Chapter 116 Captain Shinpin Ryunosuke, commander of the 116th Regiment, ordered his artillery squadron to continue bombarding relentlessly!

The Japanese artillery fire continued incessantly, their infantry advancing to within thirty meters of the front lines.

Some of the mortar and grenade fragments managed to impede the charging Japanese infantry.

At this moment, Captain Shinpin Ryunosuke, who was watching the situation on the Wushan battlefield from afar, finally ordered the artillery squadron to cease the bombardment.

The cessation of artillery fire did not lead to any relaxation for the Fourth and Fifth Companies defending the Wushan position.

The Japanese forces closed the short distance in an instant.

The machine gun positions, which had just been heavily bombarded by the Japanese artillery, had no time to fire.

In less than five seconds, covering a distance of thirty meters, the Japanese had already stormed into the trenches.

Another brutal close-quarters battle ensued within the trenches.

Iwade Kentaro was merely an ordinary soldier in the Nakafuku Battalion. Before the war, he was a student at school.

Heeding the call of the Empire, he joined the military and was assigned to the 116th Regiment.

In recent days, within the Nakafuku Battalion, he had rapidly transformed from an ordinary citizen into a veteran soldier.

When he first landed on this continent, he found everything so new and fresh.

Seeing the low houses in the villages, he felt a sense of disdain common among ordinary people: "They aren't even as tall as my house."

When he saw the mansions of wealthy families in the villages, he couldn't help but feel envy and jealousy.

Mixed with his envy and jealousy, there was actually an emotion he dared not express: admiration!

All along, what he had learned from books was the long history of this suzerain state.

And its famous mountains, rivers, and historical sites!

He wanted to see all these places.

"Private Property! No Trespassing!"

This was what he had learned from books at school.

He knew: Without the owner's invitation, one could not enter someone's house.

Although he envied and hated that mansion, he still adhered to his basic principles.

When the squad leader and others in the company saw the mansion, their eyes lit up.

Everyone rushed to the front of the mansion's gate. Iwade Kentaro thought the captain was going to knock, but...

The others in the company were already smashing it with their rifle butts.

After a dozen or so blows failed to break it open, Kojima Eiji immediately climbed over the surrounding wall and opened the gate from the inside.

The entire squad, numbering over fifty soldiers, rushed in menacingly.

Soon, several gunshots rang out in the courtyard.

When Iwade Kentaro cautiously walked in to take a look,

he saw three corpses lying in the courtyard. He asked, puzzled, "These people had no weapons!

They were just civilians!"

Kojima Eiji laughed, "Idiot! When we knocked on the door, they didn't open it. That's enough reason for them to die.

It's their contempt for us, contempt for the soldiers of the Empire, contempt for the Empire.

It's also contempt for His Supreme Majesty!"

Iwade Kentaro looked at his fellow countryman and felt that something he said was off.

But Iwade Kentaro couldn't find a reason to object!

Anything involving His Supreme Majesty was a matter of paramount importance.

In this light, it seemed that these three civilians hiding in their own home were indeed deserving of death.

His comrades, who were usually polite, seemed like different people now.

Their faces were filled with excitement, and the joy in their eyes surpassed even when they talked about women.

These comrades quickly rummaged through the rooms in the mansion, with occasional shouts of, "Found it!"

"This is mine!"

"This is so beautiful!"

"This is too big to carry!"

"Smash it!"

"Crash!" The sound of porcelain breaking echoed in the courtyard.

This sound of porcelain breaking was not just a one-off event.

It was clear that the comrades in the various rooms greatly enjoyed hearing this sound.

Kojima Eiji darted out of a room and saw Iwade Kentaro still standing blankly in the courtyard.

He reminded him, "Aren't you going to start? No need to be modest now!"

Iwade Kentaro said naively, "It's very impolite to do this without the owner's permission."

Seeing as they were from the same island, Kojima Eiji took great care of this new recruit. "We're here, so we're the owners now.

Everything inside is ours, and it's only natural to dispose of our own things.

You go in and have a look, see if you can find anything good.

Look..."

He finished, rolling up his sleeves to reveal two golden bracelets: "One for the captain, one for me.

Whatever you find is the same, remember to give half to the captain."

Iwade Kentaro stood blankly in the courtyard, watching his comrades excitedly go in and out.

When Captain Souda came out, he also looked satisfied.

He walked up to him and held out his hand, "Your spoils of war?"

Although Iwade Kentaro was dull, he knew that this was asking him to hand over his half.

He stammered, "I didn't go in!"

"Baka!" Iwade Kentaro immediately received a slap to the face.

Captain Souda ordered fiercely, "Go in and search for me! If you don't bring something out,

I'll kill you!"

None of the soldiers in the entire squad sympathized, all smiling and watching this new recruit who still had a trace of humanity.

It wasn't that his comrades didn't want to help him, but that most of them had gone through this kind of mental journey before.

Who wasn't a baby before?

Who isn't a demon now?

That day, Iwade Kentaro finally rushed into the backyard and picked out a blue silk qipao (cheongsam) to give to the captain.

The qipao was embroidered with a lotus flower, and the stamen in the middle looked shiny. As it was unfolded and shaken, the light shimmered and flowed.

One could imagine how beautiful it would be if a woman wore it, with the light shimmering on the stamen as she moved with light steps.

It was clearly a very beautiful qipao.

Iwade Kentaro himself took nothing.

Iwade Kentaro saw with his own eyes that after Captain Souda took the qipao he offered,

he greedily sniffed the scent on the qipao and said with an encouraging smile, "That's right!

We've come all this way to rob, steal, deceive, destroy, and rape."

Finally, the captain summarized very loudly: "All armies that go to other countries do this.

No matter how nice they sound when talking to reporters and civilians, their essence never changes."

At that moment, Captain Souda had the air of a philosopher.

In fact, Captain Souda was indeed a philosophy student at university.

The captain lit the fine Yun brocade qipao and used it as kindling to set the entire mansion on fire.

Iwade Kentaro then understood: the captain was training him!

All soldiers of the Empire would receive such training.

After this, Iwade Kentaro finally transformed from an ordinary civilian into a qualified warrior of the Empire.

This was personally praised by Captain Souda: it was after Iwade Kentaro got up from a young girl and cruelly used a wooden stick to poke her inside.

Now, Iwade Kentaro stood on Wushan, in the Fourth Company's fortifications, facing the soldiers of the Fourth Company.

He was desperately lunging at those soldiers.

Ever since he became a qualified warrior of the Empire, he had been constantly excited, loving blood, loving raw food, loving killing!

Iwade Kentaro was now a completely bloodthirsty killing machine, his eyes glowing red, holding his rifle, charging towards the soldiers of the Fourth Company.

Nakafuku Hyuga, the battalion commander, saw that his team's vanguard had already stormed into the defenders' position.

He immediately ordered, "Full charge!"

The Nakafuku Battalion commander, fully focused on the attack, did not notice that less than five hundred meters behind him, another team had appeared.

The Nakafuku Battalion commander's entire mind was focused on the Wushan position. He was excitedly thinking:

His team would push over this hill in one go.

That would be much better than the Heishan Battalion commander.

In fact, some soldiers in the Nakafuku Battalion did look back at the team.

But they were attracted by the three tanks at the front of the team.

Those were clearly their own tanks.

Of course, they were there to help them.

Xiao Dongbei and the others successfully rushed to the foot of Wushan, but the tanks couldn't go up.

Open fire on the spot!

The machine guns on the tanks opened fire, which the soldiers of the Special Operations Company could control.

However, they dared not use the tank cannons: these gunners had too little experience and feared they might misjudge and hit their own brothers. The heavy machine guns and machine guns of the Special Operations Company's Fourth Platoon and the Eighth Company, which had just rushed over, began to sweep the Japanese forces still halfway up the mountain.

The remaining soldiers also charged upwards from both sides.

The machine guns behind them opened fire, and a large number of Japanese soldiers charging upwards fell.

Now they were really panicked: this was an attack from both front and rear.

The Nakafuku Hyuga battalion commander had no idea where this team had come from.

Now, the position on the mountaintop had not yet been captured.

And there were Nationalist troops firing from behind.

The Japanese forces on the hillside had no choice but to turn around and return fire on the spot.

But in their current state, with no cover at all, they were completely exposed as targets for the Eighth Company and the Fourth Platoon below the mountain.

However, the Japanese counterattack also suppressed the Eighth Company and the Fourth Platoon, who were charging upwards, in place.

This was the advantage of being at a higher elevation.

The Fourth and Fifth Companies on the Wushan position were originally struggling to hold on.

Suddenly, they heard intense gunfire from the foot of the mountain, and then saw that their reinforcements had really arrived.

Their morale soared, and all the soldiers were instantly filled with energy.

Summoning their courage, they annihilated the Japanese forces who had stormed into the fortifications in one wave.

They re-established a temporary defensive line.

The machine guns on the mountaintop also opened fire.

Now, the entire Nakafuku Battalion had become a sandwich, surrounded on the hillside and unable to move at all.

They were like rats in a bellows—suffering from both ends!

Things definitely couldn't continue like this.

The Nakafuku Hyuga battalion commander knew this very well.

He commanded the Fourth Company under his command: "Company Commander Tojima Yooju, the fate of the entire battalion rests on you.

Now your company will charge down the mountain and open a gap."

Company Commander Tojima Yooju immediately led over a hundred Japanese soldiers, braving a dense hail of bullets.

They charged fiercely down the mountain.

The machine guns and mortars of the entire Nakafuku Battalion were now divided into two parts.

One group fired at the Fourth and Fifth Companies on the mountaintop.

The other fired at the Eighth Company and the Special Operations Company's Fourth Platoon, who were blocking their retreat down the mountain.

At this time, the Special Operations Company's cannon was finally moved over and reassembled.

The power of the 20mm cannon was even greater than the three mortars from earlier.

The main thing was that the penetration of the 20mm cannon was too strong.

At a distance of less than four hundred meters, the trajectory was basically a straight line.

Whether it was the makeshift cover piled up by the Japanese soldiers with the corpses of their comrades on the mountain, or the shields of the heavy machine guns, they could not stop the bullets fired from the cannon.

The 20mm cannon had a firing rate similar to a machine gun, but its power was much greater.

Using such a weapon in this place was simply bullying the Japanese.

Company Commander Tojima Yooju's company had barely charged a hundred meters when only a dozen or so men were left from the 184-man company.

The Nakafuku Hyuga battalion commander was dumbfounded!

Was the firepower of this team below the mountain a bit too strong!

He could only place his hope for a breakthrough on the mountaintop.

If they could charge up the mountain and occupy the positions on the mountain, they could hold out for a while longer.

Attacking a mountaintop was already a very difficult task, and now there were Nationalist troops attacking from behind.

Having fallen into a desperate situation, the Nakafuku Battalion could only put up a last-ditch struggle.

The Nakafuku Battalion was not, after all, fighting alone:

The regimental commander Shinpin Ryunosuke, who was watching the battle from afar, was also scared out of his wits at this time:

When attacking Teizan just now, his team had already lost six or seven hundred soldiers.

If he lost another battalion of over a thousand men on Wushan,

he was afraid he would be forced to commit seppuku (ritual suicide) today.

He quickly ordered his regiment's artillery to bombard the team at the foot of Wushan.

When the first shell exploded nearby, Xiao Dongbei ordered, "Tanks turn around and fire in the direction of the Japanese artillery.

All teams disperse, open up the front, and let the Japanese down the mountain."

Then he whispered a few words to Qu Cun, Lu Dayou, and the others.

The Sixth-One-Eight Regiment's Eighth Company immediately carried out the dispersal mission according to Xiao Dongbei's orders, and the two teams sped off in two directions.

They quickly left the area that was being bombarded.

The Nakafuku Battalion, still on the mountain, heard the intense explosions coming from below.

Turning around, they saw that the obstacle blocking their path down the mountain was being bombarded by their team's artillery.

The Nakafuku Hyuga battalion commander was so excited that tears filled his eyes. He quickly ordered the team to stop attacking the mountain.

He charged down towards the path that had been opened up by the Nationalist troops.

He feared that this opportunity would be fleeting. The soldiers who had fallen behind while attacking upwards immediately rushed down the mountain like their lives depended on it.

Regimental Commander Shinpin Ryunosuke, who was commanding the artillery squadron from afar, saw that the soldiers of the Nakafuku Battalion were retreating very resolutely.

They were moving extremely quickly, and he was filled with relief. He immediately ordered the artillery squadron to cease the bombardment.

At this time, he could not use artillery shells to block the Nakafuku Battalion's retreat.

Qu Cun and Lu Dayou each led a few soldiers from the Special Operations Company, quickly mixing into the rapidly dispersing team and setting up positions on both sides of the opened path.

Their movements were very quick and concealed, and they did not attract anyone's attention at all.

Not only the Japanese forces charging down the mountain, but even the Nationalist soldiers who were dispersing to both sides did not notice.

Xiao Dongbei ordered, "Retreat! Retreat further!"

The Eighth Company and the Fourth Platoon under his command, who had just rushed over to intercept the Japanese retreat, had already left their previous position by a hundred meters.

Xiao Dongbei was still telling these people to retreat further.

They didn't stop until they had retreated a hundred and fifty meters: "Everyone lie prone.

Don't get hit by Japanese bullets.

When shooting, you must not raise your body, you must keep close to the ground."

Opposite them, Qu Cun and Lu Dayou were also giving the same instructions to all the soldiers around them.

The soldiers of the Special Operations Company and the Eighth Company retreated far away, opening up a wide road in the middle.

The teams that had originally been together were now divided into two units.

The soldiers of the Nakafuku Battalion swarmed down the mountain, wanting to rush back.

The entire company's heavy machine guns and mortars had been abandoned on the mountain.

The Fourth and Fifth Companies guarding the mountain had already sent soldiers to clean up the battlefield.

The Japanese machine guns, heavy machine guns, and mortars were all good stuff.

The Fourth Company commander looked at the Japanese forces running wildly down the mountain and sighed, saying to the Fifth Company commander, "Lao Ren, if only those below could hold on for another ten minutes! That would be great!"

Ren Dazhong, who he called Lao Ren, said, "I saw just now, the Japanese artillery fire is coming.

The brothers below have no cover. If they don't evacuate, the casualties will be high.

Under the Japanese artillery fire, not only would the casualties be high, but they might not even be able to stop them."

Fourth Company Commander Wu Tianci was silent for a while, "What a great opportunity! I don't feel happy letting it go."

Company Commander Ren laughed: "Think about when the Japanese had already stormed into the trenches. Could you have thought of this then?

Look at those three heavy machine guns!"

Wu Tianci also laughed: "At that time, I was already thinking: I, Lao Tzu (lit. "old son," a boastful or vulgar way to refer to oneself) will become a martyr here today."

The two laughed together: both of them had such thoughts.

Just during this time: the Japanese forces who had charged down the hillside had reached the place where the Eighth Company and the Special Operations Company had blocked them earlier.

The soldiers of the two companies on the mountaintop watched from afar: those soldiers who had just retreated were also firing sparsely.

The requirement for firing while keeping close to the ground that Xiao Dongbei and Qu Cun had demanded was really too difficult.

If the place where they were lying prone didn't have a depression, it would be impossible to fire at all.

This also made the bullets fired by these soldiers who had just retreated sparse and pathetic.

Rather than hindering the Japanese retreat, it was more like scaring them: Don't come over! Don't come over! We have guns.

Those three tanks had now driven far away and were still trying their best to fire into the distance.

The machine guns ambushing on both sides had not fired.

These soldiers really couldn't do such a high-difficulty action of firing without raising their heads, and with their own people three hundred meters away, they were really afraid of accidentally injuring their teammates.

These Japanese soldiers of the Nakatani Battalion finally felt relieved.

They ran wildly, desperate: as long as they ran another hundred meters, they would almost certainly be able to survive.

Qu Cun on the left, Lu Dayou on the right, both silently counting: eighty meters, ninety meters, a hundred meters!

Second round: ten meters, twenty meters!

…

One hundred meters!

Pull!