"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu...artillery attack, sir, be careful, get down..."
The scream of artillery shells reached the ears of the chief of staff again. For a moment, the nervous screams of the guards rang in his ears.
Recently, two guards rushed towards the Chief of Staff like leopards.
"Plop..." With a sound, the chief of staff was thrown to the ground by the guard. Because he was not prepared, he was thrown to the ground and eaten by a dog.
"Rumble..."
Thunder-like explosions sounded at the same time, and the chief of staff's ears seemed to be deafened, and they were buzzing from the shock. The air wave swept over everyone's heads, and his back felt as if it had been roasted by fire, which was very painful.
It took several seconds for the chief of staff to regain his composure.
The two guards did not wait for orders, climbed up, held him on the left and right, and ran towards the mountain next to him.
Compared with roads, the terrain in mountains is more complex. Hiding inside can minimize the damage caused by artillery shells and increase the chance of survival.
"Rumble..."
A second round of shells fell from the sky, and the chief of staff was knocked to the ground again by the guards.
After the shelling, I got up and continued running into the mountain. Finally, I ran behind a hill before the third round of shells came down.
It was only then that the embarrassed chief of staff calmed down and crouched behind the bag of dirt to look outside.
The sky had darkened, and the flames from the explosion were particularly dazzling.
Many soldiers were blown away in the fire.
The impact points are everywhere without any rules. At a glance, you can tell that the opponent is extending the artillery fire to expand the results of the battle.
The chief of staff's expression became more and more serious. Although there was still a trace of unwillingness in his mind, he had already made a decision in his heart and gave a decisive order: "We can't stay here any longer."
"The order goes down: The troops will break out of the encirclement now, leave here in squadron units, evacuate the battlefield, run back three kilometers to regroup, and then attack the Eighth Route Army's heavy artillery positions."
"The telegraph operator immediately reported my decision to the brigade commander and asked him to send troops to prepare for the response at the city gate. We will retreat to Datong after destroying the Eighth Route Army's heavy artillery troops."
The troops were scattered on the battlefield in squadron units, and now they were bombarded again, which must have made the situation even more chaotic.
In order to pass the breakout order to them as soon as possible, except for a few personal guards, everyone else was sent out by the chief of staff.
"Boom...ta-da-da..."
Just as the chief of staff and his subordinates were reacting, a burst of gunfire suddenly came from the right wing of the battlefield, less than 500 meters away.
As soon as he turned around, the chief of staff saw several flames rising from the ground, and several machine gun flames appeared from time to time in the increasingly dark night.
"Sir, the Eighth Route Army is coming towards us from the flank." A captain next to him reminded.
A few seconds later, a figure appeared in their field of vision, running towards everyone in a hurry.
When he was still five or six meters away, he panted and reported: "Sir, there are a lot of Eighth Route Army troops coming from our right wing, at least one main battalion..."
"Sir, a large number of Eighth Route Army troops have also come out from the left wing, equipped with mortars and heavy machine guns. The squadron at the front is desperately trying to intercept them." A second lieutenant also ran up behind him and reported nervously.
The chief of staff became anxious and immediately ordered: "The troops will break out now. More and more evidence shows that the Eighth Route Army really wants to encircle and annihilate us here."
"Before the encirclement is formed, hurry up and rush out."
The captain followed the order: "What are you still doing? Immediately protect the Chief of Staff and break out and move."
From the commanding heights of Chentouling, Li Hao looked at the battlefield, a surprised expression slowly appeared on his face.
The battle situation did not develop exactly according to his plan.
The garrison regiment had fought this kind of battle before. According to past experience, if more than two hundred heavy artillery shells were hit, the Japanese army would definitely suffer heavy casualties and turn into a mess.
They obviously divided their forces in advance, and the area they controlled was large. The heavy artillery battalion fired several rounds, and the troops did not receive a single shell. The planned chaos did not occur.
After receiving the order to break out, they didn't even have to assemble the troops. They just picked up their guns and left.
The reaction speed was also faster than that of the Japanese troops they encountered before. Instead of gathering troops to break out after the bombardment, they directed the troops who were not in chaos to break out as soon as the artillery fire extended.
In order not to alert the enemy and avoid the Japanese and puppet army scouts, the lurking troops were separated from the battlefield by 500 meters at the nearest end and as far as one kilometer away.
Only after the heavy artillery battalion opened fire did they have the conditions to charge towards the battlefield.
It only took two or three minutes for the artillery fire to extend. In the end, less than 40% of the latent troops reached the battlefield and exchanged fire with the Japanese and puppet troops. The other latent troops were still on the way to attack.
As a result, many Japanese puppet troops not only were not bombed, but also had no troops to intercept and hold them back. After receiving the order to break out, they rushed towards the target direction smoothly.
All kinds of accidents came together, and it was destined that this siege would not end successfully.
On the battlefield, many Japanese puppet troops began to run in the direction they were coming after receiving the order to break out. The troops attacking them were either still rushing to the battlefield a few hundred meters away, or were held back by the troops behind them, and they could only look at it and sigh.
As a result, these Japanese and puppet troops did not encounter any interception when they broke through and easily evacuated the battlefield.
"Captain, the Japanese reacted too quickly. If this situation continues, at least a thousand Japanese and puppet troops will be able to escape." Hong Linfeng became more and more anxious as he watched.
The surprised expression on Li Hao's face was slowly replaced by calmness. He looked at Hong Linfeng and comforted him: "Don't be anxious."
"Wang Xin has cut off the only way for the Japanese to return to Datong."
"Although there were many Japanese and puppet troops breaking through, they were all in a hurry to escape and rarely carried heavy weapons."
"Wang Xin has brought a lot of heavy machine guns and mortars. As long as we can stop the breakout troops halfway for twenty minutes, we can catch up with them and encircle them again."
"Send Wang Xin a telegram now: Be prepared to intercept."
"Send all the messengers from the regiment headquarters: order the troops who have not yet exchanged fire with the Japanese to stop going to the battlefield and directly turn around and pursue the Japanese and puppet breakout troops."
"For troops who are already at war with the Japanese, don't be impatient, and fight slowly and steadily."
"We have already won this battle, and our goal now is to kill them at the minimum cost."
The Japanese chief of staff ran all the way and ran for half an hour before arriving at the planned assembly point.
There are already 500 troops who broke through here in advance, and there are more troops coming from behind.
The Eighth Route Army's pursuing troops also came over, and the gunfire was getting closer and closer. It sounded like it was less than a kilometer away.
The chief of staff immediately ordered: "We are going to raid the Eighth Route Army's heavy artillery positions now."
"Leave a small team here to handle the follow-up breakout troops. If we gather a hundred people, they will chase us."
"After the Eighth Route Army's pursuit troops arrive, the responding troops must hold them off for at least half an hour at all costs to buy us time to raid the heavy artillery positions."
Ordinary infantrymen of the Japanese army were the most poisoned by bushido. To describe them as lunatic would be an understatement.
Knowing that this was a near-death mission, after the chief of staff finished speaking, a large number of officers still volunteered to fight and asked to stay.
Finally the chief of staff chose a wounded officer who was unfit for the long march.
The soldiers who stayed behind were also wounded.
After giving the order, they began to build a temporary defense line using local materials.
The chief of staff showed no reluctance and led his troops towards the heavy artillery position.
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