The Japanese squadron leader took two more rounds of artillery shells from the Eighth Route Army on the way to attack, and finally reached the Eighth Route Army artillery position half an hour later.
But except for the messy footprints here, not even the shadow of the Eighth Route Army can be seen.
"Captain, the enemy has fled to the east. Judging from the footprints, there are at least fifty people..."
"Follow me..." The squadron leader looked annoyed and ordered directly to his subordinates without any hesitation.
The adjutant stopped in front of the squadron leader and reminded: "Captain, think twice..."
"We only have one squadron, and we lost nearly a small squad of soldiers on the offensive. If we pursue it rashly, what if we are killed by the Eighth Route Army with a carbine?"
"The Eighth Route Army is equipped with several mortars, and its strength must be more than what we see."
The squadron leader gritted his teeth and replied angrily: "I wish the Eighth Route Army would ambush us, so that we could use ourselves as bait to drag them to the battlefield. When the reinforcements formed an encirclement around the battlefield, we could attack from both inside and outside.
Annihilate them all."
"Excuting an order……"
"The two squadrons closest to us are nearby. We can kill them with a quick march of ten or twenty minutes..."
"Even if the Eighth Route Army really wants to ambush us halfway and kill us with a carbine, it will definitely be no problem to hold on for twenty minutes with two small teams..."
"Hurry up and catch up. If you don't leave, it will be too late..."
…………
As Li Yunlong struggled to move forward through half-meter-deep snow, the scout suddenly rushed towards him quickly on a pair of simple skis made of wood.
This is a piece of equipment specially developed by Huang Yu for operations outside the customs.
Because the number is limited and training is difficult, it cannot equip troops on a large scale.
Only a small number of scouts were equipped so that they could quickly move and deliver messages in the snow.
Li Yunlong envied these scouts who relied on skis to travel quickly through the snow, but he was envious and there was nothing he could do about it.
When Tang Lin first came up with snowboards, he spent time practicing, but he couldn't practice no matter how hard he tried, so he had to give up.
"Report to Commander... The Japs are chasing us. There are only two infantry squads in the forward force..."
"They are followed by two infantry squadrons. Although the straight-line distance is only one kilometer, if the little devils want to catch up with their vanguard, it will take twenty-five minutes even if they march quickly."
Li Yunlong's eyes lit up and he ordered: "Our opportunity has come. Inform the first battalion to prepare for battle. I will pull out the tiger's teeth and eat the Kwantung Army's forward troops."
"The harder we fight here, the more the Japs will think that the main force of our northward detachment is hiding in the Nanda Mountains, further confusing the public and preventing the Kwantung Army from finding us."
"First attack the Japanese forward troops, practice your skills, let the soldiers move, and then think of a way to eat up the two squadrons behind them as well."
"I am now the commander of the northward detachment. I only killed one squadron kid in one battle. No matter how you analyze it, it is too low of status."
Footprints on the ground are the best evidence to judge the opponent's strength.
The Japanese squadron leader followed closely behind Li Yunlong. While pursuing, he used the footprints to determine whether the Eighth Route Army had divided its troops, and then used the footprints on the roadside to determine whether there was an ambush on the roadside.
In this way, they chased them to the foot of a mountain without any vigilance.
There were no footprints on the slopes next to the mountain road, and there was heavy white snow everywhere, making it impossible to hide anyone.
This is the Japanese squadron leader's judgment of the surrounding terrain and environment.
With a wave of his big hand, he led his men and continued to pursue forward.
At this moment, the gun barrels slowly came out of the snow, and the head covered by the white cloth slowly lifted up. Through the rifle sight, the Kwantung Army at the foot of the mountain was firmly inserted, waiting for the order to fire.
…
"A Type 96 light machine gun suddenly opened fire. The dense gunfire instantly broke the silence in the forest. The bullets flew out of the barrel and flew towards the Kwantung Army at the foot of the mountain in a fan shape."
In just an instant, the black barrel of the machine gun began to fire three bursts of hot gas.
The sound of gunshots was an order, and the soldiers hidden halfway up the mountain pulled the triggers one after another and fired the bullets in the barrels at the little Japs they had aimed at.
The troops Li Yunlong brought out of Qinglong Mountain were not many, but they were all veterans with extremely accurate marksmanship.
Although they are not as good as the elite Kwantung Army who came out of the mountains of blood and corpses, when they were asked to shoot at the little Japs 50 or 60 meters away, they were still accurate, with a hit rate of over 70%.
This means that they can hit two Kwantung Army soldiers with three bullets...
Excluding the bullets wasted due to repeated design, it will definitely be no problem to kill a Kwantung Army with five bullets.
There are more than 300 veterans in the regiment and battalion of the northward detachment, equipped with 30 light machine guns. In just one sudden fire attack, they fired four to five hundred rounds of ammunition. It is definitely an easy task to deal with the little Japs on the Bai Lai at the foot of the mountain.
, not to mention that there are Duan Peng and dozens of half-baked special forces under him hiding around.
When many soldiers quickly pulled the bolts of their guns and planned to fire a second bullet at the Kwantung Army at the foot of the mountain, there was no longer a single standing Japs in sight.
The soldiers got up from the ground, wrapped in white cloth, and flew for a long time before walking through the 50 to 60 meters of snow and reaching the foot of the mountain.
During this process, there were always more than a dozen machine guns set up on the mountainside, watching the little Japs at the foot of the mountain. Whenever there was any movement, they would greet them with a hail of bullets to ensure that there was no Kwantung Army at the foot of the mountain who could threaten the safety of the attacking troops.
The next two Kwantung Army squadrons knew they were in luck as soon as they heard the gunshots.
The forward squadron must have caught a big fish, otherwise there would not be such a dense firefight on the battlefield, so hurry up and speed up the march.
It turned out to be a step too late.
When they arrived at the foot of the mountain, they found not a single Eighth Route Army soldier except for more than a hundred Kwantung Army corpses that were almost frozen solid in the snow. There were no footprints on the ground.
Only messy footprints were seen extending northeastward along the foot of the mountain.
The two squadron captains were stunned for a while before they realized what they were doing. They didn't expect that the comrades who were chatting and laughing a few hours ago would turn into cold corpses in the blink of an eye.
Confused, the two squadron leaders quickly made the decision to continue the pursuit.
Judging from the footprints, the Eighth Route Army that had just ambushed the forward squadron numbered only over 300 people.
Their two infantry squadrons totaled nearly 400 people, and they were reinforced with two mortar squads and two heavy machine gun squads.
Both firepower and military strength are far superior to those of the opponent.
It would be too cowardly not to pursue him.
Moreover, even if a single Eighth Route Army soldier was not wiped out and they retreated with more than a hundred soldier corpses, the captain would not let them go easily.
After a little analysis in their minds, they made the decision to continue to hunt down the Eighth Route Army and eliminate them. Otherwise, they would definitely fall into the trap of the brigade leader when they returned to their base.
