The sound of heavy machine gun fire, which the Japanese least expected to hear, suddenly rang out in the forest directly in front of them. Judging from the sound, the distance between the two sides was not even fifty meters.
Although many heavy machine gun bullets were blocked by trees and bushes between the enemy and our armies, more than half of the bullets still hit the Kwantung Army's outflanking troops and penetrated their bodies.
The power of heavy machine gun bullets is already amazing. When fired at close range, the penetrating ability of the bullets is even more powerful.
Several bullets penetrated the bodies of two little devils without stopping, and did not lose their power until they penetrated the body of the third little devil.
Heavy machine guns are relatively bulky and require several people to work together to move quickly. It is even more inconvenient to move in the woods. Duan Peng directly regards them as fixed firepower points. The Kwantung Army cannot use grenades at close range in the woods.
Shoot all the little devils who hit the muzzle of your gun from a distance.
Relatively speaking, light machine guns and rifles are more convenient for troops to fight guerrillas in dense forests.
The machine gunner holds the light machine gun in his arms and uses it as a submachine gun. The Type 96 light machine gun's magazine of up to thirty rounds provides the machine gunner with sufficient protection.
They jumped out from their hiding spots, aimed at areas with a large number of Japs, pulled the triggers, and hid behind trees after the attack.
The Kwantung Army, which was lucky enough to escape the first round of fire attack, immediately fired back with their guns, but the bullets they fired basically hit the tree trunks where the Eighth Route Army was hiding.
But there were so many Eighth Route Army troops hiding around them that they were hard to guard against.
When all the attention was focused on the Eighth Route Army directly in front, more than a dozen Eighth Route Army troops appeared beside them. They were all equipped with two Type 96 light machine guns. They aimed at the Kwantung Army who were firing back and pulled the trigger.
As a result, the Kwantung Army squatting on the ground was swept down by flanking fire.
When the surviving little Japanese quickly adjusted their guns and tried to rob the Eighth Route Army that was attacking them on the flanks, the Eighth Route Army hiding in front of them came out and fired at them again with their light machine guns that had been replaced with new magazines.
Captain Haruta, who was hit directly, couldn't tell the difference between east, west and north.
It felt like the Eighth Route Army was everywhere around me, and I didn't even have a clue. The Kwantung Army, which had 1,780 people under its command, had already suffered casualties of more than half.
The remaining half of the soldiers were also killed, causing panic and low morale.
At this time, Captain Springfield had to face a difficult and painful choice.
Should he continue to carry out the outflanking mission with the remaining soldiers under his command, or should he withdraw from the battlefield and join the main force?
He was attacked by the Eighth Route Army's firepower here, and suffered more than half of his casualties. It was obviously a well-prepared ambush, which meant that the Eighth Route Army was well prepared for its counterattack.
If you continue to carry out the outflanking mission, you may run into the guns of the Eighth Route Army, and in the end you may not even be able to save your own life.
Although retreating can save one's life, the outflanking mission assigned to him by the commander of the company cannot be completed.
"Da da da……"
Captain Haruta was struggling in pain and couldn't make a decision for a long time, but the gunshots around him didn't stop.
Although his subordinates kept firing back, the Eighth Route Army surrounding them was too cunning to attack them.
As soon as the sudden fire attack from the east ended, the sudden fire attack from the north immediately started, and then the sudden fire attack from the south... They were overwhelmed. They wanted to fight back, but they couldn't find the target to shoot at.
In the blink of an eye, more than a dozen of the few soldiers around him were killed.
Under the threat of death at close range, Captain Springfield finally defeated his impulse with reason and reluctantly ordered: "Retreat..."
"There is an ambush in the Eighth Route Army. The outflank mission is cancelled. We will retreat immediately towards the main force..."
This is the forest where the Eighth Route Army is best at fighting guerrilla warfare and mobile warfare. It is equivalent to the Eighth Route Army's home base. How could the little devils come in and leave whenever they want?
"Boom boom boom..."
Several grenades flying from nowhere suddenly landed among the Japs. Countless soil and leaves were blown away in the explosion, and a dozen little Japs moving around were blown up at the same time...
Seeing this scene, Captain Springfield became even more anxious. While running for his life, he shouted: "Retreat quickly, leave this forest immediately, don't fight with the Eighth Route Army..."
Captain Haruta was lucky enough to evacuate the battlefield, but the more than 100 soldiers under him were not so lucky.
Of the one hundred and eighty-strong counterattack force, less than fifty people successfully evacuated the battlefield with him.
Not only did they leave the bodies of the dead soldiers in the woods, but they also didn't bring back the dozen or so wounded who could still be saved.
Seeing the outflanking troops retreating from the forest in embarrassment, the Kwantung Army captain immediately widened his eyes and showed a shocked expression of disbelief.
After the troops launched a counterattack, because the counterattack was very fast, he was already mentally prepared for the troops to win the battle...
As a result, not only did the troops fail to win the battle, but they were defeated...
The chief of staff's reaction was even more exaggerated.
He grabbed Captain Springfield by the collar, like a roaring lion, and asked loudly: "What's going on..."
"How could you lose the battle in the woods..."
"Of the fully-equipped infantry squadron of more than a hundred people, there is less than one squad left..."
"How did this happen..."
"You must give me and the captain an explanation..."
Captain Springfield's face turned red. He hesitated for several seconds before speaking: "Report to the commander..."
"The Eighth Route Army has been prepared in the woods..."
"When we were about to outflank their sneak attack troops, the Eighth Route Army ambush hidden in the woods suddenly launched an attack. They were equipped with a large number of light and heavy machine guns, and hid in the dark. They suddenly launched an attack, and the firepower was so fierce that we were unable to guard against it..."
"As soon as the two sides fought, the infantry squadron under humble command had already suffered more than half of its casualties."
"In order to prevent the troops from being wiped out by the Eighth Route Army in the woods, I had no choice but to retreat..."
The chief of staff was about to go crazy and wanted to curse a few more times when a report from his subordinates suddenly reached his ears.
"Sir, the outflanking troops on the right wing of the battlefield have withdrawn..."
The chief of staff quickly looked in the direction of the outflanking troops.
The already gloomy face suddenly became even gloomier.
Compared with the Springfield Squadron, this squadron suffered greater casualties.
Out of an infantry squadron of more than a hundred people, only less than thirty people escaped, and many of them even lost their guns and rushed out of the woods like bereaved dogs.
For a moment, the chief of staff was a little doubtful. Is this the elite of the Kwantung Army trained by himself? How come he is not as good as a bandit?
But the fact is that it is not up to him to quibble.
The commander's face was even uglier than that of the chief of staff. He clenched his hands into fists with a desperate expression on his face, and ordered with the last glimmer of hope: "Send a retreat signal immediately and ask the other two squadrons that launched the counterattack to retreat immediately..."
"Since the Eighth Route Army has an ambush in the woods, they may be surrounded by the Eighth Route Army in the woods at any time."
"We have no troops left, and we must not lose two more squadrons."
