Show the sword, start from the guerrillas

Chapter 602 Chapter 601, Artillery Bombardment

The grenade launchers were still bombing, but the Japanese troops did not stop. Instead, they moved away from the middle of the mountain road and searched for suitable shelters on the hillsides and hilltops on both sides, preparing for the next battle!
Of course, this does not include the Japanese soldiers in the heavy machine gun squadron who were being chased and bombed by grenade launchers! Under the order of Captain Fang, the two grenade launchers first blew up a full car, about 8 or Japanese soldiers, and then called out the names of the Japanese heavy machine gun squadron one by one! Although the heavy machine gun squadron had few people, and one heavy machine gun only accounted for about Japanese soldiers, the threat of the heavy machine gun was the greatest!

As a result, the Japanese soldiers carrying heavy machine guns were extremely panicked, running around in the valley like headless flies, avoiding the bombing of grenade launchers.

Having said so much, in fact, it has only been less than two minutes since the puppet army stepped on the landmine! Although during this period of time, the concentrated firepower eliminated more than 150 puppet soldiers and killed hundreds of devils, the strength of the devils was not weakened much!

What everyone didn't know was that this time the Japs came with not just over 1000 troops, but a standard field infantry battalion + a mountain artillery squad, with a strength of nearly 1200! The puppet army was also a battalion of the Imperial Army organized to match the Japs, with about 1100 troops!

With such a force, how much can the casualties just now weaken the combat effectiveness of the Japs? Fortunately, Captain Fang knew who would be the biggest threat later, so he specifically ordered to bomb the heavy machine guns!

"Lao Meng, move our heavy machine guns, quickly!" Seeing that the Japanese could not launch an attack for a while, Captain Fang looked at his watch and said this.

"Understood!" Machine gunner Lao Meng knew what his company commander meant, that is, before the Japanese attack, they would definitely fire artillery fire! And this heavy machine gun of his was definitely the one to be taken care of!
So, Lao Meng called on the soldiers of the heavy machine gun squad to work together to lift the Min-80 heavy machine gun and move it along the trench to the back of a small hill more than meters away on the north side. After they sat down, the east side of the heavy machine gun was covered by the hill, and only the shadow of the gun barrel appeared from the south side of the hill, just in time to provide side fire to the main position!

"Lao Meng, how many bullets do you have left?" Company Captain Fang came over and asked.

"A full 150 rounds!" Lao Meng said, pointing to the empty half of the bullet belt.

"This..." Captain Fang was a little confused, because in the battle, without heavy machine guns to suppress, it was too disadvantageous! After thinking for only ten seconds, Captain Fang shouted: "Who is using the Zhongzheng, Ma Sihuan, and 7.92mm Type 10 rifle? Each of you contribute rounds of bullets!"

"Yes!" A dozen soldiers in the crowd answered, and then each took out two magazines from their bullet bags and handed them to Platoon Leader Yuan, asking him to deliver the magazines to the machine gun team.

"Okay, we have 120 more bullets for the heavy machine gun! Company commander, we have never been so poor!" Platoon Leader Yuan said with a smile.

"This is already abundant! How many bullets did we have when we followed the team across the Yellow River?" While Captain Fang was speaking, two soldiers from the grenade launcher group came over.

"Company commander, we have used up all 16 grenades and only destroyed 8 of the Japanese heavy machine guns!" reported grenade thrower Li Shuncai.

"That is to say, the Japanese still have 4 Type 25 heavy machine guns that can be used, and the puppet army also has some heavy machine guns that can be used... But it's not a big problem, we just need to hold on for another minutes!" Company Commander Fang glanced at his wrist and said to the many soldiers in a comforting tone: "Comrades, we are all old soldiers. We have said what we should say before the war, so I won't say more!" "Before the Japanese officially attack, I will say one thing! Since we have received this order, we must complete it! Not only must we complete it, but we must also try our best to save ourselves! When the battle starts, we must be more mobile and flexible. As long as our reinforcements arrive, we can follow the large force to kill the Japanese! We were chased by the Japanese in the Jizhong Plain, and now it's time to vent our anger!"

"Captain Fang..." Captain Fang was still speaking when he heard shouting in the distance. Then he saw three soldiers from the 2nd Company running over in a hurry, bringing with them a bullet belt and two grenade packs.

"Captain Fang, our captain said that he will provide you with another bullet belt and 16 grenades!" The three soldiers said this without saluting. They just nodded, put the things on the stone, turned around and ran away.

"Thank your company commander for me!" Company Commander Fang shouted loudly, then waved his hand, asking everyone to disperse and defend the position that spanned more than a thousand meters from north to south.

"Captain, do we still need to continue the bombing?" Li Shuncai, who had just received a grenade from the grenade launcher, approached Captain Fang and asked.

"No, not for now." Captain Fang thought for a moment and said, "When you stopped bombing just now, the Japanese would probably think that we have run out of grenade launchers! Well, we really did run out of grenade launchers just now! When the battle starts, the Japanese will definitely bomb with mountain artillery and grenade launchers first. You all hide well and wait for the Japanese to charge. Their heavy machine guns will suppress them with fire, and then you can blow up the heavy machine guns!"

"Look at the time, five minutes have passed. It's almost time for the enemy's artillery to prepare. Let's get ready!" After saying this, Captain Fang looked at his watch and found that a full eight minutes had passed since the start of the battle. In other words, they only had 8 minutes left before they could retreat!
The blocking was divided into sections, with each section lasting 30 minutes. Five blocking positions were set up before and after, and it took two and a half hours to hold out. At the very end, it was Kowloon Pass. By then, there would not be much ammunition left, so it would be a hand-to-hand fight, right?
Just as the company commander was thinking about what to do next, the sound of artillery shells whistled in the air.

Chirp, chirp, chirp... Chirp, chirp... The devils not only had two mountain guns and two Type 36 infantry guns, but also Type grenade launchers in the team. Therefore, the devils' artillery attack was not just fierce, but large and small shells whizzed down from the sky and exploded continuously on the entire position.

Boom boom boom... violent explosions and fierce flames made the small hilltop full of flying stones and smoke. But even so, none of the soldiers huddled in trenches and foxholes retreated, but waited quietly for the moment when the devil's infantry would launch an attack!

Fortunately, the Japanese were not shameless enough to use poison gas, otherwise it would be hard to say whether Captain Fang and his men could have held on.

In the trench, Captain Fang raised his wrist and watched the pointer ticking, letting the dust from the explosion fall from the sky and hit his body and land on his helmet.

"It's been five minutes. The enemy's shelling should be over by then, right? In other words, we only need to hold out for another 5 minutes before we can retreat!"

(End of this chapter)