Bright Sword: The Flowers of War

Chapter 35 Caught Off Guard

"Boom, boom..."

The shells falling around the church kept raising clouds of dust, and Nagano Yuichiro, who was commanding the troops from the rear, looked extremely grim as he listened to the shells falling in front of him.

Before today, he would never have believed that the Chinese army could launch such a concentrated artillery barrage; it was beyond his imagination.

Despite having experienced many major battles during his more than ten years of military service, Yuichiro Nagano, a graduate of the Army University, had never encountered such intense artillery fire before. Even the artillery shells he experienced during the September 18 Incident and the Battle of Xifengkou a few years ago were not as intense as they were now.

Just as Nagano Yuichiro was secretly alarmed, following the orders of Su Yaoyang and their respective platoon leaders, all the soldiers who had finished changing into their new uniforms drew their M1905 bayonets from their waists, inserted the bayonet handle into the bayonet lug vertically, and pressed down on the bayonet handle. Then, accompanied by a series of "clicks," it was clear that the spring clip inside the bayonet handle had been locked.

Su Yaoyang pondered for a long time what kind of rifles to equip his soldiers with. Although he didn't understand much about military principles, he, coming from a later era, understood one thing: firepower is justice.

The Garand rifle may have had its shortcomings, such as being much heavier than bolt-action rifles of the same period, not being suitable for the physique of Chinese people, having loading noise issues, limited magazine capacity, and many other drawbacks.

However, it has one undeniable advantage: its firepower is far superior to that of bolt-action rifles used by other countries at the same time.

Moreover, Su Yaoyang knew that, whether you admit it or not, Chinese soldiers at this time could not compare with Japanese soldiers in terms of individual combat skills.

To fight against the Japanese army, the soldiers needed to be equipped with a rifle that could suppress them, and the Garand rifle was undoubtedly the best choice.

At this moment, Su Yaoyang gripped the Thompson submachine gun tightly in his hand, the large drum magazine filled with a hundred rounds standing out conspicuously.

He turned his head and glanced behind him; hundreds of soldiers were standing behind him, densely packed.

At that moment, he suddenly felt his legs go weak. To be honest, he really wanted to back out. This was no game; a single bullet could kill him.

But reason told him that if he dared to take a step back, the hundreds of hastily assembled men behind him would scatter in all directions. If they wanted to rush into the church, he had no choice but to lead the charge himself.

Thinking of this, he turned his head and glanced at Qiao Erdan, who was holding a bugle not far away, and slowly nodded.

General Qiao Erdan, now dressed in a new military uniform, brought the horn to his lips, took a deep breath, and blew hard.

"beep……"

When the harsh, shrill whistle rang out, Su Yaoyang suddenly roared.

"Brothers... charge with me..."

After he finished shouting, he was the first to jump out of the ruins and rush out.

As Su Yaoyang, the officer, was the first to rush out of the ruins, his soldiers followed suit, all shouting "Kill!" to bolster their courage.

"Beep...beep!"

"Beep, beep..."

The soldiers who rushed out of their bunkers followed their respective commanders and charged swiftly towards the Japanese troops from the left and right flanks.

Because the Japanese troops around the church were preoccupied with bombardment from 107mm mortars from the rear, the charging troops did not encounter the resistance they had expected. Even after advancing more than a hundred meters, no bullets came.

"kill……"

Holding a Thompson submachine gun, Su Yaoyang, like the other soldiers, roared hoarsely as he ran desperately.

At that moment, he felt a fire burning within him, his blood boiling. The initial cowardice and fear had vanished without a trace; he had only one thought in his mind: to charge forward and tear the enemy before him to pieces. The charge came so suddenly that the soldiers of the Japanese 11th Regiment had no time to react and could only watch helplessly as hundreds of Chinese soldiers in German-made uniforms rushed towards them.

"Da! Da!...Da da..."

Su Yaoyang, who was at the forefront, pulled the trigger without hesitation. More than a dozen soldiers, who were also charging ahead and holding Thompson submachine guns, opened fire with him.

The Japanese soldiers, who were busy dodging artillery fire just a second ago, had no time to react before being overwhelmed by a hail of bullets from behind.

"Cease shelling...cease shelling..." On the rooftop of a building a mile from the church, Zhang Zhihao issued the order to cease shelling at almost the same time.

In just over 300 meters, Su Yaoyang and his men rushed to the Japanese army in a mere few dozen seconds.

Faced with the sudden attack, the Japanese troops, who were dazed and confused by the heavy artillery fire, were clearly still in a daze until Su Yaoyang and his group rushed in front of them and they finally reacted.

"Da da da……"

Facing the Japanese army, all Su Yaoyang could do was keep pulling the trigger until he ran out of a hundred rounds in his drum magazine. Only then did he realize that all the Japanese soldiers in front of him had already fallen to the ground, and countless soldiers were swarming over him and rushing forward.

Su Yaoyang stopped, half-squatted on the ground, and took out a large drum magazine from the cloth bag at his waist to reload the submachine gun.

But when he looked up after changing the drum, he found that there were no soldiers behind him, only the backs of a few soldiers in front of him.

"Damn it... these bastards didn't even wait for me." He cursed under his breath and could only hurry after them.
It must be said that Su Yaoyang's surprise attack was successful.

Caught off guard, the Japanese army lost almost an entire company and was forced to retreat in haste, ending the attack in failure.

Corpses were scattered across the battlefield around the church, and painful groans could be heard from the piles of dead bodies.

"Quickly... quickly, turn around... turn around..."

The Japanese troops, having been dealt a blow, were forced to retreat in haste, which allowed Su Yaoyang and his hundreds of soldiers to enter the church.

As soon as Su Yaoyang entered the church, he saw a beautiful figure rushing towards him, throwing herself into his arms and hugging him tightly.

"Young Master...you're finally back!"

"Woooooooo..."

Xiao Lu's sobbing, accompanied by a unique fragrance emanating from a young girl, lingered in his nostrils, diluting the smell of gunpowder and blood on him.

Su Yaoyang held the beauty in his arms tightly, a great sense of happiness welling up in his heart.

The two didn't know how long they had been hugging until a whistle blew beside them. Only then did they look up and see countless smiling eyes and teasing faces around them.

"I rely on..."

Su Yaoyang couldn't help but curse and quickly let go of her hand.

The moment he let go, the little girl in his arms blushed bright red, let out a soft moan, and ran away like the wind.

(End of this chapter)