The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 509: Prelude to the Great Battle

The large number of tanks, infantry and trucks that suddenly appeared on the beach were naturally the reinforcements led by He Wei. When the two tank companies patrolling on the beach discovered the Japanese army's attempt to land, they immediately reported the enemy situation to the rear through the car radio. He Wei, who learned that the Japanese army was landing, immediately led his troops to reinforce. The 1st Infantry Battalion, the nd Infantry Battalion, the direct tank defense artillery company, the direct anti-aircraft artillery company, and the rest of the st Tank Battalion of the Assault Corps all came out and rushed straight to the beach under the command of He Wei.

"All units, move forward quickly. All battalion and company commanders are free to command and fire freely. Shoot down the Japanese landing boats on the sea!"

On the turret of a T26B tank, He Wei stepped on the track of the tank and looked at the dense Japanese landing craft on the sea, the smoking landing craft lying in disorder on the beach, the beach dyed red by blood, and shouted with red eyes holding a loudspeaker.

Beside him, Zhao Huzhen, commander of the 1st Tank Battalion, also opened his mouth wide, looking excitedly at the Japanese corpses lying all over the beach and the chaotic and leaderless Japanese landing craft on the sea.

"All units are free to fire! Hit hard!"

"Fire flares and make the beach as bright as day!"

He Wei's somewhat confusing orders were amplified by the loudspeaker and spread throughout the entire beach. He Wei, Zhao Huzhen, and other officers and soldiers on the beach were all extremely excited. Everyone knew that the Japanese landing craft on the sea were now a group of living targets. As long as the national army on the beach opened fire, they could easily send the Japanese landing craft on the sea to the bottom of the sea to feed the fish.

There is no need for any strong command at this time. The only thing to do is to open fire, open fire as quickly as possible, and project the most powerful firepower onto the sea!
Flares flew in all directions over the beach, or flew diagonally over the sea, making the beach, which was already as bright as day due to the flares, even brighter.

Soon, the remaining troops led by Zhao Huzhen, including the other two tank companies of the 1st Battalion, drove quickly to the beach and lined up with the two tank companies that had already started a killing spree. Then they joined the battle with full firepower. Suddenly, the firepower of another tanks covered the sea surface, and tracer bullets lashed at the Japanese landing craft on the sea like fire whips.

He Wei held the trigger of the DT vehicle-mounted machine gun on the turret of the T26B tank tightly and kept turning the gun. Machine gun bullets flew out one after another, forming a lethal barrage. A semicircular red tracer bullet track swept across, and bullets fell on the Japanese landing craft like raindrops.

"Damn it, it's so satisfying, hit me!"

While He Wei was indiscriminately raining bullets, the commander of the 1st Tank Battalion, Zhao Huzhen, had already gotten into the turret, pushed away the gunner inside the turret, and personally operated the 45mm tank gun, attacking the Japanese landing craft on the sea with explosive grenades one after another. The pleasure of indiscriminate firing made the tank battalion commander feel so excited.

Just after the tank unit opened fire, a series of continuous machine gun sounds and tank defense gun sounds followed. The anti-aircraft artillery company and the tank defense gun company directly under the assault corps also began to fire on the Japanese landing craft group. These two companies had already practiced motorized maneuvers. After driving to the beach, they completed the unloading of artillery and preparation for shooting in a very short time. The eight Surotong ST5 20mm machine guns of the anti-aircraft artillery company were adjusted to the flat-fire state, and together with the eight 8mm tank defense guns of the tank defense gun company, they formed a fierce and dense firepower network.

The firer of each gun almost kept his foot on the firing pedal of the machine gun, while the ammunition operator loaded 20mm machine gun magazines into the feed port one after another. The 20mm machine gun in the flat-fire state had a faster firing rate than the tank gun and the tank defense gun. The caliber of 20mm was enough to easily penetrate the Japanese landing craft, and could easily beat the Japanese infantry inside to pieces. In the crazy strafing of the 8 machine guns, there were screams on the sea, and countless Japanese soldiers were beaten to a bloody pulp and their brains burst.

As for the officers and soldiers of the tank defense artillery company, they simply treated the Japanese landing craft on the sea as combat vehicles, and methodically launched 45mm armor-piercing shells and explosive bombs at the Japanese landing craft.

Boom boom-
Boom boom-
Soon, a violent explosion suddenly sounded on the sea. In the violent explosion, a Japanese landing craft quickly became a boiling fireball, with fragments scattered everywhere, and turned into powder amid horrible screams. Neither the tank gun, nor the tank defense gun nor the machine gun could obviously achieve such a shooting effect.

Whizzing
Whizzing
There was another sharp whistle, followed by violent explosions and splashing water on the sea.

The ones that could have such a destructive effect were obviously the 81mm mortars of the mortar companies of each battalion. Various firearms of the 81nd and 81rd Infantry Battalions of the Assault Corps also joined in at this time. Two mortar companies each equipped with four Brandt 81mm mortars opened fire first. The power of mm mortars is naturally much greater than that of tank guns and machine guns. The mortar shooters of the two battalions did not aim carefully, but just roughly observed the position of the Japanese landing craft and then fired rounds of dense mm projectiles in succession. The mortar shells that were repeatedly fired on the sea formed towering water columns accompanied by hissing and flashing.

Some shells equipped with air-burst fuses exploded in mid-air, and the dense fragments produced flew down from high above, making the Japanese soldiers crowded in the landing craft scream in pain. For landing craft that were directly hit by mortar shells, as long as they were hit by a single shell, the entire boat would be destroyed and the people on board would die. Some landing craft loaded with ammunition were even hit and exploded, and were blown to pieces on the sea.

The two infantry battalions took the lead with mortars, but their other subordinate units were not willing to lag behind. Soon, the officers and soldiers of the two infantry battalions that arrived at the beach were deployed on the left and right wings of the tank battalion, with the tank battalion that was firing fiercely on the beach as the center. The infantry officers and soldiers almost rushed to the wading position on the beach, and various light and heavy firearms were laid out in a line and soon opened fire.

The ZB37 heavy machine guns of the heavy machine gun company of the infantry battalion, the 60mm mortars, the Czech light machine guns, and the MG34 general-purpose machine guns of the infantry company were all firing at full power. Even the rifle soldiers either fired with their rifles or equipped their rifles with grenade launchers and threw rifle grenades onto the sea. Only the infantry squad leaders and sergeants equipped with submachine guns could watch helplessly as the range of their submachine guns was too short to reach the Japanese troops on the sea.

In an instant, thousands of guns were fired and artillery fire roared, resounding through the sky. All kinds of firepower were concentrated on the beach, and the Japanese landing craft on the sea were naturally in a miserable state.

In fact, after the first round of fire attacks by the two tank companies, the landing craft group loaded with the 21st Infantry Battalion of the 1st Regiment fell into chaos. After being hit by the more intense fire attacks, it fell into complete chaos.

In fact, there were only a few Japanese landing craft on the sea that were still attacking the beach. The terrifying firepower network on the beach was there. No one with a normal mind would continue to rush forward to land at this time. The operators on the landing craft changed direction one after another. Some made a 180-degree turn and tried to drive the landing craft back to the starting point in the rear, while others were still determined to change the landing site.

Of course, there were also some landing craft whose operators were killed and who could only lie there and drift with the current, or whose engines and rudders were damaged and who rushed around in all kinds of strange directions.

In this chaotic situation, the Japanese landing craft not only had to withstand the intensive firepower attacks from the beach, but the landing craft also collided, capsized, and scraped against each other more and more frequently. Many landing craft that were running around managed to avoid the firepower attacks of the Chinese army on the beach, but collided with their own landing craft. Some were damaged and leaked, while others were directly overturned. The Japanese officers and soldiers in the overturned landing craft were quickly swallowed up by the cold sea water.

Although the Japanese troops of the 5th Division had received special training for landing operations, they had no special swimming training, and many of them were poor swimmers. In addition, many of them were carrying heavy equipment, and the wind and waves were also strong. The Japanese soldiers who fell into the sea basically could not struggle for more than a few minutes before they were frozen and disabled by the freezing sea water. Not to mention that the National Army on the beach was still conducting all kinds of indiscriminate strafing at the sea. The Japanese soldiers who fell into the water had no chance of survival at all.

The perfect landing battle envisioned by the Japanese army turned into a one-sided massacre.
The next day, the sky had already brightened. Not long after the gunfire that had been ringing all night stopped, the Qisha defenders, Yang Tianfang, the commander of the 19th Regiment of the new 56th Division, finally arrived at the Qisha beach with a company of troops.

The sound of gunfire on the beach lasted all night, and Yang Tian was also worried all night. He originally thought that his defense zone had not been targeted by the Japanese army, but he did not expect that the Japanese army would really land in Qisha. Thinking back to the alarm last night, Yang Tian seemed to feel a chill on his back and was still in fear.

When Yang Tian learned that the Japanese army was going to launch a landing attack, he was horrified and immediately wanted to lead his troops to fight back. However, He Wei calmly persuaded him. The reason was very simple. The strength of Yang Tian's regiment was already stretched to the limit to hold the defense line along the coastline, not to mention the insufficient firepower. It would be useless to rashly leave the trenches and reinforce the beach. Then, after exhorting Yang Tian a few words, He Wei led the troops of the assault corps to reinforce.

Then, Yang Tian saw the shocking battle scene on the beach.

However, when he led his troops to the beach, what he saw was an even more horrifying scene.

It was already daybreak. The sound of gunfire that had raged all night had long ceased. Only the roar of tank engines was still heard. Dozens of tanks were slowly patrolling along the coastline. The infantry units of the assault corps followed behind the tanks, carefully searching along the coastline.

On the beach, there were countless Japanese soldiers' corpses and at least twenty landing craft emitting black smoke. The Japanese soldiers' corpses were lying in all directions on the beach.

The originally golden beach has been dyed red. Countless Japanese soldiers' corpses and the wreckage of damaged landing craft are floating on the sea. These corpses and wreckage are also washed onto the beach by the sea from time to time. As for various weapons, rifles, light machine guns, helmets, ammunition boxes, equipment, etc., they can be seen everywhere on the beach.

In several places on the beach, the corpses of the Japanese soldiers even piled up into small hills. It was a scene of blood and blood, and it was a horrible sight.

Last night, all the rifle and machine gun bullet casings, machine gun and tank defense gun casings, mortar cartridges, various ammunition boxes, and machine gun and artillery shell casings fired by the assault corps' participating troops were seen everywhere, piled up like a mountain.

The smell of blood and gunpowder mixed together, and the salty and humid sea breeze formed a disgusting smell. Resisting the urge to vomit, Yang Tian jogged all the way and finally found He Wei.

At this time, He Wei was having a meeting with officers next to his car. Whether it was the tank battalion commander Zhao Huzhen, the 1st Infantry Battalion commander Fu Chen, or the 2nd Infantry Battalion commander Fang Jing, they all looked tired but extremely excited. It was obvious that everyone was excited about this bloody battle.

In the battle last night, they could be said to have annihilated the vast majority of the invading enemies on the sea. Not a single intact landing craft successfully reached the beach, and not a single living Japanese soldier rushed onto the beach.

The tank battalion commander Zhao Huzhen was particularly excited. Yesterday, it was his tank company 1 that first discovered the landing Japanese troops. During the anti-landing operation, his tank battalion's more than tanks played a stabilizing role and achieved impressive results.

"Captain He, we've made a great profit this time. I think we killed thousands of enemies last night, and there were hundreds of them just on the shore."

Zhao Huzhen said excitedly.

He Wei patted Zhao Huzhen on the shoulder and said, "Captain Zhao, your tank unit has made great contributions in this battle. I will definitely commend you in front of Commander Du later."

Fu Chen also said: "Captain, this battle was really exciting. We have almost used up all the ammunition in our battalion. I am afraid that the Japanese will lose an entire battalion in one go. But it is also really scary. The Japanese bombarded Longmen and Beihai so fiercely. I didn't expect that it was a trick to confuse the enemy. In fact, it was thanks to you, the captain, that we brought our main force here to reinforce us. Otherwise, I am afraid that the Japanese army would have successfully landed long ago."

The commander of the second battalion, Fang Jing, was also very excited and said, "This battle was really great. The number of enemies killed is secondary. The key is that the new recruits in our corps who have never been to the battlefield have blood on their hands after last night's battle. They are no longer afraid of the devils and have become more courageous."

Listening to the conversation between He Wei and others, Yang Tian walked to He Wei and hurriedly saluted He Wei, but he couldn't help feeling a little embarrassed.

Last night, He Wei brought troops to reinforce. He told He Wei that the Japanese army would most likely not land in his Qisha defense zone, but he didn't expect that he would be slapped in the face so quickly.

Yang Tian said to He Wei with some guilt: "Commander He, we fought last night thanks to you. Otherwise, with the limited number of troops in our regiment, I'm afraid we would have lost the defense line long ago."

Unexpectedly, He Wei came over with a smile on his face, patted him on the shoulder, and said earnestly: "Captain Yang, you don't have to blame yourself. The Japanese played a very clever strategy last night, and dared to take the risk of landing in such a bad sea condition. Their tactics are indeed very clever. Although we won the night battle yesterday, the Japanese will definitely not give up and will definitely organize a large-scale landing operation. At that time, your troops should go up."

Yang Tian understood what He Wei meant. Indeed, the Japanese army's attempt last night was to launch a surprise landing in the dark night, but they were caught red-handed by He Wei. However, it is basically impossible to replicate such a battle a second time. Now the Japanese army has revealed its intention to land.

Next, the Japanese army could have avoided a sneak attack and instead shown their cards and launched a fair landing battle on Qisha Beach under the coordinated fire cover of the navy and air force.

At that time, it will be the turn of the Gui army troops who are deployed in the existing fortifications on the coastline to play the leading role.

Yang Tian was well aware of this, and he was also well aware of the severity of the upcoming offensive and defensive battle.

Yang Tian thought for a moment, and said to He Wei very firmly: "Commander He, I understand what you mean. We are from the Guangxi troops, Guangxi is our home. You Central Army have come here to fight desperately, and even if we all die here, it is what we deserve."

He Wei nodded and said, "We are all Chinese, so there is no need to distinguish between you and me. My people will also help you hold on."

Afterwards, He Wei ordered the troops to withdraw and issued several more orders. The first was that the troops should quickly evacuate the beach. As for the Japanese corpses on the beach, the wreckage of the landing craft, and the various weapons and ammunition left behind, they were all ignored. Now it was daybreak and the weather had improved. Not only had the wind force of the sea breeze decreased, but even the rain had stopped. In such good weather, if the troops stayed on the beach for a long time, the Japanese would launch a fierce bombardment from naval guns or an air raid, and everything would be over.

He Wei had no interest in the Japanese weapons and ammunition that had been soaked in sea water. He thought that they could be thrown on the beach. Moreover, the corpses and weapons and ammunition piled on the beach could serve as obstacles in the next possible landing of the Japanese army. Throwing them on the beach could play a significant role.

The second order was given to the remaining troops of the assault corps on standby in the rear, asking Wang Yuanling to quickly lead the remaining troops of the assault corps to Qisha to reunite with the assault corps. Last night's landing battle was just the beginning, and the next battle would definitely not be as easy as last night.

According to He Wei's judgment, the weather has improved and the Japanese landing attempt has been exposed. In this case, if he were the commander of the Japanese army, he would continue to organize a landing attack quickly, and the target area for landing would still be Qisha.

The reason why the Japanese army would not change the landing site is also very simple. First, changing the target landing area requires the entire landing fleet of the Japanese army to maneuver and transfer, which takes a lot of time and energy. Second, according to the current weather conditions, the large-scale movements of the Japanese fleet and landing fleet on the sea will hardly escape the detection of the Chinese army's coastal observation posts. In this case, it is better to continue landing in Qisha.

Based on this, He Wei can be sure that the Japanese army's large-scale landing battle coordinated by land, sea and air will soon come, and the real landing offensive and defensive bloody battle is about to begin.

The third order was, of course, to report the situation of the battle to Dai Anlan in Nanning, as well as the friendly New 19th Division and the 46th Army, and to actively communicate and contact for the next response decision.

After this news is reported to them, it will also be reported to the Guilin Headquarters. Although the Japanese landing operation was thwarted last night, it is an indisputable fact that the Japanese army launched a landing operation in the direction of southern Guangxi. He Wei believes that both the friendly forces, the Guilin Headquarters and even Chongqing will be extremely shocked. Chongqing will certainly quickly dispatch troops and send a large number of troops, especially the Central Army troops, into southern Guangxi.

It can be said that last night's landing battle will actually be the prelude to a large-scale battle involving more than 100,000 people from both sides.

While He Wei was hurriedly making various preparations for war, the senior officers of the Japanese 21st Army on the command ship off the coast of Qinzhou Bay were also shocked. In last night's battle, He Wei estimated that about a thousand Japanese soldiers were annihilated, but in fact the Japanese losses were much greater than this number. The 21st Battalion of the 1st Infantry Regiment of the Japanese Army, which launched the first batch of attacks, was almost wiped out.

Only a few dozen officers and soldiers on the three landing craft at the end of the team managed to escape. Apart from that, the rest of the personnel and equipment of the brigade, including its major brigade commander and several squadron leaders, more than a thousand officers and soldiers, all "died in glory."

An entire infantry battalion of the Japanese Army's top elite division was annihilated on the sea and the beach without even organizing a decent counterattack. How could this not shock the top leaders of the Japanese 21st Army? Colonel Miki Yoshinosuke, commander of the 21st Infantry Regiment, was dumbfounded. Commander of the 21st Infantry Brigade to which the 21st Regiment belonged, Masao Nakamura, was also furious. Lieutenant General Imamura Hitoshi, commander of the 21th Division to which the 5st Brigade belonged, was even more furious when he learned the details.

Although the commander of the 21st Army, Anten Riji, was also furious, after learning about the specific battle situation from the survivors, he quickly captured important information from the battle details. According to the survivors, the Chinese troops on the beach were equipped with tanks.

According to the currently known enemy situation, it seems that the only Chinese army in southern Guangxi that is equipped with tanks is the advance detachment from Chiang Kai-shek's Central Army that is directly under Chiang Kai-shek. According to a recently intercepted telegram, it seems that part of this advance detachment has already entered Qinzhou and Fangchenggang areas.

Taking all the circumstances into consideration, Anten Riji quickly came to a conclusion that the one who wiped out an entire battalion of the 21st Regiment last night was most likely the advance detachment entering Guangxi, or even the terrifying Army Assault Corps.

Thinking that the enemy in front of him might be the Chinese Army Assault Corps that had been listed as the primary target, Anten Riji felt something was wrong. So he decisively made up his mind for the next battle - that is, to continue landing in Qisha, forcefully attack to open the landing site in a coordinated manner of land, sea and air, and strive to eliminate the terrible Chinese Army Assault Corps in the operations after the landing.

(End of this chapter)