The setting sun, the ruined buildings and the corners!
Fang Xianjue stood erect on the cross street in the center of HY. The blood-red sunset light penetrated through the blue gunpowder smoke in the city, soaked in layer by layer, and smeared overtly or covertly on the ruins.
Looking around, around the Chinese Army Lieutenant General, there were piles of rubble. There were corpses everywhere that had been blown up by artillery fire and bombs, including Chinese and Japanese.
The two parties that were once hostile are now silent in the ruins. Whether they are cruel or heroic, they are all silently dying in the decay!
The pungent smell of sulfur lingered in the air for a long time, temporarily covering up the disgusting smell of corpses, and the distant explosions of shells and the sound of various types of gunfire still resounded throughout the world.
The sound of gunfire and the ruins illuminated by the setting sun mixed together to form a breathtaking picture, which seemed to sweep the top commander of the Hengyang garrison, who was standing among the ruins with his head held high, into it, killing him and those who died in battle.
The more than ten thousand subordinates in this city are sealed in the long river of time.
Perhaps, as the supreme commander who led the entire army to fight in this ancient city for 111 days, Fang Xianjue would rather this moment last forever.
Yes, this is already the third day of the final battle in Hengyang!
In this battle, the whole city of Hengyang left no room. Even the wounded soldiers in the field hospital who could still walk independently took up arms and went into battle.
He, the supreme commander of Hengyang, had only one guard with a machete beside him. Even the gun he, an army lieutenant general, had given to a wounded soldier who had only one arm and still wanted to join the battle.
According to Tang Dao's tactical design, in this battle, not only must they counterattack the entire city of Hengyang, but they must also fight their way out of the city and reestablish some positions in the south and west of the city. If the Japanese army wants to counterattack, they must take up positions one by one as they did two months ago.
Chew down the position.
This fight lasted nearly 70 hours. All the neighborhoods in Hengyang City had been completely recovered two days ago. These two days were a repeated battle for positions in the suburbs outside Hengyang City.
One day ago, that is, on September 20, Tang Dao led the main force of the Four Lines Regiment as the forward, with 6,000 reserves and a wounded battalion totaling 7,900 people, and had already recovered positions such as Yanhui Peak, Huxingchao and Zhangjiashan.
At this moment, the artillery fire in front was trembling. It must be that they were fighting fiercely with the Japanese invaders. I wonder how many of the more than 8,000 people would be able to line up with him after this battle.
The remnants of the three infantry divisions under the 10th Army, together with 9,000 reserves and two sick and wounded soldiers, divided into two groups after recapturing the inner city blocks. They came out from the west and north of the city and fought fiercely with the Japanese army. The furthest positions were
It is already more than 10 miles away from Hengyang City!
The strategic goals set before the war have basically been completed!
However, as the supreme commander of the Hengyang garrison, Fang Xianjue was not at all happy!
Because he knew that this was the last brilliant display of the Hengyang defenders who tried their best. From this moment on, Hengyang City would no longer be able to give these soldiers a grain of bullet or a bullet. Their ability to continue fighting would never exceed 3
day.
In the end, it still depends on the actions of the hundreds of thousands of troops on the periphery. If they still hesitate to move forward like they have in the past three months, Hengyang City will fall into darkness forever.
In the darkness when an all-out counterattack was about to begin three days ago, on the platform of the Central Bank, Lin Heng used eighteen piles of bonfires, displayed the words "fight to the death", and sent the final signal of Hengyang City to the transport planes passing by from high in the sky.
If they don't make up their mind to fight decisively with the Japanese troops on the periphery, then when they see the soldiers and civilians in Hengyang City, they will only be piles of bones.
From the moment Fang Xianjue personally issued the counterattack order, Tang Dao, the director of the operations department, announced to the commanders of each regiment over the phone: "This battle is a decisive battle. In this battle, regardless of military exploits, losses, and casualties, the entire army will
Kill the enemy with all your strength until you die! Kill! Kill! Kill!"
"Take up swords and guns,
Go to the battlefield.
Forget us, wife,
Forget us, parents,
The enemy occupied China's land,
The enemy occupied the ancestral temple.
Losing rivers and mountains, where to go in exile?
Dear compatriots, with our tears,
Holding our swords and guns,
Fighting towards the battlefield,
Kill kill kill!”
I don’t know whether it was the soldiers somewhere who sang the military song, or the roar of the cannon in the distance that caused the confused Army Lieutenant General to have auditory hallucinations. Fang Xianjue seemed to have heard it for a long time, but in the roar of the cannon, he could not hear it at all.
It is impossible to hear the military song of the 10th Army.
This military song was once the military song of the 10th Preliminary Division. It was written by young Fang Xianjue under an oil lamp when he was in Jiangsu and Zhejiang with Sun Mingjin, who had died in the battlefield. Fang Xianjue seemed to see that young and gentle face again.
, smiled and shouted at him: "Sir, we will definitely win this war!"
"Ming Jin, can we really win?" Fang Xianjue clenched his fists in pain, lowered his head and muttered to himself.
To this day, he has done everything he can. The brothers under him, as well as the people in Hengyang City, have shed all their blood...
"Buzz buzz!" The roar of the plane echoed across the sky.
The huge transport plane passed over Hengyang City at a height of less than 300 meters from the ground, and a series of umbrella flowers bloomed under the belly of the plane.
However, unlike in the past, this time the transport plane flew far away without dropping the supply package, but instead kept circling over Hengyang City.
Fang Xianjue raised his head indifferently, confusion flashing in his eyes.
"Report! The Military Commission has issued an order, please personally sign it, Commander Fang!" A medical soldier shouted loudly while running towards Fang Xianjue.
"Report! The Military Commission has issued an order, asking Commander Fang to issue it personally!" On the other side, a reserve soldier also ran towards this direction.
Obviously, the dropped supply packages contained exactly the same military orders as before.
However, for more than a month before, the content above was almost exactly the same: "Reinforcements will arrive tomorrow! Be sure to hold on!"
Sure enough, several envelopes of the same style all had the same sentence written on them: "Fang Xian Jueqi!"
Fang Xianjue took a deep breath, stretched out his hand to open one of the envelopes, and slowly unfolded the folded letter. The words that came into view made this Army Lieutenant General, who had experienced countless storms and waves, freeze on the spot as if he had been struck by lightning.
A few seconds later, the Lieutenant General, who only frowned when he received the huge casualty figures of his troops, and his eyes were sad when he saw his confidant general who had been with him for many years dying, unexpectedly closed his eyes tightly and looked up to the sky, with two lines of tears rolling down his face.
.
Seeing Fang Xianjue's appearance, several soldiers around him lowered their heads and felt extremely sad.
Is Hengyang City still abandoned?
"Ming Jin, we won, I finally won." Fang Xianjue suddenly shouted to the sky and threw the letter in his hand into the sky.
"Brothers from the 10th Army, brothers from the Fourth Army, and brothers from Hengyang City, have you heard? I have won."
Zhao Zili, who had been following him, picked up the letter that fell on the ground and looked at it. It clearly read: "Our troops in the 9th, 3rd, and 4th war zones have decided to fight the enemy decisively. After two days of fierce fighting, the Japanese
The main force of the bandits has fled to Tanzhou, and the 80,000 troops of the 27th Army and the 74th Army are rushing towards Hengyang at night under the stars!
Reinforcements can be reached today!"
"We won, we really won!"
No wonder Commander Fang Da, who was calm and determined in his daily behavior, would act like this. Zhao Zili, who suddenly saw the good news, felt his head buzzing, as if something exploded there.
Suddenly, there was a sense of unreality!
Correspondingly, the sound of gunfire and earth-shattering shouts of killing that were still ringing in the distance suddenly fell silent.
The Japanese troops that were still on the offensive retreated like a tide. Leng Feng, Li Jijin and other frontline commanders did not take it lightly. They were still calmly deploying defense and deploying troops, waiting for the next wave of Japanese attacks.
In this regard, they have long been experts. On such a battlefield, how could they not repulse seven or eight waves of Japanese attacks in one day?
But this time, they waited for half an hour, but they didn't even get a single bullet or artillery shell fired from the opposite direction, let alone the Japanese.
Looking over with a telescope, as far as the eye can see, I can only see the charred land and the crooked remaining shrubs, and I can't see the "shit yellow" figure at all.
"We don't have balls and cannonballs anymore. How come the Japanese learned to dig holes and hide underground?" Li Jijin, who had at least half of his body wrapped in bandages, spat hard and looked puzzled.
Youzi, a veteran who has been in the army for 17 years, has never even scratched his skin in the past 17 years. He can be called the son of luck in the Si Xing Regiment, but he failed in the battle of Hengyang.
Of the five fingers on his right hand, only the thumb and index finger were left. The other three were cut off completely by a cannonball.
"God has been kind to me. You see, at least this leaves me with a finger that can pull the trigger. Otherwise, I will only have a little finger. Where can I cry?" Li Jijin even smiled and comforted himself, bandaging his wounds and crying.
Heavy summer rain.
But God, who had been so kind to Li Jijin in the past 17 years, was obviously too busy this time. In the ensuing street fight, Li Jijin suffered a total of 8 wounds, including gunshot wounds to his arms, legs, chest and other parts.
Shrapnel splash injuries.
But if you say that veteran Youzi is really an invincible little strongman, if these injuries were to someone else, even if he survived, he would have to go to the hospital and lie down. As a result, this guy sprinkled some hemostatic medicine, wrapped a bandage, and stayed on the battlefield.
, and this stay lasted only 50 days, and God didn’t even take him away.
Even Tang Da Tuan gave him a hug when he saw him, saying that he wanted to share the good fortune of his lucky son.
But Li Jijin never hugged his brothers from the 3rd Battalion. He was afraid that his life would be tough and he would kill his brothers.
Everyone has a different understanding of fate, but that doesn't prevent them from relying on each other like brothers on the battlefield, right?
Li Jiujin and the others did not wait for the Japanese attack, but waited for the good news from the city: the Japanese troops outside were fleeing, and the siege of Hengyang had been lifted!
On a hill 20 kilometers away that could not be seen by the Hengyang defenders who were fighting with all their strength, Hengshan Yong was also looking in the direction of Hengyang.
From this distance, the Japanese Army Lieutenant General, who had been ordered by the Japanese Army Base Camp to return home to report on his duties, could not see the smoke still rising above the ruins, but the setting sun still clearly reflected the loneliness in his eyes.
In the Battle of Hengyang, the 11th Army was defeated, a huge defeat!
Or, a complete failure would be more appropriate to describe it.
He misjudged the strength and tenacity of the defenders in Hengyang City, and even more misjudged the forbearance of the commander surnamed Xue.
During the 100 days of attacking Hengyang, even though he had transferred almost half of the main force of the 11th Army to Hengyang 60 days ago, in fact, he was always on guard against the more than 200,000 main force of the Chinese 9th Theater, which had been stalling, including from
The 74th Army, China's most elite infantry army, came from the direction of Guilin and more than 100,000 Chinese troops from the direction of Gan Province.
The main force of the Chinese side, which is close to 400,000, not to mention him, the commander of the 11th Army, even Tian Junliu, the commander of the Chinese Expeditionary Forces, dare not ignore it. Part of the main force of the 23rd Army in South China has arrived at the border of Guangxi Province, and two troops from the North China Front have also been dispatched.
The division headed south to Jiangxia.
Once China makes any changes, the Chinese dispatched troops can regroup more than 200,000 troops in northern Hunan at any time to fight the main force of China.
As a result, to Yokoyama's surprise, no matter how fierce the battle in Hengyang was, the 400,000-strong Chinese army a hundred miles away from Hengyang seemed not to have seen it. It was only facing off against the 80,000-strong 11th Army and had no intention of continuing to move forward and attack.
On the contrary, the intensity was not as strong as two months ago, when at least three infantry divisions arrived in the suburbs of Hengyang.
Hengyang is like a huge meat grinder. If all the previous efforts are not to be in vain, Yokoyama Isamu can only be forced to throw many elites of the 11th Army into the bottomless pit of Hengyang that never seems to be filled.
Until 40 days ago, Hengshan Yong judged that the commander of the 9th theater named Xue simply did not dare to risk losing Guangxi and Dian provinces in a decisive battle with the empire. He made a desperate move and dispatched two more divisions to attack Hengyang.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! The various units of the 11th Army outside Hengyang were completely reduced to scraps from the main force that had previously planned to find the Chinese main force for a decisive battle. The battlefield for the 11th Army's decisive battle became Hengyang City with only more than 20,000 people.
Even Colonel Shimanuki Takeshi, who is good at large army operations, faced this kind of tactical change that was completely contrary to what he expected, he could only fight as the boss said.
If Hengyang City, which is three points harder than a stone, is not captured, it will be a nightmare for the entire 11th Army, no, it can even be said to be the entire China Expeditionary Force.
In a sense, the symbolic significance of capturing Hengyang City is much higher than the actual significance. Even the strategy of opening up the mainland line of China has to give way in the face of the imperial military fortune.
What was the final outcome? The four elite divisions of the 11th Army were completely crippled, two divisions were almost declared cancelled, and the horrific figures of 60,000 killed and 100,000 casualties were enough to make any general change his mind.
Yes, when the Chinese Hengyang headquarters finally unified its thinking and decided to start a counterattack on September 18, the casualty report of the 11th Army was also sent to Yokoyama Isamu who was on the front line in person.
As of the morning of September 18, the 11th Army had 54,935 killed, 3,178 missing, and 40,354 wounded, including 2 lieutenant generals, division leaders, major general detachment leaders, 4 brigade leaders, 7 army colonels, and lieutenant colonels.
There are no separate statistics for officers of and below.
It’s not that they are not qualified, it’s that there are too many people to write on a piece of paper!
At that moment, even Isamu Yokoyama, who was considered one of the top three warriors in the Japanese Army, was a little top-heavy and almost fell to the ground.
The total strength of the six divisions mobilized to participate in the war, not counting the heavy artillery brigades, tank regiments, and baggage regiments, was only more than 100,000. This means that if there were not two 20,000-level troops,
When the additional divisions arrived, these six divisions were completely wiped out.
This naturally means that the 11th Army still surrounding Hengyang City will never exceed 30,000 infantrymen.
100,000 people! They were consumed by the Chinese in and around the small city of Hengyang.
Looking at all the battles in the seven years since the war began, including the nearly one million troops invested by both sides, the Imperial Army has never suffered such huge losses!
Even in the Battle of Songhu, which was known as the "meat grinder" at the beginning of the war, the Imperial Army seemed to have suffered more than 40,000 casualties, less than half of this battle.
Even in the Battle of Taierzhuang, which the Chinese called the first victory of the war, the Imperial Army lost 20,000 people.
Even in the Battle of Wanjialing, which is known as China's most glorious victory in the Battle of Jiangxia, China mobilized more than 200,000 troops to encircle it, but only lost 20,000 men from the 106th Division.
If these two battles are cited as a shame for the Imperial Army, then what is the Battle of Hengyang? Is it the most shameful of shames? Or the greatest shame?
Isamu Yokoyama could almost anticipate the day he would be ordered to resign.
But the nightmare isn't over yet.
At 10 pm on September 18, the Chinese who were dying in Hengyang City actually launched a counterattack.
Yokoyama Isamu's first reaction was not based on instinctive anger. It was like a lion on the prairie who spent a lot of effort to kill a bison. He planned to replenish his strength and started eating the meat. However, the bison came back to life and refused to run away.
Instead, you poke the lion with its horns and kick it with its hooves. Do you think the lion should be angry?
Hengshan Isamu was even more surprised. He had reason to believe that this was the Chinese people's last ditch effort. As long as this wave was blocked, the Chinese people's last energy would be gone, and the Hengyang battle would finally come to an end.
.
Yokoyama Isamu was undoubtedly very experienced, and he was almost 90% correct in his predictions. However, he did not expect that there would be so many Chinese in the city, and he did not expect that even at this time, the Chinese would still have a trump card.
The Chinese miniature tanks have appeared on the battlefield before, but no one took this small tank with only a 20mm machine gun seriously.
In front of the Type 97 tank with its 47mm rapid-fire gun, that thing is just too fragile to be fired at.
But after nearly two months of street fighting, let alone the Type 97 tank, the 11th Army can't even find a few Type 95 light tanks now, and the 11th Army has no anti-armor except for the 70mm infantry cannon.
arms.
This is not because the Japanese military industry does not strive for excellence, but because the Chinese do not have tanks at all. Do you think it is ridiculous for the divisions to be equipped with such stupid and thick anti-armor weapons and equipment?
In this kind of street fighting, the 70mm infantry gun's body weighing more than 200 kilograms is not so easy to handle. Once you mount the gun and adjust the muzzle, it will be one size smaller than the Type 95 light tank.
The mini tanks had long ago hidden behind the ruins.
16 mini tanks carrying more than 10,000 Chinese people were like a torrent, swallowing up thousands of Japanese infantry who had to pay heavy casualties to gain a foothold in 40 blocks in just one night.
If at this point, Yokoyama Isamu, who has completely turned from joy to anger, has not given up, after all, he still has a heavy artillery brigade outside the city and 900 rounds of artillery shells in stock. He can also use heavy artillery to plow the huge ruins of Hengyang.
In short, it will not make the Chinese people feel better.
However, the 400,000-strong Chinese army a hundred miles away actually launched an offensive. Having completely gained air supremacy, the Chinese used more than a hundred fighters and bombers to carry out overwhelming bombing of the Imperial Army's positions, and simultaneously dispatched more than 6 infantry divisions to attack the Imperial Army's positions.
The defense line conducts a probing attack.
From this moment on, Yokoyama Isamu knew that Hengyang, so close at hand, would eventually become a place he could not touch this autumn.
This will also be the Waterloo for Isamu Yokoyama and the 11th Army.
The desperate gamble he made 50 days ago failed!
They lost to both the Hengyang defenders and the Chinese commander.
The commander named Xue was really a cruel genius. He actually sat back and watched the isolated city of Hengyang continue to wear down the strength of the 11th Army. It was not until the 11th Army exhausted its vitality that the decisive battle on the periphery began.
And the point of this decisive battle was also cut very delicately, leaving him unable to counterattack at all. Even if he hadn't asked the two main divisions of the North China Front Army to move south from Jiangxia to Tanzhou and set up defenses on the back of the 11th Army 10 days ago,
China's 400,000-strong army only needs to send 100,000 troops to penetrate to Biyang and cut off the retreat from Hengyang to Tanzhou. The 11th Army is still in danger of being encircled.
Yokoyama Isamu decisively ordered that both the imperial army in Hengyang and the surrounding ministries must fight fiercely for two days without retreating, making it difficult for the Chinese to understand the actual situation before the offensive gradually slows down before evacuating. This is not only to create space for the troops to retreat, but also
It is necessary to create time for the two divisions in the rear to consolidate the defense line.
Isamu Yokoyama, who was ordered to resign, made his wisest decision in the Battle of Hengyang. The main force of the Chinese side was indeed frightened, believing that the Japanese army still had the strength to fight a decisive battle, so the offensive gradually slowed down and troops were mobilized in several key directions.
The Japanese army finally found a good opportunity to evacuate, and the Japanese army in Hengyang had begun to gradually withdraw as early as a day ago.
Commander Yokoyama Isamu, for some unknown reason, persisted until the last day before evacuating with the remnants of the 3rd Division, 68th Division, and 116th Division, more than 10,000 people.
Today's last round of artillery bombardment and infantry attack is not for position and victory, but more for catharsis. It is the loser's final catharsis for their hopelessness of victory!
