Chapter 14: Evacuation of Xinmin

  Again, several shells fell in succession, apparently beyond the Japanese expectations, but the Japanese army had dispersed and did not achieve greater results. Chen An immediately ordered Hu Zi to run back and inform Liu Shi to prepare to shell the front of the first trench, and not to waste shells attacking distant places anymore.

  Lin Yushan rushed to Chen An's side, excitedly saying, "At the very least, we've taken out 70 or 80 of them. If we had more machine guns, the Japanese wouldn't have been able to break through our firepower."

  Chen An glanced at Lin Yushan, "Haven't you noticed that the Japanese artillery has been silent all along? I reckon it's really been destroyed by us. Otherwise, no matter how many machine guns you have, they're useless."

  The Japanese army's attacking troops moved to a distance of over 200 meters from the trenches, stopped and fired their guns for a while, but unfortunately there was no one in the trenches, and the dust flew everywhere.

  A Japanese army commander stood up, waved his command sword and shouted a few times, but was immediately knocked down by machine gun bullets. However, the Japanese attacking troops had all risen to their feet, shouting "Banzai! Banzai!" as they rushed forward in a frenzied charge.

  The Japanese army in the rear dispatched a team of more than 200 people, covering a Hachisuka machine gun, and quickly moved forward. The Japanese commander was optimistic that the front trench would be taken down soon, but to shoot at Zhuangzi, the machine gun position had to be moved forward.

  The returned Chenjiazhuang cavalry reinstalled the Maxim machine gun, loaded the canvas bullet belt, and all the water droplets were in place aiming at the front, but Chen An ordered to wait for his command to fire again.

  Zhang Ergou's men fired as many bullets as possible, desperately suppressing the Japanese army's charging speed. From time to time, some unlucky Japanese soldiers were hit by machine gun fire or rifle shots and fell to the ground. Chen An said that there were enough bullets, so the brothers of the patrol battalion did not hesitate at all.

  The first Japanese soldier to arrive at the trench rushed in, shouting, and immediately became dumbfounded. In front of him was a very gentle slope, with no place to hide. The second Japanese soldier also jumped in, but almost fell to the ground, only to find that the trench was so shallow.

  More Japanese troops rushed to the trench position, and many of them were stunned on the spot. It was simply a shooting range.

  Several quick-witted Japanese soldiers immediately stood up and frantically waved their hands to signal the Japanese troops behind them not to charge in.

  The Japanese troops in the distance saw some of their soldiers standing up and waving, thinking they had successfully occupied the trench, and suddenly there was a burst of cheers.

  The Japanese assault troops rushing forward didn't have the mood to pay attention to their companions' gestures, and they couldn't stop their footsteps either. More and more Japanese soldiers jumped into the trenches.

  Just as the Japanese soldiers ventured to stand up, Chen An shouted loudly, "Fire, fire, fire." All machine guns and rifles joined in the shooting.

  Six heavy machine guns fired simultaneously, plus forty or fifty water-cooled machine guns firing in unison, bursting out a frenzied metal storm, even stirring up a whirlwind in front of the second trench.

  Just then, Liu Shi, who had just adjusted the artillery position, quickly fired a shell in front of the first trench, blasting out many craters. Several unlucky Japanese soldiers were directly hit and became fertilizer for the soil. The dust not only blocked the view of the Japanese troops in the rear but also forced the charging Japanese troops to continue rushing towards the trenches.

  The Japanese troops at the trench were suddenly thrown into chaos, with many soldiers being knocked to the ground and then pushed forward by the oncoming troops, only to be knocked back again by the hail of metal. The trenches were filled with splattered blood and flesh everywhere, and in some low-lying areas, pools of blood had already formed.

  The Japanese army's assault troops, with no choice, went all out and charged forward frantically. Soon, someone saw the diagonal ditch, and without hesitation, the remaining Japanese troops jumped into the ditch and continued to charge forward along the ditch.

  Chen An shouted to Lin Yushan, "Tell Liu Shi to throw all the remaining shells into the ditch." Lin Yushan responded loudly and turned his head towards the village.

  The Japanese assault troops had just charged into the trench for thirty or forty meters when they suddenly found that the trench ahead had been blown up, with at least over ten meters completely exposed on the ground.

  Just after a moment of hesitation, the artillery fire from Liu Shi's position began to bombard along the ditch, and nearly 100 Japanese soldiers who were squeezed in the ditch had no choice but to rush up along the ditch.

  Chen An immediately ordered three machine guns to overlap and lock down the slope of the ditch, completely disregarding ammunition consumption in a sweeping lockdown.

  The Japanese soldiers, who had been charging continuously for nearly three hundred meters, were already extremely exhausted, and their tactical movements of jumping up the slope had become somewhat deformed and slow, and they fell down under the crossfire of machine guns.

  Liu Shi's big gun fired only five or six shells into the ditch before stopping, out of ammunition.

  But the Japanese assault troops, who had already gone completely mad, numbly followed the previous Japanese charge, one by one jumping onto the slope of the ditch and then falling to the ground unable to get up again.

  "Cease fire, cease fire." Chen An looked at everything in the binoculars, and after giving the order, he wanted to say something else, but ultimately didn't.

  The smoke of gunpowder gradually dispersed.

  The Japanese army in the distance was stunned.

  The people of Chenjiazhuang and the patrol camp were also a bit stunned.

  There was no longer a single standing Japanese soldier in front, the trenches had ceased to exist, and all that remained were piles of Japanese corpses. The ditches had become a river of blood, with cries of agony echoing incessantly. On the slope above the ditch, a Japanese soldier whose abdomen had been ripped open by machine gun fire seemed to be struggling to get up, but was unable to rise. After a while, he lost all signs of life.

  All the Japanese assault troops, nearly three hundred soldiers, fell in the triangular area formed by short trenches and ditches. Especially the last dozen meters exposed on the ground became an insurmountable natural barrier for the Japanese army.

  Chen An was silent, if there were two or three more trenches like this, and the Chen family village had a few more guns and cannons, it's likely that all the Japanese troops would fall in front of their trenches.

  "An entire battalion's worth of troops, gone just like that?" Zhang Ergou exclaimed in shock. Looking around at the scattered shell casings and abandoned ammunition boxes, he shook his head helplessly, "It's only been a few minutes, I reckon they've already fired off an entire month's worth of bullets for the battalion. This is unsustainable."

  Chen An didn't catch on, but through his binoculars he saw an interesting scene - the Japanese reinforcements rushing to support suddenly retreated, and a Japanese commander in the distance was scolding another officer, even slapping him several times. The officer who got slapped looked just like Lieutenant General Kurihara Anshu.

  The bullets were almost consumed, and the shells were gone. Chen An counted them up and decided to take advantage of the situation to retreat. Zhang Ergou suddenly pulled Chen An, "Quickly look, the Japanese are actually retreating, won't they?"

  What? Chen An quickly looked into the distance, and the Japanese were indeed withdrawing.

  Inconceivable, did the Japanese who only knew how to charge forward with a dead brain actually retreat? Chen An and Zhang Ergou exchanged a surprised glance. This commander is not simple, Chen An immediately realized.

  Having lost the artillery and machine guns, the assault troops were completely defeated, unable to determine how much ammunition the enemy had left, intelligence was completely wrong, the Japanese commander immediately withdrew from the rear, leaving the firing line.

  Chen An made a decisive decision, "We'll also withdraw and let the Japanese guess slowly."

  While sending someone to recall Zhao Si and others, they immediately withdrew their troops and gathered behind the village, preparing to mount a frantic retreat. However, Zhao Si arrived unsummoned and said hastily on horseback, "The remaining Japanese cavalry unit, with over 200 infantrymen, is circling around from the right."

  It's indeed a thief's heart that never dies. Just now was actually reorganizing the troops, Chen An secretly congratulated himself on withdrawing the order in time.

  "Zhang Ergou leaves first, we leave later. Yushan, leave one Madsen machine gun, and send the rest to Zhang Ergou, let them take it away, so that our carts can be lighter." Chen An ordered.

  Lin Yushan responded with a sound, quickly isolating the other machine guns with wooden boards, then tying them to the horse with ropes, and stuffing them into Zhang Ergou's cavalry.

  Dozens of people worked together, and in a short while, the brothers from the patrol camp galloped away. Zhang Erge on horseback made a fist and bowed, simply saying, "Take care."

  "We'll meet again someday." Chen An felt a bit melancholy, this time going to Gansu, he didn't know when he could return to Northeast China, and also didn't know if the two of them would still be able to meet again in the future.

  Liu Shi, Lin Yushan, Hu Zi and others all clasped their fists together, "Zhang Erge, take care."

  The hoofbeats faded away, and Zhang Ergou and his companions quickly disappeared into the distance.

  Seeing that the horse team and carriage were all ready, Chen An said, "Let's go." Suddenly feeling a sour nose, finally leaving the Northeast.

  A team of over 50 people, hundreds of fine horses, and a dozen or so horse-drawn carriages set off swiftly, erasing the tracks left by Zhang Ergou and others, heading straight towards the vast grasslands in the west.

  Soon after Chen An and his men left, the Japanese encirclement troops rushed into the empty village. The reorganized Japanese troops, who were launching a frontal assault, crossed the second trench which was littered with shell casings and also entered the village.

  Akio Akiyama stood in front of the abandoned cannon with a stern expression, next to him was Kurihara Lieutenant with a bruised face.

  "Hakka, didn't you say the enemy was short on guns and ammo? What's with the over 10 empty shell boxes in the trench just now? And what about all these spent shells here?" Colonel Akishima shouted, pointing at the dozens of shell casings on the ground.

  Kuribara hastily stood at attention and bowed his head, "Aye, sir. This is all the fault of our intelligence department."

  "Let your Intelligence Department explain to the Manchurian Army General Headquarters," said Colonel Akishima bluntly, as there were too many casualties and it was not something he could take responsibility for himself.

  "What about the casualties of the enemy forces?" asked Kuribayashi Anshu cautiously.

  Qiu Shan gazed at him discontentedly, "Just find a random village, chop off a thousand or so heads and hand them over, after all they're all Chinese."

  Kuribara Yasuhide hastily let out another "Hai!"

  After some thought, Colonel Akizuki furrowed his brow and said, "Add one more thing, the enemy's remaining forces of over a hundred men are fleeing towards the western grasslands. Since they're all cavalry, please dispatch at least one reinforced squadron of cavalry to pursue them." Not sending anyone to kill them would be hard to swallow, so Colonel Akizuki had no choice but to say this.

  But what Major Zhang did not expect was that Chen An and others who had suffered a great loss at his hands did not even have a hundred men.