The north of Tanggang was the main direction of attack of the Japanese army.

The 21st Division of the Japanese Army, plus the field artillery wing and other affiliated units attached by the Japanese Army for the Ceylon Campaign, are almost all here, and it is estimated that there are more than 13,000 troops.

Shouldn't a division have at least fifteen thousand people, that's right. That's without battle damage. After a series of fierce battles, the 21st Division of the Japanese Army is now able to use a total of less than 8,000 troops. Among them, the three infantry wings of the main force were actually less than 6,000 people.

These more than 13,000 troops are actually almost all the troops that the Japanese army can draw. The Japanese troops scattered throughout Ceylon's port cities and choke points were actually independent and mixed into the 21st Brigade.

Lieutenant General Takuma Nishimura has since taken Colombo and has been caught in a strange "passive offensive".

At first, Nishimura Takuma thought that by taking out the main force of the British army in Ceylon, the naval resistance army in Tang Port would retreat without a fight. Due to the withdrawal of the Japanese Navy, there will not be many obstacles to the withdrawal of the Naval Resistance Army, and Nishimura Takuma is still regretting that he cannot completely annihilate the Naval Resistance Army.

But when his troops were under fire in the jungles south of Don Harbor and in the mountains west of Tang Harbor. After a long battle, Nishimura seems to have figured out something - the opponent has no intention of evacuating.

During this period, the Japanese army had an incomparable psychological advantage against both European and American armies and Chinese armies. So far, the Japanese Navy may have suffered setbacks, but the Japanese Army still has a record of complete victories in the Pacific theater. The Japanese army, especially the Japanese Army, had an absolute psychological advantage against the Naval Resistance Army.

The commander of the Japanese army, Lieutenant General Nishimura Takuma, was no exception, and he believed that the Tang Harbor Naval Resistance Army would not be able to support it for long without rescue troops outside. He himself held Colombo, while the commander of the 21st Division, Lieutenant General Tanaka Kuichi, led the main force to attack Tang Port from north to south.

On 5 July, the main force of the Japanese army was stationed at Katar Hill, 33 kilometers from Tang Port. Cutler Hill is not dangerous, but a group of low, gentle hills. The height of the main peak is less than 300 meters. The rest of the peaks are only about 200 meters above sea level.

In the middle of this mountainous area, which is two or three kilometers deep and seven or eight kilometers wide, there is a road that runs from north to south. This is the only way to get through the army.

Bao Gang chose this place not entirely because of the terrain here, but because of the geographical location of this place.

The main position of Mount Cutler is about 10 kilometres from the sea to the east and about 20 kilometres from the mountains of central Ceylon to the west. Not only can it prevent the Japanese Navy from shelling from the sea, but the artillery group of the Naval Resistance Army can easily control both wings.

If you look at the map alone, this mountainous area can be described as a forward position on the plain, and both flanks are not effectively protected. But in reality, the mountains are flanked by streams and lakes, which are not at all suitable for the deep penetration of large armies.

Plus. The Navy's anti-Japanese army organized tens of thousands of people, and after nearly a month of busyness, almost all the trees that were already small within a kilometer north of the mountain were cut down. These trees were sent straight to the mountains to build fortifications, and the unfinished ones were piled up together to become fireworks. At the foot of the hill it forms an unobstructed open area.

Early in the morning of July 6th. Rainstorm. The Japanese launched their first sneak attack. This sneak attack was launched with a battalion of the 83rd Infantry Wing of the 21st Division as the main force.

Lieutenant General Kuichi Tanaka, commander of the 21st Division, did not have the luxury of expecting an infantry brigade to completely occupy the positions of the Naval Resistance Army. He hoped that with the help of the torrential rain, the Japanese army could quietly touch the position of the Naval Resistance Army. As long as a melee is formed. Then his follow-up troops will continue to press up. Until the capture of Cutler Hill.

The torrential rain in Ceylon is quite terrifying, when it rains, the ground is almost everywhere with streams, the sky is white, and the sight is more than ten meters away.

Such weather, although difficult to operate, was an excellent camouflage for the attacking troops. The command of Lieutenant General Kuichi Tanaka although adventurous. It's not useless.

At more than seven o'clock, a brigade of more than 600 Japanese soldiers (dissatisfied with the editor. After stumbling for more than an hour in the torrential rain, I managed to cross an open area up to a kilometer wide.

The little devil thinks he has a plan, and he must know that Cutler Hill is not steep at all. On the hillside 300 meters away is the position of the Naval Resistance Army. In the eyes of the Japanese commanders, the hillside was easier to attack than the field, at least there were not so many mires on the hillside. Moreover, such a distance, with the experience of the Japanese army, should not be difficult to take as long as one charge.

At 7:25, the Japanese army saw Li Guang's theory of winning with science and technology for the first time.

In the rocks in front of Cutler Mountain, in the stumps, hundreds of microphones were laid by the Navy, and countless wires went straight to the back of the mountain. In such a sky, the fighters of the Naval Resistance Army did not see far, but they had "ears". The Japanese army secretly approached the front of the position, and it was true that no soldiers saw it, but it was clearly heard by a group of sonar students early.

There is a microphone laid on the rocks where some little devils are hiding, and there is a microphone in an inconspicuous position next to the stump where some devils are hiding. In such a storm, there is no need to whisper the communication between devils, and they can't be heard at all when they whisper anyway. As a result, the sonar trainees easily captured more than a dozen devils' whining and wah-wah conversations.

In the headquarters, the staff officers easily demarcated the area of the Japanese army's assembly. With a single command, dozens of detonators were pressed at the same time. Hundreds of electrically detonating mines exploded almost simultaneously.

In an instant, the sound of the explosion overpowered the arrogance of the torrential rain, and at the front of the Cutler Hill position, two kilometers wide and 500 meters deep, the explosions were continuous, as if muffled thunder was rolling in the air, and the vibrating air was transmitted several kilometers away, still making people's ears buzz.

For the Naval Resistance Army, this battle was so easy to win. For the commander of the Japanese army, Lieutenant General Kuichi Tanaka, it was like a nightmare. More than 600 Japanese troops were almost all buried in this minefield, and the time was only a second or two.

If you say that the first battle is that the little devils can't imagine that the Naval Resistance Army has applied sonar technology to land warfare. Then in the second battle, the means used by the Naval Resistance Army were no different from the usual tactics of the Japanese army. It's just that on the Chinese battlefield, the Japanese army has always used aircraft and artillery to open the way to deal with the Chinese army, and now it has become the naval resistance army to use aircraft and artillery to deal with little devils.

On 10 July, Lieutenant General Kuichi Tanaka took advantage of the heavy rain to launch an attack. When the intensive artillery fire of the Japanese army had just begun to exert its threat, 12 fighters of the Naval Resistance Army had already flown into the battlefield.

Don't look at the fact that there are not many fighters in the Naval Resistance Army, but the Japanese army does not even have a single fighter at all. The sky over the battlefield has almost become a performance stage for the naval resistance army and air force. These fighters don't look down on the devil's infantry at all. All twelve bombs were delivered to the Japanese artillery.

In the first wave of air raids alone, the Japanese artillery suffered more than 100 casualties, and three or four artillery pieces were destroyed.

When the Japanese artillery fire was disturbed, the artillery fire of the naval resistance army immediately covered the entire forward position. Compared with the artillery fire of the little devils and the artillery fire of the Naval Resistance Army, it is purely pediatric.

In total, the Japanese army in Ceylon had less than a hundred artillery pieces. THE NAVY RESISTANCE ARMY DEPLOYED 140 LEGAL 85MM FIELD GUNS JUST BEHIND KATLER HILL. Plus countless mortars. Three rapid fires in just one round blew the devil's infantry back into Aunt Amaterasu's arms.

By the time the 12 fighters of the Naval Resistance Army flew over the battlefield again, Lieutenant General Kuichi Tanaka had already retreated in a gloomy manner, and his sharpness had been lost.

19 July was also the time when Li Guang went to Cutler Hill to offer his condolences. The Japanese army had been completely devoured by the mountain battalion of the Naval Resistance Army more than a day earlier, and an extremely elite search wing had been completely consumed. This greatly stimulated Lieutenant General Takuma Nishimura. Therefore, Kuichi Tanaka, at the urging of Lieutenant General Takuma Nishimura, launched another attack.

This time, Kuichi Tanaka learned to be obedient. On the frontal battlefield, less than 300 troops were dispatched, but two infantry brigades were sent on both flanks to attack in a roundabout way.

However, this attack was easily defused by the Naval Resistance Army. Kuichi Tanaka really saw the power of the firepower of the Naval Resistance Army. Kuichi Tanaka had never seen such heavy artillery fire, for an attacking force of just three hundred men. THE NAVY RESISTANCE ARMY CAME UP WITH 140 85MM FREN-MADE FIELD GUNS.

Five minutes of dense covering strikes, carpet bombardment of hundreds of tons of shells. The more than 300 Japanese troops who were frontally pinned down were all blown into a pile of minced meat. And this is only a small demonstration of the strength of the artillery units of the Naval Resistance Army.

Kuichi Tanaka burst into flames. In a vain attempt to counterattack with long-range heavy artillery. But before the Japanese heavy artillery could fire, the heavy artillery clusters of the Naval Resistance Army had already thrown an overwhelming array of shells.

This was the first time that the heavy artillery cluster of the Naval Resistance Army appeared on the Ceylon battlefield, and more than 100 heavy artillery pieces with a caliber of more than 100 mm opened fire together, and the momentum was so great that the little devils were terrified.

The devil never imagined that there was a special operations squad of the Naval Resistance Army active in the area where the Japanese army was entrenched. The artillery positions carefully deployed by the devils were discovered by the special operations team of the Naval Resistance Army as early as three days ago, just because the distance was too far. BEYOND THE RANGE OF THE 85MM FIELD GUNS, IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE TO STRIKE. And the continuous heavy rain also made it impossible for the fighters of the Maritime Resistance Army to take off.

In three days, Bao Gang mobilized all the heavy artillery of the Naval Resistance Army. Almost all the manpower of the Naval Resistance Army, all the Chinese in Tanggang, tens of thousands of people and thousands of mules and horses were dispatched to transport more than 100 heavy artillery pieces to the back of Cutler Mountain.

Three days of hard work in exchange for fifteen minutes of brilliance. THE POWER OF MORE THAN 100 HEAVY GUNS IS ENOUGH TO COVER THE AMMUNITION OF THE SAME NUMBER OF 85MM FIELD GUNS MORE THAN EIGHT TIMES THE AMOUNT OF AMMUNITION, AND THE LETHALITY IS NO LONGER ON A GRADE AT ALL, AND IN JUST 15 MINUTES OF SHELLING, THREE OR FOUR HUNDRED TONS OF SHELLS COMPLETED THE COVERING BLOW TO THE JAPANESE ARTILLERY POSITIONS.

In such a short period of time, a field heavy artillery wing of the Japanese army was wiped out, and there was not one in ten expensive artillery pieces. More than 1,000 Japanese artillery soldiers were blown into dead bodies, more than 1,000 were injured, and a considerable number of devils were frightened by the heavy artillery and became deranged madmen.

Kuichi Tanaka, who was hit by the heavy losses, was out of breath and fainted at that time. This kind of scene of more than 200 cannons roaring may not be uncommon in European battlefields, but it is rare in the history of Japanese warfare.

In the Japanese army's combat experience against the Chinese army, artillery has always had an advantage, but because the Chinese army is inferior in equipment, the Japanese army has not used artillery on a large scale in many battles. Except for the Japanese army that used hundreds of heavy artillery during the attack on Nanjing, the only battle of Nanchang used more than 200 artillery in other battles.

And the Japanese only enjoyed a large-scale artillery bombardment in the Battle of Nomenkan against the Soviet Union. On the Nanyang battlefield, although the Japanese army was against the British and American troops, it had never experienced such a fierce artillery bombardment. A FEW DAYS AGO, THE JAPANESE ARMY SUFFERED A BLOW FROM THE 85MM FIELD ARTILLERY GROUP, AND KUICHI TANAKA BELIEVED THAT THIS WAS ALREADY ALL THE ARTILLERY FIRE OF THE NAVAL RESISTANCE ARMY. But what Tanaka Kushiichi never expected was that the Naval Resistance Army still had such a powerful reserve artillery fire. And it was such accurate artillery fire.

The frontal attacking forces were eliminated, the attack of the roundabout troops on both flanks was meaningless, and Kuichi Tanaka had to retreat again. In this battle, the Japanese army suffered heavy losses and lost its offensive strength. This is also the reason why Vice Admiral Nishimura is urging reinforcements from the Singapore direction.

There was no artillery, no aircraft, and although the Japanese still had an advantage in numbers, the offensive was no longer sustainable.

Originally, the Japanese army still had a force that could support the offensive. To the north of Mount Cutler, the Japanese had amassed about forty tanks of all the landed Japanese troops. But with months of heavy rain, the tanks could not be dispatched at all.

In fact, the little devils are not clear-headed, and they think that they are the power of their fists, which is not worth mentioning at all in the eyes of the Naval Resistance Army. The Navy's resistance is more than he is looking forward to carrying the rainy season. The more than 40 armored combat vehicles of the Maritime Resistance Army have not been able to find a chance to make a move because of the continuous rainstorm, and Qin Zhan, the commander of the armored battalion, has not had a chance to appear for more than a month, and he has been waiting for mold.

If it is not the rainy season, don't look at the small number of troops of the naval resistance army, it is fully equipped with the conditions for a counteroffensive. The rainy season is even more restrictive for heavy troops such as the Navy. Just transporting more than 100 heavy artillery pieces for more than 30 kilometers took tens of thousands of manpower for three days.

This was the situation on the battlefield when Li Guang arrived at Mount Cutler to offer his condolences. It can be said that the situation in the entire Ceylon battlefield is much more optimistic than Li Guang thought. The Naval Resistance Army was not a passive defense, but a passive attack by the Japanese army.

The reason for this situation is not surprising. The strength of the Naval Resistance Army is not much, but in terms of equipment, it is much stronger than the two divisions of the devils. Heavy firepower equipment like the Naval Resistance Army, not to mention the Japanese army, is also extremely rare for the army to look at the whole world.

The Naval Resistance Army had only more than 7,000 troops in Tanggang. However, the value of its equipment exceeded 40 million US dollars, which was the equipment value of the four or five divisions of the Japanese army in Shanghai and the equipment value of the 20 divisions of the Chinese army in Shanghai. In the past few years, no effort has been spared in the training of the troops, spending money is like water, and the quality of the soldiers is definitely not below that of the Japanese army. However, the technical arms to which Li Guang has always attached importance have exerted their amazing power in this battle, and the artillery unit can be described as a blockbuster.

Coupled with sufficient supplies and ammunition, as well as geographical advantages and the convenience of fighting at home, it was natural to block the attack of the Japanese army with three times the strength.

On the 19th, the first field regiment was named Xuanjia by Li Guang. The Xuanjia Army is the most elite heavy cavalry unit of the legendary Tang Taizong Li Shimin when he founded the country. Qi Ruixuan was promoted to the commander of the 1st Field Regiment with the rank of lieutenant colonel for his exploits in the Battle of Monale Mountain.

Bao Gang still served as the commander of the Tanggang garrison, with the rank of colonel. (To be continued......)