Chapter 21: Cautious Hasegawa
As the deputy commander of the Kuni Saki Detachment under the Infantry 9th Brigade of the 5th Division, Colonel Hasegawa sat in the passenger seat of a truck, watching the ruins constantly flashing by before his eyes, his mind filled with countless thoughts.
The Japanese army had just entered Nanjing city yesterday, and there were still quite a few resistance forces in the city. Logically speaking, they should now seize the time to clear out the remaining Chinese troops, but the higher-ups didn’t know what had gotten into them and decided to hold a celebration for the capture of Nanjing tomorrow.
Not only that, Detachment Leader Kuni Saki Noboru actually ordered him to round up a group of women in Nanjing city to perform at the victory celebration to comfort the meritorious soldiers of the great Japanese Empire.
Everyone knew that the performance was just official rhetoric on the surface; in reality, everyone knew that the only thing those women could do after entering the military camp was to serve as military prostitutes.
Hasegawa actually had some resistance to this order, but in the strictly hierarchical army, he could not disobey superior orders and could only grit his teeth and carry it out.
By chance, he heard that there was a St. Paul’s Church nearby with quite a few young female students inside. It would be perfect to bring these students to the military camp—saving both effort and trouble—so he brought a company of Japanese troops and rushed over early in the morning.
Colonel Hasegawa, sitting in the truck, looked at the distant St. Paul’s Church, as if it were a church that had witnessed the passage of time.
The originally solemn and majestic church had now become quite dilapidated amid the flames of war, with the cross on the church spire faintly visible, shrouded only by thick fog.
The morning sunlight pierced through the dense white fog, emitting faint and pale light, giving a sense of foreboding.
Suddenly, a violent explosion shattered the deathly silence, tearing through the sky like thunder.
The Isuzu Type 94 truck at the front ran over an anti-tank mine. The 8.5-pound high explosive was instantly detonated, and the several-ton truck was blown into the air on the spot. The Japanese soldiers in the truck bed scattered in all directions like celestial maidens scattering flowers.
The bodies of more than twenty Japanese soldiers arced through the air, with splashing blood falling along with the bodies, forming shocking red raindrops in the sunlight.
Accompanying the explosion were the pungent smell of gunpowder and smoke, with severed limbs and corpses scattered everywhere amid the ruins.
“Enemy attack!”
The 5th Division lived up to its reputation as one of the seventeen standing divisions of the Japanese Army known as the “Steel Army”; the individual quality of its soldiers was absolutely top-tier among the Japanese forces.
After the explosion, all soldiers found the nearest cover and lay flat on the ground within a short two or three seconds, beginning to search for the enemy.
But after searching for a long time, the surroundings remained completely silent, with only the wails and groans of the wounded soldiers.
As soon as the explosion sounded, Hasegawa had pulled open the truck door in the first moment and jumped out of the still-moving truck.
Since the vehicle hadn’t stopped steadily yet, Hasegawa stumbled upon landing, his whole body heavily falling onto the rubble-strewn street.
Ignoring the pain from his body, he rolled two turns and hid behind a collapsed wall.
He then drew his command saber from his waist and shouted loudly: “Take cover… stay alert…”
More than two hundred Japanese troops all lay on the ground, waiting for the impending enemy attack.
But as time passed, the attack did not come as expected; what greeted them instead was a deathly silence.
Even Hasegawa was starting to feel puzzled. “Could it be… that the earlier attack was just an accident?”
He pulled over a lieutenant and ordered: “You… personally lead a squad forward to scout.”
“Hai!”
The lieutenant acknowledged, shouted a few times, and then led a squad of Japanese troops in a skirmish line toward the church.
The Japanese troops in this squad advanced cautiously, in skirmish formation, taking each step with extreme care.
Suddenly, a muffled explosion tore through the air as one Japanese soldier unfortunately stepped on a U.S.-made M2A4 anti-personnel mine buried in the ground.
Immediately following the muffled sound, the mine was propelled to about half a meter height before detonating. Shrapnel scattered like raindrops, tracing bright and lethal paths in the air.
Thick smoke and firelight instantly engulfed the street that had just regained its calm. The Japanese soldier who fell screamed hoarsely on the ground, clutching his crotch in powerless agony, his face contorted in extreme pain.
The surroundings seemed to fall into dead silence, with only the drifting gunpowder smoke and the crisp, cold sound of metal fragments falling.
Seeing the soldier writhing on the ground clutching his crotch in agony, everyone understood that the anti-personnel mine just now was no accident but had been deliberately planted here by someone.
“Baka… another mine…”
Looking at the soldier lying in a pool of blood, Hasegawa was both shocked and furious. He looked up at St. Paul’s Church standing a mile away, his heart sinking to the bottom.
Since this trip was only to take away the female students from the church and he hadn’t anticipated resistance, he had only brought one company of soldiers—no heavy weapons, not even engineers.
This put them in an awkward dilemma of advancing or retreating.
Advancing would surely mean stepping on more mines.
Retreating would definitely draw rebuke or even reprimand from Detachment Leader Major General Kuni Saki Noboru, which was unacceptable to the face-conscious Hasegawa.
However, as a graduate of the Imperial Army University, Hasegawa was no incompetent; he made a decision within a few short minutes.
Withdrawing was definitely not an option. If they slunk back like this, not only would they face Kuni Saki Noboru’s reprimand, but it would also become a laughingstock among the entire Japanese high command if word got out.
At this time, Nanjing city was teeming with tens of thousands of Japanese troops, including the Kuni Saki Detachment, the 6th, 9th, 16th, 18th, and 114th Divisions.
The Japanese army had just captured Nanjing, with morale at its peak.
If word spread that he, a full colonel, leading a company of troops, couldn’t even take a church full of female students, the consequences would be unbearable.
At best, it would end his career; at worst, he could be relieved of command or even court-martialed.
So after thinking for just two minutes, he immediately sent someone back to the Kuni Saki Detachment headquarters to request reinforcements from Major General Kuni Saki Noboru, while ordering his troops to first surround the church and wait for the reinforcements to arrive before deciding further.
At a window on the top of the church, Su Yaoyang and Li Gaoyuan stood side by side, binoculars in hand, watching the Japanese troops a mile away.
After a long while, Li Gaoyuan lowered his binoculars and sighed lightly: “The Japanese commander opposite is an extremely steady man.”
“Oh… how so?” Su Yaoyang, true to his principle of asking when he didn’t know, asked curiously.
“You see…”
Li Gaoyuan pointed ahead and said: “The Japanese commander realized his forces were insufficient, so he didn’t rush to attack but first surrounded us.
I can say for sure that within less than an hour at most, Japanese reinforcements will arrive… at that time, we will inevitably face a fierce battle.”
