Songhu: Never Give Up

Chenjiapo, the guerrilla column's blocking position, filled with smoke

As soon as the artillery preparation was over, dense Japanese infantry rushed up, estimated to be at least 300 people;
The defending force consisted of only two infantry companies of the First Battalion of the Ludongnan Military Sub-district, commanded by Battalion Leader Li Jiaxun. Their mission this time was to lure the enemy deep into their territory. Blocking was only a means of "luring the enemy". Simply running away would not catch any big fish.

He held up the telescope and looked at it with great interest, muttering to himself:
"Damn it, you're really willing to spend so much money. I'm going to hurt you this time!"

Chenjiapo is an inconspicuous little mound of earth. The road passes through the hill. The First Battalion set up a blocking line along both sides of the road, with the First Company on the left and the Second Company on the right.
The blocking position consisted of three trenches, which were very common civil engineering fortifications. The terrain was not dangerous, so the Japanese did not take it seriously.

There was not even a tentative attack, but a desperate fight from the beginning, and more than 300 devils were definitely a big deal;

When the Japanese skirmish line advanced to the front of the first trench, the defenders' firepower was instantly fully utilized, and hundreds of machine guns and rifles opened fire on the Japanese.

In an instant, a large number of Japanese soldiers were knocked down. Not only were their firepower strong, but their shooting skills were also very accurate. Almost every bullet hit the target. They did not look like a guerrilla force at all.

The Japanese were not intimidated by the firepower of the defenders. They just lay down on the ground and then spontaneously fired back at the defenders.

The Japanese were also very accurate in their shooting, and under the suppression of light and heavy machine guns they caused a lot of casualties to the defenders. In particular, the one mortar per squadron posed a great threat to the defenders' heavy firepower.

The organization of the squadron of the Independent Fifth Brigade was very different from that of the Class A Division. Not only did they dismantle the machine gun squadron directly under the original battalion and transfer it to the infantry squadron;

Mortars were also added to the squadrons, which increased the number of personnel in a squadron to 210 and strengthened its firepower;

Two Type 1 heavy machine guns and one 90mm mortar form a machine gun team that can perform independent mopping-up operations and is more mobile and flexible.

The battalion level is no longer equipped with infantry artillery teams, and the battalion headquarters has been streamlined to the greatest extent, with 4 infantry squadrons and about 850 people under its jurisdiction.

Although such a configuration is not as powerful as a field battalion, it is enough to deal with guerrillas, especially the Eighth Route Army guerrillas, who are simply beggars in their eyes. A battalion can walk around the Eighth Route Army's base with impunity.

The guerrillas in southeastern Shandong made Major Yoshino's eyes light up. He looked at them and said excitedly to the squadron leader Koike Hideo:
"Xiao Chi, this guerrilla group is quite something. Not only are they well-equipped, they are also well-trained. They are definitely their elite troops. We can't let them go!"

Captain Koike agreed:
“I’ve fought against the Eighth Route Army guerrillas in North China before, and any company with one machine gun was an absolute main force;

The guerrillas in front of us not only have light machine guns, but also Maxim heavy machine guns, and their rifles are also Mosin-Nagant. They are actually using Soviet weapons that are rare even among the government army, and they also have M35 helmets. With this configuration, it is not an exaggeration to say that they are the strongest central army in China. "

"Yoshi, Xiaochi-kun, you have a good eye. They are also equipped with DP-27 light machine guns. They must be the guerrillas of the Chinese government army. They are not comparable to the beggars of the Eighth Route Army.
My 5th Independent Brigade is targeting the elite troops of China. It is pointless to keep fighting against the Eighth Route Army who don't even have many bullets. Now that we have caught them, we must not let them go and annihilate them completely!"

Captain Koike was also jealous, so he suggested:
"The first and second squadrons are being held back by the Chinese and are unable to break through. How about I lead the third squadron to go around the mountains on the flank and get behind the Chinese, attack them from both sides, and wipe them out in one fell swoop."

Major Yoshino shook his head and said:
"Xiaochi-kun, you think too highly of them. The Japanese are not familiar with the surrounding terrain. There are mountainous areas on both sides, and the risk of a roundabout operation is too great.

Since two squadrons are not enough, let's send another one forward. This time, the Yoshino Battalion is going to defeat them head-on, so that they won't say that the Imperial Army won unfairly."

Captain Koike did not expect that Major Yoshino had such pedantic ideas, but he was right about one thing: it was very risky to carry out a roundabout operation in the mountainous area and there was a high possibility of getting lost, so he asked to join the frontal assault.

Major Yoshino agreed to his request and reinforced the left wing with Koike's squadron, intending to carry out a key breakthrough.

After Xiaochi's squadron reinforced the left wing, the pressure on the left wing of the defenders increased sharply. At this time, Li Jiaxun had no reserve troops and could only hold on.

The Japs' offensive came in waves, like the great waves of the sea, rolling up thousands of piles of snow in an attempt to destroy everything;
The defenders are like a rock in the stormy waves. No matter how strong the wind blows and the waves hit, I will remain unmoved.

Although the offensive on the left wing intensified, the defenders were still able to hold on, and the hillside was littered with the corpses of the Japanese.

Major Yoshino's expression also became serious. He held up a telescope and stared at the battlefield intently. Several times he wanted to push forward the reserve troops of the last squadron, but he held back as the time had not come yet.

The fierce battle lasted for half a day, and both sides suffered heavy casualties. Major Yoshino finally couldn't help but push the last reserve troops forward, and the battlefield situation turned out as he wished;
The defenders were defeated and retreated in great strides. The Japanese troops of the Yoshino Battalion pursued them, but they ran into a minefield that had been buried in advance and were blown to pieces.

The Chinese used a pull-type mine, which was strictly speaking a roadside bomb. They dug a hole, buried several explosive packs, and used a pull-type detonation. Only one combat group was left to detonate it.

The purpose was to slow down the speed of the Japanese pursuit and reduce casualties during the retreat. The Japanese pursuers suffered a loss, with 20 to 30 killed or injured. The Japanese behind them also stopped chasing. After the smoke cleared, the Japanese continued to pursue under the urging of officers at all levels, but they had been pulled away by several hundred meters.

The Japanese advanced straight along the highway. The Chinese tried to stop them several times but failed. The Japanese became more and more excited as the battle went on. They kept chasing the fleeing soldiers and made rapid progress.

At this time, the Japanese were not aware of the danger at all, but were complacent because they had defeated the defenders after a hard battle.

At the same time, the Japanese troops on both wings were held back by a large number of mines used by the blocking troops and could not move several kilometers in half a day.

Major Yoshino had no idea that they had advanced more than 20 kilometers, and the fighter plane Duan Yulin was expecting appeared;

He immediately ordered two infantry battalions of the Luzhong Military Sub-district, one infantry battalion of the Ludongnan Military Sub-district, and two artillery battalions to set up an ambush in Xiaowangzhuang and encircle and annihilate Colonel Yoshino.

Militia companies from several nearby villages cooperated in the battle, encircled and annihilated the fish that had escaped the net, and helped transport the wounded.

The front-line commander was Liao Jianping. The ambush point they chose was a depression located in front of the right side of Xiaowangzhuang. The road passed through the depression, with hillsides on both sides. The hillsides were convenient for hiding troops, and it was the shortest way to enter Xiaowangzhuang.

The Japanese soldiers of the Yoshino Battalion chased all the way into the depression in front of Xiaowangzhuang. The terrain was very open. When the Japanese soldiers saw the village with smoke rising from chimneys in the distance, they screamed with excitement. They couldn't wait to rush into the village and raid it.

A Japanese squadron leader even shouted excitedly:
"Warriors, the guerrillas have fled into the village. Chase them and kill all the men inside. Take their money, food, and women!"

The smoke from Xiaowangzhuang was naturally a bait. This time, the Third Detachment concentrated thousands of people to encircle and annihilate the Japanese army, which numbered only 700 people. The troop ratio was more than 6 to 1, so they were not worried at all that the Japanese army could rush into the village, which would be poison to them.

Liao Jianping had seen big scenes before, and he didn't really care about the hundreds of devils, but this was a war of annihilation, and if any of them escaped, it would leave trouble for the base, so he had to show his strength like a lion fighting a rabbit;

When all the Japanese entered the depression, Liao Jianping gave the order to fire. More than 60 artillery pieces of two artillery battalions that had been ambushed on the high ground on the right side bombarded the Japanese.

Since the shooting parameters had been calculated in advance, it was as easy as shooting at a fixed target. Just one coverage killed hundreds of Japanese soldiers, and they were blown up and ran around like hornets whose nests were poked;
Major Yoshino was also stunned. He did not expect the Chinese to have so many cannons. This configuration was at least an army of infantry. He turned pale with fear and shouted in horror:
"Enemy attack!"

As soon as he finished speaking, another round of artillery shells fell, knocking down a large number of Japanese soldiers and accelerating their defeat.

Then there was another round. After three rounds of artillery fire, nearly half of the Japanese soldiers in the encirclement had been killed or wounded. The remaining Japanese soldiers also fled in a swarm, all running to the slopes on both sides;

Only by occupying a high ground could they have hope of survival. Major Yoshino finally reacted and tried to restrain the soldiers running around, but unfortunately the effect was not great and he only restrained dozens of people.

Liao Jianping also wanted to kill the devils with artillery, but this was unrealistic. On the one hand, artillery shells were expensive, and on the other hand, it was the infantry that would have to clean up the mess in the end.
So he issued the order for a general attack, and the bugler puffed up his cheeks and blew the loud charge. Thousands of ambush troops surrounded them from all directions, leaving no way to escape.

As soon as Major Yoshino saw the Chinese's posture, he knew that they had no chance of survival, and his brutal nature was completely aroused;

He held up his command knife high and led dozens of Japanese soldiers to launch a desperate counterattack against the oncoming Chinese.

The Chinese people's bullets rained down on the Japs, sweeping the panicked Japs to the ground in groups. After the charge sounded, there was no retreat but to advance!

The Japanese soldiers around Yoshino were visibly being consumed. This was not a fair fight, but a one-sided massacre.

They were surrounded by bullets of revenge in front, behind, and on all sides. The gleaming bayonets emitted a terrifying light in the winter sun, a light that came from hell.

"The Emperor is so good!"

"Kill the chicken and give it to me!"

Major Yoshino really wanted to have a hand-to-hand fight with steel knives to prove his bravery. It was not that he was incompetent, but that the Chinese were too cunning!

"DaDaDa..."

A burst of machine gun bullets turned Major Yoshino into a hornet's nest. In the end, he was unable to fulfill his wish and became a ghost under the gun like other devils. (End of this chapter)