Chapter 413 Evildoers will be punished

It’s too late to mend the fold, but Niu Yuanxiang and his men have already missed the best time to attack.

The Japanese chose the distances they used to build their fortifications very cleverly.

Grenades could not be thrown that far, and their homemade cannons and simple catapults could reach the target, but they could not hit the target accurately.

Moreover, their homemade artillery took too long to reload.

The Japanese still have some advantages now as their mortars are not set up, but their firepower will definitely not be enough when the real bombardment begins.

The Japanese brought a lot of engineers, and they could not be stopped by the number of snipers from Xiaohuangshan alone.

Yoshioka is not Oda. He has rich practical experience. After asking Tengchuan, he found a layout suitable for the terrain of Xiaohuangshan.

This is the only way to do it without air force assistance.

Niu Yuanxiang had no choice but to arrange for everyone in Xiaohuangshan to divert some of their firepower to this side, but the fortifications more than half a meter high were enough for the Japanese to crawl down and hide behind the bunkers to counterattack.

Although the space behind the bunker was not large and only a limited number of people could hide inside, it still caused harassment to them.

We can’t penetrate the cover, and if we don’t suppress the fire, we’re afraid that the people behind us will come out to fight back.

Now that these Japanese soldiers have cover, they don’t have to hide everywhere and will have more time to observe and aim. If we leave them alone, there will be heavy casualties in Xiaohuangshan.

The key point is that there is not just one such fortification, but it is divided into four layers.

As more and more enemies appeared behind the cover, the people in Xiaohuangshan were overwhelmed.

Not only did they have to stop the engineers who were secretly building fortifications, but they also had to stop the Japanese who were hiding behind bunkers and shooting at them, while the puppet troops on the battlefield ahead were still charging.

If he doesn’t handle it well, once the Japanese set up artillery positions, he will be in big trouble.

Faced with a ten-fold difference in numbers, the four hundred gun lines deployed by Xiaohuangshan were still too few.

The situation is becoming increasingly difficult, and this line of defense may not be able to hold out for much longer.

Niu Yuanxiang pounded the ground in front of him, regretting his carelessness and not being able to discover these Japanese who were secretly building fortifications earlier.

If the Japanese plan had been discovered earlier, the fortifications would not be enough to serve as cover for those people, and we could have effectively sniped them and prevented them from building fortifications.

Or it could greatly delay the time it takes them to build fortifications.

If Xiaohuangshan allocates firepower to block the attack, they can hold out for at least another ten minutes, and will definitely be able to kill many more people.

But now is not the time to regret, Niu Yuanxiang had no choice but to order everyone to kill as many enemies as possible.

As long as you avoid being hit by enemies behind cover, now prioritize focusing fire on enemies on the front battlefield and cause as many casualties as possible to the enemy.

But the sniper’s mission target was still the engineers who were carrying the sacks. He didn’t seek to stop them completely, but just to slow down their progress.

If Niu Yuanxiang wants to give up this second line of defense, he can only take advantage of the moment to reduce the enemy’s combat effectiveness. Otherwise, when they retreat to the third line of defense, there will be no support behind them and they will have nowhere to retreat, and the pressure will only increase.

Although their homemade artillery had poor accuracy, there were a large number of puppet troops on the front line, and the shells could hit the enemy no matter where they fell.

With the relentless firing of the crowd, the puppet army was pushed back.

The battalion that rushed to the front at the beginning was almost wiped out, and the situation of the other two battalions was better but also very tragic. Nearly half of the 1,500-man puppet army had suffered casualties.

“We can’t go any further. There’s no chance of getting on this.”

Ma Shuhuan murmured to himself. The battalion commander of the first battalion was killed by a shell right in front of him. He had begun to doubt whether he could survive this battle.

They had already wiped out a battalion, but had not even gotten halfway across the distance.

Now there was no time to discuss countermeasures with his two battalion commanders, so Ma Shuhuan found a corner where artillery shells could not reach and hid there.

But as soon as he got in, he saw his second battalion commander, and the two of them stared at each other.

“No, Captain. I have no choice but to do this. I can’t survive if I don’t hide.”

Ma Shuhuan patted the second battalion commander on the shoulder and said, “It’s good that you survived. Move to the side and give me some space.”

It wasn’t just the two of them. All the puppet soldiers on the battlefield who had some sense found a shelter and pretended to be dead.

They would not do anything that would be fruitless, and the Japanese would not treat them well.

For a time, the pressure on the front battlefield of Xiaohuangshan was greatly reduced, and only less than half of the puppet troops were still charging.

Seeing that the battle situation was improving, Niu Yuanxiang immediately transferred a group of firepower to stop the engineers.

“idiot.”

Yoshioka cursed loudly, saying that these puppet troops were indeed unreliable.

If they can hold out a little longer, the mortars will be set up.

Yoshioka never thought that it was he who had been driving the puppet troops into the muzzle of the gun.

The fortifications were already more than one meter high, and only half a meter was needed for their mortars to safely attack these hateful bandits.

“Speed ​​up the work, engineers. Infantrymen, help out. Repair the fortifications with all your strength.”

Yoshioka commanded, wielding his bayonet.

Niu Yuanxiang watched as the construction work progressed at a rapid pace and the people from Xiaohuangshan were unable to stop it.

It was almost time to retreat. They had to retreat before the mortars were set up, otherwise they would be targets with so many people on the road.

Niu Yuanxiang ordered: “Hit them hard, and retreat in one minute.”

Grenades flew out of the catapults like they were free. Some of them did not hit the fortifications, but instead killed the puppet soldiers who were pretending to be dead nearby.

Gunfire roared, and the mountains and fields were littered with broken limbs and arms.

Soon, a minute passed.

The Japanese fortifications were almost repaired.

Yoshioka was about to give the order for the artillery to deploy its fire.

A sharp whistle sounded throughout Xiaohuangshan.

This was the secret signal that Niu Yuanxiang had set in advance. When he heard the whistle, he would immediately abandon this place and return to the third line of defense.

At the same time, it can also remind Niu Yuanxiang who is responsible for receiving the wounded in the third line of defense.

Before the mortars were set up, the people on the mountain disappeared.

Although he successfully captured this place, Yoshioka was not happy at all.

Their losses were too great, and Yoshioka estimated that three to four hundred of the fierce imperial warriors alone were killed or wounded.

He couldn’t estimate the casualties at Xiaohuangshan, but he was in a commanding position and had the cliffs as cover.

The bandits’ casualties must have been much less than theirs.

Yoshioka couldn’t help but curse: “Baga, these damn bandits are so cunning.”

When the battle was over, some puppet soldiers who had been hiding and pretending to be dead tried to sneak back.

Ma Shuhuan originally wanted to come out and persuade Yoshioka to retreat, but was pulled back by the second battalion commander next to him.

The second battalion commander analyzed in a low voice: “Don’t go out yet. The imperial army is angry and may want to kill someone.”

At first, a small number of puppet troops returned to the team, but Yoshioka did not notice.

Until he saw a puppet soldier tremblingly climb up from the pile of corpses and trot back to the regiment.

“You useless deserters.”

Yoshioka was still angry, and he became even angrier when he saw these people.

He did not execute these people because they would be useful in the next attack.

It won’t be too late to let them die on the battlefield later, or execute them after the bandits are wiped out.

These people are going to die sooner or later.

Now Yoshioka just wants to find a deserter to make an example of him.

“Where is your leader?”

Yoshioka looked around but couldn’t find any trace of Ma Shuhuan.

Ma Shuhuan, who was hiding in the dark, guessed what Yoshioka meant and didn’t even dare to breathe.

“Baga, you, get out of here.”

Yoshioka pointed at a random deserter. The deserter took a few steps forward tremblingly when he was shot in the head.

“This will be the fate of those who desert the battlefield in the future.”

Yoshioka ordered to find a place to reorganize. Having suffered such a huge loss this time, they must not pursue blindly.

After a round of counting, there were less than 700 puppet soldiers left. In the first wave of fighting alone, more than half of them were killed or wounded.

Although the Japanese regiment did not suffer as badly, they still suffered more than 500 casualties.

The number of casualties was much higher than Yoshioka estimated.

He didn’t know how many enemies there were, but judging from the gunshots, there were at most four or five hundred of them, which meant that Xiaohuangshan did not deploy all of their troops here.

Even so, they suffered more than a thousand casualties, and this battle has become a shame for Yoshioka.

Unfortunately, he had no choice but to continue fighting. He had to completely conquer Xiaohuangshan and eliminate this group of bandits. This would reduce his shame.

When Ma Shuhuan and the second battalion commander saw the Japanese leaving, they hurriedly ran down the mountain.

He had no thoughts at all now and just hoped to survive.

The third line of defense of Xiaohuangshan.

Niu Yuanxiang was wiping his gun while listening to his men’s reports.

Although they retreated, it was still a victory.

However, this time the number disparity was too great, and the losses were much greater than the last time the Japanese attacked.

This time they suffered fifty or sixty casualties.

This was the result of the Japanese not setting up mortars.

We must not engage in a direct fight with the Japanese, otherwise the casualties will more than double.

If the third line of defense could no longer be held, they would abandon their residence and continue to fight guerrilla warfare against the Japanese.

We must never give them the opportunity to fire.

Niu Yuanxiang called a few trusted men and hurriedly made arrangements. Soon the Japanese would rush over.

The Japanese fought very fiercely this time. Niu Yuanxiang estimated that if he didn’t kill another 500 devils, they would never retreat.

But Niu Yuanxiang wanted these devils to stay here forever.

Just now, they fought with 400 people against 4,000 people and killed more than 1,000 of the enemy, although most of them were puppet troops and engineers.

Niu Yuanxiang believed that this time, with more than 700 people against an opponent with less than 3,000 people, they could still inflict heavy damage on the enemy.

The Japs are also human beings. They have a strong will to fight, but if there is a way to retreat, and their number is reduced by more than half, they will retreat.

There is another reason. They are bandits, not regular troops. If they did not pose a major threat to the Japanese supply lines, the Japanese would not care so much about them.

When it comes to fighting the Japanese invaders, Niu Yuanxiang is never afraid, and neither are the heroes of Xiaohuangshan.

However, we must minimize casualties as much as possible, the losses just now have been great enough.

Although it is a time of chaos, it is not difficult for Xiaohuangshan to recruit troops, but they don’t want everyone.

Xiaohuangshan will return to the organization sooner or later, and Niu Yuanxiang must take good care of it.

At the foot of Xiaohuang Mountain.

The temporary action team of Wuhan Station has assembled here.

Eight people in total.

If there are too many people, it will be easy to be discovered; if there are too few people, there is a risk that the message will not be passed back.

Even this amount was something He Rongtang managed to collect with great difficulty.

There are many people in the organization who do not know the current location of Wuhan Station, but there are very few who are qualified to do battlefield reconnaissance.

He Rongtang picked out these people by selecting generals from among the lame men.

The first task assigned to them in this reconnaissance was to hide themselves and not be discovered.

Then it’s time to scout the battlefield.

It was just a coincidence that as soon as these people went up the mountain, they met Ma Shuhuan and his companion who were crawling down the mountain.

The distance was too close and the action team no longer had time to hide themselves.

He stood in front of the two men and asked, “You two look very unfamiliar. Who are you?”

Seeing that they were Chinese, Ma Shuhuan and the other man naturally could not say that they were puppet soldiers.

They could only lie to the action team and say that they were hunters on Xiaohuang Mountain. They heard that there was a war on the mountain and they were afraid of being affected, so they ran down in a hurry.

As for the puppet army clothes that Ma Shuhuan was originally wearing, he had taken them off and thrown away when the two men escaped.

When the action team heard that the two men were from Xiaohuangshan, they did not want to cause trouble and wanted to let them go after asking about the situation.

But an eagle-eyed team member noticed something was wrong.

The two men said they were hunters, so it was normal to have some marks of gun use on their hands.

But I saw that they looked too nervous, and there was a smell of gunpowder mixed with blood and rust on their bodies.

It’s definitely not just as simple as the hunter.

Secondly, although they took off their military uniforms and changed into civilian clothes that they had stolen from somewhere, they were dressed in a messy way, revealing the white shirts underneath.

These clothes are not something a hunter can wear, and their skin is even less like that of a hunter.

The team member stepped forward and questioned the two men about some information about Xiaohuangshan.

The two puppet army leaders had no idea about the Xiaohuangshan incident and they hesitated and could not answer.

The captain of the action team winked.

“Capture him and take him back for questioning.”

The two were caught as soon as they ran out, proving the old saying that evildoers will be punished with evil.

Ma Shuhuan had lived a life of luxury and could not bear the torture at all. After a while, he admitted his identity under the torture of the Military Control Commission agents.

“A commander of a puppet army?”

The two Military Intelligence Bureau agents looked at each other and noticed the ecstasy in each other’s eyes.

It’s a great achievement, a huge achievement.

Who could have thought that they would capture such a big shot while carrying out a dangerous reconnaissance mission?

Although he was not Japanese, Ma Shuhuan was a traitor and a graduate of a military academy.

For them, catching someone like Ma Shuhuan is enough for them to be promoted to the next level.

Most importantly, they got the information they wanted most from Ma Shuhuan.

The current situation of Xiaohuangshan.

The Japanese really thought highly of Xiaohuangshan. They sent 4,000 troops to attack Xiaohuangshan, a city with less than 1,000 people, and suffered heavy losses.

Ma Shuhuan didn’t know the exact loss figures, but he was a regiment commander after all, so he could make a rough calculation.

Half of the people in Xiaohuangshan killed more than a thousand of them?

This Little Huangshan is so terrifying. No wonder the stationmaster attaches so much importance to them and specially sends them here to inquire about the situation.

They only knew He Rongtang’s order and didn’t know that it was an order from Boss Dai.

Otherwise would be much happier.

Once the intelligence is reported, Boss Dai will definitely see their names. He Rongtang is not a stationmaster who would take credit for his subordinates’ work, so he will report it truthfully.

Secondly, Boss Dai does not value Xiaohuangshan, but the Red Party.

There are Red Party members in Xiaohuangshan, and he needs to understand the situation in Xiaohuangshan clearly.

We must never allow this group of people to truly grow up.

(End of this chapter)