Bright Sword: From Northwest Shanxi to Shangganling

Chapter 130: The Japs Can't Beat Them, So They Play Dirty

Chen Chengxing received a report from the front line that the Japanese troops on the front were moving.

When Chen Chengxing heard this, he knew that Sakata Nobutsu was going to concentrate all his forces and prepare to attack Taohua Village.

"Order the third guerrilla team to take over the defense of the first battalion, and the first battalion will retreat to Taohua Village."

"Since the Japanese have made an attack, we can only respond," said Chen Chengxing.

The supplies from the arsenal have not been moved yet, so it is not time for the New Second Regiment to retreat yet.

After all, if you want to produce weapons, in addition to mechanical equipment, raw materials are also essential. Without raw materials, weapons cannot be produced.

"By the way, how is the field artillery platoon preparing?" Chen Chengxing suddenly asked.

"The field artillery platoon reports that they have dug a pit not far from the artillery position and are ready to bury the artillery and evacuate quickly at any time," said the operations staff.

The Italian artillery was so heavy, plus the vehicle in front weighed 2 tons, it was impossible to move it in a short period of time. Rather than wasting time and taking risks, it was better to bury it on the spot. As long as it was well covered, the Japanese would not be able to find it, and it would be impossible for them to turn Erlang Mountain upside down.

After the Japanese retreat, the ordnance workers will return to Erlang Mountain and dig them out then.

"Okay, let them get ready. When necessary, they need to fire artillery to support the front line." Chen Chengxing nodded.

"Yes!"

The Japanese in front of the position only launched a few experimental attacks because their troops had not yet moved into position, trying to lure out the firepower points on the position and then destroy them with artillery.

However, the war has come to this point, and it is obvious that no one will be fooled by the Japanese's tricks.

Faced with the Japanese's tentative attacks, the Second Battalion defending Taohuazhai used more light machine guns and grenade launchers for defense, and would also fire a few 60mm mortars when necessary.

However, heavy weapons such as heavy machine guns, infantry guns, and 82mm mortars showed no intention of opening fire.

Seeing that the Eighth Route Army on the position was not fooled, Sakata Nobutsu didn't care. He thought it was just a test and the real attack was yet to come.

Just as Nobutsu Sakata was holding up a telescope and saw that the front line had been withdrawn again, Juichiro Harada walked into the temporary command center.

"Captain, the troops are ready and can launch an attack at any time," reported Harada Jiro.

"Has the plane taken off?" asked Nobutsu Sakata.

If we want to quickly defeat the Eighth Route Army on the battlefield, air bombing is absolutely necessary, otherwise the battle will turn out to be the same as before.

"We're already preparing for takeoff and are expected to reach the battlefield within 10 minutes," said Harada Jiro.

"Yoshi, order the mountain artillery battalion to fire. Once the planes arrive, they can directly participate in the bombing." Sakata Nobutsu ordered.

Before the attack, it is necessary to destroy the fortifications on the Eighth Route Army's positions as much as possible, which is crucial to the offensive of the troops.

"Hai!"

Half a minute later, the mountain artillery battalion, which had been prepared, began firing artillery shells at the Taohuazhai position.

"Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!".
Except for a small number of observers, all the soldiers of the Second Battalion hid in their anti-artillery holes and allowed themselves to be bombarded by artillery shells from outside.

A few minutes later, the roar of an airplane was heard in the air.

Looking at the two bombers appearing in the sky, Chen Chengxing asked: "Are the heavy machine guns ready?"

Knowing that the Japanese planes would come, Chen Chengxing would definitely take countermeasures.

Although the possibility of a heavy machine gun hitting an airplane is very low, we cannot help but take precautions. At the very least, we must prevent the Japanese airplanes from being too rampant. The effects of high-altitude bombing and low-altitude bombing are completely different. The lower the plane flies, the higher the hit rate of the bomb will be, and the greater the damage will be.

If the Japanese dropped bombs from high altitude, the pilots would not be able to see the situation on the ground and could only drop the bombs and be done with it.

That way, not every bomb would fall on the position.

"The engineering company has added a bracket to the heavy machine gun's tripod, which allows it to fire anti-aircraft weapons, but it cannot be moved," the operations staff reported.

"It doesn't matter if we can't move, as long as we can make the Japanese planes afraid." Chen Chengxing said casually.

In order to let the Japanese planes know that they had been locked on, the heavy machine guns used for anti-aircraft shooting were even equipped with tracer bullets.

After arriving at the battlefield, the Japanese bombers immediately began to lower their altitude, opened their ammunition bays and prepared to drop bombs.

"The Japanese planes are coming! Get ready!" shouted Kang Yong, the company commander of the machine gun company of the 1st Battalion.

In order to better defend against air attacks, heavy machine guns need to be used in a concentrated manner, so all 8 heavy machine guns of the machine gun company are here.

Seeing the plane entering the designated airspace, Kang Yong immediately ordered: "Let go!"

The machine gun company is not a dedicated air defense unit, they can only fire at a fixed point

“Da da da da.” “Da da da da.” “Da da da da.”
The eight heavy machine guns immediately opened fire.

The bombardier in the Japanese bomber in the air was preparing to drop the bomb when the Japanese plane pilot suddenly began to maneuver and pull up to high altitude.

"Everyone, attention, there is anti-aircraft fire on the ground!" the pilot shouted.

"Do we need to call for backup?" said the pilot of the other plane.

Normally, dealing with anti-aircraft fire is the job of escort fighters.

If the bombers go to bomb the anti-aircraft fire points, they will not be able to bomb the defensive positions.

"No, just switch to high-altitude bombing."

"We will return after the bombing and bomb again if necessary," the pilot added.

This position is not far from Taiyuan, only a 10-minute flight.

"receive."

After making the decision, the Japanese bombers readjusted their routes and switched to high-altitude bombing.

At this time, the heavy machine guns on the ground can only watch. After all, they are only 7.7mm heavy machine guns, and hitting low-altitude targets is already their limit.

"Hey~~~~"

“BOOM!!” “BOOM!!” “BOOM!!” “BOOM!!”.
Without other means of air defense, the Second Battalion could only passively take the beating. After dropping their bombs, the Japanese bombers did not stay any longer but chose to return directly. They had reported the situation to their superiors, who decided to send two fighters to take over their subsequent cover mission.

Fighter jets are not only fast but also very agile. Even when flying at low altitudes, heavy machine guns have little impact on them.

As the Japanese bombers withdrew, the mountain artillery battalion carried by the Sakata Regiment also gradually stopped firing.

"The Japs are coming!" shouted the surviving observation post.

Zheng Hua shook his head, which was buzzing from the explosion, and shouted, "Everyone, get ready!"

At this time, the Japanese infantry under the command of Nobutsu Sakata had launched an attack on the Taohuazhai position from three directions: left, center and right.

The middle lane is the main attack, and the other two lanes are for diversion.

However, Zheng Hua on the position could not let his guard down. He had to deploy sufficient troops on the left and right wings to deal with the Japanese attack.

In one afternoon, the Japanese launched eight consecutive attacks under the cover of aircraft and artillery, all of which were defeated by the Second Battalion.

Of course, Chen Chengxing was also constantly sending additional reserve troops from the supplementary battalion to the position.

In the end, the Japs even began to use incendiary bombs and poison gas bombs.

When the front line was in danger, Chen Chengxing ordered the mortar battalion to open fire with all their strength to block the Japanese attack, and personally led the guard company to push the Japanese back.

"The supplementary battalion will take the soldiers from the second battalion down, and the first battalion will take over the position. The trenches must be blown up with grenades." Chen Chengxing ordered.

"Yes!"

The soldiers immediately sent the Second Battalion, which had lost its combat capability, to the rear position.

In order to occupy the Taohuazhai position as quickly as possible, the Japanese used red barrel poison gas bombs, also known as "sneezing agents", which were the most commonly used poison gas bombs by the Japanese in China.

It’s not that the Japanese have a bottom line and don’t use mustard gas, which is more lethal, but that mustard gas has a latent period of several hours and cannot immediately make people lose their ability to resist.

Although sneezing agent is less toxic than mustard gas, it only takes 30 seconds to cause continuous sneezing, tears and vomiting, which can quickly make a person lose his ability to fight.

Moreover, the Japanese were equipped with gas masks that could protect against sneezing agents.

However, a simple gas mask cannot protect against mustard gas, which can enter the body through the skin.

What the Japs wanted was to quickly occupy the position. If mustard gas was used, they would not dare to take up the position in a short period of time.

If Chen Chengxing had not provided timely reinforcements, the Japanese would most likely have landed on the Taohuazhai position.

In order to defeat the Japanese, four of the New Second Regiment's 82mm mortars were destroyed again, and now only ten were left.

Fortunately, it was already evening, and the most the Japs could do was launch one more attack.

"TND, the Japs are simply beasts. When they can't win, they resort to dirty tricks!" Xu Wu said angrily as he looked at the Japs at the foot of the mountain.

"Hmph! The Japs have always been like this, always taking despicable steps." Chen Chengxing said.

Chen Chengxing had long anticipated the Japanese' use of poison gas bombs.

Whenever the Japs' attack was unsuccessful, their usual choice was to use poison gas bombs.

However, Chen Chengxing did not expect that the Japanese would use it so early. Overall, the Japanese still have the advantage.

"Xu Wu, you must step up vigilance tonight to prevent the Japanese from making a night attack. I have ordered the rear command to transfer all the gas masks seized previously to Taohua Village, and they should be delivered soon." Chen Chengxing said.

"Don't worry, Captain." Xu Wu nodded.

Chen Chengxing did not stay at the front line for long. After taking a turn, he went to the rear position to check the situation of the second battalion.

"Captain."

"Captain."

At this time, the poisoning symptoms of the soldiers in the Second Battalion had been greatly alleviated. Although they were still weak all over, they were no longer as powerless as before.

"Captain, we..." Zheng Hua struggled to stand up.

"Just lie down." Chen Chengxing pushed Zheng Hua back onto the wooden board.

"Comrades, the Japanese were unable to defeat the New Second Regiment and resorted to despicable tactics. This actually demonstrates our combat effectiveness!" Chen Chengxing turned around and said to everyone.

"The Japanese used red barrel poison gas bombs this time, which are not very toxic. Everyone can rest assured and recover after a while." Chen Chengxing said.

This was the first time that the New Second Regiment encountered poison gas bombs, and the soldiers were actually unsure of themselves. They had only heard that the Japanese's poison gas bombs were terrible, but had never actually come into contact with them.

After hearing Chen Chengxing's explanation, and knowing that his body was indeed recovering and not getting worse, the soldiers finally felt a little relieved.

After a tour of the Second Battalion, Chen Chengxing returned to the regiment headquarters.

"Commander, can the Second Battalion really get better?" Wei Dayong asked in a low voice.

"Can I still lie to you? You can read, so can't you read more newspapers? The Japanese used a large number of red barrels of poison gas bombs in the Battle of Wuhan, and there were follow-up reports in the newspapers." Chen Chengxing said unhappily.

"Hehe...I just get a headache when I see these words in a row," Wei Dayong said embarrassedly.

If you ask him to go out and lift stones, he won't say a word, but if you ask him to calm down and read a newspaper, you might as well beat him up.

"You guy! After this battle, you will follow the political commissar to write a battle report." Chen Chengxing said.

"Ah?!" Wei Dayong was stunned.

Battle report? That's a job for humans?
"Oh, what? It's settled." Chen Chengxing said affirmatively.

Chen Chengxing plans to train Wei Dayong. The New Second Regiment will grow stronger sooner or later, and Wei Dayong can't always be a guard.

"Oh" Seeing that the captain didn't seem to be joking, Wei Dayong could only nod and agree.

As for what to do when the time comes, all we can do is say more good things to the political commissar.

(End of this chapter)