When the Japanese and puppet soldiers escorting the grain all hid on the other side of the grain truck or crawled under the truck, the gunfire finally stopped. There were nearly 30 bodies lying on the road, and a dozen seriously injured people were writhing on the ground and howling.
The Japanese second lieutenant was already dead. A Japanese sergeant nearby hid behind a grain cart and shouted a few words in bird language to the team. The team immediately quieted down again. The sergeant became the new commander and stabilized the team.
All the members of Class Nine retreated a distance from the ridge and hid behind the slope. Now was the time to take up their respective positions. Lao Luo and his men did not need to move, because this was their position. Now they began to busy themselves with reloading the large lifting pole with gunpowder, and then pouring iron sand and broken nails into the barrel.
The two Type 99 light machine gunners retreated directly to the bottom of the slope and started running north from behind the ridge. Their predetermined position was seventy or eighty meters north of Lao Luo's position. Now they had to hide there, then wait for Hu Yi's gunshots, and then suddenly launch a second attack.
Ma Liang and Liu Jianqiang put their empty pistols in their pockets, took off the rifles on their backs, and moved sideways a short distance after retracting them. They found a place covered by bushes and weeds and climbed up the ridge again. During this period of time, they also served as sentries, secretly monitoring the enemy's situation on the road.
Hu Yi, holding a machine gun, led Luo Fugui to run southwards for 70 to 80 meters behind the ridge and stopped. This was their position, which had been surveyed beforehand. Hu Yi carefully poked his head out to look at the road surface, then retracted it, looking at Lao Luo and the others in the middle 70 to 80 meters away, waiting for the signal that the big lifting pole had been loaded. Luo Fugui half-lying on the back of the slope beside Hu Yi, began to slowly load bullets into the empty magazine.
The hand that was swinging the helmet froze in the air. Xiao Hongying heard the gunfire in the distance suddenly stop, and then she realized that the first wave of attacks had ended. Hu Yi had sternly told her that she was not allowed to shoot unless there was random gunfire on the battlefield.
Xiao Hongying reluctantly put down the helmet in her hand, kicked Wu Shitou again in hatred, then climbed up the bush again, grabbed the butt of the gun in front of her and put it on her shoulder, pouting her little mouth, drooping her little eyebrows, and even the pair of pigtails that were originally curled up listlessly bent down. Now the first wave is over, others are fighting fiercely, but she only fired one shot, and the result was that the bullet flew away; while others were desperately fighting the devils and puppet troops, she was fighting fools in the distance, having a lot of fun. Now the battlefield is suddenly quiet, and she realized that she is even more stupid!
Suddenly, the steel helmet was buckled on Xiao Hongying's head again, this time from the back. The steel helmet was large, and Wu Shitou buckled it casually, and accidentally buckled Xiao Hongying's eyes and nose. If you look from the front, only a cute little chin is exposed...
The little girl with a frown on her face was about to collapse. She lay on the ground motionless with a helmet covering her eyelids.
"Fool."
"Um."
"Looks like I have to kill you first."
"Um."
"Before I get angry, do you have anything else to say?"
"The squad leader said you must wear a helmet."
"… "
I can't stand it any longer. I didn't stand it in the beginning anyway, so why pretend to be a decent person now! Xiao Hongying threw away the helmet of the villain who was covering her eyes, turned her head, raised her pigtail and rushed towards Wu Shitou again...
On the east side of the road, Gao Yidao, who had been observing from the hidden position, was very puzzled. What are you doing? After two rounds of firing, you stopped firing and retreated. There was no movement at all. Didn't you want to fight for fifteen minutes? Why, now the enemy has hidden and wants to fight back? Are you scared? If you show up again, we will have to shoot back. Do you dare to do it
However, this was a good blow, with a dozen people showing great momentum, a good scene, and a good harvest. It seemed that 30 to 40 people were killed or injured. This was beyond Gao Yidao's expectation. He thought it was because the enemy was caught off guard, and the ninth squad was fat, well-equipped, and at a suitable distance, which was the result of the combination of machine guns and Mauser pistols. Gao Yidao did not notice that the first blow of the big stick knocked down nearly 20 people, accounting for half of the total enemy casualties.
The Japanese sergeant who automatically became the commander was also an experienced soldier. Although he was a bit flustered when caught off guard, he did not forget to pay attention to the enemy's situation. It was obvious from the sound of gunfire that there were two machine guns, both of which were familiar to him, the Type 99 and the Czech. The rest were all Mauser pistols. Although the firing was chaotic and noisy, he could be sure that there were not many enemies, at most a dozen or twenty.
Although the casualties were not small, the Japanese sergeant did not find it unacceptable, because most of the casualties were puppet soldiers who were not well-trained and had no crisis management skills. They were just making up the numbers, so it didn't matter. The Imperial Army only lost eight or nine people, including a second lieutenant, four grenadiers, and the rest were riflemen. The team was not seriously injured and had the fighting power at hand.
Now the Japanese sergeant was also struggling. The trenches were dug on the road and the roadside was cleaned. This was definitely a premeditated ambush. It was impossible that there were only these dozen people. So how many enemies were there? Where were the others? This was a question. In addition, why did these dozen people retreat after the first battle? There was no trace of them, and there was no coordination from other directions, and no follow-up actions. The Japanese sergeant would never believe that the enemy went to such great lengths to dig trenches and fill pits just to harass and take advantage of a few lives. They must be after the food!
But at the moment, the scene was a bit strange. The Japanese sergeant really couldn't understand it. He had never seen such an ambush in his many years in the army. It was too strange. He wanted to send some people to rush to the ridge, but he was afraid it was a trick. To be safe, he decided to take a defensive posture first.
The only things they could rely on were the grain trucks parked on the road. The Japanese sergeant began to issue orders, disrupting the organization, and the imperial army and the puppet army were mixed into groups on the spot. The people hiding behind the two vehicles at the southernmost and northernmost ends each formed a separate group, responsible for guarding the north and south ends; all the people lying under the grain trucks, including the puppet army's light machine gun, turned their guns to the east and aimed at the open ground; the rest of the people hiding on the east side of the grain trucks did not move, and continued to use the vehicles and grain as cover, aiming at the western ridge. The Japanese sergeant felt that the dozen people on the ridge must be trying to attract pursuit. There were probably many people hiding behind the ridge. The pocket formation was set up, and the ridge must be the main direction, so the three Type 99 light machine guns were evenly spaced and were also ordered to point at the ridge.
Under normal circumstances, the Japanese sergeant's impromptu arrangement was the best plan. He did not underestimate the enemy, because he could not guess the enemy's tactical intentions, so he did not dare to let go of any of the four directions and was fully prepared to respond. He could not have dreamed that this time he was facing not one opponent, but two mortal enemies who had fought each other to a bloody pulp, the Ninth Squad and the Second Company.
The two commanders, who hated each other and had very different styles, led their own troops. There was no coordination at all, but they simply divided the battle into the first and second halves. The ninth squad fought first, and the second company fought after that. The ninth squad fought the ninth squad, and the second company fought the second company. They didn't care about each other. There was no two-sided attack, no playing hard to get, and no feinting to the east and attacking in the west. Or it can be said that the Japanese and the puppet troops actually had to face two battles instead of one. Who could have thought of this? If you can think of it, you must be a god!
The 9th squad first concentrated their fire for a while and then retreated. Hu Yi did not make such an arrangement for fun, but had no choice. The first round of concentrated fire was to form a regional firepower advantage. If they did not retreat after the enemy reacted and had a cover position to fight back, they would be fools. Now each group has reached their respective positions, but they are still hiding behind the ridge and not coming out, waiting for the big lifting pole to be loaded. The loading of that broken old antique is too slow. In this battle, Hu Yi thought that the big lifting pole would be used as the main force.
Therefore, this strange scene was formed. The Japanese and puppet troops dared not move rashly, hugging the grain carts on the road and guarding against leaks; the ninth squad hid behind the mountain ridge and was bored, staring at Shi Cheng and Lao Luo who were struggling to load gunpowder and iron sand; the second company lay in the open field in the east to watch the show, because they were only responsible for the second half, and they had no right to intervene in the affairs of the ninth squad, this was the Romance of the Three Kingdoms...