Devil's Army

As the gunfire in the encirclement became less and less frequent, the commander knew that the soldiers in the encirclement were in great danger.

At this time, the firepower of the devil troops in front suddenly became fiercer.

It turned out that the 1st and 2nd Regiments of the 1st Brigade had rushed to reinforce and launched an attack on the attacking Japanese army from both wings.

Seeing that the situation was hopeless, the commander had no choice but to retreat hastily with less than half of the remaining Japanese troops.

In this battle, the 1st and 2nd Regiments of the Jidong Independent Brigade and the 1st and 2nd Regiments of the 1st Brigade of the 1st Army eliminated and captured more than 5000 Japanese troops in Jiaozuo.

At this time, the situation of the Japanese troops in Kaifeng was not much better.

He was in Fudao Town, Tangyin, where the embankment of the Qi River stretched for several kilometers and was besieged by the 3rd and 4th Regiments of the 1st Brigade and the 3rd and 4th Regiments of the Jidong Independent Brigade.

During this period, the First Army's air force continued to carry out air strikes on them.

Lieutenant Colonel Gangdise thought he was surrounded by the main force of the Devil's Army and was about to call for reinforcements from the Japanese Army in Jiaozuo. However, when he received a telegram from the Japanese Army in Jiaozuo requesting assistance, he immediately realized that the Devil's Army had sent reinforcements. However, it was too late to say anything at this time.

The battle lasted until the evening. After a series of desperate attacks, Lieutenant Colonel Gangdise finally broke through the interception of the 4th Regiment of the 1st Brigade and fled back to Kaifeng with several thousand Japanese troops.

Nearly 40,000 Japanese troops from Kaifeng and Jiaozuo failed to annihilate the Anyang defenders and the more than 10,000 soldiers of the Jidong Independent Brigade, and instead lost three-quarters of their troops. This greatly surprised Commander Hata Shunroku.

If he does not concentrate his forces to eliminate the devilish troops invading Henan, Henan will most likely be lost again.

Commander Hata Shunroku once again dispatched troops in an attempt to destroy the devil troops in Sanmenxia and Anyang.

At the time, the Japanese army in Henan was mainly concentrated along transportation arteries, strategic towns, and resource-producing areas. The core deployment area was centered around "railway hubs + administrative centers + offensive and defensive strongholds."

The northern strongholds were concentrated in Anyang and Xinxiang, and had already been recaptured by the First Army.

The central core area is centered on Zhengzhou and Kaifeng.

The southern strongholds were concentrated in Xuchang, Luohe, and Zhumadian. Their primary purpose was to guard against the Nanking government's Southern Henan Corps and the New Fourth Army. Luohe and Zhumadian were transportation hubs in southern Henan, each housing a Japanese garrison battalion that controlled the southern section of the Pinghan Railway and the roads leading to Nanyang and Xinyang.

The core strongholds are centered around Shangqiu and Kaifeng. They control the eastern Henan section of the Longhai Railway and the highway to Bozhou, Anhui, and guard against the New Fourth Army's Huaibei Military Region troops. Kaifeng (which overlaps with the Pinghan Railway) also serves as the "hub defense" for both the Longhai and Pinghan Railways, and has the highest troop density in eastern Henan.

Japanese and puppet troops were stationed in counties along the railway, such as Lankao, Minquan, and Ningling, to protect the railway transportation lines.

Strategic points in western and southern Henan (defensive concentration) This area is mostly mountainous and hilly. Although the Japanese army did not deploy on a large scale, they stationed troops in key strongholds to guard against the Kuomintang Army's First War Zone troops (stationed in Luoyang and Nanyang) and the Eighth Route Army's anti-Japanese base in western Henan.

Japanese forces were stationed in Luoyang, western Henan (then the headquarters of the Kuomintang's First War Zone), with troops stationed in the surrounding areas of Mengjin and Yanshi. Japanese troops were also stationed in Sanmenxia (Shaanzhou), controlling the Yellow River crossings and the highway leading to Shaanxi.

Southern Henan is centered on Xinyang, where part of the Japanese 3rd Division was stationed. It controlled the southern end of the Pinghan Railway and the transportation line to Wuhan, Hubei, and was the main garrison base of the Japanese army after the "Battle of Southern Henan"; Tanghe and Xinye around Nanyang were both stationed with Japanese troops, cooperating with the puppet army to carry out "cleansing the countryside."