Chapter 6: The Great Wall Ballad Part Three

  At this moment, the most hateful thing in Lao Gou's eyes is the little devil. As for Xu Zhanzhang's identity and what he said later, there was no time to verify how much of it was credible. He beckoned over a company commander named Gong Ziqiang, pointing at the strange rocks and trees on top of the tunnel, and ordered in a low voice, "Find a few strong and sturdy men to carry our two Markov heavy machine guns up there for me. Next time the devil's plane dares to fly so low, you'll shoot it down!"

  "What's up there?" Just promoted to Camp Commander, Gong Ziqiang scanned the stone mountain above the tunnel with his eyes, and a hint of hesitation appeared on his face. "There is no water up there, our guns..."

  "Can't you get him to carry a few more buckets up? Don't bother, if the gun is broken, I'll ask Old Camp Chief for another one!" Lao Gou glared at him and gave a low order.

  "We only have two machine guns in the whole regiment!" Gong Ziqiang dared not disobey orders, muttered a sentence, and reluctantly went to arrange the machine gun position. The Maxim he held was "borrowed" from the 27th Division. In the entire 26th Route Army, only the 27th Division was included in the central government's priority adjustment sequence and allocated 72 water-cooled Maxims imitated by the Chinese Ordnance Factory. After being divided among the 30th and 31st Divisions, each regiment actually got only four machine guns. The Special Service Regiment took advantage of the old regimental commander's direct affiliation and occupied more than other regiments, with a total of six Maxims in the whole regiment, two per battalion.

  "Damn it! Can't bear to part with the child, can't get rid of the wolf! How much is a machine gun worth? How much is an airplane worth?! Old Gou jumped up and scolded Palace Ziqiang's back. Turning his head to look at Wang Tien-han who was gathering around, he loudly arranged, "You also go, bring the machine guns from your battalion to the train station for me. The little devils want to leave the train station for their own use, right? You just aim accurately and shoot down the devils' planes for me!"

  Wang Tiehan did not expect that watching the excitement would also lead to the misfortune of the fish in the pond, and he walked away with his head down. Before long, two machine gun positions were set up, and in order to increase the density of firepower, Battalion Commander Gong Ziqiang and Deputy Battalion Commander Wang Tiehan specially took out half of the light machine guns from the entire battalion, dispersing them around the heavy machine guns to provide supporting fire. This was to prevent the situation where they would not hit the enemy planes, but instead sacrifice the heavy machine guns and their operators.

  Just as the machine gun position was arranged, the roar of engines came again in the sky. The main purpose of the little devil's bombing is to destroy part of the railway and delay the movement of the Chinese troops towards Niangzi Pass. So few planes were dispatched, each time a combination of two fighter jets and four bombers, swaggering as if entering a no-man's land.

  Gong Ziqiang and Wang Tiehan heard the engine sound, immediately led two brothers to cover the machine guns with straw, making them completely invisible. If you don't look carefully, it's impossible to spot them from a distance. The devils' planes arrived above the station, diving down at once. First, they used fighter jets to sweep suspicious targets wildly, then the fighter jets quickly rose high, accompanied by a loud roar, and the bombers began to dive-bomb.

  "Rat-a-tat-a..." The Second Battalion, which had been lying in ambush at the station, opened fire first. Light and heavy machine guns wove a web of fire around the enemy planes. One bomber, which had just begun to drop its bombs, immediately burst into flames, hastily pulling up, trailing a bright red tail of fire, shaking and swaying as it flew away, then crashed headlong into the mountain peak.

  Three more bombers adjusted their targets and dived towards the machine gun positions at the train station. "Give it everything you've got!" shouted Regimental Commander Gong Ziqiang, grabbing a Maxim gun and firing at the planes. Bullets rained down on the lead bomber like hail, causing sparks to fly everywhere, forcing it to quickly pull up and flee into the distance, trailing black smoke.

  The other two bombers didn't dare to fight back, and hastily dropped their bombs before quickly pulling up. At this moment, the area around Snowflake Mountain also opened fire with a Maxim machine gun, boom boom boom boom, causing the enemy planes to dodge left and right. Soon, one of the fighter jets that tried to turn back for revenge was hit by bullets in a critical location, and with a loud "boom", it exploded into pieces in mid-air.

  "We hit it! We hit it!" The brothers of the special operations team rushed out from their hiding places, throwing their steel helmets into the air. The enemy plane was frightened by the sudden appearance of so many people and firepower on the ground, and did not dare to continue hovering, carrying its wounded body, shaking and fleeing northeast.

  As for whether they can fly to the airport, the little devils driving the planes don't have time to think about it. Recently, the North China Military Command has repeatedly emphasized that soldiers should uphold the spirit of Bushido, and would rather be destroyed along with their weapons than let large-scale weapons such as planes, cars, and artillery fall into Chinese hands. This is to avoid the command from having to report single-digit losses in battle reports, only to have people mock them by displaying ten or more vehicles the next day.

  They shot down two enemy planes at once, and the brothers of the special operations team were all in high spirits. However, Team Leader Lao Gou's eyebrows remained tightly furrowed, even when Gong Ziqiang and Wang Tienan personally came to invite him to take credit. "This battle is probably not going to be easy to fight!" He glanced at his two subordinates with faces full of joy and whispered to the crowd. "The enemy wants to occupy Niangzi Pass, and Xuehua Mountain on that side is almost a must-contend place. But when they opened fire over there just now, I took a close look, and it seems like their machine guns are fewer than our entire team!"

  "Maybe they're holding back on purpose!" Gong Ziqiang, an optimist, leaned against the railing and gazed in the direction of Xuehuashan, smiling reassuringly.

  Lao Gou shook his head slightly. In this terrain, fighting a defensive battle and preserving strength was completely meaningless. Unless they wanted to launch a surprise attack down the mountain and catch the enemy off guard. "Which unit is that over there? When did they arrive?"

  The second half of the sentence was directed at Director Xu. Although this person wasn't wearing a military uniform, his understanding of the battlefield seemed to surpass that of Colonel Jin Sui, who was in charge of liaison. Indeed, Director Xu only hesitated for a moment before responding, "I think it's the 17th Division, and the division commander's surname is Zhao. There are many people from Shaanxi inside, and their accent sounds strange."

  Before Lao Gou could ask, he pointed to the southern mountains and introduced in a low voice, "It seems that the third army is over there, all of them are from Sichuan, quite short. The highest official surnamed Zeng, a very affable person, always speaks with 'you', your..."

  "It's the Shaanxi and Sichuan armies!" Old Gou shook his head, his expression becoming increasingly solemn. In the National Revolutionary Army, the Shaanxi and Sichuan troops were notorious for their poor equipment. Some units' weapons and equipment were even worse than those of the 26th Route Army, a notorious beggar army. After surrendering to the central government, the 26th Route Army at least had two years of decent living conditions. As for the Shaanxi troops, they had just been involved in the Xi'an Incident with Yang Hucheng and would not be favored by the central government. As for the Sichuan army, that place was always an independent kingdom. If it weren't for the war effort, they wouldn't even have phone contact with the central government, let alone receive grain, pay, or weapons support from them.

  One from the 17th Division of Shaanxi Army, one from the 3rd Corps of Sichuan Army, and another called the Twenty-sixth Route Army. None of these three armies were from Shanxi locally, nor was any troop familiar with the terrain around Niangzi Pass. How could these three outsiders be expected to guard the gateway between Shanxi and Hebei? What a "brilliant" deployment! Who knows which sleeping dragon formulated this strategy?!

  "What about the Shanxi Army? Why haven't they arrived?" Not only did Old Gou notice something was wrong, but even Zhang Songling, this new recruit, felt that things weren't quite right, and he grabbed Xu's sleeve, asking in a low voice.

  "Our main force, the Shanxi Army, is all on the other side of Xinguan..." Xu Zhangchang heard the dissatisfaction in Zhang Songling's words and thought for a moment. A few strands of embarrassment floated onto his face. "The higher-ups said that the enemy's main direction of attack is over there, not here at Niangzi Pass! Don't look at me like that, I'm just a train manager, I don't have any say with the higher-ups!"

  Note 1: The North China Front Army was a special army reorganized by the Japanese invaders after the July 7th Incident to swallow up China.

  Note 2: In order to boost morale, the Japanese military often underreported casualty numbers. After a fierce battle that left them exhausted, they would only report losses of tens or hundreds of men.

  Note 3: The Battle of Niangzi Pass was one of the most chaotic battles. The losses were extremely heavy. It was almost a situation where ten Chinese lives were lost for every little devil's life, and after the battle, the commander shifted the blame to others.