After repeated attacks failed and paid a heavy price, but still failed to get closer to the 32nd Regiment, Lieutenant General Yokoyama Shizuo sent letters almost an hour urging them to break away from the enemy immediately. The most important thing about the urgent telegram to return Chaoyang's full support is that if it continues to be delayed, it will also fall into an overall situation of being surrounded from all sides.
Several Japanese commanders on the battlefield east of Luofugou realized that if the battle continued like this, the entire army would be destroyed. After urgently seeking instructions from Lieutenant General Yokoyama Shizuo, they finally gave up and fought with them. Separated by a mountain, the main force of the 31st Regiment gathered together and turned around to break out to the south with all their strength.
Concentrate all the remaining forces, use one force to cover the two wings, and use the two squadrons to advance hand in hand. Turn your head and break out in the direction of the Wei family shack with all your strength. Join the advancing army as a regiment and fight fiercely on the front line between the Wei family shack and Xiaofang body, regardless of everything. They made an all-out assault to the south, trying to open up a retreat route to Chaoyang in the shortest possible time.
Of course, there are also some who are too close to the enemy troops in front of them and can no longer evacuate their troops. They can only let them stay and cut off their tails to save their whole body. This kind of gecko tactic is already common for the Japanese army, so they will These people stayed, and the commander of the Eighth Infantry Regiment, who was in charge of front-line command, did not feel any guilt.
Those seriously wounded who could not be evacuated were all given a grenade, and the lightly wounded who were still able to move were all left to cooperate with the troops behind them to make a last counterattack against the enemy to cover the retreat of the main force. Those who had already fallen into The injured who are unconscious will have someone to help them.
As for the two infantry brigades of the 31st Regiment that have never been able to break out of the encirclement, as well as the captain of the 31st Regiment, Colonel Kobayashi Shimaji, they can only ask for their own blessings now. This battle will not affect the battlefield east of Luofugou. As far as the Fifth Regiment and the Seventeenth Regiment of the Eighth Division are concerned, they have really tried their best.
In order to rescue the 31st Regiment, they fought bloody battles for a whole day and night, and the momentum of their attack never stopped for a moment. By the time they retreated, they were separated from the main force of the 31st Regiment by a ridge, with deafening roars on both sides. The sound of gunfire and shouts of death can be heard clearly.
However, after several hard battles and paying nearly one-third of the casualties, they still could not get over it. This last threshold, for the two Japanese troops separated only by a ridge, was ultimately impossible to cross. Now rescue The troops themselves cannot be protected, and the division headquarters itself cannot be protected. The only thing Colonel Kobayashi Shimaji can rely on is himself.
After all, whether in terms of the importance of the target or the number of troops, the 31st Regiment, two infantry brigades with a total strength of less than 500 people, is far behind the safety of the main force, let alone The safety of the division headquarters is important, not to mention that there is a military headquarters in Beipiao, which is very close to Chaoyang.
In order to be able to withdraw to Chaoyang in time, the rescue division headquarters was in the midst of fire and water. The Japanese troops on the Luofugou battlefield acted quickly and decisively. Their breakout momentum was extremely fierce. They adopted a force under the cover of all artillery fire. The group organized with an infantry squadron charged, trying to open up a retreat route in the shortest possible time.
Facing the changes in the enemy's situation, Cao Yafan felt that the casualties would be too high and the progress was not fast. After discovering that the Japanese army had given up the westward advance and the entire army went south to break out, with Li Mingfeng's consent, he moved away from the front of the Wei family's shack and mobilized This was a tactic in which the troops blocked the Japanese army's retreat route in front and attacked in multiple directions on both flanks, weakening the enemy army bit by bit until they were completely annihilated.
The two battalions that penetrated from the enemy's rear in the direction of Xinhui seized the Shuangmiao and Damai Gou lines, and then attacked from north to south with a company as the organization. They used a regiment from the advancing army to strengthen the strength of one battalion and attached two companies of mountain artillery. , one company of infantry artillery, plus two mortar companies, and five 12mm machine guns.
Withdrew to Shijiazi, and set up an ambush in the Nangou of Shijiazi. Two ambush circles were formed with the battalion as the organization. Qianjiawa, Tangzhangzi and Taishangou on the road from Jianping to Chaoyang were used as the bottom of the ambush circle. An advancing battalion set up an ambush here, and at the same time the defenders of Luofugou deployed two organic companies and penetrated the enemy's flank along the line of Hebei and Jiaojie ditch.
These two organic companies were the last two companies pieced together by the front-line defenders of Luofugou. After a full day and two nights of fierce fighting, the Japanese army suffered heavy casualties. The casualties of the anti-alliance defenders who faced two sides were also heavy. By the time the Japanese army When they turned around, the two organic battalions could no longer form a single battalion.
The only two organic companies were made up of two battalions that pieced together all the squads and platoons that still maintained their organic integrity. Although the Japanese army was exhausted in the battle of Luofugou, the entire Luofugou battlefield The Anti-Japanese Alliance has also exhausted all its strength. Except for the two battalions that went behind the enemy's back, the three regiments participating in the battle could not form a complete organic battalion at this time.
The two regiments advancing on the front line of Wei's shack fought fiercely with the two Japanese infantry brigades in front of them. Although they finally captured the support point on the Japanese flank of Wei's shack, the two regiments also suffered heavy casualties in the hard battle. , the two sharp knife battalions that served as the main attack were all disabled.
After taking down the Wei family shack and various supporting points around it, only one-third of the two complete organic battalions before the war were left. It can be said that if we continue to hold on, although the enemy troops cannot escape, the entire building will not be able to escape. The troops participating in the battle in the northeastern battlefield may also suffer a heavy loss of vitality.
The turning of the Japanese army in front of him undoubtedly made Cao Yafan himself slightly relieved. If the attack continues like this, the situation cannot be changed in a short time. Even if the Japanese army in front of him is completely annihilated, I am afraid that the various anti-alliance departments participating in the war will basically be defeated. They are almost crippled and have no energy left to turn in other directions. Once this situation is really formed, the impact on the next battle will be quite large.
Since the Japanese army is desperately trying to break through to the south in an attempt to rescue Chaoyang City, they will change their original hard-top tactics and adopt multiple ambush layers to skin them, combined with multi-channel penetration and segmentation tactics to cut the huddled Japanese army into pieces. After that, he was completely defeated in one fell swoop.
On the way of the Japanese army's retreat, they used the favorable mountainous terrain along the way to block the Japanese army with firepower layer by layer, peeling off the skin of the Japanese army layer by layer until their effective strength was completely consumed. They used various weapons in their hands to set up a line on the Japanese army's breakout route. Strips of fire net.
The Japanese army was extremely eager to break out. The Japanese army, which had almost no intention of fighting, desperately retreated south regardless of casualties. Cao Yafan concentrated his firepower and intercepted the Japanese army's retreat route layer by layer. The troops on both wings adopted wolf pack tactics and continued to tear apart the two wings. Biting the retreating sequence of the Japanese army, they continued to bleed the Japanese army.
Cao Yafan gave very clear orders to the assault troops on both wings. They were not required to eat many Japanese troops in one bite. Their mission was to continuously pierce, attack, and tear off pieces of flesh from the Japanese troops in order to weaken the main force of the Japanese troops to the greatest extent. With so many troops, the Japanese troops who broke out of the encirclement suffered huge casualties almost every step they took.
Facing more and more enemy troops in the surrounding area, the Japanese troops who broke out of the encirclement were replaced by the commander of the 8th Infantry Regiment, who was sent to the west together with the headquarters by a mountain of artillery shells, and the commander of the 5th Infantry Regiment, who commanded the entire Luofugou East Battlefield. Under the command of Colonel Shigetoshi Okajima, they did not dare to hesitate or pause, and fought hard all the way to break through to the south.
As for those who were being bitten piece by piece by the surrounding wolf-like enemy troops, either a small squad, most of a squadron, or even an entire squadron, they did not care about rescue at all, and these were divided The small group of troops was regarded by the Japanese army as a discarded enemy that dragged the surrounding enemy troops away.
The Japanese are not only ruthless to their enemies, but also to their own people. When they need to cut off the wrists of strong men, they will do it without hesitation. As long as they can ensure that most people escape, although some people are lost, it is still cost-effective overall. , and those separated troops also consciously resisted desperately.
Therefore, the main force of the Japanese army, eager to escape, abandoned the separated troops and rushed southward like a wolf or a pig. Colonel Okajima Shigetoshi had only one goal, and that was Chaoyang City, and he also knew clearly that As long as you cross the highway from Jianping to Chaoyang, you will be safe.
Just when this Japanese army finally broke into the front line of Shijiazi, the Japanese army who thought they were safe breathed a sigh of relief. When the leading infantry brigade had just passed Shijiazi, the follow-up troops had not yet taken a breath. tone, along with a burst of intensive mortar shells, intensive gunfire and shouts of death rang out around Shijiazi.
A reinforced battalion of the advancing army rushed out from the mountains on both sides of Shijiazi, directly cutting the total strength of the five infantry brigades from the raid on Xinhui to only two large brigades of Japanese troops, cutting them in half. Except for the incomplete infantry brigade that passed first, the artillery behind and the remaining three squadrons were all cut off in the area north of Shijiazi.
After cutting off the Japanese army's front and back contact, the unit immediately occupied the mountains on both sides of Shijiazi with one company to block the return of the Japanese advance troops. The three main companies were all mixed up with the Japanese follow-up squadron. The two sides were in Shijiazi. A fierce close battle broke out on the front line.
After the retreat sequence was originally cut off and he discovered that there were not many enemy troops in front of him, Colonel Shigetoshi Okajima was ready to turn around and rescue the cut-off follow-up troops. However, before he could mobilize his troops, Shuangmiao on his flank In this direction, a company of the Anti-Union Alliance suddenly appeared and rushed towards his flank.
The sudden appearance of the Anti-Japanese Alliance company shocked Colonel Okajima Shigetoshi. He immediately felt sensitively that the sudden appearance of the company was definitely not isolated. The enemy would definitely have follow-up troops. If he If we delay too long on the Shijiazi front line, once the enemy's main force turns around from the flanks, the remaining troops may not be able to leave.
All the soldiers were beaten, and Colonel Shigetoshi Okajima, who wanted to rescue but was unable to do so, finally chose to continue to retreat south. He ordered the surrounded Japanese troops to blow up all equipment that could not be carried, throw away all equipment that might become a burden, and use all his strength. After giving the order to break through to Jianping County, they continued to withdraw southward with the remaining troops.
As for the enemy troops that suddenly rushed up from all around, whether the troops who were already in disarray could still have enough energy to break out of Jianping City, Colonel Shigetoshi Okajima thought there shouldn't be too many problems. The enemy troops setting up a front-line ambush only appeared on the battlefield with more than one battalion.
The divided troops can still form more than two squadrons of infantry alone. With the addition of half a machine gun squadron and a mountain artillery squadron, the strength is still quite abundant. Although it is temporarily intercepted by the enemy, as long as it is caught before the enemy Before the army's follow-up troops catch up, there won't be many problems in being able to merge and stand out.
In particular, what sticks to them is not the Anti-Alliance, but the slightly worse-equipped Advance Army. Okajima Shigetoshi believes that when the enemy and our forces are roughly equal in strength, it may be more difficult to get rid of the Anti-Alliance in a short time, but he wants to get rid of the Advance Army. , it shouldn’t be too difficult.