Du Kaishan's original determination was to cross the Hutuo River upstream and make a detour to Xian County with a force of troops, in order to cut off the passage of the Japanese army on the south bank of the Hutuo River and rescue the remnants of the 64th Division. At the same time, the remnants of the 64th Division were completely blocked, and the last possible retreat channel was completely blocked, and the hope of the Japanese army to break through was completely crushed psychologically.

As a veteran, after fighting with such an ad hoc division as the 64th Division. Du Kaishan obviously felt that this 64th Division was not to mention that it was compared with those elite divisions of the Japanese army back then. That is, compared with the Japanese troops who fought in northern Shanxi last year, there is a big difference in morale and military quality.

At this time, the battle has been fought, and the troops have not been repaired in continuous combat, and at the same time, they are already extremely tired, and the various participating units have also suffered heavy casualties due to continuous combat. Du Kaishan still wanted to attack the remnants of the 64th Division, and planned to adopt siege tactics, which could be regarded as a surrender without a fight.

But at present, the No. 1 order must be dealt with within two days, and the remnants of the remaining three brigades of the 64th Division must be resolved. Du Kaishan could only change his original siege plan and make up his mind to attack. However, in terms of tactical use, Du Kaishan still thought about it carefully.

As a front-line commander, he knew that the troops had suffered heavy casualties after a month of continuous hard fighting, not to mention that they had suffered heavy casualties, and they were already extremely tired. At a time when the North China operation was nearing its end, he did not want to add more casualties to ensure that the troops participating in the battle would not be injured.

Because at least for now, he does not know what kind of situation the Japanese army may have in the follow-up counterattack. If the remnants of the 64th Division are resolved, the casualties of the troops are too large, which will affect the investment in the follow-up battle situation, so Du Kaishan still wants to solve the problem with firepower.

For him, there is no more artillery shells to rebuild, but once the precious veterans with actual combat experience suffer too many casualties, they don't know that they can be replenished in the year of the monkey. Keeping as many veterans alive as possible is undoubtedly more important than how much ammunition and equipment is consumed.

In fact, at present, the 64th Division, which was originally composed of two brigades and four infantry brigades, had the main force in the Hejian battlefield before, and most of them had been resolved. The remaining forces were clustered by Du Kaishan's tanks, taking turns to fight and bite at pieces, and solved on the way to retreat.

Now the Japanese army is compressed on the north bank of the Hutuo River, and there are only three brigades left that are no longer complete, as well as some of the directly subordinate arms such as baggage and search. The artillery has been largely lost, and there is not much ammunition left. In the face of the few remnants of the 64th Division with no grain and grass inside and no reinforcements outside, in order to complete the combat mission within the time specified by Yang Zhen, Du Kaishan still adopted the tactic of killing chickens and using a knife.

When they came up, they concentrated two 150 howitzer battalions directly under them, one 122 rocket artillery battalion, and some artillery and antiaircraft artillery units of the two infantry divisions that participated in the battle. A total of five battalions of powerful artillery, covering two reinforced infantry regiments, with the cooperation of two tank battalions, launched a full-line attack on the Japanese army.

However, for the remnants of the 64th Division, who were trapped on the river bank and could not advance or retreat, the offensive launched by Du Kaishan was like a relief. For all the officers and men of the 64th Division, who were already basically running out of food, from top to bottom, they were all dead anyway, and it was better to die in battle than to starve to death.

After Du Kaishan's final offensive was launched, the Japanese army, which was originally struggling to survive, fought extremely tenacious. Even with bayonets in their hands, regardless of the napalm bombs dropped by the anti-United Nations attack planes and the bombardment of platoon artillery, especially the rocket artillery with the most lethal power, the whole platoon launched a counterattack, which was very a situation of fighting for every inch of land.

To deal with a position like the Japanese army, which has no permanent fortifications, rocket artillery is the most suitable weapon. A salvo goes down, and the power is quite amazing. In order to alleviate casualties and speed up the course of the battle, Du Kaishan specially concentrated a 122 rocket artillery battalion in the final settlement of the 64 th Division.

With the addition of a large number of mountain artillery and howitzers, the last territory of the Japanese army was baptized. In addition to a large number of flat-firing small-caliber anti-aircraft guns, as well as a whole squadron of Il-2 attack planes that constantly dive and attacked, the remaining remnants of the 64th Division were defeated and tactics were given a sea of fire tactic.

The Japanese army, which has always used its own tactics of fire to deal with the tactics of the Chinese army, which is extremely inferior in weaponry and equipment, has truly understood what a real sea of fire is. During the retreat, he almost lost all his heavy weapons. Even the 64th Division, which had little light weapons and ammunition left, could only learn from the Chinese army in those years and use the sea of people to fight the sea of fire.

It's just that the remnants of the 64th Division, which only have three incomplete infantry brigades left, are desperately trying, and this sea of people is too thin. Although Yang Zhen did not leave much time for Du Kaishan, Du Kaishan still fought steadily, under the cover of artillery fire, he adopted the tactics of attacking on both sides and pressing on the other.

Two tank companies and two infantry battalions were used to attack from the east and west. An infantry regiment was reinforced with a tank battalion, squeezed from the front. The remaining strength of the 64th Division was gradually reduced to the banks of the Hutuo River. He was going to catch the remnants of the 64th Division and go down to the river to bathe in the coldest season of the year.

Although the remnants of the 64th Division were desperately resisting, the difference in strength and firepower was too great. No matter how tenacious the Japanese army is, no matter how high the military quality of the Japanese army is. In the face of overwhelming artillery fire, manpower is still limited. Du Kaishan advanced steadily, squeezing the remaining Japanese troops towards the river bank little by little.

Intensive artillery fire knocked down the Japanese troops who launched the counter-charge, and napalm turned the remaining Japanese positions into a sea of fire. The flat-firing twin 23-mm anti-aircraft guns and quadruple 14-mm machine guns could penetrate the entire range of the Japanese position, giving the Japanese a great deal of lethality.

Although Du Kaishan has done his best in terms of firepower. However, in the use of troops, it is quite cautious. He repeatedly admonished all commanders of the frontline units to fight steadily and steadily in action and not to rush for success. If you can solve it with firepower, you should never charge with infantry.

It is necessary to save troops to the greatest extent and squeeze the remnants of the Japanese army into the Hutuo River as much as possible. Guarding the best weapons of nature, why lose your own troops? Letting the dragon lord of the Hutuo River clean up these beasts is undoubtedly the best choice in Du Kaishan's opinion.

According to Du Kaishan's deployment, although the troops on the front line were slow, under the cover of artillery fire, they firmly pushed the front forward. Batches of artillery shells carved out walls of fire on the Japanese positions. The Japanese counter-assault was so vulnerable under the artillery fire of the Anti-United Nations that it could not get close to the anti-United Nations assault troops.

In the face of the fire offensive and crushing tactics of the Anti-Japanese Union, the 64th Division, which was trapped in the dead place, was helpless. Despite desperate resistance, the resistance is getting weaker and weaker as the casualty numbers continue to rise. No matter how resolute the will of the remnants of the 64th Division is to resist, it still looks so fragile in the face of overwhelming artillery fire.

After six hours of fierce fighting, the last will of the remnants of the 64th Division finally collapsed under the repeated onslaught of the tanks dispatched by Du Kaishan. Shelled by artillery fire and anti-union infantry tanks rushed up from three sides, the Japanese troops who had no way to retreat were squeezed. I don't care about how cold the water of the Hutuo River is in the freezing season.

Desperate to jump into the river, trying to swim across the Hutuo River to escape this terrifying place. In the eyes of the last remnants of the remnants of the 64th Division, the Hutuo River, which was still floating with ice floe on the river at this moment, had become the only way they could escape from this death zone.

But the Hutuo River, which is in the coldest season of the year in the North China Plain, is clearly not welcoming to these exotic jackals. The Japanese soldiers who jumped into the river to avoid the artillery fire, no matter how good the water was, but in the blink of an eye, they were frozen and stiffened by the icy water, and then they were crushed to the bottom of the river by the huge splash set off by the shells. After the splash subsided, it resurfaced again.

On the surface of this section of the Hutuo River, there are corpses of Japanese soldiers floating everywhere. The corpses drifted downstream as the river flowed slowly. In the lower reaches of the Ziya River, at the confluence of the Hutuo River and the Hulu River, the ice that has not yet been blown up is densely piled up. The river above the Shahe Bridge was littered with the corpses of Japanese soldiers.

Although after the end of this battle, in order to prevent such a large number of corpses from decomposing and polluting the river, forming a large-scale infectious disease. At the request of the health department of the Anti-Japanese Federation, the local government in Jizhong organized people to salvage and bury them many times to avoid water pollution.

However, there were too many corpses washed down the river, and some of the corpses even flowed into the Ziya River along the Hutuo River, and then were washed along the Ziya River all the way to Tianjin. In the more than ten years after the war, from the battlefield to the lower reaches, no one dared to eat the fish in the Hutuo River and the Ziya River downstream. Decades later, in the river, white bones wearing Japanese military steel helmets were found from time to time.

In addition to most of the Japanese troops who were completely beaten and collapsed, most of them were directly torn to pieces by artillery fire, or were napalm to barbecue the city's black charcoal, and went directly to the Dragon King of the Hutuo River as guests, there were also a considerable number of surrenders. There were even more than half of the Japanese infantry squadrons, under the leadership of the squadron leader, who raised the white flag in formation. This was almost unimaginable in the previous battles.

Among the senior officers of the entire 64th Division, except for the commander of the 64th Division and his chief of staff, none of them survived being hit by a 150-mm howitzer shell because of the improvised concealment where the division headquarters was located. One of the two brigade commanders was crushed into pulp by the tanks of the anti-United Nations pursuit force and his brigade headquarters during the retreat of the 64th Division.

Another brigade commander was seriously wounded in the last battle and was captured unconscious. The eight infantry captains of the two brigades were all killed and none survived. The entire 64th Division participated in the battle, with the exception of some engineers and baggage troops left on the south bank of the Hutuo River, and the entire army was basically wiped out.

None of the senior officers of the division survived or escaped. In other words, Uchiyama Eitaro is on the battlefield in Jizhong, and now one of the only two remaining divisions has been surrounded and annihilated. When Du Kaishan abused the remnants of the 64th Division, the reinforcements never approached Xian County, and it was still quite far away from the battlefield of this battle.

When the division was marching, it encountered the interception of air fire from the anti-coalition. On the other hand, it was also at the private request of Eitaro Uchiyama that he deliberately slowed down his speed. For Uchiyama Eitaro, when it was reported that the attack on Du Kaishan on the battlefield of the Hutuo River had begun.

and staying on the south bank of the Hutuo River in the Hejian Battlefield, the 1st Engineer Corps of the 64th Division not only failed to erect a pontoon bridge, but also took out the remnants of the 64th Division. On the contrary, after he was captured in Xian County, the anti-union forces that continued to advance eastward surrounded the south bank of the Hutuo River opposite Shanglin. It was already clear that the remnants of the 64th Division were difficult to rescue.

Therefore, he secretly ordered the division that had newly arrived on the battlefield to immediately stop continuing to move north and retreat to Hengshui in the southeast. He can't build a new division for the sake of the remnants of more than 2,000 people. In the current battle situation on the entire battlefield in Jizhong, this division is going north, which is tantamount to sending sheep into the tiger's mouth.