Chapter 156 Chief of Staff: They have no chance to shoot
Major General Miyazawa has already been defeated once and must not fail again.
If he wants to continue to stay in the Fourth Mixed Brigade, he must either make amends for his past mistakes and make meritorious service, or he must make no mistakes in his subsequent tenure. If he denies any failure, he may be sent to a military court.
Now that he ordered the troops to retreat, he could still put the responsibility for the failure of the operation on Kazuki Yamamoto.
If you insist on continuing to attack, if an accident occurs along the way, you will have no one to blame even if you want to shirk the responsibility.
For the sake of his own future, Major General Miyazawa had no choice but to listen to the opinion of the Chief of Staff. He patted the table again and ordered: "I will do as you say and immediately send a telegram to the three-pronged offensive force. The attack plan is cancelled. Return to Yangquan immediately. The speed is getting faster."
The sooner the better, but we must be more vigilant to prevent our troops from being ambushed by the Eighth Route Army!"
"Hayi..."
Lieutenant Colonel Harada didn't dare to waste a second, turned around and ran to the telecommunications room.
Major General Miyazawa's nerves, which had been tense for most of the night, were relieved at the same time. He felt that the operation was over here, and began to think about how to report this matter to the military headquarters.
Half an hour later, a telegram that he had carefully considered appeared on the table.
As long as this telegram is sent to the military headquarters, he can continue to serve as the brigade commander.
"General...we can't contact Major Jiamu..." the chief of staff ran over with a panicked look on his face.
"Nani..."
Major General Miyazawa happened to be standing next to the table. He almost fell to the ground when he heard the bad news. He asked with a look of disbelief: "What did you just say? Say it again?"
"We can't contact Major Jiamu... The operator has been calling continuously for half an hour and has not received any response. I am worried that something happened to them!"
"Have you contacted the other two brigades?" Major General Miyazawa continued to ask.
"Contacted! They have begun to retreat!" Lieutenant Colonel Harada replied.
"That's good..." Major General Miyazawa continued to order: "Let the operator continue to contact Major Jiamu..."
"Immediately send out scouts and cavalry to search for the Jiamu Brigade. If you want to see people alive and dead, you must find them!"
"Send another telegram to the two brigades that have been contacted... We must be more vigilant on the way to retreat..."
"If something happens to the Jiamu Brigade, they may also be targeted by the Eighth Route Army!"
"In case of an accident, report it to the brigade headquarters immediately, and I will contact the aviation force to provide them with air support!"
After Lieutenant Colonel Harada left, Major General Miyazawa silently put away the telegram that had been written on the table, tore him into pieces with a sullen face, and sat back on the chair to consider the contents of the telegram...
At the Zhouzhuang position, the guard battalion that first arrived here is establishing a blocking position based on the village...
The road that the Japanese army used to retreat to Yangquan happened to pass by the village. If the Japanese wanted to successfully retreat to Yangquan, they had to capture the village first. Otherwise, all the Japanese and puppet troops would be exposed to the firepower of the independent regiment and would not be able to cross Zhouzhuang alive.
The earthen wall surrounding the village is one meter thick and two to three meters high. It was used to defend against bandits in the past and is extremely strong. The blocking position of the independent regiment was built based on this earthen wall.
When Kong Jie arrived here, Li Wensheng was organizing troops to dig shooting holes in the earth wall...
"Captain, I dug thirty-six shooting holes in the earthen wall, and put them into use one after another. They will definitely kill the Japanese attacking troops..." Li Wensheng pointed to the shooting holes in the earthen wall and introduced.
Before Kong Jie could say anything, Chu Yunfei on the side couldn't help but remind him: "Chief of Staff Li..."
"I took a look at this earth wall. It is indeed very strong and can easily block all the bullets fired by the Japanese..."
"But the Japanese are equipped with a large number of artillery, as well as several mountain artillery and infantry artillery that can destroy bunkers..."
"If you put the machine gun behind the firing hole and shoot, aren't you serving as a living target for the Japanese artillery?"
Li Wensheng's command experience was no less than that of Kong Jie, and his personality was very calm. Since he dared to use shooting holes to attack the Japanese, he must have already thought of a way to deal with it.
Looking at Chu Yunfei, he answered confidently: "Captain Chu, don't worry..."
"Although the Japanese are equipped with a large number of artillery, our independent regiment is not a vegetarian..."
"I guarantee that from the beginning to the end of the battle, the little devil won't even have a chance to fire."
After saying that, he looked at Kong Jie and continued to introduce: "Our attacking troops are ambushing in the woods three kilometers away..."
"As soon as the blocking battle started, the Japanese army began to be surrounded!"
"March quickly to reach the battlefield in twenty-five minutes..."
"The blocking troops we deployed in the village are 100% sure to stop the Japanese and destroy their artillery units, creating opportunities for other troops to encircle the Japanese and puppet troops..."
Kong Jie immediately ordered: "Since the chief of staff is so confident, you will be the one to command this battle. Commander Chu and I will be the audience..."
Major General Miyazawa was very cautious. In order to wipe out the Independent Regiment in one battle, he specially sent several subordinates who had fought against the Independent Regiment.
Major Jiamu had been killed by Kong Jie, and another battalion captain, Major Yamada, happened to be the Japanese commander who attacked the second battalion.
He had suffered defeat at the hands of the Independent Group and knew how powerful the Independent Group was.
After receiving the order to retreat, the troops from the front were moved to the rear, and the rear to the front. They marched forward in a hurry without wanting to stay for a minute longer.
But the Eighth Route Army reacted faster. No matter how fast they ran, the Eighth Route Army was always active around the team, and the cold-blooded attacks never stopped, even more densely than during the attack.
Major Yamada really wanted to stop and fight back. Even if he couldn't kill the Eighth Route Army around him, it would be good to defeat them and take revenge.
But his reason told him not to stop.
The Independent Regiment had a precedent of wiping out an entire infantry brigade in one battle. If they stayed here for too long and were blocked by the Independent Regiment at their base, they would have no chance to withdraw.
If he had known that the Jiamu Brigade had been completely wiped out by the Independent Regiment, he would have run faster and would not have even thought of stopping to fight back...
"Captain, there is a situation in Zhouzhuang ahead..." The forward team leader suddenly ran to Major Yamada to report.
"What's going on?" Major Yamada had a bad premonition in his mind and asked anxiously.
"I think Zhouzhuang is too quiet, so I specially arranged an infantry squad to go into the village to investigate... but they disappeared after entering the village, did not come out, and did not fire a warning shot!" asked the leader of the forward team.
"Take the people to see it yourself, and be quick..." Yamada ordered with a frown.
"If there are not many enemies in the village, just kill them..."
"If there are many enemies, retreat immediately!"
"Mortar squadron, heavy machine gun squadron, infantry first squadron, be ready to respond immediately!"
After giving the order, Major Yamada climbed up to a small mound next to him, raised his telescope and looked towards Zhouzhuang.
Zhouzhuang was completely shrouded in night, everything was so dark that you couldn't see your fingers and couldn't see anything.
Five minutes later, six tongues of flame suddenly appeared in the field of vision, and a flare was fired into the sky by the artillery squadron at the same time. Lieutenant Colonel Yamada also saw the whole picture of Zhouzhuang clearly at this moment.
Six tongues of flames all appeared behind the earthen wall at the entrance of the village. The vanguard team was only fifty or sixty meters away from them. They were suddenly attacked. Many soldiers didn't even have a chance to react, and more than a dozen of them were knocked down in an instant.
The remaining soldiers hurriedly retreated, but the entrance to the village was empty and there were no bunkers.
Facing the hail of bullets fired from close range by the Eighth Route Army, they fell seven or eight more people on the way back!
The forward force had a full infantry squad, but half of it was lost without even seeing the opponent's shadow. Major Yamada was so angry that he almost dropped his telescope.
He ordered with a calm face: "The artillery squadron detached a mortar and continued to fire illumination bombs...Other mortars immediately fired at the fire point just now, the heavy machine gun squadron provided cover, and the first infantry squadron prepared to attack Zhouzhuang..."
"Rumble..."
Eight shells in one round quickly hit the earthen wall at the entrance of the village.
The splashing firelight and flares illuminated the place brightly, and Major Yamada clearly saw that the earthen wall where the Eighth Route Army was hiding was destroyed in the explosion...
My mood suddenly improved a lot, and a long-lost smile appeared on my serious face...
After three rounds of artillery shells, the earthen wall was filled with smoke and there were gaps everywhere.
Major Yamada became more and more satisfied as he watched, and planned to let the artillery squadron fight for two or three more rounds before the infantry came in.
The Eighth Route Army was good at guerrilla warfare and mobile warfare, and rarely engaged in positional warfare.
The Independent Regiment gave up guerrilla warfare and relied on the village to attack the Yamada Battalion head-on. This abnormal move made Major Yamada very uneasy. He always felt that the Yamada Battalion was being targeted by the Independent Regiment.
If his judgment was correct, the longer the Yamada brigade stayed here, the more dangerous it would be, and it must leave as soon as possible, so he hurriedly let the infantry attack and open the retreat channel.
But at this moment, a series of "rumbling..." explosions suddenly sounded in the artillery position. In the countless fires, many gunners were blown over, and two mortars were blown into parts in the explosion...
This unexpected incident instantly confused Major Yamada, but his reaction was not slow at all. He immediately ordered the artillery squadron to move their positions. The mountain artillery squadron and mortar squadron counterattacked on the spot to kill the newly exposed mortar unit of the Eighth Route Army...
…
"Boom, boom..." The second round of artillery shells quickly hit the artillery position, setting off a sea of fire again.
Major Yamada's transfer order has not yet reached here, but the artillery squadron leader has issued a retreat order in advance, but the gunner's reaction speed cannot match the flight speed of the artillery shells.
The nine artillery shells that fell from the sky seemed to have eyes, and once again hit the gunners who had not yet evacuated...
By the time the mortar squadron completed its transfer, the original artillery position had been filled with smoke. There were charred craters, scattered mortar parts, overturned gunner corpses, broken limbs, broken arms and organs everywhere.
…
On the Chinese battlefield, the Japanese artillery had an absolute advantage in artillery fire. They basically suppressed the Chinese artillery and beat the Chinese artillery to pieces. It was rare that their own artillery was suppressed and hit by the Chinese artillery.
The artillery squadron of Yamada Battalion is no exception.
Even if he is attacked, he can quickly fight back. He has never been blown up into a rout...
Looking at the bloody artillery position in front of them, the artillerymen who were lucky enough to survive were all frightened, and at least it was impossible to form combat effectiveness in a short period of time.
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－
The second update is delivered today! Please collect it! Please vote for me monthly! Please vote for recommendation! Please subscribe!
