my bright sword career

Chapter 136 The edge of collapse

Many years later, when someone asked those Japanese soldiers who participated in the war what happened tonight, most of them kept silent, and only a very few people were reluctant to answer in the end.

"It was a painful experience that I will never forget until my death. Until now, I still think that it was the punishment of God Amaterasu for this unjust war."

"When we captured China... the first line of defense of the Chinese people, all of us were overjoyed. Our captain even promised us that after taking Qixia Pass, he would give all of us two days off and extra meals. .

The people in our entire wing increased their offensive with high morale, but then the Chinese sent reinforcements, and they used large-caliber machine guns made by the Americans.

This is the first time we have encountered this kind of weapon. According to past experience, we always hide behind big trees, sandbags or mounds, but the power of this kind of machine gun is too great. A bullet as thick as a thumb.

I saw with my own eyes that our squad leader was hit in the chest by a large-caliber machine gun bullet. The bullet smashed his entire chest, leaving only a few pieces of meat on both sides. It stands to reason that we should take his body back Yes, but we were so scared at the time, everyone was lying on the ground tightly, not daring to move.

Originally, I planned to wait for the Huaxia people's firepower to be a little weaker before snatching the captain's body back, but then...but then they...they actually used the anti-aircraft guns of the planes and attacked us from behind... …

Our squad leader, squadron leader, and battalion leader were all killed one after another... Finally... our entire brigade collapsed after less than ten minutes of persistence...

You don't know that once a person is hit by that kind of anti-aircraft artillery, the whole person will burst open like an exploding watermelon, and there is no way to collect the body, only a pile of minced meat..."

The interviewee couldn't continue speaking, and the whole person almost fell into a breakdown.

Looking at the 80-year-old man who was crying so hard, the interviewers peeked at each other. Before they could decide whether to continue the interview, they were roughly kicked out by the old man's family.

In fact, the tragedy of this battle far exceeded the description of the parties.

When the remaining eight Dongfeng self-propelled anti-aircraft guns and ten Whirlwind self-propelled anti-aircraft guns of the armored battalion's air defense company lined up and fired at the half-hillside, the fire from the muzzle alone illuminated a large area around them.

In just a few minutes, eighteen self-propelled anti-aircraft artillery sifted through the front hillside. Facing the firepower from behind, the Japanese troops on the hillside had no place to hide.

More than ten minutes later, when the air defense battalion stopped firing, there were no standing Japanese soldiers on the entire hillside, and the only thing that could be heard were the screams and groans of the wounded Japanese soldiers.

Faced with this appearance, even the soldiers of the Fifth Battalion in charge of defense were shocked by the tragic situation of the Japanese army.

"My dear..."

Looking at the position on the opposite side that seemed to have been swept by a big broom, Yan Xiaofu opened his mouth so wide that he could almost stuff an egg into it.

"I originally thought that the grandsons of the armored battalion would only sit in the tortoise shell and run amok, and our infantry is no worse than them. Now it seems that we have a little knowledge. These turtle grandchildren really have two skills."

The other soldiers of the Fifth Battalion were not much better, and various expressions such as shock, surprise, and stupidity appeared on the faces of the soldiers.

In fact, it was not just them, even Gao Hongming, who had been paying attention to all this, was startled by this scene.

It is said that anti-aircraft guns to kill mosquitoes are overkill, and it is not the case to use anti-aircraft artillery to fight infantry, but he has to admit that this devastating scene is really shocking.

The attack scale of a whole regiment of thousands of people was swept down by more than a dozen self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, and it was swept away like autumn leaves in just over ten minutes.

He roughly estimated that in just over ten minutes, the casualties of the Japanese army were at least no less than 1000.

Readers, don't think that Ah Ding is making up nonsense. According to historical records, in another time and space, in the third Battle of Courland in 1945, the Soviet army, which had a numerical advantage, charged two companies of the German army.

Originally, the situation of the German army was already in a precarious situation, and then the nearby air defense forces came, and several whirlwind self-propelled anti-aircraft guns belonged to them squared the muzzle, and started a burst of fierce shooting at the Soviet army. Leaving more than 700 corpses behind, they retreated in embarrassment.

Facing the flat fire of anti-aircraft fire, if the infantry does not have a well-built bunker as a cover, there is no way to resist its attack.

In the observation post several miles away, Koizumi Yukio's binoculars slipped from his hands with a bang. If it wasn't for the dignity of being a general supporting him, he might have already sat down on the ground.

Even so, his lips were unconsciously moving quickly, but no sound came out, but if you put your ear close to his mouth, you could hear:
"これは悪魔の武器だ (This is the devil's weapon)" words.

As a soldier who has been in the army for more than 20 years, Koizumi Koizumi has never seen artillery, not to mention the small 20-caliber artillery, even the 400mm cannon on the battleship. He has seen the way it is fired.

But it was the first time he had seen such a situation where only a dozen self-propelled anti-aircraft artillery equipped with 20mm small-caliber anti-aircraft guns could penetrate an entire regiment.

Faced with this situation, for the first time in his life, his body felt powerless.

"Am I going to be the first commander of the 41st Division to be dismissed and escorted back to the mainland by the military police?" He was very unwilling.

It is not terrible to be defeated. There has never been a general in this world who did not lose a battle. But he led a reorganized division and possessed several times the enemy's strength. Fleeing, this is too unreasonable, and it may make the 41st Division a laughing stock of the Japanese Army.

Don't blame him for this blame, I'm afraid even his immediate boss, Commander Shinozuka Yoshio, can't handle it.

"No... I can't just let it go, I still have a chance."

Thinking of this, he cheered up and called Chief of Staff Ogiwara Toda, "Immediately order the Field Artillery Regiment to cover the Chinese chariots at the foot of the mountain with artillery fire, and destroy all the Chinese chariots. "

"Your Excellency, division commander, our field artillery unit is currently engaged in artillery battles with the Chinese artillery, and I am afraid that it is unable to support the infantry in the battle." Ogiwara Toda reminded in a low voice.

"Then let them withdraw from the battle and deal with Jinna's chariot with all their strength, even if the entire field artillery regiment is involved!" Koizumi Yukio suddenly roared, and with the help of the wind lamp next to him, Ogiwara Toda clearly saw the madness flashing in Koizumi Yukio's eyes.

"Your Excellency, Division Commander, as the chief of staff of the 41st Division, I have to remind you that it is very dangerous for you to do so."

Ogiwara Toda couldn't bear it anymore, he stared at Yukio Koizumi and said: "Once the artillery of the Chinese people is free, they will definitely bombard our infantry, and their threat will even be higher than those of small-caliber artillery. , don’t forget...the Chinese are equipped with 155-caliber heavy artillery!"

As the chief of staff, Ogiwara Toda has a lot of experience, and the suggestions he put forward are also very reasonable, but Yukio Koizumi, who has long been dominated by fear and unwillingness, can't listen to it.

Not only that, but he also stared at him in disgust and said: "Ogihara-kun, you should understand that if the Chinese chariots and those guns with a terrifying rate of fire are not wiped out, all our attacking troops will be threatened by them , don't you even know this?
So... please execute my order immediately! "

Looking at Yukio Koizumi's red eyes, Ogiwara Toda knew that no matter what he said now, the other party would not listen to him, and what Koizumi Yukio said was not unreasonable. It didn't mean that the larger the caliber of the artillery, the greater the threat. It depends. It depends.

However, what Koizumi Yukio and Ogiwara Toda didn't know was that after more than half an hour of artillery battle, the losses suffered by the field artillery unit of the 41st Division had far exceeded their estimates.

Now that the artillery battle has been fought, there are less than ten artillery pieces left in the entire field artillery unit. In addition to the three Taisho 14th-year 105mm field cannons, there are only five 75-style [-]mm field cannons left.

When the Field Artillery Regiment received the telegram from the division, they could only scold their mothers except for being shocked.

Originally, they lost the wind in the artillery battle with the militia, and now they have to relocate to attack the opponent's tank troops. The risks involved in this can be imagined with their knees.

Takahashi, the captain of the Field Artillery Corps, was so angry that his heart ached, but this was a direct order from the commander of the division. How could he disobey it? The Huaxia tanks attacked.

It stands to reason that although Koizumi Xingfu's plan is a bit risky, it cannot be said that it is completely unreasonable, but he forgot one thing, that is the observation balloon raised behind Qixia Pass.

As soon as the Japanese field artillery unit moved its position, it was discovered by the observer on the observation balloon. Although he didn't know where the opponent had retreated in the dark night, he knew that the Japanese artillery wanted to enter the preset position and fire again. It takes at least twenty to three 10 minutes, and there's just too much they can do during that time.

Sure enough, when Gao Hongming received the report from the observation balloon, he was overjoyed and immediately ordered the two artillery battalions to turn their muzzles to cover the Japanese troops who were attacking the first battalion and the second battalion from the left and right sides respectively.

Unable to help, Gao Hongming also issued new orders to the armored battalion.

"Ka Ka Ka... Ka Ka Ka..."

The machine guns on the No. [-] tank resounded crazily, and any possible target would become the target of their strafing.

A Japanese soldier with a white cloth strip tied to his head fell violently to the ground, a ball of scarlet blood poured out from under him, and the explosive bag in his hand was thrown a few meters away.

"Bring the grenade..."

Hearing the squadron leader's order, a Japanese soldier, Cao Mao, ran over not far away with his waist down, and took out two bundles of cluster grenades from the dry ditch on the roadside. The grenades are bundled together.

The sergeant wiped off the dirt with the hem of his clothes and put them in front of the squadron leader.

The squadron leader coldly gave an order to a Japanese soldier: "Hey... Private, now it's your turn to blow up the Chinese chariot. If you succeed, you will become a hero... Do you know what I mean? Little Second Class Cao!"

The Japanese soldier whose name was called trembled and his face turned pale instantly. He looked at the officer who asked him to die in some puzzlement.

"Crawl, shove cluster grenades under the tracks, and kill the damned China tanks, your mother and siblings will be proud of you..."

The squadron leader exhorted, and at the same time grabbed the grenade and handed it to the young second-class soldier. The latter mechanically reached out to take it, as if touching red-hot chromium iron, and almost threw them on the ground.At this moment, his face was pale, his legs were trembling, and his forehead was sweating. He bombed the tank with a cluster grenade, which was no different from sending him to death.

"Have you understood the mission? Remember...jump along the crater, crawl forward, and don't look back!"

The squadron leader gave categorical orders, and his right hand holding the command knife slowly raised, staring coldly at the trembling soldier. If he didn't go up, the squadron leader would kill him with the saber without hesitation. .

"Why are you hesitating, hurry up!" Hearing the roar of the approaching tank, the squadron leader's eyes flashed with anxiety, and he pushed the young soldier hard.

The young soldier who was pushed and shoved by the squadron leader licked his dry lips and looked around at his companions, only to be disappointed to find that they were all looking at him expectantly, obviously hoping that he would succeed so that they could avoid continuing To die, the young soldier reluctantly climbed out of the bunker.

At this moment, he could only comfort himself, as long as he could blow up the opponent's chariot, he would be able to survive.

He carefully crossed the craters one by one, crawled down in a crater more than 20 meters away from the tank, and waited for the tank to approach.

Amidst the rumbling sound of the tank, the tank was getting closer and closer, and when the tank was only four or five meters away from him, he arched his body in the crater, curled up into a ball, and when he saw the right moment, he jumped suddenly He stepped out, pounced towards the huge monster, and threw the cluster grenade with all his strength with his right hand.

Although he was very heroic, but...he missed the throw, and the cluster grenade exploded on the right side of the No. [-] tank. At the moment of the explosion, the machine gun on the tank rang out, and the brave Japanese soldier was beaten into pieces. Honeycomb, then fell heavily to the ground.

"Cluster grenade, go to three groups!"

After witnessing the fate of the young private, the squadron leader issued another order.

With the deafening sound of motors, the clanging and creaking sounds of steel tracks, the tank was getting closer and closer to them. A few minutes later, the steel tank tracks were still passing slowly and firmly. The Japanese army attacking the tank was knocked to the ground with intensive firepower by the machine gun wounded by the tank and the infantry following it.

Under the order of Gao Hongming, the armored battalion began to move around Qixia Pass, and used the mobility of the armored units, strong armor, thicker armor, and fierce firepower to attack the Japanese troops participating in the attack from the back. Not only that, the two artillery battalions also used It was covered by artillery fire.

Half an hour later, when the field artillery unit of the 41st Division rearranged their artillery positions and prepared to shell the armored battalion, they found that the battle situation was on the verge of collapse...

(End of this chapter)