The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 337: Annihilation of the Japanese Vanguard 1
"This is the situation. Captain Machida is still holding on in the village with several soldiers. Please make a decision as soon as possible, rescue Captain Machida, and annihilate the Chinese troops in the village."

The squad leader of the Machida Squadron, who was sent out by Machida to deliver the message, stood next to the jeep of Hamamoto Hayashi, commander of the forward battalion of the Hata Detachment, and said with a look of grief and indignation on his face.

Behind him followed a dozen or so miserable remnants of the Machida Squadron.

And Hamamoto Hayashi in the jeep was so shocked that he was speechless after hearing the report on the battle situation of the Machida Squadron by the commanding officer.

According to the original advance plan, Hamamoto Hayashi deployed the Machida Squadron to clear the way in front of the main force of the Vanguard Battalion, while the main force of the Vanguard Battalion followed in vehicles. When he heard the gunfire in front, Hamamoto Hayashi thought that the Machida Squadron was clearing out the Chinese army's harassing troops and was launching a fire attack on the Chinese army with powerful firepower, so he continued to advance as usual. However, he never imagined that the dense gunfire was actually a song of death played by the Chinese army for the Machida Squadron.

However, in less than ten minutes, Machida Squadron was completely wiped out in the battle attacking the village ahead!

An infantry company of more than 100 people was reduced to only a dozen people. Except for two soldiers who managed to escape, all the others in the three infantry squads were killed.

The battle scenes when they were ambushed described by the two surviving soldiers to Hamamoto Hayashi made Hamamoto Hayashi break out in a cold sweat.

According to the two soldiers, when they were ambushed, the number of automatic weapons of the Chinese army, the fierceness of the firepower, and the accuracy of the shooting were all unprecedented. Moreover, the ambush firepower of the Chinese army was almost all automatic weapons, and the bullets were more fierce than a rainstorm.

When they were attacked by the Chinese army's firepower, many Japanese soldiers were turned into a hornet's nest by the dense fire network, let alone launching a counterattack. They didn't even have time to raise their guns.

In fact, the two surviving soldiers did not even see the Chinese soldiers who ambushed them during the battle. The three infantry squads were defeated and eaten up in a short period of time.

Hamamoto Lin originally thought that the Chinese troops harassing his troops were just some guerrillas, who could be quickly defeated by fighting and intimidating them. Now it seems that the Chinese army he is about to face is not only no ordinary force, but also by no means an elite force of the ordinary Chinese army.

After all, it took only five or six minutes for this Chinese army to almost wipe out an infantry company. Such combat efficiency and firepower density were really terrifying. Hamamoto Lin had fought against many elite troops of the Central Army of the Chinese Army before. The combat effectiveness of those troops was indeed good, but not to this extent. More importantly, those troops absolutely could not have such fierce firepower.

Hamamoto Lin guessed that the Chinese army that launched a night attack on his troops last night and wiped out one of his squads was most likely this Chinese army with extremely strong combat effectiveness and firepower.

People always have an innate fear and anxiety about unknown things. Thinking that such a Chinese army was blocking the way forward of his vanguard battalion, Hamamoto Lin inevitably felt a little worried and concerned.

Suddenly, a breeze blew by. In the summer filled with scorching sun and high temperature, Hamamoto Lin suddenly felt as if a cold wind was blowing, and a sudden chill went straight to his bones on his back.

The adjutant on the passenger seat of the jeep said to Hamamoto Hayashi, "Sir, this time we may have encountered the main force of the Chinese army. Captain Machida is still in the village. Why don't we pick Captain Machida up first and then make a long-term plan."

Hamamoto Lin shook his head: "The enemy is indeed strong, but don't forget the mission of the headquarters. We don't have time to make long-term plans now."

Hamamoto Lin jumped off the jeep, looked at the long line of vehicles behind him, and said decisively: "Stop moving forward, all troops are ready to attack. The second infantry squadron, temporary engineering squadron, and heavy machine gun squad are ready to attack the village ahead. The artillery squadron is also ready to fight, and the artillery is deployed to cover the attack with artillery firepower."

"Sir, aren't we deploying too many troops in the attack? The 2nd Infantry Squadron and the Heavy Machine Gun Squadron should indeed be deployed in the attack, but isn't it a bit risky to deploy the temporary engineer squadron in the attack? It would be more prudent to use the temporary engineer squadron as a reserve."

The adjutant asked Hamamoto Lin questioningly.

"Let's do this. The Chinese army we are dealing with is not an ordinary army. We should not think about the reserve troops at this time. If we are still timid, it will become a tactic of adding fuel to the fire. It is better to invest all the available combat forces in our hands. Only then will we have a chance to defeat the Chinese army in front of us in one fell swoop."

Hamamoto Lin said: "That's it, you go and pass the order immediately."

Hamamoto Lin had made up his mind, and his adjutant, as his subordinate, had no reason to raise any objections. So, the adjutant patted the jeep driver on the shoulder, and then the jeep turned around with difficulty in the mud and drove to the rear to deliver the message to the convoy loaded with Japanese infantry, engineers, artillery and other units.

At present, the Machida Squadron under Hamamoto Hayashi is no different from being annihilated. The infantry unit under his command only has one Infantry Squadron No. 2. Apart from that, the only one with infantry attack capabilities is the Temporary Engineer Squadron.

This temporary engineering squadron was not a professional engineering unit. It was just a makeshift engineering squadron that was temporarily put together by Shigekazu Hata, the commander of the Hata Detachment, when the Hamamoto Lin's vanguard force was being formed, in order to enable the vanguard force to have certain engineering operations capabilities.

Most of the soldiers in this squadron were drawn from the infantry forces of other units. In essence, it was just an infantry squadron with more shovels and pickaxes. When Hamamoto Lin put this temporary engineering squadron into the attack, it meant that he had put all his infantry combat forces into it.

Inside the village, on the roof of the command post of the advance column, Zhao Zhanhai looked through the telescope at the long queues of Japanese army convoys. Accompanied by a thunderous roar of engines, thick smoke and dust rose from the distant horizon. A large number of black trucks were parked in a row on the road not far from the village, and the infantry and artillery loaded on the trucks quickly got off and started moving.

Zhao Zhanhai said to Yang Biao, "Captain Yang, the Japanese are moving. Quickly send your men to pass the order and have the three infantry platoons in your company leave their current positions and advance as close to the passage at the entrance to the village as possible. Once there, have one platoon guard the end of the passage, and the other two platoons occupy the houses on both sides of the entrance. When the Japanese infantry break in, hit them hard!"

Yang Biao asked in confusion: "Sir, my three platoons were fighting well just now, why are we asking them to push forward to the village entrance now?"

"Captain Yang, the Japanese prisoners of war yesterday have already confessed that the Japanese army in front of us has artillery, and I just destroyed a squadron of them. If the Japanese commander attacks us again, he will definitely use artillery to bombard the position where we ambushed the Japanese just now. If your three platoons are still in the same place, they will be in trouble if the Japanese fire a round of artillery."

Yang Biao then slapped his head and said, "So that's it."

"Now let your three platoons move towards the village entrance. This time, when the Japanese rush into the village, there is no need to be polite to them. Hit them hard. Use our mortars here. Use the various firearms and mortars in the hands of the infantry to create a fire net for the Japanese. When the fire is almost ready, the cavalry hiding outside the village should also move. Humph, they can't afford to waste this Japanese force in front of them."

"I see. It's a pity that the three platoons had to work hard to build the fortifications in the ambush area. They spent a lot of effort last night to build the fortifications in the ambush area and open up the yard. It's a pity that the Japanese just now were really weak."

Yang Biao sighed with regret, and immediately asked the messenger to go and issue Zhao Zhanhai's combat order to the three platoons.

Indeed, the three platoons of the mounted infantry company carefully built fairly complete fortifications overnight yesterday. Not only did they open a large number of firing holes in the houses in the ambush area and dig a considerable number of prone-firing foxhole positions, they also opened up all the yards in the ambush area, making all preparations for a melee and close combat with the Japanese army.

However, the Machida Squadron of the Japanese Army that broke in was not very durable and was completely wiped out after a sudden fire attack. The fortifications that had been built and the courtyards that had been opened up with much effort were of little use.

Now Zhao Zhanhai asked the three platoons of the horse infantry company to evacuate the ambush area, and inferred that the Japanese army would bombard the ambush area. In this way, those carefully built fortifications would be equivalent to useless work. Yang Biao, who personally supervised the construction of the fortifications, naturally felt a little regretful.

Zhao Zhanhai looked at the Japanese military convoy outside the village and the Japanese troops hastily preparing for battle. He was calm and composed, not at all panicked, and looked as if he had everything planned out.

Thanks to the captured Japanese prisoners last night, Zhao Zhanhai had a clear understanding of the entire force and firearms of the Japanese vanguard in front of him. This Japanese vanguard battalion was completely transparent to Zhao Zhanhai. The commander of the Japanese vanguard battalion, Hamamoto Hayashi, who was deliberately deploying the attack outside the village, had no idea that his underwear had been seen through by the enemy. After figuring out the background of the Japanese army on the opposite side, Zhao Zhanhai certainly had a good idea in his mind and could guess the next offensive deployment of the Japanese army.

According to Zhao Zhanhai's inference, after the Japanese army's first infantry attack was thwarted, they would definitely use artillery fire as cover when launching a second attack, bombarding the ambush area of ​​the three infantry platoons of the mounted infantry company, and then use infantry to launch another attack on the village when the artillery fire was almost ready.

The commander of the opposing Japanese army, Hamamoto Hayashi, did adopt the tactics predicted by Zhao Zhanhai.

After Hamamoto Lin's battle order was passed down, the Japanese troops of the Vanguard Battalion quickly took action. The soldiers of the Taiwan Island Second Infantry Squadron and the Temporary Engineer Squadron belonging to the Vanguard Battalion jumped out of the vehicles and gathered together. Under the organization of officers at all levels, they deployed battle formations, crawled and hid on the spot, waiting for the order to launch an attack.

The artillerymen of the artillery squadron of the Vanguard Battalion urgently unloaded the four Type 41 75mm mountain cannons loaded on trucks, assembled them, and urgently built artillery positions. Under the guidance of the escaped soldiers of the Machida Squadron, the artillery squadron's direct observation squad began to use artillery telescopes and rangefinders to calculate the shooting parameters of the Machida Squadron's ambush position.

Finally, after more than ten minutes of emergency preparation, the Japanese artillery squadron, which had completed emergency combat shooting preparations, began artillery preparations.

Due to the urgency of the situation, the Japanese artillery squadron's four Type 41 75mm mountain guns did not even conduct a test firing, and went straight into the effective firing phase of four-gun salvo firing.

White smoke came out of the muzzles of the four mountain cannons, and with the rumbling of the cannons, they began to bombard the ambush position of the Machida Squadron in the village.

In the village
Boom boom-boom

Amid the rumbling sounds of explosions, one 75mm shell after another landed accurately on the original ambush area of ​​the three infantry platoons of the Horse Infantry Company. The Japanese artillery's observation was very accurate, and the first round of shelling correctly hit the target area.

Amid the deafening sound of artillery fire and exploding shells, 75mm explosive grenades, 75mm shotgun shells and a small amount of 75mm incendiary bombs fell one after another. Where the shells landed and exploded, there was a dazzling, billowing red color and billowing black smoke.

The exploding grenades knocked down houses one after another. The prefabricated steel balls from the exploding shrapnel punched big holes in the walls and windows of the houses. The exploding incendiary bombs ignited some flammable straw and caused a raging fire.

The courtyard of the house, which had just been occupied by three infantry platoons, was quickly turned into a mess under the rapid fire of four mountain cannons.

After more than ten minutes of shelling, there was no intact house left in the area where the three infantry squads of the Machida Company were ambushed. There were ruined and collapsed houses and bomb craters everywhere, collapsed pig pens and cow sheds, and incomplete corpses and body parts of the Japanese soldiers could be seen everywhere.

The bodies of the Japanese soldiers of the Machida Squadron that had been ambushed were all concentrated on three narrow paths in the ambush area. In the intensive artillery bombardment, these bodies also suffered. Shells kept hitting the piles of Japanese bodies, blowing many bodies and the weapons, helmets and equipment of the fallen Japanese soldiers to pieces. The violent explosion of the shells falling on the piles of Japanese bodies even detonated the grenades on the bodies of some Japanese grenade throwers, causing a chain explosion.

Wood fragments and earth from the houses that were collapsed by artillery shells were flying everywhere mixed with thick blood mist. In a short while, not only were all the houses in the ambush area where the three infantry platoons had just been fighting destroyed by artillery fire, but even the bodies of the fallen officers and soldiers of the Japanese Machida Squadron were blown to pieces, with bloody pieces of flesh everywhere.

The ambush areas of the three platoons seemed to have been turned into bloody alleys by the fierce artillery bombardment, and became several dense and narrow smoke zones.

However, the three infantry platoons of the mounted infantry company originally deployed in the shelling area had already left their original positions and moved towards the village entrance.

After the three platoons of the horse-mounted infantry company withdrew from their respective designated ambush positions, they moved towards the village entrance and converged at the front passage of the village entrance.

After the three infantry platoons joined together, they immediately deployed themselves according to Zhao Zhanhai's orders. The third platoon of the horse-mounted infantry company guarded the end of the passage to the village entrance, blocking the Japanese army's path into the village.

Liu Yonggui's first row of infantry and Ou Yuxiang's second row of infantry advanced along the houses on both sides of the passage respectively, preparing to use the houses on both sides as defensive positions and form cross fire together with the third row guarding at the end of the passage in the village. After the Japanese infantry broke into the village, these three platoons could form a three-way fire attack on the Japanese troops attacking along the passage at the entrance of the village from the front, left and right.

Just as the third row of the mounted infantry company had reached the designated position, the first and second rows were also accelerating their advance.

In a courtyard on the left side of the village entrance, Captain Machida, who had been reduced to a lone squadron leader, was in the corner of the yard, holding a Type 38 rifle. Amid the whistling sounds of shells breaking through the air, he looked at the points where the intensive artillery fire landed with a look of relief on his face.

The three Japanese soldiers beside him were the same. Looking at the fierce artillery bombardment and the billowing smoke and raging flames after the explosion of the shells, they seemed to see the Chinese army that had just ambushed them suffering heavy losses in the artillery bombardment and wailing in pain, and their hearts were filled with pleasure.

However, they were completely unaware that the Chinese troops who had ambushed them had already withdrawn, and the worst hit by the artillery bombardment were the bodies of the dead Japanese officers and soldiers of the Machida Squadron.

When Machida and his companions were happily observing the "spectacle" of the shelling, suddenly, the door of the courtyard was kicked open. Machida and his companions heard the noise coming from behind and turned around, only to see four or five Chinese soldiers wearing German-style steel helmets suddenly rushing out of the house and colliding with Machida and his companions.

The courtyard where Machida and his men were located was at the designated defense position of the first row of the mounted infantry company. The person who rushed out of the house and suddenly encountered Machida was Liu Yonggui, the platoon leader of the first row, who was leading his troops along the house towards the designated defense position.

The encounter between the two sides was a sudden one. Machida Ichi and the three Japanese soldiers did not react for a while and stared at Liu Yonggui and his men. Liu Yonggui, who was leading several soldiers in the first row, also stood there in a daze, staring at Machida Ichi and his men. They did not expect that there were several Japanese soldiers hiding in this broken yard.

After the stalemate between the two sides lasted for seven or eight seconds, Machida Ichi and Liu Yonggui, who had reacted, shouted almost at the same time.

"Chinese soldiers, kill them!"

"Kill these devils!"

The two sides moved almost at the same time. Machida Ichi and three Japanese soldiers raised their Type 28 rifles and were ready to fight. However, the Type bolt-action rifles with bayonets in Machida Ichi's hands were not as fast as the speed machine guns and MP submachine guns of Liu Yonggui and the first row of soldiers.

Before Machida and his men could turn the muzzles of their slender Type 28 rifles around, Liu Yonggui picked up his -shot submachine gun and fired at them. Several soldiers in the first row also raised their MP submachine guns and started firing fiercely.

da da da da da

Amidst a burst of crackling gunfire, the rapid-fire machine pistol and the MP28 submachine gun fired dense mm Mauser pistol bullets at Machida and his entourage.

Immediately, blood mixed with brain matter splashed out, and blood mist exploded in the air. Captain Machida and his three soldiers were quickly beaten into sieves and fell in a pool of blood.

(End of this chapter)