Rise From Eight Hundred

The next week or so was perhaps the most difficult ten days for Fujita Susumu as the commander of the Third Division.

Not only did the Chinese who had not been wiped out find a place to hide, but they also fought against the Third Division like a maggot on the tarsal bone.

At first, they only used the night to shoot at some field camps in the mountains. No matter how accurate the shooting was, it only killed a limited number of people. Later, the Japanese commanders at all levels who were unable to bear it simply ordered that bonfires were prohibited at night.

Although they were not allowed to light fires in such a cold winter and could only rely on cotton-padded clothes and quilts to resist the cold wind, compared with their precious lives, the Japanese infantry could accept it.

Because the Chinese super sharpshooter hiding in the dark in the mountains did not have any fixed targets. Today it was the infantry regiment, tomorrow it was the artillery regiment, and the next day there was the cavalry regiment. The Third Division, this behemoth, could be his target everywhere.

Fujita Susumu originally did not take this level of harassment seriously, and it did not prevent him from quietly accumulating strength to prepare for the second forced crossing of Tongguan.

After Fujita Susumu's efforts, Itagaki Shiro agreed to the plan to transport two gunboats from the central China region to the Tongguan war zone.

Gunboats are not comparable to small boats such as motorboats. Gunboats weighing tens of tons or even hundreds of tons not only have steel plate armor, but also a main gun and several 25mm machine guns. For the Chinese 82mm small-caliber mortars, unless there is a high-density concentrated fire and more than a dozen rounds are all smashed on the hull, no one can do anything about this steel behemoth.

With this kind of gunboat as fire cover, the success rate of forced crossing will be increased to 80%. The transportation department has specially built a train for transporting this kind of gunboat for this purpose, and is working day and night to transport the gunboats required by the Third Division and the newly mobilized motorboats here.

The engineering regiment is also rushing to make a new means of transportation at night, a raft specially used to transport infantry across the river!

This kind of raft has a defensive roof. Four thick logs support a sufficiently solid wooden roof, and then two layers of sandbags are laid on it. At the same time, sandbags half a meter high are piled around the raft.

Although the load-bearing capacity of the raft has increased greatly, the original capacity of transporting 20 fully armed soldiers has been reduced to an infantry squad, but the protection has been greatly increased. As long as it is not hit head-on by mortar shells, the Chinese's "surpassing shooting" trick of deploying a large number of heavy machine guns will be completely useless.

Such rafts are simple in structure and easy to obtain materials. The remnants of Zhongtiao Mountain on the side are not lacking in these. With the efficiency of making 15 rafts a day, it will take less than 20 days to transport a fully armed infantry regiment.

January is the coldest time of winter, but in Fujita Susumu's view, it is the best time to attack Tongguan. The cold weather is not only a huge test for the imperial infantry on the raft, but also for the Chinese staying in the cold trenches on the shore.

The weather below zero degrees made the soldiers' limbs stiff, and their thinking seemed to be frozen and slow. Fujita Jin not only believed that the various warm-keeping equipment of the officers and soldiers of the Third Division under his command was far better than that of the opponents, but more importantly, their will was far better than that of the opponents.

The worse the weather, the greater his chance of winning.

This was Fujita Jin's plan in the past few days, but what Fujita Jin did not expect was that before the planned feast had even begun, a "green-headed fly" broke into the hall, not biting you, but simply disgusting you.

For five consecutive days, the attacks continued, and basically all occurred at night.

And they were basically the same. A Chinese super sharpshooter was wandering outside the camps, looking for various valuable and worthless targets.

To put it bluntly, no matter whether you are a private, a second lieutenant, a lieutenant, or a captain, as long as you dare to expose your target in the dark, the Chinese sharpshooter will shoot you from a long distance.

The key is that his shooting skills are so accurate that almost no one survives under his gun.

If they died, it would be fine. It would just cost some firewood and burn them to ashes. The most terrifying thing is that they are temporarily injured but not dead.

The 92-caliber rifle bullet should have been specially modified to form a teacup-sized air wound in the human body. The blood loss caused by the huge wound can kill people alive.

Even if there are lucky survivors, the wound infection rate is 100%. Today, there is no specific medicine for bacterial infection. Military doctors can only watch desperately as the wounded who have been rescued with great difficulty die in painful wails.

In five days, 242 officers and soldiers of the Third Division died in this sneak attack, an average of nearly 50 people per day.

This means that while Fujita Susumu is still quietly preparing for a big move, the Third Division is losing an infantry squad every day.

At this rate, in less than three months, the Third Division can be renamed the Third Brigade.

Faced with this kind of harassment, the Japanese army did not fail to respond. They either sent out military dogs and search teams of more than 100 people to track them, or quietly ambushed sharpshooters around the camp, intending to use precision to fight strength.

However, the cunning and viciousness of the opponent far exceeded the Japanese army's imagination!

The 242 casualties were mainly caused by this, and only about one-fifth of them were killed by Chinese snipers in the camp.

It seems that there is a kind of "you lie down and let me kill you, I can't kill many, but if you resist, then I'm really excited."

The sharpshooters who ambushed in the surroundings in advance were either killed silently by the Chinese who lurked here, or were shot dead in the exchange of fire, showing the fact that there is a huge gap in strength between the sharpshooters.

The search team composed of military dogs and soldiers was even more miserable!

It was still good that the military dog ​​was led in the wrong direction by special drugs and led the search team into the minefield. As long as they stayed still and let the sharpshooters hiding in the dark shoot those who dared to show their heads, at least 70% of the 100 people could survive by hiding until dawn or the arrival of reinforcements.

This was the real experience of two consecutive search teams, and their losses were still acceptable.

But if the military dog ​​led the search team into the enemy's carefully arranged encirclement as if it was crazy, it would really be a disaster.

There were not just one Chinese hiding in this mountain, but at least nearly a hundred people, and they were well-equipped.

What's more terrible is that their ammunition seemed to be inexhaustible!

No less than 4,000 submachine gun and Mauser shells were found in one battlefield where the search team was attacked.

In less than 10 minutes of fighting, no more than two infantry squads could pour out more than 4,000 bullets and more than 100 grenades, which was a firepower output capability that the Imperial Japanese Army could not even dream of.

But the poor Chinese did it miraculously.

The Japanese army certainly didn't know that for this operation, Tang Dao had drawn 30 submachine guns and 50 Mauser pistols from the Sichuan Army's new recruits to supplement the guard platoon and the engineering squad. In addition to the original equipment of the guard platoon, each person was equipped with two guns, and the bullets were prepared according to the standard of 800 rounds per person. 1,000 grenades were brought, an average of 15 per person!

Just the transportation and storage of this batch of ammunition took a lot of effort for the 60 people who crossed the river!

Fortunately, the two middle-aged fishermen who came with the soldiers and were so familiar with the local terrain that they could walk with their eyes closed had their own hiding places for supplies, like a secret arsenal. If there was no ammunition, they would use the night to get it.

Because the ammunition was provided by Tang Dao from the Sichuan Army's new recruits, the major general brigade commander didn't know it, otherwise he would definitely guess that Tang Dao had already succeeded in one strike and didn't leave, so he stayed on the other side and played "hide and seek" with the Japanese army.

It was this batch of ammunition stored in advance that gave Tang Dao enough confidence. If you dare to chase alone, I will hit you hard.

Two search teams of 100 people suffered a catastrophe in this way. They were concentrated by a large number of continuous firepower in a very short time. The Japanese veterans' accurate shooting skills could not be used at all in the dark, and they could only hide as much as possible.

But in addition to submachine guns, the Chinese also had a large number of grenades. Each round was a dozen grenades thrown from a high place. At least ten rounds of throwing totaled more than 100 grenades, just like being concentrated by a small-caliber mortar volley.

Tree trunks and rocks can block bullets, but they can't block this kind of shrapnel!

In comparison, the 4 light machine guns and 4 grenade launchers carried by the infantry squad-level search team tried their best to fight back, just like a little kid waving a plastic sword at a big man with a grin on his face!

If the Chinese hadn't known that the battle couldn't last too long, and that each wave of attacks would only last about 10 minutes at most before evacuating, the casualty rate of the two search teams would never be less than 70%.

Fujita Susumu had to order that when each unit pursued the Chinese, no less than one infantry squadron should be sent.

But how easy is that?

The Third Division stationed in Fenglingdu has three infantry regiments, a reinforced artillery regiment, and cavalry, baggage soldiers, engineers, field hospitals and other units, with a total strength of more than 20,000 people.

The Third Division is like a giant beast. No matter how powerful the enemy is, it can stick out its huge mouth to swallow it, but the Chinese are like mosquitoes and flies that can penetrate everywhere. They will lie on the beast and suck a mouthful of blood when they see an opportunity, and escape before the beast's tail swings up.

It's not that every unit has as many infantry as an infantry regiment. For example, each artillery squadron has only one infantry squadron for protection. If this only infantry squadron is sent out, the technical soldiers who don't have many guns will be scared!

The engineers are even more helpless. They are desperately cutting wood to build a large platoon. Their combat effectiveness is average. When they meet this kind of "rogue" Chinese, let alone 200 people, 400 people feel that they are in danger.

Look, on the sixth day, the Chinese really began to target these auxiliary troops that were originally slightly weaker in combat effectiveness.

The first unlucky one is the engineer regiment, which is afraid of what will come. Their large "wood factory" located in the valley on the river bank is too conspicuous. It is so conspicuous that they think it would be wrong if the Chinese didn't come to mess with them.

After six days of "waiting", the Chinese finally came.

Two large incendiary bombs flew over from about 150 meters away and exploded in the raft area placed on the open ground. The fierce fire burned rapidly. Even though the engineers sleeping in the trenches reacted quickly, the fire caused by the incendiary bombs with some incendiary agents still burned six or seven rafts.

But this was only half a day's work for the Engineer Regiment. Compared with the loss of personnel, these were acceptable.

The happiest one was an infantry battalion stationed around the Engineer Regiment. They were ordered to station at three camps 500 meters away from the Engineer Regiment three days ago. On the surface, it seemed to strengthen the defense of the Engineer Regiment, but in fact, it was just a waste of time.

The three elite infantry squadrons had familiarized themselves with the terrain more than a dozen times a few days ago, and each had its own division of labor. Once there was a problem with the Infantry Regiment, each infantry squadron knew exactly where to rush to.

To put it bluntly, the 'raft factory' that the engineering regiment was busy with was just a bait, and the three infantry squadrons were fishermen waiting for the fish to take the bait. At that time, there would be three hidden searchlights and a large number of flares to guide them.

It can be said that 'everything is ready except for the east wind', and then, the Chinese really appeared.

The Japanese army reacted quickly. Almost 30 seconds after the explosion, three hidden large searchlights and nearly 10 flares were fired at the mountains hundreds of meters away, illuminating the dark night.

However, the mountains were still quiet, as if the two incendiary bombs appeared automatically!

The three infantry squadrons that arrived at the scene quickly completed the encirclement of this area. It took nearly two hours to search the mountains and forests in this area. They even stabbed the rat holes with bayonets. They saw a lot of pheasants and rabbits, but no one was seen.

Their only achievement was to find the Chinese's 'tools of crime'!

It was something like a catapult or a slingshot, and a piece of thread that was almost completely burned was found next to the "tool of crime".

The infantry captain racked his brains and finally figured out the Chinese routine.

He took advantage of the night to sneak into the forest, and then installed the launch device, ignited the fuse made of unknown tree bark, and burned it for enough time for the perpetrator to escape safely, and then burned the switch of the locking firing device, and then threw the "incendiary bomb" into the position more than 100 meters away like throwing a stone.

This is simply a flower attack!

"Baga! Chinese, cunning!" The Japanese major who figured it out, in addition to angrily spitting this native curse, was actually more powerless.

The forest is so vast, unless he throws all his three infantry squadrons in the forest and squats without sleep, how can he prevent the cunning Chinese from doing this?

Of course, the Japanese lieutenant colonel was thankful that this ‘launching’ device was very simple, and at most it could throw a two-pound incendiary bomb a hundred meters away, which would at most cause material damage, and would not cause much damage.

From the perspective of modern warfare, this ancient device with no accuracy at all has no tactical effect, and at most it is just a toy to scare people.

If the Chinese were really crazy enough to create a device that could throw objects weighing more than ten pounds, such as explosive packs, into the garrison from hundreds of meters away, that would be terrible. Fortunately, the Chinese mechanical manufacturing industry does not support it.

It can only be said that this Japanese lieutenant colonel has not experienced the Internet age and does not know the sequelae of flag planting. The final outcome of flag planters is often that the flag they planted was riddled with holes.

Mingxin, who had just escaped from this place to the safe zone, looked into the distance, looking forward to what kind of big job the wooden ‘cannon barrel’ made by Tang Tuanzuo himself could do.

The two small slingshots he used only shot a grenade and a Molotov cocktail made by Tang Tuanzu himself. Their biggest function was to tease the Japanese who had been waiting for a long time. They had already prepared it! Then they could get what they wanted and toss around in the mountains. How many rafts they could burn was secondary.

Of course, the more important purpose was to attract the attention of the Japanese army and reduce the vigilance of the Japanese army in other areas.

Making a feint to the east and attacking the west was the main purpose of Mingxin's appearance at the Japanese Army Engineer Corps.

. . . . . . . . . .

When they heard that the Engineer Corps was attacked, the various units of the Third Division were actually secretly relieved. According to the characteristics of the Chinese attacks in the past few days, they usually only launched attacks on a selected target.

After all, the visibility was poor at night, the mountain roads were difficult to walk, and the Chinese were not small planes that could go wherever they wanted.

The Engineer Corps became a target, so wouldn't other garrisons be safe?

The mentality of "I would rather die than my friends" was normal on the battlefield.

For example, Lieutenant Colonel Ken'ao Yonekura of the First Squadron of the Supply Regiment, after receiving the notification call, excitedly smoked a cigarette, and then happily lay down on the camp bed to prepare for a good sleep.

There are also many officers of the 28th Division who have not slept yet like this Japanese Army Lieutenant Colonel, such as Brigade Commander Hu. In recent days, he can only sleep peacefully when he hears the observation post report that there are faint explosions on the other side.

It's not because he is so happy because the Japanese army was attacked, but that it means that Tang Dao, the guy who makes people worry, is still alive.

It's not that Tang Dao is so cute, but Tang Dao's life and death are tied to his military exploits. Tang Dao is alive, and the first-class Baoding is already a foregone conclusion. Tang Dao is finished, not to mention Baoding, and Zhongyong is enough, so who can stand it?

"Has there been any situation on the other side today?" Brigade Commander Hu asked his orderly a little anxiously.

The orderly outside the field command could only report in a low voice with a speechless face.

He didn't know what was wrong with his superior. He had asked the same question for the fifth time in an hour. Maybe Commander Tang wanted to take a day off today and not play with the Japanese?

There were no more than a handful of people in the 28th Division who knew that Tang Dao led his troops to the other side of the river. However, as the personal orderly of the brigade commander, he and the commander had long been in the same boat. Naturally, he would not hide such a top secret from him.

These days, the orderly had already regarded Tang Dao as a god-like figure. Not only did he cross the river alone and blow up the Japanese artillery position, but he didn't even leave. He used the mountainous terrain to fight a guerrilla war with 20,000 Japanese troops. What a great psychological quality and tactical accomplishment this must have.

So, Brigade Commander Hu was so worried that he couldn't sleep, but the little orderly thought that Commander Tang just wanted to take a rest, but he didn't dare to share this psychological activity with his superior.

Then, a bright light flashed in the darkness on the other side of the river, and after a few seconds, a loud bang was heard.

"Fuck! Tang Dao, that bastard, won't kill another Japanese artillery position!" Startled by the noise, Brigade Commander Hu got out of the command bunker on the front line, his mouth wide open enough to swallow a hippopotamus.

Commander Tang is really an iron man, he doesn't take a rest all night, if he keeps doing this, will the little devils be unable to bear it? I really want to go and beat the Japanese with Commander Tang!

The little fan of Tang Dao in the trench sighed as if it was a matter of course.