More than a hundred people from the Seventh Company were hiding in the bushes.
Two mountain guns, one heavy mortar, and four medium mortars were all mounted behind him.
The two thunder cannons were placed directly next to the troops because of insufficient range.
Seeing several pillars of black smoke rising from the stronghold and the collapsed gun towers, the deputy company commander seemed a little impatient and wished he could go to the battlefield now.
"Company Commander, it's almost over. If the artillery fire continues, the entire stronghold will be razed to the ground."
"By then all the weapons and ammunition in the stronghold will have been blown up, and nothing will be captured in the end."
The company commander shook his head and replied: "The artillery will fire two more rounds of shells, and then the infantry will kill them and clean up the remaining enemy."
"Captain Wang's district squadron attacked together, following closely behind the main force to take over the battlefield."
"Compared with the few weapons and ammunition captured in the stronghold, the lives of the soldiers are more important."
"As long as the casualties of the soldiers can be minimized, it doesn't matter if they are captured."
"After the attack begins, the main force is only responsible for sweeping the stronghold and killing a large number of Japanese and puppet troops. Then they will leave here and march to the next stronghold."
"Captain Zhang's district squadron went to the next stronghold with the main force, and half of the guerrillas also passed."
"The rest of the stronghold that slipped through the net, including cleaning the battlefield, will be handed over to Captain Wang's district squadron."
"Boom boom boom..."
As soon as the fourth round of shells was fired, the company commander made a move.
Like a cheetah, it swooped out from behind the bushes, waved its hand, and rushed forward holding the box cannon.
"Comrades, start the attack. The bugler will blow the charge horn. Kill with me... kill..."
More than a hundred soldiers, rifles in hand, bent at the waist, followed behind the company commander, rushing out of the forest like a pack of wolves.
The heavy machine gunners formed a group of four and rushed out of the forest together with their heavy machine guns.
The ammunition hand carried a box of ammunition and followed closely behind.
But their goal was not a stronghold. After rushing out of the bushes, they formed a group of two and headed straight for two highlands not far away.
When the attacking troops had completed a third of the way, they just reached the high ground.
A machine gun was mounted on the high ground and fired at the Japanese stronghold, providing fire cover for the attacking troops.
However, their addition seems a bit unnecessary to the entire battle.
The shelling just now was too violent, especially the torpedo cannons and heavy mortars. A shell fell down, killing or injuring the soldiers within a radius of twenty to thirty meters, and losing their combat effectiveness.
One-third of the more than one hundred Japanese and puppet troops were killed in the first round of artillery shells. After the remaining three rounds of artillery shells were dropped, not many were left that could move.
The current attack of the Seventh Company is perhaps more appropriately said to be an armed parade than a battle.
Encountering almost no resistance, they easily entered the stronghold.
The puppet soldiers who were still alive along the way were all frightened by the shelling just now. They didn't even need to say hello. They dropped their weapons from a distance and knelt down to surrender.
"Company commander, we have found the Little Japanese radio station. It is in the house behind the turret. It is intact and has not been turned on yet." A platoon of Changxing hurried over and reported.
"The Japanese radio operator was lying next to the radio station and was beaten to death by the explosive packets fired from the thunder cannon."
"So the news that we captured the Wuzhen stronghold should not have been leaked yet."
“Well done!”
The company commander exclaimed with relief.
This was what worried him most during the entire battle.
Once the news leaks out, the two strongholds that you will attack next will definitely get the news in advance and be prepared. Although the troops can also take them by force, the price paid in the end will definitely be higher.
This is what the company commander least wants to see.
In order to prevent the Japanese from sending telegrams, the company commander used all the artillery at his disposal.
Approach the stronghold silently, then use artillery to bombard it, giving the stronghold a fatal attack without giving them a chance to send a telegram.
Now it seems that his goal has been achieved.
As soon as his eyes lit up, he began to give orders: "The main force will replenish ammunition immediately and assemble and set off in ten minutes. We will kill the next stronghold. The district squadron and guerrillas who will attack with the team are also ready to go."
Nine strongholds were attacked at the same time. With such a big movement, one of the strongholds must have spread the news.
At the headquarters of the Japanese independent mixed brigade, Nakata Yamaro has just laid down. He is ready to have a good night's rest to replenish his strength for tomorrow's battle.
But God didn't intend to give him this opportunity.
"Bang bang bang..."
As soon as I closed my eyes, there was a rapid knock on the door.
"General, urgent report from the front!" the chief of staff rushed in and reported nervously.
Nakata Yamaro was very dissatisfied and shouted: "Bagel Ya Road, haven't we expected this incident a long time ago? We have also ordered all strongholds to strengthen their alerts and hold on to the strongholds until dawn. Why are you making such a fuss?"
The chief of staff quickly explained: "General, calm down!"
"We made some preparations, but we still far underestimated the courage and appetite of the Eighth Route Army in the occupied areas."
"The information we have received so far can confirm that three strongholds have been attacked, and contact has been lost one after another in less than an hour."
"They must have been eliminated by the garrison."
"These Eighth Route Army troops who sneaked into our occupied areas originally carried a large number of heavy weapons. Last night, they destroyed nearly ten of our guerrillas and must have captured a large number of weapons, especially heavy weapons such as siege guns."
"The garrison of each of our strongholds is seriously insufficient. Once attacked and the enemy is equipped with heavy weapons, the stronghold will be easily captured."
Nakata Yamaro didn't care much at first.
After hearing that three strongholds had been captured, he couldn't sit still.
He stood up from the bed and walked to the war room.
The chief of staff followed closely, hesitated and continued to report: "It is now confirmed that three strongholds have lost contact and were captured by the garrison."
"But I have a hunch that the actual number of strongholds under attack must be more than this number."
"The number of strongholds captured by the Eighth Route Army must have been more than three."
"I have just issued an order for the commanders of each defense area to immediately contact the bases below to find out the movements of the Eighth Route Army in the occupied areas, and then prepare in advance."
As soon as I walked into the war room, the radio station next to me rang.
After waiting for less than ten minutes, a telegram was sent to the chief of staff.
"General, a telegram was sent from the first and second brigades of the main force: they were attacked by the Eighth Route Army guerrillas half an hour ago."
"The troops responded promptly with artillery fire as ordered, successfully repelled the guerrillas and killed six of them."
Nakata Yamaro's tense expression suddenly relaxed a lot.
"This is good news. Although the result is small, it is very meaningful. It shows that our method is correct. The night attack that the Eighth Route Army is good at loses its effect in front of us."
"Chief of Staff, immediately contact the other two main forces, inform them of the situation, use the same method to hold on until dawn, and then march towards the battlefield to kill those annoying Eighth Route Army."
This episode did not affect the increasingly tense atmosphere in the war room.
An hour later, the war room slowly started to get busy.
At first there were only two radio stations for sending and receiving telegrams, then the number was increased to three, and finally all five radio stations were operational.
Telegrams continued to be delivered to the chief of staff with increasing frequency.
On the sand table in front of Nakata Yamaro, more than a dozen small flags representing the imperial army's strongholds have been pulled out.
"General, these Eighth Route Army's appetite is too big. They have already captured thirteen of our strongholds. We must respond, otherwise more strongholds will be captured by them." The chief of staff was very anxious and personally came from the sand table.
After pulling out a small flag, he couldn't help but remind him.
Nakata Yamaro's face was extremely gloomy.
I didn't expect that the garrison would take the lead and abandon the three-pronged offensive force. They would take advantage of the weak and directly attack the stronghold.
In his plan, the independent mixed brigade rushed over with murderous intent. Even if the Eighth Route Army operating in the occupied areas was not frightened, it should be thinking of ways to deal with them.
It happened to be night now. According to their combat style, they would definitely gather heavy troops to attack the independent mixed brigade at night to reduce the pressure for the upcoming head-on confrontation.
Unexpectedly, they actually did the opposite, leaving the independent mixed brigade as the protagonist, and concentrated their forces to deal with the stronghold garrison.
They will only play a supporting role in the subsequent attack, but they are also the imperial army.
As a commander, you must not just watch them get killed.
Therefore, although Nakata Yamarō was caught off guard by Li Hao's move, he was unable to defend himself.
But the battle was fought one accident after another.
He has been on the battlefield for a long time. He has encountered the changes in front of him more than once and has long been used to it.
Although he stood motionless by the sand table with a sullen face, his mind was running at high speed, thinking of ways to break the situation.
"retreat……"
Nakata Yamaro finally made the decision.
"Order the garrison troops in the occupied areas that are within the attack range of the garrison tonight to abandon their strongholds and retreat to nearby large strongholds overnight. All the garrison troops will join forces and defend the large strongholds."
"As long as the troops are saved and the independent mixed brigade comes over, it will take up to two days for us to recapture those lost strongholds."