This was the last war that Chiang Kai-shek wanted to mention, and it was even more a war that the Kuomintang was most humiliated.
In 1938, the 150,000 elite army sent by the Kuomintang was defeated by more than 20,000 Japanese troops, and even Lao Jiang himself later called this battle a laughingstock for eternity.
After the defeat, in order to prevent the Japanese army from continuing to attack, Lao Jiang made a decision that made the people of the whole country spit and scold.
So in the Battle of Lanfeng, how did the Nationalist army lose when its strength was far more than seven times that of the Japanese army? And what are the serious consequences of this failure?
In January 1938, after the outbreak of the Battle of Xuzhou, the Kuomintang won the success of the Battle of Taierzhuang, but later suffered a fierce blow from the Japanese army in the Battle of Xuzhou, and in order to prevent his main army from being surrounded by the Japanese army, he ordered the Nationalist troops fighting in the Xuzhou area to begin to retreat.
At the same time, the Japanese army seemed to see through the intentions of lao Chiang, especially Kenji Toihara, who was known as the "China Pass", and took the initiative to lead the 14th Division regiment belonging to the Japanese army to try to conquer eastern Henan and occupy the Longhai Railway, thus cutting off the retreat of the Nationalist army.
However, the Japanese 14th Division was the elite of the troops, and the 14th Division was composed of four infantry companies and an artillery company, and its strength was quite strong.
After the battle of Taierzhuang, the Japanese army learned the lessons of that time, in order to prevent the 14th Division from being surrounded and annihilated again, the Japanese army supplemented the 14th Division, not only adding an infantry company, but even adding three field heavy artillery companies, and this time the 14th Division regiment increased its combat strength and completely became a motorized division.
After Lao Jiang learned the news that the Japanese 14th Division was pursuing the victory, he could be said to be surprised and happy, and the reason why Lao Jiang was "surprised" was that the Japanese army was so bold that it dared to send a lone army to intercept the main force of 100,000 upper and lower Nationalist troops.
In addition, the reason why he felt "happy" was that in the eyes of old Chiang, although the Japanese 14th Division was an elite unit, it came alone after all, so as long as the Nationalist army was deployed, it could greatly save the situation, and even completely annihilate it around Lanfeng County.
Since the Battle of Lanfeng, the national army's operations can be said to have ended in defeat, and Lanfeng is located in the eastern part of Henan Province, the north of Shandong Province, and the Longhai Railway runs through kaifeng, so it has been a place where soldiers and families must fight since ancient times.
Therefore, in order to gain an absolute superiority in numbers, Lao Jiang deliberately mobilized a large number of troops of the First Theater of Operations, with a total of 150,000 men from two divisions, from the east, west, and north, in an attempt to wipe out the 20,000 men of the Japanese 14th Division in the Lanfeng area, so the Battle of Lanfeng officially began.
It is worth mentioning that in this war of annihilation, Lao Jiang also sent his own beloved general Gui Yongqing to lead his troops to participate in the war.
Gui Yongqing, born in Jiangxi in 1900 and graduated from the Whampoa Military Academy, was one of the confidants of lao Jiang, who believed that sending Gui Yongqing to such a confidant not only showed the importance of this war, but also showed the importance he attached to this war.
However, what old Jiang could not imagine was that Gui Yongqing was a very problematic person, he was not only conceited, but even in terms of military command, he could only talk about it on paper, and putting such a person on the battlefield would only drag his legs, and it was his own proud protégé who led to the final defeat of the Lanfeng Campaign.
First of all, lanfeng county, which was the most crucial county in this battle, was originally defended by the 71st Army led by Song Xilian, but since Gui Yongqing led the 27th Army to arrive, Lao Jiang ordered the 71st Army to attack in the direction of the Red Temple, and handed over the heavy task of guarding Lanfeng to Gui Yongqing.
At the same time, in order to prevent accidents, Lao Jiang also specially ordered the 88th Division of the 71st Army to stay and assist Gui Yongqing, but it was this move of Lao Jiang that became the key factor that eventually led to the fall of Lanfeng County.
On May 21, 1938, the Battle of Lanfeng officially broke out, and the 150,000 Nationalist troops launched a general offensive against the Japanese 14th Division from the east, west and north according to the original plan.
After a day of fierce fighting, the Nationalist 74th Army and the 71st Army successively recovered key points such as Neihuang Yifeng, and the living space of the Japanese army was gradually compressed, and the victory of the Nationalist army seemed to be in sight.
It is worth mentioning that at the same time that the battlefield was fiercely fought, Gui Yongqing, who was responsible for holding on to Lanfeng County, also reported a great achievement.
On May 22, just as Gui Yongqing was patrolling Lanfeng with a few tanks and dozens of infantry, he happened to encounter a Japanese cavalry unit with only more than a hundred people, who were rushing in the direction of Lanfeng, looking at the "fat meat" sent to the door, Gui Yongqing immediately led his troops to drive tanks to launch a fierce attack on the Japanese cavalry unit.
With a burst of shelling, the Japanese army fell one by one like a cut wooden stake, but after a while, more than 100 Japanese troops, except for a few who ran fast, the rest became the soul of Gui Yongqing and others.
Although this was only more than a hundred and ten enemy troops, under Gui Yongqing's blowing, it was said that he had become a strong enemy, and he did not expect that Old Jiang really believed it, thinking that victory was at hand, but the battle record blown out could not withstand the test.
On May 23, when Kenji Toihara found that the 27th Army stationed in Lanfeng County was relatively weak and suitable for a breakthrough, he sent a reinforced brigade under the 14th Division regiment overnight, supported by tanks and artillery, to launch an overwhelming onslaught on LanfengCheng.
After only two or three hours, Gui Yongqing could not withstand such a powerful attack, and the positions of the 27th Army began to rout one after another, and the greedy soldiers who were afraid of death began to flee in all directions.
Seeing this situation, Gui Yongqing also wanted to escape with him, but he knew that if he lost Lanfeng County, he would also lose his life, and in order to avoid old Jiang from being held responsible, Gui Yongqing used a trick before escaping, and let Long Muhan, commander of the 88th Division, take over.
And Long Muhan was born in 1998, and is also the proud protégé of old Jiang, this person has a more arrogant personality, he was originally a little dissatisfied with the arrangement of old Jiang to let Gui Yongqing garrison Lanfeng, and when he led his troops to Lanfeng, he found that Gui Yongqing had already taken the troops for a walk.
After learning that he had been used as a substitute for the dead ghost, he decided to count with Gui Yongqing's old grudge, and even fled with the abandonment of the city in a fit of anger.
However, the abandonment of the city by these two giants allowed the Japanese army to pick up a big bargain, so the Japanese 14th Division easily occupied Lanfeng County, and the fall of Lanfeng County made Kaifeng, Zhengzhou and other places under the threat of the Japanese army, and the nationalist army headquarters was surprised.
The next day, Chiang Kai-shek ordered Xue Yue, commander-in-chief of the 19th Group Army of the First Theater, to command Yu Jishi's 74th Army, Li Hanling's 64th Army, Song Xilian's 71st Army, and Gui Yongqing's 27th Army from east to west, and Hu Zongnan, commander of the 17th Army, to annihilate all the Japanese 14th Divisions before dawn on the 26th.
On the day of the 25th, Xue Yue led the Yudong Army to launch a fierce attack on the Japanese 14th Division, and successively recaptured Lanfeng Station and Luowang Station that night, while the 71st Army launched a fierce attack on the Japanese positions.
On May 27, with the recovery of Lanfeng and Luowang stations, the Longhai Railway was finally reopened, and 42 trains full of supplies that had been cut off near Shangqiu were withdrawn to Zhengzhou, and the situation at the Battle of Lanfeng improved.
The main force of the Japanese 14th Division suffered heavy losses, and had no choice but to retreat to the vicinity of Sanyizhai, but was surrounded by the Yudong Army.
Seeing that the whole situation had improved, on May 28, Gui Yongqing once again took the initiative and let the troops move their positions, and also let the troops abandon the radio and weapons and ammunition in the middle, but this led to the failure of all the units of the Nationalist army to complete the operation within a limited time, and the encircled Japanese troops finally got the opportunity to repair.
The angry and corrupt old Chiang then issued an order: The Japanese army near Lanfeng was no more than five or six thousand people, while the strength of the 12 divisions of our army was not under siege, not only the troops were complex, they blamed each other, and the rout was fearful, even if they conquered the Japanese army, they would become the laughing stock of the ages on the battlefield.
Unfortunately, chiang's telegram eventually became a reality.
On the 28th, the 13th Brigade Regiment, which was able to repair the Japanese army and the reinforcements, officially launched a fierce attack on the Nationalist positions outside Shangqiu, and the Huang Jie Eighth Corps, which was stationed in Shangqiu, because it could not withstand the fierce attack of the Japanese army, actually retreated again without authorization, and also used a move Li Daitao, so that the 187th Division left a defense, and the division commander Peng Linsheng finally retreated because he could not resist the Japanese attack.
In this way, Shangqiu, one of the key towns in the encirclement, was thus occupied by Japanese reinforcements.
The fall of Shangqiu seriously threatened the Xue army attacking the Japanese 14th Division, so the First Theater was forced to readjust the deployment, and this move allowed the Japanese troops in the direction of Guantai to cross the Yellow River to support the 14th Division.
In this way, the plan to annihilate the Japanese army at the Battle of Lanfeng ended in failure.
Due to the continuous fierce fighting of the Nationalist army for dozens of days, the soldiers suffered heavy casualties and could no longer compete with the Reinforcements of the Japanese Army, and finally had to decide to move west.
In this way, because of the incompetence of some senior generals of the nationalist army, they retreated without authorization and fled without permission during the battle, resulting in a war of annihilation that should have been won, but in the end it was defeated.
In order to prevent the continued attack of the Japanese 14th Division and the 16th Division, Lao Jiang finally issued a wrong decision (sensitive can not be written), resulting in thousands of people being homeless.
Although the Nationalist army has also fought beautiful battles, most of them have been defeated, and this time the defeat was too serious, and the consequences were too bad, so it became the most humiliating battle of the nationalist army.