67: Chapter 67 The Somber Mood of Okawachi
The Supreme Commander heard what Lin Cheng said and nodded slightly.
"Correct. General Meng, what is the basis for your fifty percent estimate?"
As the Supreme Commander spoke, he looked at the old general with slightly graying hair and beard.
"My previous thought was based on the assumption of disregarding losses. If we factor in losses, the success rate would be even lower." Meng Yi paused for a moment, then slowly answered the Supreme Commander.
If losses were disregarded, the success rate would certainly be high, but in war, how could one possibly disregard losses?
After all, it is not easy to train a soldier.
If a battle resulted in the loss of more than half of one's elite troops just to eliminate four thousand enemies, it would certainly not be worth the cost.
In fact, such a battle would be a failure.
All their modern weapons are designed to maximize the annihilation of the enemy.
Likewise, they are also intended to protect their own soldiers.
"Hmm, now let us observe Major General Huang's subsequent performance." The Supreme Commander nodded.
Although their Eastern Military Region had previously conducted many such virtual online exercises.
The results, however, were never satisfactory.
Furthermore, the two sides in these exercises were either internal training within the military region or sparring matches with other military regions.
They had never truly faced an enemy from another country.
Now, this game had set up an enemy for them.
And they were the side resisting aggression.
Although difficult, it was excellent for training troops.
The Chinese Soldiers needed to understand why they were fighting and who they were fighting for.
At this moment, at the Japanese Navy Headquarters in Hongkou.
The soldiers in the front stepped through the minefield, charging toward the foot of the Japanese building.
One soldier fell, and the soldiers behind followed, using their own lives and flesh to pave a path for their comrades behind them.
It was a path paved in blood.
This battle raged until the afternoon.
They stopped their charge.
The casualties during the day were too high.
A path had now been cleared through the minefield; for this path, they had sacrificed hundreds and thousands of comrades.
At this moment, the area around the building was already surrounded.
There were people everywhere; apart from the main frontal assault direction, the other sides were also assisting in the attack.
There were Japanese minefields on all sides.
To clear a path, the Chinese Soldiers had exhausted every possible method.
If their equipment had been better—not to mention anything else, even just a few large-caliber heavy artillery pieces—they wouldn't have been in such a difficult position.
Nighttime.
Yan Ze leaned against the wall.
In the afternoon, they had launched a charge.
But the Japanese firepower was too fierce, and they were forced to retreat.
The company commander was injured, but fortunately, it was nothing serious; he had only been grazed by a bullet.
He had only sustained some superficial wounds.
After a simple bandage, he was able to continue moving.
"It is time to go." The company commander walked over and said softly.
After he finished speaking, Yan Ze stood up.
Then he followed him toward the front line.
There were over a hundred people with him.
The night was the time for the final assault.
Inside the Japanese headquarters building.
The highest-ranking officer of the Japanese Marines, Okawachi, had a grave expression on his face.
They had not expected the enemy to reach the foot of their headquarters building so quickly.
However, their reinforcements would still need over ten days to arrive.
He had already sent a request for help to the Navy back home, demanding that they transport the Army over as soon as possible.
Otherwise, all of them, the Marine soldiers stationed in Hongkou, would die here.
Even with the help of naval aircraft and ship guns, the enemy had still reached them.
"Your Excellency, Commander, the Army has replied. They need at least five days to reach the battlefield. They require us to hold out for at least five days."
The Japanese communications officer ran over holding a telegram; he looked at the content on the telegram paper and read it word by word.
"Five days? Giving the Chinese five days allowed them to fight their way here. Now that we are besieged, we don't even know if we can hold out for three days, and they say five days?"
"I told them long ago to hurry up and come, but they just kept dragging their feet."
Okawachi was very anxious.
Without reinforcements, with the enemy holding an attitude of disregarding losses and using such a suicidal fighting style, they would never be able to hold out for five days.
Even if they could hold out until then, they would all be dead by then.
Okawachi did not want to die here.
As a major general, it would be too much of a loss to die here.
At critical moments, if he really could not hold the position, he would not stay here.
Just at this moment, the sound of gunfire and artillery suddenly came from outside.
"Your Excellency, Commander, the Chinese have launched an attack." Another officer ran in, panicked.
Fighting to this point, these Japanese officers also understood the difficulty of the battle situation.
If the Army's reinforcements did not arrive soon, they would be done for here.
Originally, they had thought they could hold out for over ten days.
As it turned out, they had only held out for five days, and everything except the headquarters building had been captured.
"These Chinese are truly strong, but it is a pity—is it worth fighting like this?" Okawachi's eyes were obscure.
If not for the advantage in equipment, he could hardly imagine whether his own soldiers could win if they encountered them.
150mm heavy artillery shells slammed into the exterior wall of the building.
This exterior wall was over a meter thick and was constructed of concrete.
When the Japanese built this building, they had long anticipated this day.
The shells slammed into this concrete wall, only blowing off a layer of cement.
To blow it open completely, it would require continuous bombardment.
On the sandbag position outside the first floor of the building, the Japanese soldier manning the machine gun saw a dark shadow flickering in the distance.
"Enemy attack!"
The Japanese soldier shouted and then strafed in that direction.
After strafing for several minutes, the Japanese machine gunner stopped.
Looking over again, there was no movement.
But just at this moment, a gunshot rang out abruptly in the silent night.
A flash of fire cut through the air, piercing the machine gunner's head.
At this moment, a corpse not far away immediately stood up and charged toward the foot of the building.
After rushing to the foot of the building, the person immediately lay down.
On the Japanese machine gun position, another Japanese soldier took over for the previous machine gunner and strafed into the darkness.
On the top floor, a Japanese soldier wanted to turn on the searchlight.
But as soon as it was turned on, it was shot out by a sniper.
Just in that instant, many Japanese soldiers saw the situation on the position.
But they did not notice anything unusual.
Among the pile of corpses below.
Yan Ze lay in the pile of corpses.
Smelling the stench of blood and decay emanating from the corpses, he frowned tightly but dared not move at all.
The weather was very hot now.
Although it was cloudy today, the heat in the air was very noticeable.
These corpses had been lying there for almost a day.
They had already begun to decompose.
If they were not disposed of as soon as possible, they would certainly breed all kinds of bacteria.
As soon as the Japanese searchlight went out, he immediately crawled up and charged toward the foot of the Japanese building.
On the Japanese position, those Japanese machine gunners were faced with pitch blackness.
The blinding light had just flashed and vanished, leaving their eyes unable to adapt for a moment.