Chapter 54 Minefield Obstruction-Brilhando a Espada: No Início, Ajudo Li Yunlong a Conseguir um Canhão Italiano(Iniciar jogo)

Chapter 54: Minefield Obstruction

Inside the Japanese Gendarmerie Headquarters in Heyuan County.

"Sir, this is the telegram sent by Captain Fujimura." A Japanese signal officer handed the freshly translated telegram to Ichiro Hirata.

Ichiro Hirata hurriedly took the telegram and glanced at it, his face lighting up with joy: "Splendid! Fujimura Nono has located the main force of the local Eighth Route Army."

"Sir, although Jiang Deshui's troops still have two thousand men available for combat, I believe this force is still a bit insufficient. Should we dispatch some more..." The staff officer had not yet finished his sentence.

Ichiro Hirata waved his hand to interrupt him: "There is no need for that. Can't you see? The local Eighth Route Army has nowhere left to run. Playing guerrilla warfare is their strong suit. But playing positional warfare is our strong suit and the Eighth Route Army's weakness. There is an old Chinese saying: Use one's own strengths to attack the enemy's weaknesses. That is precisely what we are doing now."

"Haji! It seems I spoke out of turn." The staff officer nodded.

"Reply to Fujimura Nono and tell him I will prepare a victory banquet in advance, waiting for his triumphant return," Ichiro Hirata said.

"Haji." The staff officer departed.

"Hehe, the Eighth Route Army—a force composed of farmers, what kind of threat could they possibly pose? I actually thought they would be able to hold out a bit longer. I never expected it would end so soon," Ichiro Hirata sneered dismissively.

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Headquarters of the 386th Brigade.

"Brigade Commander, the New First Regiment just called to report that Kong Jie's Independent Regiment has already sent its Second and Third Battalions to the New First Regiment, and they are urgently assisting with the defense preparations," the staff officer reported to the Brigade Commander.

"How many combat-ready troops does Jiang Deshui have left?" the Brigade Commander inquired.

"Including the slightly wounded, there are still two thousand men," the staff officer replied.

"Li Yunlong's New First Regiment and Kong Jie's two battalions add up to a total of over one,500 men. Relying on favorable terrain and possessing sufficient weapons and ammunition, there is still hope of defeating their force of over two thousand. However..." The Brigade Commander pondered for a moment, looking at the staff officer: "Once this battle begins, telephone communications cannot be guaranteed. We must dispatch people to keep an eye on the battlefield; I need to know the progress of the battle at all times."

For the Eighth Route Army's forces, field radios were scarce commodities, allocated only down to the division and brigade levels.

The subordinate combat regiments basically relied on telephone communications.

However, these telephone communications were also extremely unreliable. Once fighting broke out, the enemy would sever the communications, leaving the units out of contact with their superiors.

"Understood." The staff officer left.

"Li Yunlong, oh Li Yunlong, you rascal, you better not turn the world upside down on me," the Brigade Commander muttered. He was not worried that Li Yunlong wouldn't win; this rascal had already mastered the true essence of positional warfare from him.

What worried the Brigade Commander was that once Li Yunlong's unit lost communication, this rascal would become a wild horse with broken reins, and who knew what kind of trouble he might cause.

Although Kong Jie was there to help keep an eye on him, the Brigade Commander was still somewhat uneasy.

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The greatest advantage of the defensive position chosen by Li Yunlong was its ability to withstand heavy artillery fire.

The anti-artillery capability mentioned here did not mean that shells could not shatter the positions.

Rather, when shells came flying in, the troops could quickly retreat and take cover on the reverse slope.

Through all the recent turmoil, the enemy's ammunition for their six artillery pieces was already running low.

Once the battle commenced and this ammunition was further consumed, the threat posed by the enemy's artillery could be diminished even further.

"Open fire!"

As soon as Jiang Deshui's troops were pulled into position, he immediately ordered them to open fire.

Boom!

...

The six artillery pieces roared to life, and the positions of the New First Regiment and the Independent Regiment were instantly subjected to a frenzied bombardment. Fortifications were destroyed, rocks were blasted into the sky, and the air was filled with billowing smoke and dust.

"Damn it, what fine pieces of equipment. Once we capture them, they'll all belong to Laozi." Li Yunlong and Kong Jie's troops had already taken cover on the reverse slope. Crouched in a safe spot, watching the scene of their position being furiously bombarded, Li Yunlong felt a strong covetousness for the artillery, even though he already possessed one Italian mountain gun.

"Hmph, whoever seizes them gets them!" Kong Jie scoffed from the side.

Although Li Yunlong had his eyes on the puppet troops' six artillery pieces, he had no practical way to capture them.

The battlefield changed in the blink of an eye. The moment the puppet troops found themselves outmatched, they would either take the artillery with them or destroy it if they couldn't.

And it would be far too difficult for the New First Regiment and the Independent Regiment to prevent that.

"Kong Erlengzi, just try and snatch them from under my nose; these are Laozi's cannons!" Li Yunlong glared at Kong Jie.

"Your cannons? Stop joking around. If they really were your cannons, why are they shelling you right now?" Kong Jie retorted.

...

"Charge!" Taking advantage of the artillery suppressing the Eighth Route Army on the position, Jiang Deshui immediately ordered an advance.

A battalion of puppet soldiers immediately lunged forward in a charge.

Boom!

...

Halfway through their charge, they triggered the landmines laid by the New First Regiment.

Dozens of casualties were incurred on the spot. The remaining puppet soldiers, terrified of stepping on more mines, dared not charge further and retreated back.

"Engineers, go clear the minefield!" the puppet regiment commander ordered the engineering corps to clear the mines.

Armed with tools, the engineers had just reached the minefield and had yet to clear a single mine when sniper fire rang out.

The already meager number of engineers was instantly halved, and the survivors fled back in a panic.

"Open fire, give me artillery fire!" The puppet regiment commander ordered the mortars to immediately shell the source of the sniper fire.

Boom!

...

Mortar shells rained down like a downpour, and the area where the snipers were hidden was blasted into a honeycomb.

Whether any Eighth Route Army soldiers were actually killed there, the puppet commanders had no time to verify.

Because the terrain was far too steep, and there might still be more landmines along the path forward.

With the sniper fire temporarily silenced, the puppet commanders ordered the remaining half of the engineers to resume mine-clearing duties.

The surviving half of the engineers went out to clear the mines, but were once again cut down by sniper fire shortly after.

This sniper fire still came from the exact same location as before, indicating that the recent mortar bombardment had failed to wipe them out.

Watching helplessly as the remaining half of the engineers were completely wiped out, the puppet regiment commander roared in fury: "Bring up the heavy guns and shell them! Adjust the artillery angles!"

Three of the six artillery pieces immediately adjusted their angles and directly leveled the area.

"Sir, we have no engineering troops left for mine clearance. Should we round up some more livestock and cattle from the rear to clear the paths?" a puppet regiment commander asked Jiang Deshui.

"We already rounded up a batch earlier. If we go rounding up more, there probably aren't any left," Jiang Deshui scratched his head. In these turbulent times, even grass roots and tree bark had been dug up; it was impossible to raise cattle and sheep on a large scale.

Coupled with the fact that his puppet troops raided the countryside from time to time, the number of livestock was even sparser.

"Then... then should we just order the infantry to charge?" The puppet regiment commander stammered slightly. The explosions from stepping on mines earlier had only occurred in the peripheral areas.

If they pushed deeper into the field, who knew how many landmines the Eighth Route Army had buried there? Using human bodies to clear them meant an unknown number of men would die.

"Things have come to this; do we have any other choice?" Jiang Deshui said with utter helplessness.

Although his troop strength exceeded the enemy's, the enemy held the favorable terrain and had established a minefield. This was truly a grueling task.

Yet there was no alternative. The Eighth Route Army had been found, and Fujimura Nono was whetting his knife over on his end.

He could hardly run over to Fujimura Nono and declare that his soldiers were afraid of landmines and dared not charge.

When that happened, after receiving a few slaps across the face from Fujimura Nono, he would still be forced to do it anyway.

Seeing this, the puppet regiment commander had no choice but to reorganize his forces and continue the charge.

Naturally, this so-called reorganization of forces did not involve coercing men by force—that would easily provoke soldiers into shooting their commanders in the back or staging a mutiny. Instead, it relied on heavy rewards.

As the saying goes, under a heavy reward, there must be brave men.

The puppet regiment commanders promised substantial sums of money, and several hundred puppet soldiers stepped forward to serve as a suicide squad.

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This chapter is an extra chapter added by the author to thank the readers for their tips, recommendation tickets, and monthly ticket support.

(End of Chapter)