Devil's Army

The Japanese artillery bombarded for more than half an hour before the infantry began to attack the high ground on both sides of the canyon to cover the large force passing through Maling Pass.

Japanese planes stopped bombing and circled overhead as the infantry began to move through the canyon.

The Japanese infantry successfully occupied the high ground on both sides of the canyon, but were surprised to find that there was no Eighth Route Army soldier here, only hats filled with trenches.

After the large army passed through the canyon, Brigade Commander Take Haruyoshi did not continue on his journey, but instead rested in the open space in front of the canyon.

After lunch, the Japanese army continued to advance to the Faluling Mountain Road in the Jingxing Mining Area, where they were ambushed by a battalion of the 385th Brigade of the Eighth Route Army.

Although the Japanese army was prepared, two trucks were still destroyed by the bomb.

The Japanese army used artillery to bombard fiercely and finally repelled the Eighth Route Army soldiers. However, the path was blocked by the destroyed trucks.

The Japanese army was ambushed by the Eighth Route Army from time to time, and was attacked again after being repelled. They entered the territory of Hengshui City intermittently.

The Japanese army entered the Hengjing Highway, the main highway at the time, and arrived in the Shulu area, where they were jointly blocked by a battalion of the Jidong Independent Brigade and a company of the Eighth Route Army's newly formed 9th Brigade.

At that time, this company of the Eighth Route Army served as the vanguard and blocked the advance of the Japanese army at the Shulu front line.

Brigade Commander Takeharuyoshi was quite annoyed when he saw that it was the Eighth Route Army again.

Along the way, he suffered no less than five attacks of varying sizes by the Eighth Route Army.

He ordered the battalion commander to arrange two squadrons of troops to encircle and annihilate the Eighth Route Army in Shulu in three directions, attempting to wipe out the entire Eighth Route Army in the Shulu mountains.

The company commander resisted for a while, but seeing that the situation was not good, he decisively led his troops to withdraw from the position.

The Japanese army would never let the lamb in their mouth escape and chased closely from behind.

When the Japanese troops chased to a narrow corner, they heard intensive artillery fire from the woods opposite.

Brigade Commander Li Guozhu gave part of the Japanese 100mm howitzers and 75mm mountain cannons seized outside the culvert to the Jidong Independent Brigade, and the commander of the second regiment of the Independent Brigade deployed them here.

Brigade Commander Wu Qingji had traveled all the way here from Xingtai City in the Taihang Mountains, and had never been attacked by the Eighth Route Army's artillery. Hearing the familiar whistling of the shells, he once mistakenly thought that their artillery had bombed them by mistake. But the shells exploded solidly in his troops, and his soldiers were blown to the ground one after another.

The remaining troops retreated to the corner, and his artillery wanted to suppress the artillery positions of the Eighth Route Army, but they could not do so because the artillery positions of the Eighth Route Army were located at the corner of the small road.

Just as Brigade Commander Take Harukichi was wondering how the Eighth Route Army's artillery could fire so accurately, the squadron leader who had retreated reported to him: the ones ambushing them in front were not the Eighth Route Army, but the devil's troops.

Their main opponent in central China appeared. Brigade Commander Takeharuyoshi ordered the artillery to move forward to suppress the Devil Force artillery at the corner, and the soldiers also prepared to charge.

The artillery of the Japanese Army's 4th Independent Mixed Brigade had just moved to the corner, and before they could fire, the rocket soldiers lying in ambush there suddenly attacked.

Four rockets hit the Japanese artillery positions.

The artillery of the Jidong Independent Brigade took the initiative and bombarded the Japanese artillery positions first.

More than half of the artillery pieces of the Japanese Army's 4th Mixed Brigade were destroyed, and the artillery quickly withdrew the remaining cannons behind the corner of the path.

Brigade Commander Wu Qingji arranged his soldiers to climb the mountain, preparing to cross the corner of the path and attack the devil troops at the foot of the mountain.

When the Japanese army was about to climb to the top of the mountain panting, two machine guns on the top of the mountain fired at them.

It turned out that the soldiers of the Jidong Independent Brigade had long been prepared for this move by the Japanese army. They arranged machine gun positions on the top of the mountain to block the Japanese army's passage over the mountain and through the small path.

The Japanese army attacked for a long time but was unable to cross the corner of the path.

Brigade Commander Take Haruyoshi had no choice but to camp at the corner of the path and try to find a way to break through the Devil Army's defense line the next day.

Although Brigade Commander Takeharuyoshi rarely fought against the Devil Troops, many other troops had fought against them, and their Army Department had introduced the combat effectiveness and combat style of the Devil Troops. So he also knew that the Devil Troops were good at night attacks.

In order to prevent the devil's troops from attacking at night, he added light and dark sentries, as well as patrols, which were carried out every fifteen minutes in a cross-patrol manner.

The second regiment commander saw that it was difficult to send soldiers to infiltrate and launch a surprise attack, and even if they succeeded, it would be difficult to break out. So he simply had the regiment's mortar soldiers quietly lurk at the corner of the path.

At one o'clock in the morning, the mortar soldiers of the Second Regiment, lurking at the corner of the path, suddenly opened fire.

Heavy shells landed on the Japanese tents camped across the road.

The sound of artillery shells exploding and the shouting of Japanese soldiers could be heard continuously from the Japanese military camp.

The Japanese troops in the barracks began to go out of the camp to pursue the artillery of the devil troops.

Seeing this, the artillerymen of the Second Regiment immediately picked up their mortars and retreated.

When the Japanese army chased to the corner of the path, they came under heavy fire from the Second Regiment's machine guns and had to retreat.