Because the Yellow River broke its embankment, it temporarily blocked the advance of the Japanese army, but there was also a Japanese army that had reached another big river in China, the Yangtze River!
Shigeichi Hakata, led by the troops, most of the soldiers from Kyushu, Japan, had been stationed in Taiwan before coming to the mainland. From what people think, this is a suitable force for fighting in the subtropics. At the time of the Battle of Xuzhou, he was ordered to reach Wusongkou directly from the Taiwan Strait.
The Botian detachment was tasked with following the Yangtze River west to capture a city called Wuhan.
On May 29, 1938, the Tokyo base camp ordered that central China send troops and navies to unite to capture Anqing, Madang, Hukou, and Jiujiang above Wuhu, and use them as front positions for attacking Wuhan.
The 6th Division was the first to be dispatched, but the march was not smooth.
West of Luzhou, Xu Yuanquan's 20th Army, which had long been prepared, not only destroyed the road, but also designed a lot of hidden positions on the road, and raided the Japanese army at any time, making the Japanese army march very slowly.
Xu Yuanquan gradually retreated, and the Japanese Sakai detachment launched a fierce attack on Janssen's 27th Army. Chiang Kai-shek ordered Xu Yuanquan's troops to rush forward to support and flank the Japanese forces in Shucheng. However, the rain was heavy, the roads were muddy, and by the time Xu Yuanquan arrived, Shucheng had already fallen.
Xu Yuanquan also wanted to make up for this mistake, so he ordered the 199th Division of the 87th Army to launch a counterattack against Shucheng.
The 87th Army, how to say it? The combat effectiveness is average, just completed in 1938, the predecessor is the Hunan local security team, originally built a special fortification in Wuhan, after the Start of the Battle of Xuzhou, it was requisitioned. In Luzhou, he was hit hard by the Japanese army and suffered heavy damage.
It is worth saying that when the 87th Army entered the battlefield, basically all the soldiers had not undergone any military training, and the basic shooting skills had not yet been mastered. Although, in the end, a commando team of veterans formed a counterattack, from any point of view, the hope of victory is very slim.
The veterans of the 199th Division, divided into several groups, climbed the walls of Shucheng several times and engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the Japanese, but without the cover of artillery, the reinforcements of the follow-up troops could only be fruitless in the end.
On June 7, the Botian detachment, starting from Zhenjiang anchor, the Japanese Marines from Nanjing, the two armies after the confluence of Wuhu, combined into a team, on warships, along the Yangtze River against the current.
At noon on the 12th, the Japanese army arrived in Anqing, and the river surface along the river was moored and waited, and on the afternoon of the same day, the Marines landed on the south bank of the Yangtze River and occupied Shangyaogou. The Botian detachment landed on the north bank of the Yangtze River and advanced along the embankment toward Anqing.
The army garrisoned in this direction was still Janssen's 27th Army.
The 27th Army, the 133rd and 124th divisions of the 20th Army under its command, had been transferred to the Fifth Theater, and had to be transferred from the Third Theater and the 21st Army to the 145th and 146th Divisions and assigned to The command of Janssen.
Nominally, Janssen had the strength of 4 divisions in his hands, but the defensive zone that Janssen was responsible for was too large. It runs north of the Yangtze River from Shucheng, Tongcheng, and Anqing.
Yang Sen was under great pressure, so he called Chiang Kai-shek: he hoped to send more troops, at least 2 divisions, to complete the defensive line.
This was the first general of the Japanese army after entering the Yangtze River, ruling the supreme command, and took the initiative to propose that the defense along the Yangtze River was too weak. According to the facts, Janssen's judgment was correct.
Chiang Kai-shek replied: Troops have been dispatched to Guangji to provide support.
But everyone should know that although Guangji to Anqing is only 200 kilometers, the road is muddy and the march is very inconvenient. Moreover, the Japanese army was only 20 kilometers away from Anqing, and the two sides compared it, and Yang Sen could not wait for the support troops in such a situation.
The Botian detachment was also very surprised, and really did not expect that the defense along the Yangtze River was so weak that there was almost no army defense. On the embankment of the Yangtze River, the 21st Army, some security forces, made only a little resistance and directly retreated.
If the Japanese army entered no man's land, it occupied the airfield outside Anqing on the 12th and Anqing on the 13th, and Yang Sen's troops were attacked by the enemy on their stomachs and backs, and could only retreat in the direction of Taihu Lake.
The Sakai detachment, after breaking through the Janssen defense line, occupied Tongcheng on the 13th.
The two Japanese troops, advancing by land and water, began to march rapidly towards Dabie Mountain, the Chinese forward position.
Shucheng, Tongcheng, and Anqing fell one after another, and the Japanese army completed its task and had a forward position to attack Wuhan.
It is very puzzling that even if Janssen only had 4 divisions of troops in his hands, and there were some local armed forces, even if the defensive surface was too large, it would not be thin enough to have no resistance. In particular, the Botian detachment that attacked Anqing, with the strength of several hundred people, the Chinese defenders were all on the verge of collapse, and they lost hundreds of kilometers of land in more than ten days.
Chiang Kai-shek also sent a reprimand: a few hundred Japanese troops took Anqing, which is a world-class joke, so that Yang Sen must stick to Qianshan Mountain.
But by the time Janssen received the telegram, Qianshan had already fallen.