Zhu Tian: Beginning to Cross the Changjin Lake

The Japanese really rushed over, and at this time we could only resist with all our strength.

Li Guotao immediately ordered: "Everyone, go to the battlefield immediately, but hide in the trenches and don't show your heads."

"Get your grenades ready and wait for my orders."

"Yes!"

Chen Jianghe and others responded quickly and ran out in a hurry.

Li Guotao also picked up a helmet and put it on his head, then turned around and ran out of the observation post.

Looking at Li Guotao's departing back, Yang Jihe said helplessly: "Damn, how come he is treated like a battalion commander?"

However, Yang Jihe was just saying this casually. As long as they could defeat the Japanese, nothing else mattered.

Li Guotao ran into a trench and secretly observed the situation outside.

The river bank was about twenty to thirty meters away from the first trench. According to Li Guotao's plan, he was going to let the Japanese soldiers ashore before fighting them.

As soon as the enemy came ashore, the Japanese artillery were afraid of accidental injuries and would be cautious. Even the machine guns on the other side did not dare to fire easily, so as to minimize casualties.

At this distance, the grenade can fully exert its power.

In addition, Li Guotao and his men were in a defensive state and still had an absolute advantage, so there was no problem in blocking this wave of attack by the Japanese.

Li Guotao did not expect that the Japanese, out of anger and humiliation, actually launched an attack.

This is good, I can take this opportunity to give these bastards a good beating.

The Japanese motorboats were still very fast. One after another, the motorboats fully loaded with Japanese soldiers rushed towards the shore quickly.

Li Guotao ordered loudly: "Mortars and grenade launchers, concentrate your firepower, aim at the center of the river, fire five rounds rapidly, and then move your position immediately."

"Yes!"

Following Li Guotao's order, two mortars and several grenade launchers opened fire at the same time.

"Chirp chirp chirp~!"

A sharp whistling sound was heard, and shells and grenades quickly cut through the night sky and flew straight towards the river.

"Boom~! Boom~!"

Violent explosions sounded one after another, and huge splashes of water appeared on the water surface.

Several motorboats were overturned and the Japanese soldiers on the motorboats fell into the water one after another. However, these little Japanese soldiers were extremely ferocious and continued to swim towards the other side.

The other motorboats also sped up and rushed towards the shore. The bamboo rafts that were originally on the river also rushed towards the shore with all their might.

Shima Genkichi saw this scene and sneered, "These guys finally couldn't help themselves."

"Order the artillery immediately, lock their gun positions, and destroy their mortars for me."

"The mortar troops immediately fired ten rapid rounds to cover their frontline positions."

"Hayi~!"

As Shima Genkichi gave the order, rumbling sounds of artillery immediately rang out from the Japanese artillery positions.

Eight Type 92 infantry guns aimed at the defenders' artillery positions and launched a fierce bombardment.

The Japanese army opened fire with more than 30 mortars, bombarding the defenders' frontline positions.

However, at this time, the defenders' mortars fired a few shells and immediately moved their positions.

The Japanese artillery shells fell and all of them hit nothing.

Mortar shells continued to fall on the front line, and the soldiers guarding the positions all hid in the cat ear holes.

There were trenches on the front line, and the soldiers hid in the trenches. As long as the shells did not fall into the trenches, it was difficult to cause casualties to the defenders.

After Li Guotao arrived, he ordered the defenders to urgently dig some individual cat ear holes.

In this way, the casualties caused by shelling can be minimized as much as possible.

Although the Japanese artillery fire was fierce, they only fired ten rapid rounds and then stopped the shelling.

Because at this time, the Japanese motorboats and bamboo rafts had already arrived at the shore one after another.

A large number of Japanese soldiers jumped down screaming and rushed towards the position with guns held high and shouting.

However, this section of land near the river was extremely muddy. When one stepped in, the mud would directly cover one's feet, which greatly limited the speed of the Japanese.

The Japanese soldiers in front took only a few steps before their shoes got stuck in the mud.

However, without shoes, the speed increased a little. The Japanese soldiers behind simply took off their shoes and rushed forward barefoot.

Li Guotao shouted loudly: "Hit the grenades hard, no one is allowed to show their heads."

Following Li Guotao's order, the soldiers picked up grenades and threw them towards the shore.

In an instant, hundreds of grenades flew out of the trenches with a hissing sound and emitting black smoke.

"Boom~! Boom~!"

Violent explosions continued to ring out, and the Japanese soldiers who rushed up were blown to the ground in groups.

A lot of grenades had been seized before, and at this time Li Guotao didn't care about saving ammunition and let the soldiers fight to the death.

Grenades flew out like raindrops, and violent explosions continued to sound.

There was a large open area on the shore, and the Japanese had nowhere to hide and were knocked to the ground in large numbers.

The Japanese captain who led the team stood in front of a motorboat and shouted loudly: "Suppress the fire, keep charging!"

"Give me the rabbit~!"

The Japanese machine gunner mounted the machine gun on the motorboat and fired fiercely at the positions on the shore.

Bullets fell on the trenches like raindrops, splashing up pieces of mud.

However, under Li Guotao's orders, the officers and soldiers of the first battalion just hid in the trenches, throwing grenades outside without showing their heads at all.

Yang Jihe hid in the observation post. He was very excited when he saw the Japanese being blown down in large numbers in the light of the explosion.

"Nice job~!"

"Hit me hard!"

But the boy soon reacted and couldn't help feeling a pain in his flesh.

This style of play is fun, but it consumes a lot of grenades.

Fortunately, we had just captured a batch of Japanese grenades, otherwise we would not have been able to hold on.

But no matter what, it is worth wasting some grenades to kill a large number of Japanese devils and block their current round of offensive.

Li Guotao was also not idle. He moved quickly in the trenches, holding a 20-shot box gun in each hand, specifically dealing with the Japanese soldiers who took advantage of the chaos to sneak up.

Li Guotao was seen crouching, moving quickly in the trenches, raising his gun and shooting outside from time to time.

The crisp sound of gunfire continued to ring out, and the Japanese soldiers who took advantage of the chaos to approach were shot in the head one after another and killed on the spot. While Li Guotao was shooting and killing the approaching Japanese soldiers, he loudly reminded the nearby soldiers.

"Eleven o'clock! Twenty meters!"

"One o'clock! Fifteen meters, delay two seconds to throw."

"Throw it straight ahead!"

"No need to save grenades, blow these bastards up first."

Under the defenders' overwhelming rain of grenades, not only the Japanese soldiers who rushed up suffered heavy casualties.

Even the motorboats and rafts docked at the shore were blown to pieces.

After a fierce battle, the Japanese suffered heavy losses.

The more than one hundred people who were sent out earlier took rafts, plus the more than three hundred people who took motorboats later, a total of more than four hundred Japanese soldiers, nearly four hundred of whom were left on the west coast beach forever. The bodies of the Japanese soldiers who were blown to pieces covered the entire battlefield.

However, the defenders also suffered heavy losses. The grenades previously captured and the grenades originally in stock, a total of several thousand grenades, were almost all used up. Even the makeshift small throwing explosive packs were almost used up.

Of course, the results achieved were also quite brilliant.

The most important thing is that in this battle, hundreds of Japanese soldiers were killed, while the casualties of the defenders were only a dozen.

Such a huge disparity in casualty ratio is quite rare in the entire history of the War of Resistance.

Failed again!

There were more than 400 people, but in the end only dozens of Japanese soldiers were left. Seeing that the situation was not good, they really couldn't rush forward and retreated in fear.

Shima Genkichi was so angry that he threw the telescope to the ground and shouted, "Concentrate your fire immediately and bombard these damn bastards to death."

"Hayi~!"

With Shima Genkichi's order, the Japanese artillery began to show its power again.

One shell after another flew over the Lei River with a sharp whistling sound and landed on the defenders' positions.

Violent explosions continued to sound, and in a blink of an eye the frontline positions were once again engulfed in gunfire and smoke.

There was continuous artillery fire outside, so Li Guotao hid in the battalion headquarters, which was in a secluded location and had strong fortifications that could completely withstand the Japanese artillery fire.

After a fierce battle, Li Guotao's whole body was soaked in sweat.

"Fighting in this season is really fucking uncomfortable."

Li Guotao wiped the sweat from his forehead, picked up the teacup, and gulped down half a cup of cold water.

Yang Jihe said with a smile: "This battle was well fought. We killed several hundred Japanese soldiers. I have already reported the victory to my superiors."

"Just wait for your meritorious service and awards!"

Li Guotao said nonchalantly: "It doesn't matter. The country is in crisis. I am content to be alive. I just hope I can kill a few more devils before I die."

Yang Jihe said quickly: "The war is imminent, don't say such discouraging words, we all have to survive, especially talents like you, you should try your best to survive and remain useful, so that you can be loyal to the country."

Li Guotao smiled and said, "I just said that casually. Who would want to die if they can live?"

Yang Jihe said: "Although we killed a lot of Japanese soldiers in this battle, we also consumed a lot of grenades."

Li Guotao said: "As long as we can reduce casualties, everything is worth it."

"That's true!"

Yang Jihe nodded slightly.

Li Guotao smiled and said, "Captain, don't worry. We have killed hundreds of the Japanese soldiers, and they must have sent us a lot of weapons and ammunition."

"After the enemy's bombardment ends, we can quietly move all the ammunition back before daybreak, and then we will have everything we need."

Hearing this, Yang Jihe also smiled and said, "You are right. If we don't have weapons and ammunition, we can ask the devils for them. Haha..."

The Japanese's retaliatory shelling did not last long. After all, the Japanese were relatively economical with their ammunition.

After the shelling stopped, Li Guotao led the soldiers and quietly left the position, dragging back all the weapons and ammunition scattered on the battlefield.

The harvest this time was also not small, including hundreds of Type 38 rifles, more than a dozen light machine guns, at least 200,000 rounds of ammunition, grenade launchers, and more than 2,000 grenades.

Yang Jihe smiled so hard that his mouth was crooked. He said, "With this batch of weapons and ammunition, we don't have to worry anymore. It's enough to sustain us for a long time."

Li Guotao said with some concern: "Don't be too optimistic. After all, we still have too few troops. Apart from Leishui, there is no dangerous terrain to rely on. The Japanese are gathering more and more, and it is unlikely that we can hold on for a long time."

Yang Jihe smiled and said, "It doesn't matter. We have killed nearly a thousand devils, which is more than enough to complete the task."

"If you can defend it, then defend it. If you can't, then follow the military's orders and retreat to Wumaguicao and cooperate with the other troops to continue to hold on."

The military did not give them an order to hold out to the death. If they could not hold out, they could retreat at any time.

Now they are guarding here, just to delay the Japanese as long as possible. If they can't delay them anymore, they can retreat.

June 6, 24 a.m.

Fang Xianqie, commander of the 10th Army, drove to the Xiangjiang highway-railway bridge in Hengyang.

Standing by the river and looking at this magnificent bridge, Commander Fang couldn't help but feel heartbroken.

An officer ran over quickly, raised his hand to salute, and said loudly: "Report to the commander, we are ready."

"Hey~!"

Commander Fang sighed helplessly and said through gritted teeth: "Then let's get started!"

"Boom~!"

Not long after, a loud explosion suddenly sounded on the bridge, and the ground began to tremble slightly.

Suddenly, flames shot up into the sky and thick smoke billowed. The entire bridge was blown in half, and the destroyed steel structures fell into the Xiangjiang River.

Commander Fang looked at the destroyed bridge with a distressed look on his face and said helplessly: "Two hundred million yuan! It was built only half a year ago and it's destroyed!"

"Two hundred million! Just a fucking noise, all gone to waste."

This bridge, which cost 200 million yuan to build, was blown up just half a year after it was completed and opened to traffic. It is really heartbreaking.

However, there is no way around it. The 10th Army has limited manpower, and it is unknown whether it can hold Hengyang. The bridge will be occupied by the Japanese sooner or later. Even if troops are divided to guard it, they will be unable to stop the Japanese's massive attack. It is better to blow it up in advance to avoid it being occupied by the Japanese in a surprise attack.

This can also save some manpower and deploy it to other places.

The 10th Army Chief of Staff said helplessly: "There is nothing we can do about this. The Japanese troops are approaching and a war is imminent. The entire Hengyang will be reduced to scorched earth. The loss will be more than just the two hundred million yuan."

When mentioning the Japanese devils, Commander Fang gnashed his teeth in hatred.

"These damned little devils will pay for their crimes with blood sooner or later."

At this time, an officer came running over and said, "Report to the commander-in-chief, I just received a report from the 190th Division that the 568st Battalion of the th Regiment guarding the Quanxi line has another victory report. Tonight they once again repelled a strong attack by the Japanese and killed about Japanese soldiers."

"So far, the battalion has repelled the enemy's large-scale attacks three times, killing about a thousand enemies." (End of this chapter)