Bright Sword: From Northwest Shanxi to Shangganling

Chapter 131: Withdrawal from the Battle
Inside the Sakata Brigade’s temporary command post.

"How many red barrel bullets do we have left?" asked Nobutsu Sakata.

The use of poison gas bombs today was very effective, and Nobutsu Sakata wanted to use it again.

"Captain, we can still strike 2-3 more times," said Harada Jiro.

Now the military industries in both the mainland and Manchukuo have been fully utilized, and all the factories are producing war materials, so the output of poison gas is not that high.

During the previous Battle of Wuhan, the Locust Army used a large number of poison gas bombs, and the North China Front Army’s stock of poison gas bombs was running low.

This time, because Erlang Mountain, which the Sakata Regiment was going to attack, was easy to defend but difficult to attack, the First Army Command distributed some poison gas bombs.

"Hey, the troops should have a good rest tonight and launch a strong attack tomorrow."

"We must be prepared to prevent night attacks by the Eighth Route Army," said Nobutsu Sakata.

"Hai!"

The next morning, just after dawn, the Sakata Unit began to take action.

In order to advance faster, under the command of Nobutsu Sakata, the Japanese began to use poison gas bombs.

However, knowing that the Japanese had brought poison gas bombs, the New Second Regiment had already taken certain precautions.

The New Second Regiment had killed many Japanese devils before, and they had also seized some gas masks, but the quantity was not large, and these things were very heavy when fighting guerrilla warfare, so they were not distributed.

But by the evening, the logistics department had delivered all the gas masks to the front line.

Now each soldier on defense has one, and those who have not been assigned have retreated to the second-line position.

But at this time, the Japanese did not know that the first battalion on the position was equipped with gas masks, and they thought it was the same as yesterday. Therefore, after launching a large number of poison gas bombs, the Japanese wearing gas masks began to rush towards the position quickly.

Nobutsu Sakata looked at the position without any counterattack and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but curl up.

At this time in the position, Xu Wu was staring at the Japanese without blinking. After the Japanese entered a distance of 50 meters, Xu Wu fired the first shot.

"boom!"

As soon as Xu Wu fired his gun, the soldiers who had been prepared immediately opened fire.

"Da da da", "Da da da", "Da da da".
"Thump, thump, thump." "Thump, thump, thump."
"Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!".
At this moment, all the weapons on the position were roaring.

Everyone was filled with anger and wanted to avenge their comrades in the Second Battalion.

The soldiers threw grenades farther than before.

The Japanese soldiers who were thought to be just out to reap the harvest were caught off guard and were immediately knocked down in large numbers like grass being mowed.

Sakata Nobutsu's face froze instantly as he looked at the sudden fierce firepower on the battlefield.

There were dozens of light and heavy machine guns, but it didn't look like the enemy had any damage at all.

"Damn it! Why didn't the poison gas bomb work!" Sakata Nobutsu said angrily.

"Captain, should we provide fire support?" Harada Jiro asked hurriedly.

Now the two squadrons responsible for the attack have been suppressed by the firepower of the Eighth Route Army. If they are not rescued, they will suffer heavy casualties.

"Order the artillery battalion to provide fire support and let the attacking troops withdraw!" ordered Nobutsu Sakata.

After the artillery bombarded the position, the poison gas on the Eighth Route Army's position was blown away, and the troops had to withdraw and re-prepare.

"Hai!"

After receiving the order, the Japanese artillery positions immediately opened fire.

"Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!".
Seeing that the enemy's firepower had weakened, the infantry in charge of the attack immediately withdrew.

"What? The Eighth Route Army has gas masks?" Sakata Nobutsu was very surprised after hearing Harada Juichiro's report.

When he fought against the Guo army before, the other side didn’t have many gas masks. How could the Eighth Route Army have them?

"Captain, according to the soldiers' report, the gas masks used by the Eighth Route Army are Type 99 gas masks, which should have been seized from our army before." said Harada Jiro.

"idiot."

Although every soldier in the Locust Army is equipped with a gas mask, most soldiers do not carry them with them because the Chinese army does not have poison gas bombs.

Only when the troops are carrying poison gas bombs will the soldiers bring them after being notified, and use them during attacks.

Nobutsu Sakata didn't expect that the Eighth Route Army could seize so many gas masks.

Judging from the density of firepower alone, there must be at least four to five hundred people on the position.

"The troops should suspend the attack and transfer the flamethrower team from the rear to help destroy the fortifications on the Eighth Route Army's positions." Sakata Nobutsu ordered.

"Hai!" Harada Jichiro immediately went forward to pass the order.

Because of the terrain and the fact that the Eighth Route Army also had heavy artillery, the Mountain Artillery Battalion could not deploy artillery positions in front of the Taohuazhai position. That would expose the artillery to the opposite side, and once the artillery positions were discovered, they would be attacked immediately.

However, the artillery could not move forward, which resulted in many blind spots on the position. The bunkers in these blind spots posed too great a threat, and the power of the infantry artillery was not enough to destroy them in a short period of time.

At this time, the flamethrower is the only option.

Fortunately, the First Army Headquarters assigned an engineering squadron, otherwise it would be really difficult for Nobutsu Sakata to deal with it.

After the flamethrowers arrived, Nobutsu Sakata ordered another attack.

The Japanese flamethrowers posed a great threat to the bunkers, especially the bunkers of the New Second Regiment, which were made of earth and wood. Once burned, the bunkers themselves would start to burn.

The soldiers had no choice but to evacuate the bunker.

However, even though all the bunkers were destroyed, the Japanese did not occupy the Taohuazhai position.

Instead, the two sides fought back and forth on the battlefield several times, and even engaged in several hand-to-hand combats, with heavy casualties on both sides.

At night, no matter how angry Nobutsu Sakata was, he had no choice but to suspend the attack.

His firepower advantage cannot be fully utilized at night, and a forced attack would result in greater casualties.

Inside the regiment headquarters, Chen Chengxing looked at the battle report sent by the first battalion, thought about it, and decided to withdraw from the battle.

In the afternoon, Luoping sent someone to notify us that they had already transported all the supplies away and were now evacuating with the last batch of supplies.

One night was probably enough time for Chen Chengxing to escape the possible pursuit by the Sakata Unit.

"Send orders to all frontline positions, bury all the mines, and we will retreat!" Chen Chengxing ordered.

"Yes!"

The messengers immediately dispersed to inform each position. After receiving the order, the soldiers buried all the mines on hand on the position, and then quietly withdrew from the battle.

At dawn the next day, when the Japanese rushed to the position, they gained nothing except being hit by a series of mines.

"Bakayaro!" Nobutsu Sakata said angrily as he looked at the empty position.

He has already applied to the headquarters and learned that the planes will drop mustard gas when they bomb tomorrow. By then, even if the Eighth Route Army has gas masks, they will be useless. As a result, the Eighth Route Army has now disappeared.

"Order the troops to advance and search the entire Erlang Mountain to find the Eighth Route Army's arsenal!" ordered Nobutsu Sakata.

Although Nobutsu Sakata knew that there might be nothing left in the Eighth Route Army Arsenal, he still wanted to destroy it.

When the Japanese stepped on a landmine and found Erlang Cave, there was nothing but garbage on the ground inside the cave, and not even a screw could be found.

"Baka! Baka!" Nobutsu Sakata cursed angrily while standing at the entrance of Erlang Cave.

After cursing for a long time, Sakata Nobutsu turned around and ordered: "Order the troops to blow up the Eighth Route Army Arsenal."

"Hai!"

Upon receiving the order, the Japanese engineers immediately entered the cave and began to calculate where to blast the cave to collapse.

However, after calculating for a long time, the engineers found that in order to blow up the stone cave, a huge amount of explosives would be needed, and the Sakata Regiment simply did not bring that much explosives.

Of course, if all the grenades and artillery shells carried by the Sakata Regiment were piled in there, it would barely collapse half of it.

However, they didn't know whether the stones could be cleared away or whether the space could be cleared for the Eighth Route Army for free.

After hearing the report from the engineering squadron, Nobutsu Sakata's face turned blue with anger.

Did the Sakata Regiment suffer more than a thousand casualties just to work for the Eighth Route Army?
"Just blast the entrance of the cave and see if you can collapse it." Sakata Nobutsu said with a gloomy face.

No matter what, he had to cause some trouble for the Eighth Route Army.

The engineering squadron received the order and went forward to calculate again. They finally came to the conclusion that it could be blown down, but it would be useless. The Eighth Route Army could completely clear away the rubble, which would simply expand the passage.

However, when reporting, the engineers only mentioned things that could be blown down, and did not mention anything about things that the Eighth Route Army could easily clear.

They all saw the expression on Sakata Nobutsu's face and were afraid that he would make another unreasonable request.

"Yoshi. In that case, let's carry out the explosion." Sakata Nobutsu nodded with satisfaction.

Blasting the passageway also completes the mission of destroying the arsenal.

Although there are no machines inside, you can still tell whether the factory is damaged or not.

Half an hour later, after completing the preparations, the Japs moved away from the cave entrance, and the engineer pressed the detonator.
"boom!!!"

With a huge explosion, the entrance of Erlang Cave collapsed.

However, the rubble only blocked the lower half, and there was still a huge space in the upper half for people to crawl in and out.

It was obvious that none of the Japanese engineers were willing to crawl in and create trouble for themselves, so everyone pretended not to see it.

After all, it is a fool's act to compete with a mountain. Sakata Nobutsu was just angry, otherwise he would not have chosen to waste explosives here.

Even if Erlang Cave was blown down, what would happen? The New Second Group could just find another Sanlang Cave or Silang Cave.

After venting his anger at Erlang Mountain, Nobutsu Sakata did not choose to return to Taiyuan immediately. Instead, he ordered the mountain artillery battalion and the wounded to return, while he led his light troops forward, intending to raid the base of the New Second Regiment.

They have been fighting for so many days in a row, and have not been able to eat or sleep well every day. Now they are in urgent need of collecting some chickens, ducks, pigs and sheep to replenish their bodies.

However, Nobutsu Sakata obviously thought too much.

When they entered the mountain, the villagers near Erlang Mountain disappeared without a trace.

In the villages far away from Erlang Mountain, militiamen were also deployed on the roads. As long as the Japanese came here, those who had mountains available would immediately go into the mountains, and those who did not would go into tunnels.

As for things like food, they had been hidden very tightly, leaving the Japanese with no chance at all.

After sweeping for two days and finding nothing and stepping on more than a dozen mines, the Sakata Regiment had no choice but to withdraw from Dayun Mountain cursing. Instead of this, they might as well return to Taiyuan, where at least they could have a hot meal in the barracks.

After confirming that the Japanese had retreated, Chen Chengxing immediately ordered the New Second Regiment to return to Erlang Mountain.

After such a big battle, there are a lot of things to deal with. At least all the mines have to be removed and Erlang Cave has to be renovated.

When leading the team back to Erlang Mountain, Chen Chengxing finally had time to open the system.

【The battle is over.】

【Obtained 1512 honor points. 】

[Current Honor Points: 29439/100000.]

[Side quest: Defend the Arsenal. Completed! ]

【Task completion rate 80%】

【Rewards are waiting to be claimed! 】

[Rewards are being distributed]

[Skill points gained: 2]

This battle ended with the New Second Regiment's active retreat, so Chen Chengxing could have expected that the system would not give him victory.

However, he was somewhat surprised that the completion rate was only 80%.

After all, although the equipment and raw materials may be bumped and scratched during transportation, it does not affect their use.

Now it seems that Erlang Cave has also been tacitly accepted as part of the arsenal, but I don't know what kind of damage the Japanese will cause.

If it can't be used, we have to find a suitable place.

There is no other place in Dayun Mountain that is as suitable as Erlang Mountain.

After thinking about it for a while, Chen Chengxing came to his senses and opened the system panel.

There is nothing much to say about the skill points, so let’s start with insight.

[Insight: LV4 (slightly accomplished)]

With the upgrade of these two points, Chen Chengxing immediately felt different.

Now recalling the actions of the Sakata Regiment, Chen Chengxing could judge the enemy's major combat intentions.

If the two sides were to fight now, Chen Chengxing could reduce his own casualties by hundreds, and then add hundreds of casualties to the Sakata Corps.

(End of this chapter)