Chapter 297: Air Superiority
As Major General Miyai expected, there was indeed an obstacle ahead.
Two hours before dark, he led his team to the outskirts of the ambush position personally set up by Liu Weidong.
Major General Miyai did not rush to attack, but immediately sent people to reconnoiter, and he also observed the terrain with a telescope.
The terrain was quickly surveyed, and Major General Miyai analyzed it on the map, his expression finally turning extremely grim.
The terrain was very dangerous. Although the soldiers who went to scout had not yet returned, Major General Miyai already anticipated the result: this assault battle would be hard to fight.
There were two other roads to Wolf Forest.
He did not need to consider them at all; detouring would take at least three or four hours.
By then, it would be dark long ago.
The Eighth Route Army’s transportation team would have slipped away from Wolf Forest by then.
Therefore, Major General Miyai still had no choice now; he had to break through here within one and a half hours.
Otherwise, everything would become meaningless.
“Send a telegram to Army Aviation.”
Major General Miyai quickly said to the signalman, “One airplane monitoring over Wolf Forest is enough; have the other two airplanes come reinforce me here.”
These three airplanes were not all in the sky; one was over Wolf Forest, and the other two were resting at the airport.
After all, fuel was precious; save it where possible.
When the fuel of the airplane over Wolf Forest was nearly consumed, take off another one to rotate in.
In other words, the other two airplanes were now at the airport.
“Yes.” The signalman quickly sent the message.
“Open fire for me.” Major General Miyai ordered to start shelling immediately.
The tank cannon immediately shelled the Eighth Route Army’s position ahead.
Meanwhile, on Liu Weidong’s side, they just hid in cover and did not return fire.
Anyway, the enemy had no heavy cannon, so the tank cannon’s strike effect was limited.
After several rounds of shelling, seeing no reaction from the Eighth Route Army opposite, Major General Miyai did not wait for the airplanes and launched an active offensive.
Cavalry made large targets, so they dismounted to act as infantry, coordinating with the tank regiment to attack toward Liu Weidong’s side.
“Fire!”
The enemy was coming; Liu Weidong did not hold back and immediately ordered return fire.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
……
The Hell Cannon and Type 92 Infantry Gun immediately roared to life, shelling down at the Japanese soldiers behind the Japanese war vehicles.
The Japanese soldiers were instantly blasted into chaos, suffering heavy casualties.
Rockets trailed flames as they streaked toward the Japanese tanks and armored vehicles.
After one volley of rockets, seven or eight Japanese tanks and armored vehicles instantly became scrap iron, belching thick smoke as they stopped.
“Baka, withdraw!” Major General Miyai, seeing this, had no choice but to immediately order his troops to pull back.
Before last month, the Eighth Route Army was still very weak.
They could not even sustain a proper battle.
And now, the Eighth Route Army was capable of frontal combined infantry-tank combat against the Imperial Army.
It must be known that even the direct lineage troops, or the Jin Sui Army, did not have this capability.
In short, the Eighth Route Army’s speed of growing strong was truly terrifying.
The root of all this lay in their arsenal.
In other words, the strategic importance of capturing the Eighth Route Army Arsenal was becoming increasingly prominent.
Seeing Major General Miyai’s troops withdraw, Liu Weidong did not waste ammunition and ordered: “It seems the Japanese airplanes are coming. Next time, the Japanese will definitely attack under airplane cover. Comrades, hold the pressure at all costs; we absolutely cannot let the Japanese pass through here.”
Even though Liu Weidong was very clever and had even set up many decoy targets on the position to confuse the Japanese airplanes.
But the Japanese airplanes had already been tricked once during the military train attack; this time, they probably would not be so easily fooled.
No anti-aircraft weapons—this was a hard weakness. Hopefully… hopefully the number of Japanese airplanes would not be too many.
The soldiers all gripped their weapons tightly, their expressions resolute:
“As long as we can hold here, the Kumamoto Division’s army will be out of ammunition. Even if we all die in battle, it will be worth it!”
“If the Japanese want to pass through here, they must first step over our corpses!”
……
Rumble!
Soon, the roar of aircraft engines came from the distant horizon.
Seeing only two Japanese airplanes arrive, an Eighth Route Army soldier could not help saying to Liu Weidong: “Regiment Commander, are you being a bit too cautious? It’s just two Japanese airplanes; even if they drop bombs, their strike effect will definitely be limited.”
With the limited strike effect of these Japanese airplanes, Major General Miyai’s troops could not hope to break through here.
“These Japanese were fooled by us once; they definitely learned their lesson.” Liu Weidong’s expression was grave. “Sometimes quantity is not that important; what matters is the enemy’s precision strikes.”
“Regiment Commander, you…” The soldiers wanted to say more.
Liu Weidong interrupted: “Never underestimate the enemy; prepare for battle.”
“Yes.”
……
Seeing the two airplanes arrive, Major General Miyai did not waste time and immediately ordered: “Attack! All troops, press forward—charge!”
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
……
The tank cannon shelled again, and the tanks rapidly approached Liu Weidong’s position.
The Japanese soldiers closely followed the tanks, running toward Liu Weidong’s position.
They ran while shooting.
The Japanese marksmanship was not bad; some soldiers on Liu Weidong’s side were hit as soon as they showed their heads.
“Open fire.” Liu Weidong did not hesitate and quickly gave the order.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
……
The Hell Cannon and Type 92 Infantry Gun quickly opened fire, using the same tactic as before, targeting the Japanese soldiers behind.
Meanwhile, the rocket launchers targeted the Japanese tanks.
This volley destroyed another seven or eight tanks.
This scene made Major General Miyai’s heart tremble.
He roared at the airplanes in the sky: “Baka, you damned fools, what are you hesitating for? Hurry up and drop the bombs!”
It turned out that after these two airplanes arrived, they did not immediately drop a wave of bombs first, but circled in the sky.
Major General Miyai watched his troops suffer heavy losses while these two airplanes kept circling, jumping in rage.
But soon, a surprising scene appeared for Major General Miyai.
It turned out that the pilots of these two Japanese airplanes had been deceived by Liu Weidong once; this time, they had truly learned their lesson.
They flew in from the horizon and spotted Liu Weidong’s decoy targets at first glance, but they did not attack them.
Instead, they waited.
What were they waiting for?
Waiting for Liu Weidong to open fire and return fire.
Facing the attack from Major General Miyai’s troops, Liu Weidong could not possibly not fire, or the tanks would roll right over him.
And for Liu Weidong to fire and block the mechanized troops, he had to use his most important firepower.
This was also what Liu Weidong was most worried about, but there was no other way.
As soon as he opened fire, the important firepower would be exposed to the pilots, who could then carry out precision strikes.
And that was exactly what happened.
The two Japanese pilots saw the Type 92 Infantry Gun and Hell Cannon positions on the ground fire shells, and immediately dove down.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
……
Two waves of bombs dropped, and the Type 92 Infantry Gun position and Hell Cannon position both suffered major destruction.
“Da da da!”
“Da da da!”
“Da da da!”
……
Watching their own artillery positions bombed by Japanese airplanes, the machine gunners’ eyes instantly turned bloodshot, and they swept machine gun fire at the airplanes: “Damn airplanes, come down here!”
But it was useless; the airplanes flew too fast and could not be hit.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
……
The airplane ignored the machine gunners’ fire completely, flew to the rocket launcher soldiers’ position, and dropped several more bombs.
Although the rocket launcher soldiers quickly relocated after firing, they could not hide from the airplanes overhead.
The pilots in the sky saw everything on the ground clearly.
After bombing the rocket launcher soldiers, the Japanese pilot maneuvered the airplane to strafe the surviving rocket launcher soldiers wildly.
Da da da!
Da da da!
Da da da!
The rocket launcher soldiers were precisely harvested by the airplane’s machine gun. As the nemesis of Japanese tanks and war vehicles, they had achieved good results.
But in front of the airplane, they were completely lambs to the slaughter, with no ability to resist.
“Hahaha, yoshi, well done, haha.” Seeing the results from these two airplanes, Major General Miyai instantly forgot his earlier curses, became greatly encouraged, and shouted with spittle flying: “Charge! Charge for me! While the Eighth Route Army’s artillery fire is neutralized, charge immediately. Capture the Eighth Route Army’s shoulder-mounted cannons, and their heavy cannons—seize them all.”
Seeing the two airplanes destroy the enemy’s important artillery fire, the Japanese troops’ morale soared, and they immediately charged madly.
“Regiment Commander, our Hell Cannon is gone, one Type 92 Infantry Gun remains, two rocket launchers left, and Japanese airplanes are still here—do we still fire?” Seeing the Japanese madly pressing forward, someone urgently shouted to Liu Weidong.
By now, no one was talking about the Japanese airplanes being few in number and thus not a threat.
These damned airplanes, striking precisely from overhead in the sky—with no anti-aircraft weapons, we were simply fish meat on their cutting board.
“We absolutely cannot let the Japanese mechanized troops pass; fire for me!” Liu Weidong did not hesitate at all, but still said, “Don’t use our eight Hell Missiles for now; without my order, don’t use the Hell Missiles.”
The Hell Missiles were Liu Weidong’s trump card reserved for the enemy commander.
Even now, he had not yet located the enemy commander.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Under Liu Weidong’s order, the remaining Type 92 Infantry Gun and two rocket launchers immediately opened fire.
The Type 92 Infantry Gun blasted over a dozen Japanese soldiers, and the two rocket launchers each destroyed one Japanese tank.
Then!
There was no then.
The two Japanese airplanes spotted the targets and dove down from the sky again.
Boom!
The Type 92 Infantry Gun was bombed into scrap iron.
Da da da!
Two grenade launcher soldiers were swept by the airplane’s machine gun and forever fell on this beloved land.
“Hahaha, the Eighth Route Army has no more tricks left, hahaha.” Seeing this, Major General Miyai let out a ferocious triumphant laugh.
He saw it: all the Eighth Route Army’s important artillery had been destroyed.
What remained were just grenade launcher mortars; they could no longer stop the mechanized troops.
