The expeditionary force began to dominate Southeast Asia by recruiting defeated soldiers

In the sky, two A-1H attack aircraft painted in white, green and blue camouflage, with the 212th Division Independent Air Force's unique circular "Hua" emblem on their fuselage and wings, roared down from the south towards the Japanese positions and dropped the three 2000-pound (907kg) heavy bombs they were carrying one by one.

After the bombs fell off the racks, the two A-1Hs immediately took off and returned to an altitude of one thousand meters at high speed within a few seconds. Then they returned to the northern base without looking back.

On the ground, the Japanese 13.2mm Hotchkiss anti-aircraft machine guns and the Type 92 heavy machine guns equipped with anti-aircraft tripods could only helplessly and furiously fire bullets at the A-1H, which had long been out of their range.

The A-1H attack aircraft is a post-war aircraft. When Zhang Chi purchased it, he naturally unlocked the MK80 series of low-drag bombs developed by White Eagle in the 50s.

As the delayed fuse reached its predetermined time, the streamlined MK84 2000-pound bomb joyfully exploded on the enemy's position. Upon activation, the 429kg of TNT contained within it produced small mushroom clouds, vaporizing any exposed enemy troops within close proximity.

(A little bit of trivia: the Yamato 460mm main gun usually weighs 1.4t and has a 62kg charge. The 800mm Gustav high-explosive shell weighs 4.8t and has a 700kg charge. The MK84 charge is close to the Gustav.)

Then the shock wave pushed the bomb fragments to fly out at high speed in all directions, sweeping away all flesh within a radius of 366 meters.

Finally, when the flames, smoke and dust dissipated, six MK84s left six large craters with a radius of 15 meters and a depth of 11 meters on the Japanese position.

"Kasan...Ahhhhh...Kasan...Uuuuuu."

In the trench, a new soldier's posture for shock absorption was obviously wrong, and his internal organs were injured. He first called out for his mother as if sleepwalking, waving his hands and feet around, then suddenly began to cry, and finally his head tilted, and he fell motionless in the trench with blood coming out of all his orifices.

The veteran sergeants in the team knew that the recruit's internal organs had been minced into minced meat by the shock wave, and the fact that he was still able to stand up and shout for a few seconds was simply because his body knew it was dying and was secreting all its adrenaline to give the body a last hurrah.

However, in the eyes of another Japanese recruit who looked like a student, the comrade died while shouting and bleeding from all seven orifices, which was extremely weird.

"Ghosts! The enemy has ghosts! They are using invisible Yin-Yang magic to kill people!"

So the young recruit wearing glasses howled, dropped the old Type 38 rifle in his hand that was taller than himself, and staggered towards the ladder in the trench, ready to escape back to the city.

"It's fake, it's all fake, I want to go home, I want to go home!"

As the war intensified, the quality of the Japanese recruits became worse and worse, and the training time became shorter and shorter. So a few heavy bombs dropped nearby made the people in this trench uneasy.

Seeing this, the veteran sergeant in charge raised his bayonet and stabbed the new recruit who was trying to escape through him. He then said viciously to the remaining recruits who were trembling all over and wearing their victory scarves:

"Hold your weapons firmly and don't bring shame to the Great Fuso Locust Army. You don't want your parents on the main island to be ashamed when they learn that their son is a deserter, do you?"

Hearing this, Takae Yukinosuke was so upset that he could not even cry, holding the turtle-shaped Type 99 anti-tank mine (picture at the end of the chapter, author said).

His brother had already joined the army, but was killed by a resistance organization on the Korean Peninsula. All that was sent to his parents was a small urn of ashes.

According to his father, his sister was a textile worker in Nanyang. Not long after he arrived in Nanyang, he met his sister in the Happy House in Singapore.

There was a persistent food shortage on the main island (after the White Eagle submarines were deployed, not much rice could be shipped back from the South Seas), and "rice riots" where citizens scrambled for rice and clashed with the military and police became more and more frequent.

In order to support his three remaining brothers and sisters, Yukinosuke Takae had to join the army himself.

When I arrived in Bago, the rice promised before joining the army was no longer available. Instead, I had to cook rice mixed with vegetables and coarse grains. Fortunately, there was still enough miso and kelp soup?

Now he is holding an old rifle that is as tall as himself and has been used for who knows how many times (the Type 38 rifle is 1.3 meters long), plus a Type 99 anti-tank mine that is not sure whether it will be effective against enemy tanks. Is he going to launch a human bomb charge?

Is Takae Yukinosuke's life such a joke?

The sergeant ignored Assistant Takae Yukiyuki, who had a sullen face, and stuck half of his head out of the trench. After a quick glance, he immediately retracted it.

Fortunately, those enemies who were said to have excellent marksmanship and were holding sniper rifles with scopes did not notice me.

The sergeant wiped the sweat from his forehead and shouted, "Another enemy attack wave is coming. This time it's three Type 3 tanks (M8 Teapots) and over 100 infantrymen, a company-level attack wave."

"Takaban, you lead them in the trenches, covering us with rifle fire. Private Takae and Private Honkawa, you two take the anti-tank mines and follow me. Remember, get under the enemy tank, attach the mines to the chassis, and then pull the fuse!"

After the sergeant gave the order, he dragged the two new recruits, Gao Jiang and Honkawa, to the side of the ladder, ready to rush out with them to blow up the enemy tanks at any time.

-----

However, the attack that made the Japanese soldiers in this section of the trench so nervous was just a exploratory reconnaissance of the Japanese soldiers' outer positions launched by Hao Yi's quick march while he was waiting for the arrival of follow-up troops.

Three M8 Teapot self-propelled artillery vehicles were parked 1 km away from the Japanese trenches and leisurely bombarded suspicious targets on the Japanese positions one by one with 75mm high-explosive shells.

As long as there is a place that looks like a machine gun or anti-tank gun fortification, the tank commanders will directly fire a few 75mm high-explosive shells at it, and then use the M2HB heavy machine gun on the roof to sweep it with dozens of rounds. If the Japanese fight back, it means that there is indeed something there, and they can note the location and call for the 105mm towed howitzers directly under the column to fire.

If they don't open fire, then just smash them slowly until the Japanese lose their patience.

On July 11, on the Japanese outer defense line that stretched for several kilometers, multiple company-level units of the Fast Column launched fire reconnaissance. At the same time, the Air Force's A-1H attack aircraft and B-25 bombers shuttled back and forth, continuously bombing the Japanese positions.

Lacking anti-aircraft weapons and aircraft cover, Matsuyama Yuzo could only hold on and wait for help, although Matsuyama Yuzo himself knew that it would take a long time for help to arrive and he could not hold on until then.

But what if?