The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 404: Inflict heavy damage to a brigade? Annihilate a brigade?
On the battlefield, the sky was filled with smoke, and the air was filled with the stench of burning protein and the pungent smell of gunpowder. Countless smoke mixed with yellow, gray and red flames floated into the air, emitting a strange and dazzling light under the sunlight.

The sound of gunfire had stopped. The indiscriminate firing of the mortar and mountain artillery groups on the sides and reverse slopes of the Big and Small Bear Mountains had achieved good results. The fierce artillery fire almost wiped out more than half of the Japanese troops who had broken into the positions of the 1124th Regiment.

Under such fierce firepower, the Japanese troops that broke into the position of the 1124th Regiment finally retreated in disorder after leaving behind more than a thousand corpses.

At this point, the position of the 1124th Regiment, the only breakthrough made by the Japanese army, was successfully recaptured by the 1124th Regiment. After the Japanese troops that attacked the position of the 1124th Regiment were repelled by fierce artillery attacks, the Japanese Hata Detachment, which had suffered repeated failures and heavy losses, stopped its offensive.

This also means that after paying a heavy price in casualties today, the Japanese army's attack on the 385th Brigade's defense line centered on the Big and Small Bear Mountain Heights completely failed.

The battle between the two sides came to an abrupt end after this brutal bombardment.

Under the threat of sharp bayonets, more than a dozen dazed Japanese prisoners were escorted to the rear of the Big and Small Bear Mountain Heights. In the 1125th Command Post on the top of the Big and Small Bear Mountain Heights, He Wei sniffed the nauseating smell in the air that was enough to make one's stomach churn, and looked solemnly at the dusty Japanese prisoners at the foot of the mountain.

Ma Ji, who was looking down from above, rubbed his eyes as if he couldn't believe it, and murmured: "Did the Japanese retreat? Is the battle over?"

He Wei nodded and said, "Resigned, all retired."

"Okay, it's over. It's finally over."

Ma Ji said with emotion that in fact, Ma Ji, an old officer from the Beiyang Army and the old warlord army, understood the concept of "a man of kindness is not fit to command an army" better than He Wei.

Therefore, when he saw the dense shells fired by the mortar and mountain artillery groups behind the Big and Small Bear Mountains, which exploded in the Japanese troops that had attacked the positions of the 1124th Regiment with a devastating force, and blasted the Japanese soldiers to pieces, with blood and flesh flying everywhere and ghosts howling, he naturally no longer mentioned the more than one hundred officers and soldiers of the 1124th Regiment who had also died in the shelling, because the battlefield conditions and results he had seen had completely shocked Ma Ji.

Despite all the dangers of this battle, the brilliant results achieved gave Ma Ji a great shock. In his expectation, although he believed that the positions near the Big and Small Bear Mountains had been carefully built over a long period of time, and with He Wei personally leading the assault corps and other troops as fire support, he was very confident of holding the positions and repelling the invading enemy. However, he did not expect that so many Japanese troops would be killed or wounded.

There were countless Japanese corpses piled in front of each position. On the hillside in front of the Big and Small Bear Mountains, the dead Japanese soldiers, ordnance, and various weapons and ammunition almost covered the original soil layer on the mountain.

In the trap dug by Ma Ji on the front side of the hillside, the piles of Japanese corpses and broken limbs even filled up the huge earth pit in the trap. In front of the position of the 1126th Regiment, the corpses of fallen Japanese soldiers and abandoned weapons and ammunition could be seen everywhere.

The still-burning position of the 1124th Regiment was littered with the bodies of Japanese soldiers that had been burned to charcoal and blown beyond recognition.

In the distance, the 150mm heavy artillery battalion of the Hata Detachment of the Japanese Army, which was destroyed by the 150mm heavy artillery battalion during the march, had its artillery, gun carriages, cars, ammunition trailers and all supplies destroyed, and thick smoke and flames produced by the artillery bombardment and ammunition explosions rose into the sky.

The brilliant results of the war and the new form of warfare completely overturned Ma Ji's understanding of the word war, as he had long been struggling in the domestic warlords' melee.

Looking at He Wei, who was neither surprised nor happy, with a calm expression, Ma Ji couldn't help but sigh: "I'm old, I'm old."

For He Wei, the results of this battle could be described as brilliant. At least in terms of the scale of the battle, the number of heavy weapons and heavy equipment used by both sides exceeded all the previous battles he had commanded.

But after winning so many battles and going through so many tests, He Wei's mood has become much calmer. He walked to Ma Ji's side and said with a smile: "As long as the command is proper, the Japanese army is not difficult to defeat. This is just the beginning. We have already broken a few big teeth of the Japanese. Next we have to make the Japanese bleed more."

Ma Ji's face was still full of emotion. He looked down at the tragic battlefield and said repeatedly: "Good! Good! Good!"

After the battle, all the post-battle work such as cleaning the battlefield, burying the bodies, and evacuating and treating the wounded was immediately carried out. Under the organization and command of Zhao Zhanhai, chief of the combat training section of the assault corps' staff office, all the work was in good order.

The statistical tables of battle damage, spoils of war, casualties, losses, and results of this battle were soon handed over to He Wei.

In this battle, officers and soldiers of the 385th Brigade and the Assault Corps cleared out more than 385 relatively intact Japanese corpses near the positions. If we count the bodies that were blown into pieces and burned to charcoal, the number of Japanese soldiers killed by the Assault Corps and the th Brigade in today's fierce fighting is about .

In addition to these Japanese soldiers who were killed, the various troops also captured more than a dozen uninjured and lightly injured prisoners, as well as more than 40 seriously wounded Japanese soldiers who were dying. The results of annihilating and capturing the enemy were extremely brilliant.

However, compared with the number of enemies killed, the number of weapons and equipment seized was much smaller. Only more than 500 complete and usable Type 38 rifles were seized. In addition, four Type 92 infantry guns, fourteen Type 92 heavy machine guns, fifteen Taisho 11-year Type 92 light machine guns, and twenty-four Type 89 50mm grenade launchers were also seized.

Likewise, the number of various ammunition abandoned by the Japanese army was not large.

He Wei was also quite puzzled about the obviously small number of seized weapons and ammunition. After asking Zhao Zhanhai in detail, He Wei learned that in this battle, the Assault Corps and the 385th Brigade used artillery as the main means of attacking the enemy. The artillery group composed of 150mm howitzers, 75mm mountain guns, 76mm mountain guns and 81mm and 82mm mortars killed and wounded a large number of Japanese troops while also destroying a large number of weapons and ammunition left behind by the fallen Japanese soldiers.

Therefore, the number of weapons and ammunition seized in this battle was obviously not consistent with the number of enemies killed.

Of course, He Wei didn't care too much about the Japanese light weapons. What really made He Wei feel painful was the Japanese 150mm heavy artillery battalion that was annihilated by his own 150mm heavy artillery battalion during the march.

It was certainly satisfying to annihilate the Japanese heavy artillery battalion with fierce artillery fire before it could deploy, but He Wei felt really heartbroken when he learned from Zhao Zhanhai that the destroyed Japanese heavy artillery battalion was equipped with eight of the latest Type 96 150mm howitzers.

If not all of them were destroyed but a few were captured, wouldn't the artillery battalion of the assault corps be able to expand into a heavy artillery unit?
The results of the battle were very fruitful, but the casualties suffered by our side were also not small. The casualties of the Assault Corps were not too small. Only Fang Jing's Second Infantry Battalion suffered more than 60 casualties in the counterattack melee in reinforcing the Big and Small Bear Mountain Heights. Together with the sporadic casualties of the artillery of the Assault Corps, the casualties of all participating units of the Assault Corps totaled less than 100.

However, the 385th Brigade, which was the main force defending various positions, suffered much greater casualties. Its three subordinate infantry regiments suffered a total loss of more than people killed and more than people seriously injured in the battle. The total casualties of the entire brigade were more than .

For the 385th Brigade, this number of casualties was not enough to cause serious damage, but it was still a considerable loss for an infantry brigade. However, for the 385th Brigade, which was fighting the Japanese for the first time and had many new recruits, being able to hold its position firmly under the fierce attack of the Japanese army with strong firepower and combat power was already a victory. Moreover, compared with the result of killing and wounding more than Japanese soldiers, this loss ratio was also superior.

At night, in the command post on the reverse slope of the Big and Small Bear Mountains, He Wei dropped the telephone leading to Banbi Mountain. He had just finished a call with Chief of Staff Wang Yuanling and was devouring the meal brought by the orderly Tao Heiwa.

Suddenly, a second lieutenant from the Combat Training Section of the Commando Corps' Staff Office came trotting over and handed a document to He Wei.

"Captain, this is the enemy situation summary compiled by our department and the Rangers based on the confessions of prisoners and captured items."

He Wei nodded to the young staff officer and said, "Okay, thank you for your hard work."

"Captain, Chief Zhao asked me to ask you how to deal with the seriously wounded Japanese soldiers who were captured?"

He Wei said: "Oh? How are the seriously injured Japanese soldiers doing?"

"They were all seriously injured. When the Rangers were interrogating the prisoners, they killed several seriously wounded Japanese soldiers in order to scare the Japanese prisoners. The rest were left in the foxholes at the foot of the mountain."

He Wei thought for a moment and said, "The captured Japanese prisoners should be kept under guard, and the lightly wounded soldiers should be sent to our regiment's medical team for treatment. As for the seriously wounded soldiers, there is no need to waste precious medicine. Tell Chief Zhao to treat the seriously wounded Japanese soldiers on the spot."

"By the way, it's dark now, don't use a gun when dealing with it, and try to make as little noise as possible."

"Yes!"

The staff officer immediately understood what He Wei meant by "deal with it on the spot" and immediately left the command post to pass on the order.

He Wei also opened the document sent by the staff officer while eating, and nodded slightly after glancing at it.

This document has classified the various situations of today's enemies and organized them according to different items.

It includes the offensive deployment and tactics of today's Japanese attacking forces, the numbers of the participating troops, the current organization and equipment of the Japanese Hata Detachment, the composition of the troops, the whereabouts of the actions in recent times, and even the source of the participating Japanese troops and the native places of the soldiers, etc. It is very detailed, and it is no exaggeration to say that all aspects of the Japanese army's situation in today's battle have been thoroughly dug up.

From this document compiled by the Combat Training Section of the Commando Corps Staff Office, it can be seen that after a long period of training, all the operations of the Commando Corps Staff Office have been completely put on track, forming a very complete staff operation system.

A lot of the content in this document also contributed to the Japanese prisoners of war in the Rangers. Obviously, the Japanese prisoners of war who had served He Wei for some time had completely got into the role, and their interrogation and work efficiency had been greatly improved.

It can be seen from this that not only the combat effectiveness of the assault corps' combat forces is constantly improving, but non-combat units such as the General Staff Office and the Rangers have also entered an extremely good operating state.

According to this document, the Japanese troops that were severely damaged in the fierce battle with the Assault Corps and the 385th Brigade today were none other than He Wei's old enemy, the Hata Detachment, and all of He Wei's previous doubts were also explained.

The reason why the Hata Detachment stopped and started, appearing and disappearing, while attacking towards Banbi Mountain was actually because it was frightened by the advance column sent by the Assault Corps, so it was timid in the subsequent march and greatly reduced its advance speed.

Moreover, after being severely damaged by the advance column sent by He Wei, the Hata Detachment took a considerable period of time to replenish and reorganize, which led to the "turtle-crawling" marching speed that once puzzled He Wei.

What shocked He Wei the most in the document was the current organization and composition of the Hata Detachment.

According to the intelligence previously compiled, the backbone of the Hata Detachment was two infantry regiments and one mountain artillery regiment, but He Wei did not expect that the Hata Detachment in front of him, after reorganization and replenishment, not only quickly made up for the losses caused by the Assault Corps' Advance Column annihilating its vanguard troops, but also added an independent engineering regiment and a 150mm heavy artillery battalion, as well as a large number of automobile and logistics troops. Its overall strength can be said to be quite powerful.

After being strengthened, the Hata Detachment had its organized combat units consisting of two field infantry regiments, a mountain artillery regiment, a new field heavy artillery battalion and a field engineer regiment.

Its artillery firepower and engineering operations capabilities have exceeded that of a field division, and its infantry combat effectiveness and logistical replenishment capabilities have also exceeded the level of a brigade.

In other words, before today's attack, although the overall strength of the Hata Detachment did not reach the level of a field division of the Japanese Army, it is definitely not an exaggeration to say that it has reached 60% of the comprehensive combat effectiveness of a field division. It can be regarded as a reinforced super-large field brigade.

Although through previous small-scale battles and tracking reconnaissance, He Wei had determined that the enemy in front of them was a force equipped with a large amount of heavy equipment, and had guessed that the Hata Detachment might have been greatly strengthened in terms of equipment and personnel, he did not expect that this reinforcement would be so strong.

In today's battle, he not only repelled the attack of the Hata Detachment, but also destroyed its newest 150mm heavy artillery battalion, and killed and wounded about Japanese troops, which obviously dealt a heavy blow to the Hata Detachment.

After learning about the latest organization of the Hata Detachment, He Wei immediately became excited.

Today's battle has dealt a heavy blow to the Hata Detachment, causing it to suffer heavy damage. In this case, it seems feasible to change the defensive tactics and adopt an active tactic of taking the initiative to attack and annihilate the Hata Detachment.

Although it is extremely difficult to achieve the tactical goal of completely wiping out the giant Japanese Hata Detachment, judging from the course and results of today's battle, it is not necessarily impossible to take the initiative to attack, defeat or even further damage the Hata Detachment.

The temptation of defeating, further damaging, or even annihilating a super-large reinforced brigade with 60% of the combat power of the Japanese field division was before him. The more He Wei thought about it, the more excited he became. A proactive battle plan gradually came to He Wei's mind.

(End of this chapter)