Songhu: Never Give Up

Chapter 208: Destroying the Ushijima Brigade
When Han Xianyuan rushed into the brigade headquarters of Ushijima Man, there was no living Japanese soldier inside. They were either hacked to death by Lieutenant Colonel Oguchi or killed by the soldiers who rushed in from behind. His wish to kill a few Japanese soldiers with his own hands to satisfy his desire was dashed.

"Captain, this is the Japanese general's sword. This should be the headquarters of the 36th Brigade. We have caught a big fish."

Second Battalion Commander Huang Qi excitedly showed off to Han Xianyuan that they had destroyed the Japanese brigade headquarters, which was no ordinary military achievement.

The 524st Battalion of the th Regiment never returned to the base after defending the Sihang Warehouse. Later, a new battalion was rebuilt. They were in urgent need of a comeback.

Han Xianyuan was also very happy looking at the Japanese corpses on the ground. He took Ushijima Mitsuru's command knife, pulled it out, looked at it, and praised:
"Good knife! Collect them and hand them over to the brigade headquarters. Quickly clean up the battlefield. Every piece of paper from the brigade headquarters could be a treasure. Collect them all."

As the battalion commander, Huang Qi naturally knew the importance of the headquarters. Although the Japanese had smashed the radio station and destroyed many confidential documents before they rushed in, they still left a lot of them because of the tight time.
Huang Qi ordered everyone to gather together, and after taking down the brigade headquarters, he achieved significant progress. All that was left was to encircle and annihilate the remaining enemies piece by piece.

At this time, the two regiments of the 36th Brigade were struggling desperately, and many of them broke through, but most of the Japanese were divided and surrounded, including the 23rd Regiment Headquarters;
They retreated to a middle school. The students inside had stopped attending classes long ago. Only some teachers and staff were left. All of them were slaughtered by the Japanese. Colonel Sano Torata was like a mad beast. He killed any Chinese he saw. His hands were covered in the blood of the Chinese.

He seemed to have realized that his death was approaching, so he was full of murderous intent, and all he wanted to do was drag a few more people down with him.

"Your Excellency, the Chinese have launched a general attack. The flag guard captain asks if we can destroy the military flag?"

The squadron leader, Captain Goro Tsuchihashi, asked him in a desperate manner that only Tsuchihashi's squadron was left to guard the 23rd Regiment Headquarters, and they had suffered heavy casualties. In addition, there were only more than 200 personnel in the regiment headquarters, so they could not defend Yaohua Middle School at all.

Not every Japanese soldier can face death calmly, especially the senior Japanese officers. Although Sano Torata looks crazy, he is actually very scared inside and does not want to die.

Now the biggest problem is before him. Once the military flag is destroyed, as the commander of the regiment, he must be buried with the military flag.

If it is not destroyed, there is a possibility that the military flag will be lost like the 7th Regiment. Not only will he lose his life, but his family will also be disgraced. It will all mean death, so this decision is not easy to make.

While the old devils were hesitating, the 523rd Regiment had already launched a fierce attack on Yaohua Middle School. The several times advantage in manpower allowed them to fight with ease and their morale was high.

In front of the main teaching building, dozens of soldiers wearing German helmets formed a strict formation and launched an attack.

Rows of bullets were fired at them, and people kept falling down, but they were still fearless and continued to move forward;
The machine gun company's two mortars and six Maxim heavy machine guns had been providing fire support, suppressing the Japanese and making it unable to raise their heads. The number of casualties was also increasing rapidly, and from time to time a machine gun's firepower was destroyed.

The enemy's firepower was getting weaker and weaker. They were gradually unable to withstand the attack of the soldiers of the 523rd Regiment, and their defense line was shaky.
Yi Jin, the commander of the main attacking battalion, saw that this was a rare opportunity and ordered the entire battalion to put on bayonets and launch a general attack, with heavy firepower providing fire cover.

"Bugler, blow the charge and kill the devils!"

As the loud military bugle sounded, hundreds of soldiers from the entire battalion launched a general attack on the main building from all directions, and shouts of killing resounded through the sky.

In the 23rd Regiment Headquarters, Colonel Sano finally made up his mind and ordered the flag guard to destroy the flag. He tied a sanitary napkin on his head, ready to fight the Chinese to the death.

Of course, if the Chinese wanted to capture him when he was at his wit's end, he would not resist too much and would just do his best.

"Bakayaloo, hold on!"

"We can't let them just rush in!"

Colonel Sano frantically drove out all the people in the regiment headquarters, but he still couldn't stop the attack of the first battalion;

The officers and soldiers of the first battalion had long been bloodthirsty. They had lost many of their comrades at Yaohua Middle School, so they opened fire whenever they saw a yellow figure. The combat effectiveness of the Japanese in the regiment was far inferior to that of the field troops. They were defeated by the elite pursuit of the national army and were soon driven into the top floor.

Major Yi Jin held an MP28 submachine gun and looked at the Japanese with murderous intent. Colonel Sano also raised his command knife and glared at Yi Jin. A Japanese officer said in Chinese:
"Don't even think about capturing us. The Imperial Army of the Sixth Division will not surrender!"

Colonel Sano really wanted to kill him with one blow. These staff officers were really incapable of doing anything helpful and always caused trouble. He was the commander of the 23rd Regiment!

Just as he was about to say a few polite words, Yi Jin sneered and said:

"Since you are unwilling to surrender, I will send you back home."

There was a glimmer of fear in Colonel Sano's eyes. This was totally out of the ordinary. He should have at least given some advice.

The knife in his hand accidentally slipped out of his hand and fell to the ground. He didn't know if this counted as laying down the weapon, but Yi Jin's submachine gun went off;

A long string of bullets swept towards him. Colonel Sano hated the talkative staff officer until his death, feeling very resentful.

When the others saw that the battalion commander had opened fire, they didn't show any mercy and fired at the Japanese fiercely. In less than a minute, there was not a single Japanese soldier standing.
Yi Jin shouted coldly:
"What are you all standing there for? Give them the finishing blows and kill them on the battlefield!"

The company commander asked curiously:
"Battalion Commander, what if this devil really surrenders?"

Yi Jin chuckled and said:
"I don't understand the devil's language!"

The company commander had an expression that said, "I understand. It's better to just let the Japs die and leave things alone. The 262nd Brigade doesn't have that much free time to feed animals."

As the surrounded Japanese troops were eliminated one by one, the sound of gunfire in the center gradually died down, while fierce fighting broke out on both wings again;
The Japanese troops who were flanking on both wings had already arrived and engaged in a firefight with the troops left on guard by the 264th and 262nd Brigades. The two sides soon fell into fierce street fighting.

There was no fancy stuff this time, just street-by-street fighting, with casualties soaring on both sides.

This wave of offensive had to be blocked, otherwise they would have no room to move. The main 1st and 2nd detachments of the guerrilla column located in the front also joined the battle, and tens of thousands of people from both sides fought into a mess.

Yue Qianli followed the plan agreed upon by the Joint Command and led the three detachments and the headquarters straight to the river beach, which was already filled with defeated soldiers;

The officers had already left in advance by ferry, leaving tens of thousands of troops at the dock. The commander of the training corps, Lieutenant General Gui Yongqing, fled with only a few men.

Sun Yuanliang, the commander of the 72nd Army, also forgot about his troops and fled the purgatory of Jinling City with only the army headquarters;

Only the 74th Army was well organized. Under the command of its commander Yu Jishi, they used the ferries allocated to them to withdraw most of their main forces across the river.

As a student of the same term, Yu Liangzhen performed much better than Gui Yongqing, Huang Jie, Sun Yuanliang and others who were already scared out of their wits.

In addition, Song Xilian of the 78th Army also performed remarkable. Most of the main 36th Division was withdrawn across the river by them, leaving only one battalion behind, whose commander was Li Daomin.

(End of this chapter)