112: Chapter 112: Running out of ammunition and food
Wang Ye watched the outside vigilantly; the night was hazy.
It was very quiet inside the bunker.
Wang Ye endured the hunger in his stomach.
He hadn't eaten anything all day today since he last ate yesterday.
It wasn't that he didn't have time to eat, but that there was nothing to eat.
After the indiscriminate bombing by the Japanese, there wasn't much food to begin with.
As a result of the explosions, what little food they had was gone.
His stomach was empty, and although he was hungry, it was still bearable.
Perhaps his body had long since grown accustomed to not being full, or even to starvation.
So, Wang Ye didn't feel too uncomfortable.
Just as Wang Ye was about to close his eyes to rest for a while, some movement came from outside the bunker.
The noise was quite loud, and Wang Ye immediately opened his eyes.
The Chinese Soldiers around him became alert. A soldier with better eyesight looked outside, and by the moonlight, he saw a group of Little Devils approaching them.
The Little Devils' uniforms were different from theirs, making them easy to distinguish even in the dark of night.
“Little Devils,” the soldier whispered very softly.
Although his voice was small, all the soldiers heard him clearly.
In the silent bunker, even the sound of a small pebble falling could be heard.
At this moment, including the surviving soldiers who had retreated from the foot of the mountain, there were over thirty people in the bunker.
Judging by the sound, the number of Little Devils outside was likely similar to theirs.
“Let's do this!”
Under the command of the Platoon Leader, they fixed their bayonets.
In this kind of darkness, especially while hiding in a bunker, close-quarters combat was better than firing guns.
At that moment, a Little Devil walked toward the bunker.
As soon as he entered the bunker, his mouth was covered tightly, and a bayonet was plunged into his back.
Then he was quickly dragged away.
Outside, these Little Devils were cautiously scouting the interior of the bunker, but the one who went in made no further sound.
Suddenly, a noise rang out.
It seemed someone had been exposed.
Hearing the gunshots, Wang Ye didn't hold back anymore.
He directly picked up the machine gun in his hands.
The Little Devils seemed to be attracted by the gunshots over there.
Wang Ye ran out of the bunker and saw that a fight had already broken out at an adjacent bunker.
All the Little Devils had run over to that bunker.
Seeing this, he immediately led Chen Zheng to appear from behind these Little Devils.
They then launched a pincer attack on the Little Devils from both front and back.
Under their pincer attack, the battle lasted for half an hour. These Little Devils were all wiped out, leaving no survivors.
But their losses were also significant.
They only had about thirty people to begin with, and after such a battle, their numbers were immediately halved.
Even Wang Ye was wounded; a bullet had grazed his arm.
The pain made him grimace.
After a simple bandaging, Wang Ye realized they couldn't continue to hold out here, or they would all be worn down.
If these dozen or so men encountered another squad of Little Devils, they would be finished.
Now, they were no different from being isolated and without help.
They had to find the main force, concentrate their strength, and reconstruct the defensive line.
So, Wang Ye told the Platoon Leader his thoughts.
Hearing this, the Platoon Leader did not refuse.
With only a dozen of them left, there was no point in continuing to guard this bunker.
Instead of dying here for nothing, it was better to retreat.
So, after collecting weapons and ammunition from the Little Devils' bodies, the dozen men hurried to retreat toward the rear.
Soon, they found the main force.
They merged with the main force.
The positions at the foot of Yuhuatai had basically been abandoned.
Over the past two days, the losses of the 88th Division had been too great.
They had lost more than half of their troops in two days.
At this rate of casualties, they would likely be completely wiped out in another two days.
Immense pressure weighed on every soldier's head.
But none of them said anything.
The Little Devils were still attacking, and the battle continued until eight or nine o'clock at night before gradually stopping.
As time reached the early morning hours, all troops retreated to the top of Yuhuatai.
The Chinese Soldiers used the shell craters left on the mountain to re-establish a defensive line.
They set up machine guns on the edges of the craters while the men lay inside.
The craters left by the Little Devils' artillery were just large enough for one person to crawl into.
Now they only had three machine guns left.
All the other machine guns were lost.
Wang Ye was also assigned to a position.
Calling it a position was generous; it was actually just a simple defensive line built along the craters.
It had almost no protective capability.
But now they had no choice; something was better than nothing.
The next morning.
Wang Ye woke up with his whole body aching.
The feeling of sleeping in the wild was extremely uncomfortable.
Coupled with the fact that December nights were freezing, several of them had to huddle together for warmth.
Wang Ye slept very poorly, and his eyes were bloodshot.
The Little Devils launched another attack early in the morning.
Wang Ye and the others could only respond hurriedly.
The viewers in the livestream room felt very distressed as they watched the brutality of the battlefield.
“This is too bitter, fighting from morning till night without a moment's pause.”
“Those Little Devils just finished using gas shells yesterday, and they've started attacking again today.”
“It feels like the 88th Division is doomed; they've really done their best.”
Just as Wang Ye numbly fired his gun to strike down a Little Devil, a world-shaking explosion suddenly reached his ears.
Wang Ye instinctively looked back.
He saw a miniature mushroom cloud slowly rising from the mountaintop behind them.
Seeing the power of this explosion, Wang Ye's mouth hung open in shock.
The other soldiers on the front line were also drawn by the thunderous explosion and looked toward the rear mountaintop.
A massive crater was left in the ground on the mountaintop.
The surviving soldiers nearby were stunned into a daze upon seeing this scene.
“The... the Command Post is gone!”
A soldier shouted.
The surrounding soldiers immediately rushed toward the crater.
Approaching the crater, they saw the sight within.
The place where the Command Post originally stood had become a giant pit, with raging flames still burning inside.
The things burning were a few scraps of cloth.
“The staff officers... they're all dead.”
A soldier murmured.
There were originally over a dozen people in the Command Post.
Now they were all gone, their bodies obliterated.
Only those still-burning strips of cloth proved to the surrounding soldiers that everyone in the Command Post was dead.
By some terrible coincidence, this shell from the Little Devils had hit the Command Post directly.
However, the Little Devils' artillery fire had not yet stopped.
While they were in a daze, a second shell followed immediately.
The vibration produced by the shell's explosion was very obvious.
Even Wang Ye, who was lying prone in the crater below, felt it.
“Holy crap, this gun's caliber is at least 100mm, probably 150mm,” Wang Ye shouted in the livestream room.
Don't ask how he knew; if you must know, it's because he had experienced it before.
At this moment, he didn't yet know that a brigade Command Post above had been taken out.
Right now, Wang Ye was terrified that the shells were aiming for them.
However, while the Little Devils were shelling, their infantry was also attacking frantically.
Soon, Little Devils charged onto Wang Ye and his comrades' positions.
The soldiers on the line picked up their bayonets and engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the Little Devils.
Some soldiers even scuffled with the Little Devils on the ground.
If their bayonets were gone, they used their teeth to bite.
Even if they were stabbed, they refused to let go.
Many Little Devils died with their throats bitten clean through.