Chapter 698: Annihilation

In the battle of Yongheguan Ferry, more than 35,000 people from two divisions and one brigade crossed the Yellow River by Okamura Ningci to the west, and more than 16,000 people from a division and regiment that crossed the Yellow River to the west at Fenglingdu Ferry fell into the encirclement laid by Tang Qiuli.

After receiving the emergency telegram from the Fenglingdu troops, Okamura Ningji was completely enlightened, Tang Qiuli's troops had cut off his retreat, in fact, the troops stranded on the east bank of the Yellow River had become a lone army, facing the water and betraying the enemy, and there was no follow-up support, this was the most dangerous situation, he had no intention of fighting, and he said that he went to rescue the surrounded Akita Division, and the remaining troops, how to bring them back to Taiyuan safely were all problems, and the Luliang Mountains, with their peaks and valleys, were the biggest obstacle to his retreat from Taiyuan.

At this time, Okamura Ningci has not lost confidence, has not lost all his capital, there are more than 100,000 troops around Taiyuan, and he can deal with Tang Qiuli to the end, as well as the southbound troops of the Kwantung Army, thinking of the fiasco on the bank of the Yellow River, he will be trapped in a situation from which he will never recover, and there is a ruthlessness in his heart, there is a greed for merit, looking at the battle situation in Shanxi at that time, there is no mistake in his own deployment, how could he think that Tang Qiuli designed such a big game for himself and used the whole Shanxi as a bait.

After receiving the order of Okamura Ningci, more than 20,000 Japanese troops in the area of Fenglingdu in southern Jin immediately urgently retreated to Taiyuan, but they could not go, Chang Feng led the two main field brigades of Huangyadong and the newly formed six field brigades to form the Taihang Mountain Field Corps, except for the four brigades that went north to the Luliang Mountains to cut off the retreat route of Okamura Ningci, the remaining four brigades of more than 50,000 people, in order to cut off all the channels for the Japanese army to return to Taiyuan, along Yuanqu, Jiangxian, Houma, Quwo, and Tanshan, forming an insurmountable copper wall and iron wall.

When he was just approaching the Luliang Mountains, he ran headlong into the strength of more than 50,000 troops of the four brigades of the Taihang Mountain Field Corps, and the red-eyed Okamura Ningji commanded the troops to storm the interception position of the Taihang Mountain Field Corps, with a mere 7,000 people, and attacked the defense line of more than 50,000 people, which was almost like looking for death.

No matter how brave the Japanese soldiers were, they could not offset the huge gap in numbers and firepower, Okamura Ningji saw that there was no hope of breaking through, and led the army to retreat to the front line of Xinyi, holding on to the reinforcements, and his only reinforcements that could be counted on were more than 10,000 people scattered in the Luliang Mountains to pursue and suppress the small units of the independent division.

The Japanese troops who received the rescue order immediately gave up fighting with the small units of the independent division, took Mafang as the assembly point, and attacked westward regardless of the qiqi, in an attempt to open a gap, pull Okamura Ningji out, and intercept the first part of the Changfeng Taihang Mountain Field Corps that the Japanese army retreated to Taiyuan, and immediately divided the troops into two brigades, intercepted this Japanese army in the Dawu area, and more than 5,000 people from more than 30 companies of the independent division scattered in the Luliang Mountains, and surrounded this Japanese army from behind, forming a situation in the Luliang Mountains where the enemy and our dogs and teeth were intertwined. Separate divisional units had the upper hand.

Tang Qiu is more anxious than Okamura Ningci, once the more than 100,000 Japanese troops in the direction of Taiyuan are pressed over, it is a stalemate, entangled situation, he wants to solve the encircled more than 35,000 Japanese troops, so as to free up his hands to cross the Yellow River to the east, take advantage of the arrival of the Japanese troops around Taiyuan, completely solve the Japanese army under Okamura Ningci, the situation in Jinnan is very good, the four brigades commanded by Chang Feng and the two brigades commanded by Sun Zhenbang, a total of more than 70,000 troops, the more than 20,000 Japanese troops are tightly surrounded in the Wenxi area, and the Japanese army is completely annihilated. It's just a matter of time.

Tang Qiuli commanded the newly formed six brigades and troops to storm the positions defended by the Japanese army from all directions, and at the end of the day, there were casualties among each other, and they were still unable to break through the Japanese positions, and the Japanese troops surrounded by superior forces actually launched many counter-assaults, and the Japanese soldiers who were not afraid of death launched a group charge, although they were beaten all over the field by fierce artillery fire, and also caused a lot of casualties to the troops.

Tang Qiuli deeply felt that the newly formed troops, no matter how brave the fighting spirit of the soldiers were, could not make up for the shortcomings caused by the lack of actual combat experience, if this was the old brigade of the independent division, as long as the strength of three brigades could completely solve these Japanese troops, he secretly rejoiced that the Japanese army had no heavy firepower, no artillery, and the artillery in his hands had two brigades, otherwise, the casualties of the troops would be much greater, and it might not be possible to break through the blocking line.

He originally planned to spend three days to solve this Japanese army, but after three days of fighting, even the Japanese army's outer positions did not break through, the brigade commanders became impatient, and the troops were suffering casualties increased sharply, Tang Qiuli immediately ordered to stop the attack, and he came to the forward position to carefully observe the Japanese defense.

After three days of fighting, more than 35,000 Japanese troops, the remaining troops were less than 20,000, but there was no chaos at all, when the rush was made, the ring fortifications, concealment departments, fire support points, chain bunker groups, communication trenches and other defensive facilities were all set up, and the field fortifications were built at a glance to be experts, Tang Qiuli secretly admired that the Kwantung Army was worthy of being the elite unit of the Japanese army, from officers to soldiers, and was better than the Japanese troops in North China as a whole, not only the will to fight, but also the command ability of the officers, the training of the soldiers, the combat ability of individual soldiers, etc., If they have heavy artillery to provide fire cover and suppression, they will need at least nine brigades of troops to surround and eliminate them.

Okamura Ningji, who was struggling to defend Xinyi, got reinforcements, this is the troops who retreated from the Liulin Ferry, after many days of attrition, it is already less than the strength of a division, anyway, in the cloudy weather, finally saw a ray of sunshine, enough to make Okamura Ningji happy, how can he have more than 16,000 people in his hands, can work.

Okamura Ningji was soberly aware of the danger, the longer he stayed in Xinyi, the greater the possibility of being surrounded, once Tang Qiuli's troops came up, he was difficult to escape even if he had long wings, he commanded the troops to break through in the direction of Taiyuan regardless of casualties, and the Japanese soldiers who were on the verge of desperation, like a red-eyed and wounded wolf, launched a non-stop charge with their lives, and once they were less than ten kilometers away from the Japanese troops who came to the rescue.

It is a pity that Okamura Ningji encountered the Huangyadong Recruit Field Brigade, which was based on the Second Independent Brigade of the Independent Division and had been trained for more than four months, and its combat effectiveness was not the same as that of the field brigade directly upgraded from the Dingbian civilian armed forces, and Okamura Ningji's most frantic offensive was repulsed, and he lost the sharpness of the attack.

In order to solve the encircled Japanese Akita Division and other Japanese troops in the Yanchuan and Jiaokou areas on the west bank of the Yellow River, Tang Qiuli ordered the troops left behind in the rear of the Eighth Route Army to participate in the general attack on the Japanese army, and transferred an artillery brigade and two other heavy artillery regiments from Fenglingdu to form a powerful attack corps.

On 29 May, the general attack began, and more than 2,000 artillery pieces of various calibers bombarded the Japanese positions on the front line of Yanchuan and Jiaokou.

Tang Qiuli's requirements for all artillery units were to cover all directions, without limiting the amount of ammunition, before the shelling, on the road from Dingbian to the front line of Yanchuan, the convoy of the transportation headquarters of the independent division was endless, and the boxes of shells like a hill were piled up everywhere, and the soldiers of the Eighth Route Army who participated in the battle were dumbfounded.

Artillery bombardment leveled a Japanese position, the infantry rushed up to occupy, followed by another fierce artillery fire, a full two days, the remnants of more than 20,000 Japanese soldiers, endured a purgatory-like nightmare, tons of steel, mercilessly smashed the spirit and body of the Japanese soldiers, from Yanchuan to Jiaokou only a dozen kilometers around, by the artillery fire of the independent division repeatedly ploughed back and forth, the terrain and landform completely changed the original appearance.

Two days later, the soldiers of the Independent Division and the Eighth Route Army rushed to the last high ground, and what they saw was the mutilated corpses of the Japanese soldiers scattered all over the place, and all the qiē, including their weapons, were reduced to pieces in this overwhelming steel storm, according to the policy of the Eighth Route Army, a few prisoners were captured, and some Japanese-style equipment was captured, in the eyes of the soldiers of the Eighth Route Army, it was a rare treasure, but all over the position, there was not a single living Japanese soldier, not even seriously injured.

The unwilling soldiers of the Eighth Route Army, in several hidden departments, found the complete bodies of some Japanese officers, including two lieutenant generals and a major general, they are the supreme commanders of this Japanese army, one of them is the commander of the autumn division, the shells did not blow up their bodies, but they were blown up by the shells and buried alive in the hidden parts, which can be regarded as a whole corpse, running all the way from Japan to China, such an ending is also the most dignified way to die for these fanatical invaders.

The battles of Yanchuan and Jiaokou, which lasted five days and ended with the total annihilation of more than 35,000 men of two divisions and regiments of the Japanese army plus one brigade, were declared to be over, and Tang Qiuli suffered more than 5,000 casualties among the six newly formed infantry brigades, and the combat effectiveness of the Kwantung Army once again left a deep impression on him.

With such a large casualty, Tang Qiuli was a little surprised, in addition to the combat effectiveness of the Kwantung Army, he also considered more problems, and there was another person who was deeply shocked by this battle, he was General Xiao Jinguang, the director of the rear guard office of the Eighth Route Army.

(To be continued)