At three o'clock in the morning, it is the time when people are most tired of the day. If they are sleeping, it is also the time when they sleep the most deeply. The Japanese of the 18th Division, led by the division commander Ushijima Sadao, have been marching for six consecutive days. For more than a few hours, and with no rest during the day, and another day of running around the day before yesterday, his physical condition was extremely exhausted. Not to mention the Japanese in the truck, each one slept particularly soundly with their arms around their guns. The Japanese on foot, Each one of them was swaying to sleep. Although they walked instinctively, in fact, they had no idea what they were doing.
"Cheer up, we'll be here soon." Many low-level and middle-level Japanese officers were worried that their subordinates would fall asleep, so they shouted from time to time. It was their occasional shouts that enabled the Japanese soldiers on foot to still keep up with the team. , Of course, in this state, it is simply impossible to keep them vigilant.
As the Japanese who opened the way in front were getting closer and closer to the ambush circle, and they were surrounded by generals like Wu Keren who had experienced big scenes, their heartstrings couldn't help but tighten. He held the pistol in his left hand and the walkie-talkie in his right hand, and turned to face the man next to him. Several correspondents looked at it and said: "One of you will inform Lan Xiangshan that as soon as the Japanese convoy enters the minefield, it will detonate immediately. The others will go to each regiment and ask them not to expose the target after the mine explodes. Let the artillery show off first. Then wait for the tank troops in Wujiang City to arrive before taking the initiative to attack."
"Yes." Several correspondents climbed out of the bushes where they were hiding and ran along the ditch in all directions.
Lan Xiangshan led nine Northeastern Army soldiers to take charge of the detonation work. Among them, he, Liu Zhenyun and others held radio detonators, and two others used cable detonators.
The Xuebing Army's trip to Fujian and Guangdong brought enough landmines. These landmines were distributed by Ouyang Yun to each division. Among them, the second series was allocated more than a thousand landmines. In addition to more than 500 landmines, the A minefield was laid out by Wu Keren on the north side of Da'annan Village, and all the others were placed on the path that the Japanese army must pass through. The number of minefields detonated by Lan Xiangshan's detonation team reached an astonishing number of more than 300.
Mine warfare is a new thing for Northeastern officers and soldiers, which makes Lan Xiangshan and others feel very excited. Originally, according to the original plan, their detonation time was after the battle started, when all the Japanese troops had waded through the minefield. Now, After receiving Wu Keren's latest order, they all cheered up and began to crawl out of the bunker, staring closely at the faint light of the flashlights in front of them.
Wu Keren had no choice but to change this order, because the Japanese army arrived later than scheduled, and it dawned relatively early in summer. He was worried that once it dawned, the Japanese troops would discover the hands and feet on the road, and even discover the ambushes in the rice fields. warrior, thus turning an ambush into an encounter,
The exact time was 3:11, when the Japanese convoy had just entered the minefield, and when dawn had just broken in the east, Lan Xiangshan and others pulled the rope or pressed the detonation button. The next moment, a series of explosions occurred. The sound of explosions sounded, and the flames exploded in the Japanese army's queue. A motorcycle squadron and a search team were opened by the Japanese army. Nearly all the more than 400 Japanese soldiers were killed in this round of explosions. At the same time, a dozen trucks leading the way were also killed. Half of it was paralyzed by the explosion, and the Japanese inside were injured or thrown out of the truck because the car was bombed.
The explosion of mines was the signal for artillery fire, and just yesterday afternoon, each shooting element had already been measured. Therefore, the 18th Division's entire queue in the middle and rear position immediately encountered a fierce artillery attack of unprecedented intensity; at this time, At the same time, tanks from two regiments in Wujiang County also roared towards them.
The Bailinpu ambush battle officially begins.
In the sky in the south direction of Da'an, a series of flames were overwhelmingly hitting the Japs of the 18th Division. The next moment, the sound of flying artillery shells filled the entire battlefield, and then, patches of fireballs soared into the sky. Then, there was a deafening explosion,
When the mines exploded, in an armored car in the middle of the Japanese army, Ushijima Sadao was dozing on his seat. He was awakened by the violent explosion. His eyes widened and he shouted in a deep voice. : "Ba Ge, what's going on?"
"General, we, we have encountered an ambush." The adjutant next to him, Major Ozawa Lin, had just been awakened. Looking at the fireworks springing up like bamboo shoots in front of him, he said with some fear,
"What, how is it possible? Didn't the Chinese from Wujiang go to Hexian, and also crossed the river to attack Dangtu? Could it be that they are the Chinese army from Pukou?" Ushijima Sadao's mind was racing, and he muttered to himself with a belt. As he spoke, he opened the car door, got out of the car, then picked up the binoculars and looked ahead.
"Uuuu", the sound of artillery shells breaking through the air suddenly sounded. Ozawa could not judge the impact point of the artillery shells, so he immediately pulled him back and shouted: "Commander, it's dangerous."
When he got out of the car, Ushijima Sadao was still lucky, hoping that he would encounter a small group of enemy troops. However, when the artillery pieces poured down, he understood that this must be the main force of the Chinese, maybe even Ouyang Yun. Xue Bingjun personally led the team, so the next moment, his face became extremely ugly,
"Commander, what should we do now?"
Ushijima Sadao frowned deeply as he listened to the deafening explosion behind him. The Chinese artillery fire was so fierce and the troops were unprepared. The losses must be huge. He thought like this and made an instant decision: " Let’s retreat first and go back to Bailinpu.”
When the 18th Division passed through Bailinpu, a large group was left behind. Ushijima Sadao's original intention was to help the troops collect food and grass and control this important road, but now it seems that they have just preserved their retreat.
When the artillery fire came, the entire 18th Division fell into chaos. Many troops were fighting on their own. However, it was dark and the direction of the enemy was not clear. Amidst the screams, the little devils with rich combat experience lay down one after another. At the same time, one flare after another was fired into the sky in an attempt to find the enemy's attack direction.
This round of artillery attack lasted for more than twenty minutes. Under the intensive shelling, a Japanese brigade at the rear of the entire formation suffered serious losses. At least three brigades of Japanese soldiers were directly buried in the artillery fire. The Japanese army recovered. The tank troops of the two regiments that attacked Wujiang rushed to the battlefield when the artillery stopped. Then, the 117th Division, the 103rd Division and the two tank regiments came from three directions. launched an attack on the Japanese army,
At this moment, the sky was getting brighter, and the Japanese soldiers who were still a little ignorant suddenly found enemies rushing towards them from all over the mountains and fields. Only then did they realize that they had been ambushed by superior enemies. Upon seeing this, Ushijima Sadao immediately shouted: "Retreat, toward Bai Lin." We should retreat." At the same time, ask the adjutant to telegraph the front army headquarters: Our army encountered a superior enemy ambush. The enemy has large-scale artillery and tank troops, which are suspected to be the main force of the student army.
It was precisely because of this sudden telegram from Ushijima that the Japanese military headquarters in Nanjing fell into complete chaos.
Because at this moment, in the direction of Wuhu, the Japanese 16th and 114th Divisions are encountering a tenacious sniper attack from superior enemy forces. According to Nakajima I and the telegram sent by Suematsu Shigeharu, there are at least 30,000 enemy defenders in Wuhu City, so , it will take some time to completely conquer it. I hope that after dawn, the headquarters can provide support to the aviation force.
The highest commander of the frontline headquarters located in Nanjing is Major General Tsukada Tsukada, chief of staff of the Central China Front. However, because the division leaders of several Japanese divisions gathered in Nanjing are all at the rank of lieutenant general, Tsukada's prestige is limited. , This directly resulted in his judgment not being directly transformed into effective orders, which also led to chaos in the entire command headquarters.
The Central China Front Army and the Nanjing garrison have been fighting for several days. Both sides basically know the opponent's troop deployment very well. Especially the Japanese army, because it has air superiority and with the help of reconnaissance planes, thinks that it has complete control of the garrison's troop deployment. Therefore, when superior enemy forces appeared in the direction of Dangtu, Tsukada and others were a little confused. They did not know where such a large group of enemy forces came from. Then, the direction of Wujiang and Pukou Surprisingly, superior enemy forces appeared. Now, not to mention Tsukada's attack, even Hisao Tani and Ryosuke Yoshihashi, who had successfully crossed the river with their troops, could not find the north at all. Those who had dealt with Ouyang Yun could not be found at all. Yoshizhu Liangsuke immediately speculated: "It may be Ouyang Yun's reinforcements from Fujian and Guangdong. Ouyang Yun's troops are cunning and his formations are often unexpected. He is also willing to fight for his life. To fight against him, you must do all kinds of things well." Mentally prepare.”
Hisao Tani disagreed and retorted: "Ouyang Yun really transferred reinforcements from Fujian and Guangdong. How could we not have any clues in advance? I think this is actually the Chinese people's suspicion formation, Wuhu, Wujiang, and The enemy troops in the county are most likely civilians recruited by the Chinese or strong men recruited by the Chinese. Sir Ji Zhu, you should be aware that after the offensive and defensive battles in Nanjing in the past few days, a large number of Chinese fled, many of them young and strong. If Ouyang Yun recruited people from them to form an army to fool our army, which is very confusing. Judging from the intelligence we currently have, the enemy forces in Dangtu, Wuhu, and Jiangpu are extremely combat-effective. I think these are the Chinese people. The main force is gathering here, and the enemy force the 18th Division is encountering now should be a suspected Chinese army."
After listening to the exchange between the two, Tsukada thought for a while and said: "The analysis of Division Chief Hisao Tani is very reasonable, but it is not convincing enough, because there are no incidents in Wuhu, Wujiang, and Hexian except Hexian." In the battle, the other two places are fighting fiercely with our army, and so far, the Chinese have not shown any flaws. Counting the enemies of Jiangpu and Dangtu, these groups of Chinese combined have far exceeded The number of enemy troops our army has, I'm thinking, this can't be a trap laid by the Chinese during the evacuation. Everyone, before the evacuation of the Chinese central army, there were hundreds of thousands of troops, plus the warlords and If the local troops hide tens of thousands of people somewhere during the evacuation process, I think it will not be too difficult based on their familiarity with the terrain. Of course, I personally think that even if this is really a foreshadowing of the Chinese people, It will not have much impact on our army's current strategy. If the enemy defenders in Nanjing want to escape from the siege, there are no more than two directions, one is to go up the river, and the other is to withdraw northward by land. Along this channel along the river, there are 16 divisions Regiment, the 114th Division went to sniper. As long as Wuhu is captured, it can be cut off in one fell swoop. As for the land routes, there are two main roads to choose from, one is the Huainan Railway and the other is the Jinpu Railway. And these two channels, our army We only need to capture Yuxikou, Jiangpu, Wujiang, and Chuxian to defeat the Chinese plan. The direction of Yuxikou can be handed over to the Third Fleet. In that case, we only need to capture Wujiang and Chuxian. By then, even if the Chinese hold Pukou, they will still be the turtle in the urn."