Quartermasters can also fight the devils

Moreover, God did not help the Japanese attacking forces. Originally, the trenches outside the north gate were not difficult obstacles to cross, and the water depth was generally only about one meter. However, unexpectedly, Changde had a sudden heavy rain in the past few days, which caused the water level of all the trenches on the north gate of Changde City to increase to more than one meter. In this way, the Japanese attacking forces found it difficult to cross these trenches.

Colonel Kurose Heiichi, commander of the 133rd Regiment of the Japanese Army, which was responsible for attacking the north gate of Changde City, had no choice but to choose a relatively shallow moat to break through. Starting from the 29th, Colonel Kurose Heiichi, commander of the 133rd Regiment of the Japanese Army, used the 1st Battalion as the main force and launched a fierce attack on this shallow moat.

In order to attack this point, the commander of the 133rd Regiment of the Japanese Army, Colonel Heiichi Kurose, concentrated more than 50 artillery pieces and more than 20 aircraft to carry out repeated bombing and artillery fire, trying to suppress the sniper firepower of the 171st Regiment here.

The 1st Battalion of the 171st Regiment, which was responsible for the defense opposite the moat, currently had less than 150 soldiers left. Under the heavy bombardment of artillery shells from the attacking forces of the Japanese 11th Army, the more than 100 officers and soldiers of the 171st Regiment stubbornly fired at the attacking Japanese troops.

Although the water in this trench was relatively shallow, it was still nearly one meter deep and seven to eight meters wide. The officers and soldiers of the 1st Battalion of the 133rd Regiment of the Japanese Army could only wade through the water. The water in the trench reached the waists of the attacking Japanese officers and soldiers, forcing them to raise their rifles and stagger forward.

The machine guns of the 171st Regiment were fired desperately at these living targets who were struggling to advance in the trench, and the officers and soldiers of the 1st Battalion of the 133rd Regiment of the Japanese Army were repeatedly knocked into the water. However, the officers and soldiers of the 1st Battalion of the 133rd Regiment of the Japanese Army were also desperados influenced by the samurai spirit, and they forced their way forward in the trench despite the hail of bullets fired by the officers and soldiers of the 171st Regiment.

After several hours of fierce fighting, the trench here was almost dyed bloody. The 1st Battalion of the 133rd Regiment of the Japanese Army suffered heavy casualties, but still failed to break through the defensive position of the 171st Regiment opposite the trench.

When Lieutenant General Wang Iwanaga, commander of the 116th Division of the Japanese Army, saw that the north gate of Changde City could not be occupied for a long time by his attacking troops, he ordered Colonel Heiichi Kurose, commander of the 133rd Regiment of the Japanese Army, to use special bullets to attack.

At this time, on the defensive position opposite the trench, the 171st Regiment had less than two platoons of soldiers left. Under the attack of the suffocating gas bombs fired by the 133rd Regiment of the Japanese Army, these less than two platoons of soldiers of the 171st Regiment all died heroically.

Under the attack of poison gas bombs, the offensive force of the 133rd Regiment of the Japanese Army took the opportunity to launch a charge and successfully broke through the moat. At this point, the 133rd Regiment of the Japanese Army finally broke through a corner of the north gate of Changde City.

Upon learning that the attacking force of the 133rd Regiment of the Japanese Army that attacked the north gate of Changde City had rushed into the north of the city, the commander of the 57th Division, Yu, immediately mobilized the pitiful reserve troops in the city to counterattack. As soon as the 133rd Regiment of the Japanese Army entered the north gate, it was counterattacked by the strongest company of the 171st Regiment and was almost driven out of the Changde city again.

Unfortunately, the counterattack force organized by Commander Yu of the 57th Division had only one company of troops. Faced with more than 800 Japanese soldiers of the 133rd Regiment of the Japanese Army that had entered the north gate, they were unable to drive the 133rd Regiment of the Japanese Army out of the city.

In the melee, the company commander of the 171st machine gun company, Wen Fengkui, was killed, and almost all the officers and soldiers of the machine gun company who participated in the counterattack also died heroically. After suffering heavy casualties, the 133rd Regiment of the Japanese Army finally managed to control the north gate of Changde City.

While fierce fighting was taking place at the north gate of Changde City, the attacking forces of the Japanese 11th Army also made a breakthrough at the west gate of Changde City.

The attacking force of the Japanese 11th Army used heavy artillery on Heluo Mountain to fiercely bombard the west gate of Changde City. After three days of continuous bombardment, the Japanese artillery fire finally shattered a corner of the wall of the west gate of Changde City. A squadron of soldiers from the Japanese 120th Regiment sneaked into Changde City from here overnight.

Since the 57th Division guarding Changde City had less than a thousand combat troops left at that time, they were no longer able to set up defenses everywhere in Changde City. They were completely unaware of the Japanese troops approaching the city from the west gate wall of Changde City.

After this squadron of Japanese troops approached Changde City, they advanced towards the east gate of Changde City, the only gate that had not been breached, according to the orders of the commander of the 120th Regiment of the Japanese Army and Colonel Erjilong.

In the cover of night, this Japanese squadron encountered a platoon of the 57th Division, which was ordered to reinforce the city wall. However, to the surprise of the officers and soldiers of this platoon, they actually encountered Japanese troops in Changde City.

This platoon of the 57th Division was formed temporarily. There was not a single combat soldier in the entire platoon. It was a temporary force composed entirely of service soldiers, signalmen, clerks and even buglers. The platoon leader was Lieutenant Gao Ziyue, a former staff officer of the 169th Regiment.

After encountering more than a hundred Japanese soldiers in the city, the platoon of officers and soldiers of the 57th Division were naturally outnumbered. In addition, these temporary officers and soldiers had no combat experience, and each officer and soldier even had only a few bullets in his rifle.

But the battle had reached a point where it was a life-and-death struggle, and the 57th Division's platoon of more than 40 service soldiers and communications soldiers fearlessly engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the Japanese squadron.

In this temporarily formed platoon of the 57th Division, Li Tianxing was a clerk in the army. He did not have a rifle and could not even shoot. He only had two grenades as weapons.

However, Li Wenshu rushed to the front of the team. He thought that since he was going to die anyway, he might as well kill a few more Japanese before he died. If he killed one, it would be a win. If he killed two, it would be a gain. When the Japanese soldiers on the opposite side rushed up with rifles and bayonets, Li Wenshu detonated the two grenades at his waist and rushed into the Japanese charge line. With a "bang", eight Japanese soldiers were killed or injured, and Li Wenshu himself was blown to pieces.

After a short but fierce hand-to-hand combat, all the more than 40 officers and soldiers of this temporary platoon of the 57th Division died heroically. Second Lieutenant Gao Ziyue also died heroically after being stabbed in the abdomen by a bayonet after knocking down four Japanese soldiers in succession.