I am Jiang Weiguo in World War II

Page 371

We had to dedicate more than one-third of our troops to hunting down their harassing guerrillas and snipers!"

A Soviet soldier said: "...The geographical environment here and the weather at this time are too favorable for their snipers. There are endless forests everywhere, and white snowfields everywhere, no matter it is day or night. , are filled with wind and snow, and the visibility is very low during the day, let alone at night.

Their snipers are like rattlesnakes in the desert, hiding in the sand and jumping out suddenly to bite you.

Especially at night, it was terrible. In order to keep warm from the cold, we had to cut down trees, light a bonfire, and gather around the bonfire to enjoy the fire. We were completely exposed to the fire, and we were the live targets of their snipers lurking in the dark. It often happens that a dozen Red Army soldiers are warming up by the bonfire, and suddenly a shot flies in. One person's head explodes, and the rest of them lie down in a hurry. This is an instinctive reaction, but it is a fatal mistake, because the shot The incoming bullets were not stray bullets, and they were not avoiding stray bullets or shells. It was correct to lie down on the spot when avoiding stray bullets or shells, but lying down to avoid snipers was simply waiting to die.

As a result, the lying soldiers were killed one by one by the Chinese snipers hiding in a dark corner nearby.

I once saw such a scene: On a snowy field, a bonfire had been burned out, and a whole eighteen Red Army soldiers were lying around the bonfire, all of which were shot and killed by the same Chinese sniper.

Faced with this situation, there is really no way, the enemy is dark and we are clear. If you go to search and pursue, first of all, the Chinese snipers will escape quickly in the dark night, violent snowstorm, and dense boundless forest. There was no way to chase, and even the Red Army soldiers who went to pursue them would be ambushed by them and eventually killed one by one; secondly, there was nowhere to hide, and they lay down on the spot to wait for death.

The only way is to escape, although it is embarrassing, but this is the only way.

These Chinese snipers were not only cunning, insidious, vicious, but also very tenacious. They were not afraid of death at all when fighting, and even participated in the battle with the mentality that they would surely die and kill more Red Army soldiers before they died.

I once encountered such a situation: one of our battalions was attacked by a Chinese sniper, and the whole battalion quickly launched repeated searches, but the Chinese sniper was not found within a few kilometers of the surrounding area. They were still attacked by snipers, and people continued to lose their lives. Finally, a soldier found a little fire on a nearby tree, thus confirming that the Chinese sniper was on that tree. No wonder he was not found.

After killing the Chinese sniper, the soldiers found 98 notches on the butt of his German Mauser 37k sniper rifle, indicating that he hid in this tree and killed a total of 37 Red Army soldiers.

There are also Chinese snipers who dug a hole near the railway and buried themselves in the snow pit with accumulated snow. Red Army soldiers!"

According to the "China Heroes Daily" report, the Nanjing Army on the Yicheng battlefield used sniper tactics extensively, resulting in the emergence of a large number of snipers with brilliant records. The number 100 is astonishingly more than 1 people.

Despite having an absolute advantage in heavy firepower, the Soviet army did not take down Yicheng in a hurry, but fell into a bitter battle. Not only that, Kulik never dreamed that there were more than [-] elite soldiers of the Nanjing Army quietly detouring to his rear.

The detour led by Qi Xueqi and Liao Yaoxiang took a route that no one had ever set foot in before. As Qi Xueqi said before the war, "We have a map, but there are only starting points and ending points on the map. We don’t know anything about the specifics.”

In the Siberian forest, sea and snow field in the north of Yicheng, more than 35 officers and soldiers of the Nanjing Army marched slowly and firmly. At this time, the temperature was as low as minus [-] degrees. Up to one meter, and there is still snow under the snow, but it has been frozen solid.

The officers and soldiers and the horses and pack animals in the team are all dressed in very bulky clothes, "people are like bears, and horses are like elephants".

When capturing Yicheng, the 74th Division seized a lot of alcohol, which was distributed to Qi Xueqi's team at this time. Everyone had a small bottle of spirits, and took a sip from time to time to warm their bodies.

The temperature was so cold that it was almost unimaginable. The officers, soldiers and pack animals seemed to be holding pipes in their mouths, and the hot air they exhaled was instantly frozen into hoarfrost. The officers and soldiers were wrapped so thickly that only their eyes were exposed, but their eyelashes were covered with frost.

Liao Yaoxiang wrote in his diary: "...the severe cold in Siberia is something we two Hunan people (both Liao Yaoxiang and Qi Xueqi are from Hunan) have never encountered before. Difficult things, pee directly turns into ice slag, stool directly turns into stone, the human body cannot be exposed to the air at all, it will really freeze to death.

Despite dressing like a bear and drinking non-stop, I still felt the extreme cold that pierced my bones like a steel needle.

The troops brought a lot of pack animals and war horses, and there were a lot of sleds. At first, many soldiers sat on sleds, but soon, no one made sleds. It was better to walk. Walking is warmer anyway. Sitting on a sled will freeze In addition, we have to keep blinking, otherwise, the eyelids will freeze and stick to the skin around the eye sockets.

This kind of thing happened in the army, when the soldiers licked the lunch box after eating, their tongues were frozen together with the lunch box, and the blood was dripping when they were torn off!"

The extreme cold brought great difficulties to the troops, and also brought certain casualties.

Some soldiers fell asleep in the snow nest because they were too tired and sleepy. They couldn't wake up and were frozen to death in their sleep; some soldiers lost their ears, noses and even fingers and toes due to negligence.

When the troops passed through a river with no name and the water surface was frozen solid in the vast snow field, it may be because there were too many people and too heavy, or the footsteps caused a resonance, and the ice surface that was more than one meter thick suddenly shattered. , Hundreds of officers and soldiers and a large number of weapons and equipment fell into the ice water. Some officers and soldiers saw the infantry artillery, machine guns and other heavy weapons they were in charge of falling into the ice hole, and dived into the ice water to salvage them. Most of them froze to death. In the ice water.

In order to set an example, Liao Yaoxiang also walked all the way. He accidentally found that some soldiers in the team "moved very strangely". When walking, their legs were very stiff, like artificial limbs. He asked a soldier, and the soldier said: " , I don’t know what’s going on, I feel like my calf is numb, and it hurts a little, but I don’t take it seriously, the brothers are all on their way, and I can’t fall behind..."

Liao Yaoxiang took the soldier to the tent he had set up and asked him to take off his cotton pants by the campfire. He was shocked to find that the soldier's legs had been frozen black from the knee down, and the two soles of his feet were completely necrotic. The toes have fallen off.

Soldiers in the ranks who walked "strangely" actually had frostbitten legs and feet, and most had toes that had to be amputated.

When a certain tissue of the human body is frostbitten, it will lose consciousness and then die. These soldiers have severely frostbited their legs and feet, but they don't know it very well, so they still stubbornly dragged their partially unconscious legs and continued to march forward.

In addition to the severe cold, there are also murderous terrain.

When troops are marching, what appears to be a vast expanse of whiteness in front of them is snow. In fact, the snow is not necessarily land, but it may be streams, rivers, lakes, valleys, mountain streams or even cliffs.

When the troops were passing through a mountain range, Liu Yaohuan, the deputy brigade commander who was walking beside Liao Yaoxiang, looked at the silver-clad plains all over the mountains and plains, and recited a few ancient poems casually: "Moon black geese fly high, Shan Yu night flees, and wants to drive Qingqi away. The snow is full of bows and knives!"

Before he finished speaking, Liu Yaohuan's foot slipped, and the snow he was standing on collapsed, and his whole body fell down like a kite with a broken string. The place he was standing was actually on the edge of a cliff, but it was covered with layers of snow. Below the snow is a snow valley mountain stream.

Liao Yaoxiang didn't have time to hold Liu Yaohuan, and watched Liu Yaohuan lightly sink into the snow valley like a monster's mouth, and then a chain reaction was triggered, a huge amount of snow on the edge of the cliff crashed down, forming an avalanche, enough to More than 400 officers and soldiers fell into the snow valley one after another.

These Chinese soldiers fell into a bottomless snow valley in a desolate place far away from their hometown, and were smashed to pieces. Their hot blood and broken, steaming limbs were instantly frozen in the cold wind and low temperature. The red corpse ice sculpture was then buried forever by the snow, sleeping forever in this remote and bitterly cold place.

Liao Yaoxiang and many officers and soldiers could not hold back tears, but their tears quickly froze into ice crystals in their eyes.

In order to hurry up, the marching of the troops is like this: hundreds or even thousands of people are holding on to a rope. Under the traction of the man, he walked mechanically and staggered forward.

"Pass it later! Don't fall asleep! Go fast!"

"Pass it later! Rest for an hour, supervise each other, and don't sleep too deeply! You will freeze to death!"

"Pass it to the back! There is a frozen lake ahead, don't step on the ice!"

"Pass it later! We are about to climb over a mountain, pay attention to the cliff!"

"Pass it later! There are still [-] kilometers away from the scheduled destination, no more cooking and heating is allowed! It's easy to be exposed!"

The officers and soldiers in the team shouted their words from front to back, advancing with difficulty but firmly in the ice and snow.

After trekking for four days and four nights and paying the price of more than 700 casualties, the detour troops of the 74th Division finally completed their journey and successfully appeared behind the Soviet army attacking Yicheng.

The officers and soldiers marching in the forest already knew that the target was not far away, because they saw lightning bursts and thunder rumbling on the horizon in the distance, which was the artillery group of the Soviet army shelling Yicheng.

The Soviet army never expected that a Nanjing army would circle their flanks for nearly [-] kilometers, and detour back to their rear like a divine soldier.

"If the success falls short, how can we be worthy of those brothers who died on the road!" Liao Yaoxiang burst into tears again, and the tears froze into ice crystals again.

Qi Xueqi immediately ordered the entire army to rest on the spot, and at the same time sent scouts to carry out reconnaissance. It took more than ten hours for the scouts to figure out the approximate location of the Soviet artillery positions. There were a dozen of them, but they were very concentrated. Concentrated on two plains, separated by several kilometers.

The Soviet army concentrated so many cannons, not because it made a low-level mistake, but because of the snowstorm right now, the bombers of the Nanjing Army could not bomb. In addition, the Soviet army’s cannons were all transported by rail, and the whole of Siberia was almost no man’s land. , except for the main line of the Siberian Railway and the very few branched railways and radial roads derived from it, more than 95% of Siberia is not covered by the transportation network. There is no road, and the extremely heavy cannons cannot be transported naturally. After being transported, there must be no way to pull it too far, so the Soviet artillery positions were set up on the north and south sides of the main railway line, very concentrated.

After finishing the rest and reconnaissance, Qi Xueqi gave the order that was almost bursting out in his chest: "All attack!"

Shocking Chinese shouts resounded in the blizzard behind the Soviet army. The officers and soldiers roared angrily and ran at full speed, sacrificing their lives to launch this well-prepared attack on the Soviet artillery positions.

On the artillery positions of the Soviet army, the Soviet artillery who were sweating profusely manipulating the artillery and the Soviet infantry who were protecting the artillery positions were in disbelief when they saw a large number of people riding on sleds and being dragged by pack animals from the forest, sea and snow field not far away. The Chinese soldiers who are flying and attacking at full speed.

"Chinese!" All the Soviet soldiers turned pale with shock.

"Kill!" Accompanied by the shout of killing in Chinese, there was a hail of infantry shells and mortar shells, and waves of shells roared to the positions of the Soviet artillery groups. The artillery shells piled up on the side were detonated one after another. In the thunderbolt-like explosion, the fire continued to rise from the ground like a volcanic eruption. The Soviet artillery around the artillery was either smashed to pieces or flying flesh and blood. The heavy cannons exploded violently. Sinochem into scrap metal parts.

In the continuous explosion fireball, fragments of Soviet artillery and Soviet artillery flew all over the sky together.

This was a hearty battle. Due to the tight strength of the Soviet army, and it was almost unexpected that so many Nanjing troops would appear on the rear artillery positions, the infantry guarding the artillery groups were even fewer than the artillery manipulators.

In an instant, the bloody storm bloomed in groups in the blizzard. The officers and soldiers of the Nanjing Army riding on the sleds were walking on the snowy field like lightning, and in a blink of an eye they had already killed the Soviet artillery group. The officers and soldiers roared, and the lightning-like bullets killed The blood of the Soviet army was splattered, and the grenades flew around, detonating one Soviet cannon after another.

The battle was almost one-sided. The panicked Soviet infantry barely resisted, while the artillery abandoned their artillery and fled in all directions, because the heavy artillery was stuck in the snow and could not be taken away.

The officers and soldiers of the Nanjing Army, who were fighting enthusiastically, were pleasantly surprised to find that the Soviet artillery basically did not have the "bad problem" of the Japanese artillery that frantically destroyed the cannons when the end came. A large number of Soviet artillery were still in place by the Soviet artillery, intact. Captured by the Nanjing Army.

Qi Xueqi was ecstatic. He hurriedly organized the artillerymen in the team to control the Soviet artillery. At the same time, he contacted Qiu Qingquan in Yicheng by radio to ask the coordinates of the attacking Soviet army.

On the battlefield of Yicheng, waves of Soviet artillery shells passed over the heads of the Soviet army and flew over the heads of the defending Nanjing army. Then, the artillery fire stopped for a while. The rain of shells blasted from above fell on the heads of the besieging Soviet troops one after another.

In the explosion of their own artillery shells, the siege Soviet army was blown up and ran away.

"I didn't expect to capture so many cannons!" Qi Xueqi, Liao Yaoxiang, He Guangqian and other officers were all elated. They captured more than [-] Soviet artillery pieces, more than half of which were large-caliber heavy artillery pieces.

The Nanjing army has been living in poverty, and has been suffering from insufficient artillery fire. Qi Xueqi and other officers were reluctant to order to blow up so many cannons at once. The fraternal troops of the Soviet Union needed artillery support, so Qi Xueqi ordered more than half of the troops to protect the cannons, and at the same time took the remaining troops to attack the second artillery group position of the Soviet army.

The assault troops continued to fight bravely, but at the same time, the scouts reported an urgent military situation to Qi Xueqi: a cavalry division of the Soviet army was coming, no less than [-] cavalry.

Qi Xueqi was startled, and he quickly calculated an account in his mind: the army still had about 3000 combatable soldiers at this time, and [-] were already protecting the first artillery group position of the Soviet Army. Taking more than [-] officers and soldiers to attack the second artillery group position of the Soviet Army, it is obvious that this is a situation where there are many divisions and it is at a great disadvantage.

Qi Xueqi had two options at this time: one was to let the troops immediately blow up the hundreds of cannons that had been seized, and then join forces to attack the position of the second artillery group of the Soviet Army. Launch the most vigorous defense; the second is to maintain the same action.

Obviously, the first option is the safest, while the second option is very dangerous.

Qi Xueqi hesitated for a moment. He was really reluctant to blow up those precious cannons. After all, the brother troops on the Yicheng battlefield still needed the firepower reinforcements from those Soviet cannons, so he gritted his teeth and made up his mind to adopt the second plan.

What happened in the first artillery group position of the Soviet army was repeated in the second artillery group position of the Soviet army. At the same time, they frantically destroyed the Soviet artillery with shells, grenades, and explosives.

Seeing the second artillery group of the Soviet Army covered in flames and thunder, and hundreds of cannons were blown into wreckage, Qi Xueqi was heartbroken. He took back all the cannons of the army, but he really couldn't do it, because the strength of the troops was tight, and he really couldn't protect and continue to use these cannons.

When the second artillery group position of the Soviet army was destroyed, Qi Xueqi led the officers and soldiers to return to the first artillery group position of the Soviet army when a large number of Soviet cavalry came out of the forest and snow field.

He Guangqian, commander of the 74th Cavalry Brigade, was surprised when he saw these Soviet cavalrymen who came to kill with strange screams, all wearing black cloaks and holding a curved saber similar to a Japanese samurai sword, he was shocked: "Cossack!"

The Soviet cavalry division that was killed was a Cossack cavalry unit consisting of five or six thousand cavalry. Tens of thousands of horseshoes trampled on the snow, and the snow was billowing, and the ice was like fog.

"Kill!" Qi Xueqi and He Guangqian roared together and ordered to attack.

It is definitely not the style of the Nanjing Army to be intimidated by a strong enemy.

Among the wreckage of Soviet artillery and the corpses of Soviet infantry and artillery, more than [-] Nanjing troops fought head-to-head with nearly twice as many Soviet cavalry.

The Cossack cavalry is undoubtedly brave and fierce, but the officers and soldiers of the Nanjing Army have strong firepower. After all, this is the era when the cavalry is declining, so the situation on the battlefield is not that the Nanjing Army was massacred by the Cossack cavalry on one side. Amidst the sound of horseshoes, strafing, and explosions, the scorched earth immediately became clouded with blood, and a large number of Cossack cavalry were shot and killed by the Nanjing Army. The head was decapitated, and the blood was spattered three feet.

The bloody battle lasted for more than half an hour. More than half of the Nanjing Army suffered casualties, as did most of the Cossack cavalry. He Guangqian fell off his horse because his horse was shot in the melee. During the counterattack, he was stabbed in the abdomen by a dying Cossack cavalry. In an instant, his intestines burst, and he fell to the ground dying.

Qi Xueqi, who was awake because of severe pain and cold, found himself being dragged by several Cossack cavalry. The other party knew that Qi Xueqi was a senior officer through his collar badge and wanted to capture him alive.

Qi Xue, who had almost no strength in his body, moved his hands and found that the pistol had been taken away by the other party. He stretched out his right hand like a flash of light, and groped for the huge wound on his abdomen.

Several Cossack cavalry who were dragging Qi Xueqi were horrified to find that the Chinese soldier actually used his hands to cut through the blood ice from the abdominal wound, and then reached out and penetrated the wound into the blood-filled abdominal cavity.

Qi Xueqi used his last strength to drag out his intestines, the stomach sac and liver connected with the intestines, committed suicide and died for the country.

After paying the cost of more than 5000 casualties, including three senior officers, Qi Xueqi, He Guangqian, and Liu Yaohuan, the roundabout raid troops of the 74th Division successfully destroyed most of the Soviet artillery on the Yicheng battlefield.

Chapter 447

Qiqihar, Manzhouli, Irkutsk... Northern China is full of smoke. At the same time, the border between Rehe Province and Liaoning Province is also burning with raging flames.

On December 12, Jiang Weiguo received an urgent telegram from Zhang Xueliang, commander of the Eighth Military Region: Some troops from the military region crossed the border without authorization and attacked Liaoning!Things are out of control!

"What?" Jiang Weiguo was taken aback.

The Eighth Military Region of the National Army is under the jurisdiction of Rehe Province and Chahar Province. The commander of the military region is Zhang Xueliang, the deputy commander is Yu Xuezhong, and the chief of staff is Rong Zhen. They are all core executives of the former Northeast Army. He was the "King of the Northeast" back then, and all Chinese troops in Rehe Province were troops from the former Northeast Army.

After the Xi’an Incident, the Northeast Army was fully reorganized into 5 infantry armies and 1 cavalry army, with a total of 10 infantry divisions and 3 cavalry divisions. ), the Northeast Army was reorganized again. At this time, there were still 3 armies, each with 2 infantry divisions (three regiments) and 1 cavalry brigade, a total of 6 infantry divisions and 3 cavalry brigades. The strength is about 8.

The three armies of the Northeast Army at this time are the 3th, 50th, and 57th armies, and the three army commanders are Wu Keren, Liu Duoquan, and Wang Yizhe.

These Northeast Army units are relatively sophisticated in terms of weapons and equipment, because before the September 30th Incident, the Northeast Army was the first in the country in terms of sophisticated weapons and equipment. The scale and productivity of Zhang Xueliang’s arsenal were stronger than that of Chiang Kai-shek, and even stronger than the Japanese. , Fengtian Arsenal is the largest comprehensive arsenal in Asia. Over the past eight years, the Northeast Army has grown from 10 million to less than [-]. With fewer people, there is no shortage of weapons and equipment. What is lacking is only logistical ammunition supplies.