Chapter 4 4. Sudden changes in the Xuzhou battlefield

After the Japanese army captured Nanjing, Xuzhou Fifth War Zone became the front line of the national war of resistance, and gradually evolved into the first battlefield of the national war of resistance.At the beginning, the fifth war zone was relatively smooth, with a clear combat policy, a combat plan in line with the actual situation, and coordination among the participating troops, and everything was proceeding step by step.Just as Li Zongren wanted to calm down for a while, Han Fuju, Cheng Yaojin, killed him halfway.In order to preserve his strength, he was angry with Chiang Kai-shek. Han Fuju used the lack of cannons as an excuse. Chiang Kai-shek took away his artillery brigade at a critical moment, and indeed Han Fuju caught it.It's a small matter for the two to be angry, but a big one for losing a large piece of land.The most terrible thing is that Han Fuju's retreat disrupted the deployment of the entire theater, turning the battle plan of the fifth theater into a pile of waste paper.

The Japanese army occupied Shandong, which made the Japanese army attacking Xuzhou from the north and the south even more rampant. They accelerated the pace of attack, and the three sides of the north, south, and east were all burning with flames of war.The Xuzhou battlefield was fought extremely fiercely.The national government shot and killed the second-level general Han Fuju, and the hearts of the people across the country were greatly relieved.The morale of the Chinese army was inspired, especially the frontline commanders took the lead and did not dare to relax.Disobedience to military orders on the battlefield, greed for life and fear of death, and unauthorized retreat have been eliminated.Fighting hard, showing the fearless heroism of Chinese soldiers.

In order to ensure the safety of the Xuzhou area, Li Zongren ordered the 3rd Army led by Sun Tongxuan to advance east of the canal and attack the Japanese strongholds in Jining and Wenshang to contain the enemy's main force.Sun Tongxuan and Cao Fulin led the 12th Army and the 55th Army to Jining and Wenshang. The city of Jining was solid, and the Japanese army was heavily guarded. In addition, there was a railway between Jining and Yanzhou, so the enemy could provide reinforcements at any time.The attacking troops originally planned to cooperate with the outside, but the nine companies that climbed into the city from the city wall at night engaged in fierce street fighting with the Japanese army in and around the North Street, but the troops attacking the city outside were helpless. It can't be played either.

When Jining was attacked, all the Japanese troops in Wenshang were dispatched to rescue.A large number of Japanese tanks opened the way, trying to attack the front and back and destroy the Chinese army.The artillery destroyed the wooden bridge behind the Chinese army, and the troops who rushed into the city of Jining did not receive reinforcements. They fought alone, fighting until dark, running out of ammunition and food, and all 9 companies died.The siege troops had to retreat to the west bank of the canal. The 81st Division of the 12th Army also crossed the canal at night and fought fiercely with the Japanese in Wenshang City. Due to the small number of people and weak forces, the 81st Division suffered heavy losses and was ordered to withdraw to the west bank of the canal.Cao Fulin's 55th Army was also attacked by the Japanese army. The defense line was breached by the enemy and forced to retreat to the Xiangliji and Juye lines.

The 3rd Army was Han Fuju's unit. Although it was heroic in this confrontation with the Japanese army on the northern front, its combat effectiveness was not strong and it suffered heavy losses.Key points such as Jining and Wenshang could not be recovered, so they had to confront the Japanese army across the river.Li Zongren continued to send troops to flank the Japanese army in the northern section of the Jinpu line, making the enemy linger in this area and unable to go south. In the south of Xuzhou, the Japanese 13th Division attacked Fengyang and Bengbu, Anhui.The Japanese army was very arrogant. They thought that after taking Nanjing, it would not be easy to take Bengbu.The enemy advanced to the south of Mingguang. The 11th Army of the Chinese Army Li Pinxian and the 51st Army of Yu Xuezhong used the Huaihe, Feihe, Huihe and other terrains to block the powerful Japanese army.The Japanese army's chief general Hata Shunroku felt incredible, so he mobilized reinforcements from Nanjing, equipped with heavy weapons such as tanks and field guns, and dispatched them all.

The enemy was approaching fiercely. In order to avoid the enemy's edge, Li Zongren ordered Li Pinxian to withdraw the 31st Army to the mountains and wait for an opportunity to attack.He will also transfer Xuezhong's 51st Army to the south to deploy defenses on the north bank of the Huaihe River, relying on dangerous terrain to resist the enemy.However, the Japanese reinforcements rushed to the Mingguang area with the momentum of hungry wolves, but they rushed to nothing, and there was nothing.Then the Japanese army aggressively captured Dingyuan, Huaiyuan and other places, but still found nothing.When the momentum of the Japanese army had passed, the 31st Army came out from the mountains, attacked the left side of the Japanese army, cut the Japanese army on Jinpu Road into several sections, encircled and wiped them out.

The Japanese army's retreat was suddenly cut off by the Chinese army. They felt that something was wrong, so they tried their best to press the 31st Army of the Chinese army westward from the Jinpu line.Li Zongren asked the troops to adopt the tactics of the enemy advancing and retreating, and the enemy retreating and advancing, keeping a firm eye on the Jinpu line.At this time, the 21st Army, which participated in the Battle of Songhu, was transferred to Hefei. Its 48th Army was firmly defending the Luqiao area. The north bank of the Huaihe River turned back for reinforcements. Li Zongren seized the opportunity and asked General Zhang Zizhong of the General Mobile Force of the Fifth Theater to lead his 59th Army to cooperate with Yu Xuezhong's 51st Army to counterattack.The battle lasted until the end of February and the beginning of March, and the Chinese army basically recovered all the positions north of the Huaihe River.The 11th Group Army, which was fighting south of the Huaihe River, immediately concentrated from the south bank of the Huaihe River to the north bank.The Japanese troops on both sides of the Huaihe River were unable to look after each other head to tail, and intertwined with the Chinese troops along the Jinpu line, thus completely bankrupting the Japanese army's attack on the Huaihe River Basin.

The area south of Xuzhou was stronger than the north. Due to Han Fuju's non-resistance, many strategic points in Shandong were occupied and consolidated by the Japanese army, and it was difficult to regain them.Han Fuju's troops in the past were good at looting the people of Shandong, but they were not so good at fighting the Japanese army.Therefore, the north side can only barely hold its ground, which is very fragile. The situation in the southern region was very different. The 13th Division under the personal command of the Japanese general Hata Shunroku had a bloody encounter in the Huaihe River Basin, causing more than 4,000 casualties, which made Hata Shunroku furious.Although the Huaihe bloody battle did not wipe out all the 13th divisions, the Japanese army paid a huge price and kept the Japanese army on the front line of the Huaihe River, smashing the planned north-south attack on Xuzhou by the Japanese base camp.The Japanese base camp had to reconsider the method of attacking Xuzhou. Now that Shandong has been captured, it is more convenient to use Shandong as a stronghold to approach Xuzhou.Therefore, the Japanese base camp has introduced a new strategy of defending from the south and attacking from the north.

When the Kuomintang army fought against Japan on the southern front, it received strong support from the people in northern Anhui.The people in northern Anhui have always been tough, brave and good at fighting. There is a local saying that goes, "Jiangnan is made of paper, and northern Anhui is made of iron".When the Japanese army invaded the Huaihe River Basin, the people in northern Anhui organized themselves to assist the Chinese army in stopping the enemy.In Dingyuan, Mingguang and other areas, the Japanese army was attacked by local people's armed forces, and they were in a state of panic all day long, scurrying around like ants on a hot pot.People's armed forces are lurking in villages, towns, and forests, and the Japanese army will be attacked by them wherever they go.

There were three to four thousand people in armed organizations such as the Anhui Red Spear Club, which disturbed the Japanese army.They touched outposts, disrupted traffic, and attacked small groups of Japanese troops, and they fought with ease.Later, these people's armed forces were led by the Northern Anhui Working Committee of the Communist Party of China and developed into a powerful and organized people's anti-Japanese team. Before the fall of Nanjing, the CCP delegation in Nanjing sent Li Shinong to Anhui to form the Central Anhui Working Committee of the Communist Party of China to mobilize and organize the people in the counties in central Anhui to resist the war.The guerrilla armed forces led by the Wuwei County Committee of the Communist Party of China actively fought on both sides of the Huainan Railway.In order to support the struggle in southern Anhui, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China sent Zhang Ruping, Cao Yunlu and others from Yan'an to Shou County to establish the Anhui Working Committee of the Communist Party of China to lead the people of Anhui to carry out anti-Japanese guerrilla activities.

The New Fourth Army led by the Communist Party of China actively cooperated with Li Zongren's troops along the Huaihe River to block the Japanese army's attack. They fought between Bengbu, Xuzhou, and Hefei to contain the Japanese army.Zhou Enlai specifically instructed the troops of Zhang Yunyi of the New Fourth Army to harass and contain the Japanese troops coming from Nanjing, and prevent them from crossing the river north, effectively cooperating with the Kuomintang troops in the frontal battle.The New Fourth Army carried out extensive guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines in the south of the Yangtze River and dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese army, which wrote a glorious page in the history of the War of Resistance. The failure of the Japanese army on the southern front made the Japanese base camp adopt a new strategy of defending from the south and attacking from the north.On the north line of Xuzhou, the 5th Division led by the young soldier Seishiro Itagaki marched westward along Jiaoji Road and approached Linyi.On the other hand, the 10th Division led by Isoya Rensuke went south along the Jinpu route and approached Teng County.Then the two armies joined forces at Taierzhuang, effectively responding to the attack of the 13th Division of the Japanese Army on the South Route.In this way, Xuzhou can be attacked from the north to the south, so as to open up the Jinpu line, connect the two battlefields in the north and the south, and finally capture Wuhan. The fifth war zone was attacked on three sides, and now that the northern front was in a hurry, Li Zongren felt like he was sitting on pins and needles, and he was going crazy.He transferred Pang Bingxun's 3rd Army to Linyi, and asked the old general Pang, who had only 5 infantry regiments, to resist a reorganized Itagaki Division.Li Zongren clearly knew that this was something that could not be done, so there was no other way, so he had no choice but to do it.Now that the north side of Jinpu Road is open, who will guard it?From Zouxian to Xuzhou, it only took a few hours to take the train, and the enemy came when he said he would come. Before the Japanese army changed its strategy, Li Zongren still had a glimmer of hope for the Japanese base camp.At that time, there were two opinions within the Japanese government. One was that Japan had captured China’s Inner Mongolia and most of North China, and at the same time controlled China’s Yangtze River Delta. The most elite areas and strategic locations in China were all in the hands of the Japanese army. .If they want to continue to expand and open up new combat targets, the military strength is already unsustainable, so they are not in favor of sending troops to attack Xuzhou.The other school of thought believes that after a series of wars against China, China's military and industrial capabilities have been destroyed. As long as a few more divisions are sent to chase and sweep the battlefields that sweep China, China has no choice but to surrender. .They advocated to capture Xuzhou in one go and open up the Jinpu Railway.The debate between the two factions made the Japanese base camp at a loss.Even when Rensuke Isotani attacked Shandong, the base camp had restrictions on him. Now the situation has changed. Due to Han Fuju's non-resistance, the Japanese army occupied Shandong with little effort.The Japanese army occupying Shandong is a young and arrogant faction of the Japanese army. They are the backbone of Japan's "February 6th" Incident in 1936. They are the new warlords who trumpeted that the Imperial Japanese Army will dominate the world and be invincible.Li Zongren is aware of their nature, they will not be restricted by the terms of the base camp, because they themselves are representatives of the main combat faction who oppose the establishment of boundary terms. Just when Li Zongren was at a loss, Bai Chongxi, the deputy chief of staff of the Wuhan Supreme Command, called him and asked him if he wanted the Sichuan 22nd Army, which is a force that no one wants. Li Zongren said to the microphone several times in a row. Li Zongren put down the phone and stood in front of the phone, not recovering for a long time.In the dark, he seemed to hear the voice of God, Xuzhou Fifth War Zone had a chance of winning, and if things went wrong, it might create a miracle. Xuzhou survived a desperate situation, and when it was about to perish, God sent you a sigh of relief. "It's amazing!" Li Zongren said to himself. "What's so amazing?" Chief of Staff Xu Zuyi turned around from the map, and he asked Li Zongren, "Who do you think is really amazing?" Li Zongren seemed to have heard nothing, but shook his hand in the air.Chief of Staff Xu looked at Li Zongren's palm, which was as big as a wall, blocking the red area in Teng County on the map.