Rise from eight hundred.

Didn't Okuma Konosuke, who personally led 5000 men to intercept the enemy's troops, encounter the 772nd Regiment?

Of course I did.

The leading company of the 772nd Regiment, which was entering Handan at full speed and heading toward Xingtai, almost collided head-on with a large force of 5000 Japanese troops.

That's called being caught off guard. The closest distance between the two sides will never exceed 600 meters!

According to the captain and company commander, they were seen by the long queue of Japanese troops marching over the cliff, and the Japanese troops also had motorcycles and tanks. Looking at the size, not to mention his reinforced company of more than 200 people, it was only 5 kilometers behind. More than 772 main forces of the 4000nd Regiment outside the country have caught up. It will probably be a bloody battle against this main force of the Japanese army.

More than 200 Chinese soldiers had no time to panic and could only hide in the nearby mountains and forests. Many of them were already prepared to sacrifice.

Even though they were already the most elite infantry regiment in the 80th Army, they could only prepare for the worst when facing the Japanese army, which far exceeded them in strength and equipment.

Who would have known that a jaw-dropping and bizarre scene would occur. The Japanese army had no intention of causing trouble for them. Instead, they found a nearby field and began to build a field position. Not long after, smoke was still rising from the field position.

This is the rhythm of cooking in a pot!

Is this considered a suspicion formation by the Japanese army? In fact, elite troops have already been sent out to outflank him? The captain company commander, who had sufficient combat experience with the Japanese army, was so anxious that several big bubbles quickly appeared on his mouth. One of his three infantry platoons was building a field position non-stop in the mountains and forests to prepare for a desperate fight with the Japanese army. The other two platoons Then run desperately to occupy the two commanding heights.

It was not until half an hour later that the captain, company commander and officers and soldiers were surprised to find that they had really overthought it. The Japanese army 800 meters away had really set up camp.

That is, the Japanese army firmly blocked the dirt road. If they wanted to cross the dirt road, they would definitely have to fight with this Japanese army.

If you don't want to use this road that can pass large vehicles, you have to leave the mountains and take a detour. This is also a difficult problem thrown to the leader Wang Xiaoqiang who arrived more than an hour later.

If Wang Xiaoqiang's past personality was followed, the Japanese would be lousy and they would be beaten. But today is different from the past. Tang Dao personally led the main force of the Four Lines Regiment and the main force of the Southern Hebei Division to fight a fierce battle with a Japanese A-type division 80 kilometers away. The purpose of the division headquarters and brigade headquarters sending their main group was not to fight with the Japanese army here, but to rush to the battlefield to cooperate with Tang Dao in a decisive battle with the main force of the Japanese army.

The 772nd Regiment has nearly 5000 troops and is an extremely important part of Tang Dao's tactical plan. If they do not arrive on time and wait for the Japanese North China Front to react and gather heavy troops, it will be a matter of life and death for tens of thousands of Chinese soldiers.

"Let me take a detour!" Wang Xiaoqiang carefully observed the Japanese army's field positions and made a decision that was extremely important for the Zhaojiazhuang battlefield.

"But commander, once we leave the mountains and enter the plains, we will have no chance of defending if the Japanese troops come up." A battalion commander asked with a worried look on his face.

No one dared to ignore a Japanese army that was close to the strength of an infantry brigade, not even an elite infantry regiment like the 772nd Regiment with German and Japanese weapons.

"Leave in batches to test the reaction of the Japanese army. If they dare to pursue our regiment, leave one battalion and two companies to resolutely block it. Call the Jinan Division and ask them to send nearby troops to assist and support. The other battalions and companies will follow me to the front. Cheng Zhaojiazhuang." Wang Xiaoqiang's eyes showed determination.

In order to win the main battlefield, Wang Xiaoqiang was ready to stop the powerful enemy with 1100 officers and soldiers, and the remaining more than 3000 main forces continued to rush to the battlefield.

"Yes!" The four major battalion commanders nodded in unison.

With more than 1100 people blocking a Japanese army with more than 5000 troops, the probability of sacrifice was more than %, but for the sake of victory, no one retreated.

The officers and soldiers of the 772nd Regiment said their final farewells to the troops responsible for blocking the attack, and began to enter the plains and bypass the Japanese positions as planned.

Although they were more than 10 miles apart, even a tough guy like Wang Xiaoqiang had a solemn look on his face. If the Japanese army desperately attached themselves to the main force of his 772 regiment, let alone support the Zhaojiazhuang battlefield, it would be hard to say who would win or lose in a single battle with this Japanese army.

But a miracle happened just like that. The Japanese army seemed to be collectively deaf and blind, turning a blind eye to the billowing smoke and dust caused by the people and horses several kilometers away. Not to mention sending troops to attack, there was not even an intrusive artillery fire.

Even among the more than 1100 officers and soldiers who were ready to sacrifice their lives to stop them, they waited until the main force had left for a long time, but no Japanese soldiers came.

No one is here, so why don’t you stop the bird, run away!

At two o'clock in the afternoon on the 1100th, more than 18 officers and soldiers all withdrew from their blocking positions and rushed to Zhaojiazhuang in hot pursuit of the main force.

"I'm afraid these Japs are not disguised as Japs!" Wang Xiaoqiang, who was on his way, felt a strong sense of regret in his heart.

Why don't he be more decisive and defeat these cowards in less than two hours?

Wang Xiaoqiang and the 772nd Regiment have hit a brick wall. The 4th Brigade is a genuine Class A division, with three infantry brigades at full strength. It also has an armored squadron and an artillery battalion, plus two A squadron of heavy troops, not to mention the 3nd Regiment, even if you add the 772st Regiment, you will have to break a few big teeth if you want to eat them.

Didn’t Okuma Konosuke see the detouring 772nd group? Of course, he saw it, but in his own words: "Our department is responsible for intercepting the Chinese regular army, not the peasant army. If we abandon the defense of this necessary traffic artery because we are chasing a group of peasant soldiers, then is it a trap for China?" Man’s plan to lure the tiger away from the mountain?”

Moreover, Major General Okuma Konosuke also responded in this way when faced with questions from the Japanese North China Front after the war.

Indeed, in the early stages of the march, the 772nd Regiment, in order to avoid exposing their whereabouts, all changed out of their military uniforms and put on regular clothes. Roughly, they looked similar to the armed brigades of various counties, except that there were more pack horses used to carry heavy weapons.

Major General Okuma Konosuke's reasons are irrefutable, because the military order he received was to intercept the Chinese regular army coming out of the Taihang Mountains. If the Chinese really tried to change things, he would be deceived.

But the fact is that Major General Okuma Konosuke was very resourceful and firmly guarded the traffic artery leading to Xingtai. He did not fall into the trap of the Chinese. However, the Chinese's more than 4000 regular troops still magically descended from the sky on the morning of July 7. Appeared near the main battlefield of Zhaojiazhuang.

"Then don't worry about me. Who knows whether the cunning Chinese used airborne means to accomplish this impossible situation. Apart from that, I really can't find any other reason." Major General Okuma Konosuke said. Innocent face.

The gods are airborne. The Chinese don’t even have a few fighter jets. Where are the large transport planes coming from? His Excellency Lieutenant General Shinozuka Yoshio was not present at the scene, otherwise he would have pounced on and tore the mouth of this fool who was pretending to be stupid.

But Major General Okuma Konosuke will definitely give anyone who dares to hurt him a slap in the face. Any Japanese army general who is familiar with him will know this guy's generous personality.

As the saying goes, "Money can make a fool of himself." Under the heavy-financed management of the Lieutenant General of the 4th Division, more than 4 Imperial officers and soldiers of the 5000th Division led by Okuma Konosuke were able to kill more than 10 Imperial officers and soldiers in the field for several days. It was not released, nor did it block a single Chinese regular army. The th Division that surrounded the Chinese turned into a sandwich biscuit. This was a major tactical error that miraculously no one mentioned.

Of course, there are also factors in this that the two big bosses, Lieutenant General Shinozuka Yoshio and Commander Tatenjun, have not been held accountable either.

It is true that the Japanese Army Base Camp does not want to change a field commander again in just half a year. At the same time, the face of His Highness the Prince must be taken into consideration. You cannot say that His Highness the Prince is blind!

Although that is a fact.

Since Duo Tianjun took office, many plans have been written, but the reality is that there has been no progress on the front lines of Zhongtiao Mountain and the Taihang Mountains in southeastern Shanxi. The "Operation Qingxiang" in the occupied areas has been repeatedly frustrated. In the end, a The permanent division is completely disabled, it is purely a Japanese version of 'Duo Tiankuo'!

In short, regardless of whether Okuma Konosuke did it intentionally or unintentionally, the 772nd Regiment finally arrived at the battlefield at 7 a.m. on July 19.

Shinozuka Yoshio was really confused at that moment. It was not that thousands of Chinese rushed to the battlefield, but that an imperial permanent division was actually surrounded by Chinese.

Yes, not only did the independent battalion that stayed 8 kilometers away left the position they had worked so hard to dig and headed for the battlefield, the 772nd Regiment that had just arrived also divided into two directions and headed towards Zhaojiazhuang.

This turned out to be a rhythm of making dumplings for him with the Chinese army in the encirclement. After the shock, Shinozuka Yoshio almost laughed out of anger.

There is no precedent for an Imperial division to be surrounded and severely damaged by the Chinese army on the Chinese battlefield, but that was when the Chinese mobilized more than five times the number of troops to encircle it, and there were an unknown number of Chinese on the periphery who struggled to block the Imperial reinforcements.

And now the Chinese have roughly the same strength as his 10th Division, and they actually want to play this trick. That's not the saying that the Chinese often say, "Go to the toilet with a lantern - looking for shit!" '

"The whole army shrinks its defense line. I want to see what the Chinese use to attack. Their trenches and fortifications can make us bleed out, and we can do the same!" Yoshio Shinozuka said this almost arrogantly, which was later known as It is one of the most slap-in-the-face quotes.

Of course, the dare to say this is naturally because of Lieutenant General Shinozuka Yoshio's confidence in the construction of civil engineering works under his command. Otherwise, the Yamazaki Brigade in the past time and space would not have relied on fortifications to withstand the 683 Brigade's violent attack for a day and night, and finally was not completely wiped out under the cover of reinforcements, making a small battlefield become the veteran's life. One of the regrets.

However, Yoshio Shinozuka overlooked one thing: no matter how awesome the fortifications are, it takes time.

The 772nd Regiment, which had just arrived on the battlefield, rested for less than an hour and immediately launched an attack on the Japanese defense line.

Moreover, the 772nd Regiment also played tricks that the 10th Division was very uncomfortable with.

The Japanese army's conventional offensive routine was to bombard the enemy with artillery and then attack with infantry, and then attack with artillery after the infantry attacked. They relied on such wave after wave of attacks to consume the opponent's ammunition and fighting spirit, and finally led to victory.

However, the 772nd Regiment finished the cannon fire and continued to fire the small artillery, and then the big artillery bombardment, while the infantry frantically started digging forward from their own trenches. You could see with your eyes that in less than one afternoon, the positions of the two armies went from being 600 meters apart to Within 300 meters, the infantry can even use rifles to shoot accurately in the trenches.

程旅长这次为支援唐刀，可是不惜血本，把旅部直属的拥有6门150重迫、18门82迫的迫击炮连配属给了772团，这几乎是683旅这两年积攒下来的所有重火力家底。

Twenty-four mortars bombarded the Japanese frontline for nearly three hours, almost beating Lieutenant Colonel Kuroda Saburo, the frontline commander responsible for resisting the 24nd Regiment, to tears.

This Japanese Army lieutenant colonel, who was promoted half a month ago because of his good performance as acting captain, never expected that in addition to the Four Corps, the Chinese army could have such exaggerated heavy firepower.

In just one afternoon, more than 300 imperial officers and soldiers were killed or injured by Chinese artillery fire.

What's even worse is that with the help of artillery fire cover, the Chinese dug forward crazily, as if they wanted to connect the trenches with their own trenches.

Instead of playing field battles and playing fortification duels, this really exceeded the expectations of the Japanese commander.

Of course, the 10th Division's shrinkage to the three artillery positions protected by its own infantry positions was not a vegetarian, and it began retaliatory artillery bombardments on the 3nd Regiment's positions early.

But don’t forget that there are also artillery on the Si Xing Regiment position at the farthest point of the battlefield. The ultimate range of the 150-meter heavy force is only 3300 meters, which cannot rely on the Japanese mountain artillery position. However, due to the contraction of the Japanese defense line, the nearest one The artillery position was only 1600 meters away from the front of the position, completely within the range of 150 meters.

As long as the artillery position does not fire, the thick smoke that rises when it fires can be seen thousands of meters away. The "little wild monsters" of the reconnaissance company who are still wandering around the battlefield are waiting for this moment.

The 12 150-meter heavy-duty guns and 12 80-mm howitzers in the battlefield raised their muzzles high and focused their fire on the coordinates sent by the scouts using the field radio!

The Japanese artillerymen who hastily moved their positions did not have time to dig out sunken ground fortifications for each artillery position like the Four Lines Regiment did. To break the sky, they piled a circle of sandbags around the artillery to protect against heavy machine guns. Not bad, but facing the air wave caused by a 150-pound artillery shell weighing nearly 20 kilograms, it can be said to be vulnerable.

"Fight back! Fight back! Find me the Chinese artillery position and fight back!" Yoshio Shinozuka, whose face turned purple because of the fireball rising from the artillery position, almost roared and ordered.

He never thought that one day the artillerymen of the Imperial Division would be pressed to the ground and rubbed by poor Chinese.

Perhaps maintaining the advantage of heavy firepower is the last thing the Japanese Army Lieutenant General wants to retain.

As a result, the two Chinese armies he faced were mercilessly trying to tear one of them off. How could Lieutenant General Shinozuka Yoshio, who wanted to retain his dignity, endure it?

The overwhelming artillery shells hit several coordinate areas found by Japanese artillery observers after careful observation.

But what the Japanese artillery observers didn't know was that before firing, Tang Dao ordered more than a dozen camouflage points to light firewood moistened with water and add white phosphorus. From a distance, the rich and somewhat white smoke looked very similar to the gunpowder smoke after the artillery fire. resemblance.

What the Japanese saw may have been real artillery positions, but most of them were camouflaged open spaces.

The artillery shells fired by the Japanese artillerymen were most likely to help dig up the ground in Zhaojiazhuang. However, the shells that landed on the real artillery positions were protected by sunken fortifications, so air waves and shrapnel had almost no impact. The artillery squad suffered damage, that is, two telephone lines were blown down by artillery fire, making it unable to receive orders from the company headquarters in a timely manner for 20 minutes.

To put it bluntly, on the afternoon of the 19th, it was mainly a battle between the artillery of both sides. The artillery of the 772nd Regiment caught the Japanese frontline infantry and beat them. The artillery of the Fourth Line Regiment grabbed the Japanese artillery positions distributed in several places and beat them. The Japanese artillery was to protect the enemy. Knickers' angrily counterattack.

After fighting all afternoon, Shinozuka Yoshio almost vomited a mouthful of blood when he received the report from the artillery regiment.

Of the 36 mountain artillery pieces, 5 were originally damaged by Chinese sneak attacks. They were all shot in one afternoon. Now, 31 of the remaining 11 pieces of artillery were destroyed. Not to mention only 20 pieces of artillery, there were more than 500 artillery casualties.

If Yoshio Shinozuka had been wiser and decided to run away at this time, I am afraid that there would not have been that famous rout. The independent regiment and independent battalion were not strong enough to form a complete encirclement of the 10th Division, leaving two wings on both sides. With a gap of more than 3 kilometers, the 10th Division had to run away, but the Chinese soldiers, who also relied on only two legs, could not keep them.

However, the information that the two mixed brigades would arrive on the battlefield the day after tomorrow gave Yoshio Shinozuka the determination to continue to persevere. It would be fine if he could not suppress the Chinese. Is it possible that he could not even stop them?

So, throughout the night, there was a constant sound of digging in the trenches of the two armies.

Regardless of whether it was the Four Lines Regiment or the Independent Regiment, they all dug forward in shifts. The Japanese army also did not dare to stop for a while and desperately deepened and reinforced their trenches.

It seems that both sides have planned to compete to see who can dig more soil without relying on bullets.

Both China and Japan are exhausted!

This kind of physical work is no easier than fighting. According to young Adong, he would rather fight the Japanese face to face than wield a pickaxe to dig holes like a hard-working bamboo rat.

This is a physical and mental test for any soldier.

Because of this kind of work, after the sun rose, it actually lasted for most of the day.

Eager to make up for yesterday's mistake, Japan's North China Front Army Aviation Corps once again dispatched a bomber group of 16 fighters, this time led by Captain Sasaki.

However, the Japanese bomber group, which did not easily enter the core area of ​​the battlefield and cruised outside the battlefield, was dumbfounded after sending reconnaissance planes that entered the low-altitude area as if they were dead.

The Chinese trenches and our own trenches are almost touching each other from 900 meters in the air. If they drop bombs, it means killing one thousand enemies and losing nine hundred to themselves.

That's a big deal. Making a mistake once may be an accident, but making the same mistake again just one day later is a definite fool. Captain Sasaki is an extremely smart person.

As a result, 16 Japanese fighter planes roared and circled over the outer perimeter of the battlefield for several times, then turned around gracefully, and interacted with the eagerly awaited 10th Division on the ground.

The thrifty Captain Sasaki even ordered that heavy bombs were not allowed to be thrown away. The empire's resources must not be wasted. This caused the fuel gauges of several Japanese planes to light up red when they landed.

As long as Captain Sasaki hesitates for a few more minutes, this bomber group may become the first bomber group in history that did not drop a bomb, fired a bullet, or suffered any attacks, but was almost run out of fuel by its own bombs and crashed. of weirdness.

The Japanese pilots had a pretty good eye. In fact, the closest trench between China and Japan was only 60 meters away. That was definitely the limit of distance between cheeks.

. . . . . . . . .

ps: Tomorrow is my daughter’s 18th birthday. I promised my daughter to take her and her grandparents to a hot spring resort. I will take a day off tomorrow! (End of chapter)