The first Japanese attack was pushed back, and cheers erupted from the defenders' positions. Li Zongyao walked up to Liu Yongsheng, the first battalion commander with a smile on his face, and said: "Battalion Commander Liu, the Japanese artillery bombardment is about to start again, you quickly give an order to let the comrades withdraw to the anti-artillery hole!" With the lesson just now, Liu Yongsheng also attached importance to Li Zongyao's words, and immediately ordered everyone to withdraw to the anti-artillery shelter to avoid the Japanese artillery bombardment.

The fighters on the position heard the order and quickly supported the wounded to withdraw from the rear anti-artillery holes, and only a few fighters were left in a few bunkers on the position to observe the enemy situation. Not long after Liu Yongsheng and his soldiers hid in the anti-artillery hole, the Japanese artillery bombardment began again. Liu Yongsheng listened to the rumbling cannons, looked at the position full of gunpowder smoke and firelight, and said to Li Zongyao beside him: "Company Commander Li, what you said is really accurate, the devil really started firing artillery again." ”

Li Zongyao replied: "Battalion Commander Liu, it's not that I'm accurate, but those instructors who taught us are accurate. Liu Yongsheng sighed and said: "It seems that these Kuomintang people are really here to help us, and the Kuomintang is not all bad guys!" Li Zongyao continued: "Battalion Commander Liu, don't say it, although these people are Kuomintang officers, are they really looking at us, do you even see the guys in our hands? These guys were all brought to us by them, and even the fifty cannons in the city were also sent by them." ”

Liu Yongsheng had never heard of the cannon, but when he heard it, he became interested, took out a cigarette from his body, handed it over, and said, "You also sent a cannon?" Company Commander Li quickly told me about it. Li Zongyao took the cigarette and lit it, took a deep breath, and then from Wang Haitao and they went to Yan'an, and his company was sent to help unload the car and start talking, until the fifty cannons were assembled in the square.

Liu Yongsheng slapped his thigh excitedly and said: "Good boy, fifty cannons, if this is a bombardment of little devils, how many little devils will have to be bombarded into the sky." Li Zongyao said: "Battalion Commander Liu, these fifty cannons have all been pulled to Yichuan City, you see, you must make the little devil look good." Liu Yongsheng naturally looked forward to it. As he spoke, the Japanese artillery fire weakened, and Li Zongyao knew that the Japanese artillery bombardment was about to end, and the infantry was attacking, so he said to Liu Yongsheng: "Battalion Commander Liu, the little devil artillery is over, it's time for the infantry to attack, you give the order to enter the position." ”

After the officers and men of the 1st Battalion and the 1st Guard Company entered the position, Liu Yongsheng saw that on the Japanese position opposite, the puppet army was in front and the Japanese army was behind, and they had already begun to attack. When a squadron of the 38th Infantry Brigade of the Japanese Army withdrew, only half of its strength was left, and a regiment of the Imperial Allied Army suffered less than 100 casualties, which made Aono Saburo Osa extremely annoyed, and after cutting off the heads of several Imperial Allied Army soldiers to kill chickens and police monkeys, Aono Saburo sent the Imperial Allied Army of this regiment again, and at the same time let another infantry squadron supervise the battle behind them.

The commander of the puppet army is named Zhang Erxi, who was originally a regimental deputy of the Jin Sui Army, his regiment was surrounded by the Japanese army in the Battle of the Central Plains, with heavy casualties, and after the regiment commander died in battle, Zhang Erxi surrendered to the Japanese army with the remaining hundreds of people. The Japanese army reorganized them into a regiment of the Imperial Association Army, and made Zhang Erxi the commander of the regiment. The so-called Imperial Allied Army was originally to help the Japanese maintain a peaceful situation and go to the countryside to collect grain, but in this sweep, the Japanese army also sent three regiments of the Imperial Allied Army due to insufficient troops.

These Imperial Allied troops surrendered to the Japanese just to survive, and it was okay for them to deal with the common people, but if they were to go to the battlefield to fight with real knives and guns, it would be completely the role of cannon fodder. But the army with a serious shortage of troops, knowing that these imperial alliance troops had no combat effectiveness at all, but they were better than nothing, and still sent them out.

The puppet army walked in front of the Japanese army, and almost all of them were scolding their mothers, but there were Japanese soldiers behind them to supervise the war, and they had just seen a few teammates being cut down by the Japanese army in the name of ineffective fighting, and now they dared to be angry but did not dare to speak, so they could only move forward cautiously. At the back of the team, the head of the regiment, Zhang Erxi, was whispering to a few cronies around him, "You guys are all fucking careful, the gun doesn't have long eyes, and it's over if you catch it." Several cronies nodded their heads and bent their waists lower.

Seeing that the puppet army was taking the lead like last time, followed by hundreds of Japanese troops, Liu Yongsheng couldn't help but scold: "The little devil raised by the son of a bitch, he didn't dare to go up, but he sent these puppet soldiers to die." The puppet soldiers cautiously walked to a distance of 200 meters from the position, and it was still the light and heavy machine guns of the first company of guards that opened fire first. As soon as the machine gun went off, before a few puppet soldiers were swept down, these puppet soldiers all lay on the ground again. This same scene made the Japanese squadron leader behind them half angry.

The squadron leader yelled, "Baga!" while sending soldiers to attack while these Imperial Allies were rushing. The puppet soldiers were forced to move forward helplessly, half-crawling, half-walking, and shooting at the same time. Just 100 meters before approaching the position, the soldiers of the 1st Battalion and the 1st Guard Company also opened fire, and the puppet troops who were hit by dense bullets fell one after another. This time, the puppet army lay down again and did not dare to take another step forward, and the Japanese army supervised the war just drove the people here up, and the people over there lay down again.

The Japanese puppet army rubbed in front of the position for an hour, and failed to enter a hundred meters in front of the position. Seeing that the fire on the position was too fierce, and the number of mortars covering the attack was too small to be of great effect, Saburo Aono ordered to retreat again. At this time, Aono Saburo decided not to use these useless Imperial Cooperative Army to assist, but discussed with the captain of the 39th Infantry Brigade who came up, Takehiko Yasue.

After eating a simple lunch, the Japanese army launched three shellings, and less than ten minutes after this shelling, the sound of counterattack artillery sounded in Yichuan City. As early as the first shelling by the Japanese army, the observers sent by the artillery brigade went up to the walls of Yichuan City with instruments. Because it was the first time to calculate the azimuth coordinates alone, several observers were a little nervous, although they calculated the azimuth coordinates of the Japanese artillery position, but they were not sure, so during the second shelling of the Japanese army, they re-calculated, and only when it was confirmed that it was correct, did they report to the brigade commander Wu Ting.

Wu Ting got the coordinates of the Japanese position, and remembered what Tangshan Leopard had said, to wait for the Japanese artillery bombardment to be halfway through, and then launch a counterattack, so that when the Japanese army reacted and fired back, most of the position had been destroyed by our artillery fire, so that the next artillery battle would not fall behind. Therefore, Wu Ting only ordered the first and second artillery regiments to adjust the muzzles according to the coordinates, but did not give the order for artillery bombardment.

It was not until the afternoon when a new round of artillery bombardment had been fought for several minutes that the two artillery regiments were ordered to open fire. Compared with the old 75-mm caliber mountain guns of the Japanese army, the 75-caliber imitation German field guns of the artillery regiment are much stronger in terms of maximum range and shell power, and now they have a numerical advantage, so as soon as they counterattacked, the Japanese artillery positions were covered by the artillery fire of the artillery regiment.

By the time the Japanese reacted, the entire artillery position had been caught in a sea of fire, and the 36 75-caliber mountain guns of the two artillery squadrons were almost completely wiped out. There is no way to fight back against the artillery in the city. Not only thirty-six mountain guns were lost, but hundreds of people were also lost along with artillery and auxiliaries.

The Japanese army was unprepared for the Eighth Route Army's artillery fire, and in the Japanese army's intelligence, the Eighth Route Army under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party was nothing more than a local armed force, and it was a local armed force that was tightly sealed by the Kuomintang, and the Eighth Route Army may have a few small artillery such as mortars in its equipment, but there will never be large-caliber artillery. Then the Imperial Army, which has an absolute advantage in artillery fire, has a great chance of winning against the Eighth Route Army.

When the dense explosion of shells sounded on the artillery position, Major General Kenkichi Ikegami, the commander of the 9th Brigade Regiment, jumped up in shock. Soon some of his men came in to report that the mountain artillery position had been shelled by a large number of artillery of the Eighth Route Army, and that the two artillery squadrons and 36 mountain artillery pieces were all shattered. This news was like a heavy punch, and it made Major General Kenkichi Ikegami dizzy.

After a while, Major General Kenyoshi Ikegami roared like a wounded mad dog, and he shouted loudly in the temporary headquarters: "Impossible! Where did the Tsubachi Road in China get so many large-caliber artillery? This is absolutely impossible! To find out whose troops we are facing, go and find out!" But now there was laughter in the command post of Yichuan Castle.

Outside the house, you can hear the laughter and speech of Wang Zhen, the commander of the 359th Brigade: "These big guys are really powerful, they blew up the little devil's artillery without movement as soon as they burst fire, which is amazing." With these big guys, no matter how many devils come, don't be afraid. "It turned out that as soon as the counterattack was successful, Wu Ting, the commander of the artillery brigade, came to report the situation to Brigade Commander Wang Zhen. Wu Ting was supposed to report to Wang Haitao, but before Wang Haitao left, he asked Brigade Commander Wang Zhen to take full command of the battle, so Wu Ting reported the situation to Wang Zhen.

The artillery of the Japanese army was destroyed, and Aono Saburo, who was preparing to attack, was also frightened, and without artillery support, he could not attack, and besides, the opposing army had so many artillery, and if it was shelled at the attacking troops, it would not be possible to have as many people as they went up! Aono Saburo suspended the attack, and as soon as the order for all the defense was issued, Zhang Erxi of the puppet army breathed a sigh of relief first.

Seeing that the Japanese artillery was no longer fighting, and the infantry was no longer attacking, the defenders' positions were naturally relaxed. Liu Yongsheng, the commander of the first battalion, had just seen the shells of the counterattack in the city flying overhead, and also saw the smoke of gunpowder from the explosion of the shells in the distance. All morning, they were dodging the Japanese artillery fire, and the first shelling of the Japanese army also brought losses to the first battalion of more than 100 people, and now the Japanese artillery has been destroyed, and the first battalion has a feeling of raising eyebrows from top to bottom.

Seeing that there was no movement on the Japanese position, the soldiers of the first battalion also relaxed, they leaned on the trench, and several people surrounded the soldiers of a guard company and listened to the soldiers of the first guard company talk about the origin of these cannons, how they were trained, and the process of the second exercise.