The War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression Begins in Songhu

Chapter 479 A Long Night (Part 1) (Combined Chapter 2)

When the continuous gunfire and explosions behind them suddenly stopped, Hu Biao and the others immediately realized that the thugs who had stayed behind to cover their retreat and Chu Hui, both of whom had been killed in action.

In addition, there was the student whose head was blown off during the air raid.

The team has dwindled again, now only 33 people remain.

Overwhelmed with grief, they couldn't help but turn around and look back, their eyes filled with sorrow and indignation.

Especially Black Star, Xu Feng, Mo Shuiyan, Lao Yu, Xiao Cui and other veteran transmigrators, their anger seemed to have reached its peak at this moment.

Such a reaction is actually understandable.

They had traversed this route so many times, but never before had they felt so helpless and frustrated.

That mysterious place is too damn bad. It made them travel through time at such a crucial point in time, without giving them the time or opportunity to develop themselves. Their methods of attracting people to make them famous were useless.

The only opportunity to recruit people was limited to a handful of puppet soldiers.

Even if they were brought in, it wouldn't have made any difference, to the point that they didn't even have the motivation to speak up.

We were starving from the very beginning, and we finally managed to cook a big mutton feast. But just as the meat was cooked, the Japanese appeared again. Before we could even take a bite, the pot was overturned.

In short, if it were someone who had traveled back in time and encountered a large battalion of Japanese soldiers pursuing them, they wouldn't have even given them a second glance. They would never have been chased so badly and suffered such a great loss.

Therefore, their anger is stronger than ever before.

Just as Hu Biao and the others were filled with extreme anger, AT and Huang Adi, who were acting as scouts at the front, spoke in rather urgent voices:
"Damn it! There's a squad of Japanese soldiers blocking the road on the ridge ahead. It's going to be tricky."

Upon hearing this, Hu Biao no longer cared about the deaths of his henchmen and other rearguard members. He waved for his troops to stop advancing and take cover on the spot.

Leading a few old birds, they quickly went forward and lay down behind a mound of earth to look into the distance.

Sure enough, you could see about 50 Japanese soldiers, who had roughly set up a position on a mountain ridge about a mile away.

Two light machine guns have been set up in this direction, providing a very good field of fire from their elevated position.

In addition, based on Hu Biao's experience, they knew that a small Japanese squad would be equipped with at least two grenade launchers and about forty rifles.

Even with their firepower and individual soldier skills, it wouldn't be easy for them to take this place in a short time, and they haven't managed to shake off their pursuers much.

If they cannot defeat the enemy in front of them in a short time, the Japanese pursuers behind them will catch up, putting them in an awkward situation of being attacked from both sides.

For a moment, the group of veterans looked at each other, unsure of what to do, and their anxiety grew.

Here, we need to briefly describe the terrain of the location where Hu Biao and his group are currently situated.

They were hastily retreating westward along a mountain path.

To the left is a vast expanse of steep and continuous mountains, and to the right is a large plain, with even a dirt road at the foot of the mountains.

As Hu Biao and the others looked at each other in bewilderment, they heard AT's question from a spot a little ahead: "Damn it, what do we do now? Should we take a detour?"

"No way! The Japanese are probably hoping we'll take a detour."

As soon as AT finished speaking, Annie immediately objected.

Then she explained her reasons for opposing it: "How can we go around it? If we go around it up the mountain, it's very bare up there. Once the Japanese planes come, there's nowhere to hide. They'll be perfect targets."

If we go down the mountain, no matter how fast we run, can we outrun the Japanese carts and warhorses?
Although I don't know what went wrong that led to the current situation.

But I have a gut feeling that the Japanese have deployed at least an infantry battalion this time, and have already laid a trap in a vast area around them, one that is impossible to bypass.”

After Annie delivered all the bad news, something rather strange happened.

The unusual anxiety and anger that had been on the faces of Hu Biao, Hei Xing, Xu Feng, and the other veterans quickly began to dissipate.

Instead, his expression was filled with ruthlessness and determination.

The reason for this is that they had experienced many fierce battles before, which were like forging iron, constantly hammering away the impurities in them and making them tough without them even realizing it.

Therefore, the extremely dire situation they were in did not break their spirit.

Instead, it was like a rebound from rock bottom, forcing out the ruthlessness in their hearts.

Just like Xu Feng, a seemingly harmless, greasy middle-aged man who usually just goes out to wash his feet, beneath his calm expression, the words he uttered were incredibly ruthless:
"What's there to be afraid of! When a person dies, their eggs face the sky; if they don't die, they'll live for ten thousand years."

Since going left or right won't work, let's just charge forward; either the Japanese will wipe us all out, or we'll completely tear apart their inescapable trap.

After speaking, he glanced again at the children in the back of the line, whose faces were pale but who did not complain. His face still showed pity and resentment.

But that look flashed across his face only briefly before he became resolute again, adding the following sentence:
"As long as we are not all dead, we will do everything we can to protect them; but if we are all dead, then it's time to forget about them and they will have to live according to their own fate."

Although the others did not speak, the resolute look in their eyes spoke volumes.

This also means that in the coming period, they will experience a series of breakout battles that may not be large in scale, but are extremely fierce.

Of course, Hu Biao, the formidable Tiger of Shanghai, and his companions were not without merit.

Or to put it another way, if they had relied solely on brute force during their many previous time travels, they would never have achieved such a great reputation.

Therefore, even if everyone has reached a consensus and decided to fight to the death, they should use as many tactics as possible.

And soon after, he gave Major Tanaka, who was leading a group of Japanese military police chasing after him, wanting to use their lives to get promoted and make money, a good beating.

Let Major Tanaka know that even if a tiger is down on its luck, and a pack of wild dogs tries to bully it, it should be prepared to be bitten to death.

Now that things have come to this, Major Tanaka has no way back and can only desperately pursue and annihilate the enemy, deploying his troops as needed.

In short, the survivors from both sides still remember every detail of this battle, even after many years...

******
Five or six minutes later, at 4:37 p.m., at a bend in a mountain path.

"Hurry, hurry, hurry! We must catch up with those Chinese and avenge the warriors of the Iijima Squadron and the Mendunshan stronghold!" Major Tanaka shouted to his men as he ran along the path.

Perhaps they wanted to gain amazing benefits by making a huge contribution.

At this moment, the Japanese major was extremely excited, as if he had been injected with chicken blood, and his whole body was full of inexhaustible strength. He was in an amazingly good state.

However, due to his excessive excitement, the Japanese major forgot to watch his step.

He tripped over a tree root without noticing, and his body lurched forward, causing him to fall flat on his face.

But at the moment of falling, Major Tanaka felt nothing but a moment of panic, and instead of anger, he felt an inexplicable joy.

Because at the moment he fell, a crisp gunshot rang out, and a sergeant behind him had a burst of blood on his face, dying instantly.

Several drops of warm blood splattered onto Major Tanaka's neck.

It's like if this guy hadn't suddenly tripped, he would have been beaten to death by now.

After all, he was 153 cm tall, and the sergeant behind him was 152 cm tall; the two of them were standing in a straight line. If he were shot, it would be a fatal blow to his head and face.

At most half a second after the gunshots rang out, two machine guns, several submachine guns, and a few rifles suddenly opened fire from different concealed positions fifty or sixty meters ahead.

The number of firearms was small, but the bullets were quite dense.
In the blink of an eye, they knocked down the seven or eight men who were leading the pursuing force in Tanaka.

Some of the Japanese soldiers behind them, after being suddenly attacked, either lay down on the spot in a panic or looked to the left and right for natural cover before picking up their rifles and starting to return fire.

During this process, the pursuing troops suffered another ten or so casualties.

Because no one expected that Hu Biao and his men, in this crisis, would not desperately flee, but instead ambushed them.

Therefore, upon contact, Major Tanaka's pursuing troops suffered a heavy loss. However, amidst a series of scrambling and rolling movements, Major Tanaka, who had awkwardly taken cover behind a rock, roared out orders without a trace of panic; instead, he exuded an inexplicable elation:

"Counterattack! Counterattack immediately! Set up the machine guns and provide suppressive fire with grenade launchers."

"Don't panic, everyone. Just hold on a little longer and we'll have reinforcements coming. They might even be attacked from behind. They're doomed."

That's right! For Major Tanaka, the current situation is exactly what he wanted to see.

If Hu Biao and his men were to run at full speed, he would have to mobilize his troops to continuously pursue and encircle them, which would take a lot of effort to achieve his goal.

Hu Biao's ambush, relying on its suddenness and the burst of firepower from a large number of automatic weapons, inflicted heavy casualties on his pursuing troops.

However, killing them all in a short period of time is simply impossible.

He had already arranged a small squad to intercept them on the mountain ridge ahead.

If the squad leader isn't a complete idiot, he'll definitely come to their aid immediately after hearing the gunfire. At that point, while it might be difficult to annihilate Hu Biao and his men while they're attacking from both sides, surrounding them will be no problem at all.

Then, from the surrounding areas, even more troops will spontaneously come to their aid after hearing the gunfire.

Therefore, in Major Tanaka's view, this round was basically a sure thing; the only remaining suspense was whether Hu Biao and his comrades could be captured alive today.

As for the fact that many of his warriors would die in the process, he didn't care at all.

However, as the battle continued, only a short while had passed, Major Tanaka, who was overjoyed, gradually began to feel uneasy.

The main problem was that the enemy had a sniper and a grenade launcher that were too powerful.

Under his orders, his men would be killed before they could even fire their light machine guns and grenade launchers, which meant that despite having an overwhelming numerical advantage, they were severely suppressed in these firefights.

The accuracy and rate of fire of that grenade launcher were astonishing, continuously killing our own soldiers.

In a short period of time, he, who originally led about eighty people, now had more than half of them killed or wounded.

But at this moment, something even worse happened.

Suddenly, Major Tanaka heard a more intense burst of gunfire and explosions coming from about 200 meters ahead.

Amidst the dense gunfire, most of the weapons were either MG34 general-purpose machine guns, submachine guns, or Czech light machine guns.

On the contrary, the Imperial Type 38 rifles rarely made a sound, and the Type 11 light machine guns were completely absent.

What do the above situations actually represent?
The small team representing the mountain ridge, although it came to support as he expected, failed to achieve its goal of attacking from both sides. Instead, it seemed to have fallen into a trap and was being suppressed.

In a flash, Major Tanaka realized something, and his face stung as if he had been slapped several times.

Upon realizing what had happened, a notice he had seen in an internal document at the beginning of the year flashed through his mind.

Hu Biao and his men used a tactic called "encircling the point and attacking the reinforcements" in the 19th Independent Mixed Brigade and the 18th Division on the Guinan battlefield.

In his farewell telegram to headquarters, the commander of the 18th Division warned his colleagues to be wary of this tactic.

Major Tanaka recalled that when he saw the report, he privately mocked the commander of the 18th Division.

The 19th Independent Mixed Brigade had already suffered a loss once with Hu Biao's tactics, yet he still foolishly fell for it. How stupid must he be to do that?
In the end, others have already been cheated twice, so what am I if I'm the one who gets cheated a third time?
Thinking about this, Major Tanaka felt like a clown, thoroughly humiliated by Hu Biao and his gang; his face was practically swollen from the beating…

That's right! Under the current circumstances, Hu Biao and his men used a small-scale "encirclement and suppression" tactic once again.

The main problem was that small Japanese squad on the mountain ridge, which had already made all the necessary preparations for battle and was just waiting for them to run into them.

If we choose to fight head-on, we can actually force our way out, but the casualties would be far too great.

Mobilizing them and annihilating these Japanese soldiers in action becomes the best option.

Based on this idea, they used a tactic similar to besieging a point to attack reinforcements again; this tactic has been used before and it works well.

Therefore, the group was divided into two teams. One team consisted of Uncle Bo, the guard, Xu Feng, Shi Zi, the contractor, Lao K, Mo Shuiyan, Fang Youcai, Xiao Cui, and others.

Their mission was to ambush the pursuing force behind them.

The other team consisted of everyone except the children and the three girls from the school.

They lay in ambush early on, waiting for the Japanese soldiers on the mountain ridge to hastily abandon their original positions and rush over, placing themselves within a mere twenty or thirty meters of them, before launching their attack.

They unleashed bullets and grenades as if they were free, and in no time they wiped out most of the squad on the mountain ridge.

The remaining twenty or so Japanese soldiers were terrified by the fierce firepower and the alarming rate of casualties.

The key issue was that in the first wave of attacks, the squad leader and some non-commissioned officers were killed first, leaving the remaining Japanese soldiers without a commander.

When a private suddenly threw down his rifle and ran down the mountain, it immediately triggered a major rout of the Japanese troops.

They retreated down the mountain in a panic, and several Japanese soldiers lost their footing and tumbled down the slope.

This means that the "encirclement and suppression of reinforcements" tactic has once again achieved its first victory.

The only pity was that after driving away the Japanese blocking force in front, Hu Biao originally wanted to press on and lead his men back to wipe out all the pursuers behind them.

Suddenly, a voice rang in my ears: "Damn it, the Japanese reinforcements are coming from the highway."

Turning my head, I saw five or six trucks speeding towards me in the distance.

The specific vehicle type is the Japanese Isuzu Type 94 6-wheel truck, which has a standard load capacity of 1.5 tons and a designed carrying capacity of 11 people.

However, the Japanese had a limited number of trucks, and in actual use, none of them were not overloaded, usually carrying more than double the number of people.

So there are at least another hundred or so Japanese soldiers who will be attacking soon, so we must evacuate immediately, otherwise who knows how many more Japanese soldiers will come.

They had to issue a new order: "Signal for Uncle Bo and the others to retreat immediately."

After shouting, they turned their guns around to hold off the pursuing Japanese soldiers for Uncle Bo and the others, so that everyone could retreat in an orderly and coordinated manner, instead of running away in a chaotic frenzy.

Soon after, Uncle Bo and the others appeared before Hu Biao.

There were 9 people when the team was divided, and there are still 9 people now; not a single one is missing.

In other words, while Uncle Bo was running, he covered his right back with his hand, and it was unclear whether he had been hit in the back; even so, it can be considered that he had carried out a brilliant ambush.

Just as Hu Biao was wearing a relieved smile and about to say, "You guys keep running, we'll cover you," something terrible happened.

Among the fighting and retreating crowd, a guard carrying a bag on his shoulder suddenly had a burst of blood on his head.

Then, this modern-day identity is a member of the Criminal Investigation Department. With a frozen smile, his body went limp and he fell to the left.

The Japanese soldiers chasing after him were caught up by a hastily fired bullet that unfortunately struck him.

Being struck in such a vital spot, he naturally died on the spot.

Then the guard's lifeless body rolled down the mountainside; as the bag he was carrying on his shoulder was flung away, the tightly tied knot came undone.

Some mutton that had been cut up beforehand, as well as washed vermicelli, cabbage, and radishes, were scattered everywhere in an instant.

Seeing this, Hu Biao and the others were not too distressed about the food, but they were heartbroken about the deaths of the guards.

But what can they do? That's how it is on the battlefield. No matter how capable you are, as long as you're still a normal carbon-based life form...

A stray bullet, a shell, or some unintentional accident can instantly take a person's life, leaving no time for last words.

Those scenes of characters being shot multiple times but surviving are merely plot devices in movies and TV shows…

(End of this chapter)