Chapter 422: Battle of Tianjin

At the beginning of 1936, when the predecessor of the Independent Division, the Bloody Hand Regiment, moved south to enter the customs, swept through the western Liaoning corridor and captured Jinzhou in one fell swoop, which was the last battle before entering the customs, and thus also curbed the Kwantung Army's pursuit of thousands of miles.

After a year and a half, Tang Qiuli led far more troops and strength than at that time to reoccupy Jinzhou, is it another reincarnation of history? Jinzhou City is still the same, but after Tang Qiuli's "three lights" policy that year, it is far from recovering the vitality of the year.

There are not a few Japanese expatriates, but their net worth is much thinner than back then, and the citizens know that it is the bloody hand group that has returned, and they have poured into the streets, a wall of Tang Qiuli's demeanor.

Knowing that the troops of the Northern Front had occupied Jinzhou, Zhou Yishan, commander of the transportation headquarters of the Independent Division, was very excited, and this was another good place similar to Tianjin, so he hurriedly sent his transport troops over, and after entering the city, he adopted the same method as in Tianjin, dismantling and loading the vehicles, and was very busy.

The Japanese expatriates in the city, shouting bad luck, last year had been copied by this hateful Chinese, and today they came again, just stripped a little bit of their family from the Chinese, and had a little vitality, this is good, and it was prepared for him, fortunately, knowing the rules, how not to lose Xiǎo life, absolute cooperation, to let Zhou Yù Mountain's troops, save a lot of effort.

The original Japanese garrison headquarters has now become Tang Qiuli's headquarters, and the troops have moved forward the warning direction to the Qilihe, Jincheng, and Linghai lines to pay attention to the movements of the Japanese army.

According to their ideas, taking advantage of the aftermath of victory, the troops continued to fight, went straight to Shenyang, connected Fengtian and Guannai, and killed the entire Kwantung Army in the northeast.

The Itagaki Division, which is known as the most capable unit of the Kwantung Army, is nothing more than that, more than 50,000 people, not all of them have been wiped out, and we have beaten them to Jinzhou, and there is no reaction, besides, we are not the strength of the original bloody hand regiment.

Tang Qiuli was not as optimistic as them, and the total annihilation of the Itagaki Division was because he grasped Itagaki arrogance and arrogance, and stabbed him in the soft underbelly, so that he had such a record, and the follow-up battle was also a surprise.

There are nearly one million Kwantung Army in the northeast, which is known as the huā of the Japanese Army, and that is the Japanese Army's sharp troops, if it were not for the covetousness of the Russians' Far East Siberia, the vast land and rich resources, the Kwantung Army would all be pressed on the battlefield in North China, and the independent division would have faced great pressure and could only take a defensive position.

If he had a million troops in his hands, he could compete with the Kwantung Army in the northeast, but now his strength does not allow it, and the occupation of Jinzhou is only a temporary success, and the Kwantung Army will counterattack sooner or later.

Shenyang, the headquarters of the Kwantung Army, the Itagaki Division was completely annihilated, and the murderous letter that Lieutenant General Itagaki Seishiro was killed in battle was finally confirmed, and Commander Nanjiro couldn't believe that the Itagaki Division, which was known as invincible and invincible, had more than 56,000 men and horses, and the effort disappeared in two days, and he also carried more than 70,000 troops from two divisions and regiments, which were beaten to pieces, collapsed, suffered heavy losses, and lost Jinzhou, the bridgehead inside and outside the Guan.

That bloody hand Qiuli, who grew up in Manchuria back then, worked hard for more than a year, and his strength swelled amazingly, looking at his current situation, there is an attempt to occupy Jinzhou for a long time, which Nanjiro absolutely cannot tolerate.

The entire Kwantung Army was gloomy and uneasy because of the collapse of the Itagaki Division and the defeat of the second echelon of the southbound corps.

Nanjiro was even more worried, for the sake of the collective fragmentation of the Itagaki Division, he was severely questioned by the base camp and the staff headquarters, claiming that he was asked to give a reasonable explanation, he tried his best to settle the matter, Jinzhou is still in Tang Qiuli's hands, he definitely can't afford to lose it.

Nanjiro convened a meeting of all the senior generals to discuss ways to deal with the situation in western Liaoning, and the large military map of Manchuria on the wall, representing the black arrows of the independent division, was shockingly displayed in front of the senior generals of the Japanese army, and the direction pointed by the arrows was the hinterland of Manchuria, the area around Shenyang City.

The senior generals of the Japanese army who attended the meeting unanimously agreed that at present, it is absolutely intolerable for a squadron to exist in Manchuria, which is tantamount to a great shame for the Kwantung Army, which is known as the huā of the Great Japanese Army, and the position occupied by the independent division is too important.

Jinzhou guards the only important passage inside and outside the pass, and the independent division occupies this place, which is to cut off the connection between Manchuria and North China, and its advance can threaten the hinterland of Manchuria, attack the city of Shenyang, and retreat into North China, advance and retreat freely, while the Kwantung Army troops can only use most of their forces to prevent the attack launched by the independent division at any time, and what jīng forces to fight against the Russians, which is also not in the strategic interests of the empire.

The final conclusion is that Jinzhou must be recaptured, and the independent division will either be annihilated, and the worst result will be to drive them out of Manchuria and restore normal order in Manchuria.

On the second day of the military meeting, the Supreme Headquarters of the Kwantung Army issued an operational order to the troops in the entire northeast to annihilate the Chinese army under the city of Jinzhou at any cost.

The four divisions of the vanguard of the Japanese army have reached the first line of Shishan and Xie Tun in the Panjin area, and the independent 5th brigade of our alert troops, a jiāo fire broke out, and the Japanese army carried out several large-scale tentative attacks, according to the order of the division headquarters, the independent 5th brigade has crossed the Ling River and retreated to the Linghai line, and the Japanese army stayed on the east bank of the Ling River and did not pursue.

Tang Qiuli weighed the situation, Nanjiro made a bloody capital this time, using about half of the strength of the Kwantung Army, Jinzhou was in his own hands, he was like a fish in his throat, it was difficult to sleep and eat, the troops were staying in the Jinzhou area, it was useless, and he couldn't fight the old book and the superior Kwantung Army.

At 9 a.m. on 30 July, he issued an order for the whole army to withdraw to the Guannei through Shanhaiguan, and the 4th and 5th Special Operations Detachments continued to stay in the Jinzhou area to closely monitor the movements of the Kwantung Army.

When he was about to retreat, he did not cheapen the vanguard of the Kwantung Army, three artillery brigades, on the west bank of the Ling River, suddenly shelled the vanguard of the Kwantung Army of four divisions, and the shelling lasted for a whole month, and then suddenly stopped, and when the large army of the Kwantung Army crossed the Ling River, the artillery of the independent division had long since disappeared, and they did not know the effect of this sudden shelling, and the Japanese army was also secretive, only knowing that the Japanese army, which was supposed to be stationed in Jinzhou on the afternoon of the 30th, did not enter Jinzhou City until the morning of the 31st.

When all the troops on the northern front of the independent division were retreating, the anti-landing battle at the port of Tianjin was in full swing, and Liu Tiehan commanded several troops temporarily allocated to him to command, more than 100,000 people, who were facing the frantic attack of 350,000 Japanese troops from the sea with warships and huge artillery, and he had already won three days for Tang Qiuli to completely annihilate the Itagaki division in the Shanhaiguan area of the northern front.

After three days of almost uninterrupted shelling, the port was almost in ruins, and the 280-millimeter guns from the Japanese warships ploughed every inch of the wharf.

Of course, the casualties paid were also huge, and in the three-day anti-landing battle, the defenders of Tianjin had suffered more than 8,000 casualties, almost all of whom were wounded by the heavy artillery on the Japanese warships, and fortunately, there were many basements on the wharf where goods were stored, and the casualties of the troops were reduced to a minimum.

The Japanese army landed from the two directions of Beitang and Dongdagu, and after the bombardment of the warships, a large number of landing craft swarmed to the wharf, and on several occasions, the Japanese army had already gone ashore, but Liu Tiehan personally led the troops to counterattack, and the port of Tianjin was burning, and Liu Tiehan was facing unprecedented pressure.

This group of Japanese reinforcements from the Japanese mainland in North China, with a fierce spirit of a new force, perhaps received a death order, regardless of casualties, fierce to the extreme, against the intensive firepower of the troops, desperately rushed upward, after each counterattack, the beach was covered with the corpses of the Japanese army and independent division soldiers, and the sea water was stained red.

Thanks to the foresight of Zheng Yong, commander of the 1st Artillery Brigade, the 18 large-caliber fortress coastal defense artillery played an important role in this anti-landing campaign.

The first attack ended hastily, and then, the Japanese army transferred four large-tonnage warships to deal with Zheng Yong's coastal defense artillery, and after three days of fighting, at least nearly 10,000 large-caliber naval artillery shells fell on the fortress position, and the shore defense artillery was blown up.

The Japanese army did not take advantage of it, and in three days, there were as many as 26 Japanese landing craft sunk by the fortress shore defense artillery, and it was also thanks to the presence of these big guys, the Japanese army's short-range heavy weapons were not used, and Liu Tiehan's pressure was relatively reduced.

When Tang Qiuli withdrew with his troops to the vicinity of Beijing and Tianjin, he did not send troops to reinforce Liu Tiehan, but let the troops pass through the Beijing-Tianjin corridor and retreat south to Baoding, Shijiazhuang, Hengshui, Laiyuan, and Weixian, backed by the Taihang Mountain base area, facing Beijing and Tianjin, resting and waiting, and sending more than 13,000 recruits recruited in Jinzhou back to the Huangya Dòng base area, where the recruit supplementary brigade was trained, and he himself led the guard brigade into Tianjin City, which was full of artillery fire.

In Tianjin, the market is depressed, there are few pedestrians, who still has the heart to do business under the fire, but the order is in order, the garrison is patrolling seriously, Tang Qiuli is very pleased, Brother Tie Han's ability, is not to say, he is at ease.

At the dock, in the headquarters of the Tianjin garrison, Tang Qiuli saw Liu Tiehan, who was obviously emaciated, with a tired face and bloodshot eyes, and his heart was surging with heat, and the hard bones were always gnawed by the old man.

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