Chapter 1074 Burning Clouds

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At this time, it was already evening, and clouds of fire rose in the sky, burning from the west to the east, and it was red, as if the sky was on fire. After a while, the red fiery clouds began to appear golden colors, and then silver-gray and lily colors. Gradually, there were many images in the clouds, some like galloping war horses, some like fighting warriors, and in an instant, the burning clouds in the sky coincided with the battlefield scene on the ground, with thousands of troops and horses, and thousands of weather!

Seeing his troops flocking into the village, he was overjoyed, and Major General Tanigawa Masano, the commander of the 17th Brigade of the Independent Mixed Brigade, was a little carried away, looked up at the burning clouds in the sky, and couldn't help muttering: "Shina is really a magical country, even the clouds in the sky are so beautiful, so beautiful that people are intoxicated!" ”

As soon as the words fell, Tanigawa Masanogen heard a sharp "day" sound and quickly fell to the ground.

He was a veteran of the Russo-Japanese battlefield and knew what that sound meant. But he was a little strange, how could there be 105 heavy howitzers produced in the Great Japanese Empire in this place? After an afternoon of fighting, the Eighth Route Army in North Dengzhuang only had mortars and grenadiers, and even the most powerful West Dengzhuang, which only had infantry artillery. Moreover, the artillery positions of the Tuba Road should have been destroyed, and they have not been fired for half a day!

Tanigawa Masaki was really smart, and what he heard was indeed the sharp sound of the 105 howitzer when the shell was about to hit the ground when it was about to hit the ground when it was test-fired.

Tanigawa Masano, who was crawling on the ground, raised his head in surprise when he heard an explosion, and when he looked around, the heavy artillery shells exploded only 50 meters away from him, and a pit with a diameter of about ten meters was formed underground, and there were three or four broken legs left in the pit, and there were several soldiers lying on the ground around the pit, bleeding from seven orifices, and they were shocked to death.

This kind of 105 howitzer is only available in the entire 12th Army in the heavy artillery brigade, and all other divisions and regiments do not have it. The heavy artillery brigade is cooperating with the 32nd and 36th divisions in a sweeping operation, and it is impossible for them to come here.

When Tanigawa Masaken thought about it like this, he felt that there was only one possibility, that is, the main force of Liu Yimin of the Eighth Route Army was here, and now he had to start packing up his own independent mixed brigade, the fourth cavalry brigade and the supplementary team directly under the 12th Army.

As soon as he thought of this, Tanigawa Masaken couldn't help but raise his binoculars and began to observe. (7*

It's okay not to observe, this observation, Tanigawa Masanoshi was so frightened that he jumped up from the ground all of a sudden, Amaterasu, why did a green wave surge in the south of North Dengzhuang, East Dengzhuang, and West Dengzhuang? Could it be that the Yellow Sea tsunami poured seawater here?

Of course, it was not a wave set off by the backflow of the Yellow Sea, but the soldiers of the Eighth Route Army, wearing hats made of green grass on their heads and robes woven of green grass on their bodies, were coming towards here!

Before Tanigawa could see what it was, the artillery shells of the Eighth Route Army fell one after another, and the explosions of field artillery, mountain artillery, howitzers, cannons, and heavy mortar shells immediately sounded around Dengzhuang.

At this time, Li Chang, commander of the artillery of the Eighth Route Army, was holding a telescope on the Wakouling artillery position four miles away from Dengzhuang to observe the effect of a test firing!

At the end of the test firing, the artillery positions were sounded one after another, and all the guns were rapidly correcting the parameters and coordinates of the shelling. Soon, Li Chang ordered loudly: "Open the cannon, five salvos!" ”

Li Chang's roar sounded the death knell of Tanigawa Masanori and his independent mixed 17th Brigade, the 4th Cavalry Brigade, and the 12th Army's direct supplementary team.

105 howitzer shells, 105 cannon shells, 75 mountain shells, 75 field shells, heavy mortar shells rained down. First of all, the unlucky ones were naturally the Japanese troops who were pouring into Dengzhuangzhuang, and a shell went down to kill a few little devils, and what fell was a cannonball, which caused a rain of blood.

Tanigawa Masaken was like petrified, and he even forgot to dodge the shells when he stood there, and his jaw dropped with shock. He had understood that this was a trap, a trap of standards! I hate myself for being stupid, and I only now figured it out. What should have been thought of at the beginning was that the small Deng Zhuang had buried mines and explosives packages on the main road in advance to deal with the chariots, the fields were buried with mines, and there was a dark fort under the wall. And this fish is none other than itself.

Tanigawa Masaken didn't have time to regret it, and ordered a retreat in a stack, retreat quickly!

The Japanese army was strictly disciplined, and if Tanigawa Masaken did not give the order to retreat, the troops would not dare to retreat at will. Of course, this is the performance of the 17th Brigade of the Independent Mixed Brigade after being honed on the battlefield. If it had been left a year ago, regardless of Major General Tanigawa Masanogen's order or not, the recruits who had formed the 17th Brigade would have fled first.

Tanigawa Masaken can also be regarded as capable, he can lead the remnants to escape from the battlefield and survive several strikes by the Eighth Route Army, which is definitely a set. , no, although it was a retreat, Tanigawa Masaken did not forget to order the radio to report to the headquarters of the 12th Army, and did not forget to order the 4th Cavalry Brigade to take the lead in retreating, establish positions, and cover the retreat of the infantry.

It's late, it's late, and at this time I remembered to report to the headquarters of the 12th Army and let the 4th Cavalry Brigade retreat, doesn't that look down on the wisdom of Liu Yimin, an invincible general of China's resistance against Japan?

Tanigawa Masan's order to retreat was not transmitted, and the telegram reporting to the Twelfth Army was not sent because the artillery group of the Eighth Route Army did not agree. No, Tanigawa Masanori, who was standing there roaring and giving orders, was cut into the carotid artery by shrapnel from the Eighth Route Army, and crawled on the ground like a dead dog. His bannermen and radio operators didn't know where they had been bombed.

To tell the truth, the biggest gain of the Dengzhuang Fishing Battle was not the independent mixed 17th Brigade, nor the supplementary team of the 12th Army, but the 4th Cavalry Brigade that crisscrossed the battlefield in North China.

In fact, in the process of modernization, the Japanese army has realized that the cavalry units will inevitably be eliminated, and they have experienced it firsthand. In April 1575, after the death of Takeda Shingen, his son Takeda Nobuyo led 15,000 cavalry to fight Tokugawa Ieyasu and Oda Nobunaga at Nagashino Castle. In this battle, the ironclad cavalry that had been run by the Takeda family for generations was defeated by the muskets of the Oda army, and almost all the troops were wiped out. This was the first battle in the history of Japanese warfare in which muskets played a decisive role. The Japanese cavalry went into decline.

However, small Japan has always been plotting to expand abroad, and the cavalry has the advantages of fast mobility and strong ability to adapt to the road, so the Japanese did not give up this arm that was about to decline, but did everything possible to strengthen the cavalry.

For an island country with scarce resources and a land area of only 372,000 square kilometers, war horses are much more expensive than soldiers, and cavalry is much more expensive than infantry.

There are eight types of horses native to Japan, including Togaara, Mizaki, Kiso, Noma, Hokkaido, Naguni, Yonaguni, and Miyako. The Japanese actively promoted the improvement of the breed of war horses, and used Japanese war horses to cross with Arabian horses and European Yanmar horses to breed war horses suitable for cavalry combat.

After the improvement, the main Japanese horses were Arabian horses and Anglo-Norman horses. Among them, the Arabian horse is beautiful, light, heat-resistant, and durable, and is used in the emperor's mount, cavalry, and carriages.

The cavalry basically used Anglo-Norman horses, and the cavalry horses were basically Anglo-Norman horses, with a height of 153 cm (the vertical distance between the horse's shoulder blades and front hooves) and a weight of about 460 kg. In particular, after three years of all-out war of aggression against China, the Japanese army suffered heavy casualties and consumed a large number of horses.

The cultivation of war horses is so difficult, and the training is even more rigorous.

The Japanese army has a total of eight military horse supplement departments in Japan and Korea, and the young horses will be bred in the military horse supplement department for four years, and in the autumn of the fifth year when the horses are five years old, the ponies will be discharged from the army.

After the ponies are discharged from the army, the veterinary officer is in charge of a year-long recruit training, that is, the training of new horses. The training is divided into two phases, the first phase is seven months long, focusing on various sports methods and troop marching training; The second stage is five months long and focuses on training the horses for endurance. Horses trained by the new horses will be inspected at a parade and distributed to the grassroots units after the Wing Captain has completed the inspection. Horses who have completed their training and are distributed to various units have a period of ten years.

The management of war horses in peacetime is stricter, and the first task of the cavalry unit after getting up every day is to complete the stable service, and the horses must be pulled out of the stables, wash the horses, clean the horses' hooves, and provide forage for the horses; When the weather is fine, the hay in the stable for the horses to sleep and rest should be exposed to the sun and dried. The entire stable operation takes about an hour, and according to the relevant regulations of the battalion, all units must complete all the stable operations and feed the horses before the troops are allowed to eat breakfast.

War horses are fed three times a day, and the four ingredients in peacetime include barley, hay, salt, etc., and the rations of military horses in wartime include other wheat, beans, oats, etc. Because horses need more drinking water than humans, when the water is insufficient, it will cause abdominal pain and hernia in horses, which is the main cause of illness and death of military horses. For the safety and health of the horses, the stables had to send guards twenty-four hours a day.

The Japanese cavalry unit formation used to be within the Kwantung Army. At the time of the Huanggutun Incident, the Kwantung Army had a cavalry group under its jurisdiction and two cavalry brigades. By the time of the Lugou Bridge Incident, there had been two cavalry groups, and by this time, the Japanese army had a total of 25 cavalry wings in two cavalry groups.

During the Battle of Bincheng on the Jilu Border that eliminated the main force of the 10th Division of the Japanese Army, the main force of the 3rd Cavalry Brigade of the Japanese Army, which was fighting south with the 2nd Division of the Kwantung Army, was wiped out by the cavalry brigade led by Hu Laohu by luring the enemy into ambush tactics, and the war horses were turned into the war horses of the cavalry battalions of the infantry brigades of the Eighth Route Army.

The Fourth Cavalry Brigade, which originally belonged to the first cavalry group of the Japanese Kwantung Army, was stationed in Hailar before the Lugou Bridge Incident. After the Lugou Bridge Incident, the 1st and 4th Cavalry Brigades of the First Cavalry Group of the Kwantung Army were incorporated into the North China Front Army to enter the customs to fight.

Major General Shigeichi Fujita, commander of the 4th Cavalry Brigade, has two wings of cavalry, the 25th and 26th cavalry, as well as the 4th cavalry wing and the baggage team, with a total strength of about 5,200 people.

After the 4th Cavalry Brigade arrived at the battlefield, out of love for the precious cavalry and war horses, Tanigawa Masaken asked Major General Fujita Shigeichi to command the 4th Cavalry Brigade to serve as a battlefield guard. The meaning is obvious, that is, let the 4th Cavalry Brigade watch the battle.

The Eighth Route Army in the three villages of Dengzhuang was at most a main regiment of more than 1,000 people, and under the bombardment of such a large intensity of the aviation troops, coupled with such fierce artillery fire, the Eighth Route Army was afraid that there would be heavy casualties and not one out of ten. Seeing that the combat exploits have become independent mixed into the 17th Brigade, how can Major General Shigeichi Fujita be willing? You can't let the 4th Cavalry Brigade travel around the battlefield in vain, right?

As a result, the vigilant battlefield turned into a cavalry search, and the arrogant Major General Shigeichi Fujita pointed at his sword, and the 25th and 26th Cavalry Wings of the Fourth Brigade of the Japanese Cavalry Regiment roared and rushed in the east and west directions of the horse elephant Dengzhuang, which meant that they would loot in the name of cavalry search and take the heads of the common people to ask for credit.

Major General Shigeichi Fujita, he forgot what happened to the main force of the 3rd Cavalry Brigade, and he didn't use his mind to think about it, the three villages of Dengzhuang have been fighting from early in the morning to the present, and the sound of guns and cannons has scared the birds away, not to mention the surrounding people? Moreover, how many chances did the troops of the Eighth Route Army defending Dengzhuang have to evacuate, but they did not retreat, is there no mystery in this?

In this way, when the shells of the artillery group of the Eighth Route Army fell, the two main wings of the Fourth Cavalry Group of the Japanese Army were colliding head-on with the main force of the Eighth Route Army outflanking the assault.

Major General Tanigawa Masaki, commander of the 16th Brigade of the Japanese Army, returned to the Yasukuni Shrine to report for duty, and Major General Shigeichi Fujita, commander of the 4th Cavalry Brigade, was no better. However, his death was different, and when the shells of the Eighth Route Army fell, the artillery positions of the 4th Mounted Artillery Wing and the 17th Brigade of the Independent Mixed Brigade became key targets, and Major General Fujita Shigeichi was hit by the pack horse of the frightened pack gun and trampled into a cloud of mud.

The Japanese troops on the front line of Dengzhuang and the soldiers of the Fourth Wing of the Cavalry who searched on both wings were completely awakened by the artillery group of the Eighth Route Army, the artillery rumbled on the battlefield, and the main force of the Eighth Route Army pressed up from south to north. There is also a Cao Fan stronghold there, which can be relied on to hold on to fortifications.

Northward? You have to ask the Eighth Route Army if you agree or not.

A column of armored clusters made a rapid detour from the east of Deng Zhuang, and the tanks, armored vehicles, and automobiles were all covered with green camouflage nets, and the heavy machine guns of the tanks and armored vehicles on board and the heavy machine guns of the heavy machine gun brigade on the cars were mercilessly splashing ammunition and slamming at the cavalry on the devil's horses.

Hu Laohu's cavalry brigade copied from Deng Zhuangxi, and the three cavalry regiments, plus the cavalry battalion of the 1st Brigade and the cavalry battalion of the 1st Brigade and the 1st Brigade of the first brigade of the brigade directly under the brigade and the first column, rushed towards the little devils like the waves of opening the gate and releasing the water.

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