Chapter 14 Contact Warfare
On April 10, General Okamura Yasuji, commander of the 11th Japanese Army in Central China, ordered the dispatch of part of the 13th Division to conduct a mopping-up operation in the foothills of the Dabie Mountains in northeastern Hubei Province in view of the intensifying offensive in the Fifth War Zone.
Colonel Yoshiwara Noriyuki, the chief of staff of the 13th Division, mobilized two battalions of the Kurabayashi (58th Infantry) Regiment, one and a half battalions of the Urushita (116th Infantry) Regiment, four companies of the 19th Mountain Artillery Regiment, three companies each of the 13th Engineer Regiment and the 13th Quartermaster Regiment, totaling about 4,200 people, to form a punitive force to attack Wang Lingji and other units of the Sichuan Army.
On the same day, the 11th Army also sent 17,000 troops of the 101st Division to attack the 15th Corps in Sui-Zao, and used part of the 34th Division to contain the line of the three passes of Yiyang...
Perhaps considering that the Japanese troops in central China had attracted considerable Chinese attention in southern Hubei, General Sugiyama Gen made a ruling on the battle situation in eastern Henan.
On April 13, the two Japanese troops that had captured Guide and Heze began to attack Kaifeng together. Only the 110th Division stopped its main force in Bo and Yong in order to secure the flank of the Japanese army in Guide and to consider the issue of supporting the defenders of the Jinpu Road. It only sent small forces to attack Luyi, Dancheng, Huaiyang and other places.
"The Japanese army's movements have been made clear. The 11th Army is basically feinting on the line in northern Hubei."
Major General Ma Mingyao, deputy director of the Operations Department of the General Staff and a second-term Northwest student studying in Germany, gave advice to Zhang Zilii.
"Therefore, it is entirely possible to suggest that Yang Hucheng use the Seventh Army in the eastern Henan battlefield. In this way, even if the Japanese army in central China suddenly strengthens its forces on the Xinyang line, there are still three armies and nine divisions under Wang Yizhe's army in Hubei, Henan and Anhui, as well as Men Bingyue's reserve cavalry corps, which can fully support the two directions of central Anhui and southern Henan."
The so-called Men Bingyue's reserve cavalry corps refers to the product of the reorganization of Zheng Dazhang's First Reserve Cavalry Army, which was independent from the original Sixth Corps after Feng Zhian's Sixth Corps and Sun Lianzhong's Second Army were combined to reorganize the Nineteenth Army, and Men Bingyue's Sixth Reserve Cavalry Army, which was originally under the jurisdiction of Feng Qinzai's Sixteenth Corps.
Despite the large numbers, the two cavalry corps actually only have one cavalry division each, and the entire corps has only about 8,000 cavalrymen.
"Wait a moment, I'll finalize it with you."
Zhang Zili responded like this.
"You can first greet Chief of Staff Zhao in the name of the General Staff, so that Yang Hucheng can be prepared."
Having said this, Zhang Zilii raised his head.
"Any new reports from Jiluyu?"
"No."
Ma Mingyao glanced at the memo in his hand and gave an answer.
"Commander Ma is still preparing for the Lankao blocking line according to the established strategy. Niu Yuanfeng led the 69th Army Headquarters and Tang Junyao's 114th Division to the Quxing line east of Kaifeng as the Landong reserve force, and the remaining two units of the 99th Army were deployed in the Landong preset positions.
Zhang Zhihe's 148th Division of the 24th Army and Zhao Yi's 128th Division of the 53rd Army were on standby in Chenliu.
Lin Yungen's 171st Division of the 24th Army and Tian Zhongyi's 1st Reserve Division directly under the 10th Corps are currently between Huaiyang and Taikang.
The headquarters of the 10th Corps, the headquarters of the 24th Army and Su Huazhou's 18th Reserve Division were in Dancheng with Yang Sen's 11th Corps.
He Zhuguo's Third Army and Jin Kuibi's 53rd Army have arrived in Tongxu, and the remaining two divisions of the 53rd Army have also entered the Qixian position..."
The breathless lieutenant intelligence officer rushed straight into the regiment headquarters and said, "Report, the Japanese from Luyi are attacking ."
Liu Zhiguo, the commander of the 1st Regiment of the 154th Division, was an old subordinate of Yang Sen. He had crawled out of the dead in several major battles and naturally knew how powerful the Japanese army was. So even though his facial muscles twitched slightly at this moment, in order not to shake the morale of the troops, he still asked calmly on the surface: "Can you see clearly how many Japanese soldiers there are?"
"I'm afraid it's more than a whole team!"
The lieutenant's answer made Colonel Liu gasp. A Japanese battalion had at least 700 to 800 people, while the 1541st Regiment, which had not yet been fully replenished, had only more than 1,800 people. Add to that the gap in firepower and quality of troops between the two sides, and this battle might be impossible to fight.
"Besides this group of devils, are there any other Japanese troops around?"
The lieutenant shook his head blankly. He rushed to report as soon as he received the intelligence and had no idea whether the reconnaissance team had made any follow-up discoveries.
"Record."
Liu Zhiguo, seeking advice from the blind, walked around the room.
"A thousand enemies are attacking our defense zone from Luyi. We need the division commander's instructions on whether to fight or retreat!"
Fifteen minutes later, the telegram came back. Liu Zhiguo glanced at the message and gave orders with a grim expression.
"Call all the company commanders and above here. Damn it, we are going to fight to the death again..."
“Snap! Snap!”
There was a series of gunshots, but this was not a blocking battle by Yang Sen's troops of Lu (Yi) Nanchuan Army on the Jingou River line. Instead, a company of the 239th Division that was covering the evacuation of the people in Minquan City was caught up by the vanguard of the 36th Division of the Japanese Army that was advancing rapidly. Unable to retreat smoothly, the company could only retreat to the Minquan city gate and resist on the spot.
"What are you afraid of? Check your weapons carefully. The Japanese have a nose and two eyes. If they get shot, they will bleed even if they don't die."
The veterans who had just become non-commissioned officers comforted the rookies who had just come out of the training camp.
"When night falls and the Japs are completely blind, it's time for us to break out."
Before the old soldier finished speaking, the sound of artillery fire rang out. The new soldiers nervously clenched their weapons, and many of them turned pale. Only the old soldiers acted as if nothing had happened: "Why are you afraid? It's just a small 70mm cannon. It won't even make a hole in the city."
This may have been true in the past, but the Ningling City Gate had been severely damaged in the previous battle, and the city wall, which had not been repaired to this day, was in pieces and exposed to everyone, even unable to block the sight of the Japanese army. How could it provide sufficient defense for the defenders? However, the new recruits were unaware of this, and gradually calmed down under the leadership of the calm veterans.
"The devils are coming again."
With one report, half a platoon of front-line troops quickly ambushed in the rubble created by the Japanese army.
I saw about a squad of Japanese soldiers crouching and approaching the city wall in a skirmish line.
The recruits' hands trembled slightly, but the veterans gave gentle reminders.
"Hold steady, listen to orders, get ready, fire!"
“Snap! Snap!”
Led by the bursts of fire from two squad-level light machine guns, the recruits fired all the bullets in their hands as quickly as possible. As for the effect, it was quite effective. After all, they had all been fed more than 500 bullets in the training camp. Just this one shot reduced the number of Japanese soldiers in this squad by one-eighth. Of course, only a handful of them were actually killed.
"Puff puff!"
The Japanese army's heavy machine guns swept across the gap, and the new recruits who were still observing their own battle results were caught off guard and several of them were knocked down. The blood quickly dyed the entire position red, making the surviving new recruits understand what cruelty is.
"Grenade launcher!"
At the commanding lieutenant's order, two grenades were fired one after another and soon exploded behind the Japanese army, but the effect of the grenade launcher shooting seemed to be ineffective, and the Japanese heavy machine guns were still firing. At this time, gunshots suddenly rang out from the top of the city wall, and then the Japanese heavy machine guns were silenced.
"Lieutenant Commander Ma is worthy of being a hunter soldier. He is an accurate shooter."
The veterans sighed and took out grenades from behind their buttocks.
"Prepare to drop the bomb!"
At this time, the Japanese attack team was already very close to the defenders' simple positions.
"Cut the fuse short, listen to my command, one, two, three, throw!"
Grenades exploded over the heads of the Japanese troops like raindrops, killing at least seven or eight devils at once. Faced with such casualties, the vanguard Japanese troops of the 36th Division, which were mainly composed of veterans and new recruits, seemed to be unable to hold on any longer. So, they fled backwards, throwing away their weapons and armor, dragging their wounded soldiers, leaving the new recruits of the 239th Division cheering for their first victory.
"What are you yelling about? Run!"
The crouching non-commissioned officers kicked the recruits, who were still confused, in the buttocks.
"Run, run fast, find a place to hide, the Japanese artillery shells are coming again..."
"Based on my observations, the devils in front of us are probably the search team of the 36th Division."
Lieutenant Ma Wenhua was originally a sergeant in the hunting corps. He participated in the Battle of Peiping-Tianjin and the Dingzhou counterattack. Later, he retired from the hunting corps due to combat injuries. As a result, he was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant and had the opportunity to study in the Northwest Army School's crash course. After graduation, he was promoted one level and transferred to the 239th Division, a unit that was responsible for garrison missions on the western front after its formation, as a company deputy. In a sense, he was the one with the most experience in fighting the Japanese in the entire division.
"Search party?"
Company commander Xu Jin looked at his deputy in confusion.
“What kind of system is this?”
"The Japanese army's pre-war regular divisions, as well as the 100th divisions established as replacements for the regular divisions, only had cavalry regiments or cavalry battalions, and no search teams. However, since the Japanese army had limited cavalry units, it was impossible to provide all new units with enough horses and cavalry, so search teams emerged."
Horse culture explained.
"Generally speaking, the search teams of the Three-Regiment Guard Division have two organizational structures: regiment and battalion. The difference is that the search battalion is composed of an infantry squadron, a cavalry squadron and a machine gun squadron, while the search regiment has two infantry squadrons, a cavalry squadron, a transport squadron equipped with a small number of trucks and armored vehicles, and a machine gun squadron. In addition, the regiment-level search team also has a regiment artillery squadron equipped with 70mm infantry guns or 82mm mortars."
"Isn't it that Lao Ma judged that this was a search corps based on the trucks and artillery the devils had? However, the number of people seems to be wrong, right?"
Xu Jin couldn't decide the fate of more than a hundred brothers based solely on his deputy's guesses.
"The number of devils has indeed decreased a lot, but the company commander should know that I have a reward of a German-made four-fold scope, which can see farther."
Speaking of this four-fold scope, Xu Jin was really jealous. You know, although the Northwest also has its own optical industry, its main production objects are large lenses such as anti-aircraft sights, tank gun sights, and artillery scopes.
The annual output of infantry telescopes such as eight-fold and four-fold telescopes is only about 1,500.
Some of it was also provided to foreign troops with close ties such as the Northeast Army and Yang Hucheng, and a portion was left for sale to the south. Only a handful of it actually fell into the hands of middle and lower-level officers of the Northwest Army.
Generally speaking, it is only provided to officers above the colonel level. Even an old captain like Xu Jin, who has already stepped half a foot into the threshold of becoming a colonel officer, can only sigh in despair without solid military merit, let alone the opportunity to obtain German-made products.
"I just observed the rear of the Japanese army and found that this group of devils is equipped with several armored vehicles. With the current organization of the devils, if it is not a specially reinforced armored vehicle squadron, it can only be a search team at the regiment level."
"A regiment-level Japanese search team, with armored vehicles?"
Xu Jin frowned.
"This is really troublesome."
"Yes, maybe the Japanese army was afraid that the armored vehicles would be blown up after entering the city, so they were reluctant to use them. But after we break out, the Japanese will definitely use armored vehicles and cavalry to pursue us."
"Is the radio station not fixed yet?"
Annoyed, Xu Jin forced himself to calm down.
"No?"
The leader of the telecommunications team who came from the battalion headquarters answered.
"No matter what, we still , Lao Ma."
Xu Jin looked at Ma Wenhua.
"You are a hunter, so I'll leave it to you to find a way out!"
"No, I'll be the last one to leave."
Ma Wenhua puts forward his own suggestions.
"Judging from the current situation, blocking the enemy is the key to breaking through. I have more experience in this regard than anyone else in the company."
Seeing that Xu Jin was about to say something, Ma Wenhua waved his hand.
"Don't argue, just listen to me..."
