Quartermasters can also fight the devils

On November 19, almost all the troops of the Japanese 3rd Division had arrived at this front line. Then, with the assistance of the Sasaki Detachment, the 3rd Division concentrated more than 15,000 troops and launched a fierce attack on the defensive positions of the 58th and 51st Divisions.

Faced with the continuous fierce attacks of the Japanese army, the defensive positions of the 51st Division of the 74th Army of the Chinese government were repeatedly fought with the Japanese offensive forces five times within one day, and the battle was extremely fierce.

However, after two days of fierce attacks, the Japanese 3rd Division and the Japanese th Division were embarrassed to find that they had made very little progress on the defensive positions of the two divisions of the th Army. This made the commander of the Japanese th Division, Lieutenant General Akashi Osamu, very dissatisfied with the progress of his troops' attack, so he personally came to the front line to supervise his offensive troops.

Colonel Yoshihiko Ito, commander of the 65th Regiment of the 13th Division of the Japanese Army, felt ashamed when he saw that his division commander, Lieutenant General Akashika Osamu, was very dissatisfied with the attack of his 65th Regiment. So Colonel Yoshihiko Ito personally commanded his troops to launch a desperate attack on the defensive positions of the 74th Army.

The personal supervision of the Japanese 13th Division's commander, Lieutenant General Akashi Osamu, at the front line did have some effect. The attack force of the 65th Regiment, under the command of the regiment commander, Colonel Ito Yoshihiko, once penetrated deep into the 58th Division's defensive position.

However, Commander Zhang of the 58th Division did not show any weakness in the face of the sudden attack by the 65th Regiment of the 13th Division of the Japanese Army. After the attacking force of the 65th Regiment of the Japanese Army rushed deep into the defensive position, Commander Zhang of the 58th Division immediately organized his troops to launch a pincer attack and counterattack on the Japanese attacking force from the flank. At the same time, the 51st Division also sent troops to assist in the battle. For a while, the defensive positions were full of chaos and encounters.

If the Chinese army was no match for the Japanese army in a field battle, it was different in a melee. The 65th Regiment of the Japanese Army was quickly disrupted by the troops of the 58th and 51st Divisions. After the 65th Regiment of the Japanese Army was attacked by the troops sent by the 51st Division, the regiment commander, Colonel Yoshihiko Ito, suddenly realized that under the attack of the 51st Division, the situation of his 65th Regiment on the battlefield was already very critical.

In this melee, the Japanese army's originally excellent battlefield troop organization and coordination capabilities could not be fully utilized. In order to ensure that the various troops in the melee could smoothly find their positions, the commander of the 65th Regiment of the Japanese Army, Colonel Yoshihiko Ito, personally stood under the flag of the 65th Regiment and commanded the troops to fight.

However, the obvious landmark of the 65th Regiment's flag behind Colonel Yoshihiko Ito, the commander of the 65th Regiment, was also discovered by the officers and soldiers of the 74th Army's counterattack. Therefore, the attacking force of the 74th Army also organized a part of the officers and soldiers to attack Colonel Yoshihiko Ito, the commander of the 65th Regiment of the Japanese Army.

The officers and soldiers of the 74th Army responsible for the attack took advantage of the chaos on the battlefield and immediately threw more than a dozen grenades at the commander of the 65th Regiment of the Japanese Army, Colonel Yoshihiko Ito, after approaching him. When Colonel Yoshihiko Ito and the Japanese officers and soldiers around him saw more than a dozen black grenades suddenly appear in the sky, they had no time to dodge and were seriously injured on the spot. The flag bearer of the 65th Regiment of the Japanese Army was also killed on the spot. At the same time, more than a dozen Japanese officers and soldiers around Colonel Yoshihiko Ito, the commander of the regiment, were either killed or injured.

Fortunately, the commander of the 13th Division of the Japanese Army, Lieutenant General Akashi Osamu, also saw the crisis of the 65th Regiment from behind and sent reinforcements from the rear to the front to support the 65th Regiment's operations. Thanks to the desperate efforts of the reinforcements, the 65th Regiment was saved from danger and the commander of the 65th Regiment, Colonel Ito Yoshihiko, was quickly transferred to the rear for rescue.

Faced with the fierce counterattack of the 74th Army, the offensive force of the 13th Division of the Japanese Army was completely disrupted in the melee. This surprised the commander of the 13th Division of the Japanese Army, Lieutenant General Akashi Osamu, as this was a situation he had never expected.

Therefore, Lieutenant General Akashi Osamu, commander of the 13th Division of the Japanese Army, urgently mobilized troops to rescue the 65th Regiment involved in the melee, and at the same time sent a telegram to the 116th Division of the Japanese Army on the flank hoping for coordinated operations.

After receiving a telegram from Lieutenant General Akashika Osamu, commander of the 116th Division of the Japanese Army, requesting assistance in the battle, Lieutenant General Wang Iwanaga, commander of the 116th Division of the Japanese Army, mobilized a regiment of troops to rush to the 13th Division to help. This also temporarily reduced the pursuit of the 44th Army of the 29th Army of the Chinese government by the 116th Division of the Japanese Army.

Lieutenant General Akashi Osamu, commander of the 13th Division of the Japanese Army, also took great pains to rescue the 65th Regiment which was in a melee with the 74th Army of the Chinese government. However, the 65th Regiment suffered more than a thousand casualties in the melee with the 74th Army of the Chinese government, which was a heavy loss.

Although the 65th Regiment of the Japanese Army suffered heavy losses, after all, the offensive forces of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army in this direction had two divisions with 40,000 troops. The losses of the 65th Regiment were not enough to cause serious damage to the offensive forces of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army.

Although the offensive forces of the Japanese 11th Army suffered some losses, it did not affect the overall situation of the battle. The offensive forces of the Japanese Army continued to advance gradually southward.

On the third day of the offensive, the two divisions and one regiment of the Japanese 11th Army, which were responsible for the main attack, continued to attack the defensive positions of the 74th Army. This time, in order to make progress, the offensive forces of the Japanese 11th Army fired a large number of poison gas bombs at the defensive positions of the 74th Army, causing heavy casualties to the troops on the defensive positions of the 74th Army.

Among them, the 153rd Regiment of the 153st Division guarding Qigu Mountain, with a strength of more than troops, was attacked by the th and th Regiments of the Japanese Army, totaling more than troops. Facing the Japanese offensive forces that had absolute superiority in both manpower and firepower, the rd Regiment fought hard, but most of the positions were broken by the Japanese offensive forces at one point. Later, with the reinforcement of the reserve troops sent by Commander Wang, they barely blocked the Japanese attack.

However, although the officers and soldiers of the 74th Army held some defensive positions, the Japanese offensive forces had too many troops after all, and some of the 74th Army's defensive positions were lost under the fierce attack of the Japanese offensive forces.