"We come from the great place of Yunnan Uprising, walked through the mountains and ridges, and marched to the battlefield of the Anti-Japanese War. Brothers fought for the liberation of the nation with their flesh and blood, and carried forward our glory of protecting the country and appeasement.
We cannot allow the enemy to roam rampant in our territory and we cannot allow enemy aircraft to fly in our airspace. Yunnan is the hometown of the 60th Army, and the 60th Army is the armed force that defends China! Yunnan is the hometown of the 60th Army, and the 60th Army is the armed force that defends China! "
Amidst the high-pitched military songs, at the most critical moment in Xuzhou, the 60th Army of the Yunnan Army arrived at the front line.
However, the Yunnan troops who had just arrived at Xuzhou Railway Station heard fierce gunfire before they had time to get off the train.
During the Battle of Taierzhuang, almost all the Kuomintang troops already near Xuzhou fought fierce battles with the Japanese army and all suffered certain losses. For example, Pang Bingxun's casualties exceeded 80%, and Zhang Zizhong's casualties also reached 60%. As for Sun Lianzhong and Tang Enbo, their casualties were also heavy.
At this time, the Yunnan Army had no casualties, its morale was high, and its ammunition was a vital force, so it was naturally used in the most important position.
Li Zongren ordered the Yunnan Army to immediately rush to the northeastern area of Taierzhuang to gather in preparation for the invading Japanese army.
The assembly areas of the 183rd Division of the Yunnan Army are Chen Wafang, Xingjialou, and Wushengtang, and the assembly areas of the 182nd Division are Puwang, Xinzhuang, and Daizhuang. The 184th Division temporarily remains in the rear as a general reserve.
Li Zongren asked the Yunnan army to stick to these two places first, and then reinforce all aspects at any time according to the needs of the war situation.
Unexpectedly, the Yunnan Army encountered a fierce battle as soon as they entered the battlefield. The severity of the battle was beyond everyone's expectation.
At that time, the Japanese army north of Taierzhuang had begun a fierce offensive, but due to insufficient troops, the progress was relatively slow.
In the Battle of Taierzhuang, the defeated Isotani Renjie Division was eager to save face and was on the front line of the attack. After rapid replenishment, the division made a violent advance with 20,000 troops and a large number of heavy weapons.
Tang Enbo's troops on the periphery had been ordered to move to prevent the Japanese army from outflanking Xuzhou's rear. The small number of blocking troops left behind could not withstand the sharp offensive momentum of the Japanese army.
At this time, the position to the north of Taierzhuang had been torn open by the Japanese army, and the Japanese army immediately drove in.
Before the 60th Army had time to enter the position, the Japanese army was already killing them right before their eyes. The two armies met on a narrow road in an instant without knowing each other.
The 1081th Regiment, the vanguard of the Yunnan Army, had just advanced more than ten kilometers when it encountered the vanguard of the 10th Division of the Japanese Army Isotani Rensuke. Both armies were unprepared and a fierce melee broke out.
At the same time, almost all units of the 183rd Division of the Yunnan Army encountered the main force of the Japanese army.
The first three days of the battle were the most intense in the history of the Yunnan Army.
The Yunnan Army is located in a remote Yunnan province, and there are only a few enemies around it, all of which are warlord troops with weak combat effectiveness. Even the French colonial army has a weak combat effectiveness, and was severely defeated by the Black Flag Army back then.
The entire Yunnan Army has never fought against an army with such advanced equipment before!
The most powerful enemies of the Yunnan Army in the past ten years were actually the troops of the Workers' and Peasants' Party who were only equipped with light weapons.
At this time, facing the heavy artillery shells coming from the Japanese army, the Yunnan officers and soldiers were stunned for a time. The most experienced veterans in the army have never seen such a scene. Some recruits were trembling with fear, and some veterans were also shaking nervously.
But despite being afraid, none of the Yunnan officers and soldiers retreated after the war began, and still stood firm to their positions.
The Japanese artillery fire was extremely fierce. There were more than 100 Japanese artillery pieces attacking the Anentao position of the 182nd Division alone, and there were also more than a dozen bombers and fighter jets bombing and strafing back and forth.
Not to mention the officers and soldiers on the front line, even the command post of Division Commander An Entao, who was located relatively far back, was bombarded by Japanese artillery with hundreds of rounds of artillery shells.
At this time, Commander Lu Han called to ask An Entao about the specific battle situation, but he only heard a series of huge explosions on the phone. Lu Han was very surprised and asked:
"It sounds like an earthquake and thunder on your position. What is this sound?
An Entao braved the sound of fierce artillery fire and shouted loudly into the phone: "This is the sound of Japanese artillery shelling and bomb explosions!"
Lu Han was shocked: "Is the Japanese artillery fire really that powerful? You must be careful. After the bombardment by aircraft and artillery, the Japanese tanks and infantry will charge."
After a day and night of fierce fighting, the 183rd Division of the Yunnan Army suffered heavy casualties.
Pan Tuan's Yin Guohua camp defended Chen Wafang and was attacked by a Japanese brigade of more than a thousand people.
This battalion fought to the death and severely damaged the attacking Japanese troops. During the fierce battle, the battalion suffered almost all casualties, and Battalion Commander Yin Guohua was shot and died for his country.
The regiment leader Pan Shuoduan hurriedly sent another battalion to support, but this battalion was intercepted by another Japanese force outside the village.
Huang Yunlong, the deputy commander of the battalion who led the battalion during the fierce battle, died for his country, but was still unable to break through the Japanese blockade.
Under such circumstances, the remaining officers and soldiers of Yin Guohua Camp persisted in fighting to the last man.
In the end, none of the 500 people in the battalion survived except for a wounded soldier, Chen Mingliang, who was unconscious due to excessive blood loss and was later rescued by friendly forces. All of them died gloriously for their country.
In the final stage of the battle, the regiment leader Pan Shuoduan personally led the guard troops to try to break through the Japanese blockade, and barely succeeded. However, Pan Shuoduan himself was hit and injured by a machine gun bullet during the fierce battle.
In addition to Chen Wafang, the fighting was equally fierce in other places. The entire Xinbi brigade of the 183rd Division encountered fierce battles with the enemy at Xingjialou and Wushengtang.
Xin Biquan led a guard out of the village to contact the village for defense matters. Unexpectedly, he encountered a large Japanese army as soon as he arrived at the entrance of the village.
The two armies immediately engaged in a fierce exchange of fire. The guard platoon only had more than 50 people, so it was naturally no match for the hundreds of Japanese troops. The platoon struggled to block the Japanese army and suffered all casualties before barely protecting Xin Biquan from breaking through and retreating to the village.
As soon as the battle started, the brigade commander directly engaged the enemy. This had never happened before in the history of the Yunnan Army.
The Japanese army then rushed into the village, and the large Yunnan army in the village immediately counterattacked. The two armies fought fiercely in Wushengtang, and engaged in hand-to-hand combat everywhere in the village.
Some Yunnan officers and soldiers felt uncomfortable using French bayonets, so they simply threw away their rifles, pulled out their privately equipped Burmese knives, and fought hand-to-hand with the Japanese troops.
The Burmese knife is a knife commonly used by ethnic minorities in Yunnan, mainly made by the Achang people.
Back then, Yunnan was full of mountains and primeval forests. There were a lot of tigers, leopards, and wolves, and there were frequent conflicts between tribes.
Therefore, many ethnic minorities in Yunnan have the tradition of wearing swords. For example, men of the Dai, Wa, Brown, Jinuo, and Hani ethnic groups generally carry swords with them. The sword is their second life.
After thousands of years of hard work, Burmese knives during the Republic of China were exquisitely crafted, paying great attention to practical performance, and often used silver infiltration technology to make them bright and not easy to rust.
High-quality Burmese knives are extremely sharp and very practical. They cut iron like clay, and the tips are mostly flat. They are mainly used for chopping but not stabbing. They have no guard and are usually made of bamboo and copper wire. The knives of the toast nobles are Decorated with silver and ivory handles.
Most of the ethnic minorities in Yunnan do not use long weapons when fighting, but mostly use Burmese knives. This is mainly because Yunnan is full of mountainous jungles, and weapons such as spears and broadswords are not easy to deploy in the woods and are not as flexible as the shorter Burmese knives.
The Burmese knife is a sharp weapon in actual combat. Some mountainous ethnic minorities on the China-Myanmar border are still in the clan age. They sometimes kill living people to sacrifice their ancestors. If you use a Burmese knife, you can cut off the head of the sacrificer with one knife.
However, most of the equipment of the Yunnan Army is not used for hand-to-hand combat, because after all, it is no longer the era of cold weapons.
They wear Burmese knives mainly because Yunnan is a mountainous and jungle terrain with bushes everywhere, making it difficult to march. It is often necessary to use sharp Burmese knives as all mountain knives to open roads.
Burmese knives are extremely sharp, and many Yunnan officers and soldiers know how to use them. The Burmese sword was not inferior to the Japanese bayonet and the Japanese sword. For a time, the Burmese sword was against the Japanese bayonet, and blood flowed everywhere.
The ground was littered with the remains of Japanese and Yunnan Army soldiers. Some Japanese soldiers had their heads chopped off with Burmese knives, while others were split open from the shoulders to the waist.
From the night of the first day of fighting to noon of the second day, the Japanese troops who rushed into the village could not resist the bravery of the Yunnan army and began to slowly retreat backwards.
Xin Biquan saw that the Japanese army could no longer withstand it, so he jumped up, brandished his gun and rushed to the front, shouting: "Brothers, charge forward, even if you die, you can enter the Hall of Loyalty and Martyrs!"
The soldiers of the whole brigade immediately rushed and fought fiercely. The Japanese army was in chaos and retreated from the village in disgrace.
But at this moment, deputy brigade commander Ma Jiwu shouted: "Cavalry! Cavalry!"
A group of Japanese cavalry suddenly appeared.
The battlefield was so chaotic, with people charging everywhere, that they didn't notice the appearance of this cavalry at all.
By the time they discovered it, the cavalry was already only a few dozen meters away.
It has to be said that although they are also retreating, the combat quality of the Japanese army is extremely high. They keenly saw an officer at the front wearing the uniform of a senior officer, and immediately focused their fire on him.
Xin Biquan was unable to dodge and was hit by several bullets and fell to the ground.
But his mouth still shouted:
"Brothers, charge!"
"Save the brigade commander! Save the brigade commander!"
Ma Jiwu's eyes suddenly turned red.
Dozens of Yunnan Army soldiers desperately carried Brigadier Xin off the front line...
…
"Five Saints Church, Five Saints Church."
It was night, Xin Biquan's eyes were already distracted, but he kept mumbling this name.
"Brigadier, the Five Saints Church, the Five Holy Churches have been recaptured!"
Ma Jiwu, who had just hurried back from the front line, said with red eyes.
"well."
This news seemed to stimulate Xin Biquan, and his spirit seemed to get much better: "I can't do it, Ma Jiwu, you will take over the position of brigade commander and continue to command."
"Brigadier, I don't, you have to live, you have to live!" Ma Jiwu roared loudly.
"We, the Yunnan Army... have suffered decades of infamy, but today we are finally relieved..." Xin Biquan didn't seem to hear anything, and just murmured:
"Son... son... take care of yourself, yourself... Wang Shibei sets the Central Plains Day, and there are no family sacrifices..."
On the day when the Yunnan Army arrived at the front line to participate in the battle, Brigadier Xinbi, a senior officer of the Yunnan Army, died heroically for his country!
The entire brigade under his command suffered almost all casualties.
"For decades, the Japanese have bullied me too much. This time when I go out to fight against Japan, I have made arrangements for my family and vowed to repay the country with my life-threatening determination."
These were the heroic words of Brigadier Xin Biquan before setting off for the expedition.
This brave and capable general in the Yunnan Army fulfilled his oath with his blood and life!
(Note: The prototype of Brigadier Xin Biquan is Chen Zhongshu, the commander of the 542nd Brigade of the 183rd Division of the Yunnan Army, who was killed in action on April 22, 1938.)
