Rise from eight hundred.

Chapter 1493: The Killing Trench (Part )

On the afternoon of June 6, a fierce battle broke out in the south of Hengyang City.

"In this battle, we must plant the general flag on the Chinese position before sunset!" Colonel Ippei Kurose, then commander of the 116rd Infantry Regiment of the 133th Division of Japan, ordered the three infantry battalion commanders standing in front of him.

120 bodies of the Kurokawa Company of the 206th Infantry Regiment have been found. Although they were not from the same infantry regiment, as the saying goes, when the rabbit dies, the fox mourns. Seeing more than 200 bodies of the Imperial Army thrown into carriages like firewood and transported away, the officers and soldiers of the 133rd Infantry Regiment, from Colonel Ippei Kurose onwards, could not help but feel inexplicably sad.

Only by quickly defeating the enemy in Hengyang can such tragedies be avoided. After the army commander, Isamu Yokoyama, issued the order to attack, the lieutenant general of the 116th Division also appealed to the 1.6 division officers and soldiers who arrived at the battlefield: "Conquer Hengyang in three days!"

However, Ippei Kurose was not a reckless man with only muscles as his brain. He first sent out a large number of reconnaissance scouts to survey the terrain. Then, combined with the results of reconnaissance by reconnaissance aircraft in the sky, he roughly understood the defensive deployment of the Chinese army.

Several mountains not far from Hengyang City should be the main stronghold of the Chinese in the southern suburbs of the city, just like Yuelu Mountain in Tanzhou. The Chinese not only want to hold on here to rely on the terrain, but are also afraid that the commanding heights here will be lost, and the imperial artillery will bombard the city from above.

However, what Kurose Ippei couldn't understand was why the Chinese had another position in front of this large mountain position. Was this clearly a gift to the Imperial Army to be eaten?

Of course, Ippei Kurose knew more or less what the Chinese were thinking. This low hill called Huangchaling on the map could echo the mountain position one kilometer away. Any vehicles or personnel who wanted to pass between the two positions would be within the range of the heavy machine guns of both sides and would face attacks from both sides. This was considered a barrier in front of the main position, making it difficult for the Imperial Army to gather heavy troops to launch an attack on their main position head-on. They could only attack from both wings.

  However, given the low terrain here, how many troops would the Chinese deploy to defend this place? Don't they have any idea of ​​the combat effectiveness of the Imperial Army?

Anyway, from Kurose Ippei's perspective, no matter how many troops the Chinese deploy here, based on the terrain and position distribution, it is almost the same as delivering food to the Imperial Army.

But Kurose Ippei remained cautious. He ignored the order from the division commander, Lieutenant General Iwanaga, to "capture Hengyang in three days." It was not until the arrival of the 122nd Artillery Regiment and a chemical warfare unit that he called on his three infantry battalion commanders to issue the order to attack.

此时的133步兵联队总共拥有10门70毫米步兵炮、16门山炮、16门野炮以及8门105榴弹炮，可发射开花榴弹以及‘特种弹药’，黑濑一平信心满满的认为，没有人能在这样的炮火强度下生存。

It is 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and there are still 3 hours until dusk and sunset, which is more than enough.

Ippei Kurose's confidence was not in vain. In order to attack Huangchaling, the Japanese army's artillery preparation took a full 40 minutes, and more than 40 artillery pieces bombarded the surface positions of Huangchaling.

The surface of the position was dotted with craters. When a round of shelling ended and the smoke cleared, looking from the main position from afar, it looked like the surface of the moon that had been hit by a meteorite.

"Can the 10st Battalion of the th Regiment hold out until this afternoon?" This might be the only thought in the minds of the officers and soldiers of the th Reserve Division behind them.

With such intensity of artillery fire, no one expected them to hold out for a few more days. This afternoon alone was enough to make it difficult for them.

Even a brave commander like Ge Youcai, commander of the 10th Division, had a serious look on his face. He had imagined that the Japanese artillery fire would be fierce, but he did not expect that the Japanese would use so many artillery pieces in just one position, Huangchaling.

"Oh no, commander! The damn Japs are using poison gas again." Zeng Jing, the commander of the 28th Regiment beside Ge Youcai, pointed into the distance in horror.

In the field of view of the telescope, more than twenty puffs of smoke rose continuously from Huangcha Ridge, but this time there was no loud noise as before. The color of the smoke was also faintly different from before, it seemed to be yellow and a little green.

"Fuck you, you Japanese bastards! One day I will go to their capital and strip all the Japanese women naked and force them to dance on the streets." Ge Youcai put down the telescope and cursed. "Go and inform all the brothers to prepare towels for me, soak them in water and tie them on their faces. Tie up all the cuffs for me, and wrap my hands and neck with cloth."

Ge Youcai was not unfamiliar with this color of poison gas. The Japanese had used it in the Battle of Changde. At least thousands of people from the 10th Division died in this poison gas attack.

The impact of this poison gas on the human body is almost devastating. It can not only cause damage to the skin, eyes, and respiratory tract, but also spread to the entire body through the respiratory tract, causing systemic poisoning and causing organ failure within 1 hour.

Even wearing a gas mask cannot completely isolate the poison gas. It can also enter the human body through the skin. If it touches the skin, the part will quickly fester and the wound will never heal. As the deputy commander of the 10th Division at the time, he watched hundreds of wounded soldiers wailing and dying in the hospital beds in the field hospital, and the medical staff were in tears but could do nothing. Later, he learned that this poison gas was called mustard gas.

Now, the devils took out this thing again. Ge Youcai's heart tightened. After giving the order, he said, "Connect me to Battalion Commander Leng. I want to talk to him."

"Captain Leng, the Japanese have released poison gas. I am here to inform you in the name of the highest commander of the southern defense line of the city that if your officers and soldiers have suffered heavy casualties and are unable to resist the Japanese attack, you can retreat. My 10th Division will cover your retreat with heavy machine guns and artillery!" Ge Youcai said solemnly on the phone.

Ge Youcai said this despite the risk of being scolded by Fang Xianjue. As an old subordinate who had followed Fang Xianjue for four years, how could he not know the temper of his commander? Not to mention retreating without a fight, even if he fought and retreated, he would still have to consider the losses.

“A soldier’s first priority should be to fight to the death!” This is Fang Xianjue’s characteristic of battlefield command. Otherwise, how did the Taishan Army gain its reputation?

However, Ge Youcai felt that he owed Tang Dao a favor. If it weren't for Tang Dao, it would be his 30th Regiment that would be on Huangcha Ridge now. He couldn't just watch the most elite infantry battalion under the Four-Line Regiment die from the Japanese's poison gas.

Withdraw to the main position. Taking advantage of the high mountains and dense forests in the main position, the lethality of the Japanese poison gas will not be that great. Just fight to the death.

Ge Youcai believed that he was not afraid of fighting, but there was no need to waste elite forces in this way, otherwise he would not dare to say this to Leng Feng.

"Leng Feng and my brothers appreciate Commander Ge's kindness, but we won't be scared away by the Japanese's poison gas. Let's kill a few thousand of them first." Leng Feng replied on the phone.

"This..." Ge Youcai could only hang up the phone helplessly.

  It is said that all the members of the Four Lines Regiment, from the leader Tang Dao on down, are stubborn guys. Unexpectedly, the rumor is not accurate enough. This guy is clearly a stubborn guy!

"Just for this reason, Battalion Commander Leng is the right one." Colonel Zeng Jing, commander of the 28th Regiment, gave a thumbs up.

The commander of the 28th Regiment, Zeng Jingke, was no coward. Yao Shaoyi, then chief of the operations section of the 44th Army's general staff department, once recorded in an internal document titled "The Bloody Battle of Hengyang and Escape" compiled two months after the Battle of Hengyang: Tianma Mountain and Fengshuling were defended by Commander Zeng Jing and survived the enemy's attack for days. They were still in our hands until the enemy broke into the city.

One day, a hilltop was lost and the enemy planted a Rising Sun flag on the hill. Regiment Commander Zeng did not report the matter to the army commander, but immediately led the only 18 menial soldiers in the regiment to rush up the hill, kill the enemy, pull out the Rising Sun flag, and plant the Blue Sky with a White Sun flag. He reported to the army commander only after the position was stabilized.

It can only be said that the temperament of an army can be inherited. From the commander Fang Xianjue of the 10th Reserve Division to the commander Sun Mingjin who died in battle, the current commander Ge Youcai, and even Commander Zeng, all have a tenacious temperament of "just go for it".

There are really not many people who can make Captain Zeng give a thumbs up before even seeing the battlefield.

At the Huangchaling position, which the Army Lieutenant General and Army Colonel could not see clearly, the First Battalion, led by Leng Feng, had already hidden in the tunnel.

The tunnel design of the Sihang Regiment was notoriously complex, and even though they were given only seven days, the several tunnels in the main position of Huangchaling were constructed strictly in accordance with Tang Dao's requirements.

That was the valuable war experience that Tang Dao had gained from the Battle of the Five Sacred Mountains in the ice field war in the past time and space.

During that war, the Battle of Five Sacred Mountains was unprecedented. Relying on advanced military weapons, the U.S. cowboy army carried out carpet bombing on our army, dropping a total of 190 million shells, almost flattening the entire Five Sacred Mountains.

How did the Chinese soldiers survive when the enemy's strength was so different from ours? The tunnels with the "seven defenses" effect played an indispensable role.

The seven defenses refer to air defense, artillery defense, poison (epidemic) defense, rain defense, moisture defense, fire defense, and cold defense. The seven standards for building tunnels proposed by Brigade Commander Cheng have been very effective in actual combat. Air defense and artillery defense are easy to understand. As long as they are dug deep enough, no artillery fire can threaten the soldiers inside the tunnels. The tunnels on Wusheng Mountain are almost all 30 meters below the surface. In Huangchaling, the Japanese army's largest caliber artillery is only a 155 howitzer, which is incomparable to the large number of heavy bombs of the Americans, so the depth is basically about 10 meters, but the tunnels are covered with solid sleepers and thick loess to reduce the violent vibration caused by artillery bombardment.

In terms of gas prevention, the horizontal tunnels dug are not straight, but have many curved passages. If the enemy wants to drop poison gas bombs on the tunnels, it is difficult for the poison gas to spread through the curved tunnels. The soldiers also have enough reaction time to block the passages containing poison gas.

In addition, there are at least two ventilation holes in each tunnel, which can also evacuate the poisonous gas to a certain extent.

The 105mm howitzers and mustard gas bombs that Ippei Kurose placed his hopes on were destined to be in vain.

As the yellow-green smoke from the mustard gas bombs gradually dissipated on the relatively flat Huangcha Ridge, the Japanese army at all levels issued orders to attack. More than 4 Japanese infantrymen from more than 800 infantry squadrons, holding rifles, crouched and trotted towards the Huangcha Ridge position.

They had to get as close to the Chinese positions as possible before the Chinese came out of the anti-artillery holes.

The Japanese infantry generally felt very lucky. It was probably due to the huge effect of 40 minutes of fierce artillery fire and poison gas bombs. They were less than 150 meters away from the Chinese positions and had long passed the stage of fire suppression by the defenders. They had not even encountered an attack.

  That’s what Private Shioya Kura Sora of the 116th Division thought!

As an 18-year-old student who had just graduated from high school, under the crazy propaganda of radio and newspapers, and with the dream of serving the empire and the emperor, Yan Gu Cang Kong signed up to join the army. After three months of recruit training, he came to China on a huge transport ship with his equally young recruit friends and was assigned to the 3th Division.

This was not the first battle that Yan Gu Cang Kong had experienced. In the battle outside Tanzhou, the infantry company and battalion to which he belonged were almost unstoppable and captured the Chinese positions in only two rounds of attacks. Although the Japanese private did not know how many Chinese soldiers he had killed, the victory came so quickly, so quickly that he was still in shock at the burning sensation of the bullets passing by his ears, and he and his comrades had won the victory.

Standing on the Chinese position, he imitated his predecessors, raised his gun high and cheered "on board". I don't know if the camera of the military reporter captured his figure.

This time, it should be no exception! Yan Gu Cang Kong followed the veterans in the team, jumped up, and charged towards the Chinese position.

"Fight!" Company commander Qian Dazhui roared, and the assault rifle in his hand began to fire forward.

The roar actually traveled through a space of 150 meters and reached the ears of Shioya Karakura. The Japanese private seemed to be frightened by the roar coming from a foreign country. His foot suddenly stepped on empty air, and he fell forward, almost falling flat on his face.

But perhaps he should be thankful for this fall.

Because the next moment, bullets came like raindrops, and a cloud of snow splashed in the first wave of Japanese infantry who were running wildly, including the old soldier who was only six or seven meters away from the Japanese private.

This Japanese veteran was a ruthless man who had participated in the Battle of Jianghan. It has been six years since he came to China in 1938. He was promoted from a private to a sergeant. Although he is not a squad leader, his words carry a lot of weight in the squad.

After all, he was one of the few guys in the infantry squadron who could survive on the battlefield for six years and continue to serve in the division. Apart from anything else, his life-saving skills were first-rate.

"Kid, remember to follow me, I guarantee you'll stay alive!" This was the promise made to him by the sergeant who had received two packs of cigarettes and a pack of candy from Private Yan Gu Cang Kong before the war.

However, the Japanese sergeant who had survived on the battlefield for six years was defeated this time. No one expected that the Chinese firepower would be so fierce.

  Eighty percent of the people who stood up were cut down like trees in the face of this kind of firepower!

那可是至少6挺MG42机枪和40杆‘突击步枪’、20多杆MP38冲锋枪组成的火力网，配备给精准射手专用的栓发步枪根本都轮不到秀射术。

Thousands of bullets fired within 10 seconds killed and injured more than 130 Japanese infantrymen who were caught off guard. Even before the Japanese heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, infantry artillery and other firepower points in the rear could react, their own infantrymen were shot in the face with blood by this fierce and extreme firepower output.

The Japanese private escaped the disaster because of an accidental fall. When he crawled forward and touched the old soldier, the blood flowing from his body had almost formed a small pond. Without him shouting, Yan Gu Cang Kong knew that the old soldier was finished.

No matter how many years of battlefield survival experience or superb individual skills you have, in this battlefield full of bullets and guns, they are not as useful as stepping into empty air.

At least, he's still alive!

The Japanese firepower points placed on the flanks were still firing desperately to cover the infantry in the front. Smoke rose from the Chinese positions again. It was the masterpiece of 133 grenade launcher groups placed by the 500rd Infantry Regiment in the 26-meter area of ​​the battlefield.

The Chinese side's firepower was obviously much weaker, probably because it was suppressed by nearly a hundred grenades.

The Japanese infantry continued to advance in a manner almost like crawling, and could only occasionally run a few steps with a hunched back thanks to the fire suppression from the heavy machine guns and grenade launchers behind them. The lucky survivor, Yan Gu Cang Kong, could only follow them.

The imperial military orders were strict. Anyone who evacuated without receiving an order to retreat would be subject to wartime military law. It was the general idea of ​​the Japanese infantry that it would be better to be killed by Chinese bullets than to die at the hands of their own people.

That is why they often win! It is not that they are not afraid of death, but they want to see how to die meaningfully.

This should be the most horrifying battlefield the Japanese private has ever experienced. The bullets seemed to be flying close to his scalp, grenade launchers were firing "boom boom boom" behind him, and the 70mm infantry gun shells whistled past seven or eight meters above his head, and then exploded a hundred meters in front of him.

Although it was still far away, the fierce shock wave still hit his face like a knife, and it seemed that it could tear the whole person into pieces in the next second.

The Japanese private's face was pale, his crotch was wet, and he was already regretting his choice.

But poor Private Salt Barn Sora didn't know that this was just an appetizer and the real bloodshed had not yet begun.

The 1st Company of the th Regiment that he was facing had only used less than one-third of its strength so far, and heavy weapons such as mortars had not yet appeared.

  The killing trenches in front of the position had not yet been activated, waiting for the Japanese to fill the pits with human bodies. How could they allow these three or four hundred Japanese soldiers to be blocked from leaving!

"May Amaterasu bless you!" After rushing to the bottom of a nearly 90-degree cliff with more than colleagues, Shioya Cangkong finally avoided the rain of bullets and breathed a sigh of relief.

  Although the cliff was nearly ten meters high, it was nothing. The trained Japanese infantrymen skillfully built a human ladder.

"The Imperial Army is mighty!" Yan Gu Cang Kong's praise was still lingering in his mind.

A row of black things emitting blue smoke fell from the sky!

"Boom, boom, boom!" The continuous explosions forced the Japanese private to curl up under the cliff with his head in his hands.

That was one of the battlefield experiences passed down to him by the veterans: to minimize the bullet-prone surface of one's body.

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

PS: I have to ask for leave from everyone tomorrow, as I will take my parents back to my hometown. I will continue to update when I return home the day after tomorrow. I will keep updating during the month of July because of the holiday. Fengyue has never slacked off, so please understand!