127: Chapter 127 Battle for Positions

The Chinese Soldiers wore gas masks, holding rifles with bayonets fixed to the muzzles.

They charged directly along the mountain road toward the West Hill position.

The Japanese had just suffered a fierce artillery bombardment and had all hidden inside the tunnels, not daring to show their heads.

After a long while, upon confirming that the shelling had ceased, they dared to emerge from the tunnels.

At this moment, a Japanese soldier walked out of a tunnel; the recent bombardment had terrified them all.

Many had been killed or wounded by the explosions.

This Japanese soldier felt lucky that he had run fast enough to dive into a latrine tunnel in time.

Just then, he suddenly saw a dark shadow rushing toward him from the side.

Before the Japanese soldier could react, a white blade stabbed into his left chest.

The intense pain made him instinctively grab the handle, only to discover that it was actually a rifle barrel.

Boiling hot blood gushed from the wound pierced by the bayonet, flowing out desperately as if it were worthless.

Subsequently, a foot kicked the Japanese soldier in the stomach, knocking him away.

"Damn, he was holding on so tight, he almost snatched my rifle," one of the Chinese Soldiers wearing a gas mask said, casting a look of disdain at the Japanese soldier's corpse on the ground.

Afterward, he rushed impatiently toward other parts of the position, searching for signs of the Japanese.

A force of several hundred men was performing all sorts of scenes across the position.

Many Japanese soldiers were killed before they could even react.

Even if they did react, they held no advantage in a one-on-one situation.

The fighting lasted for nearly an hour, and after losing nearly a hundred men, the West Hill position was retaken.

The audience in the livestream room breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing the West Hill position successfully retaken.

However, the casualty count caused them all to fall silent.

In their modern warfare, hundreds of deaths would constitute a large-scale war.

If thousands were to die, it would be a massive war.

They couldn't remember the last time they had heard of a war with thousands of deaths.

Generally, what happened most often involved only dozens of deaths.

There might be more injuries, but very few deaths.

Like in games, where entire armies are wiped out with tens of thousands of casualties.

Wars with such casualties haven't occurred for nearly a century.

On the West Hill position, after retaking it, they garrisoned in place.

To prevent the Japanese from attacking again.

Time passed slowly.

The poison gas on the mountain gradually dissipated under the influence of the mountain breeze.

In the afternoon, the Japanese attacked again.

However, this time it wasn't Japanese infantry, but combat engineers carrying demolition equipment.

Zijin Mountain was covered in bunker complexes, most of which had been built a long time ago.

In case the Japanese ever reached Jinling, having defensive fortifications would allow for some resistance.

So they wouldn't be left without any defenses.

As one of the few mountainous areas around Jinling, Zijin Mountain naturally had to shoulder more of the defensive burden.

The Japanese engineers crept up to the bunker complexes, wearing gas masks.

The toxic smoke on the mountain had not yet completely dissipated.

The defenders couldn't stay outside for long; although the concentration of poison gas was not as high as it was at the beginning, it was still lethal.

It was just a matter of time.

The Japanese engineers arrived at the bunker complexes and placed demolition devices on the bunkers, intending to blow them all up.

These bunker fortifications posed too great a threat to them.

If these bunker complexes weren't dealt with, their casualties would increase significantly.

However, the Japanese engineers' intentions were quickly discovered by the defenders.

Before the battle, they had already anticipated that the Japanese would want to blow up the bunker complexes.

Therefore, they had pre-set booby traps between the bunker complexes.

As long as the Japanese moved between the bunker complexes, they could detonate these pre-buried booby traps.

Not long after the Japanese engineers entered the bunker complexes, the Chinese Soldiers observing from inside the bunkers detonated the booby traps.

These Japanese soldiers were standing relatively close together, and the explosion of these booby traps wiped out a large group of them directly.

The sounds of explosions rang out continuously among the bunker complexes.

These Japanese engineers were blown up by the defenders before they could even begin their own demolition.

Suddenly, the casualties of the Japanese engineers rose sharply.

The audience in the livestream room felt very satisfied seeing this scene.

"Great! Blow those Japanese to hell!"

"Trying to blow things up, huh? Now you've learned your lesson."

"When were these booby traps buried? Well played."

...

At the Command Post in the observatory, it was the afternoon of the second day of battle.

The Japanese offensive today was even fiercer compared to yesterday.

However, the number of casualties surprised General Huang Wei.

It wasn't that the casualties were too high; rather, the casualty count was much lower than expected.

In this battle, the Training Corps sacrificed over nine thousand men in three days, but up until now, their actual combined casualties were less than two thousand.

Unless the Japanese offensive becomes extremely strong tomorrow.

But after observing the performance of the Japanese and his own side over these two days, General Huang Wei suddenly felt.

If he were to hold on, he could surely last for another week.

Or perhaps, launch a counterattack to annihilate the Japanese regiment currently attacking.

"Chief of Staff Li, tell me, what is the probability of our mission being successful?" In the command room, General Huang Wei looked at the Chief of Staff beside him and asked.

"If it is to hold for four days, the probability of success is one hundred percent; if it is to defeat the enemy, the probability is less than fifty," the officer named Staff Officer Li spoke up.

"Why?" General Huang Wei raised an eyebrow, looking at Staff Officer Li with interest.

"Our ammunition reserves are limited, and the consumption over the past two days has been high. Without logistical supplies, we cannot stand alone. Even a clever housewife cannot cook without rice," Staff Officer Li explained the reason.

"Ammunition is actually not the issue; it's just that we don't know if the enemy will send reinforcements," General Huang Wei said calmly.

He still had a force of 2,000 men hidden at the foot of the mountain.

This was a surprise force.

If, when the Japanese fought their way up Zijin Mountain, this surprise force suddenly attacked from the rear, they might truly be able to annihilate all the Japanese on the mountain.

Or have this surprise force raid the Japanese rear and blow up the Japanese supply of ammunition.

If the Japanese, lacking supplies and ammunition, wanted to continue attacking, they would certainly be unable to sustain it.

But if the Japanese were to send reinforcements, then their defeat would be inevitable.

"However, we can try," General Huang Wei said, his eyes hiding a deep, inscrutable look.

Approaching dusk, the Japanese offensive became increasingly fierce.

At this time, the poison gas had basically dissipated, and the defenders hiding in the bunkers were finally able to come out for some air.

Inside a tunnel, the company commander observed the situation outside.

After confirming that the toxic smoke had basically dissipated, he immediately shouted to the Chinese Soldiers beside him: "The poison gas has cleared, we can go out now."

After saying this, he led his men to the tunnel entrance.

They cleared away the obstacles blocking the tunnel entrance.

However, just as they opened a gap, they discovered Japanese soldiers outside.

And there were quite a few of them.

Seeing this, they immediately blocked the tunnel entrance again.

But outside, the Japanese had also discovered the tunnel entrance that had suddenly opened.

Seeing this scene, these Japanese soldiers immediately knew there were people inside.

They had originally been searching for the entrances to these tunnels, and it turned out they had just happened to stumble upon one.