Chapter Sixteen: The Longest Afternoon (Part 2)

  On April 5th at 2 pm, Cheng Jiaji led the guard regiment of the Travel Department to the position of the Independent Hundred Regiment in Taierzhuang.

  "Third Brother, what's the situation now? How many men do you have left to fight?" Cheng Jiaji arrived at the battlefield when the Chinese army had just repelled the first Japanese charge in the afternoon and were busy reorganizing their troops, counting their numbers, and rushing to repair fortifications. Everyone knew that the Japanese would launch another attack within half an hour.

  "Travel seat, the Japanese charge has just been repelled by our army, and my brothers are fighting very bravely. The little devils will launch a second charge soon. If there aren't one or two more battalions of reinforcements, my brothers won't be able to hold on. On the battlefield, people are counting the casualties, and it's estimated that including lightly wounded soldiers, there won't be more than 1,500 people who can fight. We suffered significant casualties in the close-range shooting with the Japanese just now. Travel seat should let those two battalions come up!" Yu Juncai replied to Cheng Jiaqi's words while looking at how many men Cheng Jiaqi had brought with him. When he saw that there was only one company of soldiers behind Cheng Jiaqi, he couldn't help but call out in distress to Cheng Jiaqi, and eventually even asked Cheng Jiaqi for more troops."

  "Where is that Wen guy?" Cheng Jiaji didn't answer Yu Juncai's question directly, instead he asked about Wen Songyuan's situation.

  "Wenfu, over there on the battlefield." Since Cheng Jiaji was unwilling to answer his own question, as a subordinate of Juncai, he had no choice but to remain silent. Anyway, in his view, the current situation was treacherous, but it was still far from being irretrievable. If all else failed, they could rely on the two main force battalions outside Zhuangzi and the 100th Brigade to fight to the death to stop the Japanese army's offensive momentum. Moreover, in the previous attack, the Japanese had also suffered significant losses. This close-range confrontation was a double-edged sword, with both sides paying a huge price.

  Yu Juncai guessed it right, the Japanese are also having a hard time and won't go there either.

  Nagano's unit paid a heavy price in that last attack, just as Yu Juncai had expected. More than 300 men were lost, and if the 40th Regiment was still at full strength, the Japanese army could have withstood it. But now this loss accounted for 20% of the entire regiment's combat personnel, which greatly affected the overall combat effectiveness of the 40th Regiment. Moreover, in the previous attack, the commander of the Japanese Third Battalion, Kitamiya Shōsa, was also killed. The death of two battalion commanders within one day could not help but affect the morale of the Japanese army, which had already been slightly depressed due to repeated setbacks.

  However, Lieutenant General Nagano was indeed a stubborn person. Despite the strong opposition from his subordinates, he launched the second attack less than twenty minutes after the first comprehensive attack failed. Unlike the previous attack, this attack focused on the position of Independent Regiment 100, and all three tanks of a tank squadron (the other had been destroyed by the 31st Division in the previous battle) were deployed to attack Independent Regiment 100, while only a battalion's remnant from the 31st Division assisted in the attack.

  The reason why General Nagano deployed his troops in this way was that the Chinese army, which had just been transferred today, had a large number of people, but its position was also much wider than that of the 31st Division. Moreover, the quality of its soldiers was uneven, and the difference in combat effectiveness between them was huge. According to past experience, once this kind of troops were breached, they would collapse along the entire line. Therefore, General Nagano insisted on putting the main attack direction on this newly transferred Chinese army. As for the 31st Division of the Chinese Army, which had been fighting against the Imperial Japanese Army for ten days, according to General Nagano's words, it was an army composed of Chinese fanatics, and as long as one person was still alive, they would die hard in front of the Imperial Japanese Army's chariots. It was better not to fight them head-on.

  At 2:20, just half an hour after the last attack was repelled, the Japanese army launched its second attack in the afternoon. This time, the Japanese army had learned from the previous attack and changed its tactics from a linear push to a focused attack, with three Type 94 light tanks leading the charge against the position of the Independent Hundred Regiment. The limited artillery shells were also concentrated on the position of the Independent Hundred Regiment, causing a huge commotion that shook the mountains!

  This time the Japanese chose a breakthrough very accurately. When attacking the position of Independent Division 100 with all their might, they again focused on the left wing of Independent Division 100's position. The new recruits who were assigned to Independent Division 100 at the last moment before the war were stationed here, and this place was exactly the weakest link in Independent Division 100's defense line. From this, it can be seen that the IQ of Nagano Yoshio's brain is absolutely over sixty, refuting the shameless rumor circulating in the 40th Regiment that the regiment's IQ does not exceed fifty.

  Facing the impact of a Japanese army's main force infantry battalion and three tanks, this new recruit regiment lost control in less than ten minutes. More than 20 recruits jumped out of the trenches and fled the battlefield. Helpless, Cheng Jiaji immediately ordered Ma Sanbao to lead a platoon from the division's guard company to chase after them and execute them on the spot. When giving this order, Cheng Jiaji was also heartbroken, but at that moment, there could not be any hesitation or wavering in military morale, otherwise it would have led to a complete collapse of the front line.

  After executing twenty-odd deserters and temporarily stabilizing the morale of the troops with thunderous means, Cheng Jiaji led the guard company, this last mobile force, to the position of the new barracks.

  Cheng Jiaji lay on the battlefield, the three small Japanese Type 94 tankettes in front of his position, which were only toys compared to the main battle tanks of various countries he had seen in magazines before, were showing off their might.

  To be honest, Cheng Jiacheng looks down on the Japanese tanks. During World War II, Japan's tanks were not even considered to be of international standard. In any tank-to-tank battle, the Japanese had never won, and even in the Battle of Suomenkani where they outnumbered their opponents several times over, they were still defeated by Soviet military commander Zhukov.

  According to a classmate of mine who is very interested in tanks during World War II and has done some research, the various Japanese tanks during World War II could only bully infantry, but if they really faced European and American tanks, they would all become iron coffins.

  Among all the tanks of the Japanese army, as far as Cheng Jiaji knew, this type of tank he was facing had the worst performance and was truly a piece of junk among junks.

  The thinnest part of the armor was only 12mm, which can be said to be one of the thinnest armored vehicles in the world at that time. Even a Type 97 anti-tank gun could turn it into a fireball.

  However, at present, the 100th Independent Brigade does not have those three seven-war anti-aircraft guns that were the most precious to the Chinese army at that time. Not only did the 100th Independent Brigade not have them, but according to Cheng Jiaji's knowledge, there were hardly any in the entire Fifth War Zone, and they had all been allocated to the 20th Army Corps.

  Not looking up to it, Cheng Jiaji also knew that the top priority was still how to deal with these Japanese bean tanks that were shamelessly wandering around with armor so thin it was frightening.

  "Use a mortar to shoot flat? No way. The largest caliber of the mortars currently in the 100th Independent Brigade is not even 80mm, which can't penetrate the 12mm "thick" armor of the Type 94 tank. And besides, I don't know how to use this technique either."

  "Try to drive it away with fire? That won't work either. The reason the PLA was able to use this tactic against the National Army back then was because the National Army's infantry were too afraid of death. Now if Japanese tanks come in, the Japanese infantry will immediately follow and charge into the defensive line, and 'shutting the door to catch a thief' would become 'opening the door to invite thieves'."

  Cheng Jiaji was constantly proposing plans and then denying them to himself. Just as he was worried about how to deal with the Japanese army's pocket tanks, a small detachment of Chinese troops rushed out from the side of the Japanese armored vehicle. This small detachment of only twenty or thirty people was divided into several groups and charged towards the three Japanese armored vehicles.

  Cheng Jiaji saw clearly in the telescope that the first officer who was about to die was none other than his best friend in this world, Wen Songyuan.

  Cheng Jiaji painfully put down the German-made binoculars in his hand, filled with a sense of powerlessness from the bottom of his heart. He knew that Wen Songyuan and others were using the most primitive tactics, having people carry explosives to blow up Japanese tanks.

  This tragic battle tactic is actually a helpless move, and those who execute this task have few survivors to say the least, and it's very difficult to succeed.

  Facing all this, Cheng Jiaji felt a twinge of regret for the first time in his heart about not bringing those two battalions up to the front line. If those two main force battalions were also on the battlefield, at least he would have dared to let the Japanese tanks come in and fight, forcing Wen Songyuan and others to adopt this inferior tactic.

  Cheng Jiaji understood that he didn't have much time to grieve on the battlefield. After being frustrated for a few seconds, he immediately picked up his binoculars again and nervously focused on Wen Songyuan's actions, after all, this was currently the only possible way to destroy these 94 tanks.

  Author's note: Next week, I'll be going to Sanjiang, thank you for your support, if nothing unexpected happens, it will still be updated at least once a day, with no less than 3,000 words per chapter. However, my work is busier next week, so the update time cannot be fixed yet. Please forgive me, there's another chapter tonight around midnight, please give me more support, are we going to rush the rankings again?