Rise from eight hundred.

Chapter 1490: Minced Meat Begins! (Seeking monthly pass at the end of the month!)

Rushing towards Hengyang at night were Rong Youlue, the commander of the 10th Division of the 190th Army, and a main infantry regiment under his command.

如果第10军是以第3师为底子建立起来的，预10师是第10军异军突起的主力师，那190师就是这支‘泰山军’中另一座重要基石。

The combat effectiveness of the 190th Division was actually not inferior to the other two infantry divisions of the 10th Army. However, the previous commander of the division lost the competition for the commander of the 10th Army with Fang Xianjue, so he simply threw himself into the arms of General Xue.

As a result, the 190th Division and the military headquarters had actually been at odds with each other a year ago. In many cases, the Division only obeyed the orders of the theater headquarters and was unaware of the orders of the military headquarters. This was especially true during the Battle of Changde in late 1943. Whether the death of Fang Xianjue's close friend Sun Mingjin, the commander of the 10th Reserve Division, had anything to do with this, I'm afraid all the parties involved know it very well.

However, in the personnel adjustment of the 4th Army in April, although Fang Xianjue was sent to the Military and Political Department as a benchwarmer by General Xue, the commander of the 10th Division did not get promoted to the commander of the 190th Army as he wished, but was transferred from the 10th Division to serve as deputy commander of another infantry army.

This time, the troops were assembled in Hengyang, and the 190th Division was stationed 300 miles away from Hengyang. In view of the insufficient troops in Hengyang, Fang Xianjue originally requested the theater command to return the 190th Division. However, the theater command refused on the grounds that the distance was too far and a long-distance march was not possible. Instead, it ordered the 190th Division to deploy on the spot and launch an attack on the Japanese army in order to slow down the Japanese army's advance on Nanyue and buy more time for the defense of Hengyang.

这道军令倒也没什么大错，第9战区所属的第72军、第37军、第58军、第20军、第44军、第26军正在浏阳一带与日军第3、第13两大野战师团带领的共约8万日军大战。

The tactics of layered defense, layered blockade, and step-by-step consumption also reduced the offensive of the Japanese 11th Army.

But Admiral Xue once again underestimated the determination of the Japanese China Expeditionary Army Command and the strength of Shimanuki Takeshi.

The Japanese troops from various directions infiltrated and took advantage of gaps, avoided the strong and attacked the weak, and dared to make large-scale detours and encirclements. Even when their rear communications were cut off by the Chinese army, they did not care and pursued the enemy in front of them relentlessly. In just three days, they defeated more than 10 Chinese troops around Liuyang.

On May 5, the 29th Division of the Japanese Army advanced towards Leiyang, southeast of Hengyang, intending to cut off the Guangdong-Hankou Railway in one fell swoop. The 13rd Division of the Japanese Army assembled towards Liling. The two routes of the Japanese army were like two large pliers approaching Hengyang.

It was under such circumstances that Fang Xianjue bypassed the theater command and sent a telegram directly in the name of the military headquarters to the 190th Division headquarters, which had been difficult to command before, asking them to return to the military headquarters so that the entire army could fight the enemy together.

The commander of the 190th Division was Rong Youlue, an Army major general who was promoted from the deputy commander of the 190th Division. He regarded General Xue as his benefactor and rarely interacted with Fang Xianjue. However, he had a good personal relationship with Ge Youcai, the commander of the 10th Reserve Division.

Fang Xianjue was trying his best to save the situation. The 190th Division had the military order from the theater headquarters, so they had enough reasons to disobey the order. Moreover, in the eyes of percent of people, Hengyang at this time was a place of death and despair, so it was normal for them not to come.

What was beyond everyone's expectations was that the commander of the 190th Division, Rong Youlue, actually came and left two of his only three infantry regiments to defend the original positions, while he himself led a main infantry regiment with less than 3 men to Hengyang.

And arrived on the night of May 5th!

Fang Xianjue brought four other people from the command center out of the city to personally welcome him. Meeting his former subordinate again after half a year, Fang Xianjue said nothing, but just held Rong Youlue's hand and shook it vigorously.

At this critical moment of life and death, retrograde motion has explained everything. What does other petty gains and fame matter?

Zhao Zili, Tang Dao and others saluted together, not only to the major general division commander, but also to the 1900 Chinese soldiers who had traveled a long distance and were covered in dust following him.

The last division of the 10th Army returns!

Of course, the retrogrades included not only the 190th Division, but also the artillery battalion that was rushing back at night.

As Japanese planes began to appear in the sky, the entire artillery battalion got off the train and took a small road to Hengyang a few days ago, fearing that the precious artillery would be destroyed by the planes.

This was safer, but much slower. When they arrived at Santang, more than 6 miles away from Hengyang, on the evening of June 1, they met Li Yutang, the former commander of the 30th Army stationed there and the current deputy commander-in-chief of the 10th Group Army.

At this time, the vanguard of the Japanese army had arrived and engaged in a scout battle with the defenders east of the Xiangjiang River. A small number of the vanguard of the Japanese army even crossed the Xiangjiang River and arrived south of Hengyang. Li Yutang suggested that the artillery battalion should not return to Hengyang for the time being to avoid being attacked by the Japanese army.

Obviously, an artillery unit equipped with only a dozen pistols, less than 30 rifles and protected by two machine gun guard platoons would be massacred even if it encountered only a Japanese infantry squad.

The Major Zhang Zuoxiang who had filed the "complaint to the Emperor" once again roared in response to the old army commander's good intentions: "If we didn't enter the city today for safety, we wouldn't have to rush back all the way from Guilin. My artillery battalion is a member of the 10th Army in life and a ghost of the 10th Army in death. Even if there are mountains of swords and seas of fire ahead, we must rush into the city today."

Li Yutang was deeply moved and even transferred his own personal guard company to protect this artillery unit that risked their lives to return and escort them back to Hengyang City.

After the Hengyang Command received the telegram from Li Yutang, Tang Dao immediately dispatched the 4th Regiment Mountain Infantry Company to meet the enemy along the way, and the reconnaissance company sent a reconnaissance platoon to scout the enemy situation.

Before the two units could meet up, the artillery battalion was blocked by a Japanese infantry squadron on the way.

The target of this artillery unit was too obvious. It took more than 12 pack horses to transport the 70 new US field artillery components, and the artillery battalion was reluctant to throw away 4000 precious artillery shells. With more than 600 people in the artillery battalion, the average weight of each soldier carrying a box of three artillery shells reached more than 3 kilograms, and the remaining artillery shells had to be carried by 30 pack horses.

To this end, the artillery battalion that got off the train purchased large carts and wheelbarrows that could be pushed by individual soldiers locally, which naturally made the team look more bloated.

Although officers and soldiers were strictly ordered not to make any noise during the march and the pack horses had their mouths tied, they still had to have lights to march at night. In addition, the escorting infantry company had a total of nearly a thousand people marching slowly and unwieldy in the fields where the road had been dug up, so it was difficult not to be noticed by the small Japanese troops.

The infantry squadron that first launched an attack on the 10th Army's artillery battalion belonged to the 116th Division.

This division came from Kyoto, code-named "Arashi", and was a special division formed by the personnel of the 16th Division left behind in Kyoto. In the early days, it only had 4 infantry battalions. After entering China in 1938, it participated in the Jiangxia Campaign and was upgraded from a Type B division to a Type A division because of its military exploits.

However, there are some differences between the 116th Division and the old standing divisions. It does not have 4 infantry regiments, but 3 infantry regiments, and the entire division has a strength of 2 people.

116师团和第3、第13师团这样2.8万人员编制的常设师团不能比，但在11军里，却已经算得上主力了。

For example, the 68th Division, whose vanguard had already crossed the Leishui River and was encircling the north of Hengyang City, was only a Type C division upgraded from a Type D division. The entire division had a strength of only 1.5 people and only 8 independent infantry battalions. Its strength was only half of the permanent divisions that entered China at the beginning of the war.

This is actually the current situation of the Japanese Army's infantry divisions in China. A considerable number of elite divisions have been transferred to the Pacific battlefield and the Southeast Asian battlefield. The Chinese battlefield can only rely on a part of the Type A divisions with a group of Type B divisions and even Type C and Type D divisions to hold up the show.

Moreover, as veterans continue to die, these small divisions are filled with a large number of new recruits, and their combat effectiveness is no longer the same as it was seven years ago.

  But even so, the 9-plus troops in the 20th War Zone are still being chased and beaten by 20 Japanese troops. How can people not feel sad and angry?

The infantry squadron that crossed the Xiangjiang River and arrived at the mountain area south of Hengyang was the 116th Infantry Regiment of the 120th Division, and its captain was Major Kurokawa Yoshihiro. In the Japanese Army, most infantry squadron captains were captains, and the fact that an infantry squadron captain was a major was like the infantry company commander in the Chinese Army being a major. This shows the seniority of Major Kurokawa, or the status of this infantry squadron in the 120th Infantry Regiment.

Those who hold high positions as commanders are always highly valued by their superiors, and this is also true for the Japanese.

The Kurokawa Squadron is the No.120 in the 1th Infantry Regiment, with 213 combat personnel and 4 infantry squads, each with 52 personnel. Each infantry squad has 3 light machine guns and 3 grenade launchers, and also has a heavy machine gun. This means that the Kurokawa Squadron has a total of 12 light machine guns, 12 grenade launchers and 4 heavy machine guns, which is not available in ordinary Chinese infantry battalions.

As the vanguard unit of the division that first entered the battlefield, the Kurokawa Squadron's main task was to scout the terrain and use cameras to harass and attack all Chinese troops in the activity area.

Isn't a "transport team" like the 10th Army Artillery Battalion a fat piece of meat in the eyes of the Kurokawa Squadron? Even though the Kurokawa Squadron, from Kurokawa Glory on down, didn't know what this "transport team" was transporting.

In the Battle of Hengyang in the past, Major Kurokawa Honor was a "celebrity" who appeared in historical books.

When a minor character's name appears in a book, it's usually not a good thing. If Kurokawa Rongyao could see the future, he might change his mind.

The excerpt from the Battle of Hengyang published by the War History Research Office of the Japanese Defense Agency reads: "The 120th Infantry Regiment's battle report records July 7, sunny! It was a short summer night. Captain Kurokawa rushed to the front, carrying a sword. Suddenly, two grenades exploded, and Captain Kurokawa died heroically on the spot."

In the past, Major Kurokawa Honor was killed by two grenades in the mud on the western outskirts of Hengyang City, but in this era, due to changes in tactical plans, the 116th Division took over the main attack on the south of Hengyang City.

A month in advance, Major Kurokawa Honor and his 200 imperial officers and soldiers arrived in this hilly and mountainous area.

The time and scenes are different, but the ending of Kurokawa Glory has not changed much.

  Kurokawa Honor led his four infantry squads to attack the 4th Army Artillery Battalion. The Japanese Army Major was very confident. Although the transport team's queue was four or five hundred meters long and the number of people was several times that of his infantry squadron, based on his and the Chinese army's combat experience, the Chinese soldiers would quickly fall into panic once they encountered a head-on attack. After continuous attacks, some of them would choose to flee, and eventually the entire army would collapse!

Maintaining powerful firepower is the only way for the imperial army to win!

So, the Kurokawa Squadron came out and opened fire, using their best skills. Four heavy machine guns and 4 light machine guns roared desperately, leaving streaks of flaming bullets in the night sky, causing a bloody rain among the officers and soldiers of the 12th Army Artillery Battalion who had no time to dodge.

In the first encounter, the 10th Army Artillery Battalion suffered nearly 50 casualties, which was considered heavy. If it were an ordinary army, they would either lie on the ground and dare not even raise their heads, or collapse and flee as the Kurokawa Squadron thought.

But the officers and soldiers of the artillery battalion had already come upstream from afar with the determination to die, so how could they abandon their artillery and run away at a time like this?

"Guard platoon, stop those bastards for me! Communications squad, send a telegram to the military headquarters for help!" Zhang Zuoxiang, lying in the bushes, roared and gave orders.

If that were all, we can only say that the 10th Army Artillery Battalion is still tenacious and will not collapse easily. But in terms of strength, once the Kurokawa Squadron uses their most familiar frontal attack and flanking tactics, the more than 600 Chinese artillerymen will basically be lambs to be slaughtered. They will not be able to hold out for more than 30 minutes before their defense line is broken by the elite Kurokawa Squadron.

Fortunately, there was also a guard company of the 27th Group Army with the team. This guard company was one of the four companies of the guard battalion directly under the 27th Group Army Headquarters. It was specially equipped by the 4th Group Army for the army headquarters. All the personnel were veterans of the Sichuan Army, and the equipment used were also the best of the 27th Group Army.

The company was equipped with nearly 3 M30 submachine guns imported from the United States, 9 light machine guns, and 3 60-mm mortars. Except for the lack of heavy machine guns, the rest of the light firepower was even stronger than that of the Kurokawa Squadron.

The Sichuan Army was once the representative of the "Beggar Army", but as the war continued, countless Sichuan Army troops proved to the world with their blood that they could become the top of the entire Chinese army. Even if their military exploits were insufficient, in terms of the spirit of "brothers, never slack off", they deserved to be the first.

The guard company defended on the spot and engaged in a firefight with the Kurokawa Squadron!

The Japanese elite troops who attacked the Chinese "transport team" head-on ran into a defense line composed of 28 M3 submachine guns and were also beaten badly.

Kurokawa Honor had to change the surprise attack into an offensive and defensive battle. He looked at his watch and saw that the Japanese Army Major had limited the attack time to one hour. If the stubborn defense of the transport team was not broken after one hour, he would lead his troops to retreat to avoid being surrounded by the Chinese supporters. Although he did not believe that the Chinese army would be so bold as to leave the already built positions.

Major Kurokawa was already very cautious, but he underestimated the speed of the Chinese army, especially a mountain infantry company whose tactical purpose from the beginning was mountain warfare.

The mountain infantry company led by Gu Xishui arrived 20 minutes after the two armies opened fire. However, after observation, they found that the artillery battalion of the 10th Army under attack had quite strong firepower, making it impossible for the Japanese army to approach the mountain.

Gu Xishui was not in a hurry to join the battle. Instead, he commanded his four mountain infantry platoons to detour from a distance and go around the back of the Japanese army. Just as Major Kurokawa, the crow-brained one, thought, he started the dumpling-making mode.

Half an hour later, Major Kurokawa was still anxiously looking into the distance, wondering whether to withdraw his troops immediately, when muffled sounds of "dong dong dong!" rang out in the darkness.

  That was not the sound of flares being fired, but the sound of real mortar shells being fired. The continuous bursts of flames in the dark night were like the brilliant fireworks during the New Year!

Heichuan Rongyao's face suddenly changed and he turned around to look at the darkness behind him!

What frightened him was not the Chinese small-caliber mortars that seemed to have eyes and smashed into the heavy and light machine gun fire points of his squadron, but the fact that in this round of shelling, there were at least 10 guns firing.

The Chinese army that can possess so many mortars must have at least one infantry regiment!

Are the Chinese crazy? Major Kurokawa Honor's head was about to explode. No matter how confident he was, he knew that his 200-odd men could not compete with a Chinese infantry regiment with a strength of about 2000.

"Full Squadron"

The word "evacuate" was still circling in their throats when at least five or six flares were fired into the sky, clearly revealing the presence of the Kurokawa Squadron in the mountains.

  A series of fiery red whips shot out from the darkness and lashed at the Japanese army!

The mountain infantry company was equipped with a total of 16 MG42s. The fierce crossfire they formed was enough to defeat an infantry battalion during the Battle of Shipai, let alone a small Japanese infantry company.

As the saying goes, there is always someone stronger than the strong. The Kurokawa Squadron is a reinforced infantry squadron in the 116th Division. With four Type 4 heavy machine guns, it can dominate the infantry squadron level. But it is no match for the mountain infantry company with 92 Type 16 mortars and 60 MG16 machine guns!

They are not as strong as they used to be, and now they are being attacked from both sides. The fate of the Kurokawa Squadron can be imagined.

  This time, Major Kurokawa Honor was not killed by two grenades, but was hit by a 60mm artillery shell!

The causes of death were different, but the way they died was obviously more miserable. Half of the Japanese Army Major's face was cut off by shrapnel, and the huge gust of air also broke the unfortunate child in half, with his entire upper and lower body overlapping together.

My legs were originally short, but now my entire body can probably fit into a suitcase.

No one cleaned up the battlefield until the next afternoon, when the Japanese troops that arrived later discovered the battlefield. The battlefield was littered with dead Japanese soldiers. The strange POSS that Major Kurokawa made before his death was captured in the camera of a Japanese war reporter.

6月2日凌晨5时，第10军炮兵营全体人员装备顺利抵达衡阳城，第10军参谋长孙明玉和唐刀亲至城门口迎接。

At this point, all the personnel of the 10th Army who were able to return had arrived in Hengyang.

The huge meat grinder in Hengyang, which had already slowly started to operate, was filled with more than 7 Chinese soldiers and civilians, waiting for 10 or even more Japanese to enter.