Age of Rebirth

Chapter 550: Desperate Rescue

Isotani Rensuke's First Army was in Xiao County, surrounded by Gui Jun and Sichuan Army commanded by Xuzhou Theater Commander Li Zongren, and five brigades commanded by Tang Qiusheng, deputy commander of the Independent Division, with a total of nearly 30 troops. Commander of the Japanese North China Dispatch Army Kiyoshi Kazuki, anxious, begged Prince Xianin Gongzairen, chief of the general staff of the Japanese base camp, to condescend to be the commander of the Cangzhou front army, and command the 33 Japanese troops in the Cangzhou direction, and go south to Xuzhou to relieve the siege of the First Army.

Rescuing soldiers is like fighting a fire. As soon as Zairen arrived in Cangzhou, he immediately ordered all Japanese troops to dispatch to attack Dezhou and open the passage to Xuzhou southward. On the evening of December 23, the Japanese army, which never attacked at night, went against the norm and it was dark. , Fierce fighting broke out across the Cangzhou line. The Japanese army divided into five groups and launched fierce attacks on the troops commanded by Liu Tiehan in Damanzhuang, Fengjiakou, Jiedi, Nanpi, and Huaizhen.

The front, which is more than [-] kilometers wide, is full of gunfire and gunpowder smoke. In the dark night, the figures of soldiers on both sides flashed in the flames of the artillery explosion. , unable to move forward any further, the battlefield in southern Hebei, which had been silent for a long time, became noisy again.

A full-scale war broke out on the front line of Cangzhou. As Tang Qiuli expected, the first army of Isoya Rensuke was surrounded, and the Japanese army in Cangzhou would go all out. He sent a telegram to Liu Tiehan asking about the battle situation in Cangzhou. In fact, he was considering, Whether to withdraw Tang Qiusheng's troops from the Xiaoxian battlefield and strengthen them to the front line of Cangzhou, after all, compared with the Japanese army, Liu Tiehan's troops do not have an advantage. [

The reason for this consideration is that Tang Qiusheng's troops were placed on the outskirts of Xiaoxian's encirclement circle by Chief Li, more than ten kilometers away from the battlefield. In front were Liao Lei's No. 20th Army of the Gui Army and the 23 troops of the Sichuan Army. Surrounding Xiao County like an iron barrel, let alone participating in the attack on Xiao County, it is very difficult to even see Xiao County's shadow.

Li Zongren's reason was that Vice Chairman Tang's troops had just finished the Battle of Tongshan, and the troops were quite tired. From the perspective of caring for friendly troops, it is not appropriate to allow troops that have gone through hard battles to continue fighting. Therefore, Vice Chairman Tang Putting the troops on the second line is also meant to rest assured. When attacking Xiao County, let the Guangxi and Sichuan troops who have not participated in the battle complete it. At the end, I also asked Tang Qiuli for his opinion. Vice Chairman Tang instructed.

Li Zongren's reasons are very tenable, and his words are beautiful, but he can't get the thoughts on the table at all. Tang Qiuli, who has been a man for two lives, can see through it at a glance. Isotani Rensuke is now a familiar The transparent persimmons will fall when you touch them. Brother Qiusheng's troops have already picked up a big deal in Tongshan. With this last bite, they can't let their troops eat them anymore. Besides, Li Zongren has enough capital in his hands.

Tang Qiuli shook her head with a wry smile. Mei Ting beside her raised her beautiful eyebrows and looked at her husband. Tang Qiuli handed Li Zongren's telegram to Mei Ting. The reason why she shook her head with a wry smile, and looked at him playfully, Tang Qiuli shrugged, spread her hands, and made a helpless gesture, Mei Ting almost bent over laughing, happy air flowed in the room.

Since Li Zongren said so and did so, what else can Tang Qiuli do? Call back and fully agree with Commander Li's arrangement, and finally wish him a great victory in Xiao County. Isotani Rensuke and his first army's dog lives avenged Su Jingfeng and Zhang Zizhong. In this way, Tang Qiusheng's army became a free game, so he considered transferring to Cangzhou.

The staff officer sent Liu Tiehan's call back, and his tone was very relaxed, because the Japanese army's actions had been expected for a long time, and the troops relied on solid fortifications to inflict great damage on the Japanese soldiers exposed in the wild, and took advantage of the Japanese army's weakness in night combat , dispatched four brigades to sneak in through the gaps in the Japanese offensive formation, and separated several Japanese regiments from the large army in an organized manner, and they are now encircling and annihilating.

At present, the battle line in Cangzhou is stable, and I still have four reserve brigades in my hands that have not been used. The Japanese army must not advance half a step. Please don't worry about it, commander. You can consider transferring the troops from Xiaoxian County back to the Taihang Mountains to strengthen the troops there. , this Liu Tiehan's suggestion also hit Tang Qiuli's mind.

After reading Liu Tiehan's telegram, Tang Qiuli applauded the case, startled Mei Ting, and gave him a reproachful look, as if to blame him for being surprised, Tang Qiuli sighed secretly, Brother Tiehan commanded a large army Combat, more and more proficient and bold, carried out local counter-assaults during the defense, and bit off a few pieces of meat from the dense Japanese army.

This requires taking a lot of risks, involving the cooperation of the troops, the grasp of time and many other aspects. If the battle cannot be ended quickly, if it is not done well, the interspersed troops will instead be made dumplings by the Japanese army and fight until dawn, just like Liu As Tie Han said, the three 10,000+ Japanese troops did not advance half a step, and the scattered casualties were not counted. They were even eaten up by the squadron as an organization.

Zai Ren was really unable to attack, he tried his best, and the Japanese soldiers also tried their best, but what they encountered was the troops of the Independent Division, an impenetrable iron plate, a copper wall that would bleed if they hit it , Zairen had no choice but to order the troops to retreat to the starting point of the attack and adjust the deployment. During the retreat, the Japanese army was chased and killed by the independent division troops across the board, and the retreat turned into a chaotic rout.

After fighting all night, the Japanese army didn't take advantage of it, and the corpses scattered all over the place were beaten back to Cangzhou by the troops of the Independent Division.

Not only that, but Emperor Hirohito, who learned that the First Army of Isoya Rensuke was surrounded by superior Chinese troops in Xuzhou and was in danger of annihilating the entire army, was shocked and extremely annoyed. According to his intention, he formulated a strategy of attacking Xuzhou in the east and then going south to Songhu. If he was wiped out by the Chinese army in Xuzhou, wouldn't it mean that the Japanese emperor was a big fool who didn't understand military command and killed 10,000+ imperial soldiers. ?

He ordered Shanghai to send troops to launch an attack on the outskirts of Songhu and Hangzhou Bay. No matter which direction the breakthrough is made, the goal is to relieve the siege of Ji Gu Lianjie. The Japanese army at sea began to fight, and the large-caliber naval guns of the Japanese navy blasted the positions of the central army into flames.

Then, a large number of Japanese troops began to land on the beach. The Central Army troops, which had repeatedly fought against the Japanese army several times, under the command of General Zhang Zhizhong, the commander of the Songhu Theater, took the medicine according to the prescription and drove the Japanese troops back to the sea time and time again. Japanese planes also came to help. The Chinese Air Force took off from Hangzhou Jianqiao Airport to face the Japanese planes. The two sides fought in the beautiful sky in the south of the Yangtze River.

The Jiangnan battlefield, from the sky to the ground, was full of fireworks and gunpowder smoke everywhere. The Japanese army tried their best, but they couldn't get even a landing site on the beach. General Zhang Zhizhong fought more and more easily. In addition to the frontline troops, he still had five The reserve team of the division can be put into the key battlefield at any time. This time, the Jiangnan offensive launched by the Japanese army aimed at rescuing the First Army of Isoya Rensuke ended up retreating to the sea.

On the front line of Datong, Shanxi, the Japanese army, which was already at a disadvantage, suddenly launched an active attack like crazy. At the beginning, they caught the unprepared Jin army by surprise, and pushed the front line into the Tianzhen area. Due to the limited force, the Japanese army's The momentum of the attack slowed down to show a state of weakness in the follow-up. The Jin army, which turned around, used its superior force to launch a counterattack across the board, causing the Japanese army to retreat again and again, and finally withdrew from Shanxi.

For unknown reasons, the Jin army, which had already gained an absolute advantage, did not pursue further. Otherwise, Huai'an, Zhangjiakou and other places would also become the possessions of Zhao Chengshou, the commander-in-chief of the Jin army in Datong. On the west bank of the Nanyang River, the commander of the Japanese army, whose forehead was covered in cold sweat, let out a long sigh of relief.

On the front line of Niangziguan in Shanxi, the Japanese army also took the initiative to attack, constantly attacking Feng Jiwu's Niangziguan garrison. If he was commanding the main brigade of the independent division, he would have beaten the Japanese army back to Shijiazhuang long ago, but looking at these soldiers, Feng Jiwu had no courage, so he had to step up training the soldiers of the former Jin army every day.

The attack of the Japanese army provided him with an opportunity to actually train troops. He adopted the method of two battalions of the independent division leading one battalion of the Jin army to form a combat regiment, and used the Japanese army as a training partner to carry out continuous counter-assaults or interspersed raids. , Although the results of the battle were not great, more than [-] Japanese troops were killed piecemeal. [

On the battlefield in Wuxiang, Shanxi Province, the Japanese troops under Yamaguchi’s headquarters never received orders from Commander Koyue Kiyoshi, and nearly 20 Jin troops under Yan Xishan’s personal command were spent here. Your Excellency the Commander forgot about himself, Wuxiang has been unable to attack for a long time, and it is impossible to go north to attack Taiyuan.

Yamaguchi also understands what happened to the first army of Isoya Rensuke. Now, the situation on the front line in Wuxiang is not very good. That damned China devil Tang Qiuli just stands behind him like that, and pounces on him from time to time. After taking a bite, he also sent cavalry troops to harass his own transportation line continuously, causing the soldiers to drink porridge for several days.

Yamaguchi also realized more and more clearly that this stalemate in Wuxiang was definitely not a good sign. Once Tang Qiuli freed up his hands and mobilized troops, he could not guarantee that he would not become the next Rensuke Isotani. The order was to let him continue to attack Wuxiang.

Yamaguchi almost cried out, if I can beat him down, why am I still so distressed, squatting in the bitterly cold mountain, unable to advance or retreat?There was no choice but to carry out the order. The Japanese soldiers who were complaining to the sky launched a new attack without confidence.

Surrounding this small and inconspicuous place in Xiaoxian County, the two fronts, the north and the south, are fighting with one another. There is only one purpose, to rescue the besieged Isoya Rensuke. Lian Jie is proud enough that he mobilized all the Japanese troops in China by himself.

(To be continued)