Bright Sword: The Flowers of War

Chapter 53 The Final Showdown (Part 3)

A communications soldier shouted to Kunisaki: "General, the 41st Regiment is launching a fierce attack on the Chinese defense line, but the Chinese resistance is very tenacious. The 1st Battalion, which is in charge of the main attack, has suffered heavy losses. Regiment Commander Yamada requests artillery battalion support."

"support?"

Kunisaki's lips twitched. "My artillery battalion has already been dispersed to various locations. What do you expect me to support him with? Tell Yamada-kun that I'm only giving him one day. If he can't take the church, I'll personally go to the front lines and take over his command."

"Hai!" the communications soldier responded softly, then turned and left the command post.

After Kunisaki finished speaking, he went to the third-floor balcony, raised his binoculars, and looked in the direction of the church.

Logically, it should be a sunny morning now, but for some reason, the whole of Nanjing is tinged with a cold, dark blue hue.

Explosions echoed intermittently from all directions ahead, followed by plumes of black smoke. There was no wind in Nanjing today, so these plumes of smoke rose straight into the sky, like thin black veils connecting heaven and earth.

The battle lasted for the entire morning. Zhang Wenshan didn't know how many Japanese soldiers he had killed. He only knew that his ammunition pouch, which could hold two hundred bullets, was almost empty, and there were scattered shell casings all around him.

Just now, a 75mm shell hit a machine gun position dozens of meters away from him. The huge shockwave and debris almost killed him, and he is still feeling nauseous.

Zhang Wenshan is now lying in a bomb crater. He feels the heat in the crater dissipating, and a chill begins to spread throughout his body.

He propped himself up with his hands and his right hand touched a sticky, cold, and soft mass that looked like a lump of mud covered in black ash.

He suddenly realized that it was a piece of minced meat, but he didn't know which part of the body it belonged to, or which person it belonged to.

In the shelling just now, all the soldiers in that firing point were killed. He remembered that there seemed to be three soldiers in that firing point, the oldest being a seasoned veteran in his forties from Hebei, and the youngest being a sixteen-year-old boy from Sichuan.

The old soldier had even asked him for cigarettes. Zhang Wenshan had asked him curiously, "Didn't Commander Su give everyone cigarettes? Why doesn't he smoke any?"

The old soldier, however, evaded the question and refused to answer. Finally, the young man from Sichuan revealed the truth: the old soldier had sold the cigarettes to others so he could save the money to send home to help his son find a wife.

Zhang Wenshan still clearly remembers the expectant and happy look on the old soldier's face when he talked about his son, but now all of that has disappeared.

The thought of those three people's voices and smiles caused Zhang Wenshan's stomach to suddenly clench, and he began to bend over and vomit, but nothing came out except for bile.

He frantically rubbed his hands on the ground, trying to wipe away the bloodstains, but the dark red blood quickly congealed on his hands in the cold, remaining as conspicuous as ever.

"Gluck... cluck..."

Just as he was wiping his palms, a series of teeth-grinding metallic scraping sounds and a deep rumble suddenly came from his right front, and then a tan-colored war chariot appeared in front of him.

The towering cylindrical turret, the short-barreled 37mm tank gun, and the two Type 91 6.5mm machine guns all clearly indicate the identity of the newcomer... a Type 89 heavy tank.

Of course, this is just what the Japanese military called it.

In fact, by Western standards, this tank, with a combat weight of only 12.7 tons and frontal armor of only 17 mm, can at best be considered a light tank.

Despite this, even something scorned by the West was still a formidable behemoth for China, with its meager industrial base. Upon seeing this behemoth, Zhang Wenshan immediately realized something was wrong. He had been searching all morning without seeing it; how could it suddenly appear now?

There was only one reason: the Japanese reinforcements had arrived.

The moment Zhang Wenshan saw the tank, he felt a chill run down his spine and instantly had the urge to run away.

This wasn't because he was cowardly, but rather a sniper's instinctive reaction when he spotted his natural enemy.

"Giggle..."

The Type 89 tank that suddenly appeared stopped more than 100 meters away from Zhang Wenshan. It slowly turned its gun barrel and aimed it at a half-collapsed mud house, where two soldiers were firing at it.

"boom……"

With a flash of gunfire, the mud house collapsed completely in the explosion, burying the two people underneath.

As the mud house collapsed, the accompanying Japanese soldiers cheered. Amid the cheers, the Type 89 tank started moving again, and with a clattering sound, the tank drove towards Zhang Wenshan's location.

Despite being jokingly called the "tiny tank" by later military enthusiasts, the Type 89 tank was nothing short of a cannibalistic demon to Zhang Wenshan at this moment.

As the creaking steel monster drove towards him, Zhang Wenzhang felt a cold sweat break out on his back and his palms.

He lay motionless on the ruins, wanting to fire, but reason told him that firing now would be a very unwise choice.

But watching a steel monster and dozens of Japanese soldiers approach him step by step, unable to fight back, the anxiety in his heart was indescribable.

Several times, Zhang Wenshan had the urge to jump up and fire, but reason ultimately stopped him.

As the tank drove past him, he felt the ground tremble slightly from the heavy impact, but thankfully, his camouflage was good enough that neither the tank nor the surrounding Japanese troops noticed the Chinese soldier lying in the shell crater next to him.

Time seemed to stand still at that moment. After an unknown amount of time, the Type 89 tank finally drove past him, and the dozens of soldiers surrounding the tank followed it away.

Zhang Wenshan breathed a sigh of relief, and just as he was about to leave, he suddenly heard a loud bang from ahead.

"boom……"

A deafening explosion rang in his ears, the enormous sound making his ears ring and almost knocking him unconscious.

The once imposing tanks, numbered 80 and 90, were suddenly kicked by a giant. Their more than ten-ton bodies were propelled several meters upwards by a tremendous force before crashing heavily to the ground.

Even the turret was sent flying into the air by the shockwave. Not only that, but dozens of Japanese soldiers following the tank were also thrown about by the huge explosion. Several soldiers were even thrown into the air before crashing heavily to the ground.

(End of this chapter)