Rise from eight hundred.

"boom!"

  A gunshot!

A Japanese sergeant who was walking hunched over in the ruins fell on his back, with a bloody hole appearing right in the center of his brow.

The other dozen or so Japanese soldiers who were following the Japanese sergeant towards a pile of ruins in front of them were so scared that they hid among the broken walls.

Even though some gaps were very narrow, the Japanese soldiers holding rifles and hanging grenades on their chests tried their best to squeeze in, fearing that they would miss the extremely accurate bullet if they were a second late.

No one even went to check whether there was any chance to rescue the shot sergeant.

It's impossible to survive. If the Chinese sharpshooter hiding in the ruins opens fire, no one will survive.

In fact, it would be fine if he died. If he was not dead, his imperial colleagues in the rear would shoot him without hesitation and send him to see Amaterasu.

He would never be allowed to become bait for the Chinese and take away more Imperial warriors.

Because, such scenes have been played out repeatedly in the past three days. For the first few people who were shot but not killed, their colleagues in the Empire all rushed to save them. The final result was that on average, one person had to sacrifice the life of a small team.

Yes, during these three days, their infantry squadron suffered losses of up to a hundred people for this small block 3 meters ahead that was almost flattened by artillery fire.

For three whole days, they kept attacking, but also kept retreating, and there were endless deaths.

No one could survive under that magic gun. After discovering that the imperial infantrymen became decisive and began to actively kill the wounded instead of rescuing them, no one survived under that gun.

Yes, their opponent has always been just one person.

He was like a ghost, hiding in the ruins, appearing from a corner where they were least prepared, firing a fatal shot, and then escaping away.

"Baga! Why is he still alive?" Kazuo Miki, who was hiding in a trench 80 meters away, looked ahead in disbelief.

The former second lieutenant of the Japanese communications corps is now a captain and squadron leader of the 68th Infantry Battalion, 57th Infantry Brigade, 6th Division. The reason why he was promoted so quickly was not because of Second Lieutenant Kazuo Miki's outstanding military achievements, but because the death rate of officers of the 6th Infantry Battalion, which was ordered to rest for half a month and then replenished and then re-entered the Battle of Hengyang, was as high as %.

He, a second lieutenant in the communications corps, was first promoted to lieutenant and served as deputy squadron leader. A week ago, all officers above the rank of captain were killed in the battle, so he, a lieutenant, had no choice but to be promoted directly to captain and take over the position of squadron leader.

The fact is, the current 6th Infantry Battalion is actually not very related to the 3th Infantry Battalion that first arrived at the battlefield three months ago.

Whether officers or soldiers, in the current 6th Infantry Battalion, only Army Captain Kazuo Miki is still an officer of the original 6th Infantry Battalion, and as many as % of the soldiers belong to the first, second or third rounds of recruitment.

In other words, it is difficult for Captain Kazuo Miki to find an acquaintance in the 6th Infantry Battalion, which still has hundreds of soldiers.

Second Lieutenant Ono, who once wanted to compete with him to see how many opponents he could kill, had already died in the second battle of the 6th Infantry Battalion and had never even seen what the city wall of Hengyang looked like.

Kazuo Miki, who used to like writing diaries, has not written a single word in his diary for two months.

Because there was really nothing else to write. Since entering Hengyang, all he could record was death, nothing else.

In order to assist him in capturing this small neighborhood, the battalion specially dispatched an infantry artillery squad and two 75 mountain cannons for him, which means six artillery pieces could fire directly at him.

The houses built by Chinese civilians were all made of wood and ordinary bricks, and were almost destroyed by a single cannon shot. Who could survive under such artillery fire?

The team operated in the same way when they captured several blocks before, and only then were they able to kill and eliminate all the Chinese hiding in the dark corners.

But what Kazuo Miki did not expect was that his infantry squadron encountered a tough opponent in the ruins. A mysterious gunman alone blocked 200 people in his infantry squadron for three days. Not only was he unable to enter the neighborhood, he also lost nearly a hundred people.

One person actually killed hundreds of his men!

Just 10 minutes before this round of attack, Captain Kazuo Miki, who had been scolded by his immediate superior until he was pale with anger, was finally forced to make a desperate move. He sent out two small teams to charge despite the deadly bullets of the Chinese sharpshooter!

Regardless of the losses, they just charged. He didn't believe that the Chinese sharpshooter could kill all 30 of his imperial infantrymen with just one shot.

What's more, the 30 imperial infantrymen are just bait!

Behind the Imperial Infantry, four 4mm infantry guns and two 70mm mountain guns with their muzzles leveled were ready for battle, waiting for the Chinese gunners to continue shooting at the Imperial Infantry and then completely destroy them with artillery fire.

Perhaps the artillery could not reach the accuracy of the Chinese sharpshooter who could hit the head with every shot from more than 200 meters away, but if six artillery pieces fired at the same time, even a god would be blown to pieces.

If the Chinese did not dare to shoot, that would be just fine. The 30 infantrymen hid in the ruins and kept narrowing the distance between them and the man. It was like a fishing net. The Chinese hiding in the ruins would sooner or later become fish in the net.

The Chinese sharpshooter obviously didn't want to be the fish, so he opened fire. In just 10 seconds, he killed 8 people. His shooting skills were amazing and stunning.

Although those imperial infantrymen were almost all newly recruited soldiers, they were all soldiers who had experienced battlefields and were not completely inexperienced. However, in front of that man, they were still ruthlessly shot like wooden stakes.

Captain Kazuo Miki, who had experienced two months of bloody battles on the battlefield, was no longer a weakling. He had long learned to be cruel and waited until the Chinese sharpshooter shot the eighth man and completely confirmed his approximate location before waving his hand fiercely, signaling the artillery to fire.

The 6 cannons bombarded for 5 minutes and stopped only after almost flattening the ruins. Not to mention a person, even a small ant would have been blown to pieces!

But damn, I didn't expect that he was still alive!

Captain Kazuo Miki, who was hiding in the trench in the rear, was really confused at that moment. He couldn't understand why this was too unscientific.

If he were given a choice now, he would even rather give the unknown Chinese sharpshooter a large sum of money and beg him to leave.

  What kind of shitty city is this? It's just a pile of garbage and dead bodies. What's the point of you guarding it? I've given you all my military pay and allowances over the years. Can't you just leave?

To be honest, this is not just the idea of ​​Captain Kazuo Miki.

Even the commander of the 11th Army, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, thought so. As early as half a month ago, the 11th Army no longer surrounded the city of Hengyang as it had done before, but instead took the initiative to give up the mountainous positions in the south of Hengyang City that had been captured at the cost of tens of thousands of lives.

The core idea of ​​the so-called "surround three and leave one" is to surround three sides and leave one side open, set up ambushes, lure the enemy to escape, and annihilate them in the process. This tactic aims to defeat the enemy more effectively by reducing consumption and casualties in the course of combat.

However, the south of the city is a mountainous area. Sending tens of thousands of Chinese people there is not a campaign to annihilate the enemy at all, but simply letting the tiger return to the mountains.

When I think of the tens of thousands of imperial colleagues who died in the mountainous positions south of the city, whose bodies have not yet been burned, if they have to fight with tens of thousands of Chinese in such a place again, no imperial officer or soldier will have the courage to do so.

But Lord Yokoyama Isamu did just that. Not only that, he also sent people to negotiate with the city. It was said that the negotiation conditions were extremely favorable to the Chinese side. He even agreed that the Chinese side would not surrender but would withdraw if defeated. The opening of the southern suburbs of Hengyang City was the first expression of his sincerity. He was also willing to have the commander of the 11th Army, Lord Yokoyama Isamu, personally sign the document, and the Hengyang defenders would not restart the war until they were a hundred miles away from the city.

And what would the Empire gain? A ruin that had been completely destroyed in the flames of war and was littered with corpses.

Even the rookie who knows the least about war would probably say, "What's the use of that?" when faced with this large ruin.

This statement is heartbreaking, but it is the fact of this war.

Outside this city, the empire has lost more than 5 people. Half a month after entering the ruins, it lost another 3 people. The 11th Army is no longer the same 11th Army as before. More than 116% of the veterans have been consumed. The 68th Division, the 3th Division, the 27rd Division, and the th Division, no matter whether they are the main force or not, have been basically exhausted in this battle. It will take them at least a year to recover their former combat effectiveness.

To put it bluntly, four divisions had been completely destroyed, and the three new divisions were not much better. In just half a month, the three lieutenant general division commanders cried out to the sky and demanded additional troops from Yokoyama Isamu who had arrived at the Hengyang front to supervise the battle.

But where would Yokoyama Isamu, who had already replenished two supplementary divisions, go to replenish them? Would he use the Chinese to replenish them?

They themselves don't believe that the Chinese who have obtained the weapons will not turn around and give them a big fight.

A war that cost the lives of 6 imperial soldiers and seriously injured 4 imperial soldiers resulted in this ruin filled with smoke and the smell of death. Isn't it funny? No, the fact is that even this has not been achieved.

The Chinese refused! They took off the white loincloth of an imperial lieutenant colonel who came to negotiate and put it over his head, tied his hands, and then let the Chinese translator lead him out of the ruins with a rope.

  That scene directly shocked the two armies fighting in the ruins. This operation was really amazing!

Lieutenant Colonel Naonaga Ai, a close confidant of the returning 11th Army Chief of Staff Shimanuki Takeharu, stated the reason why he was insulted. If he did not do so, Tang Dao, the leader of the Shixing Regiment who was talking to him, would behead all 100 captured imperial officers and soldiers and pile up their heads into a memorial on the platform of the Central Bank.

Even though he threatened Tang Dao that he would behead hundreds of Chinese prisoners of war captured in this war in return, Tang Dao replied: "I'm going to die soon, why would I care so much? Just kill them all. Anyway, I'm angry now, so I have to do it. I still have a dozen of your devil pilots. It's just right. I also want to fly a plane to see how far these things can fly in the sky without the Zero fighter."

What people fear the most is this kind of barefoot man. He is not even afraid of death, so what else can threaten him?

For the sake of those pilots and captured imperial officers and soldiers, the Japanese Army Lieutenant Colonel had no choice but to allow the Chinese to insult him and walked 1500 meters wearing his own loincloth. He did have some perseverance.

He committed suicide by disemboweling himself the night he returned.

The 11th Army also completely gave up the idea of ​​negotiation and continued to attack fiercely for the next half month, and then, it became what it is now.

More than 10,000 people died in this large cemetery that looked dying but was filled with the sounds of gunfire and explosions.

Yes, this place has been called a graveyard by the officers and soldiers of the Japanese 11th Army, and even they themselves have become completely numb to death.

Here, only death is the truth!

If it weren't for this emotion, Captain Kazuo Miki would not have been able to drive two teams to act as live bait.

But obviously, the bait was in vain. The Chinese gunner who killed another Japanese sergeant swallowed a big mouthful of the bait, broke free from the fishing line, and fought back with Captain Miki and his half-crippled infantry squadron.

. . . . . . . . . .

'No-Brain' was actually very tired, and his eyes could hardly see clearly ahead.

It was not due to fatigue from having slept for less than two hours in three days and three nights, but because a piece of shrapnel had passed through his eyelid.

He was very lucky. The shrapnel was like the most precise scalpel. It only scratched his eyelid but did not hurt his eyeball.

But this caused everything he saw with his right eye to appear blood red, and every time he blinked his broken eyelids, he felt excruciating pain. For a sniper who needed to use his eyes, this was simply the greatest torture.

This torture lasted for nearly 70 hours.

However, this injury was only a minor one for the already wounded "No-Brain" and was not worth mentioning at all.

The Japanese army continued to attack him with artillery fire, and although he was able to escape in the end thanks to his battlefield intuition that he had developed on the battlefield, the terrible artillery fire still left many "marks" on him.

At least 10 shrapnels were embedded in his body. Every time he moved, he felt pain in his bones. Even worse, he was losing a lot of blood. If he hadn't had a hemostatic pack on him and one he picked up from the remains of his comrades in the ruins, the blood loss alone would have cost him his life.

According to the regulations of the Four-Line Regiment, injuries like "No-Brain" are considered serious and he can be temporarily returned to the field hospital for treatment. The company can be notified to send other groups to deal with the Japanese army on the battlefield here.

But 'No-Brain' did not report to his superiors, and maintained a calm tone on the walkie-talkie to report that everything was normal.

He didn't leave, not for any other reason, but because his uncle died in the battle here.

Seven years have passed, and "No-Brain" is no longer the soldier who killed Japanese while eating carrots.

He didn't want to be an officer, but he had great military achievements. This veteran, who was already over 26 years old, was already a 4th-level sergeant in the reconnaissance company, with the same salary as an army captain.

His uncle "Unhappy" was seriously injured in the Battle of Zishan. After recovering from his injury, he returned to the team and served as the captain of the supply battalion. He finally led his troops into battle a month ago.

But 10 days ago, Captain Mei died. The Japanese used a Type 97 tank to clear the way, and Captain Mei, who led an infantry squad to fight, personally used two Molotov cocktails to end the Type 97 tank, but a Japanese sniper hiding 300 meters away hit his left chest.

Captain Mei died in the tunnel before his nephew arrived.

In order to get him back, only 6 people from his infantry squad survived until the arrival of "No-Mind".

Over the next 10 days, No-Brain and these six men fought off attacks from three successive infantry squadrons in the ruins until he was the only one left.

But it’s enough!

But he couldn't die yet, he had to kill a few more people! Otherwise, when he went to the underworld to see his uncle, his uncle would scold him again!

The 'headless' man endured the severe pain and moved his body to hide in the depths of the ruins, feeling the burning heat from the exploding shells, and crawled to the next sniper point. How could he look like an assassin who could 'take the head of a general from a vast army'?

If the Japanese soldiers who had previously hidden in the cracks of the ruins were like a group of groundhogs, then he was a gray mouse.

Anyway, at this time, the Chinese and Japanese were each more embarrassed and miserable than the other.

"Mei, are you still my soldier? I'll give you one hour to see you standing in front of me. Platoon Leader Shen, who is responsible for supporting your position, has brought his men here. Don't do anything stupid to me anymore."

When No-Brain hid in the tunnel again, a buzzer sounded from the walkie-talkie requesting a call. After No-Brain turned it on, he heard the angry curses from the reconnaissance company commander Lu Sanjiang.

"Okay, okay, Captain, just wait. I'll be there on time in an hour. I'm going to say no more. The damn Japs are shelling me again. I have to move quickly." The Brainless nodded repeatedly.

"Don't lie to me again, you bastard!" Lu Sanjiang's face was filled with anger. Just as he opened his mouth to curse, he heard the sound of communication being interrupted on the walkie-talkie.

Lu Sanjiang, who already wore the collar insignia of the rank of major, no longer had anger on his face, but bitterness instead.

Up to now, the strength of his reconnaissance company has only one-third of what it had when it arrived in Hengyang. Those 200 people were either killed in battle or seriously injured and sent to the field hospital. Even though he no longer wanted his old comrades to leave, the war had gone beyond his imagination.

  The Battle of Hengyang has been destined to be a bloody grinder until now. Both the Chinese and Japanese armies can only numbly throw their officers and soldiers into it until there is nothing left to throw!

The Japanese army could not retreat because they had suffered huge losses. If they retreated, all their previous investment would be in vain.

The Chinese soldiers had no way to retreat. They were already isolated and this tomb was their last position. Where could they retreat to?

Now, the only difference between the various Hengyang defenders is whether they die early or late.

But even knowing this, Lu Sanjiang still hoped that his brothers could live a little longer. He had already heard from the phone call that "No-Brain" was injured. Even if he had been hiding it and pretending, how could he hide it from the brothers who had been living together day and night for several years?

"Captain Fang, Regimental Commander, when will the reinforcements that the man above mentioned arrive?" Even though Lu Sanjiang's nerves had been tempered, when he looked back at the densely packed remains of the Chinese troops in the tunnel and thought of his brothers who were still fighting on the front line, he finally couldn't help but let out a sad cry from the bottom of his heart.

"General, when will the reinforcements arrive?" In the command post of the 10th Reserve Division, the lieutenant general of the army with bandages wrapped around his upper body looked at Fang Xianjue who came to visit him, tears also streaming down his face, and asked the question.

Of the 10th Reserve Division, only one tenth remains, and it can't even muster a fully-staffed infantry battalion.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

PS: I am really sorry, because I stayed in Chengdu for one more day, and only rushed back to Xiangyang last night, so I only had time to write and update today. I will ensure updates in the next few days, and the extra chapters will be completed this month. The new military book should meet you at the end of October or November. (End of this chapter)