The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 414: The Road of Retreat? The Road of Death!
Under the bombardment of He Wei's grenade launcher and the pursuit of the special forces company's firepower, more and more Japanese soldiers roared and retreated, stepping on the mess on the ground.

No one could have imagined that their supreme commander, Shigeichi Hata, an elite major general of the Japanese Army, would die in such an unclear manner under a series of grenades.

At this time, none of the retreating Japanese soldiers could remember their supreme commander, because in such hand-to-hand combat, the officers' command played almost no role. Therefore, the role of the supreme commander was reduced to the lowest point. In the hand-to-hand combat of tit-for-tat, how could the ordinary Japanese soldiers fighting bloody battles remember their major general commander?
Of course, He Wei could not have imagined that his indiscriminate bombardment with a grenade launcher would actually kill a major general of the Japanese Army.

Sometimes, in an extremely chaotic battlefield situation, killing a senior commander is no more difficult than killing an ordinary soldier.

He Wei's grenade launcher shooting and the fierce pursuit fire of the special forces company continued. Looking at the retreating Japanese troops gradually moving away, He Wei kept reloading and shooting, reloading and shooting.

"Bang, bang, bang" - two grenades flew down, one missed the target and landed on the open space near the retreating formation of the Japanese army, and the other exploded right in the Japanese army's formation. In the smoke-filled area, more than a dozen Japanese soldiers were screaming and knocked down by the dense exploding shrapnel.

"Bang, bang, bang!" He Wei fired another round of two grenades, which accurately fell into the Japanese army's retreat formation and knocked down several Japanese soldiers again. The nearby Japanese soldiers fled in all directions, began to avoid the bullets, and ran around desperately, but how could people run faster than grenades?

He Wei stared at the Japanese soldiers who were running and retreating, and fired another round of grenades at the right time. Two more grenades exploded with a bang, and sparks flashed. When the smoke produced by the grenades dissipated, there were no large groups of Japanese soldiers standing in the smoke. There were only two or three wounded Japanese soldiers who were running around, howling and covering their wounds.

Da da da

Da da da

A string of bullets came, and the special forces company officers and soldiers, using the Type 38 rifles and Taisho 11-year light machine guns captured from the Japanese army, fired fiercely in time and knocked down the two or three survivors.

Under the pursuit fire of the special forces company centered on He Wei's grenade launcher, the Japanese army, which was defeated by the special forces company, left behind nearly two hundred corpses, and finally got away from the attack range of the special forces company under the "tail chase escort" of fierce pursuit fire.

However, although the Japanese troops defeated by the special forces company gained a brief respite, their retreat brought devastating disaster to the Japanese troops who were fighting with the 3rd Infantry Battalion of the Assault Corps.

The first reaction of the Japanese troops defeated by the special forces company was to retreat backwards. The retreating Japanese troops undoubtedly attacked the Japanese troops who were fighting with the 3rd Infantry Battalion of the Assault Corps with their retreating tide.

Originally, the special forces company led by He Wei and the 3rd Infantry Battalion of Hu Zhaowu's assault corps formed a pincer attack on the Japanese army, and He Wei's original tactical goal was to lead the special forces company and the 3rd Infantry Battalion to attack from the front and back and kill the Japanese army completely.

Now the Japanese troops fighting with the special forces company were defeated. As a result, these retreating Japanese troops retreated and rushed back, and they just collided with the Japanese troops fighting with the third battalion.

As a result, the battlefield situation of the Japanese army further deteriorated. Many Japanese soldiers were fighting hand-to-hand with the officers and soldiers of the Third Battalion of the Assault Corps. However, as they were fighting, a large number of retreating Japanese officers and soldiers suddenly rushed up from behind and around them and crashed into them.

Soon the Japanese troops who were fighting with the Third Battalion were thrown into great chaos. Some were thrown into disarray, and some were even knocked down by their own comrades. It was a complete mess.

On the battlefield, the two fully equipped Japanese infantry battalions suffered heavy losses after repeated attacks, but the two infantry battalions had a strong foundation after all. After suffering heavy casualties, they still had more than a thousand combat troops. These more than a thousand men pushed and collided with each other in the increasingly chaotic battlefield situation. Some were still fighting desperately, while others only wanted to retreat.

Shouts of killing, scolding, and loud roars were intertwined in the increasingly chaotic flow of Japanese troops, making it seem extremely chaotic.

Hu Zhaowu, the battalion commander of the 3rd Infantry Battalion of the Assault Corps, who was commanding his troops to fight the Japanese army, shouted loudly and pulled out the bayonet of his rifle from the throat of the Japanese soldier in front of him. The Japanese soldier in front of him fell down slowly with blood spurting from his throat and his eyes wide open.

Hu Zhaowu leaned his rifle on the ground and spat at the Japanese corpses. When he saw the Japanese soldiers who were defeated by the special forces company and were retreating in the distance and rushing towards him in chaos, he frowned and thought to himself that something was wrong.

A large number of Japanese troops who had fought with the special forces company retreated, which naturally meant that these Japanese troops were defeated by the captain. This was certainly a good thing, but there were still at least more than a thousand Japanese troops left on the battlefield. If his Third Battalion was completely mixed up with this group of retreating Japanese troops, and fought along with the chaotic Japanese troops, or even suffered a direct attack from them, the situation would be bad.

After all, even though the Japanese army is now in a state of retreat, their combat quality and tactical qualities are still there. If the Japanese army fights to the death with the Third Battalion, although the Third Battalion can fight to the death to repel the Japanese army in front of it, the casualties and losses it will suffer will definitely not be small.

If we fight to the death, the result will most likely be killing one thousand enemies but losing eight hundred of our own, which is not worth it.

In this situation, there is actually no need to continue fighting the Japs. It is better to retreat actively and stop fighting hand-to-hand with the Japanese army. It is obviously more cost-effective to attack the Japanese army in a state of chaos with fierce firepower after the Japanese army has distanced itself.

Having made up his mind, Hu Zhaowu shouted loudly: "Notify all companies to quickly gather and retreat. Don't fight these devils head-on! Let the devils retreat and attack them with firepower!"

The hand-to-hand combat between the Third Battalion and the Japanese army was quite methodical. None of the companies were in chaos, and communication between companies and between companies and battalions was unimpeded. Hu Zhaowu's orders were quickly conveyed, and amid the sound of whistles and orders, the companies of the Third Battalion, which were fighting hand-to-hand with the Japanese army, took turns to provide cover and gradually withdrew from the hand-to-hand combat with the Japanese army.

The Japanese troops who were fighting desperately with the Third Battalion were almost at their limit. Even though they were fighting with all their might and had achieved some results, killing some officers and soldiers of the Third Battalion, in the face of the Third Battalion's special and powerful hand-to-hand combat tactics, these Japanese troops could only kill some officers and soldiers of the Third Battalion, but could not fundamentally rely on hand-to-hand combat to break through and defeat the Third Battalion.

After a long and fierce hand-to-hand combat, the Japanese soldiers who were fighting with the Third Battalion all felt exhausted. In a word, they could not fight anymore!
So, seeing that the officers and soldiers of the Third Battalion began to retreat on their own initiative, the Japanese soldiers did not want to fight with them anymore. In fact, some Japanese soldiers ended the hand-to-hand combat more proactively than the officers and soldiers of the Third Battalion and retreated in a hurry.

By now, the Japanese troops really couldn't hold out any longer. A head-on battle with the Third Battalion was already very difficult, and the retreat and attack of the Japanese troops defeated by the Special Forces Company completely wiped out their courage to continue fighting.

Then, the Japanese army, which had just finished a fierce hand-to-hand fight with the Third Battalion, retreated like a tide along the original route of the attack, towards the main position of the Japanese Hata Detachment, under the impact and coercion of the Japanese army defeated by the special agent company. More than 2,000 Japanese soldiers at the time of the attack, but only less than 1,500 were left at this time. Although these remaining Japanese soldiers had not completely collapsed at this time, they had lost the will to continue the attack. Both officers and soldiers now only wanted to withdraw to the main position!
But the Japanese army's retreat was destined to be turbulent. After breaking away from the hand-to-hand combat with the Japanese army, Hu Zhaowu's Third Battalion quickly began a fire pursuit.

Just like the firepower pursuit that He Wei and the special forces company had just launched, the Third Battalion quickly launched a fierce firepower in the face of more than a thousand Japanese soldiers who were eager to return home.

The machine gun firepower of the three infantry companies of the Third Battalion opened fire first, chasing the retreating Japanese troops and firing fiercely. The hasty and panicky retreat of the Japanese troops, as well as their chaotic retreat formation, greatly reduced the difficulty of aiming for the officers and soldiers of the three infantry companies of the Third Battalion when firing, and increased the hit rate of the officers and soldiers of the three infantry companies of the Third Battalion's intensive firepower.

The Japanese troops, eager to return home and retreating in panic, did not want to stay even for a moment on this battlefield which could be called a massacre. Everyone was running as fast as they could towards the main position of the Hata Detachment. However, what was waiting for them would be a more terrifying massacre-style fire pursuit composed of a dense firepower network.

From this moment on, the form of the battle completely changed into a chase-and-pursuit battle in which the retreating Japanese army was fiercely pursued with intensive firepower!

The Czech vz24 rifle, Czech zb26 light machine gun and mg34 general-purpose machine gun each made a unique sound and spewed out streams of fire. The dense rain of bullets rushed towards the retreating column of more than a thousand Japanese troops in an irregular manner. The 60mm mortars of the three infantry companies also fired continuously, launching dense mortar shells.

Amidst blood splattering, rows of Japanese soldiers were knocked to the ground by dense rain of bullets and fire. Some fell to the ground groaning, some were wounded, screaming and crying while covering their wounds, and some had their arms broken by mortar shells and were struggling to climb on the ground.

In the retreating Japanese army, people were constantly being knocked down, hit and pierced by bullets, shells and shrapnel, and fell to the ground helplessly.

In the Japanese army's ranks, the people in front were knocked down, but those behind were pushed forward by those behind them. Some Japanese soldiers who did not want to crowd into the retreating army began to leave the main force in order to retreat as quickly as possible, and fled in all directions in chaos. The Japanese retreating team, which was originally quite neat, suffered heavy casualties under the firepower attack of the Third Battalion, and gradually became confused.

But the fire pursuit of the three infantry companies of the third battalion was just the beginning. When the officers and soldiers of the mortar company and heavy machine gun company of the third battalion saw the officers and soldiers of the three infantry companies of the third battalion killing the Japanese army, they were unwilling to fall behind and joined the battle one after another.

Although the mortar company's four Brandt 37mm mortars and the heavy machine gun company's eight Czech ZB heavy machine guns were not brought, the officers and soldiers of the mortar and heavy machine gun companies made good use of the remaining equipment of two Japanese heavy machine gun squadrons and two Japanese infantry artillery squadrons that were annihilated at the beginning of the third battalion's participation in the battle.

The officers and soldiers of the 92rd Battalion's mortar company and heavy machine gun company quickly moved away the piles of Japanese corpses, sorted out four blood-stained Type 92 infantry guns and seven usable Type heavy machine guns, and after completing simple maintenance, they also joined the attack on the retreating Japanese troops.

boom

boom

White smoke billowed from the muzzles of the four infantry guns as they launched a fierce attack on the retreating Japanese army in a direct manner. The gunners of the mortar company fired all the ammunition they could find at the Japanese army at the fastest speed, including grenades, shrapnel shells, and smoke bombs, one after another.

The officers and soldiers of the mortar company of the Third Battalion could only use the Japanese Type 92 infantry gun, but they were not familiar with its operation. However, just like He Wei's grenade launcher bombardment just now, the officers and soldiers operating the artillery also won by numbers. Regardless of the accuracy, they just bombarded the retreating Japanese army.

It is true that many shells lost their accuracy and hit the open ground far away from the retreating Japanese army, causing no significant losses to the Japanese army. However, the mortar company's officers and soldiers fired too many shells. Even though the number of accurate shells was less than that of deflected shells, the relatively small number of accurate shells still caused huge casualties to the Japanese army.

After the captured infantry artillery opened fire, the unique "pit pit pit" dull sound of the Type 92 heavy machine gun also rang out. Seven Type 92 heavy machine guns issued a dull roar, and fired streams of fire into the retreating Japanese army.

The fire network formed by the 92 heavy machine gun's bullet-proof plate-type ammunition feed and slow firing rate could not be called dense, and it was certainly not comparable to the zb37 heavy machine gun equipped by the heavy machine gun company of the third battalion, but at this time, anything that could fire was considered a good thing.

The seven Type 7 heavy machine guns howled slowly, and the streams of fire they fired kept running wild in the retreating ranks of the Japanese army, achieving quite a few results and killing many Japanese soldiers.

The intensive firepower pursuit of the Third Battalion forced the Japanese army to embark on a bloody retreat where every step back came at the cost of their lives, just as they had just left the bloody "massacre"-like battlefield.

At the battle position where the special forces company was fighting with the Japanese army, He Wei dropped the smoking and hot grenade launcher in his hand, raised the binoculars with his sore hands, looked at the Japanese army who were being beaten to a pulp, and cheered loudly. The officers and soldiers of the special forces company who had survived the bloody battle around him also cheered in relief.

"Damn it, the Third Battalion fought well."

"Kill them all. Nice fight."

"These bastards should be sent to hell!"

He Wei looked at the retreating Japanese troops, his eyes stern again, and sneered. Then, he said to Tao Heiwa beside him: "Give me the command flag!"

Tao Heiwa hurriedly took out two command flags. After He Wei took them, he ran a few steps quickly, stepped on the pile of Japanese soldiers' bodies, turned around, stood straight, and repeatedly waved flags in the direction of the anti-aircraft artillery company.

At the firing position of the anti-aircraft artillery company, He Wei's flag signal was immediately discovered by a staff officer of the assault corps who was closely watching the battlefield situation. After seeing He Wei's flag signal clearly, the staff officer shouted: "The flag signal from the front orders the anti-aircraft artillery company to open fire and attack the retreating Japanese army!"

(End of this chapter)