"Retreat... get back to the road quickly, quickly..." the squadron leader shouted at the top of his lungs.
The Japs surrounding the squadron leader were the first to react, turning around and running back.
The enemy's reaction was slightly slower at a distance. Even if it only lasted for two or three seconds, the hail of bullets flying towards them would still kill a dozen of them.
By this time, the Japanese reinforced squadron that attacked the third battalion had lost nearly a hundred people.
Seeing that all the subordinates around him had successfully turned around and started to retreat, the squadron leader couldn't help but flash a look of joy, feeling that he had escaped from the guns of the Eighth Route Army.
"Da da da……"
The good times didn't last long, and the familiar sound of machine gun fire reached the squadron leader's ears again.
More than a dozen machine gun flames suddenly appeared on both sides of the team, and bullets flew toward everyone. The rapidly retreating troops were once again caught off guard, and another twenty or thirty people fell.
The squadron leader was anxious and ordered in a hurry: "Baga..."
"We ran into the Eighth Route Army's pocket formation..."
"Retreat quickly and exit the pocket formation as quickly as possible, otherwise all of us will die..."
The Japs No. 100 spread their legs and ran towards the road, but the machine gun fire that suddenly appeared on both sides did not stop them as they retreated.
It was as if the bullets had eyes and were chasing them.
The Japanese soldiers who gathered together seemed to be taking off their clothes. The Japanese troops on the outermost edge were constantly being beaten into a sieve, and they fell layer by layer on the way to the breakout.
There were more than a hundred little Japs left, but only one team escaped from the machine gun range and returned to the road.
…………
Although the lookout point where Huang Yu was at the Eighth Route Army's former enemy headquarters could not give him a panoramic view of the battlefield, he could still see a few things.
At the beginning of the battle, he could judge the specific positions of the enemy and ourselves and the latest battle situation through the torches held by the Japanese troops.
After realizing that his troops had become a living target of the Eighth Route Artillery, the commander immediately ordered the troops to put out the torches and advance in the dark.
This change allowed him to judge the latest battle situation between the enemy and ourselves only through the sound of gunfire.
A large number of firefights suddenly erupted on both sides of the road, and the farthest battlefield was one kilometer away from the road.
These battlefields are also very scattered, with five to six hundred people in all.
"Japanese officer is so smart..." Huang Yu snorted coldly.
"He knows that if the troops are chased and bombed by us, they will suffer heavy casualties. If they are lucky enough to reach Chenjiazhuang, the light infantry regiment will also lose its combat effectiveness."
"Instead of just running away, it's better to fight with us."
"The little Japanese soldiers were divided into lines, and the reinforced squadrons were used as units to launch attacks on us from different directions. They were obviously targeting our artillery units."
"It's just that they didn't expect that there were three main groups waiting for them around the pocket formation."
"When they charged, they hit our guns."
"The troops counterattack to defend, but they can consume a large number of their troops through blocking battles and reduce the pressure on the subsequent encirclement and annihilation battles."
"Notify the troops participating in the war: Give me all their belongings and use the strongest firepower to fight the Japanese attacking troops. They must be severely damaged."
"After the Japanese retreat, each battalion or company launches an attack directly without asking for instructions."
"Seize the opportunity to pursue the victory and encircle the remaining Japanese troops on the road."
"If you can annihilate them all, annihilate them all; if you can't, just wait until the artillery is in place and then annihilate them all.
…………
The Japanese captain did not directly participate in the battle. He hid in the dark with his guards to observe every move of the enemy and ourselves on the battlefield, and was ready to adjust the battle plan at any time.
The sudden sound of firefights all around shattered the regimental commander's dream of severely damaging the Eighth Route Artillery.
His mind was filled with questions.
The Eighth Route Artillery was obviously two kilometers away, and the attacking troops were at least one kilometer away from the artillery position. The Eighth Route Army that intercepted them was definitely not artillery.
But there are no Eighth Route Army infantry around...
Could it be that they are lurking further afield.
Hearing the sound of exchange of fire again, the commander's brows furrowed.
The opponent is equipped with a large number of heavy machine guns, mortars, and light machine guns. It is definitely not the mountain artillery unit that he wants to attack.
That's only one possibility.
In addition to artillery, the Eighth Route Army also ambushed a large number of infantry around the battlefield.
In order to avoid alerting the enemy and attracting his own attention, these infantrymen were deliberately ambushed far away from the road.
When he sent troops to sneak attack the Eighth Route Artillery, the Eighth Route Army infantry lurking around happened to be approaching the highway, trying to form an encirclement around the battlefield.
As a result, before they could complete the encirclement, the troops from both sides collided and started the encounter in front of them.
A surprise attack on the Eighth Route Army's artillery position was the only way to solve the predicament at hand. As a result, he was defeated before he even started, and was even beaten into an encounter by an ambush force of the Eighth Route Army.
If they suffered too many losses in the battle, plus the losses in the previous artillery raid, the entire light infantry regiment would be empty.
There were at least three regiments of the Eighth Route Army surrounding them.
The superiority in troops, firepower, and terrain...are almost all in the hands of the Eighth Route Army.
If the two sides really want to fight a decisive battle here, their chances of winning will be very slim.
The commander of the regiment was so anxious that he started to jump. His face was full of anxiety and he ordered: "The attacking troops will retreat immediately..."
"You must not get involved with the encircling troops of the Eighth Route Army..."
"There are many of them, and our troops are too scattered. After a melee breaks out between the two sides, we can easily be defeated by them one by one. The chance of winning is too low."
"The Eighth Route Army obviously wants to encircle us here. We don't have heavy weapons. We have to concentrate our forces to launch an attack from one point to break out of the encirclement."
Before the commander had finished speaking, he saw a messenger running towards him blankly: "Captain..."
"We were blocked by a reinforced battalion of the Eighth Route Army..."
"More than half of the troops were lost and had to retreat..."
Before the messenger could finish his words, another messenger rushed over from beside him: "Report to the commander..."
"We were besieged by a reinforced battalion of the Eighth Route Army on the way to attack..."
"Squadron Captain Yu Sui..."
"Only one squad of the entire strengthened squadron successfully evacuated the battle... Please be sure to avenge them..."
The co-captain's face suddenly became more serious than before.
Two reinforced squadrons have already suffered more than half of their casualties in the encounter just now, and the losses of other squadrons must also be considerable.
Based on this ratio, the entire light infantry regiment has at most 1,300 to 400 men left.
There are two or three regiments of the Eighth Route Army surrounding him, and there is such a huge disparity in strength. How can we fight this battle?
The captain has not felt such pressure on the battlefield for a long time.
Give orders while observing the battlefield.
"Now there is only one way to break out..."
"The troops must immediately break out of the eight-way artillery killing range and join the Sakuragi Division!"
"Otherwise, our small force would be no match for even a single regiment of the Eighth Route Army. It would be too dangerous..."
"The troops immediately moved closer to me, but they couldn't concentrate too much... The Eighth Route Artillery will definitely stare at us and bomb us. We must minimize casualties and gather more troops to break out, otherwise we will have no troops available to break out!"
