Section 74 Kill to the highest

This was the first battle in which Li Tianxia commanded as the commander of the 51st Division, and before that, the division commander Wang Yaowu had temporarily replaced Li Tianxia as the division commander for a long time because of his ill health, and also let him command the operation in the Gao'an area, and achieved certain results. However, at that time, after all, he was the acting division commander, and the achievements were not on his head, this operation, after more than a year of rest and reorganization, Li Tianxia was actually full of confidence and wanted to come up with a little achievement, but the result backfired, although the 51st Division made a little achievement in the area of Ducheng, but after all, it lost Ducheng, and lost the strongest defense line at the far end of the south bank of the Jinjiang River, which made him very angry, although the military department did not say anything, he himself was very angry, and called the three regiment commanders together and scolded him. However, he can only do this, the three regiment commanders, one is the deputy division commander Zhou Zhidao's person, and the other two are Zhang Lingfu's old subordinates, although Li Tianxia is the division commander, there is no descendant army. The words he spoke, in the hands of several regiment commanders, were completely left ear in, right ear out.

After the loss of Ducheng, the right flank of the national army was greatly passive, although after the defensive line shrunk, there were two main divisions of the 51st division and the 58th division stationed on the line of Stone Street and Gray Port, but there was no depth, and the two infantry divisions were squeezed by the Japanese army on the battlefield of less than 30 miles, and completely lost the ability to be flexible and adaptable, so they could only defend the city!

At the same time, the Japanese troops on the middle route, because of the smooth progress of the friendly forces on both flanks, broke through the defense line of the national army all the way and advanced to the area of Guanqiao and Sixi. Of the national troops defending in this area, only the 57th Division of the 74th Army was facing the attack of a division of the Japanese army, and Yu Chengwan, the new commander of the 57th Division, was fearless. Since fighting side by side with the 302nd Regiment commanded by Shi in Dacheng in the 28th year of the Republic of China, Yu Chengwan has seen what a real strong army is. At that time, he commanded Zhou Yizhong's 337 Regiment, and Shi's subordinates were also a regiment, but only those who had really seen the battle of the 302 Regiment understood that the soldiers under his command were not at the same level as them, and in the face of the attack of a wing of the Japanese army, the 302 Regiment could easily resist with only one battalion of troops, and had the ability to counterattack at any time.

Although he has just been promoted to the commander of the 57th Division, in fact, he has already begun to adjust the allocation of all departments and the training of the troops a long time ago, and Shi Zhongcheng, the commander of the 57th Division at the time, also recognized Yu Chengwan's actions, and Yu Chengwan's consistent pragmatic and hard-working work has undoubtedly won Shi Zhongcheng's trust.

Up to now, the combat effectiveness of the 57th Division has also been revealed, since the Japanese army attacked Sixi, he has commanded his subordinates to carry out decisive counterattacks, and constantly launched counterattacks, its ferocious fighting style and tenacious style have made the division commander of the 34th Division of the Japanese Army have a headache. After seeing the strong combat power of the 57th Division, Oga Shigeru also strengthened his determination to enter the upper ranks, and did not take this opportunity to eliminate these troops in the 9th Theater, and when the 33rd Division left, their life in the Nanchang area would definitely be very difficult due to the sharp decline in strength.

Just when he was thinking about how to break through Sixi as soon as possible and enter Shanggao, a bad news came from the front line, the 2nd Brigade of the 216th Wing was attacked by the enemy when crossing Surabaya, and the entire brigade was almost wiped out! This news immediately made Oga Shigeru stunned on the spot, and he couldn't believe it was true for a long time.

This is a whole infantry brigade, according to the opinion of the former commander of the 11th Army, Okamura Ninji, enough to be worth the strength of an infantry division of the national army. However, the reality in front of him is extremely cruel, and the strength of a whole brigade of more than 1,000 people is gone. Oga Shigeru, who came back to his senses, couldn't help but go crazy. As the commander of this battle, he knew that this battle was actually fought for their division, and if his division could not take advantage of this opportunity to achieve results, it would be impossible to say that it would be impossible to say that no matter how great the losses were and how great the resistance was, they would definitely achieve the expected goals. At this time, he received the news that the mixed 20th Brigade had conquered Ducheng, and when he heard the news, he couldn't help but be overjoyed, and immediately ordered the 20th Brigade to transfer a part of its troops across the river to assist the 34th Division in opening the gap from the front.

On March 20, the 34th Division, reinforced by the 20th Brigade, also launched a fierce attack on the position of the 57th Division again. At the same time, he was also a little dissatisfied with the current battle situation. The 57th Division's battles during this period of time really impressed him, and under the command of Yu Chengwan, a division of the 57th Division, which was already extremely good at fighting tough battles, was able to hold on to the devils. However, after all, the strength of a division is a little thinner, especially compared with a division of the devils, it is even less at the same level, the strength of the Japanese army is twice that of the 54th Division, this kind of battle has far behind the Japanese army, often rarely appears, the 57th Division can still withstand the onslaught of the devils in the Sixi area, it is even more unthinkable. Compared with the 51st Division, which was originally very good at fighting tough battles, it couldn't even withstand a newly formed mixed brigade of devils, and he couldn't help but shake his head and sigh.

This is not the main thing, the most important thing is that it has been several days since the beginning of the battle, and only their 74th Army is fighting on the frontal battlefield, and the 100,000 troops of the 19th Group Army, only one of them is on the frontal battlefield, which inevitably makes him have some thoughts in his heart, even if he wants to encircle and annihilate the 33rd Division on the right side of the devil, at least he must ensure that the middle battlefield can withstand it, right? Could it be that Shangfeng really thinks that the 74th Army can deal with the Japanese army with the same strength?

Just when Wang Yaowu was thinking about what to do next, Luo Zhuoying, commander-in-chief of the 19th Group Army, sent an order, the encirclement and annihilation battle on the left flank battlefield was about to begin, and the 72nd Army and the 78th Army and other troops were already in place.

Wang Yaowu had no choice but to transfer the 58th Division from the front line of Stone Street for reinforcements, and Commander Luo's order had been issued, so he naturally could only grit his teeth and insist, and from his personal point of view, the 74th Army had won successive battles since the Battle of Songhu, and never took the initiative to retreat until the last resort, and now that the command of the 74th Army was in his hands, he could not lose the face of the soldiers of the whole army.

On the evening of the 20th, a regiment of the 58th Division crossed the river and headed north under the command of Deputy Division Commander Zhang Lingfu to reinforce the 57th Division. However, the Japanese army obviously went crazy, and mobilized heavy troops overnight to storm the position of the 57th Division, and that night, the 57th Division, which had been fighting bloodily for several days, finally could not support it under the condition of heavy casualties, and Liutang Village and other places at the junction of Guanqiao and Sixi were broken through. The flanks of the army were exposed to the attack of the Japanese army, and Yu Chengwan had no choice but to order the defensive line to be contracted, abandon Sixi, and retreat to the area around Shanggao to continue the battle. A regiment of the 58th Division, which had just crossed the river not long ago, also withdrew to defend the north bank of the Jinjiang River.

On the 21st, the attack of the Japanese 34th Division became more and more fierce, and after successfully taking Sixi, it was less than 30 miles away from Shanggao, and it was only a stone's throw away from the established combat goal.

The 57th Division retreated to the line of Yuntou Mountain and Xiangu Ridge, and took advantage of the geographical advantage to hold the defensive line. However, soon after, the Japanese flying group arrived, and the dense aircraft threw in countless * in a very short time, and the Yuntou Mountain position was completely flooded with artillery fire, and the hill was almost flattened. However, the 57th Division, which had no way to retreat, under the command of Yu Chengwan, fought to the death against the Japanese planes and artillery, and stubbornly blocked the 34th Division to the north of Yuntou Mountain.

Just when the fierce battle on the front line of Shanggao was in full swing, and Wang Yaowu even transferred the field supplementary regiments of all divisions to the front line, the independent regiment was idle on the front line of Huaqiao. Although the reports of the battle continued to reach them from all over the world, Shi never received the order to join the battle, which greatly displeased his group of fierce generals.

The 70th Army didn't know what method it used, it had already attracted the 33rd Division, and in the past few days, the 33rd Division was like a demon, and it really changed its direction from Wuqiao to the west to attack Hualintai, Shangfu and other places, and the distance between the 34th Division and the 34th Division was stretched to 80 miles, and because the 33rd Division deviated from the original direction of attack, whether it was the 33rd Division or the 34th Division, a situation of a lone army had been formed, and the conditions for encirclement and annihilation had appeared.

The 33rd Division did not know whether it was because it was absent-minded or because it was unfamiliar with the surrounding terrain, so it plunged headlong into the trap set by the 70th Army, and was blocked in the area of Monk Ridge and Huangbuling to the east of Shangfu. Immediately, the 72nd Army and the 78th Army, which had already been ambushed on the side, appeared from the two directions of Bailutan and Nanling, one south and one north, and the Japanese 33rd Division was caught off guard and was besieged within a radius of 15 miles.

When the news reached the headquarters of the Ninth Theater, everyone couldn't help cheering, the three armies surrounded a division of the devil, both in strength and strength, they had the upper hand, as long as they could encircle or annihilate or severely damage this division, this battle would be a big victory! The news also reached the headquarters of the Huaqiao Independent Regiment, and everyone couldn't help but be jubilant, after waiting for so long, they finally waited for the opportunity to make a move, and either they didn't fight, and a dozen was a big battle to encircle and annihilate a division and regiment, and it made people feel excited when they thought about it.

Just when Shi Shi gathered everyone to prepare to go out to participate in the battle, Chief of Staff Wu Zihuai rushed back with a disgraced face, and when he saw Shi Shi, he could no longer hold back the anger in his heart and scolded angrily: "Tuanza, Shangfeng let us quickly make battle preparations to prevent the 34th Division from going north to support." ”