You were tasked with guarding the Sihang Warehouse, and you ended up with a German-equipped division

Chapter 95: Killing the Chief of Staff of the 114th Division, earning 25 merit points.

Yang Ruifu pushed up his broken glasses and heard a rushing sound coming from the river ahead.

Under the moonlight, one could see the shadowy figures moving in the middle of the river; Japanese soldiers were wading through the icy water.

There were many people, densely packed together, like groups of black ghosts, drifting on the river.

"To fight or not to fight?"

The messenger lowered his voice and said.

Yang Ruifu said calmly:

"What's the rush? We'll fight when the vanguard lands."

He observed that the closest Japanese soldiers were still fifty or sixty meters from the shore.

Ideally, the enemy would be defeated while they are crossing the river.

Finally, the Japanese soldiers at the forefront, enduring the icy river water, managed to reach the eastern riverbank.

At that moment, Yang Ruifu roared:

"Flare flares!!!!"

Flares immediately rose from the rice paddies or woods on the opposite bank.

Amidst the whistling sound, the magnesium strips burned fiercely in the cold air, releasing a white light that obscured the moon, dispelled the darkness, and exposed the figures of the Japanese soldiers who had just landed.

"beat!!!!"

Even without Yang Ruifu's order, bullets rained down on the Japanese troops on the shore like a dense downpour.

Along with them roared anti-tank guns, mortars, and Panzerfaust 60s.

"Boom!!!!!"

Explosions and gunshots rang out in unison.

The Japanese soldiers, almost frozen stiff, immediately lay prone on the icy riverbank, wearing only wet trousers for warmth.

A chill ran through my body, along with the fear of death and the bullets flying towards me.

Without cover, they couldn't even organize an attack.

Many Japanese soldiers were suppressed by dense firepower. Although they could still fire their rifles, they were no match for the dense machine gun fire.

"Pfft pfft pfft!!!!"

The bullets were like steel nails, constantly pinning the Japanese soldiers to the beach.

Completely naked, Saburo Isoda let out a roar.

"Organize the troops to charge, snipers suppress enemy fire positions!!!"

But when he turned his head, he found that the soldier next to him was trembling with the arm that was holding up his rifle, and his whole body was shivering from the cold.

He couldn't even hold the gun steady, let alone aim and fire.

Seeing this, Saburo Isoda knew something was wrong. Turning his head again, he saw a large number of corpses floating on the river under the light of the flares.

Those were all killed by machine gun fire from the Nationalist army.

The once emerald green river water has been stained a murky dark red by blood.

The Japanese troops on the west bank were organizing firepower to suppress the enemy machine gun positions on the east bank, but the next moment, shells were already hitting the west bank.

That was the artillery battalion of the Provisional 3rd Regiment, which had already locked onto the area where the Japanese troops were located on the west bank, and all 56 cannons opened fire at the same time.

The shells either landed on the west bank, killing the Japanese soldiers left there, or they fell into the river.

Some Japanese soldiers who were wading across the river were now stuck in the middle of the river, unable to move forward or backward.

To the east was dense enemy machine gun fire, and to the west were constant artillery shells raining down.

It seems that only this icy river water can offer a little safety and shelter.

Corpses, flames, explosions, and flying bullets plunged Saburo Isoda into unprecedented despair.

He suddenly realized that they would be wiped out before reinforcements arrived.

In despair, Saburo Isoda issued another military order.

"Everyone, fight to the death! Charge with me!!! The Black Card Resurrection!!! Banzai!!!"

The Japanese soldiers who had already landed on the east bank roared and charged towards the Nationalist army's positions with their bare buttocks and rifles in hand.

But the Nationalist soldiers on the position just kept pulling the trigger.

Heavy machine gun bullets, submachine gun 9mm bullets, and Mauser rifle bullets, among others, flew out one by one.

Under the blinding light of the flares, soldiers fell to the ground one after another.

Blood stained the riverbank red, and corpses piled up like fallen leaves.

Before Saburo Isoda could rush forward very far, an MG42 machine gun roared, its bullets tearing Saburo Isoda's body apart like scythes.

"Pfft!!!!"

"Thump!!!"

The sound of bullets tearing through bodies and the dull thud of bodies falling heavily to the ground reached Saburo Isoda's ears.

He heard the clanging of the wooden planks, he saw the Japanese soldiers falling one after another, and he saw the gun barrels flashing with fire in the rice paddies ahead.

Until the next instant, coldness and darkness, like a flood, completely engulfed him.

Many more Japanese soldiers met the same fate as him.

Some Japanese soldiers, seeing that they could not break through, attempted to move north along the river to find a gap in the defenses.

As they marched, flares were constantly launched into the air, illuminating the area where the Japanese soldiers were located.

The battle continued until dawn, when Li Jianghe finally issued the order for a general offensive.

After the artillery barrage ended, troops from all directions carried out a final mopping-up operation against the Japanese forces in the area.

The remaining Japanese soldiers continued to resist stubbornly and refused to surrender.

But faced with the overwhelming tide of Nationalist soldiers surging from all sides, their resistance was ultimately nothing more than a desperate struggle.

Around 10 a.m., the battlefield fell silent again, with only Nationalist soldiers carrying the bodies of the Japanese soldiers out of the rice paddies, pouring gasoline on them, and burning them.

Other soldiers searched for spoils of war, capturing Japanese weapons, ammunition, and other military supplies.

Within Li Jianghe's system space, he noticed that more than 6,000 Japanese soldiers had been killed in this operation.

Another group of Japanese soldiers successfully crossed the river and rushed out under the cover of darkness and chaos.

Excluding those killed by other troops, Li Jianghe's 3rd Provisional Regiment killed more than 4,000 Japanese soldiers.

The merit points reward alone amounted to 250,000.

Of course, their firepower was also quite fierce last night, consuming a huge amount of ammunition, especially artillery shells, which were almost all used up in one night.

The casualties were not too great, with a total of no more than seven hundred people.

This casualty ratio is quite astonishing.

After all, in general, the casualty ratio between Chinese and Japanese sides in battles is usually the opposite.

Li Jianghe did not immediately replenish personnel and ammunition, as this would only increase the burden on the troops. He decided to wait until they had completely shaken off the Japanese army and gained a foothold before making any moves.

These 250,000 merit points, including the replenishment from this expenditure, are enough for Li Jianghe to summon another elite force of over 10,000 men, fully motorized.

At the 6th Division headquarters, both Hisao Tani and Shigeharu Suematsu had rather gloomy expressions.

Because the pursuing forces had been completely cut off from contact, their fate was unknown.

Hisao Tani has already lost his chief of staff, and the one leading the pursuit this time is Saburo Isoda, the chief of staff of the 114th Division. One can imagine how heavy-hearted Shigeharu Suematsu must be right now.