Chapter 127: Aerial Threat
A communications staff officer came up to Su Yaoyang and said loudly: “Report… Battalion Commander Duan called, the Japanese have dispatched at least one battalion to launch a fierce attack on the 2nd Battalion’s positions, with an extremely ferocious offensive.”
Su Yaoyang, who had been looking down at the map, raised his head. “How are the 2nd Battalion’s casualties?”
“The 2nd Battalion commander said they suffered over a hundred casualties, but they also killed or wounded at least twice as many enemies.”
“Got it.”
Su Yaoyang waved his hand signaling the other to leave, then he raised his wrist to check his watch.
It was now 8:27 a.m., less than two hours since the Japanese launched their attack.
In other words, in just under two short hours, the 2nd Battalion alone had suffered over a hundred casualties, not counting those on other positions.
But he only had a little over two thousand troops in Taierzhuang, and at this rate of casualties, by nightfall his troops would be completely wiped out.
He grabbed the black phone on the table, about to have the operator connect to headquarters, but then put it down.
He knew very well that although Li Zongren was stationed in Xuzhou, the troops he could currently mobilize were just Chi Fengcheng’s 31st Division and his own security regiment.
But the 31st Division, with eight thousand men, had been reduced to less than three thousand, had just withdrawn for rest a few days ago, and their forces hadn’t been replenished yet; even if dragged back up, they probably wouldn’t be of much use.
His own security regiment’s combat-ready units were just the 2nd, 4th, and 6th infantry battalions that had entered the town a few days ago; the remaining 1st, 3rd, and 5th battalions and the tank company were still resting in Xuzhou.
Right now, the only unit he could move was the guard company directly under the regiment headquarters.
Damn it, if you piss me off, I’ll send another batch of sarin gas to the artillery battalion and fumigate you turtle sons to death.
But as soon as this thought arose, he dismissed it.
The Japanese had just signed a treaty with the Chongqing government not to use chemical weapons; he couldn’t act recklessly.
If he really pushed the Japanese into a corner and they went berserk, throwing gas bombs into big cities, that would be big trouble.
This thing was a double-edged sword; it couldn’t be used unless absolutely necessary.
After thinking for a long time, Su Yaoyang still sent a telegram to the security regiment camp outside Xuzhou city, ordering the tank company to stop resting and have John lead the tank company to stand by outside the south bank of the Yunhe River.
He also ordered Li Gaoyuan to be ready to stop resting at any time and prepare to rush to the aid of Taierzhuang again at any moment.
Not mentioning Su Yaoyang busy with deploying troops and making preparations to throw in all his reserves, in the Japanese command post outside Taierzhuang, Nakajima Imoza received the casualty figures reported by 30th Brigade Commander Shinozara Jiro, and the whole person was shocked.
“Six hundred twenty-five casualties?”
Looking at the report in his hand, Nakajima Imoza felt uneasy all over.
It had only been a few hours, and they’d already lost half a battalion; at this rate, it wouldn’t take two days for the 30th Brigade to be completely wiped out.
He blinked, somewhat incredulously shouting at the staff officer: “Have you verified the authenticity of this intelligence?”
“Yes… Division Commander, sir.”
The staff officer also said with a bitter face: “After receiving the report from Brigade Commander Shinozara, I personally verified it twice, and only forwarded it to you after confirming it was accurate.”
“How could this be?” Nakajima Imoza roared, “How could the Chinese army’s combat power be this strong?
This attack only lasted two hours, and we lost over half a battalion; are they all invulnerable immortals?”
The staff officer swallowed: “Brigade Commander Shinozara said the opposing Chinese defenders have extremely excellent light weapons; not only did they bury a large number of landmines in front of the positions, their rifles have extremely fast firing rates, there are a lot of light and heavy machine guns, and describing it as a hail of bullets is not an exaggeration.
Plus the Chinese troops hiding in the fortifications can leisurely shoot and kill, so our casualties are so high.”
“Baka!”
Nakajima Imoza flew into a rage; he had just boasted big to Nagase Takei, and if the 10th Division guys found out he took heavy losses right at the start of the attack, where would he put his old face?
However, though he was hot-tempered and cruel, fond of the three alls policy, he still had a brain, otherwise he couldn’t be a division commander.
Why did Terauchi Hisaichi order him to come aid the 10th Division? Wasn’t it because the 10th Division had suffered heavy casualties after fighting for over half a month?
If he also failed to take Taierzhuang like the 10th Division, would he be sent back home like that unlucky brigade commander before?
Thinking of this, he forced himself to calm down and think of a way to break the deadlock.
Increasing troops was impossible; Taierzhuang was only so big, one brigade’s forces were already the limit, any more would just be sending heads to the enemy.
After a while, he said to the staff officer: “Order Brigade Commander Shinozara to stop the attack; I will have army aviation planes conduct another round of uninterrupted bombing on Taierzhuang, and resume the attack after the bombing ends.”
“Hai!”
Under Nakajima Imoza’s command, army aviation launched another bombing on Taierzhuang.
Since the Chinese army had long lost air superiority by now, this time the Japanese dispatched sixteen Type 96 attack aircraft and four Type 97 fighters without any scruples, a total of twenty aircraft that fiercely bombed Taierzhuang.
The roar of the twenty Japanese warplanes tearing through the clouds made people’s eardrums hurt.
The screech of Type 96 attack aircraft diving was like a dull knife scraping the spine, the blast waves flipped the roofs of the few remaining tile houses, and broken tiles mixed with straw and wood chips pattered against the charred earth walls.
Su Yaoyang lay in a house collapsed by bombs, observing the sky with binoculars.
What neither Nakajima Imoza nor the airborne fleet knew was that after suffering several big losses from Japanese planes, Su Yaoyang had also gotten ruthless.
In these two days, he had expanded the anti-aircraft battalion into a large formation of six companies.
Up to now, it was equipped with fifty-eight 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns, deployed inside Taierzhuang and along the Yunhe River banks.
When the Japanese planes lowered their altitude to prepare for bombing, the gun positions of the 3rd Company anti-aircraft battery in the northwest corner suddenly spat fire.
Four blooming black clouds forced a Type 96 attack aircraft into a sharp turn, its wing grazing the city wall and dropping a string of panicked bombs.
As soon as this Type 96 attack aircraft turned, another anti-aircraft gun deployed on the south bank of the Yunhe River opened fire.
A string of shells chased after the plane, and when the smoke and shrapnel exploded outside the canopy, the pilot saw the left wing’s aluminum skin tear like rice paper.
Hydraulic oil splashed on the windshield, the viscous liquid mixed with acrid burnt smell obscuring half the view.
The control stick suddenly vibrated violently in his palm, the intense shaking numbing both his hands.
By now he could clearly see the shimmer of the Yunhe River surface under the wing growing larger in his tilting view, that severed wing spinning as it plunged into the river.
“Baka yaru!”
The pilot cursed furiously while yanking the control stick desperately, but didn’t notice the roar of the anti-aircraft guns chasing the out-of-control fuselage until a violent explosion erupted at the tail, and then the whole plane suddenly crashed into the ground with a earth-shattering explosion…
