Section 113 The Japanese army begins to retreat

The sky is getting darker and darker, the clouds are getting thicker and thicker, and the feeling of dark clouds pressing down and the sky and the earth is dull also makes people feel very depressed. At this moment, the commander of the 34th Division, Oga Shigeru, was in a far worse mood than the hazy sky, listening to the news from the front line, he jumped like thunder, and his whole person was like a volcano about to erupt, terrifying.

It's no wonder that Oga Shigeru has such an expression, since they launched an attack ten days ago, the three-way army has been like a bamboo, cutting melons and vegetables all the way to the surrounding of Shanggao, and judging from the news from various departments, it will not take long to successfully take Shanggao. The pre-war worries and the pressure on his body made Oga Mao finally breathe a sigh of relief when he received these news, if he could take Shanggao before the 33rd Division was transferred, the situation in northern Jiangxi would be stable, and even take this opportunity to attack Changsha on both sides and take this important place in northern Hunan. At that time, it was inevitable to redivide the defense area, regardless of the credit, and finally the heavy responsibility of defense would not be on the shoulders of their 34th Division.

But all of a sudden, the situation took a turn for the worse! In the morning, the 3rd Flying Regiment mobilized all its bombers and bombarded indiscriminately against the remaining enemy lines on the periphery of Shanggao. Although the enemy's defense line on the line of Jigong Mountain showed no signs of collapse in a short period of time, Ishikawa Akira on the line of Shimosaka Bridge swore that it would only take another hour to defeat the enemy forces in front of him and take the position in front of him. Akira Ishikawa's report made Oga Shigeru extremely happy, and he also knew the tenacity of the enemy army in front of him, after fighting for so many days, although the enemy army was not many in number, it was repeatedly counterattacked under impossible circumstances, and constantly recaptured the lost positions, and his tenacious style made him quite admired. If it weren't for the fact that he was forced to do so this time, I'm afraid he would definitely not want to fight with such an enemy army. Fortunately, all this is finally coming to an end, and the enemy army finally can't stand it anymore after so many days of fighting.

However, the hour had already arrived, and not long ago, Oga Shigeru was also quite expectantly waiting for the military report from Akira Ishikawa. What he didn't expect was that the battle situation at the front was completely beyond his expectations, looking at what the telegram said, a brigade of the 216th Wing was routed by enemy reinforcements, and the captain was killed on the spot, he was completely stupid.

"Reinforcements from the enemy? Where did the enemy get reinforcements? Oga Shigeru roared like thunder.

The chief of staff on the side, Tokutaro Sakurai, immediately reported: "Oga-kun, the enemy's reinforcements came from the Yifeng area, and they arrived in the early morning, and Ishikawa Osa had reported at that time. However, the number of enemy reinforcements is not large, and the initial estimate of the strength is about one brigade, and the strange thing is that such a small number of people can actually wipe out a brigade, which is really incredible. ”

"Yaga!" Oga Shigeru scolded angrily, he didn't care how the enemy army won this battle, he only knew that because of the appearance of this army, their battle was likely to fall short at a critical time. After scolding a few times, Oga Shigeru opened his mouth and asked, "Sakurai-kun, immediately go to the 33rd Division to see where they are now, and let them immediately move closer to us and launch the final blow against Kamigao." ”

Sakurai Tokutaro couldn't help frowning when he heard this, and said, "Your Excellency, there has been no news from the 33rd Division for two days, and according to the original agreement, news will be transmitted every 2 hours." But a day ago, after we got the last message, we couldn't get in touch anymore! ”

Oga Shigeru's eyes widened and said, "What did you say?" How could there be such a thing? ”

Sakurai Tokutaro couldn't help but say helplessly: "Ohga-kun, I reminded you at that time that something might have happened to the 33rd Division, but you didn't care, now that such a long time has passed, and the enemy has reinforces from the direction of Yifeng, will it be ......?"

Oga Shigeru couldn't help but think of this after he reminded him of this, and he had indeed mentioned it to him before, but at that time, the 216th Wing was breaking through the enemy's defense, and all his attention was on it, so he didn't take this matter to heart. After all, Sakurai Province had previously heard that the enemy's troops on the front line of Wuqiao had been defeated, and the 33rd Division would soon be able to enter Yifeng, and it would not be long before they could join them on the line of Shanggao. It was only at this time that Oga Shigeru came to his senses, and he suddenly thought in vain that he had obviously made a very serious mistake. What's even worse is that because they have always fought under the command of the 11th Army headquarters, their attention is habitually focused on their own divisions and regiments, and for the actions of friendly forces, they all rely on the coordination and command of the army headquarters.

But this time it was different, this time, the command of the entire battlefield was under his control, including the 33rd Division on the flank and the independent mixed 20th Brigade on the south bank of the Jinjiang River, all under his command. It was just that he forgot about this, and only cared about the onslaught of one mind. Under such circumstances, Oga Shigeru couldn't help but shudder and wake up.

"Immediately contact the 33rd Division and the Independent Mixed Brigade, ask them where they are now, and order Ishikawa Ming to temporarily retreat to Yuntou Mountain, and wait until the left and right flanks of the army arrive for reinforcements before launching an attack." Oga Shigeru gritted his teeth and ordered angrily.

"Hi" Tokutaro Sakurai replied loudly, turned around and went to a few radio stations to get busy. However, he soon brought back a piece of news that stunned Oga Shigeru, the independent mixed 20th Brigade launched a fierce attack on the south bank of the Jinjiang River, and it was not far from them, but the 33rd Division on the left flank did not follow the agreed attack route to the south at this moment, but returned to Fengxin inexplicably. At that time, when the 33rd Division was retreating to Fengxin, it sent a telegram to inform them, but I don't know if they didn't receive the news here, or they didn't pay attention to it, so they didn't make any reaction.

But at this moment, when the news reached Oga Shigeru's ears, he was stunned. His eyes swept over the map on the side, and his whole person was like falling into an ice cave, and the whole person was cold from the inside out. "Yaga, is Saburo Sakai crazy? The troops of the left flank actually withdrew to Fengxin without notification? Did he want us all to die on the high? Sakurai-kun, immediately report the situation here to the military headquarters, and immediately ask the military headquarters to send troops to rush to reinforcements, our division is about to be surrounded by enemy troops. ”

Sakurai Tokutaro was also in a very bad mood, he complained in his heart that the 33rd Division actually retreated without authorization, and on the other hand, he also complained that the division commander was thinking about winning the upper mountains these days, and did not deal with other military situations at all, which led to the division falling into the current predicament. However, he still felt that the division commander seemed to be making too much fuss, although the 33rd Division had retreated, but they were in control of the initiative on all fronts on the periphery of Shanggao at the moment, and they were free to fight or withdraw, the problem should not be very big, and now it seems that they are too anxious to apply for reinforcements and rescue from the military department, right? But when he saw the division commander's face, which was already a little distorted, he still swallowed these words into his stomach, and after following the division commander for a short time, he still knew the temper of this commander quite well, if he was stabbed in his anger, it would be very worthless.

When the news of the 34th Division reached the military headquarters of the 11th Army, it immediately caused an uproar, especially the new commander Enbe Kazuichiro, who was even more startled, stared at the military report sent from the front and read it several times in a row, and still seemed to dare not believe the battle report he saw. A total of 2 divisions and an independent mixed brigade attacked on three fronts, and he never thought that there would be such a big mistake in coordination. In fact, Kazuichiro Enbe didn't pay much attention to this short-distance volley. In the past few years, with the stalemate of the battle situation and the disadvantage of the troops, all units of the Japanese army have begun to adopt the combat method of attacking instead of defending to deal with the current situation, this time the northern Jiangxi operation, the number of troops invested is only about 50,000, which is a small scale of attack, and the combat distance is within 150 miles, back and forth is so a few days, he let go of Oga Shigeru and others. What he didn't expect was that in just ten days, such a serious problem had arisen, which also made him angry and dissatisfied with Oga Shigeru's coordination and command ability.

However, this is already the case, and it is difficult to solve the problem in front of him even if he is dissatisfied, so after thinking about it for a while, Enbe and Ichiro took decisive action. He ordered the chief of staff of the 11th Army, Isamu Kinoshita, the chief of staff of the operations staff, Nakasa Yamaguchi, and Captain Ogene to fly to Nanchang to take over the command and launch the operation to relieve the siege, and it was not necessary to let the 34th Division withdraw safely, otherwise it would be completely impossible for northern Jiangxi and other places to hold it by relying only on an independent mixed 20th brigade under the condition that the 33rd Division was about to be transferred!

The news from the military headquarters somewhat relieved Oga Shigeru, who was on the front line, and he was somewhat relieved when he learned that the rescue march of the military headquarters was about to begin. After all, the 33rd Division is good at retreating if it doesn't follow his orders, but now that this order is issued by the military subordinates, the effect is completely different, and no matter how bold Sakurai is, he will definitely not disobey the command of the military headquarters. And what they have to do now is to get rid of the entanglement of the enemy army, withdraw to a safe enough place, and when the 33rd Division arrives, it will not be a problem whether to attack Shanggao or retreat when the time comes, if the strength is strong.

After thinking about it, Oga Shigeru also immediately said: "Order Major General Naozo Ikeda and the 20th Brigade of the Independent Mixed Brigade to immediately cross the river and go north to attack in the direction of Gaoan, the task of containing the battlefield on the south bank of the Jinjiang River has been achieved, and the most important place at present is Gaoan." ”

"Hi" Tokutaro Sakurai immediately responded, and then asked, "Your Excellency, what about the 217th Wing?" ”

"The enemy army on the front line of Jigong Mountain has just been transferred from the south bank of the Jinjiang River, the combat power is very strong, and the withdrawal is too fast, it is likely that the position with Yuntou Mountain will be attacked prematurely, order Mu Saki Ciqing Dazuo, the 217 Wing slowly retreat, before it gets dark to withdraw to the front line of Maling on the east side of Yuntou Mountain, I believe that for such a half a day, the position of Yuntou Mountain is enough to resist the enemy's attack, and when the time comes, there should be an order issued by Chief of Staff Kinoshita."