The Xuzhou battlefield caused the Japanese army to lose troops and generals, and fell into a huge passive situation.
During the fierce fighting on May 7, the situation changed dramatically again. At that time, General Juichi Terauchi, the commander-in-chief of the Xuzhou Battle, had already issued a general attack order, and the 250,000 Japanese troops near Xuzhou attacked across the board.
As the main force of the attack, the number of Japanese troops on the North Road quickly increased to more than 100,000, and Yuwang Mountain was also the number one target of their attack.
At this time, Li Zongren also knew the Japanese army's intentions, and immediately arranged for various branches of the national army to break out.
However, as the northern barrier of Xuzhou, Yuwang Mountain must not be abandoned at will. As long as Yuwang Mountain can be defended, the national army in Xuzhou can retreat calmly, and the Japanese army's encirclement cannot be tightened. Therefore, Yuwang Mountain must hold on until the last moment.
Li Zongren issued an order to Lu Han to defend Yuwang Mountain until every soldier was killed.
The Japanese troops from all walks of life here tried their best to attack the national defense line. All kinds of heavy weapons were on the front line. The intensity of the attack was jaw-dropping, and they had the potential to eat up the national army in one bite.
Yuwang Mountain of the Yunnan Army suffered the most violent blow in history. Japanese heavy artillery, mountain artillery, field artillery, and infantry artillery shells fell on the Yunnan Army position like raindrops. The rocks were blown to pieces, and the trees were blown up several meters high!
The Yunnan Army's position on the hill of Yuwang Mountain was almost completely destroyed. At this time, the Japanese infantry had already begun to charge, and it was too late to repair the position.
With no other choice, the Yunnan army piled up the bodies of the fallen martyrs as bunkers and struggled to resist the Japanese attack.
At that time, the Yunnan Army suffered heavy casualties, and all the flat land north of Yuwang Mountain was filled with the remains of martyrs. There was really no place to bury the remains of the newly martyred martyrs. Due to the fierce fighting at that time, the body could not be transported.
The bodies of the martyrs of the Yunnan Army had to be placed in the trenches. The living soldiers of the Yunnan Army ate and rested next to the bodies of the martyrs. When the battle was fierce, they could only walk around on the bodies of the martyrs.
The war has reached this point, and everyone is red-eyed. The officers and soldiers of the Yunnan Army witnessed the sacrifice of so many comrades in arms, and they all held on with determination to die and had no intention of leaving Yuwang Mountain alive.
As a result, although the Japanese army tried their best to attack, they were still unable to succeed.
The Yunnan Army continued to defend like this until May 17, when the main force of the Xuzhou National Army successfully retreated, and most of the Yuwang Mountain was still in the hands of the Yunnan Army.
On the evening of the 17th, after completing the blocking mission at Yuwang Mountain, the 60th Army of the Yunnan Army retreated to Xuzhou on Li Zongren's order to prepare for the entire army's retreat.
On the 18th, the Yunnan Army and Sun Lianzhong's Northwest Army were the last troops to withdraw from Xuzhou. At that time, Li Zongren's Fifth Theater Command had also been transferred.
On the 19th, the empty city of Xuzhou was captured by the Japanese army!
The Yunnan Army suffered heavy casualties in the Battle of Taierzhuang, with the 60th Army suffering over 14,000 casualties. Among them, the 182nd Division and the remainder of the 183rd Division were only organized into one regiment. The 184th Division, as a reserve force, had fewer casualties, and the remainder was only organized into three regiments.
The entire army grew from 12 infantry regiments to 5 infantry regiments, and a full 7 regiments were lost.
Among them, more than 5,000 people died for their country, and more than 10,000 people were injured. The number of casualties among officers above the platoon leader of the Yunnan Army was as high as 500. Among senior officers, one brigade commander died for his country and one was injured. Four regiment leaders died for their country and seven were injured.
For a battle, the high-ranking officers suffered such casualties, which shows that the battle was extremely fierce, and the Yunnan Army fought very hard indeed.
The Yunnan Army announced the annihilation of more than 7,000 Japanese troops. According to post-war estimates, the total number of Japanese casualties exceeded 5,000, and all of them were casualties from the Japanese Army's Class A first-class divisions. They were not baggage troops or logistics troops.
The Chairman himself also sent a commendation message:
Commander Lu of Taierzhuang, your troops have fought bravely and offered you deep condolences. The hardships faced by the enemy are especially greater than mine. I hope to encourage my troops to continue their efforts and overwhelm the Japanese pirates to show our national prestige.
The Japanese army originally thought that they would be able to capture Taierzhuang within two or three days, but they did not expect that they failed to capture it after fighting for half a month. The Japanese military headquarters had no choice but to find an excuse to say that the Yuwangshan defense force was the most elite central army of the national army.
However, the remains of a large number of fallen soldiers of the Yunnan Army proved that they were Yunnan troops.
Everyone in the Japanese military knew that the Yunnan Army's combat effectiveness was very weak and vulnerable.
Therefore, the high-level Japanese army did not understand the defeat, so they had to make random speculations and announced to the outside world: In the Lunan Battle, our army's offensive at Yuwang Mountain was frustrated and progress was unfavorable. The main reason was that Soviet officers were found to be taking command near Yuwang Mountain.
In fact, the Soviet advisers were not attached to the National Army Army Combat Forces at that time, and it would be a few months before they arrived for the battle in Wuhan.
Under the cover of the defense of the national army, hundreds of thousands of national troops in Xuzhou successfully broke through.
Compared with Tang Shengzhi, who abandoned his troops and fled during the Battle of Nanjing, Li Zongren persisted almost until the last moment.
On the evening of the 18th, after most of the troops began to retreat, Li Zongren led more than 700 people from the Fifth Theater Command to retreat out of Xuzhou under the protection of 2,000 people from a division.
At that time, the first targets that Japanese aircraft wanted to attack were senior officers of the National Army. They specialized in bombing cars and strafing National Army officers on horseback and wearing high-level military uniforms.
So Li Zongren himself changed into soldier's uniform and stipulated that no one in the army was allowed to ride a horse. Except for the sick, who had to take a trolley, the rest of the people marched on foot. funny
Li Zongren took a small cart himself and selected several strong soldiers to take turns pushing the cart.
Sometimes he lay in the car, sometimes he got out and walked. The team marched entirely on rural roads surrounded by a sea of wheat. They did not bother the county government or township offices at night and stayed in villages and towns.
During this period, we encountered several bombing and strafing attacks by Japanese aircraft, but fortunately the casualties were limited.
The Japanese cavalry troops did not dare to attack such a large group of national troops. After an arduous march of more than 500 miles over four days, Li Zongren and his party safely arrived in Fuyang on May 22 and broke through the Japanese encirclement.
After successfully completing the cover mission, Liu Ruming's 68th Army of more than 30,000 people immediately dispersed the troops into several regiments to break out.
Led by the anti-Japanese people in Shandong, they calmly got out of the gaps in the Japanese encirclement with very few casualties.
The retreat of the national army was very successful. Not one of the 60 divisions was annihilated by the Japanese army. None of the senior officers were captured alive or dead in battle, not even a single school-level officer was captured.
After a full month of fierce fighting, the Japanese army used 250,000 troops and suffered more than 20,000 casualties, but they did not capture any of the main forces of the national army.
Regarding this, both the Japanese Army Minister Sugi Sugimoto, the North China Front Commander Juichi Terauchi, and the Central China Front Commander Hata Shunroku were deeply ashamed.
It is equivalent to using the Jehol hunting that Emperor Kangxi sent out with thousands of people. The momentum was amazing. In the end, thousands of people only shot a few rabbits. Isn't it a big joke?
Meng Shaoyuan also knew that in a certain sense, the Battle of Xuzhou was not a failure for the national army.
Because the purpose of the Xuzhou Battle was to find an opportunity to annihilate the main force of the Japanese army, delay the start of the Wuhan Battle, and then find an opportunity to evacuate the battlefield.
In the Battle of Taierzhuang, the first section of the Japanese army was annihilated and the two divisions of the Japanese army were forced to flee in embarrassment, thus achieving the goal.
In the face of a fierce attack and encirclement by the Japanese army of 250,000, if the Chinese army held on until the whole army collapsed like the Soviet army in the Battle of Kiev, then the main force of the 600,000 Chinese army would be annihilated by the Japanese army.
The resulting domino effect was that the Battle of Wuhan failed without even being fought. The second layer of defense circle was quickly captured by the Japanese army at a very small cost, and Sichuan Province would definitely not be able to save it.
In this way, the war of resistance will probably end with the victory of the Japanese army.
Meng Shaoyuan once heard his friend Xiao Yan say this:
Judging from the battle of Xuzhou, it is undeniable that the top brass of the national army had a very clear understanding of the war situation. They did not care about the gains and losses of one city or one place, nor did they change the combat policy due to international public opinion, thus preserving the effective strength of the national army and ensuring It ensured the progress of the protracted war and the final victory of the national army in the war of resistance.
In the retreat, Li Zongren also managed the retreat properly, which also shows his superb ability as a famous general.
Compared with Tang Shengzhi in Nanjing who commanded haphazardly and was incompetent and cowardly, Li Zongren very calmly commanded the troops to successfully break through. He insisted on evacuating Xuzhou until the last moment, which was really not easy.
At this time, Luo Liangjian glanced at Meng Shaoyuan: "Shaoyuan, we fought very hard in the defense of Xuzhou, but we also achieved significant results. Li Zongren is still very capable. However, when Li Zongren retreated, he left a large amount of supplies behind. This batch of materials needs to be distributed urgently to the national army troops fighting behind enemy lines in the future, as well as the anti-Japanese army."
What's the meaning?
Tell yourself what to do with allocating supplies? Meng Shaoyuan didn't understand for a moment.
"This batch of supplies is jointly handled by Li Zongren's cronies, Xue Sixu, director of the Attendance Office, and Hou Yongsheng, director of the Xuzhou Strategic Materials Management Office. Some of them have been distributed to the national troops fighting behind enemy lines, some have been hidden on the spot, and some Part of it was transported to the Sulu junction in advance when the decision was made to retreat, and was prepared to be transferred all the way to central Jiangsu and northern Jiangsu."
Luo Liangjian said slowly: "In Jiangsu and Shandong, the commander of the Sulu Theater Yu Xuezhong, the chairman of Shandong Province and the security commander of Shandong Province Shen Honglie, and the chairman of Jiangsu Province and the commander of the 89th Army Han Deqin led 200,000 athletes to fight in Sulu , fighting the Japanese army behind enemy lines for a long time, it is of great significance to them to distribute this batch of materials to them."
Meng Shaoyuan suddenly noticed something.
Luo Liangjian said nonchalantly: "However, whether in Shandong or Jiangsu, there are a group of troops who are appointed by the government and given numbers, but do not obey the government's orders very much."
Meng Shaoyuan felt clear in his heart, knowing that his guess was not wrong at all, but this was the thing he was most afraid of hearing.
"Shao Yuan, tell me, who are these armed forces?"
Luo Liangjian just asked this question to Meng Shaoyuan.
Meng Shaoyuan could only smile bitterly and said cautiously: "They are the Eighteenth Army active in Shandong and the Fourth Route Army which is very active in Jiangsu."
"It's good that you know." Luo Liangjian took a puff of cigarette: "They are also keeping an eye on this batch of supplies. Li Zongren seems to also intend to distribute the supplies to them."
Don't, don't.
Meng Shaoyuan was afraid that something might happen, so he heard Luo Liangjian say:
"I'm going to send you there to coordinate the distribution of this batch of important supplies as a special observer in the Chairman's Attendant Room!"
