Bright Sword: The Flowers of War

Chapter 143 This is too cowardly!
The red-hot cartridge cases rolled to the loader's feet, but the loader paid no attention to them, only focusing on slapping the new magazine into the slot.

Through the smoke, Zhuang Xiaoman saw the two Japanese soldiers at the forefront fall like stalks of wheat under a sickle. When a thin figure was cut in half by a 7.62mm bullet, the explosive pack in his arms was still hissing and emitting blue smoke.

"boom……"

With a loud explosion, the small figure was instantly blasted into pink dust by the massive shockwave.

Before Zhuang Xiaoman could even breathe a sigh of relief, John's voice rang out again from inside the turret, his tone slightly distorted as the turret rotated and his hydraulics hummed.

"Ten o'clock on the left!"

Zhuang Xiaoman shook his head rapidly and saw two Japanese soldiers leap up from the shell crater at the same time thirty meters away. The soldier on the right had blood seeping through his leg wrappings, but he was still hunched over and charging towards them through the hail of bullets.

Seeing the two Japanese soldiers running with explosives in their arms, Zhuang Xiaoman suddenly thought of the rats that were startled by firecrackers at the temple fair in his hometown, which were also in a desperate and frantic state.

"Fuck your mother's ass!"

Zhuang Xiaoman gritted his teeth, fixed the machine gun sights firmly on the figure rushing towards him, and pulled the trigger.

"Da da da……"

At this moment, the infantrymen behind them caught up and opened fire with their rifles. In an instant, a hail of bullets rained down on the two Japanese soldiers.

"Boom...boom..."

Amid the deafening explosion, two members of the suicide squad were blown to pieces.

On the city wall, Shinzo Nagano watched the four suicide squad members blown to pieces one after another with no expression on his face. He turned to the lieutenant behind him and said, "Next team!"

Soon, four more volunteers rushed out of their cover and charged toward the tank.

This team was even less lucky than the previous one; they were riddled with bullets before they even reached fifty meters.

"Next team..."

"Boom boom..."

"Next team..."

Half an hour passed, and all six teams of volunteers fell victim to gunfire. The shortest-lived team survived for less than three minutes after their attack.

Watching squads of volunteers fall one after another under the gun barrels, the lieutenant in charge of organizing the volunteers' faces twitched uncontrollably.

When he saw Shinzo Nagano raise his hand again with a blank expression, preparing to send out the next squad, he could no longer hold back and pleaded, "Captain, this can't go on!"
Our warriors cannot get close to the Chinese tanks; their firepower is too intense, and doing so would only result in our warriors sacrificing themselves in vain!

"idiot!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Shinzo Nagano slapped him across the face, his cold eyes staring straight at him.

He then pointed to the tanks outside the city that were firing at the city walls and asked, "What should we do when we don't even have an anti-tank gun when facing the Chinese tanks?"
The reinforcements sent by the brigade commander are on their way, and what we need to do is to do everything we can to delay the Chinese advance.

Now tell me, besides sending in special forces, what other way can I buy more time for reinforcements to arrive?

The lieutenant was speechless.

He then realized that Shinzo Nagano's method of constantly sending suicide squads to their deaths, though seemingly ruthless, was the only and best solution at the moment.

"Next team..." Seeing the lieutenant lower his head, Shinzo Nagano raised his right hand again...

Su Yaoyang and Pi Ruoyu saw everything clearly from behind as the Japanese army kept sending people to their deaths.

"Sir... the Japanese are stalling for time!" Pi Ruoyu saw through Nagano Shinzo's plan at a glance. "They want to hold out until reinforcements arrive."

"I can tell!"

Su Yaoyang put down his binoculars and sneered, "Do those little devils really think we're only relying on those few tanks? They're seriously underestimating us. Use the walkie-talkie to ask the Fourth and Sixth Battalions if they've reached their attack positions."

Soon, the communications officer reported: "Sir, the 4th and 6th Battalions are reporting that they have taken up their attack positions and are ready to launch an attack at any time."

"Then what are we waiting for... attack immediately."

"Yes!"

"Drip drip drip drip..."

Shinzo Nagano, who was gritting his teeth and continuing to send his suicide squad to their deaths on the city wall, suddenly heard bugle calls coming from behind, accompanied by rapid gunfire.

Before he could even send someone to inquire, someone immediately reported: "Commander, Chinese troops have launched an attack from our rear, and the city walls behind us are under attack!"

"Oops!"

Shinzo Nagano's face turned pale instantly. Because he had transferred all the Japanese troops to this section of the city wall, the troops defending the rear were all puppet troops.

He knew all too well the fighting capabilities of those puppet troops. They could bully bandits and mobs with homemade guns and cannons, but if they encountered these elite Nationalist troops armed to the teeth, they would be lucky to last half an hour.

In fact, Shinzo Nagano overestimated the endurance of those puppet troops. Not to mention half an hour, the puppet army battalion commander in charge of the rear defense immediately collapsed when he saw those soldiers wearing German-style steel helmets and German uniforms.

"German...German-equipped engineer?"

The voice of this puppet army battalion commander was like that of a frail girl walking at night who encountered a group of burly men grinning menacingly at her in the woods—so desperate and helpless.

Since China and Germany began military cooperation in 1930, German-equipped divisions have become synonymous with elite troops. Although they have become defunct after the Battle of Shanghai and the Battle of Nanjing, this does not diminish their status in the hearts of the Chinese people.

When the puppet army battalion commander first saw that the enemy was full of soldiers wearing M35 steel helmets and Type 36 uniforms, his first reaction was that the elite troops of the Central Army were attacking and he had to run for his life.

So, the puppet army battalion commander exclaimed in surprise and then turned and ran away, without even having the courage to fire a single shot. This left Huang Guantao, who had expected a fierce battle, stunned.

However, given the urgency of the situation, he didn't have time to think much. Since the enemy had escaped, why be polite? He should hurry and chase after them.

Meanwhile, the puppet troops, seeing their own commanders leading the way in fleeing, wondered what they were waiting for. They quickly followed suit, thinking they were just trying to make a living and shouldn't risk their lives.

In less than three minutes, the entire battalion of nearly four hundred puppet troops had fled. When Li Tao led the Fourth Battalion in, they even saw three abandoned Type 92 heavy machine guns, five or six Type 11 light machine guns, and Hanyang rifles scattered all over the ground.

This is the scene that Li Tao saw when he led the Fourth Battalion into the county town's rear defense line.

"No... have the Japanese become this cowardly now?"

Seeing this scene, Li Tao felt a little uncomfortable for a moment.

(End of this chapter)