Chapter 14: Advanced (58)

On November 22, the Japanese army attacked Changde City for the fifth day, 30,000 Japanese troops attacked the city, and 8,000 national troops held on. However, since the advent of firearms, the protective role of the city has been weakened day by day, and in the face of long-range large-caliber artillery, the once impregnable city seems extremely weak. In addition, there is another variable in the offensive and defensive battle of Changde, that is, Hanshou's 68th Division. Once the 68th Division is in place, it will add nearly 20,000 Japanese troops, and at that time, the 8,000 defenders will no longer have the slightest advantage.

Early this morning, fierce battles broke out in the area of Changde Yanjug. If the two sides still had limited exploration and firepower deployment a few days ago, then the battle of Yanluo was the first fierce battle between the two sides, and it also meant that the decisive battle in Changde officially began. In the early stage of the battle, the 116th Division, the main force that avoided the battle as much as possible and arranged for the siege of the city, was pressed by the whole army, intending to plunder Changde in a short period of time with the overwhelming strength of the complete army. In the face of wave after wave of Japanese offensives, the 169th Regiment was like a small boat in a huge wave, but it was nailed to the position. At night, the position was lost, and the first battalion of the 169th Regiment of the 57th Division did not survive, and the battalion commander, Major Yang Weijun, and the battalion deputy Major Dong Qingxia were both killed.

When the news reached Guilin, the senior class immediately stopped class, and the classroom became a war room in five minutes, and the 20 or so people in the classroom were very excited, and the battle curtain opened as scheduled, confirming their assumptions, and they gathered around the map, fantasizing about the changes in the battle situation.

Mo Di did not huddle with his classmates, but sat silently by the door, and the teacher Sun Fengwu was a little strange, walked up to Mo Di, and asked, "Why doesn't Tianzong discuss with his classmates." ”

Mo Di smiled: "These guys, as long as they relax, they will not leave the smoke, I can't stand the smell of smoke, rather than being smoked away, it is better to leave early." ”

Instructor Sun smiled, this senior class, except for Mo Enemy, all of them are smokers, there are clear regulations on smoking during the class time, after class, there are no exceptions to the more than 20 smoking guns that have endured for an hour, and there is a chance to swallow clouds, including the instructor himself. When I turned around, sure enough, the classroom was already full of smoke, and thick smoke came out of the window, and it felt like a fire.

Pulling Mo Di out of the classroom, Instructor Sun smiled and said, "If you can't stand the smoke, don't suffer inside." I heard that Tianzong used to smoke before, but he had to stop because he injured his lungs with a poison gas bomb, but is this true? ”

"Yes." Mo Di replied with a smile: "Sometimes I want to smoke, but when I think of the discomfort of coughing up my lungs, I don't dare to relapse." ”

"Huh." Instructor Sun said with a smile: "What is Tianzong's opinion on Changde? ”

Mo Di sighed and said: "The variable should be in the 68th Division of the Japanese Army, the 68th Division is advancing by land and water, if it can reach Changde as scheduled and participate in the attack, then Changde will be lost, and there will be no accidents." If Changde can be held, the first condition is to block the westward advance of the 68th Division by land and water. ”

Instructor Sun paused for a moment and nodded thoughtfully.

The 68th Division, leaving from Anxiang, crossed Sanxian Lake, and boarded the south bank of the Yuan River in Hanshou, which was a strange soldier of Hengshan Yong, but also a lone army. It's just that Yokoyama Yong didn't expect that his strange soldier would fall into the eyes of the intelligence department of the national army on the day he landed in Hanshou, and the strange soldier would lose its meaning.

Not only did Yokoyama not know that the Nationalist Army had completely grasped the movements of the 68th Division, but even Zuo Jiuma, the division commander of the 68th Division, did not realize at all that the opponent's repeated unpleasant flank and rear outflanking tactics had been seen through by the opponent, and he did not expect that in front of him was Shi Zhongcheng's 100th Army and Zhang Lingfu's 58th Division. Wang Yaowu's order to Shi Zhongcheng and Zhang Lingfu was to take the 68th Division as quickly as possible, and then return to the division to attack the Japanese army attacking Changde and rescue Changde.

The 100th Army was the last corps-level unit formed by the National Army, which was jointly organized in Fujian in September 1938 by the 75th Division of Song Tiancai and the 80th Division of Chen Qi, with the purpose of strengthening the defense forces along the coast of Fujian. With the progress of the war, the 100th Army was transferred to northeast Jiangxi, and the army commander also became Shi Zhongcheng, under the jurisdiction of Tang Boyin's 19th Division, Zhao Xitian's 63rd Division, and Zhu Huirong's 75th Division. It is said that although the 100th Army, which has three divisions, cannot compete with the 68th Division, it should have no problem blocking it for ten days and half a month, but because of the previous battle in Taoyuan, Tang Boyin's 19th Division suffered a lot of losses and could not be used, so he had no choice but to transfer the 58th Division of the 74th Army to complete the task together.

On the morning of the 23rd, the 68th Division, which was advancing by land and water, set out from Hanshou, and soon after its departure, it was hit by a double blow from both the air and the ground at the mouth of the Dangjia River; at first, a dense number of shells fired from the land artillery positions fell on the warships in the Yuan River, followed by a group of ghostly fighters, which dived into the warships from the air and rained shells on the warships, and the six warships suddenly burst into flames.

The Japanese troops on land reacted very quickly, and immediately swarmed towards the artillery positions of the Nationalist army, and the artillery positions of the 100th Army, which had not had time to retreat, were declared lost.

At the same time, the remnants of Zhu Huirong's 75th Division and Tang Boyin's 19th Division appeared outside Hanshou City and launched an attack on Hanshou City.

The headquarters of the 68th Division, which only had a few units left behind, was empty, and when they heard that someone was attacking, they were all frightened, and the division commander Zuo Jiujian ordered to hold on to it at the same time, and he climbed the boat that was parked on the Hanshou wharf with his own people and moved to the north shore.

After the occupation of Hanshou, the remnants of Tang Boyin's 19th Division were stationed in Hanshou, and Zhu Huirong's 75th Division flew westward and joined the melee at the mouth of the Dangjia River.

The military quality of the Japanese army was really different, and suddenly one was attacked, but it did not mess up the formation, but quickly organized a counterattack. Shi Zhongcheng did not expect to be able to take the 68th Division in one battle, but took the Dangjia River as the boundary, and the two sides confronted each other.

When Zhu Huirong's 75th Division arrived, the two sides had already separated from the previous melee. Seeing that there was no advantage to take advantage of, the 75th Division did not dare to join the battle rashly, and hung far behind.

The two sides confronted each other on both sides of the Dangjia River, but Wang Yaowu's wishful thinking was shattered, Shi Zhongcheng's 100 divisions could not be effective with the other party, and Zhang Lingfu's 58 divisions were also contained here, and returning to Changde became an empty word.

In this way, Yu Chengwan in Changde City is in danger.

On this day, the offensive of the 3rd Division and the 116th Division continued unabated, and the commander of the Iwanaga Wang Division coordinated the siege of the city with traditional infantry artillery, intensively supported the frontal attack of the mixed infantry at the wing level with brigade-level artillery, and sent squadron-level and brigade-level death squads to break through intensively. The 116th Division destroyed the stronghold fortifications of the 57th Division with powerful artillery, and the infantry then broke through, and the national army in the city position and the battalion commanders of the 57th Regiment of the Japanese Army who attacked the city led their troops to charge and counterattack, fighting hand-to-hand in the position, and blocking the incoming enemy with * and fire attack in the city lane, and annihilating all the invading Japanese infantry death squads. The losses of the 57th Army were also very serious, Major Li Shaoxuan, deputy commander of the 1st Battalion of the 170th Regiment, Major Deng Hongjun, commander of the 2nd Battalion of the 170th Regiment, and Major Zhang Tinglin, commander of the 1st Battalion of the 170th Regiment, were killed.

All the enemy traces have appeared, and the men and horses of the two sides have been revealed. At present, the situation between the two sides is that Wang Jingjiu's 10th Group Army and Shi Zhongcheng's 100th Army take the initiative, and Wang Zanxu's 29th Group Army and Yu Cheng Wanbu are passive. Sun Lianzhong, commander of the Sixth Theater, and Guo Chen, chief of staff, have also determined that the purpose of the Japanese army is only Changde, and will not continue to the west, and they can consider letting the Jiang Defense Army reinforce Changde, and at the same time, they also hope that the Ninth Theater will lend a hand.

Tonight, the topic of discussion in the senior staff class was: reinforcements from the Ninth Theater, how to reinforce them, and who to send reinforcements.

The invincible attitude is not to hold out too much hope, because of the Ninth Theater's own reasons, in the face of the Japanese 40th Division and the 34th Division on the other side of the Liuyang River, the Ninth Theater does not dare to draw out its own troops without authorization, and once a loophole is formed, it will cause a catastrophe to the Ninth Theater.

Wang Weicang agrees with Mo Enemy's point of view, but the reason is different, he believes that Xue Yue, the governor of the Ninth War Zone, has been in the battle of Changsha several times and has been known as the Tianlu general, and he has begun to flutter, thinking that he is China's number one general, and no one can beat him. Self-confidence is also extremely inflated, except for President Jiang, he is the boss. Now that President Chiang is in Cairo, whoever dares to give him an order is estimated to be difficult even by the three major ministers of the Central Military Commission, so the reinforcements of the Ninth Theater are not optimistic.

The speeches of the two made the other students who were full of hope for the Ninth War Zone dumbfounded, and they couldn't help but worry, if there were no reinforcements from the Ninth War Zone, Changde estimated that he would not be able to hold for a few days.

Relatively speaking, the more positive is Huang Tianhua, Huang Tianhua believes that the Japanese occupation of Changde is not a good thing for the Ninth Theater, Xue Boling has an overall concept and will not stand still. However, such a big member of the central government must have the understanding of being a villain, especially when asking for help. If it is still the attitude of the central government in the past, I am afraid that it will not be easy to use.

You say a word to me, and the final conclusion is that if the central officials don't come from the low side, they will be laughed at by Xue Boling this time. This conclusion made Feng Yizhong a little crying and laughing, in the eyes of these senior staffers, the generals of the national army and the central officials were like children, and they would make some such childish play. I thought so, but I still went to the confidential room and reported the conclusions of the students' discussions to the Military Command Department.

After receiving Feng Yizhong's telegram, Liu Fei couldn't help laughing, between the central government and Xue Boling of the Ninth War Zone, it was really as expected by the senior staff, Xue Boling repeatedly delayed on the grounds of the defense of the Ninth War Zone, and the group of people led by He Yingqin of the Central Committee were unwilling to talk to Xue Boling and were in a dilemma.

After Liu Fei handed the telegram to Bai Chongxi, Bai Chongxi scolded with a smile: "Little rabbit cubs, you are getting more and more capable!" "Tell Liu Fei to call back immediately and ask them to discuss a solution tonight, and if they don't come up with a plan, they won't be able to get out of class. Liu Feile left, he knew that Bai Jiansheng was happy, and there was such a group of people with thoughts, opinions and ideas under his command, and there were successors to Gui Jun.

After receiving the telegram, the confidential room quickly ran to the high school classroom, and handed the telegram to Feng Yizhong one minute before the end of the evening self-study class. After Feng Yizhong saw the telegram, he couldn't help but smile, it seems that tonight will be a sleepless night.