In this battle, China completely eliminated the Japanese ace army with only miscellaneous troops, and it was the first battle that China won on the frontal battlefield since the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, and at the same time it was also the battle of Fame of General Li Zongren, which was the Battle of Taierzhuang.
Today, I will take you to unveil the whole process of the Battle of Taierzhuang, and I hope that you will comment on a wave in the comment area: Remember history and do not forget the national shame.
Since August 1937, the Japanese army has successively occupied Shanghai, Nanjing and other places in China, in order to open up the north-south battlefield, they decided to take Nanjing and Jinan as the base, the troops divided into three roads, from the north and south sides along the Jinpu Railway to attack Xuzhou.
Soldiers in battle
As a result, Wuhan, the political center of our country, will be destroyed, and once Wuhan is succeeded by the Japanese army, our country will be in danger, and the purpose of Japan in doing so is to completely crush the confidence of our army in the war of resistance.
At the Battle of Songhu in 1937, most of the Jinpu line from Tianjin to Nanjing was still under China's control, which also divided Japan's North China and Central China battlefields and posed a serious threat to the Japanese army.
Our soldier troops
The Japanese commanders also understood this, so it was of great strategic significance for them to open the Tsuura Line and connect the northern and southern battlefields to japan.
We can know from the map that if Japan wants to open the Jinpu Line, it must occupy Xuzhou in our country, but once this happens, it will completely destroy china's strategic hub in the east, and both China and Japan are well aware of the importance of this place, and since Japan captured Our Nanjing, it has formulated a battle plan for attacking Xuzhou from the north and south.
In the southern section of Jinpu Road, the commander of the Japanese Central China Front and the main force of the Japanese 13th Division went north along jinpu road to take Xuzhou in China, while in the northern section of Jinpu Road, the commander of the Japanese North China Front, Terauchi Shouichi, led the Japanese Tenth Division to the south to capture Jinan and other areas.
Old photo of Chiang Kai-shek
At the same time, another force landed from Qingdao and then moved south, preparing to attack Xuzhou with the Fifth Division of Banyuan and Taierzhuang to attack Xuzhou.
On October 12, 1937, the Military Commission of the Kuomintang of our country ordered the establishment of the Fifth Theater and ordered General Li Zongren to serve as the commander of the Fifth Theater, with the headquarters set up in Xuzhou.
Old photo of Li Zongren
Li Zongren had been a sworn enemy of Old Jiang for more than ten years, but why did Old Jiang suddenly entrust Li Zongren with a heavy responsibility? First of all, to talk about the contradictions between them, Li Zongren was the leader of the Gui warlords and a senior general of the Kuomintang.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="41" > Jiang Gui contradictory</h1>
In March 1929, the opinions of the various groups of armies of the Northern Expedition were divided, and the contradiction between Jiang and Gui intensified, and then Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi led the Gui forces to clash with the old Jiang, which was known to the outside world as the Jiang Gui Dispute, and as a result, the Gui clan was defeated and fled back to Guangxi.
Photo of Yan Xishan
In April 1930, Li Zongren participated in the anti-Chiang Kai-shek campaign, marching from Guangxi into Hunan to support Yan Xishan and Feng Yuxiang's troops fighting Lao Jiang in the Central Plains, and in this way, the contradiction between Lao Jiang and Li Zongren deepened again.
In July 1937, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression broke out, and subsequently, Lao Jiang publicly declared that he hoped that the people of the whole country would unite and all parties and factions would jointly resist the Japanese army invading our country.
Subsequently, Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi carried out an encirclement and suppression attack on the Japanese army in Guangxi and sent a Gui ace.
Soldiers in the War of Resistance
The Gui group army participated in the previous Battle of Songhu, and the Gui group army fought bloodily in this battle, bravely killed the enemy, and won widespread praise from the people with the spirit of not being afraid of sacrifice.
It was also the excellent performance of the Gui group army in the War of Resistance Against Japan, li Zongren and Bai Chongxi and other Gui officers gradually became recognized as representative figures of the main war faction in the National Government, and in this way, Li Zongren was given a heavy responsibility and was sent to the Fifth Theater as a commander.
At this time, the situation in the Fifth Theater was not very optimistic, because the Japanese army was ready to attack our army from the north to the south, and this news made Li Zongren's heart extremely heavy, and Shanghai had just fallen at this time.
Many people at home and abroad believe that china's army has sent millions of troops to the Nanjing and Shanghai fronts, but it has not been able to protect the Songhu area, and now the Japanese army has made a very careful plan to attack Xuzhou from the north and south sides.
Photo of Feng Yuxiang
Speaking of the Sichuan Army, everyone may know that in the army melee, although the number of various units of the Sichuan Army is large, their discipline is not very good, and their combat effectiveness is not very strong.
However, after the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the Sichuan army of the Sichuan Army, with a weak and weak trend, achieved remarkable results in many major battles, dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese invaders, and became a well-known iron-blooded division.
However, their military supplies were not taken care of, and they could only find a way to solve them by themselves, but in the end they were really hungry, robbing the forbidden army and the people of food, and then they were reported to the military and political office by Yan Xishan.
In this way, the Sichuan Army became a unit that no one wanted, and when the Fifth Theater was formed, Li Zongren said that as long as I could resist Japan and fight a war, I would want any unit.
Li Zongren
In this way, the 22nd Group Army arrived at the Fifth Theater of Operations, and later, Li Zongren kept asking his superiors to replenish guns, ammunition and other military supplies for the Sichuan Army, which made the soldiers of the Sichuan Army, who had been discriminated against all along, very moved.
In the end, they said that they would kill the enemy with practical actions, and they would be ashamed of the snow, so Li Zongren led hundreds of thousands of "miscellaneous Sichuan troops" to resist the japanese army's attack, and it was a fool's dream to win this war, but the facts proved that they relied on these hundreds of thousands of miscellaneous troops, under the leadership of Li Zongren, to win a major victory.
Warriors in a bloody battle
In December 1937, when the Japanese Central China Front launched an attack on the lake mouth of the Tsuura Line, Li Zongren was thinking about how to block the Japanese attack. What kind of combat strategy was needed to defeat this unit of the Japanese army on the south road?
In the end, Li Zongren and the generals discussed all night and finally decided on the battle plan of the Fifth Theater, they decided to garrison Xuzhou with a small number of troops, let the large troops flank the enemy along the Jinpu Road, and use guerrilla tactics to block the enemy's advance, and Li Zongren adopted the suggestions made by Premier Zhou and others.
The joy of a soldier when he receives food
He ordered the first battlefield to be set up in the southern section of Jinpu Road, first blocking the enemy in the south to the south of the Huai River, breaking the Japanese army's intention to join the north, and at the same time, on the northern front, the Japanese army on the east road was blocked in Linyi, and the japanese army on the west road was blocked in Jiayu, completely smashing the Japanese army's plan to meet the division at Taierzhuang.
On January 16, 1938, one of the Japanese divisions began to move north along jinpu road, and then Li Zongren transferred the group army stationed in Haizhou to the southern section of Jinpu Road and the area around Mingguang to do defensive fortifications, responsible for blocking the enemy's attack on the southern section of Jinpu Line.
Our soldiers are on standby
On the same day, after the civilian workers in the southern section of the army launched an attack, they were fiercely counterattacked by our troops, and this place was easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the mechanized troops of the Japanese army were extremely difficult to play here, so it was difficult for the troops in the south of the Japanese army to move forward for a while.
On January 17, the Japanese army mobilized a large number of heavy artillery, tanks, etc., with a strong firepower advantage, captured Mingguang, and our soldiers could only retreat to the west bank of the Pond River and continue to fight with the Japanese army.
The fighting continued until 2 February, during which time Japanese aircraft and heavy artillery jointly operated, first bombing our positions on the west bank with aircraft, and finally firing intensively with heavy artillery, seriously damaging our positions.
A soldier in the War of Resistance
On the afternoon of February 2, the Japanese army increased its strength by more than 20,000 troops, divided into two routes by Mingguang and other local soldiers, and attacked our fighters with all their might to oppose the encirclement posture of Bengbu.
On February 4, the Japanese army successively attacked Dingyuan, Fengyang and other places, our army successively pushed to the north of the Huai River, so far, the western side of the southern Section of the Jinpu Line has been captured, and then, the Japanese army went north again, in order to prevent the Japanese army's plan from succeeding, desperately blocked the Japanese army in the Huai River area.
Soldiers who fought in blood
In this way, the Huai River blockade battle began to prelude, our general Yu led an army, on the north bank of the Huai River to block the enemy's advance, the soldiers of this army, on the Huai River more than 100 kilometers long front, waiting for the arrival of the Japanese army, from February 5 to 7, the Japanese army tried to forcibly cross the river during this period, the result was repulsed by our army.
Subsequently, the Japanese river crossing offensive focused on Xiao Bengbu, because the river was narrow and there were thousands of wooden boats on the river, so on February 8, the Japanese army began to concentrate its forces to forcibly cross the river, and the Battle of Huainan began.
First of all, the Japanese sent 24 fighters to bomb wildly over Xiao Bengbu, and under the cover of artillery fire, the Japanese army forcibly crossed the river, but our army fought back, allowing the Japanese army to attack and fight several times.
Ambushed warriors
Until February 10, military artillery and aircraft took turns to bomb Xiao Bengbu, and almost all the fortifications of our army were blown up, and finally the Japanese army organized a forced crossing of the river, but all of them were resisted by our soldiers with flesh and blood.
On the morning of February 11, the Japanese army held another large-scale offensive, our 674th Regiment, under the leadership of the regimental commander Zhang Rubin, fought a bloody battle with the Japanese army, held on to the north bank, the bullets ran out, they put on bayonets and engaged the enemy in hand-to-hand combat, within a few hours, Xiao Bengbu was lost and recovered, back and forth five times.
Badge of the death squad at the Battle of Taierzhuang
At ten o'clock in the morning, the regiment was completely destroyed, and its final martyred officers and men sang the "March to Save the Dead" as a way to express their unwillingness to complete the cause of national salvation. In the end, Xiao Bengbu still fell into the hands of the enemy army, just when the battle of Huainan on the southern front was inextricably divided.
On February 10, the Japanese troops on the northern front hit All the way to Zou County and Jining in an attempt to open the Jinpu Line in order to achieve the strategic purpose of meeting with the Southern Front, which made Li Zongren confused whether to send troops to reinforce the Southern Front or the Northern Front.
The atrocities of the Japanese devils against our army
This top-secret intelligence letter from the Japanese army wrote that the Japanese army moved south and north, and this piece of intelligence won a good opportunity for our country to turn the situation around, and Xia Wenyun, a spy who provided intelligence for Li Zongren, was the intelligence officer who developed within the Japanese army in the early days.
In the entire Battle of Taierzhuang, he played a role that could be said to be greater than the role of a division, and when Li Zongren received Xia Wenyun's secret protection, he immediately ordered Zhang Zizhong, commander of the 59th Army, to lead his troops to support the 51st Army on the north bank of the Huai River, and finally arrived at Xiaobengbu at 8:00 a.m. on February 12.
In coordination with the 51st Army, he stopped the advance of the Japanese army, which greatly surprised the commander of the Japanese Central China Front, who was ashamed and angry, and then he mobilized a large number of reinforcements, tanks, aircraft and other heavy weapons from Nanjing.
We launched another attack on the southern section of the Jinpu Line, but after our army's Xiao Bengbu side had the support of the 59th Army, it first occupied the embankment position on the north bank of the Huai River, and finally attacked Xiao Bengbu at night.
Sentry soldiers
At four o'clock in the morning of the 18th, all the Japanese troops in Xiao bengbu were killed and occupied, but not long after, after destroying all the enemy fortifications, they returned to our positions, and Li Zongren sent Liu Shiyi's 31st Army to support the Huai River area, and they should adopt guerrilla tactics from the south of the Huai River to the back of the Japanese army.
In coordination with our two armies, under the frontal attack of our 59th Army and the 31st Army on the south bank of the Huai River, the Japanese army was attacked by the enemy in the belly and back, and finally the main force of the Japanese 13th Division was forced to retreat backwards from the north bank of the Huai River, and our 59th Army and 51st Army took the opportunity to counterattack.
Soldiers crossing the river
By the beginning of March, our army had taken back all the positions north of the Huai River, and the Japanese army's original plan to move north along the Jinpu Line had failed, and the battle of the Huai River greatly boosted the morale of our army and caused the Japanese 13th Army to suffer heavy losses.
Although the Japanese army in the north has not yet been completely annihilated, it has made the Japanese army at the southern end turn from attack to defense, forcing the Japanese army to adopt the strategy of attacking from the south to the north.
At this time, the two ace divisions of the Japanese army, preparing to go all the way south on the northern front, take Taierzhuang and then take Xuzhou directly, how will they deal with the enemy under the leadership of Li Zongren in the fate of the miscellaneous army equipped with combat effectiveness that is far lower than that of the enemy?
At this time, two armies of the 22nd Group Army were ordered to garrison the lincheng and neighboring counties, of which Wang Mingzhang was the commander-in-chief of the front line of this group army, and their opponent was the Tenth Regiment of the Japanese Army, which was well-equipped, with cavalry, heavy artillery, armored vehicles, etc. Such equipment made the Japanese commander-in-chief think that our army could not resist at all, but was this really the case?
Raid on Japanese troops
When Wang Mingzhang led his troops into Tengxian County, they immediately carried out combat deployment work, and on March 14, the Japanese Isoya Liansuke launched an attack on Tengxian County, and they first bombarded tengxian with dozens of aircraft and more than 30 heavy artillery, and the Japanese artillery.
Then they found out. An attack was launched, and our troops were stationed at Tencent, so although there were only about five thousand people, none of the soldiers of the Sichuan Army were afraid, and they quickly closed the gap with dense firepower and repelled the well-equipped enemy troops one by one.
But they also paid a great price, in fact, Li Zongren knew that this army, the task facing TengXian was extremely arduous, the strength was insufficient, as early as the Japanese army began to attack when he called Tang Enbo.
They were asked by their Second Army to support this unit in Teng County, Tang Enbo's army, which was arguably the best equipped at that time, but Tang Enbo actually ignored this request.
The Battle of Taierzhuang was planned
On March 16, the positions of the 45th Army north of Tengxian were lost, and the 122nd Division of the 41st Army had been besieged in Tengxian County, and when the soldiers of the Chuan Army fought bravely on the front line to kill the enemy, Tang Enbo, for some reason, still did not send troops to reinforce Tengxian.
On the morning of the 17th, the Japanese launched a larger offensive, they dispatched more than 20 fighters and more than 60 artillery to bomb Tengxian County, and then sent ten tanks as a spearhead to cover the infantry charge towards the gap east of Tengxian County.
Our troops sent two battalions to desperately guard Dongguan, the two sides suffered heavy casualties for a while, the artillery fire lasted until three o'clock in the afternoon, the Japanese army rushed from the collapse of the east wall to the city wall, and then quickly launched an attack on the east and west walls of the city.
A large number of troops continued to assemble in Taierzhuang
Soon after, the east gate and the northwest were occupied by the Japanese army, leaving only the defenders of the north gate and the northeast to stubbornly resist the enemy, and at night, Wang Mingzhang's command post was raided by the Japanese troops in the West Gate City Tower, the headquarters was shot by a large amount of fire, General Wang Mingzhang was unfortunately shot, he saw that the general trend had gone, and he was wounded again.
Then shouted "Long live China, the war to the end" and then took out a pistol to commit suicide and martyrdom, at noon on the 18th, Fujian County completely fell into the hands of the enemy, the Sichuan army soldiers guarding Teng County suffered more than 5,000 casualties, and the 45th Army near Teng County also suffered more than 4,000 casualties.
It can be said that the four and a half days of guarding TengXian effectively stopped the speed of the Attack of the Japanese Army on the North Road, and laid the foundation for victory in the Battle of Taierzhuang in Linyi, and the gains and losses of Linyi affected the overall situation of the entire Fifth Theater of Operations, and the army attacking Linyi was the Fifth Division led by Shiro Sakagaki.
Old photographs of soldiers who fought
Li Zongren's plan was to first send Pang Bingxun's troops to resist the Japanese attack first and lure the enemy deeper, and then send the main force of Tang Enbo's army to the vicinity of Zaozhuang, waiting for the main force of Isoya Rinsuke to attack the Japanese army from the back of the enemy army immediately after entering Taierzhuang.
And the premise of all this is that Pang Bingxun's army must defend Linyi. In order to ensure that Tang Enbo's troops were not harassed by backups, just at this time, another set of secret reports came from Shanghai, and Xia Wenyun told Li Zongren that the Deployment of the Japanese Army in the Fifth Theater of Operations was to move north and not to move south.
The Chinese defenders blocked the advancing Japanese forces on the outskirts of Taierzhuang
After seeing this news, Li Zongren sent Zhang Zizhong's 59th Army on the southern line of Jinpu to support the Linyi area, giving the Japanese Fifth Army a front-and-forth attack, and finally under the 59-level offensive, it severely damaged the Japanese Fifth Division, and finally the Japanese army chose to retreat, linyi victory.
On March 20, the Japanese Army's Isotani Ryosuke and the Itagaki Fifth Division ignored the setbacks in Linyi and the meeting and plans on the southern line of Tsupu.
Gathering more than 40,000 people and more than 40,000 aircraft cannons, he actually launched a general attack directly on Taierzhuang, in an attempt to take Taierzhuang and take Xuzhou in one fell swoop, thus opening up the battlefield between the north and south of China.
The fierce struggle at the Battle of Taierzhuang
He ordered Sun Lianzhong to deploy on the front line of the canal, to the west of Taierzhuang to let the main force of the 31st Division garrison, and to send Tang Enbo and the 20th Army to deploy in Xiangcheng and Hongshan Town to block the Japanese sneak attack on the back, and when the Japanese army entered Taierzhuang, we would carry out a counter-encirclement of the enemy.
Preparing to deal a devastating blow to the enemy, the success of Li Zongren's plan depended on whether Sun Lianzhong's Second Army could hold Taierzhuang, a unit known for its defense, and they had a characteristic, each soldier carrying an sapper shovel.
When Sun Lianzhong entered Taierzhuang for field investigation, he found that almost every family's house was built with huge stones, that is, there were more than 1,000 households here.
Subsequently, Sun Lianzhong made arrangements in the city, and at this time, Tang Enbo was impeached by some Kuomintang generals for his performance in the defensive operation of Teng County, so he did not dare to have any selfish intentions for Li Zongren's deployment strategy this time, and fought completely according to Li Zongren's deployment.
Neat soldier troops
In order to lure the enemy deeper, on March 23, Liu Company Commander led a cavalry company from Taierzhuang and deliberately advanced in the direction of Yixian County, and then fought in Yixian County.
On the same day, Chiang Kai-shek flew to the front line, and when he left, he left Bai Chongxi to assist Li Zongren, which showed the importance of the Battle of Taierzhuang, and on March 25, the Japanese army launched a fierce attack on Taierzhuang, the north gate was quickly breached, and then the Japanese army occupied the City God Temple in the city, followed by strong firepower, and constantly expanded the territory.
The Eighth Regiment of the Central Artillery was quickly transferred to support, and on the 27th, five Japanese tanks were destroyed, and then the Japanese attacked fiercely for three days before they entered Taierzhuang.
Soldiers standing on the lookout
During this period, our army preferred to die rather than retreat, stubbornly resisted, and made great contributions to the encirclement of the Japanese army by the outer line troops, just at this time, Tang Enbo's two armies launched an attack on the back of Zaozhuang, Yixian and the Japanese army from the outside line, and when the frontal battlefield was fiercely fought, the Eighth Route Army was also actively looking for a second battlefield.
In coordination with the Kuomintang army, when Tang Enbo drove the outer Japanese army into Taierzhuang, the two master regiments of the Japanese army were heavily encircled by our side, and there was no possibility of retreat, and on April 3, Li Zongren launched a general offensive order, and then the three surrounding armies launched a fierce attack near Taierzhuang.
Iron Knights
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="103" > victory in the War of Resistance</h1>
By April 4, the Chinese Air Force sent 27 fighters to bomb the Japanese positions in Taierzhuang, and at night, the Japanese army saw that the general trend had gone, and constantly retreated backwards, and after several days of bloody fighting, on April 6, Li Zongren personally arrived on the outskirts of Taierzhuang and commanded our army to launch a full-line offensive against Japan.
As soon as our soldiers heard that they were going to fight back, their morale suddenly soared, and then the two sides launched a street battle, hand-to-hand combat, and for a time the blood in Taierzhuang was flowing like a river, and the corpses were all over the field. The commander-in-chief of the Japanese army also knew that he was surrounded by a counter-encirclement, so he ordered all the troops to retreat.
In this way, the Japanese commander led the remnants of the defeated soldiers to break through desperately, and finally fled in a daze, so far, our army won the victory in the Battle of Taierzhuang, which greatly boosted the morale of our soldiers, although our side also won the victory.
Taierzhuang Memorial Hall
But it also paid a very heavy price, our army suffered more than 50,000 casualties, the enemy only suffered more than 20,000 casualties, because the gap in weapons between the two sides was too large, resulting in the serious sacrifice of our army, but also let us understand that backwardness will be beaten.
Now more than 80 years have passed, our country has undergone earth-shaking changes, today's prosperity is the anti-Japanese martyrs with blood and life in exchange, we want to remember the martyrs, do not forget the national shame, revitalize China, for the Japanese army against our country, what do you want to say, you can leave a message to discuss Oh.