Bright Sword: From Border Region Manufacturing to Major National Heavy Industry

Chapter 290: Firing a cannonball with bare hands?

"Damn it! Today, my army is like a dragon swimming in shallow water, being mocked by shrimp!"

Seeing the Eighth Route Army and his own troops launching a joint attack, growing stronger with each battle, the Kumamoto Division Commander cursed angrily.

Despite the emergency collection of ammunition from the puppet troops, it was no match for the enemy's morale.

Even surrenders occurred within the puppet army, causing the local situation to collapse.

"Division Commander, Commander Shinozuka has sent an urgent telegram."

At this critical moment, the staff officer handed the newly arrived telegram to the division commander, Kumamoto.

Upon hearing this, the Kumamoto Division Commander immediately grabbed it and took a look.

After reading the contents, the Kumamoto Division Commander was still delighted: "Yosh, that's great! Commander Shinotsuka's side can still receive air support and supplies via airdrop."

"Messenger, immediately relay my orders." The Kumamoto Division Commander quickly summoned the messenger and instructed him to relay the orders immediately.

The troops were prepared to receive the airdrop and to break out of the encirclement.

First, break through and reach a city on the Zhengtai Line.

As long as the military trains can deliver the remaining supplies, the outcome of this battle is still uncertain.

"Yes, Division Commander." The messenger nodded.

boom!
boom!
boom!
……

The bomber formation arrived quickly, dropping bombs like dumplings being dropped into a pot.

Whether it was the elite troops or the Eighth Route Army, they all lacked anti-aircraft weapons.

Faced with the relentless bombing by bombers, they could only retreat.

Taking advantage of the fact that the Eighth Route Army and its elite troops were suppressed, transport planes promptly dropped supplies.

"Division Commander, all supplies have been received and distributed quickly," the statistician reported to Division Commander Kumamoto.

"Alright." Division Commander Kumamoto nodded and asked, "How long will the troops' ammunition last?"

"Breaking out is no problem," the statistician replied. "If we economize a bit during the breakout, it will be enough for us to retreat to the city."

Of course, the statistics do not mean that transport planes have such a powerful airdrop capability that they can deliver sufficient weapons and ammunition to tens of thousands of troops at once.

The main reason was that the Kumamoto Division Commander had reduced costs and increased efficiency in advance, and collected some of the ammunition from the puppet army.

In addition, the troops suffered heavy casualties due to the combined attack of the Eighth Route Army and its own forces.

More casualties mean that the survivors will get a larger share.

"What about food?" asked the Kumamoto Division Commander.

"The food intake is about the same," the statistician replied.

"That's enough." Division Commander Kumamoto nodded and immediately ordered, "Pass on my order to break out with all our might. While the bombers are still here, we can also conserve some ammunition during our breakout."

"Hayi!"

boom!
boom!
boom!
……

The transport planes in the sky continued their relentless bombing, while the Japanese soldiers and traitors on the ground, under the orders of Division Commander Kumamoto, quickly seized the opportunity to break out.

Without anti-aircraft weapons to contain the group, a mere light machine gun is utterly ineffective against them.

Whether it was the Eighth Route Army or their own troops, the defensive lines were quickly breached by the bombardment.

The Japanese soldiers and their collaborators attacked through the breach, and with ample ammunition, the Japanese fighting force was very strong.

Despite the desperate efforts of the Eighth Route Army and its elite troops to stop them, the Japanese still managed to break through.

"Finally out." The division commander of Kumamoto breathed a sigh of relief and decisively said, "Retreat as soon as possible."

"Division Commander, there are still several thousand puppet troops who haven't come out yet," someone reported to Division Commander Kumamoto. "Those are the strongest puppet troops in terms of combat power."

"Never mind, we can't worry about it anymore." The Kumamoto Division Commander waved his hand. "Anyway, there are plenty of cowards on this land. As long as our Imperial Army soldiers can withdraw, we won't lack puppet troops to join us in the future."

The Kumamoto Division Commander and his troops not only abandoned several thousand puppet troops, but also basically abandoned the wounded among them.

They didn't even take away the bodies of the Imperial Army soldiers.

They left in a hurry.

The thousands of abandoned puppet troops cursed as they saw this.
"Those damned Japanese devils ran away and abandoned us."

"Let's surrender, let's all surrender, there's no need to fight this war anymore."

"If I ever work for the Japanese again, I'm a coward!"

……

The thousands of puppet troops surrendered without much hesitation.

"Damn those Japanese planes! We don't have enough Hellfire missiles, alas!" The Eighth Route Army soldiers watched helplessly as the Japanese army broke through under the cover of aircraft, each one filled with regret.

If we have anti-aircraft weapons, we can shoot those nasty planes down from the sky.

If there were enough Hellfire missiles, they could completely seal off the Japanese troops, preventing them from escaping.

Then this battle will definitely not be like this.

These Kumamoto ducks, now that they're cooked, will never fly away.

Unfortunately, the weakness of the military industry led to the loss of fighter jets. "Those damned Japanese devils still managed to take away five truckloads of tungsten ore. We've worked for nothing!" The officers of the elite force were also jumping up and down in frustration.

We originally thought that with the Japanese supply lines cut off, we could take the opportunity to come and seize tungsten ore.

Unexpectedly, it all came to nothing in the end.

"Send out troops to continue harassing and delaying the Japanese along the way, don't let them retreat so easily." The Eighth Route Army commanders quickly issued the order.

As for the elite troops, they had absolutely no intention of delaying the Japanese, nor did they have any thought of reclaiming the tungsten ore.

Although they inflicted considerable casualties on the Japanese in this battle, they also suffered heavy losses themselves.

In particular, the consumption of ammunition and supplies is also very high.

The officers of the elite troops must preserve their strength.

Preserving manpower is a long-standing tradition of the National Revolutionary Army.

"That's strange, why don't we see any artillery from the Eighth Route Army?" Feng Zhihui, the commander of the 217th Regiment, was very interested in the Eighth Route Army's blinding powder.

But what interests me even more is the new type of artillery that the Eighth Route Army had previously fired from the high ground, with a trail of flame trailing behind it.

This thing has the explosive power and range of a medium howitzer.

Medium howitzers are a scarce artillery piece for our elite forces.

The Eighth Route Army fired a salvo at that time, and the number of medium-sized artillery pieces looked quite large.

Feng Zhihui also harbored some wicked thoughts, hoping to find an opportunity to take advantage of them.

As a result, when the battle ended, he went to the left and right highlands.

There was no sign of any artillery at all.

There weren't even any wheel tracks on the ground.

Medium howitzers are quite heavy, so they all need to be towed by vehicles.

If you tow it, it will definitely leave tire tracks on the ground.

However, Feng Zhihui found nothing.

"Commander, could it be that the Eighth Route Army wiped away the tire tracks?" someone suggested, leaning closer to Feng Zhihui.

"Does the Eighth Route Army need to do this?" Feng Zhihui blurted out. "The Japanese and traitors have all withdrawn, the battle here is over, and the Eighth Route Army is busy capturing prisoners and delaying the Japanese. Why would they need to erase any traces? Besides, they couldn't possibly do it in such a short time."

Although the battle was over, many of the puppet troops were routed.

So the Eighth Route Army was still capturing prisoners.

However, the elite troops were not interested in capturing prisoners, so they did not participate.

Despite saying that, Feng Zhihui still had people carefully inspect the ground there.

In the end, they found nothing; they couldn't find the erased tire tracks at all.

Feng Zhihui scratched his head: "That's strange. Where did the Eighth Route Army's artillery go? Did they carry the shells on their shoulders and fire them again?"

The Eighth Route Army has already built shoulder-mounted cannons.

However, the cannon had a very small caliber.

Those around him immediately questioned, "Commander, the shells are quite large in caliber. How could they be fired from the shoulder? The human body certainly couldn't withstand that."

The man then added, "After the Eighth Route Army fired their shells, I kept an eye on this place. I only saw the Eighth Route Army troops rushing down, but I didn't see anyone carrying cannon barrels or retreating. I guess the Eighth Route Army's shells were..."

"What do you mean?" Feng Zhihui glanced at him. "Are you telling me that the Eighth Route Army fired those shells by hand?"

This is simply ridiculous!
How can you fire a cannonball with bare hands?
Let alone firing cannonballs, it's impossible to even fire bullets!

“Commander, what you’re saying may sound a bit absurd, but think about it carefully. Medium-sized howitzers aren’t light either. With the Eighth Route Army’s logistical conditions, how could they possibly tow them?” someone questioned. “Even their hell cannons needed mules to pull them. Judging by those conditions, these new artillery pieces would at least need to be transported by animals. Even if they were, how come the cannons haven’t been delivered yet?”

At this moment, some other officers from his own faction also gathered around, including Feng Zhihui's division commander.

"Feng Zhihui, how's it going? Have you found any clues about the Eighth Route Army's artillery?" the division commander asked directly.

"Commander, this is really strange," Feng Zhihui said, scratching his head. "We haven't seen any trace of the Eighth Route Army's artillery, and there are no traces of traction left on the ground. It looks like the Eighth Route Army fired the shells by hand."

"Fire with bare hands?" Upon hearing this, the division commander angrily retorted, "Feng Zhihui, you've got some nerve! How dare you so blatantly try to fool me? Aren't you afraid I'll dismiss you from your post?"

"Commander, how could I dare to fool you? You can take a good look at the scene yourself; there's no trace of artillery here," Feng Zhihui pointed out.

Even with mortars, the ground would have to be leveled.

If it's not leveled, it will affect the firing accuracy and the stability of the gun barrel.

With the Eighth Route Army's artillery shells having such large calibers, the ground needed to be leveled even more.

However, there was absolutely no sign of it being tidied up.

Feng Zhihui's commander, of course, still didn't believe it, but after sending people to search the area, they were completely baffled and found no clues whatsoever.

The division commander couldn't help but complain: "Everyone says the Eighth Route Army has a pair of hardworking hands. But no matter how skilled those hardworking hands are, they can't possibly be skilled enough to fire artillery shells with their bare hands, can they?"

"Commander, in my opinion, we shouldn't make wild guesses. Let's hurry up and negotiate with the Eighth Route Army," Feng Zhihui suggested. "The powder their soldiers throw at the Japanese soldiers' faces when they're in close combat is also a good thing. Let's ask about it too."

"Okay, let's go ask."

(End of this chapter)