Chapter 1 October 29, 1937, Morning: 9:00 AM

As the church bells rang.

Following the order of Colonel Haji Takuma, commander of the Japanese Shanghai Naval Landing Force.

The entire Shanghai Naval Landing Force launched an attack on Sihang Warehouse.

He watched his troops advance.

He watched the tanks on the east side rush to within seven or eight hundred meters of the outer positions of the National Revolutionary Army.

There was still no reaction from the other side, which was a good sign.

As soon as this thought popped into his head.

He saw several shells suddenly fall from the sky, hitting the tanks at the front of the assault.

Then he saw shells constantly flying out in all directions from the roof of Sihang Warehouse.

Only the shells flying towards the east were clearly seen by Haji Takuma:

The first round of shells extinguished the five tanks at the very front of his direction.

…

Everyone standing on the south bank of the Suzhou River held their breath.

At this moment, all the people in Shanghai looked in the direction of Sihang Warehouse.

When overwhelming artillery shells fell on the roof of Sihang Warehouse and the fortifications outside.

Violent explosions, mixed with huge plumes of smoke, soared into the sky.

Half the sky was obscured by smoke, and Shanghai suddenly plunged into darkness in the morning.

The people who had no opportunity to watch the battle could only pray silently: God bless the children of China!

God bless our Eight Hundred Heroes!

Everyone's hearts sank with the explosion of the Japanese shells!

Such fierce artillery fire had never occurred in the previous days.

Today, the Japanese were determined – like a turtle eating an iron weight.

The Chinese people standing on the south bank of the Suzhou River saw the shells rising from the roof, accurately hitting the Japanese tanks.

The shells that flew from the roof were like a long sword, cutting through the fog filled with smoke and dust.

They accurately smashed into the Japanese tanks.

These citizens, who felt as if they were in the eighteenth level of hell, immediately cheered.

The bombing just now had made everyone's hearts clench, fearing that the National Revolutionary Army would no longer have the strength to fight back.

Now their mood had been lifted from the eighteenth level of hell to the thirty-sixth level of heaven.

The citizens looked down at the Japanese tank turrets, which flashed with fireballs like fireworks.

Then, as if frozen in place, they immediately stopped moving.

The shells that soared into the sky seemed to have eyes, each hitting a tank.

On the north side, invisible to those on the south bank of the Suzhou River, Japanese Northern Commander Yoshino Eiji rode in an armored vehicle.

He urged the entire force of more than two thousand men to advance quickly. The advance on the first section of the road was very smooth.

With the cover of artillery bombardment, they were practically in a no-man's land.

All they had to do was watch their path and walk it well.

Things were never as smooth as imagined.

The artillery bombardment ended after five minutes.

Then the nightmare began: the shells that fell from the sky were not many, nor were they fierce.

But they were accurate!

Each shell would hit a tank, and they were always the tanks at the very front.

It was as if it were a reward.

The first round of shells destroyed the five tanks at the very front.

Lieutenant Colonel Yoshino Eiji could see clearly that even the order in which the tanks exploded started with the first and ended with the fifth.

This was very frightening.

He had seen sharpshooters in his many years of fighting, but he had never seen a gunner like this.

Whether it was Lieutenant Colonel Yoshino Eiji or Commander Haji Takuma, they watched helplessly as the tanks in front became like iron coffins:

Exploding continuously, the Imperial warriors inside would occasionally crawl out covered in flames.

Haji Takuma did not hesitate and immediately ordered: "Artillery bombardment!

Bombard the National Revolutionary Army's artillery positions!"

The Japanese Shanghai Naval Landing Force had experience in urban warfare like this.

In August, they had held out alone at the Da Gong cotton mill for half a month.

This had made their reputation for bravery and skill spread throughout the Empire.

This time, the enemy only had one building, with no depth at all, and no other visible places to hide.

In order to achieve better results and ensure that no shells flew across the Suzhou River, the artillery positions of the Naval Landing Force were set up less than two thousand meters away from Sihang Warehouse today.

When they fired their first round just now, Lin Fan was still hiding inside Sihang Warehouse to avoid the shells.

He had no way of knowing where the Japanese artillery positions were.

Now, just as he had fired four rounds of twenty shells, he heard the sound of shells whistling towards him.

The Japanese artillery had started shelling again.

The cheers that the reporters on the south bank of the Suzhou River had just uttered were immediately suppressed by the sound of the Japanese artillery fire.

Through their observations over the past few days, the observers from the multinational military observation group had concluded that:

Among the defenders of Sihang Warehouse, there was a soldier who was particularly accurate with artillery.

They suspected that all the shells were fired by him alone.

Today, they saw the strength of this artilleryman again, and the foreigners were silent.

Until the Japanese artillery positions fired again, their mood inexplicably eased.

They were still indignant at the Japanese for not keeping their promise and not respecting them, but now it seemed as if that incident had passed.

It was as if such a thing had never happened.

Lin Fan watched the direction of the Japanese shells flying over without blinking.

He calculated the location of the Japanese artillery positions.

When the result came out, his face was filled with a happy smile.

Wu Xiaobao whispered to Zhao Long, "The company commander is smiling, the Japanese are done for!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Lin Fan turned around and said loudly to Wu Xiaobao and Zhao Long, "You two, get down!"

There were still a dozen soldiers around Lin Fan, these were his company headquarters' direct personnel.

Wu Xiaobao and Zhao Long were really too young.

Lin Fan didn't want anything to happen to such young children, so he gave the order.

Zhao Long complained in a low voice to Wu Xiaobao, "It's all your fault, you distracted the company commander."

Wu Xiaobao protested aggrievedly, "I didn't say anything!"

Feng Junya slapped their heads, "The company commander is protecting you!

Hurry down, shells don't have eyes!"

The two young soldiers quickly ran back into Sihang Warehouse, hiding their bodies at the entrance to the upper floor.

They nervously watched the battle on the roof.

They saw:

The company commander had picked up a shell, adjusting the barrel with his left hand.

He threw the shell he was holding in his right hand into it.

The shell flew towards the distance.

That direction was where Lin Fan had determined the Japanese artillery positions to be.

Five shells in a row were fired at that location.

This was a one-man artillery battle!

This was a duel between mortars and howitzers.

Lin Fan still had his usual habit of firing five shells in rapid succession each time.

When he switched to the third barrel, the soldiers on the roof and the audience on the south bank of the Suzhou River saw:

Not far behind the direction from which the Japanese had set out, a mushroom cloud suddenly rose.

Lin Fan knew that the Japanese artillery positions were finished.

Looking at the three-sided attacking Japanese forces, they had also cleared away the destroyed tanks that were blocking their path.

The infantry had also given up their cover and were rushing directly towards the positions.

Lin Fan couldn't help but admire the fighting spirit of these Japanese soldiers:

As long as they weren't dead, they would charge to the death, and as long as they didn't die charging, they would keep charging!

Now Lin Fan didn't have time to deal with these infantry.

He still had to continue bombing the Japanese tanks.

The observers from the multinational military observation group also clearly understood when they saw the huge mushroom cloud:

The biggest hidden danger that they had been worried about for so long, the accidental firing, had been cleared by the National Revolutionary Army artillery on the roof of Sihang Warehouse.

But they didn't know why, they didn't feel happy or fortunate in their hearts.

Instead, they felt a heavy, indescribable sense of oppression in their hearts:

This was not the quality that National Revolutionary Army soldiers should possess, this was the kind of soldier that only their empire could cultivate.

Lin Fan's mind was now completely focused on destroying tanks.

He didn't realize that Tang Di, the acting company commander of the Third Company, and Lei Xiong, the machine gun company commander, had already led their soldiers out of Sihang Warehouse.

They were quickly entering their positions.

On the roof, Shangguan Zhibiao, the company commander of the First Company, had also led his soldiers up.

Today, the Second Company and the Special Company were in reserve.

Lin Fan fired several rounds of shells in succession, blocking the Japanese armored vehicle formation again.

At this time, he finally had time to deliver a few shells to the Japanese infantrymen who were bending over and hunching.

Watching the shells explode in the crowd.

Wu Xiaobao jumped up happily, "Good bombing!"

He was immediately pressed down by Feng Junya's big hand, "You don't want to live!

What did the company commander say: you must not be complacent at any time on the battlefield.

Are you going to use your head or your hand to greet the Japanese bullets by jumping up like that?"

A few words made Wu Xiaobao, who was just smiling, almost cry.

When Wu Xiaobao and Zhao Long saw that the Japanese artillery bombardment had stopped again.

They quickly ran out again, rushing to Lin Fan's side, ready to run errands for the company commander at any time!

While shelling, Lin Fan also had time to do ideological work for Wu Xiaobao, "Xiaobao! You have to thank Lao Feng, he is your savior.

There really can't be any carelessness on the battlefield, whether you are happy or sad, you must abide by the battlefield discipline.

Otherwise, you will really be blocking the Japanese bullets with your own life."

As he spoke, the speed at which he threw the shells into the barrel did not change at all.

All four of the defending force's mortars were here.

After such a period of continuous firing, the barrels were now hot and no longer allowed for the five-round rapid fire per minute as just now.

But by now, the threat of the Japanese tanks had been completely eliminated.

The remaining dozen or so tanks and armored vehicles were struggling to run around, trying to break out of the trap that Lin Fan had set for them.

Now Lin Fan had time to take care of the Japanese infantrymen who were charging hard.

When Lin Fan was wholeheartedly fighting the Japanese artillery, the vanguards of these infantrymen had already rushed to the front of the Third Company's fortifications.

Lieutenant Colonel Katsuharu Yota commanded the Japanese detachment attacking on the east side.

On this side, Marine Corps Commander Haji Takuma was watching all the time.

Lieutenant Colonel Katsuharu Yota and his Japanese soldiers were all excited as if they had been injected with chicken blood.

Lin Fan was the first to strike the tanks in this direction.

These soldiers were also the first to be blown out from behind the tanks, and they charged towards the Third Company's position.

While Lin Fan on the roof was unable to attend to other things, they had already set up machine guns in front of the First Company's position, and the grenade launchers had also fired two rounds at the First Company's position.

The machine guns on both sides were roaring. The National Revolutionary Army did not have the suppression of grenade launcher operators, and their firepower was still inferior to that of the Japanese.

It was not that the 542nd Regiment did not have grenade launchers, they had captured quite a few of them during these days.

They could fire them, but they had no confidence in hitting accurately.

Unlike these Japanese soldiers, they played the grenade launcher like a flower, hitting extremely accurately.

Lin Fan was on the roof, and he was also within the range of these Japanese soldiers.

Now Lin Fan had to put down the mortar and prioritize the elimination of these grenade launcher operators.

Lin Fan was on the roof, using grenade launchers to deal with grenade launchers, this was Lin Fan's specialty!.

Picking up the grenade launcher that was handed over, Lin Fan's first target was the professional Japanese soldiers on the east side, hiding two hundred meters away.

Fellow professionals, particularly jealous of each other!

The Japanese grenade launcher operators were still concentrating on bombing the Third Company's machine gun position.

Under their continuous bombardment just now, they had silenced a machine gun on the Third Company's position.

Now these Japanese soldiers wanted to target the heavy machine gun of the machine gun company.

The firepower of this firepower point was too fierce, suppressing half of the Japanese soldiers so that they could not raise their heads.

A Japanese demolition team had already charged up, wanting to blow up this firepower point.

But these Japanese soldiers were shot down by the soldiers of the Second Company upstairs before they could rush up.

When these grenade launcher operators watched the shells they fired explode at the target location.

The happy expression had just appeared, and it froze.

A shell falling from the sky exploded in the middle of them.

These soldiers did not have time to react at all and were blown into the air.

Might as well go all the way!

Lin Fan looked at the armored vehicles in the distance that were still colliding with the destroyed tanks.

There was still time!

He quickly loaded the second grenade launcher grenade and fired it at the Japanese machine gun position on the east side.

The Japanese on the west side had also come up, and Lin Fan had not found their grenade launcher operators for a while.

He could only let them go temporarily and fired a shot at the Japanese soldiers coming from the north.

Only then did he switch back to the mortar.

With this interval, the temperature of the barrel had dropped a lot.

Lin Fan picked up the barrel in order and fired it at the four remaining armored vehicles on the east side.

This time, he finally blew up all the armored vehicles and tanks of the Japanese army on the east side.

Switching a gun, he looked at the north again.

The Japanese armored vehicles in the north were rushing very fast, and three of them had rushed within a hundred meters.

Now Lin Fan could only blow up the three vehicles behind them.

He temporarily let go of these three vehicles.

The Japanese tanks that rushed within a hundred meters started shelling the walls of Sihang Warehouse.

Lin Fan's eyes returned to the west. This direction had the most remaining Japanese tanks and armored vehicles, seven in total.

These armored vehicles finally crashed out a bloody path and continued to charge towards the outer fortifications of the 542nd Regiment.

Lin Fan aimed at their speed and direction of advance.

It was another round of continuous bombardment, until all these vehicles stalled and caught fire.

Only then did he stop.

Now the sound of gunfire was ringing everywhere downstairs and upstairs in Sihang Warehouse.

All the Japanese soldiers who came to attack also knew that their commander:

Had made a statement to the world that they would take Sihang Warehouse in three hours.

Their superiors had such a request, and these soldiers, of course, had to use all their strength to complete it.

Now it was time for these ordinary soldiers to complete it.

Through the observation hole, Lin Fan saw the Japanese soldiers nearby, hiding their bodies and constantly shooting at the Third Company's fortifications.

There were also many Japanese soldiers, crawling forward, one after another crawling towards the fortifications in front.

As long as they crawled to the position, they would immediately detonate the explosives they were carrying.

Without a trace of hesitation.

When these Japanese soldiers detonated the explosives, many of them did not have time to escape and were blown to death by the explosives they detonated themselves.

Such soldiers were terrible!

Lin Fan watched as the front line of the position was blown open by Japanese soldiers.

Tang Di, the acting company commander of the Third Company, had not yet ordered a retreat to the second line of defense.

Lin Fan was a little anxious, took a rifle, and shot at the Japanese soldiers crawling forward.

Xie Jinyuan and Yang Ruifu also noticed the problem, and the signal soldiers immediately transmitted the retreat order.

This retreat was not to let them retreat directly back to Sihang Warehouse, but to let the Third Company abandon the outermost circle of fortifications and retreat into the fourth circle of fortifications to deploy defense.

The soldiers of the Third Company retreated quickly, and the soldiers of the machine gun company were still thinking about holding on.

After the Third Company retreated, the loopholes left in the first line of defense were immediately magnified by the Japanese soldiers who rushed up.

At this time, Lei Xiong realized that he had made a big mistake today.

Now he remembered that when he accepted the mission, Lin Fan had said: "If you save the land but lose the people, you will lose both the people and the land!"

When he was notified to retreat just now, he still wanted to persevere for a while.

In less than a minute, he put the entire machine gun company and the Third Company's position in crisis.

The machine gun company was now surrounded by Japanese soldiers on three sides, in the fourth circle of fortifications that they were originally going to retreat to and defend.

The figures of the Japanese soldiers had already appeared.

Now the machine gun company had no way to retreat. If they wanted to go back, they could only fight back.

He immediately led the soldiers of the machine gun company to break through and charged towards Sihang Warehouse.

He carried a machine gun and rushed to the front.

The special company soldiers on the roof did not dare to shoot at this kind of melee.

When their bullets were fired, they did not even know whether they could hit their own people or the Japanese soldiers.

Only Lin Fan's rifle was still firing quickly.

The special company soldiers tried their best to shoot the bullets at a place slightly farther away from the entangled battlefield.

Trying to block the subsequent Japanese forces.

Such efforts were obviously futile.

The Japanese soldiers had now seen the opportunity to attack Sihang Warehouse.

They closely accompanied the Third Company of the machine gun company, entangled together.

The fortifications that were originally supposed to be guarded by the machine gun company on the flanks of the Third Company were occupied by the Japanese soldiers.

They rushed over from the flanks, and the fourth circle of fortifications was immediately broken through by the Japanese soldiers in the same circle of fortifications.

Tang Di could only lead the Third Company to continue to retreat.

This time, the Japanese soldiers desperately followed the Third Company and retreated towards Sihang Warehouse together.