A 155mm howitzer shell hit the back of a hillside and exploded. The seven or eight Japanese soldiers hiding there were instantly blown into a cloud of blood mist and debris.
Ihara Heihachi, who was dozens of meters away from the explosion point, put his hands on his chest, keeping a fist distance between his body and the ground. He did not move even though the shells exploded around him. He had experienced many battles and understood that here,
In this situation, running around is the stupidest thing, but lying down in one place has the best chance of survival.
Of course, there is also a method to lying down. It is not advisable to press the whole body to the ground regardless of it. There must be something to cushion when lying down, otherwise the violent vibration when the shell explodes will damage the human internal organs.
.
"Give me the tusi..."
I don't know if it was an illusion, but he seemed to hear the order to attack amidst the deafening sound of artillery. He followed the sound with some surprise, and found that dozens of meters away, a captain was waving his command knife, hissing and trying his best to drive away
Dozens of soldiers continued to charge forward.
"This idiot!"
Ihara Heihachi said something.
Sure enough, just one minute later, the captain was torn into pieces by artillery fire, and he could not be recovered no matter what.
As a veteran who has served for four years, Ihara Heihachi, apart from his own skills, is best at preserving his life on a cruel battlefield. He has always scorned those guys who shout "Jade Broken" at every turn.
.
For him, he has been fighting in China for four years and is worthy of His Majesty the Emperor. As for saying he will die fighting for His Majesty the Emperor, just talk about it. Whoever takes it seriously is a fool. If he dies in battle, who will do it?
Taking care of your elderly mother and wife at home?
Your Majesty the Emperor? Don't be kidding. He was sure that if he really died in the war in China, the only thing his wife could do after losing her financial resources was to go to a tea house and sell her body, otherwise the whole family would risk starving to death.
The place where Ihara Heihachi lay was a crater against a back slope. According to his estimation, this crater should have been left by a large-caliber mortar. Since there was a back slope as a cover, there was no need to worry about bullets from the hillside hitting here.
So it should be safe here for now.
After a while, he noticed that the opponent's shelling began to slow down. At the same time, he also saw streaks of fire flashing from time to time in the direction of Ping'an County. It seemed that the field artillery regiment was launching an artillery battle with the opponent, easing his own.
pressure.
He checked and found that he had nothing on him but a bayonet.
After looking around, he found a corpse lying more than ten meters away from him. After looking around again, Ihara Heihachi emerged from the crater and slowly crawled to the side of the corpse.
This was a corpse that had lost both legs, and a Type 38 rifle was thrown next to the corpse.
Ihara Heihachi took the Type 38 rifle, took out the ammunition bag from the corpse and hung it on himself. After looking around again, he bent down and jumped into the ditch on the roadside.
But as soon as he jumped down, he felt he hit something. There was a burst of yelling and curses, and then a fist hit Ihara Heihachi's head.
"idiot..."
How could Ihara Heihachi be willing to be wronged? Without thinking, he hit the opponent's chest with his backhand elbow, and then hit the opponent's chest with the butt of a gun, and the opponent was immediately knocked to the ground.
These things sound complicated, but in fact they only took less than a few seconds.
After knocking the opponent to the ground, Ihara Heihachi used the flares in the sky to see clearly the five-pointed star on the opponent's red collar badge.
"Bagaya Lu, you idiot, you actually dare to take action against your senior!"
After seeing that the opponent was actually just a small private, Ihara Heihachi became so angry that he kicked the opponent's waist, causing the opponent to scream in pain.
"Senior... stop fighting... stop fighting. I didn't know it was you. I thought it was the Chinese coming."
"Chinese?"
Hearing this, Ihara Heihachi became even more angry and kicked him again, "You bastard, if the Shina people come, will they stupidly jump into the ditch? Then the people who come in will not be people, but people."
A grenade."
After scolding, Ihara Heihachi was still angry and punched and kicked the private again.
In the Japanese army, superiors beating subordinates, and seniors beating juniors are just like eating and drinking. It is a normal thing. All this private can do is stand up straight and endure it silently.
However, Ihara Heihachi was not in the mood to pay attention to this idiot. He kicked the opponent twice more and then stopped, turning around and preparing to demand.
Seeing Ihara Heihachi walking away, the private quickly picked up the rifle on the ground and followed him, "Senior...just wait for me..."
Seeing the other party following me, Ihara Heihachi became a little impatient and glared: "Why are you following me?"
The private was so frightened that he took a step back and said softly: "Senior, please let me follow you."
Ihara Heihachi said scornfully: "What can you do with a useless rookie following me?"
The private hesitated for a moment before saying, "I...I want to live."
"Where are your commander and companions?"
The private lowered his head: "They... they all died in the battle."
Ihara Heihachi fell silent, looking at the private who was looking at him with a childish look on his face with pleading eyes. For some reason, he immediately thought of his brother who had starved to death, and his heart, which had been cold for a long time, was suddenly touched.
Taking a deep breath, "How do you know you can survive by following me?"
There was a trace of confusion in the eyes of the private: "I don't know. Before I came to China, my father told me that if I want to survive, I must follow the experienced seniors closely. They can lead me to survive."
Ihara Hei Yashen shook his head helplessly, and then glared at him fiercely: "Since you like to follow, you can follow, but let me declare in advance that since you follow me, you must listen to my words, otherwise I will not mind stabbing you with a bayonet."
Belly, pick out your intestines again, do you understand?"
The private was overjoyed and quickly stood at attention and bowed deeply to him: "Hi... My name is Uehara Yoji, from Akita Prefecture. Please take good care of me."
"You talk too much nonsense. If you want to survive, come with me."
Uehara Yoji quickly followed him, asking questions as he walked...
At this time, the 41st Division was in chaos because it was suddenly stabbed in the back by the armored battalion. Both the 133rd Division, which was responsible for the frontal attack, and the 67th Regiment and the 134th Regiment, which were responsible for the two-sided attack, were all in disarray.
A mess.
Just when the troops were in chaos, Gao Hongming, who noticed the chaos of the Japanese army, lost no time in giving an order to counterattack.
"Tick tock...tick tock..."
As a loud charge horn sounded, countless soldiers jumped out of the trenches and rushed toward the Japanese troops on the hillside.
"kill..."
Xiao Shandong shouted slogans. He followed his squad leader with a 98K rifle with a bayonet in his hand. Originally, they were still following the large army, but when they saw someone raising a gun in front of them, they started shooting.
Even he killed two Japanese soldiers along the way.
It is said that the battlefield is the best teacher. After joining the army for less than three months after fighting in several battles in Shandong, the farm boys who were trembling with fear when they heard the sound of cannons are now much more mature. At least they became more mature after seeing the Japanese soldiers.
I am now able to hold a gun and shoot calmly.
The group of people took a chance, but found that there were fewer and fewer soldiers around them, and the squad leader who also sensed something was wrong stopped.
The squad leader looked around and found that there was silence all around. When they set off, there were only two people left in the class of twelve: him and Xiao Shandong. He couldn't help but cursed: "Damn it... we seem to have gone astray."
"Squad leader...what should we do?"
The squad leader turned around and looked around, and said comfortingly: "It's okay, let's just go back the way we came. Little Shandong, keep your eyes open, don't let the little devils shoot you coldly."
"clear!"
Returning the same way was easy to say, but after walking for a while, the two of them realized that it was very difficult to do, especially in the dark and unfamiliar place. After walking for more than ten minutes, the two of them couldn't even tell the difference between east, west, and north.
In the end, the two of them decided to walk along the area where the gunfire was fierce. After all, if they wanted to find the large army, this was the fastest and easiest way.
The defeat of the 41st Division was so sudden that it happened without anyone reacting. Even Koizumi Yukio, the division commander, was a little confused.
At this time, he was confused as he looked at the soldiers retreating from Qixia Pass like a tide. He couldn't believe that they were defeated like this. Are these still the brave and invincible soldiers of the 41st Division?
Or Ogiwara Toda on the side reminded him at the right time: "Division commander... the Chinese have launched a counterattack against us, what should we do?"
After coming back to his senses, Koizumi Yukio sighed. Although he was very reluctant, he had to admit that the 41st Division was defeated tonight and was defeated by a local militia. This shame will stay with him for the rest of his life.
.
But he was the division commander after all. After he came to his senses, he immediately issued an order: "Immediately give orders to the 67th, 133rd and 134th Regiments, asking them to retreat alternately and re-establish their positions."
"Hi!" Ogiwara Toda quickly followed the order and left.
It's just that Koizumi Yukio forgot that the 41st Division that had retreated hastily was in a mess. Even the order to retreat could not be passed to the three captains. How could they organize an effective defense? In addition, the Liantai Militia Group
Under Gao Hongming's order, they launched a counterattack, and the two sides fought in a melee. It would be crazy if they could organize an effective defense.
"Ka ka ka..."
A Bobcat reconnaissance tank was traveling quickly on the road. The bright lights illuminated the road. With a burst of intensive machine gun fire, a group of Japanese soldiers in front of them who were running desperately were swept away in an instant. The remaining ones hurried towards
Fleeing in all directions.
In the dark night, the Bobcats and tanks did not dare to leave the road to pursue them. They could only watch as the remaining ten or so Japanese troops scattered.
What this Lynx reconnaissance tank didn't know was that two Japanese soldiers were hiding in the grass less than fifty meters away from it.
"Ihara-senpai, what should we do?" Yoji Uehara asked in a low voice, trembling with fear as he looked at the tank passing by.
"If you don't want to die, just shut up. Are you afraid that the Chinese tanks won't know that we are hiding here?" Ihara Heihachi wanted to sew this fool's mouth shut with needle thread.
Fortunately, Uehara Yoji was not a real fool. After being scolded a lot, he realized that he was rash and covered his mouth without daring to say a word.
After finally waiting for the tank to drive away, the two of them slowly emerged from the grass. Ihara Heihachi walked to the bodies of the soldiers who had been killed by the Chinese tank just now and touched them for a while.
Soon he took out dozens of yen and some scattered banknotes, which seemed to be legal tender used by Chinese people. Not only that, Ihara Heihachi even opened the corpse's mouth to check whether the corpse had gold teeth.
After checking the soldiers, Ihara Heihachi stuffed the banknotes into his pocket and waved his hand to Uehara Yoji, who was already staring at him, "Let's go..."
Uehara Yoji stammered: "Senior...Senior, how could you take their money away?"
"Idiot, are you stupid? Do you think I will kindly send this money to other people's families without taking it away?"
Ihara Heihachi glared at this rookie and said fiercely: "For me, as long as I can return to my homeland alive and bring a sum of money to my mother and wife, what does it mean to take a little money from the corpse?
If I could, I wouldn't even mind kissing that bastard and taking away all his money!"
Listening to the deep reluctance stolen from Ihara Heihachi's voice, Uehara Yoji asked with some confusion, "Senior, your term of service should be almost over, and you can go home then."
"go home?"
Ihara Heihachi laughed sadly, "My service period expired in March this year, but I applied for retirement several times but was suppressed by the squadron leader. The reason the guy gave was that he was from the squadron."
Manpower is tight, and we will wait for additional troops to arrive before approving it, but half a year has passed and I still haven't been able to return to my homeland."
"ah..."
Yoji Uehara exclaimed. Although he was a rookie, he knew where the manpower was tight. This squadron leader clearly wanted Ihara Heihachi to turn into an urn and return to his homeland.
"This bastard, I talked back to him once when I first served, and he was hated in my heart. Four years later, I have changed from a private to a first class, and he has also become a squadron leader, but he
His hatred for me is still so strong. If he insists on killing me, I will make him look good when I get the chance."
Looking at Ihara Heihachi gritting his teeth, Uehara Yoji didn't know what to say.
The two of them were walking and talking, forgetting to observe what was going on around them for a moment, so when they turned a corner, a loud shout suddenly sounded from around them.
"Don't move...put your hands up..."
Along with this loud noise, two figures wearing gray-green military uniforms also appeared in front of them. One of them was holding a rifle, and the other was holding a submachine gun. The black muzzle of the gun was pointed at the two...