With great effort from the north of Taiyuan, get rid of the siege of the surrounding Eighteenth Army troops. The outstanding Japanese troops began to withdraw to Taiyuan one after another. Yoshimoto Sadachi did not wait for all his forces, and all of them shrank to Taiyuan and then took action. It is the strength of troops north of Taiyuan, after arriving six or seven out of ten. Concentrate forces on Yuci and Qingyuan as the starting point of the attack, and launch a counterattack on the south and all fronts towards Taiyuan.

In Yuci and Qingyuan respectively, a regiment of the Taihang Military Region served as a guard and outflanking, and the strength of a detachment of the local armed forces of the Jinsui Military Region. He was caught off guard by the sudden action of the Japanese army and suffered heavy losses. In order to delay the breakout of the main force of the Japanese army in Taiyuan and buy time for the main force and friendly troops, they still relied on the terrain to desperately block the attack.

However, under the situation of too large disparity in strength and equipment, although they paid a heavy price, they were not able to delay the Japanese army's action. Let it open two big openings in the southeast and southwest directions of Taiyuan, and open up the north section of the Nantongpu Railway from Taiyuan to Qixian.

After breaking the interception of the troops of the 18th Group Army south of Taiyuan, Yoshimoto Sadachi grabbed the main force of the Jinsui and Jinchaji Military Regions behind him, and pursued the short gap. The Japanese troops who commanded Taiyuan and withdrew to Taiyuan blew up all the equipment and supplies that could not be carried, and the whole army immediately retreated to the south.

However, although he opened up the Nantongpu Railway north of Qixian, his counterattack on the Nantongpu Railway south of Yuci was just a false shot. After defeating the frontal interception force of Yuci, he did not retreat from Yuci on the spot and along the Nantongpu Railway to the south, but suddenly turned to the southeast with most of his troops.

It avoided the main force of the Taiyue Military Region along the Nantongpu Railway south of Qi County, and the main force of the Taihang Military Region along the Baijin Railway. All the way to Yushe, Wuxiang, Licheng quickly retreated, and drilled into the hinterland of the Taihang Mountain Taihang Military Region.

Regardless of the stubborn resistance of the local troops of the Taihang Military Region, there was no entanglement along the way, and no villages or county towns were stationed. Deploy a force on each flank to block the troops of the 18th Group Army that may be encircled, cover the main force in the center and all the expatriates, and run desperately all the way to the direction of northern Henan.

As a major component of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region, the troops of the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region still have to stay in southern Hebei to cooperate with the anti-Japanese coalition operation, and cannot be put into the Shanxi battlefield. The troops of the Taihang Military Region almost undertook the main combat tasks of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region in the Shanxi battlefield.

The nine brigades and units of the Taihang Military Region, which were formed before the war, can be said to have poured out of the nest. At the same time, in order to strengthen the troops, four brigades were upgraded and reorganized with 15 local armed regiments. In the entire Taihang Military Region, only five regiments and two detachments of local armed forces remained. And then there are some basic militias, as well as the remaining armed forces at the county brigade level.

With such a small number of troops, and they are all poorly equipped and poorly trained, how can they stop the retreat of a large group of Japanese troops in a group? In addition, when the Japanese army was retreating, it was not entangled at all in the face of the resistance of the local armed forces. Either leave a small number of troops to entangle the blocking force, or come up and attack with all their strength under the cover of artillery fire to open the breakthrough as soon as possible, so the speed of the Japanese army's action can be described as quite fast.

At the same time as the Japanese army broke through in Taiyuan, the 36th Division along the Baijin Railway, although there were few troops left. However, he constantly launched counter-assaults, and became entangled with the troops of the Taihang Military Region in front of him. Although it also received that the Japanese army in Taiyuan had broken into the depth of its own base area, the Taihang Military Region was unable to get rid of the entanglement of the 36th Division in front of it.

When the first part of the Taihang Military Region, which was fighting along the Baijin Railway and around Changzhi, finally got rid of the entanglement of the Japanese army in front of him and rushed back to the Taihang base area for reinforcements. This Japanese army, commanded by Yoshimoto Sadachi himself, took advantage of the excellent mountain marching ability of the Japanese army, and had already rushed all the way out of Dongyang Pass, and after shaking around southern Hebei, he withdrew to Anyang. The five brigades of the Taihang Military Region that returned to the base area only captured some of the Japanese army's post-break troops and those who had fallen behind.

As for the retreat to Qingyuan, the troops of the Taiyue Military Region and the two brigades of the Taihang Military Region that cooperated with the operation were mainly concentrated in various key points of the Nantongpu Railway, and there was no opportunity for the combat troops of the 18th Group Army to the west of the entire Nantongpu Railway.

Cooperate with the Japanese army of most of the squadron protruding from the Nantongpu Railway, pass through Xiaoyi, Fenxi, and Jishan, and go straight to the direction of Yuncheng. The interception and blocking of the 13th Group Army and the 61st Army caught several armies off guard in the 8th Theater of the 37th Division and Regiment of Yuncheng.

The newly formed Second Army of the Eighth Theater, which was responsible for operations northeast of Yuncheng, was immediately crushed under the internal and external attacks of the Japanese army, and two-thirds of the casualties of the 42nd Army lost its combat effectiveness. After the two armies were defeated in the northeast of Yuncheng, the northeast side of Yuncheng was already wide open. The Japanese army on this road successfully joined the 37th Division, which had suffered nearly one-third casualties under the siege of the surrounding Chinese troops.

After the Japanese army withdrew into Yuncheng, it faced the greatly strengthened Japanese army in Yuncheng. The former enemy commander-in-chief of the Eighth Theater of Operations, who was in charge of besieging Yuncheng, knew that he had lost his most advantageous fighter. At present, if you want to eat the Japanese army in Yuncheng in one bite, there is almost no possibility.

Before the specific movement of the Japanese army in the next step is not known, it can only fortify on the periphery of Yuncheng to cut off the connection between Yuncheng and the Japanese army in Changzhi, and prevent the Japanese army from forcibly crossing the Yellow River to the south and west. In order to ensure the security of Shaanxi and western Henan, Ceying is making every effort to counterattack the elite of the First War Zone in eastern Henan.

The two armies of the First Theater Army were deployed along the Yellow River south of Yuncheng to prevent the Japanese troops from crossing the river and heading south. The First Army and the 90th Army of his descendants were deployed in the northwest of Yuncheng, and the 38th Army was deployed in Xie County, southwest of Yuncheng, with a division of the 91st Army. With the Jin Sui Army, one group army and two armies, they were deployed on the line from Xia County to Zhangdian.

The deputy commander of the Eighth Theater who was in charge of the Yuncheng operation, as the former enemy commander-in-chief of the Yuncheng operation, was also timely in dealing with the sudden and dramatic changes. But he did not expect that the Japanese army that broke through from Taiyuan would join the 37th Division in Yuncheng.

That is, they did not retreat to the south or east, but gathered all their forces and suddenly launched an all-out counterattack against the Eighth Theater of Operations and the 1st and 90th Armies deployed on the front line of Yishi and Qingtou Town west of Yuncheng. At the same time, a part of the army launched a local counterattack on the position of the Sixth Army in the second theater on the line from Xia County to Zhangdian, and the focus of the attack was to deploy the 19th Army with Zhangdian as the core.

After receiving reinforcements from the retreating troops from Taiyuan, Yuncheng was beaten very miserably. The loss of troops was already as high as a third of the 37th Division. Not only did it quickly recover its vitality in a very short period of time, but it even increased the size of the available forces by two-thirds. This makes Lieutenant General Yuichiro Nagano quite confident to launch a counterattack now.

After receiving the order of Lieutenant General Yoshimoto Sadachi to withdraw to northern Henan via the north bank of the Yellow River. Instead of retreating, they concentrated their forces and launched a large-scale counterattack against the surrounding Chinese troops. The Lieutenant General Yuichiro Nagano believed that it would not be an easy thing for the 37th Division, which was currently alone in the southwest of Jin.

If you want to have Chinese troops everywhere in the surrounding area, you are already in a situation of encirclement, and you should carry out the orders of the army commander and not crush part of the Chinese troops in the surrounding area, so that it will lose most of its pursuit ability. His 37th Division, as well as all the troops who had withdrawn to Yuncheng, were simply impossible to retreat safely.

In order to ensure the safety of the retreat, Lieutenant General Yuichiro Nagano decided to deflect a shot and at least inflict as much damage as possible on the enemy's living forces before retreating, so that he would lose the ability to pursue. At the same time, the route of the whole army's retreat to the east was opened in order to prepare for the general retreat of the whole army.

Yuichiro Nagano, who had made up his mind to fight a battle and then go, not only invested most of his troops and all his firepower in this tactical counterattack. In order to achieve its tactical objectives, it will also secretly withdraw from Fenglingdu, the only two 280-mm heavy howitzers on the battlefield in Guannai, in order to defend the bridgehead of Yuncheng after the battle began.

In addition to the Type 92 105 cannon that covered these two heavy howitzers, and the four Taisho 14 Type 150-mm cannons belonging to the artillery wing of the 37th Division, they were all put into the battlefield. It can be said that this Lieutenant General Yuichiro Nagano has made a bloody contribution to this counterattack.

You must know that the two 280 mm heavy howitzers, in the previous battle, even if the Chinese troops surrounded him fought so badly, they were never used. is to wait until the most critical moment, and use these two super big guys as trump cards.

For the current Lieutenant General Yuichiro Nagano, anyway, these two howitzers weighing 26 tons, plus thousands of shells weighing more than 200 kilograms in the current inventory, cannot be taken away when retreating. Rather than blowing it up at that time, it's better to use the residual heat. Without the railway line, the little truck in his hand alone would not have been able to take these two huge guys with him.

As a typical Japanese soldier, Yuichiro Nagano belongs to the kind of person who either doesn't do it, but does it cleanly and thoroughly. In order to achieve his tactical goals as soon as possible, Lieutenant General Yuichiro Nagano came up with a bloody investment. These two 280-mm super howitzers were mobilized with the cooperation of the mountain artillery and howitzers of the artillery wing under the division and regiment.

Bombarded the positions of the 1st Army and the 90th Army west of Yuncheng, supporting the direct assault of the infantry. The remaining six cannons took advantage of their long range to suppress the long-range artillery of the Chinese army participating in the battle, covering these two 280 mm howitzers and firing at the Central Army northwest of Yuncheng. As for the Chinese army southeast of Yuncheng, he only pinned it down with a force.

Lieutenant General Yuichiro Nagano knew very well in his heart that although the reinforcements from Taiyuan had already defeated the two armies of the Shina Army around him. The rest of the Chinese armies that participated in the battle suffered losses in the previous fierce battles. The reinforcements took advantage of the protracted battle, and their combat effectiveness had declined significantly, so that they broke through the encirclement of the Chinese army outside Yuncheng in a short period of time and joined themselves.

However, among the Chinese armies around Yuncheng, the most elite First Army and the Ninety Army did not suffer much loss before. Moreover, the two armies on the front line from Yishi to Qingtou Town are not only one of the most elite units of the Zhina government army, but also concentrate most of the long-range artillery fire of the Zhina government army around them, and are the backbone of the Chinese army in the entire battlefield around Yuncheng.

If you don't defeat these two armies first, it will be difficult for you to carry out follow-up actions. Therefore, the Japanese army in the western battlefield of Yuncheng came up and covered most of the troops with the most fierce artillery fire, and launched a fierce attack on the front line of Yishi and Qingtou Town. For the Jin Sui Army around Xia County, although the Nineteenth Army was chosen as the main target of attack, only one detachment with two infantry brigades as the backbone was invested.