A Journey Through the Flames of War in the Republican Era

Wang Youping picked up the phone and directly contacted the headquarters of Zhang Wenbai, the commander-in-chief of the Central Route Army, requesting that the 150mm heavy artillery of the 10th Heavy Artillery Regiment carry out artillery bombardment under the guidance of the infantry, in coordination with the 522nd Regiment to launch a counterattack and recover our army's position in one fell swoop.

Zhang Wenbai has learned that the 87th Division used new tactics today, with various branches of the armed forces coordinating and cooperating to fight a very impressive battle. In the air defense operation, they even destroyed an enemy plane, which made the usually rampant Japanese planes dare not dive-bomb indiscriminately anymore. This also created conditions for our army's heavy howitzers to be deployed.

Without hesitation, Zhang Wenbai immediately ordered the 6th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the 10th Artillery Regiment stationed in Dachang to send a platoon with two 150mm howitzers to Jiangwan to occupy the firing position, with each howitzer carrying a basic load of 50 rounds of ammunition.

Our 150mm heavy artillery fired two correction rounds at the Japanese-occupied front-line positions according to the pre-determined firing data!

"Boom! Boom!"

Two long, sharp whistling sounds came from afar and approached. Two huge fireballs burst out from the Japanese army's ranks. With a deafening explosion, sand, stones, and severed limbs rose into the air along with a column of smoke more than ten meters high, and then scattered and fell back down.

Japanese soldiers near the point of impact were killed by the massive shockwave. Some of them had no visible injuries, but their internal organs were shattered. Soldiers within 30 meters were all blasted and bled from their ears and noses!

Ito Hiroshi, who was observing the battle through his binoculars, was startled. His pupils contracted sharply, and his heart sank. This was the first time the Chinese army had launched such a powerful artillery barrage after fighting for most of the day! A panicked thought arose in his mind.

"Fire with full force! Cover the area with fire!"

With the firing command given by Sun Zhicheng, the company commander of the 6th Company of the 10th Artillery Regiment, the PLA's largest caliber 150mm heavy howitzer displayed its might, providing short bursts of fire coverage to the forward positions and outposts under the guidance of the observation posts!

Our army's thunderous warriors roared the fury of the Chinese nation at the Japanese invaders! The earth trembled in response!

The 75mm mountain artillery group and 82mm mortars of the 87th Division also launched a rapid fire attack on their respective targets at the same time!

The Japanese positions were instantly engulfed in flames. A barrage of artillery shells, whistling sharply, pounded on the heads of the unsuspecting Japanese soldiers. The dense explosions resounded through the heavens and earth. Wherever the shells hit, enemy soldiers were torn to pieces, blooming into one magnificent flower of death after another.

Everywhere, Japanese soldiers were fleeing in panic, trying to find a safe and reliable cover to escape the artillery fire. However, they found in despair that there was nowhere to hide on the already shattered positions, and only endless fear of death and destruction awaited them.

The Japanese soldiers were killed or wounded in large numbers, their cries of agony filling the air with the stench of burnt earth and flesh.

"Impossible! This is impossible! This is absolutely impossible!" Ito Hiroshi was stunned, muttering to himself.

A look of shock and despair froze on Hiroshi Ito's face. As he stared at the positions covered by heavy artillery fire and the figures in yellow uniforms being blasted into the air, his hands trembled uncontrollably. He was so unaware that the binoculars in his hands fell to the ground.

"This is our heavy artillery! Well done, artillerymen!"

"Well done! Bomb those little devils hard!"

"We're about to launch a counterattack!"

Our soldiers, positioned on the second line and on the left and right flanks, erupted in earth-shattering cheers and shouts!

The soldiers' faces were filled with happy smiles and tears of excitement. After being bombed by the Japanese for most of the day, they finally saw the power of our heavy artillery!

Artillery fire is the best form of mobilization; our soldiers were greatly encouraged and their morale soared!

Our heavy artillerymen loaded their weapons quickly and fired a full load within 10 minutes at maximum rate of fire. They then immediately moved to a new position. Before the Japanese could react, the aircraft and long-range counter-attack artillery that came to scout our artillery positions missed their target.

The rapid and intense artillery bombardment had just begun when the 522nd Regiment launched a full-scale counterattack!

"Left and right artillery groups, fire on the enemy at the forward outposts! Separate them from the enemy's forward echelon!"

"1st and 2nd Battalions, advance from the front! Reserve companies 3rd and 5th, overtake from the flanks and rear to counterattack!"

"Flanking maneuvers, attack from both sides! Sever and encircle the enemy!"

Soldiers from both sides clashed, the sounds of explosions, gunfire, shouts, curses, and screams mingling together. The Japanese army's superior artillery fire became useless, and they could only watch helplessly from a distance.

The reserve 3rd and 5th companies, along with the flank assault detachments, changed the balance of power on the battlefield, becoming the decisive factor in overwhelming the Japanese army. The Japanese follow-up echelons were first bombarded by artillery fire, suffering heavy casualties, and then fiercely attacked by our flank assault detachments, cutting off their communication with the forward echelons.

Our soldiers, with high morale, charged forward bravely, like tigers descending a mountain, rushing towards the Japanese troops who were stunned by the artillery fire, their battle cries shaking the heavens! Sometimes, that's how battles are; when things are going well, the more you fight, the more you gain, crushing everything in your path, becoming unstoppable!

Half an hour ago, the Japanese army wanted to wipe out Jiangwan in one fell swoop. Now they found themselves surrounded on three sides. Under the strict orders of their officers, the Japanese soldiers howled and fought back desperately.

"Grenade launcher—Attack!"

The squad leaders shouted orders to the grenade launcher teams to intercept the fire. The experienced gunners roughly aimed using simple aiming lines and then fired at an unprecedented speed. The firing distance was getting closer and closer as the Nationalist army's attack formation advanced, and the angle of the grenade launcher was adjusted to almost the maximum elevation angle.

"Thump, thump, thump!" Grenade launchers exploded continuously in the Nationalist army's attack formation.

But even the desperate fighting of the Japanese troops could not withstand the fierce close-combat assault of the National Revolutionary Army! The National Revolutionary Army soldiers charged forward while throwing grenades in retaliation!

One after another, Nationalist Army assault squads equipped with automatic weapons attacked from the flanks with fierce firepower, dividing and encircling the Japanese troops. The Japanese formation was disrupted and scattered, and the dense gunfire and grenade explosions resounded everywhere!

The excessive length of the Japanese Type 38 rifles with bayonets was extremely inconvenient in trench warfare. Our combat backbone, equipped with MP28 submachine guns and Mauser fire-and-fire rifles, did not engage the Japanese in bayonet fighting at all. Instead, they used short bursts of fire to quickly send them to their deaths.

Captain Nakata, commander of the 11th Company of the Japanese Army, was killed while commanding the attack. He was then replaced by Lieutenant Suzuki, commander of the 1st Platoon, as acting company commander. However, Suzuki had only been in command for less than two hours when he was hit by a heavy artillery shell and killed instantly. All the officers in Nakata's company were killed or wounded, and out of a company of 200 men, only a few dozen were still able to fight.

The situation wasn't much better for the 13th Company. Company Commander Captain Inoue was shot through the left cheek and out the right, his face covered in blood. Half of his tongue and more than ten teeth were also taken away. His muffled cries were incoherent and no one could understand what he was trying to say.

Unable to withstand the onslaught, the Japanese troops' morale collapsed, their defensive formation crumbled, and the demoralized Japanese soldiers broke out on their own, fleeing in a panic.

After a fierce battle that lasted most of the day, the gunfire gradually subsided, though the smoke of battle had not yet dissipated. The sun was beginning to set, its rays like blood, as both the Japanese and Nationalist troops had exhausted their last reserves of strength.

The 522nd Regiment of the National Revolutionary Army also suffered heavy losses. The two battalions on the front line suffered more than half of their casualties. Zhu Yimin, the company commander of the 1st Company, and Fang Chengyuan, the company commander of the 4th Company, who were at the forefront, were killed in action. Almost all of the two companies died heroically.

Looking out over the Jiangwan battlefield, Song Hongfei saw that after several days of fierce fighting, only scorched earth remained, with traces of battle everywhere: shell craters, broken trenches, fortifications, and weapons, with the corpses of both sides lying in disarray.

The Ito Battalion of the 68th Regiment of the 3rd Division of the Japanese Army suffered a devastating blow, and Jiangwan became the nightmare of the Ito Battalion.

Ito Hiroshi was acutely aware of the devastation he had suffered. The losses were immense and horrific; most of his officers were killed or wounded, three of his four company commanders were killed, and one was wounded. Only about a hundred men remained in his battalion capable of fighting. As a result, Ito's battalion did not participate in any further battles after the Battle of Shanghai, and it was only three months later that it managed to recover its strength.

When Major General Denshichi Okawachi, commander of the Japanese Marine Corps stationed in Shanghai, learned that his armored vehicle convoy had been completely wiped out, he stood there stunned for a long time. Then, he was furious and grabbed the phone to call the commander of the 3rd Division, Susumu Fujita. He angrily accused the infantry of poor coordination, which led to the damage to the armored vehicles, and lashed out at them.

Fujita Susumu smiled obsequiously, saying all sorts of nice things and repeatedly promising to properly handle the aftermath and compensation for the naval officers and soldiers who were injured or killed. After much persuasion, he finally managed to calm down Ōkawauchi Denchi's anger.

"Damn it!" Fujita Shinya was seething with anger. This Ōkawa Denshichi's tone was extremely disrespectful. A mere rear admiral was showing no regard for his dignity as an army lieutenant general. He was practically calling him an "army idiot" to his face!

The thought of being openly and blatantly humiliated and insulted by the Navy is an enormous thing. The Army has never suffered such a disgrace.

Enraged, Fujita Susumu immediately ordered Katayama Riichiro, commander of the 5th Brigade, to go to the 68th Regiment to "reprimand and instruct" him.

"Baka! You've completely disgraced the Imperial Locust Army!"

Major General Riichiro Katayama, who also arrived in a fit of rage, glared at Ito Hiroshi with his extremely unsettling triangular eyes and uncontrollably slapped him repeatedly.

"Hai!"

Ito Hiroshi's arrogance had vanished; he looked dejected, his head bowed, his face burning with embarrassment.

The 68th Regiment Commander, Takamori Takakasa, had just been severely reprimanded by his two superiors, the division commander and the brigade commander. He thought bitterly, "That bastard Ito! He's capable of forcing his defeated subordinates to commit seppuku, but when it comes to himself, he doesn't have the courage and just pretends to be crazy."

Katayama Riichiro couldn't understand how, despite having a significant advantage in heavy firepower—including aircraft, naval guns, and heavy howitzers—he couldn't even take down a single enemy regiment's defensive position, despite the enormous cost of losing an entire reinforced battalion.

The Japanese army did not expect that, faced with the brutal invaders, the Chinese people, inspired by their blood and spirit, responded to the call of the nation and took up their outdated weapons. Despite their inferior equipment, lack of heavy weapons, and lack of training and support, they wrote their loyalty and bravery with their flesh and blood, throwing themselves into the battlefield to resist the Japanese invaders' planes and artillery.

As a high-ranking general, Katayama Riichiro increasingly realized that the military high command's boast of conquering China in three months was no longer a hope and would ultimately remain just a fantasy.

Ito Hiroshi lowered his head, not daring to speak again.

Colonel Takamori whispered cautiously, "The Chinese army we are facing is using tactics that are different from the past. Their defensive deployment is extremely sophisticated. In particular, they have a new type of heavy machine gun that is well concealed and highly mobile. Our artillery fire is unable to destroy it, which puts us in a very passive position."

"Damn it! It's that heavy machine gun again!"

Riichiro Katayama slammed his fist into the battle map!

Since the Battle of Shanghai, the Japanese Shanghai Expeditionary Army has received numerous reports from its rank-and-file troops that the Chinese army has been equipped with a new type of machine gun, causing heavy casualties on the battlefield.

"Damn it! How can a mere light weapon possibly shake the mighty Imperial Army!" Katayama Riichiro angrily reprimanded Takamori Takashi. "You need to find a way to capture one of these machine guns from them!"

"Yes, sir!" Takamori Takashi had no choice but to agree.

However, he was already having a major headache. Even though the Chinese army had suffered heavy casualties in the battles of the Shanghai-Nanjing conflict, they had never lost a single machine gun of this kind!

What the Japanese army didn't know was that the Chinese Military Commission had given a special order to several reorganized divisions equipped with the "Type 24" general-purpose machine gun: even if only one soldier was left, the machine gun had to be brought back! Unique weapons must never be revealed to the enemy!

After the battle, Song Hongfei's confidence grew even stronger.

Even if our army faces the Japanese army's aircraft, tanks and artillery with inferior heavy equipment, as long as we organize carefully, deploy meticulously, and fight with all our might, we can overcome the equipment gap and defeat the Japanese army with advanced, flexible tactics!