109: Chapter 109 Huge Casualties

After the first line of defense fell, the second line of defense followed immediately.

This second line of defense included machine gun emplacements.

Wang Desheng watched the Japanese soldiers break through the first line of defense below; not a single person on that line had survived.

His eyes immediately turned red.

"Old Liu, the Japanese have broken through the first line of defense."

Wang Desheng looked at the Chinese Soldiers beside him, his face filled with sorrow.

"I know." Old Liu's expression was also grim.

The first line of defense hadn't even lasted through the first day; this was terrible news for them.

In their original projections, the first line of defense should have been able to hold out for at least a day.

Unexpectedly, the battlefield situation was so intense that the first line of defense was lost in less than a day.

However, the first line of defense wasn't just in this one location; gunfire was still coming from the other defensive positions.

It was unclear how much longer they could hold out.

But Wang Desheng felt the situation was not optimistic.

Inside a bunker on the hillside, Wang Ye waited idly, feeling both anxious and worried.

He was lucky; having started inside the bunker, he had already completed the six-hour survival requirement.

After all, as long as one wasn't too unlucky, it was highly likely to be completed.

The battle continued until dusk, when the sky turned dark.

The Japanese stopped their offensive.

The Chinese Soldiers, whose nerves had been taut all day, were finally able to relax a little.

However, even so, they could not let their guard down at night.

At night, the company commander walked over, assigned a few men to keep watch, and the others rested early.

To prepare for tomorrow's battle.

At this moment, at the top of Yuhuatai.

At the Command Post of the 88th Division, Division Commander Sun Yuan had people calculate the casualties for each position.

After two hours of tallying, the final results were reported to him.

"Division Commander, this is our division's casualty report for the first day." The adjutant handed the results to Division Commander Sun Yuan.

Division Commander Sun Yuan took it and looked, his brows instantly furrowing.

Because the casualty report was truly grim.

"In just the first day of fighting, we suffered one-third casualties—a loss of 1,800 men. How are we supposed to continue this battle?"

Division Commander Sun Yuan's expression was quite grim.

At this rate, their 88th Division wouldn't last three days.

The thought of retreating immediately crossed his mind, but he knew that if he retreated now, he would be executed upon returning.

No matter what, he had to hold out for at least two more days to see.

This casualty result left the officers silent.

Throughout today, it wasn't just the soldiers who suffered heavy casualties; the junior officers had also suffered significant losses.

Several battalion commanders had even sacrificed their lives.

The Japanese combat effectiveness was too strong, even with their defensive advantage.

However, the Japanese equipment and individual soldier quality ruthlessly neutralized their advantage, and they were even able to inflict massive casualties on them.

At dawn the next day, Wang Ye was awakened by gunfire.

Immediately after, there was artillery bombardment again.

And this time, the artillery shells were aimed specifically at their bunker.

Wang Ye and Chen Zheng hid at the bottom of the bunker, with concrete debris constantly falling from above.

In just over ten minutes, a hole was blown into the top of the bunker.

Seeing this, Wang Ye internally cried out, "My life is over."

Yesterday, he had been thinking about giving the Japanese a hard time once they charged up.

But today, the Japanese planes and artillery were targeting their bunkers directly for bombardment.

Just then, a massive explosion rang out, and the shockwave shoved Wang Ye hard, causing his head to slam directly against the wall beside him.

Wang Ye only heard a 'thud', and then he passed out.

The viewers in the livestream room were left dumbfounded, staring at the pitch-black screen, not knowing what had happened.

Fortunately, the period of Wang Ye's unconsciousness was skipped over.

The next second, after Wang Ye regained consciousness, he stood up, looked around, and found the surroundings in shambles.

Many comrades were lying nearby.

Wang Ye looked over and found dried bloodstains on their bodies.

"How long was I out?"

Wang Ye asked the viewers in the livestream room, wanting to know the current situation.

But the viewers didn't know what had happened either.

"We don't know, Brother Wang. As soon as you passed out, the livestream room screen went black."

"Yeah, when you passed out, we couldn't see the screen either, so we don't know what happened."

"Judging by the dryness of the bloodstains, it's probably been about two hours."

"I was out for that long?" Wang Ye saw the viewers' comments, rubbed his aching head, and couldn't believe it.

Wang Ye stood up and looked at Chen Zheng beside him.

Then he patted Chen Zheng, trying to wake him up.

After patting him for a while, Chen Zheng woke up.

He woke up looking distressed, and then he saw Wang Ye.

He immediately remembered that they were still on the battlefield.

"Squad Leader, are you okay?"

Chen Zheng quickly stood up and looked at Wang Ye with concern.

"I'm fine."

Wang Ye shook his head, then ran to pat the other comrades.

However, upon walking over and looking, Wang Ye discovered that most of the comrades had no breath.

These comrades who had stopped breathing all had injuries of varying degrees.

These wounds were either on their chests or on their heads.

Without needing to think, these comrades had all sacrificed their lives.

Wang Ye looked up and immediately saw that the top was full of holes.

The blinding white sky appeared in his eyes.

Glancing at the height of the sun, Wang Ye immediately asked the viewers in the livestream room.

"Brothers, can you tell what time it is now?"

At this moment, there were hundreds of thousands of people online in his livestream room.

There were many capable people, and someone immediately used the height of the sun to calculate the current time.

"Streamer, judging by the angle of the sun, it should be past eight in the morning."

"That time is about right. Brother Wang passed out when it was just getting light. In the game, it's early December, and sunrise is around six o'clock."

"I was out for that long?" Wang Ye frowned.

His body still hurt, and he didn't know what had hit him after he passed out earlier.

Chen Zheng beside him wasn't doing much better.

There were still dried bloodstains on his forehead.

He was likely hit in the head by a chunk of concrete falling from above.

Wang Ye walked to other parts inside the bunker.

Many Chinese Soldiers had been hit by falling concrete chunks and buried in the debris.

Others had simply collapsed on the ground.

Wang Ye checked the breathing of each one; if they were still breathing, he would try to wake them up.

If they weren't breathing, he could only offer his condolences.

After all, the dead cannot come back to life, and on the battlefield, no one knows when they will die.

Wang Ye was the same.

"Company Commander, there are two survivors here."

Just as the two were still searching for surviving comrades, a sudden exclamation came from outside.

Immediately after, two Chinese Soldiers walked in.

Seeing the two of them, their faces showed expressions of surprise and joy.

"Brothers, you're still alive! That's great!"

"Earlier, the Japanese artillery was aiming right at your bunker. I thought you were all gone, but I didn't expect anyone to be alive."

Upon hearing their words, two black lines appeared on Wang Ye's forehead.