Chapter 6: Fighting (25)

On May 20, Jiang Chunyang, director of the Political Department of the 1056th Regiment of the 526th Brigade, issued an announcement on the occupation of Bengbu and announced that he would take office as the county magistrate of Bengbu. And on the same day, Su County was lost. Hundreds of thousands of troops in the Fifth War Zone were driven to Guide (Shangqiu), Bozhou, Wuyang, and Mengcheng by the Japanese army's 8 divisions, including the 3rd, 5th, 9th, 10th, 13th, 14th, 16th, and 114th divisions.

"Fuck, run fast enough!" Huang Tianhua said with a smile that he sincerely admired the speed of the national army's escape.

Sitting in the base of Wolf's Nest Mountain, Huang Tianhua felt particularly down-to-earth, the mountains here are not high, and the water is not deep, but the green mountains and clear waters, green trees, beautiful environment, and pleasant scenery. Last night, all the people returned, and the car returning from Bengbu went back as fast as possible, and after transporting the supplies back to the base, they immediately turned around and went to pick up the brothers who were carrying torches on foot, and picked them up three times before they all took them back to the base, and when the third group of people all arrived at the base, it was already dawn. Marching more than 100 miles in one night, this speed is unprecedented, and Huang Tianhua is also a little admired, but compared with those who have already run to Lu'an, he is much inferior.

The base of Wolf's Nest Mountain, after a period of repair, has begun to take shape, in this area of mountains, stretching for several miles, forming a natural village, up houses, repairing roads, and reclaiming the land, some seasonal crops have been planted, the whole Wolf's Nest Mountain, quite a bit of the taste of splendid mountain township, a piece of tranquility.

Smelling the fragrance of pine needles and listening to the familiar sound, Li Songde slept fiercely, sleeping in the dark, sleeping so much that he didn't know who was going to work, and when he woke up, it was already the sunset, and he remembered to call the 526th Division in the name of the 176th Brigade. Worried when he called, and laughed out loud after the call, Li Songde didn't expect that the 176th Division would be in Shou County, not far away. After receiving the news that the 526th Brigade was at Dingxi Luqiao, the commander of the 176th Division, Ou Shounian, was overjoyed and told them to return to the building quickly. As soon as Li Songde learned about it, he realized that the 176th Division was completely disabled! The 176th Division in Shou County, plus the lightly and seriously wounded, was less than 2,000 people. A B-level division with an organization of 8,000 people, and it is a relatively complete division, now, even if the 526 brigade headquarters and the 1056 regiment are added, it will not reach 5,000, and you don't have to think about where the others have gone.

It turned out that on the day of 15 May, the Military and Political Council not only transferred the 174th Division, but also transferred the 176th Division, and Zhang Guangwei's 174th Division took a wrong trip and pounced on Liutai in Suxian County, but the 176th Division was firmly confronted by the Japanese army, and fought to the death. The order that the 176th Division received was also very simple, and it was very wise and quite attractive, taking advantage of the main force of the Japanese 9th Division to attack the Ji Xingwen Department of the 77th Army in Suxian County, and Ji Xingwen and Zhang Guangwei were flanked back and forth, dragging it to death, The job of the 176th Division was to take the opportunity to pick up the leaks and strike an all-out blow at the empty 9th Division headquarters stationed in Baishan, in order to directly erase the formation of the 9th Division in a battle.

Early in the morning of 15 May, before dawn, Ou Shounian set out from Wuyang with his troops and entered Baishan in one fell swoop, which really caught the 9th Division and the regimental headquarters by surprise. After the battles between Huaiyuan and Li Xingshu, Mengcheng and Zhou Yuan, and the battles between Wuyang and Li Benyi, the 9th Division lost a lot of losses in the main force that had been replenished, and nearly 3,000 of the 21,000 men lost their combat effectiveness. In order to transfer the national army on the southern front, the main force of the Ninth Division was divided into two routes, the Sixth Infantry Brigade went to Liutai, the Eighteenth Brigade went to Xiao County, and the units directly under the Baishan Zhizhi Division and Regiment, all of them added up to only about 3,000 people, most of whom were staff officers and logistics personnel who had never been on the battlefield. In the face of the menacing 176th Division, the 9th Division and the group leaders went to the front line, and the division commander Yoshizumi Ryosuke brandished his war knife and ran around the front line with his short legs, shouting hoarsely, and his snot sprayed all over Rendanhu. Just when the balance of victory and defeat was completely tilted in the direction of Ou Shounian, the 6th Brigade of the 9th Division, which had withdrawn from Liutai, unexpectedly copied the rear road of the 176th Division. At this moment, the battle situation changed greatly, the victory or defeat was easy to count, the 176th Division lost its armor and fled, and did not stop until Shou County, not to mention the dead, even the seriously injured were thrown on the battlefield to fend for themselves.

Li Songde secretly called it a fluke, fortunately he followed Mo Enemy, although he fought a battle and ran a lot of unjust roads, at least the brothers were there, and there was no one missing, and he also secretly beat a Bengbu, and drank a good meal, which is a small achievement.

After getting the exact situation of the 176th Division, Li Songde did not dare to slack off, trotted all the way, came to the headquarters of the anti-Japanese volunteer army in eastern Anhui, and reported the situation to the enemy. happened to meet Gong Qingyuan who had sorted out a large pile of information collected through telegrams and was ready to report to Mo Di and Xu Ping.

After listening to Li Songde's report, Mo Di frowned, the 176th Division was disabled, this is not a good thing, other troops can ignore it, and their direct superiors can't ignore it, if the 176th Division has no combat strength, even if there is a super powerful 1056 Regiment, what is the use, as the so-called skin does not exist, and Mao is attached. It is necessary to use the greatest strength to make the 176th Division recover quickly and form combat strength, but this not only requires a large number of troops to replenish, but also needs too many materials, and the soldiers themselves have no way but to support them in materials, it seems that what they got in Bengbu is not enough, and the big hole of the 176th Division has to be made up whether it can be made up or not.

"Sit down and figure it out together." Mo Di pointed to the chair opposite and said to Li Songde.

After Li Songde sat down, he anxiously put forward his own opinion: "Tianzong, do you see if you should give some support to the division headquarters first, especially medicine." Don't you let Dr. Zhang and them go for reinforcements, the injured brothers are in pain! When Li Songde said the last sentence, his eyes were moist, he is a person with a temperament, although his combat level is not high, but he is quite a good person.

Mo Di nodded and said: "This morning, Chen Zhengxin sent a telegram, saying that Bengbu Renai Hospital thanked us for not forcibly attacking yesterday and was able to retain a complete medical institution, and specially donated a batch of medicines, equipment and trauma treatment materials as a reward. After Chen Zhengxin received the supplies, he asked Song Erhu to send a boat to send the materials along the Huai River to Tianjia'an, so that we could pick up the goods nearby. In this case, Chief of Staff Li, you personally bring two cars over, and after receiving the ship from Tianjia'an, send the medicine directly to the Shou County Division Headquarters, and at the same time tell the division that we will need two days here, and when Chen Zhengxin returns to the building, we will immediately rush to Shou County. ”

Li Songde hurriedly agreed, stood up happily, and said that he would leave immediately, and with these medicines, he could solve the great difficulties of the division headquarters. Xu Ping stood up, sent Li Songde out, and said to Li Songde at the door: "Chief of Staff Li went to Shou County this time, brought a guard squad and a telegraph by his side, and when he arrived in Shou County, he first looked at the local material supply situation, and then determined whether the 526 Brigade had passed. ”

Li Songde nodded his head, Xu Ping, the small company commander, turned into the commander of the anti-Japanese volunteer army in eastern Anhui, the energy is great, it is not trivial, as the so-called day after three days, it is completely his credit to occupy Bengbu this time, as for the 526 brigade, it is just a name. Li Songde thought that Xu Ping's arrangement was very reasonable, there was no enemy situation in Shou County at present, there was no need to gather all the troops together, and the 176th Division should put him outside to find something to eat instead of taking Mo Enemy by his side to strengthen his courage, so as not to make the 176th Division suffer too much.

Li Songde left, and Gong Qingyuan began to sort out, reason, synthesize, and describe the current offensive situation of the enemy and us bit by bit, some of which were already established facts, and some of which were just inferences and speculations. Through his introduction, Mo Di and Xu Ping had a general understanding of what had happened in the past two days. The 3rd Division of the Japanese Army, after defeating the Jixing Cultural Division, continued to attack Suxian overnight on 18 May, but unexpectedly, early the next morning, the 171st Division of the 7th Army, which was guarding the defense line of Suxian, actually ran away without saying a word and fled from the wind, opening the southern gate of the entire Suzhou in a big way. The 3rd Division of the Japanese Army declared that it had occupied Suxian, and took advantage of the victory to rush to kill, and the headquarters of the commander of the 5th Theater was also dispersed.

The increasingly tragic war reports from the front continued to reach the case of Chiang Kai-shek of the Wuchang Kuomintang Military Committee, and the serious crisis facing Xuzhou calmed down his brain, which was a little dizzy because of the victory in Taierzhuang. Chiang Kai-shek suddenly realized that the intention of the Japanese army was to encircle and annihilate the main force of the Chinese army in Xuzhou. Chiang Kai-shek immediately called He Yingqin, Bai Chongxi, Chen Cheng, Feng Yizhong and others to study and plan together. The Japanese army's attempt had been exposed, and it was no longer realistic to defend Xuzhou, and He Yingqin and others also advocated abandoning Xuzhou and decided to break through the siege as soon as possible. Chiang Kai-shek dictated a telegram to Li Zongren, ordering his troops to avoid the decisive battle, evacuate Xuzhou, and quickly break through the siege.

With the permission of the Military Commission, the Fifth Theater ordered all units to break through to the mountainous areas on the border between Henan and Anhui. After all, the Japanese army did not have enough troops, and it was impossible to encircle an area of Nuoda, although the Japanese army intercepted it everywhere, but the effect was not great. The armies of all walks of life broke out of the encirclement one after another and assembled in the south of Henan and the northwest of Anhui. Even the troops trapped behind enemy lines, after a little resistance, retreated to the mountains, lakes and marshes. Li Zongren and more than 700 officers and soldiers of the commander's department set out from Suxian County to Mengcheng at night.

The Battle of Xuzhou is over.

"What about the 6th Division and the Sakai detachment to the south?" Mo Di asked.

"The situation in the south is not optimistic, the commander of the 6th Division, the commander of the division Gu Shoufu, because of the Nanjing Massacre, his hands were stained with blood, and the international community unanimously called him a butcher, and his reputation was ugly, and the Japanese army base camp had to remove him from his post and enter the reserve army, and Lieutenant General Shiro Inaba was appointed as the commander of the division. The 11th Infantry Brigade (Captain of the 13th Infantry Wing, Captain Okamoto Hoyuki, and Wing Commander Hasegawa Masanoshi Osa) under the command of Major General Tokutaro Sakai (Commander of the 13th Infantry Wing, Masanoshi Hasegawa Masanosa), and the 36th Infantry Brigade under the command of Major General Mitsuru Ushijima (Wing Commander of the 23rd Infantry Wing, Captain Okamoto Shotomi Osa, Wing Commander of the 45th Wing, Kanda Masasa Osa). Wing Commander of the 6th Field Artillery Wing directly under the division headquarters, Ken Fujimura Nakasa, Wing Commander of the 6th Engineer Wing Seiichi Nakamura, Wing Commander of the 6th Light and Heavy Corps Wing Kawasanada Kunei Osa, and Wing Commander of the 6th Cavalry Wing Inoki Kindaisa. At present, the Sixth Division is divided into two parts, with the Sakai detachment led by Tokutaro Sakai stationed in Hefei, and the other troops led by Ushijima to go up the Yangtze River, and the goal should be Anqing. ”

Mo Di took the map and looked at it carefully, this map of Anhui Province of the headquarters of the anti-Japanese volunteer army in eastern Anhui is the only one in China, Jin Tongxuan spent several days on the basis of the previous map to make a lot of additions to the places, rivers, mountains and rivers, and upgraded an ordinary map to a super advanced combat map. According to Huang Tianhua, the success rate of commanding operations with this map should be doubled. Mo Di took a ruler, measured the distance between the base and Hefei, found a blank piece of paper, made some calculations on it, and said clearly: "Tomorrow will rest for another day, the day after tomorrow, the 526 Brigade will set off, the first day will be the Bingfa Furnace Bridge, and the second day will be to Zhuxiang." Xu Ping, your men and horses will go with the 526 Brigade. You also have to work hard at Gong's office, and Director Qin is still in charge of the base. ”

"Boss Mo is looking for trouble in Hefei?" Gong Qingyuan asked.

"Yes!" Mo Di answered definitely, and explained: "The Japanese army wants to take Wuhan west along the Yangtze River, the first pass is Anqing, the Anqing defenders are not weak, Yang Sen's 27th Army is a battle-hardened army, a Ushijima Man will definitely not be able to take it, Sakamoto Tokutaro must be reinforced, in this way, Hefei will be empty, we will take advantage of the weakness, and then go to Hefei to make a big profit, otherwise, the material gap on the 176th Division cannot be replenished." ”

"Do you want to report the plan to the 176th Division?" Xu Ping asked.

Mo Di shook his head: "Tell them, the whole world will know, let's talk about it after it's done!" ”

Xu Ping and Gong Qingyuan both laughed.