Rise from eight hundred.

Ge Youcai was injured in the last battle in the south of the city a month ago.

The scene that was once exaggerated by newspapers, "the lieutenant general and division commander went into battle shirtless to kill the Japanese invaders," actually happened.

It was not that Ge Youcai wanted to boost morale, but with the start of the 10th battle to recapture Zhangjiashan, he no longer had any soldiers available.

预10师麾下4个步兵团，3个主力团28团、30团、31团已经悉数打残，惟一的补充团29团则早在10日前就已经不足一个步兵连，团部直属的警卫连也只有不足一个警卫排，且还在虎形巢前线。

The main position of Zhangjiashan was lost 9 times and recaptured 9 times. The top of the mountain was already covered with corpses of both Chinese and Japanese, which was one of the reasons why the 10th Division suffered such heavy casualties.

Zhangjiashan cannot be lost. If it is lost, the entire south city position with Zhangjiashan as the core will be breached, and Huangchaling, isolated outside the main position, will no longer have rear wing protection and will completely become an isolated island.

There, there are still hundreds of elite soldiers from the Four Lines Regiment!

Although the 10th Reserve Division had obtained permission from the command to withdraw to Hengyang city at any time, Ge Youcai looked at the smoke-filled Huangchaling and finally decided to retake Zhangjiashan.

But that time, he had no more regimental commanders and battalion commanders to send. Among the commanders of the three main regiments under his command, one was seriously injured, and two died. Among the nine battalion commanders, six were killed in battle, one was seriously injured, and two were killed in Wuguiling and Huxingchao.

Even the headquarters of the 10th Reserve Division was deserted because the infantry regiment was extremely short of officers and all officers above the rank of lieutenant in the division headquarters had been transferred to the front-line troops.

Under his command, there were only the remnants of two infantry companies that retreated from Zhangjiashan, and the last 2 people of his division headquarters, including communications soldiers, cooks, maintenance soldiers, grooms, etc.

"Damn it, all the scholars are really bad. They made up things that didn't happen. Now I'm really going to fight with my bare hands this time."

The army lieutenant general took off his general's uniform, tied his belt, put two pistols on his waist, stuck a big knife behind his back, and picked up a submachine gun. Then he spat on the ground in front of the soldiers who were in their early 200s.

"Let's go, I, the lieutenant general and company commander, take back the position!"

"Yes!" Under the moonlight, the entire army was solemn.

Dozens of large and small artillery pieces in Hengyang City focused their fire on Zhangjiashan, turning this position that once belonged to Chinese soldiers into a sea of ​​fire.

The Japanese soldiers hiding in the ruins of the remaining trenches also became numb!

Such scenes have been played out almost every two days in the past 20 days. Either the Japanese bombed the hill or the Chinese bombed it. Anyway, as long as there was an enemy on this hill, artillery shells were a frequent visitor to this hilltop. At least artillery shells fell on this small hilltop.

At this time, talking about fortifications is simply a joke. Permanent fortifications are nonsense in this kind of artillery fire. Even the trenches are broken into sections or pieces in front of this kind of artillery fire. It is impossible to be connected. Countless huge bomb craters are the best places to hide.

More than 200 Chinese soldiers rushed to the top of the mountain amid artillery fire, using rifles, submachine guns, pistols, grenades, bayonets and machetes to kill all enemies in different uniforms.

Repeat the position!

  But only 90 people survived!

The commander of the 10th Reserve Division, Ge Youcai, was shot in the chest and was seriously injured and dying!

His injuries were too severe to be transported to the field hospital in time. Tan Tai Ming Yue personally brought three military doctors to the Yan Hui Peak air-raid shelter and performed surgery on him in the simple air-raid shelter, saving his life.

The first thing he asked after waking up was: "How many soldiers do we have left?"

No one dared to answer his question, for fear of upsetting the dying man and causing him to die not from the Japanese bullets but from the bursting wounds.

It was not until a week later when Tang Dao came to see him that he told him the number that had kept him silent for two whole days.

Today, the army lieutenant general, who was able to drink some rice porridge and sit up, finally asked his superior: "When will the reinforcements arrive?"

"My guard Yu Ying, the one nicknamed Silly Bird, is also dead. He was not killed by the Japanese. He just didn't want to live anymore because there are no survivors in my guard platoon!" Ge Youcai murmured.

After Ge Youcai was seriously injured and fell into a coma, his guard platoon withdrew from Zhangjiashan and handed over the position to the infantry battalion that came to support from other positions. But within two days, Xichan Temple was in urgent need of help, and as the last reserve force of the division headquarters, the 30-man guard platoon of the 10th Division stepped up again.

But this time, they never came back.

Yu Ying was a soldier picked up by Ge Youcai three years ago. He was tall and strong, but he seemed to have some problems with his brain. When he saw a large army marching, he took the initiative to walk in. The military regulations of the 3th Reserve Division were very strict, so they kicked him out and almost executed him on the spot.

It happened that the regiment commander Ge Youcai saw him and called him over, intending to give him a steamed bun to get rid of this big fool. However, Yu Ying refused to move after seeing the steamed buns, and followed the large army twenty meters to the side. When the army rested, he rested too, and when the army moved, he moved too. Ge Youcai was left with no choice but to call him over and ask him what he would do.

The big fool didn't say much. He just hugged a heavy machine gun with his arms and carried it up and walked around for a long time. This was even without a full meal. Ge Youcai was happy. It didn't matter if he was stupid. He had enough strength to help him, the commander, carry things. So he recruited this stupid soldier who came to him on the spot.

Unexpectedly, this stupid soldier, who was later called "Silly Bird", developed a special skill with his strength: he could throw grenades far and accurately, like a human mortar. So he was placed in the guard platoon and became Ge Youcai's bodyguard. He followed Ge Youcai through life and death on the battlefield many times.

As a result, Ge Youcai was seriously injured this time. The guard platoon was ordered to defend the Xichan Temple position. After the Japanese army failed to capture it for a long time, they actually used 105 howitzers to bombard the position.

Silly Bird was stunned by the shock. When he woke up, he found that he was almost buried by the loose soil raised by the shells. There was no one around, and the Japanese army on the opposite side had already begun to charge.

The fool jumped into the trench, grabbed two boxes of grenades and started throwing them. He threw 40 grenades in one breath and relied on these 40 grenades to repel this round of Japanese charge.

It was not until an infantry platoon came up to support him that he could leave after completing his defensive mission.

But when the supporting infantry platoon searched everywhere, they helplessly discovered that the Japanese 105mm howitzers were too terrifying. The three anti-artillery holes where the guard platoon was hiding were all hit. Except for the fool who was counting his grenades in the rear trench, all the others were killed in the battle.

The silly bird cried loudly and refused to leave the position, even when a major battalion commander who later arrived at the position tried to persuade him to leave.

In the end, Sha Niao fought on that position for a day and a night, and even after three groups of reinforcements were replaced, he still did not leave.

Until the end, the defenders on the Xichan Temple position were ordered to evacuate, but Sha Niao, whose leg was blown off, insisted on not leaving. His only request was to be given a grenade.

This famous idiot guard of the 10th Reserve Division obtained the last two boxes of grenades on the position.

The explosion of grenades lasted for 10 minutes, until finally, thick smoke rose in the distance and a loud bang was heard.

No one saw how Silly Bird died in the end, but everyone could guess how he died, because he had six grenades tied to his waist.

If there weren't so many grenades, there would never be such a high column of smoke.

"Sir, my brothers are almost dead! They are almost dead! The damn reinforcements are like turtles. They have crawled over these three months!"

  Speaking of this, tears in the eyes of an army lieutenant general flowed unrestrainedly down his face!

Fang Xianjue held the cold hand of his trusted subordinate for a long time without saying a word.

He wanted to ask this question, but he was completely tired of the man repeating for nearly 50 days: "Reinforcements will arrive tomorrow!"

There was no sign of reinforcements.

  Do the defenders of Hengyang still have a chance to survive?

Is it really as the young army colonel said with great confidence: "Yes! Fight to the end and you will survive?" But they have been fighting in this city for 90 days. There are more than 2 soldiers in the army, but now there are less than 4000 soldiers who can fight. Of the 5 young and strong reinforcements, nearly 1.5 have joined the army, most of them died in the battle. There are as many as 1.6 wounded in the city alone, and the number of wounded soldiers dying every day even exceeds those who die on the front line. Can't it be considered a fight to the end?

  So what does it mean to fight to the end?

Do you want all the people in this city to die?

  Can the city of Hengyang alone bury so many corpses?

Even though Fang Xianjue had joined the army 20 years ago and had experienced countless hard and bloody battles, he couldn't help but feel shaken and his eyes were full of bitterness when he thought of the 90 days of bloody battle.

. . . . . . . .

In fact, at this point in the battle, it was not just Fang Xianjue, the Chinese commander, who was feeling the pain.

The commander of the Japanese 11th Army, Isamu Yokoyama, was in a trench less than 1800 meters away from Fang Xianjue.

Under the dim moonlight, the Japanese Army Lieutenant General, dressed in ordinary Japanese infantry uniform, looked at the battle ahead with solemn eyes.

Although the 11th Army launched a large-scale siege attack on the city, it does not mean that the Japanese army had already gained all the advantages.

In fact, the air forces of China and the United States still firmly grasped air superiority, frequently bombing Japanese military bases outside Hengyang City, and even hovering at low altitudes to strafe exposed Japanese infantry.

All of the 11th Army's anti-aircraft artillery and anti-aircraft machine guns were completely destroyed in the long air battle, leaving it with almost no air counterattack capability.

Therefore, during the day, except for the infantry who entered Hengyang City to fight for the streets, the rest of the officers and soldiers basically hid in the stuffy trenches, fortifications or dug individual anti-artillery holes, enduring the disgusting and strong stench of corpses.

Yes, Hengyang City and its surrounding areas are so smelly that a gust of wind can make people faint.

One month before the Battle of Hengyang, both China and Japan were still trying to get their remains back and bury them. By the second month, there were not many living people left, so who could take care of the dead?

By the third month, everyone had gotten used to death. They just let it go! They might be the next one to die anyway. The Japanese army had completely given up on collecting the bodies.

As for the Chinese who were on the defensive, they lost this ability, which also led to more corpses in the city.

As the flares rose, Isamu Yokoyama, who had quietly arrived at the front line, could clearly see the scene in the trenches in the block ahead.

In the wide trench were corpses in uniforms of different colors lying in all directions. If the Japanese infantry wanted to pass through the trench, they had to crawl in the trench, which meant crawling on the rotten corpses. Wherever they passed, the Japanese Army Lieutenant General even heard the "puffing" sound of bloated corpses being squeezed by heavy objects, which was creepy.

If you don't want to crawl, you can just hunch over the corpses and stride over them, but the price you pay is the possibility of being hit by Chinese snipers lurking in the corner.

After a month of urban attack and defense, a large number of Chinese snipers hiding in the ruined city caused extremely serious casualties to the 11th Army.

They seemed to have evolved suddenly, their shooting skills were terrifyingly accurate, and even at night when visibility was extremely poor, they could still accurately hit the enemy from 200 meters away, even if the light was fleeting.

What's even more terrible is that the entire city has a huge underground tunnel system, and they can reinforce or retreat to a block at any time.

Even if the 11th Army used tanks and artillery to clear the way during the day and captured the block at the cost of heavy infantry casualties, the Chinese would organize a counterattack at night and even throw grenades at the sleeping soldiers.

The terrible troop transport ability and accurate marksmanship have caused the current dilemma of the 11th Army. The Hengyang City in front of them has become a hot potato that they can't swallow. If they want to give up, the 8 casualties invested in the early stage will be wasted, and the Battle of Hengyang will be a complete defeat.

Not to mention that he, Isamu Yokoyama, could not bear this responsibility, even General Tian Shunroku, who had already resigned, could not bear it, so Isamu Yokoyama was still gritting his teeth and persisting.

However, when he arrived at the scene in person today, the tragic battlefield made this Japanese veteran couldn't help but shed tears.

Hiding in a trench where he was not facing the front firing range, the Japanese Army Lieutenant General saw with his own eyes a soldier who had finally climbed out of a trench full of rotting corpses, and was about to rush to a low wall of only 70 centimeters high with his gun in hand and continue forward.

But this distance of only 6 meters made it impossible for the Japanese infantryman to reach his destination. A bullet accurately hit his chest, and the Japanese infantryman fell to the ground, rolling and groaning in pain.

Although the ground was covered in blood, the Japanese private was obviously not dead yet. He was still groaning loudly and his hands and feet were still twitching.

But no one came to rescue him!

"He's not dead yet, why don't you save him!" Yokoyama Isamu growled angrily.

"There's no way to save them. There's more than one Chinese sniper. They're waiting for someone who dares to show up, and then turn that place into a graveyard for the Imperial Army." A middle-aged man, also wearing a Japanese infantry uniform, explained with bitter eyes.

He was the major-colonel captain in charge of this block. Such things had happened no less than ten times before his eyes, from the initial anger to the subsequent bitter calmness, costing the lives of dozens of imperial infantrymen.

The Chinese soldiers who were forced into a desperate situation were not only far superior to the imperial infantry in terms of street fighting tactics! Their military strength seemed endless.

Every night, no less than the number of Chinese soldiers from the previous night would return from the tunnels to the neighborhood to attack the Japanese army. No matter how many they killed, the same thing would happen the next day.

If this was just one neighborhood, it would be easy to explain, but in fact, this is the case in dozens of neighborhoods.

I'm afraid they were deceived from the very beginning. There were definitely more than 2 Chinese in the city. The exact number is impossible to guess, but it is definitely a number that would make any Japanese commander collapse mentally.

Even if the entire 11th Army was put in, it was not known whether it would be enough to fight against the unknown number of Chinese.

In fact, there is a subtext that the Japanese Army Major did not say. If given the choice between being injured and dying, the Japanese private who was shot in the chest would most likely choose the latter.

Just as the Chinese defenders in Hengyang viewed their own field hospital as a daunting place, the soldiers of the Japanese 11th Army also viewed their field hospital in the northern suburbs of Hengyang as "hell".

Any Japanese soldier who has been to a field hospital knows what kind of place they are going to. There are also no medicines or food in the Japanese field hospital.

The weak logistics of the Japanese army was a shortcoming. The Chinese Expeditionary Army Command had already tried its best to ensure the ammunition and food for the front-line soldiers. They had no time to take care of the medicines used in the field hospitals, not to mention the influx of tens of thousands of wounded soldiers, which far exceeded the capacity of the Japanese army's logistics.

  Moreover, when a large number of patients gather together without sufficient disinfectants, it is most likely to breed epidemic diseases such as dysentery and cholera. Even if normal people get these diseases, the mortality rate is not low, not to mention the weak wounded.

Since the war broke out again on July 7, the number of Japanese wounded soldiers who died of illness in field hospitals alone has reached 9!

It is better to die on the battlefield than to rot in a hellish hospital, where you will suffer less pain.

Right in front of the Lieutenant General Commander of the 11th Army, the Japanese corporal who was shot in the chest gradually calmed down.

But he was never alone. Before he died, two more Japanese soldiers were hit. One died on the spot, and the other was twitching constantly. It was probably only a matter of time before he came to find Amaterasu to drink tea with him.

Yokoyama Isamu lowered his head severely.

However, there was more sadness than pain in his eyes.

Perhaps only this Japanese Army Lieutenant General knew that this was the first time the word "defeat" came into his mind.

Although he quickly banished these two words from his mind, he, who was already over sixty years old, knew that some thoughts, once they came to him, would surge like the waves of the ocean and come at any time. (End of this chapter)