Chapter 290: The Unexpected Ending of the Battle of Wuhan (Asking for Subscriptions, Monthly Passes, and Various!! ）

The loss of the stone gate completely made Umezu Mijiro mess up the rules, this war is fought against people, and it is more money, food and ammunition. Although the Japanese army still has some ammunition stocks in Taiyuan City, if they want to support 60,000 or 70,000 troops to fight for a long time, the difference is not half a star. It's okay to say for a short time, but if it's a long time, then the problem will be a big problem.

This is different from small troops, which can still be solved by airdrop, but the ammunition needed by tens of thousands of troops is not something that a few or dozens of fighters can solve. Moreover, the current situation is different from the past, in the past, the Chinese army lacked air combat power, and the Japanese army controlled China's air supremacy with dozens or hundreds of fighters. The Japanese army, which had mastered air supremacy, could drop sufficient ammunition on any trapped army anytime and anywhere, and it seemed that it was far away from the Japanese army when they ran out of ammunition and food.

But now it is different, although the air power of the Chinese army is still not comparable to that of the Japanese army, but in terms of the number of fighters, it is not much less than the Japanese army, and what is lacking is the combat experience of the pilots. Although the air strength of the Eighth Theater has been reduced by a small one-third in these major air battles, its combat effectiveness has increased extremely rapidly, and some new combat methods have caused the Japanese army to suffer greatly.

Chen Feng had already judged that the Japanese army was likely to airdrop supplies to the Japanese army in Shanxi, so all the fighters at the Guisui airfield were transferred to Datong airfield, and they also buried eyeliner next to the Japanese airfield. As soon as they saw the Japanese planes taking off, they immediately reported to the direction of Datong by radio, and then sent fighters to intercept them.

The effect was very good, in just one day, the Japanese air regiment was shot down more than 70 transport planes and 17 fighters, while the Northern Air Force lost less than 20 fighters, and the vast majority of the pilots returned safely, with brilliant results.

On the morning of December 12, the Japanese Army's 3rd Brigade arrived at the periphery of Shimen, and then quickly launched an attack on the defenders of Shimen. The battle was fierce. On the afternoon of the 13th, the 32nd Division finally arrived at Yuanshi. Its striker, a special task force, has already pointed directly at Luancheng, and the big war is about to break out.

Although the Shimen defenders were under a lot of pressure, Yang Yi was not worried, and now they were defending the city. The Japanese army was in a disadvantageous situation of feint. What's more. Because the Japanese army was in such a hurry, they didn't carry much heavy firepower, like some siege artillery or anything like that. Engineering is just a joke.

Besides, although the task given to them by the general seat is to defend the city, but they are not allowed to defend it to the death, at most a week, if the devils in Shanxi have not been eliminated after a week, and the Japanese army is still frantically attacking Shimen at that time, then Yang Yi can retreat and transfer with his troops.

Despite this, Yang Yi was still completely prepared, the Japanese army sent to attack Shimen this time were the elite of the North China Front, the strength of a division and a brigade was not much less than the defenders of Shimen, and there was also a first-class division on the way, if you were not careful, you might really suffer a big loss.

When the Battle of Shimen broke out, the two troops of the Eighth Theater advanced very smoothly, and the iron triangle planned by General Umezu Mijiro basically did not play much role and was torn apart by the two troops of Li Wensheng and Li Yifeng, and the Japanese Fourth Division finally could not hold on, abandoned its position and fled in a hurry. Although such a result was not what Sawada Shigeru wanted to see, he knew better than anyone what the Fourth Division was originally, and this rare outbreak of blood was quickly extinguished by the Chinese army with aircraft artillery and a steely will to fight.

At this point, Sawada Shigeru has nothing to say, after all, he has tried his best, and it is no wonder that those guys are a bunch of mud that can't support the wall and can't get on the table.

In the battle south of Taiyuan, the Japanese army was also retreating, and the two-way army of Yang Aiyuan and Wei Lihuang advanced smoothly, and at this rate, the Chinese army would be outside Taiyuan in three days at most. Especially Sun Weiru's Fourth Army, because of the strong reinforcement of Fu Zuoyi's 35th Army, the army has reached outside Gujiao City and is fighting fiercely with the 108th Division.

The sudden erosion on the battlefield in Shanxi directly affected the war situation in Central China. The Ninth War Zone, which was already at the end of the crossbow, burst out with huge combat effectiveness after receiving the war report from the Second War Zone. The Japanese Sixth Division, which originally occupied Huangmei, the gateway to Guangji, was recaptured under the counterattack of the troops commanded by Bai Chongxi, the acting commander of the Fifth Theater, after occupying Huangmei for less than four days. Although the Japanese army held on to the ground in that battle, they also used a large amount of poison gas, which caused extremely heavy losses to the attacking Chinese army. However, with a strong will to fight and the assistance of a large number of combat aircraft, Huangmei finally returned to the hands of the Chinese, and the Japanese Sixth Division suffered heavy losses.

At the same time, Li Pinxian's corps recovered Taihu Lake and Qianshan, cutting off the land supply line and land retreat of the Japanese 6th Division, leaving Inaba in a difficult situation. Bai Chongxi seized the opportunity and commanded the 28th Army, the 84th Army and other troops facing each other head-on, to take advantage of the opportunity to storm and attack with the intention of completely annihilating the 6th Division, which had committed numerous crimes in the Nanjing Massacre.

Although Bai Chongxi's layout was clever, he still underestimated the combat effectiveness of the Japanese army. The 6th Division held on to the danger and at the same time released a large amount of poison gas to survive the difficulties. Despite this, although the Sixth Division was not completely annihilated, it suffered extremely heavy casualties and basically lost its combat effectiveness, especially the two combat brigades under its command were almost wiped out.

The defenders of Tianjiazhen Fortress, which had already been crumbling under the onslaught of the Japanese army, heard the news that the Chinese army in Shanxi had strategically completed the encirclement of the Japanese First Army, and their confidence was greatly increased, and the crumbling direction was once again stabilized a lot. At the same time, Li Yannian, commander of the 11th Army Corps, ordered Qin Lianfang's 84th Army, Zhang Yichun's 48th Army, and Liu Ruming's 68th Army on the periphery of Tianjiazhen Fortress to immediately reinforce Tianjiazhen Fortress. After three days and three nights of attack, the Hatada detachment and the Imamura detachment were finally forced to retreat, and the danger of the fortress of Tianjiazhen was temporarily resolved.

In the battle on the south bank of the Yangtze River, the Chinese army also won quite a lot. At the same time as the westward advance of the Japanese army to attack Ruichang, the 106th Division attacked south along the Nanxun Railway from Jiujiang. The defenders of the 1st Corps, the 29th Corps Li Hansoul and Ou Zhen's 4th Army, Li Yutang's 8th Army and other units relied on the favorable terrain on both sides of Lushan Mountain and the northern section of the Nanxun Railway to carry out stubborn resistance, after the Japanese attack was frustrated, they had to turn to attack the Jinguanqiao position of Li Jue of the 70th Army, who knew that the 70th Army relied on the natural danger on Lushan to resist stubbornly, and Songpu's attack was thwarted again.

The commander of the 11th Japanese Army, Okamura Ninji, had to order the Japanese 101st Division to cross Poyang Lake from Hukou to reinforce, break through the 25th Army's Wang Jingjiu defense line, and attempt to capture Xingzi, and cooperate with the 106th Division to attempt to capture De'an and capture Nanchang, so as to ensure the safety of the southern side of the Japanese army advancing westward. However, Xue Yue, commander-in-chief of the 1st Corps, with Ye Zhao's 66th Army, Yu Jishi's 74th Army, the 4th, and Chen Baoan's 29th Army, cooperated with the 25th Army in the pass and Mahuiling areas north of De'an, and the two sides were in a stalemate.

During the battle, the troops of the 9th Theater wounded the commander of the Japanese 101st Division, Lieutenant General Masaki Ito, which interrupted the Japanese offensive for a time. Seeing that the progress of Nanxun Road was so slow, Okamura was so anxious. Through aerial reconnaissance, he found that after a month of fierce fighting, the defensive gap between Nanxun Road and Ruiwu Road was getting bigger and bigger, and at this time, a strange soldier was sent through this gap and suddenly appeared behind the defenders, so the 200,000 Chinese defenders in front of Nanxun Road could be surrounded by three divisions of the Japanese army.

Okamura personally planned everything for Matsuura, and he divided the 106th Division into five divisions so that it could stealthily penetrate the gaps in the national defense line and support each other in the event of an attack. The 106th Division officially began its operation, entering the Wanjialing area west of De'an, but was lost due to a map error. Xue Yue discovered that he commanded the 4th, 66th, and 74th armies to detour from the flank and surround them. The Japanese 27th Division was reinforced and repulsed by the 32nd Army and other units in the Baishui Street area west of Wanjialing. The Chinese army launched a general offensive, fought fiercely for three days and nights, and repeatedly defeated the Japanese counterattack. Due to the isolation of the Japanese army, the supply was cut off, and the battle lasted until the 10th, and the Japanese 106th Division was annihilated by more than 6,000 people, plus the losses of several other troops, the Japanese army lost nearly 10,000 soldiers in Wanjialing, which was equivalent to about 7 percent of the strength of the 106th Division.

After suffering two annihilating blows in a row, he had lost his offensive capability, that is, he was assigned a garrison mission in the northern section of Nanxun Road to rest and replenish, and the original mission of attacking Nanchang with the 101st Division had to be cancelled.

After the bloody battle of nearly one million troops on the Wuhan front, the strong attack of the Japanese Central China Front was finally contained, and so far, the Japanese army on the south bank of the Yangtze River was blocked by the Chinese army in the northern section of the Nanxun Road. The Japanese troops north of the Yangtze River were blocked on the periphery of the Tianjiazhen fortress. The Japanese army fighting in Dabie Mountain was blocked by Song Xilian's troops in Dabie Mountain, and could not fight through Dabie Mountain at all, although the Japanese army carefully arranged the Battle of Wuhan also achieved good results, but it was never able to occupy Wuhan. The army suffered heavy losses and urgently needed to be replenished, so Yan Junliu, the commander of the Central China Front, reluctantly issued an order to suspend the attack, and waited for reinforcements to arrive before fighting, and the first battle of Wuhan finally came to an end.

The end of the Battle of Wuhan was hung in suspense, which greatly relieved the people up and down the Wuhan camp, and tens of thousands of citizens of Wuhan spontaneously took to the streets to celebrate the victory of the Nationalist Government and defend Wuhan.

Although Wuhan was saved, He Yingqin and others were still frightened into a cold sweat by this war, and they asked Lao Jiang to move to Chongqing. At the same time, the factories and enterprises in Wuhan were ordered to move to the southwest immediately, and anyone could see that the Japanese army had only temporarily stopped the offensive, and had not completely abandoned Wuhan. When the Japanese army once again accumulated strength and attacked Wuhan, it would be another battle between the dragon and the tiger, and neither He Yingqin nor Chen Cheng was sure of victory. (To be continued......)