Rise From Eight Hundred

The county seat of Guangde was not attacked by thieves, but by a "military disaster".

Lei Xiong led the main force of the independent battalion to establish a blocking position three kilometers west of Guangde City. His head was not ordinary.

Looking at the various tunnel drawings Tang Dao drew for him, he once wondered if Tang Dao wanted to exhaust him and the main force of the independent battalion to death.

Tang Dao took away two infantry companies, leaving him with less than 900 people in total. It might be okay to dig a few trenches in 24 hours with just these 900 people, but if he wants to do what Tang Dao said, It is simply a fantasy to dig tunnels in the mountains that can protect against heavy artillery bombs.

However, the manpower problem was soon greatly alleviated. Leng Feng quickly returned with a company and even brought two Sichuan infantry battalions to report to Lei Xiong. The manpower suddenly increased by a thousand people.

But the manpower of two thousand people is still insufficient.

In the afternoon, Tang Dao, who was on the front line of Jiepai, sent a report to Lei Xiong through the field radio carried by the second company, saying that the Sichuan army on the front line was determined to fight to the death on the front line to gain 36 hours for the Shuishan position.

Lei Xiong is also an extremely decisive person. He knows that these 36 hours were hard-won and were earned by the officers and soldiers of the 145th Division of the Sichuan Army.

Not enough manpower, right? Then recruit.

In fact, the people who retreated from Guangde City did not go far. They were basically scattered in the mountains nearby. They all wanted to escape this war before returning home. The special team scouting near Mouse Mountain had already reported that the area was 5 miles away. There are many people hiding in shacks in the mountains. They don't know that this place is about to become a battlefield.

Perhaps, it was the battlefield with the fiercest fighting along the entire defense line of Guangde.

Originally, Guo Shouzhi's intention was to send several infantry squads to the surrounding mountains to persuade the people who were fleeing the war to leave. If they ran any further, they might be covered by artillery fire.

Lei Xiong is thinking of this, we don't have enough manpower right now! These common people can come in handy.

Of course, there will not be any forced labor recruitment, but an employment system.

The 10,000 yuan that the independent battalion headquarters originally used to distribute to soldiers who had meritorious service awards was placed in front of the temporary battalion headquarters built of wood.

Nearly a hundred soldiers sent out informed the people in the mountains that all the people who came to participate in the construction work of the position would have 24 hours of working time, food and drink, and young adults would receive 2 yuan per day plus a pound of rice and noodles, and women and children would receive 1 yuan per day plus a pound of rice and noodles.

This salary is not generally good. The return on labor in this era, even in the most economically developed cities in China, such as the north and south, a factory worker who works hard for a month only earns only seven or eight yuan, let alone Guangde. In this small town located in the mountainous area of ​​southern Anhui, an ordinary family may have enough money to spend a month on two oceans.

Although they were building a position and fighting might start at some point, the reward was astonishing. There was also a pound of rice and noodles to take, including women and children. Materials like food were even more precious to people fleeing.

In just 3 hours, more than 6,000 people came to the Mouse Mountain position. Including the original nearly 2,000 officers and soldiers, the Mouse Mountain position, which was not that big, was full of people.

More than 10,000 yuan was sent out to the ocean, and the originally sufficient logistical supplies were greatly reduced, but the vast crowd gave Lei Xiong enough confidence.

However, the first military order he issued was not to dig a tunnel on the spot, but to have all soldiers and civilians carry out felling.

Cut down all the trees and shrubs on Mouse Mountain facing the direction of Guangde City guarding the simple road from Guangde to Wuhu.

There is strength in numbers, but within a few hours, the east-facing slopes of several highlands in the Mouse Mountain area became bare. Not to mention the Tibetans, even a rabbit hidden on the mountainside was clearly visible from the top of the mountain.

While logging, all living animals that can be seen have become food for people to replenish energy. Whether hares, pheasants or cute little squirrels, they have become protein for the sweaty soldiers and civilians to replenish their physical fitness.

In a state of war, human lives are at risk, let alone animal protection.

Protecting the environment and caring for animals can only occur in peaceful and prosperous times. The dove of peace soaring in the sky was nothing more than a dish in the war years.

When the soldiers and civilians swept away the wood and shrubs, and then set the weeds on fire, there was a dark and dead silence on the east-facing hillside.

Lei Xiong had two reasons for logging. First, he had no reason to leave any cover for the incoming Japanese troops, which would only make him uncomfortable. Second, building tunnels and anti-blast holes required a large amount of wood. support.

There are mostly miscellaneous trees on the mountain, and cutting them down alone is still not enough, so dismantle the existing ones.

The deserted county town was the best supplier of lumber. Thousands of soldiers and civilians whose lives were threatened were like locusts crossing the border. It took half of the night to tear down any useful wood or steel in the small town of Guangde. Being clean is even more miserable than being attacked by bandits.

Of course, the people were resistant to demolishing their homes like this, but Lei Xiong's words touched their hearts.

"If everyone is so distressed that they have to demolish it, the position will not be built, and then our army will have to defend Guangde City. Under the artillery fire, our entire army and Guangde City will be reduced to ashes."

That means that the current demolition is just to remove the doors, windows and beams, but if we are forced to use the small city wall of Guangde as a defense line, then nothing will be left in Guangde City.

The common people were just ordinary people. They hid in the mountains because they were afraid of the Japanese killing and setting fires, but it did not mean that they were willing to leave their hometowns where their ancestors had lived for generations. They always wanted to wait for the war to end so that they could return to their homes. After hearing this, it would be better to listen to the order of the superiors to demolish it. In this way, at least some brick walls can be left, which is better than leaving a pile of ruins.

With this idea, they demolished it more actively than the soldiers, fearing that the "extremely vicious" Chief Lei would bring his soldiers to Guangde City.

And the enthusiasm for digging trenches and building tunnels was even stronger than before, not just for the sake of silver dollars and rice and flour.

It was supported by the desire to leave a shelter for the elderly and children.

It was a very simple wish, but unfortunately, it was destined to be just a dream in the cruel war.

In the Japanese war zone, even if you are alive, you are humiliated and humble.

But this unrealistic mentality is extremely effective in building positions on Mouse Mountain.

In fact, in the evening, Tang Dao rode the mount borrowed from the Lieutenant General of the Sichuan Army and specially returned to the "big construction site" where the work was in full swing.

The entire Laoshu Mountain has three mountains, like a Chinese character, surrounding the winding simple road.

Without conquering these three mountains, the Japanese infantry may still be able to cross the mountains and ridges to Wuhu, but their cannons and baggage can only be parked in the distance to bask in the sun.

And what can pure light infantry do after walking out of the mountains in southern Anhui? Send heads to the Chinese army around Jinling City?

In fact, the Japanese themselves know in their hearts that this time in the war against China, Japan is strong, not because the army is mostly composed of veterans and how strong the combat effectiveness is, but the current industrial and economic strength of China and Japan.

Japan, which has been learning from the Western world for nearly a hundred years, has caught up with the second industrial revolution. It has a mature industrial system in Japan, which can build big guys such as airplanes, tanks, cannons, and even battleships and aircraft carriers.

And what about China at that time! There was no heavy industry, and even the light industry was lackluster.

The so-called dimensionality reduction strike is nothing more than the Japanese army having one more weapon than the Chinese army - artillery.

Without the God of War, the Japanese army is actually just that kind of thing. Even if they are strong, they are limited.

Therefore, these three highlands named No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 by Tang Dao are the places that the Japanese army must attack if they want to advance westward.

The officers and soldiers of the independent battalion have experienced the Battle of Songjiang and the defensive battle on the Jiaxing front, and they are already veterans.

However, this is their first time to fight a mountain defense war. They are not new to it, but it would be nonsense to say that they are proficient in it. Including Lei Xiong, they still use the old tricks to build trenches along the mountain. The life-saving reverse slope tunnel warfare is still in the impression that Tang Dao has repeatedly mentioned in the past two days.

Therefore, Tang Dao must take this trip, otherwise, when the Japanese planes, tanks, and artillery attack, let alone more than 2,000 people in his hands, even if there are several times more, it will not be enough for the Japanese to kill.

For the three highlands, a trench was first built in the traditional way in the area 50 meters below the top of the mountain, and then another trench was built on the ridge.

Of course, compared with the two main battle trenches, the more important ones are the tunnels behind the ridge.

Because of the shooting angle, the Japanese artillery can only cause damage to the soldiers in the trenches at most, and it is useless for the infantry hiding behind the ridge. However, the Japanese army also has bombers, and the bombs dropped from the air do not care whether you are in front of the mountain or behind the mountain.

At this time, it depends on the tunnels.

That is the essence of the most classic reverse slope tunnel warfare developed in the ice field battle more than ten years later. It is those seemingly inconspicuous tunnels that protected Chinese soldiers from being killed by countless bombs dropped by American cowboy planes.

Both defensive trenches have several communication trenches leading to the tunnels on the top of the mountain and behind the mountain.

The trenches in front of the mountain and the tunnels behind the mountain that have been started are basically dug according to the meaning of Tang Dao.

However, when Tang Dao came back from inspecting the entire defense line and saw the trench prototypes that the soldiers on the main positions on the top of the three highlands had just dug, he shook his head.

Although it was not a straight line, the soldiers chose the simplest arc trench to save time and labor.

But what's the use? If the Japanese used heavy artillery, as long as a shell fell into the trench, the air wave would sweep dozens of meters, and an infantry squad or even half an infantry platoon would be finished.

Such trenches would only become a nightmare for soldiers.

They still had too little understanding of field fortifications. If they saw the criss-crossing trenches on Wusheng Mountain that the Chinese soldiers would be unfamiliar with more than a decade later, they would definitely be ashamed.

No matter how rushed they were, they couldn't make shoddy products.