The War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression Begins in Songhu

Chapter 336 Homemade Tanks (Two-in-One Chapter)

...Actually, when I first became a company commander, was called "commander," and had hundreds of brothers under my command, I was nothing in the modern world. I had never even been a parent before, so I felt quite good about it.

But as time went on, when I was called "Commander Hu" wherever I went, I actually preferred to be a lowly soldier.

Because when you are a company commander, more than a hundred brothers entrust their lives to you; when you are a regimental commander, the life and death of at least a thousand brothers will be decided by you.

After each major battle, regardless of whether the final outcome is victory or defeat.

Whenever I think of the brothers who died under my orders, my heart is filled with a heart-wrenching sense of guilt, but I'm good at hiding it and don't show it.

"One general's success is built on the bones of ten thousand!" It's not as easy as it sounds...

...Excerpt from Hu Biao's diary collection "Hu Shuo"...

When a snowflake the size of a goose feather drifted into his collar and landed on his back, Xiao Henan felt a chill and immediately shivered.

My previously excited and intoxicated mind finally cleared up a bit.

There's no way around it! The current situation in Pingding County is quite unfavorable for the Northern Jiangsu Independent Regiment.

Although the Japanese have been compressed to the center of Ping'an County under their continuous pressure, they now only control about one-fifth of the area.

However, even after including the wounded, the Japanese still had more than six or seven hundred combatants in this small area, with a large number of light and heavy machine guns and grenade launchers, which could form a fierce firepower network.

The Japanese army built a final line of defense around the former county government office of Pingding County, now the county government.

They also proactively used arson and bombing to eliminate surrounding buildings, preventing attacking troops from using these buildings as cover to quickly approach.

Therefore, as long as Xiao Henan and his group of brothers could break through the 50-60 meter open area and tear through the last line of defense of the Japanese, they could storm into the Pingdingcheng County government and completely end the battle.

However, this last line of defense for the Japanese was the toughest nut to crack they had encountered since the start of the war.

When they attacked from this direction, especially when crossing that open area, they would have to face the fire of hundreds of Japanese soldiers; that was a network of firepower interwoven from more than a dozen light and heavy machine guns, several grenade launchers, and many Type 38 rifles.

All told, the Japanese army's last line of defense had held off Xiao Henan and his men for almost an hour.

During this time, no matter how Xiao Henan commanded his brothers to attack, and no matter how brave and fearless these brothers were in the battle.

Human flesh could never withstand the onslaught of bullets. Under the overwhelming firepower of the Japanese, they were forced to retreat after suffering heavy casualties.

On that open ground, hundreds of brothers have now fallen.

Unfortunately, by now, all of their key offensive weapons, such as rocket launchers and artillery, have been completely wiped out.

What made Xiao Henan even more anxious and frustrated was that because his glasses were broken, it was inconvenient for him to go forward and fight directly; he could only command from the rear.

In short, before Xiao Henan regained his senses due to the stimulation of the snowflakes, he was already completely blinded by rage.

Looking up at the sky, Xiao Henan realized that snow had started falling heavily without him noticing.

However, after thinking of something, his mind, which had just cleared up a little, became even more anxious and agitated, and he felt an indescribable discomfort, as if a ball of fire was burning inside him.

It's snowing heavily! But that's not important.

Even if it snows heavily, or even if it's raining knives from the sky, it won't stop the Northern Jiangsu Independent Regiment from continuing their offensive until they completely annihilate these Japanese devils.

The crucial issue was that when Xiao Henan looked up and saw the heavy snowfall, he realized it was already dark.

This means that even if there are still some blocking troops that have not been completely wiped out, they have now withdrawn in accordance with pre-battle orders.

The Japanese have at least 10,000 reinforcements coming from the four directions of east, west, south, and north, and they are currently rushing towards Pingding County at full speed. Some of them have a large number of trucks and their speed is quite astonishing. So how much time do they have left?
Half an hour, an hour? It's not much anyway.

Once they arrive, it would be a miracle if they could even manage to evacuate safely, let alone capture the county town.

This feeling of having paid a huge price and suffered heavy casualties, only to risk losing everything at the last moment, almost drove Xiao Henan crazy.

Meanwhile, Hu Biao, Xiao Cui, Lao Ma, and others, who were also attacking the same defensive line from the other three directions, were just as anxious as Xiao Henan.

They were trying to charge forward but couldn't get ahead, while precious time was being consumed rapidly.

Meanwhile, despite the fact that their battle here only started after 3 p.m., it has only been going on for a little over two hours.

However, under the intense fighting, they were able to see that their brothers were extremely exhausted in terms of physical strength, mental strength, and morale.

They can still grit their teeth and persevere under the current circumstances, but if the Japanese invaders were to attack from behind, it would be a terrible blow to their fighting spirit.

After all, most of them were just farmers, miners, and shepherds just two or three months ago.

As a heavy snow began to fall, the four time travelers on the battlefield almost simultaneously had a crazy idea in their minds: to go all out.

Ultimately, it was Xiao Henan, a complete novice who had just transmigrated, who pushed the battle to its most intense and bloody moment...

Just as Xiao Henan was thinking to himself that things couldn't go on like this and that he had to make some changes.

Suddenly, a panting voice came from beside him: "Deputy Battalion Commander, we've made what you asked for. We've also sent a batch to Regiment Commander Hu and the others in several directions. Do you think this was the right thing to do?"

Upon hearing this, Xiao Henan turned his head and his eyes lit up.

Because a little behind him, there are now five homemade tanks, all of which were DIY equipment that Xiao Henan had asked the villagers to make as quickly as possible.

To be more precise, it was essentially a wheelbarrow with the tabletop of an eight-immortal table placed on it, covered with a wet quilt, and the quilt was covered with a layer of damp mud and sand.

Theoretically speaking, even if the Japanese bullets could penetrate these protective measures, their power should be greatly reduced.

Therefore, as the brothers pushed this thing toward the Japanese position, they could reduce casualties by staying behind it. It was just a homemade tank.

It is said that in history, when the soldiers of our party's base areas attacked the Japanese pillboxes, they often used this thing to rush into the pillboxes, then put the explosives under the pillboxes and lit them, and the effect was quite good.

Unfortunately, Xiao Henan couldn't be sure about the specific protective effect or whether it could withstand the fierce firepower of the Japanese soldiers. He could only say that using this makeshift tank was a last resort.

Of course, adding a few sandbags standing upright behind the table would improve the bulletproof effect; however, that would add too much weight, making it impossible to move the rickshaw.

Perhaps knowing there were no better alternatives, around the same time...

Hu Biao, Xiao Cui, Lao Ma, Xiao Henan, and others launched an attack on the Japanese defense line from four directions simultaneously, using the same tactic of advancing like homemade tanks, without any prior agreement.

In the direction of Xiaohe South, two or three hundred brothers suddenly opened fire on the Japanese defense line across the open ground, drawing and suppressing the enemy's firepower.

Secondly, a total of five homemade tanks, propelled by the relatively stronger brothers, planned to advance rapidly side by side along the street in the middle of the open area towards the Japanese defense line.

The not-so-wide street was almost completely filled by five makeshift tanks advancing side by side.

So much so that from a distance, the Japanese soldiers on the defensive line saw it as a moving city wall.

Behind the earthen tank followed a densely packed group of over a hundred brothers, carrying guns and crouching low, rapidly advancing towards the Japanese defense line.

It should be noted that at this crucial moment, even though his vision was getting worse after dark, Xiao Henan still couldn't sit idly by and joined the attack with his submachine gun.

At the very beginning, he was in the front row behind the earthen tank, next to a brother pushing a wheelbarrow.

But as the earthen tank was pushed forward, a brother next to him pushed him back a step.

Before Xiao Henan could even stand up straight, several more shoulders jostled him, causing him to stagger backward.

In a very short time, they were squeezed into the seventh or eighth row behind the earthen tank.

Furious, Xiao Henan opened his mouth to curse, but one of the brothers in front of him turned around, wearing a simple and honest smile, and said:

"Deputy Battalion Commander, we ignorant fools can just die, but you educated men who know how to fight should live on and continue to lead your brothers to kill more Japanese devils."

It turned out that these brothers were intentionally protecting him with their bodies. After realizing this, Xiao Henan was so moved that he couldn't speak for a moment. Then, when he wanted to say something, it was too late; because at that moment, the Japanese soldiers on the defensive line had already opened fire wildly.

At this point, the tank was still about fifty meters away from the last line of defense of the Japanese army...

So, do these legendary homemade tanks actually offer any bulletproof protection in real combat?

There was more, but the results were far from what Hu Biao and his team had hoped for.

Amidst the Japanese soldiers' frenzied firing, bullets from pistols and submachine guns were blocked, but bullets from Type 38 rifles and light and heavy machine guns were completely ineffective.

The bullets they fired were only significantly less powerful after they had pierced through the quilt and the table.

On the one hand, this is a good thing, because the brothers are often only wounded after being shot, and are not immediately killed; as long as they are rescued in time, most of them can survive.

On the other hand, it was a disaster, meaning that the brothers had to endure more suffering before they died.

Thus, scenes like these unfolded on the battlefield:
Amidst the flying sawdust, Old Ma instinctively closed his eyes; amidst the 'thud' of wood being pierced, and the muffled groans around him, he didn't know how many people had been shot.

When he opened his eyes again shortly afterward, he found that the makeshift tank in front of him had stopped advancing at a distance of forty-five or forty-six meters from the Japanese defense line.

Because the brother who pushed it had probably been shot five or six times in the chest, and his chest looked like a mangled mess.

Thanks to the relatively shallow wound from the gunshot, this brother is still alive, but even with his best efforts, he can barely keep the earthen tank from overturning.

The situation was similar for the several makeshift tanks nearby.

Without a second thought, Old Ma immediately took the handlebars, lowered his head, and started pushing with all his might.

Unfortunately, after taking only two steps forward, he was shot in the chest again. Even though his vital areas were protected by DIY bulletproof plates, the pain was still excruciating, as if he had been hit by a heavy hammer.

I now truly understand the inhuman suffering that brother who was pushing the cart earlier was enduring.

The number of casualties among the other brothers who were not pushing carts also increased as they moved forward; many of them had to fall down in pain after being shot too many times.

Even if a person is not dead, they may be unable to continue fighting.

To make matters worse, the Japanese also opened fire on them with their grenade launchers. These things flew over the earthen tanks and landed, causing even greater damage in the dense crowd.

The only saving grace is that as long as it doesn't explode immediately upon landing, there will always be brothers rushing to it and using their bodies to suppress those small melon grenades, or even dedicated fragmentation grenades.

After pushing forward six or seven steps, Old Ma could no longer move the earthen tank.

In that short time, he was shot five more times in the chest and once in the head. Although none of the shots were fatal, they were incredibly painful.

Especially the shot to the head; even though the bullet didn't penetrate the M35 helmet, it made his head buzz and left him with no strength in his hands and feet.

At this critical moment, he suddenly felt the earthen tank slowly begin to move forward again.

Turning his head, Old Ma saw his own father, Little Ma.

The difference this time was that he didn't start cursing. Instead, under a strange sense of "grandfather and grandson being of one mind, their strength can break gold," he smiled at the old man.

Xiao Ma responded with a smiley face, and then the two of them exerted force at the same time, causing the earthen tank to accelerate, getting faster and faster.

At the same time, he saw a brother pushing a dirt tank in front of him, and his body trembled violently.

He immediately took two quick steps forward to catch the mud tank that was about to overturn.

Before he could even move, someone pulled him hard from behind, causing him to fall to the ground. Then a familiar figure stepped over him and took the dump tank that was about to topple over.

Let it continue forward, approaching the Japanese defense line.

Who else could this familiar figure be but his good partner Zhao Zheng?

Sensing something was wrong, Hu Biao immediately got up and chased after Zhao Zheng, intending to seize control of the makeshift tank.

Even so, it was still too late.

By this time, the tanks that had been advancing side by side were now jagged and uneven, as if chewed by dogs, under the firepower of the Japanese soldiers; the one on the far left had even been overturned.

The vehicle that Zhao Zheng was pushing was at the forefront and naturally suffered more severe damage.

Under the barrage of a Type 92 heavy machine gun, amidst flying cotton and sawdust, Zhao Zheng's chest was riddled with holes in the blink of an eye.

Hu Biao rushed over to grab it, but it was already too late.

The only thing they could do at the time was to support Zhao Zheng, who had fallen backward and was not dead but had lost consciousness, and hide him behind the overturned earthen tank.

Thinking of the drink they had agreed to, I fear I will never have the chance to drink it again.

More importantly, the brothers behind them, who had already fallen and were wounded by gunfire, were now less than twenty meters away from the Japanese position, but all the earthen tanks had been destroyed and could no longer advance.

Hu Biao held Zhao Zheng in his arms, his heart aching as if being torn apart by a knife, filled with immense despair.

He solemnly made a promise in his heart: "I don't care what you are, since you've brought me to this damned era, I'm hoping to get something out of you."

Okay! You win. I'm willing to pay any price and hope for a miracle.

"I hope we can kill these Japanese devils, and I hope that Brother Zhao and the other wounded brothers can survive."

Then, a miracle actually happened.

Or perhaps, there are no miracles in this world, but rather people grit their teeth and persevere towards a goal, and after persisting to a certain extent, things that were originally impossible can turn around.

Suddenly, a loud bugle call sounded, 'drip drip drip'.

It is precisely that classic bugle call of our Party and our army.

Hu Biao had no idea which clever little devil had taken the initiative to sound the charge without his orders.

But that's not important. What's important is the high-pitched bugle call of our army, which seems to have a magical power.

As the bugle sounded, Hu Biao, Lao Ma, Xiao Cui, the wounded soldiers lying on the ground, and even everyone in the Northern Jiangsu Independent Regiment, inexplicably regained their strength and their fighting courage.

They fired and threw grenades as they charged towards the Japanese...

That so-called clever little devil was actually Xiao Henan, a novice.

Even with the brothers' intentional protection and care, he still staggered and fell to the ground when he was about 25 or 26 steps away from the Japanese soldiers.

Because at that moment, all the brothers who stood in his way were also killed by the Japanese.

As he fell to the ground, his DIY glasses hit the floor again.

When Xiao Henan instinctively reached out to touch it, he found his hand covered in shards of glass.

He was seriously injured, and the glass on the barely usable side of his glasses was broken. It's safe to say that Xiao Henan has never felt so desperate and resentful in his life.

With a determined effort, he threw away the DIY glasses that had turned into shards of glass, picked up a small trumpet hanging from his waist, and, with all the anger and resentment in his heart, sounded the charge.

I don't know if it was a hallucination from near death, or if his nearsightedness made him see things in the darkness.

In short, he saw countless figures rushing past him. Even though people were constantly being knocked down, no one retreated and they continued to move forward.

Until these indistinct figures completely stormed into the Japanese positions, engulfing those guys...

P.S.: The author is nearsighted too, so the awkward plot points involving Xiao Henan weren't directed at him, but rather reflected on what might happen if he were in that situation...

(End of this chapter)