Rise From Eight Hundred

Major, do you need support?

This was definitely an extremely painful choice for Captain Toba, who was in charge of this fully equipped infantry squadron.

The reason was simple. More than an hour ago, there were faint gunshots and explosions in the distance.

But because the distance was too far, it was not very clear. He could not tell whether the surprise attack team led by Major Nishikawa personally had a brief exchange of fire with the Chinese because of exposure, or took the initiative to attack the Chinese defensive positions, or whether the Chinese had a battle with other small-scale troops of their own.

Because, in addition to their elite task force personally designated by Commander Yanagawa Heisuke, it was heard that the 6th Division and the 114th Division also sent their own vanguard teams to the rear of Songjiang. It was not surprising that they also had military maps and moved here.

But no matter how entangled and tormented Toba Hatoyama was, the one red and two green signal flares for help were the signal that Major Nishikawa had agreed with him before leaving. No one else knew about it except him, Major Nishikawa and the accompanying signal soldiers.

As for why Nishikawa Changlong fired the signal flare in the middle of the night without caring about the Chinese defenders defending the bridge, it was beyond the guesswork of Toba Hatoyama.

The infantry squadron led by Toba Hatoyama did carry a field radio, but the surprise attack team disguised as Chinese refugees did not. These questions could only be asked by his superiors when he saw them.

The signal flare was fired so recklessly, which meant that his superiors had issued a military order to him. If he did not obey the military order and move to the direction of the signal flare, when he returned to the division headquarters, he would be waiting for strict military law.

Seeing that the Army Major was only one level higher than him, the Army Captain, but the lieutenant and the lieutenant were not of the same dimension, let alone that Nishikawa Changlong was a favorite of the division commander. The two not only graduated from the same non-commissioned officer academy, but were also taught by the same teacher, and were considered brothers in the same school.

Therefore, no matter how cautious the Japanese captain wanted to be, he could only choose to order the entire army to pack up their equipment after a brief struggle of two or three minutes, and move forward at full speed along a small path dozens of meters away from the river bank to a position about two kilometers away in a straight line.

Although he was anxious, Toba Hatoyama was an officer who had participated in several battles after all. Before the entire army set out, he still followed the Army Drill Manual and sent out a small team of scouts to 500 meters ahead of the main force for reconnaissance.

Because scouts disguised as Chinese refugees had been sent out for reconnaissance in advance, the nearest Chinese fortifications on the south bank of the bridge were 3 kilometers away from here, and with the Japanese army's understanding of the Chinese army, they would certainly not dare to easily leave the fortifications that had been built with great difficulty, so the Japanese army was much bolder, directly using flashlights to illuminate the road ahead, speeding up the march, and the scouts could also observe the surrounding environment more carefully.

After all, traveling in the dark, and in the area currently controlled by the Chinese, anyone would be a little scared.

Toba Hatoyama had a lot of battlefield experience, but he could never have imagined that Nishikawa Changlong had already died, and how Lei Xiong knew the contact signal that they could only use in an emergency. It was thanks to him thinking for most of the night that he came up with the trick of trying not to kill Chinese civilians by mistake.

The first person to kneel down and beg for mercy was Nishikawa Changlong's personal communications soldier.

Because he was thin and looked wretched, the soldiers responsible for selecting Japanese took it for granted that he was weak, and it would be safer to stay at the checkpoint.

No one expected that it was this simple and pure idea that actually played a big role. The dozen Japanese soldiers who stayed at the checkpoint were indeed the weakest among the Japanese.

Among the dozen people, one-third chose to succumb to fate.

For example, the communications soldier, since he was the first to kneel down and beg for surrender without shame, he was naturally eager to continue to live, and in order to live, he could only give out more valuable information.

Unsatisfied with the hesitancy of a prisoner, Leng Feng, who came from the north of the bridge, mercilessly cut his throat with a Chinese bayonet, leaving him with his hands tied twisting like a dying fish in front of four prisoners.

The Japanese signalman was so scared that he peed his pants instantly. He not only revealed the names, ranks, and organization of Nishikawa Changlong and Toba Hatoyama, and the three contact signals agreed upon by Major Nishikawa Changlong and Captain Toba Hatoyama, but also revealed the secret history of the dead major's favorite woman, JIO.

No wonder Tang Dao likes to say that Japan is a perverted nation. Erya, who was responsible for recording, almost vomited.

The Japanese army moved quickly with flashlights in the dark.

A reconnaissance team was in front, and three infantry teams followed in turn. Each infantry team was 30 meters apart, and the team of less than 200 people stretched more than 300 meters.

This is also one of Toba Hatoyama's strategies to deal with possible attacks in the dark, making full use of the wide terrain here.

Of course, another important reason why Toba Hatoyama decided to take the risk and move forward is actually the terrain of their location.

There are some small hills on the river bank, but more are plains and wilderness. Almost no one would choose such a place for sneak attacks.

In this flat location, the geographical location of the attacker and the attacked is completely equal, and even because of the river bank here, it is impossible to form an effective encirclement of the enemy.

The attacked can completely use the darkness to escape calmly.

Even Toba Hatoyama was planning to use one infantry squad to resist the enemy's attack, while the other two infantry squads would flank and encircle the enemy who dared to attack them.

It can be said that the Japanese army captain who was forced to march in the dark had already prepared for all the countermeasures, including the possibility of being attacked with only a 20% chance.

However, the army captain miscalculated after all.

The Chinese were much more ruthless than he imagined.

The flat terrain was not conducive to ambushes, but that was only for light infantry. The two warring parties were lying in the wilderness and shooting at each other, which naturally could only be a tense battle. The Japanese infantry squadron with nearly 200 troops could completely hold out until dawn or sneak away quietly at night.

Unfortunately, in order to guard the bridge, Lei Xiong's troops were equipped with a lot of flares, much more than the Japanese.

As a red flare rose into the sky.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!" The first sound was not the blazing gunshots, but the flares that rose into the sky without any money.

More than ten flares illuminated the figures of the advancing Japanese infantry No. 200 in the dark.

There was no so-called ambush circle. All the infantry and fire support forces gathered by Lei Xiong were waiting about 3 kilometers away from the bridge. The reconnaissance team composed of five groups of scouts stayed in the wilderness to be the eyes of the whole army.

When they found that the Japanese reconnaissance vanguard team passed by, it meant that the main force of the Japanese army was not far away.

Niu Er, who was hiding in the wilderness, had already seen the bright flashlights of the Japanese squad, but did not issue a warning. He waited until the heavy footsteps arrived, and then issued a red signal flare that the enemy had arrived.

An infantry platoon approaching the river bank fired flares frantically at more than 100 meters away according to Lei Xiong's military order.

"Enemy attack! Lie down!" Captain Toba Hatoyama's face was ugly but calm in the white light of the flare, and he quickly lay down in the bushes on the side of the road.

The Japanese army reacted quickly, choosing a hiding place while firing flares into the wilderness opposite.

Although the gray-blue and black uniforms were not conspicuous in the dark, they could at least let the Japanese see that the number of people attacking them was not large.

At least not as many as they imagined.

Toba Hatoyama had no time to think about why the Chinese attacked him halfway when it was clearly a signal for help sent by Major Nishikawa. What was even more terrifying was that there was no fierce battle in the dark.

Or perhaps, this was a terrifying thing to think about.

His attention must be focused on the battlefield in front of him.

When he found that there were not as many Chinese as he imagined more than 100 meters away, the Japanese captain, who was getting angry, made an extremely wrong decision.

As the gunfire from the infantry squad in the middle sounded, the two infantry squads at the front and back ends began to move to the two wings, starting the old-fashioned tactics of central attack and two-wing breakthrough that had almost been integrated into the blood of the Japanese infantry.

So, they were in trouble.

Lei Xiong brought an infantry company, which was 40 to 50 fewer than the Japanese infantry, but there was also a fire support platoon with two mortars, two machine guns, four heavy machine guns, and two MG34s. These things dared to fight against the Japanese naval aviation aircraft, let alone a bunch of army bumpkins?

And what about Toba Hatoyama? What? In order to increase the firepower of this task force, Ushijima Sadao added a light machine gun and a grenade launcher to each infantry squad.

Then, that was it.

Heavy firearms such as infantry artillery cannot be carried by manpower alone.

In other words, Toba Hatoyama's command, what can be called suppressive firepower, a total of 9 light machine guns and 9 grenade launchers, if it is against an ordinary Chinese infantry battalion, his firepower can definitely suppress it.

But here, he can only be beaten.

Mortars, heavy machine guns, machine guns and MG34 were all stationed in temporary fortifications 500 meters away. The Japanese grenade launchers could not reach them at all, but they were within their range.

Especially the two Japanese infantry squads that tried to attack the two wings without knowing their own strength. After entering the wilderness for 50 meters, they were suppressed by several heavy machine guns and MG34 machine guns and dared not even raise their heads.

What the two infantry platoons that came from afar had to do was not to blindly shoot at each other, but to get close and throw grenades at the Japanese soldiers lying in the wilderness.

The combat situation between China and Japan had a rare reversal. One side consumed ammunition at all costs, and the other side could only use will and body to fight against modern firearms.

The Japanese army, which could only passively take the beating, was surprisingly tenacious and persisted for a full hour. The huge consumption of ammunition made Lei Xiong's cheeks tremble with heartache.

But it was obvious that the Japanese commander was more painful.

The Chinese lost ammunition, but he lost the lives of his soldiers. The few soldiers he had were gradually decreasing before his eyes. He had to make the final choice, otherwise the whole army would be annihilated.

The Chinese heavy firepower was too fierce. He knew that the biggest possibility of retreating from land was to fall into the Chinese encirclement again.

Then he could only go by water.

Toba Hatoyama could only painfully leave 30 of the last 80 people to form a blocking line of defense, and the other 50 people jumped into the river under his leadership, dropped all heavy weapons, and swam to the other side of the river.

As long as he was given 20 minutes, he could at least take an infantry squad to escape, instead of all of them being killed on this bloody river bank.

But here, not all the Chinese defenders were there, there were still some on the other side of the river.