Nagano Kameichiro stood at a lookout in the dense forest with a serious expression on his face, staring at Niangzi Pass less than 1,500 meters ahead.
The Japanese Army Major General had maintained this posture like a statue for nearly 20 minutes.
But among the Japanese military officers standing around, no one dared to say a word to persuade him!
Just in the morning, bad news came from the front line again. Yin Tangxiuer, the top commander of the 21st Division in front of the Chinese Position 1, died in battle on the left!
This unlucky Japanese Army center left was unfortunately sniped by Chinese sharpshooters lurking on the battlefield when he was approaching the front line to supervise the battle.
After a week of fierce fighting, the shell craters on the main position of Niangziguan were dotted all over the place, just like the surface of a planet that has been wandering in the universe for tens of billions of years. But what is even more unbearable is that since two days ago, the 21st Division has no longer restrained its forces.
The remains of soldiers who died in battle were left to be exposed in the wilderness!
It's not that the commanders at all levels of the 21st Division don't want to, it's that they can't! Firstly, the Chinese side, which does not respect military ethics, often takes this opportunity to continuously attack with cold guns and artillery, causing the corpse collection team to continue to increase casualties; more importantly,
There were so many corpses accumulated in the rear that it was too late to even burn them, let alone transport them away.
A large number of corpses were piled there. In the early autumn of September, the daytime temperature was not low. Within two or three days, the corpses would emit a disgusting smell. What was even more terrifying was not the smell, but the resulting disease!
Therefore, Nagano Kameichiro simply gave the order to only care about the living and not the dead, and wait until the battlefield is over.
On the hillside in front of the Niangziguan position, you can see broken limbs and 'shit yellow' people lying in various postures everywhere!
This reduced a lot of burden on the Japanese soldiers, but the danger also increased.
The Chinese actually used the cover of night to disguise their sharpshooters as corpses on the battlefield, and then hunted and killed the mid-level officers in the Japanese infantry in the attack sequence!
Unfortunately, the Japanese army had not yet been able to identify every corpse on the battlefield. Even after losing three captains and four second lieutenants in the afternoon, they had no idea how to deal with this unprecedented tactic.
Logically speaking, at such times, senior military officers should not be too close to the battlefield, so as not to give large gifts to the various Chinese people.
As a result, Yoon Tang Sooul, center left, didn't know if he drank two taels of sake too much in the evening. During the morning attack battle, he ignored the obstruction of his staff, put on the uniform of a private, and went to the front line to supervise the battle in person!
But this center-left man really has no idea. His protruding belly is so full that a large soldier's uniform is so full. He must be thinking that the Chinese sniper is a blind man!
So, he’s gone!
It was 600 meters away from the Chinese high ground, and there were trenches as bunkers. Except for the heavy machine guns and mortars that posed some threats to him, it was originally considered safe.
But he was still stunned! He was hit in the mouth by a 6.5mm Tomosaka bullet from a Type 38 rifle. The originally highly penetrating 6.5mm bullet deformed and crashed into his front teeth after shattering them.
A hole the size of a baby's fist was eventually formed in the back of the head, and what flowed inside was milky yellow liquid besides blood.
No one knows what kind of substance it was. Anyway, the Japanese army center left who showed off his skills died very quickly. After being shot and falling to the ground, he went to find Amaterasu with his typical "two feet kick".
Of course, Yin Tangxiu'er was not the first Zuo officer to die on this battlefield. Before him, two young Zuo captains had personally led the charge. The one who was closest to victory had even occupied the Chinese's third position near the mountain crest.
Second line of defense.
But the closest victory does not mean victory. The Chinese quickly attacked the lost defense line from both sides of the mountain ridge and used heavy mortars to block the front of the position. As a result, the Japanese reinforcements could not reach the area at all and could only watch.
The Chinese two hundred meters away used explosive methods such as throwing explosives and grenades to blow a Shaozuo brigade captain and an infantry squadron who had entered the defense line into pieces!
It was not until after the war that the Japanese army realized that it was not actually because they were brave enough to be close to victory, but that it was also a tactic!
Sun Tzu's Art of War: Use retreat to advance!
No one thought that Wei Donglai would be bold enough to surrender his main position to others, and then organize his troops to attack, killing the Japanese infantry who entered the position!
Because the Chinese side is in a different position from the Japanese side, there are sufficiently wide mountain ridges on both sides of the Chinese position. When attacking the position under the mountain ridge, it still maintains its terrain advantage!
Unless the Japanese army was so frantic that they used heavy artillery to attack their own infantry who had already captured the enemy's position, they could only watch helplessly as their own infantry who had finally captured the enemy's position were surrounded and killed again.
Not to mention Nagano Kameichiro couldn't do this kind of tactic, not even Yokoyama Sawa, who was recognized as mentally retarded after the war, couldn't do it.
That would give an illusion to all the infantrymen of the 21st Division. They would be dead if they couldn't attack them. They would be dead if they attacked them, and they would be dead on the left and right. Then who would attack with all their strength? Just try to catch fish on the way to the attack. If one wave fails, try the next one.
Bo, can take a big breath of air, doesn't he smell good?
Two young leftists were killed in the battle, one center leftist was killed in the battle, and the infantry suffered more than 6,000 casualties. This is the beautiful report card handed over by the 21st Division during this week of fierce fighting.
Don't think that this beauty is ironic, it's true, it's okay, the main thing is to see who you compare it with.
For example, with this scumbag from the 108th Division, 8,000 people rushed into the Dakouzi Cave, and finally retreated with a staggering 50% casualty rate, carrying the headless body of his major general brigade commander.
, and also sent a message requesting the division headquarters to send two infantry brigades to respond.
This time in eastern and southeastern Shanxi, both sides have invested more than 200,000 people in a large-scale battle. So far, the 108th Division has claimed that it is the last one, but no one dares to complain!
But you want to say that the 21st Division is the second to last? Then Kameichiro Nagano is really not willing to admit it.
First of all, his opponent is the Si Xing Regiment, which is now recognized as one of the most difficult enemies to deal with by the North China Front; secondly, until now, his casualty rate is only 35%. In addition, he accidentally crushed a lieutenant general.
division commander;
In Nagano Kameichiro's mind, the one who was even more miserable than him was the famous Fifth Division.
The fifth division dispatched a detachment with a total strength of about 10,000. The infantry had 6 fully-equipped infantry brigades, plus an artillery unit with 12 105 howitzers and 12 75 mountain guns, and tanks.
The brigade has 30 tanks of various types. Combined with the quality of its soldiers and heavy firepower, its overall combat effectiveness is no less than or even stronger than that of the 21st Division, which has a larger force.
But unfortunately, what they encountered was the second most powerful infantry division in China's second theater!
One is the direct descendant of the stingy old man, who tried his best to stack equipment before and during the war. Among them, the general and commander will become the overlord of North China in the future.
On the other hand, from the division commander to the brigade commander, they are all super warriors who have played "white knife in, red knife out" with the Japanese army in the future, and would rather wipe their necks than retreat!
More importantly, these two infantry divisions are not like the 921st Division and the 17th Division. They go around begging grandpa and grandma for equipment, ranging from large mountain cannons and mortars to small to medium-sized formal rifles and 100 rounds of ammunition for each soldier.
lack.
The two divisions have a total of 26,000 troops, twice as many as the Fifth Division! It was also the only battlefield in the battle of eastern Shanxi where the Chinese had a significant military advantage.
If that's the case, it's nothing. With the strength of the Fifth Division, known as the 'Steel Army', not to mention the 2-fold troop strength difference, in the battle of Xuanguchi, the Fifth Division had 70,000 vs. 250,000, nearly four times the strength.
Despite the gap, he still won the final victory.
Perhaps it was this once-successful record that gave Akira Nakamura, then commander of the 21st Infantry Brigade of the Fifth Division, Major General Akira Nakamura, the confidence and determination to move forward.
In the first three days of the war, the two infantry regiments of the Fifth Division launched a frantic attack on the defense line composed of two infantry divisions from three directions, and broke through two lines of defense to capture nearly 10 highlands and attack the enemy.
Killing nearly 2,000 Chinese soldiers, it looked like another great victory.
On the fourth day, each of the two infantry divisions sent out an infantry regiment to defend the Heishanzi Pass at all costs. Akira Nakamura deployed three infantry brigades to attack without success. However, due to the complex terrain, the tank brigades could not reach the scheduled battlefield at all and had to be mobilized.
Troops on both wings support the main battlefield.
This adjustment may have played into China's trap.
Two Chinese infantry regiments that had been serving as reserves suddenly broke out on the fifth day and surrounded an infantry brigade of the Fifth Division in a valley surrounded by three peaks, launching a counter-encirclement operation.
Originally, Akira Nakamura was not surprised but overjoyed, thinking that it would be a good thing to pull thousands of Chinese out of the mountains. He also did not think that a mere four to five thousand Chinese troops could quickly eat up one of his infantry brigade, especially
There are also 12 105 heavy artillery supports.
The early stage of the battle on the fifth day was just as the Japanese army major general expected. Two infantry regiments attacked fiercely under the fierce bombardment of 12 mountain guns, but they still could not completely separate the position of thousands of Japanese troops. The Japanese army still
Maintaining a complete line of defense and dealing with the Chinese army and waiting for support.
But after a day of fierce fighting, Nakamura Akira became anxious.
The thousands of support troops he invested were unable to break through the blocking position set up by the Chinese in front of the battlefield. There were actually at least a thousand people defending there.
The Chinese are determined to eat his infantry brigade. Nakamura Akira is a little panicked. Last year, the 5th Division was ambushed by the Chinese 511th Division at Parallel Pass. There were thousands of heavy troops and it was almost killed by Itagaki Shiro.
The captain of the baggage regiment's head, if he dropped an infantry brigade here, Shiro Itagaki would probably slap him like a big mouth.
People say that pride and inferiority are actually twins. Pride is just a protective color for some kind of inferiority complex deep inside!
Nakamura Akira, who had always lived in the shadow of Shiro Itagaki, made a mistake in his busy schedule and once again mobilized a thousand-man level troops to reinforce. This was already the last organized infantry brigade he had on hand.
Since then, behind the entire front line, the Fifth Division has lost infantry capable of mobile combat. Akira Nakamura only has one tank brigade and less than 400 infantry in his hands.
But until this time, Nakamura Akira had not realized the danger. Perhaps he was extremely confident that the Chinese had tried their best to fight on the front line and could not threaten his rear flank.
The Japanese major general never expected that the Chinese army's scouts could run so far. His 105 heavy artillery and 75 mountain artillery positions had actually fallen under the observation of a scout team from the reconnaissance company of the Fourth Line Regiment.
The Four Lines Regiment had forwarded this major enemy information to two lieutenant generals three days ago. The two lieutenant generals were both famous warriors in the army. How could they miss this opportunity?
Both of them knew very well that in fact, their focus in this battle was not whether they could stop the Fifth Division, but how to reduce casualties.
They are fully confident that they can hold off their opponents for half a month in these mountains, and by then the other three directions should have already decided the winner.
But the 105th heavy artillery of the Fifth Division was so terrifying that in one concentrated fire, a high ground and an infantry company would be blown into powder.
If the consumption continues like this, the casualties of their two infantry divisions will definitely exceed 50% in half a month, which is the blood and lives of nearly 13,000 people.
And the scouts of the Si Xing Regiment suddenly provided them with such information, how could they let it go?
More than 6,000 people were used to encircle an infantry brigade on the right wing of the Japanese army and mobilize the Japanese army. They were actually preparing to annihilate the Japanese artillery position that had nowhere to hide.
Then, that night, a well-equipped infantry regiment of the 101st Division, led by an army major general, was equipped with submachine guns at a ratio of five to one, and the number of light machine guns reached 100.
As many as 50 of them attacked the Japanese artillery positions.
Nakamura, who received the news that the artillery was attacked, showed no emotion and immediately ordered the two infantry brigades in front to return for reinforcements, but it was obviously too late.
It took 2,000 Chinese officers and soldiers less than 2 hours to completely 'loot' the artillery position!
Nearly 800 Japanese artillerymen were killed, all artillery pieces were destroyed by explosive charges, half of the nearly 1,000 rounds of artillery shells stored on the position were detonated, and 500 rounds of 75 mm caliber artillery shells were moved away by the regiment manually!
The destruction of all 24 artillery pieces was not the reason why the unit was ranked second to last in the entire battle. The chain reaction caused by this was that the besieged Japanese army could no longer receive heavy fire support. Fighters flying from the sky dropped drops of
The bombs that came were only a drop in the bucket.
However, the Chinese side no longer concealed its strength at this moment. The two infantry divisions simply assembled 28 mountain guns and more than 30 mortars to bombard the Japanese infantry indiscriminately.
Without heavy fire support, the "Steel Army" was actually no better than the "Mud Army". The Japanese army only lasted less than 6 hours before they began to collapse!
Less than one tenth can escape death!
On the sixth day of the war, the Fifth Division lost 4 of its left officers, suffered heavy battle losses of more than 2,200 officers and men, and lost 24 artillery pieces, placing it at the bottom of the list.
But no one expected that the 108th Division would suddenly emerge again, and use the head of the Major General Brigade Commander that could no longer be found to drive the 5th Division to the penultimate position.
The poor student who successfully placed himself third from the bottom - Nagano Kameichiro was neither sad nor happy in his heart. Staring at the opponent's position, the Japanese Army Major General knew very well that he was not actually obsessed with the battlefield in front of him now, and was thinking more.
On the contrary, it was after the war.
The battle of Jindong carefully planned by the front army headquarters can actually be over.
If the fight continues, there will be no other meaning than continuing to consume the lives of soldiers on both sides, unless the front army can deploy two to three more divisions to deal a fatal blow to the Chinese army here.
But it is impossible to think about it. The 200,000 Chinese troops on the southern Shanxi front are not vegetarians. If they find fighter planes to fight back, most of the Shanxi Province that the front army spent more than half a year to capture may be lost again. Then
It will create a crisis for the entire empire's strategy, and the Front Army Headquarters will never lose the big for the small.
The reason why Saburo Okabe, who is currently in command, has not yet ordered all the troops to retreat is probably because of General Gen Sugami's face.
After all, a dignified army general, since he took the position of commander of the North China Front, has never fought a battle that can support his appearance. After racking his brains, he finally surrounded 780,000 or 80,000 Chinese people in eastern Shanxi, and finally fought a battle.
He retreated in ashes on Monday. Where did he put the commander's face? Should he throw it into the toilet?
"Send the order to Yokoyama Sawa to suspend all offensives and not to launch any more desperate attacks!" Nagano Kameichiro turned around and ordered expressionlessly.
"In addition, the Chinese infantry offensive in front of the main position continues to maintain pressure on the enemy, and the 105 heavy artillery and mountain artillery continue to effectively kill the enemy on the ground!"
"Hi!" All the left officers of the Japanese army lowered their heads in unison.
Many Japanese left officers had bitter looks on their faces. Does this mean they are going to attack by force?
"Your Excellency, Division Commander, is there any news from the headquarters?" A center-left staff officer followed Nagano Kameichiro for a long time, but he heard some different intentions from it. When the left officers on standby dispersed, he quietly
asked.
"No need to ask any more questions. You are responsible for ensuring the various baggage requirements of the artillery, strengthening liaison with the Shimen logistics department, and ensuring the guarding of the artillery unit. My colleagues in the Fifth Division have learned from the past, and our division must not make the same mistake again!" Nagano Kameichiro said obliquely.
He glanced at his confidant, but didn't say anything clearly.
The Chinese here love to steal homes, and he must prevent death at all costs, otherwise his future chief of staff will personally watch this.
"Hi! As for the baggage, please rest assured, Division Commander, that there is sufficient supply of artillery shells and various materials. This is a battle organized by the front army headquarters, and Shimen does not dare to neglect it!
In addition, there are two infantry squadrons on the artillery brigade side, and an additional squadron of heavy troops has been added. The defense line of nearly a thousand people is not afraid even if a Chinese infantry regiment comes!" Japanese Army Center Left said with a heavy bow.
The acting commander of the 21st Division finally showed satisfaction in his eyes. If he had clairvoyance and could see Tang Tuanzuo marching in the mountains in a dense forest 2,000 meters away, he would definitely regret today's arrangement.
.
The security level deployed for the artillery is still not high enough!
It doesn't matter if he's not tall enough, the key is that he doesn't have a bad mouth!
The Chinese people have always believed that if you say Cao Cao, Cao Cao will come!
Tang Tuanzuo stole a house, it was a very familiar job!
