Li Guotao personally led the troops of the new 1st Division and the 2nd Division to rush south, and at the same time urged the new 3rd Division and other units to destroy the remnants of the enemy at Shanhaiguan as soon as possible and go south to support Tianjin as soon as possible.On the way south, Li Guotao repeatedly issued orders, ordering the newly formed 21st Division to quickly support Langfang, and at the same time ordering the armored division and other units to continue to strengthen the offensive and break through the Japanese defense line in Langfang as soon as possible.At the same time, he ordered the 24th and 25th Divisions of the new division in the central Hebei region to abandon the siege of Cangzhou and other places, and immediately rushed north, bypassing Qingxian and attacking Jinghai.Yang Xuecheng was ordered to rush to the front line of Langfang, personally commanded the troops to launch a general attack on Langfang again, after a day of fierce fighting, the Japanese defense line was successfully broken through by our army, and the Japanese army suffered heavy losses.The armored division took the opportunity to encircle Langfang, and the 7th Cavalry Division and the 17th Cavalry Division made a detour to the area south of Tianjin overnight, cooperating with the troops of the new 24th Division and the new 25th Division to besiege Jinghai.At the same time, the remnants of the Japanese army in Shanhaiguan were finally annihilated by the Eighth Route Army in one fell swoop.The new 3rd Division, the 4th Division, and the 5th Division then moved south to support Tianjin.Subsequently, Langfang and Jinghai were successfully recovered by the Eighth Route Army, and the Eighth Route Army completed the land encirclement of Tianjin.Gangcun Ningci fled into Tianjin with the remnants of the Japanese army.At this moment, Gangcun Ningci also had to admit that his plan was completely bankrupt, and there were still 30,000 or 40,000 troops who fled back to Tianjin with Gangcun Ningci.The Japanese troops retreating from the Pinghan Railway were gathering in Dezhou and the areas south of it, preparing to block the Eighth Route Army north of Shandong.At this point, Gangmura Ningji had to abandon Tianjin, but there were a large number of Japanese expatriates gathered in Tianjin, and many Japanese who had just been evacuated from Beiping fled to Tianjin.At this time, the Tianjin Tanggu wharf was overcrowded, and it was full of Japanese who were preparing to retreat.Okamura Ninji ordered the mobilization of all ships that could be mobilized to transport these Japanese expatriate ships to Shandong.At this point, Gangcun Ningci also understood that Tianjin could not be saved, and after preparing to retreat all the expatriates, the Japanese army in Tianjin also retreated immediately and retreated to Shandong.However, the number of Japanese expatriates was too large, and the Japanese army was unable to mobilize enough ships to transport all these expatriates away in a short period of time.At this time, due to the active retreat of the Japanese army, the Central Army and the Jin Sui Army successfully took over the city of Beiping.In view of the current situation, Li Guotao immediately ordered all troops to launch an all-out attack on Tianjin.Gangcun Ningci had no choice but to order the troops to defend the line and resolutely resist the offensive of the Eighth Route Army.In the headquarters of the Seventh Corps of the Eighth Route Army, Li Guotao, Ma Zhenguo and others gathered next to the sand table, all with serious expressions, discussing the next strategic deployment.Ma Zhenguo pointed to the sand table and said with a serious face: "At present, all the Japanese in Tianjin have flocked to Tanggu Wharf, preparing to retreat through Tanggu.In my opinion, we can send two divisions of troops, and storm Tanggu, as long as we take Tanggu, it will be equivalent to cutting off the devil's last escape route. ”Li Guotao frowned, shook his head and said: "Our main task now is to take Tianjin as soon as possible, at present, the Central Army has occupied Beiping, if we can't recover Tianjin as soon as possible, then the Central Army will also come to intervene, and it will inevitably be a trouble."
If we occupy Tanggu and the last escape route for the little devils is cut off, the tens of thousands of Japanese troops remaining in Tianjin will inevitably resist desperately, and it will be even more difficult for us to recover Tianjin.Judging from the current situation, Gangcun Ningci has no intention of holding Tianjin, as long as we strengthen the offensive, the Japanese army will inevitably continue to retreat in the direction of Tanggu, and then flee to Shandong by ship. ”Ma Zhenguo sighed softly and said: "Hey, judging from the current situation, there have been long-standing grievances between our Eighth Route Army and the Central Army, and sooner or later there will be a battle, and that old Jiang will definitely not sit idly by and watch our Eighth Route Army continue to grow." ”Li Guotao sighed helplessly and said: "Having said that, but now that the Japanese invaders have not been extinguished, if Xiao Wall is caused at this time, it can only be cheaper in the end."
Therefore, if we can avoid conflict, we must try to avoid conflict with the Central Army.As for the contradictions between the two parties, we can wait until we defeat the little devils and then resolve them slowly, and it is better to sit down and have a good talk about it and resolve it in a peaceful way. ”"Although we think so, that old Jiang may not think so, he wants to destroy our Eighth Route Army in his dreams," Ma Zhenguo said helplessly.Li Guotao nodded noncommittally and said: "Let's talk about this matter later, now I can only take one step and see one step."
Let's not care about anything else, let's take Tianjin first. ”Ma Zhenguo nodded, and then said: "Since we don't fight Tanggu, then we will concentrate our main force to attack the urban area of Tianjin." ”"Yes" Li Guotao nodded and said: "Order the armored division, the new first division, and the new 21st division to attack Tianjin from the west, and order the two cavalry divisions and the new 24th and 25th divisions to attack Tianjin from the south, and the rest of the divisions to attack Tianjin from the north."
All units must take the urban area of Tianjin as quickly as possible. ”"Yes" Ma Zhenguo responded, turned around and went to convey the order.Li Guotao gave an order, and the hundreds of thousands of troops of the Seventh Corps immediately launched a fierce attack on Tianjin.Although the Japanese army resisted desperately, and Tianjin was a big city after all, and the little devils had built complete fortifications again, but the Japanese army had limited troops after all, and it was necessary to defend the huge Tianjin City, and the troops were seriously insufficient, so it was inevitable to take care of one or the other.Gangcun Ningci had no choice but to order the Japanese army to shrink the defensive line, and all the troops withdrew into the city, sticking to various strategic points to resist the attack of the Eighth Route Army.The Eighth Route Army took the opportunity to break through the fortifications of Tianjin in one fell swoop and successfully attacked the urban area.However, after entering the city, due to the dense population in the city, the Eighth Route Army inevitably threw a mouse, and the relatively narrow territory in the city made it difficult for the Eighth Route Army to give full play to its superior strength, and the offensive was forced to temporarily ease.On the one hand, Gangcun Ningji commanded the troops to resist the attack of the Eighth Route Army, and on the other hand, he commanded the Japanese overseas Chinese and troops to retreat in the direction of Tanggu as soon as possible.After several days and nights of rush transportation, almost all the Japanese overseas Chinese in Tianjin were evacuated.At this time, Gangcun Ningci hurriedly ordered all troops to withdraw to Tanggu and ships to Shandong, but at this time, most of the Japanese troops were either annihilated or pinned down by the Eighth Route Army and surrounded in the city, even if they wanted to withdraw, they could not withdraw.In the end, Gangcun Ningci only had time to withdraw about 10,000 Japanese troops, and the rest of the Japanese troops were all annihilated in Tianjin, and the Eighth Route Army recovered Tianjin in one fell swoop.aa2705221: