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

Kihei Miyoshi is asking Shiro Inoue about the situation.

Inoue Shiro was also completely bewildered, saying that when a large group began to sweep through the town, an explosion suddenly occurred.

Moreover, before he could even give the order to halt, a large contingent of soldiers suffered two to three hundred casualties.

The large group of Japanese soldiers were terrified. They stood there dumbfounded, not daring to move, anxiously waiting for the engineers to come and clear the mines.

At this moment, Kihei Miyoshi is still unaware of the seriousness of the problem.

He also simply believed that they had been ambushed and blocked by the Chinese army.

Moreover, judging from the two sturdy tanks, they should be remnants of the German-equipped divisions or the Tax Police Corps of the Chinese National Revolutionary Army.

Just as Miyoshi Kihei and Inoue Shiro were anxiously waiting for news of the mine clearance by the engineers, a soldier came running up to them, panting.

"Reporting to the regimental commander, the engineers unfortunately triggered a landmine while clearing mines. Of the ten engineers assigned to our regiment by the brigade, two died and eight were seriously wounded."

Kihei Miyoshi and Shiro Inoue were both shocked and dumbfounded.

"What?! Don't engineers have mine detectors? How could they trigger a landmine?"

"Report, we don't know the specifics."

Now that all ten engineers have been killed, Miyoshi Kihei suddenly felt his head buzzing and was in so much pain that it felt like it was going to explode.

Inoue Shiro then offered his own clever suggestion.

“Mr. Sanhao, the enemy has planted a large number of landmines in the town, and there are enemy troops lying in ambush outside the town.”

"We don't have any engineers to clear mines right now, and the enemy situation is unclear. Why don't we have the entire regiment withdraw from the town, find a way to bypass Taiping Town, and then call for reinforcements to sweep through Taiping Town again?"

After listening to this, Miyoshi Kihei thought about it carefully and felt that Inoue Shiro's suggestion was the most feasible at the moment.

"Order: All light and heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars, and infantry guns of the regiment shall provide cover and withdraw from Taiping Town along the original route, then proceed by detour."

At the same time, Long Fei also issued an order, and the troops quickly formed a solid blockade line in the east, north and west directions of Taiping Town.

Even now, Kihei Miyoshi still believes he is relying on powerful firepower for cover.

The entire regiment could successfully break through the blockade and even inflict heavy losses on the Chinese Nationalist army.

However, the reality left Kihei Miyoshi in utter despair.

The Japanese soldiers had just rushed out of Taiping Town when they were met with intense gunfire.

"Da da da... da da da..."

The Japanese were met by the MG34 machine guns of the special operations battalion soldiers defending the east side.

Rows of Japanese soldiers fell one after another, like leeks being harvested.

The Japanese light and heavy machine guns and grenade launchers were either taken out by sniper teams or blown to pieces by Tiger tanks.

As for the Japanese mortars and infantry guns, which were relatively well concealed, they successfully fired a round of shells.

However, since there was no clear target, it did not cause any damage to Long Fei's side.

To prevent his brothers from suffering unnecessary casualties under the Japanese artillery fire, Long Fei...

He urgently ordered the Wild Bee self-propelled artillery to conduct two rounds of artillery bombardment on the area east of Taiping Town.

The objective was to eliminate the Japanese artillery.

The power of the Wild Bee self-propelled artillery is exceptionally terrifying.

"Boom boom boom..."

After the deafening explosion, the eastern part of Taiping Town was completely shrouded in smoke and dust.

More than twenty shells fell, and not to mention the Japanese mortars and infantry guns, they were all reduced to ashes.

Even three or four hundred Japanese infantrymen were wiped out in the process.

Now, not only was Miyoshi Kihei completely dumbfounded, but even Inoue Shiro, who was always extremely arrogant and ruthless, was stunned.

They racked their brains trying to understand when the Nationalist army's artillery fire had become so powerful.

Seeing that it was impossible to leave Taiping Town, Miho Kihei had no choice but to order everyone to retreat back into the town.

After the Japanese soldiers retreated, Long Fei immediately ordered a ceasefire.

Long Fei's original goal was to slowly torture the Japanese soldiers with the "extinction formation."

At this moment, Miyoshi Kihei suddenly had a new idea. He thought that since they couldn't break out from the east of Taiping Town, they should try to break out from other directions.

He ordered the reconnaissance team to immediately survey the terrain surrounding Taiping Town so that he could make a final decision.

Upon receiving the order, the reconnaissance team members were so frightened that their legs went weak.

This isn't a reconnaissance mission; it's a suicide mission.

The town was riddled with landmines, and their only option now was to climb to the top of the town's buildings and survey the surroundings.

But that would mean crossing a minefield.

Those Japanese soldiers who were killed or wounded by landmines have been brought back and gathered together.

Medics are treating them.

The injuries on these wounded soldiers looked horrific; some had missing limbs or arms, while others had their waists mangled and bloody.

In the vast majority of Japanese soldiers' groins, besides the constant bleeding, the "key parts" were either missing or had become a lump of rotten flesh.

The horrific condition of the wounded put severe psychological pressure on the other Japanese soldiers, instilling in them a deep sense of fear.

But military orders are absolute, and the reconnaissance team had no choice but to risk their lives to carry out Miyoshi Kihei's orders.

Five Japanese scouts proceeded cautiously, and although they eventually completed their mission, only one of them returned safely.

Of the remaining four, two had their legs blown off and two were blown to pieces.

The Japanese scout, who had survived the ordeal, reported to Miyoshi Kihei with a sense of relief.

"Reporting to the platoon leader, Taiping Town is located right next to Yangcheng Lake to the south, with a road running through the town from east to west, and a large area of ​​paddy fields to the north."

After listening to this, Miyoshi Kihei concluded that the only way to break through was from the north or the west.

No matter which direction you choose, you must pass through half of Taiping Town.

This would undoubtedly send troops into the minefield.

In this difficult situation, Kihei Miyoshi decided to convene a meeting with the regimental chief of staff and officers of the rank of company commander and above to discuss the matter.

At the meeting, those who favored breaking out from the west gained the upper hand, since no one wanted to enter the difficult paddy fields and be used as a target for enemy marksmanship practice.

Once the direction of escape was decided, no one could come up with a good way to safely cross the minefield, or rather, to pass through safely with minimal cost.

Just as Miyoshi Kihei made up his mind to form a suicide squad and use soldiers as mine-clearing devices to open up a safe passage.

A company commander named Kenji Ono raised his hand and suggested it.

"Commander, I don't think it's necessary to form a suicide squad to clear the mines. We can collect the grenades from the regiment and use them to clear a path to detonate the mines planted by the enemy."

"Yoshi, Ono-kun, your suggestion is excellent and can greatly reduce casualties among our Empire's soldiers."

"As long as our 35th Regiment can get out of this predicament, I will definitely report to the brigade commander and ask for your commendation."

Kenji Ono is indeed quite intelligent; his suggestion is highly feasible and has a high success rate.

As the Japanese soldiers advanced westward, they threw grenades to clear a safe passage.

More than half an hour later, after throwing and using up more than a thousand grenades, all the Japanese soldiers finally reached the western exit of Taiping Town.

However, due to the special nature of the S-shaped bounding mine, more than two hundred Japanese soldiers were killed or injured by the detonated mines along the way.

By this point, the 35th Regiment of the Japanese army had already lost one-third of its troops.

Long Fei heard the explosions in the town extending westward, and judged that the Japanese were preparing to break through to the west again.

So he ordered the Tiger tanks and guards on the west side to drive the Japanese troops' protruding "turtle heads" back hard.