Chapter 6 Chapter 6: Clouds of War

The eight-year war of resistance, from the Marco Polo Bridge Incident on July 7 in the 26th year of the Republic of China (1937), to the Songhu Battle on August 13 of the same year, was only 37 days apart.In another four months, Nanjing fell, and in March of the following year, there was a great victory in Taierzhuang. Soon, Xuzhou was abandoned again in mid-May, and then the defense of Greater Wuhan began in August of the 27th year of the Republic of China (1938). At the end of October, Wuhan fell, which lasted fifteen and a half months.In mid-November, Changsha was burned due to a rumor.The war process of this year and a half made the Chinese feel really discouraged.

After the Japanese occupied Yueyang, they were unable to advance southward until Hengyang fell on August 8th in the 33rd year of the Republic of China (1944).Therefore, the Japanese army was kept out of Hunan for nearly six years.During this six-year period, the important battles in Hunan were: the first, second, and third battles of Changsha, the battle of Changde, and the battle of Hengyang (the term "defense battle" is more appropriate, because there are only more than 17,000 people. The national army alone defended Hengyang and fought bloody battles with more than 100,000 Japanese troops for forty-seven days. For the national army, it did not constitute a "battle" condition).On June 23, 1944, the unprecedented and tragic battle for the city was staged in Hengyang, the longest battle in the eight-year war of resistance and the most casualties of officers and soldiers on both sides.In the next 47 days, more than 17,000 soldiers of the 10th Army of the National Revolutionary Army held on to the isolated city, fought bloody battles, repelled multiple attacks by the superior forces of the Japanese army, and broke the Japanese army's attempt to quickly go south via Hengyang.Even the Japanese military history calls it another tragic "Battle of Lushun Fortress" since the Russo-Japanese War.

In World War II, the most important ally was, of course, the United States.However, the U.S. strategy is to "emphasize Europe and despise Asia", that is, her military installations and supplies to General MacArthur in the Pacific theater are far inferior to Eisenhower in the European theater.Three weeks before the third Changsha battle, that is, the eve of Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States was still negotiating peace with Japan.The third battle of Changsha was the fifth year of China's isolated war of resistance, and it was also a battle for the survival of the nation.At that time, the more than 200,000 national troops were united unprecedentedly, resulting in the third Changsha victory, which not only brought China's war of resistance out of isolation, but also improved China's international status.

In the previous year, the United States, Britain and France had suffered complete defeats on the battlefields of Europe, Asia and Africa.Regarding the third Changsha victory, the London "Times" commented on January 7th: "Since December 7th (referring to the Pearl Harbor incident, and the fall of Hong Kong and Manila), the only decisive victory of the Allies has been the Changsha of the Chinese army. Great victory." The third Changsha victory, although it was said that the war of resistance came out of isolation, China also received a little bit of American aid.And these elite troops equipped with American aid, such as the 5th Army, 6th Army, and 66th Army, were all transferred to the Myanmar theater to support those unjust allies.

About two years after the third Changsha battle, there were basically no major battles in China, and Japan transferred her main military force to the Pacific battlefield.However, on the vast land of China, there are always more than 700,000 Japanese troops trapped and unable to extricate themselves. Even the Japanese invaders themselves have to admit that it is the Chinese army that brought down the Japanese army and the Japanese domestic economy.The Japanese claimed to be "stuck in the quagmire of China".For the text, see page 98 of Japanese scholar Kiyoshi Ikeda's "Pacific War".

Until the end of 1943, Japan lost the Pacific War, and the Battle of Changde in mid-November restarted a series of wars in China.In May 1944, in order to open up the line of communication to the mainland, the enemy assembled an unprecedented force since its invasion of China. There were seventeen infantry divisions, six brigades, and one tank division, accounting for about 100% of its territory. Two-thirds of the Chinese forces launched the largest offensive since the war between Japan and China.In order to reverse the unfavorable situation in the Pacific War and open up the mainland communication line from Northeast China to Vietnam, the Japanese invaders mobilized more than 500,000 troops and cooperated with the sea, land and air force to implement "Operation Plan No. The biggest attack ever.Since this attack was mainly concentrated in Henan, Hunan and Guangxi, it was known as the "Battle of Henan, Hunan and Guangxi" in history.The Japanese army failed in the Pacific and Southeast Asia. In order to support the Pacific and Southeast Asian fronts, the Japanese invaders urgently mobilized tens of thousands of troops from North China and Northeast China, and fought from North China to Wuhan. The accomplices of the bandits caused the Japanese invaders to drive straight into the land of China, as if entering no one's land, and allowed the Japanese army to advance more than 1,000 kilometers in more than a month.For the defenders of more than 1,000 kilometers from Beijing, Tianjin to Wuhan, it is undoubtedly a great shame!

In this series of battles, including the first war zone in Henan in late April 1944, the "Great Wall of Flesh" assembled 250,000 troops on the south bank of the Yellow River 200 kilometers away.How many Chinese sons and daughters among them shed their blood to defend the motherland, and the heroic and heroic deeds cannot be listed one by one. Among those killed were General Li Jiayu, Commander-in-Chief of the 36th Group Army, Lu Gongliang, Commander of the 21st Division, etc. There are many generals.Generalissimo Jiang never dared to break the dike at Huayuankou, which would harm himself and the people and would not help.

Under such circumstances, the Wuhan defenders organized the fourth Wuhan defense battle, which is the fourth Wuhan battle; the Changsha defenders were not to be outdone, and conducted the fourth Changsha battle!Although Wuhan and Changsha lost, they did not lose face. At the end of May, the Japanese invaders began to "encircle with an iron wall" on Changsha, and then launched a general attack.The 4th Army of the Kuomintang Defense Army repelled the enemy's attacks again and again by virtue of the city defense fortifications, but in the end it took only one day for Changsha to fall due to weak forces. On June 19, the Japanese army occupied Changsha, playing the crown to celebrate.They thought they would be able to go straight ahead, but they never thought that they would be violently blocked in Hengyang, a small city in Hunan Province with a population of only 200,000.Moreover, there were only more than 10,000 Chinese troops who blocked them with tens of thousands of troops for 47 days.

Then the Japanese army drove straight down, starting from Yueyang, Hunan, from the east and west banks of the Xiangjiang River, and launched a pincer offensive to attack south.Our army placed the main force on the east bank of the Xiangjiang River, and still followed the Tianlun tactics used in the third Changsha battle: when the enemy's attack reached a certain level, the surrounding armies would concentrate their powerful forces and encircle Hengyang to push the enemy back. Surround and annihilate it.Therefore, the name of this battle is the Battle of Hengyang.Because the strategic core position is selected on the road that the enemy must pass through, in order to attack head-on, the enemy is also the military focus that must be attacked to clear obstacles.Therefore, the enemy and the enemy fought desperately, and a fierce battle was inevitable.

The attack on Changsha began on June 16, and Changsha fell on June 18. The Japanese army approached Hengyang, launching the most important battle in the Sino-Japanese War and the heaviest Japanese casualties in Japanese military history.In fact, to be precise, the Tenth Army of the National Army was alone defending Hengyang.The periphery was not enclosed at all, so strictly speaking it was the Hengyang Defense Station, not the so-called Battle of Hengyang! Hunan has a typical south subtropical climate, with four distinct seasons, cold in winter and hot in summer.The Hengyang Basin is even worse. In winter, the bitter north wind blows in along the Xiangjiang River Valley, cutting the bone marrow. In summer, the tall peaks of the Nanling Mountains block the cool sea breeze from the southeast, and the long summer accumulated temperature cannot be dissipated due to the structure of the basin. Very hot.This is really the time to fight.But military conditions are independent of human will.Soldiers come to block, water comes to cover, this has always been the case.

Such a bitter summer and such a fierce battle are really difficult for the brave and skilled soldiers of the 10th Army. On May 27, 1944, the Japanese army launched the Battle of Hunan, which was also called the Changheng Battle because the focus was on Hengyang, Changsha.By June 20, the Japanese army basically controlled Changsha, occupied Liuyang, Ningxiang and other places, and achieved the initial goal of the first phase of the operation.At this time, the Japanese army was determined to follow the original plan, take advantage of the national army's lack of defense, and seize Hengyang with a surprise attack, and control this extremely important battle hub.The Eleventh Army issued an order at 16:00 on the same day, requesting that "the 68th Division of the Left Army should continue to perform the previous tasks, annihilate the enemy where it is located, quickly occupy the Guangdong-Han Railway and Hengyang Airport, and capture Hengyang." In fact, as early as 15:00 on June 18, the 11th Army issued an order to the division, "The Zuo troops should use the main force to advance from the east bank of the Xiangjiang River, and another powerful force should advance to Hengyang from the west bank. In particular, we should use The assault force is based on a large group of infantry, excluding luggage and weak soldiers, and the plainclothes advance team. There is no need to worry about the main force, and they will advance to and occupy the water, Leishui, the railway bridge on the east side of Hengyang, and the Hengyang Airport. The Zhimo detachment should follow Yisu River-Hengshan-Hengyang road to the east of Hengyang." order, so the order on the 20th became a supplement to the previous order. When the 68th Division received the order issued on the 20th, it was dividing into three columns and marching towards Hengyang, including the Songshan Detachment composed of the 64th Independent Infantry Brigade.The Songshan detachment was exactly the advancing force mentioned in the order on the 18th. Since the 14th, the brigade had separated from the 57th brigade in Changsha and became an independent detachment.His task is very clear, which is to occupy Hengyang Airport as quickly as possible.