The Japs were extremely efficient in their work. As soon as the main force of the assault battalion withdrew from their positions, the scream of field artillery shells streaking across the sky sounded overhead.
"Woooooooooooo...boom..."
The shell fell from the sky and hit the open space less than thirty meters away from the blocking position. The black smoke rising into the sky was twenty to thirty meters high, which showed how powerful the shell was.
"This is a Japanese test-fire of artillery shells... Everyone should prepare for shelling immediately..." A look of solemnity flashed across Huang Yu's face, giving a serious order.
"Woooooooooooo...boom..."
As soon as his front feet got into the shell-proof hole of the headquarters, screams and explosions sounded behind him, and the gun-proof hole under his feet trembled several times in the explosion.
"Rumble..."
From this moment on, the explosions overhead never stopped.
The soil on the roof of the bomb-proof cave also continued to fall during the explosion. If it were not supported by wooden boards, it might have collapsed on the spot...
Three minutes later, the killing spree came to an end after being covered in a barrage of artillery fire.
"Battal Commander, the Japs have begun to attack!" the observation post holding the position suddenly reminded at the entrance of the cave.
"Enter the position!" Huang Yu took the lead and rushed out of the artillery hole.
The command post was thirty or forty meters away from the blocking position. Only a few shells exploded nearby and did not hit the command post.
Huang Yu glanced at the situation around him, then dived in, went straight to the observation port, raised his binoculars and looked at the position.
The smoke that filled the battlefield had not dissipated, and Huang Yu could not see anything.
But I can feel that the situation there is very bad.
An artillery shell was hit fifteen meters away from the command post, and the crater was more than one meter deep... Only artillery shells with a caliber of more than 100 millimeters can be so powerful.
The blocking position is a purely civil fortification. In the face of such artillery shells, it will definitely be like paper and be directly flattened to the ground.
The Japanese and puppet troops attacked the position. More than a hundred Japanese soldiers and nearly two hundred Japanese soldiers lined up in three skirmishing lines and quickly approached the blocking position.
One look at this posture showed that they wanted to shorten the assault distance as much as possible while the blocking troops had not yet reacted to the sudden artillery attack.
Behind the attacking troops, there were at least ten heavy machine guns standing ready, ready to join the battle at any time.
There are also many mortars with their barrels raised, ready to knock out the firepower that intercepts the attacking troops.
"Pa bang bang..."
A series of rifle shots suddenly sounded in the blocking position.
The gunfire was sparse and chaotic, giving people the impression that the blocking troops had suffered heavy casualties.
Huang Yu's first feeling was the same, and his brows wrinkled unconsciously.
But he soon realized that Wei Dayong was showing weakness to the Japanese.
He left two platoon defensive positions, equipped with four crooked handles and four grenade launchers.
Before the Japanese bombardment, Wei Dayong was specifically told that the four machine gun teams should be separated to avoid the artillery fire.
Although the artillery raid just now was very fierce, and even a lot of heavy artillery was deployed, it was impossible to kill all four machine gun teams...
The machine gun was not destroyed by the Japanese, but Wei Dayong did not use the machine gun to attack the Japanese. The only explanation is that he deliberately showed weakness.
The Japanese and puppet troops participating in the attack did not know that Wei Dayong was showing weakness.
In their eyes, heavy artillery is extremely powerful, and no troops can survive the attack of heavy artillery.
Only a few dozen rifles were left in the blocking position to fire, further proving their judgment.
Since the Eighth Route Army's blocking troops have suffered heavy casualties, the next attack will definitely go very smoothly. Whoever rushes faster will be able to win the first victory in the counter-mopping up.
Stimulated by their military exploits, even the puppet soldiers who were usually not good at fighting in the field went crazy.
Each one of them was as if they had been given a shot of blood, charging forward with guns in hand and risking their lives.
I'm afraid that if I run a step slower, someone else will take away my first achievement.
"Dong dong dong..." More than a dozen heavy machine guns that provided fire cover for the attacking troops suddenly joined the battle.
However, the gunfire on the blocking position was too sparse, and the heavy machine gun had no chance to lock on the target, so it could only shoot aimlessly at the blocking position.
In this way, the gunshots on the blocking position seemed to be unaffected, and they continued to shoot here and there without any pattern.
There seems to be no threat, but if you look carefully, you will find that these sporadic gunshots are extremely accurate.
A puppet soldier fell down with almost two or three gunshots!
When the puppet forwards reached forty or fifty meters in front of the formation, more than twenty puppet corpses had fallen on the offensive path.
It was only then that the smoke that filled the position dissipated a lot, and Huang Yu could finally see a series of blurry figures.
The tense nerves immediately relaxed.
There were more than 80 people in the first and second platoons of the company. Although the blocking position was a mess, there were gaps and craters everywhere... At a glance, there were at least 60 figures moving on the position.
This means that although the two platoons suffered casualties in the artillery raid just now, they were not serious.
But there was a problem that Huang Yu couldn't figure out. The Japanese and puppet troops rushed right under his nose, and the machine gun team still didn't appear in the blocking position.
"Rumble..."
All kinds of grenades flew out of the position as if they were free. In the blink of an eye, the position 40 meters in front of the formation was shrouded in smoke from the explosion. Grenade fragments flew everywhere, forming a fire belt here...
Many Japanese and puppet troops ran into it and never came out.
There were also many lucky Japanese and puppet soldiers who rushed out of the fire zone, then took out grenades and hand grenades, preparing to throw them into the blocking position in tit for tat.
The first and second platoons who quickly threw three rounds of grenades have begun to retreat, but there are still many soldiers who are too far away from the traffic trench and have not yet evacuated their positions.
The grenades and grenades thrown by the Japanese and puppet troops roared towards them, and the smoke from the explosion instantly drowned them...
"Hurry up and evacuate...we won't be able to leave if it's too late!" Huang Yu looked worried and couldn't help shouting.
“Dong dong dong… da da da…”
At the critical moment, Huang Yu's light and heavy machine guns, which had never been found, suddenly joined the battle.
Two heavy machine guns and three light machine guns were divided into two machine gun bunkers, and they opened fire on the Japanese and puppet troops who were close at hand.
The two bunkers were located twenty meters behind the position. They looked like a mound from a distance. Each bunker had three shooting holes. The rain of bullets formed a crossfire, wildly shooting at the Japanese and puppet troops who crossed the grenade interception net.
"Boom boom..."
Two explosions sounded at the same time in the middle of the attacking troops. I don't know whether it was a blind cat that killed a mouse, or the grenade launcher's shooting accuracy was really high. The two grenades actually hit the Japanese soldiers, and the five little Japanese soldiers fell to the ground.
The Japanese and puppet troops charging at the front of the team were directly attacked, like a piece of ripe wheat, instantly cut down by crossfire...
Once these Japanese and puppet troops died, the Japanese and puppet troops behind them were unable to throw grenades into the blocking position because they were too far away.
The danger faced by the first and second platoons disappeared instantly, carrying the wounded and the remains of the fallen soldiers, and calmly evacuated the position.
"Boom boom boom..."
The Japanese were obviously unwilling to fail and did not want the Eighth Route Army's blocking force to slip away from under their noses.
I saw five machine gun fire points suddenly appearing behind the position. The artillery and grenade launchers providing cover fire were like a group of hungry wolves smelling the smell of blood. They fired at them one after another...
What surprised them was that the five machine gun bunkers were like invincible enemies. No matter how dense the mortar shells were, the five light and heavy machine guns still fired tenaciously without being affected at all.
"Rumble..."
A more violent explosion suddenly sounded near the bunker, and five light and heavy machine guns misfired at the same time. Then there was no sound of counterattack gunfire from the blocking position, and only the explosion of artillery shells fired by the Japanese army remained.
"Let's withdraw too..." Upon seeing this, Huang Yu was satisfied with the order. He picked up the telescope and walked out of the command post, heading straight for the next blocking position.
Two minutes later, the sound of artillery fire on the blocking position also stopped, and the attacking troops were easily taken down as if they were in uninhabited territory.
Looking at the corpses of soldiers who fell on the attack road, Colonel Ando couldn't laugh at all.
Even though I had already tried my best to kill the chicken, the Eighth Route Army in the blocking position was still tenaciously alive and caused heavy casualties to the attacking troops...
This is definitely the most tenacious Chinese army that Colonel Ando has encountered so far.
Thinking back to the losses caused to the troops by previous mine wars, Colonel Ando decisively added the word "most cunning" after "the most tenacious".
The opponents were both cunning and tenacious... their combat effectiveness was surprisingly high, and their light equipment was no worse than that of the Imperial Army. Colonel Ando was forced to concentrate on dealing with them, and he became increasingly worried about the coming sweep.
"Sir...the attacking troops reported...they did not find a corpse of the Eighth Route Army on the position..." the adjutant reported solemnly.
"The situation on the position is similar to the military report..."
"In addition to the blocking positions we saw with our eyes, the Eighth Route Army also built a large number of anti-gun holes and machine gun bunkers on the positions..."
"The artillery assault destroyed four gun-proof holes and two machine gun bunkers, leaving a dozen gun-proof holes and two machine gun bunkers to survive!"
"The five light and heavy machine guns that suddenly joined the battle just now are all hidden in the remaining two machine gun bunkers!"
"In the second round of artillery raids, the remaining two machine gun bunkers were completely destroyed by us, but the Eighth Route Army hiding inside had retreated from the communication trenches..."
Colonel Ando was in a very bad mood. He was like a powder keg that could explode at any time. He clenched his fists and asked with a ferocious face: "Where are the casualties? How many troops did the attacking force lose in total?"
"105 people died in the battle... 18 people were seriously injured... including 36 imperial soldiers..." the adjutant reported with his head lowered.
Colonel Ando became even more angry after hearing this, but he still suppressed the rising anger in his heart and ordered with a stern face: "We still underestimate the enemy too much!"
"The independent group's will to resist is stronger than we thought!"
"If we encounter this kind of blocking position next time...the coverage time of the first round of artillery fire must be doubled, and the number of artillery pieces participating in the battle must also be doubled..."
"If possible, it's best to call in aircraft for support and drop a few aerial bombs on the blocking position!"
"No matter how strong the anti-gun caves built by the Eighth Route Army are, they are purely civil fortifications and will never withstand an aerial bomb attack!"
"Without the artillery holes and machine gun bunkers, I don't see what the Eighth Route Army has to resist our attack!"
On the way the assault battalion retreated, Wei Dayong ran all the way to catch up with Huang Yu: "Report to the battalion commander that the assault company successfully completed the blocking mission..."
"I made a visual inspection. In the battle just now, we killed at least a hundred Japanese and puppet troops!"
"It should be more than that!" Huang Yu said with satisfaction.
"You brought all the light machine guns to the bunker to attack the Japanese and puppet troops. The distance between the two sides was so close that it was like target practice. You killed twenty or thirty Japanese and puppet troops in four to five seconds. This was a good move!"
"Not only did it kill their attack momentum, preventing the subsequent Japanese and puppet troops from throwing grenades at the blocking position, but also allowed the blocking troops to successfully evacuate the position...killing two birds with one stone..."
"By the way...are there many casualties among the troops..."
"In the next few days, our assault battalion will be the only one blocking the middle-road mopping up troops... There are still ten or twenty blocking positions to defend in the back. If the casualties are too great, no one will be able to defend the positions in the back!"
Wei Dayong hurriedly reported: "Don't worry, battalion commander... the casualties are all within control!"
"A total of 17 soldiers were sacrificed and five soldiers were seriously injured..."
"Half of the infantry squad and a machine gun team were buried directly in the bomb hole, and no one was rescued..."
"The other soldiers were killed or seriously injured in the subsequent firefight!"
"The casualty ratio is almost five to one, a good fight!" The smile on Huang Yu's face grew wider.
The military order he issued in front of Kong Jie was to kill the two thousand Japanese puppet troops. If the battle continued at this casualty ratio, the assault battalion would only need to pay four to five hundred people to complete the task.
But the good mood didn't last long before it was replaced by seriousness again, looking at Wei Dayong's reminder!
"The army has won the battle. As the company commander, you should indeed celebrate it, but you must not underestimate the enemy!"
"In the battle just now, the Japanese must have figured out your tactics. If you try to use the same method to deal with them again, it will be difficult to achieve the same results as just now. Otherwise, you may even lose your troops!"
"I'm so happy, now think about how to fight the next blocking battle!"
"I don't make any requirements regarding the outcome of the battle, but the casualties must be limited to twenty-five people!"
Wei Dayong immediately put away the smile on his face and replied with a serious face: "Don't worry, captain, I have already thought about it when I retreated just now!"
"The reason why the Japanese army is able to run rampant in our country and fight against them in every direction is because of its superior artillery fire!"
"Before I joined the Independent Regiment, I had even seen the Little Japanese 150 mm caliber heavy artillery and suffered bombings. This time the Japanese army only brought 105 mm mountain cannon. Compared with the 150 mm caliber howitzer, the power is not at the same level... "
"When it comes to artillery defense experience, among all the company and platoon commanders in the assault battalion, I claim to be second, but no one dares to claim to be first!"
"In the next battle, the Japanese will definitely increase the number of artillery and the bombardment time, and there will definitely be fewer artillery holes that can survive. I plan to give up this battle and only use machine gun bunkers, letting the Japanese waste hundreds of heavy artillery shells... "
"The main force of the company withdrew directly to the third blocking position, collected logs again to reinforce the anti-gun holes there, combined virtual and real forces, and dealt them a severe blow there."
Huang Yu was confused by Wei Dayong's surprise, but he soon thought of the beauty of this style of play...
According to inertial thinking, the Japanese will definitely increase their firepower output and storm the second blocking position.
Wei Dayong took him by surprise and directly abandoned the second blocking position, which would definitely confuse the Japanese!
