Not enough Japanese devils to kill? 1.4 billion people volunteer for the Battle of Shanghai.

"It's my turn."

Inside the Kirin Tank 103, the breacher gently pushed the control lever.

His target was the rear, those regimental command posts.

…………

Meanwhile, the command post of the 27th Regiment of the 5th Brigade of the 3rd Division of the Japanese Army.

The command post was designed in a relatively well-preserved farmhouse courtyard.

The original owner of the courtyard fled when the war first broke out, leaving behind a few brick and tile houses and a courtyard full of firewood.

After the regimental headquarters occupied this place, they used it as a temporary bunker.

Furthermore, three canvas tents were set up in the courtyard: one served as the command post for the regimental commander and staff officers, one as the communications platoon, and one as a tea room.

The regimental commander, Lieutenant Colonel Shinichi Takahashi, was an old-fashioned officer in his early forties. He was a graduate of the Army War College and had participated in the Russo-Japanese War.

He was standing in front of a wooden table covered with a battle map, his brow furrowed.

On the map, the blue arrows representing the attacking forces have stalled in the scorched earth area north of Luodian.

"Damn it..." Takahashi cursed under his breath, "What on earth is Brigade Commander Katayama thinking? Why not concentrate our firepower on one point and launch a dispersed attack?"

"Commander," a young lieutenant staff officer said cautiously, "the brigade headquarters has reported that the Chinese army has a new type of tank with extremely strong firepower, and a concentrated assault will..."

"New tanks?" Takahashi sneered. "No matter how new, can they be newer than the Empire's Type 89 medium tank? They're just a few strange metal shells; we can overwhelm them with sheer numbers!"

He paused, then pointed heavily at the location on the north bank of Luodian on the map:

"Order the Third Battalion to flank from the left! Ignore those three tanks and charge directly at the Chinese infantry positions!"

"Hai!" The communications soldier immediately began sending a message.

Another staff officer was observing the situation at the front through binoculars. He suddenly tilted his head to the side:

"Squad leader, listen... can you hear something?"

Takahashi waved his hand impatiently: "Cannon fire? The fighting has been going on at the front, what's so strange about that—"

He hadn't finished speaking.

He heard it himself.

It wasn't the muffled explosion coming from the front lines.

It was a kind of... sharp, ever-approaching, knocking sound, like death itself—

A whistling sound.

They came from the sky.

"What was that sound...?"

Takahashi had only uttered half of his question.

His pupils dilated suddenly.

It doesn't gradually enlarge.

It's magnified to the limit in an instant.

As a veteran who had experienced artillery battles during the Russo-Japanese War, he was all too familiar with that sound—

The sound of shells falling.

And these weren't ordinary shells.

It's the kind with an extremely large caliber, a huge amount of explosives, and that emits a terrifying shriek before landing...

Heavy artillery shells.

but--

How is that possible?!

Where did the Chinese army get artillery with such a long range?!

Moreover, judging from the sound, the shells were falling vertically!

Is it...

Countless thoughts flashed through Takahashi's mind in an instant.

But time has left no room for error.

From the moment the whistling sound was heard until the shells landed.

The whole process took less than two seconds.

The first 125mm high-explosive grenade landed precisely in the center of the command post tent at a near-vertical angle.

boom--!!!!!!!!!

The deafening explosion drowned out all other sounds in the world.

The last thing Takahashi saw was the moment the tent canvas was torn apart, the moment the wooden table and map were blown to pieces, and the moment the horrified, distorted faces of the staff officers around him disappeared in the firelight.

Then came the scorching heatwave and endless darkness.

The center of the explosion.

The temperature exceeds 3,000 degrees Celsius.

The pressure exceeds three hundred atmospheres.

Tents, wooden tables, maps, radios, human bodies... all organic and inorganic matter was vaporized, torn apart, and pulverized in an instant.

Within 20 meters of the explosion's epicenter is an absolute death zone.

The young lieutenant staff officer didn't even have time to scream before his body was torn to pieces by the shockwave.

Another staff officer, who was holding binoculars, was cut in half at the waist by pre-fabricated shrapnel. His upper body flew more than ten meters away, while his lower body remained standing in place, swaying before collapsing.

The three communications soldiers were busy around the radio. When the explosion occurred, they, along with the radio, were reduced to parts—human parts and machine parts mixed together, indistinguishable from one another.

Shrapnel is like the Grim Reaper's scythe, reaping all lives.

Outside this small courtyard, the Japanese troops of the 27th Regiment were waiting to be rotated for an attack.

They heard the whistling sound and saw their regimental commander, Shinichi Takahashi, being bombed.

They were immediately panicked, and some even burst into tears.

"The...commander..."

A sergeant standing at the front of the line stared blankly at the thick smoke and flames rising from the courtyard, his lips trembling and his voice shaking:

"Commander Takahashi...he...he's inside..."

These words, like a pebble thrown into calm water, instantly stirred up a thousand ripples.

"The regimental commander is dead?!"

"Impossible! Captain Takahashi is the Empire's most valiant samurai! How could he possibly..."

"But... the command post was bombed..."

"Regimental Commander! My Regimental Commander Takahashi!" A young soldier, his face still bearing traces of youth, suddenly collapsed to his knees with a thud, pounding the ground with his fists and wailing.

"How could you die?! You promised to lead us to conquer all of China!"

"My captain is dead! I will not live on!" A sergeant suddenly drew his bayonet, held it to his neck, his eyes bloodshot. "I will follow the regimental commander and serve His Majesty the Emperor!"

Just then, the breacher's second high-explosive grenade arrived.

Some people subconsciously looked up at the sky.

Some people are still crying in pain.

Some people even wanted to run away.

Then--

boom--!!!!

The shell exploded right in the middle of the crowd.

Pre-fabricated fragments shot out in all directions like a torrential rain.

The dozen or so soldiers closest to him were instantly riddled with holes.

Blood gushed from countless holes, forming an eerie blood mist in the morning light.

Soldiers a little further away were thrown into the air by the shockwave and crashed to the ground like rag dolls. When they landed, many had ruptured internal organs and were bleeding from their mouths and noses.

Soldiers further away were knocked down by the blast wave and hit on the head by flying sand and gravel, leaving them bleeding profusely.

Screams, wails, and desperate cries filled the air in an instant.

And

The sergeant who had been kneeling on the ground and had just been shouting, "I will never live if the regimental commander dies," was now lying on the edge of a shell crater.

His stomach was gaping open, his face was deathly pale, and he desperately clutched his broken leg with both hands, trying to stop the bleeding, but to no avail.

"No... I don't want to die..."

"I was just saying... The regimental commander is dead... I also want to survive..."

"Help me... Someone... help me..."

In the burning ruins, Captain Shinichi Takahashi was still alive, barely clinging to life.

Half of his body was trapped under the collapsed roof beams; his right leg was missing, and his left arm was only held together by a bit of skin and flesh.

At the last moment, Takahashi had only one thought in his mind:

empire……

What kind of enemy are they fighting?

On the Chinese position, the breacher looked through the central control screen at the Japanese regimental command post, now engulfed in flames, and said regretfully:

"At this moment, nothing would be more pleasant than having a glass of wine."