After receiving the retreat order from An Yi, the Kuancheng frontline units did not fall into panic. Instead, under the command of Hu Jialin, Lu Yixuan and other frontline command generals, they suddenly launched a fierce attack on the enemy facing them. The firepower was fierce.
The decisiveness of the attack shocked the Japanese 8th Division and 6th Division, which had just moved the defense line forward. Three consecutive lines of defense were breached by the Anjia Army before they could stabilize their position.
Nishi Yiichi, the commander of the 8th Division, decisively sent reinforcements and ordered all units to rectify the defeated officers and soldiers on the front line to prepare for a counterattack. Who knew that the Anjia Army, which was rushing through the Japanese defense line with indomitable momentum, actually took advantage of the Japanese army's hasty formation to resist?
At a favorable opportunity, a large-scale retreat suddenly occurred.
The Japanese troops at the front reacted quickly. How could they be willing to let their opponents retreat? The commanders of the Eighth and Sixth Divisions of the Japanese Army unanimously issued orders to regain their positions and pursue the victory.
In such a hurry, the Japanese army could not maintain coordination at all. The three Japanese brigades that took the lead in pursuing the pursuit were attacked head-on by two brigades of the 17th Division that had been well prepared 14 kilometers south of Kuancheng. The Japanese offensive was like mercury pouring down the ground.
A lag.
When the main force of the Japanese army rushed to the 17th Division to block the battlefield and prepare to launch a large-scale charge, a dense burst of artillery shells suddenly flew from behind the opponent's position, blowing up the Japanese troops in front of the position and falling down. The helpless Japanese army could only retreat in panic.
The two artillery regiments of the Anjia Army finished cleaning up their stocks of ammunition and quickly retreated.
By the time the Japanese artillery fire followed, the defenders had already retreated early. The dense artillery shells not only failed to hit the artillery of the Anjia Army, but also failed to cause much damage to the two brigades of the Anjia Army and the Northeast Army that were rapidly retreating. On the contrary, it hindered their pursuit.
action.
After the artillery fire became sparse, the Japanese troops, who had been provoked several times and almost driven crazy, tried their best to pursue them again. After chasing for two kilometers, they stepped on dense minefields one after another. They suffered heavy casualties and finally curbed the momentum of the pursuit.
However, the Independent Division and the 17th Division also suffered extremely heavy losses between the attack and retreat. Nearly two thousand brothers fell on the front line and never came back. Fighting continued along the way, and nearly a thousand more were killed or injured.
Despite this, Hu Jialin and his generals still graciously allowed the Yu Zhaolin Brigade of the Fourth Army Corps and the Zhao Tingfang Brigade of the Fifth Army Corps to withdraw first, leaving the most difficult and dangerous task of breaking up the rear to themselves.
Yu Zhaolin was moved and refused, staring hard at Yang Guan, the former chief of staff of the enemy headquarters, and roared: "At this time, do we still have to retreat first? The Anjia Army has sacrificed the lives of more than 2,000 brothers in order for the troops to retreat smoothly.
How can our Northeast Army retreat first at this time? Although your Anjia Army can fight, you still have two arms and two legs, and you have not grown three heads and six arms!"
Yang Guan and Hu Jialin looked at each other helplessly. Zhao Tingfang and his brothers were also very excited. After just a few days with An Jiajun, they were deeply shocked. They knew what a real soldier is and what the national spirit is.
Steel backbone.
Because Hu Jialin was worried about the morale of the two brigades of the Northeast Army that were cooperating with each other, he did not tell them the bad news of the fall of Chengde. The nearly 10,000 officers and soldiers belonging to different corps still do not know that Tang Yulin, one of their commanders, behaved in an extremely cowardly manner.
, escaped in an extremely humiliating way, leaving more than 30,000 soldiers of the Fifth Army without a leader and everyone in danger, and finally collapsed without a fight, losing Chengde, the most important strategic location outside the customs.
During a short break, Hu Jialin and Yu Zhaolin received urgent messages from the Tangshan Command and the Northeast Army's Fourth Army respectively: the Japanese Army's brigade had broken through the blockade of a regiment at Wang Yizhe's forward position and was heading to Anjiayu at high speed from east to west.
on the front line, trying to block your retreat and achieve south-to-south confrontation with the Japanese troops in the north.
A pincer attack from the north; a brigade of the Japanese Eighth Division that inserted behind your troops from the Chengde direction has been blocked by Song Zheyuan's troops at the Caijialing line, seven kilometers west of Anjiayu. I hope your troops will retreat quickly and repel the Japanese blocking attack in front of them.
Two brigades of the Fourth Army Corps will meet at Queluotai south of Anjiayu. Hurry!
The generals were shocked when they heard the news. The Japanese army's determination and rapid encirclement were beyond everyone's expectations. There was a tough battle to come.
Yu Zhaolin broke the silence, laughed and said loudly: "Didn't I just ask my brother to lead the troops to withdraw first? Okay! Huzi, Brother Yang, thank you for your hard work. Brother, I will lead the brothers to withdraw first!"
"Brother Yu..."
"Brigadier Yu..."
Hu Jialin and Yang Guan could not catch up with Yu Zhaolin and others who rushed towards the headquarters. Everyone knew what they meant by "retreating" in advance. They wanted to fight a bloody path for their brothers so that Anjia could escape.
The military brothers were able to retreat back to the pass more smoothly.
Hu Jialin and his generals lamented that the Northeast Army was not without blood, determination and courage, but it had no good generals. One soldier was in raging state, and the generals were in raging group!
Intensive gunfire came again from the north, and the Japanese artillery shells fell on the middle and rear of the group heading south. Zhao Tingfang looked stern. Without waiting for Hu Jialin's order, he strode forward and asked for help:
"Our troops are in the front line, and we just have time to set up a blocking position. Huzi, you quickly lead the main force to retreat. This time it is our turn to break up the rear... Adjutant Zhang, what are you doing standing still? Come with me!"
After saying that, he turned around and left in a hurry without waiting for Hu Jialin's instructions.
Looking at Zhao Tingfang's tall back, Wu Liheng was very moved and shouted loudly: "Old Zhao, don't worry, the left wing will be given to my younger brother's new brigade!"
Upon seeing this, Hu Jialin could only agree and quickly issued a retreat order. The exhausted An Jiajun took up his weapons again and ran southward.
At 5:40 in the afternoon, after a bloody battle, the Kuancheng frontline units, with the support of the Fourth Army Corps and the support of Song Zheyuan and Wang Yizhe's troops on the east and west sides, finally escaped the danger and retreated into the pass through Xifengkou.
Rough statistics show that the Anjia Army Independent Division and the 17th Division were destroyed by nearly half in this battle, and only 15,000 soldiers returned from the 28,000 soldiers. Among them, more than 1,700 brothers were carried back by their comrades;
The most tragic thing is that only 1,500 of the 4,600 soldiers in Yu Zhaolin's brigade are left, and less than half of the 5,200 brothers in Zhao Tingfang's brigade are left.
The commander-in-chief of the Fourth Army, Wan Fulin, and more than a dozen generals were walking among the soldiers in ragged clothes and covered in gunpowder smoke. They looked at the officers and soldiers who were seriously injured and did not know whether to live or die. They looked at the brothers who were exhausted and lying on their backs panting violently. They felt in their hearts.
He was extremely sad and his eyes were flushed.
At this time, no one could tell which one was a brother from the Northeast Army and which one was a soldier from the Anjia Army.
Two and a half hours later, a convoy quickly drove into the Nanguan Camp. Wan Fulin, who had received the news in advance, led the generals of the Fourth Army and stood at the gate to greet them.
When the motorcade stopped, An Yi hurriedly jumped out of the car, saluted each other, exchanged greetings with Wan Fulin and others, and strode up to Hu Jialin and other An Jiajun generals.
An Yi carefully looked at each brother who stood and saluted him, returned the salute, suppressed the sadness in his heart, came to Hu Jialin, and asked in a low voice: "Where is Lao Wu? Where is he?"
"What the hell, his leg was broken by a machine gun. It was the same leg I broke him with back then." Hu Jialin, who had a beard on his face and was exuding thick gunpowder smoke, lowered his head sadly.
"What? Take me there quickly!"
Ten minutes later, An Yi sat beside Wu Liheng's hospital bed, looked at his legs wrapped in thick gauze, sighed slightly, lit a cigarette and gently put it on Wu Liheng's lips:
"It's scary! If you didn't have the helmet, your Tianling Cap would probably be gone. It's okay, it's okay... I've asked, it won't be disabled, but I'm afraid you won't be able to walk very neatly in the future."
Wu Liheng, whose head was also wrapped with thick gauze, smoked a cigarette and smiled slightly: "Boss, I will be satisfied if I can save my life and see you. I don't care whether I am disabled or not... You know this will happen
What am I thinking about? This moment seems to be back to the first time we met in Guangzhou Xi Daying. The beard broke my leg that day.
, I was lying on the bed like a bear bag, and you were sitting like this, with the same position and posture. I clearly remember every word you said at that time... Your face was full of sincerity, but your eyes made people wonder.
Impenetrable... Today is different, we are all generals, and I can see through your eyes. Your eyes now make people feel at ease and warm..."
An Yi's nose felt sore and tears welled up in his eyes. He raised his head and took a deep breath, raised his hand to wipe his face quickly, and then said with a smile: "I'll tell you good news, Hutou, Brother Jiu and his brothers have arrived in Chicheng safely.
Yes, they can arrive at Zhangjiakou Station tomorrow morning.
A medical team of 300 people has arrived in Zhangjiakou, and then took a train with the brothers to Langfang Military Station. The injured brothers were sent to Baoding Field Hospital. Our convoy will rush here tomorrow afternoon to send all the brothers
Go back to the rear station."
Wu Liheng's face was filled with joy, and he was about to open his mouth to celebrate when he suddenly frowned: "Boss, listen, there are a lot of crying, and there are also sounds of scolding mothers and throwing things, it sounds like brothers from the Northeast Army...
Lu Yixuan, who was sitting aside, said with some sadness: "They probably knew that Chengde was gone. We didn't dare to tell them when we were on the Kuancheng front line, for fear of affecting morale. Alas! The most uncomfortable ones are probably the brothers in Zhao Tingfang's brigade.
They belong to Tang Yulin's Fifth Army Corps. The second-line troops do not have a single artillery piece. The entire brigade only has
It is equipped with four heavy machine guns and twelve light machine guns, but this garrison is not the main force of the Fifth Army, but it is full of passionate men. This battle was fought very bravely. I was responsible for the command and called on them several times.
I didn't even try to evacuate them, but I was desperate. When I came back, I saw that there were only 2,200 people left, of which 400 to 500 were still wounded."
Huang Yingwu interjected: "Boss, Zhao Tingfang's brigade is really good. There is no coward from top to bottom. Brigade commander Zhao Tingfang is from Zhengding, Hebei Province. He graduated from the seventh-level infantry department in Baoding. He was the battalion commander of the Northeast Army during the Second Zhili-Fengtian War. I guess he is
His upright personality offended Shangfeng and he was never reused. However, this guy never complained. He led an army of thousands of people without a new gun and had no food to eat, but he was able to perform so well. It is a rare thing.
What a talent!”
Hu Jialin also nodded in agreement: "Old Zhao is good and can talk to all of us. When we entered Kuancheng, he was very polite and gave up the largest barracks. I have seen their fortifications and defense layout. He is very knowledgeable.
, it can be seen that his level is not low and his foundation is very solid. This person does not put much emphasis on words but is practical, and he is an upright man."
An Yi just wanted to praise Zhao Tingfang a few words, but suddenly understood what the brothers meant, couldn't help but smile, shook his head and whispered: "We can only provide some material assistance, let's put aside other ideas for now, although we and the Northeast Army
There is a grudge between us, but we haven’t broken the skin yet, and we can’t break it. We are facing a formidable enemy, and everything must be..."
"Report!"
Lin Yaodong's report interrupted An Yi's words. An Yi turned to look at Lin Yaodong who hurriedly walked into the ward. He took a step forward and whispered: "There is a friendly brigade commander named Zhao Tingfang and his adjutant asking to see him."
"oh?"
An Yi and the brothers looked at each other, and neither of them understood what Zhao Tingfang was doing here at this time. The brothers all stood up and prepared to greet him. An Yi waved his invitation and stood up and walked towards the door.
Zhao Tingfang, who is 1.85 meters tall, has a strong body, a tall nose and a wide mouth, walked into the room, stood at attention and saluted An Yi, turned around half a circle to take care of everyone before putting down his hand, and then walked straight to Wu Liheng and whispered greetings.
From the expressions and conversations between the two, it can be seen that Zhao Tingfang and Wu Liheng have a very good relationship.
After the two of them finished speaking, An Yi politely asked Zhao Tingfang to sit down, and Hu Jialin took out a cigarette and handed it over.
Zhao Tingfang shook his head slightly, walked slowly to An Yi, and asked in a deep voice: "An Jiajun, are you willing to take in the homeless remnants of Zhao Tingfang?"
As soon as these words came out, all the brothers were surprised. An Yi smiled politely and said: "Brother Zhao, what are you talking about? In the eyes of An Yi and all the brothers, Brother Zhao and his brothers are all good men who stand upright.
They are all brothers who live and die together and fight bloody battles together. They are also members of our National Revolutionary Army. How can we talk about taking them in? With Brother Zhao’s talent and character, I believe he will regain his glory soon.
of.
"Actually, the brothers were still praising Brother Zhao's troops just now. They were full of respect and admiration for Brother Zhao in their hearts. They also wanted to do something for Brother Zhao who shared the joys and sorrows and the brothers who had fought for the rest of their lives. If Brother Zhao didn't show up,
If so, I and the brothers here are willing to provide Brother Zhao with some help within their capabilities, such as weapons and equipment, urgently needed military supplies, etc. I hope Brother Zhao will not be polite."
Zhao Tingfang smiled bitterly and said: "General, Zhao is not good at words, but Zhao knows who is the one who truly serves the country and the people, and who is the real soldier. Commander Wan just talked to me and said that Young Marshal is going to
It has been decided that the only option is to resign and step down to thank the country.
People, ask me where Zhao Tingfang and the two thousand remnants are going? Zhao said directly that the fall of Chengde made the brothers who fought bloody battles so sad and angry that they were unwilling to return to any part of the Northeast Army again. This heavy shame,
Zhao and his brothers cannot afford it!"
Everyone was shocked again and looked at An Yi in unison.
An Yi nodded and asked casually: "What did Senior Wan say?"
Zhao Tingfang replied: "He was very disappointed, but he said he could understand the decision made by Zhao and his brothers, and said that if possible, do not join the Jinsui Army and the Northwest Army. Before leaving, he told Zhao that the Fifth Army
Many of the defeated troops were taken in by Song Zheyuan of the Northwest Army. However, General Song has had an ambiguous attitude so far and is unwilling to return to General Feng Huanzhang.
His subordinates are not willing to raise the flag to stand on their own. If this continues, I am afraid that in the end, there will be no one on both sides. Zhao takes this seriously, and knows that the Northwest Army is extremely factional. If a defeated general like Zhao relies on others, it will be difficult for him to have anything else in his life.
If I do anything, it will also delay the future of my brothers and betray their trust in Zhao, so after much deliberation, I have no choice but to come to General An."
An Yi was stunned for a moment, knowing that after the young marshal left, the Northeast Army would probably be wiped out and dispersed. The generals of the Northeast Army were all veteran fathers. With no leader, no one would buy anyone else's fault. Many of them
People will support their own troops.
An Yi thought for a while, then asked again with determination: "Brother Zhao, don't you think that by joining our army, you are living under someone else's roof?"
Unexpectedly, Zhao Tingfang was not moved at all. He stared into An Yi's eyes and said loudly: "General, from these brothers around you who share your heart and soul, I see the hope of the country and the nation, and I also see the general's courage and courage to embrace all rivers.
And I know that the 200,000 An Jiajun brothers come from all over the world, and this - General Hu Jialin, whom Zhao deeply admires, is the same as Zhao.
General Lu Yixuan, a talented and determined commander, is from Hebei. General Wu Liheng, who leads the way and intimidates the enemy, is from Henan. General Gu Changfeng, who went deep into the tiger's den and made amazing military exploits, is from Jiangxi. General Yang Jiuxiao is from Jiangxi.
He and Zhao were both from the Northeastern Army, and in a blink of an eye they became world-famous anti-Japanese tiger generals. With so many heroes gathered under the general's command, who feels like he is being left behind?"
The words made all the brothers' blood boil with emotion. Wu Liheng yelled on the bed: "Boss, why do you still care about those hypocritical face at this time? How many such straightforward men are there in the world? I, Wu Liheng, almost almost did it at the beginning.
My son still wanted your life, but now he has become your brother, right?"
The brothers couldn't help laughing after hearing this. An Yi thought for a moment and made up his mind, then slowly raised his head: "Brother Zhao, I kindly ask Brother Zhao to serve as the major general commander of the supplementary brigade of the independent division, under the command of General Hu Jialin, Zhao
Brother, are you willing?"
"This... Zhao's knowledge is limited, so he may not be able to take on such a big position. General, let's... let's do this. Zhao is willing to be an infantry regiment commander under Brother Wu, and he will feel much more at ease." Zhao Tingfang replied with sincerity.
An Yi smiled slightly, waved his hand and said: "Brother Zhao is too modest! My An family army will be rewarded for its merits and punished for its mistakes. Although all the troops suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Kuancheng, they displayed military power and dignity. If it weren't for Tang Yulin's troops,
No fight
His escape led to the fall of Chengde, how could the various ministries be in such a situation? Not only will all the officers and soldiers of the Anjia Army remember this, but the Central Military Commission will also vigorously praise him. Based on this merit alone, it is not an exaggeration for Brother Zhao to be promoted to a higher rank.
"If Brother Zhao is willing to give in, the matter will be settled. As the deputy chief of staff, An Yi still has the right to be promoted to a major general, not to mention that this major general was shot with a real sword by you."
Zhao Tingfang was extremely moved, crossed her legs and saluted An Yi solemnly.