The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 536 A sudden turn of events
Qisha, Command Post of the Assault Corps
"Director, the new 19th Division reported that the Japanese army suddenly landed in Beihai."

"Hello, hello, is this Captain Yang? We don't know the specific situation. We are trying to contact you now. Please hold your position."

"What? You guys don't understand the situation now?"

"Okay, okay, please find out the situation as soon as possible and be sure to inform us as soon as possible."

The command post of the assault corps was already in a state of chaos. The telephones kept ringing and the telegraph machines never stopped beeping. The staff officers were either making or receiving calls, sending and receiving telegrams, or analyzing the battle situation. The air was filled with an extremely tense atmosphere.

The assault corps had no idea about the specific circumstances of the Japanese army's sudden landing in the direction of Beihai, the battle situation and other details, but they clearly heard the fierce gunfire from the direction of Beihai all night long. Even though it was now dawn, bursts of gunfire could still be heard from the direction of Beihai from time to time.

He Wei was also very alert to the sudden gunfire coming from the direction of Beihai. Since the Japanese army landed in southern Guangxi, its main force used Qisha as the landing point and made Qisha the focus of attack.

What is even more bizarre is that the Japanese army had suddenly started bombarding Qisha's second line of defense with fierce ground-to-air, sea-to-air firepower since the day before yesterday, and last night they inexplicably launched a sudden night raid, only to be beaten back by a tank company's fierce counterattack. Apart from leaving behind more than a hundred corpses, the Japanese army that attacked last night did not gain any advantage at all.

After repelling the Japanese night attack, the Japanese troops in the Qisha direction did not launch any more attacks, but continued to bombard Qisha's second line of defense with artillery fire.

But late last night, gunfire suddenly rang out from the direction of Beihai, where the Japanese army had not launched any attack.

The Japanese troops in the Qisha direction suddenly launched a fierce artillery attack, and then suddenly launched a night attack. After the night attack was repelled, there was no further action. Connecting all these things together, He Wei suddenly thought of an extremely terrifying possibility, that is, the recent attacks by the Japanese army on the Qisha direction were nothing more than feints and tactical deceptions. Their real main attack direction was the Beihai. The Japanese army may have separated a force from the landing force, and under the cover of the feint attack, quietly maneuvered to the Beihai direction and launched a surprise attack on the Beihai defenders.

If the Japanese army really used such a tactic of feinting to the east and attacking in the west, his situation would be very bad. Therefore, in order to understand the battle situation, He Wei contacted the headquarters of the new 19th Division and the headquarters of the 46th Army overnight.

Both the phone and the telegram never stopped, but after a whole night of communication, He Wei did not get any useful information. The reason was very simple. The new 19th Division was also deployed in Qisha and knew nothing about the situation in the Beihai direction. As for the 46th Army Headquarters in Qinzhou, it was also unclear about the situation last night, and its answers to the assault corps' inquiries were all that they were investigating the situation.

This left He Wei completely confused, and he became increasingly wary of the Beihai side. However, there were still heavy Japanese troops on the Qisha front. Before figuring out the specific situation, He Wei did not dare to act rashly. He could only wait for news from friendly forces while ordering his own troops and friendly forces on the front line to be vigilant and ready to fight at any time.

In the command post, He Wei was sitting there anxiously thinking about the battle situation. Suddenly, Chief of Staff Wang Yuanling came over with a grim expression and said, "Captain, something happened." "What happened?"

"We have been in contact all night, and the new 19th Division and the 46th Army said they couldn't figure out the situation. Just now, the 46th Army headquarters suddenly sent us a telegram saying that a large group of Japanese troops suddenly landed in Beihai last night and launched a night raid on the 175th Division."

Wang Yuanling's voice was not loud, but He Wei stood up suddenly after hearing it and asked sharply, "What?"

Wang Yuanling paused, and continued with a serious expression: "According to the report from the 46th Army, the Japanese army launched a surprise attack at night. Their actions were very secretive. The 46th Division of the 175th Army guarding the Beihai defense line was unable to stop it. One of their two regiment positions in Beihai was captured by the Japanese infantry at night, and the position of another regiment was outflanked by the Japanese army. It is said that the Japanese army also has armored vehicles. One infantry-combat coordinated assault position was penetrated, and the entire defense line has collapsed."

He Wei's face turned pale, and he said: "The 175th Division is at least a division. I heard you say that two regiments' positions were penetrated. A division has three regiments, and the other regiment is either a garrison or a reserve. Didn't they organize a counterattack?"
Wang Yuanling shook his head: "Last night, the Japanese attacked our position and the artillery fire was so fierce. The 46th Army believed that the Japanese would attack Qisha again, so they pulled a regiment of the 175th Division from its original garrison position to serve as a reserve force to deal with the Japanese attack on Qisha. As a result, the landing Japanese army drilled in through the position of this regiment and directly surrounded a regiment of the 175th Division."

"Grass!"

He Wei slammed his fist on the table and suddenly felt a chill on his spine. He thought that the Japanese troops in Qisha were divided into groups to attack Beihai, but he didn't expect that the Japanese army actually organized another group of landing reinforcements. The direction of the battle was completely beyond his expectations, and tanks were also dispatched. This shows that the overall strength of this group of Japanese troops landing in the direction of Beihai may be stronger than the Japanese troops in the direction of Qisha, and they are very likely to be new and elite troops transferred from Guangdong.

As for the reasons for the Japanese army's sudden artillery bombardment in the past few days and the attack last night, they are obvious. Obviously, the Japanese troops that had already landed in Qisha were hurt by a certain He, so they simply sent a large-scale reinforcement, and then used fierce artillery bombardment and night attacks in the direction of Qisha as a feint to provide cover for the landing operations of the new reinforcements in the direction of Beihai.

Judging from the current battle situation, the Japanese army has fully, or even exceeded, achieved their tactical goals.

He Wei calmed down and continued to ask, "What is the current enemy situation and combat situation of the 46th Army?"

When He Wei asked this, Wang Yuanling's face was bitter again, and he said, "Don't mention it. I asked them, but they don't know the situation now. The entire 175th Division was defeated. The 46th Army only said that they were gathering the defeated troops. As for where the Japanese army is attacking now? What arrangements will they make next? They don't know anything. I think they are in complete chaos over there. They can't figure out anything now! Not to mention reporting any enemy situation to us."

He Wei frowned, patted his head, paced a few steps, and then walked to the large-scale battle map. He cast his eyes towards the North Sea, which had just fallen into the hands of the enemy. After a little thought, he said, "Call Captain Zhao of the Tank Battalion and the Captain of the Search Company to me!"

(End of this chapter)