Nanda Mountain is the key search area for the Kwantung Army stationed in Xingcheng.
In the raid more than half a month ago, the Kwantung Army's Xingcheng defense area was destroyed in total, two sections of railway lines more than 1,000 meters long were destroyed, and two small strongholds and three settlement points were captured, resulting in more than 100 losses.
A Kwantung Army.
What's more important is that among the more than one hundred Kwantung Army, there is a squad leader who is the nephew of the commander of the Xingcheng garrison, who specializes in decentralizing troops with mixed seniority.
As a result, I didn't get the qualifications and instead lost my life on the railway.
The commander of the regiment, Colonel Kawaguchi, was driven mad and vowed to find the attackers and cut them into pieces to avenge his dead nephew.
Nanda Mountain is the largest mountain range in the defense area, spreading for dozens of kilometers, and is very suitable for hiding troops.
If the Eighth Route Army is hiding in the defense area, they will probably be hiding in these mountains.
In order to find them, Colonel Kawaguchi dispatched two infantry brigades, using squadrons as units, to search the entire mountain like a net.
As a result, after two consecutive searches, no figure of the Eighth Route Army was found. Instead, nearly two squadrons of troops suffered non-combat attrition.
Although most of these frostbitten soldiers can recover, it has a considerable impact on the morale of the troops.
In addition, the search team has been in the ice and snow for half a month, eating and sleeping poorly, and everyone is very tired.
The two team captains requested instructions from the wing headquarters more than once: suspend the search and return to the station for repairs...
But they were all rejected by the furious captain.
In addition, the Kwantung Army headquarters also issued an order for the troops stationed along the railway to find and eliminate the Eighth Route Army at all costs. The two captains could only suppress their inner dissatisfaction and lead a group of exhausted troops to continue wandering in the deep mountains and old forests.
Search without purpose.
"Boom boom boom..."
A series of explosions suddenly sounded in the crowd of the 3rd Squadron. Black smoke billowed. Seven or eight Kwantung Army soldiers were blown over, and their blood quickly dyed the half-meter-deep snow red.
The little devils nearby threw themselves on the snow at the same time, raised their rifles, and looked around with wary faces...
As a result, except for the whistling of the wind, there was no movement at all.
Several Kwantung Army soldiers carefully climbed up from the snow, bent down and reached the soldiers who were overturned by the bomb to rescue the wounded.
Seeing that there was still no movement around, more and more Kwantung Army soldiers began to gather towards the wounded, and at the same time they also wanted to find out what the explosion was all about.
"It's an artillery shell... We were attacked by a mortar just now..." The team leader who observed the explosion point quickly walked to the squadron leader and expressed his judgment.
"The enemy is equipped with three mortars and fires at the same time..."
"But the surrounding wind and snow were too loud, covering up the sound of mortar shells flying. As a result, the troops did not notice anything and were caught off guard..."
"In addition, the enemy fired a round of artillery shells, and we are temporarily unable to determine the specific location of the enemy's mortar position..."
The squadron leader was very happy at first.
After searching in the ice and snow for half a month, I finally found the shadow of the Eighth Route Army.
Less than half a minute after being happy, his subordinates actually told themselves that there was no way to judge the position of the Eighth Route Army through the sudden artillery attack just now.
That means that all the subordinates who fell on the ground in front of them died in vain.
His hands immediately clenched into fists out of anger, and he opened his mouth to curse...
"Boom boom boom..."
As a result, before he could say anything, a violent explosion sounded in his ears, and the squadron leader was thrown to the ground by someone at the same time.
After three consecutive rounds of artillery fire, the squadron leader was helped up from the ground by his subordinates.
Although he was immediately thrown to the ground by his subordinates and escaped the fatal attack caused by the close-range explosion of the artillery shell, a fragment of the artillery shell still penetrated into his shoulder blade, causing his body to tremble with pain.
Looking around, his solemn expression was instantly replaced by paleness.
A total of nine shells hit the crowd.
I don’t know if the Eighth Route Army was lucky or if they did it on purpose. They just waited for the Japanese to surround the wounded and opened fire.
Not a single cannonball missed the target; all hit the target.
Although the snow on the ground greatly weakened the explosive power and lethality of the shells, the Japs were all gathered together. Even if one shell only killed two targets, the total of these shells could kill nearly twenty Japs.
And there were obviously more than that number of Kwantung Army soldiers lying on the ground in front of them.
Fortunately, the squad leader who just reported the situation to the squadron leader calmed down and reported to the squadron leader after calming down: "Captain..."
"A humble position must be..."
"The Eighth Route Army artillery that attacked us just now is hiding in the southeastern defense line, about a thousand meters away..."
The squadron leader endured the pain caused by the shoulder wound and ordered through gritted teeth: "Then what are you waiting for..."
"The troops immediately deployed into battle formation and killed me directly..."
"Contact the two squadrons closest to us..."
"Our unit was attacked by long-distance artillery fire from the Eighth Route Army. We have locked the specific location of the Eighth Route Army and requested reinforcements..."
"This time we must kill the Eighth Route Army no matter what. We will not give them a chance to escape again. Kill them..."
More than a hundred little Japs immediately abandoned their corpses and wounded men and headed towards the Eighth Route Army artillery position one kilometer away with their rifles in hand.
The fact that the artillery position is one kilometer away from them in a straight line does not mean that the Kwantung Army can kill them by walking just one kilometer.
This is a mountainous area, with a straight-line distance of one kilometer. If we really have to walk, we may not be able to reach the artillery position even three kilometers away.
But the Japanese squadron leader can't control that much.
So many subordinates died just now. It would be a big loss if we failed to take advantage of the opportunity to capture the Eighth Route Army's artillery unit.
…………
At the Eighth Route Army artillery position, Li Yunlong was very excited, feeling like he had returned to the Shanxi battlefield again.
He patted the artillery company commander next to him and said excitedly: "Pillar..."
"It's been so long since I last saw you. You're still as accurate as ever in shooting mortars. You can hit exactly where you want. No wonder Xiao Huang insisted on me taking you with me..."
"With you by my side, I can kill one or two squadrons of the Kwantung Army with just artillery shells."
In the Yi Zhong base area, Zhu Zhu had long been the commander of the artillery battalion.
Considering that his mortar fire was particularly accurate and the mountainous areas in the Northeast were most suitable for mortar operations, Huang Yu also drew him closer to the northbound detachment after obtaining Zhuzi's consent.
Since there were only three mortar companies in the whole detachment, he had no choice but to serve as the commander of the mortar company directly under the regiment.
Seeing that Li Yunlong was getting more and more excited as he spoke and had no intention of retreating, Zhu Zhu quickly reminded: "Commander... the Kwantung Army is coming towards us, withdraw..."
Li Yunlong said with a nonchalant expression: "What's the hurry..."
"This is in the mountains. Although we are very close to the Japanese, if we really start walking, the Kwantung Army may not be able to kill them even if it takes half an hour..."
"We will think of a way to kill the Japanese two more times later and then we will retreat..."
"It's too early to withdraw. If the Japanese want to pursue us, we don't know where to pursue them. How can we lure the enemy?"
