Chapter 27 Charcoal in the snow

Turn over, turn over, turn over.On the same day, the 106th Division of the Japanese Army launched a "conical assault" on the position of the 58th Division by means of a combination of infantry, air and artillery. The role of Japanese aircraft in Zhanggushan has not been replicated in Wanjialing.The 58th Division was already prepared for an air attack. As soon as the Japanese plane appeared, the officers and soldiers took cover in trees and trenches. When the Japanese infantry approached and the Japanese plane could not drop bombs, they entered the position to fight back. During the interview, Ateli found that the pace of the escorting Chinese soldiers was very fast.After climbing many mountains with them, Ateli had to admit: "Chinese soldiers are better at walking than soldiers from any country in the world." To some extent, this is also forced out, because if they are not fast, they will It is impossible to adapt to this kind of mountain warfare without air defense protection.

The real problem facing the 58th Division is that they are almost running out of people! Since the entire division entered the Wanjialing battle, the 58th Division has killed and wounded more than 3,500 Japanese soldiers, but the entire division has also lost all casualties. The company and platoon leaders of many companies have all been killed. Five hundred people. The 58th Division sent cooks, grooms and other miscellaneous personnel to the front line, but it was still not enough.Seeing that the Japanese army was about to break through their own positions, the division commander Feng Shengfa had no choice but to ask the army commander Yu Jishi for help as a last resort, but Yu Jishi also ran out of reserves in his hand, and the only thing he could use was the army guard battalion.

At that time, in order to facilitate the observation of battlefield changes and adjust deployment, the command post of the military division was very close to the front line, which virtually increased the risk of the command organ being attacked or even swallowed.At the beginning of the Battle of Wanjialing, the guerrilla unit sent by the 106th Division of the Japanese Army infiltrated near the corps headquarters of the Cantonese Army and launched an attack from hundreds of meters away, "stray bullets scattered all around." Yu Jishi knew that once the guard battalion left, the military headquarters might face unpredictable dangers, but he still gritted his teeth and allocated two companies of the guard battalion to Feng Shengfa, leaving only one squad to guard the military headquarters.

The two guard companies have two hundred soldiers who are alive and well. For the front line, it is like sending charcoal in a timely manner.After a fierce battle, the 58th Division finally held its position. So far, the 106th Division of the Japanese Army has also suffered more than half of its casualties, and is unable to continue to expand the breakthrough range, so it has to turn to defense on the spot and stand by for help. The 106th Division wanted reinforcements, but the Japanese Eleventh Army could not provide reinforcements.In addition to the 27th Division being intercepted on Ruiwu Road, the 101st Division of Xiyuan was also blocked on the Dexing Line, and no one could get through.Miyazaki, the commander of the Japanese 11th Army’s Operations Division who was in charge of planning the operation, was as anxious as an ant on a hot pot on Monday, but apart from complaining about the lack of attack by the 106th Division, he couldn’t think of a better one for a while. Rescue.

Miyazaki later admitted that he was responsible for the improper use of the 106th Division in the Battle of Wanjialing, and should not have sent this second-rate division in the Japanese army to take responsibility for the surprise attack.The implication is that if given another chance, he would never dare to sell the leftovers from the previous night. In fact, Miyazaki has also overlooked another aspect, that is, as great as the benefits of a surprise attack, there are as many risks. When the 106th Division went deep into the area between Ruichang and Nanxun alone, it had already embarked on a dangerous journey— ——The two Chinese troops in Ruichang and Nanxun can surround the raiders as long as they turn around. In other words, even if Miyazaki sent a first-class division at that time, the probability of the final attack being successful is at most only five or five open.

This is not an era in which you can easily pick up cheap and lucky things by going around casually.At this time, it had been more than ten days since the 106th Division of the Japanese Army set off from Mahuiling. They did not carry much food and ammunition. During the Battle of Lanfeng, the 14th Division of the Japanese Army, which was surrounded by the Eastern Yu Corps, also relied on the sky to survive the crisis with food and ammunition dropped by planes.However, Wanjialing is different from the Central Plains. The terrain conditions here are more complicated. There is an error of ten miles between the position estimated by the Japanese plane and the actual location of the 106th Division.

After the Chinese army observed this situation, whenever the Japanese planes dropped by air, they would paste the center of the red cloth in the middle of the white cloth, and use this fake "plaster flag" to lure the Japanese planes to drop the supplies on their own positions.As a result, the life of the 106th Division of the Japanese Army became even more miserable. Even its command center was facing a crisis of food shortage, and the division headquarters had not had enough food for nearly three days.Ordinary soldiers are all skinny, as the saying goes, "Looks like a pencil from the front, and looks like a calendar from the side."

In terms of offensive and defensive posture, although the 106th Division of the Japanese Army captured Zhang Gushan, it was limited to the inner circle. On the outer circle, the overlapping Chinese troops have formed a four-layer encirclement.A tired turtle in a urn can aptly describe the current situation of the 106th Division. Seeing that the time was basically ripe, on October 7, Xue Yue ordered to narrow the encirclement from all sides and launch a general attack on the 106th Division of the Japanese Army.Among them, the Seventy-Fourth Army was mainly responsible for the attack in the south, and the task was to recover Zhanggushan and the nearby Changling.

Yu Jishi handed over the task of the general offensive to the 51st Division.Wang Yaowu held a meeting before the war to study the attack plan.At the meeting, you said something to each other, and listened to each other. The words of Zhang Lingfu, the commander of the 153rd Brigade, moved Wang Yaowu. Zhang Lingfu believed that if he only attacked from the front, it would be more difficult and cause heavy casualties. It is better to follow the example of Deng Ai in the middle of the war and use the cliffs at the back of the mountain to organize a surprise attack on the enemy's back. Wang Yaowu adopted Zhang Lingfu's strategy.Zhang Lingfu selected 500 elite soldiers from the 305th Regiment as a commando to carry out the surprise attack. In order to increase his chances of winning, Wang Yaowu also assigned the 302nd Regiment to the 153rd Brigade, and Zhang Lingfu commanded the three regiments to carry out the main attack. The 151st Brigade, which had lost a regiment, was changed to a reserve team.