Chapter Nineteenth: Luring the Snake out of its Hole

  At night, the independent regiment quietly set out. Ningguo is located on the outskirts of Tianmu Mountain, which belongs to a hilly area. As soon as the troops left the city, they immediately saw the results of this month's training.

  Dai Qin didn't know any military training methods, his training programs were all learned from movies and TV shows, many of which were actually physical education methods. However, there was one thing that was indispensable, and that was running. Others trained for long-distance running to enhance their ability to march over long distances. But Dai Qin's training included long-distance running, middle-distance running, and short sprints, making his soldiers look like track and field athletes.

  Zhao Kai seemed to know about Zhai Qin's devil training, but he didn't know what he was thinking, and actually took the troops to the riverbank grassland, practicing lifting wooden heads in the muddy water. In a month's time, the soldiers of the independent battalion were all like Africans.

  Although so, no one said to quit, because the troops ate too well. Zhai Qin was blackmailing Wu Guoxiong to get supplies, and things that didn't cost money were of course very delicious. It made those soldiers who hadn't been incorporated into the independent regiment and had been sent to the temporary 12th brigade regretful, resentful, and jealous.

  But can't blame others, who let them suffer during training at first. Now it's too late to regret.

  Zhang Tongye received the order, and Zhaiqin's battalion was just a battalion. The remaining soldiers belonged to him, which made Zhang Tongye very happy. However, when these soldiers arrived, Zhang Tongye scolded them loudly.

  This is nearly two battalions of soldiers, but they are all rubbish soldiers. The old, weak, sick and disabled were all left behind, which is understandable, who doesn't keep the good soldiers behind? But what made Zhang Tongye curse loudly was that he received news that Zhai Qin had brought back a team's equipment from the command post. However, looking at these six or seven hundred soldiers, they are all holding broken and worn-out weapons.

  Some soldiers didn't even have rifle bolts, and most of them didn't even have bayonets. What kind of troops are these? It's better not to give them weapons at all, let them come with empty hands, they can ask the commander for weapons and ammunition.

  Dai Qin didn't care about offending Zhang Tongye, who was currently observing outside Xuan City. At night, the binoculars were useless, and he couldn't see anything. He sighed in his heart, thinking that later generations were better off, inventing a night-vision infrared telescope and several sniper rifles. Damn it, let alone fighting the devils head-on, even guerrilla warfare would make him die without knowing how.

  The city of Xuancheng is as quiet as death, the devils are advancing towards Hangzhou, due to insufficient troops, the occupied area continues to expand, and there are not many troops in each main location. It was because of this that the devils basically stopped large-scale military attacks after occupying Hangzhou and entered a battle rest stage.

  Xuancheng is close to Wuhu, the 18th Division Headquarters is in Wuhu, two brigades are separated, the 23rd Brigade advances towards Hangzhou, and the 35th Brigade stays behind to guard, mainly advancing westward along the south bank of the Yangtze River.

  In Tongling, they were blocked by the 132nd Division and forced to stop their attack. The division commander, Lieutenant General Teiichi Nakajima, moved his troops to Tongling in an attempt to occupy Tongling and advance on Chizhou. As a result, there was only one logistics transport unit left in Xuancheng, which was the 3rd Battalion of the 12th Transport Regiment of the 18th Division.

  Captain Miyazaki Mika was stationed in Xuancheng with a carefree attitude, although the Ningguo troops facing him were temporarily assigned to the 12th Brigade of the Chinese Expeditionary Army, and behind them were the troops of the 19th Group Army. However, he didn't worry at all. The Chinese army had been beaten by the Imperial Army and was too afraid to launch an attack. They could barely withstand the Imperial Army's attacks, let alone dare to attack the areas occupied by the Imperial Army.

  After occupying this place, the greatest gain of Miyazaki Mochi was that he had a good harvest here. This is the famous production area of Xuan paper in the world. For Japanese people who have the same love for calligraphy as China, they have a special affection for Chinese Xuan paper. The division commander started to collect from top to bottom, and every officer got some, all of which were concentrated in Xuancheng.

  Unfortunately, the Hubei Expeditionary Force had orders to temporarily suspend its offensive and coordinate with the Japanese government's peace talks. If they occupied Jingxian, that would be the real producing area.

  Miyazaki Mochizuki always referred to himself as a literary man, wearing a pair of glasses. Although he had an elegant demeanor, the two triangular eyes shone with ferocity, making him look like a jackal no matter how you looked at him.

  The 124th Brigade that occupied Xuancheng advanced eastward to Hangzhou, pursuing the Chinese army, and his troops stayed in Xuancheng as the occupying force.

  Within a month's time, due to the Yangtze River waterway being impassable, large quantities of military supplies and other looted goods were waiting for transportation, all concentrated here.

  Today, a large batch of brushes was found in a household, which is a famous product. Miyazaki Moka couldn't put it down, and after admiring it for a whole day, he used up twenty or so brushes and over ten kilograms of Xuan paper, only to find that his calligraphy still hadn't improved. However, he was exhausted from the effort.

  Miyazaki Mō didn't know how long he had slept, but when the soldier woke him up, he was still not fully awake. Upon hearing the soldier's report, his drowsiness immediately vanished: "What? The Chinese army is attacking Xuan Cheng?"

  Lieutenant Colonel Miyazaki almost wanted to beat the soldier severely. When did the Chinese army have such guts? When he found out it was a small unit, he flew into a rage: "Baka, order the 3rd platoon to go out of the city and annihilate those damn Chinese!"

  After issuing the order, he fell head-first onto the bed. This damned Chinese is making it impossible for me to get a good night's sleep. It must be the scattered remnants of the Chinese army, just harassment.

  When he came to his senses, he found that it was almost dawn. The direction of the attack was in the east, which was far from the city gate, and the sound of guns and cannons could not be heard, proving that it was indeed a small force.

  A company is enough to deal with the Chinese army, although it's a non-combat unit. Lieutenant Commander Miyazaki felt at ease and closed his eyes again, he should still be able to sleep for a while.

  The 3rd platoon that received the order was the unit defending the eastern part of the city. Lieutenant Colonel Fujita Ichiro, the platoon leader, was awakened by the sound of gunfire. The sentry on the city wall had been shot dead, indicating an attack on the city. Immediately, the entire platoon was mobilized to the city wall to prepare for a counterattack. However, with the help of the firelight and the pre-dawn light, it was discovered that there were only several dozen attackers. The situation was reported to the battalion commander.

  The order received was to go out of the city and annihilate these Japanese troops, he was somewhat reluctant. Such harassment units were all some scattered soldiers, they would run as soon as they fought. The Imperial Army came out of the city, they would definitely run. But this was an order that could not be disobeyed, so he ordered the squadron to assemble, opened the city gate and launched a counterattack to annihilate these Japanese troops.

  This was Diqin's tactic, and he didn't know if it would work or not. Logically speaking, the devils shouldn't have come out so easily. He had deliberately chosen this time to make the devils leave the city.

  He didn't even bring a single cannon, let alone lay siege to the city. He knew an idiom that is "luring the snake out of its hole". I remember at the beginning of the war, the enemy's easy victory made them arrogant, underestimating the enemy will lead to defeat.

  The first squad of Zhang Meng's men lay in ambush in the grass not far from the east gate of Xuancheng. The second squad sent a small team to attack the city, only firing shots, and people couldn't get close. If the devils came out of the city, they would immediately retreat and lure the devils to the ambush point.

  The second and third squads lay in ambush on both sides of the highway, less than two kilometers from the city gate. By now, it was already light, although a bit hazy, but no longer pitch black.

  Commander Zhu Hou saw the city gate open, and less than 200 devils rushed out. He said to his deputy commander Lü Kui: "The big commander is really godlike, how did he know that the devils would definitely come out."

  Lv Gui shook his head and said: "I don't know, this is indeed a clever calculation. Squadron leader, what to do? The devils seem not many."

  Zhu Hou and his men were still lacking in confidence when facing the devils: "Fight for a while, then retreat. This is a whole squadron of devils. We have too few people."

  "Good!" Lu Gui responded with a loud voice, looking at the rushing devils and shouting: "Hit."

  A team of fifty people immediately opened fire, a burst of gunfire, and the devils who rushed out of the city were knocked down. Zhu Hou looked at the devils who fell to the ground and counterattacked, shouting: "Withdraw."

  The squad of fifty people immediately turned around and ran. Seeing the Chinese army escaping, Tōyama Ichirō was infuriated, knowing this would be the result, they would run as soon as they saw the Imperial Army.

  Affecting his early sleep, making him angry, he was a logistics soldier, responsible for transporting supplies to the front-line imperial army, and still had tasks during the day. Originally, this would have been suspicious of luring the enemy, but Toda Ichiro didn't think about it at all. He led his squadron in pursuit.

  Zhu Hou and his men were uneasy in their hearts, running as fast as they could, and managed to pull away from the devils by a distance. After chasing for a while, Toda Ichiro didn't worry about being ambushed, but rather thought it wasn't worth pursuing. He ordered them to stop the chase and return to the city.

  Zhu Hou, who was running quickly, saw that the devils behind him were not chasing after all. He suddenly remembered what the squad leader had told him: don't get too far away, in case the devils come back. This scene was just like when they ambushed at Zhangjiagou. He shouted: "Lv Kui, turn around and fight back!"

  The third squad immediately stopped fleeing and turned back to fight. Tōdō Ichirō was finally enraged, the Chinese army with their brazen attitude, he counterattacked again. After this back-and-forth battle, the sky had already started to brighten up a bit.

  This time Zhu Hou had experience, running and stopping, finally luring the reckless Fujita Ichiro into the ambush circle. Di Qin also held up a telescope and said: "Send a signal to Zhang Wang. Advance into the city."

  Zhao Kai said: "No way, Captain, it's dawn and they can't see the signal flares."

  Diqin was taken aback, "Damn it, how could I forget this?" he shouted, "Idiot, send someone over here."

  Zhao Kai hastily shouted: "Zuo Kun, you son of a bitch, run quickly and inform Zhang Meng to launch an attack."

  Zuo Kun was indeed fast, and every time he ran, he came in first. With this special talent, he was kept as a messenger, which was Zhao Qin's clever use of his abilities. Zuo Kun darted out with a whooshing sound, running towards the city gate.

  "Fire, machine guns, hand grenades, annihilate them at top speed, then enter the city."

  When the first machine gun fired, the machine guns on both sides of the highway made Lieutenant Colonel Fujita Ichiro's soul tremble. Eighty or ninety, how many troops are there? Judging from the number of machine guns, it's probably more than a regiment.

  He didn't know that Zhaoqin's independent battalion was already equipped to the peak of the National Army, with a total of five machine guns per squad. On both sides of the highway were two companies of machine guns. This is forty machine guns firing together, bullets sweeping towards the devils like a storm.

  The devils who were chasing after us with great enthusiasm were like a strong wind blowing over the cornfield, they didn't fall down on their own, but were all knocked down. The Japanese army's heavy artillery battalion had five companies, each company only had 150 people. Including the battalion headquarters, there were only about 800 people in total. Along the way, Zhu Hou and Kuai led the third squad to pursue without any casualties. But this round of shooting, actually resulted in half of them being injured or killed.

  Zhao Kai still had more command experience than Jiao Qin, and seeing this scene shouted: "Blow the charge horn."

  The loud bugle sounded, and the second and third squads on both sides of the highway jumped up and rushed towards the devils on the highway.

  Fortunately, Fujita Ichiro was not shot by the machine gun and only then did he realize that these Chinese troops were luring his unit, but it was too late to realize this now, and in a panic, he ordered a retreat.

  The combat effectiveness of the Japanese army is indeed good. Such a blow did not make them collapse, and they still counterattacked in an orderly manner and retreated.

  Seeing the hundreds of Chinese soldiers rushing up, Fujita Ichiro finally felt fear. Moreover, the attacking Chinese army's weapons were too fierce, and the machine gun bullets were like a torrential downpour. The devils who were pressed to the ground couldn't even lift their heads.

  They were logistics soldiers, and their weapons were not powerful. They didn't even have the strength to fight back. The ferocious Tōyama Ichirō knew that once the attack came, the Imperial Army's bayonet charge was a strong point.

  But he was wrong, the tactics were set by Di Qian, who would be stupid enough to fight with bayonets. When the distance was 50-60 meters and the machine guns stopped firing, the devils had just lifted their heads, they saw flying black dots, surprisingly so many.

  This is Diqin's hand grenade tactics, one of the three major training subjects of the Independent Battalion "running, shooting, and throwing grenades". If you can't reach 50 meters, you'll be punished. This is a group of people with great arm strength, so 50 meters is no problem.

  Just as the devils were staring blankly at the sky, hundreds of hand grenades fell among them.