Four hundred and fifty-four chapters Hengyang trip (three)
Toushan carefully lay on the tree with a telescope and looked in the direction of Hengyang City. After a long while, he came down and walked into a manor. The residents here were the secrets planted by the Japanese army more than ten years ago. An old farmer pretended to be mute.
I have lived here for more than ten years just to be able to use it one day.
Toushan looked at the agent dressed as a peasant and asked, "So, Hengyang City is no longer accessible?"
The farmer bent down and said, "Hi! As early as a month ago, after the Tenth Army settled in Hengyang, it began to mobilize the residents of Hengyang to move out. After the imperial army captured Changsha, it even began to force relocation. Now there is no common people in Hengyang City, and even more
Except for coolies under the supervision of the army, no non-military personnel are allowed to enter Hengyang City. Even the coolies they forced to help dig trenches can only live outside the city, especially at night, as long as they are found without military uniforms in the city.
All of them will be arrested and thrown into the dungeon. If they resist, they will all be shot."
Toushan took a breath of cold air, looked at Hengyang, and felt extremely troubled, and asked, "Do you have any tunnels or something?"
The farmer shook his head with a wry smile and said, "This place is very close to the Xiangjiang River, and the underground water is extremely developed. No matter where you dig three or four meters down, water will come out. It is impossible to dig a tunnel."
Toushan asked again, "Do you have any photos of the supplies that entered Hengyang some time ago?"
The farmer nodded and took out a few photos and said, "Since our place is far away from the railway, I can only take a few photos from a distance. Please take a look, sir."
Toushan took the photo and looked at it, but couldn't find any clues. He was immediately troubled. He walked around a few times with his hands behind his back, and finally sighed, "Then wait until the imperial army starts attacking. As soon as the fighting starts, they won't be able to do this again."
Got it!"
Japanese aircraft flew from Changsha to Hengyang Airport one after another. Although the Hengyang defenders tried their best to destroy it, under the repairs of the Japanese army, it only took two days for the airport to be used for protest again. This would become the starting point for the Japanese bombing of Hengyang.
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The 13th Division was a division that had great affection for Chiang Kai-shek. In 1910, it was in this division that Chiang Kai-shek entered the 19th Field Artillery Regiment as a "non-commissioned officer candidate" for internship.
Of course, no one can tell whether Chiang Kai-shek was studying military affairs or raising horses in this regiment, but at this time, the commander of the 13th Division, Tanaka Shizuichi, was working hard to capture the National Army position in front of him.
Tanaka Jingichi put down the telescope and said, "Order the 19th Artillery Regiment to provide artillery cover, and contact the aviation force for air cover. The time is set at eight o'clock. At eight-thirty, the 26th Brigade is ordered to start the attack, with one regiment as the
Expand the front and attack the northern and southern positions respectively, and use the Bushido spirit as a weapon to carry out the assault!"
Fang Xianjue was looking at the map in the tunnel command post behind Shiniu Peak. He was talking to the officers next to him from time to time. Suddenly he heard a whining sound. He quickly looked up and saw that the communications soldiers outside had already ran in and said
"Report! The Japanese army has begun air strikes. More than fifty fighter planes are attacking the north and south positions respectively."
"Bang" a muffled sound came from Fang Xianjue's head, and some dust floated down. Fang Xianjue looked at the top of his head and laughed and said, "This method of the youth army is really good. Such a command post is not afraid of the little Japanese planes at all."
Artillery, order all anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft machine guns to start counterattack, the military commander said, give the little Japanese a head-on attack!"
On the position, the camouflage of the anti-aircraft guns was lifted one after another. The gunners kept shaking the wheels of the anti-aircraft guns to adjust their position. A Japanese pilot noticed this change with sharp eyes and quickly shouted, "Baga!! There are anti-aircraft guns, be careful."
Ground fire!!”
Before he finished speaking, he saw the anti-aircraft gun he saw firing out a series of shells. He quickly pulled up the plane, but was still scratched, and the wing was missing more than ten centimeters. He was frightened to see it.
.
This pilot was extremely lucky. Due to the sudden attack, seven or eight Japanese fighter planes were lost in just three minutes. Tanaka Shizuichi, who was watching the battle from a distance, felt extremely distressed. Of course, the soldiers of the National Army were happy.
They cheered, they were finally able to fight back after being bombed for a long time.
"Baga... bombardment! bombardment!" After the Japanese artillery discovered that the Nationalist Army had anti-aircraft guns, they immediately fired back. More than forty 75mm mountain guns and field artillery began to bombard the Shiniufeng position.
"The Japanese bombardment has begun. Test the track immediately and prepare to fight back!" He Kang, the commander of the 1st Heavy Artillery Regiment of the Youth Army, said quickly when he saw the signal from the mountain.
All 12 150mm heavy artillery were placed behind Shiniu Peak, using the characteristics of the howitzer's deflection to shoot the shells to the other side of the mountain.
"Position, Ding Shisan, twelve consecutive shots! Start!!" He Kang waited until the calculation results came out, and immediately shouted loudly. The 12 howitzers hurriedly adjusted their positions under the operation of the gunner. The red flag waved, and the gunner fired hard.
Pulling the gun rope of the howitzer, bang bang bang, a series of shelling sounds sounded like music.
Twelve artillery shells weighing 40 kilograms flew over the top of the mountain and hit the Japanese artillery position.
In addition to these heavy artillery, the mountain artillery and field artillery deployed on Shiniu Peak also began to counterattack, taking advantage of the unprepared situation of the Japanese army to strike the biggest blow.
Tanaka Jingyi was watching the battle when he suddenly heard bursts of explosions coming from the left side. He quickly turned his head and looked. This sight almost made him faint. His cannon was blown up and down by shells flying from nowhere.
Looking at the big pit that was as big as half a basketball court, he knew it was definitely a heavy artillery piece.
"Baga..." Tanaka Jingyi looked at Shiniufeng fiercely and shouted, "Contact the aviation force and be sure to destroy the enemy's heavy artillery positions!!"
The planes also exploded and the artillery fired. Fang Xianjue looked at the Japanese offensive position from the observation post on the top of the mountain and his lips curved slightly. What will happen next? It should be the infantry.
Sure enough, the Japanese army did not disappoint Fang Xianjue. A large group of nearly a thousand people was divided into more than a dozen skirmishing lines and began to attack their position like a wave. The Japanese mortars, infantry cannons, grenades, and light and heavy machine guns also
Follow the footsteps of the infantry and tilt the bullets and artillery shells to the Shiniu Peak position.
"Haha, order the bunkers on the first line of defense to prepare for the attack, and then open fire when they reach the mine array."
At this time, the Japanese field artillery regiment was engaged in an artillery battle with the heavy artillery regiment of the Youth Army. Neither side had time to take care of the frontal battlefield. The aviation force was inextricably linked to the anti-aircraft artillery and anti-aircraft machine guns on the ground. The Japanese infantry advanced very quickly.
Quickly, we arrived at the first line of defense in a short while.
"Baga? What's written here? Bring it over and show it to me." Japanese captain Anda Shiliu looked at a sign stuck on the ground and asked strangely.
A Japanese soldier quickly showed the sign to Anda Shiliu. When Anda Shiliu looked at it, it said, "A hole has been dug ahead. Please bring your own tombstones before moving forward!" It also drew a cartoon of a National Army soldier kicking a Japanese soldier.
The Japanese soldier held something like a tombstone, with an open coffin in front of it.
Anda Sixteen felt like his head was about to smoke, and he jumped angrily and shouted, "Attack!! Attack me!!"
"Bang" a Japanese soldier stepped on a landmine, and one of his legs was cut off by the shrapnel of the mine, and flew into the air. Since they had prepared a strong wall and cleared the field in advance, the Japanese army could not find any civilians to come to the mine, so they could only let the engineering unit
Step forward to clear mines.
When the Japanese engineers came forward, they immediately opened fire on these engineers from various firepower points in the bunker. Due to the trench warfare in World War I, all countries paid great attention to their engineers. In addition to having the same combat capabilities as ordinary soldiers, these engineers also
If you need to be able to build bridges and pave roads, clear mines, dig trenches, attack and blast, and many other skills, it can be said that the value of an engineer is far greater than that of an ordinary infantryman. This is why these bunkers did not fight the Japanese infantry, but only used engineers.
These engineers had to clear mines and defend against attacks from bunkers, but these bunkers were carefully designed. The machine guns inside could easily fire at the enemy. Many Japanese engineers were killed on the minefields.
In order to cover the engineers, Anda Shiliu could only order the troops to provide fire cover, and let the artillery bomb the bunkers indiscriminately. By the time the engineering troops finally opened up several safe passages, it was already noon, and the Japanese troops, who had been unable to fight for a long time, retreated.
Went down to repair and eat.
Tanaka Jingyi came to the 26th Brigade Headquarters with a gloomy face and asked all officers above the captain to come in for a meeting.
All the Japanese commanders lowered their heads, not daring to look at Tanaka Shizuichi. Tanaka Shizuichi took a breath and asked, "Has the inventory been completed? How much was lost?"
A staff officer said bravely, "482 soldiers of our 26th Brigade were killed, 263 were seriously injured, and the number of minor injuries has not yet been calculated."
"Bah!" Tanaka Shizuichi slapped the staff officer viciously, causing all the Japanese commanders to feel pain on their faces.
"Seven hundred people were killed or injured in one morning, and we haven't even touched the foot of Shiniu Peak. Are you going to defeat the enemy by making them laugh to death?" Tanaka Shizuichi shouted angrily, "I saw one
In the morning, why did we stop moving forward when we reached a place about 1,500 meters away from Shiniu Peak?"
"Because there is a mine array in front of us. The mine array is very wide, nearly 500 meters long, and the enemy has set up a large number of bunkers and barbed wire fences. It is very difficult for our army to advance." An officer immediately argued, "So we asked the engineers to go forward to clear the mines."
"
"Very good, then tell me, what model is the enemy's heavy machine gun? What is its effective range?" Tanaka Shizuichi asked with his hands behind his back.
"The most numerous ones are the MG-08 heavy machine guns, with an effective range of 2,000 meters and a maximum range of 3,500 meters." The officer immediately replied.
"The basic skills are pretty good, so tell me now, what about ours?" Tanaka Shizuichi continued to ask.
"The imperial army uses the Type 92 heavy machine gun, with an effective range of 1,000 meters."
"So you stayed all morning in a place where the enemy's heavy machine guns could hit us but we couldn't hit them?" Tanaka Shizuichi interrupted the officer sharply and said, "In the afternoon battle, we must give full play to the Japanese Emperor."
The characteristic of an army that dares to fight and rush is that it’s just landmines. What’s there to be afraid of? You’ll lose more by delaying like this than by charging directly! Do you understand?”
"Hi!"
The National Army position on the other side was also resting. Fang Xianjue walked on the position, condolences to the soldiers from time to time, and directed the soldiers to repair the fortifications.
"Report, after counting, we have less than 300 casualties in the morning. More than half were injured by Japanese planes and artillery. Few were actually killed by Japanese infantry. This is unbelievable. If
If it stays like this, we can guard it for a month!" An officer came over and said.
Fang Xianjue nodded, looked at the Japanese offensive position and said, "I don't know how many Japanese have died. This time we are outnumbered. Let me tell you brothers, we must kill three of them to save our capital..."
It was still a coalition's attack, with layers upon layers like waves. Anda Shiliu led the troops to the front. He waved his sword from time to time and shouted "Attack!! Attack!!!"
The mountain was quiet and there was no response. Anda Shiliu couldn't help but swallowed his saliva when he looked at the Shiniu Peak, which was like an unmanned position. He shook his head and continued to rush forward. Suddenly he found that the Japanese troops in front of him were lined up in a row and they didn't know what they were doing.
What, no more progress.
Anda Shiliu thought it was another landmine, so he ran forward angrily and cursed, "Baga! What are you doing? Charge! Charge! Don't harm..."
When Anda Shiliu also arrived at the front, he stared at everything in front of him with his mouth open. An extremely deep and wide trench appeared in front of him. The nail boards and bamboo sticks below looked at him as if provoking. Some people were already squeezed.
The Japanese soldiers who went down or tried to jump fell into the trench and were stuck in the ground with nail boards and bamboo sticks, screaming."
"beat!!"
Anda Shiliu clearly heard the cry of a Chinese, and then countless machine guns, rifles, mortars, and grenades rained down on him. Anda Shiliu felt like the world was spinning, and then he knew nothing.
Anda Shiliu was lucky enough to be knocked unconscious by the explosion, but Fang Xianjue saw clearly from the mountain that the wave of Japanese troops gathered in front of his trench, and then he was severely hit by his own troops, waiting for the Japanese troops to retreat in embarrassment.
At that time, the Japanese corpses left in front of Fang Xianjue's trench were densely packed. It was unknown how many there were. Because the trench was too deep and wide, the defenders could not easily pass through it. Fang Xianjue could only look at the Japanese weapons left on the battlefield.
Drooling, I kept comforting myself that when I win, it will all be mine.
Fang Xianjue looked at Hu Lian's defensive position and found that it was full of corpses just like in front of his own position. He couldn't help but smile and said to the communications soldier beside him, "Telegraph to the military base that the Japanese army's second attack has been repelled by our army. The enemy
The corpses of the soldiers are everywhere and are countless. Our division has less than two companies with casualties. The morale is high and we can continue to fight."
The Japanese army launched four attacks on Shiniufeng this afternoon. Except for the first time, the other three times all carried a large number of ladders and wooden planks. The Japanese army's combat was not without bravery, and the firepower was not without power. However, under Fang Xianjue and
Under Hu Lian's defense, not even a passage was established. Tanaka Jingyi looked at the standing Stone Niu Peak in the distance and frowned. He suddenly realized that this time his opponent seemed to be much stronger than he thought.
On the first day, the number of casualties exceeded 2,000. This was something that had never been seen before. Even in Changsha, we had never encountered such a difficult position.