Devil's Army

Chapter 1915 The Battle of Qilin Temple Valley (Part 2)

The Japanese troops, arranged in a long, serpentine formation, continued to pursue the retreating New Fourth Army.

Suddenly, intense gunfire erupted from the mountainside on both sides of the valley, and countless grenades flew in.

The narrow mountain roads prevented the Japanese army from concentrating its superior forces to wipe out the New Fourth Army on the mountainside, forcing them to fight back passively.

The Japanese artillery at the entrance to the valley quickly reacted and launched a fierce bombardment on the New Fourth Army's positions on the mountainside.

Although the New Fourth Army continued firing at the Japanese troops in the valley despite the heavy artillery fire, the shelling still caused them considerable casualties.

The Japanese troops below the valley began to withdraw from the valley while the New Fourth Army's fierce firepower was suppressed by their artillery.

When the third company commander of the first battalion of the 44th Regiment of the New Fourth Army saw that the Japanese army was about to escape, he took the lead and led his soldiers to move forward and fiercely suppress the retreating Japanese army, no longer avoiding the Japanese artillery fire.

At the narrow entrance to the valley, the sounds of cannons and gunfire echoed through the sky.

The third company commander, who led from the front, was also unfortunately blown away by a shell. The third deputy company commander immediately took over the command and continued to lead the soldiers in a tenacious fight against the retreating Japanese army.

Thanks to the desperate efforts of all the officers and soldiers of the Third Company, the retreating Japanese troops were blocked on the mountain path.

At this time, the 39th Regiment, which had already crossed Dayun Mountain, outflanked the Japanese army's retreat route from Dongliu Dawu on the north side of the mountain.

The Japanese artillery positions and command posts were subjected to fierce attacks by soldiers of the 39th Regiment.

The captain had no choice but to redeploy troops to reinforce the command post and artillery positions to block the 39th Regiment's attack.

Without the bombardment of Japanese artillery, the soldiers of the 44th Regiment fired and threw grenades even more fiercely at the Japanese troops in the valley.

Although the Japanese army was fighting on two fronts, the soldiers of the 44th Regiment were unable to break through the encirclement of Japanese troops for a time.

The Japanese troops outside the encirclement continued to reinforce the Japanese troops inside the encirclement, and the accompanying mortars continuously bombarded the 44th Regiment's positions.

The soldiers of the 39th Regiment were unable to break through the Japanese army's resistance.

Just as the battle reached a stalemate, a combined squadron of fighters and bombers from the First Army arrived and launched a fierce bombing and strafing attack on the Japanese troops in the encirclement and those outside the valley.

The pilot of a bomber spotted a military camp outside the valley covered with antennas and immediately determined that it was the Japanese command post.

So they quickly swooped down and bombarded the military camp repeatedly.

Although the Japanese captain was lucky enough to escape the bombing by the First Army's bombers, many commanders and soldiers of the guard unit in the command post were still killed in the bombing.

The captain, still shaken, led several Japanese soldiers to escape from the command post.

At this moment, the captain discovered that not only his command post, but also the artillery positions that the New Fourth Army was focusing its attack on were being bombed by the devilish troops' warplanes.

The troops had by this time fallen into a chaotic state of fighting independently.

The battle lasted until after 3 p.m., when the air force of the First Army returned to base one after another, and the Japanese counterattack began in an orderly and fierce manner.

The Japanese troops from Longping Mountain also rushed over to provide support.

At this time, soldiers from the 45th Regiment of the New Fourth Army also rushed from Huandao Ridge straight into Chitang Mountain, blocking the Japanese reinforcements from Longping Mountain.

The 3rd Regiment of the 1st Brigade of the Independent Division also arrived at this time to participate in the encirclement and suppression of the Japanese troops in the encirclement.

The machine gunners of the 3rd Regiment continuously suppressed the Japanese firepower. Rocket troops relentlessly bombarded the Japanese machine gunners and mortar corps.

With the main firepower of the Japanese army tied down by the Southern Independent Division, the soldiers of the 44th Regiment of the New Fourth Army launched a general offensive against the Japanese army in the encirclement.