The troops attacking the Japanese 106th Division fought all night long. At dawn, the Japanese troops on the outer front line were basically eliminated.
It was so dark at night that we couldn't see clearly, so we rushed wherever there was gunfire. The brothers kept fighting forward desperately, but they didn't know where they hit in the end.
After daybreak, the brothers who had been fighting all night showed their fatigue, could no longer attack, and had no ammunition, so they had to stop the attack.
In the ravine with complex terrain, the corpses of shirtless Chinese officers and soldiers and Japanese soldiers wearing yellow dog skins lay scattered on the ground.
In order to be able to distinguish between ourselves and the enemy at night, many Chinese officers and soldiers who advanced took off their clothes and went shirtless. During hand-to-hand combat at night, they stabbed anyone who was wearing clothes to death.
Although the Chinese officers and soldiers inflicted great casualties on the Japanese, their own losses were equally heavy. The corpses of both sides were entangled and stacked on top of each other, and many people still maintained the same posture as before they died.
The withered grass on the ground has been dyed bright red by blood. Broken guns are scattered around the stacked corpses. The blood-red rising sun flag full of bullet holes is lying crookedly on the solid corpses, swaying with the mountain wind in the morning light.
, the smell of blood wafts in the air.
On a gentle slope two hundred meters away from the ravine full of corpses, four lone brothers lay hidden in the weeds. The 79 rifles in their hands were loaded with bullets. Their bloodshot eyes looked around vigilantly.
Watching.
"Company Commander, it seems there are no Japs."
A brother looked at the surrounding woods and mountains carefully for a long time and whispered.
The sound of gunfire in the distance kept coming vaguely, but the area near them was deathly quiet. They saw no living person all the way here, they were all corpses of those killed in battle on both sides.
Captain Zhang Heizi, the company commander, was covered in gunpowder smoke and looked like a piece of coke. During the battle last night, the explosive fragment of a grenade scratched his forehead. At this moment, the blood had solidified into dark black.
"Goudan, come over and see if anyone is alive?" Company Commander Zhang Heizi poked a brother next to him with his elbow.
"yes!"
Goudan glanced around to make sure there was no danger, then took a deep breath, stood up from the grass with a gun in hand, and walked cautiously towards the pile of corpses in the ravine.
Zhang Heizi saw Goudanmao ducking out and quickly put the butt of the 79 rifle on his shoulder and whispered: "Cover!"
Goudan held the gun and carefully moved towards the tragic battlefield in the ravine, looking around from time to time. Fortunately, there were no Japanese nearby, and he quickly arrived at the place where the battle was taking place.
He squatted down and carefully rummaged through the corpses everywhere, but in the end he shook his head helplessly. The people here were all dead. Many people's bodies were beaten to pieces, and their intestines were leaking out. It was too horrible to look at.
He fumbled for some biscuits on the Japanese soldier's body and then hurriedly returned to the hidden grass. It was too dangerous to be exposed outside.
"How's it going?" Zhang Heizi asked in a low voice when he saw Goudan coming back in a hurry, turning sideways to make way for him.
Zhang Heizi gasped slightly and replied: "They are all dead. They are not from our regiment. Look, they are brothers from the 305th regiment."
Zhang Heizi frowned when he heard that he was not his brother from the 301st Regiment. They were beaten randomly last night and ran away. Where should they find the troops now?
He looked up at the gray sky obscured by gunpowder smoke and the mountains that were almost burnt to pieces. This area was now eerily quiet and contained unlimited murderous intent. If they ran into a large group of Japanese soldiers, they would be wiped out.
One of the brothers asked Zhang Heizi worriedly while chewing biscuits taken from the Japanese corpse: "Company commander, what should we do next?"
"What else can we do? There are corpses all along the way. We haven't seen a single ghost. I guess our troops have been defeated by the ghosts. Let's run for our lives."
As soon as Goudan said these words, the atmosphere suddenly stagnated. They all turned their attention to their company commander Zhang Heizi, and everyone felt uneasy in their hearts.
They knew the strength of the Japanese. Although they were surrounded, they were still ferocious and unspeakable. The 58th Division, which came up before them, had more than 10,000 people and killed them all in two days. They felt that their 51st Division was also quite tough.
Now they have lost contact with the main force, and they don't know whether all of them are dead or defeated. Anyway, they are all pessimistic about the future.
It's not that they don't have confidence in their own troops, but that since the Battle of Songhu, the Chinese Communist Party has hardly gained any advantages in head-to-head confrontations with the Japanese on the front battlefield.
Although the Dofeiyuan Division was almost surrounded and annihilated in the Battle of Lanfeng, and they were full of confidence at the beginning, in the end the Dofeiyuan Division not only saved the day, but the elite Japs from the two divisions pressed forward, forcing them to flee in embarrassment.
Instead of blowing up the mouth of the Yellow River to block the pursuing troops, more than 100,000 troops would have been abandoned in Lanfeng.
It is precisely because of repeated defeats that not only the people are enveloped in pessimism and despair, but also the soldiers in these troops.
Usually when I stay with a large army, I can maintain a high fighting spirit with the encouragement from my superiors from time to time. Now that I am alone, this pessimistic and disappointing mood can't help but flood my heart.
Did the army really get wiped out overnight? Company Commander Zhang Heizi was unwilling to admit it, but the corpses that came all over the place along the way made him find no reason to refute his guess.
When he thought that the brothers he had been with day and night were gone, and the respectable superiors were gone, his heart felt as if a stone had been pressed against him, and he felt uncomfortable for no reason.
"Boom! Boom!" A thunderous explosion came from a distance, followed by a burst of intensive gunfire, which brought Zhang Heizi back to reality and rekindled hope in his heart.
Since they are still fighting in the distance, it means that their troops have not been exhausted yet. Thinking of this, his confidence strengthened.
"Have you heard gunshots? It must be our brothers who are still attacking! Come on, let's go over and help!"
Zhang Heizi's tone suddenly became extremely firm. He didn't believe that their division was wiped out without any warning.
When the troops are scattered, most people lose contact with friendly superiors because they are in a chaotic battlefield. In loneliness and fear, they will feel pessimistic and disappointed. This emotion will spread and lead to many people making mistakes in judgment.
, thinking that the troops have been defeated, they will subconsciously choose to escape...
But even if a cohesive unit is broken up, it will quickly gather together and regain its combat effectiveness, because those grassroots officers with firm convictions will dispel those pessimism and lead the brothers to fight again.
Since its formation last year, the 74th Army went directly to the Songhu battlefield to engage in the brutal Luodian battle, and fought several battles with the Japs within a year.
A large number of experienced grassroots officers grew up from the flames of war, and they are the backbone of the 74th Army. No matter how many times the soldiers have changed, the grassroots officers are still there, and their spirit of not admitting defeat is still there, and the more they fight, the more brave they become.
But the spirit inspired batch after batch of officers and soldiers to fight one after another.
Zhang Heizi firmly believed that their troops were not exhausted, but they had not found them yet, so he took three other brothers to search for the battlefield with fierce gunfire.
Although the battlefield is dangerous, they can find their brothers on the battlefield, so they have no hesitation.