Chapter 53 Chapter Fifty-third: The General Offensive Again

At dawn on July 11, the city of Hengyang was just bathed in the morning light, and the earth had not yet woken up from its deep sleep.Suddenly the earth trembled.Crowds of artillery shells roared and hit the national army positions; Japanese planes also uncharacteristically bombarded the national army positions and all bombable targets in the city all day long. The second general offensive of the Japanese army began.Japanese aircraft began their non-stop bombing rounds.Hundreds of cannons from the Japanese army fired in unison, shelling heavily and releasing poisonous gas on the main southwestern position of the national army.The Japanese army's land and air firepower carried out a supersaturated bombardment of the fortifications, bunkers, deer rocks, cut walls, outer trenches, wooden fences, barbed wire and traffic trenches of the national army positions.Then its infantry rushed towards the defenders' positions densely all over the mountains and plains like raging waves.

The position east of Wuguiling was attacked by the Japanese all day and night, and all the officers and men of the 2nd Battalion, 9th Company, and 1st Platoon of the 28th Regiment of the 10th Division of the Jiangxi Guild Hall were sacrificed heroically. The main force of the 9th company and the 8th company at the southern end of Waixin Street were in a hard fight.The war then became a stalemate. Wang Juquan, commander of the 8th Company of the 28th Regiment, led his troops to fight house-to-house with more than 100 Japanese troops who broke into the position.Near noon, Company Commander Wang was killed in battle, and all officers and men were killed or injured. Only a squad leader and two soldiers were left guarding a bunker in the northwest corner, still fighting desperately with the Japanese army. The situation was extremely critical.

At this critical moment, Zhai Yugang, the deputy battalion commander of the 2nd Battalion who had just taken over due to the injury of the 3rd Battalion Commander Li, was in a hurry. All of a sudden, I heard: "Report to Battalion Commander Zhai, Zang Xiaoxia, Commander of the 1st Company of the Army's Search Battalion, has been ordered by the Commander to come for reinforcements, please instruct!" In front of Battalion Commander Zhai. "Okay! That's great! It's really timely rain! Order your company to deploy immediately, counterattack the Japanese army occupying Xinjie outside the east side of Wuguiling, and resolutely destroy the invading enemy!"

"Yes! Brothers, follow me!" Zhai Yugang, the commander of the 2nd Battalion of the 28th Regiment, and Zang Xiaoxia, led by the company commander Zang Xiaoxia, wiped out all the more than 200 Japanese troops who had already camped in Waixinjiepan, including several officers such as their commander Pingdan.Due to the close contact with the enemy and repeated fighting and martial arts, the defenders suffered heavy casualties, almost one-third of the troops.Immediately, the original position was consolidated, and it was in a confrontation with the enemy of the Jiangxi Guild Hall, protecting the security of the national army's flanks.

The restored national army positions were immediately bombarded intensively by the Japanese army, and then attacked with poison.Before dusk, a large number of Japanese troops crossed the railway and rushed towards the national army positions wave after wave.The national army fought fiercely with the enemy until midnight, with heavy casualties. Lin Kexian, the new commander of the 8th company, was killed in battle, and battalion commander Zhai Yugang was seriously injured.The deputy battalion commander, Major Li Changben, went to command, but was injured soon after, and the situation was critical.At this time, the 4th Company of the 3rd Division, 8th Regiment, and the 4th Company of the 3rd Division in the reserve position rushed to reinforce, flanked the enemy, and fought until dawn before repelling the enemy and stabilizing the position.

On the night of July 15, the Japanese army repeatedly attacked three times.The fierce fighting all night long caused huge losses to the national army.Battalion Commander Zhao Guomin and Li Bingshan, the commander of the 1st company, both went to the front line to throw grenades in person, and both were wounded one after another.However, due to the desperate assault of the Japanese army at all costs, the position was broken into by more than 100 Japanese troops.Fortunately, even if the 2nd company of the military search battalion assigned by Commander Fang arrived, the two units joined forces to fight back hard, and finally drove the intruding enemy soldiers out, and the position was turned into safety.

The maple mountain position had a relatively high elevation, and the national army cut the front into a cliff, leaving no cover in front of the position.From July 11th to 13th, the Japanese army repeatedly attacked and failed repeatedly. Under the attack of the national army's mortars and grenades, they suffered heavy casualties and many corpses were left in front of the positions.On the night of the 15th, the Japanese army took advantage of the darkness, crawled around to the underground warehouse of the Farmers Bank behind the west side of the position, and attacked the command post of the defenders.By the time the defenders found out, more than 100 Japanese troops had infiltrated in.In a hurry, the situation was urgent, and the surrounding positions were in chaos. Yu Long, commander of the 2nd Battalion, and Li Jun, commander of the 4th Company, were killed.

Seeing that the position was about to be occupied by the Japanese army.When the crisis was critical, Master Ge Xiancai personally led the division's only reserve special agent company and the 3rd company of the search battalion sent by the army to come for reinforcements. Seeing this, the morale of the defenders was greatly boosted. The head of the 28th Regiment, Zeng Jing, also commanded the troops directly under the regiment to arrive in due course.The officers and soldiers of the three troops fought together and fought back with all their strength.Fighting until dawn, the Japanese army was finally wiped out and their positions were restored.

The Xianggui Road Bureau repair shop and the western highlands guarded by the 30th Regiment of the 10th Division also encountered similar situations.The Japanese attack was blocked during the day and changed to a sneak attack at night. On the night of the 20th, more than 200 Japanese soldiers crawled slowly among the dead bodies in front of the position, gradually penetrated into the junction of the two defenders' positions, and then swept towards the positions on both sides. Major Zhou Guoxiang, the commander of the 3rd Battalion of the 30th Regiment, discovered the enemy's movements early, commanded calmly, and responded calmly to the enemy. Strands, cross-shooting, blocking the front and the back.The enemy was suppressed in a small valley with fierce machine gun fire; when the Japanese army bacteria gathered together, the bombarders tried their best to throw the grenade clusters, and after a while, they exploded.When the Japanese army was dizzy and didn't know how to advance or retreat, the national army bravely mounted bayonets, rushed out of the trenches, launched a countercharge to the enemy, and killed all the rest with bayonets.After 3 hours of fierce fighting, it gradually subsided.

When I looked at it at dawn, I saw the corpses of Japanese soldiers lying in the valley between the two positions, on both sides of the railway.The defenders seized no opportunity to fortify the fortifications, and sent people to collect all the guns and ammunition of the Japanese army before returning to their positions. On the evening of the 13th, fierce fighting resumed.With 60 people as an echelon, the Japanese army rushed to the 3rd Battalion position one after another. The National Army Machine Repair Factory and the Zhangjiashan position fell into fierce fighting at the same time. "Brothers, it's time to test us! It's up to you whether you are a good guy or a coward!" Battalion Commander Zhou Guoxiang knew that the focus of the regiment was also the focus of the division and army in the Zhangjiashan position. There is little hope of getting reinforcements from the superiors, and they can only rely on their own brothers in the camp, so they encourage everyone to fight hard and kill the enemy.

"Brothers, it's time to sacrifice your life for the motherland and the people! Go!" Wang Yunqing, commander of the 9th company, also encouraged the battalion commander. "Brothers, I am invincible, I advance and retreat, fight! Swear to live and die with the position!" He Hongzhen, the commander of the 3rd Machine Company, said loudly, holding a machine gun and violently shooting at the enemy. After several times of repeated struggles, the Japanese army occupied a solid civilian house next to the machine repair factory, and fired in all directions with fierce machine gun fire, which greatly threatened the position of the 3rd Battalion. Many soldiers of the National Army fell in a pool of blood. 9 Company Commander Lian Wang and Company Commander He of the 3rd Machine Company died one after another. "Enter the 1st Assault Team. Destroy this bastard! Avenge the sacrificed brothers!" Battalion Commander Zhou Guoxiang was full of grief and indignation, and personally commanded the assault team to blow up the Japanese machine gun positions. But the three commandos of the first commando team fell one after another on the way to the impact. "Enter the 2nd Assault Team. Be careful to covertly approach the enemy!" Battalion Commander Zhou ordered the commando to attack while observing the enemy's situation.At this moment, a burst of dense machine gun bullets swept over, and Battalion Commander Zhou tilted his body, fell to the ground, and died on the spot. Major Jiang Hongxi, deputy battalion commander of the 3rd Battalion, hastily carried Battalion Commander Zhou back to the shelter, and gently closed the battalion commander's wide eyes: "Battlefield Commander, don't worry, I will definitely hold the position and never disappoint your expectations!" , rushed to the position, and the commanders and soldiers continued to fight the enemy.The regiment headquarters has no soldiers to help, the enemy and the enemy are in a stalemate, and there are many casualties. At this critical moment, the telephone of the command post rang suddenly. "Battalion Commander, Master Ge is on the phone!" The correspondent handed the phone receiver to Battalion Commander Jiang Hongxi.