Rise From Eight Hundred

When dawn arrived, the two infantry regiments welcomed the returning advance regiment and informed the main position.

The three lieutenant general commanders of the Jiashan frontline command, together with the lieutenant general commanders of the 107th, 108th and 26th infantry divisions, a total of 6 lieutenant general-level army officers, all went out to meet Sanli.

If the Japanese army had bombarded the Jiashan defense line at this time, they would have gained a lot, and the effect would be no worse than the Chinese annihilating their heavy artillery brigade.

Unfortunately, they no longer have a heavy artillery brigade.

Although there were enough corrupt officials during this period, it was still a piece of cake to invest huge amounts of money in defense fortifications to prevent enemy landings at sea to defend against 75mm artillery.

Ushijima Sadao was still busy gathering the frontline troops, including the 36th Infantry Brigade, which was in a state of disgrace. For the time being, he could not take care of the Chinese army that had retracted into the defense line.

The welcoming standards were a bit high, but the advance regiment was worth it.

Any unit that can destroy a heavy artillery brigade deserves to be welcomed by their chief officers in this standard.

The original words of the 108th Division’s violent lieutenant general commander: “If I can knock out the Japanese invaders’ 6th Heavy Artillery Brigade, I won’t feel bad even if I use my guard battalion to exchange for the entire division.”

Although, the Army Lieutenant General’s cheeks trembled when he said this in his guard battalion, where only 180 people were left and everyone was injured.

That was painful.

The loss of the advance group this time was huge.

Of the more than 3,200 troops when they were divided, only 2,000 were able to join the main force in the end, and 1,200 of them died on the battlefield in the southeast.

What hurt these senior commanders even more was that a major officer was killed, more than 20 lieutenants, and more than 400 veterans at the sergeant level suffered heavy losses.

If you are not a veteran, how can you become an elite? If you are not a veteran, how can you lead new recruits to stand on the most dangerous battlefield? When the artillery fire came, the veterans who were best at saving their lives could only use death to remind their comrades of the cruelty of the battlefield, and could only use death to consolidate their strength.

No matter which army, veterans are the real cornerstone of an army.

If the veterans do not die, after adding enough new recruits and training for a short period of time, the troops can recover sufficient combat effectiveness.

But the advance regiment lost hundreds of veterans in this battle, and it would be strange if the chief officers did not feel bad.

If you only look at the losses, the battle led by Tang Dao, who lost one-third of the elite troops of the entire army, was a defeat.

But if you look at the results of the battle of Tang Dao and the advance regiment, even the most heartbroken generals will laugh with tears in their eyes.

A heavy artillery brigade is worth these sacrifices, not to mention that it also beat up the arrogant Sixth Division.

The 36th Infantry Brigade ran fast, and did not stand hard on the battlefield like the stupid bird of the infantry regiment under the 18th Division, but this also led to them not taking away the bodies left on the front line.

Because of the limited time, the cavalrymen who were responsible for cleaning the battlefield and collecting the number of Japanese casualties were also terrible at math. When the number was large, they couldn't add it up properly.

Lu Sanjiang even counted on his fingers for a long time and then gave Gong Shaoxun a number of 4,000 people. He almost kicked the battalion commander Gong into the ditch.

That's nonsense! How many people are there in the 36th Infantry Brigade? You can swallow up a brigade with just a few thousand people? Why don't you go to heaven!

Not to mention that the big guys above will not believe this number, even the infantrymen who started it will not believe it!

Because it was dark, the cavalrymen couldn't go to check everywhere, and Tang Dao couldn't do it either. They could only roughly count the number of 2,200 based on the Japanese corpses left in front of the positions reported by each company.

Fighting head-on with the awesome 36th Infantry Brigade, they killed 2,200 of them? And it was a situation of more people fighting fewer people, even if twelve heavy artillery were set up to bombard it! Do you think the ‘strongest division on the surface’ is a fool? Just standing there for you to fight?

This is Tang Dao. Wu and Guo knew that he would not falsely report his military exploits. If it were someone else, they would have slapped him in the face. But even so, the three lieutenant generals of the headquarters still gritted their teeth and reduced the number by 700.

The number of 1,500 killed enemies is already amazing for a field battle involving thousands of people.

Little did they know that in the Japanese army’s post-war statistics, the 36th Infantry Brigade had as many as 1,800 infantrymen killed on the spot and more than 700 injured, more than half of whom died of wound infection, and the number of missing people in the artillery bombardment was as high as more than 600, including Lieutenant Colonel Setouchi and a group of staff officers and communications officers.

In other words, in this field battle that only the two parties knew how tragic it was, the 36th Infantry Brigade suffered more than 3,000 casualties, 800 more than Tang Dao’s estimate, and two infantry regiments were completely wiped out.

The incompetent Lu Sanjiang's estimate was not much less accurate than Tang Dao's.

If the losses under Songjiang City were added, the 36th Infantry Brigade, an elite army, had basically lost its combat effectiveness. If they had to fight hard, they would only have some baggage soldiers and engineers left to fill the void.

In fact, after counting the losses at dawn, Major General Ushijima Mitsuru became autistic. Even when he arrived at the defense zone of the 18th Division, he did not take the initiative to greet his cousin, Lieutenant General Ushijima, who also had the surname Ushijima.

At that time, Ushijima Sadao's resentment towards Ushijima Mitsuru had already been like a raging river, and he would not take the initiative to comfort this unfortunate child.

Ushijima Sadao didn’t want to take the blame for the unauthorized transfer of the infantry regiment that escorted the 6th Heavy Artillery Brigade, which led to the 6th Heavy Artillery Brigade’s destruction. So it had to be Major General Ushijima Mitsuru who had to take the blame. His previous telegram asking for help from the 18th Division was still there.

The Japanese North China Expeditionary Army Headquarters was very efficient this time. After receiving the opinions of the 6th Heavy Artillery Brigade’s collective destruction and the 10th Army Lieutenant General Commander Yanagawa Heisuke, it issued a dismissal order.

Ushijima Mitsuru, the already autistic 36th Infantry Brigade Major General, was dismissed and ordered to immediately return to the country on the navy’s warships that transported the wounded back home and wait for the decision of the headquarters.

As a result, the military order was issued too quickly. When Hasegawa Masanori, the former Colonel Commander of the 47th Infantry Regiment who temporarily succeeded the position of the 36th Infantry Brigade Commander, reported the losses of the battle that night to the 10th Army Headquarters, all the big guys almost vomited blood and died collectively.

It turns out that this idiot Ushijima Mitsuru not only screwed over the 6th Heavy Artillery Brigade, but also crippled his own 36th Infantry Brigade.

No wonder this guy who usually looks down on others didn't even complain, and ran away with a few armed guards.

The unlucky guy ran away, but he still had to take responsibility for this matter, which was what Yanagawa Heisuke and a bunch of lieutenant generals and generals of the North China Expeditionary Army were most upset about.

Therefore, the battle report of the 36th Infantry Brigade's losses was kept by the Tenth Army Headquarters until the Battle of Nanjing, which broke out a month later, was completely over, and then it was reported to the higher authorities.

It was not until then that the Japanese Songhu Expeditionary Army knew why the "strongest division on the surface of the earth" that had to be the vanguard in every battle became a turtle this time, and was willing to be a reserve army on such an important battlefield.

It turns out that they had already been the vanguard once, and the vanguard was crippled.

Yes, after the battle of Songjiang and this extremely defeated pursuit, the 6th Division, which was originally a notorious butcher division, had its division commander Tani Hisao killed at the foot of Songjiang City. The 13th Infantry Brigade under its command suffered a loss of up to 5,000 people, and a colonel regiment commander was killed in battle. It had long been in name only; the 36th Infantry Brigade under its command, its brigade commander was dismissed and investigated, and the lieutenant colonel chief of staff was killed in battle. The loss of more than 4,000 people was equivalent to having its arms and legs broken, and it became a disabled brigade.

The butcher division that made the whole of China want to eat its flesh in the past time and space was slaughtered first in this time and space.

Affected by this blow, the 6th Division had no performance in the entire war. After serving as a reserve division on Chinese soil for two years, it was ordered to return home and then transferred to the Pacific battlefield.

Then, their ending was as tragic as before, and they were blown to ashes by American cowboys with exaggerated naval guns on a small island in the Pacific.

And the man who had no chance to become a butcher, Ushijima Mitsuru, also failed to escape his fate after his efforts and activities. He was re-employed and became the head of a division of a lieutenant general. He cut open his belly in despair at the entrance of the tunnel.

The Japanese were furious, while the Chinese laughed in disbelief.

After Tang Dao made a brief report, he went to the tunnel to rest. He didn't know how many days and nights he hadn't slept well. No matter how strong his bones were, he couldn't hold on.

The six lieutenant generals in the command sent this telegram, which could only be called a "miracle", to the theater command.

The whole world was shocked!

It is said that when the big man who had just had his first sip of morning tea saw the telegram that his major general aide hurriedly brought him, he directly washed his major general aide's face.

With a mouthful of hot tea!