Lingtou Village is neither big nor small, with more than a hundred houses closely clustered together, surrounded by fields more than a hundred meters wide, and the terrain is basically flat.
The villagers had all fled the day before, and now the village was occupied by the Japanese and puppet troops. The puppet troops were reduced to about 60 yesterday after being beaten by the 9th squad and the 3rd company. The Japanese were a standard squadron sent by the county town in response to a request for help, with nearly 200 soldiers, and a total of nearly 300 including the puppet troops.
Although the combined strength of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd companies plus the 9th squad was equal to that of the enemy, their combat power was definitely weaker. If it was during the day, they could only run away. Now, Wu Yan had no choice but to pull out his troops to fight in order to attract the attention of the devils. The only thing he could use was the dark night without a moon. The only thing he could do was to surround the village and harass, put pressure on the demonstration, there was no better way.
Tonight, it was still pitch black. Wu Yan led the first company to the south of Lingtou Village, and the third company was outside the village to the north. Of the remaining two directions, Gao Yidao chose the east side. As for the ninth squad, Wu Yan did not make any requests, and let Hu Yi do it himself. The purpose of the battle was simple. Taking advantage of the darkness, cold guns and cold bullets greeted the village. Each of them fought on their own. First, torment the enemy for a night, give them a warning, disgust them, and build up their angry fighting spirit, so as to ask the county for help to encircle and suppress this area. They didn't dare to leave the village in the dark. In order to prevent the mistakes of the ninth squad and the third company yesterday, each unit set a unified command to prevent accidental injuries in the dark.
Now Class 9 has returned to its original six members. Since Shi Cheng and his men injured two people, it is not appropriate for them to follow the operation. Hu Yi asked them to return to Qingshan Village and take their bicycles with them. They will pick them up on the way back when Class 9 returns after the mission is completed.
At the moment, Class 9 appeared at the old place where they robbed the bicycles, opposite the open field east of Lingtou Village. It was not because Hu Yi had any special purpose, but because he was completely familiar with the environment of this location. It was of course more reliable to stay here, and it was also easy to retreat in the dark.
The first company in the south did not hesitate. After arriving at the position, they fired a row of random shots at the village. Then the village's Type 99 light machine guns immediately started to fire, blasting into the dark woods in the south. Then the third company in the north also started to fire cold shots at the village, but they were also fired back by the Japanese and puppet troops. For a while, the gunfire was chaotic.
The lights in the village were immediately extinguished, and the bonfire was instantly turned into thick smoke by the water. The Japanese did not panic, but responded calmly and in an orderly manner, because they knew that it was the Eighth Route Army who was harassing them in the darkness.
"Captain, shall we fight?"
"It's just a random fight anyway, why are you in such a hurry? We'll talk about it later."
In the darkness on the east side of the open field, Gao Yidao answered his men casually and walked to one side along the skirmish line of the Second Company's soldiers, checking the width of the Second Company's battle line and its preparations.
Gao Yidao could only vaguely see something a few meters away. As he walked and looked around, he suddenly stepped on empty air and fell into the ditch with a plop.
"Captain, what's wrong with you?"
Gao Yidao's unnatural voice came from the dark pit: "Damn it... I... cough cough... I'm fine. How come... there is such a deep pit? Cough.
"Haha, haha, you bastard, you deserve to fall to death." A low, shrill laugh came from the darkness nearby.
Gao Yidao sat up at the bottom of the pit until the golden star disappeared. He looked carefully in the dark, and then reached out to touch the bottom and sides of the pit. He found that this was not a natural pit, but a man-made one. A question mark immediately popped up in his head. So he climbed up and walked along the pit to the top, which was about 20 meters long and headed towards the village.
There are fields all around, what is the purpose of such a long and deep ditch? Could it be that the farmers dug it to destroy the fields for fun? Gao Yidao poked his head out of the dark field, and suddenly a bicycle appeared in his mind. Then he remembered the scene in the valley today. A road several dozen meters long, this inhuman Class Nine came out with a fart.
In the darkness, a Czech light machine gun was mounted on a dirt ridge behind the bushes. Luo Fugui lay behind the machine gun, looking at the village across the field, where eye-catching bullet trajectories were flying in the north and south directions, feeling extremely bored; Ma Liang lay about ten meters away from the machine gun position, also looking into the village to watch the excitement; a few meters behind the machine gun position was a shallow pit, where Liu Jianqiang was lying in the pit to rest, Wu Shitou was sitting in the pit to relax, and Xiao Hongying was leaning against the edge of the pit to count the stars.
Hu Yi was lying on the side as the assistant shooter on the right side of Luo Fugui, calm and composed. Suddenly, there was a sound of falling sand in the ditch beside him, and Gao Yidao was crawling out from the darkness.
"Hu, you were the ones who dug the ditch, right?"
Hu Yi ignored Gao Yidao's question.
"What do you think is the most cost-effective way to fight the devils?"
"I don't know." Hu Yi didn't understand why he asked such an idiotic question. Fighting the Japanese would not be cost-effective no matter how he fought, so he had no interest in saying it was useless.
Facing Hu Yi's cold words, Gao Yidao was not annoyed. Instead, he sat down behind the earthen ridge next to Hu Yi and continued, "Let's put aside our grudges. I admit that you have fought many direct battles with the Japanese, so I really want to hear your opinion."
Hu Yi tilted his head and looked at Gao Yidao who was vaguely visible in the darkness. After a while, he said calmly, "You want to go in and fight in the street?"
"I have this idea. What do you think?"
Gao Yidao had this idea. He had fought many battles, including mobile warfare, close combat, point capture, and sneak attacks, but he had no experience in street fighting in residential houses. He could not judge what the situation would be if he led the second company into the village. He knew that Hu Yi often crawled in the ruins of the city, so he hoped to get an assessment from professionals.
Hu Yi was speechless. Gao Yidao was a warmongerer. He would be upset if he didn't commit suicide. He was so arrogant, but he was different from others. He was rough but meticulous and dared to ask questions. I really didn't know what to say about him. In all the large-scale battles with the devils, street fighting was the best mode of battle. At least the difference in firepower would be minimized, but the casualty ratio was still far worse than that of the devils.
Seeing that Hu Yi remained silent, Gao Yidao said, "Let me put it this way. If we wipe out the Second Company in the village, how many Japanese do you think I can kill?"
"Without considering other factors, if you're lucky, it's one for one, if you're averagely lucky, it's one and a half for one, if you're unlucky, it's two for one. This is for the 67th Army. As for your inexperienced Second Company... you may have to add more. You can do the math yourself."
Hu Yi's words were not polite, but they were true.
Gao Yidao felt a little disappointed as he was poured a bucket of cold water on his head. He did not misunderstand Hu Yi's belittling of the Second Company, because there was no need for the two parties who disliked each other to belittle each other. What Hu Zasui said was his experience and did not involve verbal attack.
Gunshots were heard from all over the village, and the noise was so deafening that Gao Yidao seemed to be deaf in the darkness. He was thinking about how to get into the village. After a long while, he took a deep breath.
"Anyway, I want to try to fight to the edge of the village first. I won't go too deep, just to give Erlian some experience. But I need your help in this open area."
Although he could force his way through in the darkness, the Second Company had nearly a hundred people. If one of them was not careful, this open area would become hell for the Second Company. So he had to be safe. Whether attacking or retreating, the ditch would minimize the losses.
"How can I help you?"
"Dig that ditch across."
"…" Knowing that the result is not optimistic, this guy still wants to try. His spirit is commendable. Although I can't see Gao Yidao's face clearly, I can hear the firmness and earnestness in his tone.
"Mr. Hu, please tell me something frankly."
"Three hundred and seventy-nine bullets, you take care of it and I'll do it."
"What? Haha, I've looked down on you my whole life and it's not unfair. Can you still have some shame?"
"I don't need your esteem."
Last night, we ambushed the puppet army and our Second Company obtained a batch of bullets. Hu Yi's request meant almost half of the spoils. Gao Yidao felt that Hu Yi came for this, so he gritted his teeth and said, "Let's get to work. I'll collect the bullets for you." Then he turned around and disappeared into the darkness.
All these conversations were heard by the people from Class 9 nearby. Xiao Hongying couldn't help but say, "Fox, you finally got it? Why don't you ask for more? He is a big scoundrel."
Hu Yi sighed in the darkness. He did this not to earn bullets, but because digging trenches was not that easy.
Luo Fugui, Wu Shitou and Liu Jianqiang, a three-person super digging team started working, continuing to dig along the ditch dug yesterday. The first order Hu Yi gave them was to dig to the middle of the open area, stop about 70 meters away from the edge of the village, and then dig ten-meter-long trenches on both sides horizontally.
Xiao Hongying was ordered not to participate in the battle and retreated into the woods to hide and watch. At Hu Yi's request, all the soldiers of the second company near the machine gun position of the ninth squad withdrew, leaving only Ma Liang in a range of 30 to 40 meters.
Gao Yidao sent one person to each side to notify the first and third companies, inform them of the actions that the second company might take, and remind them to pay attention to coordination.
Hao Ping and Yang Dezhi's reply to the second company's signalman was two words: madman.
After hearing the news, the commander of the first company, Wu Yan, handed over the command of the first company to his subordinates on the spot, and followed the signalman of the second company to see Gao Yidao to stop this god from talking nonsense.
Time passed slowly in the darkness, and it was almost midnight. In the woods east of the open space, Wu Yan and Gao Yidao could be heard arguing faintly.
Luo Fugui and the other three climbed out of the ditch, panting and telling Hu Yi exhaustedly that they had completed the preliminary task and arrived in the middle of the open area, only seventy meters away from the village. A twenty-meter-wide trench was completed at the end.
"You three find a hidden place to rest for a while." Hu Yi picked up the machine gun, turned back and said to Ma Liang, "You will open fire in a minute, be smart." Then he jumped into the ditch and crouched down into the darkness.
I ran to the end in one breath, turned into the left trench, reached the inner end, stuck my head out, set up the machine gun, and quietly pointed it in the direction of the dark village. If I dig further, the enemy might hear the sound clearly. Conspiracies cannot be achieved by covert means, so I can only use open means.
Bang! Ma Liang's gun went off. Gao Yidao and Wu Yan, who were still discussing, were both stunned. Wasn't Class Nine digging a hole? Did this go off accidentally
Bang! Ma Liang immediately fired a second shot towards the village, then retreated down the ridge and moved to one side.
After being silent for half a night, gunshots were finally heard from the east of the village. The Japanese soldiers guarding this side opened fire at the location of the gunshots without hesitation. In an instant, tongues of fire flashed in all directions, and a rain of bullets rushed out of the village and hit the east side of the open space.
Hu Yi watched quietly in the darkness. There were three Type 99 light machine guns. This should be a squad of Japanese soldiers. The muzzle was slightly adjusted, pointing at a cluster of flames that were flashing continuously.
Da da da da da... a whole magazine was fired at that firing point in one breath.
This was beyond the Japanese's expectation, not because of the loud noise of the Czech machine gun, but because the location where it fired was in the middle of the open field, only 70 or 80 meters away. What was it for? Was it trying to get close
The second hail of bullets immediately rushed towards the previous machine gun position, and the field was filled with chaos.
With a muffled bang, a bright spot climbed high into the night sky, then suddenly released white light, began to burn, dragged a brilliant trail, and began to descend lightly. The flares fired by the grenade launcher illuminated the large open fields on the east side, a vast expanse of white, suddenly blinding both the enemy and us. A dark trench finally appeared in sight.
Hu Yi crawled at the bottom of the trench, holding the machine gun in one hand and crawling to the other end. The sky above his head was pale, and the surroundings were full of the whistling of bullets hitting the ground. The broken soil near the trench continued to splash and fell on his back. Hu Yi finally stopped, twisted his neck and raised his head, but the sun was so bright that he couldn't open his eyes, so he sat up with his back against the soil, pulled out the empty magazine and put it in his pocket, and then replaced it with a new one.
The flares had not yet gone out and the gunfire had not yet stopped when a low, muffled sound was heard from the village again, again and again, as one grenade after another was fired high into the night sky.
A few seconds later, boom, boom... there was a flash of light in the trench at the end of the ditch.
The continuous pale light disappeared, and the surroundings fell into darkness again, replaced by repeated flashes of fire. The soil behind was shaking desperately, and large pieces of soil and sand were blown up, and then turned into a cross-sectional rain of sand, which poured down continuously in the darkness and fell into the trench, hitting the brim of the hat and making it rattle continuously. Nothing could be seen, and only the occasional coughing could be heard in the dusty trench...
Thanks to this scene, all the gunfire to the south and north of the village stopped. Hao Ping and Yang Dezhi stared blankly at the open space in the east where the roar continued, unable to imagine what was happening there.
Several people from Class Nine also stared blankly at the flash of explosion. It was the first time they had seen such a shocking scene, and they were all so shocked that they were speechless. In their hearts, this was already the legendary "big scene", and they were so nervous that they had already forgotten their heartbeats.
In the darkness, Gao Yidao and Wu Yan stumbled because they couldn't see the environment clearly, but they still strode towards the position of Class 9. They ran to the vicinity of Ma Liang in one breath and heard Ma Liang, who was observing the explosion location in the darkness, muttering again and again: "Seventeen, eighteen, nineteen..."
Gao Yidao stopped and looked at the middle of the field. Without turning his head, he said to Wu Yan behind him: "See... I'm not crazy, he is..."