The War of Resistance Against Japan: Starting with a Calm View of Life and Death

In a blink of an eye, two days passed.

Captain Chida stood on the castle tower for an entire night.

The wind brushed against his face, but he didn't feel cold.

The three wells in the city had long since dried up, and the soldiers were fighting each other over the last bit of mud from the bottom of the wells.

"Commander-in-Chief." Chief of Staff Yoshino Yuto held a military water bottle in his hands. The water in the bottle was murky and had a strange smell. "Please have a sip."

Chida looked at the pot of water, his stomach churning, but he still took it and gulped it down.

He forced himself to swallow, suppressing his nausea. "How much water is left?"

"There's only enough water for the seriously wounded; the lightly wounded are almost out of water." Yoshino Yuto's voice trembled. "Commander, if this continues, we'll collapse on our own without the Eighth Route Army even needing to fight us."

Chida put the water bottle aside, drew his command sword, and pointed it at the city walls: "Break through! Break through tonight! Break through towards Yangfangkou! The Eighth Route Army there is just guerrillas!"

Late that night, the Japanese army concentrated all their light and heavy machine guns and fired wildly at the positions of the Independent Regiment in the west of the city to cover the infantry's charge.

On the position of the 1st Battalion of the Independent Regiment, Regiment Commander Li held the telephone receiver in his hand, listening to the report from the forward observation post, his face ashen.

"Those Japanese devils are insane! They're willing to risk lives to break through. Tell the battalion commander to send in the reserves. If they lose this position, he'll have to answer to us with his head!"

Zhou Jindong led his guerrillas to ambush in a reverse-sloping trench on the western outskirts of the city, only 300 meters away from the main position of the Independent Regiment.

"Dongzi, the Japanese are coming up!" Wang Quan lay down next to Zhou Jindong, the butt of his Type 96 machine gun against his shoulder, his eyes fixed on the dark figures in front of him.

The Japanese army rained shell-making cannons down on the Independent Regiment's position as if they were free, and the flashes from the exploding shells illuminated the night sky.

In the flash of the explosion, you could see hundreds of Japanese soldiers, bayonets at their sides, crouching low as they charged forward.

"Don't rush, wait until they enter the minefield." Zhou Jindong calmly stared ahead, slightly raising the muzzle of his Type 98 sniper rifle.

He was waiting, waiting for the moment when the Japanese soldiers would trigger the landmines.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The three loud bangs almost came in a series.

The first squad to charge triggered a series of mines that the guerrillas had deliberately laid.

Dirt mixed with bits of flesh flew into the air, and several Japanese soldiers were directly overturned by the blast wave.

"Fight! You think you can get out of here from Grandpa's? No way!"

At Zhou Jindong's command, the sniper rifle in his hand fired.

A hundred meters away, a Japanese officer who was wielding a sword suddenly jerked his head back, spraying red and white splattered all over the faces of the soldiers behind him.

Immediately afterwards, dozens of guerrilla rifles opened fire simultaneously.

At such close range, there was no need for much aiming; bullets swept across the Japanese flanks like water being poured.

The charging Japanese troops did not expect an ambush from their flank and rear, and their formation instantly fell apart.

Those in front were pinned down by the Independent Regiment's machine guns and couldn't raise their heads, while those on the flanks were being targeted by guerrilla snipers. They were caught in a dilemma.

"Baka! The flank! There are Eighth Route Army guerrillas on the flank!" a Japanese sergeant shouted, directing the machine gun squad to turn their guns and try to suppress Zhou Jindong and his men.

"Want to hit me? Too late!" Sun Erniu roared, pulled the pin on the grenade in his hand, and threw it out.

The newly set-up light machine gun hadn't even had a chance to fire when it was blown up by a grenade. The assistant gunner's torso was hanging from the gun mount, blood gushing out.

That night, the Japanese army launched three assaults, each of which was repelled.

As dawn approached, the highway west of the city was littered with the corpses of Japanese soldiers, and the wounded who were not dead were wailing on the ground, but no one dared to help them.

Chida stood atop the city wall, watching the retreating remnants of his army, his command sword trembling. In just one night, more than two hundred men had perished.

The next day, the Japanese army learned its lesson and no longer charged head-on. Instead, they used Type 92 infantry guns and mortars to bombard the guerrilla positions in the east of the city.

Shells rained down on Zhou Jindong's position.

"Get into the bomb shelter! Quickly!" Zhou Jindong kicked Wang Quan into the foxhole, and then crawled in last himself.

Just as we entered the cave, a shell exploded not far from the entrance.

The blast wave shattered the wooden supports at the cave entrance, and soil cascaded down, burying half of the entrance.

"Damn it, those Japanese artillery fire is fierce." Wang Quan spat out the dirt in his mouth, hugged the machine gun to his chest, and said, "Dongzi, are we just going to stand here and take this?"

"The shelling is the prelude to the breakout." Zhou Jindong patted the dirt off his head and looked out through the observation hole. "The Japanese will definitely charge again after the shelling, this time it will be at the east gate."

Sure enough, half an hour later, the shelling extended.

A Japanese company, taking advantage of the smoke, made its way towards the riverbank east of the city.

Chida's plan was shrewd: the east of the city was defended by guerrillas, who were few in number and had cover on the riverbank. As long as they could break through, they could retreat along the river to Yangfangkou.

But he forgot that Zhou Jindong hadn't had a moment's rest these past two days, and had already turned the riverbank into a death zone.

The Japanese troops had just reached the riverbank and hadn't even had a chance to catch their breath when the sand beneath their feet suddenly collapsed.

That was a trap dug by Zhou Jindong's men, with sharpened bamboo skewers and bayonets stuck at the bottom.

"ah--!"

Screams rose and fell. A dozen Japanese soldiers fell into the trap, their bodies pierced through with bamboo skewers, hanging at the bottom like candied hawthorns, struggling.

"shooting!"

Zhou Jindong shot and blew the head off a machine gunner who had just emerged from the smoke.

On the high ground on both sides, the machine gun emplacements that had been laid in ambush opened fire simultaneously.

Crossfire completely blocked the riverbank.

Japanese soldiers fell in droves like wheat being harvested, their blood staining the river red.

Chida watched this scene through the telescope and closed his eyes in despair.

Day three.

The city has been completely cut off from water.

The Japanese army began killing horses, and even fought over horse meat.

Because the wounded soldiers had no water to drink, their wounds became infected and festered, and the whole county was filled with a strange smell.

Chida sat in the command post, his lips chapped and peeling, his eyes unfocused.

He knew that if they didn't break through, the entire regiment would die here without a fight.

"Commander..." Yoshino Yuto was so hungry that he looked emaciated, with sunken eyes. "South Gate... It seems that the Eighth Route Army at the South Gate has changed shifts, the gunfire has become much less frequent."

Chida suddenly opened her eyes: "Really?"

"It's true! The scouts just reported that there were only sporadic sniper shots at the south gate, no heavy machine guns."

Chida struggled to his feet: "Water...we need water. There's a small ditch outside the south gate, it's polluted, but it's better than nothing. Send someone to fetch water, and while they're at it, test the Eighth Route Army's firepower!"

It was a crazy decision, but it was the only way out.

Chida selected three of the most elite soldiers, all of whom were agile veterans.

They were given three water jugs and ordered to bring back water within half an hour, while also finding out the troop deployment outside the south gate.

These three Japanese soldiers were fighting desperately.