The two hundred and sixteenth "empty" city

The two stood until dawn the next day, when the large group finally crossed the river safely.

"The covering troops are already in place, please retreat."

Dai Anlan held back the tears in his eyes,

On the same day, Dai Anlan led his troops to get rid of the enemy army. Arrive at the east bank of the upper reaches of the Sitang River, about 6 km east of Yedasi. The Japanese army did not know the situation, the infantry retreated, surrounded the Tonggu empty city, and on the morning of the 30th, they attacked the city with a combination of infantry, artillery, and air, and bullets rained down.

After the 200 divisions pinned down the enemy's small forces and completed their tasks, they crossed the river through the gap and moved safely when the enemy was bombarding indiscriminately and the infantry had not yet charged.

At 8:50, the engineer demolition unit of the Japanese right flank unit attacked the city from the compound corridor position and fell into the ancient city.

The Japanese made contact with the Hirai Search Wing, which had attacked from the east, only to find that Tonggu was already an empty city. Because the division was well deployed and commanded effectively at the time of transfer. Not even a single wounded soldier was lost, only the food pack once went the wrong way and lost contact, and later all returned to the team.

Although the Battle of Tonggu was the second battle, it was already the largest battle during the Burmese defensive war, the longest holding time, and the largest annihilation of the Japanese army.

The 200 divisions, as the vanguard of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, leapt forward for thousands of miles. Go deep into Lower Burma.

Under the unfavorable situation that Yangon had been lost, the old army that had the advantage in troops and equipment and had air supremacy fought hard for 12 days and annihilated more than 5,000 enemies.

It covered the retreat of the British army, bought time for the advance and deployment of the follow-up troops of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, and finally the whole division was transferred safely and in an orderly manner.

A telegram sent by Dai Anlan on March 29 from the Tonggu front provides a brief account of the entire battle.

"The enemy's contact with us began on the 19th. It's been a decade now. At the beginning of the war, only the strength of the enemy's 55th division was until the 24th. That is, it was discovered that the enemy's 56th Division had closed its cavalry artillery regiments. Fierce fighting until the 29th. I am still holding my position east of the Tonggu Railway. At the beginning of the battle, the enemy was fierce and unprecedented. In particular, from the 24th to the 28th, enemy planes continued to bomb. Covering the galloping of its chariots, its artillery and the use of a large number of poison gas shells, day and night, stormed our positions. However, our army is prepared. Therefore, the enemy did not succeed. In the past six days, more than 5,000 enemy corpses have been left in front of our position, and our troops have suffered many casualties. ”

This telegram was sent on the way to the scoop, and if it weren't for the fear of being sorry for the dead brother, Dai Anlan would not have sent this telegram.

This telegram was the thoughts of thousands of brothers, the thoughts of thousands of families, and he had to do it.

The bravery and skill of the 200 divisions won the unanimous praise of the allies and greatly boosted the morale of Burma.

March 29th. Chiang Kai-shek galloped the "Yin Yan Award Telegram" and issued a general order to reward Dai Anlan for his achievements in leading 200 divisions to defend Tonggu.

On April 1, the commanders of the British forces in India and Burma, Shuvel and Alexander, flew to the headquarters of the 5th Army and praised "the Chinese army for its bravery and good fighting, and expressed gratitude to the Chinese army for covering the safe retreat of the 1st Anglo-Burmese Division in Tonggu." An article published in the British newspaper "The Times" wrote: "I don't care what the fate of Tonggu is, but the besieged defenders are the enemy, and their heroic battles.

In fact, the glory of the Chinese army has increased some glory, and all walks of life on the British side dare to die for the Chinese army. Like a grenade to eliminate enemy tanks. and the accuracy of the Chinese army's shooting at the enemy, all of whom were praised. ”

In the history of the U.S. Army, it is also recorded that the 200 divisions were the longest-defended team in the Burma campaign. Later, when the whole division retreated, it was very ranked.

The diary left behind by the corpse of the Japanese soldier Osa Yokota, who was killed in the Battle of Tongko, reads: "Since the southward advance, we have never encountered a strong enemy. Who is the fierce enemy, that is, the army with the blue sky and white sun emblem on his head. ”

Lieutenant General Iida, commander of the Japanese invasion of Burma, also had to admit it. "The enemy in front of you is the 200th Division, the best of the Chinese army. Its will to fight has always been strong, especially the troops who served as retreat and containment until the end still held their positions and resisted desperately, even if they were enemies, they were indeed very heroic. ”

The records of the Japanese army even described the Battle of Wengu as the toughest battle in Burma.

Chiang Kai-shek re-entered the group on 5 April to inspect the battle situation, and the next day summoned Dai Anlan to defend the ancient battle. I was very satisfied and encouraged. He instructed Dai Anlan to step up the reorganization of his troops and prepare to participate in the Battle of Pingmanna.

After the meeting, they not only had dinner together, but also arranged for Dai Anlan to stay in the room next to Jiang's bedroom, expressing a special sense of encouragement.

Although the 200 divisions and divisions brilliantly fulfilled the task of holding Tonggu, because the whole army failed to concentrate the main force in time for the battle of Tonggu, it was not able to break through the enemy in front of it and recover it

Yangon's intended strategic objectives.

It also abandoned the important place of the Tonggu "war road" and exposed the road from Tonggu to Moltke, so that the enemy army was able to drive straight people along the road to the rear of the expeditionary force.

This was a big mistake in the strategic guidance of the commanders of the expeditionary force. Therefore, the loss of Tonggu was the first major defeat of the Chinese Expeditionary Force in Burma.

Dai Anlan summed up the lessons of the first battle of Jiegu and said: "The loss of Tonggu was due to the fact that our army arrived too late, the plain was in place, and the construction of fortifications was extremely difficult. There was no air force to cooperate in the operation, and air supremacy was obtained by the enemy. As a result, our army failed to achieve the expected results. ”

British military commentators also admitted: "On the Jidian side, the Japanese advance along the Irrawaddy River may become a more serious factor, that is, the dispersal of the British army has exposed the flank of the Chinese army north of Sigu, and the Chinese army must also retreat with it, so as not to cut off the rear army by the enemy."

Whether it is the wind and rain in the city, or Chairman Jiang's encouragement, in Dai Anlan's eyes, he is not as important as Zhang Ziwen's scene of the commemoration ceremony from the south to the north.

Zhang Ziwen rarely changed into a new military uniform, equipped with a gun, and polished his leather shoes.

"Walking in unison......"

The blue sky and white sun flag slowly came out from the west side of the phalanx, and each brother dragged a plate, and in the plate were the clothes of every brother who died in battle, most of them were just a button or something, but in Zhang Ziwen's eyes, this was his brother.

"Soil ......"

There was also a general surnamed Dai who watched him bury his brothers in the ground, but this time he could only bury some clothes.

Dai Anlan took a shovel and filled each tomb with a spade of soil, a total of sixteen tombs, a total of one thousand and eighty-six people.

Zhang Ziwen and the other brothers covered themselves with "quilts" before they said loudly: "Brothers, one thousand and eighty-six brothers are gone, and they are in Burma, but we must bring their heroic souls back to their hometown, to the place where our souls haunt us."

Zhang Ziwen said that the audience was completely silent, but he didn't expect Zhang Ziwen's speech to be so short and so clear.

Dai Anlan glanced at Zhang Ziwen, whose eyes were red, took a step forward, walked in front of Zhang Ziwen, and bowed to the 3,000 surviving guerrilla detachments.

"Salute ......"

Three thousand people returned the salute.