nucmednet Chapter 130: Decisive Battle in North China 6
Chapter 130: Decisive Battle in North China 6
The Japanese army did not pursue the defeated Chinese army. After gathering their troops together, they immediately marched south to attack the First War Zone, which was struggling desperately.
The nearly 200,000 Central Army troops under Chiang Ting-wen were defeated by the Japanese army of less than 50,000, without even the slightest determination to resist.
When the Japanese army attacked the Second and Fifth War Zones on the southern front, the armies of the two war zones fought desperately, although they lost more than 6 soldiers.
The Japanese were not in a good situation either, suffering over 10,000 casualties. However, in the Central Plains Province, facing Chiang Ting-wen's First War Zone, they suffered only less than 1,000 casualties.
The Central Army in the First War Zone lost 11 troops, including more than 8 captured, and the entire Central Plains Province was almost lost.
The sudden turn of events in the war caught the whole country and even the whole world by surprise. The national government, which had been full of confidence, suffered an unprecedented blow.
The victory achieved by the 78th Army on the northern front boosted the confidence of the people across the country, but the great defeat on the southern front once again dealt a heavy blow to their confidence.
The Chinese people once again fell into deep confusion. Why did God play such a huge joke on suffering China just when they saw hope?
Wang Chun, commander of the 78th Army Group, immediately suggested to the Military Commission that Jiang Dingwen, commander of the First War Zone, must be dealt with seriously.
It also lists the various crimes committed by Chiang during his tenure as director of the Chang'an Headquarters and commander-in-chief of the First War Zone of Central Plains Province.
Especially for the heinous crimes committed against 30 million people in Zhongyuan Province, such people must receive the punishment they deserve and must be severely punished.
For a time, public opinion began to explode, and all kinds of strange news about the commander-in-chief of the First War Zone were exposed by the media.
The chairman of the National Government was furious at Chiang Ting-wen's useless behavior, and it was natural for the situation to fall on Chiang Ting-wen's shoulders.
At a time when the anti-fascist war was gaining victory after victory, this tragic defeat occurred in China. This made Stalin and Churchill, who had already looked down on China, start to belittle China's role in the anti-fascist war even more vigorously.
Originally, the United States announced that it would temporarily suspend a new round of military aid to China, but the Japanese government was delighted by this great victory.
They clamored that China must be severely punished, the Chinese central government must be eliminated, and the hateful 78th Army must be eliminated.
At this turbulent moment, the 78th Army once again stood up. Five armored brigades, three motorized infantry divisions, and six infantry divisions launched a magnificent poem on the northern front in Zhangjia K and the grassland province.
Nearly 700 tanks and armored vehicles swept across the prairie and the North China Plain like surging waves.
Okamura Ningji secretly withdrew from Zhang Jia K before the 78th Army launched a full-scale offensive, because everyone knew that once the 78th Army launched an attack.
No one could outrun those armored groups across the prairies and plains.
The attack was first launched from the air. More than 600 fighter planes of various types ravaged the entire North China region. All important Japanese military camps, airports and other facilities in the suburbs of Beijing and Tianjin were bombed.
The Japanese 26th Division stationed in Zhangjia K resisted for less than two days before the city gate was blasted open by a 203mm howitzer.
As Type 43 heavy tanks entered the city, Zhangjia K, a city that had been occupied by the Japanese army for almost 6 years, once again returned to the embrace of the Chinese people.
The Japanese Mengjiang Corps did not even have time to put up a decent resistance in the lightning attack launched by the huge armored group.
After leaving Datong, the 2nd Armored Division began to advance rapidly, rushing northward all the way into the Outer Steppe area, where it encountered a group of Outer Steppe and Soviet border defense companies.
Only then did they realize that they had divided the grassland province occupied by the young man into two, and a motorized infantry division quickly followed.
Some important fulcrum towns were consolidated, but they had some conflicts with the Outer Steppes and the Soviet troops stationed there.
The commander of the Second Armored Division, Zhang Jiaqi, followed behind the First Group. Since the Second Armored Division left the exit and entered the vast grassland.
They were almost always in a state of rapid advance. The Japanese troops stationed in Mengjiang Province were basically composed of cavalry units.
The small groups of Japanese cavalry they encountered on the road were all crushed into meat paste by T34 tanks. It was not until they were close to Ulanqab that they encountered the main force of the Japanese army stationed in Mengjiang, the 7th Cavalry Brigade.
After returning to Yanjing, Okamura Yasuji, the highest commander of the Japanese army in China, was not excited by the great victory on the southern front.
Okamura Neiji was more clear-headed than anyone else. He knew what the hundreds of thousands of Central Army troops on the southern front were like, especially what the troops in China's First War Zone were like.
Such a Chinese army is equivalent to an ordinary division of the current Japanese army, and can still defeat an army more than three or even five times its size.
The biggest threat facing the Japanese army still came from the northern front, from the 78th Army Group.
Sure enough, just when the whole empire was rejoicing over a great victory on the southern front, China suddenly launched an attack on the northern front.
The attack direction this time was ostensibly Zhang Jia K, but in reality it was to cover another attack.
Even though they launched feint attacks all the way, Zhang Jia K's Japanese 26th Division was unable to withstand it.
The city defenses could not withstand the heavy artillery and bombing. The Japanese army fought three days of street fighting with the infantry units of the 78th Army in the city, and were finally wiped out.
The telegram for help from the grassland and the farewell message from the Zhang family's K26 Division were quietly placed in front of the Japanese commanders.
No senior Japanese officer took the initiative to offer reinforcements, and it was clear that Zhang Jia K had been abandoned.
However, the Mengjiang Corps had to be rescued, but the information received showed that it was the armored forces of the 78th Army that attacked the grassland.
The destruction of the 78rd Tank Division had already caused the Japanese army to naturally feel fear when facing the th Army Armored Corps.
"Everyone! The China policy of the Locust Nation is now facing the greatest crisis! I hope that we, His Majesty the Locust's right-hand men, can unite!"
The new Chief of Staff of the Multi-Expeditionary Force, Kobayashi Asazaburo, spoke first because he saw that the commander above him clearly had no intention of speaking.
As the chief of staff, you must stand up when the commander-in-chief is not going to speak.
His appointment was personally overseen by Tian Huang, and Kobayashi Asazaburo naturally understood the significance of it.
The purpose was to supervise the army and urge the Chinese Expeditionary Force to overcome all difficulties and to destroy China's 78th Army.
His Royal Highness the Crown Prince had to avenge himself, and he had come here with the determination to seek revenge, but the battle at Zhangjiakou seemed to have broken the backbone of the Japanese army.
Faced with the 78th Army, especially the enemy's three armored divisions, all the imperial warriors lowered their heads.
Including the 2nd Tank Division that had just arrived in the Yanjing area, they were the most elite unit of the Kwantung Army, known as the Flower of the Empire.
After the Nomonhan Campaign that year, the Kwantung Army was defeated from top to bottom by the Soviet mechanized corps.
Finally, they decided to build an armored force belonging to the Kwantung Army even if it meant selling everything they had. Against this historical background, the 1st and 2nd Tank Divisions came into being.
However, most of their equipment are still just Type 95 and Type 97 tanks with a small number of Type and Type tanks.
On the contrary, the 3rd to 5th tank divisions that were formed later were equipped with a large number of Type 3 and Type 4 tanks imported from the German production line.
But the destruction of the 3rd Tank Division in the Battle of Zhangjia K poured cold water on all the senior Japanese generals. In fact, what they felt most deeply must be the equipment and combat power of the 2nd Tank Division, which was not as good as the 3rd Tank Division.
When the chief of staff looked at the commander of the 2nd Tank Division, Ono Kawai, the commander who had always been known for his arrogance could only lower his proud head and pretend not to see the chief of staff's eyes.