Devil's Army

In the afternoon, the Japanese captain's troops reserved at the east gate of the town were still feinting an attack on Shanhaiguan.

The captain personally led the main force, bypassed the Yanshan Mountains, implemented his strategy of feinting to the east and attacking in the west, and attacked the Weiyuan Gate of Shanhaiguan.

Since all the baggage and artillery of this team of Japanese troops were left at the east gate of the town, the commander of the third regiment did not realize the Japanese captain's strategy of making a feint to the east and attacking in the west.

When we arrived at the foot of Yanshan Mountain, it was already dark.

After dinner, the captain did not let the troops rest and prepared to continue crossing Yanshan Mountain.

This time they were raiding the Weiyuan Gate of Shanhaiguan, and the cover of night was their best cover.

The Japanese troops moving through the woods startled the birds returning to their nests, and the fluttering sounds of the birds also startled the soldiers of the Fourth Brigade who had set up an ambush in Yanshan.

The company commander looked through a telescope at the entrance of the Yanshan trail and soon spotted the Japanese troops quietly crossing the Yanshan Mountains.

Soon, fierce gunfire rang out in the Yanshan Mountains, shattering the Japanese captain's fantasy of a sneak attack.

The captain had no choice but to launch a violent attack.

Unfortunately, the captain was traveling light this time, without any heavy artillery. In addition, it was dark, and the devil troops had the advantage of terrain and had built fortifications in advance. The captain fought for more than two hours but failed to capture the devil troops' position in the Yanshan Mountains. He could only retreat to the Yanshan Pass to rest.

The commander of the third regiment received a report from the commander of the first company and learned that a large Japanese army had attacked the Yanshan Mountains. He could not help but secretly feel lucky that he did not transfer this company back to Shanhaiguan.

He asked the company commander if he needed to send troops for support.

The company commander answered affirmatively: Not for now. They hid in the fortifications to block the Japanese army last night and the casualties among the soldiers were not heavy.

The night battle in the Yanshan Mountains exposed the Japanese captain's attempt to make a feint to the east and attack in the west.

The commander of the third regiment ordered the commander of the first battalion to arrange for the second company to cross the moat and station there to reinforce the commander of the first company at any time. He also placed explosives on the simple wooden bridge over the moat to blow up the bridge at any time to block the passage of the Japanese army.

The next morning, the Japanese army dispatched more planes to bomb the four artillery batteries in Shanhaiguan.

After receiving the report, Captain Xu arranged for six Hua Xia II fighter planes to join the battle.

The Japanese troops responsible for the feint attack continued to bombard the walls of Zhendong Gate, but the infantry did not launch a large-scale attack.

On the Yanshan Mountains, since the sneak attack attempt had been exposed, the captain launched a fierce attack on the Yanshan Mountains.

The captain ordered the only grenade throwers in the unit to follow the infantry, and the machine guns to follow the infantry. If the infantry was suppressed by the firepower of the devil troops on the high ground on both sides of Yanshan Mountain, they should immediately counter-suppress.

This move suppressed the firepower point of the first company for a time, and several machine gunners of the first company were killed. The Japanese infantry was getting closer and closer to the first company's position.

The company commander ordered the soldiers to throw grenades. After the Japanese attack was repelled by the company's dense grenade fire, the company commander ordered all the machine gunners in the unit to fight guerrilla warfare, retreat immediately after firing a magazine in one place, and change positions to continue to block the Japanese army.

This trick was indeed effective. Facing the erratic machine gun positions of the Devil Forces, the Japanese grenade throwers and machine gunners had no way to suppress them.

The soldiers of the first company stubbornly blocked the large Japanese force outside the Yanshan Mountains for a day and a night.

Sitting in the military camp headquarters outside the Yanshan Mountains, the captain was speechless.

When the division commander Maeda asked who would lead the troops to attack Shanhaiguan, the battalion commander thought that in 1932, their troops took Shanhaiguan in one day.

Their weapons, equipment and personnel were much better than they were back then, so they volunteered without hesitation to take over Shanhaiguan.

Who would have known that up to now, after two days of bloody battles with the devil's troops, they had not even set foot into the gate of Shanhaiguan.

He also learned from the second battalion commander that the Maeda Division Commander and the Lushun Navy Fleet had divided their troops into three groups and failed in their attack on Qinhuangdao. So he was not afraid of the Maeda Division Commander's punishment, but he was still angry in his heart.

If there were any Chinese villages nearby, he would definitely massacre them to vent his anger.

From the battle today, he knew that the Yanshan Mountain Devil Army did not have many soldiers, only one company. However, the terrain of the Yanshan Mountain Range was narrow, and although he had a large number of soldiers, he could not spread them out.

In an attack like today's, his troops were forced to fill in one squad after another, and not only were they unable to take the Devil's troops' positions, they also suffered heavy casualties.

The captain asked him to call for air force reinforcements to make up for their lack of firepower, but he felt that it was useless because the Yanshan Mountains were densely wooded and the air force could not find the positions of the devil troops in the air.

The captain came to the outside of the military camp in a depressed mood, looking at the path stretching through the Yanshan Mountains, and fell into deep thought.

Suddenly, the captain shouted, he realized that he had made a big mistake today. The war didn't have to be fought like this.

He hurried back to the command center to redeploy tomorrow's battle.