In fact, the news that Liu Zhi reported to the Military Commission that the First Army was defeated was not very accurate. As one of the most respected generals under Feng Yuxiang, Sun Lianzhong was highly regarded after joining Chiang Kai-shek. Naturally, Sun Lianzhong was not an incompetent person. He understood the difficulties of the army.
If Ma Fu's First Army did not leave a main force to resist resolutely and allowed the whole army to be defeated, then the First Army might really be annihilated in the endless pursuit of the Japanese army.
We must know that the Japanese army has excellent continuous combat and marching capabilities. With mechanized assistance, its combat mobility has been doubled. Facing the extremely tired divisions of the First Army, as long as they are willing, they can continue the battle until they are all annihilated.
.in view of
Therefore, Sun Lianzhong reluctantly left the legion's directly-affiliated instructors, who he had mobilized the main forces from each division, in Yutian County to resolutely block the gap and serve as a support for the whole legion when it retreats westward, and for the gathering and consolidation of the broken troops of the whole legion, winning the victory.
Valuable breathing time.
When the First Army was hit by an air attack earlier, in order to avoid the aerial bombs that fell like hail on the position, the organization of each division quickly became chaotic. When the Japanese tanks appeared in the distance, raising dust all over the sky, they slowly pushed back.
In Xianghe, the exhausted soldiers suddenly regained their energy for some reason. They got up from the ground desperately and ran towards Yutian County. Thousands of soldiers exhausted all their strength. Their only thought was
Escape from this scary place.
However, fortunately, the soldiers had no fighting spirit and were able to avoid fatal disasters. The Japanese Army rigidly followed the regulations and always liked to conduct a round of artillery fire coverage before launching an attack. As a result, the Japanese artillery shells fell on the north bank of the Huanxiang River.
on the beachhead, on the beachhead
Only the officers and soldiers who were killed by the planes or injured were left unable to move. Most of the soldiers who survived were out of the range of the artillery fire. Amidst the shaking sound of the Japanese artillery shelling, they poured into the south gate of Yutian County like a tide.
Cross the city and run towards the west gate.
Because the Japanese army still wanted to preserve the place they once ruled, they did not use aerial bombs to bomb the county. A dense group of fighter planes were like locusts, flying darkly over Yutian County and flying to the west. They were very fast in the distance.
There were continuous explosions, and it was unknown which unit of troops was hit. Fortunately, the command center of Sun Lianzhong's regiment and the soldiers of a division of the instructor station stationed in the county did not suffer any losses.
Sun Lianzhong saw that the divisions were completely defeated and could not be gathered at all. After several failed attempts, he gave up the idea of organizing troops on the spot to fight the Japanese army. He immediately told his instructor to separate a brigade as the rear of the entire army and resist desperately.
The Legion fought to gain as much breathing time as possible.
"Commander, the strength of one brigade is too small. Please let me stay with the instructors! We still don't know how many troops the Japanese army has invested in the area around Yutian. If only one brigade is left, I don't know how long we can hold on.
, if it is a touch
Even if they are defeated, the purpose of blocking the enemy will not be achieved at all. Xiao Lun (Bai Mingyi's word) promised that as long as there is a breath left, not a single Japanese soldier will be allowed to cross Yutian County." Major General Bai Mingyi, commander of the instruction division, decided to stay in person and vowed
Live and die with Yutian County.
Bai Mingyi graduated from the Baoding Military Academy, then traveled east to Japan and was admitted to the Army University of the People's Republic of China. While in school, he joined the saber team and received a sword as a gift from the Emperor. After completing his studies, he returned to China and served as an instructor at the Nanjing Central Military Academy. During this period, he
I am very interested in the lectures of Chief Instructor An Yi. An Yi's lectures can be said to be consistent. Combining An Yi's ideas on building an army and what he has learned, he has formed a military system of his own.
In July 1932, when Sun Lianzhong's troops were encircling and suppressing the Red Army in Jiangxi, Chief of Staff Zhao Bosheng of the 26th Route Army General Headquarters, Division Commander Dong Zhentang, Brigadier Ji Zhentong, Huang Zhongyue and others took Sun Lianzhong back to Nanjing for treatment and led the
Seventeen thousand officers and soldiers staged the famous Ningdu Uprising
Chiang Kai-shek was shocked by such a major incident under Sun Lianzhong, and immediately allocated funds to rebuild the 26th Route Army. Bai Mingyi was assigned to Sun Lianzhong at this time as the leader of the training regiment. Bai Mingyi has always been deeply involved in military training due to his excellent military training and superior strategy.
He was highly regarded by Sun Lianzhong.
Although Sun Lianzhong felt a little reluctant to give up, facing the severe situation at hand, only Bai Mingyi among the generals in the army could take on this important task, so after a moment of hesitation, he agreed to Bai Mingyi's request and patted his shoulder encouragingly:
"Brother Xiaolun, I won't say anything grateful. The situation is critical. The Japanese artillery fire has gradually become sparse. The next step will be to attack Yutian County with all its strength. With the Japanese army's domineering force, it will definitely hit the main road from Tangshan to Jixian and Peiping.
Yutian County was captured quickly on the road. Although I don’t know what method you used to block the Japanese attack, I hope you can buy at least one day for the legion. More importantly, I hope to see you again.
,Take care of yourself!"
Bai Mingyi nodded, gave Sun Lianzhong a solemn military salute, turned and left.
Sun Lianzhong looked at Bai Mingyi's stalwart figure, gritted his teeth, and immediately ordered the legion headquarters to evacuate the county. He took a "Big Leopard" off-road vehicle and more than ten military trucks belonging to the legion headquarters and rushed to Yutian before the army collapsed.
On the Shangzhuang front line, more than ten kilometers west of the county seat, we used the narrow mountain roads to gather troops and set up blocking positions on the spot.
At present, the artillery regiment directly under the First Army is stranded on the front line of Baishan Village. Sun Lianzhong still doesn't know whether the artillery regiment suffered a disaster in the wave of air strikes just now. If it is lucky enough to survive, the artillery must be transferred to Shangzhuang as soon as possible.
, deployed on hills more than 200 meters high on both sides of the position, building air defense bunkers to assist the troops in defense.
Sun Lianzhong understood that in order to prevent the entire army from being compressed by the enemy and compressing its living space, layers of blocking positions must be set up to delay the Japanese offensive.
Sun Lianzhong handed over all the inventory in the munitions warehouse of the Legion Headquarters to the instructor, and then hurriedly evacuated from the west gate of Yutian County.
At eleven o'clock, the Japanese tank troops crossed the Return River with the help of engineers, covered a large number of Japanese troops, and marched towards Yutian County. Seeing the blue sky and white sun on the city wall, the red battle flags on the ground were still flying high.
The Chinese *** team set up their formation at the crenellations of the city wall and were ready. The Japanese commander was crazy and could no longer care whether he would destroy the city he had worked so hard to build. He immediately launched a fierce attack on the south gate of Yutian County.
!
"Boom boom boom——"
The large-caliber heavy artillery placed at the rear of the Japanese army took the lead in attacking! The entire county was immediately shrouded in a violent explosion and thick smoke. The frightened people dragged their families and fled to the west of the city. On the tops of the city on both sides of the south gate
, pieces of broken limbs and arms flew out from time to time, and pieces of broken clothes were flying everywhere.
After the five-minute bombardment ended, the Japanese army immediately sent out their trump card. The Japanese tank group rushed towards the city gate aggressively. Soon the thick city gate covered with iron was shattered by direct fire from the tanks. The Japanese army
The tanks lined up in a long queue, crossed the stone bridge over the moat, and rushed toward the city gate.
Just as the Japanese tank entered the city gate, several clear gunshots suddenly sounded. The tank headed by it was attacked by the anti-artillery shells of the 37th War, and caught fire amidst the violent explosions, suddenly blocking the direction of the tank group's advance.
The two Japanese crewmen in the tank hurriedly pushed open the roof and climbed out. Before their feet touched the ground, they were hit by the dense rain of bullets coming from the city and fell to the ground and died.
Just when the commander of the tank unit was surprised that the squadron was actually equipped with anti-tank weapons, the eight-meter-long stone bridge at the city gate suddenly exploded violently. Thick gunpowder smoke rising into the sky was mixed with gravel fragments, and violent explosions occurred everywhere.
Shooting, the Japanese officers and soldiers who were following the tank attack from far and near were gutted and fell down with howls. The two tanks blocking the stone bridge fell into the moat and were instantly submerged. The turbid waves rolled and strings of blisters appeared!
"Bagya Road!"
The Japanese commander who was directing the operation in the rear saw all this through the telescope and went crazy. He originally thought that the pursuit and annihilation battle would be easy, but now he hit a hard nail, making the Japanese division commander who boasted about Haikou in front of his colleagues furious.
, and immediately decided to invest more troops in the attack.
Soon, the Japanese army moved their mountain artillery and field artillery units to a place more than a thousand meters away from the city wall, and attacked with all their strength. Countless shells hit the city wall one after another, and the huge explosion force shattered the stones on the outside of the wall.
It was blasted in all directions, peeling off layer by layer, filling the air with gunpowder smoke.
Among them, several mountain cannons aimed their direct fire at the gate tower on the city gate. Soon, the antique cornices and brackets and the raised crenellations were blown to pieces by the cannonballs. The flames were blazing and turned into thick smoke.
It was mixed with pieces of blood and flesh, swaying everywhere.
This round of intensive shelling once again caused a large number of sacrifices on the city wall!
At the same time, countless artillery shells crossed the city wall and flew into the county town. Fires shot into the sky and thunder rumbled. The bungalows that were hit immediately collapsed and burned. In the past few years, the Japanese and puppet governments spent huge efforts to build a large number of two-story, three-story, and even three-story buildings.
The four-story building was also destroyed in every corner by the shelling, and it was crumbling.
Bai Mingyi, who was directing operations in the four-story government building built by the Japanese and puppet government, saw that the south gate wall was crumbling and knew something was wrong. He was about to order the troops to withdraw when the Japanese artillery fire stopped.
"Kill me!"
The Japanese commander waved his command sword, and suddenly countless Japanese troops, mixed with engineers holding siege ladders, surged up with howls. When they rushed to the moat, the engineers quickly laid the ladders horizontally, and a large number of Japanese troops crossed the moat and rushed to the bottom of the city wall.
, waiting for the engineers to continue building the siege ladder.
The Japanese troops at the city gate rushed towards the city through the gaps between the tanks.
...
At the same time, Tianqi Temple in the west of Yanjiao Town, the headquarters of the Fifth Army.
In front of the large map on the wall on one side of the war room, the generals of the Fifth Army gathered around the map and looked at it carefully. Hu Jialin calmly analyzed the current battle situation while comparing the intelligence. The joy he felt when he received the message that "the commander has been found safe" has now ceased.
Nothing left.
Although Hu Jialin and the Fifth Army General had expected this sudden attack by the Japanese army, they did not expect that the losses would be so huge, especially the huge losses of the Central Air Force, which was very surprising.
In the last air battle in Baoding, the radar unit suffered heavy losses. Now there is only one radar vehicle left in the radar regiment. The emergency radar vehicle dispatched to the north has not yet arrived. The surveillance of North China's airspace has been greatly weakened. However, the airspace of each airport is more than ten kilometers away.
Still under radar protection.
The moment the Japanese fighter jets appeared on the electronic radar screen, the information was promptly fed back to the airports. If they had taken off in time to fight or avoid, the current situation would never have occurred. All the generals had a suspicion in their hearts: Something went wrong in some link.
Problem.
"There's nothing to say. There must be a traitor who deliberately intercepted or deliberately delayed the delivery time of the telegram. In fact, the commander's accident has sounded the alarm for us, but it did not attract enough attention from us. This is a tragic event.
Lessons learned!”
Lu Yixuan made some drawings on the map, threw down the short pencil tip in his hand, and came to a conclusion without hesitation.
"In ancient times there were Qin Hui and Wu Sangui, and today there are Qi Xieyuan and Wang Kemin, and there will be no shortage of latecomers in the future. There are so many traitors in China, and they are really endless to kill! If I were to find these people, I would have to peel off their skin and cramps. Our nation will
We must kill this unhealthy trend!"
Zhang Chengzhu looked angry and helpless.
"Don't be angry. In fact, there are spies not just in China, but in all countries around the world. Don't Japan also have spies?"
Huang Zhi consoled him: "Yesterday afternoon, weren't the Japanese troops who strongly requested to join the Chinese Army, especially the Anjia Army, transported by train to Baoding for reorganization? In the future, they will become a useful force to deal with the Japanese army.
, now our Corps Headquarters still has a special team of about two hundred people left, these are all talents with 'progressive ideas and outstanding performance'!"
"Yes, these people are very eager to perform meritorious service. They also understand that only by completely defeating the Japanese army can they return to their hometown as heroes!"
Liu Zongyu, director of the Intelligence Department, shook his head: "Sometimes it is really difficult to understand the thinking of *** people. They worship the strong and the victors, and disdain the weak and losers. The more pitiful you are, the more they think you are easy to bully.
, the more he wants to beat you, but if you beat him painfully, he thinks you are worth following... The Rangers follow the Japanese divisions who are forward. They are extremely familiar with the Japanese army's marching formations, and they can help.
, we will soon obtain the numbers of the Japanese troops deployed in Bangjun Town."
Hu Jialin sighed a little: "The organizational ability of the Communists is really nothing to say. Such a large-scale effort was launched at the same time, and thousands of kilometers of fronts from south to north were launched at the same time, but our military front failed to achieve anything. This cannot but be said to be a
Miracle. According to our high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft's monitoring of today's Japanese military launch,
It is estimated that the Japanese army has accumulated at least ten divisions on the Jidong front line, four to six divisions on the Chahar front line, and at least three to five divisions in Tianjin. In total, the Japanese army
Nearly twenty divisions were deployed in North China at once, and we were under considerable pressure!"
"So we must move quickly!"
Huang Zhi pointed to the map: "If the Japanese army strengthens its defense on the Bangjun front line, our chance to rescue the Second Army will be lost. Fortunately, the Japanese army did not expect that in order to coordinate our propaganda team's action of going deep into eastern Hebei to mobilize the people to go south,
Our troops have advanced to Yanjiao in advance, which is only more than thirty kilometers away from Bangjun Town. In a few hours, our troops will be able to launch an attack on the enemies of Bangjun."
Operations Staff Officer Wen Junhao suggested: "With the firepower of our unit, it should be no problem to penetrate the Japanese defense line in Bangjun Town, but the troubles that follow are not small. We have to withstand the impact of at least 100,000 defeated troops. If there is no one
I am worried that the Japanese army will break through the solid defense line. It is said that the second division of General Zheng Dongguo, who was previously responsible for the defense of Bangjun Town, was inexplicably defeated like this."
Hu Jialin nodded: "Yes, this point must be taken into consideration, as well as the propaganda team that we have dispatched from the headquarters of each division to mobilize people to evacuate in the eastern Hebei region. The situation is so chaotic now, how can we do our best to protect them?"
?Do you have any good suggestions?”
"I don't know how anxious Ying Wu is now in Baoding. In order to avoid the central government's infiltration of our army, the *** officers of the *** Ministry are all selected from within and sent to the Central *** School for further study and then return to serve in various ministries. They can
It is said that the propaganda team is composed of generals who have been trained by Ying Wu. If they are all lost at once, it will be a huge blow to the *** department!" Zhang Chengzhu said with concern.
"The situation may not be that bad. The Japanese army is now bent on annihilating the Second Group Army. Most of their troops are concentrated in towns and traffic arteries. They cannot take care of our propaganda team that goes deep into the countryside for a while. It is not a big problem to withdraw safely. It is not possible now.
Know whether their work has achieved results." Huang Zhi analyzed calmly.
Lu Yixuan suddenly said: "In my opinion, there is no need for Suikang's 170th Division to follow the main force. They are troops expanded from the engineering corps directly under the army, and they are good at building trenches. According to the current situation, east of Yanjiao
There are no big rivers to protect the area, and the terrain is not advantageous. In such a
Under such circumstances, it would be unwise to engage in a decisive battle with the Japanese mechanized troops and superior forces. I thought that the 170th Division stationed in Yanjiao to guard the rear should be immediately transferred across the Chaobai River, rely on the natural barrier of the Chaobai River, and resist the Japanese troops on the ground east of the Chaobai River. As long as
If we stabilize our position, the war between Beijing and Tianjin will not deteriorate drastically!"
Hu Jialin carefully looked at the situation along the Chaobai River on the map and decisively ordered: "Not only the 170th Division, but all the engineering battalions of the other divisions except the *** Division must also be transferred to the area west of the Chaobai River to build defenses.
fortifications, and also mobilize the local people to strive to keep the trenches under construction
Go to the canal west of Xianghe River and connect it with the North Canal and Qinglong River defense lines built by our army before. We must seize all the time to build permanent fortifications. Don’t be afraid of consuming more steel and cement. For a decisive battle of this scale, build more
Anti-cannon holes can save the lives of many soldiers!"
Chief of Operations Wen Junhao quickly recorded Hu Jialin's order and turned to leave.
Qin Zhenbang, the director of the Communications Department, hurriedly entered: "Commander, the headquarters of the *** Division has entered Sanhe County. The new brigade that went out defeated a puppet army regiment that was repairing fortifications on the front line of Tiejia Ridge. Currently, in the area south of Tiejia Ridge,
Sporadic Japanese and puppet troops have been discovered, but the specific number and organization of the Japanese and puppet troops following them are still unclear. The Rangers have set off urgently to collect relevant information."
"Oh? The Japanese army moved so fast. They have already advanced the defense line to Tiejia Ridge. It is estimated that several security brigades directly under the war zone stationed in Liujiading, Xitazhuang and other places in the south have fled. It seems that this time our 17th Army
I have to fight alone!"
Lu Yixuan's expression changed, he quickly marked the Japanese army's movements on the map, touched his chin and whispered.
Hu Jialin immediately ordered: "Let the 17th Division and the 40th Division speed up their march, send the reconnaissance troops as far away as possible, discover the Japanese air strike force in advance, and pay attention to concealment and protection. The anti-aircraft artillery battalions of each division should cheer up. If they avoid