Quartermasters can also fight the devils

Chapter 459 Arriving at the South Bank of Xinqiang

Just over ten seconds later, the division commander, Lieutenant General Shiro Inaba, saw through the telescope the scene he least wanted to see. A large number of Chinese officers and soldiers appeared in his field of vision. He didn't even need to rack his brains to determine whether it was a large force of the Chinese army attacking.

"Mr. Nozaki, give the order to the engineering corps to blow up the pontoon bridge immediately. The Chinese army is attacking." The division commander, Lieutenant General Shiro Inaba, did not put down the telescope in his hand, but continued to observe the attack distance of the Chinese pursuit troops. However, he gave the order to the chief of staff, Major General Sadatsumi Nozaki, to blow up the bridge immediately.

After hearing that the division commander, Lieutenant General Inaba Shiro, had finally given the order to blow up the bridge, Chief of Staff Major General Sadatsumi Nozaki took a last look through his telescope at the Japanese officers and soldiers running on the pontoon bridge.

Chief of Staff Major General Sadatsumi Nozaki knew that at least half of the officers and soldiers running on the pontoon bridge would not survive, and the officers and soldiers still on the south bank had basically no hope of survival. You know, in the exchange of fire between the two sides, it would be very difficult to rely on those more than a dozen rubber boats to safely cross the Xinqiang River. The Chinese army would never let these rubber boats return to the north bank smoothly.

"Moshimoshi, is this the Engineer Regiment? The division commander has ordered to blow up the pontoon bridge immediately. Yes, immediately." Chief of Staff Major General Sadatsumi Nozaki picked up the phone beside him and directly called the Engineer Regiment of the 6th Division, which had been waiting for orders.

As the Chief of Staff Major General Sadatsumi Nozaki hung up the phone, in less than ten seconds, the explosives previously placed on the pontoon bridge were detonated by the engineering regiment. Suddenly, a series of violent explosions occurred on the pontoon bridge, and the Japanese officers and soldiers who were running on the pontoon bridge were instantly covered by the explosion.

The officers and soldiers who were still on the south bank preparing to board the pontoon bridge were frightened by the sudden series of explosions. When they found that the explosions occurred on the pontoon bridge, everyone's face showed a look of despair.

After the flying wood chips fell into the river, the officers and soldiers on the south bank of the Xinqiang River saw only piles of wood chips floating on the river in their desperate eyes. The originally wide floating bridge had completely disappeared. If there were not a section of bridge deck still existing on both sides of the Xinqiang River, no one would know that there was a wide floating bridge here just a minute ago.

The Japanese officers and soldiers on the south bank looked at everything in front of them and were all briefly confused. What should they do now?

"Look, someone is boarding the rubber boat over there." An excited shout broke the silence of the Japanese officers and soldiers on the south bank. Almost everyone looked to the right at the same time and saw more than a dozen rubber boats quietly docked on the south bank of the Xinqiang River. At this time, some officers and soldiers were boarding the rubber boats.

This discovery immediately ignited the hope of survival among all the Japanese officers and soldiers on the south bank. All of them rushed to the empty rubber boats at the shouts of their respective unit officers. That was their only escape route.

However, there are still more than 600 Japanese officers and soldiers on the south bank of the Xinqiang River. With only more than ten rubber boats, it is impossible to accommodate so many officers and soldiers at once. Therefore, officers from each unit can only take a few soldiers to sit on the rubber boats, and the other soldiers hold the edge of the rubber boats with their hands, paddling and moving with the rubber boats.

As for weapons, except for the soldiers on the rubber boat who were still able to keep their weapons, the other soldiers all threw their weapons on the shore to reduce the weight in the water. Some soldiers who could swim swam directly to the north bank.

When the attack force of the New 22nd Army rushed to the shore, the officers and soldiers were surprised to find that in the Xinqiang River, more than a dozen Japanese rubber boats were trying to paddle towards the north bank, and the water around the rubber boats was full of Japanese soldiers, and many of them were struggling in the water.

Great, this is a good opportunity for shooting. The officers and soldiers of the New 22nd Army relied on the river bank on the south bank and began to shoot fiercely at the Japanese troops in the Xinqiang River. For a while, the Japanese officers and soldiers in the Xinqiang River often stopped swimming and sank with the river.

"Baga, open fire, provide fire support to the retreating officers and soldiers." Chief of Staff Major General Sadatsumi Nozaki shouted angrily when he saw the Chinese army on the opposite side start to fiercely shoot at the Japanese officers and soldiers retreating in the river.

Chief of Staff Major General Sadatsumi Nozaki felt that the Chinese army was really going too far. They had no regard for the dignity of the Empire of Japan and were blatantly shooting at the retreating Japanese officers and soldiers without even checking whether there were any more troops of the Empire of Japan on the north bank. This was intolerable.

Following an order from Chief of Staff Major General Sadatsumi Nozaki, the Japanese officers and soldiers who had been ready on the embankment on the north bank of the Xinqiang River also began fierce shooting at the south bank, providing the most powerful fire support for the hundreds of Japanese officers and soldiers struggling in the Xinqiang River, and preventing the Chinese army on the opposite side from shooting at the officers and soldiers in the Xinqiang River so unscrupulously.

The Japanese army's initial fire support and cover did suppress the shooting of the officers and soldiers of the New 22nd Army. The troops that arrived in the New 22nd Army could only devote half of their strength to deal with the Japanese troops on the north bank of the Xinqiang River, and they started shooting at the Japanese troops across the Xinqiang River.

However, at this distance, the accuracy of the rifles has deteriorated a lot, and both sides are still using heavy machine guns to suppress each other.

However, the commander of the New 22nd Army saw that he could not gain any advantage in the machine gun firepower, so he ordered someone to notify the mortar unit to use mortar shells to eliminate the Japanese troops retreating in the river. At the same time, he also gathered all the officers and soldiers with good marksmanship to shoot at the Japanese troops in the river.

Under the bombardment of the New 22nd Army's mortars and the shooting of officers and soldiers, the retreating Japanese officers and soldiers in the Xinqiang River had suffered heavy casualties. Of the original more than ten rubber boats, there are now only seven or eight. Many Japanese officers and soldiers in the river were either hit by the Chinese army's shooting or had reached their physical limit.

However, the Japanese officers and soldiers in the Xinqiang River had just reached the middle area of ​​the river and were still at least half the distance to the north bank. This was still a acceptable distance for the Japanese officers and soldiers on the rubber boats, but for the Japanese officers and soldiers struggling in the river, it was difficult for them to have the physical strength to reach such a long distance.

The mortar shells of the New 22nd Army continued to fall among the Japanese officers and soldiers in the Xinqiang River. The unlucky Japanese soldiers were directly blown into a pool of blood by the mortar shells. For a moment, the water in the middle of the Xinqiang River turned red.