Rise from eight hundred.

Chapter 1446 Chapter 1447 For that damn food!

Bullying people is not scary, what is scary is being hungry!

After all, the Jingu Detachment had more than 1800 people to share more than 600 kilograms of food, so each person could get at least half a kilogram, which was enough to fill their stomachs! It was still possible to calm down the rumbling stomach.

This is also thanks to the artillerymen of the Fourth Regiment who killed more than 100 Japanese soldiers in one go, which in a sense alleviated the distribution crisis of the Hariya Detachment.

  For the besieged 231st Infantry Regiment on the other side, the battle for airdropped supplies was even more brutal!

Because of the bounty order issued by Commander Tang, several infantry regiments have mobilized their forces to capture the high ground occupied by the Japanese army and to divide and encircle the Japanese positions. This has resulted in small encirclements within the large encirclement, and many parachutes have landed between the Chinese and Japanese positions which were almost face to face.

Being face to face on the battlefield meant that both sides were within the range of each other's rifles. Normally, soldiers on both sides would bend over and dare not show their heads when moving in the trenches. Now that supplies fell between the two sides, it naturally meant that whoever dared to pick them up would be under the threat of the other side's machine rifle.

Normally, these foods are naturally not the main consideration of the Japanese army, but for the soldiers of the 231st Infantry Regiment, who are about to run out of food and have long since halved their rations, these foods are more valuable than ammunition.

The Chinese side, which had sufficient logistical supplies, had no such need. Under the commander's order, they even began to destroy the wooden boxes with mortars and machine guns.

Seeing that the precious food was about to be destroyed by the Chinese side, the Japanese commander, who had originally wanted to wait until night to take advantage of the darkness to steal the food, finally couldn't bear it anymore. He used machine guns and grenade launchers for cover fire and sent infantry to try to drag the supplies back to the position.

  Then how could China allow the Japanese to succeed?

Almost all companies, platoons and squads of the Sihang Regiment had walkie-talkies, which they immediately used to call the mortars of each company and battalion to bombard the supplies and the Japanese troops. The infantry also counterattacked the Japanese troops with rifles, machine guns and 60 mortars.

Although the regiments of the 11th and 18th Divisions did not have advanced communication equipment like the th Regiment, they also had flares. Three red flares fired into the sky were the signal for the Japanese attack. Not only did all the infantry go to the front line, but the mountain artillery battalion also tore off their gun covers and bombarded the designated areas according to the orders from the front, entering a full battlefield state.

For the Japanese army, a tragic "battle for supplies" broke out completely on the afternoon of the second day of the Lunar New Year.

Both China and Japan not only deployed infantry, but also mobilized almost all of their artillery. The intensity of their artillery fire was no less than that of the attack on the Niuchangpo battlefield at that time.

However, this time the 231st Infantry Regiment was at a complete disadvantage. The Chinese side deployed more than 8000 infantrymen and nearly 75 artillery pieces of various types, including nearly 24 mm mountain cannons alone.

After the war, this battle that broke out because of the Japanese airdropped supplies was jokingly called the "battle for stuttering" by Commander Tang.

Whether in terms of manpower or artillery intensity, the Japanese side was at a complete disadvantage, and one can imagine what the final outcome would be.

According to statistics from battle reports seized from the Japanese army after the war, in the battle that lasted until the early morning, more than 870 Japanese soldiers were killed and more than 500 were seriously injured, but less than one ton of supplies were recovered.

  If we compare the number of casualties and the supplies, it is almost one life for 800 grams of food!

The entire 231st Infantry Regiment received only about 3 tons of supplies that day. For Colonel Masayoshi Yamada, who still had more than 3000 troops, this was just a drop in the bucket. It was only enough for the 231st Infantry Regiment to survive for another two days.

"It seems that we should welcome the 11th Army's airdrop."

On the second day after the war, Tang Dao received statistics on the number of Japanese soldiers killed by various units. The commander of the 4th Battalion, Cai Yongguan, even took advantage of a high ground where the Japanese soldiers were too aggressive in looting food, resulting in heavy casualties, and directly sent a platoon to chase them. After using intensive firepower composed of submachine guns and semi-automatic rifles to drive the remaining Japanese soldiers out of the high ground, he suddenly realized that this was really a good idea.

We can take advantage of the Japanese army's thirst for food to lure them out of their positions and kill them. This way, we can achieve the goal of consuming the enemy without launching a violent attack.

Although the top leaders of the war zone and the military and political department were eagerly waiting for the Japanese army to surrender, Tang Dao wanted to bury these Japanese troops directly in the mountains as fertilizer.

"The surrounded Japanese officers and soldiers are currently running out of food. From a humanitarian perspective, in order to avoid more unnecessary casualties, our Chinese officers and soldiers urge the Japanese to surrender immediately. We guarantee to treat the prisoners well. We are even willing to invite personnel from Western embassies in my country to the scene of the battle to supervise. We also ask the theater command to convey our wishes to the Japanese." The division commander surnamed Hu sent a telegram to the commander of the Third Theater on the second day after the airdrop of supplies.

This is the time for China to be proud! If the Western world, especially the Americans, saw this scene with their own eyes, would they feel that their investment would have a sufficiently generous return? Commander Chen of the Third War Zone was a well-known smart guy. He immediately sensed the possibility of maximizing the benefits of victory from this telegram.

China has now obtained several low-interest loans from the United States. Even though the mines in Yunnan Province were used as collateral, the Americans want to get back the principal and interest or even directly gain control of the mines. The prerequisite is that China can win this national war.

If China loses, not only will hundreds of millions of US dollars be lost, but the mortgaged mines will also become a piece of waste paper.

Unless the Japanese collectively go crazy, they will not admit that the ownership of these mines belongs to Chinese creditors.

The creditor is the one who most wishes the debtor well, and his level of concern is comparable to that of parents.

Therefore, at the invitation of the top military and political officials, the embassies of the United States, the British Empire, and the Gallic Empire all sent military attachés and reporters to take a boat from Shancheng and arrive at the Shipai battlefield on the seventh day of the Lunar New Year.

"This may not be the most tragic battlefield I have ever seen, but it is definitely the saddest battlefield I have ever seen. The once invincible Imperial Japanese Army, on this battlefield, is like a group of lambs surrounded by wolves.

Due to lack of food and ammunition, they were no longer able to launch any attack on the Chinese. It was only a matter of time before they were completely wiped out, or it depended on when the Chinese commanders decided to start attacking them.

But obviously, the Chinese army colonel named Tang who was in charge of the siege was not willing to lose even a single soldier in order to end the battlefield as soon as possible. His battle plan was just one word: "trapped". He used guns and cannons to make an indestructible cage, allowing thousands of people inside to starve to death.

Through my telescope, I have seen the remains of at least ten Japanese army soldiers. For some reason, they died on the hillside, but no one buried them. Perhaps the Japanese army did not dare to leave their positions easily, or perhaps there was not much space on their positions to dig graves.

  From a humanitarian perspective, I don’t want it to be the latter!

But my wish did not come true!

As one of the special envoys to persuade the Japanese army to surrender, I accompanied the German Empire military attaché Lieutenant Colonel Hausen into the position of the Japanese 11th Army's Hariya Detachment to persuade Major General Hariya Itsuhara to lead his troops to surrender.

That was perhaps the most miserable Army Major General I have ever seen. Lieutenant Colonel Hausen gave a few pieces of chocolate he had with him as a gift to the already pale-faced Major General Itsuhara Hariya. Major General Hariya ate up two pieces of chocolate in just a few seconds and gave the last two pieces to his personal guards.

I never thought that in the East, I could see eyes emitting green light. Maybe it was my illusion, but the guards stared at those chocolates like lovers who hadn't seen each other for years.

With two pieces of chocolate as energy supplement, Major General Itsuhara Hariya now has enough strength to reply to us. They will not surrender and will fight the Chinese to the end until the last man.

  I admire his spirit, but his approach is not advisable!

Because we have seen too many corpses along the way, most of whom died from injuries and hunger.

No one buried them either. These bodies, which looked extremely thin due to hunger, were just piled together like firewood stacks in Chinese villages.

  Perhaps it was not that there were not enough places to dig graves, but that the extremely food-scarce Japanese did not want to and could not waste their already precarious physical strength on digging a large number of graves.

I can guarantee that I did not tell the Chinese about the current situation of the Japanese on the battlefield. To some extent, I actually began to sympathize with these invaders known for their brutality, because when I saw these Japanese who had to eat grass roots and tree bark as their main food and had lifeless eyes, I even thought I had walked into hell. "

This was a record of the Chinese battlefield published on the front page of the famous Boston News the next day. The narrator was Lieutenant Colonel Frank, the military attaché of the British Empire Embassy, ​​who personally entered the Japanese position. According to this lieutenant colonel military attaché who participated in World War I, the despair brought by the lifeless position was even comparable to the depression of the Battle of Verdun, where he participated.

The vast majority of American citizens who are pro-China cheered, believing that this marked the beginning of a new stage in the Chinese battlefield and that the retreating Chinese army might counterattack and accomplish the feat of driving the invaders out of the country.

  But on the other side of the ocean in Japan, there was an uproar!

The news of the Chinese Expeditionary Army's defeat in the Battle of Shipai was not blocked. It was simply explained with the statement that it had not fully achieved the pre-war goals. This did not have much impact on the Japanese people.

The Imperial Army has been triumphantly advancing, and occasional failure to achieve planned combat objectives is within an acceptable range.

But we never imagined that behind the failure to achieve the pre-war goals there was such ugliness. Thousands of imperial officers and soldiers were trapped in the Chinese encirclement, and their situation was so miserable that a foreigner called it the saddest battlefield, like hell!

That was too much. The Japanese, who have always been disciplined, especially the college students, actually organized a parade and a sit-in demonstration around the Imperial Palace, hoping to severely punish the front-line generals who were inactive.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the Japanese Army Headquarters immediately issued a strict order to the China Expeditionary Army Command to provide sufficient support to the surrounded imperial officers and soldiers.

As the Chinese saying goes: "If there are conditions, go for it; if there are no conditions, create them and go for it!"

It was against this background that the largest airdrop operation in the history of the Japanese Army took place over the small town of Shipai.

From February 1941, 2, the ninth day of the Chinese New Year, the Japanese army assembled 5 transport planes and 40 Zero fighters to carry out the first round of airdrop supplies. Until February 100, 1941, they almost maintained the intensity of one round of airdrops of more than 2 tons of supplies a day, and continuously dispatched hundreds of sorties of fighters and transport planes, airdropping more than 10 tons of various supplies.

It is said that just to raise these supplies, the logistical support of an entire division was mobilized.

The Japanese were also greatly stimulated by the American newspapers. For their colleagues who were starving but still fighting to the end, they received more than 10 boxes of high-quality canned beef, 8 kilograms of cooked and raw rice, as well as a lot of milk candies, fresh meat and various vegetables.

If only one third of these supplies could reach the Japanese army, it would not only sustain them for ten days or half a month, but would also be extremely nutritious and could at least make up for half of the fat they had consumed previously.

But the Japanese people who were only responsible for airdropping supplies did not expect that from the day the supplies were airdropped, the famous "battle for food" would begin.

The soldiers on the high ground desperately fired at the wooden boxes scattered in the fields, and the artillery positions that had received replenished artillery shells fired at the area where the Japanese troops who had rushed out of the bunkers were located as if they were free.

According to post-war statistics, in the five-day battle for supplies alone, the entire Chinese side fired 100 million bullets of various types and 4200 artillery shells. Their ammunition consumption was actually more than that of the 11th Division defending the Shipai Central Fortress for four days.

Even Commander Chen, who received the report, was stunned by the horrific rate of ammunition consumption. He couldn't understand how all the bullets and shells could be used up in such a short period of 5 days.

Didn't the Japanese have their own positions and anti-artillery holes? The highest commander on the front line, Tang Dao, also ordered not to attack by force. Why was there such a large consumption? Could it be that they were just doing live ammunition training on the mountain when they had nothing else to do?

If General Chen did not have enough trust in Division Commander Hu, he would have thought at that moment that this was a false report of consumption and corruption of supplies.

"Reporting to Commander Chen, this battle is a fight for the Japanese airdropped supplies. We have killed at least 2000 Japanese invaders in five days, and the corpses of Japanese soldiers are scattered all over the field.

At this rate, the Japanese invaders will collapse without a fight, and our army will be victorious in no time!" In response to the commander surnamed Chen's question, the division commander surnamed Hu called back.

"Not good!" Admiral Chen slapped his thigh after receiving the telegram.

In just 5 days, they killed 2000 people. How many Japanese soldiers were there in the encirclement? If they continued like this, they would win a great victory, but they would not be able to let the whole world see thousands of Japanese soldiers surrender.

"In view of the shortage of supplies, our troops will mainly rely on siege and supplemented by attack, and try their best to force the Japanese army to surrender!" General Chen replied immediately.

"Commander, Commander Chen has called back. What should we do?" The Major General Chief of Staff handed the telegram to the division commander surnamed Hu.

"Captain Tang just called and said that the Zhengu Detachment only has three high grounds left, with about 3 people on them. He has planned to prepare artillery fire for four hours and launch a final battle against them."

"Let him do whatever he wants! The troops deployed over there are mainly from his Four-Line Regiment. We'll do whatever he says." The division commander surnamed Hu put down his teacup and looked into the distance with a sharp gaze.

"Commander, if Commander Chen comes to his senses one day," the Major General Chief of Staff reminded cautiously.

"What do you mean by coming back? I just made a suggestion as a subordinate should. The war of supply seizure against the Japanese invaders is also the most normal tactic. Can our soldiers just watch the Japanese eat the delicious canned beef falling from the sky? This is unreasonable!" The division commander surnamed Hu smiled faintly.

"We are soldiers, so we should consider issues from the perspective of the battlefield. Politics is not for reckless people like us.

By the way, please tell Captain Tang that the artillery battalion of our 18th Army requests to participate in the battle to annihilate the Jingu Detachment!"

"Yes!"

  February 2th, the tenth day of the Chinese New Year!

总计36门75毫米山炮，8门150迫击炮，6门80毫米榴迫炮，28门82毫米迫击炮，40门60毫米迫击炮，总计118门各型火炮，对针谷支队最后盘踞的3个高地进行炮击。

  The loud noise could be heard up to 15 kilometers away and lasted from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m.!

"Higashitani Detachment, it's over!" Colonel Masayoshi Yamada looked into the distance and sat dejectedly in the cold trench.

It was not simply a matter of grief for the loss of one's own country, but the Japanese Army colonel knew that his 231st Infantry Regiment would be the next to be attacked.

Even at the peak of their powers, his remaining 1500 men could not hold out for three days under this level of bombardment.

Not to mention that everyone is now as hungry as the wandering ghosts in hell.

And the reason for all this was because of that damn food.

(End of this chapter)