Rise From Eight Hundred

Chapter 1258: Beat one down and scare another away!

"You kid, you're just a platoon leader. I think you can be a battalion commander. If you don't work with me, I'll give you a special agent and a team? What's your military rank? With your achievements this time, it's definitely not too much to be promoted to captain." After seeing the beautiful 'scenery', the first thing the white-haired general thanked was not the Tang Dao, but the one he waved his little hoe without hesitation.

It wasn't just that Lieutenant Long's machine gun had killed so many tough Japs, it was that the white-haired general had taken a fancy to Long Yan's potential.

The victory of this blocking battle was not only due to the astonishing combat effectiveness of more than 50 Chinese people who had been forced to the edge of the cliff, but also to the Japanese commander's direct display of brains, as well as the excellent performance of the MG34 machine gun and sufficient ammunition reserves. Many factors came together to create this miracle.

But Long Yan's courage to risk his life and survive and his unconstrained tactical arrangements are also essential.

If you switch to an ordinary commander, you will definitely put your main force on the front position, instead of putting most of your troops on the flanks like Long Yan. He will defend the entire right wing with three people and one shot. If there is a problem in any of them , the entire battlefield will be defeated, and no one will survive.

After all, God favored the people living under this sky, and abandoned the aliens from the East China Sea. Hundreds of grenades thrown by more than a dozen Japanese grenades, no less than 20 of them landed on the top of the big rock, but not one There is a chance that it will roll down and explode again, but the explosive yield of 200 grams of explosives is not enough to destroy a boulder of more than 2 tons.

Except for Long Yan's brow being scratched by shrapnel and a few burns from bullet shells on his face, the three of them almost escaped unscathed.

Of the 15 soldiers in the frontal position, only 3 were killed and 6 were injured. The left-wing position led by Luo Wanjian was even more impressive, with no one killed and 5 injured. Three of the wounded were shot by grenade fragments while chasing the remnants of the Japanese army. Wounded.

To put it bluntly, in this blocking battle, the Chinese lost no more than 3 people, while the Japanese army, on the other hand, was almost completely wiped out.

This battle loss ratio is almost 300 to 1. No matter who you show this ratio to, they will think it is crazy.

But facts speak louder than words. Nearly 900 corpses of the Japanese army were all on the hillside. The cold north wind made those who originally had breath become breathless.

Of course, there were also some Liu Lius involved in this, especially the 12th Division Guard Company. The brothers they spent time with all day and night were all killed by these Japanese soldiers. When they were seriously injured and cried for mercy, these Japanese soldiers let them go. Well?

No one else would have let these Japanese soldiers live.

Even as upright as a white-haired general, he could only turn a deaf ear to the miserable howls of the remaining Japanese troops when he arrived at the edge of the battlefield.

Those soldiers would do everything they should do before he, the commander, arrived.

Long Yan's shortcomings, which he had only joined the army for 4 months, are not worth mentioning in the face of his achievements. Although it remains to be verified that he can lead a battalion of several hundred people, there will definitely be no problem in leading a company of hundreds of people.

Even in him, the white-haired general saw some shadows of Tang Dao.

Tough and smart, but also unruly!

"Hehe, then Chief Zhao, you have to discuss it with our regimental commander. Also, if you feel that you must promote me, then remember to bring my sister and Brother Liu with you, otherwise I'm afraid that my sister will scold me. I have to salute first!" Long Yan blinked and scratched the back of his head as he replied with an honest look.

"You kid, you haven't learned anything else, but you can learn the cunning aspect from your captain." The white-haired general was not annoyed by being rejected like this, but pointed at Long Yan, who was pretending to be stupid, and laughed and scolded him.

Based on his relationship with Tang Dao, the battalion commander Tang Dao might be reluctant to do so, but for a lieutenant like Long Yan, there is basically no problem, but the premise is that the person involved is willing.

Long Yan's direct promotion of his sister seems to be asking for credit, but in fact the subtext is: I am not alone, my whole family is in the Four Elements Group! If you have the ability, Mr. Zhao, if you recruit our whole family and promote them, I will come.

Even if Commander Zhao could do such an excessive thing, he couldn't do it. Naturally, the poaching issue could only be left alone.

Moreover, the battle is not over yet. In the distance, there is a Japanese infantry brigade working hard to block the impact of an infantry regiment of the 96th Army and three infantry companies led by a major general brigade commander!

With the victory in this blocking battle, the white-haired general also had enough confidence to simply use the Miracle Land as the last line of defense for Munan Town.

The civilian personnel of the 38th Army and the 300 young men from Munan Town who mobilized all arrived here. All spears and guns were lost. Ready-made weapons and equipment were scattered all over the hillside.

There is always room for a gun in life, and the number of bullets is dizzying.

For this operation, Sekosuke ordered each soldier to carry not only 200 rounds of ammunition, but also 3,000 rounds of ammunition for each 92 heavy machine gun, and 40 grenades for each gun. This was close to the Japanese army's capacity for a battle. The amount of ammunition to carry.

But now, they are all the spoils of this group of ‘miscellaneous troops’ deployed on the hillside.

The 40 soldiers from the guard platoon who were still able to fight instantly became instructors, teaching civilian personnel how to use 38 rifles on the spot.

As for those young men who have never been exposed to guns, rifles were distributed, but they were mostly just decorations. They only needed to be able to open the safety, pull the trigger, and pull the bolt. If they had to add another skill, then Just put the bayonet on.

If you really want to go to the point of hand-to-hand combat, just mount the bayonet and stab forward.

They were mostly digging trenches under the guidance of three sergeant squad leaders. The deeper, longer and more numerous the trenches were, the more they could save lives. This was the experience summed up by Chinese soldiers who were used to being bombarded by the Japanese army on the battlefield.

Of course, if the Japanese infantry dared to come, they would still be able to beat them to a pulp. In addition to the confidence accumulated by Long Yan and others in the first victory, the 11 Type 92 heavy machine guns seized from the remnants of the Japanese army were also important factors.

The young and strong men, led by the soldiers returning from the front line, carried back 11 heavy machine guns and found the tripod abandoned by the Japanese army in the ravine. This time, Lieutenant Long, who was still appointed as the battlefield commander, had not only 2 machine guns in his hands, but 11 heavy machine guns and 16 Type 96 light machine guns.

With this kind of crossfire, as long as there was no heavy artillery bombardment, let alone an infantry battalion, even if there were three more, they would not be able to move forward without covering the hillside with corpses.

Of course, although the war is still urgent, rewarding meritorious service is both General Baifa's principle and a means of motivating morale.

At the Gongshuijian site, General Baifa issued a promotion order on the spot. All the 38th Army personnel who participated in the war were promoted to the first rank. Luo Wanjian and 20 others who belonged to the 12th Division of the 5th Army Group, as well as Long Yan, who belonged to the 23rd Army Group, were also awarded a commendation order to various departments. With him as a great army commander as a guarantee, no army group would offend him.

And the guard company of the 12th Division, where most of the soldiers died in the previous blocking battle, General Baifa did not forget them. Each of them was rewarded 50 yuan, which was paid by the 38th Army Headquarters. Luo Wanjian and others were grateful.

These soldiers whose fate was not in their own hands at all, could only follow orders regardless of life or death. They were lucky enough to survive on the battlefield and be valued by a commander. It was like lighting a chimney in the ancestral grave - gurgling green smoke.

As soon as the promotion order and commendation order were issued, the Fifth Army was confused. How could their soldiers be commended by the 38th Army of the Fourth Army?

The two commanders of the 12th Division were also confused. They sent a guard company purely to do their best and leave it to fate. If General Zhao could transfer quickly, it would not be in vain for them to lose a guard company.

How did this guard company win a brilliant victory in the fight against the Japanese invaders? Did they block it? Or did they kill a few Japanese devils?

You know, the general with a higher military rank than them is not a bumpkin from the countryside. He is a ruthless man who fought in the Second World War and destroyed an infantry brigade. What big scenes have he not seen? How awesome did his guard company fight, so that he did not send a telegram to their division headquarters, but directly sent the commendation order signed with his own name to the army headquarters.

It's not that the white-haired general didn't want to tell the reason, but no one would believe him even if he told it. Before he saw the scene, he almost killed the signalman who "reported false military intelligence"!

To be honest, not only the Chinese, as the opponent, found it hard to believe, but the Japanese themselves thought it was an April Fool's joke.

Even though the message "Our unit has been defeated, please take care of yourself, Masato-kun!" came from the radio station of the Seko Battalion, the 2nd Infantry Battalion of the 40th Infantry Regiment, Major Masato Akita, still read the telegram several times in disbelief.

How could it be defeated? Was the code cracked by the Chinese? A Chinese trick?

This should be the first thought that flashed through Masato Akita's mind.

That was a fully staffed infantry battalion. Even if the Chinese still had heavy troops, a brigade or even a division, behind the defense line, there was absolutely no possibility of defeating such an elite infantry battalion of the Empire in less than an hour and a half.

Moreover, Sekosuke was a little arrogant, but he was definitely not stupid. If the Chinese had a large number of troops, he would have issued a notice to friendly forces and asked for support from Nakamura Masao.

But without these, he suddenly said, "My troops have been defeated!" , and it was difficult for Akita Masato to find other reasons except that the Chinese had deciphered the code.

However, as the telegrams he sent fell into the sea and there was no response from the Seko Battalion, Akita Masato's face gradually stiffened.

He had begun to accept the fact that the Seko Battalion was defeated, but the Japanese Army Major had no time to be sad, and he began to worry more about himself and his subordinates.

The Chinese army that could defeat an elite infantry battalion of the empire in such a short time was, first, large enough in size, and second, naturally, it occupied a favorable terrain and ambushed.

No matter which possibility it was, it was not friendly enough for the Akita Battalion, which was still fighting with nearly 3,000 Chinese troops.

Especially the latter, perhaps more frightening!

That only means that the Chinese knew they would come, and they had set up traps in the mountains and fields waiting for them to arrive.

The Chinese are really good at acting. In order to swallow them up one by one realistically, they even used the lives of more than 500 people to contain his Akita Battalion.

He cast his eyes on the battlefield of the Japanese Army Major, which was already full of blue uniforms and corpses. At this time, his eyes were no longer indifferent, but a strong fear arose.

A general's success is the result of the sacrifice of thousands of soldiers, but the commander who can treat the lives of countless soldiers as grass and send them to the enemy's guns just to confuse the opponent, is not enough to describe his cruel heart.

This is the case with his own people, not to mention the enemy.

"Order the Fujiwara Squadron and the River Squadron to continue to defend the position, and the rest of the units will quietly evacuate." Major Akita issued a military order very rationally.

Having fought in China for a year, Akita Masao was also a strong man who had won medals. He was not afraid of strong opponents.

In the battle of Yuwang Mountain, he personally led his troops to break the defenses of two Chinese infantry regiments. Although the opponent was exhausted after the war, he was still proud of 1,000 to 3,000.

But unlike his colleague Sekosuke who had committed suicide by seppuku, Akita Masao was not an arrogant and reckless man.

Whether it was the Central China Campaign that lasted for 5 months to end, or the North China battlefield thousands of miles away from him, he felt that the Chinese not only did not become weaker with the step-by-step pressure of the imperial army, but instead had a trend of getting stronger and stronger.

This was actually not in line with the law of development of things. Losing land, population, economic zones, and a large number of veterans and elites, no army would not become weak, but this mysterious ancient oriental country went the other way.

The Battle of Songhu lasted for three months, the Battle of Nanjing lasted for one and a half months, and the Battle of Xuzhou lasted for three months. China was defeated in all of them. It lost the fertile plains of North China, the rich land of Jiangnan, and the capital. The following Battle of Central China lasted for five months before the victory or defeat was decided.

In fact, it is not necessarily completely accurate to say the victory or defeat. The strategy of the Imperial Army Headquarters to destroy the Chinese army's manpower in large quantities was not realized at all. Instead, the Imperial Army suffered heavy losses in this battle. A division was almost annihilated, and the number of casualties alone was as high as more than 50,000, almost the same as that of the Chinese side.

This would have been impossible in previous battles.

Although the Imperial Army is still advancing triumphantly, and more and more Imperial officers and soldiers have entered China, almost reaching 2 million, but the Chinese still have a large amount of land and population. In particular, when the Japanese Army Major thought of the Chinese population base of 400 million, he felt cold all over.

If everyone is a soldier as the Chinese themselves advertise, how many Imperial Army troops would the Empire have to send to conquer this land? Ten million or twenty million? Or more

But how many people are there in the entire empire?

Before obtaining more accurate intelligence, Major Akita Masaki decided to evacuate first. He could not easily abandon the lives of the imperial officers and soldiers on this barren land.

But just after the military order was issued, he received a military order from Nakamura Masao, which required him and the Seko Battalion to not linger in the battle after conquering Mo'nan Town, and to attack the rear wing of Sizhou Mountain 15 miles away with the strength of two infantry battalions, and cooperate with the 105th Division to conquer the central defense line of Sizhou Mountain.

"The Seko Battalion failed in the attack on Mo'nan Town, and our Akita Battalion is heading to support it!" Akita Masaki thought for a moment and still replied to Itagaki Shiro's confidant and beloved general, and then decisively ordered: "In view of the unclear enemy situation, the field radio remains silent!"

After 50 minutes, the Akita Battalion completely withdrew from the battlefield and left in the direction of the defense zone of the 12th Division of the Fifth Army.

Brigade Commander Kong, who had received a telegram from the military confirming his safety, thought that the army commander was trying to reassure him, and did not dare to relax at all. He did not believe it until the Japanese troops on the opposite side withdrew.

However, the army major general, who had only one regiment and three infantry companies with a total strength of less than 2,500, did not dare to pursue the Japanese infantry battalion with mountain artillery and heavy machine gun squadrons, and still led the troops to rush all the way to Mo'nan Town.

As a result, he saw the trench digging site on the small high ground in front of Mo'nan Town, where the white-haired general was personally waving a shovel to dig the soil.

Of course, this was not the most shocking thing for the anxious army major general.

The most shocking thing was the Japanese corpses that were ordered by the general to be thrown into the ravine. The dense and layered ravines that were seven or eight meters deep were almost filled up.

"How many regiments did the 12th Division come?" This was what the army major general wanted to know most at the time.

"The 12th Division has sent people, but it's just one guard company, but the Four-Line Regiment has also sent people!" The white-haired general looked at his subordinates with their mouths wide open and couldn't help but joke with him.

"Could it be that the main force of the Four-Line Regiment has come?" Brigade Commander Kong was overjoyed.

"Then you have to ask Second Lieutenant Long!" The white-haired general smiled slightly and waved to Long Yan, who was digging and sweating over there. "Platoon Leader Long, tell Brigade Commander Kong how many people have come from your Four-Line Regiment!"

The Army Major General looked at the little lieutenant in surprise, and saw the second lieutenant who ran over panting and shyly raised three fingers to him.

"3,000?" The Army Major General grinned and wanted to laugh.

Although 3,000 main forces of the Four-Line Regiment are a little less, with his independent brigade, it is estimated that it will not be a problem to deal with a Japanese infantry brigade.

"3!" Second Lieutenant Long was a little shy.

This is not how you brag. The Army Major General wanted to hit someone, if it weren't for his army commander standing by with a smile.

"I can testify to this. 20 people from the 12th Division, 30 people from our 38th Army, and 3 people from the 4th Regiment won this battle!" The white-haired general laughed.

Sir, you are possessed! That was the first thought that flashed through the mind of the Army Major General.

However, there was no time left for this man to be shocked.

The news reported by a signalman running over made the faces of the two generals darken instantly.

The Tang Dao Division of the Sizhou Mountain Defense Line called for help for the first time.

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