On May 30, the 19th Brigade of the Left Wing of the Japanese Crusade Army suffered a fatal blow, and after paying huge casualties, Li Zuzhi, commander of the Second Division of the Jiangbei Army, finally came to wait for a long time, and he personally led a death squad of more than 1,000 people to kill the Japanese artillery position, and destroyed all the weapons of the artillery unit of the Japanese 19th Brigade. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Because the Japanese army needed to continuously increase its troops to attack Zhanggang Town, the baggage troops responsible for the auxiliary defense artillery were constantly withdrawn, and because the Japanese artillery shells were not supplied much, the intensity of the Japanese artillery bombardment decreased, so that Nagaoka Waishi gradually neglected the protection of the artillery, and finally let Li Zuzhi succeed in the sneak attack.

In the end, the commander of the left wing of the Japanese army, Nagaoka Gaishi, quickly made a judgment that it was obvious that Uehara Yusaku's plan to divide his troops had been seen through by the Chinese side, and even if he could take Zhanggang Town, he would not be able to support it, so Uehara Yusaku's planned encirclement of Jiangdu could not be realized. The longer the Japanese army was dragged by the Chinese army, the more unlikely their victory became, especially the Japanese army's logistical supplies and ammunition supply had serious problems, and Nagaoka was keenly aware that this was not because of transportation problems, but because of the appearance of a large-scale Chinese army behind him. As a result, Nagaoka reacted immediately, immediately retreated to Taixian, and sent troops to report to the Japanese army on the middle road.

Nagaoka was decisive, launched a feint attack on Zhanggang Town that night, and immediately abandoned all heavy objects and evacuated Zhanggang Town after being repulsed. The Japanese disguised themselves and deceived the 2nd Division of the Jiangbei Army, and even the 2nd Division did not find out that the Japanese had withdrawn until dawn on May 31.

In fact, if the Japanese continued to attack, Li Zuzhi's troops would be able to withstand for three days at most, and his troops not only suffered heavy casualties, but also seriously undersupplied ammunition. Not to mention the casualties of the main force of the 2nd Division, even the three supplementary regiments and the three garrison regiments were all scattered to replenish the front line, and even the 11th Garrison Regiment, which had made great achievements, had already been killed in the defensive battle of Zhanggang Town. Li Zuzhi's Second Division originally had six infantry regiment commanders and one cavalry regiment commander, but as a result, all four infantry regiment commanders were killed, leaving only the third regiment commander Hao Deming and the fifth regiment commander Zhu Changgeng, and the cavalry regiment commander Zhang Biao.

In the face of the sudden withdrawal of the Japanese army, Li Zuzhi was in a trance for a while, and he was physically and mentally exhausted at this moment, so he gathered his subordinates together to discuss whether to pursue the Japanese army.

Among the seven regiment commanders, Hao Deming is now Li Zuzhi's deputy division commander, so Hao Deming's words are very important, Liao Liqun and Mao Sanqiu were both Hao Deming's subordinates, so everyone looked at him. Hao Deming said with a bitter face: "It's not that I'm as cowardly as a mouse, it's not that I'm afraid of the enemy, it's really that all the members of my second division are injured." When the second division came from Xuzhou, there were originally 18,000 people, but now there are less than 8,000 people left in the old brothers. Although we had to fight many times, the total number of our second division was now only more than 10,000. According to preliminary estimates, our troops lost 14,000 casualties in this blockade. Our army needs at least three days of rest, and it is necessary to let the brothers rest and rest, let everyone take a bath, sleep, and let everyone bury the bodies of their comrades. So my advice is to rest and then pursue. ”

Everyone fell silent, indeed, the 2nd Division had almost used up the last bullet, and they were no longer able to continue the fight.

The Zhanggang Town Resistance Battle was actually the fiercest battle in the Japanese army's left, center, and right three ways, the Japanese chieftain Oka Waishi was originally a brave man, and the 16th Division was a Japanese standing division, with elite training and many veterans, if the Japanese fought steadily, the Chinese army would have been driven out of Zhanggang Town. However, two days before the attack on Zhanggang Town, the Japanese army gave up its advantage because they were too eager to occupy Zhanggang Town, which led to heavy casualties in the 19th Brigade. Therefore, two days after the Japanese army (that is, after the 28th), Nagaoka realized his mistake and was anxious to inflict heavy casualties on the 19th Brigade, so he decided to adopt a steady and steady approach, gradually advancing, and gradually fighting for every inch of Zhanggang Town with the Jiangbei Army, which was inexperienced and trained. The steady and steady tactics allowed the Japanese army to give full play to the advantages of accurate shooting in the training of elites, while the Jiangbei Army, although it was replenished with a steady stream of recruits, was far inferior to the Japanese soldiers who were experienced on the battlefield. The change in tactics of Changgang Waishi led to the later stage of the Zhanggang Town Blockade Battle, and the casualties of the Second Division of the Jiangbei Army were more than those in the first two days, and Li Zuzhi and others had no choice but to rely on the will to fight and ask the soldiers to persist in persevering.

In this blocking battle, the casualties of the Second Division of the Jiangbei Army far exceeded everyone's imagination, and the Chinese and Japanese sides fought for willpower in the end. The 2nd Division was almost crippled, and if it were not for the constant replenishment of the rear, the 2nd Division would have remained almost an empty shelf. Hao Deming still has one thing to say, that is, how many of the remaining more than 10,000 soldiers are seriously injured and how many have lost their ability to move. In addition, there was already a very serious problem in the supply of ammunition for the whole division, and even after everyone held a meeting last night and continued to hold out for two days, they could only be forced to abandon Zhanggang Town.

However, Zhang Biao did not agree to give up this excellent opportunity, he got up and said: "Now is the opportunity to beat the water dogs, you must not let Changgang Waishi go, absolutely not, devil, division commander, I am willing to take my cavalry to pursue!" "Although there was only a cavalry company of more than 300 people left in the cavalry regiment at this time, it was hopeless to annihilate the 19th Brigade of the Japanese Army, but if it was just harassing the Japanese army and digging meat on the Japanese army, there was really no problem.

So Li Zuzhi discussed with Hao Deming, and agreed to Zhang Biao's request, sent Zhang Biao's cavalry regiment to pursue the Japanese army, and immediately notified the Jiangdu headquarters. Li Zuzhi told Zhang Biao that the Japanese are cunning and abnormal, and your cavalry troops have no advantage in Jiangdu Water Town, so you must pay attention to being ambushed by the Japanese army.

After Zhang Biao received the order, he immediately gathered his 300 cavalry and pursued in the direction of the Japanese retreat, and when the Japanese troops pursued to Gaohan Village, they finally found the traces of the 19th Brigade of the Japanese army. After the Japanese army was a little lower, they left more than 300 people as the broken rear troops, and the rest immediately withdrew.

Zhang Biao was afraid that the Japanese army would attack his troops in front and back, so he had to temporarily give up his plan to pursue the Japanese army and destroy the Japanese army in Gaohan Village first. After several attempts and observations, Zhang Biao found that the Japanese army that stayed behind was actually composed of 300 Japanese wounded soldiers, which means that after knowing that they could not act, the Japanese wounded soldiers decided to sacrifice themselves in exchange for the lives of other Japanese soldiers.