When the night faded again and the sun passed over the mountains and fell on the Wushimen defense line, the observation posts at the front discovered something unusual in the Japanese position.
"Squad leader, why is there no movement from the Japanese side?" the observation sentry immediately reported to the squad leader.
Although it was dawn, the Japanese position was lifeless, and the atmosphere seemed a bit strange.
A brother said disapprovingly with dark circles under his eyes. "What's all the fuss about? The Japs must be sleeping."
The squad leader of the observation post was a veteran. After pondering for a moment, he told the brothers in the machine gun trench not far away: "Fire a bunch of bullets to test the reaction of the Japanese."
"Da da da……"
The crisp sound of machine guns vibrated in the early morning, and bullets flew across the buffer zone of the trenches on both sides, throwing up pieces of smoke and dust.
If it were the past, the Japs' machine gunners would definitely return a hail of bullets not to be outdone, but after the machine gunners moved, the Japs' retaliatory bullets did not arrive as expected.
"Did the little devil escape?" one brother guessed.
The veteran squad leader frowned and asked the other brothers: "Did you hear anything last night?"
These brothers all shook their heads, and one brother replied: "The gunfire was still going off in the middle of the night..."
This was strange. Why didn't the Japs react? The veteran squad leader stuck out half of his head and carefully observed the Japs' positions densely covered with barbed wire in the trench trenches on the high ground. He was puzzled.
"You guys are observing here. Don't let the little devils play tricks on you. I'll go find the platoon leader."
The veteran squad leader gave an order and headed towards the platoon leader's position. He couldn't make up his mind and was ready to report this unusual situation to his superiors.
The abnormal situation in the Japanese camp was quickly reported to Yang Ling's regiment headquarters. Yang Ling took it seriously and led a group of officers to observe with binoculars, but not a single Japanese was found.
"Send a platoon over to take a look." Yang Ling ordered after thinking.
The two sides have been fighting at Wushimen day and night for so many days, and even if there is no fighting, there will be cold shots. Now the Japanese position is strangely quiet, but it seems a bit abnormal.
He was not worried about the Japanese retreating, but he was worried that the Japanese would take unknown paths and get behind them, which would be dangerous. The Japanese often did such things.
"Isn't it too risky? What if the Japanese deliberately lure us up?" Zhang Qingyun, the regiment chief of staff, reminded him when he heard that Yang Ling wanted to send someone over to take a look.
Yang Ling ordered: "Let the troops be prepared. If the situation goes wrong, fire to cover the retreat of the brothers who went to investigate."
It is not advisable to sit still and wait for death in this situation. Although there are some risks, knowing the situation of the Japanese will at least make people feel at ease.
Captain Su Er, the company commander, personally led a platoon of brothers out of the trenches and moved towards the Japanese positions under the cover of more than 20 machine guns, many mortars, and grenade launchers.
They knew how ferocious the Japs were, but this mission was to go to the Japs' lair. If they said they were not afraid, it would be a lie. They were very careful, covering each other and always turning back every step of the way. If something went wrong, they were ready to run back at any time.
But until they got through the barbed wire and stood on the edge of the Japanese trenches, they didn't even see a ghost, let alone the Japanese.
"You go to the left, you go to the right, and the rest of you follow me forward to investigate!"
Su Er decided to conduct an in-depth investigation of the Japs to prevent it from being a trick by the Japs to invite you into the trap.
The brothers in the reconnaissance platoon were divided into three, and they investigated the Japanese in depth from three directions. They searched forward for two miles, but found no one except the Japanese who had discarded sundries.
"The devil has escaped!"
When Su Er reported back the investigation situation, Yang Ling and the others' tense faces relaxed.
When Yang Ling and others discovered the anomaly in the Japanese position, the rest of the frontline troops also discovered something was wrong after dawn and sent out troops to investigate.
Each division received the same situation. All the little Japs in front of them had been evacuated overnight.
"The Japanese have withdrawn! The Japanese have withdrawn!"
The news of the Japanese's evacuation spread quickly to all defense lines like a spring breeze.
The unkempt brothers climbed out of the trenches one after another, emerged from the dim bunker, were exposed to the sun, cheered loudly, laughed and danced.
Although this was not a victory, the Japanese's evacuation finally put an end to their fearful days and allowed them to sleep soundly and have a hot meal.
The silent evacuation of the Japanese did not make the Wushimen defense officers relax, but instead increased their vigilance.
"Send out a reconnaissance team quickly to find out the Japanese's movements!"
The brothers hugged and cheered outside, and the cheers were deafening. But inside the military command post, Commander Yu looked serious.
Soon, the reconnaissance cavalry came out in all directions and headed towards the direction of Mahuiling. At 10 noon, the reconnaissance troops reported that the Japanese had withdrawn to the Mahuiling area to build fortifications.
The Japanese took the initiative to evacuate to the Mahuiling area and occupied the commanding heights and previous fortifications. Whether to pursue them or not became a question before the commanders.
Fortunately, Commander Xue of the First Corps soon received an order, instructing all units to pay close attention to the enemy's movements, rest in place and be on standby, and to prohibit unauthorized attacks.
In fact, all the troops had been exhausted after two consecutive battles with the Japanese at Mahuiling and Wushimen and were unable to attack.
The order to rest in place and stand by allowed the troops to finally take a breather.
The deafening sound of artillery was gone. Although the smell of gunpowder smoke was still lingering in the front line of Wushimen, the fighting had stopped. Many of the tired brothers lay down in the trenches and fell asleep before they even evacuated to the camp.
The fighting was temporarily suspended. On the one hand, Yang Ling and the others sent out warnings in the direction of Mahuiling to prevent the little Japs from turning around, and on the other hand, they took the time to rest and recuperate.
The brothers relaxed and began to clean the battlefield with their guns on their backs. With a heavy heart, they took the fallen brothers off the battlefield and buried them together.
Officers like Yang Ling were also busy. The two battles almost depleted the army's ammunition. They were busy replenishing ammunition and supplies. The wounded also needed to be evacuated. The entire regiment headquarters was busy going around.
The rear added a group of nearly a thousand new soldiers to Yangling's regiment. Together with the original three battalions and the troops directly under the regiment, the entire regiment, excluding the wounded evacuated, had more than 3,000 soldiers.
Compared with those regiments with only about 2,000 people, Yang Ling's regiment has become a veritable reinforced regiment, becoming stronger and stronger.
The previous batch of recruits had been well trained in the battles at Mahuiling and Wushimen and had already developed their combat effectiveness.
The brothers who were injured in the battle at Minshan also gradually returned to the army after their injuries. These veterans became the backbone of the army. Although the army added new recruits, the overall combat effectiveness of the army did not drop much.
The 74th Army has become a veritable main force, and the number of officers and soldiers of the 51st Division alone has exceeded 10,000.
As the main force of the direct lineage, under the care of the Military Commission, the army not only quickly replenished the loss of ammunition, but also extended the radio equipment from the brigade level to the regiment level. This made many division-level troops look like no-name troops with radio stations.
Yang Ling and the others have become extremely rich local tycoons.