Chapter 1496: Lao Liu Is a Bit Poisonous!

Morning of June 5th!

South of Hengyang City, Oujiamachi!

Hunan Province is located in the transition zone from the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau to the Jiangnan Hills and Nanling Mountains to the Jianghan Plain. In addition, there are many water systems in the territory, and it is foggy in summer and autumn.

It was foggy again today, and the thick white fog covered Oujia Town. The sparse woods were shrouded in the white fog all over the mountains and fields, as if they were floating in mid-air.

At dawn, Lieutenant General Sakuma, the commander of the Japanese 68th Division, got up. He didn't sleep well all night yesterday. He thought that no matter how beneficial the "Taishan Army" stationed in Hengyang was, the 11th Army invested 3 The division and brigade were besieged by more than 70,000 people. It was not a dream to defeat the enemy in three days. However, it has been almost three days and nights since the commander of the army, Yokoyama Isamu, announced the start of a full-scale offensive. As a result, let alone Hengyang City, they have not even defeated Hengyang City. I haven't even seen the shadow of the city wall yet.

The only thing that made him feel relieved was that the main force of the 68th Division, which was responsible for the main attack on the west of the city, was still wallowing in the quagmire and ponds. An infantry regiment of the 116th Division was crippled and could not even climb a shallow hillside. , and the unlucky ones in the north of the city have not yet crossed the steaming water, but Yokoyama Isamu cannot blame him.

However, Lieutenant General Sakuma was very moved by yesterday's proposal from the commander of the 116th Division, Iwa Eiwang. Since in actual operation, it is not feasible to attack mainly on the south, west, and north sides determined by the Chinese Army Headquarters, it is better to focus on one place. Concentrate the heavy firepower of the two divisions on the mountains south of Hengyang City, and first open a breakthrough.

The two old Sixth Division commanders of the Japanese 11th Army never expected that the meat grinder-style defense system deployed by the Hengyang command system headed by Fang Xianjue and Tang Dao in the south of the city was precisely for the purpose of consuming a large number of Japanese troops. , the original 20,000 men of the 116th Division really couldn't satisfy this defensive position that was turned into killing people and was built in the past ten days with more than 40,000 soldiers and civilians. With the addition of the 68th Division, it was really a dream.

Sakuma was an extremely responsible general, and he was upset and decided that he had to go to the front line to see for himself.

The commander of the 58th Brigade, Sadamasa Ohta, who had been commanding the operations in the west of the city at the division headquarters, was naturally shocked. He urged his immediate superior not to take risks. In the past seven years of fighting with the Chinese, there were many people with the level of division commanders. There were more than one or two cases of generals who went to the front line but were killed by the Chinese with artillery.

But Sakuma is the backup head of the Sakuma family, a famous samurai family in Japan. He has the pride and courage of the samurai family, and as an Imperial Army general, he also has the responsibility and obligation to find a way for the entire division to reduce casualties and reduce casualties. A way to complete combat missions.

What's more, the Japanese Army Lieutenant General's reasons are also very good. The fog is so heavy now that the visibility will never exceed 200 meters. How can the artillery see and hit them two thousand meters away?

The Japanese Army Major General was dumbfounded by his immediate superior's explanation for good reasons. He could only secretly curse, it's true that the Chinese can't see you in such a heavy fog, but the key is that you can't see the Chinese either, right? Then go to the front line and observe a penis.

10 am!

The fog cleared slightly, and the officers and soldiers on the Maple Hill artillery position suddenly became restless.

It turned out that Lieutenant Colonel Cai Rulin, who was appointed by Fang Xianjue to coordinate and command the artillery positions of the entire army in Hengyang, came.

There are a total of two mountain guns and 6 82 mortars on the Maple Mountain artillery position. It is the most advanced artillery position deployed in the south of the city and mainly provides artillery support for the flanks of the 10th Preliminary Division position.

In the past two days, this artillery position has braved the huge risk of retaliation by Japanese artillery fire and effectively supported the friendly forces. Ge Youcai, commander of the 10th Preliminary Division, even called the headquarters to ask for credit for this artillery position.

Cai Rulin came to the position this time with a commission from Tang Dao, the chief of operations. He not only brought a verbal commendation order from the staff, but also brought toffee and cigarettes, which can be regarded as an encouragement to the artillery position.

The artillerymen on the artillery position were all smiling. If it hadn't been for the silence order, they would have burst into cheers.

Cai Rulin is a professional artilleryman. After completing the tasks assigned by his superiors, it will be his turn to specialize.

Walking to the artillery observation position, he took his most precious 8x telescope and carefully observed the distance.

It was already 10:30 at this time, and the thick fog on Maple Mountain gradually dissipated, and the sunlight gradually filtered in. However, the valley south of the city was still filled with light fog, and the mountains, forests and ravines were soaked in translucent mist, making shadows blurry.

The landscape of Hengyang is beautiful, and it would be even more beautiful if there was no war! Cai Rulin just sighed in his heart, and suddenly found in the field of telescope that there seemed to be a group of black figures on the mountain ridge north of Oujia Town, about 1,000 meters due south.

Cai Rulin immediately adjusted the distance and finally saw clearly that these black figures were wearing khaki military uniforms. They turned out to be a group of Japanese soldiers!

It is normal for the Japanese army to conduct reconnaissance and spying on their own positions, but it is abnormal for more than 20 Japanese troops to suddenly appear on a small hill to conduct reconnaissance at the same time.

Moreover, according to the position where the Japanese were standing, they were shouting in front and surrounding the few people in the middle, which meant that the Japanese in the middle were probably not ordinary Japanese. Cai Rulin immediately realized that he might have encountered a big fish.

Cai Rulin suppressed his excitement and immediately ordered the officers and soldiers of the artillery position to quickly enter the position. He personally operated the gun scope to measure the range. The distance was not much different from what he expected, 1020 meters!

In order not to alert the enemy, Cai Rulin decided not to use the usual single-gun test firing to test the impact point of the projectile. Instead, he concentrated all the artillery in the entire artillery position, 2 mountain guns and 6 82 mortars, and fired at the group of Japanese at the same time with the range he calculated. Concentrate fire and bombardment, five shots per gun!

And 1,000 meters away, Sakuma Hitoshi obviously had not yet realized that he had been targeted by the Chinese in the opposite forest. He was standing in a circle with Colonel Sadazaburo Harada, the chief of staff of the 68th Division, and others, giving instructions to the flank of the 10th Division.

Based on his judgment after observing the position for half an hour, the Chinese would never hoard too many troops on the two small high grounds. As long as they used enough artillery fire or even poison gas bombs and attacked with a large number of troops, they could capture the two almost independent small hills before the Chinese reinforcements arrived.

As long as there were these two bridgeheads, putting mountain artillery or infantry artillery on these two high points would pose a great threat to the large circular position of the Chinese side, instead of hesitating in front of the Huangchaling position like the 116th Division is currently.

The key is to see whether the main attacker has the determination to exchange a breakthrough in the Chinese position at the cost of thousands of people.

"With the personal guidance of the division commander, what the 116th Division cannot do, our 68th Division can definitely do." The 68th Division Colonel Chief of Staff Harada Sadazaburo flattered his division commander.

Little did he know that this was the last time in his life that he had such a close relationship with his immediate superior.

"Swish~~" The sound of sharp shells crossing the sky just sounded in the ears of a group of Japanese, followed by a continuous "boom boom boom!" explosion.

There was a flash of fire, a loud bang, and suddenly the sky was dark, smoke rose, and more than 20 Japanese fell in a pool of blood, wriggling and struggling in pain.

"It's over, it's time to call it a day!" After the smoke cleared, Cai Rulin saw that the Japanese were basically lying on the ground in a mess. If nothing unexpected happened, they were basically finished. He clapped his hands with satisfaction and ordered that the merits of killing more than 20 Japanese soldiers be recorded and all belonged to the artillery position.

The commanders and artillery officers and soldiers on the Chinese artillery position regarded the bombardment as an artillery attack, killing more than 20 Japanese devils. Even the captain of the artillery position was very distressed that he had lost 40 shells, especially the precious mountain artillery shells. There were only 120 shells in total on his position. When Lieutenant Colonel Cai came, he consumed 10 shells. It was really extravagant.

No one expected that this bombardment would stun the Japanese army, especially the 68th Division. After only two days of fighting, the division commander and chief of staff were gone.

To be more precise, Chief of Staff Harada Sadazaburo was completely gone, but Division Commander Sakuma was not completely gone.

It turned out that when the guards of the 68th Division rushed up, only 6 of the 23 Japanese generals and lieutenants on the ridge were still seriously injured. The chief of staff Harada Sadazaburo had his neck cut off by a piece of shrapnel, and even a little skin was almost beheaded. He was already dead.

And the division commander Sakuma was a lucky person. His lower abdomen was penetrated by shrapnel, and his intestines were exposed, but he was still alive. He was lucky.

But for this descendant of a famous samurai family in Japan, it would be better to die on the spot.

Because he could no longer feed Michiko who was waiting for him in his hometown.

A damn shrapnel was like a scalpel of a skilled doctor, cutting it off by the root.

What's more damning is that when he woke up from his coma a few days later, he learned that because the scene was too chaotic, no one paid attention to the piece of meat cut off by the shrapnel, so he had no chance to leave it for his thoughts.

The Japanese Army Lieutenant General who was urgently transported to Nanjing for treatment by military aircraft did not care about the sadness that he would never have sex again or grow a beard. He could not guarantee his survival. The wound on his abdomen was infected and he needed a lot of penicillin, but the Americans had long imposed an embargo on Japan. It was difficult to get it through official channels and he could only buy it on the black market.

It seems that some generals of the 4th Division who had been transferred away from mainland China had the goods, and the Expeditionary Army Headquarters needed to coordinate with them.

In order to save the life of this seriously injured Japanese Army Lieutenant General, Tian Junliu had to lose face and send a telegram to his former subordinates, and pinched his nose to pay no less than 100 taels of gold in exchange for 10 vials of penicillin.

Military aircraft and a large amount of fuel were also used, and the price paid was not small.

Because of this front-line shelling incident, the commander of the Chinese Expeditionary Army, Tian Junliu, was overwhelmed, but the commander of the 11th Army, Yokoyama Yong, was dumbfounded.

The slogan of "We will break Hengyang in three days" was still ringing in his ears, and the command system of the main division under his command was completely destroyed. The lieutenant general division commander was bombed into a eunuch, and the division chief of staff died. What kind of a tyrant is this?

"Temporarily, the commander of the division, Iwanewang, will take over the command of the 68th Division!" Yokoyama Yong thought again and again, and could only issue such a telegram.

The commander of the 116th Division, Iwanewang, was also stunned. He had just discussed with the unlucky kid Sakuma Rento yesterday that the two divisions would be closer to fight together and share resources of the artillery regiment. What a guy, he hasn't figured out his own affairs yet! He has to command two divisions alone and be responsible for the operations in the south and west of the city. Isn't this a man on top of a man!

It's like a death sentence! There is no way, Iwanewang had to send a telegram to the commander of the Shima Detachment in the west of the city, Major General Shima Genkichi, asking him to temporarily take the command of the 68th Division and be responsible for commanding the operations of all units of the 68th Division.

The so-called "Shima Detachment" was an independent mixed combat force formed by the 57th Brigade of the 68th Division led by Major General Shima Genkichi, and strengthened by artillery, engineering, and logistics units.

The advantage of doing this is that it is under the command of the 68th Division and can be directly commanded by the 11th Army Headquarters, making the command system flatter and reducing the intermediate links. It can also be regarded as some new attempts made by the Japanese Army.

Among the Japanese generals who participated in the siege, Shima Genkichi can be regarded as a veteran. He was 55 years old at the time, the same age as Yokoyama Isamu, and he also served as the first commander of the 120th Infantry Regiment of the 116th Division. Because of his fierce combat style and resourcefulness, he was valued by Yokoyama Isamu and was often organized into an independent detachment to take on independent tasks. He was also considered the second most important person in the 68th Division after Sakuma Hitoshi.

Iwanaga Wang chose to transfer the command to him, and he also did a favor to the major general detachment commander. Even a fool knows that even if Sakuma Hitoshi survived the serious injury, he would not return to the 68th Division. Who is qualified to be promoted to the commander of the 68th Division?

The original No. 2 was a must, and if he added the merit of conquering Hengyang City, wouldn't it be a done deal?

Yan Yongwang was a smart man, and his considerations were profound, but this Japanese lieutenant general and division commander really underestimated his old number six attributes. It would be unfortunate to be too close to him.

Shima Genkichi became the leader of the 68th Division, and it was really hard to hide his excitement, but after the excitement, looking at the swamp and the soldiers like mud monkeys in front of him, he felt a headache again.

Compared with the south of the city, the west of the city is a plain area, which was originally more conducive to attack, but the Chinese were so bad. After the Zhengshui embankment was opened to release water, the fertile fields and ponds all turned into muddy land. Not to mention the chariots, it was extremely difficult for people to walk in it.

Even veterans who had experienced many wars, wearing heavy leather boots to walk through such muddy land, became as slow as old men in their seventies and eighties, which was so fatal on the battlefield of gunfire and rain of bullets.

For example, in the northwest corner outside Hengyang City, there is a position called Yisemiao Street. The position is 1,200 meters wide. The paddy fields and ponds have been opened up and filled with water to become muddy land, leaving only this street as a passage.

The Chinese demolished every three or five houses in the row to prevent the Japanese infantry from coming through the continuous houses, and laid multi-layer obstacles at the corners of the street, set up machine gun bunkers, and used light and heavy firepower to cross-block, forming an insurmountable line of fire.

The Japanese troops of the Shima Detachment had no choice but to cover the area with artillery and then attack the position by crawling in the mud with infantry.

But the Chinese had a large number of trenches and bunkers. Although there were casualties under the attack of artillery fire, their combat effectiveness was not lost. The Japanese troops in the mud moved slowly and were constantly used as live targets or attacked by grenades. In just these two days, his detachment lost more than 400 people in front of the position.

Perhaps because he became the supreme commander of the 68th Division, the resourceful Shima Genkichi suddenly came up with a plan!

On the night of June 5, the Chinese defenders, who had been fighting for a whole day, fell asleep except for some guards. Suddenly, there was a loud noise. No one shouted that the enemy was attacking. The noise scared the officers and soldiers so much that they woke up.

When the flares were fired, they saw groups of cattle and horses in the dark, with flames on their tails, sharp knives on their heads, and no one knew what they were carrying. They ran out from the Japanese side and rushed towards the position with their hooves spread out. The fireballs and torches behind them were as bright as daylight.

This was the tactic that the resourceful Shima Genkichi came up with. It was the "fire bull formation" used in the history of ancient Chinese wars, but there were too few cattle at the moment, so they used the Japanese army's pack horses.

This used at least a dozen cattle and more than 40 horses. Major General Shima Genkichi also invested a lot.

However, the "fire bull formation" that has been tried and tested in the cold weapon era, how much effect it can play in modern warfare, still depends on the actual effect.

The Chinese officers and soldiers were calmer than the Japanese thought, until the fire bulls and horses rushed to more than 100 meters, machine guns and submachine guns were used together, and blood splattered on the bulls and horses, and some Japanese soldiers behind the bulls and horses were also swept down.

The vitality of cattle and horses is much stronger than that of humans. Several fire bulls were hit by at least ten bullets and still did not fall, but this does not mean that these creatures are stupid. If they go forward, they will be killed. If they want to live, they can only run back. The herd of cattle and horses turned around and ran, faster than when they came.

These are good, directly trampled down a large number of Japanese soldiers following behind, and stepped into the mud, and the mud was really full.

If you want to hide from these crazy cattle and horses, you have to face the Chinese rain of bullets. The Japanese infantrymen are so miserable!

When the battle was over, the new commander of the 68th Division almost vomited blood. The "fire bull formation" he had worked so hard to set up didn't even touch the edge of the Chinese position. Not only did he lose 50 pack horses, but he also lost more than 190 Japanese soldiers.

If he didn't come back at this time, how could he stay in those stinky muddy places to watch the stars and the moon?

It was really hard for this commander!