The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 340 Victory
Hamamoto Lin looked back in horror, only to see an unknown number of cavalrymen slowly approaching from behind him. Hamamoto Lin, who had just been immersed in the grief of the remaining officers and soldiers in the village being wiped out by the Chinese army, had no time to continue his grief, and immediately fell into infinite fear.

Although the number of Chinese cavalry rushing from the rear was not large, it seemed like a dream to Hamamoto Lin at this moment.

At this point, how could Hamamoto Lin not know that the Chinese army's intention was to encircle and annihilate his vanguard brigade? Hamamoto Lin suddenly felt that he was very ridiculous.

After setting out from Jiujiang, the army had been advancing rapidly and unimpeded. After being attacked last night, he had ordered an effort to clear out and annihilate the Chinese troops that had ambushed his own troops. However, now they had suffered heavy losses and were under siege. It turned out that their own troops were about to be annihilated!
Hamamoto Lin was still able to remain calm at this time, but the soldiers under his command did not have the courage and composure. Now the troops around Hamamoto Lin were only a mountain artillery squadron, more than a hundred drivers guarding vehicles, without weapons, equipped only with a bayonet, and a group of communication and health staff.

The artillerymen of the mountain artillery squadron had experienced the hardships of war and were relatively calm. They were able to hold their respective combat positions, but the car drivers were not so calm.

As the loud noise of the Chinese cavalry trampling the ground as they ran quickly approached, the Japanese car drivers who were only equipped with bayonets were all frightened and jumped out of their cars. The braver ones ran towards the artillery positions of Hamamoto Lin and the mountain artillery squadron, praying for shelter.

Some of the frightened ones simply crawled under the trucks to hide. The convoy of more than 100 trucks and jeeps was filled with truck drivers running around in chaos.

"Sir, what should we do?"

The adjutant asked, looking at the oncoming cavalry in horror.

Hamamoto Lin sighed and said in a sad tone: "Let the mountain artillery squadron turn the muzzle, change to shrapnel shells, and prepare to fire at the Chinese cavalry at zero range. Everyone gather near the mountain artillery squadron position to prepare for the final resistance. Order the signalman to report the current situation of our unit to the detachment commander and then destroy the radio station."

"Yes!"

The adjutant stood at attention and went down to pass on the order with a look of despair on his face.

The final dying struggle of the Japanese vanguard battalion soon began. The Japanese mountain artillery squadron, which had originally aimed its guns at the village, quickly adjusted the deployment of the artillery positions, turned the guns around, and aimed them at the cavalry. They also replaced the 75mm grenades in the gun barrels with shrapnel shells. The ammunition soldiers also quickly changed the fuses of the shells, turning the shells into a zero-range shooting mode where they would explode as soon as they left the barrel.

After sending the last telegram and destroying the radio station, the communications soldiers, medical soldiers, and dozens of relatively calm Japanese truck drivers all gathered near the artillery position. The remnants of Hamamoto Lin's troops finally formed a temporary defense circle with the mountain artillery position as the core.

Since the ratio of firearms equipped by the Japanese army's general staff and non-frontline infantry was not high, and the number of guns equipped by the artillery units was also limited, the vast majority of Japanese soldiers in this temporary defense circle had only bayonets but no firearms. Only a very small number of Japanese soldiers had rifles and pistols, and the remaining Japanese soldiers either held bayonets or grenades. The only effective resistance to firepower in the entire defense circle was the four 75mm mountain cannons in the core of the defense circle.

The remaining Japanese troops could only make their final resistance in this way and welcome their last moment.

"Charge forward, spread out, don't get together, the Japanese have mountain artillery! Disperse and outflanke, attack from all sides!"

The cavalry platoon leader of the advancing column pointed the saber in his hand forward suddenly, and the warhorse under his crotch was stabbed hard by the spurs, let out a long neigh, and galloped forward.

The cavalry platoon leader's eyes were full of coldness, and he sneered as he looked at the Japanese defense circle centered on four mountain cannons.

Under the arrangement of Zhao Zhanhai, commander of the Advance Column, the cavalry platoon under the Advance Column had already withdrawn from the village overnight. The order Zhao Zhanhai gave to this reinforced cavalry platoon was to attack the Japanese convoy and baggage when the main force of the Japanese army was attracted into the village, and to outflank their rear.

Now most of the main infantry forces of the Japanese army have been wiped out, with only some artillery and service soldiers left outside the village. This is of course the best time to attack.

Seeing that the opportunity to fight had arrived, the cavalry platoon leader led more than 60 cavalrymen to attack the Japanese troops outside the village after firing the agreed signal flare. He naturally knew the purpose of the Japanese troops outside the village hiding in a position with mountain artillery as the core. They simply wanted to use the lethal firepower of the mountain artillery to make a final resistance to the cavalry. But how could the cavalry platoon leader let the Japanese army do as they wished? So, he decisively ordered the cavalry to disperse the attack.

More than sixty cavalrymen quickly dispersed under the order of the cavalry platoon leader, and galloped on their horses with shouts of "Charge" and strange cries. In an instant, the sound of hooves was like thunder, and they rushed towards the Japanese army's temporary defense circle at an extremely fast speed.

The scattered cavalry were divided into more than 20 groups of two or three horses. Some attacked head-on, while others made detours to the flanks, attacking the Japanese army from multiple directions.

However, most of the cavalrymen were not holding sabers, but the MP28 submachine guns or Czech-made rifles distributed to them by He Wei before setting off.

These cavalrymen were from Ma Ji's command and were from the cavalry company of the former 24rd Division. Originally, they were only equipped with sabers and Hanyang carbine. In order to strengthen the cavalry's firepower, He Wei equipped each cavalryman with a Czech vz28 rifle, a Mauser -shot pistol and an MP submachine gun before departure, which gave this cavalryman quite powerful close combat firepower.

Soon, more than sixty scattered cavalrymen surrounded the temporary defense circle of the remnants of the Japanese troops outside the village from multiple directions.

The four mountain cannons in the center of the Japanese temporary defense circle were all lined up in a row. They were originally prepared to resist the oncoming Chinese cavalry with frontal artillery fire, but they never expected that these Chinese cavalry would completely disperse and attack, forming a comprehensive encirclement of the Japanese temporary defense circle.

The Japanese gunner operating the mountain cannon suddenly became at a loss. He saw Chinese cavalry everywhere and had no idea where to fire.

As a result, before the Japanese mountain artillery could open fire first, the Czech rifles in the hands of the Chinese cavalry took the lead and fired a burst of random shots. Suddenly, bursts of painful howls were heard from the temporary defense circle of the Japanese army. 7.92 mm bullets flew randomly from all directions towards the defense circle of the Japanese army. Immediately, more than a dozen Japanese soldiers were killed or wounded and fell to the ground.

It was not until then that the commander of the Japanese vanguard battalion, Hamamoto Hayashi, gave the order to open fire.
Boom
White smoke came out of the muzzles of the four mountain cannons. Four 75mm shrapnel shells in zero-range shooting mode exploded less than a hundred meters after flying out of the barrel. The dense pre-made steel balls of shrapnel burst in the air at once. However, the casualties caused to the more than 60 cavalrymen who had been scattered were negligible. Only four or five cavalrymen were hit by the exploding steel balls and fell off their horses.

At the same time as the four Japanese mountain cannons opened fire, a small number of Japanese soldiers armed with rifles also began to shoot at the charging Chinese cavalry. Needless to say, the hit rate of using rifles to shoot at cavalry charging at high speed was very high. Moreover, there were very few well-trained infantrymen in the temporary defense circle of the Japanese army. They were all artillerymen, communications soldiers, service soldiers and even car soldiers, and their shooting skills were very poor.

Therefore, after a burst of chaotic shooting, only a few Chinese cavalry were hit.

"Fire quickly, fire quickly!"

The Japanese gunners shouted in horror and immediately began to unload and reload shells and adjust the aiming direction of the artillery.

However, before they could open fire again, as the distance between the two sides shortened, the cavalrymen rushing at high speed greeted them with MP28 submachine guns. Dense Mauser mm pistol bullets shot into the Japanese army's temporary defense circle like water, and there were waves of screams and cries of pain again.

The cavalrymen rushed towards the Japanese defense circle while firing at them with their submachine guns. The cavalrymen did not need to aim when firing their submachine guns. They just raised their guns and aimed at the approximate location of the Japanese temporary defense circle and fired wildly, covering a large area with one sweep.

Amid the hail of gunfire, the charging cavalrymen rushed into the Japanese army's temporary defense circle in a flash.

The cavalrymen in this platoon were all elite selected from Ma Ji's cavalrymen. They were all very good at riding. Many of them carried submachine guns and drew their sabers before rushing into the temporary defense circle of the Japanese army. Some skilled and courageous cavalrymen threw grenades at the Japanese army before rushing into the defense circle.

Boom
The sound of submachine gun fire had not yet stopped when more than a dozen grenades exploded in the temporary defense circle of the Japanese army. Amid the loud explosions, more than a dozen clouds of dust mixed with blood mist appeared in the temporary defense circle of the Japanese army.

The charging Chinese cavalry then rushed into the temporary defense circle of the Japanese army like evil spirits emerging from hell, and started killing without hesitation. The cavalry platoon leader led the team, holding his saber high, and was the first to rush into the temporary defense circle of the Japanese army, slashing and stabbing wildly. After rushing in, the other cavalrymen also galloped on their horses, waving their sabers, slashing and killing to their heart's content. The oncoming Japanese soldiers were either chopped down or trampled by the horses' hooves.

Under the charge of dozens of cavalrymen, the hastily formed temporary defense circle of the Japanese army was quickly broken down. Under the repeated hacking and killing of dozens of elite cavalrymen, the Japanese soldiers in the temporary defense circle soon fell into chaos.

Dozens of Japanese truck drivers with the worst combat qualities were the first to lose the courage to fight and fled for their lives. However, they completely lost their sense of direction as the cavalry surrounded and killed them. They could only run around blindly and became targets for slaughter.

Although the officers and soldiers of the Japanese mountain artillery squadron and the communications and medical soldiers had a higher fighting spirit than the drivers who were like headless flies, under the repeated charges of the Chinese cavalry and the collisions of the defeated drivers, the Japanese communications, medical and service soldiers were gradually dragged down and dispersed by the defeated drivers, gradually lost their organized resistance, and began to flee along with the drivers.

The unarmed Japanese drivers, medical soldiers, and communications soldiers were constantly hacked to death, wounded, knocked away, or trampled to death by the repeated attacks of the cavalry. Some Chinese cavalrymen with excellent riding skills not only hacked and killed at close range, but also used the 20-gun rapid-and-slow machine guns issued by He Wei to fire at the Japanese troops, using both guns and swords to kill them in the Japanese temporary defense circle.

The Japanese drivers, medical soldiers and communications soldiers did not have the same tenacious and even perverted fighting will as the Japanese infantry. They quickly collapsed one after another under the destruction of the Chinese cavalry. In particular, some of the drivers who had lost the courage to fight had even begun to kneel down and beg for mercy.

Of course, there were also many people who fought hard. The fighting spirit of the Japanese mountain artillery, which served as the core firepower of the temporary defense circle, was much higher than that of the drivers and medical soldiers. Although they did not have the extremely terrifying fighting will of the Japanese infantry, they were still regular combat troops. When the entire temporary defense circle was about to collapse, they showed a very tenacious fighting spirit.

The Japanese artillerymen with guns were firing hard at the Chinese cavalry who were charging into the makeshift defense circle, while those without guns picked up bayonets, sticks for carrying artillery, and even empty ammunition boxes and rushed forward to fight the Chinese cavalry who were riding their horses from a high position.

There were even some who were so bloodthirsty that they detonated grenades and died along with the Chinese cavalry's horses.

The frenzied Japanese artillery did cause some casualties to the charging Chinese cavalry, but the local bravery of the Japanese artillery could not prevent the total collapse of the Japanese army in the temporary defense circle.

The fleeing Japanese drivers, medical soldiers, and communications soldiers ran around in all directions, making the desperate resistance of the Japanese artillery short-lived. In the end, after the Japanese artillery squadron, which was the core force of the Japanese temporary defense circle, was almost completely wiped out in just over a quarter of an hour, the Japanese temporary defense circle completely collapsed.

The bodies of Japanese soldiers who were hacked to death, beaten to death, trampled to death, and wounded and fell to the ground were scattered all over the ground. The Japanese soldiers who were not beaten to death some knelt on the ground and begged for mercy, while others fled in all directions and ran around everywhere.

Behind the gun shield of a Type 41 mountain gun, Major Hamamoto Hayashi, commander of the vanguard battalion of the Hata Detachment of the Japanese Army, sat on the gun carriage with a calm expression, looking at the tragic scene around him as if he had expected it.

Around Hamamoto Hayashi were the bodies of the fallen Japanese artillerymen. Hamamoto Hayashi's adjutant was lying next to him. There was a deep knife scar on the adjutant's back. It seemed that his left hand was cut off by a saber when he was blocking, leaving only the wrist and neatly split bones. There was also a gunshot wound on his right leg. The adjutant's right hand was still tightly holding a Nambu Type 14 Turtle Box Pistol.

The adjutant's face had been trampled into an unrecognizable mess by the horse's hooves.

Because there were fleeing Japanese soldiers everywhere, the Chinese cavalry who were busy chasing and capturing prisoners did not even notice the major officer Hamamoto Hayashi.

At this time, Hamamoto Lin was also unusually calm. He looked at the tragic scenes around him, then turned his head and looked at the village entrance in the distance. He saw that the battle at the village entrance had already ended. The area around the village entrance was full of Chinese soldiers who were either cleaning up the battlefield or on guard.
The dozens of remnants of the Japanese infantry who were hiding at the entrance of the village had already become wandering ghosts in a foreign land under the counterattack of the Chinese army in the village.

Hamamoto Lin sighed, shook his head, took out the Nambu Type 14 pistol from the adjutant's bloody right hand, pointed it at his own temple, and slowly pulled the trigger.
(End of this chapter)