At the beginning of October, on the eve of the National Day of the National Day of the National Government, a ray of sunshine appeared in the hazy sky of Wuhan. The soldiers and civilians of Wuhan, who have been plagued by dark clouds for a long time, can't help but have a glimmer of hope in their hearts.

As soon as the news that the Ninth Theater of the Nationalist Army was encircling an entire division of the Japanese army in the vicinity of De'an, and that General Xue Yue was leading his troops to encircle and annihilate it, it caused a sensation in the entire three towns of Wuhan.

On the same day, major newspapers in Wuhan rushed to report and hyped up. Imaginative reporters even wrote checks for their victories at the front in advance, wanton propaganda without a bottom line.

In response to the exaggerated propaganda of the media, the command organs of the Military Commission in Han neither recognized nor denied this, but only kept silent, and they preferred that the victory on the Dean front would make this check cash.

The news was covered with a veil of mystery, and the more it spread, the farther and farther. Chongqing, Xi'an, Kunming and other big cities began to celebrate the victory of Wanjialing in advance. Even the United States, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and other places have spread unconfirmed news.

Finally, word reached Tokyo. At the behest of the emperor, Lu Xiang Itagaki sent an urgent telegram to General Tian Jun of Nanjing to inquire about the battle situation. Tian Junliu tried to argue that the 106th Division was only surrounded by Chinese troops, and that its annihilation was nothing more than exaggerated propaganda by the Chinese government.

In the eyes of General Tian, being surrounded by the Chinese army and being annihilated are completely different things, but in the eyes of the civil and military officials of the Japanese government and the opposition, this is already quite a humiliating thing, not to mention that no one can guarantee that the 106th Division will escape safely.

In the modern history of the Japanese army, there is no precedent for a complete division to be wiped out, especially on the battlefield in China.

The 106th Division was surrounded by the shock of the Japanese government and the opposition, and it was no less than the disaster of the Great Kanto Earthquake in the 20s.

The base camp of the Japanese army held consultations overnight to study countermeasures. The only remaining 1 Guards Division in China has been proposed several times to increase the Chinese battlefield.

I don't know if it was for the sake of face or if the Guards Division couldn't leave, but the last 1 division in the Emperor's hands ended up staying on the island.

The commander of the Central China Front, Tian Junliu, and the commander of the 2nd Army in Jiujiang, Okamura Ninji, received instructions from the Tokyo base camp at the same time: to do everything possible to rescue the 106th Division from Songpu at all costs.

This was the instruction of Emperor Hirohito. He really couldn't face the reality that a division was completely annihilated by the Chinese army, so he said to the chief of staff: "Tell Tian Junliu that I don't care about any other losses, but I must rescue the 106th Division." ”

The emperor ordered that Shunroku Hata dare not slack off in the slightest, so he actively deployed a plan to rescue the 106th Division. If the 106th Division is completely annihilated, it will be the biggest stain in the modern history of the Japanese army, and his name will also be prominently engraved on it.

In the air, nearly 100 Japanese planes bombed the Chinese defenders indiscriminately, and at the same time dropped a large amount of supplies on the 106th Division; On the ground, the 101st Division and the 27th Division were the main regiments to actively carry out rescue.

Under the attack of the Chinese army for several days, the Japanese 106th Division suffered huge losses, especially the casualties of the Japanese army's junior officers. As a result, General Shunliu Hata personally organized the airdrop of more than 200 officers below the rank of wing commander to the Wanjialing area to strengthen the force, which was unique in the entire Chinese War of Resistance Against Japan.

"Commander, look at the sky!"

A guard pointed to the sky and shouted to Wang Yaowu, the commander of the 51st Division, who was directing the operation. At this time, Wang Yaowu was actively directing the troops to attack the Japanese positions in Changling and Zhanggushan.

Wang Yaowu picked up the telescope and looked at it, and was really startled. The Japanese airdropped paratroopers, all officers.

"it, hit me!"

Wang Yaowu then ordered the closest troops to shoot into the air. Many Japanese officers were shot and died in the air.

However, this was just an episode, and in front of Wang Yaowu were more than 1,000 Japanese troops on Changling and Zhanggu Mountain. The two positions are difficult to defend and difficult to attack, and the surrounding area is almost a 90-degree cliff. The 51st Division made several attacks without success.

Now Feng Shengfa's 58th Division has been completely annihilated, and the 74th Army is left with Wang Yaowu's 51st Division, and the capture of Changling and Zhanggushan has become the key to the main battle.

Just when Wang Yaowu was anxious, Zhang Lingfu proposed: "With our existing equipment, it is absolutely impossible to attack by force, it is better to outwit." ”

Wang Yaowu asked, "How to outwit?" ”

Zhang Lingfu replied: "Someone once told me that in a war, you should take it by surprise and attack it unprepared. Let me lead an elite unit up from the cliff behind Zhanggu Mountain and attack from behind the Japanese army. Then the main force launched a charge, flanking back and forth. ”

Wang Yaowu was taken aback, this was too risky. However, the relationship between the two positions was related to the overall situation of the entire campaign, and Wang Yaowu was still persuaded by Zhang Lingfu to agree to his plan.

Immediately, Zhang Lingfu selected an elite death squad of 500 people from his 305th regiment and went to the cliff behind Zhang Gushan. It took almost an hour to climb up. Then he condescended and quickly launched a sneak attack on the Japanese troops on the position.

The Japanese troops on the mountain were caught off guard, and bullets and shells rained down on the position, killing and wounding countless people. Immediately, the Japanese army organized troops to attack Zhang Lingfu's department on the top of the mountain and recapture the mountain.

At this time, Wang Yaowu sent a general attack, and Zhang Lingfu's troops on the top of the mountain attacked the Japanese army on the mountain, and took the Japanese positions of Zhanggushan and Changling in one fell swoop.

Zhang Gushan was lost, and Junrokuro Matsuura was shocked and quickly ordered the troops to recapture the position with all their might. Zhang Lingfu led his troops to defend stubbornly, and the Japanese army never recaptured the position despite countless deaths. The 106th Division was completely trapped in the Wanjialing area, and Zhang Lingfu became famous in this battle.

In the rear, Chairman Chiang finally punched back the Japanese in a series of defeats. He immediately ordered Xue Yue to deliver the good news of the 106th Division before 11:59 on October 9.

Xue Yue actively adjusted his deployment and began to launch a full-front attack on the enemy in Wanjialing.

Xue Yue has been fighting for many years, and he has always had a habit that the harder and more thrilling the battle, the more energetic and flexible his mind is.

At 15 o'clock on the 9th, Xue Yue ordered each unit to select 200 to 500 brave soldiers to form a brave team to serve as the vanguard assault. At the same time, all ministers and officials were all in front of the command, and Xue Yue himself was also on the front line. 1

At 18 o'clock, artillery fire was prepared. At 19 o'clock, the Fenyong team attacked, and the main forces followed closely behind, launching a full-line attack on Jianlusu, Wanjialing, Tianbusu, and Leiminggu.

The troops rushed forward one after another, stepping on the corpses and rushing violently. After a night of bloody fighting, the defensive positions of the 106th Division completely collapsed

After fierce fighting until the morning of the 10th, the 66th Army regained Wanjialing and Tianbusu; The 4th Army regained the highlands southwest of Dajin Mountain and the heights east of Jianlusu; The 91st Division regained Yangjiashan; The 142nd Division regained the high ground at the northern end of Yangjiashan.

During the battle, the 4th Army's avant-garde assault team had rushed to the vicinity of the headquarters of the 106th Division in Wanjialing, but because it was too dark and it suffered heavy casualties, it failed to detect Junrokuro Matsuura in time.

(PS: Later, after the battle, a Japanese prisoner confessed: The national army attacked near the division headquarters several times, and all the service personnel of the headquarters were dispatched to participate in the battle, and the division commander also picked up a gun in his hand.) If you resolutely advance 100 meters, the division commander will be captured or seppuku. ”

The failure to capture Junrokuro Matsuura alive became the biggest regret in this battle.

On the 11th, more than 1,000 remnants of the 106th Division retreated to Leiminggu and Shimakeng, which were holding on to an area of less than 5 square kilometers and waiting for reinforcements.

Okamura Ninji strictly ordered all the troops to reinforce Wanjialing at any cost. In view of the fact that the main goal of basically annihilating the 106th Division had been achieved, and the casualties of all units were extremely heavy, Xue Yue ordered all units to withdraw from the battle, and the whole army retreated to the line of Yongfeng Bridge, Guobeishan, and Zhelin.

Subsequently, Xue Yue sent a telegram to the Wuhan Military Commission: "Although the enemy's attempt to intersperse with roundabout operations has been frustrated this time, I have concentrated on the siege and have not annihilated the enemy, which is very regrettable. ”

In the Battle of Wanjialing, although it failed to organize a powerful force at the last moment, dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese troops who rescued the 106th Division, and failed to completely destroy the 106th Division, the characteristics of the Nationalist Army's flexibility and tight organization in this battle, as well as the heroic and tenacious spirit of the Chinese soldiers who were not afraid of sacrifice, greatly shocked the Japanese army inside and outside the government and the public and the international community. And the entire division of the Japanese army was almost wiped out, which has never been seen in the history of the Japanese Army.

Xue Yue's Wanjialing victory, Li Zongren's Taierzhuang victory, and later Luo Zhuoying's battle at Shanggao were listed as the three major victories of China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression!

(PS: It's a bit unreasonable to write about the Battle of Wuhan without writing about the victory of Wanjialing, so I used two chapters to describe the victory of Wanjialing.) ）

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