Chapter 689: Wubao Ferry

Okamura Ningci gathered 100,000 troops, divided into two places, personally commanded 60,000 people along one of the roads, starting from Taiyuan, approaching the east bank of the Yellow River from Liulin in Shanxi, opposite, is the Wubao ferry, the other way, crossing the Yellow River from Fengling to the west, capturing Xi'an, the road is different, from Taiyuan to Jinnan, more than ten days away, Okamura Ningji could not wait for the two places to launch an attack at the same time, his intention, in the willow forest, to attract Tang Qiuli's main force of the river defense force here, to create favorable conditions for the troops in the direction of Fenglingdu.

When he arrived at the bank of the Yellow River, he also saw the surging river, counted the troops, he was surprised, on the way from Taiyuan to Liulin, he was constantly harassed by the small forces of the independent division, the main force did not stop, and constantly divided the troops to pursue and suppress, and scattered the troops along the Luliang Mountain all the way like sheep dung and eggs, and actually used more than 10,000 people, and he could use the troops to attack the Wubao ferry, but more than 50,000 people.

He thought about it again and again, thinking that this was Tang Qiuli's strategy, and induced himself to divide his troops to reduce the frontal pressure on the Wubao ferry, contact the scattered troops, and get the same reply, and the scattered armed forces of the independent division fought fiercely in the Luliang Mountains, and could not withdraw for a while, and after annihilating the Chinese armed forces, he returned to the team as soon as possible.

In fact, Tang Qiuli ordered the troops that were delaying and dispersing the Japanese troops behind enemy lines, more than 20 companies, all in the Luliang Mountains, dealing with the Japanese troops more than twice their own strength, and they did not know how many encounters they had to fight every day, with more than 5,000 troops, and more than 10,000 Japanese troops, and it was in the enemy's rear, and the Japanese army could mobilize nearby troops to support at any time, and the pressure faced by the troops of the independent division can be imagined, and their task of delaying, exhausting, and dispersing the Japanese troops was completed, but it also brought difficulties and dangers to themselves.

Okamura Ningji's mood relaxed, the more Tang Qiuli did this, the more it showed that his troops to defend the river defense were empty, in the long-range lens, Wu Fort on the other side of the river, he couldn't see obvious fortifications, and he couldn't see all kinds of bunkers and other firepower points, as if he didn't see the calm and usual of the soldiers on the opposite side, Okamura Ningji was somewhat puzzled, if he saw the strong barrier on the other side, as if facing a big enemy, it would be common sense, this situation, made him a little confused, but he never believed that there was no defense force at the Wubao Ferry.

Okamura Ningji sneered, it was still Tang Qiuli's trick, so he made a fool of himself, so he used the cannon to speak, so that the people of China could understand what the invincible Imperial Japanese Army was, and he ordered the artillery to immediately shell Wubao on the other side, destroy all the sighted and suspicious targets, and open up a landing ground for the troops crossing the river.

Two field artillery wings, hundreds of guns, shelling at the same time, whistling metal projectiles, tearing through the air, with a piercing scream, crossed the wide river, fell on the Wubao ferry, the fire flashed, the smoke was filled, the huge column of smoke rolled up, the only few buildings turned into ruins, the earth trembled, the deafening explosion echoed in the open field, Wubao was shrouded in a sea of fire and gunsmoke.

More than an hour of heavy artillery fire stopped, the effect of the shelling, so that Okamura Ningji was very satisfied, he saw with his own eyes, the shelling just stopped, countless people in a panic, panicked and ran to the back, even if there was no shelling, there were people desperately fleeing, looking at the clothes on their bodies, it was very messy, it was not a regular army at all, this is Tang Qiuli's so-called river defense troops, the armed civilians in Dingbian who were encouraged by him, a group of rabble, the ridicule at the corner of Okamura Ningji's mouth became even stronger.

The Japanese troops of the two wings, as the first wave of river-crossing attack troops, took assault boats and rubber boats, and came to the shore like dumplings, the river surface was lively, and the powered assault boats soon drove to the middle of the river, followed by hundreds of rubber boats, Okamura Ningji suddenly became a little nervous, the troops who were crossing the river were the most vulnerable to attack, the assault boats arrived on the shore, and the Japanese soldiers had begun to land on the west bank, and only extremely weak sporadic firepower returned fire.

There was no threat to the Japanese soldiers who landed on the shore, the Japanese soldiers established a solid landing point on the west bank, light and heavy machine guns, mortars and Type 38 rifles began to suppress fire, and then, the Japanese soldiers in rubber boats also landed on the west bank, more than 5,000 Japanese soldiers, flocks of sheep poured onto the west bank, and began to develop in depth, the guns of resistance disappeared, the Japanese soldiers chased closely, and soon disappeared behind the slopes of the west bank.

Okamura Ninji nodded again and again with great satisfaction: "Yo Xi" ordered the second echelon to start crossing the river, this time, he used the strength of four wings, and initially calculated, the strength of the landing force in two waves has reached about 15,000 people, and it is completely possible to control the landing point and expand the results, although the battle situation of the first wave of landing troops cannot be seen, it can be judged from the sound of gunfire, the battle is not very fierce, which shows that Tang Qiuli's so-called river defense troops, combat effectiveness is extremely weak.

The second wave of river-crossing troops, more than 10,000 Japanese troops in four wings, has reached the middle of the river, Okamura Ningji walked down the hill, he was ready to follow the third wave of river-crossing troops across the Yellow River, the generals of the Great Japanese Empire, it is a practice to go to the front line in person, suddenly, a loud thunder-like noise, sounded in the sky, a piercing scream is getting closer and closer, in an instant, the black and pressed shells, falling on the river in groups, falling in the queue of Japanese assault boats and rubber boats crossing the river, stirring up a column of water that soars to the sky.

Okamura Ningji's face suddenly became extremely pale, his first reaction was to "be fooled", cannonballs rained down on the heads of the Japanese troops crossing the river, such a dense artillery fire, at least four artillery wings were firing in a salvo, which was extremely rare for Okamura Ningji, blowing up a wall composed of water columns on the water, he saw with his own eyes that the outstanding people of the Great Japanese Empire, the brave soldiers under his command, were helplessly struggling in vain.

The soldiers who fell into the water only had time to stretch out their hands and reach out in vain to the air, and they were swallowed up by the boiling Yellow River water with a whirlpool, and the assault boats and rubber boats directly hit by the shells were suddenly blown into pieces, mixed with the corpses of the soldiers, first thrown high with the water column, and then fell heavily into the river, rolled around, and disappeared in a blink of an eye.

Okamura Ninji watched the soldiers being swallowed up by the river in front of him, but he couldn't do anything, he muttered to himself, "Massacre, this is a massacre" His eyes seemed to be dull, the corners of his mouth twitched violently, his heart contracted for a while, accompanied by a sharp pain like a pinprick, he suddenly shouted frantically: "The artillery immediately returned fire" A mouthful of scarlet blood, sprayed violently in the air, fell on his back, and before he lost consciousness, he only heard the panicked shouts of his subordinates, and then, his eyes went black, and he fell into boundless darkness.

The Japanese artillery began to shell frantically, this time, the opposite bank was no longer a silent lamb, the Japanese artillery just fired a shell, it attracted countless shells to return fire, Okamura Ninji did not see it, his artillery position, has been shrouded in the flames of explosions, moreover, the fierce artillery fire of the independent division is beyond his imagination, his own artillery, has been completely suppressed, and it is simply unable to provide fire cover for the unlucky soldiers on the river.

Okamura Ninji hadn't seen it yet, on the other side where the gunfire had disappeared, behind the hillside, the gunfire was intense, and there were countless short "knock" sounds from mortar fire, what was going on? Unbeknownst to all the sober Japanese generals, they were busy treating His Excellency the Commander who had passed out in a coma, but it was also fortunate for Okamura Ninji, otherwise, he saw that his carefully planned plan to cross the river and march west to attack Shaanxi had failed at the beginning, and countless soldiers had been unlucky to follow, and they might have vomited blood and died.

The red sun fell in the west, the battle had stopped, the rolling surging Yellow River took away a bit of evil, as long as the spring breeze could not disperse the smoke of gunpowder, it was still faintly filled in the air, Okamura Ninji slowly opened his eyes, and asked the chief of staff waiting beside him tiredly: "Nishio-kun, how are the casualties of the troops?" Chief of Staff Nishio lowered his head deeply, as if he didn't dare to look at the expectant gaze of His Excellency the Commander, Okamura Ninji's heart sank suddenly, from Nishio's expression, he would not get any good news, he asked, Nishio still did not answer.

Okamura Ninji suddenly raised his voice and asked: "Nishio-kun, I want to know the real situation" The vicious voice, gloomy and fierce, with a trace of madness and desperation of gambling and losing money, Nishio's body trembled, and replied in a low voice: "Your Excellency, our second wave of river-crossing troops, only more than 4,000 people were able to return, and the rest were all shattered, and half of the artillery lost its combat effectiveness" Nishio's voice seemed to come from an ethereal place, clear but not real.

Okamura Ninji closed his eyes in pain, he believed that what Nishio said was the truth, and the qiqi he saw before he fell into a coma had already given him a premonition, but he was unwilling, opened his eyes suddenly, and asked eagerly: "What is the situation of the two wings that have successfully crossed the river?" Nishio seemed to be very reluctant to strike another blow to the already frustrated commander, but he couldn't help but answer, "Your Excellency Commander, after the start of the shelling by the Shina army, there seems to be a fierce battle on the west bank, which lasted about four hours, and both the Nomura Wing and the Oshima Wing have lost contact with the headquarters, and there are no scattered soldiers returning, I am afraid that it will ......"

Nishio didn't say the second half of the sentence, but Okamura Ninji knew better than Nishio that those two wings must be fierce and auspicious, and all the jade had been shattered, and in just one day of the war, he lost more than 10,000 soldiers and half of the artillery of the wing, and such losses were all caused by that devil Tang Qiuli.

Okamura Ningji felt that his chest was blocked in a panic, and he couldn't get up in one breath, so that his forehead was bruised, and he said hatefully: "Tang Qiuli" was sweet in his throat, a mouthful of blood, and he couldn't help spurting out, Nishio was frightened, and then jumped up and shouted loudly The military doctor, this is the second time that His Excellency the commander vomited blood, Okamura Ningji heard Nishio's movement that had changed his tone, clenched his fists fiercely, and then passed out again.

(To be continued)