Rise From Eight Hundred

Major Kurokawa Honor was actually not the first Japanese officer to die in the Battle of Hengyang.

June 1st at 6am!

The forward troops of the Japanese army on the East Road arrived at Quanxi City, about 20 miles away from Hengyang City!

The first to arrive were the plainclothes team. They did not wear military uniforms, but their brutal nature did not change. Fang Xianjue's worries came true. The Japanese plainclothes team captured dozens of Chinese people in nearby villages who had no time to escape, and forced them at the front of the team at gunpoint to cover the Japanese army's seizure of the new dock on the east bank of the Lei River, so that the Chinese defenders were afraid to shoot.

As time went by, by 1 p.m., more and more Japanese troops arrived. A squadron leader came to the Leishui River to carefully observe the movements on the other side. Under the scorching summer sun, the two sides of the Leishui River were calm and calm, and even the reeds were scattered. Not moving.

The Japanese infantry squadron leader did not dare to be careless and ordered the soldiers to use infantry cannons to fire across the river to test for movement. The shelling continued for 10 minutes but there was no sound. Only then was it confirmed that the Chinese defenders had indeed dispersed.

As a result, the Japanese troops rushed down to the river and rushed to the other side in motorboats and wooden boats at full speed.

The brigade commander had promised these two infantry brigades that whichever infantry brigade could put its flag on the Hengyang Airport terminal within two days would be the winner.

As the 6th Infantry Brigade of the 57th Infantry Brigade of the 68th Division, they marched all the way to the banks of the Leishui River, which is less than 15 miles away from Hengyang Airport. Where can they still bear the thought of winning the first prize?

At the same time, Lieutenant General Sakuma, commander of the 68th Division, was still on a truck 40 kilometers away from Hengyang. His eyes stayed on the map of Hengyang in his hand, and he had no intention of looking at the scenery outside the car window. It is about to become a fertile land occupied by the empire under the iron heel of the 68th Division. If it had been anyone else, it would have been no longer as high-spirited as possible?

It's not that Lieutenant General Sakuma has no interest, but that the Japanese Army Lieutenant General knows the importance of this battle for the 68th Division, which has finally won the main attack on Hengyang.

If the fight is successful, the C Division may be upgraded to a B Division like the 116th Division. If the fight is not successful, the division commander will have to serve as deputy to Yokoyama Isamu, and the 68th Division will be completely reduced to a security guard. division.

Therefore, after Sakuma won the Battle of Tanzhou, he planned the battle against Hengyang, especially the Hengyang Airport on the east bank of the Xiangjiang River, which he must win. Even if the 11th Army Headquarters temporarily modified the combat plan and ordered the 68th Division to attack the west of Hengyang City, he still ordered the two independent infantry brigades under the 57th Brigade under the division to maintain their objectives and rush to Hengyang Airport, promising to Make a big promise.

"Your Excellency, Division Commander, the 6th Infantry Brigade sent a telegram. They have crossed the Lei River and are about to arrive at the outskirts of Hengyang Airport!" When the convoy stopped, the captain of the division's communications squadron ran to the front of the car and rubbed his forehead to get rid of it. The tired Japanese Army Lieutenant General reported.

"Yo Xi! Call back to Major Ogasawara and order them to speed up their march and strive to arrive at Hengyang Airport in the evening and capture it." A trace of excitement flashed in Sakuma's eyes.

The Guangdong-Hankong Railway has been successfully cut off. If the airport is captured again, the Chinese defenders in Hengyang City will be alone and will no longer be able to receive any assistance from the outside world. His Excellency Hengshan Yong shouted at the military meeting, "Get it in three days." Go to Hengyang! ’ slogan will not become an empty talk.

"Miki-kun, what are you writing about?" Major Shichiro Ogasawara, captain of the 6th Infantry Battalion, who was standing on the bank of the river, suddenly asked Kazuo Miki, the second lieutenant communications officer who was standing slightly behind him.

"Your Majesty, Major, this is a diary to record your mood!" Second Lieutenant Kazuo Miki replied slightly awkwardly.

"Oh? Can you show me then? I also want to know what my soldiers were thinking when the Imperial Army was advancing in full swing." Ogasawara Shichiro looked at the group of soldiers who had boarded the ship and started to leave the shore. The mood was obviously very good.

The captain had already spoken, but Second Lieutenant Miki Kazuo still dared to hesitate and handed over his diary respectfully.

"In May of Showa 19, the sky was clear. This was a rare sunny day since entering the water town of Hunan Province in China. The comrades were chasing and running in the fields. Such ease was also due to the complete defeat of the Chinese army.

Just the day before, on May 24, Tanzhou, an important city in Hunan Province that the imperial army had been unable to capture for a long time, was finally captured by us. In order to capture this city, countless imperial soldiers sacrificed their lives. It must have been two years ago My brother who died in the battle at Tanzhou City can finally rest in peace.

On May 26, the short holiday came to an end, and our division received an urgent combat order, which required us to assemble quickly and march to Hengyang. Although everyone is eager to relax, as an imperial soldier, fighting is how we gain glory.

Prior to this, the imperial army had swept across China's Yu and Gui provinces. Although the Chinese army claimed to have millions of soldiers, it was vulnerable to the imperial army.

This time, the 116th Division has taken the lead in advancing towards Hengyang as a vanguard force. The war is about to break out, but everyone firmly believes that Hengyang is bound to win this time. Ono-kun and I made a bet that after Hengyang is captured, whoever kills the fewest enemy troops will be treated to a drink.

On the 29th, our unit was getting closer and closer to Hengyang. Along the way, we encountered minimal resistance, but these have become things we are used to, and fleeing without fighting has long been a habit of the Chinese army.

On the 30th, our army approached Hengyang, and our aviation forces were constantly circling above. This has always been our army's combat habit. Use intensive artillery fire to destroy the enemy's will to resist, and then use the spirit of Bushido to completely eliminate them.

Captain Ogasawara invited several squadron commanders to drink. I, a little communications officer, was also lucky enough to attend. During the dinner, everyone talked about the upcoming Battle of Hengyang. For this purpose, our 11th Army committed three divisions to participate in the attack on the enemy city. The siege, but in the eyes of the gentlemen here, this is a bit unnecessary. To capture a small Hengyang, there is no need for three divisions of the imperial army.

That night, everyone drank a lot and was in a happy mood. Everyone was celebrating the upcoming victory.

Mom from afar, Kazuo misses you very much. We separated from you a year ago and have since come to a foreign country. But mom, please don't worry. I will definitely complete my brother's unfinished business with full glory. I look forward to seeing you in Tokyo. "

Major Shichiro Ogasawara softly read the words that his communications lieutenant had been recording over the past few days, with the corners of his mouth raised slightly.

The communications lieutenant's relatively happy mood is all due to the military exploits of the imperial army!

"June 1st, fine! Our infantry brigade, led by Mr. Ogasawara, is crossing the river with high morale."

This is what Kazuo Miki just wrote!

"Miki-kun, your writing is very good, but I still have to give you some advice. When you keep mentioning me in your diary, don't forget the brigade commander and the division commander!" Major Ogasawara Shichiro said with a full face. He instructed with a smile.

"Hi!" Kazuo Miki quickly stood up and lowered his head.

"Dong dong dong dong!" The terrifying sound suddenly tore through the sky!

That's the sound of rapid-fire cannons firing continuously!

The two Japanese officers who were having a conversation suddenly turned their heads and looked towards the center of the river, where water columns continued to rise on the river.

A Japanese captain who was standing on the bow of the motorboat and looking around was caught off guard and was lifted into the air by the air wave from an exploding shell. He rolled several times in the air and fell into the rolling water.

In an instant, there was a roar of gunfire and fire on the river!

"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!" A lung-breaking voice sounded from the shore.

The diary recording the happy mood of Second Lieutenant Kazuo Miki fell to the ground and was stained with mud!

Ambushing in the reeds on the riverbank across the Lei River was the 1st Battalion of the 568th Regiment of the 190th Division.

After the 190th Division arrived in Hengyang on June 30, Fang Xianjue arranged to defend Hengyang Airport. A total of more than 2,100 people from the 568th Regiment and an engineer company and guard company directly under the 190th Division had a simple dinner in Hengyang City, and left Hengyang overnight. Crossing the Xiangjiang River in the east of the city, they stationed at Hengyang Airport where there were no more fighter planes taking off or landing.

As the Japanese thought, Hengyang Airport was far away from the city and could have been abandoned. However, the Hengyang army still needed supplies. Once the Guangdong-Hankou Railway was cut off by the Japanese army, the airport would become the only access.

Fang Xianjue's idea is that if the Japanese army places its main attack direction in the southwest of the city, Hengyang Airport can be defended as long as it can. If the Japanese army invests heavy troops to attack the airport, the defenders will destroy the airport and then withdraw into the city.

You can’t just hand over the key points of an airport to others!

Of course, a more important tactic is consumption! Even if hundreds of people were killed or injured during the Japanese attack, it would weaken some of the strength of the Japanese army for future sieges. This is actually cruel. Hengyang Airport is located on the plain east of the Xiangjiang River and cannot be defended. The consumption of the Japanese army is actually a consumption of the officers and soldiers of the 10th Army.

But as the saying goes, "Compassion does not control troops." Even if he has understood this for a long time, Fang Xianjue, the supreme commander, will still do this.

All the positions outside Hengyang City were actually used to consume the Japanese army, consuming not only blood and lives, but also morale.

The Japanese army is not a wooden person without emotion. The large number of corpses and wounded soldiers will also make them fearful. When the Japanese army clears all the positions outside the city, their morale will be far worse than when they first arrived. At that time, Hengyang City will have a glimmer of hope.

As for the Hengyang defenders, their morale may also be low, but does a lone army still need to use morale to improve its combat effectiveness? If you don’t want to die, you have to fight hard. All Chinese people still in Hengyang, including Fang Xianjue, have no second choice.

The 190th Division, which chose to accept the order, quickly arrived at Hengyang Airport under the leadership of the division commander Rong Youlue, and sent the first battalion of the 586th Regiment to Leihe 20 miles away. The combat mission assigned by Rong Youlue to the battalion was not difficult. The first battalion did not need to defend, but only needed to slow down the Japanese attack speed to gain time for Hengyang Airport to deploy its defenses.

But Major Yang Jihe, the commander of the first battalion of the 190th Division, is no ordinary person. During the Battle of Changde, while still the deputy battalion commander, he personally led an infantry company to fight hand-to-hand with the enemy, and killed more than 70 Japanese soldiers with a record of 80 deaths and 30 injuries. , and used the dead Japanese soldiers as barricades to form fortifications, with only a dozen remaining soldiers hiding behind the fortifications made of Japanese corpses to face the reinforcements of the Japanese shooting, to cover the evacuation of the wounded soldiers injured in hand-to-hand combat.

That guy, the Japanese army's crazy machine gun bullets were fired at the fortifications made of corpses, and real flesh and blood flew everywhere. Yang Jihe, who was hiding behind, had his head and face covered with flesh and blood, as ferocious as a devil, taking the lead in breaking into a barricade. Several Japanese soldiers just watched as a red figure jumped out from the pile of corpses, carrying a submachine gun and shooting at them.

It is a pity that no one has kept that extremely horrific and **** scene deep in their memory, because all the Japanese soldiers who were stunned and slightly delayed were shot and killed on the spot.

The strong smell of blood even suppressed the smell of gunpowder smoke on the battlefield for the first time, causing the Japanese army to suspend the offensive for 15 minutes. It was during these precious 15 minutes that reinforcements from the 190th Division arrived. Yang Jihe, who already had only five soldiers, The captain survived.

It is said that the Chinese soldiers who came for support stared at the 'blood demon' who lowered his gun and grinned at them for a long time before confirming that this was one of their own.

After the Battle of Changde, the ruthless Yang Jihe was directly transferred to the First Battalion as the battalion commander.

Just say, how could such a ruthless person even offer a little resistance?

"Battle Commander Yang, I order you to withdraw immediately with your people." The commander of the 586th Regiment called from the fortifications being deployed about 7 miles behind.

"You can't just take advantage of the little devil like this. You have to let him know how powerful he is. If you retreat without a fight, you will only increase the enemy's morale and destroy your own prestige!" Yang Jihe twisted his neck and directly attacked his commander. .

The colonel leader also has no temper. "Courage" itself is a double-edged sword. If you use it well, you will be invincible. If you use it poorly, it will be "reckless". If you don't use it well, it will cost you hundreds of dollars. The number one is sent to death.

Fortunately, Major Yang Jihe was not a reckless man. He not only planned to attack halfway across the river, but also gave him the confidence to fight against the Japanese army because of the four combat anti-aircraft guns behind him.

Fang Xianjue was also a smart man. He knew how difficult it was for the more than 2,000 officers and soldiers of the 190th Division to go upstream. Since he had given him such an arduous task of defending Hengyang Airport, how could he not give him some support?

Not only did it promise to support the Hengyang Airport position with 8 artillery pieces in the city, but it also allocated 4 of the few combat defense artillery pieces in the city to be directly allocated to the 190th Division.

The 37mm anti-tank artillery made by the German Empire has been one of the most reliable reliance of Chinese infantry since the war started in Songhu.

The effective range of 1,000 meters can be used as artillery to kill infantry, or it can directly aim at armored targets and fixed fortification targets. The 30mm thick armor on the front of the Type 89 main battle tank equipped by the Japanese infantry can often be penetrated by this gun in one hit. .

Such artillery can be used to kill wooden boats and motorboats.

The motorboat at the front was immediately bombarded and rolled continuously on the river. The more than 10 wooden boats that followed were blown up and saw debris flying everywhere. The only way to survive was to jump into the river.

Fortunately, it was already June, the temperature was already 30 degrees, and the river was not too rough at this time. As long as the water quality was good enough, we could still swim back or to the other side of the river.

But unfortunately, the infantry battalion led by Yang Jihe is the sharp knife battalion of the 586th Regiment. It is equipped with more than 20 light machine guns alone, not to mention 5 heavy machine guns.

"Hit me. I'm so hot that I don't even dare to go into the water. How dare you play in front of me like this?" Yang Jihe was both a ruthless person and a wonderful person. He immediately gave the order with a glare.

20 light machine guns and 5 heavy machine guns opened fire together. The Japanese infantry in the water could only be living targets. The surface of the Leishui River was stained red with blood. Only a handful of the more than 300 Japanese infantry who boarded the ship were able to escape back to their own river bank. More than 95% of them were buried in the 300-meter-wide Leishui River.

The list of those killed or missing in action includes a Japanese captain and 4 Japanese second lieutenants!

Ogasawara Shichiro on the other side of the river was so blinded by the sight, but there was not much he could do.

His infantry brigade was equipped with 12 heavy machine guns and 2 infantry cannons, but the Chinese firepower points were all hidden in the wide reed swamps, and the Japanese army could not determine the specific location of the firepower points in a short period of time.

Fire coverage? Relying on 2 infantry cannons, it’s better to save money! But don't fire a few cannons, but the rapid-fire cannons ambushed by the Chinese on the opposite river bank are stolen. Then the 6th Infantry Brigade will really cry.

This fierce battle lasted only 15 minutes and ended with China's complete victory. From this moment on, the Hengyang defense battle officially began.

The Japanese 11th Army used the lives of 304 infantrymen to commemorate the flag! It’s a blood sacrifice!

In the afternoon, the 6th Infantry Brigade changed its strategy and continued to feint attack Yang Jihe's battalion on the bank of Leishui with one unit. However, the main force of more than 400 people bypassed Quanxi City and quietly crossed Leishui from the south, intending to outflank this daring force. Chinese troops stayed on the river bank to block them.

Yang Jihe had already deployed two infantry squads to guard his flanks 5 miles away. Once the Japanese troops were discovered, they immediately lit a bonfire of wet wood as a warning. Four of the heaviest combat artillery were sent to them early. Five horse trough defense line at the rear.

As soon as the shadow of the 6th Infantry Brigade appeared, more than 500 officers and soldiers of the 1st Battalion of the 586th Regiment immediately ran away with their guns in hand.

The more than 400 Japanese infantrymen of the 6th Infantry Brigade, who were exhausted from running and marching on a hot day, were directly put into EMO.

The Chinese fled as described by Kazuo Miki, the second lieutenant communications officer of the brigade, but why was the taste so bitter?

Little do they know, a more bitter taste is yet to come!

It's night! Miki Kazuo wrote in his diary: "Mom, we underestimated the enemy's will to resist. The corpses of more than 200 imperial officers and soldiers have been piled up in the grass. They were fished out of the river in the evening. They My face is as white as the snow in my hometown, and I’m actually a little cold on a summer night in Hunan Province, China!” (End of Chapter)