Chapter 79: Horrific Scene
As of December 18, except for St. Paul’s Church where Su Yaoyang was located, the fighting in Nanjing City had basically ended.
But tonight’s tranquility was broken, the sudden battle alarming most of Nanjing. Not only was Tani Hisao furious, even Prince Asaka Yasuhiko was woken from his sleep.
Prince Asaka Yasuhiko suddenly sprang up from the tatami mat, his silk pajamas soaked with cold sweat.
Chief of Staff Iinuma Mamoru’s leather boot steps pierced the paper door like bayonets, the candlelight casting flickering shadows on his pale face.
“Your Excellency! The Chinese troops at St. Paul’s Church have torn through the 6th Division’s defensive line and are now breaking out toward Yuhuatai and the cotton area.
6th Division Commander Tani Hisao is mobilizing troops to block them!”
“Clatter!”
The bronze candlestick suddenly toppled, scalding hot wax splashing onto Prince Asaka’s hand.
“Baka!”
Prince Asaka Yasuhiko ignored the burn on his hand, smashing the lacquer tray with one fist, not even minding the splintered wood piercing his fingers.
“Damn Tani Hisao!” He glared furiously and cursed: “Is the entire 6th Division made of pigs? How did they let a mere few thousand Chinese remnant troops escape?”
“We’re also investigating the reason. Tani Hisao reported that in just a few minutes, he lost contact with several regiments below.” Iinuma Mamoru’s face looked equally grim.
“Nonsense! There’s no such potent poison gas in the world!”
This prince, who yesterday was clamoring to use special shells to kill all the Chinese in the church, waved his arms in terror and shouted: “If there were such potent poison gas, how could the Empire not know about it?
The Great Japanese Empire has the world’s most advanced special shells; even the king of poison gases, mustard gas and Lewisite, couldn’t do it. I deployed a full division’s worth of troops there!”
In Prince Asaka Yasuhiko’s view, there simply didn’t exist in the world a poison gas that could disable a elite division’s defenses in just minutes.
“Perhaps the Chinese invented more advanced poison gas that can kill soldiers exposed to it in a short time.”
Iinuma Mamoru blurted it out, but even he himself didn’t believe it.
If China had such capability, how could they have let the Imperial Army easily capture the capital.
Accompanied by the prince’s angry cursing, distant thunder-like cannon fire sounded, shaking the military swords on the window frames with a clinking.
Prince Asaka Yasuhiko couldn’t figure it out no matter what: the 6th Division was a first-class division of the Japanese Army, with a total of four infantry regiments, one artillery regiment, one cavalry regiment, and attached logistics and transport units, totaling over 25,000 men.
Although it had suffered some casualties in the Battle of Shanghai and the Nanjing Campaign, it definitely still had over 20,000 troops.
With so many troops, and having the enemy completely surrounded, how did the enemy break out of the encirclement?
If not for Tani Hisao being notorious since the invasion of China for always charging at the forefront, committing arson, murder, and plunder without restraint, he would suspect Tani Hisao of colluding with the enemy.
Seeing Prince Asaka Yasuhiko silent, Iinuma Mamoru quickly said: “Commander Your Excellency, no matter what, the reason this happened is because the Chinese used special shells, and the 6th Division suffered heavy losses caught off guard.
The 13th Regiment and 47th Regiment have currently lost contact, and the 23rd and 45th Regiments are also continuously withdrawing.
Now it’s not just the 6th Division; even other units in the city have started to fall into chaos.
At the same time, rumors have begun spreading among various units, saying that the Chinese troops used an unprecedented chemical weapon with enormous lethality, killing several thousand people in just over ten minutes.
They even tore through the 6th Division’s defensive line without any resistance, and the Chinese army is still releasing poison gas in the city.
Many units’ soldiers even panic at the sight of thick fog, with fear beginning to spread within various units.”
Prince Asaka Yasuhiko’s heart sank to the bottom; he grabbed the binoculars from the table and rushed to the attic, peering out from the window.
In the darkness, Nanjing City’s outline twisted in the night and firelight, with smoke pillars rising in the southeast like giant pythons.
He ground his teeth in pain; in the binoculars, he vaguely saw fleeing soldiers of the 6th Division, with indistinct Chinese soldiers chasing behind them.
The 6th Division’s defensive line, which never dreamed of being hit by Chinese poison gas attack, collapsed instantly.
Due to a light breeze at night, the poison gas began to spread around, and many Japanese soldiers who didn’t have time to evade began to feel their exposed faces and hands sticky, but it seemed harmless, like ordinary mist or dew.
But not long after, they began to feel unbearable eye pain; many started rubbing their eyes hard, as if there were sand grinding inside, and soon these people screamed from swollen painful eyes, then one after another fell to the ground vomiting.
About half an hour later, the poisoned Japanese soldiers’ faces were congested and swollen, covered with large red spots, and around the red spots appeared many pearl-like blisters.
Especially the severely wounded; large blisters formed by small ones fused appeared on the lower face and neck, and on some personnel’s thighs, backs, buttocks, and even scrotum grew unbearably painful small blisters, due to them sitting on ground contaminated with sarin gas, causing the toxin to seep into the skin.
For a time, Nanjing City was filled everywhere with the shrill screams of Japanese soldiers, and rumors spread through various units that Chinese soldiers had begun large-scale use of poison gas shells in the city.
Panicked Japanese soldiers began frantically pulling out gas masks that had never been used since the invasion of China and putting them on.
But once rumors start, they’re not easy to quell; the 6th Division had already collapsed, and in the dark night, various units in Nanjing City scattered and fled to avoid the poison gas.
Forget any bushido spirit, forget any strict military discipline.
Facing poison gas spreading with the air, even the bravest troops in peacetime would lose their fighting courage.
The night was ink-black; under Su Yaoyang’s command, nearly 3,000 Security Regiment warriors charged out of Nanjing City, with one battalion as vanguard, taking advantage of the Japanese chaos.
At dawn’s faint light tearing open the night curtain, thunder-like wheel rumbles rolled over the stone-paved road of Banqiao Town. The lead truck’s windshield still had night dew condensing, refracting a ray of light.
Oil lamps successively lit up in the mud-wall thatched civilian houses on both sides of the road, the dim yellow glow diffusing in the thin mist. A few early-rising villagers peeked from behind door frames, covering their mouths in fright at the wounded lying haphazardly in the truck beds.
In the middle of the convoy, the female students huddled together, the hems of their faded blue cloth qipaos splattered with mud.
A girl with short braids sobbed excitedly, scaring her companions around her to quickly cover her mouth and comfort her in low voices.
Yu Mo, the former top courtesan of the Qinhuai River, leaned obliquely against the railing of the last truck, her face with faded rouge showing the excitement of escaping alive.
Behind her, several sisters were using Suzhou tunes to soothe a feverish young wounded soldier, the soft glutinous singing fragmented by the truck’s jolting.
“Screech!”
Accompanied by the piercing brake sound, the convoy stopped.
In the shadow of the paifang, an old man in a patched cotton jacket was squatting, drawing water from a well with a bucket.
Seeing the truck suddenly stop beside him, the old man’s hand loosened involuntarily, and the wooden bucket half-raised plopped into the well with a splash.
Then the old man saw the vehicle door open, a young officer jump down and walk toward him, saying warmly: “Old man… may I ask what place this is?”
