The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 535 Bloody Night 4
Beihai, position of the 175th Regiment of the 525th Division

In the dark night, a corporal from the 525th Regiment stood upright in the communication trench with a rifle on his back, but his eyes were looking towards Qisha as he heard the occasional sound of gunfire and the faint flames in the distance.

This corporal on sentry duty was like most of the officers and soldiers of the 175th Division. Although his position was in Beihai, his attention was in the direction of Qisha. The Japanese army had landed in southern Guangxi for some time, but their main attack direction had always been Qisha. There had been no movement in the Beihai direction since the war started. Now the Japanese army was making a big fuss in the Qisha direction again, which was a precursor to preparing to launch a large-scale attack in the Qisha direction.

Therefore, almost everyone in the 175th Division had the mentality that the North Sea was very safe, there would be no war, and their own troops were a reserve force.

With such a peaceful mentality, the 175th Division inevitably relaxed its security work in the North Sea direction from top to bottom, and even many of the sentries on the lower patrol were absent-minded.

Of course, the actual situation is far from as simple as it seems. The 175th Division has three infantry regiments, the 523rd, 524th and 525th. It is with these three infantry regiments that the 175th Division has undertaken the long-term coastal defense mission in the Beihai. After the Japanese army suddenly launched an attack in the direction of Qisha tonight, the 46th Army sent an urgent telegram to transfer the 175th Regiment of the 524th Division from the Beihai direction to serve as an army reserve, ready to reinforce the Qisha direction at any time. The garrison force of the 175th Division in the Beihai was thus reduced to two infantry regiments.

The already scarce manpower became even more stretched after one regiment was withdrawn, and the originally relatively complete defense line was left with a gap as the 524th Regiment was transferred away. A large gap, a big hole, appeared between the positions of the 523rd and 525th Regiments.

The second batch of Japanese reinforcements that had already landed landed right at this gap and hole.

Compared with the fierce gunfire coming from the Qisha direction, the position of the 175th Division in the Beihai direction was much quieter. However, in this seemingly quiet area, no one in the 175th Division from top to bottom realized that danger was approaching.

The corporal paced back and forth, his eyes occasionally glancing in the direction of Qisha. Suddenly, a private sentry came over, nudged the corporal with his elbow, and said, "Squad leader, shall we go take a piss and smoke a cigarette?"

"Just stand guard, be quiet!"

The corporal scolded him, but the private just kept grinning like a dead pig that is not afraid of boiling water, and acted nonchalantly, not looking like a soldier at all

The second-class soldier chuckled, took out a pack of cigarettes, pointed in the direction of Qisha, which was illuminated by the fire, and said, "The Japs are attacking Qisha, it's not our turn yet!"

The corporal looked in the direction of Qisha, then looked at the quiet positions around him, and took the cigarette handed to him by the private. The two of them climbed out of the trench with their rifles on their backs, ran to the front of the position, unbuckled their belts to drain their urine, and puffed out cigarettes.

The 175th Division is also a new unit of the Gui Army. There are a lot of new recruits in the unit. The private is a local recruit who has been conscripted for only half a year. As for the corporal, his military service is only one year. None of them has been on the battlefield, let alone any high level of combat readiness. Whether it is the non-commissioned officers or soldiers, they are actually very lax.

The two men were chatting, and the corporal, who was lowering his head to avoid waterproofing, suddenly felt a rustling noise in the darkness ahead. He quickly raised his head to look, but the noise suddenly disappeared.

"Squad leader, keep smoking, have a few more cigarettes before going back. Standing sentry duty is exhausting. Let's hang out outside for a while. Someone will be here to take over the post in two cigarettes."

The private puffed out a cigarette happily and gave the corporal a cigarette. Just as the two men lowered their heads to pull up their pants, several strange black shadows suddenly rushed up and pressed them to the ground. Before they could make a sound, their mouths were covered. The frightened corporal struggled hard to reach the bayonet at his waist, but before his hand touched the bayonet sheath, a bayonet cut his throat and blood flowed out.

The two men stopped moving, and then several black shadows continued to move forward. Three hundred meters behind these black shadows, there were densely packed black shadows slowly approaching the position of the 525th Regiment.

"bang bang"

"Whoosh!"

A few minutes later, several gunshots broke the night sky, followed by several flares whizzing into the sky and slowly descending. The inside and outside of the position suddenly became pale white. The sudden light exposed the dark shadows only a hundred meters away from the 525th Regiment's position. They were densely packed Japanese troops crawling on the ground with their sharp bayonets.

"Onboard!"

Groups of Japanese officers and non-commissioned officers jumped up first, waving their swords and shouting orders to attack. Then, the crawling Japanese soldiers stood up one after another. Deafening shouts of killing suddenly rang out in front of the position of the 525th Regiment. Nearly a thousand Japanese soldiers shouted and launched a fierce charge. With only one charge, the position of the 525th Regiment was broken through by the Japanese army.

The sounds of gunfire, shouting, screaming, and explosions resounded throughout the positions of the 525th Regiment. Due to long-term laxity, many officers and soldiers of the 525th Regiment fell under the bayonets and bullets of the Japanese army before they could figure out the situation.

As soon as the battle began, the combat form evolved into close combat and hand-to-hand combat in the trenches. Faced with the 525th Regiment, which was filled with a large number of recruits and was in a panic, the Japanese troops who rushed into the trenches were like fish in water.

Faced with the Japanese army with excellent assassination and close combat techniques and physical advantages, officers and soldiers of the Nationalist Army were constantly stabbed to death by bayonets, and many Nationalist Army soldiers fell under the guns of the Japanese Army. Many recruits who were caught in the chaos were frightened by the bayonets and raids of the Japanese Army. They could not find their squad leaders and could only run around in panic and be defeated. The entire structure of the 525th Regiment quickly fell into chaos.

More and more Japanese troops rushed into the positions of the 525th Regiment, and more and more national army officers and soldiers fell in a pool of blood.

Soon, in just half an hour, under the fierce attack of the Japanese army, the defenders of the 525th Regiment quickly collapsed, and their direction also fell amid the shouts of killing and painful cries.
At the same time as the position of the 525th Regiment was lost, the position of the 175rd Regiment of the 523th Division was also attacked by the Japanese army, but the fighting situation was much more brutal than that of the 525th Regiment.

The Japanese troops attacking the 523rd Regiment's position were equipped with light tanks that had just landed. The Japanese mixed infantry and tank column penetrated through the gap left by the 524th Regiment to the flank of the 523rd Regiment's position, and then launched a surprise attack with light tanks as the vanguard and in coordination with the infantry.

Since the Japanese army adopted a tactic of flanking penetration, they quietly maneuvered along the loopholes in the 175th Division's defense line to the flank of the 523rd position before launching an attack. Therefore, the Japanese tanks easily rushed into the position of the 523rd Regiment. The officers and soldiers of the 523rd Regiment were caught off guard and had no chance to withstand the infantry-tank coordinated attack launched from the flank and rear by the Japanese army. Without any preparation, the position was broken by a coordinated attack by the Japanese army's infantry and tanks. The entire regiment resisted for only a dozen minutes before suffering heavy casualties. They retreated one after another and lost their defending positions.

In just one night, the 175th Division was almost completely defeated and all positions on the North Sea defense line were lost.

(End of this chapter)