Chapter 26 4. The Japanese army showed signs of defeat

When the commando of the 171st Regiment returned to Qingyan Heights, it was already dawn.The entire Qingyan Heights fired guns to congratulate them.Commander Wang Yaowu and Commander Li Yan also called to commend the 2nd Battalion.During the celebration, an American P-38 plane flew from the sky, circled over the Qingyan position, and dropped colorful leaflets all over the sky. The soldiers on the ground picked up the leaflets and exclaimed that Germany had surrendered!Hitler committed suicide!Allied forces have taken Berlin!The European battlefield is victorious!The entire Qingyan Highland boiled, and the soldiers cheered and jumped again, and tears washed away the dirt-covered faces with ditches.Can they be unhappy?Eight years of bloody fighting, sacrificed so many brothers and comrades-in-arms, can you not let them shed tears of joy and sorrow today?They couldn't help it, and it was impossible not to let them hug their heads and cry.

"Cry, my brothers and comrades-in-arms!" Commander Du Ding was also very excited, and he yelled towards the sky. That day, all the officers and soldiers on the Qingyan and Tieshan positions improved their lives once, eating enough pork, mutton and beef, and a little Xiangxi wine and Qiandong rice wine.The rear condolence group sent mountains of food and daily necessities to the frontline officers and soldiers.After eating and drinking, most of the officers and soldiers on the battlefield, except for a small number of duty personnel such as sentries and monitoring posts, slept soundly and sweetly.

Officers and soldiers took naps until dusk, which was rarely seen in wartime.The rumbling sound of artillery in the distance woke up the officers and soldiers. The sound of the artillery was far away. They stretched on the ground, yawned, and got up lazily.The first person who felt wrong was Captain Du Ding. He was watching with a telescope at the observation post, alas, isn't it right?What kind of madness did the Japanese devils go today, there was no target at the point of impact, just like a lunatic shooting randomly, he realized that the Japanese army wanted to run. Du Ding immediately reported to Commander Li Yan that the Japanese army had no target in their bullets and they wanted to run away.

Li Yan called Wang Yaowu's headquarters, and Wang Yaowu called He Yingqin. Seeing that He Yingqin didn't make a statement, he called Chairman Chiang in Chongqing.Chiang Kai-shek was having dinner, and he was very excited when he heard it. He said, Yaowu, don’t give up the fat you have eaten. Only stupid people will let the cooked duck fly away. Chiang Kai-shek's inspiration came up, and he immediately wanted to call Wang Yaowu's front line again. He said to Wang Yaowu: "Yaowu, Madam just ate a duck wing." .He panicked and said: "Learn from Mrs. Jiang, our frontline soldiers still have to eat duck heads!" Chiang Kai-shek laughed loudly, and he said that Wang Yaowu was very good at talking.

Wang Yaowu would not let the cooked ducks just fly away. He asked the frontline troops to shrink the encirclement and stick them up to entangle them.The best way for the front-line troops to entangle the Japanese army is to harass them constantly, making them unable to run, unable to fight, and entangled all day long. The first Japanese army to be entangled was the 120th Wing.This regiment marched together with the 109th regiment, and was blocked by the Chinese army later, so they separated from the left and the right.When the 109th Wing was trapped, both the 120th Wing and the 133rd Wing went to meet them, but they did not pass.Only the 2nd Battalion of the 133rd Regiment went in, but never came out again, and was later annihilated in the Pubanxi area.

The 120th Regiment now has 4,000 troops, which were taken in by the regiment leader Tadao Kodama for more than a month.In addition to the 120th regiment, this team also has several squadrons and remnants of squadrons with different numbers. Now they are under the command of Kodama Tadao.Kodama Tadao received an order to retreat from the division headquarters, but he was in no hurry.The Chinese army wanted to eat thousands of his troops at once, but I'm afraid he didn't have the ability to do so. Therefore, he was still looking for a fighter, trying to wipe out one or two regiments of the Chinese army before making any plans.

Later, the Kodama Regiment changed its mind, and no one dared to disobey the retreat order issued by Ichiro Sakanishi of the 20th Army.Of course, if you want to retreat, you have to pretend to be aggressively attacking, so that you can deceive the Chinese army and not expose your intentions.Kodama Tadao has experience in war, and his idea is not wrong at all. If he was wrong, he was wrong in the retreat route he chose later. The old and tricky Kodama Tadao, he designed a retreat plan, the goal is to go east, but the surface must go west, and he wants to make an all-out attack to the west.The west side is the defensive area of ​​the 170th regiment of the Chinese army, and the 1st company is at the forefront. Their position is a gentle area that is easy to attack and difficult to defend.

The company commander had no choice but to build a bunker on the flank of the position.This dark fort was constructed very ingeniously, close to a curved stone cliff.This rocky cliff is convex and concave, and the bunker is built in the concave center. In front of it is a flat ground with a wide view, which can not only block the attacking enemy, but also cover the entire company's position.The company commander set up a heavy machine gun and two light machine guns in this bunker, with sufficient ammunition.No way, this is Quan Lian's hope. The vanguard of the Kodama Regiment came up, and the soldiers of the 1st company bent down in their positions and did not fight. They brought the Japanese troops closer, not only within reach of the grenades, but also to form crossfire with the bunker.The Japanese army had reached 50 meters in front of the position, and the company commander took the lead in throwing a grenade, followed by more than a hundred grenades.At the same time the machine guns and rifles fired together.

The Japanese army was suddenly resisted by firepower, lying on the ground unable to move, and the fierce firepower made them unable to lift their heads.What's even more frightening is that there is still a group of firepower on the side, which cannot be retreated.Kodama Tadao saw it, and he ordered the artillery to bombard the bunker.The three machine guns in the bunker ignored it, and kept spitting out three fire dragons, knocking down a large area of ​​Japanese troops in the open area. The artillery fire of the Japanese army was ineffective, and the shells hit the cliffs, and only a piece of rubble fell down. This was not very effective for the bunker. The bunker was made of reinforced stone and was not afraid of being hit by stones.The shells couldn't hit the bunker anyway, so Kodama Tadao howled.

"Go to the special attack team." Kodama Tadao ordered loudly, he pulled out his command knife, pointed at the bunker and howled. The special attack team of the Japanese army is really powerful. This is what the Chinese army witnessed on the battlefield.They were very tactical. Five or six people attacked in a line-shaped column, holding an explosive pack in their hands. When the first one was shot, they blew the explosive pack. The smoke from the explosion blocked the shooting sight in the bunker.The second Japanese soldier rushed forward a few meters, and when he was shot, he blew the explosives again.Just keep attacking.

The Chinese army’s machine guns in this bunker have a wide field of fire and a particularly good line of sight. The smoke from the three shooting directions covers one area but cannot cover the other area. Besides, machine guns and heavy machine guns are hard-pressed to cover them anyway. Shoot outside. Kodama Tadao saw that this was not possible, so he had to call in the last few grenade launchers and let the soldiers charge again to fire at the bunker entrance at close range, but it was still ineffective because the bunker shooting holes were too small to hit.They switched to using blasting barrels to stuff the gun holes in the bunker. At first, two of them were pushed back, but the third was held firmly by a few Japanese soldiers, and finally the bunker was blown up. The 1st company did not have the firepower of the bunker, and the position was occupied by the Japanese in less than an hour.After the Kodama Regiment occupied the position of the Chinese army, they suddenly realized that something was wrong and were entangled by the Chinese army.He regretted his stupidity, how could he compete with the Chinese army for this position for a day? The 120th Wing immediately organized a vanguard force of more than 800 people to turn around and head east, and then the large force followed closely.According to the orders of the superiors, the Chinese army bit the enemy and did not let go, so they rushed out of the position and gave chase.Unexpectedly, Kodama Tadao saw that the Chinese defenders had left the fortification position to pursue, so he turned the main force back and hit the Chinese army with a "returning carbine".The Japanese army's attack really stunned the Chinese army, and it was difficult to parry for a while. After being severely injured by the Japanese army, they retreated to find favorable terrain to block the attack. Kodama Tadao had no intention of fighting at all. After he feigned a shot, he waved his troops back in the direction of Tieshan. He did get rid of the pursuit of the Chinese army along the way, but he didn't know that the 120th Regiment got into the pocket that the Chinese army had already laid in an ambush.General Zhou Zhidao has been waiting for him here for a long time. The 51st Division of the 74th Army led by Zhou Zhidao, as mentioned earlier, is a unit with a proud tradition and is known for fighting tough and vicious battles.Seeing that Tadao Kodama was indeed in an ambush, Master Zhou immediately contacted the Chinese and American Air Forces. After a while, a large number of P-51 attack planes flew over and bombed and strafed the canyon where the Japanese army was located. When the Japanese army was in chaos in the canyon, Zhou Zhidao's 51st Division charged.During the chaos, the Japanese army broke through several hills, causing heavy casualties.Kodama Tadao led some remnants of the defeated generals and finally ran out. The Japanese troops who had nowhere to go were stationed in the hilly area on the side of the road for a short rest, with no more than 2,000 troops. The 116th division headquarters called and asked them to stand still and wait for help. Kodama Tadao looked around the surrounding highlands. The surrounding highlands were all occupied by the Chinese army. How could they hold on and wait for help? The 20th Army Sakanishi Ichiro didn't say so, he ordered them to wait for an opportunity to break out and move closer to the division.The 133rd Regiment suffered the same as the Kodama Tadao Regiment. This Regiment was the main force of the Japanese army ordered to attack Tieshan. Among the Japanese regiments participating in the Zhijiang operation, Kagawa Katsunaga of the 133rd regiment was the oldest and most powerful.He is an ambitious guy, and he was almost promoted to major general several times, but every time the conflicts at the top got him down.Originally, he wanted to fight a good battle in Zhijiang, so that some people in the upper echelon had nothing to say, but unexpectedly, Yasuzaburo Takidera took the lead in the attack, breaking through the Chinese army's position first and occupying the city.Later, Tadao Kodama came out. When the 109th regiment was trapped, he became the advance team of the division and led the way. Kagawa Katsunaga thinks it is a good thing now that he thinks about it. His alliance basically maintains a strong combat effectiveness. It is because others took the lead that he has preserved his strength.Although it lost some troops, it was nothing compared to other alliances.When the battle entered the later stage, Kagawa Dazuo tried his best to shrink and hugged several brigades together to form a powerful force.If he is not fooled by the Chinese army and does not disperse his forces, he will not be easily divided and surrounded by others, and he will not be destroyed by individual defeats. Kagawa Katsunaga thought, there will always be a way, and a solution will be found.They were trapped in the deep mountains, and the division and regiment headquarters would be anxious, even more anxious than the troops in the mountains. He believed that the Japanese Empire would not abandon them.Therefore, Jiachuan occupied a high ground, while allowing the various brigades to save ammunition and food, while strengthening the fortifications, tidying up the situation, and quietly waiting for the orders of the legion. Commander Ichiro Sakanishi of the 20th Army is indeed anxious, he is very worried about the situation of Katsuyaga Kagawa.In his eyes, Kagawa Katsunaga is a talent, and several times he tried to promote him, but was blocked by dissidents in the Japanese army.In a very difficult environment, Commander Sakanishi took the risk and used two helicopters to airdrop a batch of ammunition and food for the 133rd Regiment, which shows his care for him. Recently, the thing that bothers the 133rd Regiment the most is the harassment of a small group of Chinese sneak attack troops. They kill a few of you today, and take away a cannon from you tomorrow.Jia Chuan knew that he couldn't afford to lose now, and if he lost, he couldn't make up for it.At present, there are more than 300 war horses in the army, which are treasures. When it is a last resort, horse meat alone can last for a month, so he emphasized that he should be optimistic about the war horses and not lose any of them.The war horses are not fed, and there are plenty of green grass on the mountain, which is great. The Chinese army destroyed the 109th Wing, defeated the 120th Wing, and surrounded the 116th Division Headquarters, the 58th Brigade, and the 133rd Wing.Now Wang Yaowu is deploying new battles, and the troops are also mobilizing. All the troops on the front line are gearing up to wipe out the encircled Japanese troops in one fell swoop. The good news of the victory on the front line is constantly being sent to the rear. Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan are preparing to go to the front line to condolences.Of course, Chiang Kai-shek in Chongqing was also very happy.