Chapter 72: Stop Rain

"How long will it take for the comrades from the 20th Corps to break through the puppet army's defense line?" I asked, looking at the map on the desktop.

"I don't know!" Liu Shunyi shook his head, thought for a while and added another sentence: "According to the telegram sent by the division headquarters, the puppet army realized that they were surrounded by our army, so they fought to the death. At this time, two lines of defense were organized in the north, occupying favorable terrain to prevent the comrades of our 20th Corps from advancing, causing the comrades of the 20th Corps to make progress very slow!"

"Yeah!" I nodded. It is normal for the puppet army to have such a reaction. This is why the ancients said that the siege of the city cannot be sieged. Once the enemy is surrounded on all sides so that the enemy cannot escape, then they will definitely work together to fight the enemy without a retreat. Just like the puppet army today, the four divisions can withstand the attack of ten divisions of the volunteer army, and it cannot be said that they have exerted extraordinary combat power.

This cannot be said that the Volunteer Army of the Twentieth Corps is not strong in combat. The fact is that in modern wars, it has long been proved that wars cannot be won by a large number of people. As long as it occupy favorable terrain, it is common for a battalion or even a company to stop the progress of a division. The Volunteer Army can do this, and the United Nations can do this.

The classic battles of the Volunteer Army are the Tieyuan Blocking War and the Shangganling Battle, both of which use weak forces to block the advance of the United Nations' forces several times or even dozens of times. For example, the Gloucester Battalion of the British Army held our army for three days during the fifth battle...

This phenomenon may be difficult to understand in the era of cold weapons, but it is common in modern warfare. For example, if the other party does not have planes, cannons, and tanks, it only requires two machine guns and enough bullets. Even if the enemy has thousands of troops coming, it will be a death sentence!

So if I were to command this battle, maybe I would choose to let go of a gap and let some of the puppet troops escape. The communication equipment of the puppet troops is so developed that once someone escapes, other puppet troops will be notified soon. Once the puppet troops fighting the 20th Corps in the north learn about this news, their fighting will soon be relaxed. Who would not be willing to escape if they have the chance to escape? Who would not be unwilling to live if they have a way out?

So the gap will be like a hole suddenly appearing on a ball that is full of breath, causing the entire puppet army to be deflated.

It’s a pity that I am not the commander-in-chief of this battle. I dare not open a hole in this encirclement privately. Doing so will let me go to the military court, and secondly, after opening a hole, I was not sure that I could block this hole in time. The equipment of the puppet army is many generations more advanced than ours...

Then, just surround me! Anyway, it is difficult to attack the soldiers of the 20th Corps. For us, we just occupy the mountain and shoot. There are so many bunkers and fortifications on the 585.2 high ground. If the puppet army wants to capture us, we have to exchange our lives for it!

"Captain!" Zhang Mingxue, who was standing guard at the entrance of the tunnel, walked in and reported to me in panic: "Captain, it seems that the rain is about to stop..."

"What?" I was stunned when I heard this. I walked to the entrance of the tunnel in just a few steps and lifted the black cloth and looked out. Isn't it? The rain was getting smaller and smaller, and the sky was getting brighter, and it seemed that there was still some signs of clearing up.

"Damn it!" Li Weiqiang cursed: "It's going to be dark, and it's still raining!"

"Captain!" Li Pinghe said helplessly: "Even in the rainy season, there will be times when the rainy season stops!"

I frowned and didn't say anything, turned around and walked back to the map at the table.

The rain stopping all knows what it means to the volunteers!

We all know that US military aircraft have two fears: one is afraid of rain and the other is afraid of darkness.

It's pretty good to be dark. Some American pilots with high flight levels can still rely on radar to fly in the dark. They now have many night flight aircraft equipped with night vision devices, such as "Black Widow". However, in thunderstorms, even pilots with high levels dare not try it easily. There are many reasons, such as the runway's visual range does not reach the minimum value, the runway's water accumulation exceeds 3mm, strong low-altitude wind shear, and even lightning storm flow... These will become aircraft killers in thunderstorms. If the US military plane takes off forcibly, they will be almost done just by dealing with these harsh weather environments.

But now...

"Let the soldiers prepare for battle!" I ordered in a muffled voice.

"Yes!" Liu Shunyi responded, grabbed the phone and conveyed the order.

"The regiment commander means..." Li Pinghe asked hesitantly: "Will the puppet army take us as the main direction of the attack?"

"This is for sure!" I replied, "When we exploded just now, as long as we were a sensible person, we would give up the idea of ​​building a pontoon bridge!"

"I agree with this!" Li Pinghe nodded and said, "Even if the puppet army still doesn't understand how we used to blow up the pontoon bridge, we will know that we can blow up the first time, and we will definitely blow up the second time. But... why is the regiment commander so sure that the puppet army will attack the 585.2 Highland we stationed? Isn't there the Jinchengchuan Bridge stationed by the 539th Regiment?"

"The Jinchengchuan Bridge is too risky!" I replied: "The puppet army is not a fool, and we also know that we will not hand over the Jinchengchuan Bridge to them intact. Even if they capture the 551.6 highland stationed by the 539th Regiment, as long as there is one person in the 539th Regiment to ignite the fuse, the puppet army will get a bridge that was blown up!"

This is very obvious. Unless the puppet army can use special forces to raid the 539th Regiment's guarding bridge to control the bridge first, this will be the result. It is precisely because of this that the task of defending the Jinchengchuan Bridge seems important, but it is actually a safe and easy job.

"That's right..." Li Pinghe continued: "But the 585.2 highland we are stationed in is also very dangerous..."

"It won't be soon!" I replied calmly: "If nothing unexpected happens, the US military aircraft will soon bomb the fortifications on the slanting surface of the 585.2 Highland! The Huachuan Highway stationed by our army can now be said to be the only way for the puppet army to escape!"

"Um!" After listening to my analysis, Li Pinghe nodded in agreement. After being silent for a while, he asked, "The soldiers are still in the bunker, do you want..."

I know what Li Pinghe means. Since we already know that the US military aircraft can bomb the bunker, can it still make the soldiers bomb in the bunker? The bunker is not a tunnel. The tunnel cannot be seen at all from the surface. It is even more difficult to find on high-speed aircraft. Moreover, the tunnel has a depth. Often, the people inside can survive when the tunnel entrance is blown. But this bunker... the power of the aviation bomb is not comparable to that of the shells. As long as it is bombed, there is basically no possibility of survival!

I also understand these principles, but I still gritted my teeth and shook my head. If they were all removed, who would guard the position? And we didn’t have more space to accommodate the withdrawn soldiers!

"Assign a few walkie-talkies to the comrades in the bunker!" This was my final decision, because the bombing of US aircraft is likely to break all the telephone lines of the front-line troops.

"Yes!" Li Pinghe responded, and understood that this was a helpless move. After saluting, he ordered the correspondent to send the walkie-phone up.

Just as I expected, more than ten minutes later, the roar of the US planes rang in the air. Then the puppet artillery fired a large number of artillery shells at our high ground. In an instant, the entire high ground was trembling, and there were bursts of artillery shell explosions everywhere, and there were smoke and firelights produced by the explosion, as well as the screams of gunfire like storms, and the trembling rumbling of tanks...

The entire puppet army seemed to have started moving, from the north, the south, and even the east, and the west. I felt that the 585.2 highland I was in was like a hard shell, and the puppet army around me was like a mouse that wanted to take the shell and use its teeth to bite us, looking for places where we could enter.

I was shaken in the tunnel and wanted to hold the wooden table, but soon the wooden table was shaken in half in front of me. I wanted to lean against the wall of the tunnel, but the logs on the wall also fell one by one. The kerosene lamp on the wall fell down quickly, and the kerosene burned everywhere, but it was soon extinguished by the soil and rocks falling from the top of the tunnel, and the surroundings fell into pitch black.

I don’t know who knocked me to the ground in the darkness. He pressed me so tightly that it was difficult for me to breathe, let alone turn over, so I had to wait quietly on the ground. I just thought to myself, anyway, it’s the same everywhere now, the entire mountain is covered with shells and planes, and the entire highland is trapped in an indiscriminate bombardment between the puppet army and the US army. It’s better to just lie down on the spot and leave it to fate…

It was unknown how long it took for the bombing to gradually slow down, replaced by gunfire and rumbling of tank motors.

I shook my head to wake myself up a little, then pushed the warrior pressing on me, and then I realized something was wrong. He didn't move, and he shouldn't be so heavy...

So he tried all his strength to break free from him, and then he found that there were still two or three logs pressing on his back!

"Comrade! Comrade..." I tried to move the logs and drag him out, but soon I found that all this was tula.

"Captain!" I don't know who fired the flashlight and shone it at me. Then I turned the light to the warrior I was dragging. I was stunned when I saw it: it was Xu Yongwei... I stretched out my trembling hand and touched his nose. He had already stopped breathing!

"Captain! Let's go..." Li Pinghe found it out of nowhere and comforted him: "He is a good soldier and has done his duties!"

Zhang Mingxue walked up with a flashlight and saw this scene. He couldn't help but his nose felt sore and tears fell down immediately, but he still gritted his teeth and said in a crying voice: "Captain, go out quickly! The tunnel may be about to collapse, I'll cover you..."

But I still stared at Xu Yongwei who was pressed down below, and didn't want to move at all.

"The enemy is coming!" Someone outside the tunnel shouted, and I woke up from my dream and looked out of the tunnel.

This is the battlefield, I am still fighting! There is also a group of soldiers waiting for me to command outside...

I gritted my teeth and stood up from the mud, picked up the hat on the ground and wore it for Xu Yongwei, and then came out of the tunnel after saluting.

The entire 585.2 highland has changed, with layers of overlapping craters everywhere, collapsed tunnels everywhere, and warriors desperately digging the entrances of the tunnels and digging mud. Occasionally, several warriors will be seen digging out buried warriors from the mud and racing against time for first aid.

I looked around and there was a dirty area everywhere. Almost no soldier could keep his body clean and tidy, either mud or dirty. Even a unit like the 538th Regiment looked like a group of mobs at this time.

but!

Is it a mob that cannot look at the appearance? I know that all this did not knock down the soldiers. Otherwise, they would not have tried to rescue their comrades on the position, otherwise they would not have tried hard to dig the tunnel that was blown up...

"The casualties are very serious!" I said in a muffled voice. Seeing that Li Pinghe next to me had no answer, I couldn't help but look at him in confusion. Only then did I realize that he was pale and uncontrollable. I soon realized that he was worried about Lin Xue's safety.

This made me scream ashamed. After coming out of the tunnel, everything I thought about was my soldier. Of course, Lin Xue was also a soldier under my command, but I did not think of her or Jin Qiulian just now...

The dense sound of machine guns on the top of the mountain made us react, and we ran to the top of the mountain with guns. The soldiers of the 538th Regiment were also very conscious and didn't need my order at all. Some people were left to continue to rescue their comrades, and they all followed us with their weapons and ammunition on their backs.

After passing through layers of bullet craters, he climbed up to the top of the mountain with one foot deep and one foot shallow, and looked down. He was shocked by the scene in front of him.

The bunkers on the slope have long disappeared. Some have become a big pit, some are buried under a pile of mud, and some are even burning with blazing flames...

At the foot of the mountain, teams of puppet troops were rushing up like a tide under the cover of tanks, and occasionally firing a few shots on the top of the mountain.

Have all the soldiers in the bunkers been sacrificed? I felt apprehensive in my heart. Maybe I should have withdrawn them just now. But what if I withdraw them? There is no safe place on the backscene.

Seeing that no one was fighting back, the puppet army was getting more and more relieved and walked faster and faster. The soldiers on the top of the mountain were also ready for battle. But just as the enemy let go and accelerated the attack on our army, several bunkers suddenly remembered the dense sound of machine guns, and rows of bullets were divided into three-dimensional positions, middle and lower and columnar firepower crossing left and right, and rushed towards the enemy.

The unprepared puppet troops fell down in pieces like harvested wheat, and the black mud was immediately covered with bright red blood! The rest of the puppet troops fell to the ground and couldn't raise their heads.

"good!"

"Good fight!"

...

The soldiers all shouted loudly, and it was obvious that the soldiers in the bunker were stunned by the shells, and immediately fought with the enemy after they woke up.

But I only had a bitter smile in my heart, because I found that there were only four bunkers that could launch a counterattack, which meant that all other bunkers had been blown up by enemy planes or shells. Moreover, these bunkers were incomplete and could no longer hold on to the puppet army's guns.

In fact, at this time, if the puppet troops were not in a hurry to attack, they just needed to retreat and then bombard the bunkers with cannons for a while, and the bunkers would soon be lost. But obviously the puppet troops did not have so much time and energy. With a shout, the puppet troops lying on the ground launched a strong attack on our positions.

"Dadada..." The machine gun sounded in the bunker again. Since the puppet army wanted to hit the muzzle with their lives, the soldiers would certainly not be polite. For those bunkers, because their location was very favorable, the entire inclined surface was exposed to their firepower, and there were no dead spots to shoot. They could also cooperate with each other. No matter which puppet army launched an attack on one of the bunkers, other bunkers would threaten their flanks.

Even though the puppet troops in front of them launched several charges continuously, they were all beaten by the soldiers without exception. Apart from dozens of bloody corpses on the position, the puppet troops still found nothing.

Some puppet troops set up recoilless targeting the bunkers, but the location of the bunkers on the 585.2 high ground was very tricky. This may be because the puppet troops who built these bunkers had long thought of this floor! All bunkers were half deep into the soil, only revealing the machine gun holes and tops. In addition, the puppet troops were lying below, and the area of ​​the bunkers was very small, so after firing more than a dozen shots, no one could hit the bunkers.

Some puppet troops also set up mortars in positions, but it is obvious that it is difficult to do this on a position full of mud. Even if Zhuyuan is adjusted and fired a shot, the recoil and soft mud quickly made the mortar lose its accuracy, and several shells were shot to the point where they were tilted.

These puppet troops who set up recoilless cannons and mortars will soon become targets of the soldiers after firing a few shells. Often, they only rushed to fire two shots, and then they saw a piece of machine gun bullets passing by. The puppet troops rolled down from the incline with their men and guns.

We soldiers on the top of the mountain are still far from the enemy, so we can only cheer for them!

"Regiment Commander!" At this time, a telegraph soldier came to me with a telegram and reported: "The division headquarters called, and the comrades of the 54th Army had broken through the puppet army's defense line and built artillery positions at the forefront, which could provide us with artillery fire assistance!"

"It's coming!" I couldn't help but scream in excitement when I heard this good news.
Chapter completed!