The Japanese turned around and ran away with their guns in hand.

"Blow the charge horn!" Guan Dashan ordered.

The rapid charge horn sounded, and hundreds of soldiers from the fourth battalion jumped out of the trenches and charged toward the Japanese in dense numbers with bayonets in hand.

Nani?

Did I read that correctly? The Eighth Route Army was carrying out a counterattack?

Major Takeda looked at this scene in disbelief.

Our side has basically figured out the firepower points of the eight lanes on the opposite side.

There are a lot of machine gun firepower points and a lot of grenades. This Eighth Route Army seems to be different from the Eighth Route Army encountered before, a bit rich...

But the other side seemed to lack artillery, and no reinforcements came out of the city.

Without artillery, no matter how fierce the eight-way machine gun firepower is, they can only be passively bombarded by artillery shells.

After exposing their firepower, the Eighth Route Army retreated into the city to engage in a battle between trapped beasts. Takeda could understand this.

But the Eighth Route Army actually launched a counter-charge, which made it difficult for Major Takeda to understand.

Major Takeda, who has extensive experience in combat command, encountered such a situation for the first time.

Let your subordinates rush forward and fight hand-to-hand?

With well-trained stabbing skills, Major Takeda believed that his soldiers would definitely be able to eliminate this eight-pronged force.

But if this is a trap from Eighth Route Army...

Takeda suddenly fell into a dilemma.

The soldiers who rushed out of the trenches were greeted by Japanese machine gun fire points set up 300 meters away, and four or five soldiers fell in an instant.

Two Min-24 heavy machine guns were carried out of the trench and placed at higher positions on the left and right. With the sound of "gnaw, gnaw, gnaw, gnaw," the enemy's machine gun firepower was immediately suppressed.

The two squadron leaders of the Japs also saw something was wrong, and a suspicious expression suddenly appeared on their faces. Uncharacteristically, the Eighth Route Army abandoned the painstakingly built defenses and launched a countercharge against the soldiers who were testing the firepower point?

Is the Eighth Route Commander stupid? Can't he see that this is a test attack?

"Artillery, kill the machine guns on Route 8 immediately!" Seeing that his own firepower was suppressed, Major Takeda turned his head and shouted loudly.

The Japanese artillerymen were extremely well-educated. They immediately readjusted the shooting elements and then put the mortar shells into the barrel.

A shell fell towards the machine gunner, raising a large cloud of mud mist, and the falling gravel and soil hit the machine gunner.

This single shell was a test firing and provided a reference for the revision of the firing elements before the official bombardment.

However, before the Japanese could recalibrate their shooting, the sky resounded with the roar of several artillery shells. The artillery shells rising from the county town passed through several arcs in the sky and slammed into the Japanese artillery position.

As soon as the battle began, the artillery battalion pulled all four mountain cannons and four infantry cannons into the east city gate.

Yao Shangwu climbed up the tower and used the gun scope to clearly see the location of the Japanese mortar positions, and immediately provided parameters to the artillery of the independent regiment.

After a round of artillery bombardment, Yao Shangwu personally provided the artillerymen with new reference for shooting Zhuyuan. The artillerymen behind him stood on the tower and loudly reported the parameters to the gunners below.

Ten seconds later, the rain of bullets arrived as expected, and the continuous booming sound completely enveloped the hilltop where the Japanese artillery position was located in gunpowder smoke.

In the continuous smoke and gunfire, shrapnel was raging.

Because there was no bunker, the Japanese artillerymen could only use their bodies to resist the air waves and shrapnel generated by the explosion.

Some Japanese soldiers lay on the ground, some fled the artillery positions, and some braved the deafening roar and braved the continuous falling soil mist and shrapnel to fire at the Eighth Route Army.

But the artillery battalion of the Independent Regiment had plenty of shells, and waves of air spread out on the Japanese artillery position...

After three rounds of shelling, the Japanese artillery position was in a mess, the mortars were basically destroyed, and broken limbs were everywhere.

The Japanese artillerymen who were lucky enough to survive were all disgraced, and some of them were even stained.

Seeing that the Eighth Route Army stopped shelling, Major Takeda and the two squadron leaders patted the soil that fell on their bodies and stood up from the ground.

The command post was relatively close to the artillery position, so it was also affected.

He turned to look at the artillery position.

More than twenty figures of artillerymen who had been baptized by shelling were running hastily, dripping with blood, falling and struggling, and ran down from the artillery position with difficulty.

The two lieutenants saw the artillerymen stumbling down. They stared at the dilapidated artillery position in front of them with wide eyes and remained silent for a moment.

"Baga!" Major Takeda yelled angrily.

The Japs sent out to test had more than half of their casualties. They were being chased by hundreds of men from the Fourth Battalion and were only about 400 meters away from the main Japs force.

Captain Maeda looked anxious: "Major, what should we do now?"

"Major!" Captain Saito was very arrogant. "I suggest you rush forward and fight the Eighth Route Army with bayonets. As long as the two sides are mixed together, the Eighth Route Army's artillery will not be able to work!"

"Retreat to Liao County immediately!" Major Takeda ordered, "Quickly!"

Takeda was very clear-headed and realized that this evil force was not something he could provoke.

If we had a brigade of troops now, we might be able to compete with the Eighth Route Army, but there are only two squadrons, and the artillery has been destroyed...

Looking at this situation, the Black Island Cavalry Regiment has most likely been destroyed, and the reinforcements are nowhere to be seen.

There is no point in continuing this battle.

"Major..." Captain Saito was stunned. He was ready to attack, but Major ordered to retreat?

"idiot!"

Major Takeda slapped Saito on the face with a backhand. The force was so strong that half of Saito's face swelled up.

"Excuting an order!"

Captain Saito did not dare to say another word, so he paused and said: "Hi!"

Then the two squadron commanders walked towards their men and ordered them to retreat.

In this delay of more than ten seconds, the gunners of the independent regiment readjusted their shooting and aimed at the Japanese infantry.

The shells kept hitting the heads of the Japanese infantry, blooming in the middle of the Japanese infantry, making a rumbling sound, harvesting the lives of the Japanese like the god of death.

Japs were constantly being blown away by the air waves of the shells, and then rain of blood, sand, and broken limbs fell down. During the explosion, the Japs kept running towards the east.

When the earth stopped trembling, Major Takeda knew that the artillery bombardment from the Eighth Route Army had stopped. His head was buzzing with sharp blind sounds and he could not hear anything clearly. He shook off the soil from his body and stood up again. There seemed to be something in the distance.

What, a gray torrent surged over and gradually became clear.

It’s Eighth Route!

The strength is at least one battalion!

Major Takeda's expression changed.

The direction of their withdrawal was eastward, along the Yuliao Highway before they could return to Liao County.

This newly emerged Eighth Route Army blocked the retreat.

"Rush over!"

"attack!"

Major Takeda waved his command sword without hesitation. Although he only had more than 200 men in his hands now, he was confident that he had defeated a battalion of the Eighth Route Army head-on.

Following his order, the Japanese immediately picked up their bayonets and charged towards the Eighth Route Army.

The Eighth Route Army on the opposite side also moved forward with bayonets in hand, seemingly intent on fighting hand-to-hand.

Soon both sides came within 50 meters, and both could clearly see the fierce and fierce expressions on each other's faces.

However, what the Japanese never expected was that the eight soldiers in the front row, holding bayonets, suddenly dispersed to both sides after entering 30 meters.

At least hundreds of machine guns and light machine guns were immediately revealed behind them, with their black muzzles pointed at the charging Japanese troops.

Damn it!
Chapter completed!