Rise from eight hundred.

Chapter 1463: East is not moving, West is moving (Part )

Even the former 683rd Brigade had grown into the th Army's top force during this period of time, with enough strength to compete with a Japanese infantry brigade, let alone this time and space.

After the Taihang Arsenal left the Sihang Regiment, it worked at full capacity to manufacture all kinds of ammunition. In that year alone, it produced 600 million rounds of bullets of various calibers, and more than 10 artillery shells of various calibers needed by the guard brigade and various units of the th Army were produced.

It can be said that the actual strength of the 80th Army at this time was enough to fight a head-on battle with the entire North China Front Army.

Facing such a powerful enemy, it was simply a pipe dream for the Japanese to rely on an infantry battalion of a thousand men and the city walls to hold out until reinforcements arrived.

Due to insufficient manpower, the Japanese army voluntarily abandoned their positions and fortifications outside the city and retreated into the city walls when they discovered that a large number of Chinese troops were moving towards Linfen City.

Wang Xiaoqiang was not polite either. He immediately deployed his precious artillery battalion and the heavy mortar company supported by the brigade. More than 26 artillery pieces bombarded the city wall, firing nearly 500 shells, creating a gap of more than 3 meters in the nearly 20-meter-thick city wall.

  The Japanese troops defending the city were in despair at that moment!

However, Wang Xiaoqiang did not immediately order his troops to charge into the gap in the city wall under the hail of Japanese bullets. Instead, he used a group of small-caliber mortars to cover the rear and left and right sides of the gap with artillery fire.

Yes, the 60mm mortar, a squad-level support firepower, was greatly welcomed by the various units of the 60th Army after being put into practice on the battlefield. The Taihang Arsenal specially arranged a workshop to produce this small-caliber mortar. Half a year ago, the 683rd Brigade, which was the first to be equipped with 460mm mortars, was equipped with of these small guns.

Wang Xiaoqiang, the commander of the 772nd Regiment, once had a sudden idea and concentrated 46 60mm mortars equipped by an infantry battalion to launch a concentrated artillery fire on the Japanese positions in the distance.

As a result, the effect was very ideal.

As the saying goes: ants can kill elephants if they are too many! Although the damage of a single shot of this small shell, which weighs only one or two kilograms, is limited, more than 40 rounds can be thrown at a wave, and more than 600 rounds can be thrown at the target area in one minute of rapid firing, and the bombing effect is also extremely amazing.

We have never done this before because we had limited shells and could only use good steel on the blade. Now that we have the conditions, we can naturally do this.

Without the protection of trenches and fortresses more than 1.5 meters deep, any naked body exposed on the battlefield could not escape the continuous artillery fire.

In order to prevent the Japanese army from redeploying temporary positions on both sides of the gap and in the front to cause heavy casualties to the charging officers and soldiers, the 80 60mm mortars that had been prepared in advance completed an unprecedented small artillery fire in the anti-Japanese battlefield.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!" The sound of a single 60mm mortar shell exploding was commonplace for the veterans.

  But what does it feel like when these small shells that can blow away several people with one shot explode continuously like firecrackers?

I'm afraid only the Japanese troops deep in the center of the artillery fire area can understand this!

But no one can tell this feeling!

Because no one can survive after being bombarded by artillery fire for more than 2 minutes.

Wang Xiaoqiang's prediction came true. Colonel Asao Heishiro, the highest commander of Linfen City at the time, was keenly aware that the Chinese would use that place as the main breakthrough point after the Chinese began to use various artillery to concentrate fire on the city wall.

朝生平四郎大佐迅速调了6挺重机枪和3个步兵小队在该处城墙周边建立了三个临时阵地，正面拥有4挺重机枪和1个步兵小队的3挺轻机枪和3个掷弹筒，两个侧翼阵地分别有1挺重机枪1个步兵小队，形成了左中右三道交叉火力。

If any soldier rashly broke in through the gap in the city wall, under such crossfire, not to mention a company, perhaps hundreds of people in a battalion would be shot to death.

But the Japanese army did not have much time. The hastily arrived Japanese army had no time to dig trenches and could only use houses and piled sandbags as temporary fortifications on the spot.

These fortifications can block bullets, but if they are used to block the blast of artillery shells, that would be a bit too much.

As a result, the Japanese who were ready for battle did not wait for the Chinese charge, but instead received a barrage of small artillery shells as dense as raindrops.

The more than 200 Japanese soldiers deployed by Heishiro Asao were like an innocent little girl meeting a group of strong men just released from prison. They lay down before they had time to resist.

But their deaths were not in vain. More than 200 lives were exchanged for more than 2000 artillery shells from China. The casualty ratio of nearly 1 to 10 is enough to be proud of.

But the problem is that the 772nd Regiment entered the city.

At that time, only 30 minutes had passed since Asao Heishiro sent the telegram.

The two Japanese infantry battalions that were still participating in the attack did not have time to report to Major General Motomasa Takashi, and they took the initiative to withdraw from their positions. They sent a signalman to report the current battle situation in Linfen City to the 2nd Independent Mixed Brigade, and then hurried back to Linfen.

After all, their infantry regiment commander and regiment headquarters were there. Although Motoko Motoka was a major general, the 2nd Independent Mixed Brigade could not control them.

Up to this point, the Japanese army had not overestimated China's combat effectiveness. They believed that the more than a thousand imperial colleagues in the city could use the city's buildings to hold out for at least one day, at least until their arrival.

"How stupid!" Ben Zheng Duocai cursed with a dark face.

He had misjudged his estimate of the opponent's strength once, so the most important thing to do now was to annihilate the Chinese group in front of him with all his strength, and then gather forces to return to Linfen for support.

If they immediately abandoned the battlefield and ran back after receiving the telegram for help like these two infantry battalions, they would be making a mistake on top of a mistake, just like being led by the nose for a walk like a dog.

The final result can only be that neither side will gain any benefits.

If the Chinese were to besiege the city and attack the reinforcements, the entire army would be destroyed if we were not careful.

The talented Major General finally showed his extraordinary intelligence that could make him a general, but he lacked the command over friendly forces and could only watch the two infantry battalions disappear into the distance, cursing as they got farther and farther away from the battlefield.

Then, the talented major general's "crow brain" came into play.

The 772nd Regiment has arrived, so why wouldn’t the 683st Regiment, another main force of the 771rd Brigade, come?

The 771st Regiment, led by Brigade Commander Chen, who had been promoted to commander of the Taiyue Military Region, actually entered the battlefield earlier than the 772nd Regiment lurking in the Taiyue Mountain area.

As early as when Lei Xiong led the security brigade from southern Hebei into Taihang and headed towards Wangwu Mountain, the 771st Regiment broke up into small units, abandoned all large equipment, and set out from the Taiyue Military Region with all light equipment, sneaking into the mountains and forests no more than 40 miles away from Linfen to wait for orders.

For this day, they had been living in the mountains eating cold steamed buns and drinking cold water for seven days.

Finally, they waited for two Japanese infantry battalions to come back in a hurry to provide support.

The 771st Regiment had a total of 4500 people as its main force. Although they did not carry any heavy mortars, mountain guns or infantry guns, they did carry 20-kilogram 60-kg mortars.

As for heavy machine guns, all Maxim and Min 42 were abandoned and replaced by the MG771 heavy machine gun. The st Regiment had an overall advantage in terms of both light and heavy firepower and manpower.

After Wang Xiaoqiang received the news from the brigade commander that the ambush had officially started, he officially issued the military order to fully recapture Linfen.

The 772nd Regiment that entered the city did not actually use its full strength. Its purpose was to make the Japanese troops trapped in the city ask for help and completely wipe out the Japanese troops that could still maneuver around Linfen. Within at least two days, the only Japanese troops left around Linfen would be the several thousand people of the 2nd Independent Mixed Brigade.

Although street fighting was very difficult, for the 772nd Regiment equipped with infantry artillery, the flimsy residential houses in Linfen City did not pose much difficulty. If there were Japanese troops hiding in them, they would use grenades and explosive packs to deal with them if possible, and if they could not, they would call in the Japanese 70mm infantry artillery. If one shot could not destroy them, they would use two or three more shots.

It took only four hours to clear out all the Japanese troops in the city.

The supplies and equipment that the Japanese army had no time to burn in the city were either distributed to the civilians or blown up. The 772nd Regiment, without any attachment to the city, set out for the battlefield of the Guard Brigade at night.

By then, the 771st Regiment had already eliminated all the enemies in front of them and arrived at the battlefield at 11 o'clock at night.

If Major General Ben Zhengduo had received the news that friendly forces had been ambushed, he would have slipped away long ago and would not have had to continue to engage with the Security Brigade.

But the fatal thing was that as soon as the battle started, the Chinese side launched an artillery attack on the middle section of the Japanese army that was on the march based on observation. Several shells landed in the queue of the Japanese communication unit with incredible accuracy, directly destroying the two radio stations owned by that Japanese army.

This also led to the complete loss of contact between this Japanese army and the outside world.

If the weather was fine, the Japanese reconnaissance planes would also fly over this area of ​​the sky, at least they would be able to see the battlefield that was already in full swing. Unfortunately, it happened to be drizzling that afternoon, and the Japanese reconnaissance planes in Yuncheng were unable to take off in time.

Excellent tactics and good luck also enabled the 683rd Brigade and the Guard Brigade to fight an incredibly amazing battle when the Battle of Zhongtiao Mountain was already in danger.

The key to this battle lies not in Linfen, nor in the 2nd Independent Mixed Brigade which has been attacked from both inside and outside.

For a large-scale battlefield of this battle level, the casualties of 10,000 soldiers would make the commander heartbroken, but would not cause serious damage.

Even Okamura Koji, who was far away in Pingbei City, had already prepared for 3 casualties among imperial officers and soldiers when he formulated the tactical plan for the Battle of Zhongtiao Mountain.

Compared with the huge casualties, the Zhongtiao Mountains, a mountain range that stretches north of the Yellow River, was a thorn in the side of the Japanese North China Front Army. Without removing it, the Japanese North China Front Army would have no chance of advancing into Shaanxi Province, let alone the strategy of attacking northern Sichuan from the west and forcing the Yamashiro government to surrender.

The two Chinese troops that suddenly appeared at the gate of Linfen City and successfully defeated Linfen posed the greatest threat to the Japanese troops on the front line at Yuncheng.

Yuncheng is only 150 kilometers away from Linfen. If an army is able to march quickly, it can reach the city in just one day and one night.

Under normal circumstances, Ando Twenty-three, the then commander of the Japanese front line, would have had more than enough troops to rescue Yuncheng, which was only 60 kilometers away from the front line.

However, the fall of Linfen City and the encirclement of the 2nd Independent Mixed Brigade happened almost overnight, leaving Lieutenant General Ando Twenty-three with only one night. Moreover, the Chinese army, whose defense line was about to collapse, seemed to have learned the news. The two major retreating armies began to hold their ground, and the divided and surrounded Fourth and Fifth Armies also began to attack the Japanese defense line that had just been established not long ago with infantry divisions, at all costs.

In particular, the 17th Division of the 12th Army even launched a counterattack in a 3000-kilometer mountain area at the regiment level, and at the cost of sacrificing nearly people, broke through two hastily built lines of defense by the Japanese army.

Although such attacks caused a surge in casualties among the Chinese troops on the front line, they forced Ando 23 to send out two divisions of reserve troops in advance, leaving him with no extra troops to return to Yuncheng in a short period of time.

It took a week and nearly 10,000 casualties to finally achieve the strategic goal. No one would give up easily, not even Lieutenant General Ando Nijusan, nor Okamura Koji who was far away in Pingbei City.

The two Japanese army generals were well aware that the empire's strategic focus had shifted to Southeast Asia, and the North China Front Army had already received orders to transfer two elite divisions to the Southeast Asian battlefield in September. This might be the only chance to break through the Zhongtiao Mountain defense line. If this rare opportunity was missed, the North China Front Army might stay north of the Yellow River forever.

Therefore, the two Japanese generals who stared at the map of southeastern Shanxi all night and couldn't sleep all night placed their hopes on the 2nd Independent Mixed Brigade.

It was an infantry brigade with independent combat capabilities. In addition to two fully-staffed infantry regiments of 2 people, it had no shortage of cavalry, artillery, engineering, and logistics. It might not be able to defeat the more than 7000 Chinese troops that had already appeared. If the mountain defense battle could be dragged on for two days, and the Chinese army that was frantically counterattacking suffered too many casualties and the army on the front line recovered, it would send troops to support it. This would be enough to ensure that the previous results were not lost, and there would be an % chance of breaking through the Zhongtiao Mountain defense line.

Perhaps, the only thing abandoned in the entire tactical design was the 2nd Independent Mixed Brigade.

But, without sacrifice, how can there be victory?

Okamura Koji was also a very decisive general. Faced with the choice between breaking through the Zhongtiao Mountain defense line and the life and death of an independent mixed brigade, he chose the former without hesitation.

The number of the 2nd Independent Mixed Brigade has been crossed out in Okamura Koji's mind.

He knew very well that the speed at which the enemy broke through Linfen City showed that it was the main force of the 921th Army Group, most likely part of the st Division that became famous in the Battle of Zishan.

The 2nd Independent Mixed Brigade is very likely to suffer heavy losses in the face of their attack.

But that doesn't matter, they only need to exchange their lives for two days and nights.

As the commander of a front, a division is just a chess piece on the chessboard, let alone a small mixed brigade? As long as this chess piece can play its due role when it is used, its final fate is not important.

There was actually nothing wrong with this tactical deployment. According to statistics after the war, on that night alone, in order to delay the main force of the Japanese army, the Chinese side suffered more than 1.4 casualties, which was even close to the total losses in the first three days of the entire Zhongtiaoshan Campaign.

  The 17th Division even suffered a % casualty rate as a result!

This is also hailed as the most brilliant night for the Chinese troops, who had originally performed poorly in the Second Battle of Zhongtiao Mountain.

Without this extremely bloody night, Anda 23 would most likely have transferred a reserve division back to Yuncheng to deploy defenses. The main force and the guard brigade of the 80th Army, which had put aside past grudges, would at most have achieved the result of breaking through the city of Linfen and annihilating an independent mixed brigade.

Although that was a good result, compared with the loss of the Zhongtiao Mountain defense line, the result of annihilating 10,000 enemies would be meaningless.

The Tenth War Zone located in Shaanxi Province will lose its most important line of defense along the Yellow River, and the Japanese North China Front Army will be able to advance eastward at any time.

As for the national strategy, the Chinese Military and Political Department had to transfer elite infantry troops in central and southern China to Shaanxi Province to prevent the loss of the Yellow River defense line.

Originally in the south, China had only been able to hold off the Japanese offensive. If it were to withdraw more troops, it would undoubtedly be even more difficult.

The Japanese North China Front Army lost the gamble.

Upon receiving the military order, Major General Ben Zhengduocai did not evacuate in time and could only deploy defenses on the spot. It was not until the next morning, when artillery fire was everywhere, that he realized what kind of Chinese troops he had encountered.

Those were arguably China's two most elite infantry brigades in North China, and they completely defeated the Japanese army in terms of personnel quality, equipment, and manpower.

It is not important that there were as many as 70 infantry companies available for the attack. What is important is that there were as many as 300 artillery pieces of various types involved in the shelling of the Japanese positions that day, including 36 mountain cannons, 150 24 heavy mortars, 70 22mm infantry guns, 82 42-caliber mortars, and 60 200mm mortars.

That would be fine, as both mountain artillery and mortars are mainly used to kill infantry and do not have much destructive power against solid bunkers.

The Japanese army's civil engineering work was not to be underestimated. They dug 1.2 meters of trenches and more than 400 anti-artillery holes of various types overnight. No matter how fierce the Chinese artillery fire was, they could not destroy the 2nd Independent Mixed Brigade by artillery fire alone. In the end, they had to charge with infantry.

  As a result, when the Japanese army was hiding in the trenches to avoid the rain of shells, the Chinese engineers approached to 200 meters outside the front line, dug out temporary individual shelters and temporary trenches, and deployed a kind of "thick-barreled artillery" that could not be more primitive!

In the early morning light, as the little red flag was waved again and again, the homemade cannon with a gasoline barrel as the barrel threw explosive bags as big as bamboo hats onto the Japanese positions.

That would be a devastating disaster for the Japanese troops on the battlefield.

The five-kilogram explosive pack used a terrifying shock wave to kill countless Japanese soldiers in trenches and anti-gun holes. Many Japanese soldiers appeared to have no scars on the surface, but blood spurted out of their mouths and noses because their internal organs were shattered.

The defense line, which was carefully constructed overnight, was blown apart by the Chinese with crazy artillery shells and explosives in less than an hour.

When the Japanese bombers that took off from Yuncheng flew over the battlefield at 8 o'clock, they were fully loaded with bombs and could not drop even a single one. The Chinese and the 2nd Independent Mixed Brigade were completely entangled in each other. On the battlefield, you are in me and I am in you. Dropping a random bomb might blow both the Chinese and the Japanese into ashes.

After circling several times, the Japanese aircraft group had no choice but to return.

The 2nd Independent Mixed Brigade, which was divided and surrounded by the Chinese side, did not hold out for long. The fierce fighting lasted until the afternoon, and only sporadic gunfire remained on the battlefield.

After winning the victory, the two elite Chinese infantry brigades did not even clean up the battlefield. Instead, they immediately split into four groups and marched towards Yuncheng.

  And at noon on the second day, the divine soldiers descended from the sky across a full 100 kilometers to the outskirts of Yuncheng!

An infantry battalion of the South Hebei Security Brigade, with the help of 20 jeeps equipped with heavy machine guns, raided Yuncheng's most important military airport.

Caught off guard, the outer defense line was breached, and the 40 fighter jets parked on the tarmac did not even have time to take off before they were destroyed by mortars and grenades from the Chinese side.

Air support was completely cut off, and the logistics base that provided supplies for the hundreds of thousands of troops was surrounded.

Lieutenant General Ando Nijusan, who was still commanding the battle at the front line, felt dizzy and almost fell down!

The group battle in the front has not yet been decided, and the highland tower in the back has lost all its crystals and is about to be stolen.

Ps: The chapter updated yesterday wrote the Guard Brigade as Guard Regiment, which I corrected in the past two days.

(End of this chapter)