Private Yoshida crouched in a dry drainage canal on the shoulder of the highway with the butt of his Type 38 rifle, and with him was Private Natsume, who had enlisted in the army at the same time, both from the village of Kokochi in Hiroshima Prefecture, but who had been assigned to the 21st Wing, which was all Hamada people. The Japanese army rarely had this kind of thing before, mainly because of transportation reasons, which led to difficulties in replenishing the troops of the Fifth Division, and after several successive battles, the four wings of the Fifth Division were shortaged, so each additional soldier became a rare resource, and the division could only achieve a bowl of water at this time, and no longer considered the difference in the origin of the personnel.

"It's really lively over there." Natsume turned his gaze back from the battlefield where the battle was raging in the distance, and sighed at his fellow countryman Yoshida.

"I didn't expect the French soldiers to be so tenacious, doesn't it mean that they have surrendered to the independent country." Yoshida expressed his feelings.

"Yoshida, you idiot. Those were Annam soldiers, they were blinded by the propaganda of the French, they thought they could stop the advance of the imperial army, you see, our army will soon be able to destroy them all. Private Kimura, who was lying on the other side of Yoshida, interjected.

"Be quiet, you guys!" There was a whispered scolding voice from Captain Komatsu, and the three Japanese soldiers hurriedly closed their mouths, each adjusted their squatting posture, and straightened the Type 38 rifle.

Komatsu squatted behind a bush on the side of the road, holding a 93-type telescope and vigilantly observing the road ahead. These binoculars, made by Nikon specifically for low-ranking noncommissioned officers of the Japanese Army, cost only thirty yen each. At a third of the price of telescopes on the market, the Japanese Army placed a large number of orders with Nikon, a cheap product that was distributed mainly to the cavalry and infantry non-commissioned officers in need. Komatsu's rank of captain is equivalent to that of a corporal in the armies of other countries. So he also received one from the squadron, and every day he would carefully wipe it as if it were a treasure.

"Nothing out of the ordinary."

Komatsu lowered his binoculars, leaned over and sat down on a rock behind a bush, took out a notepad with a pen from his waist pocket, recorded the current time, and sketched out the team's deployment location. This is for post-mortem war records. Commander Komatsu is a very self-motivated soldier with great ambitions, and his current goal is to become an infantry squad leader like Nomura Juncho.

"Komatsu. What's your situation there? "Nomura Taro of the 3rd Detachment of the 2nd Squadron of the 12th Squadron shouted loudly in the distance, this soldier Cao carried a rifle on his back and walked straight down the road towards Komatsu.

"Ah, that's not going to work. You guys need to work harder. "When passing by the second detachment, which was struggling to dig a foxhole by the side of the road. Nomura joked loudly to the sweaty soldiers wielding infantry shovels.

"Hurry up, damn fellow, don't get in the way of anyone else's work!" The commander of the second detachment, Okamoto Juncao, picked up a clod of soil and threw it at Nomura.

"Hah, then I won't bother you digging a pit, Okamoto-sama." Nomura dodged the clods of dirt and grimaced at Okamoto, causing the soldiers of the second detachment to burst into laughter.

"Hey, hey. You guys, don't stop what you're doing. Okamoto yelled at his men.

The 12th Squadron remained in the rear of the brigade as a reserve. At the same time, he shouldered the responsibility of defending the rear of the Morimoto brigade. This squadron is currently seriously lacking, because there is also a veteran of the squad who was transferred away at the same time as Squadron Leader Fukuda. Now there are only two squads left in the 12th Squadron, and there are only 17 people in total, of which more than 60% are recruits who have only served for one year, and even more 10% are rookies like Yoshida and Natsume who have just been replenished from China. What this unit needs at present is to accumulate battlefield experience, and it will take at least half a year of training before it can be taken out to attack the fortified positions like the ninth and tenth squadrons, which is one of the reasons why Morimoto retains them as reserves, and the other reason is that as mentioned earlier, Kuno is a newcomer and cannot be trusted by Morimoto.

Nomura and Komatsu are the two senior non-commissioned officers in the squadron, so the Nomura detachment was put at the forefront of the rear guard position by the squadron leader as an observation post, and the remaining troops are under the command of the two squad leaders, and are working hard to build a field defensive position. It must be implemented conscientiously and responsibly.

"There is no one in the picture, it looks really peaceful and peaceful, who would have thought that the other side of the highway is now like a Shura field." Nomura jumped off the shoulder of the road and walked to Komatsu's side, who took the binoculars from Komatsu and looked into the distance of the road.

"How's the fight going up front?" Komatsu asked, he knew that his squad leader was very wild, and he had heard a little more news than others.

"The battle was fierce, the infantry artillery squad was making a detour behind enemy lines, and the 9th Squadron was fighting very hard at one point, and even Second Lieutenant Takeda was killed"

"The squad leaders are all dead?" Komatsu's mouth grew in surprise.

In fact, Nomura's news has lagged behind a bit, not only did the Ninth Squadron lose an ensign, but the Okubo Squadron had already killed two squad leaders in a row at this time, and the squadron attached to the command was seriously wounded.

Although the pig assault on the A3 stronghold made promising progress, the French defenders reacted quickly, and Lieutenant Dominiel mobilized two 81-mm Bronde M1930 mortars equipped with the stronghold to launch a continuous and heavy artillery attack on the Okubo and Hasegawa squadrons. Not only did they drive the two squads of the Okubo squadron out of the trenches outside the stronghold, but they also inflicted heavy casualties on the Japanese troops.

The ensuing battle turned into an artillery battle between the two sides, and to the surprise of the Japanese, the French mortar gunners were quite skilled, and they also had the cooperation of the machine guns of the fortress in the stronghold, and the 92nd infantry artillery squad was difficult to gain the upper hand for a while.

The problems of Morimoto's brigade have all been exposed at this moment, after the continuous march over the mountain, the soldiers have been very tired, and at first they can still hold on with a bloody bravery, but with the stalemate of the battle, the morale and physical strength of the soldiers have declined significantly, and what makes Morimoto feel even more troubled is that the casualties of the troops are also slowly increasing. Morimoto knew that this was not going to work, and that he had to find a breakthrough to break the impasse he was facing.

Morimoto quickly made a decision and changed tactics again, allowing Okubo's squadron to pin down the French forces in the A3 stronghold, while Hasegawa's squadron bypassed the road from the flanks and attacked the French in depth. The French may have sent reinforcements, and Hasegawa's squadron was tasked with blocking the opposing side's possible reinforcements, waiting until Kato's squadron had destroyed the resistance of machine gun fort No. 1 before attacking the A3 stronghold with Okubo's squadron.

He could only pray for the blessing of the Hasegawa squadron now, and if this operation was frustrated again, then Morimoto's brigade would have to choose to abandon the operation and retreat back to China. This is not the outcome he wants to see, he crossed the border without authorization to provoke international disputes, and in the end he suffered heavy losses, and he has not yet obtained any results, and the group of leaders in the military headquarters will definitely eat him alive.

Morimoto personally led the brigade headquarters and the attached guards to the front line to supervise the battle, and the performance of Kato's squadron made him feel very disappointed, and the battle passed for more than half an hour, and the fully equipped ninth squadron had not yet taken the large machine gun fort. The stubbornness of the defenders in that French pillbox is unimaginable, and after being attacked by the Japanese for so long, they can still intermittently launch a counterattack, repelling the brave assault of the Japanese army again and again.

Morimoto rebuked Captain Kato for being a disgrace to the Japanese Army, and gave Kato a death order to take the damn fortress for him in five minutes, and if he couldn't, he would be replaced by someone else in command. Captain Kato of the 9th Squadron felt deeply humiliated, and in order to prove the competence of a Japanese officer, he decided to personally lead the soldiers in this assault. So at this moment, the captain fastened the steel helmet and necklace, stood at the forefront of the assault force with a saber in hand, and only waited for the machine gun squadron to stop suppressing the firing, and launched a final assault on the machine gun fort No. 1.

As for the 12th Squadron, Morimoto decided to keep them as the rear guard of the whole squadron in the event of a retreat, so he still did not use their preparations.

"Hey, look, there's a car coming." Yoshida saw a black dot appear on the bend of the road in the distance, and he sped towards it.

"Report to the squad leader!" Natsume shouted loudly.

"I saw it!" Nomura held Komatsu's telescope in his hand and carefully adjusted the focus of the eyepiece.

"Like a four-wheeled armored car?" Nomura handed the telescope to Komatsu.

"It's an armoured vehicle of an independent country, the French will not be equipped with this kind of vehicle, it can only be the Chinese army!"

Komatsu recognized the approaching vehicle, which had not been encountered on the Chinese battlefield before, most recently in the Battle of Kunlun Pass last year, when the Chinese attack force was equipped with a large number of such highly mobile armored vehicles.

"Immediately report to the squadron leader that armored vehicles of the Chinese Army have appeared in the rear of our army! Everyone was ready for battle, paid attention to concealment, and the machine gun detachment of the second squad came to the front. Nomura gave a loud order to prepare for battle.

Asking for a monthly pass, it is very important to recommend clicks, the ranking of this book is getting higher and higher, the author laughs when he sees it, he is in a good mood, and he is motivated to write an article.

Thank you all for your support. (To be continued.) )