Chapter 311 Kong Jie: Shoot all the shells out for Lao Tzu
"Where are the artillery? Didn't I send the entire artillery battery to the forefront of the battlefield? Why didn't Yang Wanhe ask Chen Daliang for artillery support..." Kong Jie was not satisfied with the chief of staff's explanation and continued to ask with a frown.
"There are not many shells left in the artillery battery!" Li Wensheng asked the most critical question.
"It's not much, and it's not like they've all been polished off... Is it because Chen Daliang is reluctant to part with it..." After hearing this, Kong Jie knew that Chen Daliang's old habit of being stingy had happened again.
This is not to blame him. Except for the attack on Laiyuan and Taiyuan, the Independent Regiment had enough artillery shells and could produce them effectively on the battlefield. At other times, the Independent Regiment's artillery reserve has been very limited, and it was saved whenever possible during the war.
When the shells were about to run out, unless it was a critical moment of life and death, Chen Daliang would not be willing to fire a single shell.
In his words, the artillery equipped by the artillery company cannot be used as decoration, and some must be kept for emergencies. If an accident occurs in the future and the troops need to attack fortresses, and the artillery company has no artillery shells to use, it will be in trouble.
Li Wensheng smiled bitterly and replied: "There is nothing we can do about it..."
"You can't shoot out all the artillery shells at once, otherwise the artillery in the artillery battery will be really mute. What will you do if you encounter little devils in the future!"
"I can't bear to leave the child alone!" Kong Jie said with a serious face.
"Notify Chen Daliang immediately. Good steel is used on the blade. Let me shoot out all the remaining shells of the artillery battery. Cooperate with the main force of the regiment to end the battle quickly and continue to besiege the Japanese and puppet troops in the middle!"
"One more thing to tell Chen Daliang: The Japanese we are besieging are equipped with infantry artillery and mortars, and they must have brought a lot of artillery shells!"
"The sooner we end the battle, the fewer artillery shells the enemy will consume in the battle, and the more artillery shells we can capture!"
"Rumble..."
In less than ten minutes, there was a burst of artillery fire from the forward position, and five or six fireballs immediately rose among the four battalions of besieging Japanese soldiers...
Two minutes later, the fourth battalion launched an attack...
The Japanese position that had been difficult to capture for a long time was captured with just one assault.
"Commander, the Fourth Battalion has captured the Japs on Highland No. 2..." The correspondent rushed to the front enemy command post and reported excitedly.
"Annihilated more than 180 Japanese... There was also a Japanese Lieutenant Colonel among them. Two mortars, two heavy machine guns, and more than 300 rounds of artillery shells were captured..."
"Look, didn't the little devil bring the shells just now?" Kong Jie said with a smile on his face.
"If the artillery company did not join the battle in time and the fourth battalion continued to rely on infantry to besiege, the more than 300 artillery shells captured would have been completely shot by the Japs. Even if the fourth battalion finally killed the little Japs, nothing would be gained."
"Order to replenish the artillery company with all captured mortars and artillery shells, and replenish the four battalions with light and heavy machine guns on the spot..."
"The fourth battalion and the artillery company will immediately go to reinforce the sixth battalion. The sixth battalion is surrounded by the largest number of Japanese and puppet troops. The infantry artillery equipped by the Japanese is also there, as well as a lot of baggage mules and horses!"
"Kill the Japanese and puppet troops there as soon as possible, and the harvest will not be much smaller!"
"Remind Chen Daliang that if you don't want to let go of your children, you can't trap the wolf. You can't do this stingy thing again. You must provide artillery support to the infantry unconditionally and end the battle as quickly as possible!"
At one o'clock in the morning, the gunfire that had been going off for half the night finally stopped.
When Li Wensheng came back from the battlefield, he was overjoyed and reported: "Captain, we won..."
"There were more than 1,500 Japanese and puppet troops, but less than a small group of Japs took advantage of the chaos to escape. The rest were all wiped out by us, and 246 Japanese Japs were captured... a great victory..."
"The artillery company harvested an infantry gun, four mortars, and more than 600 rounds of various artillery shells..."
"The other artillery pieces were destroyed by the little Japs before they died and could only be sent to the arsenal to be used as raw materials!"
Kong Jie punched the ammunition box to vent his inner excitement.
Then the serious expression on his face returned to the battle, and he stared at Li Wensheng and asked: "How many people are left in the four main battalions to continue fighting!"
"Including the lightly wounded, there should be more than 1,800 people?" Li Wensheng thought about his answer.
"What about reducing the lightly wounded?" Kong Jie continued to ask.
"Fifteen hundred people are definitely indispensable!" Li Wensheng said.
"That's enough!" Kong Jie patted the ammunition box.
"All the lightly and seriously injured people will stay here to clean the battlefield...and then contact the nearby guerrillas and ask them to come and cooperate in cleaning the battlefield!"
"The uninjured soldiers must assemble immediately, bringing only weapons and ammunition, and follow me to reinforce the Second Battalion!"
"I have asked the local troops to prepare hot meals and dishes for everyone on the road, and also made pork stewed vermicelli. We ate on the roadside while rushing to the second battalion as quickly as possible, and tried to keep the Japanese and puppet troops in the middle with us.
Base area!”
At the Japanese garrison headquarters in Ping'an County, Colonel Yamamoto, who had been sitting firmly at Diaoyutai, began to panic.
Ever since the New Second Regiment dispatched the flying thunder cannons, the rate of losses of the city defense garrison has begun to rise sharply.
In the past three hours, the New Second Regiment dispatched twenty-four thunder cannons and launched a total of twenty rounds of explosives. Even if only 20% of the explosives hit the city, there were still eighty or ninety explosives.
On average, one explosive pack kills ten soldiers, which means eight to nine hundred people were killed in total.
The total number of troops stationed in Ping'an County was just over 2,000. Eighty or nine hundred of them were killed by thunder cannons. After deducting the reserves, there were at most 300 left on each wall.
The thunder cannons of the New Second Regiment continued to throw explosive packets towards the city, showing no intention of stopping.
If the bombing continues like this, in two hours, the city defense troops in each direction of Ping'an County will be reduced to a hundred people.
When the time comes, the New Second Regiment will be able to enter the county town with just one surprise attack.
The defensive pressure on Ping An City is increasing, and it may be breached by the New Second Regiment at any time! But as long as the reinforcements arrive outside the city on time, Colonel Yamamoto is still 100% sure to eliminate the opponent.
The problem now is that the reinforcements cannot arrive on time.
It is very possible that Ping'an County was captured and they could not kill anyone outside the city.
This means that Colonel Yamamoto must defend for a longer period of time with limited troops.
The longer he persists in Ping'an County, the better chance he has of waiting for reinforcements and attacking from both inside and outside to completely annihilate the New Second Regiment.
"Sir, we have lost contact with the Miyamoto Regiment..." The operator rushed to Yamamoto and reported with a serious look on his face.
"When contacted half an hour ago, they were still attacking the third blocking position of the Eighth Route Army, which was also the last line of defense built by the Eighth Route Army in Tutu Temple!"
"After conquering the third line of defense, the Miyamoto unit will be able to march with overwhelming force all the way to the outside of Ping An City!"
Colonel Yamamoto never thought that something would happen to the reinforcements, so he blurted out: "They must have broken through the Tushita Temple blocking position and are marching to Ping'an County. The radio cannot be turned on on the way!"
“Contact them again in half an hour!”
"Sir, we lost contact with a reinforcement force passing through the independent regiment's defense area... The last time we contacted them, they were attacked by the main force of the independent regiment. They are trying to find a way to break through the encirclement and continue to reinforce Ping'an County!"
Colonel Yamamoto knew this unit.
Since they entered the independent regiment's defense area, they have been attacked twice in a row, losing nearly a thousand troops...
These encounters showed that the independent regiment did not have the strength to eat up the reinforcements in one go, and could only slowly consume their strength like cutting flesh.
Colonel Yamamoto's advice to them was to speed up the march and pass through the independent regiment's defense area in the shortest possible time, without giving the independent regiment a chance to attack again.
In Yamamoto's eyes, whether it is an encounter or a surprise attack, the independent regiment needs time to arrange the battlefield.
As long as the reinforcements march fast enough, the independent regiment will have no time to arrange the battlefield, and there will be no conditions to attack the reinforcements...
If they accepted their proposal and marched through the independent regiment's defense area, the radio station would also be unable to turn on, and it would be normal for them to temporarily disconnect from each other.
Immediately responded: "They are also marching in a hurry... I will contact them in half an hour..."
After sending away the two telegraph operators, Yamamoto was just about to breathe a sigh of relief when an explosion louder than a dynamite pack came from the east of the city. The ground beneath his feet trembled twice in the explosion... Yamamoto stepped out of his chair.
He stood up, rushed out of the war room, climbed to the roof, raised his binoculars and looked toward the east of the city...
A cloud of thick black smoke billowed from the east gate...
Colonel Yamamoto was a battlefield veteran, and he realized at a glance that the explosion just now was caused by blasting.
He turned around and cursed at his subordinates: "Something happened in the east of the city!"
"Check it out immediately...and then dispatch a reinforcement team from the reserve team to march quickly to reinforce the east of the city. The speed must be fast!"
"If the Eighth Route Army invades Ping'an County, the reinforcements must drive them out!"
"If there are many Eighth Route Army troops entering the city, immediately rely on the fortifications in the city to fight with them in the streets and drag them near the east gate. They must not be allowed to kill into the inner city and raid other city gates..."
When the New Second Regiment attacked the position outside the east gate, Li Yunlong did not let the six flying thunder cannons just throw explosive packets.
Let the troops attack the city wall every three or four rounds of projectiles.
It's best if you can rush into the city gate. If you can't, retreat quickly and push the Japanese hiding inside the city to the top of the city, so that the flying thunder cannons can continue to kill them and weaken their strength.
Faced with the Eighth Route Army's false and false attacks, real and fake attacks, the squadron leader of the garrison in the east of Guizi City could not tell the difference, and could not find a way to break the situation. He could only increase the number of troops remaining at the top of the city from 100 to 200, without giving any instructions.
The Eighth Route Army had a chance to get close to the city wall.
The goal of the Japanese squadron leader was indeed achieved, but because there were too many troops on top of the city and the density of soldiers was too high, the torpedo cannons caused more damage to them than in other places.
As a result, while the other city defense troops still have 300 people, the city defense troops in the east of the city have been sharply reduced to less than 200 people...
Li Yunlong keenly seized the fighter opportunity and ordered thunder cannons, mortars, and grenade launchers to launch a sudden fire attack on the city head for one minute.
The sudden artillery fire killed dozens more Japanese and puppet troops, causing the garrison in the east of the city to drop sharply again to 120 or 30 people.
The attacking troops took the opportunity to launch a general attack and successfully delivered the explosive package into the city gate at the cost of more than 100 casualties...
The city wall of Ping'an County was not too high. Three hundred kilograms of explosives exploded at the same time, creating a huge gap more than ten meters wide in an instant. More than a dozen Japanese and puppet troops who were hiding just above the city gate were blown away and disappeared.
