bayedsolid Chapter 502 Doing the opposite
Chapter 502 Doing the opposite
Everyone knew that as long as Luwu on the north side of the Yongqin Highway was occupied, the rear of the Chinese army attacking Nanning would be completely cut off by their own flanking troops. The Chinese army would have no choice but to retreat to the east, and the crisis in Nanning City would be successfully resolved.
However, Lieutenant General Ando Rikichi, commander of the 21st Army, also knew that the Fourth War Zone of the Chinese government must be keeping an eye on Luwu, north of the Yongqin Highway, and that the Chinese government must have arranged very elite troops to defend Luwu. If his flanking troops could not quickly break through Luwu and the two sides engaged in a war of attrition in Luwu, then his flanking troops would lose the suddenness of this operation.
The Chinese army can continuously send follow-up troops to Luwu to consume their own troops. You must know that the troops to reinforce southern Guangxi this time were squeezed out with great difficulty, with a total of only more than 15,000 people. If they fight a war of attrition with the Chinese army, it will be very disadvantageous to their side.
Therefore, Lieutenant General Ando Toshiyoshi, commander of the 21st Army, decided to take a risky move and abandon the shortest roundabout encirclement route from Nanning City to the west. Instead, he ordered the encirclement troops to encircle Nanning City from the east to surprise the Fourth War Zone of the Chinese government.
After learning about the combat deployment of the Fourth War Zone of the Chinese Government obtained through the intelligence department and knowing that the Eastern Route Army of the Fourth War Zone was responsible for the east of Nanning City, Lieutenant General Ando Toshiyoshi, commander of the 21st Army, became more determined in his thinking.
You must know that the Eastern Route Army of the Fourth War Zone of the Chinese Government actually only had two divisions of the 46th Army of the Guangxi Army and a third advance detachment of a miscellaneous unit of the Guangxi Army. Moreover, the two divisions of the 46th Army had been beaten to a point worse than cripple in the previous Battle of Southern Guangxi. Such a defensive force could not possibly stop the attack of their own flanking troops.
Although the attack distance and attack time of the flanking operation from the east seem to be longer, in fact, instead of wasting time and manpower on the west side which has been tightly defended by the Chinese army, it is better to take a long-distance approach and flanking from the east. This can greatly shorten the attack time and the speed of the flanking operation. The flanking operation from the east is actually the most advantageous to our side.
Under the leadership of Lieutenant General Ando Toshiyoshi, commander of the 21st Army, the Japanese 21st Army Headquarters formulated the "Binyang Battle Guidance Plan", which determined the route and attack targets for the reinforcement troops' flanking movement.
In order to ensure the smooth implementation of this operational plan, Lieutenant General Ando Toshiyoshi, commander of the 21st Army, specifically instructed Lieutenant General Imamura Hitoshi, commander of the 5th Division in Nanning, and clearly told him that in order to ensure the attack power of the flanking troops, all the reinforcements this time would be deployed in the flanking operation.
What this means is that the defense of Nanning City will still use the existing forces of the Fifth Division and the Taiwan Mixed Brigade. The reinforcements will not be deployed in the defense of Nanning City, so the commander of the Fifth Division, Imamura Hitonaka, should prepare himself in advance.
The commander of the 5th Division, Lieutenant General Imamura Hitoshi, was quite in agreement with the combat strategy of Commander Lieutenant General Ando Toshiyoshi. After the attacks by the Chinese army in the past two days, Lieutenant General Imamura Hitoshi was still confident that his troops could defend the city of Nanning.
Lieutenant General Imamura Hitoshi, commander of the Fifth Division, judged through the actual battle situation in the past two days that with the large-scale dispatch of reinforcements by the Chinese Army, his troops would have no problem holding out in Nanning for half a month. This half month was enough time for the attacking troops to make a roundabout encirclement to the east and reach Binyang or occupy Binyang.
As long as Binyang is occupied, it will be a headache for the Fourth War Zone of the Chinese government. That is the rear base of the Chinese army, and even directly threatens the ownership of Kunlun Pass. If Binyang is occupied by the flanking troops, the Chinese army will have to take the initiative to withdraw from Kunlun Pass, because there is no use for the Chinese government to hold Kunlun Pass.
Because Binyang to the north of Kunlun Pass and Nanning to the south had been occupied by the army of the Empire of Japan. The Chinese government at Kunlun Pass was attacked from both the north and the south, and even supplies could not be delivered to Kunlun Pass. What could the Chinese army use to defend Kunlun Pass? What was the point of defending it?
The commander of the 5th Division, Lieutenant General Imamura Hitoshi, also sent a telegram to the commander of the 21st Army, Lieutenant General Ando Toshiyoshi, expressing his full support for the commander's battle plan and that he would definitely lead his troops to hold the city of Nanning and cooperate with the flanking troops' combat operations, so please rest assured, Commander Lieutenant General Ando Toshiyoshi.
After the Japanese reinforcement force consisting of more than 15,000 officers and soldiers from the 18th Division and the Imperial Guards Mixed Brigade arrived in Nanning, they rested for only half a day and then suddenly launched a rapid attack to the east of Nanning City. The Third Detachment of the Guangxi Clique, which was originally on guard to the east of Nanning City, was stunned by the sudden Japanese attack. In just two hours, the original defense line completely collapsed.
After defeating the Chinese government's Fourth War Zone's defense line in the east, the Japanese 18th Division and the Imperial Guards Mixed Brigade continued to attack eastward without stopping, heading straight for Yongchun, east of Nanning City.
Facing the sudden eastward attack by the Japanese army's flanking troops, He Xuan, commander of the 46th Army of the Guangxi clique, notified the Fourth War Zone Command of the news and asked the Fourth War Zone to send reinforcements as soon as possible. At the same time, he ordered the 170th Division, which was resting and replenishing in Yongchun, to quickly abandon Yongchun and retreat to Gantang in the north to join the 170th Division, concentrating its forces to defend Gantang and prevent the Japanese army from continuing to attack northward.
He Xuan, commander of the 46th Army, knew that it would be difficult to stop the Japanese attack with his two damaged divisions. Instead of letting the Japanese defeat him one by one, it would be better to abandon Yongchun and put all the troops in Gantang to defend it. This way, it would be possible to delay until reinforcements arrived.
Of course, if all his troops were exhausted and the reinforcements still failed to arrive in time, then he would have done his best. As the main war faction in the Guangxi clique, he had also given an explanation to everyone.
The Japanese army's eastward flanking movement made the bigwigs in the Fourth War Zone break out in cold sweats. They knew very well that the small force of the 46th Army of the Guangxi clique in the east could not stop the Japanese attack.
The Fourth War Zone Command initially thought that this was a trick played by the Japanese army to make a feint to the east and attack in the west. The bosses really couldn't understand why the Japanese army would give up such a short-distance flanking attack from the west and go around in such a big circle to make a flanking attack from the east.