Rise From Eight Hundred

The 36th Infantry Brigade of the 6th Division was the first brigade-level unit of the 10th Army to arrive at the Baihe Port Bridge.

After receiving the order from Yanagawa Heisuke to speed up the pursuit, Ushijima Mitsuru used almost all the mechanical forces he could use to load infantry.

Because the naval reconnaissance aircraft reported that the main force of the Chinese was still 30 kilometers away, the reconnaissance of the division cavalry regiment was enough. The 36th Infantry Brigade, which was chasing frantically, did not send out reconnaissance infantry at all. Six infantrymen were stuffed on the three-wheeled motorcycle used for reconnaissance. Three motorcycles were enough to carry an infantry squad. The trucks loaded with military rations and even artillery shells were full of soldiers, and there were even several soldiers lying on the roof.

Of course, it was naturally impossible to drive at high speed, but even if it was marching at a speed of five kilometers per hour, it could keep the infantry strong enough to fight in the shortest time when encountering the Chinese.

Ushijima Mitsuru, who had the opportunity to be promoted to lieutenant general of the army, was full of energy this time, even if he made the 36th Infantry Brigade under his command the same as in India.

At 2 pm, they spent only seven hours, and the whole army, carrying all heavy equipment, marched 40 kilometers and arrived one mile away from the Baihegang Bridge.

This speed is absolutely astonishing for a non-mechanized army.

You know, in the future northern ice field, a Chinese infantry regiment spent 14 hours running 80 kilometers on a rugged mountain road with light equipment, which has been praised by the military circles around the world as the most incredible tactical interweaving. Their movement speed even exceeded the wheels that shuttled through the mountains.

Although the 36th Infantry Brigade was on the plains and had certain trucks and carriages to assist, it was not an exaggeration to say that they were a first-class strong army that had to carry heavy weapons for more than seven hours and a long distance of up to 40 kilometers.

More than 20,000 troops in Songjiang, under the threat of death, ran for 6 hours overnight and marched 30 kilometers. They were exhausted and forced to stop and rest.

If they were forced to stop by the constant harassment of Japanese planes in the sky, Yanagawa Heisuke's idea of ​​catching up with the main force of the Matsue defenders before sunset would not be impossible to achieve.

Ushijima Mitsuru started to feel annoyed before his boss.

What annoyed Ushijima Mitsuru was not that the Baihe Port Bridge was bombed.

But the bridge was still there.

The many traces left in the wilderness have shown that a large number of people gathered here and passed through.

That also means that the main force of the Chinese has crossed the river through the bridge.

Then why didn't they blow up the bridge?

Let the pursuers chase them without any effort?

Ushijima Mitsuru thought about it from the back, and knew that the Chinese would not be so stupid.

"Yanagawa Heisuke, you son of a bitch, you just came! I'm so angry waiting for you!"

"Suematsu Shigeharu, you idiot, if you can only go this fast, you will be cuckolded several times by the time you get home!"

"Ushijima Mitsuru, you idiot, I'm on the other side of the river, come and fight me if you can!"

The Chinese people's increasingly proficient slogans in Japanese with Chinese flavor made Ushijima Mitsuru certain that the main force of the Chinese had crossed the river.

That's right, you can just scold those lieutenant generals, why do you still mention me, a small army major general? Ushijima Mitsuru was a little depressed and inexplicably happy by the Chinese people's cheap and fancy scolding.

Could it be that even the Chinese think that I am the most powerful person in the 6th Division except for Mr. Tani Hisao?

Don't say, although Ushijima Mitsuru is a 'common man' at this time, he really thinks right.

Tang Dao, who is familiar with history, really doesn't underestimate this guy, even though he is just a small major general now.

In the past, Ushijima Mitsuru, who performed well in the battle in southeast China, had just emerged. In the following Jiangxia Battle, he led the 36th Infantry Brigade to complete a bold tactical penetration, blocking the retreat of hundreds of thousands of troops. Although he did not achieve his fantasy of annihilating hundreds of thousands of troops due to the small number of troops, the annihilation of the last heavy artillery brigade of China made the Chinese army, which was already lacking heavy weapons, unable to counterattack.

This military achievement made him promoted to lieutenant general of the army and served as the principal of the non-commissioned officer school a year later, but this was not the peak moment of Ushijima Mitsuru's military career.

A few years later, on the Pacific battlefield, Ushijima Mitsuru, who had been promoted to general of the army, personally led two divisions and one brigade to fight head-on with the American cowboys on the small island of Okinawa.

The Japanese army, which was armed to the teeth with American cowboys, had a gap in equipment comparable to that of China and Japan. Under the leadership of this man, they fought a record that made the American cowboys tremble.

During the entire Okinawa campaign, the American cowboys, who deployed more than 250,000 ground troops, hundreds of aircraft and hundreds of ships, suffered more than 60,000 casualties, and a lieutenant general commander was killed in the battle.

Ushijima Mitsuru, who led this battle, was not only praised by Japanese military commentators as an "excellent tactician", but also called the most difficult enemy by American cowboys, before they were beaten up by Chinese soldiers.

The "Pushin" man saw through the Chinese tricks with a fairly wise mind.

He did not get dizzy and do anything about "real when false, false when real". While reporting to Yanagawa Heisuke that the Chinese had passed the Baihe Port Bridge, he ordered each infantry battalion to send out a search team composed of infantry squads to search along the river banks on both sides of the bridge to find shallows or available boats that could cross the river.

Anyway, the pie left by the enemy would never be a good thing, and Ushijima Mitsuru, who did not want to be a dog, did not want to waste the lives of soldiers in vain.

The main reason is that he has consumed a lot under Matsue Castle, although it is much less than that idiot Sakai Tokutaro.

“What a fool, you have a pretty good head, and you still don’t rush over the bridge after being scolded like a bear.” Leng Feng, who was lurking in the bushes 50 meters away from the river bank, cursed angrily.

At his hand is a detonator connected to a wire. Two hundred kilograms of explosives are placed at the bridge head 150 meters away from him. As long as he presses hard, the steel bridge that can pass cars and trains will explode. Falling into the water with a crash.

Lei Xiong's order was to blast the bridge after all the troops had evacuated, but Leng Feng, who was in charge of the blasting, firmly believed that even if he had doubts, Japanese troops would definitely enter the bridge to search, and then he would detonate again. It can be considered that the dynamite did not blow up my own things in vain.

Thinking that this person was right, Lei Xiong didn't argue with him anymore and just let him go.

As a result, Leng Feng, who had been waiting for several hours, received a very smart response from the Japanese army.

Thousands of Japanese came in the dark, but none of them got on the bridge. Instead, they sent out a large number of infantry teams to search along the river. From the looks of it, they planned to wade across the river.

It was almost exactly the same as Tang Dao predicted.

Yes, the Suzhou River is considered a big river here, but after all, it is the dry season after winter. If you find a suitable shallow water bank, you still have a chance to cross the river with a gun.

On the more than ten miles long river bank, the Japanese cavalry had already tried to cross the river several times. Two cavalrymen had even crossed the center of the river. The water had only just reached the belly of the horses. They were about to cross the river successfully.

But, gunfire rang out.

Two pathfinders in the river died helplessly in the river, despite the efforts of their colleagues standing on the river bank to fight back.

But goose, that's of no use, you're going to die anyway. The unobstructed center of the river is a death zone for both parties who greet each other with bullets.

Not only did the Japanese have cavalry, but so did the Chinese.

With 6 cavalry companies, the Chinese cavalry had more than 200 horses at this time of the battle, and they were scattered along the 20-mile river bank by Tang Dao.

As long as it was discovered that Japanese troops were trying to cross the river, they would launch an attack and destroy their attempts in the river.

If the Japanese troops carry out a large-scale crossing of the river on a certain river bank, then leave it to the infantry deployed along the coast to deal with them.

Yes, the advance regiment led by Tang Dao did not continue to run away, but came back with carbines. According to the terrain on the opposite side of the river bank, a simple field position was built along the river bank to block the Tenth Army.

"Abandoning the soldiers to protect the commander?" Ushijima Mitsuru took a deep breath after hearing the news.

"Survive with a broken arm!" Heisuke Yanagawa made a painful judgment after receiving a telegram from the Chinese to deploy blocking positions along the north bank of the Suzhou River.

This is an old Chinese trick, used frequently on the battlefield in North China.

Once they encounter an unbeatable pursuit, they will immediately block the attack with a rear group, allowing the main force to escape.

Although most of the rear troops could not hold out for long before collapsing, they could be delayed for a while no matter what.

What's more, it's that army.

Intuition told Yanagawa Heisuke that crossing the river would be difficult to do before dark with the strength of the 36th Infantry Brigade alone, unless the heavy artillery brigade could arrive in time, or he would invest more force.

"Order the 36th Infantry Brigade not to act rashly and only allow a small-scale exploratory attack. Order the entire army to speed up and try to arrive before half past four, repair for half an hour, and launch an attack on the Chinese on the other side of the river. Kill them all. I don’t want any prisoners, not even one of them.”

Yanagawa Heisuke gritted his back molars and issued military orders on horseback.

The fact is that the Japanese army lieutenant general's intuition was wrong.