The War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression Begins in Songhu

Chapter 425 Thank You All (Combined Chapter)

With a pig-like scream, a Japanese soldier, clutching a satchel charge, charged diagonally towards a T-26 tank from the left front.

Upon seeing this, one of the accompanying infantrymen on the tank disregarded the excruciating pain of being shot in the right shoulder.

He picked up his Type 24 rifle and fired a hasty shot.

The gunshot caused a sharp pain in the wound, and the bullet, which was originally aimed at the target's chest, missed and hit the Japanese soldier's left thigh.

Fortunately, the power and lethality of 7.92mm rifle bullets are beyond doubt.

They punched a large wound in the Japanese soldier's thigh, causing him to fall to the ground on the spot.

Unfortunately, the Japanese soldier was truly ferocious. Even after being shot and falling to the ground, he actually managed to perform a series of rolling movements and, in a very short time, lay down in front of a T-26 tank that was charging forward.

Upon witnessing this scene, the accompanying infantrymen on the tank changed their expressions drastically.

He used the butt of his rifle to slam the top of the tank repeatedly, trying to tell the driver inside to stop immediately.

However, by then, it was too late.

The blood-soaked tracks were already pressing down on the Japanese soldier's legs. Even though the T-26 tank only weighed 9.5 tons, it still crushed the Japanese soldier's legs into comminuted fractures in an instant.

This caused the Japanese soldier to let out an extremely shrill scream.

Unfortunately, as the Japanese soldier rolled on the ground, he had already pulled the pin on a bomb he was holding.

So, just as his screams began, the explosive charge he was holding exploded violently.

This kind of massive explosion from the bottom of the tank is absolutely deadly.

The T-26 tank was immediately flipped over, rolling ten meters to the right before coming to a stop; the few surviving accompanying infantrymen on board were thrown high into the air.

When the tank came to a complete stop, upside down.

The entire tank, especially the steel plates at the bottom, was severely torn and deformed, and was engulfed in flames and thick smoke. One of the three crew members was beyond saving...

Old Ma, who was thirty or forty meters away, witnessed the scene above and couldn't help but curse out loud:
"Damn it! These Japanese soldiers from the 18th Division are so fearless. If they weren't on drugs, I'd gladly rip my head off and let people kick it around like a ball."

To be honest, Old Ma didn't know how much time had passed since the battle began; the intense fighting had left him no time to check his watch.

However, this did not prevent him from having a very clear grasp of the current battlefield situation.

For example, they have already rushed into the Japanese tortoise formation to a position more than 400 meters away. If they go another 70 or 80 meters, they can reach that dirt road.

Once we get there, the Japanese turtle formation will be torn in half.

Other infantry units have now arrived from all directions and are engaged in fierce fighting with the Japanese, tying down a large portion of the Japanese forces and resources.

Unfortunately, the Japanese troops were too concentrated and too numerous in this mere three square kilometers area.

There were still too many Japanese soldiers, who were desperately charging towards their assault team, especially the armored unit at the forefront, which was their main target.

Although Lao Ma and his men kept firing support from behind, they were unable to stop all the Japanese soldiers.

They could only watch helplessly as these tanks and armored vehicles were destroyed one by one by the Japanese soldiers' human bombs.

Now, the tanks and armored vehicles at the forefront of the charge have become extremely disorganized, and the accompanying infantry have suffered heavy casualties.

Including the tank that just exploded, the already limited armored force of Assault Team One has lost three tanks and one armored vehicle.

Their initial high-speed advance slowed to a mere walking pace, and it continued to slow down.

In short, the Japanese soldiers of the 18th Division, through sheer willpower and the loss of countless lives, managed to hold off their armored assault.

What to do? Old Ma certainly knew what to do.

Naturally, it was based on the previously established tactics. Now it was time for these cavalrymen to set out and fight desperately, meaning it was their turn to clear the way.

They first attacked from the left and right flanks, then met up with the armored forces and charged forward.

Until the armored units reorganized their formation, were reinforced with accompanying infantry, and were able to take over the charge.

They continued in this manner, taking turns and advancing until they broke through the enemy lines in front of them.

The tactics described above are quite simple, aren't they?

However, Lao Ma knew very well that given the Japanese army's current frenzy, the casualties of the cavalry during the assault would likely be terrifyingly high.

But they had no other choice.

After taking a deep breath, Old Ma roared out a new command at the top of his lungs, his face filled with an indescribable determination:
"The first cavalry battalion, move to the left; the second battalion, follow me."

Brothers! Now it's our turn to lead the charge and show those little devils the might of the Chinese cavalry!

As he shouted, the old horse slammed his heel against the belly of his warhorse, causing the fairly good Mongolian horse to immediately accelerate to its maximum speed in pain.

Carrying the one-eyed, bearded burly man on his back, he charged forward.

The moment the charge began, Old Ma opened fire with his submachine gun at the densely packed Japanese soldiers ahead.

In a very short time, his submachine gun ran out of bullets, but the number of Japanese soldiers rushing towards him didn't seem to have decreased much at all.

Seeing that the nearest Japanese soldier was already seven or eight meters away with his bayonet at the ready, there was no time to change the magazine.

Old Ma decisively released his submachine gun, drew a large knife from his back, and used the speed of his horse to dodge an assassination attempt. As he passed the Japanese soldier, he swung the knife horizontally.

After a flash of bright light, the head of a terrified Japanese soldier flew high into the air.

After the old horse had galloped several meters away, his headless body, bleeding from a clean cut at the neck, finally collapsed.

Then, a galloping warhorse trampled on its back, making a crisp 'crack' sound, breaking countless ribs.

The warhorse that broke the ribs of the Japanese soldier's corpse naturally belonged to the cavalry who charged alongside the old horse.

By this time, the assault team still had 560 or 570 cavalrymen left; after Old Ma gave the order, they split into two and charged out from the left and right flanks respectively.

It should be noted that even though most of the cavalry units that followed the old man into battle were from the elite cavalry regiments of the National Revolutionary Army's Fifth Army, they were relatively better equipped.

The weapons they carried were mostly Type 24 rifles and carbines, with a small number of submachine guns and pistols.

Therefore, when they charged forward, they emptied their guns in a very short time; on the violently undulating horseback, there was no way to reload.

Without the slightest hesitation, they each drew a gleaming saber.

In an instant, the Japanese soldiers who rushed up were filled with the sound of rapid hoofbeats and saw only gleaming sabers. They had no time to react before they were all cut down to the ground.

In other words, after taking over the task of advancing from the armored forces, the cavalry, including Lao Ma, advanced seventy or eighty meters in a very short time and successfully reached the dirt road.

Behind them were Japanese soldiers who had been hacked to death or wounded.

Scattered heads, arms, and other Japanese body parts were everywhere; although it couldn't compare to the scene of mangled flesh after Annie and her men's tank charge, it was still incredibly brutal.

******
The Japanese soldiers of the 18th Division were truly ferocious, or rather, the Japanese "marching pills" were incredibly effective.

They were not intimidated by the cavalry charge and the scene of their own men being cut down like vegetables. Instead, after the initial panic of being suddenly attacked by the cavalry, they launched a counterattack.

At the command of officers and veterans, the Japanese soldiers in front and to the left and right either set up light machine guns and Type 38 rifles and opened fire.

Either a group of people gathered together, brandishing Type 38 rifles that were like spears with bayonets fixed, and then they came forward to meet them.

This not only slowed down the cavalry's charge speed at a visible rate, but also increased the rate of casualties.

Sure enough! Facing Old Ma and his horse charging wildly at at least 60 kilometers per hour, with four Japanese soldiers whose eyes were bloodshot and who were clearly on drugs, they did not flinch in the slightest.

They emitted unintelligible bugle calls, brandished their bayonets, and charged forward in a line, ready for a head-on clash.

As they rapidly approached each other, Lao Ma could even see that the veins on the backs of the Japanese soldiers' hands were bulging from gripping their rifles so tightly.

Admittedly, Old Ma could easily bypass these Japanese soldiers by simply pulling the horse's head.

The key issue is that the most important task for the assault team now is to move forward, keep moving forward, and tear apart the Japanese tortoise formation as quickly as possible.

Compared to this goal, it doesn't matter who died or how many people died in the process.

If even Old Ma doesn't dare to die and runs away in this situation, how can we expect the other brothers to risk their lives?

Besides, since its inception, the Northern Jiangsu Independent Regiment had never had the habit of officers stepping aside and letting the men charge ahead. Based on these instinctive understandings, Old Ma didn't think twice. Instead, he slammed his horse's belly hard again, making the warhorse even faster.

And so, the two sides collided in this completely unpretentious way.

At the moment of impact, Old Ma slightly shifted his body to the left, dodging a bayonet thrust at him, and simultaneously swung his sword out in a backhand strike.

The four-pound, two-ounce broadsword struck the Japanese soldier squarely in the face, cleaving his face in two.

Before Old Ma could flip his wrist and swing his knife again, the warhorse beneath him, which had been galloping, let out a long, painful neigh before its front hooves buckled and it collapsed to its knees.

Suddenly, Old Ma was thrown off his horse and flew into the air.

That was when he struck the Japanese soldier in the face, and his warhorse's chest also collided with the bayonets of three other Japanese soldiers.

In an instant, the bayonets pierced deep into the ground, then broke off. The warhorse, weighing hundreds of kilograms, crashed into two Japanese soldiers at high speed, sending them flying.

Then, after the severely injured warhorse galloped forward a few steps, it could no longer support its body, and its front legs buckled, causing it to kneel down and fly off.

Fortunately, Old Ma, who had once been the commander of the cavalry battalion in the Pingding County base area, had long been prepared for this.

The moment he was thrown away, he tried to curl up his body.

This is a plan to land on one's shoulder and back, followed by a series of rolling motions. Theoretically, this method should reduce the impact of the fall and prevent death.

However, as the old saying goes, life is full of disappointments.

Old Ma had a good plan, but things didn't turn out this way.

After flying a distance in the air, he landed with a thud on his bottom, without even having a chance to roll over; at the moment of landing, he could clearly hear a 'crack' sound.

And I felt an inhuman, excruciating pain coming from my lower back and tailbone.

Without a doubt, he broke his spine.

As for the consequences of breaking a spine, well, Old Ma actually knows.

In the modern world, he has a distant second uncle who broke this thing when he was driving a tractor. His lower body was completely paralyzed, and he had no feeling at all. He couldn't even control his urination and defecation.

And just like that, a group of cavalrymen came galloping over a second or two later.

One of the leading lieutenants, the company commander, first killed the four Japanese soldiers who had previously clashed with Lao Ma with a single blow, and then killed the last surviving one with a single slash.

Upon seeing the old officer slumped on the ground, he instinctively bent down, extended his free left hand, and tried to pull the old officer onto his horse's back so that the two could continue charging forward together.

To his surprise, Old Ma slapped his left hand away.

He shouted, "Don't worry about me, don't worry about who falls, just keep charging forward and tear this turtle formation of the Japanese devils apart."

In the time that followed, Old Ma slumped to the ground, patting the hands that were trying to pull him onto the horse, while repeatedly shouting the same phrase.

During this process, he could clearly see that of the more than 600 cavalrymen who had set out, it was hard to say whether there were still 400 left.

It means that for every hundred meters they advance, one or more brothers die.

This is a path forward built entirely on human lives.

Old Ma's reflections didn't last long, because as the cavalry continued their full-speed charge, Annie and her men quickly adjusted their formation.

They paused briefly to allow the soldiers who had jumped off the truck to climb back onto their tanks.

Although this period of time has not been long, the two sides have now created a distance of about a hundred meters between them.

With the speed of tanks and armored vehicles, they could quickly catch up to them at full speed over this distance, so there was no need to worry about the Japanese soldiers rushing up from the left and right sides and completely cutting them off.

However, after a squad of Japanese soldiers rushed in from the left, seeing that they could not catch up with the cavalry, they immediately charged towards Old Ma at the shout of a sergeant.

While rushing, he was still shouting: "生け杀りにする~"

Even if the Japanese soldiers' limited knowledge did not include the above sentence, he still knew that these Japanese soldiers probably wanted to capture him, a major, alive.

"Capture me alive? Dream on."

Don't you even consider that since the day the Northern Jiangsu Independent Regiment made its name on the Shanghai battlefield, have you ever captured a single officer alive?

While cursing, Old Ma pulled out his M1911 pistol from his waist, released the safety, and opened fire on the charging Japanese soldiers.

One shot, two shots... He fired six shots at the Japanese soldiers in one go, killing three and wounding one.

This marksmanship is already quite good.

As for the last bullet in the pistol, Old Ma chose to keep it for himself, turning the gun around and pressing it against his right temple.

Then, he didn't yell or shout in a fit of emotion.

He merely spat heavily at the few surviving Japanese soldiers to express his disdain before decisively pulling the trigger.

After the gunshot, Old Ma, who had been sitting slumped on the spot for a while, spread his hands, raised his head, and fell down.

The next second, the Japanese corporal rushed in front of him. Perhaps because the high-ranking prisoners he had captured had all run away, or perhaps because the spit didn't cause much harm but was extremely insulting.

The Japanese corporal was furious. Even though Old Ma had already committed suicide, he still stabbed the corpse with his bayonet.

Not satisfied with just one bayonet thrust, he pulled out the bayonet and continued stabbing; seeing this, several other Japanese soldiers joined in.

Hu Biao witnessed this scene.

In fact, Hu Biao had already noticed the crisis facing the one-eyed man when Lao Ma started to draw his pistol.

At that time, the tanks and armored vehicles had already readjusted their formation, replenished their accompanying infantry, and were chasing the cavalry at full speed.

The plan is to replace the cavalry that have suffered heavy casualties and are no longer able to advance.

Seeing that Lao Ma was in danger, Hu Biao didn't think twice and quickly adjusted the cannon to aim at that squad of Japanese soldiers, firing a shell directly.

Then, a Japanese lieutenant, about twenty meters away, along with a squad of Type 96 light machine gunners beside him, was blown into the air.

It's not just off-center, it's ridiculously off-center.

There was nothing that could be done about it. Hu Biao was very skilled with all kinds of firearms, but he was a complete novice when it came to using artillery.

Furthermore, given the outdated state of tank gun sighting equipment at the time, a muzzle stabilizer that could effectively prevent the muzzle from shifting due to tank movement would not be available for another three years.

It's normal that Hu Biao's shot missed.

He fired no less than ten shots along the way, but never hit the target.

While cursing and swearing, Hu Biao reloaded another shell, and then he saw Old Ma's corpse, surrounded by a group of Japanese soldiers venting their anger.

"Damn Japanese devils! Die!" Hu Biao roared as he quickly adjusted the cannon's muzzle again.

However, he didn't notice that at that moment, Annie saw the ground about five or six meters to her right.

Even though all his men were dead, a Japanese major was still lying down with a Mauser C96 pistol, firing at them.

Good heavens! Annie was instantly smitten.

Like an old bachelor seeing a young widow, or a farmer seeing the midday sun, she felt a surge of excitement that made her tremble slightly.

With a sudden push of one of the control levers, the tank shifted its direction of travel slightly to the right, heading straight for the prone Japanese major.

The next second, the right track of the Tambe ran over the Japanese major.

Just as Annie deviated slightly from the tank's forward direction, Hu Biao stepped on the firing pedal, landing on the tank's cannon.

But by some strange twist of fate, the shot hit its target.

After a 45mm shell was fired, it hit Old Ma's body squarely, blowing it to pieces and also taking down all the Japanese soldiers next to him.

Of course, that's not important.

The important thing is that Old Ma's body was finally spared from being defiled by the Japanese, thus preserving his last dignity.

If Old Ma knew about this, he would definitely say, "Thank you for preserving my dignity by blowing my body up..."

(End of this chapter)