When Shen Quan ordered the Second Battalion of the Independent Regiment and the militia to withdraw from the attacking position.
The new regiment and battalion entered the attack position, prepared for the attack, and waited for the artillery to open fire.
The terrain around the stronghold has been specially treated. There is no large-scale cover. The change of defense between the two troops cannot be hidden from the eyes of the Japanese.
However, there were trenches and other fortifications built by independent regiment and militia soldiers at the attack position.
"Put up the mortar."
Following Zhang Dabiao's order, soldiers from the first battalion's artillery company quickly set up four 60mm mortars in a hidden position in the trench.
"Report to the squadron leader, it's not good, the Eighth Route Army has a new attack force."
In the artillery building, the Japanese sentry hurried down the stairs to report to the Japanese officer.
"Nani?" The Japanese squadron leader's expression changed. He climbed the stairs to the top of the turret and used a telescope to observe the situation on the other side.
The Eighth Route Army is in the trenches on the opposite mountainside. It used to be a mixture of the Eighth Route Army and the militia, but now it has been replaced by a pure Eighth Route Army.
The mountainside on the opposite side is about 400 meters away from the stronghold, and at the bottom of the ditch in the middle is the Shotai Railway. Seeing that the newly replaced Eighth Route Army troops were not many, the Japanese squadron leader was slightly relieved.
Without large-caliber artillery, just four to five hundred people wanted to attack the stronghold, which was simply wishful thinking.
"Squadron leader, it seems that the Eighth Route Army is setting up mortars?" said the sharp-eyed Japanese sentry.
"where?"
The Japanese pointed forward to the right, and the Japanese squadron leader looked there. Although the mortars in the trench could not be seen clearly, the action did look like they were setting up artillery.
The Japanese squadron leader's face darkened slightly when he saw this scene. This new Eighth Route Army actually had mortars?
"Immediately order the mortar squad to launch artillery fire on the 8th Route Mortar Position..."
The Japanese squadron leader was talking there, and the sentry was also ready to nod and say "hi".
However, before the Japanese squadron leader could finish speaking, the Japanese squadron leader's head exploded without warning, and brains and red blood sprayed into the face of the Japanese sentry.
The Japanese sentry was completely confused. He was stunned for a moment, and the squadron leader who had been talking just now had his head exploded like a watermelon.
After a while, the Japanese sentry heard a huge gunshot, echoing between the two hills.
The Japanese sentry then crouched down and took cover.
When gunshots were fired from the opposite side, the Japanese thought that the Eighth Route Army was about to attack, and the light and heavy machine guns started barking wildly.
The Japanese mortars made several muffled sounds, and the shells landed on the new regiment's position and raised several muddy fogs.
The shooting lasted for more than half a minute. When the Japanese saw that no one was fighting back, they stopped shooting.
…
On the hilltop opposite the Japanese stronghold, after killing the Japanese squadron leader, Zhao Gang put away the Barrett sniper rifle.
His sniping point was only about 500 meters away from the Japanese gun tower.
The jagged crenellations on the top of the Japanese turret only have at most one layer of bricks. The bullets from the Barrett sniper rifle can definitely penetrate that layer of bricks and kill the Japanese sentry.
But Zhao Gang didn't do that. The bullets of a large-caliber sniper rifle are expensive. He only sniped at Japanese officers now.
…
In the trench, Zhang Dabiao called the three infantry company commanders under his command to him and gave instructions.
"I just took a closer look and saw that the Japanese blew up the suspension bridge."
"Except for the road leading from the suspension bridge to the gate of the stronghold, the soil in other places has traces of being renovated. The Japanese must have buried mines."
"We will attack from the suspension bridge. We must set up at least two wooden ladders."
Zhang Dabiao's words were very loud, ensuring that the surrounding soldiers could hear them.
The first battalion had attacked the stronghold many times, so it was well prepared. Everyone was well prepared, including scissors for cutting barbed wire, the leader of the assault company carrying a thick steel plate on his chest, and wearing a helmet captured from the Japanese on his head.
"The light and heavy machine guns will stay on the position later to implement fire suppression."
"There are also mortars. Wherever the Japanese machine guns are ringing, just kill them for me."
"The attacking troops immediately took cover when they saw the sound of machine gunfire from the opposite side."
"We must take down the Japanese stronghold with the minimum cost of casualties."
"Listen to my orders and prepare to attack!"
Following Zhang Dabiao's order, the trenches suddenly heard the sound of rifle bolts being pulled. The officers and soldiers squatted in the trenches and stared at the Japanese stronghold opposite, with murderous intent filling their eyes.
In the anti-slope position, the mountain artillery battalion was ready.
Because of the special terrain here, the mountain artillery battalion can only fire on the reverse slope.
If you place your artillery on the top of a mountain or build an artillery position on a slope, you are likely to be bombarded by Japanese mortars.
Although he couldn't shoot accurately, Li Yunlong didn't feel bad about the cannonballs, because Chen Feng would also reimburse him for this battle.
"One test shot, let go!" On the mountain artillery camp, Wang Chengzhu's raised hand suddenly dropped down.
The gunner holding the matchlock in his hand pulled back, and the gun body shook violently. As the barrel retracted, the shells stuffed into the gun barrel were instantly shot out of the gun barrel.
This 75mm artillery shell hit the stronghold from the sky with a unique scream, landed in the Japanese stronghold, and raised a cloud of mud and gunpowder smoke more than ten meters high.
The artillery observers on the top of the mountain calculated new shooting parameters based on the observation points and conveyed them to the position in sign language, trying to make the artillery shells hit the gun towers and bunkers as much as possible.
Ten seconds later, the artillery shells arrived as expected, roaring like thunder continuously, and the artillery fire spread wantonly, shrouding the entire Japanese stronghold in gunpowder smoke.
"Baga, how come the Eighth Route Army has such a powerful cannon?"
In the continuous smoke of artillery fire, the Japs cursed and fled one after another. Some Japs ran into the turret, but soon the turret was hit by a shell and was blown down.
Not to mention the puppet troops, who were shivering, and the artillery fire from the mountain artillery battalion directly became the last straw that broke their camel's back in the past two days.
Looking at this formation, the Eighth Route Army is definitely going to launch a general attack!
Under the gunfire, the puppet soldiers exchanged glances with each other, and raised their guns three inches when the Eighth Route Army attacked...
At the moment when the Japanese artillery tower was destroyed, Zhang Dabiao led three infantry companies of the first battalion and jumped out of the trench at the same time and rushed toward the Japanese stronghold.
In the eyes of Shen Quan and the soldiers of the Independent Regiment at the rear, the soldiers of the new regiment were like gray floods pouring down. After reaching the bottom of the ditch, they jumped forward at high speed like cheetahs, crossing the foundation one meter above the ground.
of the railway track and keep moving forward.
During this rapid advance, the attacking troops did not fire, leaving all fire suppression to the machine guns and mortars on the position.
After crossing the railway track, the attacking troops of the first battalion were less than 200 meters away from the stronghold. At this time, the mountain artillery battalion stopped shelling.
As the smoke cleared, the surviving Japanese in the stronghold discovered the attacking troops. At that moment, Japanese machine gunners with light and heavy machine guns poured out firepower.
The machine gun bullets hit the chests of the soldiers in the front row, making a clanging sound, whether it was the soldiers in the front row or the soldiers behind.
When the gunshots were fired, almost all of them reacted simultaneously, either crawling to avoid or rolling to avoid. Hundreds of people were all lying on the ground in two or three seconds.
The fierce firepower of more than thirty light and heavy aircraft and four mortars on the rear position immediately poured into the Japanese machine gun fire.
The two Japanese machine gun fire points were quickly suppressed by the machine guns, and then destroyed by mortars.
This scene made the Japanese in the stronghold angry and helpless.
When the Japanese firepower died down, the soldiers stood up again and continued to advance towards the stronghold.
Although a small number of people were shooting with rifles, it was obvious that the firepower was being suppressed. The Japanese pulled the bolt of their rifles, stretched out their heads, fired once, and then quickly retracted.
If you move a little slower, you will catch a bunch of machine gun bullets from the Eighth Route Army.
There was a Japanese bunker that was not hit by the artillery fire from the mountain artillery battalion. The two machine guns inside spewed out long tongues of flame from the firing holes.
When they heard the sound of machine gunfire, the soldiers lay down to hide.
At this time, the attacking troops of the first battalion were only 150 meters away from the stronghold.
Rear machine gun and mortar fire soon suppressed the Japanese bunker.
Immediately afterwards, a rocket launcher team in the attack force set up a bazooka rocket launcher and quickly loaded the rocket into the chamber.
The bazooka soldier lay on the ground, aimed at the Japanese bunker, and then pulled the trigger without hesitation.
A rocket that could be caught by the naked eye slid in mid-air and hit the Japanese bunker halfway up the hillside at high speed.
The enemy's firepower was stopped, but the valley was shaken, the ground was shaking violently, and the Japanese bunker formed a cloud of smoke that was more than ten meters high in the flames!
The Japs who were operating machine guns in the bunker felt as if something was flying towards the bunker. They had no time to react and were instantly blown to pieces in the violent explosion.
The explosion was so violent and sudden that not even a scream could be heard.
Without the protection of the bunker, the remaining Japanese soldiers occasionally showed up with one or two fire points, but they were suppressed in a short time.
Soon, Zhang Dabiao led a battalion of soldiers to attack the trench, built two bridges with wooden ladders, and the grenadier soldiers fired a row of grenades into the stronghold.
The soldiers stepped on the simple wooden bridge and broke into the stronghold.
There was no suspense in the ensuing battle. The close combat Type 38 rifle was directly suppressed by more than a hundred submachine guns.
As time went by, the gunfire in the Xinzhuang stronghold gradually became sparse and finally disappeared completely.
…
It took about a minute or two.
As more than a dozen Japanese soldiers and dozens of puppet soldiers surrendered, they lined up with their hands raised and were escorted out of the stronghold by soldiers from the first battalion.
In the distance, the soldiers of the Second Battalion of the Independent Regiment and the militia soldiers who were watching the battle had their eyes almost dropped, their mouths slightly opened, and they were suddenly stunned.
How long has it been?
A large stronghold was captured in twenty minutes at most?
More than 400 Japanese and puppet troops in the stronghold were wiped out so easily?
It is true that the equipment of the new regiment is really good. It has a mountain artillery battalion to cover the Japanese stronghold with artillery fire in advance, and it has mortars and dozens of machine guns to provide fire cover.
However, the commander's accurate grasp of the attack time point, and his accurate judgment that entering the stronghold from other places will definitely lead to a Japanese minefield, and that the suspension bridge is the best place to enter the stronghold, are all perfect.
In addition, the cooperation between the rear artillery and machine gunners' firepower and the attacking troops is quite tacit and smooth. Without more than ten actual combat experiences and dozens of drills, this effect would never be achieved.
What's even more frightening is that in taking over this stronghold with more than 400 enemies, the new regiment and battalion only suffered about 20 casualties at most.
"If the equipment of the new regiment and the first battalion are given to the second battalion of the independent regiment, can this effect be achieved?"
Chen Quan thought to himself and shook his head after a moment. Although his second battalion's combat effectiveness was not weak, there was a clear gap with the first battalion of the new regiment.
In the final analysis, Commander Li can obtain sophisticated weapons and equipment and sufficient ammunition, so that the soldiers of the new regiment can have enough opportunities to accumulate practical experience.
The more battles are won, the more veterans will survive. The soldiers will accumulate rich practical experience, and the troops will be able to win more battles. This is a virtuous circle.
Zhang Dabiao's life is too good, right? Why didn't I get a group leader like Li Yunlong?
Although Kong Jie is also a good leader...
Thinking about it, Shen Quan felt sour. It would be great if his regimental leader was Li Yunlong.