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

After the matter was settled, Zhou Weiguo ordered his men to take the spoils and head quickly to Lai'an County.

While Zhou Weiguo was dealing with the Japanese soldiers and puppet troops, Long Fei's side had already begun to attack Lai'an County.

With large-caliber artillery, capturing Lai'an County would be no challenge for Long Fei.

Furthermore, in the county town, the Japanese now only have two squads and two companies of puppet troops left, especially the cowardly puppet troops, whose combat effectiveness is almost negligible.

Five Wild Bee self-propelled guns and twenty mortars bombarded the city gates and walls of Lai'an.

The city walls of the county town were only a few meters high; how could they withstand such fierce artillery fire?

After several rounds of shelling, not only was a large breach blasted into the city wall, but the city gate was also blown open.

After being shelled, the Japanese soldiers in the county town tried their best to retaliate, but unfortunately they only had a few mortars and couldn't find any targets.

The Japanese company commander had no choice but to order all his troops to go up to the city wall to resist.

The puppet army battalion commander had long been terrified by the fierce artillery fire from Long Fei's side.

He pulled the Japanese company commander aside and suggested it.

"Sir, there are no more Nationalist troops around, and the New Fourth Army doesn't have such powerful artillery. The situation is unclear. Should we retreat through the northwest gate first?"

As a result, the Japanese company commander slapped the puppet army battalion commander twice.

"You idiot, you cowardly coward who dared to desert in the face of battle, you're dead! Take your troops and get to the city wall to fight back right now!"

Seeing this, the puppet army battalion commander was afraid that the Japanese company commander would kill him right now, so he had no choice but to agree.

He then led the remaining two companies, timidly climbing the city wall.

But when the puppet army battalion commander picked up his binoculars, he couldn't find any troops attacking the city.

Just as he was wondering what was going on, he saw five tanks rushing towards him with a loud rumble in the distance.

The puppet army battalion commander hurriedly picked up his binoculars to observe again. He discovered that these five tanks were not only unlike anything he had ever seen before, but were also significantly larger than the Japanese tanks he had ever seen.

At this moment, the Japanese company commander also spotted the five tanks and hurriedly ordered the few mortars he had to aim and fire immediately.

The Japanese mortars were good at dealing with infantry and simple fortifications, but they were no match for Tiger tanks.

The key point is that the artillery fire did not stop when the enemy tanks launched their attack.

The city wall was constantly hit by artillery shells, and within minutes, seventy or eighty puppet soldiers and more than thirty Japanese soldiers were killed or wounded.

At this point, the puppet army battalion commander knew that with the Japanese soldiers and his remaining troops, they could not stop the enemy's attack at all, and that it would be a matter of minutes to break through the city.

So he mustered up his courage and went to find the Japanese company commander again.

"Sir, the enemy's artillery fire is too powerful. Also, look at their tanks, they're about to storm the city. We need to retreat, or we'll all die if we don't."

This time, the Japanese company commander didn't get angry at him again, because that was the truth.

The Japanese company commander hurriedly ordered reinforcements from the garrison in Chuzhou County and also decided to temporarily retreat.

So the Japanese soldiers and their puppet troops fled like stray dogs, quickly escaping through the west gate.

Long Fei saw that the Japanese soldiers were still firing back at first, but soon they stopped.

So he used a walkie-talkie to order the Tiger tanks to immediately storm into the county town, while the Greyhound armored vehicles provided cover for the soldiers and followed closely behind.

Upon entering the city, everyone discovered that apart from leaving behind more than a hundred corpses, the Japanese soldiers and their puppet troops had vanished without a trace.

After the Japanese company commander and the puppet army battalion commander led their troops out of the west gate, they fled towards Chuzhou County without pausing for a moment, continuing their frantic run.

Just as they were secretly rejoicing at their escape, they suddenly discovered that a dense barrage of grenades was falling from above.

"Boom boom boom..."

Even though the Japanese soldiers and puppet troops reacted quickly and immediately lay down, fifty or sixty of them were still killed or wounded by the explosion.

"Sir, there's an ambush..."

The puppet army battalion commander was injured in the right hand by shrapnel from a grenade. Ignoring his injury, he shouted desperately at the Japanese company commander.

The Japanese company commander glared at the puppet army battalion commander. "Do you need to remind me? Even a fool knows that."

If it weren't for the need for the help of the puppet troops to resist, the Japanese company commander would have really wanted to shoot him dead.

"Immediately establish a defense on the spot."

This was the only decision the Japanese company commander could make at the moment.

What terrified the Japanese soldiers and their collaborators was that they couldn't see each other at all, so they couldn't find a target to shoot at.

But the other side continued to throw grenades at them.

What baffled the Japanese and their puppet troops most was that the enemy seemed to throw grenades incessantly, as if they didn't care about the cost.

In just a few minutes, at least two or three thousand grenades were thrown at them.

Even the Japanese weren't this extravagant, managing to equip themselves with so many grenades.

With the continuous explosion of grenades, the casualties of the Japanese soldiers and their puppet troops rose sharply.

Soon, the Japanese company commander realized that the gunfire on their side was getting weaker and weaker, which meant that fewer and fewer soldiers were still able to fight.

The attack on the Japanese and puppet troops was launched by a battalion of the First Regiment of the First Detachment of the New Fourth Army.

After Deputy Commander Luo agreed to let Long Fei's Longyan troops be responsible for attacking the city, while his troops would provide cover.

Long Fei suggested that, in order to prevent the Japanese and puppet troops from abandoning the city and fleeing, he hoped that Deputy Commander Luo would send a force to ambush the west side of Lai'an County.

Long Fei said that if the Japanese abandoned the city and retreated, the only possible route would be to Chuxian, which is west of Lai'an.

Deputy Commander Luo adopted Long Fei's suggestion and dispatched the First Battalion of the First Regiment of the First Detachment to set up an ambush.

Before setting off, Long Fei specially allocated 3,000 MARK2 hand grenades, all of which were given to the First Battalion, and assigned a platoon of soldiers to assist them in their operation.

This platoon of soldiers was equipped with five MG42 machine guns, while the other twenty-odd men were all armed with MP40 submachine guns.

Each of the more than 300 soldiers in the battalion could be allocated eight or nine grenades.

Long Fei also instructed that the New Fourth Army's weapons were outdated, so to reduce casualties, they should not fight the Japanese head-on, but use grenades instead.

Once the Japanese and puppet troops have been mostly wiped out, the platoon he sent will provide covering fire, and then everyone will carry out the final annihilation.

The battalion commander had never seen so many grenades in his entire life, and of course he didn't want too many casualties among his soldiers, so he carried out Long Fei's instructions completely.

After all three thousand grenades had been thrown, the battalion commander ordered the charge to be sounded, and then the platoon sent by Long Fei provided fire support and began to close the encirclement.

"Beep beep... tap tap tap tap... beep beep... tap tap tap tap..."

"Hiss hiss hiss... Tap tap tap..."

After a barrage of grenades from the First Battalion, only a dozen or so Japanese soldiers remained, while the puppet troops numbered thirty.

Upon hearing the enemy's bugle call to charge, the remaining puppet troops immediately knelt on the ground, raising their hands in surrender.

When the dozen or so Japanese soldiers saw that the puppet troops were about to surrender, they immediately turned their guns on them, ready to shoot them.

After several puppet soldiers were killed by the Japanese, the remaining puppet soldiers suddenly became courageous.

"You little devils, I'll fuck your mother."

"You damn Japanese devils, I'll fight you to the death!"

"Brothers, we're all going to die anyway. Killing one Japanese soldier before we die is enough, killing two is a bonus."

The puppet troops picked up the guns they had previously discarded and fired back at the Japanese soldiers.

At this moment, the puppet army battalion commander and the Japanese company commander also drew their pistols and fired at each other.

Unfortunately, the puppet army battalion commander's right hand was injured, so he could only hold the gun with his left hand and shoot, which obviously made him inaccurate.

As a result, he was shot in the right chest by the Japanese company commander. Just as the Japanese soldier was about to pull the trigger again, the Mauser pistol jammed.

"Hehehe, you little devils, shoot already! Why aren't you shooting...?"

The puppet army battalion commander scoffed as he forcefully raised his left hand, took a careful aim, and pulled the trigger of his pistol.

With a "bang," the shot hit the Japanese company commander squarely in the head.

"Cough cough... pfft pfft..."

The puppet army battalion commander was overjoyed to see that he had actually killed the Japanese company commander, but because he had been shot in the right lung, he started coughing violently and then began to vomit blood.

A moment later, the puppet army battalion commander's head lolled to the side, and he lost his breath.

Meanwhile, the puppet troops and Japanese soldiers who were exchanging fire were all shot and fell to the ground.

Those who were close together even wrestled and stabbed each other with bayonets.

Soon everything returned to calm, and the Japanese soldiers and their puppet troops all fell silent.

When the battalion commander led his soldiers and the platoon sent by Long Fei to rush in front of the Japanese and puppet troops, they found that none of them were alive.

"Damn it, dogs fighting, a mouthful of fur."

Upon seeing the scene before him, the battalion commander kicked the corpses of the Japanese soldiers and puppet troops while uttering contemptuous curses.