The soldiers in the positions had already pulled out the infantry guns, and the heavy machine gun positions were also ready, just waiting for the order from above.
Right now, many soldiers were still hiding in the air-raid shelters; very few had come out. Orders from above stated that not too many people should be out right now, for fear of being spotted by the Allied forces.
So, the soldiers were inside the air-raid shelters, playing cards, reading books, or chatting.
Meanwhile, Hu Hao was in the command center, reading the telegrams coming in from various locations.
Right now, all the units were engaged in combat. The fighting had almost reached the tail end of the day. The weather was too hot, and the Allied soldiers couldn’t stand it, so they would retreat soon.
In truth, the Eastern Spirit forces defending the trenches were also having a hard time. The concrete trenches absorbed the heat, and leaning against them was scalding hot.
Hu Hao read for a while, set the reports aside, and checked the time. It was almost 11 AM. Hu Hao walked out of the air-raid shelter and into the trenches outside! “Hot enough!” Hu Hao stood there, feeling the sun, and remarked.
“Hao-ge, it’s very hot!” a communications soldier who followed him out agreed.
“Mm, but let’s wait a bit longer. There’s no rush; it’s still not the hottest part of the day. Someone, notify the regimental commanders below: whenever they feel they can’t stand it in the trenches anymore, report it up, and we’ll open fire immediately!” Hu Hao shouted to the soldiers behind him.
Hu Hao walked in the trenches for a while. Having been in the air-conditioned room all this time, coming out for a bit—even though it was sunny—actually felt quite comfortable.
However, he couldn’t stand it for long. After less than five minutes outside, Hu Hao went back into the command center, unable to take the heat. Once inside, the staff officers all looked at him.
“Why are you looking at me?” Hu Hao asked with a smile.
“Hao-ge, is it hot?” a staff officer asked with a smile.
“Mm, very hot. But it’s still not the hottest time. Tell the soldiers below to wait a bit. It’s only just past 11. Even one minute later is better!” Hu Hao replied, raising his hand to look at his watch.
“Alright, but the regimental commanders below say they can still hold on, but not for many more minutes!” Xiao Quan said with a smile.
“Mm, that’s fine too. If they can’t hold on, tell them to call, and we’ll open fire!” Hu Hao smiled and sat down in his seat. Less than five minutes later, several regimental commanders called in saying they couldn’t take it much longer and requested to open fire. Hearing this, Hu Hao checked his watch—it was 11:20.
“Alright, open fire!” Hu Hao ordered.
“Yes, sir! Open fire at 11:25!” Many staff officers, hearing Hu Hao’s order, immediately repeated it, then grabbed the phones to contact the regimental commanders below, ordering them to commence firing.
“Open fire at 11:25!” A regimental commander received the call and immediately shouted the order. His communications soldiers immediately picked up the phones and began notifying the battalion commanders below, who in turn notified the company commanders. Those company commanders then went outside to notify their subordinate soldiers. Meanwhile, Hu Hao led the staff officers to the observation port of the command center, looking into the distance through periscopes and binoculars.
“Boom! Boom! Boom!” Suddenly, Hu Hao’s entire defensive line opened fire. They were all infantry guns; the caliber wasn’t large, but there were many of them. Numerous shells landed on the makeshift defensive works built by the Allied forces.
“Boom! Boom! Boom!” The sound of explosions rang out, immediately followed by the sight of raging fires.
“Damn it, they’re incendiary bombs!”
“Why are they incendiary bombs?”
“Run, they’re incendiary bombs!”
At first, the Allied commanders thought they were ordinary artillery shells. They never expected their opponent to actually fire incendiary bombs. Now, the soldiers couldn’t stand it. It was already unbearably hot, and now there were incendiary bombs burning nearby.
Some incendiary bombs even landed inside the trenches, burning many soldiers to death. But even more unbearable was the overwhelming wave of heat. The incendiary bombs didn’t just burn out instantly upon impact; the fuel continued to burn for several minutes.
Normally, this wouldn’t be a big deal, but right now the outside temperature was over 40 degrees. These soldiers from the Northern Region had never experienced such scorching weather before. Coupled with the incendiary bombs exploding around them, they absolutely couldn’t endure it.
“Run, they’re incendiary bombs!” Many soldiers grabbed their rifles and tried to flee.
“Rat-a-tat-tat!” At this moment, the distant 87th Division defensive positions, seeing the Allied forces beginning to flee, immediately opened fire with their heavy machine guns, sweeping the distant area.
They didn’t expect to kill a massive number, but the heavy machine guns had a long range; as long as the enemy was hit, they would either be dead or severely wounded!
“Rat-a-tat-tat!” The sound of heavy machine guns echoing from the positions made the fleeing soldiers run even faster. They definitely didn’t want to get hit by heavy machine gun fire.
Meanwhile, in the underground command center in Santong County, Abusai heard the sound of the bombardment outside. Hearing the explosions, Abusai laughed. “Is the commander of the 87th Division sick in the head, or do they just have too many shells? To actually fire infantry guns now!”
“Haha, we aren’t even attacking. Them firing infantry guns won’t even scratch a few of our men, and it just exposes their firepower!” the Chief of Staff beside him laughed as well.
“Listen, the heavy machine guns are firing too. Sigh, I really suspect this so-called Division Commander is just a complete idiot. Relying on their massive ammunition stockpile, they’re just acting recklessly like this. Think about it: if they hadn’t opened fire last night…
…and instead waited for our large-scale offensive to use their artillery, they could have caused massive casualties. Now they’re just wasting it like this. Even though we lost a lot of artillery, in the grand scheme of this battle, we’ve actually won!” Abusai, hearing the sound of heavy machine guns outside, immediately smiled and spoke to the Chief of Staff.
“Exactly, that’s the sound of heavy machine guns. They are exposing their firing points. We haven’t even conducted a reconnaissance by fire yet, and they’ve already revealed themselves!” The Chief of Staff laughed along.
“Report! The Eastern Spirit defensive forces are using infantry guns to bombard our defensive positions!” a staff officer came over and reported. Before he could finish, Abusai interrupted him: “I know, it’s fine, let them bomb!”
“Corps Commander, they used incendiary bombs!” the staff officer continued.
“No bomb will be of any use—what use are incendiary bombs? Wait, what did you say?” At first, Abusai didn’t process it, but as he spoke, he immediately stood up.
“The Eastern Spirit forces used incendiary bombs!” the staff officer repeated. Hearing this, Abusai immediately ran to the observation port and looked through his binoculars. He saw that many of his soldiers were fleeing, running toward the rear. On the Eastern Spirit positions, the heavy machine guns were still firing, and many of his soldiers were being hit by the heavy machine gun fire. The casualties were not small.
“Damn it, how can they use incendiary bombs?! Using incendiary bombs in this kind of weather… how can they be so vicious?!” Abusai yelled furiously. He truly hadn’t expected the Eastern Spirit forces to do this!
“Corps Commander, our troops are retreating right now. What should we do? Should we use our artillery regiment to bombard their frontline positions?” the Chief of Staff asked anxiously, looking at Abusai.
“It’s too late, our soldiers have already run. And they’ll just use incendiary bombs again later. Our artillery can’t keep firing constantly. Damn it, that bastard Li Jingsong, how can he fight a war like this?! Using incendiary bombs on such a hot day!” Abusai cursed.
He knew that regardless of whether he opened fire or not, the Eastern Spirit forces would use incendiary bombs the moment they saw his troops on the front lines. His artillery couldn’t possibly keep firing forever!
“So we’re just retreating like this? Our soldiers spent the entire night digging those trenches!” the Chief of Staff said anxiously.
“What else can we do? They actually thought of using the weather against us. Order our troops to retreat, all of them retreat. Retreat to a safe position!” With no other options, Abusai could only order his troops to fall back.
“Damn it, after being tormented like this, how are our soldiers supposed to fight? I don’t know how many non-combat casualties we’ll have later!” the Chief of Staff said anxiously.
In such scorching weather, they might be able to dodge bullets, but running wildly like that… by the time they reached a safe place, they’d be completely spent. They would all suffer from heatstroke, directly impacting their combat effectiveness.
…
“Good! Hit them hard! I said, if I tell you to roll, you have to roll! Who gave you the courage to loiter in front of me? You’re asking for death!”
Seeing the Allied soldiers fleeing, and his side’s heavy machine guns mowing down many of the escapees, Hu Hao was quite pleased and very smug.
Meanwhile, watching from afar, Wang Yao and his group couldn’t bear the sight. Especially seeing the soldiers hit by the incendiary bombs, burned alive—it was unbearable for them. Seeing Hu Hao acting so smug, they felt a bit disgusted, and also felt that Hu Hao was simply too cruel.
“Good, they’re all out. Hao-ge, they’ve all come out!” a senior staff officer said happily, looking at Hu Hao.
“Hehe, isn’t it great? Ah? Hahaha!” Hu Hao laughed. Making the Allied soldiers retreat meant that when they came to attack next time, they would have to reorganize from scratch, giving his side more time to prepare their defenses.
“Haozi, this… isn’t this too cruel?” Mo Qin couldn’t bear to watch the situation ahead. However, seeing Hu Hao so smug, he immediately spoke up to him!
“Uh…” Hearing Mo Qin say this, Hu Hao’s smile instantly vanished.
“What did you just say?” At this, the senior staff officer lost it. He charged forward, grabbed Mo Qin by the collar, and slammed him against the wall.
“What are you doing? Let go!” Seeing this, Hu Hao immediately shouted.
“Let go, did you hear me?!” Wang Yao and the others also crowded around. Hearing the commotion, the other staff officers in the command center also ran over.
(End of Chapter)