readx; Gao Fei stood on the wall of the city gate, watching the slow and spectacular departure procession of the villagers, but his heart was extremely desolate, the Chinese people were too bitter, experienced too many difficulties, and Wuhan, a place deep in the heart of the country, also had to experience the hardships of the war brought by the invaders. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Gao Fei was about to return to the city, but when he saw two Westerners at the gate of the city, he was entangled with the guards guarding the gate there, he hurriedly walked up, and the two foreign reporters saw that it was a middle school principal, and they entangled Gao Fei again. It turned out that these two Westerners were both war correspondents in the United States, one was a reporter from the "New York Times" and the other was a reporter from the "Chicago Sun-Sun." When these two reporters heard that Wuhan might have a big battle, they specially rushed from Chongqing, but they were only one step late, and the guards guarding the city gate received an order from Shangfeng that they were only allowed to go out and not to enter, and even the two foreigners were no exception, and they did not enter the city at all.

Gao Fei had to convince the dedication and fearlessness of these two American reporters, although he wanted to help these two reporters, but Gao Fei also knew that in this extraordinary period, he still took military orders as the priority, so he politely dissuaded them, which made these two American reporters very disappointed, but they did not give up and still interviewed around Wuhan.

At this time, the battlefield situation, after the army attacked Jiujiang, the army on the south bank was divided into two routes, and the 106th Division of Songpu attacked De'an along the Nanxun Road. The Potian detachment and the Marines continued their march west along the river with naval ships to attack the next point, Ruichang; On August 11, it successfully forced a landing at the port northeast of Ruichang, and broke the counterattack of the defender Sun Tongxuan's 12th Army and attacked Ruichang. The 3rd Army, reinforced by the 32nd Regiment of Townenburg, fought hard.

In late August, the 9th Division also arrived at Ruichang under the escort of warships, and after the 6th Brigade of the Forward Regiment landed, it was like a bamboo, and it went down to Liyu Mountain, Bijia Mountain and other important places, and captured Ruichang on 24 August. After the occupation of Ruichang, Maruyama Masao's 6th Brigade was supposed to attack southwest and cut off the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway, but when he saw that the 106th and 101st Divisions of Nanxun Road were beaten by Xue Yue's 1st Corps, he felt incredible, and killed him in a hurry.

Maruyama led his troops into the Minshan Mountains and plunged directly behind the defenders on the front of Nanxun Road. Xue Yue also thought that the Sichuan army lied about the military situation, so he ordered the 74th Army to send a regiment to drive away the enemy in Minshan and cover the safety of the defenders on the front of Nanxun Road. A brigade sent by the 74th Army was almost dumpled. Zhou Zhidao of the 151st Brigade immediately came back to his senses, and led the troops to fight and withdraw at the same time. After receiving the report, Wang Yaowu was also afraid that something would happen to the 151st Brigade, so he hurriedly led other troops of the 51st Division to support, but who knew that the 51st Division was not an opponent when it went together. The 51st Division was beaten back and forth, and Yu Jishi finally figured out the enemy's strength and number at this time, and hurriedly led all the other troops of the 74th Army to rush to support. But it still didn't retreat. By September 3, the Maruyama detachment occupied Huimaling, and the 4th Army, 64th Army, and 18th Army of the frontal defenders of Nanxun Road were threatened and forced to retreat, and retreated to the next line of defense, Wushimen, and continued to hold on.

Maruyama's frenzied offensive was finally withheld. The Maruyama Brigade returned to Ruichang on its own to join the 9th Division Guijian and the Botian Detachment to continue its westward march along the Yangtze River, while at the same time attacking with the 27th Division in the direction of Jixi. The 30th Group Army and the 18th Army and other units fought one by one in the areas along the Ruichang-Wuning highway, holding each other for more than a month, until October 5, after the 27th Division of the Yue Army captured Qixi, turned to the northwest to attack, and on the 18th, it captured Xintanpu in Hubei Province and attacked in the direction of Jinniu. During this period, the defending 31st Army and the 32nd Army Corps and other units resisted the Yue army advancing west along the Yangtze River in the area west of Ruichang, and the fortress of Fuchikou opposite Tianjia Town was also shaken because the commander of the 18th Division, Li Fangchen, abandoned his post and absconded, and the army's morale was shaken, and it fell on September 24, and he finally opened the Yangtze River waterway to Wuhan.

The 2nd Corps organized the 6th, 54th, 75th, and 98th armies and the 26th and 30th corps to strengthen the defense in the Yangxin area, and the battle ended on October 22, when Yangxin, Daye, and Echeng were lost one after another, and the 9th Division and the Botian detachment of the Yue Army rushed to Yueyang in order to cut off the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway, which was blocked by Chen Lie's division of the 54th Army.

At the same time as the westward march of the Yue Army to attack Ruichang, the 106th Division attacked south from Jiujiang along the Nanxun Railway. The defending 1st Corps, the 29th Corps, Li Hansoul, Ou Zhen's 4th Army, Li Yutang's 8th Army and other units relied on the favorable terrain on both sides of Lushan Mountain and the northern section of the Nanxun Railway to carry out stubborn resistance, and the army's attack was frustrated. had to turn to attack the Jinguanqiao position of Li Jue of the 70th Army, who knew that the 70th Army relied on the natural danger on Lushan to resist stubbornly, and Songpu's attack was thwarted again.

On August 20, Okamura Ningji ordered the 101st Division of the Yue Army to cross Poyang Lake from Hukou to reinforce, break through the defense line of Wang Jingjiu of the 25th Army, capture Xingzi, and cooperate with the 106th Division to attempt to capture De'an and capture Nanchang, so as to ensure the security of the southern side of the westward advancing army. Xue Yue, commander-in-chief of the 1st Corps, and Ye Zhao's 66th Army, Yu Jishi's 74th Army, 4th, and Chen Baoan's 29th Army, together with the 25th Army, fought fiercely with them in the passes and Mahuiling areas north of De'an, and the two sides were in a state of stalemate.

At the end of September, seeing that the progress of the Nanxun Road was so slow, Okamura was in a hurry. Through aerial reconnaissance, he found that after a month of fierce fighting, the defensive gap between Nanxun Road and Ruiwu Road was getting bigger and bigger, and at this time, a strange soldier was sent through this gap and suddenly appeared behind the defenders, so the 200,000 Chinese defenders on the front of Nanxun Road could be surrounded by the three divisions of the army. Okamura personally planned everything for Matsuura, and he divided the 106th Division into five divisions so that it could stealthily pass through the gaps in the [***] line of defense and support each other in the event of an attack.

On September 25, the 106th Division officially began its operation, entering the Wanjialing area west of De'an, but was lost due to a map error. Xue Yue discovered that he commanded the 4th, 66th, and 74th armies to detour from the flank and surround them. The reinforcement of the 27th Division of the Chinese Army was repulsed by the 32nd Army and other units in the Baishui Street area west of Wanjialing.

On October 7, the Chinese [***] team launched a general attack, fought fiercely for three days and nights, and defeated the Japanese army many times. Due to the isolation of the army and the lack of supply, the 106th Division of the Yue Army was wiped out by more than 3,000 people, which was the battle with the largest number of enemies destroyed in the main operations in northern Jiangxi. The 106th Division had lost its offensive capability after being attacked twice in a row, that is, it was serving as a garrison in the northern section of Nanxun Road to rest and replenish, and the original task of attacking Nanchang with the 101st Division had to be cancelled.

After the victory at Wanjialing, just as the Xue Yue Corps was redeployed, the 101st Division of the Yue Army, which was blocked east of the pass, continued to carry out small-scale attacks on the area north of the pass north of De'an, in an attempt to contain the movement of the Xue Yue Corps. After the withdrawal of Wuhan, the main force of Xue Yue's corps shifted to the south of Xiushui, and the army took advantage of the situation to launch an attack on De'an. At that time, it was the 32nd Division of the 139th Army that was responsible for the defense of De'an City and the surrounding area.

On October 27, the infantry, artillery, and aviation coordinated to storm Yifeng Mountain in the north of De'an City. Chai Jingzhong, commander of the 139th Regiment of the 716th Division, was killed. The position was lost, and the army entered the city. Wang Qiming, the commander of the 723rd Regiment, led his troops to hold on to the southeast city of the city, and engaged in street battles with the Yue army, fighting house by house, fighting for every inch of land, and organizing a counterattack. This incident was quite praised by public opinion at the time. Feng Yuxiang once wrote a poem to praise it.

In the entire operation in northern Jiangxi, the 1st Corps successfully fulfilled the task assigned by the Ninth Theater to prevent the southward expansion of the Yue Army, not only breaking the Yue Army's attempt to capture Wuchang, but also giving the 106th and 101st Divisions of the 11th Army of the Yue Army a blow of annihilation, thus buying time for the Wuhan War.

On the north bank of the Yangtze River, in early June, the Sixth Division of the Chinese Army moved south from Hefei; Broke through the defense of Xu Yuanquan's 26th Group Army, and after capturing Tongcheng on the 13th, it turned to the southwest to attack, and on the 17th, it fell into Qianshan. By the beginning of July, the army occupied Taihu Lake and east of Wangjiang in Jiangbei, and occupied the Yangtze River coastal area east of Jiangkoukou in Jiangnan.

On July 24, the 6th Division of the 11th Army of the Yue Army attacked from Qianshan in Anhui to Taihu Lake under the command of Inaba Shiro, fought bloody battles all the way, successively broke through the defense line of the 31st, 68th and 84th armies, and on August 3, successively captured Taihu Lake and Susong, and finally occupied Huangmei, the gateway of Guangji, after fierce street battles on August 4. After losing Huangmei, Bai Chongxi, acting commander of the Fifth Theater, immediately commanded the troops to counterattack, but the army was in danger of defending it, and also released a large amount of poison gas, and suffered heavy losses in the hard attack. On August 26, Li Pinxian's corps regained Taihu Lake and Qianshan, cutting off the land supply line and land retreat of the 6th Division of the Yue Army, leaving Inaba in a difficult situation.

Bai Chongxi seized the opportunity and commanded the 28th Army, the 84th Army and other troops facing each other head-on, to take advantage of the opportunity to storm and attack with the intention of completely annihilating the 6th Division, which had committed numerous crimes in the Nanjing Massacre. Although Bai Chongxi's layout was clever this time, he still underestimated the combat effectiveness of the army. The 6th Division held on to the danger and at the same time released a large amount of poison gas to survive the difficulties. Okamura also immediately dispatched the navy to open a supply channel at Koike across the Jiujiang River, providing ammunition and replenishment for the 6th Division. After Inaba was replenished, the counteroffensive began on August 30, and although Bai Chongxi went to the front line to supervise the battle, it was to no avail.

Under the onslaught of the Yue army, the 28th, 68th and 84th armies suffered heavy casualties, and the reserves were exhausted, but they still could not stop the offensive of the Yue army and were forced to retreat to Guangji. Seeing the retreat of the defenders, the army immediately followed and pursued to Guangji, and there was a fierce killing in Guangji, and the [***] team finally did not retreat, and Guangji, the gateway to Tianjia Town, was lost on September 6. After this tragic battle, the 6th Division suffered heavy losses and was unable to continue the offensive, so it rested on the spot in Guangji for 7 days and replenished 3,200 recruits and some equipment.

Then, the 6th Inaba Division attacked the East Boundary Ridge with a brigade and tried to advance westward from the road alone, but it encountered stubborn resistance and repeatedly ran into a wall, so it had to turn back and send the Imamura detachment from Guangji on September 15 to start smashing the gate of Tianjia Town.

Tianjia Town is the most important river defense fortress of the Yangtze River, and the most important gateway to Wuhan. For such an important place, [***] of course, it was heavily guarded, the commander of the 11th Army Li Yannian led the 2nd Army to garrison the fortress, and the 84th Army of Qin Lianfang, the 48th Army of Zhang Yichun and the 68th Army of Liu Ruming fought on the periphery. At first, Fuikekou was not lost, and Tianjia Town was only attacked by the Imamura detachment, and the pressure was not great.

When the weather was bad and the air force could not be dispatched, the three armies on the periphery continued to besiege the Imamura detachment, so that Inaba twice reinforced the Imamura detachment on a large scale to maintain the offensive. On September 24, Fuchikou was captured by the Botian detachment along the west of the river, and the weather improved again, and the situation suddenly became bad, and the army began a three-dimensional attack by land, sea and air. As soon as the Air Force came, there were hundreds of planes, and they were blown up to the ground. The navy also had hundreds of ships on board, and it also carried marines from the river to Tianjia Town, and the Imamura detachment, which had been reinforced, took advantage of the situation to storm by land, and on the 29th, [***] had to retreat from Tianjia Town, and the gate of the Yangtze River was smashed open. In order to seize Hankou in front of the Second Army, Okamura Ninji specially organized a fast column, led by the commander of the 36th Brigade, Mitsuru Ushijima, for a long-distance attack, and hoped to join the Second Army north of Wuhan to cut off the retreat of the Fifth Theater Army.

Just as the Battle of Wuhan took place, the "Zhang Gufeng Incident" occurred.

At the end of June 1938, the Soviet army suddenly occupied Zhanggufeng, built fortifications on the mountain, and laid out barbed wire. He himself, who had already classified the northeast as a puppet "Manchukuo" and made Korea his colony, quit his work. In his own opinion, the Soviet army's occupation of Zhanggufeng was equivalent to having a strategic point that could control Korea and Northeast China. However, as the Chinese army was preparing to attack Wuhan, the various Japanese armies were making frequent movements, and it was difficult to clash with the Soviet army on a large scale.

The base camp had no choice but to order the Kwantung Army to enter a state of first-class combat readiness, and at the same time, the cabinet instructed the ambassador to the Soviet Union, Shigemitsu Aoi, to mediate with the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union made it clear that it was impossible to withdraw its troops from Zhanggufeng. Shigemitsu Aoi's diplomatic mediation has reached an impasse. The base camp of the army made a painful decision: to recapture Zhang Gufeng. In order to avoid the further expansion of the situation and lead the war to the northeast, thus affecting the situation in Central China in the decisive battle with the Chinese [***] team, the base camp ordered the army stationed in Korea to complete this task.

With the strength of a division in July, the Korean army recaptured this place after three days of fighting with the cooperation of heavy artillery fire and some armored vehicles and aircraft, and drove the Soviet army to Ussuriysk, and the army won a complete victory. On 1 August, more than 20,000 members of the two divisions of the Soviet Far Eastern Military District, under the command of General Sukolov of the First Army of the Far East, equipped with nearly 100 artillery pieces, more than 200 tanks, and hundreds of new aircraft, began to counterattack the army.

The Soviets opened their doors and sent the invincible army into the Ussuriysk steppe.

The army was still a little worried that the Soviet army would not be easy to deal with, but the Soviet army was also defeated in front of the imperial army. This made the army extremely excited, and the Soviets were nothing more than that. However, in the early morning of August 1, the Yue army, who was sleeping, was suddenly awakened by the roar of rolling thunder from far and near in the sky. Before the panicked Japanese troops entered the position, the roaring group of planes poured down dense bombs and machine-gun bullets like raindrops, and the roaring muzzles in the distance erupted one after another of firelight, and the smoke and flames engulfed the Japanese army's position. As soon as the bombing and artillery bombardment had passed, a terrifying scene appeared that the Chinese army will never forget: On the boundless steppe, more than 100 Soviet tanks roared and formed a torrent of steel hundreds of meters wide, crushing the Japanese army's position in a decisive posture.

The smoke from the tank engine was like a dark cloud rolling up in the sky, and the grassland swept by the track shook with the roar of the engine. Tank guns and machine guns smashed the positions of the Japanese army into a sea of fire, and the heavy tracks pressed against the military fortifications. Despite the stubborn resistance of the Yamato samurai, many of whom were strapped to the tanks with grenades and explosives, all to no avail. The Soviets threw their arrogance into the Tumen River with absolute superiority.

It is said that the battle between the Soviet and Soviet armies was a contest of iron and steel, large-scale industrial production, will, and flesh and blood. At that time, General Zhukov, commander of the First Army of the Soviet Far East, concentrated four tank brigades, 300 aircraft, and 250 artillery pieces. In the depths of the unobstructed Great Gobi, on a wide front of more than ten kilometers, the flying dust swept the land, the Soviet tanks were overwhelming, and the tracks of the tanks mercilessly crushed the spirit and ** of the soldiers, and buried the arrogant northward ambition of the Empire in the wind-swept Mongolian Gobi, which was a battle, and the army lost more than 5,000 people, and the Soviet army suffered less than three casualties.

From a political point of view, this war not only dealt a heavy blow to the arrogant aggressive arrogance of the militarists in the early stage of World War II, but also forced the Soviet Union to change its national policy of "advancing northward" and invading the Soviet Union to "going south" to attack the United States, thus avoiding the unfavorable situation of fighting on two fronts with Germany and China, and allowing it to concentrate its forces on striking at the German fascists.

The battle lasted only five days, and the army of a division disappeared like a wisp of smoke. Itagaki asked Emperor Hirohito to prevent a further Soviet attack and sent troops to Zhanggufeng, but was reprimanded by the emperor, who was nearly 20 years younger than him. The emperor was most concerned about the situation in central China, and he was reluctant to expand the dispute with the Soviet Union and fell into a passive position. On August 11, he was forced to sign a contract with the Soviet Union to maintain the state of the border before the attack.

It is said that the 2nd Army was late for a long time because of the Zhang Gufeng incident in the north, and it was not until August 22 that King Minoru Hitoshi of the East Jiu Palace led the team from Hefei.

On August 27, the 2nd Army simultaneously attacked Lu'an and Huoshan, the gateways of Dabie Mountain. At the beginning, the Yue army attacked the defenders' frontal positions, and the defenders relied on the outer fortifications and city walls to resist stubbornly for two days, causing the Yue army's offensive to suffer repeated setbacks. As before, the army saw that the frontal attack could not work, and at the same time resorted to the old trick of frontal attack, the flank and the rear detour.

The defenders were also the same, unprepared at all, and the army succeeded in a detour, and the defenders were forced to retreat. After capturing Lu'an and Huoshan, the 2nd Army was divided into two routes. The 13th and 16th Divisions on the left crossed the northern foot of Dabie Mountain and approached Wuhan, and the right road went straight to Luoshan and Xinyang, and detoured to Wuhan. The 13th Division on the left approached Yejiaji on September 2 and began to attack Fujin Mountain. Fujin Mountain is very close to Yejiaji, on the south wing of the Shangliu Highway, the road can be blocked condescendingly on the mountain, and the army can't bypass it, so it has no choice but to attack Fujin Mountain.

Guarding Fujin Mountain are the two divisions of Song Xilian's 71st Army and the 114th Division of the former 51st Army of the Northeast Army, under the unified command of Song Xilian!

(To be continued)