"Boom", a Japanese Type 92 infantry gun fired again in the valley.
With this shot, the gun body moved back a little, but was then held in place by the cannon hoe behind it.
Smoke and dust rose, and another Japanese soldier carried a shell forward, but was immediately stopped by the Japanese commander.
So far, they have only fired more than ten cannons, but the Japanese commander believes that this is enough. After all, there is only one regiment of the Northeast Army in Ningyuan City.
If the Northeast Army had not lost the Fengtian Arsenal, the Japanese Kwantung Army would have been a little more wary, after all, the Northeast Army had everything, including airplanes, artillery, and tanks.
However, with the occurrence of the September 18th Incident, the Northeast Army's military production base was occupied by the Japanese Kwantung Army with less than 200 troops.
The Northeast Army without logistical supplies is like a tiger without teeth. So what is so scary about the Japanese Kwantung Army?
What's more, the shelling was just a tactic used by the Japanese army to scare the enemy.
Ningyuan City is just a small county town and has no strategic location to defend. If they fire artillery shells into the city, how will the Northeast Army react?
At this time, in Ningyuan County, the regiment commander Liu Cheng was looking at a collapsed house with a gloomy face, and the soldiers were busy rescuing people from the ruins.
Unfortunately, a Japanese artillery shell hit the military camp, and dozens of officers and soldiers in the house were killed or injured.
"Commander, we can't hold on here. If the Japanese fire a few more shots, our casualties will definitely be heavier. We'd better break out." His chief of staff advised from the side.
Liu Cheng did not expect that their regiment would be surrounded by the Japanese army in Ningyuan City.
Originally, Liu Cheng planned to hold on and wait for reinforcements. Although Zhang Liancai's company lost most of its troops and Zhang Liancai was killed in action, according to reports from the returning soldiers, the dozen or so stragglers he had gathered had already escaped.
Liu Cheng had no reason not to believe that the dozen or so stragglers would not go to Suizhou, the closest to Ningyuan City, to seek reinforcements.
Ningyuan is only about 200 miles away from Suizhong. If those dozen or so stragglers were not stupid and went to find horses to ride, they could hold out for two days and reinforcements would arrive.
But now the Japanese army actually fired artillery shells at Ningyuan City. How could this small square city with narrow streets withstand such bombing by the Japanese army?
"Ah--" A wounded soldier was pulled out of the rubble by his companions. He was covered in dust, but his foot had been twisted 180 degrees because his ankle was broken.
Liu Cheng became upset.
"Hurry up and rescue people. Break out in an hour and rush out from the northeast." Liu Cheng ordered.
"Commander, why do we have to rush out from the northeast?" His chief of staff was puzzled.
The northeast direction is where the Japanese troops are coming from, so there should be a lot of them there, right? This was what his chief of staff was thinking at the time.
"The west is the territory of the Japanese artillery. Are you looking for death by charging there? You don't think that the Japanese artillery can only hit four or five miles but not one or two miles, right?" Liu Cheng asked back.
His chief of staff could only respond with a "yes".
In fact, it didn't matter which direction they broke out from. They were now trapped in the dangerous city. Who knew which direction the Japanese army had deployed more troops?
At this time, just to the west of Ningyuan City, the Japanese artillerymen who had temporarily completed their shelling mission were resting.
But at this time, a Japanese soldier started screaming. When the other Japanese soldiers looked over, they saw that the Japanese soldier had turned around and was pointing to the west and shouting.
There is no need to look in the direction pointed by the Japanese soldier.
Just because it's so obvious.
All the Japanese soldiers saw a few wisps of light blue smoke rising from behind the low hill just a few hundred meters to the west.
The Type 92 infantry gun used by the Japanese artillery had a maximum range of about five miles, and the Northeast Army in the city had no guns, so when they fired into the city, they chose a distance that was neither too far nor too close - three miles away from Ningyuan City.
This is a valley surrounded by low hills.
Since they had only arrived here yesterday evening, as it was an artillery position, there were naturally guard posts around it.
However, the sentry was only placed on the hill behind the position. When the sentry looked west and saw that there were only hills, he did not take it seriously.
But now green smoke is rising from the other side of the hill. What is going on?
The Japanese commander thought for a moment and gave an order. He ordered six Japanese soldiers to check where the smoke was rising.
Of course, the number of Japanese troops besieging Ningyuan City was not small, but not too large either. Moreover, their artillery was several miles away from Ningyuan City. Why did they send so many soldiers?
Now there is only one squad of infantrymen protecting their Type 92 infantry gun, and the rest are artillerymen.
A Japanese squad is equivalent to a Chinese squad, with a full complement of only thirteen people.
The Japanese commander thought that sending five soldiers was enough.
Nowadays, most of the large and medium-sized cities in the three northeastern provinces have been occupied by the Japanese army. As the saying goes, "temper is cultivated", even the Japanese army besieging Ningyuan City now has only one squadron, and the others are puppet troops. The Japanese army is now very arrogant!
Led by a sergeant, five Japanese soldiers went towards the place where the green smoke rose. However, when they circled the hill in front, they found that the wisps of green smoke were still behind the hill in front.
This is a hill with dense forests. At this time, the Japanese army discovered that there was a winding mountain road in the forest, which they had not noticed at all.
The five Japanese soldiers kept some distance between themselves and continued to advance with their rifles in hand. When they climbed a high hill, they saw a dozen houses in the valley.
Only at this time did they realize that there was actually a small village here!
As the Japanese soldiers talked, they recalled that they had escorted the infantry gun to the open ground outside the hill yesterday evening, but they did not see any smoke rising behind them at that time.
I think the Chinese people didn't dare to light a fire after seeing the war breaking out here.
But they can't always eat cold rice, so today they couldn't help but start lighting a fire and cooking.
Seeing that the origin of the green smoke had been found out, the Japanese sergeant wanted to turn around and lead his men back, but at this moment a Japanese soldier pointed forward and shouted. The remaining Japanese soldiers followed his direction and saw a goat tied to a big tree in front of a farmhouse!
Several Japanese soldiers became excited at the same time. The sergeant waved his hand and left one soldier on the mountain to guard with a gun. The remaining four men walked down from the hill with guns.
Although it is wartime now, they naturally think that it is only a matter of time before Ningyuan City is captured. They don't mind taking advantage of the situation and plundering this small village with only a few households.
I'll just update three times today. If nothing goes wrong, it should be on the shelves soon. I always have to save some manuscripts for the next update.