Chapter 7: Rivers and Mountains (40)

In September 1938, after a month of fighting, the Japanese army advanced another big step towards its destination, Wuhan. Except for Jiangnan, who suffered a big loss in Mahuiling, the other two fronts were successful. The 3rd and 10th Divisions fought fiercely with Hu Zongnan in Xinyang, and the 136th Division, which occupied the mall, was heading south to Macheng, pushing back and forth with Sun Lianzhong's Zhang Jinzhao's 30th Division and Chifengcheng's 31st Division at the boat shop. The Sixth Division of Jiangbei had already arrived in Tianjia Town, leaving Li Pinxian behind, and facing the No. 2 main force of the old Jiang Yan's lineage, Li Yannian's Second Army.

Wuhan is safe, all in Tianjia Town! The Chinese government is keeping a close eye on Tianjia Town. Lao Jiang promoted Li Yannian, commander of the Second Army, a proud protégé of the first phase of Huangpu, to the commander of the corps, and formed the last line of defense of Xiao Zhichu's 26th Army, He Zhizhong's 86th Army, Zhou Zhe's 75th Army, and Li Yannian's 2nd Army to strictly guard the east gate of Wuhan.

"Your principal really has nothing to say to you Whampoa students." Seeing this formation, Mo Di said to Huang Tianhua: "The most important place will definitely be the figure of your senior." ”

"The first three phases of Huangpu were really good, and they were also very popular with the principal, and after the establishment of the Wuhan branch, more than 6,000 students in the fifth phase suddenly appeared. Especially after the diversion of Ninghan and Han, Wuhan has Huangpu and Nanjing also have Huangpu, and Huangpu is no longer popular. I'm in the seventh phase, and I belong to the category that no longer recruits principals to see. Huang Tianhua said with a smile: "Hu Zongnan guarded the first line, Song Xilian guarded the first line, Li Yannian guarded the first line, and Yu Jishi guarded the first line. Yu Jishi fought a good battle in Mahuiling, but the one who can really push with Okamura Ningci in Jiangnan depends on Xue Yue, he is not qualified enough. Whether Hu Zongnan can hold Xinyang or not is still a good number, as for this Li Yannian's senior guarding Tianjia Town, I am not optimistic about him. ”

"Why?" Mo Di asked.

"He has enough people there, four armies, seventy or eighty thousand, all huddled together, what do you want to do?" Huang Tianhua said: "Don't he know that Tianjia Town is on the edge of the Yangtze River, and the naval guns of the Japanese Third Fleet are not vegetarians. ”

"I don't see it that way." Mo Di said: "I don't think the artillery of Tianjiazhen Fortress is not vegetarian, and it is unlikely that the Japanese army will take Tianjiazhen through the fleet by occupying Anqing." ”

"Why?" This time it was Huang Tianhua's turn to ask.

"Because of the Yangtze River." Mo Di pointed to the map and said: "Although it is still the same river, but Tianjiazhen is upstream, the river here is much narrower than Anqing, the Japanese gunboats can drive in, but they can't swing away, and the artillery attack of the Tianjiazhen fortress, whether it is caliber or range, the boats on the river are not the same, to put it bluntly, it is the life of being beaten." ”

Sure enough, the Japanese attack on the river was beaten back by the artillery of the Tianjiazhen fortress, which was the first failure of the Japanese warship attack on the Yangtze River.

Once again, Okamura Ninji showed his extraordinary military prowess by ordering the Yangtze River Fleet to turn its ship around and attack the fortress of Fuchikou on the south bank of the Yangtze River. The Japanese navy was not stupid, and immediately adjusted its plan and adopted the method of attacking the Tianjiazhen fort openly and the Fuchikou covertly. On the night of September 24, the Japanese marines, assisted by fourteen warships, stormed the south bank of the Yangtze River, and the fortress of Fuchikou was lost.

The fortress of Fuchikou and the Tianjia town on the north bank are horns of each other, echoing each other, like a pair of pincers on the Yangtze River, strangling the passage of the Yangtze River. Once the Fuchikou was lost, the Tianjiazhen fortress lost its strategy, and the Fuchikou was on higher ground, and the Japanese army installed artillery emplacements on the high ground, so that the Tianjiazhen fort was completely exposed to Japanese artillery fire. On the 28th, more than 20 Japanese motorboats, under the cover of airplanes and warships, and with the assistance of large-caliber artillery at Fuchikou, launched another frantic attack on Tianjia Town. Japanese naval bombers in groups of 3 to 5 took turns bombing the Tianjiazhen Fort, and the shells at Fuchikou never stopped, and all the main fortifications of the Tianjiazhen Fortress were blown up. Under the cover of aircraft, naval guns, and heavy artillery, the Japanese marines forced their landing and rushed to the Tianjiazhen battery.

Li Yannian, who thought that Tianjia Town was impregnable, was lost.

Before the invincibles could recover from the loss of Tianjia Town, an explosive news came again. The Japanese base camp transferred three divisions to form the 21st Army, which was led by General Koro Furujo, and with the support of Koichi Shiozawa, commander of the Navy's 5th Fleet, made a surprise attack on Guangzhou. On the evening of October 11, the Japanese army successfully landed at Daya Bay in Guangzhou.

For the first time, Gui Jun had the feeling that someone had burned his butt hair, and even Mo Di, who was sitting firmly in the hidden mountain, was a little uneasy.

The first to return to the defense was the 31st Army, the army commander Wei Yunsong, and the deputy army commander He Weizhen merged the soldiers of Lin Cixi's 131st Division and Su Zuxin's 135th Division into the 138th Division of Mo Dehong, and the middle and senior officers rushed back to Guangxi to prepare to reorganize the team and meet the Japanese army killed by the South China Sea. The 138th Division returned to the 48th Army.

The next to return to Guangxi was the 188th Division of the 84th Army, which lost the face of the Gui army on the battlefield of Huangmei and Guangji, Liu Ren was imprisoned, and Liu Jianchang led the team back to Gui for reorganization. However, the 84th Army did not reduce its combat capability because of this, and with Zhong Yi's 173rd Division, Zhang Guangwei's 174th Division, and Ling Lixi's 189th Division, the 84th Army was still a strong army.

"The Japanese army can't enter Guangdong." Huang Tianhua said: "Chen Jitang is known as a pillar in the south, and he has been operating in Guangdong for many years and has a good foundation. Although Yu Hanmou is known as a fool and has no plan, with Chen Jitang's foundation, he should not let the Japanese get anything good at the Pearl River Estuary. ”

"Emotionally, I think so too." Mo Di said: "Guangdong has always had a strong army, and the Northern Expedition to the East left a lot of military wealth to Guangdong. Chen Jitang was a strong opponent of the central government back then, and the old foundation should still be there. It's just that most of Guangdong's troops have been drawn to the front line of the Yangtze River, Li Hansoul, Ye Zhao and other generals are all in Jiangxi, and most of the troops from Guangdong, Xue Yue, and Zhang Fakui of the First Army in Jiangnan are from Guangdong. It seems that what China can really fight is our old Guangzhou. ”

"The two lakes are also good, Peng Dehuai in Hunan, Lin Biao in Hubei, hehehehe." Chen Zhengxin interjected that during this time, he was with Yang Kezhi a lot, and he was more familiar with some of the situations over there, Jinggangshan, Hubei, Henan, Anhui, Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, Jinchaji, and Lin Biao, Ye Ting, and Peng Dehuai's deeds also had a little understanding.

Mo Die laughed, these two are not very popular with the central government! Lin Biao's Pingxingguan is very exciting, if the Chinese army is so good at fighting, the little devil will not be enough to see this little army.

After occupying Tianjia Town, the Japanese Sakai detachment took the lead in marching towards Hanyang, and in order to prevent the Japanese army in Jiangbei from being in front of the United States, Okamura Ninji ordered the Hatada detachment in Jiangnan to also march to Wuchang at the same time. The 6th Division in Jiangbei held Li Yannian's large army, and the 101st and 106th Divisions in Jiangnan held Xue Yue back. In order to achieve this strategic goal, Okamura Ninji supplemented the reserve infantry brigade and the 52nd Mountain Artillery Wing transferred from Hangzhou to the 106th Division, and decided to look for fighters in the Wanjialing area of Dechang to firmly hold back the Chinese troops south of the Yangtze River and prevent them from returning to Wuchang.

"Xue Yue's battle, defeat is not good, even if it wins, it is useless." Huang Tianhua said.

"It's good to win, and it's better to kill one more Japanese than one less. After all, the Japanese are fewer than us, that is, life for life, and it is we who win in the end. Mo Di said: "It's just that the war situation in Guangdong is worrying, if the Japanese occupy Guangdong, do you think they will go north along the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway or westward along the Xixi?" ”

"Heading north." Huang Tianhua affirmed: "The aim of the Japanese is to attack Wuhan on three sides, with the Second Army in the north, the Eleventh Army in the east, and the Twenty-first Army in the south. ”

"It doesn't need to be that much trouble." Mo Di said: "As long as Guangzhou is occupied and the southern road of Wuhan is cut off, if Lao Jiang does not want to live and die with Wuhan, there is only one way, move the capital to Chongqing." ”

"We're really behind enemy lines!" Huang Tianhua said: "We have also been here for almost a year, should we also be transferred to Guangxi to rest and recuperate, and Commander Su Zuxin, the commander of Wei Yunsong, has gone back twice!" ”

"It's easy to go back if you want to." Chen Zhengxin said: "If you beat your brothers to death, you may go back!" ”

Mo Di glanced at Chen Zhengxin, this is coarse, but it is not coarse, and those who go back are all troops who are almost dead.

The Battle of Wanjialing, as Mo Enemy expected, achieved a good result, after receiving the order of Okamura Ninji to drag the main force of the Chinese army, the 106th Division moved quickly, and on October 2, the main force lone army penetrated deep into the Wanjialing area. On October 5th and 6th, Yu Jishi, the main force of the 1st Corps, and the 74th Army fought fiercely with the Japanese 106th Division at Changling, Beixi Street, Zhanggushan, Shishiyan and other places. The 51st Division of the 74th Army, under the command of division commander Wang Yaowu, launched several attacks on the northern end of Changling and the commanding heights of Zhanggushan occupied by the Japanese army, and Zhang Lingfu, the commander of the 305th Regiment, led a small and capable army to attack from the cliff of the back mountain that the Japanese army had neglected to guard, and occupied the main position of Zhanggushan after white-knuckle fighting. In the fierce fighting until October 9, under the blows of the Chinese army, the Japanese 106th Division suffered heavy losses, with more than 8,000 casualties, especially the Japanese army rank-and-file officers. General Shunroku Hata, commander of the Central China Dispatch Army, personally organized the airdrop of more than 200 officers below the rank of wing commander to the Wanjialing area to strengthen the strength and create a miracle of the War of Resistance.

While the 106th Division carried out Okamura Ningji's order to entangle the Chinese national team, the 101st Division also followed Okamura Ningji's order and cooperated with the navy and air force to advance De'an along the De'an and Xingzi roads from the direction of Xingzi, in an attempt to encircle the flank of Xue Yue's troops and cut off the Nanxun Road. Xue Yue ordered Wang Jingjiu's 25th Army to hold the towns of Xingzi and Pass and meet the 101st Division led by Lieutenant General Ito Masaaki. Xue Yue ordered Wang Jingjiu that it didn't matter how many enemies he killed, the longer he held out, the better, in order to create conditions for the 1st Corps to annihilate the 106th Division.

Wang Jingjiu, who graduated from the first phase of Huangpu, was dismissed from his military post due to poor performance in the Yellow River War, and finally got the post of commander of the 25th Army, with a fire in his stomach, he took the 25th Army to hold on to Xingzi Town for seven days and seven nights, with brilliant achievements, the Japanese army wing captain Iikuni Dairo Osaku was killed, and the division commander Lieutenant General Ito Masakai was wounded and sent to the hospital, and more than half of the division's casualties were killed. After completing the task, retreat to the pass, and the 29th and 66th armies will take over the defense of the pass. Due to the proper strategy and the use of soldiers' lives, the 101st Division has never been able to break through the positions of the Chinese army.

The First and Second Legions led by Xue Yue won a big victory!

However, a partial victory does not have a turn-around effect on the overall situation.

On October 22, Guangzhou was lost, and Yu Hanmou led his troops to retreat to the mountainous areas of northern Guangdong, taking advantage of the terrain to entangle with the Japanese 21st Army.

On 23 October, the Suzuki unit of the Japanese Navy's 3rd Special Marine Corps and the Sakamoto detachment of the 5th Infantry Division of the 21st Army of the Army landed on Nose Island and Yaniangshoe Island (near Humen Fortress) in Guangdong Province, respectively. The Humen Fortress fell.

On October 24, Guangdong was lost and the Guangdong-Hankou railway was blocked, so Chiang Kai-shek decided to abandon Wuhan and left Han for Hunan at night after the deployment was completed.

On October 25, Hankou fell, Wuchang fell the next day, and Hanyang fell on the 27th. The Hatian detachment entered Wuchang, and the Sakai detachment entered Hanyang.

On October 26, the Nationalist Government announced its withdrawal from Wuhan and relocation to Chongqing. The second congress of the Kuomintang Political Participation Conference opened in Chongqing, and it was decided to adhere to the established national policy and resist the war to the end.

On 29 October, the Soviet Union sold several ships of military supplies to us, but the Guangdong-Hankou railway was blocked, and all ports in Vietnam refused to unload their goods, so they could only turn to Yangon and import them by the Yunnan-Burma highway.

On 31 October, Chiang Kai-shek issued a "Letter to the Military and Civilians of the Whole Country" for the withdrawal of the Kuomintang troops from Wuhan: "The strategic goal of defending Wuhan has been achieved, the rear arrangements have been completed, and the government has always made a decision to persist in a protracted war and win the final victory. ”