Chapter 1143: A Helpless Confrontation (I)

At dawn the next day, the sun had just revealed a bright morning glow in the east, and the battlefield had been fiercely fought for almost a night, and there were sporadic gunfires, several senior commanders of the Japanese army in the valley, after putting Nakazawa under house arrest, commanded the troops, and broke through the canyon one after another, they knew very well in their hearts that after the encircled independent division troops broke through, the fate that awaited them was to perish.

Whether it was a dying struggle or a desperate gamble, the Japanese did not want to wait for death in the gorge of the turtle in the urn, and tried again and again, the Japanese soldiers died, and even their commanders were numb, and the directly subordinate corps with the strength of two infantry brigades, with four heavy artillery regiments, rigidly blocked the exit of the canyon, and on the forward positions of the first line, more than 200 light and heavy machine guns were put alone.

The light and heavy machine guns of the 1st and 6th Brigades, like a strong wind, hit the rocks "whooshing" straight down, hit the ground with sand and rocks, and the Japanese soldiers who tried to break through were torn to pieces by this dense rain of bullets.

The broken corpses of Japanese soldiers were piled up at the exit of the canyon, and several senior officers who had deprived Nakazawa of command tossed in the middle of the night, and in the valley, more than 20,000 soldiers tossed more than half of them, and the tanks of a tank brigade were almost completely wiped out, and they all became a pile of burning scrap metal under the artillery shells of the independent division.

On this night, in the words of the soldiers, "called the door to close the door and beat the dog," especially the First Brigade, under the command of the acting brigade commander Ren Zhaoquan, the Japanese soldiers were beaten on their backs, and they let out a good breath of evil, and in the interval of the fierce battle, Ren Zhaoquan did not forget to send a message to Liu Hongzhang, the former brigade commander who had been demoted to a staff officer, and the phone was directly called to the division headquarters.

"Brigade commander, the first battalion and the other two companies have already broken through, the casualties are not large, a total of more than 300 people, and, our brigade is blocking the little devils and beating them, don't you see it, it's really enjoyable, the little devils are rushing out in rows, and our light and heavy machine guns are firing together, oops, that's a pleasure!"

Liu Hongzhang heard the blood in his veins, slapped the shell box suddenly, and shouted into the microphone: "Okay! Zhaoquan, pay attention, don't relax, don't let the little devils take advantage of the loophole, our brigade is up to you! ”

Liu Hongzhang's voice was also a little louder, attracting the attention of everyone in the division headquarters, and he was still unconscious, his mouth was "tsk", his face was full of red light, and when he put down the phone, he was still shaking his head and self-absorption, and when he looked up, he saw the eyes of the division commander Tang Qiuli, and looked at him coldly.

Liu Hongzhang shrank his neck and said curtly: "Division commander, I'll go to the confidential office to see if there is a new telegram," After speaking, he was about to slip out, but was stopped by Tang Qiuli, "Come back, send you a new mission," Liu Hongzhang was in high spirits, and raised his head with his chest straight, "In order to ensure the smooth progress of the Northern Burma Campaign, the division has newly established the Joint Service Command of the Northern Burma Battlefield, you go to serve as the chief of staff, and Zhou Yushan is your deputy, and you will report to Myitkyina immediately," Tang Qiuli said lightly.

Liu Hongzhang almost cried, he couldn't even do the staff officer of the division commander, and let a dignified major general and brigade commander take care of logistics? As far as he knows, Zhou Yushan, the logistics director of the independent division and the commander of the transport unit, is a colonel, he is a major general, and he is the chief of staff of a colonel.

Tang Qiuli finished writing the letter of appointment, and no matter what the expression of Liu Hongzhang who was crying and mourning, he handed it to him with a straight face, and then went to work on other things, Liu Hongzhang stayed for a while, and saw that the teacher had no intention of changing his mind, so he had to pick up the letter of appointment and leave dejectedly.

Chief of Staff Yang Ketian, looking at Liu Hongzhang's back, said to Tang Qiuli: "Division commander, is this appropriate?" Brigade Commander Liu is a fierce general, let him take care of logistics, just Director Zhou's slow and meticulous temperament, within three days, Brigade Commander Liu will be able to go crazy, and when the time comes, I have to come to beg you! ”

Tang Qiuli looked at a telegram sent by Le Yiqin, and said without raising his head: "Ketian, I just let Zhou Yushan's character have a greater impact on him, Liu Hongzhang is more impatient, this time, the accident in Degang should be a lesson for him, grind it well, it will be good for him, by the way, give Zhou Yushan a call, just say that it is my order, you must be strict with Liu Hongzhang." ”

Le Yiqin's telegram was to inform the division that the two bomber regiments of the Second Southern Flight Group of the Air Force and the three fighter regiments escorting the air force were already on standby on the take-off line and could take off at any time. "Division Commander, it's five twenty in the morning," Tang Qiuli thought for a moment and said to himself, "It's still too late." ”

He said to Yang Ketian: "Ketian, order Le Yiqin, all the bombers carry Foguang napalm, after bombing the Degang Gorge, rush to Wubin, carry out air raids on the Japanese army, let him increase the escort fighters to five regiments, if the forecast is not bad, today, in the sky over Wubin, there will be a fierce battle." ”

At six o'clock in the morning, in the quiet sky, there was a roar, and after a while, the small black dots visible to the naked eye suddenly expanded in the field of vision, and more than 100 bombers appeared in the sky over Degang, and above the bomber group, there were more than 300 fighters, and the five-clawed golden dragon and the Great Wall logo on the wings were shining in the morning sun.

Le Yiqin looked at the ground from the cockpit and turned on the communication switch: "Report to the division commander, the bomber formation and escort fighter formation of the Southern Flight Group of the Air Force have arrived over Degang, ask for instructions, should you start bombing immediately?" ”

Tang Qiuli's cold voice came, "Yiqin, carry out a destructive bombing of the remnants of the Japanese army in the Degang Gorge, remember, use all the Buddha light, don't waste ordinary aerial bombs, let's start!" ”

Le Yiqin grinned, "The division commander hates the little devil in his heart, and he doesn't leave a single living mouth, and the shot is a Buddha light napalm, this thing can even burn through the steel plate," At Le Yiqin's level, the battle situation in northern Myanmar is very well understood, and the Confidential Section of the Communications Department of the Independent Division will regularly send war briefings.

Le Yiqin ordered: "Each echelon will pass through the bombing area in turn, drop two bombs, and then, immediately rush to the Wubin airspace, escort the aircraft group, escort the aircraft in batches, and start the operation!" "The bomber formations of the independent division's air force swooped down one after another from the morning glow sky, and there was no deafening explosion, only the flames that soared into the sky, wrapped in billowing black smoke, soared into the blue sky.

No one could assess the effect of the bombardment, and the raging fire, which burned for a whole day and night, gradually died out, and according to the local residents of Degang, "this fire is so fierce, it is several miles away, and it is all roasted," and in this little-known hidden canyon, every qiē was turned to ashes, and the rocks were burned to maroon, and within two years, not a single grass was grown, and there was no longer a trace of Japanese soldiers and tanks, and it turned into a wisp of green smoke over northern Burma.

Just when Le Yiqin's group was carrying out a destructive bombing of the Degang Gorge, Tang Qiusheng, who was on the Wubin front, commanded the troops and had just repelled a fierce attack by the Japanese army.

Ito was hit head-on by Tang Qiusheng, was beaten back to the Baldwin mining area, and could not contact Degang's troops, so he realized that the situation was not good, and it was no longer just tens of thousands of soldiers used by independent divisions to send death in front of him, but Tang Qiuli had a new army arrived, and his opponent was replaced, and it took almost one night for Ito to reorganize his troops and adjust his deployment.

At dawn, the chaotic troops, finally sorted out the appearance, so that His Excellency the commander-in-chief felt exhausted, compared to the nearly 400,000 troops, the blow received yesterday, the loss was not large, but the fatal thing is that the new troops of the independent division, the sequence was disrupted, fortunately, the other side did not take advantage of the situation to continue the attack, so that he had a room to breathe.

The increased troops, a large number of tanks, and the strength of the opponent have already given Ito a headache, and since the beginning of May, the Southeast Asian dispatch army has landed on the Indochina Peninsula in Yangon and Bangkok, first fighting with the British, and then fighting with the troops of Tang Qiuli of China.

Although it was not difficult to fight the British, after repeated battles, the casualties of the dispatched troops had exceeded 40,000, plus Banmao and Degang, more than 100,000 people were lost, and the strength of the troops was sharply reduced by one-third.

Coupled with the mountain roads in Burma that can barely be called a highway, logistics and supply are even more difficult, and the grim reality is that in front of Ito Yanzaburo, he knows too well the current situation of the troops, and with the aftermath of the victory over the British, he rushed to northern Burma in one go, and he could only let this breath hold on until he defeated Tang Qiuli and controlled the northern Burma region.

Therefore, Ito never wants this battle to drag on for a long time, and he can't afford to drag it out, the difficult logistical supplies, the soldiers who have fought continuously and are exhausted, if they can't win to the end in one go, retreat to southern Burma, and want to make a comeback, it's not easy to talk about, giving the devil Tang Qiuli enough time, Ito himself knows in his heart that if he wants to attack northern Myanmar like this, it will be more difficult than ascending to the sky.

Moreover, Ito's heart has always been full of vigilance against the independent division troops in the eastern part of the Indochina Peninsula, once they join the battlefield in northern Burma, their advantages will be gone, and when the time comes, whether they can retreat south along the way will be a problem, and it is also the blessing of Amaterasu and the emperor, the eastern part of the Indochina Peninsula has broken out a major flood that has not been encountered for ten years, and God has blocked the arrival of Tang Qiuli's troops.

For Ito, the time to win the battle in northern Burma was determined by the time when the eastern troops of the independent division joined the battlefield, Ito had to fight, for him, this was the only chance, but also the last chance, the first attack on the morning of July 5, after being repulsed, Ito did not blink his eyes, and immediately took out the new troops of the three divisions and launched a second attack on the Ubin defense line.

(To be continued)

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