What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
As the prelude to the Battle of Xuzhou, the Battle of Chihe Was earth-shattering as soon as it was opened, and the Gui army did not relax any opportunity at all, resolutely blocking the attack in Mingguang, not giving the Japanese army any chance, taking advantage of the fact that the Japanese army lost its air superiority at night, continuously attacking and recovering the lost ground, and the Japanese army bombed with aircraft during the day, pulling back and forth, and each side suffered losses, but the Gui army lost more.
After the victory in the Battle of Mingguang, Li Zongren, commander of the 5th Theater, soberly realized that the Japanese army suffered losses in Mingguang because of the night combat, and the enemy's aircraft could not play a role. If the battle had taken place during the day, the enemy's planes would have been bombarded indiscriminately. Moreover, the enemy will soon launch a crazy counterattack. He decisively ordered Liu Shiyi to take the initiative to withdraw from Mingguang and give way to the Jinpu line, so that the Japanese front line could be lengthened, and then it was easy to annihilate section by section. After the Japanese army killed Dingyuan and Mingguang, Liu Shiyi, commander of the 31st Army, was ordered to quietly withdraw from Mingguang, and ordered the 340th Brigade of the 114th Division to cross to the south bank of the Huai River to strengthen the defense, and sent a reinforcement battalion with the 679th Regiment to stay in Mingguang. However, later the battle situation was unfavorable, and Commander Liu had time to inform the 114th Division that all the defenders near Mingguang would be withdrawn, resulting in the reinforcement battalion of the 679th Regiment being raided by the Japanese army and being destroyed several times. Zhao Tianwei, commander of the 1st Company, led his troops to cover the retreat of the whole battalion according to the danger, and all the martyrs were martyred in the fight with the Japanese army. The Japanese sent 5,000 men and horses, with the cooperation of aircraft and tanks, to launch a fierce attack on Mingguang City, and on January 18, Mingguang fell. Where did they know that after consuming a lot of ammunition, what they got was an empty city.
On January 23, Japanese reinforcements arrived one after another, bombarded our positions with artillery for several days, and crossed the Chi River in three ways: Liangshan (formerly known as Liangjiashan) and Magang on the opposite bank of Mingguang; one at Dingyuan Sanheji; and the other from Chuxian Zhulong Bridge to attack Chihe Town. Although most of the officers and men of our army were southern athletes and were not suitable for fighting on snowy days, they still heroically killed the enemy under the encouragement of the enthusiasm of the War of Resistance and repelled one attack after another of the enemy. From the 25th onwards, the fighting became more and more intense, and the enemy's reinforcements had increased to more than 2,000 people, and they shelled the positions in the Liangshan area of our country all day long, and covered their infantry with machine guns to forcibly cross the river at dusk.
On January 26, the Japanese Central China Front had issued an order to the 13th Division to annihilate the Chinese forces in the Fengyang and Bengbu areas and prepare to cross the Huai north. After the Japanese 13th Division broke through the defenses of the 31st Army, the troops were divided into three roads to carry out the Shangfeng order, and the division commander Hagi Chau Li led the main force of the division and regiment as the middle road, starting from Chu County, crossing the Chi River to Fengyang and Bengbu; the former commander of the vanguard 26th Brigade, Numata Tokushige, led 4 infantry brigades and 2 mountain artillery brigades to the east road and attacked Bengbu along the Jinpu Road through Mingguang; the 65th Wing Commander Liangjiao Yezuo led 3 infantry brigades and 1 artillery brigade as the west road, starting from Quanjiao, passing through Daqiao Town and Dingyuan for roundabout cover.
At 2:00 p.m. on the 26th, the Japanese artillery conducted a joint operation, first bombarding our positions on the west bank of the ChiHe River with more than 10 aircraft, and then firing intensively with heavy artillery, causing serious damage to the fortifications of our positions. Although our defenders were inferior, the 824th Regiment of our defenders fought bloodily, engaging in hand-to-hand combat with the Japanese troops who crossed the river more than 10 times, and died the next day with the assistance of our 809th Regiment to regain their positions. At the same time, the three rivers converged to the area around Chihe Town, and the war was also fierce.
On the 28th, the Japanese troops on the West Street side, which were defeated by us, turned to Magang, Qilihe and other places to attack, and were also severely attacked by the Nationalist army. On the same day, due to the excessive attrition of the Nationalist army in successive days of combat, commander Liu Shiyi made appropriate adjustments to his troops: the 405th Brigade of the 135th Division and the 810th Regiment of the 403rd Brigade guarded the front of the railway, the 138th Division (Division Commander Major General Mo Dehong) 414th Brigade (Brigade Commander Major General Zhong Yi) guarded Magang and Sanhe, the 412th Brigade held the position at the eastern end of Chihe Town, the 391st Brigade of the 131st Division (Division Commander and Lieutenant General Qin Lianfang, deputy commander of the 31st Army) rushed from Hefei to Dingyuan, and another regiment was sent from Xiwangji to Lotus Pond to attack the enemy rear on the Zhulong Bridge.
At 2:00 p.m. on the 29th, the Japanese army once again forcibly crossed the river from the West Street ferry, our position was destroyed under the combined heavy bombardment of enemy machine guns, and the 405th Brigade of the defenders had to retreat from Liangjiashan to the Wulidun position after several days of hard fighting day and night, exhausted, and suffering many casualties. The Japanese army had about 1,000 people crossing the river, and after occupying the Liangshan position, they attacked our Wulidun fiercely. At 5:00 p.m., five or six hundred Japanese troops northeast of Dawangshan swerved toward our right flank, and more than a thousand Japanese troops moved to our left flank north of the railway in an attempt to encircle the Wulidun position. At this time, the reserves of the nationalist army had been exhausted, and the guards and soldiers, in the absence of rescue from the inside, still vigorously resisted the enemy's forward momentum, and persisted until after dusk, before using the cover of night to get rid of the enemy's encirclement, and turning to the existing positions along the Burning Lantern Temple, Xiejiahou Mountain, Tanshan Temple, Lao'ou Mountain, Xiaoxi River, and Wuzhuang one by one. On the same day, the Japanese army on the side of Chihe Town increased to 2,300, and with more than 10 aircraft and more than 10 tanks to cover the attack, the 412th Brigade of our defenders fought with the enemy for half a day, and due to heavy casualties, turned to the west bank of Chihe Town.
On the 30th, the 138th Division, which was firmly holding the line of Magang and Sanhe, was forced by the encirclement of the surrounding Japanese forces, and also abandoned the position on the east bank and retreated to the Position of Sangjiajian. The 131st Division was ordered to lay an ambush near The Five Mile, Laowangjia, Guanqiao, Wujia Line, and Laolaocang to block the Japanese army, holding out for two days with 10 times the enemy's casualties, ensuring the safe retreat of other troops to the west. From the 24th to the 30th, in the Battle of Chihe, which lasted for 7 days and nights, the Nationalist army suffered more than half of the casualties, including 135 division casualties and 1182 missing people, but more than 2,000 enemies were annihilated, of which 300 or 400 were annihilated in Chihe Town; Annihilated 200 to 300 enemy troops at Sanhe and Magang; More than 1,000 enemy personnel were annihilated on the Bright Light side.
At this point, the Chihe Blockade Battle ended, and then the Nationalist army fought and retreated, causing the Japanese army to advance to the Huai River for 40 days.