The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 253 Exploration on a Rainy Night
In the elegant rain curtain, the drizzle of the winter night seemed to cast a veil on the air. Behind the Kunisaki detachment's campsite, thousands of Japanese soldiers wearing black ponchos marched in slowly and in neat steps.

The Japanese infantry marched slowly in the rainy night like a long queue. In addition to the sound of neat footsteps, there were also the neighing of war horses and the sound of steel. Behind the thousands of infantry was a huge field artillery marching column. , hundreds of Japanese horses pulling twelve modified 38-type 75mm field guns and ammunition trucks, artillery auxiliary vehicles, followed closely behind the infantry, and behind the artillery marching column, there was a group of Armored troops marched in column.

This new force of the Japanese army that recently arrived at Shimonoseki in the rainy night is the Sasaki detachment of the 16th Division of the Japanese Army. Its core base is formed by the 38th Infantry Regiment under the 16th Division. Including the entire 38th Infantry Regiment and a brigade of the 33rd Infantry Regiment, a brigade of the Field Artillery Regiment affiliated to the 16th Division, and the 8th Independent Light Armored Vehicle Squadron directly under the Songhu Expedition Army.

Among them, the 118th Infantry Regiment and a field brigade of the 108rd Infantry Regiment have a total of four field infantry brigades and more than 17 people in various units directly under the regiment. The attached field artillery brigade has modified equipment. Type field artillery, while the Eighth Independent Light Armored Vehicle Squadron has people, equipped with -year-old pistols, Type light armored vehicles, and a considerable number of cars.

This detachment with a total strength of nearly 5,000 people, led by the detachment leader Sasaki Yuichi, was the second outflanking detachment sent by the Japanese army that had just captured Jinling City and rushed to Xiaguan overnight.

Next to the huge marching column, the detachment leader Sasaki, Major General, was sitting in a luxury car snatched from the city. He frowned and looked out the window at the rainy night. After arriving at the Kunisaki detachment's camping ground, he felt a little strange. atmosphere.

The entire Kunisaki detachment camp had a lifeless feeling. There were not many soldiers from the Kunisaki detachment in the whole camp. There were only sentries and some patrolling sentries. Dozens of mountain cannons and rapid-fire cannons covered with gun jackets were lined up in rows. Arranged in the artillery firing position, there were only sporadic artillery protection soldiers around, and no large group of people could be seen.

The main force of the Kunisaki detachment seemed to be hiding in the tents, and the surrounding air seemed to be filled with a bloody and gloomy atmosphere, completely lacking the vitality and vitality that a military camp should have.

Although he was sitting in a safe and comfortable car, Sasaki felt a little uneasy.

The car drove all the way and finally stopped in front of the headquarters tent of the Kunozaki Detachment. Several officers in raincoats got out of the command post of the Kunozaki Detachment and ran towards the car. Immediately, the door of the car was opened, and the person who opened the door A raincoat was also handed over.

Sasaki thought he was a junior officer of the Kunisaki detachment, so he just nodded slightly and took the raincoat. But when he put on the raincoat and walked out of the car, what he saw was a gloomy and bitter face, and This man, Sasaki Toichi, is no stranger. He is Major General Noboru Kunisaki, commander of the friendly Kunisaki detachment who will be fighting with him.

For a moment, Sasaki was a little stunned when he saw the friendly commander who opened the car door for him personally and handed over his raincoat.

Kunisaki Noboru looked at Sasaki who was stunned there, pointed at the rain curtain in the distance, and said with a wry smile: "Sasaki-kun, how about we go for a walk?"

Seeing the sadness on Kunizaki Noboru's face, and thinking about the scenes he had just seen, Sasaki took another look at Shimonoseki, which was almost integrated with the river in the rain curtain. He suddenly understood something and clicked. He nodded and said softly: "It's an honor."

The two major general officers walked side by side in the direction of Shimonoseki. Noboru Kunisaki lamented and said, "Sasaki-kun, today our unit has launched an attack on the Chinese army in Shimonoseki. I am a shame to the Imperial Army. The Fifth Division of the Imperial Army What a disgrace to the regiment.”

"Why did Captain Kunizaki say this?"

Sasaki asked curiously.

"Early this morning, I sent an infantry squadron and a cavalry squad as the vanguard to search and advance near Xianguan Pass. We encountered an enemy outpost. I ordered the vanguard to quickly annihilate the enemy. I never expected that the enemy would The resistance was quite tenacious. In the end, extremely powerful artillery was used to cover my forward troops. After several rounds of artillery fire, one of my infantry squadrons and a cavalry squad were all buried in the enemy's artillery fire. ."

Sasaki was very shocked by this time, and said with his mouth wide open: "The enemy's firepower is so fierce?"

"Not only that, I launched another general attack in the morning. In order to capture the enemy's position in one fell swoop, I deployed an infantry brigade at once and used violent artillery fire to suppress the enemy's position and depth. In the end, this group of enemies not only held their position, but also dispatched cavalry to attack the main force of our attack from the side and rear, and an entire infantry brigade of our 41st Regiment was completely destroyed."

Having said this, Kunizaki Noboru recalled the scene that made his heart break. The cavalry and infantry were ravaged by artillery fire, and were killed wantonly by the Chinese cavalry. Even the corpses are still soaked in the rain. When the officers and soldiers thought of this, Noboru Kunisaki felt his heart ache and closed his eyes in pain.

Sasaki's shock was even higher. He originally estimated that the Kunisaki detachment would have suffered a disadvantage in the first battle, but he did not expect that in this day's battle alone, the Kunisaki detachment had lost nearly six squadrons of troops.

This is indeed a bit incredible. It seems that although the Chinese army in Jinling suffered a large-scale defeat and lost the city, its combat effectiveness is still quite intact.

Immediately, Sasaki's shock was quickly relieved, because the infantry brigade lost by the Kunisaki detachment reminded him of the ninth infantry regiment that also belonged to the 16th Division and was killed on the Tangshan peripheral road a few days ago. This was not the first time that the entire infantry brigade was completely wiped out.

And all the changes in Sasaki's mood were seen by Kunizaki Noboru, so he continued: "Sasaki-kun, I heard that your 16th Division also experienced a situation where the infantry brigade was completely wiped out? Forgive me for being offended, I wonder if this news is true? I have no other intentions, and I know that I have committed a serious crime. I just hope that we can work together to defeat all the enemy forces in Xiaguan, so that we can comfort the spirits of the Yusui warriors in heaven, please!"

After saying that, Noboru Kunizaki actually bowed 190 degrees to Sasaki, who was at the same level. The two people had the same positions and ranks. They were both major general brigade commanders of the field infantry brigade, and at this time they were also They all also served as detachment leaders of a reinforced detachment based on a field infantry regiment.

Kunisaki Noboru's performance can be said to be quite low-profile.

And Sasaki Toichi also understood his intention. It was simply that today's attack failed and the losses were too large. In order to minimize his own responsibility, he hoped that Sasaki Toichi could work with him to conquer Xiaguan as soon as possible. If he succeeded in conquering Xiaguan, Although the credit for cutting off the retreat of the Chinese army may not be equal to the merits and demerits, it can still be achieved by reducing most of the culpability.

"Kunizaki-kun, you don't have to be like this. I led my troops here to defeat the Chinese army near Shimonoseki as soon as possible. I also ask Kunizaki-kun to introduce the details of the battle to me." Sasaki Tideichi hurriedly bowed and said.

Next, Kunisaki Noboru, who had regained his composure, told Sasaki all the details about today's battle, not even a single detail was missed. He even personally took Sasaki to meet those who had escaped. of survivors.

After learning the entire story of today's battle, Sasaki Toichi was surprised by the powerful firepower and impressive combat power of the Chinese army in Shimonoseki.

And his mind was obviously much clearer than that of Kunisaki Noboru who had just suffered a major blow. Based on the specific situation of the Kunisaki detachment being hit hard today, Sasaki Toichi quickly formulated the next action plan: First, according to today's Kunisaki detachment, Based on the battle situation of the detachment, the Chinese army near Xiaguan is likely to have sufficient defensive preparations and combat readiness.

Next, we should not continue to launch an onslaught, but instead send small groups of troops to conduct reconnaissance and conduct exploratory attacks. While reconnoitring the situation of the Chinese army's fortifications, we should also explore the weaknesses of its positions.

Regarding the high-power artillery of unknown origin in the Chinese army, Sasaki suggested that artillery technical officers be transferred from the Kunisaki Detachment and Sasaki Detachment to conduct on-site detection and investigation of the shelling site to find out where the so-called heavy artillery came from.

And Sasaki's combat plan is also very conservative and cautious, which is completely opposite to Kunizaki Noboru who just attacks fiercely from the beginning. He is quite calm and calm in sitting on the Diaoyutai, making decisions and then taking action.

Although the combat policy he proposed was sound, it was very time-consuming. It would take at least a day to conduct reconnaissance attacks and analyze the Chinese army's shelling sites.

In Sasaki's view, in order to securely conquer the Chinese army positions near Shimonoseki, it is absolutely worth wasting this day's time. If Kunizaki Noboru can be as cautious as this before attacking, instead of rushing to attack rashly, then today's Kunizaki detachment Even if the Chinese army's positions are not captured, the battle losses will not be very large.

So, on this rainy night, the Sasaki detachment and the Kunisaki detachment that had recently arrived at Shimonoseki restarted their new operations. Sasaki's tactical policy inadvertently gave the Chinese army in the Shimonoseki defense circle Take a breather.

Under He Wei's suggestion, the Chinese artillery in the Xiaguan defense circle will soon conduct on-site surveying and mapping of various positions to compile shooting charts. Like various reconnaissance and investigation operations by the Japanese army, this also requires a lot of time. The two armies each Their new tactical policy accidentally hit a coincidence, and they were all quietly executing their next plan and preparing for the next confrontation.

Since it is already dark, the on-site reconnaissance and exploratory attacks in the tactics proposed by Sasaki cannot be carried out for the time being. However, only the reconnaissance of the Chinese army's shelling site is most suitable to be carried out in the dark night. Shortly after it became completely dark, a Japanese army team of more than 30 people quietly lurked in front of the teaching corps' position amid the rain.

Amidst the roaring thunder and continuous lightning, the rain changed from a gentle drizzle to a downpour, and Xiaguan also became terrifying under the flash of lightning.

In the dark rainy night, a mixed team of more than thirty people, composed of artillery officers and infantry cover troops from the Kunisaki Detachment and Sasaki Detachment, abandoned their horses, wore black raincoats, and carefully groped their way to the vanguard of the Kunisaki Detachment this morning with their rifles in hand. A battlefield bombarded by Chinese troops.

With a sniffing sound, an artillery major of the 16th Division of the Japanese Army knelt down, wiped the rain from his face, and very carefully stepped on the mud on the soles of his feet to search forward. The officers and soldiers around him were also paying close attention. go ahead.

This major was not only the field artillery battalion captain of the 16th Division of the Japanese Army, but he was also an outstanding student of the Japanese Army Non-commissioned Officer School, an outstanding student of the Army Artillery School, and a shooting tactics instructor.

Before this operation, in order to find out what the Chinese army's devastating artillery was, Sasaki sent a group of artillery professional and technical officers to go out for reconnaissance, and the artillery captain took the initiative to take charge of this task. The commander of the sub-mission.

Amidst the sound of pouring rain, the artillery major hunched slightly. Under the leadership of the soldiers of the Kunisaki detachment, he gradually approached the battlefield where the tragedy occurred in the morning. As he gradually approached, he also smelled a trace of blood. breath.

Suddenly, a forward soldier turned back from the front in a panic, ran to the major with his mouth covered, pointed to the front and whispered: "Sir, sir, right in front, there are corpses everywhere."

The artillery major ran forward quickly, and then, with the faint light of lightning, he could see the scene ahead clearly. The major and the dozens of Japanese officers and soldiers behind him all stopped moving forward and took another breath of cold air mixed with rain.

I saw a dozen meters in front of me, filled with densely packed craters. There were human body parts and broken arms, dead war horses, and all kinds of clothing and equipment. There were some puddles and mud floating in the mud. The intact corpse, illuminated by lightning, looked like a scene from hell.

Holding back his nausea, the artillery major slowly approached the bomb-drop zone strewn with corpses, and began to use his professionalism to evaluate the Chinese army's artillery firepower based on the dense craters on the ground.

The results of the assessment also shocked him, because those huge craters and the major's artillery knowledge told him that even the smallest of these craters of different sizes must be hit by artillery with a caliber of more than 100 mm. The largest crater would never have been hit without a heavy artillery weapon with a caliber of over 200 mm.

And judging from the density of dropped bombs, the number of large-caliber heavy artillery possessed by this group of Chinese troops is definitely quite large. The shocked artillery major even forgot that he was in the rainy night in front of the enemy formation, and took off the gun with his mouth wide open. Raincoat squatted down and leaned against a huge crater, and took out a flashlight to shine into the crater.

Coincidentally, before the light of the flashlight shone into the crater, the artillery major was attracted to a dark object not far from the crater. It was a very large drop-shaped artillery warhead. Obviously, it was an unexploded shell. bomb.

In order to find out the artillery model of the Chinese army, the artillery major ran over, regardless of the danger of the shell exploding, and carefully looked at every part of the shell under the light of a flashlight. Finally, when he saw the inscription on the shell clearly Afterwards, the artillery major lost his balance in shock and sat down in the mud with a plop, muttering: "This, this is an eight-inch naval artillery shell made by the British. Where did the Chinese get this thing?"

(End of this chapter)