The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 516 Japanese Army: Request for artillery and air support!
The artillery of the 42nd Regiment of the Japanese Army, which was pushed to the front line, quickly launched a targeted bombardment of the Chinese army's light and heavy firepower points on the main position. The observers of the four Type 4 94mm rapid-fire guns, four Type 37 4mm mountain guns and four Type 41 75mm infantry guns quickly began to search for the Chinese army's light and heavy machine gun firepower points on the main position. For the Qisha Second Line of Defense, which was filled with the strength of as many as one and a half infantry regiments, the distribution density of its light and heavy machine gun firepower points was not low. Therefore, the Japanese observers quickly locked on to the shooting target.

Boom
Bang Bang
The muzzles of the four Type 4 41mm mountain cannons were the first to spit out flames and fired a round of mountain artillery shells in a flat manner. The Type 75 94mm rapid-fire cannons followed closely behind, also firing in a flat manner. Only the four Type 37 4mm infantry guns chose to fire shrapnel at the Chinese army's positions in an indirect manner.

After the artillery of the 42nd Regiment opened fire, it launched an attack with the fastest rapid fire method.

75mm grenades, 37mm grenades, and 70mm caliber shrapnel exploded frequently in the main positions of the New 19th Division amid the rumbling of artillery fire. Thanks to the precise observation of the Japanese artillerymen, several light and heavy machine gun fire points of the Chinese army were soon hit.

Direct-fire 75mm mountain artillery shells and 37mm rapid-fire shells hit the bunkers of light and heavy machine gun fire points one after another. Under the repeated destruction of direct hits from flat fire, the light and heavy machine gun fire points that were hit soon became silent. The powerful shock wave generated by the explosion of the 75 mountain artillery shells overturned the light and heavy machine guns in the fortifications, and the scattered shrapnel quickly swept away the surrounding shooters.

Brown soil, bright red blood, and the bodies of the fallen soldiers and destroyed light and heavy machine guns flew into the sky.

Although the power of 37mm rapid-fire artillery shells is not as strong as that of 75mm mountain artillery shells, the situation of machine gun fire points directly hit by them is also very miserable. This small-caliber rapid-fire artillery used for anti-tank fire has an extremely fast projection speed. Once the four rapid-fire artillery groups of the Japanese army captured a light or heavy machine gun fire point, they would fire at the fastest speed.

Although each 37mm caliber explosive bomb will not directly cause fatal damage to the light and heavy machine guns themselves, the dense fragments they produce will kill a large number of shooters near the light and heavy machine gun firing points.

The 70mm caliber Type 92 infantry artillery shrapnel shells exploded in the positions, creating clusters of sparks and shrapnel. The shotgun shells flew into the air like rain, carrying clouds of smoke and sand.

Under the fierce artillery fire of the 42nd Regiment, the firepower of the light and heavy machine guns of the 19th Regiment of the New 56th Division and the Field Replacement Regiment was rapidly reduced. Fire points were constantly hit and destroyed by the Japanese army's flat fire. The shrapnel fired by the Japanese infantry artillery also killed and wounded many riflemen in the trenches. Almost every time a shrapnel shell exploded, the surrounding officers and soldiers would fall in a pool of blood with screams.

Boom
Boom
The effective flat-fire attack by the artillery of the 42nd Regiment of the Japanese Army finally regained some ground and avenged the blow they had just suffered from the mortar fire of the Chinese Army.

Seeing that the artillery fire suppression had taken effect, the Japanese infantry moved like a cat smelling meat. A Japanese infantry squadron leaped up from the ground, howling and launching the first attack.

Seeing this, the Japanese light and heavy machine guns and artillery that were roaring and firing quickly adjusted their firing range, clearing an attack channel for the Japanese squadron that was launching the attack.

At this time, under the attack of Japanese artillery fire, not only was the automatic firepower of the new 19th Division troops on the main position suppressed, but also a small-scale chaos occurred in the position.

"Onboard!"

The Japanese infantry squadron that took the lead in launching the attack rushed forward with sharp bayonets, making strange and loud noises.

The new 19th Division troops, whose automatic firepower was suppressed and who were constantly being killed by shrapnel, could not project the same intensive resistance firepower as before. Although the Japanese infantry squadrons that launched the attack were constantly knocked down, they only suffered sporadic casualties, and there were no mass casualties caused by intensive heavy machine gun fire. The fast-charging Japanese infantry squadrons quickly rushed to less than meters away from the main position of the Chinese army. The Japanese officers and non-commissioned officers shouted and commanded the light machine gun group and grenade launcher group in the squadron to stop advancing, organize cover and suppress fire, while more Japanese riflemen deployed a scattered group attack formation, shouting and rushing towards the Chinese army position in front.

The distance was getting closer and closer, and the charging Japanese infantry company soon rushed to within less than 200 meters from the front of the Chinese army. Many Japanese officers and soldiers in the attack showed excitement.

At the current pace of attack, they will soon break into the Chinese army's position. They are confident that they can use bayonets and hand-to-hand combat to defeat the Chinese army in front of them and capture the position in front of them.

Just as this Japanese squadron was advancing rapidly and was about to break into the position guarded by the new 19th Division, there were bursts of vibrations in the air, followed by a whistling sound, and the whistling sound of artillery shells breaking through the air.

Boom
Bang Bang
The whistling sound quickly grew larger, and finally turned into an explosion when it landed on the attack formation of the advancing Japanese squadron. The mortar group of the assault corps roared again after being silent for a long time.

Under the guidance of the artillery observation post located at the front line, the mortar group accurately fired dense shells at the attacking Japanese army. The rapidly fired 81mm and 82mm mortar shells exploded frequently, covering the entire Japanese squadron's attack formation in a thick mortar barrage.

The intensive artillery bombardment, accompanied by screams, played a melody of death. Mortar shells fired continuously, and 81mm and 82mm mortar shells hit the ground one after another. Shrapnel, smoke, and explosions ruthlessly swallowed up the Japanese infantry squadron.

After nearly three minutes of fierce artillery bombardment, the more than one hundred Japanese infantrymen who had just been attacking fiercely were almost all turned into a pile of bloody corpses lying on the battlefield.

When the mortar group ceased firing and the smoke cleared, the main forces of the two infantry battalions of the 42nd Regiment that were responsible for the attack, as well as the artillerymen of the 42nd Regiment who were bombarding the light and heavy machine gun fire points of the Chinese army with heavy artillery fire, were all stunned.

Except for the twenty or so lucky ones who managed to escape, the remaining one hundred or so Japanese soldiers, a basically complete infantry squadron, were devoured by artillery fire in front of them in just a few minutes and were completely wiped out.

More than a hundred Japanese soldiers who died under mortar fire were piled up together with the bodies of Japanese soldiers who had died before. Looking around, the Chinese army's positions were already full of Japanese soldiers' bodies and body parts. In some places, there were even piles of bodies of varying sizes.
The Japanese soldiers of the two infantry battalions of the 42nd Regiment who were fighting hard in front of the Chinese army's position were dumbfounded. The Japanese artillerymen who were carrying out targeted fire on the light and heavy machine gun fire points in the Chinese army's positions with regiment artillery, infantry artillery and rapid-fire artillery could not help but slow down their firing after witnessing the "honorific death" of an infantry squadron.

The sound of Japanese gunfire, which had just been firing fiercely, seemed to have stopped at this moment.

At the same time, in the forward command post of the 42nd Regiment of the Japanese Army, the commander of the 21st Brigade of the Japanese Army, Masao Nakamura, put down his telescope with a grim expression. The commander of the 42nd Infantry Regiment, Motoichi Sakata, who witnessed the "fighting of his officers and soldiers", was even more furious.

After a while, Nakamura Masao, with a gloomy face, said in a deep voice: "Request support from the division artillery and naval aviation, find this Chinese artillery and destroy them!"

(End of this chapter)