Bright Sword: From Northwest Shanxi to Shangganling

Chapter 276: Iron Wall Encirclement

"Bagaya Road."

"These Tubalu are so annoying!"

"Engineers! Clear the mines immediately!"

Looking at the mine-detecting locust soldiers who were blown to the ground, the Japanese captain had a headache.

Even though the dead were members of the Locust Alliance, the casualties didn't matter to him.

However, the speed of the troops was greatly affected.

According to Pinglu Yongfu's order, in order to keep all troops on the same track.

When one of the troops is attacked, the remaining troops should also try to adjust their speed.

After all, they came here to find the main force of the Eighth Route Army for a decisive battle, not to play hide-and-seek with these local Eighth Route Army troops.

According to the plan, the second and third line troops were responsible for clearing out these Eighth Route Army troops.

The second and third line troops responsible for selection and clearing up the enemy advanced 15 kilometers a day.

But the next day we had to go back 5 kilometers to see if there were any Eighth Route Army troops who had not been eliminated before we could set out again.

However, under constant harassment and blocking, their main forces could only advance 15 kilometers a day.

The troops on the three fronts will be mixed together.
Ping Lu Yongfu, the commander of the 4th Brigade, felt helpless as he watched the troops advance slowly.

They were attacked countless times along the way.

"Order all units to gather their forces, change the 6-route route to 3-route, divide the forces into left, center, and right, and go straight to Dayun Mountain."

"Order the second and third line troops to speed up the establishment of the pro-Japanese maintenance association and strengthen the strength of the maintenance association."

"Anyone who dares to go against the will of the Locust Army will be suppressed."

"After the maintenance association is established, the president will organize workers to build watchtowers and dig blockade trenches."

"For specific progress, make a plan according to the headquarters' requirements. If you fail to complete it, you will be executed."

Ping Lu Yongfu casually put the document handed over by the chief of staff on the table.

He decided to abandon the previous slow advance and have the main force go straight into the heart of the Eighth Route Army.

The second and third line troops also changed from clearing out and sweeping to establishing blockade lines.

As long as the Eighth Route Army cannot escape the blockade, they will be wiped out by the Fourth Brigade sooner or later.

"Hai!"

"Captain, the scouts report that the Japanese have joined forces, there are three groups in total."

"Two routes go south along the mountain road, and the other route goes west and takes the highway, probably heading to Ping'an County."

"Ping'an County? I'm afraid we have to go to Zhengfeng Town, and then attack the base through Laolong Mountain."

Chen Chengxing said when he saw the Japanese's actions on the map.

After the Japanese joined forces, the Japanese troops that were divided into two groups and attacked together, plus the auxiliary puppet troops, had nearly 4,000 people in each group.

With so many troops, they were not afraid of being attacked by the main force of the New Second Regiment.

Therefore, the advancement speed has obviously become much faster.

However, this also caused them to miss a large number of guerrillas and militias.

The pressure on the Japanese and puppet troops in the second and third lines has doubled.

Especially the puppet troops who were looting everywhere would be attacked by the guerrillas if they were not careful.

"Since the Japanese are carrying out a long-distance detour to our base, should we move?" Luo Ping said.

Facing the combined attack of the 4th Brigade, the New 2nd Regiment was no match.

"Yes, we have to move." Chen Chengxing nodded.

"Call the arsenal and stop production activities. Take what you can take with you and bury what you can't take with you. Move the personnel south to Sanshili Mountain."

"Order the third and fourth battalions to use the terrain to launch a series of blocking attacks to buy time for the main force to move."

The New Second Regiment has a lot of assets, so if they want to move, they can't just pick up their guns and leave.

"Yes!"

After encountering layers of resistance from the main force of the New Second Regiment, the Japanese advance speed immediately slowed down.

Just by looking at the combat effectiveness of the Eighth Route Army, Pinglu Yongfu knew that he had encountered the main force.

"Divide the independent mountain artillery battalion into two, supporting the right and middle routes respectively!" Ping Luyong ordered.

These two routes can directly attack Hongni Bay where the headquarters of the New Second Regiment is located.

At the same time, the Japanese planes requested by Pinglu Yongfu also flew in to provide support.

"Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!".
Facing the position of the Third Battalion, the Japs first fired a fierce artillery fire, and then launched a strong attack under the cover of aircraft.

"Comrades! Beat him hard!" Sun Xun shouted.

"Thump, thump, thump." "Thump, thump, thump."
"Boom!" "Boom!".
The Japs continued to attack despite the hail of bullets.

Moreover, under the influence of the aircraft, the firepower of the Third Battalion was greatly suppressed.

Sun Xun immediately retreated back into the trench and picked up the phone on the ground.

"Artillery Company 2! I'm under too much pressure, open fire quickly to suppress the Japanese!" Sun Xun shouted.

After receiving Sun Xun's request for help, the Heavy Mortar Company 2 in the rear did not waste any time.

The attack was immediately launched according to the coordinates reported by the front-line observation post.

"Three rapid shots!"

"put!"

"Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!".
"Baga! How is this possible!"

Seeing the sudden artillery attack on the Eighth Route Army position, Pinglu Yongfu stood up quickly.

He couldn't believe his eyes.

"How could the Eighth Route Army have heavy artillery?!"

Such a killing radius can only be achieved with a howitzer of at least 105 mm.

The entire First Army only has one Type B Regiment.

A Type B heavy artillery regiment has only four squadrons and a total of 4 guns.

"Send a signal immediately and have the planes search behind the Eighth Route Army's positions!"

Pinglu Yongfu suddenly remembered the armored train that had been dismantled without even a screw left.

The armored train was equipped with two 105mm field cannons. Although the amount of fire from these two cannons did not match the amount of shells he had seen.

But Pinglu Yongfu really couldn't imagine how the New Second Regiment had the ability to obtain heavy artillery.

The heavy mortar position, which had already completed its camouflage again, looked at the Japanese planes flying to the rear, not knowing what they were going to do.

The Japanese pilots thought very simply. The normal range of a 105mm artillery is about 10 kilometers.

In order to ensure safety and suppressive power, they are generally deployed more than 5 kilometers away from the front line.

They could never have imagined that this was a heavy mortar made by the New Second Regiment itself.

Because of its range, the heavy mortar position was hidden behind a reverse slope less than 3 kilometers away from the front line.

Therefore, the Japanese planes circled and investigated behind the position for several hours, but did not find anything unusual.

But even though the attacking Japanese troops were bombarded again, they still did not discover anything.

Not even the muzzle flash or the sound of a gun was noticed.

This made it impossible for the 4th Brigade to capture the 3rd Battalion's position in a short period of time.

The third battalion was defending in a dangerous position, although it could not deploy too many troops on the front line.

But it is impossible for the Japanese to attack with their entire army. At most, only one or two hundred people can launch an attack at the same time.

In a narrow area, the suppressing power of four heavy mortars is extremely terrifying.

With one shot, the coverage area is more than 3,000 square meters.

It was getting dark, but the troops still had no chance of attacking the Eighth Route Army's position.

Pinglu Yongfu had no choice but to choose to cease fire and retreat.

"Send a message to headquarters, requesting more aircraft support."

"Also, transfer the mountain artillery troops supporting the center to the right."

"Tomorrow I will blow up the Eighth Route Army's position!" Pinglu Yongfu gritted his teeth.

Since we can't find the enemy's artillery positions, we might as well confront them head-on.

See who has more firepower!

In the middle of the night, in the originally silent environment, a burst of shouting and screaming suddenly rang out, accompanied by the sounds of gunfire and explosions.

"Haha. You dare to show off your skills in front of an expert!" In the temporary command center, Pinglu Yongfu looked at the fire outside with great disdain.

Everyone in the Locust Army knew that the Eighth Route Army loved to attack at night, so how could we not be on guard against them?

"Order all troops not to panic, just follow orders and don't pursue them rashly!" Pinglu Yongfu ordered.

"Ha!"
Outside, Sun Xun saw that the Japs were on high alert and was not too surprised.

The Japs are not fools, it is impossible for them to be unprepared.

Night fighting is indeed advantageous to the Eighth Route Army, but the troops he has now are only 1/6 of the number of the Japanese troops on this route, and there is no possibility of winning at all.

Half an hour later, seeing that there was no benefit, Sun Xun and his troops immediately disappeared into the darkness.

Ping Lu Yongfu looked at the battlefield that had quickly calmed down and said disdainfully: "Haha. Eighth Route Army, ridiculous!"

Faced with the large locust army, the Eighth Route Army could only act stealthily.

The next morning, the other half of the mountain artillery battalion, which had risked traveling overnight, had arrived.

The 12 Type mountain cannons on the artillery position were pointing at the position of the Third Battalion.

"Fire!" ordered the Japanese artillery battalion commander.

"Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!".
The third battalion's position was engulfed in flames.
Immediately afterwards, four bombers also began dropping bombs.

Tons of bombs fell on the position.

The position of the third battalion was directly covered by smoke and dust.

"Taoci, give it to me!"

The Japanese captain who was commanding the front line drew out his command knife and shouted.

"attack!"

"Hayaku! Hayaku!"

A squadron of Japs rushed out.

However, a few minutes later, a Japanese signalman ran back.

"Report, there is no one on the Eighth Route Army's position."

"Nani?"

Pinglu Yongfu was a little confused, but then he reacted.

"Bagaya road!"

"The troops will advance towards Hongni Bay immediately!" Pinglu Yongfu ordered.

He has realized why the Eighth Route Army attacked him yesterday.

"Hai!"

After breaking into the base, the Japanese began to quickly split their forces as they approached Hongni Bay.

One road became two roads, two roads became four roads, and finally it became dozens of roads.

They rushed towards Hongni Bay from all directions, intending to form an "iron wall encirclement".

However, long before the Third Battalion broke out, the headquarters of the New Second Regiment had already dispersed and evacuated.

This time, even the chickens, rabbits and pigs of the breeding team were packed up and brought into the mountains.

The Japanese got nothing in Hongni Bay except exhaustion.

"Bag! Bag!"

"The Eighth Route Army is so cunning!"

"Order all troops to carry out a multi-column, multi-level, and deep encirclement according to Plan A!"

"The Eighth Route Army must not have gotten far yet. Find them and wipe them out in one fell swoop!"

Pinglu Yongfu was almost mad at the teasing of the Eighth Route Army.

Now he felt that the people around him looked at him not with respect, but with ridicule.

"Hai!"

(End of this chapter)