Rise From Eight Hundred

In fact, the battle in the forest broke out as early as the afternoon.

Just as the Chinese knew that if the Japanese wanted to escape, they would have to enter the steep mountains, the Japanese also knew that there were more than wolves and tigers in the mountains of China, and there were more Chinese who were more dangerous than wolves and tigers.

But, what if? Including Yamamoto who had fallen into a coma, all the Japanese who fled into the mountains understood one thing: fighting in the Chinese encirclement, they might kill a few more Chinese before they died, but they would be dead.

And entering the mountainous area, although they would be ambushed or blocked by the Chinese and even chased, after all, the mountains are vast, and the Chinese are not gods. It is impossible to seal the entire mountain, so there is a chance to survive.

Of course, this truth is understood by both Tang Dao and Brigade Commander Cheng.

But for them as commanders, the so-called annihilation of the enemy does not mean not letting even a dog go. As long as 80% of them are annihilated, the effect has been achieved, provided that they do not hurt themselves.

The so-called "surround three and kill one" means that this mountainous area, which is full of murderous intentions and is well known to both sides, is the one. Knowing that it is a pit, the Japanese who want to survive have to jump into it.

The first to engage in contact with the Chinese soldiers was of course the brigade escort squadron led by Yin Tengyangtai, who left first.

But Yin Tengyangtai was very cunning. He knew that he might encounter Chinese ambushed on the high ground anywhere in the mountains, so he would not send two or three hundred people to kill them in a mighty manner.

In the past, when he was full of confidence, had people and artillery, he would have split the mountains and filled the sea when he met the mountains. The warriors of the Great Japanese Empire have always been fearless, but now, even a high ground guarded by an infantry platoon would make them terrified.

Therefore, before the march, he split the entire escort squadron into squads and sub-teams, and sent out less than 100 people in more than five directions. These sub-teams were used to explore the way. Their life and death were not important. The important thing was to find out where the Chinese were for him who entered the mountain last.

The officers and soldiers of the reconnaissance company who first encountered them didn't care so much. If they were Japanese, they would be killed, and naturally they would not show mercy.

The continuous sound of gunfire in the mountains gave Yin Tengyangtai and the remaining nearly 200 people an option. Then, in the process of going deep into the mountains, they continued to send scouts to the walkable area.

In this way, relying entirely on the loss of human lives, this wise chief of staff of the Second Mixed Brigade actually miraculously led his troops deep into the mountains for more than ten miles before nightfall without being discovered by Chinese soldiers.

If it weren't for the night, he was too cautious and thought that he might be discovered by the Chinese soldiers who had occupied the high ground if he drove at night with a flashlight. He might have escaped with the seriously injured Yamamoto.

But unfortunately, Yin Tengyangtai didn't know how strong the Chinese wanted to kill them. In addition to the more than 150 people of the most elite reconnaissance company of the 16,000-strong army, there were also more than a thousand elite soldiers of the elite infantry battalion of the 1st Battalion of the 4th Regiment in the rolling mountains.

The mountainous area close to the Japanese positions was too steep. Lei Xiong carefully studied the simple map drawn by the scouts after receiving the mission. In such a steep geographical environment, it was not easy to deploy troops. The peaks were too far away from the valleys, and it was easy for Japanese soldiers to escape under the cover of night and bushes.

Therefore, he took a different approach and did not put all his troops in this area. Instead, he divided his troops into three layers with this area as the center point. The first layer was about 10 miles away from the Japanese positions, with two infantry platoons, the second layer was 15 miles away from the Japanese positions, with three infantry platoons, and the third layer was the last layer, about 22 miles away from the Japanese positions, with four infantry platoons.

The artillery company was split up to cooperate with the actions of each infantry platoon.

This was to form a layered net. If the Japanese troops who fled into the mountains wanted to become fish that slipped through the net, they would really have to be protected by Amaterasu to realize their dreams.

Most of the more than 1,000 Japanese soldiers who had completely collapsed and fled into the mountains in the evening did not even pass the first layer of the first battalion's blockade.

In addition to the more than 100 elite reconnaissance companies in this ambush, there were more than 400 Chinese soldiers guarding the high ground, as well as heavy machine guns and mortars. The commanding attack made the Japanese army powerless to resist.

What made the remnants of the Japanese army even more painful was that they could not get through the tightly sealed valley. The main force of the Chinese who had won a comprehensive victory in the rear did not celebrate the victory too much, but chased into the mountains along the way, without worrying about the darkening sky.

That was another two infantry battalions, belonging to the 772nd and 771st regiments respectively. This kind of mountain warfare is also what they are extremely good at.

The remnants of the artillery battalion of the second mixed brigade, who wanted to run but didn't want to lose their artillery, were blocked from front and back like this, and were killed before it was dark.

Really, with that kind of brainless behavior, even the Chinese soldiers had the urge to call them "worthy of being a mountain artillery battalion."

"Hey, young man! We have cannons, we have cannons, our 772nd Regiment can also build a mountain artillery company, Brigade Commander, you can't regret it!" Wang Xiaoqiang laughed up to the sky when he heard that his subordinates had captured seven intact mountain cannons. He almost laughed in front of Brigade Commander Cheng, Commander Tang, and Commander Xu of the 771st Regiment.

Commander Xu, who has always been mature and prudent, couldn't help but look up at the sky and roll his eyes. Let's not talk about the contribution of our 771st Regiment, the Four-Line Regiment is the biggest contributor, okay? Commander Tang hasn't even spoken yet, what's the matter, it has become your 772nd Regiment's? What are you thinking!

However, the calm Captain Xu really miscalculated this time.

After the war, after questioning a Japanese captain who was captured in the mountains, he learned that the cause of the collapse of the 2nd Mixed Brigade in the evening was that Yamashita was accidentally seriously injured by an artillery attack.

Comrade Wang Xiaoqiang, who was belatedly aware of the situation, did not recall that Xia Jiba fired a few rounds until Brigadier Cheng Da came to visit him. Unexpectedly, he actually killed the top commander of the Japanese army.

"In this battle, the 772nd Regiment should make the first contribution!" These words were not spoken by Brigadier Cheng and Tuanzuo Tang, but by the boss of the 80th Group Army.

As a reward, 4 75mm mountain guns and 300 rounds of artillery shells were returned to the 772nd Regiment, becoming the first infantry regiment in the entire 80th Army to have a mountain gun company. But Wang Xiaoqiang was so overwhelmed that he wanted to go to the brigade headquarters for a meeting. No guards and a mountain artillery battery.

Returning to the original topic, according to Lei Xiong's layer-by-layer defense deployment, the blocking position finally selected by the first battalion, second company and first platoon located on the outermost layer was not a large mountain, but the junction of consecutive mountains. The mountains were not too high. , the highest altitude is only seventy or eighty meters. The mountains are not particularly steep. They are basically stone mountains. The tops of the slopes are mostly dominated by shrubs and small trees.

There are many hills in an endless row. There are many ravines between the tops of the hills, covered with weeds and shrubs. It is no problem for people to leave, but it is difficult for people to travel by car or horse.

But even if you want to leave, if someone attacks from the mountain, even if you throw a stone down, the person will be killed.

In other words, if you want to hold on to a gully that can be walked through, you only need to hold on to the commanding heights of the hills that are not far apart on both sides of the gully.

However, there is only one way to go. Let alone a platoon of dozens of people, it is an infantry squad. The Japanese army, which lacks heavy artillery, heavy machine guns and other heavy firearms, wants to open a road and escape. In just a few hours, it pays several times the casualties of the defenders. No matter how hard you try, it's impossible.

But the geography and topography here were doomed. There were many ravines through which the Japanese army could choose to flee, at least five or six.

In this case, one platoon can only divide its troops.

However, we cannot blindly divide our troops. Otherwise, if the Japanese army seizes the weakness, divides and surrounds a row, and concentrates its superior forces to defeat each one, it will turn a risky and courageous blockade into a joke. .

Therefore, under the assignment of Wei Donglai, who personally led the team, the infantry squads were used as units. The three infantry squads were divided into three defense zones with character characters. The firepower between each infantry squad could provide support to each other. If you want to attack one of them, From one position, the Japanese army would be attacked by fire from at least two hilltop positions.

Moreover, the position setting of each class is also particular.

For example, an infantry squad establishes a position on the two hills in front of the center, with a firepower group stationed on each hilltop. Another infantry squad cooperates with a firepower squad that provides fire support to establish a position on the rear hilltop 300 meters away. It was enough to ensure that a heavy machine gun and an 82 gun from the fire squad would provide fire cover for their flanks and rear flanks. and

Moreover, because the 82 force has a range of up to 2,500 meters, it can cover most of the battlefield area, enough to attack the light infantry Japanese invaders who can reach this area.

Yes, Lei Xiong dared to cast the net so wide and wide, and did not hesitate to set up defenses in a mountainous area with a radius of dozens of miles, just to bully the Japanese who had completely turned into light infantry. In such a broken place, let alone infantry, artillery and mountain artillery, just being able to carry a few heavy machine guns makes him a super ruthless person.

In order to facilitate communication in the mountainous area, the three infantry company headquarters have distributed field radios. However, after all, the Fourth Army Regiment is not yet powerful enough to popularize field radios to platoon-level units, and all emergency communications must rely on signal bombs.

In the dark of night, red flares were fired in the distant mountains and forests, which proved that the Japanese troops had fled into the mountains and forests as the regimental commander had guessed, and had already come into contact with the first or even second layer of blocking positions.

The officers and soldiers of the second company and the first platoon who had just arrived at their respective positions after a long march did not bother to rest and immediately went into the work of building fortifications.

Not only did they know that the battle had been won, their morale was high, but more importantly, they all knew that the injured wild boar was more vicious than the tiger.

In order to survive, the Japanese army's outbreak of fighting power may be even more terrifying than before.

In such a bloody battle, the stronger the fortifications, the greater the chance of survival.

No one wants to die in such a glorious battle. It's not that they are particularly afraid of death, but they all want to live to taste the joy after victory.

What's more, Tang Tuanzuo often said: Only by surviving can you kill more Japanese. Talking about death lightly is also irresponsible to the country and nation.

The officers and soldiers of the Si Xing Regiment may be less afraid of death than many people, but they are also more "fearful of death" than many people. Especially for the newly rebuilt Second Company, the name 'Steel Company' was forged with the flesh and blood of the 120 martyrs of the former Sichuan Army's Seventh Company. They could not let the Second Company suffer another fatal blow so easily.

It was said that it was repairing fortifications, but in fact it was just filling the four sacks that everyone carried with them with earth and building them up.

This sack is also a necessary item carried by each officer and soldier of the Fourth Line Regiment. Like ammunition, it will be quickly replenished after every battle, and it is tied together with the individual engineer shovel that everyone must have.

Don’t underestimate the role of sandbags. The soil in most sacks can basically withstand the penetration of 7.7mm bullets from Japanese heavy machine guns. As long as the grenades of the Japanese grenades do not explode accurately behind the sandbags, shrapnel and shock waves will basically be able to withstand it. The person hiding behind could not cause fatal damage. After several battles, this seemingly inconspicuous sack saved the lives of many soldiers.

The three men of the third squad of the first platoon of the second company of the first battalion, led by the squad leader Lao Suanpan, were also desperately stacking sandbags. However, they were not on the main position of the infantry platoon, but on a solitary mountain three miles away from the main position.

Lao Suanpan was one of the five veterans from the Fourth Battalion who were personally named by Wei Donglai when the second company was rebuilt. The other four became platoon-level cadres. Only Lao Suanpan did not want to be an officer but chose to continue to be his soldier. However, his military salary was almost the same as that of a lieutenant.

In his words, he was used to being lazy and could not even control his own gambling, let alone so many people. But he had fought in Songhu, Songjiang, and Guangde, and his seniority was too old to be a squad leader.

So, the famous old gambler of the former Fourth Battalion became a sergeant squad leader with a lot of seniority in the entire first battalion. Not to mention that the platoon leader was his old comrade, even the company commander Wei Donglai was very polite to him.

Therefore, Lao Suanpan chose a blocking point himself, and the second lieutenant platoon leader who was much younger than Lao Suanpan agreed after looking at the terrain.

The solitary mountain he chose was steeper than other mountains, and it was difficult to climb up, but the mountain was high enough to basically see the surrounding area of ​​7 or 8 miles.

As an observation point, it was the most suitable, and there were many strange rocks on the top of the mountain. If the enemy only relied on guns to shoot, the environment here would be very conducive to defense.

Moreover, 400 meters away from this mountain, there were basically cliffs and dead ends.

In other words, the entire row of 1,000-meter blocking defense line ended here. If the Japanese army fleeing from this direction wanted to pass through here and enter the distant mountains, they had to fight, otherwise they could only transform into monkeys and climb over the cliffs.

However, the mountain area was destined to be unfavorable for human passage. Unless they were too stupid, they would generally not pass through the valley full of rocks where they could not even land.

Otherwise, the first platoon would not have given up this place as a position. The probability that the Japanese army would choose to pass through here is too small.

In the mind of the second lieutenant platoon leader, Lao Suanpan had found a relatively safe place. For this reason, he also privately instructed Lao Suanpan to bring Potato, who had been promoted to corporal.

Although Potato was young, he was a "veteran" in the Iron and Steel Company, because he had been in the Iron and Steel Company longer than 95% of the officers and soldiers.

Originally, he was the communications soldier and service soldier of the company commander Wei Donglai, but this stubborn boy insisted on going to the front-line troops after the battle of Lao Shushan.

In his original words: Fuck him, those idiots are dead if they kick their legs, leaving me alone to kowtow to them, my head is swollen, I don't want to do this job! If you want to die, let's all go to the King of Hell to report, anyway, don't leave me alone.

Yes! Seeing that all the brothers who have been with you day and night have died in the battle, leaving only me, what kind of mood is that? If you put yourself in their shoes, it would be better to die together.

Having said that, the company commander Wei Donglai said no more and had to let him go to the old abacus, the most experienced infantry squad leader in the entire infantry company.

Wei Donglai's logic is also very simple. The longer the soldiers survive on the battlefield, the more they know how to save their lives. Under his command, Potato has a much greater chance of surviving on the battlefield than other squads.

The whole second company knows this, but no one blames Wei Donglai. The boy who shouted "Fire at me" on the phone is the best soldier in the second company, no one else.

Because he is the hope of all the brothers of the Sichuan Army who died in the war! Everyone hopes that he can live well, live to the end of the war, marry and have children for all the brothers who died in the war, and enjoy a good life.

After several major battles, Potato is much more mature than before. Facing the kindness of the company commander and the brothers of the whole company, he did not say anything to refuse. However, he is still the brave boy in the battle of Laojinkeng, and the elite soldier in the old abacus squad who can be equipped with semi-automatic rifles. That is not based on relationships, but on his own ability.

The squad leader called out, and Potato had to obey orders even if he was reluctant.

Of course, on such a battlefield, even if the terrain showed that this place was unlikely to become a blocking position, it would mostly become a high ground to provide reconnaissance information to the main position, but a submachine gun and a semi-automatic rifle were not enough, so a precision shooter carrying a Liao-made 13-gun was brought along.

This precision shooter was not someone else, but Yang Bicheng, who was known as a "coward" before the Battle of Baihegang.

Perhaps it was the blessing of the spirits of his brothers who died bravely in the battle, or perhaps he had two years of military experience. He was just a coward by nature before. After the Battle of Baihegang, this guy who was completely transformed by the huge stimulation, his marksmanship was actually improving by leaps and bounds. Although he failed to become a super sniper of the entire Sihang Regiment like Niu Er, he also became an elite soldier at the precision shooter level after the Battle of Guangde.

Later, it was also because of the reconstruction of the "Steel Company" from Weidong that He was transferred from Li Jiujin's 7th Company and was asked by Lao Suanpan to work as his precision shooter in the 3rd squad of the 1st platoon. His military rank was also promoted to corporal.

The combination of the three people was not weak, with a veteran sergeant and two corporals with strong fighting will.

The second lieutenant platoon leader was afraid that their firepower was still insufficient, so he specially took two Mauser pistols and gave them to Lao Suanpan, and also equipped them with 20 extra grenades.

Including bullets, clean water, dry food, etc., the three infantrymen carried more than 20 kilograms of weight. Fortunately, there was also the hammer, the favorite of the 4th Regiment, otherwise, it would be difficult to climb the lonely mountain.

Corporal ‘Hammer’ is not a soldier of the first battalion. He is a member of the regiment. Lei Xiong specially applied to Tang Dao for him because he was going into the mountains.

Potato met Tang Dao a lot in the battle of Laoshu Mountain, so he was naturally familiar with Hammer. The boy was originally simple. Because he liked Hammer, he basically didn’t eat the jerky issued by the army. He fed Hammer all of it. Hammer also liked Potato, a boy.

Although he was a sentry for the first battalion, Hammer was actually with Potato. Lei Xiong was too lazy to care about him. Being on guard for the second company was also helping the first battalion, wasn’t it?

So, Hammer, wearing a military vest, a helmet and a steel collar, also took on the responsibility of a ‘camel dog’. One dog had more than 30 kilograms of supplies hanging on both sides, which saved a lot of effort for the three people.

For safety reasons, under the leadership of Lao Suanpan, the three people still did their old job as infantrymen, digging the barren soil on the top of the mountain and setting up blocking positions at suitable locations.

If any Japanese soldiers came here, the three of them would not be able to watch the little devils slip into the mountains and escape.

However, no one in the entire battalion, including Lao Suanpan who was building a position, expected that apart from the main battlefield, the most tragic battle in this mountain would actually break out on this inconspicuous isolated mountain.

Not to mention that they could not think of it, the Japanese Army Zhong Zuo, who had tried his best to survive by relying on his subordinates to sacrifice their lives, did not expect that it was three little soldiers who completely blocked his escape.

And, a dog!