Chapter 553: The End of Ryosuke Isoya (2)

Coincidentally, the new direction of attack chosen by Ryosuke Isoya happened to be Tongshan directly south of Xuzhou, and the five main brigades of the independent division led by Tang Qiusheng had more than 60,000 troops, and they were on standby at Sanbao near Tongshan.

Whether it is from the direction of the Japanese attack, or the terrain conditions of Xuzhou, the direction of Tongshan is not suitable as the best place to attack, the hills outside the city are undulating, the terrain is complex, especially not conducive to the deployment of large troops, it is an easy to defend and difficult to attack the terrain conditions, from Li Zongren's entire strategic layout, the line from Tongshan to Sanbao is the secondary direction of the battle of Xuzhou.

Ryosuke Isoya invested a division and a brigade in the direction of Tongshan with a total of more than 45,000 troops, and strengthened a large number of artillery and tanks, in his words, to use this heavy hammer to smash the defense line of the defenders of Xuzhou China in one fell swoop, and tomorrow will be the most critical day to decide the battle of Xuzhou.

For the other generals who were puzzled, why the commander put the main assault force in Tongshan, which is difficult to defend and difficult to attack, Isoya Ryosuke seemed to be in a good mood, and patiently explained that it was precisely because Tongshan was easy to defend and difficult to attack, that the commander of the branch would definitely not put heavy troops here, which was also the weak point of the Xuzhou defense line, and we gathered heavy troops to open a breakthrough with a sudden attack when the battle in the west of Xuzhou was the most intense.

After the troops attacked Xuzhou, they immediately attacked from the south to the west, and the imperial army attacking in the west, flanked the defenders of China, split Xuzhou into two parts, and annihilated it.

Looking at the admiring eyes of his generals, Ryosuke Isoya smiled reservedly and smugly, and then, according to the order, the Japanese army readjusted its deployment and worked hard overnight.

Li Zongren in Xuzhou City was also in a good mood at this time, and Isoya Ryosuke walked into the trap step by step according to his own plan, and the six divisions of the Sichuan Army that copied the rear road of the Japanese army had reached the line from Lizhuang to Huangkou and were hurrying to build fortifications, and the back road of Isoya Ryosuke had been cut off.

Liao Lei's troops, who were ambushed in Yanglou and Jiahe Village on both wings of the Japanese army, had already sharpened their knives, and suddenly killed with their own orders, the two wings of the Japanese army were oppressed, and the troops in Xuzhou launched a counterattack again, and Isoya Ryosuke had only one way to retreat, and what was waiting for them was the more than 80,000 Sichuan troops who were waiting for the battle.

He issued an order overnight, ordering Liao Lei's 21st Group Army troops to approach the Japanese army in concealment and prepare for an attack, but he did not expect that Isoya Ryosuke had already set the direction of the main attack at Tongshan in the south of Xuzhou.

Tang Qiusheng, who was already preparing to sit on the cold bench, received a report from the reconnaissance unit that a large number of Japanese troops were moving covertly to the Tongshan area in southern Xuzhou overnight.

He smiled and shook his head, it is really a blessed person who does not need to be busy, the fat sent to the mouth, how can there be a reason not to eat, there are tens of thousands of independent division troops in Sanbao, the Japanese army did not notice it at all, just caught him off guard, he ordered the troops, pay attention to strict secrecy, not to reveal a trace of whereabouts, the reconnaissance unit to the principle of not alarming the Japanese army, closely monitor all the actions of the Japanese army, and to take back the distribution map of the Japanese army.

The artillery unit secretly built a position overnight and entered a state of imminent battle, and then, he reported the situation here and the deployment of the troops to the division commander, and soon, Tang Qiuli called back, only three words "hit hard", and the rest, nothing was said, Tang Qiusheng understood his brother's thoughts, and completely agreed with his battle plan, what he wanted was under the city of Xuzhou, and as a result, the life of Ryosuke Isoya and his first army.

When the Japanese army, which thought they had a plan, was busy working under the cover of night, they did not know that in the dark, countless pairs of eyes, staring at all their movements, drove out of the three forts and marched towards the intended target.

Tang Qiusheng immediately reported the news of the change of the deployment of the Japanese army to Li Zongren in Xuzhou City, Li Zongren was taken aback, the direction of Tongshan is indeed because of the dangerous terrain, where there are few troops, he also judged that the Japanese army will not choose where to take the direction of attack, he secretly scolded the Japanese for being cunning, while sighing, the troops of the independent division are really good luck, and they can catch hot steamed buns with cold hands, he and Tang Qiusheng exchanged several telegrams, determined the battle plan in the direction of Tongshan, with the troops of the independent division as the mainstay, responsible for annihilating the Japanese siege troops, The defenders in Xuzhou City, without alarming the Japanese troops outside the city, transferred the main force to the direction of Tongshan and attacked the Japanese troops inside and outside.

The commander of the Japanese division in charge of attacking the southern part of Xuzhou, Hino Kutaro, was a very cautious Japanese general, his division plus the strength of a brigade attached to it, after moving to the direction of Tongshan overnight, seeing the terrain conditions here, he couldn't help frowning, the ravines were vertical and horizontal, and he couldn't expand his troops too much.

Increasing the number of troops one by one, that can only send a bunch of live targets to the defenders of China, how to attack Xuzhou in the shortest possible time with the least casualties, Hiyono Kutaro is very nerve-wracking, he even took the risk, personally sneaked to the place not far from Xuzhou City to reconnoitre, a large group of staff and staff, accompanied by His Excellency the division commander, in the cold wind and freezing, in the dark night, Xuzhou City can not see a little light, the tall city wall, silent like a giant.

After completing a heroic reconnaissance operation, when he returned to the division headquarters, Hiyono Kutaro's frowning brows relaxed, and he made the following arrangements for the attacking troops, and the artillery units attached to him concentrated the direction of the artillery attack on the three-kilometer-wide area of the defensive position in Xuzhou City, and increased the intensity of in-depth artillery bombardment.

His intention was obvious, to use a large amount of artillery fire to blow up a passage in Xuzhou, concentrate firepower, attack one point, extend the artillery fire, and shell the depth of the defenders of China, and use the chariot as a movable fortress to cover the infantry attack, and the distance from the bullet impact point should not be more than 500 meters.

This is a very risky way of playing, which is equivalent to rushing forward with the explosion point of the shell, and if you are not careful, you will be hit by your own shells, nearly 100 artillery salvos, who dares to guarantee the accuracy of the impact point? Officers at all levels looked at each other and were shocked by the bold tactics of His Excellency the division commander.

Hyono Kutaro was also forced to do so, only in this way could the troops be avoided from becoming a live target for the defenders of China, he carefully looked at the terrain, as long as there were three or five heavy machine guns, the road to attack could be sealed to death, what kind of traditional artillery bombardment, the tactics of infantry charge, the root is not suitable for use here, even if there is a machine gun of the defenders of China survived, it will also cause huge casualties to the troops.

On December 22, the battle first started in the west of Xuzhou, after the Japanese heavy artillery bombardment, the tank covered a large number of infantry, began to storm the city fortifications of Xuzhou, for a time, the artillery fire on the periphery of Xuzhou was continuous, the gunfire was like a tide, the Japanese army regardless of casualties, the whole line attacked, the city wall of Xuzhou was blown up by the Japanese artillery in many places, and then, the target of the Japanese artillery attack was turned to suppress the artillery fire of the Chinese defenders, and the fierce artillery battle was also launched at the same time.

The collapsed city wall has formed a huge gap, and these gaps have become the target of the Japanese army's key attack, because most of the defenders' troops have been transferred to the direction of Tongshan, and the western defense line of Xuzhou has been in crisis several times, and the Japanese army has attacked below the gap, and the 88th Division of the Sichuan Army guarding here has to use a pile of people to plug the gap.

The Japanese soldiers, who had already touched the wreath of victory, left behind the corpses and fought to the death, using the only three footholds to build fortifications in a hurry, if the Japanese succeeded in this move, it would undoubtedly pose a great threat to the defenders' positions, on the contrary, the direction of Tongshan, which should have been more fierce, was surprisingly calm, and so far, no signs of the Japanese attack have been found.

Li Zongren, who felt the pressure, almost shook the deployment of strengthening the direction of Tongshan last night, and transferred the troops there back to the frontal position, in the face of such a fierce attack by the Japanese army, he suspected that Ryosuke Isoya had played a suspicious plan for himself, and the Japanese army in the direction of Tongshan was a real feint force.

Otherwise, the Japanese army will not desperately attack the western city defense position, there is no such way of feint attack, the west defense line of the city is only defended by a division of the Sichuan army, can it withstand the next attack of the Japanese army, he has no bottom in his heart, he hesitated, several times wanted to pick up the phone to give orders, but there was a voice always echoing in his ears.

That was the words of Tang Qiusheng, deputy commander of the independent division, Chief Li, according to the latest deployment of the Japanese army, Tongshan must be the main direction of attack of the Japanese army, no matter what pressure the western direction suffers, do not shake the established battle plan, eat this Japanese army, which means that the battle of Xuzhou will enter the end state ahead of schedule.

Li Zongren finally made up his mind, the original plan remained unchanged, but the battle situation in the frontal position really worried him, he thought twice, and threw the last unit in his hand into it, that is, his guard regiment, which is the elite of the elite of the Gui army, although it is the establishment of a regiment, the strength has reached more than 4,300 people, well-equipped, all of them are composed of veterans and experienced officers in the Gui army, and there are few scars on that person's body.

This guard regiment, known as the Gui Army, is a tiger, Li Zongren is reluctant to use it, it is fed by the ocean of white flowers, and the most rare thing is that they are loyal to themselves, and now, he has to use this army to play the last card to stabilize the crumbling western defense line.

Seeing the more than 4,000 officers and soldiers of the guard regiment disappear into the smoke of artillery fire, Li Zongren kept looking at their backs, and couldn't help but feel a sense of distress and pain, and he was reluctant to leave for a long time.

(To be continued)