PFC Chapter 229 Night Attack
Chapter 229 Night Attack
More than a thousand people from the 204th Regiment waited quietly in the night without making any sound.
Suddenly, a shell was fired from the rear and landed near the trenches of the Northern and Southern armies. The shell was extremely bright, illuminating the entire position.
This is a flare developed by the Nanshan Military Factory. The 204th Regiment had confirmed the time with the division headquarters before setting off, and they were just waiting for the flare to illuminate the battlefield.
"First row, get ready, fire." Under the illumination of flares, the commander of the 204th Regiment shouted, took out a grenade, pulled the ring, and threw it into the trench in front.
After the 300 men in the first row dropped their grenades, they immediately squatted down. The regiment commander then commanded, "The second row will be deployed."
"Third row, move forward." After the second row crouched, the soldiers in the third row began to throw.
"Boom, boom, boom..."
At a distance of thirty meters, three rows of soldiers each carried out three rounds of throwing. Most of the three thousand grenades fell into the trenches and exploded, causing a sudden chaos in the first trench.
"Go ahead." After three rounds of throwing, the captain shouted.
The regiment commander led the soldiers to advance another 20 meters into the trench and commanded: "Throw at the second trench."
Three more rows of soldiers threw their weapons, and the second position was filled with smoke and dust, with countless casualties.
Instead of throwing grenades at the enemy's third trench, they threw grenades at the first trench again.
After the throwing, the regiment commander ordered: "Those who still have grenades, throw them quickly and freely into the first and second trenches."
"Retreat." Thirty seconds later, all the grenades were thrown out, and the regiment commander immediately led more than a thousand soldiers to retreat from both wings.
Just as they were retreating, sporadic gunshots were heard on the battlefield. At this time, the flares had been extinguished. In addition, the Nanshan Army retreated from both wings in a scattered manner, so they were not hit by many of the Northern and Southern armies.
When the sound of grenade explosions was heard in the front position, the commanders of the 45th Division of the Southern Army and the th Division of the Northern Army immediately stood up, put on their clothes and went to the command post.
The 10th Division Commander asked, "Lao Liu, what happened?"
"Wait a moment, I've sent people to check the situation." The commander of the 45th Division said with a wry smile.
Soon, an officer of the 45th Division entered the headquarters and said, "Report to the division commander, the trench position ahead was attacked by the Nanshan Army. The enemy threw thousands of grenades into the position, and the first and second trenches suffered heavy losses."
"How many brothers were lost?" asked the commander of the 10th Division.
You should know that at present, the 45th Division has many more soldiers than the th Division.
The officer shook his head: "The situation is still being counted."
The commander of the 10th Division didn't look very happy. Reinforcements would arrive tomorrow to replace them. With the Nanshan Army's attack today, their two vanguard divisions were considered useless.
"Hurry, send someone to count the casualties on the battlefield immediately." The commander of the 10th Division ordered the division chief of staff who had just arrived.
The chief of staff was still a little confused, but after hearing the division commander's order, he did not dare to delay and immediately went to the position to count the casualties.
The commander of the 45th Division also had a very grim look on his face. He was happy that he had saved his troops in the evening, but unexpectedly, the Nanshan Army sent a surprise in the early morning. He didn't know how many people were left on the position.
Nearly an hour later, the Chief of Staff of the 10th Division returned to the headquarters with a grim look on his face.
"Commander, Commander Liu, more than 2,000 people were killed by grenades on the first and second front lines, and most of the rest were seriously injured."
There were nearly 4,000 troops in the first and second trenches, but only a few hundred were intact or slightly injured.
At 6:30 the next day, Chang Yunxian and Wu Peisheng just saw the report from the front line. The telegram had been sent last night, but in order not to disturb their rest, their adjutants reported the news only when they got up.
After breakfast, sitting in the command center, neither of them mentioned what happened last night.
For a commander who commands hundreds of thousands of troops, a sneak attack on the battlefield is not a big deal as long as they know the news.
Chang Yunxian asked, "Have the 313th and 45th Divisions replaced the th and th Divisions?"
After the surprise attack last night, the 45th Division and the th Division had little combat power. During this period, the two divisions had more than casualties, nearly serious injuries, and countless minor injuries.
"The 313th Division and the th Division are changing guard at the front line." Chang Yunxian's aide-de-camp Yu Liang replied.
Chang Yun first looked at Wu Peisheng: "Commander Wu, how about having the frontline troops start the attack at 7:30?"
"Okay." Wu Peisheng also nodded in agreement.
As the order was delivered, the commanders of the 313th and 313th divisions looked at each other, and the commander of the th said, "Commander Qin, our troops will enter the first position, and your people will enter the second position. Each of us will send one regiment."
"For the third position, we each send two battalions in. What do you think?"
The two divisions had arrived at the front line for quite some time. Before that, they had always had disagreements on how to arrange the troops, so they had been unable to complete the handover of positions.
The commanders of the 313th Division and the th Division were both on guard because they had just met.
Now that the two commanders had set the time for the attack, the two division commanders did not dare to disobey. The 313th Division was in an awkward situation, as they were the surrendered troops of Lin Zongde's army, so the commander of the 313th Division made concessions.
"Okay." The commander of the 20th Division had no objection to this arrangement.
After the two reached a consensus, they immediately began to deploy the troops and completed the rotation of guards.
At 7:30, the Northern and Southern armies in the trenches launched an attack on the Nanshan Army's positions.
The commander of the 204th Regiment led the remaining 204 soldiers of the th Regiment to stubbornly resist the attacks of the Northern and Southern armies on the battlefield.
Due to the large number of people in the North and South armies, even though the Nanshan Army had a large number of general-purpose machine guns, it was difficult to suppress the two armies, resulting in increasing casualties in the Nanshan Army.
"Captain, if this continues, our brothers won't be able to hold on." The chief of staff came to the commander and said.
The regiment commander gritted his teeth and said, "Let the guard company, machine gun company, reconnaissance company, and engineering platoon all go forward. Let the artillery company set up the mortars and wait for my order to fire at the enemy trenches."
The reconnaissance company and the engineering platoon were sent up, which shows that the 204th Regiment has used up all its reserve forces.
As for mortars, their deterrent effect on the northern and southern armies is greater than their actual effect at present.
The Northern and Southern armies hid in the trenches, and only artillery shells falling into the trenches could cause real casualties to them. It was very difficult to make the artillery shells fall accurately into a trench less than two meters wide.
If three out of ten shells land in the trench, it's already good.
As the reserve troops were deployed to the positions, the pressure on the 204th Regiment was temporarily relieved. As the exchange of fire continued, the Northern and Southern armies continued to send troops to reinforce the front line, and the Nanshan Army began to fall into a disadvantage again.
The commander of the 204th Regiment decisively ordered the artillery company's mortars to fire. Shells fell one after another, filling the positions of the Northern and Southern armies with smoke and dust.
Whether the shells fell inside or outside the trenches, they brought considerable pressure to the Northern and Southern armies and caused local chaos.
The commander of the 313th Division in the rear could not help but laugh when he saw this: "The Nanshan Army can no longer hold on."
The battle lasted nearly two hours. From the beginning when the North and South armies were suppressed to when they gained the upper hand, the Nanshan Army had never used mortars. Now that they were using them, it seemed that the other side probably did not have many reserve troops.