Rise From Eight Hundred

After the ground-to-air battle in the Zishan War Zone, except for the crackling sound of the fallen fighter plane burning in the jungle, the Chinese and Japanese armies were in a state of complete silence for at least two minutes.

How to say it?

From the psychological state, at least one thing is exactly the same for the infantry of both sides.

Shock!

Not to mention that the Japanese army, from Lieutenant General Okabe Saburo who stayed 12 kilometers away to the lower-ranking soldiers, were stunned by the majestic aircraft group that was beaten to pieces, even the infantry of the Four-line Regiment who came out of the tunnel to watch the result of the air battle were also full of disbelief.

Tu Yunsheng knew that the anti-aircraft battalion was very strong, but the Japanese planes were more than a hundred, which was a scale that had never been heard of during the more than two years of war, let alone experienced in person.

The horror of feeling the mountain shaking violently in the tunnel before was enough to show that the anti-aircraft battalion had tried its best, but still could not stop the Japanese aircraft formation from bombing the frontline positions.

But he never expected that when he risked his life to get out of the tunnel and look up at the sky, he would find that his side had completely beaten the other side.

This reversal was really too unexpected.

It was not until the remaining Japanese planes fled away with long white smoke that the Chinese soldiers who got out of the tunnel finally confirmed that the anti-aircraft battalion had won the air-to-air battle.

"Long live the anti-aircraft battalion!" Tu Yunsheng stretched out his fist and shouted at the blue sky.

"Long live the anti-aircraft battalion!" The fierce cheers of the infantry were everywhere in the mountains.

The victory cheers echoing in the valley were deafening and reached the ears of the Japanese infantry 3 miles away.

The Japanese infantry looked ashamed and their morale plummeted.

Originally, they were expecting the air fleet to directly flatten the Chinese front-line positions, and their infantry would go up to pick up heads directly. Now, not only did their dreams fall to pieces, but the morale of the Chinese on the positions was high. How could they fight the next battle?

The 1st Division was not a rookie. During the Battle of Nomonhan, due to the transfer of the 4th Division, they also fought a real battle with the Mao Bear Army in the later stage of the war. Although they did not fight, they did not suffer a big defeat like the other two divisions. Naturally, they also knew the role of morale on the battlefield.

If they had known that the Army Aviation Corps would be so lame, they might as well not let them participate in the war! This is probably what many Japanese grassroots officers on the battlefield thought at this time.

But perhaps only senior officers like Miyauchi Yoshio who took a breath of cold air knew that they had to thank the sacrifice of the Army Aviation pilots. If it weren't for these dead ghosts who took their faces to explore the bushes, how could they know that the Chinese would have such solid and complete ground fortifications?

Yes, Miyauchi Yoshio knew that the defeat of the Army Aviation fleet this time was not because they were not brave enough, nor was it because the Chinese anti-aircraft firepower was too terrible.

The real reason was that the anti-aircraft fortress built by the Chinese on the top of the mountain was simply too solid.

What is the concept of more than 20 heavy bombs exploding on a mountain? From the perspective of Yoshio Miyauchi, a veteran who has been in the army for nearly 20 years, even if there are permanent fortifications that can defend against 200mm heavy artillery, they will be destroyed into ruins in front of such large-scale bombs.

But the Chinese air defense fortress actually survived this kind of air wave that can almost destroy everything. Could it be that the fortification was cast with steel?

The Chinese can spend a lot of effort to build fortifications that cannot be destroyed by heavy bombs. Can't they apply this technology to frontier fortifications?

Yoshio Miyauchi cast his eyes on the hillsides and mountains that were already bombed by artillery shells and heavy bombs, and felt a chill all over his body.

There, it seemed like a sleeping man-eating monster. Once it was alarmed, I don’t know how many imperial officers and soldiers would be stained with blood on the battlefield.

Colonel Yoshio Miyauchi’s guess was correct. Even though it was bombed by nearly ten heavy bombs, Li Jiujin’s 7th Company did not lose a single person. Only two people were scratched because the tunnel shook violently and accidentally hit the tunnel wall.

The biggest loss on the Chinese surface position was that two machine gun bunkers made of half-meter thick reinforced concrete were destroyed by 150mm howitzers, and the rest were trenches that collapsed.

This amount of work was nothing for the defenders. As long as the Japanese infantry did not attack at night, they could be repaired in half a night.

After the failure of the air battle, Okabe Saburo decided to rely on himself. Throughout the afternoon, the Japanese artillery of various calibers bombarded the Chinese positions.

However, Pang Dahai did not indulge them this time. You fight yours and I fight mine.

12 Bofors mountain guns, 28 150mm howitzers and 12 150mm heavy mortars all opened their gun covers, showing the sharpest fangs of the Four-line Regiment Artillery Battalion to the First Division this afternoon.

In addition to the 28 150mm howitzers that completely suppressed the Japanese 105mm and 150mm long-range howitzers, the other 24 guns were all aimed at the Japanese positions a kilometer away from the frontline positions.

Except for a few observation posts hiding in the half-meter-thick permanent fortifications to observe the battlefield, the rest of the officers and soldiers of the Sihang Regiment basically went into the tunnels to rest, eat and drink. Old gamblers like Lao Suanpan even opened a bet on when the Japanese would stop shelling.

You know, this kind of bet on the judgment of the battlefield situation attracted many people to participate. Even Wei Donglai threw 10 yuan to bet that the Japanese army would last at most 3 hours.

Wei Donglai is not like most grassroots officers and soldiers who make blind guesses. Yesterday, the intelligence about the military experience and personality of the First Division, from the division commander Okabe Saburo to the colonel commanders of each brigade, was distributed by the regiment headquarters to each battalion and company. Wei Donglai made his judgment based on Okabe Saburo's personality characteristics and the current battlefield situation.

The intelligence department led by Gong Shaoxun has made great progress in the past year due to sufficient capital injection. It not only has several underground intelligence stations in southern Hebei, but also in Tianjin City and Pingbei City. The intelligence tentacles have even extended to central and southern China.

Of course, they are not so powerful that they can collect personal information of Japanese generals in North China and even army colonels. The intelligence of commanders at all levels of the First Division mostly comes from the little foreign girl and Tang Dao's comprehensive memory of the history that happened in the past time and space.

For the hot man she admires very much, the little foreign girl also gave up and bribed the military attaché of the embassy in Japan with money.

At this time, although Japan was also busy preparing for the war in Southeast Asia and almost broke off relations with the Gallic rooster and the British Empire, it still tried its best to maintain relations with the United States because it still needed imported resources such as steel and oil from the United States.

Although the American cowboys also raised their vigilance against the ambitious Japan, the national policy of the United States, which had made a great profit from the arms trade in World War I, was to take advantage of this rare opportunity to make another big profit!

Therefore, they still verbally condemned Japan, a big customer, and secretly a large number of cargo ships were still transporting supplies to Japan, and then taking away a large amount of gold and silver.

It was precisely under this seemingly harmonious but mutually dependent relationship that the embassy in Japan had no big problem collecting the personal information of Japanese generals.

Wei Donglai judged that Okabe Saburo was a tough person, especially after the failure of the air battle, he had to and could only use fierce artillery fire to re-stimulate the morale of the entire division infantry, even if he was counterattacked, and three hours of artillery fire was his bottom line.

Wei Donglai's accurate judgment won him 30 yuan in funds, and Tu Dou and Yang Bicheng, who followed Wei Donglai to place bets, also took 30 yuan from the tearful old abacus. Together with the bets of others, the old abacus almost went bankrupt.

But there are many people who are more miserable than the old abacus, such as the Japanese infantry who only have trenches to cover their bodies.

The truth is within the range of the artillery! In the spring breeze of March in northern China, the infantry of the Japanese First Division fully understood this truth.

However, it was paid for with blood and death.

Under the command of the artillery observers on the front line, the Bofors mountain guns pushed out of the tunnels fell into the Japanese infantry positions as if they had eyes. The field trenches that the Japanese army hastily completed, which were only 6 meters deep, could not hold up under the bombardment of 6 kg heavy grenades.

Not to mention the 150 heavy mortars, which are more powerful than the 105 howitzers within a range of 3,000 meters.

Many Japanese soldiers did not die from the blast and shrapnel of the shells, but were crushed to death by the deformed trenches or buried and suffocated after the trenches collapsed.

According to statistics after the war, in the artillery battle between the two sides on the afternoon of the first day after the war, a total of 21,000 Japanese infantrymen from the three infantry brigades on the front line suffered more than 1,800 casualties, accounting for nearly one-tenth of the total infantry force.

In addition to the heavy casualties of the infantry, the artillery was not much better.

However, the most seriously damaged was not the 12 150 howitzers, but the artillery battalion with 12 105 howitzers.

Because it was a plain, the artillery battalion had learned from yesterday's lesson and specially increased the distance between the gun positions to 200 meters, which was far more than the 40-meter spacing stipulated in the Army Manual.

Although this greatly increased the difficulty of guarding the two infantry squadrons guarding them, everything was worth it in the face of precious lives.

At least that's what the artillery major who unfortunately died in the bombardment thought.

The Japanese had done everything they should do, but just like they used to be on the edge, everything was vain in the face of absolute strength.

More than an hour after the artillery battalion was ordered to bombard the Chinese position, a reconnaissance team that was originally lurking 2 kilometers away ventured to the vicinity of the artillery position covering an area of ​​about 2 square kilometers.

The two infantry squadrons had a lot of people, but they were too few to guard such a large artillery position.

As a result, the reconnaissance team was so close that they could even use submachine guns to eliminate the Japanese artillerymen who were working hard to move the shells, and no one noticed.

Fortunately, although the reconnaissance team had a ruthless person like Mingxin, after careful observation, they found that the Japanese artillery position was too damn big. Even if they killed gods and gods, they couldn't kill the Japanese artillery here. If they were surrounded by Japanese infantry, they would be doomed in such a plain area.

So, after they finished positioning, they patted their butts and ran away. They ran 1,500 meters away and hid in an abandoned cellar. Then they used a single-soldier radio to send the coordinates of the artillery position to the artillery battalion.

Their decision was correct.

Pang Dahai was also a ruthless man. After receiving the coordinates sent by the scouts, he immediately ordered the 28 150 howitzers that had completely exposed their fangs to concentrate fire on the coordinate area.

The Bofors 150 howitzer is very powerful. With a range of nearly 15,000 meters and an error value of 100 meters, it can definitely beat any long-range heavy artillery on the Chinese battlefield, but don't forget that the artillerymen of the Fourth Regiment also operated this big guy for the second time.

Yesterday's sudden concentrated fire destroyed a Japanese baggage squadron. It was the result of luck, artillery accuracy and the Japanese army's unpreparedness. All three are indispensable.

Pang Dahai, who knew his own shortcomings, simply used random punches to kill the master. As long as one of ten punches hit, it would be fine.

So, 28 heavy artillery pieces came over like this. The first wave of shells landed about 1,000 meters away from the left wing of the Japanese artillery battalion, and the closest shell was only 300 meters away from Mingxin and his men.

Even though Mingxin had the strength to kill hundreds of people, his face couldn't help but turn pale in the roar of dozens of heavy artillery shells.

He had hidden so far away, if he was still taken away by the artillery fire of his own "unreliable" artillerymen, he would die unjustly.

"It's off, it's off! 1200 meters to the left, no, 2000 meters! If we don't hit the target, we will not be eating dust but turning into dust!" Pang Dahai read the telegram handed over by the communication squad leader who was holding back his laughter, and his face turned as red as a purple eggplant.

"Damn it, tell those bastards in the heavy artillery company, if anyone is so bad as to let me receive such a telegram from the brothers in the reconnaissance company, I will stick the telegram on the forehead of their company commander, platoon leader, and squad leader for a week!" Pang Dahai's roar even drowned out the roar of a 150mm heavy artillery a hundred meters away.

No wonder Pang Dahai, who has always been good-tempered, got angry. He and Cheng Tieshou, the commander of the air defense battalion, are old friends and biggest competitors. One of them is in charge of air combat rights, and the other is in charge of the strongest ground firepower.

Cheng Tieshou showed off his skills in front of the whole regiment, causing all the officers and soldiers to shout "Long live the anti-aircraft battalion". Even if Pang Dahai didn't see Cheng Tieshou's dark face, he could imagine that the greasy light on his face was enough to cook two dishes.

As a result, he didn't hit the Japanese artillery with 28 guns, but almost wiped out the most elite reconnaissance team in the regiment.

Although Mingxin's telegram didn't contain a single dirty word, it was either ashes or the most vicious dirty words.

After the heavy artillery company, which knew shame and then courage, recalibrated, the second wave of artillery shells basically landed on the position of the Japanese artillery battalion. That should be related to Mingxin's extremely wise request to deviate 2,000 meters.

Anyway, it can't be so accurate, so if it's a little off, it might be a lucky shot.

The artillerymen of the heavy artillery company, whose skills did not improve because of the commander's anger, did miss the target again, but seven or eight shells still fell on the position of the artillery battalion.

This is already terrible.

Just think about it, the shells were still 300 meters away from the Mingxin reconnaissance team hiding underground, and they scared the scouts who had received the most rigorous training and killed people like flies. What kind of scene would it be when a shell fell in an area less than 100 meters away from the Japanese artillery?

The huge air wave was like a crushing blow, destroying all objects within a radius of 50 meters with the impact point as the center.

Not to mention the human body weighing only more than 100 kilograms, even a howitzer weighing 5 tons would be overturned by the air wave.

In order to make up for their previous mistakes, the heavy artillery company's gun positions fired two bases of 40 shells in one breath!

That's 1,120 shells, each weighing 40 kilograms!

Just to transport one shell, two soldiers had to use a wheelbarrow to push it out of a cave 50 meters away. After an hour of shelling, all the ammunition handlers collapsed on the ground.

Even Pang Dahai couldn't help but cursed him as a prodigal son after receiving the ammunition consumption report from the heavy artillery company. That was almost one-third of the heavy artillery company's inventory in one battle.

But there is always a reward for giving.

That should be the battlefield that suffered the most severe heavy artillery bombardment in the world-famous Zishan Battle. The area within a kilometer centered on the Japanese artillery battalion was all charred!

The artillery battalion had 1,130 people plus two infantry squadrons of 400 people. After counting after the artillery battle, there were less than 400 people left. On the contrary, because the artillery was strong enough, only 5 guns were destroyed, 4 guns were overturned by the air wave and could be used after repair, and 3 guns survived.

Although the major captain of the artillery battalion died in the battle, he received a medal awarded by the Kwantung Army Headquarters after the war.

Because after investigation, it was found that if the major had not used the geological characteristics of the area to dig underground storage points to store artillery shells after arriving at the position, and decisively ordered some people to hide in the artillery shell storage points when the enemy's artillery fire was approaching, then perhaps the survival of 400 people would have been just a luxury.

The five-meter-deep underground cave protected the artillery shells from causing sympathetic explosions and also saved the last seeds of the artillery battalion.

Yes, about 360 of the 400 survivors were artillerymen, and only 400 infantrymen who could only stay in the simple field trenches, only less than 40 survived.

How did the Chinese get this large-caliber heavy artillery? This became the focus of investigation by the Japanese intelligence department after the war.

However, the irony is that when the Far East Branch of the Krupp Arms Trading Company of the German Empire was investigated, the matter was left unresolved as its general manager Rostav was transferred to the headquarters.

The lives of thousands of imperial officers and soldiers who died in the First Division because of this heavy artillery were not worth mentioning in front of the thick legs of the mustache leader.

Of course, this is a later story.

The current battlefield is that even though the Japanese North China Front Army and the First Division have tried their best, they are still the losers in both air and artillery battles.

If Duo Tianjun and Okabe Saburo gave in at this time, then perhaps the Japanese North China Front Army could still retain some face.

But the Imperial Japanese Army's face was thrown to the ground by these two and stepped on again and again by the Four-Line Regiment.

So, even if they were already deeply worried at this time, they were already in a situation where it was difficult to back down. Even if they knew that their opponent was a white-browed tiger, they could only swing their fists.

Unfortunately, they were not Wu Song, and they did not drink. More importantly, the tiger they wanted to fight was not a South China tiger, but a Northeast tiger.

If Wu Song met this thing back then, he would probably be bitten to pieces even if he drank 18 bowls!