Chapter 1 Yamada Shun's Plight

Captain Yamada Shun crawled in a trench on Shigu Ridge, his eyes blankly staring at the ground attack aircraft constantly sweeping overhead.

These planes had been strafing Shigu Ridge for over thirty minutes since they appeared, taking turns relentlessly raking the entire ridge.

All the Japanese soldiers dared not say anything, needed not say anything! They merely crawled silently along the edge of the trenches, braving the pouring rain of bullets above them, haphazardly firing at the charging Nationalist soldiers.

They all knew: they were doomed!

Fei Hongbo, the Second Battalion Commander of the 51st Division's Li You'an Regiment, stood on Shigu Ridge, watching the corpses of the Japanese soldiers piled up in the last section of the trench.

These Japanese soldiers fought to the very end, ultimately killed by the strafing aircraft. Without the Special Forces Brigade's air support today, his battalion would certainly not have been able to capture Shigu Ridge.

But now he was ordering his soldiers to set up heavy machine guns and mortars, shelling the Japanese soldiers still defending the south of the city.

Regimental Commander Li You'an saw his own flag flying on Shigu Ridge, and the anxiety in his heart finally eased. The news from Battalion Commander Fei said that he had completely occupied Shigu Ridge, and all the Japanese soldiers on the ridge had been killed.

From Shigu Ridge, they could see the Japanese soldiers within Gao'an City fleeing in disarray towards the east gate, while the north of the city had already been occupied by the soldiers of the Special Forces Brigade.

The news came so suddenly that Regimental Commander Li felt somewhat overwhelmed. Good news kept coming one after another, and it seemed that the enemy within Gao'an City could no longer defend it.

Since the north of the city had already been captured by the Special Forces Brigade, there was no need to hold back in the attack on the south of the city. Regimental Commander Li You'an ordered the entire regiment to launch a final offensive, determined to capture the city walls in the shortest possible time.

As the elite among the elite, the 51st Division could not lag too far behind the Special Forces Brigade.

While Regimental Commander Li was working hard, Division Commander Shi Junxia, the commander of the Second Regiment of the Special Forces Brigade's General Reserve Force, was also working hard: ordering the Second Regiment to attack the west of the city along the city walls, while simultaneously allowing the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth companies to enter the city and begin clearing out the Japanese soldiers within.

Ji Wudi was still charging at the front of the队伍, her task was to attack towards the east of the city, but not to go beyond East Avenue, and not to blockade East Avenue.

Ji Wudi did not want to engage in street fighting with the Japanese soldiers in the city, she did not want to turn Gao'an County into ruins. Leaving one side open, she gave the Japanese soldiers and puppet troops in Gao'an City a chance, allowing them to withdraw from Gao'an without having to fight a desperate battle.

Clearly, the Japanese soldiers defending Gao'an, whether it was the First Battalion Commander Goyuan Yushu or the Second Battalion Commander Nakamura Ryusei, had accepted reality.

The oath they had made to Colonel Kandzaki Masatane, the regimental commander, to coexist with Gao'an County was just hot air. They were now in a state of panicked retreat.

Only the artillery company suffered. Company Commander Kamiki Taro looked at the cannons in the distance, and then at the few remaining Japanese soldiers around him. The impulse to blow up the cannons ultimately disappeared.

His artillery company had only fired three rounds of shells before being discovered by the Special Forces Brigade's planes. What followed was a dense, continuous strafing. Of the artillery company's two hundred and seventy-three Japanese soldiers, less than a hundred were still alive.

What else could Company Commander Kamiki Taro do?

Compared to the helplessness and despair of the artillery company, the machine gun company fared much better. They were originally assigned to defend the south of the city.

After the Shigu Ridge position was lost, Battalion Commander Nakamura Ryusei already knew the outcome of this defense. The first thing he ordered to retreat was the machine gun company and the artillery company.

The artillery company had greatly disappointed him, but the machine gun company was swift in its actions. The entire company had suffered casualties of less than ten Japanese soldiers, and all the equipment was withdrawn from Gao'an County without losing a single item.

This greatly pleased both Battalion Commander Goyuan Yushu and Battalion Commander Nakamura Ryusei: although both battalions had lost a considerable number of Japanese soldiers, they could at least maintain the integrity of their battalion formations.

As for the puppet army brigade commander, he only had his personal guard company of one hundred and fifty puppet soldiers with him. Brigade Commander Qin Jinghuan was now in the most embarrassing situation. Clearly, he had the most troops, a full two infantry regiments.

But when the fighting started, his two infantry regiments were the first to be wiped out. Or rather, they were not completely wiped out. Most of the puppet soldiers had surrendered.

Brigade Commander Qin Jinghuan felt like he was sending new recruits to the Nationalist army, sending out nearly four thousand men in one go, yet they did not even say thank you.

Battalion Commander Goyuan Yushu was counting the current strength of his entire battalion. His Abiko Hideki Company and Kitamura Aerial Company on the outer defenses of the city were completely annihilated, with no survivors.

The two companies defending on the city walls were lucky enough to have half of their men return. Adding the Japanese soldiers who died sporadically within the city, his battalion had lost nearly six hundred Japanese soldiers, exactly half, in this battle this morning.

But among the six hundred remaining Japanese soldiers in his battalion, only two companies were left. The rest of the Japanese soldiers were miscellaneous troops: communications, medical, staff, engineers, these Japanese soldiers without much combat power accounted for half.

"We'll have to replenish with new soldiers again when we get back." Battalion Commander Goyuan Yushu really did not want to receive the replacement soldiers recently sent to the battlefield.

These replacement soldiers were too weak. They had not received any training at all before being sent up.

Battalion Commander Nakamura Ryusei was also counting the current strength of his battalion. They had only arrived in Gao'an yesterday, and now they were withdrawing from Gao'an at this time.

In the twenty-four hours in Gao'an County, Nakamura Ryusei Battalion had lost a full two companies. The remaining strength was still stronger than Goyuan Yushu Battalion.

Therefore, the task of covering the retreat was done by the Fuji Tomoya Company of Nakamura Ryusei Battalion.

Company Commander Fuji Tomoya, who accepted this task, felt like he had swallowed a fly. Fortunately, the troops attacking Gao'an seemed to be celebrating, and did not pursue their retreating troops too closely.

If he were standing in a high place and took a good look, he would know how wrong he was: on both sides of their retreating troops, there were teams from the Special Forces Brigade marching.

The soldiers of the First and Second Regiments were now in high spirits. If the squad leaders had not ordered everyone not to make a sound, these soldiers would have burst into song.

Their first real battle in their lives had ended here in Gao'an!

A complete victory!

The two regiments together had annihilated more than six hundred Japanese soldiers. Such a victory should be written home to the parents and brothers when they rested later.

Ji Wudi only said one sentence to Regimental Commander Li You'an: "Gao'an is entrusted to you!"

Turning around, she left the east gate and chased after the Japanese soldiers. Following her were two companies from the Second Regiment.

Ten companies from the First Regiment came to attack Gao'an, and one of the companies was sent out to intercept the Japanese soldiers who might come to reinforce Gao'an.

Now eight companies from the First Regiment were marching parallel on the left side of the Japanese soldiers, and nine companies from the Second Regiment were marching parallel on the right side of the Japanese soldiers. Looking from the sky to the ground, you could clearly see three arrows all advancing towards Xiangfu Temple.

The teams on the left and right sides deliberately slowed down their speed and did not surpass each other. Behind the Japanese troops in the middle, four or five *li* away, there was another team closely following, and their speed was not fast either.

Ji Wudi was leading this team in the middle, two infantry companies, one anti-aircraft artillery company, one anti-aircraft gun company, one anti-aircraft machine gun company, and two rocket launcher companies.

They all set out from Gao'an County and chased after the Japanese soldiers. The reason why the First and Second Regiments did not run in front of the Japanese soldiers to intercept them was that the Third Regiment had already set up traps, waiting for these Japanese soldiers to enter their pockets.

Xiangfu was located between Gao'an and Daicheng. The name here was a temple, but in reality, it was a Taoist temple built on a mountain. The terrain of this place was dangerous, just blocking the main road between Gao'an and Daicheng.

Therefore, the Kandzaki Masatane Regiment sent an infantry company to garrison here, also as a liaison between the two places.

Company Commander Fukunaga So of the Xiangfu Temple was very satisfied with being stationed here: this place name matched his own name very well.

Even so, he still ordered three squads to guard the front and back of the temple in two directions, and he set up his command post inside the temple.

There was fighting ahead today! The Japanese soldiers in his company all knew, because they all saw planes roaring overhead. Although they did not see the planes returning, knowing that they had flown over was enough.

At six o'clock in the morning, Company Commander Fukunaga So received a call from the Japanese soldiers in Gao'an County: they were under attack.

This was normal! Not to mention Gao'an County, even they, stationed here, a small Xiangfu Temple, were often attacked, weren't they?

Although those attacks were not large in scale, sometimes just a few people fired a few shots at them from a distance and ran away.

Zheng Tian'an, the commander of the Third Regiment of the Special Forces Brigade's General Reserve Force, had set up long traps along the road between Gao'an and Xiangfu Temple. Originally, he thought that after the attack on Gao'an began, the Japanese soldiers at Xiangfu Temple would send reinforcements to support them.

Six o'clock! The attack on Gao'an began, and at seven o'clock, the Japanese soldiers in Xiangfu Temple still showed no signs of moving out. It seemed that he was overthinking it.

If the Japanese soldiers did not come out, he would go in!

Regimental Commander Zheng Tian'an ordered the First Company to attack from the front, the Second Company to attack from the back, and the Third and Fourth Companies to attack simultaneously from the other two sides.

At the same time, his regiment attacked the Japanese soldiers at Xiangfu Temple from four directions. The First and Second Companies had already been lurking less than a hundred meters away from the Japanese positions.

When Jiang Gaodan, the First Company Commander, received the regimental commander's attack order, he made a gesture. Because the distance was too close, they used gestures to communicate.

Each of the two hundred and fifty soldiers in his company had a target. They had been aiming at those Japanese soldiers for a long time, waiting for the order.

Squad Leader Watanabe Aozora was satisfied as he walked in the newly dug trench. The newly dug trench still exuded the fragrance of fresh soil.

This was the same as the taste of the rice fields just plowed in his hometown. As a former teacher, Squad Leader Watanabe Aozora still had a lot of feelings for this soil.

He quickly grabbed a handful of soil, put it in front of his nose with a look of intoxication, and was about to express his feelings when.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!" The sound of gunfire rang out densely. Squad Leader Watanabe Aozora, standing in the trench, did not say a word before falling into the trench, face first, his nose already buried in the soil.

Most of the Japanese soldiers in the entire squad fell in this round of attacks. Before the remaining Japanese soldiers had time to fight back, the soldiers of the First Company had already rushed into the trenches.

The fighting in front and back of the temple was similar. The prepared First and Second Companies each killed twenty or thirty Japanese soldiers in the first wave, and the situation opened up at once.

Company Commander Fukunaga So never thought that this place, with a word of his name in the place name, was not his blessed land, but his death place.

The most critical thing was that the entire company was unable to persist for even a quarter of an hour from the start to the end of the battle. When he was killed in Xiangfu Temple, his eyes were still open. He was not convinced!

Attacking Xiangfu Temple was just an appetizer before the Third Regiment's official battle. So smoothly wiping out a Japanese company, from the regimental commander to the soldiers, their happy mood was all written on their faces.

Especially for ordinary soldiers like those in the First and Second Companies, this was their first battle, and they had so easily killed so many Japanese soldiers.

The squad leader was right: the Japanese soldiers were not scary, they were not our opponents at all. All we had to do on the battlefield was listen to orders.

Just now, the order was to aim one squad at one Japanese soldier, and everyone aimed at one Japanese soldier. When the order was given to charge, everyone charged together.

The fastest person even fought a few bayonet duels with the Japanese soldiers, but there were too few Japanese soldiers, not enough for everyone to share. They could only practice around the Japanese soldiers. This battle left only this little regret.

But this regret was nothing. The regimental commander had said that this was just an appetizer, and the main course was behind: the Japanese soldiers who escaped from Gao'an City were everyone's main course!

The Third Regiment spent a quarter of an hour occupying Xiangfu Temple, and immediately sent the Fourth Company to guard the temple. The anti-aircraft machine gun company, the rocket launcher company, and all the other companies were deployed here, and all the other companies were ambushed on the road between Xiangfu Temple and Gao'an.

Now they were just waiting for the Japanese soldiers who had retreated from Gao'an County to report. The mission of the Third Regiment was simple: do not let a single Japanese soldier pass.

The companies of the Third Regiment, which had long been prepared to welcome these Japanese soldiers, were now lurking on the mountains on both sides of the road.

They had just received a notice from the First and Second Regiments: more than a thousand defeated Japanese soldiers were heading towards Xiangfu Temple along the road.

The First and Second Regiments were following on the left and right sides of the Japanese soldiers, and Captain Ji was personally leading the队伍 behind them.

Now it was just a test of how strong the Third Regiment's pocket was.

Regimental Commander Zheng was very confident in the pocket he had tied this time, precisely because he considered that all the soldiers in the regiment were new recruits who were going to the battlefield for the first time.

Therefore, he had specially requested that each company install more directional mines on the road. More than two thousand people in the entire regiment were ambushed along the road for a full three kilometers.

The Japanese soldiers were coming, more than a thousand Japanese soldiers were coming, the news had been notified to each company, to every soldier.

More than two thousand soldiers of the Third Regiment were waiting for the arrival of the Japanese soldiers.

When retreating, Battalion Commander Goyuan Yushu was still in the middle of the队伍, and he sent the Uematsu Kengo Company to open the way in front.

Platoon Leader Zhuang Zhijie of the Tenth Company finally saw a team of Japanese soldiers appearing on the highway not far away with a flag, and immediately notified the entire regiment of this discovery.

The Japanese soldiers had appeared!