Quartermasters can also fight the devils

In the mind of Colonel Kensaburo Nono, commander of the 68th Regiment of the Japanese Army, whoever can occupy Changsha City can do so. His 68th Regiment is not lucky enough to take credit for the victory. They can just make a good diversionary attack, and then they can get some credit after the war, which is also a good result.

At 8:30 in the morning, the 68th and 18th Regiments of the Japanese Army simultaneously launched attacks on the defensive positions of the New 22nd Army in front of their respective fronts. Among them, the 18th Regiment of the Japanese Army deployed the largest number of troops in the attack.

In order to win the merit of entering Changsha City, Colonel Ishii Nobuyuki, commander of the 18th Regiment of the Japanese Army, deployed a full battalion and a half of its troops to carry out this attack. Colonel Ishii Nobuyuki felt that there was not enough artillery support for his attack, so he increased the scale of the infantry attack, which could make up for the lack of artillery support.

The attack by Colonel Nobuyuki Ishii, commander of the 18th Regiment, seemed much smaller than the scale of the 18th Regiment's attack. After the infantry artillery carried by the regiment simply fired a few shells, the officers and soldiers of the two squadrons of the 1st Battalion began conventional attack operations.

Colonel Nobuyuki Ishii, commander of the 18th Regiment of the Japanese Army, personally came to the starting position and used a telescope to carefully watch the attack force composed of his first battalion and a squadron of the second battalion. Colonel Nobuyuki Ishii, commander of the Japanese Army, looked at the attack force attacking in the distance and felt a sense of heroism in his heart. This very good feeling made Colonel Nobuyuki Ishii feel very good. He felt that he would soon see his attack force breaking through the defensive positions of the Chinese army, rushing into Changsha City, and raising the flag of his 18th Regiment in Changsha City.

"Woo-hoo!" "Woo-hoo!" "Woo-hoo!"

Suddenly, there was a sharp whistling sound in the air caused by the friction between shells and the air. This sound was very familiar to Colonel Kensaburo Nono, commander of the 68th Regiment of the Japanese Army, and Colonel Nobuyuki Ishii, commander of the 18th Regiment. This was the unique sound of shells fired from heavy artillery.

This sound stunned the commander of the 68th Regiment of the Japanese Army, Colonel Kensaburo Nono, and the commander of the 18th Regiment, Colonel Ishii Nobuyuki. They had often heard the sound of heavy artillery shells flying across the sky before. It was the masterpiece of their own artillery units. Every time they heard this sound, they and the officers and soldiers of the army would feel very happy.

However, to Colonel Kensaburo Nono, commander of the 68th Regiment of the Japanese Army, and Colonel Nobuyuki Ishii, commander of the 18th Regiment, this sound was simply the humming of a devil in the air, which made their hair stand on end, because both commanders were very aware that this was the heavy artillery unit of the Chinese army starting to fire covering fire.

Why couldn't it be the Japanese army's own heavy artillery? Sorry, the heavy artillery unit of the Japanese 11th Army is still struggling with the muddy road on the north bank of the Miluo River. How could it provide artillery support for its own troops' attack?

There were continuous earth-shaking explosions in front of the New 22nd Army's defensive positions, which woke up the commander of the 68th Regiment of the Japanese Army, Colonel Kensaburo Nono, and the commander of the 18th Regiment, Colonel Ishii Nobuyuki, from their extreme shock.

Colonel Kensaburo Nono, commander of the 68th Regiment of the Japanese Army, and Colonel Nobuyuki Ishii, commander of the 18th Regiment, immediately realized that the Chinese government's Ninth War Zone not only deployed elite troops in Changsha City for defense, but also deployed its very small number of heavy artillery units in Changsha City. It was over now. It was impossible to take Changsha City relying solely on the charge of the infantry troops.

"Baga, retreat, quickly, let the people from the First Battalion withdraw." Colonel Ishii Nobuyuki, commander of the 18th Regiment, angrily ordered loudly to the staff officers around him. Now, under the coverage of the heavy artillery fire of the Chinese army, the First Battalion that launched the attack was finished. The shells from this heavy artillery would make the surrounding officers and soldiers at least injured or disabled if not killed.

What made Colonel Nobuyuki Ishii, commander of the 18th Regiment, angry was that the Chinese army defending Changsha City was really patient. The intensity of his own attack and the 68th Regiment's attack yesterday was not weak, but the Chinese army did not launch a large-scale artillery attack on the attacking Japanese troops. This made him obviously misjudge the specific strength and firepower configuration of the Chinese army in Changsha City. He could be regarded as being severely tricked by the commander of the Chinese army, but the price was too high.

The commander of the 68th Regiment of the Japanese Army, Colonel Kensaburo Nono, immediately ordered his men to retreat. Although his 68th Regiment only sent two squadrons of troops to launch the attack, the 68th Regiment itself had suffered heavy losses. The strength of these two squadrons was also very precious and important to the 68th Regiment.

If the two attacking squadrons were all lost in the heavy artillery attack of the Chinese army, the troops available for combat would be further reduced. At that time, let alone attacking Changsha City, it would be very lucky for the 68th Regiment to survive the attack of the Chinese army.

The heavy artillery bombardment was carried out by the heavy artillery unit specially arranged by Commander Xue of the 9th War Zone on the Yuelu Mountain on the west bank of the Xiangjiang River. In order to inflict maximum damage to the Japanese troops attacking Changsha City, Commander Xue also asked Commander Huang of the New 22nd Army, who was in charge of the defense of Changsha City, to try not to use the heavy artillery unit on Yuelu Mountain on the first day of the Japanese attack, so as to make the Japanese attacking troops paralyzed and careless, and then suddenly bombard the attacking Japanese troops, hoping to bring maximum casualties to the Japanese army.

The heavy artillery units on Yuelu Mountain carried out fierce and rapid fire at the Japanese troops attacking in two directions according to the firing parameters that had been calibrated long ago. As the international transportation lines had all been cut off by the Japanese army, the reserves of this kind of heavy artillery shells were not large. Therefore, after five minutes of rapid bombardment, the heavy artillery units on Yuelu Mountain stopped bombarding the Japanese attack.

After the heavy artillery on Yuelu Mountain stopped firing, the remaining officers and soldiers of the 18th Regiment of the Japanese Army all retreated in fear. However, when the commander of the 18th Regiment, Colonel Ishii Nobuyuki, finished listing his attacking troops, he wanted to cry loudly in his heart.

This was because the 1st Battalion of the 18th Regiment and the 1st Company of the 2nd Battalion were basically destroyed by the heavy artillery attack of the Chinese army. Only more than 500 people of the entire attacking force of the 18th Regiment of the Japanese Army were withdrawn.