Chapter Fifty-Nine: Miscalculation
July 21st, arrived at Huailai, the headquarters of the 13th Army Corps.
Tang Enbo said in a heavy tone: "We were originally in a good position. Although we lost Nan Kou, we inflicted great losses on the enemy and gained time to build the main position at Juyongguan; The enemy's attack on Daming Lake was also within our expectations, although it came a bit earlier than expected; But unexpectedly, Itagaki attacked the Hengling area, which stretched out the front line; The 89th Division couldn't move from Juyongguan, and the Military Replenishment Regiment could only be placed at Badaling as a reserve. I'm worried that Mr. Chiang can rely on the main force of the 4th Division plus part of the Guizhou Division to hold on?"
"General" Zhu Huai Bing's calm statement: "As long as the Japanese army does not increase its troops, relying solely on the 5th Division with at most half of its strength and lacking heavy artillery, I think it will be no problem to defend with the 4th Division's 3 regiments and the 94th Division's 1 regiment; after all, the main attack of the Japanese army is in the south. What I'm worried about is the enemy in the north moving south, our rear route..."
"We'll talk about that later, I've already asked for reinforcements from the 84th and 21st Divisions. The Chairman won't ignore us. What's the problem at hand?"
"I think we can launch a counterattack at Diaoming Lake, attract the enemy's attention and buy time for the defense of Hengling."
"If the enemy doesn't fall for this trick, wouldn't they instead launch a swift attack on Hengling City?"
"It shouldn't be, the troops that occupied the town's edge are only lightly equipped rapid units, they have no power to launch a strong attack on my main position before the heavy artillery arrives."
"Alright, let's end this quickly, we'll launch a counterattack at dawn with Liu Hanxing's team as the main force."
At around 4 am on July 22, under the light of the half moon, two battalions from the 2nd Regiment of the 11th Brigade of the 4th Division split into two routes from the east side of Dieming Lake, and one battalion from the 563rd Regiment of the 94th Division launched a night attack on the Japanese army's 5th Division search party and the 41st Regiment from the west side of the lake. At the same time, the main force of the Japanese 41st Regiment had already crossed over Changyu City and was advancing towards Hengling City via Xiakou Village; while the 11th Regiment was reorganizing in Zhenbian City, preparing to launch a direct attack on Hengling City along the highway.
At 4:20, the battle first broke out on the east side of Diaoming Lake. The night raiding force of the 2nd Battalion of the 22nd Regiment had not yet approached the Japanese army as expected when it encountered an ambush by two companies of the 5th Division's search liaison team. Several flares flew into the air, and more than a dozen machine guns finally came into play, with more than a dozen "fire snakes" sweeping across the 2nd Battalion's searching and advancing troops from three directions. More than 100 people, including the battalion commander, were killed instantly, and the rest fled in disarray, with only a small number of officers and soldiers resisting on the spot. Just as the Japanese army was about to pursue, the 1st Battalion of the 22nd Regiment broke into the Japanese army's flank and rear, and immediately clashed with the enemy's logistics team. A company of the Japanese army, which was serving as a reserve, quickly arrived, and both sides were immediately entangled in battle. Just as the two sides were fighting hard to distinguish themselves, a large number of Japanese reinforcements arrived from the front, and the 1st Battalion was dispersed, with the battalion and company commanders leading the retreat. Meanwhile, on the west side, the troops of the 94th Division and a small number of Japanese soldiers only exchanged a few shots before hastily retreating. In this battle, the 22nd Regiment suffered more than 500 casualties.
At the time of defeat at Duoming Lake, the main force of the 41st Regiment of the Japanese army was discovered by a hidden sentry when passing through Changyu City, causing the Japanese army to encounter the 3rd Battalion of the 21st Regiment just as they arrived in Fang'an Yu. The Japanese army was met with a fierce counterattack, and more than 20 light machine guns opened fire at the same time. Although the Japanese army was also knocked down by the hail of bullets, they returned fire without regard for cover, and the rear troops even fired flares to illuminate the battlefield. Suddenly, they were hit by dozens of mortar shells from the Chinese side, greatly reducing their firepower. The Japanese army took advantage of this opportunity to charge into the fray and engage in close combat with the Chinese troops.
Within 5 hours, as the explosion stopped, a large number of Japanese troops rushed past Fang'an Yu and straight to Fangkou. Just ahead was the Great Wall! Only hundreds of meters away from Fangkou, suddenly six consecutive fire snakes burst out on the side of the road, "Dadada" sweeping the rapidly advancing Japanese army to one side, "Illumination shells!" The commander of the Japanese army still shouted loudly despite the casualties, and as the illumination shells rose, the Japanese army's grenade launchers accurately hit the machine gun positions again; in an instant, hundreds of Japanese soldiers bravely charged forward, "Throw grenades!" A row of hand grenades flew over, knocking down the front row of Japanese soldiers. The rear row of Japanese soldiers rushed up, and under the cover of a few remaining riflemen, two undestroyed heavy machine guns almost face-to-face with the Japanese army burst out new fire snakes again, sweeping away another row of Japanese soldiers; "Open fire!" The commander of the 41st Regiment also let out a roar, and the attached 90mm howitzer fired at the Japanese heavy machine gun positions, regardless of their own riflemen being close by, causing both sides to suffer heavy casualties. In this way, the last company of the 3rd Battalion of the 21st Regiment was annihilated, but at the cost of nearly 200 Japanese casualties. More importantly: the 559th Regiment of the 94th Division finally arrived at the mountain pass ahead of the Japanese army, which had rushed past Fangkou and was only over 100 meters away from the Great Wall!
The 94th Division, although with poor equipment and low morale, still had the Great Wall to rely on. The vanguard company climbed up the ruined wall, and dozens of rifles and three light machine guns aimed at the Japanese army about 100 meters away, unleashing a hail of bullets. The Japanese army did not show any weakness, accurately returning fire with their light machine guns and rifles, interspersed with grenade launchers' precise kills. The three light machine guns were quickly destroyed, but dozens of rifles continued to fire fiercely, and as the Japanese army approached, long-handled grenades were thrown down from the city wall, causing heavy casualties among the Japanese troops who tried to get close. Soon, the Japanese machine guns and grenade launchers overwhelmed the remaining Chinese forces, with bullets, grenades, and flying debris constantly crossing the Great Wall, batch after batch falling; but the 529th Regiment's follow-up troops were not afraid, continuously climbing up the wall to shoot down and throw grenades; as the main force of the regiment arrived one after another, the Japanese army saw that they could not hold their ground and finally retreated in an orderly manner under the cover of grenade launchers and mortar fire.
Although the 529th Regiment held the pass, the situation was still extremely unfavorable. The main force of the 21st Regiment east of Hengling City was isolated and could only urgently abandon its position and transfer to the west to the 19th Regiment's position. The Japanese army's 11th Brigade, which had killed from Zhenbian City, clung tightly and did not let go. The 21st Regiment could only use a few companies to fight to the death and cover the retreat, ultimately paying a price of nearly 200 casualties and a large amount of ammunition and supplies being abandoned before withdrawing into the 19th Regiment's position on the road to the west.
The sky is bright! Tang Enbo and Zhu Huaiying rushed to the headquarters of the 4th Division in Dabandao.
"Commander, Chief of Staff, this is already the front line, and the division headquarters is about to withdraw. Please go to the new division headquarters at 18th house, both of you?" Acting Division Commander and 10th Brigade Commander Chen Daqing and 11th Brigade Commander Ma Liewu requested together.
"Is this still the division's forward command post after the division has withdrawn? I'll stay here and watch you direct!" Tang Enbo replied with some anger. "Our four regiments are here, and across from us there are only two brigades of Japanese troops, and the enemy artillery main force is in the direction of Juyongguan Pass, who dares to say we can't hold out?"
Soon after, while still adjusting the deployment, the Japanese army's attack on Hengling City began! There were no heavy artillery, but the Japanese army had warplanes. 22 aircraft of the 9th Flying Brigade's Type 93 light bombers swooped down from the clouds, dropping strings of 25kg and 50kg bombs on the positions of the 19th Regiment in Hengling, causing explosions one after another; as soon as the 9th Brigade flew away, 6 Type 93 'heavy' bombers arrived, and more than 80 100kg bombs once again covered the city of Hengling and its western positions.
The smoke had not yet dispersed, and the 9th Brigade of the Japanese army launched an attack with three battalions under the cover of two mountain artillery companies. The central route directly attacked Hengling City, regardless of the landmines that continuously blew up soldiers along the way, quickly advancing into the city. The rear guard company of the 19th Regiment fought while retreating, setting fire to and destroying the heavy equipment that could not be transported in time. They soon abandoned Hengling City and retreated to the main position on Hengling Mountain. After occupying Hengling City, the Japanese army did not attack the main position on Hengling Mountain as expected, but instead advanced along the road towards Changchengkou Pass together with the right route, disregarding the sporadic mortar fire.
At the same time, the left route army advanced along the ridge of Hengling Mountain towards the high ground and soon began to clash with a part of the 19th Division covering the flank of the main position of Hengling.
"Terrible!" Commander Tang Enbo and Chen Daqing both exclaimed in unison.
"Order the artillery battalion to block the highway and intercept!" This was what Chen Daqing shouted out.
"Order the 20th Regiment to reinforce the pass! Fight to the death and block the enemy!" Tang Enbo shouted loudly.
The 4th Division's artillery battalion, which had already calculated the parameters, immediately fired two 120mm heavy howitzer batteries. The 11 heavy howitzers fired at an unexpectedly fast rate, pouring a large number of heavy shells onto the Japanese army's column, causing massive damage. The fragments from the iron shells flew everywhere, knocking down a large number of Japanese soldiers, but most of them continued to charge forward desperately. The Japanese artillery retaliated immediately, with 8 75mm mountain guns and over 10 infantry guns firing back, shrouding the artillery position in smoke. Meanwhile, 12 Type 93 light bombers swooped down again, and the 4th Division's artillery battalion's high-speed anti-aircraft battery, equipped with 6 37mm high-speed guns and dozens of 'amateur' high-speed machine guns, fired back, weaving a web of fire to protect the artillery position. Although the Japanese army's artillery officers were highly accurate in their calculations, the concealed artillery fortifications still effectively defended against the Japanese shells, except for the dozens of bombs dropped from the sky. In the end, the Japanese destroyed most of the artillery positions at the cost of 1 light bomber exploding in mid-air and 2 others escaping with smoke, although most of the howitzers remained intact.
On the broken and worn-out Great Wall pass, 529 troops spent an hour and a half and only managed to add over a thousand sandbags and some stones on the Great Wall. The only reinforcements were several direct combat battalions from the 94th Division that arrived.
