Section 253 The collapse of the 29th Army

Since the independent regiment arrived in Taoyuan, the order for the transfer from above has not come down, and Shi is also happy to familiarize himself with the battlefield situation first, and then make the final combat preparations. After the usual busy work, it is to gather with everyone to discuss the situation along the Yangtze River, and be ready to attack at any time.

In the past few days, as the number of Japanese troops engaged in the offensive has been increasing, the pressure on the river defense line has also increased. Although the troops of the Sixth Theater have also experienced the test of war, to be honest, there is still a gap in combat effectiveness compared with the units of the Ninth Theater. Therefore, even though most of the most elite divisions of the Japanese army have been withdrawn now, and their strength is far less than at the beginning, the various units of the national army are still gradually showing a state of inadequacy.

Since the independent regiment of Stone is located in Taoyuan, where the military headquarters is located, it is possible to learn about the battle situation and intelligence on the front line in a timely manner.

The focus of the devil's attack is undoubtedly the two places of Shishou and Huarong captured in the Battle of Western Hubei, which are the bridgeheads on the west bank of the Yangtze River and are important areas that can expand the results of the battle, so for the sake of insurance, the main forces of the entire 29th Group Army are gathered here. Although the Japanese attack was fierce, because the units of the 29th Group Army had enough mental preparations for the severity of this battle, they stubbornly withstood the attack of the devils and did not let the Japanese army advance further west.

However, on the defense line of the 10th Group Army, because of the extremely targeted layout of the Japanese army and the huge gap in troops, the defense line was completely shaken, and then had to retreat into the line of Wangjiachang, Nuanshui Street, and Hongmiao, and the Japanese army immediately broke through the river defense and entered the area west of the Yangtze River, and immediately gathered heavy troops to continue the attack to the west, attacking the defense line of the 10th Group Army on the whole line.

The commander of the 10th Group Army is General Wang Jingjiu, General Wang's subordinates are the 66th Army and the 79th Army, although the strength is not weak, but compared with the Japanese army in front, it is still much worse, the Japanese troops attacking the 10th theater are the 58th Division and the 39th Division, but this battle is the main attack of the devil, and the 3rd Division, 13th Division and 34th Division on the middle battlefield can support the left and right flanks at any time. On the contrary, on the side of the Sixth Theater of the National Army, because the combat intentions of the devils were not clear in the early stage, the Jiang Defense Army was not able to mobilize the Jiangfang Army to the south, resulting in a shortage of troops on the whole front.

Sun Zhonglian, the commander of the theater of operations, also had no choice, his sixth theater not only had to guard the Yangtze River, but also guarded the gate of the capital, and the burden on his shoulders was too heavy to dare to have any negligence, which also led to his troop deployment and great restrictions. Like the two armies of the 10th Group Army, they have to garrison a place 167 miles long by the river, how can such scattered forces deal with the concentrated forces of the devils?

Wang Jingjiu, commander of the 10th Group Army, had no choice, he only had so many people in his hands, and the devils not only had a single combat strength far superior to them, but also had an absolute advantage in terms of troops, how could such a battle be won? But he can't withdraw, the Yangtze River line has already been lost, if he withdraws again, he will have to withdraw to the second line of defense, and then the flank of the entire 29th Army will be exposed to the attack of the devil's left flank army, which will be extremely dangerous.

For this reason, after the 10th Army withdrew to the main position of the first-line defense line, it was a desperate decisive battle and entangled with the devils.

And the change occurred at this time, after assisting the left flank army to break through the Yangtze River defense line, the Japanese army of the middle route saw that the position of the 10th Army was blocked, and immediately turned south and attacked the position of the 29th Army. The purpose of the Japanese army was very clear, that is, to be able to encircle and annihilate the troops on the front line of the national army, inflict heavy losses on the defenders, and make the departments dare not send troops to reinforce the Southeast Asian battlefield. The tenacious will to fight of the 10th Army obviously gave the Japanese army a headache, after all, in the face of such a desperate army, even if it could be completely annihilated, its own losses would be terrifying, and such losses were unbearable for them at the moment.

The 11th Army has already had several units transferred to the Pacific theater, and now the troops can hold the territory in front of them, and if the damage is too severe, it will be more than worth the loss. Therefore, under such circumstances, the Japanese army adjusted the focus of the attack and hit the 29th Army with its idea.

At the beginning of the battle, the 29th Group Army fought bloody battles with devils in Shishou, Huarong and other places, and the fight was very tenacious. But because their defense area is not like the 10th Group Army, there is the Yangtze River to rely on, so the fight is extremely laborious, and the losses are also huge, on the other hand, the devil's 116th Division has been in Dongting Lake, has been threatening the rear of the 29th Group Army from the water. After the Yangtze River defense line was lost, when the troops could no longer keep up, Chief Sun immediately ordered the 29th Army to retreat immediately. After retreating to the water, he relied on the water to intercept the enemy.

However, the problem lies in the retreat of the 29th Army. The retreat method of the 29th Group Army was to evacuate in an alternate cover way, that is, the 44th Army first withdrew to the area of Yanxian to block the enemy, and the 73rd Army withdrew directly to Shimen behind Yanxian County to reorganize the defense line relying on national defense fortifications, and then cover the withdrawal of the 44th Army after they gained a firm foothold here, so that the devils would not be given an opportunity to take advantage of.

But after the 73rd Army withdrew into Shimen, it was dumbfounded, it stands to reason that Shimen, as the central point of Xiangxi's defense and as a hub connecting all directions, must build complete national military fortifications. But when they arrived, they found that what was in front of everyone was nothing more than a 20-mile-long skirmisher trench!

What can such a fortification do? It is too unrealistic to rely on a trench to block the progress of the devil. In desperation, the 73rd Army had no choice but to seize the time to dig field fortifications around. However, the 44th Army did not know that Shimen was here, and estimated that the friendly troops had entered Shimen, so they began to retreat according to the original plan, and directly withdrew across the water and retreated to Cili to rest.

As a result, after the devils killed the water, the officers and men of the 73rd Army, who had just dug half of the fortifications, poured the frieze, if there were complete national defense fortifications, they could hold on to the spot and wait for help, and hold on until the friendly troops arrived, then they could relieve the siege of Shimen, and use this as a key point to engage in a tug-of-war with the devils. However, in the current situation, where is the 73rd Army, which is already exhausted, the opponent of the enemy forces of the two divisions of the Japanese army? Soon after the engagement, the defense areas were already full of holes.

At this time, Shangfeng prepared their order to retreat, and the 73rd Army, which had no intention of fighting, immediately broke through, and at dusk on the 15th, leaving only one division after the 73rd Army broke through and retreated to Cili, but in the case of being outflanked by the devils on the back road, the losses can be imagined, especially the troops after the break, which was almost wiped out.

From the withdrawal of the 29th Group Army to the area around Yanxian County to the defeat of the 73rd Army in Shimen, it was only a short period of two days, and its speed was amazing, so that the departments did not even have time to react.

In fact, on the 15th, when he learned that the 29th Army was about to be unable to hold on, the commander of the Sixth Theater had already ordered Wang Yaowu to immediately command his 74th Army and 100th Army to go north to reinforce the 29th Army. According to the original plan, the Yangtze River was naturally the first-line defensive position, and the subsequent Cili, Shimen, and Yanxian were the second line of defense.

But now, only about half a month before the start of the battlefield, the entire line of troops has almost collapsed, and this situation is something that the commanders did not imagine before.

Shi and others because they were able to understand the battle situation on the front line at the first time, so they have always been very aware of the situation on the battlefield, and when they received the marching order from the military headquarters, everyone in the independent regiment couldn't help but look at each other, and finally their eyes couldn't help but fall on the faces of the two battalion commanders with a tall sledgehammer and a beard.

They obviously didn't expect that the development of things was completely said by these two guys, originally thought that there should be no bloody battle to fight this time, but such an idea is obviously too optimistic, now the collapse of the 29th Army is imminent, the second line of defense is only Cili one, after Cili is lost, the devil will open the passage to the capital, this is really not good news.

In fact, with the current strength of the devil, they definitely do not have the strength to go west, and what they are worried about is not this problem, what everyone is worried about is that the second line of defense that was originally planned is now about to fall into the hands of the devil. Moreover, the devil also divided the troops of the entire Sixth War Zone in two from the water, which is the deadliest thing. Although the devils were in the middle of the 10th Army and other troops, the troops on both sides were also at risk of being broken by the devils, and both sides were in a very dangerous situation at this time, and the slightest carelessness would be a big defeat.

The fact that the devil dared to take risks in such a situation was something that officers at all levels of the national army did not expect. In their opinion, in the case of several battlefield losses, the devil should be more and more conservative. But at this moment, they have to admit that the devil really has a strong reason, not to mention anything else, this courage alone is not something that most of the officers of the national army can have.

After receiving the order, Wang Yaowu's corps also immediately left Taoyuan to go north for reinforcements, and Shi Zhongcheng's 100th Army was to kill the Linyan line in the northeast, wanting to jam the key point of Lintan before the devil went south, blocking the road for the devil to go south. The 74th Army is personally commanded by Wang Yaowu, and goes north to Cili to support, as long as Cili is taken back and the 10th Group Army can be contacted, then the strength of the troops will greatly form a joint force, giving the devils a flank attack from both sides, not to mention recovering the loss, at least temporarily blocking the devil's troops and stabilizing the battle situation.

In this operation, the 57th Division was left alone in Changde.