Songhu: Never Give Up

When Miyashita's squad retreated, they were carrying two corpses and three wounded soldiers. When they saw Captain Higashino, they naturally scolded him and even slapped him twice. Captain Higashino was not Lieutenant Asada. He could deal with Lieutenant Miyashita at any time and even make him commit seppuku, so Lieutenant Miyashita had to stand respectfully after being slapped.

It was no wonder that Captain Higashino was angry. In just a harassment battle, nearly half of Miyashita's squad was killed or wounded. He only had three squads in total. If the battle continued like this, there wouldn't be many people left before they could reach Tianjia Town.

After understanding the situation, he readjusted the marching formation. It was no longer a long snake formation, but an inverted triangle formation. The two teams searched and advanced along the left and right sides of the road. The Miyashita team and the squadron headquarters, which had suffered heavy losses before, walked in the middle.

After the Japanese gathered together, the garrison battalion stopped attacking them, fearing that they would be caught up. The current garrison battalion did not have the ability to fight a squadron of Japanese in the field. If they did not operate well, they might be defeated by a counterattack by the Japanese, which would be troublesome.

The garrison was commanded by deputy battalion commander Major Wan Xinchun, a veteran of the 87th Division of the Central Army that the guerrilla column had gathered in Jinling City. He had extensive experience in commanding combat, and when he saw that the Japanese had changed their tactics, he immediately made adjustments.

In order to prevent being defeated by a charge by the Japanese, he adopted a formation with a light front and a heavy back, dragging the two garrison companies back a few hundred meters, while he himself led a company to attack the Japanese with mines and cold guns and cold artillery;

Since the Japanese on both sides were far away from the road, they could only choose some dangerous terrain to bury mines and then set up an ambush several dozen meters later.

Just as they were ready, the Japanese soldiers, who were arranged in two lines of battle formation, appeared. Wan Xinchun ordered to open fire before the Japanese soldiers came close. The only Czech light machine gun and dozens of rifles in the company fired fiercely at the Japanese soldiers, knocking down several of them in an instant. The others fell to the ground one after another to avoid the dense rain of bullets.
Wan Xinchun really wanted to fight at close range, so that the hit rate would be much higher, but if he got too close, he would easily be bitten by the Japanese, and the troops of the garrison battalion were not capable of fighting such a close combat.

"withdraw!"

Wan Xinchun, who succeeded in one strike, did not linger on fighting and immediately retreated before the Japanese could react. These soldiers of the garrison battalion, who were converted from bandit armed forces, might not be able to fight the Japanese head-on, but they were definitely good at running and in just a short while they had opened up a distance of two to three hundred meters from the Japanese.

The Japanese second lieutenant who led the team cursed:
"Baga Yalu, you want to run? Kill the chicken for me!"

The Japs had already been furious, and when they saw a group of guerrillas dressed in various clothes running away after the sneak attack, they immediately chased after them. They did not believe that this mob could outrun them.

The Japanese had just chased for a few dozen meters when they ran into a minefield. With a series of explosions, seven or eight Japanese were killed or injured, but this did not stop the fierce Japanese from chasing. These casualties could not scare the furious Japanese.

They continued to chase and kill the guerrillas, firing a few shots from time to time. As expected, the guerrillas were scared and ran all over the mountains and plains. Wan Xinchun could only shake his head. It would take a long time for these people to be of any use.

Fortunately, he had a backup plan, otherwise a garrison battalion would have been defeated by dozens of devils. The devils who caught up with them were only thirty or forty people, but they did not take the hundreds of guerrillas seriously at all. They just chased and attacked fiercely, and unknowingly entered the ambush position of the second and third garrison companies;

The second company commander was also a veteran. He knew that his troops were not yet capable of fighting tough battles, so he placed all his hopes on the first wave of attacks.

Their two garrison companies had more than 200 men, several times more than the Japs, and they were ambushing the Japs, so the men below were barely able to avoid being scared away;
Seeing that the Japanese had completely entered the trap, the second company commander yelled:

"Open fire, kill that bastard!"

The two machine guns of the two companies opened fire first, and the others also opened fire on the devils with their rifles. The garrison liked this insidious way of fighting very much, as they had often done this when they robbed before;

To sum it up in one sentence, they were only good at fighting this kind of battle with absolute advantage and they fought with great enthusiasm, throwing grenades into the enemy groups as if they were free.

There were only more than 30 Japanese soldiers in total. Even the most elite soldiers could not withstand such intensive firepower attacks, not to mention that they were just garrison troops. Therefore, most of the Japanese soldiers were killed or wounded in just one encounter.

Then they were hit by hundreds of grenades. After the explosion, there were basically no Japanese soldiers standing. Some soldiers still did not stop firing until they had used up all five bullets in the magazine. Only then did they realize that all the Japanese soldiers in the encirclement had been completely wiped out.

The second company commander did not dare to clean up the battlefield because the Japanese might reinforce at any time. When the troops were cleaning the battlefield and heard the Japanese gunshots, they would definitely let go.

Thinking of this, he roared:

"What are you all standing there for? Retreat!"

The second and third companies were under his unified command, so at the second company commander's command, the two companies ran away before the Japanese reinforcements arrived.

Practice has proved that the second company commander's handling of the matter was correct. Not long after they left, the Japanese follow-up troops came running to reinforce them. If they were picking up equipment at that time, the consequences would be disastrous.

"Bagaya road!"

"Bagaya road!"

"Dead, dead!" Captain Higashino was almost mad with rage, looking at the corpses and wounded soldiers on the ground. Lieutenant Mata's face was also livid. There were more than 30 casualties, and the guerrillas didn't even see a single scratch.
The damage was great enough and the insult was even greater. I thought a squadron could do whatever they wanted, but I didn't expect that before they even reached Tianjia Town, a whole squad had suffered casualties.

There was no way to fight this battle. Reason told him that he should retreat immediately, but he had lost his mind now. He drew his command knife and roared:

"Kill the chicken and give it to me!"

The Japanese soldiers of the Dongye Squadron continued to advance, and the follow-up was much smoother. The guerrillas' several attempts to block from a distance were easily defeated by them, and they had no fighting power at all. This greatly encouraged the arrogance of Captain Dongye, and he said triumphantly:
"Yoshi, Ma Tianjun, the guerrillas can no longer organize a decent resistance. It is only a matter of time before they attack Tianjia Town."

Lieutenant Ma Tian no longer had the arrogance he had before, and he cautiously reminded Captain Higashino:
"Mr. Dongye, the Lijiagou is ahead. The terrain there is a valley between two mountains, which is very suitable for ambushes. I am worried that the guerrillas will ambush the imperial army in Lijiagou."

Captain Higashino still looked like he didn't care and said contemptuously:
"The guerrillas are already scared out of their wits. They can only do some sneaky things. Even if they set an ambush in Lijiagou, the imperial army can easily defeat them."

Captain Higashino spoke toughly, but he still made adjustments, ordering the troops on both wings to expand the search range, focusing on the mountains on both sides, led by Lieutenant Asada himself.

Lieutenant Asada shouted and took the order. After sending the noisy Asada away, Captain Higashino led the squadron headquarters and Miyashita's team to continue moving forward. The search teams on both sides were enough to ensure their safe passage through Lijiagou.

The search of Ma Tian and others on both wings seemed to be going smoothly, and they did not find any ambush of the guerrillas. Dong Ye and others also successfully entered Lijiagou. Dong Ye could not help but said to Lieutenant Miyashita proudly:
"Miyashita-kun, the Chinese are just cowards. This place is so dangerous. If an ambush can be set up, it will cost the Imperial Army a lot to pass through smoothly."

Lieutenant Miyashita had read the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and a shadow had cast over his heart. He clearly remembered that if the man surnamed Cao smiled once, he would definitely be slapped in the face...

Just as he was about to remind Captain Higashino, fierce gunfire was heard from the front. Lieutenant Miyashita was frightened and trembled all over. What he worried about came true. He was slapped in the face too quickly.

"Bagayalu, what kind of work is this?"

Captain Higashino was also frightened and broke out in a cold sweat. Second Lieutenant Miyashita said tremblingly:
"Sir Captain, I think Mada-kun and his men are in some trouble."

If Lieutenant Mata heard it, he would definitely slap him and then yell - you call this a little trouble?

Although Mata and his companions did not encounter an ambush, they were strongly blocked, and an expert could tell whether there was an attack or not with just one move;

Lieutenant Hoshino said to Mata in horror:

"Matan-kun, these people are definitely not guerrillas. They are equipped with Soviet weapons and DP-27 light machine guns!"

Matan's face looked as if his father had died. In just a short period of time, more than half of them were killed or wounded. They were completely different from the previous guerrillas. These were obviously the elite of the National Army. He even saw the German-made M35 steel helmets.

"Damn it! We've been ambushed by the Chinese. Get out of here quickly!"

After hitting a wall, Ma Tian immediately ordered a retreat. Both wings were blocked by Chinese troops, and the remaining 40-odd people could not rush through. He chose to retreat and meet up with the squadron leader.

The main force used the inverted eight-character formation commonly used by the guerrilla column in Lijiagou. One company blocked the Japanese head-on, while the other two companies took advantage of the fierce fighting between the two sides to quietly surround them from both wings. By the time the Japanese reacted, they had already been surrounded.

Captain Higashino immediately charged towards the commanding heights on the left wing upon hearing the gunfire, aiming to seize the commanding heights;

When they finally climbed to the top of the mountain, they ran head-on into the Second Company that was surrounding them.

Both sides opened fire almost simultaneously. The Miyashita squad and the squadron headquarters had only about 60 people in total, while the main force of the Second Company had more than 150 people. The difference in strength was too great.
Each platoon of the second company was equipped with a "Dapanji" rifle, and the other squads were equipped with Type 99 light machine guns. There were more than a dozen light machine guns in one company, and the firepower crushed half of the Japanese squad.

After just one encounter, the Japanese were driven off the top of the mountain, leaving behind corpses all over the ground, and the East Field Army's intention to seize the commanding heights was thwarted;
If these remnants of the Japanese devils were not still useful, they would have been able to wipe out this group of Japanese devils with a single counterattack.

At this time, the remnants of the army led by Lieutenant Mata also retreated. After the two groups of devils joined forces, Dongye even wanted to commit suicide.
When they came out, a full squadron had 182 people. Now, including the wounded, there are less than half of them, and they are surrounded and are at risk of being wiped out at any time.

The only thing that made Dongye feel relieved was that the Chinese did not launch a foot charge, but only surrounded the enemy without destroying them, which gave the devils a lot of hope;
Since they were acting as bait, the regiment headquarters also equipped them with a radio to facilitate communication. Captain Higashino was like a drowning man who had grasped the last straw and sent a distress signal to Linyi City.

(End of this chapter)