Chapter 533: Bloody Kaifeng (1)

Ryosuke Isotani, commander of the First Army of the Japanese North China Dispatch Army, slyly played a trick of attacking the west and attacking the east, which surprised Tang Qiuli, in view of the fact that the direction of the Japanese army's attack was already very clear, that is, to take Xuzhou, his use of troops had reached the limit, and he had to ask the Nanjing State Military Commission for help.

Seeing Tang Qiuli's telegram, Chairman Chiang was silent for a long time, he knew very well that Xuzhou was the northern gate of Jiangsu, and once it was lost, the Japanese army could drive southward for a long time, and his hundreds of thousands of elite troops in the Songhu area would be attacked from the north and south.

With Tang Qiuli's character, he will not ask the government for help unless he has to, not to mention, Xuzhou is not included in the scope of the Yellow River Valley Theater, strictly speaking, it belongs to its own defense scope, and it is even more difficult to lose, this Tang Enbo, how did he do it, he has 230,000 troops, and he can't hold a Henan.

The Henan defense line was breached, and I didn't see a telegram from Tang Enbo to explain the situation. Lost Henan and hid in fear? In fact, Chairman Jiang couldn't contact Tang Enbo at this time, this guy seemed to have evaporated from the world, but Chairman Jiang knew that his descendants had made such a big mistake, and the entire direction of the Yellow River was crumbling, and Tang Qiuli didn't mention it in the telegram, which made him even more worried.

Tang Qiuli's personality, Chairman Jiang knew very well that Tang Enbo was going to be unlucky, which he did not want to see, for Tang Enbo and his people, Chairman Jiang liked that he was loyal to himself and never had two hearts, and he did not want to do anything to Tang Enbo, so he put his mind on how to transfer troops in the direction of Xuzhou.

His own descendant troops were in a fierce battle with the Japanese army, and they couldn't withdraw at all, but what made him quite relieved was that the Gui army of Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi in Guangxi had already left Guangxi and was about to arrive in Anhui, and they could directly rush to Xuzhou to set up defenses, which was the elite unit of the Gui army, Liao Lei's 11th Group Army, with a strength of 120,000 troops.

In addition, the Sichuan army of Liu Xiang, the king of Sichuan, also went down the Yangtze River and arrived near Wuhan, where they could go ashore in Wuhan and go to Xuzhou.

Unexpectedly, at the critical moment, Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi, the kings of Guangxi, and Liu Xiang, the king of Sichuan, were willing to pull out the troops, Chairman Jiang nodded frequently, and the color of satisfaction was overflowing, and the battle of Xuzhou was no less important than the battle of Songhu, and he issued an order with the fate of the Military Commission of the Nationalist Government.

In view of the fact that the spearhead of the Japanese army was aimed at Xuzhou, the gateway to northern Jiangsu, and that this battle was inevitable, in order to unify the military order, the Xuzhou Theater Commander's Headquarters of the Military Committee was specially established, with Li Zongren as the commander and Bai Chongxi as the chief of staff, and the troops under its jurisdiction were the 11th Group Army of the Guizhou Army and the nine divisions of the Sichuan Army, which were specially responsible for the specific matters of the Battle of Xuzhou.

However, it took at least five days for the Gui army and the Sichuan army to reach Xuzhou, while it took three days for the Japanese army to leave Zhengzhou and arrive in Xuzhou, which required Tang Qiuli's troops to gain time for Li Zongren to arrive in Xuzhou and organize defense.

After Tang Qiuli received the telegram, he didn't see what he wanted to see from it, the old man still tried his best to defend Tang Enbo, the bastard, well, you are reluctant, I will do it for you, in Tang Qiuli's heart, Tang Enbo is already a dead man, but there is no time and no news from him now.

Li Zongren was able to rush to Xuzhou, so he was relieved a lot, it seems that the general direction of history has not changed, but the location has been changed to Xuzhou, not Taierzhuang, the Japanese army in the face of the army, but also far more than the historical records, the king of Guangxi, finally came to the foreground, the battle of Xuzhou, destined to make him famous all over the world, this is the inevitability of history.

However, Chairman Jiang's order made Tang Qiu's scalp tingle, and with Su Jingfeng's strength of less than 30,000 people, he blocked the Japanese army for more than five days, what are you kidding? Knowing that he can't do it, is this brave or stupid, Tang Qiuli can't say how he feels at this time, the battle of Kaifeng is inevitable, he lost Xuzhou, and he didn't have a good life.

He re-issued an order to Su Jingfeng, in Kaifeng, be sure to block the Japanese army for three days, and then, the troops withdrew to the area of Xinzheng in southern Henan to rest, and ordered Zhang Zizhong's troops to form a second line of defense in Shangqiu, Henan, to block the Japanese army for two days, and then, the troops withdrew to the area of Haozhou in Anhui Province to rest, and ordered the Dezhou command headquarters to transfer the strength of four brigades, led by deputy division commander Tang Qiusheng, to rush to the area of Xiao County to set up defenses, and form a third line of defense line, if the first two lines of defense did not reach the specified blocking time, they were broken through by the Japanese army, The third line of defense must ensure the completion of the blocking task.

If the Kaifeng and Shangqiu defense lines complete the task of blocking them, Tang Qiusheng's troops, let Kaixiao County, participate in the Xuzhou battlefield on the spot, and can coordinate with Li Zongren's Xuzhou Theater, and have already contacted the Military Commission to reissue the letter of appointment and appoint the deputy commander of the independent division, Tang Qiusheng, commander-in-chief of the Sulu Mobile Corps, and concurrently serve as the deputy commander of the Xuzhou Theater.

After a series of orders were issued, Tang Qiuli's heart was very uncomfortable, this was to use his own troops, desperately buy time for Li Zongren, and pay a great price every second, this is also to plug the hole for Tang Enbo, a bastard, he secretly begged God, let the Gui army and the Sichuan army arrive in Xuzhou on time, he can also lose some troops less, block the attack in sections, and minimize the loss of the troops.

He also considered letting Zhang Zizhong's troops rush to Kaifeng, and Su Jingfeng to form the Kaifeng defense line together, in order to strengthen the strength and depth of the defense line, hesitated, or dispelled this idea, Zhang Zizhong's troops rushed to Kaifeng, it would take at least seventy-two hours, he was afraid that Zhang Zizhong's troops, before they arrived in Kaifeng, the Japanese army had broken through Su Jingfeng's defensive position, and the troops on the march suddenly encountered a large number of Japanese troops, and there was a danger of being scattered.

This has nothing to do with the combat effectiveness of Su Jingfeng's troops and the bravery of the soldiers, it is purely the reason for the comparison of troops, he knows Su Jingfeng very well, this is a general who dares to fight tough battles, in all the troops of the independent division, the independent second brigade is known for being able to fight tough battles, he and Su Jingfeng's personal relationship is also very good, and he sincerely likes this straightforward Northeast man.

It was precisely because he knew Su Jingfeng that he was even more worried, with Su Jingfeng's character, fighting to the death and not retreating, that was the most normal, so he gave Su Jingfeng an order to block for only three days, just because he was afraid that he would be in danger if he hit the red eye

Su Jingfeng first replied, before the division commander's order arrived, the troops had already advanced to the periphery of Kaifeng to build a position, his way of playing was to consume the sharp spirit of the Japanese army in the periphery, retreat into Kaifeng City, use street fighting, relying on barricades, the Japanese army entangled in the streets and alleys, for this reason, he has evacuated the citizens of Kaifeng.

Tang Qiuli read Su Jingfeng's telegram, and was sincerely happy, this big man Su is not only brute, but also uses his brain, his plan is completely correct, not in the flat wilderness and the Japanese army with superior forces, but using the terrain in the city to fight street battles with the Japanese army, there is really him.

In the western suburbs of Kaifeng, looking at Su Jingfeng in the direction of Zhengzhou, he did not give the division commander a telegram so relaxed, the sound of guns and cannons in the direction of Xinxiang had already made him vigilant, and he had sent a reconnaissance unit to go deep into the area of Zhengzhou, and the news brought back made him worried.

After the loss of Zhengzhou, although the Japanese army did not move for the time being, Su Jingfeng still hurried to make meticulous preparations for the war, as a senior general who had fought with the Japanese for several years, he knew well the combat effectiveness and attack power of the Japanese soldiers, it was a group of beasts that were brainwashed by the emperor and poisoned by the spirit of bushido, coupled with superior troops, he knew what kind of pressure he and his troops would face, and after receiving the order from the division commander, he immediately ordered the troops to enter the preset position according to the original deployment.

At about 10 o'clock in the morning of 16 July, the reconnaissance unit reported that the vanguard of the Japanese army had reached the vicinity of Kaifeng, less than 10 kilometers away from the forward position, and its strength was an armored wing, and about 3 kilometers later, it was the main force of the Japanese infantry.

Su Jingfeng was stunned, he did not expect that the Japanese army would use so many armored assault forces, the front-line troops, there were no special anti-tank facilities, and there were only a dozen anti-tank guns, which could not stop the hundreds of tanks of the Japanese army.

The Kaifeng blocking battle was started in the fierce artillery fire, divided into several ways of rapid advance of the Japanese Yamazaki chariot wing, since leaving Zhengzhou, did not encounter any resistance along the way, the wing leader Yamazaki was full of confidence, if it was not for the strict order of Commander Isoya, not to open a distance of more than three kilometers with the infantry, according to his idea, almost to Shangqiu, dinner in Xuzhou.

There was a scream in the air, countless shells, the head of the head fell down, for a while, the ground shook, the smoke of gunpowder was everywhere, and the shells bloomed everywhere, shattering Yamazaki's illusion, he hurriedly covered the tank hatch, a shell exploded nearby, and the flying shrapnel hit the tank, making a trilling sound of metal impact, and the tank trembled violently, just like a boat sitting in a storm.

Yamazaki lay on the observation hole and looked at it, he felt that his scalp was numb, how many artillery guns did the Chinese army use to deal with him, and the route that the troops drove into was full of smoke and dust from the explosion, and the explosion points could not be distinguished, Yamazaki saw with his own eyes that one of his tanks was hit by several shells, igniting a sky-high fire, and thick smoke was billowing out.

Su Jingfeng was ruthless, he must kill most of the little devil's iron turtle at the first time, otherwise, these tanks are too threatening to the forward position, he concentrated all the artillery of the troops, and what he wants is this effect, the smoke and dust caused by the explosion of the shells permeated the battlefield, and from time to time Japanese tanks were hit and caught fire, and as soon as the battle began, it entered the white-hot process.

(To be continued)