Rise from eight hundred.

Chapter 1519: Sunset over the Lonely City (Part )

"Platoon leader, do you think we can still return to Taihang Mountain alive? In another month, the fruits on the mountain will be ripe. I haven't eaten mountain grapes for a long time. When I was a child, my parents died, and I liked autumn the most. I don't have to hunt, and I can fill my stomach."

Inside the city of Hengyang, in an underground tunnel where more than half of a building had collapsed, Adong lay in Boss Cao's arms, whispering softly.

Luo Dahu, who was standing aside, looked at his once extremely strong young squad leader with a worried look on his face, and said nothing.

Luo Dahu now is no longer a new recruit. This middle-aged man who traveled across half of China from north to south did not expect that he would become a veteran after only joining the army for 60 days.

Because, during these 60 days, he fought almost every day, and he changed from a farmer who knew nothing except his strength to a veteran who could use pistols, rifles, submachine guns, machine guns, and even mortars.

He had to know how to use these weapons, because those who knew how to use them were dead, and those who didn't would die faster.

Of course, for Luo Dahu, he believed that the main reason he survived was not how fast he grew on the battlefield, but more of luck.

Because the students in Class 4 where he is are much stronger than him.

For example, there is a sergeant sharpshooter nicknamed Hawkeye who has been in the army for three years. He once shot a Japanese soldier with his naked eyes at a distance of 3 meters. There are four positive characters engraved on the handle of his gun, which means that this sharpshooter has shot and killed 380 Japanese soldiers with a confirmed record. Those killed by the Japanese army in rounds of charges are not counted.

According to this calculation, Hawkeye killed at least 50 Japanese soldiers, but even such a terrible sharpshooter died.

He died in Huangchaling. 50 days ago, when the Japanese army organized nearly 3000 people to launch a boarding charge on Huangchaling, he hid in a bomb crater and shot and killed several Japanese soldiers in succession. He was discovered by the grenade launchers in the rear of the Japanese army, and at least 6 grenade launchers were organized to cover the bomb crater where he was hiding.

The Japanese were crazy! They used at least 30 grenades on one infantry fire point.

He and his rifle were blown to pieces by a grenade. It was Luo Dahu who collected his body. Because the remains were broken into several pieces and there were no bags on the battlefield, he had to wrap him in his own and squad leader Adong's military uniforms and carry him to the rear tunnel.

At that time, the Japanese army dispatched a heavy artillery brigade to implement an artillery blockade on the rear of the southern position of the city day and night. Many stretcher teams and wounded soldiers who came to support disappeared in the terrible artillery fire.

In order to reduce losses, the command had to order that, except for the wounded, the bodies of all the fallen officers and soldiers must be buried on the spot.

In order to prevent his brothers from being destroyed by Japanese artillery fire even after their death, Battalion Commander Li Jiujin ordered all the bodies to be placed deep in the tunnel. When they needed to evacuate the position, they would blow up the tunnel and bury the remains of the fallen brothers deep underground.

After 10 days of fighting, the tunnel that was originally used to hide soldiers was filled with the remains of no less than 300 people.

That is actually still a small number. It is said that at the positions of the 10th Division in the Zhangjiashan and Huxingchao areas, digging sounds could be heard every night. They were not digging trenches, but pits to bury people.

At least 10 soldiers of the 2600th Reserve Division were killed. It is said that because the casualties were so high, many wounded soldiers who were so angry that they wanted to kill refused to be sent back to the city and continued to stay on the front line.

The sergeant squad leader who had threatened Dean Tan Tai with a gun in the field hospital had both of his legs blown off, but he still refused to leave and was eventually defeated in the front-line position. When the Japanese infantry stepped over the half-corpse and searched forward, a soft "hissing" sound suddenly came from under the motionless half-corpse.

That was the sound of three grenade fuses burning, which was the last weapon his comrades left for him before leaving.

He kept the three grenades for himself and three Japanese infantrymen.

There is also Daxiong who is good at bayonet fighting. He is a big man from southern Hebei and a fellow villager of Luo Dahu. He is tall and strong. He can lift a 12.7mm heavy machine gun with one hand, and carry a picked-up Type rifle as easily as carrying a bean sprout.

During the first hand-to-hand combat with the Japanese soldiers who rushed onto the battlefield, Luo Dahu saw with his own eyes that he used a Type 5 rifle to stab and kill five Japanese soldiers in a row and still had enough strength to spare. He even didn't have time to draw his gun. After rolling on the ground for several times while holding a Japanese soldier, he strangled the strong Japanese soldier to death with his bare hands.

But even such a tough veteran died!

The Japanese heavy artillery suddenly opened fire on the position without paying any attention to their own soldiers who were more than 200 meters away from the position. Daxiong was firing on the front line at the time, and the first round of 15 shells hit the trench area where he was.

Although his nearly 190-pound body was hidden in the trench, the gusts of wind caused by a heavy artillery shell that exploded less than 20 meters away from him easily lifted his strong body and threw it out of the trench.

When his body was collected, there was miraculously no damage to the outside of his body, except for his chest which was soft. Luo Dahu, who had enough battlefield experience, knew that the shock wave caused by the explosion of the shell had broken his sternum, and his heart and internal organs were smashed by the huge force.

The death of two powerful veterans is not the end, but just the beginning.

Although they had been mentally prepared, the cruelty of the battlefield still exceeded everyone's imagination.

The 3rd Battalion fought the Japanese at Huangchaling for 28 days! Even though the main positions such as Zhangjiashan in the rear were successively occupied by the Japanese, the 3rd Battalion still held out for another 10 days.

During this period, Class 4's full staff of 20 people was reduced to 18 people, then to 15 people, and finally to 9 people.

Luo Dahu didn't know how many rounds of Japanese attacks he had repelled. In the end, he was too lazy to look at the time and he couldn't even remember how many days he had held out at Huangchaling.

Because the constant oncoming death has long become the main theme on this battlefield. Whether on the battlefield or outside the battlefield, corpses and human tissues are scattered everywhere, and life and breathing have become rare things.

Luo Dahu was numb, he even wanted to die early, but the veterans kept sacrificing their lives, but he miraculously survived in this battlefield that was like hell.

He shot and killed Japanese soldiers with a rifle, used the pistol left by Hawkeye, and stabbed a Japanese invader's chest with a triangular bayonet.

He was a Japanese, also a young man, only about seventeen or eighteen years old. Luo Dahu still clearly remembered the look in that Japanese soldier's eyes when he rushed up the mountain on the corpses of his companions, but was stabbed in the chest by him with a three-edged bayonet. There was surprise, reluctance and relief in his eyes.

Or, for that young Japanese soldier, seeing such a bloody battlefield, he had already given up the idea of ​​continuing to live!

  Death is a relief for the Chinese and Japanese officers and soldiers who have been fighting a bloody battle for nearly a month!

Luo Dahu certainly didn't know how many Japanese soldiers the 3rd Battalion killed in the Battle of Huangchaling. This number was not announced by the Japanese until after the war. It was not until after the Battle of the Ice Field that the statistical data of Huangchaling in the Battle of Hengyang was dug up by the Americans because the infantry brigade established on the basis of the 3rd Battalion of the Four-Line Regiment fought a world-shaking battle in Changjin Lake.

自7月9日至8月6日3营残部突破封锁线重归衡阳城，黄茶岭上的四行团3营先是打残了27师团，接着又打残了第3师团，共击毙日军9368人，失踪497人，伤1.3万人。

It is said that the American commander was dumbfounded for a long time after seeing the data, and then scolded the intelligence officer. If he had known earlier that the infantry brigade had such a brilliant record in the war against Japan, he would not have fought against it with only the 1st Cavalry Division, but at least the 2nd Infantry Division or the 7th Infantry Division of the Army.

You should know that according to the 11th Army's battle report, at Huangchaling, the 11th Army deployed a heavy artillery brigade with 24 150mm howitzers, two artillery regiments with 62 75mm mountain and field guns, most of the tank regiment with 31 Type 97 tanks, and a total of more than 24 infantry battalions to attack in turns.

If one division was wiped out, another one would be substituted. The total number of Chinese infantrymen on the mountains, including those for support, would not exceed 1800.

The 11th Army's battle report recorded that they almost wiped out the stubborn Chinese defenders on Huangchaling. Only a small number of Chinese broke through the blockade with the support of artillery fire and disappeared. However, only Luo Dahu and other officers and soldiers of the 3rd Battalion who retreated to Hengyang City knew about it. Together with Tu Yunsheng's independent company, they had 597 people retreated into Hengyang City.

After continuous fighting, the 3rd Battalion had been completely destroyed. Except for a small number of 60 mortars that were brought back, all the howitzers, 81mm mortars, 150mm heavy mortars, 20mm machine guns, 12.7mm heavy machine guns, and all heavy equipment weighing more than 40 kilograms were destroyed before evacuating Huangchaling.

By the time the 3rd Battalion entered Hengyang City for the final street fighting, it had become a standard light infantry battalion.

Li Jiujin, the usually cheerful and optimistic commander of the 3rd Battalion, after entering Hengyang City and seeing the regiment commander Tang Dao who came to greet him in person, he suddenly burst into tears as soon as he finished the military salute, hugging the regiment commander Tang who was standing upright.

  The middle-aged man, nearly 40 years old, did not frown during the 28-day bitter and bloody battle; he did not hesitate at all when he personally ordered the destruction of the weapons and equipment that could not be taken away; he personally lit the fuse to blow up the tunnel and buried 800 comrades without shedding a tear

But the moment he saw the Tang sword, he cried like a child.

"Commander, my 3rd Battalion is gone! My brothers in the 3rd Battalion are almost dead! My heart aches so much! I can't bear it anymore." Seeing Li Jiujin kneeling on the ground and crying loudly, even the strongest soldier could not bear to watch.

"Blame me, blame me, brother Li. It's all my fault that the 10th Division didn't hold the position. The 10th Division is sorry for you, for letting you fight alone." Division Commander Ge Youcai, who came to pick up Li Jiujin and the 3rd Battalion, hugged the crying major battalion commander and also burst into tears. But can Li Jiujin and the 3rd Battalion blame the 10th Division?

No wonder.

The 10th Reserve Division has already done its best.

Their 3rd Battalion was attacked in turn by two Japanese divisions, while the 10th Division was attacked in turn by four Japanese divisions.

In 18 days, the Japanese army successively transferred 3 more divisions from the vicinity of Hengyang City to participate in the siege of Hengyang, bringing the number of Japanese divisions attacking Hengyang City to 7.

On the outskirts of Hengyang City, there were only 4 divisions and 5 independent mixed brigades with less than 7 people left. In order to prevent the main force of the Chinese army from rescuing Hengyang City, the China Expeditionary Army Command urgently borrowed 2 infantry divisions from the Kwantung Army and arrived in Tanzhou by train.

During this half month, China had an army of more than 30 troops outside Hengyang and sufficient air superiority, making it fully capable of fighting an encirclement and annihilation war with a huge disparity in military strength.

But what were they doing? Only the 27 infantry divisions of the 4th Army, led by Li Yutang, launched an attack on the Japanese army, and the 62 infantry divisions of the 3nd Army, led by its commander Huang Tao, marched deep into Hengyang alone.

However, the Chinese army, which consisted of less than 7 troops, had already tried its best after breaking through three blockade lines of the Japanese army.

The 62st Division of the 151nd Army arrived at Yumu Mountain in the southwest suburbs of Hengyang, only 7 kilometers away from Hengyang City. The sound of gunfire and artillery fire from the fierce battle with the Japanese army could be heard throughout the city of Hengyang.

But that was all. Yokoyama Isamu, who had arrived at the Hengyang front line to supervise the battle in person, personally ordered to suspend the attack on Hengyang and to use the strength of three divisions to attack the Chinese troops coming to support.

In just one day, two regimental commanders and more than 151 officers and soldiers of the 2000st Division were killed in battle, and the entire division had to retreat to avoid being surrounded by the Japanese army.

That was also the time when Hengyang City was closest to reinforcements. By the time the two Kwantung Army divisions arrived, the number of Japanese troops outside Hengyang had reached 14 again, and the Chinese side had completely lost the opportunity to rescue Hengyang City.

The 30-strong army could only watch from the periphery as more than Japanese troops surrounded Hengyang City and attacked it fiercely, breaking through all the defense lines outside Hengyang City, breaking through the last line of defense of Hengyang City - the city wall, and breaking into the city.

Most of the people who cared about this war, including Western journalists and American soldiers, thought that the battle to defend the city known as the "Moscow of the East" was coming to an end.

No one would believe that the less than 8000 Chinese defenders in the city could withstand the attack of more than Japanese troops.

Because the highest commander of the Hengyang garrison sent a telegram to the Military Commission at that time, which read: "The enemy has broken through all our positions outside the city. The 10th Division has 7000 troops, and after three rounds of reinforcement, there are only 3 people, less than a normal regiment; the 2000rd Division had more than 3 before the war, and after three rounds of reinforcement, there are still 8000 people left; the 3th Division has only 3000 people left, and the Hengyang Guard Regiment suffered almost all casualties in the counterattack on Zhangjiashan, with less than 190 wounded soldiers; the Four-Line Regiment has less than 800 troops after a hard fight; we still have 200 soldiers in the entire city of Hengyang who can fight, and I don't know when we can wait for reinforcements.

However, our army in Hengyang is determined to die for our country and repay your kindness. See you in the next life! Fang, Zhao, Sun, Tang, Zhou, Rong, and Ge are all here! "

Perhaps the only Westerner who still had confidence in the Battle of Hengyang at this time was General Stilwell, the Chief of Staff of the China Theater.

He said to Miss Laura, general manager of Rockefeller Company's Far East Company: "Although the outer perimeter of Hengyang has been lost, there is still Hengyang City with an area of ​​2.8 square kilometers. Street fighting has always been the most dangerous military battle. Commander Fang and Commander Tang are both the most powerful commanders. They have the most elite Chinese soldiers under their command. I think the Japanese cannot conquer this city, even if they are willing to bear more than 10 casualties for it!"

In the eyes of many people, those were just words to comfort Miss Laura and there was no possibility at all.

But General Stilwell said: "Before the war, the Japanese army's training and combat effectiveness were rarely matched in the world. When deploying troops, from generals to samurai, they all fought according to tactical combat principles, without any confusion, making it difficult for the enemy to take advantage of loopholes.

Although there were few outstanding strategists among Japan's senior generals, they rarely made major mistakes in basic principles, which was an extremely rare quality in war.

At that time, the combat capability of a Japanese soldier was equivalent to that of seven or eight Chinese soldiers. If the Chinese soldiers were slightly stronger in that aspect, perhaps it was because of their "fearlessness of death", but the Japanese soldiers were still superior to 95% of the world's armies in this respect.

Even if the Japanese army is placed on a global scale, it is difficult to find an opponent at the tactical level.

I think that China will never win this war, even if their opponent is an aggressor and it is unjust, because the gap in strength is too great. "

Stilwell's evaluation is not just high, but praise.

But if you think about it carefully, this seems to be the truth.

"However, after the July 1937 Incident in , as a military attaché at the Chinese Embassy, ​​I once saw a scene while passing by a mountain range, and I changed my view.

"Looking from afar, I found a long object on the top of a distant mountain, moving slowly like a centipede. When I got closer, I found that it was a freight train, which was damaged by the bombing of Japanese fighter planes. As a result, a Chinese infantry regiment was pushing the freight train from both sides with pure manpower, and it was moving forward as slowly as a snail!" General Stilwell continued.

"I watched silently for a long time, until the freight train weighing thousands of tons gradually disappeared from my sight. I said to myself in my heart: This spirit of the Chinese people will surely allow them to get through the most difficult moments of the war and eventually conquer Japan!"

"And now, isn't that the case? Seven years have passed, and Japan has not conquered this country, and they are becoming weaker and weaker.

Just like now, they used more than 6 times the number of troops, but still could not capture an ancient town.

I personally believe that not only will they be unable to capture this small town defended by the most elite Chinese soldiers, but this battle will also become a turning point in history. After this battle, the Japanese Army will no longer launch any large-scale offensives on the Chinese battlefield, and will basically become defensive until the end of the war. "

Admiral Stilwell said to Laura, who had a sad face, in a loud voice in his office.

His words were also recorded in the famous quotations of World War II.

Because he predicted the outcome of the war almost 100%.

Why is it not 100%? It is because he did not say that Japan would surrender unconditionally, and he had no way of knowing that his country would produce two big fat bombs.

At this time, Luo Dahu in Hengyang City certainly had no idea that there would be another famous Western general who would have such strong confidence in them.

He only knew that Hengyang had reached its final moment.

His class 4, no, it should be said that the 3rd row, has reached the end of its rope.

Before he joined the 3rd Platoon, there were 3 officers and soldiers in the 84rd Platoon. Now, there are less than 3 people from the three groups who can still be contacted.

His squad leader, Adong, actually only has half of his squad left.

Adong's left arm was neatly severed at the elbow by shrapnel from an infantry gun 10 days ago. After a simple bandage, he continued to fight.

Yesterday, his right leg was hit by a grenade again, leaving only a little flesh and tendons. He gritted his teeth and chopped it off with a knife.

His originally dark face was now as pale as snow. Luo Dahu, who had long been unable to shed a tear, was now only filled with worry.

He was afraid. He was afraid that he would have no more comrades. Before this, he had personally seen 16 comrades pass away.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

ps: When Fengyue wrote this title, she was filled with reluctance, but the story has an ending, doesn’t it?