On August 27, 1937, after several days of bitter fighting, Fu Zuoyi's 7th Army, which was attacked on its stomach and back, finally could not resist. On the same day, the southern defense line of the eastern front was breached by the Japanese 5th Division, and zhangjiakou on the western front was also occupied by the Chahar dispatch corps of the Japanese army, and the 7th Army began to withdraw to Datong and Weixian.
At this time, the situation in North China was very unoptimistic for our side, and the 10th, 14th, and 16th Divisions of the North China Front transferred from Japan in the Pingjin area had landed in Tianjin, and the Japanese army in North China launched a full-line offensive. The 1st, 2nd, and 14th Armies on the first line could not resist the powerful Japanese offensive and collapsed in their entirety. Coupled with the Pingchuan River in north China, the Japanese army took advantage of mechanization, and most of north China quickly fell. The Pinghan and Jinpu lines were completely defeated.
At this time, the key point of the situation in North China is in Shanxi, and if Shanxi is lost, North China will really be finished. The commander of the Second Theater, Yan Xishan, envisioned to hold Yanmen Pass in the north of Shanxi, ruyuekou, Lingyunkou, Pingxingguan and other important passes, and to hold the defense line of the Inner Great Wall. And the eastern part of Shanxi only needs to hold an important pass- Niangzi Pass.
Yan Xishan's expectations are also reasonable, and Shanxi's terrain is easy to defend and difficult to attack. Through the map, we look at the topography of Shanxi, the east and west sides are the tall Taihang Mountains and Lüliang Mountains, the north is a 300-mile-long Hengshan Mountain Range that runs through the east and west, and the south is backed by the Yellow River. Since ancient times, it has been a military stronghold that is easy to defend and difficult to attack.
Yan Xishan's little abacus
The terrain of Shanxi is indeed favorable to our side, but whether it can be defended depends on the people, and Chiang Kai-shek in Nanjing also knows the importance of Shanxi, at this time the Battle of Songhu is being fought fiercely, how the whole line of North China is defeated, then Songhu can not fight. Chiang Kai-shek personally telephoned Yan Xishan, hoping to send a large army of the Central Army into Shanxi.
But
Yan Xishan
He also has his own small calculations, he is very jealous of the Central Army entering Shanxi, and he will never let the large troops of the Central Army enter Shanxi until the last resort. He replied to Chiang Kai-shek, planning to organize a Battle of Datong in the Datong area in northern Shanxi, determined to resist the enemy's inner Great Wall defense line, so that Chiang Kai-shek could rest assured that there was no need to send a large army of the Central Army into Shanxi, and his 300,000 Jin Sui army could block the Japanese army. In fact, this is just Yan Xishan's shield.
On August 29, the Main Forces of the Chahar Dispatch Corps and the 5th Division of the Japanese Army met in the Zhangjiakou area and again went south in two separate ways, and the Chahar Sent Corps south along the Pingsui Railway to force Datong; the main force of the 5th Division under the command of the Banyuan Division attacked Wei County.
Our troops are deployed
There were three group armies stationed in Shanxi, namely Yang Aiyuan's 6th Group Army (Jin Sui Army), Fu Zuoyi's 7th Group Army (mainly Jin Sui Army), and Zhu De's 18th Group Army.
Fu Zuoyi's 7th Army retreated from Nankou and Zhangjiakou and deployed in the area of Tianzhen, Guangling, Weixian, and Laiyuan, with the following specific arrangements: the 61st Army defended Tianzhen and Yanggao; the 17th Army defended Weixian and Guangling; and the 13th Army defended The source and Lingqiu.
The 33rd and 34th Armies of Yang Aiyuan's 6th Army defended the Inner Great Wall defense line from Pingshiguan to Yanmen Pass, while the 19th Army was in Datong.
Lin Biao's 115th Division, under the command of the Communist 18th Group Army, marched at Sanyuan, Shaanxi on August 22, and entered Shanxi on August 31 to garrison the Pingxingguan area; He Long's 120th Division, which departed from Fuping, Shanxi, on September 3, and Liu Bocheng's 129th Division also set out on September 4.
The town of Heaven is lost
Tianzhen is located in the northeast of Datong, located in the middle of Zhangjiakou and Datong, is the strategic point of the first attack of the Japanese army in the south, so the 7st Army Stationed here Li Fuzhi 61st Army is the first to bear the brunt, the 61st Army before the war was expanded from the 68th Division, although it is said to be an army, but in fact, it is also the strength of a division, the army only has a 101st Division, a single 7th Brigade.
Before the war, the Nationalist government planned to build national defense fortifications in Tianzhen to prevent the Japanese army. But the reality is that this money has been withheld layer by layer, and it has not been put in place at all, and there are very few national defense fortifications built. Now the Japanese army really came, but these national defense fortifications basically only started a head, and the soldiers of the 61st Army could only block the Japanese army with their scalps.
On September 7, 1937, after holding out for several days, the 61st Army's defensive line was breached, the 61st Army withdrew to Datong, and Wang Jingguo's 19th Army, which was originally stationed in Datong, had already run away.
After the Japanese army captured Tianzhen, it slaughtered in the city for 3 consecutive days, and more than 2,300 people drank blades and died of blood. This was the first mass massacre inflicted by the Japanese army after the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. This also shocked the country at that time, and the national public opinion focused on Tianzhen. In order to calm public opinion, Yan Xishan arrested Li Fuyi, the commander of the 61st Army, and quickly shot him.
(In fact, yan xishan naturally could not escape the matter of who moved the money for the construction of the defense fortifications in Tianzhen, who was supposed to be escorted to Nanjing for trial at that time, but Yan Xishan insisted on trying in Shanxi, and unknowingly shot Li Fuyi to death, but Wang Jingguo, the commander of the 19th Army who fled without a fight, did not punish him.) Zhang Peimei, the elder of the Jin Army who was then the director of law enforcement of the Jin Sui Army, insisted on demanding that Wang Jingguo be shot, but failed to do so, Zhang Peimei felt that as the director of law enforcement, he could not enforce the law and was insulting to his mission, so he committed suicide by taking poison the following year to die Mingzhi)
On September 13, Datong fell, followed by Shuozhou and Ningwu, and all the military strongholds outside Yanmen Pass were occupied by the Japanese army. On the other side, the 5th Division led by Itagaki also attacked the city and plundered the land, occupying Guangling on the 14th, Hunyuan on the 16th, and Lingqiu on the 20th, directly approaching Pingxingguan.
Since then, all areas outside the inner Great Wall defense line have fallen, especially the Jin Sui army in the Yanmenguan area, which has been defeated all the way and the morale is extremely low. At this time, the Japanese army formed a siege of the Chinese army in Shanxi, but as long as we could hold the passes, the advantage was still on our side.
The Inner Great Wall defense line was lost
Yan Xishan's judgment was that the main direction of the Japanese army's attack was at Yanmen Pass, so the heavy troops were placed on this side, and on the side of Pingxing Pass, Yan Xishan was planning to induce the 5th Division to go deeper, and then surround and annihilate it. However, the Ruyue Pass between Pingxing Pass and Yanmen Pass became a breakthrough for the Japanese army.
Ruyuekou, north of Fanzhi County, the junction of Yanmen Pass and Ping-type Pass, is strategically important. If occupied by the Japanese army, it can attack our Pingguan defenders to the east, and it will pose a threat to Yanmen Pass to the west. However, such an important position was sent at that time to only send a brigade of the 203rd Brigade of the 34th Army Liang Jiantang to guard the town. In the face of the attack of the Japanese 11th Mixed Brigade and the two cavalry divisions of the Puppet Mongols, Liang Jiantang was martyred heroically, Ruyuekou was lost, and then the Yanmen Pass was breached, although the Pingxing Pass was still unsatisfactory, but the rear had been broken by the Japanese army, and the troops of the Pingxingguan could only retreat.
The inner Great Wall defense line was lost, the last barrier of Taiyuan was only Left with Xinkou, and the more brutal Battle of Xinkou was about to start, and the next issue was decomposed in detail.