Chapter 1: The Fierce Battle at Gaoming Mountain

  "Rrrrr...". A loud roar of engines came from the sky. Soon, a formation of three small bombers slowly appeared above the soldiers' heads. Getting bigger and bigger, just as the bombers flew over the soldiers' heads, six aerial bombs with a huge whistling sound fell down from the plane's cabin.

  "Rumble, rumble, rumble..." A deafening explosion shook the ground, and in an instant, six huge craters appeared among the Red Army soldiers who had just been surging forward like a tide towards the Jin army's position. In the blink of an eye, the soldiers who had just been advancing like a tide suddenly retreated quietly as the explosion sounded.

  "Damn it... It's Yan Xishan's plane again... When can our Red Army have its own planes?..." Seeing the soldiers retreating back to their positions like a tide under the threat of the enemy's plane, the commander-in-chief stood in the command center, holding binoculars and staring at the battlefield, couldn't help but curse loudly.

  "Report to the Legion Commander, reconnaissance troops have sent a telegram that two regiments of reinforcements from the Jin army are on their way under the command of Wang Jingguo from Taiyuan to Duijiuyan. It will take about two hours for them to arrive at the battlefield." A staff officer said, holding a telegram behind him.

  "Yan Xishan's reinforcements arrived so quickly, I'm afraid our plan to annihilate the main force of the Shanxi army will be ruined again. Does the Chairman have any opinions on this?" He didn't turn his head back, still gazing at the battlefield not far away.

  "The commander sent a telegram saying that our department should try its best to kill the enemy's living forces, and then withdraw from the battlefield in time. And we must dispatch a powerful troop to resolutely block the enemy's reinforcement troops, providing sufficient time for the withdrawal of the troops." Another combat staff officer answered with the telegram in hand.

  "All right, I know. This time we'll let the Shanxi-Shaanxi army off. Chief of Staff... how many reserve troops do we have left in our hands?" He nodded and asked.

  "Not many are left, only two regiments of Li Tianyu's 4th Division remain, namely Yang Yong's 10th and 11th Regiments." The chief of staff replied after glancing at the map hanging on the wall of the command center.

  "Alright, let's use Yang Yong's 10th battalion. Quick, give the order to Yang Yong. Tell him to lead his 10th battalion and rush towards Taiyuan immediately, resolutely blocking the two battalions of Jin army coming from Taiyuan... Without orders from the military command center, do not retreat under any circumstances." He nodded and gave the order.

  "Yes, Legion Commander..." The Chief of Staff nodded in response.

  "Comrade Commander, Comrade Commander... telegram, a telegram from the Army Command..." At this moment, Yang Yong, the commander of the main force regiment of the Red Army, was standing at the highest position of the 10th Regiment. He constantly raised his binoculars and looked towards the Duijiu Valley battlefield not far away, where explosions were constantly erupting, and he felt extremely anxious in his heart.

  To know, in order to get on the battlefield earlier, he had sent a request for battle telegram to the military command department in Duijiu Valley more than once. However, except for being scolded by the commander of the army corps, nothing was gained. Just as Yang Yong anxiously looked at the front, a shout of surprise reached his ears.

  "What? What did you say? Legion headquarters telegram..." Yang Yong suddenly reacted, and saw that the communications officer of his unit was holding a telegram, quickly climbing towards the mountain where he was. Seeing this, Yang Yong immediately understood, and threw the binoculars in his hand to the guard beside him, rushing towards the communications officer like the wind.

  "Comrade Regiment Commander, urgent telegram from Regimental Headquarters..." The communications officer stopped in his tracks and saluted as he saw the Regiment Commander running over.

  "Quick... let me see..." Yang Yong snatched the telegram from the communications officer's hand, even forgetting to return the greeting. He picked up the telegram and quickly scanned it.

  "Order your troops to rush towards Taiyuan immediately, find a suitable terrain and build a defensive position... resolutely block the two regiments of Jin army coming from Taiyuan direction... Regiment Commander..." Yang Yong read the telegram in his hand silently.

  "Haha... great, finally have a mission. Signal officer, blow the assembly whistle immediately, assemble all troops, quick... Also, guard, leave me the map..." Yang Yong commanded excitedly after reading the telegram.

  "Yes, Captain..." Soon, a map was taken out from the waist bag of the guard behind Yang Yong and spread out in front of him.

  Yang Yong carefully observed the terrain from Duijiuyan to Taiyuan on the map. Soon, Gaomiao Mountain entered Yang Yong's field of vision.

  "Haha, it's just here, as long as we occupy this high ground. We're like putting a knife to the Jin army's throat, and can cut off their vital point at any time. Go, notify all officers above company level to attend an emergency meeting at the temporary regimental headquarters..." Yang Yong loudly commanded, ignoring the stunned guards behind him, and strode towards the temporary regimental headquarters.

  Due to the clear combat objective, the entire combat meeting was convened for less than ten minutes and ended. As the most important highland of the entire blocking position, Gaomiao Mountain, it was naturally defended by the strongest special company of the entire 10th regiment. After receiving the task, the captain Zhang Hua and instructor Xu Bin of the special company excitedly conveyed this message to every soldier's ear in the special company.

  However, at this time, there was no longer any time to let the soldiers of the Special Operations Brigade continue to be excited. Because from here to their position in Gaomiao Mountain, there were still five miles away, and according to enemy intelligence reports, two regiments of the Jin Army would arrive at Gaomiao Mountain in less than an hour and a half.

  "The entire special operations company is present, the vanguard of the whole regiment, first platoon, second platoon, third platoon, reconnaissance platoon following closely behind. Each department advances in a hurry, towards Gaomiao Mountain... Departing now!" As the commander of the special operations company, Zhang Hua stopped the excited soldiers and loudly commanded the 136 soldiers in front of him.

  "Yes, Company Commander..." Immediately, Wu Tao, the squad leader of the company's guard squad, led ten soldiers out of the formation.

  To know that at this time the special agent soldiers had all gone through the Long March and were on their way. The five-mile mountain road would take them less than twenty minutes to arrive.

  "Lao Zhang, this Gaomiao Mountain, it's called a mountain, but actually it's just a small hill, there's no usable terrain at all..." Instructor Xu Bin said, looking at the barren Gaomiao Mountain in front of him.

  "No way... without any usable terrain, we'll dig trenches. In short, as long as our special operations team has one person left alive, we absolutely cannot let the Shanxi Army occupy our position. Order the reconnaissance squad to advance 2 li and stand guard, the rest of you follow me up the mountain to dig trenches..." Company Commander Zhang Hua loudly commanded.

  An hour later, just as the warriors were busy, the reconnaissance squad led by Squad Leader Luo Huasheng rushed back to the position in a hurry.

  "Company Commander, the Shanxi Army is coming, with over 3,000 men, carrying mortars and heavy machine guns... they'll be in front of us within five minutes." Squad Leader Luo Huasheng immediately reported.

  "Damn, so fast! Luckily our trenches are almost dug. Everyone listen up, stop digging immediately and get ready for battle, the Shanxi Army is coming..." Company Commander Zhang Hua quickly gave out combat orders to the entire company.

  As expected, in less than five minutes, the 3,000-strong Shanxi army appeared before everyone. Perhaps it was because of the reminder of the newly dug earth by the Gaomiao Mountain Special Forces that these Shanxi troops stopped about 500 meters away from the position. Immediately, several officers carrying binoculars walked out and pointed at the position.

  To say, these National Army officers did not have the kind of lack of situational awareness that some people said they had. They quickly discovered the importance of the Gaomiao Mountain position for their continued attack. However, they did not put all their troops on Gaomiao Mountain, but instead launched a multi-point attack, trying to break through one point and then cause the entire Red Army defense line to collapse.

  In less than a few minutes, about 500 National Army troops gathered on the opposite side of Gaomiao Mountain, along with two heavy machine guns and one mortar. The remaining Shanxi-Suiyuan Army troops went to their respective attack targets under the command of their superiors.

  "Comrades, pay attention to concealment, do not fire if the enemy is within 50 meters... Seeing two heavy machine guns set up less than 200 meters away from the position, and a mortar emplacement 500 meters in front of the position. As the company commander, Zhang Hua immediately ordered his soldiers."

  "Boom..." A loud explosion sounded at the forefront of the trenches, declaring the start of the entire battle. Immediately following, the enemy's mortars, constructed in front of their positions, began to shell the trenches on the mountain top at a steady pace. At the same time, two heavy machine guns also joined in... spewing out flames. Two Type 92 heavy machine guns, under the enemy's command, began to sweep the battlefield with dense gunfire.

  As the sound of artillery and machine guns grew louder, a company-sized National Army unit emerged from their formation under the command of an officer. They formed up in attack formation, advancing slowly towards the Red Army's position on the mountaintop under the cover of heavy machine gun and mortar fire.

  The entire battle was extremely fierce... In less than half an hour, the special operations company repelled two battalion-level attacks by the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army, causing at least 40 casualties to the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army. Similarly, as the special operations company held its ground, it also suffered heavy casualties under the joint attack of enemy machine guns and howitzers. 12 soldiers died heroically, 2 were seriously injured and withdrew from combat, and about 22 soldiers were lightly wounded, but everyone was determined not to leave their posts and continued to hold their positions.

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