After the defeat at the Third Battle of Changsha, the commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese army invading China, Anan Weiki, was not severely punished, because this family had a deep relationship with the imperial family and the upper echelons of the military circles, and Hideki Tojo did not want to touch this moldy head, and soon transferred him to the commander of the front army of the Kwantung Army, but instead promoted him by one rank. The commander of the 4th Army of the Kwantung Army, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, was transferred to take over the 11th Army, and this guy became a great enemy of the anti-Japanese army in central China, and his use of troops was extremely cunning.
Minister of Military Orders Xu Yongchang
After taking office, Yokoyama Yong did not launch an offensive against Xue Yue's Ninth Theater, but continuously intensified its attacks on the Sixth Theater, successively launching the Battle of Western Hubei and the Battle of Changde, and the Nationalist army was known for the stubborn disease of "sweeping the snow in front of each door", so Xue Yue's support for friendly and neighboring theaters was very unactive, especially the Battle of Changde. It should be noted that although Changde is an important town in western Hunan, it does not belong to the jurisdiction of Xue Yue, commander of the Ninth Theater and chairman of Xiang Province, but is subordinate to the headquarters of the Sixth Theater commander stationed in Enshi, Hubei.
In October 1943, Yokoyama's 100,000 Japanese troops suddenly turned to Changde with the tactic of attacking the south from the west, in an attempt to destroy this important town in western Hunan, known as the "land of fish and rice", thus destroying the logistical supply and grain supply capabilities of the Chinese army to persist in the War of Resistance. The timing of the outbreak of the Battle of Changde was also worse, at this moment the chairman of the committee went to Egypt to participate in the "Cairo Conference" of the heads of state of the Allied powers, and chen Cheng, commander of the Sixth Theater of Operations, went to Yunnan to form the second phase of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, that is to say, the two figures that Xue Yue could still have some scruples about were not on the post.
Sun Lianzhong
At this time, he Yingqin, chief of staff, and Xu Yongchang, minister of military command, who was in charge of operational command, were in charge of the Chongqing Military Commission, and Sun Lianzhong, a general of the Northwest Army, acting as commander of the Sixth Theater. He Yingqin became cautious after the Xi'an Incident, and Jiang Would not have come forward if he did not make a decision, not to mention that Xue Yue was still a member of Chen Cheng's system, so Xu Yongchang insisted on coordinating and guiding the operations in the two theaters on behalf of the Central Military Commission. Sure enough, Xue Yue, whose reputation after the Third Changsha War was in the ascendant, did not bird the various military orders issued by Xu Yongchang.
After the Japanese army turned around and went south, it quickly broke through Wang Jingjiu's 10th Group Army and Wang Zhanxu's 29th Group Army in the Sixth Theater of Operations on the south bank of the Yangtze River, and suddenly approached Changde City. When the Japanese army pretended to attack western Hubei, the Chongqing side, fearing that the defense of the river would be lost, temporarily transferred the 74th Army and the 100th Army to the sixth theater to command and prepare to reinforce the western Hubei battlefield.
a little more than a million
Of the three divisions of the 74th Army, Yu Chengwan of the 57th Division was reorganizing in Changde, and the 51st division and 58th Division were in the Taoyuan area, so the Central Military Commission urgently ordered Yu Chengwan's "Tiger Ben Division" to stick to Changde and at the same time dispatched various surrounding units to reinforcements. However, in this battle, the Japanese army was unprecedented, and not only all (or most of) the five divisions of the 3rd, 13th, 39th, 40th, 68th and 116th divisions were dispatched, but also one regiment of the 34th, 32nd, and 58th Divisions and the independent mixed 17th Brigade regiment participated in the battle, and the battlefield situation was very dangerous.
Yokoyama was responsible for capturing Changde with the 68th and 116th Divisions, the 40th Division monitoring the forces of the Ninth Theater in the direction of Changsha, the 3rd and 13th Divisions blocking the approach of Wang Yaowu's corps (two divisions of the 74th Army and the 100th Army), and the other units separately contained and blocked the reinforcements of the Sixth Theater, so Changdeton became an isolated city. The 3rd and 13th Divisions were the two most elite divisions of the Japanese army, and under the resistance of these devils, Wang Yaowu's corps was still unable to move even though they were desperately attacking, and it took considerable time for the Sixth Theater to mobilize reinforcements from Jiangbei, and the fastest to break the siege was only xue Yue's troops in the Ninth Theater.
Li Yutang
Among these Japanese troops, the pressure of the 40th Division was the heaviest, this group of devils wanted to contain hundreds of thousands of troops in the Ninth Theater, if Xue Yue resolutely came to the rescue, the Japanese army of one division could not be stopped no matter what, and it would take less than a week to reach Changde City. However, the stubborn disease of the nationalist generals to preserve their strength made Xue Yue's action not to be impatient, and on November 18, the battle outside the German perimeter had already begun, and Xu Yongchang and Sun Lianzhong were almost crazy, but they had to urge this "tiger boy" not to move.
In desperation, the senior staff of the Central Military Commission came up with a strange trick for Xu Yongchang: to redraw the line of distinction between operations and to include Changde in the scope of operations in the Ninth Theater of Operations. On November 24, the Japanese Military Commission officially issued a directive: the demarcation line between the Sixth Theater and the Ninth Theater was changed, pushing north to the Yuanjiang River, and the south of the Yuanjiang River became the Ninth Theater's responsibility zone. The highest military command organ is incompetent to this position, and it is also drunk.
The Battle of Changde captured Japanese soldiers
If Xue Yue did not actively rescue and watch the fall of Changde, it would be a problem in his defense zone, and he would inevitably bear corresponding responsibility. It was not until November 29 that the headquarters of the commanders of the two theaters also received a personal telegram from Jiang Ren, and Li Yutang and Fang Xianjue, commander of the 10th Army, were shocked and rushed to organize the attack and advance.
However, the fighters had been delayed, and Yokoyama took advantage of the time difference between the attack of Wang Yaowu's corps and quickly dispatched the main force of the 3rd Division to the south of Changde to intercept Li Yutang's troops, and the 10th Army, which was the first to approach Changde, suffered heavy losses in the fierce battle, and sun Mingjin, the major general of the reserve 10th Division, was killed, and Li Yutang's troops were forced to retreat. With the failure of the 10th Army to break the siege, the 51st Division in Changde City reached the final stage, and on December 4, Yu Chengwan led the remnants of the city to abandon the city and break through, and the defense of Changde came to a sad end.
To figure
Although Changde had fallen, the Li Yutang Group Army of the Ninth Theater and Wang Yaowu Corps dragged all the Japanese reinforcements, while the elite reinforcements organized by the Sixth Theater, the 18th Army, and other elite troops were arriving at the same time, and Yokoyama Had no mobile troops to use, so he had to hastily withdraw from Changde and retreat north, so that on December 7, the Chinese army restored Changde. The Chongqing side then claimed to have won the "victory" at the Battle of Changde, but in fact, the truth is known from top to bottom, and Xu Yongchang's strange method has played a role, and if the reinforcements of the Ninth Theater continue to stagnate, the outcome of the Battle of Changde may be even more ugly.