Chapter Fifty-Seven: Night Battle

  July 20th, 3:20 pm.

  On the Longhu Ridge, after suffering over 300 casualties, the 2nd Battalion of the 21st Regiment finally charged into the enemy position. Just in time, the commander of the 3rd Battalion of the 529th Regiment arrived and shouted "Grenades!" The hesitant soldiers of the 10th Company immediately threw out a batch of long-handled grenades at the Japanese troops emerging from their trenches. Amidst the thunderous explosions, the commander led the charge, with over 150 soldiers of the 10th Company rushing into the chaotic melee. Bayonets clashed, mixed with the unique large knives and commando knives of the Japanese army, as blood splattered everywhere. The infantry close combat was unsustainable and lasted less than ten minutes. Following several suicidal explosions, over 300 Chinese soldiers died on Longhu Ridge, but they made the Japanese pay a price of over 200 casualties.

  After seeing the follow-up reinforcements of the 11th Regiment being dispersed by the Japanese army's mountain artillery company, Luo Fanggui, who had lost nearly half of his troops, could only order to abandon the battle for Longhu Ridge and retreat to defend Nanmen Station and the surrounding areas. The opposing Japanese 21st Brigade also suffered heavy casualties and lost the courage to continue attacking, instead continuing to bombard the position with field artillery, and the troops switched to defensive rest.

  At around 5 pm, Wang Zhongyuan personally led his troops to take over the defense of Nankou. "Director Luo, you've worked hard, your men can go down and rest now."

  "Commander, our regiment still has nearly two battalions of combat effectiveness, let's fight for another day!"

  "It's not that I don't allow it, but the Chairman of the Committee specifically ordered the entire army to reserve some backbone personnel for each unit, except for the task of fighting to the death, in order to quickly replenish and prepare for the needs of a long-term resistance war; this is just the forward position."

  "Unless we attack again tonight? Let's retake Longhu Pavilion and leave." Lu Fanggui begged.

  Wang Zhonglian thought for a moment, "Alright! You take over the defense of Shu Rong's position first, your regiment will only have 2 battalions participating in the night raid, you lead the rest to go down and rest."

  "Yes!"

  A few hours later, at night, the 2nd Battalion Commander Li Jian led the 5th and 7th Companies to slowly approach Longhu Ridge, 200 meters, 150 meters, and approached within 100 meters before being discovered by Japanese sentries. With a loud "bang", it was the signal! The well-calibrated mortars immediately opened fire, with one round of 81mm mortar shells accurately hitting the top of the slope, instantly filling the air with smoke; More than 300 officers and soldiers on the mountain slope rushed to the top, with a Japanese heavy machine gun opening fire first, but before it could finish firing a burst of bullets, it was hit by a mortar shell and turned into flying debris; Several light machine guns had just begun to fire when they were blown away by a batch of hand grenades that came flying in. "Charge!" Li Jian leapt into the enemy ranks, with the machine gunner holding a Czech-made light machine gun sweeping across dozens of Japanese soldiers who were still drowsy, only a few managed to return fire before being shot down; The riflemen rushed past the rear ranks and charged towards the south slope, with the Japanese soldiers coming up from behind, and the two sides clashed again with bayonets and swords. In the chaos, the Japanese army was unable to organize itself, facing 2-3 men attacking one person, the Japanese defense quickly collapsed, following the death of a Japanese officer who was wielding a sword; At 11:40, Longhu Ridge changed hands once again.

  Five minutes later, the counterattack of the 21st Mountain Artillery Battalion arrived, and a round of rapid fire on the top of Longhu Tower set off more than a dozen shell craters. More than half of the 2nd battalion had not yet entered the artillery cave and could only lie on the ground, instantly suffering dozens of casualties.

  "Quickly repair the formation!" Li Jian shouted loudly!

  Leading the 2nd Battalion, 6th and 8th Companies, Luo Fanggui, who had just climbed up Longhu Ridge, hastily gave orders: "The 6th Company will repair the artillery cave, the 8th Company will repair the machine gun position. The guard platoon will be on high alert, the engineer platoon will lay mines within 20 meters in front of the position!"

  After the intense shelling, the artillery fire of the Japanese army slowed down, but the frequency of 1-2 shells falling per minute still caused not a few casualties to those who were building fortifications. A heavy machine gun squad was even directly hit, and both men and guns were destroyed.

  At around 12:10, the sound of a large group of soldiers climbing the mountain with clashing weapons and rolling stones came from the foot of the mountain.

  "Quick! Engineer cover the wounded and withdraw quickly!"

  As the Japanese army approached, the Japanese mountain artillery battalion fired another round of rapid-fire shots, mixed with the fire of various infantry artillery squads, and suddenly the Longhu Tower was again shrouded in thick smoke!

  "Fire!" The 8th company's heavy machine guns started sweeping, and the charging Japanese troops fell down row by row. But even at night, the Japanese mortar shells hit with extraordinary accuracy; although they kept changing firing positions, the rear mortars also continuously fired to cover them, and the light and heavy machine gun squads on the position were one by one destroyed along with their guns. As the firepower weakened, the Japanese troops steadily approached. "Throw grenades!" A row of hand grenades flew out and blew down another batch of Japanese troops. More Japanese troops charged through the smoke, "Boom", "Boom", dozens of landmines hastily buried by the engineers exploded one after another, and a large number of Japanese troops were blown up in succession, stopping the follow-up Japanese troops from advancing; accompanied by the firing of light machine guns and rifles, the heavily wounded Japanese troops finally retreated.

  As soon as the Japanese army retreated, Luo Fanggui hastily shouted: "Hurry up and hide!"

  Just as they all rushed into the artillery trenches, the howitzer battalion and field artillery battalion of the 5th Field Artillery Regiment burst out together, first with a rapid volley, followed by continuous volleys without stopping, the deafening sound shaking Longhu Island.

  In half an hour, more than 2,000 shells of 75 and 105 howitzers bombarded Longhu Ridge again and again; at 12:50, the artillery fire stopped, and Wang Zhonglian, who had already advanced to the first line, ordered: "Quickly send someone up to search!"

  "Reinforcements have been sent." Just as Shu Rong was about to organize a team to reinforce, he didn't see Wang Zhongyan give the order to reinforce, and hastily asked: "Commander, has Longhu Island not been defended?"

  "Unexpectedly, the main force of the Japanese artillery has arrived so early. With such a large-scale bombardment on that small area, all fortifications must have been destroyed. How can they still defend? What a pity for Luo Fanggui and his men."

  On the Longhu platform, Li Jian was dug out of the hole by soldiers. "Where is the captain?"

  "Just dug out, already fainted."

  "What about the medic?"

  "Already fallen."

  "Quickly memorize and rescue!"

  "Boom", several more soldiers were blown away.

  "The enemy is coming!"

  "Get ready for battle!"

  Although the artillery of the division had been firing for half an hour, the officers and men of the 42nd Regiment no longer dared to be careless, because the heavy losses of the 21st Regiment were still fresh in their minds; they advanced cautiously, dispersing and pushing forward, with the mountain guns and infantry guns continuously firing behind them. Finally, under the moonlight, they saw the top of the slope. "Throw grenades!" The remaining soldiers threw out a row of hand grenades with all their might, and the continuous explosions once again knocked down a layer of the 42nd Regiment; "Advance!" The officers of the Rì army waved their command knives and led the charge towards the enemy position; using only a few light machine guns to fiercely fire, the rest of the soldiers also continuously threw hand grenades. The new and fierce soldiers of the 42nd Regiment were not to be outdone, and at extremely close range, they engaged in a fierce battle of mutual bombardment and throwing. As their numbers dwindled, looking at the large group of Rì army soldiers rushing into the already broken and tattered position, Lǐ Jǐn pulled the pin on his last box of hand grenades with a sense of relief.

  Looking at the Dragon and Tiger Platform where the sound of gunfire had stopped, "Report to General Wang, Luo Fanggui and Li Jian led their troops in a heroic sacrifice, the Dragon and Tiger Platform has fallen." Wang Zhonglian sighed, "Shu Rong, it's your turn to defend the South Pass now."

  At 4:20 on July 21, the 42nd Division's two regiments and the 21st Division's temporarily formed regiment advanced stealthily to the front of the Nan Kou town and Nan Kou railway station. The sudden sound of a gunshot from a sentry caused the battle to erupt again along the entire line. Two field artillery battalions and one howitzer battalion of the 5th Field Artillery Regiment, as well as two mountain artillery companies with over 40 guns, opened fire rapidly and simultaneously, quickly covering the two positions with dense artillery fire. The field artillery and howitzers then continued to fire in succession, while more than 3,000 Japanese soldiers charged towards the already smoking positions, amidst the continuous firing of mountain guns, infantry guns, and grenade launchers. The Japanese troops approached within 200 meters before the light and heavy machine guns opened fire together, weaving a dense web of firepower that inflicted heavy casualties on the charging Japanese soldiers.

  Wang Zhonglian let out a long sigh as he entered the headquarters of the 534th Regiment, "What a close call!"

  Luckily, the commander guessed that the enemy would launch a night raid and moved the artillery battalion to the north side of Nankou. The parameters were measured at dusk, which led to a successful strike.

  "Don't flatter! If Itagaki really comes at us with all his might, you know the outcome of 3-4 artillery battalions and my one artillery regiment clashing! The new-style fortifications are effective after all! Anti-artillery caves, machine gun emplacements, zigzag trenches..."

  "Report! Captain Tan reporting, Captain Luo has been injured and was mistakenly carried away by soldiers to his location."

  "How's your injury?"

  "It's nothing serious."

  "Good!" Wang Zhongyuan was overjoyed and immediately said, "Ah, I have already reported to the military commander Luo that you have died for the country?"

  "Hahaha!"