Chapter 4: Turning to War (12)

A little earlier than the time of the three attacks of the Kido, Yamashita Chongwu set out from Xiaofeng and headed for Baofu Ridge.

The 176th Division of Ou Shounian, as an ambush force, had already set up a position in Xuling, waiting for the arrival of the Japanese army.

The reason why the 176th Division is the starting force is not because they are the strongest, but because they are the only one of the three divisions of the 48th Army to wear leather shoes, when the 173rd and 174th Divisions set out in September, Guangxi was still a hot summer, the soldiers were single clothes, and straw sandals under their feet, they thought that they would be able to go back in a month at most, who knew that this fight would be in the middle of winter, the winter in the northwest mountainous area of Zhejiang is very different from Guangxi, the temperature is particularly low, although there is no snow under the mountain, the ridge is full of ice, and the grass has turned silver, The branches are like glass tubes, and the water in the ravine has long been frozen, and the only way to be thirsty is to chew ice. Xuling is located in a remote area, there are no houses for camping, and the grass and trees are difficult to shelter from the wind and snow, the cold is biting, and the hands and feet are frozen. When withdrawing from Xiaofeng, the soldiers of the 173rd and 174th Divisions, in addition to their own equipment, each carried a big bundle of straw on their backs. In the battle of Fumohama, the 173rd and 174th divisions suffered considerable losses, each division had less than 2,000 men left, and the ammunition was also exhausted, and it was never replenished. Relatively speaking, the 176th Division is much stronger, during the Anji garrison, because of the harvest of Xu Ping's people, the brothers of the 176th Division have cotton clothes and leather shoes, and all the bullets made in Hanyang are concentrated and used by the 525 Brigade, most of the 526 Brigade is switched to Japanese weapons, although Qin Zhenyuan's 1055 Regiment is a newly established team, it is the largest number and the strongest unit of the 48th Army among all the regiments in Xuoling.

As the deputy commander of the 176th Division, Ling Zhuxi became the former enemy commander-in-chief of the sniper Japanese army, and Wei Yunsong was also persuaded by him to change the combat position from Xiaofeng to Jieling. It was all because of Ling Jinxi's insistence that he agreed to change the battle plan.

As soon as he arrived at Xuling, Wei Yunsong smiled and said to He Weizhen, commander of the 173rd Division, Wang Zanbin, commander of the 174th Division, and Ou Shounian, commander of the 176th Division: "This place is good, it is indeed a good place for ambushes, the Japanese tanks and artillery here have no role except to block the road, on the contrary, with the help of the mountainous terrain, the use of small troops to strike and large forces to attack, the Japanese army can only fight with us, our numbers are far above the Japanese army, if we plan properly, we can achieve a big victory here." ”

Wang Zanbin was the first to react, nodded and said: "The military seat is high, it seems that this time Ling Jiannan (Ling pressed the western character) has made a good move." ”

Wei Yunsong shook his head and said: "Jiannan is a loyal person, he doesn't have this kind of strategy, but he has a guy under him who never plays cards according to the rules, and this move seems to be played by that one." ”

"What the military seat said is Tianzhong?" Wang Zanbin asked.

Wei Yunsong nodded and said, "If General Bai is the little Zhuge of the Chinese military, Tianzong is the little Zhuge of our 48th Army, and we must listen to his opinions more in the future." This guy is not yet in his prime, and he still needs to have a lot of experience below, and in time, he will be a general, and his future is immeasurable. ”

Wang Zanbin nodded, Mo Di was once the battalion commander under him, and his ability and intelligence were the best choice, but he was low-key and unwilling to come out in everything.

Although Ou Shounian is Mo Di's direct boss, he doesn't know Mo Di very well, on the contrary, because of Mo Di's performance in Liu Xing, he still has a certain prejudice against him. In his opinion, only people like Xie Dingxin are real iron-blooded people, and they are more likely to be thieves and can't get on the table.

As for He Weizhen, he is not familiar with Mo Enemy, but as a senior who graduated from the third phase of Baoding, he admires the 176 Division's ability to replenish itself on the front line, and has said more than once that the 176 Division has more than doubled its combat power out of thin air because of Mo Enemy.

For sniping at Gaoling, the advantages are obvious, the terrain here, the terrain here, the narrow road, the narrow combat surface, all make it impossible for the Japanese army to form an impact, can only rush up one squadron after another, as long as there is enough ammunition, the battle will definitely be inclined to the defensive side. However, it was too cold here, and the soldiers of the 173rd and 174th divisions could not enter the position at all, as long as they left the nest paved with straw, they could only warm themselves up through non-stop exercise, otherwise, not only their feet would be numb from the cold, but even the blood in their bodies would coagulate.

"We have to fight quickly, for a long time, it's not good for me, once it gets night, it will snow here, the temperature will be lower, we don't have houses to cover us, I'm afraid that the non-combat attrition will increase a lot." He Weizhen said.

Deputy Army Commander Zhang Yichun nodded yes and said: "Except for me and Division Commander He, all of you are from Guangxi, and you have never seen how terrible the winter night in the Yangtze River valley is, and compared with the Japanese army, the lethality of the cold night is even more nowhere to escape. Try to end the battle before nightfall, and at the same time, ask Yu Qian's Mo Enemy Regiment Commander to send all the cars to meet in the area of Xianxiazhang Village. ”

"It's not difficult to be there, I'll immediately send a telegram and ask him to come immediately, but I don't quite understand how to end the battle before dark." Wei Yunsong said.

Zhang Yichun asked the staff officers to open the map, which was a hand-drawn topographic map of the Gaoling Mountains, which was quite rough drawn, but it marked the peaks and canyons around the road. Pointing to the map, Zhang Yichun said: "In the past, the method of round warfare was adopted, and the 176th Division had always been engaged by the enemy, and at the latest at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the 173rd and 174th Divisions fought out from the sloping valley behind the flank, and the Japanese army could be defeated with one blow. ”

Several people expressed their opinions, and finally agreed to Zhang Yichun's suggestion, and used a thunderous blow to crush the Japanese army.

When the 176th Division dug the trenches and arranged the fortifications properly, the Japanese also arrived as promised.

Ma Xinwei of the 525th Regiment of the 1051st Brigade, as the main force, first appeared on the position of the interception. The position of the interception was a bend in the valley, and on both sides of the valley were small peaks as high as three or four hundred meters, which could not be crossed, and at the mouth of the valley, several deep and wide trenches were dug to block the Japanese tanks, and the battle began.

Ma Xinwei fought for more than an hour and retreated from his position, followed by Lu Dailong's 1052 Regiment, and after the 1052 Regiment fought for more than an hour, Qin Zhenyuan's 1055 Regiment took over the position.

After Qin Zhenyuan took over the position, he found that the Japanese army had secretly filled up several trenches at the mouth of the valley at the cost of death in the previous battle. It seems that the enemy also found that without the help of tanks, it was not easy to get through the interception positions in front. After more than two hours, more than 200 people have died, if the battle is not resolved before the cold night comes, you must withdraw from the battlefield and retreat to Xiaofeng to camp, this place, the sky is high and the sky is freezing, if you spend the night here, the non-combat attrition will be more than the combat attrition.

The enemy can't be allowed to move the tank! Qin Zhenyuan said.

The question was how to make the enemy's tanks unable to move, and Qin Zhenyuan had no idea.

Chen Zhengxin, the commander of the first battalion, was also thinking about this problem, the tank burns oil, and the most feared thing should be fire, what to use to start the fire, Chen Zhengxin thought of the straw used by the 173rd and 174th divisions to make nests.

Qin Zhenyuan told the brigade commander Ling Qianxi about the idea of the first battalion commander Chen Zhengxin, and Ling Zhenxi was also worried about the problem of Japanese tanks.

After listening to Qin Zhenyuan's words, Wei Yunsong discussed with Zhang Yichun and said that after an hour, all the straw would be gathered and sent to the front line, and Qin Zhenyuan would be asked to cover it for an hour, not only to spread all the straw, but also to sprinkle fire on the straw. When the Japanese tanks pressed on the thick pads made of straw, they only needed to throw in a torch to burn the entire straw mat in the fastest time, and quickly showed a trend of burning the plains, so that the Japanese tanks had nowhere to escape.

Zhang Yichun said: "The 173rd and 174th Divisions will fight out from the valleys on the side in order to defeat the enemy in one fell swoop. ”

Qin Zhenyuan and Ling Jinxi looked at each other for a moment, knowing that the decisive battle was just around the corner.

Ou Shounian returned to the division headquarters and ordered Ma Weixin, the commander of the 1051st Regiment, and Lu Dailong, the commander of the 1052nd Regiment, to count the troops, and the wounded were sent along the main road to Zhangcun in the west, waiting for the rescue of the commander of the 1056th Regiment. The rest of the personnel, forming a commando team, together with the 1055th Regiment, held the pass firmly, and if they put in a devil tank, it would be useless.

In order to spread the straw to the area in front of the position, many people died in the 176th Division, and the Japanese also saw the idea of the 48th Army, but they had no choice but to form eight groups of four tanks of twenty-four tanks, cross the filled trench, and rush towards the position of the Chinese army. The tank smoked green smoke and the machine guns on top of the tank sprayed bullets, trying to break through the straw formation of the Chinese army at high speed. Soon, the Japanese tanks piled up the straw mat area on the front line, and at this time, several torches flew out of Qin Zhenyuan's position and flew far away, which should have been a good thing for the big forehand cannon to fire the bowl.

The Japanese thought that the straw would cause a fire, but they did not expect that the straw was sprinkled with a lot of nitrate, and the speed of the fire was far above the straw, and soon, twenty-four tanks were in a sea of fire.

At this time, Yamashita Chongwu received a telegram that made him thunder, and the convoy returning to Anji from Wuxing reported to him that Anji's supply depot had been attacked, everyone had been killed, and all supplies had been looted, including the middle-aged female nurse whom he particularly liked to pamper. Yamashita Chongwu's mind went blank.

The chief of staff of the brigade, Kameda Hidenakasa, took the telegram, looked at it hastily, and shook the mountain that he almost fainted to Chongkai, shaking the brigade commander awake. Yamashita Chongwu completely lost his mind, and there was only one word in his mouth, withdraw.

When the 173rd Division and the 174th Division rushed out of the valley, the Japanese positions were empty, and only the front line between the two sides was fighting, and thirteen tanks were emitting thick black smoke.

Wei Yunsong threw away the cigarette roll in his hand, and it was also a word: withdraw.

The Chinese and Japanese sides, while returning to Xiaofeng Anji, rushed to Zhangcun Xianxia. In the battle, the 176th Division lost 172 dead and 213 wounded, the Japanese destroyed 12 tanks, killed more than 300 people and wounded 500 people, and the Chinese side won.

When he came to Zhangcun, he was already waiting with everyone in the 1038 regiment, twelve cars, forty carriages, and more than a hundred rickshaws. Where are the seized supplies, but I mobilized all the people to come and pull the supplies. ”

Wei Yunsong looked at the soldiers who had won the battle, one by one it was worse than the defeated battle, especially the soldiers of the 173rd and 174th divisions, as soon as they saw the invincible cars and carriages, they immediately climbed up, and put the hay and fruits collected along the way under their feet, one by one, their lips were pale, and their whole bodies trembled. With a lament, he pointed at Mo Dou and was speechless.

Wang Zanbin, the commander of the 174th Division who followed behind, was straightforward, kicked at Mo Di, and said: "It's good to have a life, what kind of resources do you have, don't fart for me." ”

Mo Di was caught off guard, was kicked to the ground by Wang Zanbin, got up, and said happily: "Just because you don't have it doesn't mean I don't, taking advantage of the Japanese fighting on two sides, I robbed him of his supply station in Anji." It is estimated that there are too many, and one pair of leather shoes per brother of the 173rd and 174th divisions should be enough. ”

Hearing this, Ou Shounian pulled Mo Di over and said, "You have a little wish, if our 176th Division is replenished, will there be enough leather shoes." ”

Zhang Yichun heard Mo Di's words, inserted between Ou Shou Nian and Mo Di, and said: "The supplementary matter, let's talk about it later, and then solve the current situation first." Tianzhong, you can't bear to look at these thousands of brothers, wearing straw sandals in the winter? ”

He Weizhen suddenly shouted: "I said that the Japanese withdrew their troops inexplicably, there is no reason, it turns out that Commander Mo, you have brought their nest!" ”

Mo Di just laughed and didn't dare to speak anymore, there are too many bosses here, it's not a place for him to speak, be careful of being kicked.