Chapter 24 2. The 57th regiment, which is harder than steel

The 100th Army of the Kuomintang has five divisions under its jurisdiction, namely the 19th, 36th, 13th, 6th and 149th divisions. It is the largest army in the Fourth Front Army, and its commander is Li Tianxia.This is a tiger general who is good at fighting. When the Anti-Japanese War broke out, he served in Yu Jishi's 74th Army.In the battle of Shanggao in Jiangxi, Li Tianxia served as the commander of the 51st Division. It is said that in the 74th Army, whoever serves as the commander of the 51st Division can be the commander of the 74th Army. The first commander of the 51st Division was Yu Jishi, and the second was Wang Yaowu.Li Tianxia succeeded Wang Yaowu, but for unknown reasons, he left the 74th Army and was promoted to the commander of the 100th Army.

After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the 74th Army was changed to the 74th Reorganized Division, with 35,000 troops equipped with the most advanced American equipment.It can be said that it is armed to the teeth, and it is known as Chiang Kai-shek's number one trump card.Li Tianxia is the most promising commander of the reorganized 74th Division. He has this qualification. Yu Jishi and Wang Yaowu, the former commanders of the 51st Division, will not take up this position.Li Tianxia is eager to try.As a result, He Yingqin and Wang Yaowu both recommended Zhang Lingfu, who was trained in the Class A general officer class of Chongqing Army University.At that time Zhang Lingfu was the deputy commander of the 74th Army.

This incident dealt a great blow to the Lieutenant General Li Tianxia, ​​who had achieved great military exploits. From then on, he had a prejudice against the 74th Division and Zhang Lingfu in his heart.Chinese people have watched the movie and TV series "Red Sun". At that time, Zhang Lingfu was besieged by Su Yu's army on Menglianggu, and Li Tianxia's 83 reorganization division was right in front of him, only 30 miles away.However, he claimed that he was strongly blocked by the Communist army, and only sent 1 battalion of troops into the Menglianggu area.Seeing death, Li Tianxia let out the anger in her heart, and ruined one of Chiang Kai-shek's ace troops in vain.Chiang Kai-shek wept bitterly, so naturally he would not have a good end for Li Tianxia.Of course, this was after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War.

However, General Li Tianxia on the anti-Japanese battlefield was not such a person. The officers and soldiers of the 100th Army led by him were all heroes. He was exceptionally promoted to the rank of major general and director of the Fourth Front Army.His army is the army with the most medals, medals, martial arts certificates and promotions in this battle. Li Tianxia made a major contribution to the Battle of Xiangxi.Before the Japanese army attacked, he put forward his own ideas at military conferences many times: Soldiers must be guided according to the situation. The Japanese army is coming in a turbulent way. We cannot go against the trend and block the flow. If this happens, the dam will collapse and people will be destroyed. We might as well avoid it first. Take the sharp edge, introduce it into the terrain in our favor, and then implement the decisive battle.

His strategy undoubtedly supported He Yingqin's ideas and encouraged He Yingqin's belief in luring the enemy deep. Li Tianxia's 100th Army was mainly deployed on the line from Xupu to Longhui in the battle of Xiangxi.It is like a wall, with Shaoyang in front and Zhijiang in the back, in the middle of Xuefeng Mountain.Commander Li is dedicated to his duties. Whenever there is a war in his defense line, he almost has to personally inspect it, and put forward guiding suggestions on the defense of the war and how to use troops. When the main force of the 116th Division of the Japanese Army attacked Tieshan, Li Tianxia had a premonition that there was something wrong with the Qingyan position in her defense area.Tieshan to Qingyan are on the same front, with a distance of only a few kilometers.If the Japanese army can't get through the 74th Army's defense line, they will inevitably look for a breakthrough in the Qingyan position. If the Japanese army occupies the Qingyan position, it will be impossible to defend it within a radius of more than ten miles.

Li Tianxia, ​​who has experienced many battles, is sensitive to the development trend of the war. Based on this consideration, he hung up the phone to Commander Yang Yin of the 19th Division and asked the division headquarters to inform the 57th Regiment on the Qingyan position to strengthen the offensive and to defend the Qingyan Highland at all costs. results.He asked the 19th Division to support the 57th Regiment, ensuring food, ammunition, and treatment of the wounded. Zhong Xiongfei, head of the 57th Regiment of the 19th Division, is not an idler. He is not only good at fighting, but also resourceful.When the Japanese army attacked the friendly Tieshan defense line on a large scale, he realized that there would be a fierce battle in Qingyan.So their whole regiment began to prepare for battle, strengthened the fortifications, dug deep underground caves for hiding soldiers, used trenches to collude with the whole regiment's positions, and buried the telephone lines of the regiment, battalion and company one meter deep to ensure smooth communication.

Zhong Xiong flew to the positions of each company and platoon to check carefully, especially the ammunition was stored scattered to prevent it from being destroyed by Japanese artillery fire.Light and heavy machine guns are the key targets of the enemy. There must be two floors above and below ground. All the grenade boxes on the position are opened. In addition to five grenades for each soldier, the bombardiers in the squad must have more than one box to guarantee the amount of use. The engineer company sent by the division to deliver ammunition was unwilling to leave the position. They carried more than 100 boxes of ammunition for the 57th regiment, screaming to participate in the battle.Commander Zhong Xiongfei saw that they were eager to kill the enemy, so he reported to the division headquarters to protect their fighting passion and stay on the ground.Deputy teacher Li Song readily agreed.

Head Zhong ordered the engineering company to set up obstacles and lay mines at the front of the position at night.The engineers and soldiers used their brains to set up deer villages in the open area of ​​the position.The infantry working with the engineers did not know what a deer village was. The engineers explained that the deer village, also known as a deer village, was a military obstacle.It is to place the branches of trees crosswise and stack them as high as the fence to stop enemy infantry or tanks or something.The infantry brothers laughed, they said it was easy. The engineers said that these seem simple, but they are actually very particular. It is best to choose tree branches that are not easy to burn, such as thick trunks, and set them within the range of light and heavy machine guns. If the enemy soldiers jump over them, they will undoubtedly die.If conditions permit, barbed wire can also be laid on the deer village so that the enemy cannot push it away, blow it up, or burn it.Engineers also planted landmines where the enemy must pass through. They hung grenades in the bushes and made a lot of trip mines.

With the help of the engineering company of the division headquarters, the 57th Regiment was like a tiger with wings added. It not only gave them more knowledge, but also gained defensive skills.On this day, the officers and soldiers of the 57th Regiment slept peacefully on the battlefield all night, and the fatigue of more than half a month was completely wiped away by sweet dreams.But not long after, the soldiers' dreams were wiped out by the overwhelming Japanese artillery shells. At dawn that day, before dawn, the Japanese attacking artillery hit the sky red in the position, and hundreds of shells shook the 57th Regiment to shake the ground.The soldiers were very experienced. They didn't climb out of the cellar to watch the excitement. There were only two surveillance posts in each company, and the rest were underground, pressing the bullets in the gun chambers and twisting the back cover of the grenade.They knew that the enemy's infantry would come up as soon as the gunfire stopped.They had been mentally prepared for a long time, and they could tell how many Japanese infantry there were from the sound of the guns. Anyway, they could make a good guess.

The cannon stopped.The company commander shouted and entered the position, and the company commanders, platoon leaders, and squad leaders all shouted the same sentence loudly on the position, which immediately mobilized the soldiers' emotions, and a tense atmosphere enveloped the position.It was daylight. The soldiers on the ground couldn't believe their eyes. The opposite slope was covered with black ants.They rubbed their eyes and looked more carefully. It was the Japanese army, and a large number of Japanese infantry were rushing towards the position. Zhong Xiongfei was in the low command post, and he could see clearly with a telescope.Little Japan in Dog Day has come a lot.He rolled up his sleeves and reported to the division headquarters by phone: "The enemy's attack has begun. There are no less than 3,000 devil soldiers coming towards my position, and they are asking for aircraft assistance."

Hishita Motoshiro, the head of the division, had a simple idea. He didn't want to entangle the Chinese army in the ravine. He would use strong medicine to cure the disease, and the medicine would cure the disease in large doses, which would achieve twice the result with half the effort.So for the first time he launched an attack on Qingyan Highland, he used 3000 troops.I want to use the big corps to frighten the Chinese army, and I can scare the opponent to the ground if I don't fight. A large group of puppet troops took the vanguard, and they shouted loudly to the position: "Surrender, brothers, the imperial army treats you preferentially." The shouts of hundreds of people echoed in the valley. They tried to shake the morale of the army and resorted to psychological tactics.These puppet soldiers didn't know that what was waiting for them at the front feet were mines and grenades hanging from the bushes. Sure enough, the puppet army stepped on more than 20 landmines, and the bodies of several puppet soldiers flew into the sky and were thrown down from the air heavily.The puppet army panicked and tripped a grenade in the woods.The shouts of the puppet soldiers disappeared, and the ten or twenty puppet soldiers who were not killed by the bombing rolled on the ground, and some wanted to run back, but were forced back by the bayonets of the Japanese soldiers. The soldiers on the ground watched the farce performed by the little devil, and they applauded the masterpiece of the engineers.The attacking Japanese soldiers were blocked by various deer villages. Many Japanese soldiers began to climb up the deer villages. The machine guns and heavy machine guns of the Japanese army fiercely suppressed the firepower of the Chinese army. The infantry swarmed up, and the gunshots burst out in an instant, and the explosion of the grenade was even louder.The Japanese army's offensive momentum was fierce, especially their small steel cannons were not only convenient, but also extremely accurate. The positions of the 1st Battalion and 2nd Company were attacked by 10 or 20 shells, causing heavy losses and the resistance force declined significantly. The charging Japanese army had good military qualities, and they quickly found the weak link, which was the tacit cooperation between their different arms.Sixty or seventy Japanese soldiers rushed to the position of the 2nd company, and the remaining 50 or 60 soldiers of the 2nd company jumped out of the position, resisted the Japanese army with their bodies and bayonets, and never allowed them to enter the position. The soldiers shouted to kill!kill! The Chinese army reinforced in time, and the Japanese army followed up quickly. For a while, the positions of the 1st company and the 2nd company boiled into a pot of porridge, and two or three hundred people from both sides mingled together.Zhong Xiongfei rushed out of the command post and shouted: "Leave them alone, use grenades to suppress the follow-up troops of the Japanese army." The soldiers of the engineering company obeyed the command of Commander Zhong, and instead of rushing to the positions of the 1st and 2nd companies, they attacked the follow-up forces of the Japanese army and cut off the enemy's reinforcements with grenades.At the same time, Zhong Xiongfei led a platoon of guards from the regiment headquarters to rush over, and a burst of submachine guns knocked down a group of Japanese soldiers. Zhong Xiongfei picked up the bayonet gun on the ground and stabbed it left and right. The soldiers followed the regiment leader and screamed, fighting hand-to-hand with the devils.At this moment, the P-40 planes of the U.S. Air Force came over. After seven or eight planes dropped bombs, they began to dive down and shoot again. The attacking Japanese army retreated like a tide. Six or seven hundred people were killed or injured in the first Japanese attack, including more than 200 puppet troops.Zhong Xiong's flying regiment suffered heavy losses, with more than 300 soldiers casualties.Three to four hundred corpses were thrown on the ground at the front of the position, and three deer villages were burning, which were incendiary bombs thrown by the Japanese army. Commander Zhong ordered the battalions, companies and platoons to treat the wounded and seize the time to repair the fortifications of the positions.He looked at the sky, it was still early, it was only afternoon, and the enemy would come again.He told the brothers, don't be afraid, I think that little Japan is capable, and more than 3,000 people have been beaten by us, what's the big deal!Some soldiers shouted loudly: "Come on, damn it, let them taste Grandpa's bayonet gun." There was a lot of laughter on the battlefield. Zhong Xiongfei is relieved, the brothers can laugh heartily, which is better than 20 cannons.He knew that in a fierce battle, what is needed most is morale, as long as there is strong morale, any dangerous situation can be dealt with.Commander Zhong also walked into the battle field with a smile on his face. He yelled lightly, "Brothers, eat, eat two more bites, drink a jar of water, and then urinate, and you can spend the afternoon with the little devil again." Soldiers on the battlefield clinked glasses with tea mugs, toast to victory and to live!One or two of them burst into tears, it was worth it, and it was worth it in this life. Our regiment repelled the attack of more than 3,000 Japanese troops at one time, which is enough for us to be proud for a lifetime.The atmosphere on the battlefield was extremely warm. Lieutenant General Hishida Motoshiro was not in such a good mood. He severely reprimanded several regiment captains, and then issued a death order. Today, Qingyan Heights must be captured.According to intelligence, only one regiment of the Chinese army was guarding the high ground, and the two regiments could not conquer a single high ground!He ordered the mountain artillery unit to cooperate with the attack and blast the high ground to me.Machine gun squadrons and artillery squadrons cover the charge of infantry brigades in stages.The offensive campaign was commanded by Battalion Captain Takeo Takeo. The Japanese mountain artillery interrupted the joy of the 75th regiment's position, and all the defenders entered the underground hiding holes.Zhong Xiongfei listened to the Japanese artillery bombardment in the underground cave, and he wanted to judge the scale of the Japanese attack from it.But this time he didn't make a decision. The shells shook the soil in the cave and buried half of his body. It was the soldiers of the guard platoon who pulled him out of the mound. The observation post reported that our artillery fire began to return fire, and there is now a fierce artillery battle on the ground, which is very spectacular.Zhong Xiongfei knows that American cannons are more powerful than Japanese mountain cannons, not only have a longer range, but are also several times more powerful than mountain cannons.Little Japan is doomed, the planes are no good, the cannons are no good, even the guns in their hands are not as good as the Chinese army now.He felt that the Japanese army had been beaten to the ground in this battle, and it would be difficult for them to turn around. After about an hour, the artillery fire from both sides stopped.The soldiers of the 57th regiment crawled out of the ground, and the ground was already beyond recognition.All the trees on the mountain were blown off, a large piece of the big tree fell down, and thick smoke was still billowing in some places.The positions were gone, and some trenches were filled with the uplifted earth.The soldiers didn't care about these things anymore, and the Japanese army's charge started again. They had no choice but to bring over a sack, and before they had time to cultivate a few shovels, they started fighting. Commander Zhong observed for a while, and this time the Japanese army was reduced by half, only 1,500 to 600 people. Although the number of enemies has decreased, the difficulty of defense has increased.There are no landmines at the front, no deer village obstacles, and even the vegetation around the position is gone, a bare highland.He reported the situation to the division headquarters and still requested support from artillery and aircraft. The Japanese army seemed to have changed their tactics, and they played a new set of tricks in their offense.The infantry charged, followed by a small group of light and heavy machine guns, covering them with the infantry's charge. After the light and heavy machine guns were set up, they suppressed the Chinese army with intensive firepower. Then there was another round of infantry charges, and another small group of light and heavy machine guns followed. behind. Commander Zhong saw the enemy's intentions clearly. They wanted to deploy their firepower network at the front of the position to block the firepower of the Chinese army at a closer distance, so that the Japanese army's attack would be smoother.Zhong Xiongfei ordered the mortar company to give up shooting at the Japanese infantry, and focus on the Japanese heavy machine gun erection points at the front of the position, knocking them out as much as possible. But the Japanese army was also prepared. Their small steel guns fired twenty or thirty shells on the artillery positions of the Chinese army in advance, and at the same time twenty or thirty shells hit the frontal defenders' positions. Pressed on the frontal position, the soldiers on the ground could not lift their heads. Head Zhong realized that the Japanese army wanted to break through from the front. When the frontal position was attacked by Japanese firepower, Zhong Xiongfei strengthened the two wings to support the front.But the Japanese army had no scruples and only fought frontally.Seeing that the front was suppressed, the attacking enemy began a large-scale group charge. The Japanese army seemed to be flooding up, and they reached five or six meters from the position in the blink of an eye.They threw grenades at the position, and the hundreds of soldiers lying under the trench were unable to fight back, so they had to jump out of the position to meet the Japanese army hand-to-hand.There was a hand-to-hand combat in the frontal position. When fighting in the frontal position, all the firepower of the Japanese army turned to the left, using a powerful firepower net to cover the attack of twenty or thirty Japanese soldiers.Before Zhong Xiongfei could figure out the enemy's intentions through the telescope, he saw more than 20 Japanese soldiers rolling into the trenches of the position. More than 20 Japanese soldiers are like more than 20 explosive packs.The left position was blown up to the sky, and the thick smoke and gas waves raised by the explosive package filled the left position. The Japanese army went crazy. They actually used the special attack team to engage in human bombing.While Commander Zhong was reporting to the division commander, the Japanese devils who were fighting with bayonets in the frontal position also detonated the bombs on their bodies.Zhong Xiongfei yelled on the phone, asking for artillery to fire at my position.As soon as he finished speaking, a heavy artillery shell fell down. The artillery of the 19th Division fired fiercely and accurately.Commander Zhong ordered the soldiers to enter the bunker to avoid their own artillery fire.The shells stretched down along the front of the position like a carpet.The planes of the Chinese Air Force came, and they swooped down in groups of 4 in the sky full of red clouds. The machine guns smashed the Japanese soldiers on the ground to pieces. In terms of the cooperation of artillery fire and aircraft, Commander Zhong held a big sword in his hand and launched a full-line charge, killing all the Japanese troops who had not had time to retreat, and avenging the dead comrades.The Japanese attack lasted only 3 hours, but for the 57th regiment, it was very fatal.No one thought that the Japanese army would make a suicide charge, causing more than half of the 57th regiment to be killed or injured. The Japanese army was also hit hard by the 57th regiment, and the number of war dead alone was thousands.The Japanese army retreated in embarrassment, and the momentum of the attack was resisted by the strongest Chinese army. The 57th regiment was really as hard as steel, and the Qingyan Highland stood still and was still in their hands. He Yingqin and Wang Yaowu called to commend them, and ordered the 171st Regiment of the 57th Division of the 74th Army to take over the defense, and the 57th Regiment to rest in the rear.Yang Yin, the commander of the 19th Division, called and ordered Zhong Xiongfei to return to the Jiangkou division headquarters to serve as the division headquarters reserve team, and encouraged the whole regiment to make persistent efforts and make contributions to the country. Zhong Xiongfei led the remnants of the regiment, buried the comrades who died, and handed over the heavy weapons that could not be carried to the 171st regiment of the friendly army.He and Du Ding, head of the 171st regiment, saluted each other and shook hands to say goodbye.Before they set off in line, they bowed three times to the Qingyan Highland to bid farewell to the brothers and comrades who stayed in this place forever.