Bright Sword: From Northwest Shanxi to Changjin Lake, a Hundred Battles, a Hundred Victories

Chapter 29 Huge Loot

"Oh!"

With a huge explosion, all the Japanese soldiers who were hiding in the train and stubbornly resisting were wiped out.

The ambush was successful, except for the blocking forces that had already engaged the Japanese troops stationed along the railway line.

"Clean up the battlefield immediately, finish off all the Japanese soldiers still alive in the train, move the supplies that can be moved, and blow up the supplies that cannot be moved. Don't leave a single bullet for the Japanese."

Chen Ming shouted loudly.

"Hurry up, every minute we delay means more casualties for our soldiers holding off the Japanese."

Two companies of soldiers have already engaged in firefights with the Japanese troops stationed along the railway line.

If a battle breaks out here, all the Japanese troops around the Zhengtai Railway will converge here, and the longer it drags on, the greater the danger will be.

Upon hearing Chen Ming's order, the soldiers showed a hint of anxiety and quickened their pace.

"Commander, we've struck it rich! We have two Type 92 infantry guns, a lot of light and heavy machine guns and mortars, and countless rifles."

Dafei opened the train carriage door and, seeing the dense array of weapons, his face flushed with excitement.

When Chen Ming took a look, he gasped. Good heavens, this was at least the combat supply for a brigade. He had originally thought that the supplies being transported might be for a battalion or a regiment.

I didn't expect there to be so many. It seems the Japanese are indeed preparing to sweep through the base area.

Otherwise, they wouldn't have suddenly sent so many supplies over.

"Hurry up and dismantle these two cannons and take them away. Take as many shells as you can, and take all the mortars with you," Chen Ming ordered.

Afterwards, Chen Ming said to He Yifa, "Since we've captured so much this time, we won't distribute it. The guerrillas can take as much as they can, and the rest should all be blown up so the Japanese won't get anything."

"Hehe, that's great!"

He Yifa, his face beaming with excitement, beckoned the guerrilla fighters to begin moving the Japanese soldiers' weapons.

They didn't take the artillery because Chen Ming had previously told the soldiers of the Independent Second Regiment to take the artillery first.

Moreover, even if they took the artillery, the guerrilla fighters wouldn't know how to use it, so it would be better to take more machine gun ammunition.

"Brothers, hurry up and grab as much as you can. Don't leave a single bullet for the Japanese."

"Yes."

The guerrilla fighters began to move weapons, unleashing unprecedented power. Even the young guerrilla fighters, who were only teenagers, carried six or seven Japanese rifles.

These are all weapons that can fight the Japanese. If you ask a young soldier to carry a fifty-pound stone, he might not be able to lift it, but if you replace it with weapons, the young soldier can move with incredible speed.

The soldiers of the Independent Second Regiment were no exception; each of them carried their weapons to the best of their ability.

"Commander, come and see, what should we do about this?"

Dafei suddenly shouted at Chen Ming.

Chen Ming hurried over to take a look, and saw a Type 41 mountain howitzer. This was a Japanese division-level support firepower unit, capable of long-range indirect fire suppression of enemy assembly areas and artillery positions.

This is a real heavy artillery piece, completely different from the Type 92 infantry gun, which provides direct fire support for infantry.

Seeing the mountain gun, Chen Ming sighed. He desperately wanted to take it with him, but it was too heavy. Even if each part was disassembled, it would still weigh ninety to one hundred kilograms, making it impossible for manpower to move.

Most importantly, having lost a heavy artillery piece, the Japanese might even send a division to relentlessly annihilate them. At that point, the entire Japanese forces in northwestern Shanxi and the whole of Shanxi province would be mobilized, and they would have no chance of escaping.

In order to ensure a smooth retreat, Chen Ming ultimately had no choice but to tearfully issue the order to destroy the structures during the retreat!

Later, Chen Ming discovered that there were basic medical kits transported by the Japanese on the train, including bandages, sulfonamide powder, painkillers and other medical supplies, and there seemed to be more than a thousand kits.

This is a valuable item. For the Eighth Route Army, which lacked medical supplies, such a medical kit could mean the life of a soldier.

"Take all these medical kits, leave none behind. You can take fewer weapons, but these must be taken," Chen Ming ordered.

"Yes."

Compared to weapons, Chen Ming cared more about the lives of his soldiers. Weapons could be captured again, but once a soldier sacrificed his life, he could never bring him back.

Therefore, Chen Ming could sacrifice some of the captured weapons to take away more medical supplies.

The entire battle, from its start to its finish, took only half an hour.

With a deafening explosion, the ambush was declared a preliminary victory, and everyone present, including Chen Ming, felt a jolt in their hearts.

It's heartbreaking. We've been poor for so long. We finally won a battle and captured so many weapons and ammunition, but we had to destroy them because we couldn't take them with us.

This was also the first time Chen Ming had seen so many weapons from later generations. If it were Li Yunlong, he would have been heartbroken and cried while hugging the mountain gun.

After destroying the remaining weapons, ammunition, and supplies, Chen Ming arranged for his troops to begin an orderly retreat with the supplies in the designated direction. At the same time, he gave orders to the soldiers who were holding off the enemy.

After blocking for half an hour, once the ambush troops were ready, they lured the Japanese to the ambush point and launched another ambush.

This time, because more explosives were used, the battle ended quickly, more than an hour earlier than Chen Ming had expected.

This reduces the pressure on the blocking soldiers and prevents them from suffering too many casualties.

At this time, Yoshio Shinotsuka, commander of the First Army of the Japanese Army Headquarters in Taiyuan, received the news via telegram.

A train carrying supplies was ambushed by a large group of unidentified enemies 25 kilometers west of Shouyang. All the officers and soldiers on board were killed in action, and the supplies fell into the hands of the unknown enemy. Requesting reinforcements!

Telegram time: 3:01 PM!
Upon seeing the telegram, Yoshio Shinotsuka flew into a rage, pushing all the documents on the table to the floor and slamming them heavily onto the conference table.

That was a brigade's worth of combat supplies, prepared for an upcoming large-scale mopping-up operation, and it was attacked by an unknown enemy.

Most importantly, it also includes heavy artillery!
If they don't get them back, even as the commander of the First Army, it will be difficult for him to shoulder this responsibility.

Upon receiving the news, Yoshio Shinotsuka immediately convened a meeting and dispatched reconnaissance aircraft to investigate and search for the enemy's movements.

It's already 4 PM. If it gets late and dark, it will be difficult to recover the lost supplies and artillery.

The meeting lasted only five minutes before Yoshio Shinotsuka issued the battle order.

Order: Deploy one regiment and one infantry battalion immediately to support Taiyuan; deploy one infantry battalion each from Shouyang, Shuiquan, and Mengxian to encircle the enemy.

"In addition, the two infantry battalions of the Independent Mixed 4th Brigade shall cut off the enemy's retreat and, at all costs, recover the lost supplies. We must not allow the heavy artillery to fall into enemy hands!"
With the order given, all the Japanese soldiers around the ambush site were mobilized.

More than one and a half brigades of troops surrounded Chen Ming's ambush force, forming an inescapable trap.

(End of this chapter)