The Japanese offensive against the Nanxun Line was quite unsatisfied from the beginning. Before the Matsuura Division could even launch an offensive against the National Army on the front of the Nanxun Line, a considerable number of staff reductions occurred. What caused the Matsuura Division to lose staff was not the National Army's bullets or the Chinese Air Force's bombing, but the humid and sultry climate in the Poyang Lake area.

The Matsuura Division was a temporary special division. It was based on the local personnel left behind in the Di Pei Regiment and was replenished into the reserve service. The organization took less than two months. After the troops were brought to Jiujiang, Okamura Yasuji transferred a group of experienced officers from various combat divisions to supplement the 10th Di Pei Regiment.

Such a division, even officers and soldiers are not familiar with each other, so it is necessary to conduct certain training.

But the Poyang Lake area is not an ideal training place. July is the hottest time of the year. The sun is scorching during the day, and countless mosquitoes and flies at night. The huge Poyang Lake continuously evaporates a large amount of water vapor. The entire lake and riverside area are like a huge sauna, which can really kill people.

As a result, the epidemic inevitably broke out. Every day, dozens or hundreds of people fell down due to illness. Four field hospitals were overcrowded. If they were not too sick, they were not qualified to lie on the bed of the field hospital. In the end, they even died of illness. Hundreds of fanatical fishermen from Kumamoto and Shimagoshima Island had realized their wish to sacrifice for His Majesty the Emperor before they could even shoot a shot. The soul returned to Japan Island.

Of course, this small reduction in staff will definitely not shake Matsuura Junroro, nor will it shake Okamura.

After a brief training, the Matsuura Division launched a fierce attack on the Xue Yue corps on the front of the Nanxun Line. The Jinguanqiao was the first to be attacked by the Matsuura Division, and the 4th Army guarding the Jinguanqiao position was Ou Zhen's 4th Army.

This 4th Army is the 4th Army of the Iron Army, which was invincible in the Northern Expedition, and was invincible in the attack. Although the times changed and personnel changed, the steadfast character of the Northern Expedition Iron Army was still there. The current commander of the 4th Army, Ou Zhen, was the battalion commander of the Ye Ting Independent Regiment who made great achievements in the Northern Expedition, Pingjiang, Tingsi Bridge, He Shengqiao, Ou Zhen was invincible and could not win without fighting. He attacked Wuchang, and Ou Zhen was the first to climb to the head of Wuchang City.

Such an iron army, such an iron-strong general, is certainly not easy to mess with.

At the beginning, Junroro Matsuura seemed arrogant and did not take the national army seriously. This Japanese family came from a very high profile. He thought that Seishiro Sakagaki could conquer most of North China with half of the division, and Kenji Doihara could conquer the Central Plains with one division, so Junroro Matsuura could not defeat the opposite Xue Yue army.

However, as soon as we fought, Junroro Matsuura immediately realized that he was too optimistic. The Kuomintang army had been operating in the northwest foothills of Mount Lu fortifications for more than a month. Not only did it dig hundreds of kilometers of trenches and fortifications, but it also built a large number of light and dark bunkers. What's worse, the Chinese army's combat experience was also richer than that of the Matsuura Division. In the outpost battle, the Matsuura Division had never taken advantage of it.

Since the Battle of Songhu, the 4th Army has been training in Ningguo, Jiangxi Province, since it has fought the Battle of Songhu, can there be no rich experience?

Outpost battle, also known as sentry battles, before the war, both sides will send small groups of troops to infiltrate into the opponent's front, spy on intelligence, or engage in sabotage. Anyway, it will disturb the enemy as much as possible, weaken the combat effectiveness of the opponent's troops as much as possible, and reduce the pressure on the offensive or defense of the troops.

The scale of the outpost battle is not large, usually one team with more than a dozen people, but the number of teams is added up every day. The Matsuura Division always suffers losses in the outpost battle, and the accumulated casualties should not be underestimated. Usually there are more than 100 casualties every day. Junjiro Matsuura was so angry that he screamed, but he was helpless.

The Matsuura Division attacked Kinguan Bridge for more than ten days, with more than 2,000 casualties, but not even the first line of defense had been broken through. This result made Matsuura Junroro unable to accept it. Although Okamura Neji didn't say anything, this silent blame made Matsuura Junrororo even more uncomfortable. He seemed to see Okamura Neji standing in front of him, looking at him with the cold eyes behind his glasses, as if he was saying: Matsuura San, you disappoint me so much.

Junroro Matsuura was so angry that he decided to use erosion gas.

Erosion and poisonous gas are chemical weapons, and international conventions are explicitly prohibited, but Japan does not care about these things at all. At that time, Britain and France had completely turned to Germany and adopted more appeasement policies against Japan. If the United States had no other country to awaken, it would probably never get out of the policy of isolation. As for the Soviet Union, it was powerless, so Japan was unscrupulous. International conventions were simply waste paper in the eyes of Japanese politicians.

As early as the Battle of Baoshan in the Battle of Shanghai, the Japanese army used chemical weapons, but it was still in the experimental stage at that time, so it was not used on a large scale in actual combat. However, a year later, the Japanese army's chemical weapons had made great progress, such as tear gas, mustard seed poison gas, phosgene, and erbian hydrogen sap began to be used on a large scale.

The fortifications of the 4th Army of Ou Zhen were very strongly constructed. They persisted in the face of the bombing of Japanese naval guns, field artillery groups and aviation troops. However, even the strongest fortifications could not block the poison gas. When one round after another of the poison gas bombs fell on the position without immediately exploded, they just smoked, and the officers and soldiers of the 4th Army even regarded it as duds.

The result was extremely tragic and unprepared 4th Army officers and soldiers were severely injured. Hundreds of officers and soldiers died directly from poison gas, and thousands of officers and soldiers fell into shock. The Japanese army wearing gas masks easily broke through the defensive positions of the 59th Division and the 90th Division of the 4th Army, and killed the shocked officers and soldiers one by one with bayonets.

The 4th Army suffered a severe blow, and Ou Zhen had no choice but to shrink his defense line and use the advantage of Lushan to rebuild his positions in the lines of Diaojiawa, Zhujiashan, Laohukan and Kongjiashan.

The Japanese followed and used erosive poison gas again. The 4th Army suffered a large number of casualties again. However, this time the 4th Army did not continue to retreat. Even Ou Zhen also stepped onto the front line with his helmet. The officers and soldiers of the 4th Army united and finally blocked the offensive of the Matsuura Division across the river.

It was almost evening, and the Japanese army finally retreated, but the stench in the air had not yet dissipated.

The commander of the 4th Army, Ou Zhen, quietly arrived at the position of the 59th Division. As soon as the battle ended, the entire position fell into death silence. The extremely tired officers fell asleep leaning against the trenches. There was a small officer carrying the rank of lieutenant, holding a cigarette in his mouth, and the red ashes fell into his chest and could not wake him up.

No one noticed Ou Zhen's arrival, and all the officers and soldiers fell asleep. At this moment, perhaps only the front-line guard posts of the position were still awake, and they were still monitoring the little Japan in front of them with their vigilant eyes. As an elite army that came out of blood and fire, the officers and soldiers of the 4th Army would never relax their vigilance at any time.

Ou Zhen passed through the winding traffic trench and his eyes suddenly became clear.

However, the scene in front of Ou Zhen made him unable to bear to see it. This was a temporary battlefield rescue station. Rows of wounded soldiers were lying on the wet and dirty mud. Most of the wounded soldiers had their faces, hands, necks and skin were eroded, and they looked extremely scary. Some wounded were moaning moaning, but more, they were gone.

In just a moment, Ou Zhen saw the medical soldiers covering the dozen wounded soldiers with shrouds.

Zhang Deneng, the commander of the 59th Division, was visiting the wounded at the battlefield ambulance station, but when he looked up, he saw Ou Zhen.

"Staff, why are you here?" Zhang Deneng came forward and took a gas mask from the adjutant and handed it to Ou Zhen. He said with concern, "The mustard gas here has not yet dissipated, so the squad should wear this one."

The first ten German-armed divisions formed by the National Army were standard equipment. Later, the forty-nine adjustment divisions equipped with equipment saved some luxury equipment such as gas masks. As for troops like the 4th Army, they had never been equipped. The gas mask that Zhang Deneng held was still seized from a Japanese.

Ou Zhen gently pushed open the gas mask handed over by Zhang Deneng and asked, "What is the casualties in the army?"

Zhang Deneng sighed and fell into a long silence. Ou Zhen did not urge him. He just looked at Zhang Deneng without saying anything. Zhang Deneng squatted down with his head in his arms, and burst into tears. A man of big and thick, a soldier with iron, and a general with a thousand words in command, was like a helpless child at this moment.

The chief of staff of the 59th Division came forward and choked and said to Ou Zhen: "Military, our division includes the teacher's husband, groom, medical and military communications soldiers and staff, and all of them are less than 500." As he said that, the chief of staff knelt down at Ou Zhen again, and begged loudly, "Military, please leave some seeds for our 59th Division."

Ou Zhen closed his eyelids hard and endured them so that tears did not burst out. He knew that the 59th Division was fighting hard in front, but he didn't know that the 59th Division was so hard. He knew that the 59th Division suffered a great casualties, but he didn't know that the 59th Division was so heavy that the remaining personnel of the entire division could not gather a whole battalion.

But Ou Zhen cannot be soft-hearted, even if the 59th Division fights to the last soldier, he cannot be soft-hearted.

Just like the 4th Army was placed at the forefront of the entire outer eight-character formation by Xue Yue, even if the whole army fought for nothing, Commander-in-Chief Xue would not frown. This has nothing to do with cruelty, nor is it cold-blooded, but... the price that the entire country and the entire nation must pay is the same thing, war is destined to die, and whoever is stuck is who.

Zhang Deneng's crying loudly and the begging of the Chief of Staff of the 59th Division failed to change Ou Zhen's decision after all. Opening his eyelids, Ou Zhen has recovered from his usual Leng Jun. He said to Zhang Deneng who was holding his head and crying: "I have brought it to the Military Guard Battalion, so I will add it to your 59th Division, but the 5th review... ¨ cannot be withdrawn."
Chapter completed!