Liang Jian: Commander, save some for me

"Yes, it is related to them. The New 1st Regiment and the Independent Regiment have actually left their defense zone and took the opportunity to bypass our defense zone.

Their purpose is very clear, which is to cooperate with Mu Jin to attack the 20th Division." Nakajima Imao said the contents of the telegram.

He had been worried for a long time, fearing that Mu Jin would not come, and then their plan would be completely ruined.

"You are really awesome, division commander! Everything is within your expectations!" The Japanese brigade commander praised him quickly.

"Of course." Nakajima Imao finally felt relieved.

"Hurry up and send a telegram to the 20th Division to inform them that the Northeast Army will definitely attack them and may even have joined forces with the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army." Nakajima Imao gave the order immediately.

"Hi!" The Japanese brigade commander hurriedly left the tent.

"Mu Jin, Mu Jin, although I have never met you, you have caused such heavy losses to the Empire. This will be the last time you jump around!" Nakajima Jin Zhaowu raised the corners of his mouth, his face full of confidence.

On the other hand, after receiving the telegram, the commander of the 20th Division also hurriedly issued orders, asking people to attack the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army’s base while preventing attacks from the rear.

In short, they need to hold out until the 16th Division comes to support them, and then surround the Northeast Army. Only in this way can they annihilate the Northeast Army.

.........

Two days later, around three in the afternoon.

Xu Qingfeng sent a telegram to Chu Yunfei, telling him that the Japanese had sent a regiment, which would arrive in Fucheng in half a day at most, and asked them to be prepared.

As for Xu Qingfeng, he had always been dozens of miles away from the Japanese.

After receiving the telegram, Chu Yunfei asked his officers to prepare for combat, and his operations room was also moved to the city gate tower.

"Brother Ligong, this time the Japanese attack is expected to be fierce. We have to hold on until night to give Xu Qingfeng's troops a chance to launch a surprise attack on the Japanese." Chu Yunfei and Fang Ligong were on the walkway on the city wall, and he looked into the distance.

Fortunately, they were the ones defending the city, otherwise, facing the attack of a Japanese regiment, they might not have lasted more than three days.

"Indeed, Xu Qingfeng and his men are good at launching sneak attacks at night. When the time comes, we will need to cooperate with them in the attack and annihilate the Japanese as quickly as possible." Fang Ligong nodded.

Having fought with the Northeastern Army for such a long time, he knew that the other side liked to fight the enemy most at night.

"Come to think of it, their combat effectiveness during the day should be stronger than at night. Why do they have to fight at night?!" Fang Ligong changed the subject, a little confused.

In his opinion, Mu Jin's warriors were very strong and there was no need to distinguish between day and night.

"If they attack during the day, they are likely to suffer greater casualties, but at night, the situation is uncertain." Chu Yunfei guessed the reason at once.

The reason why Xu Qingfeng and his team chose to attack at night was to reduce casualties. After all, visibility is very high during the day and the Japanese's combat effectiveness is also very strong.

But once it was night, the Japs' combat effectiveness was no match for the Northeast Army.

"That's true, but in this case, our casualties will be quite high," Fang Ligong said immediately.

They have to withstand the Japanese's fierce attack for a whole day, and there will be huge casualties.

"We can't do anything about it. People are selfish. It's already very good that they didn't deliberately ask us to hold on for a few more days to help." Chu Yunfei understood what Xu Qingfeng and the others were thinking.

The purpose is nothing more than to reduce casualties among one's own troops, but in comparison, the casualties of the 358th Regiment will be great.

"It's not too bad. Our regiment's equipment is not much worse than the Japanese's, so our casualties may not be that great." Chu Yunfei added.

The current 358th Regiment still has strong firepower. They have a lot of machine guns, mortars, and grenade launchers.

Even if Xu Qingfeng and his men didn't come, with the combat effectiveness of the 358th Regiment and these equipment, it shouldn't be a big problem to hold off the Japanese for ten days or half a month.

"Speaking of which, a large part of these equipments were obtained from the Japanese." Fang Ligong said with a smile. It was a great pleasure to think about them taking the weapons seized from the Japanese and then going to fight them.

"Well, let's go. Let's go out of the city and take a look at the situation of the position." Chu Yun flew towards the stairs.

Fang Ligong also followed, and the two went downstairs side by side, and then left the city. Now the people in the city had all hidden themselves.

Especially for the people who lived closer to the city wall, Chu Yunfei also asked them to move away quickly to avoid being affected by the Japanese artillery shells.

When the people in the city learned that the Japanese were coming and that the 358th Regiment did not choose to leave directly, many of them took out food to support the 358th Regiment.

Chu Yunfei didn't want these supplies at first, but he couldn't resist the enthusiasm of the people, so he had to accept them.

Soon, the two men left the city and entered the trenches.

When many soldiers saw Chu Yunfei and Fang Ligong, they saluted and greeted them.

"Remember this in the future: don't salute your superiors during combat. The Japanese have sharpshooters who specialize in attacking officers!" Chu Yunfei warned with a serious face.

The Japanese sharpshooter liked to target officers and shoot them. He didn't want to be shot to death by the Japanese one day just because of a salute.

It’s not that he is afraid of death, but he doesn’t want to die too miserably.

"Understood!" The soldiers nodded and put down their hands.

"There is probably a regiment of Japanese soldiers attacking us this time. Although their number is smaller than ours, their combat effectiveness is stronger than ours. Are you afraid?!" Chu Yunfei said with a serious face.

"Not afraid!"

"They are just some devils, just kill them!"

"That's right. We all have one head on two shoulders. If they get shot, they will die anyway!"

The soldiers responded one after another that it had come to this point and it would be unreasonable to still be afraid at this time.

"Okay! Well said, when the Japs attack, I will fight them together with you! I won't retreat until the Japs retreat! We live and die together!" Chu Yunfei said seriously, touching the soldiers' hearts.

"We are willing to live and die together with the regiment commander!" The soldiers also said this one after another, and their confidence in fighting against the Japanese became stronger.

Even the regimental commander will join them in fighting the Japanese, so what is there to be afraid of? The regimental commander is a high-ranking official. In comparison, they are just a group of soldiers. But the regimental commander is not afraid of death, so if they are afraid, how can they have the face to do it!

Chu Yunfei then took Fang Ligong to continue patrolling the next position. The trenches had already been dug and were now being reinforced.

Especially the anti-artillery holes, which are absolutely indispensable. The enemy's artillery attack is very fierce. Without anti-artillery holes, there will be a lot of casualties. Chu Yunfei also took a look at the anti-artillery holes from time to time to prevent people from being lazy when digging anti-artillery holes, which would easily lead to being buried alive.

After checking the condition of the trenches, Chu Yunfei went to the built bunkers to check the situation. With the bunkers, their firepower could be guaranteed.

After all, the Japanese grenade launchers are very accurate, and if we don’t build bunkers, the machine gun positions will be easily breached by the Japanese.

It can be said that these positions are very solid, with both defense and firepower.

If there were more veterans with combat experience, Chu Yunfei would even be able to repel the Japanese.

But there was no other way. The new recruits accounted for nearly half of the entire regiment, and it was already very good that they could stop the Japanese attack.

.........

The next morning, the Japanese army finally arrived. They divided their troops into four groups and surrounded the county town, as if they were planning to attack at the same time and take down the floating city directly, leaving no chance for the 358th Regiment to escape.

Outside the north gate, about one kilometer away from the gate, a Japanese regiment commander stood on a small hill. He used a telescope to check the defense situation of the gate.

"This Shanxi-Suiyuan Army has actually built a bunker. It seems like it will not be easy to quickly capture Fucheng." The Japanese regiment commander frowned.

If the bunker is well built, it cannot be destroyed by grenade launchers and mortars. If you want to destroy the bunker, you can only kill your way into the bunker.

"They entered the trenches quite quickly. There should be quite a few veterans among them. Plus with the bunkers they built, I'm afraid it will be difficult for us to capture them in three days." The Japanese lieutenant colonel on the side said with a frown.

The 358th Regiment was well prepared, and this unit was different from the ordinary Shanxi-Suiyuan Army. Its combat effectiveness was much stronger than that of the ordinary Shanxi-Suiyuan Army.

"Hmph, so what? The brigade commander asked us to take it down within three days, so we must take it down within three days!" The Japanese regiment commander snorted coldly. In his opinion, even if the 358th Regiment was stronger than the ordinary Shanxi-Suiyuan Army, it was no match for them.

Three days were enough for them to capture the floating city.

"Hi!" The Japanese lieutenant colonel nodded quickly.

“By the way, what is the name of the commander of the 358th Regiment?!” asked the Japanese regiment commander.

"It seems his name is Chu Yunfei. This person seems to have graduated from the Whampoa Military Academy and has strong abilities." The Japanese lieutenant colonel thought for a while and quickly told what he knew.

"Whampoa Military Academy?! I heard that many high-ranking officers of the National Army came from this military academy. I have always wanted to fight them, but I have never met them. This time, I met them.
Then let me see how capable Chu Yunfei is. Don't let me break through the city gate in a short time!" The Japanese captain sneered.

In fact, he looked down on the officers who graduated from this military academy. No matter how much they boasted, they still couldn't fight against the imperial army.

Only the Northeast Army is relatively powerful, the others are not to be feared.

"The commander is right," said the Japanese lieutenant colonel.

"Tell the soldiers to speed up and fill the sandbags with sand. We will attack in half an hour! The position needs to be built as soon as possible." The Japanese regiment commander gave the order hurriedly.

"Hi!" The Japanese lieutenant colonel nodded.

At this time, on the walkway on the city wall, Chu Yunfei and Fang Ligong were also staring at the Japanese in the distance with binoculars.

"The Japanese are already making sandbags. It looks like they will launch an attack soon," said Fang Ligong.

"Yeah." Chu Yunfei nodded seriously.

Afterwards, he and Fang Ligong returned to the city gate tower. They still needed to hide from the Japanese artillery fire to avoid being killed by a single shot.

.........

At this time, Xu Qingfeng had also climbed to the halfway point of a mountain, where he was observing with a telescope.

"Political Commissar, the Japanese are building artillery positions. When they attack later, should we take the opportunity to fire and destroy their artillery positions?!" Battalion Commander Zhao Ming couldn't help but suggest. This was a good opportunity to cut off the Japanese artillery positions.

"Don't be anxious, wait a little longer." Xu Qingfeng said. He didn't plan to take action now and would wait until the evening.

"Political Commissar, isn't it inappropriate for us to just watch and do nothing?!" Zhao Ming said, putting down the telescope.

"There's nothing inappropriate about it. If we choose to attack during the day, our casualties will be much greater than a sneak attack at night. Besides, the strength of the 358th Regiment is not too weak. They can hold on for a day without suffering too many casualties!" Xu Qingfeng disagreed. If the 358th Regiment was in a desperate situation, he naturally would not wait.

But it's not time yet, and it's not appropriate for them to take action during the day.

The other Japanese troops have not yet arrived at the Jinsui Army's garrison! But they will basically arrive today. If they act in advance, it will easily alert the enemy.

Half an hour passed quickly, and the artillerymen from the Japanese artillery position also squatted in front of the mortars and infantry guns. They opened the boxes of shells and took out the shells.

The artillery commander in front was holding a flag in his hand.

"Fire!" As the artillery commander waved the flag, the Japanese artillerymen put shells into the muzzles one after another.

Bang bang bang…

Boom boom boom......

Muffled sounds were heard, and the shells fired from the muzzles formed parabolas and fell into the positions of the 358th Regiment, causing huge explosions.

For a moment, the position was covered by artillery fire, and the soldiers in the position hid in the anti-artillery holes one after another. Some of them were slow to hide and were killed by artillery shells on the spot, and their broken arms flew directly into the anti-artillery holes!

Several recruits looked at the severed arm and turned pale with fright. It was the first time for them to see such a cruel scene. Some of them even felt the urge to pee.

"Keep calm, everything will be fine as long as you hide well!" An old soldier comforted them. Compared with the Japanese artillery shells, he was more afraid of the Japanese machine guns.

As long as the position is well dug, the damage caused by the artillery shells will not be very great, but the Japanese machine guns are different. They are very accurate, and when you are hit by machine gun bullets, your body will be covered with pieces.

That scene would be even more disgusting than the current one.

"Why are you afraid?! Do you want to be a deserter?! I'm warning you, the supervision team is watching the battlefield.
Anyone who dares to escape will end up dead!" The old soldier couldn't help but threaten, for he was worried that several new recruits would be scared and desert.

"We can't be deserters. Even if we die, we will die on the way to the charge!" said a recruit seriously.

"That's right, we would rather die than be deserters!" Other recruits also said. Compared to being shot for being deserters, they would rather fight the Japanese to death. This way they can still have dignity!

(End of this chapter)