Section 10

  The Imperial Army was very unlucky, so Watanabe was very angry.

  Watanabe ordered his troops to quickly finish breakfast and set out on a campaign of "kill all, burn all, loot all" against every village.

  Before marching forward, a fire turned Xingyun Gorge into a sea of flames, and several hours later it became a wasteland.

  Then thousands of people formed a queue, like a big net, sweeping forward.

  Man for man, Buddha for Buddha, village for village.

  For a time, wherever the devils went, there was a sea of flames and thick smoke.

  But this situation did not last long, and the main force of the Eighth Route Army appeared.

  After the devils burned down several uninhabited villages, in front of a mountain slope called Dujiashan, they finally found the Eighth Route Army's defensive position.

  Trenches stretched across the mountain slope, looking like iron chains stretching across the face of the earth.

  The devils quickly gathered, set up machine gun positions, and set up artillery and rocket launcher positions.

  The Eighth Route Army's position was quiet and still, without a sound.

  Under Watanabe's command, first the Type 99 infantry mortar and grenade dischargers fired shells into the Eighth Route Army's trenches.

  The position of the Eighth Route Army was immediately filled with smoke and flames, with flashes of firelight. From time to time, figures in gray uniforms were blown out of their trenches by shells and fell to the ground.

  The bombardment has stopped. The devils are starting their attack now.

  The devils are one hundred meters away from the Eighth Route Army's position, and there is still no movement on the position.

  Getting closer, eighty meters.

  Fifty meters.

  Thirty meters! A group of Eighth Route Army soldiers wearing blue caps jumped out of the trenches, "bang", a uniform and synchronized burst of gunfire, the devils fell down in a heap.

  The devils began to charge forward. Charging towards the battlefield!

  "Rat-a-tat", another burst of gunfire, and another batch of devils fell down.

  The third shot rang out again. The devils had already fallen by nearly half, but they had also rushed to the front of the trenches.

  A burst of hand grenades came at the devils.

  "Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!"......

  The devils let out a chorus of wails and howls, the living ones charged forward, the wounded ones yelping on the ground.

  "Kill him!"

  "Kill him!"

  The Eighth Route Army soldiers held bayonets and charged at the devils with ghostly knives.

  The devils also fired bullets from their guns and charged with bayonets.

  In an instant, the battlefield was a scene of carnage.

  "Poof", a devil was stabbed by an Eighth Route Army soldier with a bayonet.

  "Pffft", an Eighth Route Army soldier was stabbed by a devil with a bayonet.

  "Ka", a devil's head was chopped off by an Eighth Route Army soldier with a ghost-headed knife.

  "Bang", a devil was shot dead with one bullet.

  "Ka", a devil's head was smashed by a rifle butt.

  ……

  There are fewer and fewer devils on the battlefield.

  The Eighth Route Army fought more bravely as they marched on.

  Watanabe's face turned darker and darker.

  The devils and puppet troops began to retreat.

  One man retreats, all retreat.

  The devils' attack was repelled.

  The Eighth Route Army had no time to cheer. They quickly gathered the bodies of their comrades and even didn't have time to collect the devils' weapons before withdrawing into the trenches, because they knew that the devils' artillery fire was about to begin.

  "Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!"......

  The devils' cannon fire quickly covered the Eighth Route Army's position. The devils' corpses were blown to pieces and scattered all over the place.

  The devils' artillery fire stopped, but the devils' machine gun bullets swept over the Eighth Route Army's trenches like a storm, again and again.

  When the machine gun stopped, the devils had already rushed to the edge of the trench.

  The charge sounded.

  The surviving Eighth Route Army warriors turned over and stood up, holding their bayonet-equipped rifles and charging towards the devils.

  "Long live the Eighth Route Army!"

  Boom.

  A wounded warrior with a leg injury and an abdominal wound pulled the hand grenade on his body, and several devils surrounding him preparing to capture him alive sat on the earth plane.

  "Boom", another heavily wounded warrior rushed into the devils' group and detonated the hand grenade on his body.

  "Boom", "Boom", "Boom"

  The loud explosions on the battlefield made the devils tremble with fear, afraid that they would accidentally explode near themselves.

  At last, the devils could no longer withstand this immense pressure and retreated once again.

  In the morning, the Eighth Route Army repelled nearly ten attacks by the devils, but also paid a heavy price.

  The troops have suffered more than half casualties. Most of the company and platoon cadres were sacrificed, especially the squad leaders, with losses of over three-quarters.

  This is a veteran who has gone through the Long March, crossed snow-capped mountains and traversed grasslands.

  Captain Wu Tiechui's heart was bleeding.

  But we must hold our ground, for behind us are the ordinary people. If we lose this position, the ordinary people will lose their protective barrier and face the slaughter of the devils.

  Repelled the devils' attack again, finally waited for the supporting troops - Old Sixth Regiment First Battalion Second Company. The second company finally arrived from a hundred miles away.

  Although it was just a single chain, for Wu Tiechu, this was no different from sending charcoal in snowy weather.

  Wu Yingchang grasped Zhao Ergou's hand, his eyes brimming with hot tears, unable to utter a word. He just held on tightly and led him around to take a look at his own soldiers.

  Almost every soldier in the battalion was wounded, everyone bleeding, and there wasn't a single one who was completely unscathed!

  Zhao Ergou didn't say a word, this Shandong man had already seen through the cruelty of this battle and the price paid by his brother units. He gave a solemn military salute to these soldiers, shook hands with the regiment commander, and led his troops into the trenches.

  The two soldiers quietly walked past the first battalion's warriors, no one said a word, but each of them gave their most sincere military salute to all the combatants of the first battalion.

  Having entered the position, the warriors quickly repaired the trenches.

  A lone warrior, so conspicuous in the entire trench. The rest of the battalion's uninjured or lightly wounded soldiers also came up. No one spoke, everyone was silently preparing.

  The devils' bombardment has started again.

  Everyone huddled in the trenches, except for a few observation posts, everyone else was as far back in the corners of the trenches as possible.

  The bombardment stopped, and the devils began their attack. The mountains and fields were filled with yellow-clad devils and puppet troops.

  It seems that the devils were also tired, and this attack, although it looked more fierce than each of the previous ones in the morning, began to retreat after two volleys from the Eighth Route Army. This made Zhao Er Gou very depressed.

  It hasn't even started yet, how can you retreat like this? This is too unprofessional.

  Taking advantage of the fact that the devils did not attack at noon, the soldiers of the first regiment and the second company ate some food sent from the rear.

  The midday sun is poisonous, and everyone is a bit drowsy from the heat. If they didn't know that death was lurking around them, many comrades would have fallen asleep.

  What are Li Tie and his friends doing?

  It's so lively here, where did they go?

  Li Tie and his men are just around here.

  Li Tie knows his strengths and weaknesses.

  The submachine gun's firepower was dense, but its range was short. Although he had a sniper rifle, Watanabe was always under the strict protection of the devils, and there was no chance to take action.

  Originally wanted to wipe out the enemy's artillery position, but Watanabe seemed to have been prepared early on, and the artillery position was heavily guarded. With just these few dozen men, they were not enough to fill the gaps between the enemy's teeth.

  Li Tie led everyone to hide in the bushes, waiting for an opportunity to give the devils a fatal blow.

  The sun is slightly westward, and the weather is getting hotter.

  The devils still have no movement.

  Similarly, there was no movement in the trenches of the Eighth Route Army either.

  The sun is about to set.

  The devils have moved!

  Old routine, first artillery bombardment, but this time the bombardment lasted much longer and was more intense. The entire position was like a field that had been plowed once, with all the soil turned over, and the trenches were no longer recognizable in their original shape.

  The bombardment is over, the devils' machine guns are firing fiercely, waves of steel storms ravaging the Eighth Route Army's fortifications, cutting off a layer of the entire fortification.

  Then, the devils took the puppet army into action.

  This bombardment caused great losses to the Eighth Route Army. At least 20-30% of the soldiers fell on this land forever, and their blood stained the battlefield.

  A crazier attack than ever began.

  Watanabe committed all his reserves, even deploying his own bodyguard.

  He wants to settle these eight roads at once and sweep away the last roadblock tiger that is sweeping towards the mountain.

  The devils and puppet troops have launched an attack on our position.

  The Eighth Route Army engaged in a fierce battle with the Japanese and puppet troops.

  The devils retreated with bullets and rushed towards the Eighth Route Army soldiers.

  The fake army hid in places with fewer Eighth Route Army.

  But it was like this, under the attack of the superior enemy, more and more warriors fell in the pool of blood, fewer and fewer warriors could fight, the enemy's victory was already apparent!

  Watanabe stood on the open space in front of the command post, leaning on his commander's sword, and saw the devils and puppet troops attacking the Eighth Route Army's position, beating the Eighth Route Army to the point where they had no power to fight back.

  The devils' artillerymen have also left their positions and gathered in twos and threes, pointing and gesturing as they watch the battlefield, loudly cheering on the infantry.

  It's just in time!

  Li Tie had already led his guerrilla fighters to sneak into the enemy's artillery position.

  Sniper Zhang Honglei was hiding on the mountain top, his target had already been locked onto Tobita's left chest.

  "Ready, strike."

  Li Tie gave the order, and all team members' weapons suddenly turned to the enemy's artillery. The excited devils were caught off guard for a moment, and they were defeated with a loud crash. All more than 30 artillerymen did not even have time to fight back before being completely annihilated.

  Watanabe heard the sound of gunfire coming from the artillery position, and hastily turned around to look. At this moment, Zhang Honglei's gun fired, and the bullet hit Watanabe's left arm, directly disabling it.

  Watanabe fell to the ground. The guard next to him finally dragged Watanabe into a bunker after three died.

  Li Tie led his troops in a charge onto the battlefield, rushing towards Todo's command post.

  The Japanese guards quickly lifted Kaito and hid behind the attacking troops.

  It seems that getting rid of Watanabe is no longer possible. Li Tie knew he didn't have the ability to take down the top general among the enemy army, so he led everyone in a charge towards the main battlefield.

  Zhao Ergou, the second company commander who was in a fierce battle with the devils, suddenly heard intense gunfire coming from behind the devils. He looked up and his mouth opened wide enough to fit at least two eggs. Thirty or so people wearing strange clothes were lined up in a column, each one equipped with a machine gun, firing bullets like they were free. The devils and puppet soldiers fell to the ground in batches.

  The devils and puppet troops have begun to get out of control.

  Especially when someone saw that the command post was empty, it was like a Buddha's head growing grass - they panicked. Their will to fight greatly decreased, and seeing the enemy's firepower so strong, their last bit of will to fight also disappeared.

  Then a puppet army threw down their guns and started running away, followed by almost all the puppet armies beginning to flee, and then the devils began to flee.

  In the blink of an eye, the victorious devils turned into a great rout. The devils and puppet troops only had two legs to spare, hastily fleeing like a dog that has lost its home, in disarray and shame, escaping with their tails between their legs. Under the escort of other guerrilla forces, they finally escaped back to Mengxian County Town, abandoning all heavy weapons, and some puppet troops even stripped off their clothes to lighten themselves slightly.

  The enemy's sweep was crushed, and it was a major victory. Wu Yingchang and Zhao Lianzhang rushed towards Li Tie and the others without saying a word, wanting to see who possessed such terrifying firepower.