PFC Chapter 558: Water Turns into Ice
Chapter 558: Water Turns into Ice
The Japanese army's defense was mainly in the east and south directions. A battalion's artillery team was organized into platoons and set up positions about 1,400 meters away from the Japanese army's forward positions.
At exactly eight o'clock, more than one hundred Type 60 mortars opened fire at the same time, aiming at a position one hundred meters behind the Japanese front line.
All, all, all, all!
Boom boom boom! Boom boom boom!
Twenty rounds of rapid fire, finish in one minute and run.
Artillery shells rained down on the Japanese front-line positions, and the explosion points were almost densely packed.
"Fight back!"
"Counterattack, this is a mortar."
The surveyors behind the Japanese front-line positions began to calculate the direction, and the indirect fire guns at the artillery positions began to adjust the firing scales. After only three minutes, the indirect fire guns opened fire. After a round of test firing, they fired ten rounds at the surveyed artillery positions, scattering the shell boxes left behind by the Guards Regiment's artillery.
After firing ten rounds at high speed, the Japanese artillery began to extend their fire very quickly, adjusting the muzzle almost after each shot.
The artillery of the Guards Regiment was galloping on horseback, and the shells exploded just a few meters behind them. The Japanese reacted a little slowly. If they had fired a minute earlier, they might have been hit.
Outside the city of Qingdao, the Japanese army began to boil water inside and outside the barracks. They used local materials, such as snow from the snowy ground and dry firewood from nearby villages. The people all fled, but the houses did not run away. The people burned firewood, grass from the straw sheds, wheelbarrows, and even beams of the houses, as long as anything could be burned.
The snow was melted and when it was cold enough to freeze, it was poured onto the snow wall built during the day. The cold water and melted snow quickly turned into ice.
The water was boiled and poured over and over again, and a wall of ice was soon built to a position 200 meters away from the New Fourth Division's position. Although it was only half a meter high, it was already a very good cover.
Like the Japs, the New Fourth Division was also drawing water from the trenches and city walls behind them. They didn't need to burn water, they just had to break the ice on the Baisha River for transportation.
Buckets of almost-freezing water were poured outside the position. The water flowed downwards and froze. The Japanese troops at the front heard the noise but did not care. As long as the opposite side did not fire, they could build an ice city in one night.
Both sides were very busy, one was building an ice city, the other was creating an ice surface, they wished they could light up the position and hold a construction competition.
Several veteran regimental commanders of the New Fourth Division personally urged the construction. When the water flowed down more than a hundred meters and formed a natural slope of ice, several regimental commanders completed the project at the same time. It was twelve o'clock, and it was time to give the Japanese some trouble.
We didn't use large-caliber heavy mortars, and there were mountain artillery and field artillery on the opposite side, so we still had to rely on mobility and flexibility.
It was one o'clock in the morning and the Japanese army had just finished their busy work. Except for the sentries and patrols on duty, the soldiers all crawled into the cold tents, burned firewood and prepared to go to sleep. There would be a big battle tomorrow and they could only sleep for five or six hours. They had to cherish the precious rest time.
boom! Boom boom boom!
There were explosions outside, and the soldiers quickly got up from their beds and waited for orders.
The Japanese artillery reacted very quickly and had been waiting for this move.
We had just opened fire and had just moved our position after firing five rapid shots when the opposite side opened fire with indirect fire.
boom! Boom boom boom!
The position that had just opened fire was also filled with explosions.
The Japanese army did not use large-caliber artillery, but instead fought back with scattered indirect fire artillery positions.
The Type 60 mortar could not reach the inner area of the Japanese military camp, and could only fire at the circular ice wall fortifications outside and several ice walls close to the front of the position.
The two sides chased each other and launched an endless artillery battle in the dark. Five rapid shots were the limit. If they fired more, they would probably be bombed. The commander did not need to urge them, nor did he need to emphasize this over and over again. As soon as the artillery moved their positions, the opposite side's shells would fly over. The artillerymen had witnessed the scene of the chain explosions with their own eyes, and there was no need to urge them. After firing, they ran faster than rabbits.
The shelling lasted for an hour, and the Japanese soldiers in the inner circle could only force themselves to sleep. However, the rumbling sound of the explosions made it difficult for them to fall asleep no matter how sleepy or tired they were.
The heavy mortars were ready at a distance of one thousand meters behind each Type 60 mortar position. They had to wait for news and disperse the fire once the Japanese army's indirect fire positions were confirmed. There were not many tasks tonight, but the mortar positions within the range must be cleared.
At 2:30 in the morning, the heavy mortar camp opened fire. With more than a hundred heavy artillery pieces, an average of two or three were aimed at a small position, firing ten rounds at a rapid pace, and then running away after finishing the job.
The Japanese thought it was a harassment from small-caliber artillery shells, and they became nervous when they discovered explosions in scattered artillery positions.
"Heavy artillery, the heavy mortars on the opposite side have opened fire, notify the mountain artillery and field artillery to counter."
The mountain artillery and field artillery camps had been on alert. When they received the news, they immediately adjusted the muzzles according to the instructions of the front observation posts and surveyors. They found helplessly that there were too many positions. How could they attack? One cannon per position?
Just over three minutes later, the mountain artillery and field artillery opened fire at the same time, with a maximum of two guns firing at one position, test firing, adjusting the muzzle, and waiting for the shells to accurately fall on the large-caliber mortar position. The artillery of the New Fourth Division used land vehicles to pull the mortars and shells and had already left the position and fled quickly.
Haruki Isayama did not rest all night. He listened to his subordinates who broke in at any time reporting the situation. He did not care about the losses of the outermost troops and scattered mortar positions. In his opinion, as long as there were no intensive artillery shells hitting the military camp, the night defense would be a victory. Other losses were irrelevant. When they attacked tomorrow, even if they could not rush up, they could use the ice wall as a cover to shoot at each other. In this respect, he had surpassed most of his colleagues who attacked the Yimeng Mountain area.
Isayama Haruki was very proud. He never regarded Shen Honglie as an opponent. Even though the opponents were all soldiers of the New Fourth Division, Isayama Haruki still treated it as a cold-shooting confrontation with the Yimeng guerrillas.
The scattered mortar positions of the Japanese Army were destroyed, and the large-caliber mortars did not continue to fire after being moved. The Japanese Army's defense was indeed very good and there were no good opportunities.
Shen Honglie had a headache. Without planes and heavy artillery, the two warships did not have enough range. The Japanese were huddled up like hedgehogs and it was impossible to attack them!
"Commander, do you want to send a telegram to ask Captain Lengqiang?"
Shen Zizhong and Qu Zexin didn't dare to say this. The only one who could say it was the stupid guard beside them.
"Send a telegram and explain the situation in detail. Alas! I thought I had completed the mission, but there is still something missing"!
The guards don't know how to comfort people, they can only tell the truth.
"You can't say that, Commander. Compared to the past few years when we blew up factories and fled, now we can suppress and fight 50,000 to 60,000 Japanese enemies. This is a huge improvement."
"Get out of here. If you can't speak, just pretend to be dumb. Go and notify the generator. My brother must be sleeping at this time. If I can't sleep well, he won't be able to sleep well either."