The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 415: One-sided attack on the Japanese army

After discovering He Wei's order to open fire, the four Bofors M1929 75mm anti-aircraft guns of the anti-aircraft artillery company, which had been silent for a long time, sounded again.

Although the retreating Japanese troops were gradually moving away, the large-caliber, large-caliber anti-aircraft guns used for air combat with a range of more than 10,000 meters were enough to accurately project shells into the hastily retreating Japanese troops.

Boom
Boom
One after another, 75mm anti-aircraft artillery explosive grenades whizzed out of the barrel and exploded. Clouds of black and orange bullets bloomed in the sky above the retreating Japanese army.

What followed was a large amount of dense flying shrapnel. In the whirlwind of shock waves brought about by the flying shrapnel and the explosion of shells, the choking smoke and dust quickly swept over the retreating ranks of the Japanese army.

Amid the screams, a large number of Japanese soldiers were knocked to the ground by shrapnel. Some of the Japanese soldiers who were at the center of the anti-aircraft artillery shell explosion were instantly smashed to pieces in the explosion.

Light machine guns, heavy machine guns, mortars, infantry guns captured from the Japanese army, anti-aircraft guns. On the battlefield, the Third Battalion of the Assault Corps and the anti-aircraft artillery company mobilized almost all available firearms and launched the most intense firepower pursuit on the retreating Japanese army.

Rifles, light and heavy machine guns fired streams of fire from all directions, flying around in the Japanese army's retreating ranks in a disorderly manner.

60mm mortar shells, 70mm infantry artillery shells, and 75mm anti-aircraft shells hit the Japanese army's retreating columns from time to time. Thick gray-black smoke and explosions rang out one after another. Artillery shells of various calibers roared, killing a large number of the retreating Japanese army's manpower.

The flat and open terrain around the Japanese army's retreat route to their main position made it impossible for the retreating Japanese army to escape, hide or find even the slightest cover.

Many Japanese soldiers who were in a mad retreat felt that they were in a purgatory that they would never reach the end of, and would never be able to break out of. The dense gunfire that knocked down countless people almost frightened the Japanese soldiers out of their wits.

But before the Japanese army could recover from the terrifying gunshots, they were bombarded with round after round of various artillery shells.

The sound of gunfire was earth-shaking, echoing in the wilderness. It seemed that the air around the retreating troops was filled with bullets and shrapnel, and overhead were mortar shells and anti-aircraft shells dragging hot flames and air waves.

Emotions of fear and panic gradually spread among the retreating Japanese troops as the fierce firepower spread, repeatedly destroying the little remaining willpower and organizational ability of these Japanese troops.

Faced with the firepower of the Third Battalion of the Assault Corps and the anti-aircraft artillery company chasing and annihilating the fleeing enemies, the retreating Japanese troops had no choice but to run, run wildly, but how could people outrun bullets and artillery shells?
One after another, the Japanese soldiers fell down in the dense fire net. Those who were not hit ran wildly on the corpses. Those who were hit and bombed fled in groups. When had the Japanese soldiers running wildly in the wild seen the Chinese army have such firepower? Such a desperate fighting style?

The retreating Japanese army of more than a thousand men was constantly reduced in such fierce firepower attacks. In just five or six minutes, they were reduced to less than a thousand men.

As the retreating Japanese troops gradually moved away, the killing efficiency of the machine guns and infantry artillery of the 3rd Infantry Battalion of the Assault Corps continued to decline due to the increasing distance between the two sides, but the anti-aircraft artillery company that suddenly opened fire easily made up for the loss of killing efficiency of the 3rd Battalion's machine guns and infantry artillery.

The anti-aircraft guns' sophisticated sights and elevation and direction mechanisms, the high rate of fire brought by the large hydraulic recoil mechanism, and the long range and great power brought by the large-caliber shells, enabled the shooters of the anti-aircraft artillery company to easily follow up the retreating Japanese troops on the move with constantly moving firepower.

Almost wherever the Japanese retreating troops went, the anti-aircraft artillery firepower could be quickly moved there.

The extremely fierce anti-aircraft firepower finally became the last straw that overwhelmed and defeated the Japanese army.

The officers and soldiers of the anti-aircraft artillery company were frantically pouring out firepower. As the explosive grenades carried by the anti-aircraft artillery company were exhausted, the last dozen powerful 75mm large-caliber anti-aircraft artillery explosive grenades emitted a series of heart-shaking sharp whistles and all hit the retreating Japanese army.

Thick smoke suddenly rose from the middle section of the Japanese retreating team, killing and injuring dozens of Japanese soldiers instantly.

Just after the anti-aircraft artillery company fired this breathtaking bombardment with its last shells, the retreating Japanese army could no longer bear the fear in their hearts. Their morale collapsed instantly and they began to run around wailing. The little morale and organizational ability that was left were wiped out with this fierce round of anti-aircraft artillery bombardment.

The remaining hundreds of Japanese troops could no longer maintain a concentrated retreat, and the concentrated retreat formations began to flee in all directions in a disorderly and irregular manner.

The remaining 600-odd Japanese troops were completely defeated.

"Well done, great fight! The enemy is defeated!"

"It's really enjoyable. It's really enjoyable."

The more than 20 surviving officers and soldiers of the special forces company looked at the Japanese troops scattered and collapsed in the wilderness in the distance, cheering loudly.

In front of the special forces company's officers and soldiers, blood-red sunlight fell on the ground. He Wei, who was stepping on several Japanese corpses and covered in blood, put down the telescope in his hand and nodded with satisfaction.

The Japanese troops in front of them had been completely defeated. This Japanese army was undoubtedly the main force of the Hata Detachment. After this group of Japanese troops retreated, the main force of the Hata Detachment could be said to be basically finished.

According to He Wei's original combat plan, the tactical goal of severely damaging or even defeating the main force of the Hata Detachment would be achieved by the main force of the Assault Corps launching a field attack on the position of the Hata Detachment.

But no one expected that the Japanese army would go crazy and launch an active attack "Banzai Charge". As a result, the main infantry force of the Japanese Hata Detachment, which was supposed to be fighting with the main force of the assault corps in the field position, was defeated in a sudden encounter.

The course and direction of the battle have completely exceeded He Wei's expected plan, but this is not necessarily a bad thing.

With the combat effectiveness of the Japanese army, if the main force of the Hata Detachment did not launch a banzai charge and actively launch a field attack near the Big and Small Bear Mountains, but instead hid in the fortifications and relied on the solid positions to resist the attacks of the Assault Corps, although with the strength and combat effectiveness of the Assault Corps, it would not be a problem to break through the Japanese positions, the casualties would definitely not be small.

From this perspective, this dangerous encounter that almost wiped out the entire special forces company can be considered a battle that was beneficial to the assault corps.

Anyway, most of the main infantry forces of the Hata Detachment are now destroyed, and there is no need to say more about what a heavy military group including a large number of artillery units, logistics units, motor vehicles, engineering units and other auxiliary arms will face after losing most of their main infantry forces.

Non-infantry combat units without sufficient infantry protection are quite vulnerable. At least, the pressure faced by the attacking force on the main position of the Japanese army Hata, which is now temporarily commanded by Fu Chen, will be much smaller. To exaggerate a little, after eating up the main infantry unit of the Hata detachment, the next offensive battle on the main position of the Hata detachment can be said to be a "garbage time" battle.

He Wei relaxed and let out a long sigh, no longer looking at the defeated Japanese soldiers.

Suddenly, there were whistling sounds in the distant sky. He Wei perked up again and raised his telescope to look into the distant sky.

Suddenly, seven or eight flares rose up in the air in front of the main position of the Japanese Army's Hata Detachment.

Afterwards, a more violent roar and artillery sound came from behind He Wei. On the position of the 150mm heavy artillery battalion behind the Big and Small Bear Mountain Heights, violent vibrations were heard and continued to spread along the ground.

It was as if a violent hurricane suddenly blew up at the position of the heavy artillery battalion. Puffs of smoke and dust rose up, followed by the sound of countless shells whistling out of the barrels and breaking through the air. From the Big and Small Bear Mountains to the land under He Wei's feet, and even the ground within a radius of several kilometers nearby, everything began to shake slightly.

He Wei looked up and could even see the dense artillery shells streaking across the sky and the black shadows they created across the horizon.

This is the effect of the 150mm heavy artillery battalion firing at maximum rate of fire, concentrating all its firepower to carry out a fierce bombardment.

Starting from dawn today, the 150mm heavy artillery battalion continued to fire at the main positions of the Japanese Hata Detachment as a routine, and appropriately increased the intensity of the shooting and the number of bullets used.

And now this earth-shaking and terrifying fighting style, which almost reached the maximum firing rate, was obviously providing fire cover for the attack force commanded by Fu Chen on the main position of the Hata Detachment before the attack charge.

Immediately afterwards, another burst of intensive artillery fire sounded from in front of the main position of the Japanese Hata Detachment.

Compared with the sound of 150mm heavy howitzers, the sound of this batch of artillery fire was much smaller, and it was obviously the mountain artillery of the artillery battalion directly under the assault corps.

The 150mm heavy artillery, 75mm and 76mm mountain artillery gathered into an overwhelming torrent of bullets and rushed towards the main position of the Japanese Army's Hata Detachment. The bright sky was filled with dense bursts of artillery shells, and the smoke and dust that broke through the air were billowing. The countless artillery shells were like lightning that shuttled through the clouds, splitting the entire sky.

Soon, rumbling sounds of explosions rang out one after another on the main position of the Hata Detachment, and the sound of artillery shells hitting the ground was earth-shaking, shaking the entire area.

The main position of the Hata Detachment of the Japanese Army, which was caught in a fierce bombardment, was suddenly filled with gray-black smoke and faint orange-yellow fireballs. Artillery shells of various calibers repeatedly fell and exploded on its not-so-long defense line. The fragments of the exploding shells whistled miserably in the air and wreaked havoc everywhere, overturning the obstacles set up by the Japanese army, the soil and wood in the positions, and even the remnants of weapons into the air and scattering them continuously.

"here we go."

He Wei murmured.

He knew that this was the final artillery preparation before the main attack force commanded by Fu Chen was about to start the attack. The artillery firepower was very powerful, and He Wei was not too worried about the next attack.

Anyway, the main infantry force of the Hata Detachment had been wiped out, and the small number of Japanese infantry units and artillery, baggage, engineering, automobile and other auxiliary arms in the main position were unlikely to make any waves.

The following battle was basically a one-sided beating by the Assault Corps against the Hata Detachment, which had lost its main infantry force.

Amid the rumbling sound of explosions, an anti-aircraft gun and a tracked tractor covered in bullet holes and blood ran over several Japanese corpses and slowly drove to He Wei's side.

Zhao Zhanhai, chief of the combat training section of the assault corps' staff office, jumped out of the car with several staff officers and ran to He Wei. Looking at the corpses scattered all over the ground, the remaining twenty-odd officers and soldiers of the special forces company and the blood-stained company commander Yang Biao, they were shocked.

When Zhao Zhanhai saw He Wei with a bruised shoulder, he was even more shocked. Then, when Zhao Zhanhai was about to speak, He Wei stopped him with a gesture.

"I'm fine, just a minor injury. The attack on the main Japanese position has already begun. Pass my order immediately. The special forces company will return to the starting position for rest. Let Hu Zhaowu transfer an infantry company from his third battalion to follow me. Use the tracked vehicles of the anti-aircraft artillery company to advance towards the main Japanese position, and at the same time kill and wound the defeated Japanese soldiers who have already fled."
"Also, the 3rd Battalion will leave an infantry company to protect the anti-aircraft battery, while the rest of the 3rd Battalion will move forward as quickly as possible to reinforce the enemy attacking the main Japanese position."

He Wei calmly issued several orders. Zhao Zhanhai nodded to the accompanying staff officers. The staff officers quickly took out their combat order notes, recorded He Wei's oral orders, and then ran to various departments to pass on the orders.

After He Wei had conveyed all the orders, Zhao Zhanhai said with concern: "Captain, you are injured. Why don't you return to the heights of Big Bear Mountain and Small Bear Mountain and command remotely via radio."

He Wei said nonchalantly: "It's just a superficial wound, don't be so fussy, it's okay."

Zhao Zhanhai stepped forward to check the wound on He Wei's shoulder, and was relieved only after confirming that he was fine.

He Wei continued, "The encounter just now was an accident, but it was a great fight. We basically wiped out the enemy's main infantry. I'm afraid there aren't many real infantrymen in the enemy positions now. Most of them are engineers, baggage soldiers and artillerymen. They are very fragile. Come with me, and I'll let you experience the thrill of killing enemies on a tracked vehicle."

Thinking of the scene where He Wei had just led a crawler tractor full of special forces infantry to kill the Japanese army, Zhao Zhanhai suddenly became excited and shouted, "Yes! Captain."

He Wei's order was quickly executed. The battalion commander of the third battalion, Hu Zhaowu, pulled out the seventh infantry company of the third battalion and moved together with He Wei in a tracked tractor.

The 8th Infantry Company of the 3rd Battalion remained on guard and protected the anti-aircraft artillery company that was temporarily unable to move. The remaining troops of the 3rd Battalion, led by Hu Zhaowu, accelerated their return to reinforce the main force of the assault corps that launched an attack on the main position of the Japanese army.

Amid the rumbling of artillery fire and the roar of engines, the fifteen tracked tractors of the anti-aircraft artillery company were assembled again. He Wei quickly led the seventh company of the third battalion onto the vehicles, and the Kuomintang version of the "Armored Grenadiers" started up again, accelerating towards the main position of the Hata Detachment.

(End of this chapter)