While Zheng Shaoyu and the heavy bomber brigade were busy preparing to bomb Japan, fighting was still in full swing on the battlefields in Jiangxi and Fujian.
The Sixth Division completely angered all the soldiers of the 1st Armored Division and the 400th Division by forcing civilians to serve as human shields. Under the strict orders of Wu Chengfeng and Li Chenzhe, the 400th Division dispatched two infantry regiments to the 1st Armored Division. Under the cover of more than 300 tanks, more than 100 artillery pieces and dozens of bombers, an all-out attack was launched against the Sixth Division.
Facing the overwhelming offensive of the 1st Armored Division and the 400th Division, the Sixth Division finally couldn't hold on any longer. The first to collapse was the 13th Regiment located on the left wing of the second line of defense. Originally, the 13th Regiment had suffered heavy casualties, but now they were unable to defend their position in the face of an onslaught of nearly a hundred tanks and thousands of infantry. After persisting until dusk, they became the first group to collapse with their casualties in disarray. of troops.
At 17:35 in the evening, Captain Aomori Masahito of the 13th Regiment, who was leading the remaining soldiers to fight on the front line, was hit by a bullet that flew from an unknown source and died on the spot. After Masahito Aomori died, he came down to supervise the battle. When the chief of staff saw that there were only more than a hundred soldiers left on the position, he knew that the situation was over, so he retreated back with the remaining soldiers.
As soon as the 13th Regiment withdrew like this, a big hole immediately appeared in the Japanese defense line. The positions of the remaining regiments that were already overwhelmed by the ferocious offensive also fell one after another, and finally turned into a great rout. . Machijiri Ryouki had no choice but to command the remaining soldiers to retreat while fighting, hoping to resist for a while. However, facing the rolling torrent of steel, the Sixth Division, which had no strong terrain and fortifications, and hundreds of oncoming vehicles The tank was like a fragile egg in comparison, and was quickly submerged in the rolling torrent of steel.
After two days and one night of fighting, the Sixth Division was completely defeated. More than 28,000 people in the entire division were killed and more than 20,000 were injured. The remaining less than 4,000 people fled towards the Wuchang First Administrative Supervision District (later Xianning City) in Hubei Province, holding the division commander Machijiri Liangji hostage. Wu Chengfeng and Li Chenzhe commanded the First Armored Division and the 400th Division in hot pursuit. Finally, the next day, they met the 13th Division in a hurry in Tongshan Town, less than 30 kilometers away from Tongshan. The 1st Armored Regiment of the vanguard and the 13th Division fought fiercely for two hours, and the two sides were in a stalemate. Finally, in the evening, the two sides gave up temporarily.
The hurriedly arrived headquarters of the 13th Division was set up in a jungle more than 60 kilometers away from Tongshan. At this time, the division commander of the 13th Division, Lieutenant General Tanaka Shizuichi, looked at the man in front of him. A look of shock appeared on his face.
"Machijiri-kun, why have you become like this? Where is your Sixth Division?"
Standing in front of Tanaka Shizuichi, Machijiri Yuuki looked at his former classmate and laughed miserably: "Tanaka-kun, you didn't expect that, did you? I lost, and the Sixth Division lost to that Chinese again."
At this time, Machijiri Yuuki has completely lost his former high-spirited appearance. At this time, he was wearing a tattered general's woolen military uniform, and his face was black and blue. Anyone unfamiliar with him would not recognize him as a lieutenant general and division commander.
"Where is your Sixth Division?" Tanaka Shizuichi quickly came to Machijiri Yuki. He was shocked when he looked at the face of the man in front of him who was completely black and his face was almost unrecognizable due to gun smoke and mud. . He and Machijiri Yuuki have known each other since they were in mainland China, and it has been almost twenty years now. In his impression, Machijiri Yuki has always been a representative of neat clothes and calm demeanor, but today this impression was broken.
"The Sixth Division The Sixth Division has been crippled, and now there are less than one regiment left." Seeing his former friends, Machijiri Ryoki finally breathed a sigh of relief, as if he had been taken away. He sat down on the chair next to him with all his bones in his body, picked up a teapot and drank all the water in it without caring about it.
Seeing my friend behaving so gloomily. Tanaka Jingyi frowned and motioned to the orderly on the side to bring some more water. He then asked: "Machijiri-kun, how come your Sixth Division only has so few people left? Are the troops in China's Fourth Theater Division so powerful?"
After drinking the water, Machijiri Yuuki finally regained some energy and gasped: "Isn't it awesome? Didn't you just see it?"
"See?" Tanaka Shizuichi shook his head: "Machijiri-kun, we just touched each other and then retreated. We don't really understand their true combat effectiveness."
Machijiri Ryouki laughed miserably: "That's because their main force hasn't come up yet, and it's almost dark now. You will know their true combat power tomorrow, I can guarantee it. That's definitely because you don't want to see it. Arrived."
Seeing the appearance of Machijiri Ryouki, Tanaka Shizuichi secretly shook his head. It seemed that this former friend had been completely knocked out of his spirit by the Chinese people in this battle. This was not true at all.Like what an imperial officer should say. However, Tanaka Shizuichi still knows a lot about Machijiri Yuuki. He is a proud person. What kind of blow caused him to become like this?
Thinking of this, he turned his attention to Chief of Staff Shimono Kazuhiro, who had been standing silently next to Machijiri Yuuki, and asked: "Shimono-kun, you are the Chief of Staff of the Sixth Division, tell me about this battle. How did it fail?"
Shimono Kazuhiro, who had been standing next to Machijiri Yuuki without saying a word, looked no better than his division commander at this time. After hearing Tanaka Shizuichi's inquiry, Shimono Ichihuo cheered up and said: "The situation of Tanaka Division Commander is like this, we"
Immediately afterwards, Shimono Yihuo described the battle situation in the past two days in detail, even the situation where they captured the people in the town and used them as human shields on the battlefield, without concealing it.
The more Tianzhong Jingyi listened, the more he frowned. After a long time, he said: "I guess your behavior has angered the Chinese people, and these Chinese people will attack you so madly regardless of casualties. But to be honest, it is impossible to arrest the Chinese people." Acting as a human shield in front of the battle is indeed beneath the dignity of a samurai."
After hearing what Tanaka Shizuichi said, Shimono Yihuo blushed. This matter is indeed embarrassing anyway. He promised for a long time before saying: "This there is nothing I can do about it. The Chinese tanks are coming overwhelmingly. We have no way to resist it, so I came up with this method out of desperation."
"Now is not the time to discuss this. The question now is how we are going to cope with tomorrow's battle!" Tanaka Shizuichi waved his hands and began to think deeply. As he paced, he looked at Machijiri Yuki and Shimono Kazuhiro. Based on his feeling, Shimono Yihuo's description just now is most likely true. As a senior Japanese general, Tanaka Shizuichi is very familiar with the combat effectiveness of the Sixth Division. If the Sixth Division only lasted two days and was defeated, what about his Thirteenth Division?
Although Tanaka Shizuichi and Machijiri Yoshiki are both graduates of the same batch of mainland universities, compared with Machijiri Yoshiki, Tanaka Shizuichi is less cruel and more cunning. He thought about it for more than half an hour and then said: "Machijiri Yuki-kun, tell me the truth, if you rely on your remaining troops and our Thirty Regiment, can you compete with the Chinese army on the opposite side?"
Machijiri Yuuki smiled bitterly and said, "Tanaka-kun, to be honest. If you had asked me this the day before yesterday, I would have said without hesitation that we could completely annihilate the Chinese army on the opposite side. However, after this battle, I can no longer I don¡¯t dare to say that. I think that with the combined strength of our two sides¡¯ more than 30,000 troops, if we really want to fight the other two divisions, we will most likely lose.¡±
Tanaka Shizu raised his eyebrows, "Machijiri-kun, is the individual quality and combat effectiveness of the soldiers in the fourth theater really that strong?"
Seeing Tanaka Shizuichi's disbelieving look, Machijiri Yuuki explained: "It's not that their soldiers have strong combat effectiveness, but that their tanks are very powerful. Our existing firepower simply cannot compete with the opponent. I know what you want What you say is nothing more than letting the warriors carry explosives to blow up their tanks, but I want to tell you, I have tried it, and it is useless. Under the intensive firepower of the opponent, our warriors have no power at all. Opportunity to get close to the opponent's tanks. Moreover, the opponent also has air superiority. Our army aviation force has existed in name only. Under the crushing of the opponent's planes and tanks, the imperial soldiers have no chance to show their bravery. In short, unless We have complete permanent fortifications and powerful artillery support, otherwise the current temporary positions alone will not be able to stop the Chinese tanks!"
After listening to Machijiri Yuki's words, Tanaka Shizuichi fell into deep thought. After about ten minutes, he raised his head and said slowly: "Machijiri-kun, if what you said is true, then the only thing we can do is to retreat!"
"Retreat?" Machijiri Yuuki was shocked and couldn't help but said: "Tanaka-kun, our mission is to attack. If we retreat, how will we explain it to Commander Okamura?"
"Explain?" Tanaka Shizuichi snorted coldly: "Don't forget, we belong to the 11th Army, and our direct commander is the Commander of the Garden Department, so there is no need to explain to others!"
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Rao Shijiri Rangji has always been known for his boldness, but at this moment he couldn't help but feel a little nervous. You must know that although the Japanese army has a tradition of defeating superiors, and the top brass of the Japanese army also express their appreciation for generals who dare to disobey orders but can win the war, this is based on winning the war. If the reason for a general's disobedience is to escape for his life, the result will be completely different.
Thinking of this, Machijiri Ryouki hesitated a little. He hesitated and said: "Well I think we might as well ask the commander of Sonobe for instructions first?"
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