Chapter 14 Chapter 2 What kind of talent is a warrior (Battle of Lanfeng, Great Victory at Wanjialing)

In this world, no one is the most perfect. Even if he makes mistakes, as long as he knows his mistakes and can redeem them, he can still be regarded as an upright man.This is exactly the case with Zhang Lingfu. In fact, his arm injury has not yet healed, but the news of the war published in the newspaper made him unable to stay in the hospital any longer. Only by training good soldiers can we regain our strength.Zhang Lingfu has always been known for his strict military training. The bloody winds of the Battle of Songhu and the Battle of Nanjing further revealed the hardship and harshness of the War of Resistance Against Japan. Only when there is less bloodshed and less sacrifice.

In the 305th Regiment, anyone who wanted to be lazy and slippery during training would surely be unable to escape Regimental Commander Zhang's army stick.While strictly controlling the quality of training, military discipline has been strongly emphasized. To a certain extent, this is also a lesson learned from the abolition of military discipline during the retreat, which led to a sharp decline in the combat effectiveness of the troops.Therefore, Zhang Lingfu summarized "fear of death in combat, backwardness in academics, many deserted soldiers, and lax discipline" as the "Four Disgraces of Soldiers".

In addition to the "Four Disgraces of Soldiers", there are also "Four Joys of Soldiers". The "Four Joys" are "saving the people from fire and water, increasing the reputation of the army, uniting with sincerity, and defeating the enemy to win the victory." The first of which is to require officers and soldiers not to touch the stitches of ordinary people. Once violated, they will be severely punished according to the law. Zhang Lingfu's military training method is the military training method of the Seventy-Fourth Army. It is a bit like Wu Qi's military training model during the Warring States Period.The recruit Hu Liwen was only 17 years old when he arrived in the 153rd Brigade. He was still a middle school student and short in stature. Zhang Lingfu arranged for him to work as a clerk in the regiment headquarters of the 305th Regiment.In Hu Liwen's impression, Zhang Lingfu treated the soldiers very kindly in private, never reprimanded him, and sometimes touched his head when they met each other, encouraging him to do a good job.

In April 1938, the Seventy-Fourth Army was inspected by the Military Commission in Huangpi and received an excellent evaluation. The 305th Regiment stood out and ranked first in the division after the evaluation. At this point, the preliminary conditions for going to the battlefield are basically met.After all, the situation on the front line was still deteriorating, and it was impossible to leave too much training time for the 74th Army. At the beginning of May 1938, the Seventy-Fourth Army was transferred to Xue Yue's Eastern Henan Corps to participate in the Battle of Lanfeng along the Longhai.

The Battle of Lanfeng is a continuation of the Battle of Xuzhou.In the just-concluded battle of Xuzhou, the Japanese army adopted the tactic of encircling and attacking from the north and the south at the same time, and occupied Xuzhou, thereby controlling the entire Jinpu line.Japanese newspapers called it the "Great Battle of the Century", and the Japanese people were all intoxicated with the great victory, but in fact the results achieved by the Japanese army were not as great as they imagined. Since the number of Japanese troops was less than one-third of that of the Chinese army, it was difficult for them to completely encircle the Chinese army on the vast plain.Some Japanese soldiers hidden in the villages clearly saw the Chinese troops moving, but in the case of the disparity in numbers, they could only watch them with bated breath and did not dare to pursue them.

After the Japanese army occupied Xuzhou, they found that what they got was only an empty city, so they began to mobilize their forces to pursue along the Longhai line.The initial task of the Seventy-Fourth Army was to stop and chase the enemy on the Dangshan line west of Xuzhou. On May 13, the 151st Brigade of the 51st Division arrived in Dangshan by train, and the 174th Brigade of the 58th Division entered Feng County, thus forming a horn-shaped defensive formation. Dangshan is the shortest road for Xuzhou's westward withdrawal troops to enter Henan. Naturally, it is also an important place for the enemy and us to compete for.On the day the 151st Brigade arrived in Dangshan, a small group of Japanese troops launched a tentative attack with the cooperation of cavalry and armored vehicles.The 151st Brigade was also unambiguous, and the brigade commander Zhou Zhidao immediately sent the 302nd Regiment to intercept it.Due to the emergency, Ji Hongru, the head of the 302nd Regiment, selected 150 elite soldiers, led by Liu Wenfeng, a major battalion attached, to launch a surprise attack on the Japanese army at night.

In the absence of anti-tank guns and tank defense guns, the main way for the Chinese army to deal with Japanese tanks is to organize sharpshooters to shoot at the lookout holes on the roof of the tanks to divert their sight, and at the same time send death squads to jump forward. Pounce, stuff the bundled cluster grenades into the tank tracks.Using this method, Liu Wenfeng led his team to blow up four armored vehicles and wiped out a hundred enemies. However, most of the attacking officers and soldiers fell on the battlefield. By the end of the battle, only 20 people survived. On May 14th, a large Japanese army marched north from Yongcheng to invade, and it happened that the 153rd Brigade also arrived in Dangshan in time by car.As soon as the deputy brigade commander Zhang Lingfu got out of the car, he commanded the troops to join the blockade, and the 51st Division went into battle with a basically complete lineup.After three days of fierce fighting, two battalion commanders of the division were killed and one injured, and more than 200 officers and soldiers below the battalion commander were killed or injured.

In Fengxian County in the northeast of Dangshan, the 174th Brigade of the 58th Division was also violently attacked by the Japanese army. The casualties there were even greater. The retreat was not easy. The 74th Army had an unforgettable experience in Shanghai and Nanjing.The officers and soldiers are very clear that only by ensuring Dangshan and Fengxian can the losses and sacrifices of the westward retreating army be minimized, so no matter how much pressure there is, everyone will not retreat a step. On May 23, the Seventy-Fourth Army was ordered to hand over the defense to the friendly army, and then moved westward to Lankao and Kaifeng.On the Lanfeng battlefield, an exciting battle of encirclement and annihilation is waiting and calling them.