Chapter 188: Battle of Anqing (2)

Hasegawa Kinakasa only had half an hour, and he couldn't stand it. He hasn't studied this kind of thing yet, although the accuracy rate is not high, but it is even more irregular, and there is no trace. But the coverage is wide, the explosion is not very powerful, but the speed is very fast. The Japanese defensive positions had little to defend themselves.

A flying bolt originally had only one pack* on it, but then it changed, and it was a pack of four or five*. *As soon as it explodes, it blows * up and flies around. Fall everywhere.

While reporting to the division commander for artillery support, he dispersed his forces to avoid such an attack, and if it was daylight, he would organize his troops to counterattack, and although he could not see where the firing positions were, he could judge that the distance was not far. At this time, it is dark night, and if you attack rashly, who knows if you will be ambushed?

By the time Hasegawa Kinakasa reported a request for artillery support, Masaharu Honma was already anxious, because it was not only the 1st Wing that was requested for support, but also the 2nd Wing and the 3rd Wing. It was only then that Masaharu Honma realized how foolish it was for him to scatter his troops outside the city.

The chief of staff, Harada Yoshikawa and Osa, were also a little confused, so they had to say: "Division commander, withdraw the troops to the city, the Snow Fox Corps is attacking from three sides, and this is not the only way." Their strange weapon is supposed to be the ancient Chinese crossbow bolt belt*, which cannot carry artillery. ”

Honma Masaharu has a very good set of theories, and if he really actually commands operations, he is a little lacking in experience. At this time, the most taboo is hesitation, let alone excitement. If the troops withdraw to the city, how can they pose a threat to Snow Fox, if they send troops to surround Anqing, they will always be alone, and Snow Fox can send troops to attack Huangmei from the back and threaten the attack of the 6th Division.

He shook his head: "No, Xue Ru used this method to force the imperial army to defend, and her goal should be to relieve the siege of Wuhan." Order the wings to send troops to attack and crush these backward weapons. ”

Harada Yoshikazu is a general with rich combat experience: "Division commander, no, the Snow Fox infantry does not attack, it is just that we are worried about concentrating on defense." Sending troops to attack, it is easy to be ambushed. ”

Honma Masaharu was already angry, Snow Fox This is a shameless tactic, and he actually used this method. It is not impossible for the artillery to adjust the coordinates and support the operation from a distance of several miles, and this is what he considered when he set up the artillery in the city. Reinforcements can be made in any of the attacked directions. But he attacked on three sides at the same time. He has only one heavy artillery wing, and when dispersed, the power is limited, after all, it cannot be covered with artillery fire, and the two sides are very close.

This kind of bed crossbow is more difficult to disassemble, and it cannot be moved, and its huge recoil and vibration force are not so easy to move. Send a large team to attack, there is no dangerous terrain around here, how to ambush? Besides, he didn't go out of the nest. Once one brigade is ambushed, the second and third brigades will attack one after another. Snow Fox has only 20,000 people, and he is a triad division with 18,000 people.

He ordered the three wings to immediately attack in three sections in large groups to prevent being ambushed. At the same time, he telegraphed to the commander of the 2nd Army, Lieutenant General Tokumiya Tsukihiko Wang, suggesting that he attack Tongcheng, Xue Ru must hold on to the west of Tongcheng Yuexi, and the attacking troops are limited, so he has the possibility of destroying Snow Fox.

According to the report, the snow fox hiding in the darkness did not know how many people there were, and if they had attacked earlier, they would not have used such means to attack and injure the imperial army from a distance.

However, just after midnight, a report was received that the attacking imperial army brigade was indeed not ambushed, but was blocked, because it was night, and the imperial army was not accustomed to night fighting, and the attack did not go well, but their bed crossbows were captured and all blown up.

This made Honma Masaharu very complacent, it seems that the snow fox is nothing more than that, they can't imagine that they dare to send troops to attack, right? It didn't take long for Masaharu Honma to laugh, because the three wings reported that this burst was bombed and attacked by the Japanese, and the losses in three directions were as high as two brigades.

If you do it twice, you really can't afford to lose. In this night's battle, Snow Fox suffered almost no casualties, which means that he had no casualties and eliminated 2,000 Japanese troops.

In Hefei, the king of Dongjiugong was very happy, since the snow fox had launched an attack on the 27th division, then his plan was about to begin, and immediately ordered the 16th division to attack Tongcheng at dawn, and the snow fox could not defeat the 27th division, and he had to divide his troops to hold Tongcheng, otherwise he would be surrounded by his two divisions.

At the same time, the 3rd Division was ordered to attack Shawo to suppress Song Xilian and not be able to reinforce Xue Ru. The 10th Division was ordered to attack Huangchuan and Xinyang, and the 6th Division attacked Tianjiazhen. In order to cooperate with the operation, the two divisions of the 11th Army and the Potian detachment launched an attack at the same time to contain the strength of the national army and could not reinforce the Snow Fox Corps.

For this change, not only was the military committee greatly surprised, but even Bai Chongxi was a little panicked, all of them were too busy to reinforce Xue Ru's Snow Fox Corps, seeing that she was surrounded by two divisions.

In the Xue Ru headquarters in Yuexi, Li Wenxiu took the telegram and said: "The military commissar ordered that the Snow Fox Corps retreat to Yuexi, join forces together, and stick to the front line of Tongcheng for ten days. ”

Xue Ru smiled: "Stick to it for ten days? Call back and tell them that Snow Fox will hold out for half a month. Please rest assured, Chairman. ”

Li Wenxiu said: "Why don't you tell them, Commander Song is very worried, and he has already sent a telegram to ask twice." Said that if it didn't work, you could retreat in advance to avoid being surrounded. ”

Xue Ru's goal was to eliminate the 27th Division, not to block the attack, and these people were worried that they would see the failure of the attack last night. In fact, who knows that Xue Ru did it on purpose, otherwise the entire Snow Fox Corps would attack with all their might, and it would be strange that Masaharu Honma could block it.

This battle is the first battle in which Xue Ru officially joined the national army, if he doesn't fight well, how can he win the right to fight independently, and how can he get a reputation and status. The change of thinking will inevitably lead to a change in behavior, Xue Ru originally had no intention of being an official, and he didn't want to have any power, he just wanted to eliminate the devil and take revenge in the War of Resistance.

But the reality made her hit a wall again and again, no one listened to her at all, and she couldn't even get weapons and ammunition. It also caused dissatisfaction among his subordinates, after all, there was no chance of promotion. From the beginning of Xue Ru's change of mind, she moved closer to the center of the state government every step, and the effect was remarkable. It has only been a long time since he was promoted from temporary colonel to major general, and the entire Snow Fox people have also risen.

Snow Fox has also changed from a corps to a military-level unit, and in Xue Ru's opinion, if he doesn't fight well, he is really sorry for this trust. For many reasons, Xue Ru, who was as cunning as a fox, began to play with his heart. She never mentioned that the Japanese army would land in Guangzhou to cut off the Guangdong-Hankou Railway, nor did she say that Wuhan would be lost.

Shanghai, Nanjing, Xuzhou, and Wuhan have all proposed it themselves, but what is the result? It didn't work, it attracted countless suspicions, and it also made the relationship very strained. Are Shanghai and Nanjing small on their own? But who is grateful to themselves? In the end, even Wu Yuzhao betrayed himself. Because of what he did, he also offended the CCP and became an expert, creating friction and sabotaging the War of Resistance.

Xue Ru, who began to think about himself, was of course not stupid enough to take the initiative and fight his troops together, and the credit was someone else's.

How did the warlords come about, this is how they were forced out little by little. Now Xue Ru doesn't have time to think about whether this is what later generations called bad money drives out good money. Xue Ru's mentality has completely changed, although the Anti-Japanese War is still the first, it no longer affects her to seek benefits for herself, and she begins to calculate her gains and losses.

Since Xue Ru knew that Wuhan would not be able to hold it in the end, why did she have to be buried with them? Deliberately did not destroy the 27th Division at once. Just let Wu Yuzhao attack Huangmei, and sure enough, the 27th Division was transferred to Anqing.

Let them see that there are times when the snow fox can't do it, just give Honma Masaharu a small lesson, retreat as soon as the morning dawns, not only to achieve the heart of arrogance, but also to put the snow fox in a dangerous situation.

At this time, everyone was worried that the snow fox would be surrounded, and they didn't want to watch her fail. Even the military committee gave Xue Ru an order, as long as he retreated to Yuexi Tongcheng and held on for ten days, so that the loss of Wuhan had nothing to do with Snow Fox, and at the same time, when he failed, it would be different to achieve victory.

It's like if a person has 10,000 yuan on him, and if you give him 100 yuan, he won't be grateful, but when he can't eat, if you give him 10 yuan, he will be grateful. If the 27th Division is easily eliminated, it will be thought that Xue Ru's victory came too easily, just like in the previous battles, either Xue Ru was lucky, or it was the credit of so-and-so.

It is not easy for a person to learn to be noble, to be great, but it is very easy to learn to be selfish. Xue Ru's later life is not a person with lofty ideals and noble feelings, she joined the army, she wants to become a special forces, that is her hobby and ambition.

Everyone has patriotic feelings, but it depends on identity and ability. At least Xue Ru's social status determines that there is a limit to what she can do. She is not a god and she is not an angel. With the current environment of the national government, it is easy for Xue Ru to go down this path.

The "report" staff officer came in: "Commander Chen of the 36th Division reported that this morning, the 19th Brigade of the 16th Division of the Japanese Army, commanded by the brigade commander Major General Naoji Sakai, launched an attack on Tongcheng, and at the same time the 30th Brigade launched an attack on Shucheng, and the battle was fierce. The 216th Regiment of Hu Jiayi resisted very hard. ”

Xue Ru nodded: "Tell Master Chen, don't insist too much, three days, as long as you delay for three days." ”

Li Wenxiu nodded and agreed to give orders to the 36th Division in Taochong. In fact, the entire Snow Fox didn't understand too well, since it had the ability to defeat the 27th Division as soon as possible, why wait? No one knew what Xue Ru thought.

Since the snow fox retreated during the day, Honma Masaharu was of course very proud. Snow Fox is nothing more than that, can it defeat the Japanese Imperial Army by relying on weapons that have been eliminated for a hundred years? It's just a joke. Because he suffered a little loss, and he didn't know how many casualties the snow fox had, he received an order from King Tokumiya Twist, and the 27th Division immediately launched an attack on Qianshan to contain Xue Ru's forces and ensure that the 16th Division captured Tongcheng. Encircle the Snow Fox troops.

When the time comes, Xue Ru will not continue to play with the Japanese army, otherwise the 36th Division may suffer too many casualties, and the greedy Xue Ru is not as simple as eliminating the 27th Division. Sure enough, in the evening, the 36th Division received a report that Tongcheng was lost, and the 36th Division withdrew from Tongcheng and retreated to Yuexi, resisting the Japanese attack in a steady manner.

In the next day, the Japanese army had occupied Tangwan, and the forward troops had approached Taochong. It is believed that tomorrow will directly attack Yuexi, and Xue Ru's headquarters is in Yuexi. In the evening, Xue Ru said to Li Wenxiu: "Order Wu Yuzhao's independent division to attack in an all-out way, end the battle within twenty-four hours, and drive the devils down the Yangtze River." The 36th Division was ordered to abandon the Taochong position immediately after the Japanese army stopped the offensive, attacked Anqing, and attacked Anqing from the left. “

"Yes," Li Wenxiu stood up and gave the order for a general attack to all troops. Xue Ru did not eliminate the 27th Division in advance, because he was worried that the 16th Division would retract. The 13th Division has been transferred back to Hefei, once the 16th Division retreats, and the strength of the two divisions, Xue Ru has no siege weapons, and no longer has air supremacy, it will be difficult to destroy the Japanese army in Hefei. Once the Battle of Wuhan is over, the entire surrounding Japanese army will be surrounded, and Snow Fox will not be able to stop the siege of four or five divisions even if it has three heads and six arms, and will only be forced to withdraw from this area.

Xue Ru must deal with most of the devils before the end of the Battle of Wuhan, and eliminate more of them. So keep the 27th Division to catch the 16th Division to take the bait. The Japanese army only had two divisions and would believe that it could destroy the Snow Fox Corps. With 20,000 troops, the Snow Fox Corps believed that King Tsukihiko Higashikunomiya did not have the courage to attack with a division, and the Snow Fox was different from other national army units.

There was no surprise in everything, King Tsukihiko of Dongkugong was indeed very cooperative, and sure enough, when Xue Ru attacked Huangmei, he transferred the 27th Division to Anqing, and from the time Honma Masaharu entered Anqing, his fate was already doomed.

Outside the city of Anqing, the Snow Fox Independent Division had been merged, with troops commanded by the 1st Brigade Lan Xun Zhou to the east and Dai Zong's troops of the 2nd Brigade to the north. In front of the Pingjiagang position held by the Japanese army, it was Sari who started to act first.

If Masaharu Honma saw it, he would definitely scoff at it, it was this kind of bed crossbow again, he didn't think it made sense, because the distance between the two sides was five or six hundred meters, which was the distance of the Japanese mortar, how can something like a bed crossbow compare with a mortar? The first time it was the Imperial Army who didn't know anything, but this time it didn't work.

Hasegawa Kinakasa would never have thought that there was not only one way to use weapons. This time Ouyang and they are not so close, and they are no longer *.

This time there were more, and along with them were hundreds of trebuchets, weapons that could not be more old. This time, there were not enough people in the direct regiment. Even the men of the 8th Regiment were involved, and several people pushed one closer to the Japanese position.

When there were seven or eight hundred meters, the whole team stopped, lined up and shouted, "Open fire." ”

The Snow Fox Regiment still calls this kind of thing a cannon. If it were a stone, it would be of little damage, but unfortunately it wasn't, and it was a clay pot that flew out of it, and it was full of gasoline. There were hundreds of trebuchets, and the clay pots that flew out didn't make much noise. Before the sentries standing guard could understand what it was, the sound of swishing, the cracking of ping-pongs, and hundreds of clay pots, fell into the Japanese camp and position.

Ouyang Sari, they also knew that once the Japanese army judged it, mortars and infantry artillery would follow. So they have limited time, and they are all launching with full force. In a short period of time, more than a dozen of them were thrown out of each trebuchet.

Sari shouted: "Ballista fire." ”

The crossbow bolts lit with * flew to the Japanese position with the * bag, and heard this sound again, but the wing commander Hasegawa Kei was already frightened, he already knew that it was gasoline that fell into the position, and sure enough, in just a few seconds, with the sound of explosions, the Japanese camp and position rose into flames, and the sound of the charge horn sounded in the distance.