Chapter 1149: The Great Defeat (II)

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After forming an outer encirclement, the Japanese army divided its troops from Yuanqu, turned back, marched all the way east to Shaoyuan, and joined Rujun who attacked from the west of Jiyuan to occupy the gate of Fengfeng; All the way to the west, he joined forces with the Japanese army who had moved south from Xia County to capture Zhangdian. Since then, the Japanese army has formed two encirclements on the inner and outer sides of the defenders of Nakajo Mountain.

Wei Lihuang, who hurriedly flew back to Luoyang to take over the military command of the Battle of Zhongtiaoshan, saw that the Ninth Army retreating from the sealed gate was likely to be surrounded and annihilated by the Japanese army, and the 14th Army on the northern front had fallen into the encirclement of the Japanese army, so he decisively ordered the main force of the Ninth Army to cross the river on May 10 and strengthen the defense on the south bank; The 14th Group Army was ordered to move to the north of the Qinyi Highway and strike at the enemy's flank by means of a gyratory drilling tactic.

After Liu Yimin's speech, when Chiang Kai-shek summoned He Yingqin, Bai Chongxi and others to study, He Yingqin proposed to withdraw the defenders of Zhongtiao Mountain and stick to the south bank of the Yellow River. At that time, Chiang Kai-shek considered that Zhongtiao Mountain was the last position of the Nationalist Government in North China, and that holding Zhongtiao Mountain was equivalent to defending the Yellow River, and it could also prove to the people that the Nationalist Government was still defending North China. Whether from a political or military point of view, Zhongtiao Mountain must be defended, so Chiang Kai-shek sent He Yingqin to Luoyang to deploy defense.

If Chiang Kai-shek had personally come to the Zhongtiao Mountain defense line to take a look, he might have made up his mind to retreat in advance.

Wei Lihuang's determination to order the main force of the Ninth Army to withdraw across the Yellow River was decisive, but unfortunately it was too late. Three divisions of the Ninth Army crossed the river from Guanyang Ferry in accordance with the order, and more than 100 Japanese planes rushed to bomb and block Guanyang Ferry.

Bombs were exploding, Japanese planes were sweeping through their machine guns, and the Yellow River was flowing with blood and the corpses of Chinese soldiers.

With so many troops, faced with Japanese bombing, no one organized anti-aircraft firing (). Instead, groups of routed soldiers scurried around, snatching the clothes of the civilians who had moved with the troops. On the riverbank, there were some ordinary people who were stripped naked and naked.

A ** regiment commander went crazy, abandoned his troops, rode his horse to the Yellow River, and grabbed the tail of the war horse and read the Yellow River.

Only the 54th Division of the Ninth Army crossed to Henan after suffering heavy casualties, and the rest of the divisions retreated to the mountains north of Shaoyuan.

In the 10th breakout battle of the 14th Group Army, only the remnants of Wu Shimin's 98th Army successfully broke through the encirclement, joined the troops of the Taiyue Military Region of the Eighth Route Army who rushed to meet them, and entered the Taiyue Mountains.

On the 11th, the Japanese troops, who had established two encirclements, began to turn around and flip northward side by side, and began to sweep the various units of the defenders of Nakajo Mountain in the encirclement.

At this time, there was something that stunned everyone, that is, the defenders of Zhongtiao Mountain ran out of food.

The defenders of Nakajo Mountain were busy doing business, reselling grain, ammunition, and opium. Tossing and turning, exchanging food and ammunition for money and opium, only three days into the battle, the defenders ran out of food.

The 180,000 defenders of Zhongtiao Mountain, all the troops turned out to have only three days of reserve food!

Without food, the defenders of Nakajo Mountain, which was already surrounded by the Japanese army, were even more chaotic.

The situation was so critical that Chiang Kai-shek had to give Wei Lihuang a direct order and order the defenders of Zhongtiao Mountain to break through by separate routes.

At this time, in order to rescue the defenders of Zhongtiao Mountain, various organs and associations of the Chongqing National Government sent reports to the ** Central Committee and the Eighth Route Army Headquarters, asking the Eighth Route Army to act quickly to rescue friendly troops. Some democrats, such as Huang Yanpei, made speeches in newspapers and radio, urging them to quickly attack the Japanese army and rescue the defenders of Zhongtiao Mountain in the spirit of unity and resistance against Japan.

Historically, after the defenders of Zhongtiao Mountain fell into a desperate situation, the Kuomintang army on the south bank of the Yellow River did not come to the rescue; Hu Zongnan, who had hundreds of thousands of troops, was busy blockading the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningbo border area with his eyes open, and he didn't care about rescuing the defenders of Zhongtiao Mountain; Yan Xishan's Jin Sui army in the southwest of Shanxi not only did not effectively rescue, but on the contrary, it also disarmed the sporadic small troops of the defenders of Zhongtiao Mountain who broke through to the southwest of Shanxi; The Eighth Route Army cooperated in the operation, but due to the heavy losses in the anti-sweeping operation in the later stage of the Hundred Regiments War, it did not go all out to rescue as it did in the Hundred Regiments Battle. It is equivalent to the forces of all sides watching the rout of the defenders of Zhongtiao Mountain.

The current situation is incomparable with history, and there is no need for Chiang Kai-shek to instruct various organs and associations to urge the Eighth Route Army to go to war, and the Shaanxi River Defense Unit of the Eighth Route Army guarding Tongguan and Yumendu has already exchanged fire with the Japanese army that killed Fenglingdu after capturing Yongji, and the Independent Division of the Eighth Route Army in the Jinzhong Base Area and the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army in the Taihang Mountains in the southeast of Shanxi have received orders from the Central Committee and the General Headquarters to launch a fierce attack on the supply lines of the Japanese army and rescue the defenders of Zhongtiao Mountain.

Liu Yimin, who was far away in Shandong, immediately ordered Liu Jianjian's second column, Zhang Hongtao's sixth column, and Chen Shiqu's tenth column, which had been assembled in southwest Lu, to immediately launch a strong attack on the enemy on Longhai Road with a resolute and resolute posture, and to cut off the communication lines from Longhai Road and Xuzhou to southwest Lu and northern Henan, and force the Japanese army to withdraw troops to return to reinforcements, and to annihilate the enemy with ambush tactics; ordered the 8th Column of Zhaoshan and the 10th Column of Xu Shiyou in Jiaodong to launch an attack on the 28th Division of the Japanese Army and various units of the puppet army entrenched in the Yantai and Weihai areas; Ordered Li Qing's 3rd Column in the Qinghe area and Chen Dayong's 7th Column in Jiaolai to attack Jiaoji Road.

On the night of 11 May, Liu Jianjian of Southwest Lu concentrated the firepower of two artillery regiments, three columns and 27 infantry regiments, with a total of 100,000 troops, to launch a rapid attack on the enemy on the Longhai Road. Overnight, the Longhai Road between Shangqiu and Dangshan was cut off, and the Japanese Army's Independent Mixed Seventh Brigade Regiment that served as the Shangqiu to Dangshan section of the Longhai Road could not be formed, and the remnants of the defeated army shrank to Shangqiu, and joined forces with the independent garrison of the Japanese army stationed in Shangqiu and the troops of the 39th Division stationed in Shangqiu, and waited for reinforcements.

Liu Jianli immediately issued a speech in Yangji in the name of Liu Yimin, calling on the ** and New Fourth Army in the Henan-Anhui border region to join forces to fight, capture Shangqiu, and then capture Kaifeng to the west, and cooperate with the troops of the First Theater to completely annihilate the Japanese army in eastern Henan.

This fight also hit a surprise!

Exactly the same as Liu Yimin's judgment, Tada Jun did secretly deploy and land in the area of Shijiu this time. The troops that landed were the Fifth Division, which had just finished the blockade operation along the southeast coast and was urgently transferred to Shandong. The landing of the 5th Division was accompanied by the newly established 58th Division, 59th Division, and 60th Division of the Japanese Army. The task of the Fifth Division was to command the three newly formed divisions and regiments to attack and advance along the Taishi Highway from Shijiu, divide the central and southern Lu areas into two halves, and cooperate with the besieging troops on three sides to divide and surround the main forces of the Eighth Route Army in central and southern Lu and eliminate them one by one.

Liu Jianli, Li Qing, Chen Dayong, and Zhao Shan were beaten, and Tada Jun was stunned, he could not imagine that the strength of the Eighth Route Army in southwest Lu was so strong, so he had to adjust the deployment, and ordered the Second Division and the Second Armored Division attacking southeast Lu in the eastern section of Longhai Road to quickly end the offensive, advance rapidly to the west, and form a reinforcement group with the 114th Division attacking in the direction of Xuzhou to attack southern Lunan to reinforce Shangqiu and encircle and annihilate the Eighth Route Army in southwest Lu. The Combined Fleet, which was on standby at sea and preparing to launch a landing operation on the morning of the 12th, was ordered to quickly move south to Lianyungang by two routes, allowing the 5th Division, the 58th Division, and the 59th Division to land at Lianyungang and take over the defense of the 2nd Division, the 2nd Tank Division, and the 114th Division; the other went north to Yantai to escort the 60th Division to reinforce the 29th Division; The 11th Division, 12th Division, 32nd Division, and 7th Division of the Japanese Army, which was attacking Luzhong, were ordered to immediately transfer troops to repel the Eighth Route Army that was attacking Jiaoji Road.

After receiving the information that the devils of the four divisions of the Lianyungang and Xuzhou underground intelligence stations had landed in Lianyungang, Luo Ronghuan, Xiang Ying, Ye Ting, and Cai Zhong all gasped, admiring Liu Yimin's accuracy in anticipating the enemy, but at the same time, he was afraid for a while. If the devils of the four divisions really landed at Shijiu Station under the cover of the combined fleet's carrier-based aircraft and naval guns, they would soon occupy Rizhao and then move west to divide our army, and our army would soon be surrounded and divided by the Japanese troops besieging from the south, south, and west, and then the situation would be difficult.

No matter how well the Eighth Route Army fought, it could only reduce the losses of the defenders of Zhongtiao Mountain, and it was impossible to rescue them all. Tada Jun planned so carefully this time, fought so smoothly, and had such a huge number of troops at hand, how could he be willing to fight Nakajo Mountain again?

Tang Huaiyuan, commander of the Third Army of the Fifth Group Army of the National Revolutionary Army, and Zhu Lao were always classmates in Class C of the first phase of the Yunnan Jiangwutang, and they had been in the army for 30 years and had accumulated merit from platoon commander to army commander.

On 10 May, when Tang Huaiyuan received the order from Chiang Kai-shek and Wei Lihuang to break through the encirclement, the various units of the Third Army had already fallen into a heavy encirclement by the Japanese army, and the communication between the various units had been cut off. All over the mountains and fields are the corpses of the soldiers who went north with him from Yunnan to resist the Japanese, and the blood has soaked the soil of Zhongtiao Mountain.

At the critical juncture, Tang Huaiyuan called the three division commanders together and explained: "The current situation is sinister, our generation should make the greatest determination to the way out of our duties and individuals, and when things are possible, we must do our best to restore the situation, otherwise we should preserve the personality of the country and the nation, so as to preserve the righteousness of heaven and earth." "The squadron only has the commanders of the army and division who died in battle, and there are no captured army commanders, so don't let the Third Army start it."

The meaning of that couldn't be clearer, it's best to break through. If you can't break through, you'd rather commit suicide than fall into the hands of the Japanese army as a prisoner!

After the explanation, Tang Huaiyuan ordered a regiment to disperse and break through. Tang Huaiyuan personally led the 12th Division to fight and walk towards the county mountain, but encountered the Japanese army pursuing and intercepting, and had to turn west.

"A mountain is a wind, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year; Four taels of soil in a day, not enough to make up for it during the day and at night. ”

This is a folk song of Nakajo Mountain, which says that Nakajo Mountain is windy and dusty.

On the 12th, Tang Huaiyuan, who had been hungry for two days, retreated to a mud house on the top of Jianshan in Fanjiagou with several signal soldiers and telegraph operators.

No one knows whether Tang Huaiyuan's thoughts at this time were regretful for not being prepared for defense, or sad for the casualties of the troops, or whether he felt that he was disappointed by the heavy trust. In short, no one can know the true mentality of Tang Huaiyuan, a veteran of the Yunnan army, at this moment.

In this small earthen house, Tang Huaiyuan, commander of the Third Army of the National Revolutionary Army, calmly wrote his last words in his notebook: "Yu has received the grace of the country and entrusted the important tasks of the three armies. After Yu's death, the commander-in-chief and chief of staff of Wangyu cleaned up the mess of their army and continued the war of resistance. ”

After writing his last words, Tang Huaiyuan spit out the loess foam in his mouth, and with a complex gaze intertwined with regret, remorse, grief and indignation, and nostalgia, he finally took a look at the reckless Zhongtiao Mountain, pulled out his beloved pistol, and committed suicide!

Knowing that the commander of the army was martyred, the commander of the 12th Division was inexplicably sad and indignant, plucked up blood and bravery, and personally organized the remnants of the brave team to fight for the enemy, and was shot in the chest in the fierce battle. On the 13th, Cun Xingqi led the remnants of dozens of people to attack Maojiawan, but was intercepted by the Japanese army again, and his left leg was blown off in the battle. Seeing that he couldn't rush out, Cun Xingqi ordered the regiment commander Huang Xiangu to lead everyone to break through, draw out his short sword, and kill himself.

Huangxian Valley, who witnessed the martyrdom of the division commander, howled and cried, and stood by the body of dozens of brothers, never wanting to break through alive, and all fell under the machine guns of the Japanese army, and died heroically.

Following the martyrdom of Hao Mengling, commander of the 9th Army and Liu Jiaqi, commander of the 54th Division, in the Battle of Xinkou, Tang Huaiyuan, commander of the Third Army, and the commander of the 12th Division, wrote a tragic epic of the martyrdom of the Chinese army and the division commander at the same time!

After the Battle of Zhongtiao Mountain, Mr. Cun Dajin, the old father of Cun Xingqi, learned that his beloved son was martyred, and hated that he was 88 years old and unable to serve the country, so he died of hunger strike, and his eyes were not blind after his death.

Before the Battle of Zhongtiao Mountain, the defenders were extremely slack, allowing Japanese puppet spies to run around in the defense area without arrest; At the beginning of the battle, under the attack of small Japanese troops and heavy assault, the defenders were immediately defeated by the enemy; After falling into the encirclement of the Japanese army, the defenders lacked the stubborn will to fight and blindly broke and fled, resulting in the disrupted structure of the troops and the whole army falling into chaos. Suppose there is an army that can fight hard and hold on tenaciously. With the terrain of Zhongtiao Mountain, it can completely block the Japanese army all the way, and buy time for other troops to contain and rectify and break out of the encirclement. It's a pity that the style of ** is the style of bandits, and when they encounter defeat, they rush to flee, only afraid that they will lose their lives if they flee slowly, and they are afraid that they will suffer losses if they hold their positions to cover other troops. This is simply a shame for the squadron! However, Tang Huaiyuan, Cun Xingqi and others would rather commit suicide than be prisoners, showing national integrity and personal personality, which is a rare shining point in the entire Battle of Zhongtiao Mountain!

Later, under the guidance of the Eighth Route Army, the main force of the defenders of Zhongtiao Mountain broke through after suffering heavy casualties. Among them, under the response of the river defense troops of the Eighth Route Army, the remnants of the 3rd Army and the remnants of the 15th Army crossed the Yellow River in Fenglingdu and moved to Luoyang and Xin'an for rectification; The main force of the 93rd Army crossed the Yellow River from the Yumen Gate and entered the territory of Hancheng, Shaanxi after getting rid of the Japanese army chasing after the tail pursuit; The first part of the 98th Army, led by Wu Shimin, entered the Taiyue Mountains; The 43rd Army moved towards Fushan and Yicheng; After several days of guerrilla warfare in the western section of Daoqing Road and the Jiyuan Mountains, the main force of the 9th Army crossed south from Xiaodu and Guanyang Ferry respectively.

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