Chapter 50 Late strike

The sergeant brigade is different from the sergeant training class. The sergeant training class selects seedlings from the recruits, but the sergeant brigade selects the best from the veterans. Most of the members are squad leaders and deputy squad leaders in the company. officer.Therefore, the sergeant brigade is different from the general company, and it looks particularly strong. When these well-trained and experienced veterans fight with bayonets, their ferocity is by no means inferior to the Japanese soldiers who are good at charging and stabbing. "Short-handed soldiers meet each other, long swords reflect the sun", the sky is raining blood, no one can escape, only the strongest will have a chance to survive and continue to fight.The Xiapiqiao position was lost three times and regained. The corpses of Japanese soldiers were piled up in front of the position. With the recovery of each position, the 57th Division brought down an endless stream of wounded. Six out of ten of these wounded suffered bayonet wounds. , which shows the intensity of melee fighting.

On the other side, the Baimao Mountain position defended by the 58th Division was once captured by the Japanese army, and Zhang Lingfu took it back after leading his troops to counterattack. The battle for the core position of Xiapi Bridge was the focus of the Battle of Shanggao. In just one day, the number of casualties on both sides of the enemy and us reached more than 4,000.By the morning of March 24, although the 34th Division of the Japanese Army suffered heavy casualties, it was still unable to advance, and could only look up at the high city wall and sigh. Dahe decided to launch the last general offensive.The 3rd Flying Regiment of the Japanese Army also poured their money into the battle, dispatching 100 sorties to repeatedly bomb the Xiapiqiao and Baimaoshan positions, dropping more than 1,700 bombs.More than 160 bombs were dropped on a small hill with a radius of only tens of feet opposite Xiapi Bridge.

The excessively frequent impact of the Japanese army made the "old trilogy" almost without gaps. Bombs and artillery shells could injure the enemy or us, and "mobile warfare in positional warfare" could no longer be carried out smoothly. The focus is on the battle for positions, indeed to the extent that no matter the cost. On the forward position of the Seventy-Fourth Army, the trenches were dug and flattened, and then dug again after being flattened. The entire hill that served as a defensive position was almost turned over by bombs and shells, and it looked like it had been plowed by oxen. Tian same.It's just that this field is not the other field, and the soil and flesh mix and infiltrate each other, filling the air with the smell of blood.

When the former people came to the forward position, they saw the living soldiers rushing to dig trenches, and everyone's face was either smoke or blood.The grass, stones and trees on the top of the hill were all blown to pieces. Although there were still a few trees that were lucky enough not to be blown down, only bare trunks and big branches remained.Clothes and rags blown up by shells are hanging on the branches, swaying in the cold wind in early spring. In addition, there are stumps, severed hands, and even bloody heads... In the defense of Shanggao, the people of Shanggao also played a big role.The stone bridge of Jinjiang was blown up, and the forward transport team and stretcher team, regardless of the danger, braved the bombing and strafing of Japanese planes, and came and went between the north and south banks through the only pontoon bridge.In the meantime, the bombs dropped by the plane hit the sky-high water column beside the pontoon bridge. The pontoon bridge has been violently bumping and shaking, but it still cannot stop the rolling flow of people on the bridge.

Seeing that the battle situation was at a critical juncture, the friendly troops in the south of the city asked for battle at the headquarters of the group army one after another, but Luo Zhuoying did not agree to their request because of the consideration of a late attack. Show confidence and determination to stick to the high. Wang Yaowu personally went to the front line to supervise the battle. In just one hour, he commanded the army reserve team to launch seven counter-charges, and finally withstood the crazy onslaught of the Japanese army, blocking the 34th Division of the Japanese army outside Jingshan.

While the 74th Army was tenaciously defending the front, the 70th Army (Xiang Army) and the 49th Army (Northeast Army) approached the Japanese army from the left and right flanks, and the two divisions of the 72nd Army (Sichuan Army) also approached. Arrived at Lingjiangkou on the border of Shanggao on the same day. There was neither bridge nor boat on the Lingjiang River, and the Sichuan army could not cross it. The people in front of the support unloaded the door panels, propped up large and small wooden and bamboo rafts, and built a new pontoon bridge in a day.After passing the Lingjiang River along the pontoon bridge, the Sichuan Army cooperated with the Hunan Army and the Northeast Army to form an encirclement circle of 15 kilometers from east to west and 5 kilometers from north to south against the 34th Division of the Japanese Army.

Sensing the danger around him, Dahe quickly sent an emergency telegram to the headquarters of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, and at the same time ordered to stop attacking Shanggao and stand firm on the spot for help. At 6 pm on March 24, Luo Zhuoying issued a general attack order, ordering all encircled troops to attack the enemy in front of them.Wang Yaowu was very hesitant to join the offensive battle at first because his army had fought too hard in the defensive battle, suffered heavy casualties, and had been fighting for more than ten days. If the Seventy-Fourth Army does not participate in the offensive, the effect of the general offensive will inevitably be greatly reduced.Luo Zhuoying put the 26th Division and the 107th Division on standby in the south of the city under the command of Wang Yaowu, and after some encouragement, he persuaded Wang Yaowu to send the 57th and 58th Divisions up.

What Luo Zhuoying told Wang Yaowu was that this offensive battle was actually a pursuit battle: "In the pursuit battle, there is no need to cook and eat. The food cooked by the enemy will be given to us to eat!"