Although the troops of the Dingbei Army attacking Kyushu Island occupied an absolute superiority in firepower, especially the fighters of the Northeast Air Force, which dealt a very heavy blow to the Japanese defenders, the Japanese, by virtue of their tenacity, relied on their lives to fill in and blocked the footsteps of the Dingbei Army landing on the island at Saga Castle on Kyushu Island.

The entire Saga Castle has been bombed into ruins by the fighters of the Northeast Air Force and the artillery of the Dingbei Army, but the members of the Japanese Army and the Japanese Self-Defense Forces guarding Saga Castle have repeatedly fought with the troops of the Dingbei Army on this ruin with extraordinary will, so that the Dingbei Army spent another 5 days in Saga Castle, and still did not completely occupy Saga Castle.

Lin Daxin took into account the situation on Kyushu Island, postponed the landing plan on Honshu Island and Shikoku Island, and only sent warships of the Northeast Navy to surround the two large Japanese islands and use naval guns to attack all the port cities of the two large Japanese islands, and bombarded them fiercely. The Northeast Navy bombed these port cities to the ground, not to mention the Cheng dù that made the Japanese feel painful.

However, the current war has reached this point, and the Japanese can only hold on, because the Northeast Navy controls the sea control of the entire Japan, which makes the connection between Japan's Kyushu Island and Honshu Island and Shikoku Island completely cut off, but the three large islands have a large population, just like the current battle in Saga Castle on Kyushu Island, although it cannot get the support of the other two large islands, but the rest of Kyushu Island. But there is a steady stream of troops sent to Saga Castle.

Originally, the Japanese Army and the Japanese Self-Defense Forces at Saga Castle had 600,000 men, but after five days of fighting, the Japanese lost more than 500,000. However, the number of Japanese in Saga Castle is still above 500,000, and the reason why there are still so many people is that reinforcements from other Kyushu Island areas have come to support them.

Moreover, the Japanese base camp was overjoyed when they knew that there was a tug-of-war with the Dingbei Army at Saga Castle, and this result was exactly what the Japanese wanted to see, so they ordered to support Saga Castle as much as possible in all areas of Kyushu Island. It is necessary to turn Saga Castle into a meat grinder and consume the strength of the Dingbei Army.

In fact, like the street battle in Saga Castle, the losses of the Japanese were much higher than the losses of the attacking troops of the Dingbei Army. It was really a life to resist the planes and artillery of the Dingbei Army, as well as the tanks and elite infantry of the Dingbei Army, and although the battle loss ratio was much lower than the battle 30 kilometers east of the Sasebo Naval Base on the Japanese island of Kyushu, it still reached 20 to 1. There is such a battle loss ratio because the Japanese relied on the ruins as a cover. And using a large number of tunnels under the ruins, the attacking Dingbei army was given a lot of damage.

The Japanese continued to support Saga Castle, and Lin Daxin was not to be outdone, and transferred the two divisions of the Second Field Army, which were originally preparing to land on Honshu Island, to Kyushu Island, and also transferred two new divisions to Kyushu Island.

At the temporary headquarters of the Dingbei Army outside Saga City, Deng Zichao, the commander of the Third Field Army, welcomed Zhang Limin, the commander of the Second Field Army, into the commander. It seems that the Japanese here in Saga Castle are quite tenacious! ”

Deng Zichao smiled bitterly and said: "It's not just tenacious, the Japanese simply don't take their lives seriously." It should be said that I don't care at all, you don't know Lao Zhang, the Japanese organized a lot of death squads, all of which were strapped with explosives, and then they hid in the ruins of Saga Castle, as long as our officers and soldiers passed by their hiding place, they jumped out and died with our soldiers, it was simply impossible to prevent it. Moreover, as soon as the Japanese arrived at night, they launched a large-scale attack on the territory we occupied in Saga Castle, and although we still had artillery to support at night, our losses in the night battle were much greater than during the day. ”

Zhang Limin frowned and asked, "How are the casualties of the troops these days?" ”

Deng Zichao said gloomily: "A few days ago, in the area 30 kilometers east of the Sasebo Naval Base, we suffered more than 20,000 casualties, of which more than 6,000 were killed. The number of dead is more than 15,000, and there are nearly 20,000 wounded, and now all our field hospitals are overloaded, the principal just won't send you over to support, and I'm ready to ask the principal for help, casualties are on the one hand, and on the other hand, the troops have been very tired after so many days of high-intensity fighting, and their combat effectiveness has been somewhat reduced. ”

Zhang Limin already knew the general situation here before he came to Kyushu Island, otherwise the troops they were originally going to land on Honshu Island would not have been transferred to support Kyushu Island here.

Zhang Limin nodded and said: "Lao Deng, then starting tomorrow, let our newly arrived troops hand over to you, and our group of new troops will continue to clear Saga City here, you troops who have been fighting for more than ten days, just rest for a while, if we can take the entire Saga City best, if not, after you rest for a while, we still have to rotate, anyway, Saga City must be taken here, but you troops, you have to leave enough guides for our new forces, After all, you're already familiar with Saga Castle. ”

Deng Zichao also nodded, "No problem, then the next battle will be handed over to you." ”

Early the next morning, in Saga Castle, the division commander of the Japanese Standing 15th Division, Nakazawa Goo, and the division commander of the Japanese Standing 20th Division, Matsumura Takemoto, are the heads of the entire Saga Castle, and the two are currently in an underground tunnel under the ruins of the city, and the two people are very haggard, and these days of fighting, the two have hardly rested well, especially Matsumura Takemoto, but with the troops in the area 30 kilometers east of the Sasebo Naval Base, after a big battle with the landing force of the Dingbei Army, With the remnants of the 300,000 army, he retreated to Saga Castle, and without getting any rest, he continued to fight with the Dingbei Army at Saga Castle.

Goo Nakazawa looked at Matsumura Takemoto, who was even more haggard than himself, and said, "Matsumura-kun, you can sleep for a while, I've been choking you enough these days." If you keep going like this, don't get tired. ”

Matsumura said with a wry smile: "I slept for 2 hours just now, and we are in Saga Castle right now. Where can I sleep soundly, now we have lost more than 500,000 troops, and the whole city of Saga is littered with the corpses of our imperial warriors, the losses are too great, although last night we recaptured some of the territory in the city, but we lost a lot, alas, such a battle is too miserable. ”

Goo Nakazawa said gloomily: "This is already our ideal situation. If it weren't for Saga Castle, we wouldn't be able to consume the Dingbei Army even if we wanted to, and we could only consume as much of the Dingbei Army's strength as possible here in Saga Castle. You must know that there are dozens of big cities like Saga Castle in our Great Japanese Empire, and if every big city can fight with the Dingbei Army like us, the Dingbei Army will definitely not be able to hold it in the end. ”

Matsumura Wumoto sighed and said, "It's that the Dingbei Army gave up occupying the mainland of our Great Japanese Empire because of its heavy losses. Such a war of attrition. In the end, our Great Japanese Empire was also greatly damaged, and I don't know how many years it will take to recover, by the way, Nakazawa-kun, reinforcements from other parts of Kyushu Island, it is no longer possible to give us more support here in Saga Castle, after all, Kyushu Island still has big cities like Fukuoka and Kumamoto that need to be defended, and it is impossible to mobilize all the troops on Kyushu Island to us. In other words, we can only rely on the remaining 500,000 people and the Dingbei Army to fight hard. ”

Nakazawa was not surprised by this, and he understood that the overall goal of the Japanese operation was to rely on large cities to engage in street battles with the Dingbei Army. Constantly depleting the strength of the Dingbei Army, the Dingbei Army continued to bleed in this big city, hoping that the Dingbei Army would choose to abandon the plan to occupy the Japanese mainland because it could not bear the heavy casualties.

Goo Nakazawa nodded and said: "We still have 500,000 people in Saga Castle, of which because of the deliberate arrangement of our two people, there are still more than 200,000 soldiers of the Imperial Army in the 10 divisions in Saga Castle, and the remaining 300,000 are members of the Self-Defense Forces, I think we will have no problem holding out in Saga Castle for another 4 or 5 days." ”

Matsumura hesitated for a moment and said: "We don't need to be all here in Saga Castle, I think we should still be ready to withdraw to Fukuoka, Nakazawa-kun, if I hadn't taken 300,000 troops and withdrew from the front line, our battle in Saga Castle might have been another situation, what do you think?" ”

Nakazawa Goo's eyebrows moved slightly, he was ready to be loyal to the Japanese Empire and His Majesty the Emperor in Saga Castle, but the base camp did not require them to hold on until the last moment, after all, even on Kyushu Island, there are so many big cities for the Japanese to hold onto.

And in the battle here in Saga Castle, although the Japanese suffered heavy losses, the base camp also affirmed their merits here, and they have completed the task, and Nakazawa Goo is not the kind of person who is bent on seeking death, and he has not enjoyed enough of the great world of flowers.

"I think it's okay, if Saga Castle can't hold on, we can retreat to Fukuoka and continue to fight street battles with the Dingbei Army in Fukuoka Castle."

Matsumura Matsumura was relieved when he heard the words of Goo Nakazawa, although he was also ready to be loyal to the Japanese Empire and His Majesty the Emperor in this war, but he was not willing to lose his life lightly. The battle 30 kilometers east of the Sasebo Naval Base, as well as the battle of Saga Castle, Matsumura has been recognized by the Japanese base camp, no matter how big the Japanese losses, the plan to drag down the Dingbei Army and consume the Dingbei Army has finally been realized, if Matsumura can survive until the war, his future road will be extremely smooth, if not soaring, it is indispensable to increase the rank and become a knight.

While the two Japanese commanders were still studying the question of the way out, the fighters and airships of the Northeast Air Force were already under the guidance of the ground forces, constantly bombing the Japanese in the ruins for a new day, and cooperating with the attacks of the ground forces, but now the troops on the ground were replaced by the Second Field Army and two new divisions that had just arrived here.

The role of the new force was still relatively obvious, and the 2nd Field Army and 2 new divisions fought in Saga Castle for 2 days in a row. Three-quarters of the entire Saga Castle has been completely controlled by the Dingbei Army, and the tunnels dug by the Japanese in these territories have been blown up, and the Japanese can't use the tunnels to launch a counterattack at night.

In these two days, the Japanese lost no less than 200,000 troops, leaving only a quarter of the Japanese city area and 300,000 army and self-defense forces, including many wounded.

However, the Dingbei Army also suffered a lot of losses, with nearly 15,000 casualties and thousands of casualties, but in general, the Dingbei Army had seen the hope of capturing the entire Saga Castle.

Goo Nakazawa, the commander of the 15th Japanese Standing Division, and Matsumura Takemoto, the commander of the 20th Japanese Standing Division, discussed and decided to abandon Saga Castle and retreat in the direction of Fukuoka Castle.

So at night, the two Japanese commanders led the remnants of the Japanese army and self-defense forces to withdraw from the ruins and tunnels in the city, and retreated to Fukuoka Castle in the northeast, leaving behind a strip of wounded soldiers, who were basically seriously wounded, and no more than 270,000 Japanese could be evacuated.

The troops in the Dingbei Military City also discovered the abnormal movement of the Japanese at night, and finally sent scouts to find that the Japanese were retreating outside the city, but the two field commanders of the Dingbei Army discussed it and decided not to pursue the Japanese, one is that it is now night, and the fighters and airships of the Northeast Air Force cannot provide air support, and the other is that Lin Daxin sent them the latest order, so that after they capture Saga Castle, they will stop continuing to attack other areas of Kyushu Island, and let the troops rest in the area of Saga Castle first. Waiting for Lin Daxin's order.

The next day, August 22, 1902, the troops of the Dingbei Army in Saga Castle took over the remaining quarter of Saga Castle without any waves, and the entire battle of Saga Castle came to an end.

The battle of Saga Castle caused Japan to lose another 750,000 troops, of which more than 700,000 were killed, but it also completed the Japanese premeditated plan to consume the Dingbei Army here, so that the Dingbei Army that attacked Saga Castle finally suffered more than 40,000 casualties.

And Saga Castle has become a ruin, almost not even a slightly better house can be found, the whole city is full of Japanese corpses, it is not an exaggeration to say that this is a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, and tens of thousands of people in the Dingbei Army finally cleaned up the corpses of the Japanese in the city for a whole day. (To be continued......)