At 16 o'clock on October 24, the Maruyama Division, which had endured hardships, finally accomplished a great miracle, without maps and supplies, with a unit that was already half starved to death through the reckless jungle, passing through forests, mountains, canyons, rivers, swamps, and cliffs along the way, overcoming hunger, disease, and death. Finally reached the front of the Blood Ridge position.

Scout Jiro Osawa carefully hid behind the dense grass and used his binoculars to look at the American position. Obviously, after a series of previous battles, such as the assault of the Ichiki detachment, the Americans were very careful about the defense of this location. All the trees near the American positions were cut down, even the weeds were burned, and the distance of nearly a kilometer was all open areas with good views. In the telescope, Osawa can clearly see that there are several layers of barbed wire on the battlefield of the US army, and, damn it! The barbed wire fences were covered with tin cans of leftover luncheon meat. At a glance, countless cans and jars swayed gently in the wind.

"Ah, canned meat! It's really ......" Osawa has never hated those guys on the other side as much as he does now, "If I can eat a bite of that kind of thing, it would be good for me to die immediately!" "Hunger and hunger almost made Osawa almost lose his mind. It took him a lot of effort to suppress his urge to immediately pounce on the American position, kill the Americans, and snatch all their cans, and continued to maintain a prostrate posture and carefully observe the enemy's defenses. Well, there are a few over there. One of the American sentries in the novel is slowly hanging canned cans on barbed wire, which must have been just finished eating. Look at the way they look carelessly with cigarettes in their mouths! It seems that the Americans are not alert to the imminent attack. There were obvious pillboxes in some parts of the position, and Osawa carefully recorded them one by one. However, Osawa knew that compared to these, the Americans probably had more hidden bunkers, but these could not be found by looking at them with a telescope.

The attack was about to be launched, and what he had detected had to be reported to his superiors immediately, and he took one last memorable glance at the cans and cans that were hanging from the barbed wire, and continued to slowly retreat in a prostrate position. At the same time, he secretly swore in his heart: "I will definitely come back!" ”

However, the general attack was not launched on time, because it suddenly rained heavily. The troops could not see the target clearly, and Maruyama had to delay for another two hours. This is the seventh time he has postponed the general attack. If he could launch an attack according to the time of 22, he could even get fire support from the Navy's artillery formation, but not now, the Navy said that they had been out for too long, and the warship was out of fuel on standby, so he went back to refuel.

And the 150mm howitzers and 100mm cannons, which were originally given high hopes, were all lost on the road. But now Maruyama still has some cannons. For example, in the limelight on the Chinese battlefield, there are still several 92 infantry guns with Japanese characteristics. If the grenadier can also be considered artillery, then the number of artillery is even higher. The rain finally stopped, and several Type 92 infantry guns were quietly pushed into attack positions, and the attack was about to begin......

Tom and Jerry are the Marines' undercover reconnaissance posts. They had noticed it two hours earlier, when the Japanese had just appeared in the jungle in front of the heights. There is a huge difference between the jungle near the US military garrison and the jungle near the Japanese garrison, that is, there is a lot of wild animals, especially birds, in the jungle near the US army. And in the jungle near the area of activity of the Japanese army, not to mention birds and beasts, even the number of insects was very small - the hungry Japanese ate them all.

Although the Japanese army was very careful when approaching the Blood Ridge, it was impossible for the troops of nearly 10,000 people, no matter how careful they were, not to alarm the aborigines in these jungles. A flock of frightened parrots exposed the whereabouts of the Japanese at once. Now, Tom has seen from the concealed observation post and with a telescope that the Japanese have begun to set up 92 infantry gun positions at the edge of the jungle: the 92 infantry guns, which were originally disassembled into parts, have been assembled little by little, first wheels, then gun carriages and barrels. What about the shield? This thing has long been lost, and it can still be fired without it anyway. Jerry, on the other hand, immediately used a wired telephone to constantly report the latest findings to the command organization behind him. "The Japanese army was found in area No. 1 constructing artillery positions with Type 92 infantry guns on the positions......"

It is not for nothing that the US military is so well prepared. On the 22nd, that is, the time set by Staff Officer Masanobu Tsuji and the commander of the 17th Army, Hyakutake, was originally afraid of the attack set by their heads. Maruyama's troops did not arrive on time, and the general attack was postponed. But someone arrived on time, and even worse, he did not receive the order to postpone the general attack. Most of the area on Kuah Island is a mountain range, and travelers know that in the mountains, many times due to the obstruction of the mountains, the mobile phone signal will become very poor, or even no signal at all. The same goes for radio stations. On the other hand, the two regiments under the command of Major General Sumoji, which were responsible for launching a diversionary attack, did not receive the order to postpone the attack because of the bad signal, so they charged the positions of the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Marine Regiment of the US Army as originally planned.

Compared with the Japanese staff officers who liked to give orders in place of the commander (or the emperor), or simply dismissed the post of front-line commander with a higher rank than themselves in the name of the base camp (on the 22nd, because the commander of the Kawaguchi Brigade found that the fortifications of the American army were different from what he had previously understood, and asked to postpone the attack, but was identified as "afraid of war" by Masanobu Tsuji, and immediately ordered the removal of Major General Kawaguchi from his post and replaced him with Toshinashi Toshinari Osa, the commander of the 230th Wing of the 38th Division), the staff officers of the American Army were much more honest. There is less time to do the things that are done on behalf of the people, and the time to do the work that you should do is naturally guaranteed. As a result, these arrogant and careless Yankees in the eyes of the Japanese were quite meticulous in their work, at least, much more meticulous than the Japanese staff officers who only found out that there was no map when they set off. They made a detailed survey of all the areas in front of the position, numbered them, and arranged for the artillery to fire accurately, so as to ensure that the artillery could fire accurately at any point at any time.

As a result, as soon as the two regiments of Major General Sumoji attacked, they were covered with overwhelming artillery fire. Because there was no change in other aspects, all the artillery fire of the American army fell on their heads. The Japanese army's 8 light tanks rushed to the front, but they were all ambushed by anti-tank guns, and these guys who had been rampant in China were not at all majestic in the face of the United States, and after just a few salvos, all 8 tanks were turned into crematoriums. The infantry who followed the charge was even more flesh and blood by the shells, and in a blink of an eye, the Japanese army killed more than 600 people and had to retreat in a hurry.

This unsuccessful attack was a wake-up call for the US military. Vander-Gravet ordered: "All troops are on maximum alert. "The defenders of Blood Ridge have arranged two defensive lines, equipped with various firepower, and cleared all the thatch in front of the position that affects the firing boundary, and is ready for defense.

Just as Maruyama's artillery team was preparing to launch the first round of shelling, a strange howling sound suddenly came from the sky. As soon as Private Fujita Hiromichi, who was carrying ammunition for the Type 92 infantry gun, heard this sound, he immediately threw away the ammunition box and lay down on the ground at the same time. As a veteran who has been on the battlefield more than once, he knows that it was the sound of shells from the American army's 105mm howitzers piercing the air, and the target of these shells was here.

As soon as Fujita lay on the ground, he felt the earth shake violently, and it was like a small boat in the middle of the ocean. His ears were filled with a huge, seemingly never-ending roar. He lowered his head and pressed his face against the ground as he pressed his steel helmet tightly with one hand......

Not far away, Tom and Jerry witnessed the shelling and saw that the first round of fire completely covered the enemy's artillery position, and the two excitedly high-fived each other.

Fujita lay on the ground, suddenly feeling as if someone was pushing him, and when he opened his eyes, he saw an officer saying something to him in a hurry, but he couldn't hear a word, and now his ears were still roaring. The officer pointed in the direction of the high ground, and Fujita saw that a lot of people were rushing there, and the officer said something again, and then pulled him up from the ground, shoved a 38 rifle into his arms, and roared again.

Fujita still didn't hear anything, but he already understood what the officer meant - the artillery was finished, and there was no need for artillery now, so charge!

Fujita nodded and took a step, wanting to rush forward, but as soon as he took a few steps, he fell to the ground, as an artilleryman, he knew that this was because the huge concussion during the shelling temporarily damaged the balance function of the vestibule. But now that the general offensive has begun, it is necessary to advance no matter what, for the sake of His Majesty the Emperor. So he got up again and stumbled towards the high ground.

Just when the U.S. military preemptively began preparations for counter-artillery fire, Maruyama also realized that they had been discovered by the U.S. military. He immediately gave the order: "The general offensive begins!" So in a frenzy of "His Majesty the Emperor board! In the midst of the shouts, Maruyama's first assault began.

Now the Blood Ridge is completely a sea of steel and flames, the US 105 mm guns are constantly blocking fire, the Japanese troops who launched the attack, must first pass through the fire net of the 105 shells before they can get close to the US positions, many people can not get into the range of rifles, they are torn to pieces by the shells.

In the Japanese Army's assault operations, their firepower level is generally as follows: at a distance of 2,500 meters, they use 92 infantry guns to kill and injure targets such as enemy pillboxes, at a distance of 600 meters, they rely on machine gun fire for point fire, and at a distance of 500 meters, they use grenadiers to attack, and at a distance of 400 meters, they can rely on the accurate 38 big covers. Closer, who was the Imperial Japanese Army afraid of fighting bayonets?

It's a pity that now this system has completely collapsed, and the 92 infantry guns have not had time to fire even a single shell before they are all reimbursed, and as soon as they came out of the jungle, they were fired at by the US 105mm guns, and finally broke through the strike zone of 105 alive, and there were still six or seven hundred places away from the US troops. Immediately a new blow was struck.

Under the white light of the flares, a peculiar, drill-like sound rang out. There is no one in the Maruyama Division who is not familiar with this sound, this is the sound of the Vulcan cannon on those damn American planes, could it be that when night has fallen, American planes dare to do such dangerous close support?

However, the Japanese quickly reacted, it was not an airplane, the 20mm shell was shot from the blood ridge, it must be a land-based version of Vulcan.

These howling, ultra-high anti-aircraft guns stunned the Japanese at once, and the raindrops of dense 20mm shells swept across the battlefield, but everywhere they went, there was a bloody Shura hellish scene. The 20mm cannonball has a terrible power, and Daze, who is leading the charge, has witnessed the tragic situation it creates: a 20mm cannonball hit the abdomen of a comrade not far from him, and the person exploded from the abdomen, his body was broken into two pieces by the waist, the skin and internal organs were all blown out, and half of the intestines flew out for more than ten meters and landed on Daze's rifle.

But Osawa didn't have time to mourn his comrades, or even have time to fear, because he himself was the target!

Along with the anti-aircraft version of the Vulcan gun, there was also the M2 large-caliber machine gun. Although the rate of fire and lethality of this .50 caliber machine gun are not as perverted as those of Vulcan, it is still very good to use its burst fire to hit those fish that slipped through the net under the Vulcan cannon. Now an M2 is aimed at Daze. One. The 50-caliber bullet hit Osawa's left calf, and the entire calf was immediately broken in two. Osawa fell headlong to the ground, and he looked up in pain to see a barbed wire fence just a few meters away from him, and on it, canned boxes were swaying in the night wind with a special temptation. Ignoring his wounds, Osawa struggled to crawl towards the barbed wire, leaving a bright red trail behind him. Finally crawling under the barbed wire, Osawa reached out and grabbed the barbed wires, not caring at all about the pain caused by the wires piercing his palms, he struggled to climb up against the barbed wire, stretched out a bleeding hand, and tried to pick up a canned box. But just then, another bullet hit him...... Osawa fell and died. He failed to fulfill his wish to storm the Americans' positions, kill them, and then feast on their canned Spam luncheon meat, or even touch the empty cans of those cans, and was shot like a beast thousands of kilometers from his homeland......

As the surviving Japanese continued to advance to rifle range, the fire intensified, with 80-millimeter mortar shells raining down, Springfield, Browning automatic rifles (light machine guns, in fact) and a newer rifle, the M1 semi-automatic rifles of the Army's 164th Regiment in the second-line position, which became a pot of boiling hot porridge. One by one, the surviving Japanese were also knocked down in front of the barbed wire fence of the position. Maruyama's first assault failed in this way.