Chapter 79: New Year's Day
"Idiot, you know nothing about the Tubalu's sparrow tactics!"
Kuroshima Morita slapped Kuroshima Jiro in the face again with his backhand.
Nishitake Kazuya explained: "Jiro, this is not a question of whether we are afraid or not, but the Eighth Route Army gathers and disperses invisibly, and our regiment simply cannot find an opportunity to fight them head-on!"
"So what if we can't find an opportunity for a head-on fight?"
Kuroshima Jiro roared: "Then we will massacre Yang Village and the entire Taihang bandit area!"
"And then?" Kuroshima Morita asked, "On the way to Yang Village, on the way to sweep the Taihang bandit area, we were constantly subjected to the sparrow warfare of the Tubalu. Every day or even every moment, the imperial soldiers were killed. How long do you think the more than 1,300 imperial soldiers of the Kuroshima League can hold out? Three days or five days?"
Kuroshima Jiro was speechless. There was really nothing he could do about this.
Even though they were hiding in the stronghold, they were still bullied by the Tubalu.
If we really get into the wild, it would be even more difficult to describe.
"Go back!" Kuroshima Morita shouted, "Get out of here now!"
Kuroshima Jiro glared at Kuroshima Morita fiercely and left reluctantly.
After watching Kuroshima Jiro's back walk away, Nishi Takeichi said worriedly, "Captain, Jiro seems to be a little unstable. Be careful that he might do something extreme."
"Don't worry." Kuroshima Morita waved his hand and said, "He doesn't dare to do anything rash."
Xi Zhuyi originally wanted to persuade him again, but when the words came to his lips, he changed the subject.
"Captain, this is not a solution," Xi Zhuyi said in a deep voice, "If the Eighth Route Army comes and fires one or two shots at the Huting stronghold every night, the imperial soldiers of the entire regiment will not be able to rest well. Over time, the imperial soldiers will inevitably develop negative emotions and their morale will be affected."
"I know this too," Kuroshima Morita said in a deep voice, "but now I can only endure it."
Xi Zhu said, "However, we can build several small outposts three to five kilometers outside the Huting outpost, and send a cavalry squad to garrison each outpost."
"If we don't have enough people, we can call in the Imperial Army."
"There's no need to build too strong a fortification."
"Just build a simple artillery tower."
"This way we can protect the Huting stronghold."
After saying this, Xi Zhuyi felt a little smug and thought it was a good idea.
"It's so stupid!" Kuroshima Morita poured a bucket of cold water over his head.
"The Huting stronghold was only harassed. If we build a small stronghold on the periphery as you said, it won't be a matter of harassment. The Eighth Route Army can directly destroy the stronghold, and the losses will be even greater."
"How can it be so easy?" Xi Zhuyi said unconvincedly, "If the outer strongholds are attacked by the Tubalu on a large scale, the Huting stronghold will send out the main force of the regiment to rescue them."
"The question is how to judge the scale of the Tubalu attack?"
"And can we really ignore the Tubalu just because they are small in size?"
"The Tubalu just now could take down an entire artillery tower by himself!"
"And how do we ensure communication between the Huting base and the outlying bases?"
Kuroshima Morita threw out a series of questions and said, "If we really do what you said, then the main force of the regiment will not even need to sleep. They will be busy every night just rescuing the outer bases."
Xi Zhuyi was at a loss, and frowned, saying, "Then there is really no other way."
A strange look flashed across Kuroshima Morita's eyes, and he said, "I said, use ninjutsu!"
Xi Zhuyi asked, "Can you wait until the security crackdown begins?"
Kuroshima Mori was silent.
…
Let’s talk about Wang Ye and Wang Chengzhu later.
He ran about five kilometers before he reined in his horse.
Wang Ye turned around and asked with a smile, "Captain Wang, are you feeling good?"
"Of course it's fun!" Wang Chengzhu said with a smile, "Of course it's fun to have sex."
Wang Ye added: "Since it feels so good, why don't you go back and fuck him again?"
"No problem." Wang Chengzhu said, "Not to mention one shot, two shots will do."
This time, Wang Chengzhu brought a whole box of shells, each box containing exactly three shells.
"That won't work." Wang Ye waved his hand and said, "Don't do it all at once, or our artillery shells won't last. After all, we have nowhere to replenish them."
"Listen to you."
Wang Chengzhu said: "Anyway, I just fire the cannon."
The two of them made a big circle and returned to the west of the Huting stronghold.
From a distance, I saw that the Huting stronghold had returned to peace, as if nothing had happened.
Wang Ye asked Wang Chengzhu to stay three kilometers away with the warhorse, while he himself, holding a rifle, quietly searched forward under the cover of night.
This is to eliminate the Japanese lurking nearby.
Otherwise, if the Japanese suddenly attacked them from behind, it would be troublesome.
Wang Ye searched very carefully. His eyesight was enhanced by the legendary sniper, so it was not as good as an owl's, but it was probably not much different from a dog's night vision.
Moreover, Wang Ye's hearing is also extremely sharp.
But even so, whether or not the Japanese's hidden sentry can be discovered depends entirely on luck.
Because the Japanese ambush sentries were all camouflaged, they were difficult to detect in broad daylight, let alone at night?
Listening to breathing sounds is even more ridiculous. How close do you have to be to hear breathing sounds? So unless you are lucky, it is difficult to find the Japanese lurking sentry in the dark.
Wang Ye was really lucky to find the Japanese ambush post last time.
But then again, not being able to find the Japanese ambush post is just a bit of a hassle.
Because the Japanese's hiding area reaches a radius of three kilometers. With such a large area, the density is definitely not high. There are at most two or three Japanese within a distance of one hundred meters.
So unless your luck is extremely bad,
Otherwise, you would basically not be close to the Japanese ambush sentry.
Wang Ye searched carefully for more than an hour but found nothing.
It seems that next time I have to come two hours earlier to determine the location of the Japanese ambush post, and then eliminate it at a targeted point. Only in this way can I clear a relatively safe artillery position for Wang Chengzhu.
But there is no other way today, I can only make do with it for now.
He immediately turned back to meet Wang Chengzhu, hid his warhorse first, and then helped Wang Chengzhu carry the artillery shells. Wang Chengzhu himself carried the mortar and quickly found a gun position.
The two of them made very little noise during the whole process.
This was to avoid alerting the hidden Japanese sentries.
Relying on the sporadic lights coming from the Huting stronghold,
Wang Chengzhu quickly measured the distance, which was about 2,500 meters.
The maximum range of the Type 97 81mm infantry indirect fire gun is 2850 meters, so distance is not a problem at all.
Taking advantage of the brief interval when Wang Chengzhu was setting up the artillery, Wang Ye also chose a hidden sniper position twenty meters away.
Wang Chengzhu's mortar was facing the Huting stronghold, and Wang Ye's gun was facing the bare hills around Wang Chengzhu. His top priority now was to protect Wang Chengzhu.
Wang Chengzhu quickly set up the mortar.
He opened the wooden box, took out a shell, and loaded it into the gun through the muzzle.
The 3-kilogram shell slid into the barrel with a hiss, and the primer and firing pin made a slight sound when they hit each other.
Then there was a bang, accompanied by a ball of red light, and the shell whizzed out from the muzzle, drawing a beautiful arc in the air and flying towards the Huting stronghold two kilometers away.
The dull thump and the red light are still very eye-catching at night.
Then Wang Ye saw some movement about ten meters to the right, as if someone was adjusting their posture! Damn, there is a hidden sentry hiding here!
Wang Ye was really shocked.
The Japanese ambush sentry was hiding less than 20 meters away!
If this Japanese soldier didn't move, Wang Ye really wouldn't be able to find him. But now that he moved, he probably wanted to turn the gun around and aim at Wang Chengzhu, but he exposed himself.
As the saying goes, the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.
The Japanese hidden sentry had just turned his gun around when Wang Ye had already pulled the trigger.
With a "puff" sound, the Japanese lurking sentry more than ten meters away fell to the ground, and the Type 38 rifle in his hand, which had already been aimed, had no chance to fire anymore.
However, two Japanese lurking sentries pulled the trigger at the same time.
Two dazzling tracers immediately shot towards the hill where Wang Chengzhu was from two different directions, but the two Japanese devils were a little far away from each other, so they failed to hit the target.
There was no way they could hit the target, because they couldn't even see Wang Chengzhu's figure clearly.
The reason why the two Japanese ambush sentries fired tracer bullets was just to guide the location of the heavy machine guns in the stronghold.
In the blink of an eye, two dazzling tracers intersected at the hilltop where Wang Chengzhu was. This intersection point was the target that the heavy machine gun needed to fire at!
The next moment, four tongues of fire poured out from the Huting stronghold two thousand meters away.
However, at this distance, even for a heavy machine gun, the ballistic area is greatly spread out and the hit rate is very low.
However, Wang Chengzhu immediately picked up the mortar and the shell box and rushed down the hill, and the Japanese heavy machine gun fire was isolated on the front of the mountain.
Immediately afterwards, two flares rose into the air.
Wang Chengzhu screamed "Oh my God" and quickly took various tactical evasive actions.
Now the two Japanese ambush sentries lurking a hundred meters away finally saw Wang Chengzhu clearly.
The two Japanese ambush sentries turned their guns around immediately and pulled the trigger almost at the same time.
If this happened during the day, at a distance of more than 100 meters, the well-trained Japanese soldiers could basically do it with just a wave of their hands.
But it is night after all, and even with the illumination of flares in the sky, the visibility conditions are still not as good as during the day, which seriously affects their accuracy.
Neither of the two Japanese ambush sentries was able to hit the target.
By the time they pulled out their guns and prepared to fire a second shot, it was too late.
Wang Ye raised his hand and shot the first Japanese soldier dead with one shot. Then he ejected the shell and loaded the bullet with even faster hand speed, and drew his gun and shot even faster.
The second Japanese lurking sentry had just raised his rifle when a flower of blood suddenly burst out from his chest. Then his body fell forward and there was no movement.
The surroundings suddenly became quiet.
Only two flares were still crackling in the air.
Behind him, the sound of horse hooves like a tide could be heard from the direction of the Huting stronghold.
You can tell without looking back that it must be the Japanese cavalry coming out.
Wang Ye also jumped up and ran forward while making tactical evasive moves.
Although three Japanese ambush sentries had just been shot and killed, there must be more ambush sentries in the distance. It would be foolish to run forward without waiting under the illumination of flares.
The first set of evasive actions had just been completed.
A sharp whooshing sound suddenly came from overhead.
Needless to say, it must be another Japanese ambush sentry who shot at him.
Although he was running, Wang Ye did not lose sight of his surroundings. Based on the sound of gunfire and observation out of the corner of his eye, he quickly discovered and locked onto the devil.
Wang Ye ran forward two steps and suddenly fell sideways.
The moment his body turned sideways, Wang Ye quickly drew his gun. Relying on his superior gun sense, he fired a shot at the right front about a hundred meters away. Then, without even having time to see the result, he rolled on the ground, got up and ran forward again.
While rolling and crawling, he made evasive moves as usual, and not far ahead was Wang Chengzhu.
Wang Chengzhu's movements seemed clumsy, but they were actually very practical. At least the Japanese failed to hit him just now.
In less than two minutes, Wang Ye and Wang Chengzhu rushed to the hiding place of the war horses, then jumped on the horses and ran forward without wasting a second.
From time to time, bullets whistled past the two men's heads.
It was the Japanese ambush sentry further away who was shooting at them.
But there is nothing to worry about this kind of stray bullet.
Unless you are extremely unlucky, it is impossible to be hit by a stray bullet.
This time, the two ran for seven or eight kilometers before they dared to stop.
Looking back, the mountain road behind me was dark and silent.
It was obvious that the Japanese cavalry only chased for a while and then stopped.
The Japanese cavalry were still afraid that the Eighth Route Army guerrillas would ambush them along the way.
It was already past three in the morning. After making sure that there were no Japanese cavalry chasing them, the two men dismounted and found a sheltered place to have a midnight snack .
"It feels so good!" Wang Chengzhu said while chewing on a steamed bun, "Shall we fuck him again after we finish eating?"
"I'm afraid it won't work today. We don't have time." Wang Ye said, "Besides, we've already shot down the Japanese twice today. That's enough. We can use the remaining shells tomorrow."
"That's fine." Wang Chengzhu said, "Come back tomorrow."
After they had eaten and drunk their fill, they walked back leisurely.
Wang Chengzhu felt a little sorry for the equipment of those devils.
"Xiao Wang, how many Japanese sentries did you kill just now?"
"Three, or four? Could you please stop calling me Xiao Wang? It makes me sound like I'm your subordinate."
"Hey, you bastard, you're just a platoon sergeant, but I'm a full company commander, so I'm your superior. Salute me quickly and say hello, Commander."
"Fuck you, who the hell are you, the chief?"
"If I hadn't made any mistakes, I would be in good shape now."
"You bastard, you really have to salute and call me Chief when you see me."
"Who told you to make a mistake? But, to be honest, you did a great job! There are not many people in our independent regiment that I, Wang Chengzhu, admire. The regiment commander is one of them, and you are one of them too."
The two men walked towards Yang Village while chatting nonsense.
…
Huting stronghold.
Kuroshima Morita's horse face turned as black as the bottom of a pot again.
Because the baggage company had just carried back four more bodies.
The second artillery shell fired by the Eighth Route Army just now did not actually cause any substantial damage to the Huting stronghold, because the shell hit the trench outside the stronghold.
It's pitch dark,
The artillery of the Eighth Route Army was actually not a big threat.
But four of the ambush sentries lying in ambush on the periphery were killed!
Nishi Takeichi uncovered the shrouds , observed them for a moment, and then came back to say to Kuroshima Morita, "The four imperial soldiers were all shot in the vitals, and all were killed with one shot, without exception."
The captain of the baggage squadron added: "One of the shots was fired from a distance of 100 meters. The Eighth Route Army soldier just casually fired a shot while running, and shot through Hasegawa-kun's heart."
Xi Zhu said, "This must be the Tubalu from before."
Kuroshima Morita remained silent, and no one knew what he was thinking.
But the officers standing behind Kuroshima Morita were going crazy.
Xi Zhu said, "Captain, how about we withdraw the ambush sentry?"
"We can't retreat!" Kuroshima Morita flatly refused. "Once we withdraw the ambush sentries from the periphery back to the base, the situation will immediately return to the original point. The daring Eighth Route Army will dare to approach within a thousand meters of the base and fire cold artillery! At that time, even more imperial soldiers will die in battle."
“But this won’t work.”
Xi Zhu said: "Two people die with honor today, three people die with honor tomorrow, when will it end?"
"I said, endure!" Kuroshima Morita gritted his teeth and said, "Get through this period of time."
Nishi Takeichi fell silent. He had said everything he needed to say. It was up to Kuroshima Morita to decide what to do.
After all, the commander of the 2nd Guards Cavalry Regiment was Kuroshima Morita, not him, Nishi Takeichi.
…
In the blink of an eye, more than half a month had passed and it was the end of 1939.
During this period, Wang Ye and Wang Chengzhu would go to the Huting stronghold every night to fire one or two shots, and never let the Japanese in the stronghold have a single night of peace.
There will inevitably be dangers along the way.
Once, the Japanese cavalry got so angry that they chased us for thirty miles!
But the result was extremely tragic. Not only did they fail to kill Wang Ye and Wang Chengzhu, but Wang Ye seized the opportunity and killed more than a dozen Japanese cavalrymen in the process of escaping and then chasing them.
Another time, the Japanese suddenly added a large number of secret sentries.
The area within a three-kilometer radius outside the stronghold was almost entirely filled with Japanese invaders.
When Wang Ye was about to clear the locations marked during the day one by one, he suddenly disturbed a hornet's nest.
Then, starting about ten days ago, the Japanese suddenly became cowards. Not only did they withdraw all the ambush posts outside the stronghold, they even stopped sending out cavalry.
Wang Chengzhu even set up the mortar at a distance of one thousand meters.
The Japanese in the stronghold refused to come out of the cave and at most fought back with heavy machine guns.
Time passed quietly in such harassment, and New Year's Eve was approaching in the blink of an eye.
In one day, it will be New Year's Eve, and after New Year's Eve it will be 1940. For the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, 1940 is the most critical year.
If we talk about difficulties alone, 1942 and 1943 were actually more difficult.
But the key period is the 40 years, because during the entire 40 years, almost all of China was shrouded in despair, and the ideas of saving the country by roundabout ways or even destroying the country were prevalent. On the front line, entire divisions, armies, and even entire army groups of the National Army defected to the Wang Puppet Government and competed to become puppet troops.
At this time, the combat effectiveness of the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army had declined greatly after the expansion. They were now training their troops and were temporarily unable to launch a large-scale offensive.
It is no exaggeration to say that the first half of 1940 was the lowest point in the entire War of Resistance.
It was under such circumstances that Wang Ye welcomed his first Lunar New Year after traveling to Bright Sword.
