Chapter 1
　　The fallen Sakai Shunichi, a squad leader, had over a dozen wounds on his body, each looking as if a dog had gnawed it open.

　　Blood flowed ceaselessly from the wounds. It was clear that this Japanese soldier was beyond saving.

　　At first, only one or two shells fell. Then, a shell would fall every few moments.

　　Yamashita Shiro, the company commander still waiting on the front line, knew clearly: this was standard artillery bombardment practice. The first few shells were testing rounds.

　　Their purpose was to check if the parameters were correct, if the aim was accurate, and whether further adjustments were needed.

　　Next, more shells would fall.

　　The things Yamashita Shiro thought about soon came to pass: a series of loud explosions rang out incessantly.

　　This time, the bombardment was all-encompassing. The sound of exploding shells echoed everywhere along the entire front line.

　　Smoke and dust rose from the front line, instantly reducing visibility across the battlefield.

　　Company Commander Shi Junxia directed the entire company to bombard the Japanese front line. The First Company had now become the temporary artillery company for the assault on Conghua County.

　　He also had a platoon leader stationed at the front line as an observer, constantly reporting the location of the falling shells.

　　This allowed the First Company to continuously adjust the firing parameters of their cannons. After a few shells, these large-caliber shells struck with increasing accuracy.

　　The Japanese soldiers of Yamashita Shiro's company could no longer withstand it.

　　The defensive line his company was now holding was the one previously constructed by the Fourth War Area.

　　Although these fortifications and trenches provided some defense, they were not bunkers designed to withstand large 150mm caliber shells.

　　Company Commander Yamashita Shiro personally witnessed a shell explode on the front line, tearing a large section of the fortification apart.

　　Yet they were currently powerless!

　　The only thing he could do was report to Battalion Commander Kageyoshi Koji: our forces are under heavy artillery fire.

　　Lian Xilian, the company commander of the First Eighty-sixth Division of the Fourth War Area’s Shen Xiao Regiment, who was working with Company Commander Shi Junxia, watched as this company, who were infantry yesterday, were now artillery.

　　These artillerymen also had rifles, machine guns, and mortars nearby.

　　Watching the First Company soldiers put aside their small cannons and operate the large 150mm caliber cannons to fire, Company Commander Han Xi felt like he was in a dream: when did infantry and artillery become interchangeable?

　　The bombardment of the Japanese first line of defense did not last long, less than half an hour before the target shifted.

　　The First Company's bombardment target had shifted to the front of the area where the Nationalist army's First Eighty-sixth Division was attacking.

　　The commander of the Fourth War Area of the Nationalist army was still in the First Eighty-sixth Division headquarters after spending the night, and had not left yet.

　　Suddenly, he heard the sound of shells exploding in the distance, and immediately asked, "Where is that firing?"

　　Division Commander Li Zhen quickly ran in to report: "It's the Special Operations Brigade firing. They captured the Japanese cannons yesterday and had them set up outside Conghua County in the afternoon.

　　They are currently bombarding the outer defenses of the Japanese. The Special Operations Brigade is truly a reliable friend; when they say they'll attack Conghua, they really mean it!"

　　Li Zhen's tone was full of joy. Judging from the battle results reported yesterday, as long as the Special Operations Brigade took action, Conghua County would be one hundred percent certain to be captured.

　　Yu Hanmou, who had originally planned to return to the rear this morning, decided immediately upon hearing that the bombardment of the Japanese defensive line had begun: I'm not leaving today.

　　He wanted to enter Conghua County with the First Eighty-sixth Division. He couldn't be absent from such a major event as the recovery of Conghua County.

　　Thinking of this, Yu Hanmou immediately ordered: "Send someone to invite some reporters over. I want reporters present when I enter Conghua County."

　　Company Commander Yamashita Shiro looked at the front line, where the bombardment had stopped, and saw Japanese corpses everywhere.

　　In the recent bombardment, many soldiers in his company had died, but few were injured.

　　Of the original hundred-plus soldiers, there were now fewer than a hundred.

　　In this situation, soldiers from the Special Operations Brigade had already begun attacking in front of his defensive line.

　　Company Commander Xuan Yiren was leading his team to attack the Japanese defensive line.

　　Platoon Leader Luo Youan led a platoon, following behind six heavy machine guns.

　　They could clearly see that the Japanese defensive line had been shattered by the shells.

　　When they saw their troops rushing up to attack, the Japanese soldiers began to fight back. However, the intensity of their counterattack was quite weak.

　　On the defensive line, which was over three hundred meters long, there was only one machine gun firing, and the rest were rifles firing sporadically.

　　Ishida Yuma, a machine gunner, panicked when he saw the rushing soldiers from the Special Operations Brigade and hurriedly opened fire.

　　His machine gun had only fired the first burst when Ishida Yuma realized something was wrong: why was he the only one firing in the entire company?

　　Where were the other machine gunners? Were they all sleeping?

　　Company Commander Yamashita Shiro was also muttering to himself: he should have six machine guns under his command, but why was only one firing?

　　He immediately sent a messenger to run out and relay the order: all machine guns and grenade launchers are to open fire immediately.

　　Before Company Commander Yamashita Shiro's messenger could leave, the only machine gun that was still firing stopped.

　　Company Commander Yamashita Shiro understood the reason for the stoppage: it had been destroyed by a shell.

　　Of course, Company Commander Xuan Yiren would not allow the Japanese machine gun to fire. His company's five mortars immediately bombarded the machine gun.

　　Ishida Yuma didn't last three rounds before being blown into the sky. His machine gun also flew a long distance away.

　　Sergeant Major Matsumoto Daichi picked up the machine gun and wanted to throw it away, but it was too late. The new Squad Leader Yamaguchi Akihisa had already issued an order:

　　"Sergeant Matsumoto, open fire immediately!"

　　Sergeant Major Matsumoto Daichi did not dare to disobey the squad leader's order. He could only secretly curse his meddling hands while cautiously setting up the machine gun with trepidation.

　　After fiddling with it for a while, he gritted his teeth and fired.

　　"Da-da-da! Da-da!" He didn't dare to fire too long a burst, so he fired short, light bursts.

　　Sergeant Major Matsumoto Daichi thought that if he fired slowly and lightly, he wouldn't attract too much attention from the attacking soldiers on the other side.

　　However, he didn't expect that as the only machine gun firepower point in the Japanese ranks, he would become the most attractive target on the entire front line as soon as he opened fire.

　　When Sergeant Major Matsumoto Daichi also flew into the air and the machine gun fell again,

　　No Japanese soldier was willing to pick it up again. These Japanese soldiers now understood: the machine gun was the guide for the enemy's shells.

　　As soon as the machine gun sounded, the shells would arrive immediately.

　　Company Commander Yamashita Shiro never imagined that not a single machine gun in the entire company was firing.

　　The charging troops had already reached a hundred meters in front of the defensive line. At this point, he only had two choices: retreat or defend!

　　Retreat to the second line of defense?

　　Before the indecisive Company Commander Yamashita Shiro could make a decision, Company Commander Xuan Yiren had already led his troops up.

　　At this point, there was no turning back. Company Commander Yamashita Shiro could only order the entire company to rush out of the trenches and use their bayonets and blood to kill the charging Nationalist army troops.

　　As soon as the two sides made contact in close combat, Company Commander Yamashita Shiro's heart turned cold.

　　He rushed up and was stabbed to death in less than a round. The situation was similar for the rest of the company's Japanese soldiers.

　　While the Special Operations Brigade was breaking through the first line of defense set up by the Japanese outside the county, the First Company's bombardment of the Japanese defensive line in front of the First Eighty-sixth Division had just ended.

　　At this point, it was obvious that the time to charge had come.

　　Division Commander Li Zhen personally issued the order: "Attack!" They had charged once yesterday, but were driven back by the Japanese halfway.

　　Today, when they launched the attack again, they simply watched as the once-imposing Japanese defensive line became fragmented and could not be reorganized.

　　The firepower of the Japanese soldiers defending the front was also only a few scattered shots when they saw the charging Nationalist army soldiers.

　　Seeing this situation of the Japanese soldiers, Li Zhen excitedly put down his binoculars. He understood: the first line of defense of the Japanese had been captured.

　　At this time, Xuan Yiren had already led the entire company to break through the second line of defense of the Japanese outside the county and had reached the city walls of Conghua County.

　　Times were different now: with heavy artillery support behind him, Company Commander Xuan didn't need his company's mortars to bombard the Japanese on the city walls.

　　He directly called Company Commander Shi Junxia for support. Company Commander Shi very carefully ordered a large-caliber howitzer to be placed under Company Commander Xuan's command.

　　By the fourth shell, a large gap had been blasted out of the city wall. Company Commander Xuan was still not satisfied, and he directed the cannon to continuously blast five gaps in the city wall before expressing his gratitude to Company Commander Shi.

　　Defending the city wall was the Kitou Taiichi Company. They originally thought that they could stop the attacking troops with the help of the thick city walls.

　　Battalion Commander Kageyoshi Koji thought the same way. Although he was somewhat surprised that the two defensive lines he had set up outside the city were broken so quickly, he was still calm.

　　The city wall was his greatest reliance. What he didn't expect was that the Kitou Taiichi Company would last even less time than the Yamashita Shiro Company.

　　The Nationalist army outside the city unethically used shells to bombard the Kitou Taiichi Company, who were defending the city wall, into a rout.

　　Large-caliber shells could not collapse the city wall, but they caused heavy casualties among the Japanese soldiers defending the city wall.

　　The Kitou Taiichi Company did not fire a single shot on the city wall and hastily retreated. Even so, of the entire company of over one hundred and eighty Japanese soldiers, only fifty or so managed to retreat alive.

　　It was as if an entire company had been blasted into a single platoon.

　　The news that the Kitou Taiichi Company had abandoned the city wall immediately reached Battalion Commander Kageyoshi Koji.

　　In less than an hour, Conghua County had been captured by the Special Operations Brigade!

　　Unable to accept this fact, Battalion Commander Kageyoshi Koji could only ask for help from Division Commander Miyake Toshio. Division Commander Miyake Toshio, who was still in Zengcheng, had gathered many Japanese soldiers.

　　He now had nearly four thousand Japanese soldiers under his command. Although Zengcheng and Conghua were not far apart, they could not arrive immediately.

　　Division Commander Miyake Toshio had learned from yesterday's battle that the troops they were facing this time were not the same Nationalist army troops they had encountered in recent days.

　　Hearing Battalion Commander Kageyoshi Koji's request for help, he ordered without hesitation: "Retreat! Retreat immediately!"

　　Although an hour ago, he had still hoped that Battalion Commander Kageyoshi Koji could create a miracle, Division Commander Miyake Toshio regained his reason when facing reality.

　　Battalion Commander Kageyoshi Koji immediately issued the retreat order after receiving the retreat order.

　　His battalion headquarters was the first to retreat. While retreating, Battalion Commander Kageyoshi Koji still felt some dissatisfaction:

　　Since they were going to retreat, his battalion wouldn't have lost any Japanese soldiers if they had escaped in the dark last night.

　　Now that they were retreating, his troops had already lost at least three companies of Japanese soldiers. He would only be able to calculate how many Japanese soldiers had been lost after retreating.

　　Commander Yu Hanmou personally went to the front-line headquarters and could see the Japanese soldiers on the city wall through his binoculars.

　　The Japanese soldiers on the city wall were still firing, and the soldiers of the First Eighty-sixth Division were bravely charging towards the city wall.

　　Just when the battle was at its fiercest, the firepower of the Japanese soldiers on the city wall suddenly weakened.

　　In less than three minutes, no Japanese soldiers were firing on the city wall. The Nationalist army soldiers who were charging forward shouted and set up siege ladders, rushing to the top of the city.

　　They excitedly waved their flags, tore down the Japanese flag from the city wall, and hung up their own flag.

　　Soon, the city gate was opened, and the soldiers of the First Eighty-sixth Division marched into the city in teams.

　　Knowing that the commanders were anxiously waiting for news in the back, the messengers sent back from the front rode their warhorses, and news flowed back like water: "There are no more Japanese soldiers in Conghua County.

　　The Japanese soldiers have fled!"

　　At this time, Yu Hanmou led the officers of the First Eighty-sixth Division and a group of reporters to the city gate tower, where they held the flag and took a few photos.

　　The news that the Fourth War Area had liberated Conghua County was immediately telegraphed to the whole country.

　　Many newspaper offices immediately typeset and reprinted special editions. By noon that day, the news that the Fourth War Area had liberated Conghua was known throughout the country.

　　The news and photos of Commander Yu Hanmou of the Fourth War Area personally directing the troops on the front line and personally leading the soldiers to the top of the city, waving the flag, were also printed in some newspapers.

　　When he saw this news, Chiang Kai-shek was very gratified: during this period, when Guangzhou and Wuhan had just been lost, it was very necessary and good to have such news to boost the nation's enthusiasm for the war.

　　Conghua was not far from Guangzhou. Some of the reporters that Yu Hanmou invited were reporters from Japanese newspapers.

　　After they entered Conghua County with the First Eighty-sixth Division, they immediately scurried around the entire county.

　　When they came to the north city wall of the county, they saw the city wall, which had become a tangled mess, with Japanese corpses everywhere.

　　These reporters from Japanese newspapers still had some feelings of sorrow for their own kind, and they kept filming the scene on the city wall.

　　Minako was one of these reporters. She carefully walked to the edge of the city wall and found many fragments of shells.

　　She was not a rookie; she was an experienced reporter who often appeared on the battlefield.

　　From the letters on these shell fragments, she recognized that these were Japanese shells. Minako inconspicuously photographed the shell fragments.

　　She asked the officers and soldiers of the First Eighty-sixth Division, who were cleaning up the battlefield, "Did you capture this?"

　　The excited soldiers of the First Eighty-sixth Division proudly gave an affirmative answer.

　　At this time, the Special Operations Brigade troops had retreated to Mount Xiang. Lin Fan did not lead his troops into Conghua.

　　The first to enter Conghua was Company Commander Xuan Yiren. As soon as they entered Conghua County, they received an order from the headquarters of the Fourth War Area: "The Special Operations Brigade is to return to Fogang to rest!"

　　Lin Fan could guess the meaning behind this and did not argue. He immediately notified Xuan Yiren to retreat, and the Fifteenth Regiment and Second Regiment all retreated back to Mount Xiang.

　　This time, the Special Operations Brigade brought back all the captured cannons, whether good or bad, to Fogang.

　　Since the Fourth War Area was letting the Special Operations Brigade rest in Fogang, Lin Fan was going to tidy up this place.

　　The Special Operations Brigade had brought an artillery regiment with them in the first place, and now they had captured so many cannons. The Special Operations Brigade set up two artillery positions around Fogang.

　　At the same time, the two regiments that had assisted in the operation were also sent to garrison around Fogang.

　　Commander Yu Hanmou could finally breathe a sigh of relief. The entire Conghua County was filled with people from the First Eighty-sixth Division. All the reporters could see and interview were Nationalist army soldiers.

　　He was a generous person. This time, Lin Fan had given him so much face. Chiang Kai-shek had no money and didn't give the Special Operations Brigade any rewards.

　　Yu Hanmou was different. With a wave of his hand, he rewarded the Special Operations Brigade with two hundred thousand silver dollars and sent the promised pork and grain supplies to the Special Operations Brigade without missing a single item.

　　Lin Fan had some appreciation for Commander Yu Hanmou's approach: this commander was someone you could get along with.

　　He didn't engage in those empty formalities and went straight to the real thing.

　　The Special Operations Brigade had only returned to Fogang the day before, and at six o'clock the next morning, the entire brigade got up on time and began assassination training.

　　This surprised Brigade Commander Wu Xing. He looked at Lin Fan, who was also training, and asked in confusion, "Didn't Commander Yu tell us to rest?"

　　Lin Fan also asked in confusion, "Isn't this resting?"

　　It turned out that the two of them had different definitions of rest. Lin Fan asked with a smile, "What does rest look like to you?"

　　Brigade Commander Wu Xing also said with a smile, "The brothers have worked hard in the battle. These days, we will let them get a good night's sleep and give them some money.

　　Let them go to restaurants and visit theaters.

　　Now that we can't go to Guangzhou and Hong Kong anymore, otherwise, it would be great to let the brothers watch movies and gamble on horses."

　　Lin Fan said with a smile, "Our rest is training! Training!"

　　Wu Xing's brigade had come to learn how to fight from the Special Operations Brigade. Since the Special Operations Brigade wanted to train, they could only train as well.

　　Fortunately, the battles of the previous two days had allowed the soldiers of Wu Xing's brigade to witness the combat power of the Special Operations Brigade.

　　Seeing that their combat power was so strong, and their training was even more arduous than their own, these soldiers could still persevere.

　　In order to train these soldiers in assassination techniques, each company was paired with instructors to teach basic assassination.

　　After the morning training, Brigade Commander Wu Xing looked at the Special Operations Brigade's morning porridge and large meat buns.

　　He couldn't help but exclaim, "You guys eat really well!"