The Milky Way is Also a Grain of Sand
Chapter 129 Action on the Hui Mountain Position (Part 2)
Battalion Commander Shi and his men, however, were growing bolder by the minute.
With the support of their brothers-in-arms, they were performing exceptionally well.
Lin Fan and his artillery teams intentionally targeted the rear of the charging Japanese soldiers, effectively goading them forward.
Feng Junya and his six captured cannons, on the other hand, focused on stopping the Japanese assault in the final stretch.
These Japanese soldiers were caught between a rock and a hard place.
Colonel Shigeteng Chiaki learned about the severe damage inflicted on Tang Shengzhi's regiment from a report by Oikawa Yohei, the chief of staff of the Tang Shengzhi Regiment.
Although Tang Shengzhi was the regimental commander, Chief of Staff Oikawa Yohei was the one Shigeteng Chiaki trusted more.
He learned that his First Regiment had actually lost six cannons during the battle.
The enemy had seized the cannons and was using them against his own men.
Such a bizarre incident had actually occurred within his own ranks.
It was almost unbelievable!
Colonel Shigeteng Chiaki immediately ordered the Second Regiment, which was attacking other positions on the defense line, to send a portion of its heavy firepower to support Tang Jingzhong's First Regiment.
The arrival of reinforcements would take time, and time was of the essence for both the attacking and defending sides at Huishan.
Lin Fan wanted to annihilate the Japanese soldiers before him as quickly as possible, while Regimental Commander Tang Jingzhong wanted to seize the position as quickly as possible.
Chief of Staff Oikawa Yohei, however, wanted to withdraw the troops, unwilling to see the First Regiment suffer too many casualties.
He was now certain that after this battle, the First Regiment would be renamed the Oikawa Regiment.
He didn't want to take over a depleted detachment as soon as he took office.
Regimental Commander Tang Jingzhong clearly didn't share this sentiment. He only wanted to reclaim the cannons and capture the position.
As for whether he would sacrifice the entire regiment of 4,800 men, he no longer cared.
Even if he really did sacrifice those 4,000 men, he couldn't afford to worry about them.
Even with artillery, mortars, and machine guns, it would still take time for Lin Fan and his men to deal with the four thousand Japanese soldiers in front of them.
Another ten minutes passed, and the charging Japanese soldiers finally slowed down.
They began to crawl on the ground, seeking out shell craters to take cover from the bombardment.
The soldiers were growing timid.
Lin Fan ordered, "The artillery direct support team will continue the bombardment! Everyone else, charge!"
Feng Junya received the order, and although reluctant, immediately led his men in a charge.
Battalion Commander Shi watched the team, who had been fighting so well, suddenly charge forward again.
This was a team that loved to fight!
Without hesitation, he shouted, "Everyone! Charge!"
As the bugle sounded the charge, all the Nationalist soldiers roared and jumped out of their trenches, charging towards the Japanese.
The distance was less than fifty meters, and the Japanese soldiers were still crawling on the ground, taking cover from the defenders' artillery fire.
They never expected that these soldiers would launch a bayonet charge while holding the upper hand!
This time, the natives who had crossed the sea from Taiwan Island to the mainland no longer had the courage to continue fighting.
Many of the natives who hadn't been hit by shells or bullets dropped their guns and turned to run.
Now was not the time to be promoted or get rich; it was the time to survive.
When their own team launched a charge, Ji Wudi and the others intentionally moved the targets they were striking further away from their own team.
Their skills weren't quite good enough to guide the charging troops.
Only Lin Fan was firing shells in front of the charging team.
Whenever the Japanese soldiers who had scrambled to their feet ahead of the charging team gathered together, intending to mount a group resistance,
Lin Fan would send them a shell.
Whether there were a dozen or dozens of Japanese soldiers gathered together, one shell exploding in their midst was all it took.
The small groups that the Japanese had just formed would immediately scatter like frightened birds.
Battalion Commander Shi and his battalion were a step slower in launching their charge.
And one step slow led to step after step being slow.
During the charge, Battalion Commander Shi discovered that his team wasn't even as fast as the others.
However, the soldiers of the Special Operations Brigade who were at the front encountered resistance from individual Japanese soldiers.
Their speed finally slowed down.
Only then did Battalion Commander Shi notice that these soldiers who were charging up to fight with bayonets always moved in groups of three.
Whether there was one Japanese soldier or two, they always charged up and stabbed.
The triangular formation provided excellent protection for the soldier at the front.
Battalion Commander Shi also noticed that every time these soldiers thrust out their bayonets, they would shout, "Kill!"
The battle cry was so loud that it gave him and his men tremendous courage.
He believed that when such a loud battle cry rang in the ears of the Japanese soldiers, their mood would be the opposite.
Regimental Commander Tang Jingzhong watched as the front of his formation was filled with earth-shattering cries of battle, while the rear was filled with the thunder of artillery.
Only his own position was still relatively stable.
He thought, puzzled and helpless, how had the battle turned out like this?
Chief of Staff Oikawa Yohei watched as the situation on the battlefield spiraled out of control.
He quickly reported to the detachment.
In order to save his First Regiment, Colonel Shigeteng Chiaki had no choice but to continue requesting air support.
This time, he was greatly disappointed: the air force flatly rejected his request.
Shigeteng Chiaki had no choice but to call General Yan Junliu, the newly appointed commander of the China Expeditionary Army, for help.
General Yan Junliu had only been in office for a few days and was still trying to win the hearts of the people.
When he heard that a regiment of the Shigeteng Detachment from Taiwan Island was facing imminent annihilation, he was surprised.
He immediately ordered the air units performing missions nearby to provide immediate support.
This gave Shigeteng Chiaki a glimmer of hope: he hoped that Tang Jingzhong, that fool, wouldn't take the entire regiment with him when he died.
In fact, there were still quite a few Japanese planes flying back and forth over the Xicheng defense line, which had been built by the Nanjing government at great expense.
They had already learned that Sato's squadron of six planes had all crashed at Huishan.
Now that their superiors were forcing them to go there, it was tantamount to sending them to their deaths.
Having realized this, the pilots quickly dropped the bombs in their cabins and fired the bullets from their attack planes.
They had only one thought: they could not go to Huishan, no matter what.
The commander of the China Expeditionary Army never expected that his orders would be ineffective.
Another half hour passed, and Oikawa Yohei, the chief of staff of the Japanese First Regiment, watched helplessly as his regiment was gradually bombarded and stabbed to death by the Nationalist soldiers on the opposite side.
Regimental Commander Tang Jingzhong had finally died for his country!
He took an entire regiment of more than 4,000 men with him to hell.
Leaving Chief of Staff Oikawa Yohei with about 300 mountain artillery troops and 300 supply troops.
Could this still be considered a regiment?
The soldiers of the Special Operations Brigade were busily cleaning up the battlefield.
The leather shoes on the feet of the Japanese soldiers, the equipment they carried, and the personal belongings in their satchels all needed to be collected.
The soldiers under Battalion Commander Shi were also learning from this ferocious team.
Battalion Commander Shi had already rushed back to the command post and was reporting his success to the regimental commander in a trembling voice.
The Second Regiment of the Shigeteng Detachment had dispatched three companies to reinforce the attack of the First Regiment.
These more than 500 soldiers had not yet entered the battlefield.
From afar, they saw the Nationalist soldiers in front of the Huishan position cleaning up the battlefield.
This force of 500 men had no idea what had happened there before them.
The Japanese soldiers watched the Nationalist soldiers in front of them, who were busy cleaning up the battlefield.
They seemed completely unprepared for them.
This was an opportunity not to be missed!
The Japanese soldiers immediately launched a charge.
They hoped to disperse the Nationalist troops who were out of formation with one fell swoop.
This had happened countless times since they landed on September 9th.
To the excitement of the Japanese soldiers, the situation was just as they had expected.
The Nationalist soldiers, upon seeing them charging, all took to their heels and retreated.
The Nationalist soldiers retreated all the way to their defense line, with a small number remaining in the fortifications, while most of them were still running backwards.
The soldiers of the Special Operations Brigade had just rushed back to the position when they received an order from Lin Fan: "Throw all the items you've collected to the vehicles in the rear.
Then turn around and continue cleaning up the battlefield!"
Seeing that most of the defenders had already fled, the three companies of Japanese soldiers who had just arrived at the Huishan battlefield were ecstatic.
The three companies of Japanese soldiers no longer cared about their formation at this time.
They were all rushing forward!
Everyone would remember who was the first to charge onto the position.
That's just how things are in this world. The first place always shines with glory.
No one cares about the second place!
All of these natives who had crossed the sea from Taiwan Island to the mainland were thinking about how to make a name for themselves on such a battlefield.
At the very least, they had to gain the approval of their masters, so that they could find a position to wag their tails in front of them.
Now they were fighting desperately for such an opportunity.
Lin Fan and his artillerymen were all on standby, just waiting for these ignorant fools to charge up.
Battalion Commander Shi also couldn't leave his command post. He crouched in the trenches.
Looking at the artillerymen on the position, and then looking at the soldiers of the Special Operations Brigade around him, who had put down the supplies they had collected while cleaning up the battlefield and were rushing to the position.
Battalion Commander Shi's heart was at ease.
Company Commander Kusakabe Hideki led three companies of Japanese soldiers to support the First Regiment.
When they arrived at the battlefield, they only saw Nationalist soldiers frantically cleaning up the battlefield.
When they saw the arrival of the force of more than 500 men he was leading.
The Nationalist soldiers scattered and fled.
Company Commander Kusakabe Hideki immediately ordered his troops to attack.
As the troops charged, approaching the Nationalist defense line, he was surprised to find that:
All those who had fallen along the way were natives from Taiwan Island.
And the closer they got to the position, the more people fell.
He had a bad feeling in his heart: could it be that the First Regiment had been completely wiped out?
He shook his head with difficulty: that's impossible!
Since the Imperial Army set foot on this continent, nothing like this had ever happened.
Although he was unwilling to admit it, Company Commander Kusakabe Hideki still slowed down unnoticed.
He quietly fell behind.
Let the natives charge ahead!
Anyway, the battle功 would ultimately be his.
Lin Fan was still using the same tactic as before: waiting until the vanguard of the Japanese soldiers had reached a position fifty meters in front of the position.
Only then did he begin to bombard the charging Japanese soldiers with artillery.
The direct fire power of the six field guns was enough to stop most of the charging Japanese soldiers.
Seventeen mortars bombarded the middle and rear sections of the Japanese formation, preventing them from fleeing backwards.
When the artillery fire began, Battalion Commander Shi also gave the order: "Fire!"
The front of the Huishan position, which had just been quiet for a while, was once again filled with intense gunfire.
Not long after the gunfire started, Company Commander Kusakabe Hideki, lying on the ground, discovered that the Nationalist soldiers on the opposite position not only did not run away as he had expected after the battle started.
On the contrary, the more they fought, the more Nationalist soldiers there were on the position.
"We've been tricked! These Nationalist soldiers are too cunning!
They actually pulled a trick on us, pretending not to bring people to charge and attack.
They even pretended to be fleeing, and now that the two sides have made contact.
Those soldiers who pretended to flee have actually run back to join the battle."
Company Commander Kusakabe Hideki was already starting to look for a way out.
What made him despair was that there was artillery fire from the defenders in front of him.
There was also artillery fire from the defenders behind him.
Company Commander Kusakabe Hideki was horrified to discover that the defenders' artillery fire was moving towards the middle section.
In less than three minutes, the place where he was hiding would be bombarded.
What to do?
Not many Japanese soldiers charged up this time, only a little over 500.
Feng Junya watched as the cannon he was operating had bombarded the area from 50 meters in front of the position to 300 meters in front of the position.
This completely bombarded the entire area of the Japanese charge.
This time, without waiting for the soldiers of the Special Operations Brigade to launch a charge.
Battalion Commander Shi had already taken the lead in standing up: "Charge!"
The second bugle call to charge rang out on the Huishan position!
Bayonet fighting is the most testing of a soldier's strength, will and spirit.
A team without morale cannot fight a bayonet battle.
The first bayonet battle just now gave all the soldiers of Battalion Commander Shi's battalion courage.
Now they could also take the initiative to launch a bayonet battle.
The soldiers of the Special Operations Brigade, of course, would not let go of such an opportunity.
More than a thousand people charged out at the same time, and the Nationalist soldiers on the entire Huishan defense line charged out of the trenches.
Charging towards the Japanese soldiers!
Company Commander Kusakabe Hideki was lucky enough not to be hit by a shell just now.
Now he saw that the defenders on the opposite side had actually launched a counter-charge.
They were going to fight a bayonet battle with his team.
There were so many defenders on the opposite side, and even when his team had just arrived at the battlefield, there were not as many as the defenders on the opposite side.
What's more, most of the more than 500 soldiers he had brought had been killed by the bombing.
Company Commander Kusakabe Hideki no longer hesitated, he immediately turned around and ran.
This wasn't fleeing, this was called a strategic retreat!
It's just that the defenders on this defense line didn't give these Japanese soldiers a chance for a strategic retreat.
Lin Fan and his mortar squad were carrying out pinpoint removals of those Japanese soldiers who were trying to escape.
Lin Fan was very busy now: on the one hand, he had to prevent the Japanese soldiers from escaping.
On the other hand, he had to disperse the Japanese soldiers who were gathered together and making a desperate struggle.
In Lin Fan's mind, it would be best if these Japanese soldiers stood there one by one like wooden stakes, waiting for the bayonets to see blood.
Resistance was ultimately useless.
When the soldiers of the Special Operations Company cleaned up the battlefield again, Oikawa Yohei, the chief of staff of the First Regiment, who was hiding far away in the command post, dared not look any more.
He also did not continue to report the situation on the entire battlefield to the Shigeteng Chiaki Detachment.
The two battles in front of him made him doubt his life: was this the Nationalist army on this continent?
If there were 100,000 such troops, would the Empire still dare to launch a landing?
When Lin Fan led the soldiers of the Special Operations Brigade to withdraw from the battlefield, Battalion Commander Shi grabbed his hand and kept thanking him.
Lin Fan left Battalion Commander Shi with three cannons and a hundred shells.
He also left fifty machine guns with enough bullets.
Even so, the entire Special Operations Brigade brought back a lot of spoils of war today.
On the way back, the soldiers of the Special Operations Brigade were all in high spirits.
The soldiers were comparing each other: how many Japanese soldiers did they kill on the battlefield today.
Gu Xiuming was a soldier who came out of Phoenix City, and he had been following Division Commander Gu Jiaqi.
In the 128th Division, they had fought bandits, warlords, and also organizations.
Gu Xiuming had fought so many battles that he couldn't even count them himself.
Today's battle was the most enjoyable. In the past few days, when they fought the Japanese soldiers, although they fought fiercely, the casualties of their brothers were also very high.
Unlike today, the brothers were still as brave as before.
The Japanese soldiers seemed to have changed their appearance, and were being beaten down by their brothers.
The number of traitors killed today was almost the same as the number of Japanese soldiers killed in Jiaxing in a few days.
The key was that only a dozen of his brothers were injured.
If they continued to fight like this, driving the Japanese soldiers back to their hometown and back to their hometown, such a day would not be far away.
After driving away the Japanese soldiers, according to what Instructor Li said, everyone would have fields to plant and things to do.
At that time, they would return to their hometown, marry a wife, have a baby, and live a life of farming.
How wonderful would that be!
These days, the literacy class of the Special Operations Brigade was no longer taught by Li Xian alone.
Instead, classes were organized within each squad.
Every soldier in the Special Operations Brigade had been issued books, paper and pens.
According to Lin Fan, education could not be impoverished no matter how poor they were.
Of course: this was because Lin Fan knew that he would not be poor.
Today, he just wanted to come out for a training session, but as a result, he fought such a battle, not only capturing thousands of guns and countless bullets.
Just the leather shoes alone were removed by the thousands, and these were all money, which could be exchanged for money.