lovenovelstory Chapter 199: Targeting the Elite, the Japanese Army Cries with Fear, Sun Yuanliang is Shocked
Chapter 199: Targeting the Elite, the Japanese Army Cries with Fear, Sun Yuanliang is Shocked
The regimental staff officer next to him immediately came over, flattering him with a fawning expression.
"Your Excellency is wise! We can see from the enemy's attack this morning that they are not capable of shaking our positions in a short time."
"Moreover, reinforcements from the outer perimeter are already on their way, and I can hear the roar of our heavy howitzers from here."
"It won't be long before we meet up with reinforcements and wipe out these Chinese!"
Kamedaoka snorted coldly, a hint of regret on his face.
"What a pity."
If they hold out a little longer, and our main force arrives, we might be able to encircle them here.
Now that they've withdrawn, it seems there won't be another chance.
He stopped abruptly as soon as he finished speaking.
A low, continuous rumbling sound could be faintly heard in the air.
The sound didn't resemble an exploding shell; it was more like the roar of some kind of heavy machinery, coming from a great distance with a dull, oppressive feel.
Immediately afterwards, the ground beneath his feet began to tremble slightly, and soil from the trench walls began to fall down in a soft rustling sound.
The regimental staff officer next to him suddenly froze, abruptly pointing to the top of the distant hillside, his voice trembling like a leaf, unable to speak coherently.
"Colonel... Colonel! There... over there! Look over there!!"
Kamedaoka looked in the direction he was pointing, and his pupils suddenly contracted.
At the top of the hillside on the flank of the position, a modified Puma armored reconnaissance vehicle was parked, its observation scope on the roof pointed directly at their position.
And it's impossible that only one armored vehicle could cause such a commotion.
He looked up and saw thick black diesel exhaust rising continuously from behind the hillside, blotting out the sun and turning half the sky gray-blue.
The birds in the forest were startled by the roar and scattered in all directions, and even the tremors on the ground became more and more obvious.
Kamedaoka's face turned deathly pale, and his hand gripping the military knife clenched tightly.
He knew perfectly well that the armored forces of the Third Column had arrived.
It was the same army that outflanked them and captured Jinzhuang early in the morning.
He stared intently at the rising black smoke, gritted his teeth, and squeezed out a sentence.
"Come on. Let me see just how powerful your Third Column really is."
The next second, he suddenly raised his saber and roared at the Japanese soldiers on the position.
"Everyone! Prepare for battle! Enemy tanks! Anti-tank teams, take your positions!!!"
On the 88th Division's position, Sun Yuanliang also held up binoculars, looking at the tank group of the Third Column coming from the rear road.
When he saw the size of the convoy, he was stunned, his mouth agape in astonishment, and he almost dropped his binoculars.
He has seen many armored units in his life.
Even his once-proud German-equipped divisions had never been equipped with so many and such advanced tanks.
Through the binoculars, armored vehicles and tanks lined up in a long queue, their tracks rolling over the road and kicking up clouds of dust.
The heavy armor plates gleamed coldly in the sunlight, the thick cannon barrels were raised high, and the machine gun mounted on the roof of the vehicle flashed with a cold light.
Whether in terms of size, armor thickness, or firepower, the tanks far surpassed the light tanks and armored vehicles that the German-equipped divisions were equipped with back then.
Sun Yuanliang put down his binoculars, his face filled with shock and disbelief, and muttered to himself.
"Where on earth did Li Jianghe get all these incredible weapons and equipment?"
As soon as he finished speaking, a series of cheerful footsteps came from behind him, followed by a loud voice with a strong Northeastern accent.
"Commander Sun, you've chosen a great location for your command post. The view from this vantage point is fantastic, perfect for directing the troops' attack. Could we borrow it for a bit?"
Sun Yuanliang turned around abruptly, his brows furrowing instantly.
Standing before me was a tall, robust young officer with two buttons undone at his collar, a Mauser pistol slung at his waist, his face weathered, but his eyes gleaming like an eagle's.
The man with the rank of Major General on his shoulder was Wang Dayong, the commander of the Third Motorized Infantry Detachment.
Sun Yuanliang's gaze swept coldly over him, and he spoke in a nonchalant tone.
"You must be Captain Wang? Nice to meet you."
"Yes, it's me."
Wang Dayong laughed heartily, acting as if they were old friends, and reached out to shake Sun Yuanliang's hand, saying warmly.
"Commander Sun, why don't we just stay here and watch? Our 3rd Motorized Infantry Detachment's attack is about to begin."
Sun Yuanliang calmly brushed his hand away, his face expressionless, but his tone carried a hint of barely perceptible sarcasm.
"Of course we'll watch the battle. But I heard from the commander that your unit aims to annihilate the entire Kameda Regiment before nightfall."
"Forgive my ignorance, but after so many years of fighting, I've never witnessed such a strange thing. Perhaps I misheard?"
Upon hearing this, Wang Dayong burst into laughter, the sound so loud that dust fell from the makeshift fortifications.
Upon hearing this, Wang Dayong burst into laughter, the sound so loud that dust fell from the makeshift fortifications.
He raised his hand and patted the Mauser pistol at his waist, his tone laced with sarcasm.
"Commander Sun, your ears are really sharp, even sharper than your legs! You didn't mishear at all."
"Our objective is to wipe out that entire group of Japanese devils from the Kameda Regiment on this position before nightfall, leaving not a single one alive!"
Sun Yuanliang frowned, looking at the smoke still rising from the Japanese positions opposite him, and said in a deep voice:
"Commander Wang, don't underestimate the enemy. They are elite Japanese troops."
Upon hearing this, Wang Dayong immediately burst into laughter, raised his hand and patted the cold armor plate of the armored vehicle next to him, making a dull sound.
"Elite troops? Our Third Column is specifically designed to take down elite troops!"
Before he could finish speaking, a deafening roar of artillery fire suddenly erupted.
The ground trembled violently, and the sandbag walls of the command post crumbled and shed soil.
Sun Yuanliang instinctively shrank his neck, but then realized in an instant that this was not Japanese artillery fire.
Sure enough, the next second, a barrage of artillery fire swept in.
The heavy artillery battalion and artillery of various calibers attached to the 3rd Motorized Infantry Detachment, along with the vehicle-mounted guns of the tank group, opened fire simultaneously.
All the cannons were locked onto the defensive positions of the Kameda Regiment.
"BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!"
The deafening explosions continued one after another, forming a continuous, surging thunder.
The shockwave, carrying a blast of air, swept across the hillside, making the air itself feel hot and tremble.
The officers and soldiers in the 88th Division command post all instinctively went outside, raising their binoculars to look at the Japanese positions completely engulfed in flames.
"Wow! That's a big move! Did they bring all the artillery from our 71st Army?"
The chief of staff of the 88th Division held up his binoculars, looking at the surging flames and black smoke, and couldn't help but exclaim in amazement.
Sun Yuanliang put down his binoculars, his lips twitched, and his tone carried a hint of undisguised bitterness.
"The commander is so biased! These are such precious shells, why didn't he give them to our 88th Division?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Wang Dayong, who was standing next to him, smiled and offered an explanation.
"Commander Sun, you've misunderstood."
We are aware that your army is short of artillery ammunition. This shelling used all the artillery firepower that our detachment brought with us.
"Your unit's own artillery?"
Sun Yuanliang was taken aback for a moment, then instantly grasped the key point in the words.
Wang Dayong used the term "detachment," not "column."
In other words, this devastating artillery fire was only the firepower of one detachment under the Third Column.
But listening to the density of the artillery barrage and the extremely short intervals between the explosions, he knew perfectly well that at least forty cannons had been used.
This includes not only small and medium caliber mortars, but also large caliber heavy artillery and several field guns.
Sun Yuanliang's heart sank.
If a single detachment has such firepower, what a terrifying scale it would be if all the artillery of the entire Third Column were concentrated together.
One hundred doors? Or one hundred and fifty doors?
He was afraid to think any further.
Only now did he truly understand why Li Jianghe's troops were able to conquer every enemy they encountered and win every battle.
This equipment is really too good, far better than the German-equipped divisions at their peak.
I'm afraid even the legendary German armored divisions were only configured like this.
Meanwhile, on the defensive position of the Kameda Regiment, Kameda Oka was huddled in a half-collapsed bunker, his face covered in soot, his ears ringing, and even tears were streaming down his face.
He had only one thought in his mind: It's too fierce, the enemy's firepower is too fierce.
Just how many artillery pieces were mobilized to indiscriminately bombard his position?
What made him even more desperate was that the duration of the artillery fire was unprecedented.
In total, at least a thousand shells have been fired at this small position, and the roar shows no sign of stopping.
The fortifications were blown to pieces, and the trenches were filled with collapsed soil. Many Japanese soldiers were buried alive before they could even scream.
The reinforced concrete firing point was directly hit by a heavy artillery shell and instantly blasted into a pile of rubble. Not even the complete remains of the soldiers inside could be found.
As the artillery barrage began, the tank group of the 3rd Motorized Infantry Detachment started moving.
Under the cover of artillery fire, they deployed into attack formation together with the accompanying infantry, roaring over the hillside and charging straight toward the main position of the Kameda Regiment.
Sun Yuanliang's 88th Division launched seven large-scale assaults on this position.
As a result, most of the time, the troops couldn't even get to the front of the Japanese positions before being driven back by intense fire, suffering over a thousand casualties in just one morning.
So at this moment, watching the tank group of the Third Column charge straight toward the main Japanese position, Sun Yuanliang's lips curled into a barely perceptible sneer.
He scoffed inwardly: "Hmph, do you think you can just storm the Japanese main position just because you're well-equipped? You haven't even done the most basic probing with firepower. You'll be in for a world of hurt later."
In the end, he gave up on the idea of reminding her, crossed his arms, and waited to see what would happen next.
Ahead, on the main Japanese position, the nightmarish artillery bombardment finally ceased.
The smoke slowly dissipated, leaving only scorched earth on the battlefield. Black smoke still billowed from the broken walls and ruins, and the air was filled with the pungent smell of gunpowder and blood.
The Japanese soldiers who survived by sheer luck crawled out of the collapsed fortifications and mounds of earth.
Their faces were covered in soot, their uniforms were torn to shreds, many of them had blood in their ears from the shockwave, and their rifles had been blown away somewhere.
Before they could even catch their breath, the furious roars of officers at all levels rang out across the battlefield.
"Everyone! Immediately take firing positions! Watch out for enemy tanks!!!"
No sooner had the words been spoken than the Japanese soldiers saw a scene that made their scalps tingle amidst the lingering smoke of battle.
Dozens of tanks revealed their menacing silhouettes under the midday sun.
The dark muzzles of cannons and machine guns mounted on vehicles were all firmly pointed at the Japanese positions.
Accompanied by the deafening roar of diesel engines, the tank formation was rapidly charging toward the position with overwhelming force.
"Fire!!! Open fire!!!"
Kamedaoka brandished his katana, his voice hoarse from shouting, roaring like a madman.
On the battlefield, all the weapons the Japanese army could use roared at once.
Bullets from light and heavy machine guns rained down, while rifle shots rang out incessantly.
However, the dense bullets hitting the armored vehicle only produced a series of golden sparks and left shallow dents on the metal surface, unable to penetrate even a fraction of the metal.
On the contrary, those Japanese firing positions that had exposed their locations instantly became the priority targets of the tank group.
Whether it's the continuous strafing of the vehicle-mounted machine gun or the precise bombardment of the vehicle-mounted artillery, these firing points can be easily suppressed or even directly destroyed.
For every meter the tank advanced, a number of Japanese firing positions were wiped out.
Tracks rolled over trenches, gun muzzles spat fire, and the entire Japanese position was vulnerable and easily destroyed in the face of the steel torrent.
Finally, the few remaining anti-tank guns of the Japanese regiment roared in despair.
"boom!!!"
A flash of light from the muzzle, and a 37mm armor-piercing round roared out, accurately hitting the target at the forefront.
Two M3 modified half-track armored vehicles were pierced by armor-piercing rounds, causing them to lurch suddenly and burst into flames.
However, these anti-tank gun positions, which had just opened fire and completely exposed their positions, faced annihilation before they could even relocate.
Several 75mm short-barreled cannons and 50mm tank guns simultaneously turned their muzzles, and high-explosive shells rained down like raindrops.
"Boom!!!"
A series of explosions rang out, and the Japanese anti-tank gun positions were instantly covered by artillery fire.
The cannons were blown to bits, and the artillerymen who operated them were blasted to pieces.
In the end, these anti-tank guns only managed to destroy four half-track armored vehicles.
However, there were dozens of tanks charging directly at the Japanese positions, so this loss was insignificant.
More tanks have rolled over the Japanese forward trenches and penetrated into the core of the main position.
Standing beside the ruins of the command post, Kamedaoka looked at the steel torrent surging towards him like a tidal wave, and an unprecedented despair instantly overwhelmed him.
He gripped the katana at his waist so tightly that the hilt was almost crushed, and gave his final command in a hoarse voice.
"Samurai of the Empire! Proceed to the explosion! The time has come to serve the Emperor!!"
As soon as the words were spoken, a large number of Japanese soldiers, their eyes red, clutching tightly bound cluster grenades or Molotov cocktails filled with gasoline, frantically shouted "His Majesty the Emperor!" and rushed toward the charging tanks.