The independent 46th Brigade and the First Division of the Fourth Army Regiment arrived in Yuncheng and launched a siege against Yuncheng.
This should be the largest counterattack China launched against the Japanese army in the Battle of Zhongtiao Mountain. According to the battle report of the West Turbulence Detachment of the 4th Division responsible for defending the city, the Chinese used at least 16 75-caliber guns from 7:00 to 9:00
Mountain artillery and more than 40 mortars of various calibers shelled the city wall area.
The artillery brigade affiliated with the West Assault Detachment in the city launched a resolute counterattack against the Chinese. During the two-hour artillery battle, both sides threw more than 2,000 artillery shells.
According to the recollections of a heavy transport soldier from the 5th Division after the war, the two-hour shelling was the most terrifying battlefield he had ever seen in his life.
The Chinese artillery shells fell like raindrops, accurately landing inside and outside the city wall, easily demolishing the city wall that was 5 meters high and more than 2 meters thick. If it weren't for the extremely wise foresight of the then top commander in the city, Okuma Konosuke, on the Chinese side,
Before the war started, most of the defenders were ordered to retreat to residential areas. In this round of shelling alone, hundreds of thousands of imperial officers and soldiers would die in the Chinese artillery fire.
The powerful heavy firepower of the Chinese was only the beginning of the tragedy for the Yuncheng defenders. At about 9 a.m., a violent explosion that was many decibels higher than the loud bang that sounded in the early morning was heard in the south of the city.
Most of the soldiers and ordinary Chinese people in Yuncheng were stunned by the loud noise.
The windows of all the houses in the direction of Nancheng were broken by the earthquake, and more than 30 houses a hundred meters close to the city wall were destroyed, as if they had experienced a major earthquake.
At the moment when they felt that the sandbag bunker they were in was shaking and seemed to be collapsing, many Japanese soldiers ran out of the bunker and stood in the open area regardless of the shells that might hit them.
In fact, the Japanese soldiers living on the islands had more experience with natural disasters such as earthquakes than the Chinese. It was a fear engraved in their bones.
The Japanese army committed empiricism. It was not an earthquake, but it was definitely an event more terrifying than an earthquake.
That was a dynamite explosion!
The Chinese vented artillery fire for a full 2 hours, but it turned out that it was just to cover up their crazy digging underground.
The Chinese stuffed an unknown amount of explosives into that tunnel and actually caused a man-made earthquake.
That is the result that 500 kilograms of 'cyclone explosive' can achieve. Let alone blowing through a solid city wall, even a 6,000-ton destroyer here will be blown up in half.
In other words, the tunnel did not have time to dig under the city wall, and instead exploded underground about seven or eight meters away from the city wall, but this was still terrifying enough.
A gap more than fifty meters wide was opened in the city wall toward the south city. Hundreds of tons of sand, gravel and earth were thrown into the sky and hit hard inside and outside the city, causing hundreds of houses to be smashed to pieces.
Although there were more than 300 people in a baggage squadron belonging to the Fifth Division responsible for garrisoning the area, most of them retreated to the second line of defense that had been deployed 70 to 80 meters behind the city wall when the artillery fire came.
But no one expected that they had escaped the rain of Chinese artillery shells, but they had not escaped the massive "high-altitude rock rippling". The countless mud was mixed with more than ten kilograms or even tens of kilograms of stone.
It appears extremely fragile under the acceleration of gravity, let alone the fragile human body.
It was like a fly meeting a fly swatter. As long as it hits, there will be a puddle of meat on the ground!
There were more than 300 people in this round of explosions, and only less than a small team survived.
The heavy soldier of the 5th Division who had the opportunity to recount his personal experience ran wildly on his own position after the explosion as if he was crazy.
Not to escape, but to find fellow Hiroshima residents who are still alive.
What soldiers fear most on the battlefield is not death, but loneliness!
All the familiar people have died, and I am the only one left. The loneliness that is cold to the bone, people who have not experienced it personally will never be able to understand it.
In the past, this was a patent reserved for Chinese military personnel.
Watching his comrades who were as close as brothers dying one by one in front of him, watching the enemy approaching step by step, the lonely soldier looked at the surrounding enemy troops with tears in his eyes, and pulled the string of the grenade at his waist.
At that moment, death seemed suddenly not so scary, but rather a kind of warmth and happiness.
Now, it is finally the Japanese's turn.
Unfortunately, the lonely Japanese soldier did not find a colleague or fellow villager in the ruins with whom he could vent his anger until he was pulled away by a colleague who came from a hundred meters away.
Five minutes later, about an infantry company of Chinese soldiers rushed into the city wall.
However, they did not rush to attack the city. Instead, they established a cover position first and steadily. In the end, more than 600 Chinese soldiers entered the city wall.
Brutal street fighting is about to break out.
During these more than two hours, except for the defenders in Yuncheng who were suffering passive beatings, the Japanese army also made efforts in other directions.
For example, on the front line of Nakatiao Mountain, under the strict orders of Shiro Itagaki, war broke out in the hundreds of miles of mountains again. Even Yamada Seiichi, whose face was beaten and swollen, brazenly launched another attack on Sizhou Mountain.
It's just that the scale is no longer as large as before. The attack line exceeding 5,000 meters can contain no more than a thousand Japanese infantry at most.
For the soldiers of the Sichuan Army's new regiment who had experienced the impact of 3,000 soldiers, this intensity was just a warm-up level.
Nowadays, many soldiers no longer even hold their guns tightly and wait in the trenches with nervous faces. They just wait for the squad and platoon leaders to blow the iron whistle, and then lie down in panic on the edge of the trench, facing a burst of chaos below.
until the gun is empty of bullets.
Most of them now have their guns next to them, waiting silently until the order sounds, and then some of them lie down in the trench, aim at the 'shit yellow' they can see, and then pull the trigger.
Others calmly unscrewed the back covers of the grenades placed in the trenches, placed them one by one within their reach, and waited for their brothers lying in the trenches to loudly announce the distance.
"120 meters, 80 meters, 70 meters"
The soldiers bent up again, pulled the strings, and threw the grenades down the mountain one by one. They didn't care whether they were throwing accurately or not. What they had to do was to throw all the grenades on their hands into the air.
There is no need for rear artillery fire to cover the front of the battlefield. With this extremely tacit cooperation, the soldiers in the frontline trenches rely on a small number of machine guns and single-shot rifles and grenades in the hands of the infantry, which is enough to form a barrier that is insurmountable for the Japanese infantry.
barrier.
With very few casualties, the attacking Japanese troops were driven down the hillside.
After nearly a week of tempering in the flames of war, they are no longer new recruits.
If the recruits are like a piece of steel from the day they leave their hometown, then the long march and the battle of Tongguan are like smelting, allowing the soldiers to see the cruelty of war with their own eyes and abandon the trace of luck in their hearts; and the cruel Si
The Zhoushan Defense War is about tempering, putting these soldiers in the flames of war and hammering them repeatedly until those who survive know how they survived, and sharp blades have gradually formed.
The Sichuan Army at this time may not be considered a strong army, but its combat effectiveness has increased instead of decreasing compared to a week ago. If Yamada Seiichi wants to capture the outer positions like before, the price he has to pay may be even greater than two days ago.
Much.
But obviously, the arrogant Yamada Seiichi was like an eggplant beaten by frost at this time - withered! The tactical purpose of his attack was not to conquer, but to involve him.
Yes, it sounds incredible, but it is true.
The majestic Empire of Japan has more than 100,000 troops stationed here, not to capture the city, but to hold back the Chinese soldiers in the mountains. Any Japanese general with a bit of shame may have the urge to wipe his neck.
But the extremely thick-skinned Shiro Itagaki didn't think so. In his eyes, face was not important. What was important was that as the commander of an army of hundreds of thousands, he could not lose in this battle.
If the 'New Year's Day Offensive' launched from the base camp is victorious, he has an 80% chance of being promoted to Army General and becoming the new commander of the North China Front. If the expected results cannot be achieved, he will be able to continue to serve as the commander of the Third Army. However,
If he fails, I'm afraid he will lose the trust of the base camp.
And Yuncheng is the key to the victory of this Zhongtiao Mountain battle.
As the supreme commander of the front line, although he did not know much about the combat effectiveness of the 4th Division, he could never place his victory or defeat on an "injury-free imperial army".
Therefore, on the one hand, he issued six military orders to let Daxiong Xingzhi defend Yuncheng to the death; on the other hand, he actively mobilized troops.
The tactical purpose of this daytime attack was simply to intimidate the Chinese troops in the Zhongtiao Mountains so that they did not dare to act rashly, and secretly, one infantry brigade after another quietly left the front line.
By noon, the 3rd and 4th Independent Mixed Brigade and an infantry group of the 5th Mixed Brigade had a total of 7 infantry brigades, two cavalry regiments, two artillery brigades with a total of 32 artillery pieces, and two tank squadrons with a total of 28
tanks completed their assembly 100 miles away from Yuncheng.
He personally appointed the commander of the independent 3rd independent mixed brigade, Major General Genichi Tamura, as the first commander and ordered his troops to divide into two groups to attack the Yuncheng battlefield.
There are more than 8,000 infantry and cavalry, plus auxiliary arms such as artillery, armor, and accompanying troops. The size of this Japanese army composed of three mixed brigades is as high as 20,000. The total strength of this unit alone is already
It far exceeds the current Independent 46th Brigade and the Lengfeng Division of the Fourth Army Regiment. If the 6,000 Japanese troops in Yuncheng are added, the strength will definitely be more than double.
And Shiro Itagaki did an excellent job of keeping secrets, but the Chinese side didn't notice anything unusual.
But having said that, even if an abnormality is detected, the main Chinese force is powerless. Basically, they can only watch the Japanese army viciously pounce on the army that they have fought hard to break out of the encirclement.
Shiro Itagaki did his best to deploy infantry, and Japan's North China Air Force also tried its best to provide support to Yuncheng. The bomber formation of up to 36 fighters was divided into three rounds and debuted at about 8:30.
Fortunately, the Fourth Army Regiment has always attached great importance to air defense. The 12 7mm anti-aircraft machine guns and 12 Sulotong 20mm machine guns that followed the artillery troops were deployed on several highlands about 7 miles away from Yuncheng, although they were not enough.
It is still possible to complete a tough ground-to-air counterattack but make the Japanese aircraft extremely wary.
Most of the Japanese planes dropped bombs on the ground at an altitude of 1,500 meters. For example, on the Zhongtiao Mountain battlefield, the Japanese planes flew over the top of the mountain with their belly almost touching the top of the mountain and fired at the Chinese trenches with their onboard machine guns. This did not happen here at all.
All the machine guns have been replaced with explosive bombs, which declare that the 1,000-meter-high altitude is a no-fly zone!
However, although most of the bombs were thrown by Xiang Jiba, they also caused nearly a hundred casualties among the 46th Independent Brigade and the Fourth Army Regiment. Even the mountain artillery positions had to cease fire for 20 minutes to avoid Japanese bombings.
This also made Tang Dao deeply aware of the lack of ground-to-air firepower. The 20mm machine gun could no longer meet the needs of the four-row regiment for air defense. The German 40mm anti-aircraft anti-aircraft gun had become a necessity.
Fortunately, Rostav had already replied to Tang Dao before New Year's Day, and 48 40mm anti-aircraft guns were about to arrive at the port of Jincheng. They would definitely arrive at the Fengfeng Coal Mine outside Handan City before the Chinese Lunar New Year.
There is also good news from the No. 1 Laboratory led by Grunov. The 4-unit 7mm heavy machine gun proposed by Tang Dao has also begun mass production. By the time of the Lunar New Year, it can also be shipped to Dakouzidong Town.
About 60 doors.
As long as the "motorcycle three-wheel" accessories promised by the little foreign girl can be delivered before the New Year, Cheng Tieshou's air defense company will undergo a comprehensive "shotgun-for-cannon" level upgrade.
By then, a low-altitude defense fire network of 1,200 meters or below consisting of 32 4-mounted 7 mm heavy machine guns, a medium-altitude defense fire network of 1,200 to 2,500 meters consisting of 24 20 mm machine guns, and a 2,500- to 2,500-meter-to-meter anti-aircraft defense network of 24 40 mm anti-aircraft guns will be deployed.
The 4,000-meter high-altitude defensive firepower network will become a three-dimensional air defense network above the heads of the infantry of the four-row regiment.
Moreover, with the "Sanbengzi" designed by Tang Tuanzuo himself, which can be used as a weapon platform and a vehicle for carrying artillery, the mobility of the air defense company will become the strongest existence of the Si Xing Regiment.
That is to say, the issue of fuel is a bit thorny, but Tang Dao has already had a plan for this, and has basically reached an agreement with the Eightyth Army Headquarters.
The Fourth Bank will use food and weapons and equipment for trade exchanges. The only oil field in China controlled by the Eightyth Army in the northwest will provide the Fourth Bank with 300 barrels of gasoline and diesel every month. If it were not for the Japanese New Year's Day offensive, the first batch of 300
The barrel of oil should have arrived at Dakouzidong Town.
Although the quantity is still a bit small, as the Fourth Army currently only has a hundred trucks that cannot travel far, a Japanese 89 tank mainly used for training, and a hundred "three-bouncers" that are still in the imagination,
It's basically enough.
If it's not enough, what are the Japanese? The one who robbed him was Tang Tuanzuo, who was also the deputy director of a certain public office and the magistrate of Licheng County, but he never ignored the Japanese troops in these counties.
If it weren't for this New Year's Day offensive carried out by the Japanese in advance, would Tang Tuanzu still be planning to spend the New Year in Licheng County?
Anyway, as long as these planned things come true, Cheng Tietshou will truly become a tough guy.
The Japanese aircraft did not have three squadrons risking their lives to penetrate the ground, and if they could rely on luck to drop bombs on the heads of the infantrymen of the Fourth Line Regiment, it would never happen again.
As for January 15th, both Shiro Itagaki and Yuan Sugisugi tried their best to help the Japanese troops in Yuncheng who had been fighting for a long time.
But this did not prevent the defeat of the Japanese army in Yuncheng!
First, the Chinese side used blasting to break through the city walls of Nancheng. The Japanese defenders suffered more than 400 casualties. Although they were basically heavy troops from other divisions left in Yuncheng, these were also soldiers under Mr. Okuma Yukinosuke, weren't they?
Major General Okuma Konosuke was extremely sad and listed it in the battle report and reported it to Itagaki Shiro.
After the war, Shiro Itagaki went to inspect Yuncheng, which was almost riddled with holes. Looking at the gap in the city wall that was tens of meters wide, he could only lament that the supply squadron of his division was almost completely destroyed. It was fate.
Major General Okuma Konosuke really tried his best. When the city wall was breached, he had already placed 2,300 of his infantry at strategic locations in the city, intending to engage in the most brutal street fighting with the Chinese.
That can not only defend the city, but also achieve the purpose of delaying tactics secretly planned by Itagaki Shiro, dragging the nearly 10,000-strong Chinese army in Yuncheng and waiting for a counterattack from the army that is rushing towards here a hundred miles away.
surrounded.
But what no one expected was that the Chinese were not fooled. Instead of rushing to conquer the entire city, they used small groups of troops to carry out infiltration attacks on Yuncheng at night, just like a pack of wolves surrounding a flock of sheep.
Faced with this tactic of beating the old master to death with random punches, the Japanese troops in the city finally showed their flaws. Three warehouses storing large amounts of food burst into flames, and two ammunition depots containing ammunition were hit by Chinese mortars, causing big explosions.
.
The originally pitch-black night sky was actually completely lit up. No flares were needed at all. Soldiers from both sides could clearly see each other's features from a hundred meters away.
The Chinese stopped their offensive in the middle of the night.
With the blessing of gasoline, the fire burned for a day and a night. The water poured over by the pots and pans brought by the fire-fighting team of hundreds of people organized by Okuma Konosuke quickly turned into steam, and then formed mist when it encountered cold air, filling the whole place.
The city's fog makes the small Yuncheng look like a legendary fairyland.
Although it is tragic, the good news is that the Chinese escaped.
Not only the Chinese who invaded the city disappeared, but also the Chinese outside the city disappeared. This was the news brought back to the Yuncheng headquarters by the brave reconnaissance leaders of the West Tuo Detachment who risked their lives.
The Battle of Yuncheng ended in such an almost paradoxical way.
When Shiro Itagaki received the news in the early morning of January 16, he pulled out a knife and smashed the coffee table into pieces.
The most important thing in Yuncheng is supplies. I want that ruined city with only a few hairs to be useful?
"Baga! Send an order to Tamura, find the Chinese, surround them, and destroy them at all costs, no matter what the cost." Shiro Itagaki's roar could be heard a hundred meters away.
After issuing the military order, Shiro Itagaki sat down on the old wooden chair with a slump on his face!
He knew very well that with the disappearance of millions of military rations, the battle at Zhongtiao Mountain was almost over.
And the existence or not of the sudden rise of the Chinese army has become his final salvation after losing this battle.
