The Santai Guerrilla Column originally belonged to the Second Army of Southern Zhejiang. However, after the senior officers completed their rotation, Ouyang Yun, in order to take care of Li Tieshu and prevent him from leaving Guangzhou and still having no battle to fight, transferred the Huangshan Battle that originally belonged to the Second Army to The area was assigned to the Third Fujian Army (formerly the Third Taiwan Strait Army), and the logistics supplies of the Santai Guerrilla Column have always been transferred through the Huangshan Theater. In this way, in order to avoid command confusion, the Santai Guerrilla Column was Was placed under the combat order of the Fujian Third Army Corps,
After the Battle of Xiaoshan and the Battle of Madang, the original line of Japanese troops along the southern bank of the Yangtze River was abruptly cut into two parts from the Madang section. As a result, the existence of the Santai guerrilla base area became More importantly, for the Xuebing Army, as long as it can capture Suxichang Town in the south of the Yangtze River, which corresponds to the Santai area, it will be equivalent to extending its tentacles from Zhejiang into the north of the Yangtze River. Of course, the Japanese army does not want to see such a thing happen. This is the main reason why Takashi Sakai wants to prioritize the elimination of the Santai guerrilla column.
Unlike the Japanese army, which could only clear out the Santai guerrilla column first, the Xuebing Army had two options to revive Xichang Town. The first option was to push directly north from Hangzhou, and the second option was to take the Huangshan route, heading northeast from Huangshan. attack, and because the Japanese army has an army near Shanghai and a combined fleet to provide sea and air fire support, the Xuebing Army General Headquarters decided to adopt the third option after consultation, that is, the Fujian Third Army will be the main offensive The mission was to give priority to recovering the Jiangnan area in Anhui, and then advance eastward. The Zhejiang Second Army was responsible for the feint attack mission, to contain the Japanese troops in Shanghai while looking for fighter planes.
This is a compromise plan, proposed by a single hero, but Ouyang Yun finally agreed because implementing this plan would increase the chance of regaining Nanjing. Although the central government announced that Chongqing would be the companion capital, this would not change Nanjing's role in It has a special status in the hearts of the Chinese people. Moreover, if Nanjing can be recovered, it will not only deal a fatal blow to the Wang Puppet Nanjing government, but also bring political bonus points to the Xuebing Army. This is for Ouyang, who has decided to participate in politics to form a coalition government. In terms of clouds, its significance is self-evident.
Nanjing's strategic and political status is so important that the Tokyo base camp cannot take it lightly. The Xuebing Army assembled troops in four places at the same time, but the Japanese army's response was different. On the two lakes in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, the Japanese army hardly increased its troops. , but in the Nanjing area, the Japanese army not only placed the garrison of the newly formed 23rd Army in Yangzhou, but also set Nanjing as the gathering place for the Kwantung Army and the North China Front Army heading south.
The Japanese army attaches great importance to Nanjing. Obviously they know very well that once Nanjing is captured by the Xuebing Army, even if they can achieve the final victory in the Qinling Battle, they will not be able to achieve the goals set before the war. After all, Chongqing is only the companion capital, and Nanjing is the real son of China. Although the capital of the Eight Classics was lost, with the official capital of Nanjing, Chiang Kai-shek was far from reaching the end of his rope. As for the hope of internal strife among the Chinese people, Ouyang Yun refused to give up Nanjing, and Tojo Hideki was completely unwilling to do so. Holding out hope, Ouyang Yun sent heavy troops to participate in the Battle of Nanjing and the Battle of Xuzhou, and he had no intention of hiding his personal interests. The most advanced weapons and equipment were used, and the troops also showed that they were not afraid of death. This has proved that Ouyang Cloud still has a big picture view.
Known in history as the "Autumn Counteroffensive", this half-year-long battle was a large-scale battle between China and Japan that determined the fate of the country. It began to climax on the second day of the Baozhuang battle. Naturally, the first to appear on both sides was the air force. It was known in history as The "Yangtze River Air Battle" was a major battle between the two air forces. Because both warring parties invested in the latest fighter planes and had ground radar stations to help, it was later regarded as a classic lesson plan by many aviation schools around the world and was included in the lesson plans. In the annals of history, on the side of the Xuebing Army, Golden Eagle jet fighters and "Tianlei KKII" air-to-air missiles were put into large-scale use for the first time; on the Japanese side, the Japanese army only dispatched about ten or fifty special attack aircraft in the early stage, and later put into use More than three hundred aircraft were purchased,
After suffering too many losses from radar, the Japanese aviation force finally learned the lesson. Not only did they start building radar stations in important military towns along the north bank of the Yangtze River, but they also stationed heavy troops to guard them. Because of the existence of the radar stations, the two sides could no longer launch a confrontation. Raid on the opponent's airport and radar station, gradually this protracted air battle became dominated by the competition between the fighter units of both sides. Although the bomber units of both sides followed almost every attack, they rarely had the opportunity to launch.
The first large-scale air battle took place on the third day of the Baozhuang battle. The Japanese 23rd Flying Division, under the order of Takashi Sakai, was dispatched to bomb strategic military targets in the Santai area. They had just arrived from several airports around Yangzhou. After taking off, the Huangshan Radar Station of the Xuebing Army detected this movement. Immediately, a fighter division of the Fujian Aviation Corps stationed at Wuyishan Airport immediately went to intercept and support.
The actions of the Xuebing Army Air Force were also detected by the Japanese radar station. A Japanese flying division stationed in Nanjing immediately took off from Nanjing to meet the enemy. Upon seeing this, Xue Changkong released his reserve team and at the same time asked Shanrenxiong for help. Shan Xiong ordered Zhuang Hou to re-send troops to assist in the battle, so the number of fighter units participating in the battle surged to three divisions, exceeding 300 aircraft.
The Japanese army was not to be outdone. Not only did the aviation units stationed in Shanghai immediately take off to assist in the battle, but the two aircraft carriers of the combined fleet stationed offshore Shanghai also launched their respective fighter jets. As a result, in the vast sky centered on the Santai area, the Japanese and Japanese warring parties A total of about a thousand fighter planes were dispatched in an incremental manner and engaged in a melee that lasted nearly two hours.
The fighting was lively in the air, and the infantry of both sides on the ground were not idle either. In the Santai area, the center of the battle, the Japanese 38th Division, under the command of the division commander, Lieutenant General Sano Tadayoshi, and Xinghua, Taizhou, commanded by Fox Shisan personally A fierce battle broke out between the guerrilla brigade in Gaoyou Town, and in Dawei, east of Jiaxing, Hangzhou, the one-man Zhejiang Second Army took the initiative and engaged in a contact battle with a Japanese regiment stationed there. In addition, in the Xuancheng area, An infantry brigade dispatched by Li Tieshu engaged in a fierce battle with the North Korean Communist Army stationed there. The two sides fought fiercely for five hours. The battle ended with the intervention of the Japanese aviation force and the cadet military aircraft infantry brigade voluntarily withdrew from the battle.
At this point, even Chiang Kai-shek, who distrusted the Xuebing Army the most, began to believe that the Xuebing Army was really going to launch a counterattack. For military experts from Britain, the United States and other Allied countries, because the warring parties showed a lot of things as soon as the fight started. A new type of weapon, which immediately attracted their great attention,
(Old Poison: Starting from tomorrow, I will participate in the training organized by my unit. I can only guarantee one update per day. It is estimated that it will last for a week. I hope brothers can bear with it.)