The defense line of the 39th Division was overwhelmed by the rout of the Iron and Stone Troops.
At this time, the iron and stone troops still numbered more than 10,000 people... The battle between chariots and cavalry just now was very important and critical, but the total number of chariots and armored vehicles was less than 20, and the cavalry only had more than 2,000 people, and more than half of them were lost.
There are only more than a thousand people.
Coupled with the losses of the infantry, there were at most two to three thousand casualties.
The total size of the Iron and Stone Army is 16,000, which means there are about 13,000 left, so it can be said that the strength is still there.
But that's how it is on the battlefield. It doesn't have to be about how many casualties the troops suffered or how low they were before they collapsed.
The reason is that every soldier is not a fool. They know that they will be surrounded and what will happen if they are surrounded. If they don't run away, let alone the 13,000 people of the Iron and Stone Army, even the Japanese 39th Division will
It’s over!
So as soon as the Iron and Stone troops received the order to retreat, they ran back in a swarm, without any rhythm of retreat.
In fact, the word "completely" is not accurate, because the 26th Infantry Regiment of the Iron and Stone Forces was ordered to stay to cover the retreat of the main force, and the 26th Infantry Regiment did so.
The problem is that the Eighth Route Army has prepared twenty rocket launchers and is waiting for this moment to show off its power.
This was Li Yunlong's preparation. Rocket launchers were usually used to prepare artillery fire before an attack, but Li Yunlong didn't. He was using it to defeat the iron and stone troops at the last moment.
Originally, he thought he wouldn't be able to use it this time because the situation at Zhang Dabiao's side was not optimistic. Unexpectedly, Zhang Dabiao suddenly had a sudden stroke of wisdom and turned defeat into victory. Li Yunlong was so happy that he smiled from ear to ear, clapped his thigh and shouted:
"Well done! Zhang Dabiao is worthy of being the soldier I brought out! He is the leader!"
Then when the main force of the Tieshi troops retreated and a regiment was arranged to cover the rear, Li Yunlong was of course not polite to the puppet troops and immediately ordered the rocket launchers to fire.
More than 20 rocket launchers fired at the same time, that is, more than 200 rockets hit the puppet army position at the same time. In an instant, the puppet army position was exploded into flames and smoke.
Then the charge horn sounded, and the Eighth Route Army soldiers with bayonets poured into the puppet army's position like a tide to break through its frontal defense line.
Because the puppet army's defense line was lost too quickly, and it looked like "there was no retreat rhythm at all", the Eighth Route Army soldiers followed closely behind the puppet army and launched an attack on the Japanese 39th Division.
The first to bear the brunt was the Japanese's "anti-tank guns."
Previously, Yoshikawa Saki had to coordinate with the Iron-blooded troops to attack the Eighth Route Army's half-track vehicles, so he moved the Type 97 anti-tank gun to the front line and even moved out of the position. Now that he was rushed by the defeated troops, his position was immediately disrupted.
How could Zhang Dabiao miss such a good opportunity? He immediately ordered his troops to pursue the Japanese who came out of their positions.
"We must not let those Japs go back!" Zhang Dabiao ordered: "They came out to deal with us. They are probably anti-tank guns of the Japs. If we let them go back, we will be in danger!"
So the half-track car hit and crushed them again and again, fighting its way through the enemy and killing most of the Japanese before they could return to the defense line.
This "killing a bloody road" is really not an exaggeration, it is a real bloody road: all along the way, there are broken troops of the Iron and Stone Army. The Eighth Route Army soldiers kept changing magazines on the half-track vehicles and shot on both sides.
of enemies.
Li Yunlong's order was actually to "rush" rather than to kill like them.
But a half-track vehicle has the characteristics of a half-track vehicle. It will never allow enemies to be around twenty or thirty meters away, or in other words, it will allow enemies within this distance to fight.
This is the distance for throwing grenades, and the half-track car is semi-open. If the puppet army throws a grenade into the car... everyone in the car will be finished.
Therefore, the soldiers on the half-track car showed no mercy at all. As long as there were people on both sides, regardless of whether they raised their hands or not, they would all be knocked down.
There were corpses of puppet soldiers everywhere on the road. Some drivers clearly felt that the half-track vehicle was not running fast enough. They were too busy fighting at the time to think much about continuing to drive as fast as they could.
When the battle was over, I got out of the car and took a look... The tracks at the rear were already covered with the enemy's minced meat and pieces of clothing. The reason why the half-track car couldn't run fast was because some of the clothes were entangled in the axles. It was still being discovered when they were discovered.
There is blood flowing.
It can be said that the Iron and Stone Troops helped the Eighth Route Army a lot, because if this were not the case, the Japanese anti-tank guns would probably cause a lot of trouble to the Eighth Route Army's half-track vehicles.
There is no problem now. Most of the Japanese anti-tank guns were damaged before they could function, and even if the remaining small part escaped back to the defense line, it would not be of much use.
Yoshikawa Saki watched through the telescope the densely packed iron and stone troops rushing into the defense line, followed closely by the Eighth Route Army behind them. He was so frightened that he even ordered his subordinates to open fire to stop...
However this was of no avail.
Because the Eighth Route Army's artillery also followed up simultaneously, the Japanese opened fire on the Tieshi troops, which temporarily suppressed their escape momentum, but soon the artillery shells hit the Japanese positions one after another, providing cover for the rout of the Tieshi troops.
Then the aviation force of the Eighth Route Army also joined the battle. More than a dozen "La 5" swooped down from the air and used machine guns and rockets to carry out precise strikes on the Japanese in the trenches below... Fighters were the most effective in suppressing the trenches, because the fighters only needed to move along the trench.
Flying along the trend of the trenches, most of the bullets and rockets struck were indistinguishable.
At this moment, I really don’t understand who is the friendly army and who is the enemy.
Of course, the bald Iron Stone Troops, who were in a life-or-death situation, would not consider this. They only knew where to escape wherever there was a way out.
At this time, it was obvious that there was a way out on one side of the Japanese defense line, so they just paused for a moment and then rushed towards the Japanese defense line like a tide.
In the end, the Japanese defense line could not be held.
This is not to say that the Japanese troops did not have many troops. In fact, at the moment when the defeated iron and stone troops rushed into the defense line, the Japanese troops were several times that of the Eighth Route Army.
But just because it is multiple times, so many people are densely packed in the trenches and defense lines, it is easy to become crowded and chaotic, so that ammunition cannot be transported forward normally... The trench is such a small place, and it can be attacked in a short period of time.
The impact of tens of thousands of defeated troops was easily blocked, so the entire defense line was in a state of being unable to operate normally.
The Eighth Route Army's artillery and half-track vehicles, as well as T44 and "Sherman" tank groups, also followed up at this time. They covered a large number of infantry and attacked the defense line in an orderly manner.
Yoshikawa Saki had no choice but to order a retreat.
Moreover, we were unable to stabilize our position during this retreat and were chased and beaten by the Eighth Route Army all the way!