Chapter 578: Clearing and Counterattacking
And Li He was more worried that once the follow-up forces of the Japanese army arrived, then these first-echelon paratroopers of the Japanese army, who were assembled and might contain a considerable part of their own troops, would play a considerable role. There is no fear of a new enemy, but if there is an enemy who has already gotten into his belly and can join forces with the new enemy, it is not a trivial matter.
Especially for an army like the Japanese army, which goes crazy at every turn, even without the support of heavy weapons, it must not be taken lightly. For themselves and the surrounding friendly and neighboring troops, once these paratroopers scattered at the moment are assembled, they will be a danger to their henchmen. The truth that the first strike is strong, and the second strike suffers, he Li He does not need to be taught by others, he is quite clear.
It was the fear that these Japanese paratroopers would assemble and attack behind them while they were facing the enemy head-on. Therefore, Li He mobilized the forces used to clear the Japanese paratroopers, and even put in the number of troops to launch an attack on the frontal enemy. It is to eliminate those Japanese paratroopers as much as possible, first disrupt the intentions of the Japanese army, and first solve the problem of the enemy army in the stomach.
As for whether the Japanese paratroopers, who only had pistols and bayonets, would sneak up on their backs while they were in a fierce battle with the enemy in front of them, as he judged, Li He thought it was almost certain. Since joining the army, he has been fighting against the Japanese army for many years. These Japanese soldiers who came up to the extreme madness, there is nothing they dare not do in this world.
Don't look at them, most of them probably only have pistols and bayonets at the moment, but that two-pole force will go crazy to the end. There will be no action because of the equipment. Not to mention that each of them still has a pistol in his hand.
According to Li He's understanding of the crazy strength of the Japanese army, they didn't have a pistol, and they only carried a 30 bayonet, and they dared to do the same. Li He didn't want to be stabbed in the back by these madmen when he was fighting fiercely with the enemy in front of him. Even if there was even the slightest possibility, he didn't want it to happen.
In order to avoid this situation, Li He still made the first move. Even if it is impossible to completely clear the surrounding Japanese paratroopers in a short period of time, it is not possible to let them interfere with their combat operations. The surrounding terrain and the over-dispersion of the landing sites of the Japanese paratroopers only allowed him to draw as many troops as he could.
The Japanese paratroopers were in the sky, and there were no high-rise buildings in the city at this time. Although I can't stand up and watch, the distance between my eyes and my eyes is somewhat limited. But at least he knew the landing place of the Japanese paratroopers in the surrounding area. He couldn't control what was out of sight, but he had to solve the problems in his line of sight.
The Japanese paratroopers landed almost all over their perimeter, so to speak, everywhere. With fewer troops, it is impossible to wipe them out in a short period of time, and it is impossible to solve the problem. That's why he deployed most of his troops to clear out the surrounding Japanese paratroopers, instead of fighting on the front line.
However, he also knew that according to the troops and terrain at hand, it was impossible to clear an area on a large scale. Not to mention the large number of alleys around, there is no difference from the ones I passed before, and there are labyrinths everywhere. Although he did not have that many troops, he blocked the alleys of all the surrounding residential areas. The only way to do this is to disperse the troops, to break them apart, and to gradually carry out the elimination from the inside to the outside with the squad as the formation.
However, it is also necessary to invest as many troops as possible at the first time, and at least ensure that there is no new enemy situation in the vicinity of the battlefield where we are fighting. As for whether these squad-based troops would encounter any danger when encountering a small number of Japanese paratroopers who had gathered first, Li He really didn't care.
Their own troops were all automatic rifles and submachine guns, and the Japanese paratroopers only had pistols and sabers plus bayonets and a few grenades until they found the weapon box. What does it matter if you assemble a team? If a fully equipped infantry squad can't even deal with an infantry squad of the Japanese army, which is equal to bare hands, then everyone will go home collectively to hold their children, and why will they shout to completely drive the Japanese army out of China?
After the deployment of this qiē, he urged the instructors to speed up and lag. Li He took the only two platoons at hand, and under the cover of a 12-mm machine gun and two 60 guns brought by the troops of the 53rd Regiment, he launched an attack on the remnants of the last 150 Japanese troops in front of him.
It's just that the Japanese army has retreated to a residential area at the moment, and the two 60 guns can not play a very big role. Li He knew very well that these two 60 mortars could only shell the fortifications facing the street at most, and they had to gnaw the real depth area. But he had no choice at the moment, even if he couldn't get any fire support. If you don't do it, you won't be able to get anything when the reinforcements arrive.
Although he only had seventy percent of the strength of the Japanese army in front of him, Li He did not hesitate. For a militant like him, it was already difficult to accept that the Japanese army in front of him would give a share of the 53rd Regiment. If there were other brother troops, and he would share it again, his face would be disgraced. Therefore, he thought that it was necessary to completely deal with the Japanese troops in front of him before the other brother troops arrived.
Although in terms of the distribution of troops, he did not distinguish between far and near because his brother troops belonged to two regiments of different formations. But the feeling of letting the brothers' troops dig a large piece of meat from their own bowl was not revealed on the surface, but it made him quite uncomfortable in his heart.
However, he also knew that with the strength of the two reinforced platoons in his hands, it was impossible to completely eat the Japanese troops in front of him, but it was not impossible to defeat them. He had already made up his mind, even if he couldn't wipe them all out. But before the new troops can catch up, it is necessary to crush the Japanese troops in front of them.
He had a feeling that since the Japanese paratroopers had entered the city, their superiors would never sit idly by. Although the total number of troops is not too large to be mobilized into the city for reinforcements, at least more than one battalion of troops will be transferred into the city to assist in the battle. After all, the delay in solving the problem in Tongliao County will affect the entire strategic deployment of the superiors.
Li He's order to clear the Japanese paratroopers can be said to be the first order to clear the Japanese paratroopers in the entire Tongliao City. His actions were even earlier than the order to purge them from their division commanders. Nearly half an hour after his operation had begun, Wang Jun's order to divide his troops to clear the crackdown was delivered.
Don't look at Li He, who looks like Zhang Fei on the outside, but his mind is very delicate, and his sense of smell is still very sensitive in some aspects. The higher authorities not only mobilized reinforcements into the city for reinforcements, but also mobilized some heavy equipment into the city. The only thing he misjudged was that his superiors were far more determined than he expected. The reinforcements brought into the city exceeded his expectations by a battalion.
How many reinforcements were transferred into the city by the superiors, of course, this is not something that Li He, the battalion commander, should consider at this time. Li He, who put all his thoughts on the enemy army in front of him, thought more about how to defeat the Japanese army in front of him in the shortest possible time. But despite the sense of urgency in his heart, Li He did not act hastily. He didn't want to go without meat, but he would be bitten back.
In order to replenish the ammunition, which was already insufficient, he collected a large number of grenades from the corpses of Japanese soldiers killed in previous battles. The two weapons boxes that the Japanese paratroopers landed on his position, a Type 92 heavy machine gun and a Type 99 light machine gun, were also set up to make up for the lack of ammunition at the moment.
Moreover, he had been fighting with the Japanese army in front of him for half the night and a whole morning, although the battle in the morning, because of the excessive blood loss, the two sides were basically facing each other. But he had a clear understanding of the situation of the entire Japanese defensive line. The Japanese troops on the opposite side were not idle during the fierce battle last night.
All the doors and windows of the houses in the entire control area were removed, and sandbags were piled up, or bricks and rubble were piled up to replace them with fortifications. There were not enough men, so they arrested all the inhabitants of this area and worked as coolies for them. If there is not enough bricks and rubble, the courtyard wall in the deep area will be demolished.
For the Japanese army, they wanted to form a complete fortification, and these courtyard walls and the walls of the houses were an obstacle. Anyway, it is an obstacle, and it is not my own house, and there is an urgent need for materials to build fortifications in front of it. If you don't dismantle it at this time, when will you wait. As for the opinions of the Chinese people on their forced demolition, it is easy to solve. As soon as the bayonet went down, all the contradictions were resolved.
In just one morning's confrontation, he smashed all the houses and courtyards that were not connected to each other and connected them into one. The light and heavy machine guns were all on the room, and the grenadier canisters were deployed at a distance of 100 meters, using their ballistics to specifically suppress the machine guns on this side.
It was only the fierce battle that was repeatedly fought for last night that was finally squeezed out of the main defensive zone, and the Japanese troops in front of them suffered heavy casualties. Because of the shortage of troops, they abandoned most of their original positions and could only entrench themselves on a limited position that was less than 500 meters long from north to south and only more than 200 meters wide from east to west.
However, the Japanese commander in front of him was very stubborn in distributing the forces evenly. However, he was not stupid enough to really distribute the troops evenly, and distributed the fully equipped 100 men in his hands to the two wings equally. In addition to keeping one of the most complete combat squads in place behind you, alert for the possibility of new enemies behind you. The eighty people, who had become the main combat strength, strengthened the only two remaining 92 heavy machine guns, all of which he strengthened to the middle line.
As for the two wings, they were given to the dozens of paratroopers, plus the armed expatriates in his hands to serve as defense. In the face of these paratroopers, only one weapon box was collected in his control area, and only five Type 38 carbines were obtained. The rest of the people, in addition to self-defense pistols, have only the status quo of bayonets.
He managed to get twenty rifles and dozens of grenades from the seriously wounded who had lost their combat effectiveness in the fierce battle last night. A crooked-handle machine gun and a Czech light machine gun were also drawn from the front to the two wings. And the remaining thirty people, sorry that there are not so many weapons, you should continue to fight the enemy with pistols and bayonets.
You'll have to find your superiors who let the planes drop your weapons on the other side. Although you are the elite, but the army of the Japanese Empire, which is not the elite? Everyone is an elite, why should others have to be in the middle of the battle, hand over their weapons to you to use, and have to stab themselves with empty fists?
However, considering the lack of strength and equipment on both wings, this old man still added ten combat soldiers on each of his two wings. In addition, more than a dozen lightly wounded people who did not affect their actions too much were also deployed to the two wings by his tradition of not being lightly injured and not getting out of the line of fire.
After this action, he thinks that even if the whole army presses the anti-Japanese alliance in front of him, there is no problem for him to hold on for a period of time. As for what to do in the future? He didn't think there was anything to worry about. Since the Kwantung Army Command even sent out the 1st Wing of the Paratroopers at the bottom of the box, will the big reinforcements be far away? Although the division commander did not say it explicitly, I am afraid that the Kwantung Army has now begun to reinforce on a large scale.