diskusbooks Chapter 354: Attack and Defense
Chapter 354: Attack and Defense
The independent column, now equipped with ammunition, immediately opened fire at full power. The gun barrels turned red and the cannon barrels smoked, and they suppressed the Japanese invaders!
The remaining 3,000 Japanese soldiers were caught in a dilemma with the machine guns and cannons of the independent column in front of them and bombing planes in the sky behind them!
In this way, they were slowly consumed in the Langwo Mountain position, and finally had no choice but to turn around and flee down the mountain.
When Yasutada Hosokawa looked at the less than two thousand Japanese soldiers he had recovered, his heart sank as if he had been drained dry.
"Baga! Don't they have no ammunition? Is this another conspiracy of theirs?"
"General, is it possible that these are supplies delivered by the planes of the Independent Column?"
Hosokawa Yasutada shook his head. Although the top of Langwo Mountain was not small, it was still a bit difficult to throw all the supplies up there in the dark. If it was so easy to airdrop supplies, they might have already started airdropping during the day. Why wait until night?
Moreover, they did not see the white parachutes, but instead saw planes flying at low altitudes.
Yasutada Hosokawa couldn't figure it out. Perhaps only by taking over Langwo Mountain could he find out the secret!
"Gather the troops. At ten o'clock tomorrow morning, put the civilians in front of the team and launch the attack! How is Taiyuan now?"
"General, General Yoshio Shinozuka called and said that the independent column has been bombarding the city wall. A huge gap has appeared in the southeast corner. Perhaps tomorrow morning will be the day to break into the city!"
Yoshio Shinozuka was not lying. Under the bombardment of 150mm howitzers and 105mm howitzers, the southeast wall of Taiyuan had collapsed.
Sitting in the underground fortifications, watching the combat intelligence that kept coming in, he had already calculated that the two battalions of troops he had left were no longer able to stop the encirclement of three armored divisions.
The Japanese troops in a horizontal line between Taiyuan, Yangquan and Langwoshan have been intercepted and divided, and the front and rear cannot take care of each other.
The 26th Division from Datong was still on the way, the 62nd Division from Yangquan was blocked in Yangquan, and the 59th Division from Taiyuan and the 5th Independent Mixed Brigade were still fighting with the Independent Column in the Langwo Mountain area to resist the reinforcements from Niangzi Pass.
"Maybe it's time to make up your mind! Send a telegram to General Okamura Yasuji and ask for final instructions!"
Okamura Yasuji was walking back and forth in the headquarters. Lang's Den Mountain was a piece of fat meat that could be easily taken, so Okamura Yasuji allowed Hosokawa Yasutada to send a brigade to attack it along the way.
But who would have thought that an entire brigade, plus three or four thousand puppet troops, could not capture a small mountain like Langwo Mountain? Now it is like a chicken rib, tasteless to eat and a pity to throw away.
As for the losses, Hosokawa Yasutada definitely did not dare to report them to Okamura Yasuji before he captured Langwo Mountain.
"Give up Taiyuan! Order Shinozuka Yoshio to break out towards Xinzhou!"
After receiving the order, Yoshio Shinozuka looked at the ancient city with great anger.
"ignition!"
Suddenly, a large fire appeared in the city, and Shinozuka Yoshio took advantage of the cover of darkness and the fire to escape to Xinzhou from the west gate of Taiyuan City.
At this moment, Kong Jie focused all his energy on the 26th Division coming from Datong, and he did not expect that Yoshio Shinozuka would actually abandon Taiyuan City.
More than 2,000 Japanese soldiers fought desperately and actually opened a gap under the nose of Kong Jie's Fifth Armored Division and ran away!
"Damn it! Report to the Chief of Staff immediately! Request pursuit!"
After Wang Meng received the intelligence, he never expected the Japanese to be so "generous" and immediately ordered:
Ding Wei's 4th Armored Division entered the city cautiously. If the Japanese had indeed escaped, they would rush to put out the fire.
Kong Jie's Fifth Armored Division continued to monitor the direction of Datong, but was not allowed to leave its position.
The tank regiment and armored infantry regiment of Xing Zhiguo's 6th Armored Division pursued the remnants of Yoshio Shinozuka.
After confirming that the Japanese had escaped from Taiyuan City, the Artillery Division maneuvered towards Yangquan and arrived at Yangquan as quickly as possible to cooperate with the First Armored Division to attack Yangquan!
The armored divisions immediately moved, and with Li Yunlong's consent, Wang Meng also took over the command of the Eastern Front Corps.
Wang Huaibao's First Armored Division is ready to siege the city and is expected to start the attack when the artillery division arrives!
The Shenquan Third Armored Division was ready to set off, and after Zhang Dabiao's Second Armored Division took over Niangzi Pass, it attacked Langwo Mountain at full speed to ensure that Li Yunlong was unharmed.
The entire Taiyuan and Yangquan were in chaos, and the movement of the six armored divisions shocked the whole of Shanxi.
Ding Wei's Fourth Armored Division, with Tiger tanks as the vanguard, slowly entered the city and moved carefully back and forth in the city. Only after confirming that there were no clustered targets of the Japanese devils did they allow Type 5 tanks and armored vehicles to enter the city one by one.
They worked from dusk until the next morning, capturing two thousand "abandoned" puppet soldiers. After repeated confirmation, they were sure that the Japanese had indeed abandoned the city of Taiyuan.
Xing Zhiguo's Sixth Armored Division Tank Regiment and Armored Infantry Regiment chased the Japanese for a whole night and killed countless of them before Shinozuka Yoshio managed to hide in the mountains in the northwest and escape.
Xing Zhiguo looked at the dense forest and the slope, and was forced to return home and reunite with the Fifth Armored Division according to the order to prevent the 26th Division of Datong from attacking.
However, after the news of Taiyuan's abandonment was reported to the 26th Brigade, they stopped, and the 62nd Division in Yangquan also began to move, preparing to attack Niangzi Pass from the front and back and break out in the direction of Shijiazhuang.
Neither Wang Meng nor Li Yunlong expected that the strategic situation had undergone tremendous changes, and the 3rd Armored Division at Niangzi Pass was surrounded, and the 2nd Armored Division had not yet arrived at Niangzi Pass!
The strength of a division in the Yangquan direction, plus the puppet troops, totaled more than 20,000 people, while there were more than 40,000 people in Shijiazhuang, sandwiching Niangziguan in the middle.
Although the 3rd Armored Division has a total of nearly 15,000 people, it has already sent out an armored infantry regiment to support Langwo Mountain, and a tank regiment is advancing towards Langwo Mountain.
There were only two mechanized infantry regiments and an artillery regiment left at Niangzi Pass.
Yoshio Hongo, commander of the 62nd Brigade, who was about to arrive at Niangzi Pass, glanced at Yangquan from afar. He did not expect that Yangquan, which he had managed for many years, would be abandoned.
"Baka! Fortunately, we have ordered the Imperial Army to blow up these factories, otherwise the Independent Column would have taken advantage of them!"
But when Yoshio Hongo recalled it, he seemed not to hear any sound of the explosion.
"What's going on? Is it the damn Imperial Army that's causing trouble again?"
Indeed, the Imperial Army did not blow up these factories. Instead, they protected them and "politely" kept the Japanese engineers and overseas Chinese out.
It’s not that they have a change of heart, but the Independent Column has already made it known that anyone who dares to destroy these factories is going against them and will naturally lose their heads!