Chapter 11: Wild Supplement (22)

The enemy had not yet set off at the Sanmen River, and the 60th Wing of the Japanese Army had already made a tentative contact with the 172nd Division.

The 172nd Division was prepared, and the 60th Wing was caught off guard. At the beginning of the departure of the 60th Wing, the division headquarters told the wing commander Motonosuke Kotani that going to Luotian was like a walk, the national army had retreated, and this place was like a vacuum, and there was not even a guerrilla force of the Red Army. Therefore, the 60 Wing changed into new summer clothes, bayonets were sheathed, bullets were put into boxes, and even steel helmets were hung from their backpacks, swinging one after another. Along the way, the 60th Wing really went smoothly, and when they arrived in Luotian, they were greeted by the local squires, slaughtering pigs and sheep, and enjoying the general treatment of VIPs.

When he arrived at Luotian, standing by the Beifeng River and lingering in front of Yuping Mountain, Motonosuke Kotani was unwilling to continue northward. After two days, he let the 1st Infantry Brigade of his command set off as the vanguard, and then arranged for the 2nd Infantry Brigade to follow, and it was not until the fifth day that he himself took the wing headquarters, the 3rd Infantry Brigade, and the Artillery Brigade to postpone the departure. As a garrison division, the 15th Division has three wings under its jurisdiction, and the 60th Wing is not a wing formed for the purpose of attacking, but has three infantry brigades and an artillery squadron, and when it set out from Japan, an artillery squadron of 122 people has only four * infantry guns, which can only be pretended to be. In this expedition, in order to adapt to the operation in the mountainous area, the 15th Division adjusted the artillery subordinates of the 60th Wing, upgraded the squadron to a brigade, and on the basis of the previous infantry artillery squadron, a curved artillery squadron was added, equipped with 12 Type 97 81mm infantry curved guns, which was the most powerful new weapon of Kotani Motonosuke's trip.

Kotani Motonosuke's procrastination, there is his selfishness, he and the 68th Wing of the North Road set off on the same day, the 68th Wing spent a full seven days, and has not yet walked out of the mountain of Kangwangzhai, he only took more than a day, from Tuanfeng to Luotian, and then from Luotian to Banzhuyuan, it is only two days away, and it is not too late to wait until the 68th Wing walks out of the mountain of Kangwangzhai, and then it is not too late to converge.

Motonosuke Kotani's procrastination provided enough time for Cheng Shufen's 172nd Division to fight southward, and also created an opportunity to annihilate the enemy. Not long after the 172nd Division left Luotian, it returned to its hometown, and it can be said that it is familiar with the road and is handy. Cheng Shufen was promoted to deputy commander, Zhu Nairui was not in the 172nd Division as usual, and the task of organizing this interception fell on the head of Ma Bacui, chief of staff of the 172nd Division.

Ma Bacui, 34 years old, a native of Rongxian County, Guangxi, graduated from the first phase of the Guangxi Military Academy, and after the 12th training of the Army University, he returned to the Nanning branch of the Central Military Academy to teach. During the Battle of Songhu, when Zhang Guangwei mobilized reserves in Guilin, he pulled Ma Bacui, a lieutenant colonel instructor of the Military Academy, into the 172nd Division and became the chief of staff of the colonel of the 172nd Division. In the 172nd Division, because of his good concept of depth and sense of wholeness, he was deeply appreciated by the division commander Cheng Shufen, and he worked for three years without moving his nest. After graduating from the first phase of the military academy, he stayed in the school to serve as the student team attached to the second and third phases, and concurrently served as the captain of the student team of the Guangxi Survey Bureau. A large amount of surveying and mapping work has developed his intuition for an effective grasp of the topography. However, he also has a fatal problem, that is, he has not been promoted in the ranks, and after three years as chief of staff, he is still a colonel. In the case where the regimental commanders below were all with the rank of colonel, many times he could only consult with the regimental commanders and not give orders.

At the former enemy's combat meeting held in Banzhuyuan, this question once again fully demonstrated the authority of military ranks and once again explained the importance of military ranks in the army. Although it is a division counselor, it cannot overpower the four regiment commanders in terms of qualifications or rank, and it loses its authority when speaking. More importantly, this chief of staff Ma has been living under the glory of the division commander and deputy division commander, and his work is more to give advice to the chief officer, pick up the missing pieces and fill in the gaps, and he has not presided over a complete campaign as the chief officer.

Liao Hanguo, the colonel of the 514th regiment, followed Yan Shengwu in Dahong Mountain and was addicted to piecemeal, a regiment that usually did not dare to put the right hand with the Japanese army, under the deployment of the invincible, left and right, unexpectedly transferred the Japanese army to the end of the head, obediently fell into the bag, only the share of being beaten, and there was no power to fight back. This time, he still wanted to play like that. Liao Hanguo first proposed to harass along the line, pull out small Japanese troops, and annihilate them one by one.

Huang Zhiguo, the colonel of the 516th Regiment, believed that by staying and guarding the Changling Pass and relying on the geographical advantages, he could win a complete victory. Li Jiao, the colonel of the 515th Regiment, did not approve of Huang Zhiguo's plan, and he pointed out that there were two roads from Sanye to Banzhuyuan, one through Changling Pass and the other through Tengjiabao. Huang Zhiguo didn't know how to answer for a while.

In the end, it was Lu Ming, the colonel of the field supplementary regiment, who came up with an idea, first sent a reconnaissance battalion of the division headquarters to the area of the Saint's Hall to confirm that if the Japanese army took the left road, we would ambush at Changling Pass, and if the right road was taken, we would leave Tengjiabao.

Liao Hanguo still insisted on his opinion, and proposed that it could be used as a front to harass the enemy along the way, weaken the enemy, and don't let them go so smoothly. As for setting up an ambush, one regiment can be at Changling Pass and the other regiment at Tengjiabao, and the field supplement regiment can be maneuvered, and the Japanese army will assemble which way it goes.

Ma Bacui looked at the map again and again, measured and measured with a ruler, and agreed to the plan that these stinky creatures would come up with. The 516th Regiment guarded Changling Pass, the 515th Regiment guarded Tengjiabao, the Yebu Regiment made maneuvers, and the 414th Regiment harassed along the way. The reconnaissance company set out quickly to learn about the Japanese troops' movements.

The confidential room telegraphed the combat plan to Lihuang and handed it over to division commander Cheng Shufen for approval.

Cheng Shufen looked at the telegram, felt that although it was mediocre, he didn't find any problems, and thought it was feasible, this Huanggang general, who had been quite proud these days, sat on the chair of the deputy army commander, and was reluctant to get up. On the first day of the Anti-Japanese War, he was the commander of the 172nd Division, who was the commander of the division at that time, Xu Qiming, the commander of the 170th Division, was already the chief of staff of the Guangxi Pacification Office, Yang Junchang of the 171st Division did not say anything, He Weizhen, the commander of the 173rd Division, was promoted to the deputy commander of the 31st Army, Wang Zanbin, the commander of the 174th Division, was in front of him, the deputy commander of the Seventh Army, and Mo Shujie, the commander of the 175th Division, had already been appointed as the commander of the 84th Army, and the commander of the 176th Division, Ou Shounian, had also been the commander of the 48th Army. Now that he has finally sat in the position of deputy commander, there is no reason to let himself charge into battle.

Wang Zanbin looked at Cheng Shufen and thought that this deputy division commander Cheng was a little too light on the enemy, the enemy was a complete wing, and it was no longer advantageous to meet the enemy with one division, and he also made the strange trick of leaving only one chief of staff chief of staff when the division-level commander left his post, which was really a bit big. However, Wang Zanbin, who is old and sophisticated, did not directly point out that he knew that because he was too old, he was no longer very suitable for high-intensity military operations, coupled with his old thinking, and sometimes he liked to show off his old qualifications, which was disliked by the army commander Zhang Gan. The promotion of Deputy Commander Cheng in front of him is clearly to replace his position, and he should still keep a certain distance. In May, he was awarded the fourth-class Baoding Medal by the government, which means that he can retire with success and retire for a long time, and after many years, he can take out this medal in front of his younger generations, and he can also be proud. Under the influence of this kind of wise self-preservation thinking, Wang Zanbin knew that the 172nd Division might have problems, but he was unwilling to remind him and disliked it.

The reconnaissance company of the 172nd Division, which arrived at the Saint's Hall only an hour earlier than the vanguard of the Japanese army, was discovered by the Japanese army before it could determine which direction the Japanese army was going. The reason was simple, the telescopes used by the observers of the reconnaissance company refracted the sun's rays into the Japanese view. The Japanese found that there was something flashing on the hillside on the right, refracting the light, and a soldier took off the 38 cover from his back, and at the place where the light was refracted was a shot, and this shot lifted off the Tianling cover of the observer of the reconnaissance company. The other scouts thought they had been spotted and immediately returned fire. Bullets on both sides came and went, and neither of them charged. The Japanese army shot from a low place to a high place, and the lethality was still higher than that of the reconnaissance company that fought from a high place to a low place, and the most important thing was that the firepower of the 38 rifle squadron far exceeded the limited number of dozens of squadrons of the reconnaissance company.

After an encounter, the reconnaissance company left a few observers to hide on the hillside to continue to watch, while the others quickly retreated in the direction of Hepu with the wounded.

The vanguard of the Japanese army asked the locals at the Saint's Hall that they knew that the direction of the reconnaissance company's retreat could also lead to Banzhuyuan, so they followed it regardless of it. The scouts who stayed on the mountainside to observe found that not long after the vanguard of the Japanese army chased down, the follow-up troops came up, and about a large group of Japanese troops also followed the vanguard in the direction of Hepu.

Observers on the hillside reported the first information: the Japanese attack was about an infantry brigade, without heavy artillery, and the road was on the side of Pig's Head Mountain.

At this moment, Mo Di's troops are still in the Sanmen River.

Towards the end of the evening, the reconnaissance company sent back a second telegram, and another group of Japanese soldiers came to the Saint's Hall, and there was also a brigade or so, and they set up camp by the Ba River. The Ba River has made a bend here, becoming gentle and open, and the large river beach is suitable for large troops to camp.

After a while, the third telegram from the reconnaissance company arrived, and the unit that had just pursued the reconnaissance company came back again, and the two infantry brigades were gathered together by the Ba River, and this evening, it seemed, they intended to camp in this place, and did not go any further.

The Japanese army did not go, and neither did the enemy, and in the past two days, the enemy was running-in, grinding him dizzy, and his head was as big as a fight. According to the requirements of the 176th Division, Mo Di used a four-character idiom "Wind and Sunshine" as the code name for his own battle, the regimental headquarters was called the "Wind Department" three battalions, Zhong Dingnai's second battalion was called "He Division", Wu Tinghuan's division was called "Japanese Division", and Shi Chong's Department was called "Libu". Looking at the composition of his own troops, Zhong Dingnai's department is the most complete one, and it can be able to fight. Shi Chongbu is also not bad, although the number of people is smaller, fortunately, they are all veterans and have strong self-consciousness. As for Wu Tinghuan's department, it is a bit difficult, this is a group of veteran soldiers, who usually engage in security and duty in the division headquarters, and have been on the front line for several years, and some of them have not even let go of their guns a few times, they are typical veteran soldiers. From the deep ditch to the Sanmen River, a hundred miles of road walked for two days, and one by one walked with a sigh of sorrow and bitterness. When they arrived at the Sanmen River, they rushed into the local farmhouse, asking for food, drink and sleep, which caused a lot of complaints, and finally Zhong Dingnai did his best to be a landlord and let them settle down by giving up his barracks. Mo Di shook his head more than once, this kind of soldier is not to mention going to war, but he is afraid that he may not be able to get back a pheasant even if he goes hunting.

After Jin Tongxuan arrived, the former enemy command was established by Mo Di, Jin Tongxuan, Wu Tinghuan, Zhong Dingnai, and Shi Chong.

After receiving the military intelligence report of the 172nd Division, early tomorrow morning, Mo Enemy will lead his troops westward.