The temporary headquarters of the Japanese 3rd Infantry Battalion 500 meters away on the left wing of the warehouse.
Wakiitajiro sat on the pony, closed his eyes slightly in the dim light, and seemed to be in a fuzzy state.
As a burst of rapid footsteps sounded, the Japanese commander slowly opened his eyes.
"A message from the imperial intelligence personnel in the concession has been sent?"
"Hi! Your Excellency, Wing Commander, the 'Fuji Mountain' who provided top-secret information to our army in the evening just received a call. One battalion of the enemy's 524th Regiment of the 88th Division has completed crossing the river. Another infantry company is covering some heavy equipment and is crossing.
On the way to the river, according to their strength estimates, there is still an infantry company and most of the machine gun company behind them." Makino Shun held the intelligence from the concession in his hand and reported in a low voice.
"These damn Chinese are still so cautious at this time." Resentment flashed in Jiro Wakita's eyes.
You must be angry! You hate this Chinese army because it inflicted heavy losses on the 36th Infantry Regiment, but your anger stems more from being deceived.
At ten o'clock in the evening, a senior imperial spy code-named "Mount Fuji" who was hiding next to the senior officials of the Western Allied Forces in the Concession sent a secret message to the Songhu Expeditionary Army Headquarters. Only then did the entire Third Division know the specific organization and details of the enemy they had been fighting against for several days.
Number of people.
There was no group, and there was no "eight hundred" as boasted in Chinese newspapers. There were only 400 people.
How could the 3rd Division feel so embarrassed that a force that was eight times as strong as the Chinese was defeated like this?
Jiro Wakiba, a super unlucky guy, was scolded by the furious Japanese lieutenant general in a telegram.
Originally, the Japanese commander, who had been subdued, had no intention of causing any trouble tonight. He was planning to wait for the Chinese defenders to enter the concession, then use diplomatic pressure to force the concession to surrender, and go directly to reap the fruits of victory.
However, after being scolded by the angry division commander, Wakita Jiro, who knew the true strength of the warehouse defenders, had a new idea.
Isn't it a very pleasing sight to let them pass more than half of them and attack halfway across the border, so that the Chinese who have already gone to the concession can watch helplessly as their comrades in the rear are wiped out?
It must be pleasing to the eye, imagining the Chinese soldiers who had been disarmed by the garrison in the concession watching their comrades being killed one by one, but with helpless expressions, the Japanese commander even wanted to laugh out loud.
Even if the last men retreated into the warehouse to resist, he was not worried. The 400 men had a strong fortress and sufficient heavy firepower. It would be difficult for him to fight, but if he had less than one-third of the strength, his 36th Infantry
The existing 2,000 people in the alliance can drown them all just by spitting!
"Major Yin Teng, order your heavy machine gun squadron to enter the position." Wakitajiro stood up with a sinister look on his face.
"At the same time, all the 3rd Infantry Brigade entered the trenches and pointed their guns at the concession garrison. If the other party attacks us, I authorize you to fight back."
"Hi!" Yin Tengzhonger bowed his head and accepted the order.
Turning his eyes to Makino Jun, he muttered: "Makino Jun, please send this message to the division headquarters in five minutes and ask them to forward it to the Concession Garrison Headquarters. The message is as follows:
Our army is attacking the Chinese on our battlefield. If your army has any objections, please contact our Songhu Dispatch Army Headquarters for discussion.
However, if there is an attack, we will treat it as an opponent on the battlefield and will no longer abide by the previous non-aggression agreement between the empire and you. Guns and guns have no eyes, and they cannot guarantee the safety of your civilians."
"Hi!" Makino Jun stood at attention and accepted the order. He raised his head and was a little puzzled: "Your Excellency, Captain, we only use heavy machine guns? Don't we use infantry artillery?"
"No, no, it is easy to blow up that small bridge that is not very strong with infantry artillery!" A cruel light flashed in Wakitajiro's eyes. "If they are not left with a way out, how can they continue to pass through that bridge?
Where’s the bridge?”
Makino Jun took a breath. At this moment, he completely understood his boss's plan.
So sinister and poisonous!
The bad thing is not to let go of the opponent's main force and attack only the remaining part of the force, so-called half-crossing attack, but to leave the small bridge.
For the Chinese, the main force has retreated and their energy has been lost. With only a small number of troops left, it is impossible for them to retreat to the warehouse. The only way to survive is the bridge. If you rush over, you can survive. If you don't rush, you can only survive.
It could be death.
That's human nature, the most normal way to survive.
However, what seems to be the only way to survive is actually a complete dead end, a dead end.
This time, the 3rd Infantry Brigade worked hard to hide all of its eight remaining heavy machine guns in the trenches. The bridge deck, which was no more than 30 meters long, would be covered by a torrent of steel with more than 50 bullets per second.
To cross this bridge, a fully armed soldier would have to run for at least 8 seconds, in which case he would have to go through the baptism of hundreds of bullets.
There is no cover on the bridge deck, and with such a density of bullets, no one can escape.
This time, the Chinese have transported at least half of the mortars and even machine guns, so the threat from the heavy machine gun positions has been minimized, and they can shoot without any scruples.
The poisonous thing is that Jiro Wakita wanted to brutally shoot all the Chinese soldiers at the rear on the bridge in front of the ordinary Chinese people who were about to wake up and their comrades who were waiting for their return.
Those who dare not cross the bridge cannot escape the fate of destruction. They don't even have to wait until dawn. Two infantry squadrons who have been waiting will enter the building with flashlights, find them, kill them, and throw their bodies into the Suzhou River.
Let the Chinese civilians who once cheered for their soldiers drink the water soaked in the blood of their soldiers.
As for the Western allied forces in the concession, after dealing with them in the past few days, both the Japanese colonel and the Japanese lieutenant colonel have already understood their fierceness and inner weakness.
As long as they are afraid of death, there is nothing that cannot be compromised. What's more, what they are asked to give up is just a group of weak Chinese people, and it does not touch their vital interests.
The Japanese Lieutenant Colonel even believed that when the garrison headquarters in the concession received the message from the division headquarters, the first action it took was not to protest to its own side, but to speed up the process of disarming the Chinese troops that had crossed the river.
Because they were worried that they would anger the powerful Japanese army and launch a counterattack against them.
"Tang Dao, Lei Xiong, you two will be the first to cross the river later! Shen Zuo and I will wait for you over there." Before leaving, the lieutenant colonel of the army was still worried about his two generals, so he specifically confessed.
Although the two infantry companies had arrived safely, the Japanese were a little too quiet, which made the experienced army lieutenant colonel feel heavy in his heart.
"Yes!" Tang Dao and Lei Xiong stood at attention and saluted.
"Qin Ruoyu, what are you waiting for! Take your brothers to escort the two officers across the bridge." Tang Dao roared in a low voice.
"Li Jijin, take your third platoon and set up machine guns along the bridge deck until the commander arrives safely. Those who cross the bridge don't have to come back and wait over there."
The army lieutenant colonel and major general, whose sight was blocked by a group of soldiers surrounding them, did not notice the strange eyes of the two lieutenants hiding in the darkness.
Li Jijin, with three platoons and six light machine guns, entered the bridge first. The entire army took a fighting stance and aimed its guns at the two wings.
Then came the Army lieutenant colonel and major general chief of staff, as well as three Central Command agents who had suffered unreasonable disasters and were beaten into pig heads. They were surrounded in the center by Qin Ruoyu's second platoon and battalion security squad, as well as the major general chief of staff's four personal guards.
Dozens of people were divided into three columns, hunched over the waist and ran quickly across the more than 30-meter-long Suzhou River Bridge, and successfully entered the fortifications in the concession.
The Chinese soldiers on both sides of the bridge breathed a collective sigh of relief.
Colonel James, the representative of the military stationed in the concession, was also there, and the Chinese top commanders had come over. It seemed that the matter had been settled, and we were just waiting for the last hundred or so Chinese soldiers to cross the river.
But at this moment, something unexpected happened.
This chapter has been completed!