Chapter Fifty-Nine: Ambush

  The sky has finally brightened up.

  Along with the morning light came the Japanese artillery shells.

  The shell's landing point was still some distance from the hiding point of Han Peng's unit, and Han Hongxun thought this was a repeat of the Japanese army's nighttime trickery. He ordered his troops to continue hiding, while he climbed up a large tree, needing height to observe the Japanese army's movements.

  As soon as he climbed up the tree, he saw many figures flashing vaguely in the cannon fire ahead. Han Hongxun hastily observed carefully. This look shocked Han Hongxun.

  The Japanese artillery fire was regular, starting from a certain point and gradually extending to distant places, with the purpose of covering the Japanese scouting parties.

  Han Hongxun quickly jumped down from the tree, grabbed his rifle and ordered the second battalion commander Huang He: "Bring your men with you, follow me to the top, the Japanese are coming!"

  Braving the artillery fire, Han Hongxun led the brothers of the Second Regiment to charge forward. After a brief exchange of fire, the Japanese quickly retreated. Han Hongxun was confused, and then he saw that the sky in front of him suddenly lit up with flames.

  "Take cover quickly! The little Japanese have started shelling!"

  Along with Han Hongxun's words, Japanese artillery shells also landed at the same time.

  The Japanese artillery fire this time was extremely vicious, starting from two original points in the front and back, then converging to the middle, just like two shepherds holding whips, one in front and one behind, driving a flock of sheep into a heap before slaughtering them.

  Peng Youming was the first to see through the Japanese army's artillery intentions, and he hurriedly shouted loudly: "Run to both sides!" However, in the midst of the cannon fire, how many soldiers could hear his cries?

  The bombardment lasted for half an hour, during which the Japanese army poured in thousands of shells, including a small amount of poisonous gas shells.

  "This can't go on like this!" Han Hongxun regretted, regretting why he didn't make another effort the night before.

  Peng Youming also realized that he had to make a change, and he found Han Hongxun. Just as he was about to speak, the Japanese army's second round of shelling began, and the interval between the two rounds of shelling was less than five minutes.

  Han Hongxun, after all, was a seasoned military man who had seen big scenes. At this time, he was exceptionally calm, braving the artillery fire, and quickly organized a hundred-strong assault team. "Follow me in the charge! I don't believe the Japanese defense line is made of iron!" Han Hongxun waved his shotgun and led the charge.

  Han Hongxun chose a breakthrough direction, which was one and a half points in the twelve-point direction of the Japanese artillery position. In this direction, there is a low-lying area, and after passing through this low-lying area, there is an embankment, under which is the largest river in the Jiajiawan area.

  The breakthrough route chosen by Han Hongxun was the most difficult one, and it might also be the weakest line of defense for the Japanese army.

  It was a fact that the river, though not deep, was over fifty meters wide. The temperature below zero had formed a thin layer of ice on the surface of the river. The Japanese did not believe that anyone could wade through the river in such bad weather, so they only deployed a company-sized force to defend against the opposite bank.

  Han Hongxun guessed it right.

  But how to cross the river?

  Even if there was only one platoon of Japanese troops on the opposite bank of the river, even if that platoon of Japanese troops did not have machine guns, nearly two hundred rifles would be enough to give a name to each soldier who crossed the river.

  Smoothly breaking through to the river embankment, Han Hongxun's difficulties were far from over. Continuing forward would mean paying an extremely high price in casualties, and changing the direction of the breakthrough might result in an even worse outcome.

  Following Han Hongxun's vanguard, Peng Youming and Yan Xiwen also gathered at the riverbank. After a brief discussion, they finally decided to take the risk and cross the river.

  "Action must be swift! We must take the opposite bank of the river within fifteen minutes, otherwise, once the Japanese army gathers reinforcements, we will all be done for." Han Hongxun gave instructions to the assault team preparing to force a crossing.

  How fast can one walk in the river water that is waist-deep? Moreover, the temperature of this river water is very low, and there is even ice on its surface. Yan Xiwen looked at those soldiers who were preparing to cross the river and launch a strong attack, and silently prayed for a miracle to happen.

  Lian Yun Xi Wen himself didn't dare believe it, but a miracle really did occur.

  The Japanese artillery fire from the pursuing troops actually went directly over the river and landed on the Japanese positions on the opposite bank.

  "Charge!" Han Hongxun didn't care about the previous tactical deployment and was the first to jump into the icy river.

  The miracle was not an accident, nor did the Japanese artillery suddenly get water in their heads. The miracle was created by Ye Tufei.

  After breaking out of the Japanese army's encirclement, Ye Tufei proposed the idea of rescuing Han and Peng's two divisions. No one disagreed with Ye Tufei, but everyone had different opinions on how to rescue Han and Peng's two divisions.

  Finally, Ye Tu Fei made a decision: "Let's not discuss this for now, let's just stick to it and observe the situation clearly, maybe there will be a way."

  Ye Tufei's unit, with almost no casualties, was full of combat effectiveness and high morale. What's more astonishing is that their luck had also reached its peak: after more than two hours of circling around, they actually stuck to the Japanese artillery position.

  It was too dark at night, and Ye Tufei and others did not know the nature of the Japanese army they were attached to. They only knew that the defense of this position was not so tight, and there was something strange about it. After observing these things, Ye Tufei thought of only one thing: how to respond to Han Peng's two divisions.

  It wasn't until dawn broke that the Japanese troops removed the camouflage from the mountain guns, and Ye Tufei suddenly realized.

  After ten minutes of brief preparation, Ye Tufei's unit launched an attack on the Japanese army.

  It was during this battle that the brothers first saw the power of their Sixth Elder on the battlefield.

  How much killing power can a single rifle have? Ye Tu Fei showed everyone the ultimate realm of rifle power. Unlike others, he didn't load five bullets at once and then fire them all before reloading; instead, Ye Tu Fei loaded one bullet and fired one bullet.

  Ye's reloading speed is extremely fast, and he always uses the time difference during movement to reload, resulting in people feeling that his gun has an endless supply of bullets.

  Ye Tufei's mobile speed was extremely swift, he charged forward in a zigzag pattern, either crouching and running, or rolling on the ground, or crawling forward, every time he reached a node, a Japanese soldier would fall down with Ye Tufei's gunfire.

  From the starting point of Ye Ting's attack to the Japanese army's defense line, it was about 100 meters. In this 100-meter charge, Ye Ting turned left and right more than 50 times, fired more than 50 shots, and killed or wounded more than 50 Japanese soldiers.

  What's even more astonishing is that during the process of Ye Tu Fei leading his troops in a charge upwards, the four machine guns on the Japanese position didn't fire a single shot. It wasn't that the Japanese were stunned or intimidated, but rather Ye Tu Fei simply didn't give them the opportunity. Any soldier who intended to get close to the machine guns was instantly shot in the head by Ye Tu Fei.

  The artillery position was defended by an understrength Japanese company, with a total strength of less than 150 men. In order to bring the machine guns into play, nearly one-third of the soldiers were actually manning them.

  Under such a fierce attack, how could little Japan hold on? In less than ten minutes, the defense line collapsed.

  After another three or two minutes, Ye Tufei led his troops to clear the remaining Japanese army and launched an attack on the Japanese artillery.

  The artillery's main strength was in manipulating the cannons, and their ability to use rifles and machine guns was relatively weak. However, the Japanese army had been brainwashed by the Bushido spirit for a long time and refused to give up easily. Fortunately, they abandoned the firepower comparison and attached bayonets to their rifles, shouting loudly as they charged towards Ye's flying squad.

  This time, brothers were lucky enough to see another superpower of Ye Tu Fei: fighting.

  The last time Ye Tufei took the stage to fight was at Fenghuangding, but that time because of the influence of Little Japan's poisonous gas bomb, the brothers did not see clearly the fighting posture of Liu Ye, and this time, Ye Tufei rushed to the front, letting the brothers see a good show.

  Ye Tufei's moves when facing the Japanese were almost identical, dodging to one side, avoiding the enemy's flat thrust, and then swiftly slashing his knife across the opponent's neck. The move was simple but extremely fast, so fast that even if you had thought of a defensive strategy, you wouldn't have time to implement it.

  Ye Tufei charged forward, killing over a dozen people before breaking through the Japanese army's formation. He turned back again, taking another dozen lives. Xiao Zhonghe's company also played a key role, as its predecessor was the Zhongyitang assassination squad, which had been honing their skills in using cold weapons to kill people. This time, they were finally able to unleash their killing spree.

  It took only five minutes for all Japanese troops to be cleared out.

  This process perfectly illustrates the characteristics of the two battalions under artillery fire. After the first round of shelling by the Japanese army, the second round of shelling began in less than five minutes, which is a phenomenon that violates military common sense.

  Continuous firing is the biggest problem for artillery, as it can cause overheating of the barrel. The Japanese reached almost the highest rate of fire in the first round of shelling, so after half an hour of shelling, they had to stop and cool down the barrel.

  Generally, this cooling process takes about 15 minutes, even in sub-zero temperatures, the cooling time cannot be less than 10 minutes. However, at this time, the Japanese artillery commander saw a cruel reality, that the infantry company responsible for defending the artillery position was already on the verge of collapse and could not hold out for much longer. Therefore, he disregarded the safety of his own guns and forcibly conducted a second round of shelling, seizing the last opportunity to inflict as many hits on the enemy as possible.

  Now, all the Japanese troops have become corpses, and the two armies of Han and Peng also coincidentally rushed towards that road which was not originally a way out. Using the high-power binoculars of the Japanese artillery, Ye Tufei observed the dynamics of the Han-Peng army and also realized the danger faced by the two armies.

  "Adjust the artillery parameters immediately and cover the Japanese position on the other side of the river with firepower!" Ye Tufei gave the order with full confidence, but what he got in response was a bunch of inexplicable gloomy faces. The brothers didn't know how to operate these iron contraptions!

  Now that's done, Ye Tufei immediately took on multiple roles, observing the position, adjusting the shooting parameters, loading and detonating, after getting one cannon ready he personally demonstrated it, then handed it over to several brothers, next he worked on the second cannon, the third cannon...

  When the brothers under his command reported that Han and Peng's troops had all crossed the river, Ye Tufa collapsed to the ground, panting and ordering his brothers: "Take... those... cannons... and blow them up. We'll retreat immediately and move closer to Han and Peng's troops."

  The Great God Stone Octopus waved its arm, and the old smoke collection increased by over 200 in one day. Next book plan is to write "The Power of the Great God". Hehe, after all, it's still one sentence: asking for collection, let the old smoke quickly exceed 1,000... Thank you!