Bright Sword: The Flowers of War

Chapter 61 The Final Showdown (Part 11)

"Jingle Bell……"

A sudden, urgent phone call shattered the tranquility of the night.

After a while, the microphone was picked up, and a sleepy voice rang out: "Moshi moshi... This is the Shanghai Expeditionary Army Headquarters. Please speak."

What... Say that again!

A few minutes later, a knock sounded outside the bedroom door of Prince Asaka Yasuhiko.

Last night, Matsui Iwane hosted a banquet to welcome Prince Asaka Yasuhiko, who had just arrived in Nanjing.

At the banquet, Prince Asaka Yasuhiko drank a few too many cups, and then, supported by a geisha, returned to his bedroom. Once there, Prince Asaka Yasuhiko was in high spirits and couldn't wait to engage in intimate acts with the geisha on the tatami mat.

The moment the knocking sounded, Prince Asaka Yasuhiko's interest was instantly shattered.

Just as the knocking sounded, he had just slipped a silver wine jug inlaid with the family crest between the geisha Yuriko's legs.

At this moment, the object carrying the bloodline of the royal family was rolling on the tatami mat with the loud knocking, and the remaining authentic sake in the pot drew a winding, shameful mark on the floor.

“Baka!”

As he cursed, the prince tore off the gold chrysanthemum-patterned loop on his kimono's obi, and then, wearing wooden clogs, he smashed the Kutani ware porcelain vase by his bedside.

As he opened the shoji door, Chief of Staff Iinuma Mamoru's military boots were crunching over the broken ice under the eaves—the mirror-like surface formed by the bathwater he and the geisha had splashed out the night before while they were playing in the water.

He shoved the geisha aside, threw on a robe in a huff, got out of bed, and opened the door. As soon as he opened the door, a gust of cold wind blew in, making him sneeze several times.

He looked at Iinuma Mamoru with displeasure: "What's going on that made you wake me up at this time?"

"Hai... Commander, I'm so sorry to bother you at this time. It's really urgent. The Zhongshan Wharf POW camp called urgently, saying that they have been attacked by the Chinese army."

"Nani..."

Prince Asaka Yasuhiko was startled. He remembered that just yesterday afternoon, he had given the order to kill all the prisoners of war. If something happened in the prisoner-of-war camp now, it would be a slap in the face for him as the commander.

"Let's go...to the duty room!"

After saying that, he walked out quickly.

Upon arriving at the duty room, Prince Asaka Yasuhiko grabbed the phone. "This is Prince Asaka Yasuhiko. What's the situation at the dock?"

"Moshi moshi... I am Masao Nakamura, the third company commander of the second battalion of the sixth regiment!"

Captain Nakamura's trembling voice came through the microphone. His left hand was pressing on his ribs, where he had just been hit by shrapnel from a mortar shell. The blood seeping from the bandage had already frozen into a shell on his wool coat.

"Commander, I am Masao Nakamura, the third company commander of the second battalion of the sixth regiment!"
The Chinese have just launched a surprise attack on Zhongshan Wharf... and the prisoners of war in the POW camp have also rioted..."

The receiver crackled with the sounds of gunfire and screams mingled with a Kyoto accent: "The Chinese have fired white phosphorus bombs... They have tanks... The battalion commander is dead, the Chinese offensive is too fierce, we can't hold them off any longer..."

When Prince Asaka Yasuhiko heard the sound of the chariot, he was momentarily distracted, and his arm knocked over the chrysanthemum-patterned bronze ashtray bestowed upon him by Emperor Meiji. Half a cigarette, a golden bat, also fell to the ground with a thud.

Then came a violent coughing fit, and the wine residue that had been forcibly poured into Yuriko's throat the night before sprayed onto the stethoscope.

"The Chinese even have tanks?"

Prince Asaka Yasuhiko could hardly believe what he was hearing.

In his view, although there were still a few scattered troops resisting in places like St. Paul's Church and the former shogunate in Nanjing, there were no longer any large-scale Chinese troops in the city. But now, with the sudden attack on Zhongshan Wharf and the deployment of heavy weapons like tanks, the situation had changed.

"Commander, please send reinforcements as soon as possible! The Chinese are about to attack!" Nakamura's urgent voice rang out again through the receiver.

"Baka...you idiot, hold on...hold on...reinforcements are on their way!"

Prince Asaka Yasuhiko slammed the receiver down on the telephone with a bang, his bloodshot eyes glaring at Chief of Staff Iinuma Mamoru, and roared:

"Whoever is stationed at Zhongshan Wharf? Order them to get there as fast as possible! I want to tear all those Chinese to shreds!"

Iinuma Mori said in a deep voice, "Commander, the unit closest to Zhongshan Wharf is the 19th Regiment of the Kanazawa Division (9th Division), but..."

At this point, Mamoru Iinuma hesitated for a moment.

"But what?" Prince Asaka Yasuhiko stared at him with wide eyes.

“But the 19th Regiment was originally intended for our attack on St. Paul's Cathedral. If we send them to support Zhongshan Wharf tonight, it will inevitably affect tomorrow's battle plan. In that case…”

"We can't worry about that now!" Prince Asaka Yasuhiko waved his hand impatiently. "There are five or six thousand prisoners of war being held at the Zhongshan Wharf. If they are rescued by the Chinese, the consequences will be too terrible. So we must not let them leave alive!"

Speaking of me, Prince Asaka Yasuhiko slammed his fist on the table with a loud bang...

Just as Su Yaoyang's Third Battalion was locked in a fierce battle with the Japanese troops at Zhongshan Wharf, the inhumane Japanese troops also turned their attention to the prisoners of war.

Just then, Qiao Erdan's Chaffee tank finally arrived. With its headlights on, the Chaffee illuminated the dark dock, charging in like a ferocious beast and smashing through the barbed wire to pieces.

"The tank...it's our tank!"

Lu Shaobin, who was directing the troops' attack, shouted excitedly, "Quick...fire flares...guide our tanks!"

"Three flares, fire rapidly!"

"Boom bang bang..."

Illumination flares were launched into the air by mortars, and the dock was instantly illuminated as if it were daytime.

The intense light refracted into cross-shaped spots on the ice of the river, illuminating the massacre scene at the dock as clearly as an altar in hell.

The scene John saw through the commander's periscope sent a jolt through his stomach more violent than the Battle of Cantini he had fought twenty years earlier.

"God...forgive these sinners!"

He gasped in surprise and instinctively clenched the cross on his chest, but the roar of the diesel engine inside the tank drowned out his prayer.

As the Chaffee tank smashed through the last barbed wire fence, it also stirred up a cloud of frozen blood—layers of congealed blood and severed limbs frozen on the riverbank.

"Gunner... what are you waiting for... fire now... see that Japanese position? Bomb them!"

"Boom...boom..."

After firing several shells with difficulty, the third high-explosive shell from the 75mm main gun finally hit the position where the Japanese grenade launcher team was located.

The Type 89 grenade launcher, blown away by the blast wave, pierced a nearby iron drum filled with gasoline like a javelin. The burning gasoline flowed into the drainage ditch through a pre-cast ice channel, and soon more than a dozen Japanese soldiers hiding in the drainage ditch, their bodies ablaze, screamed as they jumped out.

(End of this chapter)