Chapter 54: The Final Showdown
Seeing this scene, Zhang Wenshan could no longer hold back. His right hand reached to the cloth bag at his waist, and soon two MK II grenades were in his hand. After pulling the pins, he threw them forcefully toward the front.
“Boom… boom…”
The two grenades exploded one after the other, knocking down more than half of the over ten Japanese soldiers who were still barely standing.
“Boom boom…”
Immediately after, two more grenades went out, and the remaining Japanese soldiers finally all fell into pools of blood under the baptism of the four grenades.
The security regiment’s current throwing weapons were of two types: German-made M24 grenades and MK II grenades.
The former had great power, large charge, and long throwing distance, mainly killing enemies with shockwaves.
The latter, though less powerful than the former, was cheap to produce, small in size and light in weight, emphasizing large quantities.
If a soldier carried M24 grenades, he could carry at most four or five.
But if carrying MK II grenades, with just a cloth bag on the back, he could easily carry more than ten or even twenty without issue.
In many later film and television works, there were many scenes that restored this situation.
When American GIs fought, if they were unsure whether a place was safe or encountered an attack, they would instinctively pull out a grenade and throw it, bombing first regardless.
With this in mind, Zhang Wenshan had also brought a bag of grenades when he came out, and now they finally came in handy.
After the entire bag of grenades was thrown out, with the Type 89 tank at the center, dozens of Japanese soldiers all fell into pools of blood.
“Huff… huff… huff huff…”
Zhang Wenshan panted heavily, looking at the dozens of corpses in front of him. He picked up his sniper rifle, grabbed the empty cloth bag, and quickly left the street, running toward the rear…
The stubborn resistance of the third battalion not only dealt a heavy blow to the 41st Regiment, but also made Kunisaki Ikkei furious, and even Su Yaoyang, Li Gaoyuan, and Huang Guantao were greatly surprised.
“Lu Shaobin… say it again!” Su Yaoyang shouted loudly into the phone.
“Report to the regiment commander, after a morning of fighting, our battalion repelled three large-scale Japanese attacks and killed or wounded no fewer than five hundred Japanese.”
“What about our casualties?” Su Yaoyang asked the question he cared about most.
“After statistics, the third battalion has two hundred and six casualties, including one hundred and sixteen killed. Now there are still three hundred and twenty-seven combat personnel. We can still fight!” Lu Shaobin’s clear voice came from the phone.
Su Yaoyang looked at Huang Guantao and Li Gaoyuan, and the three men looked at each other.
Eliminating five hundred enemies with just over two hundred casualties of their own—this sounded so fantastical. When did the Japanese combat effectiveness become so poor?
This was not them boosting others’ morale and dampening their own, but the fact was so.
At this time, it was the early stage of the full-scale Sino-Japanese War. Japan was at its peak in both national strength and military power, while China was a weak country that could not even produce large-caliber shells.
In the Battle of Shanghai, the Japanese deployed 9 divisions and 220,000 men, while the Chinese side deployed 73 divisions and over 700,000 men. Even with several times the enemy’s troops, it ended with over 250,000 casualties.
In these days of the Nanjing Defense Battle, the Cadre Training Corps where Li Gaoyuan was located could be seen the Japanese combat effectiveness.
Originally, heavily damaging the 11th Regiment could be said to have taken advantage of surprise, but now the Japanese came prepared, with artillery and tanks all deployed.
But just to take the first line of defense, the Japanese paid over five hundred casualties, how could this not surprise them.
“Regiment commander, Brother Gaoyuan, what should we do now?” Huang Guantao couldn’t help but say: “Although Lu Shaobin swore that they eliminated over five hundred Japanese, I still have some doubts about this result.
Moreover, the third battalion itself has over two hundred casualties. Should we let them withdraw to rest and reorganize?”
“Rest and reorganize what?” Su Yaoyang said coldly: “Our defensive line is only so big. How long has it been fighting now?
If they withdraw, won’t the No. 1 defensive line be handed over?
At this speed, won’t the Japanese reach our church within a day?
Tell Lu Shaobin, without orders from regiment headquarters, even if the third battalion is wiped out, they must nail themselves firmly to the position. Disobeyers will be executed without mercy!”
“Yes!”
Although Huang Guantao felt some pity, reason told him that Su Yaoyang was right.
Currently, the security regiment occupied only a tiny area, just a few street blocks. Once they withdrew, Japanese shells could directly hit the church.
“By the way…” Su Yaoyang instructed Li Gaoyuan:
“Send more people to scout the rear, see if we can break out, contact the 36th Division at Xiaguan or Commander Xiao Shanling, and ask them to send some reinforcements, even one battalion would be good.”
“This… alright…” Li Gaoyuan hesitated but agreed.
But he still said: “Regiment commander, I think we shouldn’t place too much hope on the higher-ups. As far as I know, the Japanese are still advancing on Mufu Mountain and the Xiaguan area.
The higher-ups are still racking their brains over this. Where would there be spare troops to support our isolated unit?”
Su Yaoyang explained: “Whether they send reinforcements is their business, but we must inform the higher-ups of our requests.
Moreover, yesterday didn’t Xu Dapeng send someone to report that he recruited over a thousand stragglers at Xiaguan Wharf? If we can get these people over, our manpower shortage problem can be greatly alleviated.”
“That’s true.” Li Gaoyuan showed a thoughtful expression.
The biggest problem with the New Security Regiment now was too few troops. Over a thousand men facing the Japanese endless attacks was too dangerous; one mistake and it would be total annihilation.
Li Gaoyuan nodded: “Alright… I’ll send people right away.”
“Send more people. There are Japanese everywhere now; too few won’t do.” Huang Guantao added.
“Got it. I’ll send the first company!”
Ten minutes later, a team of soldiers quietly left the church and quickly moved toward the area with sparse gunfire…
Called a team, this team was actually quite large, over two hundred men.
They left their defensive zone from the church backyard, quietly bypassed several alleys, avoided Japanese checkpoints, and arrived at a main street.
The leader was the first company commander Li Qingxiang.
“Company commander… it’s right there.”
A platoon leader pointed to that main street: “Although the Japanese are short on troops, they still stationed several fire points and sentries there, just to prevent us from escaping that way. If we charge straight over like this, the casualties would be too great.”
