The third part of the bloody war of resistance, Chapter 9, Running, Section 5 Assault (Nine)

By defending Xiangshan, you can defend Huaibei. Okabu dragged his only few 75 Mountain cannons and 92 Infantry cannons onto the simple tunnel of Xiangshan, established artillery positions here, and sent his deputy Muto to guard them himself.

After Zhang Lihui rushed outside the city, he did not pay attention to Xiangshan. He only sent a battalion of troops to attack Xiangshan, and the main force attacked from three sides. Zhang Lihui knew that the Japanese army had no reinforcements, so he threw all his troops into the attack without any scruples. Three divisions rushed into the city in three directions, and fought all the way to the core position of Okabe.

At this moment, Muto on Aoyama fired, Okabe kept silence, Zhang Lihui appeared outside the city, but he did not fire; Zhang Lihui broke through the city wall, but he did not fire; when Zhang Lihui began to assault on the core position, he ordered the fire.

The core position is composed of a series of strong castles and trenches. Huaibei is rich in coal and cement. Okabe makes full use of this large specialty. Cement is responsible for casting the castle firepower points. Miners dig tunnels and trenches to connect these castles and firepower points. The entire core position becomes a huge fortress.

When the shells exploded among the attacking crowd, Zhang Lihui discovered his mistake. He immediately increased the troops attacking Xiangshan to a regiment and mobilized 105 heavy artillery in the army to suppress the artillery fire on the mountain.

Although the soldiers of the Sixty Army fought bravely, they still defeated the strong defense line of Okabe for the first attack. Zhang Lihui was anxious and readjusted the deployment and mobilized the 101st Division to attack Xiangshan with all their strength, while the 102nd and 103rd Divisions focused on attacking the core positions.

This time the squadron concentrated artillery fire, and the 102103rd Division each sent a regiment to fight in from both east and west. The artillery fire was prepared for twenty minutes, and the entire Japanese position was covered by smoke and fire, just like a dark night without light. After the artillery fire, the entire Japanese position was in a mess, with broken trenches and castles, and broken limbs and arms flying everywhere.

After the artillery bombardment, the squadron began to attack. At this time, the Japanese artillery on Xiangshan began again. The shells accurately landed among the attacking Chinese soldiers. The Sixty-State Artillery Regiment immediately fired artillery to suppress it, but the Japanese artillery shells still accurately landed among the attacking soldiers.

The Chinese soldiers of the two regiments braved the Japanese artillery fire from Xiangshan to launch an attack. The Japanese firepower points were fully revived, and the Chinese soldiers hitting suffered heavy losses. The attack failed again, and the 102nd and 103rd Divisions each lost 600 people.

Zhang Lihui woke up and began to carefully examine the city. Most of the entire city had fallen into his hands, leaving only this core position. He called the captured puppet army officers to inquire, and the puppet army officers told him in a dilemma that Okabe did not allow them to participate in the core position when building the core position. From design to construction, all the Japanese army personally controlled it.

Hearing this, Zhang Lihui understood in his heart that he had encountered a new problem. In the past, all the battles were in the field, and the Japanese army built field fortifications, and he had never had the experience of attacking the Japanese army's existing positions.

Du Yuming received a report of a frustrated attack and just hummed lightly: "Courage"

Zhang Lihui was ashamed. The 60th Army was 50,000 brigade, a small Huaibei city, with more than 1,000 Japanese troops, and less than ten cannons, blocked his attack. This can only be described as cowardly.

"The Sixty Army is responsible for attacking Huaibei, and the other units bypass Huaibei. The Seventh Army attacked Xuzhou along the Jinpu Line. The newly formed Seventh Army took Huangzangyu and launched an attack on Xuzhou. We must attack the city of Xuzhou before the Second Army."

Du Yuming did not take care of Huaibei, leaving Zhang Lihui to attack Huaibei, and the main force still advanced towards Xuzhou. Du Yuming was a little dissatisfied with Zhuang Jihua's deployment. He believed that the Fifty Army should be the main force to attack Xuzhou. Song Xilian's Second Army and the Thirty Sixth Army could not match the Fifty Army and the First Army commanded by him in terms of combat effectiveness. However, what Zhuang Jihua stipulated was that Song Xilian would attack Xuzhou. After capturing Suxian and Huaibei, the Fifty Army and the First Army bypassed Xuzhou and attacked Pi County, cleared the Japanese army north of Xuzhou, and cut off the road to Shandong's aid.

Attack, all squadrons have never been so happy. They do not consider the reserve team, the flank cover, the attack, and the forward. Generals at all levels only supervise the troops to advance at high speed. The Japanese strongholds along the way collapsed under this iron stream. The three thousand Japanese troops in Dangshan held on their feet for only one day, and were bombarded with the sound of the squadrons.

Song Xilian took the same approach as Du Yuming, and ordered the troops to rush around the enemy and rushed towards Xuzhou regardless of the Japanese defenders who were struggling along the way.

When the Eighth Army attacked Dangshan, the 78th Army followed behind by bypassed Dangshan, headed south along Longhai Road, and attacked Xuzhou. The second group swept north across the Japanese army in Fengxian and Peixian.

But what surprised Zhuang Jihua was that the steel storm that Qiu Qingquan rolled up in northwestern Shandong was like a strong typhoon, crushing all the Japanese resistance to pieces. In the face of this steel storm, the Japanese army had no power to fight back at all, and could only rely on the flesh and blood of soldiers to resist the influx of tanks.

Zhuang Jihua was deeply surprised by the severe lack of anti-tank weapons by the Japanese army. You must know that the squadron used a large number of tanks in the counterattack in Yucheng five years ago, but the Japanese army was not alert, did not take corresponding measures, and did not develop anti-tank weapons. Moreover, even if China strictly guarded the technical secrets of the rocket launcher, the spoils seized by the Japanese army could be copied, but why didn't they do this?

This problem made Zhuang Jihua puzzled, but the progress on the battlefield made him very satisfied. From the onset to the present, it can be said that the progress was very smooth. Wang Jshan rushed into Heze and fought fiercely with the Southern Second Regiment of the 17th Division of the Japanese Army stationed in Heze. Qiu Qingquan's tank bypassed Heze and rushed towards Juye.

After measuring the entire battle situation, Zhuang Jihua was still worried about the combat effectiveness of the Eighth Route Army and ordered the Second Army to go north. Xuzhou area was attacked by the 36th Army and the 50th Army, commanded by Du Yuming, and Song Xilian led the Second Army to go north. The First Army and Guan Linzheng's troops advancing west cooperated to cross Xuzhou and attack Pi County.

Song Xilian was very dissatisfied with this order, but he did not dare to complain and had to obey the order to go north; Du Yuming was satisfied and ordered Zhang Lihui to conquer Huaibei as soon as possible, while he focused on commanding the Xuzhou strategy.

In order to be more secure, Zhuang Jihua ordered the 22nd Army that had already conquered Bengbu, and the entire army went north, and Bengbu was handed over to the 92nd Army to defend. He ordered Li Wentian, who occupied Huainan, to lead his troops to north to reinforce Bengbu, and to inform the 46th Army that was attacking Mingguang to stop the attack and immediately go north to Bengbu.

"Are Zhuang Jihua too careful?" Cai Tingkai gently saw Zhuang Jihua's series of deployments. At this moment, his concern for Zhuang Jihua was left without a trace. In his opinion, the current situation was very good, and he could order the youth army of the 22nd Army to go south and threaten Nanjing.

"Now you are not worried that the arrogant soldiers will be defeated." The road conditions on the north are not good, and the jeep is very bumpy. Xu Zuyi's body can't help but hit the back of the chair: "You have always been careful when fighting the Cultural Revolution. Even if you are 80% sure, he must be on guard against the remaining 20% ​​of the accidents."

After the Xuzhou battle began, the General Command had to move north to the Preparatory Command in Shangqiu. However, Zhuang Jihua still waited for a day and set off for Shangqiu after Luo Qi captured Dangshan.

"If anyone else is to do with it, in this case, I'm afraid I can't help but attack south." Cai Tingkai thought in his mind, and measured the domestic generals one by one, and concluded that even the most conservative and stable Gu Zhutong would not be able to move troops north under such circumstances.

"I'm afraid that the Cultural Revolution is worried about the reinforcements of the Japanese army in North China. After Li Wentian and the 46th Army arrived, there were about 150,000 defenders in Bengbu. With the natural precarious situation in the Huaihe River and our air superiority, the Japanese army in Central China could no longer affect the battle of Xuzhou. Only the Japanese army that could reinforce Xuzhou was Okamura Yasuji." Xu Zuyi knew a lot about Zhuang Jihua and understood his concerns, but he was still puzzled. Even if the Japanese army in North China came to reinforce, there would be only three or five divisions at most. He could not take the time to take the north bank of the Yellow River.

"Who knows, is he too careful?" Cai Tingkai shook his head slightly.

The squadron rushed towards Xuzhou with a thunderous force. When the news came, the North China Expeditionary Army Command was shocked. Okamura Yanji felt very regretful. He had no idea that the Chinese general was really attacking from this direction. Nakajima's reminder came too late. The Fifth Division had just mobilized and it would take at least three days to transport it to Liaocheng or Yanggu, and the Jiaodong troops would have to assemble at least one week. At that time, Xuzhou was probably surrounded.

"Commander, the attacking troops of the Chinese army have been found out," Ritakanosuke reported calmly to Okamura Yiji: "There are five armies identified so far, two armies and the Eighth Route Army guerrilla corps, with a total force of about 600,000."

This number made the noisy combat room suddenly silent, with 600,000 troops, as well as unknown numbers of tanks and air forces, this force was unprecedentedly powerful and unprecedentedly powerful.

The comparison of troops is 12:1, which does not include technical weapons, and the entire force is one-sided. Judging from the experience of the Battle of Northern Hubei, the squadron is fully capable of conquering Xuzhou within one week.

"Commander, the commander, the northern line gave up Heze, the entire army retreated across the canal, and stood firm in Jining," Li Gaozhisuke thought about it, and still boldly suggested: "The 60th Division of the southern line gave up Xuzhou, retreated north along the Jinpu line to Tai'an, met with the Jinan troops, built a Taishan defense line, and blocked the Chinese army."

Everyone in the North China Expeditionary Force knew that with the combat effectiveness shown by today's squadron, Xuzhou would definitely not be able to defend it. The ultimate goal of Li Gaoyusuke's suggestion was to protect the troops in Xuzhou area, withdraw these troops to the Tai'an area, and rely on the Taishan terrain to consume the squadron.

Dacheng thought about it and suggested: "Commander, I think Li Gaojun's suggestion is feasible."

Okamura Yasuji pondered for a moment and shook his head. If he did not resist, the Chinese army would be allowed to rush to Jinan, and the Taishan defense line would be difficult to block the Chinese army. What's more, once the Chinese army crossed Xuzhou, without the restrictions on the rivers in the area, the military strength would be more sufficient. Moreover, it would take time to gather the troops on the Taishan defense line.
Chapter completed!