The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 385 Blood, Encirclement, Annihilation

Amid the fierce crackling of gunfire, the 37mm heavy pointed bullets fired by the ZB34 heavy machine gun and the MG general-purpose machine gun smashed down on the Japanese skirmish line following the Kuomintang prisoners of war. The Japanese soldiers who were caught off guard were immediately beaten to a bloody pulp by the dense rain of bullets and fell to the ground one after another.

Amid the cries of pain and screams, as well as the harsh friction sounds of helmets being pierced, several gaps suddenly appeared in the Japanese army's skirmish lines. Machine gun bullets shot down from high curved trajectories, creating a dense blood mist in the Japanese army's skirmish lines, and then hit the ground heavily, raising clouds of dust.

Of the fifteen heavy machine guns that were firing at the Japanese army, six were Czech-made ZB37 heavy machine guns, which had an adjustable rate of fire regulator with a maximum rate of fire of 700 rounds per minute. The other nine MG34 general-purpose machine guns had a maximum rate of fire of 900 rounds per minute after being converted into heavy machine guns.

The machine gunners of the first battalion would naturally not save ammunition at this critical juncture. All the machine gunners who were firing were firing at the fastest speed, holding the trigger and firing madly. The shooters who were not stingy with ammunition and the machine guns with extremely fast firing rates, the speed and amount of firepower projection could not be described as "bullets raining from the sky" without an exaggeration.

In the several skirmish lines of the Japanese army, the baggage soldiers and service soldiers who had never experienced a serious field infantry battle were suddenly stunned by the overwhelming firepower of fifteen heavy machine guns. Although these Japanese soldiers knew that they were under attack from the heavy machine guns of the Chinese army in front, they did not understand why the bullets did not hit the Chinese prisoners who were blocking the guns in front, but bypassed the prisoners and hit their own skirmish lines.

These Japanese soldiers, who were from the Japanese Marine Corps and were originally baggage special forces and general service soldiers, had no knowledge of subjects such as heavy machine gun super-shooting. Even the non-commissioned officers, second lieutenants and lieutenant officers in the baggage unit who led them forward only had a vague understanding of it.

Therefore, this unknown tactic of heavy machine gun overshooting not only caused considerable casualties to the Japanese army, but also brought fear to the Japanese army that was suddenly attacked.

Especially the Japanese soldiers who were in the densely falling areas among the skirmishers were all in panic, shouting and yelling. All around them, from above their heads to around their legs and even under their crotches, there were heavy machine gun bullets whistling back and forth everywhere, leaving them with almost nowhere to hide. The 7.92mm caliber heavy pointed bullets came with a sharp whistling sound, and the rain of bullets formed by the red and green tracks brought by sporadic tracer bullets swept down the Japanese soldiers in large numbers.

Amidst the miserable screams, the Japanese soldiers who were hit by bullets were either shot directly through the chest or the head, or injured in the arms and thighs. The continuous casualties and the rapidly spreading fear greatly shook the Japanese army's already low morale. Several hastily formed skirmish lines were soon twisted and confused.

Not only did the Japanese army's skirmish line begin to become chaotic, but some frightened Japanese soldiers actually stopped advancing and chose to retreat in the opposite direction, causing further chaos in the Japanese army's attacking skirmish line.

The fighting spirit of the Japanese army's baggage service soldiers and service soldiers was the lowest among all the military branches of the Japanese army. Under the combined effects of the dense rain of bullets that came like raindrops and the continuous killing and the chaos of the skirmish line, more and more Japanese soldiers could not bear the pressure brought by death and chaos. They ran away from their combat positions in the skirmish line and began to retreat.

In this chaotic retreat, many retreating Japanese troops soon opened up a distance of more than 200 meters from the National Army prisoners who were held in the front as human shields, resulting in a disconnect between the Japanese attack formation and the prisoner formation in front.

"Don't run around, don't run around, rush forward and mingle with the prisoners!"

Kitaro Tsuchi held a submachine gun and rushed towards the prisoner formation in front of him while facing the dense machine gun bullets falling from all sides. He kept shouting and ordering the soldiers to keep moving forward.

When the first round of overshooting machine gun bullets came down, like those panicked Japanese soldiers, Kitaro Tsuchi was also stunned. At that time, several bullets were almost shot down from the air at an angle, flying past Kitaro Tsuchi's helmet. Kitaro Tsuchi had to lie down quickly in a hurry.

When he crawled and raised his head again, there was no one standing nearby. His adjutant was very unlucky and was hit in the head by two bullets. After penetrating the helmet, the bullets instantly exploded the adjutant's head like a watermelon, with brain and blood splattering everywhere. Several messengers nearby also fell in a pool of blood.

However, compared with ordinary Japanese soldiers and non-commissioned officers, Kitaro Tsuchi was much more rational. After all, he was a naval artillery officer and had a very good grasp of the basic theories of ballistics and shooting. Based on his knowledge of ballistics, Kitaro Tsuchi quickly determined that the current rain of bullets falling from the sky was caused by the Chinese army using machine gun fire to organize high-throw curved ballistics and surpassing shooting.

He was also well aware of the purpose of the Chinese army's organization of beyond-the-horizon shooting, which must be that they did not want to accidentally injure the Chinese prisoners at the front. If they wanted to effectively avoid the indirect machine gun fire attack of beyond-the-horizon shooting, the best way was to organize the troops to leave the danger zone of beyond-the-horizon shooting and move closer to the safe area of ​​beyond-the-horizon shooting.

At this moment, the safe area was undoubtedly the location of the Chinese army prisoners in front of the Japanese army's skirmish line.

Therefore, the more than 200-meter distance between the Japanese army's chaotic formation and the prisoner formation in front, as well as the resulting disconnection, are obviously not what Tsuchi Kitaro wants to see.

"Hurry up, charge forward, in a single line, and mix with the prisoners!"

Tsuchi Kitaro roared, dragged and beat the retreating Japanese soldiers, and drove them forward to the ranks of Chinese prisoners.

The officers and non-commissioned officers in the Japanese army's already disorganized scattered line also reacted at this time, and began to carry out Kitaro Tsuchi's orders, waving their rifles and commanding their swords, and using beatings and scolding to gather their troops and stop the retreating Japanese soldiers.

The characteristics of the Japanese army were also fully reflected at this time. The training of the general Japanese troops may not be very sophisticated, but the officers and non-commissioned officers had extremely strong organizational skills and the ability to execute orders.

The Japanese army, which was already in danger of collapsing, was finally able to brake in time and be brought under control thanks to the organization, gathering and interception of these officers and non-commissioned officers.

Of course, in the chaos, the Japanese army's original several skirmish lines of attack not only had moved away from the prisoners who were pushed in the front as meat shields, but the skirmish lines were also completely messed up. More than 600 Japanese officers and soldiers were gathered together in groups of dozens or hundreds, some in clusters, and some scattered. There was no question of any attack formation.

Kitaro Tsuchiji saw that the troops were under control and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. Although the attack formation was now completely messed up, as long as the troops did not lose order, everything would be easy to deal with.

As long as the troops were controlled and caught up with the prisoner formation in front, making up for the more than 200-meter gap, and changing the previous multi-row skirmish line combat formation into a single-row skirmish line, and advancing with a skirmish line closely following the prisoner formation, the attacking force would be able to stick to the more than 600 Chinese prisoners and become one with the premise that the depth was almost zero.

In the following battle, as long as the Chinese troops in the front position are still concerned about accidentally injuring the prisoners, the officers and soldiers under his command who are mixed with the Chinese prisoners will certainly not suffer any casualties. And when they get close to the Chinese army's position with the help of these prisoners as human shields, that is the moment to launch a desperate attack!

Soon, after gathering the troops, Tsuchi Kitaro's determination to die in battle surged up again, and he looked at the prisoners in front of him with angry eyes and fierce eyes, and ran more than 200 meters to the rear of the prisoners, shouting: "Everyone, form a single line of skirmishers, reorganize, and form a formation with the prisoners, and attack forward! Don't lose touch with the prisoners' formation! Get mixed up with them!"

Then, Tsuchi Kitaro ran wildly and caught up with the prisoners first, roaring with a submachine gun in one hand and a command knife in the other. He first raised the submachine gun and fired several rounds of shots at the crowd of prisoners randomly, killing seven or eight Kuomintang prisoners. Then he roared with a ferocious face and swung his knife to kill four people. Then he raised the bloody saber and roared crazily again: "Warriors, charge! Charge! Kill all the Chinese soldiers! Serve His Majesty the Emperor!" Tsuchi Kitaro's leading by example and the bloodiness and madness when he killed the prisoners did give the rest of the Japanese troops a shot in the arm. Although this way of bullying the weak and killing prisoners was extremely disgraceful, it actually worked wonders for this group of weak baggage soldiers.

Many Japanese soldiers were encouraged by this and took up their courage to stop retreating and continue to advance. Japanese officers and non-commissioned officers also shouted and waved their swords, leading their own soldiers and following Tsuchi Kitaro to rush forward.

Just as the Japanese army was about to reorganize their formation and move closer to the prisoners' formation to continue their attack, suddenly, a more violent whistling sound, different from the sound of heavy machine gun bullets breaking through the air, came over.

Then, burst after burst, round after round of explosions exploded in the chaotic formation of the Japanese army that had not yet finished organizing.

Amid the rumbling sounds of explosions, cries of grief and grief rose and fell from the Japanese army's formation. Shells fell simultaneously from both the left and right wings of the Japanese army, exploding in the Japanese army's formation and sending out dense shrapnel. The Japanese army's chaotic and dense formation further increased the lethality of the shells.

Round after round of accurate and swift artillery shells ruthlessly hit the Japanese army's heads, sweeping across their faces. Suddenly, shrapnel flew everywhere, limbs danced everywhere, and a blood rain rose up like a fine mist, plowing out alleys of blood and flesh. All kinds of broken limbs, stones, sand and broken flesh mixed together and were swept into the air by the air waves. Screams and explosions intertwined together. It was true that every shell brought a pool of blood.

The Japanese army, which had just been hit by machine gun fire from the sky, had not yet recovered from the shock when they were once again covered by artillery shells that came without warning.

In the narrow traffic trench, He Wei nodded with satisfaction and said calmly, "Well done."

In the communication trench where He Wei was located, the gunners of three 60mm mortar squads of the second company of the first infantry battalion and a mortar squad of the special forces company were loading and firing at the Japanese army at the fastest speed. Eight French Blonde 60mm mortars continuously launched 1.326 kg explosive grenades at the Japanese army.

In another communication trench directly opposite to where He Wei was, three 60mm mortar squads of the first company of the first infantry battalion and six 60mm mortars were also bombarding the Japanese army with rapid fire.

The sudden artillery bombardment upon the Japanese army was caused by this small mortar group consisting of fourteen 60mm mortars.

When the Japanese army was about to collapse due to heavy machine gun overfighting fire commanded by Fu Chen, which inflicted heavy casualties on the Japanese army, He Wei led the special forces company and the second infantry company of the first battalion to encircle and detour to the left wing of the Japanese army along the left-wing communication trench connecting the first and second lines of defense of the Japanese army. At the same time, the first infantry company of the first battalion also encircled and detoured to the right side of the Japanese army along the right-wing communication trench.

As soon as He Wei led his troops to the position, he observed that the Japanese army, which was on the verge of collapse due to the overwhelming firepower of heavy machine guns, was regrouping and continuing to attack.

Seeing this situation, He Wei would definitely not let the Japanese army get their way. He Wei also saw that the Japanese army's skirmish line attack formation had been broken up, and they had been separated from the National Army prisoners in front by about 60 meters. It was a good opportunity for mortar firepower to be used. Therefore, He Wei decisively ordered the special service company and the second company of the first battalion's infantry to open fire at the Japanese army with mm mortars.

When the first company of the first infantry battalion responsible for the right-wing flanking and detour saw the mortars of the left-wing flanking and detour troops led by He Wei open fire, they also followed suit and coordinated with each other from two directions, launching a round of mortar cluster fire at the Japanese army that was like a thunderbolt.

啪达
Boom
啪达
Boom
The crisp sound of 60mm mortar shells firing and the violent explosions formed a strange concerto. He Wei calmly watched the tragic scene in the distant bomb-falling area in the communication trench, and his frowning brows relaxed.

He Wei was very satisfied with the effect of this round of mortar fire. Although the power of the 60mm mortar shells was not great, the chaotic and crowded formation of the Japanese army greatly increased the lethality of the mortar shells.

At the same time, because when He Wei ordered to open fire, the Japanese attack formation had already opened up a distance of 18 meters from the captured officers and soldiers of the th Division of the National Army, this round of intensive mortar bombardment did not cause accidental injuries to the captured officers and soldiers, but was a unilateral and crazy bombardment and massacre of the Japanese army.

In the shelling area, as the bombardment continued to explode, rows and groups of Japanese Marine Corps baggage soldiers and service soldiers in navy blue uniforms were hit and knocked down one after another by shrapnel produced by the exploding 60mm mortar shells.

Those Japanese soldiers who were not hit or killed were scared out of their wits by the sudden and extremely fierce artillery fire. In order to avoid the bullets, they had to run around like headless flies. As for launching a desperate attack or being loyal to the emperor, they had long forgotten about them by this group of weak baggage soldiers and service soldiers.

After five minutes of continuous bombardment, with the mortar shells running out and the Japanese army completely collapsing and fleeing, He Wei decisively ordered his troops to attack. Immediately, the officers and soldiers of the Special Service Company and the Second Company of the First Infantry Battalion, holding submachine guns and rifles with bayonets, jumped out of the communication trenches to the sound of exciting charge horns and loud shouts of killing, and launched a fierce charge from the left wing of the Japanese army in skilled battle formations.

Immediately afterwards, the officers and soldiers of the 1st Company of the 1st Infantry Battalion, who were responsible for the right-wing encirclement, also launched a charge after they had used up their artillery shells. They roared and pounced on the Japanese army amid the shrill and terrifying sound of the charge.

The tragic defeat of the Japanese army and the fierce attacks of the assault corps on the left and right wings seemed to have awakened the blood of more than 18 prisoners of the 18th Division. Among the prisoners of the th Division, it was unknown who was the first to shout: "Brothers, the damned ones will not leave us a way to survive and use us as a shield. Instead of dying in cowardice, we might as well drag a few people with us and fight the damned ones!"

Immediately, this charge order seemed to ignite the fire and bloodiness in the hearts of the prisoners. The more than 18 captured officers and soldiers of the th Division, who had pale faces and looked like zombies, suddenly burst into shouting in unison. Regardless of their bound hands and weak bodies, they roared and shouted as they attacked the Japanese army.

Suddenly, the battlefield was filled with the sound of trumpets and shouts of killing. The Japanese army, which was defeated by mortars, was attacked from the front, left and right wings at the same time. After launching the charge, He Wei quickly ordered the flanking troops on the left and right wings to gather and encircle the Japanese army during the attack, completely blocking their retreat.

Faced with the fleeing Japanese troops, the officers and soldiers of the Assault Corps charged calmly while fiercely firing at the Japanese troops with submachine guns and light machine guns. The Japanese troops who encountered the officers and soldiers of the Assault Corps didn't even have a chance to fight with bayonets. They would be knocked down by the fierce close combat firepower as soon as they came into contact.

Seeing that they could not defeat the Assault Corps with strong combat effectiveness and fierce firepower, many Japanese soldiers wanted to pick on the weak and break out from the direction where the prisoners of the 18th Division were coming. However, after fighting with the prisoners of the 18th Division, they found that these prisoners, who had allowed them to toy with, play with, enslave, and even kill at will not long ago, had completely transformed into a group of fearless fighters.

Although the captured officers and soldiers of the 18th Division were unarmed and even had their hands tied, these men, whose blood had been completely aroused, ignored all this and, with red eyes, they met the Japanese troops in groups of three or five and fought with them. Some of them hit them with their heads, some with their bodies, and some even bit them with their teeth.

Often, a Japanese quartermaster would stab to death a prisoner of the 18th Division who was fighting with him to death with a bayonet, and immediately two or three prisoners would rush forward and continue to fight with the Japanese until the Japanese soldier was killed. Therefore, under the impact of the captured officers and soldiers of the 18th Division who were fighting for their lives, not many Japanese soldiers could break out from the direction from which the prisoners of the 18th Division were rushing.

At this moment, these officers and soldiers of the 18th Division captured by the Japanese army were no longer prisoners to be enslaved and slaughtered by the Japanese army, but upright Chinese soldiers!
On the battlefield, the assault corps and the 18th Division's officers and men surged in waves, forming a huge encirclement, like an airtight iron barrel, gathering, encircling, advancing, shrinking, and gradually annihilating the fleeing Japanese troops.
(End of this chapter)