Bright Sword: From Northwest Shanxi to Changjin Lake, a Hundred Battles, a Hundred Victories

Chapter 49 Encirclement and Annihilation
Seeing that such a fierce attack had failed to break through the enemy's resistance, the Japanese soldiers hardened their resolve and ordered their troops to press forward.

A force of only two thousand men managed to hold off a regiment of his troops, along with aircraft and artillery, for a full five hours.

The Sakata Regiment, which was surrounded, sent increasingly frequent telegrams requesting reinforcements, almost to the point of sending farewell telegrams.

If reinforcements don't arrive soon, this regiment could very well become the first regiment to be completely wiped out by the Chinese army.

At that time, their 36th Division would be forever nailed to the pillar of shame, and the division commander would be forced to commit suicide to atone for his sins.

In order to rescue the besieged Sakata Regiment, the 36th Division launched a reckless and desperate attack on our blocking positions.

Like a tidal wave, the Japanese soldiers surged onto the position, launching attack after attack, seemingly without end.

The soldiers on the blocking position could only grit their teeth and hold on, fighting desperately against the Japanese.

They had lost count of how many times they had repelled the Japanese attacks; all they knew was that they absolutely could not let the Japanese break through their lines. Even if their legs were broken, they could still fire; even if their hands were broken, they could still bite with their teeth.

The battle at the Niujiaoshan Cliff Pass was equally fierce.

The Japanese temporary commander knew that if they couldn't recapture the cliff pass, they would lose contact with the Japanese troops on the Cangyunling position.

After that part of the Japanese troops were wiped out, the Eighth Route Army, riding the wave of its great victory, concentrated its superior forces to attack them. This regiment might really be completely annihilated.

Therefore, the main battleground for both sides, besides the rear blocking positions, was the Niujiaoshan Cliff Pass.

A battalion of Japanese soldiers, disregarding all dangers, launched a suicidal attack on the Independent 2nd Regiment soldiers guarding the cliff.

Meanwhile, the Japanese troops on the Cangyunling position also attacked towards the cliff mouth, attempting to recapture the cliff mouth, join forces with the Japanese troops behind them, and concentrate their forces to break out.

Deeply indoctrinated with the Bushido spirit, the Japanese soldiers never lacked the courage to die.

Faced with nearly five times the number of troops, the soldiers of the 1st Battalion of the 2nd Independent Regiment fought desperately.

They knew that whether they could win this battle depended entirely on whether they could hold the cliff pass.

Once the main force has annihilated the Japanese troops on the Cangyunling position, they will be able to reinforce them and jointly eliminate a battalion of Japanese troops in the rear.

After five hours of relentless attacks, the soldiers of the 1st Battalion of the 2nd Independent Regiment, along with the machine gun company, tenaciously held the Yaikou position.

This shattered the Japanese army's delusion of opening up a passage connecting the front and rear units.

However, the First Battalion and the machine gun company also suffered heavy losses. Of the more than 500 soldiers in total, only more than 150 remained after eliminating more than 700 Japanese soldiers.

It was undeniably tragic.

Their sacrifice was not in vain. After five hours of fighting, only four hundred or so Japanese soldiers remained on the Cangyunling position.

The remaining regiments are encircling the cliff entrance to reinforce the Independent 2nd Regiment's position and jointly eliminate the remaining battalion of Japanese soldiers in the rear.

Seeing our army encircling them layer by layer, the remaining Japanese soldiers had no choice but to disregard their own safety and launch a final assault on the position of the 1st Battalion of the 2nd Independent Regiment on the cliff.

The defensive line was in imminent danger. The soldiers of the First Battalion had run out of bullets, grenades, and shells.

They could only rely on bayonets to engage in a fierce hand-to-hand battle with the charging Japanese soldiers.

This battle nearly depleted the Second Independent Regiment's resources, but the results were exceptionally rich.

More than 1,200 Japanese soldiers died under the fire of the 2nd Independent Regiment, including those at the Japanese artillery positions!
To prevent the four hundred Japanese soldiers from escaping, Chen Ming personally led the remaining troops to the front.

With the addition of fresh troops, the Yaikou defense line was stabilized once again.

The Japanese soldiers who stormed the position were devastated to find that the already crumbling position had once again become an insurmountable chasm.

Ultimately, with no hope of breaking through, the Japanese launched a suicidal attack, attempting to drag the soldiers of the Independent 2nd Regiment down with them. But they only became the victims of sharpshooters' bullets, one by one.

Behind the cliff, a battalion of Japanese soldiers, led by a battalion commander, was also in a difficult situation. The battalion of more than a thousand men was being attacked relentlessly by the artillery and machine gun companies of the Independent 2nd Regiment.

There are only a little over 500 people left.

The Sakata Regiment, with a total force of over 3600 men, was now mostly wiped out, utterly crippled.

And the remaining few people are about to be wiped out.

In despair, the Japanese battalion commander sent a farewell telegram to his division.

"Your Excellency Division Commander, this is a farewell telegram from Mr. Matsushita. He has decided to fight to the death with the position."

At the headquarters of the 36th Division, a Japanese officer carefully handed a telegram to the Japanese division commander.

The commander of the 36th Division took the telegram, glanced at it, and his face instantly turned ferocious:
"Baka! A regiment of over 3,600 men, why can't they even last eight hours? Even if there were 3,600 pigs, the Eighth Route Army couldn't catch them all in eight hours."

"Matsushita should return and commit seppuku to apologize to His Majesty the Locust."

The division commander angrily tore the telegram to shreds.

"What exactly happened that put an entire regiment of Locust Army soldiers in a situation where they would all be killed in action?"

A Japanese officer cautiously replied, "According to what we know, the Sakata Regiment was subjected to a fierce artillery attack this time, with more than a thousand shells hitting them. The Eighth Route Army should not have such strong firepower."

"With such powerful artillery, the only force in this vicinity is the Jin-Sui Army."

The Japanese officer's guess was very reasonable. Logically speaking, the Eighth Route Army, which had always been known as the "Three Guns Eighth Route Army," could not possibly have assembled so many artillery pieces.

They could not produce their own shells and could only rely on those captured, based on reports of lost weapons from Japanese troops in various locations.

The lost weapons were insufficient to sustain the battle.

The only force capable of possessing such powerful firepower is the Jin-Sui Army, which is still entrenched in Shanxi Province.

"Investigate immediately which Jin-Sui Army unit supported the Eighth Route Army. I will make them pay the price!"

The Japanese division commander roared angrily.

"Hai!"

"Order the troops to break through the enemy's blocking position within half an hour, no matter the cost. The Sakata Regiment cannot be completely wiped out. Even if it means rescuing a few people, we must do it."

"Hai!"

The Japanese offensive intensified, and troops transferred from other areas began to arrive one after another.

At the cliff mouth, after the Japanese troops coming from the direction of the Cangyunling position were completely wiped out, Chen Ming immediately ordered the telegraph operator to send a telegram to headquarters.

"Reporting to headquarters, the Japanese troops in the direction of Cangyunling have been completely wiped out. There are now less than 500 Japanese troops left behind the cliff pass. It is estimated that the remaining Japanese troops will be completely wiped out in an hour."

Now, the Japanese have less than 500 troops left, while our army has surrounded them with six regiments: the New 1st Regiment, the Independent 2nd Regiment, the 16th Regiment, the 771st Regiment, the 772nd Regiment, and the Headquarters Special Service Regiment.

Although the New First Regiment and the Independent Second Regiment suffered heavy losses, with more than half of them killed or wounded, other regiments also suffered losses to varying degrees.

However, compared to the Japanese army, they still had an overwhelming numerical advantage.

If the battle can't be resolved in an hour, I might as well go home and sell sweet potatoes.

(End of this chapter)