Rise From Eight Hundred

Nishimura Motoichi was no longer the highest commander of the Japanese side on the evening of January 19.

He was not replaced because he was not effective enough in the battle, but because he fought too hard, which resulted in the 7 infantry battalions under his command being exhausted in just two days and two nights.

Yes, the two and a half mixed brigades were almost destroyed by Nishimura Motoichi in the afternoon of the 20th.

Itagaki Shiro, who had just arrived at the headquarters of Nakamura Masao to coordinate the conflicts between his two generals, almost died on the spot after receiving this news.

My goodness, the entire Zhongtiaoshan Campaign lasted for half a month, and the total casualties of the entire army were only more than 30,000. As a result, because of your participation, the total number of casualties increased by 20 percentage points.

That was more than 7,000 infantrymen, not 7,000 pigs. No matter how hard he thought, Itagaki Shiro couldn't understand how Nishimura Motoichi crippled 7 infantry battalions in such a short time.

If he went to the scene to take a look, he might know that it was not Nishimura Motoichi who was too stupid, but the Chinese were too tenacious.

Everyone actually has a gambling nature!

Nishimura Motoichi is no exception!

In the battle on the night of the 18th, two of the two infantry battalions that Nishimura Motoichi put into the attack were crippled, and the Chinese high ground, not to mention the main high ground was still out of reach, even the small attached high ground was still in the hands of the Chinese.

To put it bluntly, that battle was like the Japanese army lining up to send their heads. It cannot be said that they did nothing, but it can only be said that they consumed some Chinese bullets with human lives.

If Nishimura Motoichi was more sober at this time, he would immediately ask for help from Itagaki Shiro, and he would be responsible for blocking the Chinese. This top student of the Japanese Army Academy would not be sent to a military court after the war.

But Nishimura Motoichi knew that once this request for help was sent out, his future would probably end here.

So he chose to fight again and attack more resolutely.

He did not believe that there was still a position in the world that could withstand the bombing of 72 bombers in turn, 24 mountain guns and 16 infantry guns covering the bombardment. Even if there was, it was definitely not the Chinese.

On the day of the 19th, with the rare unanimous support of Itagaki Shiro and Sugimoto Sugimoto, the Japanese Army Air Force dispatched the largest bomber group since the Battle of Zhongtiao Mountain.

The "New Year's Day Offensive" planned by the Japanese Army Headquarters has basically failed. Many troops on the front and rear wings of Zhongtiao Mountain have gradually gathered in the direction of Yuncheng and withdrawn to northern Shanxi or Hebei Province for rest. The Battle of Jiulong Mountain is to preserve the last bit of face of the Imperial Army. This should be the reason why Sugimoto Sugimoto and Itagaki Shiro have reached a rare agreement.

Without Sugimoto Sugimoto's full support, the North China Army Air Force Corps, which had been replenished not long ago, would not have been able to empty its assets to provide such air firepower support to Nishimura Motoichi, a mere Army Major General.

From 9 am to 4 pm, the number of fighter planes dispatched was not 72 requested by Nishimura Motoichi, but 96. There were 48 500-pound bombs dropped alone. If other large and small bombs are added, the bombs pouring down from the sky will be no less than 40 tons.

A battlefield with a radius of no more than 3 kilometers encountered such a strong bombing. Not to mention that it was extremely rare in the Chinese battlefield, it would rank among the top even in the European battlefield that was about to break out.

Even though the 20mm machine guns and 7mm heavy machine guns assigned to the Leng Feng Division were fully fired, the Japanese aircraft groups basically dropped bombs at an altitude of more than 1,500 meters, and the areas belonging to the two highlands were all bombing areas, so apart from shooting down and damaging three Japanese planes, they could not stop the bombs from being dropped into the vast mountains and forests.

At least 50% of the bombs were dropped on the highlands, and the two main highlands and the small highlands under them were all turned into a sea of ​​fire.

In the weather of minus four or five degrees, the temperature on the battlefield made it impossible for people to even wear cotton clothes, especially the officers and soldiers hiding in the tunnels. Many people were sweating profusely, both because of the heat and because of fear.

No one could survive this hellish bombing. Even if there were, they would only be small fish and shrimps. This is what Nishimura Motoichi thought, who had not used infantry to launch an attack for a day and watched the Chinese positions burning in the flames caused by the violent explosions.

So, at 4:30 on the 19th, when the bombers and the artillery groups that had been bombing non-stop finally stopped, three infantry battalions were pushed to the front line in one fell swoop and launched a crazy attack on the Chinese highlands.

Nishimura Motoichi's idea was right and wrong.

The artillery bombing and fighter bombing on this day did cause great losses to the 46th Independent Brigade and Leng Feng's troops. For example, the trenches on the 981 Highland to which the 46th Independent Brigade belonged were destroyed for more than 2,000 meters, accounting for almost half of the trenches. Two tunnels used to hide soldiers were collapsed, and more than 200 officers and soldiers were suffocated to death in the mud and rocks without firing a shot.

Six machine gun bunkers on the position were destroyed, and the observation posts and heavy machine guns hidden in them were all torn to pieces by bombs.

Even the mortar positions hidden on the back of the high ground were half destroyed, five 82mm mortars were blown away by the air wave, and more than 30 artillerymen died.

The 12 mountain artillery positions were not much better, and four mountain artillery and more than 40 artillerymen disappeared in the raging air wave.

But thanks to Nishimura Motoichi's caution, the perfect fortifications completed within 32 hours allowed the main force of the 46th Independent Brigade to survive.

Nishimura Motoichi, who had beautiful fantasies, invested the main force of the infantry at all costs in this round of attack, which was destined to be fruitless, especially when the 6 undamaged Bofors mountain guns, 6 150 heavy mortars and 6 80mm howitzers of the 4th Regiment were fully supporting the high ground of the 46th Independent Brigade.

The earth shook, and blood and flesh flew!

The Japanese army was as miserable as they imagined the Chinese were!

For example, the nameless high ground where the young soldier was located fired three red flares at dusk to request artillery fire to cover the positions, and there were as many as three positions.

However, it was not a complete mutual destruction. There were tunnels for hiding soldiers on these positions. After a round of artillery fire, the well-prepared Chinese soldiers immediately rushed out of the tunnels and shot the remaining Japanese soldiers on the surface positions.

The Japanese army had already been shattered by the terrible power of the 150-meter heavy mortar. Even though they knew that there were fewer Chinese who rushed out from nowhere than them, few people chose to resist on the spot. Instead, they jumped out of the broken trenches with their hearts and galls broken, and ran down the mountain without looking back, even though there were machine guns of the supervision team behind them.

According to the Japanese army who survived by chance: This is still a bird, if you don’t go to the position, you will be shot, and if you go to the position, you will be hit by artillery shells that are more fierce than the empire! It’s all death.

"Baga! I don't believe it, I don't believe it, I don't believe that the Chinese still have so many artillery shells in reserve, keep attacking, long live the empire!" Nishimura Motoichi shouted the famous three "no beliefs" of a young wife at nightfall on the 19th.

It was these three "no beliefs" that completely nailed him to the pillar of shame of the Japanese Army!

After the war, he was rated as one of the ten most lame Japanese Army generals on the Chinese battlefield by the Japanese people, and he was completely on par with Major General Kunisaki Masaru of the 5th Division.

On the contrary, Major General Okuma Konosuke of the 4th Division was highly popular among the people, especially in the Osaka area. Major General Okuma, who led a large number of Osaka youths back to their homeland intact, was worshipped by countless families.

Not to mention that there are many people who worship his portrait at home, even under the impetus of public opinion, Major General Okuma, who retired from the military sequence, served as the president of the Osaka Chamber of Commerce and eventually became the chairman of the largest pharmaceutical company in Japan.

Fighting a tough battle is despised by the people, but being worshipped when you can't win is the opposite. How can you explain this? Major General Nishimura Motoichi didn't figure it out until he was about to die.

It was not until the successful Okuma Konosuke went to visit this old classmate in the slums that he said directly: "The war launched by the empire was not what the people wanted from the beginning. It was just to fulfill the ambitions of a few people, but it cost the lives of tens of millions of people. The living will always have a day to wake up."

Nishimura Motoichi, who was completely abandoned by the powerful and the people, took his last breath alone and regretfully.

But obviously, Major General Nishimura Motoichi, who was still on the battlefield, could not be said to have nothing to do with being awake, but could only be said to be completely crazy.

At this time, the Japanese Army Major General actually had no traditional concept of victory or defeat. What he wanted now was to conquer the opponent's high ground, even if it was not the main peak, just a piece of high ground, that was enough.

But this wish was not realized until he was dismissed from his post.

You may not believe in the combat effectiveness of the officers and soldiers of the Four-Line Regiment, but you must not believe in the importance that the Four-Line Regiment attaches to equipment.

Although it is not a mechanized unit, under the leadership of Tang Tuanzuo, the officers of the Four-Line Regiment at all levels attach great importance to ammunition reserves. Even if it is just a long-distance training, a single soldier carries 4 grenades and 150 bullets as standard.

Moreover, in this wartime, more than two-thirds of the transportation capacity of the baggage company advancing with the army is to transport various types of artillery shells, plus the artillery battalion transported by packhorses, more than 8,000 rounds of various types of artillery shells.

Nishimura Motoichi wanted to rely on human lives to consume the artillery shell reserves of Leng Feng's unit, which was really wrong.

Therefore, the 7 infantry battalions under Nishimura Motoichi's command came to a dead end in his "three disbeliefs" under his wife-like rage.

The Japanese army above completely lost the gamble!

On the afternoon of the 20th, Nishimura Motoichi was personally ordered to remove all his positions by the humiliated General Sugiyama Moto. The commander of the 114th Division, Shigeru Suematsu, who had just arrived near Yuncheng, served as the supreme commander of the Jiulongshan Battle, responsible for leading the 60,000 troops of the 114th Division who had already withdrawn from the main battlefield of Zhongtiao Mountain and the remnants of Nishimura Motoichi to participate in the unfinished Jiulongshan Battle.

If the Japanese army ended here, the damage caused by the Chinese side to the Japanese army in the Jiulongshan Battle would only be the killing of more than 4,000 infantry and artillery, and more than 3,000 serious injuries, which was not very conspicuous in the tide of the entire Anti-Japanese War.

But the Japanese could not swallow this breath. The sound of gunfire on Jiulongshan sounded again on the afternoon of January 21st after only one day of silence.

Three infantry regiments, with the roar of more than 50 mountain cannons, killed to the front of the Chinese highlands.

Wave after wave of Japanese troops were like locusts, rushing to the high ground where trenches had been bombed to the point where they were almost non-existent, and then being repelled wave after wave.

Then, after a round of artillery fire, the locusts attacked again like a wave and were repelled again.

In the next two days, the battle was simply repeated.

The Japanese trucks transporting corpses were enough to line up for several miles from Jiulong Pass.

Even the lieutenant general, Shigeru Suematsu, could not help crying when he saw the transport trucks full of corpses.

But at this point in the battle, he had no choice.

The loincloth of the Japanese North China Front Army and even the Imperial Army could not be completely stripped off by the Chinese in this battle.

Using the metaphor of many Japanese war historians, the battle of Zhongtiao Mountain's "Sad Ridge" was like the Chinese Sihang Warehouse in the Battle of Shanghai. What high ground and what Chinese people were not important, what was important was the face of the Imperial Army.

If this group of Chinese who attacked Yuncheng cannot be completely eliminated, the personal reputations of Shiro Itagaki and Yuan Sugisugi will not be discussed, and the face of the Imperial Army will be lost.

Therefore, if one infantry regiment of the 114th Division was crippled, another one would be replaced, and then crippled again, and then replaced again, until all three infantry regiments with nearly 9,000 people were crippled.

It takes three days!

At this time of the war, although Highland 981 was still in the hands of the Chinese, all its affiliated highlands belonged to the Japanese army.

Most of the 872 Highlands were also occupied by the Japanese troops. The Chinese were already crumbling, like a centenarian on the verge of death. You hardly needed to push them with your hands, you just blew your breath and fell down.

This is indeed the case. Lu Qingyi, the second lieutenant radio operator of the 46th Independent Brigade Headquarters, was ordered to send a telegram to the 38th Army Headquarters: "The enemy has captured the last subsidiary highland of our highland in the afternoon. There are nearly a thousand soldiers in front of the main peak of our highland. The final battle is about to begin." In the decisive battle, more than 2,000 officers and soldiers of our unit were killed, and Yu Qian was seriously injured. Most of the officers of the two regiments, battalions, and companies were killed in the battle. Only 600 soldiers could still fight. There was no longer a roundabout battlefield, and no soldiers could stop the attack. I swore to my rank to I will die to serve the country, fulfill my duty as a soldier, and never let down the ideals of training in the military. This electric shock may be the last one. See you in the next life."

Given the strength of Brigadier Kong Da, who sent such a desperate farewell message to the military headquarters before going to the frontline trenches in person, one can imagine how dangerous the situation was at that time.

But in the hard battle that followed one night, the Chinese were not defeated as Suematsu Shigeru imagined, even though he added 1,600 heavy troops to his last two infantry brigades, bringing the total strength to more than 3,500 men.

But he still couldn't break into the main peak of Highland 981, which he also focused on attacking. The dying Chinese would always appear out of nowhere and shoot wildly at the numb imperial officers and soldiers until all the imperial officers and soldiers still on the position were killed. .

No one escaped, and the two sides just exchanged shots almost numbly until one side fell completely.

Yes, by this time of the war, both the Chinese and the Japanese were almost numb, and even death was no longer so fearful.

The only thought on both sides is to kill the other party, no matter what happens to them next.

One side is exchanging death for death, the other is exchanging life for life!

When Suematsu arrived at the front line in the early morning, he was stunned.

On the charred mountain peaks, the Chinese military flags, which had been broken into strips, were still fluttering in the wind. The hillside was littered with khaki corpses, including on the Chinese positions.

He clearly knew that if he used more force, China might lose, but Suematsu Shigeru, who looked dejected, knew clearly that that would never be possible.

Because he has no available troops, not even 500 men, unless he pulls up all the artillerymen who have no shells.

By the 23rd day of the war, the artillery of both China and Japan no longer roared.

Because both sides have run out of artillery shells.

The passive Chinese side did not have any supplements. It is understandable that the artillery shells were used up. However, the Japanese army was the active side and had backup. Why did Mao have no artillery shells?

In fact, the night attack in Yuncheng almost lost the roots of the Japanese army. Not to mention that the artillery shells were gone, even the rations were almost gone.

This is not only Suematsu Shigeru's 114th Division, but also Itagaki Shiro's direct 5th Division.

Since yesterday afternoon, the 114th Division has been out of food. The entire army slaughtered 50 pack horses to barely feed the people who were still alive. Anyway, more than 1,000 heavy troops were also dragged onto the battlefield, and the pack horses were of no use.

Even if Suematsu Shige is given thousands of troops to fight the Chinese for two more days, or even for one day, without any external force, the 114th Division will collapse.

What's more terrible is that when Suematsu Shigeru was still in pain so much that he almost wanted to throw off his helmet and tear his hair to vent, a message forwarded by the command from the Army Aviation made him feel like he was falling into the abyss.

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