Chapter 44: Zhang Zhenhan's Depression

  Slowly, Zhang Zhenhan's two brigades had entered the ambush circle of the Seventh Army Corps. Looking at the mountain guns in front of him, Liu Hua's saliva almost flowed out. Looking at the 18 mountain guns reflecting a faint blue light under the sun's rays, Liu Hua was delighted, and this time he had added another mountain gun company to his equipment.

  As the gunshot rang out, Liu Hua's long-targeted enemy mountain artillery battalion commander clutched his chest and fell to the ground. In that instant, almost all the enemy soldiers near the cannons fell to the ground. The remaining artillerymen saw the corpses scattered everywhere and didn't dare come forward again, only trembling all over and crouching on the ground, begging for heaven's mercy.

  At this time, Zhang Zhenhan was extremely depressed. After the first gunshot, his chief of staff, deputy commander and others around him all fell under the enemy's gunfire. He himself was protected by a guard and lay in the middle of the pile of corpses, looking at the blood-soaked bodies in front of him, Zhang Zhenhan almost vomited up what he had eaten that morning.

  "Immediately order the Second Brigade to occupy the high ground with troops, and the Third Brigade to support and protect the mountain artillery camp." Zhang Zhenhan shouted desperately, but no one responded to him.

  "Master, Master, it's all over." A battalion commander covered in blood crawled beside him and wept.

  "Hurry up and tell me what's going on outside, hurry up!" Zhang Zhenhan was also anxious.

  The company commander was actually joking with his regimental commander before the war, but suddenly a gunshot rang out, and the regimental commander beside him fell down. His face was suddenly splashed with red and white things, and he saw that half of the regimental commander's head was gone. Seeing this, the company commander quickly lay down on the ground.

  But before they could settle down, a row of heavy machine guns appeared on the mountain slope in front of them, spewing out flames. Watching as the flames swallowed up the lives of his comrades one by one, he could only lie there motionless. In just a short while, an entire company of his men was gone.

  Seeing the Communist army's firepower elsewhere, the company commander gazed at the gap and rolled over to the division commander.

  "What? You said the Communist army has how many heavy machine guns?" Zhang Zhenhan was stunned by the company commander's words.

  "Orderly, orderly, quickly inform the Second Brigade Commander, quickly retreat, retreat." But no one paid attention to him.

  "The commander, the adjutant and several regimental commanders have all been killed." said a guard battalion commander who had just rushed over.

  "What, how is this possible?" Just as Zhang Zhenhan thought it was impossible, he did not know that his troops had already lost more than half of their strength, especially his second brigade.

  Originally, after the battle started, there was a regimental commander of the Second Division who had not been killed in action. Seeing that the follow-up troops were constantly being attacked by artillery fire, he immediately ordered the Second Division to say that some troops did not care about their lives and charged towards Yujiaping. How could this be tolerated? It is worth noting that the political commissar had deployed a battalion of soldiers and horses here, and had specially strengthened 6 heavy machine guns. Faced with dense firepower, the enemy still charged forward without regard for their lives.

  Perhaps it was the enemy regiment commander's words "Charge to Yujiaping and you will survive" that played a huge role. The enemy troops of the Second Division kept shouting slogans, constantly charging forward, and the camp guarding the position was stunned, constantly pulling the triggers of heavy machine guns, light machine guns, and rifles, without needing to aim, because there were just too many enemies, and after one wave finished, another wave came up. According to post-war statistics, nearly 2,000 enemy troops died in front of this strong position.

  The commissar couldn't bear to watch anymore, and soon the charge bugle sounded. All the soldiers jumped out of the trenches, holding light machine guns and firing continuously, charging forward non-stop. Since the enemy had not been completely dispersed, some company commanders were still leading their men in resistance, and casualties began to appear among our troops.

  Liu Hua was in the midst of a fierce battle, but when he heard the bugle sound prematurely, he looked at the enemy's position and saw that many enemy soldiers were still resisting together. He immediately furrowed his brow. However, the bugle had already sounded, and Liu Hua had no choice but to lead the guard regiment to charge towards the enemy's mountain artillery camp. They quickly resolved the enemy's mountain artillery camp and left a guard company to watch over the cannons. Then, Liu Hua led the remaining troops to rush towards the main position.

  They arrived at the first encirclement, where there were about two battalions of enemy troops inside. Watching his own troops fall under the enemy's gunfire, Liu Hua became enraged: "Li Xiaolong, bring me the captured howitzer, let's see who has the harder wings." Under Liu Hua's command, all the encirclements began to echo with muffled explosions, and slowly, the enemy started to surrender.

  "King Shi Chang, who ordered the premature charge?" Liu Hua asked with a bitter face as he saw Wang Nanhu walking over.

  "The order is from the political commissar," said Wang Nanhu with a sigh. Liu Hua regretted his decision after hearing Wang Nanhu's words, blaming himself for launching the ambush and causing heavy casualties to the troops. However, he couldn't blame the political commissar too much, as he was new and not familiar with the tactics of his own troops. With this thought, Liu Hua felt relieved and walked towards the captured soldiers.

  "Report to the Legion Commander, this is Zhang Zhenhan, our captive," Liu Hua said, looking at the young man in front of him who was wearing a lieutenant general's uniform.

  "Zhang Shilang, I'm Liu Hua, the commander of the Seventh Legion. What's your take on this battle?" Liu Hua asked with a smile.

  "Hmm? I want to see He Long." Zhang Zhenhan ignored Liu Hua.

  "Heh heh, wanting to meet Commander He is no problem, but we have to wait until after we take down Taoyuan and Yujia Ping. Take Zhang Shizhang away," he said, then walked towards the command center.

  Looking at Liu Hua leaving in the distance, Zhang Zhenhan suddenly asked: "Little comrade, who was that person just now?"

  "You don't know that. Let me tell you, he is Liu Hua, the commander of our Seventh Legion, a hero of our Red Army," said the soldier beside him proudly.

  "My goodness, it's Liu Hua! How unlucky can I be!" Zhang Zhenhan said gloomily. As for Liu Hua, Zhang Zhenhan had a certain understanding of him. To Zhang Zhenhan, Liu Hua was simply a miracle, and he never thought that today he would actually run into him. How could he not feel depressed?

  "Commander, I'm sorry. I came to review the situation. It's all my fault for ordering the troops to charge ahead of time, resulting in unnecessary casualties." Liu Hua hadn't even had a chance to greet the political commissar before hearing him self-criticize.

  "Heh, Commissar, it's nothing. Mainly because you've just arrived at our 7th Military Corps and aren't very familiar with our tactics yet. This time it's also my fault, I shouldn't have left my post," Liu Hua immediately apologized upon seeing Commissar Chen Kun's expression.

  "Hehe, I'm telling you two to stop grinding and come take a look at the battle report. This is a great victory for us, everyone come take a look."

  When Director Li finished speaking, neither Liu Hua nor the political commissar said anything, and they all walked together towards the command center.