I'm killing enemies with my sword and exploding equipment

Because there was a special forces regiment blocking the road in Huangping Town, the First Brigade, which was leading the way, failed to clear the road after an hour or two.

Therefore, Lieutenant General Saburo Nakazawa, commander of the Japanese 1st Division, had to find a place to set up his temporary command center.

After arranging his men to scout the area, he did not have much choice and finally set up his headquarters in a small valley at the foot of the mountain wall south of Zhengtai Road.

At this moment, he was holding the general's sword at his waist, looking at the map spread out on a large stone that served as a table, brows furrowed, waiting for good news from all parties.

On the battlefield, the sound of artillery was deafening, making it impossible for him to judge the current enemy and friendly situation through his own ears.

Suddenly, Colonel Jiro Uchiyama, Chief of Staff of the 1st Infantry Brigade, came running in with a few people and reported to him:

"Your Excellency the Division Commander!

Our First Regiment was annihilated!"

After hearing what he said, Saburo Nakazawa thought he had misheard and almost fell to the ground!

I couldn't help but scream:
"Nani?"

The division chief of staff Takahashi Mantang, who was standing next to him, also asked sternly:
"Uchiyama-kun, do you know what you are talking about?!
If you lie about military intelligence, you will be arrested by the military police!"

He said this only because the other party was a colonel.

If he was a squad leader or a platoon leader, he would have arranged to have him dragged out and executed!
Uchiyama Jiro had long anticipated that he would face such questions. Although his back was sweating profusely because of the pressure he felt, he still calmed down, nodded, and explained:
"Hey! I understand.

The situation is like this:

When our First Regiment attacked the positions set up by the Eighth Route Army on the ridges on both sides of the road, it encountered a large amount of direct artillery fire from the enemy and suffered heavy losses.

Since the mountain artillery of our First Brigade had been destroyed by the heavy artillery of the Eighth Route Army, Mr. Uchida had to lead the brave warriors of the entire regiment in launching a hand-to-hand charge against the Eighth Route Army.

What a pity that every soldier of the Eighth Route Army was equipped with a Mauser pistol with automatic fire!

But our warriors only have bayonets!

Although Uchida led the warriors into their trenches and caused them a lot of casualties, they still failed in the end and all of them died in battle!
Your Excellency the Division Commander and the Chief of Staff, I strongly request that we must ask the headquarters to equip all the warriors with automatic pistols.

Otherwise, in close combat, the warriors' disadvantage would be too obvious!"

After hearing his explanation, Nakazawa Saburo roared angrily:
"idiot!
Your mountain artillery is gone, why don’t you send someone to report it?

Just some direct-fire artillery, we only need to deploy three or five 150mm heavy artillery to deal with them!"

Of course, Jiro Uchiyama had anticipated such questions on his way here, so he was not panicked.

He quickly replied:

"Your Excellency, the division commander, it was the brigade commander who saw that the artillery of the Eighth Route Army was too rampant and was worried that the field artillery regiment was unable to withdraw artillery support, so he decided to use hand-to-hand combat to let the Eighth Route Army see the courage of our locust army warriors.

But I didn't expect that these cowardly Eighth Route Army soldiers had no moral principles and would not fight with our warriors with bayonets! "

Although Yoshino Hideki was very brave and led the 49th Regiment to charge, Uchiyama Jiro still didn't mind putting the blame on the other side.

It would be better for me to die than for my friend to die!
Anyway, he thought, after this battle was over, he could just find his classmates, teachers, etc., make some arrangements, and transfer to other troops.

The 1st Infantry Brigade lost an infantry regiment and an artillery squadron, and it doesn't seem to have much of a future.

Running away is the only way.

After hearing his words, Nakazawa Saburo became even angrier and continued to roar:
“Bagya Road!
What about that idiot Yoshino Hideki?

Why didn't he come to report?
Did he flee from the battlefield because he was afraid of punishment?

This damn coward!!!"

"No, no, no, upon hearing that the First Regiment had been annihilated, the Brigade Commander immediately led the 49th Regiment to avenge the First Regiment!"

Uchiyama Jiro shook his head like a rattle.

"What? What an idiot!
Is he an undercover agent of the Eighth Route Army?
Want to destroy all my Locust Army warriors???"

Saburo Nakazawa couldn't close his mouth, and looked at Jiro Uchiyama as if he was a fool, as if this guy was Hideki Yoshino.

He just couldn't figure out how this guy got to be a major general in the Imperial Army.

Under the current situation, instead of retreating and reorganizing the army, they just lead their men to charge forward. Isn't this a joke?
Do you really think that passion can stop artillery fire and bullets?

The samurai spirit and the like are just for fooling the cannon fodder below, but don’t believe it yourself!
The division chief of staff, Takahashi Mantang, did not think that the other party was so stupid. After thinking about it for a while, he quickly asked:

"Uchiyama-kun, has Yoshino-kun figured out a way to deal with the Tubalu's direct-fire artillery?"

Jiro Uchiyama obviously had no answer to this question.

He didn't believe that Yoshino Hideki could come up with any good solution.

But now, it is obviously impossible to say it directly.

After a brief thought, he could only bite the bullet and say something nonsense:
"Your Excellency, the Brigade Commander, feels that after a tough battle with the First Regiment, the Eighth Route Army has probably run out of ammunition and strength, and is now at its weakest!
Even with the help of direct-fire artillery, they would not be able to stop the fully staffed 49th Regiment!"

Saburo Nakazawa obviously did not agree with this reason at all.

He immediately spit at Uchiyama Jiro:

"idiot!
This idiot is just underestimating the enemy and advancing rashly!
It's not enough that they destroyed our 49st Regiment, now they want to destroy the th Regiment, damn it!!!

I will suspend him immediately!!!"

"Your Excellency, now is not the time to hold Yoshino-kun accountable.

We should immediately arrange for the field artillery to support Yoshino-kun. We must not let the 49th Regiment suffer heavy losses!"

Gao Qiao Mantang quickly reminded.

Their First Division had only two infantry brigades, of which the 2th Regiment under the 57nd Brigade remained in central Hebei to continue the mopping-up operation.

So now if the 3st Brigade is wiped out, then their huge st Division will only have the rd Regiment left.

By then, it will be impossible to fight this war.

After hearing his partner's reminder, Nakazawa Saburo also reacted and immediately gave the order:
"Hurry up, go and tell Imai-kun to dispatch a few 150mm howitzers to blow up all the direct-fire artillery positions of the Eighth Route Army!"

However, in his heart, he was extremely dissatisfied with the field artillery regiment commander Masahiko Imai, thinking: This piece of trash has not yet destroyed the Eighth Route Army's heavy artillery in such a long time, he is so incompetent!

It seems that after this battle, this guy has to be sent to the reserve!

Seeing that he followed his advice, Takahashi Mantang was very satisfied.

As a colonel chief of staff, he felt that as the division chief of staff, he had much more face than Jiro Uchiyama, the brigade chief of staff.

He nodded quickly:

"Hi!"

He then waved to a messenger and asked him to go to the position of the field artillery regiment to deliver the order.

……

Soon, Colonel Masahiko Imai, commander of the field artillery regiment, received orders from Saburo Nakazawa.

Then everyone was confused.

Their position was originally more than five or six kilometers away from the place where the previous fighting took place.

Now, we can engage in a bombardment with the artillery of the special forces regiment only by relying on the artillery observers who climb up the hillside to see the direction from which the enemy's shells are coming, calculate the trajectory, figure out the direction, and then fire blindly.

Now asking them to destroy the direct-fire artillery of the special forces regiment, wouldn't that be too difficult for them?
How can their observers calculate the direction and guide the artillery fire if they can’t see the direct-fire artillery fire?
Generally speaking, the caliber of direct-fire artillery is not too large, and there is no high-throwing curved trajectory, so it is difficult to see at a long distance. …

Although he was complaining madly in his heart, Masahiko Imai was still not prepared to disobey orders.

His back is not that strong yet.

So he nodded in agreement, sent the messenger away, and then asked Chief of Staff Tamura Jujuro:
"Tamura-kun, what do you think?
We don’t even know where the Tubalu’s direct-fire artillery positions are now!”

Tamura Jujuro took out a pack of cigarettes, lit one for the other person, then lit one for himself, took a puff, and then slowly frowned and replied:

"Sir, it seems that we can only send more observers forward, and then have multiple people take over and instruct the artillery parameters."

"If we transmit the signal multiple times, there will probably be serious errors and a lot of ammunition will be wasted!

This time, we only prepared 150 shells for each 30mm howitzer!"

Masahiko Imai was smoking a cigarette, still worried.

Each 150mm howitzer shell weighs more than 70 kilograms.

Now in their regiment, there are 12 Type 150 360mm howitzers. Although they only carry 5 rounds of grenades, they weigh a full tons!
It has greatly occupied their transportation capacity.

Thinking of this, Masahiko Imai couldn't help but feel very regretful that the terrain in Jin was not suitable for trucks.

Otherwise, if they brought a few hundred trucks, they wouldn't have to worry about not having enough artillery shells.

But he forgot that their Jibei Front Army was now in a position worse than dogs at the base camp, so his idea was simply a dream!
Of course the Japs have trucks.

But they were all given to Central China and South China.

……

Upon hearing his concerns, Tamura Jujuro smiled slightly, flicked the ash from his cigarette and said:
“Sir, if it really doesn’t work, there is no other way but to waste shells.

Once we have used up all the shells, Mr. Division Commander, you won't have to count on our 1st Field Artillery Regiment to win.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing.”

When he said this, Masahiko Imai's eyes suddenly lit up and he understood what this guy meant.

He nodded immediately:

"Yoshi! Tamura-kun, there is something interesting in what you said.

The First Division is so huge, we can't just rely on a single field artillery regiment to accomplish anything, right?"

Afterwards, he arranged for someone to give orders to the commander of his first battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Kawasaki Yosuke, to dispatch four 4mm howitzers to bombard the special forces regiment's direct-fire artillery.

Of course, it would take some time to start shelling. At least the artillery had to be deployed and the observer in place.

……

While the Japanese field artillery position was busy, the soldiers of the Third Battalion of the Special Service Regiment, led by Battalion Commander Wang Quanfa, climbed the ridge south of Zhengtai Road.

When the soldiers saw the tragic scene on the battlefield, they were immediately shocked.

Everyone immediately stopped being careless and underestimating the enemy.

Everyone understands that this group of Japanese devils are indeed powerful.

After handing over the position to the First Battalion, Wang Quanfa ordered the artillery and heavy machine gunners to set up the artillery and heavy machine guns immediately, while the infantrymen hurried to continue cleaning up the battlefield that the First Battalion had not finished cleaning.

At this time, the third company commander Tang Dalu pointed at the dead bodies of the Japanese soldiers in front of the position and asked:

"Battalion Commander, what should we do with these dead bodies of the Japanese?
Do you want to throw it directly off the cliff?"

Wang Quanfa shook his head:
"There's no need to waste energy. Just throw it in front of the position. It can also create some obstacles for the Japanese to attack, making it more inconvenient for them to charge!"

"Captain, what if the Japanese use their bodies as cover? Wouldn't that block our bullets?"

Tang Dalu asked with a frown.

Wang Quanfa was speechless about his lack of understanding.

Immediately asked back:

"Do you think the Japanese can rush to our position without any harm?
If they wanted to use the bodies as cover, would they need to use these on the ground?"

Hearing his reminder, Tang Dalu immediately smiled awkwardly and nodded repeatedly:

“That’s right.

It is impossible for the Japanese to rush to our position without killing a large number of people!"

Then he no longer dared to show up in front of Wang Quanfa, and hurried to repair the trenches and reinforce the anti-artillery holes.

……

Before the soldiers of the Third Battalion finished their work, Wang Quanfa, who was stationed at the front post, rushed back and shouted:
"Battalion Commander, the Japs are coming!"

Wang Quanfa's face changed and he asked quickly:
"How many people came?"

"It's a huge group, estimated to be at least three thousand people!"

The sentry's face was solemn and slightly excited.

"My goodness, this is a military unit!"

Wang Quanfa sighed viciously.

Then he gave a loud order:

"Comrades, the Japs are coming, everyone, get ready to fight!!!"

Hearing his shout, the soldiers of the third battalion immediately dropped their work, rushed into the trenches, picked up their weapons, and prepared for battle.

Many soldiers couldn't help but smile grimly:

"Damn little Japs, come and die quickly, I will send you back home!"

……

In front of their position, climbing up the ridge and charging westward was the 49th Regiment led by the commander of the Japanese st Infantry Brigade, Yoshino Hide.

He learned the lesson from the annihilation of his first regiment and decided not to disperse his troops so as not to weaken his own strength.

Instead, he led the entire regiment and prepared to attack the ridge south of Zhengtai Road first.

After taking down the Special Forces Regiment's position, we will send our troops to the northern ridge.

He was able to reach the high position of major general in the Japanese army, so he was certainly not a fool.

Naturally, we know that a big reason why we suffered such a huge loss just now is because we underestimated the enemy.

Now, of course, he will not continue to make this mistake.

However, the 49th Regiment now has lost its artillery squadron and all the Type infantry guns, and has become a pure light infantry regiment.

The combat effectiveness was greatly reduced.

Even if the entire regiment was mobilized, they would not be an invincible enemy for the Third Battalion of the Special Forces Regiment that had just arrived!

...(End of chapter)