However, because Hu Weidong had long anticipated the nature of devils, he asked the Tiger Regiment to be careful before the war that the enemy would carry out indiscriminate artillery bombardment at all costs, and at the same time only sent one regiment and attacked more than 1,000 people head-on, and the troops were relatively scattered, so Ishihara's approach did not kill or injure many enemies, but caused a further blow to the morale of the Japanese army. After discovering this, Ishihara couldn't help but feel sad, he couldn't figure out how the Chinese army, which was vulnerable during the "Manchurian Incident", could become so powerful.

"Could it be that with the leadership of the Red Party, such a big change can be brought about in the Chinese? It seems that the military department has always been highly vigilant against red elements, and it is not unreasonable", Ishihara thought together, but unconsciously gave birth to an idea that shocked him, "Since China can be reborn because of the red road, what about Japan?" ”

But Ishihara quickly shook his head vigorously and dispelled this terrible thought, he knew very well how much crime he had committed at the beginning, just launching the "Manchurian Incident" could not be washed clean, and the Liliang of the Japanese Communist Party was still too weak, and if he wanted to take the position, he would inevitably rely on the help of the Chinese Red Party, so once Japan became red, old Japanese soldiers like him who had committed serious crimes against the Chinese people knew that there would be no good results. Thinking of this, Ishihara Waner also had a reason to convince himself, "The Japanese Communist Party itself is too weak, and it is inevitable to be controlled by Soviet Russia or the Chinese, even in order to ensure Japan's independence, it cannot take the red road."

At this point, Ishihara finally made up his mind to fight to the death, and his firmness unconsciously infected the 200,000 Japanese officers and soldiers under his command, making them all brave to die. However, even so, the Japanese army's outer positions were still broken through one after another by the spearhead soldiers of the Tiger Regiment of the 15th Army, and those troops who were originally arranged to carry out the task of flank penetration and infiltration were useless because the arrows were too sharp, so they had to concentrate on filling the devil's trenches in depression. After the defense of the Golan trench was destroyed and was no longer intact. Naturally, his special effect of restraining tanks and other armored vehicles was greatly affected, and Hu Weidong lost no time in sending several main regiments that reinforced tanks and armored vehicles to attack on a large scale to expand the results of the battle, dealing a heavy blow to the Japanese troops on the periphery.

In the spirit of preserving the backbone of the fight. Ishihara did not let all the Japanese forces on the periphery fight to the death to Zuihou, but agreed that they could not hold out and the situation allowed (i.e., they could withdraw safely without being pursued by the enemy and easily dispersed). Abandon part of their positions and retreat to the core area, but even so, the Japanese suffered more than 20,000 casualties in this day. Among them, more than 10,000 were killed or captured, after all, the attacking troops of the 15 th Army had very rich combat experience, and they would not easily give the devils a chance to retreat safely. Therefore, Ishihara's so-called "situation permitting" has actually become a life-urging charm for many devils

It must be admitted that, under the leadership of the backbone veterans, even the little devils who were conscripted into the army only a few months or even a month or two ago showed quite tenacity in the battle, and in addition, the Japanese artillery repeatedly carried out indiscriminate shelling without regard for the safety of their comrades, causing the attacking units of the 15 th Army, especially the Tiger Regiment, which was the arrowhead of the whole army, to suffer considerable losses. By 3 o'clock in the afternoon of the same day, the 15th Army had suffered more than 5,000 casualties, and 17 tanks had been destroyed and damaged by the Japanese and had lost their mobility or combat capability. The Tiger Regiment, which was a sharp knife, was attacked by the Japanese army, and the regiment, which had suffered more than half of the casualties, had basically lost the ability to continue the attack.

Hu Weidong did not force the Tiger Regiment to continue the attack, he knew very well that offense and defense were not the same, and it was not uncommon to be able to fight to Zuihou alone in defensive battles, but compared to it. Those who can withstand 30% of casualties in offensive operations are already first-class elite soldiers, so the performance of the Tiger Regiment has made him very pleased.

At this time, Hu Weidong had two more conventional options, one was to replenish the Tiger Regiment with troops and ammunition and let it fight again, and the other was to replace the Tiger Regiment with other main regiments, but Hu Weidong did not accept it. On the one hand, this is because, in Hu Weidong's view, the former may produce unnecessary variables due to poor cooperation, and will generally be used only as a last resort, while the latter will dampen the self-esteem of the more than 2,000 commanders and fighters of the Tiger Regiment; More importantly, he sent a call to Sun Liren's new 38th Division by telegram as early as when he led the guard regiment south to join the large forces of the 15th Army, and now his "First Division in the World" has finally arrived on the battlefield, and with them, there are also 40-barreled 122mm vehicle-mounted rocket launchers that have now increased to 60

After the elimination of the 200,000 Japanese troops on the North Road, although the Japanese Central China Dispatch Army Headquarters in Xuzhou still had 200,000 troops, the wounded soldiers accounted for a large proportion, and there were strong enemies in the three directions around Xuzhou, so the current Japanese army in Xuzhou did not dare to send troops out of the city to intercept the new 38th Division. What's more, with the strong strength of the new 38th Division, even if Shunroku Hata sent out all the combatable troops in Xuzhou, he would have no chance of winning in a field battle, so Hu Weidong dared to let them leave the canal defense line so early to go south to support. For the same reason, after the new 38th Division left the canal defense line, other units of the 15th Army filled the vacancy, and although the overall strength of the Chinese side on the canal defense line inevitably fell a lot, the strength of the Japanese army in Xuzhou declined even more, so the canal defense line remained impregnable.

As the only fully motorized division in China, the new 38th Division can arrive in less than a day after a journey of several hundred kilometers, but because the off-road performance of most car models in this era is not very good, and the road conditions in China during the Republic of China are generally poor, and some sections of the road have been damaged to varying degrees because of the war, so they have not arrived here until now. Speaking of which, thanks to the Japanese 2nd Army's intention to recapture the Bengbu Railway Bridge on the Jinpu Line, the battlefield is not far from the communication line, otherwise the commanders and fighters of the new 38th Division may have to get off the car and rush to the battlefield on foot when they drive to Zuihou by car, in fact, Hu Weidong also took this into account that he thought of summoning the new 38th Division to help in the battle, "Motorized troops are not as convenient as mechanized troops after all!" It's just that armored vehicles are too expensive, and it seems that the Luoyang Automobile Plant will further increase the production of off-road models in the future" (to be continued.) )