The sound of gunfire and artillery finally stopped.
The road was a mess. Bodies of Hunan Army soldiers, weapons and heavy vehicles were everywhere.
The Red 18th Regiment, which had experienced the baptism of the Xiaoshui battle, was naturally very good at cleaning the battlefield. The soldiers gathered the prisoners, first screened out the officers, and guarded them in separate teams. Then they organized the captured soldiers into teams and guarded them separately.
.Then the next step is to collect weapons and ammunition and count the baggage materials.
The results of the battle were quickly calculated. In this battle, a division headquarters, a brigade headquarters and two regiments of the Hunan Army's 62nd Division were wiped out, a total of 4,600 people. Among them, 1,424 enemy people were killed, 560 were injured, and 2,616 people including the enemy division commander Tao Guang were captured, and the radio station was seized
Two units, worth 30,000 yuan, and more than 4,000 light and heavy machine guns, submachine guns, rifles, and pistols. Unfortunately, all the mortars of the enemy's mortar company were destroyed, leaving only the shells carried by the baggage team for Li Chang's
Ammunition replenishment for the artillery camp.
Liu Yimin ordered He Xinghua to immediately check the radio transmission records of the 62nd Division Headquarters. When he learned that Tao Guang had ordered Wang Yuying's brigade to return for reinforcements and asked Liu Jianxu and the 16th Hunan Division for reinforcements, Liu Yimin's eyes suddenly lit up. It seemed that he was lucky.
Someone gave me a pillow when I slept. He immediately ordered the 62nd Division radio station to send a report, ordering Wang Yuying's brigade to speed up its return and attack the Red Bandits at Xikou. He ordered a report to be sent to Liu Jianxu in the name of the 62nd Division, saying that he had encountered a Red Bandit Regiment 15
Division and the 9th Army Corps ambushed, and the troops lost nearly one regiment. They now occupied the commanding heights on the east side of the road at the north end of Xikou, and faced off with the enemy. They were eager for reinforcements. They sent a report to Liu Jianxu in the name of the 16th Hunan Division, saying that they had received orders from the 62nd Division Tao
Commander Guang sent a telegram asking for reinforcements. The troops were on the verge of arriving and were preparing to send reinforcements immediately. It was estimated that they would arrive at Xikou in 3 to 4 hours. He sent a telegram to the 7th Company and 1st Platoon of the 3rd Battalion, which was on the mission of harassing the enemy Wang Yuying's Brigade, ordering them to increase their reinforcements.
The intensity of harassment of the rear guard of the enemy's King's Brigade created the illusion that our army was blocking the enemy's return reinforcements, but it was only harassment and was not allowed to fight head-on with the enemy; a report was sent to Wu Zheng who was approaching the entrance, and the regiment training team and guard platoon following him were ordered to follow him.
Instructor Captain Li Yimo commanded, pretending to be the 16th Hunan Division, lighting more torches, and advancing towards Xikou, creating the illusion that the 16th Division was heading towards Xikou for reinforcements.
Cai Zhonghe's new barracks and two mountain artillery batteries arrived after the battle. It wasn't that they arrived late. The key was that the 62nd Division collapsed too quickly and the battle ended too quickly.
Looking at the results of the battle in front of him, Cai Zhong was speechless. His partner was amazing. It would not be an exaggeration to say that he could predict the enemy's opportunities at every turn. Ever since I met him in Xinwei, it seemed that victory had always been with the Red 18th Regiment. Advanced tactics
His thoughts, novel tactical moves, and decisive and neat battlefield command made almost every battle a model. It seemed that there were too many things that I needed to learn from him.
I heard that the two mortar companies and the four mortars assigned to the fourth and fifth battalions performed extraordinary feats in this battle. Without saying anything, the two mountain cannon company commanders immediately ordered the soldiers to assemble the mountain cannons, and then ran to Liu Yimin together.
Ask who to hit next.
Liu Yimin looked at the two old Red Army soldiers whose eyes were full of bloodshot eyes. Knowing that the troops were extremely tired, he told them to let the soldiers rest on the spot and stand by.
They called Cai Zhong, Liu Jianli, and Li Qing, and told them what the radio station had learned and the measures they had taken. Then they told them that they were determined to ambush Wang Yuying's brigade south of Xikou, and then return to ambush the enemy's possible reinforcements.
Expand the results.
Cai Zhong, Liu Jianshe, and Li Qing all had their eyes lit up when they heard this. Cai Zhong proposed that the battle just now was not enough, and the next ambush would lead troops to fight anyway.
Liu Yimin directly rejected Cai Zhong's proposal and told him that he had more important tasks. Then he divided the work directly. Cai Zhong led the new battalion to escort the prisoners and supplies to Xikou, where he mobilized the masses to boil water for cooking, and treated the wounded.
Treat and bury the 24 martyrs who died in the 18th Regiment, reorganize the original soldiers of the new camp into a large company, and distribute machine guns and submachine guns according to the standards of combat battalions. All captured soldiers will be reorganized according to the Xiaoshui model and organized into new camp 2.
Companies 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. Li Qing led two mountain artillery companies, sniper platoon, and engineer battalion to move the enemy corpses on the road to the farmland on the west side of the road as far as possible.
It is best to cover the corpse with some hay, then occupy the hillside on the east side of the road, build a mountain artillery position, and equip the engineer battalion with machine gun firepower according to the standards of a combat battalion. If enemy reinforcements arrive, the engineer battalion is responsible for cutting off the enemy's rear route and covering the two mountain artillery batteries.
Enemy bombardment. The cavalry company still occupied the hilltop in front, but it had to collect firecrackers at the mouth of the river and set them off intensively every half an hour, creating the illusion that the 62nd Division was still blocking the Red Army and luring the enemy into taking the bait. Liu established six combat battalions and heavy machine guns
Battalion, two mortar companies rested on the spot for an hour to allow the soldiers to recover their strength. The reconnaissance platoon immediately went out to the south of Xikou and scouted the enemy's situation along the road. An hour later, he and Liu Jianli led the main force out of Xikou.
Ambush Wang Yuying's brigade.
After the tasks were assigned, several people took action immediately and went about their own business.
The headquarters of Liu Jianxu's First Corps in Jingxian County was in chaos.
Lieutenant General Liu Jianxu, commander of the 28th Army of the National Revolutionary Army and commander of the First Corps of the Pursuit and Suppression Army, has been in high spirits recently. He is He Jian's deputy and the veritable second-in-command of the Hunan Army. Since He Jian became the commander-in-chief of the Pursuit and Suppression Army
Later, Liu Jianxu rose to the occasion and took over the task of commanding the entire Hunan Army in front of the enemy on He Jian's behalf. He had eight elite divisions under his command for him to drive.
Different from He Jian's habit of stroking his mustache when he has nothing to do, Liu Jianxu has a majestic military appearance, a pair of big eyes shining on his fair round face, and he walks calmly and powerfully. At first glance, he is a powerful military general with good military qualities.
No wonder, he is 42 years old and in his prime. He graduated from the third artillery college of Baoding Military Academy. He was a classmate of the same period as He Jian and Bai Chongxi. He has experienced the Northern Expedition, the Central Plains War, the encirclement and suppression of the Red Army, and the test of the Hunan-Guangxi War.
After fighting for the rest of his life, he has already become a master.
After receiving a telegram from Tao Guang asking for help, Liu Jianxu hurriedly walked into the war room and thought deeply about the war map.
From the picture, it can be seen that the Red Army in the passage area has been surrounded by the National Army. On the south side of the Red Army's march route is the Seventh Army of the Guangxi Army, and the 15th Army is chasing and intercepting it. Behind the Guangxi Army is the main force of the Guangdong Army as support; behind the Red Army's march route
, it was his three main divisions of 16, 62, and 63 who were chasing and intercepting. Behind these three divisions was Zhou Hunyuan's column of the Central Army for support. On the north side of the Red Army's march route, he personally led three divisions and was ready. Behind them were
Wu Qiwei's column led by Xue Yue provided support; to the west of the Red Army's march route, the Guizhou Army was deployed. No matter how it looked, the main force of the Red Army had already entered its encirclement.
After receiving the intelligence yesterday that the main force of the Red Army had occupied Tongtang County, Liu Jianxu ordered the three divisions of the first route to dispatch urgently this morning. Among them, the middle part of the 63rd Division Chen Guang guarded the line from Jingxian County to Zhaiya and entered Yanmenpu with one force.
Pour the water boundary to prevent the Red Army from fleeing north; the 16th Division Zhang Liang's base left Suining and rode horses along Xiaoshui to Linkou to intercept; the 62nd Division Tao Guang's troops passed through Le'anbu, Xikou, and Zhaitou Fort to intercept Jingwu Prefecture. 63
The division reported several times throughout the day but found no sign of the Red Army moving north; at noon, the 16th Division reported that it had defeated the Red Army rear guard regiment in Xiaoshui and continued to attack Linkou. At 2:00 noon, the 62nd Division reported that Wang Yuying's brigade had passed through Xikou and headed toward Linkou.
As Jingwu Prefecture advanced, no main force of the Red Army was found. Aircraft reconnaissance also found no main force of the Red Army marching in the passage area. Based on these circumstances, the Corps Headquarters determined that the main force of the Red Army was likely to give up its attempt to go north to Xiangxi to join He Long's troops, and divert its troops to the west.
Guizhou. Why did Tao Guang's 62nd Division Zhong Brigade encounter the main force of the Communist Army?
I took Tao Guang's telegram asking for help and read it again. It was still the same simple sentence: "The staff department encountered the main force of red bandits on the road at the north end of Xikou. Please help immediately."
This message is damn concise. How many are the main force of the Red Bandits, what are their numbers, the progress of the battle, etc., nothing. Could it be that something unexpected happened to Tao Guang’s department? Impossible, the Red Army after the Xiangjiang River War did not even have time to escape.
, where is the main division capable of plotting its own plans? Is it true that the main force of the Red Army is hiding near the mouth of the river, waiting for Tao Guang to come to the door? Impossible, impossible, if so, the main force of the Red Army
Why did he let go of the 62nd Division Vanguard Brigade? Besides, even if he encountered the main force of the Red Army, with Tao Guang's shrewdness and experience, wouldn't he still be able to escape if he couldn't defeat it?
Puzzled, Liu Jianxu ordered the chief of staff to keep in touch with the 62nd Division to try to understand the battle situation. He also contacted the 16th Division and the 63rd Division and ordered them to prepare for battle and wait for further orders.
About half an hour later, the chief of staff came in with a telegram from the 62nd Division. When Liu Jianxu took a look, Tao Guang reported that the ones who ambushed them were the 15th Division and the 9th Army of the Red Bandit Army, with about six to seven thousand people and no artillery.
.The 62nd Division's Zhong Brigade has lost nearly one regiment and has now occupied the commanding heights on the east side of the road at the northern end of Xikou, forming a confrontation with the enemy and waiting for reinforcements.
As the former enemy commander of the Hunan Army, Liu Jianxu knew the Communist Party and the Red Army very well.
Different from the ignorant propaganda of the National Army that portrays the Red Army and the Communist Party as green-faced fangs and communists sharing their wives, in Liu Jianxu's view, the Communist Party is a political party with doctrine, organization, and policies that will constantly appeal to the masses and expand political influence.
.At the same time, there are few rich people and many poor people in Chinese society, and most of them are farmers. The Communist Party adopts the policy of attacking local tyrants and dividing their fields. It is very easy to incite the masses, create hatred between the poor and the rich, coerce the masses to strengthen their strength, and the development of the Soviet areas
This is an example. If such political party organizations are not banned and eradicated, once they gain power in the future, they will inevitably subvert the traditional order of Chinese society.
Liu Jianxu's evaluation of the Red Army, which had been fighting against each other for a long time, was very different from what was said in Nationalist government newspapers and radio reports that they were a group of bandits armed with spears and were born from farmers. He believed that the main force of the Red Army had high morale, strict discipline, strict training, and flexible tactics. The shortcomings were the lack of
They had few guns and ammunition, and lacked clothing and food. If the equipment of the National Army and the Red Army were exchanged, Liu Jianxu could not think of any other Chinese army that could rival the main force of the Red Army.
Now is the best time to completely eliminate the Red Army. As a former enemy commander of the Hunan Army in the Xiangjiang Battle, Liu Jianxu knows that the current Red Army is at its weakest. There are bombings from planes in the sky and sieges and interceptions on the ground. The main force of the Red Army is trapped in a tight siege and is hesitant.
There is no plan. The only way is to seize the road to Guizhou, and there may be a glimmer of hope. But that requires great wisdom to decide. According to the prisoners, the current leaders of the Communist Party are all student children who came back from Moscow. They can become successful by relying on these children.
What climate.
The chief of staff came in again to report that he had received a telegram from Commander Zhang Liangji of the 16th Division. The 16th Division had received a telegram from the 62nd Division asking for reinforcements and was now preparing to rush for reinforcements.
Liu Jianxu took the telegram and read it, and then studied the map carefully for a while. An idea suddenly jumped into his mind: "Throw away the pawn and save the car!"
After calling the Chief of Staff and asking the guards to put the lantern closer to the map, Liu Jianxu told his thoughts: "Chief of Staff, judging from the current situation, there are Gui and the Guangdong Army in the south of the passage area, and our army and Commander-in-Chief Xue Yue are in the north.
The main force was pursued by the three divisions of our Corps and Zhou Hunyuan's column in the east, and blocked by the Guizhou Army in the west. The Red Bandits had become turtles in the urn. According to the 62nd Division's request for help telegram, it was the 15th Division of the First Red Army and the Ninth Red Army that ambushed them.
Among them, the 15th Division is the International Division of the Red Bandits, a group of children; the 9th Red Army Corps is a newly expanded unit before the Red Bandits retreated from the Soviet area. It has many recruits and extremely poor combat effectiveness. Both of these two units were attacked by our army in the Xiangjiang Campaign.
, the casualties were huge, and the already weak combat effectiveness was greatly reduced. Judging from the battle report of the 16th Division in one day, they only eliminated a rear guard regiment of the Red Bandits, and no other main force of the Red Army was found. The reason why the Wang Yuying Brigade of the 62nd Division was able to do so quickly
The attack advanced to Jingwu Prefecture, which shows that there was no decent resistance at all. Based on the above situation, I judge that the 15th Division and the 9th Army of the First Army of the Red Bandits are the largest rearguard units of the Red Bandits. The reason why they ambush at Xikou at this time
Tao Guang probably passed by the 16th Division when they were moving from Chang'an Camp to Linkou. He understood Xiaoshui that there was a large force of our army on the Linkou line, so he turned towards Xikou and met Zhong Brigade of the 62nd Division.
Unfortunately, the Red Bandits discovered the 62nd Division first and opened fire first, catching the 62nd Division off guard. This also confirmed that the main force of the Red Army was not in the area. If the main force of the Red Army was there, it is estimated that the headquarters of the 62nd Division and the bell brigade organized by the two regiments were already finished."
At this point, Liu Jianxu glanced at the chief of staff and saw that the other party had no objection, so he continued: "So where has the main force of the Red Bandits gone? Judging from the situation of Wang Yuying's brigade occupying Jingwu Prefecture, the main force of the Red Bandits has left the passage
County, otherwise, Tongdao County is so close to Jingwu Prefecture, and the Red Bandits will not allow the Wang Brigade to occupy Jingwu Prefecture so easily. Therefore, the judgment made by the Corps Headquarters yesterday that the main force of the Red Bandits may flee westward is valid.
.From this point of view, the Red Bandits who ambushed Tao Guang were alone. This was the main force of the Red Bandits' strategy of losing soldiers to protect their vehicles. They used these weak troops to attract the attention of our army and cover their main force's westward movement."
The enemy's chief of staff felt that this was indeed the case, so he said that the commander's analysis was very thorough and that this should be the case.
Liu Jianxu looked at the map again, turned around and said: "Since the Red Bandits left such a large abandoned pawn, it would be too small for our appetite not to eat it. Chief of Staff, record the order: 1. Order Tao Guang's troops to shrink their positions.
Strictly guard against night attacks by red bandits; second, order Wang Yuying's brigade to quickly return along the original road for reinforcements; third, order the entire 16th Division to advance toward Xikou and must arrive within 3 hours to form a pincer attack with Wang Yuying's brigade; fourth, order 63
The division immediately set off to reinforce the 62nd Division, and the remaining defensive tasks were handed over to the 19th Division. Fifth, each department carried more torches and accelerated the march. An encirclement must be formed. After the encirclement, all participating troops were returned to the command of Tao Guang, commander of the 62nd Division. After dawn, the regiment would
Send planes to assist in the battle and completely eliminate this group of red bandits."
After the chief of staff recorded the order, he asked cautiously: "What if the main force of the Red Bandits did not flee westward, but hid near the mouth of the stream to encircle the area and provide reinforcements?"
Liu Jianxu said: "It's impossible. First, the Red Bandits have not formed an encirclement on Tao Guang so far, and Tao Guang can retreat at any time. Second, my 16th Division is a fully-manned Third Brigade and Sixth Regiment with tens of thousands of troops, and carries
We have the only mountain artillery battalion in the entire army, and its firepower is so powerful that we are not afraid even if we encounter the main force of the Red Bandits. If there is really a main force of the Red Bandits that dares to fight against the 16th Division, we will use our army to fight another Xiangjiang Battle. In that case, it is estimated that the main force of the Red Bandits will
It's really over. Don't hesitate, send the report and execute it."
The enemy's chief of staff went out to report. The adjutant moved a chair, asked Liu Jianli to sit down and rest, and then quietly walked out.
The war room was quiet again, with only the bright lantern illuminating Liu Jianxu's seemingly very intelligent face. The breeze blew by, and the flames of the lantern flickered, casting a few shadows on Liu Jianxu's broad forehead.