Chapter 229 How could the Eighth Route Army have tanks? !
"Target No. 87, scale 156, direction left zero fifty!"
Heavy artillery regiment, 105mm. At the card-playing position, the commander was conveying the coordinates sent by Li Erhu, asking the artillerymen to quickly adjust the artillery.
"One shot is ready!"
"Second artillery is ready!"
……
"Six guns ready!"
"All companies, No. 3 charge, ten rounds rapid fire, reload!"
As the commander shouted "load" and blew the whistle, an ammunition handler quickly stuffed the prepared shells into the barrel, then stuffed the propellant cartridge into the barrel and closed the bolt.
"emission!"
tom!
The gunners of the six 105mm howitzers took turns pulling the gun ropes, and the six thick gun barrels spewed out flames and roared one after another.
The thick 105mm howitzer shells flew into the sky and quickly hit the Japanese artillery position that was firing at the vanguard regiment's defensive position.
In addition to the six 105mm howitzers, the rest of the vanguard regiment's mountain artillery positions and rocket launcher positions fired shells almost at the same time.
Dense artillery shells streaked across the sky and quickly hit their respective targets.
Especially the vanguard regiment's rocket launcher, a large number of rockets were fired at the same time, and the sky was briefly illuminated by the tail flames of the rocket launcher shells.
The 105mm howitzer quickly blew up the Japanese artillery position, then quickly adjusted the muzzle and began bombing the Japanese who were charging.
After the Japanese artillery was suppressed, the soldiers of the vanguard regiment quickly entered the position and began to defend.
Type 92 infantry guns were pushed to the front of the position and began to fire directly at the Japanese.
"No, what kind of cannon is this? Why is it so powerful?!"
A soldier from the vanguard regiment wanted to lean forward to shoot at the Japanese with his gun, but just as he stretched out his upper body, a strong wind blew him backwards.
"Hey, kid, here you see, this is our 105mm howitzer!
That was the blast from the explosion of the shells just now. You must be in the trench. Otherwise, the blast would have blown you up like a leaf in the wind!"
An instructor at the side helped the soldier up and squatted in the trench to introduce him to the soldier.
"105mm howitzer? Instructor, do our Eighth Route Army have such a big gun?"
"Of course. Not to mention the cannons, there are also tanks. You joined later and didn't know that when our Vanguard Regiment was still the Vanguard Battalion, we seized several tanks from the Japanese stronghold in Tongshi Town.
Finally, we used the Japanese tanks to attack the Japanese Korean Regiment.
At that time, artillery shells exploded in front of us, and we followed the tanks to rush towards the Japanese. All the Japanese bullets hit the tanks, bang bang. We hid behind the tanks, and the Japanese bullets had no effect on us.
The Japanese's Korean regiment was praised as a miracle unit, but when our vanguard regiment attacked, it was as easy as chopping melons and vegetables to defeat it. "
"Then instructor, where are our Eighth Route Army tanks? When will we charge?"
Listening to what the instructor said, the young soldier asked excitedly.
"Wait a minute, let the artillery bombard for half an hour first.
This is an old tradition of our vanguard regiment. Whenever a charge is launched, the regiment commander will first let the artillery bombard for half an hour before launching the charge.
In this way, our casualties can be minimized.
It has only been blasting for more than ten minutes now, and it will take at least another ten minutes."
……
"Kill him!"
Thousands of Japanese soldiers followed the tanks and trucks and launched a mad charge towards the Eighth Route Army's positions under the intensive artillery fire of the Eighth Route Army.
Kasahara Koizumi, who was at the back, was so angry that his eyes turned red when he saw his artillery position was directly blown up by the Eighth Route Army's artillery.
“Heavy artillery… this is real heavy artillery!
105mm howitzer!
Why does the Eighth Route Army have 105mm howitzers! "
At first, Kasahara Koizumi thought that the Eighth Route Army had at most a batch of mountain artillery and some mortars, so he arranged the artillery positions according to the maximum range of the mountain artillery.
Our artillery is beyond the range of the Eighth Route Army's artillery, so the Eighth Route Army's artillery cannot destroy our artillery positions.
The artillery on our side was just enough to bombard the Eighth Route Army's defensive positions.
At that time, even if the Eighth Route Army launched a counterattack, we could learn from the Eighth Route Army and use artillery to stop them.
However, Kasahara Koizumi never expected that the Eighth Route Army would have 105mm artillery, which was considered heavy artillery for them.
The range of the Eighth Route Army's 105mm howitzers was just enough to cover his artillery positions. The guns on his artillery positions had only fired two rounds before they were directly blown up by the Eighth Route Army's heavy artillery.
But even if they knew that the Eighth Route Army had heavy artillery, it would be of no avail at this moment. The troops had already launched the charge, and all the tanks and trucks had been sent out. It was impossible to withdraw at this time.
Faced with this situation, Kasahara Koizumi went completely crazy and took an awakening pill. With the help of the drug stimulation, Kasahara Koizumi completely entered a state of excitement and kept ordering the troops behind to launch a charge.
"If one hundred men can't break through your position, then I will use one thousand, three thousand!"
Under the command of Kasahara Koizumi, wave after wave of Japanese soldiers rushed towards the Eighth Route Army's positions like a tide.
The Eighth Route Army's positions were ablaze with flames, and all the heavy weapons were spraying bullets madly.
Kasahara Koizumi even saw large balls of fire appearing from time to time on the Eighth Route Army's position.
Kasahara Koizumi was very familiar with that kind of large ball of fire, because that was the fire produced when the Type 92 infantry gun fired shells.
The Eighth Route Army had already pushed the Type 92 infantry guns to the position and were firing directly at their charging troops.
In addition to the Type 92 infantry gun, there is also an anti-tank gun.
The lights on the Japanese tanks became extremely dazzling in this dark environment, like a guiding light in the darkness.
How could the vanguard regiment's gunners let go of such an obvious target?
The anti-tank guns roared in unison, and shells were fired quickly at the Japanese tanks.
Half an hour was neither long nor short, and soon the intensity of the vanguard regiment's artillery fire began to decrease.
Seeing that the Eighth Route Army's artillery fire was no longer as intensive as at the beginning, Kasahara Koizumi subconsciously thought that the Eighth Route Army's artillery shells had been almost used up.
He immediately raised the command knife in his hand.
"The Eighth Route Army has run out of artillery shells, charge!"
"Long live His Majesty Tian Locust!"
"Kill him!"
Under the command of Kasahara Koizumi, the remaining several thousand Japanese soldiers quickly rushed out of their positions, roaring with their weapons in hand, and launched a charge towards the Eighth Route Army's positions.
What the charging soldiers did not see was that behind them, a small group of cavalry suddenly left the charging position, turned their horses around and charged in another direction.
After issuing the final charge order, Kasahara Koizumi no longer commanded the troops. Instead, he followed the troops with his command knife in hand and charged towards the Eighth Route Army's position.
"Boom!" Just as Kasahara Koizumi led his troops over the wreckage of destroyed tanks and had just crossed the first line of the Eighth Route Army's position, a loud noise suddenly sounded in the sky.
A bolt of lightning like a giant snake meandered down from the sky.
The lightning emitted a dazzling light, temporarily illuminating the ground below where artillery fire was roaring.
I don’t know if it was an illusion, but Kasahara Koizumi felt like he heard the roar of an engine, and the sound was extremely heavy, very much like the roar of a tank engine.
But his tank squadron had just been blown up by the Eighth Route Army using various artillery pieces, and not even a truck was left. How could there still be the roar of the engines?
Moreover, the roar of the engine was not the sound produced by any vehicle or tank engine in his own army.
With the help of the lightning, I looked in the direction where the sound came from, but I didn't see any tanks.
Soon, the lightning faded away, and the only light left around was the flames from the exploding shells and the burning wreckage of their tanks or trucks.
But Kasahara Koizumi could still hear the roar of the engine, and it was getting closer and closer.
But Kasahara Koizumi tried hard to look in the direction where the sound came from. Without the bright light of lightning, Kasahara Koizumi could see nothing but a shadow.
Just when Kasahara Koizumi was wondering whether he had auditory hallucinations because of the awakening pill he had taken, he discovered that there was actually no engine roar.
It was just that his spirit was extremely excited, and the sound of artillery fire around him was too dense, so when he heard it wrong, lightning struck again in the sky.
"Boom!"
The lightning struck again, illuminating the surrounding battlefield once again.
With the light brought by the lightning, Kasahara Koizumi finally saw clearly what the engine roar he heard came from.
"Impossible, impossible, how is it possible!"
Kasahara Koizumi looked at the scene in front of him with disbelief on his face. The excitement brought by taking the awakening pill could not suppress Kasahara Koizumi's shock.
Looking at the scene in front of him, Kasahara Koizumi's extremely excited spirit under the effect of drugs became calm again, and he kept shouting "Impossible".
Then the voice of disbelief in Kasahara Koizumi's mouth slowly turned into a voice of fear.
"This, how is this possible?!"
"How come the Eighth Route Army has tanks?!"
That's right, the heavy engine roars that Kasahara Koizumi heard were not misheard, nor were they hallucinations. The reason was that they were not the roars of any vehicle or tank engine in his troops.
That’s because the roar of those engines came from the tanks of the Eighth Route Army!
"call out!"
As a red flare was launched into the sky, the artillery fire, which had been sparse, became dense again.
At the same time, flares were fired from the sky above the Eighth Route Army's positions.
More than a dozen flares emitting dazzling white light were shot into the sky. Even without the lightning, everyone could see the situation on the battlefield clearly.
Many of the Japanese soldiers who were charging, who had a certain resistance to the Awakening Pills, had a look of madness on their faces when they saw the tanks on the hillside.
The Japanese assault team even paused for a moment at this moment.
Afterwards, those Japanese soldiers who were completely controlled by the drugs and fell into madness became even crazier, while those Japanese soldiers who were shocked and briefly sobered up quickly took the second awakening pill and fell into madness again.
Use madness to cover up your fear.
……
"Fifty meters away from the tank's attack direction, advance the barrage, and fire!"
Looking at the red flares in the sky, Li Erhu quickly ordered the artillery to cooperate with the infantry in combat and began to launch a slow-moving barrage of bullets to cover the infantry and tanks' charge.
Under Li Erhu's command, one artillery piece after another began to adjust the firing parameters, and then one shell after another was stuffed into the barrel and fired.
Some artillerymen were already sweating profusely because they had been bombarding and carrying shells for half an hour. Many soldiers simply took off their clothes and carried shells with their bare chests, shouting slogans.
"One, two, get up!"
"put!"
……
"dududu~"
The loud charge sounded at the Eighth Route Army's position. The soldiers who had been prepared stood up instantly the moment the charge sounded and launched a counterattack against the Japanese behind the tanks.
"Oh my god, the ground is fucking hot!"
The shell exploded just fifty meters ahead. Basically, the dust raised by the explosion had just settled when the infantry stepped on it, and the ground was emitting heat.
Many soldiers were seeing this kind of fighting method for the first time. They were terrified as they listened to the explosions of artillery shells in front of them, and followed closely behind the tanks, fearing that they would not be hit by the Japanese bullets but would be blown down by their own artillery shells first.
"Charge with confidence. As long as you keep up with the rhythm, you won't be hit by your own shells. The artillery battalion commander, Li Erhu, is very skilled and won't let the shells hit our own people's heads."
"Damn it, if the artillery battalion keeps bombing like this, the Japanese in front will be reduced to ashes. Why would we be of any use?!"
"careful!"
"There are some damn Japanese soldiers pretending to be dead. Finish them off. Finish them off!"
"kill!"
"The Japs are coming from the side. Machine gunner, machine gunner, hit them hard!"
"Flanking, outflanking!"
"Some Japanese soldiers have explosives. Hurry up and provide cover to protect the tanks!"
"The guy behind the tank, help me finish off the enemy! I've caught three of them alive!
What, are you saving your bullets for giving birth? ! "
"Captain, there seems to be something wrong with the Japs, their eyes are red!
And this is a completely life-threatening way of fighting!"
"So what if your eyes are red? Even if you become a ghost, you still have to chop those little devils to pieces for me!"
"Submachine gun team, stop those little devils!"
"Be careful of the Japanese suicide attacks!"
"Follow the tanks, follow the tanks!"
There were a lot of Japanese soldiers, especially after the vanguard group completely entered Tongshi Town, it could be said that there were Japanese soldiers everywhere.
Although the vanguard's artillery fire was sharp, it could not cover all areas at the same time.
Many Japanese soldiers took advantage of the gaps in the artillery fire and rushed directly through the blockade line.
For a moment, the battlefield was in a stalemate.
(End of this chapter)
