in2ebook Chapter 347: Bazooka's Power
Chapter 347: Bazooka's Power
Li Yunlong's heart skipped a beat, and he always felt that something was wrong.
How could all the underground personnel in Shijiazhuang disappear? If you say it was just an accident, no one would believe it!
Li Yunlong sent a telegram to Wang Meng: The Japs may be making a big move, so be careful!
"Let's go to Niangzi Pass!"
Li Yunlong drove to Niangzi Pass overnight to visit the 3rd Armored Division.
At around four in the morning, Li Yunlong arrived at the Niangzi Pass position. Seeing the tight security and the presence of both visible and hidden sentries, he finally felt relieved.
"Shen Quan, how are you today? Is there anything special?"
Shen Quan poured Li Yunlong a glass of water, then pointed towards the position ahead.
"Reporting to the commander, everything is normal at the moment, but it's a little too quiet, and something feels wrong."
Shen Quan had sent out scouts during the day, but still did not receive any useful information.
"Find a few smart soldiers and see if they can sneak into Shijiazhuang and Handan to see what the Japanese are up to!"
"Yes!"
At eight o'clock in the morning on the third day, outside Taiyuan City, the Western Front Corps made full preparations and launched an attack on Xiaoyaotou, four kilometers away from the east gate of Taiyuan City.
Xiaoyaotou has 13 hills of various sizes, with steep terrain and a slope that exceeds the maximum climbing angle of tanks and armored vehicles.
The Japanese built thick reinforced concrete fortifications on every hilltop, and connected them underground with fortifications.
The connected underground tunnels also have hundreds of firing holes of various sizes. Some of the larger ones are as big as windows and can be used to deploy anti-tank guns and infantry guns. Some of the smaller ones are only as big as a small stool, but are more than enough to house a machine gun.
After the complete destruction of the troops at Da'an Mountain and Xiao'an Mountain yesterday, Shinozuka Yoshio no longer ordered the Japanese soldiers to wait foolishly on the bunkers on the hilltops to be bombed.
"The independent column will definitely use planes and heavy artillery to bombard the fortifications on the hilltop. Order all the imperial soldiers to enter the underground fortifications. The fortifications on the ground will be monitored by the Chinese Imperial Army!"
As a result, all the equipment from the fortifications on the hilltop was dismantled and moved underground, leaving only a few unfortunate puppet soldiers shivering there.
Standing on Da'an Mountain and raising the telescope, you can only see 13 consecutive mountain peaks.
"The aviation division has finished bombing, 150mm howitzers bombard again! Lao Ding, the rest is up to you, the Fourth Armored Division!"
"Chief of Staff, don't worry. We found a few local people yesterday. There is a small path leading up the mountain. It is usually not guarded by the Japanese. We will go up after the bombing is over!"
As they were speaking, the air force had already reached the sky above Xiaoyaotou and dropped hundreds of tons of bombs, destroying most of the fortifications on the hilltop.
As for the underground fortifications, except for some unlucky guys who were right below the impact point and had their internal organs shattered to pieces, the rest of the Japanese and puppet troops suffered little loss.
After the B-17 Flying Fortress bomber completed its mission, it shook its tail and returned to normal, and then it was the turn of the 150mm howitzer to come on stage.
The 150mm howitzers completely flattened several hilltops, and then carried out a round of covering bombing on the 13 peaks of Xiaoyaotou, but the effect was minimal.
The slopes of these mountains are so large that even using a train to transport the shells wouldn't be enough to penetrate them completely.
After the shelling ended, the soldiers of the 4th Armored Division's reconnaissance battalion, led by a local, slowly climbed the slope along a narrow path behind them.
At this time, the Tiger tanks also began a tentative attack. Thirty tanks were lined up in two rows and slowly advanced towards Xiaoyaotou.
Until the tank regiment arrived at the foot of the mountain in Xiaoyaotou, it did not encounter any decent attack.
"Reporting to the headquarters, my tank regiment has arrived at the foot of Xiaoyaotou Mountain. We have not encountered any decent resistance so far. But it is consistent with the intelligence. The mountain is steep and exceeds the maximum elevation angle of the tanks!"
Ding Wei's face was full of worry. Since the elevation angle exceeded that of the tanks and armored vehicles, they could only use infantry to attack.
"The tank regiment aims at the slope, the artillery regiment provides cover fire, the first battalion of the armored infantry regiment carries infantry to the foot of the mountain, and then the armored vehicles retreat!"
Ding Wei was still worried that there was a huge danger hidden on the quiet hillside. The poorly protected armored vehicles had to retreat immediately after transporting the infantry!
After a burst of smoke, the 1st Battalion of the Armored Infantry Regiment had all arrived at the foot of the mountain.
Then start attacking up the hillside.
The 45-degree slope was full of gravel and gullies, and the infantry's attack speed was very slow. Ding Wei, who arrived at Xiaoyaotou with the front-line troops, was looking anxiously through the telescope.
The grass on the hillside actually moved.
Ding Wei rubbed his eyes, thinking he was hallucinating, but then he looked again.
"Oh no! There's a bunker!"
Three or five pieces of grass were pushed aside, and a light and heavy machine gun stretched out, firing wildly at the infantry who had nowhere to hide and infinite ways to avoid, and at one time more than a dozen soldiers were knocked down.
What’s even more terrifying is that some of the bunkers with large windows have black gun muzzles sticking out, which are the Japanese’s anti-tank guns and infantry guns.
The muzzle of the gun turned downward and began to fire at the infantry gathered in a group and the tank cluster at the foot of the mountain!
After seeing this, the tank soldiers at the bottom of the hill immediately turned their guns and fired at the underground bunker, causing the Japanese bunker to fall silent.
But after a burst of smoke, the misfired bunker began to spit out flames again, blocking the infantry's attack route.
The tank gun had limited accuracy, and at a distance of two kilometers, it was difficult to get the shell into the firing port.
Ding Wei was both angry and annoyed, and took a lot of photos of the makeshift works.
"Lao Ding, get me a battalion commander!"
Soon there was a noisy sound coming from the walkie-talkie, and Wang Meng took the microphone.
"Captain of the First Battalion, I gave you rocket launchers and flamethrowers not for you to shoot birds or barbecue!"
The battalion commander slapped his head and realized that he had actually forgotten about these two great treasures.
"Yes!"
After hanging up the walkie-talkie, the battalion commander immediately ordered the soldiers to unload the rocket launchers, load them, put them on their shoulders, and pull the trigger at the fortifications that were spewing flames more than 20 meters away.
The rocket was pushed towards the Japanese fortifications by the high-temperature gas of the explosion and hit the firing hole directly. With a bang, it turned the fortifications into a sea of fire.
As for the bunkers with smaller openings, rockets were not fired into them, but they continued to fire intermittently.
"Flamethrower!"
The flamethrower carrying three oil tanks crawled forward, climbed to the fortifications, pressed his body tightly to the ground, and pulled the trigger!
A tongue of fire shot straight to the firing port, turning the bunker into a living hell, and the cries of the Japanese soldiers were immediately heard.
Smelling the burnt odor, the battalion commander showed a look of disgust.
"charge!"
Rocket launchers and flamethrowers paved the way and turned the Japanese into roasted moles, but there were too many Japanese bunkers and the attack speed was very slow. After two hours, they failed to take even a single hill.
"Too slow! Where is our reconnaissance battalion?"