With the power of the northwest, several large-scale battles were organized in succession.
Including the 29th Army and the 41st Army, as many as hundreds of thousands of troops were directly killed.
Including the lightly and seriously injured, the number reached nearly 300,000.
It has almost exceeded half of the Central Plains Field Corps at this time.
This does not include the casualties on the Shanxi side.
Retreating all the way from Pingjin to Tianjin, the Northwest Army focused on defense.
This time in Anyang was no exception.
In contrast, although the southern side had constant battles with the Japanese army, large and small, in fact, except for a relatively large battle in Songhu, it is not an exaggeration to say that the Nanjing defense battle was a rout.
After all, the main force in Nanjing at that time was no longer in Nanjing.
Confidence in a showdown with the Japanese army.
At this time, the troops controlled by the Central Army were still sufficient.
The high-level Japanese army also intended to destroy the relatively weak Central Army of the Republic of China first, open up the transportation artery of Jinpu Road, encircle and annihilate the main force of the Central Army, and then turn around to deal with the Northwest Army that was stationed in Henan.
The 26th Brigade of the Japanese 13th Division attacked north from Chu County along Jinpu Road.
The Central Army retreated to the west bank of Chihe one by one using mobile defense.
The commander of the 26th Brigade, Numata Tokushige, led 4 infantry brigades and 2 mountain artillery brigades to cross the Chi River from Mingguang.
The commander of the 13th Division, Ogisu Ritsuhei, led the main force to Zhongchi Point, and the commander of the 65th Regiment, Liang Jiaoye, led 3 infantry brigades and attached 1 mountain artillery battalion to Xike, starting from Quanjiao.
Crossing the Chi River near Daqiao Town, passing through Dingyuan, West Sansanli Store, Nianjiagang, and detouring to the vacant area above the northern end of Gaotang Lake, cover and prepare for response, Numata Tokusushige and the division commander are the two leaders.
When the Japanese army forcibly crossed Chihe, Li Zongren urgently mobilized Liu Shiyi's 31st Army to move south from Dangshan Mountain for reinforcements in order to strengthen the defense on the southern front.
After the Japanese 26th Brigade captured Linhuai Pass, while the main force attacked Bengbu, they sent a brigade to forcefully cross the Huaihe River from the southward protrusion of the Huaihe River under the cover of aircraft and artillery fire.
Under the gunfire, the river burst into waves of various sizes, lapping at the river bank.
The bullets destroyed some weeds on both sides of the river.
The first brigade of Modhong's 138th Division arrived first.
Under the absolutely inferior firepower, with bloody courage, they fought fiercely with the Japanese aircraft and artillery.
Several Japanese Type 88 light bombers patrolled overhead.
When they saw the right opportunity, they lowered their altitude and dropped a few deadly aerial bombs. boom A mortar and more than a dozen artillery shells from the defenders also exploded in the explosion of the aerial bomb.
The soldiers at the center of the explosion were directly turned into pieces of meat, while the surrounding national soldiers also screamed.
"This damn plane" the officer below gritted his teeth and cursed, but there was nothing he could do about this behavior of the Japanese aircraft.
Although they had withdrawn to the center of Wuhan and purchased many aircraft from the Soviet Union, they were still fighting with the Japanese army.
There are too many areas, and even the Northwest Air Force cannot take care of the theater, let alone the weaker Central Air Force.
"Don't worry about these big birds.
The Japs are coming.
Machine guns and tanks ready to hold off the Japanese army with cluster grenades are coming.
Damn it, these iron bastards were beaten so hard by the Northwest Army in the north that they can show off their power in the south."
The officer's judgment was correct.
Not long after the Japanese plane flew over, the Japanese tanks drove all the way over the Huaihe River Bridge. boom The tank guns hit the sandbags, kicking up sand all over the sky.
Immediately afterwards, the Japanese machine guns that had already attacked the bridge started firing.
With the help of grenade launchers, the forward defenders' positions were quickly cleared.
The living environment on site was extremely harsh.
It is difficult for the defenders on the forward position to find anyone who can breathe.
The Japanese troops from Ban Zai's brigade roared up.
Da da The Japanese army was all too familiar with the sound of imitation Czech machine guns, but there was a tank blocking the front, and bullets scattered scatteredly on the armor of the tank, scattering all over the floor.
Historically, the thin-skinned tanks of the Japanese army were brittle and weak in tank battles and could not withstand the bombardment of enemy tanks.
However, they were incomparably sharp against the Chinese soldiers who lacked anti-tank firepower.
In essence, this kind of light tank did not encounter the firepower that threatened them, and was even more effective than the heavy tank.
The light tank was small, light enough, ran fast, and consumed less fuel.
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At the same time, fighting in the south has lower requirements for roads and bridges.
If replaced by a Tomahawk tank, fighting in the south would not be as effective as the Avenger.
The corpses of the defenders were scattered on the position, and several shots from Japanese tanks blasted a hole in the sandbag-filled front line.
The defenders in the position behind Tutu desperately used machine rifles to interfere with the Japanese infantry.
The firepower of the Japanese army's counterattack was even more fierce.
On the battlefield where these bullets could not be fired, even the Japanese soldiers were extremely cautious about their lives.
After a few people who were exposed were killed, a large number of others huddled behind the tanks.
It was at this time that among the corpses scattered on the dilapidated position, two soldiers dragging their injured bodies suddenly got up from the ground, carrying cluster grenades next to them and pounced towards the opponent's tank.
"Baga, hurry, hurry, kill these two Chinese soldiers."
The Japanese soldiers with good eyesight had already seen the actions of these two soldiers.
Immediately screamed.
The bullets from the machine gun flew over and beat the soldiers on one side into sieves.
"Little devil, grandpa will fight with you."
The soldier on the other side was also hit by two bullets, and all his strength was quickly lost.
However, before losing consciousness, the soldier used his remaining strength to detonate the cluster grenade.
A huge explosion tore apart the bodies of the soldiers.
"Amaterasu is here!"
The Japanese drivers in the tank were all praying with their eyes closed at this time.
After all, with the defense of a tank like theirs, if it suffers enough explosions, it may be destroyed.
All they could do at this point was pray.
But what they didn't know was that fortunately this was a southern battlefield.
If they were in the north, especially in that tragic tank battle, even praying would not work.
In fact, the Japanese army was lucky.
The explosion did not directly destroy the Japanese tank, but only damaged the tank's tracks.
This thing weighing six or seven tons is naturally difficult to maintain at this time, so it can only stay in place and act as a fixed fire output.
If the defenders had enough combat defense artillery, they could successfully destroy it, but unfortunately the Central Army did not have enough combat artillery even for direct line combat artillery.
At this time, several Japanese tanks shot out from behind this tank again.
On the Huaihe River Bridge, there were corpses of defenders scattered everywhere.
There were very few bodies of Japanese soldiers.
This is the real Sino-Japanese battlefield.
Under the absolute disadvantage of firepower, the soldiers can only rely on the flesh and blood of the soldiers to resist the Japanese aircraft and tanks.
A brigade defending against a bridge would find it extremely difficult to attack by a Japanese brigade
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