Zhu Tian: Beginning to Cross the Changjin Lake

Jiro Takano shouted loudly, urging his soldiers to continue rushing to the top of the mountain, while he kept his head tilted to observe the situation on the battlefield.

Although the gunfire on the mountain was not dense, the defenders were well organized and basically only opened fire after seeing the Japanese.

There would be no blind fire blockade on a certain area to prevent the Japanese from attacking.

This can effectively improve the hit rate and thus reduce the loss of ammunition.

However, in Jiro Takano's opinion, this was because the defenders had little ammunition left, so they fought like this.

Although the surviving soldiers were all elite warriors with rich experience and had caused considerable casualties to the Japanese, they were still unable to rush up the mountain.

But if this trend continues, the defenders will not be able to hold out for much longer.

Of course, Jiro Takano had no idea how long the defenders could hold out, but he had no choice but to attack with all his might. Perhaps he could defeat them in just a moment. Once the defenders were defeated, they would no longer be able to launch a counterattack.

Therefore, at this critical moment, he absolutely cannot back down and can only continue to consume his energy.

At this moment, Jiro Takano was as excited as if he had been injected with chicken blood. He kept yelling, but he did not rush out directly.

Because he also knew that with his current physical strength and power, rushing forward would be tantamount to committing suicide.

And if he commands here, he can achieve greater results, and at least boost morale.

At this moment, the old Japanese soldier was completely unaware of the approaching danger, because Li Guotao on the mountain had already discovered this old Japanese soldier.

Li Guotao concluded that this old Japanese was an officer, and apparently a high-ranking official.

Li Guotao held the rifle and quickly changed to a more advantageous position. Just when Takano Jiro poked his head out again, Li Guotao decisively pulled the trigger.

“Snap~!”

A crisp gunshot was heard, and a hot bullet flew quickly towards Takano Jiro.

With a "pop!" sound, Takano Jiro's head exploded like a smashed watermelon.

Blood and brain matter splattered everywhere. Jiro Takano groaned, fell to the ground with his head raised, and died.

[Ding Dong~! Congratulations on killing a Japanese colonel. A fire preparation card is released (mountain artillery regiment, duration 20 minutes)]

A crisp system prompt sounded, and Li Guotao was overjoyed. He did not expect that he had killed another Japanese colonel regiment commander.

After all, this thing is relatively rare, and it is extremely rare to go to the front line to participate in the battle. It is not easy to kill a Japanese colonel.

What made Li Guotao even happier was that this time a fire preparation card was popped up. The mountain artillery regiment had 20 minutes of artillery preparation, and such firepower was quite fierce.

Especially at this critical moment, having such a trump card also makes Li Guotao more confident. If this thing is used at a critical moment, it can still have a very good effect and may even reverse the entire situation.

Li Guotao shouted excitedly: "Brothers, keep on beating them hard. Send all these damned Japanese devils to hell."

As he spoke, he continued to raise his gun and aimed at the Japanese soldiers and shot. As the crisp gunshots rang out, the Japanese soldiers fell to the ground one by one.

Li Guotao's marksmanship had already reached the level of perfection. He would never waste a bullet. Even at a distance of just a few dozen meters, every shot would hit the target in the head and kill the enemy with one shot.

After Jiro Takano was shot dead, the Japanese soldiers next to him saw the regiment commander fall down and immediately rushed over.

"Your Excellency, the Captain~!"

Seeing that Jiro Takano's head was exploded and he was dead, the two Japanese soldiers immediately carried Jiro Takano's body and carefully retreated down the hillside, preparing to transport his body back.

With the killing of Jiro Takano, the morale of the Japanese was greatly affected.

They had already encountered stubborn resistance and could not advance at all. Casualties were rising sharply. This hopeless battle made the Japanese gradually despair.

This is clearly a waste of time. Although the Japanese soldiers have been brainwashed into idiots, they are unwilling to die in such a meaningless way.

Not long after, the Japanese troops, who had lost their unified command, were repelled again.

This time, because Jiro Takano was killed, the Japanese stopped the attack and did not organize a new round of offensive. The officer in charge immediately reported the news to the front-line headquarters and waited for further instructions.

Finally, the Japanese were repelled again, and Li Guotao couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

"Damn it! We finally beat them back."

"Notify the brothers to restore the position and take time to rest."

"Yes!"

The soldiers were very excited after repelling the Japanese attack again.

Li Guotao raised the telescope, observed the situation in the distance, and then said: "I think the Japanese will temporarily stop attacking this time."

At this time Yang Jihe came over and asked, "How did you know?"

"Guess!"

Li Guotao said casually: "They are not made of iron. They can't keep attacking like this. They also need to rest and reorganize. All these things take time."

Yang Jihe nodded and said, "That being said, these damned Japanese devils have been going crazy during this period of time."

"I hope your guess is right, so we can take a breath."

Yang Jihe nodded and said, "If we continue fighting like this, I really don't know when it will end!"

Li Guotao smiled and said, "Don't worry, reinforcements will definitely arrive. When the reinforcements arrive, it will be over."

"I hope so."

Yang Jihe nodded, without saying anything more, reached out and patted Li Guotao on the shoulder, turned and left. Everything was self-evident.

Li Guotao looked at the Japanese positions in the distance, gritted his teeth and said to himself: We have to keep working hard. These are the last few days and we must not make any more mistakes.

……

At the same time, the news that Jiro Takano had been killed reached the Japanese front-line command.

A Japanese officer walked quickly to Yokoyama Isamu and said respectfully, "Commander, we have just received a report from the front line that Commander Takano was shot and killed while leading the charge in the battle just now."

"The attack on Tianma Mountain failed again. The locust army suffered heavy losses and was forced to temporarily stop the attack."

"Nani?"

Upon hearing this, Yokoyama Yong's face changed slightly and he asked, "Did Kono-kun die?"

“Hai~!” the Japanese officer said, “Captain Takano was extremely brave. He personally climbed up Tianma Mountain. When he was only a few dozen meters away from the Tianma Mountain position, he was hit in the head by a stray bullet and died on the spot.”

Yokoyama Isamu's face darkened instantly, and he pretended to be sad, saying: "Takano-kun is indeed the most loyal and brave warrior in the empire. We should all learn from him."

"Has Koya-kun's body been brought back?"

The Japanese officer said: "Several Locust Army warriors fought desperately to retrieve the body of Captain Takano."

"That's good!"

Yokoyama Isamu nodded slightly. The fighting on the front line was too brutal. A large number of the Japanese corpses could not be transported down and could only be left in the wilderness to rot and stink. Yokoyama Isamu was also aware of this situation.

But Jiro Takano was a senior military officer after all, so he had to protect the body at all costs and then transport it back to the country for burial.

Yokoyama Isamu said: "Takano-kun sacrificed his life for His Majesty the Heavenly Locust, and he deserves the highest level of treatment."

"Hayi~!"

A Japanese major general next to him responded respectfully: "Please rest assured, Commander, I will arrange everything."

"Yoshi~!"

Yokoyama Isamu nodded slightly, but couldn't help feeling a little upset.

Since the Battle of Hengyang began, their offensive has not been successful and they have suffered heavy losses. Several senior officers above the rank of regiment commander have died.

Yokoyama Isamu was also heartbroken about this, but there was nothing he could do.

He also tried to change everything and minimize casualties, but failed.

Yokoyama Yong returned to the sand table again and said seriously: "The goal of attacking Hengyang cannot be changed. We must take Hengyang."

“No matter how great the cost, it is worth it.”

"Immediately arrange for troops to replace the Gaoye Regiment and continue the attack on Tianma Mountain. We must capture Tianma Mountain as soon as possible."

"Hayi~!"

A Japanese major general next to him quickly responded and said, "Please rest assured, Commander, we will dispatch troops to Tianma Mountain and continue the attack."

"According to the previously formulated strategies and tactics, seize Tianma Mountain as soon as possible."

Yokoyama Isamu frowned and said: "The enemy's tenacity is indeed beyond our imagination, but this cannot be the reason why we cannot take Hengyang."

"I always firmly believe that our Imperial Locust Army is invincible. No one can defeat us."

"Now, a mere 10th Army of Fang Xianjue has trapped more than of our Locust Army warriors in Hengyang for more than a month, and we have lost tens of thousands of Locust Army warriors. This is simply a great shame and humiliation."

"So I hope you can learn from this and go all out in the next battle to eliminate these remaining enemies as quickly as possible and complete the goal of occupying Hengyang."

"Hayi~!"

The Japanese officers present responded in unison.

At this moment, Yokoyama Isamu was really anxious and worried, because their losses in this battle were too great.

Of course, what he was more worried about was that if they delayed any further, when the support troops from the central army arrived in Hengyang again, their situation would be even more dangerous.

If he really fails to take Hengyang, he will not be able to explain to his superiors, and the only option left for him to do is to commit seppuku to apologize.

……

The Japanese adjusted their deployment and temporarily stopped the attack.

Li Guotao commanded his brothers to take the opportunity to reinforce some damaged positions. At night, he sent people to sneak out to pick up weapons and ammunition left behind by the Japanese on the hillside.

After searching all the weapons and ammunition on the hillside, they carefully went down to the trench and searched for any usable weapons and ammunition in the trench littered with the corpses of Japanese soldiers.

Due to continuous fighting, the defenders consumed a lot of ammunition. Although the Flying Tigers also sent planes to airdrop supplies, they were unable to fully meet the consumption of the front-line troops.

The situation of the defenders is now very bad, especially the wounded, who lack medical care and medicine.

Although each division has a field hospital, these field hospitals can only perform some simple wound treatments and some seriously injured soldiers cannot be treated at all.

Originally, these field hospitals were used to temporarily treat injuries and then transport the wounded to hospitals with the necessary conditions for treatment. However, now that Hengyang was surrounded, these wounded could not be transported out at all. Many seriously injured soldiers could only endure and wait to die.

Due to the lack of medical care and medicine, many wounded soldiers could not receive effective treatment. It was summer, so their wounds became inflamed and rotten, and then maggots appeared. The medical staff had tried their best, but there were too many wounded soldiers and a lack of sufficient medicine and medical facilities, so they were powerless.

Some of the wounded had maggots in their wounds, which kept wriggling inside. The wounded tried to take the maggots out themselves, but after taking them out, maggots continued to grow again. After a long time, the wounded gave up and could only let it go and wait to die.

Thousands of wounded soldiers were struggling to survive, and now Commander Fang and his men didn't even dare to go to the field hospital to visit the wounded.

Because they really couldn't bear to hear the painful cries of the wounded, and they couldn't look directly at the pleading eyes of the wounded whose wounds were infested with maggots.

Faced with such a situation, even Li Guotao felt powerless.

Everything was caused by the Japanese. If it weren't for this damn war, such a tragedy would not have happened.

Only by completely defeating the Japanese can we end this war and avoid more tragedies like this from happening.

The outcome of the Hengyang Defense War was about to come to an end. Li Guotao only needed to hold on for the last few days to completely resolve the danger in Hengyang, completely end the battle, and defeat and even annihilate the Japanese invaders who were besieging Hengyang.

But the Japanese had not given up at this time. After adjustments, they once again organized a large number of troops and launched a more fierce attack on Tianma Mountain.

Li Guotao could only grit his teeth and command his brothers to continue to hold their positions. Although the days were long and painful, victory was just around the corner. As long as they persisted, they would soon see the dawn of victory.

Under Li Guotao's command, the Japanese attacks were repelled again and again. The corpses of the Japanese on Tianma Mountain kept piling up. Due to the hot weather, many corpses had already severely decayed. The entire Tianma Mountain area was filled with the disgusting stench of corpses.

Fortunately, after staying on Tianma Mountain for a long time, the brothers gradually got used to this environment.

However, everyone also hopes to win the battle as soon as possible and leave this battlefield that is like hell on earth as soon as possible.

In the next few days, the Japanese launched dozens of attacks on Tianma Mountain and tried every possible means and method, but they were still unable to capture the Tianma Mountain position.

At this time, the reinforcement troops were gradually approaching Hengyang City again, preparing to support the Hengyang defenders.

With no other choice, Yokoyama Isamu had to mobilize troops to block the reinforcements.

This not only relieved some of the pressure on the Hengyang defenders, but also gave them hope of victory again. (End of this chapter)