On September 18, 1931, the Japanese Kwantung Army stationed in northeastern China deliberately blew up the tracks of the South Manchuria Railway and blamed the Matter on the Chinese army. Since then, under the pretext, the Japanese army began to attack Shenyang, known in history as the "918 Incident".
Since then, beacons have been lit everywhere on the land of China. During the eight-year War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, tens of thousands of battles of all sizes were fought, but one was the largest, longest, and most annihilated battle in the strategic defense phase of the War of Resistance Against Japan, and it was the Battle of Wuhan.
In the Battle of Wuhan, there was an important battle related to Bai Chongxi and Song Xilian. The Japanese army was afraid of Bai Chongxi, so it deceived him, but unexpectedly bumped into Song Xilian again, and invested 30,000 troops and failed to take Fujin Mountain.
First, the Japanese army is deceitful, and chongxi is in the middle of the plan
Bai Chongxi, a Hui, was born in 1893 in a small village in Guangxi. His ancestors were originally Scholars, but when it reached his father's generation, his father Bai Zhiwen chose to abandon literature and engage in business. But to his father's surprise, Bai Chongxi loved to read since he was a child, and he worked very hard every time he read.
In addition to hard work, Bai Chongxi is also very talented in learning, and when he was studying in school, he scored first in many examinations, so he was designated as a "foreman".
After the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution, Bai Chongxi joined the Guangxi Northern Expedition student death squad and began his military career.
In April 1912, Bai Chongxi officially enlisted in the army, and then Bai Chongxi rose through the ranks of the army with his outstanding intelligence. He even showed his wisdom and scheming in the battle to unify Guangxi, and was nicknamed "Little Zhuge Ge".
Fast forward to 1938, when Japan had invaded China for 7 years, and the Japanese were arrogant and arrogant, thinking that they would soon end this war of aggression. But he overestimated his military strength and underestimated the determination of the Chinese people to defend their homeland.
As the front grew longer, the Japanese began to be a little anxious, and they wanted to quickly resolve the war by attacking Wuhan in order to achieve his strategic goals.
Why Wuhan? After the nanjing government moved to Wuhan in 1937, Wuhan became the de facto political and military center of China at that time.
In addition, there are two railways, both the Pinghan and Guangdong-Han railways intersecting in Wuhan, making Wuhan's geographical location more important and can be called a strategic location. The Japanese were anxious to achieve a quick decision by capturing Wuhan.
After the Battle of Wuhan began, Bai Chongxi was not originally the commander of the theater, but because Li Zongren, who was also known as "Li Bai", was hospitalized due to illness, Bai Chongxi could only take over the burden on Li Zongren and became the acting commander of the Fifth Theater.
In the Battle of Wuhan, Bai Chongxi confronted the notorious 6th Division of the 11th Army of the Japanese invasion of China. It was the 6th Division that committed numerous crimes in the Nanjing Massacre, and Bai Chongxi intended to take this opportunity to completely annihilate the 6th Division, but he won the 6th Division's plan.
The insidious Japanese chose to use poison gas to attack the Japanese army. Although Bai Chongxi inflicted heavy casualties on the 6th Division, he still did not hold the gateway to Tianjia Town, Guangji. At the time when Bai Chongxi was lacking in skill, a Japanese army had already taken advantage of the chaos to touch the northern foothills of Dabie Mountain.
Second, the invincible Song Xilian
The Japanese 2nd Army did not go to the battlefield until two months after the start of the Battle of Wuhan. On August 27, it reached Lu'an, the gateway to Dabie Mountain, Huoshan Mountain, and launched a fierce attack. After capturing these two places, the Japanese army divided into two roads, and the left road tried to cross the northern foothills of the Dabie Mountains to Wuhan.
The right side adopted a roundabout tactic and turned back to Wuhan via Xinyang to achieve the effect of pinch attack and win the battle of Wuhan more quickly. The 13th and 16th Divisions on the left quickly took the Yejia Group and wanted to attack the nearby Fujin Mountain.
Fujin Mountain is very close to Yejiaji, and it is not dangerous, but it can condescend to block the road, so that the Japanese army's forward road is blocked, so the Japanese army cannot bypass Fujin Mountain, and can only attack. At this time, the Japanese army was still thinking about beautiful things, and they thought that the famous Bai Chongxi was just lacking in skill, and this time he was not in Fujin Mountain, and he was sure that he would soon be able to capture Fujin Mountain.
But what they didn't expect was that although Bai Chongxi was not there, Song Xilian happened to be guarding Fujin Mountain with his two divisions. This battle will certainly not allow the Japanese army to gain benefits. Born in 1907 to a rich peasant family in Hunan, Song Xilian followed his father to literary enlightenment.
When he grew up, he was deeply influenced by the revolutionary trend of thought, actively participated in the patriotic movement, and was admitted to the first team of the first phase of the Whampoa Military Academy. Subsequently, he repeatedly participated in anti-Japanese activities and was even arrested for it, but he still did not change his original intention.
In April 1935, Song Xilian received the rank of major general in the army. In 1938, Song Xilian was appointed commander of the 71st Army, and after the Battle of Wuhan began, he led his soldiers and horses into Fujinshan.
3. Stick to The Rich Mountain
Song Xilian has a tough personal style and is good at fighting hard battles, but he has not lost. In 1937, Song Xilian was ordered to fail to defend Nanjing, was dismissed from his post and returned home, and was just reused in the first half of the Battle of Wuhan in 1938.
This time the town guarded Fujin Mountain, Song Xilian was determined to win, and he wanted to do his best to drag the footsteps of the Japanese 2nd Army.
Song Xilian had three divisions that could be freely mobilized, including his most elite German-style division, the 36th Division. He sent the 36th Division to defend the main position of FujinShan, the 114th Division to the left, and the 88th Division to the right.
Although the Japanese army only had one division, it carried a lot of weapons, and if another person came, even if there were three divisions in hand, it might not be able to block it.
But Song Xilian was different, he had both military talent and the determination to win, and the 36th Division under his command was even more elite, so even if the Japanese army directly took the main position, he was not afraid of danger and orderly commanded the 36th Division to fight.
Relying on their air superiority, the Japanese took several rounds of bombardment of the main position at Fujin Hill to open the way for the infantry, and then let the infantry charge in a vain attempt to defeat the 36th Division.
They had thought that Song Xilian's troops would surely collapse under their fierce attack, but they did not expect that the soldiers led by Song Xilian would be like they could not be defeated. They fought tenaciously, even if they died, and never retreated. The Japanese offensive was repeatedly broken, and the two sides entered a stalemate.
The Japanese could not wait, they saw that the 36th Division was really a hard bone to gnaw, so they took the lead in changing their strategy, sending troops to attack the 114th Division on the left, and at the same time dividing into a small team, trying to detour back to the back of the 114th Division.
Unexpectedly, their ruse was once again discovered, and the 88th Division sent people to annihilate the Japanese troops.
The Japanese attack on the 114th Division not only failed in the frontal attack, but also annihilated more than 400 people who implemented roundabout tactics. Because there was really nothing they could do, the Japanese army called for reinforcements, and Song Xilian still led people to fight tenaciously for 9 days in the face of the strength of the two divisions of the Japanese army.
In the end, 4906 Japanese troops were killed and 17380 Japanese troops were wounded, effectively curbing the effective strength of the Japanese army.
IV. Summary
Chinese is a nation of wisdom and an indomitable nation. In the face of foreign aggressors, the national spirit with patriotism as the core will make us burst out with powerful forces.
Song Xilian is relying on his own wisdom and patriotic faith to adhere to the Fujin Mountain, so that the Japanese people can see the strength of the Chinese nation.