"Captain, the time is up!" a staff officer reminded, looking at his watch.
"Send the signal and start counterattack to close the net." Li Hao ordered decisively.
"Bah..." The signal bomb flew into the sky and exploded. Under the cover of night, the burst of white light could be clearly seen for more than ten miles.
"fire……"
At the heavy artillery position, battalion commander Yuan Qingfeng shouted at the top of his lungs.
Twelve heavy cannons were placed in three rows in front of them, raising their dark muzzles and pointing directly at the sky.
There are several gunners standing next to each artillery piece. Some are responsible for adjusting the shooting elements, some are responsible for loading the shells, and some are responsible for cleaning the barrel...
The gunner stood nearby, holding a small red flag in his hand to indicate firing.
The moment Yuan Qingfeng gave the order, the gun commander held the small red flag in his hand and shouted the command "Fire..." from their mouths together.
"Rumble..."
Amidst the dull explosion, a ball of orange-red flame was instantly ejected from the muzzle, and then turned into pungent white smoke, which quickly spread to the surroundings, and finally enveloped the entire gun emplacement.
"Woooooooo..."
The cannonball was wrapped in flames, and as soon as it flew out of the muzzle, the ear-piercing scream rang out, getting farther and farther away from everyone...
The gunners guarding the artillery had no time to worry about whether the shells hit the target. They started to be busy as soon as the cannon fired.
The gunner pushed open the breech bolt, ejected the shell case, and then quickly cleaned the unburnt residue in the barrel.
After finishing, a shell with a fuse was carried over by two gunners. They carefully pushed the gun into the barrel, closed the breech, and were ready to shoot again...
The Japanese heavy artillery position had more than 300 gunners working nervously on it.
All twelve heavy artillery pieces have been advanced to their positions, and the final step of operations is underway to secure the artillery pieces.
Then you can adjust the shooting elements to shoot.
"Everyone, speed up. We must fire within three minutes. The chief of staff has urged us several times." The captain shouted as he shuttled across the artillery position.
"The ammunition hand immediately transported the shells to the location, installed the fuses, and prepared to shoot..."
Before he finished speaking, a scream of "Woooooooo..." came over.
We are all professional artillerymen here. Listening to the sound of artillery to identify the caliber of artillery shells and the approximate shooting target is the most basic skill that everyone has.
Therefore, most of the gunners showed expressions of fear, and their faces turned pale.
"It's a heavy artillery. We're being targeted, and the shells are flying towards us." the deputy captain cried out.
"Continue to set up artillery. The observer will immediately find the enemy's artillery position and prepare to counterattack." The captain's face turned pale, but he still insisted on setting up artillery and did not order the troops to move.
It's not that he doesn't want to, it's that reality doesn't allow him to do it.
The artillery is so heavy that it needs a car to drag it, and they have all entered the gun position. It will take at least five minutes to drag them out and leave.
The enemy has already opened fire. It is more difficult and takes longer to move the artillery under the fire.
Maybe these dozen heavy artillery pieces will be blown to pieces by shells falling from the sky before they can be moved out.
The counterattack is different. These artillery can fire in up to three minutes.
As long as everyone survives these three minutes and artillery begins to counterattack, the heavy artillery brigade will have a chance to turn defeat into victory.
Even if you still can't escape being killed in the end, the shells fired before the troops are killed can still cause a lot of damage to the enemy.
Therefore, instead of being blown up during the transfer of artillery, it is better to fight back desperately and maybe still find a way to survive.
"Woooooooo..." The screams became louder and louder, and twelve cannonballs hit the ground with a whoosh.
"Boom, boom..." The explosion sounded in the ears like thunder, making everyone's ears buzz. At least four artillery shells hit the target and smashed into the artillery position.
The fire splashed and the smoke filled the air. The gunner squatting next to the cannon was blown away like a toy, flying in the sky together with soil, ammunition boxes, and stones, and finally hit the ground and turned into a soft trampled corpse.
A shell hit right next to a gun emplacement, and all the dozen or so gunners in the emplacement were blown away. The heavy artillery was also overturned by the air waves and hit the ground heavily. One of the wheels was directly hit because it was too close to the explosion point.
It blew up and turned into scrap metal when it landed.
The captain's face turned paler than before. He obviously underestimated the strength of his opponent.
"Woooooooooooo...boom..."
The second round of shells flew over quickly, hitting the ground and exploding with the same scream.
During the artillery fire, two more gun positions were shrouded in smoke.
Unless Amaterasu protects us, these two gun emplacements will definitely be gone.
"Sir, the enemy has as many heavy artillery as we do. They can fire nearly 200 heavy artillery shells at us in three minutes. Even if the hit rate is only 30%, our heavy artillery brigade is finished and there is no chance to counterattack." The deputy captain said with his trembling voice.
The voice reminded.
"Retreat..." The captain ordered decisively.
"Everyone abandons the artillery and retreats. As long as people are alive, we can still apply to our superiors if the artillery is gone."
After saying that, the captain was the first to start retreating, very embarrassed.
The moment the Japanese army attacked the position and the artillery shells hit the Japanese heavy artillery position, a group of eight artillery shells also fell from the sky.
By chance, a cannonball landed exactly fifty meters away from the chief of staff.
Although he was outside the damage radius of the shell, the powerful air wave still knocked him and the guards around him over. Coupled with the impact of the shock wave, the chief of staff fell to the ground. It took several seconds to react from the trap.
"Sir, the heavy artillery brigade was attacked by the heavy artillery of the garrison, causing heavy casualties. Lieutenant Colonel Kimura was leading the troops to abandon their equipment and evacuate the heavy artillery position, otherwise the heavy artillery brigade would be completely destroyed." The communications soldier rushed over and reported in embarrassment.
"Give up the equipment?" The captain was confused for a moment before he reacted.
"Then the heavy artillery brigade is not out of artillery. We also have no artillery support to suppress the heavy artillery of the garrison."
"Woooooooooooo...boom..."
The second round of shells came with a scream, interrupting what he had not finished speaking.
The deputy captain shouted with fear: "Sir, the garrison has prepared eight heavy artillery pieces to attack our assembly area. Including those to attack the heavy artillery brigade, there are a total of twenty."
"Their heavy artillery troops are not at Lingqiu at all, but are deployed here to wait and deal with us."
"Boom, boom, boom..." Under the cover of the sound of heavy artillery, ordinary mortars are not so noticeable.
But its rate of fire is faster and the shells hit more frequently.
The chief of staff did not miss this battlefield killer. He quickly got up from the ground and looked around.
Except for the assembly area which was hit by artillery fire, everything around was dark and nothing could be seen.
But the soldier's sixth sense gave the chief of staff a vague feeling that there must be a large number of Eighth Route Army troops hidden there.
"Click, click, click..." The sound of machine gun fire rang out in the night, and it became insignificant under the cover of artillery fire. However, the chief of staff still noticed it and immediately shouted: "No, there is the Eighth Route Army around."
"They have long seen our plan to use Lingqiu City to encircle and annihilate them, and then they took advantage of it and set up an ambush here to attack us."
"The troops will retreat immediately and go directly back to Laiyuan City. We have been fooled. If we don't leave, we will be surrounded."