The First Sacrifice of the Lonely City: The Twentieth Chapter - Siege and Bloodshed (Three)

  On the 30th, at the same time as the Battle of Tonggu entered a white-hot stage, domestically and internationally, including the Japanese military headquarters in Tokyo, felt an inexplicable heat. At this moment, the flames of war in Burma were hotter than the summer sun.

  In the central route, the 200th Division of the Fifth Army of the Chinese Expeditionary Force fought a bloody battle with the Japanese 55th and 56th Divisions in Tonggu, killing until the sky grew dark. In the eastern route, the Sixth Army repeatedly clashed with the Japanese 18th Division.

  The Western Route saw British forces and the Japanese 33rd Division repeatedly exchanging fire as they retreated, with the entire Burma being filled with smoke from fires.

  Chiang Kai-shek in Chongqing had not anticipated this turn of events. The previously trusted Stilwell, in Chiang's view, was a smooth-talking political swindler; the British were untrustworthy, and now the American chief of staff wanted to supplant him? To command the elite troops of over one million National Army by himself?

  The 200th Division was heavily besieged by the Japanese army in Tonggu, and the various units of the Fifth Army advanced slowly. The Sixth Army was pinned down by the Japanese army and could not be deployed! The shadow of the defeat in the third Changsha battle at the beginning of the year had not yet dissipated.

  The 66th Army in your hands is not only the general reserve of the expeditionary army, but also has to take care of the garrison in Kunming. The 66th Army absolutely cannot be opened up.

  Chiang Kai-shek rubbed his hands together in a helpless gesture. He didn't smoke, drank very little wine, and even drank tea sparingly. Now the biggest problem he faced was America's attitude towards him and its positioning.

  When the Pacific War broke out, 36 of the 62 divisions and 42 of the 58 mixed brigades of the Japanese army were tied up on the Chinese battlefield. Most of these troops were elite regular divisions of the Japanese army. Everyone understands how great a sacrifice the Chinese military and civilians made. Without China's tie-up, Australia would have been like a ripe fruit in front of the Japanese army, sweeping across India and rushing to the Middle East to join forces with the German army! In the US strategic plan, China's position had surpassed that of Britain.

  As a military man and politician, Chiang Kai-shek attaches more importance to the latter. What role will China play in the world? The rest is just pawns on the chessboard, with one or two pieces being added or removed. Of course, the pawns also have their own hierarchy of proximity and distance, with three, six, nine, etc. The 200th Division is obviously the closest and most important first-class pawn.

  Inside the ancient city, Song Yuanhang was organizing troops to reinforce defensive fortifications under sporadic artillery fire from the Japanese army when he received a call from Dai Anlan. The 200th Division's General Reserve Cavalry Regiment had been discovered by Japanese reconnaissance planes while deploying and its command center suffered heavy losses in a bombing raid by Japanese bombers, with all officers attending the meeting killed.

  Dai Anrui assigned a regiment of the cavalry division to Song Yuanhang's command, which naturally meant a rare trust and responsibility. The new city area that Song Yuanhang had been operating in was now in ruins, but its defense system was the most complete, it would be the last stronghold of the 200th Division in Tonggu.

  At 4 am on the 31st, Song Yuanghai, who had just closed his eyes to rest after a busy night, was startled awake by a burst of gunfire. It came from Aliemyan in the east of the city! That's where the headquarters of the 200th Division is located! Song Yuanghai glanced at Xu Tian'an, who looked somewhat frightened, and scolded: "What are you panicking about? Immediately order the First Battalion of the Constabulary to assemble and follow me to the east of the city to take a look."

  All the way, Song Yuanhang thought back and forth, but no matter what, he couldn't remember whether the search team under the 56th Division of the Japanese army had ever launched a surprise attack on the headquarters of the 200th Division by fording the river on foot. Had he forgotten or was there an unknown change in the battle situation?

  When Song Yuanhang led his troops to the east of the city, he found that two large Japanese detachments had completely occupied the left and right wing positions of the Xitang River Bridge. The 200th Division's headquarters was completely cut off from contact with the garrison inside the city, and could only retreat south by crossing the river.

  Under duress, Song Yuanhang returned to the Garrison Command. At this time, the Garrison Command in Xincheng District was one of the only high-rise buildings left in the ancient city! The British Reserve Bank built by the British 40 years ago was actually made of granite with a diameter of one meter, like a fortress, and its location was also the blind spot of the Japanese army's heavy artillery. The power of the Japanese army's infantry guns and air force's 50 or 100 kg aerial bombs was not enough to destroy it.

  Back at the Garrison Command, Song Yuanhang let out a slight sigh of relief, but unexpectedly found Zheng Tingqi waiting for him.

  At that moment, Zheng Tingqi didn't waste any effort explaining to Song Yuanhang, but calmly told him: "The division is currently redeploying, the division commander has appointed me as the acting garrison commander, and you as the deputy commander. We will contract our troops to defend the new city district, with specific arrangements being that you take the east side and I'll take the west side!"

  Zheng Tingqi's gloomy expression made Song Yuanghai realize that things would absolutely not be as simple as he said, and the teacher's department might still be escaping from the Japanese army's pursuit! A hint of unease flashed across Song Yuanghai's mind...

  Song Yuanhang knew that Zheng Tingyu had left the heavy responsibility of resisting the Japanese army's main attack to himself, and he nodded slightly, taking down a Mauser sniper rifle from the wall and leading the guard squad directly to Lao Zhonglou.

  The old clock tower can be said to be the intersection of the ancient and new city, where Song Yuanghai organized troops to work hard for six days, exhausting a battalion of constabulary to tears, with a defense system second only to that of the Reserve Bank.

  Liu Mengzi followed Song Yuanhang closely as usual, with a reinforced squad of guards. Each person had an M1928 submachine gun and a pair of Mauser automatic pistols, in addition to carrying a pack containing eight Type 24 hand grenades.

  The last four guards of the team carefully lifted two boxes, which contained 39 incendiary bombs made by Song Yuanhang.

  In addition, Song Yuanghai also brought 15 of the remaining 26 sharpshooters!

  Just after passing two blocks, Song Yuanhang, who was walking in the front, suddenly lowered his body and lay down on the rubble by the road. The guards behind him quickly followed suit and hid. Liu Mengzi crawled to Song Yuanhang's side and peeked out.

  "Is this our army's controlled area?"

  Liu Mengzi nodded and said: "Go forward for two intersections, it's the old clock tower. This is still our territory, those little devils can't get in."

  Song Yuanhang removed the scope from the Mauser sniper rifle, carefully observed for a while, and handed the scope to Liu Mengzi, whispering: "Take a look outside!"

  Liu Mengzi was startled, and it turned out that the position they were in was a blind spot at the intersection, where they couldn't see what was happening on the street. Using his scope, he clearly saw dozens of corpses on the street, most of whom were medical soldiers and communication soldiers. What pained him the most was that two female rescue workers had also fallen in the blood pool. One of them still maintained her sacrificial posture, crawling on top of a wounded soldier, trying to use her body to shield him, with her clothes on her back riddled with bullet holes like a beehive.

  Song Yuanhang knew through his observation that the scale of this Japanese ambush team was at least one squad. Judging from the bullet holes on the female guard's back, the Japanese might have carried more than one heavy machine gun! The direction in which the female guard fell and the angle at which she was hit told Song Yuanhang the position of the Japanese heavy machine gun. This wasn't a positional warfare, the Japanese could have prepared at most two firing bunkers due to time constraints, and these two bunkers shouldn't be too far apart.

  "Leave two people with me, take the rest and go around that building over there. As soon as I fire a shot, you'll throw hand grenades into each room one by one! Remember to wait 2 seconds before throwing." After instructing Liu Mengzi, Song Yuanhang began to carefully adjust his sniper rifle.

  Hirai Mura Minami, a music teacher in a rural village in Hokkaido, has been living a life that is looked down upon by others for over 20 years. He peeks at women while they're bathing, deceives children out of their lunch money, and there's almost nothing he won't do! Cowardice, weakness, and shamelessness have become his defining characteristics.

  After the turmoil, this war gave him an opportunity. After turning over his ancestral records, he actually had a connection with the famous Hirai family in Hokkaido! After disguising himself as a loyal subject of the Emperor, his great-grandfather, who was seven years older than him and was the commander of the 56th Division's Search Regiment of the Japanese Army, gave him an opportunity.

  The beastly nature that had been suppressed for many years was finally unleashed, with rape and slaughter! Heiichi Naganuma, relying on his cruel methods, killed dozens of Chinese soldiers who had laid down their arms, and presented the women and goods he plundered to his superiors. His frenzied killing spree, combined with the influence of Heiichi Naganuma's superior officer, resulted in him being promoted from a private to lieutenant within three years, without undergoing any professional military education.

  Today, this poisonous snake led a machine gun squad to infiltrate and break through the Chinese army's defense line, and was overjoyed to have "broken through" the Chinese army's defense line at Pingjing Village in the south.

  In a moment of madness, Hirai Mura Minami forgot that he was behind enemy lines and in order to gain greater merit, he set up three Type 92 heavy machine guns in the ruins of two abandoned two-story buildings, intending to ambush Chinese troops and cut off reinforcements and supplies to the front line.

  Unlike Heiichiro Hirai, who was indulging in his fantasies, the heavy machine gunner's mood was terrible at this moment. An hour ago, he had shot and killed two Chinese female soldiers who were originally intended to be captured alive, for which the lustful Heiichiro Hirai slapped him eight times.

  Hyōgo no Hei's finger on the trigger had gone numb, and for a good while now, not a soul had appeared!

  Just as Song Yuanhang was about to launch an attack, a 100-man medical team rushed towards him from another street! Wang Wen, carrying a medical box, was surprisingly at the front of the team. The soldiers who were originally responsible for sentry duty in the team were mostly carrying stretchers and other things.

  Damn it! Song Yuanghai desperately waved his hands to signal them to stop advancing, but unexpectedly, Wang Wen found herself and quickly walked towards him. At her speed, she would appear within the Japanese army's firing range in just a few seconds!