Chapter 20: Battle of Lanfeng (V)
“Huff, huff!”
Li Yougen, who had passed through the Japanese army's fire network, leaned weakly behind a broken wall. His heavy breathing was like a bellows, and it took him a while to catch his breath.
Only then did he have the strength to look up and look for his companions, but as far as he could see, there were only seven or eight people in front of him. The rest either fell on the way to charge or even their remains could not be found.
"Captain, what should we do next?"
Before Li Yougen had time to lament the unpredictable fate of himself and his comrades, an old soldier from the same village crawled to his side.
"what to do?"
Li Yougen listened to the sound of bullets breaking through the air and repeated it to himself, then remembered the orders given by his superiors before the attack.
"Everyone, get your grenades ready. Listen to my command and throw them out together. When they explode, everyone rush forward."
After saying this, Li Yougen comforted himself.
"The company's machine guns will cover us?"
It’s not that Li Yougen is not afraid of life and death, nor that he understands any great principles of the country and the nation. It’s just that since he has already drunk the farewell wine personally poured by his commander, at most he can be a hero again in twenty years.
"One, two, three, throw!"
The grenade exploded in a ball of fire, which then stirred up a cloud of dust in the already broken village. Taking advantage of the Japanese shooter's brief poor vision, the remaining suicide squad members jumped up again and rushed to a distance of several dozen steps.
At this time, the machine gun cover that Li Yougen expected also appeared. The Maxim machine gun, spewing light and heat, used the effectiveness of its chain feed to completely suppress the Japanese Type 92 heavy machine gun, which often malfunctioned.
But the Japanese army's grenade launchers and infantry guns soon attacked. The 50mm and 70mm fragmentation grenades were by no means comparable to the grenades with only 15 grams of TNT. The fragments after the shattering rotated at high speed under the impetus of the air waves and became terrifying killers. In just a few seconds, they knocked down several running suicide squad members.
However, at this time, the nearest suicide squad member was not far from the Japanese shooting position. He took out all the grenades, tied them into a bundle with straps, pulled the trigger and leaned back to prepare to throw it. But just as he exposed his body, the Japanese rifleman had already pulled the trigger. As if hit by a sledgehammer, the grenade that was about to be thrown slipped out of the thrower's grasp and exploded in the unwilling eyes of the Chinese soldiers.
A temporary failure could not stop the determination of the Chinese soldiers who were willing to sacrifice their lives. The last two suicide squad members crawled towards the Japanese position. One of them rushed forward with a bundle of grenades in the horrified eyes of the Japanese soldiers. Although the dense bullets hitting his body made him tremble all over, he seemed to have lost his sense of pain and still rushed forward without dodging.
"kill!"
After the huge explosion, the Japanese machine gun positions that had been blocking the Chinese soldiers' advance went out. Hundreds of Chinese soldiers who had been waiting for their turn jumped out and rushed forward with a rage for revenge. This courtyard that had changed hands repeatedly was finally firmly under the control of the Second Reserve Division?
"Brother Xizhong, Dengliji is already in the hands of my master."
After receiving the report, Li Jiusi, commander of the Second Reserve Division, excitedly called Zhang Zizhong's command center to report.
"The Japanese detachment headquarters in Caihe Town is already within the range of my division's mortars. Give me another day and night, and I will definitely deliver Mizuguchi Jingxiong's head to the commander-in-chief."
"Brother Ziyou, I'm afraid I can't give you another day and night."
Dong Shengtang, who had not slept for several days, reported in a heavy tone.
"We just received a report that the 101st Regiment of the Japanese 101st Division has turned around and attacked us from the direction of Suixian. In addition, the Yuanshan Detachment is attacking fiercely. I'm afraid the 158th Division can't hold on?"
Although the Japanese Shuikou Detachment was only a mixed force consisting of 8 infantry squadrons, 2 artillery squadrons, 1 machine gun squadron, 3 engineering squadrons and 2 light and heavy squadrons, its combat effectiveness was far inferior to that of a pure field regiment. Although Zhang Zizhong's troops were in high spirits and had a high desire to fight, the total number of troops they sent into battle was 7 times that of the Japanese army.
However, the Yuanshan Detachment that rushed over from the outside was not effectively restrained by the Sichuan Army, so Zhang Zizhong's troops had to use half of their strength to block the enemy on the eastern front, and the remaining half was used to actually attack the enemy. In this way, the original advantage of the 12th Army no longer existed.
"Liu Zhensan, that bastard!"
Li Jiusi dropped the phone in his hand.
"You usually act so arrogant, as if you are the best in the world, but now you are scared, you bastard! All my soldiers died in vain, and I failed at the last moment, I failed at the last moment!"
Li Jiusi's scolding attracted the attention of the deputy division commander Yao Jingchuan, who asked anxiously, "What happened? We were fighting well, how come we failed at the last moment? Could it be that the 158th Division couldn't hold on?"
"Don't say anything now."
Li Jiusi and Liu Zhensan were both old subordinates of Zhang Zizhong, so their relationship was naturally much closer than that of Yao Jingchuan, who was originally from the 29th Army Independent Brigade . Therefore, although he cursed Liu Zhensan, he did not want Yao Jingchuan to laugh at him.
"Send someone to inform Li Shuren, An Kemin and the others to withdraw all the troops."
Retreating during an attack is extremely difficult. Yao Jingchuan sighed and said, "I'll go there myself."
Seeing Yao Jingchuan volunteering, Li Jiusi nodded with satisfaction: "Then I'll trouble you, Brother Jingchuan?"
While Zhang Zizhong's troops were on the verge of success, the 10th and 11th Corps wiped out the recklessly advancing Iwaki Integrated Battalion after paying a price three times that of the besieged Japanese troops.
However, the key to the problem lies not in the mere 300 remnant troops, but in the surging Nonomura detachment.
The 30,000 Sichuan troops with weak combat effectiveness could not withstand the fierce attack of the 6,000 Japanese troops. They were quickly defeated and had to retreat to Xiangcheng and Shenqiu.
The Japanese army took advantage of the situation and was relentless. The Nonomura Detachment chased them all the way and soon entered Dancheng. This was an unexpected success as it allowed the Sichuan Army to complete the assigned task by the war zone.
However, Lieutenant General Sangmu, who was just trying out his own skills, was very clear-headed. He was afraid that the defeat of the Sichuan Army was just a larger-scale trick to lure the enemy deeper into the territory, so he ordered the Nonomura Detachment to use Dancheng as the attack cutoff line. After destroying the Chinese manpower as much as possible, it should return to Luyi and Bozhou to reunite with the main force of the division so as to reinforce the Landong battlefield at any time.
Not to mention that the 9th and 10th Corps got a chance to catch their breath, but Ma Kang's intention was not to simply destroy a Japanese battalion of 1,000 people.
At 9 a.m. on April 25, the five outpost squadrons of the Nonomura Detachment, which were retreating from the Dancheng line, were suddenly attacked by cavalry. The roaring Hui Muslim Cavalry Brigade passed through, leaving a mess behind, making the Japanese army feel that the future was unpredictable.
Sure enough, not long after, the Japanese troops leaving the city were bombed by the Northwest Air Force from the Kaifeng front. Although the number of the attacking Chinese fighter planes was not large and the Japanese losses were not great, the chaos caused was not small. When Colonel Yoshihiko Nonomura finally controlled the troops, he found himself surrounded by several divisions of Chinese troops.
Colonel Nonomura immediately organized his troops to launch an assault, but found that the combat strength of the enemy in front of him was very different from that of the Sichuan Army. After judgment, he believed that this was the main force of the Northwest Army, so he immediately reported to the division headquarters which was on the move.
Lieutenant General Kuwagi immediately judged that the Chinese side was preparing to attack the 110th Division, so he immediately called the front army headquarters and Lieutenant Generals Masaharu Homma, Heitaro Kimura, and Maiden Osamu. Yamashita Tomoyuki immediately instructed to dispatch parts of the 222nd and 223rd Infantry Regiments, the 36th Mountain Artillery Regiment, the 36th Engineer Regiment, and the 36th Light and Heavy Infantry Regiment of the 36th Division to the south to cooperate with the 110th Division to take the lead in defeating the Chinese troops on the southern wing.
"What? Yamashita-kun, did the Commander really say that?"
Although the conversation was quite noisy, Honma Masaharu still heard clearly what Yamashita Tomoyuki meant.
"But the actions of the Chinese Army on the southern front may not be a way to lure the Imperial Army to split up. I absolutely do not agree to dispatch rashly before the reinforcements from the Kwantung Army and the Mongolian Army arrive."
"Honma-kun, the general has reached the point where he can no longer tolerate your behavior."
Yamashita Tomoyuki's tone was erratic, and it was obvious that he could not bear the pressure and was ready to draw a clear line with the conspiracy group.
"The Commander has already issued an order to the Military Police Headquarters. If the 27th and 32nd Divisions hesitate to move forward, he will use military discipline."
"What? This confused former minister."
Honma on the other end of the phone couldn't help but raise his eyebrows.
"But it seems that the North China Military Police Command cannot punish a lieutenant general at this level. To deprive me of my position as division commander requires an order from Tokyo."
"Mr. Honma, the general has been one of the three chiefs of the military, namely the Army Minister, the Chief of Staff, and the Director of Army Training and Education. If he wants to deal with a lieutenant general who resists military orders, even if Tokyo disagrees, at least it will not easily interfere."
Yamashita Fengwen gave advice.
"Besides, many middle and lower-level officers and soldiers have objections to your actions, so I hope you can face reality and not let people question your courage."
"But Yamashita-kun, war is not a game. People will die. I cannot recklessly send tens of thousands of imperial soldiers into a losing battle."
Masaharu Honma persisted.
"If you don't give me enough reinforcements, I can only adopt a passive strategy, or let the general remove me from my position."
"Don't act on impulse, Honma-kun. The Front Army has considered your request, but the strength of the 26th Division and the Cavalry Group of the Mongolian Army has not yet recovered, and the 2nd Independent Mixed Brigade cannot be easily mobilized due to the activities of the remaining Chinese Army troops. It seems that there is no hope. As for the country, there are not enough troops to send now, and the Kwantung Army seems to be brewing something, so I hope you can do it reluctantly."
Yamashita Tomoyuki couldn't help but smile bitterly when he heard a series of curses coming from the other end of the phone, but he still had to comfort the other party.
"I have made my best efforts. The Commander has agreed to transfer some forces from the 21st Division, which is currently resting in Beijing and Tianjin, to the south. The 114th Division will also transfer forces across the Yellow River when necessary during the battle. However, all this depends on when Landong starts the attack..."
"asshole!"
Honma Masaharu gritted his teeth. Of course he understood Yamashita Tomoyuki's subtext, so he had no choice but to agree.
"Yamashita-kun, I will launch the attack immediately, but I'll have to rely on you for the reinforcements..."