Bright Sword: The Flowers of War

Chapter 44 The Crushing Defeat of the Eleventh Regiment
"Fuck those damn Japanese devils!"

Su Yaoyang's expression immediately changed. As the saying goes, new recruits are afraid of artillery and old soldiers are afraid of machine guns.

If you're targeted by an enemy machine gunner on the battlefield, they'll really stick to you and won't let you go.

Without thinking, he lunged at a nearby crater. As soon as he landed, Su Yaoyang felt a wave of air, accompanied by a large amount of dust being kicked up, sweep over his head.

"Damn it, those Japanese devils are even throwing grenades!"

"Beep beep..."

Just then, a piercing whistle sounded, followed by a burst of light machine gun fire from not far away. The Japanese firing point that was originally firing in Su Yaoyang's direction fell silent instantly. It turned out that a group of soldiers from the security regiment had gone around the house, set up a Browning M1918A2 light machine gun, and then the machine gunner used a precise burst to take down the firing point.

After eliminating the firing point, the group of soldiers ran towards Su Yaoyang. The leader, a captain, immediately became anxious upon seeing Su Yaoyang, grabbed his arm, and shouted, "Commander... it's too dangerous here. I'll arrange for some brothers to escort you down immediately."

Su Yaoyang took a closer look and realized that it was Wang Shouxin, the company commander of the fourth company of the second battalion.

"No!" Su Yaoyang shook his head. "The battle is fierce right now. How can I be a deserter? Don't worry about me. Lead the brothers and keep charging. We must crush the 11th Regiment. I'll take care of myself."

Seeing Wang Shouxin still hesitating, his face darkened. "Execute the order!"

"Yes!"

Seeing that Su Yaoyang had lost his temper, Wang Shouxin dared not delay and could only lead his soldiers to continue the attack.

After Wang Shouxin and his group left, Su Yaoyang struggled to his feet and was about to follow the group when he discovered that his submachine gun was missing.

"Where's my gun? Where's my gun? Where's my gun...?" Brushing the dust off his clothes, Su Yaoyang looked around for his submachine gun, but couldn't find it anywhere.

Just then, he saw a gun next to the body of a security regiment soldier who had been killed in the explosion not far away.

Su Yaoyang quickly went over and picked up the blood-stained Garand rifle from the pool of blood, and also removed the ammunition pouch from the corpse.

The ammunition pouch is divided into two parts: one side contains 7.62 caliber bullets, and the other side contains seven or eight MARK II hand grenades.

After slinging the ammunition pack over his shoulder, Su Yaoyang ran towards the area where the gunfire was most intense.

Having run only a few dozen meters, Su Yaoyang, crouching low and charging forward, saw a Japanese soldier lying on the ground a hundred meters away, holding a Type 38 rifle and preparing to shoot in his direction. He immediately crouched down and fired a shot at the Japanese soldier.

"Clap clap..."

Two gunshots rang out almost simultaneously. Because of the close proximity, even though the street was still filled with smoke, Su Yaoyang could still clearly see the Japanese soldier's skull being blown open, and red and white matter flying up the moment the bullet hit.

"Clap clap clap..."

Intense gunfire echoed throughout the streets as countless Japanese soldiers in khaki uniforms and security regiment soldiers in grey-green uniforms clashed in the streets, ruins, and buildings.

In such confined terrain, the shortcomings of the Type 38 rifle, designed for long-range precision shooting, became glaringly apparent.

The Type 38 rifle is a traditional bolt-action rifle with a rate of fire of only about 5 to 10 rounds per minute, while the Garand rifle is different.

Although this world's first semi-automatic rifle had many drawbacks, such as being bulky and unsuitable for Asian body types, Su Yaoyang still insisted on choosing this rifle for only one reason: its reliability and rate of fire of 40 to 50 rounds per minute. These two advantages alone were enough to cover up all its shortcomings.

The Japanese soldiers of the 11th Regiment painfully discovered that their hard-earned precision shooting skills seemed to have become useless.

Because in such narrow and complex terrain, once an enemy is spotted, the distance between the two sides is usually only a few dozen meters, or even face-to-face. At this point, as long as someone isn't blind, even someone with terrible marksmanship can hit the enemy.

Moreover, those Chinese soldiers were equipped with many melon grenades, which they threw indiscriminately at people they saw, resulting in loud explosions all over the streets.

On the way to search, Su Yaoyang encountered seven or eight soldiers from the newly formed security regiment. They automatically gathered around him after seeing the weapon on his shoulder.

"Bang... bang..."

Suddenly, a few scattered gunshots came from behind another house, which was mostly destroyed by the bomb, a few dozen meters away. It was the distinctive sound of the Type 38 rifle.

Su Yaoyang quickly grabbed his Garand rifle and headed towards the ruins, while the soldiers around him also grabbed their weapons and fired at the ruins.

"boom!"

A security regiment soldier charging ahead took cover and threw a MARK II grenade at a fortification more than 20 meters away. With an explosion, the already sparse gunfire stopped.

Su Yaoyang led his soldiers to seize the opportunity and rushed over, killing several Japanese soldiers who were dazed and confused by the bombing.

"Is this war?"

As we continued on our way, we saw shattered corpses scattered everywhere, with pieces of flesh and intestines even flying onto the rooftops along the roadside.

The pale gray streets were now shattered by the bomb, and the gray pavement was covered with black and red blood. The groans of wounded Japanese soldiers could be heard from time to time, and there were many Japanese soldiers with limbs blown off.

"お愿い...一発ください, お愿いします. Please...give me a shot, please!"

A Japanese soldier, whose legs had been blown off and who lay in a pool of blood, shouted loudly at Su Yaoyang and his group. Seeing the Japanese soldier only a few meters away from them, the surrounding soldiers were at a loss. One soldier looked up at Su Yaoyang, who had the highest rank, and saw Su Yaoyang nod to him.

"boom!"

After obtaining Su Yaoyang's consent, the soldier raised his rifle and fired a shot at the Japanese soldier's head. Su Yaoyang even saw the Japanese soldier's relieved look when his own soldier raised his gun.

The fierce battle lasted for more than an hour, and the Japanese 11th Regiment suffered heavy losses under the powerful firepower of the security regiment.

Inside a private house, Yuichiro Nagano, like a defeated wild beast, stared at Hasegawa in front of him.

"Deputy Commander, I failed, and the 11th Regiment failed too. Are you happy now?"

"Snapped……"

With a sharp crack, a stinging slap landed on his face.

"You idiot, you coward, you fool! Has one defeat has made you lose your fighting spirit?" Hasegawa roared.

"The 11th Regiment is just a tiny part of the Imperial Japanese Army. We have tens of thousands of elite Imperial troops around us."

One small setback doesn't prove anything. What you need to do now is gather the remaining troops and retreat immediately.

"Once the military flag falls into the hands of the Chinese, even if you commit seppuku ten times, you still can't wash away your guilt!"

(End of this chapter)