Bright Sword: Rebirth of Kong Jie

The Japanese knew nothing about the Eighth Route Army's secret relocation of garrisons.

The Japanese army sent a battalion to carry out mopping-up operations against the New 17th Regiment, the New 21th Regiment and the st Regiment respectively.

These three Eighth Route Army combat regiments were regarded as the most common Eighth Route Army troops.

The actual situation is:

All the troops were transferred to the new 6st Regiment of the new 2000th Regiment, with a total strength of more than 400 people, including more than elite steel helmet troops.

Ding Wei's new regiment can now be said to be strong in both men and horses.

The equipment level has improved a lot compared to a year ago.

Not to mention the rest, there were more than a dozen heavy machine guns in the entire regiment.

Just based on this point, I'm afraid it would scare the Japanese - it's not because the equipment of more than a dozen heavy machine guns is too exaggerated. After all, according to the equipment level of the Japanese army, a regular Japanese field battalion is equipped with 12 heavy machine guns.

But they were well-equipped Japanese field troops!

In the Japanese army's consistent impression.

The Eighth Route Army had backward equipment and scarce ammunition, let alone a single regiment being equipped with more than a dozen heavy machine guns.

The regular newly formed regiment of the Eighth Route Army did not even have a single heavy machine gun in the entire regiment.

In the past few years, the Japanese army has carried out several large-scale raids against the Eighth Route Army base areas.

During the mopping-up operation, even if they encountered the Eighth Route Army, which was known as a regimental combat unit, after the entire battle was over.

However, no sound of heavy machine guns was heard from the enemy's Eighth Route Army troops.

As for mortars and the like, let alone anything like that.

The Japanese therefore concluded that any Eighth Route Army unit with heavy machine guns must be the main combat regiments of the Eighth Route Army.

And it is a relatively powerful force.

As for the Eighth Route Army's new 17th, 21th and st Regiments, before the garrison exchange plan was implemented, the three regiments were the most conventional newly formed regiments of the Eighth Route Army.

Each regiment does have heavy machine guns, but there are only one or two.

Among them, the 21st Regiment had the largest number of heavy machine guns, but only five.

Two of them were Type 92 heavy machine guns captured from the Japanese army, and three were outdated machine guns made in the Republic of China, such as the heavy machine gun nicknamed Old Ox.

Not only is the firing rate slow, but it is also prone to malfunctions.

But this is better than nothing.

The amount of ammunition stored in machine guns is even pitifully small, with a heavy machine gun having less than 2000 rounds of bullets.

Any heavy machine gun of the Japanese could be equipped with at least 7,000 to 8,000 rounds of bullets.

In addition, there are regular spare ammunition for machine guns carried by infantry.

This shows the disparity in equipment levels between the Eighth Route Army and the Japanese Army.

This was not the era of cold weapons.

The tide of battle can be turned with military force.

A Japanese army equipped with heavy machine guns, even if it only has a squad of soldiers, can easily stop the attack of a battalion of the Eighth Route Army that lacks heavy firepower.

This is not an exaggeration.

But the powerful New 1st Regiment is different. In addition to more than a dozen heavy machine guns, each company has two or three light machine guns.

As for the 400-man team of steel-helmeted soldiers, there is no need to mention them.

With the same troop size, their equipment is even better than that of the Japanese.

In addition, there were Type 92 infantry guns, Type 41 company guns, Type 60 mortars, Type 50 small guns, etc. captured from the Japanese.

The new regiment has a specially formed artillery company.

In terms of mortar firepower, they are no worse than the Japanese battalion.

After all, the Japs' battalion organization was actually equivalent to the Eighth Route Army's battalion-level organization. The Japanese army's regular field battalions were equipped with small-caliber Type 89 grenade launchers.

The most that can be done is to strengthen the 1mm Type 2 infantry guns by 70 or .

Apart from this, the Japs had no decent large-caliber artillery.

So for Ding Wei, he had a main force of more than 2000 strong soldiers and well-equipped, so he did not take the Japanese battalion of more than 1000 troops seriously at all.

Moreover, this was not a head-on offensive and defensive battle, but an ambush in which the Japanese were let into the base.

There was naturally no suspense in the battle.

Pingchuan, an old Japanese soldier who threatened to completely destroy the Eighth Route Army's New Sixth Regiment base before noon and had lunch in Lijia Village, led his troops forward and then encountered an attack by the Eighth Route Army on the outer line of the New Sixth Regiment base.

——This was deliberately arranged by Ding Wei to show weakness to the enemy troops.

All the sophisticated equipment that originally belonged to the New 1st Regiment was hidden.

In order to make the fake look real, Ding Wei even specifically instructed that the rifles used by the soldiers be mixed with some old Hanyang-made sleeves, etc., to give the Japanese an illusion that this group of Eighth Route Army soldiers were poorly equipped, with a variety of guns that could not be unified, and had no combat effectiveness at all.

The combat method was also imitated from the New Sixth Regiment, but it only used sparse firepower and took advantage of favorable terrain to block the Japanese army.

The battle between the two sides is about to break out.

Lieutenant Colonel Hirakawa, who was commanding the operation, soon realized that the enemy's Eighth Route Army's firepower was sparse.

There was disdain on the corners of his mouth.

Directly ordered a fierce attack.

Faced with the ambush troops of the Eighth Route Army on the high ground on both sides of the mountain road, the Japanese army quickly used the Type 89 grenade launchers they carried to bombard them.

Amid the continuous artillery fire, the poorly equipped Eighth Route Army was easily repelled by the Japanese army.

The old Japanese soldier Pingchuan held up a telescope and looked at the Eighth Route Army troops whose clothes were ragged and patched, and whose uniforms were not even uniform.

There is inevitably contempt in the words:

"They are just vulnerable Eighth Route Army troop. Order the troops to advance quickly. Perhaps in less than two hours we can completely wipe out this group of Eighth Route Army troop and flatten Lijia Village!"

"Hi!"

At this time, the new regiment headquarters.

According to the intelligence sent back from the front, the Japanese army has fallen into the trap and is continuing to advance towards Lijia Village.

Ding Wei punched the square table in the headquarters and cursed: "This son of a bitch Pingchuan Battalion, do you really think that our Eighth Route Army is easy to bully?

Isn't it just because of the better equipment? This time I have to let the Japanese know what will happen if they encounter our New 1st Regiment.

Notify the ambush troops on the front line to prepare for battle. Once the Japanese enter the ambush circle, do not hold back and launch the most violent attack to wipe out the Pingchuan Battalion in the shortest possible time.

Then break out according to the pre-planned plan!"

Half an hour later.

The battle broke out as expected.

The Japanese soldiers from the Pingchuan Battalion came with their heads held high, looking very brave and confident. They had sophisticated equipment in their hands and were looking at the seemingly uninhabited Lijia Village.

He even imagined in his mind the pleasure of completely conquering Lijia Village and then burning, killing and looting at will.

When facing the steep and narrow mountain path that is extremely easy to be ambushed on the way to enter Lijia Village.

When the adjutant next to him expressed concern, he thought that the Eighth Route Army might ambush here.

The complacent Lieutenant Colonel Hirakawa said disdainfully: "They are just the Eighth Route Army. I don't think they have the courage to ambush the Imperial Army here.

Even if they dare to ambush here, they will be completely wiped out by the Imperial Army."

Of course, just to be on the safe side.

The old Japanese did arrange some artillery and machine gunners to conduct fire reconnaissance on the woods on both sides of the mountain road. They fired a volley of bullets and several grenade launchers opened fire at full force. The shells exploded in the woods on both sides, but they did not discover the Eighth Route Army troops lurking in them. Instead, they frightened the birds hiding in the bird forest and made them fly around in panic.

Lieutenant Colonel Hirakawa burst into laughter when he saw this scene.

"Well? I'll tell you, how could the cowardly Eighth Route Army have the guts to ambush the Imperial Army?

If I'm right, the Eighth Route Army in the village have already fled!"

The adjutant on the side flattered him a few words.

The Japanese soldiers carried their weapons so brazenly and entered the ambush circle, or grave, tailored for them by Ding Wei without any precautions.

When the main force of the Japanese invaders all entered the ambush circle.

"beat!"

The battalion commander who was ordered by Ding Wei to ambush here gave an order.

The soldiers who had been lurking on both sides of the mountain road did not hold back at all.

The grenade throwing team, rifle grenade shooting team, mortar strike team, and machine gun fire cover team arranged in advance broke out together.

A large amount of firepower formed a dense net and smashed down on the Japanese troops on the mountain road.

The bullets were as dense as raindrops and the artillery fire was roaring continuously. The Japanese soldiers who were caught off guard looked at the grenades and shells flying in the sky, stunned for a moment. They didn't even have time to dodge before the series of artillery fire caused casualties to increase rapidly.

As Ding Wei said, this was a battle without any suspense at all.

The main reason why the Eighth Route Army could not defeat the Japanese invaders was because of their backward equipment.

If the Eighth Route Army could be equipped with the same sophisticated equipment as the Japanese army.

With the help of advantageous terrain and the fearless courage of the Eighth Route Army soldiers, as well as these troops composed of veterans with solid military qualities.

The combat power that can be unleashed is definitely not something the Japanese can withstand.

In particular, the battle broke out in the form of an ambush.

These Japanese soldiers entered the ambush circle without any precautions, and it can be said that they were killed by their arrogance.

The old Japanese soldier Pingchuan was killed on the spot by a series of rifle-grenade attacks.

He held his command knife high, his face filled with fear. Before he could give any orders, he died in the artillery fire.

More than 1000 Japanese devils and a fully-strength field battalion of the Japanese army.

At the first moment the ambush started, the Eighth Route Army soldiers responded with the most intensive artillery and machine gun fire, focusing on destroying the artillery squad carried by the devils, as well as the gunners and machine gunners hiding in the team.

It is often very difficult to completely eliminate more than 1000 Japanese soldiers in a conventional face-to-face offensive and defensive battle.

Even with several times the number of troops, it would be difficult to achieve this.

But what they were fighting was an ambush. The Japanese army was on a narrow mountain road and could not deploy its forces at all. Even if they wanted to retreat, they could not do it quickly due to the limitations of the terrain.

The soldiers of the New 1st Regiment once again demonstrated powerful firepower that the Japanese army had not expected.

In the end, the two sides fought fiercely for less than half an hour.

More than 1000 Japanese and puppet troops were almost all killed or wounded.

——Especially under the command of Ding Wei, the New 1st Regiment fought very sharply and inflicted heavy damage to the entire Japanese battalion with the most fierce artillery fire.

The charge was immediately sounded.

Without giving the Japanese any chance to breathe, the Eighth Route Army soldiers who ambushed on both wings launched a final charge towards the remaining Japanese who had not yet recovered, like tigers descending from the mountains.

After the troops approached, according to the tradition of the New 1st Regiment, if the situation could be solved with bullets, bayonets would never be used, and no time would be wasted.

Try to eliminate all the Japanese in the shortest possible time.

In Ding Wei's opinion, destroying this large Japanese army group that rashly penetrated into the ambush circle was not a decent battle at all.

This is not his goal at all; it is just an appetizer before the real battle.

The battle quickly came to an end.

Ding Wei immediately ordered a company of soldiers to continue cleaning up the battlefield, and the rest of the main force, under his command, quickly broke through the blockade of the Japanese brigade and detoured to the rear of the devils.

——The ambush came too suddenly. Before the battle started, Ding Wei conducted advance reconnaissance and determined the location of the Japanese battalion’s communications department.

As soon as the battle broke out, the artillery used artillery to completely blow up the enemy's communications department.

This paralyzed the Japanese brigade's communications system.

This means that the entire ambush lasted from the time it broke out until it ended.

More than 1000 Japanese soldiers were completely wiped out.

However, the news was completely blocked, and the Japanese did not even have time to pass on the news of the ambush.

Therefore, the Japanese army naturally did not know that the troops of the New Sixth Regiment of the Eighth Route Army, which they thought they could easily destroy, not only quickly killed the Pingchuan Battalion.

The elite troops also took the opportunity to break through the Japanese blockade and charge towards the Japanese rear security area.

At the same time, there was no suspense at all in the battles in the direction of the 17th and 21st Regiments' bases.

Under the command of Li Yunlong, the soldiers of the New Second Regiment easily inflicted heavy damage on the Japanese West Gate Battalion.

Then, under the command of Li Yunlong, the soldiers launched a roundabout attack on the Japanese rear.

Not to mention the independent regiment that transferred its main force to the 21st Regiment's base.

The independent regiment has a total strength of more than 4000 soldiers, which can be said to be strong in both men and horses. It also has more than 1000 elite steel-helmeted soldiers. Its combat effectiveness is undoubtedly the strongest among the three regiments of the Iron Triangle.

After the Japanese Army's Tanaka Battalion entered the 21st Regiment's base, it was like throwing a stone into a lake, causing only a few ripples.

The ripples haven't completely subsided yet!

The Japanese were completely wiped out.

After these three ambushes were over.

The three Japanese battalions that were originally used by the Japanese army to blockade the Eighth Route Army's New 17th Regiment, 21th Regiment and st Regiment were almost completely wiped out.

The New 1st Regiment, the New 2nd Regiment and the Independent Regiment quickly broke through the Japanese blockade and made plans according to the plan discussed by Kong Jie, Li Yunlong, Ding Wei and others before the war.

They quickly detoured towards Shouyang, Yangquan, and Ping'an County respectively.

What are you doing?

Attack the Japanese's rear in one breath, set fire to the rear, and see if they are still in the mood to continue sweeping the front line.

At this moment, in order to raise funds for this unprecedented May 1st mopping-up operation, the Japanese army almost withdrawn all the field army troops originally stationed around the security zone.

A considerable number of security forces, including those in the county, were also dispatched to cooperate with the field army to fight deep into the Eighth Route Army base.

This means that the Japanese are short of manpower in the rear area.

How could the Japanese have expected this?

How come three elite troops of the Eighth Route Army easily broke through their blockade and launched a surprise attack on their stable security zone without making any sound?