Chapter 12: The Fierce Enemy Tsuchihara

  Xu Liang led a group of soldiers to the countryside in nearby counties of Kaifeng to recruit troops. The underground party organization in Kaifeng sent the Kaifeng Youth Drama Troupe to support Xu Liang. As the war approached Kaifeng, things became urgent, and two motorcycles and borrowed trucks followed Xu Liang's actions. They performed in every village they arrived at, attracting onlookers, and then Xu Liang personally gave speeches, spreading propaganda about resisting Japan and saving the country, and exposing the heinous crimes committed by the Japanese devils in invading our country. At that time, China's war mobilization was indeed not thorough enough. The war had been going on for so long, with hundreds of thousands of troops from both China and Japan fighting to the death in the Xuzhou area, but in the rural areas of the plain near the provincial capital city, many people only heard rumors of war, who was fighting whom, and were unclear about it. They only felt the strong and urgent demands of the government's grain collection, Xu Liang's propaganda had a significant impact in some places, with some young people enlisting, especially in areas with party organizations that received instructions to cooperate with Xu Liang. After days of anti-Japanese propaganda, Xu Liang's recruitment team gradually gained the trust of some villagers, and some people who had been hiding from conscription came forward to enlist voluntarily. In Lijiachuan, the head of the Li family, a prominent local clan, even convened a village meeting to support Xu Liang's efforts, and after the meeting, over a dozen young men signed up to enlist on the spot. Some young people in other areas were inspired by Xu Liang's propaganda to join the military and fight against the enemy, but they looked down on the local security teams and ran away to join the main force of the national army instead. Fortunately, Xu Liang's team had motorcycles and military trucks, which made them look quite impressive.

  There were some minor frictions with the Red Gun Society, Miao Xiang Society and others, but fortunately there was no bloody conflict. Once, Xiao Wangzi wanted to order his brothers to confiscate a group of Red Gun Society's arms, but was stopped by Xu Liang.

  Half a month of rushing about resulted in recruiting over 600 new soldiers.

  Equipment and other supplies became a problem again, and it was impossible to attack the local tyrants. The Fourth Regiment stopped recruiting heavily and shifted its main efforts to training new soldiers.

  The new recruits were all issued uniforms, but the weapons were insufficient. Commander Wang later allocated 300 infantry equipment, mainly some old rifles and a small number of pistols, no machine guns, let alone big cannons. Later, through bribing Deputy Meng, they managed to get some funding, forged a batch of large knives and red-tasseled spears and other cold weapons. This time the 4th battalion's weapons were truly diverse, worthy of being called the infantry weapon series encyclopedia at that time.

  The troops were organized into two battalions, with Liang You Tian as the battalion commander of the first battalion and Chen Hao's former subordinate Dong Da Hai as the battalion commander of the second battalion. Mortars and heavy machine guns were unified under the machine gun company, and Xiao Wang Zi Wang was promoted to captain and company commander. All submachine guns were concentrated together to form a team directly under the command of the regimental headquarters. Soldiers with martial arts skills were selected to form a guard squad, all equipped with mirror-finish pistols, with Zhang Lin as the squad leader. Ten comrades sent by Zhugou performed exceptionally well in training and took on roles as company and platoon officers.

  The arduous and rigorous military training was carried out in a tense atmosphere, interspersed with patriotic political education. They talked about the situation of the War of Resistance, the atrocities committed by the devils, the inevitability of victory in the War of Resistance, and taught them to sing anti-Japanese songs, including "The March of the Volunteers", which later became the national anthem. The officers and soldiers, with the conviction of defending their homes and fighting bravely against the enemy, threw themselves into military training with great enthusiasm.

  This army has no bad habits of the old army, all soldiers are voluntary recruits, received strict military training and political education with patriotism as the main theme, and have a deep hatred for the Japanese invaders. Its officers have received regular military education and have actual combat experience, and the backbone is veterans with combat experience. Although in the eyes of the First War Zone, this army is no different from other security regiments, and even has a lower status than the three regiments originally under Wang Sheng's command, the combat effectiveness of the 4th Security Regiment is actually far higher than the average level of all troops in the First War Zone, including the main force units of the Central Army.

  During the tense recruitment and training of Chen Hao, the war situation in Xuzhou area underwent a drastic change. After the enemy's defeat in Taierzhuang, the enemy command realized that Xuzhou was not to be taken lightly. In April, the enemy mobilized more than 30 divisions with over 300,000 soldiers from Pingjin, Tianjin, Shanxi, Suiyuan, Jiangsu and Anhui, launching a large-scale encirclement of Xuzhou area in six routes, aiming to annihilate the troops of our Fifth War Zone. The enemy's mobilized forces this time were all elite troops from their China Expeditionary Army, equipped with various heavy weapons. According to plan, the enemy formed several encirclement circles, gradually shrinking them towards the center of Xuzhou, attempting to wipe out all our troops in the Xuzhou area at one stroke.

  Facing tens of thousands of well-equipped enemy troops, with hundreds of planes assisting in the battle, Chiang Kai-shek also assembled a large number of reinforcements to the Fifth War Zone, intending to engage in a decisive battle with the enemy near Xuzhou. By April, the Chinese army concentrated in the Xuzhou area had more than 50 divisions. At that time, given our military's equipment and training level, we could only take advantage of favorable terrain to wage mobile warfare against the enemy. Now, gathering tens of thousands of people in the flat plain area around Xuzhou to engage in a large-scale positional war of attrition with the enemy was exactly what the enemy's mechanized forces and air force were eager for.

  By early May, the enemy on the northern front had occupied key points east and north of Xuzhou, and the 10th Division crossed the Grand Canal from Jining westward, capturing Juye, Yutai, and heading towards Xuzhou's western suburbs, including Suixian and Fengtai. The southern enemy forces also launched a full-scale attack after occupying Suzhou, capturing Hefei, Shou County, Fengtai, and Mengcheng, forcing the Anhui provincial army to retreat westward to the Dabie Mountains. Later, the southern enemy turned northward, capturing Yongcheng in Henan Province, with their forces pointing directly at Suixian. Our Fifth War Zone troops fought desperately along the Longhai Railway from Shangqiu to Xuzhou's northern and southern suburbs, blocking the enemy from cutting off the railway west of Xuzhou and encircling our main force. If our army in the Xuzhou area were to be annihilated, the elite forces would suffer heavy losses, and the temporary capital Wuhan would have no troops to defend it. If the enemy could easily capture Central China without suffering significant losses, the overall situation would be precarious.

  The original 14th Division of the enemy, which was under the command of Tu Fei-yuan and belonged to the First Army, crossed the Yellow River from the north bank in Henan Province into western Shandong, captured our Juancheng and Heze, but instead of moving east to join forces with the 10th Division to attack our troops in southwestern Shandong, they quickly moved south to capture Caoxian, turned southwest to enter the defense zone of the First War Zone, occupied the Neihuangji Railway Station on the Longhai Railway, and approached Lankao (after liberation, Lankao and Kaicheng were merged into today's Lankao County). The enemy chose to cross the river and detour at the junction of our two war zones, disregarding the fact that the troops of the Fifth War Zone would cut off their rear route, and with all their might moved south in a big circle, bypassing the defensive forces of the Fifth War Zone, penetrating deep into our territory, fully demonstrating the ferocity and cunning of this enemy. If the enemy occupies Lankao, cuts off the Longhai Railway, it will completely complete the encirclement of our army in the Xuzhou area.

  At this time, the 5th War Zone had already abandoned Xuzhou and troops had begun to retreat south along the Longhai Railway towards the Henan-Anhui border. In order to annihilate the Chinese army, Japanese General Headquarters ordered the 14th Division to capture Lanfeng at all costs.

  The 14th Division of the Japanese army suddenly appeared in the east and west, rushing wildly, and actually appeared in a place 40 kilometers east of Henan Province. The war zone and the Chinese command were shocked, and quickly withdrew troops from the 74th Army, 71st Army, and New 35th Division to intercept them. The two sides fought fiercely in the northeastern part of Lanfeng. Under the cover of aircraft and artillery, the enemy repeatedly attacked our positions, causing heavy casualties among our blocking forces.

  Seeing Tōyama's ferocity, Commander-in-Chief Xue Yue of the First War Zone was enraged and ordered the 74th Army and New 35th Division to attack Cao County from the north, aiming to cut off Tōyama's rear route and annihilate the enemy. The defenders of Cao County were arrogant and complacent, never thinking that our army would dare to launch a counterattack against them.

  The Chinese troops tasked with the encircling attack launched a fierce assault on Cao County, quickly recovering it. From then on, the 14th Division of the Japanese army, which had implemented strategic encirclement and outflanking maneuvers against the Fifth War Zone, was surrounded by our army in the Lanfeng and Cao County areas of eastern Henan and western Shandong.

  Since the Meiji Restoration, in all the wars, the Japanese army had never had a precedent of an entire division being annihilated. As a proud and strong-willed military man with a strong sense of national pride, Xue Yue naturally yearned to break this record and greatly crush the enemy's morale. However, at that time, the timing, location, and conditions were not ripe.

  Firstly, at this time, the Xuzhou area had already received orders to break through the siege and Xuzhou had been abandoned. The overall situation was in a strategic retreat. Secondly, this place is a plain area, where the terrain favors the enemy rather than us. If we want to annihilate an entire enemy division at this time, we need to concentrate our absolute superior forces for a quick battle and quick decision. However, with the First War Zone having to defend the Yellow River thousands of miles away, there were not many mobile troops that could be withdrawn. Moreover, the Fifth War Zone troops located between the enemy's 16th Division and 14th Division had been fighting hard for many days to cover the main force's withdrawal from Xuzhou, and their personnel and ammunition had been exhausted. Facing the attack of the 10th Division, they were barely holding on, and if the fierce enemy 14th Division broke through to the east, these troops would have no power to stop them. Moreover, these troops had already received orders to retreat before the First War Zone recovered Cao County.

  At this time, Xue Yue's offensive defense meant to the greatest extent possible to pin down the enemy's attack on Lanfeng, cut off the Longhai Railway action, and gain time to cover the withdrawal of all troops in the five war zones from the encirclement that the enemy had not been able to close, retreat to the Wuhan area for rest and replenishment.

  The ferocious Tada Hayao unexpectedly ignored the danger of being cut off from behind and continued to launch a fierce attack on Lanfeng. The 71st Army was somewhat unable to withstand it, and Song Xilian repeatedly sent out distress signals. As there were no reinforcements available in the First War Zone, Xue Yue ordered the troops occupying Cao County to launch a fierce counterattack against the enemy's flank and rear, linking up with the forces of the Fifth War Zone. The brothers of the Fifth War Zone, who had been fighting between two enemy divisions for many days and had made up their minds to die for their country, were overjoyed when they saw the arrival of reinforcements, and their morale was greatly boosted. Tada Hayao was forced to withdraw troops to defend himself, and his offensive slowed down.