The result did not disappoint Li Hao. For the first time he used it, a bouncing mine killed and injured five little Japs. It was at least twice as powerful as an ordinary mine.
"Boom...boom..."
The explosion was out of control. In order to severely damage the forward squadron, the guards lined up on both sides of the road and planted thirty mines in all places where people could hide, including ten of the most advanced jumping mines.
When the explosion ended, there were screams of pain on both sides of the official road.
Dozens of corpses fell to the ground in various postures, and several corpses were blown to pieces. Blood, internal organs, and broken limbs were flying everywhere. It looked particularly tragic.
There were more wounded people. Some had their legs and feet blown off, and some had one or two pieces of debris stuck in their backs. They let out a scream every time they moved.
At a quick glance, there were less than fifty soldiers returned intact.
More than two hundred additional soldiers rushed over to rescue the wounded and carry the bodies.
The artillery and heavy machine gun troops in the escorting troops were not idle either. They greeted them with a hail of bullets and retaliated against the Eighth Route Army that had just attacked the forward squadron.
But no matter how hard they attacked, the other party never responded, and they had no choice but to stop.
At the Japanese brigade headquarters in Baoding, the atmosphere suddenly became solemn.
Two minutes ago, they received a telegram from the escort unit. The situation was very bad.
Less than two hours after the meeting between the convoy and the transport team, they were attacked several times by the Eighth Route Army. Two of the attacks were the most severe. Once, they killed and injured more than 100 people in the convoy with a mine array, and once they used mines and mortars to attack them.
Nearly a hundred people in the convoy were killed or wounded.
The remaining sporadic sneak attacks were also fatal. Although they only caused a few casualties to the troops each time, the frequency of such sneak attacks was too high. Adding up more than ten sneak attacks, the losses of the escorting troops were no less than a medium-sized sneak attack.
"General, your judgment is correct. The Eighth Route Army that sneaked into Baoding last night was all for this batch of weapons and ammunition heading south." The deputy chief of staff frowned and analyzed, and he did not forget to compliment the brigade commander when he spoke.
"The Eighth Route Army must have learned about the purpose of this batch of weapons and ammunition from somewhere, got scared, and then sent troops to destroy this batch of weapons and ammunition on the way."
The brigade commander was noncommittal, and after thinking for a while, he replied: "This batch of weapons is too important to the imperial army, and there must be no mistakes."
"Immediately send a telegram to the escorting troops: protect this batch of weapons and ammunition at all costs and send them safely into Baoding City."
This is what Li Hao wants.
The more the Japanese army attaches importance to these weapons and ammunition, the more they will fight tooth and nail to protect them on the march, and the casualties of the troops will skyrocket.
Without the troops, even if the weapons and ammunition enter Baoding safely, they cannot escape from their hands.
At six o'clock in the afternoon, the transport team finally saw the towering gate tower of Baoding City.
The brigade leader stood on the city gate tower, watching the transport team getting closer and closer. His nerves, which had been tense for several hours, finally relaxed.
Twenty minutes later, the captain of the third infantry brigade ran to the brigade commander panting heavily, with a bandage on his arm, his head lowered and afraid to speak, like a child who had done something wrong?
"What's going on?" the brigade leader asked confused.
"Report to General, I have failed to complete my mission, please be punished!" The captain lowered his head even more as he spoke.
"What happened to the weapons and ammunition of the front army going south?" the brigade commander asked subconsciously.
Then he shook his head and said to himself in denial: "No, the length of the transport team has almost remained unchanged, which means that the number of large trucks and cars has not decreased. Even if there are weapons and ammunition that are bombed, they are very few."
The captain of the brigade was embarrassed to answer: "The general is wise. The weapons and ammunition going south did not suffer much loss, but the third brigade and the supplementary regiment that went south together suffered heavy casualties."
"The low-ranking Third Battalion lost more than 300 people in battle alone, and nearly 400 others were injured, more than half of which were lost."
"Nearly 400 people of the supplementary regiment were killed in the battle, and more than 300 people were injured, with 20% casualties."
"The Eighth Route Army that attacked us was by no means an ordinary Eighth Route Army. They were well-equipped, had ample ammunition, and were equipped with heavy weapons. They were also very powerful in combat and reacted very quickly. They did not confront us head-on at all along the way. They ran away after the sneak attack. We want revenge.
He has no chance, so he can only be beaten passively."
"We also discovered something very scary."
"The Eighth Route Army that attacked us was equipped with a new type of landmine that no one has ever seen before."
"It was buried underground. After being detonated by us, it did not explode on the spot. Instead, it flew from the ground to our heads before exploding. It exploded in a large area, just like a mortar shell exploding in the air. It was very powerful and caused our casualties.
At least half are caused by these mines."
It is no secret that the Eighth Route Army made its own weapons, but in the eyes of the brigade commander, those self-made weapons were old junk and had various flaws.
Just like the thunder cannon, although it is very powerful, its range is short, its accuracy is not high, and its rate of fire is slow.
As long as the Imperial Army is fully prepared, no matter how many flying thunder cannons the Eighth Route Army equips, it will be a pile of scrap metal and will have no effect.
Seeing that his subordinates admired this kind of landmine so much and looked frightened, the brigade commander's first reaction was that he didn't believe it. His subordinates must have been frightened by some conspiracy of the Eighth Route Army.
The Eighth Route Army did not even have a modern arsenal, so how could it possibly develop weapons that were more advanced than those of the Imperial Army.
Even if the brigade leader was killed, he wouldn't believe it.
The captain of the brigade became anxious and continued to report: "General, what I said about my humble position is true. If you don't believe it, you can pick any officers from the third brigade and ask them."
"This kind of landmine is so weird that it flies into the air and explodes."
"Everyone was lying on the ground, four or five meters away from the mines, but they were still hit by the fragments falling from the sky, and there was no place to hide!"
The brigade commander still didn't take this matter to heart.
To put it bluntly, even if the Eighth Route Army did have such landmines, what would be the use?
The limitations of landmines are too great, so you can only wait and see. No matter how advanced they are, their effect is very limited and they cannot change the situation of the war.
But he did not want to chill the hearts of his subordinates, and decisively ordered: "I will send people to investigate this matter and find out the source and specific power of the thank you mine as soon as possible."
"You go down and rest immediately. Although the casualties of the troops are a bit heavy, the weapons and ammunition of the front troops going south have been saved."
"As long as they are safe, the humiliation we suffered today in front of the Eighth Route Army will be paid back sooner or later."
When the convoy that stretched for several miles entered Baoding City in an orderly manner, the Dongfeng that Li Hao had been waiting for for a long time also arrived.
In the mountains southeast of Nanyan Town, Huang Sheng, the commander of the first battalion, pointed at the sketch drawn by the reconnaissance platoon and gave a serious order: "Comrades, the Japanese and puppet troops who entered the mountains have been thinned by us. The regiment leader ordered us to eat tonight."
Drop them."
"The ridge on the map is the tomb I chose for them."
"Now I will assign the combat mission: Company 1, Nanyan Town guerrillas, you are responsible for luring the enemy."
"In the past few days, we have been trying to create suspicion and deliberately defeated the enemy, causing the Japanese army to mistakenly believe that we suffered more than half of our casualties."
"The two armies add up to nearly 300 people. The Japanese will definitely regard you as the main force and hunt you down with all their might."
"I will build a blocking position on the mountain ridge in advance. After you bring the Japanese here, you will immediately enter the position and put on a posture to fight them here..."
"The second company outflanked the third company from the east..."
The first update is delivered today! Please subscribe! Please vote monthly! Please collect!