Rise From Eight Hundred

  Chapter 1425 has tricks!

This Japanese army approaching the 3rd Battalion's position at Zhujiaping is the 231st Infantry Regiment of the 39th Division!

If the Japanese 232nd Infantry Regiment, which was successfully ambushed and nearly wiped out by a mountain infantry company, was one of the culprits that led to General Zhang's sacrifice, then the 231st Infantry Regiment was the culprit.

According to the description of the guards who snatched General Zhang's body, it was an infantry brigade of the 231st Infantry Regiment that broke through the defense line on the flank that day. General Zhang had to lead the guards and civilian personnel of the headquarters to fight with it, and was eventually hit by a bullet. Chest leads to sacrifice!

Tell me, when Tang Dao heard that the culprit who caused his elder brother's death arrived in front of his battle line, how could he not be afraid?

“Li Jijin, in this battle we not only have to stop the 231st Regiment, but we also have to find a way to hold them back and keep them all here!” Tang Dao dialed Li Jijin’s phone number directly.

“Yes! The 3rd Battalion promises to complete the mission!” Li Jijin assured, patting his chest.

However, Lao Li who hung up the phone was far less relaxed than when he promised Tang Dao. The usually carefree veteran Youzi frowned tightly.

 The Japanese troops rushing toward the 3rd Battalion's position from fifteen miles away were said to be the 231st Infantry Regiment, but in fact they were much larger than just one regiment.

It turns out that the 39th Division is one of the main divisions in the 11th Army, and its commander, Murakami Kisaku, is also a personal friend of Yokoyama Isamu, and is highly regarded by Yokoyama. For this Shipai battle, Murakami Kisaku was designated as the commander. As the supreme commander on the front line.

Murakami Kisaku, the top frontline commander of Japan's 11th Army, also has his own Xiao Jiujiu in his heart. From a tactical deployment point of view, the central position of Shipai Fortress is a must-break point. It is natural that China has placed a main infantry division there to stand ready. It is the hardest nut to crack.

Therefore, Murakami divided his 39th Division into three, with two main infantry regiments entering from the mountainous area to attack the flanks, and one main infantry regiment attacking the front of Shipai Fortress. This would not only satisfy the population but also allow Reduce the troop losses of the 39th Division.

Among the two infantry regiments, 231 and 232, Murakami made another choice, choosing to put his treasure on the 231 Infantry Regiment, so the division artillery regiment, engineer regiment, baggage regiment, and field hospital were assigned to All are placed under the control of the 231st Infantry Regiment.

To put it bluntly, the 232 Infantry Regiment entering the battlefield from Changyang direction and the 233 Infantry Regiment in front of Shipai Fortress really only have one infantry regiment, but only the 231 Infantry Regiment has an army with 36 mountain field guns and more than 900 The artillery wing of the artillery, plus more than 500 engineers, more than 2,000 heavy equipment and other auxiliary arms, is equivalent to a small detachment in terms of strength and diversity of arms.

 Its number of troops capable of participating in combat is as high as 6,000!

In the past, a battalion of the Four Lines Regiment plus reserve soldiers could have a strength of 2,000. It was mainly for defense, so it was not afraid of 6,000 Japanese troops. But now for the expedition, each battalion has been reduced to about 900 men, and the strength comparison is 1: 7.

That's not all, Tang Tuanzuo's request is not only to block, but also to delay this Japanese army. This is obviously to prepare for the annihilation of this Japanese army. This difficulty is simply hellish.

“Let all the company and platoon commanders run to the battalion headquarters for a meeting. Let me brainstorm on how to fight this battle!” After Li Jijin thought for a moment, he directly ordered the communications soldiers around him.

Three cobblers are equal to one Zhuge Liang. Lao Li, who has no tricks, believes that the guys under his command can always come up with tricks.

The company commanders and platoon commanders were really trotting over from all the trenches. This had nothing to do with the military orders of Battalion Commander Jiujin. In fact, the Japanese were only 10 miles away from the battlefield, and they were about to start a fight. Well, how can they, the grassroots commanders, not stay on the ground?

 The regiment headquarters may have military regulations. During wartime, regardless of battalion, company, or platoon, if the chief officer is not at the headquarters or at the battle station, he will be punished according to the military law of being absent without leave.

"My battalion commander! What are you going to do? The little devils are coming soon."

The first company captain to arrive was a veteran who had followed Li Jijin for more than 4 years. The battles at Songhu Battlefield, Sihang Warehouse, Songjiang, Guangde, and Huabei were endless. Li Jijin had a cheerful personality. The relationship between the two is that of brothers, and they are usually used to it casually, but now they start to complain.

 “Zhang Dabiao, stand at attention for me!” Li Jijin glared.

The captain and the company commander were startled and quickly stood at attention.

“Tell me, am I the battalion commander or your son is the battalion commander!” Li Jijin glanced at his old comrade.

“Of course it’s you, Li Jiujin, Battalion Commander Li!” The captain and company commander flattered him with saliva on his face.

"Then I asked you to come to a meeting, and give me a hammer. The Japs are coming, and there is still more than ten miles to go! Just because of the little Japs' short legs, give him a I can't make it in an hour, you're so anxious!" Li Jijin scolded angrily.

"The battalion commander was right, I was wrong! Come on, battalion commander, have a cigarette to relieve his anger." The captain and the company commander quickly admitted their mistake and took out their cigarettes.

"Okay, just know you're wrong. The regimental commander just gave an order. Think about it carefully, how to complete it, and come up with a good idea. Just pretend this never happened." Li Jijin took the cigarette. , nodded with satisfaction.

He has found an unlucky kid to help him use his brain. Is veteran Youzi not satisfied?

The captain and company commander thought it was nothing at first, but when the battalion correspondent explained the content of the order, his face turned into a bitter gourd.

“Batalion Commander, can you give me back the cigarette so I can continue to stand?” the captain and company commander asked in a low voice with a grimace.

“This is a task assigned to me by the regimental commander of the entire 3rd Battalion. Even if you stand very well, I have to think about it.” Li Jijin took a puff of cigarette and almost didn’t come out of his ears.

The dozen or so captains, lieutenants, and second lieutenants who arrived were all squatting in the air-raid shelter at the battalion headquarters without even a chair, each one lighting a cigarette and thinking hard.

Blocking the 6000 little devils, this group of uncomfortable veterans is confident, but it is too difficult to drag the devils, but it is too difficult.

  It’s hard to make a meal without rice. Three infantry companies have to defend a defense line with a length of 3,600 meters, a total of 15 highlands, which is the limit. If the troops are divided again, how can they defend it?

Besides, there are 6,000 Japanese troops. How many troops do you need to go out and harass them to hold them back?

 From the perspective of military strength, this is an unsolvable problem!

 Time passed by minute by minute, and still no one could come up with constructive suggestions. Li Jiujin, who was originally calm, looked at his pocket watch, and his eyes were filled with anxiety.

 “Batalion Commander, I have a question!” Boss Cao, who had already achieved the rank of second lieutenant, stood up and asked.

 “Lao Cao, tell me.” Li Jijin nodded.

“The regimental commander asked us to find a way to hold back this group of devils because he wanted to kill them all, right?”

"That's right? That's what you mean. I know the regimental commander very well. He is probably planting a small flag on the sand table right now. Once the time is right, the mountain infantry company, the reconnaissance company, and the two main companies of the 4th Battalion will Even the security company will go into the battlefield, and no one of the Japanese he wants to kill has been able to escape so far.

 But the difficulty lies in how we can prevent these devils from running away without a fight! "

"That's enough. Since the regimental commander means to kill these devils, we might as well kill them here." Boss Cao's one eye was full of cold light.

 “What do you mean?” Li Jijin didn’t come back to his thoughts for a while.

"We have seen a lot of creatures like the little devil. The harder you beat him, the less likely he is to leave. He always wants to regain his position. Then we will take out the battalion commander in the first wave of general attack after they test the firepower points. The 'sledgehammer' tactic you formulated, if you kill them all alone and make them retreat, you lose. If you don't want to lose, you can only stand up and fight us here. We will beat them to a semi-invisible state and wait until they want to leave again. It’s too late.” Boss Cao said.

"Old Cao is right! If you don't want to delay, just kill the little devil here and it's over. Anyway, that's what the regimental commander wants to achieve." The captain and company commander slapped his thigh.

“Haha! Lao Cao, you are good! You solve problems straightforwardly and don’t play around with twists and turns.” Li Jijin also laughed.

Boss Cao's words can be said to have awakened the dreamer. Tang Tuanzuo asked to hold back the Japanese army, didn't he just want to kill the Japanese army? As long as you can kill them, it doesn't matter what the process is like, what Tang Tuanzuo wants is the result.

Since we are going to do this, there is no need to keep the trump card that we originally planned to save when the Japanese army attacks with all their strength. As long as they dare to launch an attack at the level of a thousand people, then take it out and knock them out all at once, and inflict massive casualties on them. Forced to stay here. Moreover, isn’t it said that the 39th Division is the elite of Japan’s 11th Army? They once defeated the Chinese 33rd Army in the Battle of Zaoyi, and even General Zhang died on the front line against them. You can't scare them away when there are too many casualties! This is not in line with the temperament of the elites of the 39th Division.

Don't tell me, the "stooges" of the 3rd Battalion really have the weak spot of the 231st Infantry Regiment.

Since the 232nd Infantry Regiment was wiped out the day before yesterday, there are only two or three sick kittens left in the entire regiment. The important task of maintaining the honor of the entire 39th Division has fallen to the strongest 231st Infantry Regiment. superior.

“In this battle, we can only win but not lose, even if we fight to the last soldier!” This was the military order given by Murakami Kasaku to Colonel Yamada Masakichi, the commander of the 231st Infantry Regiment.

If the losses were small, Colonel Yamada Masakichi might still want to find a way around the Zhujiaping battlefield, but once the losses were serious, Yamada Masakichi would have no choice but to fight to the death with the 3rd Battalion.

Yamada Masakichi can lead the main force of the 39th Division to the expedition. Of course, he will not be a person with a missing head.

In fact, the reason why Yamada Masakichi, who was born in a poor family, ranks second only to the division commander Murakami Kisaku in the 39th Division is entirely due to his accurate judgment on the battlefield.

Just like the battle that surrounded the 33rd Group Army Headquarters in the Zaoyi Battle, it was entirely due to Yamada Masakichi's emphasis on radio wave detection, and then it was determined that the 33rd Group Army Headquarters was actually on the front line.

And if it was just this, it would not be enough to kill the general who had at least 4,000 troops and an elite guard battalion around him. After using two infantry regiments to complete the encirclement, Yamada Masakichi extremely boldly used the infantry brigade. Level by level penetrated the Chinese positions, eventually separating the main infantry force from the headquarters. This forced the general himself to go to the front line with a gun, which ultimately led to tragedy.

From a certain perspective, Yamada Masakichi and the 231st Infantry Regiment are the most ferocious enemy forces the Four Troops have to face.

Therefore, when the 231st Infantry Regiment arrived in front of Zhujiaping, they first found out through observation and reconnaissance that there were sufficient infantry defense positions here, and they were not in a hurry to launch an attack.

Instead, with the intention of fighting a protracted war, they built a field position in the mountains opposite, and they stayed like this throughout the day.

On the contrary, this made the iron fists that the officers and soldiers of the 3rd Battalion tried to punch hit empty-handed!

Even on the second day, the 231st Infantry Regiment only sent three infantry squads to attack three small highlands at the forefront.

 There were only 150 Japanese troops in total. Their formation was sparse and their attack was inactive. As soon as they encountered Chinese fire, they immediately crawled on the slopes and retreated.

 The distance between the two sides never narrowed to more than 200 meters!

 Then, in another two or three hours, an attack of this scale will be repeated again. Once attacked, retreat immediately without any hesitation.

 Throughout the day, no more than three attacks were launched, and the intensity was so low that even its attached artillery was not involved.

  The most intense artillery attack was the 70mm infantry artillery deployed 1,000 meters away, which symbolically fired more than a dozen shots at the attacking hilltop.

This made the officers and soldiers of the 3rd Battalion extremely uncomfortable. This was completely different from the Japanese troops they encountered in North China. This group of Japanese soldiers were just playing house, without even the intention of testing fire.

Throughout the whole day's battle, the Japanese suffered no more than an even number of battle losses, and only a few soldiers on the Chinese side were injured by stones blown up by infantry artillery shells. Apart from a little pain, it did not affect their participation in the battle at all.

You have to tell the story to spread suspicion! It's not like, what can be seen with the naked eye is that the trenches dug by the Japanese army on the opposite mountain are at least more than 2,000 meters long. Groups of Japanese troops enter them, and there are at least a thousand soldiers.

No one knew what medicine the Japanese commander opposite was selling in his gourd, but Li Jijin didn't think too much about it. No matter what tricks the Japanese army played, they would eventually pass through this mountainous area, otherwise they would have to continue to circle around the mountains. A mountain stream more than 20 meters wide is a natural chasm for an army dragging artillery.

To put it bluntly, no matter how many strategies you use, your subordinates will have to see the truth in the end.

 In addition to the eerie silence on the Zhujiaping side, the battlefield on the Niuchangpo side 5 kilometers away was already in full swing.

The enemy opposite the 2nd Battalion was no weaker than the 3rd Battalion. It was the famous Yegou detachment of the Japanese 11th Army.

The Nogo detachment was drawn from the Japanese Fifth Division, codenamed "Guang". It was commanded by Major General Nogo Shikihiko, the detachment leader and commander of the 51st Infantry Brigade. It had jurisdiction over two independent infantry brigades, with an infantry strength of 3,300. It has jurisdiction over a strengthened artillery brigade, a number of baggage troops and engineers, and has more than 20 artillery pieces of various types.

Maybe the infantry strength is less than that of the 231st Infantry Regiment, but the combat effectiveness of the 5th Division is undoubtedly the best, even among the 17 permanent divisions in Japan.

Therefore, the Yegou detachment did not pay attention to the situation in front of them at all. After spending half a day testing the firepower points of the 2nd Battalion's position, they started a mad attack mode.

More than 20 artillery pieces fired a salvo, blasting the four highlands that were the focus of the attack into smoke. More than 700 infantrymen launched the attack accompanied by the continuous explosion of artillery fire.

Recently, the Japanese artillery shells were only 120 meters away from their infantry. In this era, it was the ultimate operation of infantry and artillery coordination.

Even for the four-line regiment, it is stipulated that the artillery fire covering the advance of the infantry must not be lower than 150 meters, unless it is a life-and-death crisis that requires a desperate fight.

But the Yegou detachment did just that, and even once covered its own infantry as it reached the trench on the high ground, which was less than 120 meters away, which was already an extremely dangerous distance.

  If the officers and soldiers of the 2nd Battalion did not get out of the anti-gun holes, the Japanese infantry would only take up to thirty seconds to enter the attack range of throwing grenades.

This also forced the 2nd Battalion Artillery Company's three 80mm howitzers, which had been hidden, to fire at the front of the position. Four 150mm howitzers also began to fire, and only then did the Japanese army's ferocious assault stop.

"The Chinese's heavy firepower is not weak, but what's the use?" Nogo Shikihiko, who arrived at the front line in person, did not feel frustrated because of the setback in his first round of onslaught. Instead, he felt a sense of relief.

 Nogo Shikihiko's combat style was somewhat tough, but not mindless. He used the lives of nearly a hundred Japanese infantrymen to test out the Chinese's heavy firepower, which was what he wanted most.

He does not regard the lives of ordinary infantry as trivial, but he wants more of his subordinates to return home alive, find the Chinese heavy firepower and eliminate them. This is his real purpose.

 Because, in addition to enough artillery, he also has sufficient air support.

After testing out the presence of artillery behind the high ground, a fleet of 24 Japanese fighter planes flew over the Niuchangpo battlefield to conduct saturation bombing.

  The Japanese naval aviation personnel, who had been hit repeatedly, were probably very aggrieved and wanted to vent their anger into the mountains and forests. In addition to heavy aerial bombs, the bombs they dropped also included many incendiary bombs and poison gas bombs.

However, the Fourth Line Regiment Air Defense Battalion was not used to them. The eight 40mm anti-aircraft guns fired continuously, shocking Major General Yegou who was previously so confident that he could swallow a watermelon in his mouth.

The Japanese naval aviation, which had been severely beaten here, did not dare to enter the medium and low altitudes at all. The dense fire nets at the medium and low altitudes in the past few days were still vivid in their minds. After dropping the bombs at an altitude of more than 4,000 meters, they immediately flew away.

Of course, not to mention the accuracy, there was even a 250-pound aerial bomb that hit the Yegou Detachment position hard. If the Yegou Detachment’s trenches were not dug deep enough, an infantry squad would be finished.

 But that also resulted in 10 dead and 18 wounded in the Yegou detachment, and half of the infantry squad was also wiped out.

"The so-called "strength at one go, then weakens again, three times is exhausted!" Yamada Masakichi, 5 kilometers away, told his subordinates his tactical guiding ideology in his headquarters. "When the Chinese saw us coming, they gathered all their strength and wanted to fight with our troops, but I didn't want to. I wanted to consume their desire for fighting!"

This ancient Chinese tactical concept originated from "Zuo Zhuan" was unexpectedly used by a Japanese army officer on the Chinese battlefield more than 2,000 years later.

Although I don’t know whether it will be useful in the end, many officers and soldiers on the 3rd Battalion position were really upset by Yamada Masakichi’s delaying war. It was already cold in winter, and they had to stay in the cold trenches to eat and sleep. They all wanted to finish the fight as soon as possible. Call it a day, but the Japanese still did this inexplicably.

This man is holding back his fire even more, and he is just waiting for the Japanese to come up and give him a shot!