Chapter 45

  At this moment, many rockets with long flames flew up from the trenches of the Eighth Route Army, exploding right in the densely populated areas of the devils and puppet troops. This time, it added a large number of wounded soldiers to the devils and puppet troops. Not many were killed, but many lost their combat effectiveness. At least half of the charging troops were dealt with this time.

  Itan's great anger, after another bombardment, added a squadron of devils and a large number of puppet troops, totaling nearly a thousand people, launched a fierce attack on the Eighth Route Army's position.

  There were originally thirty-six rocket launchers set up on the front line, but several were destroyed when the devils bombarded them. Only a dozen or so remained after the last charge, and almost all of them were damaged in the devils' next bombardment. The remaining two or three rockets no longer posed a mortal threat to the enemy.

  Under the firepower of the Eighth Route Army, the puppet army was forced to charge forward under the threat of the devils' vanguard, taking most of the bullets from the Eighth Route Army.

  They rushed into the position, threw a batch of hand grenades at the Eighth Route Army, fired a burst of submachine guns, and then the Eighth Route Army rushed out of the trenches.

  In front of us are the puppet troops, behind us are the devils. The puppet troops have already lost more than half, but the devils have hardly suffered any damage.

  Seeing the Eighth Route Army charging out with bayonets, some of the puppet troops began to lie on the ground and pretend to be dead, while others were about to turn around and escape. The puppet troops had learned a lesson from the Eighth Route Army's bayonets and ordinary people couldn't fight against them.

  The devils saw us coming up the Eighth Route and charged at us with bayonets, shouting "Wah wah".

  They were about to clash. Suddenly, a devil found that the gun in the hands of the Eighth Route Army's vanguard did not have a bayonet and was shorter and thicker than usual. At this moment of confusion, the new weapon of the Eighth Route Army fired.

  Rough gun barrels shot out a large amount of iron sand, and the firepower of more than a dozen buckshot guns was enough to cover a large area. Although it couldn't directly kill the devils, in the dense iron sand array, the iron sand flew everywhere, these small things didn't care about eyes, noses, arms, or legs, nor did they care about your little brother's thick thighs, they would drill into anything that had flesh and blood, and wouldn't stop until they saw blood.

  As a result, many devils threw down their rifles, some covering their faces, others covering their legs, and still others covering their little brothers jumped up on the spot. The Eighth Route Army came up behind them with bayonets, ending their suffering for them.

  After the hail of bullets, the devils and the Eighth Route Army officially clashed together, but due to the many twists and turns, the devils' combat effectiveness had already been greatly discounted. As for the puppet army, it was impossible to expect anything from them, they were just scaring ordinary people. Moreover, the number of devils was already at a disadvantage, almost two Eighth Route Army soldiers against one devil, the devils showed signs of defeat.

  On the opposite mountain top, Itai's face turned iron blue as he stared at the battle. He summoned a messenger and ordered him to command the artillery to cover the Eighth Route Army's position with barrage fire, wiping out both the Eighth Route Army and the devils at once!

  The orderly saluted and ran towards the artillery position.

  Li Tie was in the mountain cave base, listening to the sounds of artillery, gunfire and hand grenades outside. It was truly deafening! But on their side, not a single devil had come over, nor even a puppet soldier had been seen.

  Li Tie had really become impatient, he called up Min Bingdui's Chang Fugui and Yu Yishui to arrange for them to guard the base, while he took people out to take a look.

  The militia in the mountain base can be stronger than those in the village, at least their weapons and equipment are similar to those of the main force, and they also follow the troops for training all day. It can be said that even ordinary Eighth Route Army troops may not be stronger than them, or even slightly weaker. Letting them guard the mountain cave should be no problem.

  The matter of the cave was arranged and Li Tie set off with twenty-one members of the Fox Volant.

  They didn't go directly to the third line of defense, but went to the front of the first line of defense.

  Li Tie heard the enemy's cannons were fired from that place when he was in the mountain cave base, and his own artillery troops were quickly wiped out by the enemy, indicating that the enemy's artillery must be very powerful. If they could take out the enemy's artillery, then Bantian would lose an arm.

  Wearing camouflage nets on their bodies and camouflage hats on their heads, Li Tie and the other twenty-one men approached the enemy's artillery positions.

  Good fellow, a string of nine cars, the cars are fully loaded with ammunition and food, and there are several boxes of ammunition piled up on the ground. Not far from the car, a row of four large cannons, the muzzle is facing the Eighth Route Army's position.

  More than a hundred devils, some were busy moving shells, others were busy around the big guns, don't know what they're doing, most of the devils only wore white shirts, and some were bare-chested, working in the scorching heat.

  The sentries around them were either busy or smoking, only a few of the devils were faithfully performing their sentry duties. It seems they thought the main force of the Eighth Route Army was already in front of them and there wouldn't be many troops appearing elsewhere.

  Li Tie led everyone in a three-sided encirclement of the devils, quickly and easily taking out the sentry.

  The devils didn't notice that the sentry was gone.

  Li Tie waved his hand, and the twenty-two men quickly surrounded the devils' artillery, before the devils could react, the twenty-two submachine guns had already killed more than half of the devils on the ground. By the time the first clip was finished, the devils had hardly touched their own guns.

  Having finished a clip of ammunition, there was no time to reload, so everyone drew their pistols and fired at the remaining devils, quickly finishing off the devil's artillery.

  From the first shot at the beginning to the last devil falling down, it didn't take two minutes!

  After checking all the devils, Li Tie ordered everyone to hang the cannons on the cars and pull them away for work after adding a knife to the devils who could not confirm their death.

  Li Tie didn't notice that a nearby clump of grass had moved slightly, and a small figure disappeared into the underbrush.

  Less than two minutes after Li Tie and the others left, the devil's messenger arrived. He seemed to be staring at the corpses on the ground in disbelief, with most of them still bleeding, indicating that the massacre had just ended. The original artillery position didn't even have one cannon left, and the original long line of cars was also gone, leaving only corpse after corpse.

  The orderly was flabbergasted and turned around to run back.

  The devils on the hillside can no longer hold on, and it seems that they are about to retreat. Ban Tian is secretly anxious in his heart, resenting the artillery for not opening fire quickly, this is a good opportunity to wipe out the Eighth Route Army.

  At this moment, a Japanese soldier ran in front of him: "Report to the major general, the Eighth Route Army raided my artillery position, and all my artillerymen were killed. The Eighth Route Army took away all the big guns!"

  "Where did you come from? Where did this Eighth Route Army come from? How could they snatch away our big guns?"

  "Report to the major, the Eighth Route Army has killed the artillerymen and taken away the cannons with trucks."

  "How many Eighth Route Army? Where did they come from?"

  "Your Excellency, there were over twenty of them, attacking from three directions. My artillery was no match for them and they were all killed."

  "Eighty-eight, eighty-eight's big and powerful, chase after them, we must get the armored car back."

  So, as a reserve team of the devils, the devils chased after Li Tie's retreating direction.

  The devils on the hillside had already shown signs of defeat, and now someone discovered that the reserve team had a problem and could not hold on, and they immediately began to retreat.

  One man retreated, a hundred men retreated, and as a result, the devils lost all their will to fight and began to retreat while fighting.

  The Eighth Route Army soldiers did not notice the abnormality of the Japanese reserve team, thinking that the devils could not hold on and retreated after retreating, brewing another attack. So when the devils retreated, they immediately shrank into the trenches to prevent the enemy from using mortars and cannons to bombard the position.

  But at this time, Itō's position was still being shelled by the Eighth Route Army, and he wasn't even aware that his own artillery positions had been raided by about 20 soldiers from the Eighth Route Army. He thought it was just a cowardly Japanese soldier spreading false rumors, and was about to execute him as an example when the messenger returned with the same news, at which point he finally believed it and ordered his troops to counterattack.

  Because the road in the mountain valley was really difficult to walk, Li Tie and his men did not retreat quickly, at most slightly faster than walking.

  The devils chased Li Tie's car tracks and soon saw the car. From snatching the car to being seen by the devils, it only took an hour. It seems that the devils' speed is still quite fast.

  But at this time it's already not far from the mountain cave base, after turning over a hill, it's the mountain valley of the mountain cave base.

  The devils have caught up.

  The nearest Japanese soldier is now only one or two kilometers away from the car.

  Finally, after turning around the foot of the mountain, I saw the entrance of the cave.

  The road is slightly better now.

  Li Tie and his men quickened their pace and swiftly entered the cave. The nine cars lined up in a row, occupying a large space inside the cave.

  Then everyone quickly got out of the car and defended at the entrance of the cave.

  Originally, before the devils arrived, Li Tie had already withdrawn all units outside the cave into the mountain cave. To ensure safety, some dangerous processes had been suspended. Now there was no one left outside the cave, only a few rows of empty thatched cottages remained.

  The devils finally caught up to the mountain valley where the cave was located, and looking at the dark cave (all the lights had been extinguished to prevent the devils from seeing what was inside), they were stunned on the spot.

  Ban Tian led the men and finally surrounded the valley. The surrounding mountain tops were all devils and puppet troops, with row upon row of machine guns pointing at the dark cave entrances.

  Ban Tian waved his hand, and a group of devils on the mountain top were about to come down. The one in front had just taken a few steps when there was a loud explosion, and the airflow sent the devils flying back up to the mountain top. The devils were frightened out of their wits. Just then, a puppet soldier discovered a wooden sign with several black characters: "Danger Zone - Do Not Enter".

  The other three sides of the mountain also found many similar wooden plaques.

  Itai is a bit dizzy, how come there are so many minefields? Fortunately, the boss brought several sappers, heh heh, can such a small minefield stop me?

  Sappers, attack! Clearing mines is our job!