Songhu: Never Give Up

Chapter 4 Promotion to Company Commander (Please read and collect)
At the Seventh Regiment Headquarters, the commander, Colonel Lin Daba, had a gloomy face, his triangular eyes fixed on the junction of Jiangwan and Miaohang on the map, and senior staff officer Lieutenant Colonel Kitahara Nobuyoshi was beside him.

"Kihara-kun, the division headquarters has given the 7th Regiment the task of breaking through the junction of Jiangwan and Miaohang within one day, cutting through the Chinese defense line like a sharp knife;
In this way, our 9th Division can besiege Wusong in the north with the Kurume Brigade and encircle Zhabei in the south with the Marine Corps, and annihilate the main Chinese forces assembled in the two places in one fell swoop.

But now a small town called Miaohang has blocked the attack of our Seventh Regiment, making it impossible to realize our strategic intention of cutting off the enemy forces.
The Commander is furious and has ordered our troops to defeat the enemy defending Miaohang before dark tomorrow. Do you have any good suggestions?"

Lieutenant Colonel Kitahara graduated from the Japanese Army University and was sent to study in France. He was a capable man with foreign education, so Lin Daba valued him very much.

Lieutenant Colonel Kitahara said after a chuckle:

"Your Excellency, the Fifth Army of the Nationalist Army is responsible for the defense line from the northern end of Jiangwan through Miaoxing to the western end of Wusong. This is a newly formed elite force composed of the 87th and 88th Divisions and the Central Military Academy Training Corps.

The defenders of Miaohang were the enemy's 88th Division, which was China's first batch of German-equipped adjustment divisions. It had 2 brigades, 4 regiments, as well as a direct artillery regiment and a supplementary regiment, with a total strength of more than 1 people. It was powerful and it was not easy to break through its defense line within one day.

I suggest asking the Commander to send aircraft and artillery battalions for support. The line from Miaoxing to Jiangwan is crisscrossed by waterways, making it difficult to build solid fortifications.

Therefore, the Imperial Army can use absolute firepower to break through their defenses, and the infantry will follow up and break through their defenses in one fell swoop."

Colonel Lin Daba naturally knew that this was the best solution, but he didn't want to do it this way. If so, more than half of the credit for defeating the Miaoxing garrison would have to be shared with other troops. He shook his head and said:
"Kitahara-kun, my 1th Regiment is a top-notch regiment of the Imperial Army, and our combat power ratio with the defenders is at least 7 to !

If we ask the Commander for support before launching the general offensive, the Seventh Regiment will become a laughing stock of the entire expeditionary force.

The 88th Division nominally had an artillery regiment, but it was only equipped with six 6mm mountain guns and a number of 75mm mortars. Its firepower was weaker than that of our 82th Regiment, and we could completely suppress them.
I decided to gather the main forces of the regiment and launch a general attack on the defenders of Miaohang. The tactic of adding fuel to the fire is not enough to defeat the defenders, and a heavy blow must be struck!
The time for the general attack is set at 1 p.m. We must capture the position before dark and spend the night in Miaohang Town."

Seeing that the commander of the regiment had made up his mind, Lieutenant Colonel Kitahara said nothing more and the staff officers were only responsible for providing advice.

Two hours later, the 7th Regiment launched a general attack on Miaohang as scheduled. Artillery shells rained down on the defenders' positions, a large number of fortifications were destroyed, and the defending officers and soldiers suffered heavy casualties.

Fengjiazhai, 88th Division Headquarters, shining generals
Division Commander Yu Jishi, Deputy Division Commander Li Mo'an, Chief of Staff Xuan Tiewu, 262nd Brigade Commander Yang Bufei, 264th Brigade Commander Qian Lunti, Independent Brigade (formerly the Ministry of Finance Tax Police Corps) Commander Wang Geng, most of them were direct descendants of the first and second batch graduates;
The Seventh Regiment's general attack on Miaohang attracted great attention from the top leaders of the 88th Division. Chief of Staff Xuan Tiewu even asserted:

"This is definitely a sign that the Ninth Division is about to launch a general offensive. After half a day of tentative attacks, the Seventh Regiment can't wait to launch a general offensive!
In the first phase of the battle, all units fought well and inflicted heavy casualties on the Japanese, especially the Third Company of the First Battalion of the 527th Regiment. They deployed a platoon in the frontline and withstood the repeated attacks of a squadron of Japanese, killing nearly 60 enemies. There were more than Japanese corpses left in front of the position.

When the platoon was withdrawn, there were only 23 people left, and everyone from the platoon leader down was injured! "

Division Commander Yu Jishi suddenly interrupted Xuan Tiewu and said:
"This platoon fought very well. If all the more than 88 soldiers of my th Division could defend their positions to the death like them, and not retreat even a single soldier, there would be no need to worry about the Japanese pirates not being annihilated!

Such heroic troops must be greatly commended. What is the name of this platoon leader and which class is he from?"

"Return to the division, the platoon leader, Lieutenant Yue Qianli, graduated from the 6th Wuhan Branch, from Hunan." Yu Jishi nodded and said:

"It has been almost three years since the sixth term students graduated and they are now ready to take on important responsibilities. I remember that the third company commander, Li Jie, was a fifth term student. He fought bravely and made great contributions in this battle. He was promoted to the deputy battalion commander of the first battalion, major.

The platoon leader Yue Qianli was promoted to captain of the third company, and all the lost soldiers were replaced;
I have only one request for them, they must hold their ground!"

Everyone agreed that it was not excessive to be promoted to company commander for such a feat of annihilating nearly a hundred enemies with a single platoon;
Besides, Yue Qianli is a sixth-term student with sufficient experience and military achievements. If he is allowed to hold the position, he must be given some benefits.

This was just a small episode, and the next thing was the big meal. The 88th Division Headquarters adjusted the defense line, abandoned all unimportant positions on the front line, and withdrew the troops to the main position;

At the same time, a battalion was drawn from the supplementary regiment to support the 527th Regiment. Other units were also prepared to meet the full-scale attack of the th Division. The Miaohang battle gradually entered a white-hot stage.

At the third company position, Li Jie commanded the second and third platoons to repel the enemy's attack again, with nearly one platoon of casualties.

Of course, the Japanese did not gain any advantage. There were more than 30 corpses left, and with the wounded, the two sides ended up in a draw.

At this time, the order from the division headquarters had also been delivered, along with a reinforcement platoon of additional personnel and a large amount of ammunition. The person who came to read out the order was Lieutenant Colonel Gao Zhisong, the staff officer of the division headquarters.

He not only brought the division's commendation order for the third company, but also on-the-spot promotion orders for company commander Li Jie and platoon leader Yue Qianli.

After Li Jie and Yue Qianli completed the handover, they rushed back to the battalion headquarters to report. Yue Qianli took over the position of company commander and led the third company to be responsible for the defense of the Damaijiazhai position.

"Captain Yue, the Da and Xiaomai Jiazhai positions are the link between Miaohang and Jiangwan, and we cannot afford to lose them. The division commander attaches great importance to them and sent me here to assist the third company in defending the positions.
At the same time, the third company was supplemented with 60 veterans, three machine guns, one 1mm mortar and two bases of ammunition.

The commander asked us to defend our position to the death. Is that difficult?"

Yue Qianli didn't expect that he would be promoted accidentally, and was directly promoted to captain and company commander. It turns out that time travelers all have benefits.

It was reasonable for him to be promoted to company commander more than two years after graduation. He thought that the main reason was that the division wanted the third company to defend the key point of Damai's house, and for this purpose, Gao Zhisong was sent over to supervise the battle.

He knew about Gao Zhisong, another hero who died in Nanjing. He was the major general and brigade commander of the 264th Brigade.
Yue Qianli was also very excited to be able to fight side by side with such a senior, and answered loudly:
"There is no difficulty, as long as we are in the position!"

Gao Zhisong was Yue Qianli's senior in the third term. He had served as platoon leader, company commander, battalion commander and lieutenant colonel staff officer. He had rich combat experience, but he had no intention of taking over the command of the third company. Instead, he asked Yue Qianli:
"Captain Yue, the defense of the Third Company is under great pressure, and the position must be held. What do you think?"

(End of this chapter)