readx; Generals are people, not machines. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

In addition to following orders and looking at the map, sometimes they also fight with emotion and conscience! He thought: The 200th Division is the main force of the 5th Army, and now the army commander is in danger, and it is even more necessary to unite his troops to fight in one place and break out of the encirclement. How can I leave my lord behind and flee for my life?

In the 200th Division, Commander Du was the first division commander. He single-handedly cultivated this team, and it was he who gave this division to me with his own hands. At such a time, I pulled the team away, is there still a conscience? Besides, the 6th Army retreated without a fight on the Eastern Front and fled for its life in a hurry, and now driving the 200th Division over is equivalent to wiping people's buttocks, and I don't do it!

Go north, even if it is a sword mountain and a sea of fire, you have to go north! Dai Anlan was resolute. It's just that he is far away from the commander at the moment, fighting alone, and the information is unknown. Where are the allies? Where are the enemy troops? All at a loss. The river will be crossed tomorrow morning, and God knows if the plan of the [***] team will be exposed? Along the way, the Burmese annihilation continued to make trouble, in case of leakage, the army either ambushed on the opposite bank, or sent gunboats to intercept in the river, and the [***] team was in danger!

Dai Anlan thought about it and was upset.

"Quack, quack, quack"

At this moment, a flock of crows hovered overhead, letting out a miserable wail.

The world is as annoying as crows. And tonight, in the wilderness of a foreign country, deep in the mountains and old forests, this cry is especially gloomy, terrifying, human, and mournful.

Dai Anlan was so worried that he turned over, sat up and scolded: "Alas, what is the old eagle howling tonight? ”

Zheng Tingqi knew that the teacher was sad, so he explained in good words:

"A man has a man's words, and a beast has a beast's language. What does the eagle have to do with us? ”

"But why does this nasty thing keep spinning above our heads? Since the withdrawal of the same ancient people have always followed us, annoying! ”

"Commander, there are a lot of crows in this part of Burma. Everyone hates crows, in fact, that black guy is a filial bird, isn't there an old saying that crows feed back? Maybe the crow is scolding us for disturbing its nest! ”

"Alas!" Dai Anlan sighed and fell silent.

Entering Burma to participate in the war was both exciting and fearful for Dai Anlan. Before going abroad, he once told reporters: "If you have to go on an expedition to a foreign land, you will be rewarded with men's volunteers." At the same time, he said: "On the other hand, there is also the fear of walking on the edge of ice, because the relationship and influence of this work are too great!" After setting out on the expedition, he knew that his 200th Division, as the vanguard of the expeditionary force, had traveled thousands of miles to Tonggu in southern Burma to take over the defense, and he felt even more deeply that he had a heavy responsibility on his shoulders. On the way to the army, he had both an impassioned appearance and a worried heart, and he said to Zheng Tingqi: "The main force of the whole army has not moved, and our division has gone thousands of miles away in one go, and this battle is not easy to fight." However, he said decisively: "If you don't fight, you have to fight!" ”

On March 8, the whole division attached to the motorized cavalry regiment and engineer regiment arrived at Tonggu, an important town in southern Burma.

Rangoon fell, like a skyscraper collapsing, and the adjacent Tonggu was immediately affected. When the 200th Division arrived in Tonggu, the shops in the city were closed, and the people fled one after another.

Dai Anlan was anxious and wanted to take over the city defense from the British army as soon as possible. The next morning, Dai Anlan hastily ate breakfast and hurriedly came to the headquarters of the 1st Division of the British Army stationed in Tonggu. said that he had reached the door of his home, the military situation was urgent, and he was in danger, I don't know how this British general slept so peacefully?

According to Dai Anlan's fiery donkey temper, if he saw such a ridiculous thing in China, he would probably go to the back of the house and set him on fire. But this is Burma, this is the Allies.

Dai Anlan endured his surname, and waited until 8:30 a.m. for Major General Scott to put on his makeup. The two division commanders met. The arrival of the [***] team made Scott overjoyed. After a few brief conversations, the British rushed to hand over the city defenses.

Tonggu is a hot potato, and Scott can't wait to stuff it to the Chinese right away.

They took their respective staff officers with them and handed over the defense one by one. The terrain is good with the ancient terrain, and the Yangwa railway passes through the city. The west of the road is the old city, and the east of the road is the new city. The walls of the old castle are 20 meters high and 13 meters thick, and they are all made of masonry, making them good fortifications. The new city is densely built, and the streets are vertical and horizontal, which is conducive to street fighting. There is the cover of the Xitang River in the east of the city, and there is the Keronggang Airport more than ten miles north of the city. However, the fortifications of the British army were sloppy and rudimentary. A few sandbags were piled here, a few barbed wire fences were pulled there, and the skirmish trenches were dug shallowly, with soldiers squatting inside, and half of their butts stumbling outside. The cover of the combat command post was too thin to withstand artillery fire. The bridge over the Sitang River did not have a bridgehead with the surname of Yongbei, and the Kronggang airfield had no anti-aircraft artillery and no ground fortifications, and it was open everywhere. And the British troops in the city have already collected their tents, rolled up their covers, and packed their backpacks and luggage. The artillery was mounted on the gun wagon, and the machine guns unloaded from the bunkers were already loaded onto the mules and horses, and they withdrew only when the [***] squadron took over.

In the British army, those Indian mercenaries and Burmese mercenaries with wrapped heads and beards, sitting on sandbags outside the fortifications, guns between their knees, smoking paper cigarettes, while looking at the Chinese from a distance, they thought it was strange: the British are too slow, what are the Chinese still doing?

At noon that day, Major General Scott was relieved and said, "Bye-bye!" So he withdrew with his troops to the west.

The ancient city was handed over to Dai Anlan, and the top priority was to rush to repair the fortifications. Officers and men raced against time to build a solid fortified position by using the city wall, repairing fortress groups on various communication arteries in the city, and also building in-depth defensive positions on the west bank of the Xitang River. In the hands of the officers and men of the 200th Division, Tonggu City formed a three-dimensional defense system with three floors above ground and three layers underground.

On March 17, Du Yuming came to Tonggu to discuss combat deployment with Dai Anlan. Du Yuming pointed out: Tonggu's position is prominent, and the army is said to have committed crimes in the north, and it is the first to bear the brunt. Therefore, the 200th Division should be prepared to fight under the enemy's heavy encirclement, block the enemy, and cover the concentration of the main force of the [***] team.

At this time, the same ancient is the top door bar that is worth a thousand jun. Only when the main force of the [***] team can complete the assembly and deployment, and the battle of Burma can be fought. As the deputy commander of the expeditionary force and the commander of the 5th Army, Du Yuming placed the most elite 200th Division in Tonggu and played the trump card when he shot, which shows that this battle is extraordinary.

Facing Du Yuming's scorching gaze, Dai Anlan solemnly said: "It is better to break the jade than to destroy it." Please rest assured, sir. ”

On March 19, more than 500 people from the 112th Wing of the 55th Division of the Chinese Army drove motorcycles from south to north to attack the Pew River, an outpost of Tonggu. It is said that the army is arrogant and arrogant, and its eyes are empty. After invading Burma, the Japanese army first captured 7,000 British troops in the Mawlamyine area, and then took Rangoon without blood. The British army could not bear the battle and fled, which further fueled its arrogance. The small search team, which had a small sun flag on its motorcycle, set off from Yangon and traveled 100 kilometers north without firing a single shot, as if entering a no-man's land. The search captain, Ichiro Isobe, thought that since Rangoon could be taken without a fight, it would not be surprising that Tonggu would be captured with his search party.

However, when the army was triumphant and increased the throttle and rushed onto the Pew River Bridge, there was a loud "boom", and the motorcycle walking in front of it was planted into the Pew River along with the bridge body. Follow-up vehicles were congested on the South Bank Highway.

Ichiro Isobe was not allowed to figure out what was going on, and suddenly, gunfire rang out, and the deputy regiment commander Huang Xianxian commanded the 200th Division's alert troops to shoot wildly, and also dispatched light combat vehicles. As a result of the battle, the army left more than 300 corpses, and the remaining more than 100 people fled from the dense forest.

The scale of the Pew River ambush was small, but it shook the army greatly. The commander of the 55th Division, Lieutenant General Takeuchi Hiroshi, knew intuitively that he was facing an opponent who was no longer British.

After the battle on the Pew River, the Central [***] team took the initiative to retreat, and its forces shrank to Okwen on the southern side of Tonggu. The army followed, and on the 20th, they attacked the [***] squadron and dispatched planes to bomb in turn. The squadron relied on strong fortifications, stubbornly resisted, and stood still.

On the 24th, while attacking Okwen head-on, the army made a detour to the north with the 143rd Wing, and attacked the North Keronggang Airport and the nearby railway in the ancient city. The engineer regiment, which served as the garrison of the airport, rushed to respond to the battle and was unable to support it. That night, the airfield fell.

The Kronggang airfield and railroad fell into enemy hands, cutting off the connection between Tonggu and the rear, and the situation of the 200th Division immediately became dire. Before the war, Commander Du's words of "preparing for reading-force combat" came true.

At 9 o'clock that night, Dai Anlan convened a meeting of the regiment commanders and the battalion commanders directly under him.

The battle to defend Tonggu has been fought for five days today. Although the infantry of the Yue army was blocked from the periphery, the enemy, with its blazing artillery fire and absolute air supremacy, had already blown the ancient city upside down and rubble. For the first time, the squadron fought abroad, the terrain was unfamiliar, the communication was not smooth, the weather was very hot, and there was a lack of drinking water, the battle was quite difficult, and the casualties were not small. The battle has entered a white-hot level.

Now, sitting in the sweltering bunker of the divisional command post, Dai Anlan was bareheaded, and his round face was covered with dust and sweat. The costume is very unusual, a grass yellow shirt on the upper body, two or three buttons have been dropped, and the lower body is only wearing shorts. But he is in high spirits, and he is still a manly man who is not afraid of the sky and the earth. Today's meeting, if nothing else, is just four words: "prepare to fight to the death". After giving his subordinates a combat mission, Dai Anlan extinguished the cigarette butt in his hand and slowly stood up, he put on a military hat, tightened his shirt, and his eyes were burning, like fire and electricity. The officers present knew that the division commander was going to announce the important decision, and they stood with their hands down. Dai Anlan made his last words in a heavy and hoarse voice:

Yu was ordered to stick to the same ancient times and swore to live and die with the city. Yu Zhan died and was represented by the deputy division commander; The deputy division commander was killed in battle, and the chief of staff was deputy. The words are sonorous and loud.

The division commander expressed his determination to fight to the death, and the regiment commanders and battalion commanders followed suit, leaving messages in public and appointing their own agents.

There was a solemn and solemn atmosphere in the shelter. There was a grim, farewell look on everyone's faces. The commanders of the 200th Division at all levels held a memorial service for themselves here in advance.

That night, the troops adjusted their deployment, took the initiative to abandon the forward positions such as Okwen and Tantabin, and gathered the main forces to the existing positions in the ancient city. In order to ensure contact with the military headquarters, Dai Anlan led the division headquarters to move to the mountains outside the city, and Zheng Tingqi, the infantry commander of the division and the commander of the 598th Regiment, commanded three infantry regiments in the city.

More than 20,000 people of the 55th Division of the Army, plus airplanes, besieged more than 10,000 Chinese troops in the city from the sky and the earth, but they could not be attacked. He thought that this battle was unprecedented since the Pacific War, and the imperial army's martial might was greatly challenged under the ancient city. After severely reprimanding the commander of the Takeuchi Division, Commander Iida decided to transfer the 56th Division, which had just arrived from Singapore, to Tonggu to strengthen the attack force. In this way, the strength of the army outside the ancient city has been four times that of the defenders.

At dawn on the 25th, the army found that the 200th Division had contracted its position, and only then did it cross the defense line of Ekewen and Tantabin, which had caused them to be tormented, and approached the ancient city of Tong.

The officers and men of the 200th Division relied on the strong fortifications of the city to deal with the enemy. Although the artillery and planes of the army had razed the buildings and fortifications on the ground, they could not destroy the tunnel-type shelter buried by the Chinese [***] team. The teak wood abundant in Myanmar is thick and strong, and it is extremely hard, which is not only a good material for building warships and bridges, but also as strong as steel plates for the Chinese [***] team to build fortifications. When the artillery fire extended the infantry to dispatch, the squadron rushed out of the tunnel and entered the battle, killing the soldiers on their backs. There is a more convenient way: when the enemy infantry ants pour into the jungle around the city like ants, the [***] team fires incendiary bombs, igniting the bushes, and burning the trees with people.

On the 26th, the army changed its strategy, concentrated two wings, assaulted the northwest corner of the ancient city, and used erosive gas bombs. In the end, due to the collapse of the city wall, the 600th Regiment of the defenders suffered too many casualties, and withdrew from its position at dusk and retreated to the east of the railway. Since then, we have been half of the enemy of the ancient city, the enemy occupies the west of the railway, and I defend the east of the road.

After many bloody battles, the 200th Division rushed left and right in the encirclement, covering the front and back, fighting alone, with no reinforcements, exhausted, only the ability to parry, and no further strength.

On March 28, the army put the elite search wing of the 56th Division into battle.

At this time, half of the ancient city had fallen, and the 200th Division was entangled and scuffled with the Yue army, and it could no longer take action to deal with the enemy's new force.

Hirai Usuke Daisaku is a fox, and the search wing led by him did not join the frontal attack, but searched for a gap in the crotch and attacked from the flank of the 200th Division. At night, the search wing sent 400 men to smuggle across the chest-deep Xitang River and take the headquarters of the 200th Division on the east bank.

At 11 o'clock in the evening, the army suddenly appeared near Dai Anlan's headquarters. The situation is urgent. The 3rd Battalion of the 599th Regiment, which was on alert duty, fought desperately with the enemy. Infantry commander Zheng Tingqian knew that something was wrong, and quickly sent two companies of the 598th Regiment to reinforce him. The fierce battle lasted until dawn, although the army was repulsed and the division headquarters was retained. However, the enemy seized the opportunity to occupy the bridge over the Xitang River, cutting off the division headquarters from the city.

After that, the army continued to attack the east of the city and the division headquarters, trying to take the position in the east of the city, paralyzing the command of the [***] team, and annihilating the 200th Division in one fell swoop. At this time, the new 22nd Division of the 5th Army, which was more than 50 kilometers north of Tonggu, was stubbornly resisted by the Yue Army, and its progress was slow and beyond the reach of the whip.

Although General Dai Anlan and all the officers and soldiers had already made up their minds not to retreat, Du Yuming could not watch his ace troops shatter. Although Chiang Kai-shek felt sorry for the Yunnan-Burma Highway, but he was even more distressed about this elite division in his hands, under Du Yuming's repeated requests, Commander-in-Chief Chiang weighed again and again, and finally said a very frustrating sentence:

"Withdraw, withdraw. If the army is lost, what is the use of the Yunnan-Burma Road? ”

In the early morning of March 30, Dai Anlan led thousands of remnants of the 200th Division to quietly evacuate Tonggu City in the thick fog.

After dawn, the 55th and 56th divisions of the Yue Army concentrated all their efforts and launched a general attack. The enemy concentrated artillery fire and aircraft and carried out saturation bombing. After that, the infantry launched an assault, only to find that Tonggu was already an empty city.

"Quack"

The crows in the forest were still whining, and their voices were terrible and terrifying. However, in the midst of the drumming of the old eagles, the officers and men of the 200th Division safely crossed the Nandu River before dawn.

Dai Anlan remembered that he was lying in the mountains and forests last night, and when he was upset, he kept cursing those old eagles, so he smiled at Zheng Tingqian beside him:

"It seems that the black guy has been wronged."

After crossing the Nandu River, the troops entered the tropical jungles of northern Burma. The officers and men struggled in the dark and sultry dense forest, with no provisions, no roads, and no guides. Sometimes after a day of drilling in the forest, it turns out that it is back to the same place. For the sake of safety, Dai Anlan instructed the troops to send reconnaissance detachments during the day to disguise themselves as Burmese civilians for every river and road they crossed, to reconnoiter the enemy's situation, occupy favorable terrain, and cover the passage of troops at night. At each intersection, each link will assign liaison officers to transmit signals and guide actions to prevent getting lost.

In the dense forest, the officers and men of the whole division either walked day and night, or night and day, echoing left and right, connecting end to end, jumping forward.

Soon after, it was reported that after the army captured Lashio, the 18th Division seized Bamo and Myitkyina, and the 56th Division quickly marched north along the Yunnan-Burma Highway, broke through the Sino-Burmese border, and trapped Wan Town, Ruili, and Mangshi, and approached the Nu River. A large area of land in western Yunnan has fallen into the hands of the enemy.

He said that he had already broken into the front. It was no longer possible for the 200th Division to join the army headquarters.

The military radio constantly broadcast: "In order to lay peace in East Asia, it is necessary to destroy the 5th Army, especially the 200th Division." ”

It is said that the plane distributed leaflets into the dense forest, on which a tiger was drawn, followed by a hunter with a gun, and a large net was opened in front of it, and next to it was written: "The 200th Division cannot run." ”

He said that he was not scaring people with empty words.

More than a month ago, Lieutenant General Watanabe Masao saw the escape of the 200th Division from the ironclad Tonggu Division, which was a disgrace to his 56th Division and a regret for fighting in Burma. He vowed to recapture this Chinese army and completely annihilate it. Watanabe calculated that the 200th Division was a mechanized unit, and it was their strength to hold or fight in the plains, and once they entered the jungles of northern Burma, it would be difficult to move an inch. His 56th Division, on the other hand, was a veteran of jungle warfare, having defeated the British in Malaya and Singapore. Hide and seek in the woods, the 200th Division is by no means his opponent! Watanabe laid a blockade line in the forest, casting layers of encirclement nets to bring down the 200th Division, drag it down, and eat it.

On the evening of May 18, the officers and men of the 200th Division moved covertly to the Langke area on the southwest side of Lashio!

(To be continued)