The 1st Corps synthesized the intelligence of all parties and believed that the main force of the enemy's 106th Division had penetrated between the two main forces of our Nanxun Line and the Ruiwu Line alone, which was an excellent opportunity to annihilate it, and was determined to transfer the troops of the Dexing, Nanxun, and Ruiwu Lines to encircle and annihilate the Japanese troops in the Wanjialing area.

On October 2, 1938, Xue Yue ordered the 4th and 74th armies, and the 187th and 139th divisions on the Nanxun and Dexing lines to surround the Japanese army in the eastern half of the Wanjialing area; The new 13th and 15th Divisions, the 91st, 142nd, and 60th Divisions of the Ruiwu Line were ordered to surround the western half of the Japanese army and launch a second offensive against the enemy.

Xue Yue specifically instructed the 74th Army, which was responsible for blocking the 106th Division in the Wanjialing area, and stopped the enemy at any cost.

If the 106th Division broke through the positions of the Chinese army before the main force of the Chinese encirclement and annihilation troops arrived, then the Chinese army would not only not be able to annihilate the 106th Division, but would also cause the collapse of the entire front, allowing Okamura's plan to succeed.

Both China and Japan are well aware of this truth. The 106th Division attacked the position of the 58th Division of the 74th Army (the predecessor of the 74th Division annihilated at Menglianggu, the 74th Army of the Anti-Japanese Iron Army) with the strength of up to one brigade. In order to cooperate with the ground forces to break through, a large number of Japanese planes were dispatched one after another.

The Japanese planes flew in one after another, but due to the dense forests in the Wanjialing area, the bombing effect was not good. In order to improve the accuracy of bomb dropping, Japanese planes flew almost close to the top of the tree. The wild grass where the plane flew over the ground was also blown around. They dropped a large number of bombs, but due to the mountainous terrain, the effectiveness of the bombs was limited.

At the signal of Okamura Ninji, the Japanese planes switched to throwing sulfur incendiary bombs, and in less than a day, not only did all the civil fortifications of the 58th Division's improvised position burn down, not even a single weed remained, and there were blazing fires and charred earth and tree roots everywhere.

The officers and men of the 58th Division suffered heavy casualties in the flames, and the few surviving soldiers of the Nationalist Army, who were in tattered clothes and had scorched faces, still fought to the death on the scorched earth positions to block several frantic attacks by the Japanese army.

The psychological shock to the Japanese soldiers was extremely strong, and they even doubted that the opponent was a person of flesh and blood. It is also doubtful whether the bullets fired at them will have any effect!

However, at this time, the 58th Division had also suffered all casualties, and only 500 of the division's thousands of men remained. At this time, a group of Japanese troops who rushed from the direction of Lushan to rescue the 106th Division arrived, and the 106th Division also attacked on all fronts at this time.

The 58th Division was under attack from the enemy, and the situation was very critical. At this time, Feng Shengfa, the commander of the 58th Division, had no soldiers to use, he squatted in an artillery crater, holding the phone and crying bitterly to the commander of the 74th Army, Yu Jishi, for help.

At this time, Commander Yu Jishi did not have any reserves to use, so he could only grit his teeth and send his only guard battalion to reinforce the 58th Division. At that time, a small reconnaissance unit of the Japanese army had been found around the military headquarters, but at this time, Yu Jishi couldn't take care of so much.

When this guard battalion arrived at the position of the 58th Division, nearly 100 Japanese troops had already attacked the position of the 58th Division, which had suffered all casualties. This guard battalion immediately rushed forward and fought back desperately, and finally annihilated all the Japanese troops who broke through, resisted the last counterattack of the Japanese army, and blocked the enemy who tried to break through at Wanjialing.

At the same time, the divisions dispatched by Xue Yue had arrived at the designated positions one after another, and the encirclement of the 106th Division had taken shape.

On October 3, the weather cleared, and Okamura's mood improved slightly. In the past few days, the connection between the 11th Army Corps and the 106th Division has not been broken, that is, the position of the 106th Division has been lost. Where his troops are, they can't be marked in the staff, which is what worries Okamura Ninji the most.

On July 7, 1937, Japan launched a full-scale war of aggression against China. In June 1938, Okamura Ninji, then the commander of the Second Division, received an order from the military headquarters to form the 11th Army and served as the commander of the army, responsible for attacking the Wuhan area. His promotion to the rank of "Commander of the Central China Dispatch Army" and a large number of people such as Shunroku Hata were dissatisfied, which also stimulated Gangmura Ningji and made him secretly determined that he must fight this battle well and must not make any mistakes, so as not to make his political position more difficult.

In addition, during these three days, the weather was extremely bad and the air force was unable to take off, which made the situation of the Japanese army even worse. Finally, he looked forward to a sunny day, so Okamura Ninji personally took the plane to observe the shape of the enemy and us, find the position of the 106th Division, carry out supplemental assistance, and formulate the next combat action.

Okamura Ninji's small passenger plane took off from Jiujiang Airport, and in order to protect the commander of the 11th Army, General Okamura Ninji, the Japanese army will send a squadron of aviation fighters to protect it. After entering the occupied area of the Chinese army, the Japanese planes flew like a cube, flying up and down in front of and behind General Okamura Ninji, not far and not close, and they must not let Senior General Okamura Ninji miss the slightest.

Looking down from the military plane, China's hills and forests are very beautiful, and the Wanjialing area is like a fold on a person's face, layer by layer. If a person stands on a mountain and cannot look beyond his eyes, the mountain blocks his view and makes his gaze frustrated. If you want to be "destitute", then you have to go up a mountain. Climb over the mountains and get out of the mountains.

This is on an airplane, it's a different scenario, condescending, and you can see everything clearly underneath.

In addition to the folds, the hills have a thick layer of vegetation, and there are all kinds of trees on the hills, most of which are pines. This kind of pine tree does not make wood, and it is not very useful to dig it back, but it is this useless pine tree that conserves the land in the mountains and makes the red mountains alive and endless.

In addition to the trees, there are also wild grasses on the mountain.

At this time, Okamura seemed to see that the kneeless grass had gradually turned yellow, the short and neat ears of grass were swaying gently in the wind, and the neck that was once soft and elastic was a little stiff due to the erosion of time, but it could still make moving waves on the hillside.

When the mountain wind swept by the airplane from the valley to the hillside, the grass all over the mountain fluctuated as if hypnotized, and one Lang Lang pushed from the foot of the mountain to the top of the mountain. The wind makes waves, the waves borrow the wind, and in an instant the whole mountain is shaking, whistling, and shaking, like the rolling waves of the Yellow River falling from the sky.

Soon the wind stopped, and the grass stood still, as if listening to the cheerful singing of the river.

The lively river meanders through the mountain village, and the autumn light of the fields is beautiful, but it does not stop moving forward, it hums an ancient song that no one understands, day and night, it wants to tell the news of the harvest in the mountains to the river, the sea, and all the people it can see before it dries up.

The low-flying plane alarmed the green bud rice, the red sorghum, the dwarf rice, and the wind walked in the valley and alleys, showing gentleness and freshness. When it came to the field, it patted the shoulder of the sorghum, knocked on the head of the bud, and talked to each other, but the sorghum blushed and nodded frequently, and the bud shook its body to show that it knew. It came to the farmhouse in the village again, and lightly buttoned the window lattice, conveying the good news of the harvest.

What a beautiful idyllic scene it would have been if it had not been for the war!

In the midst of this beautiful, calm greenery, Okamura observed that a grass-green Chinese army was moving rapidly to the left and right of the place, and the two forces were rapidly assembling together. The place where they were going to assemble happened to be a mountain, and it was like a key that immediately locked the encirclement.

It was in this circle that Okamura Ninji also observed that there were some yellow Japanese troops, resisting the attack of the Chinese army. Needless to say, these are the officers and soldiers of the 106th Division, who have finally seen them, and no matter what, they must be rescued.

"Quickly, quickly check it out," said Okamura, a staff officer who ordered him to follow, "what kind of hill is this, and can you find its name on the map?" ”

The map had already been spread out, and Daejeon checked it on the map, but after checking it, he still couldn't find the name of the mountain, and of course he couldn't mark the location. Ota anxiously said to Okamura Ninji, "Report to Your Excellency Commander, unfortunately I can't find the name of this mountain." ”

In fact, this mountain is called Zhang Gu Mountain, and Sun Chuanfang's map does not mark this mountain at all.

"Eight Tooth Road!" Okamura Ningji scolded, "The dignified Japanese Imperial Army doesn't even know its own combat area, and it doesn't even know what the name of this mountain is, shame!" What a great shame! This is the 11th Army Corps, the shame of the Imperial Japanese Army! ”

Staff Officer Ota obediently waited by the side, and it was common to be scolded, but the key was to obey the orders of Commander Okamura Ninji.

"Sue Junrokuro Matsuura of the 106th Division, no matter what, you must occupy this hill and control it. As long as it is controlled, the encirclement of the Chinese army can be broken. ”

Staff Officer Ota was about to make a telegram, but Okamura Ninji stopped him and said: "In addition to controlling this mountain, tell Sù Matsuura Junrokuro that the direction of their breakthrough should be in the north, because the 27th Division will meet him in the north, and only when they reach the north can the two divisions join forces and break through the encirclement of the Chinese army." ”

Staff Officer Daejeon immediately went to shoot a telegram, and the sound of the telegram was immediately transmitted to the air and to the headquarters of the 106th Division.

Just when Daejeon's telegram was not finished, suddenly, a 96-1 fighter plane serving as a guard on the left made a loud noise, and exploded and caught fire with a "boom". In an instant, the plane was engulfed in flames, and then there was another explosion, and the bomb of the plane itself was detonated, blowing the plane to pieces and flying in all directions.

"What's going on?" Okamura Ninji wondered very much, he didn't see the Chinese fighters, could it be that the Japanese plane had an accident and blew himself up.

"Enemy attack-enemy attack-" The experienced pilot who operated the military airliner guessed that the Chinese air force must have carried out the air strike, otherwise the Japanese fighter plane would not have exploded automatically.

I have long heard that the Chinese Air Force has a secret weapon called missiles, could it be that missiles hit it? Although he couldn't make up his mind, he knew that the task of defending the commander was very important, and if something went wrong with the commander, he would be severely punished by military punishment, and of course he should not take it lightly.