Chapter 1 The Arrangement

The two Japanese commanders, Kawazaki Shiro and Miyake Toshio, had already made their decision before reporting it to Commander-in-Chief Kojima Kanro.

"This arrangement is correct!" Commander-in-Chief Kojima Kanro strongly agreed with this plan, which he and his headquarters had already studied.

Five thousand Japanese Marine Corps soldiers could hold out for a day or two without any problem. The battlefield wasn't a game, and no army could get whatever it wanted whenever it wanted it. The matter was thus decided upon.

To appease Commander Koichi Shiozawa of the Fifth Fleet, Kojima Kanro even sent a telegram to explain the situation.

The reasoning was sound, and reinforcements would arrive in a day, so there really wasn't a problem.

In fact, it was a very timely request for help, considering the 104th Infantry Division was already preparing to rescue the Takuma Takeuchi battalion trapped in Dongnao Ridge.

Without these prior preparations, it would likely have been difficult to send troops to reinforce them within a day.

The uninvolved commanders all thought there was no problem, only the Fifth Fleet Marine Corps, trapped in the encirclement, saw the issue.

Commander Ishibuki Juro watched as shells exploded everywhere, especially on their route back to Conghua.

The density of the explosions had brought the vanguard squadron of Ito Taiji to a standstill. The Japanese soldiers at the center of the explosions even feigned death.

Although Captain Yoshioka Taiichi kept urging them on, getting up and charging into the dense barrage of explosions was clearly suicidal.

Squadron Leader Ito Taiji couldn't issue such an order. He knew that even if he did,

the Japanese soldiers under his command who obeyed the order and stood up to charge wouldn't survive twenty meters.

The shells fired by the Special Forces Brigade were too dense. This was a special order from Lin Fan.

The only goal was to stop this vanguard of Japanese troops from escaping back to Conghua. A snake is useless without its head. Once the vanguard was stopped, the rest would be easier.

Shi Junxia had already led his troops onto the highway, the entire company extending along both sides of the road to build defensive fortifications.

They only managed to build this one line of fortifications while the Japanese troops were suppressed by the artillery fire and unable to move.

The soldiers of the First Company dug trenches while planting directional mines in front of them.

They started planting fifty meters in front of the defensive works, then another line thirty meters away, and finally a third line ten meters directly in front of the works.

They were doing all this right under the noses of the Japanese soldiers. The soldiers of Ito Taiji's squadron could see it clearly, but were powerless to stop it.

They could only lie prone on the ground, constantly searching for shell craters to huddle in, patiently waiting for the artillery bombardment to end.

Company Commander Shi Junxia reported, "Brigade Commander! Regiment Commander! First Company's defensive line is complete!" Only then did the artillery bombardment shift backward.

The dense barrage of artillery fire retreated along the highway, bombarding the entire Japanese Marine Corps before starting to focus on specific targets.

After Ito Taiji's squadron was bombed like this, with the squadron leader's order, less than a squad's worth of Japanese soldiers could stand and continue charging.

This put Squadron Leader Ito Taiji in a very awkward position. He had clearly seen the blocking force ahead: at least two hundred soldiers.

Wasn't it suicide for his fifty or so remaining Japanese soldiers to rush up there? What's more, the enemy had planted mines on the road ahead.

Those mines had been planted right in front of the Japanese soldiers.

Squadron Leader Ito Taiji finally decided not to launch an immediate attack, but instead requested reinforcements from Captain Yoshioka Taiichi.

Yoshioka Taiichi's battalion had also suffered considerable casualties in the recent artillery bombardment, but only one squadron was left to clear the road ahead with only one squad remaining.

This was a specific problem that required a specific solution. Yoshioka Taiichi didn't hesitate and immediately ordered, "Squadron Leader Tanaka Kaede, immediately take your troops and join Ito's squadron to clear the road back to Conghua."

"Hai!" Squadron Leader Tanaka Kaede responded and immediately led his troops out.

Although his squadron had also suffered casualties, it was in much better shape than Ito's squadron, which had been the main target of the bombardment.

With the two squadrons combined, the Special Forces Brigade's defensive line ahead was simple, only a single line.

To ensure the strength of the attack, the two squadron leaders agreed to each attack half of it.

Ito's squadron would leave the highway and attack the open ground on the left side of the road, while Tanaka's squadron would attack directly from the highway.

After agreeing on the plan, the Japanese soldiers from both squadrons began to move. The Japanese soldiers of Ito Taiji's squadron understood the situation ahead.

The two Japanese soldiers at the very front, Kita Yosuke and Sekitani Shiro, were terrified all the way, constantly afraid of being shot if they weren't careful.

But they walked from two hundred meters away to within a hundred meters, and the Special Forces Brigade soldiers in front didn't fire a single shot.

This made them even more uneasy. One hundred meters was the line. After the Japanese soldiers crossed this line, Company Commander Shi ordered, "Fire!"

The entire company opened fire with their rifles. The heavy machine guns and machine guns fired in bursts, not suppressing the Japanese with sustained fire.

As soon as the guns fired on the other side, Kita Yosuke and Sekitani Shiro, who had been waiting, quickly dropped to the ground.

Their movements were a little slow, after all, the two Japanese soldiers charging in the front were the most attractive targets.

At least ten soldiers from the First Company aimed at the two of them and fired.

Half of the actions of these two Japanese soldiers dropping to the ground were voluntary, and half were involuntary after being hit.

Whether voluntary or involuntary, Kita Yosuke and Sekitani Shiro fell and never got up again.

Squadron Leader Ito Taiji had anticipated this and ordered, "Machine guns! Suppress the enemy's fire. Grenade launchers! Blow up their machine guns!"

With his order, Sergeant Yata Yūki hugged his machine gun and lay prone on the ground, immediately firing at the enemy machine gun.

Sergeant Irie Yosuke also began firing grenades at the machine gun position. With a "Boom!" the first grenade didn't hit the machine gun.

But it did startle the soldiers of the First Company in that direction. Company Commander Shi ordered, "Mortars! Immediately blow them up!"

He was pointing at the position of Sergeant Irie Yosuke. At this time, Sergeant Irie Yosuke's second grenade had already been fired.

His speed was fast, and the speed of the First Company wasn't slow either. Five mortar shells exploded around him, and then a continuous stream of mortar shells rained down.

The Special Forces Brigade always treated Japanese artillerymen and grenade launchers with preferential treatment. After a few rounds of bombardment, Sergeant Irie Yosuke ascended to heaven along with his grenade launcher.

On the other hand, Sergeant Yata Yūki's machine gun was still standing strong, constantly sweeping the other side. But his efforts weren't very effective.

His machine gun was constantly firing, and the machine guns on the other side were also constantly firing. It was as if they were each fighting their own battles.

But in this way, Ito's squadron was still at a disadvantage. They were on the offensive and had no cover. They were waiting to suppress the machine gun fire of the Special Forces Brigade before launching a charge.

Sergeant Yata Yūki had no choice: his machine gun bullets couldn't break through the enemy's defenses, so being able to suppress the enemy infantry was already very good.

Squadron Leader Ito Taiji could only order the Japanese soldiers to crawl forward. No matter what, the situation was much better than when they were being bombarded by artillery fire.

When these Japanese soldiers had crawled more than thirty meters on the ground, the Japanese soldiers at the front began to hesitate.

There were mines ahead! They knew this, but the battlefield was covered in fresh soil churned up by bullets and artillery shells, and they didn't know where the mines were.

What should they do?

Squadron Leader Ito Taiji also knew this. He crawled to the frontmost position, dodging the enemy snipers while carefully observing the situation ahead.

As the saying goes, "Heaven rewards those who put in the effort". He actually saw a directional mine, standing upright next to a rock, completely unconcealed.

"This Chinese army has strong firepower and isn't weak in combat, but their mine-laying skills are terrible!" Ito Taiji thought.

Then, pointing at the mine, he ordered, "Numata Tadashi! Go and remove that mine."

This wasn't a difficult mission. A mine placed in plain sight wasn't difficult at all.

Sergeant Numata Tadashi could only accept the mission and crawled towards the directional mine. This position was defended by the Second Platoon.

When Platoon Leader He Yi saw a Japanese soldier sticking out, while the rest of the Japanese soldiers waited behind, he understood what this Japanese soldier was doing.

He immediately ordered, "Squad Leader! Aim at this Japanese soldier sticking out and kill him!" Squad Leader Yan Song agreed.

More than a dozen soldiers from the First Squad all aimed at Numata Tadashi. This was bad luck for him: being stared at by more than a dozen guns, there was no way to escape.

When Squadron Leader Ito Taiji saw the first Japanese soldier he sent out die, he immediately sent out a second and a third!

By the time he sent out the seventh Japanese soldier, he realized that the defenders had already prepared. His method of sending out one Japanese soldier at a time simply wouldn't work.

"What should I do?" Ito Taiji was troubled.

If he continued like this, the entire squadron would be picked off by the enemy without being able to break through.

The entire Ito squadron had lost quite a few Japanese soldiers, and now there were fewer than forty Japanese soldiers left who could fight.

Thinking of Captain Yoshioka Taiichi's order, even if there were only twenty or so Japanese soldiers left, he still had to grit his teeth and charge.

Thinking here, Ito Taiji gritted his teeth and ordered: "Squad leader Aoi Ryunosuke, immediately take your squad up and secure that mine no matter what."

Squad leader Aoi Ryunosuke looked at the seven corpses lying in front of him, and had no choice but to accept the order. There were only seven Japanese soldiers left in his squad, including him, there were eight Japanese soldiers. They cautiously crawled forward.

Squad leader Aoi Ryunosuke also used his brain. He had planned to let two Japanese soldiers go out to attract the firepower of the defending troops when passing through the blockade line.

He would lead the remaining five Japanese soldiers to rush past from the other side and destroy the mine ahead.

This time, the Japanese soldiers came up a lot, and He Pai, the platoon leader, saw that the Japanese soldiers wanted to rely on their numbers to win, so he specially transferred a heavy machine gun to block the necessary road for the Japanese soldiers to advance.

In this way, the Aoi Ryunosuke squad could no longer use the lives of one or two Japanese soldiers to break through the blockade line in a feint attack.

Plans cannot keep up with changes! Looking at the distance of only a few meters in front of him, squad leader Aoi Ryunosuke had no choice but to order: "Everyone, rush up!"

He could only use all the Japanese soldiers in the entire squad to rush forward together. As long as one Japanese soldier rushed past, he could complete this task.

The eight Japanese soldiers stood up and rushed forward with their bodies bowed in the hopeful eyes of squad leader Ito Taiji.

They had just rushed a few steps forward, "Boom!" The mine exploded. The eight Japanese soldiers of the Aoi squad all fell to the ground.

In order to remove this mine, the Ito Taiji squad had killed a total of fifteen Japanese soldiers, and now the mine was cleared.

However, no Japanese soldiers in the entire squadron dared to charge forward anymore: they were all afraid, the power of this mine was too great, and they couldn't bear it.

Squad leader Ito Taiji looked at the twenty or so Japanese soldiers left in the entire squadron. How could he charge?

Thinking of the order of Captain Yoshioka Taiichi, even if there were only twenty or so Japanese soldiers, he still had to grit his teeth and rush forward.

Along the narrow safe passage opened by the Aoi squad, more than twenty Japanese soldiers had to continue forward.

What squad leader Ito Taiji never expected happened: when these twenty or so Japanese soldiers had just arrived at the location of the corpses of the Aoi squad.

There was another flash of fire in front of them, and another mine exploded!

The last twenty or so Japanese soldiers in the entire squadron fell to the ground again, with a dozen or so dead, and the remaining few Japanese soldiers never dared to charge forward again.

They turned around and ran, and were shot down by the machine guns and rifles on the other side.

Ito Taiichi, the squad leader who had just been knocked down by a directional mine, breathed a long sigh of relief: he was finally dead, and he didn't have to struggle anymore.

On the other side, the Tanaka Kaede squad, which had the same task of breaking through as him, also encountered the same difficulties.

However, squad leader Tanaka Kaede didn't struggle as much as Ito Taiji, because they didn't see the First Company laying mines with their own eyes.

Ignorance is fearless, all the Japanese soldiers in the entire Tanaka Kaede squad directly rushed forward, and they rushed forward all the way, and soon all entered the range of the directional mines.

When Lian Shi Junxia, the company commander of the First Company, saw that the Japanese soldiers had broken into the position only thirty or forty meters away from his defense line, he ordered to detonate!

With several explosions in succession, in the entire Tanaka Kaede squad, more than a hundred Japanese soldiers died and few survived.

Less than thirty Japanese soldiers were still able to stand.

These Japanese soldiers were already blinded: they were only thirty or forty meters away from the defense line in front of them. Should they retreat or advance?

Tanaka Kaede, the squad leader, was very lucky not to be injured in the explosion, and he did not hesitate. He immediately raised his command knife: "Kill!"

The timely command of the squad leader guided those Japanese soldiers who were at a loss and continued to rush towards the position of the First Company.

Company commander Shi Junxia of the First Company smiled: "Attack!" Melee combat was the First Company's favorite. Today, they were here to block the Japanese soldiers.

There were no follow-up troops behind this group of Japanese soldiers, and there was still time to retreat after a fight.

Company Commander Shi had already figured out the follow-up combat plan, and then ordered the entire company to rush out and wipe out these Japanese soldiers.

At the same time, the battlefield in front should be cleaned up, and the directionally buried mines that should be buried should be re-installed. Company Commander He Yi's second platoon had no Japanese soldiers in front of them, but there were Japanese corpses.

The soldiers also rushed out to give the Japanese soldiers a knife, pick up the weapons and ammunition, and re-install the directional mines that had just been used.

As for Company Commander Shi, he led the team to rush up himself, fighting with more than 20 Japanese soldiers. The number of these Japanese soldiers was now less than the number of one platoon.

It was completely a one-sided massacre of asymmetrical forces, Tanaka Kaede, the squad leader, escaped the directional mine, but could no longer escape the bayonet.

From a distance, Captain Yoshioka Taiichi watched as the two infantry squads under his command who went to open the road were all killed in battle.

This time, he was also panicked: there were only three infantry squads in the entire battalion, and now two of them had been killed.

Now only the last infantry squad and one machine gun squad were relatively complete. The artillery squad had long been finished. Although there were still forty or fifty Japanese soldiers left, what was the use of artillerymen without artillery?

Even more anxious than him was Commander Ishibuki Juro. The road for his troops to advance to Conghua was extremely difficult, and the road for resistance in the other direction was also quite difficult.

The original mission of the Kawauchi Takuya Battalion was to attack Fokang along the highway, but later it was changed to establish a defense line on the spot.

At the beginning, the defense line only resisted the attack of two tenth companies, and now the eighth and ninth companies of the Second Regiment were constantly bombarding them from above.

Two more companies of heavy machine guns also began to advance on the flat ground.

This was because the Okuma Saburo machine gun company sent by the Uchida Kamenosuke Battalion had completely collapsed in the continuous and focused artillery bombardment.

Now there were only three light machine guns left in the entire machine gun company, and their firepower was no longer able to stop the advance of the twelve heavy machine guns of the two tenth companies.

This made the already precarious defense line of the Kawauchi Takuya Battalion even more unable to defend.

Captain Kawauchi Takuya could only order the troops to retreat one hundred meters and defend on the second defense line.

Captain Kawauchi Takuya was a far-sighted commander. He had already set up two more defense lines in the back.

They had plenty of time on the second defense line, and he also deployed the machine gun company of his own battalion here, and also built fortifications and trenches here.

Although the time was tight, these fortifications were built in a hurry, but they were much stronger than nothing.

With the help of the Kinue Yūma infantry company, the Rikuzen Kazu Naoki machine gun company built the fortifications of the second defense line in a decent manner, with dozens of machine guns lying across the highway and on both sides.

In order to resist the attack from the hillside, he also built a parapet on the side every distance.

The second defense line built by the Kawauchi Takuya Battalion was like a fortress except that it did not have a roof.

Kamino Motoo squatted in the newly excavated fortifications. The fortifications were dug in a hurry, and it was a bit uncomfortable to squat inside.

But it already allowed most of the body to be hidden in the fortifications, leaving only one head exposed, which greatly reduced the risk of being hit and also greatly reduced the risk of being hit by the shrapnel flying around during the artillery shelling.