Songhu: Never Give Up

Chapter 277: The Bloody Battle of Taierzhuang (3)

The next day, the Japanese were not willing to accept defeat and launched another attack on the north gate. This time, the north gate was guarded by the 186st Battalion of the th Regiment. This was a new recruit camp and most of the soldiers were newly recruited men from the Northwest.

The Japanese placed their main attack direction on the north gate. In order to assist the Japanese, they even sent more than 20 planes to bombard the north city. The soldiers of the first battalion defending the north city suffered heavy casualties.
Then the 24 105mm heavy howitzers of the Second Field Heavy Artillery Regiment (lacking a battalion) fired fiercely at Taierzhuang. Colonel Fu Rongzhenping, the commander of the 63rd Infantry Regiment, nodded repeatedly and said:
"Yoshi, I really can't imagine who can hold on under such fierce artillery fire. The warriors will only be able to collect the bodies of the Chinese people."

The senior staff officer of the regiment, Itagaki Nagayasu, took over and said:
"Sir, the garrison commander, the 31st Division is just a local ragtag unit with poor equipment. They can't even guarantee a rifle for each person, so their superiors equipped them with a cast iron sword.

The Chinese are so naive that they want to use medieval swords to stop the attack of the imperial army. They are overestimating their own capabilities!"

Colonel Fukuei said proudly:
"Then let us wait and see whether the Chinese swords are more powerful or the Empire's planes and cannons are more powerful!
The small town of Taierzhuang could not stop the warriors' advance, so they ordered the first and second battalions to launch a general attack on the north city immediately.

The first battle is the decisive battle, and one charge will end the battle!"

Major Itagaki took the order excitedly. In his opinion, deploying 2,000 people at once was really an overkill. He didn't believe that the Chinese could withstand their thundering attack.

As soon as the artillery fire extended, 2 Japanese soldiers came rushing over in a black mass. They formed three echelons and rushed towards the north city.

Before the troops arrived, the heavy machine gun bullets arrived first. Densely packed heavy machine gun bullets poured onto the top of the city wall, forcing the defenders to unable to raise their heads.

The soldiers of the first battalion fired at the Japanese in a hail of bullets. Rows of bullets were fired at the Japanese, and their casualties were rising sharply.

Although the first battalion was composed of new soldiers, they fought bravely under the command of their battalion commander Jiang Changtai. When they left Qin territory, they considered themselves dead.
Although it was their first time on the battlefield and they were very scared, no one retreated. They used the simple weapons in their hands to fight to the death against the Japanese charge until they were shot and fell.

The entire wall was dyed red with their blood. After the defenders' machine gun fire was exposed, the Japanese infantry guns and mortars continued to fire shells at the wall, destroying the firing points one by one, and the firepower gradually weakened;

Without the suppression of machine guns, the Japanese infantry quickly rushed to the north gate.

At this time, the north gate had been opened by infantry artillery, and the Japanese infantry poured through the north gate like a tide. Captain Jiang immediately ordered bombs to be dropped;

Rows of grenades were thrown into the group of Japanese soldiers, causing them to scream and howl in agony. The north gate was almost filled with corpses.

The third company, which served as the reserve force, took the opportunity to charge forward. A melee broke out between the two sides at the city gate. For a moment, swords and bayonets were wielded, and the brutal hand-to-hand combat caused heavy casualties on both sides.

Seeing that all the officers and soldiers of the first battalion were killed or wounded, the commander of the 186th Regiment, Wang Zhen, led the third battalion of the reserve to reinforce.

Captain Wang rushed to the front holding a Czech light machine gun, followed closely by other soldiers. They threw grenades as they rushed, killing and wounding a large number of Japanese soldiers.

With the addition of fresh troops, the offensive of the Japanese was contained again. The morale of the defenders was greatly boosted, and they fought the Japanese with their lives. The strength of the Northwest Army was fully demonstrated in this battle.

No matter whether they were new recruits or veterans, no one retreated. They all fell down after being shot head-on.

The new recruits were not good at shooting, so they used grenades to blow them up. Some even rushed into the group of Japanese soldiers with cluster grenades, dragging a bunch of Japanese soldiers to hell...

The Japanese were finally frightened and retreated like a tide. Colonel Fukuei, who was watching the battle from a distance, trembled with his hands and cursed:
"Bakayaloo, you have brought shame to the Imperial Army!" "Fire! Blast these barbarians to death!"

The Japanese's retaliatory shells fell row after row, and the defenders could only endure it silently. As long as people were still alive, they would crawl out from the rubble and continue fighting the Japanese.

After the Japs' artillery preparations were completed, the Bu troops began to charge again, round after round, fighting until dark;

Just when the defenders thought the Japanese would be quiet for a while, hundreds of them took advantage of the cover of night to sneak up again. Fierce fighting broke out again between the two sides, with casualties on both sides.

Just after the 186th Regiment repelled the enemy's new round of attack, Battalion Commander Jiang came to report:
"Captain, a group of devils sneaked into the city in the dark and headed for the Taishan Temple."

Captain Wang immediately dispatched 150 suicide squad members from the third and second battalions, and led them to chase after them. A thousand-mile dam may be breached by a single ant hole, and they absolutely could not let this group of devils cause any harm.

Since Captain Wang was very familiar with the terrain of Taierzhuang, he quickly surrounded the group of devils in the Taishan Temple, and a fierce battle broke out between the two sides.
Captain Wang left some people to tie down the enemy's firepower on the front, and he led 200 brothers to the back mountain of Taishan Temple under the cover of night and then sneaked in.

Squadron leader Keita Tahara commanded more than 100 Japanese soldiers to block the Chinese attack from the front, not realizing the danger from behind.

Although they were the most elite troops of the Japanese, they were unfamiliar with the area and it was dark, so they could only put up a desperate resistance in front of the temple, hoping to hold out until reinforcements arrived.

Captain Wang led his men to sneak up behind the Japanese, and then each of them took out a grenade and threw it into the group of Japanese, making them dizzy;

Captain Wang and others took the opportunity to attack from behind Tianyuan's squadron, catching the Japanese off guard. Dozens of people were killed or injured in the first encounter.

Captain Tian Yuan could only lead a part of the Japanese to fight against the Chinese behind him, and soon the two sides were engaged in a melee.

The troops in the front took the opportunity to intensify their offensive, rushed into the temple with their swords held high, and assisted Captain Wang in attacking the devils from both sides;
Faced with attacks from both the front and back, the Japanese were at a loss as to what to do and had to divide their forces to fight, resulting in a sharp increase in casualties.

The soldiers of the 186th Regiment held high their sharp swords and killed the Japanese devils so hard that their hearts and livers were torn apart. They were chopped to the ground one by one and turned into headless corpses.

After half an hour of fierce fighting, nearly 200 Japanese soldiers surrounded in the Taishan Temple were all wiped out, and the suicide squad also suffered more than 60 casualties.

After destroying the remaining Japanese soldiers, Captain Wang breathed a sigh of relief, but before he had time to rest, the Japanese attacked again.

At this moment, the artillery bombarded the infantry and then charged, continuing to put pressure on the defenders. Captain Wang, who had completed the task of annihilating the enemy, brought the last members of his death-seeking team to reinforce, and the two sides were once again entangled in a fight.

The Japanese attack on Taierzhuang lasted for three days and three nights. During this period, they broke into the village many times, but were repelled by the tenacious 31st Division. Both sides suffered heavy casualties, but Taierzhuang was always under the control of the 31st Division.

Xuzhou, Fifth War Zone Headquarters
Commander Li finally waited for his old partner Bai Jiansheng to come. After his ally inspected the battlefield in Xuzhou, he left General Bai, Deputy Minister of Military Affairs Lin Wei, Director of the First Department of the Military Affairs Department Liu Fei, and Senior Staff Officer Wang Hongzhao to form a staff group to assist him in commanding the battle in Xuzhou.
These people are almost all bigwigs of the Guangxi clique, and they are the most handy people for Commander Li. As soon as General Bai met them, he said:
"Duke De, the battle situation in Taierzhuang is tense and the troops are under pressure. There is no fighting on the southern front for the time being. Are you really not considering sending a guerrilla column to help Taierzhuang?"

(End of this chapter)