Chapter 42: Attack, Attack
December 12th, 5:30 PM
The evening sky was painted with a delicate blend of orange and purple, creating a poignant yet beautiful panorama. However, no one knew that amidst this tranquility, a disaster was about to unfold.
At the Japanese military encampment, soldiers sat around a rubble-strewn building, heartily eating dinner, their boisterous laughter and conversations intermingling.
We are currently in the early stages of the full-scale Sino-Japanese War. Thanks to the hundreds of tons of gold Japan had plundered from China over the years and the reparations of over a hundred million taels of silver from my Great Qing, the Japanese government’s finances were relatively robust, thus the rations for these Japanese soldiers were quite good.
Each Japanese soldier on site received a bowl of rice, a spoonful of canned beef （ “Yamatoni” ） or canned fish （ sardines, salmon ）, a spoonful of pickles, and a bowl of miso soup.
The soldiers ate heartily, laughing and talking loudly.
“Kono… are you still a virgin?” an old soldier with a chin-stripe beard asked loudly to his companion while eating.
The young soldier sitting next to him, with only a faint trace of a mustache on his upper lip, blushed and retorted, “Who says? I’m not a virgin anymore.”
“Oh… is that so?” another soldier next to them mocked, “I remember you didn’t have a girlfriend before you left for the front.
Didn’t your mother go to propose to Saiko of the Koi family with fifty catties of rice, only to be rejected by their family? Is this true or not?”
“Baka… that’s not true at all. Saiko is just too young. I’ll propose again when I get back.
And next time, I’ll have my mother take one hundred catties of rice. Saiko’s father definitely won’t refuse.”
“Hahaha…” The young soldier’s words erupted into hearty laughter.
Japan implemented a regional conscription system, meaning that the vast majority of soldiers serving in a unit were from the same area. This resulted in soldiers serving in the same squad or platoon often being acquaintances from nearby villages.
“Kono, let me tell you something,” another old soldier said, slinging an arm around the young soldier’s shoulder with a grin.
“It’s very simple for you to end your virginity. Just go out alone during your break, find a home with a woman, force the man of the house out with your bayonet, leaving only the woman, and then… well, I don’t need to explain the rest, do I?”
“Kotsumi-kun’s method is very effective. On the way from Shanghai to Nanjing, I’ve used this method to sleep with several Chinese women.
Let me tell you, the taste of Chinese women is far better than our Japanese women. I guarantee you’ll never forget it after tasting it once.”
“Ah hahahaha… Kotsumi-kun, you’re not being honest either! When we return home, I’ll definitely tell your wife!”
A group of Japanese soldiers burst into wild laughter, their mirth utterly unrestrained and ferocious.
Just as the soldiers were laughing with such wicked glee, a deep and swift whistling sound suddenly pierced the sky, like the grim laughter of death itself, sending chills down their spines.
Upon hearing this sound, all the Japanese soldiers’ expressions drastically changed, and they scrambled to their feet. But how could human speed possibly match that of artillery shells?
A 107mm artillery shell landed heavily on the ground, accompanied by a deafening explosion. The shockwave and shrapnel mercilessly tore through the previously peaceful haven. Flames erupted, and thick smoke quickly spread, engulfing everything within a radius of tens of meters.
In the instant after the explosion, everything seemed to fall into a deathly silence, leaving only scattered figures and fallen bodies in the dim light. Those beasts who had been discussing how to rape and kill women just moments before had now become cold, lifeless corpses.
Beside them lay their shattered weapons, twisted, deformed, or broken into several pieces, scattered in pools of blood, as if to signify the fate of invaders.
Following the fall of the first shell, subsequent shells rained down, their deafening roars tearing through the peaceful evening.
The explosion instantly kicked up clouds of dust and debris, scattering bodies and wreckage as if time had frozen at that moment. Guns torn to pieces by artillery fire lay scattered around.
The Japanese soldiers screamed and scattered like rats, trying to dodge the shells, but found no safe haven in the vast street as shells continued to fall like raindrops.
…
“Fire…”
“Increase the speed… Fire…”
In a street behind the church’s backyard, twelve 107mm and 60mm mortars were lined up, with dozens of artillerymen busily at work.
Looking at the busy movements of these soldiers, no one would have guessed that they were all novices who had never handled artillery before. Now, under the tutelage of Zhang Zhihao and Xiong Junfeng, they were performing remarkably well in less than a day.
Of course, all these cannons had their parameters and coordinates pre-set. All they had to do was to attach fuses to the mortar shells and then load and fire them.
This bombardment lasted only ten minutes, but for the Japanese soldiers, these ten minutes felt longer than ten years.
The sky filled with explosions and the constant reverberation of detonations inflicted heavy casualties on the soldiers of the 11th Regiment. Just as they finally managed to emerge from their cover after the shelling stopped, a thunderous roar, accompanied by the shrill blast of bugles, erupted from the front.
“Kill…”
“Charge!”
Amidst the blaring bugles, a group of soldiers clad in German field uniforms charged out of the smoke.
Before the Japanese could react, they were met with a hail of bullets. A group of soldiers armed with Thompson submachine guns advanced to within tens of meters of the Japanese positions and unhesitatingly squeezed the triggers. These submachine guns, specifically designed for close-quarters urban combat and trench warfare, were now demonstrating their full power.
“Rat-a-tat-tat…”
“Ah…”
A Japanese soldier, who had just crawled out of his cover, was hit in the chest by a burst of 11.43mm rounds before he could even raise his rifle. The dense spray of bullets instantly pulverized his chest.
“Rat-a-tat-tat…”
Just as the soldiers of the newly formed Security Regiment were bravely advancing, a series of rapid machine-gun bursts rang out, and two soldiers at the very front fell to the ground. It turned out that a Type 92 heavy machine gun, hidden in a building, had opened fire.
Seeing the enemy’s machine-gun nest ahead, the soldiers quickly took cover.
“Smoke grenades!” someone shouted from the side.
Two smoke grenades were immediately thrown onto the street, instantly creating a thick cloud of smoke that obscured the vision of the machine-gunner across the way, and the firing ceased.
Immediately afterward, the soldiers saw a figure leap up and, with lightning speed, rush to the side of the machine-gun emplacement. He then pulled out an M24 stick grenade and hurled it into the machine-gun nest.
Among the grenades of various countries, the German M24 stick grenade was considered a large one. Its explosive charge of 165 grams made its blast power sufficient to destroy any enemy within a twenty-meter radius.
“Boom…” With a thunderous explosion, the machine-gunner and the heavy machine gun in the room were instantly blown into the air.
