Tiger Troops: The 74th Army of the Kuomintang Anti-Japanese Ace

Chapter 11 What kind of person is a warrior (Lanfeng battle Wanjialing victory) (6)
After Changling succeeded, Zhang Lingfu decided to go all out and attack Zhang Gushan one after another.Zhang Gushan was steep in the south and slow in the north. If you use a large army to attack, there is not so much space to spread out, and it is difficult for a small army to win. Zhang Lingfu chose between the two and chose to let the [-]th regiment attack.In view of the fact that the attack on Changling had already scared the enemy, Zhang Lingfu changed his strategy this time. He instructed the [-]th Regiment to feint from the front to attract the attention of the Japanese army.

The [-] regiment's flag-waving and shouting in the front were really effective.The Japanese army was engrossed in the frontal defense, completely unaware that the opposing commando was climbing up the steep mountain behind.By the time you find out, it's too late.

The Japanese army was attacked by the enemy. After a hand-to-hand fight, more than [-] Japanese soldiers fell in a pool of blood, and the remaining remnants quickly rolled down from the top of the mountain and fled in embarrassment.

Under heavy siege, Zhang Gushan became the best hope for the [-]th Division of the Japanese Army to break through, and it was directly related to its survival. If this place was controlled by the Chinese army, the Japanese army would become a kangaroo, unable to advance or retreat.Hearing that Zhang Gushan had won but lost again, the [-]th Division mobilized superior forces to counterattack that night.The Chinese [-]th Regiment defended tenaciously, and all the reserves were thrown in. During the fierce battle, the battalion commander Wang Qianzhi was killed, and most of the officers below the company commander were also casualties, but the position was still held.

At dawn on October 10, the Japanese army used the old tactic of air strikes again. More than 8 bombers hovered over Zhanggushan, dropping bombs like rain, and blasted the position that the 20th regiment had regained with flesh and blood into scorched earth again.

The air strike did not end until 10:[-] am, and the Japanese army immediately charged Zhang Gushan. Zhang Lingfu immediately rushed to the front line to supervise the battle after hearing the news.When part of the Japanese army rushed to the top of the mountain called Serge Ridge by the locals, he and Tang Shenghai, the head of the [-]th regiment, led the remaining officers and soldiers to fight hand-to-hand, and drove the Japanese army down the mountain through hand-to-hand combat.

Everyone has their own spiritual hometown, but many times, people will get lost on the road far away from their hometown, and even wander around with pain and repentance.

Come back, go back to the place where you really grew up!
Zhang Lingfu is a warrior at heart, an oriental warrior with blood flowing all over his body.He once had a dislocation of growth and a dark life trajectory, but the past has passed, and only the future that shines with the glory of the warrior is worth looking forward to.

Fighting bayonets with the enemy on the front line as the brigade commander, Zhang Lingfu at this moment is like a god of war possessed, and thus he is called "Meng Zhang Fei".

Taking advantage of the gap between the battles, Zhang Lingfu hurriedly organized the troops. He organized all the miscellaneous personnel into the combat team, and gave condolences and resettlement to the wounded.

The Japanese army was not willing to give up Zhang Gushan.In the afternoon of the battle, brigade commander Li Jiaming, regimental commander Tang Shenghai, and battalion commander Hu Xiong were all seriously injured.At dusk, Yu Qingxiang, who served as the acting head of the [-]th Regiment, was killed in battle. Most of the officers and soldiers of the [-]th Regiment were injured and injured, exhausted.In order to avoid greater losses, Zhang Lingfu had to lead the rest of his troops to withdraw from Zhang Gushan temporarily, waiting to fight again.

On October 10, Japanese planes bombed the defensive positions of the Chinese army while airborne.As the defense range of the Japanese army narrowed, the accuracy rate of Japanese airdrops also increased accordingly.However, what is different from the past is that in addition to supplies, dozens of personnel were airdropped this time.At first everyone thought it was Japanese paratroopers who were reinforcing the front line, but after interrogating the prisoners, they learned that they were all officers at the squadron and squad level.

In special divisions of the Japanese army like the 11th Division, since the battalion commander and above are active officers, every time a battle is fought, the major commanders have to go to the front line to directly command, and once the battalion leader is injured or injured, other officers who are not active duty After acting as a command, the combat effectiveness of its brigade will generally drop by less than half.It is for this reason that the No.[-] Army Headquarters of the Japanese Army will drop active officers by air to reduce the probability of lack of staff in the brigade.

After being supplemented, the combat effectiveness of the [-]th Division has improved, which also means that it is more difficult for the Chinese to attack Zhang Gushan, and it is impossible to repeat the "handy" tactic of raiding from the back of the mountain. .

Zhang Lingfu reselected 51 elite soldiers from the [-]st Division to form a death squad, ready to face Zhang Gushan head-on.

kill the enemy
Frontal attack, fire support is indispensable.At that time, in addition to the Krupp field artillery of the 58th Division, the artillery company directly under the 51st Division also had three such treasures.Although the Krupp field gun is old, its hit rate is very high.One day before dusk, the headquarters of the 51st Division observed that a wave of Japanese troops was gathering in front of the hut village at the foot of the mountain, so they immediately called the artillery company to start shooting.The Krupp field guns loaded with incendiary bombs all hit the target accurately, and dozens of thatched huts were all burned down. The Japanese soldiers who had not yet been recruited were so frightened that they ran for their lives.

However, such concentrated shooting can only be done occasionally.The Japanese army can quickly measure the artillery position through sound measurement, hyperbolic cross-drawing, etc., and suppress the shooting after a few minutes.By the end of the Wanjialing campaign, the 51th Division of the Japanese Army, which lacked artillery shells, had no sufficient suppression capability, but the artillery company commander of the [-]st Division was inexperienced in the battlefield, and he was still too cautious in combat. He hid the artillery in the woods during the day. It was only around dusk that they dared to come out and fire a few shots, which caused the infantry to be unable to coordinate at all.

If you are reluctant to lose the Krupp field artillery, there are mortars to help the infantry.Distributed to the troops, the 51st Division does not have many mortars, and each regiment has only one mortar platoon.Wang Yaowu then adopted the method of concentrating the mortars of the whole division, so that a mortar company can roughly be formed.

In the Battle of Wanjialing, the role of mortars far exceeded that of Krupp field artillery.In addition to the fact that the latter is not used much, it is mainly due to the fact that the characteristics of the mortar are more suitable for mountain warfare. It is not only easy to carry and easy to operate, but also can take advantage of its curved trajectory to effectively kill and hide behind hills or positions. enemy.

At 8 o'clock in the morning of the same day, the 51st Division used mortars to focus on the Japanese positions in Zhang Gushan.With the support of the artillery, the large force took the Death Squad as the vanguard and roared up to the highland at the northern end of Zhanggu Mountain. They first dealt with the Japanese security forces with bare knives, and then launched a fierce attack on Serge Ridge.

Although the Japanese army repeatedly reinforced, they could no longer stop the offensive momentum of the Chinese army. After more than 51 Japanese troops were wiped out, the [-]st Division completely occupied Zhanggushan.

In this battle, the two sides fought repeatedly five times, and the fierce battle lasted for four hours. The entire hillside was stained red with blood, so the Japanese called Zhang Gushan "Blood Ridge".

A year later, when Tang Yongliang, who came to visit Zhang Gushan, was already covered with pines and cypresses, but the cruel battle scene of that year was still in sight.He saw bones, leather shoes, and scattered military supplies everywhere on the half slope. On the corners of the slope, there were many single-man foxholes, machine gun holes, and even blasted gravel and burned pine trees. disappear.

The closer it was to Serge Ridge, the more bones there were, and some of the bones were covered with piles of black dead maggots.When I climbed Serge Ridge, I saw many skulls piled up on it, steel helmets, leather shoes, shell boxes, bayonets, and gas canisters, all thrown all over the ground.

Tang Yongliang found the remains of several Chinese soldiers on the southern slope of Zhanggu Mountain.They all wear rubber shoes and rain hats, and the soles of the red rubber shoes have turned white.

Zhang Gushan is not high, but the mountain is not high, and the enemy will cry out. These heroes of the 51st Division used their bloody sacrifices to win honor for the division, the army and the entire anti-Japanese army.

While the 51st Division was fighting for Zhang Gushan, the Japanese reinforcements also broke into the narrow road between Zhanggushan and Changling.Fortunately, the 58th Division had been prepared for a long time. The division cut in from the flank of Zhang Gushan. After six hours of fierce fighting, more than [-] enemies were wiped out, and the Japanese army's reinforcement road to Zhang Gushan was completely cut off.

Relying on the advantages of a large number of troops and strong attack spirit, the First Corps basically defeated the defense system of the Japanese 74th Division.At [-] o'clock that night, all armies, like the [-]th Army, took the Death Squad as the vanguard and attacked the Japanese army from all directions, from east to west, from north to south. Drum Liu Village.

Thunder and Drum Liu is the third scene that must be mentioned in the Wanjialing Battle besides Wanjialing and Zhanggushan.What is different from the previous two scenes is that Lei Ming Gu Liu has many dead horses besides dead people.When Tang Yongliang went to visit, before entering the village, he saw rows of dead horse skeletons in the foothills, rice fields and ponds.

The horse's mouth still has a bit, the horse's head is still tied with a leather bridle, and even the worn-out saddlebags still contain rusty horseshoes, but the half-destroyed yellow blanket clearly shows the facts and the ruthlessness of the years.Leiming Guliu is almost a horse cemetery. There are five or six hundred dead horses in a rice field only half a mile away.

On the half slope of a hill, there are two huge wooden plaques, one is "the monument of the imperial army's love of horses"; the other is "the monument of the love of horses of the Segawa troops".It is obvious that all the horses buried here are the baggage horses of the [-]th Division of the Japanese Army.

The Segawa troops belonged to the logistics and supply units, and they generally lived in the rear during combat, and they should be covered by infantry units.But the wooden sign on Wanjialing "The place where the Segawa Army Beichuan Team fought" shows that they had already joined the battle on foot.In fact, Tang Yongliang not only saw the graves of many soldiers of the Segawa Army in Wanjialing, but also picked up a tattered military flag marked "Segawa Army".

In Leimingguliu, the mules and horses of Segawa's troops suffered the same disaster as their masters.When starting from Mahuiling, the 1000th Division was equipped with more than [-] oriental horses to carry mountain artillery and luggage, and most of them were killed by bullets so far.

Battlefield

Even if the supply troops were wiped out, the casualties of the rest of the arms can be imagined.

Walking into Leimingguliu Village, Tang Yongliang and his entourage found eight characters inscribed with a Japanese knife on a big tree trunk beside the village: "The place where Leimingguliu fought fiercely." Yuezhu's troops live under this tree."

When the Chinese army attacked Thunder and Drum Liu, it was not just as simple as a fierce battle.It was a super-scale hand-to-hand combat. Fighting till dawn, more than a thousand Japanese soldiers were killed near the village.

Among the three sub-battlefields, Lei Minggu Liu has the most Japanese graves.The reason is that before the [-]th Division of the Japanese Army was about to disband and return to China, [-] Japanese soldiers lived in Leimingguliu Village for three days, and held a memorial ceremony for the fallen Japanese soldiers.

The Japanese nation has its own unique outlook on life and death, and they respect the dead very much.Every Japanese soldier's tomb has a spiritual tablet. In front of the tomb, there are short tubes cut from bamboo. There is a pair of pine branches and wild flowers in each grave.If it is an officer's tomb, three or four layers of brick platforms will be inlaid around the tomb.

Even so, only a small number of Japanese officers and soldiers were lucky enough to be buried.Walking along the roads around Leiming Guliu, you can still see the bones of Japanese soldiers and their horses everywhere. It is not too much to say that a corpse is five steps away, and a horse is ten steps away.

The basis Tang Yongliang used to identify the Japanese soldiers was mainly the rubber shoes worn on their feet.It is said that because the Japanese often wear herringbone slippers, there is a large gap between the big toe and the rest of the toes, so the style of the rubber shoes worn by the Japanese soldiers is also quite special, which can be seen at a glance.

All are rubber shoes worn by the Japanese army.Undoubtedly, there must have been many remains of Chinese soldiers here, but except for a few that were not found at that time, most of them were properly buried when the battlefield was cleaned.

Still go back to that night of hand-to-hand combat.The Cantonese Death Squad attacked several times near the headquarters of the 100th Division of the Japanese Army. Lieutenant General Junrokuro Matsuura, the commander of the [-]th Division, sent out his staff to join the battle, and he himself had a gun in his hand.If the Death Squad can advance another [-] meters, Matsuura will face the fate of being captured or seppuku. Unfortunately, the sky is too dark, and the Death Squad does not know where the head office of the Japanese army is, so the opportunity to kill the general will pass by. .

When the news that the 11th Division was in danger reached the headquarters of the No. [-] Army of the Japanese Army, Miyazaki, the head of the combat section, was shocked on Monday.Originally, Miyazaki was going to inspect the Guangji battlefield on the north bank of the Yangtze River with the commander of the army Neiji Okamura, so he had to ask another lieutenant staff officer to accompany him on his behalf.

Miyazaki did not dare to report the specific situation to Okamura, but Okamura actually already knew.How could the Chinese side not report such a major good news that put an entire division of the Japanese army in a tight siege?
Okamura not only knew that the [-]th Division was besieged in Leimingguliu, but also felt very "surprised and saddened". Name of officer above captain.Okamura believes that the captured Japanese soldiers must have leaked the truth.

He was right and wrong.It was very difficult for Japanese soldiers to be captured on the battlefield, but once they were captured, and they knew that they would be treated better, they usually knew everything and said everything.This is in great contrast to the American prisoners of war in World War II.The U.S. military allows soldiers to surrender when the battle is unfavorable and desperate, but they will teach the soldiers what are the points that can be confessed in advance. Therefore, when they are interrogated, they can definitely be neither humble nor overbearing, and they can cope with it. It seems that they have said everything, but in fact You will not be given any valuable information.

What Okamura guessed wrong is that there are so many numbers and names, it is impossible for them all to come from captives.The reason is very simple, how could it be possible for a grassroots soldier to grasp so much information?It would be good for him to know the number of his squadron and the name of the squadron leader, and at most he would tell others what the division commander's name is.

(End of this chapter)