The Japanese Tenth Army's three-pronged strategy seemed to be successful on the first day of November 12.
It took one day for the 50,000-strong army led by Yanagawa Heisuke to reach the outskirts of Kunshan. The 18th Division also caught up with the 20,000-strong Chinese army that did not retreat but chose to resist.
In addition to the 36th Infantry Brigade, they were also working extremely hard to chase thousands of Chinese people who were more than ten kilometers ahead. They could catch up at any time, but as soon as they took a step forward with their long legs, their short legs almost ran away and died.
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The Battle of Kunshan went smoothly, as the main force of the Chinese army had basically withdrawn, and they fled with little decent resistance.
However, the 18th Division encountered tenacious resistance.
Regarding the first three days of the Battle of Jiashan, the battle report of the Japanese Tenth Army stated this.
On the evening of November 12, 1937, the Imperial 18th Division closely pursued the enemy's 67th Army, and the main force of the 43rd Army arrived in Jiashan County, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, China.
In the early morning of November 13, we encountered an enemy night attack.
The enemy troops were all naked from the waist up, armed with sharp bamboo knives, and stabbed anyone with clothes on. The night was as dark as ink, and our troops could not see. The 18th Division, the 35th Infantry Brigade, the 124th Infantry Regiment's 2nd Infantry were attacked by the enemy.
In this battle, more than 230 people from the brigade were killed, more than 300 were lightly or seriously injured, and 200 enemies were killed.
On November 13, the Imperial 18th Division dispatched the 114th Infantry Regiment, 2nd and 3rd Infantry Battalion, the 124th Infantry Regiment, 1st and 3rd Infantry Battalion, the 55th Infantry Regiment, 1st and 2nd Infantry Battalion, and the 56th Infantry Regiment.
The 3rd Infantry Brigade, the 12th Artillery Regiment, and the 12th Engineer Regiment deployed a total of 7,000 infantrymen, 600 engineers, and 70 artillery pieces of various types to launch an attack on the enemy's defense line with a width of 12 kilometers for a whole day.
, a total of 13 enemy positions were captured, more than 2,000 enemy soldiers were killed, and nearly a thousand casualties were suffered.
In the early morning of November 14, we encountered another enemy attack.
The enemy's tactics remained unchanged, their uniforms remained unchanged, and they were also equipped with sharp bamboo knives. They sneaked into the position again. Although we were well prepared, we still suffered heavy losses. All the positions captured during the day were lost, and the number of enemy killed was unknown!
On November 14, Army Lieutenant General Sadao Ushijima, commander of our 18th Division, went to the front line to supervise the battle. In this battle, nearly 10,000 infantry and artillery troops were invested. All the heavy artillery of the heavy artillery brigade participated in the battle. The Navy also sent fighter planes to assist. The whole army fought bravely.
Moving forward, we defeated the enemy's positions 15 more times, and the enemy's defense line was already crumbling.
In the early morning of November 15th, we encountered another enemy attack! The position we conquered was lost.
Battle reports are becoming more and more concise.
Anyone who is not a fool and watches the battle report of the Japanese Tenth Army on the Jiashan front will know that the 18th Division on the Jiashan front seems to have been trapped in an almost unsolvable death cycle.
The position that was finally conquered during the day by investing a large number of troops seems to be lost again at night, all because of a group of Chinese soldiers who like to go bare-chested and hold bamboo knives, a weapon that is almost a primitive era.
But in fact, the real experience of the 18th Division was much more cruel than the understatement in the battle report.
During the day, with the assistance of the large-caliber heavy artillery of the division artillery wing and the heavy artillery brigade, the Japanese infantry offensive went smoothly. Although the Chinese were tenacious enough, they were forced to retreat due to the lack of heavy weapons that could counterattack.
But the Japanese infantrymen who occupied the position were not at all relaxed, because they had to endure the test at night.
But no matter how vigilant they are, humans are not machines. They are already exhausted after fighting fiercely all day long. The silent night is simply a fatal lullaby.
And those Chinese who only wore shorts and straw sandals and held sharp bamboo poles could always sneak into the position from the wide wilderness without concealing the drowsy sentries.
The Japanese infantry even changed the way they store weapons because of the sneak attacks in the previous two days. Every rifle is next to the sleeping soldiers in the trench, ready for battle at any time.
However, it did not change the outcome that they were eventually driven out of the position by the Chinese and suffered heavy losses.
All infantry who did not return to the main position were sentenced to death in battle.
Disappearance is impossible here. There will be no one left alive by the naked Chinese.
The Japanese had no idea what kind of Chinese soldiers they were encountering.
The 128th Division of the Hunan Army is perhaps the most special unit in the Chinese army at this time.
Xiangxi, what kind of place is it?
I am afraid that when Chinese people in the future see this name, their first thought will not be that it is a beautiful county with beautiful mountains and clear waters. There was once a great literati with a touching name.
Fenghuang was not called Fenghuang before, but was called "Gan Town". For nearly two thousand years, the area controlled by the Miao people had constant conflicts due to the migration of large numbers of people during the Tang and Song Dynasties. It maintained an armed force called "Gan Town" all year round.
military'.
They were perhaps one of the few mercenaries in Chinese history. Fighting was their lifelong occupation, and every household took it for granted. Almost every household had someone joining the army.
This is no longer a rugged folk custom, but a professional army that does the job of killing people.
The 128th Division of the Hunan Army is such a pole army. Ninety percent of its officers and soldiers are from Phoenix.
When they were ordered to go on an expedition this time, the city gate of the small town that would become a tourist attraction in the future was hung with a banner saying "Gan's army goes out, China will not perish", and the whole city came to see them off.
There are 7,000 young soldiers, accounting for one-fifth of the young people in the small town.
The 128th Division, an army mainly composed of Miao and Tu ethnic groups, is best at hand-to-hand combat. Having practiced martial arts since childhood, their combat effectiveness in close combat is almost unmatched by anyone in China.
Unlike the Northwestern Army who went to the barracks to learn the art of swordsmanship, the soldiers of the 128th Division liked bamboo poles that were made from local materials and cut them into half-meter-long pointed ends. The spiky bamboo poles with a length of nearly two meters should probably not be called so.
Because it is a bamboo knife, it should be called a bamboo spear.
But this weapon is similar to the red tassel gun that the northern troops like to carry on the battlefield. It beats the Japanese army's 38 Dagai in terms of length.
Don't look at the fact that the Japanese army's stabbing skills are said to be unparalleled in the world. This is based on the fact that the opponent's physical fitness and the length of the spear are not as good as theirs. If they encounter someone whose skills are not inferior to theirs and whose spear is longer, they will be in trouble unless they are unlucky.
Facing the army armed with red tasseled guns and wearing gray military uniforms, the Japanese were proud of the hand-to-hand combat and lost eight out of ten battles, but here, they lost three out of three.
But this is by no means the main reason why the "Gan Army" can repeatedly succeed in night attacks.
The real reason why they have never been defeated in night attacks is their spirit of not fearing death.
At that time, each army would have officers supervising the battle. Once soldiers retreated, military law would be enacted on the spot. Even the 67th Army and the 43rd Army were no exception. During the Songjiang battle, many officers and soldiers died under the machine guns and pistols of the supervising team.
No less than a hundred people.
However, there is no such organization in the Gan Army. They never need to supervise battles, and even the so-called pre-war mobilization is omitted.
All the ministers had to do was shout: "Brothers, step up! Don't embarrass us Phoenix people!" The Gan Army soldiers would charge desperately until the last person was left.
This sentence is more useful than any impassioned speech, and there is no simpler motive for fighting.
In ancient times, when the Gan army went on an expedition, they usually wore a large earring on their right ear and engraved their name on the earring. This was not for good looks, but in the hope that someone would claim it after they died in battle and return to their roots.
When the battlefield was being cleared, anyone with a big earring on his right ear must be a soldier from Xiangxi. Then, based on the name and place of origin on the earring, the remains were transported back to Xiangxi and buried.
If you can't transport the remains back home, take the earrings with you.
As soon as the family saw the earring, they knew that he had died in battle and could not come back. Then they enshrined the earring on the shrine to signify that he had returned.
Now, they put on their earrings again and engraved their names and place of origin on them.
Wrapping one's body in horse leather became the most glorious thing for the disciples of the Gan Army.
If it was not such an army, how could it use the strength of an infantry division to block the violent attack of nearly 30,000 people from the 18th Division in that time and space? In Tang Dao's view, that battle was more powerful than Songjiang's 30,000 troops.
The battle against 100,000 is more of a hell mode.
But miraculously, they did it.
And their combat method was just like what was written in the battle report of the 18th Division at this time. During the day, they were hard-hitting and lost as few positions as possible. At night, they organized suicide squads to go into battle and seize it back.
This is not to say that the Japanese army was just dregs. They were immediately confused when encountering a night attack. They also tried to prove that they were not weak.
But the tragedy is that they are really no match for this "pole" army in a hand-to-hand fight. What's even more painful is that this is a real Jiangnan water town.
Jiashan has more water than Songjiang.
The Chinese and Japanese armies were all fighting in the mud.
The Chinese wear pitiful straw sandals, while the Japanese wear sturdy cowhide shoes that can crush mountains and rivers.
If you are on the road, cowhide boots will naturally beat straw sandals.
But if you are in a muddy field, even a fool knows what a terrible experience it would be to have muddy leather boots.
Mother Earth of China and the Japanese themselves dug a big hole for the Japanese infantry.
That's not all, because there is an extra little butterfly that has traveled through time and space.
Tang Dao added another fire to the night attack battle.
After the Songjiang Command arrived in Jiashan, it requested instructions from the Songhu Theater Command and jointly established the Jiashan Command with the 128th Division. Lieutenant General Wu remained as the commander-in-chief, and Lieutenant General Guo and the commander of the 128th Division, Lieutenant General Gu, served as deputy commander-in-chief.
The 67th Army was the main force in defensive operations during the day, while the entire 128th Division huddled in the garrison fortifications at the rear to recuperate their strength against heavy artillery.
At night, he served as the main force for night attacks.
To put it bluntly, one is responsible for the day and the other is responsible for the night, so we work in shifts.
Japanese 18th Division
Baga! I have never seen such a "shameless" fighting style. How about you run away and I won't chase you, okay?
On the fourth day of the Jiashan Defense Line offensive and defensive battle, the night attack team of the Ganzi Army came again.
The Chinese used their actions to tell the Japanese that this really won't work.
With Hisao Tani's unlucky man's lessons learned from the past, one can imagine the distress in Ushijima Sadao's heart who still went to the front line to supervise the battle.
However, the reason why Ushijima Sadao could occasionally laugh out of his misery was not because of how many meters he had advanced during the day.
Rather, there are people who are more miserable than him, Ushijima Sadao, and
There are people who are more unlucky than themselves, which is one of the reasons why many people persist in living in misery...
PS: It’s not that Feng Yue doesn’t work hard! It’s really a holiday and she’s even busier than working. From noon yesterday to tonight, there have been no-stop dinners with classmates who returned home from junior high school, high school, and college. Feng Yue is not good at drinking. Three glasses of beer.
I feel dizzy after drinking. I insisted on not drinking at noon and took the time to write in the afternoon. I will participate in the fourth game soon, so I can only write this chapter. It is a holiday for the holidays! I will update it normally in the next few days.
