Rise From Eight Hundred

November 7th can definitely be called the disaster day of Kunisaki Detachment.

The siege battle in preparation has not even started yet! The Kunisaki Detachment has lost more than 1,200 officers and soldiers and more than 900 wounded. Almost two infantry battalions can be removed from the detachment sequence.

And how many infantrymen does the Kunisaki Detachment have in total? Putting aside auxiliary arms such as cavalry, artillery, engineering, and logistics, including the two infantry squadrons directly under the Kunisaki Detachment, there are only 6 infantry battalions with a total of 7,000 people.

This nearly 30% casualty ratio in an ordinary army basically means that this unit has lost its combat effectiveness and can go for repair and replenishment.

Not to mention that Kunisaki Shige, who finally looked at the casualty figures submitted by the various infantry regiments after counting them, did not speak for a long time, even the commander of the 114th Division, Shigeharu Suematsu, did not speak for a long time.

Good guy! The city has not even started to be attacked! The Kunisaki Detachment was beaten half-crippled. When the whole army really attacked the city, the intelligence said that Matsue City, which had the strength of an infantry army, would bring what kind of damage to the Imperial Army?

Suematsu Shigeharu was terrified just thinking about it.

Yanagawa Heisuke, who was in the 10th Army Headquarters on the south bank of the Huangpu River, couldn't help but feel a headache when he saw this number.

He was the commander of nearly 100,000 troops. The seemingly mighty army frightened the 500,000 Chinese troops in the west of Shanghai, and they were desperately trying to escape, but this did not mean that they could be ruined by these prodigal sons!

The 114th Division and the Kunisaki Detachment lost nearly 5,000 people in just two days, nearly two infantry regiments. If they stayed like this for a few more days, I'm afraid he wouldn't have to worry about the huge losses.

Because the Army Headquarters might have told him to pack up and leave long ago.

Perhaps, after seeing the battle report from the Kunisaki Detachment, Tani Hisao, who was located in the two southwest cities, was not shocked by the strength of the Chinese, nor did he have a headache. Instead, he said with disdain: "The so-called steel army is nothing more than that!"

Tani Hisao certainly has the right to express contempt for the Kunisaki Detachment.

When encountering an enemy fortress, a firm attack is a necessary quality for a strong army. The execution ability of the Kunisaki Detachment in this regard is like the so-called "steel army".

However, after paying a terrible number of casualties, it still cannot advance an inch, which means that the combat effectiveness is not good.

You know, for a position with a radius of only tens of thousands of meters, the Tenth Army has gathered dozens of artillery to support it. Even a lieutenant general at the level of the army commander, Yanagawa Heisuke, sent a telegram to the colonel-level captain who was staying in the center of the Huangpu River to express his gratitude, and thus obtained the support of 6 127mm naval guns.

Not counting the shells thrown last night, just this day, dozens of artillery fired 3,000 shells at that not-so-large position, which is a density of dropping a shell with a killing radius of more than ten meters in 20 square meters.

With such terrible firepower support, not to mention a small position surrounded by city walls, even Songjiang City should have been taken!

As a result, the Kunisaki Detachment was still cowardly and chose to rest and wait for the arrival of the heavy artillery brigade. What qualifications do such generals and soldiers have to be called "Steel Army"?

Sitting in his field command post 1,500 meters away from Songjiang City, Tani Hisao looked at the sand table on the table that the staff had spent half a day to build with cold eyes.

The battle in Xicheng was lively, and the Sixth Division, as the main force of the siege, naturally would not do nothing.

In this half day, the two infantry brigades responsible for the two city walls took turns to dispatch 10 infantry squadrons of nearly 2,000 infantrymen to continuously test the firepower points that appeared on the two city walls.

The staff officers of the infantry regiments who had arrived at the trench line only 300 meters away from the city wall marked the light and heavy firepower points buried inside and on the city wall one by one.

Tani Hisao was not tall, and he was very thin. He did not have the civilized beard that the Japanese upper class kept under their nose to look more "trendy". He wore a pair of glasses and looked ordinary from the outside, like a teacher.

But only those who know him will know that under this ordinary appearance, there is an extremely tough and vicious heart.

He is tough because he was born in poverty and had no background, but he spent more than 30 years to be promoted from an ordinary second lieutenant to a lieutenant general in the army. He served in idle positions several times, but he turned the tide several times and served as the chief of staff of the division, the commander of the brigade, and many other important positions until he served as the commander of the Sixth Division two years ago.

Without a tough personality, it is definitely difficult to achieve such an achievement.

He is said to be vicious because when he was an instructor at the Army University, he promoted his tactical thinking countless times: plundering, robbery, and treason during combat are important means to maintain morale. Ordinary people only think that he is a means to get ahead, but when he led his army to the battlefield in North China, everyone knew that he really thought so and did so.

If Itagaki Seishirō, who arbitrarily deprived the enemy of life to deter the opponent, is a butcher or a devil, then this teacher who looks unremarkable is probably a hellhound, who despises life more than butchers and devils.

Tani Hisao has cruelty that Chinese people can't imagine, but it doesn't mean that he is reckless and stupid. He was an instructor at the Army University and a typical academic school with meticulous thoughts and rigorous military management methods.

He would not fight an unprepared battle. Even if the commander of the 10th Army, Yanagawa Heisuke, had issued an order to attack, he did not rashly drive his more than 20,000 subordinates to attack the west and south walls for military merit.

The 30-meter-wide moat and the 5-6-meter-high city wall made him judge that without the assistance of the heavy artillery brigade, he would need to pay thousands of casualties to conquer the Chinese position.

So, he was waiting and constantly testing, just like a wolf pack that found a herd of bison in the wilderness, constantly looking for the flaws of the bison herd, and only when the time came, he would attack the prey.

Once the attack is fatal, the wolf pack will not stop attacking until the prey falls down and is torn to pieces.

Compared with the relatively calm Tani Hisao and the 6th Division, the Kunisaki Detachment and the 114th Division, which were beaten and bloodied in the two positions of Cangcheng and the block, did look very LOW.

Lieutenant General Tani Hisao expressed his contempt for the two for this reason, and he had enough confidence.

Of course, the Kunisaki Detachment, which made such a great sacrifice, still gained something after all.

First, not long after noon, they occupied Cangcheng.

However, it was not that they completely wiped out the Cangcheng defenders, but that the Cangcheng defenders took the initiative to withdraw.

Half an hour after discovering that the Kunisaki detachment had stopped attacking, Tang Dao judged that the Japanese army was probably not really scared and dared not attack, they were just waiting for support because of heavy casualties.

The army of three divisions was already at the gates of the city, and they still needed to wait for support, which could only come from their land aviation or heavy artillery brigade.

The bombs hung on the planes weighed hundreds of pounds or even hundreds of pounds. Once that thing was dropped on Cangcheng, the underground bunkers that could withstand 75 or even 105 howitzers would become a tragedy.

And the heavy artillery brigade with a caliber of more than 200 that would definitely appear in Tang Dao's memory was definitely not something that could be resisted by the hastily dug bullet shelters.

Rather than waiting to be buried by the Japanese bombs and heavy artillery, it would be better to preserve the living force for the time being.

Although the Cangcheng defense battle did not complete the originally expected combat mission of being a nail between the east and west cities, it also gave the Japanese army a head-on blow and pushed back the Japanese army's arrogance.

At the same time, a large number of Japanese troops were annihilated. Although the Japanese troops suffered heavy losses, any commander would be pleased just by looking at the loss ratio between the two sides.

War is about industrial strength and wealth.

But on the battlefield, there is only exchange.

Exchange of life.

Whether it is bearable or not, at the lowest possible cost, let the other side pay a greater price. This is what the commander on the battlefield has to do.

Therefore, Tang Dao, who judged the situation, sent a telegram to the Songjiang Command, requesting to withdraw from Cangcheng.

Several generals in the Songjiang Command also breathed a sigh of relief, and finally did not wipe out the Cangcheng defenders.

For these generals who have experienced countless wars, they are not afraid of heavy losses.

No matter how heavy the losses of the troops are, as long as China still exists, they can replenish troops and rebuild.

But any troops must have seeds to rebuild. With seeds, there is still spirit and energy, and the combat effectiveness can be continued. If even the seeds are gone, the infantry battalion of the 677th Regiment, the guard company of the colonel commander, and one-fifth of the troops of the 43rd Army who came here are gone.

However, it is not so easy to retreat.

Kunisaki, who was beaten with bruises all over his head, stared at Cangcheng. If there was any movement, he would either use guns or cannons, and would never let the defenders run away easily.

"I need all the artillery in the army to obey my command!" Tang Dao made such an excessive request.

There was only one person who had that kind of power, and Lieutenant General Guo, the deputy commander-in-chief, could not do it.

But Lieutenant General Wu also fought hard for Tang Dao and others to return to the city. Almost without hesitation, he directly issued an order that all artillery positions in the army should obey Tang Dao's command.

Then, Tang Dao, who became a scout again, let all the Japanese infantrymen who were watching Cangcheng near Cangcheng and monitoring the defenders of Cangcheng experience what artillery advantage is.

He kept sending back the coordinates in the city, so that several artillery groups could throw shells accurately at the positions of the Japanese infantry as if they had eyes, and blew them up and fled in embarrassment.

Tang Dao divided the remaining Cangcheng, which had less than 200 people, into several groups. Each group carried a number of seriously injured soldiers and put on Japanese military uniforms. When the artillery fire covered the Japanese army, they retreated according to the long-established retreat route.

The panicked Japanese army may have seen a few khaki figures appearing in the streets, but at that time everyone was in a hurry to avoid the artillery fire, so why would they pay more attention to other things?

When the Japanese army figured out that something was wrong and no longer used artillery fire to carry out counter-suppression of the Chinese artillery positions in the city without much purpose, but to implement artillery blockade of the residential houses behind Cangcheng, the Cangcheng defenders had almost withdrawn.

Tang Dao, Peng Chong and more than 20 guards were the last group to evacuate. The Japanese army, who found something wrong, risked being bombarded and pursued aggressively, but they were taught a good lesson by Tang Dao and others who all carried submachine guns in the streets, what is real street fighting.

The two Japanese infantry squads that were chasing them were almost defeated by the submachine guns. The 32-round burst firepower was much more powerful than the 20-round revolver of the security group.

Tang Dao, the fierce man, alone harvested the lives of more than a dozen Japanese soldiers in the counterattack during the retreat.

Zhao Daqiang, who was lurking in the street and trying to help him, was stunned.