Chapter 10: Anqing (36)

In the distant south of Guinan, after New Year's Day in 1940 to the Spring Festival on February 8, this month or so was like singing a big opera.

Due to the insistence of Jun Imamura, commander of the 5th Division, all the 9th Brigade and the 9th Wing, the remnants of the 21st Brigade, and the 1st Wing and 1nd Wing of the Taiwan Mixed Brigade and 1 of the 2nd Wing of the 5th Division carried out stubborn resistance in the mountains and hills from Qitang to the outskirts of Nanning City, and blocked 100,000 national troops in the northern suburbs of Nanning City. The 3rd Infantry Brigade and the 4th Infantry Brigade of the 2nd Wing of the Taiwan Mixed Brigade fought with He Xuan's 3rd Column along the Yongqin Highway.

In order to rescue the Fifth Division and the Taiwan Mixed Brigade, which had fallen into a death trap, and to complete the task of occupying Guinan and infiltrating Vietnam, Ando Toshikichi, commander of the Japanese South China Front and 21st Group Army, had no choice but to make a last effort and transfer the 18th Division and the Guards Brigade, which were engaged in the Weng Ying operation in Guangdong, to Guinan. On January 7, the Guards Brigade as the advance army left Humen, and after three days of turbulence at sea, it arrived in Qinzhou on January 10, followed by the 18th Division.

At this moment, Weng De and Yingcheng, the Guards Brigade, the 18th Division, and the 104th Division of more than 80,000 people, have just completed a big battle with Yu Han's department, and finally took Weng De and Yingcheng on the first day of the first month, and are preparing to launch follow-up actions. Weng Ying's place, very important, occupy it actively, lose it is passive, the Japanese army occupies Weng Ying, further can enter Shaoguan, the Japanese army loses Weng Ying, and a step back can be threatened by the Cantonese army Guangzhou City. If Ando Toshikichi is given a little more time, Ando Toshikichi is fully sure that he will lead the 21st Army to continue northward and take Shaoguan, an important town in northern Guangdong, which is a crucial step towards opening up the Guangdong-Han line. In order to achieve this goal, he asked Lieutenant General Imamura Jun of the Fifth Division in Nanning to temporarily retreat to the south bank of the Yongjiang River and exchange space for time. After being categorically rejected by Jun Imamura, Ando Toshiyoshi had no choice but to consider the whole situation, temporarily put aside the favorable situation in northern Guangdong, and the 104th Division barely held it for the time being, and transferred the Guards Brigade and the 18th Division to Guangxi as soon as possible. For this reason, Toshikichi Ando gritted his teeth in anger and hated Jun Imamura from the depths of his heart.

The transfer of the 18th Division and the Guards Brigade shows that the Japanese army has indeed been used to the limit, and the front-line attacking troops have become fire-fighting units. Even so, there is not much time left for the 18th Division and the Guards Brigade in Guangxi, and the counteroffensive will certainly be launched as soon as possible.

After transferring the 18th Division and the Guards Brigade out, Yu Hanmou in Guangdong immediately realized that there was an opportunity to take advantage of it and made every effort to prepare for a counteroffensive.

"Good chance!" Mo Di also saw that the battle situation was favorable to the Chinese side, and couldn't help the excitement in his heart, and shouted: "Drag the 18th Division, drag the 18th Division to death, and take the lost territory in Guangdong." Fuck, this time the Japanese will steal the chicken and not eat the rice. ”

Wei Yongcheng was not so excited as Mo Di, and said to Mo Di: "According to my research on Yu Hanmou, this person is indecisive in doing things, and he is not resolute, I am afraid that after the 18th Division has finished fighting Guangxi and returned to Guangdong, he has not yet organized the counteroffensive in place." What's more, there is also a 104th Division in Guangdong, although it is not as strong as the 18th Division, it will always be stronger than the rabble that Yu Hanmou hastily gathered, and the offensive and defensive transposition, I attack the enemy, defend, and have an obvious advantage. In southern Guinan, a mere Fifth Division, in the face of the attack of more than 100,000 troops, held the line from Kunlun Pass to Nanning for more than a month. ”

Mo Di glanced at Wei Yongcheng, this guy, since when did he start thinking about problems so negatively. He hadn't realized that it was not that the other party was negative, but that he had become positive after meditating under the osmanthus tree.

As the advance army, the Guards Brigade took the lead in landing on the land of Qinzhou, and the brigade commander, Lieutenant General Sakurada Takeshi, did not dare to have any delay, and immediately waved his division north, joined the mixed brigade of Taiwan at Xiao Dong, and then advanced in the direction of Sixia Pass, his purpose was very clear, as Zhao Guolong expected, to occupy Taiping.

Takeshi Sakurada was a strategically minded professional soldier, and during the Battle of Taierzhuang, he served as chief of staff of Seishiro Sakagaki of the Fifth Division, and then joined the Guards Army as brigade commander. His 1st Guards Infantry Brigade was under the jurisdiction of the 1st and 2nd Guards Infantry Wings and was attached to special forces, which was far stronger than an ordinary brigade, so it was also called the Sakurada Detachment. After occupying Taiping, the Sakurada detachment released a *, and instead of continuing to wave its division north to Pinglang, it turned east and launched an attack in the direction of Lingshan Yandun, pretending to be ready to take Lingshan. Attracting all Cai Tingkai's Eastern Route Army to this area, He Xuan did not dare to slack off, and let Qin Jingxin's 19th Division and Feng Huang's 175th Division return to defend the front line of Luwu. After Sakurada Takeshi effectively mobilized the defense line of the Eastern Route Army, he sorted out the passage from Xiao Dong to Taiping and Pinglang, and confronted Cai Tingkai while waiting for the arrival of the 18th Division.

Lieutenant General Chang Nachengyi of the 18th Division had already straightened out the strategy of reinforcement on the ship from Guangzhou to Qinzhou, and he told the South China Front Headquarters that instead of joining the defense of the Nanning side of the 5th Division, it was better to bypass the Yongjiang River from the east of Nanning, kill Binyang directly, and come up with a position to attack Qianjiang, and the siege of Nanning would be solved. Only in this way will the Fifth Division have to hold out for a longer period of time and have to make greater sacrifices. Lieutenant General Jun Imamura, who was still fighting in the beast, had completely entered the frenzied mode, and completely agreed with Seiichi Kuna's battle plan, saying that even if the Fifth Division fought to the last man, it would not give up Nanning City.

The cunning Ando Toshiyoshi asked the Marines to disguise themselves as the 18th Division to reinforce Nanning to confuse the Chinese military, and the real 18th Division, under the leadership of Lieutenant General Seiichi Kuna, went straight north from Xiao Dong Taiping, passed through the mountains and tidal flats in the Pinglang area, and crossed the Yongchun River in the lower reaches of the Yongjiang River at the Zhiluancheng Ferry in Yongchun County.

When the 18th Division had already arrived in Pinglang, the local militia broke the news that the main force of the Japanese army was going to cross the river from Luancheng. Yongchun County Luancheng Ferry, is the largest ferry port in the lower reaches of Yongjiang River, Yongjiang River has passed six scenes, it has entered the boundary of Yongchun County, the river has turned a bend here, flows to the south, is called Yongchun River, and then turns to the northeast, flows into Hengxian County, is renamed Yujiang, flows into Xunjiang River. Only then did Bai Chongxi, who moved to Jiangjiang, realize that the operational forecast reported by the new 19th Division was quite accurate, and he also paid attention to it, and had ordered Ye Zhao's 37th Group Army to go to Yongchun for defense.

Seeing the direction of the Japanese army, Bai Chongxi asked Cai Tingkai a little proudly where Ye Zhao's 37th Group Army had arrived, and after a telegram, he learned that the 66th Army was not in place.

After receiving Bai Chongxi's order for the 66th Army to deploy defenses to Yongchun to prevent the Japanese army from crossing the Yongchun River and capturing Binyang in a roundabout way, Ye Zhao was still far away in Fengtang, Lingshan, on the south bank of the Yujiang River in Hengxian County. Ye Zhao believed that under this kind of terrain, it was absolutely impossible for the Japanese army to make such a roundabout, and there was no need to deploy defenses at all, so he was reluctant to mobilize troops. As a result, the 18th Division of the Japanese Army successfully crossed the river at Luancheng without encountering any obstruction, and the crossing work was over, and the front army had already driven to Shitang. By the time all the Japanese troops crossing the river arrived at Shitang, it was already late at night, and today was Chinese New Year's Eve, January 31, 1940 in the Gregorian calendar.

On 1 February, just after dawn on Chinese New Year's Eve, more than 100 planes taking off from Nanning Airport and the Qinzhou aircraft carrier entered a fierce bombardment of the former enemy headquarters of the Qianjiang National Army. Bai Chongxi's command immediately became deaf and blind, and there was no way to give orders, so Chiang Kai-shek in Chongqing had to order Zhang Fakui to take over the post of commander-in-chief.

Qianjiang was bombed, the six armies were ownerless, and they lost contact with each other, fighting their own battles. Just when the entire Chinese military headquarters was in chaos, the 18th Division joined Sakurada Takeshi's Guards Brigade, 40,000 Japanese troops, all lightly armed and detoured to Binyang.

At this time, Chen Cheng happened to rush back to Liuzhou from Chongqing, and when he learned that the Japanese army had broken through from Yongchun, he was stupid on the spot, and for a whole hour, he did not speak, rolled his eyes, and was weak. Chen Cheng knew that this battle would undoubtedly be lost, and Kunlun Pass would undoubtedly be lost. Although the battle was commanded by Bai Chongxi, as a deputy, the blame could not be escaped. The people around him saw Chen Cheng's eyes protruding, his expression was frightened, and he didn't speak for a long time, thinking that Chen Cheng had a sudden mental illness and hurried to find a doctor.

Chen Cheng, who came back to his senses, ordered Ye Zhao to stick to the front line of Yongchun at all costs and wait for support.

It was only at this time that Ye Zhao realized that it was pointless to go to Yongchun again, so he hurriedly mobilized the 66th Army to Shitang, just to drag the Japanese army, which was victory. Ye Zhao was moving, but the speed of the Japanese army was faster, and when the 66th Army arrived at Shitang, the vanguard of the Japanese army had already set out. The 66th Guangdong Army ignored the attack from afar, and the people were sleepy and tired, and under the leadership of Ye Zhao, they fought hard to counterattack the Japanese army. The 18th Division left a wing as the rear team to block the 66th Army, and the main force rushed to Binyang. Shitang, the two sides fought fiercely, the 66th Army attacked from afar, was defeated, and Queen Cang withdrew.

On 2 February, the vanguard Sakurada Takeshi Guards Brigade successfully occupied Binyang.

The war situation was irretrievable, Bai Chongxi was forced to order, and the national army in the Kunlun Pass area retreated.

The Fifth Division of the Japanese Army and the Taiwan Mixed Brigade finally got up to the point where they were constantly pursuing and flanking, and the Nationalist troops at Nanning Airport also took off frequently, bombing and retreating Chinese troops while directing the direction of pursuit for the Japanese ground troops.

Zheng Zuomin led the 9th Division as the rear of the whole army, and was in a difficult situation. On 3 February, under the guidance of the aircraft, the 1st Division of the 9th Division was surrounded by Japanese troops. Seeing this, division commander Zheng Zuomin personally led a regiment to the rescue. In the fierce battle, Zheng Zuomin was shot several times and died a glorious martyr.

In just a few days, the offense and defense were immediately changed, the host and guest were transposed, and the first victory and then the defeat not only made Chairman Jiang of Chongqing extremely angry, but also made the whole of China collectively lose its voice. Mo Di from Mabu looked at the telegram draft in his hand and stood at the door of the intelligence department for a full hour. The cold wind blew his hair and swept it around the corners of his eyes, and it hurt his eyebrows. Mo Di came back to his senses, handed the draft of the telegram to Qin Guosheng beside him, and said, "My hair is long, I'll go out and get a haircut." "Walked out. Chairman Jiang of Chongqing was not so calm, he slapped the table frantically, and his sharp voice came out of the hospital: "Bai Chongxi mistook the country, I want to go to Guangxi, I want to go to Guangxi!" As soon as Dafan heard this kind of voice, everyone on the left and right knew that there was another place to lose the battle.