under fire

Waiting in the dark is a psychologically torturous process.

Especially the puppet troops who had been ordered to defend with almost no rest for a day and a night.

Finally getting a chance to rest, half of them quickly fell into a deep sleep.

The sudden explosion from the west, coupled with the intensive sounds of light and heavy machine guns, awakened the soul that had just fallen asleep.

The pseudo-battalion commander who had just squinted forced his eyes open, and before he was about to close his eyes, he instructed his company commander to temporarily take over his command.

"Captain, big brother." After shaking the fake company commander awake, he sighed and said, "Oh, big brother, something bad has happened. The generals have been ambushed again. They may be finished."

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, we're ambushed again?" The pseudo-battalion commander who was awakened jumped up and looked to the west with wide eyes. He could not see anything except the flashes of gunfire. He pricked up his ears and heard the dense gunfire coming from four miles away. He couldn't help shaking his head and swallowing his saliva: "As stupid as a pig, what a sin."

It was at that location that he and the captain of the Imperial Army were ambushed and nearly lost their lives. When he thought of the word "life", he quickly sat down again.

"I really don't know what's wrong with the second lieutenant's brain. He was ambushed again in the same place." The pseudo-company commander continued to mutter and said what the pseudo-battalion commander wanted to say.

“Could it be that I have encountered some evil spirit?” The pseudo-battalion commander felt his scalp tingling.

"I checked the almanac before leaving, it's a good omen!" The pseudo-companion shook his head and sighed: "Fortunately, we didn't follow them."

"We should be safe for the time being..." The pseudo-battalion commander's palms were full of sweat as he held the pistol, and he began to think about the causes and consequences.

A squadron of the Imperial Army suffered heavy casualties, so someone must be held responsible. He now had to consider how to survive the ordeal with Taijun after returning.

This time, they ran into the main force of the Eighth Master who was capable of going to the sky and into the earth. When they broke out of the encirclement of the Eighth Route Army, they had already discovered that something was wrong.

The second lieutenant did not listen to his advice and insisted on launching a counterattack.

Fortunately, the injured lady could testify to the conversation between him and the lieutenant.

Now, should I pretend to send reinforcements?
If you don't do it, you will definitely suffer the consequences when you return.

After thinking for two minutes, the pseudo-battalion commander called the company commander squatting next to him and whispered, "Gather a company of brothers and pretend to reinforce westward in front of the wounded soldiers of the Imperial Army. After walking about two miles, fire a few shots into the sky and then disperse to the north. Remember, don't let the wounded soldiers of the Imperial Army see you when you come back."

"Walk two miles? Will it be dangerous?" the pseudo-company commander said with a trembling voice.

"The place where the lady was attacked is about four miles away. You are not afraid of anything."

"Okay." The pseudo-company commander trotted away to gather the troops.

Soon, a scene that moved the wounded Japanese soldiers began to unfold.

The pseudo-battalion commander shouted loudly beside the wounded Japanese soldiers: "Everyone, immediately go west to reinforce the imperial army!"

"Yes," the pseudo-company commander said firmly.

Then, he led more than a hundred hastily gathered puppet troops and ran westward without looking back.

More than ten minutes later.

boom.
From the darkness to the west came an exceptionally loud shot.

boom.
Then there was a loud bang of a grenade explosion.

Then, the sound of gunfire suddenly rang out.
"Hit them hard." Amid the sound of gunfire, the pseudo-company commander who was leading the way shouted with hysterical excitement.

As for the grenade explosion in front, of course he asked his confidant to throw it.

When it comes to fake fights, the fewer people who know about it, the safer it is.

Who knows if the Imperial Army will investigate those bastards after returning?

"Hit him! Hit him hard!" The pseudo-company commander at the front of the attacking team lay on the ground and shouted the order clearly.
Li Laoliu was located at the edge of the puppet army's eastern defense line and was ordered to stay behind.

He didn't get the chance to throw grenades into the assembled Japanese and puppet troops.

Perhaps they thought there was a guard post further east, so except for two guards not far away, the rest of the puppet soldiers who stayed behind were almost all fast asleep.

The gunshots from the west woke up the seven puppet soldiers who had just fallen asleep.

They were whispering to each other in panic; they were about three miles away from the location of the gunshots.

"Sergeant, should we run now or wait a little longer?" a puppet soldier whispered.

"In the dark, the bullet has no eyes! I think it's better to run first."

"But the battalion commander hasn't given any orders yet."

"Once I run away this time, I can never go back"

"So what if I can't go back? We have weapons in our hands. We can change our names and go back to a new place and still enjoy a good life."

"What a pity for all the businesses in the city."

"Being a deserter on the battlefield is shameful, but it is better than losing your life."

"Squad leader, how about we run away now?"

The pseudo squad leader was not stupid. In those days, working for the Japanese was literally exchanging one's life for wealth and glory. Even then, one might not even get wealth and glory. One's life was just a little better than that of ordinary people.

So, the fake squad leader quietly slipped away with his nine men.

Li Laoliu mixed in with the deserters and headed east.
It's too difficult to kill these guys by yourself, even if it's a surprise attack.
Slow down and plan to disengage.
The surviving Japanese soldiers turned back to the west and were attacked again. They found that they were surrounded by enemies on the north, southwest and west.

More than ten uninjured Japanese soldiers, along with the puppet personnel who were still able to move, ran back desperately.

When we had run almost two miles, we suddenly heard gunshots coming from the direction we came from.

The Japanese soldier at the front held a rifle and shouted at the top of his lungs: "Enemy attack!"

Then he fired a shot towards the east where the exchange of fire took place.

The fleeing Japanese soldiers were a little confused. They originally thought that the ambushers had only blocked the north, southwest and north directions, but they didn't expect that there were also Eighth Route Army troops from the east when they came!

In their view, the Eighth Route Army must have cut off their retreat and collided with the Imperial Army that stayed behind to defend.

The Imperial Army was pretty good, as they dared to attack the Eighth Route Army that was outflanking them from the east.

No one thought that they were now facing the Imperial Army who came to reinforce and fired indiscriminately.

As for the puppet army, they fired indiscriminately without any target at all.

The muzzle flash of the shot fired by the leading Japanese soldier attracted the attention of the puppet soldiers.

I thought there really were Eighth Route Army soldiers with more than a hundred rifles pointing westward, and I subconsciously fired fiercely at the shooting location.

Just one shot immediately attracted countless bullets, and the three leading Japanese soldiers were hit by several bullets and died immediately. Seeing that the situation was not good, the remaining dozen Japanese soldiers quickly lay down, then turned around and crawled to the north to get out of the range of firepower.
As for the wounded who were carried and helped back.
Discard directly
After fighting for half an hour, no one fought back. The pseudo-company commander thought he was lucky. He didn't expect that there were really Eighth Route Army soldiers hiding in the darkness!

He believed that the Taijuns who were trying to counterattack westward had been surrounded by the Eighth Route Army.

I will continue to fight here.
It is likely to provoke more counterattacks from the Eighth Route Army.

At a command, he led his men northward as planned to escape from this dangerous place.

So, the remnants of the Japanese soldiers who had escaped and the puppet troops who had been preparing to circle back north after firing a flurry of shots, marched north together.
Captain Li sent out a two-person reconnaissance team to hide in an open ditch, and suddenly they spotted more than a dozen dark shadows running quickly from the west.

At this time, there is no time to go back and report the news.

Firing a warning shot seemed to be the best way, but after the gunshot, both of them would definitely be exposed.

At this time, there was a burst of gunfire from the west. The battalion commander would definitely lead his troops over here. If these more than ten puppet soldiers rushed towards the battalion commander, wouldn't they be asking for death?

After much thought, he decided to ignore this group of puppet troops for the time being.

It was exactly as the scout thought.

When gunshots and explosions rang out again in the west, Captain Li, who had just finished questioning the puppet army, immediately ordered the entire company to maintain their battle formation and advance westward.

The puppet army squad that slipped away and ran eastwards almost passed by the reconnaissance duo.

The puppet soldiers who were sneaking eastward had not run far when they suddenly saw a dark crowd appearing in the open space opposite under the starlight.

At this time in the dream, enemies will suddenly appear in the east.

Captain Li was also confused. He couldn't understand why there was a team heading east.

The subconscious mind thought that the scout scouts sent out had been killed, and became extremely angry.

"beat"

The gunshot came suddenly.

The gunfire lasted less than a minute, and the unilateral firing was hastily ended.

Because the puppet troops did not fight back at all.

After a series of sporadic gunshots, he immediately fell to the ground with his head in his hands, shouting "surrender."

The puppet soldiers believed that no matter who came at this time, as long as they were not killed on the spot, they still had a chance to survive.

The Eighth Route Army will not be killed if they surrender their weapons, and if they fall into their hands they might even make a few dollars.

If it was the Imperial Army, the worst that could happen was a beating. As long as they insisted that they were out on patrol, they would not be punished with death.
No one was hit, not because it was difficult to hit the target when firing while running, but because the puppet soldiers were lying on the ground too quickly.

Li Laoliu, who was lying on the ground with his little finger pulling the grenade pull ring, recognized Captain Li in the dark night with dim starlight and quickly shouted: "Captain Li, I am Li Laoliu from the Ninth Battalion."

"Behave yourself!" The soldier next to him, who was holding a rifle and collecting weapons from the prisoners, kicked Li Laoliu on the head.

When he heard someone calling him and saying he was from the Ninth Battalion, Captain Li stepped forward to look at him and was stunned for a moment: "Li Laoliu? Why are you here?"

He thought these puppet soldiers were all his own people. After all, he knew that the Ninth Battalion liked to do this job.

But the Ninth Battalion's performance of lying on the ground and shouting surrender as soon as the gunfire sounded seems too bad, doesn't it?
Then he ordered his soldiers to stop collecting weapons from prisoners.
"They are all puppet troops, and I was ordered to sneak in." Li Laoliu shouted hurriedly.

Being ordered to infiltrate the enemy on the battlefield?

Although this matter had never been heard of before, Captain Li felt that with the Ninth Battalion's nature of treating discipline as a joke, it was really possible for them to do it!
Li Laoliu quickly recounted the course of the battle here. Battalion Commander Li compared what Li Laoliu said with what he had previously dug out from the mouths of puppet army prisoners, and found that they were generally consistent.

The 9th Battalion attacked a squadron and a puppet army camp and won a great victory. Battalion Commander Li was skeptical.

Then a new order was issued to confiscate the guns of this group of puppet soldiers first.

While he was stopping, the other soldiers did not stop advancing.

After the company commander and his soldiers advanced westward for about another mile in one breath, they suddenly received an order from a messenger who ran up to stop advancing.

Then, a squad of soldiers followed Li Laoliu and hurriedly detoured south in the dark to join the Ninth Battalion.
Not far to the west.

The remaining Japanese soldiers and the puppet company commander retreated back to the puppet army's defensive positions one after another.

The Taijuns were exhausted and collapsed in a group. One squad lost most of its troops and only more than ten returned.

The pseudo-battalion commander, who was the supreme commander, glanced at the remaining Japanese soldiers and found that no one was giving him orders.

He was not interested in knowing how many Eighth Route Army troops had attacked the Imperial Army, nor was he interested in finding out how many Taijuns had died.

There was only one thought in my mind: I can't stay here.

Of the thirty-six strategies, running away is the best.
Saving lives was the top priority, so he immediately ordered the team to move eastwards and leave the battlefield.
So, the puppet army immediately began a new round of assembly.

There was a brief burst of gunfire from the east, but it was drowned out by the dense gunfire from the west, and no one noticed that a squad that was sneaking east was captured.
A large number of black shadows slowly flowed eastward. After walking less than a mile, the puppet army's marching formation began to gradually become disorganized.

The scouts who were leading the way walked slowly and soon got mixed up with the large group of people following behind them. They did not see any guards on the road, and the scouts thought it was the messenger's business and not their responsibility.
The trailing team was afraid of being left behind and caught up by the Eighth Route Army, so they quickened their pace and quickly caught up with the scattered group in front.
The puppet soldiers were completely unaware that in front, behind, left and right, more than 200 rifles and dozens of light machine guns were about to form an encirclement, waiting for them to slip into their pocket.

"Captain Li and his men are about six miles to the east!" Li Laoliu brought more than a dozen soldiers to Hu Yi.

Before Hu Yi could ask any questions, the girl next to him said excitedly, "They came just in time for the rain, right? They can catch all the puppet troops in one fell swoop!"

Hu Yi thought for a moment and gave the order again.

Gather five platoons and attack the puppet army from five directions: left, left outer, center, right, and right outer.

He planned to personally lead his men to attack from the front.

Li Laosi led a platoon to closely follow the puppet army.

Liu Yuanqing directly took over the task of encircling the left flank, which was the north side.

Xiao Hongying wanted to take a detour to the right, but was rejected by Hu Yi, who arranged for the reluctant big dog to do the work.

Most of the troops attacking the periphery were new recruits, with a strength of about two platoons divided into two groups. Captain Zhang of the divisional armed work team led his men to the left outside, forming a two-line attack with Liu Yuanqing on the left inside.

The other platoon takes the right outside line, and the outside line team sets out first, which is equivalent to arranging another offensive line outside the left and right offensive teams.

After the battle started, they were responsible for encircling the gaps left by the east-west attack.

This arrangement can prevent the puppet army from being dispersed by the east and west and then fleeing in the north and south directions.
There is no intention to leave any chance for the puppet troops to survive!
If you look down, the formation looks like five open fingers.
This arrangement is exactly the same as the Japanese lieutenant's previous attack formation!
Liu Yuanqing was a little frightened.

Because, among the team he was leading to launch an attack on the puppet army, several of them were puppet soldiers a day ago.
Is this a play? (End of this chapter)