84: Chapter 84 Eight Hundred People
"Company Commander, the Japanese are almost at our feet."
While Wang Ye was still in a daze, a Chinese Soldier suddenly spoke up, interrupting his train of thought.
He snapped back to reality and immediately walked over to the observation port.
Then, he looked down.
The Japanese were only about a hundred meters away from them.
Below, a small squad of Japanese was rushing towards The Warehouse.
They were moving along the edge of the building.
They had spotted what looked like Chinese Defenders at Sihang Warehouse, so they sent men to investigate whether Chinese Defenders were truly stationed there.
Seeing Sihang Warehouse so close, these Japanese picked up their pace.
Holding their arisaka type 38 rifles, they hurried towards The Warehouse.
Just as they were less than fifty meters away from The Warehouse, gunfire suddenly rang out from the front.
Countless bullets rained down upon them.
Several Japanese were hit and fell to the ground on the spot.
Seeing this, the remaining dozen or so Japanese immediately hit the ground.
They scrambled towards the surrounding cover.
But how could the Chinese Defenders on the first floor possibly let them off so easily?
The machine guns in their hands spat out tongues of fire, pouring bullets onto them.
After just ten minutes of fighting, over a dozen Japanese had fallen there.
The remaining Japanese hurriedly retreated.
Faced with such heavy firepower, they had no way to capture it, even if they tried to charge.
In the distance, the main force of the Japanese heard the sounds of the firefight at The Warehouse.
These gunshots proved that there were still Chinese Defenders stationed at Sihang Warehouse.
In the Command Post of the Japanese 3rd Division, 68th Infantry Regiment, the Regimental Commander Takamori Sho watched the dozen or so men return and listened to their report.
"You say there are many enemy troops inside The Warehouse?"
"Yes, Your Excellency, Regimental Commander." A squad leader who had returned quickly lowered his head and replied.
"Can you determine exactly how many enemy troops are inside?"
"Based on the firepower just now, the number of Chinese Defenders inside could be in the hundreds."
Hearing this, Takamori Sho waved his hand, dismissing these retreating Japanese.
Then, he looked at Sihang Warehouse in the distance.
Opposite this warehouse was the International Settlement of the United Kingdom and United States.
It was extremely tricky to capture.
More importantly, he currently did not know how many Chinese Defenders were inside The Warehouse.
Thinking of this, Takamori Sho immediately continued to send small squads to carry out small-scale attacks.
On the other side, Wang Ye watched the Japanese attack again.
These Japanese advanced cautiously.
When they were about a hundred meters away from The Warehouse building, they stopped.
Not far away, the corpses of a dozen or so Japanese lay on the ground.
The Japanese were very cautious this time; they basically tried to stick to the buildings as they moved.
Once the Chinese Defenders in The Warehouse opened fire, they would be able to dodge quickly.
Wang Ye, however, was not in a hurry; if the Japanese wanted to break in, they would inevitably have to charge.
Regarding their probing attacks, those inside The Warehouse had plenty of patience.
After waiting for several minutes, the Japanese still heard no gunfire.
So they had no choice but to continue moving forward.
When they were about to approach the corpses lying on the ground earlier, the sound of machine guns rang out again.
The da-da-da sound brought countless bullets pouring towards them.
After several more Japanese fell, the remaining ones hurriedly retreated.
But how could Wang Ye let them run away so easily?
He picked up his rifle, aimed at the Japanese below, and kept firing.
As long as he hit one Japanese soldier, he would make a profit.
It was just that his marksmanship wasn't very good.
Facing moving Japanese, he could only rely on luck to hit them.
Although his marksmanship wasn't very good, his luck was quite good.
After firing five or six shots, one bullet hit a Japanese soldier in the back.
That Japanese soldier who was running immediately fell face-first onto the ground.
Wang Ye was not greedy either; he immediately fired another shot at that Japanese soldier to finish him off.
In the end, the Japanese left behind another dozen corpses and retreated in a panic.
Just like that, the Japanese came to attack once every half hour or hour.
But every time, they retreated in a panic after leaving behind several corpses.
Inside The Warehouse, Wang Ye looked at the Chinese Soldiers and told them to be careful to conserve ammunition.
They didn't have many casualties in these few waves of fighting, only a few light injuries.
These few light injuries were even caused by bumping into things themselves.
The Japanese's probing attacks posed no threat to them at all.
However, Wang Ye knew that this was just the beginning.
In the Battle of Shanghai, the Japanese didn't rely on infantry charges, but rather on aircraft, heavy artillery, and tanks.
Before every battle, there would be rounds of bombardment by aircraft and heavy artillery.
Only after the bombing would the infantry follow up.
It could be said that it wasn't the Japanese infantry that caused massive casualties to the Chinese Soldiers, but rather the Japanese aircraft and artillery.
Compared to the Japanese forces, the Chinese Defenders were lagging behind in every aspect.
Not only in weaponry, but even in the quality of soldiers, they were lagging behind.
The Chinese Soldiers participating in the battle not only lacked weapons but also lacked training.
Facing the well-equipped and well-trained Japanese, being dealt a casualty ratio of over ten to one could only be described as helpless.
The local army's Chinese Soldiers had no professional guidance in fighting at all; their way of fighting was just rushing forward with hot-blooded passion.
Only the German-equipped Division's quality could barely compare with the Japanese.
In such a backward situation, they could only rely on throwing lives at it.
If the training had been sufficient and they had relatively better weaponry, the gap between the two sides would not have been that large.
The day passed quickly.
At night, the Japanese did not continue to attack.
At the Japanese regiment's Command Post, Takamori Sho had roughly determined the number of personnel inside The Warehouse.
Just at this time, a Japanese Officer walked over.
"Your Excellency Colonel, the Divisional Headquarters has sent a telegram confirming that the Chinese Defenders in Sihang Warehouse are from the 1st Battalion, 524th Regiment, 88th Division of the Chinese German-equipped Division."
"The number is approximately eight hundred."
"Eight hundred?" Takamori Sho frowned slightly upon hearing this number.
He felt that the number of Chinese Defenders inside The Warehouse should not be that high.
"Yes, this is the number announced by the Chinese." The communications officer continued.
Hearing this, Takamori Sho felt even more uncertain.
"The Division Commander requires us to capture The Warehouse as soon as possible and annihilate the Chinese Defenders inside. At the same time, we must not let the flames of war spread to the International Settlement."
Hearing his superior's request, Takamori Sho's expression looked somewhat unpleasant.
This requirement put him in a really difficult position.
Sihang Warehouse was too close to the International Settlement; he could not use heavy artillery, nor could he use aircraft for bombing, because it would easily spread to the nearby International Settlement.
If it spread to the International Settlement, he might as well commit seppuku.
After all, the nearby International Settlement was the International Settlement of the United Kingdom and United States, and the United Kingdom and United States were not powers that their Great Japanese Empire could afford to offend.
But if he didn't use aircraft or heavy artillery, and relied solely on infantry to capture this fortress-like warehouse, the difficulty would be unusually high.
After all, this outer wall alone was not something they could easily breach.
Therefore, this mission was a hot potato.
If he wanted to capture it without relying on heavy artillery and aerial bombing, it would be impossible to break through.
Using aircraft and heavy artillery would easily affect the International Settlement, and the consequences of affecting the International Settlement were not something he could bear.
And if he couldn't capture it, he would also be punished.