Devil's Army

Upon receiving orders, the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 3rd Regiment immediately began a forced march, taking shortcuts to reach De'an County.

When the first and second battalions arrived at Donggushan, the Japanese army had not yet arrived.

Donggushan is located between Xingzi County and De'an County, and its terrain is steep.

During the Battle of Wuhan a few years ago, the Nanjing government army fought a fierce battle with the Japanese army here, inflicting heavy casualties on the Japanese army, killing more than 5000 enemy soldiers.

Since the fortifications had not yet been built, the 3rd Regiment Commander was worried that the Japanese army would arrive soon, so he ordered the 1st Battalion to block the Japanese army on the hillside in front of Donggushan. The 2nd Battalion immediately began to build fortifications.

Sure enough, just as the First Battalion reached the hillside and before they could build any fortifications, the vanguard of the Japanese army arrived.

The battalion commander ordered the fourth company to lay landmines behind the enemy lines, while the first and second companies found places to ambush the Japanese troops.

The Japanese vanguard was caught off guard and was thrown into chaos for a moment, but they immediately ordered their artillery to launch a fierce bombardment of the hillside.

Since there were no fortifications built on the hillside, the battalion commander ordered his soldiers to retreat into Donggushan in order to reduce casualties.

The Japanese army discovered that the devil troops were retreating and immediately gave chase, but they were quickly stopped by a minefield.

After the Japanese engineers cleared the landmines, the soldiers of the Second Battalion had already built defensive fortifications on Donggushan Mountain.

The terrain of Donggushan is treacherous, and the commander suspected that there might be an ambush there.

He arranged for a search party to search and ordered the artillery to prepare.

When the Japanese search party approached the 3rd Regiment's position, the soldiers of the 3rd Regiment suddenly opened fire.

The Japanese search party was routed, but the Japanese artillery quickly retaliated.

Dense artillery shells whistled as they pounded the positions of the First and Second Battalions.

The troops that blocked the Japanese reinforcements this time consisted of only the first and second battalions of the third regiment. Their strength was insufficient, which is why they retreated when fighting the Japanese in Anyi County instead of confronting the Japanese forces head-on.

But this mission was different. Their task was to hold the Donggushan position for two days to create an opportunity for the First Regiment to recapture De'an County.

Therefore, the battalion commanders of the first and second battalions ordered the soldiers to dig deeper trenches and to dig anti-artillery holes on the reverse slope.

Although the Japanese artillery bombardment was intense, the soldiers took shelter in the artillery bunkers, resulting in minimal casualties.

The Japanese commander saw that the Devil Troops' fortifications had been destroyed by artillery fire, but when their infantry launched an attack, they were thwarted by Devil Troops soldiers who seemed to appear out of nowhere. This gave him a major headache.

The division commander's telegrams kept coming in urging them to hurry up. With no other options, the Japanese commanders took a risky move, sending their infantry forward under artillery fire.

Although some soldiers were blown away by accidental artillery fire, they still managed to get close to the front of the devil's troops' position.

In order to hold off the Japanese army, the battalion commanders of the first and second battalions only arranged one company to block the Japanese army in the trenches.

Seeing that the Japanese army had changed its tactics, they also changed their tactics accordingly.

The company commander divided the company into two teams: one team hid in the anti-artillery bunker, and the other team blocked the Japanese army.

The soldiers hiding in the artillery shelters were responsible for passing grenades and loading bullets to the soldiers who were blocking the Japanese troops.

This reduces the time soldiers spend bending over to enter the gun shelter to retrieve grenades and load ammunition.

The barrage of grenades blasted away the Japanese and puppet troops who were close to the fortifications.

The Japanese commander was in a panic.

The brigade commander was worried that the two battalions of the 3rd Regiment would not be able to withstand the attacks of the Japanese forces from multiple directions, so he sent a telegram to the air force to come and provide support.

After the Nanxiong Air Force of the First Army arrived, it launched a fierce strafing and bombing attack on the Japanese infantry who were assembling and preparing to launch a new offensive.