Quartermasters can also fight the devils

The 20th Independent Mixed Brigade of the Japanese Army, with the support of aircraft and artillery, launched a fierce attack on the defensive positions of the 51st Division. Under the fierce attack of the Japanese Army, the commander of the 51st Division, Li, also sent a telegram to the commander of the 74th Army, Wang, for help.

After receiving the telegram for assistance from Commander Li of the 51st Division, Commander Wang of the 74th Army immediately changed the deployment according to the direction of the Japanese attack. He ordered Li's 51st Division to fight and retreat to the left wing. At the same time, he ordered the 74th Army's direct field replacement regiment controlled near Yintang to provide emergency reinforcements to assist the 51st Division in blocking the advance of the Japanese Independent Mixed 20th Brigade.

The Field Replacement Regiment moved at an extremely fast speed, braving the strafing and bombing of Japanese enemy planes, and seized Huayang and its unnamed hill in the northeast before the arrival of the 20th Independent Mixed Brigade of the Japanese Army.

Just two hours later, the 20th Independent Mixed Brigade of the Japanese Army advanced to Huayang with the cooperation of more than ten Japanese aircraft. All officers and soldiers of the 74th Army's Field Replacement Regiment fought bloody battles in the face of the Japanese attack. After several attacks by the 20th Independent Mixed Brigade of the Japanese Army, the blocking position of the 74th Army's Field Replacement Regiment remained unchanged.

Seeing that the Chinese army's positions in Huayang had been under attack for a long time and the casualties of his own soldiers were indeed increasing, Major General Naozo Ikeda, commander of the 20th Independent Mixed Brigade of the Japanese Army, ordered the artillery to use special bullets to cooperate with the infantry attack. However, the officers and soldiers of the 74th Army's direct field replacement regiment had already taken precautions, making the Japanese army's poison gas bomb attack ineffective.

When the 20th Independent Mixed Brigade of the Japanese Army was blocked in Huayang, Commander Li of the 51st Division of the 74th Army sent troops to reinforce the battle of the Army's Field Replacement Regiment, and at the same time sent two regiments of troops to bypass the 20th Independent Mixed Brigade of the Japanese Army and recaptured Shitou Street and Jigongling that had been lost before. As a result, the 20th Independent Mixed Brigade of the Japanese Army, which was originally going to reinforce the 34th Division of the Japanese Army, was caught in a dilemma of being attacked from both front and back.

After all this trouble, the 20th Independent Mixed Brigade of the Japanese Army had no hope of reinforcing the 34th Division of the Japanese Army. For the commander of the 20th Independent Mixed Brigade of the Japanese Army, Major General Naozo Ikeda, what he needed to consider now was not how to attack and advance to the 34th Division to reinforce it, but how to break through the front and back attack of the Chinese government's 9th War Zone troops and return to Hongcheng safely.

After Lieutenant General Kazuichiro Sonobe, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, issued the combat order to reinforce the 34th Division, he also carefully studied the problems that occurred in the previous operations. He found that the reason why the 9th War Zone of the Chinese Government was able to encircle the 34th Division this time was entirely because of the serious lack of coordination between the 33rd Division and the 34th Division in the previous operations.

In order to facilitate the unified command of the front-line troops and successfully rescue the 34th Division from the encirclement of the Ninth War Zone of the Chinese Government, the Chief of Staff of the 11th Army, Lieutenant General Isamu Kinoshita, was ordered to lead some staff officers of the headquarters to Hongcheng to command the war on the front line.

After learning that the 33rd Division had set out from Hongcheng to rescue them, Lieutenant General Ogamo, commander of the 34th Division of the Japanese Army, ordered his troops to build defensive fortifications on the spot. Before the reinforcements arrived, the first thing to do was to ensure that the 34th Division would not be wiped out by the Chinese army.

Commander Xue, commander of the Ninth War Zone of the Chinese government, was also closely following the marching direction of the 33rd Division of the Japanese Army coming out of Hongcheng. When he discovered that the 33rd Division of the Japanese Army was advancing towards the northern wing of his encirclement, Commander Xue ordered the troops on the northern wing of the encirclement to prepare for their own rear defense to prevent a sudden attack from the rear by the 33rd Division of the Japanese Army.

When the commander of the 215rd Division of the Japanese Army, Lieutenant General Shozo Sakurai, led his troops halfway, he also divided the troops into three parts. The 214th Infantry Regiment was reinforced with a mountain artillery battalion and reorganized into the right column, the th Infantry Regiment was the left column, and the other troops of the division were the central column.

Lieutenant General Shozo Sakurai, commander of the 210rd Division of the Japanese Army, also took into account that the 211th War Zone of the Chinese Government had deployed a total of four divisions to the north of the th Division's encirclement, namely the th and th Reserve Divisions of the th Army of the Chinese Government, and the new th and th Divisions of the new nd Army.

For Lieutenant General Shozo Sakurai, commander of the 33rd Division of the Japanese Army, he was not too worried about the two divisions of the 70th Army, but he was particularly worried about the two divisions of the New 22nd Army, because he knew how strong the combat capability of the New 22nd Army was.

Therefore, the division commander, Lieutenant General Shozo Sakurai, deliberately divided two troops to feint an attack on the rear of the two divisions of the New 22nd Army, with the aim of entanglement of the two divisions of the New 22nd Army, while he led the other troops of the division to attack the rear defense line of the 70th Army's Reserve 9th Division.

At the same time, in order to ensure that the 34th Division could successfully break out, the commander of the 33rd Division of the Japanese Army, Lieutenant General Sakurai Shozo, also sent a telegram to the 11th Army Headquarters, hoping that when the 33rd Division attacked the rear of the 9th Reserve Division, the 34th Division in the encirclement would simultaneously launch an attack on the defense line of the 9th Reserve Division, and strive to use a pincer attack from the north and south to quickly break through the encirclement of the Chinese army and rescue the 34th Division.

The troops in charge of the encirclement of the Ninth War Zone of China were not idle either. They launched a fierce attack on the 34th Division of the Japanese Army in the encirclement since the morning. Although the attacking Chinese troops lacked heavy firepower to break through, the 34th Division of the Japanese Army had not built a complete defensive position, and the supply of ammunition was cut off. Therefore, in the attack of the troops of the Ninth War Zone, the troops of the 34th Division of the Japanese Army were beaten and retreated one after another. After suffering heavy casualties, they managed to stabilize the defense line in the evening.

But after a day of attack, each attacking force of the Ninth War Zone advanced one to three kilometers, and all of them achieved fruitful results.

Therefore, the offensive forces of the Ninth War Zone organized a large night attack force at night, ready to take advantage of the darkness, give full play to the advantages of the Chinese army's night combat, and further compress the activity space of the Japanese 34th Division.

However, Lieutenant General Ogamo, commander of the 34th Division of the Japanese Army, also anticipated that the Chinese troops outside the encirclement would launch a night attack at night. In order to be able to hold out until tomorrow, after the 33rd Division launched the attack, his side could also start a breakout operation. Lieutenant General Ogamo also divided the troops into two parts. One part of the officers and soldiers defended all night, while the other part tried to rest as much as possible and prepare for the breakout attack the next day.

(Thanks to Li Ruofei who likes deciduous trees, the criss-crossing Peng family, the Duke of Wei who loves beef jerky, and the gift support from the person who only eats dumplings without vinegar! Thank you all for your support and encouragement!)