Chapter 18: The Shocking Story of Li Baoguo (Part 3)

  Li Baoguo asked about the soldier's injuries and had Song Yan-chun summoned. Upon seeing him, he burst out laughing: "Indeed, 'you can't judge a person by appearance'! Alright, from now on you'll be the squad leader of our special forces team."

  Song Yan Chun's face turned red with a smile, and Xu De pushed him, "Don't you thank the captain yet?"

  Li Baoguo waved his hand and said, "This is what he has achieved through his own efforts, no need to make things difficult for him."

  At this time, Xu Mei-yu led a battalion to come up. As soon as he saw Li Bao-guo, he heard Fu Ma-li speaking behind him: "Report to the captain, the soldiers have discovered a new situation. Along the communication trench, it can lead to the pillboxes of the other two hills."

  Li Baoguo heard this and said to the people around him: "Let's go take a look!"

  The enemy's traffic trench was originally concentrated from the north and south to the west, then connected to the back of the supply station, linking three defenses into one, which can be mutually supported and convenient for ammunition transportation.

  Li Baoguo stood at the intersection of three roads and said to Xu Mei Yu: "You send someone to guard this place well, I'll take people to destroy the fort on the west side first."

  With the experience of the southern front, this western campaign was extremely smooth, and also took down the enemy artillery positions.

  The devils on the north-facing mountain were less than a small squad, which was quite unexpected for Li Baoguo. It turned out that the devil squad in charge of today's patrol mission had more than 20 devils patrolling outside. When these devils returned, they happened to meet the First Battalion, Third Company, who were occupying the position. These bandit-turned soldiers were not bad at all, and with one charge, they annihilated the devils, but also triggered intense gunfire.

  Li Baoguo was discussing with Xu Meiying how to attack the supply station, when a burst of gunfire broke out, making Li Baoguo very angry, but it made Xu Meiying's eyes light up and she shouted: "Got it, Captain! Let's use their trick against them, let's lure the snake out of its hole!"

  Li Baoguo is also a bright character, happily saying: "Good, you go and arrange it, remember to bring Liu Er Dan Zhu Da and him, they will fire the cannon. Wang Xiao, you immediately go find the telephone line from the supply station to the outside and cut it off for me. Zhang Xiaogroup, you go and cut off the telephone lines in the south and north pillboxes."

  The two responded in unison and took people away. "Xu De prepares to welcome the devils coming from the supply station."

  "Mu Tie, Ma Li, you and the other 'ghosts' will come out of the supply depot disguised as devils. Then, with Xu De leading the pursuit, you'll retreat back into the depot, covering them until they all enter together. After that, launch an attack from inside. The First Battalion will follow up immediately after. Your main task is to open the front gate of the depot and let the Second and Third Battalions rush in quickly."

  "Yes!" The three of them led the team away.

  In less than ten minutes, the devils' artillery positions fired several mountain guns, and the only two lighthouses in the devils' supply station were destroyed. Immediately afterwards, shells rained down on the pillbox group in the west, and the light and heavy machine guns inside the pillboxes also went crazy. The sound of gunfire stimulated the entire supply station, and the shrill alarm sounded through the night sky. All the devils in the supply station rushed out from all directions to their respective posts. At this time, a fierce artillery fire suddenly whizzed by, and a large number of devils were blown to death on the open ground.

  When Liu Erdan and Zhu Da arrived at the enemy artillery position, the soldiers of the first company of the second battalion had already raised the muzzles high. There were eight mountain guns, six infantry guns, and more than a dozen mortars deployed here.

  Dui and Duheshang were actually serious and professional artillery captains in the National Army, with several brothers under him also from the National Army's artillery. When they saw the big cannons, they couldn't help but want to fiddle with them. Liu Erduo and Zhu Dahai heard about it afterwards and were overjoyed, as it turned out that they only knew how to fire cannons and didn't understand anything else.

  Du Hei heard that the lighthouse of the supply station was to be abandoned first, and he said repeatedly: "Don't worry, just rest assured. Brothers, move around, don't let the captain look down on us."

  As expected, the two cannons and two lighthouses were all blown away. Liu Er Dan Zhu Da and Lian Sheng praised them enthusiastically, saying they would reward Du He Yi for his merits. Du He Yi was overjoyed because in the National Army, no matter how capable you were, no one would promote or reward you. Later, after joining the bandit's lair, it was even more hopeless. Now, upon hearing that the two men would be rewarded just for these two cannons, he knew that Captain Li was a man who would definitely reward those with merits.

  "The mountain guns are not moving, the infantry guns and mortars are firing rapidly at the western fortifications!" Liu Er Dan shouted loudly.

  Du Hei repeated the order, and commanded the soldiers to pour cannon fire into the Western Fort Group. Because Liu Er Dan missed a command, making the fake play real, a large amount of cannon fire went crazy, blowing up the Western Fort Group. Fortunately, Li Bao Guo heard something was wrong in the first round of cannon fire, ordered someone to go and ask, almost scaring Du Hei to death, what? Captain Li is under the cannon fire?!

  However, this round of shelling indeed created an extremely realistic momentum for Li Baoguo's "luring the snake out of the cave". Li Baoguo was in the central bunker of the bunker group, holding a telephone receiver in one hand and pliers in the other, shouting loudly into the phone in Japanese: "Support, support, I need support!" After finishing speaking, without waiting for the other party to respond, the pliers cut off the telephone line.

  The highest-ranking officer in the supply station was Lieutenant Colonel Takeda, who had just been transferred from Datong's defense command. Lieutenant Colonel Takeda's greatest hobby was women. On his second day in office, he led a small team of devils to launch a surprise attack on Shaoliu Village near the supply station and took the village women back to the supply station for fun.

  Takeda Lieutenant Colonel took office for a month, and the nearby village was burned, killed, looted, and emptied under the name of strengthening security. Yesterday, Takeda Lieutenant Colonel brought people from Linjiapu Village 25 miles away from the supply station to rob a batch of women. Takeda liked the landlord's wife the most. Last night, he played with the woman of Lin Long Zhu's family in Linjiapu for more than half the night. He was sleeping on top of three women when suddenly intense gunfire came, and Takeda jumped onto the ground, shouting at the duty soldier: "What's going on?"

  The soldier on duty had not returned from his inquiry, when two shells destroyed the lamp post in the courtyard. The cannon fire was intense, with gunfire crackling like firecrackers during a festival. Takeda realized that something was wrong with the defenses at the back of the mountain and picked up the phone to inquire about the situation at each bunker. However, only the western bunker responded with a call for "support" before being cut off. At this point, the alarm sirens in the courtyard had reached a deafening pitch.

  Takeda rushed out of the house, only to see that in the courtyard of the supply station, as long as someone moved, there would be artillery fire, and the limbs of the soldiers who were blown up flew in mid-air, blood mist spread in the air, and the smell of gunpowder and blood mixed in the air, stimulating everyone's heart.

  Takeda knew that the Western artillery position had been lost and shouted wildly: "Kono, Watanabe squad support Akita squad to retake the artillery position, quickly! Quickly!"

  Only in the courtyard, the devils were busy, soon the devils gathered and moved westward, cannon fire fell continuously among the devils, and cries of agony came from time to time.

  The supporting devils had just entered the trench, the artillery fire stopped, but the gunfire was intense. A group of devils were being chased down by the enemy, and the enemy behind them poured out of the trench like a tide, shocking Takeda.

  Zhao Xiren and Jin Fu led the second and third battalions to sneak up to the supply station, along the way, the soldiers responsible for reconnaissance quietly took out the patrolling devils. The two were discussing how to break in without losing too much when gunfire rang out, and they were shocked and lost color, because the weapons of these reorganized bandits were really too poor, even bird guns were among them.

  "Lao Jin, hurry up and lead the men to secure a safe retreat route for Captain and the others," Zhao Xiren said, "I'll stay here and hold off those devils."

  "Alright." Jin Fu knew it wasn't the time for arguing and responded with a single word before leaving.

  Zhao Xiren soon discovered that the situation was not as he had imagined. When the lighthouse was destroyed by cannon fire, Zhao Xiren was overjoyed and knew that the captain had succeeded. He ordered his troops to advance and prepare for battle.

  As expected, before long, a group of devils from behind the cover of the pursuers rushed forward to the front road, knowing they were their own people, ordered: "Take out all the things that can be shot in your hands and shoot them out, hit the devil's gate, respond to the special combat team's attack."

  Suddenly, the front gate of the supply station shook with a loud noise, and various firearms spewed flames, pouring ammunition onto the position at the main gate. In fact, Zhao Xiren also knew that these weapons were fundamentally unable to pose any threat to the enemy, but only to attract the attention of the devils.

  Takeda was in the underground command post, listening to the sound of gunfire coming from all directions, and his heart was filled with panic. The gunfire from the front gate direction was particularly intense, it seemed that the enemy's attack had just begun. He knew very well that the supply depot now only had a small team of guards, and the loss of the bunker group would mean the destruction of the supply depot.

  What made Takeda most depressed was that he didn't even know which part of the enemy's forces he was facing, and yet he was defeated in such a muddled way.

  Fu Mali, Li Mutou and Xu De encountered almost no resistance as they charged into the enemy bunker at the main gate. The devils inside thought it was their own reinforcements arriving and were about to greet them when the three men's guns fired, easily resolving the battle.

  Xu De beckoned in the direction of Zhao Xiren, who ordered his troops to charge quickly. Soon the Second Regiment entered the supply depot and the battle was over.

  Takeda committed seppuku and there were no prisoners taken.

  The harvest was huge, when Li Baoguo opened the devils' warehouse, he found that these warehouses were actually connected to the mountain behind, and the entire mountain body was hollowed out, with a large amount of space left unused.

  "It seems that the devils are planning to build a large arsenal here." Li Baoguo said to several people beside him, "Immediately organize people to rush to transport materials and see if there is anyone who can drive a car, it's best to use a car. Zhao Xiren, let your men change their equipment and be responsible for the devils' warning in the Datong direction; Jin Fu, be responsible for the devils' warning at the Maojiaping and Songshuwa strongholds. Two days, two days later, no matter what, we must withdraw from combat."

  The local people and the people of Zihua Mountain were mobilized to start transporting goods.

  Datong Defense Command received Wada's request for help and immediately ordered the nearby Maojiaping, Songshuwan strongholds to reinforce the devils, while dispatching a large team of devils from Datong and a regiment of puppet troops to reinforce the supply depot.

  Jin Fu had long obtained more than a dozen heavy machine guns, more than thirty small mortars, and light machine guns were equipped to the company level, with a large amount of ammunition stored.

  But what made Jin Fu heartbroken and disappointed was that the two strongholds had mobilized a total of two companies, more than 300 devils. He didn't know this was already the largest force that could be mobilized from these two strongholds.

  At more than ten o'clock in the morning, the devils finally rushed into the ambush area with arrogance, and suddenly the artillery fire was continuous. Although these bandits were not good at using these weapons, it didn't matter, they learned by doing, with devils as targets, there were plenty of shells to practice with.

  Soon, under Jin Fu's personal guidance, a group of gunners took shape.

  The heavy machine gunner also encountered the same problem and soon figured out how to fire and aim.

  These bandits are having a blast, this guy's firepower is so fierce and doesn't need to conserve bullets, just keep shooting.

  The firepower of a company is more intense than that of a battalion.

  The devils were caught off guard as soon as they came up, and soon the devils found that these people's guns and cannons were not accurate. Knowing they were new recruits, they shouted and charged forward. But as soon as the hidden light machine gun was exposed, it gave those careless devils no chance to regret forever. The heavy machine gunner also adapted to the intense shock and powerful firepower, and began to wreak havoc.

  Jin Fu, not to be outdone by Li Baoguo's men, immediately realized that the devils couldn't withstand such intense firepower. "First row, quickly surround the devils from behind and prepare to annihilate this group of devils."

  The battle lasted for two hours, and in the face of Jin Fu's powerful firepower, the devils knew it was meaningless to continue fighting and began to retreat. Jin Fu knew that these soldiers were simply wasting ammunition, some had fired a lot of shots but hadn't even killed one devil, seeing the devils retreating, he ordered: "Machine guns pursue, riflemen bring more hand grenades, don't engage in close combat with the devils."

  Due to Jin Fu's order, the team suffered minor casualties. A row of hidden behind the devils caused heavy casualties for the devils, and the machine gunner hugged the machine gun, covering each other and rushing up.

  At noon, the devils were completely annihilated, and more than 50 people in Kim's unit were also casualties. After clearing the battlefield, Kim immediately ordered his troops to reflect on their merits and demerits.

  Li Baoguo had Xu Meiyu take charge of supervising the transportation of supplies, personally led the special warfare team to Zhao Xiren's position, and sent out scouts to reconnoiter from a distance.

  At 5 o'clock in the afternoon, the devils from Datong finally arrived. Zhang Weiqun led a sniper team that had been lurking on the devil's path. When the devil's troops hastily passed by them, Zhang Weiqun calmly observed and searched for the highest-ranking officer among the devils. Finally, several mounted devil officers appeared in the troops, "Prepare to fire!" Zhang Weiqun gave the order, and several mounted devil officers fell to the ground. Among them was the highest-ranking officer of this operation, Lieutenant Colonel Sato Ichiro.

  The devils were in a state of great disorder, and soon some devils rushed towards the direction where Zhang Weiqun and his men were hiding. They quickly triggered the landmines set by Zhang Weiqun. Taking advantage of the smoke-filled air, Zhang Weiqun led his men to retreat backwards.

  The devils were like madmen, disregarding the continuous explosions of landmines, and desperately rushed towards the direction where Zhang Weiguo's squad was retreating. After paying the price of over a hundred casualties in just three hundred meters, they finally broke out of the minefield and shouted as they chased after Zhang Weiguo's squad. Zhang Weiguo's squad remained calm and unhurried, covering each other as they slowly retreated. The devils finally realized who they were attacking, because every time a shot rang out, someone would fall. Although the devils were not afraid of death, this terrifying marksmanship was unbearable for anyone. At first, some devils tried to provide cover with machine guns.

  Zhang Weiqun and his men fired steadily, making the devils extremely resentful. Several squadron leaders commanded the devils to start encircling from different routes and sent people to call the puppet army from the front of the troops to block the bullets.

  During the enemy's adjustment, Zhang Weiqun led his men to quietly retreat to another sniper point to lie in wait.

  When the devils surrounded the mountain, only a few shell casings and scattered footprints were left on the ground. A devil soldier ran over and saluted a devil company commander: "Report..." Before he could finish reporting, a bullet whizzed by, entering from the left eye of this company commander and exiting from the back of his head, grazing the ear of another devil behind him.

  The devil fell down all of a sudden, and a figure flashed from less than 300 meters away, running towards the rear.

  "Chase!"

  The puppet troops were forced to charge forward, and the devils mixed with the puppet troops chased after that person. Another sniper battle ensued. The devils beside the puppet troops were continuously shot down, and the puppet troops shouted "Long live the Eighth Route Army!", knowing the policy of the Eighth Route Army, Chinese people do not fight Chinese people. In the pursuit, the muzzle involuntarily raised a bit higher, and the distance from the devils was pulled further away.

  The whole Kwantung Army was drawn into this unexpected pursuit, and the only two remaining battalion commanders hid behind a large rock to discuss countermeasures.

  "Sanmu, I think this won't work. We were ordered to support the supply depot at Xu Fortress. The enemy's intention is now clear - they want to tie us down with a small force. And judging from the quality of this small force, the opponent must be regular troops."

  "Yamamoto, do you think the Hokuo supply depot is still under Imperial control? I think it's better to annihilate this small unit instead of heading to Hokuo. Hokuo is a place where supplies are stockpiled, going there now would be suicidal."

  "Of course, but military orders are hard to disobey."

  Just as they were talking, the sound of heavy machine guns came from the front, and a large number of puppet troops retreated from the front. The two looked at each other and understood each other's concerns.

  This battle is not easy to fight. Since the Imperial Army entered China, they have never suffered such a loss, being beaten all the time, but unable to even catch a glimpse of the enemy's appearance.

  "Let's report to headquarters anyway." Yamamoto said helplessly as he looked at the continuously wounded Imperial Army soldiers. Mikami was speechless.

  Soon, the orders from Datong Defense Command arrived, ordering Yamamoto to take over from Sato and continue advancing towards Xizhao in an attempt to retake it or destroy it.

  When Yamamoto and Miki returned to the main road, they found that the logistics team of the main force had been attacked, all heavy weapons were looted, and even the cannons pulled by cars were gone.

  Yamamoto gazed at the vast mountain forest he had just pursued, a sense of desolation in his heart. The attackers' geographical advantage had resulted in heavy casualties for the Imperial Army.

  A standard Japanese Army 1,100-man battalion included: a 30-man battalion HQ; a 110-man transport company (trucks and pack horses), some battalions merged their transport companies into the regiment.

  Four infantry companies (some with only three)

  A machine gun company of 174 men (a headquarters platoon of 14 and three machine gun platoons, with one ammunition platoon), each platoon having four heavy machine guns, for a total of twelve (some companies had only eight).

  A 55-man gun platoon (1 10-man platoon headquarters, 1 15-man ammunition squad, two 15-man gun squads each equipped with one Type 92 infantry cannon).

  But now, the transport team is gone, the machine gun squad is gone, the artillery row is gone, and the strangest thing is that not a single gunshot was heard.

  "Report, enemy has used poisonous gas." Yamamoto was stunned for a moment, then dismounted and walked to the front of a corpse, and indeed found that the soldier had been poisoned to death.

  "Let me bear all the guilt alone! Retreat!"

  Miki let out a startled cry, "Yamamoto-kun!"

  Yamamoto shook his head at Mikasa: "Mikasa, it's impossible to retake Trost again. Even if we kill all these Imperial soldiers, it won't change anything. From now on, Eren is counting on you, I'm begging you."

  Maki also knew that with the remaining less than six hundred imperial troops, it was impossible to occupy the fortress of Xubao, which was easy to defend and difficult to attack. The puppet army suffered minor casualties, but relying on these Chinese to intimidate the civilians was okay, fighting was simply useless, especially in a brutal battle like this.

  Yamamoto withdrew with his troops, which was really the best option, because if they had gone a few more miles forward, it would have been an open area, and the shells that covered the sky would have left no one alive.

  Yamamoto made a correct decision but unexpectedly forced himself to death to atone for his guilt.

  Originally, Xu Meiyu was directing the transportation of materials when he discovered some strange objects with skulls and crossbones painted on them. He didn't know what they were for or how to use them. He hastily sent someone to ask Li Baoguo if they had any use. As soon as Li Baoguo heard about it, he knew they were poisonous gas and told people to search for them. Sure enough, a batch of protective suits and masks was found. Li Baoguo personally taught the soldiers how to wear the protective suits and put on the masks, directing people to use the poisonous gas bombs on the Japanese devils on the main road.

  The warriors were all shocked by the power of the poisonous gas bomb. After a wave of yellow smoke, there was no one left alive on the battlefield.