Chapter 1 The Fifth Brigade's Loss

The Fourth Battalion of the Sixth Infantry Regiment of the Japanese Fifth Brigade was not the only one heavily damaged, the Dragon Source Squadron also suffered.

The entire Dragon Source Squadron now had only fifty or so unarmed, disheveled Japanese soldiers left.

These Japanese soldiers had no combat effectiveness without new weapons.

Battalion Commander Numata Kahe, looking at these Japanese soldiers who were already crippled before the battle even started, had a headache!

Seeing these Japanese soldiers, he couldn't even breathe evenly!

He no longer ordered these Japanese soldiers to clean up the fire, and ordered the Dragon Source Squadron Leader: "Go to the battalion headquarters to rest and await orders!"

The entire squadron abandoned all its equipment and supplies. More than thirty of the fifty or so Japanese soldiers were completely naked.

The Dragon Source Squadron was beyond saving. As Battalion Commander Numata Kahe walked along, the situation of the Tani Daishu Infantry Squadron was not much better, except that twenty or so more Japanese soldiers had survived.

The Tani Daishu Infantry Squadron had managed to salvage ten or so rifles, and that was it.

The Jinnei Heisuke Infantry Squadron had seventy Japanese soldiers left with thirteen rifles, and the Uchiyama Yushou Infantry Squadron had ninety Japanese soldiers left, with forty-five rifles and two machine guns.

Seeing this situation, Battalion Commander Numata Kahe rarely praised Squadron Leader Uchiyama Yushou: "Yoshi! Uchiyama-kun! Well done!"

Without comparison, one wouldn't know the difference between good and bad.

With the previous squadrons as a comparison, the Uchiyama Squadron, which had suffered half the casualties, had become the most dazzling star in the entire battalion.

Squadron Leader Uchiyama Yushou didn't know what had happened before, nor did he know if the battalion commander was telling the truth or lying.

He quickly stood at attention: "Reporting to the battalion commander! This subordinate is incompetent, and has lost half of his force before even engaging in battle."

"You've already done very well! Very well!" Battalion Commander Numata Kahe rarely reached out and patted Squadron Leader Uchiyama Yushou on the shoulder.

This made Squadron Leader Uchiyama Yushou misunderstand: he thought the battalion commander was saying the opposite, and was about to slap him a few times to vent his anger, so he quickly moved his face over.

Battalion Commander Numata understood his movement, laughed loudly, and gently patted Squadron Leader Uchiyama's face with his palm: "You! So cute! A pillar of the empire!"

This confused Squadron Leader Uchiyama Yushou.

At this time, he was looking for Squadron Leader Kurae Tatsuji to find clothing for those Japanese soldiers who had no clothes.

Squadron Leader Kurae Tatsuji was angry but helpless. The Fourth Battalion had suffered too many casualties, and he could only adjust this infantry battalion into a reserve team.

When the other battalions suffered casualties during combat, he would break up these Japanese soldiers of the Fourth Infantry Battalion and replenish them!

The Fourth Infantry Battalion was not the only one that was bombed first, but also the Third Infantry Battalion.

Battalion Commander Asakae Takuya of the Third Battalion also reported the casualties of the entire battalion: the entire battalion suffered 250 Japanese soldiers.

His battalion was extremely lucky. It was not burned by fire, but only suffered artillery bombardment, so the casualties were slightly smaller.

In fact, the casualties of these 250 Japanese soldiers were already 20% of the casualties, which was also a huge range of casualties.

However, compared with the Fourth Infantry Battalion, these casualties were nothing.

Not afraid of heavy casualties, as long as Battalion Commander Numata Kahe's standard was set in front as a comparison, the casualties of the other battalions were all child's play, and they could all receive praise from Squadron Leader Kurae Tatsuji and Brigade Commander Katayama Riichiro.

At dawn, the artillery bombardment continued.

What made Squadron Leader Kurae Tatsuji of the Sixth Infantry Regiment depressed to the point of vomiting blood was that the National Army's bombing was only aimed at his regiment.

Until now, his First Infantry Battalion and Second Infantry Battalion were still being bombed.

However, not a single battalion of the Sixty-eighth Infantry Regiment was bombed: this was too unfair.

Squadron Leader Kurae Tatsuji wanted to vomit blood. At dawn, he ignored the artillery bombardment. Although he had not yet discovered the whereabouts of the National Army.

Squadron Leader Kurae Tatsuji had ordered each of the three battalions under his command that still had combat effectiveness to send a squadron each, and immediately launch an attack in the direction from which the shells were coming.

The special brigade fighter squadron, ground attack squadron, and bomber squadron, which had just transferred to the Maeda Wasteland Village last night, took off.

Three ground attack aircraft took off and went to the battlefield. Their mission was to assist the Fifty-ninth Army in annihilating the Japanese soldiers in Luying Town.

At 5:30 in the morning, the radio squad that Lin Fan had sent to the Fifty-ninth Army to serve as liaison was in Zhang Zizhong's combat headquarters.

Through the radio, Ben Gang's voice could be heard clearly:

"This is Ben Gang, captain of the No. 1 ground attack aircraft attacking Luying Town. My squad is ready to attack. Please advise!"

He, the heavy machine gun company commander, had received all the mortars and infantry guns. Now that he had artillery, he was much tougher when issuing orders.

The first to sound were of course the heavy machine guns, and the first shell fired was a mortar.

The heavy machine guns had suppressed the Japanese fire. When the Type 92 infantry guns opened fire on the Japanese machine guns.

Two shells were fired, and Regiment Commander Ye saw the machine gun fly two stories high, and then fell heavily:

One of the Japanese machine gun fire points was destroyed.

Just as they were happy, the low sound of airplane engines sounded.

Three ground attack aircraft flew over and strafed the Japanese front line all the way.

This made the Japanese soldiers of Kubo Hayato's squadron unable to bear it. Their defense lines were all flat defenses.

They had no air defenses at all, all open-air fortifications, relying on the ruins to hide behind the broken walls for resistance.

Such fortifications were very useful for the National Army attacking from the front, forcing the attacking troops to pull out one firepower point at a time.

The Japanese soldiers hiding in such fortifications, in the eyes of Ben Gang and the others in the air: were like lice on a bald man's head, obvious.

The four machine guns on the ground attack aircraft swept across, and Xiaquan Yuren, Sakura Mamoru and other Japanese soldiers who were still stubbornly resisting immediately fell into a pool of blood.

The defense line of Kubo Hayato's squadron immediately collapsed.

Tan Shijie, the company commander of the first company who was launching an offensive against the Japanese soldiers, immediately felt this: the Japanese gunfire stopped.

Company Commander Tan, who had just been suppressed by the Japanese fire and was crawling on the ground, immediately ordered: "Brothers! Follow me!"