The War of Resistance Against Japan: Starting with a Calm View of Life and Death

Yoshino Yuto shuddered, but he dared not disobey the order and could only bow his head sharply: "Hai! For His Majesty the Emperor!"

"Stop talking nonsense!" Chida glanced at his watch; the hour hand pointed to 2 a.m. "Pass down the order: everyone who can still move, assemble in half an hour. For the seriously wounded... leave them a grenade."

Half an hour later, the streets inside the north gate of Kelan were deathly silent.

The Japanese soldiers formed a tight column, each with bayonets fixed and their rifles loaded with bullets.

To conserve their energy, they carried only ammunition and dry rations, without backpacks.

Lieutenant Fujita stood at the front of the line, his helmet straps fastened tightly.

He glanced back at the soldiers behind him. Their faces showed no fear, only a numbness and madness born of despair.

"Check the equipment!" Fujita roared in a low voice. "Machine gunners, replace the spare barrels! Ammunition handlers, bring out all the shells! Remember, you only have three minutes for artillery preparation. After three minutes, no matter what's in front of you, charge forward! Anyone who takes a step back, I'll put a hole in their head!"

"Yes!" the soldiers responded in hushed tones.

Chida stood in the city gate, watching the Fujita Company disappear into the night.

He turned to Yoshino Yuto and asked, "Is the artillery ready?"

"Ready, Regiment Commander. Four Type 92 infantry guns are in position on the high ground north of the city, along with all thirty grenade launchers, all aimed at the earthen mound outside the north gate," Yoshino Yuto replied.

"Fire!" Chida gritted his teeth and spat out the two words.

In an instant, flames lit up both inside and outside the North Gate.

The Japanese army's four Type 92 infantry guns fired almost at close range, the shells whistling as they crashed into the positions of the Independent Regiment in the north of the city.

Immediately afterwards, thirty grenade launchers began firing rapidly, and grenades rained down on the Eighth Route Army's trenches.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The soil was blasted into the sky, and the once silent night sky was instantly torn apart by the sound of the explosion.

The Independent Regiment's position was ablaze with fire, sandbag fortifications were blasted to pieces, and several heavy machine guns were hit directly before they could even fire, with parts flying everywhere.

"Charge! For the Empire!" Lieutenant Fujita brandished his sword and was the first to rush out of the city gate.

More than 600 Japanese soldiers charged forward like a pack of mad beasts, braving the still-exploding artillery fire.

Shells exploded around them, and people were constantly thrown off their feet by the blast waves, but those behind them didn't even glance at them, continuing their charge over the corpses of their comrades.

The position of the 1st Battalion of the Independent Regiment was stunned.

Upon hearing the explosion in the rear command post, Regiment Commander Li knew things were bad. He grabbed the phone and roared, "First Battalion! Hold the line! Don't let the Japanese break through! Second Battalion, reinforce immediately!"

But this time the Japanese army was fighting desperately.

Fujita Company advanced extremely quickly, breaking through the first trench in just two minutes.

The battalion commander, his eyes red, gripped his pistol and fired three shots at the charging Japanese soldiers, killing three of them. But more Japanese soldiers poured in through the breach.

"Fix bayonets! Charge with me!" The battalion commander tucked his rifle into his waistband, grabbed a large blade, and charged forward.

The two sides clashed in the trenches. This was no longer a contest of tactics, but a primal hand-to-hand combat.

Japanese soldiers stabbed wildly with Type 38 rifles, while Eighth Route Army soldiers slashed with broadswords, smashed with rifle butts, and even bit with their teeth.

Just then, Zhou Jindong appeared on the flank with his guerrillas.

In fact, Zhou Jindong had long felt that something was wrong with the North Gate.

In the past two days, he led his men in guerrilla warfare on the outskirts and discovered that all the Japanese scouts were running north of the city.

Without informing Commander Li, he led Wang Quan and the second platoon directly to a small grove three miles north of the city.

"Dongzi, those Japanese devils are going all out!" Wang Quan lay prone in the grass, looking at the battlefield in the distance where flames were shooting up. The barrel of the Type 96 machine gun in his hand was already hot.

"They're trying to escape through the north gate." Zhou Jindong calmly observed the battlefield. "The First Battalion of the Independent Regiment can't withstand such intense artillery fire."

Wang Quan, take your men and circle around to the Japanese flank and rear, focusing on their officers and machine gunners! Zhang Fang, set up those two grenade launchers and blast through that gap, preventing the Japanese from closing in!

"Alright!" Wang Quan replied, and led his men like eels into the ditch beside them.

The situation on the battlefield changed in an instant.

Lieutenant Fujita was leading his men in when suddenly the machine gun on the side opened fire.

Wang Quan's Type 96 machine gun swept across from the side, bullets lashing out like whips through the Japanese ranks.

The dozen or so Japanese soldiers at the forefront were instantly riddled with bullets. The flag bearer next to Lieutenant Fujita had his neck broken by a single shot. The Japanese flag fell to the ground and was trampled into the mud before it even hit the ground.

"Baka! There's an ambush on the flank!" Lieutenant Fujita roared, trying to organize a counterattack, but Zhou Jindong's Type 98 sniper rifle fired.

The shot was extremely accurate; the bullet pierced through two hundred meters of smoke and went straight into Lieutenant Fujita's left eye.

Fujita's body stiffened abruptly, his sword still raised in mid-air, before he fell backward, his brains spilling out through the bullet holes onto the ground.

The charging Japanese troops were clearly stunned when their commander died.

But this pause was only momentary. The officers behind immediately took over command and pressed forward even more frantically.

"Don't stop! Keep pushing! As long as we get through, we'll survive!" a Japanese captain roared, directing the ammunition cannons to bombard Wang Quan's position on the flank.

The shell exploded next to Wang Quan, and the blast wave knocked him over.

"Fuck your mother!" Wang Quan spat out a mouthful of dirt, his face covered in blood as he got up, picked up the machine gun and continued firing. "Second platoon! Give them a good beating! Don't let these sons of bitches get past!"

At this moment, Chida, inside the North Gate, heard the gunfire in front of him become sparse, and knew that Fujita's squadron had broken through.

He immediately turned around and roared, "Yoshino! Lead the main force to break through! Quickly!"

Yoshino Yuto led the remaining four hundred men and a large number of wounded soldiers out of the city gate.

But they had only rushed out of the city gate for less than 500 meters when they ran into Zhang Fang's grenade launcher position.

"Boom! Boom!"

Two grenades landed precisely on the only road leading to the city gate.

The Japanese soldiers who had just rushed out were blown to pieces, and the narrow city gate was instantly filled with corpses and rubble, blocking half of the way behind them.

"Commander! The city gate is blocked!" The engineering captain ran over in a panic.

Chida's eyes turned red as he looked at the pile of rubble and corpses.

He rushed over, kicked the engineering captain aside, and snatched an entrenching tool: "Dig it open! Dig it open quickly! The main force of the Eighth Route Army is about to come up!"

The Japanese soldiers dug at the rocks like madmen, their fingers bleeding but they dared not stop.

Meanwhile, ahead, the remnants of Fujita's squadron had been decimated.

The original 600-strong suicide squad has dwindled to less than 200 men still standing.

They were caught between the First Battalion of the Independent Regiment and Zhou Jindong's guerrillas.

"Captain, we're surrounded!" a soldier cried out in despair.