March 22, 1942, sunny, dry, with gusty winds.

Although there are no clouds and the spring breeze is blowing in front of you, between the sky and the earth, it is a depression before the mountain rain is coming!

The design failed, but on the contrary, on the banks of the bridge of the Pew River and in the ancient city of Tong, the army of Yueben, which had lost nearly 2,000 elite soldiers, finally gathered 23,000 men of the 55th Division at dawn on this day, and with the coordination of three flying squadrons, launched a fierce attack on the ancient city of Tong, which occupied the waterway, the road and the railway, and even established a military airfield.

Tonggu, this Burmese city, also known as Donggua, is destined to be on this day, because this war has been concerned by the world and will forever be recorded in the history of war!

The Echunke position defended by the 5** Regiment was the outpost of the ancient city, and they bore the brunt of it, in order to conquer this position, the army put down two wings directly in front of them! A divisions like the 55th Division, a single infantry wing, have 2,400 men, and in terms of their training and weaponry, they have already surpassed the level of a Chinese reorganized division; in other words, Lei Zhen and Huang Jingsheng are facing an attack by an enemy with a combat strength of more than two divisions in the Echunke position!

All the heavy weapons had not yet had time to be delivered to the front line, and the 598th Regiment had only three antiaircraft machine guns, and in this case, they did not even need escort fighters, and those bombers of the Japanese army loaded with heavy bombs appeared in the air with a swagger.

"Be careful, beware of hidden !!"

Amid the hoarse roars of those grass-roots officers with combat experience, more than 20 bombers swept over the positions of the 59th Regiment with a roar, and along with the sound of these bombers breaking the wind at high speed, they swept diagonally along with the strings of bombs that slipped out of the bomb magazines.

There is no threat of fighter jets, there is no position composed of anti-aircraft weapons, those bombers that have no bulletproof armor and no self-sealing fuel tanks, and look like a cigar, because they are hit and exploded, they are nicknamed "air lighters" by the US Air Force.

No matter how deep the trenches were dug, no matter how strong the positions were, no matter how many sandbags filled with dirt were laid on the machine gun forts, they were so vulnerable to the purest of weapons of destruction, bombshells, that they were easily torn to pieces in the clouds of smoke that reached into the sky and the terrible roar that burst people's eardrums.

At this time, in addition to lying in the bunker honestly and minimizing the damage to his body, all that remains is to wait, waiting for himself to be blown alive by the next bomb into a pile of minced meat, or after the bombing is over, pat off the dust on his body, push away the corpses that fell beside him, and hold on to his weapons and wait to meet the enemy's more frantic attack.

"Again, again, every time!"

In the face of this kind of weapon of war that gathers the crystallization of human wisdom and exerts its destructive power to the extreme, and in the face of this kind of Shura hell that can turn the air that you can't usually see or touch into a weapon, your ears buzz and buzz non-stop, and hit your face and make your eyelids hurt, and the spirit collapses in an instant, it is definitely not only those recruits who go to the battlefield for the first time.

A squad leader sat in the trench with a gun in his arms, and in the midst of the fiercest bombardment wave after wave, he cried loudly: "Every time I say that I am like this, first with planes, and then with artillery, before we can fight them, half of our brothers will die!" Didn't we have the support of the Americans and the British when we went to Burma to fight this time, where are their planes, why are only my planes flying over our heads, why can't I see their planes? ”

In this roar, even the soldiers lying a few feet away could not hear what the squad leader was crying about.

"I fought the battle of Kunlun Mountain, I fought the Battle of Songhu, every time I withdrew from the battlefield after the battle, our brothers in the whole platoon, even ten people could not get together, most of them were killed alive! It turned out that there were more of us than them, and we could barely withdraw, but now there are more enemies than us! No......"

Speaking of which, the squad leader actually stood up on a position where bullets rained down and shrapnel flew everywhere! He stared at a pair of bloodshot eyes and hissed, "I don't want to be blown up like them into a pile of minced meat that can't be put together, I want to go home, I miss my mother's ......"

The squad leader's crying stopped abruptly, and a piece of shrapnel more than 20 centimeters long and weighing more than a pound swirled through his throat, and at an astonishing high speed of more than 300 meters per second, the piece of shrapnel that was blown up with a jagged edge easily cut off the squad leader's neck bone and threw his head backwards with him. And more fragments of shrapnel that followed behind the shrapnel slammed into the headless corpse like locusts flying by, and exploded countless bloody flowers in an instant.

Just for the first bombing and the first shelling, the 598th Regiment paid the price of more than 80 killed and more than 300 wounded, and when accepting this purgatory-style baptism, I don't know how many people were so frightened that they lost their voices and suffered pain, and how many people couldn't control it for a while, and let the hot liquid wet their entire army trousers.

But no one laughed at these soldiers who made a fool of themselves in public, and when they looked at each other, even the "sworn enemies" who usually fought endlessly with each other suddenly found that they had become cordial to each other. And those veterans who have participated in battles and have actual combat experience, looking at the recruits around them, there is no longer the same condescending disdain in their eyes.

I don't know how many veterans, when they pulled out those recruits who were buried in the mud and sand again, they didn't have the habit of kicking the recruits' buttocks hard, and after patting off the dust on each other's clothes, most of them only said one sentence: "Boy, you must live!" ”

If these recruits can live to see the sun tomorrow, even if they will not be reborn, they will learn how to protect themselves on the most brutal battlefield, learn to integrate the knowledge they have gained from the training ground into this battlefield where iron and blood meet, and form the most valuable war experience!

When they can make it all together, and they are so used to seeing death that even their nerves are starting to become a little numb, congratulations, he's already a veteran. A veteran who can be a three-way envoy on the battlefield, a veteran who can condense the morale of new recruits on the battlefield, so that they will not be so frightened that their legs are weak and they can't even pull the bolt of the gun as soon as they enter the battlefield!

In a unit, the more veterans, the stronger the combat effectiveness, the easier it is for the soldiers to survive on the tragic battlefield, and the more recruits survive to become veterans, the stronger the army!

This is the iron law of war, and it is the truest portrayal of the phrase "an iron-clad battalion and a soldier with flowing water". Because...... Even a veteran will die on the battlefield!

On the one hand, it is the 55th Division of the 55th Division, which is full of momentum on the battlefield in Burma, but has suffered a blow in front of Tonggucheng, eager to take revenge, and eager to win back its dignity in front of the world public.

On the one hand, it is "when the Chinese nation is in danger, every people are forced to make the last roar", and there is no way back, even for their homeland, for their brothers not to be called like animals, and for their sisters not to be spoiled at will, they have to fight to the death!

Both sides have their own reasons why they can't back down, and both sides have their own beliefs and persistence that will never change, so the battle has entered a white-hot stage from the very beginning!

The heavy weapons did not have time to reach the front line, and the 598th Regiment did not even have infantry guns, but with the overwhelming rain of grenades, they simply smashed the enemy's tanks and did not dare to drive straight in.

Although the fortifications had been bombarded and shelled from the air, the fortifications prepared in advance had been damaged to a considerable extent, but when the guns rang out, the light and heavy machine guns in the machine gun bunkers fired together, and in the rain of bullets, they formed a crossfire network that could really be called an impregnable wall.

The officers and men of the 55th Division, who were still aggressive just now and wanted to use the iron fist of the imperial army to smash all the obstacles that dared to stand in the way and proclaim their strength to the whole world, soon discovered that the enemy they faced this time was different from the one in front of them.

Very different!

Whether it is the Anglo-Burmese troops composed of Burmese natives, or the well-equipped but poorly trained British [***] team with the slogan of "Royal Army of the British Empire" on their lips every day, in the face of their attacks, they are all soft when pinched and broken when they are struck. It is because of this that they were able to sweep almost the entire Burma in just a few months, and the British [***] team fled until they captured Yangon, the capital of Burma!

In front of the ancient city, in this land called Echunke, they finally encountered the most powerful resistance since entering Burma!

Although it is also a squadron, don't forget that their 55th Division is not a miscellaneous unit that is only equipped with home-made Hanyang, almost no heavy machine guns, and few light machine guns, but a purely mechanized unit like the 200th Division, such a trump card among the aces of the [***] troops, which is strictly trained by American instructors!

Such a unit, even if the heavy weapons were too late to reach the front line, greatly affected their firepower suppression, and they could only let the air force show off their might overhead, but their light and heavy machine gun equipment absolutely exceeded the standard of any German armor division. To borrow a phrase from Deputy Head Huang Jingsheng...... If you want to occupy Echunke, and if you want to open the gate to the ancient city, you have to ask Lao Tzu about the machine gun in his hand!

Those Chinese [***] people, hiding in the trenches that have been bombed into ruins, lying in the middle of the corpses of their comrades, half-kneeling behind large stones, in short, when they walked into the position of the Chinese [***] people within fifty meters, with a gunshot, you can see the figure of the Chinese [***] people everywhere, and with their finally explosive crazy roar, the head and face smashed over, is hundreds of wooden handles have been pinched out of the sweat of the grenade!

Immediately after that, in the fortifications that relied on various terrain and buildings, all kinds of light and heavy machine guns fired in unison, and in the flying bullet casings, the bullets rained down on them one after another.

Seeing that those soldiers were caught off guard, they were beaten to the ground and couldn't even lift their heads, as soon as the enemy charged, he personally ran to the trench, set up a telescope to observe the battle situation, Huang Jingsheng, patted his thigh and shouted three times in a row, "Okay!" Good! Good! ”

Looking at Huang Jingsheng's excited appearance, if it weren't for the fact that the command knife had been abducted by Commander Zheng Tingji, maybe he would have pulled out the command knife and issued an order to counter-charge. And at this time, suddenly a series of bullets hit Huang Jingsheng's side, and the gravel that was blown up from the sandbag bounced his face, bringing a hot pain.

"Fuck, which bastard hits so accurate?!"

As soon as he shouted and cursed, another rifle bullet flew close to Huang Jingsheng's cheek, and the kind of bullet cut through the air at high speed, and the blazing feeling of grinding made Huang Jingsheng's hairs stand upside down. Huang Jingsheng quickly squatted into the trench, looking at the bullet holes left by the rifle bullet bullet hitting the trench wall behind him, Huang Jingsheng's first thought in his heart was...... No way!

The bullet hole left by the rifle bullet was slanted. From the point of view, the enemy turned out to be condescending and shooting at him!

The terrain here is flat, even if it can't be said to be a flat river, but as far as the eye can see, there is no small high ground nearby that can provide a good view of firepower, if there is, he Huang Jingsheng would have occupied it a long time ago, how can it be the enemy's turn to run here and then develop and utilize?!

However, whether it was the light machine gun bullet or the rifle bullet that almost hit the target directly, it shows that even if he was hiding in the trench and observing the battle with the help of the pre-constructed breastwork, the enemy could see him to a limited extent!

In fact, the enemy could see that it was not only Deputy Regiment Commander Huang Jingsheng alone, in just a few tens of seconds, on the defense line of the 598th Regiment, several machine gunners with light machine guns had been hit by the enemy.

Huang Jingsheng moved his footsteps, and after moving more than ten meters in the trench, he carefully poked out his telescope in the observation hole of another breastwall, and after careful observation for a while, Huang Jingsheng spat violently and said in a low voice: "Are these little ones all monkeys?" You can even climb a tree and shoot and torture, isn't it?! ”

Burma belongs to the tropical monsoon climate, and towering trees more than 10 meters high can be seen everywhere in this country, and some soldiers have actually climbed on the trees, and this is not significant, but it is enough for them to obtain the height of the field of view of fire, and condescendingly snipe the machine gun fire points on the positions of the 598th Regiment.

It may be that the telescope in Huang Jingsheng's hand has already explained his identity, and under Huang Jingsheng's stunned gaze, a soldier who knows if he was eating in the acrobatic troupe actually set up a grenadier that was not as heavy as a rifle but could shoot a 91-style grenade 600 meters away from him on the tallest and thickest tree!

"Boom!"

It is said that the experienced veterans attacked with grenadiers within a range of 400 meters, which meant where to fight, but apparently they had not received training to use grenadiers on large trees. Although it aimed at Huang Jingsheng, the 91-type grenade that ejected from the big tree finally fell on a flat ground more than ten meters away from Huang Jingsheng.

Looking at the rising smoke, Huang Jingsheng didn't have time to exhale a breath of cold air, his face changed. As a commander with rich combat experience, Huang Jingsheng immediately thought of the seriousness of this situation...... If you let hundreds of A-class shooters climb up to the big trees and condescendingly snipe at the defense line of their 598th Regiment, and then cooperate with the grenadier attack of the acrobatic regiment, I am afraid that within an hour, the defense line they have carefully constructed will be broken by the soldiers of this kind of "monkey on the tree" tactic that makes people laugh and cry, but it is really effective!

The distance between the two sides has exceeded 500 meters, and the Hanyang-made rifle is said to be able to hit **100 meters, but the veterans know that the distance of 500 meters has really exceeded its limit. If you have to shoot at those soldiers who are holding Type 38 rifles and are condescending, it is tantamount to killing yourself.

Using the heavy machine guns in the fortifications to hit the soldiers scattered in the big trees, not to mention the limited firepower in the fortifications, looking at these heavy guys, there is a feeling that the anti-aircraft guns are fighting mosquitoes and have nowhere to start.

And only with the Czech-style light machine guns with an effective firing range of up to 800 meters, to shoot at those soldiers in this country, let me ask, is it because the 598th Regiment is equipped with more light machine guns, or is there more A-class shooters in the two wings? Moreover, once such a counterfire breaks out, those veterans of the Czech-style light machine guns will die too heavily, and it will seriously affect the firepower of the frontal defense of the 598th Regiment!

You must know that veterans with rich combat experience can use this Czech light machine gun with a magazine capacity of only 20 rounds to play a real role. In close combat, in order not to let the enemy judge how many bullets they still have in the magazine, they often still have bullets in the magazine, and when the enemy does not dare to charge, they quickly change the magazine, disrupting the enemy's judgment and attack rhythm. Without a long time of battlefield baptism, no matter how strict the training is, it is difficult to do this, and the vast majority of recruits, when they arrive on the battlefield, are afraid that once they pull the trigger, they will not stop if they do not finish the bullets inside.

Frankly speaking, in the battle with the Japanese army, the main force that supported the [***] firepower network was precisely this kind of Czech light machine gun with a small magazine capacity, but a long enough range and high accuracy, plus a grenade that everyone would throw!

No matter how much he Huang Jingsheng looked at the sand table and how much he expected the possible battle situation, he didn't expect that his soldiers would adopt such "wonderful" tactics, let alone crack it-for-tat!

"Huh......?!"

Huang Jingsheng's eyes widened suddenly, because in the sight of his telescope, the soldier who had just fired a cannon at the location where he was hiding, his body trembled violently, and in a gorgeous blood splash, he planted a tree more than 20 meters high with a grenadier and the 91-type grenade he held in his hand.

I don't know who it was, but with just one shot, I knocked down the soldier who was born in the ninety-nine acrobatic troupe and could play with grenadiers in the big tree.

It was under Huang Jingsheng's stunned gaze that those soldiers who climbed onto the big tree and slowly sniped at the defensive position of the 598th Regiment with one shot, and they didn't even find the enemy who shot them, so they fell down from the tree one after another.

Huang Jingsheng suddenly showed an expression of understanding, no wonder Lei Zhen Some of the people with the best marksmanship today put down the signature Thompson submachine gun of their special service platoon, picked up the Type 38 rifle captured from the hands of the soldiers, and installed a scope for these rifles that had been repeatedly selected and corrected, and even the bullets were used after careful investigation.

Lei Zhen also did not think that the enemy would climb the big tree and shoot at the position of the 598th Regiment, and even almost tore a crack from the 598th Regiment's firepower network. He divided the spy platoon into zeros, with a sniper carrying a Type 38 rifle as the core, and two assistant Thomsampson submachine guns as the auxiliary, formed more than a dozen combat teams, and scattered them to all hidden corners of the battlefield like ducks, just hoping that these subordinates, who were by no means suitable for confronting the enemy head-on on the battlefield, could use accurate sniper techniques and the concealed skills he taught him to successfully snipe the officers.

Some of the snipers of the special service platoon with Type 38 rifles were ambushed in the grass a few hundred meters away from the west side of the battlefield, not only wearing a layer of camouflage made of thatch, but even the rifles were wrapped with a layer of green cloth. And the two assistants in charge of the guard can make the companions buried in the grass safely snipe those who climb into the big trees with a gun, and there is no place to hide, and they are 100% of the soldiers who fix the live target.

There were also some people who simply changed into blood-stained military uniforms and hid among the corpses of those soldiers who attacked the ancient city at night, but the whole army was wiped out. After firing a bullet, the brother immediately sent the rifle forward, shoved it under the corpse of another soldier, and then his head sank, and he did not receive a signal from his nearby companion that he was "safe", and even if someone stepped on him, his fingers would not move.

Of course, the wisdom of the masses is infinite, and it is not only the soldiers who have come up with such a trick as climbing trees, but even the special service platoon has used the same method. The difference is that they know how to camouflage better than each other, and their bodies are covered with camouflage nets made of leaves and bark, not to mention, as long as they shoot a shot, they will work tirelessly to slip down from the tree, and then choose a second big tree to climb up, so that they are a little tired, the efficiency is a little lower, but at least the safety of life is guaranteed.

What is it like those soldiers who climb up a tree like a nerd, and unless they are hit by bullets, they will not be able to come down?

It was on this day that the 598th Regiment relied on the fortifications that had been built long ago and repelled six attacks by its own army. It wasn't until it was completely dark that the officers and men of the special service platoon who had dispersed slowly assembled. And when Luo Sanpao came back, in his hand, there was one more prisoner with dark skin due to frequent sun exposure, short stature but flexible.

This man obviously struggled before being captured by Luo Sanpao, and looking at his arm hanging on his chest and still swinging, it is estimated that it has been broken by Luo Sanpao. But obviously his whole body was trembling and sweating like rain, and he looked as if he had just been fished out of the water, he still turned his head and glared at Luo Sanpao angrily, and spit out a mouthful of saliva from his mouth from time to time.

Whenever this man spits out a mouthful of saliva, Luo Sanpao uses military movements to lock his other arm, and the arm that locks his other arm will be slightly forced, pressing his body involuntarily bending downward, and naturally a mouthful of saliva will spit out places outside Luo Sanpao's body.

And at this time, this man will raise his feet with shoes but no socks, and step on Luo Sanpao's feet in leather boots, but the final result is that Luo Sanpao raised his knees and touched his tail vertebrae slightly, which made his whole body sore, and this foot naturally lost its strength.

When this man met Luo Sanpao, it was like facing a mountain that was impossible to conquer, no matter how he struggled, he couldn't get rid of Luo Sancano's clamps, and the two of them fought all the way back to the camp of the 598th Regiment.

"This kid was wearing the uniform of a soldier, climbed on a big tree to snipe at our position, let me catch him from behind, I wanted to slaughter him with a knife, but I saw this on his collar."

In Luo Sanpao's palm, there was an extra medal made of gold, and the other people in the regiment's front-line command didn't matter, but everyone in the special service platoon, as well as the regiment's chief of staff and Huang Jingsheng, gasped together.

It was a cherry branch medal made of pure gold!

There is no need for detailed interrogation, and those who really understand the meaning of this medal have already understood that such a "wonderful" tactic as climbing trees and shooting did not come from the creativity of the Imperial Army, but from the hands of these Burmese natives who are more accustomed to fighting in Burma and climbing trees.

Looking at the prisoner who was controlled by Luo Sanpao with military movements, the regimental chief of staff came back to his senses and opened his mouth to reprimand, "You are too bold to take the prisoner's mouth without plugging him into the regiment's front command headquarters, what if he suddenly shouts and exposes the location of the regiment headquarters?" ”

"Shout?"

Luo Sanpao gently stroked his cheek, as if he had smeared something transparent there, and his voice, at this time, suddenly had an indescribable weirdness, "Dear Chief of Staff of the regiment, haven't you noticed it now, his tongue is gone." As soon as he realized that there was no way he could escape from my hands, and that there was no chance of suicide, he chewed his tongue alive and sprayed saliva and blood all over my face. ”

Everyone looked at the man in front of them, who looked dark and thin, who was obviously completely controlled by Lei Zhen, but who was still jumping and jumping desperately to resist, and who really looked like a big monkey, and closed their mouths. For a while, in the front command post of the 598th Regiment, only the sound of their slightly heavy breathing remained, and the man who had won the Order of the Cherry Branch, where he kept cursing in a slurred voice.

Lei Zhen suddenly said: "Aung San! ”

Listening to this name, the man who used a vague voice, kept scolding, and even used his hand that could only move, to make the most vulgar gestures, his body suddenly froze, and he looked back at Lei Zhen with puzzled eyes, but he quickly understood something, and spat at Lei Zhen fiercely.

Lei Zhen didn't dodge, letting the blood-soaked saliva fall straight on his face, and his hand had already pulled out his own gun at this time.

"Bang!"

The gun in Lei Zhen's hand rang out, and a citrine bullet shell rolled happily in the air, pulling out a circle of faint smoke, and when the bullet case finally fell to the ground and made a soft "ding" sound, the Burmese man who was finally killed by the bullet also fell to the ground.

Unlike ordinary people, on his blood-stained face, there was not the fear of death, but a kind of peace that can be described as pride. It is because of this expression that this ordinary and ordinary man suddenly has an indescribable luster.

"He is a member of the Burmese Reading Volunteer Army, led by Aung San."

Lei Zhen took the gold cherry branch medal from Luo San's gunner, and put it back on the other party's collar with great importance, and was silent for a long time before Lei Zhen said: "It is no accident that he appeared here, I think it will not be long before we will face not only the onslaught of the army, but also the 'Burmese Reading Volunteer Army' led by Aung San from behind!" ”

There was silence in the entire command headquarters, and even the chief of staff of the regiment did not accuse Lei Zhen anymore, and directly shot such an important prisoner without interrogation.

Their 200 divisions entered Burma alone, the air force promised by the Americans was transferred to the North African battlefield, and the sky has become the stage for the air force. The British "allies" are simply detached from Germany, and they are playing their own small calculations all day long, even if they retreat, they are not notified, let alone working together to resist the enemy.

Here, what they have, just enemies!

(To be continued)