The 36th Infantry Brigade of the Sixth Division was the first brigade-level unit of the Tenth Army to arrive at the Baihe Port Bridge.
After receiving Yanagawa Heisuke's order for the entire army to speed up the pursuit, Ushijima Mitsuru used almost all the mechanical power at his disposal to load infantry.
Because the navy reconnaissance plane reported that the main force of the Chinese was still 30 kilometers away, the division cavalry regiment reconnaissance was enough. The 36th Infantry Brigade, which was frantically pursuing, did not send any reconnaissance infantry or three-wheeled motorcycles for reconnaissance.
There were six infantrymen crammed into it, and three motorcycles were enough to carry an infantry squad. The truck loaded with military rations and even artillery shells was even more crawling with soldiers, with several even lying on the roof of the truck.
Of course, it cannot be driven at high speed, but even if it is marching at a speed of five kilometers per hour, the infantry can maintain sufficient physical strength and be able to fight in the shortest time when encountering the Chinese.
Ushijima Mitsuru, who had the opportunity to be promoted to Army Lieutenant General, worked hard this time, even if he had to make the 36th Infantry Brigade under his command the same as in Asan Province.
At 2 o'clock in the afternoon, it took them only seven hours to march 40 kilometers with all the heavy equipment and arrived one mile away from Baihe Port Bridge.
This speed is absolutely eye-popping for a non-mechanized force.
You know, on the northern ice fields of the future, a Chinese infantry regiment spent 14 hours running 80 kilometers on a rugged mountain road with light equipment. It has been praised by the military circles around the world as the most incredible tactical interlude. Their moving speed was even
More than a wheel traveling through the mountains.
Although the 36th Infantry Brigade is on the plains and has certain assistance such as trucks and carriages, it has to carry heavy weapons and march continuously for more than seven hours and up to a distance of 40 kilometers. It is said that they are a first-class strong army.
Not an exaggeration at all.
Songjiang's army consisted of more than 20,000 people. Under the threat of death, they ran wildly for 6 hours all night and marched 30 kilometers. They were exhausted and were forced to stop for repairs.
If he was forced to stop again by constant harassment from Japanese aircraft in the sky, Yanagawa Heisuke's idea of catching up with the main force of the Matsue defenders before sunset was not impossible to realize.
Ushijima Mitsuru started to feel pain before his boss.
What hurt Ushijima was not the bombing of the Shirakaku Port Bridge.
But the bridge is still there.
Many traces left in the wilderness have shown that a large number of people once gathered here and passed through it.
That also means that the main force of the Chinese has crossed the river through the bridge.
Then why didn't they blow up the bridge?
Leave it to let the pursuers pursue them effortlessly?
Ushijima thought, thinking that the Chinese would not be that stupid.
"Yanagawa Heisuke, you idiot, you just came here! I'm so excited waiting for you!"
"Suematsu Shigeharu, you idiot, you only have this speed. By the time you get home, you will have been cuckolded several times!"
"Ushijima is full of idiots. I'm on the other side of the river. If you have the ability, come and beat me!"
The Chinese people are becoming more and more proficient in Chinese-flavored Japanese expression slogans which made Ushijima confident that the main force of the Chinese people had crossed the river.
That is, you are scolding those lieutenant generals, why did Mao mention me, a little army major general? Ushijima was scolded by the Chinese's cheap and fancy words, which made him a little depressed and at the same time inexplicably happy.
Is it possible that even the Chinese think that apart from His Excellency Hisao Tani, I am the most awesome person in the Sixth Division?
Don't tell me, even though Ushijima at this time was full of 'common' men, he was really right.
Tang Dao, who was familiar with history, really didn't underestimate this guy, even though he was just a minor general now.
In the past, Ushijima Mitsuru, who performed well in the Battle of Southeast China, was just emerging. In the subsequent Battle of Jiangxia, he led the 36th Infantry Brigade to complete a bold tactical maneuver and blocked hundreds of thousands of troops.
Although the army's retreat did not achieve his dream of annihilating hundreds of thousands of troops due to the small number of troops, the annihilation of the last Chinese heavy artillery brigade made the Chinese army, which already lacked heavy weapons, no longer able to counterattack.
This military exploit allowed him to be promoted to lieutenant general and serve as the principal of the non-commissioned officer school a year later, but this was not the peak moment of Ushijima Mitsuru's military career.
A few years later, on the Pacific battlefield, Ushijima Mitsuchika, who had been promoted to Army General, led two divisions and one brigade in a head-to-head confrontation with American cowboys on the small island of Okinawa.
The Japanese army, which was armed to the teeth with the American cowboys, was comparable to the comparison between China and Japan. Under the leadership of this man, the Japanese army achieved a record that made the American cowboys tremble.
In the entire Battle of Okinawa, more than 250,000 ground troops, hundreds of aircraft and hundreds of ships were deployed. The American cowboys suffered more than 60,000 casualties, and a lieutenant general and commander died in the battle.
Mitsuru Ushijima, who led this battle, was not only hailed as an "excellent tactician" by Japanese military commentators, but even American cowboys called him the most difficult enemy to deal with before they were beaten by Chinese soldiers.
The "Puxin" man saw through the Chinese people's tricks with his relatively wise mind.
He did not have any confusion about what to do, "what is true is false and what is false is true". When he reported to Yanagawa Heisuke that the Chinese had passed the Shirakaku Port Bridge, he ordered each infantry brigade to send out search teams with infantry squads as units.
, search along the river banks on both sides of the bridge, looking for shoals that can cross the river or available boats.
Anyway, the pie dropped by the enemy will never be a good thing. Ushijima, who doesn't want to be a dog, doesn't want to waste the lives of soldiers in vain.
The main reason is that he has consumed a lot under Matsue Castle, although it is much less than that idiot Sakai Tokutaro.
"What a fool, you have a pretty good head, and you didn't rush over the bridge even after being scolded like a bear." Leng Feng, who was lurking in the bushes 50 meters away from the river bank, cursed angrily.
At his hand is a detonator connected to a wire. Two hundred kilograms of explosives are placed at the bridge head 150 meters away from him. As long as he presses hard, the steel bridge that can pass cars and trains will explode.
Suddenly fell into the water.
Lei Xiong's order was to blast the bridge after all the troops had evacuated, but Leng Feng, who was in charge of the blasting, firmly believed that even if he had doubts, Japanese troops would definitely enter the bridge to search, and then he would detonate it again.
It can be considered that the dynamite did not blow up my own things in vain.
Thinking that this person was right, Lei Xiong didn't argue with him anymore and just let him go.
As a result, Leng Feng, who had been waiting for several hours, received a very smart response from the Japanese army.
Thousands of Japanese came in the dark, but none of them got on the bridge. Instead, they sent out a large number of infantry teams to search along the river. From the looks of it, they were planning to wade across the river.
It was almost exactly the same as Tang Dao predicted.
Yes, the Suzhou River is considered a big river here, but after all, it is the dry season after winter. If you find a suitable shallow water bank, you still have a chance to cross the big river with a gun.
On the long river bank of more than ten miles, the Japanese cavalry had already tried to cross the river several times. Two cavalrymen had even crossed the center of the river. The water had only just reached the belly of the horses. They were about to cross the river successfully.
But, the gunfire rang out.
Two pathfinders in the river died helplessly in the river, despite the efforts of their colleagues standing on the river bank to fight back.
But goose, that's of no use, you will die just like damn. The unobstructed center of the river is a death zone for both parties who greet each other with bullets.
Not only the Japanese have cavalry, but the Chinese also have them.
The Chinese cavalry, which had 6 cavalry companies, had more than 200 men at this point in the battle, and they were scattered along the 20-mile bank of the river by Tang Dao.
As soon as any Japanese troops were discovered trying to cross the river, they would launch an attack and destroy their attempts in the river.
If the Japanese army is trying to cross the river on a large scale on a certain river bank, then let the infantry deployed along the bank handle them.
Yes, the advance regiment led by Tang Dao did not continue to run away, but came back with carbines. According to the terrain on the opposite side of the river bank, a simple field position was built along the river bank to block the Tenth Army.
"Abandoning the soldiers to save the commander?" Mitsuru Ushijima took a deep breath after hearing the news.
"Survive with a broken arm!" Heisuke Yanagawa made a painful judgment after receiving a telegram from the Chinese deploying blocking positions along the north bank of the Suzhou River.
This is an old Chinese routine that was used frequently on the battlefield in North China.
Once encountering an unbeatable pursuit, they will immediately block the attack with a rear group, allowing the main force to escape.
Although most of the rear troops could not hold out for long before collapsing, they could be delayed for a period of time no matter what.
What's more, it's that army.
Intuition told Yanagawa Heisuke that crossing the river would be difficult to do before dark with the strength of the 36th Infantry Brigade alone, unless the heavy artillery brigade could arrive in time, or he had to invest more force.
"Order the 36th Infantry Brigade not to act rashly and only allow a small-scale exploratory attack. Order the entire army to speed up and try to arrive before half past four, repair for half an hour, and launch an attack on the Chinese on the other side of the river. Kill them all.
I don’t want any prisoners from them, not even one of them.”
Yanagawa Heisuke gritted his back molars and issued military orders on horseback.
The fact is that the Japanese Army Lieutenant General's intuition was wrong.
