Chapter 31 Chapter Thirty-One

At night, the warm wind from the south brought a strong smell of blood and death.This night was the night when the blood gate of the Hengyang defenders was torn open, and it was also the night when the shameful record of the Japanese army's poison gas was increased.The shouts of killing and the sound of infantry machine guns in the battle for strongholds have been covered by the roar of grenades and cannons.The Japanese army is attacking fiercely, while the national army is desperately defending.Seeing that the hole just torn during the attack was tattooed by the national army, the Japanese army took advantage of the favorable opportunity when the south wind blew, and desperately sent poison gas bombs into the muzzle in disregard of international conventions and humanity.A night of brutal fighting passed.The nationalist positions remained standing, except for a small part.However, the poisoned corpses and the wounded soldiers of the national army who were blind and rotten were continuously transported from the position.

"Alas! Captain Chen, it's a pity that you will never see Company Commander Zhang who rescued and welcomed you in Gaoling!" Said Commander Fang to Chen Xiangrong sadly. "Ah! Why?" Chen Xiangrong asked in surprise. "Last night, all their companies died heroically." Fang Xianjue said regretfully. "How could it be? Everyone was alive and well yesterday, one by one..." For the first time, Chen Xiangrong truly felt the cruelty of Lu Zhan.The tall and handsome young officer appeared in front of his eyes again and said to himself: "...Our entire company can die, but we will never let you get hurt again..." "Run hard...friend..." This is not that Is the company of brothers shouting?Thinking of this, Chen Xiangrong couldn't help feeling sad and burst into tears. "Company Commander Zhang, brothers, I didn't expect you to leave so tragically! Did you really just leave like this?" "There are even more tragic ones! The 7th Company of the 3rd Battalion of the 28th Regiment of the Reserve 10th Division was all killed last night. They were all poisoned to death by the poisonous gas released by the devils, and only one soldier was lifted down..." Chief of Staff Sun Mingyu said angrily.

It turned out that at the position of the 7th Company of the 3rd Battalion of the 28th Regiment during the intermission that night, in addition to the guard post, more than 80 officers and soldiers of the entire company were busy making repairs.Some are reinforcing fortifications, some are replenishing ammunition, and some are repairing machine gun parts.Captain Zhu Zhongping, the company commander, also told jokes to relieve the fatigue and nervousness of the brothers, and took the opportunity to smoke a bag of dry tobacco.Suddenly, there was a puff of unknown smoke, and immediately, everyone unknowingly experienced serious poisoning phenomena: nausea and vomiting, crooked mouth corners, livid complexion, and protruding eyes.Many people went into a state of shock with limb weakness before they had time to react, and even died of poisoning.Soon, the company lost contact with the battalion and regiment main positions.

Prepare the command post of the 28th Regiment of the 10th Division.Colonel Zeng Jing, the head of the regiment, was walking back and forth anxiously. "Hey, hello, 7th company, please answer if you hear it; hello, hello, 7th company, 7th company, please answer if you hear it..." "Reporting to the commander, the 2nd battalion and 7th company are still unable to call!" Major Zhou Sheng, director of the regiment command post report urgently. "Continue to call. At the same time, additional correspondents will be sent to investigate the situation!" Commander Zeng instructed. "Yes." Major Zhou Sheng turned around and hurried to make arrangements.Looking at Zhou Zhousheng's back, Zeng Jing fell into deep thought, and a sense of ominousness crept into his heart.

On June 29th and June 30th, due to the heavy casualties of the Japanese army, there was no progress.The heinous Japanese invaders brazenly released poison gas bombs mixed with mustard gas and Lewis gas, which are strictly prohibited by international law.Taking advantage of the southerly wind in the evening, the Japanese army released poison gas to the southern suburbs positions of the 10th Army of the National Army; at the same time, they used 7.5 cm mortar shells to carry poison gas bombs to the deep positions of the defenders. The regiment headquarters of the 28th regiment hastily notified the battalions and companies to take measures.At this moment, the 7th Company of the 2nd Battalion, which was at the forefront, lost contact, and no one answered the phone or walkie-talkie.

When the head of the regiment Zeng ordered the whole regiment to take anti-virus measures and sent a reserve team to the 7th company position.The officers and soldiers were stunned by the scene on the battlefield.The tragedy was something they will never forget.I saw more than 80 officers and soldiers from the company commander Captain Zhu Zhongping down, some were sitting crookedly, some were reclining, and some were clinging to each other, all of them were poisoned and died.It turned out that at 4 pm on June 30, the Japanese army bombarded the positions at the southern end of Wuguiling Mountains, and taking advantage of the favorable wind direction and speed, they fired poison gas bombs at the forward positions of the national army for half an hour.At this time, in order to avoid casualties, the officers and soldiers of the 7th Company of the National Army stayed in the position.Because of the low-lying terrain, and who would have thought that the Japanese army would dare to disregard public international law and release poisonous gas.At dusk, Major Zhai Yugang, the new battalion commander of the 3rd Battalion to take over from the injured Li Ruodong, contacted Zhu Zhongping, the commander of the 7th Company, by phone.Only then did we know that in addition to the chief secretary and 4 members of the cooking team who were not in the position, more than 80 people in the company were unfortunately poisoned and died.

"Report to the military seat, the 7th company at the forefront of our regiment was killed by the enemy's poisonous gas! Please inform all positions and tell all officers and soldiers to pay attention to anti-virus!" Zeng Jing immediately reported the new enemy situation to Fang Xianjue. "How is the current position of the 7th company?" Fang Xianjue asked with great concern. "Report to the military seat, I have sent a reserve team to take sufficient anti-virus measures to supplement it, and resumed the position. There is no serious problem so far." "Send me an order: 1. Immediately convene an emergency meeting of the commanders of each unit to deploy anti-virus work; 2. Collect all the gas masks in the entire army and send them to the front-line positions immediately; The media spread the news to the whole world about the inhuman use of poison gas by the Japanese army!" Fang Xianjue said solemnly.The staff members were busy for a while, the telephones and telegraphs rang together, and the orders were quickly carried out.Later, "Central Daily", "Sweeping News", "Ta Kung Pao" and other newspapers reported on July 4 that the Japanese army openly used poison gas on the Hengyang battlefield, which aroused the anger of the military and civilians across the country.Newspapers, broadcasting and other major media around the world also rushed to report on it, which aroused the public indignation of the world's public opinion and people, and condemned everywhere.Japan's Hideki Tojo government, which was in a state of distress, was even more discredited and plummeted.

In the meeting room of the Military Headquarters of the 10th Army of the National Army, the commanders of all the troops gathered together.After earnestly listening to the briefing by head of the regiment Zeng Jing on the collective poisoning of the 7th company of the regiment, the atmosphere in the venue was dull, and all the generals were full of anger.Fucking little devil, if you can't win, you will use such a vicious move.What kind of skill is this!Fang Xianjue delivered an impromptu speech: "Officials, I am deeply saddened that this happened. First of all, I want to make a deep self-criticism. Before the war, I should remind you to pay attention to anti-virus, otherwise, this accident may be avoided. .Brothers, the Japanese army did not dare to use this kind of chemical weapons in the Pacific War. They were afraid of causing a greater degree of retaliation by the US military. But they used chemical weapons recklessly on our Chinese battlefield. Since the Xiangbei offensive, the Japanese army has been They used poisonous gas; this time they are using poisonous gas again. The lesson is profound! Brothers, because they bully us for our underdeveloped technology, no heavy industry, and no chemical weapons. Facts once again prove that a weak country without diplomacy will be beaten if it lags behind!" Fang Xianjue went on to deploy: "The entire army should send anti-gas equipment to the front line. The military department stipulates that light and heavy machine gunners should be used first, followed by combat squad leaders and communication soldiers. Those who do not have a gas mask will each be given a towel, with a hole in the middle Two eye holes, cover the nasal cavity and mouth after getting wet for temporary anti-virus emergency use. Okay, the meeting will end here, and follow the deployment after the meeting!"

After this bloody lesson, all officers and soldiers in the army should be vigilant, they should change their previous contemptuous attitude, and everyone should pay attention to anti-virus skills.However, the anti-virus equipment of the national army was extremely poor at that time, and all the gas masks were not enough for officers to distribute, let alone soldiers! Although the military's emergency anti-virus measures were implemented immediately, a large number of deaths were avoided.But on the positions that had been smoked and moxibusted by the poisonous gas for a long time, the leaves of flowers, plants and trees were curled and turned yellow, and death spots were everywhere.Even mosquitoes and flies died in large numbers.Most of the defenders suffered from skin burns and large areas of blisters on their bodies, ranging from as small as soybeans to as large as silver coins. After festering, yellow-green blood pus flowed out. The pain was unbearable, and it was difficult for them to walk upright on their legs.After the incident, the 10th Army rushed the sample to the base camp and transferred it to the 14th Air Force of the US Air Force. After careful study by the chemical warfare intelligence officer Captain Thomson, the results proved that: the yellow blisters were caused by mustard gas; the green blisters were caused by Lewis gas. Sincerely.Finally, Captain Thomson confirmed that the poison gas released by the Japanese army was a mixture of Lewis gas and mustard gas.Dispersed by 7.5 cm shells fired.Wherever it passed, the vegetation faded, the birds and birds died, and even the fish and shrimp in the fish pond turned white and died one after another.It can be seen that the Japanese devils are vicious.

After the poisonous gas passed, a strong Japanese offensive followed.Fengshu Mountain and Zhangjia Mountain became prominent positions for its key offensive.The Japanese Air Force also attacked from Changsha, flew over Hengyang, and bombarded the outer positions of the national army, destroying obstacles and blowing up fortifications.The Japanese artillery fire extended to the adjacent positions near Zhangjiashan, and then the Japanese army rushed up like a tide.The unprecedented fierce battle for positions has begun again. Hengyang has been surrounded by iron walls from all directions by the Japanese army.However, the front-line command post of the 10th Army did not enter the city, and still stood on the line of fire at Wuguiling.The soldiers all knew that it was only 250 meters away from the Japanese position.Standing in the command post, machine rifle bullets kept flying over the head, and shells passed over the roof from time to time.After a relatively lonely day, the artillery fire at night was more fierce than the night before, and the poisonous gas was released more generally.As a result, some impatient generals couldn't bear it anymore, and wanted to persuade Commander Fang to make plans early and not to wipe out all the money of the 10th Army.

However, Fang Xianjue strengthened his determination to stick to it: "Everyone, the 10th Army is now Hengyang, and Hengyang is the 10th Army. The two are inseparable. Soldiers take obedience to orders as their bounden duty. Defending Hengyang is personally deployed by the committee. Don’t be sloppy! Our army suffered heavy casualties, and the Japanese army’s casualties were even greater. When the two armies meet, the brave will win! Let’s see who is tougher than the other!” The generals were determined, and the soldiers consciously took on the glorious task of guarding Hengyang.The Japanese army's three-day onslaught, the National Army's 10th Army also held on for three days.The division commander told the regiment leaders: "The military headquarters is still in Wuguiling! The military seat is still in Wuguiling!" The regimental commander told the battalion commander, the battalion commander told the company commander, and the company commander told the soldiers: "Attention! The military headquarters is in our At 250 meters behind us, we must resolutely withstand the attack of the Japanese devils, and we cannot retreat even a single step!" The Japanese army suffered heavy casualties because they could not attack, so they released poisonous gas.Although the soldiers of the national army lacked gas masks, they showed their ingenuity. When the Japanese army released the poisonous gas, they bravely rushed to face the poisonous gas and retreated to the original position after the poisonous gas dissipated.Although death is still unavoidable in this way, it effectively preserves the vitality and the position.Three days of fierce fighting passed, and the Japanese army did not make any progress.Commander Fang's calmness and firmness stabilized the morale of the army.After three days of desperate struggle, the soldiers of the 10th Army experienced the Japanese army's tactical crowd charge, bombardment of aircraft and gas bombs, and they gained confidence from top to bottom.Everyone gestured to each other to encourage and cheer up: "The spirit of bushido of the Japanese army is nothing more than this, and the advanced weapons of the Japanese devils are nothing more than this!" The officers and soldiers used lime and paint large books on the walls: "The elite soldiers and brave generals guarding Hengyang must be called Devil soldiers." No return!" "Don't be afraid of poison or bombing, beat the Japanese devils back to their hometown!"