Chapter 8: Ambush Circle
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"Eight losses!" Lieutenant General Sasaki didn't even listen to Lieutenant Colonel Yokota's explanation, and instead gave him two loud slaps in the face. In one day, they had lost almost an entire company of men, and this was during a sweep operation where their side held absolute superiority. Not even the bodies of the enemy were found. No matter how you looked at it, this was a serious case of dereliction of duty. "Lieutenant General, I think..." Yokota mustered up the courage to speak out about what he had seen and heard, but all he got in return was another round of verbal abuse. This was Yokota's misfortune - there was no greater tragedy than encountering someone who didn't understand you, especially when that person was your superior officer. Lieutenant General Sasaki, as an outstanding graduate of the Japanese Military Academy, had inherited everything that the academy could teach him, including the unique arrogance and pride of a Japanese army officer. In his view, the enemy in front of them were just better equipped and had stronger fighting power than before, but there was nothing special about them. As for what Yokota said about "no bipod, using small-caliber but powerful machine guns", he thought this might be some emergency weapon made by the enemy's underground arsenal due to a lack of materials - just like their reloaded bullets and hand grenades that often only exploded into two pieces. As for the "super-heavy tank" mentioned, don't even get him started - if Sasaki were speaking Chinese or modern Mandarin, he would have said something like this: how could an army that couldn't even guarantee one rifle per person, with a severe shortage of ammunition, possibly have "super-heavy tanks"?
This is absolutely a joke, a big joke, but what's even more ridiculous is that someone actually believes this joke, and that person is Lieutenant Colonel Yokota in front of me.
"You're acting like a big shot from the Great Japanese Empire, but I think you've already been scared out of your wits by those little bandits!" After slapping his own hand until it went numb, Sasamoto sneered, "I think you're no longer fit to be a commander leading troops into battle. You should reflect on your mistakes." Yokota was about to retort when he saw the chief of staff give him a signal from beside Sasamoto. He immediately understood that at this point, anything he said would be useless. If he continued speaking, his own guts might just spill out for all to see. He knew his commander's temper well enough - in anger, it was entirely possible for him to say something like "Take care of yourself!" As a soldier of the Great Japanese Imperial Army, Yokota shouldn't be afraid of death or think about his family back home, but he also didn't want to die senselessly. The mere thought of death made Yokota's skin crawl with fear.
Since he had closed his mouth, Lieutenant General Sasaki was still very kind and directly kicked this unfortunate lieutenant colonel who was "scared to death by the Eighth Route Army" to the logistics unit in charge of large luggage. Sasaki thought that transferring him out of the combat troops was a humiliation for him, but Yokota didn't think so. Although he had changed from an "old eagle to a dragonfly", he didn't have to take responsibility for the failure of "a big egg hitting a stone battle". Maybe this wasn't bad either.
Sasaki Brigadier General was furious at Yokota's remarks, but he didn't completely ignore Yokota's warning. He made a report to his superiors and called in a light armored reconnaissance squadron and a Type 95 tank squadron from nearby, plus a mountain artillery squadron. In addition, he personally led a brigade and two battalions of direct-fire artillery, with more than 90 guns above 60mm caliber. With the addition of two squadrons of tanks, even if the Eighth Route Army had the "super-heavy tank" mentioned by Yokota, Sasaki believed that his own forces could handle it - he didn't think there was any land-based moving object in this world that could withstand direct fire from a 75mm mountain gun.
It's not that General Sasaki is to blame for being ignorant, first and foremost he is a Major General of the Japanese Army, not an engineer from Chelyabinsk in the Soviet Union, and had no idea that there was such a monster tank as the T34 in this world. At the same time, it was even more impossible for him to know about some descendants of the T34 - the T55, T72, and China's 99A2 tank, because he had never read any alternate history novels before. Of course, even if Japan had such tanks, at that time the science fiction magazines were still dominated by multi-turret gods, let alone those single-turret monsters, which he couldn't have imagined in his dreams.
At this moment, those single-turret monsters are staying with more than 4,000 old Eighth Route Army and local Eighth Route Army in a place called Duanmugou. As for what they are doing, you can imagine what the two regiments of the Eighth Route Army will do after receiving several hundred tons of military ammunition from 17 trucks. After being chased by the devils like rabbits for more than half a month, the suddenly wealthy people who ate a super-large sticky rice ball that fell from the sky naturally want to settle their old accounts. According to past experience, Duanmugou is absolutely not a good place for an ambush, at least not for the local Eighth Route Army at that time. The terrain is too flat, and the wheat has just been harvested, with no green awnings grown yet. The surrounding slopes are also very small, making it easy for the enemy to break through from one direction. However, now that the Eighth Route Army has replaced their bird guns with 21st-century foreign cannons, plus the support of armored units, all these problems are gone.
"This place is great, suitable for an ambush." The special forces from the 21st century and the experienced Eighth Route Army commanders reached a consensus. This time, the Eighth Route Army was very confident of their victory. Each company had strengthened its firepower with eight heavy machine guns, not to mention the new type of rifle that could fire continuously at the same distance as a rifle, the 81-style rifle. As for the devils' big cannons, what's there to be afraid of? Our cannons seem bigger than theirs! "We have two regiments, so many big guns, and tanks, even if it's a group of pigs, we can wipe out a whole battalion of devils!"
However, contrary to the expectations of the Eighth Route Army, this time it was not a large troop, but a reinforced regiment plus two battalions. They only knew this after they entered the encirclement, and by then it was too late to retreat. Similarly, on the Japanese side, General Sasaki also did not expect that there would be local Eighth Route Army troops daring to ambush his reinforced regiment.
Before being ambushed, General Sasaki was still very pleased with himself. The Eighth Route Army had fled in disarray under the military might of the Imperial Army, abandoning their weapons and equipment all over the place. Although some people suspected that this was a ruse by the Eighth Route Army, in Sasaki's impression, even if every single one of them had drunk three liters of baijiu, they still wouldn't have the guts to try and take down a regular Imperial Army regiment. Moreover, even if it were a ruse, the Eighth Route Army wouldn't be so foolish as to abandon their precious Type 38 rifles and 1922 model heavy machine guns in order to lure the enemy into a trap. However, along the way, they still encountered some harassment from less than a company of Eighth Route Army cavalry, but apart from having better marksmanship - which had taken out two of his battalion commanders and six platoon leaders - there was nothing particularly noteworthy about them, and in fact several dozen of them were even wiped out by his own armored squadron. "These damned Chinese pigs actually think they can use their flesh and blood to resist the Imperial Army's mechanized forces? It's really laughable." Just as he was mocking the Eighth Route Army's ignorance, he had unknowingly entered into the ambush circle, and it wasn't until the fighting broke out that he realized just how serious a mistake he had made.
"The company commander and the instructor are dead!" A cavalryman of the Eighth Route Army jumped off his horse and burst into loud sobs after escaping to his own camp. As a soldier, he had fulfilled his duty of luring the enemy deep in, and so had his company commander and instructor. "Don't cry, we will avenge them when the time comes!" Zhang Yu patted him on the shoulder. At this moment, the Eighth Route Army also knew that the Japanese were far more powerful than they had imagined, but with the arrow already drawn, it had to be shot. With one order, the Japanese army, which had been rampaging China with advanced weapons, finally tasted the power of even more advanced weapons.
