Chapter 831 Let’s see if Okamura Neji is good enough
The gunfire continued, and more and more soldiers lying on the ground were hit by bullets and died. When the Japanese chief of staff racked his brains to think of ways to break the situation, a loud charge horn suddenly sounded at the division headquarters.
Dozens of machine gun fire points started to move instantly. The machine gunner jumped up from the bunker holding a crooked handle, howling and launching a counterattack towards the attacking troops.
The chief of staff's eyes lit up, and he immediately thought of a way to turn defeat into victory. He turned around and ordered towards the artillery position not far away: "Open the artillery quickly..."
"Concentrate all artillery fire on the Eighth Route Army's counterattack forces."
"If they hide inside the position, the mortars can't do anything to them."
"To leave the position and launch a counterattack against us now is simply to kill the mortar squadron."
"This opportunity must not be missed. The mortar squadron must take the opportunity to severely inflict heavy damage on the counterattack force of the Eighth Route Army."
"The offensive troops and the detour troops continued to charge forward, strangled the remnants of the Eighth Route Army, and ended the battle with bayonets."
"Boom, boom, boom..." The explosion of mortar shells quickly reached the ears of the chief of staff, but there was no fire in the middle of the Eighth Route Army's counterattack troops, and the explosion came from behind instead.
He was so frightened that he quickly turned to look at the mortar position. There were splashes of fire everywhere, several mortars were overturned in the explosion, and the gunners were blown away.
More gunners were running around amid the artillery fire, trying to avoid the shelling.
"Boom, boom, boom..." Mortars are famous for their fast rate of fire. Before the chief of staff could react to the sudden surprise, the second round of shells had already followed.
More and more artillery pieces and gunners were knocked over.
"Report to the chief of staff, it is the mortars equipped by the Eighth Route Army that are launching a counterattack against us..." The artillery staff member was anxious to express his judgment.
"They equipped themselves with many mortars, and several of our mortars were captured on the battlefield. A total of fourteen mortars launched attacks on our artillery positions."
"It's over..." The chief of staff's face turned pale and he shouted with despair.
"Chief of Staff, the Eighth Route Army is coming towards us..." a lieutenant suddenly shouted. Two more squadrons of nearly 400 people in the frontal attack force were killed by mountain artillery. More than 100 people were killed by six heavy machine guns.
He killed more than half of the team, and then was killed by forty or fifty light machine guns, killing more than a hundred people.
When the Eighth Route Army launched a counterattack, the total number of frontal offensive troops was only a hundred or so. Facing the offensive firepower of forty or fifty light machine guns, they were powerless to fight back.
Either he was beaten into a sieve, or he lay on the ground and pretended to be dead, planning to wait for the Eighth Route Army to approach and then attack with grenades, killing both sides.
But this loss obviously did not affect the Eighth Route Army's offensive. Several hundred soldiers were so powerful that they killed more than a hundred Japanese soldiers in just one attack, and the counterattack force was divided into three.
Some troops followed the Japanese troops in pursuit, some troops rushed towards the Japanese artillery positions, and about two platoons of troops rushed towards the position of the chief of staff.
Seeing that the chief of staff still had a desperate look on his face and showed no reaction, the captain of the guard squad ignored the situation and ordered two soldiers to hold him and move to the back.
"Protecting the transfer of the Chief of Staff..."
"Go directly to the division commander. The main force of the mopping up troops is there. Let's go quickly..."... At the former enemy headquarters of the Eighth Route Army in Yizhong, all kinds of good news were delivered by the correspondent like snowflakes.
"Report to the deputy chief of staff..." The operator suddenly put down his earphones and turned to report to Huang Yu.
"Chief of Staff Wang Lin, who got into the Japanese army's pocket formation, successfully repelled the Japanese army's pursuit troops. A reinforced brigade was killed by them and a large number of weapons and equipment were seized."
"They also seized the Japanese division headquarters during the operation, destroyed the Japanese command system, and seized a large number of radio stations."
"But neither the commander of the Japanese division nor the chief of staff are at the headquarters."
"Chief of Staff Wang Lin asked the main force to encircle the area and not let them escape from under our noses."
"Chief of Staff Wang Lin wants to continue wreaking havoc in the belly of the Japanese army. The next target of the raid is the remaining Japanese artillery units. Please contact the artillery headquarters and ask them to suspend the attack on the Japanese artillery units and leave the rest of the battle to them."
"Okay..." Huang Yu blurted out without thinking.
"Continue to let the artillery bombard them. The dozens of artillery pieces that the Japanese army managed to get into our base area were blown up by them."
"Let Wang Lin go up and maybe we can capture a few more cannons."
"The leader and chief of staff of the Japanese division are no longer in the headquarters, and 80% of them are supervising operations on the front line."
"Contact all the main frontal attack troops. There may be a Japanese division commander among their targets."
"An attack is an attack. We must solidify our pocket formation. We must not let the Japanese division commander escape from under our noses."
"I want to leave all the Japs' middle route mopping up troops in the base area, and let Okamura Neiji suffer another blow in our hands. At the same time, we will consume the mobility of the Japanese troops in North China and reduce the pressure on our next operations." Liu Sen suddenly interjected:
"We attacked the first line of defense of the Japanese army and wiped out more than 1,400 Japanese soldiers. Chief of Staff Wang Lin ran rampant in the belly of the Japanese army, breaking through several Japanese positions in succession and wiping out more than 1,000 Japanese soldiers."
"The artillery unit is not a vegetarian. They fought for so long and killed hundreds of Japanese troops."
"We have at most three thousand Kwantung troops left in our pocket formation."
"We lost less than 1,500 men, and our total strength still exceeds 9,000, a full three-to-one strength advantage."
"We also have firepower and terrain advantages."
"We will win the next decisive battle."
"We must remind the troops participating in the battle: Try to use your firepower advantage on the offensive. Those who can use cannons will definitely not use light and heavy machine guns, and end the battle with the minimum cost." Huang Yu nodded: "By the way, I will mention it to a few regiment leaders."
"The Japanese troops in our encirclement are just mopping up troops prepared for us by Okamura Neji."
"There are also a mopping up force in Mancheng and Wangdu."
"After fighting this battle, we will probably have a big battle to fight."
"If the troops suffer too many casualties in the next battle, they can only serve as a reserve team in the battle to attack the Japanese army and mop up the troops on the left and right sides." Liu Sen replied with a smile: "It's better, Xiao Huang..."
"The following group leaders are all people who can't move their feet when they hear about war."
"As long as they know that there will be a big battle ahead, they will definitely do everything possible to control casualties." After telling the combat staff and correspondent to give the order, Liu Sen asked: "Xiao Huang, are you really planning to eat the Japanese all the way?"
Clean up the troops."
"If we really do it, Okamura Neji will definitely be mad." Huang Yu nodded: "Not only me, but our Captain Kong and Captain Li also want to fight."
"But war is not something we wishful thinking. If Okamura Neji doesn't do his best and is just a coward, it will be useless for us to want to go to war."
