Chapter 208: The Insidious Shinichi Kikuchi
"Captain, are there no more Japanese soldiers left?
Still looking down on us?
Sending a bunch of new soldiers to stop us?"
Not only Qin Yangming saw that the Japanese soldiers on the opposite position were a group of new recruits, but the political commissar Zhangye on the side also saw it.
Listening to what Zhangye said, Qin Yangming put down the telescope in his hand and began to recall the relevant information about the Japanese Fourth Brigade.
"I remember that Sakata was originally a regiment commander of the 4th Brigade... It seems that Sakata got promoted on the battlefield and became the new brigade commander... In the end, the regiment flag of Sakata's regiment was also lost.
This regiment was probably disbanded, and the 4th Brigade lost a regiment, so the replacement troops are all new recruits..."
"The ones on my side are the new recruits of the Japanese Fourth Brigade. So where are the veterans of the remaining regiment of the Fourth Brigade?"
"Come here, send a message to the other three regiment commanders and ask them what the situation is with the Japs over there, whether they are new recruits or veterans."
"Yes!"
There is a huge difference in combat effectiveness between new recruits and old soldiers, especially for veteran troops like the Japanese Fourth Brigade.
The veterans in the Japanese Fourth Brigade have fought for so many years and can definitely be called elite troops.
So Qin Yangming wanted to find out where the veterans of the 4th Brigade were.
He was also worried that Ping Lu Yongfu would hide the old soldier and then plot something.
Although the encirclement and suppression of the Japanese Fourth Brigade has already begun.
But the real battle had to wait until night, when the Japanese planes could not take off and the Eighth Route Army had the upper hand before launching a total attack on the 4th Brigade.
If we don't know where the veterans of the Japanese Fourth Brigade are, it will be a big trouble.
……
In the direction of Yuxi Town, Li Yunlong was also leading the independent regiment to launch a tentative attack on the Japanese Fourth Brigade.
"Captain, there seems to be something wrong with this group of devils."
Because artillery shells were not so scarce, it was naturally impossible for the independent regiment to send troops to charge the Japanese defensive positions at the very beginning.
Naturally, we would first conduct some fire reconnaissance to find out where the machine guns were deployed on the Japanese positions.
Zhang Dabiao frowned as he looked at the Japanese soldiers on their positions who were extremely panicked due to the artillery bombardment, and told Li Yunlong beside him about his observations.
"Captain, these little devils look like new recruits."
Li Yunlong, who was standing by, also put down his telescope after listening to what Zhang Dabiao said.
"This is strange, isn't the Japanese Fourth Brigade a veteran brigade?
Why are there so many new recruits?
These little Japanese troops in front of us, at least there is a battalion, right?"
"Captain, telegram from the Vanguard Regiment!"
"What's going on? Why did Qin Yangming send a telegram?"
"Captain, Captain Qin sent us a telegram asking if the Japs on our side were new recruits. Captain Qin said that the Japs on his side were in a panic after being bombarded, and they were all new recruits.
Captain Qin wanted to ask us what was going on here and wanted to see where the veterans of the Japanese Fourth Brigade were.
In addition, Captain Ding also sent a similar telegram asking about our situation."
Li Yunlong listened to the communicator's report and immediately began to think.
"Ding Wei, Qin Yangming, and the Japanese soldiers on my side are all new recruits. Now Kong Jie hasn't sent a telegram... Damn it, Kong Erlangzi's luck can't be so good. The veterans of the Japanese Fourth Brigade have all gone to his side, right?
Quick, report back to them, and send a telegram to Kong Jie to ask him if he has any veteran Japanese soldiers and how many Japanese troops he has?!"
……
Along the river, at the forward command post of the New Second Regiment.
Kong Jie stood in the command center, listening to the continuous sound of artillery shells exploding on the battlefield, and couldn't help but curse.
"Damn it! The Japs think too highly of me. They sent a regiment to fight me, and at least they had a mountain artillery battalion!"
When the Japanese first came, Kong Jie first commanded the troops to block the Japanese according to the predetermined plan.
What Kong Jie didn't expect was that the firepower point of the first line of defense was just exposed and it was immediately bombarded by the Japanese artillery.
This forced the soldiers on the first line of defense to enter the anti-artillery caves to avoid the Japanese artillery fire.
"Captain, the other three commanders sent a telegram to ask about the situation of the Japanese here.
The Japanese soldiers on their side are all new recruits, and they want to ask if we have new Japanese soldiers as well?"
"What the hell? They are all new recruits over there?!"
"What the hell, new recruits? Tell them that we are from the Fourth Brigade of the Japanese. Damn it, they are all veterans!"
"Tell them to make a bigger noise and attract the Japanese here to relieve some of the pressure on me!"
Kong Jie couldn't help feeling distressed when he saw the heavy machine gun that was blown away on the first line of defense. He quickly yelled at the communicator, asking him to send a message to the other three regiments as soon as possible.
The Japanese have been bombarding the first line of defense for half an hour. If the firepower continues at this level, all the heavy machine guns on the first line of defense will be blown up by the Japanese shells.
By then, the second line of defense probably won’t last long.
"Damn it! Are these little Japanese crazy? They really want to cross the river?!"
Kong Jie watched the Japanese engineers carrying a large amount of materials and rapidly approaching the river under the cover of infantry and artillery fire, preparing to build a pontoon bridge with the help of artillery cover so that the troops could cross the river.
It was naturally impossible for Kong Jie to allow the Japanese to build a pontoon bridge safely and securely.
Quickly give the order to the grenade launcher positions on the second line of defense to open fire on the Japanese.
The Japanese's Type 89 grenade launcher used special small grenades that could fire up to 700 meters away, just enough to reach the other side of the river.
"Let the gunners on the grenade launcher positions fire immediately, and move away immediately after three shots!
Damn it, haven’t they found the Japanese artillery positions over there yet?
Damn it, quickly find the Japs’ artillery positions and blow up their cannons.
Otherwise, with such dense artillery fire, our soldiers would be killed by the Japanese shells even if they were hiding in the anti-gun caves! "
For the first time, Kong Jie wanted to go to the Vanguard Regiment and get the commander of the artillery battalion of the Vanguard Regiment to come to his new Second Regiment.
If the vanguard regiment was here, Li Erhu would have found the Japanese artillery positions long ago.
They were nothing like the artillery of the New Second Regiment, which had been working for half an hour and had not yet found the Japanese artillery positions.
……
In front of the riverside position, in the command post of the Japanese 22nd Regiment.
When Kasahara Koizumi led his troops to the riverside position, he saw that all the bridges on the river had been blown up by the Eighth Route Army. He knew that there must be many Eighth Route Army soldiers on the other side of the river waiting for his troops to cross the river and then block them.
Kasahara Koizumi immediately sent a troop to launch a tentative attack on the other side of the river. The New Second Regiment itself had many new recruits, and when the Japanese launched an attack and entered the attack position, they launched a counterattack.
The fire on the first line of defense was directly exposed to Kasahara Koizumi's eyes.
We saw at least four heavy machine gun positions on the Eighth Route Army's first line of defense, as well as a large number of foxholes and trenches.
Kasahara Koizumi made a prompt decision to withdraw the charging troops, and then mobilized part of the artillery to bombard the Eighth Route Army's positions.
They wanted to blow up the Eighth Route Army's defense line while also drawing out the Eighth Route Army's artillery.
By the time the artillery is gone, it will be difficult for the Eighth Route Army to stop the engineers from building a pontoon bridge.
Looking at the Eighth Route Army position not far away, which was covered with mud kicked up by artillery shells, Kasahara Koizumi couldn't help but laugh.
“Humph, do you think I can’t cross the river just because I’m in a favorable position?
Ordering the engineering squadron to speed up, Tanaka Battalion quickly built a heavy machine gun position on the other side of the river to suppress the Eighth Route Army's position!
We must not allow the Eighth Route Army to influence the engineering squadron!"
"Hi!"
Under the cover of artillery fire, a Japanese infantry battalion, covering the engineering squadron, quickly rushed to the river bank and then began to set up heavy machine guns.
After the shelling stopped, they would need to use heavy machine guns to suppress the Eighth Route Army on the other side of the river.
"Hurry, hurry up, build the machine guns quickly, the artillery can still fire for five minutes, speed up!"
After receiving the order from Kasahara Koizumi, Tanaka Kazama quickly forwarded Kasahara Koizumi's order to his subordinates.
Get them up to speed.
One by one, the Japanese soldiers carried Type 92 rifles and quickly rushed to the river bank.
A Japanese engineer placed the materials for building a pontoon bridge on the edge of the river bank, which could be used as a cover for the Japanese infantry of the Tanaka Battalion.
After the Japanese set up their heavy machine gun array, they didn't have time to open fire.
A large number of black spots appeared in the sky.
Those black spots were nothing but small grenades fired by the New Second Regiment using grenade launchers.
However, because of the Japanese's own artillery fire, the sound of the grenade launcher grenades flying in the air was directly covered up.
By the time Tanaka Fujian discovered the small grenade in the air, it was too late for the troops in front to dodge.
Small grenades fell on the heavy machine gun position that the Japanese had just built.
Although the explosive power of the small grenade is not enough to blow away the heavy machine gun, it is still no problem to kill the Japanese soldiers next to the heavy machine gun.
Dozens of small grenades landed on the Japanese's heavy machine gun position and exploded. The Japanese who had just rushed forward were directly torn to pieces by the fragments produced by the explosion of a large number of small grenades.
"Baga, where are our grenade launchers?
Take out our grenade launchers and fire back, fire back!"
"Sir, the Eighth Route Army's grenade launchers are behind the hillside, and our grenade launchers can't get through!"
"Sir, the Eighth Route Army's grenade launchers have changed positions!"
"Lieutenant Colonel Tanaka Kazama, we need the support of your infantry!
If the Eighth Route Army continues to bombard us, our engineering squadron won’t be able to deliver materials, and we won’t be able to build the pontoon bridge at all!”
"Baga, go inform the regiment commander, we still need artillery support from the regiment!"
"Sappers, is the river deep?
Can we fill the river with sandbags? Or divert the river?!"
After listening to the reports from his soldiers and the engineering squadron, Tanaka Fuzama first arranged for someone to ask Kasahara Koizumi to continue providing artillery support.
Then he asked the engineers to see if they could use sandbags to fill up the river and create a path.
Filling a river with sandbags is much easier than building a floating bridge.
But if the river is really too deep, then we can only build a floating bridge.
The person who came to report from the engineering squadron shook his head after hearing what Tanaka Fuzama said.
“This river is recorded on our maps. There is no old river channel, so it is impossible to divert it, and filling it with sandbags is not practical.
There is a dam built by the Eighth Route Army upstream of the river. If we throw sandbags into it, the Eighth Route Army can open the gates and release water to wash away the sandbags. We don’t have that many sandbags.”
"Baga, this won't work, that won't work, so how long will it take your engineering squadron to build the pontoon bridge?!
The brigade commander has given an order that Hegu Town must be captured by noon!
We have been delayed here for almost an hour now!"
"Captain, if we want to build a pontoon bridge quickly, we must not let the Eighth Route Army interfere with our engineering squadron. Otherwise, we won't even be able to get close to the river bank. How can we build a pontoon bridge?
In addition, the Eighth Route Army buried a large number of mines on the other side of the river. The soil on the other side of the river was wet, making mine clearance extremely difficult. It was difficult for us to secure the ropes on the other side of the river.
"Captain, I suggest you ask the brigade commander for tactical guidance..."
Listening to the engineers' report, the deputy commander of the 22nd Regiment, Shinichi Kikuchi, looked at the engineering troops who were now suppressed by the grenade launchers of the Eighth Route Army and could not even get close to the river bank. He walked up to Kasahara Koizumi and spoke in a low voice.
Listening to what Shinichi Kikuchi said, Kasahara Koizumi glanced at Shinichi Kikuchi, then waved his hand to signal the rest of the people to leave first.
"Kikuchi-kun, isn't it too early to ask the brigade commander to give tactical guidance at this time?"
Kasahara Koizumi naturally knew what Kikuchi Shinichi meant by tactical guidance.
But it is really unreasonable to use tactical guidance when the game has just started for less than half an hour.
After all, that thing cannot be used casually. If this matter is exposed internationally, it will have a very adverse impact on their country.
So Kasahara Koizumi was also a little worried.
"Captain, you can see that although many of the heavy machine guns on the Eighth Route Army's positions were destroyed, there are very few Eighth Route Army corpses.
In other words, the Eighth Route Army had anti-artillery holes on their positions.
Our artillery bombardment had little effect on the Eighth Route Army. Once we stopped the bombardment, the Eighth Route Army would come out of the anti-artillery caves and shoot at our engineering corps.
If this continues, I'm afraid we won't be able to build the pontoon bridge by noon.
We might as well ask the brigade commander for tactical guidance and suffocate all the Eighth Route Army soldiers in the anti-artillery caves!"
"Captain, please make a decision quickly. As long as we can cross this river as quickly as possible, we can intercept the remaining Eighth Route Army. By then, no one will know that we used special weapons!"
"Okay, ask the brigade commander for tactical guidance and use special weapons!"
"Hi!"
(End of this chapter)
