vncnus Chapter 103 The Iron Torrent Completely Crushes "Seven Lives to Serve the Country, Long Live th
Chapter 103 The Iron Torrent Completely Crushes "Seven Lives to Serve the Country, Long Live th
Chapter 102 The Iron Torrent Completely Crushes "Seven Lives for the Country, Enduring Martial Fortune"
(Seeking votes at midnight) "What's that sound?" A Japanese soldier stopped cheering and listened intently in confusion.
"Is it... is it thunder?" another soldier asked uncertainly.
Yukito Ito's smile froze instantly, a strange chill running down his spine. He abruptly raised his binoculars and looked in the direction from which the sound came.
The next moment, his pupils contracted sharply, the color drained from his face at a visible speed, his lips trembled, and he could barely breathe!
In the telescope's field of view, a moving "city wall" gleaming with the cold light of steel appeared on the previously empty horizon in the northwest!
That's not a city wall! That's... tanks! Endless tanks!
The T-26 multi-turret tanks of the Soviet Union's Far East Group Army resembled mobile fortresses, their massive bodies reflecting a cold luster in the rising sun.
At the very front of them were several thousand new tanks with relatively compact bodies, smoother lines, and inclined turrets... These were the latest T-34 tanks mentioned in Han Zhenhua's intelligence!
Hundreds and thousands of Soviet tanks formed a wide front and multiple waves of assault groups, like a steel torrent that had burst its banks, and with overwhelming force, they crushed towards Zhanggufeng and Shacaofeng, which had just been occupied by the Japanese army!
The dust kicked up by the tank tracks was like a yellow sandstorm, blotting out the sun!
The earth trembled violently under the roar of countless high-horsepower diesel engines!
"Tan..."
...Soviet tanks!
So many Soviet tanks!
The Japanese soldiers on the position finally saw the devastating scene, and screams and shouts of fear instantly replaced their cheers.
"Baka! An ambush! It's a Su army ambush!" Yukito Ito roared hoarsely, his voice distorted by extreme fear. "Everyone to defensive positions! Anti-tank guns! Push the anti-tank guns up now! Fire!"
The Japanese army's panic lasted only a very short time.
Rigorous training and a fanatical Bushido spirit quickly transformed them from initial shock into a frenzied, desperate struggle.
The Japanese Type 94 37mm rapid-fire guns and Type 89 heavy grenade launchers, concealed on the reverse slope, were desperately pushed into their firing positions.
The gunners frantically loaded their guns, aiming at the surging steel behemoth.
"Thump! Thump! Thump!" The 37mm shells, trailing faint flames, shot towards the T-34 tank at the forefront.
However, to the despair of the Japanese artillerymen, those seemingly thin sloped armor plates seemed to possess a magical power. When 37mm armor-piercing shells hit them, they only made a series of crisp clanging sounds and sparks before being easily deflected, leaving only a shallow white mark!
Even the frontal armor of the T-26 tank cannot be easily penetrated by a small-caliber rapid-fire cannon!
"We can't penetrate them! Their armor is too thick!" the Japanese gunner screamed in terror.
"Aim at the tracks! Shoot their tracks!" the officer roared, brandishing his saber.
Several T-26 tanks that had charged too far ahead were hit in the tracks and rendered immobile, but more tanks surged toward the Japanese positions like an unstoppable tide!
The coaxial and bow machine guns on the tanks spewed out scorching flames, like the scythe of death, ruthlessly reaping the lives of exposed Japanese soldiers.
Flesh and blood appear so fragile and vulnerable in the face of steel and bullets.
"For His Majesty the Emperor! For the glory of the Japanese Kwantung Army! Banzai!" In despair, the ferocity of the Japanese army was fully unleashed.
Japanese cars, braving the fire of the Soviet tanks, maneuvered nimbly and crashed into the Soviet tanks one after another!
One by one, Japanese soldiers, strapped with grenades and explosive charges, leaped out of foxholes and behind rocks, howling as they rushed toward the Soviet tanks like moths to a flame, attempting a suicide attack.
However, the Soviet tank formations did not advance alone; accompanying the tanks were a large number of Soviet infantrymen mounted on armored infantry fighting vehicles at the rear!
These Soviet soldiers, wearing helmets and wielding PPSh submachine guns, moved swiftly and fired fiercely, accurately killing any Japanese "human bombs" who tried to approach the tanks.
On the battlefield, the sounds of explosions, machine gun fire, the crushing of tank tracks, the screams of the dying, and the frenzied shouts of "Banzai!"... all intertwine to create an extremely cruel symphony of death.
Yukito Ito watched helplessly as his regiment, the Imperial warriors he was so proud of, melted away like snow under the sun under the crushing weight of the Soviet army's steel torrent.
His eyes were bloodshot, and he looked like a madman. He drew his command sword and roared at the remaining staff officers and guards around him, "Warriors of the Empire! The final moment has come! Follow me, charge!"
He was the first to leap out of the command post and charge towards the nearest T-34 tank. However, he had only taken a few steps when the T-34...
The turret rotated slightly, and the coaxial machine gun spat out flames.
"Pfft pfft pfft..." Yukito Ito's body trembled violently, and several blood flowers burst open on his chest. He looked down in disbelief, and his command sword fell to the ground with a "clang". His body swayed and he collapsed to the ground. This colonel, who dreamed of replicating the "glory of the empire", finally fell on foreign soil. He was completely integrated with the tank tracks that were subsequently run over, the mud, the gravel, and the limbs of his soldiers.
The battles at Zhanggufeng and Shacaofeng were less of a battle and more of a one-sided massacre.
Under the overwhelming force of the superior tank formations and accompanying infantry, the Japanese resistance quickly collapsed.
Lacking effective anti-tank means, the Japanese soldiers displayed insane courage and fearless suicide attacks, but all of this seemed futile and tragic in the face of the armored onslaught.
By 3 p.m., the sounds of gunfire had gradually subsided.
The main force of the Japanese 75th Regiment, the 1st Battalion of the 76th Regiment, and the attached artillery and engineering units, which attacked Zhanggufeng and Shacaofeng, totaling more than 4,000 men, were almost completely annihilated, except for a very few who managed to escape by swimming across the Tumen River in the chaos.
The battlefield was littered with corpses, and the wreckage of destroyed Japanese artillery and vehicles emitted black smoke. The air was thick with the smells of blood, gunpowder, and diesel.
A large number of distraught, ragged Japanese wounded soldiers and prisoners of war were driven by fierce Soviet soldiers with rifle butts and bayonets to gather on a relatively flat open space.
Their faces showed no fear, only bewilderment and disbelief. The euphoria and confidence of victory from just hours before had vanished, leaving only cold despair.
A middle-aged man with a stern expression, dressed in the uniform of a high-ranking general of the Soviet Army, ascended the main peak of Zhanggufeng, surrounded by staff officers and guards.
He was none other than General Grigory Mikhailovich Shtes, the newly appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Far East Army Group.
He looked down at the hellish battlefield and the dejected Japanese prisoners of war below, a cold smile curving his lips.
"Load all these Japanese monkeys onto the train!" General Shites ordered his operations staff, his voice devoid of any emotion. "Send them to Siberia!"
A new railway branch line is under construction there, and there is an urgent need for labor.
Let them spend the rest of their lives atoning for their offenses against the Great Union of Soviet Socialist Republics!
Remember this: make them work themselves to death for a year, feed them the worst "pig and dog food," and ideally, make them all die of exhaustion within a year. If they don't die of exhaustion, don't give them winter clothes; just let them freeze to death in Siberia!
Our tradition has always been to prioritize land over people!
Furthermore, the intelligence from the Republic of China played a crucial role in our successful victory as planned. General Luganov, the Director-General of the China Aid Project, made a great contribution, and incidentally, we also made a great contribution. As agreed beforehand, 60 of the 120 T-34 tanks in our army group were transported to Vladivostok via the Trans-Siberian Railway, and then the Far East Fleet transported them to Guangzhou to be handed over to the Republic of China!
"Yes, Commander!" The staff officer stood at attention and saluted.
Soon, groups of Japanese prisoners of war were herded into the freight cars like livestock, escorted by Soviet soldiers.
What awaited them was the endless cold of Siberia, harsh conditions, relentless hard labor, and an extremely high mortality rate. They would never know that they would never, ever return to Japan.
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