Chapter 49: The Plane Attack, The Enemy Retreats

Inside the artillery combat command post of the 386th Brigade, located on the mountain near Liaoxian county town, Zhang Yun was observing the miserable state of the Japanese barracks in the town through a stereo telescope.

"Dachuan, fifteen meters to the north, continue firing!"

After completing the counter-artillery strike and destroying the enemy's artillery unit, Zhang Yun had ordered the brigade artillery to return to their original formation. On the one hand, the brigade's artillery shells were scarce and not very suitable for Zhang Yun's combat style; on the other hand, for artillery not directly commanded by Zhang Yun, there was no loot bonus for kills.

As soon as the brigade artillery left, Zhang Yun cast off his restraints. Together with Wang Dachuan, he began precise shelling of the Japanese in the county town.

It was now fully daylight, and looking through the high-magnification stereo telescope from the mountain, the Japanese force deployment in the town was clearly visible. The Japanese barracks, machine gun nests, and command posts were exposed to full view. With no enemy artillery left to counterattack, these targets had become sitting ducks for Zhang Yun.

Zhang Yun observed and determined the coordinate distances, Wang Dachuan calculated the parameters, and Wang Chengzhub was responsible for the firing at the two positions. The three of them worked in close cooperation, kicking off the Independent Regiment's version of "shooting rabbits with heavy artillery."

"Boom," "Boom." Precise artillery shells continuously landed inside the Japanese barracks, calling out the command post, heavy machine gun nests, and barracks dormitories one by one. Those Japanese soldiers who failed to dodge in time were blown straight up into the sky.

"Three more Japanese soldiers sent flying! Good, shift the fire about 10 meters to the east; there's a heavy machine gun nest there!"

Zhang Yun kept his eyes glued to the stereo telescope, issuing joyous commands.

How could he not be joyful? At this moment, his loot bonus data kept updating. Although every two or three artillery shells only yielded the reward of one or two rifles or 0.5 light or heavy machine guns, Zhang Yun did not disdain the meager harvest. After all, when he destroyed the enemy's artillery position earlier, the artillery units gained from the loot bonus were already enough to exchange for 2,800 shells. He had made a massive profit!

"Boom," "Boom." Another three or four Japanese soldiers were blown into the sky. With the continuous bombardment, before long, Zhang Yun's artillery squad had fired over 100 shells, killing nearly 150 Japanese soldiers and wounding more than 200.

However, the infantry gun and mountain gun ammunition of the artillery squad was now nearing depletion. Moreover, the Japanese devils had started to notice the direction from which the shells were flying and were scrambling to hide behind buildings and ruins. Within the visual range, there were no longer any visible targets to shoot at.

Zhang Yun and Wang Dachuan both squeezed into the observation window, staring through the stereo telescope to carefully observe the movements of the Japanese in the county town.

At this moment, at the base of the wall behind the ruins of the Japanese command post, Hesenkawa Ichiro of the Japanese 105th Regiment was squatting on the ground, slapping the staff officer's face with a look of extreme anger. His command post had been hit during the artillery strike just moments before. Fortunately, he, the staff officer, and the telegraph operator had immediately fled upon noticing the bombardment and escaped unscathed, though they were left covered in dust and in an utterly disheveled state.

Seeing the Japanese soldiers in the military camp being driven, hit, and blown away by the artillery fire like little rabbits, Hesenkawa Ichiro, who had always been calm and restrained, could no longer contain his temper and vented his fury on the staff officer.

"Baka! You stupid bastard, why did you arrange the military camp on the square? Isn't this exposing the soldiers directly to the enemy's artillery fire?"

"Hai, sumimasen!" The staff officer nearby also squatted on the ground, not daring to cover his face, offering his cheek to the regimental commander's furious slaps.

After a dozen consecutive slaps, Hesenkawa Ichiro finally reined in his temper. He looked at the surrounding situation and asked the telegraph operator, "What does Taiyuan say? Where are our reinforcements?"

"The Taiyuan First Army Headquarters has already telegraphed. Lieutenant General Hayao Tada has arranged for fighter planes and bombers from the Taiyuan airfield to take off, and they will soon arrive to help us eliminate the enemy artillery. Lieutenant General Hayao Tada stated that the nine-way encirclement has already failed, and he demands that our regiment quickly save itself. With air cover, we are to evacuate Liaoxian and transfer to Heshun county town. If Heshun county town is also indefensible, we can directly transfer to Xiyang county, Ping'an county, and other places to regroup and rest."

"As for reinforcements, the Yangquan command will arrange troops to rendezvous with our regiment at Xiyang county town!"

"Baka! Rendezvous at Xiyang county town—what difference is that from rendezvousing in Taiyuan?" Hesenkawa Ichiro said angrily. "Has Commander Hayao Tada been frightened out of his wits by the Eighth Route Army in Shanxi?"

Neither the staff officer nor the telegraph operator dared to utter a word. Their direct superior dared to question the First Army Headquarters in his agitation, but they did not dare to echo him.

Hesenkawa Ichiro gradually calmed down and ordered, "Immediately arrange for the soldiers to pack their weapons and ammunition, bandage the wounded, and destroy all excess weapons and ammunition that are inconvenient to carry."

"Currently, the Eighth Route Army has surrounded three sides of the county town, leaving only the north gate open for us. There is a high probability of ambush troops there. Please inform the air force that if they fail to locate or destroy the enemy artillery, they are to suppress the Eighth Route Army troops on the east, south, and west sides, and focus their bombing on the mountain slopes on both flanks of the north to blast open a breakthrough for our breakout!"

"Order the troops to quickly transfer out immediately after the bombing, and regroup first in Heshun!"

"Hai!" × 2

...

At this moment, Zhang Yun and the others did not know that the Japanese planes were about to arrive. They were still observing the county town through the stereo telescope, searching for Japanese soldiers who could be shelled, but unfortunately, visual inspection yielded nothing. Zhang Yun opened the map page and found that the two scouts were still in the county town, but because of the bombardment, they were currently hiding in a residential area some distance away from the Japanese command post and barracks, unable to provide real-time information on the Japanese.

It seemed that the "shooting rabbits" game was coming to an end. The Japanese in the county town had realized they were completely exposed to artillery fire and were probably about to leave! It would all depend on how the 386th Brigade could tear a few chunks of meat off the retreating Japanese.

Just as he was pondering, a sharp and piercing hand-cranked siren suddenly wailed. Following that, the brigade liaison officer rushed into the command post and shouted anxiously, "The Japanese planes are coming! Quickly arrange for concealment!"

Zhang Yun immediately called Wang Chengzhub to inquire about the artillery concealment. Meanwhile, Wang Dachuan was quick-handed and footed; he picked up the stereo telescope and ran toward the nearby bomb shelter.

When they were with the Northeast Army, Wang Chengzhub and his men had long been familiar with the routines of Japanese aerial bombing. They had placed the artillery in the woods halfway up the mountain slope and simply constructed a bomb shelter nearby, which could effectively hide the artillery and protect it from aerial bombardment.

Of course, this was also because there were too few cannons. With just these few guns, and with their low profiles, the Japanese planes would not easily spot these targets. If it were an artillery regiment, field air defense would be a problem that must be rigorously considered.

Compared to the artillerymen who had already completed anti-aircraft concealment, the command post located at the higher point of the mountain slope was much easier for Japanese planes to spot. However, the command post was merely constructed from a few wooden boards, and its most valuable items were actually the two stereo telescopes and the maps. Therefore, after confirming the safety of the artillery, Zhang Yun also scurried off to the surrounding bomb shelters to evade the Japanese bombing.

"Damn it! Once the material loot bonuses increase after a while, I'll see if I can't swap for a few dozen 88mm anti-aircraft guns, hundreds of 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns, and thousands of anti-aircraft machine guns. Let's see whether you have more planes or I have more shells!" Although forced to hide in the bomb shelter, Zhang Yun was not anxious.

Currently, the Japanese air force was very strong, and most of their elite pilots were concentrated in the China theater, basically maintaining air supremacy. However, the Japanese air force was not unbeatable.

The best way to deal with planes was still planes, but given the current conditions of the Eighth Route Army, they still had a long way to go before possessing an air force capable of suppressing Japanese planes.

The next best method was to pile up anti-aircraft guns and use dense firepower for air defense attacks. Although the cost-effectiveness ratio of anti-aircraft guns during World War II was very low, Japanese planes had thin armor and would be damaged if hit even slightly. If hit more severely, the pilots would be killed or wounded. As long as most of the Japanese elite pilots were killed, the little devils' air force would be largely crippled.

Moreover, if Zhang Yun was given another one to two years to develop, he estimated he would possess a massive amount of supplies. If the cost-effectiveness ratio was low, then he would simply use quantity to overwhelm the little devils' planes, first weaving a dense anti-aircraft net around the base area so that the Japanese planes could at least no longer act so arrogantly. Zhang Yun pondered slowly.