Rise From Eight Hundred

On the afternoon of January 16!

The truck that Major General Tamura Motoichi was riding in entered Yuncheng. What awaited this Japanese Army Major General who had marched 100 miles in 24 hours was a devastated logistics base.

The millions of military rations that the North China Front Army had spent nearly a month storing here had turned into charcoal, and three-quarters of the ammunition that was enough to support an army of more than 100,000 people for another battle had been destroyed.

Although Yuncheng was still in the hands of the 4th Division after its tenacious resistance, it was actually no different from not having it.

Perhaps in this level of defensive defeat, the only bright spot of the 4th Division was that the casualties were much less than expected. The nearly 5,000 people who participated in the battle were placed in various strongholds in the city by Okuma Konosuke to fight for every inch of land, but it was obvious that the Chinese were not interested in the city. Their goal was to seize the most valuable supplies for the Japanese army on the front line.

Once the tactical goal was achieved, they immediately fled thousands of miles away.

But what else can Tamura Motoichi say to the fat major general whose head is covered with bandages and who immediately rushed to him with tears in his eyes when he saw his old classmate from the NCO school?

He has tried very hard. At the most critical moment, the major general brigade commander brought the escort squadron to the front line. Not to mention that he, a major general of the same level, can't say anything critical, even if Commander Itagaki Shiro came, he would probably only be able to comfort him.

Yes, Tamura Motoichi and Okuma Konosuke are classmates of the same level and department. Although their relationship in school is average, they were taught by the same teacher after all. They met under such circumstances. He even hugged him. If he kicked him away, it would be really strange, right?

'Don't blame the classmates for not working hard, just blame the enemy for being too cunning! ' has become a routine comforting phrase.

"Mr. Tamura has come a long way to support us. I am deeply grateful to Okuma Konosuke. Mr. Tamura can have a good rest here for a day. I will immediately arrange good food and wine. The food here is great. There are also singing and dancing programs. The gentleness of Chinese women is no less than that of the main island!" The Japanese Army Major General, who was comforted by his old classmate, now had a big smile on his face. He is simply a model of the future sales industry.

'Follow my arrangements, you won't suffer losses or be fooled', the enthusiastic but not flattering Majin Buu, gives the guests a full sense of comfort and security.

"Mr. Okuma, although the Chinese army is insignificant, it is like a thorn in the back. If we don't get rid of it, we can't rest assured for the imperial officers and soldiers on the front line.

In order to ensure victory, Mr. Itagaki has equipped our troops with far more troops and firepower this time. After resting for 2 hours, our troops will set off. Mr. Okuma, don't be too polite." Faced with such enthusiasm, Tamura Motoichi said a few polite words and then asked back.

"You and I have been classmates for several years. I have a question that I don't know whether I should ask or not?"

"Tamura-kun, if it was before the war, I would probably answer you. If you can avoid asking, then don't ask. But now! I am a newly defeated general. You can do whatever you want." Okuma Konosuke picked up the teacup and answered indifferently.

'Is my consolation fed to the dog? ' Tamura Motoichi was almost choked to death by the dog-faced bear.

But who doesn't have a shameless spirit to become a major general in the army? Just pretend that he didn't hear it. Tamura Motoichi simply went straight to the point: "I want to know, Okuma-kun, do you still have the courage to avenge the previous shame?"

It has been nearly six hours since the end of the Yuncheng battle. The reason why he still came here was naturally not to see the joke of this colleague. He wanted to personally persuade this colleague to join forces with him. If there were two more infantry battalions, he would be much more confident.

On the way here, the intelligence sent by the front-line command has shown that the Chinese who attacked Yuncheng are definitely not just the thousands of people who broke out of the encirclement. There should also be a part of the Four-Line Regiment that fought a battle with the Kunisaki Detachment in Wangwu Mountain.

‘The name of a person is the shadow of a tree’, the name of the Four-Line Regiment is definitely a nightmare for all the units of the North China Front Army. Now, the number of divisions and brigades that have suffered losses in front of them is no less than double, and the number of lieutenant generals and major generals killed by them is also too many to count on one hand.

Although Tamura Motoichi is also very arrogant, he knows that he is still far behind the famous Yamamoto, but such a powerful figure is also a dead soul of the Four-Line Regiment?

Therefore, he will feel more secure if the troops are more sufficient.

Otherwise, he will have no chance to talk to this shameless vendor from Osaka! When he was in school, this guy often carried the local specialties brought from his hometown to sell. It was not until a long time later that he and his classmates realized that the dried fish and pancakes they bought were twice the local price and even more.

Okuma Konosuke's head shook like a rattle instantly!

'Baga! Do you want to not even pretend to consider it? 'At that moment, what Tamura Motoichi wanted most was to punch this guy in the face.

"It's not that my 4th Division doesn't want to avenge the shame, but I have a more important mission that needs me to stick to it. The honor of destroying that Chinese army is still for you, Tamura-kun!" Okuma Konosuke sighed, looking like I didn't want to but couldn't.

"What else does Okuma-kun want to stick to?" Tamura Motoichi was a little confused.

"Yuncheng! This place is the most important supply base for my hundreds of thousands of troops on the front line. His Excellency Itagaki Shiro issued me six military orders yesterday. Yuncheng is as important to our army as Kyoto to our nation. I can't abandon this important mission for the glory of the first division. Not to mention you, Tamura-kun, even my division commander or even Commander Yu Shanshan Yuan can't let me leave this position where thousands of my division warriors have guarded their lives." Okuma Konosuke was passionate.

When he was moved, tears flashed.

Tamura Motoichi was stunned.

He really underestimated the shamelessness of his old classmate.

I paid more than double the price to buy dried fish back then. Really, that should be the kindest time of this guy.

Yuncheng is now a piece of charcoal. What else do you need to protect?

"Big Bear, if that's the case, I have nothing to say. I hope you will remember your mission and defend this empty city. Goodbye!" Tamura Motoichi stood up and left with an ugly look.

"Don't worry about this, Tamura. Our unit is determined to live and die with Yuncheng." Okuma Konosuke sent him out and stood at the entrance of the command department to say goodbye to his classmates.

"Pah!" At the moment the door closed, the two Japanese Army major generals, who were more than 20 meters apart, spit on the ground.

As the saying goes, "People with different philosophies cannot work together." Tamura Motoichi looked down on the Osaka vendor and was completely withered after being beaten up, but Okuma Konosuke didn't want to be a burial object for some idiots.

Although this round of offensive and defensive battle was formed after he and Shangguan Yun bargained and discussed carefully, the offensive power displayed by the Four-Line Group in this attack battle that was almost like an "exercise" was still shocking.

For Okuma Konosuke, what was more terrifying was not the combat power of the Four-Line Group, but the energy hidden behind it.

Just the explosives that blew up the city wall, Okuma Konosuke was sure that it must not be produced in China.

The Western world has always been dissatisfied with the Empire's all-out war against China, an ancient oriental country. It is not a secret in the Empire that it secretly provides military and civilian aid to China. It's just that it's not time to tear its face with the Western world, so the Empire can only endure it first.

But the Four-Line Group took out such advanced and powerful explosives, which undoubtedly shows that Western military aid has reached an extremely terrifying level, but the Empire's intelligence department still knows nothing about it.

What does this show? It shows that sooner or later, the Empire, which will confront the entire Western world, is extremely lacking in intelligence penetration into the Western world, and the probability of failure is very high.

Everyone, including Tang Dao, only saw Major General Okuma Konosuke's greed for money, but no one knew his keenness in the global situation.

This small trader from Osaka actually predicted the failure of his now seemingly prosperous empire in the future global war six years in advance.

The burial he mentioned may not refer to the battle with the Four Lines Group, but the ambitious high-ranking officials of the empire.

Okuma Konosuke may not have thought that his words would come true!

It's just that his old classmate didn't wait until six years later.

Tamura Motoichi divided his 20,000 troops into two parts to pursue the fleeing Chinese army.

The North China Army Aviation of Japan dispatched up to 40 reconnaissance planes to fly back and forth for dozens of miles around Yuncheng to find traces of the Chinese army.

Even if the army with more than 8,000 troops was covered by mountains and forests, it could not avoid the high-density reconnaissance of Japanese reconnaissance planes.

Finally, at noon on the 17th, a Japanese reconnaissance plane discovered an infantry company marching in the mountains. Although the infantry company had done enough camouflage, after the reconnaissance plane descended and used the onboard machine gun to test and kill several of its comrades, the light machine guns still angrily retaliated.

Several heavy machine guns hidden in the mountains and forests also quickly participated in the shooting and injured the reconnaissance plane, but did not shoot it down, allowing the reconnaissance plane to determine the approximate location of the Chinese army, Jiulong Mountain, about 15 kilometers away from the urban area of ​​YC.

After receiving the intelligence transferred from the Army Aviation, the two Japanese troops near this place rushed to Jiulong Mountain, a branch of Zhongtiao Mountain that stretched for dozens of miles, like two wolves smelling blood.

"Yoshi! The Chinese are seeking their own death by hiding here." After reading the map, Nishimura Motoichi finally got better because of the completely broken mood of Okuma Konosuke.

Why did Nishimura Motoichi so confidently declare that the 46th Independent Brigade and Leng Feng's troops were seeking their own death? It was because of the unique terrain of Jiulong Mountain.

This is a mountain, but because it belongs to Zhongtiao Mountain, there are more than 30,000 Japanese troops on the other side of the mountain. As long as a few mountain roads are blocked, the Chinese will never be able to enter the hinterland of Zhongtiao Mountain.

In other words, it is a dead end, and his more than 10,000 troops can block them to death.

The only thing that makes Nishimura Motoichi regretful is that he can't rely on this simple siege method to starve this Chinese army to death in this mountain.

Because, after losing supplies, the front-line army of more than 100,000 can only hold on for 7 days at most, and after 7 days, they have to evacuate all the way. This is also the bottom line that Itagaki Shiro told him privately.

Although Itagaki Shiro did not explain it too directly, Nishimura Motoichi also knew Itagaki Shiro's subtext: With the destruction of Yuncheng's supplies, the battle of Zhongtiao Mountain was a foregone conclusion, but whether he could save his honor and face and completely annihilate the Chinese army would be the last hope.

If he could, Itagaki Shiro still had the hope of becoming the commander of the North China Front Army, and he, the unsuccessful mixed brigade major general brigade commander, might also become the lieutenant general division commander!

If not, then you can think about it yourself!

A lieutenant general commander who has lost the hope of promotion but is ambitious, dragging a few unlucky children into the water is no psychological burden.

This is also the truth that Nishimura Motoichi figured out after being rejected by Okuma Konosuke with shameless reasons, but by then he had already boarded Itagaki Shiro's pirate ship, and it was too late to regret!

Since it is impossible to win without bloodshed, you can only do it hard, taking advantage of the seven days when the Chinese cannot escape, attack the mountain and kill them.

Nishimura Motoichi was quite sensible. If it was a simple siege as he thought, then he would have made a wrong idea.

Although the 46th Independent Brigade and Leng Feng's troops did not carry a large amount of military rations, they still had enough rations for a single soldier for ten days. Moreover, the baggage company and artillery company of the Sihang Regiment had a large number of pack horses. If they were forced to kill the horses for meat, the whole army could hold out for another ten days or half a month.

Besides, with Tang Dao's control over the battle situation, if he hadn't known that the supplies in Yuncheng were destroyed and the Japanese army of more than 100,000 could not fight for a long time, how could he let his two brave generals and thousands of troops escape into Jiulong Mountain, a dead end terrain.

In fact, after the Japanese army launched a full-scale offensive again on the 15th, Tang Dao felt something was wrong and immediately ordered Shen Laoliu's reconnaissance platoon, who followed Li Jiujin, to conduct reconnaissance in the direction of Yuncheng.

Finally, on the night of the 15th, a group of Shen Laoliu's reconnaissance platoon detected the vanguards of two Japanese infantry squadrons more than 30 kilometers away from Yuncheng.

The vanguards were all at the level of infantry squadrons, so it was conceivable what the main force following them was. Tang Dao immediately realized that the target of this Japanese army was the 46th Independent Brigade and Leng Feng's troops, and immediately ordered Leng Feng to end the Yuncheng raid before the morning of the 16th.

Even if some strength was exposed, it had to be ended as soon as possible, so as not to be caught up by the main force of the Japanese army.

After three consecutive days of fighting, the physical strength and energy of the officers and soldiers of the 46th Independent Brigade and Leng Feng's troops were close to the limit. If they could not rest and were chased by this Japanese army, the danger was self-evident.

Fortunately, Yuncheng was surrounded by mountainous areas, and it took time for the Japanese reconnaissance planes to track their whereabouts. Finally, under Tang Dao's insistence, the 46th Independent Brigade and Leng Feng's troops chose the Jiulong Mountain area, a dead end mountain area that seemed to be unfavorable to them, as a defense.

The reason why Tang Dao chose this place is that the terrain is dangerous. As long as they can hold on here for a week, the main force of the Japanese army will be forced to retreat, and this heroic army that has broken two cities and destroyed the important supply base of the Japanese army can finally be preserved.

Taking the initiative to put oneself in the encirclement is indeed an extremely helpless choice.

But considering the situation and equipment of the two armies at that time, there is only one way. The Japanese army, which has air supremacy, has the eyes of the sky. The army can't hide from them unless it travels at night and hides during the day, but this undoubtedly seriously slows down the marching speed, and it will soon be caught up by the Japanese army that has arrived in Yuncheng.

Tang Dao's choice was finally proved to be correct. Jiulongshan 981 Heights, which was called "Sad Ridge" by the Japanese North China Front Army after the war, was described in the "Asahi Shimbun" as follows:

This is a mountain that timid people will feel timid at a glance. Countless branches extend from the main vein to the east and west, which will remind people of the spine of a fish and make people feel creepy!

Therefore, this area is a dangerous terrain, easy to defend and difficult to attack!

Any climber who wants to climb this mountain has to exert great physical strength, not to mention that there are nearly 3,400 soldiers on this mountain.

Yes, in order to ensure that the two armies can support each other, Brigade Commander Kong, Leng Feng and Shangguan Yun negotiated and found two main highlands in the mountainous area with a radius of 5 square kilometers. One peak with an altitude of 981 meters was named 981 Highland, and the other peak with an altitude of 872 meters was named 872 Highland.

The two highlands are located on the left and right wings, like the two horns of a cow. If any highland is besieged, it will be attacked by artillery from the other highland, which can be used for mutual support.

The 46th Independent Brigade is stationed on 981 Highland.

And Nishimura Motoichi, a kid with a head full of wisdom, finally decided to "pick the soft persimmon" after several rounds of firepower tests, and gathered heavy troops to besiege 981 Highland.

Although the 46th Independent Brigade did not have as many artillery pieces as Leng Feng's troops, thanks to the 12 mountain guns and 4 25mm machine guns captured from the Japanese, its heavy firepower was comparable to that of a standard division, but it was slightly lacking in heavy machine guns.

Fortunately, Leng Feng's troops ambushed the two infantry battalions of the 4th Division. Although 60% of the heavy machine guns were damaged due to the focus on the positions of the Japanese heavy machine gun squadrons, they still captured 10 relatively intact Type 92 heavy machine guns, nearly 20 grenade launchers and 16 Type 96 light machine guns, plus all the Type 38 rifles, all of which were handed over to the 46th Independent Brigade.

This made the two infantry regiments of the 46th Independent Brigade defending Hill 981 have a total of 34 heavy machine guns of various types, 60 light machine guns, and grenade launchers basically reaching 2 per infantry platoon, and rifles can reach 18 per infantry squad.

As for ammunition, there was no shortage of it. In order to carry more ammunition, the Chinese soldiers who always regarded food as their life were so distressed that they burned hundreds of thousands of kilograms of military rations.

The ammunition was sufficient and the firepower, whether light or heavy, was not weaker than the seven infantry battalions under Nishimura Motoichi, and was even stronger.

This was something that Shiro Itagaki had never thought of, so that the ambitious Nishimura Motoichi was only the first wave of cannon fodder in the Battle of Jiulongshan, and the second wave of cannon fodder could not wait to rush to die on the third day of the battle.

This became the most unforgettable "Sad Ridge" battle at the beginning of the year 1939 for the North China Front Army.

Shiro Itagaki was defeated in this battle and became a marginal figure in the Japanese army. The general commander became a doomed ambition.

It was not until the outbreak of the Pacific War several years later that he was re-activated. The fate of the unlucky child who was ordered to garrison Guadalcanal can be imagined.

There was no need to wait until he was hanged on the gallows like in the past. The poor kid's intestines filled with rice fields were dried on the island. ()