"General..." The captain of the First Battalion lowered his head and walked in front of Major General Fujita. Compared with the high-spirited way in which the attacking troops occupied the first line of defense of the Eighth Route Army just now, he looked completely different.
"Say..." Major General Fujita asked, suppressing the anger bubbling out from his heart.
"The Eighth Route Army who raided the back of the attacking troops ran away..." the captain reported solemnly.
"After the surviving soldiers of the attacking force returned to their positions, except for a few collapsed tunnel entrances and bullet casings, not a single Eighth Route Army corpse was found."
"Before I took the post, I thought that the tunnels reported to us by the Baoding garrison were exaggerated. Now it seems that we have underestimated the enemy."
"The Yizhong Eighth Route Army not only dug tunnels in the village, but also dug tunnels in the position."
"When the offensive troops occupied the first trench, the Eighth Route Army defensive troops hid in the tunnel and could not come out."
"Wait for the attacking troops to suddenly rush out of the tunnel when they attack the second line of defense. Surprise the attacking troops from behind and make a quick decision. After the attack, retreat from the tunnel. Destroy all tunnel entrances and exits before leaving, unless you take the time to dig out the collapsed areas. At the tunnel entrance, otherwise we won’t be able to pursue him.”
Major General Fujita asked with a stern face: "Are there many casualties to the attacking troops?"
The captain lowered his head and reported in embarrassment: "There are less than one squadron left in the two infantry squadrons... There are still two platoons left in the two companies of the Imperial Association Army, with more than 400 direct casualties."
"idiot……"
The more Major General Fujita listened, the angrier he became. He glared with a pair of big red eyes, gritted his teeth and cursed: "We fired so many shells and lost so many troops, but not even a single Eighth Route Army was wiped out."
"I have been fighting for so many years, and I have never been as frustrated as I am today. It is simply unreasonable."
"The artillery continues to attack the second line of defense of the Eighth Route Army, reorganize the offensive troops, and start the attack in ten minutes. Be sure to take it down for me."
"There are tunnel entrances and exits left by the Eighth Route Army on the first line of defense, and there must be tunnel entrances and exits left by the Eighth Route Army on the second line of defense."
"By taking down the second line of defense, we can enter the tunnel through the tunnel entrance and exit and eliminate the Eighth Route Army hiding in the tunnel."
Major General Fujita was furious and urgently needed to find the Eighth Route Army to vent his anger. The captain did not dare to touch his brow at this time and quickly went to make arrangements.
…………
At the ground headquarters of the garrison, Huang Yu is also making targeted arrangements for the new round of attacks by the Japanese and puppet troops.
Just as he was about to give the order, Wang Lin put down the phone with a smile: "Captain, there is a call from Commander Chen of the 1st Battalion. They did not sacrifice a single person in the raid just now, but they killed more than 200 little Japs. More than a hundred puppet troops."
"They implored the regiment headquarters to continue to let them defend the second line of defense and use the same method to severely damage the Japanese and puppet offensive forces again."
"Is he dreaming?" Huang Yu said angrily.
"It's true that the commander of the puppet army was a fool. He just suffered more than 400 casualties in their hands, and he immediately made the same mistake again... No, it should be that even fools are not that stupid..."
"Ask them to immediately retreat to the third line of defense and be ready for a head-on confrontation with the Japanese and puppet troops."
"Contact Wei Dayong immediately, I want to have a phone call with him personally."
After a while, Wang Lin sent the connected phone to Huang Yu, and Wei Dayong's report came from the receiver: "Captain, the second battalion is ready for battle. Please give the order!"
"Is it Wei Dayong..." Huang Yu said bluntly.
"The Japanese have already suffered a tunnel defeat at the hands of Chen Jia. In the next battle, they will definitely check every position they take to prevent us from emerging from the tunnel again and kill them with a single shot."
"I decided to defend the second tunnel without worry. After repelling the first round of Japanese and puppet attacks, the second battalion would evacuate the position and destroy all tunnel entrances and exits except the secret entrances."
"Is there any problem with your second battalion? Can it withstand the attack of the Japanese and puppet troops under the joint attack of Japanese planes and heavy artillery, and severely damage their attacking troops?"
Wei Dayong was a man who refused to admit defeat and couldn't stand the slightest stimulation, so he immediately replied: "Commander, please rest assured that we are here to ensure that the first attack of the Japanese and puppet troops is repelled and the second line of defense is defended."
After saying that, he put down the phone and rushed to the troops.
Huang Yu immediately put down the microphone and raised the telescope again to look at the battlefield.
Wang Lin followed him and asked with a worried look on his face: "Commander, let the Second Battalion hold its position now, so you don't have to worry about the little Japs using the attacking troops as bait to concentrate artillery fire on the Second Battalion and stage a massacre for us."
"Then it depends on whether the leader of the Little Devil Brigade has the determination and courage." Huang Yu thought for a moment and analyzed.
"When defending the first line of defense, the Japanese and puppet troops are abundant and urgently need a good start to boost the morale of the troops. It is very likely that they will ignore the safety of the attacking troops and shell the blocking position while the first battalion is blocking the attack, severely damaging the first battalion."
"The situation is different now."
"The Japanese lost two infantry squadrons before they fought a tough battle with us, and their morale is low. If they take advantage of the close firefight between the two sides and send out artillery to bombard the blocking position and accidentally injure a large number of attacking troops, even if they win in the end, the morale of the troops will be low. It will not improve, but it will make the Japanese feel that their brigade commander has no way to defeat us and has to accidentally injure his own people, which will seriously affect the brigade commander's prestige in the military, and the gain outweighs the loss."
"Of course, if the Japanese brigade commander bombards the blocking position at all costs, we must bear it hard."
"The Japanese army attacking us has a reinforced brigade. We cannot defeat them by relying on clever fighting alone. We must fight hard."
"Wei Dayong is very good at fighting tough battles, and the troops he led also like to fight tough battles, so I put him in the second-line position and changed the teachings for our first tough battle with the Japs. By the way, I tried out the legendary How powerful is the Kwantung Army?"
"Rumble..."
The last round of artillery shells roared in, and in the splashing fire, countless soil and logs were blown away, and the ground under their feet trembled several times in the explosion.
The air was filled with the acrid smell of gunpowder smoke. Thick smoke rose into the sky, and then quickly spread to the surroundings, shrouding the entire blocking position.
For more than 500 days, the puppet troops had reached a position 100 meters in front of the formation under the cover of artillery fire. They were holding their guns and forming a skirmish line. They bent over and continued to attack forward. The speed was extremely fast. They wanted to take advantage of the Eighth Route Army before they could React from the bombardment, run a few more steps, and shorten the attack distance as much as possible.
"Boom boom boom..."
The explosion of artillery shells sounded again, and dozens of mortar shells fell from the sky, all smashing into the smoke-filled blocking position, continuing to suppress the opponent.
Mortars are low in power but have high shooting accuracy. The attacking troops can continue to fire when they reach thirty to forty meters in front of the formation. They are the best weapons for suppressing blocking troops at close range.
For more than five hundred days, the puppet troops' assault speed was faster and they were more confident than before. It was obviously brought to them by mortars.
In the blink of an eye, the two rows of puppet troops in front rushed to the position fifty meters in front of the formation.
Many puppet soldiers had already taken out grenades, ready to throw them out after rushing ten meters further, and combined with mortars to eliminate the defenders on the position, and then captured the blocking position in one fell swoop.
"Da da da……"
Before the grenade could be fired, the sound of machine gun fire suddenly rang out, and a large number of machine gun bullets suddenly flew out of the smoke-filled blocking position, intertwining into an airtight fire net and hitting the puppet soldiers hard.
The first row of puppet soldiers didn't even let out a scream, and fell to the ground in unison.
Some of the grenades in the hands of the puppet soldiers had already been fired. Just as they were about to throw them out, they were smashed into sieves by bullets and fell to the ground with the grenades.
"boom……"
The grenade that suddenly exploded did not hit any Eighth Route Army soldiers, but it knocked over the two puppet soldiers who had just rushed up behind them...
When the Japanese army attacked the position and faced the sudden appearance of the Eighth Route Army, Major General Fujita was not only not angry, but also very happy.
Just like a hunter who has discovered prey, his eyes quickly become hot, and his face is full of expectations for orders: "The mortar troops continue to fire, the heavy machine gun squadron goes into battle, suppresses the army's blocking fire, and covers the offensive troops to rush forward and eliminate the positions." All the defenders."
"General, the blocking firepower of the defenders is too strong. There are at least twenty machine guns firing, and there are also a large number of grenade launchers to attack the attacking troops from a distance. I'm afraid they won't be able to hold on and the enemy will be suppressed..." The captain looked heartbroken. Order.
The Eighth Route Army was hiding in the trenches to block the attack. The power of mortars was limited. Unless it hit the trenches directly, it would be difficult to cause a lot of damage to them.
Not to mention the heavy machine guns. The battlefield is filled with gunpowder smoke, and there are trenches and craters everywhere. Any place on the Eighth Route Army can be used as a machine gun position, and it can be moved at any time. It is very difficult for the heavy machine gun squadron to completely suppress the opponent with firepower.
The Eighth Route Army's blocking firepower was always there. If the mortars and heavy machine guns were to suppress them one minute later, the attacking troops would suffer one more casualty.
If their casualties were greater, even if they successfully entered the blocking position, it would be difficult to eliminate the blocking troops and occupy the position with insufficient strength.
From the perspective of the brigade commander, he especially hoped that the brigade commander would use mountain artillery and heavy artillery to bombard the blocking positions and blow up all the Eighth Route Army exposed on the surface, and then the attacking troops would move over to clean up the battlefield.
Although fighting like this will cause some accidental damage to the attacking troops, this loss is obviously not comparable to the losses caused to them by the Eighth Route Army's blocking troops, and overall it is more cost-effective.
Major General Fujita could see his subordinates' thoughts at a glance.
But he couldn't do this. As a brigade commander, he not only had to worry about the gains, losses and casualties of a unit, but also the morale and morale of the entire mopping up unit.
If the troops knew that the Eighth Route Army's second-line blocking position was captured by artillery accidentally injuring their own people, a victory would immediately turn into a defeat.
When attacking the third line of defense of the Eighth Route Army, other troops will worry that the brigade commander will also treat them as cannon fodder. When the two sides are fighting at close range, they will cover the position with indiscriminate artillery fire. When attacking, they will shrink back and try to keep a distance from the opponent to prevent being under fire. accidental injury.
The soldiers were not afraid of death. Let them face the bullets and launch a suicide attack. No one would retreat.
But if he was accidentally killed by his own artillery, the result would be different.
If the army loses the first battle, if they win the second round of the attack by killing one thousand enemies and damaging eight hundred, it will give people the feeling that they are helpless against the opponent, and it will further affect the morale and morale of the army.
