Sword: Heart of Iron

Chapter 73: Fighting the National Disaster Together
Zhao Fangyuan walked quickly into the temporary command post built with tents.

"Sir, the scouts on the front line reported that the Japanese army had already headed towards Kashiwaiki Village an hour ago after a brief rest in Donghui Town."

"The vanguard has three infantry battalions. One infantry battalion is heading straight for the Second Battalion, and the other two are heading towards us!"

Wang Feng nodded.

There was no need for scouts to report, as the movements of the Japanese army were clearly visible through the three-dimensional combat map.

Not long ago, he tried to search for the Japanese brigade headquarters on the bird's-eye view, hoping to replicate the decapitation tactics used to annihilate the 9th Brigade.

Mobilize large-caliber heavy artillery to carry out precise bombardment on it.

But I found that it didn't work at all.

The mountain roads were rugged and narrow, the 40th Brigade's forces were very dispersed, and the battle line stretched for at least ten kilometers. When the vanguard arrived at Donghui Town, the troops in the rear were still being reorganized in Guyi Town.

It seems that taking shortcuts is no longer effective, and the only option is to fight with real weapons. The two sides will confront each other head-on, and the truth will be revealed on the battlefield.

hum!
There was a roar of a propeller engine above the temporary command post.

It was a Japanese reconnaissance plane.

Fortunately, the temporary command post was set up in a dense forest. With the cover of lush branches and the protective color of the dark green tent, the Japanese fighter planes flew back and forth in the sky several times but still found nothing.

Wang Feng put his hands behind his back, his heart was very calm: "Notify all troops to enter combat readiness!
Facing a powerful enemy, the commander must remain calm and clear-headed. A wrong order may cost countless lives.

As long as they can hold on for one day, the second and third regiments will be able to join the battle, and the pressure on the first regiment will be greatly reduced.

In the ambush position.

Zhang Hu was lying on the ground. Zhao Fangyuan had already sent detailed battle reports to each camp.

Looking at the numbers on the telegram, Zhang Hu was secretly shocked: "Two infantry battalions, with such a long battle line?"

This battle is not going to be easy.
A battalion has a full strength of more than a thousand people, which is basically the same as the number of Japanese infantry battalions.

With the same number of people, the battlefield width is the same.

When the Japanese army passed under their noses, they could directly use hand-to-hand combat tactics, similar to the Pingxingguan ambush, and mix in with the Japanese army, while still completely losing long-range and air fire support.

The two infantry battalions were a bit difficult to deal with.

The first battalion has three battalions as reserves behind it, so it can still barely cope with the situation, but the new first regiment may not be able to hold on.

I cooked one table of food and two tables of guests came!
Zhang Hu called the messenger: "Notify the brothers to prepare for battle!"

"Load your guns, pull the bolts!"

Messenger: “Yes!”

Half an hour later, Japanese troops appeared on the ridge path.

At the top of the slope, watching the Japanese army's movements, Zhang Hu's heart suddenly skipped a beat: "It's bad!"

When you reach the bottom of the slope.

The Japanese army suddenly stopped, and several soldiers separated from the team and began to sprint up the slope grunting.

Zhang Hu immediately ordered: "Hide! Take cover!"

After retreating into the shelter, he began to wonder, "Could it be that the operation was exposed in advance?"

But when he saw the captain standing clearly at the foot of the slope, he gave up the idea.

If he had known in advance that there was an ambush here, how could he have walked so brazenly in the middle of the road?

Not only Zhang Hu, but also Wang Feng was confused by the Japanese army's actions.

I wondered in my heart, "It seems that the Japanese have also learned their lesson. Are they scared by the guerrilla warfare of the Eighth Route Army?"

If the battle plan had been exposed in advance, the Japanese army would have certainly launched an attack on the high ground first, and would not have hesitated like they are now.

The movements of those soldiers were also very obvious, they were arranging themselves in a random manner.

Wang Feng was shocked: "I remember the Japanese army at the beginning, they were as naive as children."

Recalling the time when the war just broke out, he had led the 414th Regiment to ambush the Japanese army's baggage transport teams many times. At that time, the Japanese had not yet suffered the beatings of guerrilla warfare, nor did they have the bad habit of searching the high ground in advance.

Wang Feng: "Order Zhang Hu to start the action immediately!"

We can't delay any longer. Repeated concessions will only hand over the initiative on the battlefield to the Japanese army. It is better to act decisively and immediately.

The combat orders were passed down.

For a moment, there was a dense rain of gunfire at the front line. The soldiers of the first battalion raised their arms and shouted slogans, and light and heavy machine guns immediately fired downwards.

The Japanese captain was the first to recover from his panic: "Baga!"

"Hurry up and deploy the defense! Quick!"

"Build a defensive circle, retreat! Retreat!"

At the critical moment, the overly long front line saved the Japanese soldiers' lives.

Because the team was very long, the ambushers on the top of the slope were almost caught by the Japanese scouts, so they were forced to shoot early. The plan was to hit the "belly", but in actual combat they hit the "head".

When the Japanese troops behind learned that the army in front had been attacked, they immediately stopped and the entire army began to slowly retreat like a frightened poisonous snake.

Li Yunlong wanted to provide protection, but with his meager force of only 800 men, he had no idea where to start.

Zhang Dabiao almost rushed forward but was pulled back by Li Yunlong.

"Captain, the Kuomintang army has already started fighting, why don't we go?"

Li Yunlong pulled the bolt of his Mauser pistol: "Go ahead, but you can't fight like this."

"How many grenades do we have left?"

Zhang Dabiao: "There are not many left. The Nationalist Army has given us a new batch of bullets. There are only about 2,000 left."

Li Yunlong thought to himself: "More than 2,000."

"That's enough!"

"Zhang Dabiao, I will gather all the grenades to the first battalion. I will have the second and third battalions provide cover. The road below the hillside is narrow, so you, the first battalion, throw all the grenades out."

"You must create a vacuum zone of at least 300 meters for me. Can you do it?"

Zhang Dabiao didn't even think twice: "Don't worry, Commander. Unless I die, no Japanese soldier will be able to get through!"

Li Yunlong nodded: "This is encouraging to hear."

"Hit me!"

"Don't save your bullets!"

Zhang Dabiao stood up and drew the big knife behind him: "Charge!"

"Brothers, charge up and chop the Japs!" The bugler stood up and put the charge bugle to his lips.

The loud charge sounded across the mountain ridge, and a battalion of soldiers rushed out of the ambush position and rushed towards the Japanese troops at the foot of the hillside.

"kill!"

Li Yunlong shouted: "Cover!"

"We can't let our fellow soldiers laugh at us!"

In the command post, Wang Feng was the first to notice the movements of the New 1st Regiment.

"Zhao Fangyuan, immediately send a telegram to the mountain artillery battalion to shift firepower to the rear of the Japanese army and move the coordinates back 100 meters to avoid harming friendly forces."

The battlefield area is very small, and any carelessness will affect your own troops.

Zhao Fangyuan: "Understood!"

Then he immediately ran to the communications company next door.

Wang Feng kept calm and continued to observe the battlefield situation through the three-dimensional combat map.

The sudden ambush disrupted the Japanese army's marching formation. After a brief chaos, under the organization of the commander, they began an effective counterattack.

Up to now in the war, both sides have made progress and no one is just there to do the work. The Japanese army's anti-ambush capability is visibly increasing, and its air-ground coordination ability has also reached the level of perfection.

As soon as the battle started, several reconnaissance planes that flew over immediately turned around and returned, only about four kilometers away from the battlefield.

In 37, the Japanese army had not yet been equipped with formal reconnaissance aircraft, and this combat mission was usually replaced by fighter jets. This type of aircraft was equipped with radio communication equipment, and could carry out air strike missions as soon as the enemy was discovered.

Wang Feng frowned.

With the same number of people, it would be difficult to destroy the Japanese army even if an ambush was launched first.

In the Battle of Pingxingguan, the Eighth Route Army mobilized half a division of troops and barely wiped out the Japanese army's logistics and supply troops.

The first battalion was in a tough fight, but the second battalion was still silent.

However, the Japanese army already knew that a large number of Chinese troops had appeared in the direction of Kashiwagi Well, and would definitely not advance rashly.

This ambush is turning into a positional assault.

The shells were fired and the mountain artillery battalion began to intervene in the battle.

After a short period of training, the quality of the artillery improved significantly and the landing points of the shells became more accurate than before.

The ridge road can accommodate at most two people walking side by side. Although there are only six mountain cannons, the dense artillery fire can still temporarily split the Japanese troops into two sections.

The command post was located on a hillside behind the first battalion's position, only a few hundred meters away from the front line. The sound of gunfire echoed in the ears, drowning out the surrounding sounds.

In other words, Wang Feng would make such deployment only when he had full insight into all the actions of the Japanese army.

An ordinary commander would not put himself in such a dangerous situation.

The makeshift machine gun positions fired fierce fire, blocking the Japanese army's direct attack towards the top of the slope.

A machine gun team only has one operator and loader, but two infantry squads are deployed on both sides to serve as covering fire for the position.

Wang Feng always believed that the Japanese Type 92 heavy machine gun was useless.

The quality is too heavy and inconvenient to carry.

The firing rate is even lowered to the extreme.

The theoretical rate of fire is only 450 rounds. Due to the limitation that it can only use a 30-round magazine, the rate of fire in actual combat can only reach one-fourth of the theoretical rate of fire.

In contrast, the Maxim heavy machine gun of the same level has a theoretical rate of fire of 600 rounds and uses a 100-round belt to feed ammunition.

The accuracy is good, but it puts a high test on the quality of the machine gunner.

Japanese soldiers in the early stages of the war underwent at least one year of systematic training.

This is something the Chinese military cannot compare to.

Even with the buff that increases training speed, the quality of individual soldiers in a regiment is far inferior to that of ordinary Japanese soldiers.

Wang Feng turned his head and asked: "Where are the follow-up troops marching to?"

Zhao Fangfangyuan: "Sir, I called half an hour ago and it's estimated to take another ten hours to arrive."

Wang Feng frowned and said sternly: "Call Song Wenjie again, no more than eight hours, no mistakes!"

Zhao Fangyuan's heart tightened: "Yes!"

On the front line, Zhang Dabiao's troops, under the cover of the second and third battalions, successfully attacked the Japanese army.

"Throw them all out!"

Whoosh!
The soldiers received the order and threw the grenades hung on their waists at the Japanese troops at the bottom of the slope.

"idiot!"

"Be careful!"

After the fuse was pulled, the grenade flew in the air and fell into the Japanese army like raindrops.

Suddenly, bursts of explosions rang out, and the narrow road at the bottom of the slope was covered with raised yellow sand. The Japanese soldiers who had no time to escape were engulfed by the flames.

Zhang Dabiao was anxious: "Quick, put on the bayonet!"

There were less than 300 soldiers left in the first battalion. Even under the intensive grenade attack, such a small number of people could not expand the width of the battlefield too much.

Grenades are not infinite and will eventually run out. If you want to cut off the Japanese army, you can only resort to hand-to-hand combat.

Build a high wall with flesh and blood to buy time for the friendly forces behind you.

Top of the slope.

Seeing that the first battalion was about to be overwhelmed by the Japanese army, Li Yunlong was anxious: "Brothers, charge forward and show your wolves' spirit! We can't eat for nothing, we can't let people look down on our New First Regiment!"

"charge!"

The bugler stepped forward first, with no fear in his eyes even as bullets flew past him.

The loud charge horn resounded across the top of the mountain. The soldiers of the New 1st Regiment installed their bayonets. The yellow earth kicked up by the grenade explosion hit their faces, and their eyes were extremely determined.

The second and third battalions arrived in time to reinforce and barely stabilize the vacuum zone created by the first battalion.

The Eighth Route Army soldiers were attacked from both sides, but they used their blood to block the subsequent Japanese soldiers who rushed up.

Wang Feng turned his attention away from the New 1st Regiment and couldn't help but sigh in his heart: "If the National Army was as tenacious as the Eighth Route Army, how could the Japanese invaders have been able to wreak havoc on the Chinese land for so long?"

The bird's-eye view turns to a group of positions.

The situation is equally difficult
(End of this chapter)