On this side, the King of the Zhongwang Column was planning Zhang Xiaolang's puppet army, but Okamura Neji couldn't help it. There was no way, the base camp was urging him to send troops without waiting for his arrangement. However, the old Okamura Japanese was not a rash little man. Facing Jiang Dingwen of the First War Zone, Tang Enbo's eight armies exceeded 300,000 troops, he did not want to fight a stalemate battle. That would damage his reputation as General Okamura, so he had to concentrate all the troops he could mobilize, fight against the rabbit, defeat the First War Zone troops of the China Army in one breath, break through the Yellow River defense line, and achieve a good start to "Operation No. 1"!

On this side, the Japanese army was busy mobilizing troops to gather supplies, planning details of the combat plan, and even various armies began to send small groups of reconnaissance troops to explore the way. It really formed a strategic pressure on the First War Zone with mountains of pressure and clouds.

On the other hand, China's preparations are very unbearable!

In the last book, Jiang Dingwen, the commander-in-chief of the War Zone, had long been corrupt and degenerate, and was no longer the flying general on the road to the Northern Expedition in the past. However, the disadvantages of the First War Zone, Tang Enbo, the deputy commander-in-chief of the First War Zone, was a capable backbone of the Huangpu Group of Jiang Dingwen. He was dissatisfied with the commander-in-chief Jiang Dingwen, and each played his own strings and sang his own tunes, and could not even pee in a pot. Faced with the huge Japanese strong enemy, the two brothers had no desire to be in harmony at all. They simply threw the committee's spirit of friendship of "integrity and unity, unity" to the sky!

Originally, facing the huge Japanese army, it was a relatively weak side, and there was no attention in mind, so the battle outcome of the war zone was decided before it even started - it must have been defeated under the strong attack of the Japanese army and was defeated!

But beyond the expectations of the people of the whole country, this defeat was so rude: from April 17 to June 19, 1944, the "Tang Army" who was known as the elite of the national army was beaten to no avail, and the "Flying General" became the "Flying General" who fled! It actually created a defeat in Henan's 37 days of losing 38 cities in a row, which was simply a huge defeat that was about to collapse!

To be honest, with the strength of the War Zone and the combat power of the troops, it was impossible to stop the Japanese army's premeditated and prepared attack. After all, after such a long period of strategic stalemate, the National Government almost exhausted all its resources, and all troops had serious shortages of weapons, low morale, and training problems. In other words, the defeat of the War Zone was expected and understandable and acceptable.

After all, the Japanese army planned and prepared for a long time, and concentrated 150,000 elite troops, especially the 3rd Japanese chariot Division, which was the first to take the lead, attacking cities and villages, and was unstoppable. For the Chinese army, which was seriously lacking in attacking armored troops, it was simply a nightmare. On the plain land of Yuzhong, facing the enemy's tanks and armored vehicles, the shabby Chinese soldiers had to organize suicide squads and hung grenades to fight to the death. However, the well-trained 3rd Japanese chariot Division not only had two chariot regiments (13 and 17 regiments), but also had the 3rd mobile infantry corps, the 3rd mobile artillery corps, the 3rd mobile artillery corps, the 3rd mobile engineer corps, the rapid-fire artillery corps, etc. The squad and Tank coordination tactics are very skillful, making it difficult for Chinese soldiers to encounter chariots even if they want to fight to the death, and the resistance effect is not ordinary!

It should be said that the Japanese army's tactical use this time was extremely advanced. It was the first and only time that the Japanese army had invested a complete tank division in World War II. The Japanese 3rd tank division dispatched 255 tanks, most of which were 97 improved tanks. In addition, there were some Type 95 bean tanks, old Type 97 tanks and armored vehicles.

In addition, the Japanese army's maneuver power on the battlefield was far better than the Chinese army. The 150,000 Japanese army was equipped with 6,100 trucks, with an average of less than 30 people equipped with one truck. The ratio of military vehicles to personnel was even no less than that of the African regiments of Germany and Italy, and had strong maneuver power. The Japanese army's more than ten tons of tanks were very suitable for the road traffic situation in China at that time, and they directly advanced all the way and implemented the tactical intention of encirclement and blockade.

During the early offensive of the Japanese army, the Chinese military officers and soldiers were very surprised by the sudden charge of the Japanese army. The artillery battalion of the 85th Army was turning from Dengfeng to Linru. On the way, the officers and soldiers were talking: "In the past, the Japanese tanks were used to cover infantry attacks. I have never heard of gathering so many tanks to charge alone, and they rushed so far. It's really strange!" The observer of the second company of the battalion had heard General Qiu Qingquan, who had studied in Germany, explaining the German lightning tactics. He said that this was "the close cooperation between maneuvers and firepower that Director Qiu talked about was lightning tactics, "and it is also the most fashionable tactics now!"

Moreover, the Japanese were very terrifying, and they used this sharp-cut sword force as a killer weapon: the Japanese army strictly kept the news of the division's participation in the war, and even at the meeting of commanders of the 12th Army, there was no public announcement of the chariot troops participating in the war. On the evening of April 17, the battle began; but on the night of April 20, the 3rd Japanese chariot division, which had secretly gathered in Xinxiang, began to go south through the restored Yellow River Iron Bridge. In order to keep it confidential, all the Japanese crossed the river at night. After crossing the river, the chariot troops hidden in the valleys of Mangshan west of Pinghan Road, the south of the Yellow River Iron Bridge, and did not endure it! It was not until April 29 that the most violent defense battle of Xuchang in the entire "Henan Battle" started, the Third Warrior Division was ordered to attack, quickly cut off the liaison of the Chinese defenders, and assisted the 37th Division in the capture of Xuchang City.

Of course, this book is not for Commander Tang to cleanse the floor, but for readers to have a real comparison of strength in their minds, experience the gap in national strength between China and Japan back then, and truly understand what it means to be a sad and helpless situation of being beaten if you fall behind! Let’s not talk about the Eighth Route Army of the Communist Party, the New Fourth Army, with its more primitive and backward weapons, stubbornly and firmly fought against the invaders with its more primitive and backward weapons. Just say that the "Xuchang Defense Battle" in this battle is also a heroic and tragic heroic:

The 29th Division of the South Gate defender, facing the bombing of Japanese planes in the sky and the impact of the ground tanks, was not afraid of actively using the city walls and fortifications left by his ancestors, fought repeatedly with the Japanese, and launched fierce hand-to-hand combat several times to force the enemy to retreat. From 3:00 pm to late at night, the soldiers were exhausted before they were ordered to evacuate. Such a desperate resistance, even if they were defeated in the end, I believe that they would not complain about the people. However, such resistance appeared in Xuchang during the entire battle, and most of the other cities were almost collapsed and retreated before they could touch it, which made people sigh and shook their heads!

The Japanese "North China Front Army" believed that "at that time, among the Chongqing army, the 1st Army of the Eighth War Zone and the 13th Army of the First War Zone were elite core corpses in each of the war zones. Once the core corps was defeated, the entire army would be broken. Therefore, defeating the 13th Army would be equivalent to defeating the Tang Army." The main intention of the 12th Army of the Japanese army to use the Third Division to participate in the battle was to use the high degree of mobility of the division to quickly intersperse the side of the Kuomintang army to achieve the goal of encircling the Tang Enbo Corps, the main force of the National Army.

Of course, after paying the price of major casualties, the Tang Bing Regiment still jumped out of the enemy's encirclement and fled all the way to the mountainous area of ​​western Henan. As for the responsibility of defending Henan, which should have been borne, it had long been thrown into Java!

The Battle of Central Henan was finally concluded with the "Luoyang Defense Battle". With the strong resistance of the 15th Army of the defender, the Japanese army completely occupied Luoyang City until May 25. Not only did they successfully reach the Pinghan Line, but they made the fallen areas of North China, Central Plains, and South China one after another, but they also broke the country in one breath. The First War Zone of the Army held the Yellow River defense line for more than three years, and drove Jiang Dingwen and Tang Enbo, the brothers in distress, into the mountainous area in western Henan, and were in a mess and dared not peek at the old nest in Henan!

In short, in just over 30 days of the battle between Henan and Central Henan, the Japanese army opened up the southern section of Pinghan Road, occupied the key points along the line and the ancient city of Luoyang, defeated the main troops of the First War Zone, and realized the battle attempt. The army in the First War Zone suffered serious losses, and Li Jiayu, commander-in-chief of the 36th Army, died during the retreat.

Later, according to the "History of the Anti-Japanese War" by the Kuomintang authorities in Taiwan, the First War Zone suffered 817 casualties, 18,327 soldiers, and 4,000 Japanese casualties in this battle. According to statistics from the Defense Research Institute of the Japanese Defense Department, 3,350 Japanese casualties, 32,290 Chinese soldiers were killed and 7,800 captured, with a slight difference. However, the First War Zone stated in the "Review of the Battle" after the battle: "This Central Plains Battle, the division lost its territory, and the crime was unavoidable." It is indeed true. For this reason, Chairman Chiang was furious and ordered the commander-in-chief Jiang Dingwen and deputy commander-in-chief Tang Enbo to be dismissed and investigated to thank the people!
Chapter completed!