Chapter 61: The Great Victory at Pingxing Pass 3

  The two columns of troops were advancing towards their burial ground, Pingxingguan Pass. Although the cold and damp air made the Japanese soldiers huddle together in the cars, tightly wrapped in their military coats to keep warm, some soldiers hummed folk songs from their hometowns, boasting that they would win the war in three months. However, the victory did not come as quickly as planned by the General Staff Office, and the Japanese army often had to rely on strong artillery and air support to achieve a hard-won victory due to the tenacious resistance of the Chinese soldiers.

  People like Lieutenant Colonel Shinjō, who have a bit of strategic thinking, have already realized that it will take at least several years to defeat China. However, on their stiff faces, they still show confidence in the inevitability of victory over China. The poorly equipped and tactically backward Chinese army may seem quite tenacious at times, but as an opponent for the "Great Japanese Imperial Army", it's still a bit inadequate!

  In the sorrowful melody of homesickness, the Japanese army's Shinjuku motorcade continued to advance slowly and steadily towards Pingxingguan Pass, believing that there would be no Chinese resistance or ambushes in the rear of their occupied areas, and also confident in their own equipment and combat power. In order to speed up the march and arrive at Weixian County as soon as possible, so as to quickly transport a regiment of reinforcements to the front line of Pingxingguan Pass, the arrogant Japanese army did not even send out scouts. The Japanese army, which had committed the error of "knowing oneself but not knowing the enemy", was doomed to suffer defeat!

  Of course, Hashimoto Shunsei's troops were not doing well either. Although he was also a Chinese garrison intelligence lieutenant colonel, on this vast land of China, they couldn't get the news of the Eighth Route Army's troop deployment in a short period of time. The high-riding cavalry squadrons that kept coming and going from the side of the car, the tall and powerful cavalrymen's figures, made Hashimoto Shunsei's worries disappear instantly.

  The 115th Division's ambush, including Lin Biao, were all sweating in their palms. The upcoming first clash with the Japanese army made them uneasy, although they had almost always been victorious in the Soviet Union before, especially Lin Biao's ambushes often defeated the Japanese army in a short time, but it was different from usual. Although the veterans who had gone through the Long March had high combat skills, their equipment was far inferior to that of the Central Soviet Union at the time.

  Regarding the two Japanese armies' intelligence, it was continuously reported to the command center through the telephone lines provided by Gao Quan. The intermittent ringing of the phone and the voices of the staff officers made the originally depressing combat command center even more oppressive and gloomy. As for the three regiments ambushing at Baiyai and Xipaochi, their tension was even more unbearable.

  Enemy planes constantly flying overhead, left a deep impression on the veterans who were haunted by the Nationalist planes during the Long March, adding more worries to their minds. The cold wind blowing through the mountains made the soldiers feel chilled to the bone, feeling uncomfortable all over. However, no one said a word, and the strict combat discipline allowed the soldiers to gain confidence from their squad leaders' eyes, among whom were also veterans who had joined the Red Army for seven or eight years.

  The rumble of the car's roar was getting closer and closer, the soldiers of the 116th Brigade's engineer battalion couldn't help but hold their homemade detonator buttons made from dry batteries even tighter. Many soldiers wrapped their detonators in their own quilts to prevent accidents. The soldiers wearing straw hats kept popping out of the trenches, looking anxiously at the yellowish gray shadows in the distance.

  Last night's heavy rain made the already broken road muddy and impassable, with potholes on the road surface making the soldiers in the car feel like they were on a roller coaster ride, as if their bodies were about to fall apart. Not to mention the over 400 "Empire Warriors - wounded soldiers" from the Jin-Sui Army's stubborn resistance, which had left only less than 300 people in a Japanese battalion. Half of the wounded soldiers on board were from this "Stone" battalion that had taken several mountain peaks in a row.

  In the midst of wailing, a large contingent of over a thousand Japanese troops also unknowingly had a layer of gloom cast over their hearts, and the little ditty humming in their mouths became even more mournful.

  As the shadows of the Japanese army in the field of vision became clearer and clearer, the soldiers involuntarily stretched out their rifles wrapped in weeds from the trenches. Although their heartbeats had accelerated to an unknown multiple, although their breathing was also urgent, good tactical training allowed the soldiers to place their hands lightly on the trigger with moderate force even when loading bullets, while their eyes aimed at the black holes of the gun barrels through the sight, and took a sweep of the Japanese soldiers' silhouettes one by one. If they could fire, the Japanese soldiers on those few vehicles in front would have been shot into beehives long ago.

  With a determined mind, Lin Shuai made a phone call and quickly led the Japanese army into the death zone. The sudden outbreak of the Eighth Route Army, in the 116th Brigade's engineer battalion, responded with a loud explosion of electrically fired shells and billowing smoke, fiercely shooting at the Japanese army. For a time, the sound of gunfire was deafening, the strong muzzle flash of the heavy machine guns carrying countless bullets, opening up large holes in the wooden guardrails of the Japanese cars, the scattered wood chips flying everywhere with the shockwave of the explosion, countless Japanese soldiers were shot to pieces.

  However, the power of that electric thunder was even more fierce. A fleet of nearly eighty cars had almost half of them instantly disappear into thin air. The huge cars were like toys being lightly tossed into the sky. Not to mention the burning car tires flying around, the Japanese soldiers on board also disappeared in the intense explosion, becoming part of the bloody and flesh-filled whirlwind in the sky. The fleet of over 1,500 Japanese soldiers was instantly halved! As for the leader of the motorcade, Lieutenant Colonel Shingoro, he too vanished into thin air.

  The situation of the Shinjuku cavalry is still like this, and it can be imagined that the next game of Takahashi Shunsei's heavy cavalry team will be even more miserable. The cavalry squad of more than 60 people was beaten into a sieve in the dense hail of bullets. The howitzer also made a whistling sound, constantly twisting its huge body in the air, with one burst of intense explosion after another, and a large yellow-gray smoke cloud swept through the Japanese army's formation like a knife edge, cutting down the Japanese who were driving the carts forward.

  And the stones inside the thunderous artillery were more like death reapers, harvesting the fragile lives of the Japanese army. The dense small stones on the ground, under the meticulous planning of the commander-in-chief, turned the entire large formation of the Japanese army into a battlefield with no place to hide, where many Japanese soldiers fell down with their bodies full of bullet holes, and their yellowish-brown uniforms were instantly dyed crimson by the blood gushing out.

  The air was filled with choking smoke and the smell of blood. In the moment when the Japanese army was caught off guard, even the old Red Army soldiers in the Eighth Route Army who were used to fighting tough battles and had experienced mountains of corpses and seas of blood were stunned. However, this only lasted for a moment. Taking advantage of the short time before the explosion smoke dispersed, under the cover of machine guns and hand grenades, the Eighth Route Army soldiers, who had fired three or four rounds, charged forward with their bayonets gleaming, regardless of the scorching cars and body parts falling from time to time.

  However, the ones who charged to the front were still the Huangchu 348 Regiment. Those soldiers surrounded by bayonets and holding shotguns or assault rifles with shotgun shells. In order to show their faces in front of the old Red Army of the 115th Division, Huangchu immediately dispatched nearly three thousand troops, with only a regimental guard company as reserve.

  Not a single Japanese soldier showed any fear, calmly and quickly reloading the bullets in their rifles. The machine gunners had long been suppressed by the Eighth Route Army's machine gun fire and sharpshooters, and many machine guns had stopped firing due to a lack of gunners. Even so, the Japanese army's accurate riflemen continued to knock down the Eighth Route Army soldiers in the charging column, with precise shooting that made Huang Chu feel both heartache and admiration!

  Fortunately, the distance of the charge was short, otherwise Huang Chu didn't know how much casualties he would have suffered! However, as soon as they entered close combat, Huang Chu felt that he had already won. The Japanese army's disorganized resistance relied on the tactical training of old soldiers, forming small charging teams of three or five people, but in the hail of bullets from the 116th Brigade's specially prepared shotguns and submachine guns, it became a quick way to die!

  When the fierce and brave spirit faced the iron rain of bullets, there was only endless death. It had been decades since the Japanese army tasted the bitter taste of Lushun Port, but now they were experiencing it again after more than 30 years. The Japanese soldiers who had no chance of survival were almost wiped out before they even got close to the bayonets of the Eighth Route Army.

  When the Japanese wounded soldiers hiding on the ground used hand grenades to die with the Eighth Route Army, the Eighth Route Army soldiers who had paid the price of blood several times were almost all red-eyed, stabbing out one by one blood holes in the bodies of the fallen Japanese soldiers. The national hatred and family hatred that have been engraved in their minds since modern times, as well as the repeated massacres of innocent civilians by the Japanese army, are now being avenged by the Eighth Route Army soldiers with their own actions.

  The Japanese army that dared to resist was slaughtered, and many Japanese soldiers who hid in cars were burned into black charcoal along with their vehicles! Those traitorous puppet Mongolian troops were also killed by the Eighth Route Army soldiers, regardless of whether they had different faces or wore three-piece leather hats.

  Today in the book review area, I saw a friend say that I couldn't do two chapters today, sigh... It seems that I have no credibility in front of you all anymore. Although I actually planned to do two chapters today, and I even ate instant noodles in my dorm room for this purpose