Chapter 9 The Ninth Cavalry Brigade

After the commander of the Ninth Cavalry Brigade, Tentake Kota, was killed by Lin Fan's first shell, the entire cavalry brigade continued to charge forward, following the dying wish of their commander.

Even the hail of bullets ahead could not stop their enthusiasm and will to charge.

However, the terrain here limited the performance of these cavalrymen:

On one side of the road was the moat, making it impossible to charge down.

On the other side of the road were paddy fields. Warhorses could go down, but launching a charge in the paddy fields?

Anyone could imagine the result!

Cavalrymen were not a unit that fought with guns. They were a unit that fought with blades, a unit that used knives at close range.

The cunning enemy used powerful firepower to block the entire Tentake Kota Cavalry Brigade's path.

This prevented the cavalry brigade, which had speed and strength, from breaking through the blockade formed by the hail of bullets.

Lin Fan never gave them a chance to get close from the very beginning.

Huo Shouyi, the division commander who was observing the battle from the city wall, now understood the purpose of the Special Operations Company parking three cars side by side on the road.

It was not to use these cars as fortresses to resist the Japanese cavalry's charge.

The Special Operations Company simply wanted to get more heavy machine guns up front to establish a blockade.

Now, the heavy machine guns on the car carrying the cannon had stopped firing.

The cannon had also stopped firing.

The driver and dozens of soldiers were trying to get the car back onto the road.

Lin Fan, who had fired the first shot, was now on another car.

He took over Ji Wudi's mortar, firing shells one after another.

These shells landed one by one at the end of the road in the distance.

That was the area that had just been turned over from the east side of the city.

This area now had many potholes, and many Japanese cavalrymen had fallen in this area.

These were the cavalrymen who had discovered that there was no way forward and were trying to escape back.

Or Japanese cavalrymen who wanted to change their route and attack again.

Those Japanese soldiers who rode into the paddy fields found it difficult to move.

But they were attacked less.

The heavy machine gun fire in the front was constantly sweeping back and forth across the road.

These Japanese soldiers who jumped into the paddy fields only made this choice out of desperation when the frontal attack failed to break through the blockade. The paddy fields in Jiangnan were not deep, only submerging half of the horses' legs.

Even so, these warhorses could no longer gallop wildly.

They could only walk slowly in the muddy fields, like old oxen plowing.

So their treatment was the same as the Japanese soldiers on the road.

Although they were not greeted by heavy machine guns, but by those infantrymen who couldn't wait.

Even so, more of the cavalrymen who went into the paddy fields survived.

Because the warhorses moved through the muddy paddy fields like old oxen plowing, even if the warhorses were killed, the soldiers would only fall off the horses and would not be injured.

But now the soldiers of the Special Operations Company had rushed within two hundred meters.

The Japanese soldiers standing in the paddy fields took short steps, wanting to get out of the paddy fields.

The speed was also not fast. No matter how anxious or how hard they tried.

Heavenly timing, geographical advantages, and human harmony, of these three elements of warfare, at least the geographical advantage had been completely lost.

It was now that Niu Dongxing and the other old guerrillas were showing their might.

The Japanese soldiers in the paddy fields could not crawl, they could only stand, and they could not move quickly.

Each one was simply a human-shaped target.

Those riflemen who had just been complaining that the machine gunners had killed all the Japanese soldiers were now happy.

This was the time to test their results.

Standing shooting had always been the most difficult of all shooting positions.

Now this method was needed to shoot.

Obviously, Niu Dongxing and the other old guerrillas had the best results in this shooting.

They were heard shouting one after another: "Hit one!"

"Hit another one!"

...

This made the faces of the old Special Operations Company soldiers who had first fought with Lin Fan look a little embarrassed.

If we can't hit them from too far away, we'll get closer and hit them!

Teams of soldiers had left the highway and were following the less than a foot wide path along the roadside.

They rushed to the edge of the paddy fields. These narrow field ridges, which could only accommodate two feet moving on them, could only allow people and animals to walk slowly on them.

It was impossible to charge.

Even so, the speed of these Special Operations Company soldiers rushing onto the field ridges was faster than the cars moving slowly on the road.

This way they would not be blocked by the slowly moving cars.

Division Commander Huo Shouyi watched as the Special Operations Company's soldiers attacked in three directions, with the teams on both sides rushing to the front.

These soldiers who rushed to the front specialized in shooting the warhorses in the paddy fields.

To catch bandits, first catch the king; to shoot people, first shoot the horse!

The tactics that the ancients had already summarized, there was no reason why later generations would not use them!

First shoot the Japanese soldiers off their warhorses, then add a shot or several shots to kill those Japanese soldiers who dared to stand in the paddy fields and fire their guns.

The soldiers charging along the field ridges did not stop, they continued to charge.

The purpose was very clear: to cut off the retreat!

The team with the strongest firepower in the middle was still moving slowly as before.

No matter how slowly they advanced, they finally arrived at the position where the Tentake Kota Cavalry Brigade commander had fallen.

A thick layer of Japanese and warhorse corpses had piled up here.

The cars could no longer pass through here.

Red blood flowed gurglingly on the road.

The cars stopped, but the soldiers did not stop.

This time Huo Shouyi's eyes were opened again.

Having rushed to the front of the corpse-filled position, the machine gunners of the Special Operations Company stopped moving forward.

Those at the front were all infantrymen carrying Type 38 rifles.

These infantrymen did not fire forward, but instead fired shots and stabbed knives at the Japanese soldiers lying on the ground.

After doing this, the soldiers who followed dragged away the Japanese corpses and the warhorses.

These two types of corpses were placed on separate sides to clear the road in the middle.

The Special Operations Company's soldiers performed these actions smoothly, naturally, and with tacit understanding.

The road, which was not long to begin with, was quickly cleared.

The car carrying the cannon had once again come to the front.

Now Division Commander Huo understood: this convoy was using the cars as armored vehicles.

The cannon was mounted in the car and could be fired at any time.

The same was true of the heavy machine guns. There was no need for any preparation time. They would fire as soon as they spotted the enemy.

They especially placed the cannon in the front, obviously to guard against suddenly encountering the Japanese.

Huo Shouyi did not know if this team had encountered such a situation before.

But he knew that a team that could react so quickly must have practiced it normally.

This was indeed the case. Lin Fan would always give problems during training and let the soldiers of the Special Operations Company train.

In Lin Fan's opinion, everyone performed very well today, and the entire company could have an extra meal tonight.

In half an hour, less than two hundred members of the entire Tentake Kota Cavalry Brigade escaped, half of whom left their warhorses in the paddy fields and ran back on their short legs.

Upon receiving the news, Brigade Commander Kuzumi Ryutaro immediately ordered: "Suspend the attack!"

He was not sure what the situation was with this team that suddenly rushed out.

He was afraid that a team with such combat power, cooperating with the defending army in the city, would attack him from both sides.

The failure of the cavalry brigade today had already affected the morale of the entire team.

At the same time, he also felt that the city's defenders had reinforcements because the attack had been going on for so long without success.

At this time, the defenders' morale was greatly boosted.

The increase and decrease were quite unfavorable to him.

Therefore, Brigade Commander Kuzumi Ryutaro issued an order to stop the attack.

That would be it for today!

Upon receiving the news that the Japanese had retreated, Division Commander Huo immediately ordered: "Pay attention to observation, repair the damaged city walls, and prepare to welcome the next Japanese attack."

The soldiers of the Special Operations Company, who had chased to the junction of the south and east sides of the city, established a defense line at the junction.

Two heavy machine guns were set up, and a team of soldiers lay prone on the road.

Seeing that this team had just won a great victory, but was still so cautious, Division Commander Huo Shouyi admired them more and more: "Let's go meet them."

At the Xiaoshan Battery of the Jiangyin Fortress, Commander Xu Kang personally saw the Japanese heavy cruiser "Chokai" with three main guns destroyed.

He excitedly directed the artillery of Jia Yi Tai: "Aim at it and fire. As long as we drive it back, the other Japanese warships won't dare to be so arrogant."

At this time, he received news that the Special Operations Company was braving the artillery fire to rush down Xiaoshan.

"Let them go guerrilla!"

When Commander Xu Kang saw that several enemy planes in the air had been shot down again, he knew that this must be another result of the Special Operations Company.

That team still had to be allowed to go out in order to better exert its strength.

The scene of the "Yugiri" being sunk on the Yangtze River and then the Japanese warships bombarding Henggang fiercely made the observing National Army soldiers sweat.

The Japanese warships' bombardment of nearby targets was too dense. How many members of the Special Operations Company would be able to return after enduring such an attack?

At this time, these National Army soldiers did not know that Lin Fan had led the Special Operations Company away before the Japanese warships bombarded them.

The Japanese Navy's Third Fleet, which was still struggling on the Yangtze River, after the destruction of the destroyer "Yugiri," another destroyer, "Hasu," was hit on the deck by shells fired from the battery and was severely damaged.

It had no choice but to withdraw from the battle.

The heavy cruiser at the front was also hit by a 305mm fortress artillery shell.

This time, it was not just Lin Fan hitting it and only damaging a main gun.

This shell directly penetrated the deck of the cruiser "Chokai," which forced the commander of the Third Fleet, Hasegawa Kiyoshi, to order: "Suspend the attack! Retreat!"

The Japanese naval fleet, which had been bombing the Jiangyin Battery for a whole morning, finally retreated.

The bombardment by the two field heavy artillery brigades also stopped.

The entire fortress suddenly became quiet.

The soldiers on the fortress walked out of the bunker and looked at the foot of the mountain. There was smoke everywhere and fire everywhere.

The entire fortress was full of artillery craters.

Xu Kang picked up a piece of shrapnel with the clear markings "USA" on it.

"Damn it! They shout about freedom and humanity every day, and they are friends with us, but they are also selling artillery shells to the Japanese." Chief of Staff He Heshun also held a piece of shrapnel with only the letters "SA" on it.

Commander Xu Kang sneered: "There has never been true friendship between countries, only interests! The President always places his hopes on international sanctions. Won't he wake up when he sees such shrapnel?"

After saying this, he handed the shrapnel to Chief of Staff He: "Look for more pieces with these letters. Collect a batch and send them to the Nanjing Headquarters!"

"Yes!" Chief of Staff He replied.

"What are the casualties in the entire fortress today?" Commander Xu Kang asked suddenly.

"The casualties in several batteries are not small. Among them, 73 people were killed and wounded due to artillery shells exploding in the barrels. 167 people were killed and wounded by Japanese artillery fire. Including 33 wounded and 29 dead in the Special Operations Company," He Heshun reported.

"Why did the Special Operations Company suffer such heavy casualties?" Xu Kang continued to ask.

"He went down the mountain when the Japanese artillery fire was at its fiercest. Three cars were blown up," the Chief of Staff knew the situation very well.

"The Japanese artillery fire was indeed fierce today!"

At this time, Liu Xing, the commander-in-chief of the Jiangyin defense line, was still in his command post, studying the current situation of both sides on the sand table.

Today was only the first day. The Japanese attacked in multiple directions. Shangqi Town was lost and regained, and regained and lost again. It was still a stalemate.

The forward positions of Leijia Village, Houzhen, and Liuqiao had been occupied by the Japanese.

The Japanese attacking Jiangyin County were only able to annihilate most of the Japanese Ninth Cavalry Brigade when the Special Operations Company arrived.

Only then did the Japanese retreat slightly.

Before this, Liu Xing had only heard about the combat power of the Special Operations Company from Zhang Boting, the Chief of Staff of the 88th Division, and Gu Jiaqi, the Commander of the 128th Division.

At the Jiangyin Fortress, the Special Operations Company only showed that they were particularly good at artillery fire.

From the situation reported back from the 613th Regiment and the 618th Regiment today, this company's close combat ability was no less than their artillery ability.

Thinking that the Special Operations Company was carrying a anti-aircraft gun with them, which could be used in Jiangyin County, Commander Liu Xing ordered: "The Special Operations Company will move to Jiangyin to assist the 112th Division in the air defense mission of Jiangyin County."

Upon receiving the order, Lin Fan knew that he could not return to the fortress now.

This was very different from his original plan: it would be difficult to get those anti-aircraft guns when evacuating while garrisoning in Jiangyin.

The military's duty is to obey orders!

In any case, it was necessary to garrison Jiangyin County.

Knowing that the Special Operations Company had been sent to Jiangyin County, Commander Xu Kang was unwilling.

He specifically found Commander Liu Xing, wanting to get the Special Operations Company back.

Commander Liu Xing's first sentence to him was: Except for the Special Operations Company, everything else is easy to talk about.

Xu Kang still asked, "The fortress needs such a mobile force. Why did the Japanese Navy retreat today? Wasn't it because the Special Operations Company rushed out and sank their destroyer on the shore? Such a company is more useful than my battery. Now, Commander, you have transferred them away. This is like cutting off one of my legs!"

Commander Liu Xing laughed: "First, the Japanese fleet was severely damaged today. They will not dare to attack again for a few days. Second, with the Special Operations Company in Jiangyin, even if the Japanese fleet attacks, they can still attack from Jiangyin. This is even more sudden. Third, you are also clear about the importance of Jiangyin County to the entire fortress. How can the fortress be defended if the county is not defended? Fourth, the Special Operations Company's combat power is wasted in the fortress. Today, they fought several tough battles in Dingshan, Wushan, and Shangqi Town. The troops are really worthy of being elite troops!"

Commander Liu Xing's one, two, three, and four made Commander Xu Kang unable to say one, two, and three.

At this time, Chief of Staff He approached and asked for instructions: "The fortress is calling to ask for ammunition for the Special Operations Company."

Commander Xu Kang said: "They used a lot today, give it to them."

Chief of Staff He whispered: "They are applying for a large amount!"

Commander Xu Kang immediately thought of those twenty cars. If the Special Operations Company really filled all twenty cars, then it would really be time to retreat.

He hesitated for a moment before ordering: "Issue half!"

The Special Operations Company was transferred to Jiangyin County. Taking advantage of the night, Lin Fan pulled twenty-nine coffins from Jiangyin County and returned to the foot of Xiaoshan to put all the remains of the soldiers who sacrificed today into coffins.

He did not bury these soldiers in Xiaoshan. He did not know how much bombing this place would be subjected to in the following battles.

The fourth squad soldiers of Xiao Dongbei found a clearing on the edge of Xiaoshan and buried this group of soldiers.

For this reason, Lin Fan also specifically asked Li Xian to find the owner of this wasteland and paid to buy the land.

This way, no one would come to disturb the spirits of these soldiers again.

At this time, Lin Fan did not know what to say to these sacrificed comrades.

After thinking for a long time, he only said one sentence: "This land will not forget! The people will not forget! Your names will surely be passed down forever!"

Looking at the twenty cars going up the mountain, only ten cars were loaded with ammunition.

Lin Fan was also very satisfied.

When his vehicles went up the mountain just now, they brought fifty warhorse corpses. This was today's trophy, so that the brothers in the fortress could taste it together.

Commander Liu Xing looked at the pile of warhorses piled up outside his command headquarters.

He asked with a smile: "Did you kill these today?"

Liu Laopao answered loudly: "Report to the Commander! We killed them outside Jiangyin City."

Liu Xing asked with a smile: "So many Japanese soldiers were killed. What were the casualties?"

Liu Laopao said loudly: "There were no casualties outside Jiangyin City. Thirty-seven brothers were killed and wounded in Shangqi Town!"

Liu Xing and the staff and guards around him were very interested. They had not suffered any casualties after defeating a Japanese cavalry?

Everyone listened to Liu Laopao telling how the Special Operations Company had defeated the Japanese cavalry.

When he heard that the Special Operations Company kept its heavy machine guns in a state of readiness to fire while marching, Liu Xing was interested and got into their car, looking at the wooden boards nailed to the car.

He said excitedly: "Small wooden blocks, great use! Fighting requires this kind of spirit of being ready to fight anytime and anywhere."