The 23rd Regiment of the Japanese Army has three infantry brigades, four machine gun squadrons, a baggage squadron, a communications squadron, an artillery battalion, and two guard squadrons, totaling more than 4,200 people.
At this time, a brigade of the 23rd Regiment had already conquered the outer defense line of Baijia Town, and the second brigade was ordered to bypass Baijia Town to surprise the Chinese reinforcements. The third infantry brigade was still entangled with the defenders near Womachuan.
The Third Battalion of the Japanese 23rd Regiment, under the cover of two machine gun squads and an artillery squadron, covered the Japanese baggage convoy, and the Regiment Headquarters quickly passed through the Womachuan defense line.
They had only one purpose, to quickly occupy Baijia Town and use this as a basis to cut off the retreat route of the Changzhou defenders.
In this way, the Japanese army can at least eat up the strength of two Chinese divisions.
Therefore, the Japanese 23rd Regiment's attack was very fierce. Although the defenders of Womachuan tried their best to block it, the Japanese army still bypassed the mountain pass in the southeast and rushed to the direction of Baijia Town.
The defenders of Womachuan quickly sent a message to Changzhou to explain the situation and requested reinforcements, because the defenders of Womachuan only had two regiments, but they were facing two regiments of the Japanese army, including at least one
A fierce attack by the artillery brigade.
However, Commander Huo did not have so many reinforcements for them. The 112th Division suffered a lot of losses when they were in Jiangyin Fortress. Nearly one-third of the soldiers were sacrificed in Jiangyin Fortress. At this time, there were less than three soldiers in the city, including the 103rd Division.
The strength of the regiment. Coupled with the local troops, it is impossible to form four regiments.
Moreover, with less than four regiments of troops, they are also responsible for the defense of the four city gates of Baijia Town and the evacuation of the people in the city.
However, in order to stabilize the morale of the army, Commander Huo had to send his guard company to the Womachuan position to support and also play a role in supervising the battle.
Now that the battle has reached this point, there can no longer be any mistakes. Otherwise, if the Womachuan position collapses, it will directly affect the morale of the Changzhou City defenders.
Of course, whether Changzhou can be defended ultimately depends on whether Baijia Town can be defended.
The first brigade of the Japanese 23rd Regiment has already reached the city, and the second brigade is bypassing the left wing of Baijia Town to block Zhou Weiguo's troops.
The Chinese defenders on the city wall saw the Japanese troops circling not far away, and reported this strange phenomenon to Li Guoqiang, the commander of the 1st Battalion of the 672nd Regiment of the 112th Division.
Li Guoqiang's first reaction was that these Japanese troops were heading for reinforcements. If the enemy seized the advantageous commanding heights, the consequences would be unimaginable.
But at this time, the little devils also made a fatal mistake. Firstly, the little devils did not pay attention to the Chinese soldiers. Secondly, the mission was issued too suddenly. They marched in a hurry and could not take into account the concealment. Because according to the intelligence,
The enemy's reinforcements are less than two hours away from Baijia Town.
As for the second brigade of the Japanese army, they had just arrived in the direction of Baijia Town. Therefore, these Japanese troops were also in a hurry to march, and they were observed by the Chinese defenders on the city wall.
So an ambush turned into an encounter.
Li Guoqiang sent a report to Zhou Weiguo. Zhou Weiguo read the message and knew that the Japanese had deciphered the Chinese secret code.
Zhou Weiguo ordered the troops to stop, and then said to his guard Xu Hu: "Go to Changzhou immediately and tell Commander Huo that our secret code has been deciphered by the Japanese."
Xu Hu said in confusion: "Tuanzuo, how did you know?"
Zhou Weiguo smiled and said: "Isn't this obvious? The Japanese already knew we were here before we arrived at Baijia Town. Almost no one in our unit knew that we were going to support Baijia Town, so only the remaining
This possibility is that our secret code has been deciphered by the Japanese."
Xu Hu chuckled and said, "Then I can just send someone else there. There's no need for me to go there myself, right?"
Zhou Weiguo took his own gloves and slapped Xu Hu on the neck, scolding: "Just go as you are told, how can there be so much nonsense? If you bring a few more people, do you think this is still Nanjing? This is the front line of fire, and there are enemies.
It doesn’t feel strange at all to seep in.”
"oh oh!"
Glutinous rice
Xu Hu responded, then grabbed two guards and drove away in a military jeep.
At this time, Zhou Weiguo looked at the terrain in front of him and smiled. Grandma's vast plains didn't even have a commanding height.
However, just one mile ahead, there was a dirt edge, which seemed to be a trench left over from a battle long ago. Zhou Weiguo thought it could be used.
He said to a guard: "Go and call Battalion Commander Sun of the Independent Regiment."
"yes!"
The guard followed the order and went down. At this time, Zhou Weiguo called over the other two battalion commanders of his 522nd Regiment.
Therefore, Zhou Weiguo's show of loyalty was very effective. Commander Wang increased his number from one battalion to two battalions. However, he still claimed to be one battalion.
Zhou Weiguo ordered the first battalion to immediately take weapons and equipment and go to the front positions to occupy them, where they would wait for the Japanese to arrive on their own.
The other battalion stayed in place to protect military supplies.
At this time, Sun Shiyu, Zhu Shengzhong, and Lao Shou also came. Zhou Weiguo and the three of them said: "You need to ambush on the flanks of the Japs. When the first battalion attracts the Japs' attention, you fight out from his flanks. Let's attack twice."
Eat this group of devils in a flanking attack."
Lao Snoring looked at the position set up by Zhou Weiguo in the distance and asked: "Captain Zhou, there are open areas all around. How can we hide and not be discovered by the Japanese?"
Zhou Weiguo smiled and said: "Find your own solution. Don't you know that you won't be able to fight without your group?"
"How do you talk?"
Zhu Shengzhong was the first to get angry.
Sun Shiyu quickly stopped him and said: "Pay attention to discipline, we are now under the command of Captain Zhou."
After stopping Zhu Shengzhong, Sun Shiyu said to Zhou Weiguo: "Captain Zhou, we will obey the order, but we need time to prepare."
Zhou Weiguo said: "Hurry up, I'll give you fifteen minutes, because I'm afraid the Japanese will come soon."
"yes!"
Sun Shiyu responded, and then walked back with Zhu Shengzhong and Lao Shou, preparing to lead the team in an ambush.
Zhu Shengzhong said unhappily: "What kind of battle is he fighting? Let us attack from the flank. The flank is flat. Unless the Japanese are blind, how can we hide?"
Lao Shou also echoed: "Lao Zhu is right, where can we hide in this flat plain? And there is not even taller grass?"
Sun Shiyu smiled at this time and said: "Don't worry, I just came up with a way. First, we can ambush further away. Second, although there is not a lot of grass here, when I came here, I saw
There is a meadow about two miles behind us, let's go and pull out the grass there and create an artificial grassland on the right wing of the position."
Lao Snoring smiled and said: "Is this possible? The little devil can tell it at a glance? Can the grass in the meadow be the same as the grass on the plains?"
Sun Shiyu said: "The little devil is from out of town. Does he know how to hammer? Does he know what kind of grass grows where?..."