under fire

It has been confirmed that the cunning Eighth Route Army has divided its forces.

The group of Eighth Route Army soldiers who crossed the canal and headed west were almost crippled by the air force, but they still had enough strength to ambush the security team. The Eighth Route Army soldiers were really rampant.
The Eighth Route Army who are capable of ambush a battalion guard must be the main force.

The division commander ordered that this group of Eighth Route Army troops be the first target for elimination, and sent an additional battalion that was sweeping the east side of the canal across the river to provide support.

Two regiments of the Dominion Army have already set out...

Although the fighting capacity of the allied forces was not very good, two regiments were dispatched to serve as hunting dogs to make the hunting operations safer.

It is safer for a good hunter to bring a few dogs with him when he goes out hunting.

As for the remaining members of the Guantao Guard, we can't count on...

On the map, the location of the Eighth Route Army ambush guard team was confirmed.

With the ambush point as the center and the longest distance that the two legs can run within this period of time as the radius, draw a circle to basically determine the range of activities of the Eighth Route Army group.

No matter how fast the Eighth Route Army can run, they can't outrun the Imperial Army's three-wheeled motorcycles!
The major had been holding back his anger for a whole day, but he finally saw hope for wiping out that group of Eighth Route Army soldiers.

The Eighth Route Army should feel extremely honored to have been able to mobilize more than 2,000 troops to fight ten against one.
By the evening, the major who had crossed the canal set out in a mighty force with a captain, two lieutenants, two squadrons of Imperial Army elites, and most of the Imperial Auxiliary Army.

Light three-wheeled motorcycles led the way, and the only few horses in the Imperial Army were also used for reconnaissance.

Now the only thing left is to find the trail of the Eighth Route Army, which is the long-awaited hunting game.
The group of Eighth Route Army soldiers running south along the east bank of the canal must not be let go either.

A squadron of more than 200 elite soldiers was left behind, and the Imperial Army separated out a battalion of more than 300 soldiers, which deployed into battle formation and marched southwards to clear the area.

The sun sets in the west and the sky is filled with sunset.

The autumn breeze is blowing, it is a good time to travel.

The Japanese lieutenant standing on the bank of the East River was in high spirits, his eyes shining in the reflection of the sparkling river surface.

He was in a very good mood. It was a soldier's duty to mop up and kill those anti-Japanese elements.

There is a great benefit besides the duties
They can also burn, kill and loot at will.

Burn the villagers' houses and the crops in the fields.

Kill the anti-Japanese elements and, by the way, kill the villagers who provided cover for them.

Looting is a basic way to make money, and there are many ways to do it.

The best thing would be to rob gold and silver, the second best thing would be to kill those Eighth Route Army soldiers and sell the confiscated weapons on the black market.
By the way, they would arrest some wealthy people, frame them with crimes and ask their families to pay money to redeem them.

After leaving the major, he acted alone. When he found the impoverished group of Eighth Route Army soldiers, he could easily make several thousand yen by selling the guns in their hands on the black market.

The battalion of the Imperial Army with them, although their combat effectiveness is not very good, they can do odd jobs on the periphery to catch the fish that have escaped the net, extort and blackmail them, while the Imperial Army eats meat and gives them some bones to gnaw on.
Give some to the captain... and share some with his men...

Colorful banknotes...

The noises gathered everywhere are so beautiful...

Soon, the team of more than 500 people was divided into three groups: front, middle and back, and headed south before dark.

The scout trotted southward, pulling the excited military dog.

Only ran more than ten miles.

It was already dark.

The limit of vision is that you can only vaguely see objects twenty to thirty meters away.

The leading military dog ​​suddenly lay on the ground and whimpered...

The Japanese who were well versed in dog business suddenly realized that something must be happening not far ahead!

The sergeant following closely gestured for his men to flank from both sides, then he lay on the ground and pulled out his sergeant's telescope to observe...

In the reeds behind the Japanese vanguard.

There were more than forty Japanese soldiers squatting in the vanguard.

After receiving the message, the lieutenant quickly followed, pulled out a telescope, and looked south in the darkness in the direction pointed by the military dog's subordinate. After looking for a while, his vision became dark and he could not see anything.

Putting down the telescope, he asked casually, "Did you find anything?"

"The military dog ​​discovered the situation ahead, and the scout reported that there were people hiding in the reeds ahead. The initial judgment is that there are not many people, and they should be the outer guard posts of the Eighth Route Army."

The lieutenant was a little surprised. He thought that since he brought so many people with him, it was impossible that the other party had not noticed him.

In front of the world's best imperial army, most targets would run away as soon as they saw them. It was rare to see anyone dare to stop. Either the target thought it was dark and they could escape at any time, or the target was brave enough to set an ambush.

To deal with this situation, years of experience in raids have already provided a response plan: set up a circle, surround you and wait until daybreak.

If the target wants to escape, then I will stay in the dark and shoot them one by one.

About a hundred meters to the left.

The outflanking scouts kept crawling towards the suspicious target location.

Based on the chirping of autumn insects in the wild, we can preliminarily determine the other party's location.

In the slightly undulating gray field in the night, there seemed to be a vague figure at the edge of the target reeds.

The lieutenant calculated the time in silence. The lives of the elite imperial soldiers were precious.

It is safer to let the Imperial Security Army to explore the way in the dark after nightfall. The Eighth Route Army may not be good at anything else, but they are disgusting at shooting from behind.

Darkness is equal to both attackers and defenders.

To prevent any trouble, the lieutenant decisively ordered: "Notify the Imperial Army to prepare, send a squad forward to launch a frontal attack on the Eighth Route Army sentry post, and then send a company to quickly bypass from the east until we establish a position on the spot when we engage the enemy..."

"Team Two will lead the Second Company of the Imperial Army to deploy silently to the south from the periphery, and try to catch the Eighth Route Army's spies! Team Three and the Third Company of the Imperial Army will serve as the reserve..."

What a big move! Most of the troops were immediately deployed. Not long after, more than a dozen twisted and scattered figures of soldiers appeared in the fields.

Run a few steps quickly, then lie down, get up after a while and repeat the action.

Luck seems to be good, found a ditch...

More than a dozen puppet soldiers formed a long snake formation, using their hands and feet to crawl forward skillfully...

Even faster than when he was crouching and making tactical moves just now...

The Japanese scouts who had arrived at the front for reconnaissance were stunned: their crawling tactics are even more powerful than those of the Imperial Army!
...

In a shallow pit at the edge of the reeds.

Occasionally a soldier pulled at the rope in his hand.

The dummy placed next to it occasionally shook its head.

"Why did the devils stop advancing?"

"Found us..."

"How about we detonate the mines and retreat?"

"With your guts, I really don't know why Lao Li and Lao Si let you join the reconnaissance platoon..."

"Hey, I laid mines well..."

"Be careful, there are people coming from the field again... Hehe, they are puppet soldiers!"

"How do you know they are puppet troops?"

"The Japanese don't carry their rifles on their backs when they crawl forward... Moreover, the Japanese always maintain a formation of three people when attacking..."

...

The Japs are best at frontal attacks and flanking attacks from both wings.

After nightfall, the puppet army will definitely lead the charge.
The 9th Battalion did not make large-scale arrangements for digging trenches.

In the positional battle, the Ninth Battalion was no match for the larger and more aggressive Japanese and puppet troops.

Before dark, the meeting lasted nearly an hour before the battle plan formulated by Liu Yuanqing was perfected.

After another hour of extended meetings, Liu Yuanqing made sure that every squad leader who participated in the battle fully understood their respective tasks in this battle plan...

On the north side, where the first fire came into contact with the Japanese, there was only one platoon, all equipped with automatic weapons, including Mauser pistols and light machine guns.

The puppet army divided into two groups, the left and the right, and encircled the south...

A mile to the east of the puppet army, four dark shadows carrying a heavy machine gun approached the puppet army's flank.

Next to it, a light machine gun and a grenade launcher group were hurriedly put into position.

In the gap between the firing points, a platoon of soldiers hurriedly lay down in the open area.

Three more light machine guns were prepared.

Their location was just on the left side of the puppet army that was encircling them from the east.

In the darkness, no one spoke, just staring nervously at the dark shadows that occasionally made tinkling sounds.

The atmosphere was extremely tense.

Most people felt very strange, as if the battalion commander knew in advance that the enemy would line up to die...

The rifle in my hand controls the life and death of those who are rushing through the darkness...

"Demolition team three, prepare for detonation!"

"Grenadiers, fire flares after the mines explode...make sure it doesn't get dark..."

"Machine gun crew, when the flares start to fall, pull left and right three times according to the predetermined firing range..."

"Precision shooting team, cooperate with machine guns to accurately eliminate the surviving targets..."

"Gun-dropping team, after the machine guns stop firing, move forward to drop bombs..."

"Mixed pistol and bayonet team, rush into the enemy group and clean up the battlefield while the smoke is blowing..."

Orders were issued one after another, and the squad leaders who received them repeated them in a low voice... (End of this chapter)