Lu Jie, who had been paying attention to the situation here, knew that the war would break out at five o'clock in the morning tomorrow. It was almost time for him to prepare.
Like the course of history, the Japanese army launched an attack on Lugouqiao at 5 a.m. on July 8th. More than 400 people from the 3rd Battalion of the 219th Regiment were stationed at Lugouqiao.
The night was quiet. The soldiers of the 3rd Battalion stationed at Lugouqiao had already fallen asleep, leaving only a few soldiers on duty. Because the Japanese army wanted to force their way into Wanping City yesterday, the security forces here had been strengthened. There were sentries in the dark and light, constantly monitoring the movements of the Japanese army.
The 3rd Battalion had deployed a company of soldiers to the south of the Lugou Bridge, and two companies to the north of the bridge.
The artillery squadron of the Japanese Army's First Regiment had a total of four 75mm mountain cannons. After the order was given, they began to fire in the direction of the target that had been calculated.
"Thump... Dong!"
Four shells landed on the south side of Lugouqiao. It had to be said that the quality of the Japanese artillery was very high, and all four shells landed around the position.
The mortars of the Japanese army also began to rain shells on the 3rd Battalion 2nd Company.
The soldiers of the 3rd Battalion, who were sleeping soundly, reacted very quickly when they heard the explosion. They picked up the guns in their arms and were ready to shoot at the Japanese army at any time.
The sound of artillery meant that the war had begun. The 29th division also set up two 70mm cannons here to counterattack the Japanese artillery, but their accuracy was not very good.
A cannonball cost almost 100 dollars. It was obvious that they did not have many cannonballs for training in a year.
War had broken out! Lu Jie, who was sound asleep, immediately woke up when he heard the faint sound of cannons.
However, now was not the time for them to participate in the war. After all, they were not part of the regular army. They could not just go to the battlefield. If they rushed up casually, it was very likely that they would be treated as rebels and annihilated.
When the 219th Regiment was at a disadvantage, they would ask for reinforcements. This was the time for him to join the battle. Right now, he was like a grasshopper tied to the 29th Division. If the 29th Division was finished now, he would have to consider running away.
Now, he could only observe the changes on the battlefield.
The war was very intense at the beginning. The Japanese army launched an attack on the Lugouqiao position with the advantage of artillery.
The Japanese army was not like many anti-Japanese dramas, where they rushed forward like a swarm of bees. Instead, they were very tactical. Three people formed a small team, and each squad was divided into four small teams. They formed a scattered line and attacked the position.
Once they encountered fierce resistance, they would stop and use their advantage in marksmanship to shoot in the opposite direction.
The soldiers of the Second Company suffered heavy casualties under this tactic. The biggest threat to them was the Japanese grenade launcher. With the help of the grenade launcher, grenades accurately fell into the trenches. The soldiers who fired were killed by the exploding grenades before they could react.
Fortunately, the 219th Regiment had set up a Maxim heavy machine gun at the bridgehead and built a small semi-buried bunker with cement.
The Maxim Heavy Machine Gun displayed its advantage, firing bullets one after another, sweeping the charging Japanese soldiers to the ground.
The Maxim machine gun was the one that he had bought from Lu Jie. Since he had bought dozens of them and millions of bullets, and the Japanese army had always been up to no good at Lugouqiao, Song Zheyuan had directly transferred a few of them over.
Now, this machine gun played an important role. With the help of a heavy machine gun and a machine gun, the Japanese army's attacks were repelled several times, but the Second Company had already lost a lot of people.
There were only a few dozen people left from a company of over two hundred people. It could be seen how fierce the battle was, but they still held their ground and did not retreat. They swore to fight until the last person.
Soon, the Japanese reinforcements arrived, and the machine gun fortress was also hit by a shell. The Maxim machine gun turned into parts in the explosion, but more than ten minutes later, the southern position of Lugouqiao was announced to be broken.
The Japanese army continued to attack the bridgehead position in the north. However, due to the advantage of the soldiers of the Third Battalion, the Japanese army suffered a lot of casualties in the attack.
The battle lasted for a full five to six hours. The Japanese army was unable to break through the northern position, and their casualties were very serious. In addition, the reinforcements of the 29th division had already arrived.
After seeing that things could not be done, the Japanese army cleverly chose to retreat and began to play a conspiracy of negotiation. On the one hand, they wanted to use the negotiation to put pressure on the Jicha authorities (29 military government), and on the other hand, they wanted to use the name of negotiation to buy time for the deployment of troops.
Song Zheyuan agreed to the Japanese army's negotiations for the sake of preserving his strength. At the same time, he also held a trace of luck in his heart.
He thought that the Japanese army's attack had been repelled, and they did not want to attack again after seeing their tenacious resistance. However, the Japanese army was ambitious. How could they retreat because of such a setback?
The continuous negotiations made Lu Jie nervous because he knew that the real fierce battle was coming. At that time, the Japanese army would mobilize more than 60,000 people to attack the Beijing-Tianjin area.
PS: The tickets!
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