Songhu: Never Give Up

The defenders seemed unable to stop this time and retreated all the way to the city of Xuzhou. The Japanese became more and more excited as they chased them, and they were ready to take Xuzhou city in one go.
As the troops' front line was stretched, the Japanese fell into their old habit again. They abandoned their artillery and pursued their infantry recklessly. As a result, they were hit by a large counterattack by the 1st and 3rd Battalions that had been ambushed on both wings, and lost several hundred people again.

The Japanese really only remembered to eat and not to fight, which made Colonel Tanaka scream with anger. Fortunately, hundreds of Japanese soldiers could not hurt the vitality of the 113th Regiment.
The old Japanese soldier Tanaka was worried that he had fallen into the Chinese conspiracy again, so he had to forcibly stop the "pursuit button" and wait patiently for the 147th Regiment to arrive from both wings. He no longer dared to eat alone.

The main force of the supplementary detachment, which had taken advantage of the situation, was stationed outside the city of Xuzhou, confronting the 113th Regiment, and neither side could do anything to the other.

Colonel Tanaka was waiting for the artillery to catch up and for the 147th Regiment to arrive on both wings. Only then would he dare to launch an attack on the Chinese positions.
The main force of the supplementary detachment was delaying the time for the Japanese to occupy Xuzhou. Xuzhou is now an empty city, so if the Japanese want it, just give it to them.

Thanks to this counterattack, the reinforcement detachment was able to hold out for another day, until the vanguard of the Japanese appeared on both wings;

Wang Jianfei then ordered a full retreat and retreated to Zhaozhuang, west of Xuzhou City. Then he stopped and rushed to reclaim the fortifications with great fanfare, apparently preparing to defend Zhaozhuang to the death.

The 113th Regiment took the opportunity to occupy Xuzhou City, and the 147th Regiment followed suit, and Xuzhou City officially fell.

"Warriors, lift military discipline for three days, kill all the Chinese in Xuzhou City and rob them all!"

In order to vent his anger, Colonel Tanaka issued a frenzied order to massacre the entire city.
But to their disappointment, Xuzhou City was just an empty city with nothing left except the devastation.

Now it was Colonel Tanaka's turn to get upset. No one knew who started the fire, but soon the fire began to spread. The whole city was engulfed in thick smoke, and the Japanese could no longer stay.
They could only continue to pursue westwards, but the vanguard was blocked again in Zhaozhuang several kilometers away, resulting in dozens of casualties.

"Bakayaluo, the Chinese are going too far. Thousands of defeated soldiers are challenging the dignity of the imperial army. We will not withdraw our troops until we destroy this group of stray dogs!"

Colonel Tanaka was completely furious. He was determined to destroy the enemy in Zhaozhuang at all costs. He was full of anger in Xuzhou City and was ready to take it out on the defenders of Zhaozhuang.

Zhaozhuang is located on the south side of the railway line. It is a large town with a population of several thousand. The Longhai Railway passes through the town. The business has always been prosperous. It is the distribution center for northwest goods and passengers entering and leaving Xuzhou.
Because of the war, Zhaozhuang had long been deserted, with most of the people fleeing, leaving behind only a few elderly people who were unwilling to leave their homeland.

After weighing the pros and cons, the supplementary detachment finally chose Zhaozhuang as the blocking position, preparing to fight a serious offensive and defensive battle with the Japanese here;
The terrain of Zhaozhuang is high in the north and low in the south. There is a mountain in the north that is very suitable for defense. It is named Zhaojialing because it is close to Zhaozhuang. The altitude is only more than 500 meters. It is not steep, but it is enough for blocking.

Wang Jianfei deployed the 2nd Battalion and the Artillery Battalion at Zhaojialing on the south side, and the 1st and 3rd Battalions stayed in Zhaozhuang to block the Japanese. To this end, they also built field fortifications and barricades in Zhaozhuang, as if they were ready to fight the Japanese for three hundred rounds.

Colonel Tanaka could not stand such provocation. After occupying Xuzhou, they should have stopped there, but the Japanese regiment commanders and battalion commanders could not kill the vehicles when they started fighting;
Just like Kenji Doihara's 14th Division, which disobeyed orders and launched an attack on Lanfeng City, thus creating a copy of the Battle of Lanfeng.

Colonel Tanaka has a deep hatred for the Chinese people in Zhaozhuang, and will hunt them down even if they run away, let alone right under their skin;
After discussion between Colonel Tanaka and Colonel Harada, commander of the 147th Regiment, it was decided that the 147th Regiment would leave one battalion to stay in Xuzhou to look after the enemy, while the main force would head straight for Zhaozhuang.

The vanguard brigade arrived quickly after a few kilometers. The brigade leader, Major Masao Komiya, had suffered losses at the hands of the defenders before, and now he was particularly jealous of his enemies. He immediately launched an attack after arriving at the location, as if he was afraid that the defenders would run away.
The enemy 2nd Battalion of Xiaogong Battalion was defending the eastern position of Zhaozhuang. They had been showing weakness to the enemy before, and they were already full of anger after being chased and beaten by the Japanese. "Damn it, the tiger doesn't show its power. Do you really think I'm a sick cat? Tell Liao Tao to beat me to death!"

The commander of the 2nd Battalion, Deng Zhuxiu, was also a man with a vengeful temper. He had already given the Japanese a lot of face by withdrawing from Xuzhou, but he did not expect that he would continue to pester them and keep asking for more. If he continued to tolerate this, would he still be a soldier of the guerrilla column?

Captain Wang gave their 2nd Battalion the task of defending the east side to the death. As long as the people were in the position, not a single enemy would be allowed to pass through the Longhai Railway. The artillery battalion was also reinforced to them, so they could do their job freely.

The position of the 2nd Battalion consisted of two parts. The first part was the front position, which consisted of several small hills on the periphery. It was defended by the nd Battalion and the Artillery Battalion, and was commanded by Liao Tao.

The second part is the core position, which is mainly located on the main peak of Zhaojialing. It is composed of the first and third battalions and the artillery battalion directly under the detachment, and will also support the frontline positions when necessary.

Zhaojialing is located on the left side of the railway, just over 1 km away from Zhaozhuang. It consists of several large and small mountains. The main peak is less than meters away from the railway. Several Type heavy machine guns are set up to block the road, so the Japanese can't get through.
They could go around the north, but the road conditions were very poor and only light infantry could pass through. They could go around to the flank of Zhaozhuang where the 1st and 3rd Battalions were waiting for them.

Zhaozhuang has two infantry battalions with more than 3 people. They are not afraid of small-scale detours. The large force has to take the railway line, and Zhaojialing is an obstacle they cannot bypass.

Komiya Masao did not take Zhaojialing seriously. After a short break, he launched a charge towards Zhaojialing. Hundreds of Japanese soldiers rushed up densely.
Seeing that the Japanese were going to play big right from the start, Liao Tao immediately ordered the artillery battalion to open fire. Two mortars and two infantry guns dropped bombs on the heads of the Japanese from several hundred meters away, knocking down many of them.

"Kill the chicken and give it to me!"

The Japanese naturally would not be scared away by a few artillery pieces. Instead, they charged forward under the artillery fire, not caring at all about their fallen comrades around them. They could afford these casualties.

When the Japanese broke through the artillery blockade of the defenders, they entered the attack range of light and heavy machine guns;
Following an order from Captain Liao Tao, dozens of light and heavy machine guns of the Second Battalion opened fire crazily at the Japanese, spraying bullets at them like rain.

The charging Japanese soldiers fell one after another, and the mountains were suddenly covered with shit-yellow Japanese corpses. The loss was so great that Shimomiya Masao, who had been watching the battle through a telescope, felt extremely painful.

"Bakayaluo, a small hilltop is trying to block the imperial army's advance. You don't know that the Horse King has three eyes!"

Although Shimomiya Masao spoke in a firm tone, his voice was trembling, and it was obvious that he lacked confidence.

Lieutenant Mukai Takao finally rushed to the front of the defenders' position. Facing the dense rain of bullets, he could only hide behind a protruding rock to command the battle. The bullets hit the rocks and rubble flew everywhere.
He drove the Japanese soldiers in Mukai's squad to continuously attack the defenders' defense line, and many of them were shot and fell.

(End of this chapter)