Originally, according to Yang Jicai's plan, if he was discovered by the Japanese army at the Gujiao line, he would first seize the Baijiazhuang coal mine, use the wood there to build a bridge to support the tunnel, and quickly build a short bridge for tanks to pass, and the Crusaders cruised. The total weight of the tank is not very heavy, and it is enough to build a short bridge with the support wood needed in the coal mine.
As for the 200 trucks, except for the artillery tractors, the rest could only be placed on the west bank first. But Yang Jicai did not expect that he would so easily capture the Fenhe Bridge, the chokepoint in the west of Taiyuan City, and open a direct link. The road to Taiyuan City, if this is the case, why should he be polite?
Yoshimoto Teiichi, who was obviously smart but was misled by his cleverness, didn’t know that Yang Jicai, who had used a tank to knock open the Yinghui Gate, was not really going to take over Taiyuan City. What a joke, even if Jin joined the war. The troops of the Sui Military Region were not strong enough to completely control Taiyuan, and it was difficult to withstand even a Japanese counterattack.
If Chen Hanzhang's roundabout actions in Datong were to poke a hornet's nest, then his current action was equivalent to stabbing a knife in the heart of the Japanese army. The Japanese army would not give themselves too much time to slowly dismantle the necessary equipment here. Equipment, what you can do is try your best to gain time.
When Yang Jicai broke through Yinghui Gate, he did not adopt the multi-channel infiltration attack siege tactics commonly used by the Anti-Japanese League. In addition to dividing a force and advancing towards the prisoner-of-war camp in the northeast corner of Taiyuan, the main force was after clearing the Japanese and puppet troops on the city wall. , adopted the tactic of squeezing from both sides, squeezing the Japanese troops in the city bit by bit towards the headquarters of the Japanese First Army.
His strategic intention is obvious, which is to keep Yoshimoto Teiichi and his First Army Headquarters as hostages. As long as Lieutenant General Yoshimoto Teiichi is still in Taiyuan City, Japanese reinforcements will not dare to move too much even if they arrive quickly. , with a lieutenant general and commander as a hostage, the Japanese army would have taboos in their actions.
Squeezing the Japanese troops one by one towards the vicinity of the First Army Headquarters, trapping them in and around the First Army Headquarters, and using them as hostages in disguise, this will undoubtedly reduce their own pressure, at least when the reinforcements of the Japanese troops counterattack, they will not be Too much pressure on myself.
However, the number of Japanese troops in the city must be maximized. Otherwise, leaving so many Japanese troops in the deep zone will not be a safe thing. Once the Japanese troops cooperate inside and outside, they will be attacked from two sides, which is not conducive. I persisted in Taiyuan City for too long.
During the operations in Taiyuan City, Yang Jicai adopted a tactic of emergency first and stability later. During the street fighting, he used a tank to penetrate directly into the headquarters of the First Army, forcing the Japanese troops from other directions in the city to quickly return reinforcements, and then gradually captured all the troops. The Japanese troops squeezed around the First Army Headquarters and separated a considerable part of the Japanese troops from their main force.
Yang Jicai focused his attack on the Japanese troops in the city. As for the puppet troops who surrendered within a limited time, if there were any who refused to surrender, they would be resolutely eliminated. Although the puppet Xingya Huang army relied on the majority of its troops and under the command of the Japanese advisers They tried to resist, but under the coordinated firepower of tanks and infantry, their resistance did not last long.
As for the rescue operation at the prisoner-of-war camp, it went very smoothly. The Taiyuan prisoner-of-war camp is under the city wall of Taiyuan Xiaodongmen, very close to Yinghui Gate. After rushing into Taiyuan City from Yinghui Gate, Yang Jicai immediately used a All troops, under the personal command of Su Yingqi, and under the guidance of the underground party in the city, forcibly penetrated the Xiaodong Gate.
At this moment, the Japanese army, which was in chaos, had long forgotten about the prisoner of war camps. The prisoner of war camp guards were mainly puppet troops. With the cooperation of the underground party organizations in the concentration camp, the structure diagram of the entire concentration camp and the distribution of guards It has long been in Su Yingqi's hands.
However, some were worried that the Japanese army would massacre prisoners of war due to the unfavorable situation. When they arrived at the outskirts of the prisoner of war camp, Su Yingqi directly mobilized the tanks and forced a few gaps in the walls of the prisoner of war camp. After that, he immediately put a reconnaissance company into the camp. During the rescue operation, the tanks used precise direct firepower to destroy the Japanese and puppet fortifications in the prisoner of war camp to cover the rescue operation.
Fortunately, because they were worried about contracting infectious diseases, or being infected with fleas or lice, all the Japanese and puppet guards were concentrated in the front yard, and the intensive sound of gunfire and gunfire from inside and outside Yinghui Gate also drew the attention of these guards. All parts were attracted, and Su Yingqi's rescue operation did not encounter too many difficulties.
The two squadrons of puppet troops responsible for guarding, after their tanks smashed through the wall and knocked down the power grid, and solved the two watchtower demonstrations with two shots, neatly surrendered and were trapped in the barracks. A small squad of Japanese soldiers who tried to resist were put in charge. Su Yingqi, who came to the rescue, brought in two flamethrowers and directly made a barbecue.
Looking at the Japanese soldiers struggling desperately in the fire and making pitiful screams, the few Japanese soldiers who tried to rush out and escape were beaten head-on by intensive tank and machine gun fire as soon as they left the barracks. Those puppet soldiers who put down their weapons, Apart from being frightened, I also shouted in my heart that I was lucky. If I had put down my weapon slower, these things might have fallen on me.
After solving the defenders, Su Yingqi commanded the troops to immediately rescue the prisoners of war. After rushing into the prisoner of war camp, Su Yingqi was shocked to find that the number of prisoners in the prisoner of war camp far exceeded his judgment. In the entire prisoner of war camp, there were actually There were nearly 20,000 prisoners of war, and the size of the entire prisoner-of-war camp exceeded expectations.
After getting in touch with the captured supply section chief of the Eighth Division of Jinsui and the head of the underground party group in the prisoner of war camp, Su Yingqi learned that before the launch of this battle, the Japanese 41st Division stationed in Linfen had an affair with the Jinsui Army. They fought a battle in southwest Shanxi to grab grain and captured thousands of officers and soldiers of the Shanxi-Sui Army.
After the battle in Datong, the Japanese army was worried about the rebellion of special workers composed of captured personnel in some coal mines in Shanxi and factories around Taiyuan. With insufficient guards, they escorted them all back to prisoner-of-war camps and adopted centralized measures. Methods of care.
Among them, the number of troops from the First World War Zone who were captured in the Zhongtiao Mountain Battle last year alone reached several thousand. After these people were transported back to the Taiyuan Concentration Camp, the proportion of captured personnel of the 18th Group Army inside actually dropped a lot. The Japanese army was originally prepared to After the war, they were directly taken to the Japanese-occupied areas in Nanyang to work as laborers once and for all.
In order to accommodate the excessive number of prisoners of war, the Japanese army not only packed the cells in the prisoner of war camp with more than the standard prisoners of war, but also forcibly collected some nearby houses and connected them with walls and electrified barbed wire. Under the circumstances, only some straw huts were built as shelters for prisoners of war.
As for the life and death of the prisoners of war who far exceed the capacity of the prisoner of war camp, whether infectious diseases will spread on a large scale, and whether many prisoners of war who were captured before last winter and did not even have cotton-padded clothes can survive, is not what the Japanese army considers. For them For us, the life and death of the prisoners of war was not important, but no matter what, most of the prisoners of war were rescued safely.
Su Yingqi was somewhat unprepared to face the fact that the number of rescued prisoners of war far exceeded expectations. Especially there were more than 300 female prisoners of war captured during last year's raids. Among these more than 300 female prisoners of war, In addition to more than fifty female students from the Anti-Japanese University who were separated and captured during the breakout, and dozens of female staff members from various places who were captured, most of them were women who were captured in confusion, or because they had short hair. A female student who is considered to be the Eighth Route Army.
In fact, when these prisoners of war heard the sound of gunfire from the east of the city, they guessed that their own troops were attacking. However, no one knew whose troops were attacking, and they did not act without authorization. When Su Yingqi commanded After the troops rushed into the prisoner-of-war camp, they saw the German-style steel helmets on the heads of the Anti-Japanese Alliance. At first, they thought it was the Central Army attacking. Those Chongqing prisoners-of-war were obviously very excited.
It was not until the captured personnel of the Eighth Route Army of Jinsui saw the staff of the Eighth Division of Jinsui who had accompanied them and the Anti-League badges on the chests of the rescuers that the morale of the captured personnel of the Eighth Route Army increased significantly. When the personnel saw their own troops, their morale was naturally greatly boosted.
Faced with an overwhelming number of prisoners of war, Su Yingqi had no choice but to use the small amount of food stored in the prisoner of war camp to cook some porridge for these prisoners of war, most of whom were very weak, to replenish their physical fitness, and then select the Eighth Route Army prisoners of war among them. , first armed with captured puppet weapons, and responsible for guarding the surrendered puppet troops.
As for the captured personnel of the Jinsui Army and the Central Army, they were all transported outside the city by trucks. The officers among the captured personnel of the Central Army and the Jinsui Army were gathered together and handed over to the Eighth Division Political Department and the Political Department of the Eighth District who followed them. The personnel of the enemy's Ministry of Industry returned to the base area and handed them back to the Second War Zone, while the ordinary soldiers among the prisoners of war were mobilized by him to participate in this extremely large-scale demolition of the Taiyuan factory.
There is no way for the troops to fight and it is impossible to participate in this large-scale demolition operation. As for the people in the city, except for some who are determined to evacuate, most of the residents are worried about the subsequent retaliation of the Japanese army, and they will not give any money. There are simply not enough workers who are willing to participate and rely on mobilization. Although these prisoners of war are a little weaker, they are still better than no one at all.
As for the female prisoners of war, under the order of Yang Jicai, Su Yingqi mobilized ten trucks to send them away alone. The experience of being captured this time may be a mark that will never be erased in their lives for these female prisoners of war. Sending them away can prevent these female prisoners of war from doing anything extreme. As for the screening, let's wait until they return to the base area.
The operation to rescue the prisoners of war was successfully completed, but it was just a small tidbit in the battle. It did not let Yang Jicai breathe a sigh of relief, because for him, this was just one of the real difficulties in this roundabout mission. , it just started after occupying most of Taiyuan City.