Quartermasters can also fight the devils

Lieutenant General Akashi Osamu, commander of the 13th Division of the Japanese Army, was very angry when he received the news that the 2nd Battalion of the 104th Regiment had been completely destroyed. Although his 13th Division suffered heavy casualties in the Battle of Western Hubei, it had never seen an entire combat unit being wiped out by the Chinese army.

This time, the entire Second Battalion of the 104th Regiment was killed in battle, which completely broke this very bad record. This was also a very shameful thing for the 13th Division. In the entire Battle of Western Hubei, only the 13th Division was completely wiped out by the Chinese Army. How would other troops laugh at themselves?

Therefore, Lieutenant General Akashika Osamu, commander of the 13th Division of the Japanese Army, ordered all the troops of the 13th Division to counterattack the pursuing Chinese army in accordance with the order of Lieutenant General Yokoyama Isamu, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, and to regain the lost face this time.

The commander of the 13th Division of the Japanese Army, Lieutenant General Akashi Osamu, commanded all the troops of his 13th Division and launched a fierce counterattack for two consecutive days against the Chinese army that was pursuing his division. However, what made the commander of the 13th Division of the Japanese Army, Lieutenant General Akashi Osamu, very aggrieved was that after seeing that he had started a counterattack with a large force, the Chinese army that had been pursuing him actually retreated again.

This almost caused internal injuries to the commander of the 13th Division of the Japanese Army, Lieutenant General Akashi Osamu, and all the officers and soldiers of the 13th Division of the Japanese Army. They had mobilized a large number of troops to launch a massive counterattack, but the Chinese army had no Bushido spirit and did not even put up a decent resistance. They just retreated. This made all the officers and soldiers of the 13th Division of the Japanese Army feel that they had no place to use their strength.

As the Chinese army retreated, the commander of the 13th Division of the Japanese Army, Lieutenant General Akashika Ryo, led his troops to capture Niejiahe, Zhijiang, Yangxi, Lannichong and other places. In the end, the troops of the 13th Division of the Japanese Army occupied most of the southern bank of the lower reaches of the Yuyang River. However, the 13th Division of the Japanese Army destroyed very few Chinese troops, and many troops did not even fire a single shot in the counterattacks in the past two days.

According to the order of Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, the 17th Independent Mixed Brigade of the Japanese Army had originally prepared to withdraw from Dayanzhai to the Gong'an area to cross the Yangtze River and return to its original base north of the Yangtze River. However, in order to cooperate with the counterattack of the 13th Division of the Japanese Army, it immediately sent reinforcements to the direction of Yidu according to the order of Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, to counterattack the pursuing troops of the Sixth War Zone of the Chinese government.

When the Japanese Army's 17th Independent Mixed Brigade was attacking Zhicheng, when passing through Peilu Bridge, one kilometer southwest of Mopanzhou, it suddenly encountered the pursuing troops of the 51st and 58th Divisions of the 74th Army of the Chinese government.

You know, the combat effectiveness of the 74th Army, the direct troops of the Chinese government, is very strong. This is completely different from the Chinese army that had fought before with the 17th Independent Mixed Brigade of the Japanese Army. This Japanese brigade was transferred from the Shanghai area to replace the 6th Division before the Battle of Western Hubei. In this encounter, it also truly experienced the combat effectiveness of the direct troops of the Chinese government.

After receiving the counterattack order from Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, Major General Gao Pinbiao, commander of the 17th Independent Mixed Brigade of the Japanese Army, placed two battalions of troops in front of the entire brigade for the sake of safety. This was to strengthen the intensity of the counterattack and prevent the battalion of the 13th Division of the Japanese Army from being surrounded.

At the forefront of the counterattack of the Japanese Army's 17th Independent Mixed Brigade were the 88th Independent Infantry Battalion and the 87th Independent Infantry Battalion. Under the command of the brigade commander, Major General Gao Pinbiao, the Japanese officers and soldiers of these two battalions quickly counterattacked the Chinese army pursuing behind them.

However, what the commander of the 17th Independent Mixed Brigade of the Japanese Army, Major General Gao Pinbiao, did not expect was that the pursuit troops of the Sixth War Zone of the Chinese Government were so fast. Mopanzhou, which the Japanese Army originally thought was a safe area, had been completely controlled by the 74th Army of the Chinese Government.

Moreover, the reconnaissance unit of the 74th Army of the Chinese government was the first to discover that two battalions of the Japanese Army's 17th Independent Mixed Brigade were advancing rapidly in the direction of Mopanzhou. Commander Wang of the 74th Army immediately felt that this was a good opportunity to annihilate the Japanese army.

Therefore, Commander Wang of the 74th Army immediately ordered the 51st and 58th Divisions in Mopanzhou to set up an ambush circle while the Japanese army was completely unaware that Mopanzhou had been occupied by the Chinese army, and to surround and annihilate all the troops of these two battalions of the Japanese Independent Mixed 17th Brigade.

Just as Commander Wang of the 74th Army of the Chinese government had expected, Major Onodera Minoru, commander of the 88th Independent Infantry Battalion of the 17th Independent Mixed Brigade of the Japanese Army, and Major Asanuma Yoshitaro, commander of the 87th Independent Infantry Battalion, were completely unaware of the news that Mopanzhou had been occupied by the Chinese government's army. The two were now leading their respective troops and advancing rapidly towards Mopanzhou.

In fact, the arrangement made by Major General Gao Pinbiao, commander of the 17th Independent Mixed Brigade of the Japanese Army, makes sense, because according to the conventional combat deployment of the Japanese army, a battalion of the Japanese army can correspond to the combat effectiveness of an ordinary division-level unit of the Chinese government.

Major General Gao Pinbiao, commander of the 17th Independent Mixed Brigade of the Japanese Army, felt that with his deployment of troops, the pursuing forces of the Sixth War Zone of the Chinese government behind him would not be able to pose any threat to his two infantry battalions unless they had an army-level unit.

However, Major General Gao Pinbiao, commander of the 17th Independent Mixed Brigade of the Japanese Army, made a wrong estimate this time. This time his troops will face the 74th Army, which is one of the few troops of the Chinese government with strong combat effectiveness.

Moreover, this time it was two divisions of China's direct troops that designed the ambush without the Japanese army's knowledge. It can be said that these two battalions of the Japanese Army's 17th Independent Mixed Brigade were doomed to a tragic fate from the very beginning.

When Major Onodera Minoru, commander of the 88th Independent Infantry Battalion of the 17th Independent Mixed Brigade of the Japanese Army, and Major Asanuma Yoshitaro, commander of the 87th Independent Infantry Battalion, were leading their troops to Peilu Bridge, one kilometer southwest of Mopanzhou, suddenly, a burst of dense artillery shells exploded in the marching columns of the two Japanese battalions.