Rise from eight hundred.

Chapter 1464: If there are few, fight; if there are many, run! (Please give me a monthly ticket at the beginning of the month!)

If Anda Twenty-three had been decisive enough at this time and had continued to lead his troops to attack the Zhongtiao Mountain defense line regardless of the consequences, the Chinese side, which had already suffered huge casualties, might not have been able to hold out for long.

Even if Yuncheng was captured, the Battle of Zhongtiao Mountain would end with the victory of the Japanese North China Front Army.

But at this critical moment, Anda Twenty-three hesitated.

The hesitation of the highest commander of the Japanese front line was not without reason. Once Yuncheng was captured by the Chinese side, it would mean that the 18 troops on the front line would be completely out of food in a week, and the rapidly consumed ammunition would be difficult to replenish immediately.

If all the battles cannot be completed within a week, the 18 main forces of the Japanese army will be in an extremely dangerous situation. Not only will they have no food or water, but the guns and cannons without ammunition replenishment will become useless decorations.

Not to mention that there are still hundreds of thousands of Chinese in Zhongtiao Mountain. As long as the more than 18 Chinese who broke through Yuncheng came to attack, the -strong army would have to hide in the mountains and play hide-and-seek with them.

If the more ruthless Okamura Koji were here, he would definitely attack the Chinese side at all costs. Even if the casualties were twice as much as expected, it would be worth it to take Zhongtiao Mountain.

Unfortunately, Ando Ninjuzo is not Okamura Koji. After several consecutive telegram exchanges with Okamura Koji, Ando Ninjuzo finally made a more prudent decision.

The offensive on the Zhongtiao Mountain front was temporarily suspended in order to maintain the current defense line. In addition, the 35th Infantry Division, a division directly under the North China Front Command, was dispatched to urgently support Yuncheng.

The 35th Division is not a permanent division. It was established on February 1939, 2. It is a three-unit division dedicated to security. It has a field artillery regiment, an engineering regiment, a logistics regiment, as well as logistics units such as the division's communications team, weapons service team, and medical team. The entire division has a strength of about 7 people.

To put it bluntly, this type of guard division is a kind of organization between the mixed brigade and the Type A division, and their combat targets are often an ordinary infantry army of the Chinese Army.

Perhaps one guard division is not enough to wipe out more than 10,000 Chinese troops, but Anda 23's goal is simple. As long as the crisis in Yuncheng can be resolved, this important logistics base will not be lost.

This was perhaps the most humble act ever shown by this Japanese Army Lieutenant General in the Battle of Zhongtiao Mountain. For the first time, he did not ask his subordinates to annihilate the enemy in front of them, but only to defend the city.

But even though we were so humble, the Chinese still didn't give us any face.

The 35th Division marched towards Yuncheng from the front line 60 kilometers away. According to the original marching plan, they would arrive in Yuncheng around 12 o'clock that night.

A 11-kilometer forced march in 60 hours was a commitment that only elite troops dared to make. For this reason, Lieutenant General Harada Kumayoshi, then commander of the 35th Division, wrote a military order to Ando Twenty-three: "I must arrive in Yuncheng before 12: today to save Yuncheng from danger. Otherwise, I am willing to lead all the division members to commit seppuku to apologize to His Majesty the Emperor!"

This military order was indeed a bit harsh. He wanted to kill himself with a knife if there was a disagreement, without even asking for the opinions of other people in the division headquarters.

However, this was not something Harada Kumakichi wanted to show off in front of Ando Twenty-three. Both of them were lieutenant generals. Although the position of the front chief of staff was higher, in terms of real power, Harada Kumakichi was the actual commander of a division and could be considered a top figure in the Japanese Army. There was no need to flatter Ando Twenty-three by stabbing him in the belly with a knife. It would have been more appropriate to replace him with Okamura Koji.

Rather, the feud between the 35th Division and the th Army was too deep.

Last year, two generals of the 35th Division died in battle.

The former division commander, Lieutenant General Maeda Osamu, was killed by a bullet in the head during the Battle of Jincheng that broke out in May 1940. The army that killed a Japanese Army Lieutenant General was in Zhongtiao Mountain at that time, so the 5th Division was particularly willing to participate in the Battle of Zhongtiao Mountain.

Maeda Osamu's death can perhaps be attributed to the fact that he was too unlucky to graduate from the 19th class of the Army Academy. One of his best classmates was Abe Nobuhide, who died half a year earlier than him.

This is only what the Japanese know now. They certainly don't know how poisonous the 19th issue is. Only one year later, Tsukada Isao, who was originally going to take over as commander of the 11th Army, was shot down and died in China before he even arrived. Sakai Naotsugu, commander of the th Division of the Japanese Army, also died in the "Zhejiang-Jiangxi Campaign" of the same year when he stepped on a landmine buried by Fan Haer's subordinates.

Another important general of the 35th Division was Major General Yasujiro Iida, who was the commander of the 35th Infantry Regiment at the time. He commanded three infantry regiments of the 35th Division and was undoubtedly the second-in-command of the 3th Division, especially after the death of Maeda Osamu. He was the pillar of the 35th Division at that time.

However, this unfortunate major general may have admired his former division commander too much. A few months later, during a small-scale attack organized by the 80th Army, his command post was ambushed by a part of the 80th Army which was only at the infantry platoon level.

At the cost of only a dozen casualties, the 80th Army Group shot the unlucky boy Yasujiro Iida. The unlucky Japanese major general, who had no penicillin, died of wound infection a few days later.

  You tell me, does the 35th Division's eyes light up when it hears the name of the th Army?

In order to win the hearts of the division's generals, Harada Kumayoshi, who had just taken office for half a year, gritted his teeth and issued a military order under the banner of the two generals who died in the division, which even made Ando Twenty-three twitch his eyes.

Japanese people have a trait that they rarely make empty promises. They always do what they say, even if it means being a little forceful.

In order to enable the entire division to march 11 kilometers within 60 hours, the 35th Division abandoned all baggage except weapons and equipment, including bedding, food, etc., and the excavation equipment carried by the engineering regiment.

Because these heavy things were mainly used for digging, the 35th Division went to settle accounts with the Chinese, not to confront them by digging trenches.

Besides, don’t the officers and soldiers of the division carry individual engineering shovels?

Without even bringing rice balls, and only carrying guns and cannons, the 35th Division ran fast! If nothing unexpected happened, they would even arrive in Yuncheng half an hour earlier than the stipulated time.

Then, something unexpected happened.

  Something happened on the road that the 35th Division had to take to return to Yuncheng!

The vanguard troops running in the front first plunged into the minefield. In the boundless darkness, the rumbling sound of explosions and the flashes of light that constantly tore through the darkness completely engulfed the vanguard team.

Then, scarlet whips flashed in the wilderness on both sides, sweeping over the strong soldiers of the 35th Division who were caught off guard and were still marching quickly.

The screams of intense pain made the 35th Division, which was running madly, suddenly clear their heads. They besieged the city and attacked the reinforcements, a very familiar tactic.

  The main force of the Chinese is not around Yuncheng, but here!

That's right, those who surrounded Yuncheng were nothing more than the logistics and supply troops of the Security Brigade and the 772nd Regiment. In order to bluff an infantry regiment in Yuncheng, the Security Brigade and the 772nd Regiment even left behind 16 150mm heavy mortars and 10 mountain cannons. The fierce artillery fire that the Japanese troops in the city had never seen before made them certain that the main force of the Chinese was outside the city.

The main force of the Security Brigade and the 772nd and 771st Regiments, totaling 1.3 people, set up an ambush in Changle Village, 10 kilometers away from Yuncheng.

Changle Village is a hilly area, and most of the arable land is on slopes. It is not the mountainous area that is more common around Yuncheng. The terrain is neither dangerous nor difficult to hide troops, and is actually not suitable for ambushes.

However, upon learning that nearly 20,000 Japanese troops were marching rapidly toward Yuncheng, the highest commander of the Chinese army, Brigadier General Cheng, resolutely chose this place as the ambush site. His reason was simple: "The so-called ambush is to be in a position that the enemy can't expect. If the enemy can guess and be alert, then the most important element of an ambush, suddenness, loses its meaning.

It doesn't matter if the terrain is not dangerous. We just want to catch the Japs off guard. We have no intention of engaging in any offensive, defensive or protracted war with the Japanese. After the firepower covers the area, we will rush in, divide and surround them, and end the battle as soon as possible.

It is difficult to conceal troops in hilly areas. This time we are not hiding in the grass in the ravines in broad daylight. Night is the best place to hide!"

It can only be said that Brigade Commander Cheng, who has dealt with the Japanese for many years, has a thorough understanding of the Japanese army's psychology.

Before the 35th Division set off, in order to prevent the Chinese from laying siege to the city and attacking reinforcements again, Ando Nijisan arranged for reconnaissance planes to fly back and forth at least four times on the road that the 35th Division had to pass, to ensure that there were no large numbers of Chinese.

A small number of Chinese might not be visible to the reconnaissance pilots, but as long as there are thousands of them, then the reconnaissance pilots must be blind.

Therefore, the main forces of the two infantry brigades that arrived did not march to the ambush site until around 6 pm, and they arrived here only about an hour earlier than the Japanese army.

Harada Kumayoshi also sent out a scout squad and a cavalry squadron 2000 meters ahead of the main force to search the mountains along the way, especially the mountain jungles. The search depth on both sides of the road even reached 200 meters. If there was a place that could not be detected, they would use firepower reconnaissance.

We had already passed the first 50 kilometers in the mountains, but we didn’t expect the Chinese to appear in the most unlikely hilly area.

The Japanese army could only defend on the spot in a hurry, but tragically, in order to march quickly, the engineering regiment basically became a transport soldier transporting ammunition, and the engineering shovel became their only tool for digging fortifications.

If the Chinese army could give them enough time, relying on the Japanese army's strong civil engineering capabilities, they would be able to dig out individual shelters that are large enough for individual soldiers to hide.

Unfortunately, the Chinese did not give them much time. They could not tell how many mortars fired a hair-raising "boom!"

There was an unknown amount of fire and black smoke along the 1.8-kilometer-long marching line of 6 Japanese troops.

In order to gain visibility to attack the enemy, the Japanese army had to fire flares!

The light of the flares illuminated the wilderness a hundred meters away, and also clearly placed the Japanese army's figures, which were originally vaguely visible in the artillery fire, in the sight of the Chinese soldiers. "Attack!" With the roars of the grassroots infantry company commanders on the front line, bullets from various light and heavy machine guns, rifles, and submachine guns swept towards the Japanese army like raindrops.

Excluding artillery, and only considering light weapons firepower, the firepower output efficiency of the Guard Brigade and the 683rd Brigade at this time should be more than three times that of the Japanese army on average.

Coupled with the Japanese army's counter-tactic of "the enemy is in the dark and we are in the light", it would be strange if the veterans of the two infantry brigades who grew up in the war did not lead the new recruits to kill the 35th Division.

Brigade Commander Cheng had issued an order before the war to kill more than 10,000 Japanese troops in one battle. This battle with the main forces of our two infantry brigades would be a complete victory. It didn't matter whether we could capture Yuncheng or not. There was no need to save ammunition. Just fire as many bullets as you have.

There was no such thing as saving money, and the officers and soldiers of the two infantry brigades felt so comfortable pulling the trigger.

According to post-war statistics, the two brigades used up 35 rounds of ammunition in the ambush of the 80th Division alone.

What kind of consumption speed is this? Let’s take the example of a large-scale counterattack launched by the 80th Army on a thousand-mile defense line to break the cage policy of Okamura Koji in the past.

At that time, there were a total of 36 infantry regiments participating in the war in the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region, which consumed a total of 26 rounds of various bullets; the 129th Division that participated in the war was already considered the strongest in the 8th Army, with more than 75 troops participating in the war, but it only consumed rounds of bullets.

  And that was a battle that lasted nearly 5 months!

But on that night, only 1.1 Chinese infantrymen fired 80 bullets. Even if it took an average of 200 bullets to kill or injure a Japanese soldier, the Japanese casualties under such dense rain of bullets were around 4000.

But the heaviest blow to the Japanese army was not the dense rain of bullets that could turn them into a hornet's nest as soon as they raised their heads.

The homemade artillery that Brigade Commander Cheng called a "heartless artillery" made its debut again. This "shock wave" type blind artillery, which was originally used to clear ground fortifications and obstacles, was used to kill infantry who had basically no fortifications to hide in. It was simply a "life-harvester."

Although the 2nd Independent Mixed Infantry Brigade's defense line was completely lost and collapsed under the artillery with a range of only more than meters two days ago, they still had a trench and anti-artillery holes to hold out for a while.

What does the 35th Division have?

  What else is there besides using your head to push it?

You know what, this is really the truth.

In order to ensure that the explosive pack can be pushed 200 meters away by the thrust of gunpowder and will not explode accidentally, there is a thick wooden board under each explosive pack as a partition, and the two together weigh a total of 8 kilograms.

Since the length of the fuse is inevitably different, some explosive packs have not completely burned out when the fuse is dropped. In the absence of an explosion, this 8-kilogram thing is actually no different from a piece of stone.

As a result, some Japanese soldiers were caught off guard and hit hard on the head with wooden boards and explosive packs.

The Japanese army’s equipment was actually not bad, at least every soldier had a helmet.

As we all know, a steel helmet is good for blocking grenade fragments, but it is basically just a decoration for blocking bullets.

  If you block an 8 kg object falling from the sky.

Not even as good as a decoration.

Because, both the helmet and the head would be smashed to the ground.

But the Japanese soldiers who encountered this should be lucky, because they all fell into a state of coma at that moment. At least they didn't have to watch the huge explosive bag emitting flames like their colleagues, and then with a "boom", everyone within a radius of 10 meters was sent to the sky.

This is how Lieutenant General Harada Kumayoshi died in battle.

A large explosive pack fell less than 3 meters away from the Japanese Army Lieutenant General. Even though there were more than 20 guards around him, there was already a 80-centimeter-high and half-meter-thick sandbag fortification in front of him.

But everything was in vain in front of the 0.5-kilogram explosive pack that hit the fortification and exploded 5 seconds later.

Neither the Chinese nor the Japanese have been able to find any trace of this lieutenant general division commander. Some even suspected that Harada Kumayoshi fled because he was too ashamed to face his fellow countrymen after the defeat. Who knows where he is now in China, eating corn and potatoes for a living!

The Japanese North China Front Command eventually only listed him on the list of missing persons, but did not put him on the list of dead in battle.

Half an hour after losing unified command, the remnants of the 35th Division finally decided not to hold on.

  To put it nicely, it's a breakout, to put it bluntly, it's a defeat!

Division, pursuit, and encirclement were the main themes of the entire second half of the night. The two infantry brigades completed a miracle before the sunrise.

The Japanese 35th Division that came to support disappeared in just one night.

According to post-war statistics from the Japanese North China Front Army, more than 35% of the th Division's soldiers were killed in action, less than % managed to break through the encirclement and escape into the mountains, and nearly % were never seen alive or dead, and could only be listed as missing.

According to the unwritten rules of the Japanese Army, troops whose flags were captured or whose division commanders were killed in battle would be disbanded. For example, the 106th Division at Wanjialing was completely wiped out along with its division commander. Another example was the 114th Division whose division commander was killed in the Battle of Liaocheng. The 35th Division had all of these conditions, so the result was obvious.

When Ando Nijusan received the news that the 35th Division was ambushed and wiped out, he didn't almost fall down this time, but was so angry that he fainted.

Okamura Koji, who was far away in Pingbei City, had to serve as the front-line commander himself and give remote commands across thousands of kilometers.

After losing nearly 3 troops, Okamura Koji had to admit that if he did not make a decisive decision, it might not be a problem of whether Zhongtiao Mountain could be captured, but a big question of whether the 16 imperial officers and soldiers on the front line could safely evacuate from Zhongtiao Mountain.

As one side gained strength, the other side lost strength. At this time, the total strength of the Chinese army, together with the 2 elite Chinese troops who had completed two impossible battlefields in a row, once again exceeded 20, while the imperial army had less than 16 left, and the logistics base in Yuncheng was still under threat from the enemy.

Once the logistics base is destroyed, the Chinese, whose morale has been greatly boosted, only need to hold off the imperial army for a week, and then everyone will be doomed.

Withdrawal is inevitable!

Under the order of Okamura Koji, the 5th Division and the 13th and 10th permanent divisions each dispatched a main brigade, and nearly 3 troops were divided into three routes and rushed towards Yuncheng with great momentum.

The rest of the Japanese troops on the Zhongtiao Mountain front also began to gradually separate from the Chinese army, and the defense line that had previously cost hundreds or thousands of Japanese lives to occupy was once again lost to the Chinese side.

Okamura Koji's idea was that as long as the Chinese stayed in the vicinity of Yuncheng for another day, he would be able to make it impossible for these 20,000 elite Chinese troops to escape.

As a result, the Chinese stayed there for most of the day and fired more than 2000 artillery shells at the supply storage area in Yuncheng, including a number of incendiary bombs, burning at least % of all kinds of reserve materials in Yuncheng, and then started to run away.

  The 20,000-strong army fled to Linfen and then to the Taiyue Mountain area.

With that speed, not to mention the three Japanese infantry brigades that were running at full speed could not catch up with them, even the Japanese cavalry chased them all the way past Linfen City and still couldn't find them.

The speed of escape is not the most important thing. The most amazing thing is the keen sense of the battlefield. The timing of escape is almost perfect. If they run too early, the Japanese army can change tactics at any time. If they run too late, they will be caught up. Even if Okamura Koji hates these guys to the core, he can't help but express his admiration for them from the bottom of his heart.

In his words: "The commander of this Chinese army is the strongest general he has ever met on the Chinese battlefield. Perhaps only the Tang sword can rival him."

After the war, even the one who was almost spitting at the 80th Army Group had to send a telegram to An County to express his gratitude. The Ministry of Military and Political Affairs also ordered the promotion of Brigade Commander Cheng to lieutenant general and Lei Xiong to major general of the army.

These two people who continued to serve as brigade commanders with the rank of lieutenant general and deputy brigade commanders with the rank of major general are probably extremely rare in Chinese military history.

Mainly, the two who received military ranks said that they were very satisfied with their current military positions. It didn't matter if they received a higher salary, but they absolutely did not want to be promoted.

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

PS: I would like to recommend the new book "Shanghai: Never Fall" by Lonely Swordsman. Swordsman is a great writer of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. Readers who are interested in military affairs actually know how well he writes. I can only say here that, as a post-90s generation, I grew up reading the books of this great man.

  Also, the military girl Xingchen's "The Anti-Japanese War Begins with the Northeast Army" is free for the next two days, so you can go grab some free stuff! The photos she sent me are all long-legged cute girls, but I always suspected that the guy sitting in front of the computer had a bunch of heart-protecting hair

(End of this chapter)