Songhu: Never Give Up

After learning that the Sakamoto detachment was heading south from the city to rescue them, the Seya detachment desperately broke out to the northeast, but encountered desperate resistance from the Nationalist army along the way, and every step forward came at a heavy price.
The Kuomintang army had three layers of encirclement inside and three layers outside, and everyone was fighting hard. The Japanese failed to break out after several attempts, and instead suffered heavy casualties. Of course, their desperate fight also caused great casualties to the Kuomintang army.

In the direction of the city, Sakamoto's detachment made smooth progress at first, but as the main forces of the 20th Corps arrived, Sakamoto's detachment's good days came to an end.
Tang Keqin ordered Guan Linzheng's troops of the 52nd Army to choose favorable terrain to block the enemy step by step, forcing the Sakamoto Detachment to pay a heavy price for every step forward, greatly slowing down the speed of the Sakamoto Detachment's reinforcement.

At the same time, Zhang Xuezhong's 13th Army and Wang Zhonglian's 85th Army took the opportunity to surround them from both wings, and the cavalry units blocked the periphery, eventually surrounding the Sakamoto Detachment in Hanzhuang, south of Xiangcheng, only a dozen kilometers away from Taierzhuang.

The two detachments were desperately trying to get closer to each other and form a group, but they were both held back by the Nationalist Army.

In order to stop the Sakamoto Detachment, the 52nd Army suffered huge casualties. As encirclement troops from other directions arrived, the Sakamoto and Seya Detachments were surrounded in two unconnected areas.

It was at this time that Major General Sakamoto realized that he had been tricked by the Chinese. At this point they could no longer care about the Seya Detachment in Taierzhuang and were focusing on breaking out to the east.

At the same time, he asked for tactical guidance from the commander of the Second Army, Nishio Toshizo, which immediately shocked Nishio Toshizo, but he had no other choice. Distant water cannot quench immediate thirst.

On the one hand, he ordered the 106th Division stationed near Jinan to rush to the rescue, but it was blocked by the Chinese troops and could not reach the Taierzhuang area for several days.

On the other hand, he sent dozens of planes to bombard the 20th Army Corps that were surrounding and annihilating the Sakamoto Detachment, trying to cover the Sakamoto Detachment's breakout;
The Sakamoto Detachment, which was at the end of its rope, took the opportunity to break out, but the 20th Corps refused to give in, and the two sides fought each other with blood flowing like a river and corpses strewn all over the ground.

In the direction of Taierzhuang, Commander Li also issued a general attack order. Tens of thousands of well-rested nationalist troops continued to tighten the encirclement, compressing the Seya Detachment's space for movement and driving it into Taierzhuang City.

The Japanese fought hard and occupied most of the streets in Taierzhuang, trying to hold out and wait for reinforcements.

The Nationalist attacking troops launched street battles, counterattacked one after another, eliminated the enemy, and recaptured the streets occupied by the devils;

Groups of Japanese invaders were annihilated one after another. The National Army also suffered heavy casualties in the desperate fight of the Japanese invaders, almost exchanging lives for lives. Many troops were wiped out.

On April 4, the Chinese Air Force used 4 aircraft to bomb the enemy positions northeast and northwest of Taierzhuang;

That night, the Japanese Army's Seya Detachment was unable to withstand the fierce battle, blew up the difficult-to-move supplies and heavy equipment, and fled in the direction of Yi County.

Sun Lianzhong's Second Army and Tang Keqin's 20th Corps made all-out efforts to encircle and annihilate the Seya and Sakamoto detachments;
Seeing that the situation was not good, Nishio Toshizo decided, after making a difficult decision, to rescue the Sakamoto Detachment on the periphery with all his strength. They were not as deeply trapped as the Seya Detachment, so there was still a glimmer of hope.

In order to assist the Sakamoto Detachment in breaking out, the Second Army dispatched hundreds of aircraft to assist the Sakamoto Detachment in opening a gap in the northeast direction, allowing the remaining Japanese troops to take the opportunity to break out.

At this time, the encirclement and annihilation battle in the Taierzhuang direction was very difficult, and Commander Li made a decisive choice;

He ordered the main force of the 20th Corps to abandon the pursuit and annihilation of the remnants of the Sakamoto Detachment and to move south to assist the Second Army in encircling and annihilating the Seya Detachment.

Major General Seya, who was on the periphery, saw that there was no way out and began to cut off his rear to survive. He abandoned the main force trapped in the encirclement and led the detachment to break out under the cover of a large number of aircraft. The remnants fled to Zaozhuang.

The main target of the Nationalist Army's encirclement and annihilation was the main force of the Seya Detachment trapped in Taierzhuang, so there were not many troops outside, which gave Seya Kei a chance to escape.
However, the main force of the encirclement was surrounded and the 31st Division in Zhuangnei took the opportunity to launch a counterattack. With the help of internal and external forces, the Japanese were finally wiped out.

Only a small number of troops from the Sakamoto and Seya detachments broke through, and the main forces were all surrounded and annihilated. Thus, the Battle of Taierzhuang achieved a great victory.

At the Fifth War Zone Command, Commander Li had been staring at the map of the area around Taierzhuang, and General Bai was also keeping an eye on the movements in the direction of the secret room.

Although they were confident in encircling and annihilating the Sakamoto and Seya detachments, the results were not known for a while, and it was difficult to let go of the hanging heart. When Chief of Staff Xu walked towards them with a smile on his face, General Bai breathed a sigh of relief and smiled, but he did not speak;
The protagonist is Commander Li, he cannot overshadow the main character.

Commander Li seemed to have noticed the arrival of Chief of Staff Xu, but he did not turn around. He just smiled slightly and instantly returned to normal, continuing to stare at the map.

"Duke De, good news from the front!"

Commander Li turned around calmly and said calmly:
"Read!"

Staff Officer Xu then read the victory message sent by Tang Keqin, Sun Lianzhong and other troops. Commander Li then smiled and said:

“Well, the soldiers on the front fought well, severely damaging the 1th and 931th divisions, killing 77 enemies, capturing more than 40 rifles, 50 heavy machine guns, infantry guns, tanks, and more than cannons;

Commander Tang, General Sun and the soldiers did a great job. Immediately draft a telegram to report the victory to the Military Commission. I want to commend them and the soldiers!"

As the Military Commission reported the news of the Taierzhuang victory, hundreds of millions of Chinese people, both inside and outside the Great Wall and from north to south, were deeply inspired and took to the streets to celebrate the great victory of the National Army.
The National Government worked at full capacity to promote the campaign, and major newspapers worked overtime to print newspapers reporting on the Taierzhuang victory. Even so, it was still hard to get a copy. Many people bought them and kept them as heirlooms for future generations. For a time, paper was in great demand.

Countless people rushed to tell each other and cried with joy. During these difficult years of the war, people were eager for a great victory.

Since the war began, what the Chinese people have heard most is disastrous defeat, disastrous defeat, disastrous defeat, fall, fall, fall!
Pingjin fell!

Hedong fell!

North China fell!

Shanghai falls!

The fall of Nanjing...

China has become so big that it has reached a point where it can no longer retreat. Many people have lost confidence, and all kinds of theories of national destruction are flooding the newspapers.

Some people in high positions even talk about saving the country by taking a roundabout way and start looking for excuses for surrendering and acting like dogs, and the situation has become blatant.

Under the political inducement of the Japanese, some clowns have organized a puppet government in North China, and the puppet army has also increased in large numbers...

China needed victory so badly. The victory of Taierzhuang was like a flash of lightning in the long night, allowing countless soldiers and civilians who were struggling to travel in the dark to see the light. Although it was only for a moment, it at least gave countless people confidence.

Some overly optimistic people even talked about it in the newspapers, throwing out the theory of quick victory, claiming that with the two million well-trained elite troops of the National Government, the Japanese would be driven out of China in a short period of time, and the dawn of victory was approaching...

On the southern front, the headquarters of the Shanghai-Nanjing Guerrilla Column was also filled with laughter and joy, but Yue Qianli, while excited, also poured cold water on everyone:
"The theory of national destruction is unacceptable, as it will make us lose our fighting spirit;
The theory of a quick victory is equally unacceptable, as it will cause us to suffer great losses. The enemy is far stronger than we imagined. China's war of resistance will be long and difficult, but victory will definitely belong to China!"

(End of this chapter)