Chapter 8: The "Speed of Life and Death" in the War Edition (Part 2)
When Yu Juncai was still sitting on the ground thinking about the meaning of Cheng Jiaji's words, a 100mm mortar shell flew over his head and landed directly on the heads of several soldiers who were collecting Japanese military trophies not far away. The shell instantly blew these soldiers with really bad luck into mid-air, their postures in the air and on the ground were both extremely beautiful, the only thing that made people feel a bit sick was that when they flew up to the sky, each person was an entire body, but when they fell to the ground, they broke into several pieces.
At that moment, the vanguard soldiers all fell to the ground quickly, and the Japanese mortar shells also came pouring in. Yu Juncai, while dodging neatly, happened to see Cheng Jiaji, who was also busy making intimate contact with the earth. The two exchanged a glance, and in that instant, they saw shock and terror in each other's eyes. Neither of them had expected that the Japanese army would not launch an attack on Hou Zhuang, but instead launched a second charge at Qian Zhuang after being repelled less than fifteen minutes earlier, without even giving the defenders time to regroup or clear the battlefield.
This bombardment was because the Chinese army had not made psychological preparations in advance, and as a result, they suffered significant losses under the intense artillery fire of the Japanese army, with more than 50 or 60 brothers falling down. If it weren't for the fact that there were trenches half a person deep all over the position, perhaps the Japanese wouldn't even need to fight and could just send troops to take over directly.
Chinese officers and men had just taken cover when Cheng Jiaji and Yu Juncai simultaneously spotted nearly 400 Japanese troops forming four squares advancing towards Qianzhuang Village. Almost at the same time, the sound of gunfire from Houzhuang Village also intensified, apparently the Japanese would not give Wen Congyuan an opportunity to withdraw a single soldier or gun to join the main battlefield at Qianzhuang Village.
Captain Yamaki was still highly skilled in battle command. Seeing the intense fighting at Qianzhuang, he was shocked and even more convinced that there must be a high-ranking officer from the 5th War Zone inside the village, otherwise the Chinese army would not have resisted so fiercely. The idea of breaking into Daxingzhuang and creating a miracle became even stronger in his mind. Although his head was full of ambitions, Captain Yamaki did not let his ambition cloud his judgment. On the contrary, his mind was stimulated by this desire for achievement and became even clearer and more energetic. He did not stubbornly stick to his original battle plan but instead secretly redeployed the battalion that had been held in reserve at Houzhuang back to Qianzhuang. Judging from the time it took for the enemy's reinforcements to arrive, Captain Yamaki believed that the Chinese army's battlefield commander had already seen through his plan. He decided to adjust his deployment and launch a surprise attack on Qianzhuang with additional troops. At the same time, he ordered the battalion at Houzhuang to launch a suicidal attack in a desperate bid to break through, while he himself would lead all available personnel from the large unit to join the attacking forces at Qianzhuang.
The timing of Shanmu's offensive was unexpected, and no one expected that the Japanese would be able to launch a fierce attack again in less than 15 minutes after their second attack was repelled. The intensity of this attack not only exceeded all attacks launched by the Japanese on the Linyi battlefield, but also set a record for the Japanese army's desperate charge on the Chinese battlefield at that time.
Yamaki knew that his time was running out, and the two charges had consumed nearly three hours of precious time. If they couldn't break through the Zhuangkou before dawn, the Chinese reinforcements would arrive soon. So this time, all Japanese soldiers who could move participated in these desperate attacks, except for those who had to stay behind to operate the howitzers.
Yamaki's sense of time and urgency was still strong, but he had not anticipated that a whole regiment of cavalry was lurking behind his back.
Ji Minzhong was the commander of the cavalry company directly under the vanguard detachment, originally responsible for patrolling around Dawangzhuang to prevent Japanese troops from infiltrating. However, things sometimes happen so coincidentally that on this day, the 59th Army's Zhang Zizhong brought several staff members to the Third Army Corps headquarters to discuss with Xu Zudong and Pang Bingxun the next step in joint operations between the two armies. To ensure Zhang Zizhong's safety, Xu Zudong ordered the vanguard detachment to dispatch this cavalry company to escort General Zhang back to his defensive position. Originally, it was agreed that the cavalry company would return to the 59th Army headquarters tomorrow, but Ji Minzhong, remembering the gambling appointment he had made with several other company commanders, set out half a day early with his troops towards Dawangzhuang. On the way, they were delayed for several hours due to the spring floods washing away the bridge on the mountain. The cumulative result of these unexpected events was that when the Shanmu detachment launched its desperate attack, the cavalry company happened to be returning to the vicinity of Dawangzhuang. As the cavalry company rushed towards Dawangzhuang following the sound of gunfire, Ji Minzhong discovered that his troops were positioned right behind the Japanese forces.
"Come on, let's go!" The platoon leader of the cavalry regiment was a hot-headed man. As soon as he saw the Japanese army attacking Dawangzhuang, his eyes turned red and he immediately wanted to lead his dozens of cavalrymen to attack the enemy from behind.
"This kid, Japan, hasn't fallen into the trap yet. If we wait for another half hour, there will be meat to eat." As a cavalryman with ten years of experience, Ji Minzhong was someone who only ate meat and didn't gnaw on bones. Unless it was absolutely necessary, even if his own parents were inside, he wouldn't risk the lives of these hundred or so brothers under his command.
"Commander, if something unexpected happens to the captain's wife, we won't let you off the hook." Jiang Feng, the deputy commander of the cavalry regiment next door, was originally a bodyguard for Xia Weimin. He understood the importance of this captain who was being surrounded by devils in the village to Xia's wife. Even if they seized the opportunity to defeat the devils in front of them, if anything happened to Captain Cheng, the tiger in General Xia's family would never let them off the hook.
"With the firepower and combat effectiveness of the guard squad, not to mention half an hour, even in one hour, the devils can't move a single hair on the commander's head." Jiang Feng knew the equipment and combat effectiveness of those arrogant guys in the guard squad, so after thinking about it, he felt that his superior said something reasonable, and didn't argue with Ji Minzhong anymore.
Under normal circumstances, what Ji Minzhong said was not wrong, but the actual situation at present is that, firstly, the guard squad is not by Cheng Jia's side at this time, and secondly, the determination and means of attack by the Japanese are beyond the imagination of these few cavalry officers.
Cheng Jiaji did not realize at first that this Japanese attack was different from the previous one, until several Japanese soldiers rushed into the Chinese army's position with bundles of hand grenades and died together with the Chinese soldiers who outnumbered them. It was only then that Cheng Jiaji understood that the Japanese were using a tactic that the Chinese had used before in the Battle of Shanghai, but the Japanese called it "nikudan kōgeki" or "flesh bullet attack".
