Songhu: Never Give Up

Chapter 97: Every Inch of Battle Received

Now Yue Qianli has the final say in the Second Battalion. Li Boxi, who was scolded, not only did not show any emotion, but he grinned and handed him a glass of cold water, meaning that if his mouth was dry from being scolded, he should just drink a glass of water, because those who could be scolded by the battalion commander were his own people.

It is said that you should not hit a smiling person. Yue Qianli couldn't keep a straight face, so he changed his face and said:
"Your machine gun battalion has been doing well. You must control the use of rocket launchers. You must not fire without my order. But you can control the use of mortars on your own. If the devils use tanks, just blow them up with bazookas!"

After hearing this, Li Boxi excitedly took the order and left. He had been itching to use his artillery for a long time. The brothers in the company had been holding back for a long time.
Now that the battalion commander has spoken, it will be easy for him. Their company now has five mortars, and if they are operated well, they can teach the Japanese a painful lesson.

Shortly after Li Boxi left, a faint buzzing sound was heard in the sky, and in an instant, a shrill anti-aircraft whistle sounded on the battlefield;

The officers and soldiers of the Second Battalion, who were previously repairing the fortifications, stopped their work and swiftly got into the anti-artillery holes. The Japanese's "big bird shit" was no joke.

Just as the soldiers hid, hundreds of bombers flew over the south bank, raining bombs from the sky, blowing up dust on the south bank positions, destroying sections of trenches, and burying countless soldiers in the trenches;

This time, the focus of their bombing was the positions of the 88th Division and the Tax Police Corps. These planes were called by the th Division, and naturally their main purpose was to support their operations.

The Japanese planes dropped hundreds of tons of bombs. The 88th Division was better off as they only had three battalions on the front line (one from the 527th Regiment and two from the 1th Regiment), so the casualties were not heavy.

The General Revenue Police Corps had three regiments at the front, and many of them did not pay much attention to earthworks, and laid simple linear trenches, so the casualties were heavy, adding up to hundreds of people;
This was also a common problem of the National Army in positional warfare. Before the Japanese infantry came up, they suffered 20% to 30% casualties under the heavy bombardment from planes and artillery.

Unlike other central troops, most of the officers of the Tax Police Corps were not Whampoa students, especially the regiment commanders and battalion commanders, none of them were Whampoa students. The "uncle of the emperor" was on guard against his brother-in-law.

The regiment and battalion commanders were all overseas students, some of whom studied in Germany, the United States, and France. The personnel were of varying ages, and the most famous was naturally the commander of the Fourth Regiment, Sun Liren.

The external designation of the Tax Police Corps was the Eighth Army. Its commander was Huang Jie, a graduate of the first class of the Whampoa Military Academy. It had two detachments under its jurisdiction. The commander of the first detachment was He Shaozhou, He Jingzhi's cousin, and the commander of the second detachment was Wang Gongliang, both of whom were students of the first class of the Whampoa Military Academy. The senior officials were directly appointed by the Military Commission, and only the power to appoint officers below the regiment commander was firmly held by Song Guojiu.

In this round of bombing, Sun Liren's Fourth Regiment performed the best and suffered the fewest casualties, while Zhong Baosheng's Sixth Regiment suffered the greatest losses, with more than 300 casualties, because it did not pay much attention to earthwork.

As soon as the enemy aircraft group left, the bombardment began. The 48 guns of the th Division Artillery Regiment hurled tons of shells at the defenders' positions.
In particular, the 12 105mm heavy howitzers had amazing destructive power. One round of salvos could flatten an entire company's position, and the defenders could only endure it silently.

Although the Tax Police Corps also had its own artillery battalion, it only had 12 75mm mountain cannons, which were not at the same level as the Japanese artillery. Engaging in an artillery battle was no different from delivering food.

Yue Qianli's rocket artillery platoon could not reach it, and he dared not expose himself. Once he was exposed, he would be requisitioned. It would not be long before the relevant information would be on the desk of the devils. The intelligence system of the National Government was like a leak.
After considering it again and again, Yue Qianli endured it. His current ability was not enough to protect the 107 rocket launcher, which was why he only built 6 guns to minimize the number of times they were used.

Not only should the number of times rocket launchers are used be reduced, but also the range should be lowered. As long as the range does not exceed 5 kilometers, the Japanese will not pay too much attention to it, because if the range exceeds 5 kilometers, it will become a campaign-level artillery.

The damage caused by the Japanese artillery fire to the Second Battalion was not great, mainly because the Tax Police Corps was too large and became the main target of the Japanese heavy artillery battalion, while the positions of the 527th Regiment were only hit by some 75mm artillery shells, resulting in a dozen casualties, which was within Yue Qianli's tolerance range. As soon as the artillery fire was extended, dense Japanese troops launched an attack on the artillery points. This time the Japanese were serious. Almost all of the 35th and 7th Regiments pressed forward, and thousands of Japanese launched a group charge on a front line that was several kilometers long.

Isa Kazuo still focused his attack on the railway bridge, deploying two battalions in the 527th Regiment's defense zone, and another battalion launched a diversionary attack on the 528th Regiment's position to prevent them from supporting the 527th Regiment;
The three battalions of the 35th Regiment lined up in a row, attacking without distinguishing between primary and secondary, and charged forward on a battle line of several kilometers. The three regiments of the Second Detachment of the Tax Police Corps were under tremendous pressure.

In order to occupy the iron bridge, the 9th Division Headquarters also reinforced the 7th Regiment with the tank squadron of the cavalry regiment. This was the Japanese's trump card unit and had been effective time and time again.

The iron bridge was more than nine meters wide, and the Type 2.07 light tanks equipped by the th Division Tank Squadron were only meters wide, which could accommodate two tanks to attack side by side at the same time. Three tanks were too dense for infantry to accompany the attack.
The Japanese army sent a total of 6 tanks, arranged in three columns, two tanks in each column, and a squadron of infantry accompanied the attack.

In the main fort, Yang Shiyuan saw the Japanese iron turtles rushing over, so he ordered to open fire, and rows of 7.92mm pointed bullets swept towards the Japanese attack group;
The bullets hit the front armor of the tank with four stars, but still could not penetrate the thick turtle shell. They only killed a small number of infantry, scaring them so much that they hid behind the tank.

The Japanese tanks fired at the bunker with their 37mm main guns, but were unable to penetrate the front wall of the bunker.

The Type 95 light tank was developed and produced by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries three years ago and began to be equipped to the troops two years ago. It is the Japanese light tank with the best quality and performance. The front armor thickness is 11 mm and the main gun is a 37 mm smoothbore gun. It was specially developed for the war against China.

The Maxim heavy machine guns could not penetrate the frontal armor of the Japanese, so the Japanese tanks did not take the defending bunkers seriously and rushed over carelessly;
The Second Battalion buried a large number of mines at the southern entrance of the iron bridge. These mines were only able to counter infantry and had no effect on tanks because of their small power.

When the machine gun company commander Li Boxi saw the Japanese using tanks, he shouted excitedly and immediately sent out four rocket launchers to ambush in several foxholes just a hundred meters away from the bridgehead.
Each foxhole can hide two fighters. Because the rocket launcher cannot be captured by the Japanese, there are special people watching it. If it cannot be recovered, it will be blown up with a grenade.

The foxholes were camouflaged with branches and could not be discovered from a hundred meters away. In order to destroy the Japanese tanks in one go, Li Boxi specifically ordered that all the tanks be let cross the river.

The bunker was located about 80 meters from the river bank, so even if the tanks were allowed to cross the river, their safety would not be endangered.

The six tanks crossed the bridge smoothly, and the Japanese infantry accompanied them all the way to prevent the defenders from sending out suicide squads, but they ended up running into a minefield;

As a series of explosions sounded, many Japanese infantrymen were killed or wounded, and the others hid behind the tanks because they found that mines could not do anything to the tanks.

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(End of this chapter)