Colonel Watanabe still dealt with the garrison according to the old routine of dealing with other Chinese armies.
By concentrating the dispersed troops and holding on to the high ground, the Watanabe Regiment can indeed hold on for a longer period of time in the face of the general Chinese army.
But the garrison is not an ordinary army.
After years of fighting, the garrison regiment has been equipped with an artillery unit whose strength cannot be underestimated?
And for tonight's battle, Li Hao directly took out all the wealth of the garrison.
Watanabe's decision to gather scattered and small troops together did avoid the risk of the troops being defeated by the garrison regiment, but it also made it easier for the garrison regiment to take advantage of its artillery fire.
The war situation plummeted because of his decision.
"Captain, the Eighth Route Army's artillery fire is too fierce, especially the thunder cannons. It explodes in a large area, and the troop casualties are very heavy!" A lieutenant communications officer rushed over to report, with a strong smell of gunpowder smoke on his body, and a look of panic on his face.
I haven't recovered from the shock just now.
"Rumble..."
A close explosion suddenly sounded and reached Watanabe's ears.
A mushroom cloud-like fireball and thick smoke rose directly from the defense line not far away.
The Imperial Army near the impact point instantly became silent.
In front of gunpowder, human strength is too weak and has no ability to resist at all.
Colonel Watanabe regretted: "Bagaya Road, if I had known this, I wouldn't have retreated just now."
"The troops were divided to defend the entire station. Each line of defense blocked them for ten minutes. It would have taken more than an hour for the garrison to fight their way all the way here."
"Now that the troops are concentrated together, they not only fail to defend the position, but also help the garrison to maximize their artillery superiority. The gain outweighs the loss."
There is no regret medicine in the world.
The garrison regiment has surrounded the remaining troops of the regiment on the hilltop. Even if they want to divide their troops now, conditions do not allow it, so they can only bite the bullet and continue to fight.
At the headquarters of the Japanese independent mixed brigade, Nakata Yamaro had his hands behind his back with an anxious look on his face. He glanced at the telecommunications room next to him from time to time.
The chief of staff knew what he was worried about, and turned around and asked: "Communications staff officer? Is there no news from the headquarters about the Watanabe Wing?"
The communications staff officer shook his head and replied: "Not yet, the operators have been calling, but they have not received any response. I judged that their headquarters was probably attacked and there was something wrong with the radio."
"The infantry brigades of the Watanabe Regiment are also equipped with radio stations. It is impossible for all radio stations to be destroyed, so I have ordered the radio operators to call these radio stations. I believe there will be news soon."
"Contacted!"
One operator put down his earphones and shouted with excitement.
Nakata Yamaro and the chief of staff had the same reaction.
At the same time, he ordered: "Send them a telegram immediately: Ask them about the specific battle situation!"
"Hi!"
The operator grabbed the earphone and started sending the message.
The familiar sound of sending and receiving telegraphs reached their ears, and the tense nerves of Nakata Yamaro and the chief of staff finally relaxed.
"General, the telegram has been translated!" the communications staff officer reported solemnly.
Nakata Yamaro's heart skipped a beat, and a bad premonition came into his mind. His newly relaxed nerves became tense again. He looked at the communications staff and asked anxiously: "What did the call back from Watanabe Wing say?"
"The troops have suffered heavy losses. They have reduced their defenses and have begun to hold on to the hilltop!" the communications staff officer glanced at the brigade commander and reported carefully.
"Nani?"
Nakata Yamaro stared at the communications staff officer and asked with disbelief.
"The Watanabe Regiment has more than 4,000 people, and the elite independent mixed brigade alone has nearly 3,000 people. They need cannons and guns, and they have sufficient ammunition and well-equipped equipment. How could they be defeated so quickly."
After hesitating for a few seconds, he continued to ask with questions in his mind: "Also, Watanabe is cautious by nature. The station he chooses every night is easy to defend and difficult to attack, so the terrain advantage should also be on our side. How could it happen?
Such a question."
The telegram has been sent to the chief of staff. As he looked at it, his face darkened.
"General, we have been fooled!"
"Huh?" Nakata Yamaro looked puzzled.
The chief of staff did not answer immediately. He paused for a few seconds, organized the contents of the telegram into his own words, and then reported as tactfully as possible: "The aviation force reported two days ago that all twelve heavy mountain guns lost by our heavy artillery brigade were blown up.
The regiment didn’t get a single one.”
"We believed it and then ordered the three-pronged sweep force to continue the attack."
"But Colonel Watanabe reported that those heavy artillery were not destroyed. They were all captured by the garrison and used directly on the battlefield to deal with them."
"In the battle that has begun, the garrison group assembled at least twelve heavy mountain cannons, more than a brigade of ordinary mountain cannons, a squadron of heavy mortars, a total of more than thirty artillery pieces of various calibers, and fired at their station for ten minutes.
, the heavy mountain artillery shells alone fired at least 500 rounds."
Nakatayama was stunned, and then his expression slowly turned pale.
The heavy artillery battalion is a strategic weapon that is only equipped for troops above the imperial brigade and is extremely powerful.
On the battlefield, as long as the imperial army uses this deadly weapon, the Chinese army will be defeated, and it will be a disastrous defeat.
Now this big killer weapon has fallen into the hands of the garrison.
Although Nakata Yamaro did not attend the scene in person, the tragic scenes on the battlefield have already appeared in his mind.
That was all what I had experienced before, except that the corpses and wounded of the Chinese army everywhere in the picture turned into the imperial army.
Seeing the brigade commander's face changing constantly and standing in front of the sand table without speaking, the chief of staff became anxious.
"Commander of the brigade, although the place where the Watanabe Regiment is camped is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the terrain is prominent, there are no fortifications built. There is no way to hide from the heavy artillery, so we can only be passively beaten."
"So the Watanabe Regiment suffered heavy casualties in the shelling. In order to hold on longer and wait for reinforcements, it could only shrink its defense and rely on the hills to hold on."
Nakata Yamaro had already accepted this fact in his heart. His face was pale, but his eyes were as red as if he could breathe fire.
This series of slaps in the face was too violent.
First, the twelve heavy cannons were not destroyed and were deceived by the garrison.
Then the Watanabe Regiment was severely damaged and was in danger.
If the Watanabe United were really finished, they would have lost the entire counter-sweep, and they would not even have a chance to turn defeat into victory.
When the time comes, he will not return with honor, but return defeated. Not only will he live up to his family's high hopes, but he will also be put in cold storage by the empire.
I still have a bright future, and my military career must not end here.
Therefore, Watanabe United must not be defeated.
His pale face slowly became firm, and he ordered with murderous intent: "Contact the reinforcements and reinforce the Watanabe Regiment at all costs. The faster the better."
"I will give them two more hours to march. They must get to the battlefield, otherwise all officers above the brigade will be dismissed from their posts and investigated."
"Call back to Colonel Watanabe and wait for reinforcements at all costs. The reinforcements will arrive within two hours."
Nakata Yamaro overestimated the strength of the Watanabe Regiment and underestimated the artillery strength of the garrison.
More than 4,000 Japanese puppet troops were all exposed to bombing in the garrison. Half of the artillery inside were large-caliber, and the shells fired relied on shock waves to kill people. Even if the Japanese puppet troops were lying on the ground, as long as they were within the killing range of the shells, they would still be killed.
Will be killed or injured.
Therefore, even Captain Watanabe didn't know how many men he had left on the battlefield when he sent the telegram.
The battlefield was too big, too chaotic, and it was night, with fighting happening in all directions. Even if he wanted to make statistics, he could not do anything but report to the brigade headquarters with the words "more than half of the casualties."
The true casualties of the troops are obviously more exaggerated than the words "more than half".
In the artillery battle before the bombardment, a mountain artillery brigade and a heavy mortar squadron were almost completely destroyed.
Including the infantry artillery squads and mortar squadrons directly under each brigade, the casualties exceeded 1,000.
Ten minutes of artillery fire covered the Japanese and puppet troops with greater casualties, especially those stationed around the headquarters.
Because they were attacked by twelve large-caliber mountain cannons, many troops were blown up one by one, and the entire army was destroyed.
After the shelling ended, there were less than 1,500 people left in the entire garrison who could continue to fight.
After the garrison launched attacks from four directions at the same time, the four squadrons at the outermost perimeter of the defensive garrison were completely destroyed, and hundreds of people were killed.
When the order to hold on was received, the entire Watanabe Regiment had less than a thousand men left, and they were trapped within a radius of less than 200 meters around the hilltop, with a very concentrated force.
But Colonel Watanabe didn't know all this, and the casualties had not yet been calculated. He could only judge the specific battle situation in the four directions through the sound of gunfire.
"Sir, the garrison has begun attacking again!" the deputy captain shouted, pointing in one direction.
"Rumble..."
Before Colonel Watanabe could speak, there was an explosion.
Mushroom cloud-like fireballs and thick smoke rose from the ground, with at least eight in a row.
"It's a flying thunder cannon..."
A flash of despair quickly flashed across Watanabe's face.
He has seen the power of thunder cannons. Although the destructive power is not as great as that of heavy artillery, its lethality is not small at all. Like heavy artillery, it kills people through shock waves.
A row of eight explosive packets were thrown on the position, tens of meters apart, and exploded together.
If the full power of these explosive packets were unleashed, all the imperial troops stationed on this line of defense would surely be wiped out.
Even if he was lucky enough not to be killed, he is now seriously injured and has lost his combat effectiveness.
Once a blast of explosives is fired, the subordinates will be blown up completely. There is no need to attack at all, and the defense line will be over.
Colonel Watanabe's determination to defend the mountaintop disappeared at this moment.
This is also true.
The first round of explosive charges fired by the thunder cannon just exploded, and the mortars also joined the battle. Then the second round and the third round of explosive charges fired by the thunder cannon were launched.
Except for explosions, there was no other movement along the entire defense line before the infantry began to attack.
"It's over!" The desperate Colonel Watanabe lost all confidence and collapsed on the ground.
At this time, the attacks from the other three directions also began. Under the cover of thunder cannons and mortars, the four-pronged attacking troops crossed the defense line as easily as the autumn wind swept fallen leaves, and fought their way up the hill!