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

In early winter, the night wind was already quite biting.

But all the soldiers were unusually excited about the upcoming battle, and the cold seemed insignificant to them.

The town of Xin'an was now eerily quiet, devoid of the noise and commotion of the Japanese soldiers.

Long Fei silently looked at his watch. When the hour, minute, and second hands overlapped at the twelve o'clock position, he raised his hand and gave the order.

"Artillery fire covered Xin'an Town."

Ten Tiger tanks, concealed to the north and south of Xin'an Town, were the first to fire.

Immediately afterwards, twelve Wild Bee self-propelled guns began firing volleys at Xin'an Town.

This was specially arranged by Long Fei. Once the Tiger tanks and self-propelled guns started shelling, the Japanese soldiers in Xin'an Town would definitely be awakened.

After these Japanese soldiers ran out of the house, we used rocket artillery to give them a carpet bombing.

"Boom... Boom..."

Flowers bloomed everywhere in Xin'an Town, and houses collapsed one after another under the enormous explosive force of the shells.

After the shelling began, the Japanese soldiers in Xin'an Town were completely confused and disoriented by the bombardment, not even having time to put on their coats.

With one hand carrying his clothes and shoes and the other holding a gun, he ran outside in a panic and lay down on the spot.

Even so, countless Japanese soldiers were still blown into the air by artillery shells.

Guo Qideng, who never slept much, was sitting in a room in a landlord's mansion, looking at maps.

He was thinking about the next target for tomorrow's advance and was very optimistic that it would take at most four or five days for his Guoqi detachment to reach the outskirts of Jinling City.

Just as Guo Qideng revealed a smug smile, he drew a circle around Jinling City on the map with a red pencil.

At this moment, Long Fei's side began shelling.

The earth-shattering, deafening explosion terrified Guo Qideng.

He jumped up and strode out of the house into the yard.

Seeing several soldiers lying in the yard, he hurriedly shouted.

"Is it the Chinese army firing artillery? Find out what's going on immediately!"

They moved into the landlord's compound together, and the Japanese squad that served as Guo Qideng's guards was unfortunately very unlucky.

A shell landed right inside their house, killing most of them instantly and collapsing the house.

Several Japanese soldiers who survived the attack lay on the ground, still in shock. With the constant explosions, they couldn't hear Kunihizo's orders at all.

At this moment, Guo Qideng clearly sensed that something was wrong, and he also knew that the orders could no longer be conveyed.

In a moment of desperation, Guo Qideng saw a well in the yard and immediately ran over without hesitation.

Seeing the thick, sturdy rope attached to the well frame, he didn't dare to delay for a moment. He grabbed the rope and slid down, then stepped into a depression in the well wall, stopping himself in the middle of the well.

Guo Qideng's move was very clever. As long as the shells didn't land right inside the well, he could escape the overwhelming bombardment.

Just after Guo Qideng took refuge in the well, the first salvo of 160 rockets fired from ten Katyusha rocket launcher vehicles landed in Xin'an Town.

Although it was dark, from a distance, one could see that Xin'an Town was completely shrouded in dust and thick smoke, as seen in the flashes of the exploding shells.

Thanks to the help of soldiers from the New First Battalion and the 528th Regiment, ammunition was loaded.

Therefore, the loading time for the Katyusha rocket launcher, which originally required seven or eight minutes, has now been reduced to three or four minutes.

Moreover, during this brief reloading interval, Tiger tanks, Wespe self-propelled guns, and M2 mortars continued to bombard Xin'an Town relentlessly.

Thus, after Katyusha fired three rounds of rockets, half of the more than 6,000 Japanese soldiers in the Guoqi Detachment in Xin'an Town were wiped out.

Although the remaining Japanese soldiers were stunned by the bombing, they were not stupid. In order to save their lives, they all chose to flee out of the town.

At this point, the Japanese soldiers involuntarily split into two groups, one heading south of the town and the other heading north of the town.

During their escape, shells kept exploding among the Japanese soldiers, leaving countless corpses along the way. Finally, this group of Japanese soldiers heading north escaped Xin'an Town.

Before the Japanese soldiers could even catch their breath, they discovered that five tanks were waiting for them not far ahead.

At this point, the special forces soldiers stopped firing their cannons and instead used the MG34 machine gun mounted on the Tiger tank to engage the enemy.

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

Bullets, trailing streaks of light, shot towards the Japanese soldiers in the darkness.

Before the Japanese soldiers at the forefront could even react, a large number of them fell to the ground.

The Japanese soldiers behind them quickly lay down to avoid machine gun fire.

But at that moment, five tanks charged forward while firing.

The Japanese soldiers knew that if they didn't retreat back to the town immediately, even if they could dodge bullets, they wouldn't be able to escape being crushed by tanks.

Seeing the Japanese soldiers fleeing back into the town in a panic, the Tiger tanks stopped advancing and continued to bombard the town with their tank guns.

The group of Japanese soldiers heading south, led by Jiro Yamada, suffered an even more tragic fate.

The Japanese soldiers not only had to face the blockade of five Tiger tanks, but also the barrage of more than a thousand automatic rifles and submachine guns.

In this direction, Long Fei assigned Liu Yuqing and Zhu Ci to lead the New First Battalion and the 528th Regiment to defend.

Furthermore, Long Fei equipped them with M1 Garand rifles, M1A1 Thompson submachine guns, and MP40 submachine guns.

In the blink of an eye, hundreds of Japanese soldiers were riddled with bullets.

Yamada Jiro was also hit in the left arm. In excruciating pain and seeing no hope of breaking through, he could only painfully order the Japanese soldiers to retreat back into Xin'an Town.

Long Fei didn't want his brothers to rush into Xin'an Town and engage in close combat with the Japanese, thus causing unnecessary casualties.

In his heart, his brothers' lives were far more precious than bullets and shells.

"Pass down the order: don't be stingy with shells, bomb Xin'an Town to the ground!"

And so, the Guoqi Detachment was subjected to artillery fire for another half hour until Long Fei called a halt.

Of the Japanese Kuniki Detachment, less than one in ten are still alive.

Guo Qideng hid in the well for more than half an hour. Although he was holding onto the rope with both hands, his legs were already numb and trembling.

After hearing that the shelling had stopped, Guo Qideng used all his strength to finally climb out of the well.

Although Guo Qideng anticipated that his detachment would suffer heavy losses under prolonged shelling.

But he would never believe that the detachment of more than 6,000 people is now less than one-tenth of its former size.

Moreover, most of them were seriously injured.

As for Yamada Jiro, he couldn't escape the shelling for half an hour. He was hit by five or six pieces of shrapnel and bled to death.

After the shelling stopped, Liu Yuqing and Zhu Ci led their respective troops into Xin'an Town to carry out the final cleanup.

Long Fei had already announced that the Longyan troops did not need to take prisoners of the Japanese.

Therefore, the soldiers of the New First Battalion and the 528th Regiment indiscriminately shot every Japanese soldier they saw, whether dead or alive.

Within an hour, the New First Battalion and the 528th Regiment thoroughly searched Xin'an Town until they confirmed that not a single Japanese soldier was still alive.