Chapter 47 very risky

The positions guarded by the 57th Division are on the Guanqiao and Sixi lines.There is a stream named Sishui in Sixi, and there is a five-hole stone bridge of 70 to 80 meters across it. If it is not in the rainy season, pedestrians can wade under the bridge.What the 57th Division attacked was the Japanese army that was carrying out a forced crossing. The Japanese army raised troops to fight in the three routes, and the Chinese side more or less arranged military-level troops to fight with them in the north and south routes. Only in the middle route, you can basically come as you want, and no one stands up to it.This invisibly fueled the arrogance of the 34th Division of the Japanese Army. All the officers and soldiers were so arrogant that they all wanted to step into Shanggao City in one step.

Excessive underestimation and paralysis must pay a price.The 34th Division of the Japanese Army only focused on speeding up the march, but did not know how to be on guard, allowing the 57th Division to find an opportunity to take advantage of. In terms of the type of attack, being attacked at Bandu is usually the most fatal.The Second Battalion of the 216th Regiment of the Japanese Army was defeated, and the captain of the brigade, Major Shigeshiro Kinoshita, was the first to be killed. The commanding force of the brigade declined accordingly, and almost all the remaining officers and soldiers died in battle.

The Japanese artillery unit next to the crossing point was also defenseless.A part of the artillery was destroyed immediately, and the remaining Japanese artillery had no time to set up their targets, and were forced to shoot directly at them, only then did they manage to hold their ground. After receiving the front battle report, the headquarters of the Nineteenth Army immediately published the news on the "Huaguang Daily" hosted by it.In the past, many so-called good news were mixed with water to varying degrees, but this time even the editor of the newspaper said confidently: "(We) won the battle and will not be wrong. The enemy was still arrogant on the broadcast last night, but Tonight's broadcast didn't mention anything about the battle at Shanggao."

At this time, the Japanese lineup has undergone new changes.On the North Road, on the one hand, the 33rd Division suffered from being besieged by the Chinese flanking troops in the narrow mountain pass; Waiting for the reason, hastily began to return.Originally, a forward brigade of the division had inserted into the defense line of the 58th Chinese Division and exchanged fire. Now that the large troops retreated, this brigade also left. Regardless of the safety of the other two friendly troops, the 33rd Division left the battlefield ahead of time, which solved the threat of one wing for the Chinese 19th Army, and at the same time exposed the Japanese army's own right back.The 20th Brigade on the South Road made another mistake. They were reluctant to concentrate their forces to fight recklessly, and a brigade had to be divided into several columns to use one by one, resulting in fragmented and slow progress of the entire brigade.

One is missing and the other is not strong, which means that only the 34th Division in the middle is going deep alone.Adventure?very risky.But He Mao, head of the 34th Division, didn't want to stop there.Knowing that he has encountered a strong enemy, it only strengthened his interest in continuing to rush forward. In offensive warfare, if the old trilogy fails, the Japanese army usually has the most damaging method, which is to release poison gas. At dawn on March 20, the 34th Division of the Japanese Army fired a large number of poison gas bombs at the main position of the 58th Division.Although due to the concentration, not many people died of suffocation on the spot, but they have been greatly affected emotionally.

In addition to carrying out poison gas warfare, the Japanese army also broke the habit of not fighting at night in the past, and launched a large-scale attack before the night had dissipated.Since the 11th Army Headquarters of the Japanese Army assigned the 20th Brigade to the 34th Division when the 33rd Division returned, a part of the 20th Brigade also came from the south to meet up. The troops that can be put into attack in the middle road are more abundant.The intelligence personnel of the Seventy-Fourth Army observed at a certain narrow intersection and found that the Japanese troops marching in columns were endless, and they walked for seven hours without seeing their tails.

After dawn, the junction of the 57th Division and the 58th Division was finally broken into by the enemy, and the situation on the battlefield was instantly reversed.Zhang Lingfu realized that the situation was not good, so he hurriedly put the field mending regiment as a reserve team on the front line, and counterattacked the Japanese army swarming up from the gap, which barely blocked the Japanese army's follow-up charge wave. Even so, the 57th and 58th Divisions were increasingly struggling in battle due to the wide front and weak forces.In response to the changes in the Japanese lineup, especially the 20th Brigade's shift from offense to defense and reinforcements in the middle, the Chinese Nineteenth Army made new changes to its deployment.

To the south of Shanggao City is the Jinjiang River, and there is a military bridge connecting the north and the south. On March 21, Xue Yue and Luo Zhuoying jointly issued a telegram to the Seventy-Fourth Army: the north bank of the Jinjiang River (that is, the middle road) should take a defensive position to ensure the main high altitude; The retreat of the Fourteenth Division. Wang Yaowu then ordered the 58th Division to take the initiative to retreat and retreat to the northwest line of Shanggao, while the 51st Division, which was originally on standby on the south bank of the Jinjiang River, marched towards Gao'an.

Unexpectedly, the battle situation suddenly deteriorated the next day.The 34th Division of the Japanese Army launched continuous fierce attacks on Guanqiao and Sixi, and Sishui Bridge became the key target of the attack.The infantry platoon guarding the bridge suffered heavy casualties. The platoon leader Zhao Xiangqing had three left fingers blown off, and had to be replaced by someone else, but the successor was also killed soon.In the evening of the same day, the Japanese army captured Guanqiao and Sixi. On the south bank of Jinjiang River, the 20th Brigade of the Japanese Army also launched an offensive, and repelled the main force of the 51st Division by copying the tactics of plagiarizing the side.

At this time, the main force of the 51st Division was out of reach, and the 58th Division was assembled in the northwest of Shanggao. If Huayang was defeated, the 57th Division would surely fall into the encirclement of the Japanese army.The situation has become extremely severe. Both Luo Zhuoying's "decisive retreat" and the combat capabilities of the 74th Army are facing serious challenges.