Chapter 61: The Final Showdown
“Ding ling ling…”
A series of urgent phone rings broke the silence of the midnight.
After a long while, the receiver was finally picked up, and a voice full of sleepiness sounded: “Moshi moshi… This is the Shanghai Expeditionary Army Headquarters. Please speak if you have something.
What… say that again!”
A few minutes later, a knock on the door sounded outside Prince Asaka Yasuhiko’s bedroom in the Chaoxiang Palace.
Last night, Matsui Iwane held a banquet to welcome Prince Asaka Yasuhiko who had just arrived in Nanjing.
At the banquet, Prince Asaka Yasuhiko had a few extra drinks, then returned to his bedroom supported by a geisha. Once back in the bedroom, Prince Asaka Yasuhiko was in high spirits and eagerly frolicked with the geisha on the tatami mat.
With the knock on the door, Prince Asaka Yasuhiko’s excitement was instantly interrupted.
When the knock sounded, he had just shoved the silver sake pot emblazoned with the family crest into geisha Yuriko’s crotch.
At this moment, this vessel carrying the imperial bloodline was rolling on the tatami with the violent knocking, and the remaining authentic sake inside the pot drew winding shameful traces on the floor.
“Baka!”
The prince cursed while tearing off the gold chrysanthemum pattern loop on his kimono sash, and wearing clogs, he crushed the Kutani ware porcelain vase by the bed.
When he slid open the sliding door, Chief of Staff Iinuma Mamoru’s military boots were crushing the broken ice on the corridor—that was the mirror-like ice formed from the bathwater he splashed last night while playing mandarin ducks in water with the geisha.
He pushed the geisha away, displeased, haphazardly threw on some clothes, got out of bed, and opened the door. As soon as he opened it, a gust of cold wind blew in, immediately making him sneeze several times.
He looked displeased at Iinuma Mamoru: “What’s going on exactly, making you wake me at this time?”
“Hai… Commander, I’m truly sorry to disturb you at this hour, but the matter is quite urgent. The Zhongshan Wharf prisoner camp called with an emergency, saying they were attacked by Chinese troops.”
“Nani…”
Prince Asaka Yasuhiko was startled; he remembered that just yesterday afternoon, he had issued the order to kill all the prisoners. If something happened to the camp now, it would be a slap in the face to him as commander.
“Let’s go… to the duty room!”
With that, he strode out quickly.
Upon arriving at the duty room, Prince Asaka Yasuhiko grabbed the phone, “This is Prince Asaka Yasuhiko. What’s the situation at the wharf?”
“Moshi moshi…, I’m Second Lieutenant Nakamura Masao of the Third Company, Second Battalion, Sixth Regiment!”
Captain Nakamura’s trembling voice came through the receiver; at this moment, his left hand was pressing his ribs hit by mortar shrapnel, and the blood seeping from the bandage had frozen into an icy crust on his woolen coat.
“Commander, I’m Third Company Captain Nakamura Masao of the Second Battalion, Sixth Regiment!
The Chinese just raided Zhongshan Wharf… the prisoners in the camp have also rioted…”
Bursts of gunfire like popping beans and screams mixed with Kyoto accent came from the receiver: “The Chinese fired white phosphorus rounds… they have tanks… the battalion commander is dead, the Chinese offensive is too fierce, we can’t hold much longer…”
When Prince Asaka Yasuhiko heard “tanks,” he lost his focus for a moment, his arm knocking over the chrysanthemum-pattern copper ashtray bestowed by Emperor Meiji, and half a golden bat cigarette fell to the ground with a thud.
Then came a violent fit of coughing; the remnants of the wine forced down Yuriko’s throat last night sprayed onto the receiver.
“The Chinese actually have tanks?”
Prince Asaka Yasuhiko could hardly believe everything he was hearing.
In his view, although there were still some scattered troops holding out in places like St. Paul’s Church and the shogunate in Nanjing city, overall, there were no organized Chinese forces left in Nanjing.
But now Zhongshan Wharf was suddenly attacked, and the enemy even deployed heavy weapons like tanks—that changed everything.
“Commander, please send reinforcements quickly; the Chinese are coming!” Nakamura’s urgent voice rang out from the receiver again.
“Baka… you idiot, hold on… hold on… reinforcements are coming right away!”
Prince Asaka Yasuhiko slammed the receiver down hard on the phone, his bloodshot eyes glaring at Chief of Staff Iinuma Mamoru as he roared:
“Which unit is nearest to Zhongshan Wharf? Order them to rush there at top speed. I want to tear those Chinese to pieces!”
Iinuma Mamoru said gravely: “Commander, the nearest unit to Zhongshan Wharf is the Nineteenth Regiment of the Ninth Division（ of the Kanazawa Division）, but…”
At this point, Iinuma Mamoru hesitated.
“But what?” Prince Asaka Yasuhiko widened his eyes at him.
“But the Nineteenth Regiment was originally meant for attacking St. Paul’s Cathedral tonight. If we send them to support Zhongshan Wharf, it will inevitably affect tomorrow’s battle plan, which means…”
“Can’t worry about that now!” Prince Asaka Yasuhiko waved his hand impatiently. “Zhongshan Wharf holds five or six thousand prisoners. If the Chinese rescue them, the impact would be too severe, so they absolutely cannot be allowed to leave alive!”
With that, Prince Asaka Yasuhiko slammed his fist on the table, making a loud bang…
While Su Yaoyang’s Third Battalion was locked in fierce combat with the Japanese at Zhongshan Wharf, the inhuman Japanese also turned their eyes to the prisoners.
At that moment, the Caudron tank driven by Qiao Erdan finally arrived. The Caudron tank with its headlights on lit up the wharf in the darkness like daylight, charging in like a beast and smashing the barbed wire to pieces.
“Tanks… our tanks!”
Lu Shaobin, who was commanding the troops’ assault, shouted excitedly, “Quick… fire illumination rounds… guide our tanks!”
“Illumination rounds, three rounds, rapid fire!”
“Boom boom boom…”
The illumination rounds were fired from the mortar into the sky, instantly lighting the wharf as bright as day.
The intense glare refracted cross-shaped light spots on the ice layer of the river surface, illuminating the slaughter scene at the wharf as clear as a hellish altar.
The scene John saw through the tank commander’s periscope made his stomach convulse more violently than in the Cantigny campaign twenty years ago.
“God… forgive these sinners!”
He exclaimed while instinctively clutching the cross on his chest, but the roar of the diesel engine inside the tank drowned out his prayer.
When the Caudron tank smashed through the last barbed wire fence, it also churned up blood ice all over the sky—that was layers of frozen solidified blood and severed limbs on the river beach.
“Gunner… what are you waiting for… fire now… see that Japanese position? Blast them!”
“Boom… boom boom…”
After several stumbling shots, the third high-explosive round from the 75mm main gun finally hit the position of the Japanese grenade launcher team.
The Type 89 grenade launcher, flung by the blast wave, pierced a nearby iron drum full of gasoline like a javelin. The burning gasoline flowed along the pre-poured ice channels into the drainage ditch, and soon over a dozen Japanese hiding in the ditch jumped out screaming, engulfed in flames.
