si-mexico Chapter 1163 Advancing Southward
Chapter 1163 Advancing Southward
a certain place in southern Shandong
Zhang Haiguang's Fourth Division achieved a near-perfect record of three victories in over ten days of continuous fighting. The Japanese suffered over 12,000 casualties. At this moment, in the counties of southern Shandong, Zhang Haiguang's army was the first to gain the upper hand, acting swiftly, steadily, accurately, and ruthlessly.
"What a load of bull! What kind of standing division are these Japanese elites? They're useless against us! When they attacked last night, I took out four or five of them with one volley of bullets, and the rest didn't even dare to get up. This kind of trash is called elite?"
The brothers sat around a table eating, reminiscing about last night's battle, each one more excited than the last. They had been attacked by the 6th Division, but unfortunately, the 6th Division was no longer the formidable force it once was. Now, 70% of its soldiers were new recruits, and having marched a long way from the south, their weakness was exposed in a single skirmish when they encountered the 4th Division.
At that time, the 6th Division, under the cover of more than 30 aircraft and a dozen heavy artillery pieces, was poised to break through the 4th Division's defenses. The 4th Division's frontal defense consisted of only two infantry companies and one artillery company. Surprisingly, with such a small force, they withstood the 6th Division's attack for an hour and a half. After an hour and a half, when most of the regimental headquarters arrived, the 6th Division, realizing there was no hope of a breakthrough, immediately retreated 20 li (approximately 10 kilometers).
In that hour and a half of fighting, the Japanese 6th Division suffered over 2000 casualties, and the rest returned with many wounded. It showed everyone what an elite division was like. Before that, some veterans who had retired from Pujiang said that we had defeated almost all of the top-ranked Japanese divisions, and most of them were exhausted.
Many people didn't believe it at the time, thinking they were exaggerating. They reasoned that Japan's standing divisions were capable of much more; how could they possibly be rendered powerless by such attacks? Now, after seeing them on the battlefield, they understand—they had indeed suffered a severe defeat.
“Go check out the POW camp, that’s where the real fun is. I passed by there this morning and heard some crying. I was puzzled, those Japanese soldiers are all so stubborn, even if we beat them bloody, they wouldn’t cry. I was talking about the Japanese soldiers we encountered in the north, but now there are some people in the POW camp crying their hearts out, I wonder if they are the same Japanese soldiers.”
Another guy came over with his rice bowl. He said that morning when he passed by the POW camp, several other guys were with him, and they described the Japanese soldiers' crying in vivid detail.
It's clear from all aspects that the battle at Pujiang caused immense bloodshed for the Japanese, with most of their trained personnel wiped out. Although these new recruits had undergone some basic training in China, they were far inferior to the original soldiers, and upon arriving on the battlefield, they lacked even basic combat skills.
It's possible they did know how, but seeing the situation on the battlefield, they felt tense and immediately forgot what they had learned. No matter how desperately the officers shouted, they didn't know how to respond.
Of course, the 72nd Army's heavy artillery firepower was also an important factor. Take last night for example, although there was only one artillery company, the company commander was clear-headed and immediately abandoned all kinds of infantry guns and other artillery, focusing on collecting mortars.
This thing only requires three people to operate one cannon, and as long as those three men's arms aren't broken, they can throw at least 15 shells per minute. If you were to use an infantry gun or other type of artillery, you definitely wouldn't have this kind of efficiency.
As the company commander said last night, as long as we have enough shells, one artillery company can achieve the results of an entire artillery regiment in one night. At that time, the infantry company sent 20 brothers to transport shells, and sure enough, they fired 2700 shells in one hour.
Although most of the shells were 60mm and 80mm, their destructive power on the ground was considerable. 70% of the Japanese soldiers on the battlefield were killed by artillery fire. When these Japanese soldiers charged, they felt as if they were entering the gates of hell, as if shells were falling from the sky everywhere, and they had no idea where to run.
When there were officers present, they were the ones who shouted the loudest, and the soldiers would run to their side. But after the officers died, there was almost no one to command them. They could only run around like headless flies, eventually being killed by artillery shells, or perhaps they were lucky enough to survive until the final retreat.
Unlike the soldiers' enthusiastic discussion, all the staff officers in the temporary headquarters of the Fourth Division had grim faces; they had inadvertently entered the Japanese encirclement.
The disastrous defeat of the 6th Division last night was deliberate on the part of the Japanese. They threw in a newly formed infantry regiment from the 6th Division, along with some other miscellaneous units, just to force Zhang Haiguang's 4th Division to make a risky advance.
At this moment, Zhang Haiguang had lost contact with the troops behind him. Although Ma Leizi had ordered the troops behind him to rush over quickly, it would still be at least 5 hours before the two sides could meet again.
Moreover, Zhang Haiguang's Fourth Division stretched the battle lines too thin.
Its head has reached northern Jiangsu, while its tail is still in southern Shandong, stretching for hundreds of kilometers.
The Japanese had studied many tactics beforehand, the most common being head-on confrontation. Unfortunately, they also knew that this approach was not feasible. If you were to take the path of head-on confrontation, in the end, not only would your 6th Division be hard-pressed to survive, but even the entire 3rd Army heading north would be difficult to protect.
So they adopted another strategy: to lure Zhang Haiguang's Fourth Division south quickly and then surround it.
Ma Leizi's Fourth Army will certainly be hesitant to act rashly, as they will not tolerate the annihilation of an entire division by the Japanese—there has never been such a precedent. Therefore, they will definitely send their entire army south. In that case, the Second Army in the north can also cross the Yellow River smoothly. Once the Second Army arrives, the two armies can jointly attack the Fourth Army from both sides and launch a decisive battle.
The Japanese are also finding the current situation unbearable, so they urgently need to concentrate their superior forces to crush the Fourth Army. The plan is good, but whether it can be implemented depends on your fate.