usatvline Chapter 617 Find a Place to Regain Face
Chapter 617 Find a Place to Regain Face
Ten minutes later, after the Chinese officers left, the expression of Major General Xiaojunjiang Bangxiong, the commander of the Xiaojunjiang Brigade, seemed to be frozen. Was his brigade really gone? Was his brigade wiped out by the Chinese army in one night? This was too unbelievable.
This time, I am really finished. My life has undergone the biggest turning point. I have gone from a warrior of the Empire of Japan to a traitor of the Empire of Japan. The gap in status is simply too huge.
After the new 22nd Army completely annihilated the Japanese Xiaojunjiang Brigade and cleaned up the battlefield, the entire army withdrew to the vicinity of Wenzhou City and began to build defensive fortifications to prevent the Japanese 13th Army from sending a large force to attack Wenzhou City again.
However, the commander of the 13th Japanese Army, Lieutenant General Shigeru Sawada, did not send heavy troops to attack Wenzhou, where the New 22nd Army was stationed, as the Third War Zone Command of the Chinese government had expected. This was because as the 13th Japanese Army occupied more and more areas, the commander of the 13th Japanese Army, Lieutenant General Shigeru Sawada, could no longer mobilize large-scale troops to attack Wenzhou again.
In the opinion of Lieutenant General Shigeru Sawada, commander of the 13th Army of the Japanese Army, if there is not a strength of one and a half divisions, then there is no need to attack the New 22nd Army in Wenzhou. There is no need to launch an attack that has no chance of winning. It would simply be giving military merit to the New 22nd Army of the Chinese government.
However, the Xiaojunjiang Brigade had to make up for its huge defeat on the Wenzhou battlefield, otherwise the Imperial Japanese Army, which was now winning victories in the Pacific and Southeast Asian battlefields, would lose face.
Therefore, Lieutenant General Shigeru Sawada, commander of the 13th Army of the Japanese Army, ordered the Harada Brigade, which had been previously withdrawn to reinforce the Xiaojunjiang Brigade, to gather in the Longyou area, and after being reinforced by the Independent 88th Battalion, ordered the Nara Detachment in Lishui to advance from Longyou and Lishui respectively, and jointly attack the troops of the Third War Zone of the Chinese Government in the Songyang area, and then occupy and hold the Songyang area to ensure the safety of the flanks and rear of the main force of the Japanese 13th Army.
Lieutenant General Shigeru Sawada, commander of the 13th Army of the Japanese Army, also wanted to find an easy target to squeeze and win a battle to regain the face he had lost before.
The Harada Mixed Brigade was composed of troops drawn from the 17th Division of the Japanese Army stationed in Xuzhou. It was commanded by Major General Jiro Harada of the 17th Brigade. It had three infantry battalions, a field artillery battalion and a squadron of engineers.
In order to ensure that the two forces could cooperate in combat during this attack, Lieutenant General Shigeru Sawada, commander of the 13th Army of the Japanese Army, ordered the Nara Detachment to be under the command of Major General Jiro Harada, commander of the Harada Mixed Brigade.
In the early morning of July 29, the Harada Mixed Brigade, under the command of its brigade commander, Major General Harada Jiro, set out from Longyou and attacked southward through Lingshan City west of Xikou. On the second day after its departure, it repelled the blocking forces of the 34th Provisional Division of the Third War Zone of the Chinese government at the northern border.
Then on the third day, the Harada Mixed Brigade attacked and advanced to the area north of Suichang, where it was once again met with strong resistance from the 34th Temporary Division of the Third War Zone of the Chinese government, with a strength of about one regiment. After several hours of fierce attack, the Harada Mixed Brigade successfully broke through the defensive position of the 34th Temporary Division and occupied Suichang.
After occupying Suichang, the Harada Mixed Brigade continued to attack southwards and advanced to Jin'an City. The Provisional Ninth Army of the Third War Zone of the Chinese Government ordered the Provisional 35th Division under its command to block the attacking Harada Mixed Brigade at the Shigui Mountain and Daxu Village line.
The Japanese Army's Harada Mixed Brigade faced the all-out resistance of the Provisional 35th Division. Although the brigade commander, Major General Harada Jiro, organized his troops to attack the blocking positions of the Provisional 35th Division many times, the results were minimal. The advancement speed of the Japanese Army's Harada Mixed Brigade was obviously much slower.
Under the strenuous resistance of the officers and soldiers of the Provisional 35th Division, the Japanese Harada Mixed Brigade took great pains and took a whole day to slowly advance to the vicinity of Tankou, five kilometers northwest of Songyang. Then, the Japanese Harada Mixed Brigade could no longer attack, and the brigade commander, Major General Harada Jiro, could only order the troops to rest first.
Seeing that his troops had arrived in the Songyang area, Major General Jiro Harada, commander of the Harada Mixed Brigade, ordered the Nara Detachment to attack westward from Lishui according to the combat plan, and to join his own troops in the Songyang area to attack the garrison troops of the Third War Zone of the Chinese Government in Songyang.
The Third War Zone Command of the Chinese Government in Songyang area ordered the Provisional 32nd Division and the Provisional 33rd Division as well as the Zhejiang Provincial Security Third and Fourth Regiments to continuously block, flank and pursue the Japanese Nara Detachment along its route, slowing down the advance of the Japanese Nara Detachment and continuously consuming the combat strength of the Japanese Nara Detachment.
This tactic of the Third War Zone of the Chinese Government was very successful. After the Japanese Nara Detachment set out from Lishui, it did not stop for a minute. The officers and soldiers of the Japanese Nara Detachment also gradually discovered that their team seemed to be surrounded by Chinese government troops. They were constantly ambushed and shot at any time and anywhere during the march. When the officers and soldiers of the Nara Detachment went to pursue the Chinese troops who were ambushing and harassing all around, the Chinese troops in the pursuit direction quickly disappeared.
The officers and soldiers of the Nara Detachment of the Japanese Army progressed very slowly under the harassment and attacks of the Chinese government's army at any time. It was not until the evening of the day when they set out from Lishui that the Nara Detachment attacked and advanced to Yuxi Town. Moreover, the officers and soldiers of the Nara Detachment of the Japanese Army were extremely exhausted mentally and physically due to various harassments throughout the day. Moreover, the Nara Detachment of the Japanese Army suffered more than 400 casualties due to the piecemeal surprise attacks by the Chinese army throughout the day.
That night, the Third War Zone Command of the Chinese government saw that the two Japanese attacking forces had shown signs of fatigue, so it ordered the 25th Army to begin a counterattack.
After receiving the order to counterattack, the 25th Army of the Chinese government also ordered the 4th Security Regiment to advance southward from Songyang to meet the Japanese troops in Yuxi, ordered the 2nd and 5th Security Regiments to follow and pursue, and ordered the new 21st Division of the 88th Army to advance from Chishi to Shicangyuan in the southeast of Songyang to prepare to flank the Japanese troops. At the same time, it ordered the temporary 34th Division to return to attack Suichang and recapture Suichang.
The next day, the Japanese Harada Mixed Brigade and Nara Detachment launched attacks on Songyang from Tankou and Yuxi respectively. In order to achieve the goal of extending the Japanese front line, the Third War Zone Command of the Chinese government ordered the defenders in Songyang to abandon Songyang and retreat southward on their own initiative. This would preserve their strength while luring the Japanese offensive forces deeper into the country.