Chapter 126: Fighting Jiangnan Again (2)

The devil retreated overnight, which caught Zhao Dahu by surprise. In order to prevent the devil plane from playing a role, the various units lit a large piece of straw to obscure the view of the devil plane, and the troops replenished supplies and ammunition on the spot to confront the devil.

Niu Daojia had no attack mission and withdrew to the second line. Niu Daojia, who could not be idle, immediately asked Duanmu Changyan's special operations brigade to cover a group of armored soldiers without tanks to infiltrate Li Jiakui's battle line, and wanted to get some tanks and armored vehicles back.

Li Jiakui also ordered the troops to light straws, which not only blocked the view of the devil's planes but also the devil's tanks and armored vehicles, and the covering troops continued to fight with the devil's tank troops.

After the veterans of the special operations brigade arrived, Li Jiakui was like a tiger with wings, and he ordered the troops to rush into the devil tank group with all their strength with the help of smoke screens. Soldiers of the special operations battalion also rushed forward in the midst of the Li Jiakui troops, and used short shotguns and heavy shotguns to directly insert into the shooting holes and lookout holes of devil tanks and armored vehicles and open fire, forcibly capturing 21 tanks and 11 armored vehicles.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the Devil Cavalry Brigade had no choice but to retreat desperately to avoid the attack of the Wu Mu Army's locusts.

Just when the fierce battle was raging on the north side of Taihu Lake, the strange soldiers deployed by Sawada Shigeru began to move. The 11th Mixed Brigade in Jiangbei forcibly crossed the Yangtze River and approached Changzhou, intending to cut off the retreat of the Wumu Army, and the special forces column of the Wumu Army Field Army and the infantry of more than 4,000 people would fall into the enemy's back.

At this time, the troops near Changzhou were attacking to the east, and once the troops retreated, the devils in the east were bound to press up and chase and fight fiercely, and it turned into a situation where the Wumu army was defeated like a mountain.

Zhao Dahu immediately ordered the Jintan Garrison Battalion, the Yixing Garrison Battalion, and the Third Infantry Column Fire Brigade of the Reserve Army, an artillery battalion, and an infantry brigade to rush to the aid of Changzhou for a long distance.

The headquarters of the special forces column in Changzhou consists only of a police battalion of the joint logistics brigade, a medical team and a field hospital, a group of lightly and seriously wounded, a special operations battalion, a baggage battalion, and a part of the engineer battalion. Ke Hua was in danger and ordered Duanmu Changyan to command the defense of Changzhou City, and he continued to command the battle on the front line.

Duanmu Changyan was ordered to deploy more than 200 lightly wounded men from the guard company and the field hospital at the east entrance of the railway line, two platoons of the communications company and one company of the special operations battalion at the west entrance of the railway line, and the other two companies of the special operations battalion to guard the north side to meet the enemy attacking in person.

An infantry brigade of the 11th Independent Mixed Brigade of the Devils arrived first and stormed the western entrance of the railway line: two infantry guns and 8 heavy machine guns lined up, covering the three infantry squadrons to launch non-stop attacks in wave formation.

Neither the special operations brigade nor the police battalion are equipped with heavy weapons, but the Qiguang submachine guns and 96-type light machine guns are still quite powerful, and the original city fortifications are relatively strong, and after more than 40 casualties, they blocked the attack of 8 or 900 devils for two hours.

A fierce battle was raging at the west entrance of the railway line, and the devils in the north were also rapidly unfolding. The veterans of the special operations brigade did not wait for the devils to unfold, so they launched the attack first. The strength of a platoon used dozens of Qiguang submachine guns and under the cover of three Type 96 light machine guns and javelin thunderbolts to cripple a squadron of devils who arrived first, and then calmly withdrew to their positions to give the devils a dismount.

The devils on the northern front were different from those in the west, and their various troops, supported by artillery fire, alternately covered while building simple fortifications while pressing forward step by step, although the speed of the attack was not fast, but the heavy momentum formed by steady and steady was suffocating.

The devils kept repairing the individual fortifications to within 100 meters of the fortifications of the special operations battalion, and then began a fierce artillery bombardment, but the devil infantry actually launched a charge without waiting for the shelling to stop.

The soldiers of the special operations brigade did have extremely high combat quality, and they waited until the devils attacked 5 or 60 meters before throwing grenades together, and the time and strength were very accurate, dozens of grenades exploded in the middle of the devil's skirmish line at almost the same time, and then more than a dozen smoke-emitting grenades exploded, covering the sight of the devil's machine gun in the middle of the position, and the dense melee fire of the submachine guns killed all the devils on both sides of the skirmish line.

The second wave of the devil's attack began immediately with artillery support. The veterans of the special operations also began to brave the artillery fire in an orderly manner to shoot a group of devils at the front of the position, leaving more than 20 wounded devils more than 10 meters in front of the position, creating obstacles for the devils' artillery bombardment, and causing the devil artillery to throw rats.

Unexpectedly, the devil launched an even more ferocious attack in order to retrieve the wounded. Under the cover of the devil's light and heavy machine guns, a squadron of devils crawled forward and slowly approached the position of the Wumu army, even if the special operations veterans had accurate marksmanship, it was not easy to shoot; The devil artillery fired a large number of smoke bombs, which made it more difficult for the special operations veterans to shoot.

As a last resort, the special operations veterans also launched a counter-charge with the help of the devil's smoke screen, but unexpectedly, the fierce and stubborn devil's wounded pulled a grenade, bringing a lot of casualties to the Wu Mu army; The creeping devil took the opportunity to jump up and launch an accelerated attack.

The special operations veterans deserved to be well-trained elites, and the soldiers who rushed out of the position quickly lay down, giving way to the dense firepower behind, and at the same time strafing the devils in various lying positions, and finally repelled the devils' attacks with difficulty.

Shigeru Sawada's other surprise attack was finally launched. The 12th Independent Mixed Brigade of Jiaxing's devils took advantage of the night to raid Wuxing, and after breaking through the Wuxing defense line, they drove straight to Changxing, undoubtedly planning to attack the command center of the Wumu Army in Xishan.

After receiving that the Wuxing defense line was broken, Zhao Dahu immediately strengthened 6 mortars for the Changxing garrison battalion, and at the same time transferred the Wumu Military Academy and the Teaching Brigade to the southeast of Xishan to guard the first-line mountain passes of Shuitou and Xiaopu; strengthened the Guangde garrison battalion, and transferred 4 infantry guns to the front line of the second street to prevent the devils from advancing westward; Wei Wenyang's troops recaptured Wuxing and Wuxing's line to the south, blocking the devil's retreat.

Like Wu Xing, the devil did not attack Changxing, and divided his troops to entangle the Changxing garrison camp, and the main force bypassed Changxing and went straight to the hinterland of Xishan.

The Xishan garrison battalion is an over-staffed reinforced battalion, and all 5 reinforced companies are equipped with 2 mortars and 3 heavy machine guns, so it is more than enough to face the devil's attack on a limited front. Zeng Qi and Li Haiyang, who were transferred up, saw that the pressure of the Xishan garrison camp was not great, so they commanded the Wumu Military Academy and the Teaching Brigade to launch a counterattack against the enemy in front of them.

Although the heavy weapons temporarily equipped by the Wumu Military Academy and the Teaching Brigade are not very sufficient, most of them are veterans of a hundred battles and have extremely strong combat effectiveness, and they will soon disperse the devils who have the advantage in numbers, so that the devils can only fight with the Wumu Army outside the West Mountain.

Seeing that the situation had developed to such a point, Zhao Dahu took advantage of the situation to order the Wei Wenyang guerrilla column of the Changxing Garrison Battalion, the Guangde Garrison Battalion, the Xishan Garrison Battalion, and the Wuxing Front Line to counterattack on the whole line and completely annihilate the 12th Independent Mixed Brigade of the Devils.

On Tuesday, Gou, Zhao Dahu, Xiang Qingyun, and Ouyang Cheng sat at the Xishan General Headquarters to summarize, analyze, and judge the various fronts: to the south of Xishan, the 12th Independent Mixed Brigade of the Devils has been divided and surrounded, and there is no big problem; The 11th Independent Mixed Brigade of Changzhou Devils has entered Changzhou City under the cover of aircraft, the Jintan Garrison Battalion has entered Changzhou City to participate in the counterattack, the artillery battalion of the Third Infantry Column and an infantry brigade have also launched an attack on the Devils outside Changzhou City, and the Yixing Garrison Battalion will soon be able to enter Changzhou City to participate in the counterattack, and the situation should be in danger; The Devil Cavalry Brigade on the North Road of the Eastern Front has retreated to the front line of Taicang, but the 22nd Division of the Devils on the South Road has stubbornly held on the front line of Suzhou, and in general it is still stalemate; Although Wang Yilang had the upper hand in Wuhu on the western front, he still did not take Wuhu City, and he was also at a standstill; The devils in Nanjing have expelled the special combat team from the city and stabilized their position, and the newly transferred 6th and 12th brigades can attack at any time as reserves to attack the base area of the Wumu Army, which is the heart disease of Tuesday Gou, Zhao Dahu and others; There is also the role of the devil plane has not been fully played, and it is also a problem that Tuesday Dog, Zhao Dahu and others are worried about, and the reserve of the Wu Mu Army in addition to the two infantry brigades, the joint logistics brigade, and the fire brigade of the third infantry column of the field army, there is only one garrison battalion in Lishui, looking at the whole situation, although the Wu Mu army has a slight upper hand in the evenly matched situation, but the devils in Hangzhou have not yet participated in the war, and the devil planes have not fully participated in the war, and the combat potential of the Jiangnan troops of the Wu Mu Army has been almost used. The troops in Jiangbei have just suffered heavy losses, and they can't be counted on for a while, and the ** troops in Jiangnan can't be trusted.

As a result, the General Headquarters decided to first take Changzhou with all its might, and then withdraw the attacking troops on the Eastern Front and close the defensive line; The southern front of Xishan changed the combat objective of annihilating the 12th Independent Mixed Brigade of the Devils to defeat in order to end the battle as soon as possible; then concentrate on taking Wuhu on the Western Front; In this way, the campaign goal of smashing the devils and attacking the base areas in southern Jiangsu was accomplished, and some gains were also made.

On Tuesday, what Gou and others feared happened at the same time: the three brigades of the 10th Independent Mixed Brigade of the Devils launched an attack on the New Fourth Army of Jurong and Maoshan under the cover of artillery; The 6th Independent Mixed Brigade attacked Lishui; Hundreds of planes launched a high-altitude and high-density bombardment of Changzhou and the Wumu Army to the east, and the 22nd Division of the Devils and the cavalry brigade joined forces to launch a counterattack on the field army's special forces column; Dozens of planes covered the 12th Independent Mixed Brigade of the Devils on the Southeast Front to attack Xishan again.

On the Eastern Front, the infantry units composed of garrison battalions and militia were first defeated under the impact of aircraft bombing and tank crushing, and the heavy artillery brigade and armored brigade braved the bombardment of devils to fight back hard and cover the retreat of the infantry.

After the 105mm heavy artillery of the heavy artillery brigade destroyed the artillery wing and more than a dozen tanks of the devil, the shells ran out, and the heavy artillery was bombed by the aircraft to only 4 guns, Niu Daojia gritted his teeth and ordered the heavy artillery brigade to retreat first, and he led the only remaining 7 tanks and 2 armored vehicles to avoid the devil's chariot unit and rushed towards the devil's infantry, and the two anti-tank battalions used anti-aircraft guns to shoot directly at the devil's chariot wing and all obstacles blocking the Wumu army.

Just when Niu Daojia was encircled by devils and ran out of ammunition and food, Li Jiakui led a large number of infantry and more than 30 tanks of the Jiangsu-Shanghai guerrilla column to rush over, once again nailing the devil's troops to the front line of Suzhou.

Zhao Dahu ordered Ke Hua to hand over the command of the battle in Changzhou to Duanmu Changyan, and then to the south of Changzhou to contain the troops withdrawn from the Eastern Front, and to build a defensive line along the northern end of the road between Taihu Lake and Zhuhu Lake to block the pursuit of the devils in the direction of Xishan.

Ke Hua arranged the withdrawn heavy artillery brigade to the east of Wujin to cover the retreat of other troops after replenishing ammunition, and the field hospital gave priority to retreating to the direction of Xishan with the help of the garrison battalion and militia that had retreated, and Wu Zhen's cavalry brigade and Niu Daojia armored brigade attacked the 11th Independent Mixed Brigade of the Devils north of Changzhou, forming a flanking attack on the Devils with the 3rd Infantry Column of the Field Army.

Wu Mujun quickly drove the devils out of Changzhou City, stabilized the front line of Changzhou, and was replenished with ammunition, and the troops let the devils bomb indiscriminately by hundreds of sorties, but they never took half a step back.

In the southeast direction of Xishan, the devils of the 12th Independent Mixed Brigade reluctantly assembled under the cover of the plane, and opened an offensive posture in the direction of Xishan.

The devils who set out from Nanjing were stopped by the Lishui garrison battalion and a brigade of the 3rd Infantry Column of the reinforced field army on the south side of Maoshan at Lishui, and they also fell into a bitter battle.

Sawada Shigeru received reports that the soldiers of each unit were exhausted, that their supplies and ammunition were exhausted, and that the wounded could not be cared for, and that more than 30 days of fighting were already the combat limits of each unit, so he reported to Shunroku Hata and asked for an end to the battle.

Knowing that the troops had suffered heavy losses and that he had no troops to send, Shunroku Hata had no choice but to agree to withdraw.

Another typhoon relieved both sides and allowed them to withdraw from the fighting with dignity.

The statistics obtained by the dog on Tuesday were: more than 97,000 troops participated in the battle, and three-quarters of the casualties were lost; More than half of the heavy equipment such as heavy artillery, tanks, armored vehicles, Foguang flying mines, and trucks were lost, and only Niu Daojia captured a batch of tanks and armored vehicles with the assistance of Li Jiakui, and Wang Yilang's troops captured a batch of weapons and ammunition at Wuhu Port. After arranging for the troops to be on guard and rest on the spot, the next problem is that a large amount of medicine is consumed, and there is an urgent need to replenish reserves and soldiers.

After nearly 40 days of fighting in the two main battlefields in the south and north of the Yangtze River, although the Wu Mu Army completely failed the plan of the devils along the Yangtze River to grab grain, it also killed and injured a large number of the devils' vital forces, and also suffered a great loss of vitality, losing more than half of the combat troops and two-thirds of the heavy equipment. On Tuesday, Gou and others decided to temporarily suspend fighting against the enemy so that the base area could have a period of recuperation.

However, after being repeatedly defeated by the Wumu Army, Shunroku Hata decided to focus on fighting against the Wumu Army and completely eliminate this henchman in the hinterland of the Imperial Army's occupied area, so he mobilized combat resources to use bacteriological warfare to make matters worse for the Wumu Army's base area, which had been greatly damaged.

After the typhoon, the smoke dissipated, and a large number of devil planes bombed the Wumu Army's base area in southern Jiangsu and the Jiangbei base area of the Wumu Army and the New Fourth Army. This time, the devils used bacteriological bombs, and cholera, typhoid fever, and plague spread along with a large number of rats and insects in southern Jiangsu and northern Jiangbei.

The summer climate provided great convenience for the spread of the plague, and the base area of the Wu Mu army was shrouded in gloomy clouds and mist by the plague.

Wu Mujun experienced bacteriological warfare, Wang Ziwei, Ma Qinghan, Wang Changgeng and others immediately mobilized urgently according to the epidemic prevention plan, isolated the flow of people, large-scale disinfection, emergency treatment, everything was carried out in an orderly manner, and Ma Qinghan personally led the team to the Wu Mujun and the New Fourth Army base in Jiangbei to deploy epidemic prevention. It's just that there is an extreme shortage of medicines, but fortunately, Wu Mujun has a large amount of lime for large-scale disinfection, Zhenjiang is a famous vinegar-producing town, and a large number of Zhenjiang white vinegar is made into acetic acid after deep processing by Wumujun Chemical Factory.

Jiangbei Wu Mu Army and the New Fourth Army also stepped up the construction of lime kilns to be used as disinfectants, and at the same time, Wu Mu Army's motorized speedboats transported large quantities of alcohol, acetic acid and other medicines to Jiangbei.

Under the guidance of Ma Qinghan's ambulance team, a large number of toilets were urgently built, and the feces were disinfected with lime, and hygiene habits were vigorously propagated, and the corpses of the sick and dead were cremated, buried deeply, and disinfected with lime, so that the plague was finally controlled to a certain extent.

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