On March 20, the Japanese Isogu Division (the 10th Division) took advantage of the void to go south, directly to Taierzhuang, the last barrier in the north of Xuzhou.

Taierzhuang is a small town in Yi County in the south of Shandong, located at the intersection of Taizao (Zhuang) branch line of Jinpu Line and Taihuai (Fang) Highway, west of the Grand Canal, the geographical location is very significant.

Because Taierzhuang is located at the intersection of land and canal and waterway, throughout the ages, the commercial port gathered, in order to prevent bandits and robbers, build stones for the city, most of the houses are built with huge stones, and there are dozens of watchtowers.

Before the war, the Chinese army combined the characteristics of the town here, built a certain fortification, built a stone wall for several miles, and set up more than 70 pillboxes.

The Chinese army guarding Taierzhuang is the 2nd Group Army Sun Lianzhong's Division, which is the Northwest Army, known for being good at defense, such as the Xifengkou and Luowenyu defensive battles, and the Niangziguan defense battles, all of which were fought very well.

The 30th Army of the 2nd Group Army defended the main position of Taierzhuang with Chi Fengcheng's 31st Division, the 30th Division and the 110th Division were west of Taierzhuang, and the 27th Division and the 44th Independent Brigade were east of Taierzhuang, establishing positions respectively; Form a zigzag shape and protect each other.

This General Chi Fengcheng was originally a squad leader under the Xue Corps (Zhang Zizhong was the commander) of Feng Yushen's guard brigade (Sun Lianzhong was the brigade commander).

General Chi followed this old superior, many years of military career, forged into a brave and resourceful tiger general, Teng County in front of the just lost, even the division commander of the guard army, General Wang Mingzhang, was also killed, giving Chi Fengcheng a lot of pressure.

However, the Fifth Theater met a lot of requirements for the 30th Army and the 31st Division, which needed ammunition and weapons, and the Fifth Theater transferred the top artillery regiment in the country at that time, including battle defense artillery, Krupp field artillery, and German-made Rhine 150 heavy howitzers. It was also planned to dispatch the air force to bomb the Japanese army.

In addition to weapons, it is personnel, and the stragglers in all the shelters around Xuzhou are selected by the 31st Division, and Qin Guogang, who is receiving troops in Xuzhou, and their platoon of soldiers from the Northwest were intercepted by the 31st Division first.

They are all fellow countrymen, many things can be said together, and their temperament is relatively the same, so many officers like to use fellow soldiers.

Qin Guogang was originally preparing to return to the 59th Army, the 59th Army is also the Northwest Army, and so is the 30th Army, a cadre of the 184th Regiment of the 31st Division who came to look for soldiers intercepted Qin Guogang and them without saying a word, saying that he would give a notice to go to the 59th Army.

For Qin Guogang, a man in the northwest, whether it is the 30th Army or the 59th Army, it is the Northwest Army anyway, and the troops here now are all fighting devils, so they didn't say anything, or they couldn't say anything, and obeyed.

On the same day, Lao Qin's platoon followed the people of several companies of the supplementary soldiers, all the way to the Taierzhuang area by car, and was incorporated into the third battalion and nine companies of the 184th Regiment of the 31st Division.

Guo Kaiting, the commander of the ninth company, Han Zhangliang, the commander of the third battalion, and Huo Dahai, the commander of the regiment, are all from Shaanxi, which is relatively rare. In less than two days, Qin Guogang became acquainted with Company Commander Guo.

Due to the experience of the past, the loss of Tengxian County stimulated everyone a lot, and many people thought that the Japanese army came to the other side of the canal this time, mainly against Taierzhuang.

Because Hanzhuang is mountainous, it is not conducive to the Japanese Isogu Division of mechanized operations, and once Taierzhuang is defeated, the south to Xuzhou, all of which are plains, and in an instant, the Japanese tanks and chariots can reach Xuzhou.

Therefore, the Japanese army must be determined to win Taierzhuang, and this time the 31st Division came to defend this Taierzhuang, and the whole division held the belief that it would die.

Since he is going to die sooner or later, it is better to take out all the delicious and useful food, and Lao Guo of the Ninth Company has taken out all the canned food, biscuits, etc. that the company has saved before in the past few days and distributed them to everyone.

All good guns, bullets, and grenades were distributed to the soldiers, and ammunition was constantly being asked for upwards, and the transport convoys of the five theaters kept transporting weapons and ammunition all night long, mostly bullets and grenades.

The third battalion and the entire 184th Regiment were arranged in the town of Beiluo, north of Taierzhuang, to be responsible for the second line of blockade, and the vanguard was far south of Yixian.

On March 20, the vanguard of the Japanese and Chinese armies exchanged fire, but the scale was not large, and for the defenders, the day finally came.

The next day, a battalion of the vanguard of the 31st Division also gradually retreated to the side of Nigou Town, not far from Qin Guogang and his regiment.

The Japanese offensive was fierce, and the tanks on the ground, the planes in the sky, and the artillery behind them swept all the way, and rushed towards the defenders with overwhelming power.

The vanguard battalion could not support it for half a day in the mud ditch, so it was beaten down and retreated to the Beiluo defense area of the 184th regiment.

However, he did not show half a point on his face, but called on the whole regiment more resolutely, and when the devil came, he would strike hard, and defending the country was for the country.

On the afternoon of the 21st, as soon as the forward troops of the Japanese army came into contact with the northernmost defenders of Beiluo, they began to attack on a large scale, and Yu Yong, who pursued all the way, did not pay attention to the defenders at all.

Although Beiluo is the second line of defense in Taierzhuang, because it is on the plain, it is really an easy place to attack and difficult to defend, and Commander Huo took the troops here the day before yesterday to take a look, and gasped.

This kind of plain area is very suitable for the mechanized advance of the Japanese army, and as a defender, there is no danger to defend, and it is a very dangerous defensive dead ground.

But as a soldier, in the face of difficulties, you have to conquer it, not be conquered by difficulties, since there is no danger on the ground, then make a fuss underground.

Regiment Commander Huo called on the whole regiment to work hard to dig fortifications, and four or five deep trenches lay across the road in the wilderness.

Then ask a large number of fellows to dig a deep trench six meters deep and twelve meters wide in front of the first trench, which can be regarded as a tank trench.

Behind the trenches were various positions, machine gun nests, mortar positions, foxholes, etc., as well as the communication trenches that connected them together.

A little later, there are various bunkers, hiding holes, ammunition rooms, etc., five or six meters below the ground, fortunately in the north in winter, the water level is relatively high, and there is no water.

But when it was five or six meters underground, some groundwater still came out, and drainage ditches were dug to make it available.

However, everyone did not regard this place as a permanent fortification, and it was difficult to keep the Japanese army from attacking here, digging so deep, the first thing to consider was to save their lives.

It's just that such a large amount of work requires a large number of people, lovely fellows, thousands of young people came, and more than 2,000 soldiers of the 184th Regiment were busy for two days before they were preliminarily completed.

There was no time to reinforce, the front troops of the Japanese army were already approaching, and Regiment Commander Huo persuaded him to evacuate the villagers and command his subordinates to reinforce while fighting.

Come on, devil of the dog day, here we are now, digging your grave, this is the place of your death, you have come here from Japan, we have nothing to entertain, but to bury you with our own hands.

Even if he fights to his death, he has to give the devil a funeral on the battlefield in Taierzhuang and the nearby battlefield. After death, he and the devil are in the underworld, and continue to fight, even if it is a catastrophe, they must continue to fight.