readx; In the Kuomintang military circles, it is impossible to convince the public only by relying on the power and nepotism of the fathers. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info Chiang Kai-shek sent his son Chiang Weiguo to Hu Zongnan's troops, starting from the company platoon commander, the purpose was also to let his son in the army to improve his qualifications, make military achievements, and be promoted step by step, so as to convince people. Of course, Jiang Weiguo served in the army and received "special treatment", such as transferring the "crown prince" from the combat unit every time there was a war. He Shaozhou's arrogance naturally does not depend on He Yingqin's power alone, he had entered the Yueben Infantry School for further study in his early years, and graduated from the first phase of the Whampoa Military Academy. Therefore, in the Songshan Offensive Battle, he was quite unique in terms of troop deployment and command.

The lineup of the Eighth Army was also relatively neat: it was composed of the 103rd Division, the Honorary 1st Division, and the 7th Division, with Li Mi as deputy commander and commander of the Honorary 1st Division, and Liang Xiaozhai as chief of staff.

The 103rd Division is the basic unit of the "He Family Army" established in Anshun, Guizhou Province in 1925, and most of its officers and men are of Guizhou origin. From "VIII. 13. "Songhu has participated in the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression since the beginning of the Anti-Japanese War, so he has quite a lot of combat experience. The Kuomintang called the wounded soldiers "honorary soldiers", and as the name suggests, the honorary first division was formed from soldiers who had returned from injuries. When Du Yuming was the commander of the division, he had made outstanding achievements in the Kunlun Pass operation in Guangxi and was well-known at home and abroad, so the division had strong morale and pride, but the quality of the 7th Division was poor, and it was reorganized from the local troops in Guizhou.

After the 7th Division was reorganized into a regular army, due to the arduous training and strict military discipline of the regular army, the local troops who were used to being loose could not accept the restraint and developed a confrontational mood. There was a mutiny in the 244th Regiment. He Shaozhou did not show mercy, sent the 103rd Division to surround him, coerced him to disarm by force, and did not spare the other two regiments, and then replaced all the officers above the company level of the division with graduates of all phases of the military academy, so that they could be completely "lineaged", and transferred Wang Boxun and Wang Jingyuan as chief and deputy division commanders, and stepped up supervision, training, and restraint, and gradually reformed themselves. This also shows He Shaozhou's toughness. Therefore, it also made some miscellaneous troops look sideways and did not dare to get close to his troops.

The Eighth Army was originally in southern Yunnan and was under the command of Guan Linzheng of the Ninth Group Army. In mid-April, he was ordered to go from Wenshan and Gumu to western Yunnan to participate in the expeditionary force. The troops walked through Kaiyuan, Kunming, Lianfengyi, Xiangyun, and Midu to Baoshan.

In mid-June, the 2nd and 3rd Regiments of the 1st Honor Division were ordered to join the attack on the Longling front. Because it is said that Kosong Mountain and Longling cooperate with each other, the attack on Longling has not achieved much success. Later, because the Eighth Army was ordered by the Commander's Department to attack Songshan, He Shaozhou ordered the two regiments to withdraw from Longling and attack Songshan instead.

The second phase of the Matsuyama counteroffensive began on July 5, 1944.

In the past, the Kuomintang troops fought against each other, but because of their inferior equipment and limited ammunition, they generally relied mainly on light weapons and fought with manpower. Commanders of the expeditionary force at all levels have recently received training from the US military and have been deeply affected, and they are accustomed to opening the way with airplanes and artillery when fighting. In the event of a storm, the commander of the unit will casually give an order on the phone: "Artillery, another thousand rounds!" ”

The soldiers used to say, "Our commander is now as bold as an upstart!" ”

On 5 July, the artillery received an order: "Concentrate artillery fire and bombard the target of the attack!" ”

The so-called "regional bombardment" refers to a general attack on the periphery of the offensive target, including the periphery of fortresses and strongholds, and a sweep of the periphery.

Of course, there are artillery units that carry out regional bombardment, which can effectively destroy the defending enemy and reduce the casualties of the attacking infantry. However, in a mountainous area with complex terrain such as Matsuyama, it took two years for Yukou to design and build strong fortifications, and the effect of such an area bombardment was not great.

At the moment when the artillery extended its firepower, the 3rd Regiment of Honor boldly broke into the enemy's position, and after fierce melee and hand-to-hand combat, occupied the high ground on the top of Songshan Mountain at 5:40. However, continuing to attack upward, the troops were resisted by the strong fire of the Yuekou, and suffered heavy casualties, so they had to build fortifications more than 100 meters below the top of the mountain, and the camera attacked again.

The headquarters studied the situation of the use of terrain to construct fortifications: the sub-high ground in front of the Songshan position was the main stronghold, and a number of flank defense mechanisms were built in the dense forests of the valley, and positions were built on the opposite side to cover the sub-high ground. Therefore, even if you destroy and occupy the position, you will be attacked from the flanks and counter-flanks, and it will be difficult to gain a foothold. Therefore, the command decided to attack from both flanks first, occupy the Loess Slope and the Rolling Dragon Slope, form a flanking situation, and then break through in the center.

There are many dense forests in the Matsuyama area, which not only hinders observation, but also uses the dense forests to set up ambushes, so it is more difficult to deal with. There are few trees on Rolling Dragon Slope, making it easy to observe and attack. Therefore, it was decided to attack Rolling Dragon Slope with the main force, and at the same time the 245th Regiment attacked Loess Slope, the 3rd Honor Regiment attacked Songshan Slope, and the 2nd Honor Regiment also launched an attack on Yinshan Mountain, so as to contain Yuekou.

On 19 July, artillery on the other side of the Nu River and Zhuzipo bombarded Rolling Dragon Slope, and then the 246th Regiment launched an attack. The initial progress was quite smooth, and the B and B heights were captured in one fell swoop. However, the enemy fortress on Heights B could not be attacked repeatedly, and because the infantry was close to the enemy fort, the artillery could not be supported, but the enemy's flank-fired position attacked the attacking troops without any scruples, and blocked the reinforcements with strong firepower, and counterattacked with about 200 devils, causing the attacking troops to suffer heavy casualties and had to retreat.

That night, the 3rd Regiment of Honor launched an upward attack from the heights of Songshan Pozi, and occupied the top of the hill at 19 o'clock, but the fortress was still unable to attack, and the flank fire of the devils around it was intensive, so that the attacking troops were unable to destroy the fortress, and held out until dawn and retreated to their original positions.

Several attacks paid heavy casualties, He Shaozhou personally went to the front line to observe, and then summoned the division commanders to study countermeasures. Judging from the situation of the offensive, occupying the enemy's position is useless, but has become a burden, and it is necessary to conquer the fortress and completely annihilate the defending enemy in order to occupy the position, and the key is that the artillery must accurately bombard the fortress in order to effectively support the infantry. Therefore, artillery positions were set up in close proximity.

On 8 July, the 307th Regiment of the 103rd Division crossed the river by the Huitong Bridge, because the expeditionary force launched an attack on Gaoligong Mountain and Songshan Mountain, and the situation on the west bank of the Nu River was stable. Although it is frightening to walk on the bridge, it is much more convenient and faster than crossing the river by rubber boat.

That night, the 307th Regiment began to climb the mountain, the mountain was high and the road was dangerous, and it was difficult to walk in the mud when it rained heavily. During the march, many people were injured and died by falls. It was only more than 10 miles from the riverside to Lameng Street, but the 307th Regiment marched all night and did not arrive until dawn. Although the soldiers were exhausted, the task was urgent, and they could not take a breath and enter the attack position.

The 307th Regiment launched a charge at Rolling Dragon Slope after the artillery fire was extended, and the first battalion occupied the enemy's outpost position and continued to develop on both sides of the road. Due to the strong fire, the fortifications had to be built on the spot, and the camera attacked again.

On 11 August, the 1st Battalion sent a company to disperse the attack. The purpose is to reconnoiter the enemy's firing points and the setting of obstacles in front of the position, so as to accurately attack. The next day, the 1st and 2nd Battalions launched an attack on Rolling Dragon Slope. However, due to heavy rain and mountain fog, the attack failed to work, but instead cost a lot of casualties.

That night, a reconnaissance group was again dispatched to the rear of Rolling Dragon Slope to conduct reconnaissance and learn the location and internal situation of the enemy's shelter. According to the reconnaissance report, the regiment headquarters set up a sand table, simulated the deployment of the enemy's position, summoned company and battalion cadres, and Chen Yikuang, deputy regiment commander, explained the enemy's position in Rolling Longpo, divided the enemy position in Rolling Longpo into A, B, C, D, and other highlands, and studied and formulated an operational plan.

The battalion and company commanders spoke one after another, almost in unison: "Now we understand why the new 2nd Division suffered so many casualties!" ”

This was actually the common understanding of the officers and men of the Eighth Army after a few days of storming the fortified positions.

Now that the nail has been hit in the actual battle, the pride of the Eighth Army's "descendants" has been hit, everyone has calmed down, realized the cunning and stubbornness of the devils, and also realized that the price paid by the new 2nd Division in the initial offensive was not unjust, and it has conquered many positions in Songshan, gained a foothold, and laid a good foundation for the follow-up troops, making great contributions.

Such a spontaneous review of the surname understanding will help the subsequent offensive, and the officers and men of the Eighth Army must take the devil seriously.

At 3 p.m. on 13 July, the artillery first bombarded the highlands of Songshan and Rolling Longpo B, C, and D. Within two hours, thousands of shells were poured into the enemy's position, the enemy's position's scattered trenches and communication trenches were exposed, and some of its fortifications collapsed, and the infantry gradually advanced under the cover of artillery fire. The defensive fire on the lower side of position C was fired diagonally at position D, and the fire from high ground B was also fired at the side of high ground D, so that a fire cross was formed in front of position D, causing more than half of the attacking troops to suffer casualties, but they still insisted on attacking and fought with the counterattacking enemy. At dusk, the enemy launched a third counterattack, and the attacking troops had no ammunition, and were approached by the Japanese, and all of them died heroically in the white-knuckle battle.

The 246th Regiment attacked the Da Ya Pass-Hongmushu-A high ground, fell into a figure-eight position, was blocked by cross-fire, and made no progress.

Although the artillery suppressed it with heavy artillery fire, it was difficult to find out where the machine gun positions were hidden in the dense forest and mainly by point fire, so the artillery was almost blindly bombarded, and they could not effectively destroy the enemy's firepower, so that the attacking troops suffered heavy casualties under the crossfire attack of the Yuekou.

Seeing that the attacking troops were weak, Kou counterattacked from A, B, and E to D, and C. It was heavy rain and fog, visibility was extremely poor, and the two sides fought fiercely at close range, and the positions were lost and regained, and both sides suffered heavy casualties. In the evening, the Kou was defeated and retreated, and the attacking troops built fortifications overnight after gaining a firm foothold.

On 24 July, heavy rain fell, making the attack difficult. However, Yu Kou took advantage of the rainy weather to pounce on the two heights of C and D. Chen Wei, deputy commander of the 307th Regiment, and Liu Jiaji, commander of the 1st Battalion, were wounded in the resistance. That night, Yue Kou counterattacked on the C, D, G and other heights, but they were all vigorously resisted. After attacking for a long time, he finally abandoned more than 20 corpses and retreated.

At dawn on the 25th, the attacking force sent a part to attack and advance to the southern end of the Da Ya Pass, with the aim of cutting off the transportation line of the Yuekou Road. Encountered a small group of enemies, and after a fierce battle, 12 enemies were killed and a mountain cannon was captured.

During this phase of the offensive, the losses were heavy, with five infantry battalions suffering casualties and more casualties than wounded, and almost all of the 37th Regiment died heroically. However, the results obtained were only the occupation of the G, C, D and other heights, and the more strategically significant is that after occupying the G heights, the communication between Da Yakou and Rolling Dragon Slope was cut off, which created better conditions for the expansion of the results of the attacking troops in the future.

Because the Songshan counteroffensive was protracted, and Songshan was not restrained, and Teng and Long were difficult to attack, Chiang Kai-shek was very dissatisfied and strictly ordered Gao Fei to urge the Eighth Army to overcome Songshan within a time limit. ”

This is equivalent to awarding Goofy the upper sword of "Shoot and Kill".

Gao Fei personally came to the headquarters of the Eighth Army with Chiang Kai-shek's order, but he did not immediately convey it. Because he knew that the Eighth Army was fighting very hard and could not bear to use Chiang Kai-shek's orders to oppress them, he came to the front command headquarters to study the plan to break the enemy with the generals of the Eighth Army, but unexpectedly He Shaozhou shouted at Gao Fei when he met:

"Junza! It took me two years to build a copper wall in Songshan, and we are now attacking it, which is tantamount to hitting a stone with an egg! We've already killed so many people that we can't fight anymore! ”

Gao Fei couldn't help frowning when he saw that the other party's face was pale, his eyes were bloodshot, and he looked completely out of his mind: "Commander He, why are you so calm?" ”

"Calm down! Go and see for yourself how we attacked in rows and companies of soldiers who fell in front of the enemy's positions! Go and listen to how the soldiers scolded their mothers! ”

Gao Feijian's eyebrows were upside down, and he slapped the table and scolded: "Presumptuous! Do you want this commander to charge into battle himself! It is common for people to die in war, how can you stop fighting because you are dead? What's more, at least you haven't died yet, you still have combat effectiveness, and you still have to fight! ”

He Shaozhou was scolded by Gao Fei and calmed down, and he lowered his head and didn't dare to contradict it again. Li Mi interceded for He Shaozhou on the side:

"Jun Zuo is angry, Commander He is really worried because of repeated attacks and heavy casualties, so he has no words, and I hope Jun Zuo will forgive me."

Goofy paced with his hands behind his back for a while, which was his habit of adjusting his emotions. "I don't know what is going on at the front! However, the Yunnan-Burma counteroffensive has a bearing on the overall anti-fascist plan and even on the future of the international anti-fascist movement. How can we cower at the slightest difficulty? ”

Chief of Staff Liang Xiaozhai also defended He Shaozhou: "Junzuo is really suffering from the complaints below. Everyone is talking: why not counterattack in time? Why are the devils allowed to build fortifications and bunkers here so calmly? In the past two years, hundreds of thousands of troops have been amassed in western Yunnan, and what have the generals done for today's counteroffensive? Just as the commander admonished, people will definitely die in war, and soldiers will not be afraid of death if they regard death as their home. However, it would be too unjust to die like this! Please take a look at the commander: it is said that the fortress is impregnable, our army is short of soldiers, food and ammunition, and often requires soldiers to fight with bayonets hungry, which is really too difficult for us! ”

Gao Fei still said in a cold tone: "I think now is far from the time for us to reflect on the past. However, I think that the past two years have not been without action, people, there are always good people and fools, Song Xilian is very good, set up a cadre training regiment, the 36th Division and the 2nd Reserve Division have been conducting guerrilla warfare on the west bank, harassing the enemy, of course, how effective is another matter. In July last year, he made a proposal to the Governor's Department to set up a mule and horse transport team and to hoard grain and ammunition, and the Governor's Department began to handle it. He hoarded 38,000 bales of grain in Baoshan, Caojian and other places, hoarded 15 base numbers of ammunition, purchased 1,500 mules and horses from the occupied areas, organized them into three pack horse teams, and asked the allies to send veterinarians to guide and strengthen the conservation of mules and horses. These preparations have created extremely favorable conditions for today's counteroffensive.

As for the lack of food and ammunition at the front, I am responsible. However, the soldiers were also asked to understand the objective difficulties; The mules and horses and supplies were on the east bank, and everyone had experienced the difficulties of crossing the river, and many mules and horses crossed the river by swimming, so many people died. The difficulty of entering the mountains is even more obvious to everyone, the mountain roads are rugged, and it is the rainy season, and the losses of the mule and horse brigades are also very heavy, and they are not easier than the front battle.

I would like to tell you frankly that not only are there difficulties in transporting Songshan today, but I am afraid that the situation will not improve in the future when we counterattack Longling and Tengchong. This is because according to the original plan, the Ministry of Military Affairs allocated to our 18 th Transport Corps, with a fixed strength of 36,000 men. Except for the Eighth Regiment organized by Song Xilian, the remaining 17 regiments should be organized from various provinces. However, due to various reasons such as long-distance travel and poor conservation, most of them fled along the way, and the nine regiments that drove to western Yunnan were reduced to four regiments, and the rest were even more incomplete. So far, some of them have not been concentrated. With the current transportation force alone, it is difficult to meet the needs of the 100,000 expeditionary force. But I will find a way to mobilize the population and satisfy the forces as much as possible.

I think that all the officers and men are well aware of the righteousness and will be able to gain understanding if they make the situation public. Of course, the key is to first obtain the understanding of all of you. ”

The officers present at that time were moved by Gao Fei's frank attitude, and they all said that "raising soldiers for a thousand years and using them for a while" said that soldiers do not negotiate the price of fighting wars.

But He Shaozhou didn't admit it, especially when he saw that his subordinates expressed their positions one after another, he felt betrayed, so he said indignantly:

"Of course, Matsuyama can be defeated in the end, but I, He, will never succeed in one go. I resign! ”

His words shocked the audience. His subordinates, in particular, pinched a cold sweat for him and peeked to see Goofy's reaction.

Gao Fei didn't expect He Shaozhou to lose his temper again. But he didn't reprimand him quietly, but said coldly: "You can resign and not do anything, but you have to wait until the counteroffensive is victorious, because you accept the counteroffensive task in front, and now that the enemy is present, anyone who asks to resign, this commander can only regard him as an escape from the battle, and he will be severely punished by the military law!" ”

He Shaozhou did not calm down, and still stiffened his neck and shouted:

"I really can't complete the counterattack mission, please give the order to shoot me!"

(To be continued)