Chapter 556: Desperate Rescue

Isoya Ryosuke's First Army was in Xiao County, surrounded by the Gui Army and the Sichuan Army under the command of Li Zongren, commander of the Xuzhou Theater Command, and five brigades commanded by Tang Qiusheng, deputy commander of the Independent Division, with a total of nearly 300,000 troops.

On the evening of December 23, the Japanese army, which had never launched an attack at night, went against the norm and the sky was dark, and fierce battles broke out on the whole line of Cangzhou, and the Japanese army was divided into five routes, and launched a fierce attack on the troops commanded by Liu Tiehan in Damanzhuang, Fengjiakou, Jiedi, Nanpi, and Huaizhen.

The front, which is more than 100 kilometers wide, is full of artillery smoke and gunpowder, and in the dark night, the figures of soldiers on both sides flash from time to time in the flames of artillery shell explosions; if you look down from a high altitude, a line of defense with firelight will block several arrows in front of you, and you can not take a step forward, and the battlefield in southern Hebei, which has been silent for a long time, will be noisy again.

A full-scale war broke out on the Cangzhou front, as Tang Qiuli expected, the first army of Isoya Liansuke was surrounded, and the Japanese army in Cangzhou would be desperate, he sent a telegram to Liu Tiehan, asking about the battle situation in Cangzhou, in fact, he was considering whether to withdraw Tang Qiusheng's troops from the battlefield in Xiaoxian and strengthen them to the front line in Cangzhou, after all, compared with the Japanese army, Liu Tiehan's troops did not have an advantage.

The reason why this is considered is because Tang Qiusheng's troops were placed on the periphery of Xiao County's encirclement by Chief Li, more than ten kilometers away from the battlefield, and in front of Liao Lei's 21st Group Army of the Gui Army and the 230,000 troops of the Sichuan Army, surrounded Xiao County like an iron bucket, not to mention participating in the attack on Xiao County, it was difficult to even see Xiao County's shadow.

Li Zongren's reason was that Vice Chairman Tang's troops had just finished fighting the Tongshan Campaign, and their troops were quite tired, and from the perspective of caring for friendly troops, it was not appropriate to let the troops that had fought hard continue to enter the battle, so putting Vice Chairman Tang's troops on the second line also meant to let them rest and recuperate, and to attack Xiao County, let the Gui Army and the Sichuan Army, which had not participated in the battle, complete it.

Li Zongren's reason is very tenable, and his words are beautiful, but he can't get the thoughts on the table, Tang Qiuli, who has been a person for two lifetimes, can see through it at a glance, Isoya Ryosuke is now a ripe persimmon, and it will fall off when you touch it, Brother Qiusheng's troops have already picked up a big bargain in Tongshan, and the last bite can no longer let his troops eat, not to mention, the capital in Li Zongren's hands is very sufficient.

Tang Qiuli smiled bitterly and shook her head, Mei Ting beside her raised her beautiful eyebrows, looking at her husband, Tang Qiuli handed Li Zongren's telegram to Mei Ting, Mei Ting finished reading it, "flutter" smiled, she understood the reason why her husband shook his head with a wry smile, and looked at him playfully, Tang Qiuli shrugged, spread his hands, and made a helpless posture, Mei Ting almost smiled and bent over, the happy air, flowing in the sub-room.

Since Li Zongren said so and did so, what else could Tang Qiuli do, he called back and completely agreed with Commander Li's arrangement, and finally wished him a great victory in Xiao County, but he was just a little regretful in his heart, he couldn't personally take the life of Isoya Ryosuke and his First Army by his own troops, and avenge Su Jingfeng and Zhang Zizhong, so that Tang Qiusheng's troops became an idle move, and he had to consider transferring to the direction of Cangzhou.

The staff officer sent Liu Tiehan's reply telegram, and his tone was very relaxed, because he had long expected the actions of the Japanese army, and the troops relied on the strong fortifications to inflict great casualties on the Japanese soldiers exposed in the field, and took advantage of the weakness of the Japanese army, which was not good at night fighting, and sent four brigades of troops to drill into the gap in the Japanese offensive formation, and cut several wings of the Japanese army from the large army in formation, and now they are being surrounded and annihilated.

At present, the Cangzhou front is stable, there are still four brigades of reserves in his hands that have not been used, and the Japanese army must not advance half a step, so please not worry about the division commander, you can consider transferring the troops in Xiao County back to the Taihang Mountains to strengthen the troops there.

After reading Liu Tiehan's telegram, Tang Qiuli applauded the shooting, which startled Mei Ting, and glared at him with disgust, as if he blamed him for being surprised, Tang Qiuli secretly sighed, Brother Tie Han commanded the large army to fight, becoming more and more skilled and bold, and carried out a local counter-assault in the defense, and bit off a few pieces of meat from the intensive strength of the Japanese army.

This requires taking a lot of risks, involving the cooperation of the troops, the grasp of time and other aspects, if you can't end the battle quickly, if you don't get it right, the interspersed troops, but will be dumplings by the Japanese army, fight until dawn, just as Liu Tiehan said, more than 300,000 Japanese troops, did not advance half a step, scattered casualties are not counted, and the Chinese army has eaten up the strength of several wings in formation.

Zairen really couldn't attack, he tried his best, and the Japanese soldiers also tried their best, but what they encountered was the troops of the independent division, which was an impenetrable iron plate, and the copper wall broke through the head when it hit it, and Zairen had to order the troops to retreat to the starting point of the attack and adjust the deployment.

After fighting all night, the Japanese army did not take advantage of the slightest advantage, and the corpses that came out everywhere were also beaten back into Cangzhou by the troops of the independent division, and they returned to the so-called back.

Not only that, but Emperor Hirohito, who learned that the first army of Isoya Ryosuke was surrounded by superior Chinese troops in Xuzhou and was in danger of annihilation of the whole army, he was shocked and annoyed, this is a force he had high hopes for, and the base camp was in accordance with his intentions, and formulated a strategy of attacking Xuzhou in the east, and then going south to Songhu, if it was wiped out by the army in Xuzhou, wouldn't it mean that the Japanese emperor was a big fool, did not understand military blind command, and buried the lives of hundreds of thousands of imperial soldiers?

He ordered Shanghai to send troops to launch an attack on the periphery of Songhu and Hangzhou Bay, and no matter which direction it broke through, it was necessary to relieve the siege of Isoya Ryosuke, so the war in the south broke out again, and hundreds of thousands of Central Army and Japanese troops from the sea fought each other, and the large-caliber naval guns of the Japanese Navy bombed the positions of the Central Army troops into flames.

After that, a large number of Japanese troops began to rush to the beach, and the units of the Central Army, which had already repeatedly fought with the Japanese army several times, under the command of General Zhang Zhizhong, commander of the Songhu Theater Command, took medicine according to the prescription and drove the Japanese troops back to the sea again and again.

The Jiangnan battlefield, from the sky to the ground, was full of fireworks, gunpowder smoke everywhere, the Japanese army exerted all their strength, but could not obtain even a landing ground on the beachhead, General Zhang Zhizhong fought more and more easily, in addition to the front-line troops, he also had five divisions of reserves in his hands, ready to put into the key battlefield, the Japanese army launched this time, aimed at rescuing the Jiangnan offensive of the first army of Isoya Ryosuke, ended in the final retreat to the sea.

On the Datong front line in Shanxi, the Japanese army, which was already at a disadvantage, suddenly went crazy and took the initiative to attack, at the beginning it was to hit the Jin army troops who were negligent in guarding against a surprise, and advanced the front to the area of Tianzhen, due to the limitation of troops, the Japanese army's attack momentum slowed down, showing a state of lack of follow-up, and the Jin army, which turned back, used superior forces to launch a counteroffensive on the whole front, and the Japanese army retreated again and again, and finally withdrew from Shanxi.

I don't know what the reason is, the Jin army, which has achieved absolute superiority, did not make further pursuits, otherwise, Huai'an, Zhangjiakou and other places will also become the bag of Zhao Chengshou, the commander-in-chief of the Jin army in Datong, and the counterattack force of the Jin army stopped on the west bank of the Nanyang River, so that the Japanese commander who was shocked and sweated with cold sweat breathed a long sigh of relief.

Shanxi Niangziguan front, the Japanese army also took the initiative to attack, constantly attacking the position of Feng Jiwu Niangziguan garrison corps, this move is in Feng Jiwu's arms, he is very worried, hundreds of thousands of troops, and the Japanese army is consumed here, if he commands in his hands, are the main brigade of the independent division, the Japanese army on the opposite side has long been beaten back to Shijiazhuang, but looking at these soldiers, Feng Jiwu has no courage, so he has to step up the training of the soldiers of the original Jin army every day.

The Japanese army's offensive provided him with an opportunity to actually train his troops, and he adopted the method of two battalions of an independent division leading a battalion of the Jin army to form a combat regiment, and used the Japanese army to constantly carry out counter-assaults or interspersed raids, although the results were not large, and more than 4,000 Japanese troops were killed piecemeal.

On the battlefield of Wuxiang in Shanxi, the Japanese army under Yamaguchi has not received a new order from the commander Xiangyue Qingji, and it is here that nearly 200,000 Jin troops under the personal command of Yan Xishan are consumed here, and Yamaguchi has complained about this, thinking that His Excellency the commander has forgotten about himself, Wuxiang has not been able to attack for a long time, and it is impossible to attack Taiyuan in the north.

Isoya Ryosuke's encounter with the First Army, Yamaguchi also knows something, and now, the form of the Wuxiang front line is not good, that damn the devil Tang Qiuli, just like that, is behind his side, from time to time to pounce on and take a bite, and also sent cavalry troops, constantly harassing his own transportation lines, and the soldiers who were harmed drank porridge for several days.

Yamaguchi also realized more and more clearly that Wuxiang continued to stalemate like this, which was by no means a good sign, once Tang Qiuli freed up his hands and mobilized troops, it would be difficult for him to ensure that he would not become the next Ryosuke Isoya, and finally received an order from Kiyoshi Kazuki, but let him continue to attack Wuxiang.

Yamaguchi almost cried, can I fight down, I am still so distressed, squatting in the cold wind in the mountains, can I not advance or retreat? There was no way, so I had to carry out the order, and the Japanese soldiers who were suffering for days launched a new attack without confidence, and Yan Xishan, who had a bottom in his heart, commanded the troops to attack head-on, and the mountain pass did not take advantage of it.

Around this inconspicuous small place in Xiao County, the two fronts in the north and south are all in a pot of porridge, with only one purpose, to rescue the encircled Isoya Ryosuke, all the Japanese troops are desperate for this goal, and the trapped Isoya Ryosuke is enough to be proud, he alone mobilized all the Japanese troops in China.

(To be continued)