Rise From Eight Hundred

Tang Dao knew very well that Yamashita Wenming knew that there were blockades ahead and pursuers behind, but he still ran towards Changle Village without hesitation.

It was not the 108th Division that was already timid dozens of kilometers away, but air superiority!

The Japanese bomber formation with air superiority could pour more than ten tons of explosives at a time, and could drop dozens of tons or even more in a few rounds a day.

And the Chinese soldiers who endured all this had nothing but flesh and blood.

Whether it was the previous Shimen Battle, Niangzi Pass or the defense of Yuancheng, the Chinese army's strength was often several times that of the Japanese army. The heavy firepower was slightly weaker, but not weak enough to be vulnerable, but still failed.

The fundamental reason was that there was no air superiority, and they could only watch the bombs fall from the sky, turning one position after another into a sea of ​​fire, and dozens, hundreds, or even more elite soldiers were turned into powder in the energy of cheap explosives.

The Japanese North China Front Army, which had tasted the sweetness, became more and more unscrupulous. This was one of the reasons why the 108th Division, which had been discouraged, dared to march deep into the hinterland of Taihang Mountain alone, not to mention the proud words.

In order to defeat this isolated Japanese army that was trapped in the mountains and had no way out, and to destroy their resentment to continue to resist, they had to kill the Japanese planes.

Let the Japanese infantry watching the battle below know that air supremacy is very important, but if they want to fly unscrupulously in the Chinese sky, it depends on how high they fly. If they fly too low, they will be injured.

Therefore, Tang Dao spared no expense, not only using the 150 heavy mortars and 75 mountain cannons that he could use, but also bombarding for a full 6 hours, allowing the Japanese army to taste the pleasure of being burned by flames, and also made them deeply feel that if they did not kill the opponent's artillery group, they would still be beaten.

If we say that since the beginning of the Southeast Shanxi Campaign, the generals of the Southeast Shanxi Campaign Command had set their sights on the fat piece of meat of the Second Mixed Brigade, and secretly set up a big plan to lure the enemy into the trap, then Tang Dao's move of beating the rear wing of the Second Mixed Brigade is called a plan within a plan, in order to hit a heavy machine gun!

Of course, if we only rely on the three machine guns and 20 anti-aircraft machine guns previously equipped by the Four-Line Regiment Air Defense Company, the carefully designed plan within the plan by Tang Tuanzuo is a "forced annihilation".

Tang Dao went to Linfen a few days ago and spent a lot of money, buying mountain cannons, mortars, heavy machine guns, etc. without blinking an eye. More than 1 million silver dollars were spent like paper money, but in fact most of the arms were prepared for the 921st Division, the 17th Division and the 104th Division. What really belonged to the Four-Line Regiment was the 24 machine guns that seemed inconspicuous in the huge arms purchase.

As early as 10 days ago, the anti-aircraft company under the artillery battalion had been fully equipped, and all artillery squads fired 100 live ammunition training at the sky. If there was no airplane as a target, then they used a Kongming lantern made of kraft paper.

Although Kongming lanterns do not have the high speed of airplanes, when the heat energy is fully burned, their height can reach hundreds of meters or even more than a thousand meters. Moreover, the target is small, so it is no less difficult to shoot it than to shoot an airplane.

Dakouzi Cave is located deep in the Taihang Mountains, and after the Sihang Regiment entered the mountain, it strictly controlled the population entering the mountain. In two months, the security forces were mobilized to conduct three rounds of screening of the permanent population of Dakouzi Cave.

About a dozen suspected Chinese were found. When they saw that the situation was not right and honestly confessed their affiliated institutions, Tang Dao did not make it difficult for them. Basically, they were stripped of their money and property and driven away with a few pancakes. For those who refused to admit their origins, they were shot directly.

Is it possible that they killed the wrong people? Yes, there must be, but Tang Dao knows that there are a lot of unjust, false and wrong cases in peacetime, let alone on such a dangerous battlefield? Kindness does not lead to good military, in order to let more people survive, thundering means must be used when necessary.

After three rounds, the surrounding area of ​​the base can basically be guaranteed to be quiet, whether it is from a large domestic spy agency or from Japan, basically all the spies have been eliminated.

Therefore, these machine guns that have been trained at night and during the day are limited to a few people in the Four-line Regiment and the Jin Provincial Ordnance Department. Others have no way of knowing.

Even the old rival Captain Sasaki subconsciously believes that the Four-line Regiment has many anti-aircraft machine guns, but not enough anti-aircraft guns, and the height of 1,100 meters is enough to ensure safety.

With these adaptive trainings, although it is not to say that all machine gunners are experienced veterans of shooting machine guns, they are not novices.

The anti-aircraft machine guns eliminated by the air defense company naturally could not be thrown into the warehouse, especially this time they had to face the second mixed brigade. Tang Dao specially selected 20 machine gun groups from each infantry company, each with 6 people, to form a temporary anti-aircraft machine gun company, which was assigned to Cheng Tieshou for command.

In other words, the anti-aircraft firepower that Cheng Tieshou could command was 20 anti-aircraft machine guns and a total of 27 machine guns. This anti-aircraft firepower was already as strong as two anti-aircraft battalions of ordinary armies.

As for the "artillery positions" seen by the Japanese reconnaissance plane, it goes without saying that they had all been moved an hour ago, and all that remained on the ground were camouflage nets that had been made previously.

In order to make the Japanese pilots believe that what they saw was real, the four anti-aircraft machine guns did not hesitate to expose their positions and fired at the reconnaissance planes that were whizzing by.

Although they were on the side of the mountain, it would be difficult for the low-altitude Japanese planes to kill them unless they adjusted their direction to drop bombs. However, there were still more than 20 Japanese planes at a higher altitude. If they wanted to retaliate, they didn't need all of them. They only needed a 4-plane formation to turn most of the side of the mountain into a sea of ​​fire.

It was precisely because he knew the danger that Cheng Tieshou ordered all the machine guns that were going to shoot to hide in the bunkers, but that was actually a bit of a cover-up. If the Japanese army really dropped a few heavy bombs, let alone the temporary bunkers built with logs and rocks, even the reinforced concrete permanent fortifications would probably not be able to stop them.

When the Japanese planes dropped the bombs, whether they could survive depended mainly on their fate.

Fortunately, Tang Dao understood the Japanese very well. He bet that the Japanese were rigid and stingy enough. Since they were ordered to find their own artillery positions, they would never easily use precious heavy bombs on a few small machine guns.

Moreover, the anti-aircraft machine guns fired without fear of danger, making the bait more realistic.

As expected, Tang Dao won the bet. After circling twice, the Japanese fighter formation in the sky did not move towards the high ground with anti-aircraft machine guns, but divided into two directions and began to lower the altitude from more than 2,000 meters away to enter the battlefield. The target was obviously several preset valleys.

The Japanese infantrymen who witnessed this scene on the ground began to cheer loudly in the trenches!

"The Empire's military fortune is prosperous!"

"Long live the Imperial Eagle!"

If it weren't for the fact that the Chinese trenches were two or three hundred meters away, and there were countless guns pointing at this side, the excited Japanese infantrymen might have cheered and jumped.

The Imperial Eagle actually looked like that, and when looking at people, his nose was upturned and he looked like a country bumpkin on the ground. In fact, the infantrymen didn't like the Army Aviation guys very much, just like they didn't like the cavalrymen riding on tall horses. Many times they secretly called these guys the Empire's little sparrows.

But this time, after being severely beaten by the artillery of the Chinese army, the imperial sparrows immediately transformed into imperial eagles. They also believed that the imperial eagles would tear the annoying Chinese artillery to pieces, and their lives would at least no longer be in danger as before.

Compared with the Japanese who were excited, the Chinese soldiers were much calmer, even though they were the ones who dug the trap.

After all, it was not a good thing for more than a dozen tons of explosives to fall!

"Let Cheng Tieshou get ready, and all artillery positions are ready to fight!" Tang Dao, standing at the entrance of a small cave, looked at the Japanese fighter planes in his field of vision becoming clearer and clearer, and gave an indifferent order. "Also, tell him that the fish finally took the bait, so keep calm and don't scare them away by firing too early!"

Because they have to shoot down the enemy planes, they must be concealed and safe. The headquarters of the Four-Line Regiment was set up nearly 2,000 meters away from the front line. A small natural cave was enough to ensure safety, unless the Japanese fighter planes could accurately drop heavy bombs into the hole that could only accommodate a small car.

If the Japanese really had that technology, not to mention that China could not win, it is estimated that the future American soldiers would be in trouble.

"Yes, sir!" Xia Dayu answered while picking up the phone.

"Hehe, little bald head, tell the commander for me, please rest assured, this time my air defense company will definitely shoot down the enemy planes!" Cheng Tieshou answered confidently on the phone.

That was the confidence given to him by the 24 machine guns!

With enough 20mm machine guns, Cheng Tieshou was able to arrange them calmly. With the decoy position as the center, three large anti-aircraft positions consisting of 8 anti-aircraft machine guns formed a congruent triangle with a sideline of 2,500 meters.

In the large anti-aircraft position, the 9 anti-aircraft machine guns formed 3 groups of cross firepower with 3 machine guns as a group, which was completely applying the three-three system of infantry to anti-aircraft firepower.

Based on the 2,000-meter range of the anti-aircraft machine guns, an anti-aircraft position can at least block several square kilometers of airspace. Once the Japanese planes entered the firepower airspace, not to mention 1,100 meters, even 1,500 meters might not guarantee safety.

In order to ensure the hit rate, all anti-aircraft machine guns were equipped with shrapnel shells.

So, when Sasaki personally led a group of 5 fighters as the second formation and roared into the bombing area, he saw the six bombs dropped by the 6 fighters in front of him turned the entire valley below into a sea of ​​fire. He just ordered on the radio: "Gentlemen, approach the bombing area"

Before he finished speaking, his hand had just been placed on the bomb gate, and a bunch of white bombs that made the hair stand on end burst out in front of the Japanese Army Aviation Captain.

That was the effect of the fragmentation bombs fired by the machine gun exploding in the sky. From a distance, it looked like a dandelion floating in the vast sky.

In the future, a football commentator once had a very poetic commentary: "Please don't believe that victory is as easy to get as the dandelions on the hillside, but please believe that there are always some beautiful things in the world that are worth our full efforts, even if we are broken into pieces!"

This sentence may be equally suitable at this time!

However, for Captain Sasaki, who was cold all over at this time, it was just the opposite.

His inner monologue at this moment was: Don't underestimate these dandelions floating in the sky. If you get touched by any of them, the only outcome is to be crushed to pieces!

Especially when there are so many dandelions everywhere.

The first to open fire was the No. 1 anti-aircraft position where Cheng Tieshou was located. The deputy instructor, who had been promoted to major and became the third person in the artillery battalion of the Four-line Regiment, did not hide in the rock shelter 30 meters away from the shooting position, but chose to sit on the seat of the familiar Su Luotong twin-mounted 20mm machine gun again.

Always with his soldiers, Cheng Tieshou's official position continued to rise, but never changed some of the persistence in the heart of this ordinary army second lieutenant.

Perhaps, Tang Dao, who was the head of the regiment but still went to the front line and even fought with a rifle, quietly changed many people around him.

Whether it was the head of a battalion like Lei Xiong and Leng Feng, or the main company commanders like Li Jiujin, Qian Dazhu and Zhao Daqiang, they would never use the excuse that the commander must not take risks easily, allowing their officers and soldiers to fight bloody battles with the Japanese invaders, while they hid in the command center in the rear and gave cold orders.

Yes, this behavior is very dangerous, and it may cause the company and battalion to lose their highest commander at any time, but it will never make the troops leaderless. The regulations issued by the Four-Line Regiment are very clear. For units above the company level, whenever they enter the battlefield, the highest commander must designate No. 1, No. 2, and even No. 5 to take over the command in advance.

Who stipulated that only soldiers can die on the battlefield, but not commanders? How can a commander who dares not face death order soldiers to die with red teeth?

It is because the Four-Line Regiment has Tang Dao and a large number of senior officers such as Cheng Tieshou who set an example in the front line that its combat effectiveness and cohesion are so strong.

Otherwise, when Japanese planes roared down in groups, the air waves formed by the explosion of heavy bombs easily blew up hundreds of kilograms of stones and felled large areas of thick trees. The heat wave even made the hair of Chinese soldiers hiding on the mountainside more than 300 meters away from the bottom of the valley curl instantly and emit a burnt smell. In the face of the terrifying scene, how many people can calmly sit in front of the machine gun and fire at the sky?

It looks simple, but it is actually difficult!

Because, the Japanese planes that followed up might only need to shake their wings, and a bomb would fall, turning thousands of square meters into a sea of ​​fire, and the human body and the anti-aircraft machine gun would be reduced to ashes.

Any Chinese soldier sitting in front of the machine gun is a brave man.

"Boom!" The wing of a Japanese plane was hit by the "Dandelion".

Visible to the naked eye, a small half of the wing was blown off, and the uncontrolled Japanese plane entered a spiral state, floating down like a fallen leaf.

However, the Chinese anti-aircraft guns did not intend to let him go, and more than a dozen consecutive shells bloomed around the plane until several consecutive shells hit the fuselage.

The Japanese plane exploded a ball of fireworks directly in the air, along with the Japanese pilots who could not get out and parachuted.

"Second formation, bomb cover, bomb cover, first formation, drop all bombs, turn left and pull up, and leave the battlefield!" Sasaki's forehead was sweating like a pulp, but he still remained calm enough to give orders.

In this short moment, he thought of the air battle outside Zhengcheng, which was very similar to the current situation.

The Chinese used the entire Sihang Regiment as bait to lure the aircraft group to dive into the bombing area, but the Chinese deployed an unknown number of anti-aircraft guns below the aircraft group entering the battlefield. The commander overestimated himself and underestimated the opponent, and stubbornly continued to move forward.

The final outcome was not only that the commander and his stubbornness were shattered in the Chinese sky, but also caused more than a dozen colleagues to die in the sky.

Now, the Chinese, come again?

He Sasaki is not so stupid.

As soon as the order was issued, Sasaki pulled down the bomb gate himself, and the heavy bombs under the belly of the aircraft and several small bombs mounted on the wings were all thrown out.

The Chinese artillery position is no longer important. What matters is that he must be alive. The primitive desire to survive once again occupied Captain Sasaki's whole body and mind. What about promotion or not, go to Amaterasu!

The bombs dropped in such a hurry naturally had no accuracy. After gliding for a while, they crashed into the bottom of the mountain, turning the mountain forest, which had long been empty, into a sea of ​​fire.

Sasaki's plane, whose posture instantly became light, rose at least 200 meters in less than five seconds.

But his stupid subordinates who obeyed the order were not so lucky.

Captain Sasaki ordered the bombs to be dropped, but he did not say to drop all the bombs. After all, the order from the Army Aviation Command was to destroy the Chinese artillery positions. How could they complete the higher-level military order by dropping a few bombs like this?

Almost all Japanese pilots instinctively dropped the small bombs mounted on the wings, turning the mountain forest a thousand meters away into a sea of ​​fire, but the heavy bombs under the belly were kept like treasures.

So, when they entered the range of the No. 1 air defense position a few seconds later, the fighter planes were like little birds carrying schoolbags, and their plump and honest appearance made the Cheng Tieshou below envious.

If the No. 1 air defense position was reserved at the beginning, so as not to destroy all the exposed machine gun positions by the second batch of Japanese planes in the rear, then when the Japanese planes approached quickly and it was impossible to drop bombs on their heads, it would be really a waste to keep it.

The term "Lao Liu" was called out by Tang Tuanzuo, meaning an enemy undercover, and later gradually became popular in the Four-line Regiment. The stimulated Shen Lao Liu insisted on changing his name, and Tang Tuanzuo personally corrected Shen Lao Liu's name at the company-level cadre meeting. Lao Liu is Lao Liu, but Shen Lao Liu is Shen Lao Liu, and the meaning is completely different with one more word.

So, what is the scene of 9 machine guns concentrating their fire on the same airspace?

What the soldiers of the Four-Line Regiment saw below was a cloud of white smoke rising in the air, like a dandelion nest exploding!

The machine gun shooters led by Cheng Tieshou didn't care about whether it was spectacular or not. They basically bit their back teeth and puffed their cheeks to hold the machine gun handles tightly, stared at the sights, stepped on the firing pedals, and swept towards the fleet in the sky with the fastest speed and accuracy.

But the people who were most impressed by this were not the Chinese, but the Japanese pilots who were among them.

Each cloud of smoke represented a 20mm caliber shell exploding in the air. Although there was not much air wave impact due to the small caliber of the warhead and the insufficient charge, the lethality of the exploded fragments was still more than 10 meters.

One, two or even ten shells would be fine, but there were too many machine guns below! In just three or four seconds, nearly a hundred shells flashed in the sky.

Even though the flying shrapnel lost its power because it was too far away, it still made a banging sound when it hit the aircraft skin. The fighter plane flying in it was like a small boat on a rough sea, which could be overturned at any time.

Finally, two unlucky guys appeared!