At ten o'clock in the evening, the Japanese military station, which had been bustling all day, fell completely silent.
Except for the patrols and the blazing consequences, the other Japanese and puppet troops seemed to be trapped in a dream...
In the tent where the division headquarters was located, Lieutenant General Sato was not sleepy at all. Several officers of the regiment and above, including the chief of staff, gathered together to discuss something.
There is a hand-drawn sketch on the table in front of everyone. Where are the defense lines around the station, where are the troops, where are the heavy firepower points, artillery positions...all are marked on it.
"Division Commander..."
The chief of staff pointed at the sketch and introduced it.
"We have five mortar squadrons... I arranged for one mortar squadron to maneuver in the center, and the remaining four mortar squadrons assisted in defending the four directions of the station!"
"In order to inflict maximum casualties on the independent regiment, I gave them a special order: Only if the independent regiment launching the attack exceeds two companies can they launch poison gas bombs..."
"Otherwise we can only fire ordinary high-explosive bombs..."
"The troops in the station are all dispersed in small groups to prevent them from being overwhelmed by the heavy artillery battalion of the independent regiment..."
Lieutenant General Zuo Teng nodded repeatedly after hearing this. He stared at the map and thought for a while but found no loopholes. Then he said expectantly: "Then we will wait and see, waiting for the independent group to have a head-on collision here and cause bloodshed."
The hilltop where Kong Jie observed the enemy's situation during the day has been transformed into a former enemy headquarters.
At this moment, he was standing at the observation entrance, looking calmly at the Japanese garrison that was gradually quieting down a few kilometers away.
"Captain... the little devil is already asleep, can we start?" Chief of Staff Li Wensheng asked expectantly.
Kong Jie looked at his watch and replied: "Wait another half hour..."
"The bombardment will be more effective when the Japanese are more asleep and then attack!"
"Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...
The scream of artillery shells streaking across the sky soon sounded on the battlefield. In the violent explosion, groups of fireballs rose into the sky and instantly illuminated the battlefield into daylight.
Large-caliber heavy artillery, mountain field artillery, large-caliber mortars, ordinary mortars, and even flying thunder cannons... desperately poured shells at the Japanese camp.
After a while, the four defense lines built by the Japanese around the camp were completely shrouded in artillery fire, making it difficult to see...
The eight main companies, divided into four groups, slowly rushed out of their hiding spots and went straight to the Japanese blocking position.
They want to get as close as possible under the cover of artillery fire to shorten the attack distance.
Huang Yu stood aside and felt guilty when he saw that the leader had sent almost all the main members of the independent group out... He always felt that something unexpected would happen tonight.
Li Wensheng watched with excitement, feeling that the Independent Regiment was a sure winner tonight and would be able to severely inflict a heavy blow on Zuo Tō's division.
He patted Huang Yu on the shoulder and said, "Xiao Huang, the devils only have so many trump cards..."
"As long as the artillery advantage is in our hands, no matter what plot they play, we can crush them with artillery shells!"
"Without an infantry attack in a while, artillery alone can kill half of the little Japs on the defense line!"
"The attacking troops rushed up quickly before they could react to the artillery fire, and then caught them off guard..."
"That's it for the little devils on the defensive line!"
"The reconnaissance company has clearly identified the Japanese camp. There are only two lines of defense in front of the attacking troops..."
"The Sato Division heavily defends the outer defense line with only a small number of troops on the inner line."
"As long as we break through the outer defense line, the offensive troops will be able to attack with overwhelming force, continue to attack forward, seize their inner line, and then go straight to Huanglong and enter their division headquarters!"
"Taking a step back... Even if the four-pronged offensive force only takes down the four outer lines of Japanese defense, they can still kill two to three thousand little Japs!"
"There are a total of 8,000 people left in Zuotou's division... If we eat another 3,000 people, the remaining troops will not be as large as ours!"
"If you don't retreat and stay here, our independent group won't mind eating them up!"
Huang Yu couldn't find any reason to refute the chief of staff and could only nod in agreement with his analysis.
At this moment, the bad feeling in his mind suddenly became stronger and stronger.
An idea struck me, and a question suddenly occurred to me: "Captain!"
"According to the investigation... Zuotou's division has at least fifty small-caliber mortars. It's not that they don't have any artillery counterattack capabilities!"
"But until now, we have only seen our artillery attacking their defense lines, but not a single shell fired by their artillery!"
"This is so abnormal. I think Sato is going to do something dirty to us!"
"In order to respond to emergencies in time, I want to go to the battlefield in person!"
Kong Jie also felt something was wrong, but the arrow had already been shot, and the attacking troops had no choice but to continue fighting if they wanted to retreat!
He nodded to Huang Yu and ordered: "Bring the special forces team... and a radio station. Contact me immediately if there is any situation..."
At the Japanese division headquarters, Lieutenant General Sato did not stay in the tent waiting for news.
As soon as the gunshots fired outside, he climbed up to the high ground next to the tent and observed the battle personally.
In this way, the real combat situation can be understood more intuitively, without wasting time in sending messages, and combat orders can be issued to the troops more quickly.
"Division commander... there are at least two thousand people from the independent regiment participating in the attack. We will definitely win this battle..." the Japanese division chief of staff said happily as he glanced at the battlefield.
"It's that their artillery positions are all outside the effective range of our army's ordinary mortars!" the artillery staff officer followed Xuan Xuan.
"If they place their mountain artillery and heavy artillery within the range of our mortars, they only need to fire two or three rounds of poison gas bombs, and their heavy artillery battalion will be finished."
"In the next battle, we no longer have to worry about their artillery fire!"
"Don't be anxious!" Lieutenant General Sato comforted him confidently.
"There is a saying in China that the greedy snake swallows the elephant... We only have so many mortars. If we blow up their artillery, we will have no artillery to blow up the infantry!"
"Comparing the two, I think the infantry poses a greater threat to us!"
"Without infantry protection, no matter how powerful the artillery is and no matter how heavy the artillery equipment is, it is still a piece of meat on our chopping board!"
"Order: All four mortar squadrons should aim at a range of 100 to 200 meters in front of the formation!"
"Be sure to wait until all the Japs enter the artillery fire coverage area before using poison gas bombs!"
"Strive to keep all the 2,000 Eighth Route Army troops participating in the attack in one battle!"
"Investigation shows that while we suffered heavy losses, we also killed more than half of the independent regiment!"
"If we kill two thousand of their elite infantry tonight, there will be no one left in the independent regiment!"
"In the next sweeps, we can run rampant through their base areas like we did a few days ago, without caring about anything, until we force the remnants of the independent regiment to come out and fight us!"
"Do you hear me clearly? Success or failure depends on this. No one or any unit can have any accidents."
The chief of staff replied firmly: "Please rest assured, division commander..."
"The humble position will definitely make it impossible for the independent regiment's offensive troops to come back!"
