Chapter 22 Chapter 22 Which Station (2)

Heavy Armor Packaging One side is a "weak and weak combination", but the other is at least a "strong and weak combination". You can tell at a glance who has a greater chance of winning. Okamura's decision made even the "weak" who was promoted feel drumming in his heart.As soon as the weakest 106th Division died to the end, they dared not speak, but the 101st Division couldn't hold back anymore. They thought they had participated in the Battle of Songhu and could sell their seniority, so they repeatedly challenged the 11th Army. The command complained of difficulties.

Until two or three days before the forced crossing began, the division was still yelling, saying that according to the "Shanghai experience", Nanchang would not be defeated for a month, and the casualties would be heavy by then, so I had to arrange for additional soldiers. Okamura was very disapproving of these two guys who were timid before fighting. He asked his staff to give an answer: to occupy Nanchang, there will be seven days of sunny days and one to two days of rainy days. What he didn't say was: You think I really have to rely on you, you're wrong! Okamura is not afraid of water, only afraid of mountains.

According to his "300-meter theory", there are no towering mountains like Lushan Mountain and Mufu Mountain on the Nanchang front line, and special weapons that have not been fully effective before can come in handy this time. During the battle in Wuhan, the special forces were assigned to each division, but it didn't have much effect.Okamura made adjustments this time, concentrating all the special forces and allocating them to the two divisions. The two weak divisions were called the main forces for the invasion of Nanchang, but they were actually carried by the sedan chairs of the Eleventh Army. Okamura was blunt about this. The Special Forces came out in full force.

Before launching the Nanchang Campaign, the Infantry Division had conducted cooperative combat training with special forces for several months. Procrastinate and procrastinate. Until the afternoon of March 20, there was still a light rain over Xiushui. After the rain, the plane could not come to help, but Okamura believed that it must not be delayed any longer. Go to the artillery unit first. Hundreds of guns fired at the positions of the Japanese invading army, and the frenzied bombardment lasted for three hours.During the shelling, Okamura led his staff to sit behind the two divisions. Looking at the situation in front of him, he himself was very proud, thinking that this large-scale artillery battle was unprecedented, if not unprecedented.

On the positions of the Chinese army, from the defensive front to the depth, they were covered by Japanese artillery fire for a while.The defenders along the coast were very surprised. Many veterans had participated in the Battle of Songhu. The Japanese army's firepower in attacking Shanghai was considered fierce, but the density of water artillery battles was even higher than that. The Japanese army obviously used artillery that exceeded the usual range. Some people estimated that it was "more than sixty or seventy pieces", but no one thought that the actual number was many times this estimate.

The Eleventh Army lined up on the opposite bank is mainly the field heavy artillery brigade, with a total of 170 artillery pieces, including a considerable number of howitzers and cannons. The two infantry divisions themselves also have artillery. After mixing and matching, the combined artillery With more than 200 guns, the ratio of artillery to infantry has reached one to one. The Japanese invading army fired a hundred guns and started a crazy artillery battle. In contrast, although the Ninth War Zone has special forces directly under its jurisdiction, the heavy field artillery was unable to open the front line because it destroyed the roads around Nanchang in advance.The only things that can be used for blocking on the shore are the mountain cannons brought by each army. Regardless of the firepower, the number alone is only a fraction of that of others. Naturally, it can only appear weak in artillery battles.

In the first round, the defenders were already struggling, but in the second round, they began to feel dizzy. Okamura actually used poison gas.Twenty thousand smoke injectors were launched together, and smoke bombs and gas bombs flew over like raindrops. At this time, night fell, and under the heavy artillery fire and heavy smoke, the coordination of various troops was greatly affected. The "defensive triangle" became the "defensive three sections", and everyone could only bury their heads and attend to each other. When the defenders on the south bank fell into chaos, the 106th and 101st divisions took the opportunity to launch a forced crossing.

When the heavy artillery bombarded him, Okamura was very proud, but when he was really forced to cross, he also became uneasy. Because the people who squeezed in at the beginning could not be large troops, but only a small group of pioneers. Just imagine, these people have water behind them, and if they encounter strong resistance in front, the situation will not be good.At the same time, after the infantry landed, the performance of the artillery was also restricted, and it was impossible to bombard with closed eyes. After all, this is the first time in Okamura's life that he used "heavy armored troops" to package "weak divisions". The risk and gamble elements are very large, and he is afraid that the performance will be accidentally ruined.

In the face of Japan's "weak army division", China's "three defenses" could have supported it. In that case, Luo Zhuoying would have the space and time to make adjustments to the deployment. But the shortest board broke prematurely. Artillery is the courage of the army, and Okamura's continuous shelling and destruction of fortifications are second, and the most important thing is psychological warfare, which is intended to destroy the psychological defense of the defenders. After three hours of earth-shattering, and there was not a single Japanese army on the Xiuhe River, the Northeast Army's courage was the first to be broken.

After the Japanese infantry launched a forced crossing, the division commander Wang Tiehan called the command post of the front regiment, but he couldn't get in at all.After further investigation, the troops retreated without orders on the grounds of "gas poisoning", and there was no one on the ground, picking up a ready-made advantage for the opponent. Knowing that the Japanese army has landed from the Northeast Army defense area, Luo Zhuoying complained endlessly, and issued an order to the army commander Liu Duoquan, asking him to recover the lost position immediately, otherwise the army commander is the only one to ask.

This is a death order that must be fulfilled. After receiving the order, Liu Duoquan was at a loss and ordered Wang Tiehan strictly. Wang Tiehan could only use his strength to strike iron, and issued a military order to the counterattack force: If the task cannot be completed, the military law will do it. Although there is the sword of "Military Law Engagement" on the neck, those who dare not use it still dare not use it. Three regiments went forward to counterattack, and only one regiment was ordered to charge up under the cover of night, but when it was dawn, the opponent attacked and retreated. Now all the swords are useless, even Liu Duoquan and Wang Tiehan themselves panicked, unable to control the troops, and all the regiments fled in a panic. In the battle of Xiushui, the Northeast Army suffered heavy losses.Wang Tiehan's 105th Division once participated in the Battle of Songhu, but the losses at that time were not as great as they are now. Now it can be called a loss of armor and armor. All the weapons that could be lost were lost at once. What Czech rifles? , Maxim heavy machine guns were thrown all over the ground. Due to the huge loss of weapons, Liu Duoquan and Wang Tiehan did not dare to apply for supplements, fearing that Chiang Kai-shek and He Yingqin would not be able to stand this kind of stimulation and cancel their designations.Later, thanks to Liu Duoquan's family fortune brought from the Northeast, he hid the ammunition of dozens of large ships on the river, which saved him from the embarrassment of being unable to solve the problem. Afterwards, the responsibility for Xiushui's loss was investigated. Liu Duoquan was demoted two grades in a row, and Wang Tiehan was dismissed and stayed in his post. This board is not overly played.It was precisely because of the retreat of the Northeast Army that the Japanese army was able to continuously inject troops from the breakthrough. More and more people poured in, and formed a plagiarism encirclement against Li Jue and Xia Chuzhong's two armies. Once dragging each other down, the fight that could have been fought could not continue, and the two armies had to retreat to the side mountains. On the morning of March 21, Okamura received a call from the front line and learned that the water repair line of the Chinese defenders had collapsed, and his mind was truly at ease. His blitz battle has just begun, and the most powerful ones have not yet been released, so there is no room for any mistakes in the first face-to-face. latest tactics The landing of the Eleventh Army, and even breaking through the first line of defense, did not mean fatal to Luo Zhuoying. Beginning with the "January 28th" Battle of Songhu, the Japanese occupation has basically formed a textbook-style routine, namely reconnaissance, advance, and deployment.According to this procedure, every time it captures a place, it must stop for a while, and then attack after rectifying. From Xiushui to Nanchang, there are many passes in the middle. What is especially important is that due to the destruction of the roads along the way, the heavy artillery brigades on the other side of Xiushui will not be able to cooperate with the infantry. Even if the two "weak army divisions" were beaten to the bone and went smoothly, it would take at least five to six days based on the time spent per day. During this period of time, the Ninth Theater can mobilize at least three armies to the predetermined battlefield for siege. The "Weak Army Division" was besieged before, and there was Xiushui later, so it might be possible to reproduce a "Wanjialing".This is also the reason why Luo Zhuoying dared to bring Xia Chuzhong's 79th Army to the shore to strengthen the defense line when deploying the first-line defense of Xiushui. What Luo Zhuoying and even Xue Yue didn't expect was that Okamura didn't follow the textbook, he adopted the latest tactics. Destroyed roads can stop artillery, but they cannot stop tanks, especially tanks in groups. In terms of military aggression tactics, Okamura is indeed very good, even surpassing many Japanese generals of the same era.He created many firsts in the Battle of Nanchang. In addition to the first large-scale concentrated use of artillery, he also used the concept of tank clusters for the first time. Like the artillery, the tanks were distributed among the various divisions in the Wuhan Battle, but the results were far from ideal.The scattered tanks not only did not play a significant role in promoting the battle situation, but also suffered a lot of losses. The tanks that were destroyed by the bomb and urgently needed to be repaired were lined up, so that the temporary field arsenal did not have so many accessories. The planes transport the parts from within Japan. After Okamura concluded, all the tanks of the entire 11th Army were collected together in the Nanchang Battle to form a tank group.This chariot group has a total of 135 tanks, including the large Type 89 medium tank and the fast Type 94 light tank. In the past, tanks always opened the way for infantry battles in the front, but this time Okamura was ingenious. He wanted to use tanks to open the way for his entire campaign. Tanks are known as the "King of Land Warfare", and they appeared as early as World War I, but the large-scale independent use on the world battlefield first started in September 1939, when the German Panzer Corps blitzed Poland. On the East Asian battlefield, Okamura was half a year earlier than the Germans! After the chariot group landed with the infantry division, they rushed straight to Nanchang without even stopping. From Xiushui to Nanchang, the straight-line distance is less than 100 miles, but in order to bypass the frontal guards, a detour is required. It is not a simple 100 miles, but at least 500 miles. For Okamura, this question is very difficult.Because the chariot group went deep alone, there would be no rear supplies along the way. Everything else is easy to deal with. Without gasoline, the tank is nothing more than a pile of scrap metal. During the Battle of Lanfeng, Doi had been rushing like this for a while. His posture at that time almost broke into Kaifeng Mansion, but when the supply line was cut off, he quickly became a dead crab. Okamura is not willing to follow the old path behind Doihara's ass, let alone be a dead crab. After some "technical research", the Chariot Group finally came up with a solution, which is to tie a small gasoline barrel outside the tank. According to this estimate, it can advance nearly 250 miles, which is half of the total roundabout distance. The detours of the Chariot Group became Okamura's most proud handwriting in the Nanchang Battle.He was very excited about this, but then something happened that scratched his head. Due to the continuous rain, the road was very muddy, which not only affected the forward speed, but also affected the tank engine, which greatly increased fuel consumption. As a result, half of the detour was not completed, and all the tanks collectively had a fuel shortage. The chariot group had no choice but to temporarily decide to gather all the fuel and supply it to one of the chariot squadrons, let the squadron start first, and all the others stood by. If you can't continue to "feed" oil, these tanks actually don't have much "life" to wait for.Just as he was rubbing his hands and not knowing what to do, someone suddenly thought of the method of airdrop, and immediately sent an emergency rescue telegram to the headquarters of the 11th Army: The fuel is exhausted, please airdrop as soon as possible. Including Okamura, none of these people in the headquarters had thought of the method of airdropping fuel before. They all crossed the river by feeling the stones and went wherever they went.Now someone came up with this clever method, but because of lack of preparation, the oil was nowhere to be found. It took them a whole day to collect some gasoline with great difficulty, and it was transported overnight by transport plane for airdrop. Due to too much fuel and too little porridge, more than half of the tanks and chariots were actually unable to continue to be put into use that day. At this time, if Luo Zhuoying can deploy troops to attack in time, these tanks will all become dead crabs due to the loss of maneuverability.It's a pity that Okamura's large-scale lightning tactics have completely disrupted Luo Zhuoying's position. At the same time, in the absence of aerial reconnaissance means, Luo Zhuoying didn't know that it was only a part of individual tank units that arrived outside Nanchang in advance, and he completely It's possible to cut off the rear of this unit and turn the rest of the immobilized tanks into real dead crabs. What he noticed was that the 11th Army took only two days to go down three cities and detoured to the west of Nanchang City, thus forming a semi-encirclement of Nanchang. On March 22, Luo Zhuoying proposed to Xue Yue whether Nanchang could be abandoned based on the principle of preserving the troops. Xue Yue convened his staff overnight to conduct research.Most of the staff tend to "defend", thinking that the Ganjiang River in front of Nanchang City is a kilometer wide, which is not comparable to the Xiushui River, and the rear contact line of the 11th Army is too long. Once other nearby Chinese troops arrive , can cut off its contact line in one fell swoop. Xue Yue hesitated for a long time, but he finally chose to "abandon". Most of the usual written orders are simply dictated by Xue Yue, and then handed over to the staff to draft, but this retreat order, he carefully drafted every word, and even sent out the telegram, the retreat order has not yet been written.This is rare in Xue Yue's military career. Whether Nanchang should be abandoned or defended, the weight is extremely important, and it is really too difficult to choose. First of all, he believed Luo Zhuoying's words and believed that the 11th Army had indeed approached Nanchang.Secondly, it is the Fourth Army of Ou Zhen who guards Nanchang at this time. If Nanchang must be defended to the death, the Fourth Army may all be sacrificed for this. Among the Cantonese army, the Fourth Army of the "Old Iron Army" is the most famous. From Zhang Fakui to Xue Yue, there is no one who does not regard it as a treasure and his own son.Among other things, in the Battle of Wanjialing, it was the Fourth Army that first discovered the movement of the 106th Division and lured it into the encirclement. Sacrificing the Fourth Army to protect Nanchang, Nanchang may not be able to keep Nanchang, but to send in the "Old Iron Army" who is regarded as his life, this is of course difficult for Xue Yue to accept. The Japanese Eleventh Army invaded and occupied Nanchang The 106th and 101st Divisions arrived near Nanchang five days later, and they did not encounter too much resistance along the way. On March 27, Nanchang fell. The loss of Nanchang was a major setback for both Xue Yue and Luo Zhuoying.Although Xue Yue did not directly command the battle of Nanchang at the beginning, he drew up the final retreat order, which means that Nanchang City was sent by him alone, and his mood can be imagined. Just like an athlete loses a game, some individual coaches refuse to even attend the press conference.After the Battle of Nanchang.Not only did Xue Yue fail to hold a tactical review meeting as usual, but he also became silent, and usually refused to mention a word about the Battle of Nanchang. You're so useless, please don't talk to me about this. Arrived But things have come to this point, even if you want to hide your head under the quilt, it's impossible.The loss of Nanchang was not only the loss of a provincial capital, but also the loss of an air force base. It also led to the separation of the Ninth and Third War Zones, which were originally connected in a line. Once the news was announced, it caused a public outcry.Chiang Kai-shek was very angry. In addition to dismissing Luo Zhuoying, he also ordered Xue Yue to organize a counterattack in the Ninth Theater, hoping to recover Nanchang. It is easy to abandon the city, but it is more difficult than ascending to the sky to regain it.Since the "July 7th Incident", there has never been a city occupied by the Japanese army that could be recaptured with real swords and guns, no matter how big or small.Although the combat effectiveness and fighting will of the Japanese army have been greatly reduced compared with before the Sino-Japanese war, although the 11th Army is responsible for defending Nanchang, it is still only the 101st and 106th divisions, the two "weak and weak divisions". ", but the Chinese army actually still does not have enough capabilities to counterattack, especially fortifications. You must know that Nanchang is not Wanjialing, and here will not provide you with the opportunity and environment for the autumn wind to sweep the fallen leaves. Of course, Xue Yue is not ignorant, but he no longer dares to confront Chiang Kai-shek this time. In the final analysis, to be able to stand upright, you have to have capital. Now that the battle has become like this, you are enough without punishment After saving face, do you still dare to be stubborn? To attack a big city like Nanchang, you must have the support of special forces, otherwise it will be useless to have more people. This is the most obvious truth. Xue Yue's first thought was to gather all the artillery units in the First and Ninth War Zones, like Okamura did, to carry out a devastating blow to the Japanese army's Nanchang defense line. But he is facing a problem that Okamura cannot encounter, that is, since Wuhan and Nanchang fell one after another, the south of the Yangtze River has almost become the world of the Japanese Air Force, which means that even if the Chinese Artillery Force can be organized into a group, it must Without the protection of the Air Force, it just provided the Japanese bombers with a chance to catch them all. Just a little artillery, if it is wiped out, the two theaters will not be mixed in the future, so this plan will not work. At this time, an aide came up with an idea, saying that it might as well send people to infiltrate the "maintenance meeting" of the Japanese army in Nanchang, find an opportunity to enter the Nanchang stronghold as an internal response, and then cooperate with the internal and external to seize it by surprise or even violent attack. Of course it’s a good idea like the “Plain Guerrilla Army”, which saves money and is very smart, but you have to think about it, there are many strongholds, large and small, inside and outside Nanchang, and you can get in? Besides, this is also a matter that requires a long time to prepare. At least the trust of the Japanese army in the stronghold must be obtained first. For Xue Yue, he still had one of his biggest concerns: if the capture of Nanchang failed, the Japanese army happened to attack and lost all the original positions, then he would lose money and gain nothing. Therefore, after negating the first two plans, he formulated a third plan. This plan is called Baoping and Striving for Victory, that is, instead of using all the troops in the ninth theater to counterattack Nanchang, it will be split in half, one half will be used to defend the original position, and the other half will be used to counterattack Nanchang. Two baskets, even if one of the baskets is smashed, there are still scrambled eggs to eat at night. Nanchang fell, and Xue Yue suffered from Okamura's mechanized blitz. This time, he used his own way to deal with him, and also blitzed Okamura. Of course, it could only be a pure infantry blitz. On April 22, the Ninth War Zone took the lead in launching a counterattack against Nanchang. The Japanese army's strongholds on the front line were large and small.Xue Yue besieged the big strongholds but did not attack them, leaving only small troops for surveillance, while the large troops sneaked through the gaps to attack the small strongholds. Because Xue Yue adopted the tactics of blitz and taking advantage of the gap, he quickly broke through the first defense line organized by the 106th Division and successfully entered the periphery of Nanchang. Compared with Xue Yue, his classmate Shangguan Yunxiang encountered difficulties as soon as he came up. Shangguan Yunxiang, a native of Shanghe County, Shandong, graduated from the sixth phase of Baoding Military Academy, and was then the commander-in-chief of the front enemy in the third theater. Xue Yue, Ye Ting, Shangguan Yunxiang, plus Cantonese generals Wu Qiwei, Li Hanhun, Deng Longguang, Ye Zhao, and even Hao Mengling and Gu Zhutong, these people are all students of Baoding's sixth batch.It is definitely a bumper harvest to produce so many talents in the first phase, and it can also be called the "sixth phase of glory". After fighting for a lifetime, what Shangguan Yunxiang can remember is the Southern Anhui Incident.At that time, although his siege force was several times larger than that of his old classmate Ye Ting, it was not his basic force, and they were all temporary subordinates. In his words, they were "cobbled together". Defeating the main force of the New Fourth Army is not bad if only in terms of military affairs. If you use one word to evaluate the combat characteristics of Xue, Ye, and Shangguan, Xue Yue is "intelligent", Ye Ting is "courageous", and Shangguan is "ruthless". There is absolutely no bodhisattva heart on the battlefield. But it’s useless to be ruthless. In many cases, it depends on the right time, place and people. To put it more directly, you have to have luck.For example, in the southern Anhui incident, it rained several times in a row, which caused great difficulties for Ye Ting to break through, but of course it helped the attackers a lot. In the Nanchang counterattack, Shangguan Yunxiang's luck was much worse than that of his other classmate Xue Yue. Xue Yue blitzed and caught his opponent off guard, but because of his offensive plan in the third theater, the Japanese army was already ready when he launched a counterattack. Xue Yue's side could pass through the gap, but his side couldn't. The front was full of dense and solid strongholds, and there was no gap at all. Xue Yue can attack the first line of defense first, but he has to go straight to Nanchang, which means that he will encounter a hard nail at the beginning. Due to the large scale of the Ninth War Zone, even if Xue Yue only invested half of his troops to attack Nanchang, his strength was still much larger than that of Shangguan.The only thing the two sides have in common is that both lack artillery support and can only fight each other. It can be said that none of these things can be freely chosen by Shangguan Yunxiang as a commander. Apart from luck, what better explanation can be given for this? Therefore, the third war zone fought very hard.When they broke through the first defense line of the Japanese army in the Ninth War Zone, they were still blocked by the 101st Division in Liantang, and it seemed that even Liantang was difficult to conquer. In desperation, the commander of the 79th Division, who was in charge of the main attack, played tricks and planned to use a fake telegram to "report victory" to his superiors. As a result, the diorama was dismantled and he was arrested immediately. The ninth battle zone was going smoothly, but there was no movement in the third war zone. Shangguan Yunxiang was very worried about this, and he could only continue to be "ruthless". Chen Anbao and Hao Mengling are good friends with similar personalities Chen Anbao, then commander of the 29th Army, was ordered to visit the front line in person. Chen Anbao, a native of Huangyan County, Zhejiang Province, graduated from the third phase of Baoding Military Academy. Chen Anbao has a long experience in the army. Although he and Hao Mengling are not classmates, they are good friends who have known each other for a long time.The two are also similar in character, both are honest and honest, and never play tricks. Hao Mengling was seven years younger than Chen Anbao, but he died on the front line as early as in the Taiyuan Battle. At that time, Chen Anbao was holding the coffin and weeping bitterly, very sad. He once vowed: He died for the resistance against Japan, and he died as a ghost. One day, he would also be like a good friend Choose to die generously. Life is like sitting on a train, everyone will arrive at the station one day. The Seventy-ninth Division is the main force trained by Chen Anbao, and the division commander was promoted by him. Now that he behaves like this, he is also disappointed and angry, but Chen Anbao treats others as generously as Hao Mengling. The division commander who was arrested will be dismissed.But Shangguan said that it has nothing to do with it: If you dare to deceive your superiors at this time, if you don't kill such people, I, Shangguan, will not resist the Japanese! The order is down, and the law is being executed before the army. When Chen Anbao heard the news, he was so sad that he didn't think about eating or drinking for several days. However, when Shangguan Yunxiang asked him to take over the military order and take command from the front, he still didn't hesitate, simply ate something and went to the front line. Kindness to subordinates and obedience to superiors, all of these are without any pretense or affectation, just out of a kind heart. On May 5, Chen Anbao arrived at the front line of Liantang, but before he launched an offensive, the situation on the battlefield changed drastically. As Xue Yue once predicted, when you are weak, people will also attack you. The third war zone has been attacked for a long time but cannot be overcome, and has already entered a situation where people are exhausted. Taking advantage of this opportunity, the 101st Division instead used Covered by artillery fire, they rushed towards the Chinese army. The 101st Division in Liantang had grown to four regiments at this time, but due to time constraints, Chen Anbao was not able to bring all the backup troops up, and soon he even sent out the reserve team. Seeing this situation, the guard felt bad and advised him to move from the trench first, but Chen Anbao was very calm and insisted on commanding from the front line. On the afternoon of May 6, the defense line was completely broken by the 101st Division. During the retreat, Chen Anbao was seriously injured. He was so big that he couldn't run out at all, and finally died in battle. Finally "arrived". During the Anti-Japanese War, three senior generals above the lieutenant general died in the front line, in order: Hao Mengling, Chen Anbao, and Zhang Zizhong, but both Hao Mengling and Zhang Zizhong were buried in the state, but Chen Anbao was not able to enjoy this treatment. It is said that he fell in defeat with him on the road. In fact, Chen Anbao had a chance to escape, and no matter how dangerous the situation was, the supreme commander on the front line never left his officers and soldiers. But he might not care. Because no one can predict in advance which station they will get off from, just do my duty, and Chen Anbao is exactly such a person. When the third war zone was defeated across the board, the ninth war zone also encountered a bottleneck. The periphery of Nanchang was like a lotus pond, with dense and strong strongholds. It was impossible to pass through the gaps like when breaking through the first line of defense. In the case of cooperation, a hard attack on the stronghold can only increase the casualties-only a small stronghold, hundreds of casualties in the ninth theater cannot be attacked. On May 9, the Chinese High Command ordered the third and ninth theaters to end the counterattack against Nanchang.