Rise From Eight Hundred

That night, Tang Dao, who returned to the Sihang Regimental Headquarters, made defense zone deployment.

Chief of Staff and Battalion Commander of the 1st Battalion Leng Feng led the 1st Battalion to garrison Sifang Bay, assisted by the 1st Company of the Air Defense Battalion and the 1st Platoon of the Special Service Battalion Tank Company, and was under the command of Leng Feng.

Battalion Commander of the 2nd Battalion Zhao Daqiang led the 2nd Battalion to garrison Niuchangpo, assisted by the 2nd Company of the Air Defense Battalion and the 2nd Platoon of the Special Service Battalion Tank Company, and was under the command of Zhao Daqiang.

Battalion Commander of the 3rd Battalion Li Jiujin led the 3rd Battalion to garrison Zhujiaping, assisted by the 3rd Company of the Air Defense Battalion and the 3rd Platoon of the Special Service Battalion Tank Company, and was under the command of Li Jiujin.

The artillery battalion was located in a mountain area 4,000 meters behind the Niuchangpo position. The 10th Company of the 4th Battalion and the regiment guard company were responsible for ground defense, and the commander of the air defense battalion Cheng Tieshou personally led the 4th Company of the air defense battalion to be responsible for its air defense.

Battalion Commander of the 4th Battalion Cai Yongguan may be the most suffocating one of the four infantry battalion commanders this time. There are a total of three main positions, and the other three major battalion commanders each have one, but he does not have one.

Because he will lead the remaining troops of the Fourth Battalion to become the first reserve of the regiment, and the baggage battalion will be the second reserve.

No, in addition to the three main positions, the defense area of ​​the Fourth Line Regiment has to go 20 kilometers away to intercept the Japanese troops that may come from Changyang. Battalion Commander Cai, who did not get the task of defending the main position, originally stood up and wanted to fight for this task for the Fourth Battalion.

"Report to the commander, I"

"I know what you want to say, Commander Cai, then I tell you that the reserve is not just to fill the hole, but also my surprise force. Once the military order is given, you must tear open the Japanese defense line like a tiger and kill him!" Unexpectedly, before he could finish speaking, Commander Tang blocked him with one sentence.

"If you, Commander Cai, don't want to do it, there are plenty of people who will do it! Li Jiujin, are you willing to do this job?"

"Report to the commander, I am willing." Li Jiujin stood up and answered decisively.

It was as if he had not noticed the look his "drinking buddy" who he often drank with on weekdays gave him.

"Sir, I am not worried about not having a war to fight! It's fine if there is a war to fight. On behalf of the brothers of the Fourth Battalion, I would like to express my attitude. I will definitely become the three-edged military bayonet on your waist. Whoever you want to kill, I guarantee that you will stab four holes with one stab." Cai Yongguan, whose momentum was weakened, could only try to defend himself.

"That's not right! It is said that three knives can make six holes, and one knife can only make two holes at most. How come you, Old Cai, have two more holes? Are you not good at math?" Li Jiujin, who had just stood up to express his attitude, asked with a smile.

"You know nothing. This military bayonet of my Fourth Battalion is specially used to stab the kidneys. There are two holes in the belly and the back. If the kidneys are pierced through, there will also be two holes. Calculate it yourself. What is 2+2?" Cai Yongguan curled his lips and took the opportunity to insult the unreliable "drinking buddy".

The officers of the Four-Line Regiment, who were sitting under a big tree and using a big stone that was temporarily moved as a conference table, all laughed.

You know what, this metaphor is quite appropriate. The so-called surprise troops are to attack the enemy by surprise and go straight to the vital points! The ones like Tongding and Yaozi are simply the must-haves!

Seeing that the troublemakers had given in, Tang Dao didn't say much and continued to issue the military orders that had been drafted.

To defend against the enemy from Changyang, Tang Dao was handed over to Gu Xishui and his mountain infantry company, which was both reasonable and unexpected to the officers present.

Reasonable because the four major infantry battalions now have military orders, and the only mobile infantry that the Four-Line Regiment can currently use are the reconnaissance company, the mountain infantry company, and the cavalry battalion.

Trapped by the terrain, the martial arts of the cavalry battalion can be said to be half-wasted first. Even if they are to be put into battle, they are estimated to dismount and serve as infantry, but that is too wasteful.

The reconnaissance company has long been accustomed to operating in groups and squads. It would be too wasteful to let them gather together as a field force at the company level. After all, it is only a mountain infantry company.

But after all, the Japanese army's troops this time can be regarded as heavy troops. Now we can find that there are about 70,000 people. In any direction, the Japanese army will not be less than an infantry regiment.

You use a light infantry company with 300 troops to block an infantry regiment, even if the terrain here is particularly suitable for the mountain infantry company. It is a bit too underestimated.

Whoever changes, the comparison of nearly 10 to 1 will be heartbroken!

But Gu Xishui, the company commander of the mountain infantry company, stood up without hesitation and received the military order.

The reconnaissance company is naturally still doing their old business. The periphery of the three main positions is their activity area.

Moreover, this time, with a walkie-talkie that can communicate within a straight-line distance of 1,600 meters, the three-person team can notify Lü Sanjiang's company of the enemy situation in less than 1 minute, and then transmit it to the regiment through the company's radio commanded as "Queen Bee".

The regiment can make a comprehensive analysis and judgment based on the information seen by dozens of pairs of eyes distributed on the battlefield, and then reasonably deploy the defense of the three main positions, and the efficiency is at least twice as high as before.

It can be said that the performance of the reconnaissance company accounts for at least one-third of whether the Japanese heavy troops that are about to attack will be defeated this time.

The regiment headquarters is located in a valley 800 meters behind Sifang Bay, where the baggage battalion and the special service battalion built fortifications.

It not only became the command center of the Sihang Regiment, the location of the field hospital, and the storage of materials, but also the last line of defense on the left wing of the Shipai Defense Zone.

"If all three of your positions are lost, then I will wait here for the devils to come!" This was the last sentence Tang Dao added after issuing a military order to the three infantry battalions.

The three infantry battalion commanders all looked serious, which meant that Tang Tuanzuo had decided to fight to the death here, and the only thing left was to raise the "death" flag that he had always regarded as a treasure on the top of the mountain.

Everyone knew that once the "death" flag was raised, the whole regiment would fight to the last soldier and would not retreat.

In the end, the cavalry battalion became the "chicken ribs" of the whole regiment. The mountains in Xiling Gorge are not the mountains in the north. Many areas are almost straight up and down, and the mountain roads are extremely rugged, which is not conducive to the running of war horses. Moreover, if the Japanese army attacks, the threat from the sky is inevitable. Bombs fall from the sky like this, and people can hide in the narrow air-raid shelters dug in advance. What about the huge war horses?

These precious war horses were consumed in vain in the Japanese army's bombing, which no one wanted to see.

Tang Dao thought about this problem again and again on the way back. Fortunately, he remembered a detail. In the past, the 11th Division also had hundreds of pack horses. The division commander surnamed Hu also considered this problem. Before the war, he ordered his military doctor and part of the baggage troops to transport these horses to Zigui.

It is located behind Shipai. The Japanese will only focus on the Shipai battlefield for the time being, and even if they want to go, it is extremely difficult to pass through the river at this time.

Not only does Shipai have 6 large-caliber river defense cannons that can cover the entire river surface, but now the river surface in the Shipai area has begun to be fully deployed with mines. If the Japanese want to pass, they can only conquer Shipai.

Simply, Tang Dao ordered the cavalry battalion to serve as the third reserve of the entire regiment. The 389 cavalrymen of the battalion with the 800 pack horses and 300 baggage soldiers of the entire regiment retreated to Zigui. If the battle goes smoothly, it will be fine. Once it gets into a hard battle, the officers and soldiers of the cavalry battalion will lead 300 baggage soldiers back to the battlefield and become the last troops that the entire regiment can deploy.

The cavalry battalion commander also wanted to object, but when he thought of the warhorse he had been with day and night, which was like his comrade-in-arms and relatives, and had to die in vain in the artillery fire just because he didn't want to retreat, he could only accept this extremely helpless order.

But this is the limitation of the military type. Even if the Tang sword has the ability to reach the sky, it can't allow the cavalry who can gallop freely on the North China Plain to walk on such steep mountains.

The time taken by the four-line regiment and the three infantry regiments of the 11th Division to change guard was nearly 3 days later than the division commander surnamed Hu imagined, and it took a full five days to complete the complete change of guard.

However, the division commander surnamed Hu who received the news did not get angry rashly. When he asked the reason, he found out that it was not that the four-line regiment was not active in changing guard, but that their marching speed in the mountains was too slow.

The most important reason for their slow marching speed was that they carried too much supplies.

"How much supplies can an infantry regiment have? Isn't it just a few thousand guns and a few artillery pieces?" The major general chief of staff of the 11th Division snorted angrily.

As a result, the list handed over by the staff officer made the major general chief of staff who had just returned from the Zigui logistics base open his eyes wide.

Not to mention the shells, bullets and food transported by thousands of pack horses, the Four-line Regiment would not report how many of those things there were. What can be seen and recorded with the naked eye is the 12 40mm anti-aircraft guns towed by off-road jeeps. This thing was only known to the lieutenant colonel chief of staff who consulted the director of the political department of the Four-line Regiment. Otherwise, he would not know what it was.

They are all long-term troops, and they are very clear about the role of this anti-aircraft gun with a shooting height of up to 6,000 meters. It can be used to shoot at ash planes and can be used as a cannon.

Just set up one of these things on the mountainside, and the Japanese 70mm infantry gun is nothing in front of it.

Although the caliber is different, one is two tons and the other is 200 kilograms. The kinetic energy of the shells is completely different, and the power is naturally different.

The other four-line regiment dragged 12 guns.

That's fine, the commander of the four-line regiment, Tang, was so powerful that he could even get 150mm heavy artillery from Rockefeller Company. This was well known to all senior generals in the Central Army. Getting 12 40mm anti-aircraft guns was still within the acceptable range.

The key point is that the four-line regiment actually brought dozens of iron lumps that could blind people's eyes.

That's right, that was the tank company of the four-line regiment's special service battalion.

When 28 small tanks rumbled into the mountain road, the thick black smoke directly stunned the defenders of the 11th Division along the way.

As one of the five main forces, they had seen tanks before, but it was the first time that they could drive tanks into such a big mountain.

The Chinese soldiers would be confused by this small steel monster that was struggling to advance in the mountains, but as their opponents, the Japanese army, which could only carry 75 mountain guns and 70mm infantry guns into the mountains at most, would definitely be beaten to tears.

Perhaps what they wanted to say to their military experts at that time was: Why don't you make the little bean smaller!

This is the real reason why the Fourth Regiment marched slowly.

It was these 28 small tanks of the tank company that made several chief officers of the Fourth Regiment and the commander of the engineering battalion, Bai Sheng, worry about it.

The mountain road was too narrow, and the jeep that could go on the bad road could only barely pass through.

That is, the TKS was small enough, one point smaller than the Japanese Type 94 light tank, otherwise, how could it go into the mountain road where only people and pack horses could walk side by side?

But for the subsequent battle, Tang Dao ordered that even if it was carried by people, the 28th small iron lump had to be carried in.

All 600 people in the engineering battalion served these 28 small tanks, and there were also three infantry companies to assist. If the road was not wide enough, they would blow up the mountain to open the road. If there was water or deep ditches, they would cut down trees on the spot to build bridges.

Some tanks could not go up some steep slopes, so they really relied on manpower and packhorses. Dozens of soldiers dragged long ropes like trackers and matched more than a dozen powerful war horses to drag the 6-ton tanks up the cliff.

Really, that scene made the officers and soldiers of the 11th Division dumbfounded again. In this broken place, there were some areas where even monkeys could not climb up. The tanks used on the plains had a base, and at most they were used as fixed artillery positions. What was the point of wasting so much effort?

This time, it was not that Tang Tuanzuo was stingy and reluctant to throw away the tanks.

Tang Dao never thought that he would lead the Four-Line Regiment to a place like Shipai. The reason why he chose the "cockroach" tank was purely to save fuel.

Even so, for these 28 little guys along the way, the Four-Line Regiment paid more than 20,000 yuan for fuel.

But it must be worth it.

When the pure infantry of the Japanese army met these small steel lumps, they understood the helplessness and pain of the Chinese soldiers on the battlefield.

It was because of the 28 "cockroach" tanks that could travel on a 40-degree slope that Tang Dao made certain adjustments to the defensive tactics of each battalion this time.

Originally, the Chinese theater headquarters gave tactical guidance to each unit, and set up layers of defense on the high ground in the mountainous area along the central position of Shipai. If an infantry squad or an infantry platoon was dropped on a small high ground, the Japanese army had to pull out these high grounds like pulling out nails if they wanted to advance.

In the battles of eastern Shanxi and southeastern Shanxi, the 17th and 12th divisions also used this tactic. If the Japanese army wanted to pass through, they had to give up some infantry lives as a toll.

But that was also extremely unfair to the Chinese soldiers. While consuming the Japanese army, they were also consumables.

What was consumed was not only life, but also will!

Tang Dao made a decision to abandon the main positions defended by the three infantry battalions, except for the necessary high ground, and let the Japanese army in to fight.

What hundreds or thousands, it depends on who is tougher. The tank platoon responsible for assisting in the defense of each main position has 9 TKS tanks. Good steel is used on the blade, and the timing is right to make the Japanese knock out a mouthful of teeth.

Of course, Tang Dao did not make such a decision on impulse, but based on the extremely confident judgment of the light and heavy firepower of the infantry and artillery of the Four-line Regiment.

The Japanese army that attacked the mountains this time had the largest caliber artillery of 75mm mountain artillery, which completely lost its former firepower advantage. Then they had to face the Four-line Regiment with advantageous terrain and light and heavy firepower that was superior to them. What could they use to fight?

Maybe they could only rely on their head!

Let them feel that they are still okay, so that they will not collapse at one blow, and can only continue to increase infantry attacks. This is the most poisonous part of Tang Dao's tactic of abandoning the unimportant small high ground around.

Tang Dao's appetite is much bigger than what the commander surnamed Hu imagined. He is not satisfied with just defending the left wing position.

What he wants is the lives of thousands, tens of thousands, or even more Japanese.

In the morning, Tang Dao stood on the peak and gazed at the Wushan Clouds and Rain, which was praised by countless poets. The mist was around the mountain, which was beautiful, but the sound of the mountain wind blowing the leaves was always heard in his ears, like countless people sobbing softly.

The lost time and space made Tang Dao's eyes more determined. He wanted those young people who had fallen in the most beautiful mountains and waters in China to see that this time, it was the flesh and blood of the Japanese that nourished the flowers growing in this beautiful landscape.

When spring comes, it will be more beautiful than usual!

For this reason, Tang Dao would rather give up many small hills that seemed to pose a great threat to the Japanese army, which were more than 400 meters high, and even deliberately left a mountain that could lead directly to Sifang Bay 1,500 meters away from the main position of Zhujiaping.

At that time, the Japanese army that was frustrated in the attacks of Niujiachang and Zhujiaping would definitely survey the terrain and look for a detour, and that road was specially reserved for them by Tang Dao.

Niujiachang, Zhujiaping and Sifangwan formed a nearly perfect inverted "品" shape. The Japanese could only deploy two or three infantry regiments at most due to space problems, just relying on the side formed by the two main positions to block the Japanese. However, with the road that could enter this huge triangle, the Japanese who were eager to win quickly would at least add two more infantry regiments.

It could not only make the Japanese army bleed more in Sifangwan, but also be a cage similar to fishing. The road could be blocked at any time, so that the Japanese army that entered this road could never get out again.

The reason why Tang Dao held the main force of the 4th Battalion in his hands and did not let it go easily was for this reason.

After Tang Dao saw the sand table covering the 10-kilometer area around the central position of Shipai in the operations room of the division commander surnamed Hu and understood the intention of the division commander surnamed Hu, he had already decided to turn the left wing position into a meat grinder and crush all the Japanese troops who were eager for a quick victory in this mill.

The reason why the Japanese army sought a quick victory was also closely related to the mountainous terrain in the Yiling area. With the Japanese's scumbag logistics capabilities, once the battle line was extended, they had to go to the villages of Chinese people in the countryside to become robbers to replenish supplies. When they entered the mountains, they could also drop food and drink from the sky to the hands of the Japanese infantry!

In the past, the battle report of the 39th Division of the Japanese Army wrote: The mountain roads were rugged and difficult to move. The packhorses transporting supplies could not keep up with the speed of the infantry's advancement, resulting in a shortage of food and fodder. The officers and soldiers ate raw sweet potatoes while advancing!

It was difficult to maintain food, not to mention the massive ammunition supply.

The maximum tolerance period for the Japanese to the Battle of Shipai is between one week and ten days!

If they want to win quickly and encounter a tough problem, the Japanese commanders who lack the ability to respond often use Nogi Maresuke's trick: human wave tactics, wrapping the big and small Baka with white cloth strips and charging!

For this, Tang Dao is extremely welcome!

All his tactics on the left wing are aimed at this.

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