Chapter 50 2. Divide troops to break through

The siege of Xuzhou by hundreds of thousands of Japanese modernized troops has begun to close, which has caused a situation where any defensive measures and new strategic deployments cannot recover from the failure, and it is too late to make up for it.A large number of Japanese troops drove over, and their pace seemed to be faster. After the Japanese armored troops destroyed the Lizhuang Railway Bridge in Dangshan, the enemy rushed to Yongcheng County, Henan Province in less than two days.The Japanese army marching southwestern Shandong also captured Fengxian, Peixian and Dangshan, and from Peixian they pushed into Xuzhou and joined forces with Sun Lianzhong's troops in the Jiulishan area.The enemies from east to west of Xuzhou attacked the entire canal. After a day of fierce fighting, they broke through the canal station, Taierzhuang position, and Yuwangshan position, and attacked Xuzhou.

The gunfire in the suburbs of Xuzhou was booming, and even Li Zongren's headquarters dropped two shells.Li Zongren, together with a large group of staff, received Chiang Kai-shek's telegram to retreat, and studied around the map for a long time. It was not easy to fight, and it was not easy to retreat. How to retreat?The first-line troops were all on the battlefield, and they were bitten tightly by the attacking Japanese army.Li Zongren finally decided to divide the remaining 500,000 troops in the Xuzhou theater into five groups to break through respectively. The retreat order issued by Li Zongren is:

The first route: Commander Li Zongren's headquarters and Liao Lei's group army went south from Xuzhou along Jinpu Road to the Suxian area, then turned southwest, and crossed the Guohe blockade near Jiegou. The second route: Tang Enbo's army and mechanized troops retreat westward from the Longhai Road Canal Station, cross Jinpu Road north of Fuliji, break through the enemy's blockade from Su County to Yongcheng, and then break through the enemy's Guohe blockade from Guoyang . Third Route: Sun Lianzhong's Division and Zhang Zizhong's 59th Army retreated southwest from Taierzhuang, crossed the blockade west of Xiaoxian from the south of Xuzhou, and broke out of the blockade again near Yongcheng.

Fourth Route: Guan Linzheng Division and Sichuan Army Division 1 crossed the Longhai Railway from Xuzhou, broke through to the northwest, and broke through the blockade of Huangkou and Lizhuang. The fifth route: Sun Zhen's department, rushing southeast from Liuquan north of Xuzhou, crossing the Longhai Railway.Going southwest through Si County, crossing Jinpu Road between Guzhen and Bengbu, and breaking through the Japanese army's Guohe blockade from the west of Huaiyuan. On May 17, Li Zongren ordered his ministries to deploy in order to break through the encirclement one by one.Tang Enbo's army was ordered to break through to the west and violently attack the Japanese army; Sun Lianzhong, Zhang Zizhong, and Pang Bingxun were also ordered to fortify the canal and hold on to cover the retreat of the army.

After the order of the fifth theater was issued, the participating troops began to implement it.A plan is always a plan, and in the process of carrying out its withdrawal plan, it differs greatly from the actual situation.The mechanized troops of Tang Enbo's army broke through to the west and were blocked by the Japanese army, so they had to divert to the south.It was more than ten miles to the north of Su County that the scouts reported that Su County was occupied by the Japanese army and could not pass through.According to Tang Enbo's proposition, he wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to take Su County, but Li Zongren did not agree, thinking that it was unnecessary, and the most urgent task was to get out of the encirclement of the enemy, and the gains and losses of some small towns were irrelevant.At that time, Tang Enbo's army still had the strength of several divisions, accompanied by 150mm heavy artillery.Starting from the overall situation, Li Zongren tried his best to protect this elite team. He ordered Tang Enbo to leave quickly and head west, so as not to be caught by the Japanese army.

As soon as the troops holding on to the outer positions of Xuzhou retreated, the Japanese army rushed up like a flood that opened the gate.The Chinese troops acted individually in accordance with the retreat order, but something new happened on the way to retreat. After the retreat was blocked by the Japanese army, they didn't know what to do, and chaos occurred from time to time. Sun Lianzhong set up defenses on the canal and led Zhang Zizhong, Pang Bingxun and other troops to defend against danger to cover the retreat of the army.He also ordered Lu Han's 60th Army to advance to the suburbs south of Xuzhou to defend Xuzhou.After Lu Han arrived in Xuzhou, he first scouted the terrain and planned the deployment of guarding Xuzhou.But when Lu Han went to the chief's department of the fifth war zone, there was no one in the courtyard, and the military and political organs had already withdrawn.Lu Han became a little nervous. He hurriedly led his troops to Jiuli Mountain. The fortified positions made of reinforced concrete were not defended by troops.Lu Han led his troops into the urban area of ​​Xuzhou again.There were few pedestrians in Xuzhou City, the enemy planes kept bombing, and the smoke was billowing. There were no large troops around, only sporadic stragglers running southward, and wounded officers and soldiers on both sides of the road lay on the ground and groaned.At Xuzhou Railway Station, ammunition, food, equipment and supplies piled up like mountains and were being set on fire.

Lu Han found Commander-in-Chief Sun Lianzhong in a village on the outskirts of Xuzhou, and they were about to retreat.Lu Han was a little angry, and asked Sun Lianzhong, what is the purpose of you making me guard Xuzhou?To guard Xuzhou, should we cover the retreat of the large troops, or should we stick to it until we can't be punctual, and then break out and fight guerrillas?Now that the large troops in Lunan have automatically withdrawn, there is no need for cover anymore.If you want to stick to Xuzhou, has the high command made counterattack arrangements?Is there any other troops to assist?How long will it take?Sun Lianzhong couldn't make any sense, and finally replied that the situation has reached such a point that your 60th Army had no choice but to retreat with the main force.

The 60th Army retreated south along the road under the leadership of Lu Han.After walking for a day, late at night, the front reported that the Japanese army that captured Su County had moved north.Immediately afterwards, the rear guard column came to report that the Japanese army sent light troops from Xuzhou to chase after the 60th Army.The situation is dangerous.Lu Han immediately ordered his troops to leave the road and break out of the siege westward towards Yongcheng.Day and night of rapid marching, countless small battles occurred along the way, people were exhausted, but it was important to break through, they did not dare to stop, and continued westward.

When the 60th Army arrived at Suixikou, all the large corps retreating from southern Shandong gathered here, including Sun Zhen's Sichuan Army, Li Xianzhou's Central Army, Guangxi's Liao Lei Army, as well as a part of the Northeast Army and a part of the Northwest Army. , Once encountering enemy aircraft strafing, it is difficult for the team to act.Lu Han decided to change the marching deployment. The whole army was divided into two echelons, and the two echelons went hand in hand to avoid confusion with other troops. They set off overnight and decided to break out to the southwest of Yongcheng via Tiefo Temple and gather in Bozhou.There was a scuffle between them and friendly troops on the way near the Tiefo Temple. The friendly troops saw the vehicles and cars of the 60th Army driving with lights on, thinking that it was the Japanese tanks coming to attack. Contact was lost in the chaos.

Lu Han led an echelon and successfully arrived in Bozhou, northern Anhui. What is interesting is that the 2nd Echelon of the 60th Army moved southward amidst the chaos at Tiefo Temple, crossed the Weihe River, broke through to Guoyang, and accommodated many friendly teams along the way.In particular, a field artillery battalion and a field artillery company played an important role in the fierce battle between Guoyang and the Japanese army. The artillery fire destroyed several Japanese bunkers and strongholds. After the troops suffered heavy casualties, they passed through Guoyang smoothly and highlighted the Out of the encirclement of the Japanese army, entered the territory of Henan.

Under the leadership of Lu Han, the 60th Army was luckier than Sun Lianzhong and the others. After Li Zongren's Fifth Theater Command led the military and political agencies to withdraw from Xuzhou, they thought that Sun Lianzhong and the others would follow up from behind, but they couldn't contact them.After walking for a few days, they realized that they had lost contact with Sun Lianzhong's troops. According to the breakout plan, after Sun Lianzhong and Zhang Zizhong completed their cover tasks, they should retreat from Taierzhuang to the southwest, cross the blockade line west of Xiaoxian County from the south of Xuzhou, break out of the blockade line again near Yongcheng, and enter Henan or Bozhou in northern Anhui.However, the situation on the battlefield changed dramatically. When the Chinese troops in Lunan and Xuzhou retreated, the Japanese army rushed in like a flood of beasts, and at the same time blocked the gap to break out to the west. The Japanese army focused all their attention on the Longhai Railway in the west. They believed that if the Chinese army wanted to break through, they would only choose to go west or southwest, because that was also where the Chinese army's rear area was located.Therefore, the Japanese army later blocked that direction very effectively.Sun Lianzhong led the troops, did not touch that nail, but turned around and headed east, passing through Lingbi to Sixian County. Facts have proved that this direction is correct. Except for the 60th Army, 30th Army and other troops of the Lunan Corps who broke through to Huaiyin, the rest of the 21st Army, 75th Army, and 51st Army and other troops safely went eastward to Si County.Except for Han Deqin and Yu Xuezhong who were ordered to stay in the guerrilla behind the enemy in northern Jiangsu, the other ministries successively marched westward through Wuhe and Dingyuan to Lu'an and Huangchuan in Anhui, and returned to the position designated by the Supreme Command of the Nationalist Government for reorganization Replenish.Fighting continued along the way, the troops dispersed and regrouped, regrouped and then dispersed, and suffered a lot along the way. Shang Zhen's 32nd Army was even more difficult. The Japanese army blocked the Longhai Railway and blocked the westward traffic line of Xuzhou.Shang Zhen's troops were tightly bitten by the Doihara Division and could not retreat for a while.At first they wanted to get through the two main points of Huangkou and Xiaoxian, but they couldn't deal with the Japanese army in front of them. The battle was extremely fierce, and the sound of rumbling artillery was heard dozens of miles away.At the critical moment, Li Zongren, the commander of the fifth war zone, transferred Zhang Zizhong's 59th Army to respond. When the 108th Division of the 59th Army hit Zhangerzhuang and Yanjiazhai near Xiaoxian County, the Japanese army released a large number of poison gas bombs.The officers and soldiers of Zhang Zizhong's 39th Brigade were seriously poisoned, their combat effectiveness was weakened, and they began to retreat.Later, Li Zongren ordered the 59th Army to stick to the western suburbs of Xuzhou City and cover the large troops until they left. Before leaving, Li Zongren explained to Zhang Zizhong that after completing the cover mission, he drove to Xuchang, Henan Province to gather. In fact, the 59th Army has been fighting for three consecutive months since the Huaihe battle, and there are less than two brigades left in the five brigades of the whole army.However, General Zhang Zizhong and the officers and soldiers of the army did not complain. They obeyed the commander's dispatch and asked them to stay in the back. After completing the cover mission, they still let the other units that were performing the mission go first, and their 59th Army walked at the end.Because his troops retreated in an orderly manner without the slightest panic, the Japanese army did not dare to despise them, thinking that they were prepared, and did not act rashly against the 59th Army along the way.When Zhang Zizhong came to the Suixikou area, he saw all kinds of troops crowded there, making a mess.The 59th Army was unwilling to disperse its troops, so all officers and soldiers of the 59th Army wore their general caps backwards to distinguish them from other troops. From Xuzhou to Xuchang, the distance is 500 kilometers, all rely on two legs.General Zhang Zizhong didn't do anything special, and shared weal and woe with the soldiers. He walked like the soldiers, and his feet were covered with blood blisters.Many officers and soldiers walked crookedly. General Zhang gathered them together and took off their shoes and socks. His feet had more blood blisters than anyone else, and he raised his feet to the ground, and the blood blisters burst. .He said loudly, Chinese soldiers who are not afraid of death on the battlefield, are they still afraid of a few blood bubbles?After stamping his feet, he put on his shoes and left.There was no one in the whole army complaining, and they drove to Xuchang in high spirits. It is said that when Chiang Kai-shek heard about Zhang Zizhong's legendary story, he admired him so much that he nodded and gave him a high evaluation. Liu Ruming's 68th Army, who also took on the cover task, was also very witty.At the last moment, he put on a posture of fighting to the death with the Japanese army, and formed formations on the held positions.The chasing Japanese army stopped, and also dispatched troops and generals to make deployments.The Japanese army didn't know what it was, and by the next day, there was no one in the Chinese army's position.After a night of rapid march, the 68th Army cleverly jumped out of the encirclement of hundreds of thousands of Japanese troops and went to a safe place.