Bright Sword: From Northwest Shanxi to Shangganling

Chapter 128 Reverse Slope Bombardment

"Call the Third Battalion and ask about the situation at the Nankou position." Inside the regiment headquarters, Chen Chengxing said as he looked at the Nankou position where a huge battle was taking place.

After hearing the order, the combat staff immediately called the front line.

"Hello? Hello?! Third Battalion? Can you hear me?"

"Hey?!"

The operations staff shouted for a long time, but found that they could not contact the front line, so they could only report: "Captain, the telephone line must have been blown off."

"Let the communications platoon repair it immediately, and quickly!" Chen Chengxing ordered.

The battle on the front line is in full swing right now, and the downed telephone lines will have a huge impact.

"Yes!"

The communications platoon immediately sent out communicators to search for the area where the communication was cut off.

However, the Japanese were still bombarding the second and third line positions at Nankou, and it was difficult for the communications platoon to enter the battlefield and repair the lines under the bombardment.

After ten minutes or so, Chen Chengxing could no longer wait, as one minute could decide life or death on the front line.

"Monk, take a squad of guards and follow me!" Chen Chengxing ordered.

"Yes!"

Chen Chengxing and his group braved the artillery fire and quickly ran to the front line through the communication trench.

Just as we arrived near the command post of the Third Battalion, a shell fell nearby.

"boom!"

"Captain, be careful!" Wei Dayong instantly threw Chen Chengxing to the ground.

"Get up, get up! I was about to lie down, and you pounce on me all of a sudden. Do you want to crush me to death?" Chen Chengxing shouted.

Wei Dayong weighed about 170 to 180 kilograms himself, and with two Mauser pistols, a rifle, and hundreds of bullets, weighing more than 200 kilograms in total, he pounced on Chen Chengxing and almost gave him a stitch in the side.

"Oh" Wei Dayong hurriedly stood up and helped Chen Chengxing up.

Chen Chengxing didn't bother to say anything more, but immediately entered the third battalion command post.

As soon as Chen Chengxing walked into the command room, he saw Sun Xun holding a phone and shouting, "Hello? Hello!"

After shouting twice without any response, Sun Xun immediately grabbed the handle of the phone and started cranking it.

"Hey! Captain! Can you hear me? Hey!"

"Captain?! Captain!"

Chen Chengxing couldn't help laughing when he saw this scene, so he stepped forward and patted Sun Xun on the shoulder: "Third Battalion Commander, if you have anything to say, just say it in person. There's no need to be so loud."

Sun Xun turned around and saw that it was the team leader! He was immediately overjoyed and said, "Oh! Team leader, you don't know how anxious I am!"

"What's the situation now?" Chen Chengxing asked directly.

"Captain, come here." Sun Xun said as he led Chen Chengxing out of the underground bunker and pointed at the devils across the way.
"The Japanese should be preparing for a strong attack now. They defeated several hundred people before, but now they are gathering troops again. According to the report from the observation post, the Japanese have gathered at least thousands of people this time!"

"The 12th Company has suffered heavy casualties. I have already withdrawn them. The 9th Company is now on the battlefield, and they have also suffered heavy casualties. I am preparing to have the 10th Company take over the defense."

Although the Japanese's previous artillery positions were destroyed by Italian artillery, only two guns were destroyed.

The other two were snatched away by the Japanese at the cost of their lives.

Then the Japanese used the Type 41 mountain gun as an infantry gun. They no longer built fixed positions, but pushed them to the front line for close shooting.

This poses a great threat to the Nankou position.

Moreover, the enemy was hiding behind a small mound, making it difficult for the Italian artillery to attack, and the mortars could not reach them due to the distance.

While Chen Chengxing was observing the situation of the Japanese on the front line, Sakata Nobutsu was also observing the Eighth Route Army on the position.

"Now the Eighth Route Army's hilltop positions have been basically destroyed. As long as our next offensive is strong enough, we will be able to capture the Nankou position." Sakata Nobutsu said as he put down the telescope.

"Captain, should the Third Battalion continue to be responsible for the attack?" asked Chief of Staff Harada Jichiro.

"Is the first battalion in place?" asked Nobutsu Sakata.

"They are in place. They are now assembled 500 meters behind the Third Squadron," said Harada Jichiro.

"Then let the Third Battalion and the First Battalion form a wave-like attack. If we fail to take the Nankou position this time, no one is allowed to retreat!" ordered Nobutsu Sakata.

Nobutsu Sakata is well aware that even a lion needs to use all its strength to fight a rabbit.

Vice Admiral Xiangyue only gave him three days, and now one day is almost over. There must be several lines of defense waiting for him.

After all, according to intelligence, the New Second Regiment has 2 to people, but only of them have appeared on the front line until now. Where are the rest? They must have been deployed on other lines of defense.

Sakata Nobutsu suffered a loss in intelligence. The main force of the New Second Regiment had more than 4 people, not to mention that the Third Guerrilla Team was also in Erlang Mountain.

The troops on Erlang Mountain, even without counting the independent guard company, numbered as many as 5.

If Chen Chengxing recalled all the guerrillas and reorganized them, the New Second Regiment would immediately have the organization of a division.

Now, in other bases, many regiments have been upgraded to brigade-level detachments or even independent divisions in this way.

This was also the reason why Luo Ping asked Chen Chengxing before. Seeing that the troops were upgraded even later than the establishment of the New Second Regiment, Luo Ping was a little anxious.

It’s not that Luo Ping wants to be promoted, but when he goes to the division headquarters for meetings, he meets those people and sometimes gets bullied.

After all, except for the regiments of the 386th Brigade that have always followed the headquarters and have no fixed base, the others with bases have developed very rapidly. Only the New nd Regiment is deliberately controlling the number of troops.

Luo Ping certainly knew the true strength of the New Second Regiment, but he couldn't say it. If he said that the guerrillas of the New Second Regiment were more capable of fighting than the battalion-level units of other regiments, no one would believe him at all.

Luo Ping had looked for Chen Chengxing more than once, but Chen Chengxing knew the future situation and believed that blindly expanding the military force now would be irresponsible to the soldiers.

The development of the new Second Regiment must ensure that the combat effectiveness of the troops does not decline, otherwise Chen Chengxing would rather not expand the troops.

Anyway, there will be plenty of opportunities to expand the army in the future. It will be after 43 years that the new Second Regiment will be able to let go and develop vigorously.

Looking through the telescope at more than a thousand Japanese soldiers moving forward, Chen Chengxing knew that the Japanese were going to get serious.

Before, the Japs were only advancing in squadrons at most. And when the Japs moved forward, the two Type 2 mountain guns and four Type 4 infantry guns continued to fire at the Nankou position.

"Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!".
Shell after shell hit the position.

"Company Commander! The Japs are coming!" the observation post shouted.

"Comrades! Go! Pay attention to the movement of light machine guns!" Company commander Yu Yong of the 10th company ordered loudly.

Although the Japanese artillery is still firing continuously, since the Japanese troops have arrived, the 10th Company must take over.

Even if the sky falls down now, the 10th Company will have to hold on with its head.

After the Japanese entered the attack range, the commander of the First Battalion, Yukiro Horikita, drew his command knife and shouted, "Kill the chickens!"

"Da da da", "Da da da", "Da da da".
The heavy machine guns that had been prepared immediately began to fire continuously at the positions of the 10th Company.

At the same time, under the command of Saito Masao, the first-line infantry began to crouch down, began to advance forward, and also began to shoot at the positions.

More than 700 Japanese infantrymen formed five waves of attacks and began to rush towards the Nankou position continuously.

Moreover, this time, even though the Japanese were suppressed and unable to move, no one retreated, and the subsequent Japanese continued to attack in turns.

In order to stop the Japanese's frenzied attack, Sun Xun successively filled in the 11th Company and the resting 12th Company, but the Japanese were still getting closer and closer.

Three of the Third Battalion's heavy machine guns were destroyed in succession by the Japanese artillery, and the remaining heavy machine guns had to be moved more quickly.

The 12 60mm mortars of the Third Battalion had few shells left, but they still could not stop the Japanese attack.

The Japanese had too many grenade launchers. Each squad had one, and two battalions had a total of 2.

The mortars of the third battalion could only suppress the Japanese firepower, but as the shells became less and less, the mortars were forced to stop gradually.

Although Chen Chengxing still had some 60mm artillery shells in his hands, they were already the assets of the New Second Regiment and could not be used easily until the last moment.

"Sun Xun, order the troops to retreat to the reverse slope position." Chen Chengxing ordered.

When the Japanese launched an attack on the Nankou position, 18 82mm mortars had already moved to the hill behind the Nankou position.

We can launch fire attacks on the Japanese invaders who attack the hilltop at any time.

"Yes!"

Following Chen Chengxing's order, the troops on the Nankou position began to retreat and gave up the position on the hill.

The Japanese also quickly rushed to the top of the hill and began to use their height advantage to attack the 3rd Battalion which had built a position on the reverse slope.

"Order the mortars to fire!" Chen Chengxing ordered as he looked at the increasing number of Japanese soldiers on the hill.

"Fire!" the operations officer ordered into the phone.

"put!"

"Boom~" "Boom~" "Boom~" "Boom~" "Boom~".
"Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!".
The Japanese soldiers who had just climbed to the top of the hill had not even had a few minutes to enjoy their excitement before they were knocked to the ground by the sudden and intensive artillery fire.

Moreover, at this time, the positions on the hilltop had been almost destroyed by the Japanese mountain artillery, and the Japanese simply did not have many places to hide.

For a time, the Japanese casualties increased dramatically.

The leader of the team, Saito Masao, saw that things were not going well and immediately ordered, "Turn around! Turn around immediately!"

The troops are now in complete disarray and must be withdrawn and reorganized.

Seeing that the Japs began to retreat, the artillery camp gradually stopped firing.

The third battalion, which had been waiting for a long time at the reverse slope position, immediately sounded the charge.

"Beep, beep, beep, beep"

"Comrades! Follow me!" Sun Xun shouted.

"kill!"

"Kill!"

The soldiers of the third battalion quickly rushed back to the top of the hill and took advantage of the chaos in the enemy's organization to chase after them.

After chasing for a hundred or two hundred meters, Sun Xun shouted, "Stop chasing! Retreat to our position and repair it immediately! Plant all our mines!"

It would take at least half an hour to an hour for the Japanese to withdraw and launch a new offensive. This period of time was the Third Battalion's chance to rebuild its defense.

Nobutsu Sakata in the rear looked at the dense artillery fire on the top of the hill with a grim expression.

He had already seen through the sinister intentions of the Eighth Route Army. If his attackers were too few and he could not capture the hilltop position, the two sides would engage in a positional war. But if he sent a large army to attack the hilltop, the Eighth Route Army would bombard the hilltop position. The more people he sent, the greater the casualties would be.

Moreover, the Eighth Route Army's artillery fire from the rear posed a greater threat than their own frontal artillery fire.

The firepower projected by more than a dozen mortars is no small number.

Of course, Nobutsu Sakata was confident that the Eighth Route Army did not have many artillery shells, but even so he could not use the lives of his soldiers to fill the gap. Once the Third Regiment suffered too many casualties, he would definitely be held accountable.

Faced with this situation, it would be a good idea to use small forces to coordinate more intensive firepower, but the current situation does not allow it.

The mountainous area is really not conducive to the locust army's firepower deployment.

The Locust Army's superior heavy artillery, tanks and armored vehicles were simply unable to participate in the battles in the mountains.

The equipment you carry is already the limit.

"Order the troops to retreat and stop the attack!"

"Harada-kun, send a message to the headquarters and request tactical guidance."

Since nothing could be done, Nobutsu Sakata chose to cut his losses in time.

Although the Locust Army cannot use heavy artillery and tanks, they can still send planes to participate in the battle.

The planes can suppress the opposite artillery positions, and then attack again to prevent the Eighth Route Army from continuing to bombard the hilltop positions.

(End of this chapter)