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

Chapter 32 Confusing the real with the fake
About fifteen minutes later, Chen Ming and his troops finally arrived at the designated location.

The Japanese are already defending this area. Even at the junction of two battalions, there are about a hundred Japanese soldiers defending it.

A hasty attack could very well lead to a protracted entanglement.

However, now that the enemy is in the open while we are in the dark, and with the coordinates provided by Chen Ming and the support of artillery fire, the chances of winning a surprise attack are still very high.

With the added advantage of various badges, the soldiers' combat skills are now almost on par with those of the Japanese.

Seeing that time was running out, Chen Ming ordered his troops to find cover to avoid being hit by artillery fire from their own side.

The regiment doesn't yet have artillery that can hit exactly where it's pointed; they can only fire in a general direction based on coordinates. If they're not careful and instead die under artillery fire while fighting the Japanese, that would be too frustrating.

At the appointed time, the main force in the rear opened fire as scheduled, and the shells rained down on the Japanese soldiers!

"boom!"

Amidst the booming of cannons, the Japanese soldiers were blown to pieces.

It's a pity the accuracy was poor; many shells missed their mark. Otherwise, with so much artillery fire, the Japanese would have been in serious trouble.

After the five rounds of artillery fire were completed, Chen Ming led his troops to attack immediately, reaping the remaining Japanese soldiers.

After the shelling, of the more than one hundred Japanese soldiers, only about fifty remained with fighting strength, and they all hid in makeshift shelters.

Just as I was about to come out, I was met with a cold bullet.

Before long, they were completely wiped out, while Chen Ming's side only lost nine soldiers and had six wounded.

"The artillery bombarded the infantry before they charged; the combined arms operation was really effective," Chen Ming exclaimed.

As long as the equipment gap isn't too large, the Japanese aren't that hard to fight. They can die from being bombed by artillery or hit by bullets.

Without lingering, Chen Ming led his troops to continue their breakout towards the northeast.

When the Japanese received news from the front that the enemy group that attacked the train had successfully broken through to the northeast using their artillery fire, they were furious.

Using the lost artillery, the enemy not only killed more than a hundred of their own men, but also successfully broke through the first line of defense.

If the artillery cannot be recovered, then those responsible will have to commit seppuku to atone for their sins!

"Baka! Immediately mobilize troops to encircle them to the northeast. We cannot allow these enemies to escape. If necessary, we can destroy the lost artillery pieces. We must not let the enemy take them away."

Yoshio Shinotsuka was furious and gave a death order!

He also plans to return to China for a promotion when his rotation period ends next year. If any artillery pieces are captured by the enemy during his term, he plans to use them to fight back against the enemy soldiers and cause considerable casualties.

His promotion will definitely be affected.

For the sake of his own future, Yoshio Shinotsuka could not allow the artillery to be successfully taken away by the enemy, even if it was blown up, so that it could be reported as battle damage instead of loss.

With the order given, the Japanese soldiers quickly sprang into action.

The Japanese troops in the northwest, upon learning that the enemy was breaking out to the northeast, also quickened their pace and hurriedly pursued them eastward.

Now that the enemy has already broken through to the northeast, there is little point in them deploying so many troops here.

The Second Independent Regiment and the main force of the Railway Guerrilla hid in a mountain and watched the enemy lights in the distance disappear before continuing their rapid retreat to the northwest.

Around 6 a.m., Chen Ming led his troops through three enemy lines of defense and was so exhausted that he could barely walk. Many of his soldiers were wounded.

Before the enemy can surround them, let the soldiers eat something and rest to replenish their strength.

The enemy reacted too quickly this time, and they deployed so many troops.

They had already broken through three lines of defense, but the Japanese soldiers were still coming in droves, determined to annihilate their force.

However, this also shows that this ambush on the Japanese train really hurt the Japanese, otherwise they wouldn't have been so frantic.

The more anxious and frantic the Japanese devils became, the happier Chen Ming was.

By this time, it was already slightly light; the sun would rise in less than half an hour. The soldiers quickly finished their food, rested for a while, and regained some strength.

"Immediately set up the artillery models we brought, and at the same time, fire all the remaining mortar shells at the Japanese soldiers behind us."

Chen Ming issued the order.

As soon as it gets light, the Japanese planes will be coming. He wants to tell the Japanese that they are here, and their artillery is here.

As dawn broke, the Japanese planes arrived.

Under Chen Ming's guidance, the soldiers quickly set up mortar and Type 92 infantry gun models and began firing at the Japanese.

"boom!"

As the shells exploded, many of the Japanese soldiers chasing behind were killed by the artillery fire, and the Japanese planes in the sky, following the flashes of the explosions, flew toward Chen Ming.

A few minutes later, the Japanese planes arrived. When they saw the two missing Type 92 infantry guns in the artillery position below, and the Eighth Route Army soldiers who were anxious to put away the guns when they saw the planes coming, they were shocked.

The Japanese pilot smiled.

In order to prevent the enemy from taking the artillery away, it made a decisive move and immediately dropped bombs on the artillery positions, carrying out the order to destroy the lost artillery.

The soldiers below, seeing the Japanese planes approaching, immediately sought cover and scattered to take refuge.

This scene, witnessed by the Japanese pilot, filled him with disdain.

With his plane at his disposal, the enemies on the ground looked like ants to him, easily crushed.

However, in order to complete the mission of preventing the enemy from taking away the lost artillery pieces, the Japanese pilots did not waste bombs on the enemy, but instead dropped them all on the two artillery pieces.

"boom!"

As the bomb exploded, the two Type 92 infantry gun models were blown to pieces and scattered all over the ground.

When the Japanese pilot saw that more than 10,000 Japanese soldiers had failed to recover the artillery pieces, he was immediately filled with pride and satisfaction.

The ground forces are useless; we still need the air force.

The technological barriers and resource allocation gave the Japanese air force a great sense of superiority over the ground forces.

Ground troops believe that air force personnel only hide in the rear and enjoy the benefits while they suffer casualties, while air force personnel consider themselves "elites of modern warfare" and mock ground troops for only fighting with bayonets.

Although they weren't as bitter enemies as the army and navy, they didn't call each other "bastards."

However, there was still a sense of disdain and antagonism between the Japanese air force and ground troops.

The triumphant Japanese pilot flew away, satisfied, to report back to the rear and share his victory.

After the Japanese planes left, Chen Ming began to tally the casualty figures.

"Let's tally up the casualty figures."

"Reporting to the regimental commander, in the 2nd Company of the 3rd Battalion, besides the 49 soldiers who sacrificed their lives during the night breakout, the Japanese planes just now killed 3 of our soldiers and wounded 2. Now there are 51 soldiers still alive in the entire company."

Sun Kun reported from the Second Company of the Third Battalion.

"Okay, bandage the wounded soldier immediately." Chen Ming nodded, his brows furrowed, and lit a cigarette.

More than half of them were killed or injured!
This battle was incredibly tough! So many soldiers sacrificed their lives.

However, the main force should have already broken through with the spoils, so it was worth it.

After the two soldiers received first aid and bandaged their wounds, the team continued their breakout and retreat without delay.

The Japanese have achieved their most important objective of destroying the artillery. They should not need to expend too much effort on these remaining remnants.

The chances of breaking through have increased considerably.

(End of this chapter)