Sword of Light: Humanoid Self-Propelled Artillery

Chapter 76 Tiger Pavilion Stronghold
That’s right, Wang Gensheng’s target this time was the Huting stronghold.

This Huting stronghold was exactly the one that Li Yunlong had planned to attack for Chu Yunfei to see, but in the end he let it go because of the observation group.

In fact, before Chu Yunfei came to visit the independent regiment, Li Yunlong discovered that the village next to the Huting stronghold was in collusion with the Japanese devils in the stronghold.

In order to uncover the secrets of the Huting stronghold and obtain weapons and supplies for his independent regiment, Li Yunlong ordered the first battalion commander Zhang Dabiao to go to Baicun and ask the landlords to provide the white flour needed by the Eighth Route Army. At the same time, he closely monitored the situation near the Huting stronghold.

As Li Yunlong waited for the Japanese to move out, he noticed something: the shoes they wore were different from ordinary rubber-soled shoes. While ordinary Japanese soldiers would only wear rubber-soled shoes, this unit was wearing fine leather shoes. Their steps were powerful and orderly, resembling a disciplined and meticulously trained elite unit.

Li Yunlong was extremely alert to this, knowing that these were not the original Japanese troops in the Huting stronghold. Therefore, Li Yunlong knew that with only one battalion of troops, it would be difficult for him to compete with this elite force. However, he did not act blindly. Instead, he ordered a halt to the battle, set up an ambush, and remained vigilant.

As expected, when the main force withdrew, the Japanese observation group fell into the trap set by Li Yunlong. Li Yunlong immediately ordered an attack and successfully wiped out the Japanese.

As for why Li Yunlong was able to determine the secret hidden in the Huting stronghold by looking at the shoes worn by the Japanese soldiers!
In fact, this is based on observation and judgment of the limited resources of the Japanese army.

In the later period of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, due to the lack of resources of the Japanese devils, leather shoes made of high-grade cowhide were mainly supplied to navy and air force soldiers, and ordinary soldiers usually wore rubber-soled shoes.

Even if the Japanese soldiers had access to leather shoes, they were mostly made of pigskin, and they had to buy them themselves. Pigskin shoes were relatively expensive, even equivalent to a month's salary for an average soldier. As a result, most soldiers were reluctant to buy such expensive shoes, resulting in a lack of uniformity among the Japanese army.

Through frequent contact with the Japanese, Li Yunlong gradually learned their basic situation. He knew that Japanese soldiers usually wore only rubber-soled shoes, but this unit about to be deployed was wearing fine leather shoes, which aroused his vigilance. He keenly noticed the details of the Japanese equipment and judged their equipment level and combat effectiveness from them.

This perfect combination of observation and judgment enabled Li Yunlong to seize the opportunity at the critical moment to thwart the Japanese's plan and make the Japanese lose both their wife and their soldiers.

Of course, knowing that his actions would anger the Japanese, Li Yunlong took the independent regiment and ran away after returning to it, so the Huting stronghold naturally came to nothing.

However, the reason why Li Yunlong was concerned about the Huting stronghold was not only because there were only a few Japanese soldiers in the Huting stronghold, with only about 300 Japanese soldiers, but more importantly, this stronghold was also located at a key transportation point.

Although the Huting stronghold is on the edge of the independent regiment's base, it is not far from the New Second Regiment. This stronghold is like a thorn stuck between the roads of the Independent Regiment and the New Second Regiment.

···········
However, just after Wang Gensheng told Kong Jie about his plan to attack the Huting stronghold, Kong Jie frowned and said,
"According to the division, the Huting stronghold is within Li Yunlong's base area! It would be a bad idea for us to attack the Huting stronghold rashly! Why don't we discuss it with Old Li?"

In response to Kong Jie's hesitation, Wang Gensheng said:

"Commander, look at what you said, how can this be considered the independent regiment's base? On the map, the areas of our New Second Regiment and Li Yunlong's Independent Regiment are divided according to the Huting stronghold. The Huting stronghold has been here for so long. If Old Li wanted to attack, he would have taken it long ago. How could it still be here today!" Wang Gensheng was right. Although there were only about 300 Japanese soldiers stationed in the Huting stronghold, which was not even comparable to Dagu Town, don't forget that the current independent regiment had only about 1,000 people.

The military strength is far from comparable to that of two years later, that is, in 1943. Not to mention the Italian artillery, the independent regiment does not even have a single Type 92 infantry gun.

It is precisely because of this that when Li Yunlong wanted to attack the Huting stronghold, he thought of using Baicun to lure the Japanese soldiers in the Huting stronghold out to fight.

However, in the end, they failed to attract the Japanese soldiers at the Huting stronghold, but instead attracted the observation group. After destroying the observation group, Li Yunlong had no choice but to flee with the independent regiment.

After Wang Gensheng said this, seeing that Kong Jie was still hesitant, he added fuel to the fire:
"Oh, Commander, from what I've observed, there seems to be quite a bit of supplies in the Huting stronghold! The Japanese should be using the Huting stronghold as a transit point for supplies!"

As expected, Kong Jie's eyes lit up when he heard about supplies, and he immediately said:
"Since Li Yunlong won't fight, don't blame me, Old Kong, for being rude. You decide how to fight, and I'll have the entire New Second Regiment cooperate with you!"

In response to Kong Jie's words, Wang Gensheng quickly waved his hands and said:
"Commander, I'm not going to use force. I'll just use the same old trick. I'll wait for the Japs to fall asleep, then sneak up on them and launch a night attack to catch them in their dreams! So there's no need to mobilize the New Second Regiment on a large scale!"

After getting Kong Jie's permission, Wang Gensheng waited for several days in a row until one night when there was no moon and the sky was dark.

It's not so dark that you can't see your hand in front of you, but it's pretty close, although such nights have a great impact on people's eyesight.

But it had no effect on the horses. After arriving one kilometer away from the Huting stronghold, Wang Gensheng ordered Li Xiu beside him:
"Li Xiu, observe and see if there is any difference between this Tiger Pavilion stronghold and the previous few days!"

That's right. Although Wang Gensheng did not rush to attack after getting Kong Jie's approval, he sent a reconnaissance team composed of Li Xiu, who had extremely strong night vision, to investigate every night.

Wang Gensheng was extremely impressed by Li Xiu's night vision ability. For example, in the current weather, which was only slightly better than pitch dark, Li Xiu could actually use a telescope to see clearly what was happening one kilometer away.

Li Xiu climbed up to the top of a tree over 20 meters high with a telescope and observed for a while before coming down and saying:
"Deputy Regimental Officer, the guard change schedule for these little devils is still the same as the previous few days, starting at 12 o'clock and changing every two hours! And just like the previous few days, no secret sentries have been spotted changing shifts!"

I can’t believe that the Japanese soldiers in the Huting stronghold didn’t set up any secret sentries. They are so bold.

Of course, this may be because they think the walls of the Huting stronghold are strong enough to withstand sneak attacks from others, so they didn’t set up secret sentries!
(End of this chapter)