Bright Sword: From Northwest Shanxi to Shangganling

Chapter 68: The Japs Don't Read The Three Kingdoms (First Order)
After destroying the enemy's heavy machine gun firepower points, the first battalion launched several small-scale attacks in succession.

Although the Japanese blocked the attack of the New Second Regiment, the light machine guns broke down one after another under the continuous shooting and the attacks of the New Second Regiment's grenade launchers.

The three grenade launchers on the Japanese position were simply unable to withstand the several times greater number of grenade launchers in a battalion.

After repelling the Eighth Route Army again, the Japanese squad leader looked at his troops, more than half of whom had been killed or wounded, and realized that he could no longer hold on.

The Eighth Route Army was clearly using their firepower advantage to eat them up bite by bite.

"Baga, these local Eighth Route Army soldiers are really hard to deal with."

"Taijun, what should we do now? The Eighth Route Army is about to launch another attack." The company commander of the puppet Mongolian army said fearfully.

After a moment of silence, the Japanese squad leader ordered: "Everyone retreat to the county town!"

After hearing the squad leader's order, the puppet Mongolian troops on the position felt relieved and hurriedly assisted the locust army in carrying the Japanese corpses and weapons, and then quickly went down the mountain.

As for the Mongolian soldiers’ own corpses, they could not care about them and just wanted to survive first.

As Chen Chengxing occupied Dongshan, the Japanese captain Takeuchi Yuhiro in Shuiquan County also withdrew his troops from the other two hills and prepared to defend the city.

Takeuchi Yuhiro was confident that even without follow-up supplies, the ammunition and rations they carried would be enough to sustain them for ten days or half a month. Such a long time was enough for the locust troops in other places to arrive in support.

After completing the encirclement and blockade of Shuiquan, the New 772nd Regiment, the Independent Regiment, and the nd Regiment attempted to launch an attack.

But they were soon beaten back by the Japanese using the defense of the city walls.

After seeing the battle report, the brigade commander immediately called a halt to the siege.

With the strength of the 386th Brigade, they can capture Shuiquan by storm, but their combat target this time is not just Shuiquan. There are several county towns behind it. If they lose soldiers here, do they still want to fight later?

After dawn the next day, the brigade commander took Chen Chengxing and his men to the top of Shuiquan South Mountain and carefully observed the situation of Shuiquan with a telescope, trying to find a way to break the impasse.

Just as Chen Chengxing and his men were observing Shuiquan, the Japanese soldiers on the Shuiquan city wall also saw them.

Then the Japanese soldiers on the city wall began to sing and dance, apparently mocking them.

Moreover, there were also Japanese soldiers in the south of Shuiquan City who were loudly echoing his voice.

"These damn Japanese devils are too arrogant!" Li Yunlong cursed angrily.

"Blind Cheng, where is your mortar? Pull it up and fire a TND shot!" Li Yunlong said.

"Yes, yes, let's fire one shot, otherwise the Japanese will think that our 386th Brigade is made of mud." Kong Jie said.

Compared to the anger of Li Yunlong and Kong Jie, the brigade commander was unmoved. How could he lead his troops to fight if he couldn't stand a little bit of ridicule?

After a few minutes, the brigade commander put down the telescope and asked, "What good ideas do you have?"

"Brigade Commander, we have more than a dozen mortars and infantry guns. Just start bombarding. With so many people, how can we not be able to take down a water spring?" Kong Jie said.

"That's right, Brigade Commander, as long as you give the order, the 772nd Regiment will definitely be able to enter the city before dark." Cheng Zhiqiang echoed.

"No, we must not act recklessly." The brigade commander shook his head.

According to intelligence, in addition to the two infantry guns belonging to the battalion, the Japanese in Shuiquan City also had a Type 2 mountain gun belonging to the regiment.

Even if the 386th Brigade's artillery battalion and the mortars and infantry guns of each regiment could use the reverse slope of the hill to bombard the water spring, the Japanese artillery would still cause heavy casualties to the attacking troops.

At this time, Chen Chengxing was looking at the Japanese on the city wall and outside the city through a telescope and had an idea.

"Brigade Commander, we can cut off his water supply." Chen Chengxing said as he put down the telescope.

"The Battle of Jieting?" the brigade commander laughed.

The brigade commander discovered this situation when he was observing just now. The reason he asked was just to see what the regiment leaders thought.

Although Li Yunlong and his men didn't know what was going on in Jieting, they could understand Duan Shui.

Everyone immediately raised their binoculars and focused their attention on the group of devils in the south of the city that they had previously ignored. They saw that the group of devils were driving their horses to water by the river.

"That's right, the Battle of Jieting." Chen Chengxing nodded.

According to intelligence, there are no wells in Shuiquan City. The entire county relies on the Qi River tributary from the east for drinking water. As long as we build a dam to block the river, the Japanese will definitely leave the city. "Chen Chengxing said.

A person can go without food for 3 days, but will die if he does not drink water for 3 days.

"Hahahaha. These things are worse than beasts. Their doom is coming!" Li Yunlong said excitedly.

The end of the devils will be the day for me to get rich.

At night, Chen Chengxing sent the 5th Company to dig at the Wusheng Temple 1 km east of Shuiquan City. They used shovels to dig the soil and blocked the tributary of Qi River.

The 5th company worked for several hours in a row, and at around 4 a.m., they completely blocked the tributary of Qihe River.

When it was daybreak, the Japanese from the transport squadron drove the mules and horses out of the city to water the horses again.

When the Japanese arrived at the river, they found that the tributaries had run dry, with only a little water left in some small puddles.

When the Japanese saw this, they immediately realized that something was wrong. Not only did the horses need to drink water, they also had to drink water from the river.

After hurriedly returning to the city, the Japanese transport squadron leader immediately found Takeuchi Yuhiro to report the situation.

"Captain, the river outside the city has dried up."

"What? Why did the river suddenly dry up?" Takeuchi Yuhiro stood up in surprise.

This is no small matter for the locust army!
Takeuchi Yuhiro hurriedly climbed up the city wall and looked into the distance through a telescope.

From the spring to the east, the riverbed was exposed.

"Damn it! The Eighth Route Army has blocked the river!" Takeuchi Yuhiro said with a gloomy face.

A locust battalion has 1100 people, plus a Mongolian army with more than 500 people. The amount of water consumed in a day is astonishing.

Without water, the troops will lose their combat effectiveness in a few days.

If they leave the city, the Eighth Route Army will never miss this opportunity, but if they don't leave the city, the army will collapse sooner or later.

Now the problem has turned from being one-track minded to being blocked at both ends.

After returning to the battalion headquarters, Takeuchi Sakai convened officers at all levels to discuss countermeasures.

However, facing such a desperate situation, no matter how much they talked, it would be of no avail. If they wanted to defend the city, they had to break through the river blocked by the Eighth Route Army.

Moreover, the Eighth Route Army built a river embankment at the bend of a tributary, which was blocked by a hill. They could not reach it even if they wanted to use mountain artillery.

"Higashino-kun." Takeuchi Yuhiro finally made the decision.

"At night, you lead a squadron to raid the riverbank and make sure to blow it up," ordered Takeuchi Yuhiro.

"Hayi!" The captain of the first squadron stood up and stood at attention.

"The rest of you, prepare your own water containers. Once the first squadron succeeds, everyone will immediately leave the city to transport water!"

"Hai!"

The Japanese soldiers in Shuiquan County endured the thirst until nightfall.

Late at night, the east gate of Shuiquan was quietly opened, and the No. 180 Japanese soldiers from the first squadron quietly left the city and began to move upstream along the Qi River.

PS: It’s the end of the month, I’m begging for a monthly ticket

(End of this chapter)