The Chinese did not follow the path imagined by the Japanese Army Lieutenant General.
Of course, his subordinates are not obedient children who listen to him in everything.
Just like the Major General Mitsuru Ushijima, commander of the 36th Brigade of the 6th Division at the forefront.
The Japanese Army Major General certainly cares about the lives of his soldiers, but it also depends on when.
Sometimes, a soldier's life can be sacrificed.
For the empire and for himself.
Just a bunch of abandoned soldiers, let him wait on the river bank for the main force to arrive, and he can do nothing to watch the main force of the Chinese escape?
This is obviously extremely difficult for a Japanese Army major general with sufficient ambition and talent to accept.
He has to do something to prove himself.
Ushijima is worthy of being the guy who can beat the heavily armed cowboys to tears on the small island of Okinawa in the future.
With a flexible mind, he obeyed Yanagawa Heisuke's military orders and improved them on his own initiative.
He wanted to test the Chinese people's determination and troop deployment for the main force to defend the river bank. After an hour of preparation, he used the wooden boats found from the shore and the kayaks carried by the engineering troops as the main means of transportation, from a distance of more than 1,000 meters.
We started crossing the river at the fords everywhere.
At the same time, the brigade headquarters concentrated 3 heavy machine gun squadrons with a total of 36 heavy machine guns, as well as 12 infantry guns and 4 mountain guns to provide fire cover for the troops crossing the river.
The strength of each river-crossing force was as high as an infantry squadron, and a total of nearly a thousand infantrymen were invested in an infantry brigade.
The scale of a river-crossing operation of this level is by no means small. If the abandoned pawns of the Chinese are not strong enough, the four infantry brigades of the 36th Infantry Brigade that are still eyeing the river bank will all cross the river, defeat the Chinese abandoned pawns and
Continuing the crazy pursuit will never give the Chinese main force the slightest chance to breathe.
Sacrificing the lives of nearly a thousand infantrymen to test the strength and firepower of the other side of the river was of course a bit risky, but for Ushijima Mitsuru who urgently needed to defeat his competitors at this time, it was definitely worth it.
At the foot of Matsue Castle, Sakai Tokutaro's 13th Infantry Brigade suffered heavy losses, but that was because they were the main attacker and had also attacked the city. The ace 13th Infantry Regiment under his command even killed the captain of the Colonel-General.
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The Japanese Army, which upholds the spirit of Bushido, may appreciate this fearlessness more and ignore the fact that thousands of its soldiers died in battle.
Just like Nogi Nogori, who was once so stupid that he ordered tens of thousands of people to carry out a death charge, he finally won the honor of "Military God" because of his spirit of carrying a coffin and fighting to the death.
Japan itself is an extremely extreme nation.
Here Hisao Tani has been dead for two days. The Sixth Division is still led by Yanagawa Heisuke, the commander of the Tenth Army. This shows that the big guys in the base camp are still competing with each other. He and Sakai Tokutaro were involved in the war.
Any outstanding performance may put a weight in the minds of the big guys, causing the stalemate balance to tilt in their favor.
Therefore, although he obeyed Yanagawa Heisuke's military order and did not use all his strength to cross the river, he still devoted nearly a thousand people and half of the heavy firepower of the brigade into the battle.
If the Chinese only have one infantry regiment or even one infantry brigade, the Japanese Army Major General who has tested the reality will revise the battle plan and thousands of his men will attack with all their strength.
The Chinese's heavy firearms had been damaged a lot when they were defending the city. It was even more impossible to leave the few artillery pieces behind on the way to escape. Facing a group of light infantry, even the 36th Infantry Brigade did not have more.
Howitzers, 92 infantry guns and 41 mountain guns alone are enough to crush them.
The somewhat arrogant Ushijima Mitsuru has almost calculated everything.
The only thing I missed was that this group of Chinese had just beaten the majestic Japanese navy's aircraft fleet to pieces.
Of course, that was also the result of the Navy not reporting the specific battle losses to their Tenth Army. Otherwise, Ushijima Mitsuru would not have acted rashly.
It is a pity that the contradictions between Japan's navy and army that have developed for many years doomed them to not cooperate sincerely, even in war.
Dozens of kayaks and a dozen wooden boats, carrying hundreds of Japanese troops, rowed toward the opposite shore that was covered by bushes. In waist-deep water, there were hundreds of people with guns raised walking behind the boats.
The heavy machine guns on the river bank did not even wait for the other side to open fire, and began to fire at an area 300 meters away and about 300 meters deep on the other side of the river.
At each river crossing point, about 20 grenade launchers were concentrated, and regardless of whether anyone was seen or not, they just bombarded the river bank wildly.
That was not only to engage in fire suppression like a blind cat catching a dead mouse, but also to hope that the thick smoke would obscure the sight of the lurking enemy and provide enough cover for our own people who were still crossing the river.
The infantry artillery and mountain artillery in the rear were not in a hurry to fire. They were waiting for valuable heavy firepower from the Chinese.
The terrible heavy machine gun bullets were like raindrops, hitting the branches and leaves in the bushes.
Rows of grenade grenades were like plows, blowing up bushes and soil in all directions. Within a range of more than 100 meters along the river, the Japanese troops used infantry light firearms to wreak havoc.
That's it, it's still the result of no artillery being added.
Master Zhuang Sanya, who was hiding in a simple trench on a hill 400 meters away from the river bank, couldn't help but grin: "My dear, the Japanese really spare no expense! Fortunately, the battalion commander strictly ordered that the trenches of the troops must be 300 meters away from the river bank. Otherwise, just
This wave of bullets and grenades came down, which really blinded the Japanese."
‘You idiot, you’re showing off again.’ The Army Major, who was lying with Master Zhuang and holding a telescope, couldn’t help but curl his lips.
Tang Dao is the top commander of the advance regiment, but the headquarters did not give him the position of commander. It only asked him to lead the group with the title of deputy director of the staff department. Therefore, most of the departments of the advance regiment are called Chief Tang, and they can call him Tang Dao.
There are only two battalion commanders, namely the Si Xing Battalion and the Garrison Battalion.
To put it bluntly, anyone who calls Tang Dao the battalion commander is a direct descendant.
Seeing the Army Major's speechless face, Zhuang Shisan felt relieved, not to mention the feeling in his heart.
The Army Major is the battalion commander of the security battalion directly under the 67th Army. Although his position and rank are similar to those of a security battalion commander like Zhuang Shisan, it is obvious that the regular army looks up to the security army. How many times have I met Zhuang Shisan in Songjiang City?
None of the guard and battalion commanders in front of him even looked at him seriously. How could Zhuang Shisan, who came from a martial arts background and cared about face, not feel secretly aggrieved.
Of course, Zhuang Shisan had no intention of declaring leadership, although an army major was ordered to bring a guard company to support him.
At the four crossing points selected by the Japanese army, Tang Dao used the Sixing Battalion and the Guard Battalion as the main defense forces, and then deployed four guard companies from the three guard battalions to assist.
It’s not that the combat effectiveness of the guard battalion is weaker, but that the guard battalion troops basically use short guns and have strong close-range firepower, but the long-range firepower is far from that of field troops such as the guard battalion.
At the beginning, the army major who led the guard company of more than 100 people into the position was very dissatisfied with Zhuang Shisan's "war-fearing" behavior of placing his troops 400 meters away, even if Tang Dao ordered it to pass.
Entering 300 meters, but this guy ran directly to 400 meters away, is he too scared to death?
At such a distance, let alone the rifles, submachine guns and Liao-made 13s equipped by their guard company, even the 38-meter rifles and medium-sized rifles equipped by the soldiers in the guard battalion can only fight lonely.
Then you have to defend a ball!
But what should I say? From the perspective of reducing casualties, there is really nothing to say about Master Zhuang's disbandment.
The Japanese machine guns and grenades that covered the river bank 300 meters deep could only blow the air. The soldiers hid in the trenches in the bushes and watched the show.
The reason why it was easy was not only that they were not attacked, but also that in this round of battle, the infantry were not the main force, they were just preparations.
Only when the Japanese army crosses the river in a large-scale iron-headed manner will they enter the front-line position.
If the Japanese army is not large in scale.
The main force used to attack the Japanese troops crossing the river this time was machine guns and heavy machine guns.
The big guys that were originally used to shoot planes were now in fortifications on a higher mound 800 meters away, facing the river from a high position.
Just wait for the Japanese and attack them halfway across the border!
