radicalducati Chapter 18 Bloodstained Nanfushan Pond
Chapter 18 Bloodstained Nanfushan Pond
The Japanese army's tanks and heavy artillery firepower was too intense, and the Guizhou soldiers lacked anti-tank weapons. With only their flesh and blood, rifles, and grenades, they were simply unable to stop them effectively.
On the way back, the road was littered with fallen corpses.
"Chase! Full speed ahead! Don't let them escape!" Yoshino Chiaki calmly gave the order as he saw the Chinese army "collapse".
At that moment, the military communications officer rushed over and said urgently, "General, an urgent telegram from the Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet!"
They had just received an urgent report from the Central China Expeditionary Army Headquarters that the Chinese army had obtained our army's plan to attack Nanfushantang.
The enemy on the opposite side was the 103rd Division of the Guizhou Army, which was responsible for luring us to pursue, while the 182nd and 184th Divisions of the Yunnan Army were preparing to attack us from both sides. Meanwhile, the Central Army Training Corps of China was also preparing to outflank and cut off our rear!
The Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet has ordered the Combined Fleet to come to the rescue as quickly as possible. The carrier-based aircraft on the Ryujo have begun to take off one by one and will arrive at the battlefield in 40 minutes!
The general ordered us not to pursue the Chinese army, but to defend the area using our tanks as cover. We must not underestimate the enemy or advance rashly, lest we tarnish the prestige of our navy and become a laughingstock for those idiots in the army!
Confident in the combat capabilities of his own troops, Yoshino Chiaki did not panic upon hearing the news. He simply calmly took the telegram from the communications officer.
He sneered and said, "Takeshita-kun, don't panic. There's an old Chinese saying: 'In the face of strength, all schemes and tricks are futile.' Since the Chinese want to make us look bad, let them taste what Japanese sushi is all about!"
I hereby order the entire army to cease pursuit of the Chinese troops ahead and to turn left. Since the Chinese intend to attack from both sides, we will do the opposite and first break through the Yunnan 182nd Division on the left flank as quickly as possible.
"Break through their encirclement, then turn and defeat the 184th Division on the right flank. I believe both divisions are on a forced march. We can catch them off guard in this way, which is what Chinese military strategy calls 'attacking while they are crossing the river'!"
As soon as the order was given, the 30 tanks in front of the Yoshino Detachment immediately turned around and headed to the left!
The 103rd Division of the Guizhou Army, which had retreated to Guli Town, had just entered the defensive fortifications. They were panting heavily as they quickly lit opium pipes, waiting for the Japanese soldiers to catch up. However, they were horrified to find that even after they had finished smoking a whole opium pipe, not a single Japanese soldier had caught up with them!
Just as they were hesitating, they heard a burst of gunfire coming from the left side of the battlefield!
Division Commander Wu Zhizhong immediately realized the danger and shouted, "Oh no! The Japanese haven't fallen for our trap and are instead attacking the Yunnan Army's 182nd Division on the left flank. And the 182nd Division hasn't even taken its attack position yet... They're in danger!"
After a moment's hesitation, Wu Zhizhong gritted his teeth, drew his pistol, fired two shots into the air, and ordered, "Brothers, the Japanese devils didn't fall for it. Instead, they went to the left flank. If we don't go to their aid, the 182nd Division will soon be finished!"
If we retreat like this, we will be fine, but we will become traitors to the nation. People all over the country will think that we are useless people who were defeated by the Japanese devils in less than 10 minutes!
We're going to utterly disgrace the people of Yunnan and Guizhou! Damn it, we're all dead, what's there to be afraid of? We'll attack immediately to rescue the 182nd Division! Even if all of us brothers die here, we'll still have the face to face our ancestors! Brothers, charge!"
"The sons of Yunnan and Guizhou are invincible! We're dual-wielding soldiers, charge!"
After finishing their opium, the "dual-wielding soldiers," gritting their teeth, immediately broke their opium pipes, which they usually valued as their lives, and threw them forcefully to the ground. They picked up their rifles with both hands, their faces filled with a death-defying resolve, and one by one, they charged out of their fortified positions, heading without hesitation towards their "path of certain death"...
Thirty Japanese tanks crashed into the Yunnan Army's 182nd Division, which was on a rapid march and had come to encircle and attack them. This turned the situation into one where the Japanese were well-prepared and the Yunnan Army was caught off guard!
With 30 Japanese tanks flanking and maneuvering at high speed, the 182nd Division was immediately cut in half.
The Japanese army's quality in combined arms operations, both infantry and tank, and infantry and artillery, was on full display at this moment. Tanks led the way, while machine guns and tank cannons bombarded the Yunnan Army's 182nd Division. Fifty heavy artillery pieces roared from the rear, and the entire 182nd Division was instantly engulfed in smoke and explosions.
The Yunnan Army was poorly equipped, lacking any heavy anti-tank weapons. Their positions were quickly plowed up by Japanese artillery fire, and tanks rolled over them one after another, resulting in heavy casualties.
But they fought to the death and refused to retreat. Many soldiers shouted slogans such as "Little devils, let them know how powerful your Yunnan army grandpa is!" and rolled towards the Japanese tanks with cluster grenades, intending to die together with them.
However, thanks to the high-precision coordination of the Japanese infantry and tank forces, the infantry following closely behind the tanks were riddled with bullets before they even got close to the tanks...
Within 10 minutes of the battle, the 182nd Division had suffered heavy casualties, and the entire army was on the verge of collapse.
The Japanese army suffered fewer than 100 casualties, which was a one-sided "lower dimension attack"!
Just as the battlefield was in the midst of a one-sided massacre, Wu Zhizhong, commander of the 103rd Division of the Guizhou Army, personally charged into the fray, light machine gun in hand, roaring as he led the charge. Behind him, his soldiers shouted, "The sons of Yunnan and Guizhou are invincible!" and launched a desperate, death-defying charge. The two sides immediately descended into a brutal hand-to-hand battle…
After close combat, the Japanese tanks' firepower diminished instantly. At the front was a skinny, stick-like "double-gunner," with a broken pipe stuck in his back and a Hanyang rifle with its bayonet fixed in both hands. A rough, hoarse shout came from his throat: "You damn little devils, how dare you bully our Yunnan brothers! I'll give you a good beating!"
Before he finished speaking, he lunged at a short, stocky Japanese soldier, and with all his might, viciously thrust his bayonet at him!
The scene I had hoped for—the Japanese soldier being stabbed right through the heart—did not happen!
On the contrary, the short, stocky Japanese soldier wielding a Type 38 rifle simply used his bayonet to deftly deflect the bayonet thrusting at full force, then lunged forward and thrust the bayonet straight into his own chest, blood splattering all over his face!
Just as the Japanese soldier smiled smugly and was about to draw his bayonet for another attack, the skinny "double-gunner" gritted his teeth and charged forward instead of retreating. He let the Japanese bayonet pierce his body completely, then with remarkable skill, he pulled a broken half of his opium pipe from behind his back and plunged it into the Japanese soldier's neck. Knowing he was doomed, he shouted in his dying breath, "You little devil, I can't beat you in a bayonet fight, but don't forget, I'm a double-gunner!"...
Tragically, even in close combat, the disparity in strength between the two sides was enormous. Shigetō's detachment, with groups of three Japanese soldiers standing in a "T" formation, was well-trained and adept at both offense and defense, easily handling five or six Guizhou soldiers each…
On the 182nd Division's position, the soldiers' eyes turned red when they saw their reinforcements. A squad leader, his face covered in blood, hugged a machine gun that had been blown up and shouted to the soldiers around him, "Brothers, the Guizhou Army brothers have come to support us! Let's fight the Japanese devils!" He grabbed a cluster grenade and threw it under the tracks of a Japanese tank. With a "boom," the tank swayed but did not stop.
The squad leader gritted his teeth, lunged forward, and hugged the tank turret, using his body to shield himself from the Japanese machine gun fire. He shouted, "Quick! Explosives!" The soldiers behind him rushed over and stuffed the explosives into the tank hatch. With a "boom," the tank exploded into a fireball, and the squad leader's body was thrown out, still clutching fragments of the tank in his hand.
Half an hour into the battle, Division Commander Wu Zhizhong was hit by several bullets and eventually died on the way to the charge, along with most of the officers and soldiers of the division.
In the wind, it seemed as if the songs of the Guizhou soldiers could be heard: "Young men of Yunnan and Guizhou, invincible under heaven, fearless of death, fearless of hardship, kill the Japanese devils, protect our homeland..."
They lived up to the spirit of "Dual-wielding soldiers, well done!"