under fire

The art of attack and defense.

When the troops and firepower are equal in darkness, the attacker has the upper hand in launching the attack.

The defending side has the advantage of terrain and cover.

If the forces are equal in strength and their combat effectiveness is not far superior to that of their opponents, launching an attack in the dark is simply courting death.

A few years ago, when the pseudo-battalion commander was still a platoon leader, he followed the regiment commander to fight against the heavy Japanese troops and was surrounded. He had to surrender in order to save his life.

In recent years, he has participated in many encirclement and suppression operations against anti-Japanese elements and encountered ambushes many times.

With many years of practical experience, he is very clear about the methods of encirclement and breakout.

Even though more than half of his men were killed or wounded, he did not completely lose his mind.

Although the current situation is very unfavorable, it is not difficult to resolve.

As the ambushing party, the Eighth Route Army did not have the ability to surround the enemy, because they would need to deploy at least five times more troops than their own to surround and kill them.

Now the Eighth Route Army is obviously short of troops. As the breakout party, as long as we concentrate our forces to launch an attack in one direction, we can completely take advantage of the local force advantage and break out in one fell swoop.

Continue to wait here. Judging from the combat effectiveness shown by the Eighth Route Army this time, they are far superior to ours. Even if the forces of both sides are equal, we may not be their opponents.

So in order to prevent any further complications, he immediately led his team to flee eastward.

Running away from the battlefield was not the first time for him, who believed in seeking benefits and avoiding harm.
At this moment, he didn't know that the men in charge of covering the rear had caught up with the main group because they ran too fast, while the men acting as scouts in the front walked a little slower because they had to guard against possible sneak attacks. Before they had run two miles, the team slowly gathered into a group again.

Not long after, his company commander jumped in front of him and shouted: "Battalion Commander, our formation is messed up. The brothers responsible for contacting the left and right wings did not come back to report on time."

"If he didn't come back, he didn't come back. This is not the first time I've encountered him." The pseudo-battalion commander didn't care.

"My eyelids keep twitching, so I'd better be careful." The pseudo-company commander was a little nervous: "Better safe than sorry"

"Then ask the brothers in the guard squad to go and take a look." The pseudo-battalion commander felt that his subordinates were right.

Not long after, two long and two short shrill assembly whistles sounded quickly, and his trusted guard squad leader hurried to the side of the pseudo-battalion commander.

Puzzled, he asked, "Captain, do you have any instructions?"

"The guard posts on both wings have lost contact. Take people to check it out immediately." The pseudo-company commander shouted directly.

"No, I saw them just now, they said they didn't find anything unusual on the two wings." The guard squad leader was confused: "They have already run two miles away at this time. If the Eighth Route Army really had an ambush, they wouldn't wait until now to escape, right?"

"Wait, who did you say you saw?" With many years of experience in leading troops, the pseudo-battalion commander's heart suddenly sank. He always felt that what happened today was weird and unprecedented.

"Brothers on guard on the left and right wings, they have returned to the team."

"You mean, they are mixed up with the big guys?" The pseudo-company commander thought something was wrong. The left and right wing guards were one on the left and one on the right, how could they be mixed up together?
He knew that these bastards had to walk on the periphery when marching on guard, and there was a high possibility that they would be shot. They must be afraid of death and were lazy and did not want to be on guard as required.

"Well, when we were running away before, didn't we all run together?" the guard squad leader asked back with some confusion.

The pseudo-battalion commander's tone became unusually serious: "Listen carefully, this time the imperial army has suffered almost all casualties, the situation is different from before, you must order those bastards to set up flank alert according to the march, whoever dares to disobey, I will kill him!"

"Yes!" The guard squad leader hurried away, looking for the puppet soldiers who were supposed to be on guard at the left and right wings among the noisy crowd trotting eastward.
boom.
The gunshots were particularly crisp.

The gunshot came from about fifty positions behind the puppet army.

It wasn't an ambush or a shooting.

Rather, it came from a puppet soldier who was running out of breath and fell behind.

This man usually lives a life of luxury, but this time he had been out on a raid and pursuit for a day and a night. He was in a hurry to run for his life and his calf suddenly cramped.

His idea was simple: if he was left alone while escaping, he would most likely become Mr. Ba's prisoner.

After being captured by the Eighth Route Army, he still had the opportunity to return to the army.

However, losing the gun was a serious matter and he would be punished by sweeping the toilet for three months, and his salary would also be deducted.

So, he decided to take a shot.

He knew the nature of his brothers very well. As long as the gunshots were fired, the team in front would be in chaos.
As long as the team is in chaos, more people will fall behind.

When the cramped calf gets better, I still have a chance to catch up.
If there is no other choice, even if you are taken prisoner and sent back to clean the toilet, you can't clean it by yourself, right?

The sudden gunshot was like a death warrant, instantly breaking the tense nerves of the escapees.

The puppet soldiers did not appear lying on the ground as the shooter had imagined.

Instead, they all swarmed eastward and quickened their pace. The pseudo-battalion commander looked behind him and saw that the team fell into chaos after only one shot was fired not far away. He was furious and said, "Everyone, stay calm and don't panic!"

The guard squad leader appeared again: "Report to the battalion commander, there are gunshots about 50 meters behind, it may be the Eighth Route Army chasing us!"

The pseudo-battalion commander was stunned for a moment: "Fifty meters? Isn't that the safe range between the brothers who are left behind and us?"

The guard squad leader shrank his neck. He did not dare to say that he did not find anyone when he re-established the alert.
The pseudo-battalion commander did not think much about it and ordered according to the rules of the previous training by the Imperial Army instructors: "You should quickly send someone back to find out the situation. Did a brother accidentally fire or did he discover the pursuing Eighth Route Army and fire a warning shot?"

The guard squad leader quickly ran back again
boom.
Suddenly, a gunshot was heard in the darkness in the east.

Da-da-da. Bang-bang-bang.
Gunfire erupted instantly.

Captain Li never expected that the puppet troops would arrive so quickly.

But now he was in darkness and on the defensive, completely occupying all the advantages on the battlefield.

When they heard the scouts' report that the people running over were puppet troops, they did not hesitate at all and immediately deployed in rows.

Before the formation was fully formed, the puppet troops had arrived, so he had to order everyone to open fire.

Bullets whistled as two light machine guns and more than sixty rifles fired fiercely at the crowd coming from the west.

The light machine guns started firing continuously, and the puppet soldiers, who were almost exhausted from running, immediately fell to the ground subconsciously.

In just three seconds, there was no longer a single puppet soldier standing in the darkness!
The quick reaction and agile movements are worthy of the Imperial Army's careful training.

There were not many screaming and wailing sounds, obviously, not many puppet soldiers were shot.

But the bullets were so dense that the puppet soldiers did not dare to crawl to the wings.

Some puppet soldiers raised their guns higher than their teammates in front of them and headed eastward.

I pulled the bolt and the trigger frantically until all five rounds were fired and the trigger felt depressible.
This is how it was during training. We had to defend against the Eighth Route Army, which would charge in after firing a gun and then throw grenades at us and then rush over to engage in hand-to-hand combat.
In the dark, the guns are blind. This kind of counterattack at least makes the Tubalu dare not act rashly.
Li Laoliu, who was taking a detour from the south to convey Hu Yi's battle plan to Captain Li, was anxious. He was at least two miles away from Li Ying's previous position. The puppet army, who had no intention of escaping, had already started fighting with Captain Li.
In the open area, bullets whistled and gunfire flashed.

The sound of light machine guns and rifles formed a symphony like a rainstorm.

"These bastards run really fast!" Li Laosi, who was in charge of battlefield reconnaissance, cursed harshly.

Because he was chasing after the puppet army, the bullet that Captain Li had just fired passed over the crowd of puppet soldiers and became a stray bullet.

A few clouds of dust appeared in front of his current position when it crashed into him.

According to the plan, when Captain Li gave the order to shoot, he would ask the soldiers to lower their guns.

This is to prevent stray bullets from accidentally injuring the 9th Battalion that was attacking from the west.

Apparently, the battle started earlier than planned.

In other words, Captain Li probably didn't know at this time that the Ninth Battalion was following behind the puppet army.

Hu Yi, who was pursuing head-on, was also forced to stop.

Holding a telescope, I looked at the open field where gunfire flashed under the starlight.

Fortunately, the puppet soldiers were pinned to the ground and could not raise their heads.

This bought time for the teams that were flanking the two wings.

For the pseudo-battalion commander, the best way to deal with a head-on attack in the dark is naturally to send troops to encircle the two wings.

However, for the puppet soldiers who were determined to escape, encirclement was impossible, and escaping in the north-south direction was the preferred option.

Soon, some puppet troops discovered that the firepower from the east was gradually weakening.

The pseudo squad leaders shouted at the top of their lungs: "Provide machine gun cover. Spread out to both wings."

The order given was to spread out to both wings, not to counterattack or outflank.

Before receiving orders from the battalion commander, the pseudo-squad platoon leaders naturally had to exercise their command skills based on the actual situation.

The Eighth Route Army set up an ambush on the "outskirts" in the east. Everyone knew that the Eighth Route Army was short of manpower and the frequency of shooting was decreasing. It was obvious that they were running out of ammunition.

But the puppet troops did not have the courage to launch an attack in the dark like the Taijuns did.

What's more, a squadron of the invincible Taijun now has less than one squad left.
Running into Mr. Ba's gun while escaping in the dark is not a wise choice. (End of this chapter)