Rise from eight hundred.

Chapter 1435 Those teenagers!

  October 1941, 1!

A day that the whole of China needs to remember.

In the afternoon of that day, both China and Japan dispatched all their available air forces to the sky above Shipai.

However, no fighter plane was able to drop bombs on the positions below.

Because, in the areas of Gaojialing and Badoufang, the central positions of Shipai that they were ordered to support, the Chinese and Japanese sides were fighting so fiercely that they were almost face to face. Looking down from the sky, the khaki and dark blue were intertwined together. Not to mention the powerful aerial bombs, even a small grenade would most likely blow up the Chinese and Japanese infantry at the same time.

Especially in Gaojialing, the two sides have started a hand-to-hand combat with bayonets at more than a dozen positions on this mountain.

The Japanese army destroyed most of the fortifications on the mountain with naval guns and mountain guns. Because of Yokoyama Isamu's order, the 11st Regiment of the 31th Division, which had been fighting for a whole morning, consumed most of its ammunition. And because the logistics supply was a little slow, under the continuous attack of the Japanese army, the colonel commander who was personally commanding the front line decisively ordered the entire army to use bayonets.

For Murakami Kisaku, who personally went to the front line to supervise the battle, the number of casualties was also not important. As long as he could capture Shipai, the ugly situation of the 39th Division, Nogou Detachment, and Hariya Detachment suffering heavy losses could be ignored.

The Chinese were forced to resort to hand-to-hand combat, which was a good opportunity for the Imperial Army to demonstrate its prowess.

It was against this backdrop of the Chinese side being forced into doing what the Japanese side so desired that on the afternoon of the 23rd, the largest hand-to-hand combat in China's entire military history broke out on the Gaojialing battlefield.

The Chinese side's initial force was a half-crippled infantry regiment, which, together with its army colonel commander and civilian staff of the regiment, numbered no more than 1600 people. But as the battle intensified, the 32nd Regiment, which was ordered to arrive, also joined the battle in full.

As the two sides were already locked in a fight, the newly arrived 32nd Regiment was unable to use their guns and bullets.

"All men are dead! We all have one head on one shoulder. Once the bayonet is struck, the Japanese are also mortals. They will all be doomed!" The nearly 45-year-old colonel of the 32nd Army Regiment let out an angry roar and rushed down the hillside with 2500 officers and soldiers.

The Japanese army also deployed an infantry regiment of nearly 3000 infantrymen.

Therefore, from the perspective of the Chinese and Japanese air forces, the entire Gaojialing hillside was an interlacing of yellow and blue. The so-called air support could only become aerial observation at this moment.

On the entire battlefield, apart from sporadic gunfire and grenade explosions, not a single cannon shot could be heard. All that was heard was the teeth-grinding sound of bayonets colliding or the friction between bayonets and bones.

The soldiers on both sides of China were blood-thirsty. When their bayonets were bent, they used their rifles as sticks. When their rifles were broken, they used stones, grenades, fingers, teeth, and any other tools they could use to attack the other side.

Although the 11th Division is already an elite force of the Chinese side, that is only in the sequence of the Chinese military. Especially in bayonet fighting training, it is actually not as good as the 13th Infantry Regiment of the 104th Division that they are facing.

Moreover, in terms of physical fitness, many of the 11th Division were young soldiers recruited only in the past six months. They were only sixteen or seventeen years old and their bodies had not yet fully grown. In addition, the food was far inferior to that of the Japanese army. Often, one Japanese soldier could fight two Chinese soldiers alone.

  But as the saying goes, even a trapped beast will still fight, let alone humans?

If you can’t win alone, then it’s simple, just fight with all your might.

What is the most common scene on the battlefield? A soldier throws himself forward without hesitation, using his body as a shield and letting the Japanese infantry pierce him fiercely, and then uses his last bit of strength to hold on to the rifle that is about to take his life. No matter how hard the Japanese soldiers try to pull away, they cannot pull out the bayonet in a short time.

Then, the soldiers following closely behind would stab them hard with their bayonets, and the Japanese soldiers who were reluctant to throw away their rifles would often be pierced in the same way.

One for one is the best result that Chinese soldiers are seeking.

Even if you meet a smart person who drops his gun to save his life when the situation gets bad, after losing your weapon, you will have one foot on the Naihe Bridge in such a dangerous battlefield.

Such a one-for-one exchange may not be enough to reflect the cruelty of hand-to-hand combat. Many soldiers' bayonets were bent and deformed due to multiple blocking and could no longer be used as killing tools. So they chose to use the daggers they carried with them, or use the stones on the ground.

  So, what was flowing on the hillside was not only blood, but also brain matter!

石大宽是11师31团第3营2连的一名二等兵，这个全军最低的军衔意味着他不过是一名才入伍不到3个月的新兵。

Yes, Shi Dakuan's hometown is in northern Jiangsu. After the Japanese army opened the southeastern door of China from Songhu in 1937, they swept across the south of the Yangtze River. The Su family, who originally had a few acres of land to make a living, resolutely abandoned the land that could support the entire family after the Japanese army's Nanjing Massacre, led by Shi Dakuan's father, and fled south with the fleeing army to Jiangxia, and then fled to the mountain city.

In order to support his family during this period, Shi Dakuan's eldest brother joined the army in early 38 and became a soldier of the 30st Division of the 31th Army. Less than two months after joining the army, he participated in the Battle of Xuzhou and fought a bloody battle in the central battlefield of Taierzhuang.

In order to defend the central battlefield of Taierzhuang, the company commanders of the 31st Division had to lead the suicide squads to the battlefield. If half of a company could survive, it was considered a very light loss.

Of the 145 people in the infantry company where Shi Dakuan's eldest brother Shi Dahou served, only 8 remained. Shi Dahou's name was not on the list of survivors. The young man, who had just turned 22, died in the battle, but he earned 10 oceans in pension for his family, which was paid by his company commander who was seriously injured but not dead using his bonus.

It was these 10 dollars that saved Shi Dakuan and his family from starving to death during the long escape.

However, the suffering was not over yet. The war was about to break out in Jiangxia where the family lived, and the whole family had to flee again. This time it was Shi Dakuan's second brother Shi Dazhong, who was only 18 years old, who stepped forward and joined the 71st Army on the streets of Jiangxia. He then took part in the famous Wanjialing Annihilation Battle in September of the following year.

This time, Shi Dazhong survived and was awarded military honors. He sent 20 oceans to his family, which was enough for his entire family to survive in the mountain city.

But the good times did not last long. A year later, Shi Dazhong, who had been promoted to sergeant, was killed in the First Battle of Changsha.

At this time, Shi Dakuan was only 16 years old. Seeing that his mother had cried so much that her eyes were blinded because of his two brothers who died in the war, the teenager could only hide his thoughts of joining the army to avenge his brothers. He followed his father to carry goods for people at the dock to support his grandparents, his blind mother, and his two sisters who were not yet 10 years old.

But misfortune did not spare this poor family. During the massive bombing by the Japanese army in mid-40, Shi Dakuan's father was killed by a bomb dropped by the Japanese, and the shack built by the family next to the cliff was also burned down by fire.

Finally, whether it was for revenge of his father and brother or to use the military pay to support his mother and sister, the boy, who was not even 17 years old, chose to walk into the conscription office on the street. His only request was to withdraw one month's military pay and give it to his mother.

After less than two months of training in the recruit company, Shi Dakuan fired a total of 2 bullets on the training ground and was assigned to the 10th Division. He followed the main force of the division to Shipai.

The freshly minted recruits first encountered a meat grinder battlefield of hellish difficulty, and the possibility of surviving was almost zero.

But miraculously, Shi Dakuan survived until the afternoon of the 23rd, when he participated in the hand-to-hand combat that shocked the world in the future.

Shi Dakuan saw with his own eyes that his squad leader's broad back was pierced by a Japanese soldier because he was angrily holding a stone in his hand and trying to hit the Japanese invader.

It was that strong Japanese invader who stabbed three brothers in the squad to death in succession. In the end, he was grabbed by the ankle by a brother who was not yet dead and was knocked down by another brother. The squad leader, who had been in the army for two years, picked up a stone and smashed it hard at the guy's face. The Japanese soldier was still struggling desperately after the first hit. After the second and third hits, the blood splattered high. The howling of the Japanese soldier was like the New Year pigs that were about to be slaughtered at the village entrance during the New Year.

Then, a Japanese soldier rushed over from five meters away and stabbed the squad leader in the back with such force that a ten-centimeter blade was exposed on the squad leader's chest.

The squad leader instinctively grabbed the blade with both hands, but the Japanese soldier's eyes were full of ferocity. He suddenly turned his wrist, and the blade turned, cutting off two of the squad leader's fingers, and blood spurted out of his mouth.

Shi Dakuan, who came to support with a rifle in his hand, was suddenly stunned. He was not scared, but he knew that the squad leader was going to die, the tough man who scolded them, the new recruits, for being softies and dying sooner or later, was going to die.

He did not hate the squad leader, and never had, because he knew that his second brother was the same. In the more than one year since he joined the army, his second brother had only sent one letter home. When he talked about life in the army, he complained that the recruits were too soft-hearted. They would shout loudly at the sight of blood, but their legs were too weak to go forward. Every time, he, the deputy squad leader, had to lead the way.

So, his second brother died, and now the same thing happened to his squad leader, who was also dying.

"Squad leader!" Shi Dakuan roared, tears streaming down his face.

Others don’t know, only Shi Dakuan himself knows that every time the squad leader scolded them, the new recruits, he would think of his second brother who was only three years older than him. In his heart, he also regarded the squad leader as his second brother.

  But now, is the squad leader going to die too?

"Da Kuan, kill that bastard! Go kill him!" the old soldier screamed while spitting blood. The Japanese soldier looked at the young soldier standing there, who was not even as tall as his rifle, with disdain in his eyes. His men turned the rifle fiercely again. The friction between the blade and the bone sounded like thunder in Shi Da Kuan's ears.

He even stepped hard on the back of the half-kneeling squad leader with his leather boots, trying to use the force to pull out his bayonet.

But he didn't expect that a dying person would have so much strength. The bloody hands were holding the half blade tightly like a pair of pliers.

His lifeless eyes stared at Shi Dakuan without stopping.

"Fuck your ancestors!" Shi Dakuan's eyes widened, he stepped forward with his rifle and stabbed forward suddenly.

The Japanese soldiers had to drop their rifles and dodge the thrusts of the frail Chinese soldiers. Finally, they found an opportunity and got close to hug the out-of-strength Shi Dakuan.

The two of them rolled down the hillside.

Although this Japanese soldier was not a sergeant, he must have been a veteran who had served in the army for more than two years. He was not only strong but also very thoughtful. During the rolling process, he kept using Shi Dakuan's body to hit the rocks, making Shi Dakuan dizzy.

Finally, Shi Dakuan, who was already at a disadvantage, was strangled by the neck by a Japanese soldier's hand. Shi Dakuan, who had already expended a lot of energy, was even more unable to resist due to the massive loss of oxygen. He kept hammering the Japanese soldier's hand until he gradually became powerless.

"I am about to die, big brother, second brother, are you here to pick me up?" In a trance, Shi Dakuan seemed to see the blood-stained faces of his big and second brothers.

"Dakuan, you are the last pillar of the Shi family. If you die again, how will mom, sister, grandparents survive?" The eldest brother's face, with half of his head missing, was extremely hideous. He shook Shi Dakuan, who was about to faint, and questioned him.

"You must stay alive, otherwise you will let down your elder brother and me." The second brother, who was missing an arm, glared at Tongling.

"Yes! I am the last man in the Shi family, I can't die!" Shi Dakuan's will to survive, who was awakened by the scolding, suddenly became extremely strong.

He no longer tried in vain to hammer the strong Japanese soldiers, but fought back desperately with one hand, while with the other hand he groped around his waist, where a wooden-handled grenade was stuck.

Finally, the grenade was pulled out, and using his last bit of strength, he raised the grenade and smashed it hard into the Japanese soldier's head.

The 17-year-old boy made a desperate attempt. It was unknown how much strength he exerted, but the extremely strong Japanese soldier also let out a miserable howl after this blow.

The front end of the grenade is made of cast iron, it's just a lump of iron, and anyone's head will be broken if it hits it.

Shi Dakuan, who finally escaped, held the grenade tightly, gathered all his strength, and hit the Japanese soldier again. The Japanese soldier finally fell to the ground, but his hand grabbed Shi Dakuan's wrist as he was about to hit him again.

How strong Shi Dakuan's will to survive was also fully demonstrated by the Japanese infantry this time. Even though he was hit so hard that he had hallucinations, the final burst of power from the Japanese army made it impossible for Shi Dakuan to escape.

Shi Dakuan, who was trying hard to survive, suddenly remembered what his second brother wrote in a letter home: The Japanese are jackals and beasts. If they are fierce, we must be more fierce and cruel than them, otherwise, we will not be able to kill them.

Shi Dakuan lowered his head without hesitation and bit the Japanese soldier's carotid artery hard. That bite almost exhausted all the strength of Shi Dakuan's 17 years of life. A fishy smell instantly filled Shi Dakuan's mouth, and the Japanese's screams were deafening.

But Shi Dakuan did not give in. Instead, he shook his head desperately, imitating the jackal's behavior. This is how jackals tear the flesh of their prey.

He succeeded!

The Japanese soldier under him gradually stopped struggling, and the two hands that had clamped his wrists also drooped limply.

Shi Dakuan also raised his head at this time.

  The young soldier with blood all over his face looked like a demon, with a piece of flesh and blood connected to a yellow-white tube in his mouth.

The Japanese soldiers who saw this scene all felt their hair stand on end.

And this is just a small microcosm of the battle between thousands of Chinese and Japanese soldiers. There are many battlefields that are more brutal than this.

Because both sides have no way out.

The Japanese command has issued a death order that Gaojialing and Badoufang must be captured today at any cost.

The Chinese side has already withdrawn and can withdraw. The division headquarters is in the rear. If they withdraw further, Shipai will be gone.

The whole mountain was filled with desperate howls, and even the vest of the expressionless Japanese commander at the foot of the mountain was covered with cold sweat.

Lieutenant General Murakami Kisaku, who was only 800 meters away from the battlefield, only picked up the telescope twice in an hour to look at the battlefield. He was waiting, waiting for the outcome of this brutal hand-to-hand combat.

This Japanese Army lieutenant general, who became famous in the Zaoyi Battle, was extremely confident that the Imperial Army would win this unconventional battle.

"Pass on my military order, and plant the flag of my 11th Division on the highest point of Gaojialing. Tell all the officers and soldiers of the 31st and 32nd Regiments that I will be with them. As long as the people are in the position, the position will be preserved. If the position is lost, my entire army will perish!" However, the division commander named Hu, who was watching all this on the opposite hill, made another choice.

"Commander, it hasn't come to this yet! The people in front of us are still fighting the Japanese army and there is no sign of defeat!" The major general chief of staff on the side was shocked and hurriedly admonished his young superior.

At this time, if a superior officer is killed, the battlefield will collapse.

"Defeat? If my division's flag doesn't go up on the high ground, we might not even have the chance to enjoy the defeat." Division Commander Hu handed the telescope to his chief of staff.

In the field of view of the telescope, 500 meters away, a team of at least a hundred Japanese troops were moving at high speed along the side of the mountain towards the division headquarters.

"The damn Japs are trying this again. I'm going to lead the guard company to meet the enemy." The Major General Chief of Staff had just finished speaking when his face turned pale.

He just remembered that the last guard company of the division headquarters had been sent to Badoufang for reinforcement 20 minutes ago.

Now there are no combat personnel in the division headquarters except the division commander, him and 50 civilian staff.

"Everyone, take up whatever weapons you can, and follow me to plant the military flag on the highest point of Gaojialing." Division Commander Hu picked up his pistol and walked out, his steps slightly pausing. "Send a telegram to the commander and Commander Chen, and tell them that our 11th Division will fight the Japanese invaders to the last drop of blood. If Shipai is lost, our remains do not need to be collected, and they will be left in the mountains here as punishment!"

A military flag was planted high on the top of Gaojialing Mountain!

"The division commander is personally supervising the battle, brothers, kill!" Seeing the divisional flag suddenly standing behind them, the Chinese officers and soldiers who were already exhausted on the hillside suddenly burst out with courage and strength again.

The shouts were deafening.

Even the Tang Dao and Sixing Regiment members who were still on the Sifang Bay battlefield several kilometers away could almost hear it.

Tang Dao stared westward, and suddenly remembered the monologue about the defense of Shipai in the future Chinese Geography: "At that time, the children of Chinese farmers were generally malnourished. Most of the soldiers aged 16 or 17 were not as tall as the rifles with bayonets. They fought hard with guns longer than themselves. If they were alive, they would be old men in their 70s or 80s. They would also sip small sips of fragrant tea in their own orange orchards, leisurely watching their children and grandchildren, and living out their old age in warmth. But they died so that other Chinese people could have all this!"

  Tears suddenly filled my eyes!

(End of this chapter)