The two 120mm cannons that kept firing did indeed show the terrifying penetration that the Japanese army had expected. The Chinese heavy firepower points hidden inside the city walls continued to misfire, which greatly boosted the morale of the Japanese infantry on the front line.
As the soldiers at the top of the city wall evacuated in batches, the counterattack was naturally not as sharp as before, and the gunfire gradually became sparse. All this made the Japanese frontline infantry commander judge that it was time to launch a full-line attack.
The man who replaced the slain Major Captain of the 6th Infantry Battalion, Kamimu Yutaro, was the Major Captain of the 4th Infantry Battalion of the 13th Regiment, Kawabe Shoji. He was keenly aware of the weakness of the Chinese defenders.
The extension of artillery fire by the division commander led to insufficient strength of the Chinese defenders. The transferred 120mm cannon destroyed the most troublesome firepower point of the Chinese. The remaining Chinese defenders were already demoralized. If they did not launch an attack at this time, they would miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Opportunity.
At that moment, Hebian Zhengji issued an order, no longer waiting for the engineers to complete the final pontoon bridge erection work, and the entire army attacked.
However, the first wave to attack was none other than the remnants of the hapless boy's 6th Infantry Battalion.
As the darlings of the infantry regiment and division, after losing their captain, they are now a group of fatherless children. The captain of the 4th Infantry Brigade, who had long disliked them, ordered these remnants to serve as forwards, knowing that they might be attacked again.
You will become cannon fodder, so you have to bite the bullet and move forward.
More than 400 infantrymen, led by the three surviving infantry captains, stepped on the pontoon bridge that the engineers had not yet completed and attacked the city wall.
Then, in the last ten meters of the unfinished section, they jumped into the moat that once made their captain sink into the sand. The cold river water and thigh-deep mud once again surrounded this group of frightened Japanese infantry.
Because the infantry were very close to the city wall, except for the light and heavy machine guns responsible for covering, they were desperately raising their muzzles to provide fire cover. The infantry cannons and grenade launchers had stopped firing, and there was very little suppression on the top of the wall.
As a result, there were still rifles firing back at the wall, and soldiers fell into the cold river water from time to time.
However, compared to the hundreds of Japanese infantrymen who were approaching the city wall like ants, these losses were negligible.
When the soldiers walked with heavy steps from the river to the city wall, Hisao Tani, who had been silent a thousand meters away, couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.
The battle to attack and defend the city wall, which was originally expected to be extremely bloody, was almost declared over.
The result was actually better than he imagined.
Based on the will shown by the Chinese defenders of Xicheng last night and this morning, the Japanese Army Lieutenant General had actually planned to lose 2 to 3 thousand people in order to seize the city defense.
Unexpectedly, the Chinese defenders here were so unbearable that they retreated within an hour.
"Wonderful! Wonderful!" Over there, Tanabe Moritake looked through a high-powered telescope at the fact that his own infantry had arrived under the city wall. He put down the telescope in his hand, clapped his hands and sighed with a smile.
"Looking at the Battle of Matsue, in my humble opinion, Your Excellency Hisao Tani commanded it well, especially the tactic of using artillery fire to block an area hundreds of meters behind the city wall, which will definitely become a classic in the history of Imperial Army warfare.
, Otherwise, with the strength of the Chinese people, they will definitely continue to invest, and there will never be a depletion of troops on the defense line." Tanabe Moritake looked at Hisao Tani who was still expressionless with a smile on his face, and praised.
"Of course, the performance of the warriors of the Sixth Division did not live up to His Majesty the Emperor's high expectations. Even though they encountered minor setbacks, they still forged ahead bravely and finally won the final victory. This is the performance that a strong imperial army should have."
It’s unclear how high the IQ of this major general’s chief of staff is, but his emotional intelligence is definitely adequate, and every bit of praise he received happened to hit Hisao Tani’s g-spot.
Even if Hisao Tani wanted to pretend that he was usually indifferent to emotions and anger, he couldn't help but feel numb in his heart at this moment. He narrowed his eyes slightly and twitched the corners of his mouth: "There, Mr. Sheng Wu was so complimentary. Sixth
The division's achievements today are due to the guidance of the superior officers at the military headquarters."
The sedan chair was carried, and Tanabe Moritake praised him for his hard work. Naturally, Hisao Tani, who was once a professor at the Army University, couldn't be too arrogant. He tried his best to maintain a calm appearance and at the same time took the initiative to verbally credit all the superiors for breaking the city defense.
The head is a little moisturized.
The Army Major General and Army Lieutenant General praised each other for their humble attitude, and the atmosphere in the Sixth Division's frontline headquarters was extremely harmonious.
But for the 13th Wing Headquarters a few hundred meters away, the atmosphere was still tense.
The Sixth Division is one of the seventeen permanent divisions in Japan. It is organized into a four-unit system, that is, there are two infantry brigades under the division, and two infantry regiments under each infantry brigade. The infantry regiment
There are three infantry brigades under the corps, and four infantry squadrons and a heavy machine gun squadron under the infantry brigades.
As the commander of the 13th Infantry Regiment, Major General Tokutaro Sakai, commander of the 11th Infantry Brigade, did not stay at the safer frontline headquarters with his division commander, but arrived at the more advanced front line of the 13th Infantry Regiment.
The headquarters fully demonstrated the importance he attached to the siege with the 13th Infantry Regiment as the main force.
Compared with his boss who had been an instructor at the Army University for several years, Sakai Tokutaro was a true academic. He taught at the Army University for more than ten years, and did not enter active service until he was middle-aged, and was appointed as the captain of the infantry regiment.
From then on, he was promoted to at least a brigade commander at the age of 51 in 1936. He was considered a late bloomer.
The Japanese Army Major General who came from an academic school has the rigor of having been a teacher for more than ten years. Before the siege, he had already studied the battle reports of the 114th Division and the Kunisaki Detachment in Xicheng District.
Although Suematsu Shigeharu and Kunizaki Zheng were scum in the eyes of the somewhat headstrong Hisao Tani, Sakai Tokutaro knew that these two people may have shortcomings and shortcomings of one kind or another, but they were definitely not as stupid as they showed after losing consecutively.
The reason why they were defeated in front of two Chinese positions in succession was that, firstly, the Tenth Army had a sense of urgency to deal with the current enemy as soon as possible, which resulted in neither of them having more time to survey the positions; secondly, naturally, the Chinese opposite them had outstanding capabilities.
It had something to do with the strong will that was unexpected by everyone; thirdly, the Chinese commander was cunning and tenacious, and the artillery in the city persisted until the last moment of the battle before using all his strength, catching the Kunisaki detachment by surprise and causing losses
heavy.
Although the Chinese artillery is far inferior to the imperial army with hundreds of artillery pieces of various calibers, artillery is artillery, let alone a 75-caliber howitzer, even if it is smaller, it can still kill people.
From the very beginning of the battle, Sakai Tokutaro was waiting for the Chinese artillery, as were the many artillery observation posts deployed on the front line.
This is because the heavy artillery brigade that has stopped shelling is not warehousing weapons and releasing them to Nanshan, but is also waiting for the observation coordinate data to be sent back from the front.
But the Chinese artillery group has remained silent. Even now that the city defenses have been broken, the Chinese artillery group that once showed sufficient strength is still silent. This extremely abnormal situation makes even a calm man like Tokutaro Sakai unbearable.
Stay anxious.
Could it be said that all the Chinese artillery groups were destroyed by the heavy artillery brigade’s shelling just now regardless of the cost?
Sakai Tokutaro quickly suppressed this extremely beautiful fantasy in his heart. As an instructor who has taught countless army colonels, he knew very well that the victory of the battle must not be left to the so-called luck.
The seemingly silent Chinese at the moment will never give up their city defenses easily. The calmer they are now, the more violent the subsequent counterattack will be.
Perhaps, breaking through the city defenses is the real beginning of this offensive and defensive battle.
However, he could not predict how the Chinese would fight back.
"Order the remainder of the Sixth Brigade and the Fourth Infantry Brigade, which have reached the city wall, to find bunkers under the city and be on standby temporarily. They are not allowed to advance rashly. They need to send a reconnaissance team into the city first and wait for reinforcements from the chariot squadron."
"Your Excellency, Major Hebian of the 4th Infantry Brigade has just sent a report, saying that the troops of the 6th Infantry Brigade will re-create the glory of the 6th Infantry Brigade and will use the blood of the Chinese to wash away the shame of Captain Shen Wuxi's death in the battle.
." The captain of the 13th Infantry Regiment, the Colonel, who was holding the battle report just brought back from the front line by the signal corps, had no choice but to report to the cautious Sakai Tokutaro.
Before the rear command headquarters issued military orders, the Japanese major passed the blame to the remnants of the 6th Infantry Battalion, which had suffered a heavy blow earlier.
"Asshole, shame is washed away with the blood of the enemy, not your own. Order the riverside sergeant not to rush in. Tell him that not only do we have artillery, but the Chinese also have it." Sakai Tokutaro's fair face flashed.
With a trace of flushing, he pulled open his collar and roared an order.
However, the glory of planting the military flag on the city wall is an irresistible temptation for the soldiers who have fought bloody battles on the front line. The excitement stimulated by death and blood also drives the soldiers to scream forward, which does not come from the rear.
A piece of military order can calm them down.
The 'Strongest Division on the Surface' is such a proud and powerful army, and any setback is unacceptable to them.
What's more, the people who caused all this were the Chinese who they looked down upon.
