The joy lasted only ten seconds, when the scream of artillery shells streaking across the sky suddenly sounded above the squadron leader's head. When he raised his head, he heard several explosions ringing behind him.
The dazzling flames produced by the explosion were particularly dazzling, and one could tell at a glance that they were caused by mountain cannon shells.
"Captain, the mortar position has been targeted by the Eighth Route Army's mountain artillery unit. Our range is limited and we cannot counterattack, so we can only passively move."
The squadron leader was not a vegetarian, and immediately ordered: "Contact the group leader quickly and request artillery support."
"He has two infantry artillery pieces and a mountain artillery squadron. He will definitely be able to reach the Eighth Route Army's mountain artillery positions."
At this moment, the remaining thunder artillery groups of the attacking force had reached a position two hundred meters in front of the formation.
The gunner lay on the ground, wielded the engineering shovel, and soon dug a hole about the same size as the gun barrel.
Put the gasoline barrel in, fill the gap with soil, and then start stuffing propellant, baffles, and explosive packets the size of millstones into the barrel.
"Boom boom boom..."
A dull explosion soon sounded in front of the Japanese position, and orange-red flames and white smoke were sprayed out by gasoline barrels. From a distance, they looked like giant fireworks.
The explosive package the size of a millstone was pulled out of the gun barrel at the same time, rolling and flying towards the blocking position.
The Japanese squadron leader happened to see this scene, and his face turned pale. At the same time, he hugged his head and threw himself in the trench, praying that the explosives in the sky would not fall around him.
"Rumble..."
A thunderous explosion soon rang in his ears, and the powerful shock wave made his ears buzz. He almost vomited out the dry food he had just eaten, which was very uncomfortable.
A second later, although my body felt very uncomfortable, it was not blown to the point of losing consciousness.
The squadron leader's pale face finally had a trace of blood, and he was secretly glad in his heart. He quickly got up from the ground and observed the situation of the position.
The nearest explosive package fell more than thirty meters away, directly blasting a huge crater three meters deep and with a radius of more than five meters on the ground.
The trench next to the bomb crater was directly blown down, and the soldiers inside were either killed or injured, but there was no movement anyway.
A quick glance at the position showed that there were a total of three huge craters along the trenches, indicating that the Eighth Route Army still had three mine cannons available in front of the position, and a second round of explosives could be fired at them at any time.
"Da da da... boom boom boom..."
The sound of machine gun fire and explosions sounded again, bringing the squadron leader who was lost in thought back to reality.
At the same time, the subordinates exclaimed: "Sir, the Eighth Route Army has begun to attack..."
"There is at least one battalion, equipped with a large number of mortars and heavy machine guns..."
"The firepower was too strong and the troops were all suppressed in the trenches. We couldn't raise our heads to fight back."
The squadron leader subconsciously wants to show up to observe the battle situation in order to determine the opponent's strength and know himself and the enemy.
As a result, as soon as he exposed his eyes to the edge of the trench, a stream of heavy machine gun bullets swept towards him.
If he hadn't retracted his head in time and immediately retracted his head, the bullet would have blown his head off on the spot instead of sticking to his scalp and burrowing into the dirt behind it.
Although I didn't see it very clearly, I just swept through it, but the opponent's battalion must only have a lot more troops.
Take another look at your side...
There are less than twenty subordinates within sight who can still move, and the number of soldiers who can't be seen but can still fight should only be forty or fifty, and the total strength is less than half of that before the war.
Half an infantry squadron faced a reinforced battalion of the Eighth Route Army, and the squadron leader had no chance of winning.
But they received a death order. Unless the division commander, Lieutenant General Sakuragi, told them to retreat, they would die here.
He could only draw out his command sword and bite the bullet and order: "Fight to the death..."
"Those who can use machine guns use machine guns to block, those who can use rifles use rifles, and those who don't have rifles use grenades, and hold the position at all costs."
…………
In front of the enemy headquarters of the Eighth Route Army in Yizhong, Huang Yu looked at the battlefield full of firefights in front of him with a very serious expression, fearing that there would be a mistake somewhere that would cause the army's attack to be frustrated.
"Xiao Huang, the Shunping Defense Regiment just sent a good news..."
"They used thunder cannons to successfully break through the Japanese outer defense line."
"Two battalions have already entered the Japanese position and are launching attacks on both flanks of the Japanese defense lines to expand the breakthrough."
"The attack speed is too fast."
"It has only been ten minutes since the attack began. The first line of defense that the Japanese had finally repaired was broken through by us. It seems that God is on our side tonight."
"Report to the deputy chief of staff..." The operator rushed to Huang Yu with a smile on his face.
The 26th Regiment, which is next to the Junping Garrison Regiment, has also broken through the Japanese first line of defense.
"They want to continue to advance forward, pursue the victory, and take down the second line of defense that the Kwantung Army is repairing."
Huang Yu thought about it and replied: "A group is too dangerous."
"There are at least five thousand little Japs in the encirclement. If we rush deep into their position, we will easily be surrounded by the Japs. They will pull out their teeth and start a battle of annihilation against us."
"Send a telegram to the 26th Regiment and Junpei Garrison Regiment."
"Let them attack the Japanese second line of defense together."
"The two regiments marched together and attacked together."
"In case of an accident, there is always a way to take care of each other."
After saying that, he once again turned his attention to the battlefield filled with artillery fire. A minute later he suddenly asked: "It seems that the Kwantung Army's field artillery battalion and heavy artillery battalion have never taken action."
"We have broken through the defense line and are still hiding in position and acting like a coward. There must be something wrong here."
Chief of Staff Liu Sen immediately thought of a possibility: "Is the Japanese artillery waiting for our artillery to take action first?"
"They struck early and annihilated all our artillery units in one fell swoop."
"It's probably like this..." Huang Yu immediately showed a relieved expression, and then stared at Liu Sen to order.
"Since the Japanese want to see our artillery take action so much, then let them do what they want."
"Contact the artillery and immediately deploy four mountain artillery batteries to cover the Junping Defense Regiment and the 26th Regiment in their assault on the Japanese second line of defense."
"Each cannon fires three shells, and then moves after firing."
"Remember, move the gunner first, and then come back and move the artillery when the artillery position is safe."
"The Japanese army assembled more than 30 heavy artillery and field artillery to deal with us. Only by throwing out bait to force them out can we retaliate and eliminate them and completely knock out this tiger tooth."
…………
At the Japanese Army Command Headquarters, Lieutenant General Sakuragi's face looked even uglier than before.
It was thought that the first line of defense could withstand the Eighth Route Army's two-hour attack. However, within ten minutes of the battle, two lines of defense were breached. Other areas were also in danger and could be captured by the Eighth Route Army at any time.
Faced with these bad news, Lieutenant General Sakuragi's first reaction was to send troops to reinforce the battlefield and block the breach.
As soon as the words came to his lips, he swallowed back the order.
Now that troops are sent to reinforce the gap, an uncontrolled encounter is definitely inevitable.
The reinforcements are still on the offensive side, and even if they successfully recapture the gap, they will have to pay a huge price.
What the Sakuragi Division lacks the most right now is soldiers. It is better not to fight such a thankless battle, otherwise it will be too much of a loss.
