Chapter 447: Baoding changes hands

After the troops of the independent division were transferred to the city of Baoding, with the strength of two brigades, they entangled with the Japanese army in the city, and used the city to operate the street fighting fortifications for more than a month, attrition and delay the movement of the Japanese army.

The Japanese army with more than 100,000 troops, broke into the city of Baoding, that is, the defenders resisted fiercely, suffered heavy casualties, the advance was blocked, only occupied the northern part of Baoding City, during the period, the Japanese army with the size of a wing, the defenders carried out many assaults, all failed, the independent division's street fighting fortifications, has been repaired to the ground, everywhere is a point of fire, no matter which direction the Japanese army attacked, will be hit by the fierce fire of the Jiāo fork.

In the afternoon, the Japanese army recruited planes to help in the battle, and the bombshells bombed the city of Baoding to almost ruins, and the Japanese planes were hit by the anti-aircraft fire of the independent division, and after the loss of seven planes, the Japanese army sent an army air force to North China, which was already a frightened bird, and the losses in the previous few days were unbearable for it, so it ended hastily.

At this time, the troops of the 3rd Brigade and the 5th Brigade of the Independent Division in the city had all been transferred to underground fortifications, and the Japanese air firepower did not cause effective casualties to the troops, and then, the Japanese army began to attack, and the defenders' firepower was as dense and fierce as before, and the Japanese army failed to attack several times and retreated to the occupied area in the north of the city.

Tang Qiuli, with two brigades of less than 30,000 troops, stranded and entangled more than 100,000 people in the main attack force of the Japanese army in the middle of the road, which can be described as extremely bold, and it can also be seen that the independent division was preparing in Baoding for more than a month, and it seems that he had long expected today's battle.

When the Japanese commander was fighting with the defenders in the middle of the road, the remaining troops of about 100,000 people, divided into left and right wings, passed around Baoding City, surrounded Baoding, cut off its retreat, and completely annihilated the troops of the Independent Division in Baoding City.

Jī battle to the evening, the Japanese left and right flanks surrounded the troops, after losing more than 10,000 people, shocked and then retreated, the Japanese commander tried to fail, so put all the troops into the battle for Baoding City, the battle in the city became more and more fierce, under the attack of the superior Japanese army, the only three and five brigades of the independent division in the city, resisted step by step, and gradually retreated to the south of Baoding in an orderly manner, and the battle line was fixed in the middle of Baoding City in the evening of the same day.

At night, the city of Baoding is full of firelight, burning houses and various buildings, billowing smoke, the fire reflects half of the sky, on the night of September 134, Tang Qiuli commanded the troops, evacuated Baoding, at that time, the city has been empty, all the residents evacuated, before the retreat, Tang Qiuli concentrated the artillery of two artillery brigades, and suddenly carried out indiscriminate shelling of the central and northern parts of Baoding City, lasting a xiǎo time.

It was impossible to predict the effect of the shelling, only received a report from the special operations detachment operating nearby, Baoding City emitted thick black smoke, and there was a very strong smell of burning animal bodies, suspected to be the Japanese army burning the corpses of soldiers killed in battle, on the 14th, the Japanese army occupied Baoding, and what was obtained was an empty city, and there were ruins everywhere, almost deserted.

Tang Qiuli set up an ambush circle in the mountains around Boye and Wenren, hoping that the Japanese army would chase after and annihilate its vanguard troops, but it was unsuccessful, the Japanese army did not advance, and was busy arranging a defensive line on the front line of Baoding and establishing a puppet regime.

Tang Qiuli met the Japanese army with 100,000 troops, more than 20,000 enemies were annihilated in the early stage, and the number of enemies destroyed in the later period was about 25,000, and the battle ended with the Japanese occupation of Baoding, an important town in southern Hebei.

Tang Qiuli believes that Baoding is isolated in southern Hebei, close to Pingjin, such as a fish in the throat, and is an important node on the Pinghan Road, the Japanese army can not tolerate falling into the hands of the independent division, and will definitely occupy it with heavy troops, and repeatedly compete with the superior Japanese army in Baoding, the independent division can not withstand the attrition, he has long had the intention of giving up Baoding, and will not carry out a large-scale main decisive battle with the Japanese army because of a lonely city, with the current strength of the independent division, it does not have the conditions for a decisive battle with the main force of the Japanese army, and has achieved the goal of killing and injuring a large number of Japanese troops, and it can be stopped. Moreover, in a few days of fighting, the casualties of the independent division were close to the strength of one of the main brigades.

Xiangyue Qingji believes that the occupation of Baoding, the North China Dispatch Army in the strategic situation, the advantage, the entire southern Hebei area, all fall under the control of the imperial army, and the geographical location of Baoding, like a fist stretched out in the Pingjin area, the west can enter Shanxi, the south can attack Henan, the east can go straight to Shandong, can be said to occupy the geographical advantage, left and right, more importantly, is to occupy an important hub of the Pinghan Railway.

Although the Imperial Japanese Army suffered certain losses, it also inflicted heavy losses on the always arrogant North China Independent Division, and avenged the previous broken imperial warriors, and the price paid was very worthwhile.

Kazuki Kiyoji still has a little unspeakable Xiǎo thoughts, since taking over the position of the commander of Tashiro Wanichiro's North China Dispatch Army, in the hands of Tang Qiuli, he has suffered a lot, and has been lost more than 300,000 people before and after, and the entire Itagaki Division has been wiped out.

He urgently needs a victory to save the unfavorable situation, occupy Baoding, it is the pillow sent to his side when he is sleepy, he does not dare to be careless, he is afraid that the division of troops will be left alone, and Tang Qiuli will find a flaw, this branch of the devil, the dòng observation of the battle, almost demonic, so, with a heavy army group to attack, he can no longer afford to lose.

His current idea is to occupy Baoding, as for the North China Independent Division to kill Tang Qiuli, he has not thought about it, so, the troops surrounding Baoding on the left and right flanks were hit by Tang Qiuli's equal forces, he did not hesitate at all, immediately joined forces in one place, and attacked Baoding with all his might, this battle, he achieved his goal, and also won praise, this is the first time since the start of the war in North China of the Empire, the first time to seize the city controlled by the independent division, it can be said that the significance is heavy, the position of Xiangyue Qingji, done firmly, It is also possible to hold high the head that was once half-bowed.

The troops of the independent division withdrew from the south of Hebei and completely retreated to the south, and re-established their positions on the front line of Shijiazhuang, Tang Qiuli hoped that Xiangyue Qingji would launch an offensive again, and the vast area could disperse the Japanese army's forces and find a suitable target for the troops.

However, from mid-September to late September, the Japanese army in North China had no intention of continuing to attack southward, but was busy building strong fortifications, setting up puppet regimes, and establishing various puppet organizations in the Beijing-Tianjin-Baozhou Triangle region.

Tang Qiuli had organized several battles, but because the Japanese army was unmoved, it was obviously not a wise move to attack the heavily fortified and heavily armed cities of the Japanese army, and the plan fell through, and it seemed that Kazuki Kiyoji did not intend to fight with Tang Qiuli at all and engage in a large-scale jiāo battle in the vast area of Hebei.

The battlefield in North China was so dull that Tang Qiuli almost went crazy because the Japanese army stuck to the spot and had no chance to destroy the enemy, while the Songhu battlefield in East China was confusing, and more than 40,000 remnants of Matsui Shigen's defeated soldiers wandered in the sea off the mouth of the Yangtze River for more than 20 days, neither attacking nor retreating, so yīn stuck to the vicinity of Shanghai.

However, Chairman Chiang reduced the military strength of the Shanghai garrison from the current 200,000 to 100,000, and some units of the Central Army withdrew from Shanghai one after another, reorganized the structure of the Shanghai army, abolished the establishment of the Ninth and Tenth Group Armies, and appointed Zhang Zhizhong as the commander of the Shanghai garrison.

The Tenth Group Army reverted to the number of the Sulu Mobile Corps of the North China Independent Division, the Changfeng Division withdrew from Shanghai and returned to the system, and Zhang Fakui's Eighth Group Army retained its original number and continued to undertake the garrison tasks around Hangzhou Bay, but it did not strengthen the main division of the Central Army and did not improve its equipment, and it was still the original miscellaneous army and local security regiment troops.

Chairman Chiang sent another telegram to ask Tang Qiuli's opinion: In view of the fact that the fighting in the Songhu area has subsided, the Japanese army in North China is huge, and the Japanese army is unable to attack Shanghai, and there is no need to maintain a huge military strength in Shanghai, whether the Sulu Mobile Corps can be transferred back to the original defensive area of Xuzhou in northern Jiangsu to strengthen the defense line of the Yellow River because there is no need to stay in the area around Suzhou and Hangzhou.

This is Tang Qiuli's face, coupled with the Battle of Songhu, Changfeng's troops, fought quite well, became the pillar and backbone of the defense, killed the most Japanese troops, the old man knew that it was not good to use up people, so he kicked away, besides, when Songhu was nervous, he still asked Zhang Zhizhong to ask others to send reinforcements, so he asked Tang Qiuli's opinion, if it was someone else, a paper order, you have to move the nest if you don't move the nest, there is no room for negotiation.

Tang Qiuli couldn't figure it out, why did the old man think that there would be no problem in Shanghai? The Japanese have not been beaten yet, and they will not stop there, the current situation is calm before the storm, besides, my troops stay in East China, it is for you to take care of your home and nursing home, and they don't eat or drink yours, and even the bullets are transferred from the Taihang Mountain base area, and you don't use the central government to supplement a single grain, what's in the way of you? Are you still afraid that you won't succeed if you take away Nanjing?

Tang Qiuli sent a telegram back to Chairman Chiang: "The current situation in Shanghai is not as clear as it seems, the remnants of the Japanese army sent to Shanghai are still in the open sea, their intentions are very suspicious, and the Japanese have not yet been able to attack, Qiuli thinks that the battle in Songhu will be turned into a war, and Tang Qiusheng's troops will stay in Suzhou and Hangzhou in case of emergency. ”

After receiving Tang Qiuli's reply, Chairman Jiang didn't know how to feel, anyway, he no longer insisted that the Sulu Mobile Corps return to the Xuzhou area, and the matter would be over, and he didn't think much of Tang Qiuli's prediction that a new round of war would break out in the Songhu area, thinking that Tang Qiuli was too worried, and Tang Qiuli was more depressed.

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