Hu Hao answered the call from 2nd Regimental Commander Wu Kexiao. After being asked if he had taken a loss, Hu Hao immediately retorted, asking if it was even possible for him to lose a fight.
“Hao-ge, I knew it! But the Allied forces have a lot of artillery. Let’s have our men take it slow and not fall for their traps!” Wu Kexiao laughed loudly.
“Alright, Old Wu. I know you; you’re just worried I’ll lose, aren’t you?
Relax. Tell your troops to get some sleep. If anything happens, I’ll notify you!” Hu Hao said bluntly.
“Hehe, Hao-ge. I just saw that the artillery hasn’t stopped, so I was worried we were taking a beating. My mistake. I’ll apologize once the battle is over!” Wu Kexiao said with a sheepish laugh.
“Get lost! Just fight well for me, no need for apologies. If you do a good job, I’ll record your merit!” Hu Hao laughed.
“Hao-ge, you can count on me,” Wu Kexiao guaranteed.
“Mhm. I trust all of you veteran commanders!” Hu Hao smiled and hung up.
“He actually dared to question your combat skills? This kid has guts!” Xiao Quan laughed.
“It was probably his staff officers talking, making him lose confidence too.
Why don’t you call the other regimental commanders? Tell them to set up their guards and rest. Tonight’s bombardment won’t stop!” Hu Hao told Xiao Quan.
“Hao-ge, won’t this completely expose our artillery positions?” a staff officer asked.
“Hehe, what does it matter if we’re exposed? As long as we can wipe out their artillery, it’s worth it.
Besides, whether I fire or not, do you think they wouldn’t find out eventually? Tonight, I want to see exactly how much artillery this 11th Corps has!” Hu Hao laughed.
“True. Since you’re the one fighting, you must have it all planned out!” the staff officer nodded and smiled. Wang Yao, hearing the exchange, couldn’t understand why the staff had so much blind faith in Hu Hao’s victory.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Soon, Artillery Position No. 1 opened fire, targeting the third Allied artillery position that had revealed itself.
“Dammit! What is going on? They still have more artillery? Is the 87th Division an infantry division or an artillery division? What the hell is our intelligence doing?
“How can an infantry division have this much firepower? Look at the positions they’ve revealed. Is this the amount of artillery a single infantry division should have?
“Has the intelligence department actually confirmed if the unit across from us is the 87th Division?”
Abusai was on the verge of a breakdown. He had already lost three regimental artillery units from his infantry divisions—a heavy loss.
“Commander, we don’t know either. The 87th shouldn’t have this many guns. This isn’t the standard for an infantry division!” the Chief of Staff was also confused.
“No! We must take out that position. We can’t back down now. If we don’t wipe them out, our troops won’t get a wink of sleep tonight.
“Dammit, how can they have this many? There must be more than one infantry division over there.
“There must be a full artillery division as well. Goddammit, we’ve been tricked!”
Abusai shouted loudly. He was convinced there was an artillery division across the river. If he had known that, he wouldn’t have deployed his troops tonight—at least not before his own air force had located and destroyed the enemy batteries. But it was too late now; the troops were already in position. Retreating now would be a massive blow to morale.
“Commander, we have no choice but to fire. If we wipe out their artillery, we can still fight.
We can bring up the artillery from the Limaguo 7th Corps; we can still pull through!” the Chief of Staff agreed.
“Take them out!” Abusai made his decision. The Chief of Staff immediately contacted another artillery regiment. Ten minutes later, their fourth artillery position opened fire. Hu Hao immediately ordered Artillery Position No. 1 to cease fire.
“Hao-ge, is that all our artillery? Have we exposed everything?” a staff officer asked.
“Who said that? Order Artillery Position No. 3 and No. 2 to each use about 10 guns. Keep it between 7 and 12 pieces. Wipe out that Allied position.
They didn’t wipe us out at all, you know?” Hu Hao laughed.
“Huh?” The staff officers in the office stared at him with their mouths wide open.
“What are you staring for? Get the order out before they stop firing! Quickly, calculate the coordinates and take them out!” Hu Hao barked at the artillery staff.
“Yes, sir! Calculating now!” The staff officers Analyzed the Allied firing trajectories. Xiao Quan personally relayed the orders to the two artillery positions.
After the calls, Xiao Quan walked up to Hu Hao. “Hao-ge, the Allied commander is going to be fuming. No one plays like you—’we aren’t finished’?”
“Well, aren’t we? If we were finished, we wouldn’t be able to hit back, right?
This is an artillery duel now; we’ll see who has more guns left. I still have plenty, and I’m sure they do too!” Hu Hao laughed.
“Haha, true. That Allied commander is unlucky to run into you. He’ll probably curse his own men for shelling for ten minutes and not even clearing out a single position!” Xiao Quan shook his head with a smile.
“Hehe. I’m just letting him know I still have teeth. Let’s see how much they have left!
I told you we’d have a massive harvest tonight. If we wipe out the artillery for this corps, they’ll be left with almost nothing.
They won’t outgun us anymore. Even if they bring in the other two divisions from the other corps, we’ll still have the advantage in firepower!”
Hu Hao explained to Xiao Quan.
“Right. I never thought a simple exchange would turn into a full artillery duel,” Xiao Quan nodded.
“Artillery is just too powerful. We can’t cross the river right now, but if we could, I’d send the armor to steamroll their batteries.
That would make the rest of the battle much easier.
But this works too. We might not wipe them all out, but we’ll take a massive chunk out of them!” Hu Hao lit a cigarette and handed one to Xiao Quan.
“Hao-ge, the Allied commander is going to lose his mind!” a senior staff officer laughed.
“Let him. If he doesn’t lose his head, we won’t get the chance to wipe them out, right?” Hu Hao laughed.
“True. Hao-ge, I think we can actually take out this entire corps. We only have one division, but they won’t be able to push through!” another staff officer added, their confidence growing.
The staff officers were now full of morale, a far cry from their previous uncertainty. Hu Hao’s initial moves had already dealt a heavy blow to the enemy’s artillery. However, the newly arrived officers were still lost, watching the events unfold in a daze.
“Coordinates calculated!” an artillery staff officer shouted.
“Then fire! Why are you asking me? Fire!” Hu Hao ordered.
“Yes, sir!” The officer ran back to the phones.
“Haha, ten guns each. Hehe!” Hu Hao sat there and started laughing to himself. Xiao Quan also burst into laughter.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Soon, Hu Hao’s artillery opened fire. Two batteries, ten guns each, targeted the Allied position that had just finished shelling Position No. 1.
“What? More? They still have more? How is that possible!” Abusai jumped up in shock as the explosions reached his ears. He was being driven mad by the enemy’s resilience.
“Report! It’s not a new unit. It’s the same positions we just shelled! Our previous bombardment… it didn’t finish them off. According to our observation, it’s the same two positions firing again, each with about ten guns!” an artillery staff officer reported.
“What did you say? The same positions? We didn’t clear them out?”
Abusai was even more furious. Because they hadn’t finished the job, he was about to lose another artillery regiment.
His corps had four infantry divisions and one armored division. Each infantry division had an artillery regiment, and the corps had an artillery brigade with two more regiments and an anti-aircraft regiment.
Out of six artillery regiments, four were now neutralized. Only two remained. And this latest loss was purely because they had failed to “clean up” the previous positions. How could Abusai not be enraged?
(End of Chapter)