Chapter 26: The First Battle of Little Water (Part 2)

  At this moment, the busiest person in Red 18 Corps should be Director Li Qing of the Political Department.

  Under the command of the battalion commander, Li Qing led the 11th and 12th companies of the 4th Battalion, the new recruit company, the artillery company, the logistics team, the engineer company, and the cavalry company to hide in the forest on one side of the mountain ridge along the highway. Their mission was to concentrate their firepower on the highway when the enemy arrived.

  The terrain is good, and the mountain ridge is about 20 meters away from the highway in a straight line. The cliff is steep and not easy to climb.

  Li Qing called together the three battalion commanders Chen Dayong, deputy battalion commander Li Deguang, instructor Hu Xuerong, new recruit battalion commander Lei Ming, instructor Chang Hua Yu, artillery company commander Li Chang, logistics team leader Wu Zheng, engineer company commander He Mingliang and cavalry company commander Hu Lao Hu to assign combat tasks.

  According to Li Qing's original intention, the two companies and artillery company, logistics team, artillery company, engineer company, cavalry company of the three battalions were arranged in the first line, while the new recruits of the new battalion and several newly established units were arranged in the second line. If the battlefield situation changes, it would be more convenient for the new recruits to withdraw. However, as soon as he expressed his idea, he was strongly opposed by the leaders of the new recruit battalion and several new units. Their reason was that the new recruits had already learned how to throw grenades, and the battlefield was the best place for training.

  The new recruit camp commander, Lei Meng, was the most excessive. He said that the new recruit camp had no weapons and if they were placed on the second line, by the time they rushed to the battlefield, others would have already taken the lead. The new recruit camp didn't go anywhere, just guarding the first line.

  It's true, new recruits can only become veterans after being baptized by fire.

  Li Qing and several cadres discussed the result of deploying all troops, dividing them into sections to guard against gaps, with no omissions. All cadres went down to the ranks, conducting early test throws to ensure accuracy.

  After the task was clear, each battalion and company quickly took their positions, with each platoon conducting trial throws. Li Qing was still not at ease, checking each squad one by one to see if their camouflage was in place, until he felt that the enemy would not discover them even if they searched nearby.

  It wasn't easy to get everything set up, and after wiping the sweat off his brow, he glanced at his watch to find that an hour had already passed. He took another look at the ambush site across from him, where the first and second battalions were lying in wait, silent and still without a single sign of movement. Li Qing couldn't help but mutter under his breath: "Newbie rookie, what a hassle!"

  The sniper team's position was set up on flat ground 50 meters away from the highway. According to Liu Yimin's requirements for camouflage and concealment, Wang Tongsheng ordered the soldiers to dig scattered pits on the flat ground, then remove the new soil, and have the soldiers crawl into the pits, covering themselves with branches and straw. From a distance, it looked like small piles of firewood that lazy farmers had not yet taken back to their fields. Not only would ordinary people not notice anything, but even the enemy would never think that under these unremarkable piles of firewood lay deadly gun barrels.

  The 48th Division Commander Liu Jiren was very puzzled. Yesterday, they were still in contact with the Red Bandits, but overnight, the Red Bandits had vanished. Early this morning, the division commander ordered the entire division to search and advance towards Xiaoshui. After searching for so long, not only did they not find the main force of the Red Bandits, but they didn't even see a single ordinary person on the way. They searched the mountain tops and the ravines, and the vanguard troops reported that no enemy was found. The brothers in the vanguard troops were exhausted from climbing mountains and crawling through ravines, but there was no sign of the Red Bandits. Had the main force of the Red Bandits all fled to Tongdao County to regroup? If they had gone to Tongdao County, why didn't they leave behind a covering force to delay the enemy? Or had they escaped in the direction of Guizhou? Yes, that must be it - the Red Bandits had definitely escaped towards Guizhou. Only by escaping towards Guizhou would they have been able to escape so thoroughly, without even leaving behind small covering forces. If the Red Bandits were fleeing in the direction of Guizhou, wouldn't the Xiangxi defense line constructed at great human and material cost by the Chairman be rendered useless? And could Wang Jia's twin-gun troops in Guizhou stop the Red Bandits? They had to speed up their pursuit - after the Battle of Xiangjiang, the Red Bandits were already exhausted, and even if they ran, they couldn't run fast or far.

  Thinking of this, Liu Jiren no longer hesitated and immediately ordered the troops to stop searching and march along the highway towards Xiaoshui in a steady pace.

  The enemy's chief of staff cautiously suggested that the troops should not march too fast, keep a safe distance between them, and be on guard against ambushes by the Red Bandits.

  Liu Jiren opened his mouth and said: "Ambush my ass, my chief of staff, you're too cautious. The Red Bandits now are not the same as they were in the Soviet Area. It's hard to say whether their soldiers' guns have bullets or not. Have you forgotten that when we clashed with their main force, the 1st Army Corps, at Zuoshanpu, the guns they left behind were all empty? Now is the time for us to pursue them and make them shit and pee in their pants. Who wouldn't want to beat a fallen dog? Don't worry, even if there's an ambush, I'm not afraid of them. They're not our match. Let's hurry up and go, or else the Red Bandits will escape to Guizhou, and those 62nd Division guys will seize the opportunity to clear the passage before us."

  The warriors of the 18th Red Regiment had been hiding in their positions for two hours, and the early winter weather was getting a bit cold. Many soldiers' hands and feet were numb with frostbite. Occasionally, new soldiers would try to move their legs and feet, but the sound they made would immediately attract the stern gaze of the cadres and veteran soldiers.

  Liu Yimin himself was a bit skeptical whether history had changed, the Xiang 16th Division had changed its route, or simply hadn't come out.

  Luo Yan finally made a phone call, and the scout who went out to investigate reported that an enemy brigade of about 4,000 people was searching forward in the direction of the ambush. Liu Yimin immediately ordered the flag language class to send flag language to inform each camp of the enemy situation.

  15 minutes later, Luo Yan made a second phone call. The observation post discovered the enemy, with the vanguard company 500 meters ahead of the troops, followed by three columns. Strangely, the enemy gave up searching and advanced at a running pace.

  Five minutes later, Luo Yan made his third phone call, confirming that the enemy was advancing in three columns towards the ambush point at a running pace. Liu Yimin immediately ordered the flag signal to prepare for battle.

  Luo Yan's fourth telephone report Enemy vanguard passed through the observation post position not long after, Liu Yimin saw the enemy vanguard squad, 9 people, guns all slung over their shoulders, not looking at anything, just running forward. Liu Yimin muttered a 21st-century national curse "Fool!"

  Soon, the enemy vanguard squad ran west of Xiaoshui Village through the ambush circle, and the main force also entered the ambush circle. The soldiers all carried their rifles on their shoulders, with four people carrying heavy machine guns, and mortars were disassembled and carried on the soldiers' shoulders.

  As the enemy vanguard was about to reach the entrance of Xiaoshui Village, the rear guard had also entered the ambush circle. Liu Yimin felt it was time, aimed his gun at an officer riding a horse, and as soon as he shouted "Fire!", he pulled the trigger. The sound of gunfire from the Red Army's position immediately erupted like thunder.

  The snipers of the sniper squad immediately took out the enemy officers they had targeted, and when the Xiang Army soldiers heard the gunfire, they saw blood bursting from the officers' heads. Before they could react, the 6 heavy machine guns and 21 light machine guns of the Red 18th Regiment formed a web of fire that swept through the middle of the Xiang 16th Division's marching troops like a sickle, suddenly erupting in a bloody rain. The giant Xiang 16th Division was cut off at the waist by a single blow. Almost simultaneously, over 1,000 hand grenades fell from the mountainside on one side of the road like hailstones, some exploding in mid-air, others landing on Xiang Army soldiers and detonating, and still others rolling around on the ground spewing white smoke, leaving no dead angle untouched, causing the Xiang Army soldiers to wail in terror.

  The vanguard of the Xiang Army soldiers, who were relatively fierce, saw that Xiaoshui Village was right in front of them. They thought that as long as they charged into the village, they would have something to rely on and objects to hide behind. They raised their guns and charged forward, trying to break through. However, the simultaneous firing of three light machine guns and rifles at the village entrance forced them to turn around and run back. Not far from there, an officer who had reacted quickly fired two shots, knocking down the two soldiers who were leading the retreat. The officer shouted wildly: "Follow me, charge forward! Anyone who retreats will be shot!" As soon as the officer finished shouting, a bullet pierced his brain, and the Xiang Army soldiers saw the blood mist exploding from the officer's head. They turned around and ran away, but what greeted them was still machine gun bullets, rifle bullets, and hand grenades falling from above.

  The soldiers running at the back of the marching troops were slightly stunned and then realized they had been ambushed, quickly turning around, hoping to occupy the small hill that had just passed by. Who knew that before they turned around, dense bullets shot from behind. On such a narrow road, with such a dense formation, the Xiang Army soldiers fell forward one after another like cars on a highway in snowy weather.

  There were several Xiang soldiers who moved very quickly, pounced on the ground and set up machine guns to sweep the Red Army's position. Before a clip was finished, the machine gunner's head was bleeding. The deputy shooter had just grasped the machine gun when a blood hole appeared on his forehead. The platoon leader next to him cursed "fuck your mother", pulled over the machine gun and wanted to shoot from the bodies of the two shooters. Before he opened fire, his head slumped to one side, and the machine gun slipped to the other side. The remaining two Xiang soldiers were scared out of their wits, got up and ran, and two bullets flew in, these two Xiang soldiers fell softly to the ground.

  The machine gun fire of the 18th Regiment began to extend its shooting to both ends of the column. The bullet-forged sickle swung back and forth, wherever the enemy was concentrated, it swung there. The hand grenades that fell on the mountain ridge were also thrown where people were dense. In a short while, nearly half of the 48th Brigade was killed or wounded, and some who jumped off the highway were also shot down by rifle bullets, and some clever soldiers had already started lying on the ground pretending to be dead.

  Liu Yimin saw that the 48th Brigade had collapsed, grabbed his own submachine gun, shouted "Comrades, charge!", and jumped out of the position to charge towards the highway. The soldiers of the 1st and 2nd Battalions immediately followed the regiment commander to launch a charge.

  Although the distance was short and they moved quickly, by the time they rushed onto the highway, there was no resistance left. Everywhere were the bodies of Xiang soldiers, everywhere were guns and ammunition, prisoners squatted on the ground beside the road with their hands raised waiting to be taken in.

  The troops immediately began to sweep the battlefield and count the spoils. In this battle, a total of one enemy division, two regiments were eliminated, 2,620 enemy soldiers were killed, 500 wounded, 400 captured, and one radio station was seized, as well as 12 60mm mortars, 660 rounds of ammunition, 12 heavy machine guns, 72 light machine guns, 142 submachine guns, 144 pistols, over 2,100 rifles, and more than 20,000 hand grenades. Some firearms were also damaged by explosions, and the bullets were too numerous to count. The entire regiment had no deaths, with only 21 lightly wounded, mostly due to being caught in thorns or tripping during the charge.

  The Red Army soldiers were overjoyed, each and every one of them beaming with joy, collecting weapons and ammunition, identifying and escorting prisoners, busy as can be. The happiest ones were the new soldiers, each of whom had picked up a weapon, stuffing bullets and hand grenades into their pockets with all their might, not forgetting to ask each other how many hand grenades they had thrown and how many enemies they had blown up.

  Captain Li Changyuan excitedly shouted orders, directing the artillery company's soldiers to carry cannons and shells, while also running to Liu Yimin's side to ask if they should immediately construct an artillery position for the next ambush.

  Liu Yimin smiled and said, "We can build a position, but there's no order not to fire cannons. The terrain is narrow here, machine guns and hand grenades are enough, no need to waste shells. Besides, we'll have an artillery battalion's equipment later, that's the Fobos mountain cannon!" Li Chang was so excited that he rushed to arrange the mortar position.

  Only the cavalry company commander Hu Lao Hu was unhappy, a brigade of Xiang Army had only 30 war horses, most of which were killed, and not even a single horse gun or saber, scolding He Jian as a stingy old bastard.

  Liu Yimin smiled and told him that the Xiang Army had a cavalry regiment, which was He Jian's original unit. Hu Lao Hu was so stimulated that he asked where it was, Liu Yimin said they would meet eventually. Hu Lao Hu then scolded and left.

  Look, the battlefield cleanup is almost done. Liu Yimin ordered the troops to immediately relocate the position, and all heavy machine guns were reinforced to the heavy machine gun position. All personnel of the heavy machine gun battalion went to the heavy machine gun position, while light machine guns were equipped with one per squad as standard. Those that were insufficient would be supplemented after the next battle. The whole regiment restored combat readiness, awaiting the arrival of enemy 47th Brigade.