The War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression Begins in Songhu

Chapter 22 The First Battle
...In the first few years after the Battle of Shanghai, the Japanese troops were indeed very powerful, mainly because there were many Japanese veterans who had been trained for many years.

Most of these old devils had beards, were not tall but were quite sturdy. They were good at shooting and fierce in bayonet fighting.

Even after the death of grassroots officers, they could gather the surrounding Japanese soldiers together to continue fighting, or retreat in an orderly manner.

As for why the Japanese army's combat effectiveness declined later, one reason was that many veterans were transferred to the Pacific battlefield.

Secondly, during the long war, we consumed many more Japanese veterans at a cost several times, or even ten times, higher than ours...

...Excerpt from Hu Biao's diary collection "Hu Shuo"...

Although the twenty or so supply soldiers were reluctant, they still had to stay at position No. 7 under the order of Division Commander Li and accept the command of the newly appointed Platoon Leader Hu.

Seeing that the Japanese artillery bombardment was gradually becoming sparse, it seemed that they were about to launch another attack.

Platoon Leader Hu was so confused that he had no choice but to go ahead and hurriedly assign six or seven of the twenty baggage soldiers to himself, Wang Peng, and Zhou Kun respectively.

It's like a rookie who has some theoretical knowledge leading a group of farmers with guns to fight.

The baggage train was opened and a batch of supplies were delivered at a huge cost to the soldiers.

Among the boxes delivered, there were four boxes of wooden-handled grenades, two boxes of 7.92mm round-nose bullets, and one box of 7.92mm pointed-nose bullets.

There was also another sack, which actually contained some small cloth bags. It was said that these were supplies donated by the people of Shanghai to the soldiers as rewards for the troops.

I don’t know what those fat and big-eared officers in the logistics department are thinking?

A bunch of these things were actually delivered at such a critical moment. Wouldn't it be more useful if they were replaced with a Czech light machine gun and a few spare magazines?

There was no time to see what was in the small bag for the troops.

At the urging of rookie platoon leader Hu, everyone picked up their weapons and ammunition, then went to their designated positions and lay down in preparation for battle.

As the sky was getting dark, Gao Yi and Zhang Wei quietly climbed out of the position and got into the small tank.

Before they crawled out of the position, Hu Biao told them: "Without orders, even if the Japanese soldiers pass by, you are not allowed to open fire or move."

The moment they got into the tank, Gao Yi and Zhang Wei both cursed in their hearts.

Because in addition to the slippery lard and splattered blood and flesh, there was also the corpse of a Japanese soldier. After being poured with hot oil, he now emitted a strange meaty aroma.

All of the above combined made them feel extremely nauseous and almost vomited...

Hearing the shouts of "Commander Hu, the Japs are coming", Hu Biao was suddenly startled. He secretly raised his head and looked outside the position.

I saw about a hundred Japanese soldiers, probably the size of two squads, quietly moving towards the position.

Instinctively, Hu Biao was about to call on everyone to open fire, but fortunately at this critical moment, Wang Peng covered his mouth and quickly said:
"Don't worry, everyone's shooting skills are not good. Let it go a little and then fire with all your strength."

Hu Biao had never fought in a war, but to be honest, he had a pretty good brain. He reacted immediately and even had some bolder ideas.

He issued a new order to his subordinates:

"Wang Peng, Zhou Kun, each of you take two people and fire with rifles. Everyone else, take cover. Get the grenades ready. Throw them when I say throw."

Under such an order, only six Hanyang-made rifles opened fire on the battlefield.

Sure enough, after a distance, with the shooting skills of the rookies on the battlefield, these sparse gunshots sounded silent.

Fortunately, such firepower successfully made the Japanese soldiers who rushed up think that there were only a few defenders left on the position, and the speed and strength of their advance suddenly increased.

Under the suppressive fire of two light machine guns, one Type 96 and one Type 96.

The other Japanese soldiers took big steps and quickly began to advance towards the position.

When they advanced to a distance of seventy or eighty meters in front of the position, when they heard a shout of "Kill!" from the rear, they strode forward with bayonets in hand.

Finally, when they rushed all the way, they were only twenty or thirty meters away from the position, and less than ten meters away from the small tank.

Hu Biao finally yelled "Grenade!" and then, as he was about to break through the damned position in front of him and then attack the Luodian National Army's offensive force from behind, the Japanese soldiers were horrified to find out.

More than twenty smoking grenades arced overhead...

******
During World War II, it was true that hand grenades were the poor man’s artillery shells.

When more than 20 wooden-handled grenades exploded in front of the position at intervals of one or two seconds, all or Japanese soldiers rushing in the front were knocked down immediately.

There were two devils among them, with plaster flags hanging on their bayonets.

These Japanese soldiers with plaster flags are basically sergeants and sergeants among the Japanese soldiers, and they are the elite among the elite.

In a normal combat environment, whether the two sides were fighting with bayonets or shooting at each other, the Nationalist army would have no way of killing them without suffering two or three casualties.

Even if Hu Biao and other five rookies join forces, it is hard to say whether they can kill one.

However, in the dense flying fragments, these two Japanese elite soldiers, who were not very tall but strong and had fierce faces, fell headfirst.

More importantly, such a sudden and fierce attack stunned all the remaining Japanese soldiers.

And these grenades are just appetizers.

At the moment he threw the grenade, Hu Biao picked up his MP28 submachine gun and shouted at the top of his voice: "Fire, everyone fire, Zhang Wei can fire now, kill these little devils."

Amid the shouts, a Czech light machine gun, a submachine gun, and twenty-one Hanyang rifles appeared on the battlefield.

At the same time, a light machine gun operated by Zhang Wei on the small tank opened fire.

The farthest distance was no more than twenty meters, and when the Japanese were suddenly panicked by the grenade bombardment, this round of firepower immediately achieved amazing results.

Especially after Gao Yi started the little bean tank, he controlled it to turn left and right.

The closest Japanese soldier was less than ten meters away from them, which greatly reduced the possibility that Zhang Wei's bullet would miss the target when he fired.

Through the small shooting hole, Zhang Wei could clearly see that one Japanese soldier after another died in various ways under his shooting.

For example: A Japanese soldier was shot in the neck, and the bullet bit off a large piece of flesh from his neck and tore the blood vessels.

Even though the Japanese soldier was terrified and covered his wound immediately, a lot of blood still flowed out from between his fingers.

These devils who originally had grim smiles on their faces collapsed and waited for death with despair and fear on their faces. They no longer had the ferocity they had before.

A Japanese soldier was shot three times in the chest and died before falling to the ground.

However, Zhang Wei, the instigator of the crime, felt only satisfaction when he saw this scene. He did not feel the slightest bit of nausea or vomiting, which are the reactions of a novice killer in a movie.

In short, after opening fire at full force on the position, more than twenty Japanese soldiers were killed or wounded in a very short time.

This meant that almost an entire squad of Japanese soldiers was killed, and the results were almost catching up with those achieved by the previous special forces company after a long and hard battle.

Of course, this doesn't mean that Young Master Feng and the others are incapable.

It was only because Young Master Feng and his men paid a huge price that Hu Biao and his men had the opportunity to get this small tank, and then they launched a sudden attack and caught the Japanese off guard.

Although it was only 37, the Japanese had very strong combat qualities and will.

In a very short period of time, more than half of the attacking troops were killed or wounded, but the grassroots officers and non-commissioned officers continued to fight to the death even without receiving the order to retreat.

They quickly adjusted and launched a counterattack, putting immense pressure on everyone on the battlefield, especially Gao Yi and Zhang Wei in the small tanks...

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(End of this chapter)