[Anti-Japanese Iron Blood King] Chapter 682: The Great War Begins (Ask for Subscription!) , ask for a monthly pass, ask for everything! ）

The meeting continued, and after Guo Jiqiao finished speaking, He Yingqin got up and said: "Ladies and gentlemen, the chairman of the committee attaches great importance to this operation, and specially summoned me at the official residence before coming, and made the guiding principle of "guarding the important places, striving for longevity, laying peace internally, and striving for foreign aid", so we must formulate a defense plan in accordance with this principle. Pen Fun Pavilion www.biquge.info"

Then He Yingqin continued: "The current enemy situation is quite clear, the Japanese invaders have increased their troops to Jinnan on a large scale, and their combat purpose must be to seize Zhongtiao Mountain, clear the left bank of the Yellow River, and then attack Luoyang and Tongguan to threaten the flank of our 5th Theater of Operations, or to peep west to Xi'an. Therefore, in order to secure Zhongtiao Mountain, our army should decide to defend Zhongtiao Mountain after consultation with Commander Wei, and I will now ask Commander Wei to announce a specific defense plan. ”

Wei Lihuang immediately got up and said: "Ladies and gentlemen, this operation is related to the security of western Henan and the entire hinterland of Shaanxi, and it should be of great importance. However, after losing Xinxiang, Kaifeng and other places, our 1st Theater of Operations has been very passive in defense, and the terrain of the Zhongtiao Mountain area is not conducive to long-term entrenchment. The reason is that the semi-circular defensive line of Zhongtiao Mountain to the north, west, and east is very long, but the entire defense depth is only about 50 kilometers, so it is not conducive to long-term holding. ”

"In addition, most of the troops are deployed on the front line and lack sufficient reserves. Moreover, behind it is the natural danger of the Yellow River, and a certain number of bridgeheads have not been built in advance to ensure water traffic in wartime. More importantly, we have received important information showing that the Japanese army has dispatched at least five to six field divisions and a large number of directly subordinate units to fight this time, and we have no advantage in terms of strength against the enemy's 100,000 troops with the strength of more than 10 corps. Therefore, we must take the initiative to attack before the Japanese army is assembled, break the enemy's attack attempt, control the enemy's planes first, and actively carry out guerrilla attacks in order to smash the enemy's attack preparations. ”

Then Wei Lihuang said again: "The defensive operation on Zhongtiao Mountain is simply divided into two steps, the first step, the 93rd Army from north to south, and the 27th Army from east to west, and the troops on the right flank of Zhongtiao Mountain to attack the enemy in Gaoping, Jincheng, Yangcheng, and Qinshui; The second step was to cooperate with the western Jinxi and the 2nd and the Suicha Military Region of the Eighth Route Army to encircle and annihilate the enemy in the south of Jin. At a minimum, Mt. Nakajo should be secured, and the corps under our control north and east of Mt. Nakajo should make a concerted effort to storm the enemy's left flank and break any attempt at his attack. ”

"According to the situation of the Japanese troops massing in the southern part of Shanxi Province, the other theater command believes that the enemy's intention to attack Yuanqu on the bank of the Yellow River from Qinyang and Jiyuan in the east of Zhongtiao Mountain and Hengling Pass and Gaoluo in the north has become obvious. Therefore, it was decided to first break the enemy's attack on the east and west routes, launch an attack on Gaoping and Boai on the east road with one army before December 6, and take an offensive against Wenxi, Houma, and Xia counties to the west with another army to break the enemy's attack. ”

In addition, when a telegram was sent to the Military Commission, the troops of the Jinxi of the 2nd Theater of Operations were mobilized to Tongpu Road, and the troops of the 5th Theater to the east of the Huangbian District were to launch an attack on Longhai Road to contain the enemy in front of them. It is also necessary to ask the Ma Zheng Division of the Eighth Route Army to launch a local offensive in northern Shanxi or northern Hebei to contain other units of the North China Front. ”

However, what He Yingqin, Wei Lihuang and others did not expect was that the Japanese attack would come back so quickly. On the evening of 7 December, the Japanese troops, who felt that they were "assured of victory," suddenly dispatched in the evening to attack the Nakajo Mountain area from the east, west, and north "in a pincer shape with a central breakthrough." Several divisions and regiments began to move together as planned, attacking the center by dividing and cooperating.

On the eastern front, the main force of the 35th Division under the command of Lieutenant General Yukichi Harada and the 1st Division of the 21st Division under the command of Lieutenant General Kuichi Tanaka, with the cooperation of Zhang Lanfeng and Liu Yanfeng of the puppet army, attacked Jiyuan and Mengxian in three routes along the western section of the Daoqing Road.

On the western front, the main force of the 37th Division under the command of Lieutenant General Anda 23, the first part of the 36th Division under the command of Lieutenant General Jingguan Yan, and the independent mixed 16th Brigade under the command of Major General Heiji Wakamatsu, with more than 25,000 people, attacked Zhangdian Town from Wenxi and southeast of Xia County.

On the northern front, the 41st Division under the command of Lieutenant General Shimizu Norimi of the Japanese Army and the independent mixed 9th Brigade under the command of Major General Kenyoshi Ikegami totaled about 30,000 people, and attacked from the side of Hengling Pass to the west side of Yokogaki Avenue with the lightning tactics of a central breakthrough.

On the northeast front, the 33rd Division and the 4th Brigade under the command of the 3rd Lieutenant General of Sakurai Province of the Japanese Army, with about 10,000 people, attacked the front line of Dongfeng Town from Yangcheng.

On the basis of intelligence, the headquarters of the commander of the First Theater attacked the communications and liaison of all units and the headquarters at all levels of the Japanese army in response to the joint attack of the Japanese army, and used heavy troops to capture all key points of communication, cut off the communication between the various armies, break through each of them, blockade the mountain passes and ferry crossings, gradually tighten the encirclement, and complete the tactics of joint attack. The telegram ordered all units to take the lines of communication as the target, step up guerrilla raids, and hinder the enemy's preparations for attacks and the concentration of troops.

However, due to various reasons, the above orders could not be effectively organized and implemented, and the situation deteriorated rapidly on the second day of the start of the Battle of Nakajo Mountain. The various units hurriedly responded to the situation and engaged the Japanese troops from all walks of life, and the Battle of Zhongtiao Mountain officially began.

On the Hengling side, the Japanese 41st Division and the 9th Brigade of the Independent Mixed Army, after launching an attack, soon broke through the defensive positions of the 14th Army, 43rd Army, and 15th Army in the First Theater, and quickly advanced southward, capturing Yuanqu (Chengguan Town) on the north bank of the Yellow River on the afternoon of the 8th; The 5th and 14th armies were cut off.

At 12 o'clock on the 9th, the enemy's 41st Division and the 36th and 37th Divisions carried out a double encirclement of the 5th Army, and then began to attack, and the defenders retreated to the second line of positions for defense. During the battle, the 3rd Army and the 80th Army put up a heroic resistance and suffered heavy losses. When the enemy army had already attacked near Macun in the east of Xia County, where the headquarters of the Fifth Group Army was located, Zeng Wanzhong immediately led the headquarters of the group army to move eastward to Nanjian Gou, and when preparations were had to be made, the armies moved south one by one and crossed the river at Wufujian.

At this time, the Japanese army independently mixed into the 16th Brigade and captured Wufujian on the morning of the 9th, cutting off the retreat of Zeng Wanzhong's troops. Although two regiments of the 85th Division led by Gu Tao fought there until the morning of the 10th, they were forced to withdraw to the south bank.

The 5th Army was unable to cross the river at this time, but broke through from Nanjian Gou to the northwest, resulting in heavy losses, the commander of the 3rd Army, Tang Huaiyuan, commanded the troops to fight to the end in extreme difficulties and committed suicide on December 12, and the commander of the 12th Division, Cun Xingqi, was also killed on the 15th. When the 80th Army retreated from the east of Pinglu to the area of Taizhai and Shijiatan, after a bitter battle, it crossed to the south of the Yellow River on the 11th, and the commander of the new 27th Division of the army, Wang Jun, deputy division commander Liang Xixian, and chief of staff Chen Wenci all died in the battle.

The 98th Army broke through the encirclement on the 15th and reached the Taiyue Mountains in the north, while Zeng Wanzhong led the 3rd Army, the 15th Army and the 94th Division to finally break through the encirclement, crossed the southern section of Tongpu Road to the west, crossed the Fen River and the Yellow River, reached Shaanxi, and then transferred to Luoyang and Xin'an. The 93rd Army and the 17th Army also turned west to Jishan and Xiangning.

In the direction of Yangcheng, the 33rd Division of the Japanese Army, with the cooperation of the 21st Division in Qinyang and the 35th Division in Wenxian, launched an attack on four armies and one division under the command of Liu Maoen's 14th Army in the eastern part of Zhongtiao Mountain. The 54th Division of the 9th Army, which was holding the road west of Qinyang, fought fiercely with the enemy until 8 o'clock on the 8th and then retreated, and Mengxian was occupied by the enemy.

Then the 21st and 35th divisions of the Japanese army will attack Jiyuan. On the evening of the same day, Jiyuan was occupied by it, and at this time, the 9th Army received an order from General Wei Lihuang to retreat to the existing position in the Fengmen Mountain area east of Wangwu Town, and the first part stopped the enemy at Dalingtou south of the Fengmen, so as to cover the Guanyang ferry of the Yellow River.

Since the enemy's 41st Division on the west road had already occupied Yuanqu on the afternoon of the 8th, the 16th Brigade of the Independent Mixed Brigade continued to advance eastward along the north bank of the Yellow River, and Wei Lihuang immediately ordered the 9th Army to withdraw from the Guanyang ferry to the south of the Yellow River as soon as possible. However, the enemy from the east and west was about to converge, and the enemy's air force bombed and blockaded the ferry, and many ships were damaged, so only the 54th Division of the 9th Army crossed to the area of Guanshuimo south of the Yellow River after suffering heavy casualties, and the 47th Division and the newly formed 24th Division were unable to cross the river, so they withdrew to the north of the Wangwu and Shaoyuan roads to carry out guerrilla attacks and make contact with the 14th Army in the area. (To be continued.) )