Chapter 41 7. Standing firm: pouring out the last blood

In order to be familiar with the attack route and defensive tactics, Yokoyama took the three main wings of the 68th and 116th divisions as the vanguard of the third offensive. The 133rd Regiment of Kurose, the 120th Regiment of Kodama, and the 218th Regiment of Shibuya Shiro of the Japanese Army were only 1/4 of the original number of troops, and the opponents in front of them also lost all casualties during the more than 40 days of holding on.From the beginning of the third offensive, the two sides fighting each other can use the word "dying struggle" to describe it at the same time.

In two days of fierce fighting on the 4th and 5th, all three officers of the Kurose United Army who had just acted as the captain were killed. The defenders of the 3rd Division of the Daximen position attacked by the alliance seemed to be invincible and endless. On the evening of the 5th, Kurose took off the Major General's uniform he had just worn for two days, folded it neatly with his own hands, and packed it in his marching rucksack.He gathered more than 200 remnants of the regiment, held the flag of the regiment himself, and prepared to charge for the last time. The soldiers sensed the meaning of the charge from the expression of the regimental captain, and entrusted each other with funeral arrangements.They gathered in groups of three or five, shouted the name of a village or a mountain in their hometown in unison, and then returned to the team.

When the team led by Major General Kurose Heiichi was about to set off, a staff officer from the division headquarters came to find out the situation. After seeing this situation, he immediately called the division commander Iwan Yongwang.Yan Yongwang considered that this attack was of little significance in destroying the defenders' positions except to show the loyalty and courage of the imperial soldiers.He instructed Kurose to launch an attack with the cooperation of the air force in the early morning of the 6th, canceling the offensive that Kurose later called "a tragic showdown".

Kodama Tadao's 120th Regiment attacked the Tianmashan and Xizenji positions defended by the 10th Division on the 4th and 5th.Chinese officers and soldiers took advantage of the condescending terrain and frequently used grenades to kill and injure the enemy in large numbers, while the fortifications of the defenders were destroyed everywhere by the bombardment of the Japanese direct artillery. On the afternoon of the 5th, the Japanese army rushed to the position of Xichan Temple. Soldiers from the two countries fought in a melee.When Kodama reported the battle situation to Iwan Yongwang, he said: "In the battle of Saizenji, there were tragic and heroic scenes that are rarely seen in modern daytime battles."

Kodama Tadao was a top student at a liberal arts university before joining the army. It was the war of aggression that turned this poetic youth into an iron-blooded soldier.When recalling this battle, he said: "Physically destroying the enemy is originally a means to achieve the purpose of war. For this reason, our death is inevitable. However, when the wheels of war are spinning rapidly, death is inevitable. become an end, as if everything was just to get more people to die. When war finally reveals its ruthless nature, there is nothing that statesmen and military strategists can do about it."

At 3 o'clock in the morning on August 6, the 58th Division, which had just entered the battle in Hengyang, broke through the Xiaoximen position of the 3rd Division of the defenders in the northwest of the city, and then expanded to the surrounding area. At 5 o'clock, all the defenders of the stadium near Xiaoximen were killed, and the Japanese army broke into the city from here.The defenders resisted in the roofs and intersection fortifications that had already been built.The muzzles of guns protruded from the darkness, and grenades flew out of unexpected places and exploded.The Japanese army had no choice but to stay where they were, and wait until dawn before advancing.

At 10 a.m., Isamu Yokoyama received a report that Major General Shima Genkichi, head of the 57th Brigade, was killed in action. The Shima Genkichi Brigade participated in many important battles in the war of aggression against China, and is well-known in both the Chinese and Japanese armies. At 8:20, Shima Genkichi personally went to the front line to supervise the battle. He saw that his subordinates suffered heavy casualties in the grenade attack of the defenders, and instructed the soldiers to bravely rush to the grenade thrown by the defenders and pick up the grenade before it exploded. Throw it back.Shima Genkichi personally demonstrated among the soldiers of the attacking unit, throwing back four grenades that were about to explode in a row, and the soldiers cheered excitedly.

Just as Genkichi Shima got up to leave, machine guns from the defenders fired over, and two bullets hit the face. This young general with outstanding military exploits died immediately. A few days later, Kurose Heiichi filled the void. On August 7th, the last day to stick to Hengyang. It was the last bullets fired by the last soldiers that shot groups of Japanese soldiers to the ground, and it was mostly the last bullets fired by the bleeding bodies and disabled limbs of weak soldiers Give it a go. At 3 o'clock in the morning, the Yanwuping position of the 2nd Battalion of the 568th Regiment of the 190th Division was broken by the Japanese army. Rove, the commander of the 5th company, and the remaining 20 people in the whole company all died.

One hour later, the position of the 3rd Battalion of the regiment was breached, and the deputy head of the regiment, Li Shi, and more than 30 people in the position all died. At dawn, Ju Zhenhuan, commander of the 7th Regiment, Wang Jinding, commander of the 3rd Battalion, and the officers and soldiers led by the 3rd Division on Qingshan Street all died. At 9 o'clock in the morning, the Japanese army rushed into the city from the north and west of the city.Cai Rulin, the war zone supervisor and artillery commander, could already clearly see the Japanese soldiers with machine guns and rifles without binoculars.Knowing that the situation was over, he ordered the artillery companies to blow up all kinds of artillery.

On this day, Fu Qidong, the company commander of the 29th Regiment of the 10th Pre-10th Division, was injured for the second time.The Japanese long-range artillery shrapnel hit his temple on the head, and blood gushed out. He was carried off the position by the soldiers for first aid.Fighting hard to the point of injury, most of his company suffered casualties. A few days ago, he was wounded in the arm by Japanese grenadier shrapnel. He insisted on commanding with the wound until then. Hearing that the Japanese army entered the city through the north gate, thousands of seriously wounded people in five hospitals and emergency medical centers throughout the city were devastated.During the entire period of the Anti-Japanese War, due to the poor treatment conditions and the lack of guarantees for pensions and rehabilitation, the soldiers were not afraid of death but were afraid of being disabled. They defended the city for 47 days, and the medicines in the city ran out early. The wounded died in batches, and those who persisted It is difficult and difficult to hope that the reinforcements will enter the city to rescue them.They knew in their hearts that once the city was broken, the survivors of the defenders would be captured by the Japanese army, and the able-bodied people would generally be forced to work as coolies.Since the afternoon of the 7th, the wounded gathered in various places no longer bear the pain and do not cry out. The low-pitched groans and cries spread far away, like the undercurrent of the Xiangjiang River, extremely miserable!

At noon, Fang Xianjue convened a meeting of division commanders at the Army Headquarters in the basement of the Central Bank. Zhou Qingxiang, Commander of the 3rd Division, Rong Youlue, Commander of the 190th Division, Ge Xiancai, Commander of the Pre-10th Division, Rao Shaowei, Temporary Commander of the 54th Division, and Cai Rulin, the war zone supervisor, all expressed their opinions, but they all wanted to kill the thief and were unable to recover. breakout?With thousands of wounded in the city and the Japanese army on all sides outside the city, how can they escape? Fight again?The ammunition is exhausted, and the people will be exhausted.The rest of the soldiers were so weak that even if they fought with bayonets, they would only be stabbed. Fang Xianjue, the army commander, this tall and burly man, a veteran general, fell on the table and wept.The generals were speechless. The impact point of the shells gradually approached the army headquarters.Fang Xianjue calmed down, wiped away his tears, and said to the generals: "The 10th Army has shed blood and suffered. Now the general situation is over, but we still have to talk about how we behave and do things from the beginning to the end." Dictated by him and recorded by Chief of Staff Sun Mingyu, the last telegram was sent to Chiang Kai-shek: After the enemy broke in from the northern city this morning, they started street fighting in the city. Our officers and soldiers were all killed and wounded, and we no longer have any soldiers to attack. We vow to serve the party and country with our lives, and do our best as a soldier. Educate the best.This telegram may be the last telegram, see you in the next life. The names of Xianjue, Zhou Qingxiang, Rong Youlue, Ge Xiancai, Rao Shaowei, and Sun Mingyu above the Telegraph Office.After the generals read the pass, the Chief of Staff Rao Yabo personally sent it to the radio room next door, and witnessed the confidential officer translating it into a code and sending it out by the sender. After the telegram was sent, Fang Xianjue instructed: destroy the cipher book and blow up the radio station. When the radio station that had been working non-stop for 47 days was shattered by a loud explosion of an explosive, one of the two radio operators, a 20-year-old Changzhou youth, Liu Fenglai, passed out on the ground, and a mouthful of blood came from his mouth. Flowing out of his mouth.Rao Yabo kicked him twice, but he didn't wake up, and said to Sun Mingyu, "This is tiring." However, the telegram sent by Liu Fenglai has flown across thousands of mountains and rivers and into the depths of history. Chiang Kai-shek wrote in his diary on August 7, 1944: "The grief is unprecedented." On August 10, Chiang Kai-shek issued a telegram with nearly a thousand words, ordering the national army to observe a three-minute silence for the martyred defenders in Hengyang at 6:00 am on August 20.The telegram said: ...Lan Dian (that is, "the last telegram" - the author's note) is awe-inspiring and deeply saddened. His generosity and righteousness, seeing death as home, can be described as extremely heroic!Although the life and death of the current Army Commander Fang himself is uncertain, his indomitable ambition throughout his life is truly believed by the compatriots all over the country.For this campaign, all the officers and soldiers of our 10th Army not only displayed the spirit of our revolutionary soldiers to take ten as ten and hundreds as thousands, but also practiced the motto of fighting to the last soldier and the last bullet. The believers, and the role models of the revolutionary soldiers who died for the country with their own lives, are worthy of the glory of our nation for the sake of righteousness and eternal glory. ... The officers and soldiers of our country should take the heroic sacrifice of the 10th Army in Hengyang as a model, the determination to swear to die, the spirit of struggle, the same hatred, the revenge for the dead compatriots, the shame for the country and the nation, I am invincible, one after another, To achieve the sacred vocation, and strive for the final victory of the War of Resistance! Hengyang defended the city, and the army was defeated and the city was broken, but it caused waves in the hearts of the people of the whole country no less than a victory.Public opinion set off "Hengyang Fever", "10th Army Fever", and "Fang Xianjue Fever" again, and armies across the country generally carried out activities to use the 10th Army as a model and vow to kill the enemy.A feeling of grief and indignation permeated the land of China. How wonderful it would be if the footsteps of history stopped abruptly at this moment! but.