Lost and Spy

Chapter 716 Material Problems
The Xuzhou battlefield caused the Japanese army to lose troops and generals, and fell into a huge passive situation.

From the fierce battle to May 5, the situation changed dramatically again.At that time, the commander-in-chief of the Xuzhou Battle, General Hisashi Terauchi, had issued a general attack order, and 7 Japanese troops near Xuzhou stormed across the board.

As the main force of the attack, the strength of the Japanese army on the North Road quickly increased to more than 10, and Yuwang Mountain was also their number one target.

At this time, Li Zongren also knew the intention of the Japanese army, and immediately arranged for the various ministries of the national army to break through.

However, Yuwang Mountain, as a barrier to the north of Xuzhou, must not be given up at will.As long as Yuwangshan can be defended, the national army in Xuzhou can retreat calmly, and the encirclement of the Japanese army will not be tight, so Yuwangshan must hold on to the last moment.

Li Zongren gave Lu Han the death order to guard Yuwang Mountain even if he fought until every soldier died.

The Japanese troops from all walks of life here tried their best to storm the national army's defense line, and all kinds of heavy weapons were on the front line.

The Yuwang Mountain of the Dian Army suffered the most violent blow in history. The shells of the Japanese heavy artillery, mountain artillery, field artillery, and infantry artillery fell on the Dian Army's position like raindrops. The rocks were blown to pieces, and the trees were blown up several meters high!
The Dian army's position on the hill of Yuwang Mountain was almost completely destroyed. At this time, the Japanese infantry had begun to charge, and it was too late to repair the position.

There was no way, the Yunnan army piled up the remains of the martyrs who died in battle as a bunker, struggling to resist the Japanese attack.

At that time, the Dian 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 bodies of newly martyred martyrs.At that time, due to the fierce fighting, the remains could not be transported.

The remains of the martyrs of the Dian Army had to be placed in the trenches. The Dian Army’s living soldiers ate and rested next to the remains of the martyrs. When the fighting was fierce, they could only walk around on the remains of the martyrs.

At this point in the war, everyone was red-eyed.After witnessing the sacrifices of so many comrades-in-arms, the officers and soldiers of the Dian Army held on with a mortal determination, and did not plan to leave Yuwang Mountain alive.

In this way, although the Japanese army tried their best to attack, they were still unable to succeed.

The Dian Army kept on guarding in this way until the main force of the Xuzhou National Army retreated successfully on May 5, and most of the Dian Army was still in the hands of Yuwangshan.

On the evening of the 17th, after completing the blocking mission on Yuwang Mountain, the 60th Army of the Dian Army retreated to Xuzhou under the order of Li Zongren, preparing for the entire army to retreat.

On the 18th, the Dian 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!
滇军在台儿庄战役中伤亡相当惨重，60军全军伤亡高达1万4000多人。其中182师，183师余部仅仅编为1个团，184师作为预备队伤亡较少，余部也仅仅编为3个团。

The whole army has grown from 12 infantry regiments to 5 infantry regiments, and lost a full 7 regiments.

Among them, more than 5000 people were martyred, and more than 1 were injured. The casualties of officers above the platoon leader of the Yunnan Army were as high as 500. Among the senior officers, 1 brigade commander was martyred and 1 was injured.

For a battle, the high-ranking officers suffered casualties like this, indicating that the battle was really fierce, and the Dian army was indeed very fierce.

The Dian Army announced the annihilation of more than 7000 Japanese troops. According to post-war estimates, the total number of Japanese casualties exceeded 5000, and all of them were casualties of the first-class Japanese divisions. They were not heavy-duty or logistic troops.

The chairman himself also sent a commendation telegram:

Commander Lu of Taierzhuang, your troops have fought bravely, comforted you deeply, and investigated the hardships of the enemy, which is even worse than mine. I hope to encourage your troops to continue to work hard to overwhelm the Japanese pirates and demonstrate our national prestige.

The Japanese army originally thought that Taierzhuang would be captured within two or three days, but they did not expect to take it after fighting for half a month.The Japanese military 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 dead soldiers of the Yunnan Army proved that they were troops from Yunnan.

Everyone in the Japanese military knows that the Yunnan Army's combat effectiveness is very weak and vulnerable.

Therefore, the high-level Japanese army did not understand the defeat, so they had to speculate wildly, and announced to the outside world: In the Lunan campaign, our army’s offensive on Yuwang Mountain was frustrated and the progress was not good. The main reason was that Soviet officers were found to be in command near Yuwang Mountain.

In fact, the Soviet advisers were not attached to the combat troops of the National Army at that time, and when they arrived in the army, it would be a few months before the battle in Wuhan.

Under the cover of various ministries of the national army, hundreds of thousands of national troops in Xuzhou succeeded in breaking through.

Compared to Tang Shengzhi, who was the first to leave the troops and escape during the Nanjing Defense War, Li Zongren almost persisted to the last moment.

On the evening of the 18th, Li Zongren led more than 700 people from the Fifth Theater Command and retreated to Xuzhou under the protection of a division of 2000 people after most of them began to retreat.

At that time, the first Japanese planes to attack were senior military officers of the national army. They specially bombed cars and strafed national army officers who were riding horses and wearing high-level military uniforms.

So Li Zongren himself changed into a soldier's costume and stipulated that no one in the army should ride a horse.Except for sick patients who need to take small carts, the rest will march on foot.

Li Zongren took a small cart by himself, and selected several strong soldiers to push the cart in turn.

Sometimes he lay in the car, sometimes he got out of the car and walked.The team marched completely on the rural trails amidst a sea of ​​wheat, and did not bother the county government or township office at night, and lived in villages and towns.

During the period, it was bombed and strafed by Japanese aircraft several times, but fortunately the casualties were limited.

And the Japanese cavalry did not dare to attack such a large national army.After a arduous march of more than 4 miles in four days, Li Zongren and his party arrived in Fuyang safely on May 500, breaking through the encirclement of the Japanese army.

After Liu Ruming's 68th Army of more than 3 people successfully completed the cover mission, they immediately dispersed the troops into several regiments to break through.

Led by the anti-Japanese people in Shandong, they calmly slipped out of the gaps in the encirclement of the Japanese army with very few casualties.

The retreat of the national army was very successful. None of the 60 divisions were annihilated by the Japanese army, and none of the senior officers were captured alive. Not even a school-level officer was captured.

After a full month of fierce fighting, the Japanese army used 1 troops and suffered more than 25 casualties, but they did not seize any main force of the national army at all.

Regarding this, both the Japanese Army Minister Sugisugi Moto, the North China Front Army Commander Terauchi Shouichi, and the Central China Front Army Commander Hata Shunroku are deeply ashamed.

It is equivalent to using the Jehol hunting that Emperor Kangxi dispatched thousands of people back then. The momentum was amazing, but the thousands of people only killed a few rabbits. Isn't it a big joke?

Meng Shaoyuan also knew that in a sense, the National Army did not fail in any sense in the Xuzhou Battle.

Because the purpose of the Battle of Xuzhou was to find an opportunity to annihilate the main force of the Japanese army, delay the start of the Battle of Wuhan, and then find an opportunity to withdraw from the battlefield.

The Taierzhuang Campaign annihilated a part of the Japanese army and forced the two divisions of the Japanese army to flee in embarrassment, which has already accomplished its purpose.

In the face of the 25 Japanese army's onslaught to encircle, if the national army defended until the whole army collapsed like the Soviet army in the Kyiv battle, then the 60 main force of the national army would be wiped out by the Japanese army.

The resulting domino effect is that the Wuhan battle failed without being fought.The second layer of defensive circle was quickly captured by the Japanese army at a small cost, and Sichuan Province would definitely not be able to keep it.

In this way, the war of resistance may end with the victory of the Japanese army.

Meng Shaoyuan once heard his friend Xiaoyan say this:
As far as the Xuzhou battle is concerned, it is undeniable that the high-level national army has a very clear understanding of the battle situation. They did not care about the gains and losses of one city or one place, nor did they change the combat policy because of international public opinion, thus preserving the vitality of the national army and ensuring It not only ensured the progress of the protracted war, but also guaranteed the final victory of the national army in the war of resistance.

In the retreat, Li Zongren also managed to command properly on the whole, which also shows his superb ability as a famous general.

Compared with Tang Shengzhi in Nanjing who commanded indiscriminately and was incompetent and cowardly, Li Zongren commanded the troops very calmly and successfully broke 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 great results. Li Zongren is still quite capable. However, when Li Zongren retreated, he left a large amount of supplies This batch of supplies is urgently needed for distribution to the national army units that will fight behind enemy lines in the future, as well as the anti-Japanese troops.”

What do you mean?
Tell yourself what to do with the distribution of materials?Meng Shaoyuan didn't understand for a moment.

"This batch of materials is jointly in charge of Li Zongren's confidant, Xue Sixu, director of the attendant office, and Hou Yongsheng, director of the Xuzhou Strategic Material Management Office. Part of it was transported to the Sulu junction in advance when it was decided to retreat, and it was going to be transferred all the way to central Jiangsu and northern Jiangsu."

Luo Liangjian said slowly: "In Jiangsu and Shandong, Yu Xuezhong, the commander of the Sulu war zone, Shen Honglie, the chairman of SD Province and concurrently the security commander of SD Province, and Han Deqin, the chairman of Jiangsu Province and the commander of the 89th Army, led 20 athletes to Sulu. It is of great significance to them to distribute this batch of supplies to the Japanese army for long-term battles behind enemy lines."

Meng Shaoyuan suddenly sensed something faintly.

Luo Liangjian said nonchalantly: "However, no matter in Shandong or Jiangsu, there are a group of troops who are appointed by the government and given designations, but they don't obey the government's orders very much."

Meng Shaoyuan was clear in his heart, knowing that his guess was not wrong at all, and this happened to be the thing he was most afraid of hearing.

"Shaoyuan, tell me, who are these armed forces?"

Luo Liangjian just threw this question to Meng Shaoyuan.

Meng Shaoyuan could only give a wry smile, and said cautiously, "It's the [-]th Army that is active in Shandong, and the Fourth Route Army that is very active in Jiangsu."

"It's good that you know." Luo Liangjian took a puff of cigarette: "They are also staring at this batch of supplies. As for Li Zongren, it seems that he also intends to distribute the supplies to them."

Don't, don't.

Meng Shaoyuan was afraid of something, so he heard Luo Liangjian say:
"I'm going to send you there to coordinate and distribute this batch of important supplies as a special observer in the chairman's attendant room!"

(End of this chapter)