Chapter 56: Guinan Lost Again
The Japanese troops at Kunlun Pass desperately called for help, but the 1st Regiment of the Taiwan Mixed Brigade led by Colonel Lin Yixiong and the 2nd Regiment led by Colonel Watanabe Nobuyoshi, which were ordered by Imamura Hitoshi to reinforce Kunlun Pass, were desperately blocked by the 175th Division of the Guangxi Clique on the Yongqin Road and were unable to reach Kunlun Pass in time.
Among them, the Watanabe Regiment encountered an obstruction by the Chinese 524th Regiment on the Luwu Line. After three days of fierce fighting, they were unable to pass. Colonel Watanabe was killed and the remaining enemies had to flee back to Qin County.
Under such circumstances, Imamura could only order the 9th Brigade, which was attacking Longzhou and Zhennan Pass, to withdraw one and a half battalions in 105 vehicles to return to Kunlun Pass for support.
Since the outcome of the Battle of Kunlun Pass might affect Chiang Kai-shek's confidence in compromising with Japan, Chiang Kai-shek was extremely dissatisfied with the slow progress of the Battle of Kunlun Pass and the entire Southern Guangxi Campaign, and issued an order to the Guilin Headquarters and all participating troops: "If any of the front-line troops and artillery fail to actively attack or fail to complete the task within the deadline, they should be convicted of fear of the enemy and dealt with on the spot."
Under Chiang's strict order, Du Yuming immediately convened a military meeting to analyze the lessons of both gains and losses. Participants mentioned that the Japanese army had strong fortifications on both sides of the pass, forming a cross-fire network, which led to the failure of our army's attack.
So Du decided to change his tactics, concentrate superior forces, attack various strongholds from the outside, and gradually narrow the encirclement.
On January 21, the Second Regiment of the Rong 1st Division, led by its commander Wang Bo, cooperated with its infantry and artillery to capture the Luotang South Heights and wiped out more than 200 defending enemies.
On the morning of the 21st, the Chinese side received another piece of good news. At the main attack position of Kunlun Pass, Zheng Tingji, the commander of the 3rd Regiment of the Rongyi Division, who was assigned to the command of the 200th Division, discovered through a telescope that Japanese officers were gathering for a meeting on the large grassy area beside the Jiutang Highway. He immediately ordered the 1st Battalion to concentrate fire with light and heavy machine guns and mortars.
The Chinese artillery shells hit the target accurately, causing heavy casualties among Japanese officers. Even the highest commander on the battlefield, Major General Masao Nakamura, commander of the 21st Brigade of the Japanese Army, was killed in the artillery fire. Middle and lower-level officers were almost wiped out, so the Japanese army had to airdrop officers to supplement the combat.
The news of Nakamura's death eventually forced Imamura to order the repatriation of the entire 9th Brigade.
On that day, Major General Ishikawa destroyed a large number of seized strategic materials and evacuated Longzhou and Zhennan Pass.
Bai Chongxi learned that the first group of returning enemies had escaped and the second group was returning. He was afraid that the enemy would reinforce Kunlun Pass and cause the Chinese army's attack to fail, so he urgently telegraphed Xia Wei, the commander-in-chief of the Western Route Army: "If you let the second group of returning enemies go again and affect the battle situation of the main corps, the deputy commander-in-chief should be severely punished."
Bai's order was indeed strict, but Xia Wei pretended to obey it but secretly disobeyed it.
As early as December 18, when Feng Huang took over as the commander of the 175th Division, Bai Chongxi told him: "Now that we are facing a powerful enemy, there are still disagreements among the commanders of the 16th Army. When you meet with them, convey my intentions and ask them to put the overall situation first, give up their prejudices, and fight against Japan together."
However, Xia Wei, the commander of the 16th Army Group at the time, told Feng Huang: "The war of resistance is a long one, and we cannot gamble away all our capital all at once."
Bai Chongxi was unable to control even the old Gui army units, and as a result, the main force of the Japanese army returned to Nanning unhindered.
After Masao Nakamura was killed, the commander of the 42nd Regiment, Motoichi Sakata, was ordered to act as the commander of the 21st Brigade.
With Bai Chongxi's approval, Du Yuming decided to concentrate all his forces to annihilate this elite Japanese division in one fell swoop.
Therefore, in addition to recalling all the forces of the Fifth Army to attack Kunlun Pass, two divisions were added, including the 66th Army of Ye Zhao's 37th Army Group and the 99th Army as the general reserve. All these five divisions were used to attack the enemy reinforcements south of Batang.
On the 22nd, the redeployed Chinese Fifth Army stepped up its attack. By the 24th, the enemy strongholds and flank defense agencies around Kunlun Pass were basically eliminated. The 21st Brigade, the main force of the "Steel Army", the elite Japanese division in the pass, was trapped!
However, at this time, the Japanese and Sichuan detachments had returned to Nanning intact, so time was already very tight for the front line.
To this end, Dai Anlan personally led two regiments of troops, using machetes, shovels and their flesh and blood to cut through the grass and clear the way, cutting through the barbed wire set up by the Japanese army all over the mountains and fields, and launched a fierce attack on the last gate of Kunlun Pass - the Jieshou position.
Jieshou Heights is located north of Kunlun Pass and is the most solid stronghold of the Japanese army.
Dai Anlan commanded the Zheng Tingji Regiment and began to attack the Jieshou Heights on the evening of the 24th. Although enemy planes were strafing and bombing overhead, the regiment was in high spirits and attacked tenaciously despite the sacrifices.
The Chinese soldiers formed a suicide squad, stuffed grenades into the gun holes of the Japanese strongholds, and were not afraid of sacrifice. They finally captured the Jieshou Heights on the morning of the 25th. Among the 9 infantry companies of Zheng Tingji's regiment, 7 company commanders were killed or injured, and even the bugler beside Zheng Tingji was shot and killed.
Now that the crucial Jieshou Heights had fallen into the hands of the Chinese side, there was no longer any suspense about the change of hands of Kunlun Pass.
On January 27, 1940, Deng Junlin's Regiment of the newly formed 22nd Division successfully captured Kunlun Pass and wiped out all remaining enemies in Kunlun Pass.
When cleaning the battlefield, a diary was found on the body of Nakamura Masao. Before his death, the brigade commander wrote: "The reason why the 21st Brigade of the 5th Division of the Imperial Army was called the Steel Army in the Russo-Japanese War was because my tenacity defeated the tenacity of the Russians. However, I should admit that I encountered an army that was more tenacious than the Russian army at Kunlun Pass."
Although the Chinese side managed to recapture Kunlun Pass before the arrival of the Ishikawa Detachment, the situation remained dangerous. The remaining troops of the 21st Brigade and the 1st and 2nd Regiments of the Taiwan Mixed Brigade were still between Jiutang and Batang. In addition, thousands of main forces of the Ishikawa Detachment arrived at Batang, and a more intense battle began.
The first battle of the Fifth Army's continued offensive towards Nanning was fought at Hill 441 between Kunlun Pass and Jiutang.
As early as the attack on Kunlun Pass, the Rong 1st Division captured the north side of Hill 411, and the Japanese army stubbornly guarded the south side of the hill.
On the 30th, the Japanese army dispatched planes to bombard the north side of the high ground, and then sent out infantry to launch a large-scale attack.
The Rong 1st Division guarded the high ground with a regiment and a battalion of nearly 2,000 soldiers. After fighting for only a hundred people, they still held their positions.
At dawn on the 31st, the Rong 1st Division launched a counterattack with all its remaining forces. After a whole day of fierce fighting, there was no progress and both sides maintained their original positions.
On February 1, Du Yuming mobilized the main force of the 200th Division and part of the Xinbian 22nd Division to cooperate with the Rong 1st Division to continue fighting. The battle became even more brutal, with heavy casualties on both sides.
At night, the Japanese army could no longer resist and retreated to Jiutang, and the battle was declared over.
On February 2, due to heavy casualties, the Rong 1st Division was ordered to withdraw from the battle and move to Silong for rest and recuperation.
The Fifth Army continued its offensive.
The Japanese troops that retreated to Jiutang also followed the order of Ikawa Genshichi and abandoned Jiutang at dawn on the 2nd and retreated to Batang to hold their ground.
The newly formed 22nd Division of the Chinese Army entered Jiutang.
The Fifth Army continued to attack Batang. The Japanese fought desperately, but there was no progress until the 9th.
After a hard battle, the Fifth Army suffered heavy casualties and its personnel were exhausted and no longer fit for fighting. On the 9th, it was ordered to move to Silong, Huangwei, Taishou and other places for rest and recuperation.
The attack mission was handed over to Yao Chun's 36th Army.
At this point, the National Army's Fifth Army officially withdrew from the battle sequence.
The Japanese headquarters was shocked by the offensive of the Chinese army and sent the Deputy Chief of Staff Shigeru Sawada from Tokyo to Guangzhou.
On January 26, the 21st Army sent Deputy Chief of Staff Sato Kenryo and Chief of Operations Fujiwara Go, accompanied by Japanese General Staff Chief of Operations Arao Okiko and China Expeditionary Army Deputy Chief of Staff Suzuki Sosaku to Nanning, but failed to change the 21st Brigade's fate of failure.
In view of the fact that Imamura Hitoshi intended to personally go into battle and use the full strength of the 5th Division to avenge the 21st Brigade, and planned to start a decisive battle with the Chinese army on February 1, the commander of the 21st Army, Lieutenant General Ando Rikichi, ordered him to hold Nanning and wait for reinforcements: "The Bo Group (21st Army) intends to transfer powerful corps to Nanning to annihilate the enemy forces gathered in Nanning. The 5th Division should still secure Nanning and nearby key points to facilitate the transfer of the corps to advance."
So starting from the 4th, a total of 15,000 people from the 18th Division and the Imperial Guards Mixed Brigade were transferred to southern Guangxi by ship from Guangzhou.
On February 6, the 21st Army of Japan once again formulated the "Binyang Battle Guidance Plan" and decided to launch a decisive battle in the area south of Binyang in late February.
On February 10, more than 3,000 soldiers of the 4th Regiment of the Guards Mixed Brigade landed in Qinzhou.
A unit of more than 1,000 people then fought fiercely for three days and nights with the 524th Regiment of the 175th Division of the 46th Army of China in the Siheao area at the junction of Qin County and Lingshan on the 12th. Although the Guards Brigade was new and elite, more than 200 people were still killed by the stubborn resistance of the Chinese army, and the entire Japanese regiment was surrounded by the 46th Army.
Although the Japanese army suffered heavy casualties, unfortunately its main force was still able to break out under the cover of aircraft.
On February 15, Bai Chongxi convened a joint military and political meeting at the Qianjiang Command Post to discuss countermeasures against the Japanese counterattack.
Prior to this, Chiang Kai-shek flew to Guilin on the 4th and personally went to Qianjiang on the 7th to discuss the next combat plan with Bai Chongxi, Chen Cheng, Zhang Fakui, Xu Tingyao, Lin Wei and others.
At that time, Bai proposed: "Take advantage of the enemy's recent defeat and the lack of reinforcements to mobilize Li Yannian's 2nd Army, Gan Lichu's 6th Army, Yao Chun's 36th Army, Fu Zhongfang's 99th Army, and the 5th Army, which had just arrived in Guangxi, to launch an offensive and recapture Nanning in one fell swoop."
Chiang approved the plan.
The next day, just as Bai Chongxi issued deployment orders to prepare for war, Chiang, who had returned to Liuzhou, received a top-secret telegram from the negotiating representative who was meeting with the Japanese in Hong Kong .
Although Chiang was not afraid of the Japanese threat that the annihilation of the Fifth Division would be seen as a complete breakdown of Sino-Japanese negotiations, he was inevitably shaken.
Chiang then sent a telegram to Bai, overturning the decision made at the meeting the day before, thus forcing Bai Chongxi to change the combat deployment, causing all Chinese troops to enter a defensive state, and ultimately allowing the Japanese side to gain time to calmly deploy until launching a counterattack.
It was precisely because of Chiang's hesitation that the current passive situation was created. Therefore, after discussion, the participants decided: "Xu Tingyao will command the Second Army, the 36th Army, and the 99th Army as the Central Army to defend the Jiutang and Kunlun Pass areas.
Gan Lichu's 6th Army was the right wing army, attacking the Japanese army from the side in the direction of Sanzhuangling.
Use Ye Zhao's 66th Army as the left wing to block the enemy in the direction of Gan Tang."
This deployment was a far cry from the deployment decided at the meeting on the 7th! The decision rejected by Chiang was a decision to attack quickly while the enemy was weak; the decision being implemented now was a defensive decision to passively take the beating.
With the current strength of the Chinese army, a major disaster is inevitable.
What’s even more fatal is that Bai Chongxi did not expect the Japanese army to adopt an encirclement tactic.
On the 17th, Lieutenant General Ando Toshiyoshi personally went to Nanning to command the counterattack.
On the 18th, the Japanese army began to counterattack: the main forces of the 5th Division, the main forces of the Imperial Guards Mixed Brigade, and the main forces of the Taiwan Mixed Brigade, commanded by Imamura Hitoshi, attacked Kunlun Pass along the Yongbin Highway.
The entire 18th Division and part of the Imperial Guards Mixed Brigade, commanded by Kuna Seiichi, advanced eastward along the south bank of the Yong River, crossed the river at Yongchun, headed north, and encircled the rear of Kunlun Pass.
Although the frontal attack commanded by Imamura Hitoshi was strongly resisted by the Chinese army, Bai Chongxi discovered that the real main force of the Japanese army was in the direction of Gantang, which posed a serious threat to the Chinese army in the Kunlun Pass area.
Bai Chongxi urgently ordered the 62nd Army of Deng Longguang's 35th Army, which had just been transferred from Guangdong, to advance quickly to Gantang.
The 46th Army led its main force, the 175th Division, across the Yu River from Jiangkou to the north to cooperate in blocking the attacking Japanese army.
The 49th Division of the Sixth Army also moved south to Wulingwei in an attempt to prevent the enemy from moving north to Binyang.
However, these measures were too late! Japanese commander Ando issued an order to start the general offensive on February 19: "The victory or defeat of this operation will be decided in one day tomorrow. I hope all officers and soldiers will fight hard and win."
It is not known whether out of guilty conscience or for some other reason, but Chiang Kai-shek ordered Zhang Fakui, commander of the Fourth War Zone, to replace Bai Chongxi in command of the Southern Guangxi Campaign on the day when the Japanese army launched the general offensive, which led to an even greater disaster.
Zhang Fakui, a new official who made three big moves upon taking office, ordered Ye Zhao's 66th Army to hold its original position and attack the Japanese army from the flank.
Zhang also ordered all reinforcements to gather at Gantang, and planned to launch an attack on the Japanese Gantang troops on February 20! Before this order was passed to the various units, the Japanese general attack began!
Since victory was hopeless, Ye Zhao, who was from the Guangxi clique, arbitrarily ordered his troops to retreat to Litang and Taowei after a brief resistance, ignoring the fact that there were no reserve troops behind their defense line! This led to the complete collapse of the Chinese army's front line.
The Japanese army advanced straight into Binyang effortlessly. Japanese planes also bombed the headquarters of the 38th Army in Binyang, and the interruption of communications led to chaos on the battlefield.
On the afternoon of the 20th, the Japanese army entered Binyang County.
The 99th Army, the 36th Army, the 2nd Army and the 6th Army defending Jiutang and Kunlun Pass were still able to fight on their own after losing the command of the army group, but they could no longer hold on after Binyang fell and their retreat was cut off. They all fled in panic, going their separate ways along the mountain paths.
On the 21st, Imamura Jun's troops successfully captured Jiutang, Kunlun Pass and other positions.
Lieutenant General Zheng Zuoming, deputy commander of the Second Army and commander of the Ninth Division, was killed by artillery fire while retreating to Shanglin.
On the 22nd, the Japanese army occupied Shanglin, on the 24th they occupied Wuming, and on the 25th they occupied Litang.
Unfortunately, the territory that the soldiers of the Fifth Army had captured after fighting bloody battles for more than half a month was reduced to ashes in an instant.
On the morning of February 23, Ando Toshiyoshi arrived in Binyang and announced that evening that "the Battle of Binyang has ended and the troops should be assembled near Nanning." By the 26th, the Japanese troops stopped pursuing and returned to Nanning.
At Kunlun Pass, where a bloody battle took place, the Japanese wrote a large slogan as a souvenir: "Our imperial army defeated more than 30 divisions of Chiang Kai-shek's army and has already recovered Binyang and Kunlun Pass."
On the same day, Zhang Fakui, commander-in-chief of the Fourth War Zone, announced: "There is no need to counterattack Nanning at this time."
The entire Southern Guangxi Campaign ended here.
