my bright sword career

Chapter 67
The sudden shelling made Hashimoto Shinsuke's offensive plan come to naught. Looking at the first battalion struggling under the artillery fire, Hashimoto Shinsuke's heart was bleeding.

This is a full brigade of 1100 people. How many people will be left in this brigade after the shelling is over?
"Mr. Tuwu, where is our artillery squadron, can we suppress the Chinese people with firepower?"

After he finished speaking, he showed a wry smile. His artillery squadron only had four 70-type infantry guns. This kind of 400mm caliber mini-cannon with a total weight of only more than 105 kg was not enough to deal with even mortars on weekdays. The national army troops in the country are not bad, but if you want to use it to confront the [-]-caliber howitzer, that is simply a dream.

Sure enough, Kenji Tsuchiya shook his head: "Your Excellency, Captain, the artillery squadron reported that three of our four infantry guns were destroyed in the shelling of the Chinese. The artillery squadron is now hiding with the last infantry gun. Are you sure? Are you going to let them shoot at the Chinese artillery?"

"Forget it... don't let them come out to die."

Kenji Tsuchiya waved his hands weakly, and looked at the foot of the mountain still covered by intensive artillery fire, feeling bitter in his heart. He really couldn't understand how the Chinese people, who were always so poor that they couldn't even make cannonballs by themselves, played with artillery fire coverage. Isn't this a game that only the Great Japanese Empire and Western powers can afford?
Although he couldn't accept this fact in his heart, he still had to complete the order given by the brigade commander, and he must drive the Chinese people on the opposite side to the open space in front of him within two hours, even though he already knew that he might have to pay A lot of casualties.

"Tsuchiya-kun, tell the first brigade right away to withdraw as soon as the Chinese artillery coverage is over, and I will let the second brigade take over for them."

"Hey, I'll pass on your order right away."

Coincidentally, just after he gave the order, the sound of cannons suddenly stopped.

After more than ten minutes of shelling, the ears of the Japanese soldiers suddenly quieted down, and they were still a little unaccustomed to it for a while.

Some surviving Japanese soldiers listened for a while, and boldly poked their heads out to observe the surroundings, and found that the shelling had indeed stopped.

"Beep..."

Miura Masao stood up staggeringly, he shook his dizzy head vigorously, under him was a already stiff body, that was his fellow villager Nishino Jiro.

The whistle hanging around the neck was blown, and the sharp whistle sounded, and the originally dead surface began to slowly move, and one soldier after another staggered out of the bunker.

Just as Masao Miura was about to give an order, there was another scream in the sky.

Masao Miura's face immediately changed, and he fell to the ground again without thinking, and the surrounding Japanese soldiers quickly got into the bunker they had just climbed out of.

Just waiting for a few seconds, the expected shell did not fall among them, but a violent explosion sounded at Qixia Pass not far from them.

"Not good...Your Excellency, Captain..."

Masao Miura turned his head and saw that there were already explosions and thick smoke billowing across the Qixia pass, and the pass that was fine a few minutes ago became ablaze.

Seeing the transfer of artillery fire from the other side, Masao Miura not only did not celebrate, but turned pale with fright. You must know that Qixia Pass is the headquarters of the third regiment. Could it be that the newly reorganized headquarters of the third regiment Do you want to repeat the retreat and destroy it in the hands of the same person?

"Adjust 0.2 degrees to the right, and extend another 50 meters..."

"Cannonballs... hurry... quickly load the cannonballs... hurry up..."

At this time, the artillery battalion was crazy, and Geng Changshun was desperately urging on the sidelines. The four loaders were already sweating profusely, but he still thought it was too slow. In the end, he even took off his coat and loaded it himself in a hurry.

Wearing only a shirt, he pushed hard with his right hand, ruthlessly loaded a 21.06 kg high-explosive shell into the barrel, and shouted loudly to the ammunition hand behind him. At this time, the gun emplacement was surrounded by empty shell casings and Empty ammunition boxes, dozens of empty ammunition piled up like a hill.

Qixia Pass, which was originally beautiful, was shrouded in gunpowder smoke after the explosion, and the ground was still shaking from the shelling. The fortifications originally built by the Jinsui Army had all been destroyed by the shelling.

The shelling of Qixia Pass continued, and Wu Chengfeng, who was at the forefront, could even see the broken corpses that had been blown away.

The Japanese attack stopped after the bombardment began, and the soldiers of the first battalion were happy to hide behind the bunker and admire their own artillery fire.

It was also the first time that the third company commander, Nong Tiancai, saw his artillery battalion fully fired, and he couldn't help but exclaimed, "My dear, is the shelling too fierce this time? Is there anyone alive here?"

A soldier next to him asked: "Company commander, the devils in front have all been blown to death, what's the matter with our infantry this time?"

"Fool!"

Nong Tiancai said unhappily: "No matter how powerful the shell is, it can't kill everyone. When we need to charge, we need to rely on our infantry."

"That's true." The soldier thought deeply.

The shelling lasted for half an hour before it stopped. When the shelling stopped abruptly, everyone felt a little uncomfortable for a while.

After the shelling stopped, Qixia Pass had long lost its original appearance, and all the buildings had been destroyed by the shelling, including the headquarters of the [-]rd Regiment.

"Your Excellency, Captain...you wake up... wake up..."

Lieutenant General Tsuchiya Kenji, chief of staff of the Third Wing, was lucky. Although the headquarters was blown up, he was miraculously unscathed.

After the shelling stopped, he immediately recruited a few surviving guards to search desperately among the ruins.

"I'm looking for a fight...the captain is here!"

A guard shouted loudly, and after several people moved a stone away, they finally found the captain Shinsuke Hashimoto.

It's just that when Kenji Tsuchiya saw Hashimoto Shinsuke, his heart suddenly cooled down.

At this time, Hashimoto Shinsuke's head was knocked off halfway by something, and the white brain mixed with blood was flowing out of his head, and he was already dead.

"Your Excellency, Chief of Staff, what shall we do?" The guards also panicked, their chief was killed, and as guards, they are absolutely to blame.

Tsuchiya Ken's face turned pale, and he said in a trembling voice: "Baga...what are you doing in a daze, report to the brigade commander immediately and ask for tactical guidance."

"Hi!"

"Tick tock... tick..."

At this moment, there was a sound of bugles in the distance, and soon a guard ran over in a hurry.

"Your Excellency, Chief of Staff...the Chinese are launching a counterattack!"

"Nani?"

Kenji Tsuchiya staggered out of the headquarters that was almost blown into ruins. When he came to an open space and looked through the binoculars, he found that there was an army of hundreds of people at the foot of the mountain attacking Qixia Pass.

Although the first brigade at the foot of the mountain resisted vigorously, they were still retreating steadily under the fierce firepower of the opponent.

(End of this chapter)