readx; After destroying five more bunkers, a gap of tens of meters wide appeared in the fire network of the Japanese army, and the attacking troops under the mountain took the opportunity to rush up from this blind spot of shooting, rendezvous with the commandos, and then cleared the Japanese army's bunkers along the hillside. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Since the first counterattack ended in failure, and the other positions were unable to give strong support under the strong artillery fire of the squadron, the defenders of Cheong Son gave up their attempt to retake the ground positions, and all of them cowered in the bunkers, relying on the labyrinth of strong fortresses to resist stubbornly, waiting for reinforcements from bombers and naval fleets.

The squadron knew what the army was waiting for, so it quickened the pace of the attack, transferred all the flamethrowers, and eliminated the soldiers in the bunker one by one with the cooperation of grenades and explosives packs. In some tunnels with particularly complex structures, the army not only concentrated a considerable number of troops, but also equipped with quite strong firepower, which was difficult to solve by simple bombing, so the attacking troops first blocked the exit of the tunnels, and then fired smoke bombs into them, ignited damp branches, and drove them out of the caves like driving away rats. However, the tenacity of the Yue army was beyond imagination: after a long period of smoke and fire, not a single Yue army ran out! In order to eliminate the hidden danger, the attacking troops used explosives to blow up all the smoking vents, and finally piled up five or six explosive packs at the entrance of the tunnel, and directly sealed the holes with violent explosions.

The troops who were cowering in the tunnels knew that the end was coming, so they were extremely frenzied, firing wildly from every firing hole, and even many soldiers rushed out to carry out suicide attacks, so that the progress of the attacking troops was extremely slow, and by 10 o'clock in the morning they had not completely occupied the Changshan position.

I don't know why the bomber and ship formations of the Yue Army have not appeared, but for Liao Qirong, who is the commander of the Western Route Army, there is always a sword of Damocles hanging over his head, and the battle must be resolved in the shortest possible time to ensure the safety of the troops! In the end, he instructed Zhang Qifeng to ignore the troops in the bunker and tunnels, directly bury all the entrances and exits and passages, and then transfer the engineering troops to go up and seal them with cement and concrete after dark!

As soon as the order was communicated to the attacking troops, the speed changed dramatically, and in less than an hour the remaining dozens of bunkers and tunnels were all buried. Then, the soldiers scattered on the slopes of the hills, looking for vents for underground fortifications, and whenever they found one, they used explosives to blow them up, cutting off the living conditions of the army.

Although the search was carried out very meticulously, some particularly hidden vents were still not found, resulting in the survival of the Yue troops in several tunnels for more than a month, and in the end, it was the stench of the corpses that exposed the location, so that the [***] team found these tunnels nearly 100 meters deep into the mountain.

After recovering the Changshan position, the situation became very favorable for the Western Route Army: occupying the highest peak here, it could already threaten the ships sailing in the Yangtze River, and at the same time, the tactics of dealing with strong underground fortifications were also summed up from this operation, which made it much less difficult to capture the remaining positions!

As early as when the Central [***] team had just launched an offensive against Madang Fortress and its outlying positions, the commander of the 11th Army, Okamura Ninji, received a distress telegram from the defenders, however, until the Changshan position was lost, he did not send a single reinforcement, the reason was very simple - he had no reserves in his hands to send!

After occupying Jiujiang, the main force of the 11th Army originally wanted to cooperate with the Navy's Third Fleet from the south bank to advance west along the Yangtze River and attack Wuhan on the back according to the predetermined plan, but in front of the Yue Army, the Third Army of the Central Army, the 32nd Army of Guan Linzheng, the 31st Group Army of Tang Enbo, and Sun Xiangtang's 12th Army had already assembled in the area of dozens of kilometers between Ruichang and Fuchikou. In addition, the squadron originally stationed in the Jiujiang area has also been transferred to the Lushan area, and it can attack Jiujiang at any time and cut off the traffic of the Yangtze River!

Okamura had no choice but to change the battle plan, concentrate the forces of five divisions, move south along the Nanliang Railway from the western foot of Lushan Mountain, occupy De'an, and then attack and advance from the De'an area to the west, detour back to the flank of the Central [***] team, cooperate with the Third Fleet, and pull out this nail.

However, what Okamura Ningji did not expect was that Xue Yue, commander of the First Corps of the Ninth Theater, had already gathered the strength of seven armies in the De'an and Lushan areas, waiting for the arrival of the army.

The 106th Division of the Army, all of which went south along the Nanxun Road from Jiujiang, entered the vicinity of Mahuiling at the western foot of Lushan Mountain, and were surrounded by the regiments of the First Corps.

With the cooperation of the Navy's Third Fleet, the 27th Division crossed Poyang Lake and forcibly landed in the Xingzi area in an attempt to rescue the 106th Division, which had fallen into a desperate situation, but after entering the southern foot of Lushan, it was bitten by the 66th Army, the 25th Army and the 29th Army of the Central [***] team, unable to get out, and even self-protection became a problem, and it was even impossible to reinforce the 106th Division.

In order to rescue the 106th Division and the 27th Division in the heavy siege, Okamura Ninji concentrated the 3rd, 4th, and 9th Divisions and a brigade of the Marine Corps, and with the cooperation of more than 40 ships and more than 100 aircraft, stormed the defenders' positions in the vicinity of Wharf Town and Miyagichikou. The 54th Army of the Central [***] Team fought bravely against the enemy and did not retreat, and at the same time, all units of the Tang Enbo Group Army took turns to attack, making it difficult for the army to move an inch.

At this point, almost all the main divisions of Okamura Ninji's 11th Army were trapped in the mountainous water network zone, and the mechanization advantage was completely lost, and it was difficult to move forward under the attack of the troops of the Ninth Theater! The 19th Army under the command of Gao Fei launched a surprise attack at this juncture, which made Okamura Ningji even more helpless, so when the [***] team was building a position in the Dadukou area with great fanfare, he could only transfer the main forces of the 101st Division and the 26th Division stationed in Madang Fortress to reinforce it, and at the same time transferred more than a dozen warships from the Third Fleet to cooperate.

Although the important surnames of Madang Fortress and Dadukou are not the same, the military significance of the Yue army that relied on the Yangtze River to transport supplies and personnel was the same, because the large-caliber heavy artillery of the Ninth Army could easily block the river from either of these two locations! Therefore, although Okamura Ninji accurately judged that this was the direction of the Ninth Army's main attack as soon as Madang Fortress was attacked, all he could do was to order the defenders of the fortress to hold on and wait for reinforcements, and at the same time order the 101st Division and the 27th Division to leave a brigade of troops to hold the Dadu Pass, and the rest of the troops to return to the division for reinforcements. In order to avoid being encircled and annihilated by the Ninth Army again, Okamura Ninji deliberately transferred more than 20 ships from Wuhu to cruise near Dadukou, so that the remaining troops were always under the protection of naval guns, and more than a dozen ships coming from Maxia covered the 101st Division and the 27th Division to return to Madang after clearing the mines.

The 101st Division and the 26th Division, which were originally stationed in the fortified fortress, not only left their lair, but also after two consecutive divisions, the current strength is only more than 30,000 people, which has no advantage over any of their own three-way army, as long as they are properly arranged, they can be broken one by one!

After much deliberation, Gao Fei decided to pull out the strongest nail of Madang Fortress first, and he ordered the Eastern Route Army to build strong fortifications beyond the range of the naval guns, closely monitor the movements of the remaining Yue troops, and launch an attack as soon as the fleet on the river left; The blocking troops and the anti-aircraft artillery brigade were interspersed in the Xiangkou area to build fortifications to block the return of the Japanese army; The Western Route Army sought to completely capture Madang Fortress in the shortest possible time.

Since the bombers of the Yue Army were busy providing air support to the main force of the 11th Army trapped in the encirclement and had no time to take care of Madang Fortress, Liao Qirong unceremoniously ordered his troops to attack on all fronts and simultaneously launched attacks on the three positions of Xiangshan, Zangshanji and Madang Fortress.

Having learned the lesson of the failure of the first attack on the Xiangshan position, the squadron did not invest heavy troops at the beginning, nor did it carry out long-term artillery coverage, but first concentrated its firepower to break through a little on the position of the Yue army, and the troops who took the opportunity to advance immediately threw the lit branches and smoke grenades at the front of the position, blocking the enemy's sight. Because the soldiers in the bunkers and tunnels could not see, the accuracy of their shooting was greatly reduced, so that there was a gap in the firepower network, and the attacking troops wore gas masks and crossed the blockade line, and then divided into battle teams to clear the bunkers and tunnels of the Japanese army layer by layer.

Because the bunker group of the Yuejun army in Xiangshan had been partially damaged in the first day of fighting, coupled with the proper measures of the attacking troops, only more than 100 casualties were successfully reached the top, and Zangshanji was only killed and wounded more than 200 people before it was taken.

After the news of the successful capture of the first two positions reached the headquarters, several division commanders believed that there would be no suspense in the next battle, and that the troops of Madang Fortress would definitely not hold out for long, however, the enemy taught them a heavy lesson with his tenacity - do not despise your opponent at any time!

With the support of artillery fire and smoke, the two battalions of the provisional 27th Division successfully broke through the first line of defense of the Yue army, advanced more than 200 meters, and successively uprooted more than 40 bunkers.

When a large group of soldiers suddenly rushed out of the smoke with red eyes, the middle [***] team was caught off guard, and dozens of soldiers at the front were immediately stabbed to the ground! Immediately afterward, dozens of * people rushed out of the ranks of the army and jumped into the crowd, and after a series of explosions, more than 200 soldiers fell in a pool of blood! The attacking troops were unable to organize effective resistance, so they had to retreat again and again, once to the foot of the mountain, and finally fought back desperately with the support of heavy artillery to consolidate their positions.

Soon, the squadron found that with the gradually rising terrain, the army had built a dense anthill-like bunker and a network of criss-crossing tunnels, and the resistance was becoming more and more tenacious with these fortifications. Three hours after the start of the battle, the casualties rate of the first two main battalions was as high as 50%, so they had to withdraw and repair and transfer a regiment to replace them.

The commander of the Madang Fortress was obviously very cunning, and while using the strong fortress to attrition and delay the [***] team, he constantly launched counterattacks, so that the attacking troops had to pay a huge price for every step forward, and the battle had become an out-and-out attrition, and the attacking troops could only advance meter by meter. As the attacking troops repeatedly fell into the crossfire network of the Japanese army, the casualties were extremely heavy, and the company and platoon commanders suffered all casualties; many company commanders were appointed as second lieutenants or sergeants, while platoon and squad leaders were all ordinary soldiers. The squadron had to eliminate the flank positions one by one and remove the flank threat before it was possible to move forward, so the battle was extremely brutal and fierce.

After eight hours of hard fighting, the provisional 27th Division was replaced by three main regiments in succession before advancing the battle line to a distance of 100 meters from the top of the mountain, but the casualties were enormous, and the officers and men of two battalions were either killed or wounded, and almost all the troops were wiped out.

Seeing that the top of the mountain was in sight, the attacking troops immediately marched forward and rushed to the top of the mountain with all their might, however, they fell into the trap of the army! As soon as the fighters attacked the top of the mountain, the flank troops immediately blocked the retreat with intensive firepower, and then, with the mortars arranged behind the mountain, all the dozen or so poison gas bombs were projected on the top of the mountain, and then, hundreds of soldiers wearing gas masks howled and rushed out of the bunker, taking advantage of the time when the squadron was wearing gas masks, and attacked frantically, eliminating all the more than 200 fighters who rushed to the top of the mountain.

In the end, Liao Qirong had no choice but to order the heavy artillery brigade to pour more than 3,000 shells on the position of the Yue army, which was already less than a kilometer, to turn over every inch of land here, and then ordered the attacking troops to attack and advance step by step, advancing to the top of the mountain little by little, and after four hours of hard fighting, finally pulled out the last bunker of the Yue army, at this time, it was already midnight, and the time to launch the attack had passed a full sixteen hours!

Although the defenders of Madang Fortress were completely annihilated in this battle, the provisional 27th Division suffered more than 3,000 casualties and almost lost its combat effectiveness, so it had to withdraw to Jingdezhen for repairs.

Liao Qirong looked at Lin Yiru's sad expression, and felt very sad in his heart, so he had to comfort: "Although the casualties of the brothers are very large, after all, they have taken back the position, cut off the rear route of the 11th Army, and made it impossible for the army to get enough supplies. ”

Seeing that Lin Yiru's expression softened a little, he said again: "After watching the performance of the provisional division, I am convinced that in the battle sequence of the group army, it will definitely take the position of the main force!" May this comfort the heavenly souls of the brethren! ”

Lin Yiru looked up at the deep night sky and muttered, "I hope so!" ”

The heavy dark clouds wrapped the moon and stars firmly in the crooks of his arms, as if to strangle them all, so that no light would be revealed, and the wide river was shrouded in a dark night as heavy as lead, and only the searchlights on the dozen motorboats in the middle of the channel emitted strong columns of light, trying in vain to break free from the shackles of darkness. The surface of the river at the end of summer is peaceful and refreshing, and the mountains in the distance, the trees on the embankment, and the reeds are all hazy, as if covered with a black veil.

Shimizu Jiro grabbed the railing in front of him with both hands, leaning his body out of the boat as much as he could, following the movement of the searchlight and carefully searching the river for any suspicious targets. Outside the aperture of the searchlight, there was darkness that swallowed everything, and Shimizu Jiro looked up from time to time in horror, trying to find something but afraid to find it, and his mood was very conflicted. As soon as his gaze came into contact with the vague shadows of the mountains and jungles, a terrible sense of loneliness welled up in his heart, and an unbearable shiver immediately crept up his back, as if he had been pointed from behind with a gun.

Suddenly, there was a piercing scream in the sky, several huge fireballs flew from the south bank with long tails, 155mm grenades exploded violently on the surface of the target, and the fragments of the shells jumped like butterflies on the motorboat! The explosion and the waves of air blew the two motorboats to pieces and plunged them far into the river, and then the motorboats burst into flames, and the sailors in the cockpit and stern jumped into the icy water.

The sudden blow stunned the Japanese army, and the surviving motorboats turned off their searchlights, and then quickly galloped to the back of the cruiser, hiding under the hull as high as a mountain.

The commander of the fleet had just given the order to counterattack, but the squadron suddenly stopped shelling, and the river bank fell into darkness again. The artillery on the ship had to roughly guess the direction and distance based on the impact point of the shells fired by the opponent's artillery, and then covered them with two salvos with more than 100 cannons. After the dull sound of the explosion, a fierce flame rose from behind the mountain on the shore, almost burning half of the sky red, but, to the surprise of the Yue army, the squadron did not react, and it seemed that the whole army was wiped out under the attack of heavy artillery.

Immediately afterwards, the minesweepers were dispatched again to clear the mines in the channel. Shimizu Jiro took over the work of another member of the team, jumping into the icy river and swimming forward while groping in the water with his hands, performing the so-called 'thunder touch'. Despite the protection of a life jacket, the cold air kept drilling into Shimizu Jiro's heart, making his limbs a little numb. At this moment, a black thing appeared at the edge of the searchlight, and he hurriedly grabbed it with his hand—a white Sensen's arm exposed to the water! He hurriedly threw his arm back into the water, then motioned with his hand for the searchlight to move forward.

Ten minutes later, the second wave of shelling by the [***] team began again. Almost exactly like the first time, the Chinese artillerymen stopped firing after three salvos in a row, protecting themselves in the dark of the night!

(To be continued)