Bright Sword's Bloody War of Resistance

Chapter 896 The situation is great

On the sixth day of the Shangqiu attack and defense, both sides were extremely exhausted.

As the battle line continued to approach the city defense fortifications, the 16th Brigade headquarters moved from the original barbican to a residential building under the inner city wall on the east side.

The sound of gunfire outside the city gradually disappeared. Li Yunlong, who had been snoring loudly, suddenly sat up from his wooden bed. His eyes were as big as copper bells and his head was as messy as a chicken coop.

"Why did the gunfire stop?"

"Brigade Commander, the Japs have stopped attacking. They are not made of iron."

The main cadres of the 16th Brigade are only Li Yunlong and Xin Tiebing, and they can only work in shifts, with Li Yunlong in charge during the day and Xin Tiebing in charge at night.

In the first three days, the Japanese army launched a frenzied attack during the day, but in the next three days they scheduled the attack at night, which disrupted the two men's duty plans and Li Yunlong kept waking up from time to time.

Xin Tiebing believed that the Japanese army could not withstand the hot weather during the day, but Li Yunlong saw it more deeply. He believed that the Japanese army had fully understood the fortification arrangements outside Shangqiu City.

"Damn it, I can't sleep well."

Li Yunlong rubbed his fingers on his neck and actually rubbed out a ball of black mud, which he flicked off and dropped on the ground.

Xin Tiebing felt a little nauseous when he saw this scene. Although the battle had lasted for six days, it was still possible to find a break to simply wipe his body, not to mention that there was a moat outside the city and there was no shortage of water.

It was rare to see someone as unpretentious as Li Yunlong. Xin Tiebing immediately said, "Brigade Commander, how about I ask someone to get you some water?"

"No need. This is nothing. During the Long March, I didn't take a bath for a month, but I survived."

The phone at the brigade headquarters suddenly rang. Xin Tiebing picked up the phone and answered it, and a look of joy suddenly appeared on his face.

"Commander, the Dingtao cadre regiment in the north of the city reports that the wounded have been successfully transported to Cao County."

"That's good. It seems the Japanese are running out of stamina now," said Li Yunlong.

At this point in the battle, all the outer positions of the two main battlefields on the east and south sides have been lost. The Japanese army has pushed the battle line to the residential area outside the moat. The two sides have repeatedly fought for positions under the cover of night, and casualties have increased sharply.

The three main regiments under the 16th Brigade all suffered heavy casualties. The independent regiment serving as the general reserve was also sent to the battlefield many times. However, the Chengwu Independent Regiment in the west of the city and the Dingtao Independent Regiment in the north of the city were unable to move.

According to statistics from the brigade's staff, the 16th Brigade had a total of more than 3600 casualties or bodies that could not be found, more than 1700 wounded soldiers gathered in the city's hospitals, and many lightly wounded soldiers remained on the front line.

Fortunately, the Japanese army was also showing signs of fatigue, and Li Yunlong always played by his own rules. He ordered Sun Desheng, who was lurking in the northeast of Shangqiu, to lead half of his cavalry regiment to conduct reconnaissance north of Shangqiu.

The Japanese commander Yamashita Tomoyuki was no pushover. Although he did not deploy heavy troops on the west and north sides, he did deploy a small group of cavalry.

The cavalry regiment took one day to clear out the Japanese cavalry, so the wounded in Shangqiu City were transported to Cao County in batches within two days, and Li Yunlong no longer had to worry.

Li Yunlong was no longer sleepy at this time, and he kept saying, "This battle won't last long!"

At this time, nearly three days had passed since the 14th Regiment of the 50th Division was completely wiped out, and the civil unrest in northern Anhui was gradually suppressed by powerful military force. The Japanese and puppet troops lingering in Kaifeng had an internal conflict, and the commander of the th Division, Iida Taijiro, insisted on sending reinforcements to Shangqiu. Instead, the th Independent Brigade, Kuroshima Morita and Sun Liangcheng, who had escaped from Shangqiu, decided to hold on in Kaifeng.

Both sides held their own opinions, and the lawsuit went directly to the North China Expeditionary Army Headquarters. Iida Yasujiro believed that if they insisted on defending, they would miss the opportunity to join up with the Kwantung Army.

Kuroshima Morita believed that the Nationalist troops in Zhengzhou were ready to make a move, and that rashly sending troops would be tantamount to handing Kaifeng over to the Nationalist troops, and that they would most likely encounter an ambush by the Eighth Route Army after leaving the city.

Ishiwara Kanji, who was far away in Peiping, had not made up his mind either. Yamashita Tomoyuki naturally hoped that the Japanese and puppet troops in Kaifeng would come and join him in order to strengthen his own strength. However, once Kaifeng was occupied by the National Army, the National Army would most likely advance eastward along the Longhai Line.

Everyone knew that the Kuomintang and the Communist Party were not in harmony, but the Japanese army did not dare to bet that the Kuomintang would sit on the sidelines and watch the fight. So the Japanese and puppet troops in Kaifeng were divided into two groups. Iida Yasujiro led his Japanese and puppet troops eastward, while Kuroshima Morita led his troops to stay and hold the position.

However, the idea is good, but the reality is cruel.

It’s not that Kuroshima Morita knew a lot about the Eighth Route Army, but after he broke out from Shangqiu, he actually saw that the main force of the Eighth Route Army was present along the way.

The Japanese and puppet troops first took a train on the 150-kilometer journey from Kaifeng to Shangqiu, but when they found that the tracks had been torn off, they decisively abandoned the train and walked, constantly encountering ambushes from the main force of the Northern Henan Military Sub-district along the way.

"This war won't last long!" Zhou Weihan kept repeating the same words while looking at the military sand table. With Shangqiu as the center, the three forces of the Kuomintang, the Communist Party and Japan were presented on it.

"The Kuroshima Morita and Sun Liangcheng troops who defended Kaifeng had about 8000 men. This number is accurate. When Iida Taijiro's troops left the city, there were nearly men, of which only were Japanese troops, and the rest were puppet troops."

"We have been fighting with the Henan North Military Branch for three days. We have just passed Lanfeng and have only traveled less than half the distance!"

Although it was late at night, there was a circle of people standing on the military sand table. Almost all of the senior cadres of the Eighth Route Army were heavy smokers and night owls, which was related to the fact that the Eighth Route Army often fought night battles.

Zhou Weihan then looked at the location of Ding Wei's 15th Brigade. The 7th Regiment was in Sui County, the 8th Regiment was in Zhecheng, and the 9th Regiment was in Luyi and Bo County in northern Anhui and had not yet returned.

Among the four brigades under the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Column, only Ding Wei's 15th Brigade had not yet engaged in battle with the Japanese army. In fact, it had more tasks to shoulder and required mobile operations.

First, it was necessary to send troops to quell the rebellion when there was civil unrest in northern Anhui; second, it was necessary to seize the opportunity to attack the flank of the Kwantung Army; third, it was necessary to join forces again with the Northern Henan Military Sub-district to annihilate the enemy in Kaifeng.

Now, the reality is happening just as Zhou Weihan expected, and the situation is very good.

"Can we contact the 15th Brigade now?" Zhou Weihan asked.

Zhao Bingzhang glanced at the time and shook his head, "No, the 15th Brigade must be on the march. According to regulations, they should contact each other by radio every two hours, but it's not time yet."

Zhou Weihan nodded when he heard this. He had not expected that the combat effectiveness of the Japanese and puppet troops coming out of Kaifeng was so poor. The Northern Henan Military Sub-district had only one main Fourth Regiment, plus two core regiments, which managed to block the enemy.

But the reality is that they can stop the Japanese and puppet troops but cannot defeat them, so they can only wait for the 15th Brigade to arrive.

"Contact Wang Yigong and have them let the enemy go as much as possible. Don't be so stubborn. What if the enemy sneaks back to Kaifeng? Lead them to Minquan."

"When the time comes, contact the 15th Brigade immediately and have Ding Wei contact Wang Yigong directly to save energy and avoid going to Lanfeng." (End of this chapter)

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