Chapter 8 The First Battle of Dongyang Bridge (Part 2)

  When two cars loaded with sandbags suddenly rushed out of the cornfield, Inoue Ichirō, a member of the Japanese Righteous Brave Corps, became a soul under the gun without making any reaction. His body was shot with more than a dozen bullets, and the blood plasma in his body was suddenly drained by the bullet holes, forming a mist of blood around his body. He stretched out his arms, unwillingly staring wide-eyed and fell down.

  Two armored trucks of the Huaxia Army sped across the open terrain, with several machine guns on top spewing out tongues of fire. Although the shooting was not very accurate due to lack of training, the intense firepower made up for this deficiency.

  Many of the overseas Chinese volunteer corps members were veterans with strong combat qualities. Despite being ambushed, they quickly entered a state of combat and jumped into simple shelters to shoot at the speeding cars. However, in their hasty actions, they couldn't help but appear a bit disheveled, which further boosted the morale of the Chinese soldiers.

  Cheng Ziqiang sat in the front passenger seat, first using a Type 65 rifle to accurately shoot and kill one of the Japanese volunteer soldiers with short bursts. As he was about to fire again, the car suddenly swerved violently, and it turned out that the driver had been shot in the forehead by a 6.5mm bullet and was dying. Cheng Ziqiang quickly grabbed the steering wheel and lay down on the driver's body, maintaining the speed and direction of the vehicle. With a loud crash, the car broke through the bridge railing and sped northward.

  At this time, Lang Yiwu's car suddenly braked, and the soldiers on the car shot down from a commanding height, killing two militia members who were still resisting in the simple bunker. Then they jumped off the car, muttering combat slogans in their mouths, and rushed towards the predetermined target.

  The battle to the north of the bridge was slightly more difficult, first because the distance was farther away, and secondly because the armed trucks had to pass through the straight bridge surface, which gave the Japanese volunteer team a little more time to prepare; secondly, there were also several more volunteers to the north of the bridge.

  The sharpshooters of the Wa State were accurate, and Cheng Ziqiang's ears were filled with the sound of bullets hitting the iron plate and the sound of hitting the sandbag. He did his best to lower his body, almost lying diagonally in the driver's seat, and it turned out that the driver's corpse had been pushed down by him long ago.

  Under the accurate shooting of the Japanese immigrant militia, the machine gunner on the armed truck was suppressed and could not continue to fire. Cheng Ziqiang heard this from the sound of the guns, and with a quick wit, he directly crashed the car into a simple bunker. The bunker was made of wooden boxes filled with mud and sandbags, which were not sturdy, and immediately collapsed under the full impact of the truck. Two Japanese militia members behind the bunker were buried up to their waists by the falling sandbags, still struggling to change magazines for their guns. Cheng Ziqiang did not give them this opportunity, and from the driver's cabin, he stuck out his head and shot them with a Browning pistol.

  Soldiers of the Hua Xia army on the truck, under the command of Sergeant Jiang Zhi, jumped off the truck to launch a surprise attack. At this moment, another Japanese kamikaze emerged from behind cover and opened fire, shooting down two Hua Xia soldiers who had just jumped off the truck. The remaining Hua Xia soldiers, fueled by temporary bravery, charged forward in a frenzy of gunfire, burying the enemy alive with bullets.

  The remaining three or four militia members saw that things were not going well and immediately ran towards the town. Since they came to Huaxia, they had never encountered such a fierce attack, and for a moment, they were so frightened that their survival instincts overpowered their military qualities. Unfortunately, their legs were not as fast as bullets, and although the marksmanship of the Huaxia soldiers was not good, the density of firepower was high, and none of these militia members could run alive into the town.

  Cheng Ziqiang was just about to calm down the excited soldiers and continue the attack according to plan, when five or six militia members rushed out of the town again, firing as they charged, launching a counterattack from the flank of the Huaxia army.

  The Hua Xia soldiers lacked training and had no experience in defending against enemy flanking attacks, so they instinctively dropped to the ground with their heads down. Only the machine gunner holding the Slo machine gun tried to counterattack, but was hit by a bullet that pierced his neck artery, causing blood to spurt out "plop" and losing all strength, collapsing limply to the ground.

  Cheng Ziqiang was not far from the machine gunner, and his face was also splashed with some warm blood. He casually wiped his face with his hand, flew forward, picked up the machine gun, and aimed at the kneecaps of the militia member who was charging in front. With a long burst of fire, that militia member yelled out in pain as he fell to the ground, dropping his rifle. These militiamen were all trained in military tactics and knew they had encountered an expert with a machine gun, so they immediately dispersed to find cover and engaged Cheng Ziqiang in fierce gunfire, without attempting to rescue their injured comrade.

  There were soldiers beside Cheng Ziqiang who saw him muttering something under his breath, but they didn't quite catch what he said.

  The Slovak machine gun fired fiercely, and the 7.62mm bullet had a strong penetrating power. Several militiamen who were holding modified Type 65 rifles could not withstand it at all. In a short while, the militiamen hiding behind the pillars were knocked down. The militiamen behind the earth wall tried to sneak into Cheng Ziqiang's flank and use grenades to end the battle, but were discovered by Cheng Ziqiang, who turned his gun around and treated them to a ton of lead "peanuts". At this time, Lieutenant Lang Yiwu's heavy machine gunner occupied the high ground and began to suppress the town with firepower. The remaining militiamen saw that their counterattack had failed and began to retreat into the town under cover.

  Cheng Ziqiang saw the opportunity for a surprise attack, emptied his machine gun, drew out his Browning and stood up shouting: "Follow me! Charge forward!" Then he rushed towards the town.

  This matter became a laughing stock among friends many years later. Although Cheng Ziqiang was an authentic Chinese, he had gone to Ulaanbaatar before the age of 14 and attended military school there. Despite being cautious in daily life, he still habitually used Mongolian when faced with urgent situations.

  Constable Jiang Zhiyao also saw the opportunity quickly! After hearing Cheng Zigang's shout "With me! Go forward!", although he didn't understand what it was, he completely understood what it meant. He immediately stood up, waved his gun and shouted: "Brothers, charge and kill the Japanese!" Thanks to Jiang Zhiyao's shout, otherwise Cheng Zigang would have had to make a solo charge.

  The soldiers, encouraged by their two commanders and also having the advantage of numbers, let out a shout and charged forward. The Japanese volunteers, vastly outnumbered and without automatic weapons, were killed one after another as they retreated through the streets of a small town in China.

  Although the remaining Righteous Brave Warriors were eliminated without using Cheng Ziqiang's small group tactics, Cheng Ziqiang still strictly required his soldiers to apply the newly learned small unit tactics and conduct a carpet search in the town. As a result, a group of Huaxia soldiers who had won their first battle chanted slogans as they carried out the battlefield search mission, but only caught a few toll collectors from the Huaxia country and several family members of the toll collectors from Japan.

  In this small-scale battle, the advance detachment of the 2nd Reserve Supplement Battalion of the 17th Division of the Huaxia Army successfully completed its tactical mission, occupying and controlling Dongyang Bridge, killing 17 members of the Japanese Righteous Brave Corps, with 6 casualties on their own side. Although everyone else was grinning from ear to ear over this victory, Cheng Ziqiang clearly recognized that this victory was due to the Huaxia Army's absolute advantage in terms of troop strength, firepower, and suddenness, and there was nothing to be proud of. At the same time, many weaknesses were exposed during the battle, which were very fatal.

  However, Cheng Ziqiang doesn't have time to think about many problems now. Just now during the charge, a bullet grazed his waist and took away a piece of flesh, although it didn't cause any serious injury, but the bleeding hasn't stopped yet. He ordered Sergeant Jiang Zhi to be in charge of clearing the battlefield, and he himself found iodine and bandages to treat his wound.