Anti-Japanese War: The whole world is a base vehicle

Chapter 61 The Chinese Army Appears Behind Me?
At Liutang, the position of the 21st Brigade, Colonel Motoichi Sakata looked at the latest battle report and took a breath.

The always arrogant First Guards Brigade suffered a heavy blow and lost more than 3,000 people.

This is really unbelievable.

Before this, Motoichi Sakata felt quite ashamed.

Because of the entire Battle of Southern Guangxi, the 21st Brigade suffered heavy losses, and even the brigade commander was killed.

At one point, the entire 21st Brigade lost face.

As a result, the Fifth Division could not hold its head up in the entire Japanese army.

It can be seen from the tone Major General Sakurada Takeshi used when speaking to him that he was arrogant and domineering, and he was just about to treat him as a subordinate.

Now it seems that he is just a straw bag.

He never even defeated a ragtag army.

Nothing more than that.

Thinking about the rumors that had been spread before, Guangzhou was able to be occupied so easily because the Chinese army took the initiative to give up Guangzhou.

That's why the Imperial Guards Division got an advantage.

He didn't believe it at the time, but now it seems that the rumor may not be false.

"Your Excellency the Brigade Commander, this is an order from the military." Just as Motoichi Sakata was thinking about what tone to use to taunt Takeshi Sakurada the next time they met, the voice of the communications officer interrupted his thoughts.

"read."

"Order: Your troops must hold the Liutang and Qitang positions and must not take the initiative to attack." The content of the telegram was very brief, leaving Sakata Motoichi speechless. Take the initiative to attack?
He now wished he could be given enough time to rest and allow the new officers to get acquainted with his subordinates.

Officers who have just been transferred from the mainland naturally need to get familiar with the soldiers.

After all, officers don’t know soldiers, soldiers don’t know officers, and soldiers are not familiar with officers’ styles, so all of this takes time to get used to.

The only thing that puzzled him was why they had to hold their ground?

Is there a problem?

Or will we stick to the defense and stop attacking?

If that's the case, it's worth pondering.

Even though they occupied a large area of ​​territory, they were actually short of manpower, and the Chinese army's offensive was fierce.

Although the offensive of the 36th Army on the front has weakened a lot during this period, it still caused him a lot of trouble in the past period of time.

In particular, the appearance of a large number of German equipment caused heavy losses to various Japanese troops.

In the past, we always dealt with them easily, and even had fun shooting the Chinese.

Still having fun now?
No one dared to show up.

"If the Chinese army launches a full-scale counterattack, we will be in trouble." Colonel Motoichi Sakata suddenly had a bad idea.

Because now it is obvious that the strength of the two sides is somewhat equal. If he were the commander of the Chinese army at this time, he would definitely plan a counterattack.

I just don’t know what the newly appointed Makoto Kuna will do?
and many more!

Holding the position and not taking the initiative to attack, this must be what they are worried about, right?

When will the Imperial Japanese Army still be afraid of the Chinese Army's counterattack?

A trace of sadness appeared on Colonel Motoichi Sakata's face.

At this moment, the combat staff ran up to him with a nervous look on his face and reported in a horrified tone, "Your Excellency, the brigade commander, something has happened. Lingli Town behind our right wing has been occupied by the Chinese Army. Only a few members of the squadron responsible for guarding Lingli Town escaped, and all the others were killed."

"What?" Colonel Motoichi Sakata widened his eyes and looked at the other party in disbelief, as if asking, is this true?

"What's going on?" Sakata Motoichi asked in a deep voice, suppressing his anger.

Lingli Town is his rear flank and also the supply point of the 1st Guards Brigade. A squadron is stationed there with the purpose of protecting the supply line.

As a result, the 1st Guards Brigade suffered a crushing defeat. Before he could make any deployments, a squadron stationed in Lingli Town was almost completely wiped out.

This naturally made Motoichi Sakata extremely angry.

"Your Excellency, the brigade commander, the specific situation is not clear. According to the report from the soldiers who escaped back, they were blasted to pieces by the sudden heavy artillery shells. Before they could come to their senses, a large number of enemy troops appeared around the town. The enemy's firepower was very strong, and they had a large number of automatic firearms. In the end, only a dozen people evacuated the town, and only five people came back alive." The combat staff explained hurriedly.

Hearing this, Sakata Genichi took a breath and asked quickly.

"Heavy artillery? 150mm howitzer?"

"Ha." The combat staff officer was also a little scared. Even if he faced this situation, he might not be able to retreat safely.

Moreover, the 21st Brigade was overshadowed by the 150mm howitzer.

During the bloody battle of Kunlun Pass, weren't people and horses blown to pieces by heavy artillery?

Otherwise, how could it be so miserable?
"Bakayaro..." Colonel Motoichi Sakata felt a toothache. The power of the 150mm howitzer was so great that no one could make a sound.

Now Lingli Town is occupied by the Chinese army, and it is a Chinese army equipped with heavy artillery.

If they turned their guns around, they would launch indiscriminate bombardment on the Japanese positions at Liutang and Qitang.

Can the 21st Brigade, which is just a remnant, hold on?

I'm afraid there's little hope.

There is even a possibility that I might follow in the footsteps of Masao Nakamura.

One brigade after another, two brigade commanders were killed.

Just thinking about it made Colonel Motoichi Sakata feel his scalp tingling.

"Report the news of the fall of Lingli Town to the division commander, and request to abandon the Liutang and Qitang positions and hold on to the Wutang or Stang positions." Considering that Wutang was relatively close to the front, Colonel Motoichi Sakata felt that it would be better to retreat to Stang.

Just hearing this, the operations staff was stunned.

"Your Excellency the brigade commander, if we retreat to Shitang, the Nanning city wall will be behind us. Your Excellency the division commander will definitely not agree." The operations staff said stiffly.

If they retreat further, they will reach Nanning City. It would be better for all the troops to retreat into the city and guard the city walls.

"Wutang is too forward. Once the Chinese army moves their heavy artillery positions forward, we will still be within the shelling range of their heavy artillery. It is not as safe as Sitang. Moreover, there are 105mm howitzers in the city. We can at least hold our positions within the coverage range of the heavy artillery." Colonel Motoichi Sakata now only hopes to be able to hold his position.

Hearing this, the operations staff was silent for a while and felt that what he said made sense.

"It would be great if we had larger caliber heavy artillery, otherwise we can only passively take the beating." The operations staff sighed.

Normally, the Japanese Army's fronts would be equipped with large-caliber heavy artillery, but the newly established 22nd Army had not yet had time to be equipped with heavy artillery.

However, the field artillery regiment that Takeshi Sakurada had previously applied for did have a 150mm howitzer, but after this incident, it was not known whether the Imperial Guards Division would agree to borrow it.

"It's not our turn to worry about these things. That's the commander's concern. What we have to do now is to hold our position." Colonel Motoichi Sakata shook his head. To him, these were too far away. He was not even a major general now. He was just an acting brigade commander.

"Hay."

(End of this chapter)