With such a long distance and the resistance of the bunker, the incoming shock wave had only a little residual power, but it still made Kato's ears buzz and it took him a long time to recover.
You can imagine how bad the situation of the imperial army near the impact point was!
Kato quickly raised his telescope and looked nervously at the impact point just now!
A trace of despair slowly appeared on his pale face!
The impact point has turned into a huge crater, and a machine gun bunker next to it has made no sound, as if the soldiers inside are dead!
In the trench next to the bunker, several soldiers were blown out of the trench and lay motionless on the ground!
"Sir, it's a heavy mortar!" A squad leader reacted and shouted with horror on his face!
The squad leader on duty reacted and then added: "The Eighth Route Army's method of attack is still the same as the attack on the gun tower just now. The infantry feints to attack and force out all our firepower points. Then the artillery fires to destroy our firepower points and eliminate us bit by bit!"
Captain Kato scolded with a sullen face: "Bage Yalu, are you all stupid pigs?"
"The turrets and machine gun bunkers are so big here. You can see them clearly with just a quick glance. You can just blow them up with artillery. Do you need to use infantry to feign an attack to force us to shoot and expose the target?"
"Then why do they keep sending troops to attack us?" The team leader couldn't understand and asked with a frown!
Kato's face became even more ugly, and he replied sullenly: "If I'm not wrong, the Eighth Route Army is using us to train their new recruits to have courage!"
A battle-hardened veteran who commanded a group of elites turned out to be someone else's training target and whetstone!
For Captain Kato, this can definitely be called a shame and a major failure in his military career!
But even if he figured it out and knew that he had become the grindstone of the Eighth Route Army, he still had no solution in the face of the two deadly weapons of heavy mortars and mountain artillery!
"Rumble..."
The explosion sounded again, this time it was very close to them, less than five meters away!
The moment the fire started rising in front of their eyes, powerful air waves and shock waves had already poured into the bunker, causing them to lose consciousness on the spot!
"The heavy mortar will fire another round of shells, and the thunder cannon will have some fun. Once it is set up, launch it and fire a round of explosive charges!" Yuan Shan's eyes have never left the battlefield. The heavy mortar shells are in the bunker.
He could clearly see the scene of the explosion next to him, and while a flash of excitement flashed across his face, he ordered decisively!
"The infantry is ready to attack. All bayonets are fixed. As soon as the explosion is over, charge forward without leaving any reserves!"
"At the end of the battle, no matter whether it's a new soldier or an old soldier, everyone's bayonets will be stained with blood!"
"The squad platoon leader is responsible for supervision. Whose bayonet is not stained with blood? I will directly ask the squad platoon leader!"
"Rumble..."
After a series of more violent explosions sounded at the stronghold, the battlefield became completely quiet!
Apart from sporadic gunfire and the sound of ammunition exploding, there was no other sound!
Yuan Shan held up the telescope and could clearly see every move of the Japanese army's position!
Several huge craters are scattered on the battlefield, and there are many corpses lying around each crater in various postures!
The original machine gun bunker stood alone on the position. Although it was not damaged, there was no movement inside the bunker!
Several Japanese were not killed on the spot. They were lying on the ground, dragging their injured bodies and squirming on the ground, screaming in agony. It was very painful!
Inside the stronghold, a few sparse figures have turned into frightened birds, wandering around the stronghold, not daring to block the position!
Seeing this scene, a smile slowly appeared on Yuan Shan's serious face, and he decisively ordered: "The bugler... blow the charge bugle, and the troops begin to attack..."
In less than half an hour, the gunfire in the stronghold stopped completely!
In the open space in the middle of the stronghold, more than 300 puppet soldiers squatted there. They were nervous, worried, and lucky!
In the barracks where they had just been locked up, there were more than twenty corpses lying there. They had just died and were still bleeding.
They are all officers and cadres placed by the Japanese in the puppet army, as well as traitors who work wholeheartedly for the Japanese!
"Company Commander, we won!" the instructor rushed to Yuan Shan and reported excitedly!
Until now, he had not recovered from the shock that this battle had brought to him!
A group of new recruits could attack a heavily defended Japanese stronghold and do so cleanly, and the battle was over in less than an hour!
If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn't have believed it even to death!
"How are the troop casualties?" Yuan Shan asked calmly, bringing the instructor back to reality from the surprise!
For Yuan Shan, this result was expected!
In a head-to-head battle, strength means everything. This is the exact words the regiment commander told all battalion and company commanders before the war.
On the frontal battlefield, in the face of absolute strength, any conspiracy or trick is vulnerable.
For the Ninth Company, one mountain cannon, two heavy mortars, four mine cannons, two 81mm caliber mortars and two Type 92 heavy machine guns are what the regiment commander calls absolute
strength!
In front of the steel cannonballs and bullets they shoot out, on the battlefield, no matter whether the opponent is a recruit or a veteran, they will die if they encounter them!
The only difference is that veterans have rich combat experience, can dodge some fatal attacks, and live a little longer on the battlefield! New recruits are inexperienced, easily scared, and live shorter, but this does not affect the final result of the battle!
That's why the Ninth Company dared to attack the Xiaozhuang stronghold, and Li Hao dared to use a group of new soldiers to counterattack the Japanese army on a large scale.
When mentioning the casualties of the troops, the smile on the instructor's face disappeared immediately, and he replied heartbrokenly: "21 people were sacrificed, eight were seriously injured, and almost a platoon was lost!"
"Half of these casualties were caused during the attack, and half were caused by the Japanese hiding among the puppet troops after the troops entered the stronghold!"
"They have accurate marksmanship and rich combat experience. Any soldier they target will either die or be injured!"
"Finally, we brought in heavy machine guns to kill them all!"
Yuan Shan is also very heartbroken, especially those soldiers who sacrificed their lives!
Many people died without even seeing what a Japs looked like!
But he knows that if an army wants to grow, casualties will never be avoided!
Only through continuous training in the flames of war and the survival of the fittest can the army be reborn and grow into a truly elite force!
He sighed and replied: "The casualties are a bit heavy, but the remaining soldiers are definitely not as afraid of going to the battlefield as before the war!"
"I'm sure that although the unit has lost one platoon, its overall combat effectiveness is definitely stronger than before!"
"Immediately draw people from the recruit company to make up for the losses of each platoon! The troops rest for half an hour, and then continue to set off and march towards Gufeng Town!"
"Contact the district squadron at the back, hand over all the prisoners and wounded to them, and then organize the villagers to carry the weapons, ammunition and food we seized at the stronghold overnight! I saw that the food in the warehouse alone contained 50,000 kilograms, and the Japanese and puppet troops spent two days
Month's rations. Transport them all back, not a grain of grain or a bullet casing can be left behind!"
"The third company of the county brigade will follow us and go to the stronghold of Gufeng Town together!"
"Be on alert around the cavalry company and report immediately if you see any enemy activity!"
In the Japanese military headquarters in Taiyuan, the war room that was quiet just now was suddenly broken by the ringing of the phone!
The staff officer on duty grabbed the microphone and listened to it for less than a minute before his face became serious!
I haven’t even had time to put down the microphone yet!
"Jingle Bell……"
The new phone rang again, and two phones next to it rang at the same time!
The remaining two staff officers on duty were stunned. You looked at me and I looked at you. They both saw a look of solemnity in each other's eyes, and then they quickly grabbed the microphone and put it to their ears!
Sure enough, in less than a minute, the expressions of the two staff officers became solemn!
"Chief of Staff, something happened!"
The staff officer who answered the phone first put down the phone and reported to the chief of staff on duty who was resting next to him!
"The defense regiment suddenly broke out of the base and launched an attack on our defense line. Contact with the Xiaozhuang stronghold on the Laiyuan defense line has been lost!"
The chief of staff opened his eyes. He hadn't fully woken up from his sleep yet, and he didn't know where the Xiaozhuang stronghold reported by his subordinates was!
Just as I sat up and prepared to ask, another staff officer had already put down the phone and reported hurriedly.
"Sir, the Guangling defense line was also attacked by the Eighth Route Army, and contact with the Baosheng stronghold was lost!"
"Sir, the Laiyuantian merchant stronghold was attacked by the garrison and contact has been lost!"
Three consecutive bad news reached his ears, and the chief of staff finally woke up, sat up from the bed, and then hurriedly rushed to the sand table!
The three staff officers quickly marked the strongholds they reported to on the sand table!
Before I could take a breath, the phone next to the sand table rang again, an endless stream of people!
"Chief of Staff! The Guangling Kangzhuang stronghold was attacked by the garrison and lost contact..."
"Chief of Staff, the stronghold in Hongyuan Town, Laiyuan, was attacked. The Eighth Route Army used mountain artillery, heavy mortars, and thunder cannons. The offensive was very fierce. The garrison suffered heavy casualties. Please reinforce!"
In less than an hour from the first ringing of the phone, eight small flags representing the imperial army's strongholds had been pulled out from the sand table. Several strongholds were under attack. It was still unknown whether they could be defended!
I saw that the defense line used to block the garrison on the sand table had been punched with a large number of gaps, and several strongholds in the hinterland of the imperial army's occupied area had even been pulled out!
The chief of staff is confused!
I don’t understand what the garrison is going to do?
With confusion and shock, he shouted out loud: "Bage Ya Road, are the defense team crazy?"
"What is this going to do? Are they planning to launch a full-scale counterattack against the imperial army with a group of new soldiers?"
"Their commander must be crazy, otherwise he wouldn't make such a crazy decision!"
"Now more than a dozen strongholds have been attacked, and more than half of the strongholds have lost contact. The total loss of the imperial army must be more than a thousand people!"
"Who can tell me how the garrison did it? How could a group of new recruits have such strong combat effectiveness?"
"No, this matter is too big. I can't make the decision on my own, and I can't judge the real conspiracy of the garrison. I must report it to the military commander immediately and ask him to make a decision!"
