The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 400 Bloody Battle 5
"Onboard!"

"Long live the Emperor!"

The Japanese soldiers' shouts of killing merged with the rumbling of dense artillery fire and screams. The powerful artillery fire created a series of flashes of cannon smoke mixed with white, red, orange and black in the attack formation of the two Japanese battalions.
Amid the gun smoke, groups of Japanese officers and soldiers who were bending forward were knocked down, blown away, and in the interweaving of blood and fire, they were either turned into fragments or became bloody corpses.

The Chinese gunners on the reverse slope of the Big and Small Bear Mountain Heights and the rear heights fired rounds of artillery shells at the Japanese army at the maximum firing rate. The powerful airflow formed by dozens of artillery pieces firing at the same time rolled up the dust on the artillery positions and formed a gray curtain behind the Big and Small Bear Mountain Heights.

Facing the artillery death trap carefully constructed by He Wei, the two Japanese infantry battalions that had charged to a distance of one kilometer from the heights of the Big and Small Bear Mountains suffered heavy casualties, but the willpower and fighting spirit of the Japanese army were also very strong.
Even though waves of Japanese troops were torn to pieces and blown away by the fierce artillery bombardment, in the face of the horrific artillery fire and heavy casualties, the two attacking infantry battalions suffered heavy casualties and their attack speed was greatly reduced, but they were not defeated. Instead, they continued to rush towards the Big and Small Bear Mountain heights, shouting and killing.

Below the Big and Small Bear Mountains, the Japanese assault team surged. In the blood and fire, Japanese soldiers were constantly knocked down by the falling and exploding shells, and torn into pieces.
The Japanese soldiers who were not defeated in each round of artillery fire seemed to have been tempered by such tragic battles and ignored the casualties around them. Except for the wounded Japanese soldiers who were unable to move due to injuries, no Japanese soldier stopped advancing or crawled down to avoid the shells. Instead, they stepped over the bodies of their comrades and even the wounded, and continued to charge towards the Big and Small Bear Mountain heights with roars and attacks.

Soon, after five minutes of artillery fire from the artillery group behind the Big and Small Bear Mountain Heights, the vanguards of the two Japanese battalions attacking the Big and Small Bear Mountain Heights finally rushed to the foot of the Big and Small Bear Mountain Heights. This was the blind spot of the artillery group behind the Big and Small Bear Mountain Heights. Compared with the death zone in front of the heights, which was covered by dense mortar shells, mountain artillery shells and large-caliber grenades and densely scattered shrapnel, this inch of land at the foot of the mountain seemed to have become a "pure land" because it was the blind spot of the artillery group behind the heights.

So, wave after wave of Japanese troops who survived the fierce artillery bombardment, after rushing through the barrage of fire cast by the artillery groups of the Big and Small Bear Mountains, all pushed each other and rushed to the foot of the Big and Small Bear Mountains.

After another extremely long three minutes, the Japanese troops who survived the bombardment finally reached the foot of the Big Bear Mountain and the Small Bear Mountain.
At this time, the original two infantry battalions, a total of six infantry companies, two heavy machine gun companies, and two infantry artillery squads of more than 2,000 Japanese troops were less than half, with only more than 1,000 people left.

The sixteen Type 92 heavy machine guns and four Type 92 infantry guns of the two heavy machine gun squadrons and two infantry artillery teams were also destroyed by the bombing, leaving only six Type 92 heavy machine guns and two Type 92 infantry guns.

More than a thousand Japanese soldiers were lying on the ground at the foot of the Big and Small Bear Mountains, gasping for breath, and looking up at the Big and Small Bear Mountains in the extremely hot air.
But before the Japanese troops could catch their breath, the Japanese officer leading the assault could not wait to issue an attack order. Then, the Japanese army's charge under heavy artillery fire quickly evolved into an upward attack on high ground.

Boom
Da da da

The Type 92 infantry guns, with the muzzles of the two guns adjusted to the maximum elevation angle, opened fire first and began to bombard the top of the Big and Small Bear Mountain Heights. The six Type 92 heavy machine guns that were mounted diagonally at the foot of the heights also roared and poured out continuously towards the top of the Big and Small Bear Mountain Heights. The machine gun firepower trajectory formed a machine gun fire network from low to high, covering thousands of Japanese infantrymen who launched an upward attack on the Big and Small Bear Mountain Heights from bottom to top.

On the Big and Small Bear Mountain Heights, in the command post of the 1125th Infantry Regiment, the two artillery commanders, Chen Xinsheng and Hu Rizheng, who had just given the order to the artillery unit to stop firing, looked at each other and revealed satisfied expressions at the densely packed corpses and countless bullet craters on the Japanese army's charge path in front of the Big and Small Bear Mountain Heights.

This round of blocking artillery bombardment against the Japanese troops attacking the Big and Small Bear Mountain Heights almost killed half of the attacking enemies. Considering the number of artillery pieces controlled by the two men and the number of attacking Japanese troops, such killing efficiency was already an excellent result.

At this time, not only had the artillery under the command of Chen Xinsheng and Hu Rizheng ceased firing, but even the Japanese artillery bombardment of the Big and Small Xiong Mountain Heights and the open areas on both sides of the Big and Small Xiong Mountain Heights had ceased.

The Taiwan Island Mountain Artillery Regiment, which was responsible for providing artillery cover for the attacking Japanese army, also stopped its shelling after the high-intensity bombardment and began to advance forward and transfer its positions.

The sound of artillery fire suddenly stopped, replaced by the explosions of the Japanese Type 92 infantry guns and Type 92 heavy machine guns, as well as the roars of Japanese infantrymen who were launching a feint attack on the Big and Small Bear Mountain heights from the bottom up.

Since the Japanese artillery bombardment had destroyed most of the obstacle area in front of the Big and Small Bear Mountain Heights, the Japanese army's upward attack was not affected by the obstacles. Instead, they passed through the obstacle area smoothly, stepped on the shattered stakes, chevaux de frise and barbed wire, and desperately climbed to the top of the heights, and soon reached the halfway point of the mountain.

However, although the Japanese army was approaching, the commander of the highland defenders, Xu Kunyuan, the commander of the 385th Infantry Regiment of the 1125th Brigade, did not order his troops to open fire.

Looking at the Japanese infantry who had already climbed halfway up the mountain through the telescope, and seeing that Xu Kunyuan was slow to give the order to open fire, Chen Xinsheng couldn't help but frown.

At this time, there were only sparse, irregular and disorganized gunshots from the 1125th Regiment's position on the top of the Big and Small Bear Mountains. As soon as Chen Xinsheng heard the gunshots, he knew that the new recruits of the 1125th Regiment were firing randomly to give themselves courage. Such a situation would not occur in the Assault Corps, but it was very common in new units like the 1125th Regiment with a large number of recruits.

Seeing that thousands of Japanese soldiers had already rushed to the halfway point of the mountain and were about to rush to the high ground, Chen Xinsheng felt that he needed to remind the commander of the friendly army, so he walked to Xu Kunyuan and said, "Sir, the enemy has already rushed to the halfway point of the mountain. Should we open fire?"

Xu Kunyuan, the regiment commander who had been somewhat out of control by the fierce bombardment of the Japanese army not long ago, said calmly at this time: "Brother, don't worry, don't worry. Your assault corps is very good at fighting. Our new unit is not as good as you. But we actually have another way of fighting. Our brigade commander Ma said before that he would show off his skills to your commander He and serve the Japanese a good meal. Hehe, brother, you will see the good food soon."

Seeing Xu Kunyuan so confident, although Chen Xinsheng was still worried, he did not say much and continued to raise the telescope to observe the enemy situation.

About half a minute later, Xu Kunyuan looked around the high ground and shouted, "Get started, serve the food!" Then, two sergeants from the 1125th Regiment in the command post pressed the buttons of two small engineer detonators at the same time.

Boom
Boom
A dozen not-so-violent explosions suddenly occurred in the Japanese infantry column halfway up the mountain. Immediately after the explosion, a large trap 20 meters wide and 20 meters deep, which spanned the entire Big and Small Bear Mountain, suddenly appeared at the feet of the Japanese army.

As the wooden boards and loose soil covering the top of the trap were blasted away by the pre-buried explosives, the Japanese soldiers who were advancing above the trap all stepped on empty air and fell into the trap one after another.

Screams and cries of pain followed. A wide layer of barbed wire had been laid halfway up the trap. Almost all the Japanese soldiers who fell into the trap fell on the barbed wire. Some were pierced in the hands and legs by the sharp wires, some were stabbed in the face, and some were not injured but had their boots pierced by the spikes on the wire, making it difficult for them to move.

Some more unlucky Japanese soldiers fell directly into the trench of the trap through the gaps in the barbed wire, hit the bottom of the trap heavily, and were pierced by the sharp wood at the bottom of the trap, turning into meat sieves.

For a moment, this sudden trap directly swallowed up more than two hundred Japanese soldiers. The Japanese soldiers who fell into the trap without warning were like moths into a spider web, unable to go up or down, advance or retreat. Screams, cries of pain, scolding and cries for help were endless.

Almost at the same time when the trap was blown up, the officers and soldiers of the 1125th Regiment on the high ground also opened fire at full force and began to launch a fire attack on the Japanese troops rushing up the high ground.

Before the Japanese troops on the high ground could recover from the panic caused by the trap, a round of mortar shells came pouring down. The mortar company directly under the 1125th Regiment deployed on the ridge of the high ground suddenly launched an attack, firing rapid rounds at the Japanese troops on the high ground.

A series of violent explosions rang out halfway up the hillside of the high ground. Shrapnel from the mortar shells flew everywhere. The first to suffer were the Japanese soldiers who had not fallen into the trap. They were blown to pieces by the sudden mortar shells, and many of them were blown to pieces, with broken limbs flying everywhere.

What followed was a dense rain of bullets fired by dozens of Type 1125 water-cooled heavy machine guns, Type water-cooled heavy machine guns, Qilali light machine guns and thousands of Hanyang rifles from the three infantry battalions of the th Regiment. The mm heavy pointed bullets and mm round-nose bullets were intertwined to form a dense fire net that was fired at the Japanese troops on the high ground.

Although there were many new recruits among the officers and soldiers of the 1125th Regiment and their overall combat quality was poor, some officers and soldiers, under pressure from the Japanese army, even resorted to premature and random shooting to boost their courage when the Japanese infantry had just charged to the hillside of the high ground. However, the chaos caused by the traps to the Japanese army and the high terrain greatly compensated for the relatively low combat quality of the officers and soldiers. The firepower networks of various infantry and machine guns were intertwined and swept down a large number of Japanese troops.

A large number of Gong-made long-handled grenades were also thrown down by the officers and soldiers of the 1125th Regiment. The high terrain of the high ground ridge brought the power of grenades to the extreme. The officers and soldiers did not even need to observe the position of the Japanese army carefully. They only needed to open the grenade cover, pull the trigger, and throw it to cause casualties to the Japanese troops in front of the high ground.

The Japanese soldiers who were struggling to avoid mortar bombardment and machine gun rain on the hillside, while also having to worry about falling into traps, were completely defenseless against the long-handled grenades that were densely packed and dropped from the top of the high ground, or even rolled down the hillside, and could only be blown down by the grenades one after another amid the constant booming explosions.

Grenades were extremely terrifying for the Japanese soldiers who fell into the trap. After the officers and soldiers of the 1125th Regiment on the top of the high ground opened fire, the Japanese soldiers who fell into the trap were somewhat fortunate, because the terrain of the deep pit of the trap could indeed allow them to avoid many mortar shells and machine gun bullets.

But the grenades rolling down the hillside would not let them go. Instead, after rolling into the trap, they fell into it one after another just like the Japanese soldiers who had just fallen into the trap. Then, amid the explosions and screams, the lives of nearly two hundred Japanese soldiers were ended one after another.

The simultaneous firing of various firearms caused the front slopes of the Big and Small Bear Mountains to shake suddenly, and six 6mm mortars continuously fired explosive grenades from the top of the hill to the middle of the mountain.

Red flames spewed out of the black muzzles of guns. Dozens of light and heavy machine guns and thousands of rifles fired dense and pouring rain of bullets, mowing down large numbers of Japanese infantrymen who were attacking the top of the mountain with great momentum. Boxes of smoking Gong-made long-handled grenades were thrown down.

With the help of the terrain, the poor combat quality of the officers and soldiers of the 1125th Regiment was compensated to the maximum extent. The killing efficiency of their projected firepower was also greatly enhanced. The Japanese troops halfway up the mountain fell down in large numbers like wheat being cut.

The shouts of "Onboard" and "Long Live the Emperor" that were heard all over the mountains soon turned into painful and horrifying wails, and the bodies of the fallen Japanese soldiers were soon piled up in a mess on the high ground.

Some die-hard Japanese soldiers did not want to be defeated, and they began to crawl on the high ground to try to prevent the counterattack. Some set up the Taisho 11-year type light machine guns, some set up the Type 89 50mm grenade launchers, and many riflemen used the Type 38 rifles to carry out rifle volleys.

However, such weak counterattack firepower was of no help in the face of the inherent disadvantages brought about by the Japanese army's upward attack from below and the fierce firepower attack of the 1125th Regiment.

The only thing that could cause some casualties to the 1125th Regiment was the two Type 1125 infantry guns and six Type heavy machine guns that kept firing at the foot of the mountain below the high ground. However, this little fire support could only cause a small amount of casualties to the th Regiment and could not reverse the overall decline of the Japanese army on the high ground.

The melee on the high ground lasted less than ten minutes. With more than half of the Japanese infantry on the high ground killed or wounded and multiple counterattacks unsuccessful, the two infantry battalions of the 1st Infantry Regiment of Taiwan Island gradually lost their offensive against the Big and Small Bear Mountain Highlands and began to retreat.
(End of this chapter)