Chapter 61
It seems that this leading devil officer is still sensible, seeing that the other side has even captured their own armored vehicle, these people are absolutely not opponents, and can only retreat to plot a comeback.
The devils finally retreated a little further away, and the accuracy of the machine gun fire decreased. The devils got up and wanted to run back.
"Little guy, machine guns aren't effective, we've got cannons too. It was too close just now and couldn't hit it, but now it's just right."
The ammunition handler had already loaded a shell into the breech.
To be honest, Li Tie was also using this cannon for the first time, so he could only estimate and fire.
Generally in the direction of the devils' escape, Li Tie fired a shot, too close, exploding behind the devils, not hitting any of them. The devils were already thinking of withdrawing, especially after this shot, which made them speed up their escape, and soon they disappeared from view.
When the ammunition handler reloaded the cannon again, the devils had all disappeared.
"Alas, first time firing a cannon, missed it, didn't even take out one devil."
Looking at the watch, it's already 2:30 in the night, and there are still four hours before dawn. It is estimated that the guerrilla team should be able to transport the grain before dawn, so I can withdraw early.
After calculating the time, the devils ran back and it took at least an hour to reassemble the team. It wouldn't take two hours to get there, and I still had at least three hours of rest.
Three hours later, a fierce battle is about to break out, I hope the devils won't come in large numbers, otherwise I'll be done for.
Li Tie anxiously looked towards the direction of the train, hoping to see two green signal flares as soon as possible, but he knew it was impossible for that to happen so quickly. After all, there were too many grains in this batch, and although many people had come, they still needed time.
Just as he was getting anxious, a fox team member responsible for observing the enemy situation said something that made Li Tie's already anxious heart even more anxious:
"Company commander, the devils have arrived."
Li Tie turned his head to look back, but still didn't see the train on that side firing signal flares, guessing it hadn't finished transporting yet. He turned around and peeked out from the shooting port, and this one glance scared him: in the distance, a dense crowd of who-knew-how-many devils and puppet soldiers were moving towards him with their heads down, a black mass pressing forward. Li Tie had an urge to turn around and run away at that moment, even having a slight urge to urinate, but considering it would be too humiliating to just run like that, he persisted.
Li Tie glanced at his watch, it was already past four o'clock, and in less than two hours the sky would be bright. But before dawn broke, there would be a period of darkness, so it seemed that he could only hold on for two more hours and then take advantage of this time to make a run for it.
Taking advantage of the enemy not yet arriving in front, Li Tie fired a cannon at the devils in the distance. The bomb was exploding among the devils, and after a burst of flames, there was a small gap in the middle of the devils, but it quickly disappeared. Li Tie ordered the ammunition handler to speed up the loading, as two cannons had already been fired, so the ammunition handler gradually adapted to this large cannon, and the speed obviously accelerated.
Li Tie's cannon fired one shot after another into the midst of the devils, and the devils' advancing speed obviously slowed down, even starting to crawl forward.
The shells on the armored vehicle have been fired for a long time, leaving only about ten rounds, but less than half an hour has passed, and they have already entered the range of the crooked handle machine gun.
Because the devils were quite far away at first, the two machine guns on the armored vehicle did not fire. Now that they were within range, the two soldiers could no longer hold back, and the two machine guns spat out tongues of flame at the devils. As a result, the devils immediately stopped their attack and each sought cover to open fire on the armored vehicle. The bullets hit the armored vehicle with a loud "bang bang".
It seems that the armored vehicle of the devils has a good anti-bullet effect, at least the 38 gun and the pistol bullets of the devils are ineffective.
The devil's mortar also fired at the armored car, exploding next to it and sending shrapnel flying onto the vehicle's armor plating with a loud thud.
At this moment, two green signal flares rose from the train.
Li Tie let out a sigh of relief. Now, all he had to do was stall the devils for a little while longer, and the masses would be able to transport their grain further away, increasing safety.
Li Tieben thought of firing a shell at the enemy's machine gunner, but his aim was really bad. He aimed several times and didn't hit the machine gun once, but he accidentally blew up one of the enemy's grenade launchers.
At the same time, the machine gunner next to him was firing bullets at the car with all his might. It didn't matter if he hit or missed, anyway they would have to retreat soon and couldn't take these bullets away, so it's better to fire them all at the devils, at least some of them will be useful.
Soon, the two machine guns' barrels turned red, and the ammunition handlers next to them didn't care about anything, each urinating on the barrel. The car was immediately filled with a strong smell of urine, but the barrels were no longer red. The two machine gunners also urinated on the barrels again, anyway, they would be abandoned when retreating, and it's unknown whether they could return to their own hands in the future. The bad smell in the car became even stronger, and the urine that had been held back for a whole night was all given to the two crooked machine guns.
While the people in the car were pouring bullets and shells at the devils, another team of fox team members seemed to have also started a battle at their ambush location. Although no gunfire could be heard, the light from the exploding shells was still quite visible in the night.
Li Tie thought of turning the armored vehicle around, but the turret was stuck and couldn't be moved. He tried to adjust the direction of the car head, but no matter how he operated it, the armored vehicle wouldn't budge, not even starting a fire. Upon closer inspection, damn, the engine had been displaced, with some unknown parts shaken off from who-knows-where, already rendered useless, what's the point of even trying to start it?
The turret doesn't rotate, the vehicle doesn't move, so the shells generally go in one direction and roughly to the same location. The place where the shells are hitting is now completely empty of devils, probably because they've also discovered this issue. Tonight's shelling was really strange, only hitting one spot, if you avoid it then nothing will happen.
But other places are not safe either, the two machine guns in the armored car are pouring bullets out of their lives, this thing hits the body is a hole, and their own machine gun has no chance to penetrate the armor, hitting the armor only brings up a string of sparks, then it's unknown where they flew.
Their own attacking troops were firmly suppressed in front of the armored vehicle and could no longer move forward. Although some people had moved to both wings, as long as they surrounded these people, there would always be a moment when their bullets ran out, and wouldn't they still be caught alive? So the devils didn't rush at all, except for a few people moving to both sides, the rest of them remained motionless on the spot, occasionally firing two shots.
However, the people in the car were not idle either. The devils moving to both sides had already been discovered by them. As a result, two machine guns extended to both sides and immediately suppressed the speed of the devils' movement.
At last, the shells were all gone and there were hardly any machine gun bullets left.
Li Tie ordered the armored vehicle to withdraw, taking the remaining bullets with them, fighting while retreating in the direction of the train.
Two teams of foxes need to merge.
The devils saw that the cannons on the armored vehicle had stopped firing and the machine gun bullets had become sparse, and immediately thought that the Eighth Route Army's bullets were exhausted. As a result, their firepower intensified immediately.
The other members of the Fox team, all equipped with submachine guns, had a shorter range and did not open fire. When they heard Li Tie's order to retreat, they all covered each other and retreated down. After the two machine gunners fell, everyone retreated towards the train.
The Eighth Route Army saw they were about to escape and the devils began their pursuit.
After running for about two or three miles, the machine gun bullets finally ran out. The two machine gunners stuffed some mud into the barrel of the machine gun and threw it on the road, then turned around to chase after Li Tie and the others.
The machine guns of the Eighth Route Army finally stopped completely, and the devils' pursuit speeded up even more. Soon, the devils found the machine gun thrown away by the Eighth Route Army, and as soon as they touched it with their hands, a blister appeared on their hands immediately. It seems that they won't be able to run very far. The devils pursued even more vigorously.
Li Tie led everyone in a fierce run to the train station, only to find that there was not a single person left on site, and of course, no food either. As for the guns and ammunition, they had fallen into the hands of the guerrilla troops - what's the point of throwing them away? Not to mention the guns and ammunition, not even a single bullet shell was found, and the Japanese corpses were almost stripped bare, with only their underwear left on. On the railroad and trains, all the ironware that could be carried away had vanished, including the coal from the coal car - nothing was left. It was clearly the work of the Eighth Route Army, far surpassing the Japanese in thoroughness.
After passing by the scene not far away, they finally met another team of fox team members who were also retreating, but they were more miserable. The devils had bitten very tightly, and two of them were already injured. Fortunately, their injuries were not serious. One was shot through the shoulder by a bullet, and the other was hit on the arm by shrapnel, both of whom had been bandaged.
The devils have found that they are not many, so they didn't take it seriously from the beginning. They just wanted to catch a few alive, so they didn't launch a particularly fierce attack. Later, under the sweep of the fox team's submachine gun, they paid a heavy price and only then did they take it seriously, increasing their offensive. As a result, this small team couldn't hold on for long and had to retreat. The devils bit tightly, determined to eliminate this group of Eighth Route Army and gain merit and reward.
The two teams merged into one, and the firepower suddenly doubled. At this time, the devils were just rushing up, so all team members opened fire together. In an instant, more than 90% of the devils who rushed up fell to the ground, and the puppet army behind let out a miserable cry and turned around to flee.
The fake army ran away, and the ghost's offensive momentum was immediately blocked. The ghosts had no choice but to suspend their attack, regroup and fight again.
The sky is now completely dark, and it will soon be light, this is the darkest period before dawn.
The devils reorganized their troops after a brief rest and charged again, with more people than last time.
Li Tie led everyone back along the way they came.
Extend skirmish line, with point men and supporting troops maintaining intervals of several tens of meters.
It wasn't long before the vanguard reported back, "We've discovered a group of devils up ahead!" It was the same group of devils that Li Tie had fired at earlier, and now they were coming to find him.
