Chapter 58: The Sword Unsheathed
Matsumoto Hashitaro was originally just an ordinary farmer in Japan, and in the successive conscriptions of the Japanese military department, Matsumoto Hashitaro was eliminated by the military because of his extreme myopia. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ļ½ļ½ļ½Uļ½Eć infoOnce upon a time, Hashitaro Matsumoto, who worked hard in the paddy fields under the big sun, envied his childhood friends who had already put on military uniforms more than once. But now, Matsumoto Hashitaro, who was once rejected by the military many times, also has the opportunity to put on a military uniform, although Matsumoto Hashitaro only received an old-fashioned golden hook rifle, but he is still satisfied.
Matsumoto Hashitaro's unit was a newly established local division, and the number recorded in the archives of the military headquarters was the local 243rd division, with a total strength of 8,200 troops. Matsumoto Hashitaro had never been in contact with the military before, so naturally he would not have known that there had never been a division-level unit with only 8,000 soldiers in the Japanese army, and he would not have known that the local division he was in was used by the military headquarters as cannon fodder.
Zhuo Fei only gave the Japanese cabinet two months to transfer the local people, and even though the Japanese cabinet had mobilized all the ships they could find, there was still no way to guarantee that they would be able to transfer everything they needed within two months. In order to prevent a sudden attack by the umbrella, Hideki Tojo, who was coordinating the defense of the homeland, had to call up reserve forces again, and selected some troops to guard the Yamaguchi, Hiroshima, and Kobe areas adjacent to Kyushu and Shikoku, and Matsumoto Hashitaro's 243rd Division was deployed in Shimomatsu, Yamaguchi Prefecture.
The 243rd Division received the order to be deployed in Shimomatsu, but in fact it was already used as a one-time cannon fodder unit by the Japanese military and cabinet, and their only mission was to create the illusion that the Japanese army was deploying Yamaguchi Prefecture on a large scale. The sun rises and sets, and another day passes, and Matsumoto Hashitaro, who has just eaten dinner, is very satisfied and leans on the sandbags on the edge of the trench wall, full of two lunch boxes of rice, a salted fish and a bowl of vegetable soup, which makes Matsumoto Hashitaro in a trance a little supportive.
"Kurosawa-kun, do you smoke?" Reaching out and rubbing his somewhat propped stomach, Matsumoto Hashitaro took out a cigarette and asked Kurosawa, a veteran beside him, who first raised his eyes to look at Matsumoto, and then stretched out his right hand to take the cigarette handed by Matsumoto Hashitaro. "Today's weather is really good, if this is still in our country, this kind of weather is the most suitable for working in the fields." Matsumoto Hashitaro carefully pulled up the conversation and helped the veteran Kurosawa light the cigarette.
Matsumoto Hashitaro is a farmer, but it seems that this honest farmer also has his own intelligence, and since he was assigned to this team, Matsumoto Hashitaro has been closely following the veteran Kurosawa. Kurosawa slowly exhaled the smoke from his mouth, and said to Matsumoto Hashitaro in a low tone, "Matsumoto, we will all die here, and you will follow me as well. Kurosawa's slightly sad voice made Matsumoto poor for a moment, and then reached out and touched his head and smiled indifferently.
"Kurosawa-kun, you're one of the few veterans in our squad, and you know that I used to be just a farmer working in the fields. I didn't want to get promoted and get rich, I just wanted to live and live to see my family in the Americas. Speaking of this, Matsumoto Hashitaro, who had an indifferent face, lay on his back on the sandbag, looked at the white clouds in the sky and said to himself, "Miko, they should have already boarded the boat, if everything goes well, they will be able to settle down in the Americas." ā
Matsumoto Hashitaro's soliloquy did not shy away from veteran Kurosawa, who understood why Matsumoto Hashitaro said that. When the military recruits are recruited, they will explain the situation to the recruits, as long as they enlist with peace of mind, their families may be arranged to leave the mainland in advance to settle in the Americas, Kurosawa knows that Matsumoto Hashitaro will come to the army, probably for his family. Although the 243rd Division of Matsumoto Hashitaro never relaxed its vigilance, many soldiers in the defense area did not show as much vigilance as before.
Matsumoto Hashitaro's squad will change guards every other week, and whether it is on duty in the defense area or going to the rear to rest, Matsumoto Hashitaro seems to have recognized the veteran Kurosawa, except for sleeping, bathing and going to the toilet, Matsumoto Hashitaro resolutely does not leave Kurosawa. Matsumoto Hashitaro is a piece of cowhide plaster that can't be shaken off and torn off, even if he beats the other party a few times, the veteran Kurosawa has no way to stop Matsumoto from following him, and in the end he can only ignore it.
As time passed, the news of the fall of Taiwan was suddenly learned, which made many Japanese troops stationed in Yamaguchi Prefecture panic, and the 243rd Division in Xiasong even canceled the change of defense and pulled all the troops into the defensive line to prepare for war. "If you want to follow me, don't make your own decisions, you have to do what I say." The tense atmosphere made the hearts of the entire defense area fluctuate and undercurrents surged, and the veteran Kurosawa also secretly told Matsumoto Hashitaro many times, but the enemy forces on Kyushu Island never moved.
It had been a sunny day for half a month, and when it was time for dinner, a drizzle finally fell in the sky, and some Japanese soldiers couldn't wait to take off their clothes, standing naked in the rain and humming and taking a bath. Matsumoto Hashitaro was also a little eager to get involved, but was stopped by veteran Kurosawa, "Are you a fool?" What should I do if I stand in the rain and take a bath in the rain in this weather? Our division does not have a field hospital. Although Matsumoto Hashitaro didn't agree with Kurosawa's words, he didn't want to try again, because he knew that if he wanted to live well, it was best to listen to Kurosawa, because Kurosawa was a veteran.
After a hasty dinner, Matsumoto Hashitaro, who put on a raincoat, followed the veteran Kurosawa out of the bunker, and it was their turn to stand the first shift tonight, and 2 o'clock in the morning was the time for the changing of the guard. After stepping on the mud in the position, I walked a short distance to the sentry post of Matsumoto Hashitaro and his ---- a shack made of planks and grass branches. After checking the accuracy of the binoculars, light machine guns, flare guns, and flares in the shack with the two soldiers on the previous shift, Matsumoto Hashitaro, who had sent off the previous sentry, began to wipe his Golden Hook rifle as carefully as Kurosawa.
Every ten minutes, Matsumoto Hashitaro and Kurosawa would take turns using binoculars to look out of the position as far as their line of sight allowed. After nightfall, Matsumoto Hashitaro followed Kurosawa to hang a dozen cans in the shack on the barbed wire fence in front of the position, and then extinguished the bonfire in the shack, allowing himself to hide quietly in the night. It has been more than a month since they came to Shimomatsu, and not once has the army on Kyushu Island been found to move, and there are many barbed wire fences set up in front of the position, plus empty canned food boxes hanging from the barbed wire, Matsumoto Hashitaro and Kurosawa have been secretly sleeping many times while on duty at night guards.
"Kurosawa-kun, it's still the same, you sleep first, and I'll ask you to replace me when the time comes." After buttoning up his coat, Matsumoto Hashitaro graciously handed the other coat to Kurosawa, and then sat down on the wooden bench under the observation mouth with great interest. Kurosawa didn't refuse Matsumoto Hashitaro's kindness, after all, there is usually no abnormality before the early morning, and Matsumoto Hashitaro is quite alert. Kurosawa fell asleep, and it didn't take long for Matsumoto Hashitaro to fall asleep by the drizzle outside the shack, and the continuous rain made Matsumoto Hashitaro feel relaxed, and before he knew it, he fell asleep with his back against the shed.
"Boom... I don't know how long it was, but the barbed wire of the shack suddenly sounded, but soon, the empty canning box that had been touched stopped making a sound, and the shack where Matsumoto Hashitaro and Kurosawa were located never made a sound. The rain was still falling, and it seemed to be heavier than before, Kurosawa suddenly woke up in his sleep, and subconsciously called out the name of Matsumoto Hashitaro, and Kurosawa, who didn't hear a response, immediately sat up from the thatched wooden bed.
Kurosawa had just struck a match and was about to light the oil lamp in the shack, when he suddenly saw a ball of fireworks flash at the mouth of the shack, and there was a soft sound of "poof", and Kurosawa only felt a force hit his chest. With a snap of leaning back, Kurosawa, who had just sat up from the wooden bed, fell down on his back, and before Kurosawa, who was in sharp pain in his chest, shouted, a black shadow strode into the shack, and poof, another spark bloomed, and Kurosawa still had an extra bullet hole in his head.
Masaka, who was sleeping with his back against the shed in a coat, suddenly felt a little out of breath, opened his sleepy eyes and looked around blankly, only to realize that there seemed to be a few more people in the shack. Two fingers were cut off by a sharp short knife in a row, and Matsumoto Hashitaro, who originally refused to open his mouth, was forced to become a soft egg, and told everything the other party wanted to know, but he didn't save his life like this, and soon, Matsumoto Hashitaro, whose throat was cut by a blade, was piled up with Kurosawa.
No one would have imagined that the enemy forces on Kyushu Island would launch an attack on Honshu Island on such a rainy night, and Shimomatsu, which was the weakest in strength, would become the main direction of the enemy attack on Kyushu Island. A unit of scouts under the umbrella became the vanguard of the attacking force, and behind them, a regiment of the Bandit Army and two regiments of the Nationalist Army had already formed an attack formation. The battle was imminent, and under the cover of continuous rain and night, the attacking troops landed on the island of Honshu in Shimomatsu on transport ships, and in one night, they routed the Japanese 243rd Division stationed in Shimomatsu.
"Don't want it, don't want it, these trophies will be handed over to the logistics troops to collect, our task is to pursue and pursue again, and completely stir up Yamaguchi County into a mess, so that the little devils will keep sending troops here to facilitate the landing of other troops." Sun Yuanliang, who commanded the forward troops of the Nationalist Army, roared loudly and commanded his soldiers to advance inland to Yamaguchi County and make room for the landing ground for the follow-up landing force.