Rise from eight hundred.

Chapter 1494: The Killing Trench (Part )

Yan Gu Cang Kong experienced what it meant to see blood and flesh flying everywhere.

The blast from the grenade explosion swept over him as he tried to crouch low, and the raised sand and gravel hit him, causing him pain, but that was nothing.

Hot liquid kept splashing on his body and face, mixed with lumps of heavy but not hard objects. That was the real fear in his heart.

Even the dumbest person knows what that is!

The multiple human ladders under the cliff were collapsed in an instant, and screams and continuous explosions became the main theme under the cliff.

Fortunately, the Chinese grenade rain did not last long. The hundreds of Japanese soldiers who survived the grenade explosion secretly sought hiding places. If there was another wave of such grenade rain, they would have nowhere to cry.

Soon, the deep trench below the cliff that they had just crossed became the first choice for the salt barn vagrants.

But no one expected that the muffled roar of machine gun fire suddenly came from this long trench. The protruding section of the trench turned out to be a hidden bunker, which was like a porcupine with its quills exploding, spitting out several visible flames to the left and right ends.

The Japanese soldiers fell one after another in the deep trenches like harvested rice!

Yan Gu Cang Kong's luck was extremely good at this moment. Several Japanese soldiers standing in front of him fell down in a spin, obviously serving as temporary meat shields for him. Not only were the temporary meat shields shot into pieces, but they also knocked the stunned Yan Gu Cang Kong to the ground, allowing the Japanese private to narrowly avoid the ensuing rain of bullets.

Qian Dazhu, who saw this scene through the observation hole, shouted coldly: "Target, the killing trench! Grenades, throw them to me!" More than 100 grenades were thrown at the deep trench where many Japanese were crowded.

The distance from the trench on top of the cliff to this deep trench is only more than 30 meters. When building fortifications, the officers and soldiers of the first battalion had personally experimented with how much force they should use to throw the grenade just to the bottom of the cliff or into the deep trench they had dug themselves.

Eighty percent of the grenades were thrown accurately into the trenches. In order to avoid the sudden machine gun fire in the trenches, the Japanese infantrymen without any cover basically lay on the ground, wishing they could bury their heads in it.

At this moment, watching the grenades with blue smoke coming out of the tail falling in front of him or even hitting him in various ways, the only thing left in his eyes was deep despair.

It's not that there were no Japanese soldiers who wanted to fight to the death. One of them tried hard to throw away an unexploded grenade in front of his head, but he was sad to find that another grenade fell at his feet. Years of training had made his nerve reaction sharp enough. As soon as he stretched out his foot to kick away, several bullets instantly pierced his body.

Then the grenade exploded, blowing the extremely sturdy Japanese soldier up more than two meters high. When he fell down, he was already dead.

  All of this was seen by the Japanese private who was less than 10 meters away!

Then, the smoke and dust obscured his vision.

However, with two "meat shields", Shioya Cangkong survived in this hell which was a disaster scene for the Japanese army.

Not only did he survive, but he also witnessed his colleagues rushing over "foolishly" and then being hunted down in the deep trench by the Chinese with machine guns and grenades, just like his dead comrades.

This situation lasted almost the entire afternoon, and at least 500 Imperial Army soldiers were killed in the trenches, not including those who died under the cliffs and on the way to the charge.

The Japanese privates were filled with fear. It turned out that this deep trench was specially prepared for them by the Chinese, a professional killing trench.

In fact, from 3:40 when the Japanese army began to attack to when Ippei Kurose finally announced the failure of the attack and temporarily retreated, the 133rd Infantry Regiment launched a total of four rounds of attacks, deploying 4 infantry squadrons with a total of more than 9 infantrymen, 1800 heavy machine guns, 24 infantry cannons, and 10 grenade launcher teams, which can be said to have invested 36% of its strength.

But the final result was that 894 people were killed or missing on the spot, and 413 people were injured. The so-called missing means that people were blown into pieces and could not be identified. This is uniformly called missing.

The infantry squadron where Shiotani Kura was located was even more miserable. Of the 191 people in the squadron, only four, including Shiotani Kura, managed to return to the main camp alive and intact. The rest either died under the cliff and in the killing trench, or fell on the way to the attack. All officers above the rank of sergeant were killed in the battle.

As soon as the "killing trench" was launched, it almost crippled an infantry regiment of the 116th Division.

This was something not only the Japanese military did not expect, but even the Chinese side did not expect it.

Fang Xianjue, who had always been very concerned about the battle in the south of the city, was stunned for a long time after receiving the battle report from Huangchaling before he excitedly slammed the table and wanted to commend the entire First Battalion of the Four-Line Regiment for their military achievements.

Sun Minyu was still very calm. He immediately sent staff members to Huangchaling overnight to verify the military achievements. This not only concerned the authenticity of the military achievements, but also required using the realistic number of enemies killed to motivate the entire Hengyang army.

Several officers from the General Staff counted the bodies lying in disorder under the cliff in the light of torches. They even entered the bunker and jumped into the deep trench, enduring the strange smell emitted by the large number of corpses in the high summer temperature to count the Japanese corpses.

Even if it was not so detailed, the number of enemy killed was certain to be over 800. Fang Xianjue even reported it to the Ministry of Military and Political Affairs overnight along with the number of enemy killed by the 190th Division in the defense of Hengyang Airport.

Even late at night, there was still no peace on the Huangchaling position.

Under the instruction of Colonel Heiichi Kurose, the 133rd Infantry Regiment sent a five-man team to the area 300 meters away from the front line of Huangchaling.

It was the Japanese army that took the initiative to fire flares, leaving the four Japanese and one Chinese exposed to the white light of the flares.

However, the Chinese side on the position did not open fire this time. Although the distance was 300 meters, the five men had already been locked down by more than a dozen bolt-fire rifles. In just a few breaths, all five of them would be killed.

But the Japanese stood there with a small white flag held high. Their determined look stunned the three infantry squads on the front line.

What? Are the Japanese going to surrender or something? This is unscientific! The officers and soldiers of the Four-Line Regiment have fought against the Japanese for several years. They have seen all kinds of Japanese, but they have never seen a Japanese coming over with a small white flag after just one afternoon of fighting.

"Listen up, Chinese people on the other side. This is Captain Hashiguchi. He's here to discuss something with your army on the orders of Daisaku Kurose." In the light of the flares, the man with a side-parted hair and a yellow military uniform shouted at the top of his lungs in pure Chinese.

There was no way out. Once the flares were fired, they would all be exposed to the Chinese position. Although it was pitch dark and nothing could be seen, everyone knew that there were countless guns pointing at them in the darkness.

With the firepower they unleashed during the day, it would not take more than ten seconds to kill several of them!

Not to mention the unfortunate kid who was temporarily roped in to act as an interpreter, who was so scared that he squeezed his crotch together, even Captain Hashiguchi, who was known as a fierce general in the 133rd Infantry Regiment, had his calves trembling.

"You damn traitor, you are so arrogant, you keep saying Chinese, are you willing to be a dog for the Japanese? What do you want to talk to us about? Kill you." An infantry sergeant glared and aimed his gun at the shabby traitor with a side parting. The Japanese always sound a little strange when speaking Chinese, and the one who can speak Chinese so fluently can only be a traitor.

"Don't be anxious, Lao Zhang. We can't make the decision. It's up to Captain Qian and Captain Leng to make the decision. I guess they are attracted by the stinky minced meat in the ditch." Another army sergeant reached out and pressed his comrade's gun, shaking his head slightly.

"That won't do. Let the Japanese come in for a look and then give the deployment of the machine gun bunker in the ditch to the Japanese commander and take him back. He won't be fooled next time." The deputy infantry squad leader shook his head repeatedly, with a look of distress on his face.

"However, the weather has been too hot these past few days. It hasn't been long since the bodies began to stink. If we don't clean up in two days, we won't be able to stay here. The stench will kill people."

Indeed, the battle started at 8 pm, and it has been less than hours since then. Under the blowing of the mountain breeze, the already extremely unpleasant smell of blood has gradually changed.

How do you describe the smell? It's like a slaughterhouse that hasn't had time to deal with sewage. The smell of blood, fishy smell, and a smell from internal organs mixed together and drilled into your nostrils. It's hard not to feel nauseous.

Even though these soldiers of the Four-Line Regiment had all experienced war, there were still some old soldiers and the group of new recruits recruited in Hunan Province last spring who could not eat dinner, especially when there was a big piece of fat meat in everyone's bowl.

The Four-Line Regiment is now getting stronger and stronger in terms of logistics support. They can make do with instant dry food for breakfast and lunch, but as long as there is no fighting at night, dinner is basically freshly made hot meals.

The cook of the 1st Company was from Northeast China. He thought the most delicious meal was cabbage, fatty meat and vermicelli. When vermicelli was scarce, he would use fatty meat, three fingers thick, with some lean meat. During the days of building fortifications, the officers and soldiers of the 1st Company ate so much that their mouths were full of oil and they all gave the cook a thumbs up. But at that time, when their noses were filled with that disgusting strange smell, even the strongest man would feel his stomach churning.

At that time, someone suggested that they should throw some gasoline in to burn all the bodies in the trench.

"Don't talk about whether there is so much oil or not. Even if there is, do you think the smell of roasted meat is really better than what we have now?" Qian Dazhu glanced at his subordinate who spoke without thinking.

Today's Qian Dazhu is no longer the green 20-year-old infantry company commander a few years ago. Now 26 years old, Qian Dazhu has a dark face and a scar on his cheek.

It was left by a Japanese major's samurai sword during a fierce battle with the Japanese army in Shipai three years ago. The sharp blade scratched his cheek, just a few centimeters away from cutting off half of the face of the company commander of the main company of the Fourth Regiment. The price was the Japanese major's life. Qian Dazhu used his own bayonet to pierce through his jaw to the top of his head.

The decisive and ruthless Captain Qian is among the top three among the several infantry company commanders of the Four-Line Regiment, if not the first. In addition, he is calm by nature and rarely speaks, which gives people a sense of awe without anger. Many soldiers in the First Battalion may not be afraid of Captain Leng, the "cold-faced devil" with a cold face but a warm heart, but they are very afraid of Captain Qian.

"The Japanese are so eager to negotiate to recover the bodies. I think they have other intentions!" Qian Dazhu, who was discussing tomorrow's combat arrangements with Leng Feng, tank company commander Deng Guihai and three other company commanders in the tunnel behind Huangchaling, frowned slightly and said decisively.

"Captain Qian is right. The Japanese are starting to have evil intentions now that they see that our position is strong." A handsome army captain echoed.

He looks like a bookworm, but he is the artillery company commander of a battalion and a college student of Jinling University. After joining the army, he did not engage in technical or propaganda work, but actually learned artillery, and he succeeded in it. He was promoted from an ordinary gunner to a squad leader and a platoon leader, and later became the platoon leader of the mountain artillery of the artillery battalion. He once had a record of hitting a target 4 meters away with 5 rapid-fire rounds from 8000 mountain cannons. Two years ago, he was poached from the artillery battalion by Leng Feng and was promoted to company commander. Pang Dahai had been looking at Leng Feng with a bad face for a whole month.

In his opinion, how can I be promoted to company commander in your first battalion? I can do it in the artillery battalion! Later, Tang Dao personally persuaded Pang Dahai that the first battalion must have sufficient independent combat capabilities and cannot rely on the regiment artillery battalion for all fire support. Giving a capable artillery company commander is also a support for the first battalion, isn’t it? He also promised that if there are good college students who want to be artillery, the artillery battalion will give priority to them. Pang Dahai gave up.

不过这个白天一营炮兵连可没参战，麾下的3门80毫米榴迫炮和4门82毫米迫击炮以及2门20毫米机关炮可是一炮未发，所有攻击日军重机枪阵地或是步兵的迫击炮皆是3个步兵连的60毫米迫击炮。

"The battle is still long, how can we take out all our resources at once?" Leng Feng's command style is becoming more and more like Commander Tang's.

Even though the Japanese attacked with 105mm howitzers and poison gas bombs right from the start, Leng Feng believed that the Japanese troops on the opposite side also did not use their full strength. Although the Japanese army deployed a large number of infantry in the afternoon, they were still in the trial stage. They wanted to observe the trump card of the Chinese army on the Huangchaling position so as to destroy it in one fell swoop.

"No matter what evil intentions the Japanese have, we can only deal with them as they come. Since they are here, we can't just keep them out, right?" Leng Feng lit a cigarette and said calmly.

"The negotiation site will be 150 meters in front of our positions. If they send a captain, we will send a second lieutenant to tell the Japanese that if they feel the situation is not equal, they can send Isamu Yokoyama to negotiate. I promise that I will let Division Commander Ge meet him. It doesn't matter if they are still not happy. Just let them fight. My brothers in the 10th Reserve Division are waiting for them."

"Battalion commander, you have learned bad things! If Commander Ge knows that you are pretending to be his subordinate without changing your expression or beating your heart, will he be furious?" Artillery Company Commander Jia Shushen was stunned.

"Aren't the Japanese just used to fool people? What's the matter? Do I have to be honest with them?" Leng Feng threw away the cigarette butt in his hand calmly. "Ignore them and continue the meeting."

Sure enough, the Japanese army captain who came to negotiate with a small white flag felt humiliated when he saw that the visitor was just a second lieutenant of the Chinese Army. He was so angry that he didn't even tell the purpose of his visit and wanted to take his people away.

The person in charge of the negotiations was the second platoon leader of Qian Dazhu's company. He was also responsible for conveying Leng Feng's words. Seeing that the Japanese were leaving, he was naturally happy and waved goodbye with a smile: "Captain Qiaokou, goodbye, I won't see you off. See you on the battlefield tomorrow. Remember not to stand too high. My brothers' bullets have eyes. Don't let them kill you. Let the major come next time."

As the captain of the infantry company directly under the 133rd Infantry Regiment, Hashiguchi Arimichi was almost angry to death after hearing the deliberately blurred translation by the traitor translator. He had never seen such arrogant Chinese soldiers, but thinking about the instructions of His Excellency Kurose Heiichisaku, he finally swallowed his anger and returned.

It turned out that the Japanese army had similar ideas to what the Chinese side thought. Although the two sides were hostile, the dead were gone. In order to show respect for the soldiers who died in battle, they hoped that the Chinese side would allow them to move back the remains of the imperial officers and soldiers who died in front of the Chinese positions, which would also facilitate the two armies to fight again tomorrow.

The Japanese side guaranteed that the 200 people sent would not carry any weapons and would only bring ropes to tie up the bodies and drag them back, while the Chinese side guaranteed that no shooting would be done. This negotiation record would be signed and sealed by the negotiating officers sent by both parties. If either party violated the contract, it would be made public.

"Wait, what benefits does this kind of negotiation bring to our army?" The Chinese second lieutenant who came to the negotiation was surprised after hearing this.

"This is to show respect to the soldiers who died in battle on both sides!" Captain Hashiguchi emphasized again.

"That's not right! There are only your devils' corpses over there, but none of ours. There is no two sides. So, you give us money or things, and we give you respect. That's equal!" The army second lieutenant grinned.

  Japanese.

Is the legendary 'Taishan Army' so shameless?

The two sides engaged in an hour-long tussle over how much money should be paid and in what currency.

The Chinese side is not picky. They accept Chinese silver dollars, gold bars, gold and silver jewelry, and even Japanese yen, but they just don’t accept legal tender.

In the end, the deal was sold for 10 kilograms of gold and silver jewelry, which the 133rd Infantry Regiment had looted from Chinese people along the way. But now, they had slipped into the hands of the "Taishan Army".

"That is to say, let the Chinese help preserve it!" Colonel Heiichi Kurose, with veins throbbing on his forehead, comforted himself in the dark.

  The salt barn was so empty that it was almost asleep on the ground in the darkness!

On his sides, in front and behind, there were more than 1500 infantrymen lying in a black mass!