Rise from eight hundred.

Chapter 1440: Eating Dumplings and Fighting the Japs

"Order the besieged Japanese invaders not to attack by force, and to use cold guns and cold artillery to cut off the communication between their various units as the main means of combat. Anyone who has cold guns and sniped the Japanese invaders and has battlefield records to prove it, whether officers and soldiers of our Fourth Bank Regiment or the 11th and 18th Divisions, can apply to the Fourth Bank Regiment Logistics Department for two cans of beef, two catties of refined rice, 2 milk candies, a box of cigarettes, and three dollars!"

Commander Hu of the 11th Division still gave face to Tang Dao. Considering that the tactics of besieging the two Japanese troops were completely initiated and led by the Sihang Regiment, he made a report to his army commander and Commander Chen who was far away in Enshi, and appointed Tang Dao as the first commander of Beidoushan and Sifangwan area in the name of the supreme commander of Shipai Fortress, responsible for commanding the four infantry regiments involved in the encirclement and annihilation of the Japanese army.

As the first commander, Tang Dao never considered a strong attack. That was because although the Japanese were surrounded tightly, the Japanese army had a strong ability to build field fortifications. In the face of deep desperation, they performed at an extraordinary level. In just one afternoon and one night, they built trenches and anti-artillery holes based on the terrain of the mountainous area.

If they were to attack by force, several thousand Japanese soldiers would surely be killed, but at least half of the Chinese soldiers present would also have to be buried with the Japanese army. Commander Tang would not do such a loss-making business.

As for whether the night will be long and full of troubles, based on the current strength of the Japanese 11th Army after its depletion, unless Yokoyama Isamu has the courage to rush all of his remaining 7 troops into the mountains, there is no possibility of breaking the encirclement.

但现在第3战区的第10集团军，第9战区的74军等已经抵达石牌外围，中方在方圆100公里内的兵力高达18万，就问如今锐气已失的横山勇有没有那个勇气。

Anyway, even if one is as brave as the Tang sword, he would think twice before acting in such a situation.

The tactic of encircling the area without attacking has been approved by the commanders of the two major war zones.

But not attacking or not forcing an attack does not mean that you cannot kill the Japanese. Tang Dao, who had been plotted against by the two big guys, was furious, so naturally he could only vent his anger by killing the Japanese.

As soon as Tang Dao, the supreme commander, gave the order, except for the officers and soldiers of the headquarters of the Sixing Regiment, the other three infantry regiments were all ready to fight and their morale was high. The lives of the Japanese soldiers now had nothing to do with national hatred or the rage for revenge; it was all about delicious food and money.

It was really that the reward given by Commander Tang was too generous. Three dollars was fine, but the key was that canned beef, milk candy, refined rice, and cigarettes were indeed the most scarce supplies on the front line, and these things could not be bought even if you had money.

Even in an elite infantry army like the 18th Army, not many people had eaten Japanese canned beef, let alone smoking. Some heavy smokers would just get some dry leaves, roll them up and smoke. Sometimes they didn't even have paper, so they would just light a dry branch and put it in their mouths to satisfy their craving.

  This Tang Tuanzuo came up and gave a reward of a box of cigarettes. Who could bear this?

As the saying goes: when you are poor, you must think of change! In order to obtain rewards without violating military regulations and discipline, officers at all levels, who were eager to capture the Japanese positions and chop off the Japanese heads to claim credit, came up with various tricks.

Some, like the officers and soldiers of the Four-Line Regiment, sent out a large number of three-person teams, using the cover of night and bushes to sneak into the mountains. At the closest point, they were less than 300 meters away from the Japanese position. Then, during the day, they would seize the opportunity to shoot and kill one person and quickly run away.

This is the most conventional one, and the main focus is on whether the level of lurking and the shooting skills are superb enough. To be able to shoot the Japanese soldiers in the trenches at 300 to 400 meters with the naked eye requires not ordinary shooting skills. In any infantry company, he would be a well-known accurate shooter.

The reason for such a long distance is that, as the old saying goes: A trapped beast will still fight! The Japanese devils are not good men and women. Although the 231st Infantry Regiment is trapped, it is still in the jar and not on the chopping block. The Japanese infantry's shooting skills and grenade launchers with a range of up to 500 meters are not vegetarian. If you are bitten, you will be injured at best or even killed at worst.

The final victory is about to be achieved. The Chinese soldiers are not fools. They cannot say that they will lose even the right to raise their guns and cheer before the victory.

There weren't many Chinese precision shooters, but there were so many infantry companies involved! There were 231 infantry companies besieging the 30st Infantry Regiment alone. Even if each company had one or two good precision shooters, they could kill to Japanese infantrymen in each round of attack.

The Japanese troops were so nervous that they either huddled in the cold trenches, not daring to expose their heads, or observed the surrounding mountains and forests as if they were facing a great enemy, and did not dare to relax at all.

This is the purpose of Tang Dao. When people's spirit is constantly tense, their adrenaline will be secreted vigorously and their reactions will be quicker in the early stage. But nothing is infinite, including adrenaline. In the middle and late stages, people will become dull and extremely tired. This is why after a large-scale exam, many energetic young people will still have to sleep for more than ten hours to recover.

The purpose of the Tang sword is to provoke the Japanese army with continuous deaths, making them constantly nervous and excited, until their spiritual cores are gradually exhausted and even their iron bodies can no longer withstand the internal consumption.

Tang Dao had no intention of spending more than half a month here with them. It would be fine to let the officers and soldiers spend New Year's Eve on the battlefield, but the Lantern Festival must be celebrated in a lively manner.

As for whether someone would falsely claim military merit, it might be possible in other troops, but in the Four-Line Regiment or the 11th and 18th Divisions with strict military discipline, this phenomenon is extremely rare. Especially after experiencing such a bloody battle, if the surviving soldiers still try to cheat, they would be too disappointing. Tang Dao chose to believe them.

In addition to the conventional ones, there are naturally unconventional ones.

An infantry battalion of the 11rd Regiment of the 33th Division came up with a surprising strategy. Didn't Commander Tang say to try to divide and encircle the Japanese army? After two days of observation, the infantry battalion took advantage of the night of January 1, the New Year's Eve, when the Japanese army was paralyzed by the thought that it was the Chinese New Year's Eve and the Chinese military would not attack. They used three elite infantry squads to lurk in front of the position, and then used their personal connections to persuade the regiment commander to contact his own artillery battalion to bombard the high ground where a Japanese infantry squad was stationed.

This kind of occasional shelling of the hilltop became almost commonplace during the two or three days of siege, and the Japanese infantry had long been accustomed to it. When faced with shelling, they would hide in trenches or anti-gun holes and endure it silently.

The 231st Infantry Regiment still had a dozen mountain artillery pieces available, but with their continuous consumption and the abandonment of a lot of supplies during the evacuation, their shells were already running out. If they could return fire once out of ten Chinese shells, it would be good enough.

There was no way out. For the Japanese army at this time, they were like a tiger in a desperate situation. What the Chinese had suffered before, it was now their turn to bear.

But the Japanese did not expect the Chinese to be so bold. More than 40 elite infantrymen carrying submachine guns had been lurking under their noses, only 100 meters away from the position where the artillery fire was rumbling.

So, when the sound of artillery fire gradually became sparse, the Japanese army just got out of the simple anti-artillery hole, and heard the soldiers who were still on guard at the position shouting heartbreakingly that the enemy was attacking, and then they heard the Chinese words that frightened them even more: "Surrender to me!"

Dozens of black things were thrown into the Japanese trenches from thirty meters below the hillside. At that moment, the Japanese infantrymen were so frightened that their blood almost froze.

The Chinese artillery is not scary because they do not have large-caliber heavy artillery. The destructive power of the 75mm mountain artillery is average. As long as there are anti-gun holes and trenches, people generally will not die unless they are extremely unlucky.

But the 39th Division, which had been fighting on the Chinese battlefield for more than a year, was most afraid of the Chinese imitating the long wooden-handled grenades of the German Empire. According to statistics, this thing caused the highest casualties among the Imperial Army.

Even though a single bomb has low destructive power, you can't stand up to a large number of them! There are dozens of them, which is equivalent to mortar shells accurately hitting the trenches and exploding. Who can withstand it?

But obviously, fear cannot stop people from being blasted by flying grenade shrapnel; only death can.

Once a person is dead, any more shrapnel will only make the body shake one more time.

Under the white light of the flares, the elite Chinese troops who rushed into the trenches in the smoke of two rounds of bombing fired at everything they could see with submachine guns and pistols.

It took less than 10 minutes to wipe out all the Japanese troops on this position, and they suffered less than 5 casualties.

In other words, the ammunition was consumed a bit too much. Almost 40 elite soldiers of the entire infantry battalion, equipped with submachine guns and pistols, fired more than 5000 bullets in just ten minutes, an average of more than 100 rounds per person.

The distressed colonel of the 33rd Regiment, who was over 50 years old, scolded the only remaining battalion commander on the phone for a full ten minutes. However, after hearing that Director Zhuang of the Logistics Department of the 46th Line Regiment promised to cash in the reward for killing 33 Japanese soldiers before dawn and add a special reward of a pig's hind leg, he did not even hesitate, and turned his anger into joy, and directly praised the infantry battalion commander for his proper tactics. The several signal soldiers at the rd Regiment were stunned. The commander's Sichuan opera face-changing was faster than that of professionals, and he didn't even need a transition.

The surprise attack on this small hill and the killing of 46 Japanese soldiers was only secondary. What was more important was that this hill was like a knife, completely cutting off the two high ground defended by a Japanese infantry squadron from its main force.

By the time the Japanese army reacted, an infantry company of the infantry battalion had already entered the position and taken over the defense of the hill. They placed two of the four heavy machine guns available to the entire battalion on the hill. At the same time, the six 4mm mortars of the 33rd Regiment were ready to provide fire support at any time.

On the first day of the Chinese New Year in 41, the military flag was planted in a corner of the high ground belonging to the Japanese army in the encirclement. For the Japanese army, it was extremely glaring but a small matter. It meant that with the erosion of the Chinese army, their positions gradually became smaller and the space for tactical activities was further compressed.

In the early morning, before daybreak, the Japanese army used two infantry squadrons to try to retake the position. However, before they reached 300 meters in front of the position, they were bombed to pieces by the concentrated fire of 24 mountain artillery pieces.

That was a masterpiece of the cooperation between the 11th Division's artillery battalion and the th Regiment's mountain artillery company. How could shelling the Japanese hiding in the trenches be as satisfying as shelling the Japanese exposed outside? If you were killed in the trenches, you couldn't even see the blood, but outside you could see arms and legs flying everywhere, which was a completely different feeling.

Only then did the Japanese completely accept the reality. The offensive and defensive sides had already switched positions, and they were now turtles hiding in their shells. The Chinese hoped to force them out of the trenches in this way so that they could be consumed bit by bit.

The 231st Infantry Regiment wisely abandoned its 200 separated comrades, just as the 11th Army had abandoned them.

Give it up! If you do it too often, it will easily become a habit.

A Japanese infantry company could only watch as the Chinese were forcibly separated from their own positions and trapped again.

Originally, they could get supplies from the brigade headquarters through this high ground, but now, they are hanging outside the isolated island. Let alone supplies, even looking at each other has become a luxury.

Speaking of New Year's Eve, the Japanese were naturally miserable and had nothing because of the constant cold gun and cold artillery attacks organized by the Chinese. They didn't even dare to light a fire in the cold winter night. All the Japanese in the encirclement, including Colonel Masayoshi Yamada, ate cold rice balls. Even after a long time in their stomachs, they could still feel the winter temperature.

On the Chinese side, Tang Dao had ordered each company to dispatch enough men as early as the afternoon to roll out dough and make dumplings in the reverse slope tunnel. Although there was a ban on open flames, the cooking locations of each kitchen squad were outside the range of the Japanese mountain artillery.

Moreover, the Japanese artillery trapped in the encirclement generally would not fire easily, because the area they occupied was extremely limited. Once they fired, their positions would be easily discovered. Now the Chinese side has more than 30 mountain artillery pieces and dozens of mortars watching them, and a saturation artillery attack could be launched at any time.

If his last defensive weapon was gone, Yamada Masayoshi would probably not have cried, but would have just cut his belly with a knife.

There were more than 4 soldiers from the four infantry regiments that participated in the battle. Except for those who were on attack missions outside, all of them ate hot dumplings on the night of New Year's Eve.

For this meal of dumplings alone, they consumed 5000 kilograms of bacon that the Four-Line Regiment had purchased when they set out from the mountain city. The Chinese officers and soldiers, who had just survived the meat grinder-like battlefield, had their mouths drooling with the food, and many of them even had tears in their eyes.

For example, Shi Dakuan, who insisted on coming along, was already the acting company commander of the 31th Company of the 9st Regiment, but the 9th Company was just a number. Apart from him, the sergeant company commander who was still quite lively and had just been promoted three levels, there was no other person in the company.

  The commander of the 31st Regiment simply let Shi Dakuan follow him. He let this brave soldier be his infantry company commander in order to inspire the officers and soldiers of the entire division to fight bravely, but he definitely couldn't be a guy who didn't know any tactics!

An incompetent general can lead to the death of the entire army. Although a company commander is only a grassroots officer, he has 150 people under him. If a new recruit who rises like a rocket leads 150 people to death, not only will the division commander surnamed Hu lose face, but he, the regiment commander, will become a laughing stock of the entire army.

The experienced army colonel wanted Shi Dakuan to stay by his side and teach him how to be a good commander, which was fundamentally different from being a private who just risked his life.

Shi Dakuan has been working hard. He has been following his regimental commander for the past two days, watching how he issues military orders to the battalion commanders and the various opinions he puts forward during his inspections of the battalion positions.

This made the army colonel very happy. He felt that this 17-year-old soldier was a good candidate. If he was kept by his side to train and learn from him for half a year, he might be able to become a qualified company commander.

But when it was time to eat the dumplings, the army colonel discovered that the young soldier started crying while eating.

"What's wrong with you kid? How come you peed yourself while you have dumplings to eat?" The army colonel who came from a humble background glared at him.

"Commander, I think of our squad leader and the others. Before the battle started that day, the squad leader told me that after the battle, he would use his military pay to treat our entire class to dumplings and drinks. The platoon leader also said that he would join in. In the end, they were all gone, not even a single dumpling could be eaten." Shi Dakuan's eyes were filled with tears. There was not a trace of the ferocious look he had on the battlefield, as he held a Japanese soldier's trachea in his mouth, and fought the Japanese army everywhere with red eyes and a gun in his hand.

"You kid, it's inevitable that a clay pot will break at the wellhead, and it's inevitable that a general will die in the battlefield." The army colonel was choked by the young soldier's words. He wanted to comfort him but couldn't even comfort himself.

In the battle on the 23rd, his 31st Regiment was actually already crippled, with less than 700 people still able to fight. The reason he was able to come here to participate in the encirclement and annihilation of the Japanese army this time was actually out of the selfish desire of the division commander surnamed Hu. He wanted to gain more military merits for the 31st Regiment, and when he reported it, he could get more bonuses for the officers and soldiers who died in the battle.

Tang Dao probably knew what the division commander surnamed Hu was thinking, and he took great care of this former main infantry regiment, which was actually composed of only one infantry battalion. The entire 31st Regiment guarded three high grounds, which were the most difficult terrain for the Japanese army to break through, to prevent them from suffering further losses.

"Don't be too sad. I've specially approved a bowl of dumplings, a bottle of wine and a pack of cigarettes for you. After we finish this last battle, you can offer them on the graves of your brothers in the 9th Company." said the army colonel.

"Thank you, sir. I thank you on behalf of our brothers in the 9th Company." Shi Dakuan's eyes were full of gratitude.

He knew how precious supplies were on the battlefield. For his wish, a commander was so generous. That showed his deep affection and loyalty.

"You kid, you're a good candidate to be a company commander!" The army colonel patted Shi Dakuan's shoulder hard.

Shi Dakuan was slightly stunned. This was not the first time the regiment commander praised him, but it was also the first time that he said he could be a company commander.

It was not because he was the only soldier in the company who walked out of the battlefield alive and well, nor was it because of his impressive military achievement of killing 6 enemies, but rather it was a commemoration of his fallen comrades.

  The young soldier didn’t understand, it was because of purity and character!

Perhaps he will change a lot in the future, but not forgetting his comrades-in-arms with whom he shared life and death will give him a unique cohesion, which is the first condition for being a good grassroots officer.

  Many things you don’t know can be learned, but this one alone cannot be learned, because that is human nature!

The army colonel liked this little soldier very much. He saw his former self in Shi Dakuan.

But the army colonel didn't know that this little soldier actually did something extraordinary after eating dumplings on New Year's Eve.

In order to repay the captain for promising to give his brothers a bowl of dumplings, he decided to earn the canned beef reward from Captain Tang.

(End of this chapter)