Songhu: Never Give Up

Chapter 329: Duel between Masters

59th Regiment Headquarters, gloomy
The battle of Lanfeng City gradually slipped out of the control of Colonel Itanishi and Colonel Morita, and although they now only deployed one wing, their results were minimal;
Colonel Morita no longer had the confidence he had before. Now the problem was placed in front of the two old Japanese devils, which triggered a conflict between them.

Colonel Itanishi was playing Tai Chi. Anyway, it was the Morita Unit that was fighting the defenders in the city. The later they entered the game, the less they would suffer.
Colonel Morita was no fool either. He had lost his patience and snorted coldly:

"Mr. Banxi, if you don't send the 59th Regiment to reinforce us, I will have no choice but to order the 15th Regiment to withdraw from Lanfeng City. Then you can go and explain to the division commander yourself!"

Colonel Itanishi had no choice but to agree:
"Morita-kun, please be patient. I will send the first and second battalions to reinforce you. The third battalion will escort the battalion headquarters and the heavy artillery regiment.
The First Heavy Artillery Regiment was ambushed by the Chinese before, so we have to be on guard against this."

Morita's expression looked better now, and he said in a slower tone:

“Itanishi-kun, I’m not forcing you. There are over 10,000 defenders in the city. The warriors of the Morita regiment are outnumbered and have a hard time fighting.
Lan Fengcheng must avoid using the tactic of adding fuel to the fire. Only by sending all five battalions can the Imperial Army win. "

Seeing that Colonel Morita agreed to his plan, Colonel Itanishi did not hesitate and immediately sent the First and Second Battalions into the battlefield. The two men also put aside their past grudges. After all, they were now tied to the same rope.

Captain Morita said anxiously:
"Itanishi-kun, we previously judged that the defenders in the city had lost their fighting spirit after the artillery fire, but now it seems that we took it for granted.
Although the guerrilla column had used up all its artillery shells and suffered heavy casualties in the artillery fire, their fighting spirit was not weakened in the slightest.

Even if the Imperial Army has deployed five battalions, there is still no guarantee of victory. Lanfeng City has not been able to break through. The division commander is under great pressure. Do you want to suggest giving up the attack on Lanfeng City and break out to the northeast with all your strength?"

Colonel Itanishi shook his head and said:
"It's useless. Once the arrow is shot, there is no turning back. The pride of the division commander will not allow him to voluntarily admit defeat. There will only be one result of this battle, and that is one side will be completely defeated!"

Kenji Doihara was once their idol, and it was he who started their dream journey of conquering China. A god cannot fall, so they can only keep fighting.

After realizing this, Morita's eyes became firm again, and he nodded heavily and said:
"Yue Qianli is known as the Tiger of China and the King of Street Fighting. Since there is no way to retreat, let our two regiments have a good meeting with the guerrilla column.
There can only be one winner in Lanfeng City!"

"Yoshi, I admire Morita-kun's bravery. The rise and fall of the Utsunomiya Division depends on this. We will fight to the death!"

Colonel Itanishi also made the final decision. Normally, they calculated the combat power of both sides as 7 to 1;
Even if the guerrilla column is powerful, if we cut it in half, a 3 to 1 ratio is no problem at all. The defenders have 2 people, and at least several thousand have been killed or wounded, which is exactly evenly matched with the five battalions. Now it depends on who can hold on to the end.

Lanfeng City, as the Japanese added two battalions of troops, the pressure on the defenders increased sharply, but it was still within the tolerance range;
The total strength of the First and Second Detachments before the war was about 1.4. More than 1500 people (two detachments) were killed or wounded in peripheral combat. When retreating, two battalions were left outside the city and suffered more than 2 casualties from the Japanese bombardment. That means there were only 1 people in the city when the street fighting broke out.

The Japs came in with 5 battalions, 8 to 5, and the defenders had an easy fight;

In order to confuse the Japanese, when their reinforcements arrived, Zhu Chi and Gao Zhisong ordered the troops to intentionally retreat more than a hundred meters, giving the Japanese unlimited loopholes.

The defenders' deliberate retreat boosted the morale of the Japanese, and with the addition of two battalions of fresh troops, the Japanese rushed in like chicken blood.
The battle once again entered a white-hot stage, everyone was fighting for their lives, no one was gaining much advantage, and the casualties on both sides were increasing.

Long Wenrui's sniper team also suffered casualties. They met their colleagues. Sergeant Sun Dayu, a team member, was shot in the forehead by a bullet from the opposite side and died after killing a Japanese machine gunner. Now there are only two of them left, but the hidden location of the Japanese has not been determined. Long Wenrui guessed that the enemy was hiding in the 2-story building opposite to the side;
The big building was the only commanding height that had survived in the vicinity. A squad had previously been holding out inside, but it was later breached by a squadron of Japanese soldiers. All the defenders died, but they also killed and wounded more than twenty Japanese soldiers.

Street fighting is like this, either you kill me or I kill you;

Although it was the first time for the Japanese soldiers of the 14th Division to fight a serious street battle, the veteran Japanese soldiers of the A-class divisions quickly adapted to the battlefield. The one-sided situation at the beginning rarely appeared. There was only a battle of wits and courage between the two sides, each relying on their own abilities.

The Japanese also learned how to fight in the street battles. After suffering many losses from snipers, they also selected a large number of sharpshooters to carry out sniping.

Many officers and machine gunners of the defending army fell at the hands of their guns, and Long Wenrui also met the opponent of his life - Lieutenant Takehiko Honda.

The two sides fought in this area for more than two hours, with casualties on both sides, and neither side was willing to retreat;

Honda Takeo also knew about Long Wenrui's existence. To be precise, he was sent by the captain to deal with Long Wenrui.

The reason was that Long Wenrui had already sniped and killed one of their squadron leaders, two squad leaders, two grenade launchers, and two machine gunners. The Japanese captain naturally could not tolerate such a powerful existence;
Lieutenant Honda had trained in the North China Front Army Special Operations Team but was eliminated. After returning to the brigade, he also trained a special operations team. Their goal in the city was to find the defenders' headquarters and snipe the commander.

Because Long Wenrui's outstanding performance angered the Japanese captain, he sent Lieutenant Honda over;

Lieutenant Honda had some opinions about the captain's outrageous actions. Asking him to deal with a small sniper from China was like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

Unfortunately, a higher-ranking official can crush a person, not to mention that the captain holds the power of life and death over the entire brigade. Lieutenant Honda did not dare to disobey orders, so he came with a sniper team.

Lieutenant Honda signaled his team member Junpei Sakamoto to wait for an opportunity to snipe the machine gunners or officers of the defending army, with the goal of luring Long Wenrui to shoot so that he could reap the benefits;

Junpei Sakamoto also knew that he was a bait, but he did not hesitate at all. He shot a Chinese officer who was commanding the battle, and the officer fell down.

Junpei Sakamoto was very cunning. He deliberately only injured the platoon leader Sun Changling and lured others to rescue him. In this way, he could snipe more Chinese people, forcing the Chinese snipers to shoot and creating opportunities for Lieutenant Honda.

When the medic Xiao Liu saw the platoon leader fall down after being shot, he immediately ran over to rescue him, but just as he ran out, he was shot in the head by Junpei Sakamoto and died;
Sun Changling immediately understood the Japs' intention and loudly stopped others from approaching him. Sakamoto Junpei arrogantly shot him again, breaking his other leg.

Long Wenrui knew that this was a conspiracy of the devils, but he still pulled the trigger and killed Sakamoto;

Lieutenant Honda showed a smile as if his conspiracy had succeeded. He had already locked onto Long Wenrui's location and was just waiting for him to make another move.

(End of this chapter)