Rise From Eight Hundred

January 23, 1941!

A day that the whole of China needs to remember.

On this afternoon, both China and Japan dispatched all their available air forces to the sky above Shipai.

However, no fighter plane could drop bombs on the positions below.

Because, in the Gaojialing and Badoufang areas of Shipai’s central positions that they were ordered to support, the Chinese and Japanese sides fought fiercely to the point where they were almost face to face. Looking down from the sky, the khaki and dark blue were intertwined together. Not to mention the powerful bombs, even a small grenade would most likely blow up the infantry of both China and Japan at the same time.

Especially in Gaojialing, the two sides had already started the hand-to-hand combat mode of bayonet fighting at more than a dozen positions on this mountain.

The Japanese army destroyed most of the fortifications on the mountain with naval guns and mountain guns. Due to the order of Yokoyama Isamu, the 31st Regiment of the 11th Division, which had been fighting for a whole morning, actually consumed most of its ammunition. And because the logistics supply was a little slow, under the continuous attack of the Japanese army, the colonel commander who was personally in charge of the front line decisively ordered the whole army to use bayonets.

For Murakami Kisaku, who was personally on the front line to supervise the battle, the number of casualties was also not important. As long as Shipai was conquered, the ugliness of the 39th Division, Nogou Detachment, and Hariya Detachment suffering heavy losses could be ignored.

The Chinese were forced to use hand-to-hand combat, which was a good opportunity for the Imperial Army to show its bravery.

It was under the background that the Chinese side was forced to do what the Japanese side wanted, that on the afternoon of the 23rd, the largest hand-to-hand combat in the entire Chinese war history broke out on the Gaojialing battlefield.

The Chinese side initially deployed a half-crippled infantry regiment, including its colonel commander and civilian staff of the regiment, with only 1,600 people, but as the battle became white-hot, the 32nd Regiment, who was ordered to come, also joined the battle.

Since the two sides were already fighting each other, the newly arrived 32nd Regiment could not use their guns and bullets.

"If we die, we will be killed! We all have one shoulder to carry our head. Once the bayonet is stabbed, the Japanese are also mortals, and they will all be finished!" The nearly 45-year-old colonel of the 32nd Regiment roared and rushed down the hillside with 2,500 officers and soldiers.

The Japanese army also deployed an infantry regiment of nearly 3,000 infantrymen.

Therefore, from the perspective of the Chinese and Japanese air forces, the entire Gaojialing hillside was full of yellow and blue. The so-called air support could only become air observation at this moment.

On the entire battlefield, except for the sporadic gunshots and grenade explosions, there was no sound of artillery at all, and all there was the sound of bayonets colliding or bayonets rubbing against bones that made people feel sick.

The soldiers of both China and Japan were so angry that their bayonets were bent that they used their rifles as sticks. If the rifles were broken, they used stones, grenades, fingers, teeth, and all other tools to attack the other side.

Although the 11th Division was already an elite Chinese unit, it was only in the Chinese military sequence. Especially in bayonet training, it was actually not as good as the 104th Infantry Regiment of the 13th Division.

In terms of physical fitness, many of the 11th Division were young soldiers recruited in the past six months. They were only 16 or 17 years old and their bodies had not fully grown. In addition, the food was far inferior to that of the Japanese army. Often, one Japanese soldier could fight two Chinese soldiers alone.

But as the saying goes, trapped beasts still fight, let alone people?

If one person can't beat them, it's very simple, just fight desperately.

What is the most common scene on the battlefield? A soldier rushed forward without hesitation, using his body as a shield to let the Japanese infantry pierce him fiercely, and then used up his last strength to hold tightly the rifle that was about to take his life. No matter how hard the Japanese tried to pull it away, they could not pull out the bayonet in a short time.

Then, the soldier who followed closely behind stabbed with the bayonet again, and the Japanese soldiers who were reluctant to throw away their rifles were often pierced in the same way.

One for one is the best result sought by Chinese soldiers.

Even if they met a smart person, they would throw away their guns to save their lives when they saw the situation was not good, but after losing their own weapons, they would have stepped on the Naihe Bridge on such a dangerous battlefield.

Just such a one-for-one exchange may not be enough to reflect the cruelty of hand-to-hand combat. Many soldiers' bayonets were bent and deformed due to multiple blocking and could no longer be used as killing tools, so they chose to use the daggers they carried with them, or use the stones on the ground on the spot.

Therefore, on the hillside, not only blood flowed, but also brain matter!

Shi Dakuan was a private in the 2nd Company of the 3rd Battalion of the 31st Regiment of the 11th Division. This lowest rank in the army meant that he was just a recruit who had been in the army for less than 3 months.

Yes, Shi Dakuan's hometown is in northern Jiangsu. After the Japanese army opened China's southeastern gate from Songhu in 1937, they swept across the south of the Yangtze River. The Su family, which originally had a few acres of thin land to make a living, resolutely abandoned the land that could support the whole family after the Japanese army's Nanjing Massacre. They fled south to Jiangxia with the fleeing army and then fled to Shancheng.

During this period, in order to support the family, Shi Dakuan's eldest brother joined the army in early 1938 and became a soldier of the 31st Division of the 30th Army. Less than two months after joining the army, he participated in the Battle of Xuzhou and fought bloody battles in the central battlefield of Taierzhuang.

In order to defend the central battlefield of Taierzhuang, the company commander of the 31st Division had to lead the death squad to the battlefield. If half of a company survived, it would be a very light loss.

Shi Dakuan's eldest brother Shi Dahou was in an infantry company with 145 people. In the end, there were only 8 people left. Shi Dahou's name was not among the living list. The young man who had just turned 22 died in the battle, but he earned a pension of 10 oceans for his family. His company commander, who was seriously injured but survived, paid for it with his own bonus.

It was these 10 pieces of ocean that supported Shi Dakuan's family from starving to death during the long escape journey.

However, the suffering is still not over. Jiangxia, where the family has been able to live, is about to start fighting. The whole family has to flee again. This time, Shi Dakuan's 18-year-old second brother Shi Dazhong stood up and joined the army on the streets of Jiangxia. 71st Army, and participated in the famous Wanjialing Annihilation Battle in the following September.

This time, Shi Dazhong survived and achieved military exploits. He sent 20 oceans to his family, which was enough for a family of young and old to survive in the mountain city.

But the good times did not last long. A year later, in the first battle of Changsha, Shi Dazhong, who had been promoted to sergeant, died in battle.

At this time, Shi Dakuan had just turned 16 years old. Seeing his mother crying blindly for his two brothers who died in the war, he could only hide his desire to join the army to avenge his brothers and followed his father to replace others at the dock. I pick goods to support my grandparents, my blind mother, and my two younger sisters who are not yet 10 years old.

But bad luck did not spare this poor family. During the Japanese bombing in the middle of the 1940s, Shi Dakuan's father was killed by a bomb dropped by the Japanese, and the shack built by the family next to the cliff was also destroyed by fire.

Finally, whether it was to avenge his father and brother or to support his mother and sister He with military pay, the boy who was less than 17 years old chose to go to the recruiting station on the street. His only request was to withdraw one month's military pay and give it to his mother.

In less than two months of training in the recruit company, Shi Dakuan on the training ground fired a total of 10 bullets, and was assigned to the 11th Division, and followed the main force of the division to Shipai.

Freshly baked recruits are faced with a hellish meat grinder battlefield, and the possibility of survival is almost non-existent.

But miraculously, Shi Dakuan survived until the hand-to-hand battlefield on the afternoon of the 23rd that shocked the future.

Shi Dakuan saw with his own eyes that his squad leader's generous back was pierced by a Japanese soldier because he was angrily holding a stone in his hand and desperately hitting a Japanese invader.

It was the strong Japanese invader who stabbed three brothers in the class to death one after another. As a result, a brother who was not dead hugged him by the ankles. Only then was he knocked down by a brother who had been in the army for two years. The squad leader picked up a stone and threw it hard at the guy's face. Once, the Japanese soldiers were still struggling desperately. Two times, three times, the blood spattered Lao Gao, and the Japanese soldiers' miserable howls were like those in the village during the New Year. The New Year pig is about to be slaughtered.

Then, a Japanese soldier who rushed over from five meters away stabbed the squad leader in the back with such force that a ten centimeter blade was exposed on the squad leader's chest.

The squad leader instinctively grabbed the blade with both hands, but the Japanese soldier's eyes were full of ferocity. His wrist suddenly turned, and the blade turned. Two of the squad leader's fingers were cut off, and a mouthful of blood spurted out from his mouth.

Shi Dakuan, who ran over to support with a rifle in his hand, was suddenly stunned. He was not scared, but he knew that the squad leader was going to die. The tough man who scolded them as soft recruits every day was going to die sooner or later.

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He doesn't hate the squad leader, he has never hated him, because he knows that his second brother is like this too. In the more than a year since he joined the army, his second brother has only sent one letter home. When talking about military life, he complained that the recruits were too soft. The blood screamed loudly, but my legs were weak and I dared not go up. Every time, he, the deputy squad leader, had to take the lead.

So, his second brother died, and now his squad leader is also the same, and he is also about to die.

"Squad leader!" Shi Dakuan roared angrily, tears streaming down his face.

Others don't know, only Shi Dakuan knows it. Every time the squad leader scolds these new recruits, he thinks of his second brother who is only three years older than him. In his heart, he also regards the squad leader as his second brother.

But now, is the monitor also going to die?

"Dakuan, fuck him to death! Go kill him!" the veteran roared while spitting out blood.

The Japanese soldiers looked coldly at the young soldier who was still standing there and was no taller than a rifle, with disdain in his eyes. However, his subordinates turned the rifle again, and the sound of the friction between the blade and the bones was like thunder in Shi Dakuan's ears.

He even stepped hard on the back of the half-kneeling squad leader with his leather boots, trying to use his strength to pull out his bayonet.

But he didn't expect that a dying person would have such great strength. Those bloody hands were holding on to the half of the blade like a vise.

His lifeless eyes stared at Shi Dakuan, and he kept breathing.

"I'll kill your ancestors!" Shi Dakuan's eyes widened, he stepped forward with his rifle and stabbed forward suddenly.

The Japanese army had to drop their rifles to avoid the forward stabs of the weak Chinese soldiers. Finally, they found an opportunity to get close and hugged the weak Shi Dakuan.

The two of them rolled over on the hillside.

Although this Japanese soldier was not Sergeant Cao, he must be a veteran who had been in the army for more than two years. He was not only strong but also thoughtful. During the rolling process, he kept using Shi Dakuan's body to hit the rocks, which made Shi Dakuan dizzy.

Finally, Shi Dakuan, who was already at a disadvantage, was pinched by the Japanese hand around the neck. Shi Dakuan, who had already expended a lot of energy, was unable to resist due to the massive loss of oxygen, and the Japanese hand that kept hammering gradually became weak.

‘I’m going to die too, big brother, second brother, are you here to pick me up?’ In a trance, Shi Dakuan seemed to see the bloody faces of his big and second brothers.

“Dakuan, you are the last pillar of the Shi family. If you die again, how will mom, sister, grandparents live?” The big brother’s face, which was missing half of his head, was extremely hideous. He shook Shi Dakuan, who was about to faint, and asked.

“You must live, otherwise you will be sorry for big brother and me.” The second brother, who was missing an arm, stared at Tongling.

“Yes! I am the last man in the Shi family. I can’t die!” Shi Dakuan, who was awakened by the scolding, suddenly had an extremely strong will to survive.

He no longer hammered the strong Japanese soldiers in vain, but fought desperately with one hand, and fumbled around his waist with the other hand, where a wooden-handled grenade was inserted.

Finally, the grenade was pulled out, and with his last strength, he raised the grenade and smashed it hard on the Japanese soldier’s head.

The 17-year-old boy made a desperate attempt. It is unknown how much strength he exerted, but the extremely strong Japanese soldier also let out a miserable howl after being hit.

The front end of the grenade was made of cast iron, which was an iron lump. Whoever hit it on the head would have his head broken.

Shi Dakuan, who finally escaped, held the grenade tightly, gathered all his strength, and hit it again fiercely. The Japanese soldier finally fell to the ground, but his hand grabbed Shi Dakuan's wrist who was about to hit him again.

How strong Shi Dakuan's will to survive was also fully reflected in the Japanese infantry this time. Even if he was hit to the point of hallucination, the last burst of power of the Japanese army made Shi Dakuan unable to get rid of it.

Shi Dakuan, who was trying hard to survive, suddenly remembered what his second brother said in the letter home: The Japanese are jackals and beasts. If they are fierce, we must be fiercer and more ruthless than them, otherwise, we can't kill them.

Shi Dakuan pressed his head down without hesitation and bit the Japanese soldier's carotid artery fiercely. That bite almost exhausted Shi Dakuan's 17 years of life strength. A fishy smell instantly filled Shi Dakuan's mouth, and the Japanese's screams were deafening.

But Shi Dakuan did not let go, and even shook his head desperately like a jackal, which is how jackals tear the flesh of their prey.

He succeeded!

The Japanese soldier under him gradually stopped struggling, and the two hands that had clamped his wrists also drooped limply.

Shi Dakuan also raised his head at this time.

The young soldier with blood on his face was like a demon, with a piece of flesh and blood connected to a yellow-white tube in his mouth.

The Japanese soldiers who saw this scene were all terrified.

And this is just a small microcosm of the battle between thousands of Chinese and Japanese soldiers. There are many more cruel battlefields than this.

Because both sides have no way out.

The Japanese command had issued a death order that they must conquer Gaojialing and Badoufang today, at any cost.

The Chinese side had already withdrawn and could retreat, and the division headquarters was behind them. If they retreated further, Shipai would be gone.

The mountains were filled with desperate howls, and even the expressionless Japanese commander at the foot of the mountain was covered in cold sweat.

Lieutenant General Murakami Kisaku, who was only 800 meters away from the battlefield, only picked up the telescope twice in an hour to look at the battlefield. He was waiting, waiting for the outcome of this brutal hand-to-hand combat.

This Japanese Army Lieutenant General, who became famous in the Zaoyi Battle, was extremely confident that the Imperial Army would win this unconventional battle.

"Pass on my military order, plant the flag of my 11th Division on the highest point of Gaojialing, and tell all the soldiers of the 31st and 32nd Regiments that I will be with them, and the position will be there if the people are there, and if the position is lost, my entire army will die!" However, the division commander surnamed Hu, who was watching all this on the opposite hill, made another choice.

"Commander, it hasn't come to this yet! The people in front of us are still fighting the Japanese army, and there is no sign of defeat!" The major general chief of staff on the side was shocked and hurriedly admonished his young commander.

At this time, if the commander was killed, the battlefield would collapse.

"Defeat? If my division's flag is not planted on the high ground, maybe there will be no chance to enjoy the defeat." The commander surnamed Hu handed the telescope to his chief of staff.

In the field of view of the telescope, 500 meters away, a team of at least more than 100 Japanese soldiers were moving along the mountainside at a high speed towards the division headquarters.

"Damn little devils, they are doing this again, I will lead the guard company to meet the enemy." The major general chief of staff just finished speaking, but his face turned pale.

He just remembered that the last guard company of the division headquarters was sent to Badoufang for reinforcement 20 minutes ago.

Now there are no combatants in the division headquarters except the commander, him and 50 civilian staff.

"Everyone, take the weapons you can take, and follow me to plant the military flag on the highest point of Gaojialing." The division commander surnamed Hu picked up his pistol and walked out, his steps slightly paused. "Send a telegram to the military commander and Commander Chen, and say that our 11th Division will fight the Japanese invaders to the last drop of blood. If Shipai is lost, there is no need to collect our remains, just leave them in the mountains here as a punishment!"

A military flag was planted high on the top of Gaojialing!

"The division commander will personally supervise the battle, brothers, kill!" Seeing the divisional flag suddenly standing behind them, the Chinese officers and soldiers on the hillside, who were already exhausted, suddenly burst out with courage and strength again.

The shouts were deafening.

Even the Tang Dao and the Four-line Regiment who were still on the battlefield of Sifangwan several kilometers away could almost hear it.

Tang Dao stared westward, and suddenly remembered the monologue about the defense of Shipai in the future Chinese Geography: "At that time, the children of Chinese farmers were generally poorly nourished. Most of the soldiers aged 16 or 17 were not as tall as the rifles with bayonets. They fought hard with guns longer than themselves. If they were alive, they would be old men in their 70s or 80s. They would also sip small sips of fragrant tea in their own orange orchards, leisurely watching their children and grandchildren, and warmly enjoying their old age. But they died so that other Chinese people could have all this!"

Tears suddenly filled my eyes! ()