The Japanese team leader also reacted quickly. He immediately ordered a relatively stout Captain Cao to squat down, and then he sat on Captain Cao's shoulders. With the help of several soldiers, Captain Cao stood up with the intention of observing the trench.
The situation outside.
It didn't matter, it almost scared his soul out.
"Baga! Watch out for grenades!" Following the cry, he leaned back and fell off Chief Cao's shoulder.
To be precise, he was hit in the forehead by a grenade and was knocked down.
It turned out that as soon as he stretched his head, he saw countless small black dots flying around from the darkness, and behind each small black dot was trailing a wisp of hissing smoke.
However, his screams and reminders were useless. In this trench, which was a little over one meter wide and surrounded by bare walls, no matter how careful you were, you couldn't avoid the grenades. The only thing you could do was to lie down.
On the ground, while cursing the man for being despicable, he prayed for the protection of Amaterasu.
To these devils, it is a despicable method, but to the Model Brigade, it is the most brilliant tactic.
Based on the little devil's short stature, Zhou Wen had already specially instructed the officers and soldiers of the model brigade during training to dig the trenches much deeper than usual. It was even so deep that even the Chinese defenders needed sandbags under their feet to shoot normally.
degree.
In this battle, because part of the position was to be abandoned intentionally, Meng Yuting ordered that when digging the trench fortifications, not only the trenches were deepened, but also the south-facing end of the trench was specially thickened and raised. Even if the Japanese army occupied the position, they would not be able to see it at all.
Movements in the direction of Chengguan, let alone shooting.
At this time, the seventy or eighty Japanese soldiers in the trenches not only could not see the situation outside, but they could not see the dawn either.
Just before the Japanese squad leader's frightened screams stopped, more Japanese soldiers let out even more desperate screams.
"no! No! Please……"
"Baga! He's dead!"
"Kasan..."
"Boom boom boom..."
Hundreds of roars and explosions exploded in the trenches or at the edges of the trenches almost simultaneously. More than 300 people from the 1st and 2nd companies of the Model Brigade Guard Battalion crawled to a distance of less than 20 meters from the trenches and threw them out.
The grenade in his hand.
At such a close distance, not to mention soldiers who have undergone formal bomb-dropping training, even ordinary adults can confidently throw grenades into a trench more than 1 meter wide.
Therefore, the trench, which was no more than 800 meters long, was instantly shrouded in smoke and fire. The screams and howls of the Japanese before their death were completely covered up by the explosions that resounded in the night sky.
No matter you are lying down or standing crouching, in this explosion range where a grenade will fall almost every meter, just being injured but not killed on the spot is considered to be specially blessed by Amaterasu.
The problem is that basically each of the officers and soldiers of the Model Brigade threw three grenades.
In other words, this trench, which is only about 800 meters long, withstood the blows of thousands of grenades in just a few seconds. Moreover, the trench was dug very straight, and there were basically no corners to offset the explosion fragments.
Flying.
Except for a few lucky ones who were blocked by the corpses of their companions, it would be difficult to find intact corpses of the other Japanese soldiers, whether they were killed by the explosion or not.
After the explosion, everything became calm again. In the darkness, hundreds of crawling Chinese defenders, also wearing gas masks, jumped in with submachine guns and rifles with bayonets in hand.
In this trench filled with thick smoke and pungent blood...
At this time, after hearing the explosion in the trench in front and the desperate howl of the Japanese army, the Japanese commander in the first trench could not observe the situation outside the trench, so he could only shoot a bullet representing a request for assistance.
White flare.
Looking at the white signal flares rising high in the sky, Hattori Jiro, who also had a pale face, fell into a dilemma.
Since the Japanese army did not have any electronic communication equipment that could make instant calls, and they could not send out flags in the dark, he stared at the bottom of the mountain and had no idea which position of the Chinese defenders the Japanese army had attacked, let alone what happened on the mountain.
What?
But judging from the sudden and intensive gunfire and explosions, the attacking troops must have encountered trouble, and it was a big trouble.
Unsure of the Japanese attack position, his nearly twenty artillery pieces did not dare to fire randomly. Who knew whether they would hit one of his own people on the head?
He now faced two choices, one was to order the defenders on the mountain to retreat quickly; the other was to take a gamble and send the 4th Brigade as a reserve to support.
Since the Japanese troops on the mountain sent out a signal to request reinforcements, it meant that the situation was not at its most dangerous and the battle was still possible to win.
For the Japanese army, the most dangerous situation is to fire two red signal flares, which means that the enemy is already in front of us, the situation is critical, and they are firing at me.
In fact, it's no wonder that Colonel Hattori Jiro had already invested all his wealth like a gambler at this time, because he had no way out now.
If he had honestly followed the orders of Lieutenant General Sakamoto Uemon before, just like the probing attack during the day, it was just a containment without any substantive attack. Maybe his fate was to be ordered to retire after the war and receive a large sum of money.
With the retirement compensation, I can just go home and live a civilian life.
But now he not only used special bombs (poison gas bombs) that are usually used in emergencies, but also launched a night attack with thousands of people. The key is that the troops are still in trouble on the top of the mountain and requesting reinforcements.
He didn't know how many people would be left after the troops were finally withdrawn, and he didn't know whether they could still withdraw.
Even after they withdrew, it was his failure to respect orders that led to another loss of troops. I am afraid that after the large troops came up, what he faced was not the question of whether to retire, but the question of whether his life could be saved.
After all, committing seppuku is still very painful!
But he still had a bit of luck. If he put the last complete brigade into the battlefield, it might be the key factor that determines the final success or failure of this battle.
As a result, the Japanese army formed a team of more than 800 people, including four infantry squadrons and a machine gun squadron of the 4th Brigade of the 14th Brigade. Under the bloodshot eyes of Colonel Hattori Jiro, they walked into the dense darkness of Phoenix Mountain one after another.
And just behind the city gate and on the Great Wall wall and under the city wall where the Japanese army could not see, groups of officers and soldiers of the 1st Regiment of the Model Brigade clenched their weapons in their hands, crouching quietly in the darkness, waiting.
On a section of the city wall on the east side of Lengkou Pass, Schneider mountain cannons and mortars were set up. The decisive battle was tonight.
To be precise, the most critical factor that prompted Meng Yuting to make up his mind to launch a decisive battle was the moment when Hattori Jiro sent the main force of the 3rd Battalion to follow the vanguard squadron and launch the attack.
After receiving the information that more than 700 Japanese follow-up troops had joined the attack, Meng Yuting felt that the time had come for a decisive battle.