The Japanese infantry had not been deployed yet and had not yet begun the attack. Just the first artillery raid caused the loss of three infantry companies and one of the 1st Regiment of the 12th Division, 21st Brigade and 1st Regiment of the Third Army stationed on the main line of defense at Niangziguan.
Only one of the 148 men of the company survived, and two infantry companies also suffered heavy losses.
There were more than 440 people in three infantry companies. 243 people were killed on the spot, 72 were seriously injured, and 101 were slightly injured. Those who could continue to fight were less than one infantry company.
Upon hearing the news, the Army Lieutenant General in the Third Army headquarters located 4 kilometers behind the defense line did not speak for a full minute.
This was just an artillery attack, and he lost two infantry companies. The Japanese artillery fire was really terrifying.
His Third Army wanted to fight back, but how many cannons could there be in the entire eastern Shanxi? Even if there were cannons, how many could be fired? In order to support the Battle of Xinkou, the old Shanxi man moved all the cannons in Shanxi.
It has to be said that the Shanxi old man has accumulated quite a fortune over the years. The ten mountain artillery regiments total about 300 mountain artillery pieces. There are also 100 150 heavy artillery pieces from five regiments that were exchanged from the Huamei Company by the Taiyuan Arsenal. In Xinkou
The battle there with the nearly 80,000 Japanese troops led by Itagaki Seishiro's 5th Division was very successful. They were not inferior in the mountain artillery battle, and they still had a slight advantage in the heavy artillery.
Because the heavy artillery regiment is surrounded by anti-aircraft artillery regiments, the Japanese aircraft cannot run rampant, so until now, the Japanese army has basically been blocked in northern Shanxi.
However, when tens of thousands of Japanese troops on the western front broke through Shijiazhuang and approached eastern Shanxi to launch a two-sided attack, the old man from Shanxi, who was the commander-in-chief of the 2nd theater, fainted. All the artillery had been transferred to northwest Shanxi, so what could be used to defend eastern Shanxi?
As a result, the old cannons in stock were dug out and shipped to Shandong. Even the gunners were mostly civilians who trained along the way.
With the quality of the guns and gunners like this, it would be more comfortable to expect them to counterattack the heavy artillery of the Japanese invaders.
What's more, the 7,000-meter range of the Jin-made Sanyi mountain cannon is 3,000 meters away from the 105 howitzer fired from 10,000 meters away, which is not even close to the mark.
Now, the only thing the Third Army can do is to do the same as Songhu in the southeastern battlefield.
Resistance, death resistance.
Even if you kill all my company with one cannon, I will send in another company. As long as all my men are not dead, there will always be gunshots on the position.
This is the helplessness and sadness that belongs to the Chinese generals.
Facing the 105mm howitzer, the Chinese defenders at Niangziguan were relatively good. On the Songhu battlefield, the Chinese generals faced cruiser guns with a caliber exceeding 200mm. A projectile weighing hundreds of kilograms often meant that
An infantry platoon can be deorganized.
At this time, the Songhu battlefield already had nearly 100,000 casualties. China and Japan were still increasing their troops. The beautiful city with the most developed economy in China was still rumbling with artillery.
An infantry battalion of reinforcements poured into the position like a tide and desperately repaired the fortifications in the firelight. At the same time, the observers at the front of the Japanese infantry also passed the results of the shelling to the hands of Yoshito Takagi of the 39th Brigade who was marching on a tall horse.
"Yo Xi! This is a lesson that our Imperial Japanese Army taught the Chinese! With the help of the 105 howitzer, I don't believe how long the Chinese can hold on. Tell Colonel Hosokawa that I will see the old pass at 9 o'clock in the morning.
The position was also bombed into ruins." A proud smile appeared on Takagi Yoshito's face. "I'm afraid, the war will be over before Yamashita-kun's so-called roundabout tactics can be implemented."
Thinking of Yamashita Hobumi who won a round of applause for his eloquent talk in front of the map, Takagi Yoshito's face that had been smiling just now gradually turned cold again.
He was afraid that he would never have the chance to prove on the Niangziguan front line that he or he was the best major general in the Imperial Army.
Just one day ago, Yamashita Tobumi, who had just been ordered to go on an expedition, suddenly received the appointment of General Toshiichi Terauchi of the newly formed North China Expeditionary Army Headquarters at the end of August. He was transferred to the commander of the mixed brigade in Peiping, China. He was changed from the commander of the infantry brigade to the commander of the mixed brigade.
Although the rank of the commander of the Cheng Huncheng Brigade seems to remain unchanged, this is also a precursor to promotion.
I'm afraid that when we meet again, he may have to call his former colleague Lieutenant General. Thinking of this, Takagi Yoshito couldn't help gritting his teeth. If he didn't want to be inferior to others, he could only watch this.
In the Battle of Eastern Jin Dynasty, if he could lead the 39th Brigade to achieve astonishing feats, the Army Lieutenant General would not be that far away.
We must attack Niangzi Pass at all costs and resolve the battle before the 40th Infantry Brigade captures Fulule Ridge and conducts the detour to test Fish Town that has been planned by the division. This is the battle goal that Takagi Yoshito secretly set for himself.
Kawagishi Bunzaburo, who was sitting at the base camp of the 20th Division in Shijiazhuang, was playing a balancing act. He didn't know that because of Yamashita Fengfumi's unexpected transfer, his strategy of using the left column of the 40th Infantry Brigade as the main attack point had actually evolved into a left and right column.
They are all tactics of violent attack.
His close confidant had already completely forgotten all the instructions he had given him in private before leaving.
Of course, this also virtually increases the pressure on the Niangziguan main defense line, including the Jiuguan defense line. It depends on whether the two infantry divisions of the Third Army and the independent regiment and the 386th Brigade on the defense line can withstand it.
Hundreds of miles behind them, most of Sun Lianzhong's 26th Route Army and the Sichuan Army's 22nd Army were still running wildly toward eastern Shanxi.
Liu Xueyuan heard a battle report from Liu Lang's headquarters at 7 o'clock in the morning that an infantry company on the main defense line at Niangziguan, 7 kilometers away, had been shelled by the Japanese army and only one person was left.
Ignoring Liu Lang's obstruction, she rushed to the main battlefield of Niangziguan with the four guard platoon soldiers assigned to her by Liu Lang.
Liu Xueyuan saw the young soldier named Ding Shaojie, whose nickname was Gou Shengzi, at the 21st Brigade headquarters, which was only 1,000 meters away from the defense line.
"The Last Soldier" was the title Liu Xueyuan gave to the first battlefield report he wrote when he came to Shanxi.
"I met the young soldier one kilometer away from the battlefield where gunpowder smoke still filled the sky. He was very young, only seventeen or eighteen years old. At this age, if there had been no war, he might have been a
Students studying in schools in the city, or teenagers helping their parents work in the village.
However, the man standing in front of me is now a soldier. He is wearing a dusty dark blue military uniform, carrying a rifle that is not much different from his height, four grenades in his waist, and more than a dozen weapons hanging on his chest.
A belt of yellow bullets.
When I saw him, he was just kneeling, burning a few pieces of white paper in front of the battlefield that once belonged to him. When he knew who I was and where I came from, without waiting for me to ask, he grinned and took the initiative to tell me.
, his platoon leader ordered him before his death to burn some pieces of paper for all the officers and soldiers of the company. However, there was no yellow paper on the battlefield, so he had to borrow some white paper from the brigade headquarters and paste it in the soil to make it into yellow paper.
.
It's strange that when the entire company was killed, his platoon leader dug him out of the collapsed artillery hole and died of excessive blood loss. His brothers in the infantry squad protected him and only managed to survive.
Space but they themselves died silently. When he narrated all this calmly, I couldn't help but tears streaming down my cheeks, but he kept grinning.
I didn't understand it at the time, but I soon understood it.
"The platoon leader said that as long as I am not dead, the 2nd company will not die, and the 2nd company will continue to fight. Reporter Liu, goodbye! By the way, don't write my platoon leader's name. I'm afraid my sister-in-law will be sad when she sees it. Sister-in-law, hurry up
Give birth. Also, my name is 2nd Company." These were the last words he left to me, and then, carrying a gun, he walked towards the position that once belonged to him.
At that moment, I couldn't hold back my tears anymore. I understood, I understood why he kept laughing instead of sad. I wanted to hold him back, but I knew I couldn't hold him back. Including his brigade commander,
They could only watch the regiment leader silently, watching him, who was not very tall, shouting slogans loudly in the rising sun: "Company 2, move forward."
At that moment, his name was not Ding Yuanjie, nor was he called Gou Shengzi. He had only one name, warrior. A warrior who belonged to me, China, and a warrior who belonged to my Chinese nation. He would not give up his position. There were his brothers there.
them.
I'm sorry, because of military confidentiality, I can't write down their serial numbers. Perhaps, the serial numbers are not that important. At the moment when the rising sun in the Taihang Mountains shone on his young but determined figure as he walked toward the battlefield, their serial numbers were in my heart.
, never fade away.
When I sent this battlefield report, it was already ten o'clock in the morning, and the Japanese invaders' shelling was already in its third round.
And he never came back."
........
PS: I would like to dedicate this chapter to all the ancestors who gave their lives for the country and the nation. Their names will never be erased. The same is true in my heart.