Rise from eight hundred.

More than 6000 people led by Nishimura Genichi arrived at Jiulong Mountain on the evening of the 17th. Because the mountain was steep and there were still some troops on the way, Nishimura Genichi did not venture deep into the mountainous area.

Even Nishimura Yuanichi, who was wary of the Four Elements Regiment, did not send out reconnaissance troops to avoid losing his head in vain.

This top student from the Japanese Army Sergeant School placed his mission of reconnaissance on the enemy entirely on aerial reconnaissance. This seemed to preserve the strength of the infantry, but in fact it left the opponent a lot of preparation time and a not very clear opponent's defense map.

When the opponent has powerful anti-air weapons, the reconnaissance aircraft dare not lower its altitude at all. An altitude of more than 1000 meters cannot give the commander much advice at all.

Moreover, the reconnaissance plane could not arrive until 18 a.m. on the 9th at the earliest. It would wait until it returned to the airport to inform the forward infantry headquarters of the reconnaissance results through the radio. Another half day passed, and it would be almost there again after Genichi Nishimura made arrangements based on these. It's afternoon.

That is equivalent to giving the Chinese another 24 hours to prepare.

This was also one of the reasons for the failure of the Battle of Jiulong Mountain summarized at the post-war Japanese general-level meeting.

How strong is the current civil engineering work of the Four Elements Group?

If various weapons and equipment are sharp spears in the hands of soldiers, used to take the lives of enemies, then field fortifications are the shields in front of soldiers and the final guarantee of their lives.

Tang Dao attaches great importance to the upgrading of weapons and equipment, as well as the construction of multiple vision and fortifications.

Although the company, platoon, and squad leaders of the Four Lines Regiment were promoted based on their military merits and achievements, they had an extremely important assessment during their tenure. If they failed the assessment, their salary would be retained but they would not be able to continue serving in the military position.

That is the practical assessment of civil engineering operations!

There are various trenches and tunnels crisscrossing the mountains around Dakouzidong Town. In fact, more than half of them were dug by officers at all levels of the Fourth Line Regiment led by their troops and passed inspection.

Of course, before that, a week-long training with Tang Tuanzuo as the chief instructor and engineer company commander Bai Sheng as the deputy chief instructor was a must for newly appointed officers.

In addition to the necessary civil engineering skills, Tang Tuanzu also attaches great importance to tools. Almost one-fifth of the production of fine steel that can be used as gun barrels is used by Tang Tuanzu to make various digging, planing and Rough and shallow tools of soil.

Not to mention, the new 'cyclone explosive' has not even begun to be installed in front-line combat troops. Bai Sheng's engineer company has already been equipped with [-] kilograms.

Its purpose is not for combat, but for blasting hard geological soil!

Even the few active new anti-infantry mines "Kudao" designed and produced by Tang Tuanzuo were basically equipped to the engineering companies.

Moreover, it is not just anyone who wants to be an engineer. First, you must join the army for more than half a year, and you must pass a strict assessment. It is more difficult than becoming an artillery soldier.

It can be said that within the Four Lines Regiment, engineers are second only to high-tech arms such as artillery, in terms of personnel treatment and equipment.

Of course, the various departments of the Fourth Army Regiment did not complain too much about the fact that the engineer company was given so much attention. The results of several battles have proven the importance of the engineer unit.

Without the correct planning of engineers and sufficiently efficient civil engineering operations, the battle losses of each unit of the Fourth Army Regiment would have been at least ten percent higher in the Battle of Eastern Shanxi alone, which would have cost hundreds of lives.

After 1938, a year of systematic training and actual combat, as well as the update of various equipment, Tang Dao can confidently say that even if his engineering troops are not among the top three in the world, they are at least stronger than the Japanese army, which is the number one in Asia.

The Japanese army's powerful civil engineering operations had already caused enough suffering for the Chinese army and American cowboys during the Second World War. In this time and space, Tang Tuanzuo was just 'replying others in their own way' and following the Japanese's path. The road left the Japanese with nowhere to go.

Therefore, after the Japanese reconnaissance plane discovered the hiding place of the army at noon on the 17th, Leng Feng no longer covered it up and started the 'digging' mode with great fanfare, using the 8 hours in advance and the 24 hours generously reserved by the cautious Genichi Nishimura. A total of 32 hours of civil engineering work dug more than 872 meters of trenches on Highland 5000 and several affiliated small highlands.

And this is only the superficial amount of work. In order to prevent Japanese bombing, there are more than 6 tunnels buried 20 meters deep underground.

In addition, there are a total of 2 machine gun bunkers with logs as tops and covered with a 26-meter-thick soil layer!
Each bunker is equipped with heavy machine guns and even 20mm machine guns. Unless the Japanese army uses 70mm infantry cannons to blast accurately or blast at close range, these deadly things can make the Japanese army lie on the ground. There is no way to move forward until death.

The entire 872 Highland is like a hedgehog with thorns spread all over its body. If the Japanese army wants to provoke them, it is almost inevitable that the thorns will be spread all over its body.

The 46 Highlands on the 981th Independent Brigade were slightly worse. Even Leng Feng specially sent a platoon of engineers to lend out nearly a thousand special tools, and even took out the precious 300 kilograms of 'Cyclone Explosives' to help attack the hard rock formations. During the blasting operation, the 46th Independent Brigade barely built 12 machine gun bunkers and 13 tunnels for hiding troops. In addition, 4500 meters of trenches were dug on the surface.

That was the result of 46 hours of hard work by more than 3700 people from the 600th Independent Brigade and more than 32 Japanese prisoners of war.

Speaking of these more than 600 prisoners of war from the 4th Division, it was really an eye-opener for the Chinese soldiers.

This group of vendors from Osaka were quite honest during the march. After all, there was an infantry company to guard them. And in this kind of war, the bullets were loaded and the safety was turned on. Whenever the prisoners of war moved, they would shoot them. kill.

However, when they arrived at Jiulong Mountain and were asked to participate in civil engineering operations due to lack of manpower, they encountered strong resistance from the prisoners of war. They believed that they had strictly obeyed the Chinese orders and achieved no one causing trouble and no one escaping during the march. The Chinese should comply. The terms negotiated by both parties after the surrender did not include labor such as helping to move the earth. If the Chinese insist on doing this, then they, who have abided by the spirit of the contract for generations, would rather die!
Good guy, facing this group of Japanese who "swore not to work to the death", even Brigadier Kong Da and Battalion Commander Leng, who had always been decisive in killing, were a little dumbfounded. Tang Tuanzuo, who was far away in Sizhou Mountain, came up with a plan after knowing it. Idea, give me money!

Prisoners of war were paid on an hourly basis. The hourly wage of 2 yen per hour was more than 20 times the salary of Japanese soldiers serving in the military, which was a substantial premium.

Is this possible? After all, they are prisoners of war, and their life and death are in the hands of China. No matter how high the salary is, even if it is paid in cash, they can get it back with a few bullets.

"Tell the highest-ranking prisoners of war that 'tomorrow' will be your guarantee. Even if they unfortunately die in this battle, the reward for their labor will be handed over to their superiors in full." Tang Dao's reply. easy to understand.

Although he thought it was fantasy, Leng Feng, who had great trust in Tang Dao, also went to the Japanese prisoners of war to negotiate with the Japanese prisoners of war with the mentality of giving it a try.

As a result, the Japanese prisoners of war actually succumbed to the high daily wages.

The most eye-catching thing is that this group of Japanese prisoners of war not only did not cheat during their labor and worked as hard as the Chinese soldiers, they even gave a lot of professional advice to the 46th Independent Brigade in the process of building fortifications. .

Chinese officers and soldiers
I'm afraid they didn't capture a group of Japanese invaders, but a group of hidden soldiers who broke into the enemy's territory!
But in the words of the Japanese prisoners of war, they can do as much work as they pay for. The Chinese are not stingy with money. Naturally, they are also like ‘a scholar will die for his bosom friend’!
God, "A soldier will die for his bosom friend." Brigadier Kong Da, who had always been jealous of the sun, had the urge to destroy all his views at that moment.

Of course, this was also the most bizarre prisoner of war that Brigadier Kong Da encountered during the long Patriotic War. Such good things would rarely be encountered in the future.

For example, the more than 300 artillery prisoners of the Fifth Division captured at Shunwangping Sihang Regiment were extremely difficult to manage despite their small number. Those guys looked honest on the surface, but in fact they were thinking about what to do all the time. Escape.

Because there were many seriously wounded soldiers in the Fourth Army Regiment during the Battle of Shunwangping, it was obviously not suitable to march with seriously wounded soldiers in such a war, so we simply transferred two squads of about 60 people from the baggage company, plus the guard platoon of the third battalion. 120 people stayed in the mountains of Wangwu Mountain, responsible for the safety of more than a dozen medical soldiers and 300 to [-] seriously injured soldiers, and responsible for the supervision of more than [-] prisoners of war.

Each prisoner of war was tied up in groups of ten using iron wire as shackles. In addition, Adong was asked to call 100 young men from the village to issue weapons and act as temporary guards.

Of the more than 200 heavily armed personnel, half were still front-line soldiers who killed without blinking an eye. The more than 4 people who were replaced by the 600th Division were definitely honest. As a result, once the main force of the Four Lines Regiment left, the group of Japanese prisoners of war started from the second division. Things started happening the next day.

Not only did they try their best to escape, they also attacked the inexperienced young militiamen, and even held two militiamen hostage with knives and threatened the officers and soldiers of the Fourth Army Regiment to ask for their release. If the lieutenant and the guard platoon leader had not made a decisive decision, he continuously ordered the shooting and killing of the participants. Among them, the cold and decisive killings of more than 30 Japanese soldiers completely shocked the Japanese prisoners of war, and the consequences were disastrous.

By the time Nishimura Yuanichi and more than 1 Japanese troops arrived at the two highlands at 18 p.m. on January 4, who had spent the whole day reconnaissance and troop deployment, the Chinese soldiers on the two highlands were already ready.

Looking through the telescope at the rows of trenches on the high ground in front of him, Nishimura Motoichi felt bitter in his mouth. He attacked the high ground bit by bit like peeling corn husks. In the end, the seven infantry brigades under his command could still be left. how many people?

Obviously, Nishimura Genichi really thinks too much.

The Japanese army, which started attacking at 1 pm on January 18, never expected that from this moment on, everyone here would embark on a path of no return.

After spending hundreds of lives, Nishimura Yuanichi finally tested the strength of the firepower of Highland 981 and Highland 872. The Japanese Army Major General, who had been forced to the point by Shiro Itagaki, also officially made the decision. The 872 Highland, which the Japanese army called the "Single Edge Peak", was mainly used for containment and fire suppression. The 981 Highland, which was called the "Fishbone Ridge", was The tactic of gathering heavy troops for siege.

It has to be said that at least from this point of view, Nishimura Genichi still has a few skills. He will at least avoid the strong and attack the weak, and use the 46th Independent Brigade as a breakthrough point.

Even though Leng Feng has no more than 1500 infantrymen available for combat, the individual combat effectiveness and equipment of its soldiers are much stronger than those of the 46th Independent Brigade. In addition, they are more skilled in civil engineering operations, so the difficulty of conquering them is actually much greater than that of the 981th Independent Brigade. [-] Highland.

But even the weakest link in this Chinese army is also stronger than the Japanese army imagined.

Just that battle on the night of the 18th broke two of Nishimura Genichi's teeth.

. . . . . . . .

An unnamed highland belonging to Highland 981, located more than 981 meters below and to the right of the main Highland 800, is guarded by only one infantry platoon.

The entire position was pitifully small, with only one anti-gun hole used to avoid artillery fire and two trenches no more than 300 meters long at the front and rear. There were no heavy machine guns on the position, only 4 light machine guns and 3 grenades. The remaining Basically all are rifles.

The 52 soldiers have a total of 68 medium-sized rifles, Hanyang-made rifles, and Type [-] rifles. In terms of light firepower alone, it is more than a full infantry platoon of the ordinary Chinese army.

But this is definitely not worth mentioning for the Japanese army. Under normal circumstances, even an infantry squad, let alone an infantry squadron, can conquer it under the cover of heavy machine guns and infantry artillery.

But this time, it really opened the eyes of the Japanese.

It is this little-known position. The Japanese army sent an infantry squadron of 178 people plus 4 heavy machine guns and 2 infantry cannons to assist. There were even 4 mountain cannons to cover it with artillery fire first. Moreover, the Japanese army's infantry and artillery coordination reached its limit. The infantry They had already reached 180 meters from the front of the trenches on the high ground, and shells from mountain artillery and infantry artillery were blasting smoke from the high ground.

Whether it is in terms of firepower, troop strength or the strong cooperation displayed by the Japanese army, it is already considered the pinnacle level of the Japanese army. No matter how you look at it, it is all a matter of one blow.

But there is never anything certain in this world, only uncertainty.

The Chinese infantry on the position waited until the Japanese infantry approached 120 meters from the front of the position before starting to fight back sporadically.

They were basically rifles. The lack of continuous fire suppression from light machine guns made it difficult for the Japanese army to avoid the illusion that "the Chinese have been almost killed by artillery fire."

The Japanese infantry started to straighten their bodies, open their legs, shout "board" and launch a charge!
A red signal flare rose into the sky, but this did not arouse the vigilance of the Japanese infantry who had begun to run wildly. They only regarded it as a signal that the Chinese infantry was about to enter the trenches.

Therefore, the Japanese infantry just wanted to run faster and faster, and rush to an area where they could throw mines before the Chinese reached the front-line trenches.

Victory is less than 50 meters away from them!
But the sharp scream of "咻儿~~" coming from the sky made the Japanese infantry's eyes brighter.

It was a ball of light formed by the explosion of countless mortar shells.

Winter nights in northern China always come earlier, and it's already dark at 6 p.m., but Genichi Nishimura will never give his opponent another night to rest.

The fortifications that spread all over the mountains and fields almost overnight made it clear to Genichi Nishimura that the Chinese had dug out such a huge system of field fortifications by working tirelessly, at the expense of huge physical strength.

If he doesn't take advantage of the opponent's physical weakness to launch an attack now, and then wait until the opponent has a good night's sleep before attacking again, that wouldn't be pure stupidity!
Therefore, a wave of nearly 10 artillery shells fell and exploded, causing fires that were enough to illuminate half of the hillside, allowing the Japanese commanders 600 meters away to see the scene of this artillery massacre.

Although the individual Japanese infantry soldiers were dispersed far enough apart and were able to crawl in a timely manner, the Chinese artillery shells were like waves in the sea, one after another, not giving the Japanese infantry soldiers on the hillside any breathing space at all. Chance.

The only thing they could do was to lie on the ground and pray for the blessing of Amaterasu to end the Chinese artillery fire.

That was an artillery position composed of 981 10-guns deployed on the rear flank of Highland 82. It was also the artillery force supported by Leng Feng.

鉴于自己这边有6门博福斯山炮和6门150重迫以及两个营炮兵连拥有的6门80毫米榴迫炮，步兵排里还有一个60迫班，冷锋认为炮火支援方面自己要远强于独46旅，所以干脆将辎重连里运的6门82迫备用炮并抽调了12名有经验的迫击炮手支援独46旅。

Brigadier Kong Da was also a smart man, so he used these 6 mortars as his team, and also transferred 2 82 mortars from each of the two infantry regiments to form a mortar company.

The location of this mortar company is destined to specifically support the small highlands below the main highland.

That's because despite the fact that there are still 12 captured Japanese Type 46 mountain cannons, the artillerymen of the [-]th Independent Brigade are not proficient in controlling the mountain cannons, and the shooting range of the mountain cannons is also limited. The set shooting targets are also aimed at the main positions. direction.

The coordinates in front of each small highland have long been marked by experienced gunners and assigned serial numbers as standard. Once the call comes in, the 10 mortars only need to cover the gunfire according to the coordinates corresponding to the serial numbers.

The rudimentary communications in the Chinese military can only ensure that there are telephones at the battalion level, but observation posts are densely scattered on the battlefield, which is enough for the battalion headquarters to know which position fired the emergency signal flare.

It was precisely with this information delay that the Japanese infantry was allowed to rush forward nearly 80 meters.

The mistake of the Japanese army was that they did not "enter the village quietly" this time. You just charge, and they shouted crazily about the "board". Didn't the Chinese defenders on the position quickly fire red flares symbolizing an emergency?
The artillery has already established rules. The coordinates of the artillery attack are 40 meters away from the front edge of each highland. Unless there are three red signal flares, the artillery fire coverage is based on the position as the coordinate.

Therefore, a dozen mortars are basically a base number, with almost 10 shells per gun.

100 rounds of artillery shells would be absolutely disastrous for a Japanese infantry squadron crawling on the mountain without any cover.

In this one minute of saturation coverage and shelling, in the end, less than 1 people of this infantry squadron, which had not even seen a Chinese figure, were able to successfully retreat from the hillside.

The battle damage rate exceeds 80.00%. This infantry squadron is no longer disabled, but gone.

And this was only the first wave. The rate of consumption of soldiers definitely stunned the Japanese commander.

"The Chinese will never have a large reserve of artillery shells. There are so many artillery pieces in a small highland. They seem to be powerful, but they are actually strong on the outside." A Japanese major in charge of the area analyzed through gritted teeth.

His analysis makes sense, but the subsequent battles have proven that it is better not to analyze it.

From 6 pm to 10 pm, the infantry brigade launched a total of 5 rounds of attacks, with an average of more than 40 minutes.

Why no sixth round?

That's when the infantry group finally gave up.

It's not that they are timid, but that there are only a few people in the infantry brigade.

On this unknown highland, the Japanese infantry brigade paid the price of more than 390 people being killed and more than 260 people being seriously injured.

The unknown highlands are still in the hands of the Chinese.

And this was just one of Nishimura Genichi’s big teeth that was blown away. (End of chapter)