Devil's Army

Chapter 2028 Launching the Battle of Xuzhou

Commander Hata Shunroku wanted to concentrate his forces to completely annihilate the southward-bound devilish troops. Then he would free up his resources to eliminate the devilish troops besieging Nanjing.

However, the development of the battle situation greatly exceeded Commander Hata Shunroku's expectations.

One regiment from the 12th Brigade and one regiment from the Independent Brigade were left behind to contain the Japanese forces in Nanjing, while the main force suddenly marched north and recaptured Baoying County, Gaoyou County, and Xinghua County, which connected central and northern Jiangsu. This severed the link between the Japanese forces in central and northern Jiangsu.

Commander Shunroku Hata attempted to divide and eliminate the Devil Force, but instead, he was divided and surrounded by the Devil Force.

At this time, the Japanese troops in northern Jiangsu were only holed up in a few important cities such as Xuzhou and Haizhou. Driving the devilish troops out of northern Jiangsu had become an unattainable dream for them.

Seeing that the Japanese forces in central Jiangsu were unable to advance north to reinforce, and that the Japanese forces in southern Jiangsu were preoccupied with their own problems, Brigade Commander Zhang of the Independent Brigade besieged Nanjing without attacking, and launched the Battle of Xuzhou.

The First Anti-Japanese Army concentrated the main force of the 364th Brigade of the Sichuan Army, the main force of the 11th Brigade and the 12th Brigade of the First Army, the main force of the Independent Brigade, the 16th Division of the New Fourth Army, and the Northern Jiangsu Column of the New Fourth Army to launch a fierce attack on Xuzhou.

Before the Battle of Xuzhou began, the 364th Brigade of the Sichuan Army and the 11th Brigade of the First Army had already recovered many Japanese strongholds and county towns on the outskirts of Xuzhou.

Therefore, as soon as the Battle of Xuzhou began, the offensive to subdue the outskirts of Xuzhou commenced.

In order to achieve victory in the Battle of Xuzhou, the Anhui and Shandong air forces of the First Army launched a fierce bombing and strafing attack on Japanese strongholds, fortifications, barracks, and suspected artillery positions around Xuzhou.

Lacking air and artillery support, the Japanese army struggled to defend itself, and its outer positions were lost one after another.

At this time, most of the main force of the Japanese 64th Division, which was stationed on the outer defense line of northern Jiangsu, had been annihilated in the previous battles, and only the Japanese 21st Division remained to defend Xuzhou and the surrounding strongholds.

Facing an attack by nearly 5 troops from the First Anti-Japanese Army and the New Fourth Army, Xuzhou was in dire need of help from all sides.

Commander Hata Shunroku dared not move the Japanese troops in southern Jiangsu northward. The route for the Japanese troops in central Jiangsu to move northward had already been cut off by the 12th Brigade and the Independent Brigade, known as the "Devil Units."

He had no choice but to order the Japanese troops in Haizhou to send reinforcements as much as possible, provided they were certain they could defend themselves.

With the fall of Yancheng, the ports of Hede, Chenjiagang, Jianggang, and Doulonggang in Yancheng were also occupied by the devil troops.

Haizhou Port (Lianyungang) became the only important seaport for the Japanese army, which had to defend it at all costs. Therefore, the Japanese army dared not send too many troops to reinforce it, and only sent two companies and a weak puppet army regiment to reinforce it.

Haizhou City is also an important city that the First Army must recapture in the next step. It would be much better to annihilate this group of Japanese troops outside the city than to fight them again during the siege.

Therefore, Brigade Commander Du of the 11th Brigade decided to annihilate this group of Japanese and puppet troops.

Brigade Commander Du, Brigade Commander Wang of the Sichuan Army, and Brigade Commander Wang of the 16th Brigade of the New Fourth Army discussed the battle plan.

Finally, everyone agreed that the weaker guerrilla force would be used as bait to lure the Japanese army to the strategically important Yuwang Mountain and annihilate them.

Upon receiving the order, the communications soldier rode at full speed to notify the waterborne guerrillas.

Captain Zhang was very excited to see that Brigade Commander Wang had personally assigned him the combat mission. He immediately led his team members to the combat site.

After a great rush, the guerrilla force finally arrived at the battle site before the Japanese reinforcements passed by, and created the illusion of an accidental encounter with the Japanese army and a hasty battle.