Chapter 751: Rescuing the Camphor Tree [19]
After eliminating the dead soldiers who rushed up, the road leading to the Japanese position was opened, and more than a dozen combat vehicles soon rushed into the Japanese position, and the officers and soldiers of the 879th Regiment behind them also rushed to the Japanese position. The Japanese troops at the front of the position saw that the chariots had rushed into the position, and began to retreat in panic.
In the command post behind the position, Yoshio Kiki watched the Chinese tanks break through the forward position, but there was no good way to deal with these steel monsters, and the division commander strictly ordered that he must hold the position, and it was impossible to retreat, and there was nowhere to retreat, unless he was defeated in the direction of the division headquarters.
There was an infantry brigade on the forward position, and at this time, Yoshio Kiwi could only fight to the death with the Chinese army, so he immediately ordered an infantry brigade behind him to reinforce the forward position. With the reinforcement of this infantry brigade, the retreat on the forward position was stopped, and the Chinese and Japanese soldiers fought together again.
The quality of the Japanese army's individual soldiers is still very good, especially this kind of elite infantry wing, the quality of individual soldiers is definitely higher than that of other Chinese troops and even the elite troops of the Central Army, but in front of the troops under Wang Haitao, it is at most evenly divided.
However, Wang Haitao's troops surpassed the Japanese troops too much in terms of weapons and equipment, and many automatic weapons were absolutely sharp weapons in close combat, and more than a dozen combat vehicles were rampaging in the Japanese ranks, and there were heavy machine guns in the distance, and those close were simply crushed over.
The two infantry brigades of the Japanese army on the position also numbered nearly 2,000 people, which was not much different from the 879th Regiment in terms of numbers, but the difference in combat effectiveness was even greater. After rushing to the Japanese position, the officers and men of the 879th Regiment were divided into several combat groups according to the automatic squad units of peacetime training, so that they could not only fight flexibly on their own, but also support each other and cooperate with each other to deal with a large force of the enemy.
Coupled with the assistance of the chariots, the Japanese army soon suffered heavy casualties and gradually became overwhelmed. When Yoshio Kiwi saw that reinforcements had gone up to an infantry brigade, the situation had only improved slightly, and it was still difficult to defeat the Chinese army on the whole, and his heart became anxious again.
The 32nd Infantry Wing had only four infantry squadrons, one infantry squadron each for the covering artillery and heavy machine gun squadrons on the left and right positions, and two infantry squadrons to guard the command post of the wing.
Seeing that the situation on the battlefield was unfavorable, Yoshio Kiwi was already considering whether to reinforce the last infantry brigade. Just when he hesitated, the positions on the left and right sides had all been lost under the attack of one battalion each of the 877th Regiment and the 878th Regiment, and less than 200 officers and men had been withdrawn from the positions on both sides.
At this point in the battle, Yoshio Kiwi could not hesitate any longer, gritted his teeth and ordered the last infantry brigade to reinforce the forward position. Before the order could be delivered, the 877th Regiment and the 878th Regiment had already rushed to the forward position with a shout.
With the addition of more than 3,000 people from the 877th Regiment and the 878th Regiment and dozens of combat vehicles, the battle between the two sides became a one-sided situation, and the scale of victory also tilted in favor of the Chinese side. Yoshio Kiwi understands that the general trend is gone, and it is a matter of time before he loses his position, and now even if he puts all his forces into it, there is no possibility of victory.
After understanding this, Yoshio Kiki quickly withdrew the order to reinforce the forward position, and instead retreated in the direction of the division headquarters. After the order was given, Yoshio Ki and the wing headquarters were the first to leave the position under the protection of the escort team, and the Japanese troops who were not in the forward position also retreated with them.
The two captains are still leading their soldiers to fight to the death with the Chinese army, which has an absolute advantage, and although the Chinese side has an absolute advantage, it will still take some time to completely eliminate the Japanese troops on the forward position.
It wasn't until the two captains couldn't support it anymore and asked for help from the team headquarters that they found that the captain had withdrawn from the position, and it was too late for the two captains to retreat. They and the remaining hundreds of soldiers were surrounded by the 462nd Brigade.
When eliminating these hundreds of Japanese troops in the encirclement, the three regiment commanders all found that the situation was wrong, and there was an infantry wing on the Japanese position and the remnants of the troops withdrawn from the front position, and there was definitely more than these forces eliminated. By the time they sent detectives to find out the situation, Yoshio Kiki had already withdrawn from his position for more than half an hour.
The three regiment commanders discussed urgently, and Wu Zhijun immediately took the 877th Regiment and half of the chariots to pursue the Japanese army, and the remaining two regiments immediately rushed to reinforce the 877th Regiment after eliminating the Japanese troops in the encirclement. At this time, the 877th Regiment had already suffered one-third of the battle losses, but Wu Zhijun couldn't care so much, so he took the troops and chased them all the way behind the chariot.
The position was only four kilometers away from the division headquarters of the 32nd Division, and it stands to reason that it would be difficult for the 877th Regiment to catch up with the retreating Japanese troops, but Wu Zhijun and his troops had just chased out less than two kilometers when they found that the Japanese army in front of them was fighting fiercely with the Chinese army.
It turned out that after Tang Hongming led his troops to defeat Yoshida Eijiro's troops, he immediately rushed behind the position held by the 32nd Wing, and when they approached the rear of the Japanese position, Kiki Yoshio Osa happened to lead his troops to retreat, and the two sides met each other less than two kilometers away from the position.
The two armies advancing along the improvised road, after bypassing a mound, spotted each other almost simultaneously, at this time the two forwards were only a few dozen meters apart, and both sides were taken aback and opened fire on each other at the same time. Tang Hongming's side was ahead of two heavy tanks in parallel, and the bullets fired by the Japanese were basically blocked by the tanks.
A few heavy machine guns on the heavy tanks were not so easy to resist, and a rain of bullets swept over, and a large area of the Japanese forward troops was immediately swept down, and the rest of the soldiers dodged the flying bullets in all directions, and the team was in chaos. In fact, it was not the soldiers of the 32nd Wing who walked in front, but the officers and soldiers of the 212th Wing who were withdrawn from the second position, and the wing commander Keito Shiro Osaku was also in the ranks.
On the one hand, Keitō Shiro Osa organized soldiers to fire at the Chinese army, and on the other hand, he sent people to report the situation to Yoshio Ki who was behind. Kiki Yoshio was taken aback when he heard the gunfire in front of him, and hurriedly sent people to the front to check the situation, but before the people sent returned, the people sent by Shiro Eto arrived, and when Kiki Yoshio heard the report, he immediately thought that it was an ambush designed by the Chinese side.
If they do not immediately break through a road, their own troops will be in danger of being annihilated under the attack of the Chinese army in front and rear, so Mu Du Yoshio Daisa can't care so much, and immediately sent the 3rd Infantry Brigade up, and concentrated all his heavy weapons to cover the attack of the 3rd Infantry Brigade.
As soon as the 3rd Infantry Brigade rushed to the front, it immediately launched a charge against Tang Hongming's troops. At this time, Tang Hongming also found out the situation of the Japanese army. Tang Hongming took the initiative to lead the team to attack in order to atone for his crimes, and now is a good opportunity. If all of these small Japan are left, it must be a great achievement.
With this idea, Tang Hongming immediately rushed to the front line and personally organized troops to block the Japanese army. He lined up all the chariots as fixed firing points, and the soldiers used the chariots as covers, and also used light and heavy machine guns to set up firing points between the chariots, taking advantage of the advantages in weapons to block the Japanese attack with dense firepower.
After more than 20 large and small chariots lined up, the road of the Japanese army's advance was tightly sealed, and if the Japanese army wanted to bypass the interception of the Chinese army, whether they could get rid of the pursuit of the Chinese army is not to mention, the rugged and difficult hills on both sides are enough to drag them down. Therefore, if the Japanese army wanted to withdraw from the division headquarters, it could only break through the blockade of the Chinese army.
The 3rd Infantry Brigade, under the strict orders of Yoshio Kiwi, was also desperate, and one charge was repulsed without waiting for the soldiers to breathe a sigh of relief, and the next charge began again. At the same time, all the heavy machine guns and grenadiers were also concentrated and fired desperately at the Chinese side, and the frantic attack of the Japanese army also brought a lot of casualties to Tang Hongming's troops.
Tang Hongming hid behind the body of a tank, holding a telescope to observe the Japanese attack, while constantly adjusting the layout of the front line. Just as Tang Hongming was observing the situation of the Japanese troops, a grenade and bullet fired from a grenadier exploded at the heavy machine gun fire point not far from him, and the shrapnel flew in four directions, killing two and seriously wounding one of the three soldiers of the heavy machine gun group, and the heavy machine gun firing also stopped.
As soon as the shooting of the heavy machine gun stopped, the Japanese soldiers who were suppressed in front of them immediately roared and rushed upward, in this case, Tang Hongming desperately pounced on the heavy machine gun, grabbed the handle, and pressed the trigger hard, the heavy machine gun roared again, and the Japanese soldiers who had just rushed up more than a dozen steps were swept down.
Tang Hongming personally operated the crane gun, so that the guards around him were taken aback, and hurriedly rushed up to prepare to replace Tang Hongming, at this moment, two grenades and bullets fell on the heavy machine gun fire point again, and when the guards screamed and pounced, Tang Hongming was already covered in blood and fell on the heavy machine gun.
The news that the division seat personally operated the heavy machine gun to fight, and the news that he was seriously injured by the small Japanese grenade and bullet quickly spread among the soldiers, and this news did not make the soldiers panic, but aroused the fighting spirit of the soldiers, and they shouted: "Revenge for the division!" and fired bullets at the charging Japanese soldiers even more frantically.
Tang Hongming was seriously injured and was quickly sent to the field hospital in Zhangshu City by the guards for rescue, and Wei Shaofeng, the commander of the 871st Regiment on the battlefield, took over the heavy responsibility of commanding the battle. Under the desperate resistance of the Chinese soldiers, only half an hour later, the Japanese 3rd Infantry Brigade suffered most casualties and lost its morale.
The casualties of the 871st Regiment were not small, but more than 20 combat vehicles stood still and repeatedly attacked the attacking Japanese troops with vehicle-mounted heavy machine guns and vehicle-mounted artillery. The situation ahead plunged Kiki Yoshio into deep despair, and just as he was about to lead his team to charge himself, his men reported that the pursuing Chinese troops had appeared behind him.