Devil's Army

Chapter 2007: Attack on the Japanese Army in Jiangsu

After more than half a month of arduous street fighting, the First Army and the government forces finally recaptured Yueyang, Linxiang, and Huarong.

Hunan Province has finally been fully recovered.

Commander Yokoyama Isamu was also captured by a brigade of soldiers.

At General Xue's request, it was later handed over to the Nanjing government.

After the war, he was sentenced to death by hanging by a court ruling. He died in prison after his sentence was reduced.

While the Hunan campaign was raging, the Second Area Army, which was advancing south, also launched an attack on the Japanese forces in Jiangsu Province.

At that time, the situation of the Nanjing government forces in Jiangsu was not good, as they were in a three-way interlocking situation of "Japanese puppet regime occupying the city, Nationalist army occupying the countryside, and the Communist Party establishing base areas".

The Nanjing government forces only controlled some rural and water-rich areas in northern Jiangsu, as well as guerrilla areas on the outskirts of southern Jiangsu, and had no complete and contiguous stable "Nationalist-controlled areas".

The provincial government and the deputy headquarters of the Lu-Su War Zone were stationed in Xinghua as their core stronghold. They controlled a small area centered on Xinghua, including towns and waterways in counties such as Dongtai, Taizhou, Hai'an, and Jingjiang; the county seat was mostly under the control of the Japanese puppet regime, and the government troops were stationed there using a "point-line-area" guerrilla garrison.

In order to prevent the First Army from advancing south and the Second Area Army from attacking Jiangsu from the direction of Zhejiang, the Japanese army deployed heavy troops and built a large number of strong defensive fortifications along the county towns bordering Zhejiang.

Unexpectedly, the Second Area Army, which marched south, did not play by the rules as the Japanese had anticipated.

He ordered the 364th Brigade of the Sichuan Army and the 11th Brigade of the First Army, which had rushed to Anhui and Shandong, to launch an attack from Suzhou, Ma'anshan, and Xuancheng in Anhui, and Linyi, Zaozhuang, and Heze in Shandong, towards Xuzhou, Suqian, and Haizhou (present-day Lianyungang) in Jiangsu.

Xuzhou is a transportation hub at the junction of Jiangsu, Shandong, Henan and Anhui provinces. The Jinpu and Longhai railways intersect here, making it a strategic core connecting the battlefields of North China and Central China.

After the fall of Xuzhou, the Japanese army used it as a base to launch continuous sweeps in the surrounding northern Anhui, northern Jiangsu, and southern Shandong regions, making it an important military stronghold for controlling the heart of East China.

Nanjing, as the former capital of the government, also played a pivotal role.

After occupying Nanjing, the Japanese army used it as the command center of the Central China Area Army. Relying on the Yangtze River shipping and railway network, they carried out colonial rule and military plunder in southern Jiangsu, southern Anhui, and western Zhejiang. It was the core stronghold for the Japanese army to control Central China and deter Southeast China.

Haizhou is an important natural deep-water port in northern Jiangsu and a crucial node connecting the coastal areas of North China and East China, playing a key role in the transshipment of goods and the handling of maritime blockades and counter-blockades.

It served as the outlet to the sea for the Japanese army to plunder salt and mineral resources in northern Jiangsu, and also as their forward position to prevent Allied landings and control the Yellow Sea.

Therefore, the Japanese army could not allow these three cities to fall. However, they dared not send troops from southern Jiangsu north to reinforce them, so they had to send troops from central Jiangsu north to reinforce them.

However, the Japanese troops in central Jiangsu did not have an easy time heading north to reinforce the area, as they were frequently blocked and ambushed by the New Fourth Army in central Jiangsu.

The government forces under Han Deqin (including the 89th Army, Security Brigade, and Guerrilla Column), numbering approximately 12, relied on waterways and mountains to block the northward advance of the Japanese and puppet troops.

Although the New Fourth Army and government forces in central Jiangsu could not completely stop the Japanese army from advancing north, they severely slowed down the Japanese army's march.

Moreover, while supporting the Sichuan Army's 364th Brigade and 11th Brigade in their operations, the First Army Air Force also took the opportunity to bomb the Japanese troops who were attacking the New Fourth Army and government forces in central Jiangsu.

In order to compete with the First Army Air Force for air superiority over Jiangsu, the remaining Japanese air force units at several airfields, including Nanjing Airport, Haizhou Airport, and Taixian Airport, took to the air for combat.