Chapter 181: Scheming
After the sigh, Ding Wei asked, “Old Kong, are you suddenly bringing this up because you have some idea or purpose?”
Somewhat drunk Kong Jie grabbed a handful of peanuts, peeling them while saying: “Old Ding, I’ve been thinking these past few days, last time Old Li just helped Battalion Commander Su with a small favor, and he got four or five hundred guns, plus over ten grenade launchers.
From this, it’s clear that Battalion Commander Su is a generous person.
This time the fighting there is so intense, if we go join in the fun too, afterward Battalion Commander Su would have to thank us no matter what, so asking him for seven or eight hundred guns shouldn’t be too much, right?”
As soon as these words came out, Li Yunlong and Ding Wei’s faces changed instantly.
Ding Wei’s face immediately became serious: “Old Kong, don’t be muddled, is this something our small outfit can get involved in?
The 20th Division isn’t comparable to those mixed independent brigades or the independent detachments responsible for security, those ragtag units; they’re a proper Class A division, where even one hair is thicker than our thigh.
If you rashly get involved, you won’t even know how you die.”
Li Yunlong also said solemnly: “Old Kong, Old Ding is right.
It’s not me boosting others’ morale and dampening our own; with your thousand-plus men and a few hundred crappy guns, you’ll be completely wiped out in at most a few hours, and without superior approval, if you take your troops to fight on your own, even if you win, the consequences will be dire.”
Seeing Li Yunlong and Ding Wei taking turns to persuade him, Kong Jie glared at the two.
“Who said I’m going to take my troops to fight without authorization? Do I, Kong Jie, look that stupid?”
“Then what do you mean?” Ding Wei and Li Yunlong exchanged a glance, not understanding what medicine this guy was selling in his gourd.
“We can change our thinking.” Kong Jie smiled mysteriously, “We can’t fight the 20th Division, but we can fight somewhere else?
For example… Xinxian county town, what do you think?”
“Hiss…” Li Yunlong and Ding Wei both drew in a sharp breath at the same time.
Li Yunlong immediately got off the kang, took out a map from the briefcase hanging on the wall, spread it on the kang to check, then exchanged a glance with Ding Wei, and suddenly said in unison: “Old Kong, you are damn genius!”
That evening, at the 386th Brigade headquarters, Brigade Commander Chen looked at the telegram in his hand and helplessly said to Commissar Zhang beside him: “As the old saying goes, those near vermilion get red, those near ink get black; Kong Jie has hung around Li Yunlong too long and turned bad, actually learning to fish in troubled waters.”
Commissar Zhang laughed: “Old Chen… this is a good thing, it means even an honest kid like Kong Jie has learned to be flexible; our cadres have initiative, isn’t that good?”
“Hey… you old Zhang, even you’ve learned to be bad.” Brigade Commander Chen couldn’t help bursting into laughter.
After laughing, Brigade Commander Chen slowly restrained his smile, “But once we join in, the nature changes; originally it was just a big battle between the Shanxi militia and the Japanese army.
But once we participate, it means our Eighth Route Army is involved too; if after the battle we face large-scale retaliation from the Japanese, my small shoulders can’t bear it.”
“Hahaha… is there anything in this world that you, Old Chen, dare not do?” Commissar Zhang laughed and scolded.
Brigade Commander Chen was good at imitating dialects; back in Whampoa, he often publicly imitated the principal’s Zhejiang accent in speeches: “Damn it! If you don’t work hard, the revolution will fail!” making the students roar with laughter.
When the principal found out, he was both angry and amused, but because he appreciated Brigade Commander Chen’s talents, he did not punish him.
Not only that, because another elder Wang Jingwei liked to hold up a limp wrist when speaking, he imitated his posture in the dormitory in front of other classmates, pinching his voice to imitate Wang’s Guangdong accent: “Comrades~ the revolution must have grace~” even the left-wing students couldn’t help laughing.
So speaking of it, in terms of audaciousness, Li Yunlong compared to him is just a minor wizard seeing a great one.
Finally, Brigade Commander Chen gritted his teeth, “If you don’t give up the child, you can’t trap the wolf… I’ll immediately send a telegram to the division commander to request instructions; such an opportunity is once in a thousand years, we absolutely can’t miss it.”
“Mm, I agree, put my name on the telegram too.” Commissar Zhang also slapped the table, “Heaven’s gift not taken will bring blame; why not take the good fortune delivered to the door? This deal, we’re in!”
Leaving aside Li Yunlong and others who were rubbing their fists preparing to strike Xinxian, at this time the 20th Division was enduring a storm from the Shanxi militia…
………..
Late July in Wild Wolf Valley was exposed under the scorching sun, the entire land baked like a furnace by the sun, and in such weather, Ushijima Satoru still issued the attack order.
Infantry 39th Brigade’s Takagi Yoshito personally commanded the 77th and 78th Infantry Regiments, supported by 36 Type 94 75mm mountain guns and 12 Type 38 75mm field guns from the field artillery regiment, to launch the attack.
July’s heat wave mixed with the smell of gunpowder rolled through the valley.
Soldiers of the 3rd Company, 1st Battalion, 77th Regiment of the Japanese army lay behind scorching hot rocks, eyes under steel helmets fixed dead on the hillside ahead plowed by artillery fire. The Type 92 heavy machine gun barrel gleamed blue under the blazing sun, the assistant gunner continuously wiping the overheated parts with an oil-stained towel.
Company Commander Minamimura Masasuke stared fixedly at the firepower point two hundred meters ahead spewing tongues of fire at them; it was that firepower point that had devoured the lives of thirteen soldiers from his company in just half an hour.
“Grenade launcher… fire two rounds in that direction!” He shouted anxiously.
“Hai!”
With his order, a Japanese sergeant wearing a side cap, face full of sweat, growled: “Grenade launcher, prepare!”
The two Japanese grenade launcher soldiers behind him quickly knelt, setting up the Type 89 grenade launcher; one steadied the tube, the other took a Type 91 hand grenade from the ammo bag, unscrewed the bottom safety cap, and inserted it into the launcher.
“Fire!”
“Thud…”
With a muffled sound, the propellant at the base of the grenade launcher ignited instantly, the hand grenade propelled by high-pressure gas, tracing a low flat parabola toward the Chinese army’s machine gun position.
“Boom…”
The hand grenade accurately landed in the air above the machine gun firepower point spewing tongues of fire and exploded in mid-air, the firepower point instantly enveloped in thick smoke.
“Yoshi…”
Seeing this, the sergeant nodded in satisfaction, but before he could speak, that firepower point revived, resuming its spewing of tongues of fire.
It turned out that above that firepower point was a layer of over one meter thick rock and soil; all the shrapnel had hit the soil layer.
“Fire again…” The sergeant roared angrily.
“Boom boom…”
Three more grenade launcher rounds flew over; except for the first missing, the next two accurately landed in the air above the firepower point, but after the explosions, the firepower point still showed no damage.
