Chapter Twenty: The Three Birds' Mouths
Sanhe Road is an important place for military strategists in the Henan region, and it is an important passage connecting Nanyang area through Funiu Mountain to Luoyang direction. In the east-west direction of Funiu Mountain, a huge ditch was opened, but its mountain road is extremely steep and rugged. The left and right sections are waterways, and the middle section is a land route (most of the current 207 National Highway).
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Watching the neatly lined up soldiers with high morale, Wu Zhengwei was as excited as if he were seeing off his own son. Although the team of over a hundred people was mainly going to harass and lure the enemy, pulling them away from the main force, after all, this was the first time that a team of average age 17 and only over a hundred people went into battle alone, facing an enemy army of tens of thousands... "It's very likely that we'll never see these kids again!"
Wu Zheng's serious face patted the immature shoulder of Gao Quan, although in his eyes, Gao Quan had always been clever and resourceful, but after all, he was just a fifteen-year-old kid! His gaze at Gao Quan couldn't help but be filled with concern. "How about this, I'll ask the military department to add another heavy machine gun to your company? I see you only have four light machine guns, if you can't suppress the enemy's small troops, it will be troublesome!" The nagging and concern like a parent made Gao Quan feel warm in his heart, but he knew that his unit was a guerrilla team that would strike and retreat quickly, carrying heavy machine guns would really be suicidal, as those large equipment would greatly weaken the unit's marching speed and reaction ability.
"Never mind, Commissar, I think other brother units need him more! We're fine with these few light machine guns! Look, they're still the brand new Czech ones we captured last time!" Gao Quan smiled and pointed to the several machine guns in the team that were emitting a faint blue glow in the sunlight. "Anyway, we're just going to fire one shot and change places, leading the enemy on a wild goose chase all over the mountain. Having those heavy machine guns would be more of a hassle! Think about it, carrying such a big thing, wouldn't we be tired? By the time we get there, I reckon we'd be slower than a turtle!" Gao Quan's mischievous words and gestures triggered a burst of laughter in the team. At 17 or 18 years old, they were always as radiant as sunshine.
The Nationalist troops had over 10,000 men, so the route they were going to take was already thoroughly understood by the scouts sent ahead of time. After all, a poor young man from the countryside who sells firewood and has no weapons on him except for an old axe hanging from the wood, is not suspicious at all. The name of the place where the Nationalist troops were planning to pass through was also quite amusing, it was called "Four Trees", a long mountain ridge, which made it a perfect place for an ambush.
For the first battle commanded by Gao Quan, the tension in his heart was naturally understood. Therefore, Gao Quan did his best to prepare for various tasks, from the placement of each soldier's hand grenade and temporary ammunition depot to the "Godly General Cannon" and the coarse big nozzle and machine gun shooting angle. The commanding shooting range tightly locked down the winding road from the river valley. In the winter, the newly turned frozen soil, withered branches, and tattered gray-black cotton batting made this ambush site of over a hundred people appear quiet and peaceful, indistinguishable from the surrounding hills.
The Nationalist army of over 10,000 men marched on the winding mountain road, a truly spectacular sight. Through the Zeiss 8x binoculars that Gaoquan had confiscated but secretly kept, the soldiers carrying rifles and machine guns looked listless one by one, including the artillerymen who disassembled the cannons into parts and loaded them onto mules and donkeys suitable for mountainous terrain. Many officers abandoned their tall foreign horses and switched to a rather distinctive sled. If you add the scholars and other recruits in the army, the entire team stretched for at least ten or twenty miles! "I didn't expect an army of 10,000 men to be so spectacular!" Gaoquan exclaimed involuntarily, his eyes filled with boundless admiration!
It's unclear whether they were worried about the Red Army's attack, but the entire long column, except for a small vanguard unit at the front, didn't have a single scout behind them. The long column marched slowly in pairs. On the mountain slope with a relative height of only over 100 meters, everything about the Nationalist troops was so real and vivid, but it's not that they wanted to die, so when the Nationalist vanguard unit approached the small hill, he heavily triggered the landmines buried below. Six or seven landmines, equipped with hundreds of kilograms of extra black gunpowder, plus those extra small iron sands, formed a huge fireball after the dazzling explosion, and a string of explosions erupted along the mountain path.
The black gunpowder exploded, forming a massive white smoke, with a choking smell of nitric acid, accompanied by the mournful cries, spreading throughout the valley. The powerful shockwave even overturned many camouflage objects that had been carefully set up by Gaoquan. Fortunately, everyone followed Gaoquan's instructions and covered their ears with their hands, squatting on the ground; otherwise, many people would have been injured by the shockwave propagating along the ground.
The Nationalist army's troops were indeed intimidated by this massive explosion! A team of two or three hundred people was instantly engulfed in the smoke, which to the rural-born soldiers seemed like a ghostly apparition, and could only be explained as such. Dozens of soldiers were reluctantly driven forward by their officers to investigate what had happened, and the timid soldiers advanced cautiously, surrounded by the wails of their former comrades, the thick smell of gunpowder, and the realization that this was just a massive explosion of black powder, with iron sand embedded in the surrounding trees, and the scars of the blast site revealing the enemy's ruthlessness.
When the smoke gradually dispersed, Gao Quan's mountain top was also exposed to the Nationalist officers' line of sight. Although he had great confidence in his vanguard troops, it was indeed a question worth pondering why the Communist ambushes were still successful time and again. In order not to repeat the mistake, Li Zifang, the frontline commander-in-chief for this extermination campaign, specially dispatched a battalion of troops to conduct reconnaissance.
To eliminate their own inner cowardice, a battalion of troops almost formed a human wall and charged forward. Although it looked very "impressive", even the big and small heads who graduated from the Nationalist Party's military academy couldn't help but shake their heads. This tactic was really too bad! The troops didn't even know how to form a skirmish line, how could they possibly win the battle? It's unknown whether the commander-in-chief let his young nephew intentionally take the lead to steal the credit for the victory! The resentment of countless officers finally appeared on Li Zifang's nephew, Li Tonghai.
As they were about to reach the top of the mountain, Li Tonghai, feeling somewhat complacent, decided to show off his bravery and led a few guards from the battalion to charge forward. After all, it was quiet at the top of the mountain, and with the addition of a few bandits captured in Funiu Mountain, he would not just be a small battalion commander! Just thinking about this made Li Tonghai's face shine brighter than spring flowers! However, the countless soldiers behind him were secretly resentful of their usual cruel and abusive battalion commander being shot dead by the Communist bullets.
"Bang" "bang" Suddenly, within fifty meters of their position, a burst of white smoke erupted, and before they could react, their chests felt like they had been struck by an iron rod, and their bodies fell to the ground with unbearable pain. Many soldiers watched in horror as their company commander and fellow brothers were hit by cannonballs, their bodies mutilated beyond recognition!
The tragedy occurred in an instant, this severely under-trained unit was immediately swept away by dense machine gun bullets and neat rows of gunfire, row after row fell to the ground. Many bullets penetrated through three or four bodies at once! Thin and weak bodies! The sky was filled with flying hand grenades! The subsequent explosion smoke, flying shrapnel, and more soldiers were knocked to the ground. Explosions, wails, mournful cries, battle cries, all mixed together in an instant! A scene like a Buddhist hell unfolded clearly at this moment, on many corpses were densely covered with fist-sized wounds blown out by iron beans, blood flowed on the winter land, slowly flowing down along the slope, carrying a faint warmth...
Li Zifeng stared blankly at the mountain where gunfire had suddenly erupted, he was stunned! He never thought that the Communist bandits would dare to launch a sneak attack right under the noses of his army of ten thousand men. In his opinion, these country bumpkins would probably be thrilled for a long time if they succeeded in a surprise attack even once! He couldn't believe that he had personally sent his own brother's only son to his death on that small mountain ridge!
Tears streaming down his face, the remorse in his heart was overwhelming! And the hatred revealed in his bright red eyes! "Cannons! Cannons! Get the artillery here! I want to blast that mountain flat! And order the troops to swiftly encircle the two flanks of this mountain peak! I want to annihilate them all! I want to devour their flesh and drink their blood!" Li Zifeng was raging madly, his fists waving as if they weighed a thousand pounds! The wind howled!
He**, the new mouse I just bought is malfunctioning! The computer can't read it! So annoying!
See if I can finish two chapters tomorrow
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