On the offensive position more than 500 meters away from the Japanese and puppet army stronghold in Guanshan Town, Li Hao looked serious.
From time to time, I would raise my binoculars to take a look at the brightly lit Japanese and puppet army positions not far away, and then take a look at the hand-drawn plan of the stronghold by the reconnaissance company.
"Captain, the key to taking over the stronghold is whether the heavy artillery battalion can destroy these bumpkins." Hong Linfeng pointed at the sketch and analyzed.
"The Japanese were too vigilant. In addition to building bunkers, they also covered them with sandbags at least one meter thick to offset the damage caused by artillery shells."
"As long as these bunkers can be destroyed, the Japanese and puppet troops hidden in the fortifications will have nothing to fear. Even if they are hit with artillery shells, they can all be blown up."
Li Hao nodded and asked, "Are the heavy artillery battalions ready?"
"Ten heavy artillery pieces, all ready to fire." Hong Linfeng replied quickly, and then looked at Li Hao, waiting for him to give the order to attack.
Li Hao did not hesitate. He glanced at the time and began to give orders: "In five minutes, at eleven o'clock exactly, we will launch the attack on time."
"The heavy artillery battalion is responsible for razing a dozen earthbags on the position to the ground, and then destroying these bunkers."
"Under the cover of the heavy artillery battalion, the offensive troops moved to a position three hundred meters in front of the formation and set up flying thunder cannons."
"As soon as the heavy artillery stopped, the torpedo cannons continued to fire, and then the heavy mortars and ordinary mortars all fired to cover the infantry assault."
"All mountain artillery and field artillery are on standby to counterattack the Japanese and puppet artillery positions."
"The heavy artillery battalion cannot underestimate the enemy. At least half of its artillery can be left on standby to counterattack the Japanese heavy artillery force."
"If I remember correctly, the Japanese army here also has a heavy artillery squadron, with a total of four heavy artillery."
"As soon as these heavy artillery are exposed, the heavy artillery battalion must kill them as soon as possible, and they cannot be allowed to threaten our offensive troops."
"Tonight I will use artillery shells to settle the battle. Prepare an unprecedented artillery feast for the Japanese."
"Rumble..."
The sound of artillery soon rang behind us, but because it was too far away, it became faint by the time it reached everyone's ears.
The artillery shells quickly passed over everyone's heads with the sound of "wuwuwu..." and smashed into the Japanese and puppet army positions.
Fire sputtered and smoke filled the air.
The blasted sandbags, logs, soil, gravel, and scattered flowers were flying everywhere in the air.
Under the firelight, Li Hao saw all this very clearly.
"Baga, these are heavy artillery, sir. The Eighth Route Army attacking us has heavy artillery, at least five of them." The artillery battalion captain cried out.
The colonel scolded with a sullen face: "Bageya Road, who can tell me what's going on?"
"Didn't the military say that the heavy artillery battalion of the garrison had been destroyed by them? Then where did these heavy artillery come from?"
After saying that, the colonel turned his attention to the engineer captain: "Can our bunker withstand heavy artillery strikes?"
The engineer captain shook his head and replied: "We can't hold on for long."
"As long as several consecutive artillery shells hit one point, the bunker will be destroyed."
"If the Eighth Route Army waits for another five days to launch the attack and waits for the cement to build the bunker to completely solidify, our bunker can withstand at least five consecutive hits from heavy artillery shells. But it cannot do that now. The drying time is too short. It can withstand three at most."
After hearing this, the flustered Colonel regained some confidence and became calmer.
"It's enough if it can withstand three shells in a row."
"Heavy artillery is long-range support artillery. It is too difficult to hit one point continuously with shells. Even two of ten shells may not hit one point."
"And we also have heavy artillery. With them for counterattack, the hit rate of the heavy artillery unit of the garrison will be even lower."
"There are a total of eighteen bunkers covered with sandbags ahead. If the garrison wants to destroy them all, it will never be possible without a thousand heavy artillery shells."
"In addition, they don't know that our bunker is built with cement, which is several times stronger than the original brick and wood structure."
"So they will definitely not waste thousands of precious heavy artillery shells on these bunkers at the beginning."
"Order the troops to prepare for battle. After the artillery bombardment by the garrison regiment is over, the front-line positions should be placed fifty meters closer to the enemy's attacking troops before firing, so as to kill more of their attacking troops."
"The second-line position is on standby. No one can act rashly without my order."
"Ono-kun..." Colonel finally turned his attention to the artillery battalion captain.
"I will hand over to you all the heavy artillery, large-caliber mortars, mountain artillery, field artillery, and infantry artillery equipped by the army."
"Even if we cannot completely destroy the artillery units of the garrison, we must find a way to suppress them and not let them attack our infantry with all their strength."
"The mortar squadron uses the artillery squad as a unit to attack the offensive troops of the garrison and cover the infantry operations."
"Rumble...wuwuwu..."
Four Japanese heavy artillery pieces quickly joined the battle to relieve the pressure on the infantry.
However, they soon encountered a head-on counterattack by the heavy artillery unit of the garrison, and the number of heavy artillery bombarding the bunker did not decrease.
Without a numerical advantage, no matter how powerful the Japanese artillery battalion captain was, there was nothing he could do. He could only direct the four heavy artillery pieces to attack our newly exposed heavy artillery pieces in the garrison, in an effort to consume them.
As the garrison attacked the position, Li Hao held up his binoculars, his eyes never leaving the battlefield.
Seeing the Japanese troops' positions being bombed with dirtbags being blown up one after another, a smile slowly appeared on the corners of their mouths.
The colonel's judgment was correct. He did not know that the bunker to be attacked tonight was a cement structure, but he attacked it as if it were an original brick and wood structure.
As long as the contrasting sandbags on the bunker are exploded and a shell hits the side of the bunker, the Japanese and puppet troops in the bunker will lose their combat effectiveness and will either die or be injured.
So in Li Hao's eyes, the bunker was blown open and the bunker was almost destroyed.
"Captain, all the dirtbags have been blown up!" Hong Linfeng reminded, the expression on his face was very complicated, including shock, excitement, and heartache.
He was shocked because the powerful power displayed by the heavy artillery once again shocked him.
The excitement was because the bunker on the Japanese and puppet army positions that posed the greatest threat to the attacking troops was destroyed.
The heartache is because the heavy artillery battalion fired too many shells just now.
In just ten minutes, the five heavy artillery fired 250 shells. Including the counterattack Japanese heavy artillery squadron, more than 300 shells were lost.
These artillery shells were brought back from Chongqing by the regimental commander, and every time he fired one, he lost one.
Li Hao also thought of this and ordered decisively: "Send a signal immediately. The heavy artillery battalion will stop shelling the Japanese and puppet positions and continue to suppress the exposed heavy artillery units of the Japanese army. The offensive troops will begin to attack."
The three flares drew an arc, flew into the sky like meteors, and then exploded into three white lights over the battlefield, which everyone could see clearly.
"Rumble..."
The flying thunder cannon more than two hundred meters away responded immediately.
Amidst the dull explosion, dozens of gasoline barrels shot out clouds of flame into the air like fireworks.
The explosive package was pushed out of the gasoline barrel and flew towards the Japanese and puppet army positions at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"Boom, boom, boom..."
Mortars also joined the battle. The moment flames erupted from the barrel, the shells flew out together and hit the Japanese and puppet positions with a slight scream.
Firelight splashed and gunpowder smoke filled the air. At least thirty fireballs suddenly shot up from the Japanese and puppet army positions, and black smoke quickly rose up under them and shot straight into the sky.