Chapter 58: Nan Kou

  Type 89 medium tank, 12.7 tons, 25 km/h, armor 5-17 mm, 1 x 57mm gun, 2 x machine guns, crew of 4. Equipped by the Imperial Japanese Army's armored units at that time.

  Type 94 Te-Ke, weight 3.2 tons, speed 40 km/h, armor 4-12 mm, 1 machine gun, crew 2. At that time, it was equipped with the cavalry regiment's armored vehicle squadron.

  Type 95 light tank, 7,400 kg, 48/26 km/h, armor 6-12 mm, 1 x 37mm gun, 2 x machine guns, crew of 3. Equipped by the Imperial Japanese Army's armored units at that time.

  At 7:30 on July 21, Shu Rong, who had been waiting for the Japanese army's attack since dawn, finally waited for the 5th Field Artillery Regiment to start continuous shelling with 2 field artillery battalions and 1 howitzer battalion. The 36 guns kept roaring, and the buildings in Nankou Town and the station continued to collapse and burn in the smoke; At 8:30, the bombardment stopped, and Nankou was no longer a town; but the Japanese army's ground attack still did not begin.

  The smoke finally dispersed, and Shu Rong still didn't see the infantry charging from the telescope. Just as he was hesitating, a loud rumbling sound came from afar, followed by "Not good!" The main force of the Ri Army's 2nd Tank Regiment has arrived!

  "Chariot?"

  Looking at the increasingly numerous war chariots, Shu Rong hesitated for a moment before giving the order, "I command, Cow Guiqing's unit to stay behind and cover this side, Meng Dingguo's unit to stay behind and cover that side, all others retreat!"

  "What?"

  "Quick! Execute the order! Leave the heavy hand grenades for them." Immediately, thousands of ** quickly withdrew from the trenches on both sides.

  To avoid the smoke becoming an obstacle for the tank group's charge, the artillery did not fire a single shot. Only two companies of Type 89 and Type 95 tanks were mixed in at the front to open the way, followed by a large group of infantry and light artillery pulling infantry guns. The officers of the 5th Artillery Regiment waited anxiously for the mountain gun group to fire to calculate their position, but they also did not fire a single shot.

  As they approached the enemy's position, the tank group changed from four columns to two interlocking horizontal lines. The Type 95 tanks took the lead, followed closely by the Type 89 tanks. A rifleman raised his hand and fired, "Bang!" A lieutenant who had rushed between the tanks was blown up and fell to the ground. This was immediately followed by an even louder "Boom!", a 57mm shell directly hit the tank's weak point, blowing it up and sending it flying.

  250 meters, 150 meters, 50 meters, **still not a single shot was fired**, many Japanese soldiers hesitated in their footsteps, only the tank troops were still advancing bravely. 20 meters, "Throw grenades!" A row of hand grenades flew out from the trenches. The tank troops didn't care, but they were wrong! "Boom boom boom!" Dozens of anti-tank hand grenades exploded continuously, and the thin armor on the front and sides of the Japanese light tanks and medium tanks was easily blown open. For a moment, thick smoke filled the air, fortunately, the only advantage of the Japanese tank - its diesel engine not being prone to fires - was evident here, except for one unlucky vehicle that exploded with a loud "boom" and turned into a fireball, the others were just smoking and disabled on the ground near the trenches. The Japanese infantry following behind was momentarily stunned, but Lieutenant General Shigenori Kuroda, who was watching from the front line of the Japanese position, immediately came to his senses, "Artillery, extend your range!" Amidst the thunderous sound of cannons, the tank troops and infantry in the back row all woke up, the tank troops used their cannons and machine guns to fiercely attack the trenches 20-30 meters away, **anyone who showed their head was immediately shot down**, only continuing to throw hand grenades and hand bombs; facing the continuous explosions, the Japanese infantry also bravely charged forward, although many were killed or injured, but the distance between the two sides was too short, soon, the Japanese infantry rushed into the trenches; the explosions continued, mixed with gunfire, until **the last man pulled the pin on a whole box of hand grenades**; immediately, more than 20 Japanese tanks crushed over the trenches.

  At the same time as the main force of the Japanese army was attacking the Nanmen Railway Station, two companies of Japanese infantry were charging towards the small slope position outside Nanmen Town under the cover of one platoon each of Type 94 and Type 95 light tanks. The previous encounter with the main tank force had left these tank soldiers shaken, and they stopped advancing more than a hundred meters away from the position, fiercely sweeping it with their 37mm cannons and machine guns. The infantry companies behind them also joined in the attack with light machine guns and grenade launchers. After a long time, without seeing any counterattack, the infantry dispersed and slowly advanced forward. Finally, one by one, the Japanese soldiers entered the position unscathed. The commander of the Japanese battalion finally let out a sigh of relief, "Report to the brigade commander, our troops have occupied the enemy..." Before he could finish speaking, continuous explosions erupted from within the position, and the shadows of Japanese soldiers being blown up kept appearing; upon closer listening, loud curses were heard, "Landmines!"

  Two positions have fallen one after another, but seeing the broken walls and ruins of Nanmen Town, "Niu Lian has died for the country, I'm ready to stay; brothers who want to leave can leave, don't be embarrassed, the regiment commander didn't ask us to defend to the death."

  "Why doesn't Lianzhang leave?"

  Meng Dingguo smiled: "Because this is the South Gate; don't pursue it to the end. I'll arrange for those under 20 years old to go back; hurry up! If you drag on, it's giving the enemy a victory. Tell each squad to follow the original plan!"

  More than 20 minutes later, the troops carefully protected the tanks and armored vehicles along the Nan Kou Zhen Bian Da Lu road towards Ju Yong Guan.

  Why climb to the top of the mountain? It's so high and so dangerous, how can you climb it?

  Why not search down the mountain? A desperate dead end, is it necessary?

  As expected, both sides were safe and sound; but the vanguard in front was either blown up by landmines or shot down by distant cold guns. The troops walked and stopped, and when the mine-clearing soldiers went forward, they were also blown up and injured one after another. After that, a large group of Japanese soldiers simply sat down on both sides of the road, even turning off the engines of their tanks.

  At the same time, a "lucky" company of Japanese soldiers entered Nanmenkou town to search for remnants. With a loud "boom", the first Japanese soldier was blown up by a landmine, but the rest of the soldiers didn't mind and continued to search deep into the residential ruins, where several more were blown up by landmines. The Japanese troops instinctively gathered on the stone road, and the company commander cautiously observed ahead, only relaxing when he realized there were no enemy positions. Just then, a deafening explosion became his last sound; hundreds of kilograms of explosives detonated from beneath the stone pavement where the Japanese soldiers had gathered, forming a massive mushroom cloud that rose into the sky.

  The big explosion was the order, and on both sides of the road, on the half-slope "dead ground", the scattered and hidden ** opened fire together at the halted large troop of rì military, with light machine guns and hand grenades pouring down like raindrops. The rì military resting on both sides of the road were caught off guard and fell in rows; a large number of rì military faced the two-sided slope ** with no place to hide, and could only cower and flee; thus, dozens of ** successfully knocked down several hundred rì military with light and heavy machine guns on the rì military's armored vehicles before being torn apart. The remaining rì military retreated in disorder towards the direction of Nankou Town, when buildings in the town also spewed out tongues of fire, striking the unprepared large troop of rì military, who fell one after another.

  Looking at the dense smoke rising, the marching troops were in disarray. The rear's Itagaki could no longer maintain his composure and slapped Yamashita who was stunned; still not satisfied, Itagaki suddenly pulled out his command sword, and Suzuki Lieutenant General tightly grabbed Itagaki's hand, barely calming him down.

  A large group of Japanese troops rushed into Nankou Town from all sides, dozens of people made their last resistance, the sound of gunfire and explosions filled the air; soon, Meng Dingguo and others fell to the ground in a pool of blood.

  At 2:20 pm, after hundreds of casualties were caused by snipers and landmines along the way, Itagaki finally saw the Guyuan Pass more than 1,000 meters away through binoculars. The pass was defended by Shu Rong's 534th Regiment, Li Shouzheng's 533rd Regiment, and Tan Naidai's 530th Regiment, with Wang Zhonglian personally directing the battle on the front line.

  Facing the majestic and formidable passes, steep mountain peaks, dense fortifications and large numbers of troops waiting in formation, Itagaki just smiled and said, "Order to switch to defense, rest, and fight again tomorrow."

  At this time, the 5th Division's search and destroy cavalry squadron from Baiyang City suddenly arrived at Duoming Lake, and the 89th Division's engineer battalion was caught off guard and retreated to Shiguan after being killed by a few Japanese soldiers with rifles. Tang Enbo and Zhu Huai-ice discussed and ordered the formation of Wu Shaozhou's detachment, with the 11th Regiment of the 4th Division responsible for frontal defense, the 561st Regiment of the 94th Division responsible for defense along the line from Baiyang City to Juyongguan, and the 563rd Regiment of the 94th Division and the engineer battalion of the 89th Division as reserve troops.

  Just as Tang and Zhu had just settled down, at around 5 pm, the Japanese army's 11th Regiment, under the cover of armored vehicles, charged into the town of Zhenbian. The 4th Division troops, who were building fortifications, only realized that the enemy was approaching when they heard the sentry firing his rifle. Instantly, they became disorganized; before the cars had even stopped, Japanese soldiers jumped out and started attacking with bayonets. A light machine gun had just opened fire when it was knocked out by a heavy machine gun on an armored vehicle. The 20th Regiment collapsed in an instant, and soldiers fled in all directions, abandoning their weapons and equipment. Artillery troops on the high ground west of the city discovered the enemy and immediately fired mortars, but the artillery officers were not in position, so they could only fire at predetermined positions. Multiple rounds hit the Japanese army's approach route, but under the influence of continuous explosions, many Japanese soldiers hesitated and stopped advancing. A small number of officers and soldiers began to return fire. At this time, a mortar shell hit a car that had just unloaded Japanese troops, causing a loud explosion that finally made the fleeing Chinese soldiers come to their senses. Most of them retreated to the main position at Hengling City. By 5:25 pm, Zhenbian had fallen.

  Hengling Town, Ma Liewu was anxiously looking towards the direction of Zhenbian Town, "Where is the reinforcement?" While on both sides of the high ground, the 19th and 21st Regiments were tensely building their positions.