Section 50 The Battle of the Counteroffensive

As a unit stationed in the forward positions of Shanggao, Yifeng, and Wanzai, and as a unit valued by the commanders of the Ninth Theater, the 74th Army obviously could not stay out of the matter, and it was only a matter of time before it entered the war. This point is not only clear to Wang Yaowu, the new commander of the 74th Army, but also to the officers under the 74th Army. As the officers and soldiers of the 74th Army, who have been at the forefront since Luodian and participated in almost all the major battles in East and Central China, are not afraid of war, on the contrary, when they hear the news that the devil has been killed, they are full of energy.

In particular, Wang Yaowu, the new commander of the 74th Army, although the reorganization of the troops is only halfway through, he believes that the "Iron Army" under his command has enough strength to cope with this tough battle. Even in Wang Yaowu's view, if the 74th Army did not withdraw to the Shanggao front line to rest, but continued to stay in Gao'an, there would be no loss of Gao'an and Xiangfuguan at all, and even if Fengxin's devils dared to divide their troops to attack westward, they would have great confidence that they could take Fengxin and repeat the good show of Wanjialing encircling and annihilating the 106th Division, as for the Japanese army in Nanchang, the 74th Army was stuck in their throat, and if this army was not defeated, they dared to take further action?

Probably considering that the unfavorable situation after the loss of Gao'an will affect the defense of the entire Changsha, this time, the commander of the theater arranged the 74th Army into the battle sequence of counterattacking Gao'an, and asked them to cooperate with the 32nd Army to regain Gao'an. The independent regiment that received the notice naturally had mixed reactions, and it was naturally a good thing to take Gao'an to consolidate the outer defense line, but what about Yifeng's defense here? Although the friendly forces of the 60th Army were stationed at the junction between Yifeng and Fengxin, the 60th Army had just lost Huibu, and could they hold Yifeng? This is not compared to other places, the current Yifeng has the land of the soldiers of the independent regiment, and it is still in the process of creating value.

Shi is naturally very clear about the thoughts of these brothers, but the military order is like a mountain, if Shangfeng really wants them to go to attack Gao'an, he can't disobey the military order, right?

On September 20, the combat order of the military headquarters was finally issued, and Shi and the others, who received the order, did not react until this time, as an independent regiment directly under the military headquarters, they were no longer the same as before. A very simple example, in the past, in the 74th Army, although the 58th Division was the starting father of Commander Yu, but in fact the most capable unit was the 51st Division, and in the 51st Division, the strongest combat effectiveness of the unit was undoubtedly the 302nd Regiment.

But now it's different, as an independent regiment of the army, as the trump card force in the hands of Wang Yaowu and the most relied on military force, the use of the independent regiment will be extra cautious and careful, good steel is used on the blade, only when the battle is most critical, Wang Yaowu will send them to appear, in order to achieve the final effect. Therefore, even though the officers in the theater had great expectations for the 74th Army this time, Wang Yaowu still did not put the independent regiment into the combat sequence, but asked the 57th Division to go forward to reinforce the 32nd Army, and let the 151st Regiment of the 51st Division (formerly the 301st Regiment of the 151st Brigade) stationed in Shanggao as a reserve. As for Yifeng's independent regiment, it was ordered to closely monitor the movements of the Japanese army entering from Huibu to the west and protect the entire territory of Yifeng. As for the battle on the front line of Gao'an, he didn't even mention it.

This is not that Wang Yaowu is arrogant, but that he has mastered the key on the battlefield after fighting for so many years. This kind of battle is not a matter of strength at all, if you want to talk about the strength of troops, the 32nd Army, the 58th Army, the 60th Army and other troops together do not know how much more than the 106th Division of the Japanese Army, even if the general combat power of the Japanese army is higher than that of the officers and men of the National Army, but 3 times the strength of the other side, there must be a fighting force, even if it is the worst plan to defeat the Japanese army, but it can definitely give the Japanese army a hard blow, and they will be terrified.

On the evening of the 21st, Wang Yaowu personally went to the front line to command the 57th Division to fight, and under the cover of night, the officers and men of the 57th Division launched a fierce attack in the direction of Gao'an. At this time, it has been four months since the 74th Army withdrew from Gao'an, during which the reorganization of the 57th Division has been completed, although the personnel has not increased compared with the past, but because of the downsizing of combat units, the combat effectiveness of each regiment has been greatly improved, and the three main infantry regiments have been killed in three ways towards Gao'an, and the momentum of their attacks has even exceeded the strength of one army of other troops. The 57th Division is a strong general brought out by Shi Zhongcheng, the soldiers are basically Yantai people, they have the unique advantages of Shandong people, tall and burly, sincere and righteous, hardworking and brave, the troops composed of these people are naturally good at fighting tough battles and bloody battles, and the troops under the jurisdiction of the 57th Division do not give up every time they fight until the last soldier, which is also due to the bloody nature of these soldiers.

Under the cover of night, the assault troops of the 57th Division attacked the Japanese defense line in waves, fighting in the dark, the power of artillery was weakened to the minimum, and the two sides were short of arms, fighting for every inch of land. Although the Japanese army occupies Gao'an and has a defensive advantage, however, the small city of Gao'an has become a ruin after several bloody battles. Not to mention a solid position, even a decent house could not be found, and the two armies could only fight in the ruins, fighting for the strategic initiative of the two armies. After several months of reorganization, the 106th Division not only replaced the division commander, chief of staff, brigade commander and other officers, but also replenished the soldiers, weapons and ammunition. In particular, after more than a year of bloody battles, this special division has also grown a lot in the war, and those veterans who have fought a lot of bloody battles have the calm demeanor of a regular division and regiment, and in the face of this kind of night warfare that they are not good at, they still use the advantage of firepower to block the areas demarcated during the day and block the enemy's advance. The sound of bullets flying densely was enough to make ordinary troops not have the slightest desire to move forward, let alone capture the opponent's position in the face of such a fierce attack of the enemy.

The 57th Division was pressed step by step under the command of Wang Yaowu, Shi Zhongcheng, Yu Chengwan and other commanders, and each of them commanded a regiment, although they could not break through the Japanese defense line in a short time, but they were also overwhelmed, and they did not dare to stop their firepower for a moment, and the two sides fell into a stalemate for a while. Although the national army did not make any substantial progress, it also gave great pressure to the Japanese army in Gao'an, especially the night attack, the Japanese army did not know how many national troops there were, only heard the sound of shouting and killing everywhere, and the sound of guns and cannons everywhere, the feeling of being an enemy everywhere undoubtedly put them under heavy pressure.

Just when the 57th Division was in a stalemate here, the 32nd Army, which had not been launched, finally exerted its strength. When it comes to the ability to hold a head-on relationship with the Japanese army, the 32nd Army obviously cannot be compared with the 74th Army, and even a division compared to the 57th Division is ashamed of itself. However, the friendly units of the 57th Division were fighting against the Japanese army head-on, and the 32nd Army, which was assisted by the side, was under much less pressure, and they did not need to face the Japanese army head-on, and they were also active.

Taking advantage of the fact that the Japanese army in Gao'an was dragged there by the 57th Division and could not move, the 32nd Army imitated the tactics of the 74th Army at night and launched an attack from the flank of Gao'an.

In Gao'an, the national army and the Japanese army have been entangled with each other for several months, and the terrain and terrain everywhere have long been very familiar, and they naturally know what to do when they start fighting, especially the 106th Division that was almost surrounded and annihilated by the national army in Wanjialing, and the importance of the back road is far higher than that of other troops.

In fact, before the 57th Division launched the attack, the 106th Division had already transferred a brigade from Gao'an to the west to complete the strategic deployment arranged by the military headquarters, and easily took Gao'an, which confirmed their speculation about the great reduction in the strength of the national army, which gave them room for adjustment, in order to achieve the combat goal in the shortest possible time. However, what they didn't expect was that not long after the troops on the front line of Gao'an, Huibu, and Xiangfuguan were withdrawn, the national army troops actually organized a counterattack, and the 74th Army, which had made the Japanese army suffer enough, appeared on the battlefield again, which made the Japanese army very uncomfortable, and the previous withdrawal of troops seemed to be a bit reckless at the moment. Just imagine, if there is still a brigade of troops, even if the 32nd Army forcibly crosses the Jinjiang River, Xiangfuguan is safe enough, and there is even a great possibility that this army will be inflicted heavy losses on this army by virtue of the stability of the fortifications and positions, and it will be even more difficult for the national army troops to take back Gao'an.

However, there are not so many ifs in this world, especially when marching and fighting, it is unpredictable, and a mistake in judgment may cause changes in the overall situation. Just like the Japanese 106th Division troops who are still holding on to Gao'an, there are only two choices in front of them, either to defend to the end, hold on to Gao'an until the main force reaches the combat goal, and then come back to meet them, or retreat and find a way after getting out of the danger of being encircled!

The final choice of the Japanese commanders was the latter, and when they received the news that the number of enemy troops crossing the river was far greater than they imagined, they immediately decided to abandon Gao'an and withdraw to the Fengxin line to continue to hold on. Fengxin is different from Gao'an, which has been operated by them for several months, the position is extremely strong, and the fortifications are quite complete, which is also the reason why the national army troops in Fengxin did nothing during the counterattack on Nanchang. Even now that half of their forces had moved westward, and the enemy was outnumbered than before, they were still sure to hold on.

In the face of the brave attack of the 57th Division, the retreat of the Japanese army was naturally not easy, and they had no choice but to choose the way of gecko tail breaking, leaving a large group of troops to fight and retreat, in order to delay enough time for the main force to leave the battlefield, as a result, this part of the force was completely annihilated by the 57th Division in the area of Chazi Mountain in less than half an hour, and at the same time, the troops of the 32nd Army also converged from the direction of Xiangfuguan and rebuilt the Gao'an defense line with the 57th Division.