Chapter 1 Koga Ryutaro Changes His Mind

Sergeant I no Moto Ken rushed over, pulled up the Japanese soldier, and dragged Matsuyama Ayumu into the crater. Looking at the three bullet holes in his chest, there was no saving him.

Captain Takashima Hinata watched his Japanese soldiers rush from one crater to another, each crater containing the corpse of a Japanese soldier.

The thirty-odd Japanese soldiers under his command were visibly reduced in number. Originally, half of these Japanese soldiers had been lost when they charged out of the artillery bombardment.

Now, more than a dozen were shot down by dense bullets. The remaining Japanese soldiers in the entire Takashima Hinata squad numbered only about ten, less than a platoon.

This was not an isolated case. The situation of the three squads in the entire Ikuta Hayato company was similar. The entire company could not even muster the number of a single platoon now.

The expanded Yamada Jiro battalion was the same. Battalion Commander Yamada Jiro lay prostrate in a crater, staring at the heavy machine guns firing non-stop in front of him, his helplessness indescribable.

His battalion received a reinforcement mission, but until now, he had not even seen a single cannon, nor had he seen any Japanese soldiers from the artillery regiment. They were blocked here, unable to move an inch.

Regimental Commander Koga Ryutaro, upon receiving the report, was also very depressed. This sniper unit of the National Revolutionary Army was not in his plans at all.

Now this National Revolutionary Army unit had appeared and was holding back his Japanese soldiers.

Most importantly, of the thousand-odd Japanese soldiers in a battalion, only three hundred or so remained. It was clear that the Yamada Jiro battalion would be unable to complete the mission of breaking through the opposite defense line.

It was time to change the plan!

Regimental Commander Koga Ryutaro had no choice but to order the Shibasaki Jūnosuke battalion to cancel its original mission and move closer to the Yamada Jiro battalion below to break through.

Division Commander Miyake Toshio knew that the Yamada Jiro battalion had encountered an ambush on its way back to reinforce. He immediately ordered Regimental Commander Koga Ryutaro to speed up his regiment and take bigger steps,

and to rush up as soon as possible to assist the 104th Field Artillery Regiment and the Heavy Artillery Regiment in recovering the cannons.

"Recover the cannons!" This sentence meant that their cannons had already been seized by the National Revolutionary Army.

Regimental Commander Toya Shigeharu looked at the National Revolutionary Army soldiers not far away, occupying the cannons on the highway.

At first, although he was a little anxious, he was not flustered.

For infantrymen, if they seized Type 92 infantry guns, they might still be able to fiddle with them. But the 75mm field guns, or even the 150mm howitzers, left on the highway by his regiment were simply not something infantrymen could handle.

Even so, he still watched the Japanese soldiers of the Kudo Kazumi battalion rush up using the Banzai charge tactic. Then, the entire army was wiped out. Not a single Japanese soldier from the entire Kudo Kazumi battalion survived; they all died on the road to the charge.

This made the Japanese soldiers of the remaining two battalions in the Toya Shigeharu regiment dare not charge recklessly anymore.

Field Artillery Battalion Commander Kobayashi Hinata personally witnessed the annihilation of the Kudo Kazumi battalion and was so frightened that he quickly disbanded the troops he had gathered, preparing to use the same tactic to attack.

He now understood: what those Japanese soldiers used to say was all false. What National Revolutionary Army troops would run away when Japanese soldiers charged.

As long as the Japanese soldiers dared to charge, the National Revolutionary Army would dare to run! It was all a lie.

Just now, the Kudo battalion's charge could not be said to be not resolute. Hundreds of Japanese soldiers charged all the way to the end. As a result, the Japanese soldiers all fell, and the National Revolutionary Army on the opposite side continued to strafe.

It was just that those National Revolutionary Army soldiers were now strafing them, the Japanese soldiers.

What to do? What to do now?

Battalion Commander Kobayashi Hinata was in a dilemma. He was very clear that with these artillerymen, they would not be able to break through the infantry defense line at all.

Even if all the artillerymen became cannon fodder, they still would not be able to break through the opponent's defense line. This was the most tragic thing.

Originally, Battalion Commander Kobayashi Hinata thought that this was the most tragic thing, but he still underestimated Regimental Commander Toya Shigeharu's ruthlessness.

Regimental Commander Toya Shigeharu ordered: "Continue to attack! It's either success or death."

This forced the Japanese soldiers of the entire artillery regiment to work hard. Among them, the Japanese soldiers holding rifles had already died in the first wave of attacks.

The weapons of these Japanese soldiers now were completely bare-handed compared to the National Revolutionary Army on the opposite side. Sergeant Nishioka Ryotaro, despite having ten thousand unwillingnesses in his heart, had to obey the order and rush forward.

The situation of the Japanese soldiers of the Karasawa Daichi Heavy Artillery Regiment was not much better. Although they were not forced to retake the cannons, their position on the battlefield was also very awkward.

The artillerymen of the entire Heavy Artillery Regiment were surrounded by the troops of the Special Operations Brigade. Regimental Commander Karasawa Daichi watched the National Revolutionary Army snatch the cannons first.

Only then did they cooperate with the troops behind and charge towards him.

This National Revolutionary Army unit not only wanted cannons, but also wanted people? Regimental Commander Karasawa Daichi did not want to be disgraced under any circumstances.

He had already taken the initiative to give up fighting for the cannons, and that was still not enough!

Faced with the aggressive attack of the Special Operations Brigade, the reinforcements that these Japanese soldiers were expecting had not yet arrived on the battlefield. These artillerymen could only defend in place.

The nearly one thousand artillerymen of the entire Karasawa Daichi Regiment all became cannon fodder in the attack of the Eighth Company.

Battalion Commander Karasawa Daichi sent his final death note to Commander Koshō Kanjiro, reporting everything he saw: the entire artillery regiment was wiped out, and the National Revolutionary Army had seized the cannons.

There was no trace of the reinforcing infantry, and there were gunshots everywhere around the artillery regiment. The battle was extremely fierce.

What could Commander Koshō Kanjiro do after receiving the telegram? He was on a warship of the Fifth Fleet, where his safety was absolutely guaranteed.

The entire 21st Army had no way to send reinforcements to Conghua now, and he also felt that there was no need to do so.

With a full division gathered in Conghua, what kind of National Revolutionary Army troops could not be defeated?

But the fate of the Karasawa Daichi Heavy Artillery Regiment was too unexpected. A full regiment of heavy artillery was actually seized by the National Revolutionary Army?

This forced Commander Koshō Kanjiro to immediately order Division Commander Miyake Toshio: "Immediately recover the cannons."

As for the Karasawa Daichi Heavy Artillery Regiment, they were dead anyway, so what could be done?

Division Commander Miyake Toshio immediately forwarded this order to Regimental Commander Koga Ryutaro of the 170th Infantry Regiment.

Regimental Commander Koga Ryutaro was also very embarrassed now. His regiment had suffered heavy casualties in the recent artillery bombardment.

Even so, he was still preparing to annihilate the National Revolutionary Army unit that attacked the Heavy Artillery Regiment, but today the National Revolutionary Army unit was not cooperating.

His perfect plan was not perfectly executed. In just half an hour, the Karasawa Daichi Heavy Artillery Regiment was completely wiped out.

This could not be blamed on the slow action of the infantry, but only on the poor combat effectiveness of the Heavy Artillery Regiment.

Just as he was muttering in his heart, Regimental Commander Toya Shigeharu of the 104th Field Artillery Regiment also sent a farewell telegram to Division Commander Miyake Toshio.

In the telegram, he expressed that the entire regiment would fight to the last Japanese soldier.

When Regimental Commander Toya Shigeharu sent this telegram, his artillery battalions were really fighting to the end.

The Kobayashi Hinata battalion had also all died on the road to the charge at this time. Now, only the thirty or forty Japanese soldiers of the regimental headquarters were still stubbornly resisting.

Receiving farewell telegrams one after another made Division Commander Miyake Toshio very unhappy. This was the third time he had urged Regimental Commander Koga Ryutaro to immediately recover the artillery positions.

Regimental Commander Koga Ryutaro, who had already tried his best, dared not say anything. The continuous loss of two artillery regiments was indeed a very significant loss.

What else could he do? He could only pass the pressure downwards. The Yamada Jiro battalion and the Shibasaki Jūnosuke battalion both received orders to immediately organize an attack.

According to Regimental Commander Koga Ryutaro's order: at all costs, they had to immediately break through the National Revolutionary Army's defense line and recover the cannons.

The first to receive the attack order was the Yamada Jiro battalion. When the battalion commander received the order to do so at all costs.

He immediately ordered: "The entire battalion will implement the Banzai charge tactic." The three hundred or so Japanese soldiers remaining in his battalion all stood up, shouted, and charged forward.

They were charging at the front of the 10th Company of the 2nd Regiment. Company Commander Hu Xiong was very happy to see the Japanese soldiers charging.

The 10th Company had been having a great time fighting these past two days. Now, seeing more than three hundred Japanese soldiers charging towards their defense line, it was really something they could not have wished for more.

The 10th Company had buried directional mines in front of the defense line, even so.

Company Commander Hu Xiong still ordered his soldiers to fire at the charging Japanese soldiers. This time, the Japanese soldiers did not have to crawl into the craters to hide as they had done just now.

These Japanese soldiers were charging forward non-stop, braving the rain of bullets. After fighting the Japanese soldiers for a long time, the soldiers were all familiar with their tactics.

Another desperate Banzai charge! This was the Japanese soldiers' most effective offensive tactic.

The Japanese troops attacking in this way needed a great deal of courage. This tactic of theirs was very powerful when the opponent's firepower was not strong.

The momentum of such a charge would create a powerful pressure on the defending troops, and coupled with the lack of strong firepower, the Japanese soldiers suffered few casualties during the charge.

They would soon be able to break into the defense line, and the two sides would engage in close combat.

In fact, most of the defending troops would become chaotic and start to run when the Japanese soldiers charged. This was also why the Japanese soldiers always thought that the National Revolutionary Army would run away as soon as they charged.

Today, the Yamada Jiro battalion launched a Banzai charge in front, and the five or six hundred Japanese soldiers of the Shibasaki Jūnosuke battalion followed behind.

They also used the same tactic to charge at the 10th Company's defense line.

Company Commander Shi Jiang of the National Revolutionary Army was also defending the defense line with Company Commander Hu Xiong, and they cooperated together.

The two companies had more than fifty machine guns combined. When the Japanese soldiers at the front charged within a hundred meters, more than fifty machine guns opened fire at the same time.

Strings of bullets flew through the air, and they could be seen connecting into lines. This dense rain of bullets caused the charging Japanese soldiers of the Yamada Jiro battalion to fall in droves.

Sergeant I no Moto Ken and the other Japanese soldiers who had been crawling in the craters, shivering, had no choice but to join the charging troops just now.

Now, he saw the Japanese soldiers around him falling one after another. Sergeant Kinoshita Kai fell, Sergeant Shirota Yūta fell, and he also fell.

The Japanese soldiers of the entire Takashima Hinata squad all fell. The Japanese soldiers of the entire Ikuta Hayato company also all fell.

When the Japanese soldiers of the Yamada Jiro battalion charged to a position seventy meters in front of the 10th Company's defense line, there were less than fifty Japanese soldiers remaining.

What else could so few Japanese soldiers do?

Battalion Commander Yamada Jiro had never imagined that the battle would be fought to such an extent.

Their most successful combat method had suffered such a fierce blow. The situation of the Shibasaki Jūnosuke battalion, which was following behind his battalion, was not much better.

When the entire battalion launched the charge, there were more than six hundred Japanese soldiers, but now half of them had been lost. However, they had also charged within a hundred meters. At this time, it was already an arrow on the string and had to be fired.

The two Japanese battalion commanders were both the kind of people who would not shed tears until they saw the coffin. Although the Japanese soldiers under their command had been almost completely wiped out, they still insisted on ordering: "Kill!"

The fact that these Japanese soldiers had such a strong will made the soldiers of the National Revolutionary Army a little scared.

If it were not for Company Commander Hu Xiong leading the soldiers of the 10th Company to continue strafing the Japanese soldiers, these National Revolutionary Army soldiers would probably have turned around and run away.

Looking at the performance of his soldiers, Company Commander Shi Jiang asked Company Commander Hu Xiong with a face of shame, "Company Commander Hu! Why are the soldiers under your command not panicking at all when the Japanese soldiers charge up?"

Company Commander Hu said with a smile, "If you win more battles, the soldiers will have confidence. We now have three lines of defense against the Japanese soldiers. What is there for the soldiers to panic about?"

"Three lines of defense?" Company Commander Shi Jiang could not see where the three lines of defense were.

"Now, the machine gun fire we are organizing is the first line of defense. With such a dense line of defense composed of a rain of bullets, if these Japanese soldiers want to break through, they will need to increase their numbers by at least two to three times to achieve their goal.

At the position where the Japanese soldiers are charging now, we still have directional mines that have not been used. This is the second line of defense.

Even if the Japanese soldiers pass through these two lines of defense, we are not afraid of bayonet fighting. The soldiers have daily bayonet training, and if the Japanese soldiers really charge up to fight with bayonets, they will only die faster."

Company Commander Shi asked, "Your bayonet skills are indeed very powerful. Why are you not taking the initiative to fight the Japanese soldiers with bayonets today?"

Company Commander Hu said with a smile, "This time, we are guarding the road that the Japanese soldiers have to take to retreat. I want to preserve the soldiers' strength.

We will use it in the battles later."

"We will not retreat if we guard here?" Company Commander Shi Jiang's face changed.

"We will not retreat without orders! We have so many cannons behind us. Even if we retreat, there is no way for those cannons to retreat!

If you want to transport the cannons away, you either have to send them to Fogang, or you have to retreat back to Conghua.

Between these two roads, it is better to go to Conghua!"

"But there are still Japanese soldiers guarding Conghua County, and we still have a Japanese division in front of us, a division's worth of troops!" Company Commander Shi Jiang exclaimed.

"That is why I am telling the soldiers to conserve their strength!"

Conserving their strength in this way was to block a full Japanese division. Just thinking about it made Company Commander Shi feel a little crazy.

Liu Laopao had already reported to Lin Fan at this time, "Report to the brigade commander, our regiment has already seized the Japanese soldiers' cannons. Among these cannons, there are still eighteen 150mm howitzers, ten 120mm cannon, and twelve 75mm field guns that can be used."

Lin Fan ordered, "Send half of the cannons that can be used to Conghua County to cooperate with the National Revolutionary Army's 186th Division and 153rd Division in attacking Conghua County.

Leave half of the cannons to guard the highway and prevent the Japanese soldiers from retreating from the highway."

"Yes!"

After receiving the order, Liu Laopao immediately arranged for the four companies from the 1st Company to the 4th Company to go to Conghua County to assist the National Revolutionary Army in attacking Conghua County, and the remaining companies immediately deployed a defense line along the highway.

He knew that as long as the Japanese soldiers in Conghua County were in a critical situation, the Japanese soldiers of the entire 104th Division would retreat. At that time, it would be when the 2nd Regiment would bear the strongest attack from the Japanese soldiers.

Company Commander Shi Junxia of the 1st Company, who had just seized the cannons, directed the soldiers to push the cannons and tractors that had been destroyed to the side of the road, clearing the highway to facilitate the passage of the cannon trucks behind.

Company Commander Han Xi and the soldiers under his command, who were acting with the 1st Company, were now dumbfounded as they watched the soldiers of the 1st Company.

Fighting with the 1st Company had already made them admire these soldiers to the point of prostrating themselves on the ground.

Now, seeing these soldiers scrambling to jump onto the tractors, skillfully take the cranks from the vehicles, and start the vehicles with a few quick turns.

The soldiers who did not get a driver ran to the cannons and quickly put these cannons, which were no longer in marching condition, back into their positions.

This was what the Japanese artillery regiment had tried to do first when it was attacked.

Later, they found that the bombing was too fierce, so they abandoned the cannons that had already begun to deploy. Now, some of these cannons were in a semi-deployed state, and some had completely turned into a firing state.

But the soldiers of the 1st Company were able to put all these cannons back into their positions.

Company Commander Han asked, "Company Commander Shi, where are we going?"

Company Commander Shi said with a smile, "The regimental commander told us to go to Conghua to cooperate with the 186th Division and the 153rd Division to take down Conghua."

"Taking these cannons to attack Conghua! Do we have artillerymen?" Company Commander Han asked.

"We are the artillerymen!" Company Commander Shi said with a smile.

Li Youde on the side quickly added, "If we had tanks, we would also be tank soldiers."

Company Commander Han was a little doubtful when he heard him say this, but he did not dare to ask.

Li Youde quickly said, "We have all learned how to drive tanks. We just did not have time to learn how to fly planes and drive warships before we came out of Jurong."

Company Commander Shi said with a smile, "That is true. Originally, our troops were required to know how to use all kinds of weapons in the army. Firing cannons and driving cars are the easiest things, so they all know how to do them."

Okay! We do not know how to do these easiest things! Company Commander Han could only smile wryly in his heart. Now, he understood the gap between the two companies even more clearly.

He and Company Commander Shi were both commanding a company, but the number of soldiers under his command was only half that of Company Commander Shi, and the firepower configuration was even worse.

The most important thing was that the soldiers under Company Commander Shi were all strong, and their arms and arms were full of knotted muscles.

Compared with the soldiers under his command, their physical fitness was many times stronger.