A Journey Through the Flames of War in the Republican Era

A somber atmosphere hung over the 101st Division headquarters. Masayoshi Ito, leaning on his katana, sat in a chair with a menacing expression. The staff officers in the headquarters tacitly dared not speak loudly or laugh, creating an extremely oppressive atmosphere.

The commanders of the 101st Infantry Brigade, Sato Seizaburo, and the commander of the 102nd Infantry Brigade, Kudo Yoshio, looked ashamed; their arrogance had long since vanished.

But surprisingly, Ito Masaki, who loved to scold people, did not fly into a rage this time. Instead, he kindly comforted the two brigade commanders.

A higher rank can have absolute power, especially when it comes to military orders.

The decree of the locust king was a mountain weighing down on Matsui Iwane.

Commander Matsui's order to continue the attack put immense pressure on Masayoshi Ito.

Masayoshi Ito understood that he had to give his subordinates both a beating and a reward. He needed the two brigade commanders to continue the offensive. If he pushed them too hard and they gave up, he would have no choice but to lead the charge himself.

Hirohito and Matsui Iwane had been immersed in the art of power for many years and were also well-versed in the art of managing subordinates.

Emperor Hirohito has instructed the military headquarters to formally establish the Central China Area Army, with General Matsui as commander-in-chief, to command the Shanghai Expeditionary Army, the 10th Army landing in Hangzhou Bay, and the 3rd Air Regiment, and to coordinate the army and navy's military operations to attack Shanghai.

Matsui Iwane was in high spirits, and the gloom brought on by the slow progress of the war was swept away. He was full of ambition to break the deadlock as soon as possible, create glorious achievements, and present them to the Emperor as a token of gratitude upon taking office.

Commander Matsui then gave Masayoshi Ito a boost of confidence.

He promised to send more aircraft to thoroughly destroy the Huaxia Army's deep positions, and despite strong opposition from the western front troops, he allocated the remaining large-caliber artillery shells of the 1st Heavy Artillery Brigade on the western front to the Wusong River battlefield.

Matsui has decided that even if the offensive on the western front is temporarily suspended, the priority should be to break through the Wusong River, join forces with the 10th Army to attack the Huaxia Army, and completely capture the southern part of Shanghai and Pudong!

Ito Masayoshi quoted Commander Matsui's words to motivate Sato Seizaburo and Kudo Yoshio: "The air force will bomb the Chinese army's deep interior. Although our army failed to capture it in this attack, we have already discovered the enemy's deep interior attack. The heavy artillery brigade will carry out precision artillery bombardment."

"The 101st Division must uphold the honor of the Imperial Army with the spirit of brave and fearless warriors! And establish merit for the Heavenly Locust!"

In short, we have artillery fire back, so you can continue your attack.

At this moment, Sato Seizaburo and Kudo Yoshio were well aware of their own suffering. The two brigade commanders exchanged information about the situation and casualties of their respective units, and both of them couldn't help but look grief-stricken and frustrated.

由于伤亡巨大，上一次攻击中101旅团的前锋第149联队第2大队只能将第5中队、第6中队组成混成第6中队，由于军官伤亡殆尽，由大队炮队长兼大队副官的三宅少尉担任中队长。

The 7th and 8th Squadrons were combined to form the 7th Squadron.

Except for the second attack echelon, all the infantry battalions participating in the attack were in no much better condition.

Yoshio Kudo also sighed, noting that the 102nd Brigade had also suffered heavy losses, with casualties being roughly equal.

Both of them understood that the only option was to reorganize their forces.

Once the bow is drawn, there's no turning back, especially since this bow was drawn step by step.

A dark mass of Japanese bombers flew in wave after wave, opening their bomb bays at high altitude. Countless 60-kilogram and 250-kilogram aerial bombs poured down with terrifying shrieks. The small propellers at the tails spun rapidly as the Japanese used time-delay fuses to carry out indiscriminate bombing!

Mountains collapsed and the earth cracked, the sky darkened, the earth trembled, the battlefield was shrouded in smoke and flames, and even the air seemed to be burning.

150mm heavy artillery shells then bombarded our positions continuously, including instantaneous, delayed, and yellow phosphorus incendiary shells.

The delayed-action artillery shells penetrated more than a meter into the ground before exploding, causing immense destruction.

"Boom!" A huge explosion rang out, the earth shook violently, the entire fortification was shattered, and debris flew everywhere.

The surface of the first and second line positions was riddled with craters, resembling those on the moon. The positions were covered with rudimentary earth and wood fortifications, mostly covered and supported by logs. Many trenches had been destroyed.

The third-line positions also suffered severe damage in the indiscriminate bombing.

Song Hongfei secretly rejoiced that the training brigade had been working tirelessly day and night these past few days, digging extensively, deep, and wide, with their forces dispersed and deployed, allowing one battalion to excavate more than 1500 meters deep. The artillery shelters and bunkers were developed to a depth of 3 meters underground, supported by thick timbers and gasoline drums, covered with multiple layers of logs and steel plates, and then covered with a thick layer of sand.

"If we don't do it this way, the losses from the continuous bombing over the past few days will be unimaginable..."

Even so, at this moment, in the regimental headquarters shelter covered with two layers of thick steel plates, he still had to experience the earth shaking during the fierce bombing.

The Japanese launched another attack, this time more cautious and adjusting their tactics.

First, small units launched multiple attacks to probe the enemy's position. Light and heavy machine guns and grenade launchers exchanged fire regardless of casualties, providing cover for infantry guns and field guns to advance and fire directly at the enemy. This was repeated several times until all of our exposed firing positions and fortifications were destroyed.

They even used mountain artillery to plow through the land at any cost, forcefully carving out an attack path through the minefield laid by our army.

Several independent field artillery regiments and independent artillery battalions attached to the 101st Division extended their firepower to bombard our rear and suppress our artillery.

The division's artillery regiment launched a barrage of fire, which landed more than 100 meters in front of the attacking troops, providing cover for the infantry assault.

Under pressure, the Japanese army achieved a level of coordination that they had never reached before, with infantry attack echelons launching their assaults almost as if stepping on a barrage of bullets.

The regiment's mountain guns, infantry guns, and field guns immediately followed up to provide support, thoroughly implementing the tactic of advancing step by step and fighting steadily.

The Japanese tactics worked; their fierce artillery fire destroyed all of our observation posts, and the attacking echelons launched an assault, capturing our forward positions after a fierce battle.

On the forward position, our army actually only had one company of soldiers, but the combat rate of fire of 45 rounds per minute of semi-automatic rifles and the firepower density of 3 general-purpose machine guns completely exceeded the conventional thinking of the Japanese army, making them think that there was a battalion.

The Japanese army encountered fierce resistance from two forward battalions of our army on the guard position. Their attack was thwarted, and their attack echelon then retreated to the forward position that they had already captured, and bombarded the guard position, which had already been shattered, with fierce artillery fire.

Immediately afterwards, the infantry attack echelon launched another fierce attack amidst the barrage of bullets.

Just when the Japanese army thought that they would no longer encounter effective resistance on this devastated position, something unexpected happened.

Our soldiers appeared like divine warriors descending from the heavens, reappearing in the devastated positions and fortifications. They quickly set up machine guns, unleashing a torrent of fire and raining bullets upon the enemy.

Under the stern and impassioned supervision of their officers, the Japanese soldiers charged forward with reckless abandon, howling as they went. They also organized small suicide squads to desperately approach our defensive positions and drop bombs.

Our soldiers were fearless and fought bravely, building an iron wall with their own flesh and blood, and once again repelling the invading enemy.

The Japanese troops retreated again, followed by another barrage of artillery fire.

Before the smoke of battle had cleared, the vicious invaders surged in like a tidal wave, launching a new and even more frenzied attack.

They were repelled once again, retreated once more, the artillery bombarded them again, and the infantry attacked once more.

After launching wave after wave of fierce bombardments and offensives, the Japanese army, with its overwhelming firepower and troop superiority, broke through the "land of sorrow" that had left them battered and bruised in the previous attack.

"Finally, we broke through! It was so difficult; the enemy was too tenacious..."

After paying a heavy price, they finally broke through one warning line and two defense lines. Sato Seizaburo breathed a sigh of relief.

Looking through the binoculars, one could see corpses everywhere, dressed in khaki military uniforms. The vanguard battalions on both flanks were decimated. Sato Seizaburo, the commander of the 101st Brigade who was directing the two regiments in their fierce attack, had red eyes and was about to shed tears.

"It must be admitted that the enemy soldiers and officers' tactical skills and tenacious fighting spirit are no less than ours. If they had the same heavy equipment and firepower as our army, we would not have been able to break through their defenses at all, and perhaps this war would never have started..."

The heavy casualties severely affected Sato Seizaburo's nerves, and he dared not even think about it anymore.

After bloodily breaching two lines of defense, Sato Seizaburo thought he had successfully captured our army's main defensive line, leaving only a backup line, and Qujiaqiao was already in sight.

But he never expected that the Training Corps' flexible defense was a huge system of observation posts plus four layers of defense zones—forward zone, guard zone, main position, and reserve zone.

The Japanese army believed that they had captured our army's main position, but in fact it was just a guard position. The defensive positions of the Training Corps were built with great depth and were extremely well-organized in a tiered manner, which led the Japanese army to believe that it was our army's main position according to convention.

While the Japanese air force and heavy artillery were bombing indiscriminately regardless of cost, they also directed most of their firepower onto our defensive positions.

Meanwhile, our army's true main battleground is already on high alert, and is also waiting for them with predatory eyes.