Colonel Ono was determined to catch up with Wang Ping this time, and then smash Wang Ping and the independent battalion into thousands of pieces.
But he didn't know that Wang Ping was taking him on a path of no return.
After running for nearly half an hour, even the well-trained Wang Ping was a little out of breath.
After confirming that the Japanese had not caught up, Wang Ping immediately ordered everyone to slow down their retreat, maintain their physical strength, and tally the results of the battle.
Within two minutes, Chen Junyu, the guard squad leader of the Second Company, ran over. He was also out of breath at this time, and he was so excited that he couldn't hold back a word for a long time when he walked to Wang Ping.
"Report... report to the battalion commander, the harvest has been calculated. It's great to fight with you. In just a few minutes, a Japanese squadron was severely damaged, and so much equipment was seized!"
"To be more specific, I can plan the next battle only after I know the equipment situation!" Wang Ping and Chen Junyu asked rhetorically.
Chen Junyu took a deep breath and replied: "There are three crooked handles and two grenades. As for the grenades, because they were still carried on the backs of the little devils, we all took them out together with the backpack containing the grenades.
There were more than eighty grenades in total."
"I didn't let my comrades take the 38 big cover. Except for the crooked handle, the grenade, and the grenades, the rest are all bullets and grenades. Now, everyone is carrying at least 300 bullets and three grenades!"
Wang Ping answered with satisfaction: "In other words, we now have three mortars, thirty rounds of artillery shells, eight grenade launchers, more than eighty grenades, and four crooked handles. The remaining manpower is one and three
Eight big lids, plenty of ammunition!"
"Yes, that's it!" Chen Junyu replied immediately.
Wang Ping immediately made a decision: "The shells are too heavy and must be used as soon as possible. This will free up three people to serve as riflemen! It will also reduce the burden on the comrades!"
"In this way, first use mortars to hit the Japanese hard, and by the way, tell the Japanese that we are running in this direction, don't chase in the wrong direction, we are chasing the main force!"
After scanning the surrounding terrain, Wang Ping began to issue orders.
"The terrain here is flat, so you can maximize the lethality of artillery shells. And you can see far away. Mount the artillery on the ridge in front, and fire from three or four miles away. After firing the artillery shells, retreat, without giving the Japanese time to counterattack!"
After setting up three mortars and setting up four crooked mortars, Wang Ping only waited for less than ten minutes before a company of puppet troops from the front came into Wang Ping's sight.
"The Japanese have become smarter and even used puppet troops as the leader. They are afraid that they will lose another infantry squadron!" Wang Ping said with confidence, holding up his binoculars.
Then he changed the topic and continued: "However, if the puppet army is used as the leader, won't he worry that these puppet troops will join our Eighth Route Army directly and attack them in turn?"
Chen Junyu's eyes lit up and he immediately asked: "Batalion Commander, do you already have a solution?"
Wang Ping nodded and replied: "You can see a dozen Japs behind the puppet troops. They must be watching the puppet troops. After our shelling starts, these Japs will definitely force the puppet troops to rush towards us. As long as we kill them
If you kill the dozen or so Japs behind the puppet army, and then kill the officers in the puppet army, the remaining leaderless puppet army will definitely lose their will to resist!"
"When we rush out with four crooked weapons, these puppet troops will have no other way out except surrendering to us!"
"Of course, the entire battle must adhere to one principle, which is to be fast, accurate, and ruthless. After all, the main force of the Japs is only five or six hundred meters away, and thirty mortar shells, even if they can cause some chaos to the Japs, cannot stop them.
They take too long."
"We must make a quick decision and quickly evacuate the battlefield with the prisoners! As for the disobedient prisoners, this is a battlefield. We don't have time to argue with them. No mercy, just shoot them!"
After waiting for another ten minutes, the puppet troops from the forward company finally entered the best shooting range of the independent battalion.
At this time, the main force of the Japanese troops also arrived at a position 700 to 800 meters away from the artillery position.
"Artillery fire!" Wang Ping ordered decisively.
Three mortars aimed at the two Japanese squadrons at the front quickly roared.
Immediately afterwards, the scream of artillery shells streaking across the sky was heard in the air. A group of three mortar shells hit the Japs directly. Two shells hit directly in the middle of the Japs team and exploded, killing and injuring more than a dozen people.
Japs. A cannonball exploded next to the official road. Although it did not hit the Japs directly, the flying shell fragments still knocked over two or three Japs.
As soon as the explosion sounded, the formation of the Japanese soldiers on their way was disrupted.
Especially the Japs who were close to the explosion point either subconsciously lay down on the ground or dispersed to both sides of the official road.
At this time, the advantage of the mortar's fast rate of fire comes into play.
While many Japanese soldiers were still in panic, three shells screamed and hit them.
Because the Japs were very scattered, and the wasteland on both sides of the official road was full of Japs, all three shells hit the middle of the Japs group. After the explosion, more than a dozen Japs were killed or wounded!
When the three mortars continued to drop shells on the main force of the Japanese army, the Japanese sergeant who urged the forward company immediately found a huge fighter plane in front of him.
The Eighth Route Army artillery position that fired at the main force was on a mountain ridge more than a hundred meters in front of him. The sergeant could even see the Eighth Route Army moving back and forth on the mountain ridge.
If he can seize the Eighth Route Army artillery position and solve the crisis that the main force is currently facing, then the commander of the unit will definitely look at him with admiration. In addition, the army is expanding now. With this military exploit, the sergeant is sure that a small captain will definitely fall to him.
On the body.
The sergeant, who was excited at the thought, had no idea of the dangers he might encounter if he rashly attacked the Eighth Route Army's artillery positions. After all, he was just a small sergeant, a low-level officer.
Now that the decision had been made, for the sake of the squad leader's position, the sergeant did not hesitate and directly ordered his subordinates to force the puppet troops to attack the Eighth Route Army positions.
At first, the puppet soldiers were unwilling and lay motionless on the ground.
As the sergeant shot the two puppet soldiers in the head with a gun, the remaining puppet soldiers could only hold their rifles and rush towards the Eighth Route Army artillery position on the mountain ridge no matter how unwilling they were.
Wang Ping, who planned to capture these puppet soldiers, kept his guard from firing. When the puppet soldiers rushed to 30 meters away and the Japanese supervising the battle behind them also rushed to 50 meters away, Wang Ping finally nodded.
The soldier next to him who was singled out by Wang Ping shouted directly to the puppet soldiers because of his loud voice.
"Listen up, all the puppet troops. We will only fight the Japanese, not the puppet troops. If you don't want to die, get down immediately!"
The puppet soldiers who reacted quickly subconsciously fell to the ground, while those who reacted slowly also fell to the ground under the pull of their comrades nearby.
In just two seconds, a company of puppet soldiers, except for seven or eight officers who were loyal to the Japanese and veteran Youzi, were still standing, while the others were all lying on the ground.
As for the dozen or so Japs supervising the battle, because they could not understand Chinese, they all stood there with blank expressions on their faces, and then subconsciously prepared to drive the puppet soldiers lying on the ground to stand up and continue to charge forward.