In the afternoon of this day, both China and Japan dispatched the air force they could use to reach the sky above Shipai.
However, no fighter plane could drop bombs on the positions below.
Because, in the areas of Gaojialing and Badoufang in the central positions of Shipai that they were ordered to support, China and Japan fought fiercely until the distance was almost face to face. Looking from a high altitude, khaki and dark blue were intertwined, not to mention the powerful aircraft.
Even if a small grenade is thrown, it is very likely that the Chinese and Japanese infantry will be blown away at the same time.
Especially in Gaojialing, the two sides have started a hand-to-hand combat mode with bayonets seeing red in more than a dozen positions on this mountain ridge.
The Japanese army used naval guns and mountain artillery to destroy most of the fortifications on the mountain. Because of Yokoyama Isamu's order, the 31st Regiment of the 11th Division, which fought fiercely all morning, actually consumed most of its ammunition. And because the logistics supply movement was slightly slow, under the continuous strong attack of the Japanese army,
The colonel commander who was personally commanding the front line decisively ordered the entire army to fix their bayonets.
For Murakami Kesaku, who personally went to the front line to supervise the battle, the number of casualties was also unimportant. He only needed to conquer Shipai, and the ugliness of the heavy losses suffered by the 39th Division, Yegou Detachment, and Needle Valley Detachment could be ignored.
The Chinese were forced to use hand-to-hand combat, which was a good opportunity for the Imperial Army to show its prowess.
It was under the background that China was forced to do what Japan wanted, and on the afternoon of the 23rd, the largest hand-to-hand combat in the entire history of Chinese warfare broke out on the Gaojialing battlefield.
The initial force that China invested was a half-disabled infantry regiment, which, including its army colonel commander and regimental civilian staff, numbered only 1,600 people. However, as the battle intensified, the 32nd regiment that was ordered to arrive also had no more than 1,600 troops.
The army went into battle.
Since the two sides were already strangled into a mass, the newly arrived 32nd Regiment could not use them even if they had guns and ammunition.
"People die with their eggs in the sky! Not all of them have their heads carried on their shoulders and stabbed down with a bayonet. The Japanese are also mortal bodies. If they are different, they will be finished!" The nearly 45-year-old 32nd Regiment Army Colonel roared, bringing 2,500 people with him.
Officers and soldiers rushed down the hillside.
The Japanese army also invested an infantry regiment of nearly 3,000 infantrymen.
Therefore, from the perspective of the Chinese and Japanese air forces, the entire Gaojialing hillside is full of yellow and blue. The so-called air support can only become aerial observation at this moment.
On the entire battlefield, apart from sporadic gunshots and grenade explosions, there was no sound of artillery at all. There was only the heart-wrenching sound of bayonets clashing or bayonets grinding against bones.
Both Chinese and Japanese soldiers were furious. If their bayonets were bent, they would use their rifles as sticks. If their rifles were broken, they would use rocks, grenades, dig with their fingers, bite with their teeth, and use everything they could to attack the other side.
appliance.
Although the 11th Division is already an elite unit of the Chinese side, it is only in the ranks of the Chinese army. Especially in terms of stabbing training, it is actually not as good as the 104th Infantry Regiment of the 13th Division they are up against.
Moreover, in terms of physical fitness, there are many young soldiers in the 11th Division who have only been recruited in the past six months. They are only sixteen or seventeen years old, and their body bones have not fully grown. In addition, the food is far inferior to that of the Japanese soldiers. Often one Japanese soldier can fight two single-handedly.
Chinese soldiers.
But the so-called trapped beasts still fight, let alone humans?
If you can't defeat it alone, it's very simple, just work hard.
What is the most common scene on the battlefield? It is a soldier who rushes forward regardless of his own safety, uses his body as a shield to be pierced by the Japanese infantry, and then uses his last strength to hug the rifle that is about to take his life.
No matter how hard the Japanese army tried to pull away, they could not pull out the bayonet in a short time.
Then, the soldiers following behind stabbed him hard with bayonets. Japanese soldiers who were reluctant to throw away their rifles were often stabbed in the same way.
One for one is the best result that Chinese soldiers seek.
Even if you encounter a smart person and throw away your gun to save your life when the situation is bad, after losing your own weapon, you will still have half of your foot on the Naihe Bridge on such a dangerous battlefield.
Just such a one-for-one exchange may not be enough to reflect the cruelty of hand-to-hand combat. Many soldiers' bayonets were bent and deformed due to multiple blocks and were no longer able to be used as killing tools. Therefore, they chose to use the daggers they carry with them, or use them on the ground.
of stones.
Therefore, what is flowing on the hillside is not only blood, but also brains!
Shi Dakuan is a private in the 2nd Company of the 3rd Battalion of the 31st Regiment of the 11th Division. This lowest rank in the army means that he is just a recruit who has only been in the army for less than 3 months.
Yes, Shi Dakuan's hometown is in northern Jiangsu. In 1937, after the Japanese army opened the southeastern gate of China from Songhu, they swept all the way to the south of the Yangtze River. The Su family, who originally had a few acres of thin farmland to survive, was killed by Shi Dakuan after the Jinling massacre by the Japanese army.
Under the leadership of his father, he resolutely abandoned the fields that could support the whole family, young and old, and fled south to Jiangxia with the fleeing army, and then fled to the mountain city.
In order to support the family during this period, Shi Dakuan's eldest brother joined the army in early 1938 and became a soldier of the 31st Division of the 30th Army. Within two months of joining the army, he participated in the Battle of Xuzhou and fought bloody battles at Taierzhuang, the central battlefield.
In order to defend the central battlefield of Taierzhuang, the commander of the company of the 31st Division had to personally lead the death squads on the battlefield. If a company could survive half of the battle, it would have suffered minimal losses.
Shi Dakuan's eldest brother Shi Dahou was in an infantry company with 145 people. In the end, there were only 8 people left. Shi Dahou's name was not on the living list. The young man who had just turned 22 died in the battle, but he earned a pension of 10 oceans for his family. Then
His company commander, who was seriously injured but survived, paid for it with his own bonus.
It was these 10 pieces of ocean that supported Shi Dakuan's family from starving to death during the long escape journey.
However, the suffering is still not over. Jiangxia, where the family has been able to live, is about to start fighting. The whole family has to flee again. This time, Shi Dakuan's 18-year-old second brother Shi Dazhong stood up and joined the army on the streets of Jiangxia.
71st Army, and participated in the famous Wanjialing Annihilation Battle in the following September.
This time, Shi Dazhong survived, achieved military exploits, and sent 20 oceans to his family, which was enough for a family of young and old to survive in the mountain city.
But the good times did not last long. A year later, in the first battle of Changsha, Shi Dazhong, who had been promoted to sergeant, died in battle.
At this time, Shi Dakuan was only 16 years old. Seeing his mother crying blindly for his two brothers who died in the war, as a young man, he could only hide his desire to join the army to avenge his brothers, and followed his father to replace others at the dock.
Picking goods to support my grandparents, my blind mother, and my two younger sisters who are not yet 10 years old.
But bad luck did not spare this poor family. During the Japanese bombing in the middle of the 1940s, Shi Dakuan's father was killed by a bomb dropped by the Japanese, and the shack built by the family next to the cliff was also destroyed by fire.
Finally, whether it was to avenge his father and brother or to support his mother and sister He with military pay, the boy who was less than 17 years old chose to go to the recruiting station on the street. His only request was to withdraw one month of military pay and give it to his mother.
In less than two months of training in the recruit company, Shi Dakuan fired a total of 10 bullets at the training ground. He was assigned to the 11th Division and followed the main force of the division to Shipai.
Freshly baked recruits are faced with a hellish meat grinder battlefield, and the possibility of surviving is almost impossible.
But miraculously, Shi Dakuan survived until the hand-to-hand battlefield on the afternoon of the 23rd that shocked the future.
Shi Dakuan saw with his own eyes that his squad leader's generous back was pierced by a Japanese soldier because he was angrily holding a stone in his hand to hit a Japanese invader with all his strength.
It was the strong Japanese invader who stabbed three brothers in the class to death one after another. As a result, a brother who was not dead grabbed him by the ankles. Only then was he knocked down by a brother who had been in the army for two years.
The squad leader picked up a stone and threw it hard at the guy's face. Once, the Japanese soldiers were still struggling desperately. Two times, three times, the blood spattered Lao Gao, and the Japanese soldiers' miserable howls were like those in the village during the New Year.
The New Year pig is about to be slaughtered.
Then, a Japanese soldier who rushed over from five meters away stabbed the squad leader in the back with such force that a ten centimeter blade was exposed on the squad leader's chest.
The squad leader instinctively grabbed the blade with both hands, but the Japanese soldier's eyes were full of ferocity. He suddenly turned his wrist and turned the blade. Two of the squad leader's fingers were cut off, and a mouthful of blood spurted out from his mouth.
Shi Dakuan, who ran over to support with a rifle in his hand, was suddenly stunned. He was not scared, but he knew that the squad leader was going to die. The tough man who scolded them as soft recruits every day was going to die sooner or later.
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He doesn't hate the squad leader, he has never hated him, because he knows that his second brother is also like this. In the more than a year since he joined the army, his second brother has only sent one letter home. When talking about army life, he complained that the recruits were too soft.
The blood screamed loudly, but my legs were weak and I dared not go up. Every time, he, the deputy squad leader, had to take the lead.
So, his second brother died, and now his squad leader is also the same, and is about to die as well.
"Squad leader!" Shi Dakuan roared angrily, tears streaming down his face.
Others don't know, only Shi Dakuan knows it. Every time the squad leader scolds these new recruits, he thinks of his second brother who is only three years older than him. In his heart, he also regards the squad leader as his second brother.
But now, is the monitor also going to die?
"Dakuan, what a fucking idiot! Go kill him!" the veteran roared angrily while spitting out blood.
The Japanese soldiers looked coldly at the young soldier who was still standing there and was no taller than a rifle, with disdain in his eyes. However, his subordinates turned the rifle again, and the sound of the friction between the blade and the bones was like thunder in Shi Dakuan's ears.
He even stepped hard on the back of the half-kneeling squad leader with his leather boots, trying to use his strength to pull out his bayonet.
But he didn't expect that a dying person would have such great strength. His bloody hands were holding on to the half of the blade like a vise.
His eyes that had lost all energy were staring at Shi Dakuan, and he couldn't stop breathing.
"I'll kill your ancestors!" Shi Dakuan's eyes widened, he stepped forward with his rifle and stabbed forward suddenly.
The Japanese army had to drop their rifles to avoid the forward stabs of the weak Chinese soldiers. Finally, they found an opportunity to get close and hugged the weak Shi Dakuan.
The two of them rolled over on the hillside.
Although this Japanese soldier was not Sergeant Cao, he must be a veteran who had been in the army for more than two years. He was not only strong but also thoughtful. During the rolling process, he kept using Shi Dakuan's body to hit the rocks, which made Shi Dakuan dizzy.
Finally, Shi Dakuan, who was already at a disadvantage, was pinched by one of the Japanese hands around the neck. Shi Dakuan, who had already expended a lot of energy, was unable to resist due to the massive loss of oxygen, and the hands of the Japanese soldiers that kept hammering him gradually became weak.
‘I’m going to die too, eldest brother, second brother, are you here to pick me up?’ In a daze, Shi Dakuan seemed to see the blood-covered faces of his eldest brother and second brother.
"Dakuan, you are the last pillar of the Shi family. If you die again, how will your mother, sister, and grandparents survive?" The eldest brother's face with half of his head missing was particularly ferocious, and he shook his head violently as he was about to faint.
Shi Dakuan asked.
"You have to live very well, otherwise I will be sorry for my elder brother and me." The second brother, who was missing an arm, stared at Tong Ling.
"Yes! I am the last man in the Shi family, I can't die!" Shi Dakuan, who was awakened by the scolding, suddenly had an extremely strong will to survive.
He no longer tried in vain to hammer the strong Japanese soldiers, but resisted with all his strength with one hand, while the other hand was groping around his waist, where a wooden-handled grenade was inserted.
Finally, the grenade was pulled out, and he used his last strength to hit the Japanese soldier's head with the grenade.
The 17-year-old boy made a desperate fight. It is not known how much strength he used, but the extremely strong Japanese soldier was struck by this blow and let out a miserable howl.
The front end of the grenade is made of pig iron. It is an iron lump. Anyone who hits the head with it will have to be ejected.
Shi Dakuan, who finally got out of trouble, held the grenade tightly, gathered enough strength, and hit it hard again. The Japanese soldier finally fell to the ground, but his hand grabbed the wrist of Shi Dakuan, who was about to hit it again.
How strong Shi Dakuan's will to survive was also vividly reflected in the Japanese infantry this time. Even if he was hit and had hallucinations, the final burst of power from the Japanese army made Shi Dakuan unable to escape no matter what.
Shi Dakuan, who was trying hard to survive, suddenly remembered what his second brother wrote in a letter home: The Japanese are like wolves and beasts. They are ferocious and we must be more ferocious and ruthless than them, otherwise, we will not be able to kill them.
Without hesitation, Shi Dakuan suddenly pushed his head down and bit down on the Japanese soldier's carotid artery. That bite almost exhausted all the strength of Shi Dakuan's 17 years of life. A fishy smell instantly filled Shi Dakuan's mouth. The Japanese
The screams were deafening.
But Shi Dakuan did not let go. He even raised his head like a jackal, which is how a jackal tears apart the flesh and blood of its prey.
He succeeded!
The Japanese soldier beneath him gradually stopped struggling, and the two hands that once held his wrists fell limply.
Shi Dakuan also raised his head at this time.
The young soldier with his face covered in blood looked like a demon, with a piece of flesh and blood connected to a yellow-white tube in his mouth.
When the Japanese soldiers saw this scene, their hair stood on end.
And this is just a small microcosm of the battle between thousands of Chinese and Japanese soldiers. There are many battlefields more cruel than this.
Because both sides have no way out.
The Japanese command gave a fatal order and must capture Gaojialing and Badoufang today, no matter the cost.
The Chinese side has already retired and can retreat. The division headquarters is in the rear. If it retreats again, the stone plaque will be gone.
There were desperate howls all over the mountains and plains, and even the expressionless Japanese commander below the mountain was covered in cold sweat on his vest.
Lieutenant General Murakami Kesaku, who was only 800 meters away from the battlefield, only picked up his telescope and looked at the battlefield twice in an hour. He was waiting for the winner of this cruel hand-to-hand battle.
This Japanese army lieutenant general who became famous in the Battle of Zaoyi was extremely convinced that the Imperial Army would win this unconventional battle.
"Pass my military order, place the military flag of our 11th Division on the highest point of Gaojialing, tell the 31st Regiment, and all the soldiers of the 32nd Regiment that I will be with them. If the position is lost, all our troops will be with them."
Die!" But the teacher surnamed Hu, who was watching all this from a hilltop opposite, made another choice.
"Master, we haven't reached this point yet! The people in front of us are still fighting the Japanese army, and there are no signs of defeat!" The major general chief of staff on the side was shocked and quickly admonished his young commander.
At this time, if the commander appears and dies in battle, the battlefield will collapse.
"A rout? If our division's flag is not planted on the high ground, we may not even have the chance to enjoy the rout." The division commander surnamed Hu handed the binoculars to his chief of staff.
In the field of view of the telescope, 500 meters away, a group of at least more than a hundred Japanese troops were moving along the mountainside towards the division headquarters at high speed.
"You stupid little devil, you're doing this again. I'll lead the security company to meet the enemy." The major general's chief of staff had just finished speaking, but his face turned pale.
He just remembered that the last guard company of the division had just been sent to Badoufang for reinforcements 20 minutes ago.
Now, except for the division commander and him and 50 civilian personnel, there are no combatants in the division headquarters.
"Everyone, grab the weapons you can and join me in planting the general's flag on the highest point of Gaojialing." Commander Hu picked up his pistol and walked out, pausing slightly. "Send power to the military and Commander Chen.
Just say, I, the 11th Division, will fight the Japanese invaders to the last drop of blood. If the stone tablet is lost, there is no need to contain my remains, let it be left here in the mountains and fields as punishment!"
A military flag was planted high on the top of Gaojialing Mountain!
"Master, personally supervise the battle, brothers, kill!" Seeing the divisional flag suddenly standing behind him, the exhausted Chinese officers and soldiers on the hillside suddenly burst out with courage and strength again.
The shouts were deafening.
Even Tang Dao and the members of the Four Elements Regiment who were still on the Sifang Bay battlefield a few kilometers away could almost hear it.
Tang Dao stared westward, and suddenly remembered the monologue about the battle to defend Shipai in the future Chinese geography: "At that time, children from Chinese peasant families were generally poorly nourished, and most of the soldiers who were sixteen or seventeen years old had not yet gone to school.
If they had rifles with bayonets, they would go into battle with guns that were longer than themselves. If they were alive, they would be 70 or 80 years old. They would also sip sips of fragrant tea in their own orange groves and leisurely
They looked at their children and grandchildren lovingly and took care of themselves warmly, but they died so that other Chinese people could have all this!"