Bright Sword: The Flowers of War

Chapter 318 The Burning is Complete
The relaxed atmosphere caused by the deaths of Yoshio Shinotsuka and his group lasted for less than half an hour.

This news was like throwing an ice cube into a pot of boiling oil; instead of calming the situation, it stirred up an even more intense and chaotic upheaval.

The Japanese and puppet troops, having lost unified command, did not collapse or surrender as expected.

The disruption of communications and the paralysis of the command system actually broke up these tens of thousands of soldiers into hundreds of independent combat groups, organized into squads or platoons.

They are like wasps whose nest has been disturbed; having lost their queen, they become even more frenzied and deadly.

Relying on the familiar streets, dilapidated buildings, and pre-prepared fortifications within Taiyuan, they fought independently, launching suicidal attacks on any Allied forces that came into view with an almost frenzied attitude.

In the north of the city, a Sherman tank had just blasted down a two-story building that served as a machine gun emplacement with its 75mm main gun and was preparing to continue its advance.

Suddenly, three Japanese soldiers carrying explosive packs roared as they rushed out from a narrow alleyway nearby!

The coaxial machine gun on the tank and the Browning M2 gun on the roof roared simultaneously, instantly turning the two Japanese soldiers at the forefront into mincemeat, with blood mist and severed limbs splattering all over the ground.

But the last Japanese soldier, taking advantage of the moment created by his comrade's sacrifice, lunged to the side of the tank and suddenly pulled the fuse.

"boom!"

The violent explosion severed a section of the tank's track, leaving the tank tilted and immobile. Although the crew was unharmed, the steel behemoth was rendered inoperable and reduced to a fixed firing point.

On the other side of the city, on the front lines controlled by the Eighth Route Army and the Jin-Sui Army, the fighting was even more primitive and bloody.

Without heavy tanks to clear the way, they had to rely on their own flesh and blood to fight the enemy hiding behind the ruins, room by room.

The sounds of exploding grenades, the muffled thuds of bayonets piercing flesh, and the screams of the dying echoed through every street, creating a brutal scene.

"Reporting to my comrades!"

A communications staff officer, sweating profusely, entered the command post. "The Second Regiment of the Eighth Route Army's attack has been stalled in the western commercial district. The Japanese have transformed the department store into a huge fortress, with at least 300 Japanese soldiers inside. Their firepower is extremely concentrated, and two of the lead Sherman tanks have already been destroyed!"

"Report! The 772nd Regiment of the Eighth Route Army suffered heavy casualties in the old city. The Japanese army used tunnels and ruins to launch a counterattack. They have a lot of experience in urban warfare!"

"Report! The Jin-Sui Army requests artillery support! They are pinned down near the train station and unable to advance!"

One piece of bad news after another arrived, making the atmosphere in the command center heavy again.

Pi Ruoyu frowned deeply as he stared at the blue arrows on the sand table, representing his own troops, which were unable to advance. His face was extremely grim.

As Su Yaoyang listened to all the reports, the smile on his face vanished, replaced by a cold, calm expression. He walked to the huge map, his gaze sweeping over the entire city of Taiyuan.

"A cornered beast's struggle..."

He murmured to himself, tapping lightly on the red marker representing the business district on the map.

"Since they enjoy guarding this dilapidated city so much, then let them turn to ashes along with this city."

He turned around and looked at Pi Ruoyu with a cold gaze.

"Send electricity to Cheng Rufeng. I don't care what method he uses. In half an hour, I want to see the entire western commercial district ablaze. Use incendiary bombs to turn it into a sea of ​​fire."

The third floor of the department store.

Ken Tanaka's field of vision was compressed into the cold, crosshair-marked scope of the Type 97 sniper rifle.

In his field of vision, a militia machine gunner was hiding behind a wrecked truck, trying to set up his heavy machine gun.

He was a very young soldier, his face still showing a hint of immaturity, but his movements were very steady. The assistant gunner next to him was nervously handing him an ammunition belt.

Tanaka Ken's breathing became long and steady, as if he had become one with the dilapidated building.

He was not disturbed by the groans of his own wounded soldiers coming from downstairs, nor did he pay attention to the still bleeding wound on his face.

His index finger remained motionless, as if it were welded to the trigger.

He is waiting.

Waiting for an opportunity to snipe the opponent.

Finally, the machine gunner finished setting up the machine gun, and the moment he looked up to observe the firepower ahead, his head was completely exposed outside the truck's cover.

It's now!

Tanaka Ken's index finger, with a frighteningly steady force, pulled back.

"boom!"

A dull yet crisp gunshot rang out, inconspicuous amidst the noise of the battlefield.

However, 150 meters away, the young machine gunner's head snapped back like a watermelon struck by a hammer, a mixture of red and white brain matter spurting from the back edge of his helmet. His body went limp and remained motionless.

The assistant gunner next to him stared in horror, then was swept to the ground by a burst of machine gun fire from the second floor of the building.

Tanaka Ken calmly pulled the bolt, and a hot cartridge case ejected from the chamber with a crisp "clink" and landed on the dusty floor.

"Well done, Captain!" a young soldier beside him growled excitedly.

"Shut up... Conserve ammunition!" Tanaka Ken shouted without turning his head. "The Chinese have heavy firepower. Don't show yourselves. Wait until they get close before you fire!"

He was the backbone of all the Japanese soldiers in this building.

Under his command, these more than 300 remnants of the army, taking advantage of the complex structure and sturdy walls inside the department store, managed to withstand repeated attacks from an enemy force several times their size and tanks.

He was unaware that Yoshio Shinotsuka and his group were dead; all he knew was that his duty was to fight to the last man. This was the Emperor's command, and also an affirmation of the honor of a samurai.

However, just as he was preparing to look for his next target, he keenly sensed something was amiss.

The gunfire downstairs gradually subsided.

The Chinese troops that had been launching a fierce offensive began to retreat in an orderly manner, disengaging from the line of fire, leaving only a few tanks and infantrymen to conduct harmless harassing fire from a distance.

"They...are retreating?" The young soldier also noticed the anomaly and turned to Tanaka Ken, asking in confusion, "Captain, are the Chinese giving up the attack?"

Tanaka Ken did not answer; he simply frowned deeply, a strong sense of unease, a veteran's intuition, coiling around his heart like a venomous snake.

Meanwhile, at a makeshift field airfield not too far away, a group of F4U Corsair fighter jets, having just been resupplyed, were neatly lined up on the runway, and dozens of ground crew members were preparing for their second sortie.

This time, however, the ground crew was not carrying conventional high-explosive bombs.

Instead, they were large, silvery-white cylindrical iron cans.

These metal cans were marked with striking red paint on their heads and had simple stabilizing fins at their tails. They were napalm bombs, an extremely vicious weapon specifically designed for arson.

Cheng Rufeng stood beside the plane, listening to the operations staff officer who had come to deliver the orders.

"Command orders: Target: Western commercial district. Mission: Indiscriminate bombing; completely burn the area. Repeat: Completely burn."

Cheng Rufeng looked at the operations staff officer in front of him with an extremely solemn expression. He had just received a report that the Shanxi militia had suffered over a hundred casualties in their efforts to capture that area.

“I understand.” He smiled coldly at his staff officer. “The commander-in-chief thinks it’s too troublesome to kill them one by one, so he’s planning to just open a crematorium and send them all away in one go.”

Okay... I like this job.

He turned around and shouted at the assembled pilots, "Did you all hear that, brothers? Don't fucking save ammunition for the commander."

"Our mission today isn't target practice, it's arson! I want you to throw every single incendiary bomb you have into that commercial district! I want that fire to burn for three days and three nights!"

The pilots let out a burst of excited shouts.

A few minutes later, the engines of the pirate squadron roared deafeningly again. Twelve F4U fighter jets, fully loaded with napalm bombs, taxied onto the runway in turn, roared into the blue sky, formed a menacing attack formation, and flew towards Taiyuan City.

Inside the department store, Ken Tanaka remained in a sniper stance, but his unease grew stronger.

He looked through the firing port at the distant sky, where increasingly larger black dots appeared against the azure backdrop.

"Woo-wu-wu-"

A piercing, soul-chilling shriek once again enveloped the western part of Taiyuan City.

This was not the dive of a single bomb, but a symphony of twelve F4U Corsair fighters simultaneously entering the attack path.

The sound was like a horn from hell, filled with an aura of ominousness and destruction.

Inside the department store, Ken Tanaka's pupils suddenly contracted to the size of pinpoints. Through his sniper scope, he clearly saw the planes descending from the sky, and the silver-white canisters he had never seen before, hanging under their fuselages.

That's not a bomb!
A primal intuition, honed through countless brushes with death, screamed wildly in his mind.

He threw down his sniper rifle and, with all his remaining strength, let out the last, and most heart-wrenching roar of his military career:
"Take cover...take cover quickly...this isn't a bomb!"

However, it was too late.

Inside the cockpit of the aircraft, Cheng Rufeng gently pressed the bomb release button with his thumb.

"Click."

At the same time, twelve planes, like strange birds laying eggs, unleashed more than fifty silver napalm bombs onto the commercial area below.

The metal cans didn't whistle; they just tumbled through the air in an eerie silence as they hurtled down.

Tanaka Ken watched helplessly as three metal cans precisely smashed through the already dilapidated roof of the department store, making a dull "thud! thud! thud!" sound.

The tank shattered instantly upon impact, and a large amount of viscous, glue-like, translucent liquid, carrying enormous kinetic energy, splashed in all directions!
The dozen or so Japanese soldiers on the third floor, along with the furniture and sandbags used as cover, were instantly covered in this disgusting liquid.

A moment of deathly silence.

Everyone was stunned by the sudden "glue rain".

Then, the fuse was triggered.

"Huh...huh..."

There was no roar of an explosion, only a muffled and terrifying burning sound, like the breath of a giant beast!
The viscous liquid was ignited in an instant!

The orange-red hellfire, billowing with black smoke, swept across the entire third floor at an incomprehensible speed! The oxygen in the air seemed to be sucked out instantly, and the temperature soared to over a thousand degrees in an instant!

"Ah ah ah ah ah……"

The piercing scream, so shrill it was inhuman, lasted only half a second before abruptly stopping.

The soldiers who were directly splashed by napalm instantly turned into twisted and struggling torches.

The flames, like living maggots, clung tightly to their skin and uniforms, frantically burrowing into their mouths, noses, eyes, and ears.

Any slapping or rolling was useless; it only made the flames spread faster. Their skin rapidly carbonized and peeled off under the high temperature, revealing the sizzling, oily muscle and fat underneath.

Tanaka Ken wasn't directly splashed, but half of his body was instantly engulfed by a surging wave of fire. He felt an unimaginable, excruciating pain that seemed to burn through his soul, and then his vision turned into a blinding orange-red.

He instinctively opened his mouth to scream, but instead inhaled scalding flames and toxic fumes, hot enough to burn his lungs. His vocal cords were instantly carbonized, and his body convulsed in agony before collapsing to the ground, quickly engulfed by more flames that flowed down from the upper floor like lava.

This horrific scene unfolded simultaneously in every corner of the entire western commercial district.

Flames descended from the sky, turning the streets into burning rivers.

The Japanese soldiers hiding in buildings and trenches were burned alive in their own positions by the all-pervasive liquid flames.

Whether wooden or earthen and stone structures, buildings were instantly ignited. Steel bars melted and twisted under the high temperature, and the entire area was transformed into a huge and noisy crematorium in just a few dozen seconds.

High in the sky, Cheng Rufeng easily pulled the plane up. He looked back at his masterpiece and a satisfied smile appeared on his face.

From his vantage point, the city below appeared as if God had used a burning paintbrush to smear a vast expanse of orange-red paint. The flames merged into a spectacular, raging sea of ​​fire.

The thick black smoke that shot into the sky formed a huge column of smoke that seemed to connect heaven and earth, and was clearly visible even from tens of kilometers away.

"Pirate One calling Eagle's Nest."

Cheng Rufeng said coldly, "The bombing is complete. The fire here is expected to burn for a long time. Mission accomplished. Requesting return to base... Over."

(End of this chapter)