"Your Excellency General, you are disappointed. Not only did you not take down the first line of defense of the National Salvation Army, but you also suffered losses. I am willing to be punished by any punishment!" The squadron leader lowered his head and reported.

The brigade commander had too many questions and needed his subordinates to solve it for him, and asked directly: "Why are the casualties of the offensive troops so large? More than half of the casualties were killed before they even reached the front of the blocking position?"

"Although the National Salvation Army built a machine gun castle on its position, it would not cause such a large casualty to the offensive troops."

"You must give me a reasonable explanation, otherwise you will be responsible for the defeat in this battle!"

"Sir, wise!" the squadron leader quickly explained.

"The main casualties of the offensive troops were indeed not caused by the machine gun castle. I wonder if you still remember the explosion during our attack. It was because the National Salvation Army buried a large number of mines on the attack."

"If it is an ordinary landmine, the casualties of the offensive troops will be reduced by at least 30%. But the national rescue army is too cunning. They cover a large amount of gravel on each landmine."

"After the mine exploded, gravel was blown away to increase the mine's killing radius. Many of our soldiers were killed by these gravels!"

"After we started the attack, we were killed and injured by the mines added to the National Salvation Army before we even contacted the National Salvation Army. After the National Salvation Army began to counterattack, mines continued to explode. Beizhi calculated that almost two-thirds of the casualties of the offensive troops were caused by mines and gravel!"

"If we continue to attack, we urge the commander to destroy the minefield arranged by the National Rescue Army in advance, otherwise no matter how many troops we sent, they will suffer a great loss in the minefield!"

"This is a conspiracy that only discovered when Beishi snatched back several imperial troops from the battlefield when he retreated."

"So that's how it is!" said the brigade commander suddenly realized.

Then his eyebrows frowned into a big Sichuan character. He decided to accept the advice of his subordinates: "Appoint the mortar squadron to immediately cover artillery fire in the area between fifty and one hundred meters in front of the blocking position of the National Salvation Army, and use artillery shells to detonate the minefield of the National Salvation Army."

"The Second Infantry Squadron is ready for attack and will start after the shelling is over. This time, you must not lose again!"

The brigade commander is also feeling tremendous pressure now.

It only took a day and a night from the time of pacification to the present, but the losses of the troops were amazing.

Yesterday, the loss of almost one squadron during the daytime march, half of which belonged to the cavalry and all the horses were lost.

Last night, more than one squadron was lost and two heavy machine guns were lost. In addition, half of the squadron was lost during the attack just now.

All the losses reached three infantry squadrons, almost five hundred people, which was not counting the large amount of ammunition consumed by the troops along the way.

In contrast, the results of the battle have not been taken down until now, let alone wiped out a single line of defense of the National Salvation Army, let alone wiped out all their troops.

If this result is spread, I will definitely be laughed to death by my colleagues.

This is still secondary. What really worried him was that the troops would fight less and less troops.

When sending troops, there were more than 1,500 imperial troops, including more than 1,100 combat troops.

In order to make up for the damage to combat and ensure the combat effectiveness of front-line combat troops, last night, all the people who could be drawn away by the artillery and brigade command center were added to the front-line troops, so that the total strength of the combat troops would return to the scale of one thousand people.

As a result, the first battle today was defeated, and more than 100 people were lost, which means that less than 900 combat troops could participate in the attack were left.

If we cannot break through the blocking position of the National Rescue Army as soon as possible, or lose two or three hundred more people here, we will have no troops to continue our subsequent attack.

With this pressure, the brigade commander was both nervous and full of expectations in the next attack.

"Boom boom boom..."

The mortar squadron fired, and eight rounds of artillery shells continued to hit the minefield. Each explosion would bring a lot of soil and gravel. Coupled with the thick smoke produced by the burning of gunpowder, the minefield, which was 40 meters long and 50 meters deep, was quickly blown up to dust and smoke filled with gunpowder.

The artillery staff stood beside him, his eyes never leaving the battlefield.

He judged the effect of the shelling by the black smoke rising after the shell exploded, and he was very satisfied with the report after two minutes.

"General, the minefield we are bombarding has indeed buried a lot of mines. I just saw at least fifteen mines being detonated!"

"We should be able to detonate most of the landmines in just two minutes. If we continue to blow it up, it would be a bit too wasteful of shells and it would be difficult to achieve results again."

The brigade commander nodded and ordered: "Two minutes later, all artillery concentrated on shooting the front-line positions of the National Rescue Army. After two minutes of artillery fire, the artillery fire was extended, and then the second squadron began to attack."

"The grenade launchers of the three and four squadrons all attacked with the team. After being blocked by the National Salvation Army, they immediately fired grenades at the blocking position to provide close-range fire cover for the offensive troops. This attack must be won no matter what."

The National Salvation Army Headquarters saw that the Japanese army's first wave of attacks were killed without even touching the border of the blocking position, and had to retreat. Deputy Commander Yuan Shushan was stunned.

Especially after listening to the battle loss reported by Huang Hu, his eyes looked at Zhou Cheng with a clear hint of awe.

Without using artillery, relying solely on the defensive positions repaired in advance, an infantry company of the National Salvation Army resisted the joint attack of Japanese infantry and artillery, not only killing and injuring more than 100 Japanese devils, but also having less than two squads of their own casualties.

Such a battle is absolutely impossible for ordinary people to fight.

At this moment, the second Japanese attack began.

When he came up, he used a mortar to cover the minefield and acted like he used artillery shells to destroy the minefield.

Yuan Shushan's brows that had just stretched out frowned again.

He could see clearly the attack just now that the reason why the Sixth Company could defeat the Japanese was that the minefield in front of the position played a huge role.

If there were no minefields, the battle just now would never have been so easy.

The Japanese obviously saw the problem inside, so they used artillery shells to knock out the minefield to prevent them from being bombed by landmines when attacking later.

The Japanese attack became easier, and the pressure on the national rescue army would increase.

Yuan Shushan's eyes immediately turned to Zhou Cheng, wanting to see how he resolved this crisis.

"Respond to Huang Hu's phone call!" Zhou Cheng suddenly ordered, his tone of speaking was very calm, and he couldn't hear whether he was happy or nervous.

The phone was quickly connected, and Zhou Cheng grabbed the microphone and started asking questions.

"Captain Huang, I want to know how the two castles on the position are like, can they still be used?"

"Report to Commander..." Huang Hu's voice quickly sounded from the receiver.

"The two castles can still be used. The Japanese bombardment just now only covered the surface with soil and exploded. I just asked the soldiers to re-cover a layer of sandbags on it, which would definitely withstand the continuous attacks of at least three shells."

Zhou Cheng smiled at the corner of his mouth and replied with satisfaction: "That would be great."

"I decided to let the Sixth Company rely on the front line to repel the Japanese and puppet troops' attacks before retreating. Do you have confidence?"

Huang Hu replied loudly: "Please rest assured, the person is in the position!"

"Wrong!" Zhou Cheng suddenly interrupted: "No matter whether the position is there or not, after receiving the retreat order, you must bring me all the troops back."

"The minefield was blown up by the Japanese, and your combat pressure must be very high. But don't worry too much. I will order the artillery company to fire fire and reinforce you at the right time!"

Huang Hu quickly replied: "Thank you, commander, please rest assured. I will definitely complete the task and take the troops out of the battlefield."

Zhou Cheng put down the microphone and raised the telescope again.

All the Japanese artillery fires were transferred to the front line, with mountain cannons and mortars smashing over as if it was raining...

Zhou Cheng looked at it for a few seconds and put down his telescope, turned his head to look at Li Honghui and ordered: "Deputy Commander Li, you go to the artillery position immediately."

"Tell Tan Wei: All mortars are aimed at the fifty-meter to one hundred meters in front of the front line. After receiving the firing order, each cannon will shoot ten rapid fires. After the shooting, it will be transferred. The speed must be fast. Our cannon company has only a little bit of its wealth and must not be targeted by the Japanese artillery."

Li Honghui nodded: "Don't worry, commander, I promise to complete the task!"

As soon as the front foot left, the Japanese began to extend the artillery fire.

The Japanese, who had touched more than 100 meters in front of the formation, quickly got up from the ground. Before the blocking troops could recover from the artillery attack, they ran forward desperately and shortened the assault distance after the two sides fought for a while.

The Japanese military brigade commander also kept a close eye on the battlefield, afraid that something would happen.

Fortunately, the offensive troops rushed forward for thirty meters without touching a mine.

The artillery fire just now covered, the mortar squadron fired at least three hundred shells into the minefield, which made the ground full of craters.

There are definitely no landmines in places with bullet craters, and almost all attacking troops attack in the bullet craters.

"Da da da da...b...b...b..."

The blocking position finally started to sound the sound of machine gun shooting, because the shooting came too suddenly and the firepower was strong. Although the soldiers in the attacking troops were all elite soldiers in a hundred battles and had strong combat power, they were still killed and injured more than a dozen people.

Surprisingly, the brigade commander was not worried at all this time.

In order to win the attack, more than 20 grenade launchers equipped by the three infantry squadrons followed behind the attacking troops.

As long as they join the battle, the grenades will hit the blocking position like it rains, blowing up all the soldiers of the National Savior Army inside.

The grenade launcher did not disappoint him. As soon as the gunshots on the position sounded, they stopped, half-squatted on the ground, raised the grenade launcher, and after a simple aim, they stuffed a grenade into the gun barrel. After aiming again, they decisively pulled the firing rod...

The grenade was ejected from the grenade launcher and flew towards the blocking position of the National Salvation Army at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"Boom boom boom..." A dense explosion sound came from the blocking position immediately, and the gunshot that was just like a bean-like explosion stopped instantly.

The Japanese army, who were frustrated in the attack, stood up again and seized the opportunity to run forward desperately, faster than before.

"Dongdongdongdong..."

Just when the Japanese thought they were in the hands of victory, the annoying heavy machine gun strafing sounded again, and the two heavy machine guns were still on both sides of the position.

The bullets fired formed cross-fire, and took away more than a dozen soldiers' lives as soon as they were shot.

The brigade commander's face suddenly became gloomy.

He remembered clearly that he had ordered the mountain artillery squadron to kill them twice, but the two machine gun castles were not affected at all. Now they are coming out to shoot the offensive troops. How could he not be angry?
Chapter completed!