On the Western Front, Ren'an and Qiang, the war situation suddenly changed
On April 13, Commander-in-Chief John Bull, who was stationed in the Emerald Kingdom, was under great pressure. Regardless of the combat plan and cooperative operations coordinated with the expeditionary force, he decided to abandon the Emerald Kingdom and retreat to the Asan Kingdom. He also asked the Chinese Expeditionary Force to take over John Bull's defense on the western front and protect them. Retreat, the commander of the expeditionary force has been replaced by Luo Youqing.
Two days later, he was under great pressure and ordered a comprehensive blasting of the Anqiang Oilfield. However, the blasting task could not be completed until noon on the 16th, so he asked the Chinese Expeditionary Army to send troops to assist with reinforcements.
After obtaining Zhongcai's consent, General Luo, Commander-in-Chief of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, ordered Sun Fumin, Commander of the New 38th Division, to lead his troops to support John Bull;
At the same time, in order to fill the vacancy caused by the westward movement of the New 38th Division, General Luo ordered the Sixth and Sixth Army to dispatch the New 28th Division from Lashio to the New 38th Division's defense area. This resulted in the main force of the expeditionary force being transferred westward, leaving the eastern front empty. crisis.
After Chu Xiong learned of this situation, he called General Luo and reminded him that John Bull could not be trusted. The new 28th Division could not move westward, otherwise there would be a gap at the junction with the John Bull defense area, and beware of the Japanese mechanized force's 56th Division passing through at high speed. , in the form of a long-distance attack, the joint forces of the two armies directly attacked Lashio along the Salween River Valley.
Once Lashio is captured by the Japanese, the connection between the expeditionary force and Yunnan Province will be cut off, and the consequences will be disastrous;
It was suggested that the New Ninth Division be transferred as a reserve force to defend Lashio, but unfortunately it did not attract the attention of General Luo.
Seeing that nothing could be done, Chu Xiong used a secret radio to call Zhang Yu, the commander of the New Ninth Division, asking him to be prepared for the main force of the expeditionary force to be defeated after the retreat was cut off;
On the one hand, we must make every effort to block the attack, cover the retreat of the main force of the expeditionary force, collect the broken troops, and minimize losses.
At the same time, he also ordered the New 7th Division to be ready for a decisive blow at any time. For the sake of one hundred thousand soldiers, Chu Xiong could only wipe the butt of Zhong Cao's arrogance this time.
There is no way to fight this battle with Zhongcai, the master of micro-management. Instead of doing this, it is better to do everything possible to cover their safe return to the country, and the Eighth Route Army will take over all the battlefields of the expeditionary force.
Chu Xiong has already settled for the next best thing...
On April 16, the 1st Brigade of the 1st Division of the British Army, the 17th British-Indian Army Division, and the 7th John Bull Armored Brigade abandoned the outer defense line of Magway and retreated northward along the highway, completely ignoring the agreement between the two sides to fight together. ;
Due to the previous containment of the 215th Regiment of the Japanese 33rd Division, John Bull did not discover the hidden 214th Regiment.
Their thoughts were not on this at all, they just wanted to retreat to Asan Kingdom as soon as possible under the cover of the Chinese Expeditionary Force.
The next day, the 2nd Brigade of the 1st Division of the British Army prepared to blow up the oil field in accordance with the requirements of the pressured commander. Brigadier General Rodman of the 2nd Brigade was eager to return home and kept looking at his watch in the headquarters.
At this time, a communications staff officer stumbled in and reported in a panic:
"Your Excellency General, the Pingqiang River Bridge is lost! The Japanese troops attacked our bridge-defending troops in the early morning. The bridge-defending troops were defeated and the Pingqiang River Bridge fell into the hands of the Japanese—"
"Shit!"
Brigadier General Rodman cursed loudly and his expression became panicked. The Pingqiang River Bridge was the escape route reserved for the 2nd Brigade. The retreat was suddenly cut off. It was strange that he didn't get angry in a hurry.
Before they had time to react, people came over one after another to report that Japs had appeared at the traffic junctions in the east, north, and south directions, and they were surrounded.
"Adjutant, call General Slim quickly and tell him that our department and a large number of overseas Chinese, about 7,000 people, are surrounded by Japanese soldiers and request rescue."
Lieutenant General Slim, commander of the British First Army, was frightened after receiving Brigadier General Rodman's telegram requesting support, and immediately called General Stevie to request support.
At this time, General Stevie had just left the Independent Division and rushed to meet with the expeditionary force headquarters. Because the new order came down, the command relationship between the expeditionary force and him was finally clarified;
Zhongcai agreed that the expeditionary force headquarters would be under his control. This gave him the illusion that he could command the fifth and sixth armies of the expeditionary force at will.
Now that Chu Xiong of the Eighth Route Army had agreed to obey his command, the old man's mind began to come alive again, and a new counterattack plan was formed in his head;
Without John Bull's counterattack plan, all this old man could think about was getting to the light as soon as possible.
After receiving Slim's call for help on the road, Stevie immediately ordered General Luo to send the nearby New 38th Division to rescue John Bull of Ren'anqiang.
After receiving the order from General Luo, Sun Fumin immediately ordered An Qiang, the reinforcement of the 113th Regiment, to wipe John Bull's butt.
At dusk that day, Liu Fangwu, commander of the 113th Regiment, was ordered to lead his troops to advance to the north bank of the Pingqiang River to prepare for the attack. John Bull also provided 12 light tanks and 3 artillery pieces to coordinate the operation;
In fact, what John Bull didn't know was that the Japanese who captured the Pingqiang River Bridge only had a pure infantry brigade, and there were hundreds of Japanese soldiers. They could have rushed over by themselves.
However, the British Rodman Brigade, which had been defeated by the Japanese, did not even have the courage to break out of the encirclement, and put all its hopes on the rescue of the expeditionary force.
When he found out that there was only one dissatisfied Japanese brigade on the north bank of the bridge, Commander Liu angrily cursed:
"That stupid John Bull, who is usually awesome and coaxing, scared half a team of Japanese soldiers so much that they didn't even dare to urinate!"
A battalion commander immediately called for battle:
"Captain, please stop scolding these eggless people. Just leave those Japs on the river bank to our first battalion!"
Commander Liu was grumbling, but he was not ambiguous at all when it came time to direct operations. He said to the first battalion commander:
"Batalion Commander Li, I will give you all the 12 armored vehicles and three mountain cannons assigned to us by John Bull. If you want to defeat the hundreds of ghosts on the north bank of the river with a single charge, I will teach these ghosts how to fight!"
Battalion Commander Li excitedly accepted the order and left. 12 tanks cooperated in the battle. He had never fought such a rich battle.
Battalion Commander Li commanded 12 tanks to clear the way, and a battalion of officers and soldiers accompanied the tanks in the charge. The skill of the infantry-tank coordination made John Bull's tank driver couldn't help but give a thumbs up.
"Boom boom boom..."
"Boom boom boom..."
The Japs in Gaoyan's brigade were traveling at high speed and did not carry heavy firepower. They were rushed by 12 tanks and were immediately unable to hold on. They had never encountered such a sharp steel assault, and they were killed and injured in just ten minutes. Dozens of people.
Seeing that he could not defeat the first battalion with tanks, Major Gao Yan gave up his attempt to defend the trapped beasts on the north bank of the river. Except for leaving the 9th Squadron as cover, the rest of the troops quickly retreated south to join the main force of the 214th Regiment.
At dawn that day, the First Battalion launched an attack on the 9th Squadron, which was behind the Japanese troops. After a fierce battle, the 9th Squadron was defeated in one fell swoop.
The 3rd Battalion of the 113th Regiment wanted to cross the river in pursuit, but failed due to the stubborn resistance of the Japanese and suffered more than ten casualties.
At the same time, after learning that the reinforcements had arrived, the besieged John Bull mustered up the courage to break out and respond, but was easily repelled by the Japanese, leaving hundreds of corpses;
From then on, they never dared to break through, pinning all their hopes on the rescue of the New 38th Division.
