Chapter 115: Diary
April 21, 1938, cloudy, Tai’erzhuang
It rained again today, rainwater mixed with blood forming dark red mud puddles in the trenches. My boots were already soaked through, toes full of festering sores, every step like treading on knife points. The squad leader said this was the “honorable pain” endured for His Majesty the Emperor, but I just wanted to kneel down and sob.
Nakamura is dead. Before dawn, we tried to seize the two-story brick building on North Street, Chinese machine guns sprayed fire nets from the windows, and Nakamura’s intestines suddenly splattered on my face.
As he fell, he was still convulsing and shouting “Mama,” I desperately covered his mouth… can’t let the enemy hear the screams, that’s the military rule. In the end, I could only slit his throat with a bayonet, like killing a chicken.
When blood splashed into my mouth, I vomited up the moldy rice ball eaten in the morning.
April 22, foggy
Chinese soldiers crawled out from the roadside ditches.
During the dawn shift change, more than a dozen bayonets and swords suddenly thrust out from the fog, Saito’s head rolled straight into my crotch.
We fired two full boxes of bullets into that ditch, but those enemies covered in sewage kept surging out endlessly. After Sergeant Ono’s face was half chopped off, he actually grabbed his dangling eyeball and stuffed it into his mouth, crazily shouting “See you at Yasukuni Shrine.”
Battalion Commander Numata personally supervised the battle at noon, demanding the temple be captured before sunset.
While rushing across the street hugging the explosive pack, I stepped on the charred remains of a comrade from yesterday, the blackened bones snapping underfoot. After the demolition succeeded, I found half a Chinese middle school textbook in the rubble pile, with half a finger still stuck to the pages… they even pulled students to fill the trenches.
April 23, clear
Amaterasu Great God, are you punishing us?
Starting from this morning, the Chinese defenders opposite suddenly changed.
Don’t ask me how I know, because the uniforms on those newly rotated Chinese were gray, and the weapons in their hands were not the Hanyang rifles or “Chun-type” rifles we knew, but a kind of rifle capable of continuous fire.
Fighting them always felt like exchanging fire with a machine gun, it was truly terrifying.
By noon, my Type 38 rifle had jammed long ago, now relying entirely on ammo scavenged from comrades’ corpses to keep shooting.
There were too many machine guns opposite, taking away three more from our squad in just one morning.
A rookie who’d been here less than half a year clutched his amulet until death, mumbling about the cherry blossoms back home in Akita, but his abdomen had been shredded into minced meat by machine gun bullets.
During evening ration distribution, the supply team only brought twenty rice balls and two boxes of grenades. The squad leader gave all the rice balls to those still able to charge, while the wounded each got one grenade, the squad leader saying to have the courage for jade fragmentation when necessary.
This damned stupid pig, I wish a Chinese bullet would soon blow his little bird to pieces.
April 25, night
The city wall collapsed, heavy artillery turned the southeast corner bunker into a pile of rubble, yet the Chinese set up heavy machine guns in the corpse piles.
My ears could no longer hear orders, charging only by watching the direction the company commander swung his sword.
Stepping over the ground full of broken bricks, I suddenly thought of the wind chimes under the eaves of my Kyoto home— it should be the season to hang carp streamers now, Ayako… my beloved… are you well?
At 2 a.m., battalion HQ sent word: the Seyaguchi Detachment had withdrawn, we were ordered to complete the Seyaguchi Detachment’s unfinished task.
I have a premonition, I might not make it back home alive, so unwilling.
I’m not afraid of death, I just fear Ayako will be bullied after I die, she’s such a kind girl.
By the way… I can entrust Ayako to Jusan-kun, we grew up together since childhood, I trust Jusan-kun’s character, if there’s anyone in this world I can entrust my affairs to, it must be Jusan-kun.
Tomorrow morning I’ll give this diary to Jusan-kun, if I die in battle, have him pass the diary to Ayako…
Kishimoto Hidejuro closed the diary, a expression on his face that was unclear if crying or laughing, his right hand clenched tightly at some point.
“This damned war!” he muttered lowly to himself…
………..
“Brigade Commander, sir, we can’t keep fighting like this, our troops’ casualties are too heavy!”
In the Eighth Brigade command post, Infantry Regiment 39 Commander Colonel Numata Tokaizo said sorrowfully to Brigade Commander Nagase Takehira.
At this time, Numata Tokaizo looked haggard, eyes deeply sunken, clearly he hadn’t had good days these past few.
“How many casualties did your regiment suffer today?” Nagase Takehira didn’t flare up immediately, but stared at him calmly and asked.
“Our regiment suffered over six hundred casualties today, especially the third battalion responsible for the main assault, almost wiped out!” At this point, Numata Tokaizo’s mouth twitched.
“And your regiment?” Nagase Takehira turned to Infantry Regiment 40 Commander Colonel Nagano Yoshio on the other side.
“Our regiment also lost over four hundred warriors today.” Nagano Yoshio’s expression was equally grim.
“Why is this happening, didn’t I instruct you long ago to advance steadily without rashness, why did it turn out like this?” Nagase Takehira suddenly roared.
“Because the Chinese changed tactics too!” Numata Tokaizo said loudly: “The Nanjing Security Regiment is completely different from the Chinese armies we’ve encountered before, their weapons are superior to the Type 38 rifles in the hands of Greater Japan Empire warriors.
Our regiment captured several of their rifles, this rifle’s rate of fire reaches forty or even fifty rounds per minute, our Type 38 rifles are as slow as my 80-year-old grandma in front of them!”
Normally, Numata Tokaizo’s words would have drawn laughter from others, but today no one laughed.
He gritted his teeth and continued: “Not only are those Chinese well-equipped, their tactics are extremely ruthless, they’ve planted large numbers of landmines in trenches, houses, stables, and everywhere else, nearly half our warriors’ casualties were from landmines.
Also, the Chinese have set up snipers everywhere, specifically targeting our officers and supplies, just today I’ve temporarily promoted two company commanders and five squad leaders.”
Nagase Takehira painfully closed his eyes, originally thinking with the Japanese army’s air and artillery superiority, they could take Tai’erzhuang with minimal casualties, but now it seemed he had underestimated the opposite Su Yaoyang and his Nanjing Security Regiment.
“Brigade Commander, sir, I suggest immediately reporting the situation to the Division Commander, sir, and requesting tactical guidance, we need more troops and heavy artillery, if possible, I think we can use special munitions!”
“What… absolutely not!”
As soon as he finished speaking, Nagase Takehira jumped up as if bitten by a dog, loudly rebuking.
