Songhu: Never Give Up

Chapter 144: Over Soldiers
Yue Qianli was also paying attention to the movements of the Tenth Army. He had already reported the intelligence to the government through Dai Yunong. This intelligence was of great importance. If he still could not attract the attention of the principal, then he would have no other options.
After all, the Japanese army held the initiative on the battlefield. They had a powerful navy and could land at any point along the coast of East China, making them hard to defend against.

The best response strategy for the National Government now should be to retreat across the board, abandon the Suzhou River defense line, withdraw the main force to the Wufu Line, set up defenses in stages, and block the enemy layer by layer. Only in this way can hundreds of thousands of elite troops be saved, but Nanjing will still be lost, which cannot be changed;
Even the top leaders of the Nationalist government understood this truth. The plans to move the capital to Wuhan and even Chongqing just proved this point. The Nationalist government was not short of capable people with strategic vision.

The biggest problem now is that the president always has a fluke mentality. He wants to fight but also hopes for the intervention of the League of Nations. He is hesitant and commits a major military taboo.
Generals including Bai Jiansheng could not convince him, and Yue Qianli, a colonel, could forget about it. He had already tried his best, and now he had to support the main force in his own way. The fiercer the fight in the urban area, the more Japanese devils would be tied down, thus reducing the pressure on the main force as much as possible.

At the 527th Regiment Headquarters, the pre-war deployment meeting was in full swing, and all the battalion commanders who had completed the task of gathering the scattered soldiers were in place;
Yue Qianli also got the latest personnel and equipment statistics of each battalion, and a happy smile appeared on his face. He was a real main force, and he immediately praised:
“Well, you have completed the mission well this time. The first battalion has increased to more than 3 people, the second battalion is even more amazing, with more than 4 people, the third battalion also has more than 3 people, and the artillery battalion has more than 2 people;
He Qizheng, why do you have so many people in your artillery battalion? I don't have so many artillery for you!"

He Qizheng chuckled and said:

"You don't have it, but the devil does!
Didn't you say that you would rather have people wait for equipment than have equipment wait for people? I have collected dozens of gasoline drums in the city, and the brothers can make explosive packs. I am going to temporarily organize a flying thunder artillery company."

After listening to this, Yue Qianli laughed and scolded:
"You have dozens of flying thunder cannons, why don't you go up to the sky!"

"Captain, you have already said that whoever gathers the troops will own them. The remaining brothers can form an infantry company to protect the artillery."

Li Jie interrupted and said:
"Lao He, your infantry company has over a thousand soldiers, right? The commander is right, you are no longer in heaven, you are a fairy from outer space!"

Everyone couldn't help but burst out laughing after hearing this. The slightly tense atmosphere before the war disappeared in an instant. Now the entire regiment has more than 10,000 people, and they are more confident facing the 9th Division.

After laughing for a while, Yue Qianli continued:
"Your battalion is too large to be easily commanded, so I need to restructure it:
Each platoon has 6 squads with 80 people, and each company has 3 infantry platoons and 1 firepower platoon. The firepower platoon is equipped with 3 flying thunder guns and 3 heavy machine guns, plus a 20-person company headquarters, for a total of 340 people.
Each battalion has three infantry companies and an artillery company. The artillery company is equipped with eight mortars and six 3-caliber rocket launchers. There are exactly 8 rocket launchers in three battalions. The battalion commander is responsible. If anyone loses a rocket launcher, I will hold him responsible.

In this way, there are 4 people in the four companies plus the battalion headquarters, and 1500 reinforcements are left for each battalion, for a total of 500 people in the battalion.

The artillery battalion is equipped with 6 rocket launchers, 12 mortars, 6 mountain guns, plus a flying thunder artillery company, with a total of 1500 people, and 500 reinforcements will be left for you;
The infantry company must protect the rocket launcher. We would rather blow it up than leave it to the enemy. Do you understand?"

He Qizheng nodded heavily. This was his promise to Yue Qianli because he knew the value of every rocket launcher.

Yue Qianli continued:
"The remaining 3 people formed a supplementary battalion, with Duan Yulin, the former commander of the third company of the first battalion, acting as the battalion commander, to be used as a reserve force.

The regiment headquarters was located in the Marine Corps Headquarters Building, and the artillery battalion and the baggage train moved with the regiment headquarters;
The regiment headquarters is responsible for attracting the enemy's attack, and each of your battalions will make a big fuss outside, gathering and dispersing from time to time, making the enemy run around in a hurry.

I don't care how you fight, urban guerrilla warfare, positional warfare, street fighting, mobile warfare, any tactics that can destroy the devils are good tactics! "

Li Jie immediately stood up and objected:

"Captain, it's too dangerous to stay in the headquarters building. Let's leave it to our First Battalion. We have experience."

Yue Qianli waved his hand and said:
"You don't have enough. Even if the Ninth Division loses a regiment, it still has at least 2 people. If you leave a few thousand people to block the perimeter, the number of Japanese soldiers who can be used for combat will be around 15000.
So I have to attract their main force to the vicinity of the headquarters building so that your battalions will have room to move.

Since our force has increased by several thousand men, that means several thousand mouths to feed, and food will be a big problem;

Including what our fellow villagers left behind, our food is only enough to last for 20 days at most. Each soldier is given 15 days of rations. If it is not enough, you can go and rob the Japanese on yourselves.

The Ninth Division also can't carry much food, and their supply lines are your granaries and ammunition depots. Be prepared to fight for a month, and wait for my notice when to break out."

Everyone expressed that they had no objection, and the next step was to reorganize the troops according to Yue Qianli's request. In order to ensure the safety of the regiment headquarters, they secretly stuffed a number of combat backbones and experienced officers into the artillery battalion.

After the other battalions left, Yue Qianli left the supplementary battalion to assist the artillery battalion in digging tunnels. Yue Qianli's idea was to dig several tunnels in and out under the headquarters building;
The supplementary battalion also dug tunnels in the ruins outside the building, fought street battles with the devils, and tied down the devils attacking the building. Duan Yulin was best at this. Yue Qianli said half-jokingly:
"Old Duan, whether we can defend the headquarters building depends on you. Don't forget that your sister is also in the building."

Duan Yulin had been with Yue Qianli for the longest time, and had learned almost all of Yue Qianli's tactics. He understood Yue Qianli's tactical intentions in an instant, and said with a stern look:
"I know how to fight. With us here, we can at least hold back an infantry regiment. It's your responsibility to protect my sister. Don't abandon her again."

"Old Duan, why are you so easily teased? Even if you didn't tell me, I would still protect Yaqin."

"Old Yue, I'm not trying to arrange a match. You've seen that Yaqin hasn't found anyone in the past few years. Now she's an old maid. Since you've provoked her, you have to take responsibility and you're not allowed to be dissatisfied.

I only have this one sister, otherwise I will never forgive you."

Yue Qianli saw that there was no way to continue the conversation, so he immediately stopped him and said:

"Yaqin is only 25 years old, in her prime, not an old maid. How can a brother disparage his sister like this?
Don't worry, I will take good care of her."

Duan Yulin was relieved then. He patted Yue Qianli on the shoulder and turned to leave.

Yue Qianli knew what it meant for a girl to be 25 years old in this era. Since she had waited for him for five years, he couldn't let her down.
Besides, he doesn't have time to fall in love. He will just get married when the relationship is right. He can't really disappoint the Duan brothers and sisters.

At the 527th Division Headquarters, Yoshika Ryosuke stared at the map with a stern expression, accompanied by the Chief of Staff Colonel Nakahirokawa. There were only a dozen minutes left before launching the attack, and they had no way out. "Mr. Nakahiro, it has been confirmed that the headquarters of the th Regiment is located in the Marine Corps Headquarters Building. This is a naked provocation to the Imperial Army!"

Nakahiro Chuan said with a shout:
"Your Excellency, Division Commander, Yue Qianli is a very cunning commander. According to intelligence, he graduated from the sixth term of the Whampoa Military Academy and was later sent to study abroad at the West Point Military Academy. He ranked first in the overall score when he graduated. He has a very high command ability and is good at defensive operations.
His tactics were very clear, which was to use the headquarters building fortress group to continuously consume the Imperial Army's combat power, and then mobilize the troops on the periphery to attack from both sides. The Seventh Regiment fell into his trap, so we have to be on guard this time."

Yoshika Ryosuke waved his hand and said:
"The West Point Military Academy in the United States is not well-known in the world. They are secluded and closed-door, and cannot be compared with the Empire's Army Officer School, so the overall score of West Point is first, which does not mean anything.
Yue Qianli's attempt to replicate the successful tactics against the 7th Regiment is like trying to find a sword by carving a mark on the mark. The offensive capability of a division far exceeds that of a regiment and is at the battle level.

In the face of absolute strength, all conspiracies and tricks are in vain. Now that he has drawn the line, my martial arts team will take it over!

To capture the thief, one must first capture the leader. The Imperial Army concentrated its forces and firepower to break through the headquarters fortress, and ordered the Cavalry Regiment to be responsible for the outer perimeter security, and the 35th and 36th Infantry Regiments to guard the two wings, and to wipe out all the Chinese within a five-kilometer radius of the headquarters building;

The 19th Infantry Regiment, in cooperation with the 9th Field Artillery Regiment, stormed the headquarters building, while the 9th Engineer Regiment secretly dug tunnels under the building and carried out blasting..."

Following Yoshika Ryosuke's order, the three infantry regiments of the 9th Division advanced eastward from the west and north, aiming directly at the Marine Corps Headquarters building.

At the same time, 24 heavy bombers took off from Taiwan Airport and headed straight for the headquarters building. They didn't even send fighter jets to escort them. They were extremely arrogant.

Yue Qianli could only give them a thumbs-up to the devils' arrogance, and then silently endure the bombardment of the aircraft group;
A string of aerial bombs dropped from the sky, all of them were high-explosive bombs weighing more than 100 kilograms, some were armor-piercing bombs and incendiary bombs. If they hadn't been concerned about the impact, they would even have wanted to drop poison gas bombs.

For a moment, the headquarters building and surrounding areas were engulfed by the smoke from the explosion, as if it was the end of the world.

Yue Qianli had to thank the "craftsman" spirit that Xiao Rizi advocated. After they reinforced the main structure of the headquarters building more than a dozen times, it was almost abnormally solid.

Not to mention a 100-kilogram bomb, even the Eagle Sauce's 500-pound heavy bomb would find it difficult to destroy the main building. At most, it would blow the top floor and the third floor into ruins, and would not harm the defenders on the second floor, first floor and underground tunnels at all.

The buildings within a few hundred meters around were almost all destroyed. Looking around, the place was devastated and ruins were everywhere. There was no one alive. The brothers of the replenishment battalion all hid in the tunnels. The area where they were active was 2 to 3 kilometers away from the building. It was not the focus of the Japanese bombing and there was almost no loss.

After the three Japanese infantry regiments entered the defense zone of the 527th Regiment, they were strongly blocked by the st and rd Battalions, with the nd Battalion acting as a reserve;

The two sides soon engaged in brutal street fighting with the sound of gunfire everywhere. The defenders relied on a large number of brick-concrete buildings as a fulcrum and fought with the Japanese for every street, alley and house among the ruins and broken walls.

The Japanese were not used to this style of fighting at first. They formed a strict attack formation like they did in a field battle and pushed forward in a straight line.
As a result, they were killed by scattered fire from all directions. Revengeful bullets shot out from the ruins, knocking down the Japs one by one.

The elusive grenades bombed the Japanese at a loss, and Captain Jiangkou was so angry that he cursed the Chinese as cowardly rats. In just two hours, they lost more than half of the squad, and now they were blocked by a brick-concrete warehouse;

There were at least three machine guns in the warehouse, suppressing them so much that they could not raise their heads. The Jiangkou Squadron did not have heavy weapons that could destroy the firing points, so they could only send soldiers to launch a violent attack.

After charging twice in a row, Captain Eguchi decided to change his tactics and said to squad leader Nakagawa Jiro:
"Mr. Nakagawa, there are at least a hundred people in the warehouse. A strong attack will not work. Lead the Nakagawa team to go around the left wing to the back of the warehouse, and then attack from the front and back to eliminate all the Chinese."

The main reason why Captain Eguchi chose to carry out a flanking operation from the left wing was that the left wing was almost entirely in ruins with a wide field of vision, while there were still a large number of houses in the blocks on the right wing, and Eguchi was worried about an ambush.

Nakagawa took the order and left, while Captain Eguchi continued to launch a diversionary attack on the front to create opportunities for Nakagawa's team to carry out a flanking operation.

These were the common tactics used by the Japanese in field battles, and they had always been effective. Lieutenant Nakagawa led dozens of Japanese soldiers and rushed into the ruins on the left wing without noticing the black muzzles of guns hidden in the ruins.

The troops lying in ambush in the ruins on the left wing were the first platoon of the third company of the first battalion. The platoon leader was Mu Tiezhu, the former squad leader of the first squad of the third company. As the troops expanded, he was promoted to second lieutenant platoon leader.

The Central Army's direct troops have a strict promotion system. It is very difficult for non-commissioned officers to be promoted to officers, but as long as they cross this gap, the rest will be easy.

As the squad leader of Yue Qianli's old third company, he has a long history. When Yue Qianli was the company commander, he was the squad leader. Now that Yue Qianli is the regiment commander, he has finally been promoted to second lieutenant platoon leader.

He was very familiar with Yue Qianli's fighting style. He had originally planned to stop the Japanese, but when he saw that only a few dozen Japanese had rushed over, he immediately changed his mind and set up a blocking formation for the Japanese.

The four squads ambushed on both wings made way for the main road, which made it possible for the Nakagawa squad to move freely. Lieutenant Nakagawa screamed with excitement.

The fifth and sixth squads, which were lagging behind, suddenly opened fire on the Japanese under the leadership of the fifth squad leader. The hail of bullets from two light machine guns and more than 2 long and short guns knocked down more than a dozen Japanese in an instant, and Lieutenant Nakagawa was so scared that he immediately lay on the ground.

Just as the Japanese soldiers hastily fought back, thirty or forty grenades flew over from behind them, blowing them up and disorienting them, causing heavy casualties.
After throwing a round of grenades, the four squads commanded by Mu Tiezhu rushed out from the side and rear of the Nakagawa squad, making the Japanese so angry that they didn't know which direction to fight back and were soon killed or wounded.

The ambush came quickly and ended quickly. By the time Captain Jiangkou discovered the change on his flank, one of his squad members had disappeared, which scared him so much that he broke out in a cold sweat.

"Bagayalu, is there a ghost?"

(End of this chapter)