The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 412: Sweeping the Remaining Enemies 2
In the fierce hand-to-hand combat, the Japanese officers and soldiers who were fighting together with the officers and soldiers of the sudden Third Battalion breathed a sigh of relief when they saw that the hand-to-hand combat had begun. They all felt good about themselves and believed that their good bayonet skills were enough to deal a heavy blow to the Chinese army in close hand-to-hand combat.

But when the two troops collided and fought each other, the Japanese officers and soldiers who fought hard found that the battle was not what they thought at all.

Although the Third Battalion of the Assault Corps had already engaged in a melee with the Japanese army, the Assault Corps had also received special training in large-scale close combat and hand-to-hand combat during normal battles. Therefore, the melee of the Third Battalion was not a real random fight, but a well-organized group hand-to-hand combat.

In the bayonet fight, the Third Battalion put three infantry companies at the forefront. Each infantry company had three rifle squads and one light machine gun squad under its infantry squad. The rifle squads of these infantry companies were the main force in close combat between the infantry companies and the Japanese army and were pushed to the forefront.

These rifle squads constitute the main force of close combat. Each squad consists of two riflemen equipped with Czech vz24 rifles and a sergeant equipped with a machine gun submachine gun.

In close combat, the three men in each rifle squad would fight the Japanese as a combat team under the unified command of the squad leader. When the Japanese rushed forward, the squad leader would first greet them with a machine gun, and if conditions permitted, the riflemen would try their best to shoot and kill the attacking enemy first.

After all, He Wei firmly believed in the principle of "don't fight with bayonets if you can shoot", and naturally incorporated this principle into the tactical training of the assault corps.

Only when the Japanese troops get close and cannot be dealt with by firepower, can we use the bayonets of the riflemen in the squad or any melee equipment that can be used for combat to deal with the enemy.

Whether they were dealing with the attacking enemies by shooting, or fighting the rushing devils in close combat with bayonets, the three sergeants in the squad would cooperate with each other, watch over each other, move together, advance and retreat together, and rely on each other.

In addition, in order to offset the Japanese army's technical advantage in bayonet fighting during close combat, He Wei required the officers and soldiers of each squad to use more people against fewer enemies as much as possible, that is, one squad should work together to deal with one or two Japanese soldiers during bayonet fighting, giving full play to the tactical principle of "a random punch can kill a master".

Therefore, once the Japanese troops rushed up and wanted to destroy a rifle squad of the assault corps, if the number of Japanese troops attacking did not exceed one rifle squad, they would be courting death in the face of the combined attack of the rifle squad of the Third Battalion with submachine guns and bayonets.

At the same time, not only soldiers and sergeants within a rifle squad assist each other, but different squads also help each other as much as possible.

The officers and soldiers of the light machine gun corps of the infantry squads who were not at the front, as well as the officers and soldiers of other non-infantry companies, would, to the best of their ability, support the officers and soldiers of the rifle corps of the three infantry companies that were fighting the fiercest with the Japanese, by firing a few shots from time to time, or by rushing forward to besiege the Japanese troops who were alone or in groups of three or five, or who were smaller in number.

The Japanese army never thought that close combat and hand-to-hand combat could have such a crazy style of fighting!
In the fighting formation of the first row of the seventh company of the third infantry battalion of the assault corps, six Japanese soldiers, led by a bearded sergeant wielding a bloody command knife, rushed towards the first rifle squad of the first squad of the first row.

Three sergeants from the First Rifle Corps had just finished a bayonet fight, successfully taking out two Japanese soldiers who were charging at them with their submachine guns and bayonets. The two riflemen had just pulled the bloody bayonets out of the Japanese soldiers' bodies when they looked up and saw six more Japanese soldiers rushing towards them.

"Captain, the enemy is coming again!"

one rifleman yelled.

The corporal of the first squad looked up, raised the machine gun in his hand, and fired at the six Japanese soldiers rushing towards him. With a crisp sound, the only five bullets left in the magazine were all fired.

Two Japanese soldiers were knocked down by the oncoming bullets, and a rifleman who still had some bullets left in the magazine also fired a bullet, which hit a Japanese soldier's calf from an angle.

The powerful 7.92 caliber full-power rifle bullet immediately opened a bloody hole in the Japanese soldier's calf, followed by an extremely unpleasant scream. The injured Japanese soldier sat on the ground, covering his bleeding wound, and rolled to the side screaming. He was discovered by several soldiers from the other parts of the Third Battalion, who stabbed him with bayonets until he was covered in blood.

The remaining four Japanese soldiers continued to roar and rushed towards the first squad.

"Kill him! Kill the one with the knife."

The sergeant of the first squad had used up all the bullets in his machine gun and had no time to change the magazine. He threw the machine gun behind him, then pulled out an engineer shovel from his tactical vest, and led two riflemen to fight four Japanese soldiers in a triangle combat formation.

The sergeant and two riflemen faced four Japanese soldiers. They did not try to fight one-on-one. Instead, all three of them rushed towards the Japanese sergeant who was wielding a saber, seemingly completely ignoring the other four Japanese soldiers.

The Japanese sergeant was also a little confused. He did not expect that the three Chinese soldiers would all rush towards him and attack him alone. Soon, the rifle sergeant swung the engineer shovel at an angle and chopped down. The sergeant quickly swung his saber to block. The heavy engineer shovel hit the saber so hard that the sergeant felt a pain in the palm of his hand.

Just as the sergeant was trying to block, the bayonets of two riflemen's rifles had already pierced his chest, knocking him to the ground.

An elite Japanese sergeant was easily killed by a rifle squad's "random punches kill the master" attack tactic.

"idiot!"

Another four Japanese soldiers also attacked at this time. The first two Japanese soldiers rushed over with bayonets into the chest of a 1st Squadron rifleman. Although the stabbed 1st Squadron rifleman was bleeding from the mouth and nose and his chest was almost pierced, he quickly grabbed the Type 38 rifle that pierced his chest and held the handguard of the Type 38 rifle tightly.

The Japanese soldier whose rifle was caught kept twisting the gun in an attempt to pull the rifle out of the body of the Chinese soldier in front of him. Blood and broken flesh kept flowing out of the bloody hole in the chest of the stabbed rifleman.

The rifleman roared, tightly grasping the Type 38 rifle that was twisting against his chest, and at the same time, using all his strength, thrust the bayonet of the Czech rifle in his hand forward, piercing the heart of the Japanese soldier.

The stabbed Japanese soldier let out a scream, and then, almost at the same time, the Japanese soldier and the stabbed rifleman from the first squad fell into a pool of blood, clutching their rifles.

The sergeant of the rifle squad saw this and swung his engineer shovel over, smashing the face of another Japanese soldier who had stabbed a rifleman into pieces. Another rifleman in the squad hurriedly followed the sergeant and stabbed the Japanese soldier whose head was smashed like a rotten watermelon with another bayonet.

Five of the seven Japanese soldiers who attacked the First Squad were killed in an instant, and the First Squad also paid the price of the death of a rifleman.

The remaining two Japanese soldiers were furious and seized the opportunity to quickly attack the rifle squad leader and the riflemen. However, as soon as the two Japanese soldiers rushed forward, they heard shouts of killing from behind. The officers and soldiers of the second and third rifle squads, which were in the same squad as the first squad, suddenly surrounded them from both sides and intercepted the two Japanese soldiers. They rushed and stabbed and fought with the two Japanese soldiers. After fighting for less than half a minute, the two rifle squads of the third battalion that rushed up successfully eliminated the two Japanese soldiers at the cost of one death and one minor injury.

Similar scenes are constantly played out on the battlefield.

Faced with the special bayonet tactics of the Third Battalion of the Assault Corps, the Japanese army quickly lost their strength. After charging for a while, they found that the Chinese army in front of them was extremely difficult to deal with even in hand-to-hand combat. The uniform and excellent combat equipment of the officers and soldiers of the Assault Corps also put considerable psychological pressure on the Japanese army.

The tactical vests worn by the officers and soldiers of the assault corps were equipment that the Japanese army had never seen before on the Chinese army. However, one look at the workmanship showed that it was advanced equipment that only elite troops could be equipped with.
The Japanese were very familiar with the helmets worn by the officers and soldiers of the assault corps. The imitation German-made M35 helmets produced by the Jiehe factory in Hong Kong Island that He Wei bought were of very fine workmanship and looked exactly the same as the original German helmets.

In the eyes of the Japanese army, any Chinese soldier wearing this type of German-style steel helmet must be the elite troops of the Chinese Army's Central Army. Almost all Japanese soldiers on the battlefield realized that they were fighting against a group of extremely elite, extremely good at bayonet fighting, and extremely well-equipped Chinese troops.

The invisible pressure brought about by this cognition also continued to suppress the combat confidence of the Japanese army who were engaged in a fierce battle.

While the Third Battalion was fighting a desperate battle with the Japanese army, He Wei also led the special forces company in a fierce battle with the Japanese army.

After the Third Battalion attacked, in order to avoid colliding with the brothers of the Third Battalion, He Wei decisively ordered fifteen tracked tractors to withdraw from the melee, and at the same time personally led the officers and soldiers of the special forces company to get off the vehicles and engage in a melee with the Japanese army.

The intensity of the battle on He Wei's side was even more brutal than the fierce battle between the Third Battalion and the Japanese army. The officers and soldiers of the special forces company were all veterans, and they would rather shoot than fight with bayonets. After leaving the tracked vehicles, they concentrated all kinds of firearms and fired fiercely at the surrounding Japanese troops.

Pistols, Czech-made vz24 rifles, Czech zb26 light machine guns, Hua machine gun submachine guns, mg34 general-purpose machine guns, all kinds of firearms of the special forces company were almost fully fired, madly strafing the surrounding Japanese troops. Under the use of the veterans of the special forces company, various firearms cast a dense fire net, killing a large number of Japanese troops.

Even the gunners of each mortar squad left the mortars on the tracked vehicles and threw the remaining 60mm mortar shells as grenades.

The safety pins were pulled out one by one, and after being hit hard on the ground to release the inertia safety of the shells, the 60mm shells were thrown out like oversized grenades, which kept blasting away and knocked down large numbers of Japanese troops.

He Wei and the officers and soldiers of the special forces company were all blood-thirsty. In a very short time, they used up the ammunition of all kinds of firearms in their hands. The bullets for their pistols, machine guns, grenades and mortar shells were all used up. Only after all the ammunition was used up, this strong team composed entirely of veterans, blood-thirsty, finally engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the Japanese army with bayonets drawn.

The special forces company led by He Wei, the 3rd Infantry Battalion of the Assault Corps, and the Japanese troops densely distributed on the battlefield fought frantically and brutally, turning the two or three kilometer-long open area where the two sides were fighting into a slaughterhouse.

"Brothers, kill them, kill them all, join up with the brothers from the third battalion, and defeat the enemy!"

He Wei roared and rushed to the front, leading the special forces company to charge and fight hard with the Japanese army. Now the 3rd Infantry Battalion of the Assault Corps has reinforced and attacked the position of the special forces company from the side and rear of the Japanese assault formation, and He Wei also had to lead the special forces company to attack against the 3rd Infantry Battalion.

As long as the Third Battalion and the Special Service Company launched fierce attacks and attacked each other, forming a joint attack from inside and outside, once the two troops penetrated the Japanese assault formation and formed a convergence situation, the Japanese army's frenzied offensive would certainly be disintegrated, and defeat would be a matter of time.

Of course, the Japanese army would not be easily defeated, but would fight desperately with the Third Battalion and the Special Forces Company.

At this time, the role of officers' command and organization in the battle has been reduced to the lowest point. The two sides are competing to see whose officers and soldiers can fight harder, endure more, and persist to the end without collapsing in the hellish close combat.

He Wei picked up a Type 38 rifle that he had taken from a Japanese soldier's corpse, lifted the barrel of the rifle upside down, swung the rifle in his hand, and smashed it at the Japanese soldier in front of him.

The Japanese soldier in front of He Wei was a very young private with a childish face. He seemed to be about the same age as He Wei's orderly Tao Heiwa, and seemed to be a new recruit. The new recruit was directly frightened by He Wei, who was like a killing god, and stood there in a daze.

In an instant, the butt of the Type 38 rifle in He Wei's hand smashed the Japanese soldier's head, causing blood to flow and dye the Japanese soldier's tender face red. Then He Wei kicked him down mercilessly, turned the gun around and stabbed the Japanese soldier to death with a bayonet.

A Japanese sergeant wielded his command knife and knocked down a soldier from the special forces company. He rushed over from behind He Wei and chopped down on his back. Feeling the approach of death and danger, He Wei cried out inwardly that something was wrong and quickly turned around to avoid it.

"Platoon leader!"

Tao Heiwa, who was following He Wei not far away, shouted and subconsciously called He Wei platoon leader, as if he had returned to the Battle of Xinkou.

With a bang, Tao Heiwa raised the Mauser C96 revolver and shot the Japanese sergeant in the abdomen with the last bullet in the gun. The Japanese sergeant screamed and fell to the ground, and was immediately killed by He Wei with a knife.

"Kill! Follow the captain!"

The commander of the special forces company, Yang Biao, also rushed to He Wei, holding a bloody Japanese command knife and roaring wildly.

The officers and soldiers of the special forces company who were fighting with the Japanese army also shouted loudly and charged forward, desperately engaging in a bloody and primitive fight with the Japanese army. Compared with the third battalion, the veterans of the special forces company obviously possessed stronger combat qualities and tactical qualities. Even if they did not adopt the close combat tactics set by He Wei, they would not necessarily be at a disadvantage in a one-on-one bayonet fight with the Japanese soldiers.

Now seeing He Wei leading the way and fighting hard, and seeing that the 3rd Infantry Battalion of the Assault Corps had come to support them, the morale of the officers and soldiers was greatly boosted, and they all followed He Wei and attacked and fought fiercely as if they were risking their lives. Bayonets, rifle butts, engineer shovels, engineer pickaxes, all usable objects became equipment for the officers and soldiers of the special forces company to fight the Japanese army.

Amid the splattering of blood and the sounds of breaking bones, officers and soldiers of the special forces company kept falling down, as well as Japanese officers and soldiers. Screams of pain and the cries of wounded soldiers rose one after another, and shouts of killing, roars and the sounds of bayonets breaking through the air were heard all the time.

The fierce hand-to-hand combat between the special forces company and the Japanese army lasted for nearly twenty minutes. Under the brave charge of the special forces company's officers and soldiers with sophisticated combat skills and high morale, the Japanese army fighting with the special forces company finally collapsed and began to retreat.

(End of this chapter)