Chapter 38 4. Commander Guan played defensive battle skillfully

Just as Tang Enbo's 20th Army was fighting against the Isogu Division in Yi County and Zaozhuang, the Japanese army Itagaki Seishiro drove over from Linyi.Itagaki Seishiro wants to meet up with Isoya Rensuke at this moment, the two crippled dogs feel a little sympathetic to each other, the bereaved dogs are bound by fate. The action of the 5th Division of the Japanese Army caused the panic of the commander of Tang Enbo's army. He thought that the enemy was copying his back, so he immediately ordered the 52nd Army and the 85th Army, which were fighting against Isoya, to retreat.Commander Guan Linzheng, who was fighting on the front line, heard that the Banyuan Division was on his back, so he hurriedly withdrew from the battlefield, turned around and retreated south.

Tang Enbo's 20th Army Corps was indeed Chairman Jiang's elite troops. It set off from Jiuding Mountain in Yixian County on the evening of April 21, and ran to the area north of Pixian County in Jiangsu Province the next afternoon, and retreated sixty to seventy miles. , only took 1 day. The speed of the Itagaki Division was not slow. When the 52nd Army and the 85th Army reached the vicinity of Lianfang Mountain and Aishan Mountain, they also followed.The 20th Army placed the 52nd Army on the main position of Aishan according to its defensive mission, terrain, and possible attack direction of the Japanese army.The deployment of the main position is that the 2nd Division is connected to the 25th Division's Aishan position on the left, occupying positions between Daliuzhuang, Xiaoliuzhuang and Yanzihe.The 25th Division dispatched a regiment to occupy the forward position on Lianfang Mountain, covering the main occupation position of the 52nd Army to build fortifications.

The enemy's movements were really fast. Before the regiment in charge of the forward position of Lianfangshan had time to build fortifications, it was bombed by Japanese aircraft in turn, followed by concentrated bombardment from artillery, and the troops had to rush into the position.Commander Guan Linzheng boarded Mount Ai, and learned about the situation on the battlefield through the telescope, and found that the advancing position was surrounded by the Banyuan Division on three sides.He called the regiment leader Gao Peng to encourage the regiment to stand firm.What's interesting is that Commander Guan promised on the phone that as long as the enemy is repelled, Gao Peng will be promoted to the head of the major general, so the head of Gao Peng led the regiment to start a fierce battle with the enemy.

The fierce fighting lasted until the afternoon. The firepower of the Itagaki Division was too strong. Under the cover of planes and artillery, they captured the village of Lianfang Mountain.The Chinese defenders suffered heavy casualties, and fought for courtyards with the Japanese army in the village.In the end, due to too many casualties, he was forced to the southern end of Lianfang Mountain by the Japanese army.The main force of the 52nd Army has not yet built a fortified position behind them. If Gao Peng's regiment can't resist, the whole army is in danger of collapse. Commander Guan strictly ordered Gao Peng not to retreat on the phone. For the sake of the whole army, he must counterattack the enemy.With the support of cannons, Commander Gao Peng led his regiment to counterattack the Japanese army, but unfortunately was shot and died.The troops lost command, the whole regiment retreated, and even Fangshan fell.

The Banyuan division occupying Lianfang Mountain was heavily bombarded by the Chinese army, and then stubbornly resisted by the Chinese army guarding Daliuzhuang and Hupi Mountain. They could not move forward.The Japanese army adjusted their offensive deployment, and first concentrated their firepower to attack the Hupishan position. The 73rd Brigade guarded the Hupi Mountain position. With the support of artillery, when the enemy approached the position, they concentrated all kinds of weapons to attack the enemy fiercely. At the same time, they sent troops to attack on the flanks. The attacking Japanese army was forced to retreat.Commander Guan Linzheng went to the front line to inspect the position in person.According to the suggestion of the brigade commander and regimental commander, in order to ensure the important support points of each position, the battalion is adopted as a unit and the tactics are rotated every other day, so as to ensure that the defending troops have sufficient time to rest and maintain physical strength and vigor.

Commander Guan's method works very well. Unlike the Japanese army fighting fatigued battles, there are vigorous garrison troops on the ground at all times.No matter how arrogant the Japanese army was and how fierce the attack was, they returned without success every time and suffered heavy casualties.Seishiro Itagaki saw no progress in the attack during the day, so he changed the attack to night, in order to avoid the fierce artillery fire of the 20th Army. And our artillery unit has already determined the target. As long as the Japanese army enters this predetermined area, it will be bombarded or blocked by a tight firepower network composed of small artillery, light machine guns, and heavy machine guns on the forward position.Not only did the Japanese attack at night not work, but a large number of corpses were left behind.Because the front line of the two sides was very close and the firepower was close, it was impossible to clean up the battlefield. The corpses of the Japanese soldiers were rotten and smelly, and the smell was unpleasant.

When the Japanese army failed with one move, they switched to the second move.With the support of reinforcements, Itagaki turned to the 2nd Division and launched a key attack on Daliuzhuang.Daliuzhuang is a big village with thousands of families.The 2nd Division built strong fortifications outside the village.In front of the position is a flat wheat field, which can be said to be very open.The position of the 2nd Division was also supported by the right wing of the 25th Division. The heavy machine guns and small artillery on Mount Ai could directly hit the wheat fields. The Japanese offensive troops were all under the firepower control of the Chinese defenders.

The defensive position of Daliuzhuang is very beneficial to the Chinese army. The attacking Japanese army didn't care about these at all. They looked down on the combat capability of the Chinese army in their bones, and even if they lost the battle, they would not admit it.They were defiant, and at dawn, under the cover of planes and artillery fire, they swooped towards Daliuzhuang. The open wheat field in front of the position became the burial place of the Japanese army.They relied on their bravery to publicize the spirit of Bushido, but the flat ground could not help them, but became their biggest problem.Under the heavy firepower of our Chinese army, every attack by the Japanese army ended in failure.

Relying on its sufficient strength, the 2nd Division rotated a regiment after each battle and defeated the Japanese army's charge.On the front line, sufficient troops and high morale are always maintained. The Japanese army believed that a hard attack would not work, so they adopted a large-scale sneak attack at night.Attempt to use the cover of night to break through the open flat wheat field.Unexpectedly, the Japanese army's sneak attack was discovered by the frontline guards, and the Chinese artillery fired electro-optic bombs from Mount Ai. The Japanese soldiers could not hide in the wheat fields, so they charged instead.Under the attack of the frontal and side firepower of the Chinese defense forces, and because of excessive casualties, they fled in embarrassment.

Itagaki Seishiro couldn't hold back anymore, and sent the main force of the division to attack Daliuzhuang. He didn't believe that his division could not win a Daliuzhuang.He used part of his troops to attack the front of Daliuzhuang to attract the attention of the Chinese army, and then used most of his troops to attack the flanks of Daliuzhuang.The battle lasted for a day, and the Japanese army finally occupied a small village east of Daliuzhuang.Using this as support, they continued to attack the Daliuzhuang position overnight. The whole Daliuzhuang was shrouded in gunfire and smoke.Guan Linzheng was at the Aishan Artillery Observatory. While directing the artillery to concentrate fire on the enemy, he asked the 25th Division to use heavy weapons to flank the enemy and support the 2nd Division. On the other hand, he encouraged the 7th Regiment of the 2nd Division stationed in Daliuzhuang on the phone. He asked Liu Yuzhang, the head of the regiment, to resolutely resist the enemy and drag the enemy to Daliuzhuang.Commander Liu Yuzhang was wounded, but he still commanded the troops to fight.

At night, Commander Guan sent troops to reinforce the 2nd Division of Daliuzhuang. As soon as the reinforcements arrived at Daliuzhuang, they used the night to launch a large-scale surprise attack on the Japanese army. The Japanese attacking troops did not expect Guan Linzheng to come. run out.The unlucky Itagaki Seishiro was defeated again. Under the command of Commander Guan Linzheng, the 52nd Army won its first victory in the position defense battle, which added color to Chiang Kai-shek's intention to rebuild the second Taierzhuang victory.A large number of Chinese and foreign journalists and members of foreign military observation groups flocked from Xuzhou to the defense line of Commander Guan of the 52nd Army to visit and interview the frontline combat troops. The piles of guns, ammunition and other military trophies piled in the wheat fields became a favorite item of journalists and members of the observer mission, who asked the troops to send them one of the trophies as a souvenir.Commander Guan smiled and said generously, Japanese swords, sun flags, diary manuals, and amulets for Japanese soldiers, you can choose what you want. After the position defense battle during this period, the 52nd Army suffered more than half of the casualties, and soon went to the west of Xuzhou to rest and reorganize. Before the 52nd Army left, Zhang Zizhong's troops had already moved to the east of Pi County, and Li Yannian's 2nd Army took over the defensive task of Commander Guan Linzheng.