Sword: Heart of Iron

Chapter 78 Victory [ words updated, double monthly tickets, brothers! ]

Song Wenjie walked out of the command post, and Sergei and Liu Zhijian came over immediately: "Old Song, what instructions does the commander have?"

The two men were ready to fight, with a raging fire in their hearts, and they wanted to eat the Japanese alive immediately.

Zhang Hu has been transferred to the field hospital for treatment. Liu Zhijian took the time to visit him. Seeing his brother, who used to sleep in the same bunk with him, now lying on the hospital bed with a pale face, he became furious.

Song Wenjie took out a small notebook with Wang Feng's military order written on it: "The Second Regiment will immediately enter combat mode."

"How is the mortar battalion deployed?"

Sergei nodded: "All troops must be ready to fight at any time. I will personally send these Japanese devils to repent before God!"

Among the military officers, Zhang Hu was the first friend he met after coming to China.

Song Wenjie closed his notebook and said, "The battle situation is urgent. If you have anything to say, wait until the battle is over. The battle must be resolved before dawn!"

They saluted in unison, "Yes!"

Military orders were issued step by step, and the Second Regiment immediately took action.

There was a constant sound of artillery fire on the narrow ridge. The dark night sky provided cover for the position. There was no need to worry about the safety above for the time being. The artillerymen were much more efficient in their work.

With the mortar battalion joining the battle, the North China Battle Group completely established artillery suppression on the Japanese army.

This was the first time since the full-scale war of resistance that the Chinese army had the upper hand in heavy weapons.

The 79th Infantry Regiment of the Japanese Army was equipped with only four Type mountain guns.

The caliber is also 75mm, and it is the previous generation of the Type 94 mountain gun.

In terms of stability and weight, they are not as good as the six Type 94 mountain cannons captured by Wang Feng.

In addition, there are six Type 92 infantry guns, which are deployed in various places in the form of "artillery squads" and cannot form effective suppressive firepower.

As for heavy artillery with a caliber of 105 mm or above, that is simply not something an infantry regiment can have.

Wang Feng sat in the command post and breathed a sigh of relief.

From the bird's-eye view, the "little green dots" all over the mountains, which are the symbols of our own troops, have completely surrounded the "red dots" symbolizing the Japanese army. In the huge encirclement, there is also a group of inconspicuous "blue dots", which means Li Yunlong's new regiment.

The current battle situation is clear at a glance. The Japanese army has lost the unified command of the regiment headquarters. Under the fierce artillery fire, the subordinate battalions have frequently used mixed tactics and tried to break out when the opportunity arises.

From Wang Feng's perspective, it was no different from running around like a headless fly.

The more chaotic the Japanese troops were, the more likely he would be able to find their weaknesses.

One regiment and one battalion.

Zhao Fangyuan was covered in blood, and in the darkness, he stood there like a ghost.

The acting battalion commander shouted loudly: "The Japs are retreating!"

Zhao Fangyuan looked down at his hands which were covered in blood and stained with an unknown semi-solid substance, and rubbed them clean on the Japanese corpse.

Just now, the bayonet in his hand bent, and in desperation he picked up a palm-sized stone and smashed the head of a Japanese soldier.

"Chase! Don't let them get away!"

The acting battalion commander squatted down, pried open the Japanese soldier's hands, and picked up a Type 38 rifle.

The flat blade was very easy to bend, and he could not remember how many bayonets he had lost tonight.

"Those who are still alive, follow me!"

"Revenge for the captain!"

The soldiers beside him were greatly encouraged and chased after him in one breath.

"kill!"

Zhao Fangyuan held his forehead with his hand, feeling a little ashamed.

Look at the way he said this, it sounds as if Zhang Hu was sacrificed. If that guy knew about this, he would definitely kick him.

While thinking about it, he took the red flag from the soldier beside him.

Breathing heavily, he staggered to the commanding heights of the position.

Soldiers with bayonets in hand hurried past him. Zhao Fangyuan looked at the Japanese Rising Sun flag stuck in the ground and felt a sense of disdain in his heart.

"Fuck you!"

With a curse, he stepped forward and kicked the flagpole in half, then stuck the red flag in his hand firmly into the ground.

"kill!"

The soldiers' shouts of killing were heard in my ears.

The red flag fluttered in the wind, and Zhao Fangyuan looked up.

With the faint moonlight, the bright red color is extremely dazzling in the sky.

Hearing the clanging of flags, Zhao Fangyuan picked up a bayonet and turned around to blend into the charging team.

At dawn, the sky was already turning pale.

Under the protection of the guard company, Wang Feng stepped onto the front line. The air was filled with a strong and pungent smell of blood.

On the ridge battlefield, the fighting lasted until after four in the morning. With the support of the Second Regiment, the Japanese army was driven back to the Donghui Town line.

Although the battle in the broad valley was not very successful, the front line was barely maintained.
After a night of fermentation, the news that Colonel Iichiro Morimoto and a group of staff officers were arrested during a meeting had spread throughout the entire regiment.

From the captains to the ordinary soldiers, everyone knew about this.

The incident happened too suddenly and there was no way to control the flow of information.

Initially, several soldiers who spread the news were shot, but often the more they try to cover up something, the more it proves that there is a real problem.

The ruins of the wing headquarters are the best proof.

As a last resort, the 79th Infantry Regiment began to shrink its front line and even slowly withdrew from Donghui Town.

Sergei, who was organizing the cleanup of the battlefield, saw Wang Feng coming and walked forward with a smile: "Sir, victory has already belonged to us. We beat the Japanese to a pulp!"

Wang Feng: "What are the casualties?"

Sergei took out the statistics and handed them to Wang Feng: "The regiment with the greatest casualties is still the first regiment, with nearly half of the soldiers killed, not counting the injured."

"The casualties of the remaining two regiments are still within expectations."

"After one battle, our army has lost more than 3,500 soldiers."

"There are too many wounded soldiers to be counted yet."

Looking at the data in the table, Wang Feng frowned: "This number of casualties is quite high."

In less than a day, almost all the troops of the main regiment were used up. No one would be able to accept this.

Sergei said bitterly: "Sir, according to post-war statistics, at least half of the soldiers died in the large-scale bombing by the Japanese army." "Our army has no anti-aircraft means at all."

Wang Feng sighed. He knew that neither Yan Laoxi nor Chiang Kai-shek could be relied upon to expand the military.

I can only find another way out.

Sergei added: "Sir, the number of enemies killed by the Second Battalion of the First Regiment is still being counted, but on this side of the ridge alone, at least 1,500 enemy troops were eliminated."

Wang Feng nodded, feeling quite satisfied with the number.

Basically, half of the regiment was wiped out. Although on paper it does not look as good as the previous battles, specific issues need to be analyzed specifically.

This battle was not like the previous ones, with several brigades and divisions filling the line.

The only ones who could be considered friendly forces were the few hundred remnants of the New 1st Regiment.

This was the first independent operation.

Moreover, the reinforcements had not arrived before sunset and the heavy artillery units had not been deployed to the battlefield.

It was basically a regiment of infantry that was struggling to hold on. It was very difficult to hold the position under the coordinated air and ground attacks of the Japanese army.

It was not until nightfall that the situation on the battlefield took a turn for the better.

There was not much time to actually inflict effective casualties on the Japanese army.

Wang Feng frowned: "Where is the Eighth Route Army?"

"What are their casualty figures?"

The number of 'blue dots' in the bird's-eye view was decreasing, and Wang Feng had already made a rough estimate of the casualties of the New 1st Regiment.

Sergei shook his head: "We didn't count the casualties of the Eighth Route Army."

The two were talking when Li Yunlong came over at the right time.

Sergei's eyes lit up and he smiled and said, "Dear Davari, you've come just in time. Our commander wants to inquire about your casualties."

As a Soviet, he had an inexplicable liking for the Eighth Route Army.

Looking at the unknown foreigner in front of him, Li Yunlong was stunned and didn't know what to say: "Uh, hello, hello!"

After greeting him, he turned to look at Wang Feng and said, "Captain Wang, this battle was a great pleasure!"

"Especially in the second half of the night, what's the idiom called 'autumn wind sweeping'? Sweeping what?"

While hesitating, he turned to look at Zhang Dabiao.

Zhang Dabiao shook his head.

Li Yunlong grinned: "No matter what we are sweeping, your national army set the stage for this battle, but it was our New 1st Regiment that put on a good show!"

Seeing Li Yunlong's attitude change 180 degrees, Wang Feng smiled happily and turned his head to look towards the back of the team.

There were not many soldiers left in the new regiment, but each soldier carried a large number of weapons.

Li Yunlong pulled Wang Feng aside and said, "Captain Wang, our New 1st Regiment lost half of its troops in this battle."

"When I first entered Shanxi, I'm not bragging! At that time, I had more than a thousand men under my command. After two battles, there were only more than 400 people left. The organization was completely destroyed. If this continues, I will soon be a commander without any troops!"

Wang Feng couldn't help laughing.

He heard clearly what was being calculated.

"That's true!"

"How about this, Commander Li? I will personally send a telegram to the Second War Zone Headquarters to ask for a batch of supplies for your New First Regiment."

Li Yunlong frowned: "This is so troublesome."

Even the Eighth Route Army had heard about how Yan Laoxi was holding back supplies. If they wanted supplies for the Second War Zone, they might as well snatch them from the Japanese.

Wang Feng waved his hand and said, "It's okay. We are brothers who have fought together. It's just supplies. It's not a big deal."

"Don't be polite to me, just go back and wait for good news."

"Hey, Sergey!"

After saying that, Wang Feng shouted and walked towards Sergei.

Looking at the receding figure, Li Yunlong was extremely depressed. He had wanted to extort some more equipment from the Kuomintang army, but they were fooled and passed it off.

Zhang Dabiao came over and said, "Captain, how is it?"

"How much weapons and equipment do you want?"

Li Yunlong said impatiently: "Go away, don't bother me, don't bring up anything!"

Zhang Dabiao was stunned for a moment, then reacted: "Captain, the Nationalist Army didn't give anything, did they?"

"I'll take my brothers to grab it!"

Li Yunlong waved his hand and pulled Zhang Dabiao back: "Okay, okay, please calm down."

"Their army has nearly 10,000 soldiers, and our few hundred people are barely enough to fill the gap."

"This group of national army has been very righteous, what else do they want? When they were cleaning up the battlefield, they deliberately didn't fight with us for it. Otherwise, forget it."

Li Yunlong put his hands behind his back and sighed.

He could grab the spoils while cleaning up the battlefield, but it was a bit unreasonable to grab what others had already held.

What's more, the national army has a large number of troops.

Although the New 1st Regiment suffered heavy losses in this battle, it also made a lot of money, which was more than enough to rebuild its organization.

While the two were talking, Zhao Fangyuan came running over with a telegram: "Where's the commander?"

Sergei raised his hand and pointed in a direction: "Over there."

Zhao Fangyuan trotted over, stood at attention and saluted, "Sir, there's an urgent message from above!"

He changed into a relatively clean military uniform, but it was a little wrinkled. The previous uniform was completely unwearable. It was soaked in the blood of the Japanese soldiers and had several large holes in it. When a gust of wind blew, the lining of the clothes could be seen clearly.

Wang Feng frowned: "Read it."

Zhao Fangyuan concluded: "Sir, the higher-ups have decided to abandon the Niangzi Pass line and asked us to withdraw to Yangquan."

Wang Feng couldn't help but sigh and looked up at the blue sky.

Finally, we have come to this point
"Count the supplies as quickly as possible, and at 2 pm, all troops will begin to evacuate in an orderly manner."

When the North China Battle Group was reorganized in Jinzhong, the situation at Niangziguan was already going downhill.

(End of this chapter)