Rise From Eight Hundred

Chapter 1498 Have you learned how to borrow arrows from a straw boat?

The Japanese army was hit hard and there was no movement during the rest of the day.

However, in the evening, the 190th Division headquarters reported to the Hengyang headquarters that it was found that the Dingjia Wharf, Wangjia Wharf, and Yuehan Wharf on the east bank of the Xiangjiang River were full of people, and there seemed to be signs of Japanese troops crossing the river on a large scale.

Tang Dao, who stood on Yanhui Peak again, looked at the Xiangjiang River from a distance with his binoculars. He saw the Japanese army in the Jiangdong area hurriedly tying up planks of wood and car tires, and constantly gathering various materials to cross the river. It seemed that they were indeed crossing the river again.

At this time, there was also a phone call, saying that the Japanese troops in Jiangdong seemed to be gathering again. All evidence seemed to indicate that the Japanese troops would use the cover of darkness to force the crossing again tonight.

Even Zhao Zili called and discussed with Tang Dao, asking the artillery battalion of the Fourth Army Regiment to be more vigilant and prepared at night. If the Japanese army planned to make a desperate move, the heavy force company of the Artillery Battalion of the Fourth Army Regiment would need to join in the attack on the Japanese army crossing the river. .

The artillery headquarters also reported to Tang Dao that it planned to transfer the 12 82nd troops from the battlefield in the west of the city back to the city to assist the 190th Division in defending the river bank.

"All ministries should wait and see what happens, and do not make any rash moves!" Tang Dao issued an unexpected military order to all ministries.

If Tang Dao hadn't interceded with Fang Xianjue to let the 190th Division return to Hengyang City, several generals at the 190th Division's headquarters would have thought that Director Tang was deliberately making things difficult for them.

Although there are not many Japanese infantry, the Japanese artillery on the other side has more than 20 cannons. If the Japanese infantry is to land on the shore, once their firepower is exposed, it will not be so easy to be bombarded by more than 20 artillery pieces.

"A military operation of this level is sudden and secretive. I have never heard of such a high-profile operation.

Besides, the Japanese army suffered such heavy losses during the day and saw the power of our artillery fire. If you say that there were destroyers and gunboats escorting them across the river, I still believe them. They just use these broken wooden boards to tie some tires to transport troops across the river, unless it is My brain was caught in the door.

This is probably a pretense to trick our army into arranging its deployment and providing help for the other three Japanese attacks. "This is how Tang Dao explained to Rong You slightly on the phone.

What he said was reasonable and well-founded. Naturally, Rong You slightly had nothing to refute, so he could only order his three battalions to deploy more sentries at night to increase vigilance.

Sure enough, in the middle of the night, the sentries of the 190th Division discovered that a Japanese ship was coming down the Xiangjiang River from the upper reaches. Light and heavy machine gun firepower points opened fire one after another, and miserable howls continued to sound on the river.

However, no ship was seen approaching the 190th Division's defense line. But throughout the night, all the officers and soldiers of the 190th Division stared at the dark river with wide eyes, for fear of Japanese ships coming out of the night.

Although they did not receive the order to fire, the Chinese artillerymen in the city did not dare to sleep, so they sat in the fortifications around the artillery and waited.

It wasn't until dawn that the 190th Division discovered that they had been fooled.

It turns out that the Japanese actually played a trick and imitated Zhuge Liang's trick of "borrowing arrows from straw boats" in the Three Kingdoms. They tied chickens, ducks, dogs, and sheep to those wooden boards and tables, and then floated them down the river, creating a large army. The illusion of crossing the river.

The sentry could only see dark shadows in the night, and he was extremely nervous. He fired for most of the night, expending a lot of bullets and killing many livestock. He also implicated two to three thousand people all night long. sleep.

Yesterday during the day, Matsuyama Yoshimasa suffered a big loss. Hundreds of infantrymen were killed by Chinese artillery and fighter planes. However, under the pressure of Yokoyama Isamu, he came up with this "straw boat borrowing arrows" victory over the Chinese. One move.

At least throughout the day, all the officers and soldiers of the 190th Division, starting from the division commander Rong Youshou down, were listless and yawning, but no one dared to sleep.

Because in the upper reaches of the Xiangjiang River, several Japanese gunboats of several hundred tons were discovered, which may arrive in Hengyang at any time.

The gunboat is different from any other wooden motorboat. It has armor protection, several anti-aircraft anti-aircraft guns, and a 100mm main gun. It is definitely the overlord on the inland river.

Since yesterday's ambush by the Chinese Air Force resulted in the near-annihilation of the Japanese river crossing fleet, the number of Japanese fighter planes deployed over Hengyang has increased significantly today. From time to time, fighter planes dragging long plumes of smoke roaring down to the ground in the sky.

In the past, there was no air force to rely on. Now that we have the air force, we can't rely on air force fighters to solve everything! These infantry soldiers in China who are used to living in poverty will never have the arrogance of American cowboys.

"You should pay attention to rest and arrange your shifts reasonably. If nothing else happens, the Japanese will still mainly harass you tonight. They are not only using straw boats to borrow arrows, but also using tactics to tire out the troops." Tang Dao said. He said on the phone when discussing river bank defense with Rong Youlue, commander of the 190th Division.

"What I know is that the fear of the Japanese is only imaginary, and imaginary is real. Brothers, no one dares to take it lightly." Rong Youlue's face was full of worry.

Since the outbreak of the war, this major general division commander has not slept more than 4 hours a day, his eyes are bloodshot, and his beard has not been shaved for almost a week. If he took off his general uniform and put on the clothes of ordinary people, it would be He is an old farmer, and everyone probably doesn't believe him.

"Haha, the Japanese are getting anxious and are playing tricks on us, but they don't even think about it. In terms of playing tricks, how many ethnic groups in the world can compare with our Chinese nation?" Tang Dao was relaxed on the phone. laughed.

"They are just pretending but not telling the truth. If they really want to practice the trick of making lies but telling the truth, we will make it difficult for them to walk around in circles."

"Director Tang, please don't fool me." Rong Youlue naturally heard that there was something in Tang Dao's words, but he also knew that since he was not informed, it was of course a military secret.

"Haha! I promise to satisfy you, Commander Rong. The brothers of the 190th Division may also be needed by then." Tang Dao smiled.

"Of course it is obligatory. If Director Tang really has a way to defeat the Japs in Jiangdong, I dare not say anything else. Just for this battle in Hengyang, under Commander Fang, our 190th Division will only follow the orders of the staff and will never do anything. No excuses or delays," Rong Youlue replied firmly on the phone.

As the commander of the 190th Division, Rong Youlue's promise was truly extraordinary, which meant that except for Fang Xianjue, the 190th Division could only listen to the orders of the staff.

A major general announced that he would obey an army colonel's orders. This is almost impossible in any army. However, in response to Tang Dao's words to make the Japanese in Jiangdong suffer, the dignified commander of the 190th Division still refused. If you really promise like this, this is not only to repay Tang Dao's favor a few days ago, but also to unite this world-famous Tang Da to see if he really has the strength.

As for Tang Dao, he doesn't care whether the 190th Division really obeys his military orders. His command ranking in Hengyang Command is ranked fifth, unless there is a one-in-10,000 chance that the four previous ones will be killed. The regiment was destroyed, otherwise there would not be a situation where he, the small operations director, could unify the command of the entire army.

But Tang Dao thought it was a good choice to allow the officers and soldiers guarding Hengyang to see the power of his Four Elements Regiment and increase their confidence in defending the city.

After all, 'reinforcements will arrive tomorrow' will become the eternal words used by the Military Commission to comfort the Hengyang defenders 10 days later.

But the legendary reinforcements will never appear.

Among the tens of thousands of Chinese soldiers and civilians, only Tang Dao himself knew that the fate of Hengyang did not lie with external reinforcements or the Japanese, but in the hands of tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians inside and outside Hengyang City.

Confidence will become more precious than food and ammunition.

Sure enough, just as Tang Dao had guessed, the Japanese army adopted the same strategy for two consecutive nights. They used a large number of crude homemade wooden boards and rafts to tie pigs and sheep down the river, and also tied pigs and sheep to the rafts. On the waterline, let its limbs move randomly to make a paddling sound to confuse the defenders' sight and hearing.

The 190th Division still did not dare to neglect, and fired indiscriminately from machine guns and rifles. For most of the night, the entire river bank defense line was restless.

In the early morning of June 8, the Japanese troops came again, and this time there was obviously less gunfire.

For three consecutive days, the officers and soldiers of the 190th Division could not get enough sleep and were already exhausted. Many soldiers were still lying in their fighting positions and shooting towards the river, but they fell asleep at some point.

"Yo Xi! The Chinese are finally tired!" As the captain of the 6th Infantry Regiment, Colonel Yoshimasa Matsuyama actually arrived at the river bank in person, and made this judgment after observing the fire activity on the other side with a telescope for half an hour. "Order the fleet to set off. This time, the battle will be successful!"

In a calm bay 30 miles upstream of the Xiangjiang River, two gunboats with a displacement of 650 tons are parked there. Groups of Japanese troops kept quiet and quickly boarded the ships. In the shadow of the huge gunboats, there were newly deployed Japanese troops. Ten 25-ton gunboats arrived.

A thousand-man infantry brigade will be transported directly by this fleet to the dock near Hengyang City for landing operations.

For this landing operation, Matsukami Yoshimasa tried his best to not only persuade his division commander to ask him to use his personal relationship to find the commander of the Chinese dispatched force Tian Shunroku, but to obtain information from the 11th Team of the Japanese Navy's Third Fleet stationed in Jiangxia. Bian transferred two gunboats, the Hozu and the Hira.

The displacement of these two gunboats is about 400 tons. They are equipped with 120mm main guns, several anti-aircraft guns and several anti-aircraft machine guns. In the Yangtze River Basin, except for mines, they basically move sideways.

In order to ensure that the two gunboats reached the Xiangjiang River smoothly, the already weak Japanese Navy even dispatched a flying squadron to **** them in three waves, all the way from the Yangtze River into Dongting Lake and then into the Xiangjiang River Basin.

The 10 gunboats are also equipped with 80mm mortars and 25mm machine guns, which have strong cross-shore strike capabilities. They can also carry two squads of infantry. They are a weapon for the Japanese army to control inland river basins such as the Yangtze River.

Yokoyama praised the combat tactics of the 6th Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Division. He promised Matsukami Yoshimasa in the telegram that as long as the 6th Infantry Regiment can plant the general flag on the west bank of the Xiangjiang River, Matsukami Yoshimasa will be promoted to Army Major General by him. The commander of the 11th Army has full responsibility.

It can only be said that regardless of whether it is China or Japan, the officer paints the cake in a set way. The key is that the subordinates have to swallow the cake. Even if they know that it is a painting, can they really do it? You won’t know until the end when your belly is full.

In the current state where Yokoyama Yuu's eyes are almost red, whoever dares to disrespect his military orders will probably not get any good results.

The well-prepared Japanese fleet turned off all engines and lights when it was 10 miles away from the pre-selected landing site. By the time the Chinese sentries discovered it, the Japanese fleet was already less than 2 miles away from the landing site, and less than 400 miles away from the river bank. rice.

In the flash of flares, the huge figure of the Japanese gunboat seemed to come from hell. The 120mm main gun sprayed out terrible fire. There was a heavy machine gun fortification made of sleepers and sandbags on the shore, together with three machine gunners inside. It was blasted into the sky.

The 190th Division on the shore was like a cat that had its tail stepped on. All kinds of light and heavy machine guns, including rifles, were pouring crazily at the slowly pressing Japanese fleet. The artillery in the city also poured shells crazily onto the river two minutes later.

From time to time, shells exploded around the gunboat, which had a draft of 1.8 meters, causing water columns to rise into the sky.

This has to be replaced by the motorboats and wooden boats that the Japanese troops rode two days ago. There is no need to directly bombard the hull. Just the waves caused by the explosion of the shells can overturn them. But this kind of water column can only give the gunboats a bath. , doesn't seem to be of much use.

But at this moment, the two artillery brigades deployed by the Japanese army on the Jiangdong Plain also opened fire.

However, this time the Japanese army no longer engaged the Chinese artillery, but instead targeted the 190th Division position in the fortifications on the river bank.

The power of 24 75mm mountain cannons covering the bombing was definitely a nightmare for all infantrymen. When one cannon hit, an area the size of a football field was shrouded in gunpowder smoke. The infantrymen hiding in the trenches let alone the Japanese warships in the center of the Chaojiang River. The team fired. At this time, anyone who dared to raise his head and look into the river was a warrior.

The position of the 1st Battalion of the 586th Regiment of the 190th Division was filled with thick smoke. The 1st Battalion Commander Yang Jihe rushed from the traffic trench to the front line trench with a submachine gun. He bent down and pulled up the soldiers hiding at the bottom of the trench: "Next door to Mala, all the gentlemen should get up. No matter how good you are, if you hide, the **** Japanese will come ashore."

Seeing their battalion commanders roaring in and out of artillery fire, many soldiers regained their courage, held on to their guns, and fired desperately toward the center of the river to empty the bullets in the barrels.

Yang Jihe kept walking, bending down and running to the next position in the trench. If I remember correctly, that was the position of his 1st Sharp Knife Platoon.

There were gunshots in other positions, which meant that many officers and soldiers were still shooting despite the Japanese artillery fire. However, in the Sharp Knife Platoon, there were only rumbles of gunfire but no gunfire. This somewhat annoyed Yang Jihe.

However, when the infantry battalion commander, who was famous for his bravery, entered the position, he suddenly stopped in his tracks.

The miserable scene in front of him made this steel soldier who had experienced the test of war burst into tears.

The trenches were like **** on earth, with corpses and blood everywhere, and the entire trench was almost dyed red.

Based on experience, Yang Jihe could guess why this situation occurred. It should be that all the officers and soldiers of the sharp knife platoon were shooting at the river in the trenches. Even if Japanese artillery fire came, they did not hide in the anti-gun holes in a hurry.

According to the probability, the chance of the shell falling into the trench was extremely low, but unfortunately, they were very unlucky this time.

At least two shells were impartial, falling into the trench of the sharp knife platoon one after another. The air waves and shrapnel swept through the trench of less than 120 meters, almost destroying the sharp knife platoon with 37 soldiers. The group is destroyed.

In the blood-red trench, there were only a few figures crawling with difficulty, pausing in front of each body, probably looking to see if their comrades were still alive.

"Go and mobilize two squads, hold this position for me, and carry those guys down." Yang Jihe almost squeezed out this order from his back molars through gritted teeth.

Looking at the slowly approaching Japanese fleet on the river behind the gunpowder smoke, despair rose in the eyes of the usually tenacious infantry battalion commander.

"The Japanese army used gunboats, and our unit needs artillery support!" Rong You slightly's voice on the phone was hoarse.

"Fight for me. 1st and 2nd platoons will aim 50 rounds of incendiary bombs from each gun on the river to support the 190 brothers! 3rd platoon will fight the Japanese artillery for me. According to the artillery coordinates sent by the reconnaissance company." Pang Panghai also ordered.

Suddenly, the eight extra mountain cannons used incendiary bombs to explode into a sea of ​​flames on the river. After a gunboat was hit, it burned blazingly in the middle of the river, and dozens of screaming people jumped from the boat into the water.

But this is obviously of no use. Severe burns will soon make them lose their strength and eventually drown in the water!

Another shell hit the stern of the "Hotsu", turning the more than 20-meter-long stern into a sea of ​​​​fire and blowing the two 25mm anti-aircraft guns installed at the stern into parts flying in the sky.

Dozens of Japanese sailors carried water pipes and worked desperately to put out the fire. Obviously, 6.5 kilograms of projectiles alone were not enough to pose a fatal threat to this armored gunboat.

However, the eight Bofors Mountain Cannons that fired incendiary bombs still posed a great threat to the Japanese fleet. They had to maneuver on the river and spread the formation more sparsely to reduce the number of Chinese artillery pieces that desperately counterattacked. threaten.

However, the 24 mountain guns deployed by the Japanese army on land still posed a huge threat to the 1st Battalion of the 190th Division on the river bank. The more than 400 officers and soldiers who did not have enough and could not retreat into the anti-gun holes could only gamble their luck in the 1.8-meter-deep trench. Artillery shells do not fall easily into trenches.

The suppressive firepower of the four guns of the mountain artillery battery of the Fourth Army Regiment Artillery Battalion was too weak, as Lieutenant Colonel Masi Kawai, then commander of the 2nd Artillery Battalion, 3rd Artillery Regiment, 3rd Division, standing in the fortification said: " There is no need to change positions, all the artillery of the Chinese have gone to attack the ships of the Maldives Navy. Gentlemen, please continue to let the Chinese tremble under the fire of our army! "

This time, the two artillery brigades of the Japanese army had already accepted the lessons of the previous two times and began to deploy their positions early in the evening. The distance between each artillery gun was more than 300 meters. Not to mention just 4 guns, even 40 guns were not necessarily How about their artillery position covering an area of ​​2.5 square kilometers.

As for the threat from the ground, are there Chinese infantry here?

It can only be said that they still have little knowledge.

If they had asked the veterans who were in Tongguan that year, they would know that the crazy Chinese dared not even cross the mighty Yellow River, let alone the Xiang River, which is only 600 meters wide?

In the darkness, at least more than 200 Chinese soldiers were crawling in the mud no more than 500 meters away from them.