The War of Resistance: From Overseas Chinese Mechanics to King of Nanyang

Soon, the Japanese counterattack did indeed arrive as expected.

Upon arriving in Lashio, Lieutenant General Renya Mutaguchi immediately ordered the artillery regiment to bombard the positions in front of him without saying a word.

After all, a team has suffered a major blow.

This humiliation was simply unforgivable for the entire 18th Division.

Therefore, the bombardment was extremely powerful, with no probing whatsoever, and a large number of shells were poured onto the position.

Fortunately, Huang Zurong had the foresight to carry out emergency reinforcements in the past few days, pouring a large amount of concrete on the positions, and placing steel plates on some areas that were prone to heavy bombing.

Therefore, the Japanese artillery bombardment did not have the enormous effect that was expected.

"This concrete-built position is really something else; even with so many shells hitting us, it's not a big deal." Inside the air-raid shelter at the position, many people huddled together discussing.

"Company commander, the Japanese devils are coming up!" Just as everyone was discussing heatedly, the soldier in charge of observation suddenly shouted.

Upon hearing this, Li Liansheng, who had just been promoted to company commander, immediately led his men out of the trenches.

Immediately afterwards, the Japanese infantry began their charge, and a dark mass of people surged up from the foot of the mountain.

"Hold on! Let them get closer before you attack!" Li Liansheng shouted from his position in the trench.

The soldiers held their breath, their fingers on the triggers.

Three hundred meters, two hundred meters, one hundred meters—

"beat!"

The sound of gunfire echoed through the valley, and Japanese soldiers in the front ranks fell in droves.

But the following troops continued to advance over the corpses and soon approached the trenches.

"Mortars!" Li Liansheng commanded calmly.

Soon, more than ten mortar shells flew toward the path of the Japanese advance.

It then exploded among the Japanese soldiers.

Screams and explosions mingled together, and the Japanese offensive was temporarily thwarted.

This tug-of-war lasted all day, with both sides trading blows and the position changing hands repeatedly.

By dusk, the defending troops had suffered heavy casualties and had used up more than half of their ammunition.

Huang Zurong stared at the map in the command post, his brow furrowed.

The Japanese army's offensive never stopped, and it seemed that they wanted to take the outer positions in one fell swoop, but were they thinking too much?

"Commander, the western position is about to collapse!" the communications soldier ran in to report.

Huang Zurong pondered for a moment and replied, "Tell them to hold out until the last man is gone. Also, send a company to flank the Japanese artillery positions."

"yes!"

This is how the drone team located the Japanese artillery positions using drones. To repel the Japanese offensive, they had to find a way to destroy their artillery positions.

The team leader was Long Wenzhang, whom Huang Zurong thought was very suitable for this kind of sneak attack because he was full of tricks and very good at this kind of thing.

Upon receiving the order, Long Wenzhang didn't say anything; instead, he was quite excited.

Long Wenzhang felt that this kind of sneaky mischief suited him very well.

Soon, following the map, they found themselves near the Japanese artillery positions.

"Reporting to the company commander, all troops are in position." Zhao Tiezhu lowered his voice and crouched down to sneak into the bushes behind him.

Long Wenzhang nodded, his gaze fixed on the distant valley. The Japanese artillery positions were built against the mountain, with twelve 75mm field guns lined up, their muzzles still spitting fire.

Dozens of shells roared out every minute, crashing into the western positions.

"On my command, wait for the Japanese to change their artillery before making your move," Long Wenzhang said in a low voice.

One hundred and fifty soldiers lay in ambush less than three hundred meters from the artillery position, holding their breath.

This area is a blind spot for the Japanese army; if they act quickly enough, they have a good chance of launching a surprise attack.

Twenty minutes later, the Japanese artillery fire suddenly thinned out.

"Make your move!" Long Wenzhang waved his hand.

More than ten 50mm mortar shells simultaneously struck the Japanese positions, exploding on the Japanese artillery positions.

Immediately afterwards, Zhao Tiezhu led fifty men out of the bushes, their Sten submachine guns spitting fire as they swept towards the panicked Japanese artillerymen.

"Baka! Enemy attack!"

The Japanese artillery major reacted quickly and immediately ordered a counterattack.

However, in such a hasty situation, they were unable to organize an effective resistance.

Zhao Tiezhu led his soldiers like wolves and tigers, charging into the artillery position and frantically pulling the triggers on the Japanese soldiers.

No one lingered in the fight; their objective was clear—to destroy the artillery.

"The explosives, charge!"

Ten soldiers carrying explosive charges rushed toward the artillery. The Japanese soldiers tried desperately to stop them, but they could only be shot down by the dense bullets of the Sten submachine guns. Seeing this, the ten soldiers immediately stuffed the explosive charges into the gun barrel or piled them directly under the gun carriage.

boom!

boom!

The explosions were deafening, and twelve field guns were reduced to scrap metal in the flames.

The Japanese artillerymen were either killed or wounded, and the rest fled in panic.

"withdraw!"

"Don't linger, retreat quickly!" Long Wenzhang saw that the Japanese infantry had begun to encircle them, and immediately ordered a retreat.

They fought and retreated, quickly withdrawing along the predetermined escape route.

The Japanese infantry pursued for about two kilometers before finally giving up.

This surprise attack destroyed twelve Japanese field guns and killed or wounded more than one hundred Japanese artillerymen, while suffering fewer than twenty casualties on their own side.

More importantly, the pressure on the western positions was greatly reduced, the Japanese army lost its fire support, and its offensive was significantly weakened.

Back at the regimental headquarters, Long Wenzhang excitedly reported to his superior, "Regimental Commander, mission accomplished!"

Upon hearing this, Huang Zurong nodded and couldn't help but praise, "Well done, but don't be too happy yet, the Japanese army will soon redeploy its artillery."

As Huang Zurong had predicted, Lieutenant General Mutaguchi Renya was indeed furious upon learning that the artillery position had been destroyed, and at the same time, a sense of doubt arose within him.

How did the enemy bypass the defenses?

Lieutenant General Renya Mutaguchi was well aware of the importance of artillery, so when setting up the positions, he specifically arranged for guard troops, so that the enemy would not be able to reach the artillery positions.

Problems still arose.

This reminded him of the report from the 56th Regiment that the enemy seemed to have a third eye, able to clearly grasp their every move and make new adjustments to their deployment.

He had initially scoffed at the idea, but the destruction of the artillery positions had certainly served as a wake-up call for him.

The enemy in Lashio is indeed quite troublesome.

Thinking of this, Lieutenant General Renya Mutaguchi's face darkened.

"Division Commander, should we suspend the attack? It's getting dark soon," the operations staff officer beside him asked at the opportune moment.

Upon hearing this, Lieutenant General Renya Mutaguchi took a deep breath. He had accomplished nothing that day, and the battle had been rather frustrating.

However, he also knew the importance of balancing work and rest, allowing his subordinates to get a good rest at night so they could fight better the next day.

"Okay, let's withdraw first. Also, notify the troops on guard duty to be on high alert," Lieutenant General Renya Mutaguchi reminded again.

"Hai."