As the shelling ended, the army slowly climbed out of the trenches. At this time, the devastated position came into view, under the attack of the powerful artillery fire of the Eighth Route Army, many trenches were buried again, the machine gun positions that had been built were also destroyed, and the corpses and wounded were dug out of the collapsed trenches

The most serious losses were not the soldiers on the front line, but the artillery behind them, whose combat effectiveness at this time was less than forty percent of what it was before the war, and it was only able to provide limited fire support to the infantry. The current artillery captain can be said to exist in name only, because the remaining dozens of mortars have been assigned to various defensive positions in order to avoid being destroyed again in a concentrated manner.

The surviving Japanese troops on the position began to get busy, building trenches, setting up machine-gun positions, and the squadron leaders also counted the casualties of the shelling just now. Soon, casualties were reported in the hands of Wing Commander Okamoto. "In the first ten minutes of shelling, the entire wing lost a total of 159 soldiers, most of whom were artillerymen

Different from the busyness on the devil's position is the position of the Eighth Route Army, under the cover of the dark night, taking advantage of the opportunity of the army to repair the trenches, the various attacking troops slowly touched the devil's position. The attempt was to get as close as possible to the first-line position of the devils before the attack, reduce the assault distance of the troops, and reduce the casualties of the troops. Otherwise, let the troops be exposed in front of the devil's position, and with the devil's accurate marksmanship, the huge cost of casualties is something that the soldiers can't bear no matter what.

Of course, the devils repaired the trenches and were not stupid enough not to send sentinels. At this time, one of the alert veterans of the third squad at the forefront of the army's defensive position did not dig trenches with a sapper shovel like the others. Instead, he clenched the rifle in his hand and lay down in the trench, looking vigilantly at the open space in front of the position.

Suddenly, a bright light appeared in his eyes. Experienced him, he immediately guessed that it was made of the reflection of the bayonet. Because, when the plane was helping to fight in the afternoon, his team had already cleared all the obstacles within 100 meters in front of the position, how could there be the reflection of bayonets now?

Thinking of this, the muzzle of the soldier's gun was already unconsciously aimed there. A "bang" of gunfire broke the quiet battlefield. I saw a sound to the ground in the place where the light had just flashed. "Baga. Enemy attack," the soldier shouted.

In fact, there was no need for him to shout, just when his gunfire rang out just now, it had already best reminded the other soldiers. The soldiers in the trenches threw down the sapper shovels in their hands, grabbed the rifles beside them, lay down in the trenches, opened the rifle safety, and loaded the bullets

And it was the most elite regiment and battalion of the Reading Force Brigade that were preparing to sneak attack the third squad of the devils. The reason why the battalion with the strongest combat effectiveness was sent was that the headquarters decided to use this as a breakthrough point, using the first battalion as the lead to break through the enemy's position, and then divide the army into two and annihilate it.

However, the sneak attack plan was also shattered with a gunshot from the devil's position. Through the light of the fire on the position of the Yue army, the battalion commander saw that the Yue army had thrown down the sapper shovels one after another and was ready for battle. He knew there was no point in hiding. So, immediately ordered the fighters, who had approached less than 100 meters of the devil's position, to open fire.

"Comrades, rush!" The battalion commander shouted loudly, and with the soldiers behind him, he stood up, bent over, and rushed towards the devil's position in a battle formation, and at the same time, the devil also fired a flare. Against the backdrop of flares, the figures of the fighters were completely exposed in front of the devil's position.

The light machine guns and heavy machine guns of the devil opened fire one after another, and the fighters who had just stood up fell in a pool of blood. Looking at the dense bullets of the devils, the fighters had to lie on the ground again. Looking at the remains of more than a dozen soldiers in front of him, the battalion commander's heart ached. However, now that the attack has reached 100 meters in front of the devil's position, if you give up, the next time you attack this position, you don't know how much you will have to pay for the lives of the soldiers.

"Machine gun cover, quickly, suppress the devil's firepower point, and rush again." The battalion commander shouted loudly to the machine gunners behind him, "A company is ready to attack." Two and three fire covers. ”

The nine light machine guns of the "Da Da Da" battalion opened fire, and immediately after, the fighters of the two companies also lay on the ground to cover the fire, and under the dense rain of bullets, the devil's firepower was obviously much weaker. Immediately afterwards, the fighters of the first company jumped to their feet and bent down and charged forward. In these few seconds, after paying the casualties of several soldiers, the first company successfully rushed out of a distance of more than ten meters. However, then, the momentum of the first line of charges suddenly and slowly weakened, and there were more and more fighters in the end.

Even the firepower of the nine machine guns behind him slowly weakened. Looking back, only four of the nine light machine guns that had been spitting out tongues of fire were still firing. Several other light machine guns were all silent, and on closer inspection, several fighters had already died next to the machine guns.

It turned out that the muzzle flame of the light machine gun when it was fired was the best target in the dark night. After the nine machine guns of the first battalion opened fire, the devils on the position obviously felt a lot of pressure, so they organized several sharpshooters to snipe the machine gunners of the first battalion. In this way, under the sniping of several sharpshooters of the devils, the firepower of the first battalion immediately weakened. In turn, the devil's firepower is stronger. With the continuous strengthening of the devil's firepower, the attack momentum of the charging company gradually weakened, and after paying nearly a platoon of casualties, it was unwilling to retreat to the starting position.

"No, battalion commander, retreat quickly! The enemy's firepower is too fierce, we can't attack it at all, let's go back to the starting position first, and find a way to attack in a while, the soldiers are now about to lose a company, and they are still suffering casualties, battalion commander, let's decide! Can't rush anymore. Behind the battalion commander came the voice of the instructor.

"Okay, retreat." The commander of the first battalion clenched his fists and ordered.

"Commander, the first battalion has retreated, the devil's firepower is very fierce, the soldiers' marksmanship is very accurate, just now the machine gunners of the first battalion are about to die a platoon, and the soldiers rushed twice, all of them suffered heavy casualties." The chief of staff came to Liu Hua's side and said.

"Chief of Staff, it's not to blame the first battalion, I saw the whole process of the attack, the distance that the soldiers need to charge is too far, and if the soldiers want to rush forward, they must fill it with human lives." The commander replied.

"Yes, Commander, we must think of a way to shorten the attack distance of the fighters, preferably within 50 meters, so that the soldiers can rely on the cover of grenades to attack and engage in melee combat with the devils." The chief of staff continued.

After listening to the words of Chief of Staff Li Qing, both of them fell silent, thinking about how to shorten the attack distance.

Suddenly, Liu Hua thought of the plot of a TV series in later generations, which is the well-known "Bright Sword". Among them, Li Yunlong led his troops to attack a hill defended by the devils, but the attack distance was too far, and the soldiers suffered heavy casualties. In the end, he used a very simple method to break through the position in one fell swoop.

"Chief of Staff, civil engineering, digging trenches, yes, digging trenches." Commander Liu Hua said excitedly.

Looking at the chief of staff with a puzzled face, Liu Hua knew that Li Qing didn't understand what he meant. "Chief of Staff, you see, our attack range is 150 meters. To reduce the distance to 50 meters, we had to find a way to pass it safely. So I decided to let the soldiers dig a trench, first send a part of the soldiers, under the cover of darkness and artillery fire, climb to about 50 meters in front of the devil's position, and then dig individual bunkers on the spot, slowly extending to both sides. In this way, in front of the devil's position, we will have a trench to protect us, and after sending a part of the soldiers to connect the trench with the trench, then the troops can smoothly pass this 100-meter distance. Liu Hua carefully explained his thoughts to the chief of staff.

"Commander, this is a good idea, in fact, we can dig the trenches closer. You know, our fighters are holding grenades with wooden handles in their hands, and melon grenades are in the hands of devils. In terms of throwing distance, we had a big advantage. So, we might as well dig the trenches under the noses of the devils. That is, we can throw grenades at their positions, and they can't throw grenades at our positions. After listening to Liu Hua's words, the chief of staff's eyes lit up, and added along the commander's train of thought.

"Yes, it's still the chief of staff who thinks thoughtfully, so we'll go and assign tasks." With that, he walked towards the headquarters.

The artillerymen, having received the order, again opened fire on the first-line positions of the devils. At the same time, dozens of veterans selected by each battalion also threw away their other equipment, only carrying a sapper shovel on their backs, crawling out of the position, and slowly crawling towards the devil's position through the dark night.

It wasn't until they were forty meters away from the devil's position that everyone stopped together, lay on the ground and began to dig up individual bunkers. Slowly, the soldier was able to crouch down, and immediately after, the soldier was already able to bend over in the bunker. It was not until the trench was dug to a depth of 1.5 meters specified by the commander that it began to slowly extend to both sides. At the same time, another group of warriors crawled over and stretched out on both sides together.

And with the help of flares, the devil also discovered the anomaly in front of the position. However, although the position in front of him kept throwing up layers of soil, there was not a single soldier in sight. Throw grenades, too far away. With a grenadier, you can, but often a grenade will attract a swarm of shells. The organization of the troops rushed over, and just after trying, a squad of soldiers, before they could break through a distance of 20 meters, was swept down by the machine guns of the opposite Zhina.

As a result, the devil soldiers could only watch the Eighth Route Army continue to dig trenches in front of their positions, advancing step by step. All they could do was keep on guard, hoping that they would be able to hit the two outcropping Eighth Route Army. But how is that possible? Before the departure, cadres at all levels specifically emphasized that the fighters who were engaged in digging trenches were not allowed to show their heads.

So, under the nose of the devil, the soldiers dug the trenches faster and faster, and the trenches became longer and longer, and with the connection with the trenches behind the position, more and more people participated in digging the trenches. Because everyone knows that digging an extra meter in front of the trench in front of the devil's position may shed one less soldier

(To be continued)