Tang Dao and Lei Xiong's battalion reunited much sooner than he imagined.
Less than 3 miles away from Licheng, I saw a motorcade stirring up smoke and dust.
If it weren't for the fact that through the telescope he could see a bunch of people standing, lying, and hanging above, all wearing blue military uniforms, Guo Shouzhi would have almost given the order to stop the enemy.
Yes, although the car was driven by a Japanese, the driver was Chinese.
The battalion led by Lei Xiong has successfully completed the blocking mission!
It defeated the Japanese army even earlier than the Battle of Shentou Ridge!
The reason is that the Japanese troops from Shecheng are too "skilled and quick".
Shecheng is only more than 20 kilometers away from Licheng. The closer distance is only one aspect. The main reason is that the Japanese army located in Shecheng happens to have a cavalry regiment of the 108th Division and a baggage regiment.
The Japanese cavalry regiment is placed in the permanent division. It is a real cavalry, with a war horse and a saber! The war horse has speed and endurance, and the cavalry charge on it is extremely impactful, even in a war dominated by thermal weapons.
In the 1960s, if there was not enough continuous firepower, the highly mobile cavalry would still be very lethal, especially on the Chinese battlefield, or to be more precise, on the northern battlefield. With the intensity of firepower of the Chinese army, it would be really difficult to match the Japanese cavalry.
It’s hard to describe in words!
But as we all know, war horses are precious things. If you want to maintain the power and speed of the horse, you must eat well and drink well. Just giving grass is not enough. The Japanese army's baggage warehouse in Licheng County stocked tens of thousands of kilograms of soybeans, corn and other concentrated feeds.
It is prepared for war horses and pack horses.
For the Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese Army deployed 21 of the 24 divisions nationwide in 1937. By 1938, 32 of the 34 divisions nationwide were deployed, accounting for 94% of the total army in the country.
, the huge consumption can be imagined.
The consumption is too great, and we have to find ways to cut expenses, especially in the imperial meeting, the "lifelong enemies" of the Japanese Army and the Japanese Navy are constantly holding back. No one can touch the expenses of the seventeen permanent divisions. Those
Every division commander has a boss behind him, so he can only deal with second-line divisions, such as permanent divisions like the 108th Division.
Therefore, the so-called cavalry unit of the 108th Division is actually a mixture of motorcycles and war horses.
To put it bluntly, the cavalry regiment of a permanent division like the 5th Division has four cavalry squadrons under its command. They are real cavalry with hundreds of strong horses, but the 108th Division has two real cavalry squadrons.
The cavalry squadron, and the other two, rely on motorcycles.
Anyway, in terms of mobility, everyone is almost the same. You don’t need two legs to run. The only difference is that the motorcycle only drinks oil and does not consume feed, which saves a lot of money.
Let's talk about the Japanese army's baggage regiment. If it is compared with the current German, British and French in the Western world, the Japanese army logistics equipped with a large number of packhorses and carts is like a country bumpkin meeting the future Jack Ma. One is in the sky and the other is on the ground. But
If compared with the Chinese army, they would be upgraded to a local rich man in an instant. Each baggage regiment has more than 100 trucks, which is a configuration that even the direct troops under the principal's command would not dare to think of.
Therefore, when the Japanese troops in the direction of Shecheng received Licheng's request for help, they immediately organized two infantry squadrons and a 'cavalry squadron'. More than 20 three-wheeled motorcycles carried nearly a hundred Japanese troops, and 13 trucks carried 400 Japanese troops.
A Japanese soldier, dragging two artillery pieces and carrying four heavy machine guns, a rescue force with a total strength of more than 500 people rushed to the direction of Licheng.
Although the road between Shecheng and Licheng is full of potholes, it is enough for the truck to move at a speed of 20 kilometers per hour as long as the truck does not overdrive.
Originally, at a speed that could be called a 'mechanized' force on the Chinese battlefield, it could arrive at the battlefield within an hour and a half.
But this group of Japanese troops was much more cautious than the 1,500 Japanese troops that set off from Lucheng. The distance between the leading motorcycles and trucks was more than 2,000 meters, and they would stop and search every time they reached dangerous areas. This was also the case for 921 in recent months.
The division's harassing attack was frightening.
Although this would delay the reinforcement of Li City, from the perspective of the Japanese army, no one could have imagined that the 6th Infantry Brigade, which had a solid city wall and a strength of 1,000 troops, would fall in less than an hour.
What's more, if you want to love others, you must first love yourself. If you are done playing, who will reinforce Licheng?
The commander of this Japanese army had enough life experience to fundamentally avoid the fate of being ambushed.
Lei Xiong had dispatched the special forces of the special operations squadron before entering the battlefield. After observing the Japanese army's marching method, he immediately adjusted his tactics. Since the Japanese were cautious, he changed the ambush to a blockade.
A battalion with two 150-weight mortars, eight 82-weight mortars, and two 92-pound infantry guns completely crushed the Japanese army in terms of heavy firepower. This was also the reason why he dared to take a stand and fight the Japanese army hard.
The location Lei Xiong chose to block the Japanese army is called Yubeiyu, which is between Licheng and Dongyangguan, which was just occupied by the Japanese army. It is about 6 kilometers away from Dongyangguan and 7 kilometers away from Licheng.
Just by hearing the name Yubeiyu, you can tell what kind of terrain it is here. Standing on the highest peak several kilometers away from here, you can see that this terrain is like a fish, narrow and slender.
It looks like a suitable ambush battlefield.
However, don't think about attacking from both sides of the road. There are smooth stone mountains on both sides of the road. It is difficult for even a good climber to climb up in a short time. The two warring parties have given up fighting just by looking up.
It's the commanding heights. On this mountain, without any bullets, most of the climbers can be killed just by climbing.
However, the originally quite curved road had to make an almost 90-degree turn here, because there is a hill here. The same basalt material is placed in the future. Maybe a tunnel will pass through it, or it may be completely blasted.
It's done, but in this era, we can only surrender before the miraculous craftsmanship of nature, and the road turns around the side of the mountain.
And this mountain is Lei Xiong’s main blocking position!
Zhao Daqiang's No. 1 company is the main company stationed on this position. Cooperating with them is the fire support company of the First Battalion, which has 6 heavy machine guns and 10 light machine guns!
This is just light and heavy firepower on the surface. 400 meters behind the hill, there are 8 Type 82 mortars and 2 150-heavy mortars! Those are Lei Xiong’s final killer weapons!
Nearly a hundred cavalrymen were responsible for guarding the safety of the artillery, while the other two infantry companies, the 3rd company, were left as reserves. Wei Donglai's 2nd company had been under the leadership of the guide in the high mountains as early as when the 1st company was frantically building fortifications.
Traveling through the small roads between them, they will launch another round of ruthless attacks on the remaining enemies at a location more than 3,000 meters away from the battlefield.
Lei Xiong's idea is that even if he fights hard, he must break the heart of the Japanese and let them know that they are nothing without the advantage of firepower.
At six o'clock in the morning, it was just dawn, and the first wave of Japanese troops consisting of eight motorcycles had just rounded the hilltop. With the sound of Zhao Daqiang's gunshot, the battle began.
The only shortcoming of the four-pronged group fighting this kind of mountain warfare is that there are no mines.
According to Tang Dao's tactical vision, the battle should not be started by gunshots, but by detonated landmines on the roadside. The violent explosions can not only stun the opponent in the first wave, but also completely destroy the road.
, blocking the opponent's way.
It is much easier to move forward and out of the range of fire than to think in one place and exert all your energy in one place.
Unfortunately, although equipment such as mines is not a high-tech gadget, with the current industrial level of the Four Lines Group, it is really impossible to make it. Teacher Xiao He's team can now make simple things with limited mechanical processing level.
Equipment modification.
If you want to really start manufacturing, you need various finishing lathes!
However, for Japanese motorcycles without the protection of armored vehicles, bullets are enough!
The hail of bullets composed of semi-automatic rifles and submachine guns at a range of 50 meters made the Japanese soldiers who were caught off guard feel like dying!
Just the first wave of attacks made more than 20 Japanese soldiers hate the mountain road. 7 of the 8 motorcycles were stopped. Another one panicked and fell into a deep ditch more than three meters high on the side of the road.
Even if you are not dead, you will be disabled!
To the condescending Yilian Company, the counterattack organized in a panic was like a child’s desperate little fist!
More than 50 melon-style grenades dropped from the mountain gave the remaining 10 or so Japanese soldiers a good experience of what Imperial Japan's military manufacturing was!
To be honest, although the melon grenade is designed as a shrapnel-killing type, although it has a small charge and cannot blow people away like the German long-handled grenade, the cliff of shrapnel flying everywhere can make the unprotected infantry desperate.
Especially when there are so many.
By the time the Japanese troops behind them reacted with gritted teeth, the first company on the hill had already eliminated the front group of Japanese troops with a hail of bullets and a storm of grenades.
Chinese, set up a defense line here!
Its purpose is nothing more than to prevent the Imperial Army from reinforcing it! The Japanese commander in the rear can easily get the answer!
What should you do if you encounter this situation?
We must fight! For the Japanese soldiers who advocate martial arts, there is no southern wall in this world. Even if there is one, it should not belong to the Chinese.
Yes, you can say that the Japanese army was brutal, or you could say that the Japanese army was inhumane, but in terms of their ability to execute the military orders of their superiors, the Japanese army during this period was definitely at the forefront of the world's military.
Of course, being too arrogant is also the main factor that gives rise to this mentality!
Moreover, this kind of almost iron-headed execution is from top to bottom, even if you are a lieutenant general or a general.
The Battle of Hengyang, which will be known as the "Eastern Defense of Moscow" in the future, will be the most stubborn battle of the Japanese army under the influence of this mentality!
In this battle, the Chinese army participated in the battle with an infantry corps with a total strength of 17,000, while the Japanese army besieging the city totaled five divisions and more than 100,000 troops.
In terms of the strength comparison between the two sides, this battle even exceeded the strength ratio of the 67th Army that held off the Japanese Tenth Army for four days and nights in the small town of Songjiang six months ago.
China will definitely lose! This was the prediction of all military strategists in the East and West who were paying attention to this war before the war started.
However, they predicted the ending correctly, but no one expected that the process would be so bloody!
This battle lasted 47 days and nights! The Chinese defenders increased from 17,000 to 1,200, but what about the Japanese? 20,000 were killed and nearly 60,000 were injured. Even Zuo Jiujian, the commander of the 68th Division, fought
Death, the battle losses on both sides are jaw-dropping!
So much so that at the end of the battle, the Japanese army, which was known for its iron-headedness, relented and publicly promised that as long as the remaining troops in the city surrendered, they would not do any harm to the wounded soldiers or civilians who were still alive in the city!
This is probably the first battle in the history of the Sino-Japanese war in which Japan seemed to have won but was far away from victory.
But no matter what, the iron-headed temperament of the Japanese was fully exposed in this meat grinder-style city defense battle. They might not have attacked so hard, but in order to show the imperial bravery, they fought hard.
So, my head was broken and bleeding!
Such a battle can be fought, but just a hill and a few Chinese people in front of them can block their determination to reinforce friendly forces? How is it possible?
Parking the car on a mountain road 1,500 meters away from the battlefield, two infantry squadrons dragged two infantry cannons and four heavy machine guns and headed towards the battlefield!
That momentum is awesome.
As a result, they encountered a head-on attack from Zhao Daqiang's company. The firepower network composed of 6 heavy machine guns and 10 light machine guns confused the Japanese infantry.
Are these Baga fighting against a Chinese infantry regiment?
Fortunately, they still have two infantry guns!
As soon as the artillery fires out, the Chinese will be finished. This is the battle mode that the Japanese army has become accustomed to!
Continuous clouds of gunpowder smoke rose up on the hilltop covered with bushes. The Japanese infantrymen, who were so pressed by the light and heavy machine guns that they could not even lift their heads, almost wet their eyes with excitement at that moment!
Seeing that the onboard cheers were about to linger in the mountains of China, "Boom! Boom! Boom!" a cloud of bullets flew up in the area where the two Japanese infantry guns were located.
The reason why the eight 82 mortars and two 150-heavy mortars remained silent for more than ten minutes before the battle started was because they were waiting for the Japanese infantry artillery.
Because of the twists and turns of the mountain road, the Japanese infantry artillery would never stay too far. The fact is that in order to maintain the hit rate, the two infantry artillery were actually pushed to 500 meters away from the first company position. Artillery observers at high altitudes could use telescopes to
The area where the Japanese artillery was located was clearly discovered.
The intensity of the concentrated fire attack by the eight mortars did not give the two 92-inch infantry guns a chance to move. In just 5 minutes, this infantry artillery team was already a thing of the past.
If the stunned Japanese commander Fanfan had a clearer mind at this time and led the infantry to turn around and run away, with more than 400 troops, Wei Donglai's 2nd company would probably be helpless, and at most it would just rub salt in its wounds.
Unfortunately, no!
"Don't worry, the Chinese won't have too many artillery shells!" Seeing that his most important heavy firepower, the infantry artillery, was destroyed, Captain Takahashi Saikora, then the 1st Infantry Squadron of the 3rd Infantry Battalion of the 108th Infantry Regiment, unexpectedly
I brought a bowl of poisonous chicken soup to my subordinates.
Without Ikkyu's brains, and suffering from Ikkyu's brother's disease, Takahashi Saikū perfectly performed the consequences of walking on stilts in the air.
Let’s name this! It’s also a technical job, I really can’t do it.
The eight Type 82 mortars that have been exposed have given the Japanese army a good experience of what it means that they don’t have too many shells.
During the offensive and defensive battle for more than half an hour, eight 82-guns fired a full 300 rounds of artillery shells, taking away the lives of at least 150 Japanese soldiers and four heavy machine guns.
At this time, Takahashi Saisora considered whether he wanted to love himself or his loved ones. Then, the 2nd door finally received the 150 heavy force from the position of the Japanese truck and opened fire.
With only five rounds of artillery shells, four Japanese trucks were blown into pieces flying in the sky, blocking all the Japanese truck queues on the mountain road.
"Baga! Leave the first team to stop the enemy, and the rest will retreat!" When Takahashi Saikong gave the military order with a dejected face, he painfully discovered that there were only 200 people under his command, and he barely had an infantry squadron.
.
Then, the remnants of the Japanese army, which had a "mechanized" temperament, completely returned to their two legs and could run fast.
It was impossible not to run, and the remaining infantry team was completely defeated in only 3 minutes.
Because Lei Xiong even "crazy" ordered 10 artillery pieces to clear the infantry team's defense line. It was so prodigal that it even made the Japanese heartache. The Chinese were crazy!
Of course the Japanese didn't know that Lei Xiong had an idea about the truck that was parked on the mountain road and had not been bombed. In order to prevent the Japanese army from having time to cause damage to the truck, he had to end the battle as soon as possible.
When the charge bugle sounded and the rumble of horse hooves sounded on the mountain road, Takahashi Caikong almost peeed in shock. The Chinese even had cavalry. What kind of magical army did he encounter?
Regardless of blowing up the trucks still on the mountain road, the Japanese troops made a decisive decision to leave the road and drill into the mountains. They saved their lives, but left behind 8 trucks and 13 motorcycles that could still be driven.
Motorcycles are actually very easy to control. Most of the veterans of the 88th Division in the first battalion have played with them. Trucks are a little more difficult to control, but the special forces from the special squadron have all received driving training during the thousands-mile march of the Fourth Army Regiment.
It's still no problem when the driver pulls the big guy back.
There are just a lot of people to pull. There are more than 40 people standing in the compartment of a car, and there are more than a dozen 'hanging up' outside. Plus the dozen three-wheeled motorcycles, two infantry companies and one firepower are forced to pull.
The support company has been roped in.
The artillerymen had their own pack horses, and the cavalry who did not continue to pursue the Japanese army would protect them as they moved towards Licheng!
"The Great Luo of All Worlds"
Wei Donglai's 2nd company has its own mission, and they also need to be vigilant in the direction facing Dongyangguan. They need to stay in the mountainous area for the time being.
The first battalion that was ordered to return to Licheng turned into a motorized battalion, at least on this early morning.
