Devil's Army

The Japanese army frightened the puppet troops who were preparing to flee, and made them stand on the city wall as cannon fodder to block the attack of the devil troops.

The puppet troops suffered heavy casualties from the fierce bullets and artillery fire of the 12th Brigade, but dared not flee again.

Thanks to the obstruction of these puppet troops, the Japanese army in Haizhou city held off the 1st Regiment of the 12th Brigade for a whole day.

While the 12th Brigade of the First Army and the 364th Brigade of the Sichuan Army were advancing towards Haizhou City, the 15th Brigade of the First Army was also advancing towards Xinpu Town.

When the vanguard of the 1st Regiment of the 15th Brigade reached Biandanhe, they were blocked by the Japanese army.

Biandan River is a combination of natural and man-made defensive terrain. Its core advantages lie in the obstruction of the river channel, the concealment of the shoreline, the layering of depth, and the ability to control key points, making it suitable for ambush and mobile defense.

It connects to the Longwei River in the east and the Yanhe River in the west. It is about 3 kilometers long from east to west, 5-8 meters wide, and 1.2-1.8 meters deep. The river is narrow and straight like a carrying pole, without any bends or buffers, making it easy to control the crossing points and fording points.

The north bank is adjacent to the Longhai Railway, while the south bank is a saline wasteland covered with reeds and shrubs.

The Japanese army hid a certain number of troops here, attempting to ambush the devilish force.

Its riverbanks are steep (about 2-3 meters), making it difficult to cross on foot; it requires a boat or a bridge.

Its south bank has the Guanyun-Xinpu earthen ferry crossing, and its north bank has a railway crossing, making it an essential route for the army to advance south or provide reinforcements to the north.

The south bank extends southeast to form a river network polder area (Tongzhunian), while the railway on the north bank and the Yanhe River form a second line of defense, where the Japanese army set up tiered defensive positions.

After the vanguard of the 1st Regiment of the 15th Brigade engaged the Japanese army, the main force of the 1st Regiment quickly arrived and surrounded the Japanese army from both sides.

The Japanese army suffered a fierce attack from the First Regiment and retreated step by step, quickly losing its defensive line on the south bank of Biandan River and withdrawing to the north bank.

One regiment then launched an attack on the north bank of the Biandan River. However, there were only two ferry crossings leading to the north bank of the Biandan River.

The Japanese army used light and heavy machine guns and grenades to block the crossing, and had medium- and long-range mortar support.

The first wave of attack by the regiment was repelled by fierce Japanese fire. They temporarily retreated to the reeds and low-lying areas on the south bank to avoid Japanese artillery fire.

In the evening, the artillery of the 1st Regiment arrived at the designated position and immediately began constructing fortifications in preparation for shelling the Japanese defenses.

In order to achieve a sudden and accurate artillery strike, the regimental commander did not order the artillery to bombard immediately, but instead ordered the vanguard to launch a probing attack on the crossing to draw Japanese artillery fire.

They also instructed the artillery to assign observers to monitor the Japanese artillery positions and various light and heavy machine gun firing points.

When the Japanese artillery and machine gun positions saw that the vanguard of the regiment had launched another attack, they immediately counterattacked.

The artillery observers of the regiment immediately recorded the coordinates of the Japanese artillery positions and machine gun firing points.

Soon after, the artillery of the regiment began to counterattack.

The Japanese machine gun positions at each crossing were blown up one after another by artillery shells from the regiment.

The Japanese artillery positions were also bombarded by a regiment of artillery.

However, most of the Japanese artillery positions were mortars, which were easy to move.

The Japanese artillery immediately moved away upon hearing the whistling sound of a barrage of shells.

Although most of the small mountain guns in the Japanese artillery positions were destroyed by the First Regiment of Artillery, a considerable number of mortars were still preserved.

When the regiment of soldiers launched an attack on the north bank of Biandanhe River, they were bombarded by Japanese artillery that had already moved away.

The first regiment's attack ended in failure once again.

It was already late, so the regimental commander did not continue the attack on the north bank of Biandanhe River. Instead, he held a meeting with the four battalion commanders to discuss the battle plan.