During this period, the commander of the Japanese army in Central China, in accordance with the requirements of the base camp, sent away the troops from above who were to be transferred back to China for training, and then was busy receiving the garrison divisions transferred from China. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Although the total strength of the 13th Army under his command has not decreased, the elite division has been replaced by a garrison division with weak combat effectiveness, which has somewhat discouraged him.

You must know that in his 13th Army, the current main divisions are only the 15th Division, the 17th Division, and the 116th Division, while the 22nd Division is only the Public Security Division, and there are two independent mixed brigades.

Now that it is the autumn harvest season in the south, the second battle of Changsha is about to begin, and his troops are not shouldering the heavy responsibility of logistics and transportation, but are still responsible for grain collection.

In the past two years, the rice in the Taihu Lake area was ripe, and with the cooperation of the puppet army, the imperial army's grain requisition operation was very smooth, but with the continuous growth of the Sixth Division and the Independent Division of the New Fourth Army, he was full of worries about this year's grain requisition in the Taihu Lake Valley.

No, the troops stationed in Wuxi reported that the grain collection troops they sent were ambushed by the New Fourth Army, and not only did the troops suffer serious losses, but also became very difficult to collect grain.

Thinking that the Sixth Division of the New Fourth Army had not only become an obstacle to the imperial army's grain requisition, but also threatened the security of Nanjing and Shanghai at any time due to its development and growth, Commander Doze, after some careful consideration, decided to take advantage of the fact that the Battle of Changsha, which the 11 th Army was responsible for, had not yet begun, and concentrated the forces of the two divisions to sweep the New Fourth Army's base area in southern Jiangsu, and strive to regain the main force of the Sixth Division of the New Fourth Army and clear the way for the next grain requisition operation in the area controlled by the Nanjing puppet government.

The movements of the 15th and 17th Divisions of the Devils were quickly learned of by the Sixth Division, but because these two divisions had not yet completed their preparations for the sweep, the Sixth Division did not know where Tasawa wanted to use the Japanese troops of these two divisions.

Even the military headquarters only knew that Nanjing had assembled two divisions of the Japanese army at once, as well as two divisions of the founding army, with a total strength of more than 60,000 people.

Liu Tianshu received a report from the military headquarters and immediately asked Sun Xuexuan to pay close attention to the enemy's movements, and at the same time asked the intelligence officers lurking in Hangzhou to pay attention to whether there were Japanese troops landing from Hangzhou Bay.

The most convenient way for the Japanese army to sweep its base areas was to reach Hangzhou north from Hangzhou Bay by sea, and to go south from Wuhu.

Of course, it is also a good choice to use a steamboat to come from Taihu Lake.

Within two days, intelligence officers who had infiltrated the direction of Wuhu received news that a large number of Japanese troops had been massed in Wuhu and that there were signs of eastward advance. At the same time, Zhenjiang and Changzhou also gathered a large number of Japanese troops.

At this time, Liu Tianshu understood that Doze's target should be the Sixth Division.

With a grim expression, he sent the information he had to the military headquarters and immediately ordered the 21st Brigade to prepare for battle.

Sure enough, three days later, the military headquarters called back, confirming that the Japanese army was preparing to sweep the base area in southern Jiangsu, and asked the independent division to fully cooperate with the sixth division to smash the enemy's sweep.

After receiving the order, Liu Tianshu contacted the commander of the Sixth Division and ordered the main force of Tong Guijie's 21st Brigade to quickly move north and capture the city of Yixing, which was firmly held by the enemy.

Since the enemy wants to make a big move, he naturally has to pull out the obstacles in front of him first.

After receiving the order, Tong Guijie immediately asked the 64th Regiment to monitor the enemy in Huzhou, and the 65th and 66th regiments quickly moved north from Changxing and approached the city of Yixing.

At the same time, in order to increase the strength of the anti-sweep, Liu Tianshu ordered two regiments of the 22nd Brigade to return to Si'an.

The 22nd Brigade developed well in Tianmu Mountain during this period, and the original vacant 69th Regiment had been blocked, and there were no Japanese activities in Tianmu Mountain, according to the opinion of the division headquarters, it was enough to leave a regiment there for activities, and the main force of the 22nd Brigade still had to come out of Tianmu Mountain.

It's just that I didn't expect the devil's action to advance the time for the main force of the 22nd Brigade to come out of Tianmu Mountain.

Tong Guijie rushed to the city of Yixing with his troops and immediately surrounded the enemy in Yixing.

The Japanese strongholds around Yixing were basically uprooted by the New Fourth Army, and there were only two larger strongholds, which were still under the control of the devils because of their strong fortifications.

This time, the main force of the 21st Brigade went north, Tong Guijie let the 65th Regiment besiege Yixing, anyway, there were only two or three thousand devils and puppet troops in Yixing City, and after the 65th Regiment rushed to the city, it just prevented the enemy from going out of the city to reinforce, and did not take the initiative to attack the city, so there should be no problem.

At the same time, the 66th Regiment launched an attack on two larger strongholds controlled by the Japanese army outside the city of Yixing.

The Japanese commander stationed in Yixing City did not expect the New Fourth Army to suddenly attack the city, so he had to report to the higher authorities while ordering the troops to defend it strictly.

As for the reinforcements out of the city, the Japanese commander did not think about it, but considering that the troops defending the city were already empty, in the end he could only order the Japanese troops in these two strongholds to hold on to the phone and wait for reinforcements.

Seeing that the enemy in the city showed no signs of going out of the city to reinforce, Tong Guijie had no choice but to order the 66th Regiment to attack the two strongholds.

During this period, the 21st Brigade did not have major combat missions, and all the time was spent on training.

In particular, after Hao Mengxuan, Shi Qiang, and others from Shandong brought the tactics of the Eighth Route Army using mortars to shoot at the artillery towers, the independent division did not even use infantry artillery in the small offensive battles.

As several mortars of the 66th Regiment Mortar Company continued to fire, the turret on which the Japanese puppet army relied was hit by shells in the blink of an eye, and in the rising gunsmoke, the turret continued to collapse, and finally collapsed directly in the panic of the Japanese puppet army guarding the turret.

The turret was destroyed, and the soldiers of the 66th Regiment quickly rushed into the town, engaged in a fierce battle with the surviving devils in the stronghold, and in less than two hours, successfully uprooted the two Japanese strongholds outside the city.

However, this time, the Japanese planes arrived quickly, and as soon as the 66th Regiment attacked the stronghold, its planes rushed to the battlefield, and the soldiers had no time to hide, and were bombed and strafed by the devil's planes, with more than 300 casualties.

Liu Tianshu received Tong Guijie's report, and in the heartache, he scolded Tong Guijie fiercely, and then asked him to formulate a detailed siege plan when attacking Yixing, and strive to reduce the casualties of the troops.

After Tong Guijie was criticized by Liu Tianshu, he called the cadres of the 65th Regiment with a black face, and after conveying the instructions of the division commander, he asked the regiment to formulate a feasible siege plan.

For the attack on Yixing City, the independent division can be said to have made preparations early, and several combat groups were lurking in the city in advance, and at the same time, the enemy's troop deployment in the city was also touched.

After Tong Guijie read the battle plan sent by the 65 th Regiment, he immediately summoned the cadres at and above the regimental level in the brigade for a meeting.

At the meeting, Tong Guijie asked Kang Shuidong, chief of staff and deputy brigade commander, to introduce the 65 th Regiment's combat plan and the information sent by the intelligence department, and then let everyone express their opinions.

After a discussion among the cadres, it was decided to start the siege at three o'clock in the evening, with the 66th Regiment responsible for launching the attack from the east and the north, and the 65th Regiment responsible for the west and south. The divisional infantry artillery battalion fully cooperated.

At 3 o'clock in the evening, the 66th Regiment took the lead in firing, and the infantry artillery units that cooperated with the operation opened heavy fire on the enemy's positions outside Yixing, and the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 66th Regiment immediately launched an attack on the enemy in front of them when the artillery stopped bombardment.

Before the enemy outside the city could recover from the bombardment of the shells, he saw the sound of earth-shattering shouts of killing in the darkness.

The surviving enemy saw the New Fourth Army coming, and desperately fired flares into the sky, illuminating the front of the position as if it were daylight. Unfortunately, at this time, the mortars of the New Fourth Army began to strike at the enemy's defensive positions again, and the attacking fighters continued to leap forward with the shells.

By the time the mortars had plowed the Japanese positions outside the city, the attacking New Fourth Army had already reached the front of the position.

The Japanese troops guarding outside the north gate and the east gate were beaten and retreated in a blink of an eye, and the puppet army that cooperated with the operation, when they saw the Japanese retreat, ran quickly in the direction of the city gate regardless of the casualties of their comrades.

Five minutes after the East and North Gates were fired, the 65th Regiment also attacked. All of a sudden, the shouts of killing outside Yixing City shook the sky.

At the command post inside the city, the Japanese commander received a report from the troops guarding outside the city that the artillery fire of the New Fourth Army was very fierce, the troops suffered heavy casualties, and the positions outside the city were lost one after another.

As soon as he heard this, his face couldn't help but change suddenly, Yixing City is different from other cities, its walls are not high, if all the positions outside the city are lost, the New Fourth Army will soon enter the city.

In a hurry, he hurriedly sent his reserves out of the city to prepare for the battle with the New Fourth Army besieging the city.

As long as they hold out until the next morning, reinforcements from Suzhou and Wuxi will arrive.

He had received a telegram from the division commander that the Imperial Japanese Army stationed in Suzhou and Wuxi had boarded the ship and would rush to the city of Yixing before dawn.

When the battle of the 21st Brigade attacking Yixing began, Liu Tianshu was in the command room of the division headquarters to pay attention to the movements of all parties. The city of Yixing, which was a key point for the Japanese army to control the Taihu Lake basin, is now under attack by separate divisions, and the enemy will not be left without action.

The most convenient way for the enemy to reinforce Yixing was to take a boat through Taihu Lake.

Therefore, he asked Sun Xuexuan's men to closely monitor the enemy's movements in the direction of Suzhou and Wuxi, and at the same time let the Taihu guerrillas monitor the surface of Taihu Lake.

Sure enough, Suzhou and Wuxi gathered a lot of steamboats at once, and the situation was sent to him.

After judging that the Japanese army was very likely to rush to Yixing by boat, Liu Tianshu immediately ordered Xie Pingcai's 22nd Brigade to immediately rush to the Taihu Lake east of Yixing to build a position to block the Japanese landing, and his 69th Regiment immediately rushed to the Taihu Lake north of Changxing to make preparations to prevent the Japanese army from landing and attacking Changxing.

Although his 21st Brigade is attacking Yixing, the devil came from Taihu Lake, and who knows whether its target is Yixing or Changxing.

Changxing is the base of the independent division, and Liu Tianshu naturally wants to ensure that he will not be attacked by the enemy. (To be continued.) )