The War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression Begins in Songhu

Chapter 374 The Fall and the Night Raid? (Bonus Chapter 3450 for the Emergence of the Erotic Photographer)

When it rains, it pours! This is a true reflection of the various experiences that Lao Ma and Xiao Henan, who were holding their ground on the left wing hilltop, subsequently encountered.

When Old Ma, who had taken cover from Japanese air raids, crawled out of a bunker...

Then I heard Xiao Henan's voice ringing in my ears, filled with endless anger, saying, "You little devils, I'll fuck your immortals!"

With a quick glance in that direction, Old Ma, with his rich combat experience, basically figured out what had happened to Xiao Henan.

He immediately opened his mouth and cursed at Xiao Henan:
"Blind man, what the hell are you doing? If you want to waile, wait until after the battle."

Such rudeness wasn't because Old Ma couldn't empathize with Xiao Henan; the scene before him made him feel the same heartache.

Who could remain unmoved by the death of such brave brothers?

The key is that now is not the time to be sad. The Japanese are about to rush up. Only by using such merciless scolding can we make Xiao Henan come back to his senses quickly.

What's really amazing is that after hearing Lao Ma's cursing, Xiao Henan reacted instantly.

Let's be clear, now is not the time to be sentimental.

Unfortunately, before he could even grip the glasses in his hand for a moment, he pulled the fuse of the grenade, its wooden handle almost dripping with water, and threw it at the Japanese soldiers who had already rushed to within thirty meters of the position.

At this moment, another piece of bad news arrived.

Or perhaps it's something that was meant to happen, and at this point, it finally did.

Suddenly, another explosion, though not too loud, reached Xiao Henan and Lao Ma's ears clearly; the sound came from the direction of the water-deprived Maxim heavy machine gun bunker.

Without a doubt! Under prolonged lack of cooling and intense continuous firing, the heavy machine gun finally gave way and exploded.

Suddenly, only one heavy machine gun remained firing on their position.

With its individual firepower, it was no longer able to suppress the Japanese advance.

Almost the instant the gun exploded, cheers erupted from the Japanese troops outside the position.

Immediately afterwards, several orders to charge, "Kill them!" were shouted from some Japanese officers and even veterans.

Under such circumstances, the Japanese soldiers no longer adopted the cautious offensive tactics of advancing while fighting, as they had done before.

Instead, he charged forward, bayonet in hand, letting out a pig-like scream.

Faced with such a large scene, Xiao Henan instinctively shouted, "Grenade!"

While shouting, he finally pulled the fuse and threw the wooden-handled grenade in his hand; without pausing, he pulled out a new grenade.

He repeated this process until he threw away all four wooden-handled grenades he was carrying.

At the same time, Lao Ma and the other brothers on the position also threw out the grenades and melon grenades they had on them or at hand.

The dense explosions from hundreds of grenades and hand grenades created a death zone in front of the position.

The first few dozen Japanese soldiers were killed by the bomb, and the charge of more than two hundred Japanese soldiers that had just begun was once again suppressed.

Unfortunately, this suppression lasted only a very short time. Knowing that the front-line position could not be held, Old Ma and Little Henan exchanged a glance and reached a consensus.

At the same time, he shouted at the top of his lungs:
"Retreat, retreat immediately, withdraw from the second line of defense; the heavy machine guns are too heavy, we can't take them with us, we don't need them."

Under the orders of the two men, the remaining eighty or ninety men on the position seized this brief opportunity to hastily retreat to the second line of defense.

After they retreated to the World War II position, they looked back and all sighed deeply.

Because these Japanese soldiers had learned their lesson and become more shrewd, they did not rush into the trenches of the World War I positions in a swarm, thus preventing them from detonating the explosives they had purchased in advance.

Then, taking advantage of the Japanese soldiers being blown up and thrown into disarray, they launched a counterattack and recaptured the front line. Only about twenty Japanese soldiers jumped into the trenches, stabbing and prodding the ground around with their bayonets, clearly searching for buried explosives.

The remaining two hundred or so Japanese soldiers kept firing at Old Ma and his men at the edge of the trench.

Because all four of their heavy machine guns were left on the front lines, or perhaps they simply exploded.

In addition, the marksmanship of the Japanese soldiers, especially the elite troops of the 5th Division, was significantly better than that of their brothers who had been farmers not long ago.

Old Ma, Xiao Henan, and the others were speechless to discover that in this exchange of fire, they were actually no match for the other side.

Within a short time, several brothers were shot and fell to the ground; they were mostly shot in vital areas such as the head, chest and abdomen, and did not even have a chance to be rescued.

Seeing this, Lao Ma and Xiao Henan, though extremely unwilling, knew that the left wing hilltop was definitely not going to hold, and they had no choice but to retreat with the remaining brothers.

They immediately pressed the old-fashioned detonator or pulled the rope connected to the fuse.

Suddenly, a series of violent explosions occurred in the trenches of the front-line position, knocking down and burying more than twenty Japanese soldiers.

So that not all of those explosives were wasted.

The two then led seven or eight men to cover the rear, taking turns providing cover while the others carried the wounded, until they completely withdrew from the hilltop positions on the left flank and retreated in disarray to the main position...

*****
At 3:52 PM on December 1st, after more than two days of attacks and paying a considerable price,

The Japanese 5th Division's attacking force finally broke through the defense perimeter of Gaofeng Pass and captured the hilltop where the left flank position was located.

When he saw the flag representing the empire raised and fluttering in the wind on the hilltop on the left flank, Japanese Major General Kawamoto Shichi, who was watching the battle from below, breathed a sigh of relief in a very discreet manner.

Although he appeared calm and composed on the surface over the past few days, as if everything was under control.

But only he, and a few close confidants, knew the immense pressure this major general was under.

The huge loss of manpower is only a small part of the problem.

After all, the Pacific War had not yet broken out, and the Japanese army was not yet in such dire need of manpower as it would later become; a soldier could be recruited to replenish the ranks simply by spending a postcard worth one and a half cents.

The more crucial reason, as Bill Eulton, the major from Uncle Sam's family, complained in his diary, is that...

During World War II, the Japanese were merely a second-rate industrialized nation; they only appeared powerful in the backward East.

In reality, with limited resources, their war potential had been severely diminished after more than two years of fighting.

During this period, the Japanese army consumed a considerable amount of fuel, shells, and other supplies in the battle at Gaofeng Pass.

This has already depleted a large portion of the Japanese troops' reserves, especially for those fighting in the southern Guangxi region.

As a result, Kawamoto Shichi received a telegram from Ando Rikichi, the commander of the 21st Army, reprimanding him. The message was, of course,: "Useless! So much material has been wasted, yet no progress has been made."

Now that he has captured the left flank, he finally has something to give as an explanation.

In short, now that the fighting has progressed this far, Chuan Yuanqi no longer has the slightest intention to underestimate Hu Biao or the Northern Jiangsu Independent Regiment.

Based on this, after putting down his binoculars and thinking about something, he solemnly instructed his adjutant:
"Send another squadron up to the hill on the left flank and tell the commander in charge there to be extra vigilant tonight."

Based on Hu Biao and the Subei Independent Regiment's previous fighting style, they are guys who are unwilling to suffer any losses, so I am certain that they will launch a night attack tonight in an attempt to retake the position.

If the position falls, then all the officers on the position should commit seppuku together.

At the sound of "Hai!", the adjutant, whose scalp tingled, hurriedly went to relay the order...

(End of this chapter)