Chapter 50: The Battle of Breaking Out of the Encirclement in the Forest

  "Brothers, gather all the hand grenades in our hands, throw half of them straight ahead at the devils, and then launch a strong firepower charge towards the front. Lure the devils to deploy all their troops to block us head-on, and then take advantage of the smoke-filled moment to turn around and break through the small path behind the mountain!" Chen Shaoqin carefully calculated the distance between the front and the back mountain, and after careful consideration, he finally spoke out his plan to all his brothers.

  All the brothers listened to Chen Shaoqin's words, without saying a word, and immediately took out all the hand grenades on their bodies. After checking the ammunition and grenade count, they put back the ordinary ammunition and grenades on their bodies, leaving the rest of the ammunition in their hands, preparing for a frontal charge later.

  "The devils are charging, prepare hand grenades!" Chen Shaoqin saw the little devils making a breakthrough in their defense line and immediately gave orders. He was very clear that the little devils' military strength had already surpassed theirs by several tens of times. To withdraw from here, they must give the little devils a false impression, mobilize their troops, and then take advantage of the situation to retreat. Now everything is ready, and the little devils are also eager to try from the front. He naturally didn't have the patience to wait any longer, and neither would the little devils give him more time, so he immediately issued combat orders.

  Liu, the leader of the kidnappers, pulled the safety pin off a hand grenade and then heavily knocked it against his rifle before throwing it forward. In an instant, a huge explosion occurred under the illumination of strong light, blasting more than ten devils flying away, while the rest were stunned by the deafening sound and dared not move on the ground.

  Xiao Shi Tou and Ah Si also threw out the hand grenades in their hands, then beckoned to the brothers behind them to charge forward towards the little devils in front. For a time, the long guns in their hands fired one after another at the little devils in front, and the shouting shook the entire valley. This momentum caused the little devils' frontline to become disordered.

  "Hachoo, these Chinese are too bold! They actually think they can break through my defenses head-on!" Matsumoto had originally thought that Chen Shaokan and his men would use the mountains as cover to form a defensive line to block their army's charge, but he never could have imagined that Chen Shaokan would lead his troops in a frontal assault against them.

  "Matsumoto, what should we do now?" Captain Oni asked in front of Matsumoto. He also saw the desperate charge of Chen Shaoqin's troops, who were fighting with their lives on the line. This momentum created an inexplicable sense of fear among the Japanese soldiers under his command. The originally stable formation suddenly became disordered, and the gunfire lost its normal rhythm. Moreover, a small number of Japanese soldiers began to instinctively retreat, leaving Captain Oni at a loss for what to do next.

  "They're just over a dozen men, yet they dare to launch a countercharge against the encirclement of two squads from the Great Japanese Imperial Army? Their commander must be crazy!" Matsumoto commented on Chen Shaokai's command and then said to the captain beside him, "He wants to break through, we won't give him that chance. Yamaguchi, you take your squad, along with Ikeda's squad, go to the front line and block their attack for me. Make sure to trap those bandits within the encirclement!"

  "Ha!" Yamaguchi heard the order, turned around and went to meet up with Ikeda, then led two squads of soldiers to form a strong blocking position in front of Chen Shaoqin's team, blocking their charge. For a while, all the little devils were, as Chen Shaoqin had expected, deployed right in front of them.

  "I'd like to see how long your desperate struggle can last!" Matsuda saw the enemy soldiers under his command charging towards the front line, so he pressed his hands on the hilt of his sword stuck in the ground and shouted fiercely at the forefront of the battlefield. It was clear that Chen Shaokan's breakthrough with a few people was a huge insult to him, so no matter what, he couldn't accept letting Chen Shaokan succeed.

  As Matsumoto's voice fell, the devils' machine guns and mortars, along with the charging shouts, instantly erupted, all firing towards Chen Shaoqin and his men who were charging forward. The ferocious devils clearly wanted to wipe out Chen Shaoqin and his men in this forest, otherwise Matsumoto would never be able to vent the anger in his chest.

  Liu Chao, with his rifle at the ready, fired several shots at the onrushing devils, knocking down the one in front. He then turned to Chen Shaoqin and said: "Officer Chen, as you predicted, all the devils are concentrated in front of us. At this time, there shouldn't be many people left on the mountain behind us. Shouldn't we turn our guns around and launch a counterattack from the rear?"

  "It won't work, the little devils still don't fully believe we're going to break through from the front, otherwise their mortars and other heavy weapons would have been deployed in front of us by now!" Chen Shaoqin analyzed. This group of little devils was the main force among the devils, with a full complement of heavy weaponry, but despite having fought for so long, not a single cannon had been fired, which proved that the devils hadn't yet committed their full firepower and were still probing our specific movements. Therefore, he felt it wasn't the best time to turn around and make a break for it just yet.

  "What's to be done? The little devils in front of us are getting more and more, our brothers can't hold on anymore!" Lao Liu understood Chen Shaoqin's words, but his heart sank even further. After all, they now had fewer people, fewer guns, and less ammunition. If this continued, even if the devils didn't charge up, they would still be trapped to death here. Therefore, Lao Liu must get a feasible plan from Chen Shaoqin.

  "Now we must hold back the devils here and increase our firepower, drawing all the devils' attention to us, making them firmly believe that we are going to retreat from the front line." Chen Shaoqin emphasized his order, ignoring Liu's opinions and independently made the battle deployment.

  "Fire!" Lao Liu had no choice but to ask his brothers to finish all the ammunition in their hands, and then retreat with Chen Shaoqin towards the back mountain direction. They absolutely could not let the little devils' conspiracy succeed.

  At the sound of the order, more than a dozen guns fired again at the charging Little Devils, and the crackling gunfire knocked down several Little Devils. Their guns were also out of ammunition. At this time, Chen Shaoqin gave the order to retreat, "Brothers, hurry up and retreat according to the smoke direction, can't leave any traces for the Little Devils!"