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Text: Grapefruit
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introduction
In May 1939, Japan tried to capture the Far East of the Soviet Union, but was defeated by the Soviet Red Army. Chiang Kai-shek immediately realized that the Japanese might be about to attack Changsha.
The Military Commission of the Republic of China was divided into two factions, one faction advocated resolutely defending Changsha, and the other faction headed by Bai Chongxi resolutely advocated abandoning Changsha and preserving its vital forces.
In August, the Soviet-German non-aggression pact was signed, and Japan, which had suffered a defeat, no longer had the courage to invade the Soviet Union, and it became inevitable to find a place on the battlefield in China.
(The Japanese bombed Changsha)
In mid-September, Chiang Kai-shek asked Chen Cheng, who had stayed with him, to abandon Changsha, and at the same time immediately telegraphed Xue Yue, the deputy commander who was holding Changsha.
Who knows, the stubborn Xue Yue actually ignored Chiang Kai-shek's orders.
1. Xue Yue resolutely refused to carry out Chiang Kai-shek's orders
As early as when the Military Commission of the Republic of China gave up Changsha in order to protect Changsha, Xue Yue ordered the troops and led the local people to destroy the roads and bridges around Changsha.
In doing so, Xue Yue was carrying out his plan to lure the enemy into depth, and at the same time was able to prevent the large Japanese army from advancing straight and reinforcing in time.
(Movie stills)
After receiving Chiang Kai-shek's order, Xue Yue ostensibly withdrew the defenders of Miluo, but secretly commanded all troops to proceed according to the original plan and fight the Japanese army to the death in Changsha.
The withdrawal of the Miluo defenders was actually part of Xue Yue's luring of the enemy into the depths, and the more than 90,000 vanguard troops of the Japanese army really advanced to the area of Beixiang Qiaoyi and Yong'an in accordance with Xue Yue's wishes.
Seeing that the war was about to break out, Xue Yue did not obey the order, and Chiang Kai-shek immediately ordered Bai Chongxi and Chen Cheng to rush to Changsha to dissuade Xue Yue at night.
Bai Chongxi and Chen Cheng rushed to Lukou overnight and urgently summoned Xue Yue.
(Xue Yue)
After hearing this, Xue Yue immediately said, as a soldier, it is my important duty to protect my family and defend the country, how can I say that I will retreat when I retreat?
Bai Chongxi immediately explained, saying that a temporary retreat was not a sign of surrender, but a preservation of vital strength and waiting for an opportunity to fight again.
Xue Yue couldn't listen to it at all, and said very indignantly, withdraw today, withdraw tomorrow, how to explain to the central government, how to face the people, what face do I have to wear this military uniform again?
Chen Cheng saw that neither of the two people was convinced, so he immediately stood up to play a round.
(Chen Cheng)
Chen Cheng said to the two of them that he had given up Miluo before, and now he had given up Changsha, and he might also give up Hengyang, Guilin, etc. in the future, and there would be no way back one day. Did the two of you sit down and study whether there is a possibility of a dozen fights in Changsha?
Although it was a round game, Bai Chongxi could clearly see that Chen Cheng was actually biased towards Xue Yue. Bai Chongxi also understood, after all, the 9th War Zone was Chen Cheng's territory, and if it was lost here, Chen Cheng's face would be gloomy.
So he got off the donkey, willing to put Chiang Kai-shek's orders aside first, and study together whether they could fight a dozen.
In case something goes wrong, there is Chen Cheng to bear it, besides, he really retreated to Guilin, where he is his own nest, and he still has to carry it.
(Bai Chongxi)
When the three of them were studying countermeasures, another disagreement arose. Bai Chongxi analyzed from a military point of view that he could retreat to the south of Changsha and fight a battle first.
Xue Yue was not happy, they were all fighting, why should they retreat to the south to fight. If you retreat to the south, you may have to bear the responsibility for the loss of Changsha.
On the contrary, if you fight north of Changsha, not only will you not bear this responsibility. Moreover, a decisive battle in the name of defending Changsha will also greatly boost morale.
Chen Cheng also favored Xue Yue's opinion, and finally decided to snipe the Japanese army north of Changsha. As for Chiang Kai-shek's side, it was up to Chen Cheng to explain. For Chen Cheng, Chiang Kai-shek still trusted.
(Chiang Kai-shek)
2. The first battle of the first battle to defend Changsha was successful
The Japanese occupation of Changsha began on the night of September 14, and the 106th Division advanced to the area of Gao'an five days later. At that time, the Kuomintang 32nd Army, which was stationed in Gao'an, fought and retreated according to Xue Yue's plan to lure the enemy deeper.
The Kuomintang 32nd Army led the Japanese army in a circle, and when it went around the Miluo River again on the 25th, it was severely attacked by the Kuomintang 70th Army that came on the 26th.
The Japanese 6th Division advanced south of the Miluo River on September 23, and then continued to advance southeast, planning to cut off the highway and the Guangdong-Hankou Railway in this area and drive straight into Changsha.
On the 24th, the 33rd Division of the Japanese Army, together with the 6th Division of the Japanese Army, planned to encircle and annihilate the 15th Army of the Kuomintang in the area of Pingjiang.
(Situation map of the first Changsha defense battle)
On the 26th, the Kuomintang 20th Army sniped the Japanese 33rd Division in the vicinity of Fushiling, seeing that there was no hope of encircling and annihilating the Kuomintang 15th Army. The next day, the Japanese army, together with the two detachments of Uemura and Nara, turned to Changsha and advanced.
Subsequently, the three Japanese troops successively entered the ambush circle set by Xue Yue.
On the 28th, the Kuomintang 77th Division first beat the Kamimura detachment, and then the 195th Division first ambushed a small force of more than 1,000 people from the Japanese 6th Division, and then ambushed its large force of more than 3,000 people.
On the 30th, three other divisions of the Kuomintang rushed to the Yong'an area, and together with the 77th and 195th divisions, completely blocked the road for the Japanese army to move south.
(War)
The Japanese 106th Division rushed straight to Xiushui from northern Jiangxi on the 23rd, and the Kuomintang 72nd Army fought at Huangsha Bridge. Three days later, Xue Yue ordered the 32nd Army to go for reinforcements.
On the 27th, the 74th and 60th armies of the Kuomintang also arrived in the Shangfu area. The four Kuomintang armies engaged in a fierce battle with the Japanese 106th Division in Ganfang.
The Japanese 11th Army, which arrived later, saw that the 106th Division had not been beaten, so it turned around and ran away, and the Japanese commander had no choice but to let the Japanese 33rd Division go to Xiushui to meet the 106th Division and run together.
(The Japanese army began to flee)
On October 1, the Japanese troops who arrived at Yong'an heard that the 11th Army had fled, and they also turned around and fled. The Kuomintang 15th Army hurriedly pursued, and after 8 days, pursued the Japanese army to the north of the Xinqiang River before stopping.
The 33rd Division, which went to rescue the 106th Division of the Japanese Army, arrived in Xiushui on October 5, and the 106th Division saw that the savior was coming, and fled with the ass the next day.
Of course, the Kuomintang troops would not let the Japanese run away like this, and two divisions and a group army immediately pursued and attacked fiercely. Nine days later, all the territory captured by the Japanese army in more than a month was recaptured.
The first battle to defend Changsha, although there were not many enemies annihilated, was of great significance. The Japanese army thought that Changsha could be taken quickly. This point of view, the Japanese army, which suffered defeat at this time, still firmly believes. Therefore, they looked for an opportunity to launch a second attack on Changsha.
(The Second Battle of Changsha Anan Weiji VS Xue Yue)
3. The Second Battle of Changsha
After the First Battle of Changsha, there were some small-scale exchanges of fire between the Chinese and Japanese armies in the area of the Xinqiang River, and such confrontations lasted for more than a year.
By April 1941, Japan had followed Germany's lead and pretended to sign a peace treaty of friendship with the Soviet Union, hoping to reduce its military pressure in the northern part of the continent.
However, in June, Germany broke the peace treaty and fought with the Soviet Union, and the situation changed again.
In August, Anami, who had just taken office, overrode the public opinion at the Imperial Council that the main forces should be concentrated in China to attack Changsha.
After careful consideration, the Japanese top brass believed that it was indeed necessary to abandon the attack on the Soviet Union and push ahead with the attack on China and the southern war to seize oil and other resources.
(Situation map of the second Changsha defense battle)
After receiving the approval of the Imperial Council, the Japanese base camp began to gather heavy troops in the Changsha area from mid-August.
The Japanese military conscientiously summed up the lessons of the First Battle of Changsha and held that it was a mistake for only more than 90,000 Japanese troops to adopt the strategy of attacking separately and in combination against China's 240,000 troops.
The strategy of the Japanese army to attack Changsha for the second time was to concentrate their forces for a frontal battle, the ground forces to open the way with tanks and artillery fire, and the air force and navy to make an early breakthrough and support in the middle and later stages.
In March, the Ninth Theater had already discovered the signs that the Japanese army was preparing to attack Changsha for the second time, and immediately drew up a battle plan.
(Heavy artillery of the national army)
The battle plan was still drawn up in accordance with the framework of the three-line defense of northern Jiangxi, northern Hunan and southern Hunan, and this was the plan for defeating Okamura Ningji in the first battle of Changsha.
Because when Anan Weiji first took office, because Xue Yue didn't know this person at all, he didn't adjust the battle plan.
However, Anan Yuji was extremely cunning, and he had clearly formulated a plan to concentrate his forces on a frontal attack, but on the surface, he still advanced according to Okamura Ninji's model.
On September 7, the Japanese army fought with the 4th Army of Xue Yue's division at Dayun Mountain, with the purpose of covering the four divisions of the Japanese army to assemble north of the Xinqiang River. Ten days later, the four divisions completed the purpose of assembly, and Xue Yue did not find any clues.
(Japanese troops in the Second Battle of Changsha)
Early in the morning of the 18th, Anan Yuji once again arranged for the Hirano detachment to attack on the left flank of Xue Yuebu, in fact, in order to cover the frontal attack in the area of the Xinqiang River.
The four divisions north of the Xinqiang River, under the cover of air power, forcibly crossed the Xinqiang River at the same time, and Xue Yue's defenders here had only three corps.
After a fierce battle, the three Kuomintang soldiers had no choice but to retreat to the area of Shuangshidong to defend.
On the 19th, the commanders of the four divisions of the Japanese army drove straight into the area of the Miluo River, and Xue Yue telegraphed and ordered the Fifth Route Army to lure the Japanese army to the south of the Miluo River for encirclement and annihilation.
(Xue Yue lined up in the second battle to defend Changsha)
Unfortunately, the telegram was deciphered, and the Japanese army instead advanced the main forces towards the area of the Laodao River.
The Japanese army crossed the Xinqiang River on the 20th, and on the 24th and 25th, they successively repelled the 37th Army and the 10th Army of Xue Yue's division, and Xue Yue had to move his headquarters to Xiangtan.
The 74th Army of Xue Yue's Division, and the 7th and 7th Theaters of our War urgently sent the 79th Army and the 2nd Army to reinforcements.
In the following two days, after fierce fighting, the 74th Army retreated in defeat, the 79th Army and the 2nd Army also retreated while fighting, and the Japanese army then captured the Liuyang River and entered Changsha.
(Xue Yue)
Anan Weiji's attack this time, the effect is indeed obvious. However, due to the speed of the advance, the logistics supply did not keep up, and on the 27th, there was a shortage of ammunition, and the 13th Division was even more trapped in Yichang.
From another point of view, the Japanese army encountered a strong resistance from Xue Yue's troops and the 3rd, 5th, 6th, and 7th theater troops of friendly neighbors, and did not take Changsha at the scheduled time.
The Japanese top brass and Anan were very wise, and when they saw that the situation was not good, they immediately ordered the troops to begin to retreat from October 1.
After discovering the retreat of the Japanese army, the five major theaters of the Kuomintang immediately organized interception and pursuit on October 2, and the Japanese army fled to the north bank of the Miluo River in a hurry three days later.
(The Japanese army advances to Changsha)
The Kuomintang troops pursued and fought fiercely, and on October 8, the Japanese army was driven to the north bank of the Xinqiang River.
In order to rescue the 13th Division, Anan ordered the 39th Division to rush to the rescue on the same day.
However, before reinforcements arrived, our 6th Theater of Operations disabled the 13th Division on the 10th, more than 7,000 Japanese troops were wiped out, and the division commander was ready to commit suicide. And the 39th Division of the Japanese Army finally arrived and saved his life.
In the second battle for the defense of Changsha, it can only be said that the two sides fought a draw, and there was a more important reason for the retreat of the Japanese army, the United States completely stopped the supply of steel, oil, etc. to Japan.
(Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor)
It stands to reason that Japan should have retreated at this time, but Japan, which jumped over the wall in a hurry, attacked Pearl Harbor at the end of that year.
Fourth, let the Japanese army stop from here
In the Battle of Pearl Harbor, the Japanese army won a great victory, and immediately began to float again. Three days later, on December 10, the Japanese decided to launch a third attack on Changsha.
When giving orders to Anan Weiji, the Japanese military top brass was still very rational and only asked him to cooperate in the fight in solidarity with Hong Kong.
Anan Weiwei didn't think so, and after the experience of the Second Battle of Changsha, he believed that the Chinese army just didn't fight. This time he never expected that he would lose even his pants.
(6th Division)
After the end of the Second Battle of Changsha, Xue Yue organized two review meetings. According to the summary of the two meetings, he refined a brand-new "Heavenly Furnace Tactics".
And the troops were carefully arranged early, just waiting for Anan to come to the net.
Anan Weiji first fired a shot in the Nanchang area in mid-September and mid-October, and Xue Yue's 3rd Army quickly broke through, and at the same time found that the Japanese army did not have a main force here.
On December 19, the main force of the Japanese army began to advance southward at the Xinqiang River, and the 20th Army and the 58th Army of Xue Yue's Department pretended that they could not be defeated, and retreated while fighting.
(Chiang Kai-shek)
Eight days later, the two soldiers retreated to the south of the Miluo River, formed a V-shaped funnel with the 37th Army and the 99th Army, and carried out the first encirclement and annihilation at Changsha from a long distance. However, they still lured the Japanese army in the direction of Changsha.
On New Year's Day 1942, Anan Weiji's four divisions had advanced to the outskirts of Changsha. At this time, the 10th Army of Xue Yue's Division, which was in charge of covering Changsha, pretended to go out of the city to engage the Japanese army, and carried out a second encirclement and annihilation at close range outside Changsha.
While the 10th Army was in full swing with the Japanese army, Xue Yue had already completed the encirclement layout of 7 armies and one corps on the periphery of Changsha.
After the layout was completed, the 10th Division was ordered to retreat while fighting and bring the Japanese army into Changsha City.
(Stills from the battle of the 10th Army)
Anan Weihan didn't know that it was Xue Yue's strategy, and originally according to the intention of the Japanese high-level, the attack on the outskirts of Changsha would be over, and it should be aimed at annihilating the living forces of our army, because the battle in Hong Kong ended as early as the 25th.
However, Anan Weiji was carried away by the victories of the two sieges and annihilation battles outside Changsha City, and decided to take Changsha in one fell swoop, so he closely followed Xue Yue's 10th Army into Changsha City.
The battle of the 10th Army was not easy, and it fought with the two ace divisions of the Japanese army on its own, and the casualties were very huge.
On the 3rd, a part of the Japanese army entered the city of Changsha, and Xue Yue saw that the time was ripe and ordered the large forces of the 7th Army of the 1st Army on the periphery to immediately divide and encircle and annihilate.
(Commander of the 10th Army, Li Yutang)
Seeing that the perimeter had been blocked by the mainland army, the two divisions of the Japanese army launched a fierce attack on the city of Changsha in an attempt to break through Changsha.
Changsha is the bottom of the pocket of this battle, and if it is breached, the consequences will be unimaginable.
Li Yutang, commander of the 10th Army, organized all the branches of the logistics service and formed a death squad together with the combat soldiers.
The 73rd Army, which was in charge of artillery assistance to the 10th Army at Yuelu Mountain, also immediately targeted the outskirts of Changsha and the city with indiscriminate bombardment.
On the night of the 3rd, after learning that the supply of the front line was interrupted, Anan Weiji's staff officers tried hard to persuade him to abandon the attack on Changsha, and Anan Weiji finally had to order a retreat to begin the next night.
(Captured Japanese trophies)
However, it was too late, and on the night of the 4th, the 7th Army of the National Army carried out the first encirclement and annihilation of the Japanese army in the area of the Laodao River.
On January 7, the six armies of the Nationalist Army carried out a second encirclement and annihilation of the Japanese troops who had fled to the vicinity of Malin City. Two days later, the five armies of the Nationalist Army launched a third encirclement and annihilation of the Japanese army, this time for five days and five nights.
By the 14th, the Japanese had been routed to the Miluo River, where they were waiting for the fourth encirclement and annihilation.
Two days later, most of the 120,000 Japanese troops were annihilated by the Continental Army, and only more than 50,000 remnants of the defeated army fled back to the north of the Xinqiang River, thus ending the third Battle of Changsha.
(Warrior)
I have to say that Changsha is a heroic city, not only annihilated more than 110,000 Japanese troops and dragged the Japanese army for three years, but also the Japanese army did not cross Changsha by half a step!
Resources
Chiang Kai-shek wants to give up Changsha, Xue Yue quarrels and quarrels to "defend Changsha". [OL].2012.10.29.
The first, second and third battles of Changsha and the statistical table of our army's casualties[A].The previous battles of the Ninth Theater (July 1939 to January 1942)[C].The Second Historical Archives of China
Hunan Daily.7 years 6 battles!4 battles in Changsha! Here is Hunan where the Japanese army surrendered. [OL].2021.08.16.