History has its own life, it is like a person, both easy-going and self-respecting. ——Yu Qiuyu
Miscellaneous armies went out to Resist Japan in Sichuan, and the major war zones avoided them
On July 7, 1937, the cannon sound of the Lugou Bridge Incident woke up the entire Chinese nation, the people of the whole country rose up to resist the enemy and resist humiliation, and the children and soldiers of all provinces petitioned one after another and rushed to the front line of the War of Resistance. The Sichuan Army, as the second road reserve army, was also reorganized into two columns of the 22nd and 23rd group armies, officially out of Sichuan to resist Japan, and the reserve troops were also being formed one after another.
The Sichuan army in this period was an uncompromising miscellaneous unit, the quality of the army was low, the weapons and equipment were outdated, the main weapons were 79 rifles, large knives and spears made in Sichuan, and the only heavy weapons were only locally made light and heavy machine guns and mortars. When the Sichuan army came out of Sichuan, it was autumn cool, and this group of soldiers with only two sets of cloth uniforms, a pair of leggings, and two pairs of straw shoes looked like beggars.
The Sichuan army had just arrived in Shanxi, just in time for the fall of Taiyuan, and in the face of the Japanese army's mobile and rapid troops, the Sichuan army collapsed at a touch and fled. Along the way, passing through the arsenal of the Jin Sui Army, they broke through the door and supplied without authorization. Yan Xishan heard the news and scolded, "The bandit army that is not enough to resist Japan and disturbs the people!" "The report made the Sichuan army immediately transfer away, how far to go."
The superior called Cheng Qian to transfer the Sichuan army to the first theater of operations, and Cheng Qian also refused one after another, "Yan Laoxi don't want it, you give it to me?" I don't want this kind of rotten troop. "The attitude of the various theaters of war toward the Sichuan army with low combat effectiveness and poor work style is very unified: let them go back to Sichuan and claim the throne." In the end, it was Li Zongren of the Fifth Theater who came out to break the siege, "Very good! I just need to use troops to transfer the Sichuan army to Xuzhou. ”
On the verge of danger, the tired division stubbornly defended Teng County
In March 1938, in order to clear the barrier to xuzhou, the Japanese army gathered 40,000 elites and launched an attack on Tengxian County, which was guarding the throat of the Jinpu Road Railway, under the cover of aircraft and tanks. TengXian is the most important node in xuzhou's frontier, and the overall situation is related, Li Zongren urgently dispatched the 22nd Group Army of the Sichuan Army to Tengxian County, and issued a death order: "We must do our best to hold on to it, waiting for reinforcements." ”
The Sichuan army had fought several battles with the Japanese army on the battlefield of Eastern Jin, losing more than half of them, and only 8 regiments were left when stationed in Tengxian County, with a total strength of less than 20,000 troops, and all of them were tired divisions. The inferiority in numbers, the inferiority in equipment, and the simple paper strength, let the Sichuan army hold Tengxian County, and there is no chance of victory.
On March 9, the Japanese, under the cover of artillery fire, launched a general offensive on the outer positions of Tengxian County. The positions of Huangshan and Puyangshan were lost one after another, or all the defenders were martyred, or the front-line headquarters were destroyed by Japanese artillery fire, and communication was interrupted. At the front of Teng County, the generals of the Sichuan Army could no longer receive any orders, and they all fought separately. However, neither the Sichuan army nor the local anti-Japanese armed "Red Gun Society" or the people of Tengxian County, who spontaneously went to the front, did not take a half step back, fought with the Japanese army in front of the position, and even launched a counter-charge with a large knife and spear.
4 and a half days, 108 hours, 3000 people
The outer positions were broken one by one, and the 10th Wing of the Japanese forwards was already facing the county seat of Tengxian County. At 10:00 a.m. on March 16, the Japanese Army Flying Team and the First Field Artillery Group jointly bombed Tengxian County for two hours, and more than 3,000 artillery rounds fell inside and outside the city. A gap was blown out of the southeast corner of the Dongguan wall. The Japanese infantry, under the cover of light and heavy machine guns, quickly launched an attack. The 1st Company of the 371st Regiment of the Sichuan Army crouched on both sides of the gap, waiting for the Japanese army to rush to the collapse, each holding 4 or 5 grenades at the same time and throwing them at the enemy group, repelling the Japanese charge many times in a row, and under the city wall were japanese corpses.
However, due to the continuous arrival of Japanese reinforcements and the addition of the siege group, the garrison troops of the outer city of the Sichuan Army suffered heavy casualties, and the commander-in-chief of the 41st Army's front line, Wang Mingzhang, also transferred his special agent company to the front line. Reinforcements were delayed, the defenders had already entered hand-to-hand combat, and Wang Mingzhang was forced to abandon the position of the outer city and ordered the Sichuan army to retreat into the inner city and die with the city.
The Japanese army never thought that under the superiority of absolute strength and firepower, it was dragged to TengXian by a so-called "miscellaneous army". The Japanese army, which originally threw rat traps and did not want to destroy foreign buildings in Tengxian City, finally made up its mind and blasted the inner city of Tengxian into a scorched earth with artillery fire. After another two hours of shelling, more than a dozen Japanese tanks rushed into the city along the gap in the outer city. The vanguard infantry attacked the corner of the inner city, and were slashed by the Sichuan army with a large knife, and all of them were annihilated.
Regardless of his personal safety, Commander Wang Mingzhang personally went to the cross street entrance in the center of the city to direct the battle, clutched his hand and spear to lead the troops to counterattack, and the morale of the Sichuan army was greatly boosted, shouting "Determined to fight to the death, serve the country!" "The defense of Tengxian County entered the stage of street fighting, and the security team, the police, and the people all threw themselves into the battle. The secret service platoon around Wang Mingzhang was all sacrificed when they counterattacked Ximen, and none of them retreated.
When the situation was at its most critical, Wang Mingzhang decided to personally go to the railway station to command the 372nd Brigade of the 124th Division, but unfortunately was found by the Japanese army on the way to the transfer, and a row of dense machine gun bullets came, and Wang Mingzhang was shot 7 times in his body, and he was martyred. Even on his deathbed, Wang Mingzhang was still shouting to the soldiers, "Leave me alone, keep fighting!" Zhao Weibin, chief of staff of the 122nd Division, and Zou Shaomeng, chief of staff of the 124th Division, also died at the same time.
After Wang Mingzhang's sacrifice, the Sichuan army defending the city fell into a state of fragmentation, and continued to fight with the Japanese army until all of them died heroically. The defense of Tengxian lasted 4 and a half days, and the Sichuan army units defending the city were all martyred by more than 3,000 people under the division commander Wang Mingzhang. The last 300 seriously wounded also fought the Japanese to death or committed suicide with grenades. Sichuan army, no prisoners!
The defense of Tengxian County won sufficient time for military deployment for the subsequent Battle of Taierzhuang. Exchanging flesh and blood for space and space for time, the Sichuan military fired the first shot of Taierzhuang's great victory with the most rudimentary 79 rifle, large knives and spears. At that time, the "Sweeping Newspaper" praised the Sichuan Army as "the fierceness of the War of Resistance, the courage of death, unheard of, and the precedent of defending the land and martyrdom!" ”
Magnificent! Chuan Jun!