The officers of the 1st Independent Brigade knew very well how powerful the combat effectiveness of more than 5,000 Japanese troops gathered together. If you want to eat so many Japanese soldiers in one bite, maybe your surname is too small.
Xu Dalong saw their worries and explained to them patiently. When the officers of the First Independent Brigade listened to Xu Dalong's explanation, they all became excited. They said that once the battle started, they would resolutely hold their position and never let the Japanese troops break out from them.
The Independent First Brigade continued to provide Kawamoto with false information, so Kawamoto led the Japanese army to confidently and boldly launch a rapid march in the direction of Zhencheng.
At 1:50 noon that day, the Engineer Regiment of the Japanese Fifth Division, as the vanguard, first entered the encirclement set by Xu Dalong. Immediately afterwards, Kawamoto led the follow-up troops and rushed over.
At five minutes past two, the battle began. The forward, wings and rear of the Japanese army were all attacked by guerrillas.
Heben had experienced hundreds of battles, but he did not panic when faced with guerrilla attacks. He quickly observed the battlefield and saw that the Japanese army was in a low-lying area, but this low-lying area was very large and the enemy did not have a superior geographical location to attack the Japanese army from a high position. Although the Japanese army encountered guerrilla attacks, the casualties of the troops were very small.
Kawamoto ordered the troops to defend on the spot, and after they understood the enemy's situation, they launched a counterattack against the guerrillas.
Kawamoto first called the First Independent Brigade and asked them to report the enemy's situation. However, the Independent First Brigade, which had been in contact all the time, could not be contacted at this moment.
This made Kawamoto feel a little surprised, and he didn't understand what happened in the First Independent Brigade. However, he did not think that something had happened to the First Independent Brigade. Although the First Independent Brigade is a puppet army, it is still a brigade with more than 5,000 people. It is absolutely impossible for it to be eaten by the guerrillas in such a short period of time.
Kawamoto guessed that there might be a communication problem, but this was too coincidental. Why did the problem occur at this time? Kawamoto ordered people to continue to contact the 1st Independent Brigade. If the intercom failed, he would use the radio. At the same time, he ordered his subordinates to quickly understand the situation around the battlefield.
The bad news soon came. Kawamoto discovered that the anti-Japanese armed forces that appeared around them were not just a small group of guerrillas. The number of them was far beyond his imagination. Judging from the number of people that can be seen, the enemy's strength is at least tens of thousands.
Kawamoto did not panic, on the contrary, he was secretly happy. He has been in Malaysia for more than a year. Although those guerrillas are not very good, they are very cunning and it is very difficult to catch them. Now that these guerrillas are gathering together regardless of life or death, it is a good time to eliminate them.
He immediately ordered officers above the captain to run and report. He was going to hold a short military meeting to plan the next battle.
At this moment, groups of artillery shells flew over, and the intensity of the artillery fire far exceeded the imagination of Kawamoto and the Japanese officers and soldiers.
Why did the guerrillas suddenly have such powerful firepower? Passed the last battle to annihilate the Watanabe Regiment. The guerrillas' artillery shells were basically exhausted. In terms of artillery, the guerrillas simply could not compete with the Kawamoto Division. Relying on such meager firepower, Xu Dalong did not dare to directly surround the Hemoto Division.
The guerrillas suddenly appeared with a large number of artillery pieces, which were provided by the British army. The British army has been operating in Malaysia for many years and has built many ammunition depots, some open and some secret. After the Japanese invaded Malaysia, most of the British ammunition depots were occupied or destroyed by the Japanese, but there was a large secret ammunition depot that was not discovered by the Japanese.
Colonel Smith, the commander of the second guerrilla detachment, knew about this ammunition depot. For more than a year, the British army and the Malaysian servant army he led were able to survive mainly because of this ammunition depot. This ammunition depot has a huge capacity, and after such a long period of consumption, it still retains half of its inventory.
This time they took out all the family property and gave it to Xu Dalong. Only then did Xu Dalong have the confidence to directly encircle and annihilate the Heben Division.
Among these British-made weapons, there are 26 102mm howitzers, 48 75mm mountain guns, and more than 80 81mm mortars. Such a large number of artillery firepower is very fierce. The Japanese Type 92 infantry cannon and 60mm mortar are no match in the first place. In addition, the guerrilla artillery has been fully prepared in advance and has calculated the shots.
The Japanese artillerymen had no time to get into position before they encountered violent shelling and suffered heavy losses. It took a full seven or eight minutes before the Japanese army used a small number of remaining artillery pieces to counterattack the guerrillas. During this period, Japanese officers and soldiers were littered with corpses under heavy artillery fire.
Only then did Kawamoto realize the seriousness of the problem. He saw the guerrillas hiding in the surrounding mountains and forests, while his own troops were exposed in the low-lying valleys. This situation cannot continue.
He made a prompt decision and instead of discussing with the officers who came to attend the meeting, he directly issued an order and immediately organized troops to break out.
When choosing the direction to break out, his first feeling was that he could not return the same way. He believed that Xu Dalong would definitely make the same judgment. In order to cut off the Japanese army's retreat, he must set up heavy troops on the way they came.
There are higher mountains on both flanks of the Japanese army. If they choose to break out on both wings, the enemy will occupy favorable terrain and be condescending, which will cause serious losses to the Japanese army. And continuing to move towards Zhencheng is the best choice at the moment. On the one hand, the terrain there is relatively open, and on the other hand, Kawamoto feels that he should be able to get support from the Independent First Brigade.
Kawamoto did not hesitate and immediately ordered his troops to break out in the direction of Zhencheng.
Of course, what Hemoto could think of, Xu Dalong could also think of. When setting up the encirclement, Xu Dalong was judging which direction the Japanese army would choose to break out. He also believed that the Kawamoto Division would definitely break out toward Zhencheng and join the First Independent Brigade. Therefore, Xu Dalong focused his defense on the direction of Zhencheng.
Here, under the personal command of Xu Dalong, the fourth detachment of the first detachment is responsible for the blocking task, as well as the second detachment of the guerrilla army composed of British troops and Malaysian servants commanded by Colonel Smith. These are the most powerful units in the guerrilla corps. Before the battle started, Xu Dalong had promised Colonel Smith that the British army did not need to save ammunition. After the battle, he would replenish the British troops.
The Japanese army broke through in the direction of Zhencheng, and soon there was a fierce battle with the guerrillas who were responsible for blocking the mission.
In the past, when the Japanese army fought against guerrillas, they relied heavily on their superior firepower. But as soon as the battle started, they discovered that the enemy's firepower on the opposite side was so fierce that it even exceeded the Japanese army by more than twice. Under such fierce firepower, the Japanese army could not attack at all. After launching two consecutive attacks, the Japanese army abandoned corpses everywhere and had to temporarily stop the attack.
The commander of the Kawamoto Division was now beginning to become nervous, feeling that the seriousness of the situation had exceeded his imagination. He has now begun to have a sense of crisis and is worried that his troops will be annihilated by the enemy.
He is now very much looking forward to the arrival of reinforcements from the First Independent Brigade. However, we can no longer contact the First Brigade's radio. The radio operator kept sending messages at the same time, but there was still no reply from the First Independent Brigade.
At this moment, good news suddenly came: the First Independent Brigade appeared behind them.
Kawamoto was very happy when he heard the news just now, but after a moment, he felt a little confused. The First Independent Brigade should have appeared in front of them, why did it suddenly run to the back? But the situation was urgent now, and Kawamoto could not afford to think too much, so he immediately sent a combat staff officer to get in touch with the First Independent Brigade.
The Japanese combat staff sat on a motorcycle and headed towards the 1st Independent Brigade. When he approached the vanguard of the first brigade, the opponent suddenly fired bullets at him. The motorcycle driver and combat staff were immediately beaten into pieces, and the motorcycle overturned on the side of the road.
The Japanese officers and soldiers who had been watching this side were shocked when they saw this scene, and immediately reported the situation to the commander of the Kawamoto Division.
Regarding the Independent First Brigade, Kawamoto previously thought that the worst outcome would be that they would be besieged by guerrillas. He did not expect that the outcome would be worse than he thought. It was simply unimaginable. These damn guys actually rebelled against the Japanese army, and at this critical moment, they struck back at the Japanese army.
Kawamoto was furious, and immediately ordered the rear team to change into the front team, and launched a fierce attack on the Independence Brigade.
The first brigade has already made full preparations. They used trucks and horse-drawn carriages to transport large quantities of sandbags filled with soil and built a large number of fortifications in an instant. The officers and soldiers hid behind sandbags and fired fiercely at the Japanese troops exposed in the open area.
The officers and soldiers of the First Independent Brigade dared to confront the Japanese army head-on. On the one hand, it was because Wei Dayong had already rushed over and fought side by side with them. On the other hand, the officers and soldiers of the Independent First Brigade saw the Japanese army attacking the guerrillas with heavy artillery fire. They looked embarrassed with heavy casualties, and already had great confidence in defeating them.
In addition, the officers and soldiers of the Independent Brigade knew that they had no way out now, and the only way was to eliminate the Japanese troops in front of them so that they could have a way out. Therefore, the officers and soldiers fought tenaciously. Compared with the previous performance when cooperating with the Japanese army in combat, it is simply incomparable.
The Japanese army has always looked down on the puppet troops, so when they launched an attack on the First Independent Brigade, they were not fully prepared. As a result, they were quickly repelled by the First Independent Brigade. Seeing the Japanese army being beaten into a state of disarray boosted the morale of the officers and soldiers of the First Independent Brigade.
The officers and soldiers of the First Independent Brigade dared to confront the Japanese army head-on because Xu Dalong told them good news in advance.
Just as the Japanese army regrouped their troops and prepared to attack again, a huge roar came from the sky.
18 US Army B29 Flying Fortress bombers roared in and launched a fierce bombing on the Japanese army. A large number of aerial bombs fell into the Japanese army, constantly throwing the Japanese soldiers' incomplete limbs into the air.
Looking at the miserable scene of the Japanese bombing, the guerrillas participating in the battle burst into earth-shaking cheers. Especially the officers and soldiers of the First Independent Brigade, they really did not expect that the guerrillas could actually invite the cooperation of the American Air Force. The commander and officers and soldiers of the First Independent Brigade also trusted Xu Dalong's abilities more and more.
Kawamoto knew that the Kuala Lumpur airport had been destroyed by the American air force, but he did not expect that the American army would be able to send bombers to cooperate with the guerrillas. After a fierce bombing, the morale of the Japanese army, including the commander of the Kawamoto Division, was obviously low.
When the bombardment started, Kawamoto was thrown to the ground by the soldiers and then used their bodies to protect him. After the bombing ended, he stood up, looked at the broken limbs and arms everywhere, and heard the wails of the wounded Japanese soldiers. Looking around at the countless enemy troops, Kawamoto now began to feel as desperate as Watanabe.
However, he remained rational at this time. He knew that he must break out of the encirclement immediately, otherwise, there would be a risk of the entire army being annihilated.
Kawamoto quickly assessed the situation on the battlefield. He knows it very well. The troops cannot break through to the two wings, otherwise they will be flanked by two enemy forces at the front and rear; it is also unrealistic to break out toward Zhencheng, where there are powerful British troops.
The only thing they can hope for is to defeat the First Independent Brigade. After all, those were former puppet troops and should not be opponents of the Japanese army. Thinking of this, Kawamoto immediately issued an order, and all Japanese troops went all out to attack the First Independent Brigade.
The Japanese officers and soldiers also knew that the situation was urgent. They did not care about offensive tactics and rushed towards the defensive position of the Independent First Brigade in a swarm.
The equipment of the Independent First Brigade lagged behind the Japanese army, and the technical and tactical level of the officers and soldiers was not as good as that of the Japanese army. However, they were outnumbered. Although the first regiment suffered a certain amount of losses, there were still more than 4,000 men, and relying on the defensive positions, they were still able to withstand the fierce Japanese attack.
During this period, Wei Dayong and others also played an important role. The special operations team members, especially the snipers, continuously killed Japanese commanders and machine gunners, causing confusion in the Japanese army's command and difficulty in exerting firepower, which greatly weakened their offensive power. The Japanese army finally could not withstand the fierce firepower, left the corpses on the ground, and retreated in embarrassment.
At this moment, Xu Dalong commanded the guerrillas to launch an attack from behind the Japanese army. They also made preparations in advance. While advancing, they used sandbags to build defensive positions, which contained the Japanese army and reduced the pressure faced by the Independent First Brigade.
Faced with such a style of play, Commander Kawamoto felt a deep sense of powerlessness. Also in the plains, the enemy troops were hiding behind bunkers, but the Japanese troops were exposed in the open areas. The casualties on both sides were disproportionate. If the fight continues like this, the Japanese army will simply not be able to bear it.
Seeing that it was impossible to break out, Kawamoto could only order his troops to build defensive positions on the spot, and then ask Yamashita Fengwen for help. Of course, Kawamoto knew that doing so was extremely dangerous. If the enemy's air force continues to bombard, they may be completely destroyed before Yamashita Fengfumi's reinforcements arrive. However, the reality is that they have no choice at all.
The Japanese officers and soldiers also knew that the situation was urgent. While using firepower to block the guerrillas, they also seized the time to repair the fortifications. (End of chapter)
