Chapter 1 Pilot Fujiwara Yusho Dies Without a Clue

As pilot Fujiwara Yusho dove in his reconnaissance plane, he didn’t forget to waggle his wings at the cheering Japanese soldiers below, responding to their enthusiastic shouts.

He had no idea he’d completely misinterpreted their intentions; the soldiers were desperately yelling at him to escape. Nevertheless, Fujiwara Yusho resolutely plunged towards his doom.

Lin Fan, aware of only one enemy plane entering the airspace, saw the Japanese plane and decided not to give it any more time to live. With a “boom!” he fired just one shot. Everyone saw the plane instantly turn into a ball of fire, scattering sparks everywhere.

Fujiwara Yusho died without warning. He had no idea what happened before he and his reconnaissance plane were torn to pieces.

What could Captain Takeuchi Takuma say upon witnessing this scene? All he could do was report once again that a reconnaissance plane had just exploded in mid-air above his head.

Now, his telegram needed to be sent to three places: the regiment, the division, and the Twenty-First Army Headquarters.

The Twenty-First Army Headquarters received the report immediately and didn't dare delay, quickly delivering the telegram to Commander Koshou Kanro. Upon seeing the telegram, the last bit of hope in his heart finally burst like a summer soap bubble – no matter how beautiful, it would eventually pop.

Commander Koshou Kanro had to accept the greatest loss he’d suffered since invading Guangzhou, and this loss was significant. Commander Koshou Kanro had originally intended to use a sledgehammer to crack a nut, using overwhelming force to crush the Fourth War Area’s will to resist.

He never expected to bury half of his air squadron instead. His Twenty-First Army and the Fifth Fleet had a total of 320 aircraft for the Guangzhou offensive. Now, over 170 had been shot down in one go, leaving him with just over 140.

That would be enough on a normal battlefield, but he didn't dare send them to Conghua anymore. He looked at the battle report submitted by Miyake Toshio, commander of the 104th Division.

Finally, he calmed down a bit. The planes were already lost! What needed to be done now was to rescue the trapped Takeuchi Takuma battalion and annihilate that retreating Nationalist army unit.

The entire 104th Division was already mobilized; there was no need to add more troops. It wasn't that he didn't want to reinforce them, but he simply didn't have enough troops at his disposal.

He only had three divisions for the Guangzhou offensive, and now that he had occupied so much territory, he needed to station soldiers everywhere. This left him with few mobile forces.

To be precise, the only troops he could spare were from the Fifth Fleet. The Fifth Fleet's marine corps still had over five thousand soldiers.

Just as Commander Koshou Kanro thought this, Fifth Fleet Commander Shiozawa Koichi proactively volunteered to send his entire marine corps to Conghua.

The navy was definitely the hardest hit today: three air squadrons were completely wiped out, with 150 planes lost without a single survivor. How could Commander Shiozawa Koichi not be furious?

But no matter how angry he was, the Fifth Fleet couldn't charge onto land. Therefore, he could only send the marine corps to avenge the dead air squadron soldiers.

Of course, Commander Koshou Kanro wouldn't refuse such a proposal. He immediately agreed and even thoughtfully asked if there was anything he could help with. The Japanese navy had a large budget, and Shiozawa Koichi didn't need any help from the army. He was just informing them of his decision.

The five thousand soldiers under his command were already heading towards Conghua County by water. The Fifth Fleet was, of course, best at naval warfare. Its many ships, originally docked outside Guangzhou, were now sailing towards Conghua.

For the Japanese, especially for the Fifth Fleet, traveling by water was faster than by land. Commander Fukiishi Jiro of the Fifth Fleet Marine Corps stood on a gunboat, enjoying the river breeze as the scenery on both banks sped past.

He departed from Guangzhou with over seventy small ships and arrived in Conghua County in three hours. There, he met the 137th Infantry Regiment. Regiment Commander Kawazaki Shiro wasn't enthusiastic about the arrival of the marine corps. In his opinion, today's events were the army's business, and the navy sending five thousand soldiers was mocking the army's lack of combat power.

They weren't here to help the army; they were here to ridicule the army's incompetence. With such thoughts, Regiment Commander Kawazaki Shiro naturally didn't give the navy soldiers a warm welcome.

Commander Fukiishi Jiro only came to ask about the specific marching route. After being given the cold shoulder, he angrily left the Japanese command post.

Although both sides disliked each other, Commander Fukiishi Jiro clearly learned where the Nationalist army had ambushed the Japanese infantry. He didn't allow his troops to rest in Conghua County.

He directly ordered the troops to disembark and head towards their destination. He wanted to defeat or even annihilate the Nationalist army before the Japanese 104th Infantry Division could assemble their forces.

The marine corps would use facts to slap the army in the face, making them understand that the navy was not only good at naval warfare, but also better at land warfare than the army.

To achieve this goal, Commander Fukiishi Jiro ordered the five thousand marine corps soldiers to speed up their march and immediately advance towards Dongling Ridge.

Sergeant Yoshizawa Kamehide fell as soon as he stepped off the gunboat, causing laughter among the soldiers of Abe Zaemon's squad. Sergeant Matsuda Kai laughed and said, “Pray to the sea god when going to sea, pray to the mountain god when going to the mountains. Is Yoshizawa-kun asking the mountain god to protect us? What did the mountain god say?”

Mocked by everyone, Sergeant Yoshizawa Kamehide was extremely embarrassed and said irritably, “The mountain god said we’re going on a journey of no return.”

Squad Leader Abe Zaemon was a little angry. “You! Your conscience is very bad!” Sergeant Yoshizawa Kamehide knew he had gone too far.

He quickly smiled and said, “Squad Leader! Just joking, just joking!”

The soldiers in the squad saw his attitude change so drastically and all laughed again. The atmosphere in the squad was unprecedentedly lively. They were the vanguard of the entire marine corps.

The soldiers marched along the road from Conghua to Fogang, unconcerned about the upcoming battle. For these soldiers, they understood the Fourth War Area’s forces: they knew they wouldn't dare to truly engage in fierce combat with the Japanese.

As for why a battalion of the 104th Infantry Division was surrounded by the Nationalist army, that only proved that the army's combat power was weak; the army was too useless.

The scout platoon, stationed in the mountains, spotted the Japanese troops leaving Conghua County, and the news was immediately transmitted to Lin Fan.

The Japanese had been trapped here in the morning, and there had been no movement from Conghua City at noon. Lin Fan even thought the Japanese had given up on the rescue.

It was after two o'clock in the afternoon that the Japanese finally came out, which made the Special Forces Brigade soldiers very happy. At this time, Staff Officer Wang, sent by Commander Yu Hanmou to verify the situation, had also arrived at the battlefield.

He arrived with a group of ordinary civilians, who brought carts and rolls of white cloth. Upon arriving at the battlefield and seeing the trucks full of captured supplies and the piles of Japanese corpses, Staff Officer Wang immediately believed the earlier battle reports.

He didn't forget his responsibility and immediately reported to Commander Yu Hanmou via the radio he brought: "Commander! What Deputy Chief of Staff He reported is true!

"In the morning's battle, the Special Forces Brigade destroyed twelve tanks, captured seventy-five trucks, and destroyed another five. Among the captured trucks, sixty-four can be used.

"The number of enemy planes shot down is difficult to verify, but they have collected the wreckage of over thirty planes, and more wreckage is being collected. Eight hundred and seventeen Japanese corpses have been collected on the battlefield.

"Deputy Chief of Staff He is collecting these corpses, preparing to transfer them to the Japanese through channels. However, some fees will need to be charged in the process."

After Staff Officer Wang's telegram spread in the Fourth War Area Command, everyone was excited. As for returning the Japanese corpses and charging fees, that was too easy; Deputy Chief of Staff He could handle it himself.

The key was that they had annihilated over eight hundred Japanese soldiers and shot down over a hundred enemy planes in one battle. This achievement needed to be reported to the Wuhan headquarters immediately, to make President Chiang, who had been angry about the Fourth War Area losing cities and land in the past few days, happy.

When Liu Laopao received the news that over five thousand Japanese soldiers were approaching his direction, he was extremely happy. His regiment's ambush was prepared long ago, but it had never been used.

To be safe, the Special Forces Brigade didn't even place its best directional bombs on the road this time, for fear of being discovered by the Japanese and revealing the ambush.

The soldiers of the Second Regiment quietly entered their positions without alarming anyone. The trapped Takeuchi Takuma battalion didn't notice: on the slopes ahead, a force of several thousand soldiers was already lying in ambush. From Pingtou Ridge to Elephant Mountain, the Fifteenth Regiment had arrived and quietly entered their positions, waiting for the Japanese to arrive.

Although this round was mainly the responsibility of the Second Regiment to block and annihilate, and the Fifteenth Regiment was just here as a reserve, Regiment Commander Shangguan didn't feel anything was wrong.

Today, his regiment fired the first shot of the Special Forces Brigade's entry into Guangdong.

Commander Fukiishi Jiro rode a tall horse, following the troops forward. He pointed to the uneven road and said, "Those pig-headed army guys don't even bother to fix the roads. They just rush forward."

Battalion Commander Yoshioka Taiichi flattered him and said, "It is precisely because they are so impatient that they fell into the Nationalist army's ambush and caused our air squadron to suffer heavy losses. The 104th Division can't even fight without the Fifth Fleet."

These words were very pleasing to Commander Fukiishi Jiro. He smiled with narrowed eyes, "This time, we will show them how a battle is fought!"

The commander had such ambition and confidence, and the soldiers under his command also had such confidence. The Fifth Fleet Marine Corps was actually a regiment of the army.

It had four infantry battalions, each equipped with a machine gun company and an artillery company. The machine gun company had twelve heavy machine guns and twenty-four light machine guns, and the artillery company had five Type 92 infantry guns and twelve mortars. It was precisely because of this firepower that Fukiishi Jiro had such confidence.

Originally, his marine corps also had twelve tanks, but because they had to navigate inland rivers today, the tanks couldn't be transported on small ships, so they weren't brought along.

Even so, Commander Fukiishi Jiro felt that his troops' firepower was completely sufficient.

Battalion Commander Uchida Kamenosuke's battalion was the vanguard of the entire marine corps, and they had already reached the foot of Pingtou Mountain. Regiment Commander Shangguan Zhiwen looked at the more than a thousand Japanese soldiers passing by the foot of Pingtou Mountain and reported to Lin Fan in a low voice: "A battalion of Japanese soldiers is passing by the foot of Pingtou Mountain. This unit is equipped with considerable firepower. There are five infantry guns, twelve mortars, and a machine gun company with twelve heavy machine guns and twenty-four light machine guns."

Just from these numbers, one could see that the Japanese unit had strong firepower, and with such strong firepower, the Japanese soldiers' morale wouldn't be low.

Lin Fan was calculating in his mind: In order not to be discovered by the Japanese, the ambush team didn't place directional bombs beforehand this time, which lowered the Special Forces Brigade's firepower output by a notch. Coincidentally, the Japanese team's firepower had increased by a notch.

With one lowering and one raising, the firepower gap between the two sides wasn't so obvious. Of course, this was only without considering the artillery regiment.

While Lin Fan was still thinking, the specific number of Japanese soldiers had been reported: about five thousand Japanese soldiers, a regiment-sized Japanese force, was entering the Fifteenth Regiment's ambush area.

This Japanese infantry regiment was left for the Second Regiment to fight. The Fifteenth Regiment's task was to guard against any Japanese soldiers who might escape the Second Regiment's ambush and to block any subsequent Japanese reinforcements.

Liu Laopao finally saw the Japanese infantry appear outside his ambush circle. He stared with wide eyes, watching the Japanese enter his ambush circle.

The Japanese were coming, and the position of the Second Regiment's Tenth Company, which had built fortifications on the road, became awkward.

If they retreated, the Japanese soldiers of the Takeuchi Takuma battalion that had been blocked would run over and join the newly arrived Japanese soldiers. If they didn't retreat, they would be attacked by the Japanese from both sides.

To retreat or not to retreat, that was the question!

Such a problem wasn't a problem at all for Hu Xiong. He pointed his heavy machine guns and infantry guns at the direction of the approaching Japanese Marine Corps, leaving only a platoon to cooperate with light machine guns to guard the Takeuchi Takuma battalion that he had already frightened.

The Tenth Company had built two lines of defense on the road, blocking the remnants of the Takeuchi Takuma battalion to the east and the Japanese soldiers who had just arrived on the battlefield to the west.

Battalion Commander Uchida Kamenosuke stopped five hundred meters away from the Tenth Company. He ordered: "Hasegawa Company continues forward. Matsuda Kai Company immediately goes up the mountain to establish a defensive line on the hillside to prepare for receiving.

"Kitamura Kazuki Company advances a distance and occupies the high ground on the hillside. The artillery company immediately bombs the Nationalist army positions on the road, and the machine gun company prepares for emergencies."

After his combat plan was issued, the Japanese soldiers of the Matsuda Kai Company immediately rushed towards the hillside. They didn't find any traces of the Nationalist army on this hillside.

Sergeant Kuninaka Torataro and Sergeant Kamikawa Hayato, who were in the forefront of the charge, ran as fast as they could. They were holding their guns and rushing ahead of the entire company. These Japanese soldiers had ambitions. They had been rewarded for their bravery in the attack on Humen Fortress in the past few days.

If they could continue to receive two more rewards, they could be promoted from ordinary sergeants to officers, which was the ultimate dream of ordinary Japanese soldiers like Kuninaka Torataro and Kamikawa Hayato.

It was precisely because of such ambition that they fought so desperately. However, capturing this hillside today probably wouldn't earn them any merit.

Because they had already rushed up more than twenty meters and hadn't encountered any resistance. Of course, there was no merit in rushing up a hill without resistance. This made the two Japanese soldiers at the forefront a little discouraged.

Sergeant Kuninaka Torataro and Sergeant Kamikawa Hayato hoped that there would be Nationalist army troops on the hillside, preferably troops with strong combat power.

Yes! The stronger the Nationalist army's combat power, the more valuable the battle merit they would gain through bloody battles and courageous advances. Perhaps their Amaterasu heard the wishes of these two Japanese soldiers.

"Da da da!" "Tuk tuk tuk!" The sound of machine gun fire immediately rang out, and the sound of "Rumble! Rumble!" explosions also rang out in Battalion Commander Kameda Ujinosuke's unit on the road.

The Japanese soldiers of the Kitamura Kazuki Artillery Company had already established an artillery position on the side of the road. Sergeant Hojo Taiyo was a gunner for an infantry gun. He had just finished preparing the Type 92 infantry gun, and the shell had just been loaded into the breech, but before he could pull the firing pin, he heard the sound of "Rumble" explosions.

Just as they were preparing to fire, shells suddenly exploded in their midst. It wasn't just one shell hitting their position, which was completely beyond the expectations of Company Commander Kitamura Kazuki.

The various companies of the Second Regiment on the hillside simultaneously attacked the Japanese soldiers on the road. The first to be attacked were the Japanese artillery company and machine gun company.

Because the Kitamura Kazuki Artillery Company had established an artillery position, they suffered the heaviest blow. Not only was there the bombing of infantry guns, but also the direct strike of rockets.

Such a blow was completely unbearable for the more than one hundred soldiers on the artillery position.