Chapter 1426 The Japanese armys heart-wrenching punch!
Finally, after the Niuchangpo battlefield had been scorched black by Japanese aircraft and artillery, and the Yegou detachment had suffered thousands of infantry casualties, the 231st Infantry Regiment finally launched the first wave of strong attacks.
On that day, under the command of Yamada Masakichi, the Japanese army used 36 mountain guns, 6 infantry guns, and 6 mortars, a total of 48 artillery pieces to launch artillery attacks on Zhujiaping No. 3, 8, 11, and 13 positions.
At the same time, more than 36 Japanese planes arrived over Zhujiaping an hour after the bombardment began, using incendiary bombs and poison gas bombs to carpet-bomb the mountains and forests in the Zhujiaping area.
The Japanese aircraft fleet was so huge that even the division commander surnamed Hu at the 11th Division headquarters 18 kilometers away could see it.
Although the pressure faced by the 11th Division is extremely huge, 9,000 Japanese troops have broken through the first line of defense of Shipai Fortress, directly threatening the second line of defense. If they break through again, they will reach the final central defense area, but they have been paying attention to the battlefields on the left and right wings.
The commander surnamed Hu, who was in the middle of the battle, still sent a message to Tang Dao, asking if the Four Elements Regiment needed air support.
If Tang Dao said it was necessary, then the division commander surnamed Hu would rather give up the Chinese Air Force's support for the Shipai Central Defense Area promised by Commander Chen surnamed him, and instead let the Air Force fighter planes go to the Sixings Regiment Defense Area to drive away the Japanese bombers.
That was because the division commander surnamed Hu knew very well that the central defense area was very important. If his 11th Division could not withstand the Japanese army's central breakthrough, the entire Shipai Fortress would fall. However, the Japanese army's tactical intentions had long been obvious. The central breakthrough depended on the battle situation.
If it can be done, then do it; if it is not, then the most elite main divisions currently deployed by China on the battlefield will be firmly contained and a large number of effective killings will be carried out. The battlefields on the two wings and rear wings are the real direction for the Japanese army to break through.
Once a battlefield is broken through by the Japanese army, the rear flank of the 11th Division's defense area will be in danger, and the months of fortifications done on this side of the Yangtze River will be ineffective, and that will be the end of the 11th Division.
The 18th Division, which is a friendly force in the same army, can naturally protect the right wing of the 11th Division and can fight to the death, but this is not the case for the Four Lines Regiment or other armies of other factions.
Based on Commander Hu's understanding of these friendly forces, they may be able to fulfill their duties and fight hard because of the strict military orders, but if they are asked to fight to the last man for a friendly force with which they are not closely related, it is not credible to kill Commander Hu.
of.
The Si Xing Regiment would not deviate from this category even if he thought about it, so when Commander Hu saw that the Japanese army had used such a large scale to bombard the Si Xing Regiment's defense area, he would even sacrifice his own air support on the front battlefield to support the Si Xing Regiment.
, that is also for the safety of your central defense zone.
It's not because of how much he values Tang Dao and the Four Elements Group.
"Our department has strong fortifications that can withstand the Japanese artillery fire. I also ask Commander Hu to devote his limited strength to the battlefield where it is more needed." Tang Dao actually refused.
"This young man Tang Dao is so crazy! I want to see how long his soldiers of the Four Lines Regiment can survive such a fierce bombing by the Japanese. If the left battlefield is breached by the Japanese because of this, we must report it to the war zone."
His crime." The Major General Chief of Staff of the 11th Division couldn't help but feel dissatisfied when he saw his division commander frowning and hanging up the phone.
This is a typical example of mistaking good intentions for the heart and lungs of a donkey. Anyone would be unhappy if he did it.
"Don't say such things. Since Tang Dao dares not to give up air support, he certainly has the confidence and reason." However, the division commander surnamed Hu glanced sideways at his chief of staff, his eyes extremely sharp.
As a middle-aged man in his early 30s, Mr. Hu actually still has some youthful enthusiasm. Although he is in a faction, he actually dislikes this so-called faction deep down. If it weren’t for so many factional disputes,
As a result, millions of troops were unmotivated. This Great Patriotic War may still lose to the Japanese army in the early stages, but the war situation will never deteriorate to this point, losing North China, Southeast China, and Central China, three of the most fertile areas for China.
And these officers who are over 40 years old have already ingrained the differences between factions into their bones. Even at this time of life and death, they still think about how to punish others for their sins, and do not think carefully about why they refuse.
Based on his understanding of Tang Dao, this man who has ascended to the throne of regiment leader at the age of 22, the greatest trait on the battlefield is not superficial bravery, but extreme cunning.
Otherwise, the nickname given to him by the Japanese North China Front Army would not be 'Devil' but 'Tiger'.
Commander Hu wanted to know what kind of surprise the Four Elements Regiment would bring him after such a fierce outpouring of firepower from the Japanese.
The soldiers of the 3rd Battalion hid in the air-raid shelter on the reverse slope behind the high ground, allowing the Japanese army's fierce artillery fire to vent on the high ground.
Because this scene is very familiar to the officers and soldiers of the Fourth Army Regiment who have been on the battlefield in North China for a long time.
Not to mention the 75mm mountain artillery bombardment, they were in Niangziguan in eastern Shanxi and Zishan in southern Hebei. The Japanese used 105 howitzers and 155 heavy artillery.
Upon arriving at the defense area, the first thing the officers and soldiers of the Fourth Army Regiment started to dig were trenches, and then they worked day and night to build tunnels that could be more than ten meters deep into the mountain.
Everyone knows that when artillery shells and aerial bombs come, only these tunnels can save lives.
After a long period of civil engineering work in mountain tunnels, the engineering battalion led by Bai Sheng has long been familiar with it. Not only can it cooperate with ordinary infantry to dig tunnels that can be entered by more than a thousand people in just one week, it has even developed a chain of bunkers.
There are also many advanced tunnel designs such as hidden traffic trenches that allow access to high ground without passing through the surface.
There were many designs that even Tang Dao had not thought of, but the engineers of the Si Xing Regiment developed them one by one on the battlefield that lasted for several years.
This may be one of the underlying logics of "Practice is the only criterion for testing truth"!
"Stay alive on the battlefield so you can kill more Japanese!" is also one of Tang Tuanzuo's classic sayings.
The soldiers of the Sixing Regiment thoroughly implemented Tang Tuanzuo's spirit of "working hard to live".
As for the incendiary bombs and poison gas bombs dropped by the Japanese navy fighter planes, they are actually just a spectacle for people to watch. Don’t look at the incendiary bombs that set the trees and shrubs on fire and the thick smoke rising into the sky. It looks like that, but in fact there are fortifications.
Fire ditches were built in every place, and the fires could not burn the edges of the fortifications. The fire heated up the Chinese officers and soldiers in the fortifications more than ten meters away, and they were not afraid of the sharp cold wind.
Gas bombs have no solution for other Chinese troops. The best way to protect themselves is to cover their mouth and nose with a wet towel for relief. However, the officers and soldiers of the Fourth Line Regiment already have a set of gas masks.
Moreover, there is a strong wind in the mountains. When the wind blows, the yellow-green poisonous gas of the gas bombs disperses in a few minutes, causing minimal damage to the officers and soldiers of the Fourth Line Regiment who are well protected.
Since the Japanese army spent so much money on Zhou Zhang, Tang Dao certainly did not need air support.
What's more, the more miserable the highlands look on the surface, the more troops the Japanese captain who plays psychological tactics will devote to the attack, right?
Li Jijin and the 3rd Battalion have been holding back their evil fire for two or three days. Why don't they give it a good vent?
Instead of devoting an infantry group and a half at once, Tang Tuanzuo, who personally visited the front line of the 3rd Battalion, looked down upon the intelligent army commander opposite him.
"Commander, I know you want to kill these devils, but this is my 3rd Battalion's territory. Even if you are the commander, you have to obey my orders when you get here. You must not go to the front line. You just stay here.
Li Jiujin promises that you can see how the little devil died." Li Jiujin was very tough, but his tone was weak.
There was no way. As soon as Tang Tuanzuo said he was going to the Zhujiaping position, Director Ye, who was in charge of the regiment headquarters there, called him. If Tang Tuanzuo was on the front line at Zhujiaping, regardless of whether he was injured or not, Director Zhuang would be there early.
I don't want to concurrently serve as the battalion commander of the supply battalion. That position requires a capable and experienced battalion-level officer.
Director Ye is now the second-in-command in the regiment, and he also holds the power of personnel. If he really wants Comrade Li to be the commander of the supply battalion, the matter is basically a done deal.
But Li Jiujin didn't know Tang Tuanzuo's temper, so he could only weakly demonstrate his sovereignty in the 3rd Battalion.
"Oh! How dare you, Commander Li, start giving me orders." Tang Dao glanced sideways at Lao Lao Youzi, and couldn't help but grin slightly with amusement. "Okay, since you said it, this is your 3rd Battalion's territory.
, I, the King of Heaven, have to listen to you when I come here. I will give you the face of an old comrade. If I don’t go to the front line, I will just sit in your battalion headquarters and watch how you fight this battle."
"You have to be magnanimous, sir!" Li Jijin and several officers around him breathed a collective sigh of relief.
As long as the regimental officers do not go to the front line with their rifles, the responsibility on their shoulders is much smaller.
Although Director Ye Chenghuan's threat has a certain effect, in fact they all know that swords and guns have no eyesight. Anyone in the Four Lines Regiment can die in battle, but Tang Dao cannot. Tang Dao is not only the backbone, but also all the officers and soldiers of the Four Lines Regiment.
If something happens to him, the combat effectiveness of the Four Lines Regiment will drop by at least 20%.
Seeing his subordinates' relieved expressions, Tang Dao actually felt helpless.
He spent a lot of effort to build this army, and saw that its combat effectiveness and mental will were becoming superior, almost as good as the Chinese army on the ice sheet in the future. However, the consequence of this was that he, a super sniper, could no longer go to the front line, and the entire regiment
Treating him as a porcelain doll and protecting him closely, is this another form of cocooning?
"But you, Old Li, have to agree that the Japs will definitely invest a lot of troops in this first wave of attack. If no one from your 3rd Battalion can defeat them, I won't be able to sit here." Tang Dao picked up the knife.
Telescope. "You know, the blood of my elder brother and countless Chinese people is still on the bayonets of the little Japs here. I can't sleep unless I kill them."
"With the honor of a Chinese soldier, I assure the regiment that this wave of Japanese soldiers must die, and they will die in an ugly way." Li Jijin replied solemnly and confidently.
Tang Dao stopped talking and looked through the carefully disguised lookout point to several lower highlands 600 meters away.
Li Jijin's battalion headquarters was not located behind the safer front-line position, but on the high ground named No. 1, the highest peak of the Zhujiaping position, where an infantry platoon and the guard platoon affiliated with the battalion headquarters were stationed.
On this mountaintop with an altitude of 718 meters, Li Jijin, the top commander of the 3rd Battalion, could directly observe the actual combat situation in most of the battalion's dozen highlands, and could make adjustments and supplements at any time.
Although the degree of danger is higher, for a mid-level commander who commands nearly a thousand infantry, artillery, air defense troops, engineers, and heavy supply troops, the various responses that can be made by observing the battle situation in real time are far greater.
It's much faster than staying behind and just listening to reports on the phone.
Just because he became the battalion commander, Li Jijin was no longer different from when he was on the front line when he was the company commander. This is what Tang Dao is most satisfied with about this old subordinate. Otherwise, who would be the one to say 'this is mine' today?
Territory, Tuanzu, you have to listen to me. Even Tang Dao can make him stand upright. Think about how much he weighs.
Don't tell me, Tang Danzao really thought of Colonel Yamada Masakichi's little thought to death.
The entire bombing lasted for a full 2 hours, which should be the limit of the 231st Infantry Regiment's consumption of artillery shells for one wave this time.
After firing nearly a thousand rounds of various artillery shells, the Japanese army deployed a total of 7 infantry squadrons to launch an attack on 4 highlands.
There were nearly 1,500 people. From Tang Dao's perspective, the mountains and plains were filled with 'shit yellow', which was astonishingly powerful.
According to the troop deployment of the 3rd Battalion, the largest number of troops on these four highlands are five infantry squads. For example, on Highland No. 13, which has an altitude of only 384 meters, there are only two infantry squads led by Boss Cao, the deputy platoon leader.
Of course, because the 4th squad to which Boss Cao belongs is considered a reinforced infantry squad, with a total number of 22 people, plus another ordinary infantry squad, the 3rd Battalion on Highland 13 has a strength of 37, but that is still less than the Japanese army.
A full infantry squad would have nearly 20 fewer people.
The Japanese troops attacking Highland 13 had at least three infantry squads in strength based on visual inspection. If you include the heavy machine guns and infantry artillery in the rear, there were at least two to three hundred Japanese troops threatening Highland 13.
"Class 4 is the fist force of your 3rd Battalion. Why did you put them on the tip of the knife again this time? You, Lao Li, don't worry about killing them all in one battle. When Tu Yunsheng comes to you for help,
What do you say?" Tang Dao never lowered his telescope, so no one could see his eyes.
"Good steel should be placed on the blade. The task of garrisoning Highland 13 was snatched away by Lao Cao from the other two companies with these words." Li Jijin replied. "And, regimental leader, you
Don’t worry, there are 37 infantrymen, but if the Japanese think we can bully Highland 13 with the few infantrymen we have released, then they are totally wrong.”
"Oh? It seems that your 3rd Battalion has a trump card!" Tang Dao grinned slightly.
Li Jijin also looked mysterious and did not explain much.
In fact, this veteran of more than ten years is also beating the drum in his heart. After all, this type of fighting is his first time in many years of military service. He doesn't know what the effect will be.
........
"The longest trench dug by the Chinese on this high ground does not exceed 300 meters. From this, we can judge that their strength will never be more than two infantry platoons, only 100 people. Maybe nearly half of them were killed in the shelling and bombing.
This time our unit will surely win victory in one fell swoop!" Major Yoshizo Sano, then captain of the 11th Infantry Battalion of the 231st Infantry Regiment, looked through his binoculars at No. 13 Hill, where gunpowder smoke was still rising.
On the top of the mountain, excitement flashed in his eyes.
As the supreme commander of the main infantry brigade that launched the infantry attack this time, Sano Yoshizo did not invest in two infantry squadrons, two heavy machine gun squads and an infantry artillery squad as the main attack direction of No. 8 Highland, but came to
On the surface, only 150 troops were invested in Highland 13. It was obvious that they were determined to win this highland.
Based on the observation over the past two days and the photos taken by the reconnaissance aircraft that passed several times in the sky, this person judged that there were not many Chinese troops stationed on this small highland with an area of only 3,000 square meters on the top of the mountain.
The No. 13 height that protrudes from the entire defense line does not seem to be critical. Even if it is lost, it will not collapse the entire Chinese defense line. However, through the photos taken by the reconnaissance plane, Sano Yoshizo has a keen sense of smell.
Fighter plane, there is a path from the bottom of the ridge behind this highland, which is completely suitable for individual soldiers to pass.
If this highland is captured, an infantry squadron can be sent from here to use the cover of night to penetrate to the rear of the Chinese defense line. There may be Chinese field hospitals and logistics supply bases there. An elite infantry squadron can be almost invincible against these.
It is self-evident what kind of damage the fortified troops will cause.
Perhaps that did not harm the strength of the troops on the defense line, but when they knew that the hospitals and baggage logistics were slaughtered, the morale of the soldiers on the front line must have plummeted.
Therefore, Sano Yoshizo actually had high hopes for the attack on this hilltop with an altitude of only more than 300 meters.
Of course, as a front-line commander, it is one thing to want to go to the front line in person to boost morale. The most important thing is of course to invest more troops.
In the dense forest less than 500 meters away from the high ground, there is still an infantry squadron and an infantry squad of more than 240 people hidden. Half of the 12 heavy machine guns owned by the entire infantry brigade are here, including two infantry cannons and two
90 mortars arrived at the pre-selected gun position under continuous shelling.
In other words, for Hill 13, Sano Yoshizo actually invested nearly 400 infantrymen and 80% of the heavy firepower of his infantry brigade.
Six heavy machine guns and 12 light machine guns were distributed on both wings. After the artillery fire gradually became sparse, half of the machine guns began firing on orders to cover the infantry who had begun to advance up from the bottom of the mountain.
Even though it was only half of the trench, it was like a rain of bullets for the trenches on Highland 13, which were only 300 meters long.
After the war, Tang Tuanzuo, who arrived at the high ground, grabbed a handful of soil from above the trench and found two deformed warheads. It can be imagined that the Japanese army used crazy fire cover at that time.
If it were any other ordinary Chinese army, let alone shelling, the Japanese army would be able to swamp this small highland with a stream of metal bullets using just these nearly 20 light and heavy machine guns.
And even for the Four Lines Regiment, in terms of the light and heavy machine guns and artillery currently displayed by both sides, Highland 13 is far inferior to the concentrated Japanese army.
The first time they met, the Japanese army gave the 3rd Battalion a heartbreaking punch!
