novelden Chapter 172: Bridge Defense (6)
Chapter 172: Bridge Defense (6)
Bai Lang led the 9th Assault Company to break through the enemy's position. They shuttled through the dense forest on the mountainside, step by step approaching the enemy's artillery position. At this time, the commander of the 87th Regiment of the Japanese Army had ordered that the artillery battalion must complete the establishment of the position tonight and must start shelling the bridge early tomorrow morning. According to Sakusaku Fujiichiro's idea, the 105mm howitzer kept bombarding. Even if the bridge could not be blown up, the main beams and supports of the bridge would be deformed, making the bridge a dangerous bridge and leaving the Chinese with a ruined bridge.
The enemy artillery positions were brightly lit. Under the orders of commanders at all levels, the artillerymen worked tirelessly, building and consolidating their positions bit by bit. The enemy's howitzers were gradually deployed. Numerous transport vehicles were moving back and forth, unloading various equipment and ammunition...
Bai Lang and his men had already changed into Japanese uniforms, and just as they were about to move forward and infiltrate the enemy camp, not far away, the Japanese artillery guards had already begun searching the surroundings, and several flashlights had already been fired towards their ambush position.
"It seems that now is not a good time to approach the enemy artillery." Seeing that the enemy was so tight, Bai Lang calmed down and signaled his subordinates to evacuate here first.
Bai Lang and his men retreated deep into the mountains, far from the enemy artillery positions. The Japanese security and search forces would not extend their cordon so far. He then called together several key members. The count revealed that the company still had 47 men, and they were far from having enough explosives and detonators. If they wanted to destroy the Japanese artillery battalion, they had no choice but to use the enemy's artillery shells.
After a brief discussion, Bai Lang decided to divide the entire company into two groups. The support group would primarily consist of three machine guns, providing cover at three points. Their sole 3mm mortar, with 60 rounds remaining, could provide additional cover from the commanding heights. Bai Lang's men were short on manpower, so only eight men remained in the support group, responsible for three machine gun groups and one mortar group. The remaining 12 men were further divided into three smaller teams, each assigned their own objectives. Each team would advance into the enemy artillery positions, attempting to utilize the enemy's shells and destroy as many of the artillery pieces as possible.
In the early hours of the morning, Bai Lang and his men sneaked up on the enemy's position. The enemy's position was very quiet, which made everyone feel something was wrong. Several key members approached Bai Lang, indicating that there might be a problem.
Bai Lang carefully observed the enemy positions and the security area. Aside from a few patrols and sentries, he saw virtually no enemy. This clearly indicated something was amiss. Bai Lang quickly warned everyone not to act rashly. He then summoned the Chinese core member in charge of reconnaissance and whispered a few words in his ear.
Soon, two soldiers dressed as Japanese soldiers appeared in an obscure corner and, taking advantage of the situation, slipped into the enemy camp. They quietly reached an enemy sentry post, then, after a period of lurking, swiftly broke into the post and captured the enemy. Under their intense pressure, the Japanese sentry revealed the truth: the Japanese artillery guard unit had anticipated a surprise attack tonight and had set up a tight trap, waiting for Bai Lang and his men to fall into it.
After obtaining all the enemy intelligence, as well as patrol and exchange time, secret codes, etc., the two decisively killed the enemy sentry. One of them stayed there to continue pretending to be a sentry, and the other quietly returned to the hiding point and reported the situation to Bai Lang.
Bai Lang knew that even if they retreated now, their actions would inevitably be exposed, and time did not allow them to delay. He made a bold decision: to use the enemy's normal patrol rotation opportunity to eliminate the enemy patrol, and then pretend to be a patrol rotation to sneak in.
They acted quickly, eliminating the enemy's ground sentries one by one and replacing them with their own men. Then, when the enemy's rotation came, everyone was already in disguise. When a Japanese detachment's rotation team came to take over, the soldiers quietly eliminated them all, then disguised themselves as patrols and gradually approached the enemy artillery positions.
"Baka!" A captain-level Japanese officer suddenly appeared from a dark corner and yelled at the disguised patrol. "What are you running around for? Get back to your positions!"
It turned out that there was an enemy ambush point here. The soldier disguised as the squad leader hurriedly apologized in skilled Japanese language and walked towards the patrol team's base.
Bai Lang was also in this formation. He whispered to the leading soldier, "Can you see the enemy's situation clearly?"
The soldier shook his head, then nodded, and replied, "I couldn't see clearly inside. I saw about a squad of enemies."
Bai Lang had a plan in mind, and without thinking too much, he said to the soldiers: "Get closer, find an excuse to get close, and if you can, kill them!"
Seeing the patrol team turn around again, the Japanese captain got angry, rushed forward, slapped the leading soldier several times, and shouted loudly: "Baka! Baka! You're dead!"
The soldier pretended to bow and accept the captain's punishment, while explaining to him in a low voice, "Captain, we have discovered something unusual, and we can only find an excuse to conflict with you. Please lead us in quickly, and I will report to you!"
When the captain heard the soldier's words, his voice became even louder and he was still slapping the soldier, but in reality, he had already raised his sword high and then gently dropped it. The captain waved his hand at the Japanese soldiers inside and said, "Capture them!"
The two groups of people entered the enemy's ambush point in a chaotic manner. The Japanese captain asked the soldiers anxiously: "What did you find? Tell us quickly!"
The soldier had already quietly drawn his dagger. He leaned over to the captain's ear and whispered, "We are guerrillas!"
Before the enemy could react, the soldier had already plunged his dagger into the captain's heart. The assault company's soldiers quickly wiped out the enemy at the ambush point. Bai Lang saw that this wasn't just a Japanese unit, but the headquarters of a Japanese squadron. Besides the captain, there was a second lieutenant, several sergeants, and a major. Bai Lang came up with another plan. He had another soldier don the captain's uniform, then walked out of his hiding spot and, under the guise of giving orders, had several soldiers separately advance into the enemy artillery position.
A Japanese squad leader saw the captain arrange for his men to enter the artillery position and then retreat to his hiding place. After a long time without taking the next step, he became very confused and could not help but walk towards the captain with a few men. Bai Lang knew that he might not be able to hide anymore, so he sent a signal to the support group. The support group immediately opened fire and killed the second lieutenant squad leader!
"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!" shouted the soldier disguised as a captain from his hiding spot. Then, a large number of enemies emerged from all directions and attacked the support group firing. The soldiers pretending to be sentries rushed out, firing and looking for opportunities to throw grenades. For a moment, the enemy was in chaos. The soldiers of the assault company took the opportunity to run towards the enemy artillery position...