This is the worst battle the Japanese army has been fought, 86 Chinese hunters shot, directly killed more than 2,100 Japanese soldiers, let them stay in Xuefengshan forever, after the war the Japanese commander can only helplessly lament: without them would have taken Xiangxi long ago!
So, where are these 86 hunters? And how did they annihilate more than twenty times more than twenty times the enemy?
On April 9, 1945, in order to seize the Zhijiang Airport in Hunan Province, which was jointly built by China and the United States, the Japanese army gathered five divisions and regiments, divided into three routes, and launched a fierce attack on the western Hunan region.
At that time, the national troops stationed in western Hunan were the Third Front, the Fourth Front and the Tenth Army, with He Yingqin as the commander-in-chief, responsible for this defensive operation, that is, the last major war in the Anti-Japanese War, the Battle of Xiangxi.
In fact, although the Japanese army has been dragged down by the huge size of the mainland and its combat strength is gradually stretched, He Yingqin still does not have much confidence in this battle, and in his opinion, the only thing the national army can do is defend.
However, what he did not know was that in Dongkou County, Xiangxi, which was facing the Japanese invaders, 86 hunters emerged, full of patriotic enthusiasm, and resolutely decided to take the initiative.
Let's turn our attention back to 1938, not long after the outbreak of the all-out Anti-Japanese War, the Yao compatriots in Dongkou County in Xiangxi, under the organization of the leader Lan Chunda, set up a hunting team consisting of 36 hunters.
However, it is said that it is a hunting team, in addition to hunting to make a living, they also guard the Yao tribe's main road to the outside world part-time, and in the process of fighting bandits for a long time, they have also practiced accurate marksmanship and strong psychological quality.
It is no exaggeration to say that they are no longer hunting teams in the ordinary sense, they are completely a force that is not inferior to the regular army, and if they fight in the familiar local mountains, they are enough to compare with elite special forces.
By 1945, with the Japanese invasion of western Hunan Province, Lan Chunda absorbed excellent hunters from other ethnic groups in the region and expanded the hunting team to 86 people, with 15 Hanyang-made rifles and 71 homemade birds.
Many people may have no concept of the bird, taking Hanyang-made as an example, this rifle is an outdated product of the last century in the world, and the bird-made is inferior to Hanyang-made, and the rate of fire and range are very low.
However, despite taking outdated homemade weapons, the hunting team still did not flinch, and they took the initiative to take over the arduous task that He Yingqin did not dare to undertake, and fought head-on with the Japanese army in the Dongkou County area!
You know, Dongkou County is bordered by Xuefengshan Mountain in the north and Pingxi River in the south, guarding the only road from Shaoyang City to Zhijiang Airport. To this end, the Japanese set the entrance of the cave as the focus of the attack, and allocated the 116th and 47th elite divisions to be responsible for the breakthrough.
Among them, the 116th Division was originally a left-behind unit in Kyoto, Japan, and successively participated in many large-scale battles such as the Battle of Wuhan and the Battle of Yuxianggui, and was a proper elite of the Japanese army.
Although the 47th Division is a newly formed unit, some soldiers have participated in the war against the United States, and with weapons and equipment far exceeding those of the mainland army, its strength should not be underestimated.
Logically speaking, how could a mountain people unit without formal training win a head-on victory over the elite divisions of the Japanese army? However, the 85 hunters under Lan Chunda's command not only did it, but did it well.
On the morning of April 10, after receiving the news that the Japanese army was marching towards Dongkou County, the 86-man hunter team walked out of the mountain village and resolutely walked to the Dongkou Shanmen area to take on the heavy responsibility of resisting the Japanese invaders.
Before the start of the war, the Japanese army did not know that there was such a local armed force, and they sent the elite 116th Division, supplemented by the 47th Division, along the only road to Dongkou County.
The 86 hunters naturally did not miss this favorable opportunity, they lurked in the Xuefengshan Gate area of Dongkou County, chewing simple dry food on the stream every day, waiting for the Japanese army to pass by.
You know, these 86 hunters are strong, not only familiar with the local environment, but also have long participated in hunting, bandit and other activities, and have rich combat experience, not to mention latent for a few days, or latent for several months.
Not only that, the area of Dongkou County is mainly mountainous and hilly, from time to time it will fall heavy rain, and the vegetation is tall and dense, which is very suitable for the army to fight guerrilla attacks, and this is also the burial place of the Japanese army.
The hunters' wait did not last long, and five days later, on April 15, the vanguard reconnaissance unit of the elite 116th Division of the Japanese army finally arrived in the mountains of Dongkou County.
In the eyes of the Japanese army, it takes nearly a week for the national army to receive combat information, then make a combat plan, and finally set off for the whole army, during which time it can directly smash the yellow dragon.
In fact, the Japanese army's estimate of the national army was correct, 86 hunters quickly reported to the national army after detecting the enemy situation, and before the national army set off to arrive, these 86 hunters needed to block a division of the Japanese army for at least five days!
Despite this, the hunters were not afraid. After encountering the Japanese vanguard, they crouched on tree branches and grass with birds, waiting for the enemy to be divided into small groups or left alone by the terrain, and then changed places with one shot.
The bird, which has lagged behind the times, although the rate of fire and range are not good, but its accuracy and power are not inferior to World War II firearms, and it has played a miracle effect in the mountains and forests, and the lead pellets shot out with iron sand often make the Japanese army painful.
After the Japanese army heard that their teammates were knocked to the ground, they hurriedly ran over with guns to check, but the hunters had already run away like monkeys, and they would not appear until the Japanese army was left alone.
In this way, the hunters fired a shot to change places, and the Japanese army could not return fire after suffering huge casualties, not to mention how many nests of fire, the commander of the 116th Division, Genshiro Hiroshida, had no choice but to order the troops to speed up.
But the troops also have no way, after all, the local mountainous terrain is there, on the one hand, the road is not smooth, it will definitely not go fast, on the other hand, there are hunters fighting guerrilla attacks, which are invincible.
In the end, Genshiro Ryoda really had no way, with a wave of his hand, he transferred a group of soldiers and field artillery to the vanguard unit, which increased to more than 2,000 people, and now he will no longer be afraid of the small local hunter team, right?
However, this Japanese commander was too arrogant, and really misjudged the power of Xuefengshan and the hunter team, especially the leader of the hunter team, Lan Chunda, who was experienced and brave in battle, and had the title of "blue mammoth".
And at this time, the national army had already reacted and urgently came to help, if the Japanese army fought steadily step by step, there was really no way to take them, but the Japanese army was too hasty, but gave our army a chance.
As long as you take this newly added vanguard force, it will definitely inflict heavy damage on the Japanese army and disrupt their march plan!
After the vanguard of the Japanese 116th Division was defeated in the mountains of Dongkou County, its division commander Genshiro Hiroshida still refused to admit defeat and sent 2,000 troops with field artillery, and as a result, he suffered a big loss again!
On May 9, 1945, 86 hunters, together with the 187th Regiment of the Nationalist Army, and the Japanese vanguard force officially encountered in the Dongkou area, and because both sides were prepared, the battle was extremely anxious.
It has to be said that the combat effectiveness of the Japanese army in the later period is indeed not as good as in the early stage, and the most concentrated is reflected in the will to fight.
Of course, there is no lack of merit in this hunter team, they hold birds inferior to the Japanese army, causing great trouble to the Japanese army, the power of buckshot mixed with iron sand is very sour, most of the Japanese soldiers are slowly bleeding to death in pain.
And the Japanese army did not recognize what kind of weapons they used, only saw them sniff with their noses, and then the projectiles appeared out of thin air, so they named them "sniffing rifle team", lest they avoid it.
After four large and small battles, more than 2,000 Japanese soldiers left more than 860 corpses, and then they fled eastward, and as a result, the sniffing rifle team followed them like ghosts to fight guerrilla attacks.
The Japanese army confronted the Nationalist army in the mountains and forests, and with higher combat quality, coupled with field artillery, they were not afraid, but it was precisely because of the sniffing rifle team familiar with the mountainous terrain of Xiangxi that they had such huge casualties.
However, the Japanese army still did not admit defeat, and the so-called Bushido spirit they pursued was to emphasize the need for iron.
On May 13, the main forces of the Japanese 116th Division arrived at the mouth of the cave, and its division commander, Genshiro Hiroshida, was so angry that he vowed to regain the samurai face!
However, at this time, the large troops of the Nationalist army were also assembled in the Dongkou area at the same time, and the strength of the 19th, 51st, and 63rd divisions was enough to confront an elite division of the Japanese army.
In the early hours of the same day, the general offensive officially began. After years of war tempering, coupled with the addition of new American-style equipment, the Nationalist army and the Japanese army are inextricably divided, how fierce are the two sides? One soldier died, and the other immediately made up for it.
However, compared with the frontal battlefield, the sniffing rifle team led by Lan Chunda performed better, and they played the old tactics of mountain forest warfare, which once again caused the Japanese army to suffer a lot.
Lan Chunda's combat vision is very old, and he led the sniffing rifle team to ambush in the area of Tongshan horse neck bone, a branch of Xuefengshan Mountain, and the Japanese army must pass through here whether it is advancing west or fleeing east.
Soon, the main force of the Japanese army could not be supported under the onslaught of the Nationalist army, and then fled to the east, and in order to save his own life, Genshiro Hiroda ordered the commander of the 109th Wing, Taki Zibo Saburo Daisa, to lead the troops to the rear of the palace.
You know, the Japanese army has long suffered from the sniffing rifle team, naturally know that the queen of the palace will not return, so few people are willing to do this drudgery, but the officials and universities crush people, they have to do it if they don't do it.
And a group of Japanese troops who had no intention of fighting could not defeat the sniffing rifle team, and now they were even more unable to form an army. After many days of fighting, the sniffer rifle team completely annihilated the 109th Wing in one fell swoop, and the commander of the wing, Taki Zi Bao Saburo also died.
Since then, in a month from mid-April to mid-May, the 86-man sniffing rifle team, in cooperation with the large army, has exerted amazing combat effectiveness, accumulating more than 2,100 Japanese troops and leaving them forever in Xuefengshan.
At the same time, the sniffer rifle team itself did not suffer any sacrifices, and only more than 10 people were injured. It is no exaggeration to say that this was the worst battle that the Japanese army was fought, and it also left the remaining Japanese troops with a lingering nightmare!