This was the third sneak attack that Major Kamikawa encountered outside Shijiazhuang City.
Bullets, artillery shells, grenades... were thrown at the team as if they were free.
The soldiers under his command were caught off guard, and a large number of them were knocked down in an instant, especially the Imperial Alliance Army in the team.
Their reaction speed was much slower than that of the imperial army, and they fell to the ground a second or two late after being attacked.
On a battlefield filled with bullets, one or two seconds may seem short, but it can cause dozens of casualties to the opponent.
Major Kamikawa was enraged. Although he knew that the Eighth Route Army was deliberately depleting its troops through sneak attacks, as long as the troops marched fast enough, a large part of the troops would still withdraw into Shijiazhuang.
But the casualties before our eyes were too great.
Almost every sneak attack can take away the lives of nearly a hundred men.
The Eighth Route Army that sneaked up on us was slipperier than a loach. Whenever the artillery squadron and the heavy machine gun squadron were ready to counterattack, they had already evacuated their positions carrying their equipment.
Continuing to let the heavy machine gun squadron and artillery squadron counterattack can vent their anger, but it has no meaning other than wasting ammunition.
Six mountain artillery shells came roaring from the city. The shooting distance was too far, and there was no test firing. Only one shell hit next to the Eighth Route Army's surprise attack force, and the other shells all missed by dozens or hundreds of meters.
Major Kamikawa was very annoyed and ordered: "It missed..."
"Contact the artillery unit in the city immediately. Increase the firing range by thirty meters, move fifty meters to the southeast, and increase the speed. If you don't fire the artillery, the Eighth Route Army that is attacking us will escape again."
The second round of artillery shells from Shijiazhuang City came within a minute, but apart from exploding a large amount of soil and setting off a few dazzling flames, not a single Eighth Route Army soldier was killed.
"Ba Ge Ya Road, let the enemy escape again..." Major Kamikawa was about to go crazy, gritted his teeth and cursed.
But he did not forget his current dangerous situation. After cursing, he gave orders to the adjutant.
"The troops continue to advance, and the marching speed will be accelerated..."
"The sooner we retreat to Shijiazhuang, the smaller our casualties will be. The sooner..."
…………
On top of the East Gate of Shijiazhuang.
The captain of the city defense force looked very ugly.
From the moment the Shangchuan Battalion bypassed the ridge where it was first attacked, the entire return force came into view of the battalion leader.
With the help of telescopes, the brigade leader could clearly see all the sneak attacks suffered by the Kamikawa brigade.
So irritating.
I thought that when the returning reinforcements entered the sight of the city defense troops, the city defense troops would be able to see the Eighth Route Army ambushing the roadside and give the returning reinforcements an advance warning through the radio, preventing the Eighth Route Army from ambushing them.
Maybe they could steal sheep on the march and eat the Eighth Route Army ambush troops.
Dreams are beautiful, but reality is very cruel.
A dozen observers, including the team leader, stared at the situation on the roadside with binoculars.
Everyone believed that there was no danger in the next few hundred meters that Kamikawa Brigade was going to walk. For this reason, the battalion leader even sent a telegram to Major Kamikawa, asking them to speed up their march and withdraw into Shijiazhuang as soon as possible.
As a result, the Eighth Route Army slapped them hard with facts.
A patch of thatch that blended in with the surrounding environment suddenly appeared. Dozens of Eighth Route Army troops, equipped with a large number of light and heavy machine guns and mortars, aimed at the returning troops who were marching in a hurry and unleashed a burst of firepower.
Since everyone could see the specific position of the Eighth Route Army from the top of the city, the artillery observers who were also observing the battle situation outside the city immediately notified the mountain artillery units to fire at Zhu Yuan and let them counterattack.
The artillery responded very quickly. When the first round of artillery shells was fired, the Eighth Route Army had not moved yet, but its shooting accuracy was very poor.
By the time they got in touch with the Sichuan Brigade, corrected their shooting, and fired again, the Eighth Route Army that had just attacked the returning reinforcements had broken out and disappeared into the wilderness.
After two consecutive misjudgments, the captain of the Chengdong City Defense Force no longer dared to send any more telegrams to the Shangchuan Brigade.
I am afraid that I will lead them into trouble by providing wrong information.
"Prepare light and heavy machine guns to cover the return troops entering the city..." Seeing that the Shangchuan Brigade had finally rushed near the city head and would be within the effective strike range of the city defense forces in a few minutes, the captain hurriedly ordered.
"If there is an Eighth Route Army sneak attack on the returning troops within the attack range of the light and heavy machine guns, there is no need to ask for instructions, the light and heavy machine guns will fire directly to kill them."
"When I find that the Eighth Route Army is following the returning reinforcements, I open fire and kill them."
"The Eighth Route Army must be allowed to retaliate with tooth and regain the face it lost just now."
The last command was spoken by the captain through gritted teeth, which shows how bad his mood is now.
In his mind, he longed for the Eighth Route Army to hide within the range of machine gun attacks and raid the returning troops, because only in this way could he avenge his shame.
Unfortunately, his dream was doomed to fail.
It is true that the Eighth Route Army within one kilometer from the city continued to sneak attacks on the returning Japanese and puppet troops, but they were all sharpshooters who acted dispersedly.
They hid behind bunkers, using thatch and bushes as camouflage, and shot back the reinforcements from a distance.
There is no way for the city defense troops to determine the specific location of their opponents through one or two gunshots.
More than a dozen light and heavy machine guns were mounted on the top of the city to show off their power, but they were unable to fire because they could not find the target.
"Sir... there are eight groups of ambushes in the bushes six hundred meters away from us..." a little Japanese observer suddenly shouted, pointing to the bush he was eyeing and making sure to report.
"Concentrate fire on that bush..." The captain seemed to have found the target to vent his anger and ordered without hesitation.
“Dong dong dong… da da da…”
More than a dozen light and heavy machine guns fired at the same time, and bullets covered the bushes like rain.
From a normal perspective, as long as the Eighth Route Army is hiding there, it will definitely be beaten into pieces.
The Japanese army captain also had such a sweet dream.
As a result, before he woke up, a series of explosions sounded in his ears.
More than a dozen mortar shells roared towards the city. Although only four shells hit the city wall, and the other shells all hit inside and outside the city wall, the captain was still shocked.
The four shells that hit the city's head fell right next to the two machine gun positions.
On the bare city top, the Japanese machine gunners had no place to hide. Faced with the rain of fragments from the artillery shells, they had no way to hide and could only be beaten into sieves.
Two machine gun teams and nearly ten imperial soldiers were all blown up on top of the city, and their lives and deaths were uncertain.
"Baga...we have been fooled..." the captain shouted with anger, his face turned red.
"The Eighth Route Army wants to use a few riflemen to lure our light and heavy machine guns into exposing their targets, and then concentrate their mortars to attack our light and heavy machine guns mounted on top of the city. What a cunning enemy."
"Stop firing the light and heavy machine guns immediately and move immediately. They have been targeted by the Eighth Route Artillery. Hurry."
"Before the Independent Brigade reached Shijiazhuang, the city defense troops suffered heavy losses in a sneak attack by other Eighth Route Army troops."
