Chapter 24: The Opening (Part 2)

  Luzhou is just a small place, it's the last barrier of Cangshan City, taking down Luzhou means getting half of Cangshan. This is also a hard bone to chew on. A Japanese army of about 800 people who have not suffered any losses has been stationed here for over a dozen days and has built relatively solid fortifications.

  Yu Juncai's 199th regiment was still the vanguard of the Independent Hundred Regiment, which wasn't because Cheng Jiaji deliberately used a non-orthodox unit as the vanguard. It was actually because Wen Songyuan was too reckless in battle and didn't care about casualties. If they had sent the 200th regiment to be the vanguard instead, it's likely that by the time the main force of the Independent Hundred Regiment arrived, the 200th regiment would have already suffered more than half casualties.

  Yu Juncai was indeed more stable in commanding battles. His 199th regiment had a real strength of over 1,400 men and was equipped with four captured Japanese Type 70 infantry guns and one German-made 75mm field gun, which already surpassed the firepower configuration of a central army. The Independent 100th Brigade has never lost a battle since its establishment, and the morale of the officers and soldiers below is high and slightly arrogant. If it were another commander, they might have launched a comprehensive attack first, but Yu Juncai only used one battalion's troops under the cover of all artillery fire to launch a probing attack on a small hill in front of a village defended by about one company of Japanese troops.

  This small hill is only about fifty meters higher than the surrounding ground, but for this small village located on the plain of one horse Pingchuan, it can be a crucial high point.

  The Japanese army stationed more than 200 soldiers with an enhanced company here, and also equipped a small artillery team with two 70mm infantry guns. This is the only infantry gun squad in this large Japanese army, which shows how much importance the Japanese attach to this small piece of land.

  The Temple of the Land was probably built in the early Qing dynasty. I don't know if the head of the construction team was too stupid or if it wasn't popular to take kickbacks for engineering projects at that time. In short, this small temple, from the courtyard wall to the main hall, was built with 2-foot square large green bricks, extremely solid. The artillery shells fired by the 199th Division's artillery company hit the walls of the Temple of the Land and only blasted out a few small gaps of about one foot square, far short of the expected effect.

  "What the devil, this small temple is even more solid than the city walls of a normal county town. Who built this thing?" A lieutenant colonel staff officer next to Yu Juncai complained in a low voice.

  Yu Juncai glanced at this newly promoted student soldier and shut him up.

  Actually, Yu Juncai was also annoyed in his heart. The effect of the artillery attack was not good, and the enemy's position was unexpectedly strong. What did this mean? He understood the implication better than that little staff officer. Since the establishment of the 100th Independent Brigade, they had won several beautiful victories, but before, they were always on the defensive or launched surprise attacks. This was the first time they had attacked a fortified position with the enemy prepared. To be honest, he wasn't confident in his troops' ability to take strongpoints, and this was not what Yu Juncai wanted to encounter at this time.

  But anyway, the bombardment has begun, and no matter what, we must launch a probing attack, or else the 199th regiment will lose face. We should allocate appropriate forces to attack and understand the Japanese army's firepower configuration, personnel numbers, etc., in order to lay the foundation for our next military action.

  "Deputy Commander Xing, let's begin." To be on the safe side, Yu Juncai not only had Deputy Commander Xing Yusheng lead the 2nd Battalion of the 199th Regiment to scout out the situation. At the same time, he also had the 3rd Battalion surround the back of this small hill, cutting off the connection between the Japanese troops in the small temple and those in Lüzhuo Town. This move was also a precaution against the Japanese troops suddenly emerging from the town and attacking the rear of the 2nd Battalion, which was currently attacking the Land Temple on the hill.

  The attack progressed surprisingly smoothly after it began, perhaps the Japanese troops in the small temple were stunned by the artillery fire. Except for the Japanese army's sporadic blocking shots, the second battalion almost encountered no resistance.

  Yu Juncai also suspected that there was a trick, but the troops couldn't just withdraw in defeat, which would not only be unacceptable to their superiors but also damaging to the morale of the troops. On the other hand, he also believed that the experienced Xing Yusheng would not easily fall for the Japanese trap, so he did not issue an order for the second battalion to withdraw.

  Xing Yusheng did not disappoint Yu Juncai, facing the constant weakness of the little ghosts, he did not lead the team to advance with high spirits, but instead took a more cautious step-by-step approach.

  Xing Yusheng led the second battalion to charge slowly up the half mountain slope, and the Japanese artillery fire also intensified. The vanguard squad that charged in the front knocked all the devils to the ground. At the same time, a large number of explosive points emerged from the formation of the second battalion, and in less than three minutes, the second battalion suffered nearly a hundred casualties. Xing Yusheng had no choice but to organize the remaining officers and soldiers of the second battalion to lie on the ground and counterattack. This counterattack would not change the overall situation on the battlefield, and the entire second battalion was still pinned down by the Japanese on the mountain slope, suffering heavy casualties and unable to move for a while.

  Yu Jun's talent allowed him to observe through binoculars that the Japanese firepower was unexpectedly fierce, not to mention that there were a considerable number of landmines buried on this hillside. This was indeed a strange thing. Due to their extreme arrogance as soldiers of the "Great Japanese Empire", the Japanese army had always been disdainful of landmines and rarely used them in battle, believing in the glory of bayonet charges. It was truly bizarre that they were using them here. (After the war, it was discovered that these were not landmines, but rather a large number of small explosive devices connected to an electrical wire, detonated by a hand-cranked generator, buried by Japanese engineers.)

  At this time, Yu Juncai didn't have the energy to think about this issue carefully, what was urgent was to quickly withdraw the second battalion. Otherwise, being stuck between the Japanese army's fierce firepower and landmines for a long time wouldn't be a joke, if an entire battalion were to be lost in this forward outpost, he would not be able to explain it to anyone.

  "Order the artillery not to worry about misfires and continue firing, let Deputy Commander Xing take advantage of our artillery fire to withdraw the troops for me." Yu Juncai only knew that now he could only use his own artillery fire to attract the enemy's attention, and use the smoke and dust raised by the artillery fire as cover to withdraw the Second Battalion, which had already fallen into a dilemma. Otherwise, the Second Battalion would likely be pinned down on the mountain slope and eaten away bit by bit, and compared to this result, being hit by friendly fire was nothing.

  It was fortunate that it was late at night, and Xing Yusheng's command was not bad, so under the cover of artillery fire, the second battalion managed to withdraw.

  However, the second battalion that was withdrawn had already suffered more than half casualties, and even Xing Yusheng, the deputy regimental commander, was carried down by others.

  The most tragic was the last squad, after covering the main force's withdrawal, letting the Japanese firepower press into a dead end, and finally letting the Japanese artillery fire over and annihilating the entire squad.

  Yu Juncai also saw the situation and turned red-eyed, letting all the artillery fire at the exposed Japanese position with two salvoes. It's not clear whether they destroyed the Japanese Type 70 field gun, but this time the Japanese didn't dare to fire again easily. This finally suppressed the enemy's arrogance a bit.

  "This is too exaggerated, Brother San." Half an hour after the first battle defeat, Cheng Jiaji arrived at Luzhou and looked at the casualty numbers handed over by his team leader Yu Juncai, he almost didn't dare to believe his eyes.

  It was just a probing attack, and the 199th Regiment lost almost two companies. Deputy regiment commander Xing Yusheng was also seriously injured, and even the bodies of the fallen comrades and the wounded were not fully withdrawn. The Japanese estimated that they had casualties of around 60-70 men. (Cheng Jiashi was almost certain that there was a large exaggeration in the Japanese casualties, but for the sake of maintaining troop morale, he did not dare to investigate further. In fact, the Japanese army only suffered 12 deaths and 21 injuries, many of which were caused by Chinese artillery fire. The casualty ratio in this battle was nearly six to one.)

  "Let's go take a look at the front, I don't believe these devils have three heads and six arms." Since the 100th Regiment was established, they had never suffered a complete defeat. Cheng Jiaji calmed down instead. He called Gao Shiying, Yu Juncai, and two others to go take a look at what kind of heavenly formation the Japanese had set up. As for Wen Songyuan, he would follow even if not called."