Chapter four hundred and fifty fifth blood-stained demeanor
At six o'clock in the evening, the main force of the 151st Brigade launched an attack on the Japanese vanguard troops entrenched in Minshan.
The first to launch the attack was the artillery battalion directly under the brigade. The battalion commander Sun Heiniu was a veteran who narrowly escaped from the massacre in Nanjing and had a bloody feud with the Japanese.
"Get ready!" Artillery battalion commander Sun Heiniu looked at the dense wooden piles and barbed wire barriers in front of the Japanese position. He raised the command flag with his right hand and his voice was hoarse but sonorous and powerful.
Although the artillery battalion directly under the brigade is organized as a battalion, it is actually an empty frame. In fact, it only has one artillery company.
There were three platoons in the company, each with two 82-caliber mortars and only ten rounds of artillery shells. Compared with the Japanese, they were extremely crude.
Although the artillery battalion is weak, compared to the miscellaneous troops from various provinces that only have light machine guns and Hanyang-made weapons, having mortars makes people jealous and envious.
"Three rapid fire shots! Release!"
Sun Heiniu waved the command flag heavily, and the six mortars roared "boom boom".
In Sun Heiniu's view, using Jingui's mortar shells to clear obstacles was a prodigal act. The shells should be used to bomb the Japanese, but he had to carry out the brigade commander's order.
There was a dull sound, and the artillery shells with a sharp whistle went straight towards the wooden piles wrapped with barbed wire in front of the Japanese position.
"Boom-boom-"
A deafening explosion sounded, and a ball of fire mixed with black smoke rose in front of the Japanese position.
The wood piles and barbed wire that were deeply embedded in the ground were exploded and shattered in the violent tremors, and the blasted pieces of wood rolled high in the air and were thrown into the sky.
The obstacles in front of the Japanese position exploded to pieces under the bombardment of mortars, and the rumbling explosions sounded like muffled thunder one after another.
The scorching heat wave swept through the mud and sand, and the helmets of the fire assault squad and the brothers in the demolition team who were hidden at the front were clanged by the flying gravel.
The brothers laid their heads on the ground, facing the suffocating hot air waves, and wished they could crawl into the moist soil.
"You son of a bitch, you actually planted a mine over there——"
Through the telescope, brigade commander Zhou Zhidao saw the violent explosion in the obstacle area and cursed loudly.
Yang Ling, who was in charge of the command at the front, and regiment leader Zhang Handuo also discovered that the range of explosion intensity exceeded the power of the mortar.
Soon Yang Ling discovered the little devil's minefield. Perhaps to prevent his own people from stepping on it, they inserted some small wooden sticks.
"Let the brothers in the assault squad and the demolition team pay attention to the small wooden sticks stuck in the ground. Those are mines planted by the Japanese. Don't step on them!" Yang Ling quickly passed on the order.
The little Japs were extremely insidious, using wood piles and barbed wire as obstacles on the surface to block the brothers' attacks, but secretly they laid out minefields.
Once the brothers from the assault squad and the demolition team rushed forward, the people who were bombed would definitely be thrown off their feet. However, what they did not expect was that this time Yang Ling and the others would let the artillery clear the obstacle and discover the minefield in advance.
The soil kicked up by the explosion turned into charred black, billowing thick smoke enveloped an area of several hundred meters and spread in all directions, and the air was filled with a burning smell.
The sight of the brothers in the assault squad and the demolition team lying on the front line was blocked by the billowing black smoke, and they could not clearly see the situation of the Japanese positions.
But they pulled the bolts of their guns one by one, panting heavily, waiting for the firing to stop.
In just a few breaths, the sound of mortars exploding suddenly stopped, and apart from the slowly flowing black smoke, the world became eerily silent.
"Brothers! Charge up and kill the Japanese!" The hoarse voice of the commander of each battalion suddenly rang out, breaking the silence.
"Come on! Kill the Japanese!" The whole trench resounded with the roar of mountains and tsunamis.
The brothers of the assault squad and the demolition team quickly climbed out of the trench, divided into more than a dozen fast forward black arrows, and plunged into the rolling black smoke, causing the black smoke to accelerate and stir.
"Da da da da——"
"Teng Teng Teng -"
In the thick black smoke, a heart-stopping sound suddenly rang out. The Japanese soldiers hiding in the trenches also heard the loud shouts and were frantically pouring bullets into the smoke.
The bullets swept over like raindrops, hitting them so tightly that a fire assault squad charging in front ran into the ferocious chain of fire, and fell down in confusion.
"Machine gun cover!" the first company commander shouted as he rolled to avoid two fierce projectiles and threw grenades forward.
The machine gun crew that bent forward and rushed forward quickly fell to the ground, with their shoulders pressed against the butts of their guns, and they pulled the trigger at the Japanese machine gun position that was spitting out tongues of flames.
The Japanese machine gunner who leaned out half of his body and fired wildly faced a series of bullets. His upper body was instantly beaten to pieces, and blood mist mixed with minced meat flew everywhere.
But the Japanese deputy shooter removed the mangled corpse, quickly turned the gun, and fired back condescendingly.
The ricocheting bullets sent fluffy soil flying in all directions. When they saw the trajectory extending, the brothers who were changing magazines were rolling around with their machine guns in their arms.
Taking advantage of this gap, the brothers in charge of the assault quickly rushed in through the gap opened by the mortar.
"Boom-boom-"
The Japanese artillery shells also fell and exploded among the charging crowd. Broken guns and mutilated limbs were thrown into the sky in a swirl, and blood mist filled the air.
A brother's neck was cut open by a blast, and bright red blood spurted out like spring water. He covered his neck in pain and rolled over. Another shell fell, and the whole thing was blown up.
"Brothers! Charge!"
The shells continued to rumble down beside him, and the pieces of meat and mud that exploded covered his body like rain. The company commander in charge of the assault saw that the front was empty, and all the brothers in the assault squad were wiped out. He said:
He roared again.
The brothers in front all fell down in random directions, while the brothers behind stepped on the blood and corpses and continued to rush forward. They used the team as an assault group, alternately covering and jumping forward.
The Japs entrenched in Minshan came from the old Ninth Division and had strong combat effectiveness. Their frequent successes on the Chinese battlefield also made them arrogant.
Guarding the front-line trenches were nearly 300 Japs under Ichiro Ono's battalion. They used a crossfire network composed of five heavy machine guns and more than a dozen Czech light machine guns to block the way forward for the brothers.
The brothers who rushed forward seemed to have hit an invisible wall, their bodies were beaten into leaky sieves, and they fell under the fire net in various strange postures.
Although the assault force was equipped with a lot of Czech-style light machine guns and grenades, facing the condescending Japanese soldiers, they were pinned to the ground unable to move after less than a hundred meters.
The bullets hit the ground, causing smoke and dust to scatter. Watching the brothers in the demolition team rush forward one by one, it was difficult to get close. The assault company commander of the first battalion had to call for artillery support.
Soon, a sharp whistle came from overhead again, and shells exploded in front of the Japanese machine gun position. However, the thick smoke dissipated, and the Japanese machine guns began to howl again.
"Damn it, what kind of artillery fire is this!" Seeing that most of the mortars had failed, the assault company commander was so angry that he cursed.
In fact, the artillery battalion directly under the brigade is not just empty. Except for the battalion commander Sun Heiniu, who has a serious artillery background, most of the others are recruits who have been in the army for less than a few months. All the veterans have long since died.
Let them dig up a large piece of wooden stakes and barbed wire in the open area, and they can destroy it by running into dead mice, but it is really difficult for them to keep a fixed aim at the Japanese machine gun position.
When the artillery battalion commander Sun Heiniu saw that most of the artillery shells had failed, he was so angry that he cursed his mother, kicked an artilleryman away, and went into battle himself.
The Japanese machine gunners entrenched in the trenches saw that all the incoming shells had missed, and they boldly leaned out to shoot at the charging infantry.
But as Sun Heiniu personally entered the battle, after a few muffled booms, several Japanese machine gun positions were blown to pieces, and blood mist filled the sky.
When Japanese Lieutenant Colonel Ono Ichiromasa and Lieutenant Colonel Morishige laughed at the Chinese army's poor artillery strength, their smiles instantly froze on their faces when they saw the destroyed machine gun positions.
"Charge!" Seeing the Japanese machine gun being blown away, the assault company commander waved his hand, and the assault squad who was lying on the ground rushed forward again.
Two Japanese heavy machine guns were destroyed, and several crooked light machine guns turned their muzzles in an attempt to block the gap.
But the brothers of the crawling demolition team had already taken advantage of the mixed wheel to get under their noses, and pushed up the bamboo pole with the explosive bag tied to it. With a bang, the Japanese light machine gun positions also went off one after another.