Devil's Army

When the Japanese landing craft rushed towards Gutang, they were discovered by patrolling soldiers from Zhang Wenmei's battalion of the 11th Reserve Division.

The patrol soldiers immediately opened fire to alert the police and lay on the ground to block the Japanese landing craft.

Seeing that the smuggling attempt had failed, the Japanese Army's Hata Detachment switched to a strong attack.

The Japanese artillery on Xiaogushan Mountain covered the positions of the Chinese defenders in Gutang with fierce artillery fire, and the Japanese landing craft also rushed to the shore at full speed.

Battalion Commander Zhang Wenmei braved the Japanese artillery fire and did her best to resist the Japanese attack.

At that time, the government army deployed an independent artillery unit in Jiujiang, with a small number of heavy artillery. However, they were distributed in the Tianjia Town Fortress, important positions around Jiujiang and traffic arteries. There were very few in the direction of Gutang, Poyang Lake.

When the Japanese landing craft attacked Gutang from Poyang Lake, Gutang's only two 105mm howitzers bombarded the Japanese landing craft.

After sinking nearly ten Japanese landing craft, the two Chinese 105mm howitzers were suppressed by the superior firepower of the Japanese artillery on Xiaogushan. The two Chinese 105mm howitzers were blown up one after another.

Without the bombardment of Chinese howitzers, the Japanese landing craft charged towards Gutang more fiercely.

The Japanese machine guns in the landing craft kept firing at the Chinese defenders in Rutang, and the Japanese artillery on Xiaogushan kept bombarding the Chinese defenders in Gutang.

Soldiers of Zhang Wenmei's battalion at the Gutang position suffered casualties every minute.

After three hours of fierce fighting, Battalion Commander Zhang Wenmei and all the officers and soldiers of the battalion died for their country, and no one escaped.

The Japanese Hata Detachment successfully landed and advanced deep into Gutang.

Zhang Fakui urgently ordered the 11th Division's reserve troops to counterattack, and at the same time telegraphed orders to the 15th Division and the 118th Division to quickly reinforce Gutang.

When the deputy battalion commander of the regiment left behind in Jiujiang saw that the heavy artillery at Gutang was blown up by the Japanese army and the entire battalion of Zhang Wenmei, the front-line defenders of Gutang, died, he asked General Li for a fight. He said that they could use the three Type 105 mm cannons they had captured to bombard the Japanese landing craft in Poyang Lake from a long distance.

Commander Li was overjoyed and immediately asked Deputy Battalion Commander He to send reinforcements as soon as possible.

Deputy Battalion Commander He asked Commander Li to send troops to escort his artillery observer and bring the radio to the Gutang front line, while he himself took the artillery to set up artillery positions in the rear.

Shortly after Deputy Battalion Commander He completed the setting up of the artillery position, artillery observers on the front line began to continuously report the coordinates of Japanese targets.

At this time, dozens of Japanese landing craft were continuously transporting Japanese troops from across Poyang Lake to the Gutang front.

Three 105mm cannon shells landed accurately around the charging Japanese landing craft.

Several Japanese landing craft were immediately overturned by the huge shock wave of the 105mm grenade, and the Japanese soldiers in the landing craft fell into Poyang Lake one after another.

The second wave, the third wave...attacks from a regiment of artillery followed one after another.

The Japanese landing craft were bombed and sunk one after another, which greatly affected the landing of the Japanese follow-up troops.

The reserve troops of the 11th Division also arrived in Gutang one after another, blocking the Japanese army from advancing deeper into Gutang.

Japanese Major General Shigekazu Hata was not stupid either. He knew that the Chinese army's artillery shells were so accurate, so they must have observation posts on the front line.

While attacking the 11th Division's reserve troops, the Japanese army sent out a large number of search troops to look for Chinese artillery observers.

A Japanese search team found the Chinese artillery observer who was sending a radio message and immediately launched an attack on the observer.

A guard platoon of the 64th Army of the government army, which was responsible for protecting a regiment of artillery observers, desperately blocked the Japanese attack.

They knew that artillery observers were the eyes of the artillery, and without artillery support, the casualties of their soldiers would be even more severe.

The two sides fought a life-and-death battle over a small piece of high ground.

The platoon leader blocked the Japanese attack while asking the artillery observer to retreat.

The artillery observer calmly told the platoon leader:

"Help me hold them off for another ten minutes. In ten minutes, I will send these devils to see their emperor."

The platoon leader gritted his teeth, blocked the soldiers in their platoon in front of the artillery observer, and fired fiercely at the Japanese army.

After a while, two 150mm howitzer shells with amazing lethality whizzed in and hit the Japanese troops in front of the artillery observer.

The Japanese troops in front of the artillery observer flew around like leaves in the wind.

As soon as the explosion of a 150mm howitzer stopped, three 105mm cannon shells arrived as expected.

This artillery observation point had been exposed, and the platoon leader took the opportunity to evacuate quickly with the artillery observers and look for a new observation point.

After bombing the Japanese troops that attacked the artillery observer, the artillery of the first regiment continued to bombard the Japanese landing craft on Poyang Lake.

The last two remaining 150mm grenades also hit the Japanese landing ships on Poyang Lake.

Many of the Japanese landing ships were sunk or blown apart by a fierce heavy artillery bombardment, and they had to temporarily stop landing.

When the artillery of the first regiment saw that the Japanese landing ships had stopped landing, they immediately pointed their guns at the Japanese Hata Detachment and Marines that were attacking deep into Gutang and started bombing them.

The Japanese artillery stationed on Xiaogushan Mountain wanted to bomb the heavy artillery position of the 1st Regiment, but found that the artillery position of the 1st Regiment was out of its range.