The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 37 Enemy Night 1
Night, Yongxing Village

The wind is blowing, the cool breeze is blowing, and the sky is cold and dark. The leader of the dike detachment, a 47-year-old Army colonel, a graduate of the 24th Infantry Course of the Army Non-commissioned Officer School, an outstanding student of the 34th Army University, and a former independent Kwantung Army Guard No. 16 Brigade, current captain of the Tsutsumi Detachment, Tsutsumi Bukaki closed his eyes and sat in the private courtyard that served as the temporary headquarters. He leaned on his command knife with both hands. Although there was noisy surroundings, Tsutsumi Bukaki just sat quietly. , as if there was no one around.

The detachment adjutant, Major Shuichi Uno, held a folder and stood behind Taka Tsutsumi. As the adjutant of the detachment, in most cases he did not need to undertake combat missions and combat responsibilities. He only had to accompany and protect the detachment leader Tsutsumi Taka.

Unlike the Chinese army's position opposite, the lights and darkness in Yongxing Village complement each other. The village where chickens croaked and dogs barked in the past is now suppressed and silent.

A large number of Japanese troops were stationed in Yongxing Village. The compound of the village headquarters was full of Japanese soldiers and officers who were setting up temporary command posts, setting up radio stations, determining communication base points, laying telephone lines to form a field wired communication network, and allocating accommodation to various departments. Here, a combat map is laid.

The nerve command center of a field force is being formed in an orderly manner with extremely high efficiency.

In the village, the Japanese infantry and cavalry, baggage, ammunition, and equipment of the Di Detachment entered Yongxing Village. Armored vehicles, mules, horses, carts, and trucks also gathered outside the village. The camp teams, ammunition teams, and baggage teams of various parts of the Di Detachment, The service team, the sergeants and officers of each infantry squadron, each performed their duties and transformed Yongxing Village, a Chinese village, into an advanced base for field troops at an extremely fast speed.

Di Bujiagui smelled the smell of blood in the air and felt a little moved. Suddenly, the dull sound of gunfire came one after another from the direction of Yuanping and the front of Xinkou Town, and a few more shots appeared in the night sky very far away. There were red and blue flares flying left and right without any pattern, followed closely by several red fire dragons composed of tracer bullets, screaming into the dark night sky.

rumbling, rumbling

Then, the muffled sound of gunfire also appeared in the direction in front of Xinkou Town. Di Bujiagui couldn't help but open his eyes, stood up, and kept scanning Yuan Ping and the direction in front of Xinkou.

"Your Excellency, Captain of the Tsutsumi Branch, the main force of our Corps in the direction of Yuanping should be mopping up and annihilating the remnants of the Shanxi Army in Yuanping. After the enemy army was defeated, a large number of stragglers fled. These defeated soldiers are most likely along the route of our Corps (Shinohara Corps) and the [-]rd The units of the Fifth Division fled at the gaps between them. The Fifth Division should have also come into contact with the enemy troops in front of Xinkou. Now the front from Yuanping to Xinkou is full of Shanxi Army troops who escaped from Yuanping. . I think the Chinese army at Xinkou is also vulnerable. The Shanxi army that fled in Yuanping will definitely affect the defense and morale of the Chinese army at Xinkou. If we gather heavy troops and launch several assaults, the Chinese army's defense line will inevitably collapse."

Uno Shuichi said complacently.

Uno Shuichi's words were endorsed by the strong strength of the Japanese army. The Japanese army assembled a large number of main force groups on the Xinkou front line. The Tsutsumi detachment belonged to the Shinohara Corps responsible for attacking the western front of Xinkou.

The Shinohara Corps also has the designation of the 15th Mixed Brigade, which was originally a unit of the Kwantung Army. Its infantry unit consists of the 16th Infantry Regiment and the 30th Infantry Regiment, as well as two reinforced infantry brigades, Tsutsumi Detachment and Ito Detachment.

Its artillery force consists of the No. 12 Regiment of the Independence Mountain Artillery (which has three artillery squadrons, equivalent to an artillery battalion), and a brigade of the Second Field Artillery Regiment (which only has the fourth battalion, the first and second battalions under its jurisdiction at this time). , the Third Battalion is not within its current command sequence and has been enhanced and assigned to other units), as well as the First Battalion of the Fifth Field Artillery Regiment.In terms of the actual number of artillery attached to it, it is equivalent to the firepower of three brigades of field artillery.

In addition to two infantry regiments and three artillery brigades, other supporting units of the Shinohara Corps include the 6000th Tank Battalion, the [-]nd Squadron of the [-]nd Cavalry Regiment, the heavy machine gun squad, and the [-]rd Engineer Regiment's [-]nd Regiment. The second squadron and others have a total strength of more than [-] troops, which is equivalent to the strength of a reinforced mixed brigade.

Even though many of the affiliated units under the Shinohara Corps, such as the artillery regiment and engineer regiment, are not fully equipped, in terms of overall strength, they are still quite strong, with artillery, tanks, armored vehicles, and cavalry engineers all available.

The fifth division of the Japanese Army was responsible for attacking the central and eastern front of Xinkou, with a strength of more than [-] people.

In front of the entire Xinkou, the total number of Japanese troops mobilized exceeded 3!It is close to two army divisions, and the various enhanced heavy artillery, heavy firearms and technical equipment far exceed the technical equipment quota of the two divisions!
Tsubuzaki nodded: "Uno-kun is right. These gunfire sounds are intermittent and irregular. They must be the broken Jinsui troops who escaped from Yuanping and are rushing in disorder. The Jinsui troops in Yuanping The 196th Brigade of the Army is already the elite of the Chinese army in North China. The attack on Yuanping caused a lot of losses to our corps. However, once it is annihilated and attacked by our army and flees, it will still run around like headless flies."

In Yuanping, in order to clear the obstacles to attack Xinkou, the entire Shinohara Corps concentrated heavy troops and launched a fierce attack on Yuanping. In order to cover the gathering of Xinkou defenders, the 196th Brigade of the Jinsui Army, which had just arrived in Yuanping, fought to the death under the command of brigade commander Jiang Yuzhen. Resistance, in the end, the 196th Brigade stayed in Yuanping for nearly a week at the cost of almost annihilating the entire army, and caused more than 500 casualties to the Shinohara Corps. It gave the Shinohara Corps a blow with its own tragic destruction, and its tenacious spirit of resistance was natural. It also left a deep impression on the Japanese army.

Uno Shuichi said disdainfully: "What the detachment leader said is absolutely true. It cannot be said that all the Jinsui Army that we have fought with are vulnerable, but most of them are disorganized and have low combat effectiveness. The 196th Brigade of the Jinsui Army in Yuanping is ours. This is the enemy with the strongest resistance we have encountered since our troops entered the Chinese battlefield. They all say that the Central Army, a direct line of the Nanjing government, is very effective. We have never fought against the Central Army before, and we all still have doubts. However, today my detachment is the first The first time we came into contact with the Central Army troops, they were beaten to pieces, and the combat effectiveness of those Central Army troops wearing German helmets was mediocre!"

Tsubuzaki thought about the battle in the afternoon again. He only dispatched the [-]st Infantry Squadron under his command, and strengthened the heavy armored vehicles assigned to the [-]th Tank Battalion of the Shinohara Corps as the vanguard when searching in the direction of Yongxing Village. Suddenly encountered hundreds of Chinese Central Army troops wearing German helmets.

What followed was a one-sided battle. Thousands of Chinese troops fell under the impact of heavy armored vehicles and volleys of infantry fire. They fled away leaving corpses everywhere. There were nearly a dozen corpses left on the battlefield alone. Hundreds of weapons, and the casualties of the forwards sent by him were almost negligible!
Fighting, extremely easy

Tsubuta Takaki asked: "After the First Squadron encountered the enemy, what was the result of the search troops cleaning and inspecting the battlefield?"

"Your Excellency, Captain of the Detachment, Captain Liao Jiuxiong, Captain of the First Squadron, sent a messenger two hours ago. According to statistics from the First Squadron, the Chinese army at war with us abandoned at least ninety corpses. Our army has achieved great results. Feng. According to the report of the First Squadron, the artillery unit of our corps carried out violent shelling on Yanzhuang in the afternoon. Under the cover of the shelling, they launched an attack on the Chinese army positions outside Yanzhuang, but Captain Liao has not yet reported the battle situation."

Tsubuta Ki: "In half an hour, notify the squadron commanders of each squadron to come to the combat command post in the village to receive orders!"

(End of this chapter)