The enemy's artillery bombardment extended until 9 o'clock, and there was a pine forest behind the main position of the front post, and as soon as the devil's artillery fire was extended, the shells fell into the forest, and the pine forest was ablaze, and the flames soared into the sky and the smoke was filled. The reserve behind me advanced to the rear edge of the main position when the smoke and flames were filled, ready to support the main position at any time!

The first round of the battle went quickly, and despite the stubborn attack of the enemy, they were also beaten to the point of howling, leaving countless corpses behind and retreating. At this time, the soldiers found the number mark from the corpse of the enemy officer, and it turned out that the 11th Infantry Wing, which was known as the "attack first" of the 5th Brigade, took the lead, no wonder the attack was fierce!

At about 12 noon, the enemy offensive began, and the poison gas attack was brazenly continued. When rows of more intense shells bloomed on our position, under the cover of artillery fire, the enemy's gas corps moved to our left and right flanks, ready to release poison gas. As soon as the enemy artillery fire extended, muffled gas bombs exploded on our position, and a reddish smoke began to fill.

As a result of the experience of the last time, our officers and men have long been prepared for this move against the enemy. The observer soldiers on the position quickly issued a "poison gas" alarm, and all front-line officers and men immediately wet their towels, covered their mouths and noses, and retreated to high places to take refuge. When the poison gas dispersed, the officers and men entered the position to fight.

On that day, the army launched three more ferocious attacks, and used more poison gas, but they were never able to succeed except for more casualties on both sides.

At dusk, the devil got tired and began to rest.

Regiment commander Xu Jianwu clearly saw in the telescope that the devil's artillery carriage pulled up the cannon and went back to Fufu Town, and the devil's infantry camped on the spot. Except for the sentry guard, the devils all sat down or lay down, and the cooks carried buckets to fetch water and make food, and for a time the cooking smoke was everywhere. The enemy knew that the Sichuan army did not have artillery, and it was simply a camping appearance!

Seeing the enemy's big appearance, Xu Jianwu hated so much that his hands holding the telescope were trembling: If Lao Tzu has a cannon in hand, it would be strange if he didn't kill you!

The next day, from dawn, the enemy's artillery was pulled back again, and the troops on the frontal positions repeated the attack of the previous day until the afternoon. While the enemy is flexing his force to attract my attention, he is secretly planning otherwise. Under the cover of this frontal fierce offensive, a roundabout army of devils had quietly set out, and at about four o'clock, this group of devils touched the Xiaoluoshan Heights in the south of Luoshan City on our right flank. Only a platoon of soldiers defended here, and the devils launched a surprise attack under the cover of several machine guns and small steel cannons, and soon cleared our defenders, hit my soft underbelly, and occupied Xiaoluo Mountain.

Below Xiaoluo Mountain was the division headquarters set up in Nanguan, the county seat, and the division headquarters personnel who were directing operations at the division headquarters did not expect that the roundabout troops of the Japanese army had quickly attacked in front of them and hurriedly called for withdrawal. However, before the commander and regimental commander Chen Hongkun of the reserve corps had time to withdraw from the headquarters, the devil's machine gun on Xiaoluo Mountain had already opened fire on the command headquarters, and the "sudden, sudden, sudden" machine gun bullets came in from the roofs and doors and windows, causing dust to turn all over the ground, and locking all the people in the division in the house.

Yang Guodong hurriedly screamed and hit the wall, and then jumped out of the hole in the knocked down wall. The division commander was so angry that he stomped his feet and ordered Chen Hongkun to immediately take Xiaoluo Mountain.

There is a temple on Xiaoluo Mountain, which was my sentry position at first, and now the devils occupy the temple and hold on. At this time, the twelve battle defense guns, which had not yet come in handy, came into play.

Chief of Staff Li Qinglai, who studied and taught weapons when he was a military instructor, personally commanded the artillery to shoot at the temple occupied by the devils. The battle defense gun is a small cannon with little blasting power, but it has a long range, accurate hit, and strong penetration. The twelve doors were done together, and they also had considerable power, the temple was bombarded, the devils scattered and fled, and I aimed my light and heavy machine guns at the devils and strafed them, and the devils fell down one after another. Chen Hongkun personally led a battalion of soldiers to take advantage of the situation to rush, the two sides were short-handed, and soon all the battles were resolved.

That night, our front-line officers and men were ordered by the division headquarters to launch a night attack on the enemy's camp with small units in order to pay tribute to the enemy's detour. When the crisp sound of gunfire and the explosion of grenades reached the division headquarters, division commander Yang Guodong and chief of staff Li Qinglai were discussing the current battle situation and making a bold decision.

"Division commander, there are only dozens of enemies on Xiaoluo Mountain today. According to my own tactics, the enemy's roundabout troops are by no means more than this, where are the other devils? Don't be careful. ”

Yang Guodong frowned: "I'm also thinking about this problem, the east side is gentle and watery, and it is not easy to make a detour, and the south side is mountainous and forested, and all kinds of paths are vertical and horizontal, and it is easy for the enemy to detour." Today, these dozens of devils may just be in the lead, and the enemy's roundabout troops are either taking a fork in the road, or they are lurking and waiting for the opportunity! ”

"My right flank defense is very weak, and I don't have the strength to hold so many paths."

"If the enemy detours between our county town and the front-line troops from here, the two regiments on our front-line may not be able to retreat." Speaking of this, Yang Guodong paused, and then said:

"Chief of Staff, you immediately go to the two regiments on the front line to convey my order, wait to withdraw from the position after 12 o'clock tonight, go to the west of the city to occupy the position at the Zilu River, Sanli to the west of the city, and the division headquarters and Chen Hongkun's regiment also withdraw from the county seat at the same time. I'll report to the commander. ”

"Commander, in this case, I'm afraid it's not easy to explain, right?" The "other end" here refers to Tang Shizun, and the chief of staff has some concerns.

"Leave him alone. He can withdraw, why can't I?! Yang Guodong hated Tang Shizun's withdrawal of the artillery regiment.

Army Commander Chen Wanqian received Yang Guodong's report, but his thoughts were different, and he had to consider deeper tactical and political issues. After receiving this report, he hurriedly dispatched Tao Bichi, the adjutant of the military major, and Fu Yingdao, the staff officer of the captain, to stop the troops from retreating, but it was too late, and the retreating troops had already begun to move.

The county seat of Luoshan became an empty city. After the enemy occupied the front-line position of our front post, he did not know what tricks the straw sandal soldiers played, and did not dare to go straight into the city, but bypassed the county town and headed south.

This time, I said that I was too cautious. In the past few days of fighting, he no longer underestimated these Sichuan soldiers wearing straw shoes, and he also admitted in this book "Army Operational History of the Chinese Incident" that before the army occupied Luoshan, "due to the stubborn resistance of the enemy around Luoshan, our troops suffered many casualties."

Yang Guodong evacuated the county seat of Luoshan, saying that he thought he was playing tricks, but instead bypassed the county seat and made a detour to the south of Xiaoluoshan. This empty city between the enemy and our front line became a place for our plainclothes detectives to enter and leave the city. It was said that my abnormal tactics also puzzled us, and this mystery was not solved until later from the mouth of the captive, because I was afraid of my empty plan.

Yang Guodong's decision was undoubtedly the right and bold decision, but later it almost cost him his head.

When Tang Shizun heard that Luoshan County had abandoned the garrison, he was furious and had no choice but to send the 1st Attached Artillery Regiment to fight frontally, and at the same time ordered the two divisions in his hand to be used separately to cover its flanks from attack. Chen Wancheng was reprimanded for abandoning the defense of Luoshan County, and did not dare to disobey the order again for this obviously unreasonable practice, and used the 147th Division as his left flank and the 148th Division as his right flank, fighting in two areas respectively.

After occupying the Xiaoluoshan Heights from the south of Luoshan County, the army bombarded the county town with artillery, and then stopped moving. Outside the county seat of Luoshan, the two armies became confronted, and there was a strange temporary silence. This kind of confrontation and tranquility made Tang Shizun uneasy

However, the calm was soon shattered!

At 8 o'clock in the morning of the next day, the army bombarded Confucius's positions along the river with artillery to an unprecedented intensity, as if moving the direction of the main attack to the defensive position on the left flank. Tang Shizun immediately ordered the artillery to suppress the enemy's artillery fire, so the artillery of the two sides started a battle, and both sides were filled with fireworks and heat waves.

At this time, the army raised the observation balloon and directed the artillery to shoot accurately. The balloon was hundreds of meters high, and even the 23rd Group Headquarters, many miles away, could use telescopes to see the observers in the gondola under the balloon. Our artillery hurriedly advanced with the anti-Japanese guns, but it was too high and too far to work. Under the command of the balloon observers, our artillery was bombarded accurately and violently, and had to move to concealment. As soon as our artillery bombardment stopped, the enemy's artillery became even more unscrupulous, desperately pouring shells into the positions along the river, bombing and strafing our positions and villages along the river with many planes, and the enemy infantry took the opportunity to wade across the river.

Confucius's regimental command post was located in a village on the west bank, surrounded by ponds. The village was subjected to heavy artillery bombardment and aircraft bombardment, and countless bombs fell from the pond, frequently blowing up columns of water tens of meters high, and water droplets scattered in the village like heavy rain.

The front-line troops suffered heavy casualties, lacked medical care and medicine, and the wounded were not sent to the hospital and were sent to the military headquarters. The military medical officer had no choice but to use salt water as alcohol to comfort the wounded soldiers. There were too many wounded, and some of the seriously wounded were still conscious in their final moments, and the sound of scolding, moaning and crying was incessant.

The village was blown up in smoke and dust, most of the houses collapsed, and many soldiers were killed. When the soldiers helped Confucius and others climb out of the collapsed house, they saw that their own soldiers had crossed the river one after another, broke through the position of our first battalion, occupied a large area west of the river, and were using machine guns to strafe our counterattacking troops, and their follow-up troops were taking advantage of this gap to continuously cross the river and go ashore!

Confucius Fu hurriedly ordered the 2nd Battalion to come and block the river with machine guns to prevent the devils from crossing the river to the west bank to increase their troops, and ordered the 2nd Battalion to cooperate with the 1st Battalion to launch a counterattack when the devil's artillery could not support. On the riverbank, in the positions, soldiers on both sides left behind a large patch of bloody corpses.

As soon as the devils had crossed the river, six enemy planes flew over the air, and after the bombs were dropped, they fired at a low altitude.

It was said that the military pilots were so rampant that they dived 100 meters below to chase our soldiers and open fire, and even the pilots could be clearly seen on the position. Seeing that the enemy planes were so rampant, Confucius ordered all light and heavy machine guns and rifles to fire into the air at the same time. The officers and men of the unit have already acquired the essentials of infantry firearms firing at the air, and an enemy plane was hit while diving, and thick flames erupted from the plane, which was planted in the area controlled by our troops on the west bank of the lion.

Seeing the plane landing, the Yue army in the east of the river hurriedly sent a unit to desperately wade across the river to rescue it.

Confucius Fu could not allow his attempt to succeed, and while sending people to block it, he sent a squad of soldiers to carry incendiary grenades to the fall of the plane. The two sides started another race to the death, and both sides made desperate leaps to their destination. Eventually, the soldiers who attempted to cross the river left their bodies behind and were repulsed, and the plane and pilot were reduced to ashes by the explosion of incendiary grenades.

The other plane had better luck. After the planes flew away, several more flew in retaliation. The concoction continued in the same way, and another plane was hit during a low-altitude dive, caught fire and landed on the east coast. This time it was our soldiers' turn to try to cross the river, but the devil was the first to get there, and the plane and the pilot were rescued.

The army began to storm the Kong regiment, and after a morning, our officers and men beat the enemy who had already crossed the river.

In the afternoon, the army increased its troops again, broke through the position from the soft underbelly of the joint between the Confucius Fu Regiment and the Huang Jianman Regiment, occupied a large number of villages, and attacked the Kong Regiment from the left rear and front. The villages occupied by both sides are jagged with canine teeth, and each side fights from their villages.

More than 400 enemy troops besieged a village of our 1st Battalion and 3rd Company, with one platoon defending the village and two platoons fighting outside the village relying on positions. Far from the battle line, the village is isolated and the situation is critical. Confucius Fu sent Deng Maorong, the commander of the third battalion, to lead two companies of troops to respond to cover the retreat of the third company.

The commander of the 3 battalion rushed to the place, and the three companies were already divided and surrounded. Two platoons were surrounded and blocked, and one platoon was surrounded in Zhuangzi. All three platoons were stubbornly holding their positions, and the battle was fierce. During the battle, the devils set the village on fire with incendiary bombs, and the whole village was on fire, a sea of fire, and the soldiers of my platoon regarded death as home, and fought to the death unyieldingly. As the last houses were consumed, the sound of grenades detonating in the flames rang out, and the soldiers outside the village could clearly hear the collective shouts and curses. The officers and men of the whole platoon died heroically in the flames.

Confucius saw this tragic scene from a distance. On the battlefield, the dead are like numbness, and when a cannonball comes down, the flesh and blood are scattered, and in the dense strafing like bullets, the charging soldiers fall in pieces like cut straw.

This situation has been seen without shock, but under his own eyelids, seeing this platoon of soldiers choose such a tragic death, Confucius Fu and all the witnesses were extremely shocked, and everyone was extremely sad and extremely admired.

At this time, the attack of the Yue army was already very rampant, and they completely ignored the threat from both flanks, and only wanted to break through the defensive line of the [***] team and escape from the encirclement.

The casualties of the 21st Army were very large, and a large number of officers were killed, and the army relied on its sophisticated firearms and the most direct reinforcements from the sky, and there was a great possibility of breaking through the encirclement.

There were more and more calls from the front asking for reinforcements, the most critical of which was around Langlokou, where most of the positions had fallen into the hands of the Japanese army.

Faced with such a critical situation, Tang Shizun gritted his teeth and finally gave an order:

"Pull the high-flying 151st Regiment up for me!"

(To be continued)