Volume 1: Inner Mongolia Fengyun] Chapter 530: The Battle of Dezhou Captures Wang Tong Town——

Chapter 530: The Battle of Dezhou captures Wangtong Town

As the absolute main force of the 62nd Division, the 63rd Infantry Brigade is actually not as fragile as imagined, and the entire 63rd Brigade has more than 6,000 people when it was formed, which is neither large nor small, and it can be regarded as a normal establishment in the official combat establishment of all Japanese troops. Moreover, two of the five infantry brigades of the 63rd Infantry Brigade are veterans who have participated in battles and seen blood on the battlefield, so their combat effectiveness is far stronger than that of the 65th Brigade, which is full of recruits.

The reason why it was crushed by the Fourth Cavalry Division with a single charge this time was completely an accident, because special ammunition is a contraband and a weapon banned by the International Military Tribunal in The Hague, so although the Japanese army often uses this type of weapon, it has an extremely strict management system, such as this secrecy system. All the subordinates and documents of the Japanese army are not allowed to mention the words poison gas and biochemistry, and some only have a unified name for special artillery shells or poison gas bombs, such as "Red No. 1", "Yellow No. 1" and so on. The second is a strict examination and approval system, and all troops must be examined by a local military unit at least at the division or regiment level before using poison gas bombs.

Major General Tokutaro Nakajima knew about the test of new chemical weapons in the North China Battlefield this time, but he did not know that this batch of special ammunition had fallen into the hands of the Fourth Cavalry Division, so he did not make preparations for anti-poison at all, and although Yoshio Hongo had anticipated the possible serious consequences, he chose to remain silent because there was no anti-poison equipment, because in the absence of gas masks and biochemical suits, when the troops learned that the enemy might use poison gas, it was likely to cause a chain reaction of unstable morale and even the collapse of the whole army. So at this time, saying it is actually the same as not saying it, and it will be better not to say it.

In addition, the 63rd Brigade had just suffered a defeat in the forward position, and the two most elite infantry brigades were almost completely wiped out, leaving the entire brigade with just over 4,000 men. However, their efforts were not recognized by Yoshio Hongo, who scolded Nakajima Tokutaro for being stupid, and at the same time threw their absolute main force to the rear as a reserve, which deeply hit the soldiers of the 63rd Infantry Brigade, and the morale of the troops in the past two days was extremely low.

Since it was night, the Japanese trench positions were relatively concentrated. So when the 4th Cavalry Division suddenly appeared in front of the Japanese positions and fired poison gas bombs, almost all the Japanese soldiers did not realize that the green smoke fired next to them was deadly poison gas. But immediately after that, the painful reaction of the comrades-in-arms caused fear in their hearts, and I don't know who said "poison gas", and then the whole army immediately caused a chain reaction and began to retreat rapidly.

However, the shelling of the Inner Mongolia Military Region was widespread, and many Japanese soldiers fell to the ground and convulsed after only a few steps, and then slowly suffocated to death. The entire Japanese position was in disarray, and no matter how hysterical the bullet pressure of Major General Nakajima Tokutaro was, the gas feast lasted for more than half an hour, and then when the soldiers of the 4th Cavalry Division wearing masks charged with steel guns, the Japanese army was wiped out with almost no effective resistance.

According to post-war statistics, the Fourth Cavalry Division eliminated 3,421 Japanese devils, including a major general, 2 large generals, 6 middle commanders and 8 young commanders, and the results were quite brilliant.

Next, the troops did not care about resting, and rushed to Wangtong Town, where the headquarters of the 63rd Division of the Japanese Army was located, overnight, leaving only one infantry company to clean up the battlefield.

Yoshio Hongo did not expect that the 63rd Brigade would be defeated so quickly, in his expectation, an infantry brigade with simple fortifications could withstand the attack of a cavalry division for at least two days, even if the whole army was annihilated, it would cause huge casualties to the enemy, with these two days, it is not certain who will destroy whom.

But the farewell letter sent by Major General Nakajima Tokutaro made him completely petrified in an instant, the team would use the latest special ammunition, and the number was quite large, the 63rd Brigade was poisoned almost without any effective resistance, and it was expected that the Chinese cavalry would arrive at Wangtong Town in 20 minutes at most, Major General Nakajima Tokutaro suggested that Yoshio Hongo immediately transfer the clothes of the civilians in the emperor's country, there was no suspense in this battle, and the destruction of the 62nd Division was only a matter of time, He didn't want a lieutenant general to become a trophy at the beginning of the war, which was a shame for the Great Japanese Empire.

Yoshio Hongo knew that what Nakajima Tokutaro said was reasonable, but he did not follow Major General Nakajima's advice to abandon his troops and escape alone, but chose to break through and transfer with his troops.

At this moment, there are not many troops in Wang Tong Town, an infantry brigade and a puppet army infantry division, Hongo Yoshio ordered the chief of staff, Ueno Shintomi Osa, to take two infantry squadrons and the 14th Infantry Division of the Imperial Alliance Army to continue to stay in Wang Tong Town, while he himself took the remaining infantry squadron and the division headquarters guard squadron to immediately move westward, to converge with the 65th Brigade of the Synchronous Army.

Before the transfer, Hongo Yoshio did one more thing, that is, he ordered the troops to kill all 349 men, women, and children in Wangtong Town, and to burn down all the houses that had no military value. It was precisely because of this move of Yoshio Hongo that Han Yunhua was completely angered, and finally triggered the decisive battle of the main force of the Inner Mongolia Military Region and the North China Front.

Lu Jiang did not know that it was not the division headquarters of the 62nd Division that fell into the encirclement, or that it was not a complete division headquarters, and he did not make any stops after arriving at Wangtong Town, and ordered the 1st Cavalry Brigade to immediately prepare for battle, and it was still the artillery to open the way. Of course, because of the consideration of the people in the town, Lu Jiang did not use poison gas shells with great lethality this time, but used ordinary mortar shells.

Immediately afterwards, the troops followed up, because there was no infantry, and the goal of the cavalry was too big, so Lu Jiang ordered more than 4,000 troops of the first brigade to immediately dismount and use as infantry.

However, after less than half an hour, Lu Jiang found the problem, although it was at night, but it could be vaguely seen that the enemy on the opposite side was covered in yellow dog skin, and they were all wearing broken yellow hats, not the steel helmets of the Japanese army.

"Flares!"

After hearing Lu Jiang's order, a guard on the side immediately pulled out a signal gun from his body and quickly installed a signal bomb into it. As the flares slowly rose into the air, the whole earth was suddenly illuminated, and then the light Lu Jiang saw that the puppet army that was placed at the forefront of the trench was densely packed, and not far away there was a group of Japanese troops supervising the battle.

This model Lu Jiang is most familiar with, is the Japanese army letting the puppet army be cannon fodder, so many puppet troops gathered together This is clearly to use these guys to directly drag down the pace of their cavalry division and cover the main force to escape, can this *** work, of course not.

Lu Jiang ordered the Second Cavalry Brigade to immediately chase forward, the terrain of Wang Tong Town had been understood by Lu Jiang before coming, and to the east was a wide and gentle area, leading directly to Dezhou City, the road was wide, and there were almost no commanding heights and dangerous places. To the west of Wangtong Town is a potholed mountain road, which leads to Hengshui, and the Japanese 62nd Division is deployed along all the dangerous places of this mountain road. To the north, there is a mountain range that leads directly to Qingfeng Ridge, and the road is difficult and rugged, which is not conducive to traffic. To the south is also a vast hilly area, there are almost no roads, and if you go south, you will directly cross the mountains to southern Hebei, which is the territory of the Chinese, so Lu Jiang judged that the Japanese army may have fled westward, and the purpose may be to collect the Japanese puppet troops along the line, and finally to hold on to a dangerous place to wait for help.

The 2nd Cavalry Brigade immediately dispatched after receiving Lu Jiang's order ... [This chapter is not finished, please click on the next page to continue reading!] ］