At 1:30 in the morning, Guangzhou Xuebing Army Headquarters,
Ouyang Yun handed the telegram in his hand to Pan Meiren and ordered: "Hurry up and send the telegram to Commander Li. Add this at the end. The Japanese 27th Division will not appear on the Xuzhou battlefield."
The telegram was sent by Xia Wenyun. The intelligence content was that due to the resignation of Japanese Army Minister Gen Sugiyama, the Japanese base camp’s current China policy of "not expanding" has become the main tone, so the scale of the Xuzhou Battle will be restricted, except for those that have already appeared in The three divisions on the Xuzhou battlefield, the 27th Division and other Japanese troops will not appear on the Xuzhou battlefield in the short term.
Gen Sugiyama once crazily clamored to destroy China in half a year, but with the combined fleet's defeat in the Taiwan Strait and the failure of the Battle of Nanjing, his argument has become a joke.
Historically, the reason why China achieved great success in the Battle of Taierzhuang was related to an intelligence piece that Li Zongren obtained from Xia Wenyun. It was precisely because Xia Wenyun clearly pointed out the key points of the Japanese strategy in the intelligence that Li Zongren resolutely abandoned the northern defense line and besieged the Japanese army on the southern front with heavy troops. , thereby severely damaging the main forces of the 5th and 10th Divisions,
The emergence of Ouyang Yun as a butterfly affected the direction of history. Fortunately, Xia Wenyun was not overwhelmed by this and continued to play a major role.
At about two o'clock, Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi in Tongshan (Xuzhou) City received this precious telegram, "Look, now, the Japanese army will suffer heavy losses." Li Zongren was originally worried that the Japanese army would have new forces to join and destroy the enemy. Based on the comparison of military strength, Taierzhuang would become a meat grinder for the Chinese army, so he had already made plans for the next battle. After reading this message, his high-spirited heart finally dropped, and he couldn't help shouting in excitement,
Bai Chongxi also exhaled heavily,
The fierce fighting in Taierzhuang and the heavy casualties of the Chinese army were expected before the war. The Japanese artillery fire was sharp, but the Chinese army did not have the artillery fire to suppress it. The result of letting it go unchecked was that the defenders would have to pay huge casualties and the first enemy would be killed. It was Bai Chongxi's idea to unify and use the existing artillery in the five theaters. Therefore, he was more concerned about the casualties of the Taierzhuang garrison. He knew that once the casualties were too large, or even the entire army collapsed as a result, the Taierzhuang battle would be inevitable. It will be a turning point in the Battle of Xuzhou. The national army will not be completely defeated, but the goals set before the war will definitely not be achieved. Once Xuzhou falls prematurely, it will have a huge impact on the direction of the next war.
"Jiansheng, have the artillery units and Hexi armies been deployed in place?" Li Zongren asked Bai Chongxi,
Bai Chongxi nodded affirmatively and said: "As long as you give the order, our army will fire thousands of artillery pieces. Brother De Lin, this battle can be done."
"Yes, Ouyang Yun's telegram came in time, so we don't have any worries."
Bai Chongxi was in a relaxed mood and couldn't help but joke: "If you believe him like this, what if it's false information?"
Li Zongren shook his head: "It's impossible. Xuebingjun's energy is so low, and he has those fox eyes. I used to look down on him. I thought Ouyang Yun had too much money and nowhere to spend it. I didn't expect that he could actually become the one he is now. The scale, this guy is young, and he has a lot of skills when it comes to starting a dark business, Jiansheng, we really made a mistake before."
Bai Chongxi was aroused and said with a wry smile: "Yeah, think about it when he first arrived in Guangzhou, we thought he wouldn't last long. Who knew that Xuebingjun would actually take root?"
"Now, we are waiting for news about Guo Muyi."
Where are Guo Muyi and his raiding force?
The situation at the northwest gate, north gate, and east gate was similar to that at the west gate. After the 5th Division's violent attack for three hours, it was difficult to advance. An Tengliji saw that there was nothing he could do, so he thought about it and wanted to wait for the cooperation of the aviation force after dawn.
Attack again next time, perhaps with the lessons learned from the past of the detachment, An Tengliji was very cautious. After stopping the attack, he not only arranged patrol troops, but also asked his subordinates to fire a missile over the three city gates every quarter of an hour.
flares,
The Taierzhuang defense line is very important to Xuzhou. Once it is captured, the Japanese army will gain a bridgehead to attack Xuzhou and take the initiative on the Xuzhou battlefield. Because the Chinese and Japanese frontline commands are aware of this, they both attach great importance to the Taierzhuang battle. As for the Japanese army,
Three armies were dispatched at one time. Regarding the fifth theater, Li Zongren ordered Li Pinxian, deputy commander of the theater and commander of the 11th Group Army, to personally take charge.
At a quarter past two o'clock, flares were raised over the three gates again. The flares rose into the sky and illuminated the vicinity of the three gates. At this moment, the officers and soldiers at the frontline of the two warring sides could even see clearly the exposed fortifications and trenches of the other side.
helmet,
Ximen and Li Pinxian picked up the telescope at the right time and looked across.
The first time the Japanese army carried out this action, it startled the defenders, thinking that the Japanese army had started to attack again. When the flares went out and darkness and silence fell around the battlefield again, everyone realized that it was a false alarm.
After an hour and a half of fighting, this is the third time that the Japanese army has fired illumination bombs. If An Tengliji happened to be in front and raised his binoculars towards the opposite side, he would be horrified to find that the defenders were rapidly gathering troops at the west gate.
The flares were raised, and the 31 officers and soldiers who were originally gathering towards the four gates all lowered their heads and ran towards the designated assembly area under the low-pitched orders of the officers.
In Li Pinxian's telescope, except for dozens of helmets exposed from the trenches, there was only a group of more than a dozen Japanese military policemen walking from south to north with guns on their backs. He put down the telescope, heaved a sigh of relief, and then asked the staff officer beside him
Gu Lianqian said: "Inform all night attack troops to start entering the battlefield in five minutes."
"Yes." Gu Lianqian agreed and ran away.
The three flares were extinguished at once, and the battlefield fell into darkness again. Li Pinxian turned back and walked into the cellar of a house not far away, which would become his temporary command post. The cellar was ringing with beeping sounds. He
Asked: "Has there been a telegram from Xuzhou?"
A communications officer stood up and replied: "Commander, not yet."
"I know, continue to pay attention, and notify me immediately if there is any new situation."
"yes."
Li Pinxian walked out of the cellar, took the flare gun from the guard, and asked, "Have it been checked."
Guard Li Jun replied respectfully: "Yes."
Li Pinxian weighed the gun in his hand and took the lead in walking towards the Ximen front line.
A few minutes later, troops began to run past him quickly. He found a place with a slightly higher ground and stood there, silently watching his men rush towards the dark front line of the battlefield. When the footsteps disappeared,
He turned his head and looked to the southeast, frowned and sighed softly: Guo Muyi's troops have arrived at their destination and are ready to attack. If they delay, then these teams of mine will be in vain.
When Li Pinxian was thinking about Guo Muyi, Guo Muyi was also thinking about him: It is getting closer and closer to three o'clock. After a rapid march, the troops have successfully appeared five kilometers southeast of Taierzhuang. Now, they are waiting for Li Pinxian's troops to launch first. The night attack attracted An Tengliji's attention.
Not many people in the Fifth War Zone know about this raid, and all of them are waiting eagerly for the battle to start. Regardless of whether they agree or disagree in advance, at this moment, they have only one common wish in their hearts, and that is this The raid can be successful,
Time is not affected by anyone's will and flows at an eternal frequency. Li Pinxian raised his left hand, Guo Muyi raised his left hand, Guo Da, Huang Haifu, Zhang Zizhong, Li Zongren, and Bai Chongxi all started to look at the time.
The watches of Li Pinxian and Guo Muyi were checked by Li Zongren. At this moment, their heartbeats tended to the same frequency as the small second hand jumped.
At about 2:43, with a sound of "Oh,", a flare was raised over the Northwest Gate battlefield. The Japs of the An Teng Division on the front line of the Northwest Gate fired another flare according to the division commander's instructions. Flares, and at this time, the small-scale battle in Ximen had just ended. After the Xueyi Division entered the battlefield, it finally had its first confrontation with the Segu detachment. As a result, more than thirty soldiers of the Xueyi Division were killed. The Setani detachment dumped more than ten corpses.
When the Setani detachment started firing, Guo Da was staring closely at the watch on his hand. He cursed softly: "Anteng Liji's luck is so good, Setani Kei is so stupid, he will fire at this time sooner or later." , this will wake up so many Japanese soldiers in the 5th Division."
The raid plan proposed by Guo Muyi originally did not involve Li Pinxian's unit, but the truce of the 5th Division made Guo Da, who was on the front line, suddenly realize that because the Jiguang tank was too noisy, there was no fighting on the front line. It was almost impossible to get close to the Japanese army unnoticed. In order to ensure the suddenness of the raid, the only way to do it was to launch a massive night attack. So he proposed to Li Zongren that the 31st Army Waiting for an opportunity to conduct a night attack first to make noise to cover up the motor sound of the relay tank. After discussing with Bai Chongxi, Li Zongren agreed to his proposal. Bai Chongxi added one more point on this basis, in order to ensure that the raiding force could unexpectedly appear on the 5th. At the rear of the division, part of the artillery was simply used for bombardment, with the rumbling explosions as cover. It was believed that it would numb the Japanese army's hearing and allow the Jiguang tanks to drive to a closer distance to launch an attack.
No one expected that the 5th Division suddenly stopped attacking. After careful consideration, Li Pinxian accepted the order calmly.
As the scheduled time approached, Li Pinxian no longer looked at the time, but stared closely at the Japanese position not far away.
The men who participated in the night attack did not disappoint his expectations. The two regiments of more than 2,000 people arrived less than 30 meters away from the first trench of the Japanese army without knowing it. The nearest assault platoon was even closer to a group of Japanese soldiers. There is only a distance of five or six meters. Such a close distance can be broken through in seconds, and the flares launched by the Japanese army will provide sufficient lighting for their attack.
The flare rose quickly, and as soon as it started to shine brightly, Li Pinxian fired the signal gun, "Bang." A red flare immediately rose into the sky, dragging a gorgeous tail in the sky just when the flare just shined brightly.
The officers and soldiers of the night raid, who had been nervously and excitedly waiting for the attack signal, immediately jumped to their feet. The officers and soldiers screamed: "Charge." "Fight." "Brothers, charge."...while exerting all their strength. pulled the trigger and threw the grenade,
The Japs of the 5th Division were exhausted after a long-distance attack and fighting for most of the night. Although the division commander An Teng had a strict order that the troops on duty were not allowed to sleep, nothing happened for more than an hour. In addition, the ups and downs of fighting at the west gate not far away paralyzed everyone's nerves. Many Japanese soldiers leaned against the trench wall with their guns in their arms and fell asleep unconsciously.
Thunderous shouts of killing suddenly rang out. Many Japanese soldiers actually thought that Ximen was starting to mess with them again. They muttered a few words and tried to change positions to continue dozing off. But what was waiting for them was revenge bullets or sharp bayonets. More Japs instinctively raised their guns and opened their eyes, and then they discovered to their horror that the enemy was already close at hand. So, before they could react, dense rain of bullets rained down, and a squadron of Japs in the first trench He was killed by the night attack troops with almost no chance of fighting back.
"Enemy attack, enemy attack." The Japs from the gendarmerie not far away howled, and the alarm whistles blew loudly. Immediately, the Japs behind, including those outside the other three city gates, immediately started to commotion.
An Tengliji was sleeping in an armored vehicle. He was awakened by the sound of gunfire outside and broke out in a cold sweat. He walked out of the armored vehicle and took a clear look at the situation on the battlefield with the light of the flares. My heart immediately relaxed,
There were two and a half brigades of Japanese troops outside the northwest gate. They fought hard for most of the day and lost 500 to 600 people, leaving about 2,000 people left. After these 2,000 people were killed by a sneak attack and killed one squadron, there are now more than 1,600 left. Once these more than 1,600 Japanese soldiers launched a counterattack, the offensive momentum of the 31st Army's night attack force was immediately curbed.
The weaponry and equipment of the 31st Army was still too poor, because all the Japanese in the first trench were wiped out, and the Japanese in the second line of defense were not afraid of hurting their own people. They used light and heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, and mortars to unleash their power, and they were instantly defeated at night. The attacking force caused great damage. The person in charge of the night attack of the 31st Army was a brigade commander named Chi Zhenhai. Seeing that his offensive momentum was blocked, he remembered the commander's note and immediately shouted: "Brothers, withdraw The first line of defense." Then he led the team to withdraw from the first Japanese trench that had just been captured.
As soon as they jumped into the trench filled with Japanese corpses, rumbles of artillery sounded from the southwest.
As soon as the cannon fired, the soldiers participating in the night attack immediately became excited. The reason why the 31st Army fought hard before was because they did not have artillery that could suppress the enemy's artillery fire. Now they finally heard the power of their own artillery. The 31st Army was bullied by the Japanese artillery. The officers and soldiers naturally cheered and were indescribably excited.
"Listen, it's our cannon."
"Damn it, I thought all the idiots in the artillery unit ran away."
"Taikoo, are we going to launch a counterattack?"
Chi Zhenhai's reaction was different from that of the soldiers. He was very angry. Today's battle was depressing. We had no heavy fire support, and there was nothing we could do against the Japs' artillery. This purely defensive battle had no tactics at all. They could only fill it with people regardless of the consequences. As a result, after fighting in the middle of the night, the losses of the troops exceeded the consumption in the southern section of the Jinpu Line for more than two months. It happened that Li Pinxian came to inspect his defense line, and he couldn't help but question him. He said: "Commander, I don't understand. If we continue to fight like this, the troops will be exhausted sooner or later. Where are our artillery and the artillery of our 11th Group Army? Without artillery, this battle cannot be fought."
"Our artillery has been called up by the theater headquarters."
"Why, why, Commander, do the people named Li and Bai want to avenge themselves? Commander, this battle can't be fought. Let's withdraw."
Li Pinxian became angry immediately. Chi Zhenhai's words touched his wound. He roared: "Asshole, you can say this too. Remember your identity. You are the brigade commander of the national army. Chi Zhenhai, I Let me tell you, even if we fight to the last person today, we must not take a step back, do you understand?"
"Commander, I can't figure it out."
"If you can't figure it out, don't think about it." Li Pinxian glared at him fiercely, gritted his teeth and left.
Chi Zhenhai knew that he had said the wrong thing at the time. Anyone who knew Li Pinxian knew that he was very taboo about others mentioning the past things in front of him. Li Pinxian originally belonged to the Hunan Army led by Tang Shengzhi, and was later captured by the Guangxi Army led by Li Zongren during the civil war. The army was defeated and incorporated. In the subsequent Jiang-Gui war, he betrayed the Gui clique at the call of Tang Shengzhi. Then, he followed Tang Shengzhi to rebel against Chiang at the call of Feng Yuxiang and Shi Yousan. The result was a huge defeat and loss. He lost all the troops and became a polished commander. This did not end his military career, because immediately after the outbreak of the Central Plains War, he accepted the invitation of Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi and joined the Gui Army again. But this time, he still did not Able to start well and end well, during the Guangdong and Guangxi Incident not long ago, he was persuaded by Tang Shengzhi to betray Li and Bai again, thus officially becoming a member of the Central Army.
The reason why Li Pinxian was like a grassroots man was that he had no choice but to do so. Including himself, the middle and low-level officers in the army under his command were all Tang Shengzhi's old subordinates. He was unable to act arbitrarily. Therefore, although he was a snake like Rat Liangduan's behavior is despised by the world, but he thinks he has a clear conscience.
This time the Guangxi clique suffered a heavy loss in the Battle of Nanjing. The elite troops of Li and Bai were exhausted. However, Chiang Kai-shek transferred him to the command of Li Zongren. Li Zongren was okay and behaved like a general. Goodbye. He didn't say anything, but Bai Chongxi would express disdain and make sarcastic remarks from time to time, which made Li Pinxian very annoyed and aggrieved. At this time, Chi Zhenhai came to add fuel to the fire, and it was natural that he would get angry.
There is a reason for Chi Zhenhai's anger. More than half of the artillery units currently under the jurisdiction of the Fifth Theater Command are from the 31st Army. If Li Zongren does not recruit these artillery units, the 31st Army will definitely be able to suppress the Japanese under its own command. It's okay for you to recruit the artillery, but you can't hide it. If your own artillery unit had been dispatched earlier, how many fewer people would have died in your own unit. When Chi Zhenhai thought about it, he naturally suspected that Li and Bai were taking advantage of the opportunity. took revenge,