Anti-Japanese War: Li Yunlong dared to attack Taiyuan

After hearing the order, a Japanese soldier gritted his teeth and tried to get in through the gap.

"Da da da……"

A burst of rapid gunfire rang out, and the Japanese soldier was shot dead before he could completely crawl into the fortress.

"Keep bombing!"

"Make the gap bigger."

Seeing this, the Japanese officer gave another order. Several more Japanese soldiers placed explosive packs next to the gap, ready to blow it up even bigger.

"boom!"

"boom!"

Two more huge explosions were heard, and the gap that was originally blown out expanded again, from a size that required crawling through to a size that allowed one to enter the fortress by half-crouching.

"attack!"

The Japanese officer gave the order to attack again. Upon hearing this, a Japanese soldier gritted his teeth, bent over, and jumped into the fortress.

"Da da da……"

A burst of gunfire rang out, and the Japanese soldier who jumped down was instantly killed.

"Keep bombing!"

The Japanese officer roared and signaled the rest of the soldiers to continue widening the gap in the fortress to facilitate the entry of the soldiers.

"boom!"

"boom!"

"..."

Several explosions sounded again, and the gap that was blown open was finally large enough for a person to enter the fortress half-bent over. It was about the size of a trench cat ear hole.

"attack!"

The Japanese officer gave another order. Several Japanese soldiers looked at each other.

"Onboard!"

"Onboard!"

There was a fierce exchange of gunfire in the fortress. When the gunfire stopped, another group of devils rushed into the fortress.

At this time, in the command room of the fortress, Li Yunlong received a telegram from Ding Wei.

"Five breaches were blown open by the Japanese? Tell Ding Wei that he can release some of the positions appropriately, but remember, the Japanese can only move around the entrance. The fortress's connection points, machine rooms, power supply points, ventilation points, and other places must not be occupied by the Japanese!"

"Yes!"

Li Yunlong actually used this tactic when defending Ping'an County. He gave up part of the position to let the Japanese see the hope of victory, and then adopted the tactic of adding fuel to the fire, allowing the Japanese to continuously reinforce in teams, thereby gradually eroding the Japanese's vitality.

Don't think that killing a few devils at once is not a lot. Kill a few in a minute, dozens or hundreds in an hour, and hundreds or even thousands of devils in a day. With five gaps, it only takes a day to slowly eat up an entire devil regiment.

Moreover, the casualties were not large at one time, and it was difficult for the Japanese to react at first. By the time they reacted, the Japanese commanders on the front line had no way to retreat.

At this time, in the headquarters of the Japanese First Division.

Looking at the telegram sent by the Third Regiment on the front line, a smile appeared on Yokoyama Isamu's face. The Third Regiment had blasted five gaps in the Arshan Fortress, and the First Division had already entered the Arshan Fortress.

In Yokoyama Isamu's view, as long as the soldiers of the 1st Division can enter the Arshan Fortress, it is only a matter of time before they can capture the Arshan Fortress.

At the same time, Yokoyama Isamu also breathed a sigh of relief. He was more worried that the attack on the Arxan Fortress would become the Battle of Fort Douaumont in the meat grinder of Verdun, with tens of thousands of casualties in order to capture a fortress.

Fortunately, they have successfully captured the Arshan Fortress, and he will soon receive the news he wants.

"Order the 49th Regiment to support the 3rd Regiment, and at the same time, open more entrances into the Arshan Fortress. I want to hold a celebration banquet in the Arshan Fortress before dark!"

"Hayi!"

Soon, the last infantry regiment of the 1st Division was engaged in the battle.

In this battle, the entire First Division, with the exception of its logistics units, was deployed. The First Regiment suffered heavy losses, with nearly half of its personnel casualties. The Third Regiment's casualties were not yet counted. The last fully staffed infantry regiment had also been deployed. If the Arxan Fortress could not be captured, the logistics units would have to join the attack.

By this time, the 3rd Regiment's casualties were beyond counting. Japanese soldiers were lining up to advance through the five gaps, while the Japanese tank regiment was searching for targets to bombard, hoping to create more gaps.

However, the Japanese who entered the Arxan Fortress were met with a head-on blow. They originally thought that the battle would end after entering the Arxan Fortress, but they did not expect that entering the fortress was just the beginning of a nightmare.

Li Yunlong's troops attacked the Arxan Fortress because they took the enemy by surprise and quickly occupied the first floor of the fortress, which was the combat floor. A large amount of Japanese military supplies were stored here.

After occupying the first floor, the Japanese living on the second and third floors were quickly eliminated due to lack of weapons and ammunition, and the air outlets were blocked.

Therefore, Li Yunlong's troops were able to capture the Arshan Fortress with relatively few casualties.

But the Japanese attack this time was different. Ding Wei's second column with more than 10,000 people was in the first floor of the fortress.

The various mechanisms and defensive fortresses prepared by the Japanese inside the fortress when they built it can play a role.

The mechanisms and defensive fortresses inside these fortresses are a unique feature of the Japanese fortress defense.

When other countries build fortresses, they only need to make them very strong and difficult to break through from the outside.

But after seeing the Soviet Union's steel torrent, the Japanese had no confidence in themselves and felt that they could not stop the Soviet Union's steel torrent or the bombardment of large-caliber heavy artillery.

Therefore, the Japanese idea when building the fortress was: before the fortress was breached, they relied on various shooting holes to eliminate the Soviet Union's manpower; after the fortress was breached, they relied on the internal mechanisms and fortresses to carry out layers of resistance, in this way causing huge casualties to the Soviet Union.

So, when the Japanese soldiers of the Third Regiment successfully broke into the fortress, they had just taken two steps along the wall when a bayonet suddenly stretched out from the crack in the wall and stabbed the Japanese soldiers directly from the side.

When the Japanese soldier screamed and fell to the ground, the bayonet had been retracted.

When the Japanese soldier behind rushed over to check the situation, a rifle was already aimed at the Japanese soldier behind a shooting hole on the opposite wall.

"boom!"

A crisp gunshot rang out, and the second Japanese soldier was killed.

The Japanese soldiers behind him only heard the gunshots, but didn't know where the gunshots came from.

Some of the Japanese had maps, but the fortress was so large that they could not tell where they were in the fortress. They could only grope forward bit by bit and then be killed by the shooting holes on the walls on both sides.

As a result, the 3rd Regiment of Infantry that entered the fortress only occupied a few rooms around the five gaps after suffering heavy casualties.

Even though the 1st Division was the most elite force of the Japanese, some ordinary Japanese were frightened by the endless fortress passage and the Japanese corpses filling the passage and dared not move forward easily.

Chapter 395 Meijing Meijiro's Strange Thoughts

The battle raged from day till night.

The atmosphere in the headquarters of the Japanese First Division gradually became depressing.

When the 3rd Regiment first attacked the fortress, Isamu Yokoyama and the Chief of Staff of the 1st Division believed that they could end the battle before dark and successfully recapture the Arshan Fortress.

But as time went on, this idea changed a little bit.

"Report, the Third Regiment reports, it is estimated that it will take overnight to capture the entire Arshan Fortress!"

"Report, the Third Regiment reports heavy casualties. Reinforcements are needed to capture the entire Arshan Fortress."

"Report, the Third Regiment reports..."

Before dark, when Yokoyama Isamu received a telegram from the 3rd Regiment, the 3rd Regiment had suffered heavy casualties and requested guidance.

The 49th Infantry Regiment, supporting the 3rd Infantry Regiment, was not in much better shape. After blasting through two breaches and entering the fortress, they were also being eliminated bit by bit, but their casualties were less than those of the 3rd Infantry Regiment.

"Have the casualties been counted?"

"Report: The 3rd Infantry Regiment suffered 1,400 casualties, and the 49th Regiment suffered over 800 casualties."

The First Division was an elite division, with a full regiment strength of 3,700 men. The Third Infantry Regiment had already lost 1,400 men, over 30% of the Empire's brave warriors, not counting the wounded.

In addition to the thousands of soldiers killed in the previous attack by the First Regiment, in just one day, the three main regiments of the First Division had lost a total of one regiment's strength.

It would be fine if we could capture the Arshan Fortress at the cost of such heavy casualties, but now it is still a long way off.

At this time, Osamu Osaka, the Chief of Staff of the 1st Division, spoke up, "Your Excellency, the casualties from the assault are simply too great. Let's request support from the headquarters and have them airdrop some special bombs for us to use in the fortress."

When Yokoyama Isamu heard this suggestion, his eyes lit up and he said with a smile, "Konuma-kun, you are worthy of the title of 'Fox of the Empire'. This is a very good method!"

After saying this, he looked at his staff officer and said, "Send a telegram to headquarters. Our attack on the Arxan Fortress has encountered stubborn enemy resistance. Our progress is slow and we have suffered heavy casualties, but we have captured parts of the fortress. To reduce our casualties, we request airdrop support from special munitions."

"Hayi!"

Soon, the telegram asking for help was delivered to Mei Jing Meijiro.

After the 1st Division launched its attack on the Arxan Fortress, Mei Jing Meizhilang went to meet with the Mao Xiong military attaché. He didn't know much about the situation in Arxan, only the general idea that a breach had been blown open in the Arxan Fortress and that the 1st Division had already entered the Arxan Fortress.

Mei Jing Meijiro was both satisfied and dissatisfied with the progress of the 1st Division.

The satisfaction was due to the combat effectiveness of the 1st Division, which was able to capture the fortress in such a short time, worthy of being the elite division of the Empire.

The reason for their dissatisfaction was that the Empire had spent so much money, captured so many people, and expended so many supplies to build a fortress, yet the First Division had been able to break into it so easily that they couldn't even hold it for a day.

The Kwantung Army still relies on these fortresses to resist the Soviet Union's troops. Judging from the current situation, these fortresses need to be strengthened. Otherwise, how can they stop the attack of the Soviet Union's troops? You must know that the Soviet Union's firepower is even stronger than that of the Kwantung Army. They can't even stop the Kwantung Army's firepower, let alone stop the Soviet Union's firepower.

For this reason, Mei Jing Meijiro called the person responsible for building the fortress in the afternoon and scolded him severely before he felt relieved.

But when Mei Jing Meijiro received the telegram requesting assistance from the First Division, his brows furrowed. It seemed that the fortress was not as bad as he had thought, and it had not been directly captured. The First Division was now requesting support.

"Have the First Division send us a detailed report of the battle."

"Hayi!"

Soon, Mei Jing Meijiro received a detailed telegram from the 1st Division, including the casualties of the 1st Division.

"Damn it! There are so many casualties! What is Yokoyama Isamu doing?"

Mei Jing Meijiro was furious when he saw the casualty figures. These were over 3,000 Imperial warriors from the First Division, elite soldiers. Three thousand of them could even form the cornerstone of a division, a Type B division.

But they were all destroyed in less than ten hours of attack.

"Send a telegram to the First Division. After dawn tomorrow, we'll have planes drop special bombs on them!"

"Hayi!"

After Mei Jing Meijiro gave the order, he fell into a strange state. He was very angry about the huge casualties of the 1st Division, but he was also relieved about the solidity of the Arshan Fortress.

Arxan Fortress is a medium-sized fortress among the seventeen fortresses, and its level is not as high as Dongning Fortress, Hailar Fortress and Hutou Fortress.

Even the Arxan Fortress, under the control of the Anti-Japanese United Army, could inflict such heavy casualties on the Empire's most elite troops. So, if the Russians attacked the Dongning Fortress, how much would it cost?

Mei Jingmeijiro suddenly gained confidence in defending the Far East forces against the Russian bear.

"It seems that those people from the Castle Construction Department were wrongly accused!"