Age of Conquest Reborn

Chapter 681 Taiyuan City is destroyed (3)

The dim light of dawn penetrated the darkness of the night and descended on the Jinzhong Plain. Zuo Siyu took a deep breath of the crisp air full of gunpowder smoke, pointed the telescopic lens at the original 25th Division position occupied by the Japanese army, and personally trained the Second

It is no longer possible for the brigade to evacuate safely.

On the Taigu battlefield, they fought fiercely all night with a regiment of Japanese troops who were tentatively attacking, killing and injuring more than a thousand Japanese troops, and injuring more than 200 of their own brothers. The first regiment was responsible for all the troops on the Taigu battlefield without receiving orders.

Covering the retreat of the Jin army.

If the regiment evacuates at this moment, the Japanese army will chase them to Taiyuan City. Even if a Japanese soldier passes through the defensive position, the news of the Jin army's withdrawal will be known to the Japanese commander Okamura Neiji. Therefore, the regiment resolutely stopped it last night.

, which actually bought the Taiyuan garrison a precious night of preparation time. Zhao Chengshou's Seventh Army rushed to the outskirts of Taiyuan in a hurry. However, it was far away and its foothold was not stable. It was attacked by a heavy Japanese army group. Sooner or later, the whole line collapsed.

thing.

Zuo Siyu didn't know that his decision would play a key role in the entire battlefield. Looking around, all friendly forces had evacuated, leaving only a single group of troops surrounded by powerful enemies.

The soldiers all understood the situation they faced. They were bitten by the Japs. The two sides were entangled and couldn't escape. With Taiyuan City behind them, they couldn't retreat.

Zuo Siyu ordered the second and third battalion commanders to check the troops' ammunition and prepare for the next Japanese attack. The first battalion commander was shot six times in the battle last night. He didn't even have time to say a word. Zuo Siyu watched helplessly.

Looking at him, he breathed his last breath in his arms without even tears. The first battalion commander was his biological brother and he was brought to the army. How could he explain it to his old mother? He didn't dare to think about it. Zuo Siyu himself

He has no intention of returning to Taiyuan City alive.

The sun had just revealed its dawn when a scream broke the silence. Countless artillery shells fell from the sky. "The shelling will be hidden immediately." Zuo Siyu shouted loudly. This time the Japanese army's shelling was more violent than the previous ones. The explosion stirred up countless earth pillars and positions.

shrouded in smoke

In the middle, the thick soil layer in the concealed part withstood several large-caliber artillery shells. The soil dropped by "Susu" covered the map spread out on the shell box. He judged from the scope and intensity of the Japanese artillery bombardment that

, the Japanese had not yet discovered that the Jin army had evacuated their positions.

Such a violent and large-scale bombardment shows that the Japs are determined to break through the position today, and it will not allow the Japs to achieve their goals comfortably. If the regiment delays the Japanese attack for one more hour, Taiyuan will be able to make more preparations, Zuo Siyu

Yu ordered the messenger to convey his order. After the Japanese artillery bombardment stopped, the entire regiment quickly opened the skirmisher line and tried to increase the width of the blocking front, creating the illusion that one regiment was fighting with the momentum of a division.

Fortunately, the personal training brigade is the direct descendant of Yan Xishan, and its equipment level is far higher than other troops of the Jin army. The proportion of light and heavy machine guns is much higher. After the casualties of most of the troops, the remaining more than 800 people have almost one man per man and sufficient ammunition.

, this was enough for the little devil to drink a pot, and the suffocating bombardment lasted for a full two hours before gradually stopping.

Okamura Neiji was not very satisfied with the results of the battle in the past few days. According to his plan, the troops would have arrived at Taiyuan City a few days ago. Unexpectedly, it would turn into a stalemate in Taigu. Judging from the experience of Wuxiang

, he almost suspected that he was not facing Yan Xishan’s Jin military headquarters.

The defenders fought extremely tenaciously and fiercely, with powerful firepower. With more than 200,000 troops, they attacked for many days and paid the price of nearly 10,000 people, but they could not tear apart the defenders' position. This made him very angry. Taiyuan

Even Shanxi as a whole is not his ultimate goal.

If he struggled with the defenders in Taigu for too long, it would affect the smooth implementation of the follow-up plan, and the fight in the Jinzhong direction was not smooth. For this reason, he removed the two division commanders from their posts, and removed the two division commanders who were sharp and blunt.

The troops were replaced by new divisions. The order he gave to his subordinates was that the Chinese defenders' position in Taigu must be captured before 8 o'clock this morning. Of course, Okamura Neiji provided sufficient artillery support to the attacking troops.

Groups of Japanese soldiers appeared in the field of vision of a group of soldiers. After several days of non-stop fighting, the soldiers' nerves had become numb. In their eyes, there were only khaki figures running and shouting. It was these figures that took away the

Having lost the lives of his comrades, Zuo Siyu painfully saw that more than a hundred brothers had been killed in the shelling just now, and he could never open his eyes.

Under the strict orders of Okamura Neiji, the Japanese frontline commander deployed two divisions at the same time. Tens of thousands of Japanese soldiers launched a crazy group charge towards a front that was only a few kilometers wide. On a position as desolate as a desert

, a sudden burst of shooting sound like a shower, tongues of fire, and dense bullets were fired fiercely at the Japanese soldiers.

Like a speeding train, it suddenly hit a cliff, bursting out countless sparks. The momentum of the Japanese army's charge was immediately checked. The Japanese frontline commander could hardly believe his eyes. He continued to fight for several days.

The Chinese Army actually has such fierce firepower. Is this a Jin army? Why is it so different from the Jin army in Wuxiang?

The wave of the first charge of the Japanese army hit the hard rock, and they were shattered into pieces. They retreated like a tide. The bodies of at least several thousand Japanese soldiers were spread out in front of a group of positions. Then came more violent shelling, shelling, and charging.

, was repulsed, and then came again, the group's casualties gradually increased, and the firepower of the counterattack became increasingly thin.

At around 10 o'clock in the morning, there were less than a hundred people in the regiment with minor and serious casualties who could hold a gun. Zuo Siyu understood that the last moment had come. The little devil was going crazy and had enough skills to kill more than 800 people with more than 800 casualties.

The disabled brother held off tens of thousands of Japs for more than five hours, leaving thousands of Japs behind. It was worth it. The thick layer of bullet casings under his feet showed the intensity of the battle. Through the smoke-filled battlefield, the Japs’

The figure is getting clearer and clearer.

Zuo Siyu gritted his teeth and pulled the trigger of the heavy machine gun, watching the little Jaap convulsing and falling under the bullet. He laughed happily, and the barrel of the gun shook violently, sending the bullet into the little Jaap's body. A shell fell, and the smoke

As it rose, orange-red flames exploded, and the body of Zuo Siyu, the colonel of the 1st Regiment of the Personal Training Brigade, turned into a flying giant, soaring into the sky over the land of Sanjin.

At 11 o'clock, the last burst of gunfire subsided, and the Taigu battlefield, which had been fought for several days, fell silent. Okamura Neiji stepped on the craters everywhere, passed through the corpses, and stared at the battlefield where the smoke had not cleared for a long time.

I couldn't believe it. After searching the entire battlefield, there were only hundreds of corpses of Chinese soldiers. A military flag with half of its corner burned by artillery fire was still planted on the battlefield. "Personally train the second brigade and one regiment," these big words stimulated Gang

Neji Murura's eyes.

After several days of fierce fighting and the sacrifice of nearly 10,000 soldiers, Okamura Neiji got the result he wanted, but there was no ecstasy of victory. On a small Taigu battlefield, hundreds of assassins unexpectedly

After holding back tens of thousands of Japanese Imperial Army for one night and half a day, Okamura Neji had a new evaluation of the Jin army's combat effectiveness, and had a vague premonition that the plan to occupy Shanxi was not as smooth as imagined.

Taiyuan city defense commander Zhao Chengshou was busy arranging for the troops to be withdrawn from Taigu and Jinzhong. He and Jinzhong garrison Sun Chu were old acquaintances, and they were impressed by his ability to hold on in Jinzhong for many days and resist more than 80,000 troops with a disadvantageous force.

The Japanese army admired him very much and invited him to serve as their deputy commander. All the troops were withdrawn, and Zhao Chengshou added more than 30,000 troops.

The Japanese should have appeared around Taiyuan. Only the Japanese troops were found in the southeast. The sound of gunfire in the direction of Taigu did not stop all night. Did the troops not withdraw? Zhao Chengshou ordered to contact them quickly. It was almost noon.

, the officer who went to contact him brought back a message that he had personally trained the 1st Regiment of the 2nd Brigade without withdrawing from its position and started a fierce battle with the Japanese army. In the end, more than 3,400 people in the entire regiment, starting from the regimental commander Zuo Siyu and down, were all killed.

Zhao Chengshou understood that the direction of Taigu was the key area for the main attack of the Japanese army. Neiji Okamura personally commanded, and Zuo Siyu used a regiment of troops to block the Japanese army overnight and for half a day, covering the smooth retreat of the Taigu garrison. No wonder the Japanese army did not appear in Taiyuan.

Good job, he didn't feel too sad about the southern part of the country. Next, it was time for him to fight the little devil.

On May 9, the two Japanese armies met at the foot of Taiyuan City. According to the order of Okamura Neiji, the Japanese army immediately launched an attack on Taiyuan from the south and southeast directions without any respite. The battle to defend Taiyuan officially began.

, On that day, there was a fierce battle across the entire Taiyuan perimeter defense line. Both sides invested a large number of troops. The battle became fierce as soon as it started. The fierce fighting continued throughout the day, but Taiyuan's perimeter defense line did not lose an inch of ground.

However, the situation became increasingly unfavorable for the Jin army. The Japanese army besieged Taiyuan with nearly 300,000 troops. The main force of the Taiyuan defenders was Zhao Chengshou's 7th Army. Together with other troops, the number was only about 230,000.

The ferocious artillery fire caused great casualties to the defenders. On the 9th alone, the Jin army suffered more than 13,000 casualties.

On May 10, the battle became more intense. The Japanese army broke through the Jin army's Taiyuan outer defense line many times. Zhao Chengshou organized a death squad to recapture the lost positions. The two sides fought repeatedly, leaving numerous corpses. At night, the Jin army launched a counterattack against the Japanese army and moved the front line back.

After pushing five kilometers and raising the sun, the Japanese army recaptured it with heavy troops.

On May 17, after nine days of fierce fighting, all the outer defense lines of Taiyuan were lost, and the defenders withdrew into the city to hold on. The Japanese army then launched a fierce attack on the Taiyuan city defense. In view of the heavy casualties of the troops, and some Japanese troops detoured to the west and north of Taiyuan, it seemed that

There was a tendency to encircle Taiyuan. In order to avoid the fate of being encircled and annihilated, Zhao Chengshou sent a telegram to Yan Xishan to allow the defenders to abandon Taiyuan and move into the northwest region of Shanxi.

Yan Xishan called back and agreed to Zhao Chengshou's request. The best policy was to preserve his strength. At night, before the Japanese army's encirclement was completely closed, the Taiyuan garrison withdrew from the north gate. Zhao Chengshou and his men bid farewell to Taiyuan, which they had held for nine days, with tears.

Breaking through the blockade of some Japanese encircling troops, they moved to the northwest of Shanxi and joined Yan Xishan.

On the morning of May 18th, the Japanese army entered Taiyuan City, which had no resistance. The sun flag was raised in the streets and alleys of Taiyuan. The nine-day defense battle of Taiyuan ended and Taiyuan fell.

(To be continued)