flstandardbreds Chapter 170: The Battle of Wanjialing Begins
Chapter 170: The Battle of Wanjialing Begins
August 21, 1938.
In order to break the stalemate with the National Army, the 106th Division of the Japanese Army took the risk of forcing its way through the Wanjialing area, intending to use a roundabout attack to get directly behind the Lushan defense line, and attack from the front and back with the 101st Division to wipe out the entire First Corps.
The 106th Division is a second-class division newly formed this year.
At the beginning of this year, in order to solve the problem of insufficient troops for the war of aggression against China, the Army Headquarters issued a war readiness mobilization order in May.
A new special division was formed with the remaining 6th Division as the parent unit.
To distinguish it from the Army's active 6th Division, this division was called the 106th Division.
In the entire division, only officers above the rank of battalion commander are active-duty military personnel; most of the other junior officers and recruited soldiers are reserve or back-up personnel recruited from all over southern Kyushu.
The 106th Division was commanded by Lieutenant General Junrokuro Matsuura. The regiment had 795 officers, NCOs and soldiers, totaling .
After the division basically completed its organization in early June, it went to Moji Port to board the ship.
In the middle of the month, the troops landed in Wuhu, Anhui Province, China, and assembled near the area.
Wanjialing, Wukou.
This is a mountain pass leading to the Wanjialing area. The soldiers of the 106th Division lined up in a long line and walked into the mountain path together.
At the entrance of the mountain road, the captain of the 113th Infantry Regiment, Yasushi Sugita, was at the rear of the position, looking ahead with a telescope from time to time...
All members of the 113th Regiment are from the island nation of Kumamoto Prefecture. The Kumamoto miners are very fierce, and the combat effectiveness of this regiment is also amazing.
Under his command, the 113th Regiment had already achieved considerable success in previous battles.
This time, the 113th Regiment was the first team to lead the attack on Wanjialing.
To the rear were the 103rd Heavy Artillery Brigade, the 109th Engineer Regiment, and a small baggage battalion.
Originally, the combination of various arms was perfect, but because the previous material transport vehicles were jointly blown up by the National Army and the Red Party, the supply of materials was insufficient, and the rear baggage battalion had to choose to abandon some large baggage and choose to go into battle lightly.
However, even if they were lightly equipped, they believed they were more than capable of dealing with the Nationalist army.
"Mr. Sugita, remember when Liu Bang and Xiang Yu were confronting each other, Han Xin used a trick to build a large-scale plank road at the pass, while he led his troops to set out from the small road, attacking from both sides and defeating the Chu army in one fell swoop."
"This is called repairing the plank road in the open while marching through Chencang in secret."
"Those idiots in the Nationalist army probably never thought that we would learn the same trick from their ancestors. We openly confronted them on both sides of the defense line of Mount Lushan, but secretly moved diagonally from Wanjialing to the rear of Mount Lushan."
"If this succeeds, General Songpu will become a figure comparable to the God of War Han Xin.
Shojiro Iida, who was also a colonel, put down his telescope and began to show off his knowledge.
The Japanese are so contradictory. On the one hand, they constantly express contempt for the Chinese people, but on the other hand, they are proud to learn Chinese culture.
Whether it is their superior, Neiji Okamura or the two big bosses of the intelligence agency, Kenji Doi and Masaki Kagesa.
Even the Admiral, Isoroku Yamamoto.
They are all very keen on studying Chinese culture.
Admiral Togo Heihachiro's idol is one of the two and a half saints in China, the founder of the School of Mind, Wang Yangming.
Even his motto was: Bow down to Yangming all my life.
Because of this, the Japanese have very complicated feelings towards the Chinese. In their view, only by completely conquering China can they prove their strength to the whole world.
"Iida-kun," Sugita Seiji echoed, "This surprise attack on the rear of the National Army was first planned by General Okamura."
"The Nationalist Army certainly didn't expect us to be so bold as to abandon our frontal advantage and choose to attack from the rear through a small road. It seems that we will soon see the frightened face of Xue Boling, the commander of the Nationalist Army."
The team marched forward in an orderly manner with neat steps. At this time, he actually had nothing to command.
Although the 113th Regiment was a new unit that was only assembled in June, and most of its soldiers were from the reserve and reserve forces, its combat effectiveness was not weaker than that of other divisions.
Moreover, commanders at all levels are active-duty officers with combat experience and high combat literacy who know what to do on the battlefield.
Yasushi Sugita is very adept at commanding such a team.
Whoosh, a gust of wind suddenly blew, and Seiji Sugita looked up at the sky.
The sky was still blue, but the wind was getting stronger and stronger.
Somehow, Seiji Sugita suddenly had a sense of foreboding.
the other side……
"Okay, okay, we'll go deep into the enemy's territory alone. Let's see how he escapes this time." Lushan Frontline Combat Command.
Xue Boling slapped the table, his face filled with uncontrollable excitement.
More than a week ago, he received intelligence that the Japanese 106th Division intended to penetrate into the rear of the Lushan defense line from Wanjialing and encircle the First Corps.
After receiving the intelligence, Xue Boling immediately sent people to Wanjialing to draw a detailed map and confirm the best ambush position.
But before the map was completed, the Military Intelligence Bureau sent him a military topographic map of five provinces drawn during the Sun Chuanfang period.
This map depicts in detail the locations of various parts in the Wanjialing area.
In order to verify the authenticity of the map, Xue Boling immediately sent people to compare the map with a newly drawn part of the map, and finally found that the accuracy of the map was higher than that of the newly drawn map.
I don’t know how the Military Intelligence Bureau agents got the ability to get this precious military map.
However, this thing came just in time. With this map, Xue Boling's confidence increased immediately.
He immediately asked his superiors for instructions and formulated an ambush plan for Wanjialing.
The Military Commission also made it clear that it would spare no effort to support Xue Boling's action.
"Orders," Xue Boling said in a deep voice with an excited look on his face, "The 66th Army, the 74th Army, the 187th Division, a brigade of the 139th Division, the 91st Division, the newly formed 13th Division, a brigade of the newly formed 15th Division, the 142nd Division, the 60th Division, the newly formed 6th Division, the 19th Division, and the 4th Army."
"Surround them from all sides and attack with all your might."
"This time, we must wipe out the 106th Division. Wanjialing is their grave."
"Yes." Adjutant Jiang Chaoan immediately closed the notebook and issued combat orders to each unit.
Shanghai Stock Exchange, Meihua Building, Material Transfer Center.
Because the previous batch of supplies was destroyed by the Red Party, the Army Logistics Department became the biggest suspect in the leak.
The 106th Division could not wait for the supplies to arrive and had already ordered to advance towards Wanjialing.
This time the advance was a full month earlier than in history.
Chen Yang didn't know whether this would lead to any changes in the battle.
But he was powerless. He had done everything he could. Whether he could succeed or not depended on Commander Xue himself.
As the saying goes, man proposes, God disposes.
It depends on whether God will give me face...