Chapter 1521 Sunset over a Lonely City (Part 2)
"Bang!"
A gunshot!
A Japanese sergeant who was walking in the ruins with his back bent fell on his back, and a bloody hole suddenly appeared in the center of his brow.
The other dozen Japanese soldiers who were following the Japanese sergeant and advancing towards a pile of ruins in front of him were so scared that they hid in the broken walls.
Even if some gaps were very narrow, the Japanese soldiers holding long guns and hanging grenades on their chests squeezed in desperately, fearing that they would not be able to avoid the extremely accurate bullet if they were a second slower.
No one even checked whether the sergeant who was shot had any chance of rescue.
It was impossible for him to survive. As long as the Chinese sharpshooter hiding in the ruins fired, no one could survive.
In fact, if he died, it would be fine. If he didn't die, his imperial colleagues in the rear would shoot him without hesitation and send him to see Amaterasu.
He would never be allowed to become bait for the Chinese and take away more imperial warriors.
Because, such a scene has been played out over the past three days. The imperial colleagues who were shot but not killed in the front wanted to save him one after another. The final result was that on average, one person had to sacrifice the life of a small squad.
Yes, in these three days, their infantry squadron lost up to a hundred people for the small block 120 meters ahead that was almost flattened by artillery fire.
For three whole days, they kept attacking, but also kept retreating, and more were endless deaths.
No one could survive under that magic gun. After discovering that the imperial infantry became decisive and began to actively kill the wounded instead of rescuing them, no one survived under that gun.
Yes, their opponent has always been only one person.
He was like a ghost, hiding in the ruins, appearing from a corner they could not defend, firing a fatal shot, and then fleeing.
"Baga! Why is he still alive?" Kazuo Miki, who was hiding in a trench 80 meters away, looked ahead in disbelief.
The former Japanese signalman second lieutenant is now the captain of the 6th Infantry Battalion of the 57th Infantry Brigade of the 68th Division. The reason why he was promoted so quickly was not because of the great military achievements of Second Lieutenant Miki Kazuo, but because the officers of the 6th Infantry Battalion who were ordered to rest for half a month and then replenished and re-entered the Battle of Hengyang had a death rate of up to 80%.
He, a signalman second lieutenant, was first promoted to lieutenant and served as deputy squadron leader. A week ago, all officers above the rank of captain died in battle, and he, a lieutenant, could only be promoted to captain and take over the position of squadron leader with great difficulty.
The fact is that the current 6th Infantry Battalion is actually not very related to the 6th Infantry Battalion that was the first to arrive at the battlefield three months ago.
Whether it is officers or soldiers, in the current 6th Infantry Battalion, only the army captain Miki Kazuo is still an officer of the original 6th Infantry Battalion, and as many as 90% of the soldiers are from the first round of replenishment or the second or third round of replenishment.
In other words, Captain Kazuo Miki now has a hard time finding an acquaintance in the 6th Infantry Battalion, which still has hundreds of soldiers.
Second Lieutenant Ono, who once wanted to compete with him to kill more opponents, died in the second battle of the 6th Infantry Battalion, and he didn't even see what the wall of Hengyang City looked like.
And Kazuo Miki, who used to like writing diaries, hasn't written a word in his diary for two months.
Because there is really nothing else to write. Since entering Hengyang, he can only record death, nothing else.
In order to assist him in capturing this small block, the battalion specially dispatched an infantry artillery squad and two 75 mountain guns for him, which is 6 guns aiming directly.
And those houses built by Chinese civilians are made of wood and ordinary bricks, and almost all of them are broken by one shot. Who can survive under such artillery fire?
The battalion did this to capture several blocks in the front, and then all the Chinese hiding in the dark corners were bombarded and cleared out.
But what Kazuo Miki didn't expect was that his infantry squadron encountered a tough opponent in this ruin. Only a mysterious gunman blocked 200 people in his infantry squadron for 3 days. Not only could he not enter this block, but he also lost nearly 100 people.
One person actually killed 100 of his people!
Just 10 minutes before this round of attack, Captain Kazuo Miki, who had been scolded by his immediate superior, was finally forced to make a desperate move and sent two squads to withstand the deadly bullets of the Chinese sharpshooter and charge!
Regardless of the loss, it was an attack. He didn't believe that the Chinese sharpshooter could kill all 30 of his imperial infantrymen with one shot.
What's more, the 30 imperial infantrymen were just bait!
Behind the imperial infantry, 4 70mm infantry guns and 2 75mm mountain guns with their muzzles flattened were already ready, waiting for the Chinese gunners to continuously kill the imperial infantry, and then completely bombard them with artillery fire.
Perhaps the artillery could not reach the accuracy of the Chinese sharpshooter who could hit the head with every shot from more than 200 meters away, but with 6 artillery pieces firing at the same time, even a god would be blown to pieces.
If the Chinese dared not to shoot, that would be just fine. The 30 infantrymen hid in the ruins, constantly narrowing the distance with the man, like a fishing net. Sooner or later, the Chinese hiding in the ruins would be the fish in the net.
The Chinese sharpshooter obviously did not want to be that fish, so he fired. In just 10 seconds, he killed 8 people. His marksmanship was exquisite and amazing.
Although those imperial infantrymen were almost all newly recruited soldiers, they were all experienced soldiers in the battlefield and not without experience. However, in front of that man, they were still shot and killed mercilessly like wooden stakes.
Captain Kazuo Miki, who had experienced two months of bloody battles on the battlefield, was no longer a fool. He had long learned cruelty and waited until the Chinese sharpshooter shot the eighth person and completely determined his approximate location before waving his hand fiercely, signaling the artillery to fire.
The six artillery pieces fired for a full five minutes, almost flattening several ruins before stopping. Not to mention people, even a small ant would probably be blown to pieces!
But damn, I didn't expect him to be still alive!
Captain Kazuo Miki, who was hiding in the trenches behind, was really confused at that moment. He couldn't figure it out. This was too unscientific.
If he was given a choice now, he would even rather give the unknown Chinese sharpshooter a large sum of money and beg him to leave.
What kind of shitty city is this? It's just a pile of garbage and dead bodies. What's the point of you guarding it? I've given you all the military pay and allowances over the years. Can't you just leave?
To be honest, this is not just the idea of Captain Kazuo Miki.
Even Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, commander of the 11th Army, thought so. As early as half a month ago, the 11th Army did not surround Hengyang City as before, but took the initiative to release the mountainous position in the south of Hengyang City, which had cost tens of thousands of lives.
The so-called "surround three and leave one", its core idea is to surround three sides and leave one side, set up ambushes, lure the enemy to escape, and annihilate them in the movement. This tactic aims to defeat the enemy more effectively by reducing consumption and casualties in the course of combat.
However, the south of the city is a mountainous area. Putting tens of thousands of Chinese here is not a way to annihilate the enemy in the movement, but a pure release of the tiger back to the mountain.
When I think of the corpses of tens of thousands of imperial colleagues who died in the mountainous positions in the south of the city, which have not been burned yet, if they have to fight tens of thousands of Chinese in such a place again, no imperial officer or soldier will have such courage.
But Lord Yokoyama Yong did it. Not only that, he also sent people to negotiate with the city. It is said that the negotiation conditions are extremely favorable to the Chinese side. He even agreed that the Chinese side would not surrender, but evacuate if defeated. The opening of the southern suburbs of Hengyang City is the first expression of sincerity, and he is willing to be signed by the commander of the 11th Army, Lord Yokoyama Yong, on the document. The Hengyang defenders will restart the war only when they are a hundred miles away from the city.
And what will the empire get? A ruin that has been completely destroyed in the war and is full of corpses.
Even the most ignorant recruits will probably say when facing this large ruin: What's the use of it?
This sentence is very heartbreaking, but this is the fact of this war.
Outside this city, the Empire had lost more than 50,000 people. Half a month after entering this ruin, it lost another 30,000 people. The 11th Army was no longer the 11th Army. The veterans had consumed more than 60%. The 116th Division, the 68th Division, the 3rd Division, and the 27th Division, whether they were the main force or the non-main force, were basically exhausted in this battle. If they wanted to restore their former combat power, they would not be able to do so for at least a year.
To put it bluntly, the four divisions had been completely destroyed, and the three new divisions were not much better. In just half a month, the three lieutenant generals of the divisions were crying out to the sky and asking for additional troops from Yokoyama Isamu who had arrived at the Hengyang front to supervise the battle.
But where would Yokoyama Isamu, who had already replenished two supplementary divisions, go to replenish them? Would he replenish them with Chinese troops?
If the Chinese who got the weapons did not return to give them a big fight, they would not believe it themselves.
The war that cost the lives of 60,000 imperial soldiers and seriously injured 40,000 imperial soldiers was exchanged for this ruins filled with smoke and death. Isn't it funny? No, the fact is that even this has not been exchanged.
The Chinese refused! They took off the white loincloth of an imperial lieutenant colonel who went to negotiate and put it on his head, tied his hands, and then let the Chinese translator lead him out of the ruins with a rope.
That scene directly shocked the two armies fighting in the ruins. This operation was really amazing!
Lieutenant Colonel Naonaga Ai, a close confidant of the 11th Army Chief of Staff Shimanuki Takeharu, who returned, told the reason why he was insulted. If he didn't do this, the leader of the Four Lines Corps, Tang Dao, who was talking to him, would behead all 100 captured imperial officers and soldiers and pile them into a Jingguan on the platform of the Central Bank.
Even though he threatened Tang Dao that he would behead hundreds of Chinese prisoners of war captured in this war in return, Tang Dao replied: "I am going to die, why would I care so much? Just kill them all. Anyway, I am angry now, so I have to do this. I still have more than a dozen of your devil pilots. It just so happens that I also want to fly a plane to see how far these things can fly in the sky without the Zero fighter."
People are most afraid of this kind of barefoot man. He is not afraid of death. What else can threaten him?
For the sake of those pilots and the captured officers and soldiers of the empire, the Japanese Army Lieutenant Colonel could only allow the Chinese to insult him. He walked 1,500 meters wearing his loincloth. He really had some perseverance.
He committed suicide by cutting open his abdomen on the night he returned.
The 11th Army also completely gave up the idea of negotiation and continued to attack wildly in the next half month, and then it became what it is now.
More than 10,000 people died in this large tomb that looked dying, but the sound of gunshots and explosions never stopped.
Yes, this place has been called a grave by the officers and soldiers of the Japanese 11th Army. Even they themselves have become completely numb to death.
Here, only death is the truth!
Without this kind of emotion, Captain Miki Kazuo would not have been able to force the two teams to act as live bait.
But obviously, the bait was in vain. The Chinese gunman who once again killed a Japanese sergeant swallowed a large mouthful of bait, broke free from the fishing line, and backhanded Captain Miki and his half-broken infantry squadron. fight.
. . . . . . . . . .
‘Mindless’ was actually very tired, and his eyes could hardly see clearly ahead.
It was not caused by fatigue after sleeping for less than two hours for three days and nights, but a piece of shrapnel scratched across his eyelids.
He was very lucky. The shrapnel was like the most precise scalpel. It only scratched off the eyelids but did not damage the eyeballs.
But this caused everything he saw with his right eye to be blood red, and every time he blinked the incomplete eyelid, it was painful. This was simply the greatest torture for a sniper who needed to use his eyes.
This torture lasted for nearly 70 hours.
And this injury, to the already scarred 'No-brainer', was only a minor injury and not worth mentioning at all.
The Japanese army continued to attack him with artillery fire. Although his battlefield intuition developed on the battlefield was perceived in advance and he finally escaped, the terrible artillery fire still left many 'marks' on his body.
At least 10 pieces of shrapnel have been embedded in his body. Every time he moves, it hurts to the bone. What's more terrible is that he lost a lot of blood. If he didn't have a hemostatic bag on him and a hemostatic bag picked up from the remains of his comrades in the ruins, The blood loss alone would have killed him.
According to the regulations of the Four Lines Regiment, an injury like 'No Brain' is already considered a serious injury and can be temporarily returned to the field hospital for treatment. On the battlefield here, the company can be notified to switch to other groups to deal with the Japanese army.
But 'Brainless' did not report to the superiors, and maintained a calm tone on the walkie-talkie to report that everything was normal.
He didn't leave because his uncle died here.
Seven years have passed, and "Brainless" is no longer the little soldier who gnawed carrots and killed the Japanese.
He didn't want to be an officer, but his illustrious military exploits were there. This 26-year-old veteran was already the fourth-level sergeant major of the reconnaissance company, and his military salary was the same as that of an army captain.
His uncle "Unhappy" was seriously injured in the battle of Zishan. After recovering from his injury, he returned to the army and served as captain and company commander of the supply camp. He finally led his troops to join the battle a month ago.
But 10 days ago, Captain Mei died. The Japanese used a Type 97 tank to clear the way. Captain Mei, who led an infantry squad to fight, personally used two incendiary bottles to kill the Type 97 tank, but a Japanese hiding 300 meters away The sniper shot him in the left chest.
Captain Mei died in the tunnel before his nephew arrived.
In order to get him back, only 6 people in his infantry squad survived until the arrival of 'Brainless'.
In the next 10 days, 'No Brain' and these 6 people fought off the successive attacks of three infantry squadrons in the ruins until he was the only one left.
But that’s enough!
But, you can’t die yet, you can’t kill a few more people! Otherwise, if he goes to see his uncle underground, he will scold him again!
'No brain', who endured severe pain, moved his body and hid deep in the ruins, felt the scorching heat from the explosion of the shell, and rushed to the next sniper point while crawling, without any chance of Wan Jun taking the general's head from it. 'Assassin's style?
If the Japanese soldiers hiding in the cracks of the ruins were like a group of groundhogs, then he was a gray mouse.
Anyway, at this time, the Chinese and Japanese were both more embarrassed and miserable than the other.
"Mei, are you, Te Liang, my soldier? I'll give you one hour. I want to see you standing in front of me. Platoon Leader Shen, who is responsible for supporting your position, has already brought his people over. You, Te Liang, are not my soldiers." Stop being so arrogant to me.”
When Wu Brain hid in the tunnel again, a buzzer came from the walkie-talkie asking for a call. When Wu Brain opened it, there was an angry curse from Lu Sanjiang, the commander of the reconnaissance company.
"Okay, okay, company commander, just wait. I'll show up on time in an hour. Don't tell me, the stupid Japanese are bombarding me again. I have to move quickly." No brain nodded repeatedly.
"You idiot, don't lie again." Lu Sanjiang's face was full of anger. Just as he was cursing, he heard the sound of communication interruption on the walkie-talkie.
Lu Sanjiang, who had already worn the rank badge of major, no longer looked angry, but was filled with bitterness.
Until now, his reconnaissance company has only one-third of the manpower it had when it arrived in Hengyang. Those 200 people were either killed in the battle or seriously injured and sent to the field hospital. Even though he never wanted his old comrades to leave, the war was over. Out of his imagination.
The Battle of Hengyang is destined to be a flesh-and-blood mill until now. Both the Chinese and Japanese armies can only invest their officers and soldiers into it almost numbly, until there is nothing left to throw!
The Japanese army cannot retreat because they have already suffered huge losses. If they retreat, the previous investment will be in vain.
The Chinese soldiers are even more unable to retreat. They are already alone. This tomb is their last position. Where should they retreat?
Now among the various departments of the Hengyang garrison, there is only one difference between early death and late death.
But even knowing this, Lv Sanjiang still hoped that his brothers would live longer. He had already heard from the call that ‘No-Brain’ was injured. Even if he had been hiding it and pretending, how could he hide it from his brothers who had been together for several years?
“General Fang, Commander, when will the reinforcements that the man above mentioned arrive!” Even though Lv Sanjiang’s nerves had been tempered, looking back at the densely packed remains of the Chinese army in the tunnel, thinking of the brothers who were still fighting on the front line, he finally couldn’t help but cry out in grief from the bottom of his heart.
“Commander, when will the reinforcements arrive?” In the command post of the 10th Reserve Division, the lieutenant general of the army with bandages on his upper body looked at Fang Xianjue who came to visit him, and also shed tears and asked questions.
The 10th Reserve Division, only one in ten is left, and even a full infantry battalion cannot be assembled.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
PS: I am really sorry, because I stayed in Chengdu for one more day and only rushed back to Xiangyang last night. I only had time to write and update today. I will ensure updates in the next few days, and the extra chapters will also be completed this month. The new military book should be available to you at the end of October or November.