Chapter 64: Bathed in Blood! Seeking Recommendation Tickets!

  "Rat-a-tat-tat!" The officers and soldiers fired simultaneously, with light and heavy machine guns crossing each other in a dense web of firepower.

  "Ah... ah.... ah!" More than a dozen Japanese soldiers cried out in agony as they fell to the ground.

  The entire cotton mill suddenly erupted in gunfire, and it had to be admitted that at this time the Japanese army invading China was stronger than the National Army in terms of individual soldier quality and coordinated command. Although the devil's company commander was killed, the remaining three lieutenants immediately cooperated closely and launched a counterattack against the first regiment.

  Over 100 Japanese soldiers fell to the ground, and nine light machine guns and nine grenade launchers were set up at the same time, starting a firepower suppression against the first company. (The Japanese army's firepower configuration is one light machine gun per squad, three infantry squads per platoon, and one grenade launcher squad with three 50mm grenade launchers.)

  The enemy's submachine gun has a slow rate of fire, relatively small power, and little lethality, but the nine grenade launchers in the enemy's hands are fully utilized.

  It has to be admitted that the Japanese army's use of grenade launchers at this time can be described as truly magical. Anyone with a little military knowledge knows that grenade launchers do not have sights and rely entirely on the operator's visual estimation to determine firing parameters.

  The Japanese army's grenade launchers, however, were able to hit their targets accurately. After just a few rounds, the company's several Czech-style machine guns and two captured "wicked" machine guns were successively hit by the grenade launcher's shells.

  A burst of flames, a few loud explosions later, only one heavy machine gun was left firing continuously on the hillside. The machine gunner had been blown to pieces, but the gun was now being operated by Zhou Wei.

  Zhou Wei manipulated the machine gun and roared desperately sweeping shots.

  Zhang Xinghan saw the situation and hastily ordered: "Concentrate firepower, hit the enemy's grenade launcher, mortar, and blast for me!"

  "Rat-a-tat-a-tat... Boom! Boom!" The officers and soldiers fired their grenade launchers at the enemy, while the two 60mm mortars also opened fire simultaneously.

  "Boom! Boom!" Two shells accurately landed in the midst of the enemy grenade launchers, and more than a dozen grenade launchers were instantly enveloped in flames and smoke. After the explosion, over a dozen grenade launchers and nine grenade tubes were all blown to smithereens. Corpses and damaged parts of the grenade launchers were scattered all over the ground.

  Zhang Xinghan shot and killed a Japanese lieutenant who was wielding a command sword and crazily shouting at his subordinates to counterattack, then immediately took aim at a light machine gunner.

  The devils lost their grenade launchers and could no longer effectively suppress the troops in a row, while the officers and soldiers in the row picked up machine guns and fired a fierce sweep at the devils who were shooting with their buttocks on the ground.

  "Little devil! I'll screw your ancestors! Ah! Kill!" A National Army soldier picked up a light machine gun and roared, firing the trigger repeatedly. A scorching bullet flew out of the barrel, roaring towards the devils crouching on the ground.

  "Fall back!!" The heavily damaged Oni soldiers could no longer hold on, and a surviving squad leader shrieked orders to his subordinates to retreat.

  As the devils retreated like a receding tide, Zhang Xinghan couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief. He roughly counted that there were at least fifty or sixty devil corpses lying in front of their position, while their own side had lost over ten officers and soldiers.

  There were less than eighty people who could fight at this time.

  In less than five minutes, a sudden and sharp "whooshing" sound echoed through the sky. Zhang Xinghan and others immediately changed color and shouted urgently: "Quickly lie down! Take cover!"

  Before Zhang Xing's words had fallen, several 3.8-kilogram high-explosive shells with long tails of smoke came whizzing in and landed heavily on the company's position.

  A sudden and intense explosion erupted, the violent blast instantly blew up the continuous fortifications, sending wood and earth flying everywhere, Zhang Xinghan could clearly feel the ground beneath him trembling with shock.

  Four Type 92 infantry guns of the enemy were lined up in a row on a hidden flat ground two kilometers away from the first company's position, continuously firing at the first company's position.

  "Boom! Boom! Boom!" The intense explosion almost deafened Zhang Xinghan's ears, and even though the officers and soldiers were well-trained, they couldn't help but feel overwhelmed by the fierce bombardment of the devils.

  A warrior was just about to get up when Sun Siwei pulled him back down, scolding: "Are you looking for death? Get down!"

  In the deafening explosion, a series of positions fell into a sea of flames, fortifications were almost completely destroyed, and some ammunition boxes placed on the edge of the trenches were directly hit by shells, exploding instantly.

  After the bombardment ended, dozens of devils who had just retreated came back and launched a chaotic attack on the first company's position.

  Zhang Xinghan immediately ordered all officers and soldiers in the regiment to fight to the death, and another fierce battle broke out.

  ……….

  Shenjia Bridge, Headquarters of the 88th Division.

  In the previous stage of time, the 88th Division suffered heavy losses in the battle against the Japanese naval landing force. The commander of the 264th Brigade, Major General Huang Mei-xing, led by example and unfortunately died heroically at the age of 41 after being shot.

  Three days ago, the First Regiment of the Teaching Brigade rushed to the front line under the leadership of Deputy Commander and Regimental Commander Zhou Zhenqiang, replacing the heavily damaged 264th Brigade and launching a fierce attack on the Japanese army's position in Gongda Factory.

  After a fierce attack for three days, the 1st Division of the Training Army also suffered more than half casualties. Yesterday, due to the arrival of Japanese reinforcements, the 1st Division of the Training Army, which had already lost more than half of its men, was forced to retreat and eventually received orders to withdraw back to Nanjing for reorganization and replenishment.

  The Ta Kung Pao Mill, which had been captured after a bloody battle, was lost again to the enemy, and they launched a fierce attack on the 88th Division's pre-arranged positions in the Baoshan area.

  At this time, the sky had just brightened, and the Japanese army had not yet launched an attack. The current commander of the 88th Division, Sun Yuanliang, and deputy commander Feng Shengfa, as well as chief of staff Zhang Baoting, were urgently discussing the battle situation.

  Suddenly outside there was a sudden burst of intense gunfire and shouting.

  Sun Yuanliang immediately stood up and said: "The Japanese army attacked?"

  "No, it seems like the gunfire is coming from the southeast direction." Deputy Commander Feng Shengfa also stood up and said.

  "The gunfire should have come from the direction of Gongdaxiang Factory!" Chief of Staff Zhang Baoting gazed for a while and said.

  "What's going on at Gongda Silk Factory? Didn't it fall yesterday? How can there still be gunfire? Are the devils killing each other?"

  "It's impossible for us to kill each other, do you still remember yesterday when the 1st Battalion was retreating, one of their battalion commanders seemed unwilling to retreat, saying that a company of brothers had not retreated, I wonder if they are fighting fiercely with the little devils right now." Sun Yuanliang recalled the scene of the 1st Battalion's retreat yesterday.

  "If it were really the teaching team, they might not be able to support it for long! Now the Gongda Silk Factory is completely within the range of the Japanese military's power. With our current troop strength, we can barely hold on to defending ourselves, and we are really unable to reinforce them." Deputy Commander Feng Shengfa said regretfully.

  "The instructor team led these student soldiers, although they were usually arrogant and domineering, but once on the battlefield, their performance was still commendable. In the battle at Gongda Cotton Mill and against the Japanese devils, each of them fought bravely! They did not lose face for the instructor team, nor did they lose face for us Chinese soldiers." Chief of Staff Zhang Baoting also sighed.

  "Yes! I hope they can break through safely, they are all real soldiers, even if unfortunately die for the country, that is also a worthy death!" Sun Yuanliang paused and said: "Chief of Staff, report this situation to the Command Department, let the Teaching General Corps know, one of their companies is still fighting fiercely with the enemy in Gongda Silk Factory, let them investigate the list of trapped officers and soldiers, so as to leave a name for the martyrs and sacrifice to the world."

  "Yes!" Chief of Staff Zhang Bai-ting stood at attention with a loud "slap", and immediately turned around and left.

  ……

  No. 70 Du Mei Road, Shanghai Downtown, Du Gong Guan.

  Du Yuesheng's Mansion is a luxurious private residence, this luxury house although known as Du Yuesheng's Mansion, was not built by Du Yuesheng himself.

  It was built by his good friend Jin Tingbao to repay Du Yuesheng's kindness, costing over $300,000. The entire mansion is quite large, with just the first floor hall able to accommodate fifty tables for banquets.

  Jin Tingbin gave Du Yuesheng such a luxurious mansion because in the 1930s, the National Government's Jin Tingbin made a fortune by issuing aviation lottery tickets to develop the aviation industry. Whenever funds were insufficient, they would issue aviation lottery tickets nationwide. Du Yuesheng used his relationship with Soong Tse-ven to help Jin Tingbin sell the aviation lottery tickets and make a fortune. Therefore, Jin Tingbin repaid the kindness and spent a huge sum of money building a luxurious mansion as a gift for Du Yuesheng.

  However, since the completion of this mansion, Du Yuesheng rarely lived here, and he often stayed at his old residence at 66 Huaihai Road.

  As Du Yuesheng's adopted daughter, Du Qiansheng had always lived in the Du family mansion. Since being brought back to Shanghai from Nanjing by Du Yuesheng, in order to prevent her from running away from home to find Zhang Xinghan, Du Yuesheng arranged for several people to keep an eye on Du Qiansheng at home.

  Depressed and unhappy, Du Qianxue never left the house, not even stepping out of the gate. She stayed in her room every day, and the only way she could get news from the outside world was through the newspapers that Zhang Mama brought back from town every day.

  At that time, the August 13th Incident broke out, and Du Qianshuang learned about it through newspapers. Unfortunately, she did not find any news of Zhang Xinghan, who had been on her mind day and night, in the papers.

  After parting with Zhang Xinghan, she did not know that Zhang Xinghan had been incorporated into the Instruction Corps, so they lost contact. She only knew that the elite 88th Division, 87th Division and 36th Division of the National Army were currently engaged in fierce battles with the Japanese army in the Shanghai area, but she didn't know if Zhang Xinghan was among them or not.

  Sitting in the room, Du Qianxue looked at the food on the table that had gradually cooled down, without any appetite. She knew that as a soldier like Zhang Xinghan, with the outbreak of the Shanghai War, he would definitely go to the battlefield. As soon as she thought of the dangers and risks of the battlefield, Du Qianxue became worried and feared that something might happen to Zhang Xinghan.

  Fortunately, she had already asked Zhang's mother to entrust someone to investigate, and now Zhang Xinghan is serving in that unit.

  Just as Du Qianxue was anxiously waiting with furrowed brows, urgent footsteps echoed from downstairs.

  Dui Qianxue heard the footsteps and knew it was Zhang Ma who had arrived, so she quickly got up to welcome her.

  As soon as she reached the door, she saw Zhang Ma hurrying upstairs with a flustered look. Du Qianxue immediately asked anxiously, "Zhang Ma, how is it? Have you found any news about him?"

  Zhang's mother walked quickly, panting slightly: "I've found out that after Mr. Zhang graduated from the Central Military Academy, he also participated in special training, which you know about. After completing the special training, he was assigned to the 1st Regiment of the Central Instructional Corps and is now a captain and battalion commander."

  "Commander of the teaching regiment? Captain Lian Chang?" Du Qianshuo muttered to herself.

  "Yes! It's the Commander of the Teaching Corps!" Zhang Ma nodded and said.

  "Oh, that's good. The Teaching Regiment is the garrison unit of Nanjing, stationed at Xiaolingwei. Xing Han should not have gone to the battlefield." Du Qianshuo let out a sigh of relief.

  "Miss....." Zhang's mother said with a hesitant tone.

  Seeing Zhang Ma's face looking a bit off-color, Du Qianshu immediately asked anxiously: "What's wrong, Zhang Ma?"

  "Miss, this is yesterday's newspaper, take a look." Zhang Ma handed over the newspaper in her hand to Du Qianshuang.

  Du Qianxue took the newspaper and quickly scanned it, her face suddenly losing color. "The 1st Division of the Training Army was ordered to reinforce Songhu, fiercely attacking the Japanese army's position at Gongda Silk Factory, suffering more than half casualties, and was forced to retreat to Nanjing for reorganization..."

  "He won't be in trouble, he won't be in trouble, he definitely won't be in trouble..." Du Qianxue stammered, her eyes shaking as she looked at the newspaper in her hand.

  "Miss! Miss!" Zhang's mother was both worried and anxious at the sight.

  "No, I have to go find him, I have to go find him! He won't die, he won't! Zhang Ma, please help me! I have to go find him." Du Qianxue grasped Zhang Ma's shoulders with both hands and said anxiously.

  Zhang's mother looked at Du Qianxue with a loving gaze and finally nodded gently.

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