Quartermasters can also fight the devils

Moreover, the Chinese army did not only build these fortifications on Hebo Mountain, but also built some ingenious bunkers relying on the terrain of the mountain. These bunkers built by the Chinese army were very clever in their settings. If the machine guns in the bunkers were not in use and not firing, the Japanese attacking forces would not be able to detect the existence of these bunkers with the naked eye from the outside. At the same time, the shooting range of these bunkers built by the Chinese army was very good, forming a cross-fire network with the open bunkers, making it even more difficult for the Japanese attacking forces to break through the defensive positions of Hebo Mountain.

Captain Yuan of the Second Battalion of the 171st Regiment also set up two mortars on the top of the mountain. In this way, the Second Battalion on Hebo Mountain could effectively cover all attack routes of the offensive forces of the 116th Division of the Japanese Army, and enhance the firepower configuration on the defense line.

Colonel Teruichi Fukami, commander of the 109th Regiment of the 116th Division of the Japanese Army, which was responsible for attacking the Hebo Mountain defensive position, naturally did not take the small Hebo Mountain seriously. Colonel Teruichi Fukami believed that although his 109th Regiment had only two battalions with more than 2,500 troops participating in the Battle of Changde, the Chinese army at the Hebo Mountain defensive position had only one battalion with 500 people. Judging from the strength of the troops alone, the attack of his 109th Regiment would undoubtedly be a quick victory.

After the 109th Regiment of the 116th Division of the Japanese Army advanced to the north of Hebo Mountain, the regiment commander, Colonel Teruichi Fukami, first sent a vanguard force of more than 500 people to launch an attack on the defensive positions of the 2nd Battalion of the 171st Regiment on Hebo Mountain.

However, what surprised the regiment commander, Colonel Teru Fukami, was that after several attacks, the attack force he sent out not only failed to make even the slightest progress, but was instead beaten badly by the dense firepower network composed of light and heavy machine guns of the Chinese army on the Hebo Mountain defense position, and 183 officers and soldiers of the attack force he organized were killed.

Colonel Teru Bukami, commander of the 109th Regiment, watched with a dark face as his attacking troops were once again beaten back by the Chinese army on the opposite side. He ordered his troops to suspend the attack and wait for all the troops of the 109th Regiment to arrive before attacking the Chinese army's defensive positions on Hebo Mountain.

The next day, Colonel Teru Fukami, commander of the 109th Regiment, directly deployed a battalion of troops and began a fierce attack on the defensive positions of the Chinese army on Hebo Mountain. The officers and soldiers of the Second Battalion also relied on the defensive fortifications of Hebo Mountain to tenaciously block the Japanese attack.

After fighting for a whole morning, the battalion sent by Colonel Teru Bushami, commander of the 109th Regiment, still failed to make any progress, which made Colonel Teru Bushami very angry. However, he also discovered that the defensive positions built by the Chinese army on Hebo Mountain were very solid, and there were quite a lot of bunkers. The casualties were too great if they relied on their own infantry attacks.

Therefore, the regiment commander, Colonel Teru Fukami, took advantage of the lunch break to change the troops' attack strategy. He also called all the heavy artillery units assigned to the 116th Division to help. In addition, he also requested air support, preparing to use powerful firepower to destroy the defensive positions and fortifications built by the Chinese army on Hebo Mountain.

Starting at 1:30 p.m., the 109th Regiment of the Japanese Army, under the command of Colonel Teru Fukami, began to repeatedly attack the defensive positions of the 2nd Battalion on Hebo Mountain. In addition, Colonel Teru Fukami ordered all the infantry artillery to be pushed to the front line of the attack, and to fire like flat-fire cannons outside the range of the Chinese army's machine guns, destroying the Chinese army's bunkers on Hebo Mountain one by one.

After an afternoon of fierce bombardment, most of the defensive positions of the Second Battalion at the foot of Hebo Mountain had been destroyed by Japanese artillery fire. The attacking infantry of the 109th Regiment of the Japanese Army took the opportunity to rush up. The officers and soldiers of the Second Battalion, who had lost the support of their defensive positions, all rushed out of the trenches under the command of Battalion Commander Yuan, and engaged in fierce hand-to-hand combat with the charging infantry of the 109th Regiment of the Japanese Army. In the end, at the cost of more than half of the casualties in the entire battalion, they managed to repel the attacking forces of the 109th Regiment of the Japanese Army.

Since the defensive fortifications outside Hebo Mountain were almost all destroyed by Japanese artillery fire, Battalion Commander Yuan took advantage of the night to lead all the remaining officers and soldiers and wounded of the Second Battalion to retreat to the main position of Hebo Mountain. At this time, there were only more than 200 officers and soldiers of the Second Battalion who could still participate in the battle.

Colonel Teru Fukami, commander of the 109th Regiment of the Japanese Army, looked at the list of casualties in his hand with an extremely ugly expression on his face. Because the 109th Regiment of the Japanese Army had to attack the bunkers on the Hebo Mountain defense positions, the casualties of the troops were very heavy. In the fighting in the past two days alone, the 109th Regiment had lost 500 officers and soldiers.

As the officers and soldiers of the Second Battalion retreated to the main position on Hebo Mountain, the commander of the 109th Regiment of the Japanese Army, Colonel Teru Fukami, directly dispatched all the troops of the two battalions and launched repeated attacks in order to occupy Hebo Mountain as soon as possible.

On that day, the commander of the 109th Regiment of the Japanese Army, Colonel Teruichi Fukami, concentrated all his forces and launched a fierce attack on the main position of the Second Battalion on Hebo Mountain. At the same time, the commander continued to apply for the mobilization of more than 20 aircraft to cooperate with the heavy artillery units to bombard the defensive positions on Hebo Mountain. Finally, in order to speed up the progress of the attack, the commander even used a large number of poison gas bombs on the Second Battalion on Hebo Mountain.

After several hours of bombardment by aircraft and heavy weapons, Hebo Mountain was shrouded in fire and smoke. The trees on the mountain were blown up and flew more than ten meters into the sky. The ancient buildings on the top of the mountain, such as the Taihe Temple and the Jige Temple, were also destroyed by the Japanese artillery fire.

However, after a morning of fierce attacks, the 109th Regiment of the Japanese Army had made very limited progress, and the Second Battalion on Hebo Mountain was almost using up its last bit of strength. Even the two mortars on the top of the mountain had used up all their shells. The officers and soldiers operating the mortars could only dig a pit to bury the mortars underground, then pick up their rifles and enter the defensive trenches to act as infantry and continue to fight the Japanese attacking forces.

In one morning, the officers and soldiers of the Second Battalion of the 171st Regiment repelled six charges by the attacking forces of the 109th Regiment of the Japanese Army, and caused heavy casualties to the attacking forces of the 109th Regiment of the Japanese Army.