Chapter 163: New Second Group Action ( words)
Tongshi Town...
In the defensive position in front of Tongshi Town, Kong Jie was patrolling the position, checking the preparation of various defensive fortifications and the ammunition supply situation.
From time to time, some suggestions for modifications and adjustments to the placement of fortifications and equipment are made.
"First Battalion Commander, have someone add another heavy machine gun to this position.
The shooting range here is very good. If a large Japanese force attacks from this direction, the two heavy machine guns suddenly opening fire will definitely catch the Japanese off guard.
Put more sandbags on the machine gun position in this place to prevent the Japanese artillery shells from falling directly on the position.
Put a few more pillars inside the machine gun bunker to prevent it from being blown down by the Japanese artillery shells."
"Yes, Captain, I'll have someone arrange it right away!"
The battalion commander of the New Second Regiment, who was inspecting the fortifications along the way, listened to Kong Jie's order, turned around and arranged for the soldiers to carry out a Type 92 heavy machine gun from an anti-artillery hole in the rear to serve as a backup machine gun.
When the vanguard regiment left Tongshi Town and headed to Chenjiayu to meet up with the headquarters, they left behind a lot of heavy equipment in Tongshi Town that was not temporarily used and was prepared to be used to train new recruits.
After the vanguard regiment is responsible for going to Chenjiayu to meet up with the headquarters, the recruit camp will be responsible for training the recruits and will also need to pass through Tongshi Town.
Therefore, the recruit camp was left behind to continue training the recruits and did not follow the vanguard regiment to Chenjiayu.
After the brigade commander decided to ambush the 4th Brigade, the command of the recruit battalion was temporarily handed over to Kong Jie.
Responsible for cooperating with the New Second Regiment to block the Japanese Fourth Brigade before the arrival of the Vanguard Regiment.
This time, the New Second Regiment was responsible for blocking the Japanese Fourth Brigade in Tongshi Town and waiting for the arrival of the Vanguard Regiment.
So these equipments were directly used by Kong Jie.
Kong Jie looked at the Type 92 heavy machine gun carried out by the soldiers and spoke with envy to Li Dafu, the deputy battalion commander of the Pioneer Regiment's recruit battalion next to him.
"Captain Li, your Pioneer Regiment is really rich. I didn't expect that a new recruit battalion could be equipped with so many heavy machine guns and even have its own artillery company."
Li Dafu looked at Kong Jie's envious eyes, glanced at those who were carried out by the independent regiment soldiers, and spoke with some resentment.
"Captain Kong, these equipments all belong to our Vanguard Regiment... You can't do the same as Captain Li... The battalion commander and I won't be able to explain to the commander when the time comes..."
Li Dafu was really afraid that Kong Jie would just wave his hand and directly take the equipment temporarily transferred from the new recruits' camp to the new Second Regiment.
The main reason is that there are indeed a lot of heavy equipment left behind by Qin Yangming.
There were fifteen Type 92 heavy machine guns left, and five Maxim heavy machine guns placed in the bunker to serve as fixed firing points.
In other words, there were twenty heavy machine guns in the Pioneer Regiment’s recruit camp alone, which was equivalent to an entire regiment.
In addition, there is the artillery company of the recruit camp. In addition to the artillery equipped by its own, the recruit camp also needs to undertake the task of training artillery.
Therefore, the artillery company of the recruit battalion can be said to be more powerful than the other three main battalions of the vanguard regiment.
The other three main battalions had only one artillery company equipped with three Type 92 infantry guns, two 37mm direct-fire guns, and six 82mm mortars.
The new recruits' battalion was directly equipped with five Type 92 infantry guns, four 37mm direct-fire guns, twelve 60mm mortars, and two Type 41 mountain guns for the purpose of artillery training.
It can be said that the running company of the Pioneer Regiment’s recruit camp alone is stronger than the artillery company of the New Second Regiment.
After learning about the equipment situation of the Pioneer Regiment's new recruits' camp, Kong Jie immediately understood why Li Yunlong was so shameless.
There is no other reason, I'm just really jealous.
If Kong Jie wasn't so thin-skinned and he didn't have Li Yunlong's shamelessness, Kong Jie really wanted to learn from Li Yunlong and borrow all the cannons from Qin Yangming's recruit camp.
Kong Jie listened to what Li Dafu said and understood his concerns.
When Li Yunlong led the independent regiment through Tongshi Town, if the brigade commander had not been nearby, Qin Yangming would have already received Li Yunlong's IOU.
Kong Jie patted Li Dafu on the shoulder, put down the pipe in his hand and spoke.
"Captain Li, don't worry, I'm not that guy Li Yunlong. Don't worry, your new recruit camp will still have the same amount of equipment as when I leave, just as I asked for when I came."
Since the Pioneer Regiment's Recruit Camp was a training unit, a lot of ammunition was stored in Tongshi Town.
When Kong Jie led the New Second Regiment to Tongshi Town, Qin Yangming handed all the ammunition to Kong Jie and let Kong Jie use it however he wanted.
Kong Jie was already very satisfied with having obtained so much ammunition, and naturally he would not learn from Li Yunlong's shameless way to borrow equipment.
After checking the position in front, Kong Jie led his men to the artillery position in the rear.
The artillery on the artillery positions near the front line are not mortars or other types of artillery.
Instead, it was the unscrupulous artillery that the entire Eighth Route Army began to equip on a large scale.
The maximum range of the Unscrupulous Cannon is three hundred meters, which is already the limit. If you add powder bags, the Unscrupulous Cannon will 100% explode.
In order to prevent the unscrupulous cannon from exploding and accidentally injuring their own troops, the Eighth Route Army mostly used unscrupulous cannons, which could only fire at a distance of more than 200 meters at most.
Such a short range meant that the Unscrupulous Cannon could not be placed in the rear artillery position like real artillery.
It can only be placed in the front line.
So ten meters behind the first trench on the Tongshi Town side is the unscrupulous artillery position that was dug out.
There is an unscrupulous cannon installed about every ten to fifteen meters.
When Kong Jie led his men into the trench specially designed to install the Unscrupulous Cannon, there were still many soldiers digging holes and burying the barrel of the Unscrupulous Cannon in the holes.
The barrel of the conscienceless cannon is made of a layer of iron sheet. If you want to shoot far, the iron sheet alone cannot withstand the energy of the propellant.
Therefore, it is necessary to bury it in a pit and use the land to increase the thickness of the rear launch tube. At the same time, it is also considered that if an unscrupulous cannon explodes, the land will isolate it and reduce some of the damage caused by the explosion.
Because it needs to be buried in a pit, the firing range of the Unscrupulous Cannon is fixed. It can only shoot in one direction and cannot be adjusted like ordinary artillery.
For safety reasons, sandbags were piled behind each cannon and large pits were dug.
In case of an unexpected situation, the soldier responsible for using the conscienceless cannon can also jump into the pit to avoid the explosion.
At this moment on the battlefield, many soldiers were placing unscrupulous cannons into the pits and pressing them down with mud.
Some soldiers were sitting on ammunition boxes, constantly making explosive packs of different weights for the conscienceless cannons and propellant packs. Watching the soldiers bury the conscienceless cannons in the pits, Kong Jie reminded them.
"As for these unscrupulous cannons, bury them more tightly, make the fuse longer, and pile more sandbags behind them. It is better to waste more materials than to risk lives.
Each unscrupulous cannon is at least ten steps apart. If the explosive pack is successfully launched, it is absolutely not allowed to be ignited again and the unscrupulous cannon must be directly scrapped!
Such unnecessary sacrifice is unnecessary.
Also, check the bundled explosive packs, to avoid another incident like the last time when the independent regiment almost dropped the explosive packs on their own people's heads."
Listening to what Kong Jie said, the soldier from the New Second Regiment who was tying up the explosive packs smiled and spoke to Kong Jie.
"Captain, don't worry. This time we specifically asked the people from the Vanguard Regiment. They were the first to use the conscienceless cannon. There is absolutely no problem with the way they wrapped the explosive packs."
Kong Jie put the pipe in his hand on the belt behind his back, reached out and patted the soldier who spoke on the shoulder, then led a few people to continue walking along the communication trench towards the third fortification used to store ammunition.
Once the battle begins, the ammunition at the frontline will certainly be consumed quickly, so whether the ammunition can be replenished in time is the key to whether the position can be defended.
By that time, bullets and shells will be flying everywhere on the battlefield, and it will be much more difficult and dangerous to deliver ammunition from Tongshi Town to the front line.
In addition, Kong Jie had taken over the ammunition depot of the Pioneer Regiment's new recruits' barracks, and the New Second Regiment itself had a lot of ammunition. Therefore, he no longer had to worry, as he did before, about the few ammunition being hit by the Japanese artillery shells and exploding, and had to place them in a safe place in the rear.
With the confidence provided by a large amount of ammunition, Kong Jie directly followed Qin Yangming. In addition to the 60 bullets carried by each soldier, he also placed one or two boxes of bullets and grenades in each anti-artillery hole in the position.
Not far behind the front line, there is an anti-artillery cave specially used for storing ammunition.
Ammunition can be replenished to the frontline positions at any time.
“Old Qian, how is the soldiers’ ammunition problem?
Have they all been sent out?"
Looking at the neatly stacked ammunition boxes in the anti-gun cave, Kong Jie asked the newly appointed political commissar of the Second Regiment beside him.
The political commissar known as Lao Qian was a middle-aged man with a horrific scar running across his entire face.
Old Qian listened to Kong Jie's question and said with a serious face: "Captain, according to your request, all the ammunition has been distributed, 60 bullets for ordinary soldiers and 200 bullets for light machine gunners.
Six hundred bullets for the heavy machine gun, two grenades for each person..."
"Even without the ammunition in the anti-artillery cave, with the ammunition on the soldiers, we can at least stop a regiment of the Japanese for eight hours!"
Lao Qian thought about the unit he was in a year ago, which was also a main force regiment. At that time, if a soldier had five bullets on him, it would be the envy of many troops.
But now they have come to the New Second Regiment. This is the New Second Regiment’s first battle, and each soldier has sixty bullets of ammunition!
The heavy machine gun has 600 bullets, and these are just the ones that can be carried with you. When the ammunition is used up, it can be replenished at any time!
You have to know that a year ago, no, it should be half a year ago, even now, most of the Eighth Route Army soldiers may not have fired more than 300 bullets.
And I heard that the soldiers of the Vanguard Group are equipped with more ammunition!
Thinking of this, Lao Qian couldn't help but want to meet Captain Qin Yangming, who was extremely good at equipment.
Just as Kong Jie was patrolling the position with a few others, a messenger who ran out from the regiment headquarters found Kong Jie.
"Captain, the brigade commander is calling. It's an emergency!"
Kong Jie listened to what the messenger said, looked at Lao Qian, and hurriedly ran towards the regiment headquarters.
……
The initial mission of the New Second Regiment and the Pioneer Regiment was to garrison Tongshi Town, build defensive positions in Tongshi Town, and block the Japanese Fourth Brigade.
Prevent the Japanese from the 4th Brigade from breaking through the Tongshi Town defense line to support the Yamazaki Battalion.
Until the vanguard regiment wiped out the Yamazaki Battalion and then rushed to Tongshi Town.
However, plans could never keep up with changes, and for some unknown reason the 4th Brigade suddenly changed the direction of attack.
The main force of the 4th Brigade did not attack Yuxi Town, but instead moved towards Tongshi Town.
The attack direction of the Japanese Fourth Brigade changed, so the ambush plan of the Eighth Route Army naturally had to change accordingly.
The vanguard regiment that rushed to Tongshi Town was directly transferred to Baihu Ridge as a mobile force to respond to emergencies.
Without the support of the Vanguard Regiment, the Second Regiment of Duxin and the new recruits of the Vanguard Regiment in Tongshi Town would naturally be unable to withstand the attack of the Japanese Fourth Brigade.
Forcibly blocking the Japanese Fourth Brigade in Tongshi Town would only waste the lives of the soldiers in vain and it is not worth it.
So after notifying the vanguard regiment to go to Baihuling, the brigade commander called Kong Jie and asked Kong Jie to lead the new second regiment to retreat to Yuxi Town, while the vanguard regiment's new recruits camp retreated to Baihuling.
"Kong Jie, Li Yunlong has sent out a blocking force that can buy you two hours.
You have at most three hours. After two hours, the 22nd Regiment of the Japanese Fourth Brigade will arrive at the outskirts of Tongshi Town.
Within these two hours, the New Second Regiment and the Pioneer Regiment's new recruits camp will withdraw from Tongshi Town. You will lead the New Second Regiment to Yuxi Town, and Li Yunlong will pick you up.
The new recruits of the Pioneer Regiment withdrew to Baihuling and returned to the Pioneer Regiment.
Did you hear that?!"
"Yes!"
"Brigade Commander, promise to obey orders!"
"Well, Kong Jie, I still believe what you say. You should immediately arrange for the troops to move. If you encounter the Japanese, don't fight them head-on. Save your strength and wait until we see what the Japanese are up to."
"Yes, Brigade Commander, don't worry, I promise not to fight the Japs head-on and retreat to Yuxi Town as quickly as possible!"
After receiving Kong Jie's reply, the brigade commander hung up the phone and began to assign tasks to other troops.
Kong Jie began to give orders.
"Messenger, hurry up and inform the battalion commanders to come to the regiment headquarters immediately. Lao Qian, go out and arrange for the troops to prepare for the transfer!"
"Okay, leave it to me!"
As Kong Jie's order was issued, the sound of soldiers running was heard outside the regiment headquarters.
Lao Qian also quickly left the regiment headquarters and began to prepare for the troops' retreat.
(End of this chapter)
