Chapter 147: Pillboxes Everywhere!

This attack not only dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese army's offensive operations, but also planted a deep-seated fear within their hearts.

Without strong fire support, the thought of launching another assault on Blue Island was, to them, tantamount to seeking death.

"General, the Chengyun Army's coastal defense artillery is simply too powerful!"

Major General Shiojiri's voice was laden with a profound sense of frustration, and his face bore a distinct expression of disappointment:

"Not only are our artillery units unable to suppress the enemy, but merely surviving has become a matter of luck."

His brows were tightly furrowed, and a flash of dread crossed his eyes. "In just the past few minutes alone, we have lost as many as eight heavy guns." At this, his voice grew almost choked.

The commander of the Japanese 1st Heavy Artillery Brigade, Major General Shiojiri, continued with a helpless despondency:

"If we continue to fight like this, I fear our heavy artillery forces will face total annihilation."

His face was etched with worry, and his eyes revealed despair regarding the future.

He knew all too well that against infantry and field fortifications, their 105mm heavy howitzers could easily sweep them away, but when confronted by formidable fortresses constructed of reinforced concrete, they appeared utterly helpless.

Having listened to the report from the heavy artillery commander, Lieutenant General Uzao Kotaro narrowed his eyes, a flicker of confusion and deep thought crossing his face as he asked:

"Then how do you propose we capture the combat fortress on Southern Island?" A trace of expectation laced his tone, hoping to find a glimmer of survival.

Major General Shiojiri replied resolutely, his voice brimming with unquestionable confidence:

"General, to breach such a massive combat fortress, we have no choice but to deploy super siege guns from the homeland with a caliber of 200 millimeters or more."

His gaze was steadfast. "Only thus can we destroy the enemy's defensive installations in one stroke." Every word he uttered was charged with strength, even though he knew this was a formidable choice.

"Otherwise, a frontal breakthrough against this impregnable combat fortress is sheer fantasy."

These words made Uzao Kotaro's expression exceedingly unsightly; his lips were pressed into a thin line, and the muscles on his face tightened involuntarily.

He had never imagined that the 105mm heavy artillery of which he was so proud would prove utterly useless in the face of the sturdy fortress before him.

Faced with the inevitable casualties of continuing the assault, his heart was filled with contradiction and struggle, uncertain just how many lives of brave warriors must be sacrificed to capture this combat fortress.

Especially after experiencing the previous fierce battles and watching the heavy losses suffered by the troops under his command, Uzao Kotaro felt an unprecedented and crushing pressure along with a sense of utter helplessness.

When Uzao Kotaro assumed the post of General, he had been somewhat mentally prepared, knowing that this assignment would not be as simple as it appeared on the surface.

However, confronted with the current desperate predicament, his eyes revealed profound shock and disbelief.

His face was veiled in the shadows of deep contemplation, keenly feeling the weight of his immense responsibility. Following a prolonged silence and deliberation, a trace of resolve gradually emerged on his features.

He decided to leverage the cover of nightfall to attempt a large-scale night raid, hoping thereby to alter the course of the battle.

His voice was resolute yet low; although his heart was fraught with uncertainty, he still chose to believe this was the only way out.

To his surprise, however, even under the cover of night, every single one of their offensives failed to achieve a breakthrough.

Whenever they prepared to launch an attack, illumination flares would rise to turn the night into daylight, followed immediately by deadly gunfire that cut the soldiers down one after another.

In particular, those machine-gun pillboxes delivered precision fire that inflicted catastrophic casualties, turning the charging Japanese infantrymen into a picture of despair.

Uzao Kotaro's eyes were filled with frustration and anguish. Watching soldier after soldier fall in pools of blood, his inner self was overwhelmed by powerlessness and sorrow.

Facing such circumstances, Uzao Kotaro had no other choice but to decide to pave the path forward with the lives of his soldiers.

Yet, as they watched soldiers fall one after another, the faces of the other senior commanders showed neither pity nor emotional stirrings.

In their eyes, conventional tactics such as the "Banzai charge" were standard methods for resolving dilemmas.

The expressions on their faces were cold and detached, and their eyes betrayed calculation and resolve, as though the lives of ordinary soldiers were mere pawns in their strategic planning, to be sacrificed at will.

They firmly believed that as long as the ultimate strategic objective could be achieved, any sacrifice was worthwhile. This ruthless view of warfare chilled Uzao Kotaro to the bone, yet he was utterly powerless to change it.

Driven by the bravery and reckless charges demonstrated by the Japanese soldiers, they managed to breach the fortress's primary defense line after two nights of combat.

Following a brief regrouping, they immediately shifted their focus to the deeper infantry defense lines, launching a fierce assault with astonishing determination and force.

However, the inner concrete fortifications appeared incomparably sturdier than the outer earthen defenses, proving almost indestructible especially in the absence of heavy artillery support.

The Japanese even went to desperate lengths, dragging heavy artillery right up to the front lines and risking the immense danger of being intensely shelled by the Chengyun Army's firepower, hoping to blast open a breach.

Yet every time they opened fire, it merely provoked a fierce counterattack from the Chengyun Army's coastal defense guns, resulting in negligible damage.

Behind this predicament lay the fact that the fortress zone was densely sown with machine-gun fire and mutually supporting defensive networks, compounded by the 19th Division's deployment of dense trenches, barbed wire, and terrifying minefields on the front lines, which drastically elevated the Japanese casualty rate.

Even after committing all of their reserve forces, the Japanese remained unable to breach the formidable defenses of the Chengyun Army.

As the casualty toll mounted, the Japanese commander turned ashen with rage, consumed by fury as he cursed out loud:

"Just how were these impregnable bastions built?"

Commander Uzao Kotaro, originally renowned for his refined and elegant demeanor, was now filled with overwhelming anxiety and wrath.

The expression on his face morphed from astonishment to fury, the light in his eyes dimming to reveal an unbelievable sense of disappointment.

He heaved a heavy sigh, his heart filled with bitter resentment over the failure of his strategy and shock at the impregnable defenses.

Uzao Kotaro had not anticipated that his meticulously devised attack plan would founder completely against the fortifications reinforced by Jiang Bai.

It seemed the opposing commander, Jiang Bai, had anticipated all of this, arranging his layouts with such ingenuity that his entire plan was utterly thwarted.

Jiang Bai had not only mobilized experts to reinforce the fortress, but every single placement reflected his meticulous consideration—from the newly added machine guns to the newly constructed pillboxes, all of it radiated an unyielding determination to hold fast, and even the weapon configurations within the latrines signaled readiness for any conceivable attack.

Under such absolute superiority, the Japanese infantry lacked even a hundred meters of survival space.

The heavy concrete engineering rendered every defensive position as indestructible as a battleship upon the ocean.

The brigade commander reported to Uzao Kotaro with a heavy expression: "The difficulty of seizing this critical position far exceeds our expectations."

His eyes revealed profound anxiety, and his voice carried a dread of the future:

"If the battle continues to drag on, I fear our troop strength will be completely exhausted."

Upon hearing this, Uzao Kotaro fell silent for a moment. His facial expression was complex, containing both the helplessness of accepting reality and the struggling resentment of unwillingness.

He finally nodded in agreement, his voice sounding somewhat hoarse as he replied:

"I understand your concerns, but the order has been given; we must capture Blue Island at all costs."

Although Uzao Kotaro commanded a massive military force under his command—two Class-A divisions plus a heavy artillery brigade, totaling over sixty thousand troops—

Presently, the number of troops available for combat had dwindled to just over fifty thousand, and those maintaining a truly intact combat sequence were merely the four infantry regiments under the 5th Infantry Brigade.

The remaining units had either suffered drastically reduced combat effectiveness or were nearly wiped out, dealing a severe blow to his strategic deployment.