Chapter 38: Ambushing the Patrol Team

  The fighting spirit of the Japanese devils was very strong, knowing that charging forward would result in many being knocked down by the enemy, but since the officer had given the order, all the devils got up and charged in the direction pointed out by Commander Chi.

  "Rat-a-tat-tat" three shots, the three devils who had just gotten up fell to the ground. However, the devils did not hesitate and opened fire with their machine guns in the general direction, while the soldiers continued to charge forward.

  "Bang bang bang", three shots, two devils fell to the ground, because two bullets hit the same lucky devil at the same time.

  "Grenade!" Chi shouted from behind.

  The devils immediately ran and pulled out hand grenades, while Liu Feng saw the devils starting to pull out hand grenades. He hastily retreated backwards, quickly withdrawing from the explosion range of the hand grenade, then set up his gun to specifically shoot those devils who had already knocked the detonator on their rifle stock, preparing to throw them out.

  "Bang bang bang", three hand grenade-throwing devils were knocked down, and their grenades naturally fell into the crowd of their own charging troops.

  "Boom!" The grenade exploded in the midst of the devils' crowd, immediately blowing over several devils next to them.

  Chi puffed with anger and fell to the ground, pounding his fists on the ground.

  Liu Feng threw hand grenades in that direction and also buried many bullets, some devils were hit by the bullets and fell to the ground.

  Liu Feng fired a shot and changed positions, and each shot hit one of the devils. The devils' hand grenades were thrown out, but they were basically all thrown near the position where Liu Feng had just moved from, without even touching a hair on Liu Feng's head.

  In addition, Han Dingtou and Xu Guangfu saw the little devils chasing after Liu Feng, they couldn't help but laugh at the little devils' choice. Are these little devils tired of living, going to chase the Chief of Staff? Isn't that seeking death?

  Of course, one of them kept an eye on the fake army to prevent those fake soldiers from causing any trouble. One of them kept shooting at the devils who could be hit.

  When Liu Feng loaded his magazine for the fourth time, there were no more little devils standing on the battlefield. Most of them had been wounded and fell to the ground.

  Those pseudo-soldiers crouched on the ground, watching the miserable state of the little devils, and they were all sweating profusely. Fortunately, they didn't get up or fire at the Eighth Route Army. Look at their combat effectiveness and marksmanship! Although there are many pseudo-soldiers, it's still uncertain whether they can hit people within 30 meters. Fighting against such an Eighth Route Army? We want to live a few more days, so the pseudo-soldiers all crouched on the ground without moving, pretending to shoot and making a lot of noise, but the bullets were all fired into the sky.

  Chi Youzhu was lying on the ground, covered in sweat. He knew he had completely failed tonight. Not to mention reinforcing the Xixian storehouse, even his own survival was a question mark. And the two small teams that were supposed to arrive from the east and west gates still hadn't arrived yet. This could only mean they too had been ambushed. If the Eighth Route Army that ambushed them was as strong as the one here, then whether these two teams would ever be seen again was also a question mark.

  Ikegami Shōzuki felt that this failure would have severe consequences, not only would the Nishiyama village base be lost, but also the possibility of losing control over Kōhei county again. He thought that the only way to avoid being taken to a military tribunal was to commit seppuku. However, he still held onto the hope that Yamashita and Kawabe's detachments could break through the enemy lines and arrive in time.

  However, this glimmer of hope gradually faded away with time.

  Liu Feng and Han Dadao left Xu Guangfu to guard the fake army from a distance, while they went around the east gate and west gate's bullet array to snipe at the devils' small teams.

  The teams of Yamashita and Kawabe had no fake troops to clear the mines, so they could only use engineers to slowly remove the mines. As a result, both teams were trapped in the minefield. They heard the intense gunfire and explosions at the North Gate, and their hearts were burning with anxiety. However, clearing the mines, especially at night, was extremely slow.

  Just as the squad leader urged the sappers to speed up for the third time, a gunshot rang out and the sapper's head suddenly exploded. However, since everyone's attention was focused on the mine-clearing soldier, no one saw where the bullet came from.

  The Japanese soldiers could only lie on the ground and fire in the general direction, hoping to suppress the enemy.

  However, the other side was silent, and this was a restricted area. The squad leader at the foot of the mountain could not send anyone to chase after them, so they just fired a few shots and gave up.

  Demining restarted, but just as another sapper had stood up, "bang" another shot came and this sapper's head was blown off. This shot came from a different direction.

  "Damn it!" The squad leader at the foot of the mountain shouted in anger, but as he slightly raised his body due to rage, "Bang", a gunshot rang out, and the squad leader's butt was shot.

  "Ah!" Yamashita let out a loud cry, cursing and shouting, "You despicable, shameless Chinese! You only dare to launch sneak attacks, but don't have the guts to engage in an open battle with us, the Imperial Japanese Army! You're just cowards!"

  But in the darkness, except for the sound of the wind, there was complete silence. The attacker did not respond to the angry curses from below the mountain. Nor would they waste bullets by firing randomly and exposing their position.

  Yamashita continued to scold loudly, hoping that the other party would expose himself, so that the imperial army's machine gunner could shoot him into a pile of rotten flesh at once.

  However, the mountain below was destined to disappoint them, and the other side remained silent. The fear brought by this silence in the darkness weighed heavily on the hearts of the devils.

  His heart was racing like a fire, the squad leader ordered him to make a detour, but so far he was still trapped in the hail of bullets. Now even the mine-clearing team had been shot down by the enemy, at this rate he wouldn't reach his designated position until dawn, how could he explain himself to Squad Leader Chi? The gunfire from the North Gate had already died down, had something happened to Squad Leader Chi's side...

  No, it's impossible. There was another small team of Japanese soldiers and all the puppet troops on the other side of the pond, led by Zhongdui Zhang. How could they have been eliminated in such a short time?

  Although the squad leader was anxious, he had no way out. Charging forward, the ground was full of bullets and shells, charging into a minefield was suicidal; clearing mines, the enemy's snipers would take out his own sappers one by one, even if he just slightly lifted his butt, he would be hit. But if he just stayed prone like this, how could he fulfill the company commander's task?

  Unfortunately, the idea of Shimo's squad leader to stay still also fell through. Two hand grenades flew over from the darkness and exploded in mid-air. In an instant, several Japanese soldiers were killed or injured.

  The squad leader immediately ordered all weapons to fire fiercely in the direction of the hand grenade, but there was still no response. The opponent did not know whether he was hit or retreated, and there was no sound at all.