In Matsumoto's right gate's field of vision, the rapid-fire artillery squadron had disappeared into thin air!
In fact, the artillerymen who could survive this sudden heavy artillery washout accounted for about a quarter of his original rapid-fire artillery squadron, so it could not be considered that the entire army was wiped out.
However, the huge explosion at the center of the bombardment made these artillerymen who survived the attack as deaf as their artillery squadron leader.
A group of disabled Japanese artillerymen is nothing. More importantly, the artillery can no longer be used.
Although the six rapid-fire cannons were not all blown to pieces by the precise hits of Chinese shells, looking at the cannon bodies that were swaying and even lying on the ground, Matsumoto Umon also knew that without maintenance, these cannons were
It can no longer be used.
"It's over!" Captain Matsumoto's right-door artillery, eyes blank, was almost mechanically supported by the signal soldiers to retreat towards the wing headquarters.
Perhaps, if he knew that not only the two infantry squadrons of the "Long Live Charge" of the 3rd Infantry Brigade were completely lost, but even Shenmu Shaozuo was killed, he would feel much better.
After all, he is still alive, right?
In the end, fewer than 500 soldiers of the Japanese Third Infantry Battalion were able to retreat to 700 meters away from the blocking position of Leng Feng's Third Battalion and begin desperately digging field trenches.
The center left deputy commander of the 2nd Infantry Regiment, who was watching all this with a telescope, almost shed tears.
He was the former captain of the 3rd Infantry Brigade Zuo Zuo. The 3rd Infantry Brigade was not only his soldier, but also the guarantee of his right to speak in the regiment. Before the attack, the 4 infantry squadrons brought a heavy machine gun squadron. Although due to the war,
The loss is not enough, but there are still more than 900 people.
This is great, we only attacked two waves, and only half of the people were left.
"The regiment's directly affiliated baggage squadron will be added to the 3rd Infantry Battalion. Since Tanaka-kun and Kamiki Shaozuo have been loyal to His Majesty the Emperor, and you once served as the captain of the 3rd Infantry Battalion, you are now appointed to concurrently serve as the captain of the 3rd Infantry Battalion.
In this position, the safety of the wing headquarters is entirely entrusted to you." Ishiguro Sadazou's face showed no trace of sadness, but instead gave a decisive order.
"Hi!" Japanese Army center left bowed his head heavily.
"Send power to the division headquarters again. Our regiment is besieged by a large number of Chinese troops carrying automatic firearms. All subordinate units have suffered casualties. Please request air support as soon as possible!" Ishiguro Sadzo watched his deputy walk away, took a deep breath, and ordered again.
It was only then that Ishiguro Sadzo showed anxiety in his eyes.
At this time, the Japanese army's left wing had realized that his 2nd Infantry Regiment was actually in a desperate situation. He could not abandon the two surrounded infantry brigades in any case, but he could no longer rely on the strength of his current regiment alone.
Rescue them.
If he insists on attacking forcefully, this may be exactly what the Chinese want. The Chinese army in front of them, responsible for blocking them, may turn from defense to attack at any time and attack the regiment headquarters, which has suffered a huge loss of troops.
By then, the 2nd Infantry Regiment will become the laughing stock of the Imperial Army.
Originally, the Chinese only wanted to eat 2,000 people, but Ishiguro Sadazou was so confused that he spent the last mobile force on the Chinese's carefully constructed defense line, and eventually even himself was involved.
Not to mention that the various departments of the Imperial Army will regard the 14th Division as a joke, the Chinese will also take the opportunity to use Ishiguro Sadazou's pig head to publicize it!
The only way now is to hold on with the last strength and take a gamble.
Bet that the Chinese couldn't kill two of his infantry brigades in one day, bet that the reinforcements from the division regiment would arrive within 10 hours.
If the bet fails, his 2nd Infantry Regiment will lose two infantry brigades, but if the bet wins, he can make a complete comeback.
In the future, the division's battle report to the front army headquarters can be written as follows: The 2nd Infantry Regiment used two infantry brigades as bait to induce the main force of the Chinese army to besiege, and then the division sent all its main force to annihilate them!
Of course, Ishiguro Sadazou did not say that he actually abandoned the two infantry brigades. He also pinned his hopes on the air power of the Imperial Army.
The front army has ground aviation stationed at two airports in Jin Province, and fighter planes can bomb and use machine guns to fire. Even if it cannot completely solve the danger of the two infantry brigades being surrounded, it can only give them enough support to let them hold on until dusk.
It can only be said that the opponent Tang Dao encountered was clear-minded and tenacious. If ordinary troops encountered him, they would probably suffer a big loss.
However, Ishiguro Sadazou learned about the Tang Sword from Doihara Kenji, not the entire Four Elements Regiment. The Tang Sword is the core of the Four Elements Regiment, but the combat effectiveness of the Four Elements Regiment does not only come from the commander.
It comes from fighting again and again, from the will to fight that constantly experiences life and death. Even the more than a thousand Sichuan troops who joined later have experienced hard and deadly battles in Guangde.
What's even more terrible is that they have also updated the equipment and ammunition replenishment.
Spanning 700 kilometers, not counting the baggage troops, each person carried a huge load of 30 kilograms, which actually laid the most important foundation for this battle.
Today's Four Corps, whether in terms of personnel quality, equipment, or the execution ability of commanders at all levels, the comprehensive combat power of the entire China, not to mention being firmly ranked first, must also be in the top three...
If you are poor, you can use tactics to intersperse; if you are rich, you can cover it with firepower!
Lei Xiong's 1st Battalion and Guo Shouzhi's 2nd Battalion implemented the prodigal pattern to the end. After the first wave hid the Japanese troops in the encirclement and killed a quarter of them, the two sides entered into a duel in the vast wilderness grassland.
model.
However, the Japanese troops who rolled down the roadbed could only use rifles and few machine guns to fight the enemy.
It’s not that the Japanese infantry squadron is equipped with too few light machine guns. An infantry squadron is equipped with 6 Taisho 10 light machine guns, which is enough to rival an ordinary Chinese infantry battalion. There are as many as 8 Japanese infantry squadrons besieged on the battlefield.
That means that even if the heavy machine gun squadron suffers heavy losses, they still have nearly 50 light machine guns.
But the tragedy is that although the 1st and 2nd Battalions did not use mortars, there were quite a few grenadier soldiers left in the grass more than 100 meters away. Their target was the continuous firepower of the Japanese army.
Once a Japanese light machine gun is discovered roaring in that patch of grass, even if the grenadier soldiers don't have time to notice it, the squad and platoon leaders in the trenches will scream desperately to remind their grenadier soldiers to deal with the serious problem at hand.
The machine gun with a grenade can be said to be a crushing type. If you can't kill it with one shot, then use two or three rounds!
Of course, the Japanese army also had grenadiers, but the targets of the grenades were not as obvious as the thick smoke emitting from the continuous firing of light machine guns, and the positions of the two sides were also very different.
The battle position where the Chinese grenadiers hide is not just a grass nest. The grenadiers who are some distance away from the infantry also dig individual trenches and use sandbags as bunkers. As long as grenades are not used, it will be fine.
If you fall in a trench or just on the edge of a trench, you will basically not be injured by shrapnel.
The Japanese grenadiers were just lying down in the grass casually, being suppressed by unknown amounts of firepower or even traceless firepower. Not to mention that they were still searching for targets with telescopes and could raise their heads like before.
, that’s already good luck.
What's more, every Chinese infantry squad has precision shooters. Their instinct is not to lie on the edge of the trench like other infantry and pour firepower toward the front without hesitation.
Those who resist resolutely, have sun flags tied to their muzzles, are highly lethal, and have stars on their epaulettes are basically the targets they are looking for.
Grenadier soldiers were naturally their prey, so more than 20 Japanese grenadier soldiers were shot and killed in the stalemate that lasted for more than 20 minutes.
To put it bluntly, the battlefield at this time was quite like the 14th Division fighting the First Army. As soon as the Chinese machine gun fire showed up, the Japanese grenade launchers stationed 400 meters away came with a barrage of fire. However, the Chinese side was hit by a mortar attack.
There was a shortage of artillery shells and there was nothing they could do. They could only watch helplessly as the Japanese troops knocked out their own suppressive firepower one by one.
Without the continuous fire suppression of machine guns, the final charge of the Japanese army could not be stopped by relying solely on bolt-action rifles in the hands of infantrymen.
However, the battlefield at this time was just the opposite. The Japanese army could only watch in pain as the Chinese took out their own machine gun firepower points, but there was nothing they could do.
At this moment, they finally understood the powerlessness of their former opponents. It was not that those soldiers had weak willpower, but that they had no choice.
They are also helpless now. Not only are they watching their opponents kill off their machine guns bit by bit, they also have to endure the malicious intent from the imperial military industrialists.
Yes, many Taisho 10 small machine guns went on strike without waiting for the Chinese to kill them.
Because the grenade exploded, some dead grass was ignited. Although it was quickly extinguished due to the air waves caused by the explosion of more grenades, it did not become a large burning fire field like the third camp, but a large amount of burning residue was swept into the air and fell one after another.
, Chinese and Japanese soldiers were like groundhogs covered in mud.
These things falling on the human body are just a little dirty. Human beings who are struggling on the edge of life and death can certainly not take it seriously, but they stopped doing machine guns in the Taisho decade.
How can the sophisticated weapons developed by the Imperial Japanese military industry work in such an environment? Jamming has almost become the most common operation.
The Japanese infantrymen who once lived a pretty good life could only tragically use 38 rifles to fight the enemy except shouting "Baga" angrily.
In other words, 30 minutes after the battle began, the surrounded Japanese troops had no weapons to use except the 38-meter Gai.
Guo Shouzhi, who arrived at the frontline command, discovered this keenly and had already requested Tang Dao over the phone to launch a charge and completely eat up the Japanese troops in front of him.
"Continue to maintain the battlefield situation and kill as many Japanese troops as possible. Now is not the time for a decisive battle. Without my order, each battalion is not allowed to launch a charge without permission! Violation of military orders will be violated." Tang Dao refused on the other end of the phone.
Tang Dao's face was stern, but his eyes showed relief. The Japanese troops in the encirclement had lost all their heavy weapons and were basically doomed. They could eat them at any time if they wanted.
Looking back at the secret agent company commander Yang Xiaoshan who was accompanying him, Tang Dao smiled thoughtfully: "Xiaoshan, tell me why I didn't let Battalion Commander Guo and the others kill the Japanese in one go?"
Tang Dao has always had an inexplicable fondness for Yang Xiaoshan. Although he has never achieved any brilliant achievements, as a representative of the group of young officers who were quickly promoted like Gu Xishui and Qian Dazhu, he actually
His reputation in the military is far inferior to that of those two. Even among the big guys in Zhengzhou City who came to marry him, few people mentioned this honest-looking lieutenant and company commander.
But Tang Dao liked him so much that he was promoted from second lieutenant to lieutenant and commander of the special agent company after only training in Li Jiujin's infantry company for more than a month.
The special service company is not a combat unit. It has jurisdiction over communications, medical care, engineering, and service. It is considered a special service company and will never be sent to the battlefield unless absolutely necessary.
It seems that they were transferred from the first-line combat troops to the second-line service troops, but almost anyone who is not blind will know that the secret service company is the closest unit to the regimental commander, and the importance of its company commander goes without saying.
Perhaps, only Tang Dao himself knows why he likes Yang Xiaoshan. Not only was Yang Xiaoshan the first to express goodwill to him when he first came to this world, but Yang Xiaoshan looked very much like him when he first entered the military camp.
Kind, enthusiastic and with a firm heart.
Tang Dao firmly believed that Yang Xiaoshan would become an excellent commander, so he spared no effort to train him.
Seeing Tang Dao's question, Yang Xiaoshan quickly replied, "Sir, you may be worried about the Japanese artillery. If we decide the winner too early, the Japanese artillery over there will definitely be able to fire unscrupulously, and our army will suffer great losses."
."
"Haha, this can be considered part of the reason, and there's more!" Tang Dao smiled slightly.
"If there is anything else, sir, you have also considered that the Japanese air support will definitely arrive. The two armies are intertwined, which will make it impossible for the Japanese bombers to attack and avoid the casualties that our army may cause!" Yang Xiaoshan pointed to the sky.
.
Tang Dao shook his head this time and said: "The two points you considered, Xiaoshan, are actually correct. The Japanese artillery still exists, and its air support will arrive sooner or later. They are enough threats to our unit, but to put it bluntly, these two points
In fact, it’s just a little bit.
The reason why Battalion Commander Guo didn't care about this at all is not to say that he didn't consider so much. He just didn't want to waste the hard-earned bullets. He was also confident that the battle would be resolved before the Japanese planes arrived. As for the Japanese infantry,
Although artillery and mountain artillery can cause certain casualties, they are within the range he can bear.
Moreover, he is just a member of the encirclement on the battlefield. He only needs to consider what his second battalion has to do. But where you are is the command center of my entire Fourth Army Regiment. What you need to consider is the entire
battlefield."
"Sir, what you mean is that the group of Japanese troops outside the encirclement should not be scared away. Instead, we should use a stalemate to attract them to the battlefield." Yang Xiaoshan suddenly woke up when Tang Dao reminded him.
"Ishiguro Sadazou is a very smart person. This alone is not enough. I estimate that he has already made preparations for the retreat of all members of the regiment. The breaking of the wrists of strong men is not only done by our Chinese army, but also by the Japanese."
No mercy either.
In this Sino-Japanese war, the Japanese infantry brigade was not wiped out once or twice, but an infantry regiment was extremely rare. Ishiguro Sadazou did not want to become the second Takeuchi Unzan." Tang Dao saw that Yang Xiaoshan's reaction was sufficient.
Quickly, his face softened and he nodded.
"It's just that he can't do it easily if he just ignores the two infantry brigades and throws them away. Let's just hang him up like this until he can't walk or not walk. His head will hurt for a while.
What this person is most afraid of is that his thoughts are too complicated, and if he is not careful, he will think too much! At that time, it will be the opportunity for our team to fight decisively." Tang Dao cast his gaze into the distance.
This is both a tactic, a game of life, and a psychological game.
The main force of the 14th Division was still dozens of kilometers away. It was enough time for Tang Dao to dare to let go for the time being and eat up nearly a thousand Japanese troops in the encirclement.
He was not busy making moves, but let Ishiguro Sadazou think and make decisions on his own.
Tang Dao has already done this once before striking first, snapping his head and covering his face with a flurry of punches.
Now, it is not impossible to wait for the Japanese to take action, find good opportunities, and strike later.
What's more, Tang Dao has already prepared his back-up plan in advance, just to see if the Japanese will make another mistake in panic.
