Chapter 28 broken city

From the morning of the 28th, the sound of artillery fire in Changde gradually became rarer, and at dawn, even the sound of rifles stopped. From the first shot on the 18th to the present, the sound of the cannon has been sounding day after day, moment after moment. At this moment, all the sounds suddenly ceased, and people seemed to be transferred from one universe to another, and suddenly produced A feeling of relief and wonder. A few staff officers in the division smiled and said, is the war almost over?The observation sentries at the city gates also reported to the division that the Japanese army began to retreat from the middle of the night, and most of the enemy troops had retreated to the northwest corner.

When Yu Chengwan received these reports, he understood the joy in everyone's hearts, but he was calm because he could not see any signs that could prove that the enemy had been forced to retreat.All the news of the reinforcements is still the same as before, after all, it has never been put into reality.And without the offensive of reinforcements, how can the enemy retreat easily?So Yu Chengwan separately informed the front-line troops to be on strict alert. The moment of silence may be that the enemy has readjusted its deployment. The enemy is moving westward, probably to cross the river from the upper reaches of the Yuan River, and step up to encircle the southwest corner. Next, it will be the Japanese army. The more violent and vicious impact, don't be careless.

According to Yu Chengwan's order, all the staff offices were dispatched to various troops and city gates to convey the division commander's instructions. Long Chuyun ran towards Daximen.In the shelter, he held up the binoculars and looked ahead.Sure enough, there was no sound in the Japanese army's position. Although the small Japanese military flag with white cloth and red plaster was still standing in the trenches and bunkers occupied by the enemy, no one could be seen moving. He raised his mirror and searched slowly. There, he saw two great flames shooting up into the sky, and the wind was blowing from there, carrying a very foul stench.He asked the soldiers, what are the Japanese doing?The soldier replied that the Japanese army dispatched a large number of soldiers before dawn, not to attack, but to rush back the dead bodies of the Japanese soldiers abandoned on the ground.

Long Chuyun couldn't stand the terrible smell, so he spit two mouthfuls on the ground.After vomiting, he said to the soldiers: "At the frontline strongholds, the enemy is still dormant in the fortifications. Don't think that the enemy is really retreating. They just transferred the troops with heavy casualties to the rear to reorganize, and then replaced the new force to the front. , the next battle will be even more difficult, and the commander has repeatedly asked me to tell everyone that you must be on high alert and don't fall for the enemy's tricks!" After giving the order, Long Chuyun rushed to the north gate again.From the north gate, he saw two clumps of black smoke rising from the northeast corner, probably burning dead bodies.

As Master Yu Chengwan estimated, the Japanese army was breathing heavily.The purpose of the big panting is to pounce on more fiercely. In the Japanese Army Command Post at Yanqiao outside the east gate, the head of the Iwa Yongwang division called a meeting of generals above the commander of each division.At the meeting, he read out the emperor's imperial edict.It turned out that the battle in Changde involved the joint attack of China and the Allied forces on the Japanese army in Burma, and the battlefield in Burma directly affected the Japanese army's war pattern in Southeast Asia. Therefore, the emperor paid special attention to it. He not only listened to the report of the battle situation every day, but also took every step Every progress is marked on the map for his reference.Obviously, he was very dissatisfied with the slow development of the war situation. On the evening of the 27th, when he learned the bad news that Changde had been unable to attack for a long time, he couldn't help becoming angry.He immediately asked the Ministry of the Army to convey to the headquarters of the dispatched army, announcing his edict to the frontline commanders of the 11th Army, to occupy Changde within two days, otherwise, all officers and soldiers would be shot to death!

While reading, Yan Yongwang cried bitterly and was speechless, expressing that he must live up to the emperor's edict and go to the city within two days, otherwise, from him onwards, all officers and soldiers will be loyal.At the same time, he was scolding fiercely in his heart, Yokoyama Yong, this old fox, is really treacherous and cunning. He pushed me to the front line, and made me think that he was being reused. He wanted to see me die in battle. In the end, he will clean up the mess, win the victory, and finally become the biggest hero of the Changde War.snort!Yan Yongwang snorted, don't think that I am a mask in the drama, for you to dress up and manipulate at will, I want to show you that I can knock this Changde city underground!

Amid the gnashing of teeth, the meeting broke up.However, the captains of the 116th Division did not leave, and Yan Yongwang summoned them to the inner room to plot a clever plan to attack the city.Yan Yongwang has already made up his mind that the first achievement of breaking the city must be won by the 116th Division. After the death of Captain Nakahata of the 6th Regiment of the 3rd Division, he was commanded by Osamu Murakawa, the commander of the 3rd Regiment of the Field Artillery. Trench water can be waded in vain.Then the traitor provided information that before the battle, the county government dug a gap in the old city and filled in a walkway in the dry moat in order to facilitate the citizens to go out of the city to hide from the alarm. The road in the trench was dug deep into the water to restore the river shape, and the gap in the city wall was also repaired, but due to time constraints, it was not completed in time, so it just provided the best breakthrough for the imperial army to attack the city.

That's exactly what Iwa Aeon had in mind.He analyzed that as long as Murakawa's troops attacked the west wall, then this position happened to be the back of the north gate, and the defenders of the north gate would feel that they were surrounded by the enemy and were attacked by others, and they might lose their positions immediately.As long as he panics and his defense is naturally weak, then the 133rd and 109th regiments of the 116th division in the direction of the north gate can take advantage of the gap and launch a fierce attack. With the combined advantages of the two regiments, they can break through the gate and enter the city instantly. In other words, it is completely possible to win the first victory in breaking the city.Iwa Aeon cast his eyes on Kurose Colonel, this vision not only consulted, but also challenged, and even made the other party breathless:

"Kurose-kun, how are you doing? What's your opinion?" This opportunity is very good. If you don't take advantage of the opportunity of Murakawa's invisibly hitting the back, then what kind of vision and brains are there in the military? "The task must be completed!" Kurose stood at attention, making a pledge on behalf of the two alliances. "That's good," Iwa Aeon said seriously, "I'll wait for news from Kurose-kun before 6 o'clock in the evening!" "Hay!" Kurose stood at attention tensely again. After 4 p.m. on the 28th, the artillery fire of the Japanese army around Changde City began to bombard the city base again.The assisting plane also flew into the sky at the same time, dropping bombs and incendiary bombs from the bottom of the abdomen one after another. From a distance, pillars of fireworks rose into the sky, like a pervasive forest.

There was a fire in the city, and the Kurose troops outside the north gate concentrated their forces in the northeast corner of the city base, spread their wings, and advanced towards the moat.Thirty or forty cannons, large and small, bombarded this corner together, blasting every inch of the ground, and smashing stones flying around. The defender at the north gate is the 1st Battalion of the 191st Regiment. Battalion Commander Wu Hongbin led two companies to fight on the city base himself.The Japanese army's tactics are very clear, that is, to use cannons to focus on one place to shoot first, creating a gap under the flames, and then the infantry rushed in to this gap.Although the national army had figured out the intention of the Japanese army, but in the absence of heavy weapons to fight back and lack of bullets, they could only fix one tactic, that is, when the Japanese army bombarded them, they would lie down in the trenches and dodge motionless until the enemy rushed to the ground. When they reached the moat, they would use machine guns to fire a limited amount of ammunition. When the enemy approached again, the national army soldiers would rush out of the trenches, meet them head-on, and kill them both with hand grenades, or fight with bayonets, desperately.Playing like this is very passive and dangerous, but as far as the conditions are concerned, there is no other choice.

When the artillery fire at the north gate reached its climax, the sound of the artillery was first echoed at the east gate. Chai Yixin, head of the 169th regiment guarding the east gate, went to the division headquarters to take orders. Before he could rush back to the regiment command post, the Japanese offensive began.In the center of Changde City, looking up and looking around, it is completely smoky, and the smog has enveloped the isolated city. In the dense fog, you can see the purple-green flames like demons, spraying under the smog. As soon as Chai Yixin came out of Xingjiekou, he was surrounded by fireworks. He and a messenger became two blurred shadows.They walked eastward, and the smoke from the shells condensed on the ruins, like the thickest fog in winter. Every shell fell into the red mist, and the fire light brought countless horns, drifting from the flat ground to all directions.They rushed back in a hurry, ignoring the hissing and whistling of the bullets in their ears, like screams, suddenly, a fierce hot wind blew, and the force was so great that both Commander Chai and the orderly were blown down on the ground. Rolled a few times.Chai Yixin thinks that a soldier pledges his body to the country and can sacrifice his life at any time. This is a bold statement, but today it is not just in words.Today, the possibility of dying at any time is always in an instant. Every step of the way in the city is dangerous, and the soldier brothers who are resisting the enemy on the line of fire, especially in the frenzy of iron fire, he has to rush over, he has to stand in the command post, no matter how fierce the artillery fire is, he will die. It is a shame to be generous and flinch to die, but to die to fulfill one's sacred mission is to die with a bright heart.Thinking of this, even though he was knocked down by the bullet wind and rolled on the ground, he still got up firmly and pulled up the messengers. They supported each other and walked tenaciously towards the position.Along the way, there were communication soldiers pulling the telephone wires, engineering soldiers laying fortifications, and transport soldiers delivering bullets. In the smoke, these figures were moving nervously. He felt that none of them took death seriously.They are not afraid, am I afraid?He felt that he had given birth to a huge force from this.He continued to approach the east gate, and saw the gap in the foundation of the east gate in the distance. The bullets were like red waves rushing up from the prow of the sea, one after another, the smell of nitrate, and the nose hurt like a needle prick. , the remaining houses on the side of the street were set off by shells, and tiles and stones rushed towards people like a storm.At this time, Chai Yixin didn't know what death was, nor what terror was. The figure fell into a violent wave of loud noises, threw everything away, and just walked forward until he reached Guangji Street on Fumiao East Street. In the command post of the palace regiment. The situation is extremely urgent!A gap has been opened in the west wall by Japanese Murakawa troops. The enemy's flat-fired artillery shells, at a height of less than one meter above the ground, with white smoke arrows, "huhu dong hu hu dong" towards the two small blockhouses in the gap. Launched like beads, a mountain of flames surged in the gap.Taking this opportunity, the Japanese army made a murderous move and used grenades to release suffocating gas bombs on the defenders on the city to cover the infantry's assault on the city.A platoon of the 169th regiment of the defending army was poisoned and unconscious. The Japanese army waded through the trench in one go, climbed the ladder to climb the city, and shot all the unconscious soldiers of the national army. Chai Yixin hurriedly dispatched the reserve team to block it, and he ordered: "Use your guns, your bullets, your hands, your flesh and blood, to block this gap in the west wall!" Du Ding, the head of the 171st Regiment at the North Gate, learned that there was a danger in the west wall, and he was deeply afraid that after the Japanese army advanced, they would send a force to the rear of the North Gate. He wanted to transfer some of Wu Hongbin's troops to support Chai Yi. Xin, to form a pincer shape to clamp the gap, but the strength of the Wu battalion is not much, and they are under great pressure at the north gate.While hesitating, Chai Yixin called and asked him if he could carry out a counterattack on the left, that is, the direction of the north gate, to the Japanese army on the west wall to support the deputy commander Gao Ziyue who led the reserve team up?Du Ding knew that Captain Chai would not speak unless he had to, so without saying a word, he immediately mobilized two platoons, and he personally led them to attack the gap in the west wall. But in this way, the defense of the north gate is empty, which is in the middle of the premeditated plan of the leader of the Kurase United.But there is no way to do this, the national army's strength is too small. The book "China's Dispatched Army in Showa 17 and 18" records: "In the north, the initial deployment of troops (the original 109th Regiment 1st Battalion Suzuki Acting Captain, still called the deployment troops) attacked outside the north gate. , but failed to rush into the city, the Kurose troops joined in the onslaught, and broke in from the north gate on the afternoon of the 28th." Changde's city gate was finally broken open. Kurose lived up to Iwa Yongwang's hope and became the first Japanese commander to enter the city. Immediately afterwards, the Murakawa Troops of the 6th Regiment of the Japanese Army also poured in from the breach of the western wall, and one of the commandos rushed towards Haiyue Temple in the east gate city as the sky began to darken. Gao Ziyue, deputy head of the 169th Regiment, led the reserve team to stop the attack. The so-called reserve team was actually all the cooks and miscellaneous soldiers of the regiment. Since these people were not combat privates, they were not equipped with weapons and ammunition. The big swords, spears and other guys who used to practice martial arts were handed over to them for use.In this last resort situation, everyone has made up their minds to prepare the last drop of blood for hand-to-hand combat at any time.The fact is that, due to the disparity between the enemy and us, after an inevitable hand-to-hand combat, except for Gao Ziyue, the deputy head of the regiment and a few soldiers survived, the rest of the reserve team were all killed. The defenders of the east gate city wall were seriously downsized due to the bloody battle for several days.Therefore, they had to transfer many firefighters and servants who had never been on the front line to the top of the city, and used spears and wooden sticks to cooperate with the defenders to fight.Later, due to the vacancy of the defenders, the defense line was stretched to the point where they tried to tie up a lot of straw men, put on military caps and uniforms, and put them half-exposed beside the fortifications to bluff.The west wall was breached. When the Japanese army broke into Haiyue Nunnery, the Toda detachment of the Japanese army outside the east gate saw that the time had come and launched a fierce attack. The defenders were attacked inside and outside. The alley between the Chamber of Commerce and Wuzhuang Cave.After the foothold was firmly established, the Japanese army invaded in two ways. One way ran along the city wall and Hejie to the Mercury Building where a large number of their compatriots’ corpses had been left behind. Quickly occupy favorable terrain positions and occupy them. In the headquarters of the 57th Division, the operator was sending an emergency report, and the keys under his fingers were beating rapidly like a sudden heart.Yu Chengwan reached out and tore off the calendar paper on November 28, and dictated the content of the telegram to the operator: "The 74th Army, the Army Headquarters, Commander Wang Yaowu, is extremely urgent. The staff and teachers fought bloody battles alone for 11 days and nights. The officers and soldiers were killed and wounded, and the number of people was exhausted. The reinforcements rushed to help. The rest of the staff is Cheng Wan." Then Yu Chengwan sent a report to Sun Lianzhong, acting commander-in-chief of the Sixth War Zone: The 57th Division is "run out of ammunition, no aid, no one, and the city has been destroyed. Wait, stick to the central bank; each regiment divides the area, guards a house, makes the last resistance, and swears to the death."The telegram ended with "Congratulations on victory", "Long live the 74th Army, long live the chairman, and long live the Chinese nation".