Songhu: Never Give Up

Chapter 146 The Ninth Division is forced into a corner

"Your Excellency, the 36th Regiment called and said they have broken through the Chinese blockade, annihilated more than a thousand enemies, and are heading straight for the northern Sichuan route!"

Nakagawa Hiro finally brought good news to Yoshika Ryosuke. He waved his fist excitedly and said loudly:

"Mr. Nakagawa, this proves that our previous judgment was correct. Yue Qianli's troops simply cannot sustain such a costly street fight. He is overestimating his own capabilities!

If I were in command, I would never waste precious troops in street fighting;
Yue Qianli is still too naive. He thinks that he can become a famous general just because he won a battle against the Seventh Regiment with conspiracy and trickery. War is far more cruel than he imagined!"

Nakagawa Hiromi saw Yoshika Ryosuke finally cheer up and followed his words and said:
"Your Excellency, the division commander, it is said that old ginger is still wise. Yue Qianli is not on the same level as you. It is time to let the 527th Regiment see the true strength of the Wu Division!"

"Yoshi, what Nakagawa said is absolutely right. I will order the 19th and 35th Infantry Regiments to intensify their offensive and break through the Chinese resistance in one fell swoop.
Don't be afraid of casualties. There are always casualties in war. It is their honor as warriors to die for the empire and His Majesty!"

Yoshika Ryosuke never took other people's lives seriously. There were only two days left before the Tenth Army landed in Hangzhou Bay. The feast was about to begin, and the Ninth Division could not miss the carnival of encircling and annihilating hundreds of thousands of elite Chinese troops.

Only by destroying the main force of China and capturing Jinling City can the shame of the Seventh Regiment be washed away and he can turn things around.

In order to grasp this only life-saving straw, he would not even frown even if two or three thousand more Japanese soldiers died in battle. To a commander of his level, soldiers were just a string of numbers.

The Japanese intensified their offensive, and the main force of the 527th Regiment consciously gave way to the main road. Apart from seizing the opportunity to launch a counterattack, there was no other bright spot. The 35th Regiment and the 19th Regiment successively broke through the defense line of the 527th Regiment, and the large-scale street fighting between the two sides came to an end;

Both regiments reported their victories to the division headquarters in a high-profile manner, with the number of enemy troops killed being more exaggerated than the other. If the number of enemy troops killed by the 36th Regiment was added, the 527th Regiment had been "completely wiped out".

Although Yoshika Ryosuke had some doubts, he still chose to believe them. The more enemies they killed, the more brilliant the results would be.

He said to Nakagawa Hiroshi with a cheerful face:

"Mr. Nakagawa, it seems that the rumors are true. There is more than one 527th Regiment in the encirclement. The Chinese are playing tricks again this time. Their strength should be more than 8.

Now, nearly 5 people have been annihilated by the imperial army, and Yue Qianli has at most 3 people left. I tell you, if the battle ends within three days, I will take you to Jinling City for a carnival!"

When the staff officers of Nakagawa Hirokazu's division headquarters heard about the carnival in Nanjing, their excited eyes glowed with the green light that only wild animals can have;
They thought they would never be able to visit Jinling City in this lifetime, but unexpectedly, things turned out to be auspicious. This was all due to the care of the head of the apprenticeship group, so they all vied with each other to flatter him.

Yoshika Ryosuke was very pleased with the result, and finally cleared the haze in his heart, and shouted:
"Gentlemen, it's time to restore the glory of the Ninth Division. Take down the headquarters building and leave no one alive!"

The devils cheered like a group of demons dancing wildly.

At the headquarters building, the 36th Regiment arrived first, but they did not rush to attack. Instead, they launched peripheral operations in battalion units. According to Yoshika Ryosuke's request, all Chinese people within a 5-kilometer radius were to be eliminated and killed without mercy.

Fortunately, all the citizens in the Chinese area had fled to the concession. Only a small number of elderly people were unwilling to leave even at the cost of death. These people were eventually killed by the Japanese because they thought the Japanese were too kind.

In Shanghai, there were Westerners watching. If it were somewhere else, massacres would be common. These were a group of devils from hell.

Not long after, the 35th Regiment and the 19th Regiment also arrived at the combat area. The 35th Regiment was also on guard at the periphery as planned, while the 19th Regiment was responsible for the main attack on the headquarters building, while the 9th Mountain Artillery Regiment and the 9th Engineer Regiment cooperated with the 19th Infantry Regiment in combat.

The 527th Division surrounded the headquarters building. Yoshika Ryosuke made a harsh statement through the Asahi Shimbun that he would capture the Marine Corps headquarters within three days, annihilate the main force of the th Regiment, and eliminate Yue Qianli.

The safety of the 527th Regiment concerned thousands of people. Any newspaper with news about the 527th Regiment would be sold out, especially in the concession.

"Sell the newspaper, sell the newspaper, Yoshika Ryosuke threatened to break into the headquarters building within three days and wipe out the 527th Regiment!"

"Extra, Extra, the 9th Division claims to have wiped out the outer garrison. Commander Yue only led a thousand men to retreat to the headquarters building."

“In the Nickname Department, Matsui Iwane said that the shame of the 527th Regiment could only be washed away with the blood of the soldiers of the th Regiment;
As long as the 527th Regiment is annihilated, the th Regiment can be rebuilt!"

In the Yuelai Teahouse in the concession, a young voice exclaimed:
"Do you still have any shame in your daily life?

They once boasted that if the wing flag was captured, the entire wing would be permanently disbanded, and now they are spreading rumors that they want to rebuild it, but we firmly refuse to agree."

Another middle-aged man in a suit said disdainfully:
“What’s the point if you don’t agree?

The Japanese are a powerful country. I have studied in Japan before. The gap between the two sides is at least a hundred years!

If China goes to war with the Japanese, it will be a way to its own destruction. It is better to give up resistance and pursue peace--" "Bullshit about peace being the most precious thing, that's surrender!
Before the devils withdraw from China, anyone who dares to talk about peace is a traitor! "

The young student who had spoken earlier interrupted the middle-aged man indignantly, and the others followed suit. Some of the young and energetic ones were ready to roll up their sleeves and beat him up, which frightened the middle-aged man and he quickly said:
"We are in the Republic of China now, we cannot punish people for their words. I am also doing this for the good of China. If we continue to fight, our country will be destroyed!
Don’t you see that the Japanese can wipe out a regiment and immediately form one, but Commander Yue and his men were surrounded by the Japanese in the headquarters building. Did the National Government send troops to rescue them?
Three days at most—"

The middle-aged man was interrupted by a man who looked like an old soldier, who then said righteously:
"Captain Yue is not someone that a scum like you can curse!
After drinking foreign ink for a few days, even his bones have become soft. With the character of the Japanese, they still want to eliminate Commander Yue. It is unknown who will eliminate whom by then. "

"Sell newspapers, sell newspapers, Captain Yue is calling on Ji Jialiangsuke, come over if you have the guts!"

"Extraordinary, Extraordinary! The 527th Regiment is challenging the th Division!"

Everyone gathered around excitedly, and the newspapers in the newsboy's hands were snatched away, leaving him with a handful of colorful banknotes.

"It's really insulting! How can we, as scholars, take action? We are not soldiers like Yue Qianli!"

The middle-aged man who got beaten could only rub his eye sockets which were beaten into a pig's head, and consider himself unlucky. The man who beat him had two scars on his face, and it was obvious that he was not someone to be trifled with.

There weren't many entertainment programs in this era, so the explosive news that Commander Yue challenged the Ninth Division alone became the focus of discussion among countless people.

The Chinese people have always admired such lone heroes. Stories like Guan Yu taking the head of a general amidst a million soldiers and Zhao Zilong riding in and out seven times alone have been passed down for thousands of years. Now, there is another topic in the concession - Yue Qianli's battle against the Japanese Ninth Division!

"Bagayalu! Fire and blow them to death."

After reading the newspaper, Yoshika Ryosuke angrily issued an order to attack. Dozens of guns of the 9th Mountain Artillery Regiment poured bullets towards the headquarters building.

If anger could kill, Yue Qianli and the defenders in the building would be killed instantly.

The firepower of the division level was indeed not comparable to that of the regiment. Just a dozen Type 92 infantry guns brought a lot of pressure to the defenders.

Rows of 70mm armor-piercing shells were fired at the front door of the building, quickly blasting open several gaps.

Although the artillery battalion also had 12 mortars, mountain artillery, and rocket launchers, Yue Qianli did not order a counterattack;

There are only more than 100 shells left for the rocket launcher, which were produced by the supply team working overtime. They are only enough for two salvos and are to be saved for the critical moment to save lives.

The mountain artillery had very few shells, all of which were captured. On average, each artillery had only a dozen shells, and one less shell was needed for each one fired.
He only had plenty of mortar shells, but he didn't want to be exposed too early. He wanted the Japanese to blow a gap so that their infantry would swarm up and the flying thunder artillery company ambushed in the ruins on the top floor would come in handy.

They are all disposable and will be thrown away after use. They are used to consume the Japanese troops and artillery fire. It is worth it to exchange the Japanese lives for gasoline barrels.

After the Japanese finished their artillery preparation, the Feilei Artillery Company quietly carried the gun barrels to the top floor and placed them on the ruins. If you didn't look closely, you would think they were scrap.

The 19th Infantry Regiment is the main force of the th Division and one of the earliest regiments formed by the Japanese Army. It has strong combat effectiveness and rich battlefield experience.
As soon as the artillery preparation was completed, the Japanese sent out a squadron to launch a tentative attack. They were arranged in a strict battle formation and jumped up and down to charge towards the headquarters building. These were all used to attract the firepower of the defenders.

Yue Qianli would not be fooled by them. A squadron could not pose any threat to the building's defense system, so he only sent a platoon to play with the devils.

That's right, it's just "playing". The Japanese are as slippery as loaches and only hang around a hundred meters away. Some people with good marksmanship in the building shoot them with cold guns, piecemeal, changing shooting positions after each shot, and killing one at a time.

"Baka, the Chinese are so cunning!"

Captain Ishino Nagayasu cursed angrily, then waved his hand, and the skirmish line cautiously advanced another dozen meters;
The defenders still ignored them and just fired cold shots at them, using them as targets for training.

Previously, each battalion had given a lot of combat backbones to the artillery battalion, including dozens of sharpshooters, especially Li Jie. He was worried about Yue Qianli's safety, so he gave almost all of the dozen or so sharpshooters who had been tempered in actual combat in the battalion headquarters to the artillery battalion.

These sharpshooters have now become the nightmare of the Japanese soldiers in Ishino's squadron. Half of the squadron has been wiped out without much fighting.
Captain Ishino knew that he couldn't go on like this. The division commander had boasted that he could capture the building in three days, and this kind of low-intensity battle was exactly what the defenders wanted.

"Warriors, kill the chicken!"

Ishino finally lost his patience and ordered the Japanese to charge towards the building. When they were about to rush to the gap, hundreds of captured melon grenades fell from the sky, scaring Captain Ishino so much that his soul almost left his body.

He only had time to roll into the bomb crater, and then a series of explosions sounded, and more than half of the Japanese were blown down. Captain Ishino's heart was bleeding.

(End of this chapter)