The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 514: The Pitfalls of Faction

A few days after the bloody battle in which the Japanese army captured the 56th Regiment's position in Qisha, the Chinese and Japanese armies, which had been fighting a life-and-death battle over landing and counter-landing, seemed to have reached a tacit understanding. The Japanese army did not continue to launch large-scale attacks, and the Chinese army, which had abandoned the 56th Regiment's position, did not organize a large-scale counterattack. Both sides began a new round of deployment and adjustments.

As for the Japanese army, although they captured the position of the 56th Regiment in Qisha, they successfully established the basic conditions for the landing of the main force of the Japanese army.

But the course of this battle could hardly be called smooth. It would be more accurate to say that the position of the 56th Regiment was voluntarily abandoned by the Chinese army rather than being captured by the 21st Regiment.

After all, in the night melee that day, the 21st Regiment was forced out of its position by the Chinese army's counterattack forces, but the Chinese army voluntarily withdrew from its position after the battle.

Not only did the 21st Regiment, which was responsible for the main attack, lose more than half of its troops, but the captured Chinese army positions also became dilapidated in the fierce fighting. The bunkers and firepower points in the positions were basically destroyed by the Japanese army's own 105mm howitzers in close-range bombardment, greatly reducing the exploitable value of the entire position.

The strong resistance of the Chinese army also forced the Japanese army to be extremely cautious in its next actions. After learning about the battle of the 21st Brigade, the Japanese commander, 21st Army Commander Ando Toshiyoshi, did not hastily order the 21st Brigade to continue the attack and expand the results of the battle. Instead, he ordered it to rely on the captured Chinese army positions to guard and reorganize and cover the landing of the main force.

The remnants of the Japanese 5th Division, which had been drifting on the sea for many days, and the troops of the Imperial Guards Mixed Brigade were now able to carry out landing operations with peace of mind.

在安藤利吉的主力部队登陆命令下达之后，第5师团除却第21旅团（下属步兵第21联队，步兵第42联队）的余部，即步兵第9旅团（下属步兵第11联队，步兵第41联队）、骑兵第5联队、野炮兵第5联队、工兵第5联队、辎重兵第5联队。

As well as the Guards Mixed Brigade (including the 1st Guards Infantry Regiment, the 2nd Guards Infantry Regiment, and the Guards Field Artillery Battalion), and the command organization of the Japanese landing forces, a huge force totaling more than people, began a large-scale landing on the Qisha beach.

With the help of landing craft and shallow-draft transport ships, this large-scale Japanese landing combat force finally set foot on the land of southern Guangxi.

At the same time, Ando Rikichi also specifically instructed the 21st Brigade to check the bodies of the Chinese troops when cleaning the battlefield and to investigate whether there were any troops from the Chinese Army Assault Corps.

Ando Rikichi was very wary of the Assault Corps. These days, he not only asked the 21st Brigade to search for the Assault Corps, but also asked the staff department to analyze the movements of the Chinese Army Assault Corps based on the intercepted telegrams between the Chinese army's Guilin headquarters and Nanning.

However, whether based on the results of the battlefield cleanup or the feedback from the staff department, Ando Rikichi could not get any accurate information about the assault corps.

The reason is very simple. In the chaos that night, after launching a large-scale counterattack, the Assault Corps quickly cleaned up the battlefield and took back the bodies of the few fallen officers and soldiers. The bodies of Chinese officers and soldiers that the Japanese army found in the 56th Regiment's position were all the dead of the 19th Regiment of the New 56th Division. The Japanese army did not capture any information about the officers and soldiers of the Assault Corps.

In the telegrams exchanged between He Wei and Dai Anlan's troops in Nanning, as well as in the telegrams exchanged between Nanning and the Guilin Headquarters, He Wei's troops were all referred to as the "advance detachment into Guangxi," and the term "assault corps" did not appear.

The origin of this name is naturally because the advance detachment into Guangxi is currently divided into two, one is led by Dai Anlan to garrison Nanning, and the other is led by He Wei to advance to the front.

Of course, He Wei, Dai Anlan in Nanning and the Guilin Headquarters adopted this name purely to facilitate the distinction of troop structure and command, and there was no consideration of confidentiality or anti-espionage at all.

No one could have imagined that this completely unintentional action would actually serve as a smokescreen for intelligence to Ando Rikichi, who was eager to annihilate the Assault Corps.

As a result, Ando Rikichi's attempt to search for the trace of the assault corps failed. He was unable to determine whether the elite Chinese army equipped with tanks that had severely damaged the 21st Regiment a few days ago was the Haas Assault Corps of the 200th Division in the advance detachment entering Guangxi. The combat plan of giving priority to attacking and annihilating the assault corps could not be implemented for the time being.

Of course, for Ando Rikichi and the army he commanded, failure to capture the assault corps was just an unpleasant episode. The current strategic situation was still quite favorable for the Japanese army. After the 5th Division and the Imperial Guards Mixed Brigade completed their landing, the Japanese army had gained a firm foothold in the southern Guangxi direction.

For the Chinese army, a force consisting of a division and a brigade is absolutely a behemoth. With the general combat effectiveness of the Chinese army, let alone annihilating such a heavy force group, even to severely damage and block it, it is necessary to deploy the forces of several armies.

Moreover, Ando Rikichi also had the authority to transfer another division from Guangdong to reinforce southern Guangxi. For the Japanese army, although the previous battles were extremely unsuccessful, the overall situation was still developing in a good direction.

Soon, a combat plan to attack Nanning was quickly formed based on the current situation.

The Japanese army made significant progress here, and the Chinese military also made various deployments in full swing.

After the fall of Qisha, the operational concept of building a second line of defense proposed by He Wei was successfully implemented. The 19th Regiment and the Field Replacement Regiment of the new 56th Division urgently built a second line of defense behind the Qisha position of the 56th Regiment. This line of defense was of course incomparable to the permanent and semi-permanent fortifications previously stationed by the 56th Regiment, and was merely a hastily built civil fortification.

However, the composition of this second line of defense can be regarded as filling the defensive gap created by the Chinese army after the loss of the Qisha position. The frontal defense width of this line of defense is the same as that of the Qisha position, and it is also adjacent to the friendly positions connected to the original Qisha defense line.

After several days of emergency construction, the defense line was finally completed, and the entire new 19th Division Field Replacement Regiment and the 56th Regiment, which was reduced to only half a regiment, were squeezed in at once, finally filling the hole that was opened after the loss of the Qisha defense line.

He Wei and the 46th Army also saw the landing of the Japanese heavy troops.

Regarding this movement of the Japanese army, He Wei judged that the troops landing in the direction of Qisha were all the Japanese troops currently used for landing operations in the southern Guangxi direction.

Although the 46th Army also agreed with He Wei's opinion, it was still likely that the Japanese army would land in other directions within its defense zone, namely in the defense zones other than the Qisha area of ​​its other subordinate divisions, the 175th Division and the new 19th Division.

Therefore, although it was well aware that the Japanese army's heavy troops were concentrated in the direction of Qisha, the 46th Army still did not dare to transfer troops from other directions to the Qisha defense line to strengthen the defense, for fear that the Japanese army would land in areas outside Qisha again.

As a result, when the Japanese army landed in the Qisha direction and assembled, the troops deployed in other directions of the 46th Army could only watch and defend in their original positions without being able to come to support. He Wei also deeply agreed with the concerns of the 46th Army. After all, the Japanese army's mobility speed at sea is much faster than that on land, and no one can guarantee whether the Japanese army has the intention of landing in other directions again.

The fundamental reason why the 46th Army did not dare to withdraw reinforcements was that the National Army had too few troops deployed in southern Guangxi. With such a small number of troops, it was difficult to both provide mobile support and guard the coastal defense.

In this case, He Wei had no choice but to lead the assault corps to reorganize and prepare for battle behind the second line of defense. The powerful manpower and firepower of the assault corps gave the 46th Army peace of mind. At the same time, he continuously sent out small reconnaissance and search units to conduct reconnaissance operations on the landed Japanese troops and closely monitor their movements.

Overall, after the first round of confrontation between the two armies, the two sides formed a brief stalemate during the rapid deployment adjustment.

In the assault corps field command post behind the second line of defense in Qisha, Chief of Staff Wang Yuanling solemnly held a telegram and pushed it in front of He Wei who was observing the battle map, saying, "Captain, a telegram from the Guilin camp has arrived. It has just been sent to the 46th Army, and the 46th Army is required to forward it to us."

"Oh? Finally there is news."

Wang Yuanling shrugged and said, "There is indeed news, but the content of the telegram is really unremarkable."

Since abandoning the position of the 56th Regiment that day, He Wei and the commander of the 46th Army, He Xuan, drafted a battle briefing on the entire battle. The battle in which the Assault Corps, with the cooperation of the tank troops, wiped out a Japanese infantry battalion on the sea had also been reported long ago.

However, there was no reply from the Guilin Headquarters, which made He Wei quite annoyed for a while. Now that there was finally some movement, He Wei immediately read the telegram.

But after reading it, He Wei was disappointed. The content was indeed as unremarkable as Wang Yuanling said.

After distilling the content of the telegram of hundreds of words, it can be summarized into three points.

First, the Guilin Headquarters expressed understanding for the loss of the Qisha position, and commended the 19th Regiment of the New 56th Division and the "Advance Detachment into Guangxi" for participating in the battle, especially praising the latter Central Army unit for its outstanding performance in the battle.

The second point is a brief summary of the Guilin Headquarters and Chongqing's judgment that the Japanese army's strategic target this time is Nanning. Needless to say, the Japanese army's ability to land in the direction of Qinzhou clearly shows that they are heading for Nanning. Anyone with a little basic military knowledge can see this.

The third point was that the 46th Army and He Wei's "Advance Detachment into Guangxi" should continue to block and delay the advance of the Japanese army, buying time for the national army to send more troops as soon as possible.

Apart from this, there was no other useful information in this telegram from the Guilin Headquarters. In particular, there was not a single word about the movement of additional central troops to reinforce Guangxi, which He Wei had always been concerned about.

Not only that, He Wei has been in frequent contact with Dai Anlan in Nanning recently, and Nanning has not mentioned a word about increasing troops.

Holding the telegram paper and with his hands behind his back, He Wei couldn't help but frown as he walked around in the command post.

Before the war, the Secretariat vowed that it was ready to send the 5th Army, the 99th Army and the 36th Army to reinforce Guangxi. From the perspective of the Standing Committee Chairman, he should be eager to send more central troops to Guangxi, so why would he delay until this point?

After much thought, the only possibility He Wei could think of was that the Guangxi clique might have expressed great reluctance regarding the Central Army's entry into Guangxi for support, or that factional disputes might have been going on among the higher-ups, resulting in the Central Army's troops being unable to enter Guangxi.

When He Wei thought of this possibility, he felt a burning fire in his heart.

And He Wei's guess was indeed correct. The Chairman of the Standing Committee, who had long coveted the idea of ​​sending central army troops to Guangxi, was now arguing with the bigwigs of the Guangxi clique.

After the Japanese army launched the landing operation, both Chongqing and the New Guangxi Clique were shocked. The first reaction of both sides was to send more troops into Guangxi as soon as possible, but the specific measures were very different.

The Standing Committee Chairman of Chongqing had been influenced by He Wei's strategic proposal and had long ago secretly ordered the 5th Army, the 99th Army, and the 36th Army to prepare to march into Guangxi. Now that the war has broken out, the Standing Committee Chairman naturally ordered these three armies to advance quickly into Guangxi.

However, the New Guangxi Clique was quite dissatisfied with the action of the Standing Committee Chairman, and indirectly rejected the large-scale entry of the Central Army into Guangxi by the Standing Committee Chairman, with the reason being that "Hunan is also a strategic location, and the main force of the Central Army should be used in Hunan to ensure the safety of Hunan."

At the same time, the New Guangxi Clique expressed its intention to send the Guangxi Army troops fighting in the Fifth War Zone on the Hubei front back to Guangxi for support. This proposal from the New Guangxi Clique was not just verbal talk. The Guangxi Army fighting on the front line of the Fifth War Zone did indeed begin large-scale mobilization.

Of course, the Chairman of the Standing Committee could not agree to this. As the two sides argued with each other, the situation became deadlocked. The Central Army's reinforcement was obstructed by the Guangxi clique, and the Guangxi Army's return to aid Guangxi was rejected by Chongqing. For a time, the situation was deadlocked. The result was what He Wei saw now. The upper echelons were arguing with each other, and the reinforcements could not be delayed in arriving.

When He Wei thought about the details, he couldn't help but get angry. It was really this damn factional dispute that killed people. If it continued like this, his advance layout before the Battle of Southern Guangxi might be wasted.

He Wei even wondered if he was doing something to put some pressure on the high-level officials who were fighting each other, especially the New Guangxi Clique, so that they would wake up and send troops to Guangxi quickly?

However, before He Wei could figure out what to do, the landing Japanese troops took the lead in launching the next combat operation.

(End of this chapter)