Show the sword, start from the guerrillas

The 120mm heavy mortar is somewhat excessive for guerrilla warfare, after all, it is too heavy and inconvenient to move. However, positional warfare does not need to consider these issues, and what we are fighting now is positional warfare!

As the earth trembled, the first group battle of the Beishan Detachment Artillery Battalion since its establishment began!
In the air, 27 huge 120mm mortar shells flew quickly, with a whistling sound, over the heads of the infantry in front. The momentum of the 120 heavy mortars was so loud that people ignored the 6 82mm mortar shells sandwiched in between.

Chirp, chirp, chirp... Boom, boom, boom... A little over a kilometer, the propellant bags of the shells didn't even need to be fully hung, so the shells didn't fly long before they landed on the positions of the Japanese and puppet troops, exploding into large balls of fire and black smoke. In the flames, countless limbs flew everywhere, and countless guns and ammunition were lifted up by the shock wave and turned into new fragments, hitting the surrounding Japanese and puppet troops.

As the first wave of shells exploded, the Japanese position where Yagi was located became obviously bumpy, with broken bodies and black craters everywhere. The Japanese who were originally building attack positions and planning to launch an attack were blown into slag, some were blown into pieces, and some looked fine, but they kept spitting black blood and internal organ fragments from their mouths and noses.

Obviously, the first wave of bombing by the artillery battalion was aimed at the location of the devils! All 27 shells fell on the devils, destroying everything around them.

Compared with the misery of the Japs, the puppet troops in front were better off. After all, there were more than 2000 puppet troops, and they had only six 6 mortar shells to protect them.

However, with the arrival of the second and third rounds of artillery fire, the situation of the puppet troops became similar to that of Yagi in the north... Artillery has always been a killing force, and it is extremely efficient!
The artillery bombardment from the Beishan Detachment did not affect the battle on the independent regiment's side! Because of the distance, Shen Quan led 1000 men to run and watch, and witnessed the entire process of the three rounds of artillery bombardment.

"Captain, is this the power of that big mortar? No wonder those guys in the artillery company are so boastful. This power is awesome!"

"Luckily, this was caused by our artillery. If the devils had such artillery, it would be difficult for us to fight this battle!"

"So what if it's hard to fight? It's just two arms against a head. Who's afraid of who?"

"Shut the hell up! Okay, the three rounds of shelling are over. Follow me closely, let's charge forward and end the battle!" Shen Quan shouted loudly, holding a submachine gun in his hand, striding forward, and running steadily at the front of the commando team.

Behind him were soldiers holding submachine guns, assault rifles, light machine guns, and semi-automatic rifles. These were elite veterans, using the best weapons, charging to the death! Hmm, why were there some soldiers holding shotguns among them?

More than 1000 people from Shen Quan's side moved westward, and then attacked southward in groups of three, completely taking care of the northern side of the Japanese puppet army. In addition, Zhang Dabiao and his men, who had already fought with the Japanese who had left the city and were on the north and south of the railway, had physically separated Yagi and his men. At this time, the charge horn sounded on the hilly position in the south, and the main force of the first regiment charged forward and surrounded the Japanese.

The battle of making dumplings is interesting only when it is fought! Seeing the soldiers of the main regiment rushing into the battlefield under the leadership of their respective platoon leaders, and even the cooks and grooms rushing to the front, Guo Zhongmin's restless heart could not be suppressed: "Everyone, the guard platoon stays, and the rest of you, rush up and kill the enemy!"

So, amidst a burst of shouts and screams, the soldiers of the First Battalion rushed forward, howling, fearing that if they were a step slower, they would not be able to catch up with the enthusiastic Japanese and puppet troops and be killed by them!

The charge horns were loud and clear, and the shouts of killing were deafening. This was the charge and battle in the era of hot weapons! It was not because the commanders were not calm and did not cherish the lives of their comrades, but because after the bombardment of the artillery battalion and the artillery company, whether it was the puppet army's position or the devil's position, there was really not much combat power left!
Although there were more than 600 Japanese soldiers, they were all concentrated on the attack position that was being dug and built, occupying an open area of ​​more than 200 meters in front and back and more than 300 meters in width. Although the Japanese soldiers dug trenches here, the shallow trenches had not yet been formed. Even if the Japanese soldiers lay in the trenches, it was difficult to escape the heavy bombing!

After all, a shell explosion can fill or flatten the trench! Even if they are a little further away from the explosion point, they will inevitably be killed by the shock. So just 27 shells from a round of artillery fire destroyed at least 5% of the Japanese troops where Yagi was! Note that it is destroyed. As for the seriously or slightly injured Japanese, there is no way to calculate it!
Anyway, when Shen Quan led his commando team to charge more than 200 meters away from the position where Yagi and his team were, they saw some Japanese soldiers raising their guns and preparing to shoot to stop them. As a result, these Japanese soldiers who dared to shoot were immediately fired upon by various weapons! Although the range of the submachine gun was more difficult to control than 200 meters, there was still the assault rifle.

The commandos, holding submachine guns and looking relaxed, ran more than 100 meters quickly under the cover of their comrades, and then saw the remnants of the Japanese soldiers gathered in twos and threes, holding Type rifles in their hands, preparing to make a final struggle.

Well, there were only remnants of soldiers in the position. Some of the Japanese soldiers had lost one hand, and were holding on to the bleeding wound. The remaining hand was holding a rifle with the butt of the rifle against the body. Some of the Japanese soldiers seemed to be blind, with their eyes wrapped in bandages. Even though they were still bleeding, the Japanese soldiers still held their guns with their bayonets pointing in the direction of the shouts.

"The little devils only have this little bit of courage left, let's give them a quick death!" Seeing the devils asking for mercy, Shen Quan naturally wanted to give them a decent death! So, he took the lead in picking up the submachine gun and pulled the trigger at the three devils gathered together.

Da da da... Da da da... The gunshots were crisp and the bullets whistled. Blood flowers exploded on the bodies of the three devils and there was even blood mist in the air.

Seeing that their battalion commander had opened fire, the other soldiers naturally showed no mercy and opened fire. Soon there were no Japanese soldiers standing anymore, as they were all shot to death on the ground.

"Go, check them one by one and finish off the enemies!" Shen Quan glanced to the south and said to the soldiers around him.

Why didn't Shen Quan let the team continue to move south and fight those puppet troops? The reason is simple. When the devils were asking for mercy and raised their guns to fight to the death, the puppet soldiers faced the Eighth Route Army soldiers who rushed over. They raised their guns decisively and knelt on the ground to beg for mercy! Well, the Eighth Route Army treated prisoners well. If you surrender at this time, your life will be saved!
"You guys only know how to surrender one by one, can't you pick up your guns and fight?" When the Japanese under Shen Quan's men were finishing off the enemy, Zou Ming spoke in Zhangqiu dialect and scolded the puppet army prisoners! There was no other way. After fighting for so long, they had been suppressing their own strength and "playing house" with the puppet army, just to avoid scaring the Japanese away.

What was the result? When the time came for a decisive battle, the puppet troops actually surrendered!
"Who told you to surrender? Huh? Don't you know that I have been holding back for hours, just thinking about killing some people? Huh? Look at our comrades, who doesn't want to kill a few more enemies and gain merit?"

"Ahem... Sir, if we don't surrender, we'll be dead now! We've heard that the Eighth Route Army treats prisoners well and provides them with food. We haven't even had breakfast yet..."

"Sir, we want to eat knife-cut noodles..." "Do you want to eat Shandong big-eared scalp? Knife-cut noodles? We can only eat pancakes all day long! Okay, instructor, you take care of the prisoners, I'll take the people to the front to take a look!"

Zou Ming, who was full of anger, brought a platoon of soldiers and quickly walked to the position where Yagi was, and saw Zou Ming with a mocking smile on his face.

"Are you laughing, Old Shen? It's just that you beat the Japanese and we didn't catch up? Don't say anything. When we attack Yangquan, we must take the lead!" Zou Ming said, pinching his waist.

"Hahaha...you are going to take the lead? You are leading more than a hundred people, and you are going to take the lead? Ask the comrades in our battalion whether they agree or not?" Shen Quan said, pointing at the soldiers who were cleaning the battlefield.

"We don't agree..." The soldiers gave face to their battalion commander and shouted loudly.

"Hahaha..." Hearing this unanimous response, Shen Quan became even more proud.

The reason why the two of them could have such a relaxed and proud conversation was because there was no battle to be fought on the battlefield now! Well, in the north, didn't Zhang Dabiao still have a battle? But the people Zhang Dabiao led were facing the Japanese artillery and the team protecting the artillery. How much combat effectiveness could they have?

At the very least, if the artillery kills a lot of people, they should deploy the mountain artillery first, right? Artillery without deploying the mountain artillery, without weapons for self-defense, is like a tiger without claws and teeth, that is Fat Orange!

As for the devil's escort? Wasn't that the focus of the artillery before? The artillery bombarded continuously, and Zhang Dabiao led his men to approach quickly, and greeted them with various automatic weapons from a distance of a hundred meters. When it came to the real close combat, they would shoot with guns if they could, and they were not soft-hearted at all!
If the Japanese in Yangquan City had not seen the bad situation and closed the city gate in advance, Zhang Dabiao would have led his men to seize the city gate by now!

It is worth mentioning that the walls and gates of Yangquan were no longer what they used to be! Well, they were completely dismantled and taken away during the Hundred Regiments Campaign...

The current city walls and city gates were rebuilt on the original site. The city wall is built with a layer of bricks on the outside of the rammed earth pile, and the city gate is simply made of concrete pillars with a large iron gate, which looks very modern in style.

Of course, the Japs also learned from the lesson of the last time the city was captured. When repairing the city wall, they built some bunkers and secret bunkers directly on the top of the rammed earth to strengthen the overall defense.

Because the Japanese captured civilians to serve as laborers to build the city walls, the structure of the city walls and the locations of the bunkers were all within our control, and there were no secrets at all.

The battlefield was quiet, but the Japanese in the city were not! The reason was that the Japanese had only five battalions in an independent mixed brigade, and the 5th brigade was responsible for guarding eight county towns. The key point was that he had to send troops out to add more personnel to the strongholds and towns around the railway and highway lines.

In a word, the only troops left in Yangquan City are an infantry squadron, half an engineering squadron, and the brigade's communications, health, and military police teams.

"Damn it, we were about to form a new division, why did this happen?" Major General Nakajima Tokutaro sighed as he looked at the map around him. The location he was staring at was not Yangquan, but a huge city not far from Yangquan. That's right, it was the huge city that was still under siege, and there were still some devils inside.

"As for the areas around Yangquan, the Eighth Route Army has appeared in Shouyang, Ping'an County, Xiyang and other places and fought! Ping'an County sent a telegram for help at first, because Yamamoto's special forces were in Ping'an County, and we had to dispatch troops to support them. But Ping'an County was a bait, and now we can't contact them. It is very likely that it has been captured by the Eighth Route Army!"

"But now, the artillery team we sent out has been looted by the Eighth Route Army. We no longer have any artillery in the city. We have completely lost the advantage of artillery! The only advantage we have is to mobilize the aviation force for air support! But how many aerial bombs can the aviation force use?"

"Ask for help, we must ask for help! Also, the defenders in Shouyang should not go to support Ping'an County, it is meaningless, directly reinforce Yangquan! And the defenders in Yuci should also be transferred back! And..."

Nakajima Tokutaro kept mumbling in his mind, thinking about how to break the situation, but after thinking about it, it was more reliable to ask for help! He was an independent mixed brigade with a total strength of no more than 5000 troops. Some of his troops were besieged in the giant city by the Eighth Route Army, and some of his troops were destroyed or injured in sporadic battles in recent times. His combat strength did not exceed 4200 people.

The key is that those who can fight are not considered to be mobilized! He still has more than 1000 troops in his headquarters to participate in the security battle in Beiyue District! Unless he abandons the counties around Yangquan, abandons the Pingliao Highway, shrinks the troops back, and fully defends Yangquan, the troops are too dispersed! The key is that distant water cannot quench a nearby fire, a cup of water cannot extinguish a car fire, and impatience cannot eat...

Time, time is running out, let’s ask for help!
So, just as Zhang Dabiao and his men were happily collecting the spoils, sending the wounded back, and pulling back the newly captured mountain artillery, an urgent telegram was sent from Yangquan City, sending a signal for help to the First Army and the headquarters of the North China Front Army.

"Commander, hahaha... we've made a fortune. We've brought back 12 mountain cannons, not a single one is missing, including the artillery carts! Commander, you can form an artillery battalion!" At the temporary command post of the independent regiment, Zhang Dabiao laughed and asked for credit from Li Yunlong.

"What? The reinforcements from Yangquan were all wiped out, and the loss of more than 800 soldiers?" At this time, Gangcun in Beiping could no longer sit still. (End of this chapter)