Chapter 68: Battle of Wuhan (I)

  After reading the enemy situation report, Sun Li knew that his third battalion would have a bloody battle today. After sending an electric report to the division headquarters that he had arrived at the designated area and started setting up defensive positions, Sun Li handed over the command post to the deputy regiment commander and took the guards to inspect the positions.

  Sun Lixian first came to the small mountain behind the village. Although the small mountain is only over 70 meters high, the terrain here is flat and can be seen from a distance.

  Behind the small mountain 5 li away, the two 75mm mountain artillery battalions of the artillery regiment had already begun to tense up and construct their artillery positions. The 12 120mm heavy mortar emplacements were set up right behind the small mountain.

  Seeing his own 24 mountain guns and heavy mortars, Sun Li felt slightly more at ease. His regiment's firepower was probably on par with that of an enemy army, especially the 120mm heavy mortars, whose power was absolutely stunning - after exploding, there would be almost no survivors within a radius of 10 meters.

  The only drawback was that they had very few shells for these guns. While 60mm and 82mm shells could be domestically produced, 120mm mortar shells had to be entirely imported, and it wasn't the case that you could buy them just because you had money.

  Therefore, according to the requirements of Artillery Brigade Commander Liang Fang, 120mm mortars were generally only permitted for use in destroying enemy fortifications. That's why even during the Battle of Xiaogan, not a single 120mm shell was fired by the Second Regiment.

  In the entire Security Army, only Liang Fang could be considered a true expert in artillery. So although he was the commander of the Artillery Brigade, Song Zhiwu required him to take charge not just of his own brigade, but also of the training and tactical guidance of all artillery units. Even the Security Army's artillery manual had been revised by Liang Fang based on the German military manual, taking into account the country's specific characteristics.

  The battalion commander placed the machine gun company on the mountain. At this moment, the soldiers of the machine gun company were building heavy machine gun bunkers and trenches, and the 82mm mortar positions were set up in several flat depressions behind the ridge line. The artillery battalion's observation post was also located here.

  Sun Li watched as the machine gunners quickly dug trenches and shelters with their sharp entrenching shovels, and he couldn't help but think that his thoughts when he first joined the security forces were a bit laughable. At that time, he thought it was unbelievable that Song Zhe Wu spent a lot of money to buy these entrenching shovels from Germany.

  He knew that abroad, there were specialized entrenching tools, mainly equipped for engineers and artillery as a tool for building positions. Although his previous unit did not have real entrenching tools, they were also equipped with some civilian shovels for digging trenches. He thought it was enough. However, the entrenching tool equipped by the Security Guard is said to be designed by Song Zhe Wu and has applied for a patent abroad. This shovel has a fine steel body, a large arc shape at the front end, and sharp blades on both sides and the front end, making it very convenient to dig up soil. Moreover, the handle can be folded, and in peacetime, it is stored in a case and carried on the back waist. Once needed, it can be taken out immediately for digging. In addition, there are also training sessions in the Security Guard using this entrenching tool for hand-to-hand combat.

  It now seems that Commander Song's money was well spent. Looking through binoculars from a small hill, from the small hill south to the Changjiang River bank of Zhangjiajie, everywhere there are soldiers using this engineer shovel for earthwork operations. If the troops were not equipped with it, he would absolutely not be able to find these several thousand shovels to dig trenches.

  From Xiaoshan, the small hill and Zhujihe Village in front of the first camp each dug two semi-circular trenches. There are several communication trenches between the two trenches. From Zhujihe to Zhangjiaji, due to the lack of terrain support, only three trenches with a distance of 50 meters were dug on both sides of the main road as a blocking position, which was defended by the second camp. However, the main road is only over 500 meters away from Xiaoshan and Zhujihe Village, and both places can provide firepower support for it.

  The best location for the ambush should be set on the riverbank a dozen miles away, but the terrain on the other side of the river is higher than this side, and the enemy on the opposite bank can suppress and block the troops from a commanding height. Moreover, it has just passed the dry season, and the water level in the river is not high, which cannot play a great role in blocking the enemy, so finally decide to let the enemy cross the river.

  After finishing the inspection of the array ground, it was already 8 o'clock in the morning. Sun Ligang returned to the brigade department and the reconnaissance company reported that the enemy's vanguard had approached within less than 10 li of Zhujiahe River. Sun immediately ordered the staff officer to notify each unit to prepare for battle.

  The first division of the 19th Army, led by Hu Zongnan's Zhengzhong Division, arrived at Zhujiahe and found that there were already troops setting up a blocking position on the opposite bank of the river from Zhujiahe to Zhangjiadun. They also heard from scouts that the enemy was wearing grass-green uniforms. The division commander of the Guangxi Army was shocked. After Tang Shengzhi drove out Bai Chongxi, many Guangxi officers resigned and returned to the 7th Army. Hearing them say that the Hebei Security Forces, now known as the Fourth Route Army, wore grass-green uniforms, could it be that they had already entered Wuhan so quickly?!

  They originally set out at midnight, and it was very difficult to set up a radio station at that time. They were unable to receive or send reports during the march. Not only did the 19th Army not know that the 4th Route Army had occupied Hankou and Hanyang, but Tao Zhendong's 18th Army in Jiangbei was also on its way to withdraw to Wuchang when it received the news sent by Liu Dayou's horseback rider. After receiving the news, Tao Zhendong was very anxious, and he ordered his men to find a fishing boat at the riverbank to inform Hu Zongdong of the news while commanding his troops to speed up their march and hurry to Wuchang as soon as possible to meet the 19th Army crossing the river.

  The troops were shocked, but the battle still had to go on. The commander of the Guangxi Army sent someone back to report and ordered the machine gun company and the 3rd Regiment to set up a defensive position on the east bank of the river to cover the crossing of the 1st and 2nd Regiments. He knew that at present, there was only one way out, which was to defeat the Fourth Route Army in front of them and rush over. Only by reaching Hankou could they quickly cross the river with the help of ferries and other ships. Here, large ships could not dock, and only small fishing boats could be used to transport a small number of troops. It would take two or three days for their tens of thousands of troops to cross over.

  After crossing the river, he ordered two regiments to establish a defensive position immediately and personally took two regimental commanders to run to the front line to observe the situation. When he returned to the position, his division commander Zheng gave him an order, asking him to take advantage of the Fourth Route Army's unstable foothold and quickly break through the position, opening up a passage for the entire army to return to Hankou. He also told him that the Fourth Route Army had entered Hankou and Hanyang at dawn today, estimated to be lightly equipped vanguard troops. If they could not quickly retake Hankou and cross the river, the 19th Army would only have one way to surrender.

  After receiving the order, Gui Jun, the brigade commander, did not dare to slack off. He immediately ordered one regiment to send a company in each of the four directions of Zhujiariver Village, the small mountain north of Zhujiariver Village, Chenjiaji, and the riverbank road to launch a probing attack. In preparation for the subsequent large-scale troops' attack.

  The task of the first battalion and company was to defend the two trenches in front of Zhujiariver Village. The company commander, Huang Dafu, personally led the 1st and 2nd platoons to defend the first trench, while the mortar platoon and the 3rd and 4th platoons were at the second trench 50 meters behind. Here by the river, the terrain is not high, the water table is very shallow, and the trenches cannot be dug too deep, only chest-high, any deeper would result in flooding, but shooting was just right.

  Among the three battalions of the First Division, only their battalion had not experienced a major battle. The last time they fought against the bandits at Zeng's Stockade couldn't even be counted as a real battle. From afar, they saw the Guangxi Army charging over with scattered troops, and the soldiers in the company were all somewhat tense, including Huang Daifu, who had also never fought against regular troops. However, he was after all the company commander, so not only could he not be nervous and flustered, but he also had to boost the morale of the entire company's soldiers.

  "Brothers, tell me, do our security troops eat well or not?" The soldiers were all a bit surprised by Huang Da Fu's question. Why was the company commander asking about food at this time? So their responses were also sparse. "Have you all not eaten enough? Speak up!" "We eat well." A loud shout echoed through the trenches. Huang Da Fu nodded in satisfaction and continued to shout loudly, "I'm telling you, our division commander said that our security troops are the best-fed troops among all the troops nationwide, the most rigorously trained troops, and also the troops with the best weapons. And there's one more thing, which is that none of you know that the amount of ammunition we use for training every year is more than what other troops use in three years." After finishing speaking, he pointed at the Guangxi Army charging towards them: "We eat better than they do, our training is tougher than theirs, and our weapons are stronger than theirs. Do you think we're afraid of them? Can they defeat us?"

  "Don't be afraid! We will definitely defeat them!" The warriors' emotions were mobilized, and one by one they made preparations for battle with spirit and vigor.

  Because they didn't know the true state of the security troops' position, the Guangxi army company that was charging towards Huang Daifu and his men wasn't advancing very quickly, proceeding with caution. It wasn't until the bugle calls from behind urged them on that the company commander loudly shouted for the soldiers to speed up their charge.

  When the approaching Gui army was still 200 meters away from their position, Huang Dafu ordered to open fire. He didn't dare let the enemy get too close, fearing that his soldiers would become nervous and allow the enemy to rush into the position, he wanted them to gradually adapt to this combat environment.

  As soon as Huang Dafu gave the order to open fire, the 8 machine guns, 20 or so submachine guns and over 100 rifles in the first trench all opened fire at the same time. His company's mortars also began to bombard the attacking Guangxi troops.

  The dense hail of bullets immediately knocked down twenty or thirty men. Since it was a probing attack, as soon as the Guangxi army company commander heard the sound of gunfire and saw that the enemy had strong firepower, with so many machine guns and mortars, he judged that the enemy's front line would not be less than a regimental strength. His single company charging up would be suicidal.

  Before he could finish shouting "Withdraw!", he turned around and ran away. The enemy was already 300 meters away, and several squad leaders' submachine guns were still firing.

  Huang Dafu was furious: "Stop, stop firing! You few bastards, bullets aren't free! What's the effective range of a submachine gun? 300 meters and you're still shooting!"

  Several company and platoon commanders who had been caught up in the excitement also came to their senses, but were still smiling and thinking about how enjoyable the previous fight was.

  Scolding is scolding, Huang Dafu also knew that such a battle was very important for his subordinates to accumulate experience. After scolding two sentences, he didn't say anything else and ordered each squad to report the casualties and replenish ammunition.