Chapter 44

  A cavalry unit galloped across the snowy plain near Yingkou, east of Goubangzi, and disappeared into the forest shrouded in night.

  There were more than 500 cavalrymen in this group. The three leaders were "Old North Wind" Zhang Haitian, Xiao Bo and Liu Linhua couple.

  "Uncle, this time we're asked to help him tie down the enemy's forces, but with just our few men, can we really go fight at Yingkou?" Liu Linhua asked in puzzlement.

  Zhang Haitian burst out laughing: "What's impossible? We're not really attacking Yingkou, just making a show of it. If we can draw away the 20th Division of the devils' army that's besieging Goubangzi, that's enough."

  Xiao Bo also laughed: "Sister, you are wise and resourceful, just like Zhuge Liang reborn! My father-in-law is also a Zhuge Liang among the beards!"

  In fact, Xiao Dagou had already planned it out in his mind. The traitor Wang Er Mazi, who was released by Li Bin at Hanjia Bridge in Yingkou that day, because he had signed the "Letter of Loyalty", this time, Wang Er Mazi volunteered to be an insider for Xiao Bo and others.

  After a night march, Zhang Haitian and his troops arrived at the east gate of Yingkou, in the town of Hanjiabao. The pseudo-security team's fake soldiers were still fast asleep, thinking that the "Imperial Army" had gone to attack Goubangzi, and Yingkou was in the rear, so it should be safe and sound. But unexpectedly, Zhang Haitian's Righteous and Brave Army suddenly appeared outside the city of Yingkou.

  The pseudo-army in the dream was completely disarmed, and then Zhang Haitian and Xiao Bo led their troops to the outside of Yingkou City. Based on Wang Ermao's intelligence, they learned that the eastern gate of Yingkou was relatively weak, so they put the direction of attack on the eastern gate.

  The warriors dismounted a mortar and two heavy machine guns from horseback, aiming at the east gate tower of the Yingkou City.

  Everything was ready, Zhang Haitian pulled out his pistol and fired a shot into the sky. The mournful gunshot broke the silence of midnight, and then the mortar man loaded a 60mm shell into the barrel.

  A shell burst into the air, and with a loud "boom", a fake soldier guard on the city wall fell from the top of the city head.

  The heavy machine gun played a lively symphony, two scarlet tongues of flame shot towards the city head, hitting the bricks and stones on the city head, spewing out sparks.

  As the 20th Division of the Japanese army had been dispatched to Goubangzi as the main attacking force, there were only some puppet troops and so-called "armed civilian teams" composed of retired Japanese soldiers in Yingkou, apart from that, there was no Japanese main force at all.

  At the sound of gunfire, the pseudo-army was already frightened out of their wits, they hid in fear of not being able to hide in time, how dare they come out to see what's going on? A few members of the "Armed Civilian Corps of the Great Japanese Empire" walked up to the city wall, but they were met face-to-face by Zhang Haitian, Xiao Bo and Liu Linhua, these three sharpshooters.

  A few bullets were given as a "reward" to those Japanese, shooting them down from the city wall.

  "Flustered and flurried", Wang Ermao rushed into the command center of the "Northeast Self-Defense Army" and hastily reported to the traitor leader Wang Dianzhong: "Sir, it's not good! Hu Zi has brought 50,000 men to attack Yingkou! They are firing guns and cannons outside the east gate! The firepower is very fierce!"

  Just then, several fake soldiers rushed in to report: "It's bad! The five Taikun just walked up to the city wall and were killed by Hu Zi!" When Wang Dengzhong heard this news, he didn't dare go up to the city wall to take a look. So he believed Wang Ermaozi's nonsense as true.

  Wang Ermaizi, who had signed the "Loyalty Book", had no choice but to help Li Bin and Xiao Bai. Otherwise, if the "Loyalty Book" were sent to "Taigong", Wang Ermaizi would not be able to keep his ten heads safe. Therefore, he also had a mind to cooperate with Xiao Bai in singing this tune of "Tiger Leaving the Mountain".

  After Wang Dianzhong sent an urgent telegram to the Kwantung Army, Honjō Shigeru had no choice but to dispatch the 20th Division's emergency rescue unit to Yingkou to prevent it from being occupied by the "hairy ones".

  Xiao Bo's scout troops discovered that the 20th Division had been transferred, and immediately reported this information to Zhang Haitian and others at the fastest speed. After receiving the news of the Japanese being deceived, this small decoy unit quickly set off on horseback and disappeared into the vast snowy wilderness.

  At the same time, Xiang Qing-shan and Gai Zhong-hua led their cavalry troops to infiltrate the Dahu Mountain area, ambushing a Japanese army logistics team, killing or wounding over 50 Japanese soldiers, and burning large quantities of food and ammunition.

  A section of the railway line from Shenyang to Jinzhou north of Dahu Mountain was dismantled. A train that departed from Shenyang was forced to stop, and then the Righteous and Brave Army soldiers who were hiding in the snowy ground jumped up, attacking the freight train and blowing it up on the railway line, causing the railway line to be interrupted, making it impossible for the Japanese to transport ammunition to the front lines through the railway line.

  They didn't attack the ammunition train directly because they took into account that the ammunition train was heavily guarded, with armored vehicles leading the way in front and behind. The success rate of attacking the train transporting ammunition would be very low. Therefore, the clever soldiers chose to attack ordinary cargo trains instead, and then blow up the trains on the railway line to disrupt rail traffic.

  At the same time as the two righteous and brave armies were taking a series of actions, Li Bin was also preparing to take back the second trench.

  After nightfall, the cold air suppressed the lingering heat waves from the fierce battle during the day. The blood and icy water on the ground merged together to form a thin layer of ice with red bloodstains, which was shocking at first sight.

  Those devils who entered the second trench could not climb out, later they tried to set up a ladder, but as soon as their heads were exposed above ground, the sharpshooters who had been staring at them immediately shot a bullet and smashed the exposed head into mush.

  At this point, those devils inside didn't dare to do anything and could only wait patiently in the trenches for dawn.

  However, these devils never thought that they would soon be in big trouble! In fact, apart from the two traffic trenches that were blown up, Li Bin had already reserved two spare traffic trenches, but the connection to the spare trenches was not visible in the second trench because it had not been thoroughly opened and a section was left.

  After receiving Li Bin's order, Fang Jun Tian led the special forces soldiers carrying submachine guns and Mauser pistols, with short knives and axes on their backs, quietly entering the backup traffic trench.

  Detonators and explosives were placed at the end of the reserve communication trench, and the warriors hid in the temporary trenches on the side to wait. A minute later, a loud "boom" sound, the reserve communication trench and the second line of trenches were thoroughly connected.

  Those devils still hadn't figured out what was happening when several iron tower-like giants rushed in from the breach, and amidst the darkness, flames flickered, as submachine guns and pistols fired dense bullets at the devils, knocking them down in batches within the trenches.

  Special forces warriors poured out, charging into the second trench, their submachine guns and pistols firing fiercely as they swept through. Those poor devils' Type 38 rifles had a slow rate of fire, were not good for close range to begin with, and in the extremely narrow trenches, those long rifles couldn't even be turned around, so how could they resist?

  The outer devils heard the movement and attempted to rush over to support those devils trapped in the second trench.

  Just as the ghostly figures rushed to the first trench, three flares suddenly shot up into the sky, illuminating the ground with a brightness like daylight, and those ghostly figures were immediately exposed.

  In an instant, the earth let out a roar of anger, and dozens of scorching flames swept towards the Japanese soldiers who were rushing over. Tracer bullets dragged their tails into the crowd of devils, knocking them down one by one onto the icy ground stained with blood.

  Six mortars and four 75mm mountain guns that had not been exposed during the day fired together, shells whizzing down into the first trench and exploding, blasting wooden boards that the devils had paid who-knows-how-many lives to lay down into piles of fragments dancing in the sky, shells bursting among the devilish troops, instantly sending a large group of devils "back to the Great God of Heaven".

  Taking advantage of the infantrymen's blocking of the devils who came to reinforce with firepower, the special soldiers went on a killing spree.

  The warriors who had finished their bullets drew out bayonets and charged at the devils. In the narrow trenches, the devils' exquisite stabbing techniques were useless, they couldn't even swing their guns, how could they fight with others?

  The short knife and axe fell with a cold light, blood splattered everywhere, and the cries of misery continued. One after another, the devils' heads rolled to the ground like ripe apples. In less than half an hour, more than 200 devils who were restricted in the trenches and unable to move were killed by over 100 special soldiers.

  The devils used a whole day's time, plus more than 2,000 lives to advance 50 meters, and in just half an hour, the company almost took it back without paying any price.

  Hearing the "achievements" obtained after a whole day's effort were completely lost in half an hour, Lieutenant General Tamotsu Mōri was furious and continuously "rewarded" Major-General Yukihiko Taira with more than ten slaps on the ear. In addition, he also gave him a large pile of "beautiful words" such as "good-for-nothing", "rice bucket", and "waste".

  Lieutenant General Hirata Kōhiro originally had a pig-like face, but now it was even more so after being beaten. He covered his swollen face and bowed repeatedly, saying "Hai! Hai! Hai!"

  After a long time, Lieutenant General Futaba finally vented some of his anger. He slammed the table and shouted: "Tomorrow, I must take down that Shinra's stronghold!"

  After dawn, the devils launched another fierce attack on the Chinese garrison's position in Goubangzi. However, this time, because the 20th Division was transferred to rescue Yingkou, the devil's firepower had weakened significantly, and with the railway line from Shenyang being cut off, a large number of heavy artillery could not be replenished with ammunition, and yesterday's attack had also consumed too much ammunition. As a result, this time the Japanese artillery fire lasted less than ten minutes before gradually subsiding.

  Next, the Japanese launched a charge. The 29th Infantry Regiment and the 1st Independent Guard Battalion, which had been severely damaged, seemed to be unable to use them again. Therefore, Lieutenant General Niida did not give Hirata Yukihiko the opportunity to "make achievements and atone for his sins". He directly replaced the 29th Infantry Regiment with the 30th Infantry Regiment to carry out the attack mission; At the same time, the 2nd Independent Guard Battalion was used to replace the 1st Independent Guard Battalion.

  With these two fresh divisions, plus Lieutenant General Sakaguchi's 33rd Infantry Brigade, Lieutenant General Tominaga considered withdrawing the battered 4th Division as well to rest.

  This time, due to the heavy artillery shells being almost depleted, Ben Zhuang Fan also gave Duo Men Er Lang two tank battalions and a bomber squadron to coordinate an attack.

  Thus, the Japanese with the 30th Infantry Regiment, 33rd Infantry Regiment and 2nd Independent Guard Battalion totaling over 8,000 men, under the cover of 24 tanks and 12 aircraft, executed infantry command tasks by Major General Nakamura Shin, launched a fierce attack on the Goubangzi position once again.