Chapter 6: The Downfall of Yida
Chen Jifang chose a long, narrow mountain valley over 100 meters as the ambush site. On the left side of the entrance to the valley was a small hill about 40 meters high. Chen Jifang ordered Zhong Dingcheng to lead the machine gun squad to build a position there and seal off the valley mouth with machine guns once the battle started.
Zhao Jun led the team to bury landmines and set up roadblocks at the exit of the valley, preventing the Japanese army from rushing over. Wen Chuanhao took three men to find a suitable sniping position, while Chen Jifan personally inquired about the situation with the grenade launchers. The repair work should be a strong point for the National Army, but Chen Jifan was not worried. However, the two grenade launcher operators, Da Fu and Zhu Zi, had only learned how to use them yesterday, and ten grenades were wasted on training them. Chen Jifan required the snipers to take out the enemy commander at the first opportunity, while the grenade launchers would focus on taking care of the Japanese machine guns.
Before the war, Chen Jifang repeatedly emphasized: Once the devils have caught their breath and organized effective resistance, retreat immediately. Absolutely do not allow a fight to the death, we are outnumbered and cannot afford to sacrifice easily. Finally, Chen Jifang said: "I want none of you to die, annihilate this group of beasts!"
After a bitter experience, Yida's team became more cautious and slowed down their pace. As the sky was about to darken, Yida took out his map and studied it carefully, hoping to find a village to settle in before nightfall and taste some of the local chicken and duck dishes. The map showed that if they walked for another two or three hours, there would be a village not far from the road on their left. "Alright, let's move!" Yida ordered.
At that time, the Japanese army was actually very arrogant. Although they had been bombed once, Iida still couldn't think of anyone daring to ambush the Imperial Field Army. It's said that the Eighth Route Army in Shanxi Province is brave, but this isn't Shanxi and there's no Eighth Route Army here.
In this way, at dusk, Inada's unit swaggered into the "Shenying" ambush circle. Riding on horseback, Inada occasionally looked around with binoculars, unaware that death was beckoning him. Because Fumikawa Hiro had already locked onto him, whoever was locked onto by a special forces sniper was as good as dead.
Deng Fangshun, Song Guantao and the others were all old soldiers who had survived countless battles on the battlefield, but this was their first time launching a surprise attack on the enemy with so few people, and they were all a bit nervous, some of them even slightly trembling.
One side of the road was a field, about 20 meters long, which was empty and bare in winter. Beyond this field was the hill where "Shenying" was ambushing, and on the other side was a steeper small mountain. In order to concentrate firepower and facilitate withdrawal, Chen Jifang did not ambush anyone on that side. With more than 30 people ambushing a Japanese wild battle squadron of over 100 people, it might be possible to annihilate them all, but their own casualties would definitely be heavy. The shooting skills of the Japanese old soldiers should not be underestimated, and there were only so many men on this side, every one was precious.
Chen Jifang's idea was to launch a surprise attack on the devils, heavily injuring their living forces, and then quietly retreat. If the devils gave chase, he would lead them into a trap; if they didn't give chase, he would harass them in turns, in short, use the tactic of nibbling away at the enemy like cowhide sugar to gradually wear them down.
In order to inflict as many casualties on the devils as possible, all obstacles that could be used for cover on the road had been cleared away, even small trees were uprooted.
The devils finally appeared, the defense was very lax, Chen Jifan coldly looked at these guys slowly entering the ambush circle, and then gave Wen Chuanhao the order to open fire.
"Bang", Wen Chuanhao pulled the trigger, and an 88-style sniper rifle shot out a bullet. The bullet drilled a hole in Yita's forehead, then exited from the back of his head, opening up a large hole on Captain Yita's brain. Yita fell straight back, and before the devils behind him could react, dozens of hand grenades were thrown down from the high ground by the side of the road. The "Shenying" ambush was only 40-50 meters away from the road, with a height advantage, so dozens of hand grenades exploded within the crowd of over 100 people. The continuous explosions threw the Japanese army into chaos, and more than 20 devils were blown to death on the spot, while over a dozen Japanese soldiers were injured to varying degrees.
It should be said that the military quality of the Japanese field troops was still very high, and soon the surviving Japanese soldiers quickly fell down to hide, and under the command of the squad leader and company commander began to counterattack. However, the first shot of the Japanese army in the chaos did not hit the target accurately, and when they pulled the bolt to fire the second shot, the guns on the high ground fired again, and more than a dozen Japanese soldiers were hit by bullets during the process of pulling the bolt.
The Japanese army quickly set up machine guns under the command of the officer, but before they could fire, they were blown to pieces by the grenade launchers. Chen Jifan considered that the two grenade launcher operators lacked experience, so he ordered them to stare at the enemy's machine gun and absolutely not let the enemy's machine gun fire.
The Japanese army's grenade launchers didn't even have a chance, Wen Chuanhao took out the squadron leader Iida and then locked onto the grenade launcher, almost at the same time as the hand grenade exploded, two of the Japanese army's grenade launchers were also taken out by Wen Chuanhao one after another.
The devils who lost the support of heavy weapons had to retreat, intending to quickly withdraw from this narrow strip, but as soon as someone retreated, they were harvested by a dense machine gun barrage. Five light machine guns fired at the Japanese army at the same time, and the Japanese army was beaten dizzy with no place to hide, more than 30 Japanese soldiers were killed.
Seeing no hope in retreat, the remaining Japanese troops rushed forward again. Right in front was where Zhao Jun had laid mines, and he only had six mines left, having used one up earlier, so he only buried two. However, he had all his team members ambush at the high ground in front of the roadblock, not needing to do anything else, as long as the Japanese dared to charge the roadblock, they would be greeted with hand grenades. More than 20 devils charged towards the roadblock, and before they even got close, they triggered the two mines on the ground, the intense explosion causing over a dozen devils to lose their combat effectiveness instantly, the surviving Japanese troops then saw six or seven hand grenades flying down from the sky, some exploding at their feet, others bursting above their heads. Just like that, the over 20 devils charging the roadblock were all wiped out.
The Japanese army saw that breaking out was hopeless, and staying in place only meant waiting for death, so they pinned their hopes on a charge. Although the "Divine Eagle" had fierce firepower, the experienced Japanese soldiers still heard from the sound of gunfire that the enemy was small in number. The remaining 50 or more devils picked up their guns and rushed towards the hillside where the "Divine Eagle" was ambushing. This might be the only hope for survival, and most Japanese soldiers thought so. In previous battles, as long as the Japanese army launched a charge, the Chinese defenders rarely failed to collapse, and as long as they could rush to the front of the enemy, the bayonets of the Great Imperial Army would let those damned Chinese taste the flavor of death.
Chen Jifan was most worried about the Japanese army and his own troops exchanging fire, relying on the Japanese army's accurate shooting, it would be difficult for his side to maintain zero casualties. He planned that once the Japanese army had caught their breath, he would organize a shooting at the original location and then lead his men to retreat slowly, looking for opportunities to clean up the remaining devils. Seeing the Japanese army organizing a charge, Chen Jifan was overjoyed, he ordered Luo Yugang to command the assault team to concentrate the firepower of the submachine guns to block the Japanese charging route, while using hand gestures to let Zhong Dingcheng's machine gun attack the Japanese flank. Once the devils hid, they would be greeted with hand grenades.
There is only a way out by charging forward, the devils who charged forward were suppressed by the firepower of the submachine gun at the foot of the mountain slope. "Prepare hand grenades!" Seeing the devils hiding, Chen Jifang ordered to concentrate on bombing with hand grenades.
The Japanese army was surrounded on both sides, so the remaining 50 or so people were trapped in a narrow area of about 100 meters, extremely passive. Seeing dozens of hand grenades flying towards them like sparrows, their faces turned green with fear. Some desperately kicked with their feet, while others quickly lay down on the spot. However, most of the hand grenades exploded in mid-air due to the delay, leaving no blind spots and making it impossible for the Japanese army to hide. Those who tried to kick were picked off one by one by the snipers.
Wen Chuanhao led two snipers, Meng Xiaofei and Xu Yougen. Both were originally excellent marksmen in the National Army, but at that time, there was no specialized sniper unit in the National Army, so they were just soldiers with good shooting skills in their units. Yesterday, when Officer Wen chose them, they were still puzzled as to why other teams had many people, while their team only had three. Moreover, their first training session was actually a game of hide-and-seek, and the officer insisted that they wear these "beggar" clothes with branches and leaves attached. Now they understand, thanks to their good camouflage, their performance is not inferior to others. Several Japanese soldiers who raised their guns to aim were easily taken down by them, while Officer Wen was even more formidable, taking out the Japanese commander, grenade launcher, and machine gunner with a single shot each.
The battle was still intense, Chen Jifan saw through the telescope that the devils were still desperately resisting, his brow furrowed. "These little devils are really not ordinary in their stubbornness," Chen Jifan thought to himself. The fight had been going on for nearly 10 minutes, and more than 100 devils had been reduced to twenty or thirty, if it were the Eighth Route Army, they would have sounded the charge at this moment and gone to stab the devils with bayonets, but Chen Jifan absolutely did not allow such a thing. Although his side had fewer men, they had the advantage of terrain and firepower, and it was a surprise attack, so going out now would be crazy, not only that, he also ordered them not to stand up and shoot, on TV there were often examples of Eighth Route Army soldiers getting excited and standing up with machine guns to sweep, but soon being shot themselves.
For the remaining devils, Chen Jifan let all machine guns and submachine guns form a dense firepower network to suppress the enemy's counterattack. Then he let others throw hand grenades and hand bombs down. Originally, Chen Jifan was prepared for a harassment battle, but unexpectedly, due to the loss of heavy weapon support by the devils and lack of terrain cover, it became a one-sided fight. The devils were unable to launch a decent counterattack under intense firepower, and currently, there are no casualties on this side, only a soldier named Liangzi was hit in the arm while throwing grenades, fortunately, the 38-style bullet had low lethality and didn't hurt any bones.
The sound of gunfire on the devil's position gradually became less frequent, and after another 5 minutes, the battle finally ended. The "Eagle" warriors cheered, and fewer than 40 people annihilated a devilish elite field battalion in a field battle, without a single casualty, which was unthinkable before. "Without planes and artillery, the little devils are nothing." Some people remembered what Captain Chen said again.
When cleaning up the battlefield, Chen Jifan ordered everyone to add a shot or a bayonet to the bodies of the devils. He didn't want to be bitten by the wounded devils before they died. Except for those that were damaged by explosions, 79 Type 38 rifles, 1 light machine gun, 3 grenade launchers, 3 military swords, over 9,000 rounds of 6.5mm ammunition, 113 standard grenades, and 183 hand grenades were captured, as well as a horse and some other equipment. Chen Jifan didn't mind losing the crooked-barreled machine gun; it was a broken gun that wasn't worth much anyway. The best news was that there were no personnel casualties. However, this time the consumption of submachine guns and Czech-style ammunition was relatively high, as well as hand grenades - at least 130 rounds were used up. It seems that we need to think of ways to replenish our ammunition in the future.
After the battlefield was swept, Hu Yunfeng came over to suggest to Chen Jifan: "Captain, we did eliminate the little devils, but if they can't find us, the ordinary people around here will suffer. I think we should leave our troop's name here, which can reduce the little devils' revenge on the ordinary people and also increase our troop's reputation. What do you think, Captain?"
Chen Jifan was most worried about the ordinary people around him being implicated, and even if there wasn't this team of his, the ordinary people around him wouldn't necessarily be able to escape the harm caused by the devils. The power of "Shenying" was really too weak, and they couldn't effectively protect the ordinary people. Upon hearing Hu Yunfeng's suggestion, he thought about it and agreed.
Hu Yunfeng ordered his men to use the Japanese soldiers' clothes dipped in their blood to write on the road: "China's 'Divine Eagle', anti-Japanese vanguard, vow to kill the Japanese bandits, flatten Tokyo". Chen Jifan also ordered his men to strip all the Japanese soldiers of their clothes, but only took away the company commander and two platoon commanders' clothes, burning the rest.
