Chapter 198

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Protagonist:

Lv Muzhi

Colonel Tetsujiro Tani lay in a large pit behind, constantly issuing orders, his voice muffled through the gas mask.

"All units, assault! Occupy the Chinese army's position! Darkness falls, banzai!!!"

Orders were conveyed through gestures and shouts to every Japanese soldier wearing a gas mask in the Forty-First Regiment.

Nearly two thousand Japanese soldiers, under the cover of smoke screens and poison gas, stepped on their comrades' corpses one foot deep and one foot shallow, launching a desperate charge toward the Youth Army's core position.

"First Battalion, maintain skirmish line! Quickly pass through the beachhead fire zone!"

"Second Battalion, follow up! Concentrate grenade launchers to bombard suspicious firepower points ahead!"

"Machine Gun Squadron, find cover, provide fire support! Quick!"

The howls of Japanese officers at all levels rose and fell at the beachhead; battalion commanders, squadron leaders, and platoon leaders strained their voices trying to maintain the attack formation, but amidst the dense smoke and shells falling from time to time, it all seemed futile and chaotic. Anyway, any order reaching the Japanese soldiers' ears meant one thing: charge forward!

"Pfft—"

"Ugh!"

"Medic! Here needs……"

Regiment Commander Colonel Tetsujiro Tani lay in a shell crater, his eyes bloodshot. There was no hell more standard than Jinshanwei Beach; this place was simply the empire's graveyard!

A Japanese second lieutenant had just shouted half a sentence when a machine gun bullet from who knows where pierced his neck, blood spraying from the edge of his gas mask. He staggered a few steps and fell heavily beside Colonel Tetsujiro Tani.

"Baka! Enemy machine gun bunker on the left! Third Squad, suppress fire!" A Japanese squadron leader waved a Type 14 Nambu pistol, shouting toward the machine gun bunker on the left wing.

"Hai!" The Third Squad's platoon leader had just responded when a 75mm mountain gun shell from behind exploded near him. With a tremendous boom, the shockwave mixed with blood, flesh, and bone fragments sent several Japanese soldiers around him flying.

"Colonel Excellency! The Chinese army's artillery fire is too fierce! We are completely suppressed at the beachhead!" The First Battalion's battalion commander crawled to Tetsujiro Tani's side. Through blurred lenses, Colonel Tetsujiro Tani could see the deep despair in his eyes.

Tetsujiro Tani was angry at his incompetence and cursed loudly: "Baka yarou! Now is not the time to retreat! Imperial Japanese Warriors have no retreat! Order the troops, at all costs, charge forward! Demolition teams, blow up the enemy's machine gun bunkers ahead!"

"Contact the Second Echelon commander. Our forces at Jinshanwei Beachhead Number One are encountering stubborn enemy resistance, casualties are extremely heavy, and we are now unable to break through the enemy's defensive line! Have them support us immediately!"

The smoke grenades laid down earlier by Japanese planes gradually dissipated, and the Japanese began using mortars to fire smoke grenades to replenish the smoke. After all, smoke was the only thing that could give the Japanese a sense of security.

The Sixth Division's Thirteenth Regiment was now also boarding landing craft on the sea behind, and the first wave of the amphibious landing force was approaching the coast at full speed.

A company commander of the Youth Army on Position Number One observed that the Japanese smoke screen was beginning to fade. Planes from both sides were still dogfighting in the sky, and he felt somewhat relieved: "This smoke screen is the little Japanese's fig leaf. Now even the fig leaf is gone. Let's see what you do! Fire at them!!!"

As the smoke gradually faded, the scene on the sea surface became clear. Besides the Forty-First Regiment charging on the beach ahead, the landing craft units of the Sixth Division's Thirteenth Regiment were also rushing toward the beachhead at full speed!

"Japanese reinforcements spotted! Large numbers!"

"Anti-tank guns! Aircraft cannons! Aim at the landing craft, blast them to hell!"

The 37mm anti-tank guns and 20mm Oerlikon aircraft cannons in Position Number One immediately adjusted their fields of fire.

Boom!

A 37mm armor-piercing shell precisely hit a landing craft floating on the water surface that was disembarking Japanese infantry. The shell tore a huge hole directly, and the Japanese who hadn't had time to disembark were killed or wounded.

The continuous fire of the 20mm machine cannon was even more terrifying. The Japanese landing craft hulls were riddled with holes. The landing craft Suyi still hadn't disintegrated, but inside had already been turned into a bloody red pulp by the machine cannon!

The command boat of Thirteenth Regiment Commander Colonel Okamoto Yasuyuki was also almost hit by the machine cannon, scaring him and the boat crew out of their wits.

When Okamoto Yasuyuki, in a sorry state, led the remaining troops onto the beachhead and met with Forty-First Regiment Commander Colonel Tetsujiro Tani, who was equally grimy, in a shell crater behind, both regimental commanders' faces were extremely ugly.

"Tetsujiro, the situation here is worse than imagined!" Okamoto Yasuyuki looked at the dense corpses and wounded soldiers wailing on the beachhead.

Tetsujiro Tani pointed to the core machine gun bunker of Position Number One ahead that was constantly spitting tongues of fire, gnashing his teeth: "Okamoto Yasuyuki! It's that fortress! The machine gun fire inside is too fierce. Without taking it out, we absolutely cannot move forward half a step! I've organized several demolitions, all failed!"

Okamoto Yasuyuki saw that the area in front of the bunker was already paved with a large number of corpses, and several explosive packs were scattered on the ground.

"Then organize another suicide squad! Imperial Japanese Warriors have no impossible missions!" Okamoto Yasuyuki was completely enraged: "Once on this Jinshanwei Beach, there is no turning back. Either die or occupy the enemy's position!"

"Gather all engineers who can still move and soldiers who aren't afraid of death. Issue double explosive packs and explosive tubes! Cover with smoke grenades. Blow it up for me!"

Orders were quickly issued. Under the hoarse urging of Japanese officers and the guns of the Supervise Battle Team, batch after batch of Japanese suicide squad members with rising sun cloth strips wrapped around their heads, holding explosive packs or carrying explosive tubes, under the cover of the not yet fully dissipated thin smoke and shell craters, fearlessly charged toward the machine gun bunker where Zhang Lanbo was.

Inside the machine gun bunker, in Zhang Lanbo's view, he only saw shadowy figures constantly moving and approaching outside.

"Damn it, they're coming again! Not enough of them sent to die!" Zhang Lanbo cursed loudly, his fingers tightly gripping the MG34's trigger.

Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat—!

Shell casings were ejected inside the machine gun bunker, bullets shot toward the little Japanese.

Under Zhang Lanbo's feet, several overheated gun barrels were already lying, and shell casings had piled up to his calves.

The few Japanese suicide squad members charging at the very front were instantly turned into sieves, and the explosive packs in their arms rolled onto the ground.

"Second Group, up! Pick up the explosive packs! Keep charging!" The Japanese platoon leader supervising from behind roared with red eyes.

Immediately more Japanese soldiers rushed over, picked up the explosive packs dropped by their comrades, bent their waists, and continued charging forward.

Puff puff puff…

The sound of bullets entering flesh never ceased, and another group of Japanese soldiers fell.

But the Japanese behind seemed endless, and they even began using the corpses piled up by their comrades in front as cover, wriggling forward bit by bit.

"Damn it, Lao Wang! Smash these corpses for me!" Zhang Lanbo shouted at Lao Wang beside him.

"Watch mine!" Lao Wang grabbed the M2 heavy machine gun, changed the aim, aimed at the corpse pile growing higher and higher, and pulled the trigger.

Boom boom boom boom—!

The 12.7mm caliber large bullets smashed onto the corpse pile like heavy hammers. Instantly blood and flesh flew everywhere, like pounding Chaoshan beef balls, completely pulverizing the Japanese bodies lying on the ground. Limbs and broken arms were torn by huge kinetic energy and scattered everywhere.

The temporary cover made of corpses instantly vanished. The Japanese hiding behind were exposed without cover and were immediately covered by dense firepower.

"Haha, satisfying, so satisfying!" Machine gunner Lao Wang shouted while shooting.

However, just as Lao Wang was shooting happily, a string of Japanese infantry rifle bullets from who knows what angle, extremely tricky, penetrated the embrasure, penetrated Lao Wang's face and throat, and along with an assistant shooter beside him, lay in a pool of blood.

Zhang Lanbo discovered that the Japanese light machine gun opposite was shooting from beside a corpse. One sweep knocked the Japanese machine gunner down. Looking back, Lao Wang was already lifeless.

"Lao Wang!" Zhang Lanbo's eyes were nearly splitting.

The M2 heavy machine gun's ammunition bearer stepped forward to take his place, only to discover that the heavy machine gun had malfunctioned at the critical moment.

The machine gun pillbox's firepower paused for an instant, and the surviving Japanese suicide squad members outside spotted this opportunity, letting out beast-like howls: "The enemy's machine gun pillbox has jammed! Charge! Board!"

The Japanese seemed to have grown out of the ground, leaping up from their hiding places one after another, grabbing explosive packs and demolition tubes from the ground and rushing madly toward the machine gun pillbox before them!

Some Japanese felt despair; before reaching the bunker, they had already pulled the fuses of their explosive packs, hoping to throw the packs directly under the bunker.

However, the Japanese hadn't thrown the explosives in their arms before being shot dead by the machine guns inside the position, and the explosives they had pulled open also exploded among them.

"Damn your grandmother!" Zhang Lanbo's eyes turned completely red, and the nearby Japanese were all blown into the sky along with him.

At the same time, the MG34's barrel had begun to smoke from continuous fire, and the view through the top of the barrel was even somewhat distorted, but he simply couldn't bother to replace it!

"Hurry up and grab your weapons! Block the embrasures!"

Zhang Lanbo's assistant gunner said nothing, grabbed the MP28 submachine gun beside him, rushed to another smaller embrasure in front, and gave the swarming figures outside a fierce sweeping burst!

The few surviving M2 heavy machine gun ammunition bearers tinkered for a good while; one person cleared the malfunction, and several others also picked up the submachine guns left in the corner for last-minute use, opening fire toward the outside.

Rat-tat-tat!

"Malfunction cleared!"

The M2 heavy machine gun soon cleared its malfunction and opened fire again.

The Japanese suicide squad members charging up were like hitting an invisible wall, their bodies twitching violently in the hail of bullets.

In the most critical situation, the Japanese had fallen one after another less than ten meters from the machine gun pillbox; some Japanese carrying explosive packs had them hit by bullets and sympathetically detonate, and the heat wave and sand and dirt blown out made Zhang Lanbo grit his teeth.

Grenades thrown to the edge of the bunker also wounded an ammunition bearer holding up an MP28 submachine gun to fire.

The two regimental commanders in the distance saw the charging soldiers wiped out one by one, corpses densely packed in front of the machine gun pillbox, and their hearts completely sank: Finished! Over seven thousand soldiers would all die here; Jinshanwei would probably be their own grave!