Chapter 125: One Wave
There is no need to wait until daytime for another battle.
Since Tang Dao has estimated that the Japanese army must have deployed light and heavy machine gun fire points on one side of the Suzhou River Bridge to wait for the warehouse defenders who were ordered to evacuate, let's take a look first to see if this is the case.
Tang Dao and Leng Feng each took two people to sneak out of the warehouse at night, sneaked out more than 100 meters in the dark, and then fired three flares at the front of the Japanese positions on the left and right wings 200 meters away, which were completely shrouded in darkness.
When the flares slowly fell from the sky and illuminated the darkness more than 200 meters in front of the Sihang Warehouse, the army lieutenant colonel standing behind the observation hole on the left wing of the warehouse took a breath of cold air, and was really shocked and angry.
Tang Dao's guess was not wrong at all. In the field of view of the telescope, there were many Japanese troops active 300 meters away, and most of them were not in the trenches facing the warehouse.
The Japanese army was a little panicked in hiding, showing that they were not prepared for the flares that suddenly fell in front of the position, but this was not the most important thing.
The important thing was that the army lieutenant colonel saw the machine guns they had no time to move away. In the afterglow of the flares, a quick glance at the cold muzzles of several Type 92 heavy machine guns set up in the simple field fortifications by the river made people's scalps numb.
In the past, the Japanese army would only place this kind of heavy firepower in semi-permanent fortifications 500 meters away, but now they have moved it to the front-line positions. The purpose is self-evident.
They are afraid that the long range of one mile is not accurate enough, but they are not afraid that the bullets will fall into the concession, but they are afraid that too many Chinese soldiers will run away from the Suzhou River Bridge more than 300 meters away!
In addition to several simple fortifications, there are more Japanese light machine gun duos hiding behind the low wall. Although their figures holding light machine guns to dodge are quite agile, the army lieutenant colonel who is high above can see everything.
Looking at the Japanese soldiers trying to avoid, the lieutenant colonel of the army had already concluded that as long as he really followed the order to lead the entire army to the concession from the Suzhou River Bridge, which was only 30 meters away from the warehouse, the Japanese army would open fire with all their strength regardless of the danger.
Of course, if the warehouse defenders were evacuating, such as waiting for the heavy weapons and equipment to be transported away first, the so-called half-crossing attack, caught off guard, the remaining soldiers could only become the target of slaughter, and the Chinese side had almost no power to fight back, and the Japanese heavy machine guns were naturally not dangerous.
The Japanese army's plan was insidious and vicious, and the lieutenant colonel of the army who figured it out had a cold sweat on his forehead.
Yes, in the past, Jiro Wakiita did this, but he was not as smart as the lieutenant colonel of the army thought, and he didn't know what half-crossing attack was, but took advantage of the evacuation of the defenders to directly block the bridge with light and heavy machine guns.
The defenders naturally fought back. The concession party was panicked and quickly communicated with the Japanese high-level forces, and finally forced the Japanese army to give up. However, in just over ten minutes of fighting, the Chinese defenders who walked onto the bridge still suffered more than 20 casualties, and even the battalion commander Yang Ruifu was seriously injured in this battle.
In this era, a Japanese colonel was much more miserable than before. Three nearly full infantry battalions were beaten in half. Who would not go crazy!
This man gritted his teeth and used the night to move six heavy machine guns and twelve light machine guns in one breath to build a machine gun position on the front line, ambushing on the left wing of the warehouse, waiting for the warehouse defenders to take the bait so that he could kill the Chinese army that had brought him endless shame.
This firepower intensity is absolutely amazing compared to the Suzhou River Bridge, which is only tens of meters long.
As long as you step on that bridge, there is almost no chance of leaving alive.
In addition to light and heavy machine guns, the Japanese colonel who was determined to avenge his humiliation also prepared nearly 20 grenade launchers, which were intended to attack the 30-meter road from the Sihang Warehouse to the Suzhou River Bridge with covering firepower.
In other words, infantry artillery is not easy to control, and it will hit the concession if it is not careful. Otherwise, Jiro Wakita will definitely send infantry artillery to attack.
Jiro Wakita did not intend to let a Chinese soldier enter the concession, even though he had planned to force the concession to confine the Chinese soldiers who entered the concession.
It can be seen how much he hated this garrison?
A real man cannot wait for ten years to take revenge, and he must take revenge that night. The Japanese colonel was very manly in his calculations.
That is, the more full the imagination is, the more skinny the reality is.
The Japanese colonel sitting in the command post of Yin Tengzhong's second battalion had been waiting with his eyes wide open since 10 o'clock. After waiting for nearly two hours, his eyes were almost green. He did not wait for any movement in the warehouse, but waited for the sudden flare from the Chinese.
His heavy machine gun positions were all exposed under the light of the flares.
"Baga! Not good!" The green light in the Japanese colonel's eyes suddenly shrank.
His balls shrank even faster.
The heavy machine gun position was exposed like this. If it had been in the past, it would not be terrible, but if it appeared in front of this Chinese with a considerable number of mortars, it seemed that it would not be a good thing.
It can only be said that the Japanese colonel is indeed a veteran army commander, and his prediction is very accurate.
He was so accurate that he hated his crow's mouth a little.
"Order the searchlight to start, search the front of the position and the river, and find the Chinese! Heavy machine guns, go first..." Jiro Wakiita's order has not been finished yet.
In the Sihang Warehouse building 300 meters away, a lieutenant colonel with a cold sweat on his forehead gave an order, "Fire!"
In the fortifications on the roof of the warehouse, the last five mortars in the warehouse had already been deployed when Tang Dao and his men left the warehouse.
Each gun carries 6 shells. The order given by the lieutenant colonel to Lei Xiong is that once the order to fire is issued, all shells must be fired within 30 seconds, otherwise the retaliatory bombardment of the Japanese mountain artillery will come.
They also have no more than 20 seconds to calibrate the scale of the Japanese machine gun position that is revealed under the flares.
All tactical actions are calculated in seconds.
It can be said that they are dancing on the edge of the knife of the god of death.
War, while pushing people into the abyss, is also constantly shaping people. Those who cannot make themselves stronger will be eliminated.
The artillerymen who danced on the edge of the knife of the god of death countless times and finally survived, under the huge threat, their hand speed was dazzling, even Tang Dao, a strong man who has been single for two lifetimes, could only be amazed.
At least, he is not as good as them in playing artillery.
So, the artillerymen first became the gods of death for the Japanese soldiers in the light and heavy machine gun positions of the Japanese army that have been completely exposed to the glory of the flares.
The Japanese army only deployed machine gun positions on the left wing. When the Japanese machine gun positions were discovered, all mortar muzzles turned to the left wing.
The reason is very simple. If you want to block the bridge deck and can't let the bullets fall into the concession, you can only shoot directly from the front. This kind of shooting range is destined to be unable to play a two-sided attack.
The range of the Type 92 heavy machine gun can be as high as 1,000 meters. Even if the stray bullets lose their straight trajectory, they are extremely lethal.
If two heavy machine gun positions facing each other shoot at each other, the Chinese don't need to shoot, and the Japanese on both sides can kill themselves directly. Not only will the 36th Infantry Regiment become the biggest joke in the history of the Sino-Japanese War, but perhaps the short-legged tribe will become one of the funniest jokes since the earth has written records.
And because they have to shoot at the Suzhou River Bridge, and they can't let the bullets hit the Western Concession, the Japanese heavy machine gunners are also racking their brains.
In order to ensure the direct shooting range, all heavy machine guns are mainly placed not far from the river.
There was originally a small alley, but now it has almost been flattened by artillery fire, leaving only some low walls and piles of ruins.
All the fortifications were built by the Japanese machine gunners and ammunition handlers who had worked hard to carry sandbags from afar.
Those not-so-thin sandbag fortifications might be able to block heavy machine guns, but for the mortar shells that fell from the sky, it was really...
It was like a woman who was only a little bit naked and still seductive, met a group of villains with a green dragon on the left and a white tiger on the right. Before her big brother came to help with a big stick, the villains released a wave of "fast, accurate, and ruthless".
30 shells, all in one breath.
The Chinese villains didn't even have time to see how pitiful the Japanese girls who had been beaten by them were. A group of people rushed up and carried dozens of kilograms of "weapons" and ran away.
In fact, they couldn't see it either.
Tang Dao, Li Jiujin and Yang Xiaoshan turned around and ran away immediately after firing the flares. Wouldn't they be waiting to be hit by the Japanese artillery if they didn't run?
The flares only lasted for 30 seconds. After 30 seconds, everything was shrouded in darkness again, except for the flames from the mortar shells.
So sad! The Japanese colonel looked at the flickering flames in the distance and felt sad.