Bright Sword: From Northwest Shanxi to Shangganling

Chapter 343 We're Allies
"Counterattack! Counterattack immediately!"

The Japanese company commander lay on the ground and kept shouting.

However, not a single member of the puppet troops raised their head.

They all lay trembling on the ground like quails.

It felt like my ears had been blown up.

Are you kidding me? They're being bombarded by artillery fire!

That's at least a dozen heavy cannons!
At this point, let alone raising your head to fight back, even being slightly overweight makes you more vulnerable to being shot.

"Bagaya road!"

The Japanese company commander was furious when he saw the puppet troops who seemed to be deaf.

However, the situation was urgent, and he didn't have time to get angry with these useless people.

"Third Squadron! Immediately seize the high ground to the southeast! Prepare to hold it and await reinforcements!"

With such intense shelling, Lu Ye must have heard it.

If they can hold out for an hour, reinforcements will arrive!
As soon as the Japanese soldiers started crawling on the ground, the heavy mortar fire suddenly stopped.

And in just a few short minutes.

The twelve heavy mortars of the two battalions fired more than a hundred shells.

The Japanese soldiers and their puppet troops were bombed to death, especially in the first round of attacks.

As the shelling ceased, the bugle call sounded.

"Beep beep beep beep"

"Kill!"
Eighth Route Army soldiers charged out across the mountains and fields.

The Japanese company commander was startled when he heard the bugle call to charge.

However, he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the number of Eighth Route Army soldiers who had rushed out.

With about two thousand people, there is still room for a counterattack.

"Everyone! Tao Ci, get ready!" The Japanese company commander shouted, drawing his command sword.

Just as he was about to lead the charge, he suddenly heard the sound of a bugle call from the side.

The Japanese company commander's expression changed drastically when he saw more than two thousand Eighth Route Army soldiers rushing out from the side.

With the assistance of over a thousand locust-fighting troops, and with only a hundred or so men left under his command, he could still put up a fight against the two thousand Eighth Route Army soldiers.

But if you add more than two thousand Eighth Route Army soldiers, the situation will be completely different.

Faced with an Eighth Route Army force several times larger, the morale of the Locust Army would definitely plummet to rock bottom.

It might have been one before, but now it's probably down to zero.
A locust guerrilla force that has lost its fighting spirit is of no help to the locust army.

The battle between a hundred or so locust soldiers and several thousand Eighth Route Army soldiers would likely be a fight to the death.

The Japanese company commander chose to abandon the puppet troops and instead shouted in Japanese.

"Gentlemen! Now is the time to sacrifice our lives for our country!"

"Heaven is making trouble with the black card board!"

"Onboard!"
The more than one hundred Japanese soldiers charged with great momentum.

However, what they encountered was the main force of the New Second Regiment, which was not at a disadvantage even when fighting the old Japanese soldiers in bayonet combat.

The soldiers of the First and Second Battalions felt no pressure facing these greenhorns.

In just one clash, within minutes, the hundred or so Japanese soldiers who charged were all wiped out.

After all the Japanese soldiers were wiped out, the puppet troops who had been shouting and pretending immediately and smoothly threw down their rifles and knelt on the ground.

"Sigh, they're so weak, the Japanese are really weak." Sun Xun shook his head.

Previously, a hundred or so Japanese soldiers in formation could hold out for at least ten or twenty minutes.

As a result, the Eighth Route Army formed a formation instead, and these old, weak, sick, and disabled people couldn't even last 5 minutes.

"The task of cleaning up the battlefield is assigned to the First Battalion. The Second Battalion is to quickly support the Fifth Independent Regiment and encircle Tianyun Town!" Sun Xun ordered.

"yes!".
Xu Fugui of Tianyun Town is still unaware of the fate of the reinforcements.

But he could hear the sound of the shells exploding very clearly.

"What the hell is going on?"

"Why would the Eighth Route Army mobilize such a strong force? And use so many heavy artillery pieces?"

Xu Fugui paced back and forth in the command post.

The Japanese are indeed on a downward spiral, but they should still have some deterrent power.

Why would the Eighth Route Army be so foolish as to attack us?
“Brigade Commander, now is not the time to consider this,” Liu Hai said from the side.

"The stronger the Eighth Route Army is, the lower the probability that the Japanese will support us."

The core of the Japanese defense was Rono.

If the Japanese discover that the Eighth Route Army can threaten the safety of the local area, they will likely reduce their defenses.

At that point, Tianyun Town will become an abandoned pawn.

“Of course I know that,” Xu Fugui said.

"But we don't have a good solution right now!"

Xu Fugui couldn't bear to give up his wealth.

He will not surrender easily unless absolutely necessary.

"Lieutenant Liu, go and tell the men to hold on a little longer."

"Just tell them the locust army will arrive soon!"

"yes!".
After Liu Hai left, Xu Fugui immediately went to the table and pulled out a drawer.

Xu Fugui didn't even glance at the silver dollars in the drawer, and simply put the drawer aside.

Then, he reached into the empty drawer of the table and groped around.

"Report: The First Battalion has reported that they have completed the ambush on the enemy reinforcements and are now encircling Tianyun Town."

"We expect to arrive in half an hour."

"I understand." Cao Lin put down his binoculars.

In the past hour or two, although the Fifth Independent Regiment did not exert its full strength, it had already pushed to the edge of Tianyun Town.

The blockade trenches, barbed wire, and barricades set up by the puppet troops on the perimeter have all been cleared.

We're just waiting for the final assault.

Half an hour later, the first brigade completed the encirclement.

Xu Fugui saw the Eighth Route Army appearing from the east and knew that there were probably no reinforcements coming.

"Ling~Ling~Ling~"

Just as Xu Fugui was about to go up to the city wall to check the situation, the phone on the table rang.

"Hey?"

"Taijun!"

"Hold on? The Eighth Route Army outside the Japanese camp has reinforced its troops. Now the mountains and fields are covered with them, and they even have heavy artillery!"

"Sir, I'm afraid I can't hold out," Xu Fugui said, almost in tears as he listened to the voice on the phone.

Damn it, it's easy for you to talk when you're not the one suffering.

Don't you even look at how many Eighth Route Army soldiers are out there?

"Baka yarou! That's an order!"

The Japanese soldier on the other end of the phone hung up after he finished speaking.

"Japanese devils! I'll fuck your mother!" Xu Fugui cursed into the phone.

He even gave orders? Isn't that just sending me to my death?
Hearing Xu Fugui's loud cursing, Liu Hai walked in from outside.

"Brigade Commander, what's going on?"

"The Japanese told us to hold out!" Xu Fugui angrily slammed the phone onto the table. "Hold out? Hold out for how long?" Liu Hai asked.

Given the current situation, we should be able to hold out for another hour or two without any problem.

"When? Until the Eighth Route Army retreats!" Xu Fugui said irritably.

The Japanese never mentioned whether there would be any reinforcements.

However, according to Xu Fugui's estimate, there was an 80% chance that reinforcements would not arrive.

"Isn't this asking the impossible?" Liu Hai's expression changed drastically.

The First Brigade is now cornered.

If they surrender directly, even if they are released, the Japanese will not spare them.

But if they resisted, Liu Hai didn't think they could stop the Eighth Route Army; they would all be doomed.

"Brigade Commander, what should we do now?" Liu Hai asked.

The lives of more than a thousand brothers in the First Brigade were decided in Xu Fugui's next sentence.

Xu Fugui patted his pockets and gritted his teeth, saying:
"Damn it, let's wait and see. If we can stall, we'll stall. If we can't stall, then forget it!"

For his own wealth, Xu Fugui chose to personally command from the front lines.

"Quick! Heavy machine gun! There are Eighth Route Army soldiers over there!"

"Are you blind? This is this side!"

"Fire! Full firepower!"

After Xu Fugui's careful command, the soldiers of the 2nd Battalion successfully broke through to the city gate of Tianyun Town.

And they piled up 10 high explosive charges at once.

"boom!!"

With a deafening explosion, the city gate, which was more than 5 meters high, collapsed instantly.

"Comrades! The city has fallen! Follow me and fight!"

"Kill!"
The puppet troops, who had initially dared to fight back, saw their turtle shell broken and their morale immediately plummeted.

As long-time traitors, they were well aware of the power of the Eighth Route Army.

Even though there's only one breach in the city wall now, Tianyun Town can already be declared lost.

After the various units of the New Second Regiment rushed into Tianyun Town, they did not all rush to deal with the puppet troops at the forefront.

Instead, they quickly advanced inwards and then divided and surrounded the area.

The new second regiment already had experience in siege warfare when they attacked Ping An before, so they were even more skilled this time.

"Don't move! Don't move! Surrender and you'll be spared!"

"Don't shoot! We surrender!" the puppet troops shouted.

"Behave yourselves, you all know our Eighth Route Army's policies. If you cause any misunderstandings, don't worry about bullets not having eyes!"

"Don't worry, Eighth Master, we understand, we understand." The puppet soldier raised his hands and nodded repeatedly.

“Eighth Route Army commander, I want to see your Commander Chen,” Xu Fugui said, stepping forward.

The only unit with so many troops in this area is the New Second Regiment.

"You son of a bitch, a traitor like you dares to meet our regimental commander?"

The soldiers next to him went up and slapped him hard across the face.

"Stop hitting me! I'm being hit! I really have something important to do, something really important!" Xu Fugui begged for mercy repeatedly.

"Xiao Li, wait a minute."

Seeing that Xu Fugui didn't seem to be lying, the platoon leader next to him reached out to stop Xiao Li from doing so.

"It doesn't look fake to me. Let's send it to headquarters," the platoon leader said.

He was also worried that something might be related to the new Second Regiment.

"Yes!"

According to the rules, before sending Xu Fugui to see the regimental commander, a body search must be conducted to prevent the presence of any dangerous items.

As a result, two pieces of paper were found on Xu Fugui.

Xiao Li quickly handed it to the platoon leader next to him.

The platoon leader took a look and, lo and behold, the first one was an arrest warrant for a "bandit leader" issued by the Japanese First Army.

Below that were written three large characters: 'Chen Chengxing'.

Although the wanted poster was a portrait, Chen Chengxing's appearance could still be vaguely discerned.

"Damn it, fire!" the platoon leader roared.

Why is he carrying the commander's wanted poster with him?
"Hey, stop hitting me! Stop hitting me!"

"Misunderstanding! It's all a misunderstanding!"

Xu Fugui curled up on the ground, trying to minimize the area he would be beaten.

The arrest warrant he was carrying was something he had casually picked up from the table to wrap up his letter of appointment.

I ended up forgetting about it.

"You're Xu Fugui?"

Chen Chengxing looked at the person in front of him with a bruised and swollen face with some confusion.

"It's me! It's me!"

"Commander Chen, it's all a misunderstanding," Xu Fugui said.

"The First Brigade is not a traitorous force. I have a letter of appointment from the Second War Zone Command, including the First Army."

"We are following Commander Yan's orders; we are taking a roundabout approach to save the country."

"We're allies."

Chu Yunfei's lips twitched upon hearing Xu Fugui's words.

Who are these people that Commander Yan has found?

"Letter of appointment? Let me see it."

Chen Chengxing hadn't expected that Yan Xishan had started planning to retake Shanxi so early on.

It now appears that a large number of puppet army leaders in Shanxi have received their appointment letters.

A soldier from the guard company standing nearby handed Chen Chengxing the appointment letter that had been delivered with him.

"Heh. Looks like they really are allies." Chen Chengxing casually tossed the letter of appointment onto the table.

"That's right, they're friendly forces, friendly forces!" Xu Fugui said, bowing and scraping.

"Why are you friendly forces attacking my Second New Regiment?" Chen Chengxing suddenly asked.

If you were an allied force, shouldn't you have stated that before the battle?
Now that the war is over, you're saying we're allies?
Xu Fugui was speechless.

He's a fence-sitter, but clearly he can't tell the truth now.

Chen Chengxing ignored him and directly gave the order:

"Send them all to the POW camp! Have the comrades in the enemy work department speed up the screening."

Because there are red and black records, the initial screening is relatively simple.

Those with many red dots will be selected for a second review.

If there are many black marks, they should all be pushed to the Fourth Division.

"Yes!"

"Commander Chen, we're truly friendly forces! We're truly friendly forces!"

Xu Fugui was dragged out, crying and screaming.

When Chu Yunfei saw Chen Chengxing looking at him with a half-smile, he immediately sat up straight and adjusted his hat.

"I am a member of the Eighth Route Army!"

(End of this chapter)