Chapter 1 Liangjie Qiankou's Squad

The fifty-four devils of Qiankou Liangjie's squad left Xuzhou City and sped towards Huangtu Ridge.

They traversed green mountains and crossed plains. When passing through villages, the devils once again wanted to enter and harass the villagers.

Since they occupied Xuzhou, very few villages within a hundred *li* (approximately 30 miles) radius of Xuzhou had not been visited by the devils.

Villages like the one they had just passed, located right on the main road, had been plundered countless times by the devils.

Today's situation was different from usual. Qiankou Liangjie's squad dared not waste time on other matters.

They could only bitterly memorize the location, preparing to return and thoroughly disturb the village.

The devils of the entire Yamada Yusuke Battalion were all like this: they were in the cars, rushing forward at full speed.

However, the road was not very smooth, and the speed of the cars could not be too fast, and the weather was hot.

After half an hour of driving, the cars needed to rest for a few minutes to cool down the engine, so that the cars could run further.

Otherwise, the engine would overheat or break down midway, which would be counterproductive.

Battalion Commander Yamada Yusuke didn't think much of it. He believed that the entire battalion would arrive at Huangtu Ridge in time at this speed.

Moreover, with the strength of the Fukagawa Hiroshi Battalion, it would be no problem to hold out for a few days in a place with complete fortifications.

Therefore, he didn't have high demands for the speed of the convoy. Even so, the marching speed of the entire Yamada Yusuke Battalion was still very fast.

Soon they arrived at the Yi River. After driving along the river for a while, a pontoon bridge made up of many small boats appeared ahead.

This was the only bridge on the entire Yi River that could be used by cars. It was also a product of the battle between the devils and the National Army a few months ago. However, after the battle, the bridge was well preserved.

The thirteen motorcycles of Qiankou Liangjie's squad rushed onto the pontoon bridge without any hesitation. They had no vigilance at all.

Although these thirteen motorcycles were equipped with light machine guns, they had not encountered any attacks along the way.

In their current marching formation, ordinary guerrillas and bandits would see such a team.

How dare they open fire?

A team of more than a thousand devils, all sitting in cars, must be the elite among the devils.

After a sneak attack and firing a few shots, they would not be able to escape the pursuit of the devils' motorcycles.

For Qiankou Liangjie's squad, they never thought that any team would dare to ambush them today.

Company Commander Feng Ruili watched the devils get on the bridge and cross the river.

He kept watching the devils pass in front of the positions of the First and Second Companies.

Company Commander Ye Tianshi of the Sixth Company and Company Commander Ji Yangxia of the Seventh Company also watched the thirteen motorcycles and more than fifty cars drive from afar.

They watched the devils pass in front of the directional mines buried by their companies. The motorcycles passed.

Ye Tianshi did not receive the regiment commander's order to attack. Ten cars had already passed, but he still had not received the regiment commander's order.

Company Commander Ji Yangxia was the same. He stared with wide eyes, watching the devils pass by, but could only stare blankly.

Without the regiment commander's order, they could not attack. Twenty of the devils' cars had already passed.

Only then did an order come from the communicator: "Detonate!"

This time, Gu Xiuming had let the devils' team reach the very bottom of the encirclement before ordering the attack.

Company Commander Lei Churan of the Eighth Company watched the devils' thirteen motorcycles speeding all the way, and then looked at the cars behind them. The smile on his face could not be concealed no matter how hard he tried.

The same was true for Company Commander Chao Ruizhen of the Ninth Company and Company Commander Fu Yuansi of the Tenth Company.

Even the company commanders of the Security Regiment who were ambushing with them were equally excited.

Watching the devils' motorcycles enter the explosion range of the directional mines, they waited for another two minutes.

Hearing Regiment Commander Gu Xiuming's order, the directional mines laid by the five companies of the Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, Sixth, and Seventh Companies were detonated one after another.

The "rumbling" explosion awakened Battalion Commander Yamada Yusuke, who was watching the scenery in the car.

"Where is the artillery fire?" he asked immediately.

Without waiting for an answer, Battalion Commander Yamada Yusuke immediately understood.

He saw everything that was happening outside the car. Countless iron pellets were sweeping into the car he was riding in at this moment.

They were ambushed!

"Get out of the car! Counterattack!" Battalion Commander Yamada Yusuke quickly pushed open the car door and ordered Sergeant Nakayama Mizuki, who was sitting outside, in a loud voice.

Battalion Commander Yamada Yusuke's dissatisfaction with this soldier had been accumulating all the way since they left Xuzhou.

In such hot weather, this hateful soldier actually used the excuse that the window seat on the outside was unsafe and squeezed himself between him and the driver, Hoshizaki Shinichi.

All the way, he was terribly hot, but the two of them were enjoying all the wind coming in from the window.

Now, this hateful soldier was not getting out of the car quickly when attacked. Did he want to hide in the car?

Didn't he see that the car window was already broken? Was there any safety in here?

Seeing that his order was not being followed, Battalion Commander Yamada Yusuke was furious and slapped him in the face.

He immediately felt something sticky on his hand and realized that it was stained with blood.

His body pressed over Sergeant Nakayama Mizuki's body, and he reached out to open the car door. At this moment, Battalion Commander Yamada Yusuke secretly rejoiced: the window was indeed not safe.

Nakayama Mizuki had at least a dozen wounds on his body. The most fatal one was a finger-sized blood hole in the right side of his head. He saw a bullet fly in, and he didn't even struggle before dying.

At this time, Battalion Commander Yamada Yusuke turned back to check on Hoshizaki Shinichi and found that he was also dead. Fortunately, the driver was very dutiful and stopped the car before he died.

Pushing Nakayama Mizuki's body out, Battalion Commander Yamada Yusuke jumped out of the car and immediately crawled on the ground, quickly climbing to the slope on the side of the road.

Only then did he have time to survey the situation on the entire battlefield: the devils of his battalion were jumping down from the carriages in a panic.

There were also devils on the roof of the car firing machine guns. The "da da da" sound kept ringing.

Machine gunner Kamikawa Kenichi quickly shrank his body when he heard the explosion and hid in the carriage.

He heard countless rustling sounds hitting the carriage. These sounds, like silkworms eating mulberry leaves, did not last long.

Many of the devils in the carriage began to groan and scream.

Some devils fell silently without saying a word.

Machine gunner Kamikawa Kenichi did not hesitate. He immediately picked up the machine gun, placed the barrel on the car's baffle, and fired at the open field on the left.

At this time, regardless of whether there were enemies in the distance, it was better to suppress them with fire first. His machine gun was very skilled, firing from near to far, and then from far to near.

He was scanning back and forth like this. He had not found a target, so he could only probe such a large area.

The herd effect was very obvious. With this machine gun firing on his car, devils immediately joined in. They fired at the right side of the road, trying to suppress the completely undiscovered enemy.

With the demonstration on this car, devils on the other cars also followed suit.

Some devils were counterattacking, and some quickly jumped out of the car and rushed to the side of the road, crawling down and starting to look for the ambushers.

At this moment, the attack from both sides of the road arrived: the sound of a woodpecker pecking at a tree, "tuk tuk tuk," rang out.

This was the sound of a heavy machine gun firing. A hail of bullets flew from not far away, immediately silencing the devils on the carriage.

They were completely targets on the carriage, and very easy to hit.

Kamikawa Kenichi, the first machine gunner to fire, also became the first target of the Eighth Company.

Three of the six heavy machine guns of the Eighth Company were aiming at him, and many soldiers also aimed their rifles at this devil machine gunner who kept firing.

He was firing while standing in the carriage, with half of his body unprotected. Even the lower body, which was blocked by the carriage railing, was completely useless.

The wooden carriage railing was easily penetrated by heavy machine gun bullets like paper.

When machine gunner Kamikawa Kenichi was hit in the left leg by the first bullet, he immediately felt as if his left leg was gone, and his whole body began to tilt.

Then his right leg, chest, and entire body began to be hit by bullets. The light machine gun he was operating suddenly began to fire at the sky.

Even when Kamikawa Kenichi fell, he did not release the trigger. He waited until the magazine of the machine gun was empty before letting go.

The machine gun, with its muzzle pointing towards the sky, lost its support and fell off the railing, smashing on Kamikawa Kenichi's body. The barrel, which had been red-hot after continuous firing, smashed on his face, making a sizzling sound of burning meat.

A burnt smell of scorched meat spread in the carriage.

Squad Leader Qiankou Liangjie was sitting on the motorcycle in the front. In this hot autumn, it was extremely comfortable to sit on the motorcycle, facing the wind and enjoying the coolness.

He was looking at the unchanging scenery around him. When he was a little sleepy, he saw a flash of fire in the corner of his eye, and then heard an explosion.

Then countless iron pellets hit the motorcycle, hit his body, and swept past him with a whistling sound.

Hatsumi Yuya, who was driving the motorcycle, was no longer as majestic as before. At this time, he had fallen on the handlebar.

The motorcycle was still rushing to the left, rushing off the road, down the slope, and then falling to the ground.

All four devils riding on this motorcycle were thrown out. They fell to the ground, and blood flowed from under the body of each devil. None of the devils got up.

Although Squad Leader Qiankou Liangjie had not yet died at this time, he could not stand up.

He tried to climb two steps from the slope to the road, raising his head and looking at the four motorcycles sparsely parked on the road.

But not a single devil could stand up. The rest of the motorcycles had all driven down the road.

At this time, he heard the familiar "tuk tuk tuk" sound of a heavy machine gun firing.

The bullets hit the cars not far away. He could clearly see the windshields of the cars being shattered, and none of the three devils sitting in the driver's seat escaped. They fell on the seats, obviously dead.

"This is an ambush?" Only at this time did Squad Leader Qiankou Liangjie react.

"What kind of team is so bold as to ambush a whole battalion?" Squad Leader Qiankou Liangjie's last consciousness remained here.

Battalion Commander Yamada Yusuke was undoubtedly very lucky. At least he was not injured in the first wave of directional mine attacks. On this point alone, he was much stronger than forty percent of the devils in the entire battalion.

Then, he was not attacked in any way during the machine gun扫射 after the explosion.

This wave of attacks was mainly aimed at those devils who were still counterattacking in the carriages.

These devils may have been the bravest group in the entire Yamada Yusuke Battalion.

When these devils were killed, the sound of the counterattack from the entire Yamada Yusuke Battalion was much lower.

Tan Jun was still carefully tending the crops at home with his father in May.

His family had fifteen *mu* (approximately 2.5 acres) of paddy fields, which could be considered a middle-class family. He had just married a wife this year, and his life was going well.

All this turned into a bubble in June. The Huayuankou Dam was breached, and of the five people in the family, only he escaped.

He didn't know what the fifteen *mu* of paddy fields looked like now. He drifted with the waves, holding a piece of wood, and was rescued.

Then he followed the refugees to Sishui, and only after joining the reclamation group of the Lunan Detachment did he settle down.

He was young and literate, which was rare among the refugees.

When the First Sishui Security Regiment was established, he was the company commander of the Ninth Company. Today was his first time on the battlefield.

It was a lie to say that he was not flustered, but in front of more than a hundred familiar villagers, he had to pretend not to be flustered at all.

Like Company Commander Lei of the regular army, all of Tan Jun's commands were completely copied according to Lei Churan's orders.

When Company Commander Lei ordered to shoot, he also ordered the entire company to shoot.

The militiamen of the First Sishui Security Regiment had fired hundreds of bullets, but that was all at targets.

Like today, directly shooting at the devils was the first time. When Tan Jun fired, his heart beat faster, his hands trembled, his eyes were straight, and he couldn't aim at all.

No matter what, he had to keep pretending. He carefully fired a shot at the devils on the road. Only then did he look up to see his soldiers.

Everyone's faces were red, and the sweat flowing down was as big as beans. Seeing that the villagers were similar to him.

Tan Jun's heartbeat suddenly calmed down a lot. Looking at the soldiers of the regular army, in the same weather, wearing the same clothes, their faces were serious, with some sweat, but there were no traces of streaks flowing down their faces, and no bean-sized drops of sweat falling.

Completely different!

Tan Jun realized at this time that many of his men, like him, took a look around after firing two shots.

He quickly shouted, "Folks! Don't panic. Shooting devils is a little different from shooting targets.

Take a shot, rest for a while, see how Company Commander Lei and the others are shooting, and you'll know how to shoot next."

After speaking, he also started his second round of shooting. This time, his heartbeat was finally not so rapid, his eyes could see clearly, and his hands were not shaking.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!" He fired the remaining three bullets in the magazine.

Calmly replaced a magazine full of bullets and fired again.

In fact, most of the people in this Security Regiment who were fighting together were firing guns on a real battlefield for the first time.

No matter how realistic the usual training was, it was completely different from a real battlefield.

After today, these people from the First Sishui Security Regiment could be called veterans.

At least they had broken their膽 (dǎn - courage) on the battlefield, and would no longer experience rapid heartbeats, shaking hands, and blurred eyes when shooting at the devils.

Company Commander Ye Tianshi watched the devils' cars drive out of the encirclement laid by his company one by one, and his heart ached so much that he could not breathe.

Fortunately, the regiment commander issued an order to attack at this time, and he quickly ordered: "Attack!"

The Sixth Company first detonated the directional mines in the second half, and then the heavy machine guns扫射 at the devils' cars.

This time, none of the company commanders who ambushed the devils' cars used infantry炮 (pao - cannon), for one reason only:

The company commanders of the First Regiment all wanted to capture some cars. Even if the cars were damaged, they could still take off some parts, right?

If they used infantry炮 to attack, nothing would be left after one炮.

Heavy machine gun and machine gun扫射 were already unbearable pain for the Yamada Yusuke Battalion.

The Sixth and Seventh Companies截 (jie - intercepted) nearly twenty cars. The devils in these cars were炸 (zha - bombed) in one wave, and then机枪扫射 (jisao she - machine-gunned).

Their counterattack was also rapid, but these devils entered a carefully selected ambush position by the First Regiment, and were completely at a disadvantage in terms of terrain.

Less than ten minutes after the battle started, the charge号 (hao - bugle) sounded, and the soldiers jumped out of the trenches and charged towards the devils.

Although the militiamen of the First Sishui Security Regiment were a beat slower, they all held rifles with刺刀 (ci dao - bayonets) and charged towards the devils.

Company Commander Kouchi Shinzo had just gathered the devils under his command. His中队 (zhong dui - company) was still fully staffed when it set off.

Now, there were less than eighty devils left who could still fight. Before he could properly allocate positions to these frightened devils, the Lunan Detachment on the opposite side actually started to charge.

This was exactly what he had in mind. Just now, he only dared to think about it, but not to do it. Because the opponent's heavy machine gun firepower was too fierce.

Now seeing that the opponent had abandoned their powerful firepower advantage and come to fight him in close combat.

"They are just a rabble! They have not received good military training at all. This kind of combat method that abandons one's own advantages would be punished by military law in my team," Kouchi Shinzo thought in his heart.

However, the tone of command was not hesitant at all: "Everyone, fix bayonets!

Warriors! The cunning enemy has set up an ambush here and caught us off guard.

But they have now made a mistake. They are charging at us, wanting to fight us in close combat, in a bayonet fight.

This is a fatal mistake for them, and an opportunity for us. As long as we display the spirit of the samurai and bravely rush up and kill them, we can continue to move forward."

Company Commander Kouchi Shinzo's mobilization order was very effective. These devils had also seen the people on this land when they set off from Xuzhou City.

They saw their small stature and thin bodies. Even if such people became soldiers and went to the battlefield, they would not have much strength when fighting with bayonets.

These devils had also fought against the National Army and had seen the captured National Army soldiers, who were all emaciated and whose combat effectiveness was imaginable.

Now they are recognizing the charging Lunan Detachment with the same standards.

Tan Jun led the team, following behind Lei Churan and the others. Although the people of the First Sishui Security Regiment were all farmers, they had at least received two months of training.

In the past, they could not eat enough, and their bodies might not be good.

These days, the grain imported from abroad by the Special Operations Brigade had already been sent to the Lunan base, and they, the reclamation group, could already eat their fill.

Now Tan Jun and his men were all full of energy. Except for being a little uneasy in their hearts, they were holding their guns, taking big steps, and charging towards the devils.

From time to time, bullets fired by the devils whistled past their ears.

The soldiers in the front did not dodge, and of course the Security Regiment in the back had no reason to retreat.

The soldiers of the Eighth Company had already engaged with the devils. Today's battle was not the first battle for the Eighth Company. For them, it was just an ordinary battle.

For the militiamen of the First Sishui Security Regiment, it was an extremely fierce and exciting battle.

They watched the soldiers in the front stab the devils with their rifles.

Every stabbing action of the soldiers had been learned by the people of the Security Regiment.

Basic stabbing skills, stepping forward, extending the gun with the right hand, following with the left hand, every move was as smooth as flowing water.

The devils on the opposite side were also extremely weak, and they could not resist at all!

This gave the militiamen of the Security Regiment, who had just arrived on the battlefield, great courage.

Among them, there were also people who rushed the fastest, met the devils, and suppressed the uneasiness in their hearts.

According to the practiced stabbing skills, they stepped forward, stabbed forward, and pierced into the devil's chest.

Everything was so simple that Tan Jun was so excited that he was about to jump up.

He watched Company Commander Lei and the others, after stabbing a devil to death, then looked for the next target.

Tan Jun also suppressed his ecstatic mood, strode forward, and continued to look for his target.

Battalion Commander Yamada Yusuke was also ecstatic when the Lunan Detachment abandoned its superior firepower and chose to charge up and fight with bayonets.

However, this ecstasy lasted too short. He commanded the devils under his command to rush up to engage in battle. The two sides met on the plains like two giant waves.

In an instant, the devils of the Yamada Yusuke Battalion were completely suppressed by the Lunan Detachment.

The devils in the front fell to the ground and could no longer get up.

There were a total of 1,267 devils in the Yamada Yusuke Battalion, but there were five companies of the First Regiment of the Lunan Detachment participating in the battle here, plus five companies of the First Sishui Security Regiment, a team of 1,700 people in ten companies.

The number completely crushed the devils. Not to mention that the devils of the Yamada Yusuke Battalion were ambushed, blown up by directional mines, reducing their numbers by 40%, and then机枪扫射 for ten minutes, reducing their numbers by another two hundred.

When Regiment Commander Gu Xiuming ordered the charge, there were less than 500 devils in the entire Yamada Yusuke Battalion who could stand up and fight with bayonets.