I am an industrial worker during the War of Resistance

Chapter 99 Bloody Battle South of Yinshan (Part Two)

"Dog Boy, aim! I get so angry when I see those little devils. If we don't send them all back to their hometowns after these three shots, we'll have lost out."

The loader, dressed in full camouflage, wearing a helmet and with small branches stuck in his body, spoke softly to the gunner crouching beside him, who was looking through the scope and adjusting the angle of the gun barrel.

"Don't worry, Second Brother. If you can't send them all back to their hometown after firing these three shells, then I, Gouwa, am no longer Gouwa."

"Just call me Blind Dog," he said, adjusting his aim.

No sooner had he finished speaking than Gouwa reported, "Squad leader, aiming complete, requesting permission to fire."

The squad leader, who had been observing the Japanese soldiers on the opposite hilltop through binoculars from their side, ordered without hesitation, "Fire!"

"Yes!" Upon receiving the order, the second brother immediately put a 60mm mortar shell he had prepared into the mortar barrel.

The shell slid down the barrel and into the bottom of the breech.

The firing pin at the bottom of the breech ignites the primer of the shell, which in turn ignites the basic propellant inside the shell. The explosive combustion of the basic propellant ignites the externally wrapped C-shaped propellant charge through the ignition port.

Once the propellant charge is ignited, it generates enormous pressure inside the gun barrel, propelling the mortar shell out of the barrel and towards the target.

Mortar shells typically use propellant charges ranging from No. 0 to No. 4.

Zero is the basic propellant, which is the propellant inside the shell itself. The maximum range of the basic propellant is between 200 and 300 meters.

One C-type propellant pack is designated as a number, and the number one charge means that one C-type propellant pack is installed.

The fourth charge means that four propellant packages are installed.

The more explosive charge a shell has, the farther its range.

The 60mm mortars that Commander Chen and his men are currently equipped with have a maximum range of 1,500 meters with a third explosive charge.

When the second charge is used, the muzzle velocity is 113 meters per second, and the range covers a distance of 600 to 1100 meters.

Gouwa and his men are now about 800 meters away from the Japanese firing point on a high ground.

The first shell had barely left the barrel when the second shell was already being fired by the second cannon. By the time the third shell was fired, the first shell hadn't even hit the ground yet.

At this time, the Japanese soldiers stationed at the outermost firing point were an infantry detachment.

The infantry platoon was the smallest tactical unit of the Japanese army, with a platoon consisting of thirteen men, one to three more than a squad in China.

Their organizational structure consists of a squad leader, usually a sergeant or corporal.

He was equipped with a Type 38 rifle and a pistol for suicide.

Below is a four-gun light machine gun team, equipped with a Type 11 light machine gun (the "Nambu"), serving as the fire support for the entire squad.

Next came eight Japanese infantrymen, each assigned a Type 38 rifle.

If it is a reinforced unit, it will be equipped with two 50mm grenade launchers.

This is the entire personnel and equipment of a small Japanese detachment.

On this hilltop, which the Japanese had only recently occupied, eight or nine Japanese soldiers were diligently digging fortifications with entrenching tools.

Behind a large rock, a light machine gun was set up. Using the rock as cover, three Japanese soldiers lay prone next to the machine gun, ready to fire at any suspicious targets they spotted.

Meanwhile, the captain of the Japanese squad was also holding binoculars, kneeling down to observe the distance, constantly on guard to see if anyone was approaching their side.

Just as its telescope lens swept past a small hill in the distance.

Suddenly, it heard a piercing shriek in its ears.

The platoon leader had only managed to shout half of his message when a bullet flying from afar interrupted him.

A 7.92mm bullet, brimming with kinetic energy, pierced through his left chest.

It then emerged from its right rear back.

After the bullet left the Japanese soldier's body, it left a hole the size of a bowl in his back.

The Japanese soldier was also propelled more than a meter away by the powerful kinetic energy of the bullet before crashing heavily to the ground.

The squad leader's warning and death immediately jolted the remaining twelve Japanese soldiers awake.

The nine Japanese soldiers who were digging the fortifications immediately lay down on the ground, well-trained.

Then he quickly crawled on his stomach and scrambled toward the place where the guns were piled up.

The three Japanese soldiers who were lying on the ground, operating light machine guns on guard, immediately pointed their machine guns at the direction from which the mortar sound came and the direction from which the bullets had been fired.

But it was all too late.

Although the muzzle velocity of a mortar shell is slow, at a distance of over 800 meters, the shell will land three to four seconds later than the sound.

However, it is not so easy to quickly and accurately judge the landing point of the shell in those three or four seconds and dodge it quickly.

This survival instinct cannot be trained on the training field.

Only seasoned veterans who have survived countless artillery bombardments on the battlefield can accomplish this.

Although the three Japanese machine gunners were well-trained, they made a serious mistake: they did not immediately roll away from their machine gun positions.

On the battlefield, the primary target of a mortar is always the enemy's machine gun positions.

Even the lower-ranking commanders had to be positioned behind the machine gun positions.

The three Japanese soldiers didn't leave the machine gun immediately, so they ended up going up into the sky with it.

The 60mm mortar shell is a high-explosive shell containing 0.45 kg, or nine ounces, of TNT.

Its absolute lethal radius is five meters, and its effective killing radius is ten to fifteen meters.

When three mortar shells landed on the machine gun position in succession, the three Japanese machine gunners and their machine guns were reduced to various pieces, scattered everywhere like petals falling from the sky.

The few Japanese soldiers who had been lying down not far behind the machine gun were also killed, with two dead and five wounded.

Never believe that lying down on the spot can protect you from shelling.

There's only one reason you were able to dodge the shelling: the shells weren't close enough for you.

When you get close enough to a shell, the shockwave from the explosion can kill you.

After the sniper shot down another Japanese soldier who was half-crouched and trying to run away from the shelling zone.

All attacks on this firing point ceased.

Dogwa's squad leader did not order his squad to attack the hilltop.

Instead, they joined Gouwa and the others. After disassembling the mortar, all ten members of the class quietly withdrew from the firing area.

The entire battle lasted less than a minute.

Meanwhile, on the hilltop where the Japanese soldiers were stationed, there was a chorus of wails.

The squad leader was dead, and the machine gunner and the three-headed machine gunner were all reduced to scrap.

Of the eight Japanese infantrymen and one machine gunner in charge of repairing the fortifications, three were killed.

The remaining six were also critically injured and on the verge of death.

The remaining four were rolling around and howling in pain.

The only one left intact in the entire squad was now so terrified that he lay face down on the ground, clutching his head and screaming desperately.

The reason why Squad Leader Gouwa didn't lead his men to occupy this hilltop was because there was no need for it.

Moreover, their leaders had also spoken to them about it.

The impact of a wounded soldier on enemy morale and the burden it places on the enemy far exceeds that of a dead enemy. Therefore, after the squad leader got a general idea of ​​the Japanese firing position through his binoculars, he decisively led his men to retreat and find the next target.

In this area, the Japanese soldiers provided support to each other with firing positions spaced approximately 1,000 to 1,500 meters apart.

At this distance, as long as one firing point holds out for a few minutes, it can receive support from other firing points.

Moreover, the Japanese would immediately launch a flanking maneuver.

In the early stages of the War of Resistance against Japan, the individual soldier quality of the Japanese infantry was indeed very good.

However, when they encounter enemies that do not engage them in direct combat, no matter how high their individual combat skills are, they are merely fighting against the air.

The Japanese soldiers at another firing point behind this firing point discovered that the firing point to the south had been attacked.

They immediately started running towards this side to provide support.

When they arrived at the firing point and saw the horrific scene, all they could do besides cursing were bandage the wounds of the surviving Japanese soldiers.

As for tasks like removing shrapnel from the body, let's leave that to the military doctors in the rear.

The first aid kits they carried were good enough to prevent these Japanese soldiers from bleeding to death.

However, their squad consisted of only thirteen Japanese soldiers, while there were four wounded soldiers on the ground who needed to be taken to the rear for treatment.

The seriously injured person no longer needs medical attention.

The dead cannot be brought back to life.

The remaining uninjured Japanese soldier, after being slapped twice by the sergeant who came to provide support, stopped shouting wildly.

However, its expression seemed to have become somewhat blank and silly.

The sergeant squad leader who came to provide support had no choice.

This firing point must be abandoned now.

Getting the four wounded back to their homes is impossible in this mountainous terrain; it would take three people to carry each wounded soldier.

The sergeant only had thirteen of them, including the one who was almost an idiot. Even if you included that guy who was almost an idiot, it would only be fourteen.

Are we supposed to send the other twelve Japanese soldiers to carry the wounded while we and that idiot stay here?

Let's forget it, let's all go back together.

On the battlefield, unless it is an extremely urgent situation, the wounded must be treated.

No matter which military force in the world, as long as conditions permit, they will try to bring back even corpses.

Because this is a matter of great importance to morale.

Any officer who dares to easily abandon a wounded soldier may be shot in the back in the next battle, and even its corpse may be abandoned on the battlefield.

After all, we feel the pain of seeing our own kind suffer. Today, a comrade next to me was injured and abandoned because of his superior's orders.

So, when you get hurt, will you also be abandoned?

It would be a miracle if a commander like that didn't get shot in the back.

After taking everything that could be taken away and destroying everything that couldn't be taken away.

The sergeant who came to provide support, along with his squad, four wounded men, and a mentally challenged man, began to retreat to the rear.

They can only return to their posts and continue their duties after they have delivered the wounded to the transfer station.

But what drove this sergeant to the brink of madness was...

They were fine on their way here, but on their way back, landmines were planted on them at some unknown time.

The landmines weren't very powerful; at least no one was blown to pieces this time.

But the landmines were in a row.

The explosion sent countless small steel balls flying through the air, increasing the number of wounded in the team from four to nine.

Sergeant was also among the wounded; one of its eyes was blown out, and two steel balls were lodged in its stomach.

The remaining nine Japanese soldiers who came to provide support had no choice but to stop their troops in place, defend the area, and send two more to the rear for reinforcements.

Seeing the two Japanese soldiers, they carefully detoured around the route they had come from and ran back down the hillside in the wilderness.

The sergeant, sweating profusely from the pain, was truly on the verge of tears.

On this very first day.

This kind of battle, where the enemy is invisible, has been unfolding continuously since noon.

However, the work of repairing roads along the railway line is not easy either.

The entire road was riddled with potholes of all sizes.

Landmines that could suddenly explode at any time or in any place are an even bigger headache.

Some of these landmines were hidden in piles of rubble.

Some are buried inside the railway foundation.

These two places have one thing in common: they are both filled with small pebbles.

A small explosive charge buried under these rubble could be detonated.

Those flying pebbles were the perfect shrapnel, creating a truly spectacular explosion.

After encountering two landmines, Sakai Koji's road construction plan had to be suspended.

Just two landmines caused nearly 30% casualties to the engineering corps building the road on that side.

Encountering a landmine when you're completely unprepared, especially an unexpected stone mine, can result in fatal casualties.

There's no other way but to clear the mines first.

But mine clearance is not so easy. The mine clearance equipment carried by the Sakai Brigade's engineering unit consisted of only five handheld magnetic mine clearance devices.

This thing works well against metal mines, but it has no effect on non-metal mines like explosive charges.

It wasn't until another explosive charge was detonated, resulting in one death and two injuries, that the situation changed.

The engineering captain came up with a solution: to attach two long wooden poles to the front of the medium tank and tie a horizontal wooden pole in the middle.

The wooden pole was used to hang large stones on ropes, which were then used to detonate the landmines.

After the landmines were detonated, because they were far from the tanks and were anti-personnel mines, they did not cause much damage to the medium tanks.

Sure enough, once the scattered landmines were detonated, the road construction progressed much faster.

However, there were some ditches on the ground that even tanks couldn't cross, so they could only slowly inch their way forward.

By the afternoon, news kept coming from the mountains that multiple firing positions there had been shelled.

The casualties in the mountains are heavy, but not a single enemy has been found. The men fired two or three shots, leaving the Japanese with a field of wounded soldiers, and then ran away.

The statistics were completed by evening.

In just one day in the mountains, more than a hundred people were killed and three or four hundred were injured at various firing positions.

The 1st Independent Infantry Regiment lost one-fifth of its men that day.

Upon receiving this news, Sakai Koji immediately ordered everyone to evacuate from the mountains, and the entire brigade immediately returned to the campsite from the previous night.

(End of this chapter)