Earth-shaking shouts of killing resounded through the night sky. The remaining Japanese soldiers under the bombardment looked in the direction of the sound and saw Chinese soldiers all over the mountains and plains rushing towards them.
"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"
The frightened Japanese soldier let out a shrill roar, but his voice was quickly drowned out by the louder explosion.
In the light of the explosion, black shadows quickly rushed into the Japanese position.
The original solid trenches, well-layered fortifications and firepower points of the Japanese army's position were all blown away by artillery fire, and many trenches were razed to the ground.
Those Japanese soldiers who were fierce and arrogant just a few days ago were bombarded by carpet-like artillery fire. Most of them were blown into pieces. Burnt corpses could be seen everywhere, and the air was filled with the smell of gunpowder smoke and burnt stench.
"Ah!" An injured Japanese soldier dragged his bloody leg and struggled to grab the blown-up rifle when he saw the Chinese soldiers rushing towards him.
"Bang! Bang!"
Several dazzling firelights flashed, blood spattered, and several bloody holes appeared in the Japanese soldier's chest. Countless pairs of feet were crossing the slowly cold corpse, advancing deeper.
"Da da da - da da da -"
A Japanese bunker let out the roar of the Type 92 heavy machine gun, and the hard bullets splashed mud and dust on the ground, blocking the way of the assault troops.
"Kill him!"
An assault platoon leader roared loudly when he saw the Japanese firepower that was constantly spitting out tongues of fire.
A soldier holding a cluster grenade rolled forward and soon reached the front of the Japanese bunker. He forcefully pushed the smoking grenade into the Japanese bunker.
"Boom!"
With an earth-shaking loud noise, the majestic Japanese bunker instantly turned into a sky full of sand, and the entire bunker became a collapsed cave.
The soldiers of the National Revolutionary Army attacked fiercely. They were no longer rushing forward in a swarm like in the past. Instead, they were rushing forward in squads and companies and platoons. They were shooting and rolling forward.
Smash the grenade and advance at an amazing speed.
The Japanese army's forward position was almost reduced to scorched earth by artillery fire. The assault force did not encounter much resistance, but after advancing about two miles, they encountered a fresh force of Japanese reinforcements.
There was an encounter between the two sides in the darkness. The commander of the Japanese army saw a group of people running from the direction of the position and thought they were retreating troops.
"You cowards! Go back! Stop the Chinese!" the Japanese commander yelled angrily.
The assault force, which was rushing forward, heard a scream coming from the darkness, paused, and found itself running into the arms of the Japanese reinforcements.
"Damn it, it's a Japanese!" Wang Meng, the commander of the assault company, reacted and raised his gun to fire while shouting: "Fight me!"
"Bang bang bang-ta-ta-ta-ta-"
Intense gunshots suddenly rang out, and the bullets from machine guns and rifles were as dense as locusts, and a large area of the Japanese oncoming soldiers was immediately wiped out.
"It's the Chinese! It's the Chinese!" The Japanese reinforcements hadn't figured out the situation yet. It wasn't until the soldiers opened fire that they suddenly discovered that the helmets they were wearing were different from theirs. They scattered and fought back. Both sides were fighting in this dark night.
A fierce battle ensued.
"One row! Outflank from the left!"
"Second row, go around from the right and poke the little devil in the butt!"
Company Commander Wang Meng held a powerful machine gun and rolled forward to attack while shouting orders to the rear.
The Japanese army was not good at fighting. When they saw a group of Chinese troops coming towards them, they organized on-site defense and deployed two squads to outflank the Chinese troops in an attempt to annihilate them.
The tactics of the commanders on both sides coincided with each other, and the result was that the small-scale encounters became larger and larger, and the battlefield gradually expanded. It was dark, gunshots were everywhere, and battlefields were everywhere.
"What's going on! You, the assault company commander, are so serious!"
Regiment commander Zhang Handuo led the troops of the second battalion and rushed up from the flank. When he saw Wang Meng, the commander of the third battalion's assault company, was pinned down and unable to move, he suddenly became a little angry.
"Report to the regiment! This group of Japanese soldiers is a tough enemy, and our assault company can't take it down!"
The commander of the assault company, Wang Meng, also had a hard time saying that the Japanese army they encountered had strong firepower and strong coordination capabilities. He was pushed back after several surprise attacks.
In fact, what assault company commander Wang Meng didn't know was that what he was facing was not a small group of Japanese troops, but two squadrons of five to six hundred elite Japanese troops.
The Japanese army was stunned by such a random attack. The night was pitch black, which allowed Wang Meng and the others to take advantage. If it had been daytime, they would not have known how they died.
"Where is your deputy commander Yang!" the commander Zhang Handuo asked loudly.
Assault company commander Wang Meng looked left and right. In addition to his dozens of brothers, there were people from the third battalion there. He replied: "Report to the regiment, they have been dispersed."
The scale of the battlefield was expanding rapidly, and all the troops were advancing forward. Yang Ling and the others initially followed the assault company to attack, but the assault company attacked too fast, and they were strangled together by more than a hundred Japanese troops rushing towards them.
Already.
After the main force of their battalion had eliminated more than a hundred Japanese troops, they then went after the assault company. In the dark night where the battle was raging, even the shadow of the assault company could not be seen. The battlefield was disrupted, and they had to attack forward on their own.
"Second Battalion Commander!" Seeing that only dozens of brothers were left with the Third Battalion Assault Company Commander Wang Meng, the regiment leader Zhang Handuo also knew that he could not be blamed for this and hurriedly called over to the Second Battalion Commander.
Second Battalion Commander Chen Ming also ran over in a hurry, his face covered in blood.
The regiment leader Zhang Handuo pointed to the temporary Japanese position in front and said: "I'll give you ten minutes! Break the Japanese position in front!"
"Yes!" Chen Ming, the second battalion commander, did not hesitate at all. He fired the rifle he picked up with a click and shouted: "First company, follow me!" He shouted and headed towards the Japanese army's establishment.
The position rushed over.
The troops of the Japanese 14th Division suffered a fierce blow. The National Revolutionary Army troops attacking from all directions took advantage of the night to advance forward, and the entire area hundreds of miles around turned into a burning battlefield.
"Reporting to the division commander! Our unit has been attacked by the main force of the China Army! All outer positions have been lost, please shrink and retreat!"
Captain Sakai rang the phone number at the 14th Division Headquarters and urgently reported the latest situation.
"Have you figured out the designation of the China Army?" Division Commander Kenji Doihara asked loudly.
"What we encountered was the 74th Army and the 7th Army of the Chinese Army. Their offensive was fierce! The troops suffered heavy casualties. Your Excellency, Division Commander, our department requests to retreat!"
Hearing the urgent voice of Captain Jiu Jin on the other side of the phone, the division commander Doihara Kenji thought for a moment and then said: "It is allowed to retreat twenty miles to reorganize the position! Your department must block the China Army in the area east of Naihuang."
Just as Kenji Doihara hung up the call from Captain Sakai, the commander of the 28th Brigade sent another telegram. Their 28th Brigade was under fierce attack by the 64th Army of the Chinese Army and requested support.
Urgent telegrams flew into the headquarters of the 14th Division like snowflakes, which made the division commander Doihara Kenji feel that something was wrong.
He walked quickly to the map, looked at the densely packed drawings drawn with red and blue lines, and quickly understood the operational intention of General Xue Yue, commander of the East Henan Corps, to encircle and annihilate his division.
Their 14th Division rushed forward frivolously and ran into the encirclement of Xue Yue's troops. The 9th and 13th Divisions, which were closest to them, were separated by several days.
After the division commander Kenji Doihara guessed the Chinese army's combat intention, he snorted disdainfully, thinking that it would be so easy to eat his 14th Division.
Their battle plan to encircle and annihilate the 600,000 Chinese troops in Xuzhou has gone bankrupt with the active withdrawal of the Chinese troops. Now, it would be good if they could encircle and annihilate the Henan East Corps with more than 100,000 troops.
"Pass my order to all units to stop attacking and shrink their defenses to block the China Army's offensive!" Kenji Doihara continued: "Report to the North China and Central China Fronts that our 14th Division has successfully held back the China Army's East Henan Corps.
Near Lanfeng, all friendly divisions are asked to move closer quickly and work together to annihilate it."