After receiving the report and learning the specific situation of the Xuebing Army, Nishio Shozo was ecstatic. The old Japanese fell into a state of extreme excitement as if he had been shot. Under his infection, every Japanese officer and soldier of the 10th Division also behaved badly. It was as if they had been injected with stimulants, and there seemed to be endless strength in their bodies. The 10th Division was in full swing from top to bottom. After traveling more than 200 miles, it actually took them only three hours to arrive.
In Oji Township, about six kilometers away from Koike Township, the Japanese army stopped. In Nishio, there were three people, Chief of Staff Machiki Rōkichi and 10th Division Commander Yoshio Jōtsuka, who were surrounding a map with their car lights on. He looked at his watch and said: "It's half past ten now. This is Dalu Township, only six kilometers away from Xiaochi Township. Next, the troops must advance on foot. Jotsuka-kun, do the scouts have any new information to send back. "
Jozuka replied: "Not yet, Commander, do you want to wait?"
"No need to wait, let's set off immediately. The Chinese people probably haven't discovered us yet. This is our opportunity. The Xuebing Army is good at defense. We can't give them too much preparation time. Pass my order and leave a brigade to guard the vehicles. , everyone else ran forward."
"Sir, what should you do?"
"I can ride a horse. Don't worry, I'm not too old to ride a horse yet."
The Japanese army ran towards Xiaochi Township. An hour later, in Aratian Village, which was only about two kilometers away from Xiaochi Township, they met the scout who was ordered to come back to report the situation. The bicycle-riding scout was taken directly to Nishio. On the horse, he asked straight to the point: "How's it going? Have the Chinese finished crossing the river?"
The scout replied breathlessly: "I'm telling you, the Chinese are still crossing the river. Before I came back, they had just crossed a new batch. According to Major Ota's estimation, there are about two thousand Chinese crossing the river now. "
"Are two thousand people already here?" Nishio looked a little excited, "It seems that this cadet army is still the main force, which is very good. If the number of people is too small, the value of this surprise attack will be too low, Jotsuka Jun."
"Your Mightiness."
"The speed of the Chinese crossing the river has been determined. One batch takes about an hour and twenty minutes. The Chinese are at least brigade level or above. So, there are at least two batches of them that have not completed the crossing. In other words, we still have two batches. I arrived at Xiaochi Township in about an hour. The so-called half-crossing attack, I think, is the best time to attack when the last group of them are still in the river. In order to prevent the Chinese from breaking out to the east, I would like to ask You and Maehara Sungtoshi will lead the 10th Regiment from the Shachi Lake area to the east of the Chinese people. You will have to walk nearly two kilometers further than us. Are you confident in completing this mission?"
Yotsuka Yoshio puffed up his chest, widened his eyes, and said in victory: "Your Excellency, please rest assured, I will definitely complete my mission."
The 10th Regiment is the main force of the 10th Division in Tōzuka's mind, so he has the confidence to complete this arduous task. As the captain of the 10th Regiment, Maehara Sungtoshi has always been criticized by Tōzuka because of his ability to lead troops. Tsukasa also had Nishio's appreciation. Before leading the team to set off with Tsukasa, he went to Nishio to make some suggestions: "Your Excellency, Commander, I have some immature views on this surprise attack. Please correct me, Commander."
Nishio prided himself on being enlightened in running the army, so instead of being surprised by his subordinate's overstepping behavior, he actually appreciated it. He smiled and said, "Really, tell me about it."
"Hai." Maehara first bowed respectfully, and then said: "So far, we don't know the true size of this student army. What I am worried about is if the Chinese still have artillery stationed in the south of the Yangtze River. , then even if we can take them by surprise and inflict heavy damage, the encirclement and annihilation will be very difficult. Ouyang Yun's methods are cruel. Your Excellency, we must guard against them using indiscriminate bombardment. In order to prevent this, I suggest concentrating the entire army's artillery to use saturation bombardment. By attacking the enemy, we can not only annihilate the enemy at the minimum cost, but also make it impossible for the enemy in the south of the Yangtze River to accurately judge the size of our army. Your Excellency, this is a humble and immature idea. Please give me some additional corrections." After that, he bowed again,
In order to gain speed, Nishio Hisao did not carry artillery. Maehara's suggestion undoubtedly made up for this shortcoming. His eyes lit up when he heard it, and he said happily: "This is a good idea. Go ahead and do it boldly. Today ,We want to re-write the record of the battle between the Imperial Army and the Xuebing Army. ,Maehara-kun, rush to the destination as soon as possible. As long as you can arrive before the large army, I will leave the first attack task to you."
Being the first to attack, and in such a battle that must be won, is a great honor and a special favor. Maehara felt his heart heat up when he heard this. He suddenly raised his chest and said loudly: "Your Excellency, please You bet, we will definitely be the first to arrive on the battlefield."
There are many reasons why Nishio Juzo, Yoshio Jotsuka, and Sungtoshi Maehara were so excited, and the most important one is that the Japanese army and the Gakuin Army have never been able to fight as well as they did today. The Xuebing Army was caught by surprise. The Xuebing Army attached great importance to the collection of battlefield intelligence. Therefore, even if the Japanese army wanted to ambush the Xuebing Army, it was very difficult to actually implement it. Of course, in so many battles in the past few years, the Japanese army It's not that they didn't catch such an opportunity, but its scale was very small, and it was not enough to shake the balance of victory or defeat in a battle. In this case, if they could severely damage the 36th Xuexue Brigade, or even completely annihilate it, then they would What a brilliant martial arts skill, Nishio Juzo even thought that the reason why he was able to get such an opportunity today was because of the blessing of His Majesty the Emperor and Amaterasu, and this miracle happened.
The 10th Division went to the battlefield full of belief in victory. Compared with them, the 36th Brigade's crossing of the river was not smooth.
Although the number of people crossing the river at one time has increased, the speed of crossing the river has slowed down due to the fact that thirty students were attached to each raft. Ye Zhao and Jiang Hongming both ignored one thing. The weight of individual soldiers' equipment, including guns, ammunition, blankets, military quilts, etc., cannot be soaked in water, so they can only be placed on rafts. The equipment of a single soldier does not weigh much, only about 20 kilograms. That's it, but the total equipment of thirty students is nearly 600 kilograms, which is equivalent to the weight of four students.
The weight of the load increased, but the number of students rowing did not increase. As a result, it was inevitable that the speed of crossing the river would decrease, and this undoubtedly gave the Japanese army more time to prepare.
The river was still cold on June night, and he was worried that the soldiers who were swimming across would fall ill from the cold. Considering that there were no enemy troops around, Qiao Benshan, the chief of staff of the first group to cross the river, ordered a dozen bonfires to be lit for the soldiers to keep warm and dry their clothes. , the bonfire was raised, because there was still a long wait, except for the soldiers who were patrolling and standing guard, everyone else gathered around the bonfire. There were several bonfires, and several cadets also talked about stories or read. Book,
On the other side, when they saw a bonfire burning in Jiangbei, Ye Zhao and Jiang Hongming did not feel anything wrong. They were worried about whether the new way of crossing the river was appropriate, so they stayed on the riverside and waited quietly when they saw the bonfire rising. , realizing that this was for the soldiers who were swimming to keep warm, Ye Zhaoxuan felt relieved. He looked at his watch, smiled and said to Jiang Hongming: "It's about a quarter of an hour late, but it's still a good deal. of."
It was almost twelve o'clock at this time, Jiang Hongming said: "Everything should be over before three o'clock. Even if the Commander-in-Chief has any combat missions, they should not be implemented until after dawn. Haha, from this point of view, we should not miss anything. "
Another group of soldiers entered the water. They tied themselves around the raft, and then followed the raft and swam to the other side.
Ye Zhao and Jiang Hongming were still standing on the river beach, watching the twelve rafts drifting away. Their moods became more and more relaxed. The two even began to discuss possible combat missions tomorrow. What they did not expect was that On the other side, about 800 meters away from the bonfires, hundreds of Japanese soldiers wielding shovels were leveling the land. Ten minutes later, at least eighty mortars were set up. About two minutes later, The shooting elements of these artillery attacks were adjusted. Then, as a red signal flare rose from the east, a "tongtong" sound sounded. These mortars fired almost at the same time. In a moment, the sound of grenades breaking through the air was heard. The chatter and laughter of the students were cut off and became the only sound under the sky.
"What's going on?" Ye Zhao blurted out as he saw the flare rising suddenly, his heartbeat accelerated suddenly,
Jiang Hongming was talking to a company commander at this time. When he heard the question, he turned around and saw the signal flare that had begun to fall, and then saw dozens of fireballs rising into the sky. He couldn't help but be stunned for a moment.
On the north bank, Qiao Benshan had already reacted. He jumped up and shouted loudly: "Lie down, lie down quickly..." He only shouted twice before he was knocked down by his own guards.
The sound of the grenade breaking through the air was quickly covered by the violent explosion. The blow came so suddenly that many cadets were engulfed by the fireworks caused by the explosion without even reacting. Dozens of cadets at the center of the explosion were infuriated. The waves were thrown, and they lost consciousness permanently before they understood what happened.
In the center of the river, they were disturbed by the sudden explosion. Many cadets stopped paddling. Many people stared dumbfoundedly at the other side of the river where explosions continued to occur. They looked at the comrades who were blown away and fled in all directions. Everyone felt like their chests were broken. It suddenly felt as if water had entered it, and it became very cold.
"Little Shanzi, Xiaoshanzi," Qiao Benshan was not even injured due to the protection of guard Guo Xiaoshan in the first round of artillery attack. However, at this moment, his mood was not much worse than the injured number. In order to protect him, Guo Xiaoshan He was hit by more than a dozen pieces of shrapnel and left immediately. Qiao Benshan shouted twice at the top of his lungs. When he found that Guo Xiaoshan could no longer hear his shouts, he suddenly remembered his identity. He stood up and faced the students who were running away in all directions. Shouting: "Don't run around, lie down, lie down, Qian Shuanglin, organize the brothers to go towards the river."
Before he could finish his words, there was a loud "boom" and a ball of fireworks enveloped him, and he lost his voice forever.
On the south bank, Ye Zhao, who was holding a telescope, suddenly dropped his hands and burst into tears.