Although part of the road has been scouted by friendly forces and there is no danger!
But Moriki Takuno remained cautious.
The convoy was led by two jeeps, which were a full mile away from the entire large force. Not only were two second lieutenants on the car using binoculars to carefully observe the mountains on both sides, but they also mounted two light machine guns and fired at the dense forests in the mountains from time to time.
strafe.
For the huge fleet of 181 trucks at the rear, the distance between each truck is required to be no less than 30 meters, extending the entire fleet to nearly 5,000 meters.
This is so that in the event of a Chinese ambush, the convoy like a long snake formation can be stopped immediately, and the nearly 400 infantry and 400 heavy baggage troops carried on the vehicle can block it on the spot.
As the saying goes, centipede insects are dead but not stiff. Moriki Takuno has every reason to believe that his specially elongated convoy cannot all fall into the Chinese ambush circle. There will always be a section or even several sections that can enter the hills beside the road to form a blocking position.
He would never make the mistake that the Fifth Division's convoy, which consisted of thousands of heavy troops, was surrounded by the Chinese army with completely superior strength, and was eventually annihilated.
The purpose of Moriki Takuno's "One-Sword Long Snake Formation" tactic is not to escape from trouble, but to stand firm and wait for reinforcements. What really determines their life or death is the two infantry regiments stationed in Licheng and Shecheng.
The well-prepared Major of the Troops of the 14th Division also ordered all the accompanying infantry and baggage troops to hide in vehicles covered by tarpaulins. In this way, the Chinese had no way of knowing how many troops the convoy had and could not select a target.
Carry out key strikes.
As for the trucks that may be attacked, you can only ask for luck on your own. As the commander, Moriki Takuno chose to sit in the middle and rear of the entire convoy.
This is also tricky. If the Chinese want to attack, they will definitely attack the convoy at the front. Only in this way will the entire convoy be blocked.
Even after getting into the truck, Moriki Takuno quietly took off his rank of Major, also took off his white gloves, and even took off the Major's command knife from his waist, in order to avoid being targeted by the Chinese sharpshooters lurking there.
Up.
Don't tell me, Moriki Takuno's combination of punches really caused big trouble for the 683rd Brigade.
The front line of the 771st Regiment, which is responsible for participating in the attack on the convoy, will be 5 kilometers long, and its troops will be extremely dispersed in an instant. This makes the officers and soldiers of the 771st Regiment, which does not have particularly sufficient firepower, feel a little guilty.
They are not afraid of confrontation with the Japanese army, but after all, in the past battlefields, they have used absolutely superior forces to deal with the Japanese army. For example, in the two ambush battles in Qigen Village, the 683 brigade dispatched two main battalions of two main regiments, and there were also
There were nearly a thousand people blocking the attack, and the besiegers were three to four hundred Japanese troops with heavy supplies. Even then, the fighting was fierce.
Even in Shentou Ridge half a month ago, more than 2,000 people from the supplementary group were lurking on the roadside, and the nearest one was only a few meters away. But just in case, two main groups were arranged to hide a thousand meters away, basically four pairs.
1 situation.
It was almost the first time that an infantry company launched an attack like this and had to fight against small groups of Japanese troops scattered throughout the country.
Faced with this rather difficult situation, Brigadier Cheng still decisively ordered: "Fight according to the original plan!"
The five fully-armed infantry companies of the 771st Regiment were all deployed in the middle of the entire pre-ambush battlefield. As soon as the battle started, they needed to detach part of their troops onto the road and cut the Japanese convoy into several sections, so that the Japanese army could not form a joint force.
The other four infantry companies were on standby at the bottom of each mountain to prevent the Japanese invaders from seizing the high ground beside the road, and based on the occupied high ground, they killed and wounded the Japanese troops visible around them.
In addition, Brigadier Cheng used his own guard battalion. The firepower of the 683 brigade guard battalion, which was strengthened by Japanese weapons, was no longer just the dozen submachine guns and dozens of shell guns before. They now had nearly 100,000 Japanese light machine guns.
With 20 guns and 6 heavy machine guns, the overall firepower is not weaker than that of an infantry brigade of the Japanese army.
Three guard companies will attack the Japanese invaders in the encirclement from the front, middle and rear sections, with the cooperation of 9 infantry companies and 3 machine gun companies.
Brigadier Cheng was a desperate man in this battle. An infantry company from Wangbao Village that was supposed to be placed behind the entire army to ensure the safety of the rear was decisively moved to the front.
To use the exact words he wrote in his report to the division headquarters after the war: "The key to victory in this battle is speed. Annihilating the enemy in the encirclement as quickly as possible can alleviate the difficulty of blocking the enemy in the other two places of our department, and prevent
The danger of Japanese air raids! If you look forward and backward, the battle will be prolonged, which will be extremely detrimental to our army! Attack with the entire army and leave no room for it!"
Brigadier Cheng's decisiveness was definitely one of the highlights of the battle after the war!
Because the Japanese army had no time to travel long distances around the rear of the battlefield, their fighter planes had not even arrived, and the battle in the encirclement was over.
In terms of time spent on the battlefield alone, the battle on the main battlefield ended much earlier than the battlefield on both sides to block Japanese reinforcements.
The Japanese troops who came to the rescue from Licheng and Shecheng with great force finally only rescued a lonely man. They were bumped on the head by the tenacious Chinese military position. They may not have known at that time that the person they wanted to save was already dead.
In this battle, China deployed nearly 3,000 combat troops on the main battlefield. Although the strength of the troops was not as good as that of the two main regiments that had been deployed in time and space, their current firepower intensity was greater than that of the two main regiments that had been deployed in time and space.
Not weak at all.
Moriki Takuno's careful arrangement is destined to be in vain!
The start of the battle was quite dramatic.
The two leading jeeps of the Japanese army arrived in the Yangjiashan area, where a demolition team of the 771st Regiment was stationed. The original plan of the 771st Regiment was to place explosives here and detonate the explosives when the leader of the convoy arrived, completely blocking the convoy.
The two leading jeeps were originally going to let them pass, so naturally there were two infantry squads in front to deal with them.
Unexpectedly, two jeeps stopped right under the eyes of the demolition team.
The wires used by this relatively professional demolition team to detonate are more than 30 meters long. The six members are also hiding in the bushes more than 30 meters away. They are well camouflaged, unless someone deliberately uses a telescope to inspect their hiding place.
Observe, otherwise you will never find them.
The original intention of the Japanese soldiers who jumped out of the jeep was not to discover clues in the distant grass. Judging from the way they stood on the roadside and unbuttoned their belts, they were just in a hurry to urinate.
But it was just such an inch. The position where one of the Japanese soldiers was standing was only one or two meters away from the large explosive package camouflaged with leaves.
Perhaps he was obsessed with the length of his spray, so he looked carefully into the grass while peeing.
No matter how many dead branches and leaves are inserted into the dynamite bag, as long as you look carefully, it will not really succeed in pretending to be a dynamite bag. It is just a dynamite bag.
The Japanese soldier who was peeing happily suddenly froze. How to describe that sluggishness? The urine that was still spraying disappeared in an instant. Perhaps this can describe the shock in the heart of the Japanese soldier at that time.
On the roadside in a deserted area, I found a packet of explosives that was slightly larger than a quilt roll. What does that mean?
For a Japanese second lieutenant who was reminded again and again by the major of the baggage troop before departure, this was all too clear.
"Baga!%...@%&" The Japanese soldier roared crazily, and even the little Jiji, which was still dripping with water, had no time to stuff it into his crotch, turned around and ran away.
At the same time, the Japanese soldiers in the two jeeps also pointed their guns at the grass on this side and reached for the trigger.
"Detonate!" the experienced sergeant leader of the demolition team ordered without caring about anything else.
The demolition soldier on one side instinctively pressed the detonating rod.
At the moment of the team leader's order, the six demolition soldiers in the grass collectively buried their heads and hid in a crouched position under the 30-centimetre-high ridge.
Because they know very well what the consequences of an explosion of fifty kilograms of explosives will be.
Let alone thirty meters, even fifty meters cannot guarantee absolute safety.
There was a loud "Boom!" and a burst of thick smoke rose into the sky.
Sweeping by the huge air wave, the Japanese second lieutenant who turned around and ran away disappeared. Even the two jeeps parked on the roadside were like leaves blown by the strong wind, rolling on the ground and crashing into the distance.
This is the power of roadside bombs. In the future desert battlefield, the Humvee armored vehicles with 20 mm thick armor in the beautiful country will be vulnerable to the power of such bombs, let alone such small vehicles equipped by the Japanese army at this time.
It's rubbish.
In fact, even a Type 94 armored vehicle, which is not much larger than the QQ, would be turned upside down in the face of the air wave caused by the explosion of such a large explosive pack.
Although the six demolition soldiers had cotton stuffed in their ears, they were still ringing in the ears at this time. When they felt the air waves dissipate, they raised their heads and looked at the roadside not far away. Even they themselves were stunned by their masterpiece.
Although the Handan-Changchun Highway is a traffic artery, how wide can it be built in this mountainous area? It is only five meters wide. If two trucks meet, you have to be careful.
This road, which is not very wide, is even more fragile in front of the large explosive package that they have used to increase the amount of explosives.
A large pit with a diameter of more than five meters almost split the entire road in two!
As for the previous jeeps and Japanese soldiers, I don’t know where they were blown up, and they didn’t even make a sound.
The two eyes arranged by Major Moriki Takuno were blown blind due to the three urgent needs of human creatures.
There was such a big movement, not to mention the lead car that could see smoke from 500 meters away, even Major Moriki Takuno, who was more than 3,000 meters away, felt his scalp numb.
If it weren't for the military cap on his head, the Japanese driver next to him could definitely see his boss's hair standing on end.
"Enemy attack!" Moriki Takuno shouted almost at the top of his lungs, making his head buzz.
That's caused by lack of oxygen.
At the same time, three red flares were fired into the sky.
"Kill!" The whole road was filled with shouts of killing on both sides.
Chinese soldiers with branches and leaves on their heads rushed out of the forest.
But they were a little different from what the Japanese troops who had jumped out of the car prepared to use the car as a cover and attack their defense line.
These Chinese soldiers did not bravely rush onto the road to fight with them. Instead, many Chinese soldiers rushed to high places on the roadside and exchanged fire with them.
"Don't stick to the vehicle, seize the high ground!" Moriki Takuno reacted instantly.
In order to prevent them from being discovered, the Chinese basically hid in the mountains and forests dozens of meters away from the roadside. They did not rush directly to the roadside because they were afraid of too many casualties. To seize the commanding heights, they had to first form firepower on the convoys on the road.
suppress.
Moriki Takuno doesn't need to worry too much about this. The huge convoy stretching for 5,000 meters carries not only 400 baggage soldiers, but also two infantry squadrons of regular infantry. Their combat experience is far richer than that of the baggage soldiers.
After hearing the explosion and the convoy stopped, the first reaction of the Japanese soldiers who jumped out of the car was to seize the commanding heights on the hillside not far from the road.
However, because the trucks need to carry cargo, the load capacity of Japanese trucks is not large enough. The standard load capacity is 1.5 tons, and it is only 2 tons in the overloaded state. Therefore, each truck can only carry a maximum of 6 soldiers.
An infantry squad is often distributed on a road section nearly 100 meters long, which means they can only move towards the hillside in a skirmish line.
Would experienced commanders such as Brigadier Cheng not have thought of this?
In order to prevent being discovered by the Japanese army, the main force was hidden far away, but this does not mean that a small number of troops will not be placed at high points.
A light machine gun and a three-man machine gun team are enough to suppress Japanese infantry for one minute!
But on the long front, there were as many as 45 light machine guns deployed on the front line!
"Click, click, click!" The sound of the Type 96 light machine gun that the Japanese army was very familiar with could be heard everywhere.
But this time, the 6.5mm Tomosaka bullets were thrown at the Japanese infantrymen who were walking as fast as flying.
The Japanese infantry who had not yet approached the hillside were beaten to the ground.
"Grenade, light machine gun cover!" The Japanese soldiers howled miserably on the mountain road, and the orders were mixed together.
Compared with the still heroic Japanese infantry, the performance of the Japanese heavy infantry was much worse. They basically huddled behind their vehicles and shot aimlessly towards the mountains.
If one side was surrounded by mountains and the other side faced water, it would be okay to say that at least the Japanese troops who were more than a thousand meters away encountered this situation.
But what about those who face mountains on both sides?
A full three thousand meters of road is in such an environment.
Of course, the 683rd Brigade chose to attack from both sides. No matter which side you hide on, you will encounter bullets.
Perhaps, only the bottom of the car is the safest.
After all, the 683 Brigade was here to 'rob' this time, and what they wanted mainly was goods, and killing the Japanese was just a side-effect.
Therefore, if you can use bullets to solve the problem, try not to use grenades. The Japanese baggage soldiers who can quickly get under the car will be safe for at least two minutes.
But this also limited their shooting range, and the bullets they fired posed almost no threat to the condescending Chinese soldiers.
To put it bluntly, this method of fighting is simply drinking poison to quench thirst.
Death is just a matter of time.
The Japanese infantry was unable to seize the commanding heights, and even the Japanese infantry that had rushed down the hillside were very few.
When more and more Chinese soldiers arrived at the fighting positions assigned to each company, the Japanese troops on both sides of the road were really in trouble.
The Chinese commander, who felt sorry for the cargo and was reluctant to throw grenades into the vehicle area, did not have any kind thoughts towards the Japanese troops at the foot of the mountain.
With an order, countless Japanese-style grenades and long-handled grenades were dropped from the mountain, causing the Japanese infantry in the grass to howl like ghosts.
The most terrible thing was that more than a dozen heavy machine guns were carried to the previously planned fighting positions, and tongues of fire swept towards the convoy more than a hundred meters away. The truck used as a bunker by the Japanese army was instantly riddled with holes.
Not to mention a direct hit, the ricochet alone frightened the Japanese soldiers hiding on the side of the car!
Of course, the two Japanese infantry squadrons also had grenadier soldiers. Seeing that the Chinese side was attacking light and heavy firepower points without hesitation, at least ten grenadiers launched a counterattack, bombarding them for two consecutive rounds, blowing up smoke around the firepower point that was obscured by branches and leaves in the forest.
All around.
In these two rounds of counterattacks, at least three light machine guns were misfired, and four or five machine gunners died on the spot. This became the most dazzling counterattack of the Japanese army in this battle.
But they were also targeted by Chinese sharpshooters.
This move was not learned by the 683rd Brigade and the Fourth Army Regiment. In order to deal with the Japanese grenadiers, they lacked enough heavy firepower and had already started the tactic of selecting sharpshooters in each infantry company.
In the most difficult times, when each soldier was issued less than ten bullets on average, each soldier selected as a marksman was equipped with at least 30 bullets.
Their mission is to find Japanese grenadiers, light machine gun shooters, and commanders, and kill them.
This is also a tactic forced by cruel reality, but it is absolutely effective.
There were at least 20 sharpshooters distributed on the entire battlefield. During the five-minute shooting process, six experienced Japanese grenade launchers were killed by bullets.
After surviving the most difficult period, the Japanese troops located on the roadsides and around the vehicles also began to gather in an attempt to use some mountainous areas as defensive positions to wait for reinforcements.
This was also the strategy that Major Moriki Takuno had planned long ago. At the very beginning of the attack, he ordered the communications troops on standby in the carriage to use the field radio to send a distress message to the two armies in Shecheng and Licheng.
However, with the familiar sound of artillery, the Japanese troops on the battlefield collectively stared blankly!
That is the Type 92 infantry gun, the artillery that Japanese infantrymen are most familiar with.
It is this kind of small-caliber artillery that can easily destroy all kinds of fortifications carefully built by the Chinese and help them open the door to victory. It is known as the favorite artillery of the imperial infantry.
But now, it is in the hands of the Chinese.
Four Type 92 infantry guns were deployed on the entire battlefield.
The 200-kilogram gun body is enough for Chinese artillery to lift them to a mountainside with a height of 100 meters.
The artillerymen did not have the scruples of the infantry who wanted to preserve the cargo. They were ordered to destroy all fortifications in sight that the Japanese army could use to resist, including trucks.
"Only what you get is yours!" The artillerymen's philosophy is quite pure.
The power of direct-aimed artillery to hit fixed objects is not comparable to that of mortars.
Two Japanese trucks in a row were shelled by successive shells into parts flying in the sky, along with a dozen Japanese troops hiding around the trucks.
As the infantry artillery unleashed its power, Chinese soldiers in units of infantry squads began to attack the road and establish a defensive line, cutting the Japanese troops on the entire road into more than a dozen sections and driving more Japanese troops into the encirclement.
Major Moriki, who was already hiding in the mountain jungle, had despair in his eyes. He knew that these were ropes that were gradually tightened. As the encirclement continued to shrink, all the imperial officers and soldiers surrounded by it would sooner or later be killed.
I just don’t know when the reinforcements will arrive. Even if the ground reinforcements can’t arrive for a while, air support can come!
If possible, he would rather be killed by a heavy aerial bomb along with the surrounding Chinese.
It's a pity that the prayer of the Major of the Troops and Troops was destined to become a fantasy.
He could not see that in the Laoya Mountain area four kilometers away from his convoy, more than 2,000 people were wielding individual engineer shovels and pickaxes and frantically digging field trenches.
The time left for the four regiments to build trenches was only one and a half hours at most.
Tang Dao has now equipped all the troops of the Fourth Army with Japanese-style individual shovels, which provides great convenience for building field fortifications in emergencies.
This time, the Fourth Line Regiment faced the attack of an infantry regiment.
