Chapter 35: Luring the Enemy Deep, the Battle Begins

Over a thousand Central Army soldiers immediately sprang into action, embarking on a forced march to pursue the Red Army troops ahead.

The cavalry scouts who had just returned were sent back out to shadow the Red Army unit and confirm the size of the enemy force once more. They were now certain: there were only three hundred of them. Burdened with significant supplies and moving at a sluggish pace, they looked very much like a Red Army logistics unit.

What the cavalry did not know was that the main force of the Red 18th Regiment was waiting just ahead of this seemingly slow-moving detachment.

When Luo Rucheng heard it was a logistics unit, his eyes lit up with greed. Everything they captured would be his—or at least, he would only have to offer a small tribute to his superiors. Fired up by the thought, he ordered his combat troops to leave their own supply train behind and press forward with a light-infantry forced march to overtake the enemy.

Although there was still a distance between them, the Nationalist forces were relentless. It was clear that they were rapidly closing the gap on the heavily burdened Red Army unit. After a day and a night of pursuit, Luo Rucheng’s men were within two kilometers of the enemy. They could even see the Red Army soldiers abandoning their supplies in a desperate attempt to pick up speed. Upon reaching the abandoned gear, they discovered that much of it consisted of food rations. This delighted Luo Rucheng; only dire circumstances would force these people to discard their most precious supplies.

"Brothers, pick up the pace! We’ll catch this lot before sunset!" Luo Rucheng bellowed. His seven hundred soldiers were equally bloodthirsty, sensing a massive windfall and a chance to feast on a fat prize. Meanwhile, Luo Rucheng ordered his cavalry to harass the enemy from a distance to slow them down until his main force arrived.

The cavalry closed in and began firing their rifles at the Red Army column. After a few exchanges, the Red Army "supply unit" stopped. They circled their supply carts on a hillside and dug in, seemingly resigned to their fate and prepared for a final stand. Seeing them take up positions on the hillside, Luo Rucheng was ecstatic.

"It seems these Red bandits know they can't run anymore. Men, charge now before they find their footing! If we wait for them to dig trenches, it’ll be a nightmare to break them."

As Luo Rucheng urged his men on, their morale soared, and they pressed toward the barricade of carts. The prudent move would have been to wait for the rest of his main force to arrive, but Luo Rucheng feared that if he waited, he wouldn't even get a sip of the broth, let alone swallow the whole prize. Time was of the essence; he intended to wipe them out before dark.

Luo Rucheng’s troops soon reached the base of the hill, where they quickly set up machine gun nests after a brief reconnaissance. In reality, this so-called "Red Army logistics battalion" was the core of Qi Delong’s First Battalion, comprised mostly of hardened veterans and promising recruits from previous engagements. The supplies they carried were a ruse; the wooden crates were filled with pre-packed sandbags, which they had already stacked into a sturdy, circular defensive perimeter. Though they were on a hillside with a steep cliff at their backs—preventing any rear-flank assault—their retreat was also cut off, leaving them in a "fight to the death" scenario.

Yet, neither Qi Delong nor his men showed a hint of panic. Their apparent lack of heavy weaponry was a deception. Once the sandbags were set, soldiers who had previously appeared to be carrying nothing but rifles pulled Czech light machine guns, Maxim guns, submachine guns, and crates of hand grenades from the wooden boxes. These weapons remained hidden behind the sandbags, invisible to the Nationalist troops below.

"Commander, something isn't right," his adjutant cautioned. "I just took a look—they have a lot of sandbags. They’re fortifying their position much faster than we expected."

Luo Rucheng was puzzled. Why would a logistics unit carry so many pre-filled sandbags? Was it a trap? But then he thought of the white rice the enemy had abandoned, and his resolve hardened. "They must be a grain transport unit. Those sandbags were likely prepared in advance to deal with unexpected emergencies."

He could not stand by and watch his fat prize be gobbled up by the main force trailing behind him; that would be worse than death. "Begin the assault!"

After a brief preparation, he gave the order, noticing that the enemy had already started digging foxholes. If he waited any longer, they might even build communication trenches.

Luo Rucheng was unaware that on two hillsides flanking his position, three thousand soldiers of the Red 18th Regiment were already prepared for battle. Long Wencheng lowered his binoculars as he watched the Nationalist troops charge up the slope. "It’s begun. Old Lin, take the cavalry and ambush the enemy's supply train in the rear."

"Yes, sir!" Lin Tong received the order and immediately led a hundred cavalry scouts to strike the Nationalist supply train—which Luo Rucheng had left unguarded in the rear in his rush to pursue.

High on the ridge, Qi Delong peered through a gap in the sandbags, watching the Nationalist troops draw closer with a look of disdain. "These Central Army troops don't even have artillery," he muttered, ordering his men to hold their fire until his signal.

The first wave of Nationalist soldiers numbered nearly two hundred. Their light and heavy machine guns in the rear began "overhead fire" when they were still a hundred meters out, showering the defensive perimeter with bullets.

*Rat-tat-tat! Thud! Thud!* Bullets slammed into the wooden carts and sandbags with dull thuds. As the Nationalist force drew closer—within forty meters of the line—the silent sandbags suddenly bristled with the muzzles of hidden guns.