Just when the training of recruits for the independent brigade was on the right track, on the battlefield in Taierzhuang at this time, the situation changed suddenly.

After the end of the first battle of Taierzhuang, in order to expand the results of the battle, the Fifth Theater once again mobilized nine armies and one division of more than 200,000 people to gather near Xuzhou, preparing to encircle and annihilate the Japanese army again in accordance with the arrival method of Taierzhuang.

But the little devil has already suffered a loss in Taierzhuang, how can he suffer a second loss?

The strength of the Japanese army was already tight, and after the Battle of Taierzhuang, the 5th and 10th Divisions were all elite, losing 20,000 or 30,000 people, even a little devil could not bear it.

As a last resort, the Japanese army had no choice but to change its tactics and avoid its edge.

Under the command of the North China Front and the Central China Front, the Japanese decided to contain the main force of our army with a small force, and the large force made a detour to the west. Surround Xuzhou from the flank and annihilate the main force of the defenders of Xuzhou.

In order to supervise the battle, the Japanese army sent the 'base camp dispatch squad' headed by the chief of operations Hashimoto Group to Jinan to coordinate the operation.

On the southern front, although the Japanese army was immobilized by Chen Qingzhi's battle at Chihe, in order to change the situation north of Xuzhou, the Japanese Central China Front had no choice but to send reinforcements again, ordered the 9th Division, and sent the 13th Division to the west along the Vortex River.

On 9 May, the city of Mongol fell, and the defenders retreated.

On May 12, Yongcheng fell.

At this time, the 3rd Division marched north along the Jinpu Railway to attack Suxian.

On the same day, the 16th Division of the Japanese Army on the northern front crossed the canal from Jining to the south on 14 May, and fell into Yuncheng, Shanxian, Jinxiang, Yutai and other places, and the 14th Division also crossed the Yellow River southeast of Puyang until the 14th, captured Heze, and penetrated directly into Lanfeng.

After that, the remnants of the 10th Division, which had been replenished and repaired by some troops, crossed Weishan Lake from Nanyang Town to the west under the leadership of Se Wuping, and the next day, captured Peixian!

Until May 16, the Japanese army from the north and south met in Dangshan and formed an encirclement of Xuzhou.

At this point, all the previous advantages of the defenders can be said to have been lost, and they are no longer able to fight a decisive battle with the Japanese army.

In order not to be forced into a decisive battle with the Japanese army in such an unfavorable situation, resulting in heavy losses and the loss of vital forces, the Fifth Theater Command, after careful consideration, could only order the troops to break through to the mountainous area on the border between Anhui and Henan.

……

The people in Xuzhou City were panicked, whether it was soldiers or ordinary people, they were all in a hurry, with a panicked look on their faces.

Many troops came and went, and under the leadership of officers, they were preparing to evacuate Xuzhou.

Looking at the situation in Xuzhou City, Chen Qingzhi put the retreat order in his hand on the table, with a look of disappointment in his eyes.

Unexpected!

Xuzhou Convention and Exhibition still ends at this price!

Countless soldiers fought bloodily, and more than 20,000 Japanese troops were annihilated before and after the Battle of Taierzhuang, but in the end, they still could not escape the order to retreat.

Who can blame the originally good battle situation for fighting like this? Blame the top for being so happy and greedy? Nature can't be blamed!

Originally, it was normal for the Japanese army to flee in confusion and take this opportunity to expand the results of the battle, but the fault was that our army did not find out how many reserve forces the Japanese army still had, and the mistake was that the error was to estimate the combat effectiveness of the Japanese army!

The annihilation of more than 20,000 Japanese troops in the Battle of Taierzhuang gave too much confidence to the senior officers and ordinary soldiers in the Fifth War Zone.

The real situation was that in order to annihilate more than 20,000 Japanese troops in Taierzhuang, the 31st Division was beaten into an empty shelf, and there were only more than 300 people left in the Independent Brigade, Wu Pengju's 44th Brigade also lost more than half, and Zhang Yaoming's 25th Division lost more than 5,000 people!

And that's not counting the number of soldiers sacrificed in the last round of the attack!

It can be said that although the Battle of Taierzhuang annihilated more than 20,000 Japanese troops, in addition to the previous 31st Division and the Independent Brigade killed nearly 10,000 Japanese troops, in the final annihilation battle, only about 10,000 Japanese troops were eliminated, but our losses were far more than the little devils!

That's it, still not counting the losses of the Twentieth Corps of Townenburg!

All in all, although Taierzhuang was a great victory, he only called it a great victory because of the large number of Japanese soldiers eliminated this time!

But the price he paid was extremely heavy!

In the Battle of Xuzhou, which one was not the greater loss of the defenders during the decisive battle of the Japanese army?

In the defense of Tengxian County, Wang Mingzhang's 122nd Division was wiped out, and even the division commander Wang Mingzhang was also killed in battle!

In the first blocking battle of Linyi, Pang Bingxun's Scattered Regiment resisted desperately in order to block the main force of the Japanese Tenth Division from moving south, losing more than 8,000 soldiers!

Zhang Zizhong's 59th Army reinforced Linyi twice and assisted Pang Bingxun in blocking the Japanese 10th Division, and the losses before and after added together exceeded 10,000 people!

You must know that the 59th Division of the 38th Army, which is under the jurisdiction of Linzhang, has lost more than 10,000 people, and the entire division has only less than 1,000 people left in the end, plus other lost soldiers, the 59th Army has lost more than 15,000 soldiers!

In addition, Sun Zhen's 22nd Group Army, in addition to the annihilation of Wang Mingzhang's division of the 122nd Division under its jurisdiction, also lost more than 5,000 people in the 45th Army that blocked the Japanese army in the area of Jiehe and Longshan north of Tengxian County, so the 22nd Group Army lost at least more than 10,000 soldiers!

In addition, Tang Enbo, Feng Yizhong's 20th Corps also suffered huge losses, at the northern end of the Jinpu line, in order to lure the Japanese army, the 20th Corps fought and retreated all the way, although it was not low with the Japanese army, but also lost more than 2,000 soldiers, in addition, after the outbreak of the Battle of Xuzhou, Tang Enbo's troops from Lunan rushed to Taierzhuang to participate in the battle, all the way to defeat the Japanese army along the way, the loss was very huge.

In the final general battle, Zheng Dongguo's second division, as the main force, was even more disabled.

After the end of the Battle of Taierzhuang, the 20th Corps directly lost more than 8,000 soldiers and wounded 5,000.

It can be said that in order to inflict heavy losses on the Japanese army in the Battle of Taierzhuang, the number of losses of our army was several times that of the Japanese army, which cost countless manpower and material resources.

But it was such a hard and miserable victory, and it even made the Japanese army feel that it was just like this, Chen Qingzhi really wanted to ask this group of people in person, what did they think?

Perhaps Li Zongren's pursuit of victory was right, but the mistake was that the attacking troops below were wrong, and they were originally pursuing and expanding the results of the battle, but they mistakenly thought that they were pursuing and defeating the fleeing enemy, but in the end it caused such a chain reaction, and was overturned by the Japanese army.

A good hand of cards, a full hand of Wang Bang, but in the end it was won by the little devil playing a single stick!

Thinking of this, Chen Qingzhi couldn't help but shake his head and sighed very complicatedly.

Now that it's come to this, what else can they do?

At present, the Japanese army in the north and south has been encircled, and the city of Xuzhou is about to be surrounded by the Japanese army.

(End of chapter)