Luring the enemy into danger
In the old site of Kao Shan town, Zhan Biao and Da Yuan and Xiao Yu happily reunited. Da Yuan's son Yuan Biao, grandson Yuan Xianzhang and Zhan Biao's grandson Zhan Dongdong and Yamamoto's granddaughter Sakura surrounded the three elderly people, recalling the scenes from their fragmented memories.
Zhang County Magistrate respectfully said to Zhan Biao: "Biao Grandfather, the old soldiers and civilians in this area have been passing down that at that time there was a national army protecting the local people, when fighting broke out they always left the danger to themselves."
Dà Yú added to the county head: "Big grandson, this is what you now call charm, Grandpa was most impressed by your uncle Pi's that point. Even the New Fourth Army and guerrilla troops admired him."
Zhan Biao raised his eyes and silently gazed at the asphalt national highway outside the village, which was now a flat expanse. His lips moved slightly, and after a long time, he said: "Our old eight, Long Jie's blood was spilled on this road."
As they watched the wolf pack drag away a group of Japanese special forces, Xiaobao and Xiaoyu stood together with everyone else, still shaken. Xiaoyu squatted down to groom the wounded Four Virtues' fur. Xiaofeng said to San De, "Treat Four Virtues well, I didn't expect it to make such a big contribution today." Dajue also squatted down and shook Four Virtues' front paws: "Thanks, little ancestor, you're quite charismatic!"
Qiangzi had collected the pistols and daggers, a total of 17 pistols, 3 Type 96 light machine guns, more than 20 hand grenades, and 10 military precision steel daggers. At this time, all 33 members of the anti-Japanese guerrilla squad had gathered together. Zhanbiao began to deploy the battle under the eager eyes of Xiaobao and Xiaoyu.
New recruits, as it was their first time participating in actual combat, were arranged by Zhu Biao to have Da Yu lead them in setting up six heavy machine gun positions and grenade launcher positions on the mountain top, transporting hand grenades and machine gun bullets, and rushing to fill the empty magazines of light and heavy machine guns with bullets.
Zhan Biao ordered Xiao Feng and eight other junior brothers to carry a light machine gun down the mountain. Zhan Biao required Xiao Feng's group to lure the Japanese army out of the village, then fight and retreat, leading the devils all the way to the heavy machine gun position at the top of the mountain.
Da Yu and Kou Zi, Er Min and the others were grateful for Zhang Biao's arrangement to let the old soldiers go down the mountain to take risks. They asked to go to war in unison, and Qiang Zi shouted loudly: "Attention!" The new recruits stood at attention. Xiao Feng said to everyone: "At ease, you are all soldiers now, remember to obey orders!" Only then did everyone calm down.
Zhu Biao's arrangement was correct, otherwise the losses in the subsequent battles would be immeasurable.
Wearing steel helmets and National Army uniforms, the eight people from Xiaofeng were immediately caught in Songshan's binoculars as soon as they came down the mountain. Songshan was very puzzled - what could eight people do, especially since they were from the National Army, which the Japanese army feared the least? If it were the fearless New Fourth Army or Eighth Route Army, that would be a different story. Songshan held up his binoculars and looked frantically towards Xiaofeng's rear, wondering where his ten special forces officers and two pet dogs had gone.
Less than 700 or 800 meters from the village, Xiaofeng led everyone to set up a machine gun array, with four in front and four in back, firing alternately in two rows. The four Japanese soldiers hiding at the entrance of the village did not expect to be accurately hit by the machine guns.
That platoon of Japanese troops immediately launched a frenzied counterattack, with four or five Type 96 machine guns sweeping over, and a small team of more than 50 Japanese soldiers rushed out of the village in a scattered formation towards Xiaofeng. Songshan's special forces still held their ground, first monitoring the lone platoon leader's guerrilla troops, secondly trying to lure out the regular main force, and thirdly trying to deplete the enemy's ammunition.
Zhan Biao saw the Japanese army on the mountain being very cunning and professional, using various obstacles in the fields and roads, sometimes running a few steps, sometimes crawling forward, regardless of casualties, gradually approaching the machine gun positions on the small peaks.
The new recruits of the Eighth Route Army made the Japanese soldiers sweat, if they had gone up themselves, they would have been in trouble. Because although the new recruits had learned how to operate machine guns, they only knew how to sweep in the general direction of the target, and couldn't hit the mark, nor could they cover themselves or cooperate with each other. Zhang Zizhong was quietly observing the movements in the village, he had to lure all the Japanese soldiers out before it would work.
Zhang Biao thought to himself that these younger brothers of his had already mastered the machine guns, shooting accurately, fiercely and economically. Although they hadn't yet brought out the advantages of sweeping fire and group charges, they should be able to handle the first batch of Japanese soldiers who came rushing up.
As expected, the Japanese troops got a taste of their own medicine. The firepower of Xiaofeng's eight men far exceeded that of the eight machine guns. This time they brought down five Czech-style machine guns and three Type 96 machine guns.
The Czech-style light machine gun model ZB26 outperformed the Japanese 6.5mm caliber Type 11, and even the newly developed 7.6mm Type 96 was no match for it. Moreover, it had strong reliability, high shooting accuracy, and could hit targets within a range of 900 meters. It could fire single shots or bursts (the Type 96 couldn't fire single shots), and its ammunition was also compatible with rifles and heavy machine guns. Additionally, the gun barrel could be quickly replaced (within 10 seconds), ensuring continuous firing. The Japanese army suffered greatly from the Czech-style in actual combat. Some Japanese soldiers even abandoned their own Type 11 to use captured Czech-styles, including Songshan who was trying to capture National Army's Czech-styles.
In the midst of intermittent firing and bursts of gunfire, the Japanese soldiers who had charged forward one by one fell motionless. The Japanese platoon leader was hiding behind a haystack at the village entrance, observing with binoculars, when Qiangzi spotted the glare from the lenses and swept him away with 20 bullets from his Czech-style rifle, instantly turning the platoon leader and two communication soldiers behind him into sieves.
The Japanese troops in this unit were finally enraged, ignoring Matsuyama's orders, and all of them rushed out of the village. More than 200 soldiers charged forward frantically, with 18 machine guns alternating between front and rear, firing as they advanced. On the edge of the village, grenade launchers also began to fire grenades.
Xiao Feng took a look and led out a large number of Japanese troops, ordering everyone to throw several hand grenades forward, using the smoke to retreat more than 200 meters and then lie down and counterattack. The last four people retreated again to the back of the first four people, gradually luring the Japanese troops over.
If they keep fighting like this for three or five more rounds, the Xiaofeng troops will be able to lure all the enemy soldiers over, and the guerrilla troops can break through. But what happened next shocked Zhan Biao and made him realize the strength of his opponent.
Matsuyama saw that he could not stop the pursuit of this unit, so he immediately mobilized his two special forces units to cooperate. Matsuyama's special forces were organized into combat units of 10 people each, with a total of five units. Except for one unit that was eliminated by the wolf pack without his knowledge, there were still four small units left in his hands. He ordered two special forces units to quickly encircle the enemy's machine gun position from both sides.
After several grenades were concentrated and fired from the grenade launcher, two small troops shot out of the village like arrows. When Xiaofeng discovered that the special soldiers had almost run to a parallel position, each group of special soldiers was holding three 96-style light machine guns. In this way, there were three squads of Japanese troops with 18 Type 11 light machine guns in front of Xiaofeng, and six Type 96 light machine guns on both sides, with firepower far exceeding Xiaofeng's eight machine guns. Xiaofeng hastily divided two machine guns to block the left and right, although it slowed down the speed of the Japanese troops' encirclement, but the two groups of special soldiers still jumped and crawled forward with superhuman strength, while the Japanese troops in front also launched a charge, leaving Xiaofeng no time to retreat quickly.
Zhan Biao took a look at the situation and secretly thought it was not good, the special forces of Songshan's army were indeed formidable, with combat strength that one person could take on ten or even dozens of people. The danger came from them. Da Yu reminded him from behind to use heavy machine guns to block them. Zhan Biao shook his head, thinking that at this distance from the mountain top, the maximum range of 4000 meters for heavy machine guns should be able to reach the Japanese army, but the effective shooting distance was only 1000 meters and had not been reached yet. Moreover, once the heavy machine gun fired, it would destroy the sudden attack effect and expose their strength prematurely.
The new recruits were all stunned, what to do? Xiaofeng and the others would be easily surrounded by the devils, and when they ran out of bullets, it would be a capture. Two impatient new recruits wanted to lift off the camouflage branches covering the heavy machine gun.
Zhan Biao raised his hand to stop them, saying: "Don't move for now. I'll lead the mountain foot binding and Ermin's response team to rush out immediately. Da Yu, you guys shouldn't expose the heavy machine gun unless absolutely necessary. First, send down a batch of suppressed Czech and 96 bullets that I'll take away."
A team of eight brothers under Xiaofeng's command didn't expect the battle to turn out like this. They had underestimated the Japanese army, and were still reveling in their easy victory over the Japanese in the valley last year. Now they were stuck between the foot of the mountain and the village. They crouched in the small ditches on both sides of the highway, facing nearly three times their own firepower from machine guns, not to mention rocket launchers and rifle fire. They had to change from short bursts to long bursts and continuous firing, barely holding off the Japanese army. Although the Japanese were quickly losing men, those who survived kept coming forward. At this rate, they would soon run out of bullets, and the special forces teams on both sides had already crossed the parallel line, stubbornly pushing in and preparing to encircle them.
At this time, a sudden explosion occurred in the village, attracting the attention of both sides. Xiaofeng took advantage of the situation and led everyone to retreat more than 100 meters again. Xiaofeng wished in his heart that if the guerrilla team in the village could come out to cooperate at this time, it would be great. But things went against his wishes, and the explosion in the village was actually a batch of grenades fired by Songshan using 10 grenade launchers into several courtyards occupied by Dan Team Leader.
Matsumura determined that it was this small unit that annihilated his own squad from the bravery and tenacity of these eight National Army soldiers, as well as their skilled and accurate marksmanship. However, the idea that these eight Chinese could hold off an entire Japanese Imperial Army company was simply laughable. In the Second Shanghai Incident (the Japanese term for the Battle of Shanghai), he had commanded a special forces unit equivalent to a platoon and successfully defeated a National Army regiment. Although he also analyzed that there must be reinforcements behind this machine gun team, he was not afraid even if he was lured in deep. His goal was to find regular troops. Therefore, he decided not to guard the village and its guerrilla squad, ordered a bombing raid, abandoned the pursuit of the guerrillas, and went all out to pursue the National Army in front of him. This decisive decision fully demonstrated Matsumura's flexible and cunning command.
The Japanese soldiers facing Xiaofeng were also afraid that the guerrillas would rush over and be attacked from both sides. The sound of gunfire stopped, and when they saw two groups of special troops rushing out of the village, their morale surged, and the sound of gunfire became more intense. Even the Japanese army shouted to let the National Army put down their weapons.
Just as Xiaofeng and the others were about to make a desperate move, a loud rumbling sound came from the foot of the mountain, and a Japanese military truck, rolling up clouds of dust, sped along the highway towards Xiaofeng's position.
Xiao Feng was overjoyed as soon as he saw it, knowing that Biao Ge had brought the reinforced vehicle to pick them up. He immediately ordered: "It's Biao Ge who has come to pick us up, when the car arrives, we will board in groups of three, with others covering for us. First are Qiang Zi and Cheng Yi, Er Zhu Zi, followed by San De and Liu Yang, Zheng Wen, and I will be last with Zhang Jie. Note that those boarding the vehicle must immediately open fire to cover our retreat from all sides, do not conserve ammunition!"
The Japanese troops stopped firing as a khaki-colored military vehicle of their own unit sped over, unclear what was happening. Songshan also led two other groups of special soldiers to catch up with the Japanese troops in front, and he hastily picked up his binoculars to capture the people inside the car. The car was going too fast to see clearly, it seemed like there were three people holding light machine guns on the car, and only one person driving the car in the driver's cab. Songshan instinctively felt that this vehicle had ill intentions, he beckoned a few special soldiers carrying rocket launchers to come over, pointing at the speeding truck and telling them to prepare to fire.
Zhan Biao drove the car to a distance of over 50 meters from Xiaofeng, then slammed on the brakes and turned the steering wheel sharply twice to turn the car around. The Japanese special forces on both sides were suspicious of this car and wanted to shoot it down, but seeing that the car was turning around, they thought it was their own people wanting to retreat, so they didn't open fire. What they least expected was that this turned-around truck would quickly reverse towards them, stopping near the eight National Army machine gunners.
Before the vehicle had even come to a complete stop, three machine guns on board opened fire in all directions. These were the three Type 96 light machine guns that had just been captured from the Japanese special forces unit. The three men on board, Diaozi, Ermin, and another deputy squad leader named Pan Shitou, were participating in their first real battle and couldn't help but feel a bit flustered. Fortunately, the Type 96's magazine held 30 rounds, 10 more than the Czech light machine gun, and it fired fiercely. Next, Qiangzi and his men jumped onto the vehicle, almost out of ammunition. As soon as they saw the pile of fully loaded Czech 20-round magazines and Type 96 30-round magazines in the carriage, they were overjoyed. They immediately replaced their empty magazines with new ones, picked up the machine guns, and began firing wildly at the surroundings, greatly increasing the firepower on board.
As Zhang Biao shouted, the second batch of three people also got on the train. The movements of these six people getting on the train were all made with martial arts skills, and they jumped up one by one, landing neatly on the car body. The last two people didn't even use their hands, stepping on the footboard a few times before jumping onto the train. The last person jumped from the front, leaping onto the roof of the carriage and then into the compartment, leaving Songshan stunned as he watched through binoculars. In this way, Xiaofeng's firepower was almost uninterrupted, and after getting on the train, their firepower became even more fierce. Nine machine guns fired continuously from above, forming a iron fan-shaped wall that left the Japanese army greatly reduced in firepower, including the officers and special soldiers on both sides who were all lying down, not daring to move.
Zhan Biao yelled in the deafening gunfire, directing the distribution of firepower on the vehicle, and slowly started the car, beckoning Xiao Feng and Zhang Jie to quickly jump onto the driver's cab.
Sensitive Matsuyama understood that the opponent wanted to escape by car. If he didn't attack now, when would he? He lowered his hand and fired three 89-style grenade launchers into the air. At that time, the Japanese army's grenade launcher could fire a standard 91-style hand grenade with an effective range of 400 meters. However, if it fired a dedicated 89-style grenade launcher, the effective range could reach 500 meters. If the angle was adjusted well and there was a tailwind, it could even reach 700 meters. The current distance was just around 500 meters.
These three special team officers were the elite of the Japanese army, and even served as instructors teaching grenade launchers. The first round of three grenades had two accurate hits on the original parking position of Zhan Biao, if Zhan Biao's car hadn't moved earlier it would have been a direct hit, the consequences are unthinkable. Another shot missed by 5 meters. But this missed grenade exploded beside Xiaofeng and Chang Jie as they were running over, Chang Jie turned around and knocked down Xiaofeng who was half a head shorter than him.
