Chapter 7: Turbulence in the War Zone (Part 2)

  The back of Xiaoyama was a large Japanese military camp with lights on, and when I looked up with binoculars, the camp was surrounded by dense barbed wire, with sentries every three steps and guards every five steps. Inside, there were piles of oil drums and stacks of wooden boxes, estimated to be filled with military supplies, possibly even unstocked ammunition!

  The gate of the camp was wide open, and a long column of Japanese military vehicles was driving in. At the front were more than a dozen three-wheeled motorcycles, followed by three armored transport trucks, then several troop-carrying trucks, and finally about two squads of Japanese infantrymen running to keep up, the entire convoy resembling a long dragon, extremely eye-catching.

  "Wow, what a big show!" Chi Chengfeng exclaimed, "What's the little devil singing about?"

  Yue Weihan's heart skipped a beat, the little devil was making quite a commotion, judging from the situation, it was likely that some big shot had come to inspect the arsenal, this target and the strategic value of the arsenal were much higher than the little devil's command post, he immediately turned his head to Niu Dagen and said: "Dagen, do you see those oil barrels? Can your cannon reach them?"

  The cow radish stretched out his right thumb and said, "The distance has exceeded 2,000 meters, it's approaching the extreme range, at such a far distance, the hit rate is hard to guarantee!"

  Yue Weihan gritted his teeth and said resolutely: "Damn it, get him out of here!"

  "Yes!" Niu Dagen responded, and then quickly brought over the 81mm Japanese light mortar, re-set it up, re-measured the distance, and re-adjusted the firing angle. Everything was ready, he picked up a shell and loaded it into the barrel. With a loud "Boom", the shell soared into the air with a trail of smoke.

  A few seconds later, a fierce fire suddenly burst out in the camp ahead!

  In an instant, the little devils in the camp blew up a pot. A large number of little devils jumped out of several troop carriers, and the two ghost infantry squads that followed also rushed up quickly. Together with the little devils in the three-wheeled motorcycle in front, they tightly protected the three armored transport vehicles in the middle. Looking at this situation, there are indeed big guys inside.

  But it's still a bit far from those three armored transport vehicles, and there is still some distance from that pile of oil barrels.

  "Big root, you've missed it, damn it! You've missed it!"

  The ox's big root made no sound, with a serious face, and stretched out his right thumb to carefully compare, then through the knob made fine adjustments to the angle of the howitzer, and then "Boom" another shot, this time the shell landed right on that pile of oil drums, instantly bursting into a fierce fireball, followed by even more intense flames, the bright red blaze like giant mushroom clouds, violently sweeping towards the sky, the scene was extremely frightening!

  It wasn't until six or seven seconds later that the massive explosion sound finally reached the top of the small hill.

  "Hit it! I hit it!" Niu Dageng was so excited that he danced with joy, and immediately fired the remaining two shells.

  However, these two shells were meaningless now, as the explosion of the diesel barrel had triggered a chain reaction of the exposed and unstocked ammunition, and in an instant, the entire arsenal was like being hit by countless aerial bombs. Huge mushroom clouds surged violently, and all buildings within a radius of thousands of meters around the explosion center were instantly flattened to the ground. The little devils inside also turned to ashes, and even the three armored transport vehicles were burned into scrap iron.

  "Wow!" Chi Chengfeng clicked his tongue in surprise, "What a huge firework!"

  "Fall back!" Yue Weihan remained calm enough to give the order, "Take advantage of the little devils being in a mess, let's go back!"

  After finishing speaking, Yue Weihan turned around and left. Chi Chengfeng was unhappy and stared with his cow-like eyes, asking: "What's wrong with him? We've already left that damned place, why does he still want to go back and get himself killed?"

  "Sending him to his death?" Yue Weihan suddenly stopped in his tracks and turned around, staring coldly at Chi Chengfeng. "Who said going back would be sending him to his death?"

  Since becoming a soldier, Chi Chengfeng had never been afraid of anyone. Yao Changqing was strict in his military discipline, but Chi Chengfeng had never feared him. However, at this moment, Chi Chengfeng found himself somewhat unable to meet Yue Weihan's piercing gaze, which seemed to devour people whole. He muttered to himself: "Bao Shan City has already been surrounded by the little devils, and even a mouse can't escape; going back would be nothing but sending ourselves to our deaths."

  "Can't even the mice escape? Then how did we get out?" Yue Weihan said coldly, "You want to leave, just leave, I won't stop you. But after you go out, don't tell people that you are a soldier of the Third Battalion! Our Third Battalion has always had only men who stand up to heaven and earth, never cowards who fear death. As long as they are our people from the Third Battalion, they will never abandon their brothers!"

  Having said that, Yue Weihan ignored Chi Chengfeng and turned around to leave.

  Cao Xinglong gave Chi Chengfeng a cold stare and followed him, Niu Dagen seemed to want to say something but ultimately didn't say anything, he just stomped his feet and followed. Chi Chengfeng was stunned and could only follow, muttering under his breath: "His grandma, this little white face is quite capable."

  …………

  The 98th Division Command is located on the south bank of the Yangtze River.

  The commander, who was dozing off on the map, was suddenly awakened by a loud explosion. He quickly raised his head and saw that the night sky outside the bunker had turned bright red. This high-ranking Nationalist Army officer from Huangpu quickly realized that something big had happened. The Nationalist Army's artillery fire could not have caused such a massive explosion, nor could even the enemy's naval gunfire have produced such a loud noise!

  Almost at the same time, the chief of staff of the 98th Division was also awakened and asked Xia Zhongyu: "Division commander, where did the explosion come from?"

  Xia Zhongyu walked two steps to the back of Wang Kong, looked up and carefully observed the sky that was completely red, and responded: "Hmmm...the explosion point seems to be in the northeast direction."

  "Northeast direction?" The Chief of Staff's gaze fell on the map in front of him, and he frowned, "That is Beining North Shore."

  "What about the north bank of Wuzang River?" Xia Zhongyu also furrowed his brow and said, "Didn't the National Army's left-wing troops already retreat to the south bank of Wuzang River? How can there still be our troops on the north bank? Investigate, Chief of Staff, send someone to investigate immediately and find out which unit was originally stationed in the northeast direction."

  "Commander, no need to investigate further." The chief of staff picked up a pencil and drew a circle on the map, saying very firmly, "Northeast direction is Baoshan County Town. Originally, the 3rd Battalion of our division's 583 Regiment was stationed there. After our division retreated to the south bank of Wenxi River, each brigade and regiment withdrew, but this battalion lost contact. It should be them."

  "583 Brigade 3rd Battalion?" Xia Zhongyu's eyes lit up instantly, "Yao Changqing's battalion?!"

  "It must have been done by Yao Changqing's people, and most likely they raided the Japanese army's arsenal, otherwise such a powerful explosion would not have occurred." The chief of staff of the 98th Division was indeed a master of logical reasoning, and with very few clues, he analyzed the whole situation quite accurately.

  "Chief of Staff, send someone to investigate immediately!" Xia Zhongyu suddenly turned his head and shouted loudly, "If the situation is true, I will personally go to the war zone headquarters to ask for credit for Yao Changqing!"

  …………

  The Great Rear of the Songhu Battle Zone, Headquarters of the Battle Zone Commander.

  The explosion sound from Baoshan direction even shocked Gu Zhu Tong, the deputy commander-in-chief of the Third War Zone.

  The deputy commander thought it was the frontline soldiers firing at night, and with his clear dream being disturbed, he immediately became furious: "Come on, go check which unit is firing artillery? In this dark and chaotic situation, can they hit the enemy's position? Isn't this deliberately wasting ammunition? Shoot to death, once found out, no matter who it is, shoot to death!"

  …………

  Hirano Corps Headquarters.

  The commander of the 68th Brigade, Takashi Takaeda, supported the convening of a military conference to summarize and review the problems that had arisen in the four-day battle for Baoshan and make improvements.

  It has to be admitted that the Japanese nation is a nation good at summarizing and improving.

  The Japanese nation is quite conservative, even rigid, in terms of grand strategy, and there have been few outstanding strategists throughout Japanese history. However, it must be acknowledged that the modern Japanese military has been innovative in tactics, and a large number of excellent tacticians have emerged, such as Ishiwara Kanji, Sakai Takashi, Tōhei Tachibana, and Kanga Nishijima, all of whom are considered to be outstanding masters of tactics. Even many mid- and low-ranking officers in the Japanese military possess high tactical skills, knowing how to learn from actual combat and develop targeted tactics. Kawashima Ryō is one such example.

  Taka Forest arrived at Hirano's command center when Hirano Ichiro had already committed seppuku.

  Now that Hirano Ichiro had washed away his shame in a warrior's manner, Takaoki was naturally unable to abolish the 2nd Infantry Battalion again. This was also the convention of the Japanese Army. From the two supplementary battalions called up from below, one battalion was detached and half a battalion each was detached from the 3rd and 5th Infantry Battalions. With these added to the more than 200 remaining men, Hirano's Battalion quickly regained its personnel complement of four companies with over a thousand men.

  Takashi Takaoka still led the 2nd Infantry Battalion in the main attack on Baoshan and reappointed battalion commanders.

  At the same time, considering that conventional tactics and poison gas bombs were not effective, after repeated discussions with the attending officers, the Japanese army also changed its attack tactics and decided to launch sulfur balls at Baoshan County City to implement a fire attack! Because almost all the buildings in Baoshan County City are wooden structures, even those few large courtyards where the Chinese army was entrenched, although the outer walls were made of brick and stone, but inside they were still wooden structures.

  Just as the military meeting was about to end, a deafening explosion suddenly rang out from the center of the 3rd Division's headquarters, and the flames that rose up even dyed half the sky red! Takaoki Hayato's heart skipped a beat, and he stood up abruptly, with all the attending officers also following suit. When they saw the night sky outside the window turn a deep crimson, their faces immediately changed color.

  ……