The War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression Begins in Songhu

Chapter 480 A Long Night (Part Two) [Combined Chapter]

Although he only joined the team during the last time he traveled through time, he wasn't exactly a veteran.

However, thanks to the long duration of the last Battle of Guinan and the participation in numerous and intense battles, they have already undergone basic training and growth.

Now he has become an indispensable core member of the team.

Hu Biao and his men were naturally heartbroken that he was killed by a stray bullet before he could even say his last words.

Fortunately, having recognized their dire situation and been forced to unleash their inner ruthlessness, the group's mindset had completely changed.

Or perhaps they had already mentally prepared themselves for the possibility of their comrades, or even themselves, dying in battle.

After muttering a frustrated "Damn it" under his breath, he quickly composed himself, picked up his submachine gun, and fired a burst of bullets at the Japanese soldiers chasing after him in the distance.

The shot missed the man, but it did manage to rip open the skull of the wolfhound charging at the front.

At the same time, Uncle Bo and the others also stopped their retreat and opened fire on the Japanese soldiers who were chasing after them.

Caught off guard, the Japanese pursuers who were at the forefront have now taken down seven or eight more men.

Even if the unlucky ones inside were killed directly, there were only three of them in total; the thirty or so Japanese pursuers behind them had also lost their last bit of fighting courage.

After they stopped their pursuit, they either lay on the ground or hid behind rocks and mounds of earth, opening fire on Hu Biao and his men who were taking turns providing cover as they retreated.

Despite the loud gunfire, the shooters, now terrified, had significantly reduced their accuracy and could no longer hit their opponents with the same incredible luck as when they had shot the guards.

Upon witnessing this scene, Major Tanaka nearly went insane.

You should know! He was always proud of the fact that although the number of military police under his command in the Independent Mixed 2nd Brigade was not large, they were all elites.

They have better individual skills and stronger fighting spirit; one of them is equivalent to two other infantrymen.

At this moment, no matter how he shouted at his subordinates, encouraging, promising, scolding, or threatening them, he said everything he should and shouldn't have said.

These guys acted as if they hadn't heard anything; aside from firing shots from a distance, no one dared to give chase.

Actually, it's not that hard to imagine such a scene occurring.

Although Major Tanaka's men were military police, their combat effectiveness and fighting spirit were stronger than those of ordinary soldiers.

However, when they faced a small team of only thirty-odd people, including many women and children, they suffered more than 70% casualties in a very short time.

Despite such heavy casualties and a formidable opponent, they were still terrified.

Thus, with his subordinates utterly unwilling to continue the pursuit, even if Major Tanaka himself were to be highly motivated, he dared not chase after them alone.

They could only watch helplessly as Hu Biao and his men drove off, rushing up a mountain ridge more than a mile away, before disappearing completely from sight.

In the time that followed, Major Tanaka hurriedly organized the remaining soldiers around him.

After the inventory was completed, his mind, which had been in a state of frenzy, instantly came to its senses.

Because the two squads acting as pursuers were responsible for intercepting one squad, the remaining personnel of the three squads were now all gathered together; after eliminating the wounded, only a mere 46 people remained.

Although these troops, if put together, could still barely form a small squad.

Almost everyone's face was filled with fear, and their eyes were filled with panic; none of them dared to look him in the eye.

Major Tanaka was forced to confront a harsh reality: his men were essentially finished; at least until they had a proper rest and regained their morale.

The only thing that could make this Japanese major feel fortunate was...

After hearing the gunshots, the reinforcements who rushed over in a truck arrived at his side after getting into their truck at the foot of the mountain and climbing up the hill.

This means that Major Tanaka now has about a hundred new recruits under his command.

At this moment, only about 10 minutes had passed since Hu Biao and his men withdrew from the mountain ridge and disappeared; they couldn't have evacuated quickly with so many women and children, and they probably couldn't have gone very far.

Besides, there was an encirclement formed by multiple troops ahead, which Hu Biao and his men had no way to bypass.

After thinking about all this, Major Tanaka took a deep breath and cheered himself up again.

He took a closer look at the body of the guard who had been dragged in front of him.

He even personally inspected the guards' weapons and pockets, and looked at the scattered beef slices, vermicelli, cabbage, and other ingredients.

After thinking for a little over half a minute, I had another idea.

He first pointed at the 46 men who were completely crippled, and cursed, "You useless trash, a disgrace to the Imperial Army, there's no need to pursue them anymore."

Some stayed behind to clean up the battlefield and take care of the wounded.

The other group escorted the three bodies over there and one over here, a total of four bodies, to the brigade commander; telling him to rest assured that none of those guys would escape.

At the same time, orders were issued to all interception, search and sniping units to eat the food they were carrying immediately, or destroy it if they could not finish it.

All the surrounding villages have also been put into action with security measures and surveillance.

"I'm going to make sure those guys never get a single grain of food again from this moment on. I'm going to starve them to death."

After saying that, he turned to the newly arrived fresh troops and roared, "Gentlemen, if we don't kill this group of opponents who have continuously caused so much trouble for our brigade..."

If we were to form an independent 2nd Mixed Brigade, it would become a huge joke among our allies.

So please, you must catch them and kill them all, regardless of gender or age, leave no one alive.

After he finished speaking, he bowed deeply to the new force in front of him, almost bending his back at a ninety-degree angle, showing a respectful attitude towards them.

At the same time, he made up his mind that he would no longer hope to capture Hu Biao or any of the targets alive.

Instead, I want to kill them all and vent my anger...

******
At 6:16 p.m., the sun completely set on the horizon in North China, and in a very short time, it became completely dark.

A howling north wind began to blow, causing the temperature to drop rapidly.

I believe that when it gets coldest, it will be close to zero degrees Celsius.

Unlike last night, when there were only some dim stars in the sky, a crescent moon quickly rose in the sky tonight; thanks to the lack of clouds in the sky, the moonlight was quite bright.

Under such bright moonlight, Fang Youcai and others with night blindness were not rendered completely blind.

We don't need to use the method from last night, where it was like an eagle catching chicks, with a string of people holding onto the clothes of the person in front of them just to barely make it along.

This was the only good news Hu Biao and his men received after nightfall.

Other than that, it was always one bad news after another that kept coming at them.

Sure enough! Two minutes before seven o'clock, Hu Biao, by the light of the moon, discovered a small village about three or four hundred meters to his left.

Seeing this, he wanted to let the group, who had been traveling for three hours and were now tired and hungry, rest for a while.

Meanwhile, send a few people into the village to check. If there are still villagers, secretly buy some dry food; if everyone has already run away, go to the vegetable garden at the village entrance and pick some radishes.

Although eating too much of that stuff can cause flatulence, it's not a good idea for everyone to just keep going hungry.

Not to mention the children, he himself felt his hands and feet trembling slightly from the intense hunger; gnawing on some radishes could at least somewhat satisfy his hunger.

But all he actually said was, "Let's rest here for twenty minutes."

Before they could even shout "Consumption devil!" as they made other arrangements, some Japanese soldiers rushed out of a distant village and charged straight at them.

Damn it! The Japanese are really willing to spend money; they even deployed people here in advance.

What to do? Of course, they didn't rest and continued to break through; they had already reached a consensus on this point: they wouldn't give up as long as no one was killed.

Hu Biao's order became: "Consumptive devil, take a few men and take turns covering the rear." Upon hearing this, AT simply called out three names: "Zhang Yishou, Crippled, and Lao Cao," and ordered these three men to take turns covering the rear with him.

He didn't waste a single word, quite like the taciturn Lao Yu, who usually kept his words to himself.

There was no other way! He was so hungry that his hands and feet were trembling; rather than wasting more energy talking nonsense, he might as well save it to kill one or two more Japanese soldiers.

But the next second, as the veteran replaced the exhausted Yi Jie and carried Cao'er past him, AT forced a friendly smile onto his face.

She said gently, "Be good, Grass! Don't be afraid."

If you're scared, just take a nap. We'll be safe when you wake up.

Then we can start cooking. Even without lamb, pork mixed with rice or plain noodles will taste just as good.

Given Cao'er's cleverness, upon hearing this, she immediately wanted to answer with things like "I'm not afraid" and "Uncle, don't worry."

Before she could even open her mouth, a pineapple-flavored hard candy was shoved into it, and AT's hushed voice rang out again:
"Don't speak. This is the last one on your uncle's body, so I can only reward Grass separately."

Actually, AT was lying. In his pocket, there was a small piece of chocolate and a durian-flavored hard candy, which he deliberately left for Cao'er.

Even though he knew that if he put a piece of candy in his mouth, his trembling hands and feet would soon be relieved, he had no intention of eating it.

I was really embarrassed, so I stuffed it into my mouth.

So much so that when he was talking to Cao'er about rice with lard or noodles, he, a modern man, was almost drooling with envy. What a pity!
And so, very soon after, the weapons in the hands of AT and the other three began to fire.

As the Japanese soldiers rushed out of the village, dozens of them charged forward. The first few were instantly taken down. The remaining Japanese soldiers did not stop, but their speed was clearly slowed down.

Seeing this, AT finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Out of the corner of his eye, he inadvertently saw that at the entrance of the village on his left, a few Japanese soldiers suddenly lifted some hay, revealing a deadly thing.

Immediately, AT shouted at the top of his lungs, filled with tension: "Fire! Take cover!"

Just as he shouted that, a burst of light, much brighter than when the gun was fired, suddenly lit up the night at the village entrance.

Then came the enormous roar that reached their ears.

With AT's extensive combat experience, a quick glance was enough to identify it as the Japanese Type 92 infantry gun, which is only 70mm in caliber and not very big.

Even this small cannon is not something that flesh and blood can withstand.

Especially in such an unprotected wilderness environment, no matter how experienced you are or how tough you are, as long as you are within the 22-meter kill radius of an artillery shell, your life is in considerable danger...

The closer you are to where the shell will land, the greater the danger.

"May Buddha protect us! We hope the Japanese don't miss with that shot!"

Upon hearing the AT warning, Xiao Cui, with quick reflexes, grabbed a female student named Cong Yu and threw her face down to the ground.

He began to pray fervently, hoping that the Japanese shell would miss its mark.

It wasn't that this girl was particularly devout to Buddha; she simply knew how horrific a tragedy would occur if a shell landed among the crowd.

It turns out that praying to Buddha is useless, at least in this respect.

When Xiao Cui heard the explosion coming from not far away and clearly felt the ground shake, she knew that the shell had landed in the crowd of people in the troop.

Driven by a sense of responsibility as the team's only medical personnel, she looked up at the 5 o'clock direction even as the mud and sand kicked up by the blast wave were just flying overhead.

About ten meters away in one direction, that's where the shells were going to hit.

After a quick glance, Xiao Cui's tense nerves relaxed a little.

Perhaps thanks to the early warning issued by AT, everyone lay down before the shells hit the ground, thus avoiding the most deadly impact and shrapnel.

Surprisingly, the team suffered no direct casualties in this single shot.

Even though he was only four or five meters away from the shell's impact point, this old tank commander, who was once a modern Type 59 tank, managed to sit up from the ground.

Although he seemed stunned by the explosion, he kept shaking his head after sitting up.

At least by the moonlight, Xiao Cui could see that all the body parts were intact and there was no blood.

Even so, worried that the old car might have been damaged by the impact, Xiao Cui rushed over immediately, shouting:
"Old Che! Are you alright? Do you feel any tightness in your chest, nausea, or vomiting?"

The old car finally calmed down a bit, but he looked at Xiao Cui with great surprise and said, "What did you say? Speak louder."

Upon hearing this, Xiao Cui sensed something was wrong and quickly looked at the old driver's ears. She saw some black blood slowly flowing out of his ears.

Just as she had guessed, the novice was unfortunately deafened by the nearby explosion; it's hard to say whether to call it lucky or unlucky.

There wasn't enough time to examine the old car more thoroughly to see if it was only temporarily deafened or completely deafened.

Because the Type 92 infantry gun, when operated by veterans, can achieve an astonishing rate of fire of 10 rounds per minute.

If this drags on, the Japanese artillery will adjust their guns slightly, making the attacks more accurate and deadly, and then we won't be so lucky.

Immediately, the petite girl grabbed one of the old man's arms and, with a little effort, actually lifted the old man off the ground.

Then, holding Cong Yu's hand with his left and Lao Che's hand with his right, he continued forward with the group.

During this process, the seasoned veterans of the time travel world naturally wouldn't allow that Type 92 infantry gun to continue firing.

Even if they run as fast as they can, even if they run until they vomit blood, they still can't outrun the speed of a cannonball.

With the Type 92 infantry gun's maximum range of 2830 meters, by the time they successfully escaped the range of the shells, it was unknown how many shells they would have taken.

Therefore, Hu Biao didn't need to yell and curse at the top of his lungs in the first instance.

Black Star, this seasoned veteran, has already taken the initiative to respond.

He beckoned to the newbie Cross beside him, quickly found a small mound, set up a Czech light machine gun, and replaced it with a magazine full of armor-piercing rounds.

They began firing three-round bursts at a time at the Type 92 infantry gun at the village entrance.

Even at a distance of nearly 400 meters, Black Star's marksmanship allowed him to hit the target at the start of the second round of shots.

Before long, the two 20-round magazines were fired in bursts, a total of 40 armor-piercing rounds, at least half of which hit the gun shield of the Type 92 infantry gun.

In normal combat, the gun shield, which even the Type 24 heavy machine gun could not penetrate, could not withstand the power of armor-piercing shells.

After the two magazines were emptied, all five gun crew members hiding behind the gun shield were taken down without exception.

Two of them were not immediately killed, but they could no longer fire and therefore could no longer pose a threat to Hu Biao and his men.

All of the above can be attributed to the timely reactions of the experienced team members, which allowed them to quickly avoid and resolve a crisis.

As he staggered forward, the old car clearly saw the flashes of the Czech light machine gun firing, but he couldn't hear a single sound.

Even the entire world suddenly fell silent, becoming completely mute.

The newbie was completely taken aback; he had just been deafened by the explosion.

For a moment, he so fondly recalled the old Type 59 tank he had commanded in a third-line unit of the PLA, and related data flooded his mind uncontrollably:
94式105毫米线膛坦克炮，使用93式穿甲弹，在2000米之内的穿甲能力可以达到540毫米。

One 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine gun and two 7.62mm vehicle-mounted machine guns.

The fire control system includes a laser rangefinder, a digital ballistic computer, and a low-light/thermal imaging night vision device.

In terms of protection, forget about the FY-2 reactive armor and the added slat armor; the basic armor alone would make the Japanese anti-tank weapons hopeless.

In short, I wish my old friend could have traveled through time with me when I did...

(End of this chapter)