Quartermasters can also fight the devils

Chapter 123: Blood and Fire Collision (3)

Major Hirahara Yanagi Masakawa, who was commanding the battle in the back, was very excited when he saw his troops successfully engaging in a melee with the Chinese troops. He was well aware of the bayonet fighting ability of his soldiers, and he believed that it would not take long before the Chinese garrison on the opposite side would be defeated by the Second Squadron.

The initial progress was as he expected. His troops had the upper hand in the bayonet fight. Just when he thought that his troops would succeed in five more minutes, hundreds of people suddenly rushed out from the rear of the Chinese troops' positions and pushed the officers and soldiers of the second squadron back. The third squadron, which had just arrived at the battlefield, also retreated. He knew very well that this attack had failed. The second squadron had lost more than 40 officers and soldiers under the attack of the Chinese reinforcements just now. The second squadron had to be withdrawn. If the entire squadron was lost, the commander would send himself to military court.

The Japanese army's retreat whistle sounded, and the officers and soldiers of the Second Squadron, who were already struggling to hold on, immediately retreated backwards. The officers and soldiers of the Third Squadron withdrew to a certain distance in advance and began to cover the retreat of the Second Squadron. As soon as the Japanese army broke contact with the Chinese army, the eight heavy machine guns on the heavy machine gun positions in the rear of the Japanese army opened fire one after another, providing fire cover for the retreating Japanese army.

When Guo Ruixin saw the Japanese army retreating, he immediately ordered people to transport the bodies of the wounded and fallen soldiers to the trenches. After a simple cleanup of the battlefield, he led his troops back to the first trench.

"Commander." Li Maocai was hit on the neck by a bullet when the Japanese army was retreating just now, which frightened him on the spot. Now he was sitting in the trench and letting the medical soldier bandage the wound on his neck. When he saw Commander Guo Ruixin walking towards him, he immediately stood up and saluted.

When Guo Ruixin received Li Maocai's request for help, he was a little dissatisfied. He was very surprised that Li Maocai's fully equipped battalion could not hold out during the first formal attack of the Japanese army. But he also knew that if the situation had not been critical, Li Maocai would not have asked him for help so early.

So he hurriedly brought the third battalion to reinforce, but when he arrived at the front line, he found that the first battalion had already been fighting with the Japanese army with bayonets in front of the position. He was glad that he had brought the third battalion with him, so he quickly ordered the troops to put on bayonets and rush forward with him to push the Japanese army back.

After the battle, he also found Li Maocai and was about to say a few words of criticism, but when he saw Li Maocai's current appearance, he swallowed the words back. Instead, he took out a cigarette from his pocket and handed it to Li Maocai. Then the two of them started smoking in the trench.

"Maocai, your battalion fought well and didn't lose the position." Guo Ruixin said this affirmatively after a long while. He just thought about it and felt that the battalion had done its best. Li Maocai didn't let any deserters appear in the battalion and they also held the position, which was good. After all, he could see the Japanese artillery fire and firepower from behind.

"Commander, the First Battalion has been crippled. I have failed to live up to your trust." Li Maocai felt very uncomfortable. Although there was no specific statistics yet, he knew very well that his First Battalion must have been crippled. As for holding the position at the back, that was impossible. If the Japanese army launched such an attack again, his First Battalion would definitely not be able to hold on.

After taking a long puff of his cigarette, Guo Ruixin said to Li Maocai, "Maocai, your first battalion should withdraw and rest. I think there is still a lot of fighting to do. I will let the third battalion take over your defense line."

When Li Maocai heard the regiment commander asked the first battalion to withdraw and rest, he was so moved. If he were asked to ask for a retreat and rest, he couldn't say it himself. His troops were supposed to hold out for a day, but they couldn't hold out in half a day. It was really embarrassing. But if he didn't withdraw, the remaining officers and soldiers in his battalion would probably not be able to withstand the next attack of the Japanese army. It didn't matter if he died, but if he lost the position, he would be even more embarrassed. Fortunately, the regiment commander also knew his difficulties and took the initiative to ask his troops to withdraw.

The third battalion commander Guo Xinkai is the cousin of the regiment commander Guo Ruixin. He brought his three company commanders to Li Maocai and the regiment commander. He needed to learn from Li Maocai about the specific situation of the Japanese attack so as to prepare for the next battle.

On the Japanese side, Major Hirahara Yanagi Masakawa stood in front of the regiment commander, Colonel Tagami Hachiro, with a flushed face and his head lowered deeply. He felt that he was about to die of shame. This attack by his battalion not only failed to successfully complete the task assigned to him by the regiment commander, but also lost a total of more than 150 elite warriors of the Empire of Japan. He really couldn't present this battle report.

"Mr. Hirahara, this attack is only the first attack of our 34th Regiment. You don't have to feel any burden. I have asked Chief of Staff Mr. Yamagami to go to the rear to coordinate the issue of artillery shells. It is estimated that at noon, Chief of Staff Yamagami will bring back the much-needed artillery shells for us. Your battalion will receive sufficient firepower support in the afternoon attack. In addition, His Excellency the Commander of the Ueno Brigade also sent me a telegram that the afternoon attack will be supported by naval artillery. In order to avoid accidental injuries, your starting position needs to be retreated 500 meters. Do you understand?" Tagami Hachiro calmly explained things to Hirahara Yanagi Masakawa. He did not blame Hirahara Yanagi Masakawa for the failure of the previous attack of the First Battalion, because he knew very well how to better inspire the fighting spirit of this subordinate.

When Pingyuan Liu Zhengchuan heard that the commander would continue to let his battalion take charge of the afternoon attack, he immediately raised his head and replied excitedly: "Please rest assured, my first battalion will definitely stand on the Chinese army's position to accept your inspection this afternoon."

He knew very well that this was the care of the wing commander for him. He and the wing commander were both from Shizuoka, and the wing commander usually took good care of him. This made the commanders of the other battalions somewhat dissatisfied in private. They believed that they were able to sit in the position of commander of the first battalion with the care of the wing commander. Now, in this battle, he needed to prove the vision of the wing commander and make those who questioned him shut up.

After he returned to the battalion headquarters, he immediately called several squadron leaders to redeploy the attack sequence for the afternoon on the Chinese position. He asked the first squadron to continue attacking the position on the right wing of the Chinese army to contain the Chinese troops there. The fourth squadron replaced the second squadron, which had suffered heavy losses in the previous attack, to attack the main position on the left wing of the Chinese army. The third squadron followed the fourth squadron. If the fourth squadron and the Chinese army engaged in hand-to-hand combat, the third squadron must immediately reinforce them. The second squadron was waiting for orders as a reserve, ready to attack at any time.

Pingyuan Liu Zhengchuan knew that if he still couldn't capture the Chinese army's position this time, he would have no excuse at all. Even if the regiment commander took care of him, it would not be good for him to be obviously biased. However, he believed that with sufficient artillery support, he would be able to lead the first battalion to occupy the position. Moreover, with the support of large-caliber naval guns on the warships and naval aviation, he really couldn't find a reason for failure.

Zhang Wenwu was asking Lei Dong and Li Houcai to direct the soldiers to move some of the ammunition stored in the quartermaster department and hand it over to the officers and soldiers who came to collect the ammunition.

Zhang Wenwu looked at the soldiers carrying ammunition boxes toward the front line, walked up to a captain leading the team, handed him a cigarette, and asked, "Brother, how was your 656th Regiment this morning?"

The officer in charge lit up a cigarette, took a puff and said to Zhang Wenwu, "Deputy Director Zhang, the Japanese are attacking fiercely in the front. The artillery fire is terrifying enough. The first battalion at the front was crippled in one morning. Now the third battalion is at the front. Judging from the Japanese offensive, I will have to go to the front line tomorrow at the latest."

When Zhang Wenwu heard that the officer was about to go to the front line, he asked him to wait a moment. He then quickly ran back to the tent, took out more than a dozen British cans in a cloth bag and said, "Brother, I can't help you much. Here are some British cans. Please take them to the brothers in front so that they can have some meat and try to kill more Japanese."

The officer didn't hesitate to take the cloth bag handed over by Zhang Wenwu and put it on his shoulder. After saluting Zhang Wenwu, he led the soldiers to carry the ammunition boxes to the front line.

At one o'clock in the afternoon, when Pingyuan Yanagi Masakawa was wondering why the naval aviation had not come to carry out the bombing, a signalman came to inform him that the attack time was postponed to two-thirty in the afternoon. The reason was that the division commander, Lieutenant General Fujita Susumu, had sent the 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, which had just landed, to help. They needed to build artillery positions and transport as many artillery shells as possible.

Zhang Wenwu and the officers and soldiers of the Quartermaster Department ate the flatbread together and swallowed it with cold water. There was no other way. The troops could not make fire to cook during the day because the smoke from cooking would attract Japanese artillery attacks. Therefore, the troops could only make fire to cook after dark at night and could only eat cold dry food during the day.

At two o'clock in the afternoon, two artillery observation hot air balloons were raised behind the Japanese starting position. The Japanese observers on the hot air balloons were responsible for observing the impact points of the artillery and constantly informing the artillery to adjust the artillery's firing accuracy through the connected telephone.

At 102:, more than Japanese planes flew in from a distance. Ten of them took over the planes that were previously over Luodian Town and launched an attack on Luodian Town. The other ten or so planes continued to fly for a while, and then, under the command of the Japanese ground markings and radio, launched a bombing on the defensive positions of the nd Division.

After the planes had been wreaking havoc for ten minutes, a long whistling sound was heard in the air. Then, as the whistling sound got closer and closer, a huge explosion was heard on the front line. The black smoke rising from the position could be clearly seen from several kilometers away.

Guo Xinkai, the battalion commander of the 656rd Battalion of the th Regiment, sat on an ammunition box in the anti-gun cave, desperately breathing in the air with his mouth wide open. The shock wave from the explosion of the large-caliber shells of the naval guns made his heart tighten and he had difficulty breathing. The officers and soldiers around him were all like Guo Xinkai, with their mouths wide open.

Guo Xinkai was extremely surprised. This was much more intense than the artillery fire that the battalion commander Li Maocai had mentioned before.

(Thanks to Gui Niang who loves milky coconut buns and Fu Ming who does everything for their gifts!)