Although it is known that this mysterious Chinese force is currently at Lengkou Pass, who knows whether they will quietly move to Xifengkou 30 kilometers away?
Sakamoto Masaemon didn't want to receive another piece of bad news before the main force of the division arrived. Then he might be dismissed and go home before he could lead the 6th Division to the Great Wall.
So he sent an urgent telegram to the 13th Regiment, ordering them to defend in place in front of Xifengkou and not to attack easily to avoid a sneak attack by the Chinese army.
However, he forgot how arrogant and arrogant his troops were, and even more so, he forgot that after the Japanese army tasted the benefits of acting without authorization since the September 18th Incident, the current middle- and low-level officers have become somewhat accustomed to doing their own thing and do not put military orders aside.
In the eyes.
Colonel Suzuki Ryo, captain of the 13th Regiment, is one of the best, and as a member of the strongest division known as the "double wall of the empire" together with the 2nd Division, he has already served as a leader for the seniors of the 6th Division.
Intoxicated by the honors created and the undefeated record.
Moreover, this honor and inheritance have been deeply engraved in the bones of him and his colleagues since the first day he entered the 6th Division, and they are proud of it.
Now, the destruction of the advance team and the 14th Mixed Brigade did not make him and his men feel fear or fear, but instead inspired them with endless fighting spirit and fighting spirit.
In their view, the two annihilated friendly forces were both composed of troops from the 7th Division, known as the "unlucky division". It was the incompetence of their commanders and the cowardice of the peasant soldiers that ruined their lives.
troops, rather than how powerful the Chinese army is in his eyes, which he has always looked down upon.
Therefore, on March 8, the day the 13th Regiment arrived at Xifengkou, Ryo Suzuki and his company's own camp defense positions had not been fully repaired, so they ordered an attack on the Chinese defenders at Xifengkou.
attacked.
The battle process was completely consistent with his imagination. In just one afternoon's attack, the Chinese defenders stationed on several highlands outside Xifengkou were defeated by the fierce Japanese offensive and suffered a large-scale rout.
In the early morning of March 9, after a night of packhorse and manpower transportation, the mountain artillery squadron of the 13th Regiment and the artillery detachments of the three brigades, a total of four 75mm April 1 mountain guns and six 70mm 92 infantry guns, were all deployed.
We arrived at Heizui Mountain, which is less than 1 kilometer away from Xifengkou Pass in a straight line and almost as high as the pass.
Xifengkou is a pass in the eastern section of the Yanshan Mountains. It was called Lulongsai in ancient times. The road connects the north and the south. It has been an important pass in the Central Plains to resist the southward invasion of the northern grassland nomads since ancient times.
The geography of Xifengkou is different from that of Lengkou Pass. The highest point of Lengkou Pass is Fenghuang Mountain, where the pass is located, Baiyang Valley in the east, Cherry Orchard and Baili Mountain in the west. As long as you keep these four highlands, Lengkou Pass will
It can be said to be impregnable.
However, there are many highlands and valleys around Xifengkou. Although the terrain of each highland is dangerous, it is distributed in front and back. Because the troops must be divided for defense and it is inconvenient to support each other, it also increases the difficulty of defense.
It can be said that the defense of Xifengkou mainly revolves around the competition for several peripheral highlands and valleys. If all the peripheral highlands are lost, it will be impossible for the pass to defend against attacks from several directions at the same time.
Among these highlands, the most important is Heizui Mountain located northeast of Xifengkou, and the other is Luowen Valley located in the northwest.
The terrain of these two highlands is dangerous. Heizui Mountain is the nearest commanding height in front of the pass, which is equivalent to the front gate of Xifeng Pass, while Luowenyu protects the side of Xifeng Pass and is regarded as the side gate of Xifeng Pass.
If the front gate is broken, it means that the Xifengkou Pass is directly exposed to the danger of Japanese artillery. If the side gate is broken, the defenders are threatened from both sides.
It stands to reason that for Heizui Mountain, a highland that is directly related to the safety of Xifengkou, the Northeastern Army originally stationed there should send powerful troops to defend it to the death. And in terms of terrain, Heizui Mountain is steep. Although it has already entered spring,
However, the weather was still cold and the mountains were steep and slippery, so the Japanese offensive troops were unable to deploy their forces. As long as the defenders were determined to fight to the death and not retreat, it would still be difficult to conquer in a short period of time.
However, the Fourth Army of the Northeast Army stationed at Xifengkou is the remnant of the hasty retreat from Rehe. Not only has most of its heavy firepower and artillery been discarded, but it has also been defeated for more than a month. Its morale is low and its morale is unstable.
He was already frightened and did not have the courage to fight to the death with the enemy.
Therefore, ten artillery pieces of the 13th Regiment fired at the top of the mountain, and the defenders stationed at Heizui Mountain dispersed. Even because of the steepness of the mountain, more people fell to death while escaping than were killed by Japanese artillery.
.
In this way, the Japanese army only launched one attack, and the most critical barrier of Xifengkou failed, which only fueled the fierce flames of these proud soldiers of the 13th Regiment.
In the early morning of March 9, the Japanese army set up artillery on the top of the Heizui Mountain. The Xifengkou Pass position was completely exposed to the direct firepower of the Japanese artillery. It was only a matter of time before the enemy failed.
At this time, even though Colonel Ryo Suzuki believed that the Chinese defenders at Lengkou Pass might be stronger, their strength was limited, and they could not possibly be an opponent of the 6th Division, which was known as "black skin, bright red blood"
, so he didn't even bother with ambushes and sneak attacks by the Chinese army, and directly ordered the troops to attack the pass.
At this time, the Northeastern Army finally found its bloody spirit in a desperate situation. Army Commander Wan Fulin personally led the guard battalion to the front line to supervise the battle, and shot the officer who took the lead in escaping from Heizui Mountain, leading the entire army to fight fiercely with the Japanese army for most of the day without retreating.
.
However, due to the sharpness of the Japanese artillery, most of the passes were captured by the Japanese at dusk, while the defenders of the Northeastern Army suffered more than half their casualties and faced the desperate situation of running out of ammunition and food.
At this time, Colonel Suzuki had already felt that the resistance of the Chinese defenders was about to collapse, and that victory was imminent. He had even prepared a draft to report to the headquarters on the success of the capture of Xifengkou.
However, a troop wearing special gray military uniforms passed by the hastily retreating defenders and suddenly appeared at the forefront of the battle.
What surprised Colonel Suzuki was that the Chinese army, numbering in the thousands, did not provide any fire support or artillery suppression at all, but charged directly at them under a hail of bullets.
This iron-gray human wave seemed not to care about bullets and artillery shells at all. The soldiers in the front row kept falling down like wheat, but the wave behind them continued to rush forward bravely even as they passed over the bodies of their comrades.
In Colonel Suzuki's telescope, he could clearly see that they all had rifles on their backs, and each of them was carrying a bright broad-backed sword. In just a blink of an eye, they rushed into the yellow crowd attacking the Japanese army.