Chapter 24: The Opening (Part 2)

  On the evening of April 7, at 8 o'clock, the Japanese army launched the first blow in this decisive battle. However, this blow did not land on the Second Army Corps, which was facing the Japanese army in Taierzhuang, nor did it land on the troops of Cheng Jiaxi, who were preparing to advance into the depths of the Japanese defense line. Instead, it unexpectedly fell on the head of the 20th Army Group, which was a central force. Within an hour of the start of the battle, the Japanese army's reinforced troops, with a strength of around 12,000 men, led by Bo Tian, had already taken out one regiment from the front line of the Chinese army's 110th Division.

  The commander of the 20th Army felt very wronged. Since joining the Fifth War Zone, he had learned from the lessons of the "Battle of Nan Kou" (the 20th Corps lost three divisions in one day after the Battle of Nan Kou, and was reduced to a division-sized unit). He tried to stay as far away from the main battlefield as possible, also wanting to preserve some strength for the Central Army, which had suffered heavy losses in the several months of fighting.

  This time in the battle of Lunan, this brave general at Nan Kou campaign had not a bit of vigor, his actions were always slow. Although there are other objective reasons for this, the root cause is still the psychology that wants to get away from the main battlefield as far as possible.

  It was only after the Military Commission and the war zone had issued strict orders that his combat moves were not completely reserved, otherwise Sakamoto's detachment would not have been able to hold off the 20th Army Corps' five-and-a-half divisions of Central Plains elite troops.

  But unexpectedly, the Japanese ignored the 3rd War Area's frontal forces and the troops of Cheng Shicai who had repeatedly defeated them, concentrating all their mobile combat strength to try to annihilate the 20th Army Corps.

  If he hadn't been worried about the rear of his own legion, he would have left a whole and a half divisions behind the main force of the legion. It's strange that the Japanese didn't take down the old nest of the 20th Army Corps.

  This made the legion commander very angry, 'Little Japan really takes me for a soft egg.'

  What infuriated the legion commander the most was that the Japanese had launched a pincer movement, forcing the 20th Corps to fight for its life! At this point, the 20th Corps only had a glimmer of hope if they fought with all their might; otherwise, it would be a complete collapse.

  "Strict orders: the 110th Division must defend its position to the death and is not allowed to retreat a single step."

  "Order the 52nd Army to complete a full turn of the entire army within two hours and launch an attack on the Japanese flank from the flank of the 110th Division. The heavy artillery and tank units are under the unified command of the 52nd Army."

  "Strict orders for the 85th Army to hold off Sakamoto's detachment at all costs."

  "330th Brigade is approaching the Army Corps, and will be organized as the last reserve of the Corps together with the directly affiliated troops."

  This Japanese military academy graduate, who usually holds the way of the samurai in high esteem, knew that at this point, retreat was impossible. He could only fight to the end. If he was lucky, he might even become an anti-Japanese hero; if not, it would be no worse than sacrificing his troops. As long as they fought the Japanese to the end, it would be much better than being defeated and letting the Japanese win without a fight. In the future, when he met with the Chairman, he would have something to say for himself - he didn't want to become another Han Fuqu.

  Of course, he would not forget to urgently ask for help from Xuzhou and even Wuhan. He believed that at least the Chairman of the Committee would not watch this elite royal army be completely annihilated.

  The 20th Corps fought desperately, and the Japanese had a bit of a hard time.

  In fact, the purpose of Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, commander of the 10th Division of the Japanese Army, in launching this operation was not necessarily to annihilate the Chinese Second Army. Of course, if he could annihilate this trump card army, it would be what Lieutenant General Yokoyama desired. If he couldn't annihilate it, if he could heavily damage and drive out the 20th Army from southern Shandong, this result would also be acceptable to Lieutenant General Yokoyama.

  The mistake lies in the fact that Lieutenant General Hata Shunroku, who commanded the Hata Detachment, was eager for merit and looked down on the Chinese army. This Japanese lieutenant general had an attitude of annihilating the 20th Corps from the very beginning, which forced the 20th Corps to fight a desperate battle with its back against the river.

  The 20th Corps has been fighting with caution since joining the Fifth War Zone, but this time they brought out all their strength and their combat actions became bold and decisive. The Japanese army's Hata branch team was in big trouble.

  At 10:30 on April 7, the 52nd Army completed its full turn in less than two hours and launched a pincer attack from behind the Japanese Botou detachment, which was attacking the 110th Division's defense line with all its might, with the armored regiment directly under the army as the vanguard.

  The commander of the 52nd Army was a fierce general, who privately changed the battle plan issued by the army and launched a surprise attack on the Japanese.

  The Hata unit, which had just arrived in China to participate in the war, had never been hit by the Chinese army before and was extremely arrogant. They thought that the Chinese army, which had always been on the defensive, would not dare to adopt such a bold tactic of launching a decisive attack with its main force. Caught off guard, one battalion of the Japanese Hata unit, which was responsible for the rear guard, was scattered by the Chinese army's armored regiment and then annihilated by the Chinese army's human wave tactics within half an hour.

  After annihilating a large Japanese detachment, the 52nd Army immediately launched a surprise attack on the Japanese from behind the Botou Detachment.

  Lieutenant General Hata Shigeyuki hastily withdrew a brigade to defend against the 52nd Army's attack, while Sakamoto Detachment on the front of the 20th Corps launched a fierce counterattack against the 85th Division to rescue Hata Detachment which was attacked from both sides.

  Within a twenty-mile radius of this small region, 70,000 troops from both China and Japan were entangled in a stalemate.

  The Japanese army's battle in the Gouba Mountain line was not going well, and it had become a stalemate with the 20th Army Corps. This meant that the first punch thrown by the Japanese in this decisive battle had hit a stone wall.

  Since it's like this, on this battlefield of life and death, Chinese people don't need to be polite at all.

  On May 7, at 11:30 pm, the strike force under the jurisdiction of about two divisions (with Xu as the commander of the strike force, Xie Hong as the chief of staff, and Cheng Jiaji as the deputy chief of staff, with the Cheng branch team, the 80th division, and a temporary reinforcement unit of about 4,000 people from the Third Group Army) set out from Guanhu Town, ignoring the Japanese army in front of Taierzhuang, and directly attacking Cangshan.

  Anyone with eyes can see that they are rushing towards the Japanese military supply base. As long as the Chinese army takes down Mount Cangshan and holds it, the nearly 10,000 Japanese troops on the Taierzhuang front line, who have already shifted to a defensive position, will be unable to escape due to lack of food and ammunition.

  For a time, the attention of both China and Japan was focused on this small area of Mount Song. As a result, the largest heavy army group of the Japanese North China Front Army north of Xuzhou was neglected, and the 20th Corps, which had actually taken on a heavy burden, was constrained. This made the corps commander, who liked to calculate, sigh that heaven was unfair.

  But sighing is just sighing, and with 20,000 Japanese troops in front of and behind him, that's enough to keep him busy.

  The vanguard brigade went all the way, and a puppet Manchurian cavalry regiment that had been frozen out of the way fled at the news, anyway, four legs ran fast.

  On April 7th or 8th at around 2 am, the Independent 100th Regiment, as the vanguard of the strike force, arrived at Luzuo, only six or seven miles away from Cangshan City.

  There was a large Japanese army formation waiting in ambush with solid fortifications. At 2:40 on the dawn, the Independent Division 100 welcomed its first regular siege battle since its establishment.