Chapter 308: Intensify the Attack
readx;? Naturally, the news that Wang Haitao was seriously injured and critically ill also reached Ito Masakaki and Washizu Matsudaira, and the two and Chief of Staff Nishiyama Fukutaro toasted in the command headquarters. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 infoapex.s222.Ito Masaki said excitedly: "Emperor's warriors, the success of the assassination of Wang Haitao this time has made a great contribution to our Japanese Empire, and I want to ask Commander Yan Junliu for their credit." ”
Washizu Matsudaira also said: "Yes, those warriors who stood up are the pride of our samurai of the Imperial Japan, but Nishiyama-kun also has a lot of credit in this matter, and Nishiyama-kun's 'robbery while the fire is hot' is indeed a clever plan." Fukutaro Nishiyama also replied: "Thank you for your compliment, and this matter was made possible thanks to the request of the two division commanders for tactical guidance. Now that Wang Haitao of China is seriously injured and critically ill, it is a good time to attack the army of China. ”
After the three old devils praised each other in the headquarters, Ito Masaki made the decision to strengthen the offensive and strive to take Jing County in one fell swoop and eliminate the Shina army in Jing County. The next day, Japanese planes and artillery took turns to fight, and infantry also threw themselves into the attack one by one.
The soldiers of the 2nd Battalion of the 572nd Regiment and the 1st Company of the 2nd Battalion of the 568th Regiment stubbornly repelled the Japanese attacks again and again, and after paying the price of more than 100 casualties, they held back the Japanese troops for a whole day, and then withdrew from the Yangliuzhen position at night. Next, the 3rd Battalion of the 572nd Regiment desperately blocked the Japanese army on the Gaoqiao Township position for a whole day.
The soldiers of the 572nd Regiment and the 2nd Battalion of the 568th Regiment were all concentrated on the Qinxi Town position, and at this time, there were still more than 1,800 soldiers in the Qinxi Town position, and they received an order to hold on to Qinxi Town and not to retreat an inch. Li Jieli, commander of the 572nd Regiment, and Zhou Yuchun, commander of the 2nd Battalion of the 568th Regiment, set up their command posts in a small two-story building in the town office of Qinxi Town, and personally commanded the blockade battle.
After many days of fighting, the soldiers of the 572nd Regiment are no longer "raw melons and eggs" that shake when they hear the sound of artillery, and their combat effectiveness has increased considerably under the condition of attrition. There is a stream outside Qinxi Town that flows three miles away from the town, the stream is not big, and the water depth is only just up to the thigh in the current peak water season, and the width is more than ten meters wide.
There is usually a wooden bridge connecting the two sides of the stream, and the outer position of Qinxi Town is located on the south side of the creek, and the wooden bridge is also blown up. After the Japanese army brigade seized two positions in Yangliu Town and Gaoqiao Township in a row, it was in full swing and had the frame to take the county seat of Jingxian County in one fell swoop. Masaki Ito also transferred the heavy artillery brigade to the vicinity of Takahashi Township.
But Ito Masaki and the others never expected that they would encounter such stubborn resistance here in Qinxi Town. The 3rd Battalion of the 572nd Regiment held the position on the periphery of Qinxi Town, and the 3rd Battalion had blocked the Japanese army on the position of Gaoqiao Township for a day, and the losses were not too large, but on the periphery of Qinxi Town, they were attacked by the Japanese army almost frantically.
After repelling the first second attack of the Japanese army, from the third onwards, the Japanese did not stop the shelling after pressing to within 100 meters of the position, and the infantry charged forward with the dense bullets of the defenders almost regardless of casualties. This kind of frenzied attack put tremendous pressure on the soldiers of the third battalion, and even the battalion commander Luo Xiangpu couldn't bear it anymore, so he repeatedly asked the regiment commander Li Jie for help.
After Li Jieli discussed with Zhou Yuchun, he transferred Li's second battalion out of the town to support the third battalion, and the strength of the second battalion and the third battalion was barely able to stabilize the position. After fighting until dark, the second and third battalions were again reduced by half, and the two battalions together had only more than 500 men. Many of the more than 500 were lightly wounded.
On the second day of the Qinxi Town Blockade Battle, the Japanese army attacked for the first time and suddenly came up with two brigades of infantry, and after the plane bombardment, the heavy artillery and the 75 mountain artillery bombed the position again, and the soldiers of the 2nd and 3rd Battalions waited until the shelling weakened to rush to the position from the anti-artillery hole, and now the Japanese army was already wading across the stream.
As soon as the Japanese crossed the stream, a single charge could rush to the defenders' positions. Li and Luo Xiangpu hurriedly organized firepower to block the Japanese troops who were wading across the stream. The Japanese army also desperately attacked and advanced regardless of it, and even the 92nd infantry artillery and mortars were set up 200 meters in front of the position and bombarded the position.
By this time, Li and Luo Xiangpu had also taken over and ordered two battalions of mortars to counterattack. The two battalions together had 12 60 mortars and more than a dozen grenadiers, and at the same time attacked the Japanese 92 infantry guns and mortars, which also discounted the Japanese covering artillery fire, and after an artillery battle, the two sides were both defeated, most of the Japanese covering artillery fire was destroyed, and the mortars of the two battalions were also completely lost.
Under the desperate charge of the Japanese infantry, nearly 1,000 Japanese soldiers rushed to the position, and the soldiers of the second and third battalions, under the leadership of the two battalion commanders, started hand-to-hand combat with the Japanese troops who rushed to the position. Li Jieli saw on the wall that the two sides were engaged in hand-to-hand combat on the position, and the Japanese army seemed to be going up for reinforcements again, so he hurriedly ordered the regimental heavy fire battalion to block the road for Japanese reinforcements with all the artillery fire, and then let the second battalion of the 568th Regiment and the heavy fire battalion stay in Qinxi Town, and he led the first battalion of the 572nd Regiment out to reinforce the second and third battalions.
When the soldiers of the first battalion rushed to the position under the leadership of the regiment commander Li Jieli, the second and third battalions were at the most dangerous time. The fighters and the little Japanese fought with bayonets or fell behind, but the weapons of both sides were the same, but the difference was physical strength and skill. The soldiers of the second and third battalions also spelled out the bloody nature of the Sichuan army, and often had to pull the grenade on their bodies before they died, and they died with several Japanese soldiers.
After the first battalion arrived, with the addition of this new force, the Japanese army could not support it, and the two sides fought for nearly an hour, and they had reached the limit of their physical strength. When the last 100 or so Japanese soldiers fled back with rolling and crawling, the defenders on the position also fell to the ground, unable to pursue them anymore. The regiment commander Li Jieli saw that the strength of his regiment was seriously insufficient, so he simply abandoned the outlying towns, and all the soldiers withdrew to Qinxi Town.
In this battle, the second battalion commander Li was sacrificed, the third battalion commander Luo Xiangpu was seriously wounded, and there were only more than 100 soldiers left in the two battalions, and everyone was wounded. Even a battalion again lost dozens of fighters. The two brigades of the Japanese army were almost completely wiped out, and the two captains also remained on the position. The battle greatly dampened the momentum of the Japanese offensive, and for the next three hours, the Japanese did not attack a single attack.
Although the 572nd Regiment suffered heavy losses, the 62nd Brigade of the 21st Division of the Japanese Army was also disabled. When the situation was reported to the division commander Washzu Matsudaira, Lieutenant General Washizsu Matsudaira was also shocked. At this time, Nishiyama Fukutaro said: "Your Excellency the division commander don't worry, this is the army of the branch that is trapped and fighting, and it is making the last resistance, so as to buy time for the main force to leave the county seat of Jingxian County." We should continue the offensive without relaxation, but fortunately, the county seat of Jingxian County will completely annihilate Wang Haitao's army. ”
Nishiyama Fukutaro's words made Masaki Ito and Washford Matsudaira nod their heads again and again. So Lieutenant General Washizu Matsudaira replaced the disabled 62nd Brigade with the 64th Brigade and continued to attack the town of Qinxi. After receiving the order from the division commander to continue the attack, Major General Morinaga Takeo, the commander of the 62nd Brigade, hurriedly called his two wing commanders and asked them to immediately attack the Chinese army in Qinxi Town.
Although the Japanese army was brave, these soldiers could see the tragic battle in the morning clearly. After all, the soldiers of the 21st Division were all recruited from the reserves, and their combat effectiveness was still somewhat inferior to those of the permanent divisions, so in the afternoon attack, these soldiers still cringed a little.
The remaining soldiers of the 572nd Regiment and the soldiers of the 2nd Battalion of the 568th Regiment relied on the walls and dense firepower of Qinxi Town to repel several Japanese attacks in one afternoon and held out until dark. In the evening, Li Jieli reported the battle situation during the day to the brigade commander Huang Gang by telegram. When Huang Gang heard that the 572nd Regiment had been reduced by more than half of its personnel, he couldn't help but feel a pain in his heart.
Huang Gang thought for a while, took the guard battalion and went straight to Qinxi Town, and when Huang Gang saw Li Jieli at the command post, he said to Li Jieli: "Jieli, you also participated in the combat meeting that day, tomorrow will be the most critical day, whether the counterattack plan of the military seat can be realized, it depends on whether your 572nd Regiment can withstand the attack of small Japan tomorrow, I will hand over the brigade guard battalion to you to command, and you will have to withstand it tomorrow no matter what." ”
Li Jieli said to Huang Gang solemnly: "Brigade seat, my subordinates understand that tomorrow my subordinates will definitely resist the attack of Little Japan, and they will not lose an inch of Qinxi Town. Huang Gang nodded approvingly and said, "Okay, if this battle is successful, I should ask for credit for you in front of the military seat." Then Huang Gang went to see the soldiers again, cheered them up before returning to Jing County, and the guard battalion stayed in Qinxi Town.
The next morning, the Japanese army dispatched two flying teams and dozens of planes to Qinxi Town, and Li Jieli withdrew the main force into the anti-artillery hole, leaving only the troops on the wall and in the town to shoot at the air. At the same time as the planes bombed, the Japanese heavy artillery also began to bombard. These soldiers who shot at the air were fighting for life and death in the smoke and fire, regardless of the danger and the Japanese machine in the sky.
After an unequal battle, the Japanese were shot down five bombers, and two were wounded and fled, but the fighters who fired at the air were almost completely wiped out, and only a dozen fighters survived. Under the bombardment of Japanese planes and heavy artillery, there were few intact buildings in Qinxi Town, and half of the wall had collapsed.
After the soldiers of the 572nd Regiment rushed out of the anti-artillery hole, they could only rely on the ruins to rely on the roots of the wall and some craters to make fortifications to block the Japanese infantry attack. The soldiers of the 572nd Regiment did the frontal defense, while the soldiers of the 2nd Battalion of the 568th Regiment relied on their own experience and individual skills to support the soldiers of the 572nd Regiment in various parts of the battlefield in squads and platoons.
Wherever there is an emergency, these veterans of the 568th Regiment will appear, and after these veterans appear, the situation will turn around. It is like the mortars of the guard battalion under the command of the veterans of the second battalion, with flexible mobility, every shell can hit the key place, so that the Japanese army is very troubled, and the artillery of the guard battalion admires these veterans incomparably, and they learn a lot of actual combat experience behind them.