Anti-Japanese War: I have unlimited assistance

Chapter 280: Completely annihilate the 3rd Brigade!

"Damn it, luckily I kept a trick up my sleeve."

In the Eighth Route Army headquarters, Li Yunlong immediately started cursing.

Kong Jie was also a little scared: "The Japanese used a very cruel trick. If our troops had really attacked just now, there would definitely be a lot of casualties."

"The Japanese are getting angry," Ding Wei said. "Normally, their planes don't fly out at night."

Li Yunlong also thought that the Japanese planes would not come, so he did not arrange air defense at all.

But his feint attack directly tricked the Japanese planes out.

So Li Yunlong quickly arranged anti-aircraft firepower and arranged personnel at each artillery position to conduct aerial observation. Once a Japanese aircraft was discovered, they would immediately stop firing.

As long as there is no muzzle flash, the Japanese planes cannot see the artillery positions on the ground.

After completing the arrangements, Li Yunlong ordered the artillery to continue firing.

The artillery groups of the Eighth Route Army began to fire rapidly again. The muzzle flames on the artillery positions flickered one after another. One shell after another shot into the sky, drawing orange-red arcs in the sky, and then fell at high speed towards the Japanese and puppet army positions.

"Boom boom boom..."

Continuous explosions and fireballs, billowing smoke and shock waves spread out in all directions, blasting the enemy positions into pieces again, and rolling up clouds of mud and gravel...

The endless exploding fireballs blew the night sky red, and were clearly visible even ten kilometers away. The wild beasts in the mountains were trembling in fear.

Kong Jie suddenly felt a little distressed about the shells: "Old Li, we only have three bases of 120mm mortar shells. Are they almost gone?"

Not only Kong Jie, many officers and veterans were also reluctant to part with the shells and bullets, and always wanted to save them.

The soldiers were so afraid of being poor that the idea of ​​saving ammunition was ingrained in their minds.

Ding Wei also said: "That's enough. The enemy has more than a thousand people. Let the troops charge in. The battle can be resolved in two hours at most. Save some shells. We still have to go back to Mengxian to fight the 39th Brigade."

"What's the rush?" Li Yunlong said with a smile, "Wouldn't it be better to let the Japs eat more shells?"

"I'm telling you, after this battle, if we can completely wipe out the 3rd Brigade."

"My brother Lin will reimburse us for all the weapons and ammunition we consumed in this battle."

After the soldiers' feint attack just now, Li Yunlong and Ding Wei judged that there were still about a thousand enemies based on the counterattack of the Japanese puppet troops.

These thousand Japanese puppet troops were naturally no match for the Eighth Route Army in Jinzhong.

But if the soldiers rushed forward like this, the enemy would fight back before their death, and they would inevitably suffer heavy losses.

What we need to do now is to completely use artillery shells to crush the enemy's body and will.

"real or fake!?"

Kong Jie's eyes suddenly widened.

"Is the reimbursement of weapons and ammunition calculated separately?"

Ding Wei also asked hurriedly.

"Then there are fake ones, which are of course calculated separately."

The corners of Li Yunlong's mouth were raised high.

If Boss Lin had not reimbursed the artillery shells, Li Yunlong would not have let the artillery fire for so long if the 120mm mortar shells had been used up and there was no place to replenish them.

The firing rate of a single 120mm mortar is 10 rounds per minute. Even if it is not rapid firing, it is 6-8 rounds per minute.

The 30 120mm mortars consume a lot of ammunition.

The 120mm mortar shells were indeed almost used up, but Li Yunlong felt that it was worth it to use more shells to kill more enemies and sacrifice fewer soldiers.

Li Yunlong wished he could use artillery shells to kill all the enemies so that not a single soldier would be sacrificed.

But this is impossible. War has its cruel rules. In a large-scale war, even if there is a huge disparity in strength, it is impossible for one side to have zero casualties while the other side is completely wiped out.

One share is for spoils of war, one share is for business, and one share is for reimbursement. After this battle, there will be three sources of income.

After realizing this, Ding Wei and Kong Jie's eyes suddenly lit up like four light bulbs.

Li Yunlong checked his watch. The bombardment had lasted ten minutes. He said sternly, "Pass my order. All artillery groups immediately cease firing grenades and switch to firing flares. Infantry from all units immediately rush forward to harvest the corn and eliminate the remaining enemies as quickly as possible!"

Without bunkers and anti-artillery holes, they could not withstand the lethality of artillery shells at all. The Japanese puppet army only had about 500 people at most.

"Yes!" Zhao Gang quickly conveyed the order.

As Li Yunlong gave the order, flares were fired towards the Xiyan Town area.

At this time, Xiyan Town had been bombed into ruins, filled with broken walls, broken bricks and tiles, and severed limbs. Some houses were set on fire by artillery shells. The entire Xiyan Town and the Japanese positions were repeatedly plowed by the Xu Jin barrage of bullets.

But even with this level of explosion, many enemies still survived. Needless to say, the puppet soldiers who survived had basically lost the courage to resist, but the surviving devils were stubborn and still fought like trapped beasts.

"Kill!"

"Come on!"

"Kill all the Japanese dogs and avenge our compatriots!"

"..."

The soldiers' shouts and cries rose to the sky. This time they were serious and rushed towards the enemy area from all directions.

"Da da da…"

A heavy machine gun of the Japanese army roared wildly, and several Eighth Route Army soldiers fell in a pool of blood. The rest of the soldiers quickly crawled to avoid it.

"Swish, swish, swish!" Three rockets with tail flames flew straight towards the Japanese heavy machine gun from different directions.

One rocket missed the target, and the other two rockets hit the Japanese firepower point in an instant, blowing the Japanese machine gunner and heavy machine gun into the air.

"kill!"

The soldiers jumped up and continued to attack.

The same scene was happening simultaneously around Xiyan Town.

"Bang, bang, bang..."

The Japanese opened fire sporadically with their Type 38 rifles, but this firepower was a drop in the bucket.

Just ten minutes later, with the artillery continuously providing vision with flares, the Japanese positions outside the town were breached and a large number of soldiers poured into the town.

Originally, Yanagishita Shigeharu planned to use small town street fighting to deal with the Eighth Route Army. The complex environment would minimize the gap in equipment. If they held out until tomorrow morning, reinforcements would arrive.

But Yanagishita Shigeharu did not expect that the Eighth Route Army had many more artillery shells than he imagined!

The Eighth Route Army's artillery fire directly razed Xiyan Town to the ground.

To fight street battles, you need alleys and houses!

Faced with the bombardment of more than 80 artillery pieces of various types, the Eighth Route Army soldiers in Jinzhong used bazookas to knock out the light and heavy machine gun fire points, and were generally equipped with Mauser rifles and submachine guns. By just one o'clock in the morning, the last Japanese position in Xiyan Town was cleared out.

The last Japanese position was the headquarters of the 3rd Brigade, which was the cellar. After the soldiers cleared the Japanese guards outside, they confirmed that there were Japanese in the cellar, and then aimed the flamethrower at the cellar and pulled the trigger.

As a burst of Japanese screams came from the cellar, several devils with their bodies burning rushed out screaming and running around with their teeth and claws bared, but the Eighth Route Army soldiers did not shoot them again. How could it be so easy to die quickly?

Japanese officers such as Yanagishita Shigeharu and Yamazaki Tatsuo were gradually burned into charcoal.

As the gunfire stopped, Li Yunlong immediately ordered the soldiers to clean up the battlefield, rescue the wounded, and prepare to return to the base.

The bad news was that the Eighth Route Army's artillery firepower was too strong, and many weapons and ammunition were destroyed, so not much was captured.

The good news is that the Eighth Route Army suffered very few casualties in the final annihilation battle.

……

Taiyuan.

First Army Headquarters.

Although it was late at night, the First Army Headquarters was still brightly lit. Tonight was a sleepless night for the Japanese devils in the First Army Headquarters.

The 3rd Brigade was surrounded by the main force of the Eighth Route Army in an extremely dangerous area. If it was not careful, the 3rd Brigade would be in danger of being wiped out.

At the door of the operations hall, a burst of hurried footsteps was heard, and Yoshio Shinozuka, Ren'ya Mutaguchi and other Japanese soldiers immediately looked towards the door.

The communications officer walked in quickly with a grim expression on his face and a telegram in his hand.

"Is this a telegram from the 3rd Brigade?"

Looking at the communications officer's expression, Yoshio Shinozuka's heart skipped a beat, realizing that something was not right.

"Hi!"

He walked up to Shinozuka Yoshio and reported in a hoarse voice, "General, Major General Yanagishita just sent a farewell telegram..."

"Nani?"

Yoshio Shinozuka's expression instantly turned ugly.

Mutaguchi Ren'ya and the Japanese staff officers immediately showed expressions of disbelief and shock on their faces.

Yanagishita Shigeharu sent a farewell telegram stating that the entire 3rd Brigade had been annihilated or was about to be annihilated.

No matter which one it is, it means the end of the 3rd Brigade...

"Read!"

Yoshio Shinozuka said with a grim expression as he waved his hand.

Didn’t the aviation unit report that it had completed the air support mission?
The Eighth Route Army's attacking force was attacked by the air force and must have suffered heavy losses.

How could the 3rd Brigade be wiped out so quickly?
The communications officer exclaimed, "Hi!" and, holding the telegram in both hands, read: "The Eighth Route Army bombarded our unit for 30 minutes. The aviation unit failed to hit the enemy. After the aviation unit left, the Eighth Route Army bombarded our unit for another 10 minutes. They have now launched a general attack on our unit. We are out of ammunition and food. The soldiers of the 3rd Brigade will die in devotion to the Tianhuang Army."

"Your Majesty the Heavenly Locust, embark! The Great Japanese Locust Army, embark!"

The Eighth Route Army's offensive also took some time, and the 3rd Brigade Headquarters had enough time to send a farewell telegram to the First Army Headquarters.

After reading the telegram, the communications staff immediately lowered his head.

Yoshio Shinozuka, Ren'ya Mutaguchi and a group of Japanese staff officers bowed their heads to express their condolences to the 3rd Brigade and the dead Japanese soldiers.

It was three full minutes later that the Japs raised their heads, but the entire operations hall fell into deathly silence.

Yoshio Shinozuka's eyes were fixed on the farewell telegram in his hand, and his whole body was motionless, like a clay sculpture.

After a while, Mutaguchi Renya asked in a harsh tone:

"Commander, will the 40th Brigade and other units continue to reinforce?"

"Ok?"

Shinozuka Yoshio came back to his senses, and he seemed to have aged several years in an instant. After thinking for a moment, he said:
"Continue to reinforce. Order the 40th Brigade... to bring back the ashes of Major General Yanagishita and the soldiers of the 3rd Brigade."

Mutaguchi Renya: “…Hi!”

(End of this chapter)