Rise from eight hundred.

Chapter 1525: Fight to the Death!

  The afterglow of setting sun and the corners of the ruined building!

Fang Xianjue stood at the crossroads in the center of HY city. The blood-red sunset light shone through the green smoke all over the city, seeping in layer by layer, and smearing on the ruins in bright or dark colors.

Looking around, around the Chinese Army Lieutenant General, there were mountains of rubble and corpses everywhere, both Chinese and Japanese, blown to pieces by artillery fire and bombs.

The two once hostile parties are now silent in the ruins. No matter how cruel or heroic they are, they are quietly dying in the decay!

The pungent smell of sulfur lingered in the air for a long time, temporarily covering up the disgusting stench of corpses. The sounds of artillery explosions and various gunshots in the distance still resounded through the world.

The sound of gunfire and the ruins illuminated by the setting sun mixed together to form a breathtaking picture, as if to sweep in the supreme commander of the Hengyang garrison, who stood with his head held high among the ruins, and seal him and the more than 10,000 of his men who died in this city in the long river of time.

Perhaps, as the supreme commander who led the entire army to fight in this ancient city for 111 days, Fang Xianjue would rather this moment become eternal.

  Yes, this is already the third day of Hengyang city’s final battle!

In this battle, no one in the entire city of Hengyang was left alone. Even the wounded soldiers in the field hospital who could still walk independently took up their weapons and joined the battle.

As the highest commander in Hengyang, he had only a guard with a machete by his side. Even his service pistol as an army lieutenant general was given to a wounded soldier with only one arm who still wanted to join the battle.

According to Tang Dao's tactical design, in this battle, they not only had to counterattack the entire city of Hengyang, but also had to fight their way out of the city and regain some positions in the south and west of the city. If the Japanese army wanted to counterattack, they had to do the same as they did two months ago and take down the positions one by one.

The battle lasted for nearly 70 hours. All the blocks in Hengyang City had been completely recovered two days ago. These two days were spent in repeated battles for positions in the suburbs outside Hengyang City.

One day ago, that is, on September 1, Tang Dao led the main force of the Four-Line Regiment as the vanguard, with 9 reservists and a battalion of wounded soldiers, totaling 20 people, and had recaptured the Yanhui Peak, Huxingchao and Zhangjiashan positions.

At this moment, there is deafening artillery fire in front. They must be fighting a fierce battle with the Japanese invaders. I wonder how many of the more than 8000 people can line up in front of him after this battle.

  The remnants of the three infantry divisions under the 10th Army, with 3 reservists and two wounded soldiers, split into two groups after retaking the city blocks. They went out from the west and north of the city and fought fiercely with the Japanese army. The farthest position was more than 9000 miles away from Hengyang City!

The strategic goals set before the war have basically been achieved!

However, as the supreme commander of the Hengyang garrison, Fang Xianjue did not feel happy at all!

Because he knew that this was the last brilliant burst of energy from the Hengyang defenders. From this moment on, the city of Hengyang would no longer be able to provide these soldiers with food or bullets, and their ability to continue fighting would never exceed 3 days.

Ultimately, it depends on the actions of the hundreds of thousands of troops on the periphery. If they continue to hesitate like they have in the past three months, Hengyang City will fall into darkness forever.

Three days ago, in the darkness when a full-scale counterattack was about to begin, on the platform of the Central Bank, Lin Heng used eighteen bonfires to form the words "fight to the death" and sent the final signal of Hengyang City to the transport plane passing by in the sky.

If they did not make up their minds to fight a decisive battle with the Japanese troops outside, then when they saw the soldiers and civilians in Hengyang City, they would see nothing but piles of bones.

From the moment Fang Xianjue personally gave the order to counterattack, Operations Director Tang Dao announced to the commanders of all regiments over the phone: "This battle is a fight to the death. In this battle, no merit, no loss, no casualties will be counted. All soldiers, kill the enemy with all your might until you die! Kill! Kill! Kill!"

  "Take up your swords and guns,

Kill towards the battlefield.

Forget us, wife,

Forget us, father and mother,

The enemy occupied Chinese territory.

The enemy occupied the ancestral temple.

  If you lose your homeland, where will you go into exile?

Dear compatriots, with our tears,

  Embracing our swords and guns,

Kill to the battlefield,

Kill, kill, kill! "

It was not known whether soldiers from somewhere were singing military songs, or whether the roar of cannons in the distance was causing the dazed Army Lieutenant General to have auditory hallucinations. Fang Xianjue actually seemed to hear the 10th Army song, which he had not heard for a long time and which was impossible to hear amid the roar of the cannons.

This military song was once the military song of the 10th Reserve Division. It was written by the young Fang Xianjue under the oil lamp when he was in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, together with Sun Mingjin, who had died on the battlefield. Fang Xianjue seemed to see that young and gentle face again, smiling and shouting at him: "Sir, we will definitely win this war!"

"Ming Jin, can we really win?" Fang Xianjue clenched his fists in pain, lowered his head and muttered to himself.

  To this day, he has done everything he can. His brothers and the people of Hengyang City have shed all their blood.

"Buzz buzz buzz!" The roar of the plane resounded through the sky.

The huge transport plane flew over Hengyang City at an altitude of less than 300 meters from the ground, and a series of parachute flowers bloomed under the belly of the plane.

However, unlike in the past, this time the transport plane did not drop the supply packages and fly away, but instead continued to circle over Hengyang City.

Fang Xianjue looked up indifferently, with confusion flickering in his eyes.

"Report! The Military Commission has issued an order, please open it personally, Commander Fang!" A medical soldier shouted loudly while running towards Fang Xianjue.

"Report! The Military Commission has issued an order, please open it in person, Commander Fang!" On the other side, a reserve soldier was also running towards this side.

Apparently, the dropped supply packages contained an identical military order, just like before.

However, in the past month or so, the content on it was almost exactly the same: "Reinforcements will arrive tomorrow! You must hold on!"

Sure enough, several envelopes of the same style all had the same sentence written on them: "Fang Xian Jue Qi!"

Fang Xianjue took a deep breath, reached out to open one of the envelopes, and slowly unfolded the folded letter. The words that came into his eyes made this army lieutenant general who had experienced countless storms and waves feel like he was struck by lightning, and he stood there in a daze.

A few seconds later, the lieutenant general, who had only frowned when he received the huge casualties of his troops, and had a sad look on his face when he saw his trusted general who had followed him for many years dying, actually closed his eyes and looked up at the sky, with two lines of tears rolling down his cheeks.

Seeing Fang Xianjue like this, the soldiers around him lowered their heads, feeling extremely sad.

  Has Hengyang City still been abandoned?

"Ming Jin, we won, we finally won." Fang Xianjue suddenly shouted loudly to the sky and threw the letter in his hand into the sky.

"Brothers of the 10th Army, brothers of the Four-Line Regiment, brothers of Hengyang City, did you hear that? We have won."

  Zhao Zili, who had been following him, picked up the letter that had fallen on the ground and looked at it. It read: "The troops of the 9th, 3rd and 4th War Zones have decided to fight the enemy. After two days of fierce fighting, the main force of the Japanese invaders has fled to Tanzhou. The 27 troops of the 74th Army and the 8th Army are rushing to Hengyang overnight!

Reinforcements will arrive today!"

"We won, we really won!"

No wonder General Fang, who usually acts calmly and steadily, would behave like this. When Zhao Zili suddenly saw this good news, he felt his head buzzing, as if something had exploded there.

  Suddenly, there was a sense of unreality!

Correspondingly, the sounds of gunfire and the earth-shaking shouts of killing that were still resounding through the heavens and the earth in the distance suddenly fell silent.

The Japanese troops, which were still attacking fiercely, retreated like a tide. Leng Feng, Li Jiujin and other front-line commanders did not let their guard down and continued to calmly deploy defenses and troops, waiting for the next wave of Japanese attack.

  In this regard, they are already experts. On such a battlefield, wouldn't they be able to repel seven or eight waves of Japanese attacks in one day?

But this time, they waited for a full half hour, but did not receive even a single bullet or artillery shell from the opposite side, let alone the Japanese.

Looking through a telescope, all I could see was the charred earth and the crooked remaining bushes, and no sign of the "shit-yellow" figure at all.

"We are out of artillery shells, so how come the Japanese have learned to dig holes and hide underground?" Li Jiujin, who had at least half of his body wrapped in bandages, spat fiercely, his eyes full of confusion.

The veteran who had been in the army for 17 years had never had his skin scratched in the past years. He could be called the lucky son of the Four-Line Regiment, but he was defeated in the battle of Hengyang.

Of the five fingers on his right hand, only the thumb and index finger were left, as the other three were cut off at the root by a shell casing.

"God is good to me. You see, at least he left me with a finger that can pull the trigger. Otherwise, where would I go to cry with only my little finger?" Li Jiujin was smiling and comforting Xia Dayu, who was bandaging his wound and had tears in his eyes.

But God, who had been kind to Li Jiujin for the past 17 years, was apparently too busy this time. In the subsequent street fighting, Li Jiujin suffered a total of eight wounds, including gunshot wounds and shrapnel splash wounds on his arms, legs, chest and other parts.

However, you have to say that the old soldier is really an indestructible cockroach. If it were someone else with these injuries, even if he didn't die, he would have to stay in the hospital. But this guy just sprinkled some hemostatic medicine and wrapped himself with a bandage and stayed on the battlefield as usual, and he stayed there for 50 days, and God didn't even take him away.

Even Commander Tang hugged him tightly when he saw him, saying that he wanted to share the luck of this lucky man. But Li Jiujin never hugged his brothers from the 3rd Battalion, because he was afraid that his fate was too hard and would bring bad luck to his brothers.

Everyone has a different understanding of fate, but that doesn't prevent them from relying on each other like brothers on the battlefield, right?

  Li Jiujin and his men did not wait for the Japanese attack, but instead received good news from the city: the Japanese troops in the periphery were fleeing, and the siege of Hengyang had been lifted!

On a hill 20 kilometers away, out of sight of the Hengyang defenders who were fighting with all their might, Yokoyama Isamu was also looking towards Hengyang.

At this distance, the Japanese Army Lieutenant General, who had been ordered by the Japanese Army Headquarters to return home to report on his duties, could not see the smoke rising above the ruins at all, but the setting sun still clearly reflected the loneliness in his eyes.

In the Battle of Hengyang, the 11th Army was defeated, badly defeated!

Or perhaps it would be more appropriate to describe it as a complete failure.

He underestimated the strength and tenacity of the defenders in Hengyang City, and even more so, he underestimated the forbearance of the commander named Xue.

在攻击衡阳这100天里，哪怕是在60天前他几乎调了11军一半的主力抵达衡阳，但其实他无时无刻不防着一直停步不前的中方第9战区20多万主力，包括从桂林方向而来的中方最精锐步兵军74军以及从赣省方向来的10余万中方大军。

The Chinese main force numbered nearly 40. Not to mention the commander of the 11th Army, even the commander of the China Expeditionary Army, Tian Junliu, did not dare to ignore it. Part of the main force of the 23rd Army far away in South China had already arrived at the border of Guangxi Province, and the North China Front Army also dispatched two divisions to move south to Jiangxia.

Once the Chinese side makes any moves, the Chinese Expeditionary Army can gather more than 20 troops in northern Hunan at any time to fight a decisive battle with the main force of the Chinese side.

As a result, to Yokoyama Isamu's surprise, no matter how fierce the battle in Hengyang was, the 40 Chinese troops a hundred miles away from Hengyang seemed to have seen nothing. They just confronted the 11th Army of only 8 people and had no intention of moving forward. The intensity of their attack was even weaker than two months ago, when at least three infantry divisions arrived in the suburbs of Hengyang.

Hengyang was like a huge meat grinder. In order to make all his previous efforts worthwhile, Yokoyama Isamu was forced to throw many elite troops of the 11th Army into the bottomless pit of Hengyang that seemed to never be filled.

Until 40 days ago, Yokoyama Isamu judged that the commander surnamed Xue of the 9th War Zone did not dare to risk losing Guangxi and Yunnan provinces in a decisive battle with the empire. He gambled everything and dispatched two more divisions to attack Hengyang.

The various units of the 11th Army outside Hengyang were completely reduced to scraps from the main force that was originally intended to find the Chinese main force for a decisive battle. The battlefield for the 11th Army's decisive battle became the Hengyang City with only more than 2 people.

Even Colonel Shimanuki Takeshi, who was good at large-scale troop operations, could only fight the way his boss said when faced with this tactical change that was completely contrary to what he had expected.

If Hengyang City, which is three times harder than stone, is not captured, it will be a nightmare for the entire 11th Army, no, it can even be said to be the entire Chinese Expeditionary Army.

In a sense, the symbolic significance of taking over Hengyang City far outweighs its practical significance. Even the strategy of opening up the Chinese mainland line has to give way to the prosperity of the empire's military fortunes.

最终的结局是什么？是第11军4个精锐师团彻底打残，2个师团几乎可以宣布取消编制，6万战死10万伤亡的可怕数字足以让任何骁将为之色变。

Yes, on September 9, when the Chinese Hengyang Command finally unified its thinking and decided to launch a counterattack, the casualty report of the 18th Army was also sent to Yokoyama Isamu who was at the front line.

As of the morning of September 9, the 18th Army had 11 killed, 54935 missing, and 3178 wounded, including two lieutenant general division commanders, four major general detachment commanders and brigade commanders, and seven army colonels. Officers rank of lieutenant colonel and below were not counted separately.

It’s not that they are not qualified, but there are too many of them and one piece of paper cannot contain them all!

At that moment, even though Yokoyama Isamu, who was known as one of the top three fiercest generals in the Japanese Army, felt dizzy and almost fell to the ground.

The total strength of the six divisions that were dispatched to participate in the war was no more than 6 people, not counting the heavy artillery brigade, tank regiment, and logistics regiment. This means that if two supplementary divisions of 10 people had not arrived, these six divisions would have been completely wiped out.

This naturally means that the 11th Army still surrounding Hengyang City would never exceed 3 infantrymen alone.

10 people! They were consumed by the Chinese in and around the small city of Hengyang.

Looking at all the battles in the past seven years since the war began, including those in which both sides deployed nearly one million troops, the Imperial Army has never suffered such heavy losses!

Even in the Battle of Shanghai, which was known as the "meat grinder" at the beginning of the war, the Imperial Army seemed to have suffered only 4 casualties, less than half of this battle.

Even in the Battle of Taierzhuang, which the Chinese called the first victory of the war, the Imperial Army only lost 2 men.

Even in the Battle of Wanjialing, which was known as China's most glorious victory in the Battle of Jiangxia, China mobilized more than 20 troops to encircle the enemy, but only lost 106 troops from the 2th Division.

If these two battles were cited as shame for the Imperial Army, then what was the Battle of Hengyang? Was it the greatest shame? Or the greatest shame?

Yokoyama could almost anticipate the day when he would be ordered to resign.

But the nightmare doesn't end there.

At 9 p.m. on September 18, the Chinese people in Hengyang, who were already dying, launched a counterattack.

  Yokoyama Isamu's first reaction was not instinctive anger. It was like a lion on the prairie who spent a lot of effort to hunt down a bison. He intended to conserve his strength and then start eating the meat. But the bison came back to life and did not run away. Instead, it poked the lion with its horns and kicked it with its hooves. Do you think the lion should be angry?

Yokoyama Isamu was more surprised. He had reason to believe that this was the last stand of the Chinese people after they had reached the end of their rope. As long as they could stop this attack, the last of the Chinese people's spirit would be gone, and the battle of Hengyang had finally come to an end.

Yokoyama Isamu was undoubtedly very experienced, and he had predicted almost 90% correctly, but the only thing he didn't expect was that there were still so many Chinese in the city, and he didn't expect that even at this time, the Chinese still had a trump card.

The Chinese miniature tanks had appeared on the battlefield before, but no one took this small tank with only a 20mm machine gun seriously.

That thing is nothing compared to the Type 47 tank with a 97mm rapid-fire gun, and no one can escape with one shot.

But after nearly two months of street fighting, the 97th Army can't even find a few Type 11 light tanks, let alone Type 95 tanks. Moreover, the 11th Army has no anti-armor weapons except for the 70mm infantry gun that can fight against armor.

  It's not that the Japanese military industry is not advanced, but the Chinese don't have tanks at all. What's the point of equipping the division with those clumsy and crude anti-armor weapons and equipment?

In this kind of street fighting, the 70mm infantry gun weighing more than 200 kilograms is not so easy to move. By the time you have mounted the gun and adjusted the muzzle, the miniature tank that is even smaller than the Type 95 light tank has already hidden behind the ruins.

Sixteen mini tanks, carrying more than ten thousand Chinese, engulfed like a torrent the thousands of Japanese infantrymen who had paid heavy casualties and finally gained a foothold in more than 16 blocks, in just one night.

At this point, Yokoyama Isamu, whose joy had completely turned into anger, had not given up yet. After all, he still had a heavy artillery brigade outside the city and 900 artillery shells in stock. He could use heavy artillery to plow the huge ruins of Hengyang. In short, he would not let the Chinese have an easy time.

But a hundred miles away, the Chinese army of 40 actually launched an offensive. The Chinese, who had completely gained air superiority, used more than a hundred fighter planes and bombers to carry out a sweeping bombing of the Imperial Army's positions, and at the same time dispatched more than six infantry divisions to launch a tentative attack on the defense line.

From this moment on, Yokoyama Isamu knew that Hengyang, which was so close to him, would eventually become a place he could not touch this autumn.

This will also be the Waterloo of Isamu Yokoyama and the 11th Army.

He lost the desperate gamble he made 50 days ago!

They lost not only to the Hengyang defenders, but also to the Chinese commander.

The commander named Xue was truly a cruel genius. He just sat there and watched the isolated city of Hengyang continue to erode the strength of the 11th Army until the 11th Army was exhausted, and then he started the decisive battle on the periphery.

The point of this decisive battle was also very clever, leaving him completely unable to launch a counterattack. In fact, if he had not ordered the two main divisions of the North China Front Army to move from Jiangxia to Tanzhou in the south to defend the 10th Army's rear 11 days ago, the Chinese army of 10 only needed to send 11 men to infiltrate Biyang and cut off the retreat from Hengyang to Tanzhou, and the th Army would still be in danger of being surrounded.

Yokoyama Isamu decisively gave the order that both the imperial army in Hengyang and the surrounding units must fight fiercely for two days without retreating, making it difficult for the Chinese side to figure out their strength and then withdraw after the offensive gradually slowed down. This was to create space for the troops to retreat, and to create time for the two divisions in the rear to consolidate their defenses.

Yokoyama Isamu, who was ordered to resign, made the most wise decision he had made in the Battle of Hengyang. The main force of the Chinese side was indeed frightened and believed that the Japanese army still had enough strength to fight a decisive battle. The offensive gradually slowed down and troops were mobilized to several key directions.

The Japanese army finally found a good opportunity to evacuate, but the Japanese army in Hengyang had already begun to evacuate gradually a day earlier.

It is unknown what the commander Isamu Yokoyama was thinking, but he actually persisted until the last day before evacuating with the remnants of the 3rd Division, 68th Division, and 116th Division, totaling more than people.

This final round of artillery bombardment and infantry attack today is not for any position or victory, but more of a catharsis, the loser's final catharsis for the hopelessness of victory!

(End of this chapter)