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

Considering the Japanese soldiers' combat effectiveness and fighting spirit, they were stronger than the puppet troops.

Long Fei made specific adjustments to the allocation of artillery fire.

Long Fei ordered Xie Qiang to aim all twelve Wild Bee self-propelled guns, along with the infantry guns, howitzers, and mortars previously captured from the Japanese, at Liu Guitang's puppet troops.

Sixteen M2A1 howitzers, ten BM-13 rocket launcher vehicles, and all M2 mortars were all aimed at the Sakamoto Detachment.

Long Fei meant that the artillery barrage would wipe out most of the Japanese soldiers and puppet troops.

With the Tiger tanks and Greyhound armored vehicles attacking, the three corps and the 1st Special Operations Division he led could wipe out the remaining enemy in less than half an hour.

At exactly 2:00 PM, after Long Fei gave the order to fire.

"Whoosh whoosh..."

Countless shells flew from the cannon barrels and landed on the positions of the Japanese and puppet troops.

The enemy position, which had been pitch black and quiet just moments before, was now filled with flashes of fire and deafening explosions.

The Japanese soldiers and their puppet troops were fast asleep when the sudden artillery barrage caught them completely off guard.

Many Japanese soldiers and puppet troops were killed by artillery shells as soon as they opened their eyes and before they could even figure out what was going on.

Only Sakamoto Jun and a few Japanese soldiers, who were hiding in the fortifications, managed to escape the shelling.

"Baka! What's going on? Where did the Chinese army get such powerful artillery? Wasn't the 20th Army Corps supposed to collapse at the first contact and have no will to fight?"

Sakamoto Jun, of course, had no idea that the Dragon Flame Legion had joined the war, and he couldn't possibly figure out what was going on no matter how hard he tried.

"Order the troops to immediately organize a defense."

At this point, it was pointless for Sakamoto Jun to issue the order.

Because of his arrogance and underestimation of the enemy, he did not order his troops to dig field fortifications.

He figured that since they would continue advancing as soon as it was light, it was better to let his men spend several hours digging fortifications.

It would be better to let them rest and recuperate, and then attack directly to the outskirts of Taierzhuang tomorrow.

Therefore, the vast majority of Japanese soldiers had nowhere to hide, and their casualties increased step by step under round after round of artillery bombardment.

At this point, forget about organizing a defense; just being able to save your own life would be a blessing.

As for Liu Guitang's side, although Long Fei arranged for them to receive less artillery fire.

Even so, more than half of the more than 10,000 puppet troops were killed in the bombing.

The remaining puppet troops were former bandits who were good at bullying unarmed civilians.

Faced with the fierce shelling, they were so frightened that they lost their minds and even soiled themselves.

At this point, the puppet troops only knew how to escape, and they ran away in all directions.

Since becoming a bandit, Liu Guitang has been extremely cautious, often changing his sleeping location at night.

Sure enough, he woke up suddenly at midnight and, as usual, moved to a different spot.

The new location was in a small cave on the back of a hill, a blind spot for artillery fire.

Therefore, Liu Guitang was lucky enough to escape the shelling.

After twenty minutes of artillery fire, the remaining Japanese soldiers and puppet troops breathed a sigh of relief.

Liu Guitang also hurriedly led several of his men out to investigate.

Unexpectedly, the sound of a rumbling engine came from not far behind.

Fifteen Tiger tanks and twenty-five Greyhound armored vehicles pressed forward in dense formation.

The puppet troops were so terrified that they had no will to resist.

The few hundred Japanese soldiers who weren't killed by the bomb then used machine guns and grenade launchers to fire at the tanks and armored vehicles.

But as soon as the Japanese machine guns opened fire, the muzzle flash revealed their position.

So it wasn't destroyed by the guns of the Tiger tank and the Greyhound armored vehicle.

They were killed by machine guns on tanks and armored vehicles.

Within two or three minutes, Tiger tanks and Greyhound armored vehicles stormed into the Sakamoto Detachment's position.

The soldiers of the First Army and the First Special Operations Division, who followed closely behind, coordinated their tactics very well.

They provided cover for each other, with some responsible for eliminating the Japanese targets ahead and others finishing off the Japanese corpses that passed by.

When Jun Sakamoto saw this scene from inside the fortifications, his mind went completely blank.

He raised his binoculars and, by the faint light of the fire, discovered that the enemy's tanks and armored vehicles were ones he had never seen before.

In despair, Sakamoto Jun barked hysterically.

"Damn it, what's going on? How did the Chinese army get behind me? Where did they get such a powerful tank unit?"

The First and Second Armies launched their attacks from the left and right flanks simultaneously as tanks and armored vehicles began their assault.

As the remaining Japanese soldiers were continuously eliminated, the encirclement became smaller and smaller.

When the puppet troops saw the Longyan troops charging towards them, they immediately knelt on the ground, raised their hands, and surrendered.

The 20th Army Corps on the opposite side also saw the fierce fighting on the Japanese side.

Commander Tang was sleeping in the temporary headquarters, tossing and turning, thinking about where to retreat to after dawn.

Just as he was drifting off to sleep, he was suddenly awakened by an explosion.

Soon, his men reported that the Japanese positions were ablaze and under heavy artillery fire.

This news completely baffled Commander Tang. He couldn't imagine which unit would be shelling the Japanese from behind enemy lines.

What puzzled Commander Tang even more was that he could tell that the shelling was extremely fierce, with firepower far exceeding that of his 20th Army Corps.

Commander Tang, considering that it was still dark, dared not act rashly, so he ordered: "Keep a close watch and report back immediately."

The battle ended in less than half an hour. Although Sakamoto Jun was hiding in the fortifications, he stubbornly resisted against a dozen Japanese soldiers.

Xie Qiang saw that the fortifications were very sturdy, and he didn't want his brothers to risk their lives to blow them up.

So everyone was ordered to suppress the enemy with firepower, and then a soldier was ordered to carry a flamethrower and burn all the Japanese soldiers inside the fortifications.

The Japanese soldiers burst into flames and desperately ran out of the fortifications, rolling around on the ground.

Jun Sakamoto was the same; the scorching flames made him roar like a wild beast.

These Japanese soldiers would rather be shot dead than slowly burned to death.

However, the soldiers of the Dragon Flame Unit would not grant the Japanese their wish. Instead, they lowered their guns one by one, letting the Japanese struggle and scream in agony before they died.

In the end, Sakamoto Jun and all those Japanese soldiers were burned to a crisp.

At this moment, Xie Qiang took the Garand rifle from a soldier, used the bayonet to pry open the sword on Sakamoto Jun's body, and raised it high.

The surrounding soldiers immediately cheered in unison.

Liu Guitang, along with several of his men, originally intended to escape under cover of darkness and chaos.

Unfortunately, the Dragon Flame Legion's encirclement was very tight, giving Liu Guitang no chance whatsoever.

Seeing no hope of escape, Liu Guitang hurriedly took off his puppet army major general's uniform, then took off the uniform of a puppet army soldier who had been killed and put it on, hoping to use this to deceive the enemy and escape unscathed.

All the Japanese soldiers in the Sakamoto Detachment were killed without exception, but the puppet troops surrendered voluntarily, and five or six thousand were captured.

Xie Qiang then asked Long Fei for instructions on how to handle the situation.

"Do we even need to ask for instructions? Go and find out that anyone with blood on their hands should be shot on the spot, and the rest should be kicked out. If they dare to become collaborators again, they will be killed without exception next time they are caught."

"Commander, instead of letting them go, we should let them join our legion."

Long Fei immediately rejected Xie Qiang's suggestion.

“Xie Qiang, these bandits are different from Brother Chen and his gang from Longteng Manor. They follow Liu Guitang and all they know is how to harm the common people. They are evil to the core. My Longyan Legion doesn’t want such trash.”

"Should we give them travel expenses?"

"What nonsense! Not killing them is already an extraordinary act of mercy. This area is a battlefield now, and it's questionable whether they can even leave alive. I'm giving them a chance; let's see how they fare."

"Yes, I understand."

After receiving Long Fei's instructions, Xie Qiang felt more confident.