Chapter 18: The Defeated Soldiers Arrive

  "What's going on." Sun Xinghua took out his own Mauser pistol and quickly walked outside.

  "Report to the battalion commander, Chen Jiongming's defeated soldiers want to attack the village, but were discovered by our sentry. The second company is launching a counterattack against the defeated soldiers, and the third company has already outflanked them." Cai Guangjiu quickly came over and reported the situation outside.

  Sun Xinghua nodded and continued to give orders, saying: "The first battalion will immediately enter combat readiness, prevent fleeing soldiers from entering the village, and at the same time order the propaganda team to comfort the villagers."

  "Yes, Battalion Commander." Cai Guangji bowed and immediately walked out towards the outside.

  Outside the village, the sound of gunfire continued to ring out.

  The Maxim machine gun spewed forth a fiery red tongue, and bullet after bullet shot out in a deadly stream towards the fleeing troops.

  There were about 100 defeated soldiers, who were the remnants of Chen Jiongming's troops that had been defeated by the vanguard of Xu Chongzhi's Guangdong army. Originally, they planned to take advantage of the fierce battle ahead and the weakness of the Guangdong army in controlling the rear areas, to plunder these places thoroughly before returning home; if not possible, they could also find a place to become bandits.

  But they did not expect to encounter a contingent of Allied troops here.

  "Colonel, retreat!" An officer walked up to Huang Erxi and said anxiously.

  Huang Erxi did not respond but instead stared at the firepower point in front of him.

  According to Huang Erxi's observation, there was only one heavy machine gun in front of him, and the rest were all rifles. However, Huang Erxi did not know that the second company had only allowed one heavy machine gun to fire, while the other twelve light machine guns, one heavy machine gun, and two 37mm infantry cannons were all hidden.

  "There aren't many of them, only a few dozen by the sound of gunfire. We have over a hundred men, two heavy machine guns and three submachine guns (German MP18). Taking them down shouldn't be a problem. The brothers haven't rested for two days now. If we take the village, we can get a good meal and rest at the same time." Huang Erxi said coldly.

  It wasn't that he had to attack the village, but his brothers, if they weren't given food and rest, the soldiers would probably run away. The only way to boost their morale was to occupy this village and let them enjoy it.

  "Continue attacking, all companies go up." Huang Erxi gave the order.

  At that time, most of the combat tactics were still continuing from World War I, with a beehive-like charge forward, relying on numerical superiority to resolve battles.

  But don't look at this tactic as simple, it's actually very effective. Once the defensive side makes any mistake, the entire position will be lost.

  Especially Chen Jiongming's troops, they were all old soldiers who had followed Chen Jiongming to fight for many years, with very rich combat experience, and the party army troops who had not experienced any battles were completely not on the same level.

  Over a hundred people rushed forward in a swarm, although it looked chaotic, but these Chen army officers and soldiers were very agile, plus the cover of night, the shooting of heavy machine guns did not bring them much casualties, instead let Chen's two heavy machine guns set up, starting to sweep the firepower points on the array.

  Fortunately, the Russian-made M1910 heavy machine guns were all shielded, and the bullets hit them with a clang, without killing the gunners.

  However, Second Lieutenant Hu Wei quickly gave orders to move the exposed heavy machine guns as soon as possible. Since there were only two heavy machine gunners and two deputy shooters in the second company, if they were killed, the officers would have to operate the heavy machine guns themselves, and the soldiers simply did not know how to use them.

  "Damn it, these mutts are quite sharp." Hu Wei cursed and readjusted the deployment again.

  The platoon leaders and deputy platoon leaders who held Thompsons, as well as the soldiers in the company who held Thompsons, were all transferred to the front line. A total of twenty Thompson submachine guns were deployed on the front line.

  "Two hundred meters, ready." Hu Wei gave the order quickly.

  Twelve light machine guns, two heavy machine guns, and two artillery pieces are all ready for battle.

  The rest of the infantrymen were holding rifles and crouching in temporary fortifications, some of whom had not experienced war before, with a look of fear on their faces, never daring to lift their heads.

  Chen Jun's two heavy machine guns fired continuously on the position, stirring up layers of dust. If you look far away, the flames ejected by the two heavy machine guns are like two fire dragons, striking the position.

  "One hundred meters, fire!" Hu Wei shouted loudly.

  If it weren't for the fact that most of these soldiers were new recruits, Hu Wei could have gotten Chen's soldiers within fifty meters, in which case they would probably all have been killed by their own machine gun fire.

  Huang Erxi stood behind, directing the two heavy machine guns to fire, and as for the three flower-shaped machine guns, they were left aside by Huang Erxi to protect himself.

  Suddenly, cannon fire came from across the way.

  The shell landed next to the heavy machine gun, and the shooter was hit by shrapnel, falling to the ground in agony.

  One of the shells exploded directly on top of the heavy machine gun, blowing it into scrap metal.

  Right after that, a burst of gunfire suddenly erupted from the originally quiet enemy position.

  Huang Erxi could swear to heaven that in over a decade of being a soldier, he had never seen such powerful firepower. Bullets were like rainwater, pouring towards his own troops.

  Huang Erxi, who had been watching his troops approach the position, thinking that he was about to win, turned pale and cowered on the ground, dodging bullets attacking from a distance.

  The charging Chen army soldiers suddenly fell to the ground in a large area, and the remaining soldiers were crawling on the ground, slowly retreating backwards. They knew that even if all of them died here, they might not be able to break through the enemy's position. Looking at the bullets flying over like rain, the morale of the Chen army soldiers had vanished.

  "Charge!" Just then, the 3rd Battalion, which had been circling around, quickly appeared from the rear. The battalion of 140 men was led by platoon leaders armed with Thompson submachine guns, followed by soldiers carrying Browning automatic rifles, and behind them were infantrymen.

  Chen Jun's soldiers were caught in a pincer movement, and the firepower from both sides was extremely strong. Most of the soldiers were killed, while a small number of them lay flat on the ground.

  Huang Erxi took his trusted followers and wanted to leave quickly, but as soon as he stood up, he was shot into a sieve by Thompson's submachine gun.

  "Surrender and we won't kill you!" Sun Xinghua waved his Mauser pistol, suddenly appearing on the battlefield, shouting loudly.

  The officers and soldiers of the three battalions heard the battalion commander's shout and all shouted loudly: "Surrender your guns, we will not kill."

  The remaining twenty or so Chen Jun soldiers all raised their hands and put down their rifles.

  "Take all prisoners into custody and quickly sweep the battlefield." Sun Xinghua hastily gave the order.