Chapter 1 Lin Fan's Plan

Lin Fan had already made his preparations around Lu Ying Town, just waiting for the Japanese 18th Infantry Regiment to fall into the trap.

The three battalions of the Japanese 18th Infantry Regiment gathered together and marched rapidly towards Xinye. They had set off yesterday afternoon.

The Kobayashi Ryunosuke squad of the Second Battalion was in charge of leading the way, and they charged into Lu Guan Town.

It was then that Squad Leader Kobayashi Ryunosuke felt a little regret: they shouldn't have burned down the entire town when they passed through here a few days ago.

In this operation, the Japanese 11th Army's operational guideline was not to occupy towns.

Because of this guideline, if they were not occupying a town, then they would completely destroy it.

This was the order received by all the participating Japanese soldiers. They had completely burned Lu Guan Town the last time they came, and now that they were back, they couldn't plunder anything.

This made them a little disappointed, and Company Commander Tsugawa Kazuo ordered the troops to rest in place for ten minutes.

Regiment Commander Ishii Kaho had some doubts in his mind: Battalion Commander Hino's troops should have arrived as well, so why hadn't he seen any sign of them?

"The entire regiment will rest for half an hour!"

"The Japanese have arrived at Lu Guan Town!" Lin Fan received the reconnaissance report.

"Zhang Zizhong's vanguard is still ten *li* away from Lu Guan Town!"

Lin Fan thought for a moment and ordered, "Zhu Qingmao, immediately put the current positions of both sides into a cowhide tube and drop it to Zhang Zizhong!"

This was the method of communication between the air and ground marching troops when there were no communication lines.

Zhang Zizhong's troops once again saw the plane flying overhead, this time flying even lower, almost skimming the treetops.

Under the gaze of many soldiers, something was dropped from the plane.

Immediately, dozens of soldiers rushed over and picked up the leather tube, with the words "To be opened personally by General Zhang Zizhong!" written on the outside.

The soldiers did not dare to open it without permission and immediately sent it to Zhang Zizhong. An adjutant opened the leather tube and took out a letter from inside.

The letter contained a map, which marked the deployment positions and times of the Special Operations Brigade's various regiments, as well as the current position and time of the Japanese.

A dotted line was drawn on the west side of the map, across the river from Lu Guan Town at Mazhuang, labeled: 59th Army, 11:20.

Zhang Zizhong smiled: This means they want us to arrive at Mazhuang by 11:20, and their planned attack time is 11:30.

He immediately ordered the adjutant to relay the order for the entire army to speed up and be sure to arrive at Mazhuang before 11:20.

With this map, he already understood Lin Fan's operational plan: encirclement from all sides!

After the rest, the Japanese continued to advance towards Xinye, but this time the soldiers of the Second Battalion felt something was wrong.

Battalion Commander Ebihara Taro ordered: "Expand the reconnaissance range!"

Lin Fan also ordered, "Ground attack aircraft, take off immediately!"

The fighters had already returned to refuel at this time.

Su Ruifeng of the Eighth Regiment saw a team of Japanese soldiers entering their ambush circle through his binoculars. Lin Fan was beside him, and he also saw this scene.

He ordered into the radio beside him: "Fire!"

With this order, the companies of the Eighth Regiment immediately detonated the bombs they had buried earlier.

The rocket artillery company also began to bombard the Japanese soldiers who had fallen into the trap, and the Sixth and Seventh Companies also began to bombard the Japanese troops who had not entered the trap.

This time, there were as many as three infantry battalions of Japanese soldiers, and it was unrealistic to try to fit them all into the directional mine traps.

Lin Fan was only ambushing the vanguard battalion of the Japanese army, and letting the Sixth and Seventh Regiments hold back the other two battalions to prevent them from causing trouble.

When the sound of the explosion rang out, Battalion Commander Ebihara Taro felt a tightening in his heart: It's finally here!

He did not expect his premonition to be so accurate: they were indeed under attack.

Although the prediction was accurate, Battalion Commander Ebihara Taro did not feel happy at all.

Looking around, the entire battalion was wailing and howling from the explosions. And that wasn't all, they were still under artillery fire.

After the Eighth Regiment detonated the directional mines, they did not immediately launch a charge. Ten infantry companies and an anti-aircraft machine gun company were still launching artillery strikes against the Japanese soldiers in the trap.

Each company had five mortars and two infantry guns, which were working hard to bombard the enemy at this time.

The explosions to the south not only alarmed the Japanese soldiers but also the 59th Army, which had just arrived at Mazhuang.

Zhang Zizhong ordered: "The entire army will set up a defensive line along the river to prevent the Japanese from crossing over."

As a veteran general who had been on the battlefield for a long time, he could tell from the sound of the artillery fire that the Special Operations Brigade had fierce firepower!

They could also see the shells streaking across the sky in groups from Mazhuang.

"Where did they get so much artillery?" the chief of staff beside him asked.

"The Special Operations Brigade has its own arsenal and its own base. These are all produced by themselves," Zhang Zizhong said enviously.

When he said this, he couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness in his heart.

They once had these things too. The 59th Army, formerly the 29th Army Group, was stationed in North China and had a large amount of resources, but after the July 7th Incident, nothing was left.

The Special Operations Brigade was also established and developed under the siege of strong enemies. There was no gap without comparison.

Thinking of how they had compromised in the past, retreating again and again in an attempt to seek peace, but there was no peace.

The Special Operations Brigade fought the Japanese head-on in Jurong, never giving in, and as a result, the Japanese were willing to send troops to fight on the periphery rather than invade the Jurong base.

This fully illustrates that peace is never obtained by begging for it; peace is won by fighting for it!

Only through combat can peace be achieved!

Zhang Zizhong ordered, "Send a reconnaissance company across the river to scout the movements of the Japanese."

They discovered a phenomenon: "The artillery bombardment has been going on for twenty minutes, and the intensity of the bombardment has not weakened."

Regiment Commander Ishii Kaho was hiding behind a broken wall. He had seen the bombing coming while marching and hid here.

He never imagined that the dignified commander of the 18th Infantry Regiment wouldn't even have a place to stay.

At this time, Regiment Commander Ishii Kaho was furious: "Immediately find out where the attack came from!"

"Establish a defensive line on the spot!"

He knew in his heart: being attacked at this time meant that he had fallen into a trap.

The entire regiment had to hold its ground first and then seek other options.

However, Regiment Commander Ishii was not worried. He had nearly four thousand Japanese soldiers in his three battalions, and even the strength of a Chinese army could not do anything to the entire regiment.

The regiment commander ordered to defend in place, and the Japanese immediately began to get busy. Although they had almost completely destroyed Lu Guan Town.

But there was still enough material to gather the remaining walls and debris in the town to build a command post for the regiment commander.

The regiment's engineers were like ants, braving the artillery fire and working in the town.

The regiment commander's command post had to be able to withstand direct heavy artillery bombardment. It was just a matter of adding a few more layers of wood and sandbags on top and reinforcing the walls on both sides.

The Third and Fourth Battalions of the 18th Infantry Regiment began to build fortifications along Lu Guan Town, preparing to resist the coming attack.

The Japanese soldiers of the communications company also began to lay lines and connect field telephones, braving the artillery fire.

Battalion Commander Ebihara Taro of the Second Battalion sent a signal soldier back to report: "The battalion was ambushed by the Chinese army and suffered heavy losses. Requesting reinforcements!"

They were all subordinates, and he couldn't abandon them. Regiment Commander Ishii Kaho ordered the Third Battalion to send an infantry company to rescue them.

The artillery bombardment finally stopped after twenty minutes. The Japanese Third and Fourth Battalions were on high alert, waiting for the Chinese army to attack.

The Japanese soldiers of Ebihara Taro's battalion had reached the last moment of their lives. Company Commander Tsugawa Kazuo had miraculously survived the explosion.

He had also miraculously escaped the subsequent artillery bombardment. Despite so much luck, the end was still at hand:

The troops of the Special Operations Brigade began to charge.

This was not the first charge organized by the Eighth Regiment, but this time it was the ten infantry companies of the Eighth Regiment charging simultaneously on the battlefield.

The sound of the charge horn made the soldiers' blood boil, and the shouts of the soldiers of the ten companies were earth-shattering.

The Special Operations Brigade had a set routine for such charges. The frontmost were pushcarts, which blocked the bullets fired by the Japanese.

Company Commander Miao led the First Company towards the Japanese in front of them. These Japanese soldiers had been blown up once by directional mines, and then bombarded by artillery fire and machine guns.

They were completely collapsing at this time. When Company Commander Miao and his men launched the charge, there was very little resistance from the Japanese.

Battalion Commander Ebihara Taro had immediately sent a signal soldier back for help when he was bombed, and he organized his troops to prepare for a counterattack.

What he didn't expect was that the opposing troops continued to bombard them for ten minutes.

These ten minutes were absolutely adding insult to injury for the already battered Second Battalion.

When the Eighth Regiment officially launched the charge, Battalion Commander Ebihara Taro realized that there were not many soldiers under his command who were still firing.

And the soldiers charging from afar were everywhere, and it was impossible to count how many there were.

What was the point of defending at this time?

Anyone could tell with their toes that they couldn't hold it. Battalion Commander Ebihara Taro very wisely issued a retreat order.

He wanted to lead the entire battalion back to Lu Ying Town, but what disappointed him and all the surviving Japanese soldiers of the Ebihara Battalion was:

The road they were retreating on was already blocked by a team of soldiers.

The Tadoro Akiyoshi Company was originally the rear guard, walking at the very back of the entire battalion.

During the retreat, the Tadoro Company became the vanguard, and their current task was to clear the road back to Lu Guan Town.

The distance from them to Lu Guan Town was only about four *li*.

A place that mortars could reach.

However, there were six pushcarts in front of them, with six heavy machine guns blocking the road.

The heavy machine gun fire had completely blocked the road, and there were even more machine guns assisting.

Company Commander Tadoro Akiyoshi's heart sank: he knew that this time there would be few survivors and many deaths.

Moreover, after experiencing the bombing and strafing just now, only less than fifty Japanese soldiers were still following him in the charge.

Battalion Commander Ebihara quickly understood this: he saw that the Tadoro Company, which had changed from the rear guard to the vanguard, had made no progress at all.

The soldiers of the Special Operations Brigade had already charged up and were engaged in close combat with the Japanese soldiers of the Ebihara Battalion.

The number and morale of the Special Operations Brigade soldiers far exceeded those of the Ebihara Battalion.

Battalion Commander Ebihara had to admit this, and he also realized this.

Therefore, he made a difficult decision: abandon those Japanese soldiers who were already engaged in close combat with the soldiers of the Special Operations Brigade.

He led the Japanese soldiers who had not yet engaged in combat and quickly broke through towards Lu Guan Town.

With the support of the entire battalion's reserve force brought by the battalion commander, Company Commander Tadoro Akiyoshi felt a little more confident.

When Battalion Commander Ebihara led more than two hundred Japanese soldiers to arrive, he did not hesitate and directly launched a suicide charge.

He led the more than two hundred Japanese soldiers who came to break through, plus the dozens of Japanese soldiers here in the Tadoro Akiyoshi Company.

More than three hundred Japanese soldiers, with a heart of determination to die, shouted and howled, charging towards the Tenth Company of the Eighth Regiment that had blocked their way.

The tenth company commander did not make any more changes. The entire company was still the same as before: the heavy machine guns were at the front, and the company's twenty or so machine guns continued to fire.

When the Japanese soldiers charged within a hundred meters, more than a hundred submachine guns fired at the same time, and the soldiers also launched a counter-charge towards the Japanese.

The fifty or so Japanese soldiers of the Tadoro Akito Company charged in the front and were the first to fall.

More than three hundred Japanese soldiers were quickly harvested and fell down like ripe wheat.

If the weapons of the Tenth Company were still the old-fashioned Type 38 rifles or the Zhongzheng rifles, facing the charge of more than three hundred Japanese soldiers, they would definitely not be able to keep the enemy out of the defense line.

However, the team of the Special Operations Brigade now had very few rifles, which were the dedicated guns of sharpshooters, and submachine guns were the weapons used by ordinary soldiers in large quantities.

The power of automatic weapons was something that the remaining Japanese soldiers of the Ebihara Battalion could not withstand.

In this round of suicide charges, Battalion Commander Ebihara did not leave a way out.

Company Commander Liu Jia of the Tenth Company did not give them a way out, and the Ebihara Battalion was completely annihilated.

When Company Commander Liu ordered the Fifth Platoon to clean up the battlefield, Company Commander Ito Taikaku had already launched an attack on the Tenth Company with his troops.