[Anti-Japanese Iron Blood King] Chapter 625: The Fifth Division and Foreshadowing (Ask for subscription!) , ask for a monthly pass, ask for everything! ）

After the news reached Luxi, Ma Zheng was also surprised, and Ma Zheng knew the combat effectiveness of the first division. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 The predecessor of the 1st Reorganized Division was the 7th Division and the 7th Brigade, which was Ma Zheng's starting unit and the absolute trump card of the Suicha Military Region.

After the reorganization, this division not only had six powerful infantry regiments, but also one regiment each of cavalry, engineers, artillery, and guard troops, with a total strength of more than 20,000 troops.

But even so, after encountering the Fifth Division of the Japanese Army, he still felt the pressure, and even made an iron man like Huang Sicheng have to ask the military headquarters for help.

But thinking about the glorious history of the Fifth Division, Ma Zheng was relieved. As one of the earliest permanent divisions of the Japanese army, the Fifth Division had four infantry wings, a field artillery wing, a reconnaissance wing, an engineer wing, a transport wing, a communications wing, and even a supplementary wing, with a total strength of 28,000 troops. Aside from the large number of infantry, its large technical arms alone are enough to discourage the average Chinese army.

You must know that the field artillery wing of the Fifth Division of the Japanese Army has 2,322 people, which is equivalent to 300 more people in a regular infantry regiment in China. And such an artillery wing has 3 artillery brigades of 688 people, armed with a total of 36 75mm field or mountain guns. As the star unit of the Japanese Army, the Fifth Division also has some privileges that other permanent divisions do not have, that is, one of the brigades of the artillery wing of the Fifth Division is equipped with two 105mm caliber heavy howitzers, and its combat effectiveness is extremely strong.

There is a famous saying in the Japanese army, called "Ishihara's wisdom, Itagaki courage", the so-called Itagaki refers to the commander of the Fifth Division, Itagaki Seishiro, and it refers to the courage and invincibility of the Fifth Division under the command of Itagaki Seishiro.

Compared with the general field division, the Fifth Division is more important to the Japanese army base camp is its strong will to fight, because the soldiers of the Fifth Division are from Hiroshima, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan, composed of local iron and steel workers, since ancient times it has been an area where bushido has prevailed, almost all the famous battles on the Chinese battlefield before the outbreak of the Pacific War are related to the Fifth Division, and the soldiers of the Fifth Division almost did not surrender, all of them died or committed suicide.

In the Battle of Pingxingguan in 37 years, a heavy team was ambushed by the Eighth Route Army, more than 1,000 people died, but the Eighth Route Army did not capture a prisoner, in the Battle of Taierzhuang in 38 years and the Battle of Kunlun Pass in 39 years, the Fifth Division suffered extremely heavy losses, and even the commander of the Major General Brigade committed suicide, but still no one surrendered, so it was known as the Steel Army in the army.

Because of this, the Fifth Division has become one of the most familiar Japanese divisions among the Chinese people. Although it may not be as well-known in Japan as the more popular Kumamoto Sixth Division, it is an almost household name in China, because the Fifth Division has won many battles and lost many battles in the Chinese theater, and those defeats are much more famous than the victories.

A heavy baggage brigade was knocked out by Tuba Road at Pingxingguan, beaten to the point of bleeding at Taierzhuang, and a brigade was almost wiped out at Kunlun Pass, all of which were the affairs of the Fifth Division. However, this does not mean that the Fifth Division lacks combat effectiveness, on the contrary, from the Battle of the Great Wall, all the way to Suiyuan, Songhu, Taiyuan, Xuzhou, Guangzhou, Nanning and then to Singapore and Indonesia, the Fifth Division has achieved outstanding results, and the Chinese people have since remembered this elite of the Japanese army who did many evils in the Chinese theater.

To this day, whenever the Chinese people mention the Battle of Taierzhuang or the Battle of Kunlun Pass, they always do not forget to emphasize the high degree of mechanization, the strength of the combat effectiveness, and the rapidity of the firepower of the opponent, which is the best proof.

As early as the end of the Qing Dynasty, when the decaying Qing Empire was still mired in internal and external troubles, Japan, a small country in the east, was actively developing a modern army.

Ten years later, this army defeated the Qing Beiyang Army, which was created almost at the same time, and another 10 years later, the army of the powerful old colonial power of Tsarist Russia, which at one point controlled half of China's territory and almost all of Southeast Asia at the beginning of the last century!

Fighting with such a tough opponent, Ma Zheng never dared to be careless. And the reorganization of the 1st Division can be on par with the 5th Division, which makes Ma Zheng feel relieved and pressured.

Ma Zheng, the fighting will of the Fifth Division, knew that this was a master who would not hit the south wall and would not look back, and it was impossible to wait for them to take the initiative to retreat, and the only thing they could do now was to immediately send troops to reinforce Yuanping Town.

Immediately, Ma Zheng sent a telegram to the integrated Fourth Division of the Datong Line, as well as the Assault Brigade and Artillery Brigade of the Military Region to immediately go south to reinforce Yuanping Town, and he wanted to fight a good battle with the Japanese steel army to see who was the real elite.

In fact, according to the telegram sent by the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army, Mr. Zhu and others hoped that Ma Zheng would not fight to the death with the Japanese army, after all, the opponent this time was different. In the case that the Second World War Zone has been defeated first, it is no longer meaningful to fight the elite of the Japanese army again.

Therefore, the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army suggested that Ma Zheng immediately withdraw his troops from Yuanping Town, or go north to defend the Shuoxian-Datong defense line, or simply turn to guerrilla warfare and drag down the Japanese army on the day of the movement.

But this suggestion was vetoed by Ma Zheng, and Ma Zheng did not deny that Mr. Zhu and others analyzed it very objectively and reasonably. After all, their main task is only to reinforce the Second World War Zone and defend Dataiyuan.

Now that the city of Taiyuan has been lost, the main force in the second war zone has been defeated by the Japanese army first, and after there is no target to protect, it is meaningless to fight to the death with the Japanese army, let alone this need.

But Ma Zheng still wanted to fight with the Fifth Division for three reasons, one of which was that Ma Zheng wanted to use the most famous elite of the Japanese army to test how strong the combat effectiveness of the troops was.

It is said that the troops of the Suicha Military Region are strong in combat effectiveness, but to what extent they are strong, and whether they can be called elite when encountering the most elite troops of the Japanese army, Ma Zheng must know this. After all, only by knowing oneself and knowing one's opponent can one not be defeated. As enemies and adversaries, we can only have the strength to defeat them in the future if we first understand him and know him!

And now it seems that although the combat effectiveness of the troops under his command is very strong, it is still slightly lacking in one-on-one confrontation with the Fifth Division. Moreover, this is still the first integrated division with the strongest combat effectiveness, and if the third division, the fourth division, and the fifth division are against the fifth division, I am afraid that the result will be even worse.

Second, the reason why Ma Zheng kept an eye on the Fifth Division and fought to the death with it was because the Fifth Division was too brutal and committed unforgivable crimes in China.

According to historical records, after the outbreak of the Lugou Bridge Incident, the Fifth Division was ordered to reinforce Nankou. The arrogant Seishiro Sakagaki wanted to conquer the Japanese and capture the south exit and enter the Heisui line first. Relying on the support of heavy artillery and aircraft, they launched a fierce attack on the **** position in Nankouzhong, but they were met with the Chinese defenders who did not retreat and resisted bloodily.

Seishiro Sakagaki even blatantly violated the laws of international war by using poison gas to attack the positions of the Chinese defenders, becoming the first Japanese army to use chemical weapons to invade China. However, even this failed to succeed, so they had to ask the Japanese North China Front to transfer the second mixed brigade and heavy weapons such as tanks to reinforce it. At this time, the Chahar Corps of the Japanese Kwantung Army had invaded Zhangjiakou, the important place of the Pingsui Line, threatening the supply line of the defenders of Nankou in China, so the defenders of Nankou took the initiative to withdraw from the battle line, and the Fifth Division was able to invade Shanxi Province.

The officers and men of the Fifth Division, who had encountered stubborn resistance, vented their grievances on unarmed Chinese civilians wherever they went. After the division occupied Lingqiu City in Shanxi, it closed the city gates, carried out a large-scale search and arrest of the whole city, and collectively shot 600 residents in Dayun Temple, Grandma Temple, and other places. The Japanese army also gathered the women together, raped and ****ed them en masse, and the rebels were killed on the spot.

After that, the Japanese army arrested people every day and killed more than 400 residents. The Japanese army carried out massacres in various parts of Lingqiu County, killing more than 100 old and young villagers in Donghenan Village, more than 30 villagers in Xiaozhai Village, and more than 20 people in Guangou Village and Tangzhiwa Village.

Subsequently, the Fifth Division went on to attack all parts of Hebei, killing, burning, prostituting and plundering everywhere it went. On October 11, 1937, two brigades of the division invaded Meihua Town, Gaocheng, but were met with stubborn resistance from the Chinese defenders, and then the Chinese troops withdrew. At dawn on the 12th, more than 5,000 Japanese troops surrounded Meihua Town, creating the tragic Meihua Town tragedy.

While killing people all over the town, the Japanese captured young men and women, opened fire with machine guns, and filled puddles with corpses. At the same time, the Japanese army also forcibly dragged more than 100 young women to the compound of the town's flour mill, raped them en masse, and then cut off their breasts, picked open their abdomen, and tortured them one by one.

On the 13th and 14th, the Japanese army pushed 62 people, including farmer Zhang Li, into the billet pit and buried them alive; More than 200 young and middle-aged people were tied to the open space outside the east gate and killed with bayonets in batches; or douse gasoline and burn him alive; or cut off the head and throw it into a puddle of water; They also tied up more than 200 women and children under the wall of the South Gate and asked about the whereabouts of the Chinese army. Seeing that the people were silent, the Japanese soldiers first pulled out four little girls, split them in half, and then shot all the women and children to death.

The atrocities of the Japanese continued until the evacuation at noon on the 15th. In this village, which originally had 550 households and 2,500 people, 1,547 people were killed and 46 families were killed, which was the tragedy of Meihua Town.

In addition, the Fifth Division also participated in the Nanjing Massacre and was one of the main culprits in the Nanjing Massacre. After the capture of Shanghai, the Fifth Division used boats to cross the Taihu Lake, crossed the Yangtze River through Wuhu, and openly robbed the people's property and burned, killed and **** along the way under the military order of "requisition and distribution of supplies on the spot". After capturing Pukou and blocking the retreat of the Nanjing army and civilians to the northwest, the Fifth Division slaughtered people along the way, and made a great animalistic nature, stabbing people, arresting pigs, and arresting women when they saw them.

After the capture of Nanjing, the unit directly participated in the Nanjing Massacre, shooting and killing many Chinese soldiers and civilians swimming across the Yangtze River, and massacring countless Chinese soldiers and civilians with machine guns and bayonets in the Pukou area of Nanjing.

In the face of such a beast army, the only thing Ma Zheng could do was to cripple and annihilate it. It was like dealing with the 16th Division, without mercy.

Moreover, Ma Zheng also knew that the Fifth Division would be assigned to the battle sequence of the Kwantung Army in the near future, to monitor and guard against the Soviet Union, until the outbreak of the Pacific War, the Fifth Division never appeared on the Chinese battlefield again, so this time it will also be the only chance for the Chinese troops to annihilate the Fifth Division.

Although this is a bit risky, and even the gains outweigh the losses, even if the Fifth Division is disabled in the end, the casualties of the Suicha Military Region itself will definitely be extremely heavy.

But Ma Zheng doesn't regret it, this may be the pain of being familiar with history, knowing that this is not conducive to the development of the army, but this is the last chance to severely punish the murderer, what should you do if you change it?

Of course, Ma Zheng was not a reckless person, and he did this for a more important reason, that is, he wanted to attract all the main forces of the Japanese army to the Shanxi battlefield.

Ma Zheng has been brewing a shocking plan for a long time, and now this plan has been perfected, and there is a possibility of realizing it. The only uncertainties are several mobile divisions, including the Fifth Division of the Japanese Army, so what Ma Zheng has to do is to solve all these uncertainties and then foreshadow his big plan. (To be continued.) )