Xuzhou!

The prelude to the conference battle is slowly kicking off!

The Battle of Xuzhou was a major battle after the Battle of Nanjing.

After the capture of the Nanjing Massacre on December 13, 1937, the army was extremely arrogant, attempting to go down the Yangtze River to defeat the main force of the Chinese political axe army in one fell swoop, and continue to wave the army north. Another army also moved south from the direction of North China, intending to open up the Tianjin-Pudong line.

The two [***] teams, with Xuzhou as the center, are about to launch a series of fierce battles.

The focus of the battle was concentrated in the Xuzhou area because of Xuzhou's major strategic position. Xuzhou is located in the northwest of Jiangsu Province, between the Yellow River and the Huai River, according to the four provinces of Shandong, Henan, Anhui and Suzhou, and is the hub of the Jinpu and Longhai railways. Around Xuzhou, the mountains overlap, the rivers are vertical and horizontal, and it has always been a battleground for soldiers in the history of China. Holding Xuzhou can block the enemy's attempt to capture Zhengzhou along the Longhai Road in the west, and then move south to capture Wuhan on the Pinghan Road.

After occupying Nanjing, the army tried to open up the Tianjin-Pudong Railway, so that the northern and southern armies could unite together, and successively concentrated about 240,000 people, and in late January 1938, they began to attack Xuzhou, a strategic place in East China, from the north and south.

Li Zongren, commander of China's Fifth Theater of Operations, led 600,000 men to defend the Xuzhou area. The main force was concentrated in the north of Xuzhou to resist the southern invasion of the northern army; A force was deployed in the southern section of the Jinpu Railway to prevent the southern army from advancing northward.

At this time, although I [***] have an advantage in troops, my strength is completely disproportionate.

Each division of the army has jurisdiction over two brigades and regiments, and each brigade has jurisdiction over two wings, with about 13,000 combat soldiers and about 6,700 non-combat soldiers. Each division is equipped with one artillery regiment, each regiment has one or two battalions, each battalion has three companies, and each company has four guns, and other artillery units directly under it are not counted. The enemy's forces in the Battle of Xuzhou totaled eight and a half divisions, about 200,000 people, each division was about 36 guns, with a total of more than 200 guns, in addition to aircraft, combat vehicles, and artillery directly under it.

Although the number of troops participating in the Battle of Xuzhou was 60 divisions, the firepower of the company as a combat unit was far inferior to that of the enemy. The enemy is armed with nine light machine guns per company, and [***] a few adjusted divisions and companies may have this number, and the others may have six, or three, or even none.

The firepower of tactical units in battalions is not as good as that of the army, and each battalion of the army has heavy machine guns, mortars, etc., and [***] is the first heavy machine gun in the regimental unit.

Strategic units are inferior to the enemy in divisional units. Modern warfare relies on three things: one is firepower, the second is equipment, and the third is communications. After this analysis, it can be seen that although there are many [***] numbers, the firepower cannot be compared with the enemy.

On the front-line battlefield in Xuzhou, the commander of the Fifth Theater was Li Zongren; The deputy commanders were Li Pinxian and Han Fuyu.

In addition to the infantry units participating in the battle, the Fifth Theater had five artillery regiments and about 40 or 50 aircraft.

In mid-December 1937, the 11th and 13th divisions of the army each crossed the Yangtze River to capture Yangzhou Jiangdu and Chuxian north of Pukou.

The Fifth Theater Command was transferred to the Han Fuyu Division of the Third Army stationed in Jinan, the Shen Honglie Division of the Marine Corps in Qingdao, and the Pang Bingxun Division of the Third Army Corps in Linyi to garrison the main areas along the Yellow River and the East China Sea coast, and dispatched the 51st Army of Xuezhong from Qingdao to defend Bengbu to prevent the enemy from Chuxian from moving north.

In January 1938, the 13th Division of the Yue Army advanced from the north of Chuxian to Mingguang and Chihe, the defensive places of the 31st Army, and was forced to give up and retreat westward to Dingyuan and Fengyang.

After the second time, the enemy occupied Dingyuan, Fengyang, Linhuaiguan, Bengbu and other places, and the 51st Army Yu Xuezhong was forced to retreat from the south bank of the Huai River to the north bank of the Huai River, so the enemy took advantage of the situation to cross the Huai, and after the 51st Army fought with the enemy, retreated to the banks of the Huhe River and the Whirlpool River. Seeing that the war was unfavorable, the Fifth Theater Command redeployed Zhang Zizhong's 59th Army to reinforce Yu Xuezhong, and the newly arrived 7th Army of Liao Lei's 21st Group Army and Wei Yunsong's 31st Army flanked the enemy in the Dingyuan area, and the main force of the enemy's 13th Division was flanked by the enemy and retreated to reinforce the battlefield in Huainan.

The 59th Army took advantage of the situation to regain the position on the north bank of the Huai River.

The 59th Army was ordered to move north to Tengxian, and the defensive ground was held by the 51st Army, and the battle in the southern section of Jinpu was pinned down by our Liao Lei Group Army and Li Pinxian's Group Army, and could not go north to participate in the Taierzhuang Battle, forming a confrontation situation. The enemy was unified in command, and the Central China Front Army and the Shanghai Dispatch Army were transformed into the Central China Dispatch Army. The enemy was originally scheduled to go north along the Jinpu line and rendezvous from the Jinpu Road to the south, but the plan of the Jiaoji Road to advance west and attack Xuzhou was temporarily blocked.

In view of the comprehensive and persistent surnames of the war, the army set up a base camp on November 30, 1937, and the North China Dispatch Army followed the plan of the base camp to attack Jiaoji Road and the area along the Yellow River east of Jining.

On December 23, 1937, the 10th Division of the Second Army of the Chinese Army, Isoya Ryosuke, crossed the Yellow River south between Qingcheng and Jiyang in order to carry out the order of the base camp. 27 said that the enemy went to Jinan, and 31 said that Tai'an was trapped.

On January 7, 1938, the army went to Mengyin, Zouxian, Jinan, Dawenkou and other places. The enemy's ability to drive straight into the country is directly related to Han Fuyu's attitude of avoiding war.

In order to preserve his strength, Han Fuyu, deputy commander of the Fifth Theater and commander-in-chief of the Third Group Army, and chairman of Shandong Province, ordered his headquarters to abandon Jinan, leave the combat territory without authorization, and retreat to the areas of Luxidan County, Chengwu, and Cao County, leaving only a small number of troops to confront the enemy along the Yellow River.

The original order of the Central Military Commission was given to all theaters: "All theaters have the responsibility to defend their territory and cannot retreat into other theaters." ”

After the Han Department withdrew from Tai'an, the Military Commission reissued an order to Commander Li and Han Fuyu, ordering Han Fuyu to re-enter Tai'an and command the local team to guerrilla the enemy based on Mount Tai. After receiving the order, Han Fuyu still transferred his public and private baggage from Jinpu and Longhai Road to Pinghan Road and stopped at Luohe, and Li Zongren advised him to re-enter Tai'an and not to violate the orders of the Military Commission to enter the defense area of the First War Zone.

Han Fuyu ignored it and actually replied to Dianyun: "Nanjing is lost, how can there be Tai'an?" Youyun: "All-out War of Resistance, what is the difference between each other?" The implication is that it is taken for granted to enter the defense of the first war zone.

Seeing that he was obsessed, Li Zongren reported his attitude to the Central Military Commission. Chiang Kai-shek attached great importance to this report, and convened a meeting of senior staff members of the Military Commission, which was attended by General He Jingzhi, chief of staff, General Chen Cixiu, minister of political affairs, and Bai Chongxi.

Chiang Kai-shek was also determined. Before the meeting, Chiang Kai-shek took the opportunity of a separate summons to arrest Han Fuyu, who had 40,000 or 50,000 people in the Han Fuyu department at that time, and feared that there would be a change, so he sent Chen Tiaoyuan to preach consolation.

Han Fuyu was Feng Yuxiang's old department, when Feng Yuxiang was the vice chairman of the Military Commission, Feng Yuxiang said that he led the troops to attach importance to patriotic education, but Han Fuyu had a close relationship with him, and he was afraid that it would leak, so he did not discuss the arrest of Han before the story.

After Han Fuyu was arrested, he was sent to Wuhan, where he was sentenced to a military trial. The Central Military Commission appointed Yu Xuezhong as commander-in-chief of the Third Group Army and Sun Tongxuan as deputy commander-in-chief. Yu Xuezhong did not arrive for some reason, and Sun Tongxuan was changed to Sun Tongxuan as the commander-in-chief!