Tanaka Kuichi's vanguard was surrounded by regiments in Jiangwu, which seemed to be good news, but for Liu Shuai, the commander of this battle, it was a little unprepared.

Why? Previously, his plan was to defend first, and after exhausting the Japanese army's sharpness, he would counterattack with the cooperation of the 115th Division. And now General Chen has given him a problem, surrounding a brigade of the enemy on the spot, is this to eat it? Or don't eat it?

In fact, General Chen was also worried, his original combat idea was to take a handful and leave, take advantage of the negligence of the Japanese to make a surprise attack, give the devil a little color to see if he took advantage of it, and then retreat to defend. Where did you think that the devil couldn't help but fight, so he didn't even block it for a round, but was surrounded by his men and horses, what do you say about this.

At this time, General Chen, like Liu Shuai, was a little crying without tears, and the devil didn't act according to the script, don't you say this is a pit person?

This sudden situation immediately aroused the great attention of Peng Dehuai, deputy commander-in-chief of the Eighth Route Army, who has always been known for his courage in fighting, and after learning the news, he made a decision after a little thought: "Since the enemy has been surrounded, why not fight?" The military commissar gave us instructions to destroy at least one brigade of the enemy, and now the little devils are all in the pot, why not eat it! ”

The Eighth Route Army is going to eat meat, but this also means that the previous operational deployment needs to be fully adjusted, the original plan was that 129 was defensive, 115 rested, and now the 129th Division has grabbed the first bite of soup, and the 115th Division naturally can't rest, after all, Tanaka Kuichi's follow-up troops are on the way!

After some urgent adjustments, Peng Shuai gave an order: "We should take advantage of the unstable foothold of the Fourth Brigade of the Japanese Cavalry to launch a siege today!" The enemy must be annihilated within 5 to 10 days. ”

According to this order, the 129th Division immediately went into action, and the 769th Regiment of General Chen took the lead in attacking, launching eleven consecutive attacks in one day and one night!

Liu Manzhuang, a veteran soldier who participated in the bloody battle of this day and night, recalled: "The devil soldiers were all cavalrymen wearing riding boots, but their firepower was still very strong...... The villagers are really miserable, and if they dare to refuse, they will be killed. Even in the most critical moments, the devil will drive the villagers to block the bullets, and for this reason we have fallen short on two occasions. ”

"After a day of fierce fighting, we killed more than a dozen people in a row, but we failed to move forward, and at the critical moment, the regiment commander gave an order, no longer take a strong attack, and the effect of large losses is not good, but instead adopt trench tactics, shorten the attack distance, and do not give the devils too much time to react...... The Yellow Flood Area is really hard to do trench work, more than a foot of thick sediment will crumble when touched, the soil layer is too soft, such trenches are too easy to collapse, can't stop bullets and shells, you have to dig down......"

"We took turns digging in several platoons and dug from night to the next morning. At this time, there are still 150 or 60 steps from the devil's position, as long as the slightest appearance will be attacked by the devil's machine gun, in the past we can only kneel in the trench and continue to dig, and after a while, we will turn into mud figures, but now, as long as the devil's machine gun dares to fire, our little gunners will shoot at it, dumb it or force it to move ......"

"At seven o'clock in the morning, the sound of gunfire could be faintly heard behind us, and it was said that the comrades of the 115th Division were engaged in fire with the reinforcements of the devils. I have to say that the devil's reinforcements came really quickly, and we learned it when we fought them before. As long as the surrounded devil soldiers call for help, the reinforced devils will arrive quickly, and every time we are not good at fighting, it is not good to fight, we can only give up painfully. After a few times, the devils became more and more arrogant, and even if they were surrounded by us, they would never surrender, because they knew that reinforcements would definitely arrive. ”

"But this time the situation is different, the battalion commander told us that this time we will fight a big battle, and we must annihilate this group of devils. There is a 115th division in the south to block the attack, and we will fight a ******** war of annihilation. That's a boost! The comrades have been looking forward to this day for a long time, so even if they didn't close their eyes for a day and a night yesterday, no one shouted bitterness, and they all held back their strength to take revenge on the little devil! ”

"Approaching the last 70 or so steps, the devils also went crazy, they bombarded with machine guns and artillery guns, and when the shells fell into the loess and exploded, it was a big pit, and the sky was covered with sand, and it was impossible to see things clearly. Our artillery also returned fire fiercely, and the shells landed on the positions of the devils with one shot, blowing up the devils to the point of howling wolves. Even kneeling in the trench, I listen to it with pleasure! ”

"The final attack was soon launched, and one by one my comrades stepped on my shoulders and rushed forward, and soon there was a shout of murder in front of me, and I was not far behind, and I followed with a submachine gun and a few grenades. Through the smoke of gunpowder, I ran forward almost with one foot high and one foot low, until I rushed to the trench of the devils, and by this time my comrades had already fought with the devils. ”

"Before 1942, we were not the opponent of the devil when we fought with bayonets, and at that time the comrades were all hungry and full of food, where was the opponent of the devil who ate rice and white flour. Don't look at the devil's short stature, but they are as strong as dwarf winter melons, and they are stable! You have to be able to stand on the pile, otherwise you will fall as soon as people push and squeeze you. In addition to that, you have to be bold. Training is one thing, it's another thing to really greet the devil face-to-face on the battlefield, don't panic, you will definitely die if you are empty. Before 1943, the chief asked us to fight as close as possible, and after firing a shot or two and throwing a few grenades, we would rush to charge and fight the devils hand-to-hand. Because we have few bullets, few machine guns, and no cannons, we can only fight hand-to-hand. And now, with the support of the big brother of the Soviet Union, we have enough bullets, not only machine guns, but also submachine guns and pistols in each knife company, and we no longer need to rely entirely on stabbing to win. ”

"I'm a knife company, with an eleven-pound submachine gun (Bobosha 41), a melon grenade in one water, and a white Browning (Browning HP Soviet version). We don't fight with devils, and when we see devils, they are a shuttle bullet, and if we can't die, we will make up for another shuttle. When the submachine gun runs out of bullets, it is too late to change the pistol, and the instructor of the Soviet Big Brother told us that submachine guns and pistols are more effective than bayonets in close combat! In my experience, Big Brother is right, no matter how powerful the stabbing is, there are times when it misses, and submachine guns and pistols eliminate them without waiting for the devil to rush over. ”

"Of course, this does not mean that stabbing will not work, nor that we will not fight bayonets. After all, it is a small number of comrades who are armed with submachine guns and pistols, and the vast majority of comrades still use rifles, and they charge together with our sharp knife company, and they will inevitably encounter devils and stabs. But basically, it's two people dealing with one devil, and don't give the devil a chance! ”

This assault was carried out quite successfully, and at eight o'clock in the morning of the same day, the 769th Regiment successfully broke through the position of the devils, and with the follow-up troops to follow up, the devils were afraid that they would soon be divided and surrounded.

At this time, there was also a small episode on the battlefield, the bombers and fighters that took off from Xuzhou entered the battlefield and carried out shuttle bombing with three or five planes as a team, so as to cover the besieged Fourth Cavalry Brigade.

In the past, the Eighth Route Army did not have many ways to deal with this, and could only set up machine guns to shoot at the air, which basically could only play a little harassing role. And today it was different, the separate anti-aircraft artillery regiments opened fire first, and armed with 37-mm and 76-mm anti-aircraft guns imported from the USSR, they quickly taught the devils a lesson and shot down two bombers on the spot.

And that's not all, soon the fighters of the Soviet Red Army also arrived at the scene, and the La-5FN quickly dispersed the few fighters of the Devils, and then chased the butts of the Devil bombers all the way to kill.

While this air battle was going on, the 129th Division also achieved an important result in the face of the harassment of Japanese aircraft, and captured Gaozhuang Village in one fell swoop with a bold intersperse, approaching the headquarters of the Fourth Brigade of the Japanese Cavalry.

And this action also made the Japanese commander Junichi Takada know the determination of the Eighth Route Army in this operation, and surrounded him for a day and a night without retreating and continuously breaking through to the inner line, is it not clear what this is going to do?

At this time, Junichi Takada was in a hurry, and hurriedly convened the deputy brigade commander, staff officer and others to discuss urgently, and finally came to an astonishing decision: break through!

Jun Takada immediately ordered all the horses and cars to be gathered, cobbled together a large group of troops, and fled out of Nanying Village in the direction of Anyang. And Junichi Takada's desperate counterattack greatly surprised the expectations of the Eighth Route Army, and at the beginning, the 129th Division was indeed caught off guard. But soon Liu Shuai adjusted his deployment and intercepted the breakthrough Japanese with intensive firepower, and the mortar unit fired fiercely and accurately, passing over the armored cars at the head of the Japanese army and bombarding the infantry following behind.

At the height of the battle, four squadron leaders were wounded or killed, and even Junichi Takada was wounded in the butt by shrapnel. After a fierce battle, Junichi Takada could only hurriedly lead the remnants of the army to retreat, and at this time there was only one way in front of him - desperately strengthening the fortifications and waiting for reinforcements.

In order to strengthen their positions, the Japanese invaders in the encirclement cut down all the trees and tall poles within a five-mile radius of the perimeter, and bulldozed all buildings that hindered the shooting. Junichi Takada no longer had the luxury of being able to block the fierce offensive of the Eighth Route Army outside the town, so he urgently repaired two lines of defense, one dug a circular trench more than three meters deep and more than seven meters wide, and arranged a circle of light and dark fire points along this trench. All bunkers are connected by communication trenches, and fire can support each other in all directions, including hitting one's own fire points.

Two minefields in the trench marked the beginning of the second line of defense. Based on his previous experience with the Eighth Route Army, Junichi Takada believed that the Eighth Route Army was very good at assaulting villages, and once it broke through a corner of the position, it would infiltrate through the wall and break through the wall. Therefore, this time, the Japanese army demolished all the buildings around the firing point in advance, forcing the Eighth Route Army to uproot one stronghold at a time. And many of its firepower points are hidden in the corners, which can completely block the streets.

At the same time, Junichi Takada also widely distributed scouts on the periphery to carefully observe every move of the Eighth Route Army, and as a result, this cunning devil really found some clues. At that time, the Japanese invaders found several places in the field at the front of the town where there were no dewdrops on the grass leaves, and connecting these locations formed a straight line from the position of the Eighth Route Army to the outer trenches of the Japanese invaders. Junichi Takada immediately judged that the Eighth Route Army would carry out the outer trench blasting, so the Japanese invaders preemptively carried out a counter-blasting to stop the 129th Division's operation.

In order to annihilate this stubborn enemy as soon as possible, Liu Shuai decided to fight overnight, several main regiments launched a strong attack in succession, and gradually uprooted several positions of the Japanese invaders around the martial arts, as of the next morning, the remnants of the fourth brigade of the Japanese cavalry have been surrounded by regiments and regiments in the small martial arts, and the final general attack is coming!

In order to reduce casualties and annihilate this stubborn enemy as soon as possible, Liu Shuai took out all the family resources he could take, and all the divisional artillery regiments were assigned to the front line, and he also discussed with Kulikov in the hope that the Red Air Force would be able to provide sufficient air support the next day.

In the early morning of the 25th, the Eighth Route Army kicked off the prelude to the general offensive, and the Il-2 rushed in, violently bombarding the positions of the southern front held by the Japanese army, and after the bombardment was over, the shelling began again, and in this shelling that lasted for more than two hours, the Japanese outlying positions were greatly damaged.

Note that this was not the end, part of the artillery of the 129th Division, taking advantage of the cover of the shelling, pushed part of the 76-mm field guns to the first line and hit the Japanese fire points with direct fire. As for the traditional blasting tactics and trench tactics of the Eighth Route Army, they were brought into full play. After breaking through the first line of defense of the Japanese invaders, they began to storm the second line of defense. Under the fierce assault of the 129th Division, the Japanese positions finally gradually came to the brink of collapse.

At this time, Junichi Takada's lone army was trapped in a few narrow strongholds, and more than 1,000 people only owned a well and a small pond. It was the height of summer and the weather was very hot. The Japanese had to kill horses for food and quench their thirst with mud by putting their steel helmets on the ground, covering them with shirts, pouring mud from the bottom of wells and ponds on their clothes and filtering them, and then drinking the filtered muddy water. Because of the lack of water, it was impossible to wash the wounds of the wounded soldiers, and the weather was too hot, mosquitoes and flies were rampant, so that many lightly injured ghost soldiers also died of pain due to wound infection.

At this time, Junichi Takada can be said to have reached the point of exhaustion. The remaining ammunition of the defenders was only enough to sustain a few days of fighting, and it was said that their destruction was imminent. And where are Kuichi Tanaka and his "reinforcements" at this time? What are you doing?

Tanaka Jiuichi was also miserable at this time, he thought that it would be easy to rescue Junichi Takada, but who would have thought that the combat effectiveness of 115 was completely beyond his expectations, and after a photo, his chariot was destroyed several times, and he was driven back without even standing on his heels.

Tanaka Kuichi is not the kind of two hundred and five like Junichi Takada, and he can climb to the position of lieutenant general, and Tanaka Kuichi's most basic military literacy is still very solid. This temptation surprised him and thought of more.

He realized that the Eighth Route Army's operation this time was extremely abnormal, and the Eighth Route Army rarely had such a resolute hard top, especially since he even had tanks and heavy artillery on his side, and generally to this extent, the Eighth Route had already run away without a trace. And now the Eighth Route is still fighting vigorously, and it is completely a standard resistance war.

Why Blockade? It must be for the annihilation of the Fourth Cavalry Brigade! Tanaka Kuichi realized that the situation was probably not good, after all, the Japanese army had not been annihilated in any battle in China with a full brigade. If this precedent is opened, will the Eighth Road become more and more bold in the future? Then the battle will be more difficult to fight.

So after this temptation, Tanaka Kuichi immediately threw away the previous contempt and carelessness, and he realized that what was in front of him would be an out-and-out fierce battle, and he had to rescue the 4th Cavalry Brigade!

At that moment, he adjusted his deployment, no longer engaged in any temptation, but put on a posture and began to attack according to the idea of dealing with a strong enemy.

The 115th Division was responsible for blocking Tanaka Kuichi, and everyone was familiar with the division commander - Lin Shuai. It's just that at this time, Lin Shuai was still recuperating in the Soviet Union, and the battle was temporarily commanded by the acting division commander General Chen, and the first to be attacked by the Japanese army was the 344 Brigade commanded by General Yang. The position of the 687th Regiment of the brigade was first bombarded by Japanese artillery fire, and then more than a dozen Type 97 medium tanks lined up in a line and drove over.

For the officers and men of the 687th Regiment, this was the first time they had seen tanks, and Li Dahu, a combat hero who participated in this battle, recalled: "As soon as the devils came up, they used tanks, and more than a dozen of them drove over in a line, followed by about a battalion of devil soldiers, who hung sneakily behind like thieves stealing chickens, and were extremely obscene. ”

"We haven't hit tanks before, and most of our comrades don't quite understand how to knock out this iron lump, is it to strafe with machine guns? Throw with a grenade? Or is it fried in dynamite packs? Later events taught us that none of this was a good idea. The company commander was also a little at a loss, but he still told us very calmly, don't rush to fire, let it get closer, it's really not good, let these iron lumps pass, and clean up the little devils hanging behind. ”

"The devil's tank is getting closer and closer, and it starts to fire at us fiercely, the machine gun tower sounds, and the black hole gun barrel is constantly spewing fire. And our bullets only clanged on it, and only a little patent leather could be rubbed off. The situation is dire! As the enemy tanks got closer and closer, the losses of the comrades grew, and constantly there were comrades who fell under the rain of bullets and shelling from the enemy......"

The situation is indeed very serious, although the Eighth Route Army has carried out a comprehensive rearmament, but to tell the truth the anti-armor capability is really not strong, because there are too few armored troops on the battlefield in China, and the anti-armor pressure on the side of the Soviet Red Army is relatively large, so the assistance in this area is relatively small. Several main battle divisions of the Eighth Route Army were basically equipped with special anti-tank artillery battalions only at the brigade level, and unfortunately, these two battalions of the 115th Division were temporarily seconded to the 129th Division for attacking fortified positions...... (To be continued.) )