In the violent explosion, a three-meter-wide gap was blown out of the courtyard wall.
More than a dozen guards escorted the chief of staff out of the yard in panic, and rushed towards the arsenal.
After running less than two hundred meters, five or six imperial troops rushed towards them. Behind them were more "gendarmes".
Picture of the army.
The chief of staff reacted after being confused for a moment, and gave the order in a hurry.
"The military police at the back must be disguised as the Eighth Route Army. They set up positions on the spot to meet the imperial army in front."
"They rushed over from the arsenal and must know the situation there."
Although there was help, only two of the six subordinates escaped.
Seeing the military rank on the chief of staff's shoulder, Chief Cao, one of the two Japs, was so excited that he almost cried. He immediately reported: "Sir, the arsenal is finished."
"The Eighth Route Army disguised itself as a patrol and attacked the arsenal secretly. Our captain was unable to guard against it and was killed before he could even touch the gun."
"In my humble position, I led a team to patrol outside the arsenal and escaped disaster. You must avenge our captain and take back the arsenal."
The chief of staff's heart skipped a beat, and his face instantly became heavy.
Since the arsenal is lost, there is no need to continue with the plan to establish a headquarters in the arsenal.
As for taking back the arsenal, he couldn't even think about it.
The guards, staff, and officers around him totaled less than forty people, and they were only equipped with two light machine guns, less than twenty rifles, and the rest were all self-defense pistols.
There are complete defenses at the entrance of the arsenal, and two heavy machine guns are also mounted.
Even if there is only one squad of the Eighth Route Army guarding the place, if you rush towards it, you will still be hit by eggs and rocks.
Don't talk about taking back the arsenal, maybe everyone's lives will be lost there.
At this moment, the chief of staff thought of the artillery position not far away, where there were more than 200 imperial army gunners and a small group of guards.
More importantly, it was heavily guarded there, and the guard troops had built many warning positions around the artillery positions. It would certainly not be easy for the Eighth Route Army to capture it.
The chief of staff's eyes lit up and he quickly ordered: "Let's go to the artillery position..."
"The troops strengthened their alert, formed a battle formation and rushed towards the artillery position, where they established a new command post."
Fortunately for the chief of staff, the reconnaissance companies and commandos in the city were busy clearing out the remaining enemies and occupying ammunition depots and material warehouses, and had no energy to care about them.
The thirty or so Japanese soldiers entered the artillery position very smoothly.
Walking into the artillery headquarters, before I could take a breath, the messenger from the city wall followed in.
Looking at the chief of staff, he reported anxiously: "Sir, the artillery fire of the Eighth Route Army is too fierce. The troops have suffered heavy losses and are in urgent need of artillery support."
"We also need a large number of light and heavy machine guns. The light and heavy machine guns that the command strengthened for us were all destroyed by artillery shells during the battle."
The commander of the regiment stood nearby and reminded: "Chief of Staff, there was a problem with the ammunition depot just now. There is definitely no way to replenish them with light and heavy machine guns."
The frontline has made two demands to the command. If neither is met, they will definitely mistakenly believe that they have been abandoned by the command, which will affect the morale and morale of the troops.
Now I can't satisfy the second request, so I can only agree to their first request.
He made a decisive decision: "Go back and tell your captain that we don't have light and heavy machine guns for the time being, but I will give him three mortars."
"The artillery will return to the battlefield with you and will be directly under the command of your captain."
Artillery is so important. With them, brothers don't have to fight under artillery fire, and the losses will definitely be greatly reduced.
The ordering soldier was afraid that the chief of staff would go back on his word, so he retracted his previous order and quickly replied: "Thank you, sir. I am humble enough to take the artillery back now."
In less than half an hour, the chief of staff sent out twelve mortars to help defend the city.
Noda's artillery position was almost emptied, with only four mountain cannons, two infantry cannons, and four mortars taken from the arsenal before the war.
"Rumble..."
A more violent explosion suddenly came from the direction of the south gate.
The chief of staff rushed out of the headquarters and saw more than a dozen balls of black smoke wrapped in fireballs rising from the top of the city.
"Boom..." The explosion sounded again, this time more violent than before.
The captain of the mountain artillery squadron standing next to him turned pale quickly and shouted, "Sir, it's the mountain artillery."
"The Eighth Route Army is attacking the south gate with mountain artillery. I heard the sound of at least four cannons and at least ten mortars."
The chief of staff frowned, but did not speak immediately. He raised his binoculars and looked in the other three directions of the county.
There were also constant gunshots and booming cannons.
But compared with the south gate, the sound of cannons there is obviously much weaker.
The chief of staff's expression became more and more solemn, and he analyzed seriously: "The South Gate must be the main attack direction of the Eighth Route Army, and their artillery fire is concentrated there."
"Immediately find their artillery positions, mountain artillery squadrons, infantry artillery squads, and mortar units, and counterattack as quickly as possible to kill them and reduce the combat pressure on the defending troops."
At the siege headquarters outside the city, the order for half of the mountain artillery to join the battle was personally given by Li Hao.
Li Hao knew exactly how many artillery pieces and types they were equipped by the Japanese and puppet troops in the city.
Mortars were deployed on all four walls to participate in the battle. Li Hao immediately ordered half of the mountain artillery to participate in the battle in an attempt to force out the remaining artillery pieces of the Japanese.
The reason why he did not order all the mountain cannons to participate in the battle was because he was afraid that if all nine mountain cannons were exposed, the Japs would be frightened and they would not dare to fight back.
"Woooo...Boom..."
Screams soon sounded over the battlefield, and a few seconds later, an explosion came from the artillery position.
Knowing that the Japanese had been fooled, Li Hao immediately ordered: "The artillerymen found the Japanese artillery positions in the city, heavy mortars, and the remaining mountain artillery, and all participated in the battle."
"I will fire five volleys to level the Japanese artillery positions!"
At the Japanese artillery headquarters, listening to the rumble of artillery fire outside, the tense nerves of the chief of staff were obviously relieved.
In the eyes of most Japanese, the Chinese lack heavy weapons.
As long as the Imperial Army's artillery unit fires artillery, the Eighth Route Army is certainly no match.
The chief of staff also had this idea: he was very confident that the Eighth Route Army artillery was definitely no match for his own artillery.
After a few minutes of gunfire, the winner was definitely me.
As long as the Eighth Route Army's artillery units were eliminated, it would be impossible to capture Huaiyuan County relying solely on infantry, and he would have hope of holding on until reinforcements arrived.
Just as the chief of staff was having a sweet dream, an explosion of "rumbling..." suddenly sounded in his ears.
He is also a veteran who has been on the battlefield for a long time. At least he can distinguish between the sound of gunfire and explosions.
He immediately shouted: "Where did the explosion come from? Did something happen to the artillery position?"
Just as a staff officer was about to run out to see what was going on, an artillery lieutenant rushed in and reported with fear: "Sir, we are being targeted..."
"The Eighth Route Army is also equipped with large-caliber mortars, and the mountain cannons are not the four we just judged, but at least twice as many."
"It's too dangerous here. It may be covered by artillery fire at any time. You must leave immediately."
"Rumble..."
The second round of artillery shells fell from the sky. The nearest shell was only fifteen meters away from the headquarters. Strong air waves and shock waves swept over like a storm. The two guards at the door were blown over and fell to the ground, with painful expressions on their faces.
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