Devil's Army

The Fifth Brigade in Tieling County successfully blocked the enemy's attack last time, so when they began to retreat, the residents of Tieling County thought it was another drill. But when they saw the soldiers outside the county entering the city with serious faces, they realized that this was not a drill.

When the third company retreated to civilian houses, they relied on the houses to resist the Japanese. At this time, the first company of the second battalion had piled sandbags on the streets of Tieling County and built two temporary fortifications.

The houses collapsed when the enemy tanks fired. The soldiers of the third company were either blown away or buried alive. They had no choice but to retreat into the streets and fight the enemy in street battles.

The blocking battle in Tieling County was in full swing. In the afternoon, the Japanese soldiers coming from Fengtian also arrived near Aozuikou via Xiaonan Town.

The 2nd Regiment of the 2nd Brigade fought the Japanese for three days in the outer fortifications of Tiaobinshan County. The troops were reduced to a battalion. They had just added new recruits and completed the redeployment with the 3rd Regiment. They wanted to train the troops in the rear and run in the troops. Unexpectedly, Musashi Nobuyoshi thought so and sent troops to attack from Xiaonan Town. The 2nd Regiment was pushed to the forefront of the battle again.

The second regiment commander said at the mobilization meeting:

"Comrades, there are no cowards in our Second Regiment. Last time, more than 2,000 of us held off tens of thousands of Japanese for three days. Today, Musashi Nobuyoshi thinks highly of us and has brought people to greet us. Can we hold them off?"

“Yes, yes…”

"I know that two-thirds of our regiment are new recruits. We are not familiar with each other and it is difficult for us to cooperate well. But the Japanese won't allow us to do so and won't give us time to get familiar with each other. We can only get familiar with each other and cooperate in battle."

"I will announce the order: the first battalion will continue to guard the fortifications on both sides of Aozuikou, the second battalion will be responsible for blocking the path from Hujia Village to Aozuikou, and the third battalion will follow the regiment headquarters as a reserve force, ready to reinforce at any time."

"Yes," the three battalion commanders responded in unison.

"The path through Aozuikou leads to Tiaobinshan County, and this time it will definitely be the main attack direction of the Japanese. The First Battalion has the heaviest burden on you, so you must hold on, otherwise the Third Regiment will be attacked from both sides. The Second Battalion, although your path is small, the Japanese's large troops and heavy weapons cannot pass through, but if the Japanese are blocked from attacking Aozuikou head-on, it is not ruled out that they will pass through this path, and then surround Aozuikou from both sides, trapping the First Battalion in Aozuikou. Just like we besieged the Japanese at Aozuikou last time."

The commanders of the first and second battalions both nodded, and the commander of the second regiment continued, "Commander of the first battalion, tell the soldiers to bring more water." The last battle to besiege the Japanese at Aozuikou was still vivid in their minds.

"Yes," replied a battalion commander.

At around 2:00 p.m., when the fortifications in Tieling County were breached by the Japanese, the battle of Aozuikou broke out.

When the battle broke out, the Japanese heavy artillery and mortars bombarded the fortifications on both sides of the aozuikou.

The commander of a battalion placed a company on each side of the fortifications at Aozuikou, and the third company stayed behind the mountain with the battalion headquarters on standby.

The third company commander accompanied the first battalion commander to observe the battlefield situation at the observation post on the top of the mountain.

"The fortifications built by the Japs are really good. The tops of the fortifications are all made of large stones. When the Japs' artillery fire hits them, only some stone fragments are splashed up and the fortifications will not collapse." A company commander said to a battalion commander.

"Otherwise, why did we use the method of besieging the Japanese to retake this pass last time? If we attack by force, we will have to send in at least several battalions of soldiers."

Perhaps the enemy had too many shells and they were too heavy to carry. The enemy bombarded both sides of the Aozuikou for more than half an hour before stopping the bombardment and sending infantry to charge.

When the Japanese infantrymen were about a hundred meters away from the fortifications, several machine gun fire points roared. Bullets rained down on the Japanese soldiers who were climbing up. The Japanese soldiers who were shot rolled down the mountain one after another.

The Japanese artillery fire hit the machine gun firing points, but these shells were extremely insulting and not harmful. Because these machine gun firing points were built under large rocks, the shells hit them and only stirred up a pile of rubble.

The machine gunner at a heavy machine gun firing point in the right fortification had his ears buzzing and a mouthful of dirt blown into his mouth by the Japanese artillery shells.

The machine gunner spat out a mouthful of spit covered with dirt and cursed angrily:

"Damn it, if I get a chance I'm going to plug the muzzle of his gun so he can't fart!"

The Japanese artillery fire had not stopped yet, and their infantry began to climb the mountain again.

The heavy machine gunner wanted to play a trick on the Japanese. The Japanese crawled to more than 100 meters away from the fortifications, but he still hadn't fired a shot.

The company commander thought something was wrong with the heavy machine gun and ran over to check. But he saw the heavy machine gunner biting a leaf and staring at the Japanese soldiers climbing up.

"Why didn't you shoot?" the company commander asked.

"Okay, get ready to fire." The heavy machine gunner responded calmly.

"There are only forty or fifty meters left," said the deputy machine gunner.

At this time, the heavy machine gunner pulled the trigger, and the muzzle of the heavy machine gun roared at the Japanese who were climbing up.

Because the Japanese were so close, sometimes one bullet could hit two or three of them.

The Japanese soldiers in this position, where the attack was originally going most smoothly, rolled down the mountain in large groups.

The Japs' second attack was repelled.

Lieutenant Colonel Sasaki looked at the bodies of the imperial soldiers rolling down in front of the Aozuikou fortifications and really wanted to call for planes to drop heavy aerial bombs for support, but he knew that Commander Musashi would not agree to send out planes.

At this time, Gray Wolf led the special forces to the Hujia Village station. This place is related to the success or failure of the defense battle of Diaobingshan County and Tieling County.

If the Japanese army broke through here, they could directly attack Tiaobinshan County forward, approach Tieling County to the right, and join forces with the Japanese troops from Rehe to attack the Third Regiment in the fortifications outside Tiaobinshan County on the left.

There were not many Japanese soldiers coming from Fengtian, and Gray Wolf wanted to use the Tiger Heart-Rip attack on them to create a gap in the Japanese encirclement on three sides.