Chapter 190: The th Division Returns to Fight Tonggu, T-34 Tanks Strike

Inside the city was chaos; the Little Devils hadn't even managed to put on their pants before they ran onto the main street.

Some Little Devils even had both legs blown off, their hands braced on the ground as they crawled out of the houses, the two short stumps still hanging from their bodies, blood trails dragging behind them; shortly thereafter they died from massive blood loss.

The nightmare kept going.

The artillery barrage lasted a full ten minutes.

When the last shell hit the ground, the world suddenly fell into a death‑like silence. Smoke and dust shrouded everything, visibility less than five meters.

On average each howitzer fired eighty shells, altogether nearly nine hundred shells fell into Tonggu city.

The entire territory of Tonggu was plowed over.

"Company Commander, still firing?" the Artillery Platoon Leader Zhao Yong asked as he stepped forward.

Shi Xiaomao shook his head, really couldn't make out anything, and roared, "Fire, fire what the hell, I've exhausted all the shells, the barrel's glowing red, firing any more would be suicide. The rest is left to the regiment commander."

Spectacular, truly spectacular; Shi Xiaomao had never fought such a lavish battle.

Overwhelming firepower advantage.

Tonggu.

Song Jing Xiuzhi shouted loudly, "Counterattack, it's the Chinese, quick, counterattack!"

Nan Lai Zhengxiong hadn't yet recovered from his shock when a low, terrifying rumble came from the direction where the artillery had ceased.

The sound grew from distant to near, getting louder, and the ground trembled rhythmically along with it.

It wasn't a car, nor any tank he was familiar with from the Japanese Army.

Amid the smoke, a black steel behemoth cut through the fog, emitting a series of rumbling sounds.

"What... what is that?" a Japanese Army sentry pointed at the distant smoke, his voice full of fear.

From the smoke, black silhouettes slowly emerged.

They bore slanted armor, wide tracks, and snarling long gun barrels.

They rolled over the Barbed Wire surrounding the Japanese Army positions, smashed the Sandbags, ignored the scattered machine‑gun fire left on the Japanese lines, and charged straight ahead.

"Tank! The enemy's tank!" Nan Lai Zhengxiong finally saw clearly and shouted hoarsely, "Rapid‑fire cannon! Quick! Use the rapid‑fire cannon to take them down!"

A few Type 92 Infantry Cannons hurriedly swung their barrels and fired at the charging steel behemoths. A shell hit the front of a T-34 tank with pinpoint accuracy, producing a huge "dang" sound, spraying a shower of sparks, then the tank was knocked aside.

That shell startled the commander of tank number 5, making him think he and his comrades were about to die.

"Load shells."

The T-34 merely shuddered and kept moving forward.

"Boom!"

The T-34's turret swung around, its 76‑mm tank gun fired. An armor‑piercing round instantly pierced the Japanese rapid‑fire cannon position, blowing the gun crew and the gun itself skyward.

"My God..." a captured British officer stared dumbfounded at the scene in the POW camp, muttering.

It was unclear why this British officer was captured at Tonggu, since the British had all fled before the Japanese arrived. Yet their escape route was eventually blocked by the Japanese Thirteenth Division.

Hu Xianqun sat in the command vehicle of the first T-34, peering through the periscope at the Japanese Army ahead in disarray, his face flushed with excitement.

"Little brother, I like this gift! Tank regiment, everyone pay attention, crush them! Charge!"

The ten T-34 tanks at the forefront revved their engines to full horsepower.

Along the way they rolled over Japanese positions, Japanese corpses, and even living Japanese soldiers were crushed into mush by the tanks.

This made the T-34 tanks behind, covering the infantry's charge, enviously watch, but they also kept in mind that their primary task was to protect the soldiers of the 599th Regiment behind them.

"Watch the flanks, little German, why the hell are you exposing yourself, get behind the tank!" Platoon Leader Wang Weida shouted.

"Yes, Platoon Leader."

"For the fallen brothers!" Jiang Anguo stood on the hilltop, watching all this through a telescope, his clenched fist trembling slightly.

Jiang Fei's face appeared before Jiang Anguo; he was the highest‑ranking officer who had sacrificed himself from Chanda to Myanmar, even though he was only a Company Commander, Jiang Fei was the commander of his own Guard Company.

Dong dong dong!

Tank shells were fired one after another at the Japanese inside Tonggu city, landing within the city and inflicting massive casualties on the Japanese.

The artillery fire extended, and the tanks forged the path ahead.

Following the tanks were the soldiers of Dai Anlan's th Division.

They shouted, brandishing brand‑new Mauser rifles fitted with bayonets, surging like a tide toward the breach torn open by the tanks. This was the first time the th Division's troops launched a charge under such overwhelming fire support.

They did not charge blindly; each tank was followed by a platoon of soldiers who stuck close to the tank, constantly monitoring both sides of the tank.

Machine gunners, ready to aim at any flash from the Japanese positions.

If they spotted fire from the Japanese positions, the machine gunners immediately counter‑attacked.

The th Division's soldiers withdrew into Lashu only briefly; the time to change weapons and gear was also short, yet within that brief span they carried out multiple Infantry‑Tank Coordinated Operations.

How infantry use tanks to charge has been simulated many times in daily training.

Why tanks were of limited use at the start of the war, even during the Kunlun Pass campaign where tank losses were heavy, is because commanders were unfamiliar with how tanks and infantry coordinate in combat.

Another point: without air superiority, tanks become live targets.

Dai Anlan stood before the command post, lifted the nearby telescope, and watched the 599th Regiment charge.

"So exhilarating!" Dai Anlan never spoke frivolously to his troops.

But today, he finally saw it: the artillery fired as if free, even though the 150‑mm howitzers had ceased. Yet the unit's many 60 mm mortars and 81 mm mortars began to retaliate, continuously shelling Tonggu, which the Japanese occupied, during the advance.

Shells rained down on Tonggu's districts like hail, the explosions forming a sea of fire. Bricks and stones shattered, the ground shook, and even the birds and beasts of the rainforest fled long ago. Each shell that fell struck the Japanese defenders' spine like a heavy hammer.

And they also provided cover for the infantry on both flanks.

In fact, the artillery's main task was fire‑power elimination, but when elimination wasn't needed, they performed fire suppression on the enemy.

With absolute superiority, they suppressed the Japanese firepower.

"Division Commander, when have we ever fought such a lavish battle..." Chief of Staff Zhang Zhige's voice choked, his eyes reddened. If we had this kind of firepower during the Tonggu Defense Battle, the Fifty‑Fifth Division would not have been able to retreat intact; they'd probably have no bone fragments left!

If they had this many artillery pieces during the Tonggu Defense Battle, they could at least have wiped out half of the Japanese Fifty‑Fifth Division.

The firepower of the th Division can be said to be the strongest among all units.

But even as the strongest, when compared with a full‑form, over‑standard German weapons division, the difference is far more than a mere trifle.

Especially in heavy firepower, it's completely two different grades.

The many generals in the rear were stunned by this firepower coverage, even though it lasted only ten minutes.

All the generals watching from the rear were left gaping. Just ten minutes of firepower coverage threw the entire Tonggu into a furnace. They couldn't help imagining: if they were on the Japanese Army's lines, how utterly desperate it would be now.

Yet despite this disparity in equipment, we have been fighting for five years—exactly five years—and have lost millions of troops.

The Japanese Army's proud "samurai spirit" is as fragile as paper before a torrent of steel.