Two kilometers ahead, the tank squadron directly under the Tachibana Regiment had already left the city of Wuxi and was heading toward the headquarters along the bumpy road.
However, poor road conditions severely slowed the vehicle's progress.
At this time, Tachibana Koji began to regret the indiscriminate bombing of Wuxi City a few days ago. If the roads on the outskirts of Wuxi had not been bombed, and if the roads on the outskirts of Wuxi were intact, his tank squadron could have returned within five minutes. But now, this short distance of less than three kilometers takes at least ten minutes.
Although it was only a few minutes, the uneasiness and anxiety that brought Tachibana Koji was unprecedented.
Originally, Tachibana Koji never believed that the remnants of the Japanese troops who broke out from Wuxi would dare to sneak attack his headquarters, let alone that the remnants of the Japanese troops could truly threaten his headquarters. However, when he saw Matsui in the city center, On the battlefield where the team was ambushed, when he realized that he had fallen into his opponent's golden cicada escape plan, his judgment was completely reversed.
This is a powerful opponent with unimaginable tactical command capabilities.
Therefore, when Tachibana Koji discovered that the wing headquarters had been attacked, his heart immediately rose.
Tachibana Koji suddenly realized that he had fallen into his opponent's series of calculations. Ambushing the Inoue team in the city center was only the first step in the opponent's entire plan. The remnants of **** took the opportunity to break out, and then the opponent gathered these remnants and took advantage of the opportunity to sneak attack his headquarters.
In other words, the opponent has already targeted his headquarters from the beginning! Tachibana Koji couldn't imagine that the Chinese team had been beaten like this, and the opponent's commander actually still wanted to attack, and even dared to attack!
Yesterday, he had just taken down his headquarters, and today, he was going to attack his headquarters in turn.
This is not only a tenacious opponent, but also a fierce opponent. If you suffer a loss, you will take revenge immediately!
In life, those who are determined to retaliate rarely become great, but on the battlefield, such opponents are the most terrifying.
Thinking of this, a chill ran down Tachibana Koji's spine. This man's insight into human nature, his meticulous thinking, and his precise ability to grasp combat opportunities are simply breathtaking!
But despite being shocked, Tachibana Koji was a little excited.
Tachibana Koji has been completely brainwashed by the spirit of Bushido, and the militant factor has been integrated into his bone marrow. Therefore, the stronger the opponent he faces, the more it will arouse Tachibana Koji's fighting spirit, thinking that he may use the sword given by the Emperor to kill him with his own hands. After beheading his opponent, Tachibana Koji was so excited that his old man was furious.
At that moment, Tachibana Koji roared at the chariot driver: "Speed up, hurry up!"
"Hai!" The chariot driver bowed heavily and stepped on the accelerator of the chariot to the maximum. The chariot suddenly accelerated and roared forward, but the bumps became more severe.
However, the good times did not last long. The chariot had been galloping for less than a moment when a loud bang suddenly came from the front, and then the chariot stopped with a screeching sound.
"What's going on? Where did the explosion come from?" Tachibana Koji suddenly stood up and said angrily, "What happened?"
The Japanese soldiers standing in front of the lookout hole to observe the enemy's situation immediately turned around and reported: "Captain, the road bridge ahead was blown up by the Chinese ** team, and the No. 3 tank leading in front has fallen into the river."
"Nani? The highway bridge was blown up?" Tachibana Koji became angry when he heard it.
There is a Chinese proverb that goes, if the house leaks, it will rain continuously. It is true that the more you fear, the more likely it will happen.
At that moment, Tachibana Koji opened the car door angrily and hurriedly got out of the car. The orderly quickly followed up and put his body in front of Tachibana Koji, but he was pushed away by Tachibana Koji.
Tachibana Koji strode to the river and saw that the road bridge that was originally erected over the river had been blown up. The air was still filled with the smell of fire and saltwater left after the explosion. The No. 3 tank leading in front had fallen. After entering the river, half of the carriage was submerged. The chariot soldiers on board had already opened the door and were hurriedly climbing to the shore.
Major Akita got off the other tank, stepped forward and said to Tachibana Koji: "Captain, what should we do now?"
The Chinese and Japanese armies have been fighting in Wuxi for seven days, and the Japanese are extremely familiar with the terrain near Wuxi. Major Akita can draw a map of Wuxi in his mind without looking at a map. The blown-out highway bridge is used by highways and railways. The bridge is also the only large bridge between Wuxi urban area and the wing headquarters.
Except for this road bridge, the rest are all wooden bridges.
The wooden bridge can only be used for people to pass, but it is absolutely impossible for chariots to pass.
More importantly, if the Chinese Communist Party blew up the highway bridge, would they leave the wooden bridge behind
Sure enough, as soon as Major Akita finished speaking, two loud bangs were heard not far away, and two wooden bridges not far from the highway bridge were also blown apart.
Seeing this scene, Tachibana Koji suddenly turned pale with anger, biting his back teeth and cursed Baga.
But after he finished scolding, Tachibana Koji was at his wits' end. He was not a god, so naturally he had no way to let his chariots and troops fly over. He immediately ordered engineers to repair the bridge, and ordered Akita Major to send an infantry squadron to swim across it at all costs. Entangle the squadron and ensure the safety of the headquarters.
Until this time, Tachibana Koji did not know that his headquarters and artillery positions had been lost.
It wasn't that the Japs' correspondents were too slow, but that the Chinese moved so fast that the Japs couldn't even make a farewell call to Tachibana Koji and the division headquarters.
(Dividing line)
At this time, the remnants of the temporary 79th Division had successfully captured the Japanese artillery positions.
The Chinese came too suddenly and attacked so fiercely that the Japanese artillery had no time to blow up the cannons. As a result, all the artillery fell into the hands of the Chinese.
"Hurry up, lower the firing angle of the cannon, hurry up!" Xu Rui yelled excitedly, "Whoever knows how to shoot cannons, please come forward and kill those little devils!"
"Sir, I can, I can fire cannons!" Yang Dashu ran over excitedly with the crooked handle on his arm, but when he saw a dozen field cannons swaying in front of him, he was dumbfounded. He had been able to operate them before. Compared with the 60 mortar, I have never seen a field howitzer like this, let alone used it.
At that moment, Yang Dashu scratched his head and said, "Sir, I can't do this."
Artillery has always been a scarce unit in the battle order of the Nationalist Army.
There are more than 200 divisions of the National Army, and there are only a few main divisions equipped with howitzers.
A miscellaneous division like the temporary 79th Division can only fire a few mortars at most.
Xu Rui suddenly said: "Shooting is so simple. Loading, aiming, and firing are just like shooting a gun!"
"That's a direct-fire cannon. Direct-fire cannons are simple and you can do it as soon as you say it, but this is a curved-fire cannon." Lin Feng's figure suddenly appeared on the artillery position, and then said to Xu Rui, "You have to test the curved-fire cannon first. distance, and then calculate the shooting angle based on the distance. These are all technical tasks, and I have only learned a little bit, let alone them."
While talking, Lin Feng squatted in front of a 75mm-caliber field howitzer and turned the hinge with force. Amidst the clicking sound of the gears, the muzzle that was originally pointed at the night sky slowly lowered.
Xu Rui said happily: "Even if it is a straight-firing cannon, can't it be used as a direct-firing cannon?"
While talking, Xu Rui had already tilted the firing angle of one field gun to a completely horizontal position, and then rocked the next field gun.
While shaking, Xu Rui yelled at the remnant soldiers around him: "Why are you all still standing there in a daze? Hurry up and help me, shake down the tilt of the gun barrel, and face the Japanese convoy ahead. Move quickly!"
Lin Feng reminded again: "Old Xu, the trajectory of the cannon is a parabola, so you should leave some margin. The inclination of the barrel should be slightly higher than that of the Japanese convoy, otherwise the shell will fall in front of the Japanese convoy."
But Xu Rui shook his head and said, "You heard me right, adjust everything to a horizontal angle!"
Even for a curved cannon, the ballistic trajectory is parabolic only when shooting from a long distance. When shooting straight at a close range, the curvature of the ballistic trajectory is almost negligible.
At present, the distance between the artillery position and the Japanese convoy is less than one thousand meters.
While talking, Xu Rui had already leveled the firing angle of the second field gun, and then adjusted the sight so that the muzzle of the gun pointed straight forward, aiming at the Japanese convoy. At this time, Lin Feng and the other veterans had already moved the remaining artillery. The shooting angle was lowered, and most of the sights were adjusted, all aimed at the Japanese convoy ahead.
Of course, it can only be roughly aimed, and it is impossible to achieve precise aiming like a rifle.
Then Xu Rui opened the gun door, turned around and shouted: "Cannonball, give me an ammunition hand!"
Yang Dashu rushed forward excitedly, opened the ammunition box covered with oilcloth next to it, took out a 75mm caliber grenade and handed it to Xu Rui. Xu Rui stuffed the shell into the barrel of the gun as quickly as possible and closed the gun door. Then he pulled the firing cord hard, and the cannon banged, spitting out a stream of flames from the front of the barrel.
(Dividing line)
"Boom!" A shell landed directly on Tachibana Koji's command vehicle and exploded suddenly.
Xu Rui's shot actually missed. He was aiming at the tank in front, but it hit Tachibana Koji's command vehicle. There was only a bang, and the Japanese government paid a high price to import the Vick from the UK. The Si chariot turned into a pile of scrap metal, and the few Japanese soldiers who were sitting in the chariot but did not get off were instantly blown to pieces.
Tachibana Koji escaped from the disaster because he got out of the car to inspect the blown-up highway bridge. However, he was also affected by the air wave generated by the explosion and fell to the ground.
"Baga." Tachibana Koji got up from the ground in disgrace and cursed through gritted teeth, "What's going on? Where did the Chinese get the large-caliber howitzers?"
Tachibana Koji's brain was blown into a daze, and he didn't even react.
Next to him, Major Akita said with a stern face: "Captain, this is our field howitzer."
"Nani?" Tachibana Koji suddenly took a breath of air when he heard this, and his expression changed suddenly, "Our field howitzer? Has the Chinese ** team already occupied our artillery position?"
Major Akita said with a bitter expression: "I'm afraid that's the case."
"Baga!" The hair on Tachibana Koji's body suddenly stood up, and he turned around and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Give me the order, evacuate, emergency evacuation..."
However, before Tachibana Koji could finish his words, a row of cannonballs flew through the air with a squeaking sound.
The red shells dragged out dazzling tracers in the night sky, illuminating the entire night sky, the entire squadron of Japanese tanks, and the Japanese infantry that followed. Major Akita turned around unintentionally and saw For the first time, Tachibana Koji's face showed a look of horror.