The War of Resistance Against Japan: Special Operations Battalion Traverses Shanghai and Slaughters

In order to successfully lure the Japanese soldiers to Qianjiadu.

Company Commander Sun Haitao and Company Commander Xu Ke decided to have Ding Zhipan and Zhou Weiguo lead their troops to retreat quickly.

They, along with soldiers from the second and third companies, were responsible for covering the rear.

After the Japanese soldiers quickly caught up, the two companies pretended to block the Japanese while taking turns retreating.

Noda Sengo, the commander of the 33rd Regiment of the Japanese army, learned that the brigade commander, Sasaki Ichiki, was personally overseeing the battle from behind.

He ordered the 33rd Regiment to pursue at top speed, regardless of the consequences, even if they were met with heavy firepower.

Noda Sengo was fearless, and despite leaving behind many Japanese corpses, he continued to order the pursuit.

This was exactly what Sun Haitao and Xu Ke wanted, so that the Japanese would remain angry and relentlessly pursue them.

They also ordered ten Tiger tanks to shell the pursuing Japanese troops intermittently as they retreated.

They continued their pursuit and fighting until they finally lured the Japanese 33rd Regiment to Qianjiadu.

Logically speaking, the Japanese were ambushed at night, and the enemy even managed to rescue the Nationalist troops trapped in the encirclement.

Without knowing the full story, one should not blindly pursue the enemy.

However, Kisasa Ichiki relied on the fact that the Nationalist army was deployed around Nanjing, and the Nationalist army that was surrounded at Qixia Mountain had long become an isolated force.

Furthermore, he mistakenly believed that the Nationalist army forces conducting the night raid and rescue operation consisted of at most a regiment.

It was only through the power of artillery fire that they were able to break through the encirclement and successfully carry out the rescue.

Furthermore, his troops suffered heavy losses under this barrage of artillery fire, which ultimately caused Sasaki to lose his mind and make a foolish and wrong decision.

When the Second and Third Companies arrived at Qianjiadu, Zhou Weiguo and Ding Zhipan had already led their troops to set up simple defensive positions and were ready for battle.

At this moment, Sasaki Ichiki was also impatient and ordered the 38th Regiment, which was following closely behind the 33rd Regiment, to launch an attack at the same time.

After observing the southeast side of Qianjiadu with a low-light telescope, Long Fei immediately ordered the mine-laying vehicle to begin operations.

Two mine-laying vehicles had already been deployed in advance at two locations in Qianjiadu, one in the southeast and one in the northwest.

After receiving the order, it only took three to five minutes to scatter two thousand M14 anti-personnel mines from the mine-laying vehicle.

The Japanese soldiers could only hear the clanging sounds all around them, but it was pitch black and they had no idea what was happening.

These two thousand landmines fell from the sky like hailstones, all landing behind the Japanese soldiers.

Now, the Japanese retreat route has been completely blocked by landmines. If they want to return the way they came, they must cross the minefield.

Once the mine-laying was completed, Long Fei ordered the bugle call to sound.

As agreed beforehand, when the bugle sounded, it was not to order a charge, but to instruct all troops to immediately encircle and attack the Japanese.

The First Brigade, along with the 41st Division and Zhou Weiguo's Reserve First Regiment, numbered 15,000 to 16,000 men, plus the Special Operations Battalion and the New First Battalion.

With over 10,000 men unleashing their full firepower, they immediately stunned the Japanese troops.

Ten Tiger tanks also rushed out from Qianjiadu and headed straight for the Japanese troops.

This time, Long Fei also deployed 20 Browning heavy machine guns into the battle.

Long Fei had his reasons for making this decision, because every five 12.7mm bullets in the ammunition belt, a tracer bullet would be inserted.

In nighttime operations, tracer rounds not only allow machine gunners to see the enemy's position and quickly engage them, but also provide illumination for other personnel, leaving the enemy nowhere to hide in the darkness.

This dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese. They were already under immense pressure from the dense barrage of fire, unable to lift their heads, let alone launch an effective counterattack.

Now, with the added illumination from tracer rounds, they've become sitting ducks.

What made the Japanese soldiers even more desperate was that, guided by tracer rounds, various mortar shells and rifle grenades seemed to have eyes in the dark, falling accurately among the Japanese soldiers.

Within ten minutes of the battle starting, more than a thousand Japanese soldiers from two regiments had been killed.

All that remained was to fire wildly and aimlessly in response, filled with fear and helplessness.

At this moment, Noda Sengo and Sukegawa Shinji, as regimental commanders, in a panic, ordered the grenade launcher operators, mortars, and light and heavy machine guns to immediately return fire.

However, due to their disdain for their opponents, the Japanese weapons lacked any accuracy and posed no threat whatsoever to the Nationalist army and Long Fei's troops.

Instead, they were repeatedly wiped out by mortars, grenade launchers, machine guns, and even snipers from this side.

Seeing that they could only passively take the beating, and with casualties continuing to mount, Noda Sengo and Sukegawa Shinji had no choice but to find Sasaki Ichiki and ask him if the troops could temporarily retreat and launch a new attack at dawn.

After witnessing all of this, Sasaki realized that he had encountered a powerful opponent. Although he was extremely unwilling, he still nodded in agreement with the two regimental commanders' suggestion.

The Japanese 33rd and 38th Regiments, which fought their way from Shanghai, both suffered varying degrees of casualties, and together they had less than 7,000 men.

In just ten or twenty minutes, more than two thousand of the seven thousand Japanese soldiers were wiped out.

The remaining four thousand-plus Japanese soldiers, upon receiving orders, hurriedly prepared to retreat along the same route, braving a hail of bullets.

Just when the Japanese soldiers thought they could escape, the first Japanese soldier to enter the minefield kept triggering M14 anti-personnel mines.

The M14 anti-personnel mine is a plastic cylinder with a diameter of 55 mm, a total weight of 99 grams, a 28-gram explosive charge, and a height of only 41 mm.

Stepping on this landmine will not cause death, but it will cause serious damage to the foot, and even if the person recovers, they will become disabled.

This landmine was designed and manufactured by the U.S. military in 1950 and was used extensively in combat, but its use was discontinued in 1974.

As the Japanese soldiers stepped on the landmines, they collapsed to the ground with a thud, letting out a series of horrifying screams.

This frightened the Japanese soldiers behind them so much that they dared not advance rashly any further.

"What? Landmines? How is that possible? In such a short time, how could the Chinese army have time to lay mines?"

When Sasaki received the report, he didn't believe it at all, but after confirming that at least several dozen Japanese soldiers had indeed stepped on landmines and been injured, he did not believe it.

Sasaki still ordered the engineers to begin clearing mines and ordered the troops to hold off the Nationalist army's attack, buying time for the engineers to clear the mines.

The Japanese engineering squad hurriedly grabbed their mine detectors, lay prone on the ground, and crawled forward while probing for mines in the dim light.

Unexpectedly, several more explosions followed shortly afterward.

The Japanese engineers who were trying to detect the mines not only failed to do so, but were also injured by the mines themselves.

"What?! This is unbelievable! Five engineers were injured by a landmine? How did this happen?"

Sasaki couldn't understand the mystery behind it, since this landmine was not a product of this era and was far beyond his knowledge and understanding.