Chapter 54: The Battle of Southern Guangxi Begins
Because Chiang Kai-shek was forced to temporarily interrupt negotiations with the Japanese army amid domestic and international doubts caused by the Dongxi fire, the annoyed Japanese invaders decided to teach Chiang a lesson in order to force him to return to the "correct" path.
But where should we strike to make Chiang afraid? First of all, it was impossible for the 11th Army, which had just returned to the scheduled starting point, to be deployed immediately.
Secondly, attacking the various units of the Northwest National Defense Army in North China would only make Chiang applaud rather than make him afraid. Moreover, the Japanese army in North China had not recovered from the losses in the Battle of East Henan. They were good at defense but weak in offense.
After eliminating the two main forces of invasion of China, the 21st Army that occupied Guangzhou became a major choice for the Japanese headquarters.
Today, the 21st Army has three divisions, the 5th, 18th, and 104th, as well as the Taiwan Mixed Brigade, the Hainan Island Garrison, the 21st Independent Flying Squadron , the 3rd Independent Machine Gun Battalion, the 11th, 51st, and 52nd Independent Light Armored Vehicle Squadrons, the 10th Independent Mountain Artillery Regiment, and the 20th and 21st Independent Mountain Artillery Battalions.
The total strength of the troops included the 2nd Field Heavy Artillery Regiment, the 3rd, 20th and 21st Mortar Battalions, the 3rd Field Anti-aircraft Artillery Team, the 15th Independent Engineer Regiment, the 20th Independent Engineer Regiment, the 8th Communications Team, the South China Meteorological Department, the Bridge Materials Squadron, the 3rd Battalion of the 2nd Railway Regiment, and many other units, with a total strength of over 100,000.
The army was strong enough to ensure control over the area surrounding Guangzhou, and there was still enough strength to launch a campaign.
Now that the combat troops have been selected, what should be the direction of the battle?
As early as the beginning of the Japanese occupation of Wuhan and Guangzhou, the Southward Advancement Faction of the Japanese military, seeing that they had failed to force China to surrender, advocated: "It is necessary to cut off China's last line of communication with the outside world in order to realize the plan of resolving the 'China Incident' in one fell swoop."
The Japanese Navy Ministry, which has always been against the Army, also published a "Situation Assessment" that determined that it was difficult to conduct large-scale active operations in the inland area relying solely on the Army. "Under this circumstance, the Army and Navy should work together to quickly occupy Shantou, the largest trading port on the coast of South China. After success, a corps will advance to Guangxi to capture Nanning, in order to cut off the enemy's largest overseas supply and transportation line through French Indochina."
According to intelligence obtained by Japanese military reconnaissance, the most important route for China to obtain foreign aid was the French Indochina line. In September 1939 alone, 21,500 tons of the total tonnage of 25,700 tons of materials shipped into China passed through this route, accounting for 85%.
The Japanese General Staff's Military Geography also emphasized that "once we enter Nanning and use it as a base, we will have convenient transportation links to Guangdong, Hunan, Guizhou, and Yunnan.
Therefore, the road from Nanning to Lang Son formed the main artery for the Chiang regime to connect with the southwest.
In order to cut it off directly, Nanning must first be captured.
Once Nanning is occupied, we can achieve our operational objectives without having to station heavy troops near Tokyo Bay."
However, if we really want to take action against the Guiyue transportation line, we must consider the possible reactions of the great powers to Japan's actions.
But at this time, the outbreak in Europe had already occurred and the attention of Britain and France had shifted back to Europe. Japan took this opportunity to conclude that: "The reason why the resolution of the Chinese incident has been so delayed is due to the support of the Soviet Union, Britain, France and the United States for Chiang Kai-shek's regime." Now we should "take advantage of the opportunity when the European war breaks out and the major powers are unable to take care of China."
"Resolving the Chinese Incident" Based on this understanding, the Japanese Military Headquarters issued an order to "prepare to quickly deal with the Chinese Incident."
On November 26, 1939, the "Continental Order No. 375" was issued, "The Commander-in-Chief of the China Expeditionary Army should use a part of its forces to cooperate with the navy to quickly cut off the enemy's supply route from Nanning to Longzhou."
On the same day, the Japanese military headquarters also issued "Continental Command No. 582, Central Agreement between the Army and Navy", stating: "The purpose of this operation is to directly cut off the enemy's supply and communication routes along Nanning to Longzhou, and to strengthen naval aviation operations to cut off the enemy's supply and communication routes along the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway and the Yunnan-Burma Highway."
It was based on the above instructions that General Toshizo Nishio, commander-in-chief of the China Expeditionary Army, formally issued the order to launch the Southern Guangxi Operation.
In fact, to a certain extent, the purpose of the Japanese invaders launching this war was not only to cut off China's international supply lines, but also to deal a heavy blow to the Gui army's stronghold.
Li Zongren, the leader of the Guangxi clique, was a staunch anti-Japanese element and was even the first to propose the theory of scorched earth resistance. As one of the pillars of the Guiyang Nationalist Government, if the Guangxi clique ceased its activities, wouldn't Chiang be able to achieve his goal of surrendering to Japan more easily?
This was exactly what he wanted, so Lieutenant General Ando Toshiyoshi, who was eager to take action, couldn't wait to take action.
The Japanese troop movements did not go unnoticed by Chiang. In fact, at the Second Nanyue Military Conference to summarize the First Battle of Changsha and review the Dongxi Fire, Chiang Kai-shek had intercepted intelligence that "Japan had intentions to invade the south."
The US and British military intelligence agencies also issued intelligence: "The Japanese fleet is currently gathering in Tokyo Bay, which means that the battle against Nanning is imminent."
To this end, Chiang immediately flew directly from Hengshan to Guilin to make battle arrangements to meet the new Japanese offensive.
Unfortunately, Guangxi's preparations for war were in chaos at the time: the 16th Army Group was guarding the Guangdong-Guangxi coastal defense, which included the 46th Army led by He Xuan and the 64th Army led by Deng Longguang.
However, the original commander-in-chief of the army group, Xia Wei, was transferred to the 11th Army Group as commander-in-chief. Xia Wei, who was extremely dissatisfied with this, took the opportunity of his mother's death to hide in his hometown in Rong County and make a fuss. The new commander-in-chief of the army group, Cai Tingkai, was from the Guangdong faction and could not command the 46th Army of the Guangxi Army system, nor the 64th Army of Yu Hanmou's old subordinates. As a result, no one handled the intelligence about the Japanese invasion.
Bai Chongxi, director of the Guilin Headquarters, went to Guiyang to attend the Sixth Plenary Session of the Fifth Central Committee of the Kuomintang. Lin Wei, chief of staff of the headquarters, was ordered by Chiang to go to Rong County to mourn the death of Xia Wei's mother and comfort Xia himself, so the headquarters became an empty camp.
Zhang Fakui, commander-in-chief of the Fifth War Zone, was far away in Shaoguan, Guangdong, and did not dare to act on his own without orders from the headquarters.
This series of factors rendered the three-level headquarters of the headquarters, war zone, and army group ineffective, which was a disaster for China as it was about to enter a war.
When the Japanese army landed, it was Huang Gu's unit of the newly formed 19th Division of the 46th Army stationed on the front line defending Qinzhou Bay, while Qin Zhen's unit of the main force of the army, the 175th Division, was stationed in Hepu and Beihai areas, and Li Xingshu's unit of the 170th Division was stationed in Guixian area.
As for the 155th Division of the 64th Army led by Zhang Chi and the 156th Division led by Wang De, they were all in Guiping and the Dahuangjiangkou area.
This military deployment was based on the judgment of Bai Chongxi, director of the Guilin Headquarters, that the Japanese army could only land at Guangzhou Bay (Zhanjiang) and head north to capture Liuzhou, and would not risk capturing Nanning.
Since the newly formed 19th Division was a local force newly formed by the militia, its weapons, training and morale were extremely poor.
Therefore, it can be said that there is basically no defensive force from Qin County to Nanning.
What is even more terrifying is that Bai Chongxi saw that there were neither central troops nor Japanese troops in the prosperous areas of Kaiping, Yangjiang, Yangchun and Xinxing in Guangdong. If the Guangxi clique controlled them, they would control the southern route of Guangdong and more seaports. So he could not wait to order the 64th Army to speed up its combat readiness and advance to the above-mentioned Guangdong areas.
As a result, the defense line of the Chinese Army in southern Guangxi was suddenly expanded to thousands of kilometers, and the actual garrison force was weakened, not to mention any deep defense.
On December 9, 1939, all Japanese offensive forces were assembled in Sanya Port.
Lieutenant General Ando Toshiyoshi, commander of the 21st Army, went to Sanya in person to command.
On the 13th, the fleet set sail from Sanya.
On the 14th, the leading ships arrived at the North Sea and launched a feint attack with more than 10 ships.
The battalion of the 175th Division was stationed in Beihai, and it was completely unable to fight back against the Japanese army.
Based on this, the Guiyang military authorities ordered the defense forces to completely blow up Beihai City. However, the complete destruction of Beihai was avoided because Chao Wei, the commander of the 524th Regiment of the 175th Division of the 46th Army, who commanded the Beihai Defense War, expressed doubts about the movements of the Japanese army and further judged that the Japanese army was just bluffing and did not intend to land in Beihai.
That night, the Japanese ships stopped their attack on Beihai and turned towards Qinzhou.
As a result, one battalion of defenders from Fangchenggang Qisha and Longmen fired at the enemy on the sea for a whole day, and then when they saw the Japanese army actually landed, they dispersed.
Like Captain Chao, Huang Tingcai, the commander of the 55th Regiment of the newly formed 19th Division, also judged that the Japanese army was just bluffing. When the company commander of the defensive company stationed on the Litouzui line in Qin County escaped from the position and reported to him, Captain Huang actually thought that this was just the enemy's usual harassment and there was no need to take it seriously.
In this case, the result was naturally no surprise. The troops of the newly formed 19th Division, which were completely unprepared for battle, were vulnerable in front of the Japanese army and were defeated one after another, allowing the Japanese army to land smoothly.
By the 17th, the Japanese army had successfully occupied Qinzhou and Fangchenggang, and immediately divided its troops and marched north.
On the 18th, the Japanese army attacked Xiaodong, the headquarters of the New 19th Division. The division commander Huang Gu retreated in the face of the enemy and fled alone.
Although Huang Gu was later dismissed and investigated, and Huang Tingcai was tried by military court, there was no longer any obstacle in front of the Japanese army, and what was originally thought to be a battle turned out to be an armed march.
Tens of thousands of mountain bandits formed many traitors and plainclothes teams to lead the Japanese army, causing the Japanese army to arrive at the south bank of the Yong River on the outskirts of Nanning without stopping in the evening of the 22nd.
After the news of the Japanese landing was confirmed, Chiang Kai-shek urgently summoned Bai Chongxi in Guiyang and ordered him not to attend the Sixth Plenary Session of the Fifth Central Committee of the Kuomintang and to return to Guilin immediately to command the battle.
Bai demanded full command as the director of the Guilin Headquarters, without the intervention of Zhang Fakui, commander of the Fourth War Zone, and that all armies must obey orders directly from the headquarters.
Chiang approved the request and transferred his most elite Fifth Army and other direct troops under Bai's command.
Bai immediately telegraphed the army's acting commander Du Yuming, ordering him to lead his troops by train from Hengyang to southern Guangxi.
He also ordered Xia Wei to be reinstated as commander of the 16th Army Group, and Cai Tingkai, who had been appointed, was on standby.
The 16th Army was assembled immediately afterwards, and its various units rushed to the areas where the Japanese army must pass to block the enemy's advance to the north.
However, it was too late. On the 23rd, the Japanese 5th Division began to force a crossing of the Yongjiang River under the cover of . That night, Shao Yiming, commander of the 455th Regiment of the 155th Division, arbitrarily ordered the 454th and 455th Regiments under his command to abandon their positions and retreat. Deng Longguang ordered Zhang Chi, commander of the 155th Division, to intercept his troops. Shao Yiming disobeyed orders and refused to resume his original position. There was no army defending the front of Nanning City.
At dawn on the 24th, the 170th Division fought fiercely with the Japanese army in Yongning. On the morning of the same day, the 21st Regiment of the 21st Brigade of the 5th Division of the Japanese Army crossed the river from the urban area, and the entire city of Nanning fell in the afternoon.