Bright Sword: From Northwest Shanxi to Shangganling

Chapter 218 If I had enough shells, I would dare to attack Taiyuan
Chijian Ridge.

Just when everyone had happily finished their meal and were preparing to take a break before continuing on their journey, Ma Zhiyuan hurried into the temporary regiment headquarters.

"Captain, the cavalry platoon reports that the Japs have appeared around us, and they are forming a siege!"

Chen Chengxing took the record from Ma Zhiyuan and circled all the places where the Japanese were found on the map with a pencil.

"The Japs are coming so quickly!" Xu Wu and Sun Xun looked at the map with serious expressions.

The Japs had just gone through a night of forced march, and now they were still able to catch up with us. Their physical fitness is really good.

Judging from the map, although the Japanese have not yet formed a complete encirclement, a basic encirclement has been formed.

Looking at the map, Chen Chengxing knew that he couldn't wait any longer. Every extra minute he stayed would increase the danger.

"Xu Wu, you lead the 3rd and 4th companies to take the lead, and the troops will move immediately!" Chen Chengxing said seriously.

"yes!".
Xu Wu led his troops to advance rapidly southward. According to the intelligence from the Cavalry Reconnaissance Platoon, some Japanese troops had bypassed the New Second Regiment and established a blocking position in front. He had to eliminate this position before the main force arrived.

After running less than 5 miles south, Xu Wu saw the Japanese position.

After observing through the telescope, Xu Wu felt that this should be an infantry squadron without heavy weapons, which made Xu Wu feel relieved.

Of course, in order to march quickly, Xu Wu did not bring heavy weapons. He only had a few 60mm mortars and a few artillery shells.

"The artillery platoon will immediately build artillery positions and prepare to cover the infantry charge!" Xu Wu ordered, putting down the telescope.

The mortar was very simple to set up. In less than a minute, six mortars formed a small artillery group.

"Boom!" "Boom!".
"Enemy attack!"

The Japanese soldiers who were still building their positions were suddenly hit. They immediately threw the engineering shovel in their hands to the ground and retreated into the unfinished bunker.

"The enemy is coming!"

"Kill the chicken for me!" the Japanese squadron leader shouted.

Looking at the Eighth Route Army that had already launched an attack, the Japanese soldiers could only fight back under the bombardment.

However, the firepower of a squadron of Japanese devils is much weaker than that of two companies.

Moreover, because most of the soldiers in the 3rd Mixed Brigade were new recruits, they were completely unable to operate the important supporting firepower grenade launchers.

At a distance of less than 200 meters, only the more skilled Japanese soldiers could barely achieve a hit rate of 50%, while most of the remaining shooters could not even reach 30%.

Therefore, even though a Japanese squadron had 9 grenade launchers, their firing rate and hit rate were suppressed by 6 mortars.

The consequence of the artillery being suppressed was that machine gun fire points were constantly destroyed. The Type 99 light machine gun was not easy to use to begin with, and now it was being destroyed one after another, which led to the Japanese being completely suppressed.

When they were 30 meters away, Xu Wu took off the sword on his back and shouted, "Kill!"

"kill!".
After throwing a round of grenades, the soldiers launched a charge towards the Japanese.

"Taoci, give it!" The Japanese squadron leader waved his command knife and led the way out from the position.

However, the Japanese are now inferior to the First Battalion in terms of numbers or combat effectiveness, so they naturally cannot withstand Xu Wu's attack.

More than ten minutes later, the Japanese squadron leader saw that his troops were drastically reduced, so he could only order the use of grenades to forcibly break the contact between the two sides, and then ran away.

"Turn in! Turn in!"

Faced with the Japanese soldiers fleeing in different directions, the soldiers only chased them for a few dozen meters before being stopped by Xu Wu.

The combat objective has been achieved, there is no need to waste time on these thirty or forty Japanese devils.

In order to speed up the process, Xu Wu did not even clean up the battlefield, but immediately led the team forward and continued marching according to Chen Chengxing's established plan.

When Chen Chengxing led his team past, he only left behind a few dozen soldiers to simply clean up the battlefield, while the rest of the troops continued on their journey.

Half an hour later, when the Japanese completed the encirclement, the New Second Regiment had already jumped out of the encirclement.

Standing on Chijianling, Yukio Nara was a little disappointed.

"Baga. According to the intelligence, the Eighth Route Army has more than 10,000 soldiers. How can they be so fast?"

Although the stove on the ground did not look like the scale of tens of thousands of people, the Eighth Route Army had always been poor and destitute. Most of the Eighth Route Army soldiers encountered before did not make a fire, and even if they did, it would be impossible to heat up their meals and have enough food, so Nara Yukio did not suspect anything.

"The Eighth Route Army are all light infantry. They don't have heavy weapons, so their transfer speed is naturally very fast." said Ryotaro Toyama on the side.

It's not just the Eighth Route Army. When fighting on the front lines before, the Guo Army also retreated very quickly, and the Locust Army, which was burdened by heavy weapons, could not catch up at all.

Unless the Guo army holds out and refuses to retreat, the locust army will not be able to easily achieve complete annihilation.

"No, I still feel something is not right. According to the intelligence, the New Second Regiment is not an ordinary Eighth Route Army. Not only does it have artillery, but it also has a number of heavy machine guns. Its speed shouldn't be so fast." Nara Yukio said with a frown.

Originally, according to his estimation, even if this encirclement could not wipe out the entire New Second Regiment, it should be able to capture two to three thousand people, but now there is not a single one.

"Brigade Commander, you forgot that the Eighth Route Army has a cavalry battalion. As long as we use war horses to transport heavy weapons, these weapons will not slow down the marching speed." said Ryotaro Toyama.

"Sao Daisunai." Nara Yukio responded. For the transportation of heavy weapons, except for mountain cannons, which require special carrying equipment, other heavy machine guns or mortars, and even infantry cannons can be disassembled and tied directly to the horse.

This cavalry battalion was an unexpected force, and it seemed that the problem lay there.

"Mr. Dongshan, order the troops to continue pursuing southward! After a night of fighting and a morning of marching, the Eighth Route Army is now exhausted. As long as we can catch up with them, we will surely win a great victory." Nara Yukio ordered.

"Brigade Commander, should we reconsider this? The Eighth Route Army is an exhausted division, and our Third Mixed Brigade is also an exhausted division. Should we take a rest first and then gradually sweep southwards?" Toyama Ryotaro suggested.

The 3rd Mixed Brigade has not stopped since last night and has traveled dozens of kilometers on mountain roads. Now they are probably more tired than the 8th Route Army.

Nara Yukio waved his hand to stop Toyama Ryotaro from speaking.

"I believe in the warriors of the empire. A march of just a few dozen kilometers will not be a problem for me to recruit nuclear men!" Nara Yukio affirmed.

"Ha!"
After receiving the order from Nara Yukio, the Japanese soldiers could only cheer up and start chasing southward again.

In order to quickly catch up with the New Second Regiment, Yukio Nara ordered the Second Infantry Battalion to abandon all supplies and heavy weapons and move quickly as a light force.

Therefore, even with the 10% speed boost from Chen Chengxing's characteristic, the New Second Regiment with its heavy weapons still could not outrun the Japanese Second Infantry Battalion.

After receiving several reports from the Mounted Reconnaissance Platoon, and looking at the Japanese pursuers getting closer and closer, Chen Chengxing knew that if he continued like this, he would be caught up sooner or later.

If they wanted to increase the speed, they had to abandon the heavy weapons of the 1st and 3rd Battalions, but this was unacceptable to the New 2nd Regiment.

"Guerrilla Team One, follow me to Xiangyang Village!"

"Xu Wu, Sun Xun, the two of you lead the main force to Jiao Town to meet up with the regiment headquarters."

Chen Chengxing decided to use the terrain of Xiangyang Village to block the Japanese and create conditions for the transfer of the large force. As for the guerrilla team, they could wait until night to transfer.

"Captain, let me stay with the guerrillas." Xu Wu said hurriedly.

There are more than 4,000 Japanese heavily armed troops following behind them. If anything happens to the regiment commander, he will be in trouble.

"What nonsense! Am I the leader or are you the leader?"

"Follow the order!" Chen Chengxing said firmly.

"Yes!" Xu Wu and Sun Xun had no choice but to nod and agree.

After receiving the telegram from the Second Infantry Battalion, Nara Yukio was overjoyed: "Great, the Eighth Route Army has been caught by the Midorikawa Battalion!"

"Order the troops to speed up their march towards Yang Village!" Nara Yukio shouted.

"Ha!"
At three o'clock in the afternoon, the main force of the 3rd Mixed Brigade arrived at Xiangyang Village.

"Brigade Commander, according to my observation, there should be two to three thousand eighty troops in Xiangyang Village now." Junji Midorikawa reported.

Although Chen Chengxing only moved to Xiangyang Village with a guerrilla team, he made a lot of straw men using the straw in the village.

After putting a military cap on the straw man, wrapping it in a towel, or putting clothes on it, it looks quite realistic and blends in with the soldiers, and the Japanese cannot tell the difference unless they get close.

"Yoshi." Nara Yukio was extremely excited when he heard that he had captured two or three thousand Eighth Route Army soldiers. If he could capture this group of Eighth Route Army soldiers, the subsequent battles would be easier.

However, when Nara Yukio stood on the top of the hill and observed the Eighth Route Army building fortifications with a telescope, he was a little puzzled and asked, "Is this the main force of the Eighth Route Army?"

As far as he could see, none of these Eighth Route Army soldiers were wearing full military uniforms, which was somewhat different from what Nara Yukio had known before.

The regular troops of the Eighth Route Army normally wore military uniforms, and only the guerrillas wore ordinary people's clothes in order to hide.

"It is definitely the main force of the Eighth Route Army. The Second Battalion has already launched an attack. The Eighth Route Army is very powerful and has heavy machine guns and artillery." said Junji Midorikawa.

In the previous exploratory attack, the Second Battalion did not gain any advantage because they had no heavy weapons.

"Have heavy weapons? Then they are indeed the main force." Nara Yukio nodded. No matter which army it is, whether or not it has heavy weapons is an important factor in distinguishing whether it is the main force.

"Mr. Toyama." Nara Yukio turned his head and ordered.

"Tell the artillery battalion and the mountain artillery units of each independent infantry battalion that once they are ready, they don't need to wait for my order and can directly bombard Xiangyang Village!"

"Ha!"
Half an hour later, the Japanese artillery, which had made all preparations, launched an artillery attack, with a total of 20 mountain cannons continuously bombarding Xiangyang Village.

"Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!".
Chen Chengxing huddled in the anti-artillery cave, and the dirt above his head kept falling down.

"TND, a brigade of 5,000 people has so many mountain artillery. When will I be so rich?" Chen Chengxing patted the dirt on his head and said with some envy.

If he had so many artillery pieces, he would dare to poke Yoshio Shinozuka in the ass.

"I believe that the new Second Regiment will come into being sooner or later under the leadership of the regiment commander." Yang Hong on the side echoed.

"Forget it. I can't afford to support it even if I have it." Chen Chengxing sighed.

Before the artillery shells can be produced by themselves, it will be useless even if the New Second Regiment is given 6 mountain cannons. The current cannons are already the limit.

If we want to achieve freedom of artillery fire, we still have to place our hopes on mortars.

(End of this chapter)