Bright Sword: Starting from Obtaining the Equipment Slot

Chu Yunfei stopped and took the letter.

He casually tore open the envelope, unfolded the letter, and Wei Dayong's bold and powerful handwriting jumped out onto the paper.

"Commander Chu, I, Wei Dayong, keep my word. You retreat westward along the highway outside the valley. I have already set up an ambush on both sides of the highway. When the Sakata Regiment catches up, I will make sure they don't return."

"Even without our ambush, it's time to retreat. Only by preserving ourselves can we better eliminate the enemy."

Chu Yunfei held the letter in his hand, his mind racing.

Fang Ligong leaned over for a look, then frowned and said, "Commander, Wei Dayong wants us to retreat along the highway? That's too risky. The roadside is flat; if the Japanese catch up, we won't even have any cover."

Chu Yunfei did not answer, his gaze shifting back and forth across the letter.

His impression of Wei Dayong was complicated.

This young man is indeed quite capable. Wei Dayong's strength and courage, displayed during their meeting in Dagu Town, impressed him greatly.

But Black Cloud Stronghold only has a hundred or so men. Even if they were to ambush them, what use would it be? Their own 358th Regiment, with more than five thousand men, was almost wiped out.

"Commander, the situation in each battalion is not good," Fang Ligong reminded him from the side. "If the fighting continues, the losses will be even greater."

Chu Yunfei looked up and saw the sounds of gunfire rising and falling in the distance, the flames illuminating half the sky.

Just then, a communications soldier from the First Battalion stumbled in: "Reporting to the Regiment Commander! The First Battalion's defensive line is about to be breached, and Battalion Commander Qian is organizing a retreat!"

Upon hearing this, Chu Yunfei's heart sank.

Although he was furious at Qian Bojun for acting on his own initiative, he had already made up his mind to teach him a lesson when he got back!

However, he also gained a clearer understanding of the battle situation ahead.

The First Battalion was the main force of the 358th Regiment, with the best equipment and strongest combat power. If even the First Battalion couldn't hold out, one can imagine the situation of the other battalions.

Before he could speak, two signalmen followed up: "Report! The 2nd Battalion has suffered over half its casualties, and the northern flank is about to collapse! The Japanese are flanking us; our retreat is almost cut off!"

"Report... The right flank of the Third Battalion has completely collapsed, and Battalion Commander Wang is seriously wounded! The Japanese grenade launchers are too powerful; our hastily dug fortifications simply cannot withstand them!"

Chu Yunfei took a deep breath, suppressing his anger.

Fang Ligong was anxious: "Commander, we can't hesitate any longer! The First, Second, and Third Battalions are already holding out, and although the Fourth Battalion is intact, Wu Lang alone can't save three battalions!"

Just then, Wu Lang, the battalion commander of the fourth battalion, burst in.

"Commander! I've heard that all fronts are on the verge of collapse! You need to make a decision quickly—what should we do with our Fourth Battalion?"

Wu Lang paused, then added, "Although my Fourth Battalion hasn't participated much in the fighting, I just observed that the Japanese offensive is too fierce. Even if I send the entire Fourth Battalion up now, we can only hold out for an hour at most. Commander, let's retreat!"

Chu Yunfei remained silent for a moment, then slowly stood up.

"Pass on my orders! Each battalion shall proceed according to the previously prepared withdrawal plan! However, the withdrawal direction shall be changed to westward, along the highway! Each battalion shall leave a platoon behind, and the Fourth Battalion shall be the last to withdraw, completing its blocking mission before quickly catching up with the main force!"

"Yes!" Wu Lang accepted the order and turned around.

Fang Ligong walked up to Chu Yunfei and lowered his voice: "Commander, do you really trust Wei Dayong? What if his ambush is a hoax? We might be in trouble..."

"What can we do if we don't believe him?" Chu Yunfei interrupted him. "Do we have any other choice but to believe him now?"

Fang Ligong opened his mouth, but ultimately remained silent.

Chu Yunfei gazed out the window, silently thinking, "Wei Dayong, I hope you're not lying to me this time."

One platoon remained from the battalion. The platoon leader, Zhou Tiesheng, was in his early thirties, a native of Shanxi, and had served in the army for six years. He had more than a dozen scars of various sizes on his body.

He divided the more than 30 soldiers into three groups of more than 10 men each, who occupied three firing positions and relied on trenches and makeshift shelters to fire at each other.

Japanese heavy machine gun bullets struck the front of the trenches, splashing up countless dirt and stones.

Zhou Tiesheng lay prone in the trench, his left hand gripping his rifle, his right hand occasionally pulling the trigger. A stray bullet grazed his left arm, and blood instantly stained his sleeve.

"Platoon leader! You're injured!" a soldier shouted from the side.

"Never mind me! Keep an eye on the enemy and beat them to a pulp! Watch me, I can keep those little devils from dying!" Zhou Tiesheng gritted his teeth, tore off a strip of cloth and wrapped it around his wound, and continued to direct the battle.

The Japanese army launched wave after wave of attacks. The first wave was repelled, but the second wave rushed in.

Zhou Tiesheng's platoon suffered increasing casualties; of the thirty-odd men, only he and three soldiers remained in the end.

They retreated to their last line of defense, their ammunition exhausted. Zhou Tiesheng pulled out his last grenade from his waist and looked at the three soldiers beside him.

"Brothers, it looks like we're not making it out of town today," Zhou Tiesheng grinned. "But at least we took a few Japanese devils with us, so it was worth it!"

"Platoon leader, I'll go with you!" A soldier also pulled out a grenade.

"Alright!" Zhou Tiesheng pulled back the trigger. "Follow me!"

Clutching a grenade, he leaped up and charged towards the Japanese soldiers. An explosion rang out, and Zhou Tiesheng perished along with three Japanese soldiers...

The rearguard platoon of the 2nd Battalion engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the Japanese army on the northern high ground. The Japanese bayonets were sharp, but the soldiers of the 2nd Battalion were fearless. They formed a dense formation and fought bayonet to bayonet.

Squad leader Zhao Zhiyuan, 26 years old, from Hebei, had been in the army for four years and was one of the best bayonet fighters in the Second Battalion. He took the lead and killed three Japanese soldiers in a row.

But he was no match for the enemy's strength and was quickly defeated. After all, the Japanese soldiers had been specially trained in bayonet fighting!

"Squad leader! You're injured!" a soldier shouted in alarm.

Zhao Zhiyuan looked down and saw that his abdomen had been pierced by a bayonet, and blood was flowing from the wound. He covered the wound with his hand, gritted his teeth, and said, "It's okay! Keep fighting!"

Another Japanese soldier rushed up and thrust his bayonet into his chest.

Zhao Zhiyuan dodged to the side, then swung his knife backhand and plunged it into the Japanese soldier's throat.

He looked at the fallen Japanese soldiers, a slight smile appearing on his lips, then slowly collapsed to the ground, never to rise again.

The rearguard of the Third Battalion suffered even greater losses.

Deputy Battalion Commander Zhou Yuze personally stayed behind, leading more than thirty soldiers to hold the breach tightly. Japanese heavy machine guns fired relentlessly, and artillery shells exploded all around them. Soldiers fell one after another, but no one retreated.

"Deputy Battalion Commander! Let's retreat!" a soldier cried out.

"Withdraw my ass!" Zhou Yuze roared. "The main force hasn't gone far. If we retreat, what will happen to them? Hold them off!"

A shell exploded beside him, severing both of Zhou Yuze's legs. Lying on the ground, he continued firing his pistol. When he ran out of bullets, he picked up a rifle and used the butt to smash it against the charging Japanese soldiers.

"Come on, you little devils!" Zhou Yuze roared.

The Japanese soldiers who surrounded him pierced his chest with their bayonets, but he was still struggling and trying to grab the bayonets.

Sadly, everything went black before his eyes, and Zhou Yuze was no more!

The fourth battalion, acting as the last line of defense, constructed temporary fortifications at the valley's exit.

Their enemy was the elite troops that had made a flanking maneuver straight to the 358th Regiment's headquarters. The Japanese attack was particularly fierce, but the soldiers of the Fourth Battalion put up a stubborn resistance.

In the end, they ran out of bullets. The platoon leader made a decisive decision and ordered the soldiers to retreat westward along the ravine.

The Japanese army pursued relentlessly, and the soldiers fought their way back. In the end, only eleven men managed to escape the Japanese pursuit and catch up with the main force; the remaining twenty-odd men all perished on the retreat.

The fighting in the valley gradually subsided.

Sakata Nobutetsu stood on the hillside, watching the Jin-Sui Army's hasty retreat through his binoculars, and laughed heartily.

"Did you all see that?" Sakata Nobutetsu's voice was laced with mockery. "The Chinese are indeed utterly pathetic!"

He raised his command sword, pointing it towards the valley's exit: "Chase them! Don't let the Chinese get away!"

A staff officer stepped forward to remind him: "Commander, we must be cautious in our pursuit and guard against ambushes..."

Sakata Nobutetsu waved his hand dismissively: "Open your eyes and look carefully! There's an open field on both sides of the highway, where could there be an ambush? Besides, the Jin-Sui Army just passed through, there can't be any landmines! Pursue with confidence! The advantage is on our side!"

"But Commander..." the staff officer wanted to say something more.

"Shut up!" Adjutant Ono Jiro immediately stepped forward and slapped the staff officer across the face. "Insolence! How dare you question the regimental commander's decisions? Go cool off somewhere else!"

The staff officer covered his face, dared not say another word, and retreated dejectedly.

Nobutsu Sakata was not a mindless man. He selected four fully-fledged squadrons, about 800 men, from various battalions and pursued them at full speed along the highway.

The remaining troops, numbering about 1,800, stayed behind to clean up the battlefield, collect spoils, and prepare for rest.

The Japanese soldiers in charge of the pursuit carried rifles and walked briskly along the road. They were filled with the pride of a major victory and looked relaxed, not taking the fleeing Jin-Sui Army seriously at all.

A Japanese soldier said to his comrade, "These Chinese soldiers run really fast; they're gone in the blink of an eye!"

"Hahaha!" his companion laughed. "That's how Chinese soldiers are! That's how we chased them all the way from Shanghai to Shanxi!"

......

At this moment, the main force of the 358th Regiment barely managed to form three columns and retreated rapidly westward along the highway. Chu Yunfei rode his horse in the middle of the column, occasionally glancing back at the battlefield behind him.

The sounds of gunfire behind him gradually faded into the distance, but Chu Yunfei's mood grew heavier and heavier.

He didn't know if Wei Dayong's ambush actually existed, nor whether this retreat was the right thing to do. All he knew was that he was leading the remnants of the 358th Regiment in a desperate escape.

The area on both sides of the road was indeed an open field, without even a decent earthen slope.

He cursed inwardly, "That bastard Wei Dayong! How could he possibly set up an ambush in such an open area? I'm afraid he's really screwed me over this time!"

He even began to regret it, feeling that he shouldn't have trusted Wei Dayong so easily. This guy might not have intended to come to support him at all, but just wanted to trick him into retreating and let the 358th Regiment fend for itself.

Fang Ligong rode up to him, panting, and said, "Commander, both sides of this road are open ground; there's nowhere to set up an ambush. Could Wei Dayong be lying to us?"

"I have my doubts now," Chu Yunfei said through gritted teeth, "but we've come this far, so we can only keep moving forward."

He reined in his horse, picked up his binoculars, and looked back. In the viewfinder, the pursuing Japanese troops were already faintly visible, their yellow-green uniforms forming a long line on the road.

"Speed ​​up!" Chu Yunfei shouted. "We must create enough distance before the Japanese catch up!"

The soldiers quickened their pace, but half a day of fierce fighting had left them exhausted, and they could not pick up their speed.

A soldier, panting heavily, said to his comrade, "I...I can't run anymore..."

"We have to run, even if we can't!" his companion grabbed his arm. "If the Japanese catch up, we're dead!"

Chu Yunfei felt a pang of pain in his heart as he looked at the soldiers' exhausted figures. These were his brothers who had risked their lives with him, and now they were fleeing in such a sorry state.

Yunfei's incompetence has brought shame upon the entire army!

However, at that moment, something unexpected happened; a deafening explosion suddenly came from behind them.

Chu Yunfei trembled, his face changed drastically, and ignoring his subordinates' attempts to stop him, he turned his horse around and led his men back.

He didn't know what had happened, but the earth-shattering explosion made his heart tighten.

Fang Ligong shouted from behind, "Commander! Danger! Commander!"

Chu Yunfei ignored him and spurred his horse to gallop away.

......

In fact, Wei Dayong, Li Yunlong, and Kong Jie had been lying in ambush with their respective troops for a long time.

Three days earlier, Wei Dayong had sent someone to contact Li Yunlong and Kong Jie, agreeing to set up an ambush here. Four hundred men from the assault battalion, eight hundred men from the New First Regiment, and eight hundred men from the Independent Regiment, a total of two thousand men, hid in the ditches and canals along the roadside.

These ditches were built by Wei Dayong two or three days in advance, using nighttime sections to deepen and widen the existing natural drainage ditches. During the day, they were restored to their original camouflage, and after a few days of wind and sun exposure, the traces have long since faded naturally.

The soldiers lay at the bottom of the ditch, covering their bodies with mud and weeds, leaving only their eyes exposed, blending into the ground from a distance.

Wei Dayong distributed all 20,000 Shanxi-made wooden-handled grenades, giving each soldier at least ten.

"Once Chu Yunfei's troops have created enough distance, and the Japanese troops enter this 500-meter range, on my order, throw all your grenades onto the road!"

Wei Dayong sent a messenger to reiterate the ambush order: "Be careful, we're too close. Don't use too much force; if you throw it across the road, it'll blow up your own men!"

Li Yunlong lay prone next to Wei Dayong, staring at the ten grenades in his hand, and swallowed hard. "Brother Wei, you've got some serious guts! Twenty thousand grenades! I've fought a whole life and I've never seen so many grenades explode at once!"

On the other side, Kong Jie couldn't help but whisper, "Brother Wei, I've never fought such a lucrative battle in my entire life!"

"Haha, you two great brothers," Wei Dayong said, "You'll miss this feeling!"

Upon hearing their squad leader's order, the soldiers nodded and gripped their grenades tightly.

Time ticked by, and a tense atmosphere enveloped the entire ambush position.

The sound of Japanese footsteps and horses' hooves could be heard in the distance, growing ever closer.

The soldiers held their breath, their hearts pounding. They could feel the ground trembling slightly, and the sound of the Japanese footsteps grew clearer.

A soldier in the assault battalion whispered to his comrade beside him, "They're here...they're here..."

"Don't talk! Hold the grenade tight!" his comrade whispered.

Wei Dayong lay prone at the bottom of the ditch, peering intently through the gaps in the weeds at the Japanese troops' movements.

During the pursuit, the Japanese army focused all its attention on the fleeing Jin-Sui Army ahead. In addition, Sakata had asserted that "there could be no ambush in the open area," so the soldiers were not very vigilant and did not carefully observe the roadside.

Four companies formed four columns and pursued along the road. Leading the way was the vanguard platoon, followed by the main force, and then the supply detachment and artillery detachment.

The soldiers were completely unprepared.

Wei Dayong lay prone at the bottom of the ditch, activating his "See in All Directions" skill.

As the Japanese troops drew closer, they were completely within the ambush zone stretching 500 meters along the road.

He turned to Li Yunlong and whispered, "Commander Li, do you know what the grenade show at four o'clock this afternoon is like?"

"What the heck? A grenade?" Li Yunlong was completely bewildered.

Wei Dayong smiled without saying a word, took a deep breath, pulled out his gun, and fired a shot into the air.

"Bang!"

Upon seeing the signal, the company and platoon leaders blew their whistles and relayed the order in succession.

"Beep—beep—beep—"

The whistles sounded incessantly, echoing throughout the entire ambush position.

A rapid series of bowstring twangs erupted simultaneously from both sides of the highway!