The Fourth Outstanding Person of Huangpu Military Academy

Xiaoshan was now separated from Hangzhou by the Qiantang River. The Qiantang/Fuchun River was vast, and at that time, there were no bridges or pontoon bridges across it. Thus, the Zhejiang battlefield was divided into two halves, east and west, by this river. Even if the 19th Army reached Xiaoshan, it would be of little use in the battle to capture Hangzhou.

Bai Chongxi carefully looked at the enemy and our situation in Zhuji, Xiaoshan and Shaoxing, and then at the situation in southeastern Zhejiang, and he had a clear idea in his mind.

The penultimate telegram came from the First Division on the western Zhejiang battlefield.

On the afternoon of January 5th, Wang Miao's troops from the Allied Forces' 11th Division encountered our division's blocking line while retreating. Between 10:1 and 11:3 PM, our main force maneuvered to the left and right flanks of the 11th Division and launched a night attack, annihilating approximately 2000 of the enemy and forcing them into a zone between three villages centered on Xucun.

"Reconnaissance has confirmed that the enemy forces in the Hangzhou-Fuyang direction are Lu Xiangting's 2nd Allied Forces Division, Li Junyi's 14th Allied Forces Division, Bai Baoshan's 5th Allied Forces Division, and the Zhejiang Army Guard Brigade. As of the time of this transmission, the above-mentioned enemy forces remain stationary.

“拟于今日上午对联军11师发动总攻，彻底解决该部敌人舅毡。陈奮晥玗廒天衡，1月6日01:30。

"Hiss--" Bai Chongxi took a breath of cold air.

"Where is Liu Zhi's Second Division?" Bai Chongxi asked.

"The Second Division is camping between Jiande and Yanzhou and will arrive in Tonglu tomorrow.

"The 14th Army is..." Bai Chongxi said halfway, then realized that there was no need to ask. The 14th Army was right here in Quzhou, just entering Zhejiang to join the war. In other words, the 14th Army was still 5 to 7 days away from being deployed to the battlefield.

Bai Chongxi: "Call the 26th Army on the radio channel and have their Second Division, Si Lie's unit, cross the Fenshui River and launch a diversionary operation against Sun Chuanfang's army."

The staff officer responded and asked the radio to call the 26th Army. However, the 26th Army's radio did not respond.

Bai Chongxi knew the combat effectiveness of the 1st Division. He had witnessed it in Wuchang City when Chen Tianheng was the commander of the 1st Regiment of the 1st Division.

But in the battlefield of western Zhejiang, Chen Tianheng's appetite has been a little too big in the past two or three days.

Yesterday's annihilation of the Allied Forces' 10th Division marked the end of Sun Chuanfang's last remaining Beiyang-era unit. Not satisfied with the 10th Division, Chen Tianheng now targeted the 11th Division.

The 11th Division's combat effectiveness was significantly inferior to Sun Chuanfang's three main forces, but the 11th Division was also established by copying the Japanese division organization. The entire division had more than 10,000 men, two brigades, four regiments, and an artillery battalion. The 10th Division had just died, and the 11th Division was the only remaining division under Sun Chuanfang's command with an active force of over 10,000 men.

The problem is that Sun Chuanfang still has three divisions and one guard brigade in Hangzhou. These are vegetable divisions, but together they have 15,000 men. Even if Chen Tianheng's First Division can defeat the Allied Forces' 10th Division and then the 11th Division, what will happen if Sun's army in Hangzhou comes to rescue while the 11th Division is being defeated?

Commander-in-chief, we still can't contact the 26th Army.

"I see. Keep calling, and if you get a response, send the telegram I just drafted.

Bai Chongxi returned to the map and observed the enemy and friendly situation around Hangzhou.

There are several Sun army numbers posted in Hangzhou: U2D (Allied Forces Division), U14D, U5D, UGB...

When he saw the U2D, Bai Chongxi remembered that the commander of the resurrected and rebuilt Allied Forces Division was Lu Xiangting.

"oh!

Bai Chongxi understood that Chen Tianheng was betting that Lu Xiangting, the defeated general, would not dare to leave the city and confront the 1st Division head-on. Even if the 10th and 11th Divisions outside the city were successively destroyed, Lu Xiangting would just hide in the city like a turtle.

Morning of May 1th.

Xu Village.

This place is 16 kilometers away from Fuyang and 40 kilometers away from Hangzhou. It is located in the mountains and not by the water. The flat land is rice fields, and loquats and bayberries are planted on the slopes.

More than 7,000 people including Wang Miao, commander of the 11th Division of the Five Provinces Allied Forces, were trapped in this small area.

Yesterday morning, Wang Miao was still full of confidence and was about to force his way across the Fenshui River to completely defeat the division of the 26th Army, but then he received an urgent notice from the headquarters: Zheng Junyan's 10th Division is finished, you should hurry back to Hangzhou.

Wang Miao immediately changed his position from the front team to the rear team and headed back to Hangzhou. In the afternoon, when he was almost at Xiaojing Village, he encountered a roadblock.

The 21st Brigade of the 11th Division assembled a force to clear the road, but they hit a wall. A battalion advancing up the mountain was cut down by crossfire within minutes. The soldiers who fled back cried out in despair, refusing to continue the attack. Wang Miao personally supervised the battle, selecting elite suicide squads from the 21st Brigade. They launched another attack, supported by artillery fire. Just like the first time, they were cut down by crossfire.

The Northern Expedition Army on the mountain even had the leisure to eat in the intervals between two attacks. The aroma of rice and steamed bacon drifted to the noses of the officers and soldiers of the 11th Division at the foot of the mountain.

With this route impassable, Wang Miao decided to take another one. He consulted the map and saw a western fork that would also lead back to Hangzhou, so he led his troops along that route. Not far down the mountain, at a road junction, the 11th Division again smelled the aroma of rice and steamed bacon. No, it was another barrage of light and heavy machine gun fire and mortar rounds.

The 11th Division was suddenly trapped.

Wang Miao surveyed the surroundings and concluded that Xucun was the only place that could be defended. Next to the village, there was a small hillside planted with fruit trees, which barely qualified as a commanding height. Nearly ten thousand troops from the 11th Division entered Xucun after dark. Before they could settle down, shrill bugle calls and shouts rang out from all around!

If you look closely, you will find that those shouts all contain the same four words: "Fuck your mother!

After a chaotic battle, the 11th Division lost two thousand men and an entire mountain artillery battalion, lost a settlement, and significantly reduced the perimeter of their defenses. It's no exaggeration to say that a K-75 cannon could penetrate the entire perimeter. If the enemy could push the cannons about two kilometers away, any point in the perimeter could be targeted.

Wang Miao set up a radio and tearfully asked for help from Hangzhou. Lu Xiangting's reply was "The current situation is extremely critical. Tianming must break out at all costs and return to Hangzhou."

But Lu Xiangting did not say that he would send reinforcements, but instead said that "the current situation is extremely critical", implying that everything depends on yourself.

"Commander, the troops besieging us may be the First Division of the First Army of the Northern Expedition.

The Chief of Staff speculated anxiously.

Wang Miao: "Didn't the First Division just wipe out Zheng Junyan's division yesterday? Why are they attacking us again today?"

"My fellow townspeople fought against the First Division in Jiangxi. They said the Communist Army's First Division attacked in groups of three or five, sometimes charging, sometimes lying low. The mountains and plains were filled with shouts and the sound of charges, but when you looked closely, there were only a few figures. You'd turn your gun to hit one group, and they'd drop to the ground and you'd lose them. A moment later, you'd see another group reappear. Commander, was the unit that attacked us the same way just now?"

Wang Miao: "That's it. The Marshal's three main forces have all been taken over by the First Division of the Communist Army. I'm not the Marshal's main force."

Chief of Staff: "Commander, we really have no other choice. Let's break out in different directions. It doesn't matter if a few of us can escape. As long as we get back to Hangzhou, everything will be easy.

Wang Miao: "What if we get shot to death while trying to break out? I think we should put up a bit of a symbolic resistance, and then surrender if we can't resist any more."

Chief of Staff: "No, Commander. Do you know that when Zheng Junyan attacked the 1st Division of the 26th Army, the 26th Army was defeated and a regimental commander surrendered. I think his name was Qian Jun. Zheng Junyan shot him on the spot! Now the Northern Expedition Army knows about it! We..."

"Zheng Junyan you bastard, bastard!

Outside Xu Village.

A soldier from the communications company came trotting in with a roll of wire and connected it to the telephone. Now the division headquarters could communicate with the artillery battalion, a kilometer away.

Chen Tianheng looked at his watch, and Chen Mingren also looked at his watch.

7:.

Chen Tianheng: "Artillery Battalion, open fire!"

The Allied 11th Division had 7,000 men in the encirclement, far more than the 10th Division's final encirclement, but the battle progressed faster than when the 10th Division was annihilated.

The 1st Division's first attack was led by four infantry battalions, focusing their attack on the hillock west of the village. The mountain artillery battalion directed all its artillery fire towards the hillock. However, once the battle began, the four battalions' attacks, directed in all three directions, penetrated the 11th Division's positions. Whether participating in the attack, the 4st, 2nd, or 3rd Regiments, whether they were the main attackers or not, all succeeded.

As the attacking force continued to penetrate deeper and cut into the enemy, officers and soldiers of the 11th Division began to surrender in large numbers. However, the commander and chief of staff of the 11th Division were not found among the surrendered officers.

The thousand or so enemy soldiers who had surrendered on the hill outside the village were searched extensively, but to no avail. The trenches to the south and east of Xu Village were searched, but to no avail.

Finally, the Second Regiment found Wang Miao, the commander of the 11th Division, inside Xucun Village, inside the village's sturdiest brick building. He drew his pistol, aimed it at his heart, and was about to pull the trigger. The chief of staff, standing beside Wang Miao, quickly grabbed his wrist, deflecting the bullet and leaving a bloody scratch on his ribs. He was captured alive.

Hangzhou.

Okamura Neiji got off the train carrying his small suitcase.

"Newspapers for sale! Newspapers for sale! Five coppers a copy! Five coppers a copy!"

Outside the train station, a newsboy was holding today's newspaper and selling it to passers-by. Okamura Neiji paid for a newspaper, opened it and read the headlines on the front page, and his face immediately became solemn.

"The latest battle situation?" Sun Chuanfang, the accompanying military staff officer, came over to read the front page:

Zheng Junyan's division was defeated, and the Communist Army has arrived in Hangzhou

Staff Officer: "It's terrible. It's only been one day and the situation in Zhejiang has become so bad.

Okamura Yasuji: "The military deployment in the direction of Hangzhou was too hasty. It was a risky move to take the initiative to weaken the Northern Expedition Army. Unfortunately, the Northern Expedition Army seized the loophole in Hangzhou, and the risk turned into a disaster.

Staff Officer: "If Zheng Junyan's 10th Division is defeated, Hangzhou will be in a difficult situation."

"I think it's not just the 10th Division that's been defeated. The 11th Division, which ventured out of the city with us this time, probably won't be coming back either. Let's go."

Okamura said "Let's go", and the staff officer subconsciously walked out of the station. However, Okamura was not going to the Hangzhou City Defense Headquarters. He turned 180 degrees and returned to the station ticket hall.

"I want to buy two tickets for the nearest train to Nanjing. No, it's OK to go to Shanghai, as long as there are tickets.

Okamura Neiji paid for the ticket.

"It is meaningless for us to stay in Hangzhou. I am one of the Three Crows of the Imperial Japanese Army. I cannot fall into the hands of the Northern Expedition Army.

Chapter 42: Large-scale gold coin explosion scene

"Light machine gun, light machine gun!

"Oh, Sun Chuanfang's army's light machine guns also use 65mm bullets!"

"What's a light machine gun with 65mm bullets? Their heavy machine guns also use 65mm bullets!"

Xucun battlefield.

After the battle to encircle and annihilate the Allied Forces' 11th Division, the area around Xu Village became a large gold coin exploding scene.

Zheng Junyan's 10th Allied Forces Division was one of Sun Chuanfang's three main forces, while the 11th Allied Forces Division could only be considered a second-rate unit - this was based on combat effectiveness. In fact, the equipment of the 11th Allied Forces Division was not bad at all.

This was a 2-brigade, 4-regiment infantry division equipped entirely with Japanese weapons. While it certainly had some differences from Japan's regular divisions, primarily due to the lack of a field artillery regiment and only a single mountain artillery battalion, the infantry regiments were equipped with all Japanese-style firearms, practically identical to the Japanese army's current equipment.

The infantry used the Type 38 rifle, while the transport troops and cavalry (mounted reconnaissance, communications, etc.) used the Type 38 carbine. The light machine gun was the Taisho 11-year type, also known as the "crooked handle" light machine gun, and the heavy machine gun was the Type 3-year type, the heavy machine gun nicknamed "chicken neck" on the anti-Japanese battlefield.

The light machine guns of the 11th Allied Forces Division were not distributed to the squads or companies, but were instead uniformly equipped in the infantry battalion machine gun company. This machine gun company consisted of two heavy machine gun platoons and two light machine gun platoons, equipped with six Type 3 heavy machine guns and 18 Type 99 rifles.

The organization of this type of light machine gun is somewhat amateurish, and it cannot fully utilize the light machine gun's mobility and flexibility to lead infantry squads in assaults, but the total amount of equipment is indeed not small.

Dozens of Type 99 light machine guns were piled up on the ground. Chen Tianheng and the officers and soldiers of the 1st Regiment around him all looked at Chen Tianheng eagerly, waiting for him to demonstrate.

Well, Commander Chen knows everything, from the division staff's business procedures, combat regulations, and campaign planning to infantry squad tactics and light weapons operation and use. He knows it all.

Chen Tianheng: "Why are you all looking at me? I'll pick out the Type 99 rifle shooters from among the captured soldiers and have them teach you how to use it. But this Taisho 11-year-old machine gun isn't difficult to use. No, no, no, it doesn't have a magazine. You don't have to look for it on the ground; it's not lost. This funnel is where the bullets are loaded."

Although I never encountered a Type 99 rifle during my time in the Marine Corps, there's a lot of information online about it. The design logic of most small arms is similar. If you've mastered the use of dozens of small arms, and then you're given an unfamiliar, human-designed small arm, there's a good chance you'll be able to master it without any instruction.

Chen Tianheng picked up a Type 6.5 rifle, set it up, and found a few five-round clips for 6.5mm ammunition. "The Taisho 11-year machine gun doesn't use a magazine. It uses the same five-round clips as riflemen. We put the five-round clips in and press them down like this. That's it. This funnel can hold a total of six five-round clips.

"As you've noticed, before the hopper is completely empty, the assistant gunner or gunner can add a new clip of five rounds at a time."

"Oh, wow, doesn't this mean that the light machine gun can fire continuously?" A squad leader was surprised.

Chen Tianheng: "That's the theory. But in actual combat, it's a bit complicated. Also, you should have noticed that if you reload the gun between shots, the assistant shooter has to stand halfway up. This posture makes it more likely that he will be hit.

Chen Tianheng loaded a few clips of bullets into his crooked handle, cocked the rifle, and aimed at the rocks a hundred meters away. "Da Da--"

Two bullets hit a stone, and the two impact points were only a few centimeters apart. From a hundred meters away, it looked like they hit almost the same point.

Chen Tianheng briefly introduced the characteristics of the Taisho 11-year rifle, especially its advantages and disadvantages. The overwhelming majority of officers and soldiers of the 1st Regiment agreed to switch to the Type 99 rifle.

最重要的理由当然是大正11年式口径6.5毫米，与38式步枪通用弹药，而且用的就是38式步枪的散弹(5发桥夹)。而第一师现在步兵统一使用三八式步枪。

Secondly, the Taisho 11-style machine gun boasts excellent accuracy, with near-perfect dispersion for bursts of two or three shots. While the point of impact will gradually shift to the left during long bursts, this isn't a significant issue for a light machine gun. Furthermore, the Japanese-made Taisho 11-style machine gun boasts superior craftsmanship compared to the Madsen-style imitations produced by the Guangzhou Ishigaki Arsenal.

The funnel-type loading system was a bit quirky, requiring a brush for oil, but it held 30 rounds, while the Madsen held 20 rounds per magazine. If the assistant gunner was afraid of being shot, he could simply have the gunner pull the gun back and reload from the funnel in the trench.

"What is this? A Luoyang shovel?"

Chen Tianheng: "No, this is a grenade launcher.

The 11th Division of the Allied Forces was indeed equipped with a full set of Japanese weapons, including grenade launchers.

The soldiers cleaning up the battlefield didn't recognize the iron cylinder and initially treated it as an ordinary item. It wasn't until Chen Tianheng and the captured soldiers opened the cylinder, removed the bracket, and "bang" fired a Type 10 grenade a hundred meters away that the people around them realized it was a small cannon.

"It doesn't have a sighting device, so where it hits depends entirely on the shooter's feel," Chen Tianheng said. "Also, it can only use this type of grenade, and for now, we'll just have to use up our stockpile.

Xu Xiangqian: "Didn't the Second Regiment set out to attack Fuyang? They should be able to seize a batch of ammunition."

Chen Tianheng: "I don't know if the supply trains of the 10th and 11th Divisions in Fuyang have escaped."

Because Sun Chuanfang's mission was to have the 10th and 11th Divisions of the Allied Forces launch a short counterattack and then return, the two divisions only brought part of their supplies when they set out from Fuyang. For example, they only brought three days' worth of food and fodder, which was supposed to be seven days' worth, and only one meter's worth of ammunition.

The rest of the supplies, as well as part of the two divisions' supply regiments, were stationed in Fuyang City.

In this era, in wars within China, supplies were extremely valuable. Failure to seize ammunition and rations would inevitably lead to regrets. When planning the battle to encircle and annihilate the 11th Division at Xucun, Chen Tianheng had already dispatched the 3rd Battalion of the 2nd Regiment to the outskirts of Fuyang City to monitor enemy movements. When the 11th Division was annihilated at Xucun, the entire 2nd Regiment withdrew from the battlefield cleanup, and the 1st and 2nd Battalions quickly set off for Fuyang.

In fact, there was no defense worth mentioning in Fuyang City, and there was not even a formal combat force in the city. The key task of the Second Regiment was to prevent reinforcements from Hangzhou City.

9: Xinshikan

"It seems to me that to carry out a revolution, we need more than just an army. We also need weapons."

When Xu Xiangqian and Chen Tianheng were together, Xu Xiangqian said this.

Chen Tianheng: "To make arms yourself, you first need a base. ... However, my cousin is indeed looking for a suitable factory right now."

Xu Xiangqian: "Making guns and cannons? In Hong Kong?

Chen Tianheng: "No, we are acquiring a radio factory.

During their last contact with Chen Ying, Chen Tianheng asked if it was possible to acquire a company that manufactured radio stations and wireless broadcasting equipment. After some research in Hong Kong, they found that most manufacturers of these equipment were in Europe and the United States, with only one radio factory in Shanghai.

Was there a device in the 1920s that could allow people far away to hear "Hello" by picking up the receiver without having to pull out telephone wires?

Have.

Radio broadcast.

In 1906, Professor Fessenden of the University of Pittsburgh transmitted the world's first radio signal that could be converted into speech from his wireless communication laboratory. In 1920, KDKA Radio launched the world's first wireless broadcast program in Pittsburgh, with both the equipment and operators from Westinghouse.