Chapter 400: The Cantonese Army
readx; Jiujiang, the top of the "isosceles triangle" in the Lushan Theater in Chen Cheng's eyes, was responsible for defending the 29th Army Corps. Li Hansoul, commander of the www.biquge.info Corps and commander of the 64th Army, handed over the apex of this "top" -- Jiujiang River Defense -- to the newly incorporated Pre-9th Division.
The division commander, Major General Zhang Yanchuan, was mostly thought to be Chen Cheng's confidant in the military circles. Born in the second phase of Huangpu, the old department of the 11th Division, from the Northern Expedition, the Central Plains melee to the "suppression of bandits" in Jiangxi, he really followed Chen Cheng as fast as he flew yellow. What's more critical is that this rumor may seem to be fearless, and it is a bit arrogant and uninhibited to disobey orders. Look, after the regimental commander Li Hansoul distinguished the combat mission, he praised the 9th Division, and he actually stood up with a "tom", and the court debate with a black face was like an earthquake: "The regiment commander is exaggerating!" I will not deny the excellent quality of the officers and men of our 9th Division, but their spirit of coordinated operations has yet to be tested! ”
This is an ancestral hall in Shilipu on the southern outskirts of Jiujiang, where more than 30 officers above the commander of the 29th Army Corps gathered here, and the commander of the regiment Li Hansoul deployed the Jiujiang Defense Battle. Li Hansoul handed over the defense of the west bank of Poyang Lake on the east side of Jiujiang to the 155th Division of his descendant, and the frontal defense of the riverside in Jiujiang City was undertaken by Zhang Yanchuan's 9th Division.
Following Madang, Jiujiang's strategic position is naturally extraordinary. Li Hansoul, who is short and thin, with a weathered face and a wrinkled peasant, is actually very delicate and knows the stakes well. He placed Zhang Yanchuan at the top of the "isosceles triangle", which shows his good intentions. After he used this trick, he said with emotion: "Why did my brother entrust the most arduous, important, and glorious task of this operation to our 9th Division? The brothers believe that although the division is a newly formed unit after the start of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the quality of its officers and men is excellent, most of the officers are outstanding cadets from the military academy, and most of the soldiers are honorary soldiers, and it is a division with the best combat effectiveness! Brother believes"
He also wanted to wear a more beautiful high hat for the Pre-9th Division, and Zhang Yanchuan, who was not a fool, couldn't help it and jumped up
"Therefore, when our division is in battle for the first time, it should not be this heavy responsibility!" After Zhang Yanchuan finished firing the cannon, he sat down angrily.
"That's right," such a big scene of the school, Li Hansoul's old face was not shocked, and he still smiled, "Giving you this task is the best opportunity to test!" ”
"You are doing this to preserve your strength and sacrifice non-system troops!" Zhang Yanchuan stood up again and waved his right index finger, as if he was teaching the other party a lesson.
"You can't think so," Li Hansoul was not angry at all, "Brother's strength is the pre-9 division."
encountered a veteran with such deep internal skills, Zhang Yanchuan had no choice but to admit that he was unlucky. However, Zhang Yanchuan's surname is violent and difficult to control, but once he decides on a policy, he will be strict. Back at the Garden Hotel in the city, he said to Lin Zhenyang, chief of staff, Hu Fangxing, Chen Yutian, and Mao Daijun at the wine table: "Although Stinky Lao Guang is a trick, it is indeed a golden opportunity for our division to show its combat strength. ”
The Kondo Naval Corps, the Hata Detachment, and the 106th Division, in accordance with Okamura's order on the 19th, set anchor from the mouth of the lake in the early morning of the 22nd, the minesweepers opened the way, the gunboats escorted the escort, and under the cover of the aircraft, the transport ships loaded with the pirate descendants of Minami Kyushu marched west and launched an attack on the Jiujiang.
Planes dropped bombs at low altitudes in urban areas, and foreign emblems that had been bought for money were blown up in the sky with colorful fragments; The naval artillery on the river directly bombarded the riverside fortifications, like directional blasting, and the ancient building Suojianglou pagoda fell like a giant in the artillery fire; The minesweeper boat was like ants all over the river, and the detonated mines roared like a pillar of optimus
The area around Gutang on the west bank of Poyang Lake in the eastern suburbs of Jiujiang is steep and rocky, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and Li Hansoul let the 155th Division deploy here, which has its own profound meaning. Who knew that there were few mines in this area, and it was favored by the Matsuura Division, which had just been formed on May 15 and had just been put into the Chinese battlefield and was eager to be named on the imperial list. The 106th Division of Songura was composed of reserve officers and soldiers of the 6th Division of Inaba in Jiangbei, most of whom were veterans with wives. One transport ship after another threw down the rubber rafts, and the bearded old soldiers jumped down like pirates, and under the cover of powerful artillery fire, with the strength of a wing, the black pressure was surging.
The 155th Division is one of the backbone of the Guangdong Army, the poor young man of Guangdong "Guangcub", three months ago in the battle of eastern Henan, when besieging Tufeiyuan, he took the stronghold of the army Luowangzhai in one fell swoop, and the Minister of Military Affairs He Yingqin said: "Those who have not effectively captured the enemy's stronghold in previous battles, there are, since then the 155th Division has begun!" Li Hansoul was awarded the Huazhou Medal for this.
At this time, Matsuura chose the wrong terrain and opponent, and the "wide cubs" were condescending, firing bravely under the fire of enemy planes and enemy ships, and sowing death like a torrential rain of bullets, and some of the hungry wolves and tigers of southern Kyushu were like frightened ducks, fluttering against the waves of water and falling back. Those who rushed to the shore fought for a burst of bayonets on the beach, then stood on their heels and set up a camp with barbed wire.
The officers and men of the 9th Jiujiang River Defense Division lay silent in the solid reinforced concrete fortifications along the river, watching the enemy minesweepers detonate the mines one by one, as if they were killing their own relatives, they were extremely anxious and helpless. Fortunately, our anti-aircraft artillery occasionally showed its grandeur, blowing up an enemy ship into black smoke and running away; A minesweeper was blown to shreds and thrown into the air, and then the goddess scattered flowers and rained down a red hailstorm. There was a roar of joy from every bunker by the river.
At night, the enemy's minesweepers, illuminated by flares thrown by aircraft, continued to sweep mines, compressing inch by inch towards the river.
In the Gutang position southeast of Jiujiang, when the 155th Division's "Guang Cub" was curled up in the muddy trenches dreaming of the southern spring boudoir, the Takahashi Brigade of the Potian Brigade rowed a small boat in the dark at night and approached the lake shore. It was a stormy night, the land and water were dark, and the sky and the earth were the same. Only the sound of the white waves played a tragic overture to the night before the war.
"Wow-" A pre-death howl broke through the quiet of the night. Gunshots, roars, explosions, bayonet strikes, brutal curses, and dying cries rang out for a moment. In the flames of grenade explosions like laser lights, flashing silhouettes of groups of bayonets fighting, against the backdrop of endless black curtains, the figures were so tall that they clinged to the clouds.
When the 155th Division's position was in a bloody battle between the enemy and us, the Sato Brigade of the Songpu Division advanced to the depth of Poyang Lake and successfully landed at the position of the 11th Pre-11th Division of the Kuomintang Army south of Gutang, which was only 5 kilometers away from the Xingzi Jiujiang Highway.
The Pre-11th Division is also a newly formed unit. Just because the sentry took a nap, the Jiujiang defense line was broken. And Gu Jiaqi's 128th Division, which was ordered to rush to support, ignorantly penetrated into the encirclement of Botian and Songpu, and collapsed at the first touch, scattering soldiers like a surge, if it wasn't for Li Jue's 19th Division desperately tearing the opening, Gu Jiaqi's Lou Zike would have been stabbed. A few days later, Chen Cheng reported to Chiang Kai-shek that the number of the 128th Division was revoked, and Gu Jiaqi was removed from his post to investigate and deal with it -- this is a later story.
At the beginning of the morning, on the Shizhong Mountain in Hukou, which is only two or three miles away from the straight line of the Gutang battlefield, there are several commanders of the army standing on the veranda on the second floor of the ancient temple and Zen Temple, holding binoculars and looking at the Jiujiang River across the lake. In fact, the two armies on the west bank of the lake fought and killed, which was visible to the naked eye on Shizhong Mountain. The bomb was thrown high and raised one arm at a time, and it was a long time before the explosion was belated. The morning breeze after the rain drifted slowly, stained with a strong smell of blood and sulfur. The sound of fighting is faintly audible, like the sound of insects close to the ear.
A middle-aged man with a wide head standing in the middle put down his binoculars, squinted his eyes and smiled, and said to a short and fat old man in military casual clothes beside him: "Kameda-kun, I will accompany you to the Yanshui Pavilion tonight, which is the sailor training base before the Three Kingdoms Zhou Lang Battle Chibi. ”
Okamura Ninji, on the 19th, issued an order to capture Jiujiang in Nanjing, and the next day moved the command post to Pengze. 22 The surname Suo was in place in one step, and he actually advanced the command post to the mouth of the lake and hung up a combat map in a monk's room in the ancient temple of Shizhongshan. At the foot of Shizhong Mountain is the most advanced infantry outpost. In Okamura's eyes, the squadron was vulnerable, "One brigade of mine is enough to defeat three regular divisions of the Kuomintang Central Army and five divisions of miscellaneous troops." He asserted this in his book. He kept his headquarters within the sight of the enemy and the enemy, much to the astonishment of his old dean, who had come to visit him from home. However, the promise he made for his old friend became a blank check due to the resolute opposition of Zhang Yanchuan to the 9th Division.
At the dawn of the 23rd, Vice Admiral Kondo, commander of the 11th Sentai Squadron of the Chinese fleet, impatiently ordered Kato Eikichi Nakasa, commander of the 2nd Artillery Fleet, which had approached the bank of the Jiujiang River, to command more than 10 ships to forcibly land.
Kato was not in a hurry, and when more than 30 planes bombed the urban area of Jiujiang, he concentrated all the artillery fire and destroyed the Jiangbin fortifications of the 9th Division, and then the ships set off smoke screens together.
The surface of the river was filled with black fog for a while, and it was not close at hand. Hearing only the sound of rushing water, more than 20 rubber landing craft loaded with Osaka samurai quietly approached the bank of the Nanai River in the thick smoke. In fact, the reflection of the waves makes these rubber boats look like fire in the eyes of the sentinels clinging to the river.
The officers and men of the 9th Pre-Division were quite calm, and their black muzzles were pointed at the river.
Thick smoke covered the surface of the river, and the army rowing in the dinghy was like a demon driving a dark cloud in mythology, sneakily rolling in. The hazy riverbank is silent, like the edge of an isolated island outside the sky. The army increased the intensity of the oars, the water splashed, and there was a faint gasp like a cow.
300 meters, 250, 200, 150
"Hit!" The head of the regiment, Hu Fangxing, roared.
From the Longkai River in the west to the Chaisang Road in the east, a blazing white rainbow erupts from the entire riverside.
Seven or eight rubber dinghys sank one after another, stirring up clusters of waves that I don't know if it was the morning glow or the blood-stained red waves.
Such a dense firepower was something that Kato and Kondo did not expect, which made the descendants of Kusunoki Masanari, who had been handed down by martial arts, lose their dignity, and they jumped into the water and swam boats one by one, rushing for their lives.
"Eight Grids!" It is said that Kondo, who was originally not good at cultivation, slapped Kato hard!
(To be continued)