Songhu: Never Give Up

At the northern foot of the Dabie Mountains, the 13th Division suffered heavy losses west of Huoshan, resulting in the 10th Brigade of the 8th Division's right wing attacking in the direction of Xijiaji becoming an isolated force. They were frightened and stopped, going on the defensive on the spot, waiting for the military to make new adjustments.

The other two regiments of the 13th Division accelerated their approach to Huoshan, and Tanaka Seiichi even made preparations to withdraw from Huoshan;

Fortunately, a telegram from the Second Army Headquarters arrived in time, asking them to stay in Huoshan and wait for reinforcements. The headquarters will transfer 3 reinforcements to the 13th Division to rebuild the 58th and 104th Regiments.

Now Tanaka Shizukazu regained his confidence. He planned to transfer some officers and veterans from the 65th and 116th Regiments, and then transfer more than 3 people from the Quartermaster Regiment, the Replacement Regiment, and the Engineer Regiment. Together with the 3 replacement soldiers given by the military, he could restore the structure of the 58th and 104th Regiments.

At the same time, Prince Higashikuni adjusted the deployment of troops on the northern foothills of the Dabie Mountains. The 8th and 65th Infantry Regiments that had previously cooperated with the 11th Brigade on the right wing were all transferred to the Huoshan direction on the left wing. When the other two infantry regiments were rebuilt, there would be 4 infantry regiments on the left wing.
With the support of a field artillery battalion from the military headquarters, the 13th Division's combat effectiveness was restored to 8%.

The troop gap on the right wing was filled by another brigade of the 10th Division. By the end of August, the troop adjustments in Lu'an and Huoshan were completed, and the offensive was resumed, with the total strength increased by one brigade.

As the guerrilla column retreated, the 13th Division, which had come to seek revenge on the guerrilla column, was caught empty-handed, so it changed its direction of operations, crossed the Shihe River, occupied Yejiaji, and headed straight for the Shimenkou and Fujinshan lines.
Song Xilian, commander of the 71st Army, commanded the 88th Division to attack eastward from the north side of Fujin Mountain, assisting the 36th Division on frontal defense to counterattack and stabilize the position.

In early September, the Japanese launched a fierce attack on the main positions of Fujin Mountain and Shimenkou, and the Battle of Fujin Mountain began.

Fujin Mountain is located in the south of Gushi City, about 50 kilometers away from Gushi City. It is a heavily defended area of ​​the Fifth War Zone.

The main force was Song Xilian's 71st Army. Part of the 51st Army and 77th Army, which had been defeated in Lu'an and Huoshan, also retreated to the area. Commander Li planned to fight a mountain blocking battle with the Japanese in the Fujinshan area.

The reason why Fujin Mountain became the focus of contention between the two sides was that its geographical location was very important;
Located on the south bank of Shihe River, it is the key point of Yejiaji-Shangcheng Highway, connected to Lu'an and Hefei in the east.
It leads to Huangchuan and Xinyang in the west, and the mountains are steep. Song Xilian led his troops to be on high alert, determined to stop the Japanese army here. The command center was set up in the thousand-year-old temple Myoko-ji.

On the morning of September 9, the 2st Army position at Fujin Mountain

When the shrill anti-aircraft whistle sounded, the soldiers of the 36th Division hid in their fortifications, and the rest left their fate to God;
Just as they hid, 24 Type 96 land-based attack aircraft flew over the defenders' positions. Strings of bombs dropped from the sky, and the positions were quickly set on fire by the explosions.

Sections of trenches were flattened, and hundreds of soldiers were buried in the loose soil. No one had time to dig them out, so they could only be left to suffocate to death;

The National Army has become accustomed to fighting in harsh battlefield environments without air superiority, and being bombed has long been commonplace. Those who can survive are all very tough.

Many veterans would not even bother to help their comrades who were blown to pieces, because they did not know whether they would be alive in the next moment.

When a person dies, the bird flies upwards, and he will live forever...

The aircraft group had just finished dropping their bombs when the shelling began again. Sergeant Pan Bao just rolled his eyes and continued to squat in the trench praying for his ancestors' blessings.

He was one of the few veterans in the company who had participated in the Battle of Shanghai. From Shanghai to Nanjing, Xuzhou, and then to the defense of Wuhan, he had no idea how many generations of brothers he had been around.

He always believed that he was able to survive because of the blessings of the ancestors of the Pan family. The Japanese had not yet killed all the devils, so he could not return to his hometown.

Like Army Commander Song Xilian, he was from southern Hunan. Most of the 36th Division were from Hunan. When they left their hometown, the clan leader specially burned incense for them in the ancestral hall in advance.
In other words, from the moment they left the village, they had to treat themselves as dead, and would not return home until the Japanese were destroyed.

The whole village takes care of the parents, and the unmarried young men are even given a wife, which can be regarded as leaving a descendant;

Girls from all over the village were eager to marry them because they were going to fight the Japanese and were heroes.

How can a hero be without a wife and descendants?

Pan Bao thought of Yingzi again, and the beauty of the night when he left home. In order to leave a child for Pan Bao, the shy Yingzi was very proactive that night, asking for it again and again, wishing to squeeze him dry;

Pan Bao also used all his strength and paid all the public grain for more than 20 years. His legs were weak when he went out.

After Jinling City broke out, a letter came from home, saying that the hard work that night was not in vain, Yingzi was pregnant with his child;
From that moment on, he fought the Japanese to the death in every battle. After witnessing the Japanese's atrocities in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, he would never let the Japanese harm Yingzi, Daniu, and his parents, even if it meant risking his own life. Daniu was the name he gave his son, Pan Daniu, which sounded awesome!
The Japanese's firepower preparation continued intermittently for a day, with planes and artillery taking turns to attack, bombs and shells being thrown at the positions as if they were free, and it is unknown how many people were not able to survive;

In the evening, a shrill whistle sounded again on the battlefield. Pan Bao, who had been wandering in his hometown, returned to his body in an instant and shouted in a hoarse voice:
"The Japs are coming, let's fight them with me!"

At least half of his class were new recruits, and these cowards were all huddled and trembling, some even wet their pants;
Pan Bao could only pull them up one by one. It was common for him to kick the cowards a few times. He was also a coward before.

While kicking them, Pan Bao also counted the number of people in the class. The ancestors of the Pan family were still powerful and even the brothers in their class were saved, with only one person slightly injured.

Under the cover of artillery fire, the Japanese had already crossed the Shi River, and the vanguard battalion had already reached the foot of Fujin Mountain;

Hundreds of devils swarmed towards the defenders' positions. The new recruits were so scared that their hands were shaking. It was the first time for some of them to see the vicious devils. It was said that the devils had red hair and green eyes, three heads and six arms, and specialized in eating children's hearts and livers...

The 36th Division was a German-equipped division. After dozens of fierce battles, only a few of the original veterans were left, and they were replaced by new recruits from southern Hunan.

The Hunanese army has always been fierce, and the Hunanese are martial artists. Although the new recruits were scared when they first went to the battlefield, no one backed down.
You have to die on the battlefield, otherwise your soul cannot enter the ancestral hall. Hunanese people attach great importance to this.

The troops attacking the 212th Regiment's position were the Xijing Battalion of the 13th Regiment of the 116th Division. This regiment had been almost completely wiped out by the guerrilla column in Wuhu, and its organization had been wiped out and supplemented several times.
The Japanese's complete reserve system makes it easier for them to be replenished and quickly restore their combat effectiveness.

The Japanese have implemented a nationwide compulsory military service system since 24, which they learned from Germany and formed their own characteristics in combination with national conditions;
After more than ten years of development, it has become very mature and has reserved a large number of retired veterans for a full-scale war against China.

The Japanese military service system is divided into reserve, reserve, first supplementary and second supplementary. The reserve and reserve are all retired veterans, and their combat experience is not inferior to that of active soldiers.
The first and second supplementary soldiers are the vast number of young people of military age and middle school students who are about to become adults. Military training is organized regularly every year. These are the most suitable sources of soldiers for the Japanese, with a total number of more than 500 million.

These are the foundation of the Japanese. Since the full-scale launch of the war, the Japanese have mobilized hundreds of thousands of reserve and back-up personnel, as well as some of the first and second replacement troops, expanding the 17 permanent divisions to more than 30 divisions in a short period of time.

After the 116th Regiment was annihilated, in order to form combat effectiveness as soon as possible, the Japanese directly added a mixed brigade to the 116th and 65th Regiments. Therefore, these two regiments are still mainly composed of active soldiers and have strong combat effectiveness.
In the Battle of Huaihe River, the 65th Regiment was once again annihilated by the guerrilla column, and was later replaced by the reserve and back-up forces.

The 116th Regiment lost a lot of people in subsequent battles, and with the constant replenishment, they were no longer the same old devils. Like the 36th Division, their combat effectiveness declined significantly.

Major Nishii was eager to make a contribution, so he took the lead in attacking the 212th Regiment's array without waiting for the main force to cross the river;

Seeing the Japanese rushing up, one of the new recruits' hands trembled nervously, and the bullet flew out of the gun, naturally shooting down the plane.

The regiment commander, Gu Baoyu, could only order the artillery to open fire. The six 6mm mortars of the artillery battalion fired rows of shells at the Japanese. Each round of shells would knock down many Japanese soldiers and also encourage the new recruits.
The machine gun company of the 1st battalion where Pan Bao was also firing at full power. Several Maxim heavy machine guns imitated from Jinling rained bullets on the Japanese, killing them severely.

As the Japanese artillery had not caught up, the Japanese could only passively take the beating and were pinned down by the heavy firepower of the 212th Regiment, with more than a hundred casualties.
The Japanese soldiers of Xijing Battalion were also very tough and were not intimidated by the firepower of the defenders. While they were lying on the ground to avoid the rain of bullets, they were also waiting for heavy firepower support.

Sure enough, not long after, the Japanese regiment artillery came up to reinforce, and they also fired rows of shells, blowing up two of the defenders' heavy machine guns, and the firepower was greatly reduced.

Although the heavy firepower of the German-equipped divisions was unique in the Nationalist Army, it was far inferior to that of the Class A divisions;
The 116th Regiment's artillery quickly suppressed the heavy firepower of the 212th Regiment. The Japanese infantry took the opportunity to launch a charge and quickly reached the front of the defenders' positions. Pan Bao also gave the order to open fire.

The 9th squad was equipped with a Czech light machine gun, which was the firepower guarantee for the whole squad. The main shooter was also a veteran. He was added after the Battle of Songhu, and he was a veteran who survived until now.

He was very skilled in machine gun shooting and killed three Japanese devils in a short time. He could definitely be ranked first in the family tree of Liujia Village.

Liu Mancang was the best machine gunner in the company. He had killed so many Japanese soldiers since Nanjing that he could not count them all. Therefore, he was soon targeted by the Japanese grenade launcher group.
Pan Bao had rich combat experience. Their operations were all centered around Liu Mancang's machine gun. He required everyone to protect the machine gun during the battle. This style of fighting was taught by German advisers.

When the Japanese grenade launcher group was sneaking around to attack the firepower point of the ninth squad, Pan Bao spotted the Japanese. He adjusted the caliper of his rifle to 300 meters and aimed at the main Japanese shooter... (End of this chapter)