"I am ordered by the commander to come to reinforce you." Xia Yuan glanced at the position and asked again, "How is the situation on the position?" ”

"The forward position was beaten down by the Japanese army, and the Japanese devils wanted to continue to take our position, so a company of troops came, fortunately you are here, otherwise this white-knuckle battle is very likely not to be the opponent of these Japanese troops."

The commander of the third company recalled what had just happened, the Japanese attack was very ferocious, and the third company was definitely not the opponent of the Japanese army in the face of the strength of a company of the Japanese army, but fortunately Xia Yuan dared to come in time.

Otherwise, the Japanese would have been able to further threaten the positions of the 4th and 5th companies by taking their positions.

The fourth and fifth companies were on the left and right of the third company, respectively.

Xia Yuan glanced at the soldiers of the third company who were cleaning the battlefield, and said: "The Japanese army has been annihilated, and in a short time, they will not attack the position again, but we can't stop, and we must counterattack the forward position while the Japanese devils have not yet reacted." ”

The center of gravity of the Japanese attack is three companies, as long as the Japanese army lays down the positions of three companies, builds a strong defense, and blossoms from the center, it can fight the positions of the fourth and fifth companies, and the positions of the three companies cannot be lost.

If you want to keep the position of the three companies from losing, it is necessary to counterattack the Japanese troops in the forward positions.

"You say how to do it, and we will cooperate with your actions." The commander of the third company agreed with Xia Yuan's counterattack plan, and the Japanese army of one company was completely annihilated by them, which was a great victory, and a lot of Japanese equipment was captured, especially the Japanese-style grenadier canister, which could be used in the next operation.

Xia Yuan's ability to attack fortifications was very strong, which was witnessed a few nights after the national army stopped attacking.

It can be called a ghost, and it is concerned by the commander-in-chief of the group army, and its combat ability is quite good.

This is no secret in the military.

Xia Yuan thought for a moment and said, "Just prepare enough grenades for me." ”

The Japanese machine-gun fire point, he can use a gun to knock it out, and if he wants to completely destroy it, he still has to use grenades.

When he came, he didn't carry many grenades, but a lot of bullets.

"There's no problem with this, I'll prepare more grenades for you."

The commander of the third company immediately asked someone to carry a box of grenades for Xia Yuan, and continued: "If the number of grenades is not enough, I will prepare more." ”

"A box of grenades is enough."

Xia Yuan opened it and took a look, then closed the lid, motioned for the second stunned man to carry it, and then said: "Third company commander, you are now preparing for a counterattack with people, with me looking at the machine gun fire point of the Japanese devils, they dare not take the lead." ”

"Good!"

After seeing Xia Yuan's terrifying shooting ability, the commander of the third company was convinced of his ability, and said that if he counterattacked the Japanese position, he would counterattack the Japanese position.

He strode forward, gathered his soldiers, and began to prepare for a counterattack.

"One row, two rows, assemble!"

The commander of the third company left the three platoons in the position, was responsible for watching, and took the two platoons to touch forward.

The Japanese did not know that the attacking troops in front of them had been completely annihilated by the national army, and the gunfire in the front was intermittent, and the captain of the Akita brigade in the rear thought that the battle on the front line should be almost over, and perhaps their troops had already entered the position of the Chinese people.

Suddenly.

A piercing burst of gunfire came from the direction of the forward position, accompanied by a roar, and in just a few moments, the battle on the forward position became fierce.

A Japanese communications soldier ran over quickly.

"Shaozuo, the people of the branch are coming!"

"Nani!? Did the people call you? How is it possible, what about the second squadron!? Captain Akita stood up in shock, with an incredible look on his face.

"The second squadron was wiped out by the Shina people." The communications soldier said quickly.

"Yaga!"

Captain Akita heard this, scolded loudly, calmed down, and immediately thought: "Impossible, the people of China do not have the ability to destroy the second squadron, even if the people of China have more troops than us!" ”

"Shao Zuo, this is true, after the second squadron attacked, only one retreated back, and the other was missing, the people who came over this part of the attack officially disappeared." Said the communications officer.

When Captain Akita heard the news, his eyes condensed slightly, "How could the people of China possibly destroy them, Yaga, quick, I want to take a look!" ”

As soon as he walked out of the brigade headquarters, he saw a scout running over in a hurry, "Shaozuo, the forward position is lost!" ”

"Nani!"

At this moment, Captain Akita felt the feeling of blackening his eyes.

It all came so fast.

From the receipt of the news to the loss of the forward position, it happened too quickly.

On the forward position, there is a squadron of troops, even if they are sent to continue the attack on the position of the national army, this forward position should have the strength of an infantry squad and a grenadier squad, and in the face of the attack of the Chinese people, no matter how bad it is, it can hold out for half an hour.

Only a few minutes passed from the receipt of the first message to the loss of the position.

He led the people to the village, stood in the ruins of the village, and used the telescope tube to observe the position of the Chinese people, and indeed found that the position had been lost, and the gray face of the Chinese people could be seen on the position, cleaning the battlefield.

"When did the people of China have such a strong offensive ability? No, it can't be. ”

Captain Akita suddenly thought of another fact, "It could be that a ghost has appeared on the battlefield." ”

The ghost has a strong shooting ability, bomb throwing ability, the ability to attack the position, is the number one enemy of the Japanese army, there are the people of the Chinese who are there, the combat effectiveness has increased several times, the previous attack on the Japanese position of the Chinese people is only more than 30 people, but the completion of a regiment of the Chinese people have not been completed.

The commander of the 11th Division once said that the ghost is the biggest enemy of the Japanese army, and once there is a ghost in the position of the Shina people, even if they pay huge casualties, they may not be able to defeat it.

"The ghost is not in the southern position, he is here to support the people in the northern position."

Captain Akita calmed down and began to think seriously.

The casualties of a squadron reached 80 percent, such casualties made people feel very frightened, and in addition to anger, Captain Akita had the idea of revenge in his heart, but he did not dare to send troops to attack the position of the Chinese people again, and sent the troops of two squadrons, Captain Akita was sure to knock down the position of the Chinese people, but in the same way, the Japanese troops of these two squadrons had to face huge casualties and pay a heavy price.

Even if the positions of the Chinese are defeated, strategically, they may not be victorious.

Their task was to contain the Chinese people, not to make great sacrifices to occupy their positions.

At this time, a signal corpsman came down from the wing headquarters and informed Captain Akita: "Shaozo, the wing commander orders to stop the attack on the Chinese people, and the focus of our attack is not on the 51st Division." ”

"Good!"

Captain Akita received the order.

He had no intention of attacking, and the casualties of a squadron made him quite painful, and it was not worth it to cause more casualties in order to get revenge, thus delaying the right thing.

It was their task to contain the 51st Division, not to attack.

The battle for the positions on the north flank was largely over.

The Japanese army did not appear in the north position as Xia Yuan thought, and the Japanese army would attack the south position, even if it took the position of the 51st Division, it did not have much strategic significance.

After returning to the position, he determined that the Japanese army stopped attacking because the 51st Division was not their main target, and since the 51st Division was not the target of the Japanese army, where was the focus of the Japanese army's attack.

The center of gravity of the Japanese attack was really on the southeast flank.

After the 177th Brigade took over the defense line of the 33rd Brigade of the 11th Division of the National Army, on the morning of the 21st, the defensive positions on the first line of Xunjiazhai, Jinjiacun, and Zhujiazhai were attacked by the Japanese army with fierce artillery fire.

At eight o'clock in the morning, the Japanese infantry began to attack.

The 2nd Brigade of the 44th Wing launched an attack from the northwest side of the west side of the 177th Brigade, quickly captured Maqiao, and continued to advance westward along the embankment of the Lianqitang River.

The 9th Squadron of the 44th Wing began a coordinated attack on the Nationalist Army from the south of Luodian Town.

The battle lasted until two o'clock in the afternoon, when the 2nd Brigade of the 44th Wing of the Japanese Army occupied the Xunjia house. The Nationalist army held off the Japanese at Li's house and the bend of the river to the north, and the two sides fought fiercely until sunset.

The 3rd Brigade of the 44th Wing of the Japanese Army on the south side also launched an attack on the 177th Regiment that morning, quickly approaching Ding's house and Zhou's house, but the 353rd Regiment of the 177th Brigade of the National Army resisted stubbornly at Ding's house and Zhou's house, and the Japanese attack was blocked, and the fierce battle lasted until the afternoon, with huge casualties, lost positions, and retreated to the banks of the small river to set up defenses.

The small river defense line was set up with barbed wire positions, and the Japanese tried to cross the river to attack, but the water of this small river was so deep that it could not cover the whole body, and it was very difficult to cross the river, and the Japanese army had no way for a while.

The 12th Squadron of the 44th Wing of the Japanese Army, which attacked the banks of the river from the north side, suffered casualties, and the 44th Wing sent an additional 11th Squadron to continue the strong attack, but it also failed to make a breakthrough. The 2nd Brigade of the 43rd Wing on the south side made no progress throughout the day.

Although the 353rd Regiment resisted the Japanese attack, its casualties were very heavy, and the front-line soldiers lost eight-tenths of the day, and the company platoon commander suffered all the casualties.

The two sides fought fiercely until dark, but the Japanese were still unwilling to give up the attack, and sent additional engineering units to fight together.

It was not until the front-line combat units of the 353rd Regiment were exhausted that thousands of corpses were left that they began to retreat westward, and at about 10 o'clock that night, the 2nd Brigade of the 43rd Wing of the Japanese Army launched a night attack along the Xiaohe River, and finally captured the positions along the Xiaohe.

On this day, like the encounter of the 353rd Regiment, it happened to the defenders southeast of Luodian, the fierce attack of the Japanese army caused great casualties to the troops, the dead bodies on the position were everywhere, blood flowed in the trenches, mixed with mud, it was not rain mixed with mud, but blood.

The positions of the Nationalist army on the entire front were basically lost.

The position of the 349th Regiment of the 175th Brigade had been lost in the morning, the regiment counterattacked several times a day, the combat troops suffered heavy casualties, and failed to recover the position, and the National Army sent the 350th Regiment of the reserve to counterattack the Japanese army, but it was still unable to repel the Japanese army, and the battle lasted until sunset, and the remaining remnants of the 349th Regiment re-formed a defensive position in the rear to block the Japanese army.

That night, the 90th Division of the local troops of the Guangdong Army rushed to the rear of the 59th Division, with the 270th Brigade supporting the 177th Brigade and the 268th Brigade supporting the 175th Brigade.

That night, after the 90th Division and the remnants of the 59th Division converged, they learned about the situation at the front and decided to immediately launch a counteroffensive against the Japanese positions.

The 270th Brigade with the 540th Regiment cooperated with the remnants of the 177th Brigade of the 59th Division to counterattack the 2nd and 3rd Brigades of the 44th Wing of the Japanese Army, and the 268th Brigade with the 535th Regiment cooperated with the remnants of the 175th Brigade of the 59th Division to launch a counteroffensive against the 12th Wing of the Japanese Army.

The national counteroffensive lasted until three o'clock in the morning the next day.

Interestingly, on the north side, the 540th Regiment, which cooperated with the 177th Brigade in attacking the Japanese army, reported that they had captured the Japanese position, but it was recaptured by the Japanese in the morning.

The remnants of the 177th Brigade had repeatedly penetrated the Japanese positions, but they were all pressed down by the Japanese counterattacks and failed to occupy the Japanese positions.

Regardless of the discrepancies in the reports of the two armies, in short, the counteroffensive that night did not make any progress, and by the early morning of the next day the troops began to retreat to the rear and rebuild their positions.

By the next morning, dark clouds had covered Songhu, but it had not rained.

After a whole day of fighting yesterday, the 59th Division stationed on the southeast front was in disarray, two-thirds of the officers died, and the command fell into confusion, and there were only more than 200 people left in the 540th Regiment.

On the south side was the 22nd Wing of the Japanese Army, and on the defensive side was the Teaching Brigade of the Cantonese Army of the Nationalist Army; compared with the smooth attack of the 44th Wing of the Japanese Army on the north side, the 22nd Wing of the Japanese Army made almost no progress, and the 22nd Wing of the Japanese Army had the widest total front due to the late entry into the southern position.

Not to mention the situation in front of the Nationalist army, the 22nd Wing failed to complete the reconnaissance of the forward positions before the attack.

When the attack was launched in the morning, the 22nd Wing of the Japanese Army had to bite the bullet and attack the positions of the Nationalist Army in the vicinity of Zhoujiaxin with the strength of the 1st Brigade and the 3rd Brigade.

Braving the autumn rains, the Japanese advanced through the muddy fields and captured the outpost of the Nationalist army two hours later, but they were immediately blocked by the main force of the teaching brigade and could not move in place.

The 22nd Wing of the Japanese Army had to call in artillery for support, but due to poor communication with the artillery, the Japanese artillery only carried out a short period of fire cover, and did not use tracer shells and other means of instruction to indicate the completion of the shelling.

The infantry of the 22nd Wing failed to coordinate the artillery to launch an attack, and it was worth charging the Nationalist positions head-on, and the teaching brigade used bamboo forests and houses to build strongholds for crossfire, and the Japanese artillery bombardment could not suppress the Nationalist firepower, and under the machine-gun fire and mortar fire from all sides, the attacking Japanese troops could not move an inch.

The 22nd Wing attacked until nightfall, but still made no progress.

In the evening of the same day, the aerial reconnaissance photos of the Japanese army were sent to the wing headquarters, and the 22nd Wing of the Japanese army was even more sure that the position of the teaching brigade was very strong, and constantly asked the division to send more artillery.

The Japanese army immediately transferred an additional heavy artillery squadron to the 22nd Wing, and since the 22nd Wing's attack on that day made no progress, the 11th Divisional Staff even suspected that the 22nd Wing was fighting passively because the Nationalist positions in front of it were too strong, and the divisional and regimental staff repeatedly asked the 22nd Wing to step up its attack, while the 22nd Wing repeatedly complained about the lack of artillery.

In addition, the brigade commander Naojiro Amaya was hospitalized for dysentery, and at this time, the wing commander of the 12th Wing, Anda 23, was acting as the brigade commander, and since the ratio of Adachi 23rd and 22nd Wing to Yongjin Zuo was the same level as the wing commander, although Anda 23rd was the acting brigade commander to command the brigade, he could not command the 22nd Wing at will like a real brigade commander.

This also led to a further disconnect in the command of the 22nd Wing of the Japanese Army.

However, although the 22nd Wing did not make the slightest advance in the offensive, it suffered the lowest casualties of all the troops attacking from the southeast.

On the 21st, the focus of the Japanese attack was focused on the southeast side of Luodian, and the 51st Division and the 58th Division, which were located on the west side of Luodian, were only attacked by the Japanese Shigetsu detachment in the front.

In the afternoon, after receiving the order of the division commander, it entered the west side of Luodian and cooperated with the main force of the 11th Division to carry out the southern operation of Luodian.

Since then, there have been no large-scale engagements between the two sides, with only small troop firefights.

The 74th Army, the tiger and wolf division of the Battle of Songhu, has a very tenacious combat capability, even if Xia Yuan does not exist, it is not an easy thing for the two wings of the Japanese army to attack the position of the 74th Army and take it.

After the end of the position on the western flank, the Japanese army did not attack the position of the 51st Division, and the two sides fell into a state of standoff.

In the vicinity of Yanghang, the battle situation is still scorching, and the tragic positional battle is still being staged, and every moment, the Japanese army and the national army are killed.

In particular, the troops of the national army suffered a huge number of casualties.

The Japanese army not only has armored troops, but also field artillery and heavy artillery units, which are put into positional combat and are absolute weapons of destruction.

Night.

The 77th and 8th Divisions of the Hunan Army arrived southeast of Luodian, and the 77th Division of the Hunan Army was assigned to the 66th Army and entered between the Teaching Brigade and the 159th Division.

The 8th Division of the Hunan Army was assigned to the 69th Army, entered the south side of the road, and took over from the 78th Division, which retreated to the rear that night to rest.

It's nightfall.

Bonfires were lit on the positions.

Xia Yuan has figured out what the Japanese army thinks, and it doesn't matter if they are exposed or not, in fact, when the Japanese army presses the border, they are already exposed to the guns of the Japanese army, and the Japanese army does not attack, the main reason is that there are two reasons.

First, the center of gravity of the attack is the southeast of Luodian, and whether the west side of Luodian is fought or not is of no strategic significance.

The main reason for attacking the southeast of Luodian is that the Japanese army near Yanghang wants to move forward, and by opening the passage southeast of Luodian, it can converge with the Japanese army in Yanghang, and at the same time, attacking the southeast of Luodian, the Japanese army in Yanghang on the flank can also coordinate to attack Yanghang, the best of both worlds.

Second, attacking the west side of Luodian will cause huge casualties.

On the one hand, the existence of Xia Yuan made the Japanese army jealous, on the other hand, the combat capability of the 74th Army is obvious to all, the ace army of the national army, combat ability, style are very strong and tenacious, plus Xia Yuan, who can defeat the first army, the Japanese army naturally gave up attacking the position of the national army.

Xia Yuan's participation in the battle of Luodian has not been short, and until now, he can basically guess the thoughts of the Japanese army.

The veteran took off his clothes, hung them on sticks, roasted them on the fire, and looked up at the gray sky.

"It's estimated to rain tomorrow, company commander, have the Japanese devils really given up fighting us?"

"If that's the case, that's great."

Platoon Commander Li rubbed his hot palms with a smile on his face.

"It's not a good thing for the Japanese devils to give up fighting us." Xia Yuan frowned slightly, thinking of the result of the Battle of Songhu, he felt quite uncomfortable.

Looking at history, turning a page at random, it is their life, and the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of numbers they see, there are no waves in their hearts.

It wasn't until I was on the battlefield and saw such a living person, sacrificing his life and forgetting his death for the victory of the war, that I felt that the string of numbers was terrible.

The sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of people, just the corpses piled up, can pile up a mountain on the plain of Songhu, and blood can flow out of a river.

The sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of people, the participation of millions of troops in the war, relying only on personal strength, can not change anything at all, Xia Yuan thought, although he has an understanding of the future direction of the war, but in the face of the Japanese army's large-scale pressure, there is a deep helplessness.

Or the same problem as the 180th Division, command decision-making.

At its own expense, the 180th Division covered the withdrawal of the Ninth Corps and delayed the Hwacheon blockade.

The Battle of Nasonghu, the sacrifice of 300,000 people, changed the offensive policy of the Japanese army, and successfully dragged the Japanese army into the quagmire, just for such a goal, the price paid was too great.

In front of the cow, a few sticks were propped up on the bonfire, and a helmet was tied with rope, and they hung on the bonfire, and some rain was collected, and the cans seized from the Japanese devils went down.

"Company commander, isn't it a good thing for me that the Japanese devils don't attack? Why isn't it a good thing? ”

The top five cows are three thick, and I can't figure out what is so powerful.

"The target of the Japanese attack is somewhere else, not the 51st Division, and the Japanese troops on the front are just trying to contain us."

The veteran could guess some, but he didn't know if he was right or not.

Platoon Commander Li pondered for a long time and quite agreed with the veteran's words.

"What the veteran said makes sense, otherwise, why did the Japanese devils go to great lengths to occupy the surrounding villages, they just want to see us."

Niu Qian stared at the company commander.

Xia Yuan said: "The target of the Japanese devil's attack is not here, but in other places, and even if we defeat here, it will not have any strategic significance." ”

After such a long war, whether a battle can be fought, whether it can be fought, whether it can be fought, and whether it should be fought, the goal is to see whether the battle is of strategic significance in the whole situation, and whether it will have an impact on the various defense lines.

For a whole day, the Japanese army only sent a small force to clash with the 51st Division, and there was no large-scale fighting.

Separated by a cross-contact zone, the two sides seem to be at peace.

The bonfire was swaying, reflecting the faces of the three platoon commanders, and when it was about two o'clock, the sky began to drizzle again, and the veterans collected the clothes that were hanging outside, and arranged for the scouts to keep vigil, and everyone slept in the damp and cold tunnels.

The bedding was very thin, the ground was damp, and after lying down for a while, I felt that my whole back was soaked, and I felt quite uncomfortable after sleeping.

I slept hazy until the next morning, and had a good night's sleep.

The Japanese army came with great difficulty, bombed the position of the 51st Division and flew away, and the soldiers of the national army who rushed out of the trenches with guns took a look, the Japanese devils did not come, and they were angry and scolded their mothers at the positions of the Japanese devils.

The Japanese devils didn't call, they just let the bombers fly over, dropped a few bombs and flew away.

Early in the morning, a communications corpsman came from the division headquarters, ran to the position of the newly formed company, and called Xia Yuan to go to the division headquarters.

The atmosphere in the division headquarters was a little solemn, Wang Yaowu was looking at a telegram, and after reading it, he raised his eyes and looked at Xia Yuan and threw the telegram to him.

Xia Yuan glanced at it roughly, and then understood what Wang Yaowu had called him for.

"The southeast position of Luodian was lost, and the 51st Division received you, but the Japanese army did not attack, so you have nowhere to use your strength."

"Division Commander Wang wants me to go southeast of Luodian to assist the 90th Division in arranging defenses?"

"Well, the 59th Division was disabled by the Japanese army, it is said that it has collapsed, and the command system is chaotic, I want you to take over the 59th Division, but the order is not in my hands, you still have to make some merits to attract the attention of the commander-in-chief."

Xia Yuan shook his head: "My heart is not on the official career, I just want to fight devils." ”

"Then I didn't misunderstand you, the battle in the southeast of Luodian is related to the situation of the entire Luodian, the 51st Division and the 58th Division can't move, there are two wings of Japanese troops in front, if you move one, the other will be surrounded by the Japanese army, or even completely annihilated, in this case, only you can move."

Wang Yaowu has a thorough view of the current situation, Xia Yuan is a big killer, used well, and can even change the situation of a position.

Although sending Xia Yuan to the southeast of Luodian made him feel very painful in his heart, such a fierce general, the future is immeasurable, but in the face of the deterioration of the war, the 51st Division and the 58th Division could not move, the Japanese army pressed the situation in a big way, and the only one who could move was Xia Yuan, coupled with his combat ability, one person could take charge alone.

He is the only one who is more suitable to replace the 51st Division to support the operation southeast of Luodian.

"I can't send you more troops, the Japanese army will inevitably attack the 51st Division after completing the battle southeast of Luodian, but your previous company, I have sent someone to fill it, you can now take your company and set off to the southeast of Luodian to support the 90th Division."

In this way, Xia Yuan thought that he would stay in the 51st Division for a while, but he only took a few days and set off again.

There are a lot of fresh faces in the new company, Xia Yuan found a few chats for a while, these people are all defeated soldiers from Jiading, the 51st Division is recruiting troops in Jiading, under the banner of Xia Yuan, many people follow to join the 51st Division, they all admire Xia Yuan and come over, but there are very few people who really enter the new company.

Xia Yuan was famous in Jiading, and there were not a few people who wanted to fight with him, but after most of them joined the 51st Division, they were dispersed to the troops that needed to be replenished.

There are very few people who are assigned to the new company, but they are all close to Xia Yuan.

Seeing Xia Yuan, there is no doubt that he is very happy.

"The Japanese army wanted to drive away the national army southeast of Luodian, they had been fighting for a day, the 59th Division was disabled by the Japanese army, the position was lost, and countless soldiers died under the heavy artillery of the Japanese army."

"Our mission is to assist our allies and seize positions!"

Without too many exciting words, Xia Yuan simply told everyone about the situation on the front line, and he did not hide this mission, the more he concealed it, the more he gained more than he lost.

It was a hazy morning, drizzling.

A team of 100 people set off from the west side of Luodian, left the town, and marched southeast of Luodian.

The advance of the Songhu War was still related to the national war of resistance, and the reinforcements of various provinces began to reinforce the Battle of Songhu, and the number of troops reached a terrible more than 700,000 people. (End of chapter)