"Kill the chicken for..."
Seeing that the personnel of the 3rd Army were unwilling to surrender, the Japanese lost their last patience and gathered hundreds of Japanese soldiers to attack the core fortifications on the top of the mountain.
All military personnel who were able to pick up guns and fight took to the battlefield to fight the Japanese to the death;
Groups of soldiers died due to being outnumbered, the defense lines were broken through layer by layer, and the gunshots were getting closer and closer to the military headquarters.
Commander Tang knew that he would not be spared and did not want to be captured, so he took out his pistol and drank the bullet and committed suicide, becoming the first military commander to die since the beginning of the Zhongtiao Mountain War.
The headquarters of the Third Army was completely wiped out, and no one survived. The Yunnan Army was so strong.
At the same time, the 12th Division of the Third Army was intercepted by a Japanese regiment after breaking through to Hujiayu. The division commander Cun Xingqi was shot in the chest and seriously injured, but he still led his troops to fight hard.
On the 13th, Cunbu was also surrounded by Japanese troops. Thousands of Japanese soldiers launched a fierce attack on the division's position, and Japanese planes also flew over to support the battle.
"Boom boom boom..."
"Boom boom boom..."
Strings of artillery shells were thrown at the positions of the 12th Division for free. Groups of soldiers were swallowed up by the explosion, causing heavy casualties and staining the fertile soil with blood.
"You are a devil raised by wolves, I will fight with you!"
A second lieutenant platoon leader raised his machine gun and fired wildly at the Japanese plane. This was his last stubbornness as a soldier.
"Ta-ta-ta..."
"Ta-ta-ta..."
A string of bullets were fired into the sky, which was also an accusation against the sky. This battle was too painful. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers, unable to use their strength, were massacred by the Japanese.
"Boom boom boom..."
The Japanese plane dropped a string of bombs, and the second lieutenant platoon leader and dozens of soldiers all fell in a pool of blood.
"Kill, fight with the devil!"
Commander Cun shouted loudly.
"Boom boom boom..."
"Boom boom boom..."
Dozens of artillery shells roared into the division headquarters position of the 12th Division. A series of explosions annihilated the division headquarters position. Commander Inch, who was directing the battle, was injured twice, and his right leg was blown off by enemy artillery.
He wanted to kill the thief but was unable to save himself. In order not to be taken prisoner, Commander Cun pulled out the pistol from his waist, pointed it at the temple and shot himself.
Another lieutenant general and division commander died for his country. Following Commander Hao of the Ninth Army and Commander Liu of the 54th Division in the Battle of Xinkou, this is another tragic epic of an army's commander and division commander dying for their country at the same time.
The main force of the Third Army was defeated by the Japanese. There were broken soldiers everywhere who abandoned their helmets and armor. The Central Army had no time to gather them, and the Japanese could not free their hands to encircle and annihilate them.
While the defenders retreated across the board, the Japanese took advantage of their superior strength and fierce artillery fire and quickly completed the first phase of the combat mission;
——Breaked through all the defensive positions in the Zhongtiao Mountain area, and successively occupied Yuanqu, Jiyuan, Mengxian, Pinglu and other county towns and related pass strongholds.
Various ferries on the north bank of the river were blocked with heavy troops. The two main group armies in Zhongtiao Mountain were cut into several large pieces that were not connected with each other by the Japanese troops.
The Japs' 100,000-strong army attacked from all sides from the northern, eastern, western and northeastern fronts. Their penetration was resolute and their troops were deployed with a speed that was textbook-like.
On the other hand, the countermeasures formulated by the national army at the beginning were too ambitious and unrealistic;
After the fighting began, the troops were in disarray, their command was chaotic, and the troops were uncoordinated with each other.
Either they demand to "restore the original position" regardless of the facts, or they demand to "stick to the spot", and the orders are changed day and night. Some troops are still resisting desperately, and some troops run away, digging holes for each other, killing fellow Taoists and not the poor Taoists. In this way It would be really awesome to be able to defeat the Japanese.
The Japanese attack was so devastating that even Xiao Zhuoyinan thought that the ministries were panicking to report military information. He couldn't believe that the Japanese had completed the internal and external double encirclement of the Kuomintang army so quickly;
Then the battle in southern Shanxi entered the second stage of the battle. The Japanese began to mobilize heavy troops to clear out the defeated national troops scattered in various grids.
In the first stage of the battle, the Japs mainly used powerful troops to intersperse and cut. They did not kill too many Kuomintang troops. Many troops were just defeated and surrounded. The real results will be in the second phase of the dragnet-style clearing operation;
If the trend in another time and space is followed, in the second phase of the battle, tens of thousands of the main force of the Central Army will be casualties, tens of thousands of people will be captured, the remaining tens of thousands of remnants will break through the encirclement, and most of the Zhongtiao Mountain guerrilla zone will fall.
The Japanese achieved a brilliant victory, and the base areas of the Eighth Route Army were also surrounded by numerous Japanese armies. They entered the most difficult period in 1942. The base areas were severely shrunk and the soldiers and civilians suffered heavy casualties;
The number of main troops of the Eighth Route Army dropped for the first time, and many base areas claimed to be able to penetrate with one shot. It was not until early 1944 that they recovered.
It can be said that since the beginning of 1941 when the two sides in southern Anhui turned against each other, they had been fighting against each other, giving the Japanese an opportunity, and Zhong Cai shot himself in the foot;
In just over half a month, the hundreds of thousands of Central Army elites in the Zhongtiao Mountain guerrilla zone were defeated, giving the Japanese a huge advantage. Therefore, unity against the Japanese is the key to victory.
In the middle of Shu, the battle command room of the National Military Commission was abuzz with people.
The huge sand table was filled with densely packed flags. As the blue flags were pulled out one after another and replaced by white flags representing the Japanese, Zhong Cao's face was so gloomy that water dripped from his face.
"Respect is misleading me, respect is misleading me!"
Wei Junru, the commander of the First War Zone, was also disheartened, seeing that the Zhongtiao Mountain defense line he had worked so hard to build was completely destroyed by the Japanese;
The main armies were all trapped in a tight siege, and he, the commander of the war zone, was still talking on paper in front of the sand table thousands of miles away. Anyone would be angry, but he dared not speak out;
Without seeing the initiator, the responsibility was conveniently passed on to He Jingzhi, who was commanding the battle on the front line?
It was due to his mistake that he did not realize at all that this was the consequences of his changing generals on the spot and overstepping his command!
"Junru, you have a good relationship with Brother Yujie. If you ask him to send the Eighth Route Army to join the war, the government will not be stingy with combat supplies and military pay. As long as they send troops, everything will be easy."
In the past few days, the Japs had beaten Zongcai to pieces. For the sake of hundreds of thousands of Central Army elites, he no longer cared about his face. He wanted to ask the Eighth Route Army to send troops to help, and he also dug a hole for the Eighth Route Army to draw the Japs' firepower to the Eighth Route Army. Go to the base.
Zhongcai's plan was like a thunderbolt. He asked the Eighth Route Army to assist in the battle. It was a lie. His real purpose was to divert hundreds of thousands of Japs to the east.
Wei Junru could naturally understand the true intention of Zhongcai, and secretly despised him in his heart:
"If I had known this, why bother? No one is a fool, but there are more than 100,000 elite Japanese soldiers. Anyone who falls in love will have to shed several layers of skin, and the Eighth Route Army may not send troops."
General Wei despised and despised him. He still had to send power to the Eighth Route Army. He could not watch hundreds of thousands of elites being wiped out by the Japanese.
"Zhongcai, I can call Brother Yujie and ask them to send troops to help. However, the government has strict orders before, not allowing any soldiers of the Eighth Route Army to enter southern and western Shanxi for combat and activities. It is estimated that the Eighth Route Army does not dare to send troops directly."
After hearing this, Mr. Zhong's face turned slightly red, and then it returned to its original state. His face had been trained to be able to express itself freely.
At this time, he still had a sense of luck and felt that the situation would not deteriorate beyond control. It was not that he was unwilling to allow the Eighth Route Army to enter southern and western Shanxi.
"Junru, since we have an appointment in advance, please ask the Eighth Route Army to use guerrilla warfare methods to cut off Tongpu Road, Zhengtai Road, Pinghan Road, etc., and launch a containment campaign against the Japanese in southeastern Shanxi, northwest Shanxi, central Shanxi, and Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei. For sexual warfare, the troop strength cannot be less than 30 regiments!"
