Chapter 41: Head-on Confrontation

  As they entered the construction site, the communication soldier immediately said to Fang Zhenghai: "I have been ordered to lead an enhanced company to reinforce you!"

  Fang Zhenghai looked at the signal soldier with a puzzled expression and asked: "Isn't there no reserve team in the brigade?"

  "Yes! This is the Commander-in-Chief's guard squad!" The communications soldier said seriously.

  Upon hearing the communication soldier's words, Fang Zhenghai walked to Zhang Lieyang's front. Just as he was about to speak, he saw the unit number on Zhang Lieyang's chest and curiously asked: "Aren't you from our 19th Army?"

  "Yes!" Zhang Lieyang said with a smile. As he spoke, Zhang Lieyang looked at Fang Zhenghai's surprised expression and smiled again: "I am the new commander of the First Military Police Guard Company, Zhang Lieyang!"

  Just as they were talking, a "whooshing" sound was heard in the sky. Fang Zhenghai immediately said: "It's bad, the devils are shelling us, quick take cover!" The crowd had just taken cover when the shells landed and exploded.

  After a series of explosions, there was silence again. Fang Zhenghai got up from the ground, brushed off the dirt on his body, cursed, and muttered: "To say that this little Japanese is strange, not only did they bomb our position, but I heard that at the beginning of the war, they also bombed the Commercial Press. A few days later, the Dongfang Library in the city was set on fire by a few Japanese rascals."

  Zhang Lieyang let out a slightly helpless sigh and said: "This is not surprising at all! The Japanese had planned this!"

  Fang Zheng Hai said in astonishment: "What could this have been planned for?"

  "General Fang, you don't know that the Commercial Press is our country's largest publishing and printing enterprise, making a huge contribution to our cultural development. The Oriental Library has nearly 500,000 volumes, many of which are rare and precious editions, playing an important role in passing on our Chinese civilization. Can we really compare our great 5,000-year-old Chinese civilization to Japan, that tiny island nation? Even if the Japanese occupy our land, as long as our Chinese culture remains, they can't rule our hearts. Eventually, we'll drive them out or assimilate them into our Chinese nation, just like the Mongols and Manchus. The Japanese will definitely not stop at bombing these two places; in the future, they'll deliberately destroy our Chinese culture! This way, when they invade our country, they'll have fewer obstacles and can more easily enslave our compatriots!"

  The company commander was stunned for a moment, then patted the edge of the trench and said: "Those little Japanese are really not human!"

  January 28, 1932, the Japanese Navy suddenly attacked Shanghai's Zhabei District, triggering the "January 28 Incident". The next day, Japanese planes bombed Commercial Press, and its main factory on Baoshan Road was completely destroyed. On February 1, Japanese ronin (masterless samurai) snuck into the undamaged Oriental Library and set it on fire, burning all 460,000 volumes of books, including rare and valuable editions. After this disaster, Commercial Press was forced to suspend operations. However, after half a year of hard work, Commercial Press announced its reopening on August 1.

  Regarding Commercial Press's rebirth from the ashes, Japanese ronin were extremely hostile and sent an anonymous threatening letter on February 16, 1933, signed "Japanese Military Headquarters". The letter was written in Chinese characters with some Japanese kanji, and read:

  Commercial Press,

  You Chinese are defeated by the imperialist way, establishing schools, reading national language, Three Principles of the People, and republican ideology. You oppose imperialism, spreading evil ideas throughout the world, corrupting your country's youth, resisting our Japanese goods, and damaging our interests.

  Your press only sells books for schools, printing corrupt materials. Shanghai was destroyed by fire, but your press still has not changed its evil ways, continuing to print Three Principles of the People and party propaganda. Our country cannot stand idly by, so we will destroy your press again. If you do not quickly change your evil ways, our military will burn down Commercial Press wherever it goes.

  Our Japan has spoken first; at that time, do not regret it. If your country establishes the sacred way, reads Confucius and Mencius' books, does not oppose Japanese goods, then it is a good country. But if not, our small Japan will fight to the death.

  Please consider this carefully.

  The letter also included four sentences of slogans: "China and Japan are neighboring countries, together saving the world; with united hearts and cooperation, we can achieve peace without harm."

  This anonymous threatening letter was evidence of the Japanese military's destruction of Commercial Press and its cultural invasion of China. Regarding this, the commander of the Japanese invasion of Shanghai, Salazar Kōichi, said: "Burning down a few streets in Zhabei will take only a year or two to recover from, but destroying Commercial Press and Oriental Library, the most important cultural institutions in China, will be irreparable."

  The Japanese military had planned to destroy Chinese culture since the beginning of its invasion. During the Battle of Shanghai, 40,000 students lost their schools, and 238 schools were destroyed by war. In 1938, just one year after the full-scale war broke out, 91 out of 108 universities nationwide were destroyed!

  Fang Zhenghai then turned to his guards and said: "Issue the order! Let our brothers check their ammunition and be ready for the devils' attack at any time!"

  At this time, when Fang Zhenghai was giving orders, Zhang Lieyang walked to the front of the map, looked at it and said: "According to the trajectory distance of the shells, the devils' artillery position is just three streets away from here! There's no reason not to eat the meat that's in front of your mouth!" Zhang Lieyang then said to Fang Zhenghai: "Captain Fang, I'll take a few brothers to wipe out the devils' artillery position, you lead the other brothers to hold the position!"

  As he spoke, Zhang Lieyang ordered his subordinates to strip the Japanese corpses of their military uniforms. After a while, all the men changed into the Japanese uniforms and Zhang Lieyang led thirty-five people out of the position from the flank, heading in the direction of the enemy's artillery position.

  At a turning point, Zhang Lieyang poked his head out to look around the Japanese army, then gestured to the family guards beside him, and they quickly dispersed. Using bayonets to quickly clear all the guards, they gradually approached the artillery camp.

  As they approached the Japanese artillery position, Zhang Lieyang immediately ordered: "Resolve them at the fastest speed!" Then Zhang Lieyang charged out with two 92-style handguns in his hands and fired a fierce shot at the artillery position. The others who followed behind were not to be outdone and also swept the devils with their guns.

  After clearing the devils, Zhang Lieyang immediately ordered: "Turn the cannon mouth to aim at the devils, no need for a trial shot of 12 rounds!" After hearing the order, the special warfare team members skillfully manipulated the 92-style infantry gun and mortar to bombard the devil's position.

  Fang Zhenghai looked at the devils being bombed through binoculars and smiled to Zhang Xiangwu, saying: "I didn't expect you, Zhang Lianzhang, to be so fierce!"

  Zhang Xiangwu smiled disdainfully after hearing Fang Zhenghai's praise and said, "Our Zhang Lianzhang is a graduate of the US Military Academy at West Point! Dealing with these little devils is a piece of cake!"

  After the bombardment, Zhang Lieyang immediately ordered: "Take away the four mortars, each with two boxes of shells, and set up the remaining ones as booby traps! Put the mortar shells upside down into the barrel of the 92 infantry gun!" Soon after the special forces members finished setting up all the booby traps, they carried the mortars and mortar shells back to their position under Zhang Lieyang's cover.

  After returning to the position, Fang Zhenghai looked at Zhang Lieyang's back and said: "Why did you bring back the devil's cannon?! The regimental commander himself knows that we have no danger to defend here, so he assigned the regiment's direct artillery company to us for use!"

  "You don't understand! What if the enemy tanks come? Are we going to ask our brothers to rush up with explosives and blow them up?" Zhang Lieyang looked at Fang Zhenghai's expression and continued, "What if the enemy artillery bombards our artillery positions? What can we rely on?"

  Upon hearing Zhang Lieyang's words, Fang Zhenghai thought for a moment before saying dejectedly: "To be honest, my elder brother, the first time I went to the battlefield was to fight in the civil war, that is, against the Red Army of Jiangxi. The superiors called it 'suppressing the Communists'! I didn't study much since I was young, and I only started learning characters after joining the army! Brother, you are better than me, so no matter what happens later, just follow behind me! You should preserve your useful life to serve the country more!"

  "Don't worry! No matter what, I'll protect myself well! My life is more precious than that of a little devil!" Zhang Lieyang said to Zhang Xiangwu beside him: "Bring a few brothers and form an artillery array on the spot!"

  Just as Zhang Lieyang gave the order, the devils launched another attack on the Qiujiang Road position under the cover of tanks. Seeing the devil's tank approaching bit by bit, Zhang Lieyang immediately called Zhang Xiangwu to bring a mortar to the front of the position. After the mortar was brought over, Zhang Lieyang held the barrel with his arm and aimed at the tank, saying: "Put the shell in!" After the shell was put in, Zhang Lieyang used a branch to push it, and saw a shell flying towards the devil's tank. Then there was an explosion, and a devil crawled out of the car.

  Seeing this scene, Fang Zhenghai smiled and patted Zhang Lieyang on the back, saying: "Brother, you're really something!" Hearing Fang Zhenghai's praise, Zhang Lieyang smiled and picked up the phone. After contacting the artillery unit and reporting their position to the artillery company commander, he said to Fang Zhenghai: "After the artillery finishes shelling, we'll push our position forward to the location of the tanks, so we can also have a buffer zone."

  "Alright, let's do it as you said!" Fang Zhenghai commanded, "Brothers, wait a moment and follow me to move some sandbags to build a new defensive fortification relying on the tanks and houses in front!" Just as Fang Zhenghai gave the order, the artillery bombardment began. The sound of exploding shells was like a symphony. After a while, when the bombardment ended, Fang Zhenghai took the lead and charged out with the sandbags. Seeing Fang Zhenghai's bravery, the other soldiers also followed him out with their sandbags.

  At this time, Zhang Lieyang picked up the phone and dialed the artillery company, saying: "Immediately transfer the position! Prevent the devils from retaliating!" Upon hearing Zhang Lieyang's words, the artillery company commander didn't say a word and led his men to transfer to the second position.