Chapter 699: The troops entered Shanxi

The battle of annihilating the two divisions of the Japanese army crossing the Yellow River and one brigade lasted five days, and finally ended, Tang Qiuli was not satisfied with the results of this battle, mainly because the casualties were too large, and he intended to transfer these six newly formed infantry brigades back to Dingbian for training, but the current shape shì did not allow him to do so, Okamura Ningji was still stubbornly resisting in the Xinyi area, there were not enough troops, and the recovery of Shanxi was just empty talk.

This battle with artillery as the protagonist of the battlefield, to participate in the battle of the Eighth Route Army rear guard director Xiao Jinguang's shock, can be described as huge, from the southern Soviet area to the northwest, and the Central Army has fought countless times, he has never seen such a fierce artillery fire, in his memory, the fifth anti-encirclement and suppression of the Yudu Campaign, the fierce artillery fire of the Central Army, compared with today, is not worth mentioning, this young Vice Chairman Tang, fought a good battle.

He stood on the hillside, looking around at the craters, the corpses of Japanese soldiers, stumps and broken arms can be seen everywhere, the loess turned over the battlefield, and he has a deeper understanding of Tang Qiuli, thousands of artillery pieces, bombarded for two whole days, and the shells were launched like water, as a senior general of the Eighth Route Army, a veteran of the battlefield for a long time, he knew what this qiē meant, Vice Chairman Tang's troops, artillery firepower has surpassed the Japanese army, occupying the initiative on the battlefield, and there must be huge financial resources behind it.

Xiao Jinguang bent down and grabbed a handful of loess, and counted out more than a dozen pieces of shrapnel from it, he was silent, with the current equipment level of the Eighth Route Army, it is estimated that the artillery of a brigade of the Independent Division can defeat the existing troops of the Eighth Route Army, in his heart, Tang Qiuli is still very wary, especially after the independent division fully occupies Shandong, so that the senior generals of the CCP cannot but be afraid, they are all masters of the art of war, and the importance of Shandong's position is self-evident.

Xiao Jinguang is secretly worried that a Chiang Kai-shek has exhausted the CCP to deal with, and if there is a figure like Tang Qiuli, the Eighth Route Army will face a bigger opponent in the future, of course, this is a hidden idea in his heart, and he will not tell anyone, in fact, in the hearts of all leaders and senior generals of the CCP, there will be such hidden thoughts, but they can't be said publicly.

Of course Tang Qiuli didn't know Xiao Jinguang's inner thoughts at this moment, he was very generous to give all the Japanese weapons and equipment that were still complete to the Eighth Route Army, these Japanese-style weapons and equipment, the troops of the independent division really can't use it, Xiao Jinguang was full of joy, paid 100 casualties, and got so many good weapons, it was worth it.

On 30 May, Tang Qiuli issued an order that all formed units should immediately cross the Yellow River eastward, and that the Yellow River River defense should be handed over to the Eighth Route Army's rear garrison and the Dingbian civilian armed forces to be responsible, and that the armies of all walks of life should cross the river one after another and go to Shanxi. The total strength of the army reached more than 260,000 people, and in the face of the 100,000 Japanese troops in Shanxi, they had an absolute advantage, and the only thing that worried him was that the troops that recovered Shanxi this time, except for Sun Zhenbang's corps, were all newly formed troops, and their combat effectiveness and the suzhì of the fighters still needed to be improved.

At this time, more than 20,000 Japanese troops surrounded in the area of Houma and Quwo in southern Jinnan, under the flanking attack of Changfeng Corps and Sun Zhenbang Corps, with more than 100,000 people, faced with the Japanese army that lost all its heavy weapons, the battle was without suspense, two days, more than 20,000 Japanese troops were wiped out, and not a single Japanese soldier escaped the fate of being annihilated.

Subsequently, Tang Qiuli issued another order, the Niangziguan garrison corps Feng Jiwu Division, with the strength of four brigades, out of Niangzi Pass, approaching Taiyuan, has completed the Changzhi Campaign, the three divisions of the Eighth Route Army active in the southeast of Shanxi, immediately went to Licheng, Shexian area, rendezvous with the Shaanxi Provincial Garrison Yuan Jinghao Division, captured Shexian, as a second-line force, blocked the southward troops of the Kwantung Army, and entered the Taihang Mountains from the direction of Handan.

Tang Qiusheng of the Sulu Mobile Corps in the Pingjin area must prevent the Kwantung Army from moving south, leaving Tianjin to join the Shanxi battlefield, and ensure the smooth progress of the Shanxi Campaign.

At this point, Tang Qiuli used the whole of Shanxi as bait, mobilized hundreds of thousands of troops, and weaved a huge encirclement network for Okamura Ningci, which had been completed, and the Japanese army in Shanxi retreated eastward to Pingjin and joined the Japanese army in Cangzhou or Beiping, it was no longer possible, all the retreat routes were cut off, and Okamura Ningci's troops to capture Shanxi had in fact become a lone army.

More than 76,000 troops who crossed the Yellow River from the Wubao ferry port in Shaanxi Province joined the battlefield in the Luliang Mountains, which was tantamount to a catastrophe for Okamura Ningji, who was stuck in the Xinyi area, after a few days of fierce fighting, there were less than 8,000 troops left around him, and more than 10,000 Japanese troops who were desperately rescued were blocked in the Dawu area, unable to advance half a step, and the troops of the independent division were beaten hard in the back, and they were also defeated and cut off from the back road.

The battle of Luliang Mountain was carried out for six days, during which the Japanese army assembled in Taiyuan had reached more than 80,000 troops, and was preparing to enter the Luliang Mountain area westward, receiving and rescuing the remnants of Okamura Ningji who were encircled, and without waiting for the Japanese army to act, an alarm came from the east and south of Taiyuan, and the troops of the independent division, about 100,000 troops, had approached the line of Jinzhong, Taigu, and Qingxu, and the Japanese army in Taiyuan no longer dared to send troops, retracted back to Taiyuan, and was busy deploying defenses around Taiyuan.

It is very clear that if the Japanese army in Taiyuan leaves the fortified city with complete fortifications, in the field, there will only be the fate of being eaten by the troops of the independent division with superior strength, and the Japanese commander in Taiyuan is not stupid, he can't save His Excellency the commander, and then pay for the old book in his hand, then there is really no way to go to heaven and no way to enter the ground.

In his telegram to Okamura Ninji, he wrote: "Your Excellency, with the existing strength of the imperial army in Shanxi, it is simply impossible to rescue Your Excellency who is under heavy siege in China, and now, independent divisions have appeared around Taiyuan, and the defense of Taiyuan is a top priority, and the strength is still insufficient, please do your best to break through the siege, and the headquarters will wait for your Excellency in Taiyuan City to escape from danger, and the imperial army of more than 80,000 soldiers and men look forward to the early return of Your Excellency the Commander." ”

That means that, Commander Okamura Ningji, you ask for more blessings, I really don't have the ability to help you, it's important to keep Taiyuan, Okamura Ningji looked at the telegram speechless, he knew that this was the actual situation, but the problem was that his remnants of less than 20,000 troops were commanded by Tang Qiuli and hundreds of thousands of troops, and they couldn't get through the siege, how to break through?

Okamura Ningji didn't know how to break through, the worst thing was that the strength of less than 20,000 people was divided into two pieces that were not connected to each other, and he also saw that Tang Qiuli was in order to avoid casualties among the troops, and the troops to attack Taiyuan were not in place, so he did not launch a full-scale general attack.

He was surrounded in the Luliang Mountains, surviving for a long time, and Taiyuan was about to be surrounded by Tang Qiuli's heavy troops, he asked himself more than once, why is this happening? There is no answer, why does Tang Qiuli have so many troops? He didn't know the reason, why the elite Kwantung Army went south, and couldn't enter Shanxi for a long time, he couldn't figure it out, all this qiē seemed to be a dream, a nightmare, tormenting Okamura Ningji, who was already physically and mentally emaciated, and described as withered.

On June 3, under the siege of Tang Qiuli's heavy troops, less than 20,000 Japanese troops in the Luliang Mountains were all annihilated, Okamura Ningji waved his troops in a vain attempt to cross the Yellow River westward, and the plan to attack Shaanxi went bankrupt, and 100,000 Japanese troops were wiped out on the banks of the Yellow River. It's not so easy to set up a game for him again.

After rummaging through the entire battlefield, he still didn't find it, interrogating the chief of staff of the North China Dispatch Army, who deliberately stayed behind, and didn't know the whereabouts of this old devil, about Okamura Ningji's disappearance, there are various theories about the independent division's participating troops, suicide or being blown to pieces by shells, and the view that there are no bones has become the mainstream, but Tang Qiuli firmly believes that Okamura Ningji is still alive, and at this time, Okamura Ningci has returned to Taiyuan.

It's just that the dignified commander of the North China Dispatch Army of the Japanese Empire, His Excellency General Okamura Ninji, and his wolf bèi, fled back to Taiyuan, he disguised himself as an old Chinese peasant, and begged all the way back to Taiyuan with his fluent Chinese, with only three guards by his side, the Japanese commander in Taiyuan, and still remembers the unpleasant smell of sweat on his body and his face with vegetables and a withered face.

From 2 April, with 320,000 heavy troops, Okamura Ninji went out of Shexian County to sweep the Taihang Mountains and besiege the Huangyadong base, and until 3 June, the battle that lasted two months and swept through the Pingjin and Taihang Mountains, Shanxi Province, and the east bank of the Yellow River was nearing the end, and the 320,000 elite troops of the Japanese army, the heavy army group on which Okamura Ninji had high hopes, had lost more than three-quarters, and most of them were completely annihilated by the formation except for sporadic attrition.

In the whole territory of Shanxi, in the hands of Okamura Ningci, except for a lonely city of Taiyuan, more than 80,000 remnants, and a few key points around, he had nothing left, and the Japanese troops scattered throughout the land of Sanjin were swept away, and the Shanxi campaign was carried out to the final stage, Tang Qiuli transferred the headquarters to Gujiao, preparing to give Okamura Ningci a fatal final blow.

(To be continued)