Liang Jian: Commander, save some for me

Time flies, and there are less than two minutes left until 11:30. Cheng Xiazi's 772nd Regiment is already ready!
The artillerymen at the artillery positions had already opened their ammunition boxes and were crouching beside their cannons, waiting for the order to fire immediately.

"Commander, the artillery positions are ready, just waiting for the time to fire," came the artillery company commander's voice over Cheng the Blind's walkie-talkie.

"Hmm, very good. The plan remains unchanged. Fire the shells as soon as the time comes. Don't conserve shells!" said Blind Cheng.

They either don't fight at all, or they fight to the death, suppressing the Japanese from the very beginning and not giving them a chance to react!

After giving his instructions, Blind Cheng contacted Commander Zhang to inquire about the situation there. Only after confirming that everything was ready did he feel at ease.

At 11:30, the artillery of the 772nd Regiment obeyed orders and immediately opened fire on the Japanese camp.

Boom boom boom......

More than twenty shells landed in the Japanese camp, causing a huge explosion that killed or wounded many Japanese soldiers, which put the Japanese soldiers in the camp back into combat mode.

At the same time, the 771st Regiment also opened fire, and shells landed on the Japanese camp again, causing casualties to the Japanese.

Such intense firepower naturally made the Japanese brigade commander realize that the enemy was about to launch a general offensive.

"Brigade Commander, the enemy's bombardment this time is different; they're clearly about to launch a general offensive!" The Japanese regimental commander said to the Japanese brigade commander.

Unlike the previous harassment with a few shells from the enemy, this time, dozens of shells were bombarding them, which was obviously abnormal.

"Get the soldiers ready for battle immediately!" the Japanese brigade commander ordered.

"Brigade Commander, something's not right. The enemy's artillery is coming from two directions. Doesn't that mean the enemy has dozens of mortars? The 772nd Regiment couldn't possibly have that many!" the Japanese regimental commander hurriedly said.

The enemy's bombing was too intense; it was clearly not the firepower that the 772nd Regiment could possess.

"You mean the 771st Regiment has also arrived?! Or rather, the enemy has reinforcements coming?!" The Japanese brigade commander's expression changed upon hearing this.

He wasn't stupid; he naturally knew what was going on!

"I think it's probably like this: the 771st Regiment is more likely. The reason they were also attacking the Tanaka Regiment was probably just a ruse, designed to get the 771st Regiment to come and provide support!" The Japanese regimental commander said, expressing his guess.

The attack on Tanaka's unit must have been caused by a portion of the 771st Regiment leaving behind, while the main force had already set off to provide support. That's the situation we're in now.

"Damn it, I underestimated these enemies! I thought they were nothing special, but I didn't expect them to have such a trick up their sleeve!" The Japanese brigade commander's face darkened, realizing that he had been too careless.

Ultimately, it was his poor mental state these past few days that affected his judgment, leading him into the crisis.

"Brigade Commander, if the 772nd and 771st Regiments really join forces, we might not be able to stop their attack! Let's think about how to break out." The Japanese regimental commander was already thinking about a way out. In this situation, fighting head-on would be suicide, so they had to find a way to break out.

"The problem now is, where should we break out from?!" The Japanese brigade commander was at a loss for a moment. The enemy must have surrounded them from several directions. It would be extremely difficult for them to break out.

"Let's keep observing the situation, and then we'll choose a less heavily armed direction to break through!" the Japanese regimental commander suggested.

They haven't engaged the enemy yet and don't know the strength of the enemy's firepower, so they'll wait and see after they fight.

"Baka! Hurry up and urge the puppet troops to get up. They probably still think the enemy is just harassing them and are resting!" the Japanese brigade commander cursed and said hastily.

These puppet troops are also capable of fighting; let's hope they don't get wiped out by the enemy before they can even put their skills to use.

"Yes, sir!" The Japanese regimental commander quickly dispatched a major to the puppet army's camp.

In fact, just as the Japanese brigade commander said, although the shelling was very severe, the puppet troops thought it was still enemy harassment because the shells did not fall into the puppet troops' camp.

However, some of the smarter puppet troops noticed something was wrong, because this harassment seemed a bit too intense.

"Get up, all of you! The Eighth Route Army is attacking!" a Japanese company commander shouted, urging the puppet troops in the tent.

For a moment, the puppet troops in the camp had no choice but to get up.

Meanwhile, the artillery positions of the 772nd and 771st Regiments were still firing at the Japanese camp without stopping.

Because the bombardment covered a portion of the Japanese camp at once, these bombardments caused considerable casualties among the Japanese. In some camps, more than a dozen Japanese soldiers were killed.

Some tents even caught fire, but the Japanese soldiers didn't have time to put them out; they were busy building fortifications.

At the same time, soldiers from the 772nd Regiment and the 771st Regiment rushed towards the hills near the Japanese camp, aiming to seize advantageous terrain as soon as possible.

Fortunately, everything went smoothly, and they successfully captured both hilltops and immediately began constructing fortifications.

Bang bang bang…

Da da da………

Dense gunfire erupted in the area as soldiers from both regiments charged toward the Japanese.

The Japanese were not to be trifled with either; their artillery immediately began constructing artillery positions, preparing to fire on the enemy.

Boom boom boom......

Gunfire continued, and people fell almost every second, either Japanese soldiers or Eighth Route Army soldiers. The two sides were engaged in fierce fighting, and the two regiments had occupied the hills near the Japanese camp from the beginning, gaining a favorable advantage and almost suppressing the Japanese.

.........

"Brigade Commander, something terrible has happened! The enemy has gotten there first and occupied the nearby hilltops!" A Japanese lieutenant colonel rushed to the Japanese brigade commander to report.

"Baka! Quickly organize your forces and take back the hill!" the Japanese brigade commander cursed. They had already lost the initiative, and if they lost the nearby hills as well, how would they break through? Therefore, it was imperative to take back the nearby hills.

Although he had anticipated that the enemy would seize the hilltop and sent men there, the enemy was clearly faster and got there first, so they no longer had any advantage.

"Yes, sir!" The Japanese lieutenant colonel immediately left to organize the troops. "Brigade commander, things are getting a bit complicated now. With several hilltops gone, the pressure on us has increased significantly. And from what we can see, the enemy's firepower from several directions seems quite intense, making a breakout difficult!" the Japanese regimental commander said with a serious expression.

He had originally intended to see which direction the firepower was weaker so that he could make a breakthrough, but now it seemed that the hope of a breakthrough was becoming somewhat slim.

"It seems we won't be able to get through this today. Have the troops that were planning to retreat back to the hilltop cease their operations. We need to concentrate most of our forces and break through to the east!" the Japanese brigade commander said slowly.

If they can break through, they can head towards the Tanaka Regiment. Once they reunite, they will be safe.

Although the enemy surrounded them from four directions, making them appear as an impenetrable fortress, their initiative was not strong enough. Therefore, they only needed to leave a portion of their soldiers to hold off the enemy from the other three directions, allowing them to break out from the east.

He believed that it was impossible for an enemy attacking from one direction to stop them from breaking through.

"Understood!!" The Japanese regimental commander immediately went to give the order.

At this time, to the west, the puppet troops and Japanese soldiers were resisting the attack of the Eighth Route Army. Faced with the fierce attack, they suffered heavy casualties.

This frightened the puppet troops, who discovered that the Eighth Route Army attacking them was incredibly powerful, far stronger than the average Eighth Route Army soldier.

"Captain, something's wrong! Are there too many enemies?!" A puppet army company commander ran up to the puppet army battalion commander and said nervously.

"Damn it, is there any need to say more? We're surrounded by the enemy on all four sides. We might just die here today!" The puppet army captain cursed. Just from the sound of gunfire, there were at least six or seven thousand enemy soldiers attacking them, while they only had four thousand. The key issue was that the Japanese soldiers were in very poor morale.

That means that when combat power is not at its peak, it is simply impossible to stop the enemy's attack.

"Captain, what should we do?! Break out?!" The puppet army company commander panicked; he didn't want to die here like this.

"Wait a minute, let's see if the Eighth Route Army intends to make us surrender!" said the puppet army captain. He guessed that the Eighth Route Army did not want to fight to the death with them, but rather wanted to kill the Japanese. This could be seen from the fact that the Eighth Route Army's shells had only been fired at the Japanese in the past two days.

Therefore, he felt that the Eighth Route Army might be planning to make them surrender.

"Captain, we still have quite a few Japanese soldiers here. Even if the Eighth Route Army calls for our surrender, we can't just surrender directly," the puppet army company commander reminded them.

There were still hundreds of Japanese soldiers in their direction. If they dared to say they were surrendering, those Japanese soldiers might shoot them dead.

"Damn it, go and organize some soldiers. Once the Eighth Route Army tries to persuade them to surrender, kill those Japanese devils!" the puppet army captain said fiercely.

Since surrendering now would mean certain death, he didn't want to die with the Japanese. As for what would happen later, that was a matter for another time. The most important thing now was to save his own life.

"Huh?! Are we going to kill Japanese soldiers?! What if the Japanese find out later?!" The puppet army company commander's face changed. He was still a little scared about killing Japanese soldiers.

"Damn it, if we don't take action, who knows if we'll even have a future! You want to die with the Japanese? I don't want to!" the puppet army captain said fiercely.

"You're right, damn it, we're about to lose our lives, what right do we have to care about them!" Upon hearing this, the puppet army captain's eyes flashed with a fierce light.

What are those Japanese devils anyway? Who wants to die when they can survive!

"That's right, save your lives first, we'll talk about the rest later." The puppet army captain nodded in satisfaction.
.........

To the east, Blind Cheng and Regiment Commander Zhang were already waiting with their reserves. According to their guess, once the Japanese realized they were surrounded, they would most likely choose to concentrate their forces and break out from the east to join up with Tanaka's regiment!
"Old Cheng, we've occupied the nearby hilltops, and the Japanese haven't organized any troops to retake them. It's obvious they're concentrating their forces to break through," Commander Zhang said.

"Yes, we'll just wait. As soon as the Japanese try to break through to our side, we'll give them a good beating and let them know what despair really is."
"By the way, did you tell the artillery to turn their guns around?! The Japanese are trying to break out this way, so we need to be able to bombard them!" Blind Cheng nodded and then said.

The artillery of the 772nd Regiment has already turned its guns around. As long as they engage the Japanese soldiers trying to break out, the artillery will fire on the Japanese soldiers on this side.

"Of course, we've been prepared for a long time. How's the situation with the puppet troops?!" Commander Zhang asked.

"I've already arranged for them to persuade him to surrender, and I expect to have results soon," said Blind Cheng.

In short, if those puppet troops don't surrender, don't blame him for being ruthless.

"Let's get this straight first, if any of the puppet troops surrender, I want half of the prisoners!" Commander Zhang said hurriedly. Capturing prisoners was a great achievement, and although they were just puppet troops, there were many of them, so he still wanted them!

"Don't worry, I won't forget you," Blind Cheng replied. They were all good comrades-in-arms, how could he forget them? He wasn't as shameless as Li Yunlong.

"That's more like it, but there seem to be quite a few Japanese soldiers in the west as well. Even if those puppet troops wanted to surrender, they probably wouldn't dare." Commander Zhang nodded in satisfaction, then added, as if remembering something else.

If there were no Japanese soldiers guarding the direction the puppet troops were stationed in, he estimated that the puppet troops there would most likely surrender. However, with the Japanese soldiers watching them, how could the puppet troops dare to surrender?

"That's none of my business. It depends on whether they want to live or not. If they do, they can kill those Japanese devils. Otherwise, when the time comes, I won't take any prisoners!" Blind Cheng said slowly.

He naturally knew that the Japanese were watching the puppet troops, so if the puppet troops wanted to surrender, they would have to put in some effort; otherwise, why would he let them go?

"You little rascal, you're forcing the puppet troops to make a choice," Commander Zhang laughed.

"What do you mean by 'forcing'? I'm giving them a chance, understand?" Blind Cheng said dismissively. He could have chosen not to take the prisoners, but considering that those puppet soldiers were also Chinese, he gave them a chance.

.........

The Eighth Route Army in the west suddenly stopped firing and ceased attacking the puppet army's camp, which puzzled the puppet army.

The puppet army commander guessed what was going on and immediately ordered his troops to cease fire.

"Captain, why have the Eighth Route Army stopped fighting?! Are they really planning to persuade us to surrender?!" the puppet army company commander asked in confusion.

"Of course, that's for sure," said the puppet army captain.

At this moment, an Eighth Route Army soldier with a loudspeaker began to shout to the puppet troops' camp, urging them to surrender.

"Listen up, you puppet troops! We are from the 772nd Regiment of the Eighth Route Army. We're giving you a chance: lay down your weapons and surrender, or you'll face certain death!" (End of Chapter)