Rise from eight hundred.

On the evening of January 1, Genichi Nishimura was no longer the supreme commander of Japan.

It was not that he was replaced because he was not effective enough in combat, but because he fought too hard, which resulted in the seven infantry brigades under his command being exhausted in just two days and two nights.

Yes, the two semi-mixed brigade groups were almost beaten by Nishimura Genichi on the afternoon of the 20th.

Shiro Itagaki, who had just arrived at Masao Nakamura's headquarters to coordinate the conflict between his two generals, almost died on the spot when he received the news.

Good guy, the entire battle of Zhongtiao Mountain lasted for half a month, and the total casualties of the entire army were only more than 3. As a result, because of your participation, the total number of casualties increased by 20%.

That was more than 7000 infantry, not 7000 pigs. No matter how much Itagaki Shiro thought about it, he could not figure out how Nishimura Genichi crippled 7 infantry brigades in such a short period of time.

If he had gone to the scene and had a look, he might have known that it was not Nishimura Genichi who was too stupid, but that the Chinese were too tenacious.

Everyone actually has a gambling instinct!
Genichi Nishimura is no exception!

In the battle on the night of the 18th, the two infantry brigades that Nishimura Genichi launched into the attack were crippled. However, the Chinese highlands, let alone the main highland, were still out of reach. Even the small subsidiary highlands were still under the control of the Chinese. in hand.

To put it bluntly, that battle was fought as if the Japanese troops lined up to kill themselves. It cannot be said that they did nothing, it can only be said that they took human lives and consumed some Chinese bullets.

If Nishimura Genichi had sobered up at this time and immediately asked Itagaki Shiro for help, he would have been responsible for blocking the Chinese. This top student of the Japanese Army Military Academy would not have been sent to a military court after the war.

But Nishimura Gen continued to arrive. As soon as this request for help message was sent out, his future was probably over.

Therefore, he chose to fight again and attack more resolutely.

He did not believe that there was a position in the world that could withstand the bombardment of 72 bombers, 24 mountain guns and 16 infantry guns covering the bombardment. Even if there was, it was definitely not Chinese.

During the day on the 19th, with the rare unanimous support of Shiro Itagaki and Yuan Sugisugi, the Japanese Army Air Forces dispatched the largest bomber group since the Battle of Nakajoyama.

The "New Year's Day Offensive" planned by the Japanese Army Base Camp has basically failed. Many troops on the front and rear wings of Zhongtiao Mountain have gradually gathered towards Yuncheng and withdrawn to northern Shanxi or Hebei Province to rest and recuperate. The Battle of Jiulong Mountain is to preserve the last trace of the Imperial Army's dignity. , this should be the reason why Shanshan Yuan and Itagaki Shiro rarely reach an agreement.

Without the full support of Shan Shanyuan, the North China Army Aviation Corps, which had been replenished for a long time, would not have been able to afford such air fire support to Nishimura Genichi, a mere Army Major General.

From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., the number of fighter aircraft dispatched was not the 72 requested by Genichi Nishimura, but 96. The number of 500-pound aerial bombs dropped alone was as high as 48. If other large and small aircraft are included, Bombs, no less than 40 tons of bombs rained down from the sky.

A battlefield with a radius of no more than 3 kilometers has encountered such an intensity of bombing. Not to mention that it is extremely rare on the Chinese battlefield, it can also rank high on the European battlefield that is about to break out.

Even though the 20mm machine guns and 12.7mm heavy machine guns attached to the Lengfeng Department were fully activated, the Japanese aircraft fleet basically dropped bombs at an altitude of more than 1500 meters, and the areas belonging to the two highlands were bombing areas. Therefore, in addition to shooting down and damaging three Japanese aircraft In addition, there is no way to prevent bombs from being dropped into the vast mountains and forests.

At least 50.00% of the bombs were dropped on various highlands. The two main highlands and the associated small highlands were all in flames.

The weather was minus four or five degrees Celsius, but the temperature on the battlefield was so hot that people could not even wear cotton-padded clothes, especially the officers and soldiers hiding in the tunnels. Many of them were sweating profusely. They were both hot and frightened.

No one can survive this kind of hell-level bombing. Even if they do, they are just a few small fish and shrimps. They have not used much infantry to launch an attack all day long, but they watched the Chinese positions burning in the fire caused by the violent explosion. That’s what Genichi Nishimura thinks.

Therefore, at 19:4 on the 3th, when the bombers and the non-stop shelling of the artillery group finally stopped, the three infantry brigades were pushed to the front line in one fell swoop and launched a frenzied attack on the Chinese highlands.

Nishimura Genichi's idea is right or wrong.

The artillery bombardment and fighter bombing on this day indeed caused great losses to the Independent 46th Brigade and the Lengfeng Department. For example, on the 46 Highland to which the Independent 981th Brigade belonged, the trenches were destroyed to more than 2000 meters, accounting for almost half of them, and the tunnels used to hide troops were blown away. In two places, more than 200 officers and soldiers were suffocated to death in the mud and rocks without firing a single shot.

Six machine gun bunkers on the position were destroyed, and the observation posts and heavy machine guns hidden inside were all torn to pieces by bombs.

Even the mortar position hidden on the back side of the highland was half destroyed. Five 82-guns were blown away by the air waves, and more than 30 artillerymen died in the line of duty.

The 12 mountain artillery positions were not much better. 4 mountain artillery and more than 40 artillerymen disappeared in the roaring air waves.

However, thanks to Nishimura Genichi's caution, the complete fortifications completed within 32 hours allowed the main force of the Independent 46th Brigade to remain.

怀揣着美好幻想的西村元一这轮投入步兵主力不惜血本的进攻注定无功而返，尤其是当四行团没有受损的6门博福斯山炮和6门150重迫以及6门80毫米榴迫炮全力对独46旅高地进行炮火支援的那一刻。

The earth shook and the mountains shook, and flesh and blood flew everywhere!
How miserable the Chinese people were in the Japanese army's imagination was how miserable they were!
For example, on the unnamed high ground where the young soldier was located, three red signal flares were fired at dusk to request artillery fire to cover the position, as many as three positions.

However, it is not a complete death together. There are tunnels for hiding troops in these positions. After a round of artillery fire, the Chinese soldiers who were well prepared immediately rushed out of the tunnels and shot and killed the remaining Japanese troops on the surface positions.

The Japanese army had long been shattered by the terrifying power of the 150-meter force. Even if they knew that there were fewer Chinese people rushing out from nowhere, few of them chose to resist on the spot. Instead, they jumped out of the broken trench, and ran down the mountain without looking back, even though there were machine guns from the supervising team behind them.

In the words of the Japanese soldiers who survived by chance: It's just a waste of time. If you don't go to the battlefield, you'll be shot. If you go to the battlefield, you'll be hit by artillery shells more ferocious than those of the Empire! Everything is dead.

"Baga! I don't believe it, I don't believe it, I don't believe that the Chinese still have so many artillery shells in reserve, keep attacking, long live the empire!" Genichi Nishimura shouted the famous little daughter-in-law style when night fell on the 19th. Three don't believe it.

It was these three unbelievers who completely nailed the Japanese Army to the pillar of shame!
After the war, he was rated by the Japanese people as one of the ten most powerful Japanese army generals on the Chinese battlefield, and he was completely on par with Major General Kunisaki Sei of the 5th Division.

On the contrary, Major General Okuma Konosuke of the 4th Division has a very high voice among the people, especially in the Osaka area. Major General Okuma, who led a large number of Osaka youths to return to the mainland intact, is worshiped by many families.

There are not a few people who worship his portrait in their homes. Driven by public opinion, Major General Okuma, who retired from the military, served as the president of the Osaka Chamber of Commerce and eventually became the chairman of Japan's largest pharmaceutical company.

Those who fight hard are scorned by the people, and those who can't win but run away are worshiped. How can you explain this matter? Major General Genichi Nishimura didn't even think about it when he was about to die.

Until the already successful Okuma Konosuke went to visit this old classmate in the slums and said directly: "This war initiated by the empire was not what the people wanted from the beginning. It was just to fulfill the ambitions of a few people, but it was Let tens of millions of people sacrifice their lives, and those who are alive will eventually wake up one day."

Completely abandoned by the powerful and the people, Nishimura Yuanichi breathed his last loneliness and regret.

But obviously, Major General Nishimura Genichi who is still on the battlefield cannot be said to have nothing to do with his sobriety. It can only be said that he is completely crazy.

At this time, the Japanese Army Major General no longer had any concept of victory or defeat in the traditional sense. What he wanted now was to conquer the opponent's high ground, even if it was not the main peak, but a piece of high ground, that would be enough.

But this wish was never realized until he was dismissed from his post.

You may not believe in the combat effectiveness of the officers and soldiers of the Sixings Regiment, but you must not disbelieve the importance the Sixings Regiment places on its equipment. Although it is not a mechanized force, under the leadership of Tang Tuanzuo, officers at all levels of the Sixings Regiment attach great importance to ammunition reserves. Even if it is just for long-distance training, four grenades and 4 rounds of bullets carried by individual soldiers are standard.

What's more, during this kind of war, more than two-thirds of the transport capacity of the baggage company advancing with the army was used to transport various artillery shells. In addition, the artillery battalion used pack horses to transport more than 8000 artillery shells of various types.

Nishimura Genichi thought that relying on human lives to consume the Leng Feng Department's artillery reserves was really wrong.

As a result, the seven infantry brigades under the command of Nishimura Genichi came to an end due to his "three disbeliefs" caused by his young daughter-in-law's rage.

The Japanese troops above completely lost their bet!

On the afternoon of the 20th, Nishimura Genichi was personally ordered to be removed from all posts by the disgraced General Sugisu Moto. Suematsu Shigeru, the commander of the 114th Division who had just arrived near Yuncheng, assumed the role of the supreme commander of the Battle of Jiulong Mountain, and the responsibility rate had been withdrawn. Sixteen thousand people from the 114th Division on the main battlefield of Tiaoshan and the remnants of Nishimura Yuanichi participated in the unfinished Battle of Jiulongshan.

If the Japanese army ended here, the Chinese side would only have killed more than 4000 infantry and artillery soldiers and seriously injured more than 3000 Japanese troops in the Battle of Jiulong Mountain. This would not be very conspicuous in the context of the entire Anti-Japanese War.

But the Japanese could not swallow this breath. After the sound of gunfire on Jiulong Mountain stopped for only a day, it sounded again on the afternoon of January 1.

Three infantry regiments, amidst the roar of more than 3 mountain cannons, fought their way to the Chinese highlands.

Wave after wave of Japanese troops were like locusts, struggling to attack the highlands that had been bombed to the point where there were almost no trenches, and then they were repelled wave after wave.

Then, after a round of shelling, the locusts attacked again like a wave and were driven back again.

In the next two days, this battle situation simply repeated itself like this.

The Japanese trucks transporting corpses alone are enough to line up several miles away from Jiulong Pass.

Even Lieutenant General Suematsu Shigeru, the commander of the division, couldn't help crying when he looked at the transport truck piled with corpses.

But at this point in the battle, it was no longer up to him.

The Japanese North China Front Army and even the Imperial Army's pocket cloth are all in this battle and cannot be completely stripped off by the Chinese.

To use the metaphor of many Japanese war historians, the battle of "Heartbreak Ridge" on Zhongtiao Mountain is like the Chinese side's Four Lines Warehouse in the Battle of Songhu. It doesn't matter what high ground or Chinese people are there. What matters is the face of the Imperial Army.

If this group of Chinese who attacked Yuncheng cannot be completely eliminated, the personal reputations of Shiro Itagaki and Yuan Sugisugi will be ignored, and the face of the Imperial Army will be lost.

Therefore, if one infantry regiment of the 114th Division was crippled, another one would be replaced, and then crippled again, and then replaced again, until all three infantry regiments with nearly 9000 people were crippled.

It takes three days!
At this time of the war, although Highland 981 was still in the hands of the Chinese, all its affiliated highlands belonged to the Japanese army.

Most of the 872 Highlands were also occupied by the Japanese troops. The Chinese were already crumbling, like a centenarian on the verge of death. You hardly needed to push them with your hands, you just blew your breath and fell down.

This is indeed the case. Lu Qingyi, the second lieutenant radio operator of the 46th Independent Brigade Headquarters radio station, was ordered to send a telegram to the 38th Army Headquarters: "The enemy has captured the last subsidiary highland of our highland in the afternoon. Nearly a thousand soldiers are in front of the main peak of our highland. The final decisive battle is about to begin. More than 2000 officers and soldiers of our unit were killed in the battle, and Yu Qian was seriously injured. Most of the officers of the two regiments, battalions, and companies were killed in the battle. There are only 600 soldiers who can still fight. There is no longer a detour battlefield, and there are no soldiers to block the attack. The rank and file swear to die to serve. The country strives to fulfill its duty as a soldier and will never let down the military's lifelong training. This electric shock may be the last one. See you in the next life."

Given the strength of Brigadier Kong Da, who sent such a desperate farewell message to the military headquarters before going to the frontline trenches in person, one can imagine how dangerous the situation was at that time.

But in the hard battle that followed one night, the Chinese were not defeated as Suematsu Shigeru imagined, even though he added 1600 heavy troops to his last two infantry brigades, bringing the total strength to more than 2 men.

But he still couldn't break into the main peak of Highland 981, which he also focused on attacking. The dying Chinese would always appear out of nowhere and shoot wildly at the numb imperial officers and soldiers until all the imperial officers and soldiers still on the position were killed. .

No one escaped, and the two sides just exchanged shots almost numbly until one side fell completely.

Yes, by this time of the war, both the Chinese and the Japanese were almost numb, and even death was no longer so fearful.

The only thought on both sides is to kill the other party, no matter what happens to them next.

One side is exchanging death for death, the other is exchanging life for life!

When Suematsu arrived at the front line in the early morning, he was stunned.

On the charred mountain peaks, the Chinese military flags, which had been broken into strips, were still fluttering in the wind. The hillside was littered with khaki corpses, including on the Chinese positions.

He clearly knew that if he used more force, China might lose, but Suematsu Shigeru, who looked dejected, knew clearly that that would never be possible.

Because he has no available troops, and he can't even gather 500 men, unless he brings in all the artillerymen who have no shells.

By the 23rd day of the war, the artillery of both China and Japan no longer roared.

Because both sides have run out of artillery shells.

The passive Chinese side did not have any supplements. It is understandable that the artillery shells were used up. However, the Japanese army was the active side and had backup. Why did Mao have no artillery shells?

In fact, the night attack battle in Yuncheng almost abandoned the Japanese army. Not to mention that the artillery shells were gone, and even the rations were almost gone.

This is not only Suematsu Shigeru's 114th Division, but also Itagaki Shiro's direct 5th Division.

Since yesterday afternoon, the 114th Division has been out of food. The entire army slaughtered 50 pack horses to barely feed the people who were still alive. Anyway, more than 1000 heavy troops were also dragged onto the battlefield, and the pack horses were of no use.

Even if we give Suematsu Shigeru several thousand troops to fight the Chinese for two more days, or even one day, without any external force, the 114th Division will collapse.

What's more terrible is that when Suematsu Shigeru was still in pain so much that he almost wanted to throw off his helmet and tear his hair to vent, a message forwarded by the command from the Army Aviation made him feel like he was falling into the abyss.

. . . . . . . . . .

PS: Brothers, please vote monthly! I recommend the new book "The Bourne Shadows Begin in 1938" by my old friend Tintin Cat. I hope everyone will support it. Thank you! (End of chapter)