ushernet Chapter 746: 1 Cannon Was Castrated
Chapter 746: 1 Cannon Was Castrated
At the same time, Lieutenant General Zuo Jiujianren, commander of the 68th Division of the Japanese Army, ordered the offensive forces of the 68th Division of the Japanese Army to first attack the high ground such as Tingbing Mountain and Dingjia Mountain north of Huangchaling. However, the troops of the 10th Army of the Chinese government and the offensive forces of the 68th Division of the Japanese Army fought repeatedly for these places, and the battle was extremely fierce.
The commander of the 68th Division of the Japanese Army, Lieutenant General Sa Kuma Hitoshi, was very dissatisfied with the slow progress of the offensive forces of the 68th Division of the Japanese Army, so he decided to go to the front line to supervise the battle in person. The chief of staff of the 68th Division of the Japanese Army, Major General Harada Sadazaburo, was also unable to persuade the division commander, Lieutenant General Sa Kuma Hitoshi, so he had to take several staff officers of the division headquarters and dozens of guards to the position of the 115th Independent Infantry Battalion to check the military situation.
Afterwards, Lieutenant General Sakuma Hitoshi, commander of the 68th Division of the Japanese Army, arrived at the command post of the 115th Independent Infantry Battalion with the division chief of staff, Major General Harada Sadazaburo, and some staff officers and guards. The command post of the 115th Independent Infantry Battalion was located on a commanding height. Although the situation on the battlefield could be seen at a glance from here, the command post of the 115th Independent Infantry Battalion was not concealed enough.
When Lieutenant General Zuo Jiujian, commander of the 68th Division of the Japanese Army, and his group gathered together to discuss the battle situation, Bai Tianlin, commander of the mortar company of the 10th Reserve Division of the 10th Army of the Chinese government, saw it clearly through a telescope.
The mortar company's captain, Bai Tianlin, determined through observations through the telescope that it was a front-line command post of the Japanese Army's 11th Army's offensive force. So he decisively decided to bombard the front-line command post of the Japanese Army's 11th Army's offensive force.
Company Commander Bai Tianlin directly ordered the company's eight mortars to rapidly bombard the front-line command post of the Japanese 11th Army's offensive force. Among the shells rapidly fired by the mortar company's eight mortars, one shell fell and exploded among a group of people led by Lieutenant General Zuo Jiujian, commander of the 68th Division of the Japanese Army, who were studying a map.
When the smoke and dust from the mortar explosion dissipated, the surviving Japanese officers and soldiers discovered that the commander of the 68th Division of the Japanese Army, Lieutenant General Sa Kujian Renren, had been shot in the lower abdomen, and blood was already oozing out of his baggy military trousers.
Upon seeing this, Major Koichi Hashimoto, commander of the 115th Independent Infantry Battalion, quickly arranged for soldiers to send Lieutenant General Sa Kuma Hitoshi, commander of the 68th Division of the Japanese Army, to the field hospital of the 68th Division of the Japanese Army for treatment.
After examining the injuries of Lieutenant General Sa Kuma Hitoshi, commander of the 68th Division of the Japanese Army, the military doctor at the field hospital of the 68th Division of the Japanese Army discovered that the commander's lower abdomen had been hit by two shrapnel from the explosion of mortar shells, and one of the shrapnel had cut off the two testicles under the crotch of the commander of the 68th Division of the Japanese Army.
This meant that the commander of the 68th Division of the Japanese Army, Lieutenant General Sa Kuma Hitoshi, was directly castrated by the mortar shells fired by the 10th Reserve Division of the 10th Army of the Chinese government. As a result, the military doctors of the field hospital of the 68th Division of the Japanese Army did not even have to perform any removal surgery, but directly performed debridement and suturing on the commander of the 68th Division of the Japanese Army, Lieutenant General Sa Kuma Hitoshi.
The commander of the 68th Division of the Japanese Army, Lieutenant General Zuo Jiujian Ren, was injured by the artillery fire of the 10th Army of the Chinese government and had to be evacuated from the battlefield. Before the new commander of the 68th Division of the Japanese Army arrived, the troops of the two Japanese divisions in the Hengyang area were under the unified command of Lieutenant General Iwanaga Wang, commander of the 116th Division of the Japanese Army.
On June 29, the offensive forces of the Japanese 11th Army continued to attack Hengyang. However, after a day of fierce fighting, the offensive forces of the Japanese 11th Army still made no progress. In order to strengthen the strength of the offensive forces, the commander of the 116th Division of the Japanese Army, Lieutenant General Wang Iwanaga, had to transfer the 133rd Regiment of his division, which had been reinforced to Xiangxiang, back to the Hengyang battlefield.
As a result, the three infantry regiments and one artillery regiment of the 116th Division of the Japanese Army were all concentrated on the western suburbs of Hengyang. The western side of Hengyang suddenly became the main attack direction of the Japanese 11th Army's offensive forces.
The reason why the attacking forces of the Japanese 11th Army became anxious after fighting for two days was actually because the attacking forces of the Japanese 11th Army had been progressing smoothly before, which made the various forces of the Japanese 11th Army very optimistic. The two divisions responsible for the central attack even threatened before the war that they would capture Hengyang City within three days.
In contrast to the optimism of the Japanese 11th Army, the Chinese Government Military Commission was not optimistic. Based on the comparison of the military strength and weapons at the time, the senior officials of the Chinese Government Military Commission estimated that the Chinese Government's Tenth Army could only hold out in Hengyang City for seven days at most. This was because the Chinese Government Military Commission and the Chinese Government's Ninth War Zone Command had also issued orders to the Chinese Government's Tenth Army, asking Commander Fang of the Chinese Government's Tenth Army to lead his troops to hold Hengyang City for seven days, and all the soldiers were prepared to live and die with the city.
From July 1st to 2nd, the offensive forces of the 116th Division of the Japanese 11th Army began to attack the Zhangjiashan position in the western suburbs of Hengyang City. After repeated battles, the Zhangjiashan position was captured by the 133rd Regiment of the 116th Division of the Japanese Army. However, the remaining defensive positions in Hengyang City were still firmly controlled by the troops of the 10th Army.
Up to this point, the two divisions of the Japanese 11th Army responsible for the central attack had been attacking Hengyang for five consecutive days. However, the result of these five days was only an advance of one thousand meters in the west direction of Hengyang City. On the contrary, the attacking forces of the Japanese 11th Army suffered heavy losses.
That night, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, ordered all units of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army to suspend the attack and go into rest and wait for replenishment of troops and ammunition.
Taking advantage of the opportunity when the Japanese 11th Army's offensive forces stopped their attack, the 8th Regiment of the 3rd Division of the 10th Army of the Chinese government, which had been stationed in Hengshan, broke through the encirclement of the Japanese army, rushed into the city of Hengyang and successfully joined the 3rd Division. This was also the only reinforcement received by the 10th Army of the Chinese government during the Battle of Hengyang.
When the offensive force of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army was temporarily organized to attack and rest, since the main attack direction of the offensive force of the 11th Army responsible for attacking Hengyang City was in the southwest suburbs of Hengyang City, Commander Fang of the 10th Army decided to build a second line of defense in the southwest of Hengyang City while the offensive force of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army was resting.