Rise from eight hundred.

Chapter 1500 Loss and Gain!

Victory on the east bank of the Xiangjiang River!

Although the main force of the landing fleet of the 6th Infantry Regiment led by Matsukami Yoshimasa was still intact, it had lost most of its artillery and completely lost the ability to force a crossing of the Xiangjiang River.

Although the gunboats and gunboats had powerful firepower and caused heavy casualties to the 190st Battalion of the 1th Division, the fleet was destroyed when Chinese fighter planes arrived during the day.

With two hours left before dawn, the Japanese naval ships fled upstream in disgrace, and the threat to the east bank of the Xiangjiang River was temporarily lifted.

However, Fang Xianjue, who had received the news that the 190th Division had repelled the Japanese fleet, was still frowning and looked unlikely to be happy.

It turned out that at Wuguiling in the south of the city, the 10th Division suffered unprecedented losses, and this loss was caused by human error.

At 3 a.m., the Japanese army launched an artillery attack on Wuguiling, especially on the south side of Wuguiling. Taking advantage of the favorable wind direction, they fired poison gas bombs continuously for half an hour.

That was the position of the 10th Company, 28rd Battalion, 3th Regiment, 7th Reserve Division. Li Ruodong, the battalion commander at the time, called Captain Zhu Zhongping, the new company commander, at the rear command post. The phone rang for a long time but no one answered. Li Ruodong was naturally a little worried and immediately ordered the signalman to check in the dark.

  As a result, when the communications soldier climbed up to the position, he was shocked to find that the position was dead silent!

It's not that there were no people, but that all 118 people in the company were there, except that no one was alive, including Captain Zhu Zhongping, the former captain and staff officer of the 28th Regiment who had just taken over as company commander yesterday. All the officers and soldiers of the 7th Company were poisoned and killed by the Japanese army's poison gas bombs.

  An entire infantry company was completely wiped out. This was the first time since the battle of Hengyang began!

Officers who have actual battlefield experience know that poison gas is heavier than air, and any depression is where poison gas easily accumulates. So when the Japanese army releases poison gas, the troops must evacuate to high ground with crosswinds as soon as possible. If they have gas masks, they should wear them. If they don't have masks, they should cover their mouths and noses with wet towels. The survival rate must be higher than 70 to 80 percent, otherwise there is no need to fight this battle, because everyone will die once the Japanese release the poison gas.

Captain Zhu Heping was an alumnus and fellow villager of the 28th Regiment Commander Zeng Jing. Since being assigned to the 10th Reserve Division, he had been serving as a staff officer at the regiment headquarters. He had never served as a chief officer in a grassroots unit and lacked sufficient practical experience. Because the Japanese army's poison gas was so fierce, he took the entire company of officers and soldiers to hide in fortifications in a low-lying area, resulting in all 118 people being poisoned, without any one surviving.

"This is what I overlooked! I neglected the issue of promoting officers' practical experience on the battlefield, as well as the popularization of experience in defending against poison gas." Fang Xianjue felt sad and blamed himself.

If these 118 people had died in a bloody battle with the Japanese army, Fang Xianjue, who made it his mission to destroy the Japanese army, might have been able to accept it. But seeing them die silently from the Japanese army's poison gas attack, Fang Xianjue's inner pain was undoubtedly doubled.

Because of this tragedy, the commander of the 10th Reserve Division Ge Youcai and the commander of the 28th Regiment Zeng Jing successively called Fang Xianjue to apologize.

"Of course you two can't escape the responsibility. After the war, come to the military headquarters and receive 20 lashes each. I will give you 10 lashes as well." Fang Xianjue said this and hung up the phone.

However, tragedy is tragedy, no matter it was caused by the cruelty of the Japanese army or the stupidity of his own people, Fang Xianjue, the supreme commander, could only forget his sorrow for the time being and consider the issue of sending reinforcements to Wuguiling.

The 28th Regiment is already the reserve force of the 10th Division. It just replaced the 30th Regiment to enter the position two days ago. We can't let the 30th Regiment, which has just withdrawn and has not yet completed its rest, go up again!

As the saying goes, when it rains, it pours. The problem of the 28th Regiment hasn't been resolved yet, and the Tiger's Nest position defended by the 29th Regiment has run into trouble again.

At 4 a.m., a thunderstorm hit the south of Hengyang City. The rain was so heavy that the officers and soldiers in the trenches had to enter the anti-gun caves to shelter from the rain.

This hiding, coupled with the fact that visibility was extremely poor due to the late night and heavy rain, led to an accident.

The Japanese army sent a suicide squad of more than 40 people. They took advantage of the night and braved the thunderstorm to sneak into the outer trench. They used people as ladders to climb up the cliff, and they sneaked into the southwest side of the Tiger's Nest without anyone noticing.

Not to mention, the Japanese army also used cold weapons and close combat to capture three bunkers and a 3-meter-long trench in a lightning speed.

It was not until flames and rumbling explosions broke out on the battlefield that the Chinese officers and soldiers in the remaining trenches realized that the Japanese army had infiltrated the battlefield.

Fortunately, the 29st Battalion of the 1th Regiment was stationed in the area. Not only was its combat effectiveness the strongest in the 29th Regiment, but its battalion commander was also a very clear-headed veteran. He immediately mobilized troops, first using the battalion's heavy machine guns to block the rear of the southwest position, blocking the Japanese army's subsequent reinforcements and preventing the Japanese army from continuing to enter. Then he mobilized two platoons of troops, divided into groups of six, with 2 light machine guns and 6 submachine guns, to sweep the trenches occupied by the Japanese army.

The Japanese troops who sneaked into the position did not carry any heavy weapons at all. They only had three light machine guns snatched from the Chinese position and their own rifles. When follow-up troops were unable to arrive in time, they were at a disadvantage in firepower.

But these 40-plus Japanese soldiers were undoubtedly elite troops. Although their firepower was completely suppressed, they had superb shooting skills and extremely strong fighting will, and they resisted until dawn. During this period, the infantry company commander in charge of the position was anxious and personally led the assault team forward, but was sniped and killed by a Japanese infantryman.

If the Japanese army was given another 100 people, it would be possible for them to hold their ground. As Japanese troops continued to arrive, the Tiger's Nest Hill, which had lost a corner of the hill, was almost certain to be lost.

Unfortunately, Amaterasu, the goddess who had favored the Japanese army for half the night, could not last long, and daybreak came!

As soon as the day dawned, the situation between the enemy and us became extremely clear.

29团这位1营营长的4挺重机枪对阵地西南侧后方集火射击真的是太重要了，足足有300多号鬼子趴在距离阵地不足200米的泥地中不能寸进。

If these Japanese were allowed to charge into the position, even if there were still more than 600 Chinese officers and soldiers in the Tiger's Nest, the outcome would be hard to predict.

  After all, the Japanese army on the opposite side is as high as an infantry regiment!

A mortar platoon deployed by the Chinese side 1600 meters away showed its power, making the more than 300 Japanese soldiers scream in pain and splatter blood and mud everywhere. Unable to bear the huge casualties, the Japanese army was forced to retreat, leaving the suicide squad of about 20 people alone in the Tiger's Nest position.

In the end, after paying the price of 7 deaths and 18 injuries, the 29st Battalion of the 1th Regiment finally wiped out the Japanese troops that had sneaked into the position.

Although the counterattack was brave and swift, and more than 30 Japanese soldiers were left on the position, and their own casualties were basically equal, if the Japanese soldiers killed by machine guns and mortars in front of the position were counted, the 29th Regiment still had the advantage. But this was another mistake that almost cost them the position, and a brave general like Ge Youcai, the commander of the 10th Reserve Division, had to call the command center again to apologize.

"General, I will receive 40 lashes in person after the battle!" Ge Youcai used to have a loud voice, but now he sounded like a young wife who was going to meet her parents-in-law. He felt so aggrieved.

"Ge Youcai, what should I say about you? Just tell me whether you are a talent or not, and whether your subordinates are talented or not?" Fang Xian was definitely not trying to restrain himself, and he would have probably smashed the phone long ago.

Fang Xianjue himself has a hot temper, not to mention that the 10th Division is his old base, Ge Youcai is his old subordinate, and those regiment commanders and battalion commanders are all his soldiers? Now that things are happening frequently, the most embarrassing one is him, the army commander, right?

"Captain Fang, don't be too angry. When two sides are at war, they will naturally have their own ulterior motives and try every means to kill the other side. What we are facing is not a group of pigs, but the fierce Japanese invaders who have successively conquered the Miluo and Tanzhou defense lines. Their commander is the fierce and cunning Yokoyama Isamu in the Japanese army.

We can make them suffer heavy losses, and it is normal for them to inflict defeat on us occasionally. Although the brothers of the 10th Reserve Division occasionally suffered defeats, they were able to make up for the mistakes quickly and did not allow the Japanese army to achieve their expected tactical goals.

Moreover, this battle is long, and the gains and losses of the moment are not enough to judge heroes. I believe that the brothers of the 10th Reserve Division will tell the whole of China what kind of people they are in the end." Tang Dao comforted Fang Xianjue who was frowning.

No one knew what Fang Xianjue was feeling at the time, as his expression did not change. However, when Ge Youcai heard someone at the headquarters relay Tang Dao's original words to him, he angrily conveyed Tang Dao's encouragement to his four regiment commanders: "Listen to me, all of you. I will take the blame for your occasional mistakes and the whip from the commander. But what Regiment Commander Tang said was right. The whole of China is watching our 4th Reserve Division, our 10th Army, and all the defenders of Hengyang. I will never allow any wimps to appear. If the position is lost, take it back for me. If the battalion commander cannot take it back, the regiment commander will take over. If the regiment commander cannot take it back, I will take over. As long as there is still someone in the 10th Reserve Division who is still alive, this position south of the city cannot be lost."

On the Chinese side, the commander of the 10th Reserve Division, Ge Youcai, ordered his four regiments to fight to the death after two consecutive defeats. On the Japanese side, they saw the dawn of victory because of a brief breakthrough in the Tiger's Nest position.

The Huangchaling position located in front of the entire Chinese position has proven to be an almost insurmountable high ground with the lives of more than 2600 Japanese infantrymen. The 116th Division could only bypass the high ground that was spewing deadly flames and set its sights on the mountains a thousand meters away.

The tough nut to crack Huangchaling can only be cracked after the heavy artillery brigade and the tank regiment arrive.

The commander of the 116th Division, Iwanaga Osamu, went to the front line in person and assembled his seven complete infantry battalions. He also temporarily formed eight infantry battalions by drawing personnel from the baggage regiment, the engineering regiment and the supplementary regiment.

Nearly 1.4 infantrymen gathered in the south of the city. A Chinese reconnaissance pilot passed by high altitude and saw the ground scene and informed the Hengyang City Command via radio: "The enemy situation is urgent. The Japanese invaders have gathered heavy troops in the south of the city. The number is incalculable."

It took the Japanese army a whole day just to assemble. The hills were full of trenches dug by the Japanese infantry. Viewed from the air, they looked like groups of yellow ants building nests, which was a shocking sight.

The Chinese Air Force and Flying Tigers' fighter planes carried out indiscriminate bombing of the area, but because the area was vast and the positions dug by the Japanese were close to several Chinese heights, and more importantly, the Japanese also dispatched fighter planes to intercept at high altitudes, the bombing effect was not very good.

June 6th, Zhangjiashan main battlefield!

At noon, heavy rain suddenly hit Zhangjiashan.

At 3 pm, the Japanese army deployed three infantry battalions to launch a fierce attack on Zhangjiashan in the pouring rain. The two sides fought back and forth in the mud in the pouring rain.

Among them, Hill 221 was breached by the Japanese army twice, but was counterattacked and recaptured by the 30nd Battalion of the 2th Regiment which was urgently transferred.

  The battle lasted until dusk, and the rainstorm finally stopped!

The Japanese army continued to attack and even sent out three more infantry battalions, plus the remnants of the previous afternoon's battle, a total of about 3 people, to take turns to attack the main position of Zhangjiashan.

Hill 221 and Hill 227 were breached by the Japanese army almost at the same time. More than half of the officers and soldiers of the 30nd Battalion of the 2th Regiment stationed there suffered casualties. The battalion commander, Major Xu Xiansheng, was shot in the head, but he still shouted "fight to the death". Several guards under his command carried him to the rear after he fell into a coma, but he died on the way to the medical team.

The commander of the 30th Regiment, Feng Zishi, ordered the regiment's lieutenant colonel Gan Wotu to succeed him as the battalion commander and lead the regiment's guard platoon to advance to the high ground and fight the Japanese invaders who had entered the two high grounds. But within an hour, the regiment's lieutenant colonel Gan Wotu was also killed in the battle, and only one of the three company commanders of the 2nd Battalion survived.

"Without reinforcements, our battalion will suffer heavy casualties!" The army captain, who had lost two battalion commanders in a row, pleaded desperately to the regiment commander Feng Zishi on the only walkie-talkie in the entire battalion.

The infantry battalion, which originally had 600 people, now has less than 150 people, and only one-third of the position is still in their hands.

Perhaps at this point in the battle, the man who was asking for support in tears no longer cared about life or death, but just didn't want to lose these two positions where the corpses of more than 400 of his brothers were lying.

The regiment commander Zeng Jing was also in tears. It was not that he did not want to rescue, but the crazy Japanese army had also deployed heavy troops in the other four heights, and he no longer had any reserve troops.

Fortunately, Hills 223 and 224 had just repelled a round of Japanese attacks, and perhaps the Japanese were still planning the next wave of attacks and entered a rest period. At the request of the commander of the 1st Battalion, the major led one and a half infantry companies under his command to the two hills where fierce fighting was still going on.

The reinforcements requested by the 10th Division from the headquarters were still 5 miles away from the position.

The arrival of 200 fresh troops boosted the morale of the remaining Chinese soldiers. With the support of two mortar platoons and four 4mm heavy mortars from Huangchaling, it took them an hour and a half to finally recapture all the positions on the high ground.

It was already 9 o'clock in the evening. After fighting for six hours, the officers and soldiers of both China and Japan were exhausted. According to past practice, it would be difficult for the Japanese army to launch any offensive.

The Chinese soldiers dragged their extremely exhausted bodies and threw the "shit-yellow" corpses directly out of the trenches. They carried the remains of their own officers and soldiers to the position and temporarily placed them there, waiting for the stretcher team composed of civilian laborers to come and carry the remains away for burial tomorrow.

This is also a wartime regulation. The main reason is that the weather is too hot now, and the body will start to rot and deteriorate within a day.

It has been 6 days since the fierce battle broke out at Huangchaling. There are a lot more flies in Hengyang city. Whenever there is a meal, the flies don't fly in groups but in swarms. The reason is because of the battlefield in the south of the city.

In the deep trench under Huangchaling alone, there were more than a thousand Japanese corpses rotting and maggots crawling everywhere. The stench was so strong that even the war-torn veterans of the 1st Battalion of the Four-Line Regiment could not stand it. Even in hot weather, they had to tie a towel soaked in medicine on their faces.

In order to prevent epidemics, during the intervals between fierce battles, commanders at all levels required that the remains of their fallen officers and soldiers be transported to the rear and buried as soon as possible.

As for the Japanese, they were too busy to take care of them and could only let them rot outside their positions. When the Japanese charged here, the stench and the maggots crawling all over the ground became an obstacle.

But this day was different. Yan Yongwang had apparently discovered that the two positions of Zhangjiashan and Huxingchao were the key to the entire south of Hengyang City. Without taking down these two places, he would not be able to even reach the edge of Hengyang City from the south of the city.

仅仅只过了1个小时，在岩永旺的厉声责骂下，时任120步兵联队联队长和尔基隆大佐不得不命令麾下2个步兵大队以及两个临时大队共3500余人，再次对221和227两个高地猛攻。

The Chinese officers and soldiers on the two high grounds, who had just caught their breath, could only fight hard again.

But at this time, the difference in military strength between the two sides was more than ten times, and the Japanese army was wearing "menstrual belts" and adopted the "pig rush tactic".

The so-called "Zhu Tu" in Chinese means to charge forward! But in Japanese culture, the meaning is quite different. In Japanese society, "pig" is a positive word. Domestic pigs are called "豚" in Japanese, while wild boars are called "猪". Their status is like that of tigers in China. To call someone a pig is to praise his bravery and fearlessness! There is even a word in Japanese called "Zhu Tu Meng Jin".

  Therefore, the pig charge is not a derogatory term, but a tactic that represents bravery and fearlessness in Japan. It first appeared in the Russo-Japanese War and was created by Nogi Maresuke! In fact, in other words, the extreme point of this tactic is to let the soldiers charge in a suicidal manner, or "human bomb charge"!

American cowboys had witnessed the power of the Japanese "pig charge tactics" in May 1943, during the Battle of Attu Island, when 5 American troops fought against 1.1 Japanese troops on Attu Island.

At that time, the US military sent 1.1 marines, many landing ships, a large number of light and heavy weapons, and cut off the Japanese supply lines. They were very well prepared! At this time, there were only 2600 Japanese troops stationed on the island! However, something speechless happened!

On the night of May 1943, 5, the Japanese army, which was in a desperate situation, actually launched the "pig-rush tactic". The US army encountered this tactic for the first time and was immediately panicked and frightened, which led to two disasters: (29) the wounded soldiers in the camp were massacred by the Japanese army, and (1) a large amount of supplies were looted by the Japanese army.

Just when it seemed that the Japanese army was about to turn the tide of the battle and the American army was about to be driven into the sea, a turning point occurred. 500 American engineers blocked the Japanese offensive with submachine guns and machine guns.

Later, the Japanese soldiers surrounded by the US army all pulled the grenade to commit suicide! After this battle, once the US military found traces of the Japanese army, they would madly pour ammunition and blow up the entire area! The so-called "every tree and grass on Bagong Mountain is an enemy" is just like this!

It can also be seen from this that an extremely terrifying fighting will can sometimes really be more powerful than overwhelming bombs.

After all, more than 300 Chinese officers and soldiers were unable to stop the crazy 3000 Japanese troops, and the positions were gradually lost again.

But Feng Zishi waited for his reinforcements, an elite infantry company that came from Taihang Mountains 20 days ago, whose commander was an army lieutenant named Tu Yunsheng.

Feng Zishi organized the cooks, signalmen and even horse feeders of his regiment into a platoon, and together with 211 elite soldiers led by Tu Yunsheng and himself, a total of 253 people, rushed to Hill 221.

When we arrived, it was already 11 o'clock in the evening. It was pitch black on the high ground and we couldn't see our hands in front of us.

As it was dark and they were afraid of hurting their own people, following Tu Yunsheng's suggestion, the more than 200 people did not rush to the high ground, but hid on the reverse slope of the high ground and waited for changes.

As the Japanese army gradually advanced, the two sides were so close that the heavy breathing could be heard clearly. Both sides wrapped their bayonets with cloth strips, leaving only the tips of the blades exposed, in order to avoid the bayonets reflecting light or making noises against rocks and being discovered.

The Chinese and Japanese armies kept silent in the darkness for fear of exposing their positions.

"Flash bomb!" Tu Yunsheng gave the order.

More than a dozen flash bombs were thrown out, and the strong white light was so painful that people could not see for at least 20 seconds.

"Flare!"

The bright white light illuminated the figures of both sides on the battlefield, leaving no one able to escape.

"Da da da!" The powerful firepower of more than 140 assault rifles formed a firepower network that killed countless people on this position.

In just 20 seconds, the officers and soldiers of the infantry company emptied their 30-round magazines. More than 300 Japanese soldiers who were blind were shot and killed in the first wave of fighting alone.

What kind of gun is this? It's even more powerful than the American "Big Eight". The Japanese army was completely stunned.

The morale of the remaining Chinese soldiers, led by their regimental commander, continued to advance towards the occupied positions.

It was impossible to fire flares all the time, and in fact, the Chinese and Japanese sides spent most of the time groping and fighting each other in the dark.

In the absence of light, Feng Zishi was also very experienced. He asked the soldiers to reach out and feel in the dark. Anyone who touched a cotton military uniform was one of their own, and anyone who touched smooth khaki cloth was a Japanese soldier. They would either shoot or stab them with a bayonet.

  In the darkness, the sound of gunfire, the sound of bayonets stabbing into flesh, and the screams of the injured Chinese and Japanese sides, one after another, never stopped!

At this point in the battle, it was no longer a question of who wanted to retreat and who didn't. Both sides had only one thought in mind: to kill the opponent.

Reinforcements from the 10th Reserve Division also arrived. They were two reserve battalions controlled by Ge Youcai, and were basically composed of young and strong civilians left behind in Hengyang City. Many of them did not have guns in their hands, only bayonets tied to carrying poles.

Although these reserve soldiers had no battlefield experience and had never experienced the cruelty of war, the darkness concealed a cruelty that was enough to destroy their psychology. Under the leadership of the veterans, this group of brave men continuously stabbed the Japanese invaders in the chest with their bayonets.

As one reservist said after the war: "Just treat it like slaughtering a pig at home. No matter how much blood spurts out, I am not afraid."

The battle lasted until dawn, and it was finally possible to distinguish between the enemy and us. At a command from Feng Zishi on the front line, grenades rained down on the Japanese army.

The two reserve battalions arrived with 9000 grenades, all of which were dropped on the Japanese army at dawn.

Relying on this wave of grenade rain, the Japanese army's desperate attack was finally defeated and two heights were reoccupied.

There were more than 1700 corpses left on the battlefield!

  According to the post-war declassification data, the 116th Division launched an assault on various positions in Zhangjiashan from day to night and from night to dawn, with a total of 11 infantry battalions deployed in rotation, with a total force of about 1 and more than 3900 casualties!

The 10th Reserve Division avenged the previous shame in one battle!

But that was also the result of over a thousand casualties, including two colonels and 2 lieutenants of all levels!

. . . . . . .