Chapter 566: Encirclement and Reinforcement

At 5 a.m. on 4 January, Tang Qiusheng commanded 230,000 troops of the Taihang Mountain Field Corps to sweep away more than 90,000 Japanese troops in the Taihang Mountains under the headquarters of Yamaguchi, chief of staff of the Japanese North China Dispatch Army, and encircled them in the area from Xiangyuan to Lucheng in southern Jinnan.

After the initial blow, the remaining Japanese soldiers, under the command of Commander Yamaguchi, built temporary field fortifications, resisted stubbornly, and the independent division troops advanced the battle line to the center in an all-round way, narrowing the encirclement, and the Japanese could not escape.

Yamaguchi in the encirclement, looking at the commanders of several divisions around him with a gloomy face, he knew very well the fate he was about to face, the commanders of these divisions also looked defeated, their troops and formations had been disabled, and the fierce artillery fire of the Chinese army made the arrogant Japanese army suffer a lot.

Yamaguchi looked at the soldiers who were desperately building fortifications, covered in mud and gunsmoke, the military uniform was full of traces of war, and the frozen corpses of his companions had also become part of the bunker, and his heart was miserable, when did the invincible Imperial Japanese army fall to such a point, in just three hours, more than 30,000 soldiers fell under the artillery fire of the independent division troops.

He knew very well in his heart that there was no danger to defend, and holding on was just a matter of surviving, and most of the troops' supplies and ammunition were destroyed in this sudden artillery bombardment, even if the troops of the independent division did not attack, in this ice and snow, the soldiers could not support it for three days, and they were hungry.

The only thing he could do was to send a telegram asking for help to the commander of the dispatch army, Kazuki Kiyoji, one by one, truthfully reporting the desperate situation faced by the troops.

He believed that His Excellency the Commander would be able to understand that he had fallen into a desperate situation, and that Kazuki Kiyoji, who had received a telegram from Yamaguchi asking for help, was about to go crazy, first losing his high hopes in Xuzhou, the 130,000 troops of Ryosuke Isoya, and then the more than 90,000 troops of Yamaguchi, and Kazuki Kiyoji was almost about to collapse.

But he has no way at all, there is no army to rescue the mountain pass, temporarily formed, and will face the situation of breaking through the resistance of Tang Qiuli's independent division troops, and now, the imperial army in North China is in a state of comprehensive defense, and it is already very good to be able to hold the existing defensive line.

He was in the front-line command headquarters of Niangziguan, he was so anxious that he was smoking, Yamaguchi had to be rescued, but it would take time, and he would draw troops from all over the country and send a wing, which was an appetizer sent to Tang Qiuli's mouth, so he sent a telegram back to Yamaguchi, "Yamaguchi-kun, the dispatch army headquarters is actively forming a rescue force, I hope your department will stay in place for three to five days, and the rescue force can reach the Lucheng area." ”

In fact, Xiangyue Qingji himself has no bottom in his heart, first, where does this army come from, it will definitely not work if there are fewer troops, the independent division troops surrounding Yamaguchi have more than 200,000 people, and second, even if the troops are formed, whether they can break through the resistance of the independent division troops, this is unknown, once the troops are desperately close to Lucheng, the entire Yamaguchi department has been shattered, and the rescue troops fall into the encirclement again, wouldn't it be a loss to the lady and the soldiers?

At this time, he received a telegram from Prince Zairen, the chief of staff of the base camp, ordering him to immediately form a force to rescue the Yamaguchi Division, otherwise, the consequences will be borne by him personally, Kazuki Kiyoji was dizzy for a while, how did His Royal Highness know about this? It must have been that bastard from Yamaguchi who overstepped the report.

After Yamaguchi received the telegram from Kiyoji Kazuki, he was so angry that he almost vomited blood, and held on for three to five days, joking, to put it lightly, more than 60,000 people were crammed into such a small area, and a single shell of the independent division could kill several soldiers, and he was completely convinced that as long as the independent division surrounded the troops and immediately began to attack, the troops that had already suffered heavy losses would be wiped out in less than ten hours, even if it was only shelled with artillery fire, in one day, this big place could be flattened.

It's not that Yamaguchi hasn't tried to break through, and he also knows that far water can't quench his thirst, but the soldiers have broken through desperately several times, but they have been ruthlessly beaten back, except for throwing away the corpses in one place, they haven't even moved forward half a step, and Yamaguchi has no choice but to stop, can he only sit and wait for death? The red-eyed Yamaguchi tore up the telegram of Kiyoshi Kazuki to shreds, and he didn't care about the rules of the army, so he simply sent a telegram directly to the chief of the General Staff, Zaihito, hoping that Zaihito could put pressure on Kiyoji Kazuki and send a rescue force as much as possible.

Under unprecedented pressure, Xiangyue Qingji, at the fastest speed, from the Datong front, Niangziguan front, and the Beiping garrison troops, pieced together three divisions and regiments, with nearly 100,000 troops, with Handan as a gathering place, to form a rescue corps and implement the rescue plan.

On the whole day of January 4, the troops of the Independent Division did not launch a full-scale attack on the encircled Japanese army, but only used uninterrupted artillery fire to violently bombard the Japanese positions, which was Tang Qiusheng's order, and he sternly rejected the idea that the commanders of the various units would attack immediately, and severely criticized the idea that the battle could be solved with a charge, and the Japanese army still had more than 60,000 troops, and the so-called "trapped beasts are still fighting", and there was no need to pay heavy sacrifices when victory came.

This hand, more powerful than a direct attack, caused greater casualties to the Japanese army, if the infantry attacked, the Japanese soldiers can have a face-to-face bloody battle, but also can stimulate the ferocity in the heart, at most a fish to die in the net, and when you die, you can also pull a few cushions, which is in line with the most basic bushido spirit of the Japanese.

But I saw the shells whistling and flying, and I didn't see the way the infantry charged, so that the Japanese soldiers in the encirclement suffered a lot, and also destroyed their will to resist little by little, and the only Japanese artillery unit that could do a counterattack, after just firing a shell, it attracted a return fire of I don't know how many shells, the fire flashed, and the snow foam was stirred, blocking the sight of the Japanese soldiers, the smoke dissipated, and the Japanese artillery positions were only full of craters.

The Japanese infantry watched the artillery turn into piles of scrap metal, and the artillery turned into fragmented corpses, so they could only hide in the temporary fortifications, endure hunger, the biting cold wind, the shells that whistled and fell overhead, and looked at the bloody corpses of their companions around them, and their hearts were numb, perhaps, the next one to lie on the ground was himself.

Moreover, all units adopted the method of pouring water into ice and snow as a trench, forming an ice wall that stretched for dozens of kilometers on the periphery of the encirclement, facing the side of the Japanese soldiers, a very steep slope, pouring into an ice slope as smooth as a mirror and difficult to settle on, and more than 60,000 remnants of the Japanese army were surrounded by defeated generals.

Tang Qiuli was surprised by the encirclement of the Japanese army under Yamaguchi, and he immediately left Guocun, rushed to the headquarters of the Huangnian Corps with the division commanders, and joined Tang Qiusheng on the evening of the 4th.

The CCP's Zhongye and Huaye troops, under the command of Liu Bocheng, Chen Yi, Deng Xiaoping, and Su Yu, surrounded the 300,000 troops of General Du Yuming of the National Army.

The difference is that it is the Japanese army that is now surrounded, there must be a shortage of supplies, and there will be rescuers, he knows the tradition of the Japanese troops, one is surrounded, and the other departments will desperately rescue, he looked at the map for a while, and his eyes fell on the vicinity of Xingtai and Shexian in Hebei, which are the closest to Lucheng, if the Japanese army sends rescue troops, they will definitely take this nearest route, which is also the main reason why he hurried to the front line.

After arriving at the front line, he immediately convened a meeting of the commanders of all units and brigades above, at which he completely agreed with Tang Qiusheng's style of play, and it was precisely this style of play that laid the foundation for the next step of the operation, and then he put forward a new battle plan, that is, to use the besieged Japanese army as a bait, attack but not annihilate, and attract the Japanese army to come to help, so that we can eat the Japanese reinforcements.

He had inspected the encirclement and praised the soldiers' method of splashing water into ice, and now, even if the little devils broke through the encirclement, just by climbing over this ice wall, they could be tossed half to death, and half of the troops could be mobilized to send reinforcements, and this new battle plan immediately attracted everyone's attention.

The battle plan was quickly formed, with four brigades of Sun Zhenbang of the Yellow River Defensive Garrison Corps, three brigades of the Niangziguan Garrison Corps, the Second Independent Brigade, the Huangyadong Garrison Brigade, and the First Brigade and Second Brigade of the Independent Cavalry Division, with a total strength of 120,000 troops, immediately withdrew from the encirclement and rushed to Shexian to set up an ambush in the vicinity of Shexian to prepare to ambush the Japanese troops who came to help.

Tong Batu's Second Cavalry Brigade immediately ended the battle from Wuxiang to Yushe, and went to the area of Shexian to join the troops; in addition, two artillery regiments were transferred from Tang Qiusheng's troops to fight with the troops and encircle the Japanese troops under the Yamaguchi, which was undertaken by five brigades of the independent division and the garrison corps of the Yellow River and Henan defense line, with a total of 110,000 troops.

Tang Qiuli is not worried, the encirclement force with reduced artillery firepower will be tight in the face of more than 60,000 Japanese troops, that ice wall can top 50,000 soldiers, besides, the surrounded Japanese army, after a whole day of shelling, is already the heart of the army is shaken, and the combat effectiveness is greatly weakened, such a Japanese army, like a tiger without claws and sharp teeth, will not be much of a threat, after starving him for two days, no need to fight, the Japanese army will naturally collapse, the cold weather is a fatal difficulty that they cannot overcome.

At night, the artillery of the independent division carried out the shelling of the surrounded Japanese army, which did not stop with the fall of night, but became more violent, and some heavy mortars also joined the ranks of the shelling, and the Japanese soldiers were simply living in hell, and they never understood where the Chinese army got so many shells, and they fought all day, and they still greeted them vigorously.

They will never understand that with their backs to the Yellow Cliff Cave, ammunition and supplies, open supplies, and under the cover of artillery fire and night, the troops who went to Shexian quietly withdrew from their positions, and the Japanese soldiers simply did not have the energy to pay attention to these changes, and a new battle was about to begin.

(To be continued)