Rise From Eight Hundred

Many years later!

When Zhao Shoushan, who had already achieved success, was invited to give a speech at a graduation ceremony of a certain army university in China.

The young men who were about to enter the military camp in the audience plucked up the courage to ask the general who had participated in the Great Patriotic War: "Commander, what are the battles you remember most deeply in your life?"

Zhao Shoushan pondered for a moment and answered solemnly: "Just saying that I remember the most deeply is probably not accurate enough. I, Zhao, have been in the military for nearly 30 years, and the most painful battle is none other than the battle of Niangziguan Faliling. In that battle, the 17th Division of my Northwest Army suffered more than 8,000 casualties and lost all its essence. It did not recover until half a year later when it participated in the Southeast Shanxi Campaign!

But if we talk about the wise things Zhao has done in his life, the battle of Southeast Shanxi in 1938, in which I led the entire division of 8,000 people, is definitely among the top two!"

This made the young soldiers in the audience very curious. Zhao Shoushan was originally from the Northwest Army and joined the 80th Group Army after the victory of the Patriotic War. This must be the first of his wise actions, but it seems that in his view, participating in the Southeast Shanxi Campaign can be on par with such an important decision. Why is this?

"Commander, was it in that battle that you made outstanding contributions?" Someone couldn't help but ask curiously.

"Haha! No, it was in that battle that I was persuaded by a young soldier of your age, and made a decision that I couldn't believe myself, and executed the seemingly impossible tactical plan.

However, the facts proved that the young man was right. So I just said in my speech that you young people are the future of my China and the future of my Chinese army." Zhao Shoushan replied with a smile.

After hearing Zhao Shoushan's words, the young soldiers in the audience were dumbfounded. If it weren't for the strict discipline, they would have been talking in a mess.

You know, the man in front of them was already a lieutenant general division commander at that time. A young man of their age, even in the war years, was at most a platoon leader or company commander! Is it possible that a lieutenant general would be persuaded by a lieutenant officer and execute his tactical plan?

"However, what convinced me was not really his fantastic tactics and his promise to help my division with equipment. Here, I will throw a question he once asked me to everyone to see if you can give the correct answer." Zhao Shoushan did not say the name of the young soldier, but continued with a smile.

"Who of you can tell me what is the basis for China to win this war?"

Many young people at the scene raised their hands.

"Strong military and national defense!"

"Wrong!"

"Improved industrial level!"

"Wrong!"

"Education!"

"Wrong!"

"Economy!"

"Wrong!"

Faced with a series of enthusiastic answers, Zhao Shoushan shook his head repeatedly, but the smile on his face did not diminish.

These young people are about the same age as that young man, but their experience is not comparable to that young man. At their age, that young man is already the head of a regiment and has annihilated nearly 10,000 Japanese pirates. No, since that battle, this number has been rewritten.

Who can have his insights and vision at this age? At least in Zhao Shoushan's military career, he has never seen it.

"The vast territory is the basis for us to win this long war of national defense." Zhao Shoushan stood upright and answered with a serious face.

The scene was silent.

"In our neighboring country, the American soldiers who landed advanced 200 kilometers in just three days. The mechanized marching speed was amazingly fast, but this is not important. What is important is that with such a marching speed, it will only take one or two days to cross their territory and reach our border.

The so-called strategic depth is a textbook term for a country with a land area of ​​only 120,000 square kilometers.

In Lion City on the edge of the South China Sea, the capital is the country and the country is the capital. The Japanese army captured it in just three days.

And China has a land area of ​​9.6 million square kilometers. The Japanese army mobilized more than 2 million land forces and 80% of the national strength. It took eight years and still occupied only 50% to 60% of the land. The southwest and northwest are in our hands, which also makes it possible for our country to accumulate strength to continue the counterattack and stop supply.

So, classmates, comrades, are you proud of having such a vast land? Can you defend it to the death like your ancestors? Like them, will you stand up and die at the command?" The silver-haired general stood on the stage, his eyes sharp and his voice like a bell.

"Commander, we are willing!"

"Commander, this is the duty of Chinese soldiers!"

"Commander, please believe the promise of your comrades!"

The young soldiers who had not yet been awarded the rank stood up in unison and saluted the old general on the stage.

There were no slogans that were loud and clear, but Zhao Shoushan got the answer he wanted from the firm eyes of the young soldiers.

The rows of figures standing like green pines made him feel as if he had returned to twenty years ago.

His soldiers did the same, saluted solemnly in front of him, and then rushed to the battlefield with their guns on their backs without looking back.

I don't know how many familiar faces I will never see again!

That was the day before the Southeast Shanxi Campaign was about to start.

May 20, 1938!

With the arrival of Lieutenant General Xiang Yue Qingshi, the commander of the First Army of the North China Front Army of Japan, in Lucheng, the battle that would be named the Southeast Shanxi Campaign in the future officially started.

As Tang Dao expected, the Japanese North China Front Army attacked the southeastern Shanxi region from roughly ten directions, but what Tang Dao expected was that in addition to mobilizing the 108th, 109th and 16th divisions with a total of about 70,000 troops, the Japanese army also transferred a second mixed brigade with more than 10,000 troops from Pingbei City to participate in the battle.

In addition to the approximately 10,000 Japanese troops left in various counties, the total number of Japanese troops responsible for the attack was as high as 70,000, which is a number that is almost equal to the Chinese troops in the Taihang Mountains.

Perhaps some people would think that China is defending and Japan is attacking. China has an absolute geographical advantage. What's so great about having similar forces?

Those who think so must not understand how big the gap is between the equipment of China and Japan.

In terms of light weapons, the Chinese main equipment is the Hanyang rifle. Although the range is slightly closer than the Type 38 rifle, the range of 300 meters and 400 meters does not constitute the so-called era difference. If there is a real difference, it is just a slight difference in the training of the soldiers of both sides.

The Japanese side is currently mostly veterans with accurate shooting skills. After continuous battles, many Chinese troops, like the 17th Division, have been consumed in large numbers, replaced by new recruits who have just joined the army. Many of them have not experienced actual combat, and have only fired more than a dozen live ammunition shots.

But in general, there is a gap, but it is not to say that they are beaten.

The real gap between the combat power of the Chinese and Japanese armies is heavy weapons.

If an ordinary Chinese infantry division can have seven or eight mortars or four mountain guns, it is considered to be a good heavy firepower, but a Japanese infantry brigade that can compete with an infantry division is often equipped with more than 20 artillery pieces, not counting the artillery regiment directly under the division. If half of it is assigned to the brigade for combat, the number of artillery pieces that the infantry brigade can have will reach a terrifying nearly 40.

If it is just artillery, the Chinese army can hide by digging trenches. After all, 40 artillery pieces cannot achieve carpet-covering attacks, and at least two-thirds of them can survive the artillery fire.

But the Japanese army still had fighter planes to help, and there was no trace of Chinese fighter planes in the northern sky. They could drop bombs at low altitude without restraint. If a bomb of more than 200 pounds hit the position, it would mean the disappearance of an infantry platoon or even an infantry company.

Dozens of strong men! Their parents spent eighteen years raising them, but they were completely wiped out by a bomb.

This was not the most painful thing. China could endure the consumption of human lives and Japanese bombs. If one-on-one was not enough, we would fight ten-on-one, but the Japanese still had tanks.

Japanese tanks were not as big as those in the West. The main battle tank Type 89 tank was only a dozen tons. It was a scum on the Western battlefield, but on the Chinese battlefield, facing the Chinese army that was extremely short of anti-tank guns, they had almost no natural enemies.

However, the 30mm thick armor was enough to withstand any bullets, and the 57mm short-barreled gun could destroy almost all field fortifications. Facing this steel behemoth, the only countermeasure of the Chinese army was to blast it manually.

But how could the Japanese tanks easily give you a chance to get close? The two 7.7mm machine guns have a very wide firing range, and there are Japanese infantry behind them. If it is not in the city street fighting, if you want to blow up a tank with explosive packs, you need to have the courage to die and have enough luck.

At this time, the Japanese army already has a nearly three-dimensional attack method in the air and on the ground, which is a dimensionality reduction attack for the Chinese army.

This is also the main reason why the Chinese side gathered more than 300,000 troops and even more than 300 artillery pieces in the Battle of Xinkou, but still could not stop the 70,000 troops under Shiro Itagaki.

Under normal circumstances, even in a defensive war, the ratio of Chinese and Japanese forces must be about four to one or even five to one to ensure that they will not lose too badly.

This is almost a consensus reached by senior generals of China and Japan after a half-year war.

Therefore, when the old man from Shanxi, who was in the combat meeting room of the Second War Zone Command in Linfen City, learned that the Japanese army had actually invested 70,000 troops to besiege the southeastern Shanxi region, he was disheartened and desperate.

Although Tang Dao reminded him, he still underestimated the determination of the Japanese North China Front Command. Originally, in his conception, it would be good if the Japanese army could deploy 30,000 people. He deployed nearly 100,000 troops in the Taihang Mountains in southeastern Shanxi. The three-to-one ratio of troops, coupled with the danger of the Taihang Mountains, even if he could not win, he could consume part of the Japanese army's strength, and then he could legitimately transfer the elite troops of the Shanxi Suiyuan Army under his command to the Taihang Mountains.

Who knew that the Japanese army would not move, but would move like thunder. They were crazy and deployed three divisions plus a mixed brigade, and the troops were almost the same as the Chinese troops in southeastern Shanxi.

If southeastern Shanxi was lost, Linfen City would lose an important barrier, and breaking the city was almost inevitable.

The key was that he did not dare to move the more than 200,000 troops deployed on another line of defense. The Japanese 20th Division, 5th Division, 114th Division, and 10th Division all moved from eastern Shanxi, northern Shanxi, and western Shanxi to the southeast, which was as high as 100,000 troops.

Although no attack was launched, it was like a dark cloud pressing down on the city, making the Chinese generals feel like they were facing a great enemy.

This time, the Japanese North China Front Army actually mobilized most of its troops for a small southeastern Shanxi.

"Order all departments of the war zone headquarters and government departments to pack up and evacuate Linfen secretly in batches!" The old man from Shanxi who had been sitting there until late at night finally spoke.

Although he knew that the secret withdrawal of the theater headquarters might shake the morale of the army during the war, the old man from Shanxi had to make this decision painfully.

For this big man, this not only meant that he, the theater commander, had lost confidence in the war, but also meant that he accepted the "good intentions" of that person.

The so-called good intentions were to keep him alive, but if Shanxi Province was lost, he, the theater commander, would be blamed, and his resignation was a foregone conclusion. The base camp of Shanxi Province was gone, and the official position was gone. It can be imagined that the former glory would also leave him. From then on, it would be his daily routine to hold an idle position and be a rich man.

For a big man who has been the number one person in a province for more than 20 years, it is self-evident how painful it is.

But even so, this man still made this decision after struggling with his thoughts for most of the day.

Being alive is the most important thing.

Something in this man's bones made him make what he thought was the most correct decision.

In fact, facing the decision made by the old man, the generals of the headquarters did not even have a voice of opposition.

The Military and Political Department, far away in Jiangxia, fell silent after the intelligence of the Japanese army's mobilization of troops arrived, and did not raise any objections to the decision of the Second War Zone Command to evacuate supplies and key personnel to the Yellow River.

Obviously, for these senior generals, the battle in southeastern Shanxi was doomed to fail.

They were even ready to swallow the bitter fruit of the defeat in southeastern Shanxi, the fall of Linfen, and the loss of the entire Shanxi Province.

At the beginning of the battle, just as Lieutenant General Xiang Yue Qingshi, the commander of the First Army of the Japanese North China Front Army and the commander of the Eastern Route Army who arrived in Lucheng, said: "It is said that the Taihang Mountains in China are steep, but what I want to say is that under the iron boots of the imperial warriors, mountains and seas can be leveled! In this battle, my Eastern Route Army only needs seven days to defeat the enemy and return!"

The Japanese army that marched into southeastern Shanxi from ten directions conquered the first line of defense on the first day. The Chinese army deployed on the periphery fought for only one day before abandoning the trenches that had been built for several days and evacuated.

On the second day, the Japanese army still did not encounter much obstacles. Only a small-scale force was left to harass along the way, but they were soon driven into the mountains by the Japanese army of thousands.

On the third day, the Japanese army approached the hinterland of Taihang Mountain, especially in Liaoxian, Yushe, Wuxiang and other places, and achieved brilliant results. That was the location of the main force of the 921st Division of the 80th Army, the biggest enemy of the Japanese army on this trip.

The ten armies were unstoppable in these three days.

"Yoshi!" Lieutenant General Xia Xiongyuan, the commander of the 108th Division, who was personally stationed in Licheng as the front-line commander, was also happy after receiving the front-line battle report.

For this person, this battle in southeastern Shanxi is first of all an opportunity for him to avenge his previous shame.

The 921st Division is an old rival of the Japanese army in southeastern Shanxi. Half a year ago, the battle of Niangzi Pass gave the 109th Division, which was responsible for assisting the 20th Division in attacking Niangzi Pass, two consecutive blows in Qigeng Village. After the New Year, the battle of Shentouling even beat the 108th Division.

However, as a second-line division, the 108th Division's main forces were used to defend the county town of nearly 200 kilometers on the Handan-Changchun Line, and it was difficult to gather all the main forces to fight a decisive battle with the 921st Division.

This time, under the determination of the commander of the front army, he, the commander of the division, gathered the four main infantry regiments under his command for the first time. Although two of the infantry regiments suffered huge losses of veterans and supplemented a large number of baggage soldiers, their combat effectiveness was still there, and he was fully confident that he could compete with the 921st Division.

Secondly, and more importantly, this battle was also his last chance to redeem himself.

When the new commander of the Japanese North China Front Army, Shanshan Yuan, met in person, he warned him with a frosty face that since the Army Headquarters could replace a general, it would be easy for a lieutenant general to leave.

He hoped and must save the reputation of himself and the 108th Division!

The Japanese army looked like ten armies, but in fact they were only divided into four main routes: east, west, south and north. The 108th Division was responsible for the southern route. The southern route was mainly composed of four infantry regiments under the 108th Division, which attacked northward in two directions. One route attacked Liao County via Changzhi via Xiangyuan, and the other route attacked Wuxiang via Tunliu via Mixian.

In order to ensure the strength of the troops, each route of the Japanese army was composed of two infantry regiments of infantry plus a part of auxiliary troops, with a strength of up to 10,000 people.

With such a force, the Japanese army would not be afraid of even an infantry division or an infantry army, let alone a Chinese infantry division.

The strong force and firepower guarantee made the early stage of the battle just as the Japanese generals expected. All the resistance of the Chinese army was like boiling soup pouring on snow and was completely defeated. It took only three days to attack the core station of the 921st Division.

Even if the 921st Division escaped, the Chinese mountain people in these places could not escape! Destroying their homes, destroying their daily necessities, and even killing all the people on the spot, turning these key areas into a wasteland is already imminent.

Whether from a strategic or tactical perspective, the 109th Division is close to victory.

You say, how can the Japanese Army Lieutenant General Shimokumamoto not be happy?

However, after only 24 hours of joy, Shimokumamoto's face turned gloomy.

His southern army was unstoppable, but the other three routes encountered trouble on the afternoon of the third day. The Chinese actually deployed a second line of defense based on the mountains.

And this time, they did not retreat again.

The elite 16th Division, one of the armies used more than 50 artillery pieces and 12 fighter planes to assist, spent a whole day, and only advanced 3 kilometers.

The Chinese, who had been retreating continuously, actually fought to the death. Even though more than 3,000 corpses were left on the breached defense line, there were still second and third defense lines behind.

The fierce artillery fire never stopped, and the whole mountain was burning, but I don’t know how many Chinese were still shooting, shooting again, until they died.

The 16th Division also lost more than 1,500 officers and soldiers in the battle, and the one-to-two casualty ratio was shocking.

Compared with the slow progress of the friendly forces at the beginning, the 108th Division encountered a more troublesome problem than the stubborn resistance.

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PS: 1000 chapters! The first 700 chapters are mostly 2,600 words, but the last 300 chapters are mostly 5,000 words, so 1000 chapters are 3.24 million words, an average of 3,200 words per chapter. Breaking the thousandth chapter, post a message to commemorate it.