The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 532 Bloody Night 1
A huge group of landing craft gradually approached the North Sea beach. The Japanese soldiers of the 56st Infantry Battalion of the 1th Regiment on the landing craft all held their guns tightly, looking straight at the North Sea beach with a look of being ready to die and ready to die with honor.

The heavy losses suffered by the 5th Division in the first wave of landings had long been reported to the officers of the 18th Division. A battalion of the 5st Infantry Regiment of the 21th Division that first initiated the landing was wiped out in the sea before it even reached the beach. With such a tragic example in front of them, the battalion that initiated the landing from the 18th Division approached the beach with the idea of ​​everyone dying in despair.

All the officers and soldiers of the Japanese landing force subconsciously believed that there must be dense firepower points of the Chinese army on the dark beach ahead. As soon as the landing craft they were on approached the beach, the Chinese troops on the beach would open fire at full power. The machine gunners, artillerymen on the landing craft, and the infantry crowded in the landing craft were all ready for battle.

However, the expected fierce firepower attack and brutal battle did not happen at all.

Until the first batch of landing craft rushed onto the beach, there was no attack fire from the Chinese army. Apart from the rustling sound of waves washing over the beach, there was only the rumbling sound of fierce bombardment from naval guns in the direction of Qisha. The pitch-black night covered everything.

So, one landing craft after another rushed onto the beach.

"touch, touch"

Amid the sounds of landing craft colliding with the sand, the landing craft that reached the beach stopped instantly. Then, the hatch of the landing craft opened, and a large number of Japanese troops filed out of the landing craft. The Japanese infantry, carrying heavy equipment, jumped off the landing craft, holding weapons, carrying ammunition and various baggage equipment, waded onto the beach.

The sea water immediately filled the leather shoes of the Japanese officers and soldiers, making them as heavy as two lead barrels. However, the landing Japanese troops felt relieved. The relief of not being attacked by intensive firepower far outweighed the physical discomfort. The Japanese troops on the beach quickly landed, assembled, and then dispersed, then carefully advanced under the command of officers and non-commissioned officers, setting up temporary landing sites and guard positions.

All actions of the landing Japanese battalion went smoothly. In less than an hour, the Japanese troops of the 18st Battalion, 56th Infantry Regiment, 1th Division and all their equipment successfully landed on the North Sea beach. The infantry battalion did not lose a single man, a single shot, or a single bullet, and did not suffer the expected fire attack, nor did it suffer the fate of being completely wiped out like the first landing troops of the 5th Division.

Even so, the Japanese troops who had completed the landing did not advance rashly. Because the losses of the 5th Division were too great, these landing Japanese troops landed with the mentality of certain death. Now they completed the landing operation easily. Not only was there no blocking fire on the beach, but after landing, not even a single Chinese soldier was seen.

This situation seemed extremely abnormal to them, and the infantry captain who led the team subconsciously thought that his troops had fallen into some kind of "trap tactics" of the Chinese army.

The landed Japanese troops kept alert on the spot and sent out small search teams to search in all directions. After the small search teams had searched in all directions, they did not encounter any Chinese troops.

Only then did the captain of the landing Japanese infantry battalion breathe a sigh of relief and sent a telegram to the main force of the 18th Division on standby on the sea, saying, "We did not encounter Chinese troops at the landing site, our battalion has completed the opening of the landing site and is on alert."

After receiving the telegram from the landing troops, Kuna Makoto, commander-in-chief of the second Japanese landing force, breathed a sigh of relief and immediately forwarded the news that "an infantry battalion of the 18th Division has successfully landed" to Ando Rikichi, commander of the 18st Japanese Army who was in Qisha. At the same time, Kuna Makoto immediately ordered the second batch of reinforcements to begin landing operations.

Then, the main force of the 18th Division began to land, and the main force of the 56th Regiment began to land first. After the 56th Regiment landed, the 23th Infantry Regiment of the 55rd Infantry Brigade followed suit. When all the officers and soldiers of the 55th Regiment stepped onto the beach of the North Sea safely, Kuna Seiichi was completely relieved. The Chinese army may design some tactical traps or ambush tactics, but the target of its tactical traps may be a battalion or a regiment, but it is definitely not a full-strength infantry brigade. The safe landing of the 23rd Brigade can only mean one thing, that is, the beach where they landed was not defended by the Chinese army!
This also means that the second batch of Japanese reinforcements can land calmly on the Beihai beach and further implement their tactical plan of outflanking and bypassing the Chinese troops in Qisha.

The landing of the second batch of Japanese reinforcements was indeed concealed and was definitely not discovered by the National Army. The only National Army force defending the Beihai Peninsula was the 46th Division of the 175th Army.

Compared with the long North Sea coastline, the strength of this division is simply not enough. Even if an infantry division and three infantry regiments are deployed completely along the coastline without leaving any reserves, they cannot guard the entire coastline!
The Japanese army's fierce artillery bombardment day and night in order to implement tactical deception also played a huge role.

During the day, the Japanese army bombarded the Qisha direction with ground-to-air and ground-to-ship firepower, and at night they continued to bombard with naval artillery firepower. This indiscriminate bombardment consumed a large amount of artillery shells and also created the illusion that the Japanese army would continue to launch attacks in the Qisha direction.

As early as yesterday, due to the fierce fire bombardment of the Japanese army during the day, the 46th Army responsible for commanding Qisha and Beihai areas was mobilized by the Japanese army's feint attack. The 46th Army saw that the Japanese army had begun to bombard Qisha again, and immediately judged that the Japanese army was about to launch a new offensive, so it naturally focused on the Qisha direction.

In order to fully respond to the Japanese army's repeated attacks in the Qisha direction, the 46th Army also withdrew an infantry regiment from the 175th Division responsible for the Beihai garrison mission to serve as an army reserve to prepare for a counterattack against the Japanese army's attacks in the Qisha direction.

As a result, a large hole suddenly appeared in the 175th Division's defense line in Beihai as a regiment was transferred away.

The second landing force of the Japanese army happened to land on this "hole", and of course its landing force would not encounter any blocking fire or resistance.

In Qisha, the command post of the first landing force of the Japanese Army, Ando Rikichi looked at the second telegram forwarded by the 18th Division, and his calm heart was completely relieved.

The content reported by the commander of the 18th Division in this telegram was that the 23rd Brigade had completed the landing, no Chinese troops were found on the beach and landing site, the advance landing troops had begun searching and advancing, and the follow-up troops were rushing to land!

The words in this telegram are filled with ecstasy and uncontrollable excitement!
Other officers in the command post, such as the gloomy commander of the 5th Division, Imamura Hitoshi, and the commander of the Imperial Guards Mixed Brigade, Sakurada Takeshi, also looked a little better after learning the contents of the telegram.

After a series of disastrous defeats and setbacks, hearing that the second landing force had successfully landed on the North Sea beach was undoubtedly good news and extremely encouraging.

Ando Rikichi put down the telegram, looked at the officers and immediately ordered: "The second batch of reinforcements has landed on the North Sea beach. We must continue to carry out tactical deception. I order the artillery of the Fifth Division and the Guards Mixed Brigade to immediately fire at the Chinese army positions in Qisha at the maximum rate of fire according to the determined firing parameters!"

(End of this chapter)