Chapter 82 surrender Han but not Cao

Under Wang Yaowu's order, the Chinese side organized a search team with a radio station. The task was to search for the enemy's situation and at the same time get in touch with the Hengyang defenders.The search team was discovered by the Japanese army shortly after entering the edge of Hengyang City, and they had to retreat while fighting. But a few days later, officers and soldiers of the tenth army broke out along this direction.They told the search team: "I have heard gunshots in the western suburbs these days, and we know that reinforcements have arrived, so we dared to risk our lives to escape from the tiger's mouth and run towards you."

As of August 5, under the fierce attack of the Seventy-Fourth Army and other troops, more than half of the 234th Regiment of the Japanese Army had suffered casualties. Taking the 3rd Battalion as an example, the squadron with the largest number of soldiers, including the wounded, had only two soldiers left. Fourteen people, the smallest squadron has only two people left! Even in this situation, the head of the Aoki division still strictly ordered Toda to absolutely prohibit retreating.Toda was forced to gather the staff of the regiment, signal soldiers, and horsemen as combat soldiers, and at the same time, the puppet army "Zhou Troop" was also driven to the front line.

The first-line troops of the 2nd, 34th and 4th regiments are not only short of soldiers, but also extremely short of ammunition. This move is very dangerous when used in practice. The most typical example is Major General Shima Genkichi, the commander of the Japanese brigade who supervised the battle in Hengyang. He was shot through the head by a bullet because of his slightly higher posture. The 234th Regiment of the Japanese Army finally retreated to the high ground east of Dashuitang, and the 74th Army became the closest to Hengyang among the more than 100,000 troops in the periphery.Standing on the top of Jiwo Mountain, the houses in Hengyang City can already be seen, and the sound of guns and bombs in the city can also be clearly heard.

It seems that there is only one step away from the siege.However, on August 7, the officers and soldiers of the Tenth Army who escaped from Hengyang City brought bad news: "The 109th Division in the west of Hengyang City has planted a white flag to surrender to the enemy. You are late." At night, Hengyang There was silence in the city, and there was no more intense gunfire, which proved that the news was very likely to be true. At dawn on August 8, officers and soldiers who escaped from the city one after another confirmed that the Tenth Army had run out of ammunition and food, and Fang Xianjue had led his troops to surrender.

From the perspective of the other party, surrender is a helpless decision.Before that, he sent the last fatal telegram to Chiang Kai-shek: "This life is over, see you in the next life!" It is said that he also shot himself with a gun, but the adjutant had taken the pistol in advance, and his subordinates "Commander, take us away!" Only after persuading him to take a way to survive” did he choose to take the road of surrender. According to the standard that many people take for granted, Fang Xianjue's act of surrender cannot be forgiven. Even Xue Yue's former adviser, Zhao Zili, disdained it and questioned: "If you have resisted for more than 40 days, are you qualified to surrender?"

In fact, Zhao Zili was also eager to escape when Changsha was about to fall, so in this kind of matter, the critics and accusers actually occupied only what they thought was the moral high ground.On the contrary, the Seventy-Fourth Army has gone through hundreds of battles, and had the experience of blood and tears like the Changde Defense Battle. The other party Xianjue and the Tenth Army gave more sympathy and understanding.They believed that being able to defend the city alone for forty-seven days was already very difficult for the Tenth Army whose equipment was at a disadvantage.To find out the responsibility for the fall of Hengyang, it can only be attributed to the discord between the generals and the inconsistency of the friendly forces in cooperating with each other, so that the good opportunity to solve the crisis of Hengyang was missed.

Later, after many twists and turns, Fang Xianjue escaped from the enemy camp.Wang Yaowu, who was the commander of the Fourth Front Army at the time, did not avoid suspicion, and personally sent a deputy division commander to lead troops to meet him, and helped Fang Xianjue transfer to Chongqing to meet Chiang Kai-shek. Chiang Kai-shek's attitude towards Fang Xianjue is also very interesting.Yu Chengwan broke out from Changde and was almost shot, but Fang Xianjue was comforted by Chiang Kai-shek and awarded the Blue Sky and White Sun Medal. The reasons are very complicated. One of them may be that Chiang Kai-shek believes that there is a fundamental difference in nature between fleeing against orders and surrendering in defeat.After the end of World War II, Chiang Kai-shek met with Wainwright, the American general who had surrendered to the Japanese army in Chongqing. He said: "Soldiers, fighting until they run out of ammunition and food, can temporarily surrender and lay down their weapons. There is an old saying in China: 'Victory or defeat is the key to success. Soldiers who put down their arms should be treated kindly."

Chiang Kai-shek did not say this in front of foreigners, he did the same when dealing with Pang Bingxun's defection to the enemy.On the second day after Japan surrendered, Pang Bingxun received a telegram from Chiang Kai-shek: "Return to the team immediately and participate in the surrender operation!" In order to conquer Hengyang, the Japanese army paid a great price.After seeing the Tenth Army raising the white flag, Yong Shanyong immediately pulled out a brigade to go to Jiwo Mountain to rescue the 2nd, 34th and 3rd regiments that had been beaten into a shapeless form. During the Russo-Japanese War, the Japanese general Umezawa Doji commanded the reserve force to defend Benxi Lake. During this period, he asked the commander-in-chief Dashanyan for reinforcements, but he was not agreed.Mei Ze had no choice but to block the attack desperately.Dashan took advantage of this opportunity to launch an attack, and finally forced the Russian army to retreat in an all-round way. Mei Ze became famous because of this, and was regarded as "Mei Ze like a flower".

Toda, the captain of the 2nd, 34th Regiment, believed that his contribution in the Battle of Hengyang could be compared with that of Umezawa, and he also gave a high hat to the commander of the army who seemed extremely heartless at first, saying that Yokoyama was considering The mood when he wanted to reinforce him was similar to how Dashan treated Umezawa back then. Since the battle of Changde, the Chinese air force has surpassed the Japanese army, but at the same time, a considerable number of ground troops lack the overall concept and tenacious fighting will.In the process of being ordered to clear the siege, some of them preserved their strength, some retreated at will, some refused to save them, and some put on a show, which led to the isolation and exhaustion of the defensive troops. To break out, those who are unlucky can only wait to be annihilated or defeated and surrender.

In the list of troops that should be blamed, the "Tiger Force" should not be included.Although it failed to rescue Hengyang, the performance and efforts of the 74th Army, especially the 58th Division, were still recognized. The commander of the 58th Division, Zhang Lingfu, was awarded the Baoding Medal. Yu Chengwan and Li Tianxia.