Zhu Tian: Beginning to Cross the Changjin Lake

Li Guotao has some general understanding of the current situation.

In order to open up the mainland transportation line, the Japanese launched the Henan-Hunan-Guangxi Campaign, successively seizing large tracts of land in Henan and Hunan provinces, and even lost Changsha, which they had held for several years.

The Japanese marched southward and attacked Hengyang.

The Chinese army suffered heavy losses, and now the Hengyang garrison only has the 10th Army.

Although the 10th Army was known as the Taishan Army and was considered an elite force, it was a crippled Taishan Army.

In last year's Changde Campaign, the 10th Army suffered heavy losses. Almost half a year has passed, and the troops have still not been fully replenished.

The main reason was that the situation was critical. By this time, the family assets had been almost exhausted. There was a lack of people, weapons, money, and food. In short, there was a lack of everything.

At this time, in order to cooperate with the Allied forces in the war, the Chinese Expeditionary Force once again expeditioned to Burma, and all the supplementary equipment, including troops, naturally gave priority to replenishing the Expeditionary Force.

As a result, after almost half a year, the 10th Army has not been fully replenished.

The 10th Army was composed of the 10th Reserve Division, the 3rd Division, and the 190th Division. It also took over the 46th Provisional Division of the 54th Army and temporarily placed it under the command of the 10th Army.

Moreover, Commander Fang also ordered the interception of a group of other troops withdrawing from the front line.

The four divisions combined, plus some miscellaneous troops and some intercepted defeated soldiers, the total strength of the army was only more than 17600 people.

This is the number of people including all the logistical support troops, which means that in fact, the average number of people in these four divisions is less than 4,000.

The 190th Division was the worst off, with basically only a skeleton left, consisting of only about two thousand people.

There was a serious shortage of troops and the Japanese invaders were approaching in large numbers.

The 10th Army naturally had to do its best to intercept all troops, increase its strength and ensure the safety of Hengyang.

So Li Guotao knew before that once he entered Hengyang, he probably wouldn't be able to leave even if he wanted to.

Four crippled divisions, plus a group of mixed defeated soldiers, a total of more than 17,000 people, and 3,000 temporarily recruited civilians, faced more than 100,000 elite Japanese troops. They had no support and were trapped in an isolated city. They fought to the death for 47 days.

How to fight this battle?
Seeing that Li Guotao hadn't said anything, Chen Jianghe couldn't help but ask, "Brother Li, what are you thinking about?"

"profound!"

Li Guotao said: "I suddenly remembered something. The Japanese said they hid some stuff. I guess it should be weapons and ammunition. I think they are hidden in the forest in the northeast."

"Let's go over and take a look. If there are weapons and ammunition, bring them all back."

Chen Jianghe was overjoyed when he heard this, and immediately led a squad of soldiers and followed Li Guotao to run towards the forest.

Under the leadership of Li Guotao, everyone soon found a large number of weapons and ammunition in the woods.

"Fuck! We're going to be rich now!"

"Platoon leader, we have rifles, pistols, light and heavy machine guns, and grenade launchers!"

"There are hundreds of grenades and at least tens of thousands of bullets."

Chen Jianghe quickly ordered: "Ship it back immediately."

"Yes!"

At Chen Jianghe's command, his soldiers immediately found several carts and a flatbed truck from the nearby village, loaded the things, and transported them back to the dock.

These weapons and equipment were naturally not hidden here by the Japanese, but they were contributed by these Japanese.

Li Guotao took out all the weapons, equipment and medicines that had just exploded from the system warehouse. After all, the war was imminent, and what the defenders lacked most now was weapons and ammunition.

At this moment, Chen Jianghe suddenly thought of something and frowned as he said, "How come these Japanese plainclothes troops brought so many weapons and ammunition?"

"And there are Maxim heavy machine guns, box guns and other weapons. This is not right!"

Li Guotao explained: "What's so strange about this? It's probably because these damn devils killed our retreating troops along the way and seized our equipment."

"Makes sense!"

Chen Jianghe nodded and didn't say anything more. After all, this matter was not very important.

When Li Guotao and his team returned to the dock, the people had already been transported across the Leishui River.

Chen Jianghe ordered loudly: "Immediately load the weapons and ammunition onto the boat, transport it to the other side, and hand it over to the battalion commander."

"Yes!"

At this time, a soldier ran back from a distance.

"Platoon leader, the Japs are coming, they are less than three miles away from here."

"How many people came?"

"At least one squadron!"

Chen Jianghe raised his head and glanced into the distance, then ordered, "Everyone, get ashore immediately and retreat to the other side."

Li Guotao asked with some doubt: "Are you withdrawing now?"

Chen Jianghe said: "Why not withdraw? Stay and fight the Japanese?"

"Do you think you are the King of Chu? Burn your boats and fight to the death?"

“I know quite a few idioms!”

Li Guotao couldn't help but roll his eyes and said, "But it was Han Xin who fought the last stand."

Chen Jianghe said: "It's all the same anyway."

"Our mission is just to stand guard here, to help the evacuated civilians and the defeated soldiers cross the river, and to check and prevent any Japanese from sneaking through."

"Now that the main force of the devils has arrived, our mission is accomplished."

"Our battalion's defense line is on the other side of the river. We have limited manpower and the Leishui River is blocking us. We should be able to hold out for a while."

Li Guotao nodded slightly and said, "That makes sense."

However, Li Guotao felt that the situation of the 10th Army seemed worse than he had imagined.

What Li Guotao didn't know was that the 10rd Division, the most complete division of the th Army, was actually still resting in Hengshan.

Commander Fang has ordered the Third Division to provide urgent support to Hengyang, and the Third Division is now on the way.

Therefore, the Hengyang defenders are now seriously short of manpower. Facing the aggressive Japanese invaders, they can only make the best use of the terrain and natural barriers to delay the Japanese invaders' advance as much as possible.

The troops crossed the river by boat. Li Guotao stood at the bow and observed the situation nearby.

It is now late June and the rainy season has arrived. The water level of the Leishui River has been rising for several days and the width of the river is about three hundred meters.

With this river there, even if the troops are insufficient, we should be able to hold out for a while.

Through the conversation with Chen Jianghe, Li Guotao also learned some of the situation.

The 190th Division has been designated as an adjustment division. It was originally short of manpower, and a group of people were drawn from it to strengthen the 10th Reserve Division and the 3rd Division.

Therefore, among the entire 190th Division, only the 570th Regiment is still relatively intact.

The two regiments, 568 and 569, are basically just empty shells.

Take their 568st Battalion of the 568th Regiment as an example. It is the strongest battalion of the th Regiment, but it only has about the strength of a reinforced company, less than people. Once the battle is thoroughly launched, the superiors will obviously not give important positions and tasks to such a unit.

Li Guotao looked at Chen Jianghe, who was smiling in front of him, and suddenly felt like he was on a pirate ship.

Li Guotao asked directly: "Can I apply to join the 10th Division, or the 3rd Division?"

Chen Jianghe shook his head and said decisively: "No, you are now a member of our 190th Division."

Li Guotao sighed helplessly and said, "So, am I on a pirate ship?"

"Hey~!"

Chen Jianghe said: "I am a regular soldier, from the famous 190th Division of the Taishan Army. I have made great achievements in battle, and that is not just boasting."

Li Guotao rolled his eyes at Chen Jianghe and said unhappily, "But now you can barely gather enough troops for a regiment. Your regiment only has about one battalion left?"

Chen Jianghe said unconvincedly: "It's stronger than your Fourth Army, and it's also an iron army? It's only been a few days! It collapsed. And lost Changsha!"

"When we were defending Changsha, we lost it. We defended it for several years, but now we lost it in just a few days."

Li Guotao couldn't help but feel a headache and said, "Okay, let's not talk about these bad things."

"It's the same no matter where you are, as long as there is a war to fight."

"Hehe~!"

Chen Jianghe chuckled, put his arm around Li Guotao's shoulders and said, "That's right!"

"Although we have been classified as an adjustment division, we can probably only be used as a reserve team this time."

"But judging by the current situation, our 190th Division will definitely be split up and used to support the frontline battlefield."

"Wherever there is danger or where the situation is about to collapse, we will be sent there to provide support."

"So there is no need to worry about not having any battles to fight."

"And you see, the devils are already here. This battle is ours."

Li Guotao turned his head and took a look, and sure enough, he saw a group of Japanese soldiers advancing towards this side in the distance, and more Japanese soldiers were vaguely visible in the distance.

And these are just the vanguard of the devils.

Li Guotao asked casually: "Who fooled you with those words just now?"

Chen Jianghe replied: "Our battalion commander! Our battalion commander is a graduate of Huangpu Military Academy. We can't go wrong if we follow him."

From Whampoa? The one who survived now was just a small battalion commander, probably a student from the tenth term or later. To be exact, it should be the Jinling Army Officers School, because it had moved to Jinling a long time ago and changed its name, so the real Whampoa students were only the students from the first few terms.

Soon the ship docked, and Chen Jianghe ordered his soldiers to move all the things ashore and send them to a temporary warehouse.

Afterwards, he brought Li Guotao directly to the battalion headquarters. Since the 1st Battalion now had only one reinforced company, it was under the unified command of the battalion commander Yang Jihe. In order to facilitate command, Yang Jihe had reduced the troops to four platoons. There would be no company-level command for the time being, and he, as the battalion commander, would directly command each platoon.

So he, as a battalion commander, is just a company commander with the title of battalion commander.

When Yang Jihe met Li Guotao, he was also very enthusiastic. After all, it was rare to find someone as good at fighting as Li Guotao.

After exchanging pleasantries for a while, Yang Jihe said with a smile: "That kid Chen Jianghe told you everything, right?"

"The Japanese are about to attack Hengyang. Our 10th Army is short of soldiers and major generals, and we are seriously short of manpower. You should stay and fight the Japanese with us!"

Li Guotao smiled and said, "It doesn't matter if I ask for it or not. As long as I can kill the devils, it doesn't matter where I am."

"Okay~!"

Yang Jihe said happily: "Then I'll have to let you down for now and follow Chen Jianghe to be a deputy platoon leader first!"

"But I will report to the division headquarters immediately and promote you to the rank of lieutenant."

"Once our troops are fully replenished, I will immediately promote you to company commander. If you perform well, you can even be promoted to deputy battalion commander."

Yang Jihe enthusiastically painted a big picture for Li Guotao.

Li Guotao thought: Being the deputy battalion commander? If I can't win this battle, it will be easy to be the battalion commander as long as I can survive.

After all, after 47 days of bloody fighting, only more than 10 wounded soldiers were left out of the -strong th Army.

When the fighting was the most brutal, the battalion and company commanders on the front line were replaced almost every day, and some even died within an hour of taking office.

If I want to be promoted, do I need to wait until the troops are fully replenished in the future?

But these are meaningless now, especially for Li Guotao, a passer-by.

The most important thing is to survive.

Li Guotao smiled and said, "If there really comes a day like that, I want to be the battalion commander, and we will try to make you the regiment commander."

Now Yang Jihe has the rank of lieutenant colonel and is only one step away from becoming the regiment commander.

After the Battle of Hengyang, if he could survive, his promotion to regiment commander would basically be a foregone conclusion.

"Report to the battalion commander, the Japanese have reached the other side."

"There is about one squadron, and a large number of devils are coming later. The preliminary estimate is that there is a battalion of devils."

Hearing this, Yang Jihe picked up the telescope and said, "Let's go out and take a look."

Everyone came to a forward observation post, and Yang Jihe held up a telescope, observing the situation on the opposite side.

I saw that the Japanese had seized the advantageous terrain on the opposite bank and began to build machine gun fortifications.

More Japanese soldiers continued to arrive, and the initial estimate was that there was a large group of them.

Li Guotao asked curiously: "Captain, how long do we need to stay here?"

Li Guotao still doesn't know what orders his superiors have given him. If there is no order to hold on, Yang Jihe might retreat directly.

While observing the situation, Yang Jihe said, "The commander has personally told us that we don't have to defend the city to the death, as our forces are limited. We can retreat if we can't hold on any longer."

"But this is the first time we've fought the Japanese. If we retreat without a fight, it will definitely have a serious impact on morale."

"And we need time now, so my plan is to delay the Japanese as long as possible and hold out as long as possible."

"Don't worry, I still have the trump card given by the commander in my hand, which is enough to give these little devils a hard time."

"Pass the order immediately. All platoons should take up their positions and prepare for battle."

"Yes!"

Chen Jianghe responded quickly, turned around and ran to convey the order.

Hearing this, Li Guotao finally breathed a sigh of relief. He was also worried that Yang Jihe would not dare to fight the Japanese head-on and would retreat directly. What would be the point of fighting then?

Leishui has such a good terrain. If we don’t make good use of it and give the Japanese a good beating, wouldn’t it be a shame?

Li Guotao looked at the other side of the river and saw more and more Japanese soldiers gathering. He couldn't help but smile. This battalion should be just the vanguard of the Japanese soldiers. Since it was the vanguard, it must be the elite, so he would start with them.

I think these little devils should be able to reveal a lot of good stuff.

Then I have to work hard and try to kill more devils. (End of this chapter)