The Battle of Xiu River Defense
After the Japanese army captured De'an in 1938, it used De'an as a stronghold to gather troops and approach Yongxiu in an attempt to invade Nanchang. on October 30th, Chiang Kai-shek arrived at Nanchang and authorized Xue Yue's regiment to retreat to the south bank of the Xiu River to confront the Japanese army across the river. He also deployed the 3rd and 9th war zones to deploy more than 5 armies to defend the Xiuhe River and ensure Nanchang.
On the eve of the battle, xiuhe front line Chinese army garrison troops for 49, 70, 79 **** 3 army, 49 army center, as guarding the right from yongxiu steamed bun mountain, tai zi ling, qiu jin du, zhanggongdu line. Right to the east of Steamed Bunshan and 79 Army neighboring; left to the west of Zhanggongdu and 70 Army neighboring. At that time, the 49th Army frontal defense by the 105th Division; and the 105th Division to 313, 315 brigades in parallel defense; two brigades and each with a regiment to guard the front. In more than five months, the Chinese army built dozens of kilometers of fortifications along the slopes of the Xiuhe River, from Tujiabu to Zhelin on the south bank of the river. Especially Tu Jiabu section, tightly defended, so that the Japanese attack was thwarted, consumed a lot of ammunition, heavy casualties. Plus Nanxun Road from Nanchang to Tu Jia Bu roadbed was destroyed by our troops, pits and wells in succession, vehicle transportation useless. Therefore, the Japanese army no longer to Tu Jiabu section as a breakthrough, and the focus of the river crossing in the Qiu Jin below the Chinese army weakly defended Guanyinge, and repeatedly dispatched artillery, infantry and air force, heavy artillery, tanks and smoke jets to our frontal attack.
In February 1939, the enemy actively deployed to attack Nanchang in order to consolidate Wuhan and cut off the Zhegan Railway. The enemy 101st Division Group concentrated one after another along the De'an and Xingzi highways and the Nanxun Railway to the vicinity of Qiujin, west of De'an and Yongxiu. The main force of the 106th Division of the enemy army also moved from Yangxin in Hubei Province to Yongxiu Qiujin at the same time. on the 24th, the enemy divisional headquarters had already advanced to the village of Yue Shan, west of Aicheng.
In the afternoon of March 17, the 106th enemy division with more than a hundred ships, hundreds of marines, dozens of planes as a cover, to the town of Wucheng attack, by the defenders of the reserve 5 divisions and Tang Yongliang 141 divisions of the fight to stop the attack. Enemy 101 division, on the same day to Tu Jia Bu Fu Liping 142 division attack, fighting 8, 9, firing more than 1,000 rounds of tear gas canisters to the Chinese army, the defenders suffered heavy casualties, frustrated and retreated.
20th afternoon 3 o'clock, the Japanese chief Okamura Ningji ascended the military mountain, personally commanded the battle. 4:30, the Japanese 106th division and 101st division to heavy and light artillery two hundred dozens of doors at the same time, shelling for three hours, at about 8:00 pm forced to cross the Xiuhe River, and the Chinese army Xiachuzhong Department of fierce fighting. To dawn the next day, the Japanese broke through the front position of 2 kilometers deep.
21st, the enemy raised balloons on the north bank, instructing more than 200 light and heavy artillery to my bunshan, tai zi ling around the position to focus on bombardment. In the artillery bombardment, the Japanese army used 15,000 gas cylinders, 3,000 gas bombs, 5,000 small smoke canisters, and the use of "Red One" diphenylarsinonitrile, which was the largest chemical weapons war. At the same time, enemy planes kept on bombing in the air, and the fortifications along the river were destroyed. On the same day, under the cover of 40 planes, the Japanese army attacked the defense line around Guanyinge on the left side of Xiuhe River. Defenders Liu, Jiang, Sang 3 battalion commander was killed in action. Japanese troops across the river attacked to the third line of defense, 76th Division Commander Wang Lingyun personally supervise the battle, will be the Japanese troops retreated to more than 20 miles from the riverbank. As the Japanese chariots have crossed the river, columns of the impact, the three lines of defense was broken through, breakthroughs up to more than two kilometers long, invading dozens of chariots, cavalry, seven or eight hundred people, our troops were unable to resist, retreating backward. The 98th division of the joint defense, the 118th division successively to the southeast retreat; 79th army left wing of the joint defense of the 49th, 70th army also at the same time without a fight to retreat. 9 theater front headquarters also failed to supervise the retreating troops in time to carry out the blockade of the enemy, so the whole line of the Xiujihe defense line collapsed. 22nd day of the Japanese army occupation of Yongxiu Beach Creek.
23rd, the enemy sea, land, air force in three sides of the attack on the town of Wu, the Chinese army 19th group army Shang Zhen 32nd army and the Japanese army for several hours of fierce fighting, finally because the enemy has been by the town of Wang Hu Ting to the left of the breakthrough position, the town of Wu fell. On the same day, the enemy 106th division, in addition to most of the infantry to stay at the beach creek, the rest of the chariot as a guide, divided into several columns to our troops in hot pursuit. All the way to attack Anyi County and Wanjiabu, pushed Nanchang; all the way along the ancient avenue to Anyi, Jing'an, and tanks to cover the light troops, along the highway to Nanchang detour. Because Zhang Gongdu to Nanchang line are plains, easy to attack and difficult to defend, coupled with the highway was not destroyed in advance, resulting in Japanese chariots drove straight in. 7 p.m. on the 27th, occupied Anyi County. At 11:30 p.m., the Japanese army rushed into Fengxin, and did not meet resistance and directly to Nanchang. The whole battle a little breakthrough, all routed, the Chinese army to give up all the river defense, so the defense of the Xiuhe to Nanchang lost and ended.