svetikya Chapter 69: The Eight Sons of Gui, Unyielding Even When Mountains Collapse! The Wolf Soldiers, Brave
Chapter 69: The Eight Sons of Gui, Unyielding Even When Mountains Collapse! The Wolf Soldiers, Brave
A deafening boom followed!
The singing stopped abruptly, or perhaps... it was absorbed into an even greater roar.
Battalion Commander Zhao Zhenfan detonated the last box of explosives beside him...
Linhuai Pass, this small pass on the Huai River, was utterly stained red with the blood of all the soldiers of the 269th Regiment of the Dongbei Army that night. They never retreated a single step until their deaths, fulfilling their vow to wash away the shame with their lives!
The following day, March 19th, early morning.
The news of the fall of Linhuai Pass came like a bolt from the blue, shaking the Fifth War Zone Command.
"What?! The entire 269th Regiment of the 114th Division has been killed in action?! Linhuai Pass has fallen?!" Upon receiving the telegram, Liu Yishi, commander of the 31st Army of the Guangxi Army, was both shocked and furious. He slammed his fist on the table, yelling, "Damn those Japanese devils!"
He immediately realized the critical situation. If Linhuai Pass fell, the Japanese army would gain a bridgehead on the flank of their northward offensive; it had to be recaptured at all costs!
"Order!" A wolf-like glint flashed in Liu Yishi's eyes. "Commander Qi Zhengdao of the 131st Division and Commander Mo Dehong of the 138th Division, assemble the troops of both divisions immediately!"
"Bring us everything we have! Come with me and we'll take back Linhuai Pass!"
"Commander! The Japanese have just captured Linhuai Pass and are riding high on their momentum. They also have tanks and heavy artillery. Should we...?" an advisor suggested caution.
"Bullshit!" Liu Yishi roared, "The Fifth War Zone is our Guangxi Clique's home ground!"
Commander Li entrusted this line to us. If we can't hold it, I'll have no face to face the people of Guangxi! Before leaving, Chief of Staff Bai also repeatedly instructed us to stabilize the southern line!
Losing Linhuai Pass could leave a breach on the southern front. Who can bear that responsibility? Tell the brothers, in this battle, there is no retreat!
"yes!"
The Guangxi army was extremely efficient. Liu Yishi understood the principle that "a lion must use its full strength to hunt a rabbit!"
In less than an hour, the main forces of the 131st and 138th Divisions, with the exception of a small number of troops left to defend Huaiyuan, totaling more than 1.8 men, had completed their assembly and split into two routes, like two sharp knives, heading straight for Linhuai Pass.
The battlefield during the day was completely different from that at night. The Guangxi soldiers had sharp eyes and moved swiftly, rapidly approaching Linhuai Pass along the trenches and undulating terrain.
Just before the attack was about to begin, a mournful and drawn-out sound emanated from the Guangxi army ranks.
The sounds of the "horse-bone fiddle," "reed pipe," and "bee drum" (three unique instruments of Guangxi) playing together...
"Brothers of Guangxi!" A vanguard general of the Guangxi Army, with a heavy Guangxi accent, shouted the first slogan of the Guangxi Army's decisive battle charge in decades, accompanied by the desolate and melodious sound of the "horse bone fiddle," the singing of the "reed pipe," and the bee drumbeats.
"Even if the mountain collapses, we will not retreat!" This immediately elicited a thunderous response from the entire army.
"The wolf soldiers are brave and fierce!"
"Forward without hesitation!"
"Kill! Kill! Kill!................."
The slogans rose and fell, their momentum was overwhelming!
This is a charge music and charge slogan tailor-made for the Guangxi Army by Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi, which greatly inspired the fierce spirit of these soldiers from the mountains and rivers.
Before the Qiujin Brigade at Linhuai Pass could consolidate its position, it was met with a massive counterattack from the Guangxi Army, which was described as "fierce as tigers and vicious as wolves"!
"Fire! Stop them!" Akitsu Nakasuke hurriedly ordered. The Japanese army's light and heavy machine guns and rifles formed a dense fire net, and artillery shells continued to fall.
However, the Guangxi Army was different from the previous Dongbei Army. They were tactically flexible, had extremely strong individual combat capabilities, and were especially good at mountain warfare and close combat.
The soldiers used the terrain and objects to their advantage, sometimes crawling and sometimes leaping forward, their movements as swift as wolves.
Their marksmanship was excellent, especially since there were many veterans in the Guangxi Army who were extremely accurate marksmen, causing heavy casualties to the Japanese army.
The battle was exceptionally fierce. The officers and soldiers of the Guangxi Army shouted the slogan "Guangxi sons and daughters...forge ahead without hesitation!" and charged forward wave after wave.
Although the Japanese army held the advantage in passes and firepower, they had been fighting the Dongbei Army all night and were exhausted. Suddenly, they were attacked by the powerful Guangxi Army, and the offensive and defensive situation immediately reversed. The number of Japanese casualties rose sharply.
The Guangxi Army once had a great advantage and was about to defeat the Japanese army in one fell swoop and recapture Linhuai Pass!
However, in just a moment, another huge advantage of the Japanese army became apparent... their air force.
The muffled roar of engines echoed in the sky. A formation of more than ten Japanese Type 96 bombers and Type 97 fighters appeared over the battlefield.
"Enemy planes! Take cover!" the Guangxi Army officer shouted hoarsely.
But it was too late. Bombs rained down like dumplings being dropped into a pot, their violent explosions engulfing the advancing Guangxi army ranks. Fighter jets swooped down and strafed, their low-flying machine gun bullets creating terrifying trails of smoke and dust on the ground.
Lacking effective anti-aircraft weapons, the Guangxi Army suffered heavy casualties, and its offensive, which was on the verge of capturing Linhuai Pass in one fell swoop, was immediately thwarted.
Liu Yishi, watching from the rear command post, was furious but helpless. "Damn those Japanese devils! They think they can take advantage of us because we don't have planes?"
Tell the brothers, fuck your mothers, tough it out!
"Take Linhuai Pass within thirty minutes!"
Upon receiving the "do-or-die order," the Guangxi troops immediately braved enemy bombing raids, shouting, "You little devils, fuck your mothers, charge forward, kill..."
After a fierce 20-minute battle, the "Blue Sky with a White Sun Flag" was finally planted again above Linhuai Pass!
When the Guangxi Army's "vanguard" troops stood on Linhuai Pass and saw the mutilated limbs and corpses of their Dongbei Army brothers scattered all over the ground inside the pass, they gritted their teeth and their eyes were filled with rage!
At that moment, a soldier, with tears in his eyes, reported to his regimental commander at the city gate, "Inside a makeshift Japanese field hospital, we've discovered over a hundred seriously wounded Japanese soldiers..."
The regimental commander, tears welling in his eyes, gritted his teeth, rubbed his ears, and pretended to shout, "What did you say? I can't hear you! Speak louder! My ears have been deafened by the Japanese planes and bombs, I can't hear you. What? No Japanese prisoners found? If you haven't found any, then you haven't found any..."
The soldier immediately understood, stood at attention, saluted, and left. Moments later, a large fire, reeking of gasoline, shot into the sky nearby…
While the main force of the Guangxi Army was engaged in a fierce battle at Linhuai Pass, another Japanese unit... the "Kuroshima Cavalry Regiment" (approximately 950 cavalrymen, with attached cavalry artillery and cavalry machine gun squadrons) belonging to the 4th Cavalry Brigade of the Japanese Army, like a black whirlwind, quietly bypassed the main battlefield by taking advantage of the complex terrain along the Huai River.
Their target was Huaiyuan Town, a key point in the original defense zone of the 31st Army of the Guangxi Army, which had been discovered by Japanese reconnaissance planes due to the main force's counterattack on Linhuai Pass and was now sparsely defended.
The thunderous sound of hooves filled the air! Colonel Jin Kuroshima, commander of the Kuroshima Cavalry Regiment, raised his saber and led his cavalry in a frenzied charge!
The troops remaining in Huaiyuan consisted of an infantry battalion and a divisional supply company from the 138th Division, totaling less than 500 men, most of whom were non-combatants.
Faced with the sudden appearance of elite Japanese cavalry, they were in dire straits.
"Brothers! We are the Guangxi Wolf Soldiers! We cannot disgrace the Wolf Soldiers! Form a circle! Fight to the death!" The battalion commander drew his pistol and shouted hoarsely.
The Guangxi soldiers quickly took cover in the houses and temporary fortifications at the town entrance, forming a circular defensive line. Rifles and light machine guns spat out angry tongues of fire, attempting to stop the advancing cavalry.
But the cavalry was too fast! The Japanese cavalry, first with their "artillery cavalry," skillfully maneuvered their "Type 92 grenade launchers" from horseback, blowing up the Guangxi army's machine gun positions one by one.
He then brandished his saber and charged into the defending troops' positions as if cutting melons and vegetables. His saber slashed, and blood and flesh flew everywhere! Gunshots, explosions, the sound of horses' hooves, roars, and screams filled the air!
This was an unequal massacre. The Guangxi Army soldiers who remained behind displayed astonishing courage, fighting to the death and resisting the Japanese cavalry with bayonets, rifle butts, and even their teeth and fists, but the disparity in strength was too great.
Ultimately, Huaiyuan Town fell to the cavalry regiment. Almost all the Gui Army soldiers who remained to defend the town were killed in action.
After the smoke cleared, only five Guangxi Army "musical band members" remained. Two were still playing the mournful "horse-bone fiddle," two were playing the melodious "reed pipe," and the last one was desperately and passionately beating the "bee drum"... They seemed unaware that everyone else in the entire battalion except for the five of them had died in battle!
When the Japanese cavalry surrounded them, they merely raised their heads briefly before continuing their "performance." Only when the "drumbeat" signaling their arrival rang out did the "last" five men roar in unison.
"The sons of Guangxi, unyielding even when mountains crumble, brave and fierce like wolf soldiers, forging ahead without hesitation!"
Boom.................. The explosives in the "Honeycomb Drum" finally detonated!
As evening fell, Commander Liu Yishi finally received the devastating news of the fall of Huaiyuan.
He stood blankly in front of the map. Although he had successfully recaptured Linhuai Pass after a hard-fought battle, another, deeper arrow had already pierced Huaiyuan.
Shanghai, the former British Concession, the office of Han Zhenhua, lecturer at St. John's University!
During breaks between classes, Han Zhenhua would go out from morning till night to buy newspapers such as *Shen Bao*, *Yangqi Bao*, *Xinwen Bao*, and *Da Mei Wan Bao*...
He bought almost every newspaper he could find, frantically flipping through them, but couldn't find any "latest war reports." He knew war correspondents' reports couldn't arrive that quickly, but he still couldn't resist buying and flipping through them...
At noon, Feng Chengcheng, dressed in a blue girls' school uniform, came to the office with a hint of joy on her face.
"Zhenhua, Daddy would like to invite you to our house for dinner tonight."
"Oh? Your daddy invited me, I'll definitely be there on time." Han Zhenhua agreed somewhat absentmindedly.
He also wanted to indirectly learn about the outside situation from Feng Jingyao, a well-informed leader of the Green Gang.
"Hmm," Feng Chengcheng nodded, but added, "Daddy... seems to have a lot on his mind lately. He mentioned that the two sides have started to 'fight'..."
"The two sides have already started to fight each other?" Han Zhenhua was secretly delighted upon hearing this.
A strong sense of pride and control welled up within me.
He smiled calmly, but his tone carried an undisguised confidence: "It seems your father must have used his vast Green Gang influence to get advance notice of the battlefield."
But don't worry, Cheng Cheng, good will prevail over evil. I believe we will definitely win this battle.
He almost said, "Our army has delivered the Japanese army's entire plan. Tonight, or at the latest tomorrow, you will see a Japanese regiment severely damaged or even annihilated..." but he held back in the end, thinking that Feng Jingyao was probably inviting him to "celebrate the victory together" tonight.
After Feng Chengcheng left, he couldn't help but hum a selection from the Peking Opera "Shajiabang" from his previous life while alone in his office:
Clang... Clang... Hah...
Let's drink to our victory today!
My ambition remains unfulfilled... I vow to never give up.
In the future, I will certainly show my skills...
They willingly shed their blood to write history!
Ah..............Ahhh......Ah........