Rise From Eight Hundred

Chapter 1464: If they come too little, fight them; if they come too many, they run away! (Please ask for monthly tickets at the beginning of the month!)

If Anda 23 is decisive enough at this time and continues to attack the Zhongtiao Mountain defense line without hesitation, China, which has already suffered huge casualties, may not be able to hold on for long.

Even if Yuncheng is captured, the Battle of Zhongtiao Mountain will definitely end with the victory of the Japanese North China Front.

But at this critical moment, Anda Twenty-Three hesitated.

The hesitation of the top Japanese frontline commander is not unreasonable. Once Yuncheng is captured by the Chinese, it means that the 180,000 troops on the frontline will be completely out of food in a week, and the rapidly consumed ammunition will be difficult to replenish immediately.

If all battles cannot be completed within a week, the main force of 180,000 Japanese troops will fall into an extremely dangerous situation. Not only will they have nothing to eat or drink, but their guns and artillery without ammunition will also become useless decorations.

Not to mention that there are still hundreds of thousands of Chinese in Zhongtiao Mountain. As long as the more than 10,000 Chinese who attacked Yuncheng come over, the 180,000-strong army will have to hide and seek with them in the mountains.

If Okamura Koji, who has a more ruthless temperament, is here, he will attack China at all costs. Even if he pays twice as many casualties as expected, it is worth taking Nakatō Mountain.

Unfortunately, Adachi Twenty-three was not Okamura Koji. After several telegram exchanges with Okamura Koji, Adachi Twenty-three finally made a more prudent decision.

The attack on the Zhongtiao Mountain front line was suspended to maintain the current defense line. In addition, the 35th Infantry Division, a division directly under the North China Front Army Headquarters, was dispatched to urgently return to Yuncheng to support Yuncheng.

The 35th Division is not a permanent division. It was established on February 7, 1939. It is a three-unit division dedicated to security. It has jurisdiction over the field artillery regiment, the engineering regiment, the heavy baggage regiment, the division communications team, and the weapons service. Logistics units such as corps and health corps, the entire division has an establishment of approximately 18,000 people.

To put it bluntly, this kind of security division is an organization between a mixed brigade and a type A division. Their combat targets are often an ordinary infantry corps of the Chinese Army.

Perhaps one garrison division is not enough to wipe out more than 10,000 Chinese troops, but Anda Twenty-Three's purpose is simple. As long as the crisis in Yuncheng can be resolved, this important logistics base will not be lost.

This may be the unprecedented humbleness of the Japanese army lieutenant general in the Battle of Nakatiao Mountain. For the first time, he did not ask his subordinates to annihilate the enemy in front of them, but only to defend the city.

But even if he is humbled to this extent, the Chinese people will not give him face.

The 35th Division marched toward Yuncheng from the front line 60 kilometers away. According to the original march plan, they would arrive in Yuncheng around 12 o'clock that night.

Marching 60 kilometers in 11 hours was definitely a promise that non-elite troops would not dare to make. For this reason, Lieutenant General Harada Kumayoshi, then the commander of the 35th Division, wrote a military order to Adachi 23rd: "Everyone under my command must be responsible for Arrive in Yuncheng before 12 o'clock today to relieve the crisis in Yuncheng. Otherwise, I am willing to lead the division and regiment to perform a disembowelment to apologize to His Majesty the Emperor!"

This military order was indeed a bit ruthless. If they disagreed, they would kill themselves with a knife, without asking the opinions of other people in the division and regiment headquarters.

However, this is not what Harada Kumakichi wants to show in front of Adachi Twenty-three. Both of them are lieutenant generals. Although the status of the chief of staff of the front army is higher, in terms of real power, Harada Kumakichi is the actual division commander, and he is the leader of the Japanese Army. If he can be considered the number one person, there is absolutely no need to stab Adachi Twenty-san in the stomach with a knife. It would be almost the same if he were replaced by Okamura Koji.

But the grievances between the 35th Division and the 80th Army were too deep.

Last year, the 35th Division killed two generals one after another.

The former division commander, Lieutenant General Maeda Haru, was shot in the head and killed in the Battle of Jincheng in May 1940. The army that killed a Japanese Army Lieutenant General was at Nakatiao Mountain at this time, so the 35th Division was The desire to participate in the Battle of Zhongtiao Mountain was particularly strong.

Maeda Osamu's death may be attributed to the unlucky 19th class in which he graduated from the Military Academy. One of his best classmates was named Abe Norihide, who died half a year earlier than him.

This is only what the Japanese know now. Of course, they don’t know how poisonous this 19th issue is. In just one year, Tsukada Tsukuda, who originally ran to take over as the commander of the 11th Army, has not yet arrived, and the plane He was shot down and fell to death in China. Naoji Sakai, the commander of the Japanese 15th Division, would also die in the "Battle of Zhejiang and Jiangxi" in the same year when he stepped on a landmine planted by Fan Haer's command.

Another important general of the 35th Division, Major General Taijiro Iida, who was the commander of the 35th Infantry Regiment at the time. This guy commanded three infantry regiments of the 35th Division. He was definitely the number two figure in the 35th Division. Especially after the death of Maeda Osamu, he was the man who carried the cauldron of the 35th Division at that time.

However, this unlucky major general may have admired his former division commander too much. Within a few months, during a small force attack organized by the Eightyth Army, his headquarters was attacked by an infantry platoon-level The first unit of the Eightyth Army was attacked by surprise.

At the cost of only a dozen casualties, the Eightyth Army shot the unlucky boy Iida Taijiro. The unlucky Japanese major general who had no penicillin died of wound infection a few days later.

Do you think the 35th Division's eyes turned red when they heard the name of the Eightyth Army?

In order to win over the generals of the division, Harada Kumakichi, who had been in office for half a year, gritted his back teeth and issued a military order that even Adachi Twenty-san couldn't help but twitch in the corners of his eyes under the banner of the two generals who died for the division.

The Japanese have a special characteristic. They rarely make false claims and always do what they say, even if they are a bit strong-willed.

In order to enable the entire division to march 60 kilometers in 11 hours, the 35th Division abandoned all baggage except weapons and equipment. All bedding, food, etc. were discarded on the spot, including the excavation equipment carried by the engineering unit.

Because these heavy tools are mainly used for digging soil, the 35th Division went to settle accounts with the Chinese, not to dig trenches and confront them.

Besides, don’t the officers and soldiers of the division all carry individual engineer shovels with them?

They didn't even bring rice balls, but just loaded up their guns and ran away. How could the 35th Division run so fast? If nothing else, they even arrived in Yuncheng half an hour earlier than the stipulated time.

Then, something unexpected happened.

On the only way the 35th Division returned to Yuncheng, something happened!

The vanguard troops running at the front plunged into the minefield first. In the boundless darkness, the rumbling explosions and flashes of light that constantly tore through the night completely engulfed a vanguard squad.

Then, scarlet whips flashed out from the wilderness on both sides, sweeping across the strong soldiers of the 35th Division who were caught off guard and were still marching in a hurry.

The roar of severe pain made the running 35th Division suddenly clear-headed. Siege and reinforcements were a very familiar strategy.

The main force of the Chinese is not around Yuncheng, but here!

That's right, what surrounded Yuncheng was nothing more than the logistics supply troops of the garrison brigade and the 772nd Regiment. In order to frighten an infantry regiment in Yuncheng, the garrison brigade and the 772nd Regiment even left behind 16 150-meter heavy guns and 10 mountain cannons. The Japanese troops in the city The fierce artillery fire they had never seen before convinced them that the main force of the Chinese was outside the city.

The main force of the garrison brigade and the 772nd and 771st regiments, totaling 13,000 people, set up an ambush in Changle Village, 10 kilometers away from Yuncheng.

The terrain of Changle Village is hilly, and most of the cultivated land is sloping. It is not the common mountainous area around Yuncheng. The terrain is neither dangerous nor difficult to hide troops, so it is not suitable for ambushes.

However, after the top commander of the Chinese army, Brigadier Cheng, learned that nearly 20,000 Japanese troops were marching towards Yuncheng, he decided to choose the ambush location here. His reason was simple: "The so-called ambush means to be in a location where the enemy would not expect. If the enemy can guess and be alert, the most important element of surprise in an ambush will be meaningless.

It doesn't matter if the terrain is not dangerous. The Japanese were caught off guard. We didn't plan to engage in any offensive or defensive battle or protracted war with the Japanese army. After the firepower was covered, we had to rush in, divide and surround them, and resolve the battle as soon as possible.

It is difficult to hide troops in hilly areas. This time we are not hiding in the grass in the ravines during the day. Night is the best way to hide! "

It can only be said that Brigadier Cheng, who has dealt with the Japanese for many years, has a thorough understanding of the psychology of the Japanese army.

Before the departure of the 35th Division, in order to prevent the Chinese from sieging the city again and seeking reinforcements, Anda 23 arranged for reconnaissance planes to fly back and forth at least four times on the roads that the 35th Division had to pass through to ensure that there were not a large number of Chinese.

A small number of Chinese may not be visible to the reconnaissance aircraft pilot, but as long as there are thousands of people, it is unless the reconnaissance aircraft pilot is blind.

Therefore, the main force of the two infantry brigades that arrived did not march to the ambush site until about 6 p.m., and they arrived here only about an hour earlier than the Japanese army.

Harada Kumonaki also dispatched a vanguard squad and a cavalry squadron 2,000 meters in front of the main force to search the mountains along the way, especially the mountainous jungles. The search depth on both sides of the road even reached 200 meters. It was really a place that could not be detected. Just use fire reconnaissance.

The first 50 kilometers were all mountainous. Unexpectedly, the Chinese appeared in the most unlikely hilly area.

The Japanese army in a hurry could only defend on the spot, but the tragedy was that in order to march quickly, the engineer regiment basically turned into a transport unit for transporting ammunition, and the engineer shovel became their only tool for digging fortifications.

If the Chinese army could give them enough time, relying on the Japanese army's powerful civil engineering capabilities, they would be able to dig out enough bunkers for individual soldiers to hide in.

It's a pity that the Chinese didn't give them much time. I don't know how many mortars fired a hair-raising "Boom!" Boom! 'Muffled sound.

How much fire and black smoke erupted along the 6-kilometer-long marching line of the 18,000 Japanese troops.

In order to gain visibility to attack the enemy, the Japanese army had to shoot flares!

The light of the illumination bomb illuminated the wilderness a hundred meters away, and also clearly placed the Japanese soldiers who were originally vaguely visible in the artillery fire in the sight of the Chinese soldiers. "Fight!" As the infantry company commanders at the front lines roared, bullets from various light and heavy machine guns, rifles, and submachine guns rained down on the Japanese troops.

Not counting artillery, but only small arms firepower, the firepower output efficiency of the Garrison Brigade and the 683rd Brigade at this time should be more than three times that of the Japanese army on average.

Coupled with the Japanese army's opposite strategy of "the enemy is in darkness and we are in the dark", it would be strange if the veterans of the two infantry brigades who grew up in the war and the new recruits did not kill the 35th Division to a **** head. Son.

Brigadier Cheng had given an order before the war to kill more than 10,000 Japanese troops in one battle. Even if this battle with the main force of our two infantry brigades was a complete victory, it didn't matter whether we could capture Yuncheng or not. No need to save any ammunition, just shoot off as many bullets as you have.

There is no such thing as economy anymore. The officers and soldiers of the two infantry brigades pulled the trigger and felt very comfortable.

According to post-war statistics, the two brigades used up 800,000 rounds of ammunition in the ambush of the 35th Division alone.

What is this consumption rate? Take for example the large-scale counterattack launched by the Eightyth Army on the Thousand Miles of Defense Line in order to defeat Okamura Koji's cage policy in time and space.

At that time, a total of 36 infantry regiments in the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region participated in the war, consuming a total of 260,000 rounds of ammunition of various types; the 129th Division participating in the war was already considered the strongest among the Eighty Group Army, with more than 80,000 troops participating in the war, and only consumed 750,000 rounds of ammunition.

And that was a battle that lasted nearly 5 months!

But on this night, only 11,000 Chinese infantrymen fired 800,000 rounds of bullets. Even if it took an average of 200 bullets to kill or wound a Japanese soldier, under such a dense rain of bullets, the Japanese casualties would also be Around 4000.

But what really dealt the heaviest blow to the Japanese army was not the dense rain of bullets that could be shot into a hornet's nest as soon as they raised their heads.

The local artillery, which Brigadier Cheng called "the heartless cannon", once again made its appearance. This 'shock wave' type blind artillery, originally used to clear ground fortifications and remove obstacles, was used to kill and injure infantry who had basically no fortifications to hide in. It can be called a 'harvester of life'.

Although the 2nd Independent Mixed Infantry Brigade in the past two days completely lost its defense line and collapsed due to artillery with a range of only more than 200 meters, they still had a trench and an anti-gun hole that could last for a while.

What does the 35th Division have?

What else can I do besides push my head hard?

Don't tell me, this is really true.

In order to ensure that the explosive package can be pushed 200 meters away by the thrust of the gunpowder without accidentally exploding, there is a thick wooden partition under each explosive package. The two together weigh 8 kilograms. .

Since the length of the fuse inevitably varies, some explosive bags have not completely burned out when they are dropped. Without exploding, this 8-kilogram thing actually has about the same effect as a stone.

As a result, some Japanese soldiers were caught off guard and were hit on the head with planks of wood and explosives.

The equipment of the Japanese army is actually not bad. At least every Japanese soldier has a steel helmet.

As we all know, the steel helmet is good at blocking grenade fragments, but it is basically just a decoration when blocking bullets.

If it blocks an 8kg object falling from the sky.

Not even the furnishings.

Because, even the helmet and head would be smashed into the ground.

But if the Japanese soldiers encountered this, they should be lucky. At that moment, they all entered a coma state. At least they didn't have to watch the huge explosive package emitting a trace of fire like their colleagues, and then with a 'boom' sound, the radius was Everyone within 10 meters will be sent to heaven.

Lieutenant General Harada Kumakichi died in this way.

A large explosive package landed less than 3 meters away from the Japanese Army Lieutenant General. Even though there were more than 20 guards around him, there was even a line in front of him that was 80 centimeters high and half a meter thick. of sandbag fortifications.

But in front of this 5-kilogram explosive package that hit the fortification and exploded 0.5 seconds later, everything was illusory.

Neither the Chinese nor the Japanese have found any trace of the Lieutenant General's division commander. Some people even suspected that Harada Kumayoshi simply absconded because he was defeated in the war and was too embarrassed to face the local elders. At this moment, he didn't know who was waiting for him in China. They make a living by eating corn and potatoes!

The Japanese North China Front Army Command finally only included him in the list of missing persons, but did not put him in the list of war dead.

Half an hour after losing unified command, the remaining soldiers of the 35th Division finally decided not to hold on.

To put it nicely, it’s called a breakout, but to put it bluntly, it’s called a rout!

Segmentation, pursuit, and siege were the main theme throughout the second half of the night. The two infantry brigades completed a miracle before the sun rose.

The 35th Division, which the Japanese returned to support, disappeared in just one night.

According to post-war statistics of the Japanese North China Front, more than 80% of the 35th Division's battle casualties were lost. Less than 10% were able to break through the encirclement and escape into the mountains, and nearly 10% were left alive without seeing any dead bodies. Can only be listed as missing.

According to the unwritten regulations of the Japanese Army, units whose flags are seized or whose division commander is killed in battle will be deactivated. For example, the 106th Division in Wanjialing was wiped out including the division commander, and in Liaocheng, the entire army was wiped out. The 114th Division, whose division commander died in the battle, and the 35th Division were all occupied, so the result is needless to say.

After receiving the news that the 35th Division was ambushed and annihilated, Anda Twenty-three did not almost fall this time, but actually fainted from anger.

Okamura Koji, who was far away in Pingbeicheng, had to serve as the frontline commander himself, commanding remotely from thousands of kilometers away.

After losing nearly 30,000 troops in a row, Okamura Koji had to admit that if he did not make decisive decisions, it might not be a matter of not being able to capture Mount Nakajo, but whether the 160,000 Imperial officers and soldiers on the front line could safely attack Nakajo. Big problem with mountain evacuation.

At this time, the Chinese army plus the 20,000 Chinese elites who completed two impossible battlefields in succession, the total strength once again exceeded 200,000, while the imperial army had less than 160,000 left, and the logistics base Yuncheng was still on the other side. under threat.

Once the logistics base is broken, the Chinese, whose morale has soared, only need to hold off the imperial army for a week, and all of them will be finished collectively.

Withdrawal is now imperative!

Under the order of Okamura Koji, the 5th Division and the 13th and 10th permanent divisions each deployed a main brigade. Nearly 30,000 troops were divided into three groups and rushed towards Yuncheng with great momentum.

The rest of the Japanese troops on the Zhongtiao Mountain front line also began to gradually separate from the Chinese army. The defense lines that had cost hundreds of thousands of Japanese lives to capture were all lost to the Chinese.

Okamura Koji's idea is that as long as the Chinese stay around Yuncheng for one more day, he can make it impossible for the 20,000 Chinese elites to escape.

As a result, the Chinese stayed for most of the day and fired more than 2,000 artillery shells at the area where supplies were stored in Yuncheng, including many incendiary bombs, burning at least 50% of the various supplies in Yuncheng. Then start running away.

The 20,000-strong army almost fled to Linfen and then to the Taiyue Mountains.

At that speed, not to mention the three Japanese infantry brigades who were exhausted and couldn't catch them, even the Japanese cavalry chased them through Linfen City and couldn't find them.

The speed of running is not the most important thing. The most important thing is the keen sense of the battlefield. The timing of running is almost perfect. If you run too early, the Japanese army can change their tactics at any time. If you run too late, they will be overtaken. Even if you run too late, they will be overtaken. Murakusa hated these guys to the core of his being, and he couldn't even express his admiration from the bottom of his heart.

In his words: "The commander of this Chinese army is the strongest general he has ever encountered on the Chinese battlefield. Perhaps only Tang Dao can rival him."

After the war, even the one who almost spat on each other's faces with the 80th Army had to send a text message to An County to express his gratitude. The Ministry of Military Affairs also ordered the promotion of Brigadier Cheng to Lieutenant General and Lei Xiong to Army Major General.

These two people who continue to serve as brigade commanders with the rank of lieutenant general and deputy brigade commanders with the rank of major general are probably extremely rare in Chinese military history.

The main reason is that both of them, who received military ranks, said that they are very satisfied with their current military positions. It would be okay to have more military pay, but they would never want to be promoted.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

PS: I would like to recommend the new book "Songhu: Never Fall" by the lonely swordsman. The swordsman is a master of the Anti-Japanese War. Readers who love military affairs know how good the writing is. I can only say one more thing here. As a post-90s generation, I grew up reading this great guy’s books.

Also, "The Resistance Against Japan Begins with the Northeastern Army" by the cute military girl Xingchen is free of charge for these two days, so you can go pick it up! The photos she sent me were all of cute girls with long legs, but I always suspected that the guy sitting in front of the computer had a handful of hair to protect his heart.

(End of chapter)