Chapter 46 5. The belated Guizhou soldiers

After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, passionate young people who lived deep in the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau stepped out of the mountains and forests. They went to the front line of the Anti-Japanese War with enthusiasm and devotion to the country.There is such a unit in Guizhou. On the "August 13" Songhu battlefield in 1937, they were organized by the National Government as the 102nd Division and included in the 8th Army.After participating in the Battle of Songhu, he also participated in the Battle of Nanjing.This is a team that can endure hardships and has strong combat effectiveness. Whether it is on the Songhu battlefield or on the outskirts of Nanjing, they have fought very bravely.After the Nanjing Defense War, it was arranged by the Supreme Command to go to the rear of Shaanxi for repairs.

What I want to explain here is why did the 102nd Division go to Shaanxi for rest and supplementation?According to the local chronicles of Guizhou, in the early days of the Anti-Japanese War, hundreds of thousands of Guizhou youths spontaneously organized to go to Shanxi and Shaanxi to participate in the Anti-Japanese War. When the Battle of Xuzhou began, the 102nd Division returned to the 8th Army.The 8th Army has two divisions under its jurisdiction, one is the 40th Division, and the other is the 102nd Division.The 102nd Division Commander Bai Huizhang, Deputy Division Commander Hu Songlin, and Chief of Staff Du Zhaohua.When the Xuzhou battle was tight, the Wuhan Supreme Command dispatched the 8th Army to Xuzhou to participate in the battle and incorporated it into the battle sequence of the fifth theater.

The 8th Army gathered in Guo Town, Shaanxi Province. Army Commander Huang Jie ordered the 102nd Division to set off by car, and the 40th Division and the military headquarters followed.The 102nd Division was trained in Shaanxi and received strong support from the Kuomintang government. Because of its bravery in combat, it received generous treatment. The whole division was equipped with all new weapons and relatively complete equipment.The soldiers carried brand-new guns and were extraordinarily majestic.They were all full of energy and fighting spirit. They wanted to fight the little Japanese to the death on the battlefield, and they vowed not to give up until they drove the Japanese out of China.

The train stopped along the Longhai Railway to Xiayi County in Shangqiu. The station commander said that the enemy was found in the Dangshan and Handaokou areas ahead, and Xuzhou would not be able to enter.The officers and soldiers of the 102nd Division were in a hurry. They quarreled with the station personnel at the train station and asked the train to take them to the front line.What are you afraid of when there is an enemy ahead?With our 102nd Division protecting the train, there is nothing to be afraid of.The soldiers of the 102nd Division were coaxing. The division commander Bai Huizhang's negotiations were useless. He ordered everyone to get out of the car and go to fight the Japanese army on foot.He was going to fight a good battle here, wipe out the Japanese army, and let the Wuhan Supreme Command take a look at the 102nd Division he led.

At the station, he called a meeting of commanders above the group level. Commander Bai Huizhang said that our Guizhou troops are used to fighting mountain warfare and jungle warfare, and today we have to adapt to the terrain and fight plain warfare.According to our experience in the Songhu battlefield and the Nanjing battlefield, the Japanese army mainly relied on aircraft, artillery, and tanks.Especially the enemy tanks are difficult to deal with when covering the infantry's charge. We must give full play to the power of the tank's defensive guns.The terrain in this area is flat, which is good for enemy tanks to fight, but our tanks don’t have many defensive guns. This requires our soldiers to be prepared and learn to use grenades to hit tanks. Only when we deal with enemy tanks can we hit them better. enemy infantry.

After Mr. Bai finished speaking, each regiment assigned tasks.After the task order was issued, the regiments started to move forward.When arriving at the destination, occupy each village and set up positions.The 102nd Division was lucky. After the position was set up, the Japanese transport convoy came. There are more than 10 large trucks, as if entering the land of no one, they are extremely arrogant. When the Japanese vehicles drove to the front of the position, the soldiers ambushing in the position fought fiercely, blowing up more than 10 vehicles at once.The transport soldiers ran away in the direction they came without fighting, discarding all vehicles and military supplies.

The 102nd Division made a fortune as soon as it entered the battlefield. More than 10 vehicles of guns, ammunition and military supplies were obtained. Two intact large trucks were also seized, and several driving soldiers were captured.While ambushing the transport team here, the 304th regiment destroyed 5 Japanese tanks with tank defense guns at Handaokou, and also seized a large number of spoils.Only then did they know that it was the troops of the murderous executioner Doihara who were ambushed. The task of the 102nd Division is to send reinforcements to Xuzhou urgently. After encountering this battle, they received a telegram from the military headquarters in Shangqiu. Our army has abandoned Xuzhou after a fierce battle with the enemy ahead, and ordered you to deploy defenses on the spot. Prevent the enemy from advancing westward to Kaifeng.The 102nd Division drove its troops into Dangshan County, and the whole division built fortifications and stood ready.

The Japanese army will not suffer, especially this guy Doihara, he will come to retaliate.The 102nd Division had already expected this.But what they didn't expect was that the entire division of Doihara, with about 30,000 people, fought with the outpost of the 102nd Division at dawn the next day, under the rapid advance of a large number of vehicles and mechanical troops.Immediately afterwards, the follow-up Japanese army attacked separately. Not only the positions of the regiments were violently attacked, but even Dangshan County was surrounded by the Japanese army. The 1st Battalion of the 304th Regiment was located in the area near the Weilou Railway. More than 10 enemy trucks drove directly to the front of the position.As if the Chinese army had emerged from the ground, they beat the Japanese army to the ground under the car, not daring to return their guns, and used the corpses of their own soldiers as cover.Later, a large number of enemy soldiers drove in. They attacked the 1st Battalion from the side, and the battle line moved all the way to the vicinity of Wei Louzhuang.

The head of the regiment commanded the 3rd battalion to attack, and the 1st battalion flanked the enemy.There were so many Japanese troops that they could not finish fighting. One group fell and another group came up, and the number continued to increase, besieging the villages layer by layer.The Japanese army bombarded the village with small artillery, covering the infantry rushing through the outer trench, and the two sides were close at hand.The head of the regiment, Chen Yunyu, commanded the charge to block the attack, but unfortunately was shot and killed in battle.For a moment, the sound of killing was loud, and the bayonet hit the bayonet, making a metallic sound of cracking.Almost all regiment commanders, battalion commanders, and company platoon leaders died, and countless soldiers were killed or injured.

The 306th regiment was also besieged by twice as many Japanese troops in Lizhuang. Tanks rampaged through the village, calling for help repeatedly.At this time, all the regiments are fighting hard, how can there be soldiers to dispatch.The division headquarter called back to encourage and instructed: Take close combat, use cover objects to throw grenades, destroy enemy tanks, and stabilize your position.The regiment was formed with tax police troops as the backbone and lacked actual combat experience. When the Japanese army broke through the position and entered the village, they escaped from the bunker and faced the ferocious enemy. Placed under enemy fire, the regiment suffered almost no casualties.

The 304th Regiment of Wei Lou had combat experience. Although all the officers were killed in battle, the soldiers fought close to the enemy, which made the Japanese army unable to use them.Then they competed with the enemy courtyard by courtyard, and entangled with the enemy until dark.Taking advantage of the protection of darkness, they retreated towards Dangshan County. The Japanese army attacked the 305th regiment and the supplementary regiment. The two regiments used the ditch outside the fort as a cover to fight against the enemy. They first destroyed the enemy tanks, leaving the infantry without cover and completely exposed on the vast plain.The two groups cross-coordinate and support each other.He also used the night to take the initiative to attack and severely hit the vital forces of the Japanese army. In this way, he fought against the enemy until he was ordered to retreat at last.Although there are less than 500 people in each regiment, in the face of a powerful enemy, they were not wiped out by several times more enemies, which is enough to prove their bravery and flexibility in combat. Dangshan, a plain, is easy to attack but difficult to defend.A large number of Japanese troops divided and surrounded the 102nd Division in various villages, and then used the rapid maneuvering of their own mechanical troops on the plain, causing the regiments to fall into a very difficult situation.The division headquarters was besieged by the enemy in the county town, and the shells never stopped from morning till night.The Japanese army also fired mortars and air bombs into the city intensively. The city was filled with gunpowder smoke, houses and trees were all destroyed and burned. A self-defense bunker is used to block the fragments of the air blast. The division headquarters was pre-arranged in a battalion outside the city, guarding the ridges around the city, cooperating inside and outside to withstand the Japanese offensive, and preventing the enemy from approaching the city gate.A wave of Japanese troops rushed under the city gate, but was repelled by the entire battalion of soldiers on the periphery.At dusk, the Japanese army attacked the city urgently, and the battle was brutal.Deputy Division Commander Hu Songlin advocated a breakout, but Division Commander Bai Huizhang believed that we should wait for a telegram from the military headquarters and not just leave without an order.This will not work. You can’t learn from Han Fuju, and you can’t learn from those generals who are greedy for life and afraid of death. They are the scum of the nation. The radio station of the 102nd Division sent emergency telegrams to the military headquarters several times in a row, but there was no reply. It was not until after 11 o'clock in the evening that the division headquarters received a reply from the commander Huang Jie. Guard." Bai Huizhang saw the ambiguous telegram from Commander Huang Jie, and he knew why the military department did not reply for a long time.To deal with a division of more than 30,000 people, it is impossible not to have enough troops. Bo Huizhang saw that the army commander was having a hard time making up his mind, and he didn't know what to do, so he studied with Hu Songlin, Guo Erfeng and others, and finally believed that if a strong enemy crushed the city, it would be impossible to defend it.A division cannot withstand the attack of a division, and Dangshan has lost the value of defending in the current battle situation.According to the mission of the whole division, they thought it would be better to break out of the siege, regain control and command of the regiments, and do their best to block the enemy's westward advance in the wild. Therefore, the 102nd Division decided to break out of the siege, and they sent a telegram to the military headquarters. The telegram said that it is not necessary to sit in the city of Dangshan to follow the instructions. At 3 o'clock in the morning, Bai Huizhang ordered the adjutant Cao Guanying to assemble the troops directly under the city. Firstly, they were not allowed to speak out, and secondly, they were not allowed to use flashlights. . The city gate of Dangshan County was opened, and the special agent company was the first to open the way. A battalion of troops outside the city cooperated with the special agent company to attack the small group of Japanese troops in front of them.The Japanese army never thought that it was the troops in the city who broke through the encirclement. They thought it was a night attack, so they stuck to their positions and just shot outside. The 102nd Division took advantage of the darkness to search and advance on strict alert. It was scheduled to transfer to the positions of the supplementary regiment and the 305th regiment before deploying and fighting.After walking about two or three miles, the enemy of Zhuangzi in front suddenly opened fire on the breakout troops.Battalion Commander Cao Wenjie led the whole battalion to attack and advance, covering the breakout troops to withdraw from the railway.When Battalion Commander Cao was commanding the battle, a shell exploded beside Cao Wenjie, and Battalion Commander Cao was killed on the spot.At this time, it was already dawn, and suddenly a soldier ran forward, snatched the body of Battalion Commander Cao, and quickly crossed the railway. Battalion Commander Cao loves soldiers like his sons, and is deeply loved by soldiers.When Battalion Commander Cao died on the front line, the soldiers would not leave their battalion commander behind.They found a safe place, buried their battalion commander, and then the soldiers of the whole battalion saluted and mourned silently. The scene was very touching. In broad daylight, the breakout troops were all exposed on the Great Plains.When crossing the blockade line of the Japanese army's fire net, all the staff of the division headquartered crawled forward, fighting and walking under the cover of the first battalion. They struggled to cross the enemy blockade line and ran across the railway.The adjutant Cao Guanying was obese, clumsy and injured in his thigh. It was two soldiers who tried their best to cross the railway.The combat troops then rushed across the railway to block the Japanese army's pursuit. The powerful firepower beat back the Japanese troops who were chasing them. The breakout troops finally got rid of the enemy and stationed in a village.The troops set up a radio station to communicate with the military headquarters, and received a telegram from the military headquarters to Li Zongren, the commander of the fifth theater, which roughly said that in the Dangshan battle, the 102nd Division completed the combat mission with a small number of enemies, which is highly commendable.The division suffered too many casualties, so it withdrew from the battlefield and went to Luohe to concentrate on rest. When the 102nd Division arrived in Luohe, there were only 2,000 people in the division. The heroic 102nd Division, like the 60th Army, is the pride of the people on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau.