Chapter 162: Pocket Formation
The headlights pierced the thick night, carving out several blurry light paths in the sky full of yellow dust.
Tires crushed over gravel, emitting crisp popping sounds, like countless insects gnawing at something.
The truck convoy resembled an injured centipede, slowly wriggling on the pitted road surface, with occasional jolts causing the steel helmets and rifles in the truck compartments to collide with dull clangs.
Division Commander Niu Dao Shichang, Lieutenant General, sat motionless in the back seat of a Nissan Type 70, hands placed on his knees, eyes closed with a gloomy expression, lost in thought.
In the front seat, the driver carefully drove the vehicle, occasionally manually toggling the wiper switch to scrape off the accumulated dust on the windshield.
In the passenger seat, the adjutant was wiping the lenses of his glasses with a cloth.
Suddenly, the muffled sound of an engine stalling came from afar, and the entire convoy came to an abrupt halt as if its throat had been gripped, stopping like someone had hit the pause button.
“What happened?” Niu Dao Shichang opened his eyes and asked displeased.
“Division Commander, sir, I’ll go inquire right away.” The adjutant said, then pushed open the car door and got out, kicking up a cloud of dust. Caught off guard, he couldn’t help coughing, and the cough echoed piercingly in the silence.
Niu Dao Shichang reached out to lower the car window, and humid, hot wind carrying the smell of diesel poured in, scattering the piled-up cigarette ash on the dashboard. He gazed at the red glow of the taillights of the vehicle ahead in the dust haze, his mood growing increasingly irritable.
He had just received news that Xiangding County had fallen, the Shanxi Militia was launching an attack on Xincounty, and the garrison battalion currently defending Xincounty was struggling to hold on. But according to the telegram from the defenders, the Shanxi Corps had even deployed tanks, and they had once blasted open the outer city walls, liable to breach the county seat at any moment.
If they hadn’t stockpiled all their ammunition in the residential areas, once the Chinese launched an attack, it would inevitably detonate the ammo depot and take the entire county’s civilians down with it, Xincounty would have fallen long ago.
Although the Shanxi Militia had temporarily halted their attack, Niu Dao Shichang knew this was merely a stopgap measure; the longer it dragged on, the more dangerous Xincounty became, and that was precisely why he was rushing through the night.
There was no choice; Xincounty was simply too important. If it fell and those ammunition supplies were destroyed or seized by the Shanxi Militia, the 20th Division’s only option would be to turn back immediately and cancel this operation. And as the commander of this operation, his military career would end as well, something he could not tolerate.
Just as his patience was wearing thin bit by bit, the adjutant finally returned.
“Division Commander, sir, a truck up ahead had a tire blowout, blocking the road. I’ve already had men clear it, and traffic will resume soon.”
“Tell them to hurry up.”
Niu Dao Shichang irritably said, then looked around, but saw only the blurry scenery of low visibility and the bustling soldiers nearby.
“Ono… check how many kilometers we are from Xincounty now?”
“Reporting to Division Commander, sir, over thirty kilometers. If smooth, we can reach Xincounty in a little over an hour.”
“Good… order the troops to speed up. We must arrive at Xincounty before dawn!”
“Yes, sir!”
After issuing the order, Niu Dao Shichang ducked back into the car, planning to catch some sleep while there was still time.
………..
Over ten li from Xincounty, outside a makeshift tent at the foot of a mountain, an antenna held up by a long pole swayed in the wind, and a series of beeps came from inside the tent.
Li Gaoyuan sat on a stool made of stacked shell crates, studying a map under the dim yellow light.
A staff officer suddenly stood up and said: “Report… the reconnaissance post reports that the Japanese vanguard has entered the ambush zone.”
“Got it.”
Li Gaoyuan didn’t look up and countered: “Has the artillery regiment entered the ambush position?”
“Regiment Commander, the artillery regiment entered the ambush position half an hour ago, the positions are deployed, ready to fire at any time!”
“Good… tell Zhang Zhihao not to skimp on shells for the Commander-in-Chief. Once the fight starts, fire them all out as fast as possible!”
“Yes, sir!”
The staff officer couldn’t help chuckling in response.
It was said that a unit’s combat style was inseparable from its first commander.
After half a year of Su Yaoyang’s influence, the Shanxi Militia—whether in combat style or daily conduct—had begun shifting toward the style of later American GIs, which clashed somewhat with the current Chinese armies.
Today’s Chinese armies, be they Central Army or local miscellaneous troops, lived quite frugally.
Take ammunition reserves: a Central Army private carried about 60 rounds normally, the elite German-equipped divisions no more than 100, and miscellaneous troops even less, maybe 30 rounds at best.
As for the Eighth Route Army and New Fourth Army, it was worse; their carry ammo often hovered in single digits, so the Japanese scornfully called them the “three-shot troops,” meaning their soldiers would run out of ammo after three shots and have to resort to bayonet charges.
The Shanxi Militia was different; under that cheat Su Yaoyang’s lead, bullets were yours for the taking as long as your pockets could hold them.
As for food, it was three full meals a day without fail—kaoliang rice, rice, steamed wheat buns aplenty—plus canned meat daily, and monthly pay in crisp silver dollars.
Not only that, the troops even issued sugar, cigarettes, even coffee.
As the soldiers put it, Commander Su issued everything except wives; this life was comfier than the village rich guys’.
Under this atmosphere, from officers to rank-and-file in the Shanxi Militia, frugality was never in their vocabulary.
Just as Li Gaoyuan gave the order, in a mountain hollow two li away, thirty-six M1 155mm howitzers and twelve M2 105mm howitzers stood in a line, their dark muzzles aimed southwest, silently awaiting the Japanese arrival.
Artillery Regiment Commander Zhang Zhihao paced back and forth on a dirt mound, appearing somewhat anxious.
This setup today was specially prepared by Li Gaoyuan for the 20th Division; for attacking Xincounty, Li Gaoyuan had prepared two plans total.
The first was to take Xincounty directly and destroy the Japanese supplies and munitions stockpiled there, but that plan had failed.
The second was to exploit the Japanese urgency to reinforce, set a pocket ambush here, and once the Japanese entered the kill zone, unleash all artillery on the marching column to inflict maximum casualties on their living forces.
To that end, he had somewhat riskily deployed the entire artillery regiment in a mountain hollow over ten li from Xincounty, precisely to deliver a fatal blow to the reinforcing 20th Division.
