Chapter 10: Anqing (56)

Zhong Yi, who received the order to retreat, was in a dilemma, as Mo Enemy expected, the 39th Division was armed to the teeth, and the retreat was the 13th Division with strong mobility ability, behind the dense infantry, there were also cavalry units that picked up the gaps, and the entire Zaoyang area gathered 100,000 Japanese troops, no matter which direction they broke through, they were all Japanese troops.

And at this time, Kazuichiro Sonobe already knew that he had spent countless scheming, consumed countless materials, and taken thousands of lives, but did not get the expected gains, and this battle could be declared a failure. Since the offensive began on 1 May, it has been 10 days, the grain carried has been basically consumed, and after the grain routes in the north and south have been discarded on their own initiative, they have relied on the Xianghua Highway to transport grain and grass, but they did not expect that Huang Qixiang, commander of the 11 th Group Army, would put Li Xianzhou's 92 nd Army on the periphery in advance and carry out a brutal and inhumane attack on the Xianghua Highway. Li Xianzhou's 92nd Army was mainly composed of the Qilu militia, these people were laymen in the war, but they were good at digging roads, and in a few days, the Xianghua Highway was full of holes and could not be passed by cars. Seeing that there was a advantage to be taken, the 172nd Division of the Seventh Army of the 21st Group Army, under the leadership of Cheng Shufen, carried out a clean robbery of the Japanese logistics units parked on the destroyed road. The front-line commander Yan Sengwu asked the soldiers to move everything that could be moved, and the fire that could not be moved was burned clean. Li Xianzhou's people were dazzled, and said bluntly that the bandits in Guangxi were far better than Xiangma in Shandong.

Perhaps it was the heavens that were also angry at the reckless behavior of the Japanese in China, a heavy rain fell from the sky, the Xianghua Highway was flooded, and some roads that had been dug up before were washed away by the water, forming a large-scale collapse, and the Japanese army's logistics line was completely paralyzed, not only could not send supplies, but also could not even retreat.

The Supreme Commander of the Central China Theater, Lieutenant General Sonobe Kazuichiro, had no choice but to terminate the first phase of the operation, officially launch the second phase of the operation, and accomplish the second objective of the operation.

The second goal of this operation was to pull the Chinese army in northern Hubei and wait for an opportunity to occupy the important town of Yichang in one fell swoop.

So, in the middle of the night on May 8, Sonobe Kazuichiro ordered the troops to suspend the offensive and prepare for the implementation of the second phase of the battle plan. From the 9th, the Japanese divisions and regiments that had failed in the encirclement began to retreat. The 3rd Division of the Japanese Army, which was at the top of the position, assembled in the northeast area of Fancheng, while the 13th and 39th Divisions withdrew south from Zaoyang and prepared to assemble near Yicheng.

Jin Tongxuan's confidential room received a telegram from Kazuichiro Sonobe as soon as possible, and he also translated the telegram as soon as possible and handed it over to Mo Di. Mo Di used a pencil to draw a straight line between Tanghe and Fancheng, the current address of the Third Division, and a straight line between Zaoyang and Yicheng, where the 13th and 39th Divisions were located, and immediately came to a conclusion that the Japanese army would retreat to the west of Hanshui. To the west of the Han River, there is currently only one part of the 33rd Group Army and one Jiangfang Army, and the military strength is very empty, if the Japanese army retreats to the west of the Han River, it will be a huge blank space, and if the Japanese army takes advantage of the situation to occupy Jingmen and Yichang, it may threaten the Fudu Chongqing. It is absolutely impossible for our army to allow the Japanese army to occupy Yichang, and it will certainly raise a large army to attack the city, and when the time comes, the Japanese army will wait for work, defend the city, rely on the Yangtze River, and use the power of ships to defend as an attack, which can achieve twice the result with half the effort.

"The Japanese army must not be allowed to occupy Yichang!" Mo Dou screamed.

After listening to Mo Di's explanation of the possibility of the Japanese army's move, Tang Ruru also very much agreed with Mo Di's opinion, and said: "I will immediately send a telegram to the headquarters of the 21 st Group Army in the name of the intelligence department. Tianzhong, I can't send it directly to the Fifth War Zone, and I can't report it to the next level, you know. ”

Mo Di nodded and said, "Do your best!" ”

Li Baicheng followed behind Jin Tongxuan, still repeating a sentence that he had been asking for a long time: "Tongxuan, you give me an idea, how can the 173rd Division retreat!" ”

Jin Tongxuan was about to return to the confidential room, when he heard Li Baicheng's words, he stopped, walked towards Modi, put his head on the map that Modi had marked, and looked at it seriously for a while before saying to Li Baicheng: "If the Japanese army retreats to the west of Hanshui, it is best for the 173rd Division to break up and retreat to the east of Zaoyang." ”

Just when Zhong Yi was at a loss, he suddenly received a telegram from Li Baicheng, which was only eight words: "Break the whole into pieces and retreat eastward." When he saw that it was Li Baicheng, Zhong Yi smiled, this little cousin was able to send a telegram to the center of the battlefield, and he had a long ability.

After thinking about it again, Li Baicheng's proposal was not unreasonable, and he immediately gathered the three regiment commanders under him to study it together. Ling Yunshang, the head of the 517th Regiment, Li Junxiong, the head of the 518th Regiment, and Wu Wenxiang, the head of the 519th Regiment, agreed that it is the best plan at present to break through the encirclement by breaking into parts, but why go east, I don't understand, that is the most powerful middle route army, and it is the direction of their defense these days, and retreating to the east is not a door-to-door delivery. In the end, it was decided that the three regiments would break through in three directions, and the first was that the division headquarters and the division's special service battalion would follow the commander of the 518th Regiment, Li Junxiong, to break through to the west, and the target was Xiangyang. Next was the 519th Regiment led by Commander Wu Wenxiang to break through to the north, the target, the Tang River. The 517th Regiment of Lingyunshang, which had relatively strong combat effectiveness, was in charge of the rear of the palace, and four hours after the other troops left, the regiment surrounded the regiment on its own. Target, Takashiro.

The 517th Regiment that finally broke through was relatively smooth, Ling Yunshang was a classmate of the invincible Hengshan Tour cadre class, and he waited for the division headquarters and the other two regiments to walk for almost four hours before starting to break through, at this time the sky was already dawning, and the darkness before dawn could not see the five fingers. Just about to leave, found that there were Japanese troops stationed in several nearby villages, Ling Yunshang did not dare to make a mistake, ignorant to break into the enemy's nest, the most important job of the team is to remain silent, must not alarm the Japanese army. After seven days and seven nights of bloody fighting, there were less than 500 people left in the 517 regiment, and all the baggage was discarded. After dawn, the Japanese army departed, and the Japanese army walked in a hurry and did not stay in this area. Because of the war, there were no people in this area for a long time, and there was no food, and the Japanese army had long run out of food. Ling Yunshang found a Japanese army and walked the first wave, drilled out of the encirclement in the gap where the next wave had not yet arrived, and retreated into the mountains, only to find that he had not had a single rice in his stomach for a day and a night.

Fortunately, when I entered the mountains, the bark, wild vegetables, pheasants, and wild mice would not be hungry again.

On the third day of the 517th Regiment's retreat into the mountains, Peng Tinghua, deputy commander of the 518th Regiment, led the main force of the regiment to withdraw, and in the following days, the 174th Division's 522nd Regiment and the 189th Division's Supplementary Regiment were successively collected.

Pieced together, the unit headed by Ling Yunshang concentrated more than 1,400 people, and with a certain combat capability, it successively destroyed several Japanese military stations near Suiyang, captured some military horses and a large number of supplies, and ambushed the Japanese army's automobile fleet several times, seized a large amount of grain, and burned more than 80 cars. After the Japanese army suffered continuous losses, the 39th Division mobilized two infantry brigades from Zaoyang to sweep the upper part of Lingyun. In guerrilla warfare, the Japanese army was not the opponent of Lingyun, relying on the familiar terrain and the Japanese army, the battle was vigorous, and after the bullets made in Hanyang were exhausted, they were actually replaced with a full set of Japanese-style weapons, and the 38 big cover was still used handy.

The 519th Regiment advanced dozens of kilometers to the north, but was intercepted by the Japanese no less than ten times, and finally stopped by the Japanese 3rd Division guard on the east bank of the Tang River. Wu Wenxiang, the commander of the 519th Regiment, was extremely experienced, and he took advantage of the fact that the Japanese army had not yet been assembled, and suddenly led the main force of the regiment to launch a frontal onslaught. After an hour of fierce fighting, the Japanese army was routed, and the whole regiment of the 519th Regiment crossed the Tang River. When the Japanese army heard the news, they hurriedly sent cavalry to pursue, but when the cavalry arrived, it was getting late, and the horses could not distinguish the way, so they returned in vain.

The worst were the headquarters of the 173rd Division and the 518th Regiment that broke through to the west.

Zhong Yi did not take Li Baicheng's suggestion that the whole division retreat to the east, which was a great mistake, and it was a dead end to go west, and he crashed headlong into the retreating marching team of the 13th Division. Within two days, the 518th Regiment was constantly intercepted and flanked by the Japanese army, and they fought hard and retreated, with very heavy casualties. Seeing that it was difficult to break through, Zhong Yi ordered Peng Tinghua, deputy commander of the 518th Regiment, who was responsible for covering the division headquarters, to immediately lead his troops to break through on their own, trying to reduce the target. Peng Tinghua led his troops to walk less than 10 kilometers north before they were besieged by Japanese troops on all sides. Peng knew that he couldn't break out, so he simply retreated east to the depths of the previous Japanese encirclement, but he didn't expect that this place would become a gap in the battlefield, and he was lucky to find the 517th Regiment on Lingyun.

Li Junxiong, the commander of the 518th Regiment, led his troops to the east of the Tang River after several hard battles, but was discovered by the main force of the Japanese army and surrounded by the regiments. In a small forest, Li Junxiong led his troops to fight a bloody battle with the Japanese army for a whole day, and in the end there were only more than 20 people left, and the ammunition and food were exhausted, and everyone who was not yet alive was wounded. Li Junxiong was seriously wounded by a bullet, unable to move, unable to die, and watched himself captured.

Under the cover of Li Junxiong, the headquarters of the 173rd Division finally arrived at Cangtai Town on the side of the Tang River, and more than 300 people from the division headquarters and special service battalion encountered more than 1,000 people from the 1st Division of the 3rd Division. After hours of fierce fighting, most of the battalion was killed.

Under the cover of the special battalion's desperate fight, division commander Zhong Yi led only 50 people from his personal guard unit to break through the encirclement and barely cross the Tang River near Cangtai Town, but when he arrived in the area of Dongshang Camp not far away, he encountered the cavalry brigade patrolling the third division.

Zhong Yi's guard unit inherited the characteristics of the Gui army, and the German M712 barge gun, which resembled a pistol, was an excellent melee weapon, however, this time, their opponent was cavalry. The range of the M712 was only 50 to 100 meters, which was simply not able to deal with high-speed and mobile cavalry, on the contrary, the dense gunfire of the shell guns attracted the attention of the nearby Japanese troops, who immediately judged that there were high-ranking officers of the national army here, surrounded from all sides.

After nearly two hours of hard fighting, almost all the guards were killed.

In the fierce battle, Division Commander Zhong Yi was also shot in the right chest and was seriously injured. Five guards desperately carried him to a bush of reeds. The Japanese already knew that there was a high-ranking officer here, and wanted to capture him alive, so they surrounded the reeds on all sides. Zhong Yi wrapped up combat materials, letters, diaries, seals, and other items, buried them in the nearby reeds, and instructed seven or eight guards to disperse and break through immediately, and never leave his body alone.

Before the guards could react, they only heard Zhong Yi suddenly shout: The anti-Japanese resistance will be victorious, and the founding of the country will be successful! Pull out a pistol, aim it at your head is a shot, kill yourself, and be loyal to your country.

Only then did a few guards figure out what Zhong Yi meant by leaving his body alone, there were Japanese soldiers on all sides, carrying the body, and there was no way to break out of the encirclement. In tears and tears, the guards carefully buried the body and scattered to break through. In Xinye, he met Liu Heding's 39th Army, which joined the counteroffensive, and reported the news of Zhong Yi's martyrdom to the central government.

Jin Tongxuan's confidential room immediately got the news, Li Baicheng sat on the ground with weak legs, and cried: "I'll let you go to *, what are you going west for!" ”

Wei Yongcheng picked up Li Baicheng and scolded: "What kind of bullshit to cry, a soldier dies on the battlefield for a good death, and if you go west, you will not be able to live." ”

Mo Di didn't say a word, asked Tang Ruru for a cigarette, lit it, took a heavy puff, and then there was a heart-rending cough.

The Nationalist Government learned of Zhong Yi's martyrdom and issued Order No. 1283 to praise him. After the war, under the leadership of the remaining guards, the body of General Zhong Yi was found. The spirit was transported to Chongqing and parked at Chaotianmen Wharf that night. The Nationalist Government held a public memorial in Chongqing's South District Park, and General Bai Chongxi and dignitaries at all levels were present, and Bai Chongxi read out the memorial message. On the CCP side, Zhu De, Wang Jiaxiang, Tan Zheng, Xiao Jinguang, Wang Ruofei and others attended the meeting. In August of the following year, the coffin moved to Guangxi and was ceremoniously buried in the Yaoshan Anti-Japanese Memorial Cemetery in the eastern suburbs of Guilin. Chairman Jiang issued a warrant: Zhong Zhong is hereby specially sent to escort the late division commander Yi back to his hometown in Guangxi for burial, passing through the places along the way, the heads of various local organs, and strictly protect them.