Devil's Army

Captain Liu directly arranged two trucks to transport the urgently needed ammunition to the north gate and west gate fronts.

The other soldiers quickly unloaded the ammunition and hid it before the Japanese planes came to bomb.

"Report to the brigade commander, the ammunition has been unloaded. What are the tasks?" As soon as the ammunition was unloaded, Battalion Commander Xu hurried into the command post to report to Brigade Commander Liu.

Except for some minor skirmishes with the Japanese army on the road, their 16th Brigade has not fought any major battles with the Japanese army since its establishment.

"Is the convoy hidden?"

"Except for the two vehicles that Captain Liu dispatched to deliver ammunition to the front line, I arranged for the drivers of the other vehicles to drive out of the city and hide."

"Okay, your battalion will rush to the north gate for reinforcements!"

"Yes!" Battalion Commander Xu led his soldiers and ran excitedly towards the north gate position of Sanhe County.

When they arrived at the North Gate position, the soldiers of the Sixth Brigade and part of the 772nd Regiment of the Eighth Route Army had just repelled a wave of Japanese attacks.

An old soldier in front handed a cigarette to an Eighth Route Army soldier next to him, and the two of them started smoking.

Captain Xu walked over. The old soldier did not salute, but immediately greeted Captain Xu:

"Hello, Captain."

"What's going on?"

"We have just repelled a wave of Japanese attacks."

"Okay, you guys continue chatting, I'll take a look." Captain Xu said, standing by the city wall and looking outside.

At this time, the old soldier who had just finished smoking handed a can of Japanese food to the Eighth Route Army and said:

"Here, try something new."

When the Eighth Route Army soldier saw the can, his eyes widened and he asked in surprise:

"Where did it come from?"

"It was captured during the last ambush on the Japanese army."

"Don't you have to hand over the spoils of war?"

"We are not short of food. The captured canned food does not need to be handed over to the public. It belongs to our company. The captured ammunition must be handed over to the public. In that battle, I killed three Japanese soldiers. This can was given to me by the company commander as a reward."

"Where is your company commander?"

The old soldier paused for a moment and murmured:

"he's gone."

"Where did he go?" the Eighth Route Army soldiers asked curiously. How could their commander leave when the battle was so fierce?

"He was hit by a Japanese plane a few days ago. I guess, I guess he's dead." The veteran said with tears in his eyes.

Captain Xu felt very upset when he heard the conversation between the two veterans. He had not experienced a major war, but he had already felt the cruelty of a major war.

In the headquarters, Commander Ye of the 772nd Regiment of the Eighth Route Army sighed as he looked at the casualty report that had just been sent to him:

"Fighting a positional battle like this with the Japanese will result in heavy casualties."

"There is no other way. If we give up Sanhe and the Japanese army marches straight in, the people in the base will be harmed by the Japanese army."

"Are all the troops of your Sixth Brigade here?"

"That's definitely not the case. Our Sixth Brigade is a veteran main force brigade of the First Army, with 10638 personnel at full strength. There are only our brigade's direct regiments and some logistics units in Sanhe County. Our brigade's 1st, 2nd and 3rd regiments went to reinforce Luan County, Fengnan County and Zunhua County respectively."

After Li Guozhu finished speaking, he said to a soldier next to him:

"Go, tell the Army Aviation soldiers to send out two Golden Eagles for reconnaissance. How come the Japanese haven't launched a new attack in such a long time?"

"It's almost noon now. Maybe the Japanese will attack after lunch? Have they attacked frequently in the past?"

"It was normal for the Japanese to launch three or more attacks in the morning before, at least twice. Today they launched a wave of attacks, and after we repelled them, it has been more than three hours, and they have not launched a new round of attacks yet."

“It’s a bit abnormal.”

After a while, a guard rushed into the command center and shouted:

"Brigade Commander, Commander Ye, the Japanese planes are coming again, let's go to the air-raid shelter."

The current headquarters of the Sixth Brigade was originally a hotel. When the Japanese army occupied Sanhe County, the owner and his family fled to the south to avoid the war.

After the First Army recaptured Sanhe County, it turned it into a command center, and the basement was simply converted into an air-raid shelter.

When Li heard the guard's words, he said calmly:

"Don't panic. The Japanese don't know this is the headquarters. They are mainly bombing the fortifications on the city wall."

At this time, the roar of Japanese planes came from the sky, and the roar gradually moved away from the north gate and west gate of Sanhe County.

After a while, the sounds of bombing by Japanese planes were heard from the north gate and west gate walls of Sanhe County.

The Japanese planes continued bombing for a while, and the sound of less intense fighting was heard in the sky.

Captain Ye pricked up his ears curiously, listening to the agitated sound in the sky. Brigadier General Li responded without even raising his head:

“That’s when our plane arrived.”

Captain Ye then walked out of the command room and looked up at the sky.

The Japanese fighter planes, which had an absolute numerical advantage, wanted to encircle and annihilate the army's top fighter planes.

The First Army's pointed fighter planes relied on their excellent speed and firepower to continuously launch sneak attacks on Japanese planes.

The north and west gate walls of Sanhe County were saved from further air raids by Japanese bombers due to the arrival of First Army aircraft.

The not-so-intense air battle was still going on. The hurried footsteps of four aviation soldiers caught the attention of Captain Ye, who followed them into the command center.