"Keep going..." This was the decision made by Captain Cao after thinking twice.
"Strengthen your vigilance... When you see a suspicious target, grab it and don't give the enemy any opportunity to take advantage of it."
There were sixteen Japs in the entire combat unit. Two riflemen were pierced by rifles, three machine gunners were killed and injured by grenades, and eleven were left.
After hearing the order, he immediately had a backbone. He bent down, holding the gun, and moved forward cautiously.
The slightest movement in front of them can make them tense instantly. They lie down, squat down, and grab, it's so lively.
Fortunately, the group of people walked for hundreds of meters without being attacked again.
Just when they thought the danger was about to be lifted, the harsh sound of gunfire reached their ears again.
The first two Japs fell to the ground, and the remaining Japs had just squatted down when two consecutive grenade explosions rang out at their feet, and screams could not be heard.
The Japanese leader Cao happened to be squatting next to a grenade. His whole body was blown away, and he hit the earth wall hard, and then there was no movement.
The four remaining little devils who could still move all saw panic in each other's eyes.
In a combat unit, without even seeing the opponent, four people were killed in the blink of an eye, and everyone would feel panic.
We agreed to make a U-turn and run back.
He ignored the wounded on the ground, for fear that if he ran a step slower, he would follow in their footsteps.
"boom……"
The sound of rifle shooting reached their ears again, and the last Japanese soldier fell to the ground.
The remaining three Japs were so frightened that they didn't even dare to look back. They rushed forward with all their strength, hoping to quickly break out of the intricate tunnel network under their feet.
This is obviously impossible. For the Eighth Route Army, tunnel fortifications can not only be used to hide troops and transfer troops, but also to kill the enemy.
After finally eating the fat in his mouth, nothing he said could make him fly away.
"Bang...bang..."
Gunshots rang out one after another, and only three remaining Japanese fell to the ground in less than half a minute.
…………
At the Japanese offensive position, Major General Fujita looked down at his watch from time to time to confirm the specific time when the troops entered the tunnel.
There were constant gunshots coming from the tunnel, and from time to time there was a burst of machine gun fire, indicating that the attacking troops had found the Eighth Route Army in the tunnel and were fighting with them.
Half an hour passed, and the gunfire continued, but no soldier came out of the tunnel to report the situation.
This is so abnormal.
Even if the attacking troops lose the battle in the tunnel, they should send someone out to report the battle situation instead of waiting outside the tunnel to worry.
The Chief of Staff was exposed to tunnel warfare for the first time, and he had no idea how to fight in tunnel warfare. However, he had blind confidence in the two infantry squadrons under his command. This may be a common problem among the Kwantung Army officers.
No matter what, I don't believe that the attacking troops will have an accident in the tunnel.
Seeing Major General Fujita's eagerness to try, he suggested: "General, why don't you despise your duties and send two teams in to have a look, and ask them to report back immediately after finding out the situation of the battle."
"I heard that the tunnels dug by the Eighth Route Army were complicated. It should be that we sent too few troops into the tunnels. Once they were dispersed, they were disrupted. That's why no one came back to report."
Major General Fujita frowned deeper and deeper, but he did not believe that two squadrons of the Kwantung Army would have an accident in such a short period of time. He nodded and ordered: "Faster..."
"After having the attacking troops eliminate the Eighth Route Army in the tunnel, they immediately use explosives to destroy the tunnel and cut off the underground passage for the Eighth Route Army's blocking troops to evacuate their positions from the tunnel."
In less than three minutes, the two infantry teams split into two and entered the tunnel...
Ten minutes later, the firefight in the tunnel continued, and still no soldier came out of the tunnel.
The chief of staff planned to continue to persuade the brigade commander to send people into the tunnel, but after seeing Major General Fujita's increasingly solemn expression, he decisively chose to shut up.
Then I saw the brigade commander giving a solemn order: "Continue the ground attack... The chariot unit deployed a squadron to the front line to support the operation, cover the infantry and capture the Fourth Line of Defense of the Eighth Route Army, destroy all their tunnel entrances and exits, and then use lightning speed to cover the ears." We will seize Taipingzhuang and destroy all tunnel entrances and exits in the village."
"If an accident occurs to the attacking troops in the tunnel, there is no way to eliminate the Eighth Route Army hiding in the tunnel. I will block all the tunnel entrances and exits and suffocate the Eighth Route Army to death in the tunnel."
…………
At the ground headquarters of the garrison, Chief of Staff Wang Lin was reporting to Huang Yu on the fruitful results of the road battle in the first camp.
"Captain, the Japanese sent two squadrons of reinforcements into the tunnel first. It only took the first battalion more than 20 minutes to wipe out all the invading enemies and end the battle."
"In order to confuse the little devils, they continued to rob the tunnel. As a result, the Japanese army sent two more teams into the tunnel."
"It only took ten minutes to eat them all."
"The current exchange of fire was all deliberately caused by the first battalion to lure more Japanese and puppet troops into the tunnel."
"But they don't seem to be fooled anymore. If the battalion is stopped, one minute less of the performance will mean less ammunition is wasted."
"Stop..." Huang Yu's smile suddenly disappeared and he stared at the battlefield seriously.
"The Japs have started a new round of attack, and they have also touched tanks and armored vehicles. They must have guessed that something bad happened to the troops in the tunnel, and they want to retaliate against us through a ground attack."
"Rumble..."
The roar of the chariot slowly reached everyone's ears from far away.
Wang Lin raised his binoculars and saw two tanks lined up in two rows, heading towards the battlefield in an orderly manner.
The earthen wall opposite the dug trench was like a toy in a paper lake in front of the tank. It was vulnerable and was washed away with just one touch.
Seeing this scene, he was extremely frightened. He turned to Huang Yu and asked anxiously: "Commander, do you want to bring up the four mountain cannons from the artillery company... In addition to the mountain cannons, the other weapons we have are incapable of attacking the Little Devil Tank." .”
"The mountain cannon cannot be moved..." Huang Yu refused decisively.
"There are little Japanese planes overhead, and there are dozens of various artillery pieces aimed at us on the opposite side. The Japanese tank cannons are not a vegetarian either. If we send them to the battlefield now, one gun will destroy at most one tank and it will become a living thing. Target, not worth it.”
Wang Lin agreed with Huang Yu's analysis from the bottom of his heart, but apart from mountain cannons, he could not think of any other way to deal with the tanks. He was even more anxious than before. He raised his eyebrows and asked Huang Yu for instructions: "We can't use mountain cannons. We can only blast them at close range."
"I will go to the first battalion now to form a demolition team and use explosives to destroy the Imp tank."
After saying that, he prepared to rush to the tunnel entrance closest to the headquarters.
The entire first battalion was hidden in the tunnel, so it was natural for the formation of the demolition team to be carried out in the tunnel.
But as soon as he moved, Huang Yu stopped him: "What's the rush? Even if there are no mountain artillery to help, we haven't yet sent out death squads to blow up the tanks."
After saying that, he turned his attention to the guard company commander on the side: "Do you still remember how the Molotov cocktail is used..."
"Of course I remember..." the guard company commander looked forward to answering.
As a soldier, he also particularly longed for the battlefield. However, due to different responsibilities, the chance of a guard company commander going to the battlefield is definitely much smaller than that of a combat unit.
As soon as he heard Huang Yu's question, he realized that his opportunity to go to the battlefield had come, and his eyes suddenly widened, waiting for Huang Yu to give an order.
"Take your platoon and fifty Molotov cocktails and immediately reinforce a battalion. Be sure to severely damage the Little Japanese tank troops so that they will not dare to use tanks easily in the next battle."
The guard company commander had seen the power of Molotov cocktails with his own eyes and said confidently: "Captain, please rest assured, the guard company platoon will ensure the completion of the mission."
Molotov cocktails are very easy to make, but for the Eighth Route Army, which was short of guns and ammunition, the most difficult thing to solve was the raw materials.
Whether it is gasoline or other fuels, they are classified as strategic materials by the Japanese and are difficult to obtain through other channels except for seizure.
Wing Center is a plain area. The Japanese and puppet troops here are much richer than the Japanese and puppet troops in northwestern Shanxi. They are equipped with a large number of vehicles, resulting in many strongholds having a lot of fuel reserves.
After several major battles, seventy or eighty barrels of fuel were scattered and seized in the base area.
After learning that the Japanese army had dispatched a large number of tanks to sweep the Yizhong base area, the word Molotov cocktail suddenly popped into Huang Yu's mind.
During Lao Maozi's Patriotic War, facing the attack of the German mechanized corps, Lao Maozi, who lacked heavy weapons, relied on incendiary bottles to stabilize the defense line and block the torrent of steel from the German army.
The tanks equipped by the Japanese army are much weaker than those of the German army. The German heavy tanks are no match for Molotov cocktails, let alone these light tanks called iron pipes.
Before the war, hundreds of Molotov cocktails were temporarily made, and each garrison regiment was given more than a hundred, and they were taught how to use Molotov cocktails.
But because they had never fought in actual combat, everyone except Huang Yu himself, including Kong Jie and Li Yunlong, were skeptical about Molotov cocktails and did not believe that half a bottle of mixed fuel could burn down a Japanese tank.
The assault speed of the traffic tank was very fast. In the blink of an eye, it crossed the third line of defense and attacked directly towards the fourth line of defense.
More than 500 Japanese and puppet troops followed the tank, ready to cross the tank and launch an assault on the blocking position at any time.
"Rumble..."
The roar of the tank became louder and louder, and it rushed towards the blocking position, spitting out black smoke.
Mortar shells rained into the fourth blocking position, weakening the blocking force.
Facing six steel monsters, the blocking force seemed to have run out of ideas.
I don’t know whether they were scared or retreated, but no gunshots were heard from the blocking position.
The tank relies on its rough skin and thick flesh, is protected by infantry behind it, and is escorted by aircraft above its head. It completely ignores the blocking troops.
During a normal attack, they would stop forty or fifty meters in front of the formation as a fixed firepower point, destroying the exposed blocking firepower at close range.
They did not stop the attack in front of them. They led the offensive troops all the way forward and rushed to the front of the formation twenty or thirty meters without stopping. It seemed that they planned to seize the blocking position in one go.
More than thirty soldiers from the guard platoon and a dozen soldiers from the first battalion who dropped the most bombs have entered the position through the tunnel and are hiding in the trench under artillery fire.
About eight soldiers gathered together, each holding a Molotov cocktail, ready to deal with the tank directly ahead.
"Light the fire..." the platoon leader ordered with a nervous look on his face.
The Japanese tank has rushed thirty meters away, and the roar is endless. If the Molotov cocktail can kill them, everyone still has a chance to survive.
If the Molotov cocktail is useless, everyone will not even have a chance to retreat.
