Chapter 140: Surrounded

"Everyone returns to the tunnel!" With my order, the soldiers quickly returned to the tunnel again.

This attack surprised the soldiers because we almost repelled an American charge without a single shot.

"It seems that this anti-tank trench is really useful!" As soon as I returned to the tunnel, even the old squad leader who was not interested in talking spoke.

"That's it!" Zhao Yongxin nodded and said, "If we didn't shoot it, the Americans lost a tank and killed several people. We need so many times! We don't have to do anything about the Americans' tanks, and they will be reimbursed!"

"Be beautiful!" the old squad leader said with a smile.

What is somewhat surprising is that Hu Zi, who usually loves to brag, doesn't say a word now, just giggling foolishly.

"Why are you laughing?" I finally couldn't help asking.

"I, I'm just thinking..." Hu Zi touched his head and smiled even happier: "I'm thinking, when we digged the anti-tank trench, the comrades of the 180th Division were still making fun of us! He said that the trench we dug could not hit the tank, and now they couldn't laugh, it's time for me to laugh!"

With a coaxing sound, the soldiers were all amused by Hu Zi's stupidity.

Before the laughter fell, the enemy's shells came one by one, but to the surprise of the soldiers, the target of the American bombardment this time was not the volunteer positions, but the anti-tank trenches we built.

With a wave of roaring, bursts of flames and smoke from shell explosions rose in the valley between the two high grounds. After a while, the entire valley was trapped in a piece of gunpowder, and there was no trace of the anti-tank trench.

After a long time, the sound of cannons finally stopped and the smoke gradually dissipated. When the anti-tank trenches appeared in front of the soldiers again, they were beyond recognition. Some places were raised high earth dikes, but at this time they had turned into a deep and wide bullet crater. But even so, because the anti-tank trenches were dug deep and wide, there was still a pit after the trenches were blown down, so they generally maintained their original landform.

Seeing this, I couldn't help but smile bitterly. These Americans were arrogant and could not find a good way to pass this anti-tank trench, so they simply shuffled it. But if this "Golan trench" that is famous in modern times is so simple that it is cracked, then it will be nothing more than a false reputation.

"The American tank is coming!"

Everyone looked towards the enemy and saw more than thirty tanks rumble up again with a large group of infantry soldiers. The leader was still more than a dozen Shermans. There seemed to be a lot of things dragging behind them, but they couldn't see clearly what they were under the cover of the rain curtain and the tank exhaust.

"Enter the position!" I waved my hand and ran back to the trench at the foot of the mountain. This time it was time to fight a tough battle.

The trenches are very close to the anti-tank trench, only about thirty meters, so when the enemy tanks drove to the anti-tank trench, we finally saw the thing dragged behind them - sandbags.

The equipment of the US military is different. What they pay most attention to on the battlefield is efficiency, followed by money. Therefore, even they use sandbags to build trenches. There is no doubt that building trenches with sandbags is much more convenient and practical than the trenches dug by the volunteers with shovels, because they only need to put soil into the sandbags and then build the sandbags layer by layer. Moreover, building trenches with sandbags is not restricted by the terrain. For example, in rocky areas or low-lying areas, it is difficult for the volunteers to build fortifications in these places, but using sandbags can quickly and easily build fortifications of various shapes.

Now their sandbags are obviously coming in handy again. If it weren't for the US military's large number of sandbags, it would have been not easy for them to pull so much landfill in one trip.

The sound of gunfire sounded again, and the volunteer soldiers on the high ground on both sides of the anti-tank trench would not allow the US military to succeed so easily. In fact, the crossfire they formed can well block the infantry following behind the tank. In addition, the US military's weak fighting will, perhaps it cannot be said that they are not strong in fighting will. Objectively speaking, they often do not make any unnecessary sacrifices because they value life. With their side mentality, the volunteers fired machine guns and mortars from the high ground at the infantry following behind the tanks, and bombed them for a while, and the infantry obediently left the tank and retreated to the second line. However, the tank relied on its armor protection and powerful firepower, and still drove to the front of the anti-tank trench.

With the roar of the motor, piles of sandbags were piled in front of the trench, and then the Sherman tank, which was converted into a forklift, pushed it gently and filled the anti-tank trench without much effort.

Seeing this, I waved my hand and took fifty soldiers equipped with anti-tank grenades and touched them up. The fifty soldiers were all selected from more than 300 people to drop bombs during bomb drop practice. Among them, Hu Zi and Ren Fengyou. Zhao Yongxin affected his performance due to foot injury. I happened to let him command other troops in the rear. They were responsible for fighting tank observers who emerged on both sides of the high ground. If we were heroic, it would be their turn to go...

The soldiers don’t have to be careful to be discovered by tanks because there are earth embankments in front of the tanks. Although these earth embankments have been blown up by enemy artillery fire, we can still move forward in a hidden way with the help of traffic trenches and remaining earth embankments. In addition, the enemy is hiding in the tanks with a small vision, so it is really difficult for them to discover us.

The distance of more than 30 meters was not long. After a while, the soldiers scattered and ran down to the earthen embankment, and prepared anti-tank grenades and waited for the tank to come up. The mud and water all over our body became our disguise, allowing the soldiers to merge with the earthen embankment.

The rumbling sound became louder and louder, and the creaking of the tracks was sharp and harsh, just like a steel beast grinding its teeth before eating, causing an unbearable soreness and itch at the roots of my teeth.

At this time, the sound suddenly changed, and a tank suddenly climbed out of the earth embankment. Due to the slope, the entire body of the tank was lifted high, exposing the weakest bottom of its armor to the front of the volunteers.

At that time, a volunteer soldier skillfully pulled out the security pin of the anti-tank grenade in his hand, and then threw it at the bottom of the tank... With a "boom", shrapnel and mud flew around. A big hole was blown up at the bottom of the tank. Under inertia, he crossed the earth dike and slid under the earth dike and stopped moving again.

When the soldiers saw that this move was indeed effective, they did not expect that the tank would be so vulnerable. They couldn't help but feel a lot of morale. They all held anti-tank grenades and were eager to try it!

Then three tanks rumbling up one after another, and soon two were killed by the volunteer soldiers. The other one was successfully crossed the highest point of the earth embankment because the grenade was not accurately dropped. This was a Sherman tank. With the sound of a "top", its head was heavily smashed into the mud from the air. The splashed mud flew towards all directions, making the surrounding volunteer soldiers in a mess and forgot to throw grenades at it.

I hurriedly chased after a few steps and then put my strength into the anti-tank grenade in my hand at the Sherman tank and hit the top of its turret with a bang. The tank stopped moving with just a few squeaks. Then two more soldiers quickly added two grenades to the rear of the tank and completely blew it up.

This is another powerful part of the Golan Trench, which uses the earth embankment to expose the weakest positions of the tank, the two most armored ones, to us.

The armor of the tank is mainly around. The thickest part is the front armor, followed by the side armor, and then the rear armor. Since the tank is rarely attacked by anti-tank weapons directly above and below, the armor of these two parts is as weak as the belly of a crocodile.

When the earth dike reaches a certain inclination and the tank climbs onto the earth dike, its bottom will be exposed, and when it crosses the earth dike, its top will be exposed. The so-called "raising your head and exposing your belly, lowering your head and exposing your back" is what it means. This gives the volunteers two excellent chances to bomb tanks.

On the other hand, the U.S. tank was unable to aim at the sky when its head was raised high, and even the machine gunner inside could not see the volunteer army below due to angles. The speed would increase when it crossed the earthen embankment and would oscillate violently, making the machine gunner unable to aim at all.

So the tanks that crossed the earth embankment were like "live targets" - they could not shoot or shoot guns, and they also exposed the weakest parts to the "live targets" in front of volunteer soldiers!

Occasionally, a few tanks would choose to break in through the gap in the earthen embankment, but they could not escape the bad luck of being blown up, because the earthen embankment on both sides of the gap had already been ambushed by volunteer soldiers. All they had to do was to drop grenades condescendingly on the top or tail of the enemy tank...

The other tanks of the US military seemed to have no idea what was happening behind the earthen embankment. Although one tank after another was blown up behind the earthen embankment, tanks continued to rush over on the other side, which made the volunteer soldiers feel a little soft. Finally, when the soldiers were almost using up anti-tank grenades, the few tanks left by the US military realized something was wrong. They fought two turns on the earthen embankment, and finally retreated unwillingly!

At this time, the earthen embankment was covered with various tank wrecks with black smoke and fire. The soldiers counted a total of twenty-one vehicles. The loss of the volunteer army was only the two soldiers who were affected by grenades because they were too close, causing one death and one injury.

Even I couldn't believe the results I could achieve. Before this battle, I even left a batch of grenades for Zhao Yongxin's troops in case they could fight again after we were heroic, but now it seems that there is no need at all.

"Happy! So fucking happy!" Hu Zi looked at the bombed tanks and laughed at me proudly: "Deputy Battalion Commander Cui! I killed three Iron Tortoise..."

"What's so proud?" Ren Feng said with a cut, "I killed three too, but if it weren't for the anti-tank trench made by Deputy Battalion Commander Cui, I'd be heroic if I didn't kill any of you Hu Zi!"

"It's right, right, it's still the tank trench that Deputy Battalion Commander Cui has been good!" Hu Zi smiled and the soldiers smiled. For them, there was nothing happier and more relieved than hitting the enemy hard.

When we returned to the high ground stationed by the 180th Division, the soldiers of the 180th Division were staring at us blankly, looking at the bombed tanks at the foot of the high ground, and each of them had an incredible expression on their faces.

Some soldiers were also whispering: "The tanks of the Americans are all beautiful but useless, so they are almost blown up so easily?"

But this was quickly scolded by others: "What do you know? You have never beaten the Kuomintang tanks! The Kuomintang tanks were the smallest among the American tanks (Xiafei light tanks, the United States assisted the Kuomintang during the Chinese Civil War). We don't know how many lives we will lose when we blow up that tank! Now there are more than twenty ones, and there are so many large tanks..."

"That's it!" Another voice also lowered his voice and said, "It's called "hitting snakes and hitting seven inches, and I'm just looking for the thinnest place in the tank. I'm an expert, I want you to fight! I've been dead thoroughly!"

Upon hearing this, I couldn't help but feel proud. If the 180th Division had just admired us for the reputation of the Forty Army, then the battle just now had already made them admire us from the bottom of their hearts.

After sitting down, I didn't rest for a while, I saw a correspondent running up. Because our group of soldiers who had just finished blowing up the tank were covered in mud, he searched for a long time but didn't find anyone. Finally, he had to shout at us in embarrassment: "Deputy Commander Cui, where is Deputy Commander Cui?"

"Here!" I raised my head slightly.

"Captain Pang asked you to go!"

"Um! Come!" I raised my head, rubbed my head and face casually with rain, and followed the correspondent to the regiment headquarters.

Before he could reach the regiment headquarters, he heard the hearty laughter of Commander Pang: "This Deputy Battalion Commander Cui is really worthy of his reputation!"

It turned out that it was talking about me, and I couldn't help but smile in my heart. The news about Captain Pang was quite fast. Before he could breathe a sigh of relief, he knew everything, as if someone had sent someone to stare at me in the war, maybe there would be records!

"Report!" I shouted at the door.

"Hmm! Come here... Come in!"

As soon as I walked in, Captain Pang held my hand enthusiastically and said, "Come on, let me introduce you. This is Pan Fang, the political commissar of our regiment. He just came back from his mission and heard that you won a big victory!"

"Hello political commissar!" I hurriedly stood up and saluted.

"Comrade Xiao Cui!" Political Commissar Pan walked up to me and patted me on the shoulder and said, "Good fight! Beautiful fight! When I just came back and heard this good news, I couldn't believe it!"

"Why are you just not sure!" Commander Pang handed us a glass of water: "When I reported this news to the division commander, do you know what the division commander said on the phone? 'What? It blows up twenty-one enemy tanks? We were just killed and injured? I said Comrade Pang Kechang, have you confirmed it? We are revolutionary soldiers and the people's team. We must be realistic and falsely report our military achievements!'"

Captain Pang not only imitated his voice, but also his expression and movements were somewhat similar, which made Political Commissar Pan and me laugh.

"Deputy Battalion Commander Cui, I have another good news!" After laughing for a while, Commander Pang patted my shoulder and said, "The division commander just told me that the enemy combat plan you assumed was finally reported to the command center after the division commander reported it layer by layer. The command center attached great importance to your assumption and ordered the front-line troops to reconnaise the enemy based on the assumption you made.

What shocked the command was that the enemy's various forces were completely consistent with the assumptions you made. The enemy not only showed signs of counterattack, but also according to the report of intelligence officers of the People's Army who invaded the enemy, the US military also prepared airborne troops and elite armored troops to intersperse our rear to divide and encircle our army. So the command decided to stop the attack immediately and turn the entire army into a strategic retreat!”

"That's great!" I couldn't help but be overjoyed when I heard this. My assumption finally made the volunteers retreat two or three days in advance. Don't underestimate these two or three days. The volunteers were originally going to be inserted into these two or three days, but now they have begun to retreat. After all, the results are too different!

"Well, then we are going to retreat too?" Political Commissar Pan couldn't help but ask.

"No!" Captain Pang shook his head and said, "Considering that our army has already contacted the enemy, the command center ordered our 60th Army to hold its position as a blocking task and cover the retreat of the large army!"

After hearing this, my heart slowly sank. Could it be that the large army retreated early, and the 180th Division still cannot escape the fate of being surrounded and annihilated?

"What's wrong? Deputy Battalion Commander Cui?" Commander Pang couldn't help but ask in confusion when he saw that I looked wrong.

"Captain Pang, Political Commissar Pan, look!" I walked to the shell box and pointed to the map above and said, "Mr. Commander of the Division also said yesterday that the 181st Division of our 60th Army was assigned to the 12th Army, and the 179th Division was assigned to the 15th Army. The 60th Army was assigned to the command of three units on the front of dozens of kilometers. It took at least two days for the 181st Division to be built, and the 179th Division would take one day. During this time, the US military is likely to have launched a counterattack, which prevents the 181st Division and the 179th Division from moving closer to our army! The friendly troops on the left and right wings of the 180th Division retreated according to the orders of the superiors..."

"You mean..." Captain Pang quickly saw the truth, and he couldn't help but gasp and said, "You mean our army is in danger of being surrounded?"
Chapter completed!