Bright Sword: From Northwest Shanxi to Shangganling

Chapter 170 Xu Wu: Commander, what do you think about the night attack?

In the morning, Hidehito Noguchi led the Locust Army to launch several attacks. The six infantry guns never stopped firing, and at least two or three hundred shells were fired.

At the same time, the mountain artillery squadron also participated in the fire attack from time to time, and the ground fortifications on the Tujialing position were almost all destroyed.

It was not until after 12 noon that Hidehito Noguchi withdrew the Locust Army and prepared to launch a formal attack.

"Order the mountain artillery squadron to launch a range attack on the Eighth Route Army positions to cover the infantry attack!"

Like the Eighth Route Army, the Japs like to put their strongest troops in the front when fighting.

In order to accomplish the goal in one go, the mountain artillery squadron opened fire at full capacity, with a firing rate many times higher than the sporadic attacks in the morning.

"Boom!" "Boom!".
The Japanese mountain artillery started from the barbed wire in the front and spread backwards until it reached the ridge of the mountain. All the positions built by the New Second Regiment on the front were within the range of the artillery fire.

Inside the frontline command post, Chen Chengxing held up a telescope and watched the flames rise continuously: "The devils are here again, using the same tricks over and over again."

"Captain, the Japanese are almost using up their first axe, and the next step is the second axe," said Xu Wu on the side.

"Don't take it lightly. Even though the Japs only have these few tricks, their combat effectiveness should not be underestimated," Chen Chengxing instructed.

The reason why the Japs stick to these three tricks is that they are indeed effective, otherwise they would have changed them long ago.

"Don't worry, Commander. No one dares to be careless on the battlefield." If you are careless on the battlefield, you are playing with your own head.

"Well, let the soldiers get ready. The mortars will launch a covering bombardment first, and then will cooperate to attack the Japanese machine guns." Chen Chengxing said.

The killing radius of the 82mm mortar shells is about 15 meters, and the Japanese infantry attack adopts skirmish tactics, with only one or two people within a range of 15 meters.

In other words, if it is against infantry, one gun can kill at most 2 of them.

But light machine guns are different. A Japanese light machine gun team consists of four people, and the distance between them is not very far, especially the main and deputy shooters must be together.

One shot from the mortar can kill four people. After destroying the machine gun team, the Japanese's offensive capability will be greatly reduced.

The only weapons the Japanese could rely on for their squad-level attacks were grenade launchers and light machine guns.

"Taoci, give it to me!" Hidehito Noguchi drew out his command knife and shouted to the 1st Squadron.

He only had three infantry squadrons, and he didn't dare deploy them all to the battlefield at once. He could only let the squadron with the strongest combat effectiveness take the lead in attacking.

Under the cover of artillery fire, the Japanese basically rushed to a position of 600 meters, then rolled to a position of 400 meters, and then crawled in a high posture to a distance of 200 meters.

Then the shelling stopped, and the squads deployed, launching an attack in a low crawling position.

Seeing the Japanese rushing out of the position, Chen Chengxing immediately ordered: "Let the 82 mortar company open fire and carry out covering fire on area No. !"

Each mortar company had already divided the area in front of the position on the reverse slope. When conducting a range strike, each gun only needed to fire according to the determined parameters without even having to conduct a test fire.

"Boom!" "Boom!".
As the mortars opened fire, the attacking Japanese immediately suffered a severe blow.

Although the Japanese were advancing in a scattered line, three artillery companies were firing in this wave. Before the Japanese could advance to a range of 3 meters and launch squad fire, they suffered more than 200 casualties, which was 1/5 of a squadron's strength.

Looking at the injured and dead soldiers, Hidehito Noguchi in the back was heartbroken.

Although the empire's replenishment of soldiers is still relatively timely, the combat effectiveness of the newly recruited soldiers is obviously not as good as that of the previous soldiers.

The reason is very simple. In the past, new recruits had to train for a year, but now they only train for three to six months. This results in a gap between their tactical movements and shooting accuracy and those of previous soldiers, and the gap is not small.

The most obvious thing is that the grenade launcher is not as accurate as before.

The veteran’s hit rate at close range of 200 meters is over 85%, and at medium range of 300 meters it is 50%.

However, the hit rate of the newly recruited soldiers at a close distance of 200 meters was less than 60%. Hidehito Noguchi simply didn't dare to imagine what would happen in the future.

However, no matter how distressed Noguchi Hidehito was, he did not order a retreat, but instead ordered the attack to continue. After all, there were more elite troops trapped at the mountain gate.

But Noguchi Hidehito's perseverance was in vain. When the troops broke through the barrage of bullets and launched an offensive against the first battalion on the front line, the first battalion's eight heavy machine guns once again pinned the Japanese to the ground.

Although the heavy and light machine guns of both sides did not dare to fire in one place for too long due to the threat of artillery, one minute of shooting was enough to suppress any Japanese soldier.

As long as the Japanese soldiers were restricted in their movements, a 20mm mortar shell would fall from the sky within 60 seconds.

Ever since the Erlangdong Arsenal produced the 60mm mortar, the New Second Regiment began to unconsciously move toward the classic tactic of "machine gun suppression and mortar destruction."

As long as there is enough ammunition, this tactic will be used by everyone.

Chen Chengxing’s greatest confidence now comes from the inventory that Erlang Cave has accumulated over the past few months.

Looking at the increasing casualties of the 1st Squadron, even though Noguchi Hidehito was unwilling to give up, he had no choice but to order a retreat. If the fighting continued, more than half of the casualties would be lost.

"Is this still the Eighth Route Army?" Noguchi Hidehito muttered to himself as he looked at the Tujialing position.

In Noguchi Hidehito's impression, if the heavy machine guns of a main regiment of the Eighth Route Army were concentrated together, there would be about ten of them.

But there definitely weren't that many mortars, and where did these small-caliber mortars come from? He had never seen them in the hands of the Eighth Route Army before, and the range of this mortar was far greater than that of the grenade launcher.

This makes the grenade launcher a bit awkward. After all, a grenade launcher team of two people acting together is obviously a larger target than infantry acting in skirmishes.

Therefore, the grenade launcher team and the light machine gun team are often the first to be hit by artillery fire, and usually three shells come down at the same time.

Faced with the new Second Regiment that had the advantage of time, place and people, Hidehito Noguchi felt overwhelmed.

After sending out several squad-level troops to launch attacks, Hidehito Noguchi discovered that the artillery fire of the New Second Regiment had not diminished, and he had no choice but to stop the attack.

"Telegraph soldier, send a message to your superiors and request tactical guidance!" ordered Hidehito Noguchi.

Now it is impossible to break through the defense of Tujialing relying solely on the reinforced brigade in his hands.

"Captain, why don't the devils fight anymore?"

Looking at the Japanese retreating and no longer attacking, Xu Wu felt a little sorry. If the Japanese had consumed more manpower on the position today, the New Second Regiment would have been able to attack Tanzhuang at night.

"This is what a smart person does. If something is impossible to do, stop the loss immediately." Chen Chengxing said.

There were many Japanese who dared to take risks like Mizuhara Kosuke, but there were not many who were as steady as Noguchi Hidehito. "Let the comrades take a short break, re-strengthen the positions, and lay mines. I think the Japanese must be asking for help, and the probability of aircraft support is very high."

Although the Japanese also have tanks and armored vehicles in Shanxi, it is obvious that they will not deploy them to Dayunshan.

If you want to provide rapid support at this time, airplanes are the best choice.

Taiyuan, First Army Headquarters.

Yoshio Shinozuka felt a headache when he saw Noguchi Hidehito's telegram for help. Now he couldn't even spare a squadron of troops, and if he wanted to transfer more troops, he had to transfer them from the front line in southern Shanxi.

Yamaoka Michifumi also saw the dilemma of Shinozuka Yoshio, so he said, "Sir, why don't we send two planes for support? Although the reconnaissance planes don't carry much ammunition, if several of them are deployed together, the damage effect is still considerable."

Although the reconnaissance aircraft is not a professional bomber, it can still carry four 50-kilogram small bombs. Although this is the smallest bomb, its power is much greater than that of a 4mm howitzer shell.

Two reconnaissance planes carrying eight bombs were enough to provide a powerful wave of fire support to the Noguchi Battalion, and the reconnaissance planes could also straf the artillery positions behind the Eighth Route Army.

According to Noguchi Hidehito's report, the mortar attack by the Eighth Route Army defenders was the biggest reason why he was unable to break through the Eighth Route Army's defense.

After hearing Michifumi Yamaoka's proposal, Yoshio Shinozuka thought about it and felt that this was his best choice at the moment.

"How many planes are still on standby at Taiyuan Airport?"

"There are three more on standby now."

The First Army stationed in Shanxi has only one flying squadron, with a total of four reconnaissance aircraft. Normally, one or two of them will be dispatched to conduct reconnaissance in Shanxi.

"Send them all out!" Shinozuka Yoshio affirmed. Since they need support, they should use their greatest strength and try to defeat the Eighth Route Army in Dayun Mountain.

"Hai!"

Half an hour later, Chen Chengxing heard a buzzing sound in the air.

"The enemy planes are coming! Get ready for battle!"

After judging that the Japanese would send aircraft for support, Chen Chengxing ordered the mortar position to be camouflaged with a shed like the forward command post, so that the Japanese aircraft would be difficult to detect at high altitude and high speed.

In the era without artillery radar, counter-artillery was extremely difficult, especially when facing camouflaged artillery positions.

Moreover, the New Second Regiment had been at the Tujialing position for two days, and the mortar position had already been built very well.

With the arrival of the Japanese planes, Hidehito Noguchi led his troops to attack again.

"Boom!" "Boom!".
The mountain artillery squadron was still the first to launch the attack.

The plane circling in the air saw the flames of the exploding shells on the ground and knew that was the target of their bombing, so it began to adjust its course and prepare to drop bombs.

“Boom!!” “Boom!!” “Boom!!”.
As more than a dozen bombs fell, the Tujialing position became a mess.

Seeing that the Tujialing position had been covered by the flames of the explosion, Noguchi Hidehito drew out his command knife and shouted, "Taoci, give it!"

Hidehito Noguchi knew very well that this might be the only support his superiors could give him. If he could not defeat the Eighth Route Army in this wave, the later ones would be even more difficult.

"Order the mortars to fire! Pay attention to the movements of the aircraft. If the aircraft launches an attack, the artillery will immediately hide."

For the New Second Regiment, the value of artillery is far greater than that of mortars, and it is still difficult to destroy the mortars directly by relying on the shooting of aviation machine guns.

After all, there are no precision parts on the mortar, so it doesn't matter if the barrel or the base is hit by two bullets.

After receiving the order, the soldiers on the mortar position immediately pulled back the straw mats covered with dirt above their heads and began firing continuously at the designated targets.

"Boom!" "Boom!".
Looking at the Eighth Route Army firing again, Noguchi Hideto said anxiously: "Use the radio to contact the planes immediately and ask them to find the artillery positions of the Eighth Route Army and suppress them!"

This was the last wave of attack by Noguchi's battalion, and for this purpose, Noguchi Hidehito put all his elite infantry into the attack. If this wave was unsuccessful, it would be even more impossible to complete a breakthrough after the soldiers of the transport team were incorporated into the front line.

The signalman next to him immediately picked up the microphone and kept calling:

"Request to attack the Eighth Route Army artillery position immediately!", "Request to attack the Eighth Route Army artillery position immediately!".
At this time, the Japanese reconnaissance planes in the sky had already seen the infantry on the ground being continuously hit by artillery fire, but the speed of the shells flying was so fast that no matter how sharp their eyes were, they could not see the flight trajectory of the shells.

Moreover, the sound of mortar firing is very small, and the muzzle flame is not large, so it is very inconspicuous during the day.

By the time the Japanese planes found the artillery position, it was several minutes later.

However, facing the scattered mortar positions, the three reconnaissance planes were obviously unable to completely suppress them, and each position was only half opened to reveal the muzzle, and the people were still hiding under the straw mats.

If a plane came over, the soldiers would immediately retreat into the cat ear holes dug in advance upon the observer's warning. If the plane went to fire other artillery, they would come out and continue firing.

Although under the suppression of aircraft, less than half of the mortar positions could fire, this was still enough to give the Japanese soldiers a hard time.

After the Japanese finally survived the mortar coverage fire, they were met with heavy machine gun fire and 60mm mortar attacks.

Looking at the roaring heavy machine guns on the battlefield, Noguchi Hidehito said in disbelief: "Why is the firepower of the Eighth Route Army not affected? Could it be that the locust army's bombs are fake?"

He could never have imagined that at that time the New Second Regiment had 24 heavy machine guns at the Tujialing position.

The Japanese bombing had indeed caused considerable casualties to the First Battalion, but the mortar's covering fire bought the Second Battalion time to replenish its position, so it seemed that the Japanese bombing had no effect.

"Order the troops to retreat immediately!" Noguchi Hidehito gave the order as soon as he reacted.

Faced with an army whose strength far exceeded theirs and whose individual soldier combat capability and firepower were no weaker than their own, the Eighth Route Army, their limited force was simply unable to complete the assault mission.

Watching the Japanese retreating like a tide, Xu Wu immediately turned his head and looked at Chen Chengxing.

"Captain."

"I know. The second and third battalions should prepare for a night attack! The first battalion is responsible for holding the position." Chen Chengxing nodded.

The Japs now only have one infantry company of less than 2 elite infantrymen, so the probability of a successful night attack is very high.

Hearing Chen Chengxing's order, Xu Wu opened his mouth and wanted to say something, but in the end he didn't dare to say a word.

(End of this chapter)