaneously. Even the veteran soldiers of the defending Chinese forces, men who had been fighting the Japanese for years, had rarely seen such a terrifying formation. The troops defending the Xinqiang River were the 4th Army under Ou Zhen, one of the most distinguished units in the Nationalist order of battle. The 4th Army had earned the reputation of "Iron Army" during the Northern Expedition, where it had demonstrated a ferocious capacity for breaching fortified positions and defending strategic points under fire, and it had fought many of the major battles of the War of Resistance. In theory, the army consisted of four divisions: Zhang Deneng's 59th Division, Chen Kan's 90th Division, Bai Huizhang's 102nd Division, and the 60th Division, which had recently been transferred to the army's command. In practice, however, by September 18th the Iron Army had been hollowed out. During the concurrent Battle of Dayun Mountain, the Ninth War Zone and the 27th Army Group had stripped away most of the 59th and 102nd Divisions to commit them elsewhere, while the 60th Division had followed the army group as a reserve force. What remained at the Xinqiang River was the 90th Division and only a remnant of the 102nd—a fragment of what had once been a formidable fighting force. Xue Yue had planned for the first-line position to hold for three days. It held for two hours. Against a Japanese force that outnumbered the defenders several times over and enjoyed an absolute advantage in artillery and air power, the position could not stand. In just two hours, the Japanese broke through the 102nd Division's defensive line and then swung their forces around to encircle the 90th Division. With no remaining options, Xue Yue ordered both units to retreat to the second line of defense. The Xinqiang River had fallen.  The crisis at the Xinqiang River was compounded by the predicament of Yang Sen, commander-in-chief of the 27th Army Group, who should have been the force most capable of responding to the breakthrough. Instead, Yang Sen found himself trapped far to the east, bogged down in a battle on Dayun Mountain from which he could not extract himself. The situation on Dayun Mountain was one of those military embarrassments that seem almost unbelievable in retrospect. Yang Sen had committed five full divisions to encircle what was supposed to be a single regiment—the 234th Regiment of the Japanese 40th Division, which had dug into the deep mountain. What followed was a sustained humiliation. Two divisions were ground down until their combined fighting strength equalled that of one. Another division was reduced to a regimental shadow of itself. Yang Sen, who had first served in the army in 1906 and had seen virtually every variety of military difficulty in three and a half decades of Chinese warfare, said afterwards that he had rarely experienced such deception. The Shigematsu Regiment, ensconced in the mountains and dense forest, had proved maddeningly resilient. Yang Sen had committed his forces expecting a quick resolution—finish the battle on Dayun Mountain, then redeploy to defend the Xinqiang River—but the regiment would not be finished. He could not advance and he could not retreat. Just as he was preparing to intensify the assault for another day or two, certain that the enemy must finally be near collapse, the news arrived on the morning of September 18th that the Japanese had launched their general offensive across northern Hunan. By nine o'clock that morning, the Xinqiang River's first line of defense was already gone. Yang Sen immediately ordered the abandonment of the Dayun Mountain operation and commanded all divisions to redeploy back towards the Xinqiang River. But the Japanese had moved too fast. Between the first and second lines of Chinese defense there were only scattered guard units; the main force was simply not in place. The second-line troops, moreover, had been configured according to the defensive setup used during the First Battle of Changsha and were wholly unsuited to withstand such a massive, concentrated enemy thrust. The defending forces were too weak and too thinly spread to mount any gradual, coordinated resistance. The Japanese advanced through the gap as if they were in an empty field. The five divisions of the 58th Army and the 4th Army now found themselves in a desperate race against the Japanese, studying maps as they marched, trying to reach blocking positions before the enemy could. No matter what they did, they could not outrun the 11th Army. It was not merely the front-line units of the 4th Army that were endangered by the speed of the Japanese advance. Even the army headquarters itself, positioned forward in the proud tradition of the Iron Army, found itself running for its life. Army Commander Ou Zhen had been directing the battle from his headquarters in a small village called Lintang, located on the south bank of the Xinqiang River—a mere twenty kilometers behind the front line. The proximity was deliberate and characteristic of the Iron Army's ethos, a visible declaration that its commander would live or die alongside his men. On this day, it nearly proved fatal. Among those at the headquarters was Li Rupin, a native of Jing County in Anhui Province, who served as a sergeant squad leader in the 2nd Company of the 4th Army's Guard Battalion. Years later, reflecting on the events of that day, Li said without hesitation that of all his eight years fighting in the War of Resistance against Japan, that one battle was the most humiliating he had ever experienced. "The army headquarters was located in a small village called Lintang, south of the Xinqiang River, only about 20 kilometers away from the front lines," Li recalled. "The army headquarters was located in the front, which was a tradition of the 'Iron Army' to show that the commander was not afraid of danger and would live and die with his brothers. In that battle, we did not expect the enemy to break through the position so quickly. Not long after the battle started, the army headquarters had to move. Our guard battalion's task was to follow the army headquarters and serve as guards." Li described how Company Commander Chang Mingli assigned his platoon to help load the army headquarters' equipment onto trucks—huge, heavy boxes that required real effort to shift. While the loading was underway, Li caught sight of Army Commander Ou Zhen himself, speaking intently on the telephone. Li noted that Ou Zhen was ordinarily a man of few words, always seeming lost in thought, serious with the troops but not given to the kind of arbitrary reprimands that characterized lesser officers. What struck Li most vividly about the Army Commander, even in the midst of that morning's chaos, was a detail almost absurd in its incongruity: a pair of leather shoes that were always so perfectly polished they reflected light. "I heard he had studied abroad," Li added simply. Before the loading was even complete, the sound of machine gun fire erupted from the southwest of the village. A sentry reported: enemy attack detected, number unknown. Company Commander Chang, still pulling on his leggings, turned to Li and said without breaking stride: "Quickly take your squad and follow the deputy company commander. You must keep the enemy out of the village." Li took evident pride in the character of the guard battalion, comparing it unfavorably to what he saw in later years. "I see that nowadays, officers choose bodyguards who are fair-skinned and delicate, like little girls. I don't know why," he reflected. "Back then, our guard battalion, including the commander's personal bodyguards, were all big, dark-skinned men. Our squad of 12 men were all broad-shouldered and thick-waisted, and carrying a machine gun was like an ordinary person carrying a rifle." The squad carried three light machine guns, and each soldier also carried a pistol. They drilled constantly on marksmanship and physical conditioning. In the tradition of the unit, a guard soldier was expected to be able to carry his officer for dozens of miles without slowing and without fear of death. Li led his squad to the southwest corner of the village, where the 1st Company of the guard battalion was already engaged with the Japanese in a cemetery just outside the village boundary. The 1st Company commander had just descended from a rooftop when Deputy Company Commander Yan arrived and assessed the situation. "There are about 100 enemy soldiers in this direction," the 1st Company commander reported. "I don't know if there are any more in other directions." Yan replied without hesitation: "I'll take my four squads to outflank them and find out what's going on with the enemy. If it's a good opportunity, we'll wipe them out." He asked and received permission from the deputy battalion commander, who transferred three additional machine guns from the 1st Company to Yan's force. The squad slipped around to the south of the village, entered a nursery grove, and began working their way southwest to flank the enemy. "Before we even emerged from the woods, enemy machine guns opened fire," Li recalled. "The nursery grove was planted too densely, so it was inevitable that we'd bump into tree branches. We crept forward, keeping close to the ground, when the deputy company commander gave the order: 'Prepare grenades.'" Li looked back and saw that all his men had kept pace. Then Deputy Company Commander Yan's voice rang out clearly: "Charge!" He burst out of the woods at the head of the column. "Deputy Company Commander Yan is a graduate of the Whampoa Military Academy," Li said. "People say that Whampoa graduates are always at the forefront of battle. Others may not know, but several of us in our battalion are like that." The charge was furious and caught the enemy entirely off guard. "We shouted 'Charge! Kill!' and followed the deputy company commander out of the grove," Li recounted. "The enemy was about 40 or 50 meters ahead. Hearing the shouts, they hurriedly turned their guns to fire at us, but it was too late! We threw out our grenades, lay down, and fired back at the enemy. At this moment, the 1st Company also charged out of the village. The enemy could not stop them and retreated in droves. Looking around, there were no fewer than 200 of them. The enemy suffered a loss and left behind more than a dozen dead bodies." The 2nd Company did not pursue. Led by Deputy Company Commander Yan, they withdrew back to the village, where the deputy battalion commander stood at the crossroads and praised the 2nd Company for their fighting before immediately ordering them to follow the army headquarters and relocate. Li had barely grabbed his backpack and tied it to his body before gunfire erupted again outside the village. The Japanese had returned. Two battalions of the army reserve moved up to engage them, and the army's trucks and cars poured out of the village and accelerated south along the road. The guard battalion ran after them on foot. In less than half an hour, the enemy caught up. There were cavalrymen and a large truck packed with infantry. Li registered the significance of this with something close to shock: "It seems that the Xinqiang River has really been lost to the enemy, otherwise how could cars still drive across?" The battalion commander—whose surname, Li noted with dry humor, was the same as the Generalissimo's—ordered the 2nd Company under the deputy battalion commander to form a rear guard. They had one artillery platoon and two mortars between them. There was no time to prepare fortifications; the soldiers scattered on both sides of the road and found their own firing positions as best they could. When Li looked back south, the army headquarters was already a distant speck on the road. "The enemy was getting closer and closer," he recalled. "First, fifty or sixty cavalrymen charged over, brandishing swords and guns and shouting. The trucks were behind them, and we could already see two machine guns mounted on the front of the trucks." The deputy battalion commander's voice carried steadily over the noise: "Brothers, stay calm, aim carefully before you fire—we're going to slaughter a pig and drink tonight!" Nobody laughed, Li noted carefully, but nobody broke either. What followed was a running, desperate firefight. Within the range of 600 to 200 meters, the rear guard inflicted severe casualties on the advancing Japanese. Li watched soldiers toppling from their horses. One horse, shot but not immediately killed, dragged its dead rider—still entangled in the stirrups—forward at a gallop until it collapsed only a few steps from Li, the sudden impact startling him badly. The enemy dismounted from the trucks and formed attack waves, pressing the assault in shifts. The Chinese machine guns worked to suppress each wave and prevent the Japanese from closing the distance. The deputy battalion commander directed the two mortars against the densest enemy concentrations. Then one of the mortars exploded inside its own barrel, killing two gunners instantly. "I still can't figure out why," Li said years later. "The fuse of the mortar shell is on that tip, how could it explode inside the barrel?" There was no answer to be found. The two men were simply dead, and there was no time to grieve them. The rear guard repelled two enemy attacks before the deputy battalion commander ordered a withdrawal while the enemy paused to regroup. It was past two o'clock in the afternoon. "It's all just running," Li said with characteristic bluntness. "How can I not get tired? Even if I'm tired, I still have to keep running!" As they ran, Li overheard the company commander say quietly to the deputy battalion commander: "Actually, we can wipe out these enemies." The deputy battalion commander turned on him with a fierce look: "Eat it all up! Have you forgotten what we're here for again?" The exchange brought to Li's mind a memory from two years earlier, when he had first been assigned to the guard battalion. He had been transferred from the machine gun company of the 2nd Battalion, 305th Regiment of the 102nd Division at the end of 1939, appointed as deputy squad leader. Company Commander Chang had spoken to him at that time, asking why he had joined the army. "Who else would come here if not to fight the Japanese?" Li had answered. The company commander replied: "Very good, but the guard battalion's primary task is to ensure good security; that's the most important thing." The assignment had chafed at Li ever since—a natural fighter who had been a front-line machine gun squad leader, now consigned to watching other men fight. On one holiday, having drunk rather more than was wise, he had gone to the company commander and announced that he wanted to return to the 102nd Division and "mow down the Japanese with a machine gun." The company commander, who had also been drinking, chuckled and said: "Have you had enough of life? You might as well stay here and squat obediently! What do you know about life? You don't know anything! After we win, go home, get a wife, and live a good life..." Now, running south along a road contested by Japanese cavalry and infantry, with the army headquarters already out of sight ahead of him, Li perhaps understood the company commander's words in a way he had not before. The pursuit was unrelenting and grew worse before it improved. Over a hundred cavalrymen and four trucks drove after the guard unit without pause. In an attempt to split and divert the enemy, the company dispatched a platoon under Deputy Company Commander Yan himself down a different road, to lure one group of pursuers away. None of the men in that platoon returned alive. The deputy battalion commander led the remaining force in a continuing fighting retreat, engaging another Japanese contingent in a separate encounter that cost more than twenty dead and thirty wounded. Eventually the survivors managed to cross a large river, finally shaking off the pursuers, and caught up with the army headquarters at dusk. They had barely had a moment to catch their breath when night fell and they stumbled into another large Japanese force in the darkness. The 4th Army—the Iron Army, the pride of the Northern Expedition—seemed to have its commander and headquarters specifically targeted by the enemy. Driven from one position to the next throughout the day, they were eventually pushed up into the hills of Mufu Mountain and did not escape danger until the following morning. "That battle," Li Rupin concluded, "was truly humiliating." When the scale of the Japanese offensive became undeniable on the evening of September 18th, Xue Yue finally grasped the gravity of what was unfolding. It was too late to adjust his forces meaningfully; the overall numerical superiority he had enjoyed across the theater of operations had dissolved wherever the Japanese chose to strike, becoming a dangerous numerical disadvantage at each critical point. In just one day, even Yuelu Mountain—the historic height that had dominated Changsha and housed his headquarters—was no longer safe. He moved the war zone command post south to Zhuting and urgently telegraphed the Military Commission in Chongqing, requesting that Chiang Kai-shek immediately transfer troops from other war zones to provide reinforcements, warning that without them the situation would deteriorate with serious consequences for the national war effort. The telegram arrived in Chongqing, where Chiang Kai-shek and several senior military advisors sat in silence before the battle map in the Military Commission Operations Room, with the grim concentration of men watching a difficult game of chess they cannot influence. Troop movements take time. While the number of Japanese troops committed to northern Hunan was not enormous in absolute terms, they moved with unstoppable momentum. Xue Yue was requesting three to four combat corps—a mobilization from outside the Ninth War Zone that could not possibly be accomplished in the available time. Chiang Kai-shek was at a loss for what to do. He paced back and forth in the corridor adjoining the operations room. The only foreigner among the assembled staff—a blond-haired man with a prominent nose—was the Soviet military advisor Chuikov. He walked up to Chiang and fell into step beside him, pacing with him as he spoke. "Hunan and northern Hunan are in a passive position and we don't have any good solutions for the time being," Chuikov said. "Why don't we think about other things? Isn't there an ancient Chinese story called 'Besieging Wei to Rescue Zhao'?" Chuikov's specific proposal was this: if the forces of the Sixth War Zone were to attack the Japanese 13th Division at Yichang—a city in Hubei Province that had fallen to Japan in June 1940, and which was garrisoned by a division under the overall command of Anami's 11th Army—Anami Korechika would not be able to remain indifferent to the threat. Yichang was no ordinary city. It controlled the crucial choke point on the Yangtze River's waterway, and since its capture it had placed much of the river under Japanese control. More critically for the Chinese, Yichang Airport had become the closest bomber base to Chongqing, and the Japanese aircraft that harassed the wartime capital daily flew from that field. The Military Commission had long been reluctant to authorize a major attack on Yichang for these very reasons—it would not be easy to retake, and failure would be costly. But why not seize this moment? Chiang Kai-shek stopped walking, considered Chuikov's proposal, and nodded. He thanked the Soviet general for his suggestion, and the two men returned to the operations room together. Chiang instructed Chief of Staff Xu Yongchang to draft an implementation plan for combined operations: the Ninth War Zone would continue engaging the Japanese in northern Hunan, while the Sixth War Zone would simultaneously launch a counterattack against Yichang and ensure its capture. While Chongqing deliberated over the Yichang gambit, the immediate question facing the Ninth War Zone was how to organize a second line of defense following the fall of the Xinqiang River. The Japanese had also successfully landed forces on both sides of the Xiangjiang River estuary at Shangqingshan, blocking the waterway, which further constrained Chinese options. Xue Yue's solution was straightforward: he proposed deploying the 37th and 26th Armies in a line along the south bank of the Miluo River, using the river as a natural barrier to halt the Japanese advance toward Changsha. His chief of staff, Wu Yizhi, agreed without reservation and immediately instructed the operations section chief, Zhao Zili, to begin drafting the necessary orders. But Zhao Zili had been turning the strategic problem over in his mind, and he had reached a different conclusion. Zhao was a graduate of the Whampoa Military Academy's 6th class, a veteran of the Battles of Nanchang and Shanggao, and a man who had watched this war closely from his position at the center of the war zone's planning operations. At this moment he asked permission to share his thinking with his two superiors. Zhao's argument was systematic and urgent. The combined strength of the two armies—five combat divisions in total—was clearly insufficient to withstand four intact Japanese divisions in a set-piece defensive battle along the Miluo River. The 10th and 74th Armies were being summoned from elsewhere to reinforce the theater, but by Zhao's calculation they would require another four days to arrive. A static defense of the Miluo River line, therefore, would pit inadequate forces against overwhelming pressure for four days, and those forces would be destroyed long before help arrived. His alternative proposal was as follows: rather than standing and fighting at the Miluo, the two armies should conduct a deliberate fighting withdrawal—using alternating rear-guard actions and mutual cover—to fall back all the way to the south bank of the Liuyang River, in the hills immediately north of Changsha. The timing, Zhao argued, was almost providential in its precision: if the 26th and 37th Armies arrived at the Liuyang River at roughly the same moment that the 10th and 74th Armies arrived at the same position from the east, the combined force of four armies could then turn and strike the Japanese formations—which by then would have advanced more than a hundred kilometers into hostile territory with supply lines stretched thin and fighting strength degraded by continuous combat. Even if the Chinese could not completely sever the Japanese supply lines, the enemy would be exhausted, and victory under those conditions would be certain. Zhao Zili finished his presentation in one breath and waited. Xue Yue and Wu Yizhi conferred briefly. Then they decided to proceed with the original plan. Zhao Zili sighed inwardly. He got up, returned to his office, and began drafting the orders that, in his professional judgment, would lead to catastrophe. One hour later, the orders embodying Xue Yue's thinking were converted to radio waves and flew into the night sky. As some poet once asked of fate: "When the curtain rises, you don't know whether it's a comedy or a tragedy." On the morning of September 20th, in the intelligence section of the Japanese 11th Army's Special Operations headquarters, Lieutenant Colonel Hachimō rose from his seat feeling dizzy and unsteady on his feet. He had been awake for an extraordinary stretch of hours, hunched over a radio set in a state of almost superhuman concentration. He took a couple of steps before realizing he was still wearing his headset. He pulled it off, tossed it onto the radio equipment, and—holding the handrail for support—made his careful way down from the third floor to the second. Hachimō was not a professional soldier by background. Before the war, he had been a young designer at the renowned Mitsubishi Corporation. After the outbreak of hostilities, he had enlisted, taught himself the Chinese language and writing system, and dedicated himself entirely to the exacting discipline of cryptanalysis. Given the severe technological limitations of the era, what he accomplished rested on a kind of willpower and intuition that bordered on the extraordinary. His method was laborious and painstaking: he spent long hours with a headset pressed against his ear, listening to the endless stream of radio signals, detecting patterns, discerning differences and similarities among thousands of beeps and pulses. He analyzed signal traffic appearing over time and correlated it against observed enemy troop movements. He used captured battlefield documents to decode fragments of text, then leveraged those fragments to deduce the positions of commonly used characters in Chinese military telegrams. Every time the Chinese side changed their cipher, all of Hachimō's accumulated work was rendered worthless in an instant, but he would begin again—listening, thinking, starting over from nothing, with the same unbroken patience. On the perfectly timed morning of September 20th, Lieutenant Colonel Hachimō achieved what he had been working toward. He cracked the cipher in use by the Ninth War Zone for communications with its various subordinate armies, and successfully intercepted and decoded the operational deployment order that the Ninth War Zone Command had issued to all its armies on the night of September 18th—the very orders that Zhao Zili had drafted in quiet despair after his plan was rejected. Those orders told the Japanese exactly where every Chinese unit was going, what it intended to do, and when. Hachimō made his way downstairs and reported his achievement. Staff officer Kinoshita Isamu read the summary, then stood and walked without a word into the room where 11th Army Commander Anami Korechika was at work. The other officers in the room looked at Hachimō with confusion, uncertain what had just happened. After a few minutes, Anami and Kinoshita returned together. Anami stepped forward and took Hachimō's hand. "I, the Commander, congratulate you," Anami said, "on becoming the first officer to receive a certificate of merit in Operation Plus. Now I order you to go and rest immediately." The intelligence transformed the battle. Anami's original operational plan had been relatively modest in its ambition: a breakthrough along the Changsha-Yueyang highway, advancing toward Jinjing and the Xiangjiang River, with the 3rd and 4th Divisions planned for deployment toward the river. But now that the Japanese held a complete map of Chinese intentions—the positions, routes, and assignments of every army in the Ninth War Zone—a far more ambitious opportunity presented itself. What could be more valuable, or more satisfying, than the direct encirclement and annihilation of the main Chinese forces in the field? Anami immediately revised his entire operational deployment. As Chinese historical records later documented: "The Japanese intercepted and deciphered the radio telegrams issuing operational orders from the Ninth War Zone, gaining access to the Nationalist Army's operational plans and deployments. This led to a shift in their original strategic concept from a breakthrough to an encirclement of the Nationalist Army's right flank." The trap was set. The Chinese armies, following Xue Yue's orders faithfully, were marching toward positions the Japanese already knew they would occupy. The 26th Army was commanded by Xiao Zhichu, and it comprised three divisions: the 32nd Division under Wang Xiushen, the 41st Division under Ding Zhipan, and the 44th Division under Chen Yong. When Xiao received Xue Yue's orders to move his army to defend the south bank of the Miluo River, the situation was already deeply unfavorable. The Japanese had broken through the Xinqiang River line and were advancing rapidly southward; the 26th Army was positioned in the Liuyang and Yong'an area to the west, at a starting point that was even farther from the Miluo River than the Japanese forces were. The army was engaged in a race against a faster-moving enemy to reach the same objective, running from the farther starting block. The timing was unfavorable. The location was unfavorable. And the personal dimension was unfavorable as well, in a way that would prove deeply consequential, because Xue Yue and Xiao Zhichu harbored a long-standing resentment toward one another with its roots six years in the past. In 1935, both men had attended the third session of the Lushan Officers Training Corps, each holding the rank of army commander in the army but serving as battalion commanders within the training structure. The corps was nominally commanded by Chiang Kai-shek himself, with Chen Cheng as deputy commander. Xue Yue was a favorite of Chen Cheng—a celebrated battle commander who had fought his way across half of China—and he carried himself accordingly, often holding forth at length in seminars and discussions and not infrequently straying off-topic into territory where his assertions were questionable. The other senior officers present were content to listen, taking what was useful and ignoring the rest. Xiao Zhichu, however, was a man of earnest and literal disposition who simply could not let inaccuracies pass without challenge. He disputed Xue Yue's claims on several occasions, insisting on clarifying the facts, and each such correction landed on Xue Yue like a public rebuke. The estrangement that resulted between the two men was severe and lasting. By 1941, Xue had risen to command an entire war zone; Xiao remained an army commander under his authority. In the intervening years, Xiao had learned to be extremely cautious in all his dealings with his superior, acutely aware that any apparent failure or challenge might be held against him. On the night of September 19th, Xue Yue issued Xiao Zhichu an order to move the 26th Army to the second line of defense on the south bank of the Miluo River. Then, at noon on September 20th, he changed the order entirely: Xiao was to push his troops forward to the first line of defense along the riverbank, a more exposed position further north. At dawn on September 21st, Xiao Zhichu personally led his 44th Division—the division with which he had built his reputation—on a forced march toward the designated position. They were 2.5 kilometers from their destination, at the town of Wengjiang, when they encountered the Japanese 6th Division. The Japanese already knew they were coming. Having read Xue Yue's intercepted operational orders, they had deployed their forces specifically to intercept the 26th Army on the march. Within just twenty minutes of the initial encounter at Wengjiang, the entire 44th Division was completely surrounded. Xiao Zhichu reported the situation to Xue Yue by telephone. Xue Yue's response from the other end of the line was white-hot fury: "What's going on? We're surrounded before we even arrived! Why aren't we fighting? If we lose the Miluo River position, I'll kill you!" Xiao Zhichu swallowed his bitterness. Following orders, he threw the 44th Division into battle in terrain that could hardly have been more disadvantageous. They fought for a full day and a night and were unable to break through the encirclement. He ordered Wang Xiushen's 32nd Division to press forward and relieve the siege, but by the time those orders could be executed, the 32nd Division was itself under attack—surrounded on three sides by the Japanese 3rd Division at Wukou. Wang Xiushen led the entire division in a desperate battle with the river immediately at his back, suffering grievous casualties, and was eventually forced to fight his way clear rather than advance to relieve the 44th. On September 23rd, General Kanda Masazuka committed a portion of the 6th Division to a fierce assault against the rear of the already-encircled 44th Division. The situation became critical. Xiao Zhichu's army was fighting simultaneously on two fronts, and the lines were beginning to give way. It was only the timely intervention of Ding Zhipan's 41st Division, which arrived on a diagonal axis and struck the enemy threatening the 44th Division's rear, that prevented a complete collapse. When Ding Zhipan came to report to the army commander, the chief of staff of the 44th Division informed him with hollow composure that the entire division had suffered more than half casualties. The daily reality inside the encircled positions was one of sustained and grinding misery. During brief lulls in the fighting—stolen moments between one Japanese assault and the next—the soldiers would stuff a cold rice ball into their mouths and scoop up a mouthful of muddy water from the nearest roadside ditch; that was their meal. Immediately they would put down whatever they had in their hands and rush to reinforce the hastily dug earthworks, knowing another assault was imminent. The wounded lay where they had fallen, unable to be evacuated, their groans a constant sound beneath the work of digging and the distant thunder of artillery. The dead were not buried; there was simply no time. The battlefield was a scene of utter devastation. After Xiao Zhichu's repeated requests, Xue Yue finally authorized a withdrawal. The 26th Army was permitted to pull back to Putang, a position a few kilometers to the south with marginally more defensible terrain. The entire army moved overnight, arriving exhausted, and immediately began constructing new fortifications. They had barely caught their breath when the Japanese 40th and 6th Divisions came on in succession, pressing the pursuit without pause. The 41st and 44th Divisions threw themselves into the fighting and were decimated. After destroying those two divisions, the Japanese turned their full attention on the surviving 32nd Division and the army headquarters. As Xiao Zhichu swept his binoculars across the positions, watching his men lie on the ground—dead, dying, or fighting on sheer will—one phrase repeated itself in his mind: "total annihilation." It was the most despairing phrase in a soldier's vocabulary, and it seemed to be becoming a description of reality. On the evening of September 25th, as the Japanese ring tightened around the remnants of the 26th Army, a Japanese Chinese-language translator began calling out to the encircled troops in Mandarin, urging them to surrender. The entire army appeared to be at its final moment. Then, in the darkness, reinforcements arrived—in the most improbable way imaginable. The head of the army's reconnaissance section had slipped through the Japanese encirclement looking for any exit, and in doing so had stumbled upon an entire regiment of the 32nd Army that had completely lost contact with the headquarters days earlier. This regiment had suffered damage to its radio equipment and had simply not received any of the telegrams announcing changes to the army's deployment and assignments. When they arrived at their designated rendezvous point, the area was empty. They had been sending scouts in all directions trying to locate friendly forces and make sense of the situation, when they encountered the reconnaissance section chief who had been doing precisely the same thing from inside the encirclement. The two men compared unit designations and confirmed their identities. Then the section chief remembered something: the regiment's party representative was his own classmate from the Whampoa Military Academy. Old bonds held. The two men exchanged information, assessed the situation together, and without further deliberation the regimental commander led his troops on a forced march straight toward the guns. They found and struck the weakest points in the Japanese encirclement, broke through, and extracted the army headquarters and the surviving remnants of the 32nd Division. The 26th Army had been saved, but only barely, and at a terrible cost. What had before the battle been a formidable force with numerous victories was now reduced to less than one-fifth of its original strength. Wang Xiushen, commander of the 32nd Division, had previously served as commander of the great warlord Feng Yuxiang's own bodyguard brigade—a valiant and decorated general of the old Northwest Army. Division commanders Ding Zhipan and Chen Yong were similarly seasoned veterans, known for their courage and resourcefulness throughout years of hard fighting. After the battle, they and Army Commander Xiao Zhichu were utterly dejected. They had fought as hard as men could fight, under conditions as unfavorable as circumstances could devise, and they had been broken. More than forty kilometers to the west of the 26th Army's ordeal, at the point where the Miluo River flows into Dongting Lake, a second major engagement was being fought at the same time. Here, the Japanese 3rd and 4th Divisions struck at Chen Pei's 37th Army, whose two main fighting formations—Luo Qi's 95th Division and Li Tang's 140th Division—were deployed across the hills and river-network terrain of the area. The fighting was, by any measure, equally bloody and equally brutal. Before the battle, with their blood up and their honor committed, the commanders of the 37th Army's divisions had gathered their officers for ceremonies of dedication that spoke to the seriousness with which they understood what was coming. Li Tang, commander of the 140th Division, organized a frontline oath-taking ceremony at which he stood before his assembled officers and men and vowed aloud to annihilate the Japanese invaders and avenge the deaths of fallen compatriots. Luo Qi, commanding the 95th Division, sent written instructions throughout his formation: "The defense of the Shending Mountain line is not only a matter of honor for our division, but also a matter of victory or defeat for the entire battlefield. With this stubborn enemy pressing in, all our officers and soldiers should be even more courageous and loyal, resolutely defend the position, annihilate the Japanese invaders, and achieve extraordinary feats!" Song Ruike, who served at the time as a senior staff officer at the Ninth War Zone Command headquarters, recorded his recollection of the battle's progress in later years with the systematic precision that his professional training demanded. "On the morning of the 19th," Song recalled, "the enemy's main force successively advanced towards the Miluo River via Yanglin Street, Guanwang Bridge, and the Changhu-Dajing Street highway. Our 37th Army was on high alert on the south bank, while our vanguard troops were also advancing forward on the north bank. That afternoon, the enemy's vanguard encountered our troops north of Changle Street. After a fierce battle, many enemy soldiers were killed. Then, enemy cavalry and artillery, along with several thousand infantry, attacked from three sides. Our defending 1st Company fought a bloody battle, but due to being outnumbered, they suffered almost all casualties. Changle Street was occupied by the enemy. At around 7 p.m., the enemy began to attempt a crossing at Modao Beach. Our troops defending the south bank fought bravely and fought fiercely throughout the night, but the enemy failed." The first crossing attempt had been beaten back, but the respite was brief. Song continued: "At dawn on the 20th, the enemy, under the cover of aircraft and artillery, launched another forced crossing. At around 7 a.m., fierce fighting broke out between the two sides along the Wugongshi, Guiyi, and Hejiatang line." Those words, whatever courage the oaths and instructions had inspired, could not alter the underlying arithmetic of the battle. From the 21st through the 23rd of September, the 37th Army fought ferocious engagements with the Japanese 4th and 3rd Divisions across the Shending Mountain and Banjunmiao areas, absorbing casualties that could not be replaced. Song recorded the progression: "The main force of the enemy, advancing rapidly southward, captured our positions at Nanyangmiao and Banjunmiao in Wengjiang at noon on the 22nd. Our 140th Division engaged the enemy at Lishan Lane and Daxingling, and fought fiercely for two days and nights..." After the battle, the 37th Army had effectively ceased to exist as a fighting force. It had gone into the engagement with nearly fifty thousand fully equipped and manned troops. Song Ruike, reflecting on it all in his old age, acknowledged with unusual candor the limitations of his own account: "Since history cannot be reproduced, people summarize events based on memory, striving to retain the most important and valuable aspects while filtering out the unimportant and those that do not reflect the essence." The elderly Song retained the factual architecture of the battle—times, places, unit designations, tactical methods—but he knew, as any honest chronicler must, that within those facts lay a multitude of individual experiences, individual sufferings, individual deaths, that no record could fully capture. "Then what about every individual in history?" he asked. "How should their emotions, will, beliefs, their flesh and blood, their breath, and everything they sacrificed be expressed and entrusted to us?" It was a question he could not answer, and neither can history. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. After commander Zhao Zili's plan was rejected, he drafted orders anyway, but Lieutenant Colonel Hachimō of Japan's 11th Army intercepted and decoded the Ninth War Zone's deployment orders on September 20. Meanwhile, the 37th Army fought the Japanese at the Miluo River confluence with Dongting Lake, launching oaths and grim defenses before being effectively destroyed as a combat force.

We adive into the latest FAQ update, including rules clarifications, erratas, and all of the buffs and nerfs! Scott AKA The Dunlending War Cry joins the cast to fill in for Ian as we break down all the changes and give our thoughts.Time Stamps: 00:00 Intro 02:06 Rules Manual 18:53 Matched Play Guide26:15 Armies of LotR44:31 Armies of the Hobbit 47:15 Armies of Middle-earth 57:32 Final ThoughtsLinks: Baron of Dice Affiliate: https://baronofdice.com/?ref=intothewestpodcast Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/IntotheWest Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ITWpod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/intothewestpodcast/ Credits: Music: Music from Youtube Audio library Tavern Loop One by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com) Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Music: Bay Bridge Musician: mr. hong (from Audiio) Music: Redline Musician: EnjoyMusic Site: https://enjoymusic.ai

In today's episode I will be praying over us, reading Psalm 46, and saying whatever the Holy Spirit prompts me to say after I read the scripture. This is day 46 of a series where I will be reading a Psalm everyday on here for 150 days. I challenge you to come to join me everyday as we use scripture to fight off the enemy and grow us in ways that we can't even imagine.   My First Christian Children's book, "You Are Loved" is now available for purchase on Amazon!! Thank you to everyone that has purchased, been praying, supporting, and sharing. All glory goes to God!! Here is the link to purchase: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GZKSPJNB   Link to partner with me and give towards my future mission projects: https://pushpay.com/g/globalventurescatoosa?fnd=missionary&fndv=hide&ru=prod&sr=58535&ad=%7b+%22PledgeID%22%3a%22Y01TRFR1VlklMmJMYkY5NmRNJTJiU2dHU21oWVBXQjN2OXRVNkdsNWpjMUFzamRkRkNBUmN2Z2R0MjdmdTZ2eGduc1U%3d%22%7d&nt=Partner%3aMs+Lorena+Espy+   If you want to receive newsletters: submit your info here: www.postable.com/lorenaespy If you want to check out previous Bible studies, click here To Purchase my "Christ Transforms Me" Journal, click here   Email me: faithfuelsmyfire@gmail.com Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/486483515603028/ YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmBsSKktGU_8WHVNIxhFuzg The Bible App that I use: http://bible.com/app Instagram: @_lorenacamille_ Never Forget to Choose Faith Over Fear, -Lorena Espy

Fitzhugh Brundage, author of A Fate Worse Than Hell, explains that prisoner exchanges were based on 18th-century European customs that sought to prevent the execution or enslavement of captured enemies. Armies used a calculus to trade soldiers, such as equating one colonel to twenty privates to ensure equity. When capture numbers were uneven, the parole system allowed surplus soldiers to return home on the condition they not fight until formally exchanged. This formalized process aimed to keep warfare humane and efficient for both sides until political tensions arose. (2)1865

SCHEDULE JBS, 7-3-2026.1880 LIMERICKFitzhugh Brundage, author of A Fate Worse Than Hell, discusses the capture of three black sailors from the Isaac Smithin 1863, which forced the Confederacy to decide if black men in uniform were POWs or runaway slaves. While white sailors were quickly exchanged, the Confederacy refused to trade black captives, viewing them as participants in a servile insurrection. A smuggled letter from the sailors eventually reached Washington, contributing to the halt of systematic prisoner exchanges by the spring of 1863. This shift compelled both sides to become long-term custodians of captives. (1)Fitzhugh Brundage, author of A Fate Worse Than Hell, explains that prisoner exchanges were based on 18th-century European customs that sought to prevent the execution or enslavement of captured enemies. Armies used a calculus to trade soldiers, such as equating one colonel to twenty privates to ensure equity. When capture numbers were uneven, the parole system allowed surplus soldiers to return home on the condition they not fight until formally exchanged. This formalized process aimed to keep warfare humane and efficient for both sides until political tensions arose. (2)Fitzhugh Brundage, author of A Fate Worse Than Hell, details how Confederate official John Winder, a West Pointerfrom Maryland, supervised the detention of Union prisoners in Richmond. He oversaw the conversion of industrial structures, like the Libby Prison tobacco warehouse, into overcrowded holding pens for Union officers. These facilities lacked basic amenities, including latrines and protection from the elements, leading to rapid physical deterioration for thousands. Winder, often viewed as a military martinet, prioritized bureaucracy over prisoner welfare as the captive population ballooned beyond Richmond's capacity. (3)Fitzhugh Brundage, author of A Fate Worse Than Hell, describes how Union administrator William Hoffman managed Northern prisons with a focus on extreme cost-savings, even diverting ration funds into camp improvements. Meanwhile, the Lieber Code (General Order 100) was drafted to codify humane treatment for POWs and civilians. However, it included a "military necessity" loophole that allowed commanders to bypass these protections in dire situations. The Confederacy denounced this code as illegal window dressing for the Union's conduct during the ongoing conflict. (4)Fitzhugh Brundage, author of A Fate Worse Than Hell, explains that following the Battle of Gettysburg, the breakdown of exchanges necessitated large-scale prisoner concentration. Andersonville was established in remote Georgia to alleviate the burden on Richmond's food supply and reduce guard requirements. Prisoners like N. Burch endured grueling train transports without hygiene or food to reach the stockade. Conversely, the Union created Point Lookout in Maryland as a retaliatory concentration camp, forcing thousands of Confederates to live in inadequate tents on a sand spit. (5)Fitzhugh Brundage, author of A Fate Worse Than Hell, recounts how, following the Battle of the Crater, black Unionsoldiers like Isaac Gaskins faced extreme humiliation and the threat of enslavement. The Confederacy often refused to recognize black men in uniform as soldiers, instead treating them as rebellious property to be returned to owners or used for forced labor. By late 1864, the Confederate military became the South's largest enslaver. Gaskins survived his ordeal in Danville by being used as a laborer, a fate shared by many black captives. (6)Fitzhugh Brundage, author of A Fate Worse Than Hell, describes how Andersonville became a death camp where 35,000 men were crammed into a space with no shelter and polluted water. Commander Henry Wirz oversaw a site where over 100 men died daily from starvation and disease. After the war, Wirz was prosecuted for war crimes, arguing unsuccessfully that he was only following orders from superiors like Winder. His execution set an international precedent for military accountability and helped shape the future Geneva Conventions. (7)Fitzhugh Brundage, author of A Fate Worse Than Hell, reflects on how the remains of prisoners became symbols of uneasy national memory, with many sites like Camp Douglas in Chicago resulting in unmarked mass graves. At Andersonville, nearly 14,000 Union soldiers perished, a death toll exceeding the Union losses at Gettysburg. Thanks to a secret list kept by a prisoner, Clara Barton and others were able to identify 13,000 of the dead. Today, the site is a national cemetery marked by rows of numbered stones, serving as a poignant pilgrimage site. (8)Daniel Rood, author of In the Shadow of the Great House, recounts how, in 1933, agronomist Wofford Camp led the Associated Farmers of California to violently suppress cotton worker strikes in the Central Valley. This conflict represented the "cutting edge" of plantation capitalism, which Rood traces back to 17th-century Barbados. Figures like John Yeamans established the model of using manufacturing technology and enslaved labor to produce high-profit export crops like sugar. This system viewed labor as disposable and sought modern, lower-cost production for global markets. (9)Daniel Rood, author of In the Shadow of the Great House, argues that the modern link between race and slavery was a conscious creation by planters to secure a lifelong, reproductive workforce. Philosopher John Locke codified this in Carolina's founding documents, granting freemen absolute authority over black slaves regardless of their religion. This prevented enslaved people from using Christian conversion as a path to freedom. This "fictional" racial category was reinforced by early slave codes in Virginia to ensure the perpetual growth of plantation profits. (10)Daniel Rood, author of In the Shadow of the Great House, explains that American founders like Thomas Jefferson lived in a state of "incoherence," advocating for liberty while fearing a genocide of white people if slaves were freed. Early Virginia history shows a decline in freedom, as African-born men like Anthony Johnson initially owned land before legal opportunities were narrowed. Nathaniel Bacon's 1676 rebellion further entrenched racial hierarchy by demanding the expulsion of Native Americans to secure more land for an unending supply of enslaved labor. (11)Daniel Rood, author of In the Shadow of the Great House, describes how, during the Siege of Yorktown, Cornwallisprioritized British sugar profits in Jamaica over the lives of thousands of black refugees, pushing them out to starve or face recapture. In contrast, the American "patriots" used human property as a military recruitment tool, offering poor white soldiers land and "one healthy sound negro" for their service. This strategy hardened the link between slavery and freedom for white Americans, ensuring the plantation system's survival long after the Revolution concluded. (12)Daniel Rood, author of In the Shadow of the Great House, explains that enslaved people like Suki provided the essential "intellectual labor" and agricultural expertise required for successful plantations. Despite this, the domestic slave trade treated two million people as speculative property between 1820 and 1860. Charles Dickens famously witnessed the heartbreak of families being separated on trains for the sake of "short-term profits." This human trafficking machine was fueled by planters chasing high-margin crops like cotton while maintaining a delusion of lifelong stability. (13)Daniel Rood, author of In the Shadow of the Great House, recounts how, during the Civil War, General Shermantargeted "great houses" like that of Confederate politician Howell Cobb for destruction to cripple the planter class. Field Order 15 initially provided a path for land reform by settling refugees on abandoned plantations, but the policy was reversed by Andrew Johnson after Lincoln's assassination. Planters regained their property, and formerly enslaved families were evicted and forced into exploitative labor contracts, representing a tragic "lost opportunity" for reconstruction. (14)Daniel Rood, author of In the Shadow of the Great House, traces how the plantation system evolved globally, with Cubabecoming a sugar powerhouse using industrial steam technology after the Haitian Revolution. In modern Brazil, multinational corporations like BP and Cargill run "mammoth sugar farms" using unfree contract labor for ethanol production. Similarly, California's agricultural boom relied on the Bracero program and guest workers who lacked political rights. This modern planter class continues to prioritize investor profits over the stability and rights of their laborers. (15)Daniel Rood, author of In the Shadow of the Great House, reveals that the University of Georgia's Baldwin Hall was built over an unacknowledged burial ground for enslaved people. Although the university initially claimed the remains were European, DNA analysis and archival research proved they were of African descent. This attempt to "re-bury the history" illustrates the ongoing need to escape the shadow of the great house by embracing the truth of the past. Roodargues for an anti-plantation counterculture that values human relationships over "breakneck exploitation." (16)All 16 formatted, John — Fitzhugh Brundage throughout (added to the standing correction log alongside the earlier "Fitz" flag), book titles italicized, single paragraphs, numbered at the tail.

Send us Fan MailThe Declaration of Independence read by William SadlerTo introduce a new YouTube channel @AmericanHedgemasterIN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor. Check our other links:TwitterRumbleInstagramYouTube

Hey everyone, we're back for an EPIC ranking of what we think are some of the best armies to get into if you're starting 11th edition. Starting a new army can be tough and a significant monetary investment, so follow along to et the pros and cons of factions you might be interested in :)See you all again soon - by the Fireside,Vik & DaveCheck out our E-courses for competitive Warhammer at https://40kfireside.com#warhammer #40kFireside #firesidepodcast #firesideJoin this channel to get access to perks:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyYYtA8JdF-04NKO7ZmORkQ/joinFor Business Inquiries: 40kFireside@gmail.comVik and David00:43 Why This Tier List03:53 Custodes Overview06:32 Sisters 10:44 Daemons15:45 Imperial Guard21:46 Chaos Space Marines42:47 Blood Angels45:33 Genestealer Cult48:33 Emperors Children52:15 Deathwatch57:19 Death Guard01:00:25 Dark Angels01:03:33 Orks Power01:20:55 Grey Knights01:23:56 Imperial Knights01:24:33 Ultramarines01:29:07 Tyranids Meta And Lore01:32:14 Thousand Sons01:36:50 Tau Shooting01:41:15 Space Wolves01:43:47 AdMech Buffs01:46:22 Drukhari01:48:46 World Eaters01:54:31 Final Picks And Wrap Up

Errol Musk Joins Alex Jones To Talk About The Battle To Save The West From The Globalists & Their 3rd World Armies! Parents Being Charged With MURDER When Vaccine Kill! Iran Pulls Out Of Peace Talks, Says ‘We Have Nukes!

MERCH: https://orchideight.com/collections/poorhammer TWITCH: https://www.twitch.tv/poorhammer PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/SolelySingleton   This is a message for future Berilio: Don't forget to get back here and fix this description with an actual one when you are rested. This is an important episode for new players and should have a proper, not confusing, made with good humor, full of information and free of spelling mistakes, description. If this gets published you will be made fun of by the patrons (again) and Brad and Eric will shout at you (with good reason). SO DON'T FORGET. This description is not final!   SHOW LINKS: Brad's Bsky: https://bsky.app/profile/drruler.bsky.social Eric's Bsky: https://bsky.app/profile/onekuosora.bsky.social   00:00 Hello and Welcome 00:30 Early Alright Audio Audience 03:43 Preambule (the fancier word for Further Ado) 04:56 What Do You Need? 09:25 The Armies we Have 10:28 A Datasheet 10:58 GAME STARTS - Space Marines on the Move 12:27 Turn 1 - Space Marines Shoot 16:36 Turn 1 - Orks Try to Save Against the Marines Shooting 20:08 Orks Turn 1 - Command Phase 20:38 Orks Turn 1 - Movement Phase 21:18 The Space Marines Use a Strat! 24:37 The Weirdboy Shoots! 27:13 The Rest of the Boys Start Shooting! 30:23 Time for the Ork Charge! 33:39 The Weirdboy Fights First 36:47 The Space Marines Swing Back 39:49 Space Marines Turn 2 - Command Phase 42:41 ITS THE LAND SPEEDER WITH THE STEEL CHAIR 43:04 Space Marines Movement Phase 46:06 Turn 2 - Space Marines Shooting Phase 50:23 Weirdboy Deadly Demises 51:55 Orks Turn 2 - Command Phase 52:19 Orks Turn 2 - Movement Phase 52:55 Orks Turn 2 - Shoot Phase 56:03 Last Minute Tips 59:28 I'm Sorry for our Patron Names 01:03:51 Alright Audio Audience   Contact Information: You can interact with Solely Singleton by joining the hosts on discord and Twitter to give input to improve the show. Feel free to email more detailed questions and suggestions to the show's email address.   Your Hosts: Brad (DrRuler) & Eric (OnekuoSora) Brad's Bsky: https://bsky.app/profile/drruler.bsky.social Eric's Bsky: https://bsky.app/profile/onekuosora.bsky.social Show Email: thepoorhammerpodcast@gmail.com Merch Website: http://www.poorhammer.com/ Edited by: Menino Berilio Show Mailing Address: PO Box 70893 Rochester Hills, MI 48307   Licensed Music Used By This Program: "Night Out" by LiQWYD CC BY "Thursday & Snow (Reprise)" by Blank & Kytt CC BY "First Class" by Peyruis CC BY "Funky Souls" by Amaria CC BY  

MERCH: https://orchideight.com/collections/poorhammer TWITCH: https://www.twitch.tv/poorhammer PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/SolelySingleton   This is a message for future Berilio: Don't forget to get back here and fix this description with an actual one when you are rested. This is an important episode for new players and should have a proper, not confusing, made with good humor, full of information and free of spelling mistakes, description. If this gets published you will be made fun of by the patrons (again) and Brad and Eric will shout at you (with good reason). SO DON'T FORGET. This description is not final!   SHOW LINKS: Brad's Bsky: https://bsky.app/profile/drruler.bsky.social Eric's Bsky: https://bsky.app/profile/onekuosora.bsky.social   00:00 Hello and Welcome 00:30 Early Alright Audio Audience 03:43 Preambule (the fancier word for Further Ado) 04:56 What Do You Need? 09:25 The Armies we Have 10:28 A Datasheet 10:58 GAME STARTS - Space Marines on the Move 12:27 Turn 1 - Space Marines Shoot 16:36 Turn 1 - Orks Try to Save Against the Marines Shooting 20:08 Orks Turn 1 - Command Phase 20:38 Orks Turn 1 - Movement Phase 21:18 The Space Marines Use a Strat! 24:37 The Weirdboy Shoots! 27:13 The Rest of the Boys Start Shooting! 30:23 Time for the Ork Charge! 33:39 The Weirdboy Fights First 36:47 The Space Marines Swing Back 39:49 Space Marines Turn 2 - Command Phase 42:41 ITS THE LAND SPEEDER WITH THE STEEL CHAIR 43:04 Space Marines Movement Phase 46:06 Turn 2 - Space Marines Shooting Phase 50:23 Weirdboy Deadly Demises 51:55 Orks Turn 2 - Command Phase 52:19 Orks Turn 2 - Movement Phase 52:55 Orks Turn 2 - Shoot Phase 56:03 Last Minute Tips 59:28 I'm Sorry for our Patron Names 01:03:51 Alright Audio Audience   Contact Information: You can interact with Solely Singleton by joining the hosts on discord and Twitter to give input to improve the show. Feel free to email more detailed questions and suggestions to the show's email address.   Your Hosts: Brad (DrRuler) & Eric (OnekuoSora) Brad's Bsky: https://bsky.app/profile/drruler.bsky.social Eric's Bsky: https://bsky.app/profile/onekuosora.bsky.social Show Email: thepoorhammerpodcast@gmail.com Merch Website: http://www.poorhammer.com/ Edited by: Menino Berilio Show Mailing Address: PO Box 70893 Rochester Hills, MI 48307   Licensed Music Used By This Program: "Night Out" by LiQWYD CC BY "Thursday & Snow (Reprise)" by Blank & Kytt CC BY "First Class" by Peyruis CC BY "Funky Souls" by Amaria CC BY

Last time we spoke about the battle of Zhongtiao Mountain. On 7 May 1941, Japan launched a three-front assault on the Zhongtiao Mountains, striking multiple axes and using paratroopers to disrupt Chinese command. On the northeastern front, Wu Shimin's 98th Army scored a success at Wangcun, routing about 2,000 attackers. Elsewhere, three-pronged Japanese forces drove south toward Yuanqu with overwhelming artillery, armor, and coordinated movement. During the first night, paratroopers found the Chinese headquarters already disordered: orders were unclear and communications with most units collapsed. By 8 May, the First War Zone could no longer coordinate; armies fought alone. From mid-May into June, Japanese units swept the mountains, manning river crossings to block retreat and eliminating pockets. Surviving Chinese formations escaped or regrouped south of the Yellow River, but the three-year Zhongtiao defensive system was destroyed in about twenty days, sharply worsening Japan's strategic situation in northern China.   #208 Operation Plus: The Road to the Second Battle of Changsha Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. In the autumn of 1939, Japanese forces under General Yasuji Okamura launched a major offensive aimed at capturing Changsha — the gateway to China's interior and one of the most important cities still under Nationalist control. The First Battle of Changsha ended without a decisive Japanese victory. Chinese forces, anchored by the Ninth War Zone under General Xue Yue, managed to repel the advance, inflicting significant casualties and preserving the city. It was a notable achievement at a time when Japanese arms had swept across vast swathes of Chinese territory, and it reverberated through both the Chinese military establishment and the watching international community. Following the Japanese withdrawal, Chiang Kai-shek convened the Second Nanyue Military Conference to carry out a thorough assessment of the battle and to plan for the period of relative calm that would follow. The conference sought to answer several pressing questions: What had worked in the defense? Where had coordination broken down? How could the period of Japanese inactivity be used most productively? Chiang made it clear that this respite was not to be wasted. Commanders of all the major war zones were simultaneously expected to serve as governors of their respective provinces, ensuring unity of military and civilian command. Chiang himself set an example by personally assuming the governorship of Sichuan Province and focusing attention on that province's production and reconstruction efforts. The conference produced broad directives for the reconstruction of war-zone provinces and the intensification of military training. For Hunan, responsibility for implementing these directives fell on the shoulders of General Xue Yue, who had emerged from the First Battle of Changsha with greatly enhanced prestige and authority. The reason Changsha and Hunan more broadly attracted such persistent Japanese attention was geographical and logistical. The Yuehan Railway — running from Yueyang in northern Hunan down through Changsha and south toward Guangzhou — was one of the most important transportation arteries in China. Whoever controlled it could move troops, equipment, and supplies across vast distances with speed and reliability. Opening up the Yuehan line would, in Japanese strategic thinking, effectively connect their forces in Central China with those in South China, allowing for a gradual tightening of the strategic noose around Chiang Kai-shek's wartime capital at Chongqing in Sichuan Province. Hunan was therefore not merely a defensive problem for the Chinese; it was a strategic prize that Japan would inevitably seek to take. Xue Yue, whose headquarters were in Changsha, was well aware of this logic. With the First Battle of Changsha behind him and the province in need of recovery, Xue Yue turned his attention to governance. He was not content to wait passively for the next Japanese offensive. He believed that a province that was economically productive, administratively disciplined, and politically stable would provide a far more durable foundation for military resistance than one that was disorganized and demoralized. At the beginning of his tenure as effective governor of Hunan, Xue conducted a thorough survey of the province's situation and then articulated a philosophical framework for his administration in the form of a "three-character policy," consisting of three guiding principles: "Peace"  (an), "Convenience" (bian), and "Sufficiency" ( zu). In Xue's formulation, "Peace" meant that the population should be able to live, work, and conduct their daily affairs free from fear and disruption. "Convenience" meant that policies should benefit the people, the nation, and the war effort simultaneously — eliminating bureaucratic obstacles and inefficiencies. "Sufficiency" meant achieving adequate levels in all essential areas: enough soldiers, enough food, and enough wisdom in leadership. These seemingly simple principles were elaborated into extensive implementation guidelines. The announcement of this framework immediately sparked debate across Hunan's intellectual and administrative community. Veteran officials and scholars were divided. Some praised the policy as a clear and practical framework for wartime governance. Others dismissed it as hollow wordplay, offering nothing new or substantive. A minority was more sharply critical, warning that if such superficial philosophizing was all Xue could offer, the province would decay into warlordism. Undeterred by the criticism, Xue Yue built upon the three-character framework with a set of "Six Policies" for governing the people of Hunan: "Benefiting the People, Raising the People, Educating the People, Protecting the People, Managing the People, and Utilizing the People." Each of these six principles came with specific implementation targets and performance metrics, designed to be measurable rather than aspirational. This second round of policy announcements generated yet another wave of debate, but Xue pressed forward with implementation regardless. From the beginning of 1940, Xue vigorously pushed for the expansion of agricultural and industrial production across the province. His approach was comprehensive and at times uncompromising. He approved funds for the reconstruction of the Zhongshan Road National Goods Exhibition Hall in Changsha — which had been destroyed in the catastrophic Changsha Fire of 1938 — and by February 1940, 114 shops had reopened there. In March, he approved the "Eight Measures for the Construction of Sheds in Changsha," drafted by the Changsha Municipal Police Bureau, which relaxed housing regulations and helped address the severe shortage of accommodation for the city's residents, who had largely fled or been displaced during the fire and the Japanese offensive. One of the more creative initiatives of this period was the Ninth War Zone's order requiring all troops stationed in Hunan to cultivate a certain amount of farmland in their spare time, growing grain to supplement military rations. Local residents came to refer to the plots tended by soldiers as "soldier's fields" (bing tian). This policy served a dual purpose: it reduced the logistical burden of feeding the garrison forces from civilian stocks while keeping soldiers productively occupied during lulls in fighting. It also served to maintain a degree of goodwill between the military and the rural communities on which any prolonged resistance ultimately depended. One of the most consequential steps Xue Yue took to stabilize Hunan's governance was an aggressive campaign against corruption. On April 15, 1940, he ordered the execution of Tian Weizheng, the county magistrate of Changsha, and Wang Lun, the county magistrate of Xiangtan, both on charges of corruption and abuse of office. The proclamation accompanying the executions was blunt: "This serves as a warning against corruption and establishes the authority of the law in upholding discipline." The message was not lost on officials across the province. In the months that followed, a sweep of investigations led to the punishment of numerous corrupt officials and illegal businessmen. The effect on public confidence in the provincial government was significant. Citizens and soldiers alike perceived that there was now a leadership willing to hold its own accountable — a stark contrast to the corruption and self-dealing that had plagued Chinese provincial governance throughout the war. Xue was also attentive to the ideological dimension of the war effort. On May Fourth Youth Day — itself laden with nationalist significance, commemorating the great student movement of 1919 — Xue attended the provincial capital's sports meet and delivered a speech before thousands of young people entitled "Iron Youth, Iron Spirit, Sacred Labor, Sacred Survival." The speech was aimed at galvanizing the younger generation, connecting their personal futures to the fate of the nation and the resistance against Japan. That same month, in May 1940, the 110th executive meeting of the Hunan Provincial Government revised and approved the "Hunan Province County Heads Performance Evaluation Method," a document that formalized military service and support for the war effort as the primary criterion in the evaluation of local officials' political performance. Throughout 1940, the provincial government and the Ninth War Zone organized a series of training courses for officials, including courses specifically designed for guerrilla cadres, women cadres, and village chiefs — an indication that preparations for sustained, decentralized resistance were underway. Xue himself addressed the cadre training group with a speech on "The Conditions That a Well-Rounded Cadre Should Possess." By the end of 1940, after more than a year of sustained effort, Hunan had broadly recovered to the administrative and economic condition it had enjoyed before the Changsha Fire, when the reformist official Zhang Zhizhong had governed the province. Agriculture, industry, and commerce all showed measurable improvement over their wartime lows. The government's accounts for the year reflected growth across all sectors. This recovery was not merely statistical; it represented a genuine rebuilding of the province's capacity to sustain a prolonged defense. Soldiers were better fed and equipped, local officials were more disciplined, and the civilian population had a functioning, if still imperfect, relationship with the wartime state. Early in 1941, Xue Yue's reputation had grown to the point where local gentry and public figures jointly petitioned for a bustling street in Changsha to be named after his courtesy name — a mark of genuine popular esteem unusual for a military governor in wartime China. While Xue Yue was rebuilding Hunan, events at the geopolitical level were reshaping the strategic environment in ways that would directly precipitate the Second Battle of Changsha. On September 27, 1940, Japan signed the Tripartite Pact with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, formally joining the Axis powers. The pact alarmed the Western democracies and accelerated their support for China. On December 2, 1940, the United States Congress passed a bill approving a one-hundred-million-dollar loan to China. On December 10, 1940, Britain followed suit, approving a ten-million-pound loan. Both measures were explicitly understood — by all parties — as responses to Japanese expansion and Japan's recognition of Wang Jingwei's collaborationist puppet government in Nanjing. For the Japanese military leadership, these loans signaled that the international community was not prepared to accept Japan's fait accompli in China, and that the war of attrition against the Nationalist government could not be allowed to continue indefinitely. The imperative to resolve the "China Incident" — as Japanese officials euphemistically called the war — before the international situation deteriorated further became more urgent than ever. On January 16, 1941, the Japanese Army adopted the "Long-Term Operational Guidance Plan for China." The document acknowledged a painful internal contradiction: Japan could only sustain a protracted war in China, yet it simultaneously demanded a swift resolution to the conflict through strong military pressure. The plan's solution to this contradiction was to intensify operations while "taking note of the international situation" — meaning that military actions should be calibrated to avoid triggering direct American or British intervention. The plan called for large-scale offensive operations in the summer and autumn of 1941. The companion document, the "Annual Plan for Showa 16 (1941)," was more specific. It required Japanese troops stationed in China to conduct a major operation in the summer and autumn of that year with the aim of dealing a heavy blow to the main force of the "Whampoa Military Academy" — the term used by Japanese planners to describe the core of Chiang Kai-shek's professional officer corps, trained at the Whampoa (Huangpu) Military Academy and regarded as the backbone of the Nationalist army. The stated goal was to destroy the Chongqing government's will to continue resistance and thereby force a resolution to the China Incident. Xue Yue himself read translated summaries of both these documents when he traveled to Chongqing to report on his work in early 1941. He returned to Hunan in a reflective, and determined, frame of mind. For much of the period between the two Battles of Changsha, the Japanese Eleventh Army — the primary force facing Xue Yue's Ninth War Zone — had been commanded by General Yasuji Okamura, a seasoned officer with whom Xue had developed a degree of familiarity through combat. By early 1941, it became known that Okamura was to be transferred to the Military Advisory Council at Imperial General Headquarters in Tokyo — a prestigious but more removed role. Xue Yue reflected on this change with a mixture of relief and characteristic self-confidence, reasoning that whoever replaced Okamura would be a new adversary to be dealt with on the battlefield, and that there was no reason to lose to him regardless. Korechika Anami received his appointment as commander of the Eleventh Army on February 15, 1941. From the first day of his appointment, he carried a detailed battle map of the three provinces facing his command — Hunan, Hubei, and Jiangxi — along with comprehensive intelligence files on both sides' troop dispositions and strengths. He studied these materials constantly, on trains, in waiting rooms, wherever he had a free moment. By the time he formally took up his post on March 10, 1941, he already had a clear operational vision for the coming campaign. Before reaching the front, Anami stopped in Nanjing to meet with General Hata Shunroku, the Commander-in-Chief of the China Expeditionary Army. Hata had himself arrived in China in early 1941, having been summoned by the Emperor before his departure and entrusted with what the Emperor called the sacred mission of resolving the China Incident. The two men talked through the night, their conversation returning repeatedly to the planned summer-autumn offensive. Hata urged Anami to annihilate the main force of the Ninth War Zone in the area south of the Miluo River — to destroy, once and for all, the core of Chiang Kai-shek's best troops. "If this battle is fought well," Hata told him, "the entire war situation in China will undergo a huge change." Anami listened and agreed, though he had his own reasons to want the battle to go well. He had voluntarily relinquished the prominent position of Vice Minister of the Army at General Headquarters in Tokyo to take this field command — a significant personal sacrifice that reflected his deep desire for battlefield achievement. There was a personal dimension to Anami's motivations as well. His second son, a bright and lively boy to whom he was deeply attached, had died in combat in China. Anami carried a photograph of his son wherever he went, and had resolved to transform his grief into a consuming commitment to military excellence, whatever the human cost. At the Eleventh Army's headquarters in Yueyang, Anami found the war game board and operational plans that Okamura had left behind. He did not immediately begin issuing orders. Instead, for weeks he immersed himself in the problem, traveling between divisional headquarters and subordinate commands to gather ground-level perspectives, or sitting alone for hours before the great map, motionless and in deep concentration. His new chief of staff, Kinoshita Isamu, who had come from a divisional unit and was unfamiliar with his commander's temperament, could only keep silent company during these long sessions. When Anami eventually convened his headquarters personnel to explain his operational intentions, he made a pointed critique of the First Battle of Changsha. "The reason why the last battle in Changsha did not achieve great results," he said, "was that the troops were too dispersed and the main direction of attack was not highlighted, so they could not form a strong impact and lethality." He named the new operation "Operation Plus" — a deliberate contrast with what he saw as the subtracted, diluted efforts of the previous campaign. His concept was one of radical concentration: rather than dispersing the attack across multiple fronts in Hubei and Jiangxi while simultaneously advancing on Changsha, Anami proposed pulling the forces from southern Hubei and northern Jiangxi and massing them in front of northern Hunan. The effect on his staff officers when he demonstrated this redeployment on the map was electric; one of them involuntarily exclaimed aloud at the sudden clarity of the advantageous position that mass concentration would create. Anami's personality was, in the judgment of those who worked with him, fundamentally different from Okamura's. A commander's fighting style is shaped by his character, and Anami's character was defined by intensity, focus, and a willingness to commit fully. These traits would shape "Operation Plus" from conception to execution. On June 22, 1941, five and a half million German troops launched Operation Barbarossa — the largest military invasion in history — against the Soviet Union. The news reached the Japanese military establishment with a degree of surprise, since such a momentous operation should, under the terms of the Tripartite Pact, have been communicated in advance. Beyond the procedural slight, German strategists had placed themselves in the position of fighting a two-front war, something Japanese generals found strategically bewildering. The outbreak of the Soviet-German War forced a serious debate within the Japanese General Staff. One faction argued for a "northward advance" — seizing the opportunity to strike the Soviet Union from the east while its military was fully committed in the west. Another faction argued for a "southward advance" — moving into Southeast Asia and the Pacific to secure the oil and raw materials that Japan desperately needed. Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe adopted a wait-and-see compromise, authorizing secret preparations for war in the north known as Operation Kantokuen while continuing to monitor developments. Now it just so happens I released a Patreon/Youtube Members exclusive episode covering Operation Kantokuen the previous month. I highly recommend it, fascinating what if piece of history. For just a teaser I can briefly summarize it: Operation Kantokuen — officially designated "Kwantung Army Special Maneuvers" — was Japan's plan for a large-scale invasion of the Soviet Far East, developed in the summer of 1941 following Germany's launch of Operation Barbarossa. When news of the German invasion reached Tokyo, Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka and senior Kwantung Army officers argued Japan should abandon its neutrality pact with the USSR and strike in coordination with Germany. An Army-Navy compromise on June 24th allowed preparations to proceed so long as they did not interfere with Japan's concurrent southern ambitions. On July 5th, Matsuoka and Major General Shin'ichi Tanaka convinced War Minister Hideki Tojo to back a more ambitious scheme, and the two men then bypassed the War Ministry entirely, securing Emperor Hirohito's personal authorization. The plan was structured in two stages — a buildup and readiness phase followed by an offensive phase — during which the Kwantung Army would await an explicit order to attack. The Army General Staff calculated that any campaign had to conclude by mid-October before Siberian winter conditions made logistics impossible. Their ideal force requirement was 16 to 22 divisions supported by 800,000 tons of shipping, though this assumed the Soviets would first redeploy half their Far Eastern infantry and two-thirds of their armor westward against Germany. The planned order of battle ultimately settled on 24 divisions — 17 committed to the eastern front and 5 concentrated near Mutanchiang. The opening blow was designed to fall on the Primorye (Maritime Province) front. The 1st Area Army, commanding the 3rd and 20th Armies along with elements of the Korea Army, would cross the border south of Lake Khanka to shatter Soviet defensive lines and menace Vladivostok. Simultaneously, the 5th Army would strike south of Iman to cut the Trans-Siberian Railway and isolate the Maritime Province from northern reinforcements. In the north, the 4th Army would hold the Amur River line before pivoting to attack Blagoveshchensk, while two additional reinforced divisions would invade Northern Sakhalin in a land-and-sea pincer. A second phase envisioned capturing Khabarovsk, Komsomolsk, and Sovetskaya Gavan, with amphibious operations considered against Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and Kamchatka itself. The operation was to be supported by a massive air assault — between 1,800 and 2,700 aircraft combining Army and Navy aviation — aimed at annihilating the Soviet Far East Air Force in the opening hours, after which Japanese air power would shift to tactical ground support and interdiction of Soviet supply lines. Armored assets included roughly 800–900 tanks, mostly Type 97 Chi-Has and Type 95 Ha-Gos. Kantokuen was also allocated chemical weapons stockpiled in Manchuria and biological agents produced by Unit 731, intended for deployment against Soviet rear areas and supply lines. Despite the scale of planning, the operation was already fatally compromised before it could be launched. Japan's industry and logistics could not sustain a two-front war while remaining bogged down in China. On August 1st, 1941, the United States enacted a total oil embargo that cut off 80% of Japan's fuel supply, and the Dutch East Indies followed. With oil reserves sufficient for only 12–18 months of peacetime consumption, a Siberian offensive that would consume an estimated one to two million barrels per month was no longer tenable. By August 9th, the Army General Staff conceded that seizing the oil-rich territories of Southeast Asia was the overriding strategic priority. The Kantokuen buildup was formally terminated, and Japan turned south — setting the course toward Pearl Harbor and the Pacific War. Now Kantokuen held some practical consequences for the China Expeditionary Army was disruptive. Serious consideration was given to redeploying units of the Eleventh Army away from their positions facing Hunan and northward toward Manchuria, in anticipation of a possible war with the Soviet Union. This threatened to derail Anami's planning entirely. The cloud of uncertainty hung over the Changsha operation for several weeks. Despite the disruption, Anami refused to let the operation be indefinitely deferred. On June 24, 1941 — just two days after Barbarossa began — he formally approved the operational guidance outline for the Changsha offensive and set a planned launch date of September 15. This was an act of deliberate institutional pressure: by formalizing the plan so quickly in the wake of Barbarossa, Anami made it harder for higher authorities to redirect his forces northward without explicitly cancelling a plan already in motion. The gamble worked. The northward deployment option was ultimately shelved, and the Eleventh Army remained in place to conduct its summer-autumn offensive. While Anami and his staff at Yueyang bent over their map of Hunan, so too did Xue Yue and his staff at Changsha. Two nearly identical colored military maps were laid out on large tables in two different command centers — one in Chinese, one in Japanese — showing the same terrain of Hunan, southern Hubei, and western Jiangxi. The Xiang River appeared on both as a green ribbon; Dongting Lake as a blue maple leaf. For those responsible for commanding the impending battle, the war game was the battle, played out in simulation before blood was shed. Xue Yue, his Chief of Staff Wu Yizhi, Chief of Staff Zhao Zili, and the intelligence and operations officers of the Ninth War Zone Command engaged in extensive map exercises throughout the summer of 1941. Wargaming pieces bearing unit designations moved across the terrain as staff officers reported troop strengths, timings, and geographic objectives. The summer heat was intense, and there was nowhere cool in Changsha; Xue and his staff worked in the heat, sweating heavily as they played out scenario after scenario. It was during these sessions that Xue came to believe he had grasped the essential shape of the Japanese plan. Reasoning from the known Japanese strategic posture and the pattern of the first battle, he concluded that the enemy would again advance roughly the same way. His counter-strategy was as follows: in northern Jiangxi and southern Hubei, the war zone would launch pincer attacks on Japanese forces that were not part of the main offensive, targeting the area north of Chongren and Xingan, east of Yichun, Wanzai, Tonggu, and Xiushui, to defeat them in detail. In northern Hunan — the main theater — the war zone would deliberately allow the Japanese to advance, luring their main force south of the Miluo River into the area north of Jinjing, Fulinpu, and Sanjieqiao, and then launch a devastating counterattack to encircle and annihilate them. After a successful counterattack, Xue imagined pursuing the broken Japanese forces all the way back to Yueyang, and beyond — even, in his more expansive moments, recapturing the great cities of Jiujiang and Wuhan, lost in 1938. This was the "lure and annihilate" strategy, and it was not merely a hope — it was the formal operational order issued to the forces of the Ninth War Zone. In August 1941, the Ninth Military Front officially assessed that Japan intended to capture Changsha and obtain supplies, and the lure-and-annihilate plan was formalized accordingly. What Xue Yue did not know — and could not know through his intelligence network alone — was that Anami's operational philosophy was fundamentally different from Okamura's. The critical assumption underlying the lure-and-annihilate plan was that the Japanese would attack in roughly the same dispersed, multi-front pattern as the first battle. Anami's "Operation Plus" invalidated this assumption entirely. By concentrating his forces in front of northern Hunan rather than dispersing them, Anami would strike with an impact Xue's cordon defenses were not designed to absorb. Xue was, unknowingly, planning to fight a replay of the first battle against an opponent who had studied that first battle as a case study in what not to do. Despite this fundamental intelligence gap, the Chinese were not without information. From mid-August 1941 onward, residents of mountain villages and riverside communities in northern Jiangxi and southern Hubei began reporting unusual nighttime activity. Faint sounds of motor engines and the footsteps of large columns moving on main roads were heard after dark. On moonlit nights, fleets of motorboats were seen moving without lights on the rivers, visible only as dark shadows on the water. The local population was puzzled and unsettled: what kind of unit was this, and what were they doing? The answer was that Anami's forces were conducting their pre-offensive assembly under cover of darkness and strict light discipline, moving four divisions totaling approximately 120,000 troops into position for the attack on Hunan. Military and civilian intelligence agents operating in these areas crouched in the bushes, enduring insect bites through long nights, watching and recording everything they witnessed. The information was relayed by human chain, passed from one agent to another across a network stretching back to Changsha, until it was collated and placed on Xue Yue's desk by staff officers from the Ninth War Zone Command's Intelligence Department. Xue studied the reports carefully, comparing them against his map. The evidence of a large Japanese build-up in northern Hunan was unambiguous. But Xue was suspicious of its implications. "Mobilize troops? All the troops are moved to northern Hunan. What about Tongcheng? What about Yueyang? Impossible! Feint? What does that mean? You want me to concentrate my troops in northern Hunan so you can attack from both sides?" His staff officers were similarly uncertain how to read the intelligence. The scale of the Japanese concentration defied the pattern of previous operations, and Xue's trained instincts — calibrated against years of dealing with Okamura — led him to doubt what his intelligence was plainly showing. He concluded, without firm evidence, that the concentration must be a feint or a deception. On August 26, 1941, Imperial General Headquarters in Tokyo issued Mainland Order No. 538, which authorized the Commander-in-Chief of the China Expeditionary Army to "temporarily conduct operations beyond the designated operational area in Central China during the summer and autumn." This order provided the formal imperial sanction for the Changsha offensive, lifting any remaining bureaucratic constraints on Anami's operational plan. It represented the final piece of institutional authorization, completing a chain that stretched from Anami's June 24 approval of the operational outline through Hata's advocacy at the China Expeditionary Army level to the formal imprimatur of the Imperial General Headquarters. With Mainland Order No. 538 in hand, the Eleventh Army's final preparations could proceed without ambiguity. The original planned launch date of September 15 would in practice be moved forward, with combat beginning on September 7 — itself a date chosen partly to maximize the advantage of late-summer weather conditions in the Hunan river-crossing terrain. By the time Anami's forces were assembled, the operational force was formidable. Estimating that the enemy facing them comprised fifteen divisions from the Chinese 4th, 37th, 99th, 74th, and 26th Corps, Japanese planners calculated — somewhat optimistically — that two infantry battalions would suffice to handle one enemy division. To provide a margin for error and to ensure decisive striking power, the Eleventh Army committed forty-one infantry battalions distributed across four full divisions and three specialized task forces, supported by twenty-nine artillery battalions. This represented a massive concentration of firepower and manpower along a relatively narrow axis of advance, precisely as Anami had intended. The objective was clearly stated: "to deal a major blow to the Ninth Military Front in order to thwart the enemy's plan for resistance." Japanese senior leadership reiterated at every briefing that the mission was emphatically not territorial — the army was not to occupy Changsha or secure it for long-term administration, and it was not to forage for supplies. The goal was destruction of Chinese combat power. On the Chinese side, the Ninth Military Front had not been idle. Since the Battle of Shanggao in March 1941 — a significant Chinese defensive victory in Jiangxi that had inflicted heavy casualties on Japanese forces attempting to advance into the province — the Ninth Military Front had ordered its troops to cooperate with guerrilla units operating in the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi border region, conducting harassment operations against Japanese logistics and communications. This cooperation served both to maintain offensive pressure and to train the irregular forces that would prove invaluable in a war of attrition. By August 1941, Xue Yue had assembled a force of thirty-five divisions organized into thirteen armies across three army groups, totaling 378,307 troops. The headquarters of the Ninth Military Front remained in Changsha. Xue had also assessed his forces' combat readiness with some confidence: in the summer of 1940, the Ninth War Zone had dispatched one corps from each army group and one division from each corps on summer offensive operations against Japanese positions, explicitly testing their readiness in real combat. Although no major victories had been achieved in those operations, the exercise confirmed that troop morale was high and that combat effectiveness had recovered to the level of the First Battle of Changsha. If anything, Xue thought, after another full year of training, they should be better. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. Operation Plus, emphasized concentrating forces and creating a decisive breakthrough rather than dispersing attacks across multiple fronts like in earlier battles. On the Chinese side, commander Xue Yue developed a "lure and annihilate" strategy, expecting the Japanese to fight like before; however, Anami's concentrated approach undermined these assumptions, making a Chinese counteroffensive far harder to execute.

In this sermon on Psalm 46, Roman explores how God is our ultimate refuge in a chaotic world. While fear and loneliness often drive us to seek safety in our own strength, the Gospel reminds us that through Jesus, we are never alone or helpless. Because the Lord of Heaven's Armies is with us, we can stop our striving and find true rest in His power and protection.Talk It Over:1. Roman used the metaphor of Dunkirk to describe feeling "unsafe." What are the specific "wars" or "mountains falling into the sea" in your life right now that make you feel vulnerable or overwhelmed?2. We often feel unsafe because we believe we are alone, helpless, or unprotected. Which of these three lies do you struggle with most, and how does it manifest in your daily anxiety?3. Psalm 46:1 calls God a "very present help in trouble." How does the reality of Jesus being *with* you—made possible through the Gospel—change the way you view your current circumstances?4.  What "weapons" (control, perfectionism, overworking, etc.) are you currently using to try and create your own safety? What would it look like to "be still" and lay those weapons down this week?5. Roman reminded us that because of Christ's victory, we have already won. How does knowing the "end of the story" help you find peace in the middle of your current "battle"?+ + + + +Hey, while you're here, please help Generation by clicking the 'Subscribe' button, then click on the BELL

Big Idea: The pool looks perfect to a restless frog. I. Temptation is vicious, yet God's grace is always victorious.1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has come upon you except what is common to humanity. But God is faithful; he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to bear it.II. The struggle starts in a restless heart.Galatians 5:16-17 I say, then, walk by the Spirit and you will certainly not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don't do what you want.III. Run to Jesus with your weakness.2 Corinthians 12:9-10But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may reside in me. So I take pleasure in weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and in difficulties, for the sake of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.IV.    You are never abandoned.Zechariah 4:6 So he answered me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by strength or by might, but by my Spirit,' says the Lord of Armies.Next Steps: Believe: I need Jesus to heal my broken heart today.Become: I will rely on Jesus for power over my struggles this week.Be Sent: I will share about my struggles with someone this week.Discussion Questions: How easy is it for you to share your struggles with others?What does it look like to embrace your weaknesses so that Jesus can give you his strength?When is the last time you felt helpless against temptation?Do you doubt your faith when you feel overwhelmed by temptation?Did you make some decisions based on “might” and “power” this week?Who do you know who needs Jesus to free them from sin?Pray for them by name this week.

Today, the topic is a tier list of the most toxic armies of all time! We kick off going through some of the top meta lists of the current edition of MESBG. After that, we compare them with some of the top armies of the past few editions to see how they stack up!Time Stamps:00:00 Introduction 02:37 Men of the West05:12 Depths of Moria07:40 Army of the White Hand09:00 The Eagles10:25 Garrison of Dale13:12 Ugluk's Scouts15:27 Kingdom of Khazad-Dum17:46 The Shire18:40 Moria Dragon Build21:27 Riders of Theoden25:53 Assault on Lothlorien28:19 Assault Upon Helm's Deep31:16 Host of the Dragon Emperor34:55 Battle of the Five Armies37:08 Army of Lake-town40:49 Goblin-town44:13 Rangers of Ithilien47:11 Witch-King + Suladan Alliance48:41 Nature's Wrath Spam50:02 Army of Arnor53:46 Vanquishers of the Necromancer 55:32 The Black Riders57:17 Angmar01:00:59 Galadriel + Gwaihir Alliance01:04:42 Watcher in the Water Lists01:09:29 The Iron Hills01:12:24 All-Fellbeast Build01:14:48 Alfrid + Legolas Combo01:16:28 Shade + Reaver Combo01:20:02 Final ThoughtsLinks: Baron of Dice Affiliate: https://baronofdice.com/?ref=intothewestpodcast Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/IntotheWest Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ITWpod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/intothewestpodcast/ Credits: Music: Music from Youtube Audio library Tavern Loop One by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com) Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Music: Bay Bridge Musician: mr. hong (from Audiio) Music: Redline Musician: EnjoyMusic Site: https://enjoymusic.ai

Jonny and Phil unpack Warlord's new Armies of the Commonwealth book, a standalone V3 supplement covering Australia, Canada, East Africa Command, India, New Zealand and South Africa. They explain how each nation's special rules and unique units work, and how the generic Commonwealth roster ties it all together. Highlights include Australian infiltrators and fanatical defenders, Canadian stubbornness and vehicle upgrades, East Africa's local-area tactics and camel riders, India's Gurkha and mountain options, New Zealand's steadfast infantry and Maoris, plus South Africa's vehicle bonuses. The hosts discuss playstyles, modeling tips and tournament implications in a breezy, tactical overview. Want to support the channel? Why not use one of our affiliate links: Warlord Games: https://r.warlordgames.com/aff/?TABLETOPTOMMIES Firestorm Games: https://www.firestormgames.co.uk/wargames-miniatures/bolt-action?aff=64a025ee621f1 Wayland Games: https://affiliates.waylandgames.co.uk/1240.html Warlord Games: https://r.warlordgames.com/aff/?TABLETOPTOMMIES   You can also support our endeavour to produce Bolt Action content on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TabletopTommies Or you can support these two mugs by buying a fancy mug: https://tabletoptommies.co.uk/collection/new/

In the final episode of this Cities of Sigmar series, Jack, Rocco, and Matt dive deep into the most important parts of the new Cities of Sigmar Battletome in Warhammer Age of Sigmar—the core warscrolls, Armies of Renown, and Regiments of Renown that define how the army is actually built and played. This episode focuses on the “meat and potatoes” units you'll see in most Cities lists, how those warscrolls function within the army rules, and how alternative builds like Armies of Renown and Regiments of Renown change list construction, synergies, and overall playstyle. In this episode, they break down: The most important Cities of Sigmar warscrolls and why they matter Which units act as core anchors versus support pieces How Armies of Renown reshape Cities of Sigmar lists When Regiments of Renown are worth taking and when they aren't Competitive vs casual use cases for different Cities builds What opponents should expect when facing Cities of Sigmar This finale ties together everything from the earlier episodes—army rules, synergies, and list concepts—into practical, table-ready advice for players looking to build, refine, or counter Cities of Sigmar armies. Whether you're preparing for tournaments, testing new lists, or learning the faction for the first time, this episode provides a clear, high-level guide to the most impactful parts of the new Cities of Sigmar book. Support the show:

We are back with the massive second part of our deep dive of the upcoming Armies Of The British Commonwealth for Bolt Action. We not only discuss the national rules, we also dig into how the unique unit selection for each army list interacts with those rules to give you a more complete feel for how these armies will play on the tabletop and, yes, that means that we are working from the unreleased book. Spoilers abound! Please join us.

The battles that threaten our faith rarely begin as giants—they often start as small compromises, unchecked habits, or areas of weakness that grow over time. Through David's encounter with Goliath, we were reminded that victory comes when we lift our eyes beyond the problem and fix them on Jehovah Sabaoth, the Lord of Heaven's Armies, who fights for His people. Worship helps us see God rightly, putting our struggles in perspective and reminding us that Jesus, the greater David, has already defeated the ultimate giant of sin on our behalf.

Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales; he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust. — Isaiah 40:15 Here the prophet Isaiah portrays God's superiority over all the nations of the earth. The world's great economic and military powers are no match for God. Empires rise and fall, but God remains the Sovereign Lord over all. Armies develop weapons and conquer other powers, but then other, stronger armies rise—and fall. In the meantime God remains on the throne of the universe. In poetic language, Isaiah says that all these nations, with all their power, are to God “like a drop in a bucket” or like dust on a set of scales. And islands, with their charm and beauty, are only like fine dust that can blow away in a breeze.God is incomparable in his power. He is unique in his wisdom. He is indisputable in his governing. He is infinitely greater than everything he has created. Nothing compares to God. No one can equal him. In today's world we have more than 200 nations. Even all of them together cannot compare with God. God is greater than the universe. He is infinitely greater than anything that exists.Despite his greatness, the Lord is the personal God who cares about each one of us. He knows your name. He loves you with an everlasting love and draws you to himself. He has never given up on loving you, and he wants you to have full life with him forever. Sovereign Lord, humble our hearts before you. Though you rule the universe, you know and love each one of us. Draw us close, and keep us in your never-ending care. Amen.

On this episode, we cover 5 of the most toxic armies that we've seen in this edition so far. This is also a prequel to the next episode where we will go into the most toxic armies of all time!Time Stamps: 00:00 Intro01:16 The Eagles03:20 Moria (Dragons)05:55 Depths of Moria 07:44 The Shire10:38 Army of the White Hand15:12 Outro Links: Baron of Dice Affiliate: https://baronofdice.com/?ref=intothewestpodcastPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/IntotheWest Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ITWpod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/intothewestpodcast/ Credits: Music: Music from Youtube Audio library Tavern Loop One by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com) Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Music: Bay Bridge Musician: mr. hong (from Audiio) Music: Redline Musician: EnjoyMusic Site: https://enjoymusic.ai

Alright, my armored up sister – we have a battle all around us – what are we going to do about it? Well, here's what we're NOT called to do – we're not called to run head first into battles with the enemy.  We're not told to sneak into enemy territory and plan an attack.  We're told to put on our armor and STAND FIRM.  Do not waver.  Do not back down.  Don't give an inch of territory.  Don't settle.  STAND FIRM. Our job is to stand with our armor, eyes fixed on Jesus.  Hey Rambo, settle down!  Lone Ranger, you're not supposed to do this alone.  God has a resounding message for us throughout scripture: Exodus 14:14 – “The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.” Deuteronomy 1:30 – “The LORD your God… will fight for you.” Deuteronomy 3:22 – “The LORD your God himself will fight for you.” Deuteronomy 20:4 – “For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies.” Joshua 23:10 – “The LORD your God fights for you.” 2 Chronicles 20:15 – “The battle is not yours, but God’s.” Nehemiah 4:20 – “Our God will fight for us.” God is fighting – you are to be standing firm.  If you're in the middle of a battle, you keep standing and trust God to fight for you as he promises.  But make sure you have all your armor on! Let me tell you what is NOT part of God's armor: • Worrying • Whining • Wallowing Paul tells us there's one final thing we must do in the spiritual battle in the unseen … After all this armor, we MUST STAY IN COMMUNICATION WITH OUR COMMANDER.  All the armor in the world will do you no good if you're out Rambo-ing alone.  God isn't looking for a Lone Ranger. Ephesians 6:18, “Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion.  Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.” Oh if we truly had any idea of the power of our prayers, we would never fail to pray about anything ever again.  We just don't see how our prayers move Heaven.  We don't see how our prayers allocate God's divine power.  We don't see how an army of angels are dispatched for the battle with our prayers. Prayer is your communication with your commander.  The one who holds the battle plan, the one who sees every detail, the one who promises the victory – you have a direct line of communication with Him!  And yet here we are, God's girls with divine armor, trying to fight our battles without talking to God first. Remember when Paul writes the book of Ephesians and tells us about this Armor of God in chapter 6, he's likely chained to a literal Roman soldier, keeping him in prison.  He's looking at this soldier, recognizing piece by piece how his armor relates to everything God has given us for the battle we’re against Satan and his demons.  And he's witnessing this soldier receiving orders from his commander.  The soldier is there doing what he's been told to do.  He's not alone, he's on assignment. He's seeking his commander for his next move.  He's on the orders of a higher power than himself. Girl, you're on the orders of a higher power than yourself.  You can't afford to be running off into battles, trying things your own way, hoping to fix and save everyone, without constant communication with your Commander.  PRAY IN THE SPIRIT AT ALL TIMES AND ON EVERY OCCASION. The Greek word translated “Pray in”  means “in connection to” and “with the help of”.  This isn't about the words we are saying.  This is about HOW we are praying.  This is a connection with God through the Holy Spirit to receive divine orders. Now we can make this complicated and messy and really awkward if we want, but it doesn't have to be that way.  Some say this means you have to be speaking in tongues, but scripture tells me that praying in a language you cannot personally understand is a GIFT.  Some have that spiritual gift, while others have different spiritual gifts.  Praying in an unknown language is not a badge of spiritual superiority.  Don't make this weird.  Don't make what God has given as a gift to some as a reason to be divided or turned away. Praying in the spirit is a heart posture.  It is a yearning for God's will above your own.  It is a surrender, a submission.  It is a connection void of boxes to check and vain words to repeat.  This isn't habit or custom.  Praying in the Spirit is a connection with God through conversation. If I'm praying for you in the Spirit, it means more than just speaking your name in prayer.  It means I'm allowing the Holy Spirit to direct my prayer.  When the Holy Spirit is directing, you begin praying over things you may not even know about.  Chains to be broken that you don't even see.  Healing to happen from within.  This is an unrushed, unscripted prayer directed by the Spirit.  THAT IS WHAT WE ARE CALLED TO. Praying in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion is a continual connection with your commander.  It's seeking his plan and receiving his plan. “Pray in the Spirit”: This means praying under the influence, guidance, and power of the Holy Spirit. It involves aligning your desires with God’s will rather than just listing personal wants. “At all times”: This calls for a constant posture of awareness and communication with God. It means maintaining an open, internal dialogue with God throughout the day, not just during formal prayer times. “On every occasion”: This tells us to bring everything—both joys and crises, routine tasks and major decisions—to God. No event is too small or too large for prayer. A few weeks ago, I found myself on my knees with a woman on the busy walkways in Venice.  This was a hurting soul.  Aching as thousands of people walked by her day after day.  There she lay on her face continually in prayer, begging God for the healing of her 12 year old daughter and the rescuing of her family.  My BIG Life sister Jessica and I wrapped our arms around her, cried with her and connected with our Commander.  We prayed for her in the Spirit, meaning, we let the Holy Spirit guide us in what to pray because we didn't know how to fix her situation. Now keep in mind, there was a massive language barrier.  Yet somehow (and I know how) we were able to understand her and she was able to understand us.  Jessica prayed aloud in English, not knowing what to pray, but allowing the Spirit to guide her.  The words flowed.  Words she couldn't have orchestrated on her own.  Requests she didn't even know to make. We returned to find her the next morning in the same place, kneeling, on her face, literally begging God.  And that day, we sat with her and shared a picnic breakfast.  We treated her like a friend.  We laughed.  We connected.  We shared.  We loved.  It didn't matter who saw us.  It didn't matter what a single other soul thought.  And then we once again sought our Commander in this battle.  We prayed as the Spirit instructed. Every day since I've been on my knees for Maria and her family.  I don't need to be a Lone Ranger out fixing her situation.  My money isn't needed.  I have a direct line of communication with the Commander of Heaven's Armies, and I'm calling on him for his will, his move, his power, his healing. No Lone Ranger.  No Rambo.  Just a girl in communication with the Commander through the Holy Spirit.  And as he prompts me to pray for her, I do.  Not to check a box.  Not out of habit or routine.  But out of relationship with the One who can truly battle for her. Ephesians 6:18 in the Amplified Bible says, “With all prayer and petition pray [with specific requests] at all times [on every occasion and in every season] in the Spirit, and with this in view, stay alert with all perseverance and petition [interceding in prayer] for all God's people.” The Message translation says, “Prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other’s spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out.” This prayer is a continuous, divinely guided LIFESTYLE rather than an occasional activity.  God really isn't interested in what you do once in a while or even what you do out of routine, he's interested in true relationship and connection with YOU!  Isn't it wild to think the Creator of the entire Universe desires a real relationship with you, and the way you have it is through continual conversation with him?! Prayer is the ultimate weapon that activates all the other pieces of spiritual armor.  Without communication with our Commander, we're just girls with all the armor, running in the wrong direction, fighting battles we have no business fighting. Let's shift from routine to lifestyle.  Move from treating prayer as a morning or evening chore to practicing it as an ongoing conversation. Let's rely on spiritual guidance.  When you don't know what to pray, pause and ask the Holy Spirit to guide your thoughts and words.  You don't have to make it weird. Let's cover all situation.  Bring your daily work, your stress, your relationships and your gratitude to God instantly as they happen. Talk to your Commander!  Don't be the Lone Ranger out trying to do this alone! Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamela Or Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crim Find out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com

The string of men who reign as king over the ten tribes of Israel continue to get worse and worse, each king being more corrupt than the last. King Ahab should be worshipping the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God who brought Israel out of Egypt, but instead he marries a Baal worshiper, turns to serve Ball himself, then builds a temple to Baal in Samaria. Elijah boldly confronts the king in the name of the Lord of Armies. God works wonders through Elijah, and by God's strength, Elijah performs miraculous signs. 1 Kings 16 - 1:09 .  1 Kings 17 - 8:14 .  1 Kings 18 - 12:43 .  Psalm 92 - 23:49 .  Psalm 93 - 25:38 .  :::Christian Standard Bible translation.All music written and produced by John Burgess Ross.Co-produced by Bobby Brown, Katelyn Pridgen, Eric Williamson & the Christian Standard Biblefacebook.com/commuterbibleinstagram.com/commuter_bibletwitter.com/CommuterPodpatreon.com/commuterbibleadmin@commuterbible.org

[Isaiah 9:6-7] For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. [7] His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity. The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven's Armies will make this happen! The Messiah would bring an era of peace that would ____________ ____________. [Luke 2:13-14] Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying, [14] “Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.” Peace (Shalom): completeness; tranquility; rest; peace with ____________. [Mark 4:38-40 ESV] But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” [39] And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. [40] He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” Jesus gives peace ______________ the storm, not just peace ______________ the storm. True peace is only available through ______________. [Isaiah 53:5 GWT] He was wounded for our rebellious acts. He was crushed for our sins. He was punished so that we could have peace, and we received healing from his wounds. [John 14:27 NIV] Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid The opposite of peace is not _________, it's ____________. [Romans 5:1] Therefore, since we have been made right in God's sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Jesus brings peace ________ God and the peace _____ God. [Philippians 4:6-7] Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. [7] Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

On this episode, Cory joins Dion, Jon, and Irv to discuss the next round of action heroes (with no superpowers) and focus on one-man armies and vigilantes. When it comes to the ultimate cinematic tough guy, who is your absolute favorite: the suit-clad, legendary John Wick, the calm and calculating Robert McCall, the primal, one-man-army John Rambo, the reluctant, everyday-guy John McClane, the wild, unpredictable Martin Riggs, or Tom Cruise's hard-hitting, nomadic Jack Reacher?

Join us as we discuss theming armies, Skye's trip to Warlord Games and Warhammer World, Eric gets salty about Blackshields, Brian flakes and turns A Tale of 5 Warlords into A Tale of 4.5 Warlords, and Crazy Eddie's Crocodile Farm reigns supreme!   As always, visit Herrickgames.com to get 15% off and free shipping on orders over $100 every day!

In today's episode of The Quiz, we're testing your knowledge on everything from the foundations of modern technology to the ancient secrets of world history. Can you answer these? Luxury Timepieces: The world's first waterproof and dustproof case for a wristwatch was introduced by what famous luxury watch brand? Tech Terminology: When it comes to your cellular network, what does the "G" in 5G actually stand for? Ancient Empires: What legendary Chinese dynasty built the world-famous Terracotta Army? Play. Share. Listen, with Actress and host of the Comfort Food Podcast, Kelly Rizzo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Man who Fought For 3 DIFFERENT ARMIES in WWII, but did he exist? The Incredible Story of Yang Kyoungjong During World War II, there emerged a legend so improbable it reads like fiction: the story of a man who allegedly fought for three different armies across continents—and yet historians still can't confirm he ever lived. This is Yang Kyoungjong, and his tale challenges everything we think we know about WWII history. In this deep dive, we explore one of history's most controversial figures: a Korean soldier allegedly conscripted into the Japanese Imperial Army, captured by the Soviet Red Army, forced into the Nazi Wehrmacht, and finally captured by American forces on D-Day. It's a story of impossible coincidence, wartime chaos, and the power of historical mythology. But here's where it gets interesting: despite decades of claims and a famous photograph supposedly showing Yang among captured German POWs, historians remain deeply divided. Some respected authors like Antony Beevor cite his existence as fact—without providing sources. Meanwhile, historians like Martin K.A. Morgan argue Yang Kyoungjong is a person who "never existed because he certainly never left us any proof that he ever existed." A 2005 Korean documentary investigation concluded there was no convincing evidence of Yang's existence. The iconic photograph long attributed to him has never been verified, and the soldier's true identity remains a mystery. Some experts believe he may have been a Georgian, not Korean at all. So why does this story persist? Why do we believe in Yang Kyoungjong despite the lack of evidence? And what does his legend tell us about how history gets written, especially the histories of ordinary soldiers from marginalized nations? Join us as we separate fact from fiction, explore declassified documents, and uncover the truth behind one of WWII's most intriguing and elusive figures. Whether Yang existed or not, his story reveals something profound about the forgotten soldiers of World War II and how easily historical narratives can be created and spread. Perfect for history enthusiasts, WWII buffs, and anyone interested in how legends are born.   Don't forget I have a Youtube Membership: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbp8JMZizR4zak9wpM3Fvrw/join or my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pacificwarchannel where you can get exclusive content like "What if Japan invaded the USSR during WW2?"

Warlord Games has been doing a fantastic job of sharing the six sets of national rules for all SIX ARMY LISTS in the upcoming Armies Of The British Commonwealth book on their community webpage. We go deeper than this though by looking at the actual units in these lists and how they work with those new sensational national rules. Today we will explore the first three of these nations: The Australians, The Canadians and The East Africa Command.

In this episode of the Crazy Wisdom Podcast, host Stewart Alsop sits down with returning guest Ekue Kpodar for their third conversation together, covering a wide range of topics at the intersection of technology, geopolitics, and the evolving information age. They dig into Ekue's unconventional setup of running local AI models across roughly 15 computers, the growing case for open source models over closed ones from companies like OpenAI and Anthropic, and how Chinese open source models may be positioned to outcompete Western alternatives on a global scale. The conversation also touches on vibe coding and the democratization of software development, the strategic use of small models for IoT and enterprise applications, the role of Israel and China as dominant players in the information age, and how smaller nations and even individuals may wield outsized power as AI continues to collapse the cost of knowledge work. You can find Ekue Kpodar on X @ekpodar and LinkedIn.Timestamps00:00 Stewart welcomes Ekue for their third episode, diving into vibe coding and AI-driven development changes.05:00 Ekue explains using Claude on Chrome to auto-reply on Skool, burning tokens through screenshots, and Playwright as a more efficient alternative.10:00 Stewart describes his Claude-dependent planning and coding agent system breaking after a model update, prompting him to build his own chatbot.15:00 Small models discussed as critical for IoT, defense, and privacy-focused enterprises building internal APIs instead of routing traffic to OpenAI.20:00 Open source versus closed source debated, with Chinese models gaining global traction while US foundational labs remain expensive and restrictive.25:00 SaaS apocalypse explored as AI commoditizes knowledge work, with Linux and Terraform cited as proof open source still generates wealth.30:00 OpenAI's sci-fi terminator fears explained as the reason they stayed closed source, ultimately handing China a strategic open source advantage.35:00 China's economic dumping strategy applied to AI, potentially displacing US model dominance globally the same way manufacturing was disrupted.40:00 Israel's signals intelligence dominance discussed alongside asymmetric warfare, drones defeating tanks, and information control replacing military muscle.45:00 Global information age rankings debated, Israel leading, US and China tied, France and Poland emerging as sovereign tech players.50:00 Qatar, NVIDIA, and Iran cited as proof that rare resources and technology matter more than population size in the 21st century power landscape.Key Insights1. Running local AI models on a network of affordable computers can be more cost-effective than relying entirely on third-party APIs. By using compressed or smaller open source models locally, developers can handle repetitive or lower-stakes tasks without burning through expensive tokens from providers like Anthropic or OpenAI.2. Small AI models are becoming increasingly important for IoT, defense applications, and companies that do not want to send sensitive data to external providers. Organizations can download open source models, run them on internal servers, and build proprietary APIs around them, creating something like an intranet of specialized small models.3. The value created by AI tools is being redistributed away from traditional SaaS companies toward foundational model providers and individual builders. People are canceling subscriptions to software they once paid hundreds per month for, because AI now allows a single person to build comparable tools themselves.4. Open source technology does not eliminate the ability to profit. Linux and Terraform are both open source yet made their creators wealthy. People will still pay for installation, setup, troubleshooting, and customization even when the underlying software is free.5. China is applying its longstanding manufacturing dumping strategy to artificial intelligence by releasing cheap open source models globally, which threatens to erode US dominance in AI the same way Chinese manufacturing undercut other countries for decades.6. In the information age, the size of a country or institution matters far less than its access to rare resources or advanced technology. Qatar, Israel, and NVIDIA each demonstrate that small populations or headcounts can wield enormous global negotiating power through concentrated technological or resource advantages.7. Asymmetric warfare is redefining military power, with inexpensive drones defeating tanks that cost millions to build. This shifts the advantage toward nations that excel at signals intelligence and information management rather than those with the largest conventional military forces.

Today Pastor Lynn continues our series with the message, "Do You Win Battles?" We dive deep in Scripture to understand why God revealed Himself as "Jehovah Sabaoth," the Lord of Hosts or Armies, in different circumstances. The use of this name is key to understanding how the Lord battles on our behalf and how we are to respond to Him as the "Lord of Armies." The Lord demonstrated His power and presence to Israel through bringing victory in their battles; the Lord is still revealing Himself to His children as we experience battles in this life. Today you will learn about the way Jehovah Sabaoth, the Lord of Armies, fights our battles, and what He expects of us!

Be Still and Know 05/31/26 Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. — Matthew 11:28 NLT As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. — Ephesians 4:15–16 NLT To be anxious is to live with uneasiness of mind and restlessness of soul, carrying a brooding fear about some part of life—or about life in general. To form a non-anxious presence in us is to invite the Holy Spirit to deepen our trust in God's unfailing love and to teach us how to rest in His goodness, faithfulness, and strength. Don't worry about the wicked or envy those who do wrong. For like grass, they soon fade away. Like spring flowers, they soon wither. Trust in the Lord and do good. Then you will live safely in the land and prosper. Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart's desires. Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you. He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn, and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun. Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act. — Psalm 37:1–7a NLT Be still in the presence of the Lord… — Psalm 37:7a NLT …fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. — Philippians 4:8 NLT I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. — Psalm 119:15 ESV Be still, and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world. — Psalm 46:10 NLT The Lord of Heaven's Armies is here among us; the God of Israel is our fortress. — Psalm 46:11 NLT Be still and know that I am GOD Be still and know that I AM Be still and KNOW Be STILL BE During the meditation time show all this text on 1 slide, formatted the way it is below: Be still and know that I am GOD Be still and know that I AM Be still and KNOW Be STILL BE For the “connect with each other time” have this on 1 slide: Tell someone about… …a time someone planned a surprise for you and how you reacted. …one situation where you are most likely to procrastinate. …one way you measure contentment in your life. …one thing that makes it difficult for you to “be still before the Lord.” …the word or phrase that stood out to you as we reflected on “Be still and know that I am God.”

The David Alliance TDAgiantSlayer@Gmail.com Garth Heckman VERY FAMILIAR STORY -   *TIED TO MY NOTES TODAY   THE BUILD UP and DEMISE OF ISRAEL    THE PEOPLE WANTED A MAN OVER GOD (They wanted a King)… Here is an old quote: when more than one votes… you can assure its the wrong decision. It wasn't a King that was truly the problem -  BUT RATHER following a man, that was the problem. It was the peoples desire to follow a King over a prophet who followed God.      ***No one voted a prophet in.         ****People choose a King, God chooses a prophet.    Saul offers false sacrifices Saul chooses to disobey Gods orders to wipe out the Amakalites  Saul becomes erratic and tormented by demonic spirits  Saul now operates out of fear  *Israel and the army now saw their enemies the way their leader did - IN FEAR.   The battle of David and Goliath was never really about David and Goliath. It was the culmination of Israel's spiritual decline under Saul, and the first visible sign that God had already been at work preparing a different kind of leader — one after His own heart.       1 Samuel 17 41 Goliath walked out toward David with his shield bearer ahead of him, 42 sneering in contempt at this ruddy-faced boy. 43 “Am I a dog,” he roared at David, “that you come at me with a stick?” And he cursed David by the names of his gods. 44 “Come over here, and I'll give your flesh to the birds and wild animals!” Goliath yelled. 45 David replied to the Philistine, “You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven's Armies—the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 Today the Lord will conquer you, and I will kill you and cut off your head. And then I will give the dead bodies of your men to the birds and wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel! 47 And everyone assembled here will know that the Lord rescues his people, but not with sword and spear. This is the Lord's battle, and he will give you to us!”     David's arrival on the battlefield was jarring precisely because of the contrast. He was young, unarmored, and inexperienced — but he carried something the entire army had lost: a reference point for who God was.         David doesn't call out the enemy, he calls out his tactics… His weapons of choice.  WHY?      In 1 Samuel 17:45, David identifies a three-fold physical threat.  In John 10:10, Jesus identifies a three-fold spiritual threat. They map onto each other in a way that shows how the enemy operates:   | Goliath's Arsenal (1 Samuel 17:45) | The Thief's Mission (John 10:10) | The Spiritual Parallel    -  The Sword.  |  To Steal   | Goliath relied on his sword to strip Israel of their land, their freedom, and their identity. The enemy wants to rob you of your peace and purpose.    The Spear.  |   To Kill | A spear is designed for a direct, fatal strike. Goliath's   Literal goal was to end David's life; the thief's goal is total spiritual death.   The Javelin   |   To Destroy   |  A javelin is thrown from a distance, bringing unexpected, widespread ruin. The enemy aims for complete devastation of your life and relationships.    The Core Contrast: Flesh vs. Spirit The real tie-in between these two passages is the **source of victory** that both David and Jesus point to. Both stories set up a stark contrast between reliance on worldly power and reliance on divine power.    * **David's Answer:** Right after naming Goliath's weapons, David says, *"But I come to you in the name of the Lord of Hosts."* He acknowledges the physical threat but completely bypasses it by relying on God's authority.    * **Jesus' Answer:** Right after naming the thief's three-fold threat, Jesus says, *"I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly."*     Bears and Lions can't call you out. They can't mock you, cast verbal jabs and doubt at you.      Historical Context His defiance of Israel's armies was also a taunt against their God. Your problems, issues, fears, is a taunt against God!   Goliath's relys on human technology, political position and physical power.   David invokes God's character and power, not his own resources. This echoes the idea that God's name represents His active intervention (similar to Exodus 3 or the Psalms).     It wasn't the weapon David had it was the Worship.  Slingers were common;   -  Tribe of Benjamin 700 warriors ambidextrous        -    Sling a stone up to 95 MPH              -   At over 200 yards…  They were so confident they would inscribe words on their stones… MINE WOULD BE “ROCK ON”      David contrasts Goliath's weapons with the invisible but superior heavenly host. This title appears frequently in prophetic books but here underscores early recognition of God's military sovereignty. "Whom you have defied [cheraf-ta]": The verb charaf means to reproach, taunt, or blaspheme. Goliath's challenge is personal against Israel's God, making this a theological battle, not just military. YOUR PROBLEMS ARE A THEOLOGICAL PROBLEM…  i.e. Your problems are a “who is your God Problem”       Do you know who my father is?   - a. No   - b. Yes and I don't care   - c. Yes and I will leave you alone BUT WHAT IF THE QUESTION WAS THIS IN THAT SITUATION… “I wonder who my father is?”     Jehovah Jireh (יְהוָה יִרְאֶה) "The LORD will provide" — revealed when God provided a ram as Abraham was about to sacrifice Isaac. Genesis 22:14. Jehovah Rapha (יְהוָה רָפָא) "The LORD who heals" — revealed after God sweetened the bitter waters of Marah for Israel in the wilderness. Exodus 15:26. Covers physical, emotional, and spiritual healing. Jehovah Nissi (יְהוָה נִסִּי) "The LORD is my banner" — declared by Moses after Israel's victory over the Amalekites. A banner was a military standard — the rallying point in battle. Exodus 17:15. God Himself is the flag Israel fights under. Jehovah Shalom (יְהוָה שָׁלוֹם) "The LORD is peace" — spoken by Gideon after encountering the angel of the Lord and fearing he would die. Shalom is not just the absence of conflict but wholeness, completeness, and flourishing. Judges 6:24. Jehovah Rohi (יְהוָה רֹעִי) "The LORD is my shepherd" — the opening of Psalm 23. One of the most intimate names — depicting God as the one who leads, feeds, protects, and restores. Jehovah Tsidkenu (יְהוָה צִדְקֵנוּ) "The LORD our righteousness" — a prophetic name pointing to the coming Messiah who would be the righteousness of His people. Jeremiah 23:6. Deeply connected to the New Testament doctrine of justification. Jehovah Shammah (יְהוָה שָׁמָּה) "The LORD is there" — the name given to the restored Jerusalem in Ezekiel's vision. Ezekiel 48:35. God's presence dwelling permanently with His people — echoed in Revelation 21 with the New Jerusalem. Jehovah Sabaoth (יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת) "The LORD of Hosts" or "The LORD of Armies" — one of the most frequently used names in the prophets. It pictures God as the commander of vast heavenly armies. Used powerfully in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Malachi. Jehovah Mekoddishkem (יְהוָה מְקַדִּשְׁכֶם) "The LORD who sanctifies you" — Exodus 31:13. God as the one who sets His people apart and makes them holy. Sanctification as His work, not ours alone. Jehovah Gmolah (יְהוָה גְּמֻלּוֹת) "The LORD of recompense" or "The God of vengeance" — Jeremiah 51:56. God as the one who repays — both in justice against enemies and in vindication of His people.   The Compound El Names El Shaddai (אֵל שַׁדַּי) "God Almighty" or literally "God of the mountains" or "the all-sufficient one." First used with Abraham in Genesis 17:1 when God renewed His covenant. It speaks of God's absolute sufficiency — He is enough for every need. El Elyon (אֵל עֶלְיוֹן) "God Most High" — used by Melchizedek blessing Abraham in Genesis 14. It emphasizes God's supremacy above all other powers, rulers, and so-called gods. El Olam (אֵל עוֹלָם) "The Everlasting God" or "God of eternity" — Genesis 21:33. He has no beginning and no end. Time exists within Him, not the other way around. El Roi (אֵל רֳאִי) "The God who sees me" — spoken by Hagar in the wilderness after she fled from Sarah. Genesis 16:13. One of the most tender names — God seeing the forgotten, the marginalized, the one who thinks they are invisible. El Gibhor (אֵל גִּבּוֹר) "Mighty God" — Isaiah 9:6, in the famous messianic prophecy. One of the titles given to the coming Messiah — pointing directly to Christ. El Hannun (אֵל חַנּוּן) "The gracious God" — Nehemiah 9:31. God whose grace prevents Him from completely destroying even a rebellious people.   New Testament  Abba (אַבָּא) "Father" — an Aramaic term of deep intimacy, closer to "Daddy" than formal address. Jesus used it in Gethsemane. Paul says believers are given the Spirit of adoption by which they cry "Abba, Father." Romans 8:15. Emmanuel (עִמָּנוּאֵל) "God with us" — Isaiah 7:14, fulfilled in Matthew 1:23 with the birth of Jesus. Perhaps the most staggering name of all — the eternal God choosing to be with humanity in flesh.     Why This Matters Each name was not invented by theologians — it was revealed in a moment.  God didn't introduce Himself as Jehovah Rapha in a lecture. He revealed it when Israel was thirsty and the water was bitter. He revealed Jehovah Jireh when a father was about to lose his son on an altar. The pattern is consistent throughout Scripture: Every name of God was born out of a human crisis that God personally entered. That means the names are not just theological categories — they are a record of God showing up. And for anyone studying or teaching these names, the invitation is not just to know them but to discover which name corresponds to the specific place of need you are standing in right now.       Lets end on this:  1 Sam. 17:40 40 He picked up five smooth stones from a stream and put them into his shepherd's bag. Then, armed only with his shepherd's staff and sling, he started across the valley to fight the Philistine. WHY FIVE STONES? Because Goliath had 4 brothers!  Ishbi-Benob, Saph, Lahmi AND SIX FINGER FRANK     …THERE WILL ALWAYS BE GIANTS… But who is your God? He is the one who crushed satans head and gives us the victory!    CALL ON HIS NAME AND HE SHALL ANSWER. 

The David Alliance TDAgiantSlayer@Gmail.com Garth Heckman    Bears and Lions can't call you out. They can't mock you, cast verbal jabs and doubt at you.      Historical Context His defiance of Israel's armies was also a taunt against their God. Your problems, issues, fears, is a taunt against God!   Goliath's relys on human technology, political position and physical power.   David invokes God's character and power, not his own resources. This echoes the idea that God's name represents His active intervention (similar to Exodus 3 or the Psalms).     It wasn't the weapon David had it was the Worship.  Slingers were common;   -  Tribe of Benjamin 700 warriors ambidextrous        -    Sling a stone up to 95 MPH              -   At over 200 yards…  They were so confident they would inscribe words on their stones… MINE WOULD BE “ROCK ON”      David contrasts Goliath's weapons with the invisible but superior heavenly host. This title appears frequently in prophetic books but here underscores early recognition of God's military sovereignty. "Whom you have defied [cheraf-ta]": The verb charaf means to reproach, taunt, or blaspheme. Goliath's challenge is personal against Israel's God, making this a theological battle, not just military. YOUR PROBLEMS ARE A THEOLOGICAL PROBLEM…  i.e. Your problems are a “who is your God Problem”       Do you know who my father is?   - a. No   - b. Yes and I don't care   - c. Yes and I will leave you alone BUT WHAT IF THE QUESTION WAS THIS IN THAT SITUATION… “I wonder who my father is?”     Jehovah Jireh (יְהוָה יִרְאֶה) "The LORD will provide" — revealed when God provided a ram as Abraham was about to sacrifice Isaac. Genesis 22:14. Jehovah Rapha (יְהוָה רָפָא) "The LORD who heals" — revealed after God sweetened the bitter waters of Marah for Israel in the wilderness. Exodus 15:26. Covers physical, emotional, and spiritual healing. Jehovah Nissi (יְהוָה נִסִּי) "The LORD is my banner" — declared by Moses after Israel's victory over the Amalekites. A banner was a military standard — the rallying point in battle. Exodus 17:15. God Himself is the flag Israel fights under. Jehovah Shalom (יְהוָה שָׁלוֹם) "The LORD is peace" — spoken by Gideon after encountering the angel of the Lord and fearing he would die. Shalom is not just the absence of conflict but wholeness, completeness, and flourishing. Judges 6:24. Jehovah Rohi (יְהוָה רֹעִי) "The LORD is my shepherd" — the opening of Psalm 23. One of the most intimate names — depicting God as the one who leads, feeds, protects, and restores. Jehovah Tsidkenu (יְהוָה צִדְקֵנוּ) "The LORD our righteousness" — a prophetic name pointing to the coming Messiah who would be the righteousness of His people. Jeremiah 23:6. Deeply connected to the New Testament doctrine of justification. Jehovah Shammah (יְהוָה שָׁמָּה) "The LORD is there" — the name given to the restored Jerusalem in Ezekiel's vision. Ezekiel 48:35. God's presence dwelling permanently with His people — echoed in Revelation 21 with the New Jerusalem. Jehovah Sabaoth (יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת) "The LORD of Hosts" or "The LORD of Armies" — one of the most frequently used names in the prophets. It pictures God as the commander of vast heavenly armies. Used powerfully in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Malachi. Jehovah Mekoddishkem (יְהוָה מְקַדִּשְׁכֶם) "The LORD who sanctifies you" — Exodus 31:13. God as the one who sets His people apart and makes them holy. Sanctification as His work, not ours alone. Jehovah Gmolah (יְהוָה גְּמֻלּוֹת) "The LORD of recompense" or "The God of vengeance" — Jeremiah 51:56. God as the one who repays — both in justice against enemies and in vindication of His people.   The Compound El Names El Shaddai (אֵל שַׁדַּי) "God Almighty" or literally "God of the mountains" or "the all-sufficient one." First used with Abraham in Genesis 17:1 when God renewed His covenant. It speaks of God's absolute sufficiency — He is enough for every need. El Elyon (אֵל עֶלְיוֹן) "God Most High" — used by Melchizedek blessing Abraham in Genesis 14. It emphasizes God's supremacy above all other powers, rulers, and so-called gods. El Olam (אֵל עוֹלָם) "The Everlasting God" or "God of eternity" — Genesis 21:33. He has no beginning and no end. Time exists within Him, not the other way around. El Roi (אֵל רֳאִי) "The God who sees me" — spoken by Hagar in the wilderness after she fled from Sarah. Genesis 16:13. One of the most tender names — God seeing the forgotten, the marginalized, the one who thinks they are invisible. El Gibhor (אֵל גִּבּוֹר) "Mighty God" — Isaiah 9:6, in the famous messianic prophecy. One of the titles given to the coming Messiah — pointing directly to Christ. El Hannun (אֵל חַנּוּן) "The gracious God" — Nehemiah 9:31. God whose grace prevents Him from completely destroying even a rebellious people.   New Testament  Abba (אַבָּא) "Father" — an Aramaic term of deep intimacy, closer to "Daddy" than formal address. Jesus used it in Gethsemane. Paul says believers are given the Spirit of adoption by which they cry "Abba, Father." Romans 8:15. Emmanuel (עִמָּנוּאֵל) "God with us" — Isaiah 7:14, fulfilled in Matthew 1:23 with the birth of Jesus. Perhaps the most staggering name of all — the eternal God choosing to be with humanity in flesh.     Why This Matters Each name was not invented by theologians — it was revealed in a moment.  God didn't introduce Himself as Jehovah Rapha in a lecture. He revealed it when Israel was thirsty and the water was bitter. He revealed Jehovah Jireh when a father was about to lose his son on an altar. The pattern is consistent throughout Scripture: Every name of God was born out of a human crisis that God personally entered. That means the names are not just theological categories — they are a record of God showing up. And for anyone studying or teaching these names, the invitation is not just to know them but to discover which name corresponds to the specific place of need you are standing in right now.

Trent Kusters chats with Edmund McMillen and Tyler Glaiel, creators of the hit cat-army tactical roguelite, Mewgenics. Together they discuss their history creating games during the boom of the flash and Xbox Live era including titles such as Aether, The Binding of Isaac, and The End is Nigh; writing from personal experiences; lessons learned from self-publishing; and the development of their newest collaboration in Mewgenics.  This episode is supported by Xsolla Episode Host: Trent Kusters Producers: Claudio Tapia and Josh Chu, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing and leaving us a rating and review. Support the show and get all of our episodes early/ad-free: https://bit.ly/4kU34Lt Follow us: linktr.ee/AIAS Please consider supporting game dev students with: AIAS Foundation

TDAgiantslayer@Gmail.com The David Alliance  Garth Heckman The battle of David and Goliath was never really about David and Goliath. It was the culmination of Israel's spiritual decline under Saul, and the first visible sign that God had already been at work preparing a different kind of leader — one after His own heart.       1 Samuel 17 41 Goliath walked out toward David with his shield bearer ahead of him, 42 sneering in contempt at this ruddy-faced boy. 43 “Am I a dog,” he roared at David, “that you come at me with a stick?” And he cursed David by the names of his gods. 44 “Come over here, and I'll give your flesh to the birds and wild animals!” Goliath yelled. 45 David replied to the Philistine, “You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven's Armies—the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 Today the Lord will conquer you, and I will kill you and cut off your head. And then I will give the dead bodies of your men to the birds and wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel! 47 And everyone assembled here will know that the Lord rescues his people, but not with sword and spear. This is the Lord's battle, and he will give you to us!”     David's arrival on the battlefield was jarring precisely because of the contrast. He was young, unarmored, and inexperienced — but he carried something the entire army had lost: a reference point for who God was.         David doesn't call out the enemy, he calls out his tactics… His weapons of choice.  WHY?      In 1 Samuel 17:45, David identifies a three-fold physical threat.  In John 10:10, Jesus identifies a three-fold spiritual threat. They map onto each other in a way that shows how the enemy operates:   | Goliath's Arsenal (1 Samuel 17:45) | The Thief's Mission (John 10:10) | The Spiritual Parallel    -  The Sword.  |  To Steal   | Goliath relied on his sword to strip Israel of their land, their freedom, and their identity. The enemy wants to rob you of your peace and purpose.    The Spear.  |   To Kill | A spear is designed for a direct, fatal strike. Goliath's   Literal goal was to end David's life; the thief's goal is total spiritual death.   The Javelin   |   To Destroy   |  A javelin is thrown from a distance, bringing unexpected, widespread ruin. The enemy aims for complete devastation of your life and relationships.    The Core Contrast: Flesh vs. Spirit The real tie-in between these two passages is the **source of victory** that both David and Jesus point to. Both stories set up a stark contrast between reliance on worldly power and reliance on divine power.    * **David's Answer:** Right after naming Goliath's weapons, David says, *"But I come to you in the name of the Lord of Hosts."* He acknowledges the physical threat but completely bypasses it by relying on God's authority.    * **Jesus' Answer:** Right after naming the thief's three-fold threat, Jesus says, *"I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly."*

TDAgiantSlayer@Gmail.com  The David Alliance Garth Heckman VERY FAMILIAR STORY -   *TIED TO MY NOTES TODAY   THE BUILD UP and DEMISE OF ISRAEL    THE PEOPLE WANTED A MAN OVER GOD (They wanted a King)… Here is an old quote: when more than one votes… you can assure its the wrong decision. It wasn't a King that was truly the problem -  BUT RATHER following a man, that was the problem. It was the peoples desire to follow a King over a prophet who followed God.      ***No one voted a prophet in.         ****People choose a King, God chooses a prophet.    Saul offers false sacrifices Saul chooses to disobey Gods orders to wipe out the Amakalites  Saul becomes erratic and tormented by demonic spirits  Saul now operates out of fear  *Israel and the army now saw their enemies the way their leader did - IN FEAR.   The battle of David and Goliath was never really about David and Goliath. It was the culmination of Israel's spiritual decline under Saul, and the first visible sign that God had already been at work preparing a different kind of leader — one after His own heart.       1 Samuel 17 41 Goliath walked out toward David with his shield bearer ahead of him, 42 sneering in contempt at this ruddy-faced boy. 43 “Am I a dog,” he roared at David, “that you come at me with a stick?” And he cursed David by the names of his gods. 44 “Come over here, and I'll give your flesh to the birds and wild animals!” Goliath yelled. 45 David replied to the Philistine, “You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven's Armies—the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 Today the Lord will conquer you, and I will kill you and cut off your head. And then I will give the dead bodies of your men to the birds and wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel! 47 And everyone assembled here will know that the Lord rescues his people, but not with sword and spear. This is the Lord's battle, and he will give you to us!”

Prepare for the Man-Child Birth (1) (audio) David Eells, 5/17/26 Let me begin with this Word to be ready for this manifestation of the Man-Child birth and the work to follow. A Quick Change Anonymous 6/21/23 (David's notes in red) “There will be a quick change coming soon and more of My Son will be manifesting through you and those who choose ALL of Me. I am increasing and quickly, be ready each moment. LET GO OF EVERYTHING that is NOT Me. Let go of ALL doubt and unbelief. Let go of all carnal and worldly thinking. Everything you think you know and what you know is changing into Me. You will begin to not recognize yourself, but you will see Me in you (and our other Brethren). Completely in unity in Me you will soon be, closer and closer each moment, becoming one together fully in Christ. Time is now. Stop thinking and looking to the future (planning the future) or past but focus on each moment you are in now. I Am now. Time is now. My Son focused on this moment. His Mind was and is on all of you. Let go of all the distractions that stop you from bathing in My presence. Let go of all those little sins you think are hidden; I see all, and I want all evil out of you. No evil is in My Son, as there will be no evil in His Bride, now and for eternity. Time is ticking and passing more quickly than you think; things will start proceeding more rapidly. In an instance, I will be; don't look back. Let go of all your carnal desires, senses, and interests in this world. Face Me only. Look to Me. Think of Me. Communion with Me every moment. I Am in you and for you and everything is from Me. Look to Me and you will keep my peace, my joy and my pleasure that is beyond anything in the natural. I am coming sooner, get ready now. Don't miss out on the things I have for you. Each minute and second, I have a gift for you, and when you aren't in Me, you miss out on what I wanted to give you. Don't look away or to the enemy. Only Me. I Am coming and am already here; look and see”. (I sense that this is going to be coming and happening quicker than we expect.)   Enter Ye in By the Narrow Gate B. A. - 07/25/2011 (David's notes in red) I had just finished my morning prayers and was getting out of bed when I received a word from the Holy Spirit: “If you think the body scanners and pat-downs at the airports are bad, wait until you see the searches I will be doing with My body!” I sat back down on the bed as this took me by surprise. After a few minutes, I got up, dressed, and went down by the lake to meditate on this word. As I was sitting there, I got a vision: I was inside a huge megachurch filled with people. It looked like a football stadium. (In a larger sense, the stadium is the body of Christ. In a smaller sense, it is UBM.) I saw a man dressed as a shepherd who was speaking from a podium to the people. (This is a type of the “one shepherd,” Jesus, ministering in the man-child to the “one flock.”) I couldn't figure out why I was there. I felt like an ant inside this place, as it was so big. I was pondering why I was there when suddenly I saw a bright light coming down from the high ceiling. I watched as the light came down and went through the crowd. (The light is the Word that “came down out of heaven” to give us rebirth in the image of Jesus.) Suddenly, it stopped and hovered over someone down toward the front. At this time, two ushers came and escorted that individual from the building. This happened several more times. I was surprised that no one else seemed to notice what was going on. (Many don't understand the opportunity we have to humble ourselves to the Word and be like Him and love Him.) This bright beam of light seemed to be working its way from the front of the building toward the back, to where I was seated. (The geometric progression of the Word being passed on from person to person.) Then, just like the others, this beam of light came down and hovered over me and the two ushers came and escorted me out of the building. (This represents being born of the mother, as the bride was in Song of Solomon.) As I got outside, I saw the others who had gone out before me. They were all standing together in a group and were hugging each other. As I drew near to them, they came up and started hugging me and shouting, “We've been chosen! We've been chosen!” That was the end of the vision. (Mat.22:14) For many are called, but few chosen. (The Bride is being chosen before the tribulation because that is the seven-day Marriage Feast when the groom feasts with the bride over the bread/word and wine/nature of Jesus Christ.) Just as I was getting up to go back into the house, I received another word from the Holy Spirit: “Strive to enter in by the narrow gate.” (Luk.13:24) Strive to enter in by the narrow door: for many, I say unto you, shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able. (Mat.7:13) Enter ye in by the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many are they that enter in thereby. (14) For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leadeth unto life, and few are they that find it. I believe the Lord was giving me a warning. I believe the Lord is taking what is going on in the natural to prepare His body for the spiritual. Those body scanners and pat-downs at the airport are very revealing and humbling. I believe the Lord is warning us that that's nothing compared to the BODY (God's people) search He is going to do to His people. (Anything illegal, according to the Word, will not pass. Unforgiveness, lust, pride, rebellion, etc. won't fly.) I believe this message is for the first-fruits (Man-child and Bride). The Lord gave me more word this morning. The Lord told me He was searching HIS people and that He has been giving them a series of pop quizzes leading up to the final test for the first-fruits. If we can't pass the series of quizzes, we have no chance of passing the BIG TEST! These quizzes are to test the body to see where they stand spiritually. How will we as the body be able to function when situations get much tougher, as world events become more extreme? We are being sifted! (If one cannot prove to live in the love and nature of Jesus in the small tests, they could never conquer the big tests that are coming.) Also, I believe the Lord is telling the body to “GET REAL” with their hearts. Anyone holding on to any unforgiveness or unconfessed or hidden sin will not make the cut. Love each other from the heart, brothers and sisters. It is a HUGE blessing to be in the first-fruits. We are not to be concerned about our specific place within the body; it's the Lord's decision and His alone to place each and every one of us in the position He has chosen for us. We do not appoint ourselves to positions as many do.   Birthing the Man-child and Under Attack Warren Edwards - 09/21/2009 (David's notes in red) In a dream, I was with a woman who was about to give birth. We were alone in a birthing room. There was great commotion outside. When the woman was just about ready to give birth, two people who were outside the room burst in and said we were about to be overcome and that we would have to leave. (The beast threat against the church will be great at the time God births His Man-child in them and to lead them.) We were in another room just like the first room; the only difference was that now the woman who was to give birth looked more pregnant than before, and I was aware that the two men who were outside were there to protect us from the people trying to attack us. Just as the woman was ready again, they burst into the room and said again that we were about to be overcome and had to move, so we moved again. (The church will be running from the devil, instead of after the devil, before this leadership arrives.) We were in the same type of room again, with the same commotion outside. The woman was larger with child than ever and looked as though she would burst because she was so big. I became aware that I was not protecting the woman but was to protect the child she carried. The men burst into the room again and said again that we were about to be overcome and we had to move. They had weapons in their hands; one carried a fence post (which is for separating us from beasts-- symbolizing sanctification from the flesh) and the other a piece of steel tube (which is a vessel for the water of the Word to flow through). Sanctification is necessary for us to be a channel for the spoken Word, which is our sword of the Spirit. Some only know the word through the colored glasses their preachers give them. Know and experience the word through the Holy Spirit.) I noticed the weapons bore no marks of use, and I became angry. I asked the men why they had not used their weapons against the enemy. They argued the enemy was too strong and insisted that we leave before we were overcome. (Unsanctification, doubt and the lack of the knowledge of authority makes God's people cower before the enemy.) Very angry, I lifted my hands and spoke; the enemy was immediately quieted and fell. The men who were protecting the woman fell silent and had an expression of fear on their faces. They just moved out of the way; they were not hurt. The woman gave birth. The child and I were taken away in the spirit. End of dream. This is the story of the dragon beast in Rev,12, awaiting the birth of the Man-child, in order to devour it before it is caught up to the throne of authority. Care has been given to some to birth this Man-child, who are also to be members of it. (Rev.12:1) And a great sign was seen in heaven: a woman arrayed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars; 2 and she was with child; and she crieth out, travailing in birth, and in pain to be delivered. 3 And there was seen another sign in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his heads seven diadems. 4 And his tail draweth the third part of the stars of heaven (This falling away of the stars God said were Abraham's seed is the danger.), and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon standeth before the woman that is about to be delivered, that when she is delivered he may devour her child (And this is the other threat spoken of.). 5 And she was delivered of a son, a man child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and unto his throne. 6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that there they may nourish her a thousand two hundred and threescore days. I, David, had a dream or vision, many years ago, about birthing the Man-child from a dying religious system. My notes are in red: I was standing on top of a mountain (representing the kingdom of God) and looking down the mountainside. I saw a construction crew coming up the mountainside, putting up the big metal power poles for high voltage power lines. (Bringing the latter rain power of God to come as Christ in us.) Then I looked down beside me on the ground and noticed a very old, emaciated cow lying there. It looked as though it was about to die. Next to it was a very large baby boy that I knew had been born from that cow. Next, I saw a front-end loader come and scoop up the cow and carry it away. (Moving the old, dead system out of the way of the power coming through the Man-child as it was in Jesus' day.) I picked up the baby and walked over and got on an escalator. (Resting and being caught up to the throne of God's authority to use power.) As we were going up, I noticed a woman next to me with a normal-sized baby. Looking at my baby, she said, “That looks like a real baby boy”. Watching the front-end loader carry away the cow, I said, “Yeah, I wonder how that's possible”. Then the scene changed and I was walking into a ministers' conference. All the famous religious leaders were there. A famous minister whom we all know walked over and handed me some papers. (The Lord showed me that he represented a generation of Saul ministers who were ceding their authority to the Man-child.) Then the Lord said to me, “This is his propaganda about what he has accomplished”. Judy Miller also had a dream on 12/10/08, which we called Christian Snipers, where I was under attack while trying to deliver the Man-child. Here is the shortened version: I have never, to the best of my recollection, dreamed about someone I never met. But I can't seem to get it off my mind. Since this dream was about David, I thought it might be something he would understand. He and I and a woman who could have been his wife, but I never saw her, were in a big, empty room like a cafeteria. (The cafeteria is where food is served, so I believe this has something to do with our teachings that we feed the saints.) There was only one table, which was standing on its end in this empty room. It was one of those really heavy tables that takes two people to move. David and the woman were on the underside of this table and he was delivering a baby from her. (Delivering the baby “under the table” symbolizes being out of public view. Some people pay no attention to the fact that some Davids work very hard at delivering the individual and corporate fruit of Christ from the woman church behind the scenes.) I was on the topside digging a bullet out of David's back. (The top side of the table represents being in public. David was shot from the direction of the public and Judy removed the slug in public. Sniping at Davids in public is the work of those who have critical, factious spirits and do not care what they do day and night to serve the saints. Those who have wisdom of the Word should publicly but gracefully correct slander, backbiting, gossip and criticism, as Judy was symbolically doing here. (Psa.11:2) For, lo, the wicked bend the bow, They make ready their arrow upon the string, That they may shoot in darkness at the upright in heart.)  How I was doing this through the table, I don't know. But the strange thing was this: He never seemed to notice he had a bullet in his back; he didn't acknowledge any pain while I was digging it out. He actually never said anything during this whole thing, but seemed to be concentrating on delivering this baby. (The most important thing is delivering the baby. I get bullets in the back without me knowing it all the time because some don't speak to your face “alone”, as Jesus demands in Mat.18:15, but go to the public, which is reserved for the third step in verse 17 and only when there is sin. Some who are overcome by critical, factious spirits and selfish ambition receive accusations against elders [1Ti.5:19] in their minds or from others for the purpose of separating brethren unto themselves.) I finally managed to get the bullet out of his back, and I held it up to the light and it glittered on the brass when the light hit it, and I just smiled; that was the end of the dream. (The glitter on the slug speaks of putting on a public display to impress men, since that is the way glitter is used. Public persecution has come against our ministry and, sadly, sometimes it is from within, as it was with Jesus. Some like to magnify themselves at others' expense.)   Jesus Is Again Coming in Humility June Johnson - 07/29/2008 (David's notes in red) In a very vivid dream, I saw a donkey in the middle of a road with a baby on its back. It is Jesus birthed in the end-time corporate Man-child, whose beastly flesh is in servitude and humility by God's grace. (Mat.21:5) Tell ye the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, Meek, and riding upon an ass, And upon a colt the foal of an ass. Jesus is coming as the latter rain on this morning of the third thousand-year day. (Hos.6:2) After two days (2000 years) will he revive us: on the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live before him. (3) And let us know, let us follow on to know Jehovah: his going forth is sure as the morning (of the third thousand year day,); and he will come unto us as the rain, as the latter rain that watereth the earth. He will anoint the first-fruits man-child with the latter rain first, as it was with Jesus in the former rain. The Jews expected Him to come as a reigning king over their enemies, as the Christians do today. But the enemy wasn't the Romans but the devil, sin, and the flesh. “The things that have been are the things that will be”. Instead, He will come once again in the form of humble servants before coming personally. I then heard a car coming and thought to myself that I had to get the baby out of the road before the car came closer. The dragon will seek to destroy the corporate Man-child, as with Jesus, Moses, Joseph, David, etc, but he will be anointed with authority to rule from the throne, as they were. (Rev.12:4) And his tail draweth the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon standeth before the woman that is about to be delivered, that when she is delivered he may devour her child. (5) And she was delivered of a son, a man child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and unto his throne. (6) And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that there they may nourish her a thousand two hundred and threescore days. The donkey then knelt down and I grabbed the baby and ran. End of dream. Jesus will come wherever the beastly flesh is in submission. Others will partake of the Spirit of Christ in them. The fruit of Christ will be served to God's people through a humble, fleshly body.   Jesus Is Coming in His People Jan from Alaska - 02/04/2009 (David's notes in red) I got several confirmations during the day that this was from the Lord, and I don't want to miss any message in it. I'm standing just outside an open doorway that leads into a bedroom in the heart of the house. I'm told or asked by someone high above me (literally high over my head in the Spirit) to go to this woman to midwife her having a baby and the baby is Jesus. I walk into the room, and it's flooded with bright light, with a great light on her. She is ruddy in complexion, and I can see only her body from the base of her neck down. She's young --15-18, small, naked, alone in the room, and up on her elbows pushing in agony with the birth. She's in the end stage of delivery as the baby has already dropped into the birth canal, and she barely looks pregnant. I go over and put my hand on her stomach to comfort her and not so much to guide the baby, as to feel the baby. I have great compassion for her pain. Then I walk to the end of the bed, and I see the baby's head has already burst through the canal and the top of His head, which is snow white, is exposed (the revelation of Christ as head.) (Song of Solomon 5:8-10 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick of love. What is thy beloved more than another beloved, O thou fairest among women? what is thy beloved more than another beloved, that thou dost so charge us? My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand). I'm excited with happiness, but I stay focused, talk comfort to her, and watch as the baby is born into my arms (and He is very ruddy). (The man-child David was said to be ruddy.) I hold the baby to my chest and run down a narrow hallway toward the front (future? outer court?) of the house, where I know a lot of people are waiting to hear He's been born. I'm crying and laughing because I'm so happy I got to witness this, that Jesus has come! (With the latter rain anointing for the whole man-child reformer body.) Baby Jesus, who is very red and physically very strong (Rev.12:10) Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ), leans over and takes my left index finger into His mouth and bites down and I realize He has a full set of very white adult teeth (Gen.49:9) Judah is a lion's cub; (12) His (Judah's) eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.). “Left hand” means “hiding place”; “place of covering”. “Index finger”, or “forefinger,” means “the finger of God”; i.e., “power of God”. I awoke crying and praising God, overcome with joy of it all. This dream may be a confirmation or continuation of a dream I had two weeks ago in which I was looking at the Word and in red letters I read: Tell of your Master and of His coming... (Gen.49:1) And Jacob called unto his sons, and said: gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the latter days. ... (8) Judah, thee shall thy brethren praise: Thy hand shall be on the neck of thine enemies; Thy father's sons shall bow down before thee. (9) Judah is a lion's whelp; From the prey, my son, thou art gone up: He stooped down, he couched as a lion, And as a lioness; who shall rouse him up? (10)(This verse was given by faith at random to us when we asked what spiritual tribe are we from?) The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh come: (Hebrew: peace giver. From Assyrian: prince, ruler) And unto him shall the obedience of the peoples be. (11) Binding his foal unto the vine, And his ass's colt unto the choice vine; He hath washed his garments in wine, And his vesture in the blood of grapes: (12) His eyes shall be red with wine, And his teeth white with milk. A word I received at this same time: (Isa.33:10) Now will I arise, saith Jehovah; now will I lift up myself; now will I be exalted. Jesus came as a baby with the former rain ministry and passed this on to the Woman Church, who were called “Christians” because Jesus lived in them. Now history must repeat, as Ecc.1:9 says: “That which hath been is that which shall be”. Jesus said He would return again as a Man-child born to the woman Church. (Joh.16:19) Jesus perceived that they were desirous to ask him, and he said unto them, Do ye inquire among yourselves concerning this, that I said, A little while, and ye behold me not, and again a little while, and ye shall see me? (20) Verily, verily, I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. (21) A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but when she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for the joy that a man is born into the world. (22) And ye therefore now have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no one taketh away from you. (He will come manifested in His corporate end-time Man-child reformer body.) (Rev.12:5) And she was delivered of a son, a man-child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and unto his throne. (6) And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that there they may nourish her a thousand two hundred and threescore days. (He will come through the Latter Rain anointing after two thousand-year days on the morning of the third thousand.) (Hos.6:2) After two days will he revive us: on the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live before him. (3) And let us know, let us follow on to know Jehovah: his going forth is sure as the morning; and he will come unto us as the rain, as the latter rain that watereth the earth. Then this anointing will be spread throughout the elect Church, as history repeats. And then He will come in the clouds of His heavenly people.   The David Ministry Is Born Eve Brast - 11/11/2013 (David's notes in red) I dreamed that my husband and I had a fourth son. (In real life, we have three sons: Noah, 16; Elijah, 11; Josiah, 8.) I had just given birth to this fourth son. I was wondering where my husband was in the dream because he was not present for the birth. My older two sons were nearby, but it was my son Josiah who was present for the birth. He was standing at my right hand and admiring the new baby boy with me. (I have learned that the birth of the Man-child is different from the birth of the Man-child ministry. In Jesus' life, there were 30 years between these two. It was that way with Joseph, David and Moses, as types of the Man-child. They all had a pre-anointing life and service to God. But when the anointing came, the real ministry began.) I had wrapped him in a white blanket and was holding his head with his right cheek against my heart. I was talking to Josiah and exclaiming, “He looks just like Elijah when Elijah was born, only he has richer, thicker hair!” (My son Elijah was born in November, the 11th month of the year (And he is at the time of this dream 11 years old), and Father gave me this dream on 11/11/13.) (11 has been a number of manifest judgment on the wicked but also deliverance and blessing for the righteous. This is what comes with the Man-child ministry of the white horse rider.) I started quoting Bible scriptures to this new baby, as he rested on my heart. I didn't know where these verses were located in the Word, but every verse I quoted to him, he would quote them right back to me in a soft, quiet, gentleman's voice! And then he would add where that verse was located in the Word. I discovered that most of the verses I was quoting to him were in the book of James! (What we see here is the Man-child ministry being birthed into the world. Though they are small in size and number, they will manifest the supernatural knowledge and nature of the Word made flesh.) Josiah and I were looking and smiling at the new baby, and I was saying, “Isn't he so precious? He is so sweet! We are going to name him David. I've always loved that name”. Then I woke up. (The anointed David ministers are now coming onto the scene.) I asked Father for scriptures for this dream and received: (Ecc.7:1) A good name is better than precious oil; and the day of death, than the day of one's birth. (This ministry will have gone through birth, death and resurrection to the latter rain anointing to manifest the name of Jesus.) (Luk.24:50) And he led them out until they were over against Bethany: and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. (He led them to the House of Bread and blessed them.) (Mat.11:27) All things have been delivered unto me of my Father: and no one knoweth the Son, save the Father; neither doth any know the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal him. My finger landed on the words “to reveal him”. (The manifest sons will be revealed by the Lord, and they will reveal the Lord.) Then I asked for a word concerning me in this dream, and my finger landed on (Mat.1:21) And she shall bring forth a son; and thou shalt call his name JESUS; for it is he that shall save his people from their sins. My finger was on the words, “And she shall bring forth a son”. Amazing! (Word received by random by faith in God.)   “The Armies of God March Soon” Eve Brast - 10/08/2011 (David's notes in red) The Father gave me a dream on 9/22/11, two days after the vision He gave me of the birth of Isaac in Abraham's tent dream. (This was the birth of the Man-child, who, as David, will lead the Lord's earthly army into battle against the spiritual Philistines and their demon gods. I share this dream below.) Eve said, I'm sending it now because last night I was lamenting to the Father how pronounced the separation is becoming between myself and friends and loved ones who love the world more than the truth of the Word and discipleship. It seems to have become extremely pronounced recently. I was asking the Father to speak to me concerning this, and when I opened my Bible my finger was on: (Psa.18:29) For by thee I run upon a troop: And by my God do I leap over a wall. (The Lord's power and anointing will enable us to leap over walls of separation and battle for souls in bondage, but we must have our armor and be led by our General.) I went on to read the entire text of Psalm 18, which answered my questions perfectly and gave me comfort. I knew instantly after reading this that it was time to send this dream. Dream - 09/22/2011 I saw myself standing in the driveway in front of my grandmother's old house (Eve, as a type of the bride of the last Adam, is a part of the house of the ancient Church and Word before the falling away. Contending for the faith that was once delivered to the saints.) that house I grew up in on Lago Vista Street (meaning “Lake View”). I was facing west, looking across the pond. The sun was disappearing over the horizon. There was just enough light left to make out the scene. (A time of darkness coming on the world, but the waters of the Word are always before the Bride's face.) I was dressed in silver-polished armor with gold trim (armor that reflects the Sun or Son and blinds the enemy). My hair had turned blonde. (Hair represents submission to our husband. Blond hair represents submission to the Sun [Son] -- 1 Corinthians 11) The wind started to gust (false winds of doctrines) out of the north (the beast), blowing the dead leaves that had fallen from the trees and what seemed like dead grass clippings over me. (Coming in contact with those who are falling away to their flesh, for Peter said, “All flesh is as grass”.) I heard a voice from the south (God's army) say, “The armies of God march soon! “ I became concerned and started to panic because my armor had some missing pieces, like pieces of a puzzle. There was no time left to go back into my grandmother's house (representing the ancient original church), where the rest of the pieces were located, and find them. (The armor can only be found in the original Church of the Word.) At that moment, I cried out to the Father, “Help me, Father! I don't know what to do! “ I knew that if I went back inside, I would miss the deployment of troops, and that if I went into battle like I was (missing some armor) I could be wounded. (Effectual fervent prayer to the Father can finish up the armor. Many are taken out even now because they had no armor.) Suddenly, the missing pieces started appearing from above me and attaching themselves in their proper places on my armor suit, completing it for the march and the battle. (All need to pray to complete the armor so they are not taken out in the coming darkness and association with the dead around us. (Eph.6:12) For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual [hosts] of wickedness in the heavenly [places]. (13) Wherefore take up the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand. (14) Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, (15) and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; (16) withal taking up the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil [one]. (17) And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: (18) with all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.) When I asked the Father for scripture for this dream back on September 22nd, I opened my Bible and my finger was on: (2Ch.33:14) Now after this he built an outer wall to the City of David, on the West side of Gihon, in the valley, even to the entrance of the Fish gate; and he compassed Ophel with it, and raised it up to a very great height: and he put captains in all the fortified cities. This was after King Manasseh in verse 13 had repented to God, and God brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. (And he was preparing for war, coming against the city of David by putting on its armor.) I asked for another scripture to expand the meaning of this dream to me and when I opened my eyes, my finger was on: (Joh.8:56) Your Father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. (Abraham fought for the people taken captive by the kings of Canaan's land, the beast.) This amazed me because it connected the previous vision the Father gave me two nights before with this current dream! God is so awesome and faithful to show us what He is doing! Dream - 10/08/11 I was flying through space inside our inner solar system toward the sun, and as I was coming up, I saw Mercury, Venus, and Earth. Mercury and Earth were in alignment and Venus was extremely close to coming into perfect alignment with them. (Eve didn't know this, but these planets were in perfect alignment, or very close to perfect alignment, from October 31 until November 15.) I was brought in closer, and all my attention was placed on Venus. As I was waking up, I heard a voice say, “And He shall be given a rod and a staff with which to rule over the sons of men”. (Could this be hinting at the anointing? We'll see. The rod represents chastening and the staff restraint and guidance. The alignments of Earth, Mercury and Venus can actually be seen as a type of a rod. The rod and the staff are the instruments of the Shepherd Who is coming in His Man-child to be the General for His troops. (Rev.22:16) I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things for the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright, the morning star [Venus]. Jesus is the root that brought forth the branch of David and He is in the Branch -- Jeremiah 23 & 33.) The scriptures that were given to me for this dream were (Eze.40:6) Then came he unto the gate which looketh toward the East, and went up the steps thereof: and he measured the threshold of the gate, one reed broad: and the other threshold one reed broad. (Jesus is coming through the Eastern Gate into the temple of His people. He is measuring the Way through which He comes and many will not measure up. (Joh.14:6) Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by me.) (Jer.30:17) For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds saith Jehovah, because they have called thee an outcast, saying, It is Zion whom no man seeketh after. (Then Zion, the bride, will be sought out and restored.) With love for all my brethren. Be encouraged and strengthened in the Lord.   Promised Seed Brings in Multitudes Eve Brast - 09/20/2011 (David's notes in red) On 9/20/11, before going to bed, I was out on my porch facing the east toward a fantastic lightning show that was occurring in the storm clouds. It was completely silent with no thunder at all, which is unusual. In my imagination, I saw the angel, Michael, and his angels fighting against Satan and his forces of darkness in the heavens, and Satan being cast down to the Earth. I felt in my spirit to pray against the forces of darkness that are coming against the saints of God. (Rev.12:10) And I heard a great voice in heaven, saying, Now is come the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, who accuseth them before our God day and night. (11) And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony; and they loved not their life even unto death. This casting down of Satan will be for the purpose of persecuting the woman church and driving her into the safety of the wilderness for 3 1/2 years, as in Revelation 12:13-14, to be trained by the Man-child in verses 5-6. After this, I went to lie down, but before I could fall asleep, the Father gave me a vision. I (Eve, the bride of Adam/Jesus) was standing on the corner of an angled portion of the roof of Herod's temple, which was over some pillars and steps. In the vision, this is where Satan had taken Jesus during His time of testing. (The Bride is being tested by Satan to see who will overcome by faith in the blood, the words of their testimony and sacrificing their life.) I was looking down and observing a scene. At my left, crouching down and observing the scene was Satan. He was dressed in a solid black hooded robe, and all I could see were his gray and bony hands with sharp, pointed nails. My attention returned to the scene below. (Satan hides in the darkness of wicked men, the seven-headed, 10-horned dragon body of lost humanity, so that men do not perceive this to be a trial from him. Men are tempted to wrestle with flesh and blood in this way.) Abraham had pitched his tent on the cobblestones in front of the steps of the temple and was pacing outside the tent like an expectant father. (Abraham means “father of a multitude”. He is the father of the faithful and represents our Father in Heaven.) I was able to see right through the top of the tent, and I could see Sarah, who was old and gray-headed, giving birth to Isaac with the assistance of three handmaids. She gave birth to him with great ease. (Our Father sowed the seed of the Word in Sarah, meaning “princess”, who represents the Bride who has not brought forth the seed of man. As with Sarah, the Bride is in the midst of the Church, who is now in old age. She is bringing forth the promised Man-child seed of Father Abraham, through whom he will be the “father of a multitude” from all nations.) Then I saw Abraham hurry into the tent as soon as Isaac was delivered, and he held the baby up to the heavens toward the Father in praise and dedication. (The gift from God through whom He will begin the latter rain revival to bring in the multitudes.) As soon as Isaac was born, Satan, still crouched on my left, started to pound his right fist down upon his left palm and scream twice, “We've lost them! We've lost them!” (As sure as this child will be born, Satan will lose the multitudes who were captive to him. YOU LOST THEM 2000 YEARS AGO, SATAN!!! LOL!!!) This is when the vision ended, and I became aware that I was in my bed trying to go to sleep. I looked this up in (Heb.11:11) By faith even Sarah herself received power to conceive seed when she was past age, since she counted Him faithful who had promised ... (18) even he to whom it was said, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. (In Isaac was and is in type the seed of all future generations. He begat the one whose seed was the 12 patriarchs, just as Jesus did and just as the Man-child will spiritually.) When I asked the Father for some verses, my finger was on (Pro.18:20) A man's belly shall be filled with the fruit of his mouth; with the increase of his lips shall he be satisfied. (The spoken word will bring forth the multitudes, like the commands through Moses to Pharaoh) Also (Isa.66:19) And I will set a sign among them and I will send such as escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow to Tubal and Javan, to the isles afar off, that have not heard my fame neither have seen my glory: and they shall declare my glory among the nations. (The “sign” here is the Man-child Emanuel, meaning “God with us” prophesied in Isaiah 7:14 and Luke 2:10-12,34. He will send those who escape the beast to the nations to declare the fame of the Lord.) Praise the Lord that Satan has already been defeated! Be encouraged, brethren.   Birthing of the Man-child and Bride's Fruit and the Beginning of Great Judgment Eve Brast - 11/18/21 (David's notes in red) I dreamed that I was in an old military-style fort with UBM. The entire perimeter or outer wall doubled as living quarters and storage rooms. The interior courtyard area was open. We were gathering supplies in preparation for an imminent, massive judgment from God in the form of a thick blanket of darkness that was heading towards the fort.) (At this time we know of one possibility of an imminent judgment, in that the DS has prepared more deadly plagues to unleash upon the global population. This judgment could also represent the beginning of the 7-year tribulation when the Man-child is born.) The judgment was fast approaching, coming from my right in the form of an oppressive darkness that was blanketing the earth. I knew that many people would die from this judgment in the dream. (The vaccine deaths multiplied quickly. We know the DS has another ‘Plandemic' worse than COVID's vax. As this was coming upon the world, I was simultaneously standing on a large wooden deck where I was in active labor to give birth to twins, a boy and a girl, even though I did not outwardly look pregnant. I had a vision of them coming through the birth canal side by side, the boy on the right and the girl at his left. They were being born in an upright position, or what they call breech, which is “feet first.” (This represents the fruit of Christ in the Man-child and the Bride coming to maturity and being born ready to walk in the steps of Jesus through the 7-year Tribulation period that is quickly approaching.) While I was laboring to bring them forth, I would squat down and try with all my might to push them out, but because they were being born at the same time, I could not birth them in my own strength, and I was becoming tired. Then the knowledge of the Holy Spirit came to me to “just stand and relax.” When I did this, they were born smoothly and with ease on their own. Then I woke up. (Through faith and rest of God, the Bride will bear her own fruit and that of the Man-child.) Missy got this text by faith at random for the morning prayer meeting on 11/18/21 and she thought it went with this dream, 2Ch.6:4-11, And he said, Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Israel, who spake with his mouth unto David my father, and hath with his hands fulfilled it, saying, 5 Since the day that I brought forth my people out of the land of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel to build a house in, that my name might be there; neither chose I any man to be prince over my people Israel: 6 but I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be there; and have chosen David to be over my people Israel. 7 Now it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of Jehovah, the God of Israel. 8 But Jehovah said unto David my father, Whereas it was in thy heart to build a house for my name, thou didst well that it was in thy heart: 9 nevertheless thou shalt not build the house; but thy son that shall come forth out of thy loins, he shall build the house for my name. 10 And Jehovah hath performed his word that he spake; for I am risen up in the room of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as Jehovah promised, and have built the house for the name of Jehovah, the God of Israel. 11 And there have I set the ark, wherein is the covenant of Jehovah, which he made with the children of Israel. (This parable represents the two stages of the Man-child ministry: David, a warrior, and Solomon, meaning peaceful. The son of David, Solomon, [peaceful], which the Man-child Jesus, the prince of peace, was also called. This fruit of David, representing Christ in him, will build the house and not his old man. David was a man of war, but his fruit, Solomon, was the prince of peace to build the temple. David provided the materials for the Temple and his son, or fruit built it.)   She was Delivered of a Son; a Man-child Alenna Timoshchuk - 12/2/21 (David's notes in red) I dreamed I was at my sister Lidiya's house and I took a shower in her bathroom. After I finished showering, I lay down on her bed to take a nap. (I've recently repented of some idols the Lord showed me were still in my life, and I believe the shower represents the washing away of my sins and this repentance and cleansing that I had just gone through in the Lord, and now that I am made pure by Him, I have entered into His rest.) In the dream, as I closed my eyes, I immediately started seeing a vision in animated form. I saw a large old-fashioned church building made of gray stone. (The old-fashioned church represents the original church, and the stone represents Jesus, Who is the Rock and foundation of the Church.) Then it was as if I was standing in the back of the church and could see everything happening inside. I saw rows of pews with people in them; they were all facing the front, where you'd normally see the preacher behind a pulpit. (I believe these people are the ones eagerly waiting for the Man-child, and they have their eyes forward, focused on Jesus Christ.) (The Nicolaitans put one man over the sheep of the congregation who lords his position over them, but Jesus did not intend it to be so for His disciples. The Man-child will restore the original 5-fold ministries of leadership and accountability in the Church government. Mat.20:25-28 But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 26 Not so shall it be among you: but whosoever would become great among you shall be your minister; 27 and whosoever would be first among you shall be your servant: 28 even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.) Instead of a preacher, a woman was standing there. She was dressed in beautiful garments in various hues of blue. The way she was dressed reminded me of the pictures I'd see of Mary with the baby Jesus. (This represents the woman of Revelation 12 who gives birth to the corporate body of the Man-child just as Mary gave birth to Jesus in His individual body 2,000 years ago. Mary was the bride of the Lord to bring forth the Man-child, Jesus, by the seed of the Holy Spirit.) She lay down on a table that was behind her, and I saw that she was pregnant, and I could see the shadow of a baby inside her belly. She started pushing and gave birth to a baby boy. When the baby came out, everyone in the church jumped up and started rejoicing and hugging each other. The Man-child will be born out of the Bride body.) The woman was looking at everyone with a huge smile on her face. That was when I noticed a gold crown on her head and a long blue veil covering her blonde hair. (I believe the woman looked like pictures I saw of Mary because she is the parallel of the one who births Jesus Christ in our day and the woman from whom the Man-child will come. She was clothed in beautiful hues of blue, representing heavenly colors, and her veil is her submission to Christ. The crown is the glory she will have in heaven because she represents the Bride.) (Joh.16:19-22) Jesus perceived that they were desirous to ask him, and he said unto them, Do ye inquire among yourselves concerning this, that I said, A little while, and ye behold me not, and again a little while, and ye shall see me? 20 Verily, verily, I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. 21 A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but when she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for the joy that a man is born into the world. (Represented by the “huge smile” she had on her face.) 22 And ye therefore now have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no one taketh away from you. The corporate Man-child reformer David ministry in whom Jesus lives by Word and Spirit is about to be born. In the night that Cyrus, as Trump, conquered Babylon, Daniel, as a type of the Man-child, was promoted as a ruler of the Kingdom. We are close to the Man-child's anointing to rule.) After their moment of rejoicing, everyone went to the front of the church and exited out a side door. (I believe there will be great rejoicing for those waiting for the Man-child, and they all walked out of the church when he was born because they are going to spread the true gospel.) (These are the modern-day disciples of Christ who are going forth as the first disciples did.) The church was now empty, and I saw a man appear in front of the church, where he sat down on the steps of the stage. He wore clothes that resembled royalty; the colors of red and white, with a gold crown on his head. He had light brown hair, and his expression looked sorrowful. (I believe the man represented Jesus in the Man-child. The red and white symbolize the blood sacrifice and purity of Jesus, and the gold crown is also the glory he has been given by the Father in heaven for his obedience and sacrifice. I believe his expression was sorrowful because he feels his Father's sorrow over the people that have fallen away.) Then I heard a voice fill the whole room, and I knew it was the Father speaking to him. I can't remember the exact words our Father was saying, but I remember the idea of it, so I will just put it in my own words. He told the man that His people have been on the fence for too long, worshipping Him and mammon. The time has come for them to make a choice, for very soon they will be judged and many, many deaths are going to start occurring. (In the natural many will die because of the graphene oxide and spike protein, which is sprayed and/or in vaccinated people. Spiritually, there will also be a falling away. See our book Escape the Falling Away. These are the rebellious and lukewarm that the Lord will spew out of His mouth. Rev.3:16 So because thou art lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spew thee out of my mouth.) He told him to go out and warn his people because the time has drawn very near. (I believe Father is showing me here that the Man-child is coming very, very soon, but for those who are not living in the Spirit, but after the flesh, a very difficult time is also very near. We need to intercede for them in prayer and warn them to repent and draw nigh unto the Lord. We also must give up our idols and worship our one true God.) The man jumped up with a determined expression on his face and went out the side door to do as the Father had told him. Then the vision ended in the dream, and I opened my eyes. (When the Man-child is anointed and sent forth by the Father, He will have power to complete all that He is sent to do.) ...I stepped outside onto the back porch to clear my mind so that I could write down the vision. My brother Leo came out and started the grill because he was going to grill some meat… (Leo represents the Lion of Judah, Jesus, who is solely focused on crucifying our flesh in the fiery trial.) Then something started happening in the sky. I saw clouds forming in lines very quickly, and it looked like the lines were being sprayed into the sky. The way they formed was very interesting. It started as a line that would turn into a 45-degree angle, ultimately forming a triangle. (This likely represents the 'all-seeing eye' within the triangular-shaped pyramid representing the Illuminati at the head of the DS. They are Luciferians and eugenicists, and they are de-populating the global population through their chemtrail spraying programs and vaccines.) As soon as the triangle was formed, the cloud would turn black and another would form connecting to the point of the other triangle and it was making lines across the sky that just looked like a bunch of black triangles. (It could be that these large black triangular crafts are TR3B antigravity, noiseless, extremely fast, U.S. aircraft black ops spraying plagues, vax, mapping, spying, etc.) It was very fast. I stepped off the porch and lay down in the grass to try to see what was happening more clearly. (Lying on top of the grass represents conquering the flesh of our old nature. The Bible says, “All flesh is as grass…” This allows us to have spiritual discernment and to see things more clearly.) I asked my brother, “Could these possibly be natural?” (The triangle with the all-seeing eye represents the leadership of the DS and is forming lines across the sky, which we call chemtrails that can spray plagues, vax, etc.) I never heard his reply because as soon as I asked that question, a robot jumped onto my face and started attacking me. I was wrestling with him and managed to push him off, and I jumped up. (Representing their chemtrail spraying, the nano-bot technology that has been discovered in the vaccines attacking the people by deoxygenating their blood, thereby making it feel like it's hard to breathe.) At first, I thought it was some kind of futuristic delivery robot. It had black, white and blue colors. The robot started coming at me again when I saw many more robots falling out of the sky into the backyard, and they were all chasing me. (This nanotechnology is capable of being aerosolized and sprayed upon large groups of people at one time.)(We are not under this curse, which Jesus bore, Gal.3:13  Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree. We are under Psalm 91 where we are taught how to escape this. Psa.91:2-3 I will say of Jehovah, He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in whom I trust. 3 For he will deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, And from the deadly pestilence… 9 For thou, O Jehovah, art my refuge! Thou hast made the Most High thy habitation; 10 There shall no evil befall thee, Neither shall any plague come nigh thy tent.) I looked back at my brother, wanting to ask for his help, but he was just focused on grilling the meat. (In the midst of tribulations, we must focus on the sacrifice of our flesh in the fiery trial.) I started running around the backyard trying to climb on trees and fences, but they would follow me wherever I went. (Because they are in the air.) It seemed as if they were angry at me for being on the grass. (With the flesh under our feet, the demons are threatened and will attack us by every means and distraction they can muster.) Finally, I ran back onto the porch (where Leo was sacrificing the flesh.) and all of the robots disappeared. (We must stay on the porch with Leo, the Lion of Judah. There is safety from our enemies when we abide in Christ and the crucified life.) Then the scene changed again, and I saw a couple sitting in a pool filled with water. The woman was very heavily pregnant, and I could tell that she was due to give birth soon. There was a midwife on the side of the pool, instructing her so that she could give birth without tearing. Then I woke up. (Staying in the water of the Word makes giving birth to the fruit of Christ possible and easier.)   UBM Born Again M. L. - 07/01/2013 (David's notes in red) I dreamt of a bombed building. I do not know what building or where it was. And I only saw a few yards ahead of me. (UBM was attacked by spiritual terrorists to separate the unclean from us, as has been prophesied for years. But also, this process has been going on around the world, as has been reported to us.) The enemy had moved on, and there was a total absence of fear. UBM had come together to rebuild. Our focus was that we had a job to do: cleaning away debris and rebuilding this place. (Cleaning away the old unregenerate of UBM and bringing forth the new, like the lunar eclipse of Michael Campbell's dream, where there was an eclipse and the first sliver of the new moon was much brighter than the whole moon had been before the eclipse.) Sometimes I only saw feet and legs and sometimes up to the shoulders, or saw people from the back. The most amazing thing was that I noticed people we knew from our former church who were working with us. They had come out to help, and it seemed so good to see them being freed. I saw some of the faces of our former leadership and others. This is a text we received before for this: (Zec.1:17) Cry yet again, saying, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: My cities shall yet overflow with prosperity; and Jehovah shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem. (18) And I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, four horns. (19) And I said unto the angel that talked with me, What are these? And he answered me, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem. (20) And Jehovah showed me four smiths. (21) Then said I, What come these to do? And he spake, saying, These are the horns which scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head; but these are come to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations, which lifted up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it.) My husband and I were observing this, and I had the knowing that members of our local UBM were there. I felt that close-knit communion that we have -- a unity I've never felt before. (This unity and love is increasingly happening.) I saw a person carry a five-gallon white bucket in each hand and go toward a corner of the room. The wall did not exist; only the two two-foot sections that formed the corners remained. Each of the walls was like this around the building. (Walls between groups are passing away; only the cornerstone of Christ will remain. UBM will be without walls, with room for many more people; a great revival. This is the text the Lord spoke to me that we have received before about UBM: (Zec.2:3) And, behold, the angel that talked with me went forth, and another angel went out to meet him, (4) and said unto him, Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls, by reason of the multitude of men and cattle therein. (5) For I, saith Jehovah, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and I will be the glory in the midst of her. (6) Ho, ho, flee from the land of the north, saith Jehovah; for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heavens, saith Jehovah. We must flee now from the Babylonish beast nature and captivity if we are to be safe. (7) Ho Zion, escape, thou that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon. (8) For thus saith Jehovah of hosts: After glory hath he sent me unto the nations which plundered you [these who brought down the walls]; for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye. (9) For, behold, I will shake my hand over them, and they shall be a spoil to those that served them [they will be returned]; and ye shall know that Jehovah of hosts hath sent me. (10) Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion; for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith Jehovah. As the old die, the new come in with the Lord. (11) And many nations shall join themselves to Jehovah in that day [the nations or Gentiles join Zion's daughter, the Bride, in these days as a great revival], and shall be my people; and I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that Jehovah of hosts has sent me unto thee. (12) And Jehovah shall inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land, and shall yet choose Jerusalem. (13) Be silent, all flesh, before Jehovah; for he is waked up out of his holy habitation [to fight for Zion].) The man with the buckets bent to his knees and started scooping up pieces of debris with his hands, then dropping the cement chunks and wood into the bucket. (Cleaning out the old to make room for the new.) A few moments later, I saw another pair of hands helping him. This was happening all through this room (UBM), and I knew that it was happening in the rest of the building (or house of God) also. Then I saw a very kind older man with a beard and collar-length gray hair sitting down at a makeshift table, and I thought I had seen him before. (Likely the Man-child.) It was made from broken pieces of brick (cement block) and a flat old board about 12-14 inches wide. The length was long enough to go across the bricks that support it. (A wilderness setting.) On the board, he had a piece of paper and some kind of list. It may have been job assignments, I'm not sure. Two people had left after talking to him and seemed excited. (UBMers coming into their individual ministries to compliment others' gifts.) There was a lightness in the air and even though there was a lot to do, everyone was pulling together and with much joy. (Like the new birth, there will be much joy and excitement in UBM and other faithful ministries which God will join together. We will be one flock with one Shepherd, as Jesus said.) I received this concerning the rebuilding of UBM: (Hag.2:1) In the seventh [month], in the one and twentieth [day] of the month, came the word of Jehovah by Haggai the prophet, saying, (2) Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people, saying, (3) Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? and how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes as nothing? (4) Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith Jehovah; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest (two Man-child types); and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith Jehovah, and work: for I am with you, saith Jehovah of hosts, (5) [according to] the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, and my Spirit abode among you: fear ye not. (6) For thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; (7) and I will shake all nations; and the precious things (Heb. “desire”, i.e. The Lord) of all nations shall come; and I will fill this house with glory, saith Jehovah of hosts. (8) The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith Jehovah of hosts. (9) The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, saith Jehovah of hosts; and in this place will I give peace, saith Jehovah of hosts.

We are joined in the episode by Zach, who recently played Yugoslavia at the Adepticon Bolt Action event to talk about how to create effective and more niche Bolt Action forces using historical research, model conversions and some creative list writing using existing lists. Along the way we also discuss the Armies of Greece and how to adapt existing lists into something new, balanced and original.

Last time we spoke about the battle of West Suiyuan. The Ma Clique, Muslim warlords controlling Northwest China, led by Ma Hongkui and Ma Hongbin, rebuffed Japanese overtures to ally, citing historical grievances like the 1900 invasion. Driven by patriotism, they aligned with the Nationalists, reorganizing forces into the 17th Army Group. In 1938, Ma Hongbin commanded West Suiyuan defenses, building fortifications in harsh desert and mountain terrain, blending cavalry tactics with modern training despite equipment shortages. In January 1940, Japanese and puppet troops advanced from Baotou, occupying Wuyuan and Linhe. Chinese forces, including Fu Zuoyi's 35th Army and Ma's 81st Army, employed guerrilla and mobile warfare. A major counterattack in March recaptured Wuyuan, killing Lt. Gen. Mizukawa and thousands, forcing Japanese retreat. Through ambushes and night raids, the Chinese recovered territories, securing Soviet aid routes and the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia region. Over 2,000 Ningxia soldiers perished, their sacrifices underscoring peripheral fronts' role in national resistance.   #200 The battle of Yaoyi Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. After capturing Wuhan, the Japanese army had already stretched itself dangerously thin. Most regular and Class A reserve divisions were committed to the front, yet they failed to annihilate the main Chinese force. Despite losing its core industrial and resource regions, the Nationalist government in Chongqing refused Japan's peace terms. Japan now found itself trapped in the very protracted war it had desperately sought to avoid. The logical Japanese response was to halt major advances, consolidate control over occupied areas, and conduct limited offensives to pressure Chiang Kai-shek into negotiations—essentially repeating the post-Nanjing strategy of late 1937. But the situation had deteriorated sharply: occupied territory had at least doubled, Japanese garrisons were inadequate, and strategic reserves were nearly exhausted. What might have been prudent a year earlier had become plainly unwise by late 1938.   To stabilize the front, Japan reorganized its China Expeditionary Army at the end of 1938. Large numbers of newly raised independent mixed brigades and lower-quality Class B reserve divisions were sent to relieve veteran regular and Class A divisions. The relieved units were either demobilized back to Japan or shifted north to reinforce the Kwantung Army against the Soviet threat.   By early 1940 Japan maintained roughly 24 divisions, 21 independent mixed brigades, and 2 cavalry brigades in China proper (excluding Manchuria), totaling nearly 800,000 ground troops. The enormous scale and expense strained the home economy severely. Even so, the vast occupied zones could not be effectively controlled: divisions often held only a single mobile battalion while dispersing the rest into scattered platoon- and squad-sized outposts. Guerrilla activity by both Nationalist and Communist forces not only persisted but intensified, occasionally clashing with each other in "friction" incidents.   Beyond mere occupation, Japan sought to wear down Chinese strength. With most elite Central Army units held in reserve in the southwest or around Wuhan, Japanese local offensives targeted the Fifth and Ninth War Zones, aiming to methodically destroy Chiang's best troops. Thus, while other Japanese armies focused on garrison relief and brigade substitution, the 11th Army—still holding Wuhan with seven divisions and three brigades—remained the main offensive instrument. In 1939 it captured Nanchang, then mounted major operations against the Fifth War Zone (Suizao Campaign) and Ninth War Zone (First Battle of Changsha). Except for the seizure of Nanchang, however, these offensives inflicted only limited and temporary damage on Chinese forces.   Japan's domestic economy was in even worse shape. In early 1937, it had approved a massive 2.4 billion yen naval and army rebuilding program aimed at countering the United States and Russia, but implementation had barely started when the Sino-Japanese War erupted. The conflict generated enormous war costs while military expansion continued unabated, rapidly draining the Bank of Japan's gold reserves. By the end of 1938, those reserves (valued at just 1.35 billion yen) had shrunk by more than two-thirds. To fund the Battle of Wuhan that year, Japan postponed key elements of the rebuilding plan. After Wuhan fell, the Army revised its wartime reorganization: the original target of forty divisions grew to fifty-five by early 1938, then to sixty-five divisions plus 164 Army Air Force squadrons by 1942. The funding required to equip and stockpile for this expansion escalated steadily; the 1939 expansion budget alone demanded 1.8 billion yen, pushing Japanese finances to the breaking point.   Japan repeatedly sought a way out of China, but its peace terms remained far beyond what Chongqing would accept, leaving negotiations stalled. Efforts to install puppet regimes in North and Central China—culminating in the Wang Jingwei government in 1940—aimed to "use Chinese to control Chinese" and undermine Nationalist influence, yet produced disappointing results.   The 11th Army's 1939 campaigns yielded only mediocre outcomes, hampered by chronic troop shortages. Even its divisions were tied down in occupation duties; mounting a serious offensive required pulling garrison forces, leaving no reserves to hold the line unless new units arrived. Sustained large-scale operations to seriously weaken Chinese strength demanded a major troop increase—otherwise, Japan was limited to shallow, localized attacks. Lt. Gen. Yasuji Okamura, commanding the 11th Army, recognized this clearly. In a December 1939 report, he argued that diplomacy and small offensives were futile and urged a large-scale operation backed by substantial reinforcements. His superiors, however, were preoccupied with funding the broader military buildup and could offer no extra men. The post-Wuhan "defensiveization" of operations was largely a cost-saving measure to support that expansion. Japanese ground strength in China, which peaked near 850,000 after Wuhan, had already dropped by about 50,000. Full-strength regular or Class A divisions numbered roughly 22,000 men (four regiments), while newer garrison divisions had only about 15,000 (three regiments), and independent mixed brigades just 6,000. Okamura's proposal was sensible but politically impossible; high command was even contemplating slashing China troop levels to 400,000.   The Chinese Winter Offensive of December 1939, together with counterattacks at Nanning and Kunlun Pass, inflicted serious losses and exposed the limited damage done to Chinese forces in 1939 operations. The recapture of Wuyuan in March 1940 signaled the start of a new phase. Shortly afterward, intensified Chinese guerrilla raids deep into Japanese rear areas prompted large Japanese "mop-up" operations in southern Shanxi, central Hubei, southern Jiangxi, and northern Hunan. In the Wuhan sector, repeated blows from the Winter Offensive heightened fears of Chinese forces in the Dahong and Tongbai Mountains, which threatened control over the vital Jianghan Plains rice-producing region. In mid-April 1940, the Japanese abandoned outposts at Macheng (eastern Hubei), Fengxin, and Jing'an (northern Jiangxi), withdrew elements of the 6th Division (northern Hunan), 40th Division (northern Jiangxi), and the 3rd, 13th, and 39th Divisions (Hubei), and concentrated them around Zhongxiang, Suixian, and Xinyang for a maximum-effort push.   These setbacks finally forced Tokyo to abandon deep troop reductions in China and approve reinforcements of two regular divisions for a major 1940 offensive. The revised end-1940 target became 740,000 troops in China. In spring 1940, the 11th Army—backed fully by Imperial General Headquarters and the China Expeditionary Army—began detailed preparations for a large-scale assault on China's Fifth War Zone.   On February 25, 1940, the 11th Army issued its "Guiding Strategy for the Campaign." The operational goal was to defeat the main force of China's Fifth War Zone along both banks of the Han River before the rainy season, inflict further heavy losses on Chiang Kai-shek's army through decisive victory, and thereby advance Japan's overall political and strategic position vis-à-vis China. The guiding principle called for the quickest possible preparations, with the offensive to begin around early May: first destroy Chinese forces on the left (east) bank south of the Baihe River, then completely annihilate the core units on the right (west) bank near Yichang. On April 7, under the new commander Lt. Gen. Sonobe Kazuo (who replaced Okamura Yasuji), the 11th Army produced a more detailed plan. On April 10, Imperial General Headquarters Order No. 426 ("Continental Order") authorized the China Expeditionary Army to conduct operations in central and southern China during May–June, even beyond established boundaries, to fulfill current objectives.   Japanese planners viewed the Fifth War Zone—roughly 50 divisions encircling Wuhan—with its main strength concentrated along the Han (Xiang) River in northwestern Hubei. Striking Yichang would deliver a severe blow to the zone. As the gateway to Sichuan, only 480 km from Chongqing, Yichang held immense strategic value: an inland port, Three Gorges logistics hub, and key base for air raids on Chongqing. Capturing it would directly threaten the Nationalist wartime capital and southwestern rear, advancing political leverage. Still, long-term occupation was not pre-decided; initial plans stressed inflicting maximum damage followed by withdrawal, in line with the post-Wuhan policy of avoiding permanent overextension. China, aware that holding the Jianghan Plain's rice-producing areas enabled sustained attrition against Japan, deployed guerrilla units to harass Japanese rear areas (increasing occupier losses) while tasking the River Defense Force to hold key front-line points: Jingmen, Shashi, and Yichang.   To achieve these aims, the 11th Army committed as much as possible of its seven divisions and four brigades (88 battalions total). Core units included the 3rd Division (Maj. Gen. Yamakoshi Masataka; regiments 6, 18, 34, 68), 13th Division (Maj. Gen. Tanaka Shioichi; 58, 65, 104, 116), 39th Division (Maj. Gen. Murakami Keisaku; 231–233), elements of the 40th Division, detachments from the 33rd and 34th Divisions, and others. Reinforcements comprised the Ikeda Detachment (three battalions from 6th Division), Ishimoto Detachment (four–five from 40th), Ogawa Detachment (two from 34th), and Provisional Mixed Brigade 101. Supporting assets included the 6th Field Heavy Artillery Regiment, 7th and 13th Tank Regiments, 3rd Air Group, Navy 1st China Dispatch Fleet, and 2nd Combined Air Team. The China Expeditionary Army transferred seven battalions from the 15th and 22nd Divisions (13th Army, lower Yangtze). The main effort north of the river involved roughly 48–54 battalions, or 80,000–110,000 men, making the Zaoyi (Zaoyang–Yichang) Campaign the largest Japanese operation on the central front since Wuhan. Sonobe's staff structured the offensive in two phases. Phase One targeted the Fifth War Zone's main force around Zaoyang (east of the Han River) through converging pincer movements: right flank from Xinyang (reinforced 3rd Division), left flank from Zhongxiang (reinforced 13th Division), and central thrust by the reinforced 39th Division from Suixian. The plan exploited terrain—Dahong and Tongbai Mountains—for encirclement. After seizing Minggang (right flank) and advancing from Zhongxiang (left), the pincers would close on Zaoyang, with the center (along the Xianghua Highway from Suixian) drawing Chinese forces into the trap for envelopment. Diversionary attacks south of the Yangtze, propaganda hinting at limited scope, and planted false orders helped mask intentions. Japanese radio intelligence—intercepts and direction-finding of Chinese headquarters signals—provided critical advantages, especially in later stages.   By March 1940, Chinese intelligence had already detected the 11th Army's intent to mount a major offensive from Xinyang and Wuhan into northwestern Hubei. On April 10, Chiang Kai-shek telegraphed Li Zongren and other Fifth War Zone commanders, urging immediate preparations for a preemptive strike against any push toward Shapingba and Yichang. He emphasized proactive flanking attacks on Japanese rear areas via Wusheng Pass and threats to the Pinghan Railway, while keeping main forces east of the Han River for decisive engagement once the enemy committed.   Following Military Commission directives, the Fifth War Zone devised a plan that used part of its strength for forward advances and deep raids into Japanese rear areas to harass and divert. The bulk of forces would hold the rear, seizing chances for preemptive strikes and a decisive battle east of Zaoyang or south of Jingmen–Dangyang. Deployments included: the 33rd Army Group garrisoning the Xiang River; in the center, the 45th Corps (22nd Army Group) west of Luoyangdian–Suixian and the 84th Corps (11th Army Group) north of Suixian–south of Gaocheng; in southern Henan, the 30th Corps east of Tongbai and the 68th Corps north of Pingchangguan–Minggang; the 41st Corps in reserve near Xiangyang; the 29th Army Group (with part garrisoning north of Tongqiao Zhen–Sanyangtien) concentrated in the Dahong Mountains; and the 31st Army Group positioned between Queshan and Ye Hsien as the mobile force to strike invaders. River Defense Army commander Guo Chan controlled the 26th, 75th, and 94th Armies, the 128th Division, and the 6th and 7th Guerrilla Columns. Total Chinese strength approximated 350,000–380,000 men across roughly 50–54 divisions. To mask preparations and mislead, the Japanese conducted a late-April "mop-up" near Jiujiang, staged naval feints on Poyang and Dongting Lakes, and bombed key points in Hunan and Jiangxi, simulating an imminent Ninth War Zone operation.   With forces assembled, the Japanese offensive began May 1, 1940, from Xinyang, Suixian, and Zhongxiang. The advance split into five routes: (1) Changtaiguan–Minggang–Biyang–Tanghe; (2) Xinyang–Tongbai; (3) Suixian–Zaoyang; (4) Suixian–Wujiadien; (5) Zhongxiang–Shuangkou. Employing flanking with central breakthrough, the reinforced 3rd Division (right flank, including Ishimoto Detachment from 40th Division with tanks and engineers) spearheaded from Xinyang toward Biyang, breaching the Chinese Second Army front on day one. By May 1, elements of the 3rd and 40th Divisions captured Minggang, Lion's Bridge, and Xiaolintien; on May 5 they took Biyang and Tongbai. The Chinese 31st Army Group (northeast of Biyang) linked with the 68th and 92nd Corps to hit Japanese flanks and rear. Leaving some forces west of Tongbai to press the enemy, the main 30th Corps struck Japanese flanks. After seizing Tanghe on May 7, the Japanese pushed south toward Zaoyang. On May 8–9, the 31st Army Group retook Tanghe and Xinye, pursuing vigorously. On May 8, the Japanese left flank (13th Division) attacked from Zhongxiang, breaking through the 33rd Army front the same day.   On May 3, the Japanese 13th Division—supported by over 20 tanks, 40 aircraft, artillery, and cavalry—advanced north from Zhongxiang, capturing Changshoudian and Tianjiachi. It seized Fengyao and Changjiachi by May 6. Chinese 33rd Army Group forces used favorable terrain to intercept, while the 29th Army Group struck Japanese flanks and rear at Changjiachi and Wangjiadian, and the 41st Corps fought tenaciously to halt the advance. By May 7, Japanese spearheads reached Changjiachi on the Zaoyang–Xiangyang Highway, with elements entering Shuangkou; their rear cavalry took Xinye on May 8. Fifth War Zone commander Zhang Zizhong personally led attacks along Tianjiachi–Huanglongtang, supported by fierce 29th Army Group assaults on Japanese rear.   The Japanese 39th Division and a 6th Division brigade delayed their assault on the Chinese 11th Army Group until May 4 from Suixian. After overrunning Gaocheng and Anchu on May 5, Chinese forces withdrew to Huantan–Tang Hsien–north of Gaocheng. As the 33rd Army Group faltered, part of the 11th Army Group reinforced it; the 175th Division held at Tang Hsien while the main body fell back toward Zaoyang. During the maneuver, Japanese tanks enveloped at Tang Hsien, cutting the Zaoyang–Xiangyang Highway and forcing bitter fighting by the 174th Division. To break out, Chinese abandoned Zaoyang, using the 173rd Division for rearguard resistance while the bulk shifted west of the Tang and Bai Rivers. Japanese captured Suiyangdian and Wujiadien on May 7, Zaoyang on May 8; the 173rd Division suffered heavy losses, including the death of its commander, Gen. Zhong Yi.   On May 10, Japanese completed an encirclement east of Xiangdong along the Tang and Bai Rivers—but it collapsed as Chinese exterior forces outflanked both Japanese wings and compressed the center, trapping much of the Japanese in the Xiangdong Plains. The Chinese 2nd and 31st Army Groups plus 92nd Corps pressed south, 39th and 75th Corps east, and 33rd and 29th Army Groups north against the pocket. The 94th Corps advanced along the Han–Yichang Highway deep into Jingshan, Zaoshi, Yingcheng, and Yunmeng to sever Japanese rear communications. Meanwhile, the 7th Corps and eastern Hubei guerrillas seized Jigong Shan, Lijiachai, and Liulin station on the Beijing–Hankou Railway. The 92nd and 68th Corps retook Zaoyang, Tongbai, and Minggang, encircling four Japanese divisions in the Xiangdong Plains. By May 11, battered Japanese retreated eastward under pursuit, Chinese flanking and rear attacks leaving many dead on the field. The 31st Army Group recovered Zaoyang on May 16. Chinese reports claimed 45,000 Japanese casualties, plus capture of over 60 guns, 2,000+ horses, 70+ tanks, and 400+ trucks. The 33rd Army Group fought fiercely to intercept retreating columns, driving large Japanese remnants toward Nanguadian.   Tragically, on May 16 noon, Gen. Zhang Zizhong—personally commanding his Guard Battalion and main 74th Division—was killed in action. With pressure eased on the Japanese left, they counterattacked and retook Zaoyang on May 17. Chinese forces withdrew to Xinye on the Tangbai River's west bank and north of the Tang River, regrouping for a renewed counteroffensive.   The Military Commission anticipated a Japanese withdrawal to original lines, likely along the rain-impassable Xianghua Road. Exploiting the enemy's supply shortages, exhaustion, and retreat difficulties, it ordered Fifth War Zone units to encircle and annihilate Japanese forces near the battlefield, then pursue toward Yingcheng–Huayuan. The zone promptly launched a counteroffensive. By nightfall on May 8, Japanese pincers neared junction, having inflicted serious damage on the Chinese 84th Army but achieved little else. Nonetheless, the 11th Army ordered frontline divisions to withdraw to the Tanghe–Baihe line after reaching it, preparatory to encircling Chinese forces west of the Han River. Chongqing issued general offensive orders at 8 PM and 11 PM that night. By then, six divisions of the 31st Army Group advanced south from Nanyang in the north, five from the 33rd Army Group pressed from the south, and five from the 45th and 94th Armies pursued in the southeast—nearly completing the Japanese encirclement. Intense combat erupted.   On May 10, retreating Japanese first clashed with the advancing 33rd Army Group from the south. Seizing the moment, they ordered the 13th and 39th Divisions plus Ikeda Detachment south to smash it, with the 3rd Division covering the northern flank. Full-scale battle broke out on May 12: two Japanese divisions assaulted five Chinese divisions of the 33rd Army Group, plunging them into desperate fighting. Japanese radio intercepts—including telegrams between the Military Commission and Fifth War Zone, plus Zhang Zizhong's report to Chiang on his five divisions' movements—revealed exact positions and plans. Sonobe Kazuo concentrated the 13th and 39th Divisions to strike south along the Han's east bank against Zhang's army group, while ordering the 3rd Division (south of Xinye) back to Zaoyang to guard the rear. Direction-finding had long pinpointed the 33rd Army Group headquarters radio (call signs and bearings) about 10 km northeast of Yicheng. With air support, the Japanese encircled it. On the night of May 15, the 39th Division advanced from Fangjiaji and Nanying toward Nanguadian, completing tactical encirclement by dawn on May 16. Artillery-supported four-sided assaults followed. The defending 74th Division resisted fiercely with repeated counterattacks. Fighting raged into the afternoon, with the Special Service Battalion joining. Japanese attackers swelled to over 5,000, backed by concentrated artillery and 20+ aircraft for a final push. Zhang Zizhong, wounded multiple times, continued commanding calmly until a severe chest wound killed him heroically. The exhausted, isolated 74th Division and battalion suffered devastating losses. That day, the 13th Division also routed the main 33rd Army Group force, breaking the southern encirclement. Japanese then redeployed, concentrating around Zaoyang.   In the north, 17 divisions (including six from the 31st Army Group) attacked the isolated Japanese 3rd Division from east, south, and north, severing its supply lines. With limited ammunition and no resupply, the division faced crisis; its 29th Brigade telegram pleaded: "Enemy fighting spirit extremely high... safe return very difficult; request battalion reinforcements." Yet southern Chinese forces remained undestroyed amid chaos. Japanese choices narrowed to independent 3rd Division retreat or holding for relief. They opted to lure pursuers: ordering the division southeast toward Zaoyang to draw Chinese into pursuit. From May 16–18, the 3rd Division fought a delaying retreat; relentless Chinese pursuit inflicted limited damage due to insufficient firepower, allowing escape. By evening May 18, it reached northeast of Zaoyang and prepared offensives. The 13th and 39th Divisions, after defeating the 33rd Army Group, also advanced north to the Zaoyang line.   The 3rd Division's retreat shortened Japanese lines and hastened convergence. Unsuspecting Chinese pursued to Zaoyang. After a successful counterattack northeast of Yicheng, the 13th and 39th Divisions rejoined the 3rd Division there. On May 19 morning, three Japanese divisions attacked abreast, forcing decisive battle along the Tang River. Chinese divisions collapsed within hours; the 75th Army took heavy losses, others significant casualties. Fifth War Zone ordered hasty retreat. Japanese pursued vigorously. By May 21, the 3rd Division reached Dengxian, 13th east of Laohekou, 39th Fancheng. Early that day, the 39th Division—crossing the Baihe—met fierce west-bank fire, losing Regiment Commander Kanzaki Tetsujiro and over 300 men. That evening, the 11th Army halted pursuit, ending east-bank (Xiang River) fighting. The 20+ day operation east of the Han inflicted heavy Japanese losses, far exceeding the planned duration, leaving troops exhausted. After halting, units withdrew to Zaoyang vicinity for rest and reorganization rather than immediate return to base positions. Commanders debated proceeding to Yichang west of the Han: abandoning the plan would signal Phase One failure, eroding authority and imperial trust. Most argued troop fatigue and casualties should not deter continuation. Over 1,000 tons of supplies rushed forward via six motor companies. Following east-bank termination, Japanese consolidated for the next phase targeting Yichang. Reinforcements arrived: the 4th Division from Manchuria and 18th Independent Brigade from Wuning. The 4th Division assumed Shayang–Zhongxiang positions east of the Xiang River.   The Japanese bombarded the west bank of the Han River for ninety minutes before forcing a crossing at Wangji north of Yicheng. That midnight, the 3rd Division also crossed southeast of Xiangyang. Both met little resistance and completed crossings before dawn. The 11th Army left the 40th Division at Dahongshan for rear-area mopping-up and assigned the Xiaochuan and Cangqiao Detachments to guard mobile supply depots. On May 31 night, the 3rd and 39th Divisions crossed the Xiang River at Yicheng and Oujiamiao. After seizing Xiangyang on June 1 night, the main force split into columns crossing westward. By June 3, Japanese captured Nanzhang and Yicheng. The Chinese 41st Corps fiercely counterattacked, retaking part of Xiangyang while its main body battled around Nanzhang; the 77th Corps also struck hard. On June 4, Chinese recovered Nanzhang, forcing Japanese retreat southward. Meanwhile, the 13th Division and elements of the 6th Division forced a crossing on the Han–Yichang Highway near Jiukou and Shayang to link with southern columns for a joint push. The Chinese River Defense Force shifted its main strength to key positions, using terrain to block southward advances. The 2nd and 31st Army Groups pursued south separately. Chinese abandoned Shayang on June 5; Japanese took Jingmen, Shilipu, and Shihujiao on June 6. The 77th Corps and river defense units resisted stubbornly from Jingmen to Jiangling. After retaking Yicheng, the 2nd Army Group continued pursuit. Japanese concentrated around Jingmen–Shilipu as Jiangling fell.   On June 9 morning, Japanese launched joint air-ground assaults from Dongshi to Dangyang and Yuanan. By afternoon, penetrating the Chinese right flank forced a night withdrawal to Gulaobei–Shuanlianshi–Dangyang along the Zu River to Yuanan. June 10 saw Japanese capture Gulaobei and Dangyang, pushing Chinese to Yichang outskirts. After days of heavy fighting and prohibitive losses, Chinese abandoned Yichang on their own initiative. The 2nd and 31st Army Groups then reached Dangyang north of Jingmen. On June 16, they mounted a general offensive. By June 17, Chinese briefly retook Yichang; the 2nd Army Group linked with the 77th Corps against Dangyang, while the 31st Army Group severed Dangyang–Jingmen communications and assaulted Jingmen violently. South of the Yangtze, the 5th and 32nd Divisions crossed to hit Shayang and Shilipu. By June 18, Japanese main force held stubbornly from Dangyang to the Xiang River with superior equipment. Chinese, fighting on exterior lines, formed an encirclement from Jiangling–Yichang–Dangyang–Zhongxiang–Suixian–north of Xinyang while maintaining surveillance. Thus, the Zaoyi (Zaoyang–Yichang) Campaign ended. No prior decision existed on holding Yichang long-term. Per post-Wuhan Imperial General Headquarters policy, even extended operations aimed only to inflict severe blows and erode Chinese resistance, not expand occupation. On capture day, the 11th Army declared objectives achieved, ordering reorganization, destruction of Yichang military facilities, and dumping irremovable captured supplies into the Yangtze preparatory to withdrawal. At 10 PM June 15, formal orders withdrew to the Han's east bank: 3rd and 39th Divisions first to Dangyang–Jingmen to cover, then the 13th Division. The 13th began retreating from Yichang at midnight June 16, reaching Tumenya (10 km east) by 7 AM June 17. Chinese counterattacked along the route; the 18th Army pursued and retook Yichang morning of June 17. Japanese held Yichang only four days.   Intense debate erupted between frontline commanders and Imperial General Headquarters over retaining Yichang. With Nazi Germany's Western Europe offensive underway—Paris fell June 12, the day Yichang was taken—global upheaval intensified Japanese urgency to resolve China swiftly and free resources for wider competition. Many in high command and China Expeditionary Army argued long-term occupation would threaten Chongqing more directly, aid political maneuvers, and hasten settlement, offering immense strategic value. This swayed the Emperor, who inquired at the June 15 Imperial Conference about securing it. Backed by imperial support, high command ordered temporary retention (one month) on June 16. By transmission through Expeditionary Army and 11th Army channels, the rearguard 13th Division had withdrawn 52 km. With 3rd Division cooperation, it reversed, broke Chinese resistance, and retook Yichang afternoon June 17. On July 1, to offset expanded 11th Army responsibilities, General Headquarters transferred the 4th Division from Kwantung Army (Jiamusi, Heilongjiang) to 11th Army control. July 13 orders confirmed long-term Yichang retention, redefining Wuhan-region operations to Anqing–Xinyang–Yichang–Yueyang–Nanchang. The 11th Army assigned: 13th Division to Yichang, 4th Division to Anlu, 18th Independent Mixed Brigade east/west of Dangyang; remaining units returned to original defenses.   Post-recapture, Chinese continued counterattacks on Yichang and rear lines until ordered to halt: "To adapt to international changes, preserve National Army combat strength, and facilitate reorganization, Fifth War Zone cease attacks on Yichang immediately." A stalemate followed along lines encircling Yichang, Dangyang, Jiangling, Jingmen, Zhongxiang, Suixian, and Xinyang. To shield Chongqing and Sichuan, Nationalists re-established the Sixth War Zone (briefly created post-First Changsha, abolished April 1940), appointing Chen Cheng commander-in-chief with 33rd and 29th Army Groups, River Defense Army, and 18th Army covering western Hubei, western Hunan, eastern Sichuan. The Zaoyi campaign thus concluded. Japanese combat power again proved markedly superior. Official Japanese records (11th Army/China Expeditionary Army) reported 2,700 killed, ~7,800 wounded (total ~10,500; some phases ~1,403 killed/4,639 wounded). Chinese admitted heavy losses: 36,983 killed, 50,509 wounded, 23,000 missing (total >110,000 in some accounts). Wartime Nationalist claims inflated Japanese casualties to 45,000 killed/wounded with major captures (60+ guns, 70+ tanks, 400+ trucks), likely propagandistic; Japanese sources show far lower equipment losses. With 56 battalions deployed, Japanese suffered 12–15% combat casualties; Chinese (54 divisions, ~380,000 men) incurred 25–30% or higher—underscoring firepower/equipment disparity. Japan achieved tactical success by securing Yichang long-term (as a Chongqing bombing base) but failed to annihilate the main Chinese force or compel peace. Chinese resistance thwarted full encirclement and imposed attrition, albeit at crippling cost to the Fifth War Zone—severely weakened and never fully recovering until war's end. Japanese aims were realized to a significant, though not decisive, degree.   The Fifth War Zone's operational plan was fundamentally sound. Chinese intelligence detected Japanese intentions early, accurately predicted the attack axis, and deployed accordingly. The plan included preemptive strikes at Wusheng Pass and the Guangshui section of the Pinghan Railway to harass Japanese rear areas, threaten Wuhan, gather reconnaissance, and disrupt enemy preparations. Though well conceived, these actions never materialized. In the first phase (Xiangdong operations), Chinese forces resisted while shifting the main body to outer lines, securing mobile flanking positions. This frustrated Japanese encirclement efforts in the Xiangdong Plains. Exploiting the enemy's retreat, China launched a timely counteroffensive that encircled the Japanese 3rd Division. Despite breakout support from over 100 aircraft and 200 tanks, the poorly equipped Chinese inflicted heavy casualties during the three-day siege, blunting the division's momentum.    On the southern front, the 33rd Army Group's intercepting deployment was appropriate, but insufficient strength and compromised communications allowed the Japanese 13th and 39th Divisions to counterattack decisively, inflicting major losses and claiming the heroic death of Commander-in-Chief Zhang Zizhong—whose steadfast patriotism remains a lasting source of national pride. Overall, Chinese assessments and deployments in Phase One were largely correct. The battlefield showed China retained initiative and was not wholly dominated by Japanese plans. The core issue was overestimation of Chinese combat power amid severe shortages of heavy weapons. At least three corps suffered heavy attrition, yet Japanese captured only twenty-three mountain/field guns. Relying on manpower for brute force left Chinese units critically undergunned, enabling repeated encirclement attempts but preventing decisive destruction or severe damage to encircled enemies like the 3rd Division.   Phase Two, by contrast, was entirely passive. The initial Japanese Han River crossings were largely feints, yet the west bank received scant attention in overall planning—leaving Yichang virtually undefended as main forces deployed east of the river. Post-Phase One, Japan reinforced the 11th Army with three infantry battalions and one mountain artillery battalion from the 13th Army (lower Yangtze), plus six motor transport companies rushing massive supplies forward. Chinese intelligence missed these moves, remaining complacent in expectation of Japanese withdrawal eastward. After regrouping, Japan abruptly pivoted west with rapid advances. The Military Commission and Fifth War Zone, caught unprepared, made frantic, chaotic adjustments that failed to mount effective defense. The loss of strategically vital Yichang was inevitable, complicating the resistance both militarily and psychologically. This stemmed directly from command misjudgment of Japanese strategic and operational aims. Had plans anticipated a westward thrust and retained strong reserves—or detected the 10-day regrouping window to readjust deployments—China could have retained greater initiative, inflicted more damage, and reduced its own losses.   I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. Japan's 11th Army launched an offensive in Hubei to encircle Chinese forces in the Fifth War Zone and seize Yichang for bombing Chongqing. Chinese troops countered effectively, encircling Japanese divisions and inflicting heavy losses, though General Zhang Zizhong was killed in action. After intense fighting east of the Han River, Japanese crossed west, captured Yichang, briefly withdrew, then retook and held it long-term. 

Be encouraged by the ministry of one of our Elders, James Neale; as he declares truths related to our Almighty God being the LORD of Hosts, Jehovah Sabaoth. Matthew Shell's entire original music video can be found at https://youtu.be/0A5Pk-Qip7U?si=EpRb5xDhsIIfF5eg

One of the Civil War's most controversial events unfolded on June 11, 1863, when Union forces entered Darien, Georgia, an undefended town of little strategic importance, and left it in flames. Homes, churches, businesses and one of the oldest Black congregations in the South were destroyed. The troops ordered to take part included the famed 54th Massachusetts, one of the first official Black regiments of the Civil War. But the story of who set the destruction in motion is more complicated than many people came to believe. Join the Community on Patreon: Want more Southern Mysteries? You can hear the Southern Mysteries show archive of 60+ episodes along with Patron exclusive podcast, Audacious: Tales of American Crime and more when you become a patron of the show. You can immediately access exclusive content now at patreon.com/southernmysteries

Rome didn't collapse when the invasions began.It collapsed when the money stopped working.For centuries, Roman coins held their value. People trusted them. Armies were paid with them. The system ran on them.Then the silver disappeared.The coins kept coming… but they weren't worth what they claimed.And once people realized that, something much bigger broke.Trust.In this episode, we break down the real mechanism behind Rome's collapse through its currency:• How debasement destroyed trust• Why inflation wasn't the real problem• Why Diocletian couldn't fix it• How Constantine rebuilt the system• And what coins reveal that history books missBecause coins don't lie.They show you exactly when a civilization starts to fail.And once you see it in Rome…You'll start seeing it today.Subscribe to The Roman Pattern for more breakdowns of how empires actually collapse.CHAPTERS:00:00 When Rome's Money Stopped Working00:26 The Moment Trust Collapsed00:50 Why This Was Bigger Than Inflation01:18 Coins Reveal the Truth03:03 The Beginning of Debasement05:28 How Coins Became Worthless07:04 What Debasement Really Means11:22 How People Reacted12:54 Diocletian Tries to Fix It18:05 Constantine Rebuilds the System22:31 What Coins Reveal About Power25:52 The Hidden Decline29:18 Signs of a Dying System32:12 Why This Pattern Repeats39:56 What It Means Today

What's your limit? Could you keep your cool evading live fire? Could you push a Jeep with no wheels miles across the scorching desert? Could you survive 6 days of strenuous exercise in the freezing cold sea, with practically no sleep? These are just some of the things required merely in training for the world's elite military forces. And while a country's military success depends on many factors like strategy, technology, and logistics, one thing they can't do without is highly disciplined troops—trained to keep their cool in the most dangerous situations known to man. So, strap on your combat boots and get in formation, soldier, as we march through some of the most disciplined armies in the world! Our Sponsors:* Check out BetterHelp: https://www.betterhelp.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Last time we spoke about the first battle of Changsha. Japanese forces under General Okamura Yasuji, including the 6th, 13th, and 33rd Divisions, launched a multi-pronged offensive, crossing the Xin Qiang River and capturing Yingtian amid brutal fighting. Chinese defenses, commanded by Xue Yue in the Ninth War Zone, employed gradual resistance strategies, with units like the 195th Division under Qin Yizhi holding key positions such as Bijia Mountain and Fulinpu, inflicting heavy losses. Battalion Commander Luo Wenlang recaptured Dongtang in a midnight assault, grieving his fallen brother amid Mid-Autumn moonlight. Chiang Kai-shek, from Chongqing, oversaw operations while hosting a festive banquet, buoyed by international support like U.S. loans. By October, Japanese advances stalled; Okamura ordered a retreat on October 2, exposed by a downed plane yielding critical documents. Chinese forces pursued, reclaiming lines by October 8, annihilating over half the invaders per Chiang's commendation.   #198 The Battle of South Guangxi Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. In January 1939, the Japanese General Headquarters, responding to naval needs, ordered the 21st Corps to seize Hainan Island. The goal was to establish a base for air operations against southwestern China and to enforce blockade measures. Supported by the Japanese Navy, the Corps deployed the Taiwan Brigade, which landed at Haikou on February 10. After initial defeats, Chinese peace preservation units withdrew to the island's interior and conducted harassment operations. Japanese troops soon occupied northern counties including Qiongshan, Wenchang, Ding'an, Qionghai, and Chengmai, followed by the port of Yulin, which positioned them for southward advances toward Guangxi.   This invasion was part of a broader strategy to disrupt Chinese supply lines and secure a foothold in southern China. Although Chinese resistance on Hainan ultimately failed to repel the invaders, it highlighted the resilience that would define regional fighting.   After the costly Battle of Wuhan, the Sino-Japanese War reached a stalemate in central China, despite ongoing large-scale conflicts and Japanese strategic bombings that caused heavy casualties without breaking the deadlock. Politically, Japan's alignment with the Axis powers and the start of World War II in Western Europe led European nations to bolster ties with China. With major coastal ports under Japanese control, the Nationalist government's main overseas supply route became the Haiphong-Kunming railway in French Indochina, which transported four times more war materials in 1938 than in 1937, including heavy equipment purchased abroad.   The Hainan occupation negatively impacted Japan's war efforts, though diplomatic pressure on Britain and France proved ineffective. Meanwhile, the Imperial Japanese Navy proposed a southward advance: invading from Nanning to Longzhou County in Guangxi by sea to establish an airfield for strategic bombing. An April 15, 1939, Navy Department assessment deemed large-scale inland army operations challenging, recommending instead that the army and navy collaborate to occupy Shantou—the largest trading port on the South China coast—before pushing into Guangxi to seize Nanning and sever China's vital Indochina supply line.   In June, the Japanese General Staff's "Military Geography" emphasized that occupying Nanning would provide convenient transportation in all directions, reaching Guangdong, Hunan, Guizhou, and Yunnan. The Nanning-Lang Son road had become a major artery for Chiang Kai-shek's regime to connect with the southwest. To cut it off directly, Nanning must be captured first. Once occupied, heavy troops near Tokyo Bay would not be needed to achieve the operation's purpose. This idea gained considerable support both politically and tactically. The Army's northward policy had been defeated by the Soviet Union in the Battle of Khalkhin Gol in September 1939. Major General Tominaga Kyoji, the newly appointed head of the First Department of the General Staff, sought to avoid further embarrassments. Supporting the proposal involved transferring the 5th Division of the Kwantung Army, originally intended for Khalkhin Gol, to the south. This prevented front-line units from misjudging higher-ups' positions and allowed implementation without affecting existing troops.   In September, the European war broke out. The Japanese General Headquarters ordered the 21st Army to capture the vicinity of Nanning, cut off the international passage between Guangxi and Vietnam, and obtain a base for air operations in southwest China. Japan aimed to completely sever China's most important supply route. According to Japanese intelligence, the French Indochina line accounted for 85% of China's foreign aid in late 1939, with 12,500 tons transported in September alone.   On September 1, 1939, Germany attacked Poland; on September 3, Britain and France declared war on Germany, igniting World War II. Japan, eager to resolve the China issue and free up troops to seize Western colonies in Asia and the Pacific, stated through Prime Minister Nobuyuki Abe on September 4: "At the outbreak of the European war, the Empire will not intervene and has decided to focus on resolving the China Incident." In Nanjing, the China Expeditionary Army Headquarters was established, with General Nishio Hisazo as Commander-in-Chief and Lieutenant General Itagaki Seishiro as Chief of Staff, overseeing the North China Area Army, the 11th Army, the 13th Army, and the 21st Army.   On September 23, the Japanese General Headquarters issued an order to prepare for a swift response to the China Incident. On October 16, "Continental Order No. 375" directed the Commander-in-Chief of the China Expeditionary Army to swiftly cut off enemy supply routes from Nanning to Longzhou with a portion of the navy. Also on October 16, "Continental Order No. 582," a central Army-Navy agreement, aimed to cut off enemy routes along the Nanning-Longzhou line and strengthen naval air operations against the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway and the Burma Road. The operation was scheduled for mid-November. On October 19, Nishio Juzo issued orders for the Guangxi operation, involving the 5th Division, Taiwan Mixed Brigade, supporting units, the 5th Fleet (renamed the 2nd Expeditionary Fleet in mid-November), and the 3rd Combined Naval Air Group. Total strength: about 30,000 men, over 70 warships, 2 aircraft carriers, and about 100 aircraft. Tominaga Kyoji announced: "This is the last battle of the China Incident."   Politically, the Guangxi Army was a key pillar of the National Government after retreating to Sichuan. Attacking Guangxi could impact the Guangxi clique's stance on continuing the war. Cutting off the Nanning-Longzhou line would affect Vietnam-China transportation security and allow actions against French Indochina amid Europe's distractions. With tactical and political alignment, the plan was approved.   In September 1939, the Chinese repelled the Japanese attack on Changsha. In October, the National Government held the Second Nanyue Military Conference in Hengshan, summarizing the First Changsha Campaign and deciding on a new offensive. On October 29, Chiang Kai-shek announced: "Our future strategic application and the mentality of officers and soldiers must be completely transformed. We must start to turn defense into offense, turn stillness into movement, and actively take offensive measures." On November 5, after the meeting, intelligence indicated Japan's intention to invade the south. U.S. and British agencies reported the Japanese fleet gathering in Tokyo Bay, signaling an imminent operation against Nanning. Chiang flew from Hengshan to Guilin to arrange defenses.   At this time, coastal defense was guarded by the 16th Army Group under Xia Wei (transferred, with Cai Tingkai taking over), a Guangxi clique force comprising the 46th and 31st Armies. Bai Chongxi, director of the Guilin Headquarters, was in Chongqing for the Sixth Plenary Session of the Fifth National Congress of the Kuomintang, while Chief of Staff Lin Wei was in Rong County mourning Xia Wei's mother. The headquarters was essentially deserted. Zhang Fakui, commander of the Fourth War Zone, and Chief of Staff Wu Shiyuan were in Shaoguan, Guangdong. The three-tiered command structure—headquarters, war zone, army group—was practically non-existent.   The Chinese forces north of the pass were commanded by Bai Chongxi's Guilin Headquarters, with Lin Wei as Chief of Staff; they included the Fourth War Zone under Zhang Fakui and the 16th Army Group under Xia Wei. They commanded: the 31st Army (Commander Wei Yunsong; 131st Division under He Weizhen; 135th Division under Su Zuxin; 188th Division under Wei Zhen); the 46th Army (Commander He Xuan; 170th Division under Li Xingshu; 175th Division under Feng Huang; New 19th Division under Huang Gu); and a portion of the 200th Division of the 5th Army (Commander Dai Anlan). Together with the 1st-4th Independent Infantry Regiments of the Guangxi Training Corps, total strength was approximately 60,000 men.   After the Japanese landing, Bai Chongxi was stationed in Qianjiang, while the 16th Army Group headquarters in Xiawei was at Heishiyan near Binyang.   In early November 1939, the Japanese 5th Fleet and the aircraft carrier Kaga escorted the 5th Division and the Taiwan Brigade to concentrate in Haikou. Japanese aircraft bombed important cities in Guangxi. At that time, the Chinese army defended the coast from Nanning to Qinzhou Bay and Fangcheng with part of the 16th Army Group of the Fourth War Zone. The 46th Army was responsible for the coastline of Fangcheng, Qinxian, Hepu, and Liankou, and the 31st Army for key points along the Xijiang River.   On November 9, Japanese troops assembled at Sanya Bay on Hainan Island. Lieutenant General Ando Rikichi, commander of the 21st Army, personally commanded from Sanya. On the 13th, the fleet set sail. On the 14th, vanguard ships feinted at Beihai with over ten ships. A battalion of the 175th Division retaliated and was ordered to destroy Beihai, but Commander Chao Wei of the 524th Regiment believed no landing was intended, avoiding complete destruction. That night, Japanese ships turned toward Qinzhou.   To safeguard the international communications link between Guangxi and Indochina, the Chinese Generalissimo's Headquarters in Guilin assigned defensive missions. The 46th Corps of the 16th Army Group was tasked with defending the coastline from Fangcheng to Qinzhou, Hepu, and Lianjiang. The 31st Corps was responsible for key positions along the Xi River. Defensive positions were prepared in advance, and communications infrastructure was sabotaged to facilitate gradual resistance, aiming to attrition Japanese forces before a decisive engagement along the Yong River.   On November 15, under air and naval fire support, the Japanese 5th Division and Taiwan Brigade executed a forced landing on the west coast of Qinzhou Bay. Following intense resistance, the Chinese New 19th Division withdrew to Pancheng and Shangsi. After capturing Qinzhou, the Japanese 5th Division advanced north along the Yong-Qin Highway, while the Taiwan Brigade moved along Xiaodong–Baiji–Bujin Road. On November 17, the Japanese army captured Qinzhou and Fangcheng. The 5th Division immediately split into three routes along the Yongqin Highway, while the Taiwan Brigade advanced north along Xiaodong-Baekje-Pujin. On the 18th, they attacked Xiaodong, the headquarters of the New 19th Division. Division Commander Huang Gu fled alone in the face of battle. His troops were routed, and the Japanese continued northward. Meanwhile, bandits from the Shiwan Mountains formed numerous plainclothes teams to lead the Japanese advance, accelerating their northward movement. By November 21, they approached the south bank of the Yu River. On December 1, they occupied Gaofeng Pass. On December 4, they occupied Kunlun Pass and then adopted a defensive posture.   On November 16, Chiang Kai-shek summoned Bai Chongxi in Chongqing, ordering him to return to Guilin immediately to command the battle, without attending the plenary session. Bai requested full command without intervention from Zhang Fakui, and that all armies obey the Headquarters directly. Chiang approved and transferred his elite Fifth Army and other units to Bai's command. Bai telegraphed Du Yuming to lead troops by train from Hengyang to southern Guilin and reinstated Xia Wei as commander of the 16th Army Group, with Cai Tingkai awaiting orders. The 16th Army Group assembled, and Deputy Commander-in-Chief Wei Yunsong arrived in Nanning on the 19th. Units rushed to block Japanese advances. Bai flew to Guilin on the 19th and Qianjiang on the 21st, establishing the command post. Thus, as Japanese arrived in Nanning, Chinese reinforcements like the 170th Division reached Yongning on the 22nd, two regiments of the 135th Division entered Nanning on the 23rd, and the 600th Regiment of the 200th Division arrived at Ertang on the afternoon of the 24th. Other armies assembled in Liuzhou and Binyang.   On November 21, Japanese troops approached the south bank of the Yu River. Wu Zongjun, commander of the 405th Regiment of the 135th Division, arbitrarily ordered his regiments to abandon positions and retreat. Wei Yunsong ordered Su Zuxin to intercept, but Wu disobeyed. No troops defended Nanning's front lines. At dawn on the 24th, the 170th Division fought fiercely in Yongning. In the morning, the Japanese 21st Regiment crossed the river. By afternoon, Nanning had fallen. Over the next two days, they swept surrounding positions. On the morning of the 25th, the 600th Regiment of the 200th Division fought alone against Japanese regiments at Ertang. Under air cover, Japanese attacked, but Chinese resisted stubbornly. Regiment Commander Shao Yizhi and Adjutant Wu Qisheng were killed. Given the situation, Division Commanders Li Xingshu and Dai Anlan retreated to Gaofeng Pass after dusk. Though they failed to stop the advance, this was the fiercest resistance since the landing, lasting two days and nights. On November 25, Japanese attacked the 175th Division near Luwu from Xiaodong and the highway. The division moved to Nalong, assembling in villages there. The 175th attacked key points along the Yongqin Highway, including Datang, Naxiao, Dongya, Nabian, Xincheng, Xiaodong, Dadong, and Bancheng.   On November 20, the 21st Army opened its headquarters in Qinzhou. On November 26, Ando Rikichi announced the formation of the Yongqin Corps under Imamura Hitoshi. Ando left for Guangzhou on the 27th. Starting on the 26th, Japanese attacked Gaofeng Pass with aircraft cover. Despite fierce resistance, Chinese lost Gaofeng Pass on December 1. On the 4th, Japanese occupied Kunlun Pass, then adjusted deployment. The two sides confronted each other along the Kunlun Pass mountainous boundary. According to statistics up to December 1, Japanese suffered 145 dead and 315 wounded; Chinese had 6,125 dead bodies and 664 prisoners (but Japanese casualties were underreported; the 41st Infantry Regiment received 727 replacements on January 19, likely matching killed and wounded sent back). Seized in Nanning: 300 tons lead, 200 tons coal, 500 bundles cotton, 321 tons cotton thread, 30 tons iron, 60 tons tin. On December 2, the Japanese 5th Cavalry Regiment and Morimoto Battalion were attacked by about 1,500 Chinese with four tanks at Batang. Japanese dispatched the 21st Brigade (Nakamura Detachment), repelling a mixed force of the 200th and 188th Divisions. Japanese occupied Kunlun Pass but left only a battalion to defend it, withdrawing the rest to Nanning.   Bai Chongxi, director of the Guilin Headquarters and deputy chief of staff, proposed a counter-offensive plan, which was approved by Chiang Kai-shek.   On November 24, when Japanese had just occupied Nanning, Bai Chongxi demanded an immediate counterattack while Japanese were unstable and weak. After failing to gain approval, Bai asked Du Yuming to submit a request. Du sent a telegram on December 1: "The enemy occupying Nanning is less than two divisions. They succeeded by exploiting our dispersed forces, but lack heavy weapons and supplies. Our army should gather superior forces and launch a counter-offensive quickly (before December 10) to defeat them and restore international transportation." Chiang decided on a counter-offensive on December 7. On the 8th, Bai conveyed the objective: "capturing Kunlun Pass and then recovering Nanning." By mid-December, assembly was complete. Chiang dispatched Chen Cheng and Li Jishen to supervise, and Zhang Fakui arrived in Qianjiang.   In the early stages, Guangxi lacked heavy armored forces for counterattacking beyond Guangxi clique troops. The fall of Kunlun Pass prompted Chongqing to deploy the reorganized Fifth Army and its armored corps for a strong attack. The Fifth Army was the main force at Kunlun Pass, with the National Revolutionary Army providing cover while launching a full-scale counterattack in Nanning.   To recapture Kunlun Pass and Nanning, Bai Chongxi dispatched approximately nine armies and twenty-seven divisions, totaling 300,000 troops: Xia Wei of the 16th Army Group, Ye Zhao of the 37th Army Group, Deng Longguang of the 35th Army Group, and Cai Tingkai of the 26th Army Group (31st, 5th, 64th, 46th, and 43rd Armies, etc.) to attack Kunlun Pass. The Japanese, with the Nakamura Brigade as main force and special forces, had strong fortifications. Xu Tingyao of the 38th Army Group, with Li Yannian of the 2nd Army, Gan Lichu of the 6th Army, Yao Chun of the 36th Army, and Fu Zhongfang of the 99th Army. The 5th Army, plus the 1st Honorary Division (Zheng Dongguo), New 22nd Division (Qiu Qingquan), and all armored, cavalry, artillery, and engineer regiments, arrived.   The Japanese forces consisted of the 5th Division (Lieutenant General Hitoshi Imamura; 9th Brigade under Major General Genichiro Ogawa; 21st Brigade under Major General Masao Nakamura; Taiwan Mixed Brigade under Major General Sadashiro Shiota), Marine Corps (over 70 warships), and Air Force (100 aircraft), totaling about 30,000. Later reinforcements: Imperial Guard Division and a brigade from the 18th Division. Total about 100,000, but only 45,000 fought. After a traitor reported over 100,000 Nationalist troops north of Kunlun Pass, Imamura dismissed it as "impossible." Higher Japanese ranks hoped to instigate rebellion by the Guangxi clique. On December 10, Imamura issued a telegram "Letter to Generals Li and Bai," expressing respect and stating the attack on Nanning was to cut off Chiang's lines, hoping for Japan-China cooperation. If insisted, the Japanese garrison would win. Finally: "The more than 4,200 brave soldiers who died in Nanning have been buried in Zhongshan Park and solemnly offered sacrifices. Please rest assured."   On December 15, Bai Chongxi took a decisive step in the escalating conflict by issuing the first counter-offensive order, setting the stage for a coordinated push against enemy positions. He organized the forces into three main route armies, with additional reserves held back for support.   The Northern Route Army, under Xu Tingyao's command, focused its efforts on Kunlun Pass. The 5th Army led the direct assault there, while the 92nd Division from the 99th Army skirted around Lingliwei to strike at Qitang, effectively flanking the pass and adding pressure from the side.   Meanwhile, the Western Route Army, led by Xia Wei, split into two columns to cover multiple fronts. The First Column, commanded by Zhou Zuhuang, targeted Gaofeng Pass in a bold advance. The Second Column, under Wei Yunsong, positioned itself at Suwei to block any reinforcements heading toward Nanning, cutting off potential enemy supply lines.   On the eastern flank, Cai Tingkai's Eastern Route Army aimed to disrupt key logistics. The 46th Army moved against Luwu and Lingshan, intent on severing the vital Yongqin Highway. At the same time, the 66th Army joined the assault on Kunlun Pass before pushing onward to Gula and Gantang. To bolster these efforts, the remaining two divisions of the 99th Army were kept in reserve, ready to reinforce wherever needed.   The very next day, on December 16, Du Yuming—now serving as army commander—gathered his officers for a critical conference within the 5th Army. There, they crafted a clever encirclement strategy dubbed "close the gate and fight the tiger," designed to trap and overwhelm the opposition. The plan's core involved the 200th Division, led by Dai Anlan, and the 1st Honorary Division under Zheng Dongguo launching the primary attack on Kunlun Pass. Flanking from the right, Qiu Qingquan's New 22nd Division would seize Wutang and Liutang, then turn to intercept any incoming reinforcements. On the left wing, Peng Bisheng commanded two regiments in a daring bypass of Gantang and Chang'an, aiming to strike at Qitang and Batang and seal off the enemy's retreat routes.   The enemy at Kunlun Pass was the Matsumoto Sozaburo Battalion of the 21st Brigade. Its 42nd and 21st Regiments were along Jiutang-Nanning. On December 16, Imamura ordered Major General Kawai Genshichi of the 9th Brigade to lead thousands in a surprise attack on Longzhou and Zhennan Pass, departing on the 17th.   At 8 p.m. on December 17, the Battle of Kunlun Pass began.   On December 18, Chinese forces began their attack and captured Kunlun Pass and Jiutang on the same day. On December 19, it captured Gaofeng Pass. On December 20, Gaofeng Pass, Jiutang, and Kunlun Pass fell into the hands of the Japanese army again. At dawn on December 18, the artillery of the 5th Army opened fire. After extension, the 200th and 1st Honorary Divisions attacked. Hundreds of Japanese planes bombed. By night, the 1st Honorary captured Fairy Mountain, Laomaoling, Wanfu Village, Luotang, and Hill 411; 200th captured Hills 653 and 600, taking Kunlun Pass. At noon on the 19th, massive Japanese air raid. Imamura dispatched the 21st Regiment under Colonel Miki Yoshinosuke, recapturing it. Positions were contested repeatedly. The New 22nd occupied Wutang and Liutang; Wutang recaptured by Japanese, but Liutang held, blocking reinforcements. When Imamura ordered Taiwan Mixed Brigade reinforcement, they were blocked at Liutang by Qiu Qingquan. Du Yuming ordered Zheng Dongguo to send Zheng Tingji's 3rd Regiment to encircle Jiutang from the right. They captured high ground west of Jiutang at night. On December 20, enemy at Kunlun Pass weakened, sending urgent reports. Imamura ordered Nakamura Masao with 42nd Regiment to reinforce, but blocked at Wutang for two days, reaching Qitang on the 22nd, blocked again. Nakamura was wounded on the 23rd morning. At 1:30 pm, Miki reported: "If the brigade cannot arrive before dusk, the front line will be difficult to secure."   Imamura ordered Colonel Lin Yixiong's 1st Regiment and Colonel Watanabe Nobuyoshi's 2nd Regiment of the Taiwan Mixed Brigade to reinforce, but blocked by 175th Division on Yongqin Road. Watanabe's regiment blocked at Luwu by 524th Regiment (Chao Wei), and after three days, couldn't pass. Watanabe was killed, remnants fled to Qin County. On the 20th, Imamura ordered the 9th Brigade's 3rd Battalion of Ito's unit back in 105 vehicles to reinforce.   The Japanese confirmed the attack and Imamura ordered Nakamura Detachment rescue. Over two weeks, encirclement and breakout battles occurred on the Nanning-Kunlun Pass highway.   On the 18th, the 170th Division launched the Battle of Gaofeng Pass, capturing a hill on the 19th but ambushed that night. On the 20th, the pass fell, retreating to Gewei. Bai inspected but no improvement; failed to capture Gaofeng Pass or block reinforcements. Ito's unit on Yonglong Road intercepted by 131st at Xichangwei. On the 22nd, Imamura sent two companies from Nanning, intercepted by 188th near Suwei. Ito's battalion besieged in Xichangwei for three days, spared because 131st avoided close combat. Under air cover, both broke through to Nanning on the 26th.   On November 21, Chiang was dissatisfied with Kunlun Pass progress, ordering: "If front-line troops and artillery fail to attack or complete tasks, they shall be punished for cowardice."   By the 23rd, two divisions of 5th Army had over 2,000 casualties; Japanese over 1,000. Six days yielded no results, with reinforcements arriving. Du changed tactics to concentrate forces, tightening encirclement.   On the 24th, Oikawa Detachment ordered back to Nanning, destroying captured materials and withdrawing from Longzhou and Zhennanguan. Bai learned some escaped, telegraphing Wei Yunsong: "If the second batch escapes, it affects the main force. The deputy commander-in-chief should be punished." Main force still escaped; local troops preserved strength, benefiting Japanese.   On the main position, Zheng Tingji spotted Japanese officers meeting and ordered fire, inflicting heavy casualties, requiring airdropped officers.   On the 25th, Second Regiment of First Division captured Luotang South Heights, annihilating over 200. From December 25, Fifth Army and 159th and 92nd Divisions occupied key high grounds. Fierce battle until December 31, capturing Kunlun Pass and Tianyin, killing Nakamura Masao, annihilating over 5,000.   Following the intense clashes at Kunlun Pass, the battle's toll on the Japanese forces became starkly evident in the weeks that followed. On January 19, just a month after the fighting peaked, the Japanese rushed in 3,389 fresh replacements to replenish their battered 5th Division. This influx was distributed unevenly: 1,848 went to the 21st Infantry Regiment and 814 to the 42nd, figures that likely corresponded directly to the number of dead and seriously wounded who had been evacuated back home—though those with minor injuries weren't factored into these counts. The ferocity of the engagement was further underscored by the capture of numerous Japanese strongholds, where Chinese forces found that every defender had been killed, leaving no survivors behind.   In many ways, this outcome represented a stunning annihilation for the Japanese, particularly the 21st Brigade, which was effectively wiped out. Key figures fell in the fray, including Brigade Commander Masao Nakamura, Acting Commander Sakata Genichi, Miki Yoshinosuke, along with various deputies and battalion commanders. The leadership losses were catastrophic: over 85% of officers above the squad leader level were killed. Japanese records themselves acknowledged more than 4,000 soldiers dead, painting a grim picture that their own war histories later described as "the darkest era for the army." On the Chinese side, the victory came at a heavy price, with over 10,000 casualties suffered, yet remarkably, the core officer corps remained largely intact, preserving command structure for future operations.   Zooming out to the broader theater in December 1939, the Japanese 5th Division and the Taiwan Mixed Brigade found themselves holding the line against an overwhelming force of more than 150,000 Nationalist troops. At the same time, the Japanese 21st Army was shifting its focus to Guangdong Province in preparation for Operation Weng Ying, while the Oikawa Detachment—primarily composed of the 11th Infantry Regiment—pushed forward to Longzhou. They captured Zhennanguan on November 21, securing valuable stocks of fuel and arms in the process. However, these stretched deployments and insufficient troop numbers left the Japanese without adequate reserves when encirclement loomed at Kunlun Pass. Ultimately, they were forced to abandon their offensive plans in Guangdong, pulling back to consolidate defenses around Nanning. Meanwhile, from their base in Chongqing, Chinese commanders had meticulously planned the recapture, turning the tide through careful strategy and sheer determination. Shocked, Japanese dispatched Vice Chief of Staff Sawada Shigeru to Guangzhou. On December 29, 21st Army sent staff to Nanning. Failed to change 21st Brigade's defeat. Imamura planned personal charge for revenge on January 1, but Ando ordered holding Nanning for reinforcements: "The 21st Army is transferring powerful force to annihilate enemy. 5th Division secure Nanning and key locations."   After capturing Kunlun Pass and annihilating two regiments of 21st Brigade, 5th Army thought to recapture Nanning. Remaining 21st Brigade and Taiwan regiments between Jiutang and Batang. At noon January 1, 1940, Oikawa's thousands arrived at Batang; Imamura ordered Oikawa replace killed Sakata. First battle on Hill 441. 1st Division held north side; Japanese south. On January 1, Japanese bombed and attacked; 1st Division reduced to hundred but held. At dawn 2nd, counterattack all day, no progress. On 3rd, Du mobilized 200th and part New 22nd; brutal fighting, heavy casualties. At nightfall, Japanese retreated to Jiutang. On 4th, Japanese abandoned Jiutang to Batang. New 22nd moved into Jiutang. 5th Army attacked Batang; by 12th, no progress. Exhausted with heavy casualties, 5th Army ordered to Silong for rest. Mission transferred to 36th Army. 5th Army withdrew.   On January 7, Chiang flew to Guilin, visiting Qianjiang on 10th to discuss plans with Bai, Chen, Zhang, Xu, Lin. Bai proposed offensive with new armies to recapture Nanning. Chiang approved. On 11th, as Bai issued orders, Chiang overturned, changing to defensive. Japanese gained time for counter-offensive.   To salvage defeat, Japanese transferred 18th Division and Konoye Brigade from Guangdong. Combined with existing, formed 22nd Corps under Seiichi Kuno, under South China Front Army commanded by Reikichi Ando, preparing counteroffensive.   On January 25, a brigade from the Japanese 18th Division and elements of the 15th Division attacked frontally along Yongbin Road, while Konoye Brigade flanked toward Guizhou via Yongyong Road, in Binyang Campaign. Konoye crossed at Tingziwei, then Yongchun County, via Gantang, Luwei, Gula, Wuling to Binyang, cutting rear. Bai Chongxi rushed 175th Division of 46th Army north to tail Konoye. After reinforcements, 21st Army launched offensive to drive and encircle south of Binyang; accumulated supplies in Nanning. On January 22, 18th and Konoye reached attack points. 38th Army Group HQ in Binyang bombed, communications cut, independent combat.   On January 28, Japanese launched offensive (Binyang Operation). On February 3, 41st Infantry of 5th Division occupied Kunlun Pass. On February 4, Ando reached captured Binyang. Nationalists lost Kunlun Pass, lines collapsed, many encircled. Battle ended with withdrawal; February 13, Japanese withdrew to Nanning, lines stalemated.   In the wake of the Binyang clashes, the 18th Division was indeed shifted to Guangzhou. Japanese records from January 28 to February 13 painted a picture of their spoils: they claimed to have captured 19 tanks, 5 light armored vehicles, 30 automobiles, 20 field or mountain guns, 13 rapid-fire guns, and 41 mortars. Additionally, they reported counting 27,041 Chinese bodies on the battlefield and taking 1,167 prisoners. The Chinese forces, for their part, regrouped with their main strength positioned east of the Yongqin Highway, while some elements maneuvered west to harass Japanese rear lines and coordinate actions from the north bank.   On February 21, 1940, Chiang arrived in Liuzhou, residing at Yangjiao Mountain. From February 22, he convened over 100 generals for a four-day Liuzhou Military Conference to review Guinan operations. Chiang demoted Bai Chongxi for poor supervision and Chen Cheng for poor guidance from first- to second-class generals. He also punished and rewarded other senior officers. The 46th Army and 175th Division were commended for discipline. On February 26, Fourth War Zone Commander Zhang Fakui announced: "No need for counterattack on Nanning currently." The entire Guinan Campaign ended.   The defeat embarrassed Chongqing; not only disrupted Guangxi-Vietnam traffic, but massive effort ended in rout. Pre-battle, Guilin Headquarters misjudged Japanese intentions; during, both Guangxi and Huangpu clique leaders showed poor performance, infuriating Chiang. Post-battle punishments were unprecedented in the war.   I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. In November 1939, Japanese forces, including the 5th Division and Taiwan Brigade, landed at Qinzhou Bay, captured Nanning, and advanced to Kunlun Pass. Chinese troops, under Bai Chongxi and reinforced by the elite 5th Army, launched fierce counteroffensives, recapturing Kunlun Pass in December with heavy casualties. 

I'm thrilled to welcome Chase Chappell, Partner at DOE Media, one of the fastest-growing performance marketing agencies in the ecom space, Ads Mastery Founder, Founder at Serge, Partner in Success Ai Chase has advised on over $200 million in ad spend across Facebook and TikTok, helping brands turn paid traffic into predictable, scalable revenue.Through his experience running his own agency, Chappell Digital Marketing, and now as part of DOE Media, he's helped DTC and e-commerce brands not only master ad buying but also build sales pages that convert and expand into new channels beyond Amazon.Highlight Bullets> Here's a glimpse of what you would learn…. Strategies for scaling e-commerce brands through paid media and multi-channel approaches.Importance of diversifying sales channels beyond Amazon, including Shopify and TikTok Shop.Unique challenges and opportunities presented by TikTok as a sales platform.The significance of creator management and engagement in driving sales on TikTok Shop.Effective messaging strategies for attracting and retaining creators.The role of transparency and feedback loops in creator communities to enhance performance.Compensation structures for creators, including commission models and incentives.The impact of TikTok Shop on overall brand awareness and sales across multiple channels.The necessity of an omnichannel mindset for successful e-commerce growth.Insights on leveraging AI tools for creative production and marketing efficiency.In this episode of the "Ecomm Breakthrough Podcast," host Josh Hadley interviews Chase Chappell, a leading performance marketing expert, about scaling e-commerce brands beyond seven figures. Chase shares actionable strategies for channel diversification, creator management on TikTok Shop, and building omnichannel ecosystems. He emphasizes the importance of rigorous creator selection, transparent feedback loops, and integrating paid media with organic content. The discussion offers practical advice on leveraging TikTok's rapid growth potential, nurturing creator communities, and adopting an all-in, omnichannel mindset to drive sustainable, scalable e-commerce success.Here are the 3 action items that Josh identified from this episode:Focus and Systematize: Nail your core operations (especially on Amazon) before expanding. Ensure supply chain and inventory are rock-solid.Build Genuine Relationships with Creators: Authentic engagement, personalized outreach, and community-building are your competitive edge.Adopt an Omnichannel Mindset: The future belongs to brands that integrate Amazon, Shopify, TikTok Shop, Meta ads, and retail into a cohesive ecosystem.Resources mentioned in this episode:Josh Hadley on LinkedIneComm Breakthrough ConsultingeComm Breakthrough PodcastEmail Josh Hadley: Josh@eCommBreakthrough.comTools and Websites"Doe Media": "00:01:01""Chappell Digital Marketing": "00:01:01""Shopify": "00:05:25""TikTok Shop": "00:06:39""AI Automation Tool": "00:13:41""Amazon": "00:30:52""Lovable": "00:48:54"Books"The E-Myth by Michael E. Gerber": "00:01:01""Rich Dad Poor Dad": "00:48:32"Concepts and Strategies"Tiered Commission Structure": "00:23:25""Ad Spend Credits": "00:23:25""Creator Retention": "00:28:11""Creator Network": "00:29:00""Private Community": "00:30:14"People and Brands"Hudson from Comfrt Clothing": "00:46:15""Greg from Bloom": "00:51:16"Social Media Links"Instagram @realchasechappell": "00:52:43"Episode SponsorThis episode is brought to you by eComm Breakthrough Consulting where I help seven-figure e-commerce owners grow to eight figures. I started my business in 2015 and grew it to an eight-figure brand in seven years.I made mistakes along the way that made the path to eight figures longer. At times I doubted whether our business could even survive and become a real brand. I wish I would have had a guide to help me grow faster and avoid the stumbling blocks.If you've hit a plateau and want to know the next steps to take your business to the next level, then email me at josh@ecommbreakthrough.com and in your subject line say “strategy audit” for the chance to win a $10,000 comprehensive business strategy audi...

War isn't what you think it is. A former Navy Special Warfare operator and Blackwater contractor reveals what really happens behind military operations, private armies, and global conflict. This episode of Live From America features a powerful and unfiltered conversation with Trevor Fortner — a former Navy Special Warfare operator and Blackwater private military contractor. Trevor shares firsthand experiences from war zones, including protecting U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad in Iraq, and gives rare insight into how modern warfare actually operates beyond what the public sees. We break down the reality of war — the difference between controlled military strategy and the chaos experienced on the ground — and explore the controversial world of private military contractors (PMCs), including Blackwater and comparisons to groups like Russia's Wagner Group. The conversation dives into: The truth about private military companies and how they operate The Nisour Square incident and the complexities behind it Accountability, regulation, and the evolution of PMCs The business of war and who really benefits Patriotism, national service, and cultural identity Why war may be inevitable — or driven by leadership decisions Trevor also shares personal reflections on time, leadership, and what he learned from operating in high-risk environments across the world. This is a deep, thought-provoking discussion about war, power, and the systems that shape global conflict. About Everyday Spy: Find your Spy Superpower: https://yt.everydayspy.com/4aXS3qi Explore Spy School: https://everydayspy.com/ Listen to the podcast: https://youtube.com/@EverydaySpyPodcast Learn from a CIA Spy: https://youtube.com/@Andrew-Bustamante About Live From America Podcast: Live From America Podcast explores law, politics, culture, and current events through expert interviews and debate. Hosted by Hatem Gabr and Noam Dworman, the show brings together journalists, comedians, and public thinkers to explore the biggest stories shaping public conversation Follow Live From America YouTube @livefromamericapodcast twitter.com/AmericasPodcast www.LiveFromAmericaPodcast.com LiveFromAmericapodcast@gmail.com Follow Hatem Twitter.com/HatemNYC Instagram.com/hatemnyc/ Follow Noam Twitter.com/noam_dworman #War #Blackwater #Military #PrivateMilitary #PMC #Geopolitics #USMilitary #Warfare #Leadership #GlobalConflict #LiveFromAmerica

4. Mercenaries, War Elephants, and the Seeds of Dynastic Decay The Ptolemies maintained their vast empire through wealth-funded mercenary armies and a unique arms race involving battle elephants. While their rivals, the Seleucids, used Indian elephants, the Ptolemies relied on harder-to-train African species. Despite military successes like the Battle of Raphia, the dynasty eventually began to decline due to the staggering costs of constant warfare and high taxation on Egyptian farmers. This economic strain, coupled with the rise of child kings and internal court factionalism, destabilized the government and left the kingdom vulnerable to its rivals and the emerging power of Rome. (4)CRETE