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Although some shells accidentally injured Japanese soldiers, more shells did fall on the lines of the Western Sichuan Army. The Western Sichuan Army, which had already suffered heavy casualties, suddenly appeared a short gap in the defensive line, and the powerful firepower came to a standstill, and the Japanese soldiers who were originally suppressed by the powerful firepower took the opportunity to rush to the defensive line of the Western Sichuan Army with a roar.

"Holy shit, fire up, the Japanese are coming up! Throw grenades! The commander of a platoon guarding this section of the position shouted, but only a few people responded to him. A few grenades were thrown out, blowing up several Japanese soldiers, but many more Japanese soldiers rushed into their positions.

"Brothers, get on the bayonet and fight with these Japanese!" The platoon commander shouted, stuck his bayonet in his rifle, and jumped out of the trench with his gun in hand. The Japanese Army's bayonet fighting technology is first-class in Asia and even in the world, and although the Western Sichuan Army is not weak, because of the gap in numbers, the platoon commander and a few soldiers of the surviving Western Sichuan Army were instantly overwhelmed by the surging Japanese soldiers.

A large number of Japanese soldiers rushed into the positions of the Western Sichuan Army and attacked the column and both flanks. Although the western Sichuan army resisted steadily, the loss of positions had become a foregone conclusion.

"Captain! The Japanese have broken into our line of defense, there are so many of them that the front line is no longer stopping! The deputy commander of the 22nd Regiment rushed into the headquarters and said to Lu Hanyuan.

"What does the battalion commander eat? How did the Japanese rush in? Immediately stop the troops from driving the Japanese out! Lu Hanyuan, the commander of the 22nd regiment, stood up and yelled.

"The battalion commander has died. The Japanese attacked the battalion headquarters, and almost all of the battalion was killed! The deputy head of the regiment said.

Lu Hanyuan was silent all of a sudden. "Immediately organize troops and prepare for the second line of positions to resist the Japanese. At the same time, send a report to the division commander! Lu Hanyuan said. The front-line positions were broken through, and it was foreseeable that a large number of Japanese soldiers would break through the positions of the Western Sichuan Army from here, and it had become impossible for the 23rd Division to resist the Japanese. In order to avoid a rout, the 22nd Regiment had to do its best to delay the Japanese and buy time for the withdrawal of the main force of the 23rd Division.

"Yes!" The deputy regiment commander immediately went to organize the troops. At the same time, the signal corps immediately reported the situation here to Du Qizheng, commander of the 23rd Division. In less than five minutes, the 22nd Regiment received Du Qizheng's order. Du Qizheng asked them to hold back the Japanese army for more than half an hour, and the division headquarters would send a battalion of reinforcements to support them.

Although the position of the 22nd Regiment was broken through, this made Du Qizheng very annoyed. But there was no choice but to evacuate. The 23rd Division was too weak in strength, and it was able to compete with the Japanese army by relying on a strong position. The position is breached, and they are in no danger to defend. The superiority of the Japanese army in strength will be fully brought into play, which cannot be reversed at all for the 23rd Division.

Subsequently, the main force of the 23rd Division began to retreat in an orderly manner. The artillery was evacuated first, then the units directly under the division headquarters, the organs of the division headquarters, and finally the units at the front. At noon, the 23rd Division withdrew to the second line of defense and fought against the Japanese along with the 22nd Division, which was responsible for defending the area.

In the Jiujianghe defense line, the 23rd Division did not hold on for even two days, and retreated to the second line of defense, the Shihe defense line, and after counting the number of points, it was found that the casualties of the whole division reached more than 4,000 people, of which more than 2,000 were killed or seriously wounded. The 22nd Regiment, which was attacked by the Japanese army, accounted for half of the total casualties.

The Japanese army broke through the defense line of the 23rd Division so quickly, which also shocked the generals of the Western Sichuan Army. Even though the Japanese defeated the Qing army last year, they did not face the Japanese army squarely. Only now did they realize that these small Japanese troops were not easy to deal with! This is also the reason why the weapons and equipment of the Western Sichuan Army are much better than those of the Japanese army. If the weapons and equipment of the two sides are the same, even if it is one-on-one, it may be very difficult for the Western Sichuan Army to win. This made Zhao Bowen of the Shanhaiguan Theater contact the General Staff Headquarters in Chengdu as soon as possible, hoping to transfer more troops to the Shanhaiguan Theater. Then, the answer from the General Staff Headquarters was that it would be ten days at the earliest, and the surplus troops would be dispatched to Shanhaiguan. During this period, the defenders of Shanhaiguan had to hold their positions.

Breaking through the first line of defense of the Western Sichuan Army, the Japanese army was greatly excited. After the breakthrough of the front line, Nogi Noshinori threw all the remaining forces of the 13th Division into it, which is why the 23rd Division had to be withdrawn immediately.

"Your Excellency Commander, the 13th Division has broken through the defense line of the Western Sichuan Army and is currently taking advantage of the victory to pursue!" Nogi Noshinori reported to Yama Prefecture Youpeng with a happy face. His promise yesterday was to break through the defense line of the Chinese people before dark, and now it was only in the afternoon, and he had successfully broken through the defense line of the western Sichuan army, which made him quite proud. You must know that yesterday, the Second Division was unable to break through the defense line of the Western Sichuan Army after a day of bloody fighting, and the 13th Division was just a newly formed division, but it was able to successfully break through the defense line of the Western Sichuan Army.

"Hmmm! General Nogi Noshinori, you did a very good job! What were the casualties of the 13th Division? Youpeng of Shan County asked.

"This, the specific number has not been counted yet!" Nogi said.

However, in the evening, when Youpeng in Shan County got the casualty statistics of the 13th Division, his face suddenly became very difficult. In today's attack of the 13th Division, the casualties amounted to more than 8,000. After a whole day of fighting yesterday and the fact that the Western Sichuan Army had already suffered heavy losses, the losses of the 13th Division were no less than those of the 2nd Division. The two-day attack directly caused the Japanese army to lose almost one division of troops, which made Yama County Youpeng very angry. If it weren't for the fact that Nogi Noshinori had just won the battle now, and it was worth a big book, he would probably be eager to give Nogi Noshinori a few slaps.

On April 6, the Japanese army launched an attack on the second line of defense of the Western Sichuan Army. Compared with the Jiujianghe defense line in front, the Shihe defense line is more solid, and the Shihe is also wider, and there are not many places suitable for attacking. Coupled with the withdrawal of the 23rd Division, the strength of the Shihe defense line has been greatly strengthened, and it is more difficult for the Japanese army to break through the Shihe defense line.

On this day, the 3rd, 5th and 2nd Divisions of the Japanese Army launched a fierce attack on the Shihe defense line of the Western Sichuan Army. The battle was very fierce, and the artillery of both sides launched a brutal artillery battle. In order to strengthen the firepower of the front line, Zhao Bowen deliberately transferred the artillery battalions of the 3rd Division and the 11th Division, which were defending Shanhaiguan, to the Shihe defensive line. This made the artillery of the Western Sichuan Army ahead of the Japanese army, both in terms of numbers and firepower. On April 6, after a day of bloody fighting, the Japanese army lost more than 5,000 casualties, and could not break through the defense line of the Western Sichuan Army.

On April 7, the Japanese launched a fierce attack, and the fresh forces of the 6th, 14th, and 15th divisions replaced the front divisions that had fought hard and suffered heavy casualties.

The addition of the new force put the western Sichuan army under great pressure. But even so, the Shihe defense line was still firmly in the hands of the Western Sichuan Army. In the fierce battle on April 7, the Japanese paid tens of thousands of casualties. And the Western Sichuan Army, the number of casualties also reached 2,000. Exactly more than 5 exchanges.

On April and April 9, the Japanese army launched a series of fierce attacks. The divisions and regiments took turns to go to the front, and after paying great casualties, they also brought great pressure to the Western Sichuan Army. The soldiers were extremely tired, and the defense of the front line began to show holes. Several times it was almost broken through by the Japanese army. Fortunately, reinforcements came up at the critical moment and repelled the Japanese attack. In these two days of fighting, the Japanese army once again paid the price of tens of thousands of people, and the western Sichuan army also lost nearly 3,000 people.

Since the beginning of the battle on April 4, the Japanese have accumulated more than 40,000 casualties. The casualties of the Western Sichuan Army also exceeded 10,000. The battle was very tragic, but both the Western Sichuan Army and the Japanese Army were struggling to support it. The reinforcements of the four subsequent divisions of the Japanese army will be able to be put into the battlefield in two days, which makes Shan Shan Youpeng full of confidence.

On the evening of April 9, Nogi Noshinori, the commander of the 13th Division of the Japanese Army, once again asked for battle, and he asked for the 13th Division to launch a night attack to try to break through the defense line of the Western Sichuan Army.

Aritomo Yamaguchi approved Nogi Noshinori's plan, and that night, more than 5,000 Japanese troops of the 13th Division, shirtless and with white strips of cloth wrapped around their heads, launched a sneak attack at two o'clock in the morning.

After many days of fierce fighting, the western Sichuan army was already exhausted. The sneak attack of the Japanese army was not discovered in time until the Japanese army crossed the Shihe River and was only a hundred meters away from the front line.

Suddenly, the sound of gunfire erupted, and the Western Sichuan Army launched a fierce fire, hoping to resist the Japanese attack. The Japanese army, finding that the sneak attack could not succeed, also changed from a sneak attack to a strong attack. Thousands of shirtless Japanese soldiers, one after another, achieved results that excited the Japanese army. After paying heavy casualties, the Japanese rushed into the defensive line of the Western Sichuan Army. Although the Western Sichuan Army, which reacted, launched a fierce counterattack, as more and more Japanese troops crossed the Shihe River, they attacked the defense line of the Western Sichuan Army. The Western Sichuan Army had to begin to retreat.

The fighting did not cease until the morning of April 0, when the 22nd and 23rd Divisions of the Western Sichuan Army guarding Shihe withdrew to Shanhaiguan. After the Japanese army broke through the defense line of the Western Sichuan Army, the Western Sichuan Army had to resist the Japanese attack and buy time for the withdrawal of artillery and other technical units, which made the casualties of the Western Sichuan Army very large.

After the 22nd and 23rd Divisions retreated to Shanhaiguan, there were only more than 10,000 people left in the 22nd Division, and the 23rd Division was even more miserable, with more than 18,000 people in the division, only more than 7,000 remaining, less than a brigade.

PS: The fourth update is here! Tomorrow's three watches, no update in the early morning! (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to register as a member to recommend this work, your support is my biggest motivation. )