July 18, 1939 at 11:00 a.m.!

With Yoshio Shinozuka's order, more than 70 artillery fired at the defensive positions of Zhaojiazhuang.

The Battle of Zhaojiazhuang, known as the example of defensive war in the history of the Sino-Japanese War, officially began.

As for the forces of China and Japan that arrived on the battlefield, the 10th Division dispatched a total of 9 infantry brigades and various auxiliary troops, and a total of 17,000 people, and there was a security infantry regiment of more than 2,000 people. The Chinese side included more than 7,800 militias in the Zhaojiazhuang defensive position, and about 3,700 people outside the position, with a total force of about 12,000. The Japanese army had a complete advantage.

In terms of heavy firepower, compared with the 36 75mm mountain cannons, a large number of equipment 70mm infantry cannons and about 16 90mm mortars that the Japanese army had, the Chinese side did not have a longer range of mountain cannons, but they had more than 100 mortars of different sizes and calibers. The 12 150-caliber heavy-duty cannons are the best in the field within the range of 3,000 meters. There are also 12 Bofos 80mm howitzers, which can also pose a threat to Japanese artillery 6,000 meters away.

If we include 12 40mm anti-aircraft guns and 9 20mm machine guns deployed on the infantry defense line to shoot flat tanks, the Japanese army did not take any advantage for the first time.

China, which spent a day and a night to build relatively complete fortifications using the soil structure of Lincheng, has a solid "shield", which in disguise fills the gap in the forces between the two sides.

If Yoshio Shinozuka was a little more awake and realized that this was a tough tough trick, he asked the North China Front Command for reinforcements at the beginning of the war to transfer mixed brigades from Baoding, Shimen and other directions, only two mixed brigades were needed, supplemented by the bomber group of the aviation regiment, and the balance of victory in the Battle of Zhaojiazhuang would undoubtedly tilt towards the Japanese side.

Based on the future evaluation of the professors of the Chinese Army Academy in North China: "From the comparison of the forces between China and Japan in North China at that time, the commander of the Sihang Regiment, who was the leader of the Sihang Regiment, had a military adventure, and there was a chance that most of the elite troops of the Sihang Regiment and a part of the Hebei-South Division would be consumed in this plain decisive battle.

Such a military adventure is wrong from a tactical perspective! But from the perspective of national war situation, it is a great adventure.

It was from this beginning that the Chinese side realized that the Japanese army was not as powerful as they imagined, and the army across the country was afraid of the Japanese army.

The inspirational significance of this battle to the national army is far greater than the military significance of a corner of the battlefield!”

The War of Resistance Against Japan has been over two years, and millions of Chinese troops have not failed to defeat Japanese divisions and brigades in the war against Japan. For example, the Battle of Jindong a year ago, and the Battle of Wanjialing in October 1938, China has recorded that it eliminated more than 20,000 Japanese troops and killed the Japanese lieutenant general division commander in the defensive battle. However, it either gathered the strength of the entire war zone to encircle with superior forces, or relying on its extremely dangerous geographical advantage, the commander racked his brains to finally win.

However, on the North China Plain, when the Japanese artillery, armor and air superiority were fully utilized, China still won such a victory.

What does that mean? Not only did the Japanese army become weaker, but the Chinese soldiers in the war have become stronger.

It can be said that the battle in Zhaojiazhuang was the first time that millions of Chinese troops realized that the gap between the two sides was narrowing to the naked eye.

This is actually an objective fact. The Japanese army was very strong in the early stages of the war, not only in equipment but also in the quality of the soldiers. However, as the war timeline lengthened, the veterans gradually consumed, and their combat power was naturally weaker than in the early stages of the war.

For example, when the 10th Division, which was fighting against the Tang Dao Army, entered the Chinese battlefield, the proportion of veterans accounted for 80%. Even new recruits were trained hard for 10 months, and they were not matched by Chinese officers and soldiers who had not even fired several live ammunitions for two months.

However, in the battle of Taierzhuang, nearly 10,000 people were killed in battle, which greatly damaged his vitality. In order to restore the veteran division, the Japanese Army Base Camp quickly replenished nearly 10,000 soldiers and more than 200 officers, and then transferred veterans from another brigade to reorganize the brigade. The combat power was actually one-third lower than its peak period.

Later, after the Battle of Xuzhou, the Battle of Central China, the Battle of Zhongtiaoshan and the Mopping War in southern Hebei, the 10th Division continued to lose veterans and replenish new recruits. Less than one-quarter of the veterans in the early stages of the war were still alive, and their combat power was further weakened. It would be good to have half of the early stages of the war.

This situation is not just the 10th Division, but is common among the major Japanese divisions.

In contrast, although China suffered heavy losses in several large-scale battles, especially elite troops, the Chinese's learning ability is truly unparalleled. The threat of death allows new recruits to quickly become veterans, while veterans continue to learn and grow into qualified officers in the war. The overall combat effectiveness is actually a little stronger than in the early stages of the war.

However, in every battle, the fact that Chinese soldiers still failed with all their might make the Chinese army struggle to defend the defense line and did not realize this phenomenon at all.

But the battle in Zhaojiazhuang was like a lightning bolt in the dark, cutting through the fog that enveloped the hearts of Chinese soldiers!

However, all of these belong to hindsight. For Tang Dao at this time, he had to use a tough battle to clearly tell the Japanese North China Front Army that if you want to attack my compatriots, you must first step over the body of my Chinese soldiers.

Regardless of whether it is behind enemy lines or plains, I only need to fight here!

Of course, Tang Dao is not just a silly iron head. He is very familiar with his opponents Yoshio Shinozuka and Tatsuki Jun.

Duotianjun is purely a guy with great ambition and talent. It is probably still too difficult to make him a lieutenant general commander. He was actually beyond his ability to command more than 300,000 North China Front Army. And Yoshio Shinozuka's ability is much stronger than this one. Otherwise, he would not have served as the commander of the 1st Corps of the North China Front Army in September 1939, which was once in time and space, and became the highest commander of the Japanese army in Jin Province. The Japanese Army evaluated him as loyal and brave, but in the nearly two years of battle between Jin Province and the 921st Division, he exposed a great shortcoming. He was stubborn and arrogant, and rarely listened to the opinions of his subordinates. He always just wanted to do if I wanted to do it.

This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content later! Such a person, especially when he leads a division with the main force far exceeding the opponent's forces, will naturally not easily ask for help from the Front Command.

It's like the Chinese men's football national team playing amateur team. If you win, you have nothing to brag about. If you lose, you will throw your face to grandma's house.

In terms of knowing oneself and enemy, Tang Tuanzuo has made his opponents thoroughly study, but Yoshio Shinozuka only knew from the information that Tang Dao was as fierce as a tiger, but he didn't know that Tang Dao became cunning, and even a group of tigers could not catch up.

Therefore, Yoshio Shinozuka, who was lucky, used 12 mountain cannons to cover the open area with artillery fire for 30 minutes, sent an infantry squadron to tentatively advance.

As we all know, the minefield may be detonated by artillery clusters, but it has never been said that a minefield can be cleared by just covering bombardment. If artillery really has this ability, the profession of minesweeping soldiers would not appear at all.

More than 180 Japanese soldiers in an infantry squadron just bent over and advanced less than 150 meters. As anti-infantry mines that were trampled exploded, the Japanese army was crying and howling!

It is not scary to be blown off. At most, it is a cripple. It is considered very good compared to losing your life. But what if the eggs are broken? The anti-infantry jumping lightning imitated from the S-Mine-35/44 of the German Empire will jump to the ground and detonate after being triggered!

This thing is the most dazzling existence in the anti-infantry thunder jumping family. During the Normandy landing, the Germanic army even buried the S-type thunder jumping with anti-tank mines, effectively slowing down the rapid advancement of the armored infantry cluster. The American cowboys called it Bouncing Betty deeply. After all, even if they don’t die, they may no longer be a man.

During the entire World War II, the German Empire produced a total of 1.93 million S-type mines. These "living widow makers" shot out 360 steel balls at 360 degrees without dead corners, destroying many families to continue the dreams of descendants. Therefore, after the war, the Gaul rooster also sent nearly 50,000 Germanic prisoners of war to the minesweeping ground without mercy: Come and taste your own thunder.

During World War II, the thick shadows created by S anti-infantry jumping caused countries that were deeply affected to imitate or develop mine jumping. For example, the United States' M2 and M16 anti-infantry jumping, the Maobei O3M jumping, etc. China's military industry has also launched two anti-infantry jumping styles, Type 69 and Type 72, and has shown its strengths in the Southwest Jungle War.

So much so that by the end of the century, more than 100 countries signed the "Ottawa Mines Ban Convention" to prohibit the manufacture and use of inhumane anti-infantry landmines, but several countries led by Mao Bear refused to sign because anti-infantry mines have an extremely important tactical position.

These should first be the injuries suffered by the Gaul rooster soldiers in September, because the arrival of the Tang regiment was allowed to enjoy them two months in advance.

Although only two anti-infantry jumping lightnings were tripped and detonated, the distance between Japanese soldiers was relatively loose, at least 10 meters apart, but when they jumped to the height of the waist of the human body, they suddenly played the charming and dazzling tricks of the thunder that jumped into the Japanese army, which still blew up the Japanese army.

The bloody crotch of seven or eight Japanese infantry scared the Japanese infantry out of fear. Even if the opponent did not shoot a single shot at them, they would no longer dare to move forward.

"Sure enough, there is a minefield!" There was no surprise on Shinozuka Yoshio's face when he heard the news from the front line.

Over the past month, the reason why China has caused considerable anti-destruction to the division's "Clearing the Countryside Operation" is one of the important reasons.

"Order the minesweeper to be dispatched, and at the same time tell Zheng Sang that it is time for him to serve the empire, and I will watch him perform from behind." A cold flashed in Yoshio Shinozuka's eyes.

The Zheng Sang mentioned by Yoshio Shinozuka is nothing but Zheng Yunqiu!

This guy is really a talented person. With a thousand taels of gold, he was praised by Yoshio Shinozuka 20 days ago after he was squeezing Kuroda Saburo's thigh and was promoted to the deputy commander of the Infantry Regiment of the Public Security Army stationed in Handan.

But he didn't know that less than a week after he arrived at the office, he went back to the battlefield before he even sat on the hot side. Perhaps the only good news for this unlucky child was that he did not bring his direct troops in Guangping County this time, and more than 2,000 public security troops were not familiar with him.

Therefore, after receiving the order from Yoshio Shinozuka to be the front-line commander of the Public Security Army Infantry Regiment, Zheng Yunqiu was not at all panicked. After discussing with his immediate boss, he took an infantry battalion and set off with three minesweepers.

The so-called minesweeper is also an inappropriate modified truck created by the Japanese army after being scared of landmines. It uses an ordinary 1.5-ton transport truck, which is equipped with steel plates around the chassis and cab, and then a large shovel is installed in front of the car.

After simple tests, the large steel shovel cannot be easily destroyed by ordinary anti-infantry lightning, which basically meets the needs of Japanese infantry. Typical slag products that are pulled onto the battlefield without actual combat.

But don't say it, just looking at the large steel shovel that stretched to the front of the car was still very muscular, and it also gave the hundreds of puppet troops following behind.

More than 600 public security troops here followed the shoddy four modified trucks and began to break through to the minefield. On the other side, the Japanese infantry also began to tentatively attacked the left, middle and right directions. The main focus was that we had too many people, so you could not take care of it.

"This is to let the second Japanese be cannon fodder come to be cannon fodder!" Tang Dao in the underground command post in Zhaojiazhuang received the battle report sent by Xia Dayu, and his face was not volatile in ancient and modern times.

"Order the guards to be in a row, and don't be busy starting the manual bombs. Put the second Japanese in the first place and wait for them to come a little more. That's a wasteland! Then let the second Japanese in the blood water this land well, and you will definitely be able to plant food in the spring of the next year!"

This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content later! Most of the more than 1,000 mines buried in the minefield are anti-infantry mines, basically mainly anti-infringement personnel. Although this temporary "mine-sweeping vehicle" by the Japanese army was simple, it still played a certain role. It continuously detonated dozens of mines with large steel shovels, and led more than 300 puppet troops to advance nearly 300 meters into the gap.

"Brothers, Lieutenant General Shinozuka Yoshinobu said that if there is a result of the battle this time, I will be rewarded after I go back!"

Zheng Yunqiu, who was on the front line, was holding a loudspeaker 200 meters away and used his old trick of "wealth to lure" the puppet soldiers.

It’s not that wealth is moving, but that it’s that it’s going to be dead if you don’t take money. 300 meters behind the puppet army infantry battalion, but there is a Japanese infantry squadron that was killed and injured by dozens of people in the minefield, and six machine guns and nearly a hundred rifles are lined up in a row. Whoever dares to retreat without obeying the orders and kills it.

Although most of the puppet soldiers were trembling in their calves, they were already like this. They could only fight for their lives and money. Moreover, there was an empty space in front of them. The broken Zhaojiazhuang had clearly appeared in the puppet soldiers' vision, and the straight-line distance would never exceed 700 meters.

Many puppet troops were already standing straight. After the minesweeper truck advanced for dozens of meters and did not detonate the mine again, the two puppet army company commanders who were determined to have walked out of the minefield loudly ordered their puppet troops to escape the ruts of the minesweeper truck, forming a line of scattered soldiers approaching Zhaojiazhuang in their sight.

Running happily, a crack suddenly broke out in the extremely empty wilderness ahead. It was a ditch from Zhaojiazhuang to Chenjiazhuang. It was just covered with wooden boards and covered with some loess. Not to mention that it looked no different from the wasteland from a distance, even if you looked closer, you would not easily find clues.

It is not scary to have a crack on the earth. Even a child can jump through the ditch that is only 1 meter wide. However, when there are nearly a hundred fully armed soldiers hidden in the ditch, and they are equipped with continuous firearms, that is terrible.

The running puppet army was only about 80 meters away from the trench. After this incident, the brain had not yet reacted, and the muzzles of the black holes that emerged began to fire violently.

That is a firepower net composed of three MG42 machine guns, more than 30 submachine guns and 50 semi-automatic rifles.

Even if the width of the scattered soldiers line has been lengthened to 600 meters, the more than 300 puppet troops were like huge waves hitting the reef, scattering into a ball!

In this first wave of attacks, at least more than 50 puppet troops were swept to the ground, wailing and rolling.

"Breaking back, fight back!" The puppet army officer crawling on the ground roared desperately.

But obviously, the firepower of the guards in the four-line regiment was far beyond the imagination of this wave of puppet troops, and the dense rain of bullets seemed to be endless.

One side is in an unobstructed plain, the other side is in the trenches, and with the asymmetric firepower ratio, the consequences of the two sides shooting are self-evident. Any brave person who dares to raise his head and shoot will become a dead person within seconds.

"They only have light weapons, and their heavy firepower is placed on the frontline positions. We have a chance!" Zheng Yunqiu found a fighter opportunity after observing the battlefield from the telescope.

Until now, the Chinese have not used such terrible small-caliber mortars. In fact, even if they are used, it is no big deal. He still has more than 300 security troops under his command. He can kill the Chinese soldiers in no more than one infantry company.

As for the casualties of the Public Security Army, it was not within Zheng Yunqiu's consideration. What he wanted to gain now was only the trust of Lieutenant General Shinozuka Yoshinobu, and he must hold this thick leg firmly.

"I'll give it to you, use the number of people to crush them to death. Who dares to escape in the face of battle? Lieutenant General Shinozuka Yoshinobu will not let him go." Zheng Yunqiu made a decision easily.

Anger flashed in the eyes of the major battalion commander of the Public Security Army, but this did not prevent the Japanese captain from giving Zheng Yunqiu a thumbs up to express his appreciation.

"Yoxi, Captain Zheng, you are very outstanding!"

Except for the Imperial Army, this Japanese Army Captain named Morikawa rarely sees this trait called bravery in Chinese, except for the opponents he is facing.

Therefore, under the orders of a deputy commander of a lieutenant colonel of the Public Security Army who did not care much about his subordinate's lives and the threat of a Japanese army captain who would not care much about the gun, the last more than 300 puppet troops were also put on the battlefield.

More than 12 light machine guns, 6 heavy machine guns and 12 grenade launchers also began to provide firepower support to the front line with all their might, exploding the smoke in front and behind the trench.

The puppet troops who received support gradually became more courageous and crawled towards the Chinese position. As long as they advanced another 30 meters, they could throw Japanese melon grenades.

Although the puppet army's guns and equipment are all national equipment, there are a few long-handled grenades, so the puppet army is equipped with Japanese melon grenades, with the farthest attack range of only more than 40 meters.

The puppet soldiers were still tenacious, but they didn't know that every step they climbed was a little closer to the abyss of death.

Since Tang Tuanzu dared to set up traps in this open space, how could there be only passively triggered landmines?

If the wasteland wants to become fertile soil, in addition to the necessary fertilizer, the land must also be carefully reviewed.

Just about 100 meters away from the trench, nearly 20 explosion points were buried. On average, 20 kilograms of cyclone explosives were connected by wires buried deep under the surface and manually detonated.
Chapter completed!