The Tenth Division of the Japanese Army was one of the seventeen standing divisions of the Japanese Army before the war. It had extremely strong combat effectiveness and well-equipped equipment. It was known as the model division of the Japanese modern army.
As the division commander of such a unit, Isotani Rensuke was extremely proud and at the same time extremely stressed, especially since he, Kenjiro Tohi and Seishiro Itagaki were classmates at the same time, and were also known as the three China Masters. This made
People unconsciously compare them with each other, and they themselves are constantly comparing their respective merits.
In this battle of Xuzhou, Isotani Rensuke and Itagaki Seishiro fought together. Isotani Rensuke extremely hoped to surpass this old classmate's military exploits. Things also developed smoothly. First Jinan and then Tengxian, one after another important military areas
He was captured by him, but Seishiro Itagaki, who was originally sweeping across Shanxi, was blocked by Linyi.
While urging his troops to march towards Zaozhuang, Isotani Rensuke looked greedily at the final target - Xuzhou City.
Xuzhou, one of the nine states in ancient China, was called "Pengcheng" in ancient times. It has always been the political, economic, and cultural center of the Huaihai region. However, its geographical location is difficult to attack and difficult to defend militarily. Therefore, as long as there are troops approaching the city, Xuzhou will
The situation is at stake.
——Xuzhou
Li Zongren took a paintbrush and kept writing on the map. He asked without raising his head, "Has the Second Army reached the designated position?"
Li Pinxian said worriedly, "Is the combat effectiveness of the Second Army a little weaker? I'm worried that they won't be able to withstand the Japanese attack."
Li Zongren smiled and said, "Don't worry, I won't hire the wrong person. Besides, this time we are several times outnumbered by the enemy. Sun Lianzhong will definitely fight to the end. On the contrary, I am a little worried about Tang Enbo. He is our decisive blow. If he doesn't
If we fight well, we will be in real trouble."
Li Pinxian thought for a while and said, "Do you want me to meet Tang Enbo?"
Li Zongren took off his white gloves, patted them ashes and said, "It's useless for you to go. This guy knows who he should listen to."
——Taierzhuang
Sun Lianzhong led Chifengcheng's 31st Division to Taierzhuang ahead of other troops.
Chi Fengcheng said incomprehensively while riding on his horse, "Commander, you said we have no place to defend, but we have to defend such a small village. You don't have to look at it to know how big a small village is. I think the Japanese can blow up the village even with cannons."
It’s fine.”
Sun Lianzhong knew how powerful Li Zongren was when the warlords were fighting. He waved his horsewhip and said, "Don't talk nonsense. Commander Li must be doing this for a reason. Let's go. After passing this slope, we will reach Taierzhuang."
The two of them were hurrying up, but they saw a few old people with white hair and white beards standing aside with people holding food and drinks. Several children were spreading yellow sand, and several children were sprinkling water behind them. This is a traditional Chinese etiquette.
The tallest man in the palace used a pot of pulp to welcome the king, paved the road with loess, and sprinkled water to clean the streets.
Sun Lianzhong dismounted and asked, "Who are they?"
The old man said, "We are clan elders in Taierzhuang. Most of the thousands of households in Taierzhuang have evacuated. We stayed here to introduce the situation to the army."
Upon hearing this, Sun Lianzhong happily said, "Please speak."
The old man touched his beard and said, "Our Taierzhuang is located on the right by the canal and on the left by the railway. It is a small but very prosperous place. There are ten streets, 1,200 meters long from east to west, 1,000 meters wide from north to south, and 500 meters narrowest.
"
Chi Fengcheng calculated and complained, "This is less than one square kilometer. How can we defend it?"
The old man laughed loudly and said, "General, don't worry. Although our Taierzhuang is small, we can still defend it. There are many bandits in Shandong. Because our Taierzhuang is prosperous, there are often bandits. In order to deal with the bandits, we are surrounded by stones. We are here
There are solid walls about 4 kilometers long and more than 2 meters high on the east, west and north sides of Taierzhuang, all made of bricks and stones. Most of the houses in the village are also made of bricks and stones, and there are thousands of them.
It can withstand the attack of foreign guns and artillery. In addition, there are 75 bunkers outside our village. They are arranged according to ancient formations. It is difficult for cannons to blast away. There are also tunnels connected underground to facilitate the deployment of troops. General, you
Do you think a place like this can be defended or not?"
Sun Lianzhong and Chi Fengcheng were stunned when they heard this. What kind of village is this? It's just a fortress.
Sun Lianzhong laughed loudly and said, "Commander Li is indeed a famous general in the world. He has discovered such a place. With such a favorable location, if we can't defend it, we will really go and have the baby."
Whether it is a modern army or an ancient army, there is one principle in the selection of marching routes, and that is the smoothness and convenience of the supply line. The 10th Division originally went south along the railway, and after capturing Teng County, it easily captured Zaozhuang.
, the next step should be to continue the attack on Xuzhou along the railway. There are two ways to attack Xuzhou, one is to continue the attack along the railway, and the other is to attack by a detour from Taierzhuang.
Li Zongren saw that the Japanese had reached the most critical moment as he thought. He also started his final layout.
The Japanese army began to be led away by Li Zongren.
Li Zongren first ordered Zhang Zizhong in Linyi to launch a counterattack. The fifth division was just an unorganized brigade at this time. Seeing the sudden counterattack by the Chinese defenders, Itagaki Seishiro was startled, thinking that the main direction of the Chinese army's attack was
I felt that the 10th Division was too aggressive, but I couldn't say it directly, so I quickly sent a report to the commander of the Second Army, Hisao Nishio, saying that he needed the support of the 10th Division and hoped that this method could be used to make the 10th Division
The regiment slowed down. Nishio Shouzou saw that the 10th Division was in full swing and the 5th Division was stagnant. He also felt that the strength of the 5th Division was a bit lacking, so he ordered the 10th Division to send an additional regiment to support the 5th Division.
The Fifth Division. As soon as Rensuke Isotani heard the order, he felt that this was a conspiracy of Itagaki Seishiro. The purpose was to prevent himself from getting great achievements. However, after the order from the headquarters came down, he had no choice but to obey the order and send out a regiment.
Go north to Linyi to support.
But Li Zongren's layout was not over yet, and the Japanese army's march direction had not changed. Li Zongren ordered the Shandong Army of Han Fuqu to put on the clothes of the Central Army, carry cannons made of wood, and board 1,200 urgently mobilized ships to parade across Weishan Lake.
.
Weishan Lake is located next to Xuzhou and connected to Lincheng. From here, the Jinpu Railway can be cut off at any time. When Rensuke Isotani saw the intelligence reported by the aviation force and the news from the spies, he immediately felt that this was reinforcements from the National Army.
After seeing the intelligence from the forward, it was said that the enemy on the opposite side actually dared to fight with the imperial army with bayonets.
You must know that the troops who dare to fight the imperial army with bayonets are the absolute main force of the Chinese army. Based on comprehensive judgment, Isotani Rensuke believes that the troops on the lake are Tang Enbo's Central Army. Tang Enbo's troops have good strength in Nankou and Hebei.
The performance showed that Isotani Rensuke was unwilling to face the tough situation and finally made up his mind to transfer to Taierzhuang.
Li Zongren finally felt relieved when he saw the news coming from inside that the Japanese troops were diverted to Taierzhuang, but this was only in the north. The Japanese troops in the south also made Li Zongren uneasy.
In fact, the main force of the Japanese army is now in the south. How to prevent the Japanese army in the south from interfering with this operation is the key to the operation.
The unit selected by Li Zongren was the New Fourth Army.
Li Zongren had long known that the Red Party troops were powerful in guerrilla warfare, and felt that it would be a dereliction of duty on the part of the commander to not use the Red Party troops in such a battle to contain the enemy.
After Ye Ting received the order, he immediately began to command the troops to engage in guerrilla warfare. Since Wang Ming was also preparing to strengthen the united front in order to better carry out the work in Wuhan, he asked Xiang Ying to fully support Ye Ting's work.
It was the Thirteenth Division that attacked the Huaihe line of defense. The main force of the New Fourth Army were veterans of the southern guerrilla war for several years. Facing the Japanese army who only wanted to find the main force for a decisive battle, it felt like they were teasing a grizzly bear.
, during the Battle of Taierzhuang, the entire Thirteenth Division never set foot in Xuzhou, but was led by the New Fourth Army in circles in Anhui. The equipment of the New Fourth Army was still brand new, even from the front.
It was possible to fight a few rounds with the Thirteenth Division, not to mention guerrilla warfare. The Thirteenth Division had no choice but to retreat to Nanjing after losing two to three thousand troops.
When all conditions were ripe, Li Zongren started making dumplings.
The Tenth Division arrived outside Taierzhuang. At this time, the Tenth Division had three infantry regiments, one regiment each of cavalry, artillery, engineering, and supplies directly under the division, as well as a communications team, a health team, and four field hospitals.
.Temporarily assigned 2 artillery regiments, 2 machine gun brigades, and 2 armored squadrons. The number of troops exceeds 30,000.
Isotani Rensuke looked at the long black rock wall in front of him, shook his head helplessly and said, "In what era did the Chinese people live? You can see these walls everywhere. Can one of them rely on these walls?"
Are you going to stop our imperial warriors?"
Colonel Furei Shinpei, captain of the 63rd Infantry Regiment, took the lead and said, "Your Excellency, division commander, please leave the offensive task to me. I promise to end the battle within three hours."
Isotani Rensuke touched his beard and said, "The warriors of our 10th Division are much more valuable than the Chinese. We order our artillery to teach our opponents first what the God of War is."
The Japanese army concentrated more than a hundred cannons and began to bombard the city gate of Taierzhuang. For a moment, the ground shook and the entire city wall seemed to be covered with a layer of red and yellow armor. The continuous explosions made people in the Tibetan Soldier Cave
The National Army soldiers inside desperately closed their eyes and covered their ears. From time to time, the caves where soldiers were hiding were blown down, and one squad after another of soldiers just disappeared into the loess.
Chi Fengcheng saw that the front position was completely covered by artillery fire, and worriedly called Wang Zhen, the leader of the front group, "Wang Zhen, how are you? Can you hold it?"
Wang Zhen was in the bunker. He felt that his whole body was shaking. He could only keep shouting, "Master, don't worry, we will never take a step back."
The Japanese artillery position was located in Liujia Lake, which was only five miles away from Taierzhuang. Japanese cannons shining with metallic light kept spitting out fire. Even in March, the Japanese troops transporting ammunition were covered in sweat from the heat. Many people
He simply took off his clothes and loaded ammunition while shirtless.
Not far from the position, a National Army unit was clinging to the ground and advancing slowly.
The leader was Gao Hongli, the commander of the 3rd Battalion of the 183rd Regiment. He was supposed to be fighting guerrillas on the periphery, but after knowing that the Japanese artillery positions were set up around him, he immediately led two hundred selected death squads, each holding a machete and eight rifles.
With just one grenade, they approached the Japanese artillery position.
"Damn it, we're going to do something big this time." Gao Hongli had a black face and a steel beard and a fierce look. He had almost crawled and he would be discovered by the Japanese outpost if he went any further.
Gao Hongli took a deep breath and shouted, "Kill the Japanese!" He rushed forward with a broadsword. The Japanese soldiers who were guarding him did not expect that so many Chinese troops would appear in pain. Gao Hongli stepped forward and killed him with a jumping chop.
The sentry's head was chopped off, and blood spattered out like crazy. Gao Hongli licked his blood-stained lips, pointed at the Japanese artillery and said, "Kill!!"
Not to mention the weapons of self-defense, many of the Japanese artillerymen were even naked. They started shouting and yelling, "the National Army soldiers don't care what nonsense you call them." One after another, they slashed into red with their big blades.
Nearly a hundred Japanese soldiers were killed by the sword.
Gao Hongli still knew what he was doing, and quickly shouted, "Stop just killing people, throw grenades and blow up cannons."
The soldiers who heard the words quickly took out their grenades, and after pulling the strings, they stuffed them into the muzzles of the cannon one by one. There was a dull explosion. Only the entire barrel of some cannons was seen bulging, and even some
Some cannons were also blown into two pieces.
By the time the Japanese guard troops concentrated their forces and fought again, dozens of Japanese cannons had been destroyed.
When Furong Zhenhei, who led the troops to attack the city gate, saw that the bombardment had stopped, he thought it was the end of the bombardment, so he led his troops to attack.
At this time, Wang Zhen was already on the city wall with a machine gun. Wang Zhen looked at it and said, "Let the brothers take it easy and wait until the Japanese get closer before attacking."
The Japanese army's shooting started one or two hundred meters away. The soldiers in the first battalion of Wang Zhen Regiment were basically new recruits. The recruits at this time were different from the recruits in the later period. Most of the recruits in this period took the initiative to join the army because of their patriotism.
, these little soldiers who had just picked up the gun knew that it would be difficult for them to rely on shooting, so they inserted their bayonets one after another. Under the leadership of the battalion commander, they rushed towards the attacking Japanese army like little tigers.
Furong Jinpei was a little nervous when he saw the Chinese troops rushing out. He quickly ordered the troops to rush forward. Many of the new recruits in the Chinese troops had never even killed a chicken. Now they were asked to kill. Many of them saw blood and mutilations flying everywhere.
They could only fight back desperately and were quickly killed by the Japanese army. However, these recruits did not run away because the battle formation was penetrated. Instead, they took the initiative to fight to the death with the Japanese army. Wang Zhen saw
Watching his soldiers die one by one in front of him, his eyes almost burst open.
Wang Zhen frantically controlled the heavy machine gun, constantly pinning Japanese soldiers to the ground.
Furong Zhenping never expected that the National Army in front of him would be so tenacious. However, Furong Zhenping, who refused to admit defeat, not only did not adjust his tactics, but continued to join the troops to attack the city. Wang Zhen defended this city gate for three days.
For three days and three nights, they only retreated to the city when it was really impossible.
Seeing the city gate being breached, Isotani Rensuke finally showed a smile. What he didn't know was that Tang Enbo's 80,000 troops had already begun to seal the encirclement, and the arrival of another person announced his death sentence.
