Show the sword, start from the guerrillas

Chapter 229 Chapter 228: Sakata United suffered heavy losses

After preparing for several hours and fighting for more than five minutes, Li Yunlong decided to retreat, which made Kong Jie and others a little confused.

"Didn't we say that we would fight for half an hour? How long has it been? Moreover, the battlefield situation is in our favor now. Isn't it too early to retreat now?" Kong Jie raised his doubts.

"Old Kong, you are pretty good when it comes to fighting bravely! But you are still not good enough to fight a battle that requires brains. Don't you think that we are facing a regiment of the devils, and the regiment has mountain artillery! We are taking advantage now, but we will suffer when we are bombed later! Okay, signalman, notify the whole regiment to prepare to withdraw from the battle and follow the assembly call!"

Li Yunlong ignored Kong Jie's reaction and gave orders to the New 1st Regiment, which put Kong Jie in a difficult position. Looking at the political commissar beside him, Kong Jie wiped the sweat from his forehead and threw it on the ground, then said: "Don't look at me, I can't do anything, let's retreat quickly!"

When Commander Kong and Political Commissar Li Wenying returned to the Independent Regiment's position, a fast-footed messenger had already delivered the order to retreat to the soldiers of the Independent Regiment. Although everyone knew that the battle would not last long, the soldiers did not understand why they had to retreat after just a short while.

But fortunately, everyone strictly followed the orders of the regiment headquarters, packed up their personal belongings, took away the fallen and injured comrades, and left enough ammunition for the comrades who were left behind, and then they could move.

Tick-tick-tick... On the New 1st Regiment side, the assembly call sounded, and the st Company of the st Battalion continued to stay on the position, while the rest of the troops evacuated the position and headed towards the mountains in the east along the path behind the mountain. On the Independent Regiment side, Kong Jie also left a company to fight and block the enemy, and the rest of the troops followed him westward.

But just as they left the main front line of Yunling, the sound of artillery shells whistling was heard in the air, and then they exploded at the location of the original headquarters of the independent regiment.

This time, Sakata Nobutsu directly mobilized his subordinates' 4 Type 12 mountain guns and 12 Type 2 infantry guns to bombard Yunling. The reason why there were 4 Type infantry guns was that the Sakata regiment was out for a sweep, so the battalion artillery was equipped with over-standard equipment, increasing from infantry guns to .

Therefore, when 16 artillery pieces fired at the Yunling position together, Kong Jie and his men finally understood that Li Yunlong was right. If they still put their main force on Yunling, they would not know how many soldiers would die with the waves of shells falling! The key point is that the first wave of bombing was aimed at their command post. If they didn't retreat, it would be hard to say...

Since the Japanese bombarded, there was no need for the troops left on the mountain to block the attack. After all, they were going to retreat, the Japanese had not caught up yet, and the nearest Japanese did not dare to attack under the fire... So, during the intervals between the Japanese bombardment, the soldiers who stayed on the position rolled down the trenches on the front line and quickly went down the mountain.

The two main regiments retreated in different directions without deliberately avoiding the sight of the Sakata Regiment, and even actively let themselves be seen by the Japanese scouts of the Sakata Regiment.

When the scout reported what he had seen to Nobutsu Sakata, the old Japanese soldier couldn't help but feel troubled by the enemy in front of him.

"This is a group of enemies who are very good at mobile warfare!" Sakata Nobutsu said to the adjutant beside him: "From the very beginning of their surprise attack, they knew how to use the maximum firepower to output. And now, just when we are ready, they quickly disengaged, making it impossible for us to take advantage of our artillery! Cunning, very cunning!" "Then what should we do next? Should we continue to return to Ping'an County, or divide our forces to pursue these Eighth Route Army? Obviously, the Eighth Route Army wants us to pursue them!" said the adjutant.

"The Eighth Route Army is not very fast! Moreover, no matter how fast a person runs, he cannot be faster than an artillery shell! Order the artillery to continue to pursue and bombard the Eighth Route Army heading west; the three infantry battalions to immediately count the casualties; the motor vehicle squadron to immediately count how many vehicles are still available; the search and pursuit squadron to immediately pursue the Eighth Route Army to the east and be sure to keep track of their movements at all times!"

Sakata Nobutsu finished speaking the latest order, then pondered for a moment before continuing, "The Eighth Route Army's combat intention is to disperse our forces, I understand this very well! But now, we are the ones who have the advantage in terms of force! Besides, there is an old Chinese saying, the monk can run away, but the temple cannot!"

"So, I plan to disperse the three infantry battalions and let the first and second battalions each chase an Eighth Route Army team, follow behind the Eighth Route Army, and look for opportunities to annihilate them! And I will take the third battalion back to Ping'an County, and then gather a part of the Imperial Army and the mixed brigade, and attack all the way eastward!"

"Major Gaoqiao was once a squadron leader under me. After being transferred to the 4th Independent Mixed Brigade, he became a major battalion commander. He was shot dead at Jigongling in the east of Ping'an County. Therefore, I concluded that Weijia Village and Liangjia Village near Jigongling must be the so-called base mentioned by the Eighth Route Army!"

"So, I will bring artillery and enough troops to wipe out this so-called base of the Eighth Route Army! I don't want the names of Liangjia Village and Weijia Village to appear on our map after this action! I want to wipe these two villages, including the surrounding villages, off the map! I want to make it a no-man's land!"

Sakata Nobutsu spoke slowly and in a low voice, without any momentum at all. But to the adjutant, all this seemed so natural, as if it could be done anyway!

Boom boom boom... The artillery fire of the Sakata Regiment never stopped, and it was aimed at the direction of the independent regiment's retreat, bombarding non-stop. All this made Captain Kong angry, and he had to order the team to disperse as much as possible, retreat to the west in groups, and then regroup at Dashugou. In this way, although the troops were dispersed, they would not be killed by a single artillery shell.

Just now, a shell suddenly landed in the ranks of the 2nd Battalion, taking the lives of more than a dozen soldiers.

Just as the independent regiment dispersed and retreated, leaving the Japanese artillery no longer able to find valuable targets, the Japanese decisively stopped the bombardment. After all, artillery shells also cost money.

"Reporting to the commander, the losses are counted! 1st Battalion suffered 117 killed and 174 wounded; 2nd Battalion suffered 204 killed and 123 wounded; 3rd Battalion suffered 41 minor injuries, no casualties! The tank squadron reported that 87 trucks were destroyed, 37 of which were completely beyond repair, and the remaining 50 were worth repairing, but all had flat tires."

(End of this chapter)