Tiger Troops: The 74th Army of the Kuomintang Anti-Japanese Ace

Chapter 21 Only the Strongest Have a Chance to Survive (Shanggao Battle) (4)
Lan Jieyu thought for a while and said, "This is the enemy who is about to run away. Before retreating, we must first strike and charge for a while, and then leave the position. This is the enemy's usual technique."

Luo Zhuoying pondered and asked again: "Will (No. 30th Division) send another troop to cross the Jinjiang River in the south, so as to detour to the upper side?"

At this time, the frontline troops had seized the confidential document sent to Dahe by Endo Saburo, the head of the Third Flying Regiment, so Lan Jieyu replied in an affirmative tone: "That will never happen. Look at the letter that Endo sent to Dahe." I believe he is lost, he must be in a hurry to escape. It is very possible that Dahe was also shot dead by us."

The encirclement continued to tighten.Zou Jiyan's No. 30th Division belonged to the second batch of attack troops. The task was to intercept the Japanese army's attack in the northwestern direction of Jiangxi. However, the No. 70 Fourth Division of the Japanese Army had indeed become a frightened bird, as Lan Jieyu said.The assault on the No.[-] Second Army was just a habitual feint before escaping, and it was impossible to separate forces to attack the northwest of Jiangxi. Therefore, the [-]th Division did not need to perform interception tasks, and went directly to Xiapi Bridge.

The main force of the No.30 Fourth Division of the Japanese Army had already withdrawn from Xiapi Bridge, and the remaining cover troops were basically wiped out by the 74th Army and other departments. The [-]th Division had no more battles to fight.Zou Jiyan’s battalion only captured a dozen Japanese soldiers who had been scattered and slightly injured not far from the city, and seized more than [-] long and short guns, several boxes of complete ammunition, and a batch of military supplies such as canned food and cigarettes.As for abandoned odds and ends and gun casings, they are everywhere, and no one cares about it anymore.

During the search, Zou Jiyan also found that the paddy fields and hillsides on both sides of the road were full of chaotic and disorderly traces of people and horses.Due to overcrowding, the original narrow path was turned into a wide road.This is a phenomenon rarely seen in previous battles between the enemy and us, which shows the panic and embarrassment of the Japanese army when they broke through the encirclement.

Lan Jieyu was ordered by Luo Zhuoying to inspect the battlefield. For the first time in his life, he saw the real scene corresponding to the "corpse pillow" in the ancient book.The corpses on both sides of the avenue were unclear. Groups of wild dogs were tearing at the corpses. They stared at the big blood-red eyes, and they were not afraid of living people and did not know how to avoid them.There were blood and purple blood stains everywhere on the road for dozens of miles.

The Japanese army generally does not leave the corpses of their own soldiers on the battlefield, but drags the corpses back for cremation and informs their families in the country.But in the case of the army being defeated like a mountain, it is impossible to grab the complete corpses, and many corpses can only be thrown on the battlefield.The way they thought of was to cut off one arm and take it away. Later, they felt that it was too heavy and inconvenient to carry, so they cut off the five fingers of the right hand. Later, even this was too troublesome, so they only cut off a thumb, and at the same time took off the body worn by the deceased. The ID card marked with name and unit number should be taken away as proof of death in battle.

Many enemy corpses with broken arms or missing fingers can be seen on the battlefield.After interrogating the prisoners, it also proved that the No. 30 Fourth Division of the Japanese Army did exactly this when they escaped.The people who cleaned the battlefield buried all the enemy's corpses, which was called the "Japanese slave grave", which is far away from the tomb of the 74th Army's fallen soldiers.

Lan Jieyu stayed at Xiapi Bridge that day and couldn't sleep all night.As long as the young staff member closed his eyes, all the dead people and horses would appear in his mind, especially the shrill screams of the eagles pecking at the dead horses and flying and landing, which made him restless.

On one side is the cruel scene of life and death, but on the other side there is the sound of gurgling water under the Xiapi Bridge.Noise and tranquility, battlefields and fields, war and peace are sometimes only separated by a thin line. Lan Jieyu wrote an impromptu poem while expressing emotion: "The third watch water at the bottom of the Xiapi Bridge can be heard on the pillow."

At this time, not only did the fire show no signs of extinguishing, but it would continue to burn. At Guanqiao and Sixi, where the No. 30 Fourth Division of the Japanese Army hastily retreated, the God of War was wearing armor and holding a halberd, singing in the wind.

On March 3, Zhang Lingfu commanded the 25th Division to storm Guanqiao amidst the earth-shattering shouts of killing.The No.58 Fourth Division of the Japanese Army was eager to escape and released poison gas again. However, the weather conditions necessary for this poison gas battle did not help them. The sky suddenly flashed and thundered, and it rained heavily.

The poisonous gas dissipated in the wind and rain, completely useless.In desperation, the Japanese army had no choice but to bury this batch of poison gas bombs that were edible but inedible and cumbersome.After liberation, people unintentionally dug up more than 1000 rusty gas bombs in Guanqiao, poisoning more than [-] local migrant workers.

The heavy rain not only made the gas bombs useless, but even the planes that served as bodyguards for the ground troops could not show up.God help me too! The 58th Division advanced bravely in the rain, and together with friendly troops, they went down to many positions around Guanqiao, and pressed the No. 30 Fourth Division of the Japanese Army tightly to the core position of Guanqiao.

The range of the heavy machine guns of the Chinese army in the north and the south happened to intersect with Dahe's temporary command post, Bijia.In the face of such a dense firepower network, the No. 30 Fourth Division of the Japanese Army could not break out of the siege by its own strength, and the troops' food, fodder and ammunition were gradually exhausted, falling into a situation of "soldiers with no food".

Anti-Japanese Iron Army
After receiving Dahe's call for help, the headquarters of the Japanese No. 11 Army was in a panic.The commander of the garden department urgently ordered the No.30 Third Division, which had returned to the original station, to rush to rescue the siege. At the same time, the chief of staff of the army, Major General Isamu Kinoshita, and others also rushed to Nanchang to take command.

The No.30 Third Division of the Japanese Army set off on March 3. It had to climb over the mountains along the way, but the road had already been destroyed. The actual road could only accommodate one column. Tenacious blocking, so the progress is very slow. On March 24, the division finally opened a gap in the northeast corner of the Guanqiao encirclement, and got in touch with the No.3 Fourth Division.

On March 3th, under the cover of the No.27 Third Division, the Japanese No.30 Fourth Division began to organize a full-line retreat. The troops eagerly crossed Sixi and fled to Wangmiao Village, the land in the north. .

To Dahe's surprise, they sank to the bottom of the sea just as soon as they got out of the fire pit.It was at the Temple of the Land King that the Chinese No.19 Group Army completed the second encirclement outside of Guanqiao: as early as five days ago, the No.70 Army's Ninth Division entered the Temple of the Land King and established a center here position, while on the back and rear of the Japanese army, six divisions, mainly the 74th Army, pursued in parallel.

The No. 30 Fourth Division of the Japanese Army carried hundreds of wounded and sick. Its marching sequence was that the division headquarters was in front, the patient transport team, field hospital, and independent mountain artillery team were in the middle, and the rear guard was covering.After nightfall, there were thunderstorms and heavy rain. The troops were anxious to get out of the encirclement, but due to the muddy roads, the darkness of the night, and the need to be on guard, the marching speed could not be fast.

At two o'clock in the morning on March 3, at the western end of the Temple of the Earth King, the Eighth Squadron of the Field Artillery, which was in charge of guarding the field hospital, was besieged by the Ninth Pre-Ninth Division of the Chinese side.The Artillery Brigade to which it belonged asked Dahe for reinforcements. Dahe considered that if reinforcements were sent sporadically, the retreat speed of the entire division would be slowed down and more dangerous would be incurred, so the reply he gave was very ruthless. : "Due to the urgency of the situation, the troops can abandon the Eighth Squadron and quickly advance to the brigade headquarters."

No reinforcements arrived, and the Eighth Squadron was completely wiped out.Before being destroyed, the squadron knew that it would be impossible to escape, and had destroyed all the artillery.The remaining barrel of a cannon displayed in the Anti-Japanese War Memorial Hall of the Beijing Military Museum today comes from this battle.

It was not until two o'clock in the afternoon that the No.30 Fourth Division of the Japanese Army broke out of the encirclement.At this time, their casualties increased significantly. Although many captured civilians had taken the opportunity to escape during the panic retreat, the large stretcher team carrying the wounded and sick was still several kilometers long.

The No. 30 Fourth Division escaped from danger, and the No. 30 Third Division that covered it was still suffering behind.In the early morning of the same day, the Chinese 57th Division and 58th Division approached the core position of Guanqiao one after another. The 51st Division also arrived in time after clearing the enemy on the south bank of the Jinjiang River, and launched a fierce attack on the Japanese right side.Subsequently, the 57th Division and the 58th Division rushed into Guanqiao Town and started street fighting with hundreds of Japanese troops left behind by the Japanese No. name.

On March 3, the No.29 Third Division of the Japanese Army retreated across the board, but when it retreated to about five kilometers northwest of Sixi, it began to be flanked by various Chinese troops everywhere. Seek relief.Because of the light rescue, the No.30 Third Division of the Japanese Army did not carry much food and ammunition, and the officers and soldiers fell into a state of hunger and extreme tension.After many hard battles, the artillery shells of the Lianshan Artillery Unit finally ran out, and they were in a state of being unable to shoot. They could only rely on air-dropped ammunition to continue maintaining.Later, when the survivors of the No.30 Third Division talked about the combat situation in the Sixi area, they still had lingering fears, thinking that the miserable situation at that time was really hard to describe in words.

On April 4, the No.2 Fourth Division and the No.30 Third Division of the Japanese Army fled back to their original bases successively.

In this campaign, the Chinese army severely damaged the No.30 Third Division of the Japanese Army, killed and wounded Major General Iwanaga, the infantry commander of the No.30 Fourth Division, and 790 people under the commander of the 100th Regiment, Hamada Osamu, and shot down a Japanese plane , More than 1000 Japanese soldiers were captured, ten mountain guns and mortars, and more than [-] rifles were seized.

The biggest difference between this battle and previous battles is that the Chinese troops participating in the battle do not have a great advantage in numbers, and even in the defense of Shanggao, they were significantly smaller than their opponents. Under such conditions, they can still win a complete victory. It is commendable, and it can also be said that this is the only case since the Anti-Japanese War.Therefore, He Yingqin said in a speech to journalists: "The Battle of Shanggao was the most exciting battle in the four years of the Anti-Japanese War."

As analyzed by Lan Jieyu, the combat staff officer of the No.19 Army, before the Battle of Shanggao, Guangzhou, Wuhan, and Nanchang were repeatedly lost, making most of the No.19 Army’s troops a little timid when fighting against Japan. In this battle, the fearful became the Japanese army in northern Jiangxi, and they no longer dared to attack casually.

"The sky is blue, the fields are vast, the northeast is a good battlefield in Shanggao, and the Jinjiang River is on the banks." The victory in the battle of Shanggao was certainly based on Luo Zhuoying's "retreat and decisive battle" strategy, but in the final analysis, the 74th Army swore to die in Shanggao Not retreating, bloody battle for several nights, is the key to victory.Only the victory of the battle can guarantee the success of the strategy and tactics. As the commander of the battle, Luo Zhuoying is very aware of this. When he commented on the battle of Shanggao, he said a very pertinent sentence: "No. The bottom of the second bag is very strong, and the enemy was not missed."

Throughout the Shanggao Battle, the Chinese army had a total of 20333 casualties, of which the 74th Army suffered 10651 casualties, accounting for more than half of the total casualties. Whether it is the price paid or the contribution made, the 74th Army can be said to have contributed the most.In terms of meritorious deeds, the 74th Army was awarded the "Flying Tiger Pennant in the Blue Sky and White Sun"; the first division was awarded the No. [-] martial arts certificate by the National Government; Wearing the "Tiger Ben" armband.

Wang Yaowu, Li Tianxia, ​​Yu Chengwan, Zhang Lingfu and other generals and meritorious officers and soldiers were all awarded medals or medals, among which Wang Yaowu was awarded the first-level Blue Sky and White Sun Medal.The above pennants and medals were delivered to Changsha by a special plane sent by Chongqing, and then sent to Shanggao by a special car, and were awarded by Luo Zhuoying on behalf of the Military Commission.

Luo Zhuoying said in a speech to the officers of the 74th Army: "I remember that during the Northern Expedition, the Fourth Army was known as the 'Iron Army'. Now is the period of the Anti-Japanese War. I dare to say that the No.70 Fourth Army is the 'Iron Army' during the Anti-Japanese War. '!"

The Battle of Shanggao made the 74th Army famous at home and abroad. It became a veritable "Anti-Japanese Iron Army" in the eyes of the world, and stepped into the peak stage of its development history.

(End of this chapter)