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Text Chapter 232 Retreat to Shanhaiguan

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    (Thanks to Book Friends for the news that night, Mr. Zhang, Lin Zhiguan, Shu Wuwen, Book Friends 090305100704267 for the monthly pass!)

    Although some shells accidentally injured Japanese soldiers, more shells did fall on the Western Sichuan Army's defense line.  The Western Sichuan Army, which had suffered heavy casualties, suddenly had a brief gap in its defense line, and the powerful firepower even paused. The Japanese soldiers, who had been suppressed by the powerful firepower, took the opportunity to rush towards the Western Sichuan Army, screaming.  Line of defense.

    "You bitch, fire quickly, the Japanese are coming! Throw grenades!" shouted a platoon leader guarding this section of the position, but only a few people responded to him.  Several grenades were thrown out, blowing up a few Japanese soldiers, but more Japanese soldiers rushed into their position.

    "Brothers, put on your bayonets and fight these Japanese!" the platoon leader shouted, inserted the bayonet on the rifle, and jumped out of the trench with the gun in hand.  The Japanese Army's bayonet fighting skills are considered top-notch in Asia and even the world. Although the Western Sichuan Army is not weak, due to the gap in numbers, the surviving platoon leader and a few soldiers of the Western Sichuan Army were instantly overwhelmed by the surging attack.  The Japanese soldiers were overwhelmed.

    A large number of Japanese soldiers rushed into the Western Sichuan Army's position and attacked vertically and on both wings.  Although the Western Sichuan Army continued to resist, the loss of the position was a foregone conclusion.

    "Captain! The Japanese have invaded our defense line. Their numbers are too great and the front line can no longer stop them!" The deputy commander of the 232nd Regiment rushed into the headquarters and said to Lu Hanyuan.

    "What does the 3rd Battalion Commander do for food? Why did the Japanese rush in? Stop the troops immediately and drive the Japanese out!" Lu Hanyuan, the commander of the 232nd Regiment, stood up suddenly and shouted.

    "The commander of the 3rd Battalion has been killed. The Japanese attacked the headquarters of the 3rd Battalion, and almost the entire 3rd Battalion was killed!" said the deputy commander.

    Lu Hanyuan fell silent for a moment.  "Organize troops immediately and prepare to resist the Japanese on the second line. At the same time, send a report to the division commander!" Lu Hanyuan said.  The frontline position has been breached, and it is foreseeable that a large number of Japanese soldiers will break through the Western Sichuan Army's position from here. It has become impossible for the 23rd Division to resist the Japanese army.  In order to avoid causing a rout, the 232nd Regiment must try its best to delay the Japanese army and buy time for the main force of the 23rd Division to withdraw.

    "Yes!" The deputy commander immediately went to organize the troops.  At the same time, the Signal Corps immediately reported the situation here to Du Qizheng, the commander of the 23rd Division.  In less than five minutes, the 232nd Regiment received Du Qizheng's order.  Du Qizheng told them to hold off the Japanese army for more than half an hour, and the division headquarters would send a battalion of reinforcements to support them.

    Although the position of the 232nd Regiment was breached, this made Du Qizheng very angry.  But there was nothing we could do, so we had to evacuate.  The 23rd Division was too weak. It had been able to compete with the Japanese army based on its solid positions.  Once their position was breached, they had no chance of defending.  The Japanese army's strength advantage will be fully exerted, which is simply irreversible for the 23rd Division.

    Subsequently, the main force of the 23rd Division began to retreat in an orderly manner.  The artillery was evacuated first, then the units directly under the division headquarters, the various agencies at the division headquarters, and finally the units on the front line.  At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the 23rd Division withdrew to the second line of defense and fought against the Japanese with the 22nd Division responsible for defending here.

    At the Jiujiang River defense line, the 23rd Division could not hold on for even two days and retreated to the second line of defense. Behind the Shihe line of defense, it was discovered after statistical data that the division's casualties reached more than 4,000, including  The number of casualties and serious injuries reached more than 2,000.  The 232nd Regiment, which was mainly attacked by the Japanese army, accounted for half of the total casualties.

    The generals of the Western Sichuan Army were shocked by how quickly the Japanese army broke through the 23rd Division's defense line.  Even though the Japanese army defeated the Qing army last year, they did not face the Japanese army.  Only now did they realize that these small Japanese soldiers were difficult to deal with!  This is the reason why the weapons and equipment of the Western Sichuan Army are much more sophisticated than those of the Japanese Army.  If the weapons and equipment of both sides are the same, even if it is one-on-one, it may be very difficult for the Western Sichuan Army to win.  This prompted Zhao Bowen of the Shanhaiguan Theater to immediately contact the General Staff Headquarters in Chengdu, hoping to dispatch more troops to the Shanhaiguan Theater.  Then, the staff headquarters responded that it would be ten days at the earliest before any excess troops would be dispatched to Shanhaiguan.  During this period, the defenders of Shanhaiguan must hold their position.

    Having broken through the first line of defense of the Western Sichuan Army, the Japanese army was greatly encouraged.  After the frontline breakthrough, Nogi Nogi Nogi devoted all the remaining troops of the 13th Division. This is why the 23rd Division had to evacuate immediately.

    "Your Excellency, Commander, the Thirteenth Division has broken through the Western Sichuan Army's defense line and is currently pursuing the victory!" Nogi Nogi reported to Yamagata Aritomo with a happy face.  His promise yesterday was to break through the Chinese defense line before dark, but now in the afternoon, he successfully broke through western SichuanThe army's defense line made him quite proud.  You know, yesterday the Second Division failed to break through the Western Sichuan Army's defense line after a bloody day of fighting, and the 13th Division was just a newly formed division, but it was able to successfully break through the Western Sichuan Army's defense line. This does not mean that he Nogi  Is Xidian good at running the army?

    "Well! General Nogi Nogi Nogi, you did a very good job! What are the casualties of the 13th Division?" Yamagata Aritomo asked.

    "This, the specific data has not been calculated yet!" Nogi Nogi said.

    However, when Shanxian Youpeng got the casualty statistics of the 13th Division in the evening, his face suddenly became very ugly.  In today's attack by the Thirteenth Division, the casualties reached more than 8,000.  This was after a whole day of fighting yesterday, and the Western Sichuan Army had been severely damaged. The losses of the Thirteenth Division were no less than those of the Second Division.  The two-day attack directly caused the Japanese army to lose almost a division of troops, which made Youpeng in Shanxian County very angry.  If it weren't for the fact that Nogi Hidenori had just won a battle, which was worthy of special mention, he would have been tempted to give Nogi Hidenori a few slaps.

    On April 6, the Japanese army launched an attack on the second line of defense of the Western Sichuan Army.  Compared with the previous Jiujiang River defense line, the Shihe defense line is stronger. Shihe River is also wider, and there are not many places suitable for attack.  Coupled with the withdrawal of the 23rd Division, the strength of the Shihe Defense Line has been greatly strengthened, making it more difficult for the Japanese army to break through the Shihe Defense Line.

    On this day, the Japanese Third Division, Fifth Division and Second Division launched a fierce attack on the Shihe defense line of the Western Sichuan Army.  The battle was very fierce, and the artillery on both sides launched a brutal artillery battle.  In order to strengthen the firepower on the front line, Zhao Bowen specially transferred the divisional artillery battalions of the 3rd Division and 11th Division defending Shanhaiguan to the Shihe defense line.  This made the artillery of the Western Sichuan Army ahead of the Japanese army in terms of quantity and firepower.  On April 6, after a day of bloody fighting, the Japanese army lost more than 5,000 soldiers and generals, and was unable to break through the Western Sichuan Army's defense line.

    On April 7, the Japanese army launched a fierce attack on the first occupation. The new troops of the Sixth Division, the Fourteenth Division, and the Fifteenth Division replaced the previous divisions that had suffered heavy casualties after hard fighting.

    The addition of new forces put the Western Sichuan Army under great pressure.  But even so, the Shihe Defense Line is still firmly in the hands of the Western Sichuan Army.  In the fierce battle on April 7, the Japanese army suffered tens of thousands of casualties.  As for the Western Sichuan Army, the number of casualties reached 2,000.  A full 1:5 exchange.

    On April 8 and April 9, the Japanese army launched a continuous fierce attack.  Each division took turns going to the front line, and after suffering heavy casualties, it also put great pressure on the Western Sichuan Army.  The soldiers were extremely tired, and loopholes began to appear in the frontline defense.  It was almost broken through by the Japanese army several times.  Fortunately, reinforcements came forward at the critical moment and repelled the Japanese attack.  In these two days of fighting, the Japanese army once again paid a price of tens of thousands of people, and the Western Sichuan Army also lost nearly 3,000 people.

    Since the fighting began on April 4, the Japanese army has suffered more than 40,000 casualties.  The casualties of the Western Sichuan Army also exceeded 10,000.  The battle was very fierce, but both the Western Sichuan Army and the Japanese Army were struggling to support themselves.  The reinforcements from the next four divisions of the Japanese army will be able to enter the battlefield in two days, which makes Youpeng in Shanxian County very confident.

    On the evening of April 9, Nogi Nogi, the division commander of the Japanese Thirteenth Division, once again requested a battle. He requested that the Thirteenth Division launch a night attack in an effort to break through the Western Sichuan Army's defense line.

    Yamagata Aritomo approved Nogi Nogi's plan. That night, more than 5,000 Japanese troops from the 13th Division, shirtless and with white strips of cloth wrapped around their heads, launched a sneak attack at two o'clock in the morning.

    After many days of fierce fighting, the Western Sichuan Army was already exhausted.  The Japanese sneak attack was not discovered in time. It was not discovered until the Japanese troops crossed the Shihe River and were only a few hundred meters away from the front line.

    In an instant, gunfire burst out, and the Western Sichuan Army launched a fierce fire, hoping to withstand the Japanese attack.  The Japanese army found that the sneak attack was unsuccessful, so they changed the sneak attack into a strong attack.  Thousands of shirtless Japanese soldiers attacked one after another and achieved results that excited the Japanese army.  After paying huge casualties, the Japanese army broke into the Western Sichuan Army's defense line.  Although the Western Sichuan Army reacted and launched a fierce counterattack, as more and more Japanese troops crossed the Shihe River and broke into the Western Sichuan Army's defense line.  The Western Sichuan Army had to start retreating.

    The fighting did not stop until the morning of April 10. The 22nd and 23rd Divisions of the Western Sichuan Army that guarded Shihe withdrew to Shanhaiguan.  After the Japanese army broke through the defense line of the Western Sichuan Army, the Western Sichuan Army had to resist the Japanese attack and buy time for the withdrawal of artillery and other technical arms. This caused the Western Sichuan Army to suffer very heavy casualties.

    After the 22nd Division and the 23rd Division retreated from Shanhaiguan, the 22nd Division only had more than 10,000 men left, and the 23rd Division was even worse. There were more than 18,000 people in the division, and only  More than seven thousand?, less than a brigade.

    PS: The fourth update is here!  Three updates tomorrow, no updates in the early morning!  (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to become a registered member of Piaotian Literature to recommend this work. Your support is my biggest motivation.)
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