Chapter 15 The Six, Seven, and Eight Companies of the Fifteenth Regiment Are Ready

The six, seven, and eight companies of the Fifteenth Regiment were ready, and loud reports echoed from each gun position: "Number One, ready!"

"Number Two, ready!" "Number Three, ready!"

...

The reports continued until "Number Twelve, ready!" All three companies had reported twelve cannons ready. At that moment, with Lin Fan's command:

"Boom! Boom! Boom!" The earth trembled once more, their target this time not far—the artillery positions of the Devil's First Infantry Regiment and the two newly discovered infantry battalions.

Captain Uesato Yusuke, hearing the whistling of incoming shells, was stunned. As the captain of the Second Battalion of the First Regiment, his troops were still lurking in the mountains.

The shells landed in the forest, shrapnel flying and causing the undergrowth to shudder. Several large trees had been blown apart, and the creaking sounds of falling trees sent shivers down the spines of all the Devils.

The flying shrapnel didn't just frighten them; it also took their lives. Many Devils lay groaning on the ground, while others shouted for medics.

Sergeant Nagato Yuuto lay prone, so nervous he wet himself. Even so, he dared not stand up, clinging to the ground as tightly as possible.

He prayed constantly, hoping no shells would land near him. Even with his head buried in the undergrowth, he could still hear the screams and cries for help of other Devils around him.

Nagato Yuuto turned a deaf ear to these sounds, focusing only on burrowing deeper into the bushes, oblivious to the pain of the thorns piercing his body.

Captain Uesato Yusuke, facing the barrage, couldn't understand how the Nationalists had discovered his battalion quietly lurking in the mountains.

So many trees concealed their presence. How had they been found?

Nationalist observers in distant aircraft were the reason. They had been so careful to conceal themselves, afraid of attracting artillery fire.

But their fears had come true. The intense bombardment had begun and didn't stop.

Facing such a concentrated barrage, he was helpless. His battalion had only quietly moved into position this morning and had no command post.

All they could do was endure the bombardment. Captain Uesato Yusuke, also lying prone, anxiously waited for the shelling to end.

But the bombardment continued relentlessly, as if it would never stop.

Compared to the ordeal of Captain Uehara Goro, Captain Uesato Yusuke was practically in paradise.

Captain Uehara Goro, the mortar company commander of the First Infantry Regiment, had followed Regiment Commander Sato's orders to combine the mortars and infantry guns of the Uesato Yusuke and Fujioka Takeo battalions.

Initially, the Devils gathered together were quite happy and excited. They operated mortars and Type 92 battalion guns, which didn't require elaborate artillery positions.

Over four hundred Devils gathered, a rare reunion. They chatted endlessly, exchanging stories of their recent plunder, how many villages they had burned, and how many local people they had killed.

Sergeant Ishifuku Hayato proudly said, "Just a few days ago, I found a family of three and killed them all."

In the current situation, finding civilians was rare, and his words immediately drew envy from the surrounding Devils. The Nationalist government had been vigorously urging all civilians to evacuate the combat zone.

Ishifuku Hayato finding a civilian family was indeed remarkable. Seeing the envious looks, Ishifuku Hayato proudly said, "When they saw me, they shouted something, but I didn't understand and didn't need to. I just killed them."

"Yes! Yes! No need to understand. They'll be killed in the end anyway."

"Did you find anything?"

"I only found two chickens, which I brought back. The pig got away. And I burned down their house," Sergeant Ishifuku Hayato said with a laugh.

The hundreds of Devils chatted and bragged, quickly preparing the artillery positions.

Once dozens of mortars and over a dozen infantry guns were in place, Captain Uehara Goro gave the order to prepare for firing. The Devil's chatter stopped, and all solemnly awaited Captain Uehara Goro's command.

Commanding so many guns for the first time, Captain Uehara Goro was excited. He ordered the Devil waving the flag beside him, "Load!"

The flag waved, and every Devil commander at each gun position waved their flags.

All the guns were under Uehara Goro's command. He watched the flags wave across the battlefield at his command.

After the first round of shells was fired, Captain Uehara Goro observed the impact points and ordered adjustments before continuing the bombardment.

After each round, he had the Devils adjust the settings. Captain Uehara Goro wasn't in a hurry, directing the Devils to fire slowly.

He had only directed the artillery to fire less than five rounds of mortar shells when, as the sixth round was being loaded, they were met with a fierce counterattack from the Nationalist heavy artillery. The counterattack was incredibly violent.

The 150mm cannons created massive craters with each explosion, turning Devils within dozens of meters into nothing.

Ishifuku Hayato, who had just drawn the envy of the other Devils, was hit by a榴弹. After the deafening blast, nothing remained but a crater over two meters deep and four meters in diameter.

Vision was mutual. Captain Uehara Goro's position had a clear view of the Second Regiment's defense line. As soon as his artillery opened fire, it was fully exposed to the observers in the air.

The parameters reported by the observers were received by the heavy artillery positions, and the effect of the first round was reported back to Lin Fan.

This time, the soldiers of the Nationalist Second Heavy Artillery Regiment truly witnessed the strength of the Special Operations Brigade. Adjustments were made almost instantaneously, with the soldiers adjusting angles and elevations with incredible precision based on the commander's instructions. Such skill inspired admiration and envy in the Second Heavy Artillery Regiment.

They now had a clear understanding of their goals and capabilities. This was the purpose behind Lin Fan's recommendation to the Second War Zone to bring them to the battlefield.

The bombardment became even more accurate after the Special Operations Brigade adjusted the firing parameters. Unlike the positions of the Devil's two infantry battalions, the artillery positions were not concealed. The artillery positions had been leveled, with no trees to provide cover, making them easily visible to the observers in the air.

Starting with the second round of bombardment, Uehara Goro's company began to suffer. The 150mm shells landed with precision, wreaking havoc on the Devils within dozens of meters.

Shell after shell landed on the Devil's artillery positions. The Devils couldn't even fire their sixth round.

Captain Uehara Goro personally experienced being blown over by a 150mm shell landing less than twenty meters away. Although he avoided the shrapnel by lying on the ground, he was injured by the shockwave transmitted through the earth.

Looking at the artillery positions he had worked so hard to establish, Captain Uehara Goro saw that few were still standing. There were at least ten massive craters scattered across the positions.

He knew that all the artillery of the First Infantry Regiment was destroyed! No one could have survived, not even him.

Over four hundred Devils had been on that artillery position! And now, all four hundred had been blown apart.

Seeing the scene, Captain Uehara Goro wanted to cry. If only Commander Hotta Juichi had provided heavy artillery support, the outcome wouldn't have been so devastating.

The Devil's artillery positions were hit by only three rounds, a total of thirty-six shells.

Then, these 150mm killing machines changed targets, first bombarding the Third Battalion, which was already under fire from Type 38 75mm field guns.

Although the Fujioka Takeo battalion had been under bombardment, the battalion's casualties had actually been relatively light, as the 75mm shells had limited power. In addition, the trees in the forest had absorbed much of the shrapnel.

When the twelve 150mm cannons joined the fray, the Devils of the Fujioka Takeo battalion began to feel the pain.

The shells, with warheads weighing over 56 kilograms, crashed into the ground, creating craters over a meter deep. The rocks scattered by the explosions could break the trees that had shielded the Devils from the shrapnel.

The falling trees were also an unbearable burden for the Devils. Lieutenant Asou Sanjuro witnessed a tree fall and crush four Devils in his platoon.

Some Devils had their waists crushed, others their legs.

The Devils who were still alive cried out to Lieutenant Asou, who had no choice but to order a dozen Devils to lift the tree in an attempt to drag out those trapped beneath.

The first one pulled out, Katori Hideki, had been hit in the head by the tree trunk and was dead. The second, whose waist was crushed, shouted in terror, "My leg! My leg!"

Lieutenant Asou impatiently kicked his leg. "You only injured your waist. Your leg is still here."

"I can't feel my leg!" Seto Tatsuto cried in terror. He leaned against a rock, trying to stand, but his legs wouldn't move.

His efforts were ignored. Lieutenant Asou and the dozen other Devils were risking their lives to rescue the trapped Devils.

As they were rescuing the last Devil under the tree, a shell landed and exploded nearby, instantly felling seven or eight of the Devils who were standing.

Lieutenant Asou quickly dropped the tree trunk and lay on the ground, afraid to move. His body was covered in blood from the injured Devils nearby.

His platoon now had even more Devils crying for help. Lieutenant Asou was lucky. The shrapnel from the explosion hadn't harmed him.

He crawled over to Ito Yu, who was lying nearby without breathing. The Devil's neck had been sliced open by shrapnel, and half of the blood on Asou's body had come from Ito.

Ignoring that Devil, Lieutenant Asou crawled to the next, who was still groaning. Asou saw that Kojima Eita's abdomen had been ripped open, and his intestines, mixed with blood and waste, were spilling out.

Seeing Kojima Eita's intestines severed in several places, Lieutenant Asou knew that he was doomed!

But the Devil wasn't dead yet. Lieutenant Asou had no choice but to stuff the intestines, mixed with waste, back into his abdomen and wrap them tightly with bandages.

Kojima Eita's injuries could only be treated with surgery back at the rear, but he was sure to die. With his intestines severed in several places and so much waste in his abdominal cavity, it was impossible for him to survive.

As Lieutenant Asou busied himself with treating the wounded, the surviving Devils in his platoon were also busy helping the injured. Lieutenant Asou realized that the shrapnel flying overhead seemed to be more frequent than before.

Often, after hearing an explosion, shrapnel would fly over before they could even locate where the shell had landed. The artillery was terrifying.

The Devils in the Fujioka Takeo battalion suffered many casualties from the 150mm榴弹 bombardment. They were in the mountains, and often, when shrapnel flew over, they didn't know where the shells had exploded.

The Devils were afraid to stand, lying prone on the ground, waiting for the Nationalist artillery fire to stop.

After five rounds of bombardment in that direction, it was the Second Infantry Battalion's turn to be shelled.

Captain Uesato Yusuke, seeing that his troops had already suffered heavy casualties in the previous bombardment, knew that another barrage of 150mm shells would be devastating. His battalion couldn't withstand such an attack.

But they didn't even dare stand up and run. There was too much shrapnel flying through the air. They barely managed to endure until the artillery fire ceased.

Regiment Commander Sato, hearing reports that the newly established artillery positions had been bombarded by Nationalist heavy artillery, with over four hundred Devils killed, and that the Second Infantry Battalion had suffered over half casualties in their forward positions, with over a hundred wounded being evacuated and even more dead, was stunned.

Captain Uesato Yusuke reported: "The Uesato Battalion has suffered over six hundred casualties, with only four hundred Devils remaining fit for combat." Captain Fujioka reported: "The Fujioka Battalion has suffered over five hundred casualties, with less than five hundred Devils remaining fit for combat."

In just a short time, the artillery company and all four hundred artillerymen of the regiment had been wiped out, and the two battalions had suffered twelve hundred casualties. In a single artillery strike, the First Infantry Regiment had lost over sixteen hundred Devils.

Including the casualties of the First Battalion, Hotta Detachment's First Infantry Regiment now had only the one thousand Devils of the Fourth Battalion, plus the remnants of the other three battalions, totaling only around twenty-two hundred Devils.

Should they continue the attack today?

Regiment Commander Sato wanted to temporarily abandon the attack for the day, let the regiment rest, and send out Devil reconnaissance teams to scout ahead.

After assessing the strength of the Nationalist forces, they could plan their next attack.

When Regiment Commander Sato reported the casualties to Detachment Commander Hotta Juichi, the Detachment Commander was stunned. He had never imagined that the infantry regiment would suffer such heavy losses.

In just half a day, his artillery regiment was finished, with less than two hundred Devils remaining, and the First Infantry Regiment had also suffered heavy casualties. Should they continue the attack today?

After considering for a moment, he ordered, "Halt the attack! Stand down and regroup!"

After being bombarded, Captain Nakajima Yoyoshi had wanted to withdraw the artillery unit from its position, but his artillery regiment had only a hundred Devils left. How could they possibly move the remaining dozen cannons?

With no choice, he requested assistance from Detachment Commander Hotta, who sent a temporary motor transport unit to help the Devils move the cannons.

The reconnaissance soldiers of the Second Regiment, lurking near the Devil's artillery positions, discovered the new activity just half an hour after the shelling had stopped.

The smoke had cleared, and they could clearly see what was happening on the Devil's artillery positions. They saw over a thousand Devils moving the cannons, preparing to pull them away.

How could that be allowed? Cannons targeted by the Special Operations Brigade couldn't be allowed to be moved!

Lin Fan received the report that over a thousand Devils were moving the cannons from the artillery positions and were preparing to move their positions.

This time, Lin Fan wasn't thinking of rushing out to seize the cannons, but he wasn't going to let the Devils simply pull them away either.

Lin Fan ordered, "Artillery regiment, prepare! Adjust parameters and bombard the Devil's artillery unit again!"

This time, it was entirely the soldiers of the Second Heavy Artillery Regiment operating the cannons. They listened to Lin Fan's parameters and adjusted the cannons. Once each gun position reported that it was ready.

Lin Fan ordered them to fire again! The booming of the cannons echoed once more.

Sergeant Taniguchi Youki was a driver in the Devil's temporary motor transport unit, and he nervously looked at the Devil corpses lying haphazardly on the ground. He was terrified.

It wasn't that he had never seen corpses before. In the past, the corpses he saw were those of Nationalist soldiers. This was the first time he had seen so many Devil corpses lying on the ground.

He desperately wanted to leave. He was the first to back his tractor into a gun position, wanting to quickly pull a cannon away and leave. That would be enough to complete his mission and escape.

Just as his vehicle was about to move the cannon, shells began to fall from the sky: they were being shelled again!

"We're being shelled again!" Captain Nakajima Youki thought miserably. He realized something.

There must be Nationalist artillery observers near his artillery positions. Only then could the Nationalist artillery fire so accurately, and bombard them again just as they were preparing to move the cannons.

The Nationalists had fired hundreds of shells just to bombard his artillery positions. They were really willing to waste ammunition!

Captain Nakajima Youki was bitter. These shells had been stored by the Eleventh Army at the Mahuiling Station, intended for the next attack on the Nationalist defenses.

Now, these shells were all being fired at his unit.

If the Nationalists were allowed to continue bombarding them, they wouldn't hesitate to fire another five hundred shells.

Compared to the amount of ammunition they had captured, a thousand shells was nothing.

But a thousand shells were more than the Devils in the artillery positions could withstand.

Their tractors were being hit by shells, blown to pieces, and set ablaze.

When the shells first started falling, Taniguchi Youki didn't hesitate. He floored the accelerator, kept a firm grip on the steering wheel, and pulled the cannon away. He could drive out of the bombarded area quickly.

Taniguchi Youki desperately hoped he could escape unscathed. To achieve that goal, he needed to drive away with a cannon.

Taniguchi Youki's actions immediately drew the attention of many Devils, who silently cheered him on.

Perhaps encouraged by these Devils, Taniguchi Youki managed to pull the cannon out of its position and get the tractor onto the road. Now, he only needed to drive straight ahead for a few hundred meters to escape.

A smile appeared on Taniguchi Youki's face, even though the battlefield was ablaze and the road ahead was obscured by smoke. He continued to drive forward, when a shell miraculously fell in front of his vehicle.

Captain Nakajima Youki watched as a shell crashed into the ground, but didn't explode for a long time.

"Tenno bless us, it's a dud!" Nakajima Youki was overjoyed. His unit's first cannon was about to be moved out!

He urged the other Devils, "Brave the artillery fire and move the cannons out!"

Just as he was giving the order, "Boom!" The shell in the middle of the road exploded. The vehicle on top of the shell was blasted into the air by the force of the explosion before crashing back to the ground.

The vehicle instantly burst into flames. Taniguchi Youki made no further movements. All the Devils knew that the unlucky driver in the vehicle above the shell couldn't have survived.

A huge crater had formed in the middle of the road. Until the crater was filled, no cannon or vehicle on the artillery positions could leave.

Captain Nakajima Youki had given up. The order he had just given couldn't be carried out. But he didn't rescind the order. Many Devils who hadn't received the order were running away.

They tried to escape this cursed place. The vehicles that had just entered the artillery positions were now sacrifices. The tires of the vehicles were being hit by shrapnel, and the high pressure inside the tires exploded with loud bangs.

Many of the vehicle fuel tanks were ignited, and the fires on the artillery positions could be seen even through the smoke.

Compared to the vehicles, the members of the motor transport unit who had just arrived at the artillery positions suffered the most. They were bombarded by concentrated artillery fire, and Devil after Devil fell to the ground.

The 150mm榴弹 had been tested. The survival rate for Devils within a radius of seventy meters was extremely low. The shrapnel produced by the explosion could fly as far as two hundred and forty meters.

This meant that Devils within a radius of two hundred and forty meters of the exploding shell could be killed by shrapnel.

The situation was that twelve 150mm榴弹 cannons were continuously firing, along with 105mm howitzers and 75mm field guns.

Captain Nakajima Youki thought the bombardment lasted a long time, but it was relatively short. Lin Fan had ordered each gun to fire only ten shells.

After the bombardment, the soldiers of the Second Heavy Artillery Regiment began to clean the cannons again. They realized that if they fought like this every day, they would inevitably become familiar with operating the cannons.

The Devil infantry had retreated and didn't continue the attack.

Lin Fan hadn't expected the Devils to attack with such a probing force, to have their infantry bombarded by heavy artillery, and then become too afraid to move.

Had they been hit too hard? Were they too afraid to come?

That was the reason. If Hotta Detachment had a chance, it would have organized another attack.

What could Lin Fan do? He could only order his troops to remain vigilant. The artillery positions began cleaning and maintaining their cannons.

The soldiers of the Special Operations Brigade only provided verbal instructions, while all the actual work was done by the soldiers of the Second Heavy Artillery Regiment.

They were enthusiastic. The conditions on the Devil artillery positions, after the smoke cleared, were clearly visible to the observers.

Hearing that the Devil artillery positions were littered with corpses and craters, and that no Devils had escaped, the soldiers of the Second Heavy Artillery Regiment were overjoyed.

That was the news from the Devil artillery positions nearby. The news from the more distant Devil artillery positions was even more exciting.

The initial bombardment had killed at least a thousand Devils and destroyed twenty-five cannons. The results of the recent bombardment weren't yet known. The battlefield was still shrouded in smoke, making it impossible to see clearly from a distance.

The fires burning from the vehicles only made it harder to see. All seventy-seven vehicles that had entered the artillery positions had likely been destroyed.

This was the Second Heavy Artillery Regiment's first battle since its formation, and it had achieved such great results. Regiment Commander Xu Jingshi immediately reported the good news to his superiors.

Xue Yue heard in the command post that the Second Heavy Artillery Regiment had annihilated a Devil mortar company at Jiantou Mountain in front of Mahuiling, and had killed over a thousand Devil artillerymen and destroyed twenty-five Devil cannons in a counter-artillery barrage against Hotta Detachment's field artillery regiment.

They had also supported the Special Operations Brigade in repelling the Devil's attack. Hearing that Hotta Detachment's infantry attack had been repelled, Xue Yue felt relieved and overjoyed.

Such good news had to be reported to Chang Qishen immediately.

The Second Heavy Artillery Regiment was under Chang Qishen's close observation and had been established under his personal care. Hearing that the Second Heavy Artillery Regiment had annihilated a Devil mortar company, killed over a thousand Devil artillerymen, and destroyed over twenty Devil cannons, a commendation was immediately issued.

The commendation was only for the Second Heavy Artillery Regiment, not the Special Operations Brigade. This made Regiment Commander Xu Jingshi feel awkward. He knew that at least ninety percent of the credit belonged to the Special Operations Brigade, and he felt that the Second Heavy Artillery Regiment's ten percent share was too much.

Yet, only they received the commendation, while the Special Operations Brigade received nothing. Company Commander Lu Jiagui said to Regiment Commander Xu with a smile, "We're used to it!"

His words made Regiment Commander Xu feel ashamed! Judging from the Special Operations Brigade's ability to hold back the Devil's Hotta Detachment with a single brigade, this unit must have fought many hard battles.

Yet, he had never heard of this unit before. Company Commander Lu said with a smile, "It's not that we haven't been promoted. I heard from the regimental commander that the Special Operations Brigade has been mentioned in the newspapers three times."

Regiment Commander Xu laughed. "Tell me about it."

Company Commander Lu said with a smile, "Have you heard about the news of a hundred new fighter planes being added to Wuhan recently?"

"That was just a few days ago. I heard that Nationalist troops raided Shizhushan Airport and bravely fought to seize them from the Devils."

"It was our Fifteenth Regiment and the Tenth Regiment that seized the planes. The newspaper only mentioned the Tenth Regiment. We captured a total of one hundred and eighty-eight planes. To protect Wuhan, the air force had suffered heavy losses.

The brigade commander decided to send one hundred planes over. We kept eighty-eight for ourselves. We flew here from Tongcheng in those captured planes."

"We haven't heard about this!" Regiment Commander Xu said in surprise.

"We arrived here at nine-thirty at night, marched sixty *li* through the night to Qilin Ridge, seized the mountain, and then seized Baishui Street below the mountain.

The Devil's plan for the 106th and 27th Divisions to meet in Baishui Street was ruined. You haven't heard of that, have you?"

"No!" By now, a large crowd had gathered to listen to Company Commander Lu's account of the battle.

This was a good opportunity to promote the Special Operations Brigade. Company Commander Lu wouldn't let it go. He said with a smile, "We pressed on and occupied the nearby Jigong Ridge.

Then we pushed forward and annihilated a Devil artillery regiment at Xiao'ao, capturing forty-eight cannons."

A soldier from the Second Heavy Artillery Regiment asked, "Are those the cannons?"

"No! Those cannons formed the First Heavy Artillery Regiment. Otherwise, why would you have a heavy artillery brigade?" Company Commander Lu explained with a smile.

"I guess so! The newspaper didn't say which unit had captured the cannons. It only said that the officers and soldiers of the Second War Zone had fought bravely, annihilated the Devil's 20th Field Artillery Regiment, and captured forty-eight cannons and countless shells." The soldier had a good memory and could even recite the newspaper report.

"After we occupied Xiao'ao, the brigade commander thought that the Devils at Mahuiling were isolated and decided to attack Mahuiling.

We set out from Xiao'ao in the afternoon, marched one hundred *li*, and occupied Mahuiling the next morning. We captured a large amount of supplies, and then we came here to ambush the Devil reinforcements.

That day, the Devils sent three waves of reinforcements from Jiujiang, all of which were annihilated by us. The last wave of reinforcements was that artillery regiment.

It was those cannons that you came to take over." Company Commander Lu told the story of the cannons in one breath.

"We haven't heard of any of this. It's too strange! The Nationalists didn't promote any of your achievements." Xu Jingshi understood something.

He stood up with a wry smile. "I understand. Different ideologies!"

"That's right, so they won't promote us. And they won't give us commendations," Company Commander Lu said with a smile.

"That's too unfair!" Several soldiers from the Second Heavy Artillery Regiment protested.

Regiment Commander Xu quickly reprimanded them, "What do you know? Don't discuss this in the future, and don't spread it around the regiment. You're too young to understand some things."

He used to be a dean, and his reprimand silenced the soldiers.

Company Commander Lu wasn't bothered. Some ideas were like seeds. Once planted, they would eventually germinate, take root, and grow. That was something that couldn't be stopped by external forces.

The Second War Zone Headquarters ordered a reduction in the encirclement of the Devil's 106th Division. The Nationalist forces at each position were launching fierce attacks. Xue Yue was closely monitoring the situation at Mahuiling.

The battle in the Wanjialing area, even if it couldn't be won immediately, could continue as long as no Devil reinforcements arrived.

Therefore, the Special Operations Brigade's blocking of Hotta Juichi's detachment was crucial.

If they were allowed to advance, the Devil's 106th Division, coordinating with a turnaround, would render the Second War Zone's battle plan a complete failure.

The Second War Zone would have abandoned so many defense lines, and its assembled forces would have been wasted, while the Devils would have seized even more territory, making it a complete loss.

Because of this, when the people at Headquarters heard that the Special Operations Brigade had crippled the Devil's field artillery regiment and temporarily neutralized its combat power, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

They knew that Brigade Commander Lin Fan of the Special Operations Brigade was a sharpshooter who could shoot down any Devil plane that came his way. Now, he had also destroyed the Devil artillery.

In this way, only the Nationalist forces had heavy artillery on the Mahuiling battlefield. The Devils didn't. The Special Operations Brigade clearly had a fire superiority, and perhaps they could really stop Hotta's detachment.

Just thinking about this possibility was enough to excite the people at the Second War Zone Headquarters. They didn't even need to stop the Devils completely; they only needed to hold them back for ten days, and the battle at Wanjialing could be concluded.

Although Chang Qishen didn't send a commendation to the Special Operations Brigade, Xue Yue personally purchased a batch of pork and sent it to the Special Operations Brigade by rail. He had only one request for Lin Fan: "Hold for ten days."

Lin Fan said only one word: "Yes!"

The fighting on the fifth only lasted for one morning. The Devils didn't move in the afternoon.

The Special Operations Brigade didn't move either, but they sent out more reconnaissance teams.

Lin Fan ordered the reconnaissance teams to search for Devil infantry encampments. Now that the Special Operations Brigade had heavy artillery, it could bombard the Devil camps as soon as they were discovered.

The Special Operations Brigade had plenty of shells, and Lin Fan believed that it was worthwhile to bombard Devil camps, whether they were a company or a battalion.

The Special Operations Brigade sent out many reconnaissance teams.

Hotta Juichi's detachment also sent out many reconnaissance teams. The Devils had decided to find the weak points in the Nationalist defense lines and break through from there.

The reconnaissance teams were still made up of Devils from the First Infantry Regiment, primarily those remaining from the Uesato Yusuke and Fujioka Takeo battalions.

They were organized into groups of thirteen Devils and infiltrated the mountains, quietly approaching the Second Regiment's defense line.

Squad Leader Mizuno Shintaro was leading one of the dozens of reconnaissance teams. They quietly departed from Chenshangwu, infiltrated Chenjiashan, and planned to pass through Caijia Laowu, Caijiashan, and Wuzhua Mountain, before sneaking behind the Nationalist defense line.

Following Captain Uesato Yusuke's orders, "They must learn from the Nationalists, go behind Nationalist lines, wreak havoc, find the location of the Nationalist artillery positions, and destroy them."

Captain Fujioka Takeo also gave similar orders to his Devils, telling them to bypass the Nationalist front lines, go to the rear, and make finding the Nationalist heavy artillery positions their main objective.

If they found the Nationalist heavy artillery positions, they should unite with all available small teams and attack the Nationalist artillery positions.