Just when Duanwu led the special forces and successfully escaped the Japanese pursuit, Zhou Weiguo led the 522nd Regiment, Commander Huo's 112th Division, and He Zhizhong's 103rd Division also successfully retreated to the vicinity of Jintan.
After gathering the troops and counting the number of people, there were less than 2,500 people who could continue to fight.
Zhou Weiguo's 522nd Regiment had 300 men, and the Independent Regiment had less than 200 men. Of the rest, the 103rd Division accounted for more than half, while the 112th Division accounted for only a small half.
It has to be said that the Chinese army suffered heavy losses in the front-line battle in Changzhou. The reason was still a command problem.
The plan of Duanwu and Zhou Weiguo was to organize a surprise force to insert into the enemy's interior to quickly eliminate the enemy's active targets when the Japanese army attacked the front line of Changshu.
Taking the Independent Regiment and the 522nd Regiment as an example, when they went to the Changzhou battlefield, their total strength could reach 1,600. Once such a large number of troops were mobilized, they could ambush and annihilate any Japanese brigade in a short period of time.
effective force, even a coalition.
Of course, this can only be done if the method is appropriate. For example, when the Dragon Boat Festival was in Changshu, they successfully annihilated the vanguard of the Japanese 30th Brigade before their arrival. This gave Sasaki a loud
slap.
But all this was ruined by that Donald Duck. Changzhou's frontline troops were insufficient. He did not send other reinforcements, but directly pushed forward the 522nd Regiment and the Independent Regiment.
Before Zhou Weiguo led the Independent Regiment and the 522nd Regiment to Baijia Town, they encountered a fierce battle, which caused heavy losses to the Independent Regiment. When they arrived at Baijia Town, they were even held back by the passive battle situation and unable to move.
In the end, Duanwu could only lead a special operations team to infiltrate the enemy's interior, ambush the headquarters of the Japanese 21st Brigade, and seize the Japanese code book at the Japanese field hospital, thus learning the Japanese plan to use chemical weapons.
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However, the Dragon Boat Festival only destroyed the Japanese chemical weapons arsenal, temporarily blocking the Japanese attack.
But unexpectedly, the defeat of the Ma'anshan front-line defenders gave the Japanese an opportunity. A large group of Japanese soldiers inserted themselves into the back of the Changzhou front-line defenders, causing Changzhou to retreat across the board.
So if that Donald Duck hadn't given random orders, the battle in Changzhou would never have been so passive.
But at this time, the Donald Duck was still unrepentant and still adopted the defensive strategy of positional warfare, ordering the defenders to retreat to Jintan, while the Danyang line continued to resist the Japanese aircraft and artillery.
It is conceivable how many Chinese soldiers will be killed or injured by this kind of combat thinking.
But there is no other way. Soldiers regard obedience as their bounden duty. Sometimes they have to stand firm even though they know that they will die.
Zhou Weiguo and others were arranged to go to Qinglong Mountain for rest and recuperation. In other words, they were the reserve team.
Originally, Zhou Weiguo could be withdrawn to the safer Fangshan base, which was the defense area of the 87th Division.
But in order to wait for the Dragon Boat Festival, Zhou Weiguo, the Independent Regiment and the 522nd Regiment voluntarily stayed in Qinglong Mountain.
But little did he know that the Dragon Boat Festival had already crossed the Yangtze River and reached the north bank of the river.
Of course, the north bank of the river is not safe. Originally, the Dragon Boat Festival planned to go north first and then westward into the Chinese defense zone. However, the Japanese had already deployed a large number of troops on the north bank, and they blocked the road to the west of the Dragon Boat Festival.
And during the investigation along the way, Duanwu discovered that in addition to the Japanese army hoarding a large number of troops on the western front, the Japanese actually had troops mobilizing northward.
Obviously, the Japanese do not want to conquer Nanjing, but want all of China. What’s more, the Japanese also want to open up traffic on the road.
The Japanese army had already occupied Hebei at this time, but Shandong was still in the hands of the Chinese soldiers. Therefore, if they wanted to connect Hebei, Henan and Jiangsu together, they had to capture Xuzhou.
When Li Zhongren became the commander-in-chief of the Fifth War Zone, he also noticed this.
Xuzhou is a traffic chokepoint in eastern China, and it is easy to attack but difficult to defend.
It's just that although there are many troops under his command, their quality is uneven. In his words, they are just a group of stragglers. And at that time, many people were not very willing to listen to his command.
Therefore, Li Zhongren was very anxious when he arrived in Xuzhou. He could only formulate a battle plan first. As for the army matters, he would wait for the plan to be completed and approved by the local officers before he could discuss it slowly.
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In other words, Li Zhongren was crossing the river by feeling the stones because the troops did not listen to him. What could he do?
His plan is: first, to retain most of SD Province and the area in northern Jiangsu for a protracted war with the Japanese army. Second, in the early stages of fighting the Japanese army, key points along the Yellow River and along its banks should be guarded to directly prevent the enemy from sneaking in. As a last resort, measures should be taken
Lure the enemy deeper into the southern Shandong and northern Jiangsu areas one by one, and prepare to fight for the final victory.
In order to achieve this policy, Li Zhongren also made a three-stage implementation plan.
In the first stage, the first-line corps was used to stop the Japanese army on the north bank of the Yellow River and the coastal areas. In this way, the Japanese army's attack to the south was slowed down, giving the Chinese army's second-line corps ample time to deploy near Xuzhou.
In the second stage, if the Yellow River is lost, the first-line corps will retreat to Laiwu, Tai'an, and Xintai to set up defenses, stick to Huitong, and the main force of the second-line corps advancing toward Teng County, Zouxian County, can fight the Japanese near Yanzhou.
, launched a fierce counterattack against the Japanese troops in Nanjing.
In the third stage, if the battle near Yanzhou fails, then a decisive battle will be held near Xuzhou.
The decisive policy was to use a small number of troops to hold on to the core of Xuzhou, while the majority of the troops in the First War Zone would launch attacks along the flanks of the Jinpu Railway, carry out mobile warfare and guerrilla warfare, and prevent the Japanese army from advancing southward.
So it can be seen that this Commander Li is not a wasted reputation. If he can command, he is at least better than that Donald Duck.
It's just that he doesn't deal with Duanwu, which gives Duanwu a headache.
If we go north now, we will have plenty of time to catch up with the Battle of Xuzhou, but when we see Commander Li, he will have to skin him.
And he didn't know how he offended him. In the words of Dragon Boat Festival, he was too protective of the calf, or he was deceived by beauty.
Of course, the most important thing is to survive first.
The special forces team is in urgent need of rest and recuperation. They have been fighting for two consecutive days and have traveled more than 100 kilometers.
Dragon Boat Festival calculated that the data was almost the same, so the soldiers were very tired and needed to take a rest.
But there are enemies everywhere, and there are not many roads that Dragon Boat Festival can take. What's more, he is afraid of being discovered by the Japanese.
Now as soon as he is discovered, the Japanese will immediately surround him and completely eliminate his special operations team.
The Japanese hated the Dragon Boat Festival so much that it would be weird to seize such a good opportunity and not completely deal with him! ...