Chapter 40 Someone Wants to Witness History

Standing on the third floor of the relatively solid building that he used as a temporary headquarters, he could clearly see the tall and conspicuous building. Through the telescope, he could even clearly see the figures of Chinese soldiers in dark blue uniforms on the roof.

"Inform everyone not to easily reveal their whereabouts.

Each infantry squad should stand by after approaching 300 meters. The heavy machine gun squad should find a bunker on the spot to build a firepower point. The infantry artillery squad should build a position 100 meters behind our headquarters."

Beicang Mandu put down the telescope and ordered the signalman around him.

The confidence of the Japanese captain was not based on imagination.

For this operation, Captain Yin Teng of the Third Infantry Battalion, where he was, had high hopes for him and assigned him a squad with four heavy machine guns and a battalion-exclusive artillery squad.

The firepower of the four heavy machine guns is comparable to that of an infantry battalion of the Chinese army, and the two indestructible infantry guns can ignore the pitiful fortifications of the Chinese.

What kind of building can withstand the attack of the Empire's 70mm caliber direct-fire cannon? After breaking through the pitiful shell of the Chinese, which was not strong enough, the Chinese who escaped from it could only scream in vain under the heavy machine gun fire.

Fighting is so simple.

That is, Kitakura Mandu, who had just issued the military order, was very unhappy.

It was not because of the Chinese defenders who had already begun to be alert, but because of the Chinese civilians who were only a hundred meters away from him.

The loud shouting of "The devils are coming!" made the muscles on the face of the Japanese captain twitch in horizontal stripes.

Although I know that this name has a long history, it is probably the first time that a group of Chinese people shouted like this in front of me.

If possible, he even had the urge to set up a heavy machine gun and kill all those lowly Chinese civilians.

But the Japanese captain could only bear it.

When it was discovered that the main force of the Chinese army was retreating and the main force of the Empire would enter the Zhabei area of ​​Shanghai, General Matsui Iwane, commander of the Shanghai Expeditionary Force, convened a military meeting attended by major-level officers.

The meeting deliberately emphasized that the empire's current priority is to conquer China. It is not yet capable of fighting a full-scale war with China while fighting with Western countries. The concessions of Western countries must not be easily invaded.

He could not and dared not destroy the strategy of the empire's headquarters for his own anger.

So he could only order the entire army to ignore the Chinese civilians who were only a hundred meters away and reminded the Chinese defenders with a tsunami sound and advance at full speed.

Since the Chinese like unrealistic fantasies so much, let him Bei Cang Mandu completely shatter this fantasy.

No, not just shatter, but also make them despair. He will shoot those deep blues one by one in the ruins of the building in front of those Chinese.

He Bei Cang Mandu will represent the empire and let the weak Chinese understand that all their resistance is in vain, and they don't deserve to have fertile land.

It can be said that before the sun jumped out of the horizon, the Japanese captain commanding more than 200 elite soldiers was absolutely in high spirits.

Even the empire is ready to represent.

Perhaps it was not just the Japanese captain who was the commander. Before the battle, all the Japanese on the left wing of the Sihang Warehouse thought so.

As the Japanese 36th Infantry Regiment's military reporter Fukuyama Shuichi wrote in his diary that day:

"Today is October 27, 1937. The morning glow before dawn in Songhu, China is very bright. At that moment, I remembered the seaside of my hometown Kobe. I heard neat and powerful footsteps. I knew that it was the 3rd Infantry Battalion, the 1st Infantry Company, and more than 200 imperial officers and soldiers were about to set off.

The remnants of the Chinese were entrenched in a building and resisted stubbornly. They will crush the enemy together with the 1st Infantry Battalion of the 36th Infantry Regiment of the 9th Division.

And I will follow them, use my camera and pen to record the heroic moments of the imperial warriors, watch them capture the last position of Songhu, China, and witness history!"

Fukuyama Shuichi may regret using "witness history" as a footnote to his diary.

Because history, like a woman who doesn't follow the rules, always gives people surprises or shocks in the inadvertent and ordinary water!

Anyone who has studied history knows it.

. . . . . . .

The Japanese captain, who was so high-spirited that he could represent the Empire of Japan, simply ordered his three fully staffed infantry squads to stop hiding their bodies and approach at full speed.

Kitakura Mandu, who has rich combat experience, understands that it is actually safer to approach the battlefield closer than at a distance.

The Chinese's trump card has actually been exposed. They have at least one 20mm machine gun and four mortars, which are their most powerful firepower. There may be some hidden ones, but there are definitely not many more.

That is already the limit of heavy firepower that an ordinary infantry regiment of the Chinese can have.

But that cannot be ignored. The two infantry squadrons on the front battlefield withdrew quickly without almost any resistance, which is proof of this.

The penetration of the 20mm machine gun was too strong, and almost no temporary field fortifications could resist it. The vertical mortar was even more painful. Except for fortifications with logs and steel plates as roofs, people hiding in trenches might also be sent to see Amaterasu by the nearly vertical shells.

However, this weapon also had its flaws, especially when it was mounted on a tall building roof. The firing range of the machine gun could hardly pose much threat within 400 meters, unless they dared to mount the gun to the edge of the roof, but that would undoubtedly become a target for heavy machine guns and even grenade launchers. He wished the Chinese would do such a stupid thing.

Mortars also have the shortcoming of gun range. The closer the distance, the safer it is.

Therefore, Beicang Mandu, who took the initiative to move his headquarters forward 150 meters and entered an abandoned building again, sent an infantry squad to start a tentative attack on the Sihang Warehouse.

On the two wings of the 54-man Japanese infantry squad, there were four heavy machine guns and six light machine guns that had already built field bunkers. What gave the Japanese the strongest confidence was naturally the killer weapon---two infantry guns.

The two infantry guns had already built field bunkers 700 meters away. As long as the Chinese heavy firepower dared to open fire and expose themselves, the two infantry guns would open fire. However, at a straight-line distance of 700 meters, the direct-aiming infantry gun's ability to break defenses would definitely make the Chinese despair.

Obviously, Beicang Mandu did not have detailed information about the Sihang Warehouse. In fact, not only did he not have it, but the 3rd Division Headquarters, which was entering the Zhabei area, did not have it either.

No matter how powerful the Japanese intelligence system was, it was impossible to record every building in Songhu in detail. Perhaps on the front battlefield, Toyota Hide had already noticed the solidity of the building through the bombardment of his own infantry artillery, but Kitakura Mandu was too determined. He took the lead in launching the attack before Toyota Hide's signalman informed him.

As for the field radio, the Japanese army was actually a pity. This kind of precious thing was only assigned to the infantry battalion level.

Kitakura Mandu, the captain of the squadron, naturally did not have this treatment. If he wanted to communicate with his superiors, he had to rely on the two legs of the signalman.

To put it bluntly, the Japanese army's equipment was awesome, but compared with China, which had just overthrown feudal rule, and compared with Western countries that had experienced two industrial revolutions, they just relied on their courage.

On the wall on the left wing of the building, the Chinese defenders chiseled out more than a dozen shooting holes in disorder, and there were fortifications built with sandbags under the floor. There were at least a dozen soldiers hiding in the fortifications built with sandbags and logs.

When the Japanese infantry squad advanced tactically to more than 200 meters toward the building, light machine guns and rifles began to fire from the firing holes and barricades in the building.

This was a normal phenomenon. When the light machine guns of the Chinese defenders began to fire, the four heavy machine guns on the two wings of the Japanese army responsible for covering and the six light machine guns approaching 300 meters also began to roar and suppress.

The six grenade launcher teams belonging to the infantry squadron also hid in the temporary shelters more than 300 meters away and tried their best to blast enough grenades at the roof and the fortifications downstairs.