After the Lugou Bridge Incident in 1937, the Japanese army accelerated its invasion of China, and Beijing, Shanghai, and Nanjing fell one after another. According to the Tokyo base camp and the emperor's orders, Wuhan became the next military powerhouse that was inevitable. The Japanese army gathered 14 divisions and more than 400,000 army and air forces, approached the northern Gan region, and prepared to attack Wuhan in one fell swoop. The commander of the Japanese Eleventh Army, Okamura Ninji, personally participated in the command and said that "the army has poured all its strength into the Hankou operation and has no residual strength to respond", in order to express the determination to win.
In the face of the large-scale invasion of the Japanese army, the Nationalist government did not dare to take the enemy lightly, and at the meeting of the Military Commission on June 5, 1938, it was decided to take Wuchang, Hanyang, and Hankou as the center, and Take Henan, Anhui, Hunan and Gansu as strategic extensions to hinder the japanese army's westward advance. Among them, the First Corps, led by commander-in-chief Xue Yue, led 40 divisions to garrison the Nanxun Line and the west bank of Poyang Lake, blocking the Japanese army from moving south. In response to the strategic deployment of defending Wuhan, in the summer of the same year, the 129th and 115th Divisions of the Eighth Route Army commanded by Liu and Deng respectively dispatched to attack the Japanese troops hoarded in the southern section of the Pinghan Railway. The guerrillas of the New Fourth Army actively launched guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines on the north bank of the Yangtze River to contain and distract the attention of the Japanese army.
After the fall of Jiujiang, China and Japan fought fiercely on the Nanxun Line for many days, with heavy casualties on both sides. In order to understand the 27th Division, which was trapped and isolated, Okamura Ninji sent reinforcements from the 106th Division and the 101st Division. The two divisions, commanded by Matsuura Junrokuro, entered the Wanjialing area with the aim of "rushing out of the White Maple and disturbing the Nanwu Highway" and attacking the Chinese defenders stationed in De'an in an attempt to cut off our army's rear road. Xue Yue's command team believed that the Japanese army had committed a major taboo against the enemy, and "the corps should take advantage of the time to counterattack and strike a decisive blow." As a result, China and Japan launched an encounter in this area.
Kirin Peak is the first important site for both sides to compete. Because Qilin Peak was led by Xue Yue's corps first, from September 28, the communication between the 106th Division and the headquarters was interrupted. Okamura sent the 27th Division to fight again at Kirin Peak and receive the 106th Division. However, the 27th Division itself was under siege and urgently needed to join the 106th Division to break through. Assisted by poison gas, the 27th Division barely attacked the hill on the evening of the 28th. During the day on the 29th, the 141st and 142nd Divisions of the Shang Earthquake Department counterattacked and regained control of Qilin Peak, and although the 27th Division and the 106th Division were close at hand, they still could not meet.
At the same time, the Nationalist Reserve 6th Division and the 91st Division foiled the plan of the 123rd Wing of the Japanese 106th Division to break west of Whitewater Street. The 106th Division had no door in the sky and gradually became a rat in its pocket. The 27th Division, which had originally planned to rush to the aid of the 106th Division, was blocked by Kirin Peak, and the commander and famous Japanese general Honma Masaharu even gave up the original plan of assisting the 106th Division in order to protect himself, and fled in the direction of Xintanpu. On the 30th, this fleeing Japanese army was attacked by the Chinese 90th Division and the 91st Division. Honma wanted to request air support from Okamura Ninji, but he couldn't even explain his location, so he had to fight and retreat all the way, and the 106th Division was basically abandoned.
From October 2 to 5, Xue Yue commanded the 159th and 160th Divisions in the north, the 58th Division in the south, the 90th Division in the east, and the Pre-6th and 91st Divisions in the southwest to tighten up the encirclement and prepare to complete the encirclement. On the 6th, Xue Yue issued an order for a counter-offensive. After days of bitter fighting, our army was absolutely superior in numbers and layout, and the whole army was indignant and indignant, and only waited for an order to be issued. In Lishan, the officers and men of the Fourth Army went up hill after hill, village after village, and one by one fought with the devils, and they stubbornly held the position of more than a hundred meters. The dream of the 106th Division to break out of the encirclement from the White Maple was finally shattered. At this point, the division has completely become the turtle in the urn.
On the 9th, as the fighting continued, the remnants of the Japanese 106th Division were driven to three villages, including Nantianpu, within an area of about four square kilometers. Late at night, the vanguard troops sent by Xue Yue attacked the thunderous drum Liu where the division headquarters was located, and the two sides fell into a white-knife battle, with a river of blood flowing on the scene and no one retreating. The fierce fighting continued until the early morning of the 10th, when the air force sent by Okamura Ningji dropped flares, and as a cover, the only remaining three hundred ghosts of the 106th Division were able to escape from the southwest.
At this point, the Battle of Wanjialing ended with a great victory for our army. In this 12-day encirclement and annihilation battle, the Japanese suffered more than 10,000 casualties, and the 106th Division was almost completely destroyed, which effectively dealt a blow to the military ambitions and strategic deployment of the Japanese army. The strategic goal of the Nationalist Government in order to buy time and prepare for the defense of Wuhan was initially realized. The news of the great victory quickly spread throughout the land of China, and the spirit of the military and the people of the whole country was greatly invigorated, and the enthusiasm and enthusiasm for resisting Japan were unprecedentedly high. In a congratulatory message, Ye Ting, then commander of the New Fourth Army, praised the Battle of Wanjialing as "the capital of Banghong was in danger, serving as a guarantee for Jianghan, and pingxingguan and Taierzhuang, and the fame should be immortal."
At the end of the Wanjialing Victory, it was the "Double Tenth Festival", and this major victory won by the Kuomintang on the frontal battlefield was regarded as the best gift to the "Double Tenth Festival". Japanese commander Ninji Okamura later said in his memoirs: "The 106th Division ... Severely hit by the total annihilation of the army, he was stigmatized by the weak soldiers and became the first weak division in Japan. ”