Chapter 53: The Fierce Battle at Cone Mountain

  On the side of Cone Ridge, dark clouds covered the top, and the temperature was unusually low. Dong Tianhao's heart was anxious as he saw the devils gathering, but after gathering, the devil soldiers seemed to be in no hurry to attack, and both sides were strangely and peacefully separated by a distance.

  Dong Tianhao knew in his heart that the devils might come and kill at any time, under nervousness Dong Tianhao finally waited for Wang San to arrive from the county town with 4 mortars.

  Dong Tianhao finally let out a sigh of relief, he almost didn't hold back from giving Wang San a good scolding, but to avoid letting others think he had a habit of being overly affectionate with men, Dong Tianhao endured the strong urge in his heart. However, he still tightly hugged Wang San and spun him around several times.

  "Haha, Wang San, good kid, this time you've brought me some great stuff. I'll give you credit for it, and after this battle is over, I'll ask the brigade commander to reward you!" Dong Tianhao laughed loudly as he put down Wang San, who had already been turned around in a daze.

  Wang San finally stabilized his unsteady footsteps and said with a bitter face: "On the way to get the earth cannon, I already bumped into the brigade commander!"

  Dong Tianhao asked anxiously: "Is that so? Did the captain give you a hard time?"

  "Of course not, otherwise I wouldn't be standing here unscathed in front of you, Captain. That fat slob Jiang is really annoying, always making things difficult for me. If it weren't for the Regiment Commander speaking up, I think he would have made things much harder for us. And what's with his nonsense about punishing us for returning to the city privately? Punishing us is a small matter, but if we were caught by those local militiamen, that would be trouble. He'll probably transfer them to Xu Zhiyuan's 137th Regiment soon enough. Luckily, the Regiment Commander wasn't biased this time!" Wang San said.

  Dong Tianhao nodded and said, "Yes, the Traveler is still quite fair. Hmm, didn't you say that there were 6 wealthy households with hidden cannons? But why are there only 4 cannons here?"

  Wang San sighed and replied, "Those wealthy fatheads are really brainless. Two of them buried their earth cannons under the Osmanthus trees in their gardens. The soil there was very damp and they buried them too deep. As a result, both earth cannons were rusted and couldn't be used."

  Although there were two fewer cannons, after all, there were still four. Dong Tianhao saw the wide-mouthed cannon mouth and was delighted. For the time being, he didn't think about the two missing earth cannons. Looking at the many large wooden boxes, Dong Tianhao asked: "Are these boxes filled with cannonballs? Good fellow, there must be 400 to 500 cannonballs! Which local tyrants are willing to spend money to make cannonballs? Wang San, have you tried these cannonballs? Are they effective?"

  "Commander, you can rest assured," Wang San patted his chest and replied. "I've already tested these shells, and they're incredibly powerful. Even a 10-centimeter-thick stone wall 100 meters away will be blown to smithereens. Those little devils are in for a real treat."

  "Hahaha, the little devil is now hiding over there and doesn't dare to come over, probably because the dog's nose has detected that we have these few big cannons guarding us, wahahahaha!" Dong Tianhao burst out laughing loudly without any restraint.

  Fujiwara was also quite depressed after receiving the order from Ozawa Jiro to delay and not allow a strong attack, but after being depressed for only one day, he received a telegram from Ozawa ordering a strong attack, which excited Fujiwara.

  As soon as Fujiwara gave the order, the originally calm Japanese army camp suddenly surged with a mighty wave, the shrill whistle sounded, and two battalions of soldiers quickly gathered within half a minute. Fujiwara looked at his warriors with great satisfaction, made a simple mobilization speech, and the first wave of assault teams, along with the engineer battalion, launched an attack on Cone Hill.

  It wasn't long before Dong Tianhao had to face the enemy's offensive. As soon as the enemy soldiers showed signs of movement, Dong Tianhao rushed to the front line of the battlefield. Although he had never commanded so many people in a defensive battle, Dong Tianhao, who was originally a bandit, was most skilled at defending. He was not good at charging forward like Xu Zhiwei, and sometimes he couldn't open up his hands and feet to advance all out. At the front line of the battlefield, there were wooden fences made by the soldiers under his command. Row upon row of short wooden stakes with sharp tips were tied to long wooden beams. Although these sharp tips were not as hard as knife blades, they were intimidating, and no one would doubt their ability to pierce through the abdomen. The wooden fences were not arranged in a single line but adopted a layered layout. The height of over one zhang (about 3.3 meters) made it impossible for the enemy to cross the fence, and they could only move between the gaps between the fences. This not only restrained the enemy's charging speed but also greatly increased their charging distance. This was why Dong Tianhao spent so much effort making his soldiers do such a long woodworking job.

  Fujiwara was well aware of the detestable wooden palisades, and had originally planned to launch a surprise attack. However, he was now being hindered by those accursed wooden palisades, which was a truly infuriating situation. Therefore, Fujiwara did not rush forward; instead, he prepared for a ground assault under cover, relying on the high-intensity engineering work of his engineer squad to dig out a trench path. As long as they could dig the path to within 50 meters of the Shin'ichi Regiment's position, the advantage of the high ground would be completely lost, and it would not be necessary to sacrifice too many soldiers to capture Cone Hill. Fujiwara stood firmly on the high stone, his hand gripping the hilt of his sword tightly, a gloomy smile floating on his face.

  The two 70mm mountain guns fired continuously, and the small shells from the grenade launcher were randomly bombarding the new first battalion's position. A grenade exploded 4 or 5 meters in front of Dong Tianhao, and large clumps of mud fell from the sky like apricot blossoms. However, when it hit his face and poured into his mouth, it was extremely uncomfortable. Dong Tianhao spat out the mud and sand in his mouth, cursing incessantly.

  Dong Tianhao was puzzled as to why the devils were recklessly firing artillery at their position, but when he saw a large group of people stopping and hesitating over 300 meters away, and the devil's engineer began frantically digging into the ground with iron shovels, he immediately understood. Damn it, they're going to dig tunnels! Dong Tianhao's heart sank by half. He had only set up wooden stakes in the two hundred meter range in front of the position, originally intended to delay the devils' attack, but now they were like a barrier in between, actually providing an extra layer of protection for the devils. The more Dong Tianhao thought about it, the angrier he became.

  "King Three!" Dong Tianhao roared, "Use the mortar to blast them hard for me! Those rats 300 meters away dare to think they can dig tunnels and sneak up on us. Give me a good blast, I want to blow those devils' eggs to pieces!"

  "Yes!" Wang San shouted loudly and ran to manipulate those 4 earth cannons.

  Soon, the rumble of thunder, 4 cannons fired in unison, the huge roar of the cannon was so exhilarating, although this cannon is crude, but the massive body weighing several tons, the large-caliber muzzle and the huge shells made these few crude cannons incredibly powerful, especially when mounted on high ground, shooting down from above was even more comfortable.

  However, at the moment when the shells fell, Dong Tianhao was stunned. The shells actually landed on the empty space behind the Japanese soldiers gathered 300 meters away. None of the four shells hit their target. This was simply too ridiculous. Dong Tianhao shouted like a madman: "Wang San, you son of a bitch, where did you aim?"

  Although they were dozens of meters apart, Wang San still felt the towering anger in Dong Tianhao's sharp voice, like a eunuch. Wang San's whole body trembled and he immediately shouted at the soldiers to aim and continue firing quickly.

  After a flurry of activity, the shells from the four mortars gradually approached their target, until the fourth salvo finally hit the mark, exploding in the midst of the enemy soldiers. It was only then that Wang San let out a slight sigh of relief. Meanwhile, Dong Tianhao's face had turned deathly pale, his chest heaving violently as he panted heavily.

  Unlike Dong Tianhao's anger, Fujiwara was astonished. Previously, he had never received intelligence that the defenders of Cone Mountain had such large-caliber cannons. Seeing those powerful shells coming non-stop, Fujiwara's eyebrows were furrowed.