If it is fought hard as in history, the 36th Division will be completely consumed on Fujin Mountain. Now that the strategic thinking of the commanders from the general command to the front-line commanders has changed, neither Chiang Kai-shek nor Song Xilian will let the 36th Division coexist with the Fujinshan position. However, Fujin Mountain is too important for holding Dabie Mountain, and only a strong force like the 36th Division can hold the frontal position and block the westward advance of the Yue Army. Therefore, Song Xilian resolutely ordered the 36th Division not to take a step back.

A tough day has started again. Early in the morning, the planes of the Japanese army flew in groups over Fujin Mountain, dropping bombs one after another on the defenders' positions, which were immediately filled with dust.

Chen Ruihe didn't even have time to wash his face when he woke up in the morning, and when he saw a group of little devils flying over, he felt a thrill in his heart: This is not a good sign, looking at the posture of the little devils, I am afraid that I will be desperate!

Chen Ruihe grabbed the phone and ordered all regiments to pay attention to air defense and artillery, and all the main forces were on the position, and then reported his judgment to Song Xilian, and asked the military seat to order the 88th and 61st divisions defending the flank positions to prepare for battle and guard against the surprise attack of the little devils.

Chen Ruihe's judgment was right, the commander of the 13th Division, Ogizhou Libing, was already like a gambler with red eyes at this time, and he was bent on turning over the book.

It is no wonder that since the 13th Division landed at Jinshanwei and joined the Chinese battlefield, it can be said that it has conquered everything, just like the first-class main division in the army. It is said that the base camp was very satisfied with the performance of the 13th Division, and a certain dignitary once revealed that a general with a first-class record like Ogisu Libing was the pride of the Imperial Army, and should take more important responsibility. After hearing the news, the soldiers of Ogizhou were fluttering, but they didn't expect that the small Fujin Mountain was blocking the advance of the 13th Division. After several days of fierce fighting, so many shells and bombs were wasted, and the position of the defenders of Fujin Mountain had already been blown to the ground, and as a result, the elite 13th Division not only did not open the passage to the west into Dabie Mountain, but also suffered heavy casualties.

That's not all, Lieutenant General Okamura Ninji, commander of the 11th Army, saw that the 13th Division could not take a small Fujin Mountain, so he sent an operational staff officer to inquire about the situation. The commander of the Central China Dispatch Army, General Shunroku Hata, sent three telegrams in succession, expressing concern over the battle at Fujin Mountain. The base camp of the army was even more desperate, and directly ordered the 16th Division and the 15th Division to reinforce the 13th Division and make a detour from both flanks. In the words of Prince Miyajihito, chief of the general staff of the army, it is unthinkable that the 13th Division, which is strong in combat, will not be able to take an unknown hill with the cooperation of the air force, and it seems that it is necessary to reassess the command ability of Lieutenant General Ogisu Libing.

The Ogizhou soldiers, who were already gnashing their teeth by huge casualties, were about to collapse under the high pressure of the Eleventh Army, the Central China Dispatch Army, and the base camp. He made up his mind to concentrate all his strength and make a desperate bet to capture Fujin Mountain in one fell swoop. To this end, he adjusted the deployment, enriched several supplementary brigades, engineer wings, and cavalry brigades of the division to each wing, and ordered Major General Yamada Danji to command the 103rd Brigade to attack the positions on both flanks of Fujin Mountain, and contain the defenders from reinforcing each other; Ordered Numata Tokushige to command the 26th Brigade to concentrate all its efforts on attacking the frontal position of Fujin Mountain, and it must succeed in one fell swoop; Ordered the commander of the 19th Mountain Artillery Wing under the division, Yokoo Kuodasa, to strengthen fire support, and to launch special smoke at critical moments to ensure that the infantry could break through in one fell swoop.

As for that, Ogisu sent a telegram to Shunroku Hahata and Ninji Okamura: "Our army encountered stubborn resistance from the strong opponent Song Xilian's army, and suffered heavy casualties, and the battle situation still made no progress. Our army is helpless against the enemy of Fujin Mountain! ”

After sending the telegram, Ogisu Libing thought that he couldn't simply say this, the consequences of saying this were very serious, and it was likely to affect his future and the achievements of the 13th Division, so he sent a telegram to Shunroku Hata and Okamura Ninji, saying that the main reason why Fujin Mountain could not be attacked for a long time was that it was Chiang Kai-shek's elite 71st Army that defended Fujin Mountain, which was originally Chiang Kai-shek's guard unit, with two German-style divisions, and the equipment and training were the best in the [***] team. The enemy was so strong, but the cooperation of the aviation was not in place, and it did not achieve multiple sorties of continuous bombing, resulting in heavy casualties among the elite 13th Division. His Excellency the Commander was asked to urge the aviation forces to concentrate on striking at the defenders of Fujin Mountain.

Not to mention, this telegram from the Ogizhou Libing really worked, and the 11th Army not only transferred a heavy artillery brigade and a large number of supplementary troops to the 13th Division in the starry night to make up for the combat losses of the 13th Division, but also strictly ordered the aviation to concentrate on covering the attack on Fujin Mountain. At this time, the courage of the Ogizhou troops was even stronger, not only did they have all the major teams, wings, and brigades fully staffed, but they also had surplus troops to use as supplementary teams and reserves, especially the newly arrived heavy artillery brigades, which could cover the entire Fujin Mountain with firepower.

No, the planes of the air force came early in the morning and bombed the positions of the defenders of Fujin Mountain.

As soon as the Ogisu soldiers saw that the bombing effect of the air force was very good, they touched their gray beard and said a few yo xi, and then ordered the heavy artillery brigade and the 19th mountain artillery wing to open fire and cover the positions of the defenders of Fujin Mountain, and then ordered Numata Tokushige and Yamada Danji to start attacking.

Numata Tokushige, an old pervert, had already gone crazy, and after receiving the order to attack, he immediately ordered the 58th Wing, which had completed the replenishment, to enter the battle, forming three attack waves, and to defeat the defenders in one fell swoop.

After ordering the 58th Wing to attack, he himself took all the personnel of the brigade headquarters to the 116th Wing of Uta Ukidasa, preparing to personally lead the 116th Wing into battle in case the attack of the 58th Wing did not go well, and capture the main position of Fujin Mountain in one fell swoop.

To tell the truth, the 36th Division had already suffered heavy casualties at this time, basically reducing its strength by one-third, and individual companies even suffered more than one-half of the casualties. It is said that when the casualties reach this level, they should be withdrawn to rest and replenish, but the army is constantly attacking, how can it be withdrawn?

The reason why the 36th Division was able to hold out for so many days was mainly because Song Xilian used his brains on how to defend Fujin Mountain. Before the war, he mobilized more than 1,000 migrant workers to dig positions under the guidance of the engineer battalion, first dug a large number of camouflage positions, and also arranged camouflage, and then the real position was not the annular position formed by the horizontal trenches used in the past, but the use of Fujin Mountain to dig irregular trenches, multiple trenches and communication trenches connected, each trench was equipped with a shelter, set up a dark fire point, and the entire position was camouflaged before the war. In this way, the bombing and artillery bombardment of the little devils in the early stage were basically hit on the camouflage positions, and it was later that the military planes and artillery bombed the positions in a mess, but the defenders did not forget to camouflage their positions, and the little devils resolutely did not expose the firepower points until they came to the front, which allowed the defense line to hold on for a longer time. In addition, the front slope of Fujin Mountain was relatively gentle, and the army did not have the terrain that could cover its body to use, and every time the infantry attacked, it became a target, and naturally suffered heavy casualties. It's a pity that the 71st Army lacked artillery after the Battle of Songhu, otherwise it would have made the Yue Army suffer heavier casualties. The strength of the Yue army lies in the firepower advantage of the air and ground integration, and the casualties of the defenders are mainly caused by the artillery fire of the Yue army.

After the bombing by the planes, 15 minutes of artillery preparation began.

The shelling of the devils this time is different from that of previous days, when the shells of the devils were mainly mountain shells, with a small caliber and limited lethality. Today, the devil used heavy artillery, and judging by the density of the shells, it should be a new heavy artillery brigade. Chen Ruihe has been in battle for a long time and has been fighting with the little devil for a year, and he naturally understands these situations at a glance that the devil is going to launch an attack on all fronts.

Chen Ruihe looked at the sky, this damn sky was actually clear, which was very suitable for the little devil's plane battle. In this case, the devil's aircraft group, plus the heavy artillery brigade, it will be difficult for the Fujin Mountain position to survive today.

Chen Ruihe directly wanted to call Song Xilian, and implored the military seat to report to the principal immediately, the Fujin Mountain position is in danger and exists on the front line, no matter what, please send the air force to support, even if it can disperse the little devil's plane.

Putting down the phone, Chen Ruihe ordered the reserves to prepare and enter the battle at any time.

As soon as the devil's artillery fire stopped, the units of the 36th Division entered their positions and were ready for battle.

Zhang Xin's company was deployed in the front-line position in front of Fujin Mountain.

said that it was the first line, but in fact it was already the third-line position of the original defense line. The original first-line and second-line positions have long been destroyed after several days of repeated fighting and indiscriminate bombardment by the Chinese army.

Today is the ninth day of defending Fujin Mountain, and Zhang Xin's company has been reduced from a full company to 84 people, and this is still a company with fewer casualties, so it was adjusted to the front line today.

When the devil's plane and artillery bombarded, Zhang Xin led the brothers to hide in the shelter, and as soon as the artillery fire stopped, Zhang Xin took the brothers to the position. As soon as he was ready, he pointed to the deputy and said, "Company commander, the devil is up!" ”

Zhang Xin climbed on the position and looked down, and saw that the little devils had formed three skirmish lines, the first one seemed to be a brigade, with a thousand people. The second and third lines are densely packed and cannot be seen clearly. But don't think about it, that's definitely the main force of the devil.

As soon as he saw that the devil's skirmish line was still far away, Zhang Xin knew that he had been fooled, he was a veteran who had participated in the Battle of Songhu, and he was very clear about the little devil's tricks, and intuitively felt that the little devil would definitely have another artillery strike, so he quickly ordered the brothers to withdraw from the position and enter the shelter.

Sure enough, as soon as Zhang Xin and the others evacuated, the devil's shells fell, blowing up the position beyond recognition. Zhang Xin knew that the little devil had artillery observers, and this guy was really accurate, but he didn't know if the brothers on the other positions had withdrawn, and the casualties were not big.

After another 15 minutes, the sound of the devil's cannon was sparse, and Zhang Xin immediately led the brothers to the position. As soon as the machine gun was set up, the little devil was already within 80 meters. Zhang Xin did not hesitate at all, shouted and hit, and the nine newly equipped Czech light machine guns of the whole company roared open, and the dense fire net blinded the devils who rushed up at once, and rolled straight down the slope with a huhula.

As soon as Zhang Xin and the others fired, the companies on the left and right also fired, but the gunfire was a little sparse, and Zhang Xin knew that it must be the companies on the left and right sides of the devil's artillery fire just now that brought casualties. We must support as soon as possible, otherwise we will lose our positions on both sides and we will not be able to hold our positions.

Seeing that the first wave of little devils in front of him had basically retreated, Zhang Xin immediately ordered the three platoons to draw two squads, each with a machine gun, to reinforce the positions on the left and right, and he commanded the brothers to continue to hold their positions.

The battle was fierce from the start.

After the first wave of the army was repulsed, the second wave immediately attacked.

The 13th Division is worthy of being the elite of the army, with skillful tactical movements, tacit cooperation, and extremely high quality in individual combat. The defenders also lacked artillery, and the infantry guns, grenadiers, and heavy machine guns of the little devils could easily establish positions and fire at our troops to suppress our firepower.

The 36th Division is also not ambiguous, it is also the absolute central elite. Although the casualties were mounting, the fighters, led by commanders at all levels, held on.

When the third attack wave of the little devil rushed up, Zhang Xin's company had to abandon the first-line position, turn to the second line, and continue to resist.

The wounded could not be transferred, and they all huddled in the trenches with grenades and explosives, waiting for the little devils to come up and fight desperately.

The devils rushed into the front-line position, and before they could plant the sun flag, the wounded in the trenches pulled off explosive packs and grenades, and a rumbling explosion sounded, and the trenches in the front-line positions became Shura fields.

At this time, it was already around 10 a.m. After the little devils occupied the front-line positions, they probably needed to adjust their deployment and temporarily stopped attacking, only the devil's artillery and planes kept bombing in turn.

Taking advantage of this gap, Zhang Xin checked the number of people in the shelter department, and there were only 54 people left in the whole company, the first platoon commander and the second platoon commander were also killed, and even the deputy had a piece of a little devil's shell skin inserted in his back, and he had to be carried down.

Zhang Xin took out a few packs of cigarettes, distributed them to the brothers, lit one himself, took a few puffs, and said loudly: "Brothers, everyone should tell the address of their hometown and the names of their relatives, and I will remember it for everyone." This is our grave today, and if any of the brothers can get out alive, we will be responsible for writing a letter to each brother's family, telling them that we have died in Fujin Mountain, so that they will not have any more thoughts. ”

After speaking, Zhang Xin took out a pen and notebook from his briefcase and wrote: Zhang Xin, captain and company commander of the 36th Division of the 71st Army of the National Revolutionary Army, is a native of Shaoxing, Zhejiang. Father Zhang Fulai, Shaoxing Qinghuatang buddy.

After Zhang Xin finished writing, the brothers all gathered around, and one by one they reported their hometown addresses and the names of their relatives.

When Zhang Xin finished remembering, the devil's cannon sound also stopped. Zhang Xin buried the briefcase, and then waved his hand and beckoned the brothers to go to the battlefield.

At 11 o'clock, the little devil's plane flew again and wreaked havoc. At this time, eight fighters of the Chinese Air Force flew over Fujin Mountain and launched an attack on the bomber formation. The two sides went back and forth, tumbling and rolling in the air, and launched a fierce aerial strangulation.

(To be continued)