That night, Xiao Siming commanded the main force of the eastward advance detachment to capture Dezhou, and Xue Yue, who was far away on the Longhai line in eastern Henan, commanded the Hendong Corps of the National * Army, and also launched a siege on the 14th Division of the Japanese army. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

After the Japanese army captured Xuzhou, the Japanese base camp judged that the Battle of Xuzhou was over, and the next step was to pursue the main force of the Fifth Theater and expand the results. Therefore, while strictly ordering all units to pursue by different routes, the base camp of the Japanese army demarcated the westward pursuit of each unit to roughly stop at the connecting line of Lanfeng, Shangqiu, Yongcheng and Mengcheng on the Longhai line.

The reason why the Japanese base camp did not order the troops to go west to capture Kaifeng and Zhengzhou, and to take advantage of the situation to move south along the Pinghan Road to capture Wuhan, was not that they did not plan to capture Wuhan, but that they needed to repair and replenish their troops and reserve grain, grass and ammunition.

Therefore, the Japanese base camp ordered Central China to send troops to participate in the Battle of Xuzhou, and each division swept along the Jinpu line and turned south of the Huai River; The Second Army of the North China Front was ordered to be deployed in the area south of Xuzhou and north of the Huai River.

After receiving the order, the commander of the Central China Dispatch Army, Shunroku Hatata, listened to the words of the base camp, and immediately ordered the 3rd Division to assemble in the Fuliji area on the Jinpu line, the 5th Division to assemble in the Bengbu area, and the 13th Division to advance towards Mengcheng.

Another Japanese giant, General Terauchi Toshiichi, commander of the North China Front, was different, accustomed to disobeying the orders of the base camp. In addition, the 14th Division of the First Army of the North China Front Army was rushing thousands of miles to cut off the connection between the Fifth Theater and the First Theater, and Terauchi Shouichi was full of hope to capture the retreating main force of the Fifth Theater on the Longhai Road, where would he listen to the base camp!

On the night of May 19, the night of May 19, when Terauchi received the order from the base camp, he ordered the Japanese Second Army to capture Shangqiu, a strategic point on the Longhai Road.

As a result, the Japanese Second Army left the 114th Division and the 3rd and 5th Brigades independently mixed to control the vast area between Tai'an and Xuzhou, and commanded the 3rd and 13th Brigades and 13th Brigades drawn from the Kwantung Army with the 16th and 10th Divisions to pursue westward.

After crossing the river from Puxian, the 14th Division of the Japanese Army lightly took Lanfeng, a key point on the Longhai Road, on the night of May 23, and cut off the Longhai Road in one fell swoop.

Speaking of which, it's a bit of a shame. The person stationed on the Longhai Line and responsible for guarding Kaifeng was Gui Yongqing, a descendant of Chairman Jiang and one of the 13 Taibao. I don't know what he thinks, seeing that the 14th Division of the Japanese Army is coming, as soon as it comes into contact, the Japanese army only broke through the first-line position, Gui Yongqing led his 27th Army to retreat without authorization, leaving only Long Muhan's 88th Division to guard Lanfeng. Unexpectedly, Long Muhan saw Gui Yongqing lead the main force to withdraw, and he didn't care about 3721, and he smeared oil on the soles of his feet, and he also slipped away, allowing the Japanese army to occupy Lanfeng effortlessly.

Almost at the same time, Bai Huizhang's division of the 102nd Division of the 8th Army, which was guarding Dangshan, also abandoned its position and fled west under the onslaught of the Japanese 16th Division advancing west along the Longhai Road from Xuzhou.

Shocked by the news of the loss of Lanfeng, Chairman Chiang ordered Xue Yue to command the 74th, 64th, and 71st armies of the Eastern Henan Corps and Gui Yongqing's 27th Army to attack from east to west, and ordered Hu Zongnan's 17th Army to advance from west to east, east and west, flank the 14th Division, and be sure to annihilate it and restore control of the Longhai Road.

Starting at 6 p.m. on the 25th, Xue Yue commanded the Eastern Henan Corps and Hu Zongnan commanded the 17th Army Corps, and launched a fierce attack on the 14th Division of the Japanese Army entrenched in the Lanfeng, Luowangji, Sanyizhai, and Quxingzhai areas!

The attacker was the elite unit of the Central Army, with more than 100,000 troops, occupying an advantage; It was the 14th Division of the Japanese Army, a permanent division, that was defending the counterattack. Moreover, the 14th Division has been strengthened by the First Army of the North China Front, with many tanks, armored vehicles, and automobiles, and strong mobility; in addition to the artillery wing of the division, it has also strengthened the Second Brigade of Field Heavy Artillery, the 8th Independent Field Heavy Artillery Wing, the 5th Independent Machine Gun Brigade, the 1st Independent Armored Vehicle Squadron, the 5th Mortar Brigade, 2 Antiaircraft Artillery Squadrons, and 6 other squadrons of engineer bridge balloons, with a total strength of 30,000 troops. Especially for artillery, because the 2nd Brigade of the Field Heavy Artillery had four artillery wings, plus the artillery wing of the 14th Division and the 8th Independent Field Heavy Artillery Wing, the artillery under the command of Lieutenant General Kenji Dohihara, commander of the 14th Division, reached six wings.

In other words, the intensity of the artillery fire used by the 14th Division of the Japanese Army exceeded the imagination of the Supreme Command, if they insisted on holding on to the danger, they would only blockade with artillery fire, no matter how desperately the elite of the national army attacked, I am afraid that there would be no way to take them!

This point is not clear to the Supreme Command, the First War Zone, and Xue Yue. From the very beginning, Chairman Chiang and others made a mistake in their judgment and underestimated the enemy.

The reason why Gui Yongqing led his troops to retreat as soon as the Japanese broke through the first line of defense was probably because he was shocked by the intensity of the artillery fire of the Japanese 14th Division, and he was afraid that he would bury his troops under the powerful artillery fire and aerial bombs of the Japanese army as in the Battle of Songhu.

During the Battle of Songhu, Gui Yongqing was the chief captain of the most elite teaching corps of the National Army. By the end of the Battle of Nanjing, the Teaching Corps had basically ceased to exist. The current 27th Army was reorganized by Gui Yongqing in Kaifeng, and he probably did not want his troops to become cannon fodder under the fire of the Japanese army again, so he retreated without authorization.

Chairman Chiang and Cheng Qian, commander of the First Theater of Operations, thought that the 14th Division of the Japanese Army had more than 20,000 people, and that our army had concentrated more than 100,000 troops in the Eastern Henan Corps and the 17th Army Corps.

The Battle of Lanfeng began to go well, and after the 71st Army launched an attack, it recaptured Lanfeng Station that night.

The first battle was successful, and the morale of the Eastern Henan Corps was high, braving the artillery fire of the Japanese army, and the onslaught continued!

The hot blood stained the land of early summer!

Xiao Siming in Dezhou City, although it is impossible for him to visit the Lanfeng battlefield in person, he is a soul traverser, carefully studying military history, and knows the situation and progress of the battle of Lanfeng. The reason why he chose to capture Dezhou on the night of the 25th was that he hoped to strategically echo the north and south, encourage the officers and men of the Kuomintang Army to fight bravely to kill the enemy, and it was best to bury the arrogant 14th Division by the Yellow River. Even if the 14th Division could not be annihilated, at least the Japanese army would have to stop the pace of the frantic attack, return to the division to rescue North China, and avoid the tragedy of opening the mouth of the garden and releasing yellow water to resist the enemy.

Therefore, as soon as the Battle of Dezhou ended, Xiao Siming did not hesitate at all, and immediately flew to the division headquarters, the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army, and the headquarters of Yan'an to report the victory!

In the good news, Xiao Siming excitedly wrote and was full of spirit, and wrote: "At 10 o'clock this night, the main force of the eastward advance detachment of my 115th Division launched a surprise attack on the county seat of Dexian County, an important transportation hub occupied by the Japanese invaders on Jinpu Road, and fought fiercely for an hour and a half, completely annihilating the Japanese puppet army stationed in the county seat of Dexian County, destroying the Japanese Dezhou Garrison Command, the Japanese Dezhou Secret Service, the Puppet Lu Dongdao Office, and the Puppet Dexian County Government, and annihilating the Japanese Dexian Airport Garrison Squad, the Dexian Railway Station Garrison, the 16th Division, the 114th Division, The 3rd Mixed Brigade, the 4th Mixed Brigade, the 3rd Independent Mixed Brigade, and the 5th Independent Mixed Brigade were stationed in the Dexian County Military Station, annihilating the Puppet De County Self-Police Regiment and the Puppet County Canal Garrison Brigade, the Japanese Army's Dezhou Garrison Commander Fuyuan Nakasa, the Puppet Lu Dongdao Office Adviser Lai Hukou and Xu Ben, and the Puppet Lu Dong Province Police Adviser Kishimoto Shigeruma were killed, and the puppet Lu Dong Province Yin Chengyian was captured, killing a total of 1,142 Japanese soldiers, capturing 126 Japanese soldiers, eliminating 1,700 puppet troops, and seizing a batch of weapons, ammunition, food and socks supplies. In this battle, our army concealed its intentions, first mobilized the Texas defenders to go out of the city to pursue our guerrilla troops, the main force ran from a long distance, and broke the city in one fell swoop. ”

Strictly speaking, the number of enemies annihilated in the capture of Texas was not large, and the combined strength of the Japanese army was only a little more than an infantry brigade. However, the significance of the capture of Dezhou does not lie in the number of enemies annihilated, but in the important transportation position of Dezhou and the great impact on the pursuit of the Longhai Road launched by the Japanese North China Front!

At this point, Xiao Siming just clicked, not wordy!

In fact, there is no need for Xiao Siming to be wordy, the leaders of the 115th Division, the bosses of the Eighth Route Army Headquarters, and the leaders of the Yan'an Headquarters who received the telegram all know what this battle means!

At this time, the siege of the anti-Ninth Route in the southeast of Jin Province had already ended victoriously, and the first batch of troops of the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army, under the leadership of Xu Xiangqian, deputy division commander, began to leave Taihang and advance into the plain. The cadres led by Xiao Hua, deputy director of the Political Department of the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army and political commissar of the 343rd Brigade, and the five detachments of the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army, which are temporarily under the command of the 129th Division, have already arrived in southern Hebei and are cooperating with Chen Zaidao and Song Renqiang, who arrived in southern Hebei in advance, to open up base areas in southern Hebei.

The 343 Brigade headquarters and cadres led by Xiao Hua and the five detachments were tasked with advancing to the Jilu border and cooperating with the eastward advance detachment. However, after arriving in the South Hebei Plain, in view of the insufficient strength of our army in the southern Hebei region and the extremely weak rule of the Japanese army over the South Hebei Plain, the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army immediately ordered the five detachments to postpone their efforts to the border of Hebei and Shandong to assist our army in fighting several battles in southern Hebei and opening up the anti-Japanese situation in the southern Hebei region.

If the five detachments arrive at the Jilu border at this time, cooperate with the eastward advance detachment, and the main forces of the two Eighth Route Army gallop across the Jilu border area, it is estimated that our army will soon unify the Jilu border.

It's a pity that the fifth detachment was still in the South Hebei Plain at this time and failed to catch up with the Battle of Texas. Otherwise, I'm afraid Xiao Siming's appetite will be greater, and the scale of the Battle of Texas will be even greater!

After receiving Xiao Siming's good news, the boss, deputy boss, and deputy chief of staff of the Eighth Route Army Headquarters held a horse lantern and looked at the map for a long time, and finally, the deputy boss threw the pencil in his hand on the table and roared loudly: "Order Xu to move forward to the northwest of Shandong, and order Xiao Hua to quickly move eastward to meet Xiao Siming on the border of Hebei and Shandong!" (To be continued.) )