Anti-Japanese War: From Becoming Chu Yunfei to Rising

Chapter 223: The Xuzhou Breakout that Shocked the World Military; The Japanese Army Was Stunned! (Subscribe)
The Central Plains region is vast and has a flat terrain.

There are numerous production roads, dirt roads, and highways in the fields with lush crops.

The Japanese army seemed to be coming in with great force, but in fact its strength was extremely limited.

Of the 250,000-strong army, only tens of thousands were able to actually form an encirclement.

Such an encirclement is actually full of gaps and loopholes.

As the order to break out was issued, the Chinese army, which was very familiar with the terrain and roads, quickly escaped from the encirclement of the Japanese army.

They swarmed out from the gaps in the Japanese encirclement.

Driven by the powerful crisis of avoiding being surrounded and annihilated by the Japanese army.

The advantage of the National Army's swift movement became concrete at this moment.

Despite the Japanese army's order for a fierce pursuit.

However, the Japanese army did not even have the ability to pursue.

There are too many of them... Soldiers coming from all directions are like a torrent.

The Japanese army already had limited manpower.

I didn't catch up with any of them, and I didn't block any of them.

Prior to this, Chu Yunfei had completely wiped out the vanguard of the 13th Division and even bought three days for the transfer of 20,000 wounded soldiers.

The speed at which the troops moved was indescribably fast.

On the huge battlefield of Xuzhou.

The huge main force of the Chinese army disappeared without a trace in just three to five days.
The Japanese were dumbfounded.

Especially the North China Front.

Senior Japanese military officers led by Terauchi Hisaichi could not accept this reality.

Not only did the pursuing troops not achieve much success, they only managed to catch up with some of the wounded and fleeing soldiers.

These troops had already lost their combat effectiveness, let alone morale.

As for the wounded and defeated soldiers, sending them back would bring even greater trouble to the national army's logistics system.

"On the 20th, Suzuki's rapid force attacked the Second Army headquarters in Yinji. The commander, Lieutenant General Tan Daoyuan, was captured and died of his wounds. This commander was like a warrior, very outstanding!"

This news would not make the Japanese army happy for long.

Because soon, the Second Army will be active on the battlefield again.

At that time... they learned that the prisoner who died of his injuries was Tan Daoyuan's adjutant.

The last troops to evacuate Xuzhou were Lu Han's 60th Army.

The reason and starting point for why Li Zongren asked Lu Han to defend Xuzhou City to the death cannot be verified.

But everyone knew that the Yunnan people, who had suffered heavy casualties, could not defend the city of Xuzhou.

Li Zongren's requirement was that the 60th Army hold on to Xuzhou as long as possible.

He also provided General Lujan with a map of nearby national defense facilities.

In addition, 220,000 yuan of small-denomination banknotes that had not yet been moved out of the Xuzhou Central Bank were allocated to the 60th Army.

As three months' food expenses.

Li Zongren probably did not have high hopes for how long the 60th Army could hold out.

This is consistent with the fact that the 60th Army did not receive any punishment when it followed the Second Army in breaking out.

It seemed like it was just to give such an order.

The 60th Army did not hold on to Xuzhou...because when Lu Han arrived in Xuzhou, the theater commander's headquarters was empty.

All military and political institutions have been evacuated.

This made General Lu Han somewhat disappointed. On the one hand, he arranged for Yang Hongyuan's Regiment of the 184th Division to deploy defenses in Duanzhuang area in the western suburbs of Xuzhou, and on the other hand, he ordered Zhang Chong's troops to assemble in the area south of Xuzhou.

General Lu Han quickly rushed to the Jiuli Mountain area to investigate these so-called national defense fortifications on the spot.

All that can be seen are a dozen or so machine gun fortifications built with reinforced concrete.

And it only faces the north.

There are no so-called national defense fortifications in the east, south, and west.
After the fall of Xiaoxian, the Japanese artillery fire was able to penetrate into the city of Xuzhou.

There were Japanese planes bombing the sky and there were few pedestrians.

There were no large troops on the main traffic routes, only some abandoned wounded officers and soldiers lying on the ground groaning.

After meeting Lu Han and his group, he begged them to give them a quick death.

A warehouse near Xuzhou East Railway Station, with ammunition, fodder, equipment and other supplies piled up like mountains
Before they had time to evacuate, some officers were implementing the so-called scorched earth strategy.

Arson
This made Lu Han and others feel very distressed... It was at this time that Lu Han decided to annihilate the enemy and leave instead of defending Xuzhou City to the death.

The next day, he found Commander-in-Chief Sun Lianzhong, who was ready to evacuate, in a village outside Xuzhou.

As the commander-in-chief of the Lunan Corps, Sun Lianzhong was also very late in the retreat sequence.

Sun Lianzhong knew the situation of the 60th Army, and also knew that the war situation had reached such a point that it would be meaningless to let the 60th Army hold on to its death, as it would only be courting death.

He simply ordered Lu Han's 60th Army to evacuate along with the main force.

The day after receiving the order to hold Xuzhou, the 60th Army followed the marching direction of the main force and launched a breakout.

Although many companies were unable to break out of the encirclement, they managed to preserve their organization and there were no major losses of officers and soldiers.

On the contrary, the breakout operation of the Fifth War Zone Commander's Headquarters was fraught with danger.

I don't know if it's just luck.

Ever since Li Zongren withdrew from the city of Xuzhou, no matter which village they broke through to, the Japanese artillery shells seemed to have eyes and chased them and bombed them fiercely.

Shortly after Li Zongren left the room, a shell landed on his roof and killed his messenger.

According to the original breakout plan.

They will take a train from the outskirts of Xuzhou to Suxian.

The troops defending Suxian were those under Liao Lei's command of the 21st Army Group.

At this critical moment, the only troops Li Zongren could trust were the Guangxi clique.

However, Yang Junchang, the commander of the 171st Division of the Guangxi Clique, disappointed him.

The 171st Division was under the Seventh Army and was under the joint attack of the Third and Ninth Divisions.

In less than a day, they abandoned the city and fled.

If we talk about the difficulties, there are indeed some.

After they experienced the bloody battle of Shanghai, Chiang Kai-shek's reinforcements were basically new recruits.

After the battles in Xuzhou and the Huainan blockade, most of their troops were lost.

When we were heading to Suxian and arriving at Suxian to hold our ground.

There were less than a thousand people left in a division (some say five hundred). Under such circumstances, the Japanese army surrounded Suxian from all directions, and the fall of Suxian was only a matter of time.

Although Yang Junchang thought that sending him to defend Suxian was reckless and a blind order.

But he still firmly carried out the order to go to Suxian.

Suxian is a big city. If it has enough military force, it can indeed hold out for a long time.

But with the strength of the 171st Division.

They have trouble defending even one city gate
Until the end, Yang Junchang convinced himself of the reason.

He sacrificed his life for the lives of five hundred brothers.

After the war, this man was sentenced to ten years in prison for deserting the battlefield.

It can be said that Li Zongren had bad luck.

After all, they were chased and bombed by the Japanese all the way, and their retreat route was blocked by the Japanese, so they could only detour through Suxian and continue retreating south.

However, his retreat to the south was changed to a foot march because the engineers blew up the bridge, which indirectly avoided a train directly rushing into the Suxian encirclement.

Being surrounded by Japanese invaders...can also be called a kind of luck.

The Fifth War Zone commander's headquarters consisted of not just a few dozen people, but thousands of people.

In the eyes of Japanese reconnaissance planes, they are basically a hot commodity.

About ten kilometers north of Suxian, Li Zongren encountered the retreating 20th Corps, and met the dismissed corps commander Tang Enbo among the marching troops.

"Mr. De, please evacuate with us. Our army is strong and it will be difficult for the Japanese to encircle and annihilate us. They will definitely not provoke us."

The 20th Corps was indeed the main force of the Central Army. At the time of the Xuzhou breakout, they still had about 30,000 troops.

The team also has 150mm heavy artillery that was previously assigned to the th Army.

However, Li Zongren rejected Tang Enbo's proposal.

He believed that marching with the theater commander's headquarters would be a burden on the XX Corps.

He also believed that the most important thing at the moment was to get this elite division of the Chinese Army out of the battlefield as soon as possible and preserve its manpower and heavy equipment. Although Li Zongren had made many mistakes in commanding the Battle of Xuzhou, he had few selfish motives.

From the perspective of family and country, it is impeccable.

He was one of the few clean-minded warlords in the early days of the War of Resistance.

Tang Enbo continued to break out to the west, while his superiors' headquarters broke out to the southeast of Suqian.
May 19th.

The Japanese army occupied Xuzhou.

"The Chinese army's retreat was really clever. Even if the national army found their tracks, they could not catch up in the wheat fields. The Chinese army was not only lightly equipped, but also good at walking. At the same time, the clothes they wore were no different from those of ordinary people. Therefore, even if they failed to retreat, they could still pretend to be ordinary people, making it almost impossible to catch them.
The Chinese army's retreat method is different from that of other large forces. It is like the sons of a spider, dispersing from all directions and then gathering in designated safe areas.
The Nationalist army only had one-fifth of the enemy's strength, so it could only inflict less than a 10% blow on the rapidly retreating Chinese army."

The commander of the North China Front Army, Terauchi Hisaichi, held the battlefield report in his hand. Although his chest was filled with anger, Terauchi Hisaichi still arranged the subsequent combat deployment with an expressionless face.

Despite the unfavorable situation on the Xuzhou battlefield, hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops quickly broke through and retreated.

Their pursuit troops achieved little success, and the Xuzhou they captured was essentially an empty city.

Japan's attempt to engage in a decisive battle with the Chinese army in the Xuzhou area and annihilate it was ruthlessly crushed.

The fighter planes in the Xuzhou area have been lost!
Under the personal command of Terauchi Hisaichi, the main force of the North China Front Army quickly changed the direction of attack.

Its target was quickly changed to the eastern Henan region belonging to the First War Zone, with the aim of capturing and annihilating the main force of the Chinese army in the eastern section of the Longhai Railway.

The 14th Division split into two groups from Heze and quickly advanced to the Yifong area east of Lanfeng, cutting off the Longhai Railway Line again.

Upon receiving the news, the commander of the First War Zone quickly adjusted his deployment.

Song Xilian's 71st Army and Gui Liuzhen's 27th Army counterattacked the Yifong area from Lanfeng.

Before this, Chiang Kai-shek had already determined that the Japanese 14th Division was planning to advance deep into the enemy's territory alone.

Xue Yue was transferred to the Lanfeng area in advance and served as the commander-in-chief of the Henan East Corps.

Theoretically speaking, even Chu Yunfei's Flying Tiger Honor Division was temporarily assigned to the combat sequence of the Henan East Corps.

Of course, Xue Yue would not go to such trouble to command Chu Yunfei.

The 14th Division that broke into eastern Henan was extremely arrogant, even more arrogant than the Seya Detachment of the 10th Division that had previously advanced alone!

Because the First War Zone had nearly 200,000 main forces, Kenji Doizo's 14th Division had only more than 20,000 people!

Jigu Lianjie did not take the hundreds of thousands of miscellaneous troops seriously.

That is understandable given the poor combat effectiveness of the miscellaneous military forces, not to mention that Jigu Lianjie himself has a bad and arrogant personality.

He was one of the few senior commanders in the Japanese army who had obvious character flaws.

But Tu Feiyuan is not...
That’s why Chiang Kai-shek felt angry!
The more unscrupulous the fat guy was, the angrier Chiang Kai-shek became!
This is a disdain for their Chinese army! This is a disdain for the main force of the Central Army!

Three infantry battalions, a heavy artillery brigade, and a field artillery regiment were blocked by the troops of the First War Zone on the line of Neihuang, Mazhuangzhai and Renheji.

The Henan East Corps led by Xue Yue attacked from the Guide line to the west, blocking the 14th Division, and a semi-encirclement was initially formed.
At this time, Kaifeng station.

Chu Yunfei finally received the last batch of artillery aid.

Similarly, a telegram from the headquarters was sent to him.

The arrogant behavior of the Japanese 14th Division angered Chiang Kai-shek very much.

He even clearly expressed in the telegram his determination to completely annihilate the 14th Division.

Chu Yunfei's troops were asked to prepare for battle as soon as possible and advance to the Lanfeng front line two days later.

"The combat strength of both sides is 10:1. Are these Japanese soldiers crazy? They dare to attack a war zone with the strength of a division."

Fang Ligong was very puzzled. He thought for a long time but could not figure out the motive of the Japanese army's action.

Li Kuishan expressed his own opinion: "Could it be that they are using the 14th Division as bait to launch a strategic decisive battle with our army in the eastern Henan region?"

"But, when the battle line reached this place, our army not only had more than 400,000 troops retreating from the Xuzhou area, but also had a main force of 200,000 troops in the first war zone. The Japanese had only so few people in total. After fighting for such a long time, didn't they need to rest?"

"I think it is very likely that they are not going to fight a decisive battle with us, but to destroy the 51st Army, the main force of the National Army that has not yet retreated to a safe area. The 14th Division should be responsible for blocking the enemy. They use offensive operations to contain the main force of the First War Zone and buy time for subsequent operations."

Everyone nodded in succession when they heard this. Considering it from this perspective, what Qian Bojun said made sense.

At this time, Qian Bojun was wearing a cloth military uniform, and the medal he liked to wear on his chest had been taken off.

It seems that the novelty has dissipated over time.

"The current situation is still unclear, but the High Command's determination to annihilate the 14th Division will naturally not change."

Chu Yunfei cleared his throat and said, "In the next two days, all units must do a good job of mobilizing for the war, especially the 198B and the Supplementary Regiment. There are many new recruits, and some defeated soldiers need to be reorganized and gathered."

"We don't care whether the Japanese army really intends to use the 14th Division as bait, or whether the 14th Division's Zhang Tu is crazy and wants to go deep into the enemy's territory alone. This is our best chance to annihilate them."

"Don't forget the plan I mentioned to you before about stopping the enemy. I think no one here wants this to happen, right?"

(The so-called plan to stop the enemy has been mentioned before in Chapter 169, so I will not repeat it here).

They all knew what Chu Yunfei said.

No one wants to see millions of people displaced.
In order to prevent the Japanese invaders from spying on Kaifeng and Zhengxian, annihilating the 14th Division of the Japanese Army was a necessary step.

Chu Yunfei's troops are now strong and powerful, and it has been twenty days since they rested.

The troops have been replenished and the new recruits have basically completed the corresponding shooting and tactical training.

The main force's Honor 196B, and 197B units were supplemented with extremely detailed details.

for example.

In an infantry squad, the assault team basically consists of four people, among which only one recruit will be assigned.

Otherwise, the combat effectiveness will be affected accordingly. Basically, it is like this where the old ones lead the new ones.

All the new recruits from various troops in the southeastern Shanxi region who were originally sent to reinforce the army were dispersed by Chu Yunfei and incorporated into the original combat troops.

Only a very small number of new recruits were transferred to combat units to serve as squad leaders.

The rest basically continued to serve as squad leaders in the supplementary regiment, continuing to undertake the task of training and cultivating new recruits.

This group of new recruits joining the combat troops may not be able to shoot accurately with rifles.

But at least I knew how to aim, and after firing a dozen bullets, I knew the feeling of shooting.

This is enough for Chu Yunfei's troops.

The wars were frequent and the logistics were tight.

Chu Yunfei, who had emptied the wealth of Yan Laoxi's family, now has no ability to let the recruits conduct five to six shooting training sessions as required by the original training syllabus.

Unless the Northwest Manufacturing General Administration can restore the Taiyuan Arsenal's production capacity to about 70% of its peak period.

Maybe there is still some hope, but at least it is not possible at this stage.

In Chu Yunfei's opinion.

It was the artillery force under his command that actually caused heavy casualties to the Japanese army on the battlefield.

He had read countless materials on this point and naturally knew what role light weapons should play on the battlefield.

Infantry units include elite assault troops.

Basically, it was impossible to cause much damage to the Japanese.

The main combat functions were to fight favorable battles during the attack, maintain the front line, and guard against counterattacks by the Japanese invaders.

The pursuing enemy attacked the Japanese soldiers who had lost all their fighting spirit.

As for defensive operations.

The number of enemies killed by rifles is also quite limited. Machine guns are mainly used to suppress the enemy's attack speed, and they mainly rely on weapons such as grenades.

This is mainly because the Japanese attack will not be like the one in the film and television dramas. As for the so-called long live charge, the death squad
It was only in the early days of the war of aggression against China, when facing some ragtag troops that were so ragtag that they could not be compared, that they would charge forward with their chests puffed out.

In fact, it was mainly used to deal with warlord troops who did not even have the combat effectiveness of a security group. They could be defeated with a board charge, so naturally there would not be many casualties.

When fighting against the main force of the National Army, these Japanese devils fought in a very cowardly manner. Not only were their skirmish lines spread out widely, but they basically crawled on the ground.

The offensive preparations were very thorough, and they basically relied on grenade launchers to kill the enemy.
Grenades can only play a good role in special terrain. Grenades in plains can only play a good role in defensive battles and in city defense battles. Otherwise, it is often the case that more than a dozen grenades are thrown, but no one of the Japanese is hurt.
As the troops were about to set off, reporters from the Changzhi Weekly who were staying in Kaifeng area also began to evacuate.

Song Wenying proposed to fight with the army and serve as a war correspondent.

Chu Yunfei refused without saying a word.

The risks of the upcoming battle are extremely high, and even Chu Yunfei himself will not go to the front line to command.

After all, this was an unprecedented encirclement and annihilation battle, and its difficulty was far greater than the previous encirclement and annihilation of the 4th Brigade in advantageous terrain.

When the main force of the Japanese army in North China was in danger of being surrounded and annihilated.

The aviation corps really does its job. Chu Yunfei had experienced the frequency of the aviation corps' support when the 4th Brigade was surrounded and annihilated in Qin County.

The casualties among the combat troops were mainly caused by the Japanese Air Force.

When encircling and annihilating the 14th Division, Chu Yunfei could already foresee a scenario where the entire flying corps in North China would join the battle.

Based on the combat effectiveness of the Japanese air force.

Twenty bombers are enough to flatten a village.

This battle is not so easy to win. Chu Yunfei would never let her, the vice president of a newspaper, take such a risk... not to mention that this person is the eldest daughter of the Song family...
The original plan was to go upstream to block the enemy, but after some simulation in the morning, we felt that it would cause a butterfly effect and the Japanese army would most likely not risk advancing westward.

If we gather a large force and march westward, Chiang Kai-shek will inevitably fail to stop us, so we might as well change the outline... Next is the plot of annihilating the 14th Division. Those who participated in this battle were all famous generals of the National Army, and they became a laughing stock for all ages. Chu Yunfei will deal with those damned people, so stay tuned!

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(End of this chapter)