Rise From Eight Hundred

  January 23, 1941!

 A day that the whole of China needs to remember.

 In the afternoon of this day, both China and Japan mobilized the air force they could use to reach the sky above Shipai.

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

Because, in the area around Gaojialing and Badoufang, the central positions of Shipai they were ordered to support, China and Japan were fighting so fiercely that they were almost face to face. Looking down from a high altitude, earthy yellow and dark blue were intertwined, not to mention the powerful aircraft. Even if a small grenade is hit, it is very likely that the Chinese and Japanese infantry will be blown away at the same time.

Especially in Gaojialing, the two sides have started a hand-to-hand combat mode with bayonets seeing red in more than a dozen positions on this mountain ridge.

The Japanese army used naval guns and mountain artillery to destroy most of the fortifications on the mountain. Because of Yokoyama Isamu's order, the 31st Regiment of the 11th Division, which fought fiercely all morning, consumed most of its ammunition. And because the logistics supply movement was slightly slow, under the continuous strong attack of the Japanese army, The colonel commander who was personally commanding on the front line decisively ordered the entire army to fix their bayonets.

For Murakami Kisaku, who personally went to the front line to supervise the battle, the number of casualties was equally unimportant. He only needed to conquer Shipai, and the ugliness of the heavy losses suffered by the 39th Division, Yegou Detachment, and Needle Valley Detachment 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 prowess.

 It was against the background that China was forced to do what Japan wanted, on the afternoon of the 23rd, the largest hand-to-hand combat in the entire history of Chinese warfare broke out on the Gaojialing battlefield.

The initial force that China invested was an infantry regiment that had been beaten to a semi-disabled state. Including its army colonel commander and regimental civilian staff, it only numbered 1,600 people. However, as the battle intensified, the 32nd regiment that was ordered to arrive also had no more than 1,600 troops. The army went into battle.

 Since the two sides were already strangled into a mass, the newly arrived 32nd Regiment could not use them even if they had guns and ammunition.

"People die with their eggs in the sky! Not all of them have their heads carried on their shoulders and stabbed down with a bayonet. The Japanese are also mortal bodies. If they are different, they will be finished!" The nearly 45-year-old 32nd Regiment Army Colonel roared, carrying 2,500 Officers and soldiers rushed down the hillside.

 As for the Japanese army, they also invested an infantry regiment of nearly 3,000 infantry.

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

 On the entire battlefield, except for sporadic gunshots and grenade explosions, there was no sound of artillery at all, only the heart-wrenching sound of bayonets clashing or bayonets grinding against bones.

Both Chinese and Japanese soldiers were red-eyed, and if their bayonets were bent, they would use their rifles as sticks. If their rifles were broken, they would use rocks, grenades, pick them with their fingers, bite them with their teeth, and use everything they could to attack the other side. appliance.

Although the 11th Division is already an elite unit of the Chinese side, it is only in the Chinese army sequence. Especially in terms of stabbing training, it is actually not as good as the 104th Infantry Regiment of the 13th Division they faced.

Moreover, in terms of physical fitness, there are many young soldiers in the 11th Division who were recruited in the past six months. They are only sixteen or seventeen years old, and their body bones have not fully grown. In addition, the food is far inferior to that of the Japanese soldiers. Often one Japanese soldier can fight two single-handedly. Chinese soldiers.

 But the so-called trapped animals still fight, let alone humans?

 If you can't defeat it alone, it's very simple, just work hard.

 What is the most common scene on the battlefield? It was a soldier who rushed over desperately, using his body as a shield to be pierced by the Japanese infantry, and then used his last strength to hug the rifle that was about to take his life. No matter how hard the Japanese soldiers pulled away, they could not get away. Draw the bayonet in a short time.

 Then, the soldiers following behind stabbed them hard with bayonets. Japanese soldiers who were reluctant to throw away their rifles were often stabbed in the same way.

 One for one is the best result that Chinese soldiers seek.

Even if you encounter a smart person and throw away your gun to save your life when the situation is bad, after losing your own weapon, you will still have half a foot 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 repeated blocks and were no longer able to be used as killing tools, so they chose to use the daggers they carried with them, or use them on the ground. of stones.

 So, what is flowing on the hillside is not only blood, but also brains!

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

Yes, Shi Dakuan's hometown is in northern Jiangsu. In 1937, after the Japanese army opened the southeastern gate of China from Songhu, they swept all the way to the south of the Yangtze River. The Su family, who originally had a few acres of thin farmland to survive, was killed by Shi Dakuan after the Jinling massacre by the Japanese army. Under the leadership of his father, he resolutely abandoned the fields that could support the whole family, young and old, and fled south to Jiangxia with the fleeing army, and then fled to the mountain city.

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

To defend the central battlefield of Taierzhuang, the commander of the company of the 31st Division had to personally lead the death squads on the battlefield. If a company could survive half of the battle, it would have suffered very light losses.

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 and his 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. One 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 mid-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 with military pay, the boy who was less than 17 years old chose to walk into the recruiting station on the street. His only request was to withdraw one month of military pay and give it to his mother.

In less than two months of training in the new 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 will encounter a meat grinder battlefield with hellish difficulty when they first encounter it. The possibility of surviving is almost non-existent.

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

Shi Dakuan saw with his own eyes that the broad back of his squad leader was pierced by a Japanese soldier because he was angrily holding a stone in his hand to hit a Japanese invader with all his strength.

It was the strong Japanese invader who stabbed three brothers in the class to death one after another. As a result, he was grabbed by the ankles by a brother who was not dead. Only then was he thrown 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 frightened, 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.

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 screams loudly, but the legs are weak and dare not go up. Every time, he, the deputy squad leader, has 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 it, 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, what a fool! Go and kill him!” the veteran roared while spitting out blood.

The Japanese army looked at the young soldier who was not taller than a rifle coldly, 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 **** 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. His **** hands were holding on to the half of the blade like a vise.

He stared at Shi Dakuan with his lifeless eyes, and he couldn't stop breathing.

 “I’ll wipe out 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 is not Sergeant Cao, he must be a veteran who has been in the army for more than 2 years. He is not only strong but also thoughtful. During the rolling process, Shi Dakuan kept using his body to hit the rocks, which made Shi Dakuan dizzy.

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

 ‘I’m going to die too, eldest brother, second brother, are you here to pick me up? ’ In a daze, Shi Dakuan seemed to see the blood-covered faces of his eldest brother and second brother.

"Dakuan, you are the last pillar of the Shi family. If you die again, how will your mother, sister, and grandparents survive?" The eldest brother's face with half of his head missing was particularly ferocious, and he shook his head violently as he was about to faint. Shi Dakuan asked.

“You must live well, otherwise you will be sorry for your elder 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 resisted desperately with one hand, while the other hand was groping around his waist, where a wooden-handled grenade was inserted.

Finally, the grenade was pulled out, and with the last of his strength, he hit the Japanese soldier's head with the grenade.

The 17-year-old boy made a desperate fight. It is not known how much strength he used, but the extremely strong Japanese soldier suffered a blow and let out a miserable howl.

The front end of the grenade is made of pig iron. It is an iron lump. Anyone who hits it on the head will be ejected.

Shi Dakuan, who finally got out of trouble, held the grenade tightly, gathered enough strength, and smashed it again. The Japanese soldier finally fell to the ground, but his hand grabbed the wrist of Shi Dakuan, who was about to smash it again.

How strong Shi Dakuan's will to survive was, this time also vividly reflected in the Japanese infantry. Even if he was hit and had hallucinations, the final burst of power from the Japanese army made Shi Dakuan unable to get rid of it no matter what.

 Shi Dakuan, who was trying hard to survive, suddenly remembered what his second brother wrote in a letter home: The Japanese are like wolves and beasts. They are ferocious and we must be more ferocious and cruel than them, otherwise, we will not be able to kill them.

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

But Shi Dakuan did not let go. He even raised his head desperately like a jackal, which is how a jackal tears apart the flesh and blood of its prey.

He succeeded!

 The Japanese soldier beneath him gradually stopped struggling, and the two hands that once held his wrists fell limply.

Shi Dakuan also raised his head at this time.

The young soldier with his face covered in blood looked 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 had their hairs standing on end.

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

 Because, both sides have no way out.

 The Japanese command gave a death order and must conquer Gaojialing and Badoufang today, no matter the cost.

The Chinese side has already retired and can retreat. The rear is the division headquarters. If it retreats again, the stone plaque will be gone.

The tragic locks of the mountains are desperate, and even the expressionless Japanese commander vests under the mountain all over the cold sweat.

Lieutenant General Murakami, who was only 800 meters away from the battlefield, only picked up his telescope and looked at the battlefield twice in an hour. He was waiting for the winner of this cruel hand-to-hand battle.

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

"Pass my military order, place the military flag of our 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. If the position is lost, the entire army will be with them." Die!" But the teacher surnamed Hu, who was watching all this from the hilltop opposite, made another choice.

"Master, we haven't reached this point yet! The people in front of us are still fighting the Japanese army, and there are no signs of defeat!" The major general chief of staff on the side was shocked and quickly admonished his young commander.

 At this time, if the commander appears and dies in battle, the battlefield will collapse.

"A rout? If our division's flag is not planted on the high ground, we may not even have the chance to enjoy the rout." The division commander surnamed Hu handed the binoculars to his chief of staff.

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

"You stupid little devil, you are doing this again. I will lead the security company to meet the enemy." The major general and chief of staff had just finished speaking, but his face turned pale.

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

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

“Everyone, grab the weapons you can and join me in planting the general’s flag on the highest point of Gaojialing.” Commander Hu picked up his pistol and walked out, pausing slightly in his steps. "Send the power to the military commander and Commander Chen and tell them that our 11th Division will fight the Japanese invaders to the last drop of blood. If Shipai is lost, there is no need to contain my remains. Let it be left here in the mountains as punishment! "

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

“The division commander personally supervises the battle, brothers, kill!” Seeing the division headquarters flag suddenly standing behind him, the exhausted Chinese officers and soldiers on the hillside suddenly burst out with courage and strength again.

 The shouts were deafening.

Even Tang Dao and the members of the Sixing Regiment who were still on the battlefield at Sifang Bay a few kilometers away could almost hear it.

Tang Dao stared westward, and suddenly remembered the monologue about the battle to defend Shipai in the future Chinese geography: "At that time, children from Chinese peasant families were generally poorly nourished, and most of the soldiers who were sixteen or seventeen years old had not yet gone to school. With bayonets attached to their rifles, they went into battle with guns that were longer than themselves. If they were still alive, they would already be 70 or 80 years old, sipping sips of fragrant tea in their own orange groves, leisurely. They look at their children and grandchildren lovingly and take care of themselves warmly, but they died so that other Chinese people could have all this!"

Tears suddenly filled my eyes! (End of chapter)