However, the Eighth Route Army had long been prepared for this, and now that the Japanese army in Kaifeng was physically and mentally exhausted by the continuous raids, its strength was not as good as before, so the Eighth Route Army could now draw 300,000 or even more mobile troops; In addition, the deployment of logistics and supplies for the Japanese army's external operations has always been a big problem, so the troops that can be sent are only about 200,000 people, and the quality is much weaker than the 11th Army of Okamura Ninji sent before

As a result, the Eighth Route Army, with the support of the North China Air Corps, defeated the so-called "task force" of this devil, killing more than 50,000 Japanese soldiers, capturing more than 20,000 Japanese soldiers, and wounding no less than 100,000 Japanese soldiers (overlapping with the statistics of prisoners).

It is worth mentioning that because the Eighth Route Army does not have a few tanks now, the main force of this battle is the traditional army that has long been outdated - cavalry, among which more than 18,000 Muslim cavalry from Xinjiang and Ganningqing, the territory of the former Majia Army, are particularly noteworthy, although due to religious reasons, it is almost impossible for these people to accept communist ideas, so it is difficult to give full play to some of the traditional advantages of the people's army, but since they came to the east to participate in the war, their identification with the country of China is still increasing, Coupled with the fact that the Muslims were not afraid of death in battle, they were no less effective than their brother troops in all battles, and as Hu Weidong said at the beginning, "There is nothing like fighting together against foreign invaders to strengthen the cohesion of all peoples." ”。

Furthermore. Before this battle, these people knew very well in their hearts that this battle may be a large-scale battle of cavalry in Chinese history, for the glory of cavalry. They will also risk their lives. In battle, no matter how many wounds these cavalrymen were, as long as they could still ride, shoot and wield their swords, they still gritted their teeth and persevered. Desperate to continue the pursuit, after the war, less than 8,000 of the more than 18,000 cavalry survived, such a tragic result is extremely rare in the pursuit of the battle. It is precisely because they are desperate to attack. It completely broke the psychological defense line of the Japanese army, resulting in the gradual retreat of the Japanese army in an orderly manner into a rout that they did not expect. In addition, the slogan "Ula" (Note 1) shouted by a considerable number of ethnic cavalry in Xinjiang during the charge, and their appearance that was different from that of the East Asian ethnic groups, inadvertently led many Japanese troops to mistakenly believe that the Soviet Union had sent troops to secretly participate in the war, which also increased the panic of the devils to a certain extent

In this battle, more than 30,000 devils were killed by these cavalry alone, so it was called "the remnant light of the cavalry zuihou" by military fans of later generations. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the local people's government built a large sculpture of cavalry charging in the center of the city to commemorate the more than 15,000 cavalry (the total number of cavalrymen involved in the pursuit exceeded 30,000, and many non-Muslims even joined the party or regiment. A valiant cavalryman who sacrificed his life for his country to defend himself against aggression.

It is also worth mentioning that when Ma Zhongying formed the armored cavalry division, there were too few armored vehicles that met the requirements. More than 8,000 cavalry had to be mixed to cooperate in the battle, but because the 15th Army had captured a large number of tanks and armored vehicles not long ago, it became unnecessary, so this part of the cavalry was immediately abolished. Among them, those who were young, or had a good cultural foundation and a high level of understanding, and had learned to operate tanks in their previous training, changed their careers to become armored troops, so they were able to stay in the armored cavalry division; Those who were a little older, not savvy enough, or had too poor a cultural foundation to learn how to operate a tank, or who were too slow to make progress, had to regret leaving this unique unit in China and even Shijie, and most of them participated in the operation.

Perhaps stimulated by this incident, these more than 6,000 officers and soldiers were all eager to seize this opportunity to prove themselves, so they sacrificed even more, and even if they survived the war, almost everyone was wounded, and the combat exploits were also more prominent than their new comrades-in-arms. And their previous commander Ma Zhongying didn't feel high morale when he found out, "You have done your best, so let me prove that even though the cavalry is about to retire from the stage of history, her unique style and spirit will never go out of style."

After the victory of the Eighth Route Army, although the Japanese army in Xuzhou will have more than 500,000 troops, there are only more than 300,000 of them who can still fight, and the rest are wounded soldiers, which is naturally a very exciting thing, but the Japanese army in Xuzhou, whose morale is greatly depressed, seems to be frightened, and actually sits back and watches the 15th Army led by Hu Weidong personally continue to cut off the Jinpu line to the west and dare not send troops south, which makes Hu Weidong a little big, "Or just fight a protracted war with the devil?" Although we are fighting far from the rear, after all, the number of troops is only a few hundred thousand, and the new base area can still solve some of them, but the devil has more than 500,000 mouths? I don't believe how long he can hold out without external input! ”

Shunroku Hata is also one of the few generals in the Japanese Army who can barely be called handsome, how can he not see this, the reason why he has not sent troops south for a long time is really insufficient troops at hand!

Note 1: The origin of "Ula" has not yet been defined, and there are several main theories in the field of historiography, one is derived from the Turkic word [юр], the second is derived from the Turkic root word [ур], the third is derived from the Bolgar word [Ургэ], and the fourth is derived from the Mongolian-Tatar word [Урагша]. Either of them was not created by the Russians, but it was incorporated into the Russian language during the independence of Muscovy from the Kipchak Khanate, and the reason why the mention of "Ula" now reminds me of the former Soviet Union or Russia is because the Soviet Red Army left a too shocking and deep impression on Shijie (to be continued). )