147 Division.

After the meeting, the regiment commander Confucius hurriedly rushed to the troops who were marching in a hurry, and summoned the commanders of each battalion to give an order: "Our regiment will focus on guarding Fufu Town, five kilometers east of Kouziling, and the west bank of the Fufu River. In case the army breaks through from here. The 3rd Battalion guarded the Zhendong Bridge, and the 1st and 2nd Battalions set up positions in Hexi. On the left flank of our regiment is the 778th regiment, and on the right flank is the 148th division. ”

Company Commander He Huaruo of the 9th Company of the 3rd Battalion commanded four infantry platoons and one heavy machine gun platoon to run to the Fufu River bridgehead. Fufu River is a tributary of Qingyi River, from south to north into the main stream, Fufu River Bridge is about 100 meters long, the water flow under the bridge is divided into several channels, the west of the bridge is followed by Fufu Town. The structure of the bridge is made of masonry and cement, and it is built very strongly, and there is no blasting equipment in the regiment, so it is impossible to blow up the bridge by blasting.

A fierce battle for the bridge and Fufu Town soon ensued.

He Huaruo established a bridgehead in the east of the bridge, and the rest of the departments rushed to repair the fortifications overnight.

Kunisaki Noboru also found out that the battle for this bridge was an important surname for the entire brigade to break through.

At about 9 o'clock in the morning on February 14, the vanguard of the army to seize the bridge had rushed to the east of the bridge under the cover of cavalry.

The vanguard unit met with our 9th Company and immediately started a battle, and our troops on the west side of the bridge also supported each other with firepower, and the enemy infantry attacked for about an hour, suffering casualties on each other, and could not break through our position.

At about 10 o'clock, the enemy artillery finished firing at Zhuyuan, and the powerful artillery gave full play to its advantages. For a time, the artillery shells violently exploded on the position of our 9th Company, and at this time, the heavy snow stopped for a while, and several planes flew again into the air, taking turns to dive, strafe, and drop bombs at our position. The explosion was deafening, and the position was filled with smoke, flying sand and rocks, and a sea of fire.

A village at the eastern end of the bridge was almost completely destroyed, and was suddenly reduced to ruins under the smoke and flames. In this fierce artillery fire, the corpses of the 9 companies were strewn all over the ground, and the casualties were three-fifths, and the remaining ones continued to hold their positions.

Seeing that the casualties of the 9th Company were too heavy and that he was no longer able to hold the position on the east side of the bridge, the regimental commander Confucius Fufu, who was commanding the operation on the west side of the bridge, ordered the transport team and the medical team of the 3rd Battalion to rush the wounded and supplies to the west of the bridge under the cover of firepower, and then withdrew the 9th Company to the west of the bridge to hold on.

The enemy then occupied the position east of the bridge.

The enemy, who occupied the position east of the bridge, immediately put his focus on the east bridgehead, continued to bombard our positions with artillery, and launched wave after wave of fierce attacks to the west of the bridge. Its infantry braved the bitter cold and waded under the bridge, and the chariots were used as the lead on the bridge to cover the infantry to seize the bridge.

When the battle was fierce, Confucius's mobile troops entered the battle, and the death squads climbed under the bridge or rushed up the bridge to blow up the enemy tank, and machine-gun fire on the infantry following behind the tank. The fierce battle continued until dusk, our troops suffered heavy casualties, and the corpses of the devils were also placed on and under the bridge, and the enemy could not cross the bridge even a single step.

At 10 p.m., the snow fell again, the sky was dark, and everything seemed to have fallen silent except for the sound of the wind. However, the crisis is looming in the dark.

At this moment, several special forces of the Japanese army took advantage of the darkness and heavy snow to wade across the river from the upper reaches and touched our sentry. The brigade came ashore from the gap and suddenly launched an attack on Fufu Town. My third battalion in the town was caught off guard, suffered heavy casualties, and could not support, so the battalion commander Deng Maorong had to lead the remnants to withdraw from the town.

Seeing the loss of Zhugan Town, the regiment commander Confucius Fu, who was fighting in Qiaoxi, immediately ordered the blockade of the river, and at the same time personally led the reinforcements of the first battalion, and the two battalions launched a counterattack on Zhugan Town.

Our army re-entered the town, and the two sides started street fighting in the dark. The enemy took control of several brick buildings in the town, and strafed and suppressed the soldiers who charged at us with dense machine-gun fire, and our soldiers braved the dense rain of bullets to charge, and many soldiers were knocked down on the road of the charge, and the battle was unprecedentedly fierce.

At this time, the main enemy force at the east end of the bridge took advantage of the situation and rushed onto the bridge with the headlights turned on by the chariot. The defenders on the positions west of our bridge were dazzled by the light and could not stop the enemy's charge.

The chariots soon crossed the bridge, and as the enemy troops charged by the chariots quickly cleared our bridgehead, enemy reinforcements rushed across the bridge in a steady stream.

Our troops were attacked by two sides, and Confucius Fu commanded the troops to fight back, but the attack was frustrated and they had to withdraw outside the town. At the same time, the bridge over the Fufu River was completely controlled by the enemy. The Kong regiment occupied several villages outside the town and confronted the enemy.

When the brigade commander Zhang An'an heard that Fufu Town was conquered by the enemy, he immediately ordered the regiment commander Huang Jianman to lead two battalions to reinforce and launch an attack when the enemy was not firmly established!

Huang Jianman handed over the task of attacking the bridge and Fufu Town to Lu Jiangyao's battalion, and the thick Sichuan voice when the regiment commander gave the order became even thicker in the heavy snow, which made Lu Jiangyao feel the heavy pressure of this mission.

Lu Jiangyao's camp braved the rain and advanced to a place three miles away from the bridge to hide. Lu Jiangyao took four company commanders to the vicinity of the bridge to inspect the terrain, and although only the outline of the bridge and the terrain could be seen in the dark, the assault route was still determined.

Around a moment, the attack began. Four heavy machine guns of the Lu battalion suddenly opened fire, firing at the bridgehead and Fufu town. The Kong battalion, which had participated in the counteroffensive, also fired, and with the explosion of grenades and mortar shells, two companies of the Lu battalion had swooped down on the bridge and the town.

Lu Jiangyao held the reserve of a company in the battalion command position, anxiously watching the spearhead of the attack flickering in the darkness.

After a while, the 7th Company, which had attacked the bridge, sent back to report that the 7th Company had occupied the bridgehead and was now attacking the enemy troops on the bridge. After a while, in the dense rain of bullets on both sides, several black shadows rushed from the line of fire. It turned out that Qu Xingyuan, the commander of the 7th Company, ran back to report that the road on the bridge was narrow, and the enemy's two heavy machine guns at the east end of the bridge blocked the bridge, and the first attack was frustrated, and more than 10 people had been killed and wounded.

At about 4 o'clock, the 9th Company, which had attacked the town, reported that the whole company had captured most of the town, and that the enemy had only a few fortified houses and was stubbornly resisting.

At the same time, the 7th Company reported that when attacking one-third of the bridge, the company commander Qu Xingyuan was wounded, and the deputy company commander took the place of command, and the troops continued to advance in the fierce battle.

It seems that the battle is going quite smoothly, and if the reserves are put into the attack, it seems that there will be no problem in capturing the bridge, Lu Jiangyao calculated. Unexpectedly, when the battle was going on at about five o'clock, when Lu Jiangyao was about to throw his reserves into the attack on the bridge, suddenly the regiment commander gave an order: the situation on the battle line has changed, the enemy's large army has crossed the Fufu River and made a detour to our left and rear, and the whole regiment quickly withdrew from the battle and retreated five miles to organize a defensive position.

The Confucius Welfare Regiment undertook the task of covering and held out until 10 a.m. the next day, when the battalions took turns to retreat and abandon their positions.

After a day and a night of fierce battles, Fufu Town and the Fufu River Bridge were finally firmly occupied by the enemy.

The two regiments of Kong and Lu retreated to the slope of Hengshan, more than ten miles east of Luoshan County, and used the terrain to resist the enemy. The fortifications had not yet been completed, and the enemy soldiers who had occupied the town of Fufu had already arrived in the snow. At about 8 o'clock the snow stopped, and the enemy began to attack, and the two sides fought until about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and several attacks could not break through this position.

The old embarrassed and angry devil actually used a tear-destroying poison gas bomb to fire at our position.

Wu Ruofeng, commander of the 2nd Battalion, was directing the operation on the position, when suddenly a batch of artillery shells exploded on the position. Wu Ruofeng found that when these shells exploded, the sound was muffled, and there were not many fragments, and the smoke column formed by the explosion rose more than ten meters and then spread out to the surrounding plane and slowly descended.

As bursts of light blue gas spread across the battlefield, as soon as people came into contact with this gas, their eyes immediately stinged, tears flowed, and some sneezed and breathed rapidly. Our officers and men were defenseless, many of them were poisoned and unable to fight, their combat effectiveness was greatly reduced, and the front was in danger. Wu Ruofeng was about to report to the regiment commander, and the regiment commander at the command post had also discovered this abnormal situation.

At the same time, the soldiers with gas masks on their heads launched a charge under the cover of tanks, and our forward positions were unable to resist the enemy, and they were immediately broken through by the enemy.

Division commander Yang Guodong was shocked when he saw this and immediately reported to the military headquarters. Fu Yingdao, a captain and staff officer of the military department, picked up the phone, and Yang Guodong's hurried voice came from the microphone:

"Under the cover of artillery fire, the enemy infantry stormed our position on the front line of the hillside, and during the attack, the enemy released a large amount of poison gas, and we had no anti-poison equipment, and many officers and men were poisoned, and the position was probably unable to support it, so we were anxious to deliver the anti-poison equipment."

When Chen Wanqian received the report and knew that I was powerless to resist the enemy's poison gas attack, he immediately ordered Yang Guodong to retreat. At about five o'clock, the troops withdrew from their positions and took turns to cover the transfer.

When the 147th Division was deployed at the Fufu River, our 148th Division also arrived at the designated position.

At around 8 o'clock, the battle began. The enemy artillery first bombarded our main positions on both flanks with heavy artillery fire, and the officers and men on our positions retreated one after another to hide their positions, except for a small number of mobile troops to monitor the enemy during the enemy's shelling. The people in the hidden area pricked up their ears and confidently waited for the shelling in the direction of our Xiaokouziling to begin!

At this time, as long as our artillery positions advance a little further or are in place, the enemy's artillery positions are covered by the range of our artillery fire! As soon as Pan Zuo reported to the commander, he grabbed the phone and contacted the artillery regiment to ask for artillery support!

But after calling for a long time, there was no response. Pan Zo called the legion's phone again, and a reprimanding voice from a liaison staff officer came from the other end of the phone: "What's it called!" Our artillery regiment has been withdrawn. ”

When Panzo heard this, he almost didn't believe his ears! Hurriedly grabbed the microphone and said loudly: "Please tell the commander-in-chief, the enemy's artillery fire is too fierce, our officers and soldiers have suffered heavy casualties, and if there is no artillery support, I am afraid that it will be difficult to hold the position!" ”

The other end said: "Don't call anymore, the commander-in-chief is not available." Your commander has been informed that we have left you a company of anti-aircraft guns, which will arrive soon, and that company is now under your command. ”

After saying that, there was a "click" and the phone hung up.

Pan Zuo hurriedly called the phones of each regiment to inform everyone of the situation just now, and after putting down the phone, he said to the chief of staff next to him: "Chief of staff, you are waiting here for their battle defense artillery. I'll go to the front first, don't miss a big thing because I don't have a cannon. ”

The straw sandals, still as they were, took the pistols and hurried away.

At this time, the regiment commander who was on the main position of the forward Rengang Highway saw Pan Zuo coming under artillery fire, and hurriedly said:

"Commander, don't say it. We all know the situation, and I can handle it here. The devil's attack is about to begin, and it is important for you to hurry back to the division headquarters to command the overall situation! ”

(To be continued)