Chapter 804: Liaoxi Offensive

After the fifth day, the Zhukov Department of the First Army of the Soviet Far East, which was surrounded in the Sutai area of Uriya in the ancient western part of the Soviet Union, had basically cut off food, because the water quality was too poor because of the wells dug on the spot, and the water quality was too poor, and most of the Soviet soldiers had diarrhea, and the more than 100,000 soldiers of the First Army of the Far East at this time were like dying sick tigers, as long as they touched it lightly, they would fall to the ground with a bang. Starting

Zhukov and the Soviet soldiers, only gritted their teeth and persevered, their only hope was that the Second Army of the Far East, with General Timoshenko as its commander and political commissar, would form and immediately participate in the Battle of the Outer Méng, and the troops of the First Army would have a chance to escape, provided that the squadron did not immediately launch an attack.

Tang Qiuli did not give up paying attention to the movements of the Japanese Kwantung Army while besieging Zhukov's troops, with his understanding of the Japanese, this kind of time is the moment when the Kwantung Army wants to do it the most.

Tang Qiu's departure from the north into the outer méng ancient is equivalent to piercing a needle in the abdomen of the Soviets, and Liu Tie Handong pointed out that the troops occupied western Liaoning, which was equivalent to wedge a nail into the brain of the Kwantung Army.

Tang Qiuli's three main corps, transferred to the north outside the ancient region, and fought to the death with the Soviets, undoubtedly gave the Japanese army base camp and the new commander of the Kwantung Army, General Ueda Kenkichi, an excellent opportunity to create a zào, and also had the courage to do it.

On 21 August, about 76,000 troops of the three divisions of the Kwantung Army entered the area of Goubangzi and Panshan east of the Linghai Line in western Liaoning.

Liu Tiehan, deputy commander of the Independent Division and commander of the East Command Force, immediately telegraphed the active military action of the Kwantung Army to division commander Tang Qiuli, saying that Liu Tiehan was not worried about the Kwantung Army's attack, but that he had in his hands the 240,000 troops of the East Command Army and the more than 80,000 troops of Sun Zhenbang's Corps, totaling more than 330,000 troops, and the strength of more than 70,000 troops of two or three Kwantung Army divisions and regiments had not yet been put in his heart.

The intention of his telegram was to tell Tang Qiuli that there was no need to worry about the war on the Jinzhou front in the northeast, and he could rest assured that he would fight with the Soviets outside the country.

Tang Qiuli saw the fighter from Liu Tiehan's telegram, Ueda Kenkichi was too anxious, the Kwantung Army troops had not yet recovered their vitality after the fiasco of the Battle of Niuxinshan in the Shanhaiguan area, and the strength of these three divisions was the first to rest and replenish, and it was also the only attack fist that Ueda Kenkichi could take at present, otherwise, the Kwantung Army would not have only come to only three divisions, and it would definitely be pressed on the whole front.

He sent a telegram back to Liu Tiehan, saying this: "Brother Tiehan, according to the current situation of the enemy and the comparison of troops in western Liaoning, the Japanese troops of these three divisions are in a prominent position as a lone army. ”

On 22 August, at 5:30 a.m., Liu Tiehan launched a sudden large-scale attack on the Kwantung Army troops stationed on the front line of Goubangzi and Panshan with a total strength of nearly 200,000 troops, including 11 infantry brigades, five artillery brigades, two air defense brigades, and three cavalry brigades.

The 11th Division of the Kwantung Army, which was stationed on the front line of the Japanese army, was the first to become the target of attack, and wherever Liu Tiehan's troops went, the 11th Division of the Kwantung Army immediately fell into the raging waves of more than 200,000 squadrons, and in less than two hours, the 11th Division of the Kwantung Army was wiped out and all of them were annihilated.

At about 7 o'clock in the morning, Liu Tiehan's troops in Lingou Bangzi and Panshan first used all artillery to carry out a bombardment of the Japanese troops in two places, and for an hour and a half, the troops launched a general attack, and by 11:30 p.m. on the same day, most of the Kwantung Army units of the two divisions were annihilated, and the remnants retreated to Tai'an and Liaozhong.

Liu Tiehan continued to command the troops to storm fiercely, recovering more than 80 towns in Panjin, Panshan, Goubangzi, Tai'an, and Liaozhong one after another, and arrived on the west bank of the Puhe River, where his troops were directed at Shenyang, the military, political, economic, and cultural center of the northeast, as well as southern Liaoning and the Liaodong Peninsula.

The history of the independent division called this battle the "Liaoxi Offensive," which was a large-scale probing offensive made by Tang Qiuli as a front-line force in Jinzhou to gain a strategic advantage, and also to test the reaction and combat effectiveness of the Kwantung Army.

The Japanese base camp and the headquarters of the Kwantung Army were extremely shocked, they did not expect that they would dispatch three divisions and regiments that had completed their training to carry out strategic development in western Liaoning, which was originally intended to serve as a forward station for the main force of the Kwantung Army, which provoked such a fierce reaction from the troops of the independent division and concentrated heavy troops to carry out a ferocious attack.

General Kenkichi Ueda, the commander of the Kwantung Army, who was furious, immediately asked the base camp whether to conduct a decisive battle with the main force with the Shina troops in the Liaozhong area. In fact, Ueda Kenkichi did not want to fight this battle, and although the troops in his hands had been replenished a lot, the total strength of the Kwantung Army had recovered to about 780,000, but more than 600,000 of them were new recruits, and the training had not yet been completed.

He can pull up to fight with Liu Tiehan's troops, only more than 200,000 people, has been defeated by the squadron more than 50,000 people, the remaining combat effectiveness of the troops, but about 170,000 people, moreover, a large number of local replenishment of heavy preparations, tanks, aircraft, and most of them are not in place, this battle, he has no bottom in his heart, just the combat effectiveness of the troops, is the absolute weakness of Ueda Kenkichi.

The chief of the general staff of the base camp, Prince Kanin Miyazaihito, on behalf of His Majesty the Emperor and the base camp, sent a telegram back: "Commander of the Kwantung Army, Ueda-kun, the base camp has received the imperial decree of His Majesty the Emperor, Shenyang is the central and important town of Manchuria, and the Liaodong Peninsula is the outpost of the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea controlled by the Japanese Empire, and must not be lost, and all units of the Kwantung Army must block the line between the Chinese army and the Puhe River, and then completely repel it." ”

After Ueda Kenkichi received the order from the General Staff of the base camp, his mouth was full of bitterness, and he had already fought the Kwantung Army that had not experienced the defeat of Niuxinshan, but now the actual situation facing the troops made him worried, and after this battle was fought, I was afraid that the Kwantung Army would be broken again.

The emperor's order could not be violated, Ueda Kenkichi had to mobilize troops from all over the northeast and concentrate in the Shenyang area, just when Ueda Kenji was busy and could not open Jiāo, the squadron ** team suddenly retreated on the whole line, from the Puhe line, to Panshan, Goubangzi, Panjin area.

Ueda Kenkichi was at a loss, and he couldn't guess the intentions of the ** squadron, without the order of the base camp, he could only follow the original order, continue to concentrate troops in the Shenyang area, Ueda Kenkichi was still very efficient, in a few days, in the Shenyang area, the Kwantung Army fifteen divisions and regiments, about 340,000 troops, and other troops of the Eastern Army, a steady stream.

The large-scale war in the northeast and western Liaoxi is about to break out at any time, and Liu Tiehan's troops will face great pressure from the absolutely superior Kwantung Army.

After Tang Qiuli ordered Liu Tiehan's troops to retreat, he set his sights on Suifenhe and Dongning, which are on the border between the northeast and the Soviet Union, where he had put an important chess piece in advance, and more than 700 people from three special operations detachments led by Tang Qiuquan, head of the special operations detachment of the independent division, had been active on the Sino-Soviet border for more than two months.

He ordered Liu Tiehan to command the troops and violently attack the western Liaoning region, Weibī Shenyang and the Liaodong Peninsula, in order to attract most of the troops of the Kwantung Army to this area and create a situation for Tang Qiuquan to carry out top-secret operations.

The combat target of the Second Army in the Far East of the Soviet Union will undoubtedly be itself, and the commander and political commissar of the Second Army, General Timoshenko, is definitely a famous Soviet general who is as difficult to deal with as Zhukov, and according to the report of Feng Jiwu, who has penetrated deep into the Baikal area, in the Transcaucasia region of the Soviet Union, the Soviet troops have moved frequently, depending on the signs of gathering heavy troops to attack our department.

The total annihilation of Zhukov's First Army did not meet Tang Qiuli's strategic requirements, he did not want to put the Soviets into Cheng Dù, who was fighting with him, at least now is not the time, in order to meet Timoshenko's Second Army and the Soviet Transcaucasian troops reported by Feng Jiwu, the most direct way is to immediately kill Zhukov's troops, which is absolutely contrary to Tang Qiuli's strategic intentions.

In this case, Tang Qiuli is going to pull a greedy wolf and join this hún battle, this wolf is the Japanese who covet the territory of the Soviet Far East and never forget, polar bears and Japanese wolves fight each other, Tang Qiuli can use the lives of Zhukov and his hundreds of thousands of Soviet soldiers as bargaining chips to force Stalin to accept his terms.

Now, when the time has come, Tang Qiuli is on the endless grassland in the ancient west of Méng, and after drinking afternoon tea comfortably, he used a special password to send instructions to Tang Qiuquan, which is very simple, it is four words "roses bloom"

At midnight on August 23, 1939, Suifenhe, a small city on the Sino-Soviet border, was already quiet, only the Japanese patrols walked through the silent streets from time to time, and across the shallow Jiehe River, the Soviet town of Gelenji on the other side of the river was already dark.

Dozens of black shadows, integrated with the ground, lay quietly on the bank of the boundary river, with sharp eyes, looking in the same direction.