Chapter 5: The Season of Harvest (Part 2)

  From Xia Weimin to Chang Jing, Cheng Jiaji, no one expected that the vanguard of the 16th Division would actually engage in a real battle with the Japanese so quickly, and it was against the famous Iron Army's 5th Division. Even the intention of the headquarters of the 5th War Zone was only to let them join forces with a guard company from the headquarters to protect General Xu Zuyi, the chief of staff of the 5th War Zone, on a trip to the Linyi front line, and also to get a feel for the atmosphere of the battlefield, so that they could have some understanding of the Japanese army's combat strength and tactics.

  Many years later, the surviving old soldiers of various troops who participated in the Battle of Linyi to commemorate that bloody battle all had a deep impression of the temporary 16th Army's vanguard. If it weren't for the arrival of this unexpected reinforcement, Peng Bingxun's army would not have been able to hold on until they met up with the 59th Army. If it were really like that, then the Battle of Linyi would have had to be rewritten, and similarly, if this troop did not exist, the Battle of Linyi would not have been a crushing defeat for both sides.

  On March 11, 1928, the vanguard of the 16th Temporary Division led by Cheng Jiabei arrived in Linyi with a total of 1,038 people, including two infantry regiments, one cavalry company, one mortar company, one engineer company and one pistol platoon to escort Xu Zudong, the chief of staff of the Fifth War Zone.

  At this moment, Cheng Jiaji has completely gotten rid of his previous confusion. He is now single-mindedly thinking about having a good fight with the Japanese. Of course, Cheng Liu Ye, who is filled with patriotism and anti-Japanese sentiment, has not let his heroic ambitions cloud his mind. He still has full consideration for his own safety. This time he came to Linyi, first to escort General Xu to direct the battle, secondly because he knew that this was a battle in which the Chinese army would win a great victory. Anyone who had seen the bloody Battle of Tai'erzhuang knew that this battle marked the beginning of the Chinese army's pursuit of the Japanese army. If it were the defensive battle where the entire garrison was annihilated at Teng County, he wouldn't dare to go. Thirdly, he relied on his current strength. When he learned that his younger brother had volunteered to go north, Cheng Da Xiaojie, who was frightened out of her wits, made a big fuss and didn't care about anything else. After learning that it had already been reported to the Military Commission and couldn't be changed, she forced Xia Weimin to greatly strengthen the advance team. Not only did he allocate a batch of machine guns and submachine guns to this team, but also supplemented a large amount of ammunition. He even specially transferred 300 veteran soldiers from other troops, and even let Xia Weimin assign an reinforced company from his direct cavalry regiment to Cheng Jiaji, so that in case the battle situation was unfavorable, his younger brother could escape danger. If Xia Weimin hadn't repeatedly assured her that this team would not have many opportunities to go into battle, this anxious and eager woman, the wife of General Xia, would have forced her husband to strengthen this team into a brigade-sized unit.

  The advance detachment of less than 1,300 people has 800 long and short guns, 150 submachine guns, 65 light machine guns, 20 heavy machine guns, 12 mortars, and 110 war horses. Although most of the weapons are still inferior to those of the Japanese army, except for some German-made equipment, they have reached or even surpassed the level of a division's equipment in China at that time. In comparison, the Peng Military Division, which has an entire army corps with 13,000 soldiers and horses, only had five times as many mortars as the advance detachment. The equipment level of the advance detachment was also higher than that of the 59th Army, which had slightly better equipment. Not only in terms of equipment but also in terms of personnel quality, the advance detachment was not much inferior to the 59th Army and Peng Military Division, both of which were seasoned troops. Among the 1,230 soldiers, more than 60% had five or more years of military service and had fought against the Japanese with real swords and guns after being adjusted through three levels of army, division, and brigade. It can be said that if we talk about true combat effectiveness, this detachment was one of the strongest battalion-level combat units on the entire Linyi battlefield, excluding command factors. Xia Weimin concentrated so many veteran soldiers in this advance detachment because he was worried about his beloved son-in-law's safety on the one hand and wanted to save face for the commander of the 16th Army on the other hand.

  The battle broke out at night, and it was already the 14th day of deep night. The 59th Army had arrived in Linyi City suburbs and was preparing to launch a fierce attack on the Japanese army at dawn the next day, so as to coordinate with the Peng Dehuai's troops inside and outside to encircle and attack the Japanese army. The main force of the Japanese Fifth Division had also turned towards the 59th Army, and Linyi was no longer in great danger.

  From the war zone commander's department to Pang Bingxun and Zhang Zizhong, none of these high-ranking frontline generals thought that the Japanese army would send a large team to bypass the regimental position set up by the Pang Army in front on the same night and directly raid the command post of the Pang Army.

  A battalion of the Japanese 5th Division's Sakamoto detachment, which was locked in a fierce battle with the Third Corps, infiltrated under the guidance of a Major Staff Officer of the 40th Army who had been captured and defected on the night of March 13 at around 11 o'clock to the edge of a small village near the canal, where the command post of Peng Bingxun's Third Corps was located.

  After the Linyi Campaign, the summary report submitted by the Japanese Fifth Division to the General Headquarters detailedly described this surprise attack that almost changed the situation with its merits and demerits.

  Sakamoto's detachment commander learned that the command post of the Chinese army's third corps was still on the north bank of the canal, and there were no organized guard troops around him. After being shocked, Sakamoto decided to launch a surprise attack on the command post of the Chinese army's third corps with Yamaki's unit, which was originally the detachment's reserve unit.

  After the war, the Japanese army learned that General Xu Zudong, Chief of Staff of the Fifth War Zone of the Chinese Army, was directing the battle in the headquarters of the Third Army Corps that night. The unit that heavily damaged the Yamaki Detachment was actually his elite Guards Brigade, fully equipped with German-made weapons.

  The Japanese summary report called this unexpected event "heaven's will", in their view it was heaven not blessing the Imperial Army at that moment.

  Although Cheng Jiaji was not convinced that the Japanese were unlucky, he still acknowledged that their luck was not great, perhaps it was because the Japanese god Amaterasu took a day off, anyway, to put it in Beijing dialect, the Japanese were quite unlucky.

  It was said that it was like this, but for Cheng Jiaqi, who was in command for the first time that night, it was indeed the longest night. Let's review the protagonist Dada's first battle below.