Bright Sword: The Flowers of War

Chapter 115 Diary

April 21, Showa 13 (1944) - Yintai Erzhuang

It rained again today, and the rainwater mixed with blood, forming dark red puddles in the trenches. My boots were soaked and rotten, and my toes were riddled with festering wounds; every step felt like walking on knives. The squad leader said this was the "glorious pain" endured for His Majesty the Emperor, but all I wanted to do was kneel down and cry my heart out.

Nakamura is dead. Before dawn, we tried to capture that two-story brick building on North Street. The Chinese army's machine guns poured fire from the windows, and Nakamura's intestines suddenly splashed onto my face.

As he fell, he was still convulsing and calling for "Mommy." I desperately covered his mouth... We couldn't let the enemy hear his screams; it was military regulations. In the end, I could only use my bayonet to pry open his throat, like killing a chicken.

When blood splattered into my mouth, I spat out the moldy rice ball I had eaten that morning.

Fog on April 22

The Chinese soldiers emerged from the roadside ditch.

During the early morning shift change, a dozen bayonets and broadswords suddenly emerged from the fog, and Saito's head rolled right down to my crotch.

We fired two whole boxes of bullets into that ditch, but the enemies, covered in filth, kept pouring out. After Sergeant Ono had half his face chopped off, he grabbed his drooping eyeballs and stuffed them into his mouth, shouting like a madman, "See you at Yasukuni Shrine!"

At noon, the commander of the Numata regiment personally supervised the battle, demanding that the temple be captured before sunset.

As I rushed across the street carrying the explosive charge, I stepped on the charred remains of a comrade from the day before; the charred bones snapped under my feet. After the successful detonation, I found half a Chinese middle school textbook among the rubble, with half a finger stuck to a page… They even used students to fill trenches.

April 23rd, sunny

Amaterasu, are you punishing us?

Starting this morning, the Chinese garrison on the opposite side was suddenly replaced.

Don't ask me how I know, because the officers on the newly arrived Chinese officers were dressed in gray, and the weapons they carried were not the familiar Hanyang Type 88 or "Zhongzheng" rifles, but a type of rifle capable of continuous fire.

When I was fighting them, I always felt like I was exchanging fire with a machine gun, which was terrifying.

By noon, my Type 38 rifle had long since jammed, and I was now relying entirely on ammunition I had scavenged from the corpses of my comrades to keep firing.

There were too many machine guns on the other side; they took away three more soldiers from our squad in just one morning.

A rookie who had only been there for less than six months was clutching his amulet and chanting about the cherry blossoms in his hometown of Akita before he died, but his abdominal cavity had been shredded into a bloody mess by machine gun bullets.

When supplies were distributed that evening, the logistics team only brought twenty rice balls and two boxes of grenades. The squad leader gave all the rice balls to those who could still charge, while the wounded soldiers each received a grenade. The squad leader said that they should have the courage to die for their cause if necessary.

That damned idiot pig, I hope his little bird gets blown to bits by a Chinese bullet soon.
April 25th night

The city wall collapsed, and heavy artillery blasted the southeast corner bunker into a pile of rubble. The Chinese army even set up heavy machine guns amidst the corpses.

My ears could no longer hear the orders; I charged forward entirely by watching the direction the captain was swinging his sword.

As I stepped over the broken bricks, I suddenly remembered the wind chimes under the eaves of my old home in Kyoto—it should be carp streamer season now, Ayako… my love… are you alright?

At 2 a.m., news came from the brigade headquarters: the Setani Detachment had retreated, and we were ordered to complete the mission that the Setani Detachment had not finished.

I have a feeling I might not make it back to my homeland alive, and I'm so unwilling to accept that. I'm not afraid of death, I'm just afraid that Ayako will be bullied after I die; she was such a kind girl.

By the way... I can entrust Caihuizi to Thirteen-kun. We grew up together, and I trust Thirteen-kun's character. If there is anyone in this world I can entrust with my affairs after my death, it should be Thirteen-kun, right?

Tomorrow morning I will give this diary to Thirteen-kun. If I die in battle, he can pass it on to Ayako…

Kishimoto Shuzou closed his diary, a look on his face that was hard to tell whether he was crying or laughing. His right hand had been clenched tightly without him noticing.

"This damn war!" he muttered to himself...

…………

"Brigade Commander, we can't continue fighting like this! Our casualties are too high!"

In the 8th Brigade headquarters, Colonel Numata Takazo, commander of the 39th Infantry Regiment, spoke to Brigade Commander Nagase Takehira with a sorrowful expression.

At this moment, Numata Takazo looked haggard, and his eyes were deeply sunken, clearly indicating that he had not been doing well these past few days.

"How many casualties did your unit suffer today?" Nagase Takehira did not immediately get angry, but stared at him and asked calmly.

"Our regiment suffered more than 600 casualties today, especially the Third Battalion, which was responsible for the main attack, was almost wiped out!" Numata Takazo's mouth twitched as he said this.

"Where is your regiment?" Takehira Nagase then looked at Colonel Yoshio Nagano, the commander of the 40th Infantry Regiment, on the other side.

"Our unit also lost more than four hundred warriors today." Yoshio Nagano's expression was equally grim.

"Why did this happen? Didn't I tell you all to play it safe and not to be reckless? Why did it turn out like this?" Nagase Takehira suddenly shouted angrily.

"Because the Chinese have also changed their tactics!" Numata Takazo shouted. "The Nanjing Security Corps is completely different from the Chinese troops we have encountered before. Their weapons are more sophisticated than the Type 38 rifles in the hands of the warriors of the Japanese Empire."

Our regiment captured several of their rifles, which had a rate of fire of forty or even fifty rounds per minute. Our Type 38 rifles were as slow as my eighty-year-old grandmother compared to them!

Normally, Tadashi Numata's words would have drawn laughter from everyone, but today no one laughed.

He gritted his teeth and continued, "Those Chinese are not only well-equipped, but they also fight extremely ruthlessly. They have also laid a large number of landmines in trenches, houses, stables and all other places. Nearly half of our warriors' casualties were caused by landmines."

Furthermore, the Chinese have deployed snipers in various locations specifically to assassinate our officers and supply depots. Today alone, I've already temporarily promoted two company commanders and five platoon leaders.

Nagase Takehira closed his eyes in anguish. He had thought that with the Japanese army's air and artillery superiority, they could minimize casualties and only focus on Lingtaierzhuang. But now it seemed that he had underestimated Su Yaoyang and his Nanjing Security Regiment.

"Brigade Commander, I suggest we immediately report the situation to the Division Commander and request tactical guidance. We need to mobilize more troops and heavy artillery. If possible, I think we can use special ammunition!"

"Nani... Absolutely not!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than Nagase Takehira began to scold him loudly, as if he had been bitten by a dog.

(End of this chapter)