Devil's Army

Chapter 1950: Japanese Army Attacks on Xindi Town

After the brigade commander negotiated the passage agreement with Wang Jinzai, all the regimental commanders advocated pressing the attack and immediately assaulting the three towns of Wuhan. However, the brigade commander did not agree.

This puzzled them completely. Then, a brigade commander told them:

There are still quite a few Japanese and puppet troops in the three towns of Wuhan. In order to take the three towns of Wuhan as soon as possible, we do not need to act alone. Instead, we should wait for the Southern Independent Division and the Fifth Division of the New Fourth Army to encircle the three towns of Wuhan together.

Meanwhile, the Southern Independent Division and the Fifth Division of the New Fourth Army are currently recapturing various county towns under the jurisdiction of the Eastern Hubei Administrative Office. It is estimated that the battle for the Eastern Hubei Administrative Office will be completely over in about a week, and then they will join forces to attack the three towns of Wuhan.

In order not to provoke Wang Jinzai, the brigade commander decided that the entire army would remain stationary for the time being and rest in Jianli County and surrounding towns.

Who knew that Wang Jinzai's 128th Division would run into trouble at this time.

At that time, the battles in various counties of the Southern Hubei Administrative Office were in full swing. To avoid the 128th Division of Wang Jinzai and the devilish troops in the south, Commander Yokoyama Isamu ordered the New Fourth Army to encircle the three towns of Wuhan and to divide his troops into five routes to encircle the 128th Division, which was the weakest in terms of combat strength.

With the formidable fighting strength of the 128th Division, holding off the Japanese army for a week would have been no problem. However, three brigade commanders of Wang Jinzai's 128th Division successively led their troops to defect to the enemy.

By the time the brigade commander urgently dispatched troops to rescue him, Wang Jinzai had already fallen into the hands of the Japanese invaders.

The brigade commander immediately ordered his troops to split into three groups and attack the Japanese forces in Mianyang County.

The Nanchang Air Force also scrambled to launch a fierce bombing and strafing attack on the follow-up Japanese troops in the three towns of Wuhan.

Soon, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Regiments of the 1st Brigade, which had entered Mianyang County, encountered the Japanese army, and the two sides engaged in fierce fighting.

After the fall of Mianyang County, the three towns of Wuhan would be exposed to the threat of the devilish troops. The Japanese army, of course, took strict precautions.

The Second Regiment soon engaged in fierce fighting with the Japanese army in Xindi Town (now Honghu City), a major town in Mianyang County.

Xindi Town is located in the heart of the Jianghan Plain, in the triangular area between the Yangtze River and the Han River. It is a vast expanse of paddy fields, crisscrossed by lakes and waterways, with many main roads formed by dikes on both sides of canals.

This network of waterways did not significantly hinder the movement of the First Army, but it posed a great limitation for the Japanese army, which relied on mechanized transportation such as trucks and armored vehicles.

When the soldiers of the Second Regiment were pursuing the Japanese army along the dike, the Japanese tanks, which had been guarding the dike for a long time, were dispatched and fiercely bombarded the soldiers of the Second Regiment on both sides of the dike.

While the soldiers of the Second Regiment were being held back by the fierce firepower of the Japanese tanks, the gunboats and motorboats of the First Squadron of the First Army Navy shuttled through the waterways and launched a fierce bombardment of the Japanese tanks.

The Japanese infantry also suffered heavy bombardment from gunboats and motorboats.

Japanese tanks were destroyed one after another by the First Army Navy.

Under the fierce attack of the First Army's gunboats and the Second Regiment, the Japanese infantry retreated step by step.

When the Japanese troops retreated to the meeting points at various dikes, they stubbornly resisted the Second Regiment's attack.

The meeting point on the dike was situated on high ground with convenient transportation. The Japanese army had built numerous fortifications here, using the high ground to block the Second Regiment's attack.

The Japanese army also built lookout posts and defensive strongholds in relatively high-altitude areas around Xindi Town, such as Zhilu River, and secretly constructed artillery positions behind them.

When the soldiers of the Second Regiment reached the rendezvous point on the embankment, the Japanese lookout immediately reported the position of the soldiers of the Second Regiment to the artillery behind them.

Soon after, the soldiers of the Second Regiment, who were attacking, were subjected to a fierce bombardment by the Japanese artillery.

The vanguard of the Second Regiment suffered more than half casualties.