Devil's Army

Chapter 2023: The Second Army Heads South into Southern Jiangsu

Early the next morning, the Japanese army launched a fierce attack on the outer fortifications of Zhaojiaji.

The Japanese troops once attacked near the fortifications, but were stubbornly repelled by the soldiers of the 2nd Regiment.

The Japanese troops and the soldiers of the Second Regiment fought a fierce battle on the outskirts of Zhao Jiaji.

Knowing the fierce fighting at Zhaojiaji, the Shandong headquarters of the First Air Force dispatched a mixed squadron of fighters and bombers to provide support.

The 69th Brigade of the Japanese 64th Division suffered an unprecedented air attack and was forced to shrink its battle lines and withdraw from the outer positions of Zhaojiaji.

This mixed squadron of the First Army then launched a fierce air raid on the headquarters of the Japanese 64th Division in Yangzhou.

General Masayuki Funabiki, commander of the Japanese 64th Division, had originally planned to reinforce his troops to attack the 11th Brigade of the "Devil Unit," but now that his headquarters had been subjected to a fierce air raid, he dared not make any rash moves for the time being.

While the 1st and 2nd Regiments of the 11th Brigade of the 1st Army were engaged in fierce fighting with the 69th Brigade of the 64th Division of the Japanese 65th Division, the 3rd Regiment captured Pei County, east of Feng County. Led by the Weishan Lake guerrilla force, they then attacked Tongshan County, threatening the outskirts of Xuzhou.

The Fourth Regiment captured Pizhou from the direction of Lanling County, Shandong, and advanced towards Jiawang County, the northern gateway to Xuzhou.

This made the Japanese troops in Xuzhou quite nervous. Lieutenant General Nagatsu, commander of the Japanese 13th Army, wanted to transfer troops from central Jiangsu to the north to reinforce them again. However, the New Fourth Army in central Jiangsu was constantly active, and he was worried that the New Fourth Army in central Jiangsu would take advantage of their weakened state to attack their strongholds. Therefore, he initiated a plan to transfer Japanese troops from southern Jiangsu.

Just as the Japanese troops in southern Jiangsu were being transferred away, the 12th and 15th Brigades of the 2nd Area Army, which were part of the 1st Army, launched a full-scale attack on the Japanese troops in southern Jiangsu the very next day.

(The First Army Independent Brigade, the Third Brigade of the Southern Independent Division, and the Zhejiang New Fourth Army jointly administered the recovered Japanese war zone in Zhejiang.)

In a single day, the First Army marched south and the Second Army captured Wuxi, Yixing, and Wujiang.

Suzhou, an important city in southern Jiangsu, is also nearby.

Suzhou is a hub connecting the Beijing-Shanghai Railway and the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, protecting Shanghai to the east and Nanjing to the west, making it a core node of the Beijing-Shanghai-Hangzhou defense line.

At that time, it was a key support for guerrilla warfare and transportation disruption behind enemy lines in southern Jiangsu, and a must-win area for the Japanese puppet army and the New Fourth Army in their anti-"mopping-up" campaigns.

It is a key transportation hub, with the Shanghai-Nanjing Railway and the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal running through it; the Suzhou-Jiaxing Railway connects Beijing and Shanghai, and Shanghai and Hangzhou, bypassing Shanghai during wartime, serving as a lifeline for military transportation.

The Wu-Fu Line (Suzhou-Fushan) was the core defensive line surrounding Nanjing, connecting with the Xi-Cheng Line to form the rear defensive depth of the Battle of Shanghai.

Moreover, it has a dense network of waterways and numerous lakes and ponds. In addition, the Taihu Plain is rich in resources, serving as a source of grain and tax revenue.

As the capital of Jiangsu Province under the Wang Jingwei regime, it held significant political and economic control value.

The devilish troops marched south and the Second Area Army was at the city gates, putting the 60th Division of the 13th Army of the Japanese Army (Nobuo Kobayashi) on high alert.

He hurriedly mobilized troops to deploy tiered defenses and mobile blocking forces along three axes, centered on waterways, lake bays, passes, and low hills, facing Wuxing (now Wuxing District of Huzhou) from Suzhou.

1. Wujiang Taoyuan-Wuzhen Passage (Southwest Route)

2. Pingwang-Nanxun Canal Line (Eastern Line).

3. Taihu Lake Bay - Daqiankou (North Route)

At this critical moment, the New Fourth Army's Taihu Detachment and others continued to harass the Suzhou-Changzhou-Taizhou and Chengxi-Yuzhou areas, disrupting transportation routes, eliminating strongholds, and hindering the movement of the Japanese army. This plunged the 60th Division into internal and external troubles.

In order to fully resist the devilish troops' attack from south to north, Division Commander Kobayashi had no choice but to mobilize troops to encircle and suppress the New Fourth Army in his jurisdiction.