"Sir, the attacking troops have withdrawn!" the deputy captain next to him shouted.
In less than half a minute, only a little more than half of the more than 200 attacking troops withdrew.
This meant that nearly a hundred of the attacking troops were either dead or injured and were left in the woods halfway up the mountain by the independent battalion.
Watanabe was very heartbroken, but he did not lose his mind. He decisively ordered: "The artillery will fire back immediately. The target remains unchanged. It is still the blocking position of the Independent Battalion just now. I will blow up those cunning Eighth Route Army!"
"Also, bring over the team leader who attacked just now. I want to know what happened in the woods just now?"
Not long after, a second lieutenant was brought over by the adjutant, his face was frighteningly pale.
There is a bandage hidden on the arm. The white bandage has been stained red with blood, and blood is constantly seeping out of the bandage.
Seeing the second lieutenant's sleeves that were stained red with blood, Watanabe immediately understood that the other man had lost too much blood after being shot in the arm.
He frowned and reminded: "I only need you to answer one question: what happened in the woods just now, and why did you return in defeat? If you answer this question, you can go down to rest and let the medical soldiers re-bandage the wounds!"
"Hi!" A look of solemnity flashed across the second lieutenant's face.
Then he supported his increasingly weak body and reported.
"The Eighth Route Army's blocking position is right at the edge of the woods. They can clearly see us hiding in the woods, but we can't see them!"
"When we rushed up, there was not a single Eighth Route Army soldier on the position. No one expected that they would push the position back more than ten meters."
"The woods are too dense. Even if they are only ten meters apart, I can't see them!"
Major Watanabe understood at this time and asked with a stern face: "Just when you thought the Eighth Route Army that attacked us had retreated, they suddenly launched a reactionary counterattack against you!"
"No, no matter how fierce the Eighth Route Army's firepower is in counterattacking you, you are right on the edge of the forest and can exit the forest immediately and be covered by the heavy machine gun squadron. It is impossible to casualty so many troops in such a short period of time!"
The second lieutenant's face became increasingly pale and he lowered his head as he answered.
"You are too careless in your humble position!"
"When the Eighth Route Army counterattacked us, I thought I could repel them and did not order the troops to retreat in time!"
"By the time the humble officer realized something was wrong and ordered the troops to withdraw from the forest quickly, more than half of the troops had already suffered casualties!"
Watanabe completely understood.
The reason why the attacking force suffered such heavy losses was not only that the independent battalion was too cunning, but also that its subordinates underestimated the enemy.
The first subconscious reaction is to deal with the second lieutenant in front of him, killing the chicken to scare the monkey, and setting a warning to others.
But after seeing the second lieutenant's pale face and the bandages and sleeves stained red with blood, he hesitated.
The other party has already been injured, and it would be too unkind to hold him accountable.
After taking a deep breath, he replied: "Go down and rest. It's not your fault. It's because our opponent is too cunning."
After saying that, Watanabe ordered the adjutant beside him: "Order the troops to continue the attack. This time the attacking troops should bring heavy machine guns. If they encounter a counterattack by the independent battalion, they will resolutely fight back and cover the main force to pass this section of the road smoothly!"
In the forest on the mountainside, Li Hao could not help but smile when he saw a company of guards going through the forest to clean up the battlefield. Many soldiers already carried two rifles on their backs.
Soon, the guard company commander Sun Jiawu rushed over with excitement: "Report to the battalion commander, the results have been tallied!"
"Only 86 corpses were found on the battlefield, 32 of which belonged to Japs. 75 rifles, three machine guns, and a grenade were seized!"
"Where are our own casualties?" Li Hao asked with a smile.
"Trivial!" Sun Jiawu quickly replied.
"We were hiding deep in the woods, and we had an absolute superiority in firepower. The whole half-minute of the firefight was fought by us suppressing the Japanese and puppet troops. If there are heavy casualties, then I should not be the company commander!"
"As for the two shellings before and after, the forest provided us with natural cover. Unless the shells hit us and exploded at close range, they would not be able to hurt anyone at all!"
"So the casualties caused by the shelling were very small. In total, eight people were killed, and six were seriously injured and lost their combat effectiveness!"
"I have drawn people from the recruit platoon to make up for the losses, and the combat effectiveness of several main platoons has not been affected in any way!"
"Batalion Commander, the Japanese have started attacking again!" Before Li Hao could speak, the sound of the security sentry came over.
Li Hao immediately rushed to the edge of the forest and raised his binoculars.
After taking one look at the Japanese and puppet attacking troops, he ordered with a serious face: "The troops will retreat immediately. There will be no fighting here!"
"Why!" Sun Jiawu was anxious!
"Battal Commander, if you give the guard company another chance, I promise to kill another half of their company with the same tactics you just used!"
Li Hao shook his head and refused firmly: "No, execute the order and retreat immediately!"
"Didn't you see that the Japanese attacking troops even brought heavy machine guns this time? This is obviously to prevent us from counterattacking from inside the forest!"
"Heavy machine guns are not for nothing. They are placed on the edge of the forest and fired into the forest. No matter how well we hide, the bullets can still hurt us!"
"Execute the order, we will go directly to the reconnaissance company!"
On the road, Major Watanabe kept staring at the battlefield.
The expected firefight did not happen. Major Watanabe did not curse the independent battalion for being cunning like the adjutant did, and ran away again when the situation turned bad. Instead, he remained unusually calm.
He had expected this scene from the beginning.
If it was so easy to block them here and fight the imperial army, then they would not be an independent battalion, and there would be no need for them to struggle for so long and still think of ways to force them out to fight with themselves.
After taking a deep breath, he ordered: "The troops continue to move forward!"
"Our mission remains unchanged. We will raid one village after another, and then burn all the villages and towns we pass along the way to ashes, forcing the independent battalion to fight us decisively!"
"I can guess that the more villages we destroy in the future, the higher the frequency of sneak attacks will be."
"But we can't let this mess up our plans!"
"The more the independent battalion attacks us, the more anxious they are, and it also proves that our actions hit their lifeblood."
"As long as we remain unmoved and continue to implement this plan, sooner or later the Independence Battalion will be forced out by us!"
"So from now on, when the troops are attacked again, it is best to use artillery and light and heavy machine guns to repel the enemy. There is really no way to dispatch infantry."
"And even if infantry is dispatched to counterattack, the purpose is to repel them and protect the main force and continue to advance, not to counterattack and kill them!"
"Also, contact the aviation force. I want aircraft support above us at all times!"
"If we encounter the Eighth Route Army's blocking position again, we can still use aerial bombs to blow it up!"
"Bombs are more powerful. Even if they are hiding in the woods or trenches and bunkers, we can easily kill them and make them afraid to come over and attack us!"
"Hi!" the adjutant immediately responded.
In Tianjia Village, dozens of kilometers away, the puppet troops were searching for money and food from house to house for more than 200 days. However, they were very disappointed. After two hours, everyone returned empty-handed.
The hungry Japanese and puppet soldiers had to make a fire to cook with the grain they brought with them in the threshing floor at the entrance of the village.
"Bang bang bang!"
Several gunshots rang out from behind a slope more than 200 meters away from the village, and the two puppet soldiers on guard around the threshing floor fell down in response.
Because they had not grabbed any food or property, both the Japanese and the puppet soldiers on the threshing floor were filled with anger and had no place to vent their anger.
The appearance of the sneak attacker was like a fuse, instantly detonating all their anger.
At first, there were only about 40 Japanese and puppet troops who rushed out of the threshing floor with guns drawn and rushed towards the slope where the gunfire had just been fired.
At this moment, a puppet soldier suddenly shouted: "Sir, they must be the guerrillas in the village!"
"The people and food in the village must have been moved away by them. As long as we catch them, we will be able to find out the whereabouts of the food and people!"
A very important purpose of Watanabe's raid was to grab food.
After hearing this, the Japanese Lieutenant's eyes began to shine, and he immediately shouted: "Then why are you still standing there? We must capture those guerrillas alive!"
"Everyone attacks, as long as we capture them alive, there will be plenty of food, oceans, pork, and mutton!"
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