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Huo County is located 80 kilometers north of Linfen and is also an important transportation station on the Nantongpu Railway. However, because it is located in a large canyon between the Taiyue Mountains and the Luliang Mountains, east-west transportation is very difficult and there is no connecting east-west road. So in terms of transportation alone, it only has the support of the Tongpu Railway.

Although it does not serve as a transit station like Linfen and plays an important role in western Shanxi, due to geographical factors, the Beitongpu Line and Zhengtai Line must pass through this grand canyon if they want to go south. Huo County is a must-pass place and it is a place that the Japanese must keep firmly under their control.

Compared with the two counties, each has its own importance, so Huo County is also heavily guarded by the Japanese.

After receiving the order from Taiyuan, Huo County assembled troops overnight and provided support to Linfen along the Tongpu railway line in the morning.

This is a support force composed of a mixture of different troops, with a strength of more than 3000, which is almost half of the military force around Huo County.

If they want to support Linfen, Gaohedian is the only way they can go. There is no other choice!

The troops of the 176th Division stationed in Gaohedian were from the 666st Battalion of the th Regiment. Fang Yue naturally knew the importance of this town, so Jiaquan and Duandian both used companies as combat units, and some intersections even had only one platoon of troops. Only in Gaohedian did the st Battalion not transfer any troops.

"Report to the Chief of Staff, the Japanese coming from Huo County have arrived 2 kilometers away from the forward observation post, and are only 10 kilometers away from our unit!"

Fang Yue was in charge of Gaohedian Town. He thought for a moment and said, "What the brigade commander meant is that now is not the time for the field artillery battalion to be deployed. I think so too! Just 3000 people are not worth wasting my 105mm artillery shells.

Send a message to the scouts at the front line, asking them to observe closely and report to me immediately if the Japanese make any movement!

First Battalion Commander, it looks like these devils are going to force their way through our defenses. I'll leave it to you. My request to you is simple. Before dawn tomorrow, you must eliminate at least two-thirds of the devils, and then just let a few of them through!"

The commander of the first battalion is a veteran of the Xu family army. He has been in the army for nearly ten years and is brave and resourceful in combat. He immediately took the order and went down to make the arrangements!

A battalion has 18 L18 mortars, and a fully-strength infantry regiment of the Japanese has about 20 mortars or Type infantry guns, which is about the same number.

But this was a temporary force assembled by the Japanese. It was impossible for them to have a full complement of artillery. Its range was no more than 4 kilometers, and it was vulnerable to the L6 mortar with a range of nearly 16 kilometers.

At this moment, the battalion commander has arrived at the sniper position of the first battalion. The railway has been destroyed. No matter what marching method the Japanese use to support, once they reach Gaohedian, they have to get off and take the road!

The first battalion ambushed on both sides of the road. The ambush distance was relatively far, with an average distance of 400 meters from the center of the road.

There is the superior M16 automatic rifle with an effective range of 600 meters. Although up to now some people do not know how to use the scope, with mechanical aiming, as long as it is not windy or rainy, it can almost cause fatal damage to the enemy at a distance of 300 meters.

If you keep a distance of 400 meters from the enemy, you can not only cause fatal damage to the enemy, but also avoid most of the enemy's firepower, especially the Japanese grenade launchers. Unless you watch the Japanese rush up with grenade launchers and fire, their grenade launchers are of no use at all.

Not to mention that the 666th Regiment is the only regiment composed of veterans in the 176th Division. While other regiments train 1 to 2 precision shooters in each infantry squad, half of each squad in their regiment has met the requirements for precision shooters, and some squads even have snipers.

There was an MG50 machine gun every 42 meters or so along the entire ambush line. 18 mortars were deployed behind a small hill two kilometers behind the ambush line. Unless enemy scouts ran up to them, it would be difficult to know the location of the mortar positions.

A battalion commander was lying in a trench, staring intently at the distance on the road, until several motorcycles appeared in the sight of the telescope in his hand, followed by some Japanese infantry, and behind them were a dozen trucks, and finally a large force of Japanese infantry!

"Everyone, pay attention, get ready for battle. Mortars, listen to my orders, fire rapidly and blow up the enemy truck first!"

Five minutes later, the enemy trucks and a large number of infantrymen entered the firing range of the ambush point. The battalion commander immediately shouted into the 5 walkie-talkie in his hand: "Fire!"

Dong Dong Dong...

Of course, he could not hear the sound of the mortar firing, but a few seconds after giving the order, the sound of grenades exploding around the Japanese trucks reached the ears of every soldier in the first battalion.

Three of the 18 grenades in the first wave accurately landed on the Japanese trucks. The explosive power of the 3mm high-explosive grenades was enough to blow apart the Japanese trucks with poor performance, not to mention the Japanese who filled the carriages in order to increase the number of infantry they could carry.

Nearly a hundred Japanese soldiers in the three trucks were killed on the spot. Together with the other grenades that exploded near the trucks, the first wave of grenades alone caused 3 Japanese casualties, and several trucks were damaged and unable to move.

The mortar fires rapidly, which means that after one grenade is fired, another one is loaded and fired instantly.

This is why Xu Le chose the L16, which can fire 30 high-explosive grenades in one minute in rapid fire.

bang...

After several waves of grenade explosions, the commander of a battalion took the lead in opening fire and shouted: "Comrades, fire!"

In an instant, hundreds of automatic rifles and MG42 general-purpose machine guns opened fire. The gunfire was so dense that it was impossible to distinguish the density of the firepower.

The First Battalion came well prepared. In order to defend this important highway, half of the 666th Regiment's ammunition was transported here!

The most terrifying thing was not this, but the two M134 Gatling guns. Liu Quanhua was generous and transferred his Gatling gun to the first battalion. There was one on each side of the ambush point, mounted on a low tripod. The firing rate was several times faster than that of the MG42. Not to mention the Japanese infantry, even the Japanese armored vehicles did not dare to look through the observation port because the density of the bullets was too high, just like a rainstorm.

The mortars did not stop firing, but only slowed down the frequency of firing after one minute. Coupled with the dense infantry firepower, in just three minutes, half of the more than 3 Japanese soldiers fell to the ground, and their blood dyed the road red!

"Retreat, everyone retreat!" Next to the wreckage of a truck, the Japanese lieutenant colonel shouted with a box in his hand.