"Yes! Not shameful!" Xiao Dongbei replied loudly.

Lin Fan looked at Xiao Dongbei and his team members with encouraging eyes.

Today, Xiao Dongbei's Fourth Detachment suffered heavy casualties. When they rushed down Xiaoshan just now, a vehicle was hit by Japanese artillery shells.

The detachment lost more than fifty men, with thirty-seven killed on the spot and seventeen wounded.

These wounded soldiers were all handed over to the fortress's medical team to be sent to the rear. The fallen soldiers were waiting for news of their comrades' victory before they could be buried.

Such a team needed a fierce battle to stimulate them.

The pain in the eyes of the Fourth Detachment members was not obvious.

In recent days, they had seen too much bloodshed and sacrifice.

Their comrades had just taken the first step.

Those who were alive had to fight the Japanese devils well and strive to kill more of them in the following battles. When they returned, they could also let their dead comrades close their eyes.

Or, when they went down, they could tell those comrades who had arrived earlier: no regrets in this life, let's be Huaxia people again in the next!

At this moment, many artillery shells suddenly fell on the front lines of the 618th Regiment.

Regiment Commander Wan Shi-tong looked at the densely falling artillery shells and said to Lin Fan gratefully, "Company Commander Lin! Thank you for your reminder, which has reduced our casualties a lot."

Lin Fan smiled slightly, "Take care of my brothers. I'll take the team to the front to take a look.

Also, when they go back, bring me some horse meat. The brothers will rely on this horse meat for extra meals tonight."

"Okay! Okay! Definitely!" At this time, a company commander was still thinking about adding extra meals at night.

Regiment Commander Wan Shi-tong smiled and agreed repeatedly.

He didn't know what the mission of Lin Fan's team was: anyway, he could see this company driving around the defense zone every day.

Rather than saying that they were training, it was more like a patrol team in the entire defense zone.

Even now, he had not received any notice of the arrival of this company, just as he had no right to stop them from leaving now.

Lin Fan returned to the team waiting in front: "Go to Shangqi Town."

Iwanaga Yūki, the commander of the Japanese 103rd Regiment, commanded the 1st and 2nd companies of his 1st Battalion to launch a fierce attack on Shangqi Town.

This team had been assembled early in the morning and had been waiting for the signal to attack.

At ten o'clock, the artillery launched a fierce bombardment of the front positions. It could be seen that the defending troops' fortifications were not strong.

Defending Shangqi Town were two companies from the 1st Battalion of the 613th Regiment of the National Army's 103rd Division.

Today, when they discovered that a large number of Japanese troops were gathering outside Shangqi Town.

They had been cautiously on guard.

All the soldiers of the two companies entered the positions and waited in battle.

They did not expect that before the Japanese infantry began to charge, there would be a wave of half an hour of artillery bombardment first.

This wave caused heavy casualties to the two companies of the 613th Regiment, directly reducing the number of soldiers by 150.

Battalion Commander Kou Xingxian reported to Regiment Commander Luo Yibin, crying, "Regiment Commander! The Japanese artillery fire is too fierce.

Should we withdraw the 1st and 2nd Companies? In just half an hour, they have lost half of their men before even engaging the Japanese infantry."

Regiment Commander Luo Yibin ordered, "Hold on, let the 1st and 2nd Companies hold on. I will send the 9th Company to support."

After receiving the order, Kou Xingxian ordered the 1st and 2nd Companies to hold their positions and not to retreat.

He ordered Hong Yutang, the company commander of the 1st Company, "I don't care about the casualties of your company, I only want Shangqi Town, as long as you and Ying Hongyuan hold Shangqi Town for me."

Finally, Battalion Commander Kou Xingxian's tone softened a little, "The regiment commander has sent the 9th Company to reinforce you.

Hold on."

"Yes! Guarantee to complete the mission!" Hong Yutang responded loudly on the phone.

After hanging up the phone, he said to Company Commander Ying Hongyuan with a wry smile, "The regiment commander has sent the 9th Company to reinforce us, let the brothers hold on."

As he spoke, he looked at the continued bombing outside: "The Japanese are really throwing these shells like they don't cost money!"

Company Commander Ying Hongyuan said with a wry smile, "Who told them they could borrow money from the Americans to buy shells?

It seems that the Japanese bombing is weakening."

Ying Hongyuan was a high school student who did not go to college after graduation, but was admitted to a military academy.

He had always liked to pay attention to the big and small things in the international arena. He had also seen the news about the Americans lending money and selling arms to the Japanese from the newspapers.

Now the bombing outside had weakened a little.

Artillery bombardment followed by infantry charge! This was a consistent tactic of the Japanese.

Although it was old-fashioned, it was also very practical.

"Their infantry is coming up." Hong Yutang became nervous.

"I'm going up!"

"Me too."

Seeing that everyone in the entire command post was rushing out, Ying Hongyuan immediately ordered, "Jin Xiuzhu, you answer the phone in the command post."

When the two company commanders rushed to the positions, the Japanese troops who had been assembled in front since morning had already charged to the front of the positions.

At the forefront were five tanks leading the way, followed by about a hundred Japanese soldiers.

Like the 618th Regiment, they had also dug a wide and deep trench in front of their company's positions.

This was to defend against Japanese tanks.

Ying Hongyuan picked up a piece of shrapnel with the letters "USA" still on it from the position and said in a low voice, "Damn Japanese devils!"

The last time the Japanese tanks appeared, the officers and soldiers in the entire Jiangyin defense zone had already prepared for it.

Toyota Shimayama, the commander of the 25th Brigade of the 13th Division, watched as the five tanks he had sent out suddenly disappeared.

Without the protection of the tanks, the two squads of infantry continued to fall.

Teams of soldiers rushed out from the shattered fortifications of the defending army, which had been bombarded by the 5th Field Heavy Artillery Brigade.

They charged towards the two Japanese squads that had already been knocked down a lot of people.

Kogame Asahi was short in stature, less than 1.4 meters tall.

From the time he joined the army, he was sent to the tank school.

Kogame Asahi, who was young but ambitious, had always wanted to strive to be a big man.

At school, because of his short stature, he was very unpopular with his classmates.

He was often bullied by his classmates.

Kogame Asahi, who had no friends, could only train very hard, training at all costs.

Diligent and hardworking, Kogame Asahi became a good student in the eyes of all the teachers.

Learning to drive a tank was a tiring and difficult thing.

Sitting in the tank, the noise, heat, and narrow space could drive people crazy.

However, Kogame Asahi had always persisted, maintaining the record for the longest time spent in the tank in the entire school.

This record had not been broken until now.

When he graduated with the best grades, the students who used to bully him finally had a little respect in their eyes when they looked at him.

That was enough!

Since coming to this land, he had participated in countless battles.

Each time, he could drive the tank very easily and charge onto the defending army's positions.

Regardless of whether the position in front was a city's fortress, a beach on the side of a river, or a bunker on flat ground.

Today was the same!

Kogame Asahi drove the tank all the way forward. Today, the defending army was on a small hill.

This was not difficult at all. He watched as he got closer, closer.

When he was only three hundred meters away, Kogame Asahi realized that the defending army had another line of defense at the foot of the hill.

This could not stump the tank he was driving.

When it continued to charge forward for two hundred meters, the tank suddenly tilted forward, and suddenly the entire field of vision was filled with soil.

All that came towards him was soil.

Kogame Asahi felt a little flustered and quickly reversed the car.

He prepared to take a step back and try.

The tank engine made a deafening roar, but it could not take a step back.

Kogame Asahi could only continue to move forward, but his tank had just moved forward less than a meter, and the entire tank finally settled down.

The few people in the tank breathed a sigh of relief, but Kogame Asahi had not dared to relax yet, his eyes were still facing a wall of soil.

Now he did not dare to drive forward anymore, and shouted loudly, "Kunishita Binta, go out and see what's going on?"

Kunishita Binta was the machine gunner on this tank. The noise in the tank was deafening, and everyone here was used to shouting loudly.

Hearing Kogame Asahi's order, he immediately responded, removed the top cover, and arched upward.

As soon as his head stretched out, he was hit by a black shadow.

He fell headfirst into the tank.

Gunner Kakuta Tatsuya looked at the black shadow that had smashed Kunishita in and shouted in fright, "Hand grenade!"

Before he could react, with a "boom," the hand grenade exploded in the narrow tank.

Company Commander Ying Hongyuan saw the Japanese tank drive into the trench he had prepared long ago.

He immediately ordered, "Throw hand grenades."

"Throw hand grenades!" Company Commander Hong Yutang also gave the same order.

All of the more than 140 soldiers left in the two companies threw the prepared hand grenades.

More than a hundred hand grenades exploded in the narrow trench.

Those Japanese soldiers who had just followed the tank and jumped into the trench were instantly surrounded by the crisscrossing shrapnel in the trench.

There were also unlucky tanks like Kogame Asahi's that happened to be hit by a hand grenade, killing everyone inside the tank.

The explosions in the trench stunned the follow-up infantry who were still hesitating on the trench. There were seventy or eighty people in this group.

Some of them lay down and relied on the edge of the trench to fight back, while others turned and ran.

Hong Yutang raised his Mauser pistol and stood up: "Charge!"

The two sides were now less than fifty meters apart, and there were less than ten Japanese soldiers still resisting.

The soldiers of the 1st Company immediately followed and rushed out of the trenches.

Company Commander Ying Hongyuan of the 2nd Company led the entire company to charge up.

Dai Hongfu was a soldier of the 1st Company. He charged at the front and was the first to rush into the trench. What he saw was a Japanese tank that was increasing its throttle and trying to arch out a way.

Now this tank was like a wild boar that had fallen into a trap, stubbornly arching towards the mud wall in front of it, as if it wanted to learn from a pangolin and burrow into the ground.

Dai Hongfu rushed up to the tank in two steps, reached out and lifted the top cover, and threw two hand grenades in at once.

He laughed and closed the top cover, and was satisfied to hear the horrified screams of the Japanese devils coming through the iron armor.

Then there were two sounds of hand grenades exploding.

The tank was quiet.

The soldiers who rushed in behind all followed suit.

Even Kogame Asahi's tank with the top cover lifted was blown up again.

There were only five tanks, and only five soldiers could get to blow up a tank.

More soldiers, following the company commander, stepped on the jumping boards that were carried up and rushed onto the trench.

The soldiers of the two companies surrounded the forty or so Japanese soldiers who had not escaped, with an average of three soldiers dealing with one Japanese soldier.

This battle happened quickly and ended quickly.

Toyota Shimayama, the brigade commander of the 25th Brigade of the 13th Division, watched as the two squads he had sent out.

In less than ten minutes, only thirty or so deserters survived.

Yes, these thirty or so were all deserters.

Toyota Shimayama was furious and pointed at the front position: "Call the artillery to continue bombing!

Let those cowards charge at the front. The 1st Battalion prepares to attack.

The cavalry battalion prepares to charge!"

Hong Yutang did not let the soldiers chase too far.

He just ordered the soldiers to clean up the weapons and ammunition on the battlefield a little, and immediately retreated.

They had just returned to the positions when the Japanese bombing came again.

Not only that, but the planes in the sky also swooped down to strafe and bomb them.

Shangqi Town after the bombing was already in ruins.

The 9th Company, which was ordered to come to reinforce, only entered the positions when the Japanese artillery fire had just ended.

They saw that the forward positions of the 1st and 2nd Companies had been destroyed by the Japanese bombing to the point that they could only tell that they had once been fortifications.

None of the soldiers of the two companies survived. The positions were bloody, and the soldiers' flesh and blood were completely mixed with the positions.

There was no time to grieve.

9th Company Commander Mi Rui-cheng ordered the soldiers: "The Japanese are coming, immediately enter the positions and prepare to snipe."

Now the positions here only had shallow gullies less than a foot deep.

Mi Rui-cheng ordered, "Go to the front-line trenches."

In the trenches dug by the 1st and 2nd Companies, all five Japanese tanks were now blown apart.

The soldiers of the 9th Company stood on the wreckage of the tanks, ready to fight!

The Japanese cavalry and a battalion of more than a thousand men charged towards the front positions as soon as the artillery fire ended.

The thirty or so Japanese soldiers who had escaped during the first wave of the charge were now really sent to charge at the front as a death squad.

The Japanese infantry charged from the front, and on the left and right sides were two cavalry units each with about a hundred men.

Looking at the formation of the Japanese troops who were charging, Mi Rui-cheng's face suddenly turned ugly.

Seeing that the Japanese were still a hundred meters away from the positions.

He ordered the entire company: "Shoot! When hitting the cavalry, pay attention to hitting their horses."

His company only had 123 men, and there were a thousand Japanese troops on the opposite side.

He could only let the soldiers start shooting from a distance, hoping to inflict the greatest damage on the Japanese and make them retreat in the face of difficulties.

This time, Company Commander Mi Rui-cheng's idea was broken by the Japanese troops' firm charge.

Brigade Commander Nakajima issued a death order: "If Shangqi Town is not captured, all soldiers who turn back will be subject to battlefield discipline."

To strengthen this order, when this team set out, the machine guns and heavy machine guns behind them had already been set up.

This was not to suppress the defending army's firepower, but to deal with soldiers who dared to escape back.

Mi Rui-cheng's company was a full-strength company, with a total of nine machine guns. Now they were all firing at the Japanese cavalry.

Ninety rifles were shooting at the Japanese infantry.

No matter how resolute the 9th Company's counterattack was, no matter how strong the soldiers' fighting will was.

The Japanese troops' pace forward did not stop.

Ōgishi Kazuteru, the commander of the 1st Battalion, received the order to attack from the regimental commander.

During the first wave of the attack, more than thirty deserters appeared in his battalion.

This made Battalion Commander Ōgishi Kazuteru lose face. If it weren't in front of Regimental Commander Iwanaga Yūki.

Battalion Commander Ōgishi Kazuteru would have already executed those thirty or so soldiers for violating battlefield discipline.

Brigade Commander Toyota Shimayama was still kind, giving these deserters a glimmer of hope, allowing them to serve as a death squad in the next charge.

Now more than thirty deserters were charging at the front, and Battalion Commander Ōgishi Kazuteru was ready to give these people who had deserted once a shot at any time.

As long as they dared to turn back, he would not hesitate to shoot.

The cannon fodder in front charged resolutely. Although the Japanese troops were constantly falling, those who were still alive did not dare to stop at all.

They had just seen the two words "eat people!" from Battalion Commander Ōgishi's glowing eyes.

The Japanese cavalry was the first to rush into the positions of the 9th Company, followed by the infantry of the Ōgishi Battalion.

Now Company Commander Mi Rui-cheng and all the soldiers of the company could only pick up their bayonets and engage in hand-to-hand combat with the Japanese troops.

The Japanese cavalry riding on war horses chopped down with their sabers from a high position, and the soldiers of the 9th Company fell one by one.

When Lin Fan led the Special Forces Detachment here, he unexpectedly encountered the Ōgishi Battalion, which was sweeping the battlefield.

There was no time to react!

Lin Fan operated the machine gun on the car and immediately opened fire.

The heavy machine guns set up on the cars behind him also followed immediately.

The Ōgishi Battalion, which had just occupied Shangqi Town, immediately organized a counterattack.

Lin Fan ordered: "Artillery bombardment!

Heavy machine gun cover!

All vehicles immediately turn around and retreat two thousand meters.

The rest of the people follow me!

Charge!"

He handed the machine gun to Chen Xing.

He led the men himself and charged forward.

Wu Xiaobao, Zhao Long, and the Ji Wudi sisters followed.

Only three of the machine guns mounted on the moving vehicles of the Special Forces Company had an angle to shoot at the Japanese.

The remaining heavy machine guns on the cars were immediately lifted down and quickly entered the positions.

The Special Forces Company had been practicing this kind of operation every day these days.

In less than two minutes, twenty-three heavy machine guns rang out.

They immediately suppressed the Japanese machine gun positions.

The two automatic cannons still on the cars were suppressing the Japanese heavy machine guns to the death.

The power of the automatic cannons to deal with the Japanese heavy machine guns' shields was as easy as an adult tearing up a piece of white paper.

When Lin Fan led the soldiers through the three hundred meters and charged into the Japanese ranks.

Battalion Commander Ōgishi Kazuteru also directed his soldiers to launch a countercharge.

In Battalion Commander Ōgishi Kazuteru's mind, he had never been afraid of bayonet fighting.

In his eyes, in bayonet fighting! If the soldiers of the Empire claimed second, no team in the world would dare to claim first.

The commander of the team in front of him was obviously confused and actually wanted to engage in hand-to-hand combat with him as soon as he came up.

However, Battalion Commander Ōgishi Kazuteru could also understand in his heart: "So many cars of the other side are parked on the road and cannot withstand the blow from our side at all.

As long as our heavy machine guns and grenade launchers can ease up a little, none of those cars will escape."

He saw the team on the opposite side charging up, and he also saw the vehicles that had sent them here turning around in a panic.

"They came here specifically to seize the positions?" Battalion Commander Ōgishi Kazuteru suddenly became a little unsure of his initial judgment.