Songhu: Never Give Up

At 4 p.m., the shrill anti-aircraft whistle sounded, and the sky above Heishifuda was once again covered by war clouds, with dense black spots pressing in from the northeast;
Soon the sun was blocked out over the town of Heishifuda, and dark clouds covered the sun. A disaster imposed on the town by an invasion was about to come...

Fortunately, the defenders had already evacuated the residents of Heishidu Town, otherwise the consequences would have been even more tragic.

Bombs rained down from the sky, and the thick smoke from the explosions engulfed the entire town. Countless houses were destroyed, and hundreds of years of accumulated wealth were destroyed in an instant. This was the atrocities of the invaders. Their existence was to destroy all the beauty of the human world...

The defenders silently endured the ravages in their bunkers or fortifications. From time to time, a bunker was directly hit, and the soldiers hidden inside, along with the bunker, returned to the dust and merged with the land they had defended with their lives.
Those who are still alive continue to fight. The Chinese people will never be intimidated by the use of force. As long as they are alive, they will fight the devils to the death and never give up!
"Boom boom boom..."

"boom………"

He didn't know how long it had been, it seemed like a lifetime had passed, Du Mingkun was glad that he was still alive, that was enough;
When the whistle sounded again, Du Mingkun roared:
"The Japs are coming, fuck them!"

When Du Mingkun just rushed into the bunker, he saw densely packed boats rushing onto the river beach, thousands of Japanese soldiers jumping into the river beach, and then rushing towards the river bank in a black mass;
The Japanese once again launched a fierce attack on Heishifa, deploying 2 people at a time, which was the limit of their transportation capacity. They wanted to rely on human wave tactics to overwhelm the defenders' positions.

Keita Koguchi finally survived until the arrival of the main force, but he was not in a hurry to get up, because he knew that the magical Chinese people would never be completely wiped out;

Rushing to the front means death. He is no longer the fool who would risk his life for a single sentence of "God Bana". He just wants to live until the end of the war.

Du Mingkun was waiting for this moment. He pulled the trigger to the bottom, and more than a dozen hot bullets flew out of the chamber, spraying the group of Japanese soldiers with the call of death, and knocked down three or four of them in an instant;
The God of Death at Heishifur is still so sharp. I want to rush past his gun and save my life first.

The high stability of the Type 92 heavy machine gun allowed him to achieve success with every shot. There were too many Japanese soldiers rushing up the riverbank, so he only needed to shoot based on his feeling;

When he ran out of bullets, the secondary fire would provide him with them. The two of them cooperated very well, like an efficient meat grinder, grinding the Japanese into meat paste one by one.

As the main fort of the Heishidu defense line, they were under tremendous pressure. Several heavy machine guns on the other side of the Guizi River had been suppressing them, with shrapnel flying everywhere. If the shooting holes had not been larger on the outside and smaller on the inside, and the shrapnel had not been blocked by the trapezoidal slope, Du Mingkun might have been sacrificed several times.

He always believed that his life was enough for him and that bullets would avoid him. His machine gun almost became a nightmare for the Japanese.

Within 200 meters in front of the bunker, there were no less than 50 Japanese corpses lying down. The dense crowds made the Japanese frightened, so they regarded Bunker No. as a thorn in their eyes.

The Japanese artillery battalion commander personally commanded three infantry guns to fire at Fort No. 3. Two of the three shells missed the target, but one of them hit the firing hole directly.

With a loud bang, the front wall of Fort No. 1 was destroyed and the roof was blown off. Du Mingkun died on the spot, and the others were either dead or injured. The Type 92 heavy machine gun also fell to the ground.

The company commander Yuan Guanghui, who was commanding the battle in the trench, had a face full of grief. The best machine gunner of the company had been killed, and now they could only rely on the surviving riflemen to hold off the Japanese.
Even if there is still one person, they will fight the devils to the death. Yuan Guanghui put away the sadness in his eyes and roared:

"Brothers, kill the devils, as long as they are alive, the position will remain!"

With the destruction of the main fort, the firepower of the front-line positions dropped by more than half. They had very few troops to begin with, and faced with the attack of thousands of devils, it became very difficult;

The Japanese attacked them with machine gun bullets and artillery shells as if they were free, completely ignoring the defenders' artillery fire.

At this time, the artillery battalion also opened fire at full force, constantly suppressing the heavy firepower on the other side of the Guizi River. The two sides were like two chess masters exchanging pieces;

If you knock down one of my machine gun positions, I will destroy one of your artillery pieces. Now both sides' artillery pieces dare not gather together and must be used in a dispersed manner.

The Japs had obviously made up their minds, totally disregarding casualties, and were determined to use their lives to destroy the fortifications on the front line of the defenders;
"Deputy Captain, the brothers of the first brigade are almost wiped out. Let me lead the second brigade to support them. We have to leave some seeds for the first brigade!"

The captain of the second battalion was again rejected by Liao Lingqi. It was not advisable to deploy too many troops to the front-line positions under the heavy firepower of the Japanese. One battalion was the limit.
Now that most of the fortifications have been destroyed, there is no need to persist. The Japanese firepower is too strong and the casualties will be too great if we counterattack.

Liao Lingqi could only choose to trust the brothers of the First Brigade and said coldly:
"Get lost, what are you yelling about?
I never thought about staying alive when I led the 1st Battalion to defend Black Rock Crossing. After the first-line positions were destroyed, it was naturally the turn of the second-line positions to take over;
The 1st Battalion was wiped out, the detachment commander brought the 3rd Battalion to make up for it. I want to see who is tougher, the devils or us! "

Seeing that the second captain was not convinced by the battalion commander, he had to give in and said:
"Since we can't provide support with manpower, we can provide support with firepower. Ask the detachment commander for a round of artillery support - just one round!"

After a moment of contemplation, Liao Lingqi's emotions finally overcame his reason. He still felt sorry for the First Battalion and personally called Gao Zhisong for fire support. As an old brother of Liao Lingqi, he knew Lao Liao better than anyone else and would not ask for help unless it was absolutely necessary.
So he ordered the artillery battalion to fire a basic number of artillery shells at the Japanese heavy firepower assembly area on the other side of the river to provide the 1st Battalion with the greatest firepower support.

They only had three shells left, and they didn't know how long the fight would last, so he had to save some shells.

Just when the Japanese heavy firepower was rampant, the artillery battalion "roared" again, and rows of shells rained down on the Japanese on the other side of the river. Type 92 heavy machine guns were destroyed, and artillery pieces were blown into parts. The Japanese firepower dropped several levels in an instant.

Without the heavy firepower support from the other side of the river, the offensive of the Japanese infantry was quickly held back by the First Battalion, and the two sides were once again engaged in a tug-of-war.

Unwilling to accept defeat, the Japanese once again sent reinforcements to Heishifuda. The 10th Infantry Regiment had played almost all of its cards.
At the same time, the Japanese also launched an attack on the western front, but were repelled by the 3rd Battalion defending along the river.

As the second wave of Japanese invaders landed, Liao Lingqi knew that the front-line positions could no longer be defended, so he ordered the first battalion to withdraw to the main position;

In order to cover their retreat, the remaining 8 guns of the artillery battalion were all concentrated and bombarded the Japanese troops crossing the river. The Japanese troops were forced to lie on the ground to avoid the attack. The remnants of the first battalion took the opportunity to break contact with the Japanese troops and retreated while taking turns to cover each other.

A battalion of more than 570 people was reduced to only more than 180 people including the wounded when they retreated. Sixty percent of them were killed and almost everyone was injured.

Liao Lingqi, who was tough on the outside, finally softened his heart and left some seeds to the first brigade. Then it was the main position's turn;

After paying a heavy price, the Japanese finally captured the Heishidu frontline. By then, it was already dark.

The Japanese, with high morale, continued to attack the core position, which was located at the entrance of the town. It consisted of more than 30 crisscrossing bunkers, connected by trenches, and was about 500 meters away from the river bank.
Due to the terrain, the Japanese infantry artillery on the other side of the river could not hit the bunkers in the core position. The Japanese infantry discovered this when they launched the attack, but they did not take it seriously.

The two sides engaged in a night battle. The Japanese attacked in waves, but the defenders responded calmly, killing the Japanese and leaving corpses all over the ground.
We thought that after breaking through the river defense positions, the subsequent battles would be easier. However, practice has proved that the Japanese were overthinking and they are now fighting more passively.

Black Rock Crossing is surrounded by water on three sides, and the defenders are located on the west side of the mountain. If you look down from the sky, you will find that the rivers on three sides are like the back of a bow, and the core defense line of the defenders is just like the bowstring;
If the Japanese troops that went down the river could not break through the "bowstring" defense line, they would be blocked in the narrow area from the back of the bow to the center of the bowstring.

This is more uncomfortable than being a mouse in a bellows. If you retreat, it will be in the water. If you stay still, you have no place to defend. You will face heavy fire from the defenders at any time.
Sending more troops would mean giving away lives, but retreating would be a reluctant undertaking and would result in heavy losses. It would be a real fight with one's back to the wall, and an attack from above.

Major Akita finally discovered this problem. He told his concerns to the other two captains. Major Yoshioka Hanao said disapprovingly:
"Which war that concerns the fate of the empire is not a fight of life and death?
Akita-kun, we have no way out!"

Major Tokuji Fukuoka also took over and said:

"What Yoshioka-kun said is absolutely right. I remember that Han Xin, the military genius in Chinese history, became an immortal by fighting a battle at the riverside.

It is said that three cobblers are better than one Zhuge Liang. Could it be that the captains of our three empires are not as good as a crotch-diving Han Xin? "

Major Yoshioka also said proudly:
"The so-called famous generals of China are far inferior to the famous generals of the Warring States Period of the Empire, let alone being compared with us;
The Chinese people think that they can defeat the Imperial Army with a decisive battle, but that is wishful thinking. Let the invincible warriors of the empire tell them.

There is no position that the imperial soldiers cannot break through!"

Seeing that the other two had reached a consensus, Major Akita could not say anything discouraging and could only fight first.

After the three devils reached a consensus, they continued to attack the defenders' positions. In order to avoid the defenders' long-range firepower as much as possible, they chose to fight at night, which was the devils' strong point and they always succeeded by doing so.

But this time they stepped on an iron plate. The guerrilla column was also good at night combat. Since the food was always good, the number of soldiers suffering from night blindness was far lower than that of other national troops.

The guerrilla column also conducted special night combat training and fought numerous actual battles in street battles in Shanghai, Nanjing City, and north of the Huai River.
It is no exaggeration to say that the Japanese were just showing off their skills in front of experts. After fighting for half the night, the Japanese suffered a lot and ended the attempt in disgrace after suffering more than 200 casualties.

At two o'clock in the morning, the Blackrock Crossing battlefield finally quieted down, and both the enemy and our side were accumulating strength, waiting for a new battle.

(End of this chapter)