Chapter 42 Chapter 6 Xuzhou Defense Battle

The Mengcheng blocking battle was a tough battle between the 21st Army and the 13th Division of the Japanese Army on the battlefield in northern Anhui.The 133rd Regiment of the 173rd Division of the 21st Group Army, under the attack of the enemy's infantry, cavalry, armored troops and air force, used flesh and blood to build a defense line and resisted the enemy for four days and four nights. Finally, they ran out of ammunition. Except for 21 soldiers, they survived. All died for the country.The deputy commander, General Zhou Yuan, died heroically, and the city fell. In April 1938, the headquarters of the 21st Army Group synthesized all kinds of intelligence and judged that the Japanese army in the southern section of Jinpu Road had an attempt to march towards Guoyang and Mengcheng, so it dispatched major general Zhang Zhongpei and two staff officers to Mengcheng in advance to inspect the Terrain, determine the plan to set up trenches and blockhouses.However, because of the imminent war, Mengcheng County has not been able to recruit migrant workers for a long time, and the matter of digging ditches and building fortifications has been delayed again and again, and has not been implemented.

According to the battle plan of the Japanese base camp against Xuzhou, the Longhai Railway, the main line of communication behind Xuzhou, must be cut off in a short period of time, forming a situation of a large encirclement. More than 20,000 troops were mobilized from Nanjing, with the 13th Division as the main force. The troops, along the southern section of the Jinpu Railway, successively assembled towards Bengbu, Anhui, and then attacked Huaiyuan in the nearby west from Bengbu. The 7th Army of the Chinese Army defending the front line of Huaiyuan retreated westward through Mengcheng after resisting the Japanese army for 3 days.After the Japanese army succeeded in Huaiyuan, they continued to march towards Mengcheng with a force, and their main force pursued the 7th Army westward along the north bank of the Wohe River.The mechanized units of the 13th Division soon reached the eastern suburbs of Mengcheng.

Mengcheng is a small county in northern Anhui, the terrain is easy to attack and difficult to defend.The earth-built city walls are very thin. If too many troops are placed, it is easy to attract Japanese artillery fire.Staff officer Zhang Zhongpei of the 21st Army headquarters knows all of this.There are several small villages near the eastern suburbs, and the forests around the villages are dense, which can barely be used as defensive positions. The suburbs in the north and west of the city are flat, and the villages are far away from the city, which is more favorable for defending the city.To the north of the city is the Wohe River, which cannot be waded in vain, but it is a natural line of defense.

The 133rd Regiment of the 21st Group Army rushed to Mengcheng, led by the deputy division commander Zhou Yuan, and arrived as scheduled despite the downpour.Zhou Yuan immediately scouted the terrain, deployed troops, and built simple fortifications, focusing on the construction of street fighting in the city's streets.The main force of the 1st Battalion occupied the small market outside the South Gate and the roof of the South Gate. The western suburbs were flat and difficult for the enemy to pass through, so only a small number of troops were deployed to defend; At the north gate, the rest is the regiment reserve team, building street fighting fortifications in the city, and the regiment search team of more than 70 people is active among the villages on the north bank of the Wohe River; the main force of the 3rd Battalion occupies positions in the villages near the east gate.

The 133rd regiment is a heroic unit. It fought bloody battles with the Japanese army for more than 20 days on the Songhu battlefield and accumulated a lot of combat experience.This time they defended Mengcheng and prevented the Japanese army from going north to Xuzhou. They all had high morale and vowed to live and die with Mengcheng.The deputy division commander, General Zhou Yuan, is a veteran with rich combat experience. He is not only brave, but also very strategic.The first thing that encountered the Japanese was the search team of the regiment headquarters. When 150 Japanese cavalry arrived at a village called Yicun outside Mengcheng, the search leader ordered the soldiers to hide in the wheat fields on both sides of the road until the Japanese cavalry arrived. When approaching, the soldiers opened fire with machine guns and pistols, and at that time forty or fifty cavalrymen were brought down.The enemy cavalry was beaten and fled in embarrassment.They rectified a bit, and seeing that the search team was only a hundred people, they returned to rush towards the wheat field.The search team used the wheat field to resist. Because the distance was too close, the Japanese soldiers could not dismount, and the fighting continued until dark.

The next day, a company of Japanese cavalry came from outside the east gate. They raised observation balloons 10 miles away, and the enemy artillery fired fiercely at the defenders' positions in small villages outside the east gate. Thousands of infantry immediately attacked the 3rd Battalion. Attack.The two sides fought fiercely in the outskirts of the East Gate for most of the day, until dusk, and the enemy still had no progress.At night, a large number of Japanese troops moved towards the south gate from the southeast corner. In the middle of the night, outside the east and south gates, the two sides had a night battle, and the fierce fighting continued until dawn.

The Japanese army, with its overwhelming strength and weapons, failed to defeat the blocking troops standing on the outskirts of Mengcheng.At noon, with the assistance of artillery bombardment and 4 aircraft, the enemy attacked the defending positions again. After the peripheral fortifications were destroyed, the Chinese soldiers still maintained strong fighting spirit. A regiment has only more than 1,000 people, how can it defeat the attacking Japanese army?But there are more than 1,000 bloody men, they are not afraid of death, and they will fight you with death, making you feel guilty and terrified.The officers and soldiers of the 133rd Regiment are such a group of people. On the Songhu battlefield, they showed the integrity of the Chinese nation and insisted on fighting in the front line for more than 20 days without retreating.Now after more than two days of fierce fighting, more than 500 wounded could not be sent to the rear. All of them were concentrated in an elementary school, and they all died heroically in the bombardment and strafing of Japanese artillery and aircraft.The living soldiers were filled with righteous indignation, and they held up their big knives to fight the evil Japanese soldiers to the death.

The enemy's shells fell like raindrops in the small county of Mengcheng. The rumbling explosion was deafening. The soldiers' heads were shaken unconscious, and several pieces of the earthen city wall collapsed.A group of Japanese soldiers rushed in from the ruins. There were hundreds of them, and they couldn't see clearly in the dust filled with gunpowder smoke.The head of the regiment, Ling Yunshang, shouted and led the two companies of the 2nd Battalion to hit the Japanese army with machine guns and grenades when the Japanese army was not stable and the terrain was not familiar. .The Japanese army was in chaos for a while, those who were crawling in and those who were fleeing were huddled together.

It happened that a heavy machine gun was beside him in the heavy machine gun position, and all the original machine gunners were killed by the shells. Commander Ling Yunshang seized the opportunity and grabbed the heavy machine gun and fired at the Japanese soldiers.He was very excited and shouted to the soldiers to fight and kill! In front of his heavy machine gun, groups of Japanese soldiers fell down.The soldiers who rushed up seized 1 enemy heavy machine gun, 4 light machine guns, more than 30 rifles, and captured more than 10 wounded Japanese soldiers.The soldiers rushed to repair the fortifications and took the collapsed gap as the key goal of defense.

The enemy began to retaliate. After the indiscriminate bombing of enemy planes and artillery, fierce battles broke out all around the city.The Japanese army also released a large number of smoke bombs in the southeast. Taking advantage of the smoke screen, tanks and infantry rushed towards the east gate together.The soldiers guarding the tower above the city gate kept throwing grenades into the smoke.The enemy tanks fired and killed all the soldiers guarding the city gate tower, and then the enemy's artillery fire extended to the depth, blocking the Chinese army's support to the east gate, and the Japanese army poured into the city in large numbers, dividing the city into countless pieces.

There are sixty or seventy soldiers around Commander Ling, and they have no way to get in touch with the sporadic troops in the city.He immediately ordered a retreat.In what direction to break through?A soldier asked him.Commander Ling judged that there would be a large influx of Japanese soldiers at the East Gate, and there would not be many infantry in the future, and there would be only artillery.He said breakout to the east.At the east gate, I happened to meet Deputy Division Commander Zhou Yuan, who had only two guards by his side. Deputy Commander Zhou Yuan ordered the breakout troops to reorganize a bit. The pistol team had more than 30 people in the first line, and the rifle team had more than 40 people in the second line. When they passed the east gate, the Japanese soldiers on the tower shot at them, and they quickly dispersed and crawled forward in a concealed manner.At the entrance of a small village that came out, there were more than 30 Japanese soldiers guarding it.The first-line pistol team quickly rushed to the effective range and fired at the enemy. They rushed into the enemy's line with the most violent firepower.The second-line rifle team fought the enemy hand-to-hand with bayonets.More than a dozen people were killed or injured by the Japanese army, and the rest fled for their lives.Since the breakout team wanted to break out for the second time, they blew up the heavy machine guns of the Japanese army, took the two captured light machine guns, and continued to move forward. When passing through this small village, Commander Ling and the others suffered more than 30 casualties, and Deputy Commander Zhou Yuan was shot and died.Outside the east gate of Mengcheng, there are dense villages, and Japanese troops are stationed in each village.Three or four miles away from Mengcheng, the breakout troops were flanked by Japanese troops from the villages on the north and south sides, and the troops suffered more than 10 casualties.When they broke through to more than 10 miles, they thought it was safe, but who knew that a cavalry brigade of the Japanese army was found ahead.Head Ling divided more than 40 people into pieces and designated a place about 900 meters southeast to gather. In the end, only 16 people came out of the assault: 3 officers and 13 soldiers. More than a hundred wounded on the first day of the Mengcheng blockade were escorted by stretchers to the rear hospital while the enemy did not form a siege, and survived. The 133rd Regiment of the 21st Army, after 4 days of tenacious resistance, dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese army, delayed the speed of the Japanese army's northward advance, and made its own contribution to the Xuzhou Battle. The head of Ling Yunshang, who survived the siege, recalled: The health team, transportation company, communication platoon, and ammunition team of the infantry artillery company totaled about 300 people. They were all non-combatants. After being forced by the Japanese army to transport supplies and wounded and sick to Bengbu, their whereabouts are unknown.Seriously injured officers and soldiers and officers and soldiers who have no combat effectiveness, after the fall of the city, the enemy's beastly behavior, using inhumane and cruel means, tied them with wire and rope, and pushed them out to massacre near the outskirts of the city. The noble spirit lasts forever; the sea of ​​blood and deep enmity, the anger of God and man. In the Battle of Mengcheng, the soldiers of our regiment resisted bravely and persisted in fighting, and the Japanese army suffered a lot of casualties. According to the investigation, the number of casualties, in addition to more than 100 corpses transported to Huaiyuan by land, more than 30 civilian ships were forced to transport dead and wounded enemy troops to Bengbu. It is estimated that each ship carried 30 people, and there were also eight or nine hundred. The enemy's casualties were no less than a thousand.