Chapter 146: The Clash of Beliefs!
Ever since the Japanese invaders set foot on this land, they brought devastation wherever they went. Unburied bones littered the desolate fields, and for a thousand miles, not a single rooster's crow could be heard. They had witnessed such tragic scenes far too many times.
And their rage had accumulated far too deeply.
They had endured for long enough; they had retreated far too often. But now, they refused to retreat any further!
Driven to a desperate pass, they would fight with all their might to carve out a bloody path for survival!
When brave forces meet in a narrow space, only the courageous will prevail!
As the old saying goes: a weak soldier brings down an individual, but a weak commander brings down an entire unit.
In any military force, if the officers could lead by charge and fight fearlessly, the soldiers beneath them would naturally be willing to risk their lives. However, if the commander at the top proved to be a coward hiding his head like a turtle, one could never expect the brothers below to possess the heart to fight to the death!
Once the officers cast aside all hesitation and fought the enemy with their lives on the line, these soldiers would gladly lay down their lives in return, plunging headlong into the fray without a second thought!
At this moment, inspired by Fang Xiaodong leading the charge, every single soldier had unleashed boundless fighting spirit and fury, locking into fierce and stubborn combat with the Japanese invaders.
"Charge!"
Two troops wearing different uniforms and speaking with different accents collided directly like two roaring torrents.
This narrow little street had transformed into a brutal meat grinder!
Men fell continuously, yet more surged forward to take their place, wave after wave, bravely facing death.
On one side were the invaders, fighting for their so-called Bushido code, for the grandiose ambitions of their Emperor, and for the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. They were fighting for their Great Japanese Empire!
On the other side stood the defenders. Because of the invaders' unbridled arson, looting, and slaughter, because of the ruthless butchery of their loved ones, they had no choice. To prevent their families from being brutally massacred, to prevent their descendants from becoming slaves to a conquered nation, they had no path of retreat. They could only stand their ground and launch a fierce counterattack!
They fought for freedom, for their homeland!
These were two different faiths, two different forces, clashing because of entirely different objectives!
They fought on the strength of contrasting beliefs!
This was a war between two distinct beliefs; this was a contest between justice and injustice!
When justice and injustice meet in a narrow pass, only a resolute counterattack, only the courage to bare one's sword, and only the fearless brave can survive until the end and claim victory!
The battle cries and shouts of both sides filled this tiny stretch of land. The heaven-shaking roars echoed far into the distance, carrying across the entire landscape, where corpses piled up like mountains and blood converged into rivers.
The pungent stench of blood hung heavy in the air, yet not a single person stepped back, not a single person flinched!
They simply kept charging forward, charging onward as they always had! To slaughter every enemy in front of them, to carve out a bloody path with the broadswords in their hands, to fight their way to a clear and luminous world! To secure a peaceful and prosperous age!
"Sturdy and valiant sons of China, together we face our nation's peril; until our blood runs dry, we shall never cease the fight!"
This was far more than a mere slogan; it was the ultimate embodiment of their actions!
Facing the endless waves of charging Japanese soldiers, the defending troops fell one by one, yet not a single soul shrank back, nor did anyone retreat.
They were merely fulfilling those words in silence, paving the road to China's self-strengthening with their very own blood!
...
"Grenades, quickly!"
A platoon leader watched as the soldiers were pushed back step by step under the Japanese assault, while wave after wave of enemy reinforcements continued to pour in relentlessly, forcing him to roar at the top of his lungs.
Hearing this, a dozen or so soldiers instantly unclipped the grenades from their waists, pulled the pins, and hurled them forward together.
Boom, boom, boom...
The grenades landed right behind the Japanese lines and detonated. The invaders charging at the very forefront were caught entirely off guard, leaving a vast swathe of them dead or wounded and instantly clearing a blank zone that halted the enemy's momentum dead in its tracks.
However, before a flicker of joy could even touch the platoon leader's face, the newly cleared blank space was instantly refilled by another wave of surging Japanese troops.
Blow up one, and two would charge forward; blow up two, and an entire squad would rush ahead!
For these Japanese soldiers whose eyes had turned bloodshot with madness, such casualties could not shake their determination in the least!
Clustering together, the invaders trampled over the corpses of their fallen comrades and shattered flesh and entrails to press the attack. Many of them were hacked down or blown apart along the way, yet not a single one backed away.
Not a single one showed cowardice!
Brutal and vicious though they were as enemies, it was undeniable that they were also qualified and exceptional soldiers.
At the beginning of the War of Resistance, the vast majority of these Japanese troops were battle-hardened veterans. Even when fighting fiercely against the robust and powerful Soviets amidst freezing snowstorms in the past, they had relied solely on inferior equipment and the bayonets in their hands to strike terror into the hearts of the Soviets.
The Japanese invaders possessed their own faith and their own pride!
In their minds, they were soldiers of the Great Japanese Empire, the finest troops in the world, holding the most noble Bushido faith on earth. As a powerhouse of East Asia, their renowned combat effectiveness and tenacity across the globe were well-deserved and no empty reputation!
They possessed their own pride!
Yet, what they found utterly unacceptable was that they—the most formidable military force in the world—were forced to pay such a agonizingly heavy price when encountering what they deemed the most inferior race, the weakest enemy, and the least threatening foe on earth!
In the eyes of the Japanese, the Chinese had always been a humble, weak, and inferior race. Yet today, right here within the city of Dingyuan, soldiers of this weak, inferior, and humble race had actually terrified them and inflicted devastating losses upon them. While this shocked the Japanese, it also ignited a fierce surge of fury within them!
A weak race dared to provoke the noble Imperial Japanese Army? This was nothing less than an ant provoking an elephant!
It was a profound humiliation and insult!
They would never allow such a thing to happen!
Only the blood of the enemy could wash away such shame!
To think that their prestigious Ninth Division, an entire full-strength division, had been held up in Dingyuan County by such a small detachment of Chinese troops—for the Japanese, this was the ultimate disgrace!
They had to crush this force of Chinese soldiers before them, shattering not only their bodies, but their spirits as well!
Artillery fire could only extinguish lives, but it could not break their will!
Only bayonets—only through bloody close-quarters combat with bayonets, punch-to-flesh and blade-to-blood slaughter—could they utterly crush them and break down their souls entirely!
Only through this kind of blade-to-blade bloodshed could they vent their humiliation, break the enemy's resolve on a psychological level, and ensure that whenever these Chinese soldiers thought of the Imperial Japanese Army, an involuntary echo of their fearlessness would arise, striking terror into their hearts. Only thus could the shame upon them be thoroughly washed away!
Driven by this goal, these Japanese soldiers had gone completely mad!
They dared to face death directly, ignoring all danger. In their eyes and in their hearts, there was only one goal: to slaughter every enemy standing in their way!
No matter who it was, anyone who dared to block their path would be executed without mercy!
And the soldiers of the First Regiment refused to yield an inch, standing resolutely firm at the front line. Even in death, they would not take half a step back!
Not a single soldier who fell bore a wound on his back!
They, too, were holding fast to their own faith and their own ideals!
This was a collision between two different faiths! This was a battle-to-the-death between two distinct nations!