Songhu: Never Give Up

Chapter 2: Elite Battle

"Kill the chicken and give it to me!"

Lieutenant Hatano saw that his squad's machine guns had suppressed the defenders' firepower, so he used his saber to command his troops to continue advancing;

Being pressed to the ground and rubbed by a group of Chinese people made him very unhappy as he had always looked down on the Chinese.

The attack formation of the Hatano squad was divided into two waves. The first wave was the riflemen, and the second wave was the machine gun group and the grenade launcher group. This was the first-level heavy firepower of the Japanese squad, mainly to provide fire support for the riflemen.

Lieutenant Hatano did not hide behind, which for him was a thing beneath the honor of a samurai;

At present, the Kwantung Army has occupied the entire Manchuria, and the 9th Division cannot be compared with them, so all he thinks about is establishing immortal contributions to the empire.

As soon as the Japanese infantry group got up, Yue Qianli's gunfire rang out, and the machine gun that had been firing vigorously before suddenly stopped firing, but the other Japanese soldiers did not care and continued to charge forward;
Not only do they disregard the lives of their opponents, they also do not take their own lives seriously. This is the disgusting "Bushido", a group of beasts who have been brainwashed by the military rulers.

The first squad's machine guns fired crazily at the swarming Japanese soldiers. In an instant, they used up a 20-round magazine. It was estimated that at least three Japanese soldiers were killed, some dead and some injured, which was very stress-relieving.

The machine gunner shouted excitedly behind him, and the assistant gunner handed him a new magazine in time. He replaced it skillfully, but before he could fire, a burst of machine gun bullets swept over and hit his chest;

The moment the soldier fell, his blood dyed the hot soil beneath him red...

The assistant gunner grabbed the machine gun with tears in his eyes, set it up and fired a burst of bullets at the group of Japanese soldiers, instantly knocking down a Japanese soldier;
Then he fired another long burst of shots. Although he did not hit the Japanese again this time, he suppressed their offensive.

The morale of a row of officers and soldiers was greatly boosted. They used their weapons to attack the Japanese with all their might, and from time to time some of them were shot and fell down.

Lieutenant Hatano was so embarrassed that he raised the Nambu pistol in his hand and fired two shots in succession toward the front, commanding the other devils to continue charging. Fortunately, the gun did not jam.

The strength of the Kanazawa United was demonstrated. The more blood flowed, the more it aroused the beastly nature in their bones.
They continued to charge forward under the dense hail of bullets, ignoring their companions who fell beside them until they fell too.

Yue Qianli had already used up one clip, and deftly took out a five-round clip from the bullet box, quickly inserted it into the magazine, pushed the bullets into the chamber, and aimed the muzzle at another Japanese grenadier again;

The machine gun was the firepower guarantee for the entire platoon, and the biggest threat to them was the Japanese grenade launcher, so he positioned himself as a sniper, relying on the Mauser rifle in his hand to suppress the Japanese's heavy firepower.

After half an hour of fierce fighting, nearly half of Hatano's troops had been killed or wounded. The purpose of the exploratory attack had been achieved, and the next step was to leave it to the artillery to solve the problem.

Second Lieutenant Hatano blew the whistle for retreat, and the remaining Japanese soldiers immediately switched from offense to defense, and began to retreat while alternating between covering each other. They even took away the lightly wounded, leaving behind only more than two dozen corpses and seriously wounded soldiers.

Yue Qianli, who knew the habits of the Japanese, did not order a pursuit, but blew the whistle to notify everyone to hide in the trenches.

The 88th Division was the real elite of the Nationalist Army. It was reorganized from the 2nd National Guard Division just over a month ago. It had 4 brigades, regiments, and division-affiliated units under its command.

It was one of the first three adjustment divisions of the National Government (3th, 87th, and the Training Corps; the 88th Division was established a year later). The first division commander was Yu Jishi, whose courtesy name was Liangzhen. He graduated from the first class of Huangpu Military Academy.
All officers graduated from the first seven classes of the Whampoa Military Academy, and even the non-commissioned officers all came from the Whampoa NCO class. They all had at least primary school education. It can be said that there were very few illiterate people in the entire 88th Division, which was very rare in China where the majority of the population was illiterate.

As the direct line of the imperial guard, it was very difficult for ordinary Whampoa graduates to enter the 88th Division. A sixth-term graduate like Yue Qianli was only a lieutenant platoon leader more than two years after graduation.

All the soldiers were veterans with more than three years of service and were well-trained, so as soon as Yue Qianli blew the anti-artillery whistle, the soldiers retreated into the trenches one after another;

They were all leaning against the reverse slope of the trench. They had not yet learned how to dig holes to prevent artillery fire, and the trenches were also linear. Just as a row of officers and soldiers were hiding, Yue Qianli heard the sound of a group of artillery shells breaking through the air. There were at least a dozen of them. These should be the regimental artillery of the Seventh Regiment.

"Damn it, he really thinks highly of me!"

No wonder he cursed. The frontline position was guarded by only one platoon, but the Japanese used the regiment's artillery to bombard it. This was simply using a sledgehammer to kill a chicken. Yue Qianli's face was so gloomy that water could drip out of it.
After this round of artillery preparation, he didn't know how many people would be left in the row. Even he himself didn't know whether he could escape. It all depended on his luck.

"God bless me, the shells are hiding from me - and the bullets are hiding from me too!"

When the shells fell, even the special forces elites of later generations could only pray for good luck;
That’s why positional warfare is the most difficult to fight. Salute to the martyrs!

"Boom boom boom..."

"Boom boom boom..."

Rows of shells fell, raising clouds of dust mixed with broken limbs. In front of groups of 75mm mountain and field artillery, human life was so fragile that it could be shattered at the slightest touch.
Sections of trenches were flattened, and people were buried in the mud from time to time. The officers and soldiers who survived could only silently hold their steel guns tightly, and the veins on the back of their hands bulged one by one. They needed to vent their anger...

It was unknown how long it had passed before the Japanese artillery fire began to extend. Yue Qianli, who knew the nature of the Japanese, knew that after the artillery bombardment, the Japanese infantry would charge;

He puffed up his cheeks and blew the whistle, then shouted:
"Those who can still breathe, get up! The devils are coming! Avenge our brothers!"

The Seventh Regiment's coordination between infantry and artillery had reached perfection. They almost charged on the artillery points.
As soon as the artillery fire extended, they rushed to the eyelids of a row of officers and soldiers. Looking around, they were all shit-yellow in color. There were at least sixty or seventy people. This should be a reinforced team.

Yue Qianli fired a long burst of 20-shot "box gun" at the Japanese, and seven or eight bullets flew out of the barrel in an instant, spraying towards the group of Japanese in a fan-shaped pattern;
He used the classic horizontal fan-shaped sweeping technique of later generations, which was equivalent to half a submachine gun at a distance of several dozen meters. He killed three Japanese soldiers with one burst of fire, killing one and injuring two. The effect was very good.

The only two remaining machine guns in a row also opened fire at full capacity, mowing down a large number of Japanese soldiers who were about to come over to collect the bodies of the defenders.

"Grenade!"

After firing all the magazines, the Japanese had already rushed to the front, and Yue Qianli decisively gave the order to drop bombs;
Twenty or thirty German-made long-handled grenades were smashed into the group of Japanese soldiers from high above. As continuous explosions rang out, the Japanese soldiers were knocked to the ground. The killing power of the German-made long-handled grenades, which was as high as 7 meters, made the Japanese soldiers suffer a lot.

The Japs' offensive was then paused, and they were driven back by a platoon;
Lieutenant Hatano cursed angrily. He thought it would be an easy trip to collect bodies, but he was driven away by the defenders and left behind no less than 30 bodies, more than half of which died from grenades. He didn't know how to explain to the squadron leader when he returned.

In the first exploratory attack, Hatano's squad lost nearly half of its soldiers. The squadron leader scolded him and gave them the second squad as reinforcement.

Then they called for artillery support and even used the regiment's artillery. Lieutenant Hatano then commanded the first and second squads to rush to the defenders' positions along the artillery points, but they were still driven back.

But the Japanese did not end the attack, because they found that the defenders only had about twenty people and two machine guns left;
So they reorganized their formation and continued to attack a row of positions, while the defenders fought desperately, resulting in casualties on both sides.

"Warriors, kill all the Chinese and give us the chickens!"

Lieutenant Hatano's arrogance finally angered Yue Qianli. He once again picked up the Mauser rifle placed aside and aimed the muzzle at the Japanese officer who was holding up his saber to show off...

(End of this chapter)