However, this seemingly evenly matched situation did not last long. The Japanese army gradually gained the upper hand with its powerful firepower and precise shooting. The machine gunners of the Chinese army were killed one by one by the Japanese army, while the Hanyang-made machines of the Chinese army were also invincible.
On March 8th, in about half an hour, the number of Japanese troops, including those killed and wounded in the initial machine gun attack by the National Army, was only about 80, while the National Army had already lost more than 180 people.
"Lao She, you go to the regiment headquarters to ask for reinforcements. We may not be able to hold on for long!" Li Xiangyun watched as the soldiers in the trenches were killed one by one under the gunfire of the Japanese army. There were fewer and fewer soldiers on our side. As long as the Japanese army made another charge,
, the position will definitely be breached. And his words obviously meant that he wanted to leave the chance of survival to Xie Bochang, the commander of the 2nd company.
"No, Lao Li, you go. You are better at fighting than me, so you can stay useful and fight the Japanese!" Xie Bochang remained unmoved. After speaking, he grabbed a machine gun and ran a few steps towards the Japanese army. "
Little devil, come on, come here!"
"Bing hook!" Xie Bochang was shot in the abdomen by a Japanese soldier before he finished firing the bullets. Obviously, the guy who fired the shot was well hidden, and the sky was already very dark, so Xie Bochang had no precautions.
"Old Xie——" Li Xiangyun screamed in shock, flew forward and threw Xie Bochang down in the trench.
"Company Commander——" When the few remaining soldiers of the 2nd Company saw that the company commander had been shot, they rushed forward one after another...
"Look, the Japs are retreating..." At this moment, a soldier with good eyesight saw the Japs lying on the ground retreating back one after another. But at this time, there was no longer the sound of the Japs' "soldier hook".
Only the crooked machine gun still roared.
"Company commander, are you pursuing a pursuit?" Li Yiqian, commander of the 1st Platoon of the 4th Company, had an idea when he saw the Japanese retreating.
"Stop chasing. The Japanese were not seriously injured. Today, it was just their exploratory attack." After a little analysis, Li Xiangyun knew the Japanese army's plan.
In this small confrontation outside Teng County, the Japanese army lost more than 30 people and injured nearly 50 people; while the Chinese army lost more than 80 people and injured nearly 100 people. Among the dead were 2 platoon leaders. If the adjustment of machine gun positions is not considered,
In the future, the effective damage to the Japanese army will be greater, and the casualty ratio between the enemy and ourselves will be greater.
Perhaps, some people will think that the casualties of the Chinese army are less, and the combat effectiveness of the Japanese army has not yet been reflected. However, one fact must be noticed in the war, that is, under normal circumstances, the sacrifice of the attacking side is greater than that of the defensive side, because the defensive side
No matter how you say it, Fang has a convenient location and must have some advantages.
Moreover, the Japanese army did not use their heavy artillery and tanks in this small exploratory attack. It was a complete company-level battle. If it had not been too late, the Japanese army would not have been able to kill the national army on the ground.
If they were to kill everyone, it would be hard to say how many people from the two companies of the national army could survive this small battle.
…
The Japanese army is pressing forward with a large force this time, and the attack point is not just the county seat of Teng County. In fact, the combat mission of the Japanese 20th Division is to defeat or annihilate Deng Xihou's 22nd Army, capture Teng County, and then along the Weishan Mountains
, in the direction of Lincheng, joined forces with the 108th Division and the 110th Division in the Taierzhuang area, and then joined Yamashita Fengwen's Japanese 3rd Army to annihilate the main force of the Chinese army in the Xuzhou area.
Deng Xihou, a native of Yingshan, Sichuan, was previously one of the four major warlords in Sichuan (Liu Xiang, Liu Wenhui, Deng Xihou, Tian Songyao). After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, his army was reorganized into the 22nd Army and led his troops out of Sichuan to fight against Japan.
The 22nd Group Army has two armies, the 41st Army and the 45th Army. Deng Xihou serves as the commander of the group army and the commander of the 45th Army, and Sun Zhen serves as the deputy commander and concurrently the commander of the 41st Army.
Historically, Deng Xihou and Liu Xiang rushed to the aid of Shanxi, but in parallel time and space, Shanxi was not invaded by the Japanese on a large scale, so Deng Xihou's 22nd Army was sent to southern Shandong, and the Army Headquarters was located in Lincheng (beside Weishan Lake).
In this battle, the 122nd Division and the 123rd Division under the jurisdiction of the 41st Army were responsible for defending Tengxian County and its west side to Dushan Lake, while the 45th Army was responsible for defending the Shahe and Sangcun lines to the west of Tengxian County. The entire frontal defense width reached 30
kilometers or more.
Therefore, if the Japanese 20th Division wants to cross this defense line, Tengxian County, which is defended by Wang Mingzhang's 122nd Division, must be the focus of its attack. As long as it breaks through the defense of Tengxian County, the national army's defense line will be cut into two sections.
, thus unable to form a whole, and the various units of the 22nd Army will fall into a situation of fighting independently.
Regarding the task of the Fifth Theater Commander Li Zongren asking the 22nd Army to hold off the enemy on the front line in Tengxian for 5 days (it lasted for 3 days in real history), not only Deng Xihou had no confidence, but senior generals such as Sun Zhen and Wang Mingzhang also had no confidence.
Although the 22nd Army has almost 50,000 people, and the Japanese 20th Division is only half of the 22nd Army, the Japanese army's equipment cannot even catch up with the 22nd Army.
If the Central Army of the National Army, such as Tang Enbo's 20th Army Corps, came to defend the situation, the situation might be better; however, the 20th Army Corps is the ace army of the National Government, and in a decisive battle concerning the future of the nation, no commander will
Perhaps sending the ace troops to the battlefield first is not a matter of the commander trying to preserve his strength, but the embodiment of Tian Ji's "horse racing tactics" on the battlefield.
The national army first used miscellaneous troops to block and consume the main force of the Japanese army. When the miscellaneous troops were exhausted and unable to fight again, and the main Japanese force was exhausted, the national army would then attack with the main force, hoping to defeat or annihilate the Japanese army.
Such tactics cannot be said to be wrong. However, even if the national army uses its main force to confront the Japanese, it may not be able to achieve the planned strategic victory. To put it bluntly, it is still the gap between the overall national strength of China and Japan.
…
An exploratory battle in the evening caused heavy losses to the 122nd Division. It also made these Sichuan Army brothers feel for the first time the strength of the Japanese army and the difference between the National War and the Civil War. In the National War, even if the troops have finished fighting, they cannot take a step back;
War means bloodshed and sacrifice! As soon as Wang Mingzhang received the task of holding on to Tengxian County, he knew that among the entire 22nd Group Army, the 122nd Division would have the most arduous task and the greatest sacrifice.
However, there are no immortals in a war. As a soldier, you must have the awareness that "loyal bones are buried everywhere in the mountains, why return them wrapped in horse leather." Wang Mingzhang himself, as a man from the Sichuan Army, was also prepared to sacrifice.
After dark, Wang Mingzhang went to the rescue center to visit the injured soldiers. Although there were junior officers like Li Xiangyun who could fight, the huge casualties still made him feel quite heavy.
"Report to the division commander, someone is looking for you." Just when Wang Mingzhang returned to the division command post, the adjutant said suddenly.
"Someone is looking for you, who?" Wang Mingzhang instinctively thought that it was some of his brigade commanders and regimental commanders who could not withstand the fierce pressure of the battlefield and wanted to "ask for leave." What a fool, this battle hasn't even started yet!
"Tell him to come in!" Wang Mingzhang's tone was a bit unkind. He wanted to see which bastard wanted to escape.
"Colonel Xu, please come in!" the adjutant called out the door politely.
"Colonel Xu? How can there be a Colonel Xu in the 122nd Division?" Wang Mingzhang was a little confused.
"Reporting to General Wang, I am Xu Jingye, Colonel and Captain of the 2nd Brigade of the Lightning Force of the National Defense Forces. I am here to report to you on the orders of General Wu Aihua, Commander-in-Chief of the National Defense Forces!"
"National Defense Force? Lightning Force? Xu Jingye?" Wang Mingzhang was shocked, but asked coldly, "What are you doing here? This is a battlefield!"
"General Wang, these are the weapons and ammunition given to your department personally approved by Commander-in-Chief Wu." Xu Jingye was not angry because of Wang Mingzhang's indifference, but took out a "gift list" that he had prepared long ago.
"8 75mm German Krupp mountain guns, 12 37mm Japanese anti-tank guns, 24 60-guns, 200 submachine guns, and 3 basic ammunition for each weapon..." Wang Mingzhang read word by word, and finished.
Then he glanced at Xu Jingye and said, "On behalf of the 22nd Army, I would like to thank Commander-in-Chief Wu!" Then he said to the adjutant: "Adjutant, send these weapons to the army headquarters!"
These weapons did not include squad machine guns. Until recently, squad machine guns were still secret weapons of the National Defense Forces. Although a small number may have fallen into the hands of the Japanese army, Wu Aihua still did not include squad machine guns in the catalog of weapons traded or donated.
Xu Jingye took a look at Wang Mingzhang's arrangement and said: "General Wang, General Deng Xihou, we have another gift list, which is specially given to the 122nd Division."
"Is there another gift list?" Wang Mingzhang was silent. What is Wu Aihua doing? Is he trying to win over me or the Sichuan Army? If so, do you want these things or not? But, if you don't, these things are the devils.
nemesis!
Wang Mingzhang was caught in a dilemma and remained silent for a while.
This time, Xu Jingye and Chen Dajun, captain of the 3rd Brigade, led nearly 400 people from the two brigades deep into the 5th theater. Delivering weapons to the Sichuan Army was just one of their small tasks.
These weapons are the result of the "Fengqing Bureau"'s layout across the country in the past two years, especially in areas that may be occupied by the Japanese army. The weapons Xu Jingye took out this time are located in the secret warehouse built by the "Fengqing Bureau" deep in Yimeng Mountain.
As for the collection, if they were asked to transport the 75mm mountain cannon directly from the south to Lunan, it would be killing a chicken with a sledgehammer and overkilling the material.
The real mission of the two special operations brigades is the same as the previous mission on the Shanghai-Nanjing front line, which is to cooperate with the intelligence agents of the Fengqi Bureau to find out the location of the Japanese army's baggage, artillery and armored units, and then provide the intelligence to the air force at the northern base of the National Defense Forces.
The strategy that the Air Force will adopt is still night bombing on the ground. Because it is easier to lock the target at night. If the target is bombed during the day, there will be a time lag between the intelligence and the arrival of the aircraft, and the target can move at any time, making it easier for the Air Force to lose the target.
.And at night, the Japanese are usually sleeping peacefully, and the planes will be blown up accurately.
By the way, the Japanese think that if the aircraft is equipped with radar, it can take off for night operations. In fact, this is just a fantasy. At present, even the National Defense Forces Air Force can only carry out night bombing, and it also needs firelight guidance; as for taking off at night,
The conditions for combat are simply not met now. Even the so-called all-weather fighter jets of later generations will have their combat effectiveness greatly reduced on rainy days and at night.