The city of Dingzhou had been turned into a pot of porridge, and without any firepower preparation, the sudden attack of the night battle camp overwhelmed the Japanese Third Division. "Turn the muzzle of the gun, hurry! Yaga, what are you rubbing? Load the shells quickly! Fire. "As soon as the two 'Night Tigers' turned into the corner of the street, the military cao in the hidden house pushed open the half-hidden door and poked out the 37-mm anti-tank gun under his command through the crack in the door to aim at the front at close range.

"Boom!" A 76-millimeter armor-piercing explosive bomb came out of its chamber and hit a 'Night Tiger' 200 metres away in the front. Due to the lack of processing technology and raw materials, Japan lacks a special hood hard armor-piercing projectile with non-explosive effect. Compared to the latter, the former appears to increase its power through explosions, but it actually weakens the armor-piercing effect. So after the shell hit the front of the inclined tank, there was a ricochet, which flashed like a soap bubble. This soldier has good anti-tank skills, and when he saw that the attack did not work, he was surprised by the thickness of the tank's armor, and at the same time, he quickly closed the door and urged to reload: "Hurry, load the shells, and aim the next shot at its tracks!" "In the past, it would have been difficult for the tanker to see the target behind the door unless it was visible to the naked eye. But now it was different, and when the Japanese soldiers quietly opened the door again and poked out of the muzzle, they were swept by the night vision device that was searching. "See, kill them on the left!" After discovering the target, the commander immediately turned the gun port, and before Jun Cao could fire the second shell, the grenade that had already been filled rushed out of the gun port like lightning. "Boom!" Two 85-mm grenades accurately hit the small building 200 meters away.

"Leave, go to the other side!" Thinking that the muzzle flame just now was discovered, Jun Cao, who was lucky enough to not die, and several Japanese soldiers rushed out of the house and ran against the brick wall towards the opposite house. But they don't know that their every move has already been clearly reflected on the night vision device. "See them! Machine guns, machine guns! Knock knock. Two heavy machine guns chased after Jun Cao and the Japanese soldiers, and the 12.7 mm bullets easily penetrated the brick wall, killing the general Cao and the soldiers.

Countless of the same scenes. Appear on this night. With the help of active infrared night vision devices, the night is no longer an obstacle, and as long as the outcrops of the Japanese army are illuminated, they will attract relentless strafing from artillery and machine guns. It took less than half an hour for He Zihua to break through the Japanese defense line with the night battalion and enter the city along the railway line. The 44 'Night Tiger' main battle tanks have become real night beasts, and all the Japanese bunkers that were discovered along the way were all turned on their backs. What made the Japanese even more discouraged was that no matter how hard they tried, the anti-tank weapons they thought were powerful could not break through the armor of the 'Night Tigers' from beginning to end. Even if one or two were occasionally hit on the tracks, they could not be completely destroyed, but were killed by the stopped cannons and machine guns that tried to get close.

"Yaga! Charge, charge! "Seeing that one by one hidden firepower points that should not have been discovered so quickly were uprooted, Wing Captain Inoue was furious, gritting his teeth and offering the most skillful pig assault tactic." Onboard! Come on! At the signal, thousands of Japanese soldiers jumped out of cover and charged the night camp under the leadership of the officer. The pig assault tactic is the best tactic of the Japanese army. It seems to be a swarm, but in fact there are strict levels and positions, and in such a close narrow street, the momentum is very terrifying. In just a moment. The night camp was surrounded by explosive grenades and sparks from machine gun fire, and several Japanese soldiers were still holding explosive packets, about to die with the tanks.

"Divisional commander! Little Japan charged! ”

"Well rushed! A ball to keep up! I want to see it. Little Japan is not afraid of bullets! Zhao Dengyu shouted loudly and ordered the main force to speed up, regardless of the deputy division commander's obstruction. Personally jumped into a tank and rushed into the city along the tracks of the night battalion. But before he could get over it, a battalion of half-track infantry fighting vehicles had already rushed into the combat zone. "Get out of the car and follow the tank! against the wall. Machine guns, grab the roof! Go, go to the side, cover the wings with on-board machine guns. Throw a grenade into every window you see! Every gate! "Under the command of the officer, the infantry, who had been tested in the northwest, quickly jumped out of the car. The machine gunners quickly seized the high ground, the armored vehicles protected the flanks, and the infantry marched along the walls. Whenever a target is found, the interior of the house or building is blasted with grenades or grenades.

Recruits are afraid of artillery, veterans are afraid of machine guns. No matter how fierce the Japanese charge was, they could not withstand the strafing of more than 100 general-purpose machine guns. The extravagant white-knuckle combat is even more nonsense, whether it is a tank or a half-track, it can prevent the strafing of the Japanese Type 92 heavy machine gun at close range, not to mention the tank gun and 12.7mm heavy machine gun under the night vision device. By the time Zhao Dengyu arrived, the 18th Wing of the Japanese Army had already lay down for nearly half of the day, and the streets and alleys in the north of the city were full of Japanese corpses. "Let the engineering tanks come up, don't stop, keep rushing south! Before dawn, be sure to open the road! "Under the personal command of Zhao Dengyu, the soldiers worked harder and harder, and the armored engineering company also staged a 'demolition' operation, one after another engineering tanks with bulldozers and shovels smashed through the houses and roadblocks blocking the road like wild bulls, and when they saw the Japanese troops escaping, they were either flamethrowers or strafing.

The Japanese army had never seen this kind of hooligan fighting, and they asked the Changgangling Heights to provide artillery support. However, due to the chaos and the fact that it was the middle of the night, the artillery wing at Changgangling could not see the target clearly at all, and the 30-odd 75-mm field guns could only aim indiscriminately at the firelight. The rumbling explosion, the 37th Division, which was hiding behind the armor, did not complain, but the Japanese army could not stand it. "Division Commander! The Heavy Brigade has lost contact! Report, the Chinese army occupies the railway station! The Macao Post and Telecommunications Bureau lost contact. The police building was blown up. The panicked shouts came and went, making Fujita more and more uneasy.

He didn't expect that the city and mountain flanking formation he had carefully arranged would be disrupted by a night attack. Seeing the troops in chaos and the opposing tanks rampaging through the city, Chief of Staff Tahara Toshio couldn't help but be depressed: "Division commander, you must, you have to retreat." "Retreat? Fujita's face was hot, a few hours ago he was still smug in front of the officers, saying that his position was solid, and he ordered a retreat after a few hours, this is not a slap in the face! "The 5th Brigade was ordered to immediately come to the rescue, and the engineer wing went out to recapture the railway station. Tell everyone that you must support until the day. ”

"The chariot of China!"

Before the word 'bright' could be spoken, the sentry at the door shouted. In the flames of the explosion, under the guidance of the prisoners of the North Korean puppet army, He Zihua, who was armed with six 'Night Tigers' and an engineering tank, emerged from the darkness like a ghost. "Captain of the Protection Division!" The dutiful guards grabbed Fujita and ran to the back door. As soon as they stepped out of the threshold with their front feet, there was a loud noise behind them, and dozens of officers and staff officers, including Chief of Staff Tahara Toshio, were all crushed under the rubble. "Immediately retreat to Changgangling!" Fujita was so frightened that he no longer dared to hold on to it, and hurriedly ordered his troops to retreat to the high ground. But at this time, the two sides were completely entangled, and many Japanese troops could not retreat if they wanted to. In order to kill as many Japanese troops as possible, the officers and men of the 37th Panzer Division rushed and fought desperately, and finally after three hours of melee and thousands of casualties. The rest of the Japanese army escaped from Dingzhou City. Zhao Dengyu originally wanted to lead the main force to pursue, but the order brought by Luo Binghui allowed him to hold his hand, and ordered He Zihua to lead a small number of troops to join the reconnaissance battalion and erect a pontoon bridge overnight. By five o'clock in the morning, the main forces of the 3rd Mechanized Infantry Division and the 37th Armored Division had all passed through Dingzhou City, and a wheeled armored company of the 3rd Mechanized Infantry Division had even rushed into Bochuan, which was only 12 kilometers away from Anzhou.

The news of the loss of Dingju Castle overnight shocked Itagaki and the Japanese Korean Army Headquarters. Didn't wait for them to come back to their senses. At 8 o'clock in the morning, two heavy Xi'an-class cruisers, four Songhuajiang-class light cruisers, seven destroyers, and five inland heavy gunboats of the First Fleet of the Republic of China Navy arrived at the mouth of the Qingchuan River. Eighteen warships launched a fierce artillery bombardment from the sea along the Anzhou and Qingchuan rivers, especially the 18 210-mm rapid-fire heavy guns of the Xi'an-class heavy cruisers. It also turned Anzhou City from the inside to the outside. Under the cover of the cruisers, the river gunboats quickly passed through the Yasugian River and carried out artillery bombardment along the river, using the pontoon equipment they carried. Help the 104th Division to quickly complete the river crossing.

By three o'clock in the afternoon, the 104th Division and the 177th Division, which subsequently crossed the river, broke through Akutagawa. And then they, like Dingzhou, converged with the 72nd Division. He also did not fight with the Japanese army who had taken refuge in the mountains, and divided his troops overnight. The 104th Division and the 177th Infantry Division attacked Tokugawa to the east, taking on a posture of crossing the peninsula to attack Wonsan. The 72nd Division waited for a day, handed over Akutagawa to the Korean First Army behind, and then continued south to join the 37th Division and quickly encircled Suncheon. At the same time, Zhuo Fan also handed over the task of attacking Changgangling to the main force behind, and led a division to advance towards Anzhou.

On May 22, the fifth day of the Battle of the Peninsula, the 104th Central Guard Division and the 177th Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht, which were the first to cross the Kiyocheon River, occupied Tokugawa. On the 23rd, after encircling Sunchon, making the Japanese army mistakenly believe that they were going to outflank the back road of Anzhou and attracting three Japanese divisions to intercept it, the 37th Armored Division and the 72nd Armored Division suddenly turned around and crossed the Datong River and advanced rapidly into the plain southeast of Sunchon. After arriving at the Boiling River, the two divisions again divided their forces and pounced on North Hwanghae Province and Gangwon Province, which were empty in defense, respectively, in an attempt to cross the Flying Tiger River and move south. At the same time, in order to cover the rapid breakthrough of the Zhuo Fan cluster, the main force of the Sino-Korean coalition forces, under the personal supervision of Zhu Peide, commander-in-chief of the theater, and Pak Eun-sung, commander of the Korean National Defense Forces and deputy commander of the theater, launched a fierce attack on the whole front from north to south.

"Order Pyongyang's 11th Division to support Yangdeok to the east, Kaesong's 101st Division to go to Seonam-ri, and Wonsan's 32nd Division and 109th Division to the west to stop Feihuling." Itagaki was defeated. He didn't expect Zhuo Fan to let Anzhou go south through the central mountainous area where the mountains were lined with high mountains and it was inconvenient to maneuver, which caught him a little off guard. When Chief of Staff Nishimura saw that he had transferred the two divisions of Yuanshan to Feihuling, he thought he was in a hurry, and hurriedly reminded: "General, navy them." "The Combined Fleet can now only hide east of Japan and the Northern Islands, and even the Sea of Japan, which was once considered an inland sea, cannot ensure security. In the past month, at least six submarines, more than a dozen transport ships, and warships have been sunk by patrol planes in the Sea of Japan. So Nishimura wanted to remind him to be careful of the Shina fleet in Vladivostok in case it was suddenly landed in Wonsan and Jincheong. Itagaki nodded: "Nishimura-kun, don't worry, I understand what you mean." Wonsan was mobilized because they were the closest to Feihuling. Don't worry, I will let the 20th Division in Xipu and the 114th Division in Chunjiang go north to replace them. ”

Nishimura breathed a sigh of relief, although Zhuo Fan gathered his troops to move south quickly, he was not too worried: "General, although the speed of the Shina chariot troops is fast, they lack infantry. You see, Feihuling is a natural barrier, and as long as the line of Anzhou, Xichuan, and Hamxing continues to be blocked, the passage opened by the chariot troops of China will not be able to guarantee the attack of dozens of divisions and regiments. ”

Itagaki didn't react, Zhuo Fan's tactics were too unexpected. He thought that the other party's heavy chariot would not dare to drill into the mountains, but unexpectedly, Zhuo Fan not only drilled. Also threw three or four divisions in one go. The most dangerous thing now is Wonsan, once Wonsan is occupied, the main north-south passage of North Korea will be cut off, and more than a dozen divisions in the north will be surrounded! Thinking about this, he had a headache. Before the fight, he felt that he was sure to rely on the complex terrain of the peninsula and develop his ability to engage in hand-to-hand combat to contain the Chinese army. But I didn't think that the opponent's offensive would be so fierce! And in the slightest, he does not give himself the opportunity to fight positional warfare. Zhuo Fan, who is especially regarded as an assault arrow, has become his number one opponent. Even the most dangerous enemy of the Imperial Army!

However, there is one thing that Nishimura said right, Zhuo Fan relied on his own strong chariot troops to dare to break through deeply, but if the main infantry force and supplies following behind wanted to go south on a large scale, they had to take the railway line between Pyongyang and Wonsan. It's just that why do you always feel unsteady? Itagaki thought about it, but he was still not worried about Feihuling, and swept his fingers: "Let the 47th Division and the 55th Division also set off to Feihuling to encircle the Chinese chariot troops." ”

"General, drain them. There were only four divisions left in Seoul. ”

"I'll get domestic support as soon as possible, go and give the order." Itagaki waved his hand helplessly. The northern troops could not be withdrawn, and the Anzhou side had already started, and the 11 divisions of the three armies of China and North Korea were rapidly moving south. But that's it. In the south, including Seoul, there are only 12 divisions left, and the strength is a little tight. Nishimura disagreed with him reaching out to the country: "General, I'm afraid there won't be many troops drawn from the base camp." ”

Itagaki knew it in his heart. Although the emperor called for 'jade shattering', and the base camp also announced that it would arm another 200 divisions, the problem was. How did these new divisions cross the Tsushima Strait? Even if they can cross the sea, where will the supplies and equipment come from? The average soldier didn't know, he knew it too well. The country is about to be blown up, and the volume of munitions has fallen to less than one-third of its pre-war level. Therefore, the base camp is now very annoyed by the more than 20 divisions that have been put into the south to fight, and they are all the elite of the empire! It is a pity that they are now left in the rainforest and cannot return to fight in the country.

However, knowing that there were no troops in the country, he still sent a telegram back to China, asking for more troops to help.

====

USSR, Orenburg.

In the newly established Ural Theater Command, Timoshenko, the commander of the theater of operations with a bare brain, walked steadily. Beside him, Marshal Budyonny, dressed in a straight cavalry attire, with high riding boots on his feet, and a broad face and a sheep's horn beard, also looked relaxed and walked into the conference room together. "Stand upright! Hats off to the marshal! Under the shouts of the guards, dozens of officers such as Lukin, Rokossovsky and Zhukov, who had been waiting for a long time, all stood up to welcome the cavalry marshal, who was a household name in the Soviet Union.

"Sit down, comrades." Budyonny had a special position in the Soviet army, and half of the officers present were from his subordinates, so he spoke with his hands pressed down, full of style: "I am here to visit you on behalf of the party, on behalf of General Secretary Stalin." Comrade Stalin, is waiting for good news from us. Therefore, before Marshal Timoshenko's explanation, let us cheer up the morale of Ula three times. ”

"Ulla! Ulla! Ulla! "It was a habit of Budyonny, and in the past, when he was fighting, he asked his troops to call for three hooula before each attack. Therefore, after everyone cheered in unison, they sat down together. shouted in unison, to Budyonny's satisfaction, and after spotting Zhukov sitting in the back row, his gaze lingered for a moment before withdrawing it.

Zhukov didn't pay attention to his gaze, his mind was all about the counteroffensive plan.

The half-year-long winter gave the Soviets a much-needed buffer. Considerable progress has been made in the transfer of industrial zones in the Urals, the training of reserve troops, the production of military equipment, and so on. Equipment and the number of troops began to recover, and the development of many new weapons accelerated. Troops from Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic and Moscow began to slowly assemble here. But at the same time, an unavoidable problem is still bothering everyone, that is, the failure in the early stage is too big and too big! So much so that many people think that they should continue to hold on and accumulate strength. But Zhukov did not think much of it, in his opinion, as the front advanced to the Urals, farther and farther away from China proper, the supply disadvantage at the beginning of the war had shifted to China. On a 2,000-kilometer supply line, for every 10 tons of supplies transported, five tons were consumed. Therefore, we must unswervingly attack and attack, as long as the whole country is united, China will only fight weaker and weaker.

Therefore, he is still very much looking forward to this big counteroffensive.

"Comrades! The time is ripe for a counteroffensive. Just three days earlier, the enemy had concentrated more than four million troops (including Korean and Vietnamese servants) for a full-scale attack on Japan. We already have accurate information that the enemy has simultaneously thrown his troops into four theaters of battle: Tohoku, Korea, Ryukyu and the Southeast Peninsula. This means that for the next six months, the number of enemies facing us will remain at 3 million (2.5 million Wehrmacht, 500,000 Polish/Central Asian servants) and we will not be able to receive many reinforcements. "Comrade Marshal, is it missing? Ashgabat has been lost, there is a passage between Iran and Turkmenistan, then 600,000 enemy troops in the Persian Gulf should be counted. Before Timoshenko could finish speaking, Zhukov raised his hand.

This interruption made Budyonny and Timoshenko frown. But Zhukov also had no choice, although Stalin resumed his work and appointed him commander of the Stalingrad Front. But everyone knows that the Ural theater of operations is still far from Stalingrad, so he, the commander of the Front, is more like a logistics and training captain. It was precisely because of this treatment that he did not have the opportunity to participate in the military conference of the General Staff on the counteroffensive, so he had this question.

Seeing that the conference room suddenly fell silent, Rokossovsky, who commanded two tentative counterattacks in a row and joined the General Staff, pulled him and whispered: "Comrade Zhukov, Comrade Motorov has secretly met the Iraqis. ”…… (To be continued)