Chapter 40: The powerful attack of the Japanese Kimura Brigade
In Shiquan County, the Japanese army completed its assembly again.
The Japanese soldiers who rushed over this time were from the 3rd Independent Mixed Brigade of the North China Front Army.
It has five independent infantry battalions, a mountain artillery squadron, a tank team, an engineering team, and a communications team.
This was a garrison brigade of the Japanese devils. The brigade commander was Shinjiro Kimura, with the rank of major general.
Therefore, this brigade is also called the Kimura Brigade.
According to the order of the headquarters, the Sakata Regiment was temporarily under the command of Shinjiro Kimura.
Shinjiro Kimura's battle plan was very radical, and he directly launched a strong attack.
The Sakata Regiment, which has the strongest combat effectiveness, is responsible for serving as the vanguard.
With the assistance of the tank corps, mountain artillery squadron, two independent infantry battalions and aviation, the Sakata Regiment broke through several forward positions of the Shinichi Regiment in less than a day.
It directly reached the Majiadian stronghold less than five kilometers away from Linyuan County.
It is also the last large-scale defensive position outside Linyuan County.
One battalion of the Second Battalion is responsible for guarding this place.
However, after the Kimura Brigade arrived here, they did not rush to launch an attack.
Instead, the large force was transferred to the bottom of Baihu Ridge.
"Captain Sakata, is that the base of the vanguard battalion?"
Shinjiro Kimura stood in a village, looking at Baihu Ridge in the distance and asked Sakata Nobutsu beside him.
"Yes, Brigade Commander, the Vanguard Battalion has occupied Baihu Ridge. If we don't get rid of them, if they come out to attack our supply lines, it will cause great trouble to the troops!"
In order to let Kimura Shinjiro attack Baihuling, but at the same time prevent Kimura Shinjiro from knowing that the Ohno Regiment's flag was gone, Sakata Nobutsu could only use the fact that Baihuling threatened the supply line to attack Baihuling.
According to the intelligence personnel they arranged in the county town, the Eighth Route Army at Baihuling did not send any important spoils to the headquarters of the New 1st Regiment.
Therefore, Nobutsu Sakata speculated that the regiment flag was most likely still in the hands of the Eighth Route Army at Baihuling.
It's just that they don't know what it is and think it's unimportant.
So now we need to seize the opportunity to eliminate the Eighth Route Army on Baihu Ridge.
In this case, even if the regimental flag was not found, it could be said that it was lost, or that the flag guard made a wrong judgment and burned the regimental flag.
If Yoshio Shinozuka takes action, there is still a chance to restore the Ohno Corps.
After all, it is not uncommon for people to burn the regiment flag in advance and still win the battle.
It's just that they were all concealed.
"The terrain of Baihu Ridge is indeed easy to defend but difficult to attack, but why was the Ohno Corps suddenly defeated? Does Captain Sakata have any information?"
"Your Excellency, Commander of the Brigade, according to the description of the soldiers who rushed out, the Eighth Route Army suddenly appeared near the Ono Regiment's camp and used Japanese to cause chaos."
"The commander of the Ohno Regiment, Ohno Heissomatsu, tried to stabilize the troops, but was hit by a stray bullet."
Sakata Nobutsu took a look at Baihu Ridge and added: "Then the Eighth Route Army on Baihu Ridge suddenly rushed out and caught Yoshida's battalion off guard when they were returning to defend."
"Plus, the locust army suddenly rebelled, which led to the bombing of the camp."
Kimura Shinjiro nodded and said, "It seems that this is a group of lucky Eighth Route Army soldiers. The commander of this group of Eighth Route Army soldiers is very capable. Look at Baihu Ridge."
"Those bunkers are one after another. If we forcefully attack them, we will suffer heavy losses before their ammunition runs out."
"Mr. Commander, how do you plan to attack Baihu Ridge?"
Kimura Shinjiro thought for a moment and then said, "Have the soldiers fill the back of the truck with sandbags and pile sandbags on the roof as well."
"Use trucks to reverse into the canyon and use sandbags to block the heavy machine guns of the Eighth Route Army."
"But Brigade Commander, if the trucks are damaged, then the canyon will be blocked."
"Captain Sakata, I've already thought about what you said. If the truck is damaged, we can use the tank to push it forward!"
"Also, have the artillery bombard both sides of the canyon. The aviation team will cooperate with us. If the Eighth Route Army dares to appear above the canyon, we will immediately open fire!"
"The Eighth Route Army doesn't have anti-aircraft machine guns."
"I learned this method from the Tubalu in North China. They called it Tutank."
“Now, I’m going to give this method a new name.”
"Car tank!"
"As long as we drive the trucks in front of the enemy's bunkers, their firing holes will be blocked and there will be no need to worry."
"Hi!"
After hearing Kimura Shinjiro's instructions, Sakata Nobutsu immediately asked the engineering team to prepare sandbags and trucks. Kimura Shinjiro's method was stupid, but it was indeed useful in this narrow terrain.
The reason why the Japanese were unable to break through the canyon was because there was no shelter in the middle of the canyon, but there was a bunker at the exit on the other side of the canyon.
Now as long as the trucks with sandbags go in, the Japanese will have cover.
The Japanese were also able to use cover to push their artillery forward and fire directly at the bunkers, or even use machine guns to fire back at the bunkers.
If you spend some time, you can always get rid of the bunker.
The attacker always has more options than the defender.
When Qin Yangming learned that the Japanese had started piling sandbags on the truck, he also understood what they were going to do.
"The Japanese are really smart. They actually thought of using this method to break through my defense."
"Pass the order down, have everyone prepare for gas defense. The Japanese may be preparing to use poison gas bombs!"
"Yes!"
The Japanese really thought so, and Shinjiro Kimura asked the headquarters for tactical guidance.
Drop poison gas bombs directly into the canyon.
The bombs couldn't penetrate, but the non-explosive poison gas bombs could still fall.
Especially the wind is blowing towards the canyon.
This is even more disadvantageous to Qin Yangming.
"You damned little Japs, if you dare to use poison gas bombs, don't blame me for using incendiary bombs!"
Qin Yangming looked at the planes flying in the sky, ordered the anti-aircraft machine guns to be ready, and then asked the artillery to prepare incendiary bombs.
As long as the Japanese send a large force into the canyon, we will directly drop incendiary bombs.
Although the plane was not shot down under the suppression of the anti-aircraft machine guns, it was enough to deter the plane and prevent it from flying so low to drop bombs.
Shinjiro Kimura didn't even think of asking engineers to clear the mines. After discovering the mines, he simply used artillery shells to clear a path in the way of the Ohno Regiment.
Then the truck filled with sandbags drove backwards into the canyon.
At the back of the truck were a large number of Japanese soldiers wearing gas masks.
Several soldiers in protective clothing at the front, following the truck, were carrying two 90mm mortars and two boxes of ammunition.
After turning the corner, the Eighth Route Army soldiers in the bunker saw the group of Japanese devils and quickly pulled the trigger.
The dense bullets hitting the truck had almost no impact on it.
The bullets were blocked by sandbags on the truck.
Following Qin Yangming's instructions, the soldiers in the bunker quickly evacuated the bunker with their weapons after leaving behind a pile of explosives.
The Japanese soldiers behind quickly set up the mortar.
Then he aimed at the front of the bunker and fired several shells with yellow markings.
The shell did not explode when it fell to the ground, but instead emitted puffs of yellow-green smoke.
As the air flowed, the smoke directly covered the location of the bunker.
When the smoke cleared, the Japanese soldiers behind immediately launched their proud boarding charge.
"Kill him!"
"Quick, push all the rocks down!"
The Eighth Route Army soldiers on the top of the canyon looked at the Japanese soldiers who were charging and immediately blew up the wood on the edge of the cliff that was used to block the falling rocks.
A large amount of rubble fell from above the canyon, directly covering the entire bunker area.
The bunker that Qin Yangming asked people to build was not a round bunker, but a triangular bunker.
One side of the triangle faces the canyon. At the same time, the top of the bunker is not as hard as the front wall of the bunker because of the help of the canyon.
The soldiers inside the bunker had destroyed the supporting points of the bunker before they evacuated, and now it was being hit by a large amount of falling rocks.
The front wall of the bunker collapsed directly in front, and the entire bunker and the surrounding area were filled with fallen rocks.
If you want to pass, you must move all these fallen rocks away.
A Japanese squadron leader looked at the canyon that was blocked, cursed loudly, and ordered the soldiers to move stones.
At this moment, the soldiers on both sides of the canyon who were not suppressed by artillery fire appeared directly on the top with weapons, quickly pulling the trigger and pulling the bolt facing the Japanese soldiers below the canyon.
The Japanese soldier Sakata thought that he could open up the canyon in one go, so he directly sent three squadrons of Japanese soldiers into the canyon.
(End of this chapter)
