Chapter 80 bad idea

After the fall of Changsha, the Japanese army divided into several columns and marched southward along the west bank of Jiaxiang River.Within a few days, Xiangxiang and other counties fell one after another without fierce fighting. In the Battle of Changheng, Chiang Kai-shek and Xue Yue had great strategic differences from the very beginning.Chiang Kai-shek asked Xue Yue to sit west of the Xiangjiang River and stick to Xianggui Road and Xiangxi to prevent the Japanese army from shaking the southwestern rear.Xue Yue insisted that he should not reach the west of the Xiangjiang River, and believed that he must stick to the southeast of Hunan to prevent the Japanese army from opening up the Guangdong-Han Road and then getting in touch with Hong Kong.

In order to carry out his personal proposition, Xue Yue only left the Fourth Army to guard Changsha and the Tenth Army to guard Hengyang, and moved the commander-in-chief to East Guangxi, which is located on the border of Hunan and Jiangxi in southeastern Hunan. The troops were also transferred to East Guangxi one after another.Xue Yue's command error was later considered to be the key to the failure of the Changheng Battle. Following the defeat of the Fourth Army in Changsha, the Tenth Army in Hengyang immediately became a lone brigade surrounded by the Japanese army.According to Zhao Zili's opinion, even so, if the vast majority of the troops can be concentrated on the Xianggui Road at this time and launch a counterattack to the southwest of Hengyang, it is still possible to relieve the siege of the Tenth Army.

However, Xue Yue refused to leave for the west of Hunan. Many troops were scattered in an area of ​​two to three hundred kilometers in the east of Hunan, with unclear priorities and no strength.To the west of Hengyang, which Zhao Zili valued most, only Wang Yaowu's regiment was active.As a result, a strange phenomenon also appeared, that is, the troops west of the Xiangjiang River were directly commanded by the Military Commission, and Xue Yue was only in charge of the combat command east of the Xiangjiang River. Later, the troops he was in charge of had also been smashed by the Japanese army.

Hengyang is the core defensive position of the Chinese army, that is, the "core area".Yokoyama knew that the Chinese side would stick to it with heavy troops, and that strategic corps would also be deployed on the periphery from time to time, so he demanded to hurry up and capture it at all costs. Fang Xianjue commanded the Tenth Army to defend Hengyang. With the shrinking of the position and the lack of reinforcements, the morale of the officers and soldiers gradually declined.They were extremely resentful that Xue Yue moved to Guidong and did not provide all-out reinforcements. Soldiers who escaped sporadically scolded Xue Yue for his incompetence in command: "The several victories in Changsha (referring to the 'great victories' before the third Changsha battle) are all bragging. In the third battle of Changsha, our Tenth Army was required to defend Changsha, and this time the Tenth Army was sent to defend Hengyang. We have been defending for so many days, (he) put us to death and ignored."

Only Wang Yaowu's corps may be able to rescue Hengyang.At this time, in addition to commanding the 24th Army, Wang Yaowu was also able to mobilize the 79th Army, the 99th Army, and the remnants of the Fourth Army that lost Changsha, claiming to have a scale of 17 divisions.However, these troops had been engaged in battle since the beginning of June, and most of them were exhausted from long-term battles with broken organizational systems.At the same time, there are many people in the Corps who want to preserve their strength, and even feel jealous of the Tenth Army.One of the commanders of the 24th Army said privately: "If Hengyang breaks the siege, wouldn't Fang Xianjue become a personal hero?"

Just when the ministries were either really unable to do the job, or were hesitant to wait and see, Wang Yaowu decided to use the "Tiger Troop" again.In the early days of the Battle of Changheng, Wang Yaowu only selected the 58th Division from the 74th Army to enter the Ninth Theater to fight with him.It was not until the end of June and the beginning of July 7 that the 51st and 57th Divisions were able to be rebuilt and put into battle. In mid-July, Shi Zhongcheng, commander of the Seventy-Fourth Army, was ordered to rush to Jinlan Temple and Jiwo Mountain west of Hengyang to relieve the siege of Hengyang.

The three divisions of the 74th Army were not all in the best condition.The 57th Division suffered almost all casualties in the Battle of Changde. After the war, it went to Taoyuan for supplementary training. After three months of training, it has just recovered its combat effectiveness.After the 58th Division defended Ningxiang, it fought with the 40th Division of the Japanese Army in Yongfeng, and there was no time to make up for the loss of troops.After all, only the 51st Division is in a slightly better situation.In the marching formation, Shi Zhongcheng placed the 58th Division in front, the 51st Division in the rear, and the 57th Division for flank protection.

The first target, Jinlan Temple, is more than 40 kilometers southwest of Hengyang. It was originally stationed by a battalion of the 79th Army.After the Japanese army surrounded Hengyang, in order to consolidate the periphery of Hengyang, the 40th Division of the Japanese Army sent the Black Beard Brigade to capture this place. The initial task of recovering Jinlan Temple was undertaken by the 100th Army. On July 20, the 19th Division cut off the enemy's retreat with a part. After capturing the shops and villages in front of Jinlan Temple, the main force gradually compressed the enemy into Jinlan Temple.

Jinlan Temple is a small temple with brick and stone structure, but the Japanese army made use of the surrounding terrain to build it into a stronghold that is easy to defend and difficult to attack: in addition to the stubborn resistance of the brick and stone buildings in the temple, the big tree in front of the temple has light The machine gunners fired down, and there were defensive fortifications on the small high ground behind the temple. The Nineteenth Division sent additional troops to capture the high ground behind the temple first, and then concentrated mortars and heavy machine guns to destroy the firing point on the tree.Only the temple was left that could not be invaded. For such a strong stronghold, neither mortars nor heavy machine guns were able to do their best. Mountain artillery had to be used, but the 19th Division didn't even have mountain artillery.Allied planes bombed and strafed Jinlan Temple several times, but it was difficult to hit because the temple was huddled in the mountain nest.

Besieged for a week, still unable to do anything.Li Tianxia, ​​the commander of the 100th Army, took an opportunistic approach. He instructed the 19th Division to find a way to plant the national flag on the tree in front of the temple, so that the Allied planes could report to the top after seeing it, saying that the 100th Army had captured Jinlan Temple. During his tenure as regiment commander to division commander, Li Tianxia did not lack the bravery and courage that the generals of the Seventy-Fourth Army were accustomed to, but later he became obsessed with fighting clever and cheap battles. His bad idea hurt the Nineteenth Division.In order to plant the flag, the 19th Division sent death squads to climb the tree many times in a row, but they were all attacked by the Japanese army. The flag was not planted, and nine people were killed and injured in vain.

On July 23, Zhang Lingfu attacked.After the 58th Division repelled the enemy reinforcements to Jinlan Temple, it will launch a fierce attack on Jinlan Temple together with the 19th Division.The 58th Division had a mountain artillery company attached to the army. With the support of the artillery, they destroyed the front fortifications of the Japanese army's barbed wire. On July 28, Wang Yaowu ordered all units of the Corps to attack the southwestern suburbs of Hengyang in an all-round way. However, when the Japanese reinforcements arrived the next day, all units retreated across the board. Only the 58th Division and the 19th Division continued to advance towards Hengyang.Two days later, they approached the outskirts of Hengyang and fought desperately with the 234th Regiment of the 40th Division of the Japanese Army defending the area.