Rise From Eight Hundred

Captain Toba Hatoyama never set foot on this land again in his life.

In the past, it was he who led his men to shoot the Chinese soldiers in the river wantonly, causing thousands of Chinese soldiers who had no power to resist to suffer in the river.

But in this era, everything is reversed.

The Japanese infantrymen wearing heavy leather boots and military uniforms were struggling hard in the waves of the river. The proficient water skills they had practiced by the sea made them stronger than the Chinese soldiers in that time and space, carrying rifles weighing several kilograms.

But what's the use of that? Guns can't be used as boats.

Leng Feng, who was ordered to guard the north bank, led two anti-aircraft positions. All the soldiers carried various guns and cannons and deployed along the river bank. The constantly rising flares clearly illuminated the heads in the water.

It was not a battle, but a shooting game.

The Japanese were simply unable to shoot a bullet in the water. Bleeding and drinking water were the two things they could do.

The panicked Japanese soldiers were in a dilemma in the water. They were reluctant to abandon their equipment and were exhausted after swimming across the 300-meter-wide river. It was impossible for them to swim back or dive into the water to escape downstream.

Continuously diving to avoid bullets and then floating to the surface for breathing was too physically demanding.

So, almost all of them died.

Only two or three out of ten Japanese soldiers died from the bullets of Leng Feng and others. Most of them drank enough river water and became "submarines", including Captain Toba Hatoyama who chose the wrong direction to break out.

The Japanese army captain who drank too much water became a fat bait in the mouth of Suzhou River fish. Even his feet were gnawed clean, so naturally he would not have the opportunity to set foot on land again.

The 30 Japanese soldiers who were left behind by Toba Hatoyama to block the attack did not last long. They were drowned by bullets and grenades in just over 10 minutes.

As the battlefield gradually became quiet, only the excited shouts of the Chinese soldiers remained. This head-on confrontation that was not an ambush finally came to an end.

The flashlights left behind by the Japanese army became a trophy that delighted the Chinese soldiers. It was very convenient to use them to find the remaining Japanese soldiers.

As for what to do after finding them?

Of course, it was the old rules. Not to mention that the veterans who originally belonged to the Four-Line Camp were already familiar with this routine, the soldiers of the 67th Army and the 43rd Army were now familiar with Commander Lei's favorite method.

Only the dead devils were good devils.

There was no need to bother digging pits to bury people, just throw the bodies into the river. Anyway, Songhu downstream had been occupied by the Japanese, so let them drink more corpse water. The Chinese soldiers who had just fought with them had no psychological burden at all.

In the end, the 400-man task force sent by Yanagawa Heisuke, together with its two commanders, was almost wiped out and became the missing persons list of the 18th Division.

The reason why it is said to be almost is that the Japanese task force still left a single seedling.

A corporal named Momotaro had a stomachache from eating raw and cold rice balls. He had to find a place to relieve himself every ten minutes, which made him fall behind. The corporal, who was 300 meters away from the main team, ran 20 meters towards the main team after hearing the gunshots. However, when his own flares were fired, he unexpectedly saw two machine guns that began to spit out gunfire. The clever Momotaro immediately drifted and turned around.

The corporal who turned around and ran became the only survivor of the task force. Later, the main Japanese force that arrived ten kilometers away from the Baihe Port Bridge found the corporal who was almost exhausted in a bush.

When he knew that he and all his colleagues were on the missing list, the originally extremely depressed mental state of Corporal Momotaro improved a lot.

Ushijima Sadao heard the version about the heroic battle of his task force.

Unfortunately, due to the exposure, Major Nishikawa led the entire task force to fight bravely with the Chinese, but the Chinese besieging them were as high as an infantry regiment or even an infantry brigade.

The Chinese had a large number of people, but what was even more excessive was that they also had heavy weapons such as machine guns and mortars. The battle lasted until late at night, and he was ordered to hide and wait for help as a member of the rescue team sent by Toba Hatoyama because he fell ill, and the whereabouts of the rest of his colleagues were unknown.

The craters bombarded by mortars on the river bank and the terrible bullet points after the machine guns raged all proved the bravery of the imperial warriors described by Momotaro. Even if Ushijima Sadao had doubts in his heart, he could only choose to believe it.

Or even if he didn't believe it, the honor of the 18th Division would make him choose to believe it.

Momotaro, who suffered a "severe blow" in spirit, never set foot on the battlefield again, and became the one who returned to his country to preach to the people how the brave army soldiers of the empire fought against the Chinese with a small number of people.

Perhaps he had been talking for a long time, and even he believed it himself. Anyway, he was the only Japanese who survived the scene, wasn't he?

So even if the Chinese side announced the results of the battle in the future, the Japanese Army firmly denied the report that the more than 300 Chinese officers and soldiers responsible for guarding the bridge took advantage of the terrain to wipe out 400 Japanese invaders, believing that the Chinese military, which dispatched an infantry brigade, was flattering itself.

The Chinese and Japanese sides, who had invested nearly a million troops in the fierce battle, actually fought for a long time for just 400 people, which was also one of the strange stories on the battlefield of that battle.

However, the Chinese military strength fabricated by Momotaro made Ushijima Sadao and Yanagawa Heisuke, who learned of the news, make wrong judgments. They believed that the Chinese had sent at least an infantry division to defend the Baihe Port Bridge.

If the remnants of the army retreating from Songjiang are included, the number of troops will still remain above 30,000. Upon learning the news, Yanagawa Heisuke immediately ordered the 6th Division and Kunisaki Detachment, which were chasing closely, to slow down the pursuit, so as to avoid being caught by the desperate Chinese army and causing unnecessary losses.

This slowdown gave the retreating Songjiang defenders two more hours of extremely precious time.

Yes, on the night of November 9, Lei Xiong led his men and just finished their first ground battle when they received a secret telegram from the Songjiang Command.

The Songjiang defenders had completed the military order issued by the theater command in the early morning of November 5 to resist the Japanese Tenth Army for three days and nights.

To be more precise, not only did they successfully complete the military order, but they also held on for 24 more hours, buying enough time for the retreating army in the west of Shanghai to retreat.

At about 7 pm, Wu and Guo from the Songjiang Command sent a secret telegram to the theater command, saying that the entire Songjiang army would defend Songjiang to the death. As long as there was a soldier in the Huxi garrison who had not completed the evacuation, the Songjiang garrison would never retreat even if the whole army was annihilated.

The bigwigs of the theater command were moved to tears. At least more than ten lieutenant generals and above, including General Gu, the deputy commander, jointly replied, saying that the entire Songjiang army was a model for Chinese soldiers. They would follow the example of the entire Songjiang army and fight the Japanese invaders to the end, and die on the battlefield.

It was not just the Chinese generals on the battlefield who were moved?

The generals of the Japanese Tenth Army also felt guilty.

In just three hours, the general content of this secret telegram forwarded to the Ministry of Military and Political Affairs was placed on the desk of Yanagawa Heisuke, who arrived at the front line to supervise the battle in person.

A group of the Tenth Army's generals frowned tightly, and almost vomited blood because of the stubborn Songjiang garrison.

It has been four days since the battle. The Chinese side has suffered huge losses, but the Tenth Army has also suffered heavy losses. Not to mention the loss of more than 10,000 infantry and auxiliary soldiers, even the Lieutenant General of the ‘strongest division on the surface of the earth’ died here.

But no matter how much blood is vomited, seeing the Chinese people’s desperate attitude, this battle must be fought.

The Chinese are not stingy with sacrifices, so why wouldn’t the soldiers of the Empire of Japan be the same?

In the front-line command of the Tenth Army, which was brightly lit almost all night, a group of important generals of the Tenth Army of Japan gritted their teeth and discussed the tactics after dawn because of the intelligence sent by the No. 3 spy who was hidden in a very high position in the Chinese government.

The Eighteenth Division, which had been on standby at the bank of the Huangpu River, also mobilized an infantry brigade to arrive at the Songjiang front line. The Tenth Army will launch a larger-scale attack at dawn on the 10th.

This time, the attack will be launched from all four sides. The heavy artillery brigade and the naval bombers that come to assist will completely destroy the four walls. More than 20,000 infantry will enter the city and use human wave tactics to drown the remaining Chinese defenders in various ruins.

The sky will be dawn.

"Gentlemen, this attack on Songjiang will be the 10th Army's all-out battle in southeast China. His Majesty is waiting for the news of our victory in the palace. I hope you will not hesitate to die!

In addition, in this battle, those who say they will retreat will die!" When Yanagawa Heisuke made the final summary, he put his hands on the desk and stared at the major generals and lieutenant generals in front of him with a gloomy look.

"Empire, military fortune is prosperous!" Two rows of Japanese generals stood up and stood at attention.

Looking at this situation, today's battle is a decisive battle.

The two sides will fight to the death.