After dividing the troops with Lei Xiong again, Tang Dao led the main force to leave the main road and advance along the narrow mountain road towards Shentou Ridge 12 kilometers away.
Through the information that the 108th Division had begun to gather, Tang Dao instinctively raised his vigilance!
In this battle, the Japanese army that suffered heavy losses may not only use infantry as simple as that!
Most of the anti-aircraft heavy machine guns of the 2nd Artillery Company were deployed around Licheng. At this time, the Fourth Army Regiment had no air defense capabilities at all and would rather stay away from the road to avoid unnecessary losses.
Tang Dao also sent a telegram to Brigadier Cheng who was still far away to remind him of this.
Facts have proved that Tang Dao's worries are not unfounded.
At close to 9 o'clock, a Japanese reconnaissance plane flew over Licheng.
Lei Xiong, who was well prepared, set up sentries on a hilltop five kilometers away. As soon as he saw the Japanese aircraft, he immediately lit a bonfire filled with a large amount of wet firewood, which was enough to form a plume of smoke that could be seen several kilometers away.
The observing soldiers immediately fired off signal flares, and the people who were being relocated immediately hid in the ravine. In Li City, houses were set ablaze everywhere in the city. Many soldiers wearing Japanese military uniforms shot into the air inside the fortifications, creating the illusion that a fierce battle was still going on in the city.
!
The Japanese reconnaissance plane wanted to lower its altitude to take a closer look, but several anti-aircraft machine guns on the ground began to fire, forcing the reconnaissance plane to stay above an altitude of 1,000 meters.
Although he held a telescope, the distance was thousands of meters, and the houses on the ground were only the size of matchboxes, let alone people. The booming explosions and the burning city from time to time all told the story of the city that had been hovering over Licheng for several weeks.
The reconnaissance plane pilots, the city of Le has not yet fallen, and the Imperial Army is still fighting bravely.
This is what Lei Xiong wants him to know. As long as it is judged that the fighting is still going on, Japanese bombers will not target Licheng!
Lei Xiong's tactical deception was successful. After 30 minutes, a bomber formation composed of six Type 96 fighters crossed over the mountains five kilometers outside Licheng and headed straight for the Shentou Ridge area.
Because they knew that China did not have much anti-aircraft firepower, the flying altitude of the Japanese bomber formation was not very high, less than 800 meters from the ground. At such a height, even if there were anti-aircraft machine guns, it would not pose much of a threat to them.
With the help of telescopes, Japanese pilots could barely see clearly what was happening on the ground.
After flying over barren mountains one after another, the Japanese pilot saw an incredible scene through the telescope.
Just under their wings, on the road exposed on the bare mountain ridge, there were several invisible black lumps with thick smoke coming out, and there were human and horse corpses lying everywhere!
"Baga! Lieutenant Sasaki, lower the altitude and go see what's going on!" An angry and frightened order came from the radio.
That’s right, as the super ‘mascot’ of Japan’s North China Front Army Aviation Brigade, Lieutenant Sasaki is once again on the march!
Faced with the vitality of their colleagues who was comparable to Xiaoqiang, the commanders of the Army Aviation Brigade of the Japanese North China Front expressed their envy, but they would never get used to it.
So, here he comes again.
Even as his colleagues, the other five Japanese pilots all expressed a little panic!
In fact, Lieutenant Sasaki went on several expeditions, and the mortality rate of his comrades was as high as 60%, which is too scary.
But there are advantages to having him with you. You can leave all these dangerous jobs to him.
"What a damn bunch of bastards!" Sasaki complained angrily in his heart.
Sasaki said no, but was honest physically and did not dare to disobey the military order. Sasaki turned ahead and lowered the altitude of the fighter plane to 600 meters, a height high enough for him to see the ground clearly.
Then, rows of neatly arranged 'shit-yellow' corpses came into his eyes. Those black and smoking things with only empty shells were left. If they weren't Type 94 light tanks, what else could they be?
?
"It's over! It's over! It's all over!" Sasaki, who was cold all over, muttered to himself in the cockpit.
"Lieutenant Sasaki, what exactly did you see?" The face of the Army Aviation Captain who led the team became extremely ugly.
"The ground is full of the remains of Imperial infantry. What is burning is the Type 94 light tank. The Imperial infantry who asked us for help are all dead!" Sasaki's face could not be said to be sad, but more of fear.
He remembered that before boarding the fighter plane, the message that came to him also told him that they were going to help the imperial infantry with 1,500 troops. How long did it take before the battle was over? 500 people! Not 1,500 pigs? It was like this
It’s over? If it weren’t for the fact before his eyes, Sasaki would really be in disbelief.
There was silence on the radio!
Obviously, this also made it difficult for the other five Japanese pilots to believe it.
Six Japanese bombers circled the hilltop for several times until they could clearly see the colors of the military uniforms worn by the corpses lying on the ground. Except for the simple road covered with dirt, there were such corpses everywhere on the hilltop.
At least it's over 1,000.
"Nagatomo-kun, let's return!" Sasaki exhaled heavily, but felt a sense of relief that he couldn't describe.
At least, he no longer has to face those terrifying group of Chinese people, even on this extremely barren mountain.
"Baga! The Chinese can't go far, find them and kill them!" The leading Captain, Lu Hang, angrily rejected Sasaki's proposal.
Six fighter planes were hovering at high altitude, unaware that there were nearly 2,000 Chinese soldiers in gray military uniforms hiding in the mountains less than 1 kilometer away from them.
After receiving the alarm from Licheng, the 863rd Brigade's supplementary regiment, which was still in Shentou Ridge to clean up the battlefield, hid in the mountains. Their gray military uniforms and sufficient camouflage allowed them to completely avoid searches from high altitudes.
After searching for several times but unable to find any Chinese soldiers, the six Japanese bombers flew along the road towards Lucheng!
This is of course not due to how sensitive their sense of smell is on the battlefield, but simply because a blind cat catches a mouse!
But this time, they were lucky enough to actually see a moving Chinese army on the mountain road five kilometers away from the Shentou Ridge battlefield.
Those were not the two main regiments under the 683rd Brigade, but the 769th Regiment under the 583rd Brigade that was heading towards the scheduled blocking battlefield.
Perhaps because the mountains blocked the radio signal, they did not receive a warning from the 683rd Brigade. When they discovered the Japanese planes approaching, it was a little late. The Japanese planes that finally found their revenge target swooped toward the mountain like a long queue.
It's like the Chinese army dropped a bomb.
Terrible bombs sent up terrible clouds of gunpowder smoke in the mountains. One bomb even hit the mountain path on the mountain wall, directly destroying the mountain path more than ten meters away, forming a terrifying cliff. Unless you turn around and look for him elsewhere.
road, otherwise no one would be able to move forward from here.
Post-war statistics show that in this sudden Japanese bombing, the 769th Regiment, which had not yet entered the battle, sacrificed 122 people and seriously injured 48 people, completely losing an infantry company. This was even more powerful than the 683rd Brigade, which was the main force in the Battle of Shentouling.
The supplementary regiments participating in the battle suffered even greater losses!
It is said that after hearing about the battle losses, the famous general who had personally led a suicide squad to surprise Yangmingbao Airport, who was still at the regiment headquarters five miles away, threw his hat in anger!
This should be the first battle in this melee in which the Chinese army has no merit but only losses!
But there was no way. The 2nd Battalion of the 769th Regiment on the mountain road actually resisted. The 6 Japanese planes that had dropped their bombs seemed to feel that it was not enough. They swooped down and fired with machine guns. The 2nd Battalion gathered all 8 of its subordinates.
The light machine gun fired in the air, killing more than a dozen machine gun shooters, but not a single Japanese aircraft was shot down or damaged.
In the face of absolute strength, courage can only make up for it, but it cannot necessarily compete!
What's even worse is not just the battle losses! The 69th Regiment is divided into two groups. Its main force, the First Battalion, goes from the left wing to Beiganling, the battlefield chosen by Brigadier Cheng, while the regiment headquarters leads the Second and Third Battalions to the front.
position.
What they have to do is to block the incoming Japanese army first and wait for the 772 Regiment that is still running on the other two mountain roads. The 771 Regiment arrives at the battlefield from the left and right wings and encircles the Japanese army!
Because to implement this tactic, both infantry regiments had to abandon the main road and go around the narrow mountain road. The arrival time is expected to be another hour and a half!
But the problem now is that the mountain road that still takes more than half an hour to reach the battlefield has been blown up by Japanese planes. It will be two hours before they can go around again. Then the Japanese army may have arrived at Beiganling Village.
The advantageous terrain can only be given up, but the greater crisis is not just that.
Because, based on time estimates, the main 1st Battalion of the 769th Regiment should have arrived on the battlefield. I want to inform them that the entire 769th Regiment only has one field radio.
That means that in nearly an hour and a half, perhaps one infantry battalion faced two thousand Japanese troops!
"Order the whole regiment to leave one platoon and health personnel to take care of the wounded, and everyone else to throw away all the baggage. Except for the bullets, guns and grenades, the rest is lost to me. Let me run. Even if I am tired, I will crawl."
Battlefield!" The young commander of the 769th regiment quickly put aside his sadness and anger and issued military orders to the entire regiment.
If he did not arrive at the battlefield soon, his most elite battalion of 460 people would face 2,000 Japanese troops armed to the teeth. The consequences would make me shudder just thinking about them.
The final battle situation also proved how correct the choice of the young colonel commander was. He ordered the entire regiment to march lightly and spare no effort, shortening the time to reach the battlefield by half an hour!
But at that time, the main battalion under his command had been fighting fiercely for an hour with the Japanese army, which far exceeded their strength.
Let's go back to the Japanese bomber formation. They vented their anger with bombs and machine guns. The anger they had felt when they saw the corpses of their own infantry lying across the field was finally vented, and they returned with shaking wings.
Perhaps it was because they had just watched the futile resistance of the Chinese machine gun shooters, which only left harmless bullet holes in the wings of the fighter planes. This made the Japanese pilots feel more confident than ever before, just as the fighter planes were about to fly over the top of the mountain on their way back.
, when they saw the houses of Chinese mountain people, they swooped past them at high speed.
The terrible airflow lifted the roofs of the mountain people's simple houses, and even swept up the Chinese mountain people who ran out in panic and blew them into the grass more than ten meters away...
If their fighter planes hadn't fired all their machine gun bullets, it's obvious that they would have continued to take it out on those innocent people.
"Haha! Lowly Chinese people, when the imperial army takes over this country, anyone who dares to resist will die!" the leading Japanese Army Aviation Captain laughed.
"If you don't resist, you will die anyway!"
"They only deserve to kneel on the ground and lick our boots!"
...
The radio was filled with the unbridled laughter of Japanese pilots.
Perhaps Sasaki was the only one who did not participate in the game of venting anger among his colleagues. He left the fighter plane at an altitude of 700 meters and looked at the bare mountains with vigilance, even though his colleagues laughed at his timidity and caution from time to time!
This is a battlefield, not an amusement park! He has escaped the call of death time and time again. Luck plays a big part, but caution is also necessary. Sasaki, who has been looking at the ground cautiously, did not remind these idiots!
He is not their father and has no such obligation!
Lieutenant Sasaki was right to be cautious.
On the return route of the six Japanese fighter planes, eight anti-aircraft heavy machine guns and two machine guns were waiting in full array. Although the Japanese planes missed Licheng County, there were still trucks, horse-drawn carriages and people moving on the simple highway.
No one dares to be careless at all, even if there are sentries watching from the surrounding hills. If there is danger, they will immediately light up the smoke to give the soldiers and civilians on the road enough time to escape.
Mo Songzi, the machine gun platoon leader, was sitting on the gun emplacement of the Sulotong machine gun. The entire machine gun was wrapped in bushes, and the surrounding fortifications made of wood and stone were also covered by withered grass and bushes. From a distance, it looked like
It's no different than a bush.
Just 200 meters away from his gun position, there is another area similar to his gun position. It is another machine gun of Mo Songzi's machine gun platoon. In addition, there are two others that have also been camouflaged.
Anti-aircraft machine gun!
This is an air defense position with the machine gun platoon as the core. Not far from them is a road where trucks and carriages are constantly passing by.
In the distance, a straight line of wolf smoke rises!
"Order everyone to be on alert, the Japanese plane is coming!" Mo Songzi held the handle of the machine gun with both hands.
Cheng Tieshou's military order was very simple. If Japanese planes bombed, then beat them to death. If they didn't find people or vehicles, they would focus on concealment.
The dull roar of the aircraft engine first reached the ears. Everyone on the road had already hidden themselves. After a minute, six black spots appeared more and more clearly in Mo Songzi's field of vision.
Mo Songzi was stunned for a moment!
The Japanese planes coming from the direction of Shentou Ridge had no intention of diving, or in other words, they had no need to dive.
Because, the height is really too low!
Although the telescope did not have an altimeter, Mo Songzi, who had "flighted" planes countless times, could completely perceive the flying altitude of the Japanese aircraft through visual inspection.
The highest is less than 700 meters, the lowest is only 300 meters...
The Japanese want to see the scenery of the Taihang Mountains?
To fight or not? This was a difficult problem that suddenly faced Mo Songzi, the second lieutenant platoon leader.
The Japanese planes had no intention of dive bombing. According to military orders, he took cover and watched them leave.
But as for the Japanese, who have already laid down and put themselves in a good position, he will be punished by God if he doesn't shoot them. 500 meters, 1200 meters, 1000 meters, 800 meters, the Japanese plane is getting closer and closer!
To paraphrase an old saying from future commentators when explaining the Chinese football team: There is not much time left for the Chinese football team.
"Hit me!" Mo Songzi finally made a decision.
"Dong dong dong!" As the Sulotong machine gun opened fire with full force.
Another machine gun also fired out at least five shells, and two anti-aircraft machine guns that had been prepared also sprayed a barrage! A straight line distance of 00 meters and a height of about 300 meters. For the anti-aircraft guns that had already prepared everything,
It’s like the newspaper office is issuing a call to all correspondents—welcome to do it!
This chapter has been completed!