At the entrance of the cave, traces of artificial fortification still exist.
Half a bag of cement was discarded aside, and the hastily plastered concrete was uneven. All this showed that the cave was built in a hurry by the British.
Except for this perforation, there is almost no way out in the cave. In other words, this is a dead hole.
Below the perforation is a straight wall six to seven meters high. Without climbing tools, people would not be able to climb up.
Cai Huachen saw the tanks at the foot of the mountain through the perforations. This grand scene suddenly made him daze. He imagined that if what came down the mountain was not tanks, but a group of infantry, and the British had hidden several heavy machine guns in the cave, then
, these infantrymen crowded on the road will be cut down in pieces like leeks. If the British here know that our troops coming over are tanks, they will prepare anti-tank weapons in advance and suddenly attack the tank troops.
The tanks in the front were destroyed, and the tanks in the back did not come. With this advantageous fortification, if the British really wanted to attack our army, the consequences would be unimaginable. Not only could the British hold on here for a day and a half, but they would also cause huge damage to our army.
casualties, the forward troops may not be able to complete their mission on time.
Thinking of this, Cai Huachen sneered, lowered his head and kicked a dead British body on the ground, "This is an established power. It's just childish. If you want to fight, you have to be patient for a while and wait until I get close.
! Come on, the target has been exposed! It’s a pity that such a good fortification is left to you."
After Cai Huachen kicked his legs twice, he suddenly realized a problem. There couldn't be only two British people in such a good fortification! Besides, on such a steep cliff, what do the British people live on! It's impossible not to eat or drink. Thinking of this
, suddenly said:
"Zhou Zhen, Jiang Duofu, search again. There must be other cave entrances."
The three people returned to the cave.
After searching again, there are still no heavy weapons in the cave. Normally, if the British here dare to challenge tanks, they must at least have some anti-tank weapons! But except for a few pieces of ragged clothes and a few ammunition boxes, there is nothing.
Other things, that is to say, the two British infantry here dared to fire at the tank column with two submachine guns!
"It's weird, it's really weird! The British are either too brave or too stupid," Zhou Zhen commented.
"It seems that these guys are really not afraid of death. They dare to shoot tanks with two broken guns." Jiang Duofu echoed.
"Why are you not afraid of death?" Jiang Duofu retorted: "I think you are a fool. If you want to fight, you have to wait until the tanks have passed by, and end it by catching stragglers or something. Then fire at the tank group head-on, and there are no anti-tank weapons.
, isn’t this two hundred and fifty? Humph, you’ve exposed your target for nothing, why are you pretending to be so bold? I’m telling you, this deserves a beating.”
"Okay, okay. The two British people are not as stupid as you say. Let me tell you, they are in a hurry!"
Cai Huachen began to analyze and said that the British might not be ready for the fortifications here. The British did not expect us to come so quickly. When the two British men watching the cave saw our troops coming, they became anxious and did not care what happened.
It's an anti-tank weapon, as long as it can show its existence.
You know what a dead man is! I think these two guys are like a mantis trying to use his arms as a chariot! But these two guys still have to fight."
"Team leader, how brave are the British?" Zhou Zhen asked.
"Okay, okay, what do recruits know?" Cai Huachen said with a commanding tone: "We are fighting a war now, and you, a recruit, have only touched a gun for a few days! What big talk are you talking about?"
Zhou Zhen was speechless after being told by Cai Huachen. Even though he said this, of course he also knew that the British were powerful.
Cai Huachen continued, "I haven't finished speaking yet! The reason why these two British people dared to shoot has another meaning. That is, they only focused on those of us sitting on the tanks. They only
I thought about it, we infantrymen sitting on top of the tank didn't expect the tank gun to be so powerful. I just wanted to use this hidden fortification to suddenly kill a few of us with itchy hands."
"So, the two British people are going to beat us." Jiang Duofu stepped in and asked.
"That's right." If these two guys hadn't started early and exposed their target, we would be the worst off." As he said that, Cai Huachen pointed with his hand, "Maybe it might be you two or someone lying on the ground.
Me."
"Damn it, it turns out these two guys want to hit us!" Zhou Zhen said, walking over and kicking the dead body hard.
"Okay, okay, a person is dead and it doesn't hurt even if he is kicked." Jiang Duofu stopped him and said.
"There must be an exit to this cave, otherwise, how could the British come in." Cai Huachen said, "Look for it!"
The three men began to search the cave for the third time.
The search was very careful, and anything attached to the cave wall would be removed. Gradually, the three people gathered on the two wooden boxes piled up at the bottom of the cave.
Cai Huachen turned on his flashlight, waved it on the wooden box for a while, and said to the two of them, "Lift the wooden box away. The hole must be here."
Zhou Zhen and Jiang Duofu struggled to move the grenade box away, revealing the dark hole underneath.
Cai Huachen smiled, "Let me tell you! This is definitely not a dead hole."
When Zhou Zhen saw that he had found the entrance to the cave, he put his gun behind him and raised his legs to get in.
Cai Huachen grabbed Zhou Zhen and said, "Slow down." Then he said: "You kid, you are so scared. If there are British people hiding down there, you are not allowed to ask them to reimburse you.
Cai Huachen unhurriedly pulled a grenade and threw it down.
With a "boom" sound, the grenade exploded in the cave, followed by screams from inside.
"Did you hear that? There are really people down there."
Zhou Zhen was so frightened that he stuck his tongue out.
Cai Huachen shouted "Come out" several times toward the cave entrance, but there was no answer for a long time. It was estimated that the people inside were killed by the explosion.
"You two follow behind, keep your distance, and don't let anyone get in trouble." After Cai Huachen said that, he jumped into the hole and searched forward with the power on."
Inside the cave, a torch had been blown out by a grenade, but there were still sporadic flames flickering above it.
Cai Huachen held up his flashlight and looked around, and found a radio station against the wall, which was making a buzzing sound. He walked over, picked up the radio station, handed it to Jiang Duofu and said, "Carry it on your back, don't you want it?"
A warrior's trophy? This is yours."
After a search, there was only one British soldier in the dark cave, who looked like he was running a radio station. Apart from these, there was nothing else.
"Team leader, what do you think this guy is doing here?" Jiang Duofu asked.
Wu Donglong touched his head, thought for a while and said: "I guess this guy saw us coming and reported to the superiors."
"Report sir, Chinese tanks are coming." Zhou Zhen made a strange sound and imitated the words.
"Retreat, retreat." Jiang Duofu added with a smile.
"Don't be so beautiful. If the British were so easy to fight, we would have reached Manim a long time ago." Cai Huachen shook his head and said, "Continue searching."
The three people continued to walk forward, turned a curve, and discovered the light coming from outside the cave. When they got out of the cave, they saw that the design of the cave entrance was really mysterious. It was actually covered with a pile of living wormwood. If it hadn't been for it.
Walking out of it, it's hard to spot from the outside.
Cai Huachen walked out of the cave and suddenly appeared behind Gu Yuanyi. Gu Yuanyi was so frightened that he quickly took several steps back.
Before dark, Guan Chonghua and his fourth squad finally arrived at the Saliya Fort.
The flow of armored vehicles, billowing smoke and roaring noises brought out cheers in the valley.
Before and after the hillside, under the ditch and ridge, countless Chinese soldiers surged out of the sage grass. They waved their hats and rifles and ran toward the powerful tank troops.
Cai Huachen, who was riding on the tank, jumped down from the tank before it stopped, ran towards the soldiers who were rushing over, and hugged several soldiers.
Although it was a short day, they felt as if they were in a trance from another lifetime. At this moment, they could still see Cai Huachen's three-person combat team coming back alive, which was beyond the expectations of many people, including Bai Yanchao.
When he sent Guan Chonghua and others back to search, he was still hopeful about whether he could find Cai Huachen. He did not want to abandon any of his fighting brothers, but he also had to face the cruel reality of war.
Before setting off, he said to Guan Chonghua: "You have to try your best to find Cai Huachen and the others. If you can't find them, come back early. Don't leave three behind and pick up a dozen more."
Guan Chonghua answered simply: "We must find Cai Huachen. If we can't find him alive, I will carry back even the body!"
Bai Yanchao looked at the solemn expression on guard Chonghua's face, silently patted him on the shoulder, and then said silently: "Second Platoon Commander, they are all soldiers of your platoon. I understand your mood, so do your best!
"
This is not an emotional impulse, nor is it a show in real life. It is a kind of friendship of life and death and common war that comes from the heart. It is an awe-inspiring feeling of sacrificing one's life for righteousness. It does not tolerate any selfishness, and there is no self-interest.
A heartfelt confession. Only those who have experienced artillery fire on the battlefield and faced life and death in an instant can understand this sentiment and this kind of magnanimity, and it can only be said so truly.
As soon as Guan Chonghua stepped off the tank, he was almost choked by the entire 8th company brothers. Especially the platoon leaders who were similar in age to him were even more troubled. The three of them forcedly
Guan Chonghua lifted it up.
"Guan Chonghua, Guan Chonghua." Everyone cheered in unison.
The person who can save the hero is a greater hero! This title naturally belongs to Guan Chonghua. Therefore, the soldiers of the whole company not only cheered but also respected him.
Cai Huachen saw Bai Yanchao standing on a high ridge, watching everything happening here with a smile, so he hurriedly squeezed out of the crowd and turned around to look for Zhou Zhen and Jiang Duofu.
"Zhou Zhen, Jiang Duofu."
After Zhou Zhen and Jiang Duofu heard the shouting, they quickly ran over and asked, "Team leader, what's the matter?"
"Follow me." Cai Huachen did not explain, turned around and ran in the direction of Bai Yanchao.
Zhou Zhen and Jiang Duofu followed closely behind. The three of them formed a column and ran forward.
Cai Huachen and the two of them ran to Bai Yanchao, stopped in front of him, stood at attention and saluted:
"Report to the company commander that Cai Huachen's three-person team has returned safely."
Bai Yanchao jumped off the ridge, walked towards Cai Huachen, and said with a smile: "Good job, just come back." He reached out and put down Cai Huachen's saluting right hand, and then asked: "How are you, are you hurt?"
"No."
Bai Yanchao hit the three of them several times one by one and said, "Good boy, you are really not hurt. Come back to the team!"
"Yes." Cai Huachen agreed and gave the command to Zhou Zhen and Jiang Duofu, "Turn back and run." He led the two of them and ran towards the crowd again.
Bai Yanchao looked at the three people running away and said to himself, "Yeah, it's not bad."
At this time, a soldier ran toward Bai Yanchao with a radio on his back. When he got close, he stopped and said, "The company commander and battalion commander are talking to you."
Bai Yanchao took the phone and answered "yes, yes, yes" several times in a row. After the conversation, Bai Yanchao turned around and shouted: "Correspondent, notify the cadres above the company to hold a meeting."
Just before dawn, the rumble of artillery shelling rang out in the open land more than ten miles away from the Saliya Fort.
A battle to attack the Saliya Fort officially began.
Saliya Fort is a military garrison fortress built by the British. It is located on the flat-topped mountain southwest of Tongdeng. It is a ring-shaped building about 120 meters long and 70 meters wide, with wall thickness ranging from 1.5 to 3 meters. The entire fort is
It is made of steel bars and cement. The interior is divided into three layers, upper and lower, dark and mysterious. From the outside, it stands high on a flat-top mountain, showing a tall and majestic appearance. Only the exposed part of the ground is about 6 meters. On the bottom floor
There are also basements, secret passages, etc. Surrounding the ground part, there are one exits in the east, west, north and south. There are 10 ventilation holes on the top floor, surrounded by more than 300 shooting holes. From a distance, it looks like
It is a large cement pier that is integrated and integrated. It is equipped with water, electricity, ventilation and other equipment inside. It also stores a large number of daily necessities, which can accommodate nearly a thousand people to live here for several months without any problem.
After our army attacked Manim, most of the dispersed British remnants and some officials retreated here, trying to use this strong fortress to wait for reinforcements and prevent our army from advancing.
At this time, Saliya Fort was not only a stubborn stronghold of the British army, but also formed a tripartite force with Kashaqi and 336 Highlands, forming a cross-fire network and controlling the highway. Without taking this stronghold, let alone the large force
It is impossible to fight to Manim even if we pass through. Therefore, the superiors ordered that the Saliya Fort must be captured before dark.
After a burst of fierce artillery fire, the infantry, with tanks as the guide, began to attack the Sharia Fort!
The attacking troops are getting closer and closer, one thousand meters, eight hundred meters, five hundred meters, three hundred meters.
Suddenly, fierce gunfire began to ring out from the fort. Rockets flew toward the tank with flames. The hail of bullets fell on the infantry soldiers following behind.
Two tanks were hit and fell to the ground in an open field.
The infantry had lost their cover. If they rushed forward, they would be no different from mature rice seedlings waiting for someone to harvest them with a sickle. They would definitely be cut down in patches.
Bai Yanchao gritted his teeth and had to issue a retreat order.
The soldiers fell back, shooting at the mountain fortress as they retreated.
The first attack failed.
Bai Yanchao analyzed the firepower configuration of the fortress. Judging from the firepower configuration of the fortress, there is enough of a British company here, and it is equipped with recoilless rifles, rocket launchers, anti-aircraft machine guns, light and heavy machine guns and other firearms. If the troops continue to attack hard, the casualties will definitely be very high.
big.
"Damn it, I'll blow up your son of a bitch first." Bai Yanchao thought of his idea and concentrated all the recoilless rifles and mortars in the company to bomb the fort.
The cannon shells fell towards the fort with a whistle.
"Boom, boom, boom!"
After a burst of artillery shells passed, only many white spots were seen on the wall. Not even a gap was cut in the wall facing the 8th Company's attack direction.
Bai Yanchao was very angry when he saw this!
"Damn it, can't you be made of iron? Even if it's iron, I'll gnaw a hole for you. If the small one doesn't work, I'll make a big one."
"Radio, pick up the battalion commander for me." Bai Yanchao shouted loudly.
After Bai Yanchao reported the situation to the battalion commander, he proposed to borrow some cannons from the battalion for use.
After a while, the battalion's howitzer was dropped.
Six howitzers were deployed in a row a few hundred meters away, and they fired fiercely at the fort.
"Boom, boom, boom"
As smoke filled the air from the artillery positions, the soldiers who were watching let out bursts of cheers. Soon, more than a hundred artillery shells were blasted away.
Looking at the Saliya Fort again, it is still stained with spots, but the hair is not damaged.
"Get close and shoot." Bai Yanchao got angry and gave the order to the artillery.
Shooting at close range is a very dangerous action. As our army approaches, the British army may launch a fire attack on me.
Sure enough, the British troops in the fort saw our army pushing the cannon closer to the fort. They suddenly became anxious and concentrated all their firearms to fire at the artillery.
An anti-aircraft machine gun of the British army attracted special attention. The sound of explosions tearing through the air rumbled around the soldiers.
The fierce obstruction of the British army suddenly left the howitzer halfway, making it impossible to retreat and to fight again and again.
Bai Yanchao looked at the weapon in his hand. Apart from small cannons, there were small weapons, blasting tubes, and flamethrowers. These weapons did not pose much of a threat to the enemy. What's more, the bullets fired could not reach the British troops and would not be effective.
Just when Bai Yanchao couldn't think of a good countermeasure, Guan Chonghua moved over and said, "Company Commander, we can stop people from suppressing the British firepower."
Bai Yanchao stared at Guan Chonghua and asked, "How to suppress it?"
"A cold shot."
Bai Yanchao turned to the distant fort, "It's so far away, can you hit it?"
"I will bring people up and use sniping. As long as the British army fires, we will knock out his shooters. As long as we buy time for the cannons, the shells will pass, and the turtle son will be finished."
Bai Yanchao thought for a while, but there was no other good way besides this, "Okay! Just pick a few people and pay attention to safety!"
"Yes." Seeing that Bai Yanchao agreed, Guan Chonghua happily agreed and ran back to the platoon.
"Cai Huachen, Cai Huachen." As soon as Guan Chonghua returned to the group of soldiers, the first thing he thought of was Cai Huachen.
Guan Chonghua selected five soldiers with good marksmanship. From one side of the position, avoiding the sight of the British army, they crawled close to the fort a hundred meters away under the cover of wormwood.
"Cai Huachen, come to me." Guan Chonghua called Cai Huachen over.
Cai Huachen lay down in front of Guan Chonghua. Guan Chonghua raised his hand and pointed at the fort to shoot holes: "You can shoot the anti-aircraft machine gun for me later. As long as it shuts up and doesn't speak, it doesn't matter whether the person dies or not."
"Yes!" Cai Huachen responded softly.
Seeing that all five soldiers were ready, Guan Chonghua sent a signal to Bai Yanchao that he could attack.
On the frontal attack position, Shi Zhuzhu gave an order, and the six 85 howitzers were pushed forward by the soldiers.
The British troops in the fort saw that the cannon was moving forward again and started firing again.
The soldiers pushing the cannon had their last experience. While pushing the cannon, they hid their bodies towards the baffle.
Raindrops of bullets clanked against the baffle.
The anti-aircraft machine gun fired again, and with its huge penetrating power, it penetrated the baffles of the two gun bodies, knocking down two soldiers in one fell swoop.
"Hit!" Guan Chonghua, who was hiding in the grass, gave the shooting order to the soldiers around him.
"Bah bang bang!"
Five soldiers aimed at the perforation and fired single shots.
After a burst of sniping, the machine guns in several perforations on the front stopped immediately.
After knocking off the anti-aircraft machine gun, Cai Huachen found a machine gun on the far left turned toward them, and quickly shouted: "Get out quickly."
Just after the shouting, a string of machine gun bullets were fired, and a soldier was shot on the spot.
"What a bastard, I told you to shoot." Cai Huachen stopped rolling for a moment, then fired a burst at the shooting hole.
"Pah, pah!"
Two bullets passed by, hitting the British shooter in the head and neck one after the other. The sound of gunfire in the perforation fell silent immediately.
For just a brief moment, the British machine guns in the perforations came to life again, and they fired at the artillery again.
Immediately afterwards, Guan Chonghua gave the order again: "Hit."
The five soldiers fired continuously, knocking out the British shooter in the firing hole again.
This shocked the British troops in the fort. When the machine guns fired again, they were not aiming at the howitzers, but at the six Japanese soldiers hidden in the grass.
Since the British army had not yet figured out the exact locations of these six men, the bullets they fired were chaotic and blind.
Guan Chonghua saw that the British troops and firepower were attracted, so he gave the order to the five people: "Retreat fifty meters."
The six men retreated, using the cover of wormwood to escape the British firepower net.
After receiving two close-range attacks, the British troops in the fort became extremely violent and fired continuously into the grass. Blades of grass were flying and the grass was broken. After a while, Guan Chonghua and the others were hiding in the place where they were hiding.
As if someone had cut it, all the wormwood fell to the ground, leaving everything on the ground exposed.
"How dangerous!" Cai Huachen exclaimed.
The howitzers finally waited for the opportunity to fire. After loading the shells, pulling the gun bolt, and retreating to conceal themselves, the six howitzers completed the first round of shooting almost at the same time. However, the six shells fired only hit a larger six on the wall.
A big white spot, the wall that was hit by the shells still remains the same, standing on the edge of the fort.
When the howitzers fired, the British troops in the fort were frightened when they heard the roar. They fell into a mess, yelling and fled deeper inside. After the sound of the cannon, they found that the wall only trembled for a while and did not fall down.
Still functioning as a barrier.
At this time, all the British troops were happy. They realized that this was a near-miss bombardment, and the attacking attackers had no way to defeat them because they could not penetrate the fort. So the British troops became more energetic,
A smile broke out on the mournful face, and he ran back to the shooting hole with a howl!
While roaring arrogantly, he fired unscrupulously at the artillerymen who were preparing to fire for the second time!
This time, the British troops in the fort changed their tactics. They aimed their anti-aircraft machine guns and several heavy machine guns directly at the howitzer group. The other two machine guns they drew out were used to suppress the grass to prevent Guan Chonghua and the others from firing cold shots again.
The fierce fire from the British anti-aircraft machine guns did not give the 85 howitzers a chance to reload their shells. The artillerymen were beaten so hard that they lay on top of the enemy and had no power to fight back.
Guan Chonghua and the others were hindered by heavy machine guns and could not reach the fort, making the sniper mission impossible.
Bai Yanchao realized the danger of the stalemate, so he organized the entire company's light and heavy firearms to fire at the fort to cover the retreat of the artillery.
Under strong firepower suppression, the artillerymen abandoned six artillery pieces and hurriedly withdrew to the starting position.
After two consecutive setbacks, Bai Yanchao was annoyed, but he couldn't think of a better way to attack. In desperation, he had to ask his superiors for instructions to dispatch more Dakou Sutra artillery.
The frontal attack on the Sharia Fort was temporarily halted.
There is a station to the southwest of the fort. In order to prevent the British troops here from using the station to escape after the fort was captured by our army, Bai Yanchao decided to capture the station first so that the enemies of the fort would be completely surrounded. After the large-caliber artillery arrived,
, and then clean up the remaining enemies here.
After the battalion headquarters held a meeting to study, the task of seizing the train station was assigned to the second platoon.
Guan Chonghua moved towards the train station with the reinforced second row.
A team of forty or fifty people lined up in two columns and ran forward on the open ground. As long as they climbed over the unknown high ground in front, the station would be exposed to the sight of our army's attack.
After a continuous rapid march, the soldiers rushed to the foot of the mountain.
After arriving here, the formation of the queue began to get chaotic, and no one cared about who was in front and who was behind. Although everyone was out of breath, they did not forget the honor. They all wanted to be the first to rush to the top of the mountain as soon as possible.
The soldiers all fought bravely to take the lead. If you were fast, I would be faster than you. Even the few soldiers carrying artillery shells were not willing to lag behind, and even challenged Cai Huachen and his group of pure infantry.
Just as the second platoon was moving quickly towards the unknown high ground, suddenly, gunfire rang out from the top of the mountain.
As soon as the gunfire rang out, several soldiers rushing in front were immediately knocked to the ground.
When the soldiers discovered that there were British troops on the mountain, they began to exclaim, "Lie down, lie down quickly, there are British troops here."
The soldiers in front fell down, and there were still people behind them rising up.
Cai Huachen pulled a passing soldier to the ground and shouted loudly: "You don't want to fucking live anymore, didn't you hear that there are British troops above!"
The second platoon was pinned down on the hillside and unable to move.
Guan Chonghua observed the terrain, called to Gu Yuanyi and said: "Fourth squad leader, take your squad over there and take down the top of the mountain for me."
"Yes!" Gu Yuanyi answered, turned around and shouted to the soldiers on the hillside, "Class 3, follow me."
As soon as the shout came out, more than a dozen figures suddenly floated up from the ground.
Gu Yuanyi didn't say much anymore, and hunched over towards the south side of the unknown highland. The dozen or so people behind him followed closely in a straight line.
A British soldier on the top of the mountain discovered Gu Yuanyi and others. After shouting "wu li wa la" a few times, he held a submachine gun and shot at these people.
When Cai Huachen saw this, he quickly lay on the ground and fought back at the British soldier.