Add Bookmark | Recommend this book | Back to the book page | My bookshelf | Mobile Reading

Free Web Novel,Novel online - All in hlnovel.com -> Historic -> my northeast army

Chapter 18 Seoul Strategy

Previous page        Return to Catalog        Next page

    You can search "My Northeastern Army" on Baidu to find the latest chapters!

    With the capture of Pyongyang, North Korea's second largest city, all areas north of the 39th parallel of the Korean Peninsula have fallen into the sphere of influence of the Northeast Army. The Northeast Army's "V" combat plan has basically achieved complete victory, annihilating the Japanese 13th and  The 19th and 20th Divisions and the independent mixed 2nd and 4th Brigades severely damaged the Japanese 15th Division and other units, killing more than 81,400 Japanese troops, and killing the main Japanese commanders Matsui Iwane, Shinozuka Yoshio, Hata Shunroku, and Fujita Susumu.  Waiting for five lieutenant generals, they annihilated and incorporated more than 20,000 people in three and a half divisions of the Korean army. Their brilliant results shocked the world.  Internationally, the German Nazi government was the first to send a clear message to the world to express its congratulations. Countries such as Britain, France, the United States, and the Soviet Union had different attitudes. They basically said they "called on China and Japan to exercise restraint and maintain peace in East Asia" and "deeply worried about triggering the Second World War."  Zhang Xueliang was depressed after reading the old clich¨¦s such as "War" and other official articles: Why do these Western politicians like to fry and chew the overnight rice so much?  What surprised him most was that the British "Times" actually published the article "Northeast Army, a Threat to the World's Far East Peace". Zhang Xueliang was not expecting the emergence of the "China threat theory" so early, and he sneered at it:  A hundred years ago, the British Empire dominated a quarter of the world's land and one-third of the oceans. However, today's "Empire on which the Sun Never Sets" is already crumbling. Seeing the world's new powers (including the Soviet Union, the United States,  Japan and the rising new Germany and Northeastern China) began to show their prowess and threaten their world leadership status, and they shouted "Catch the thief". The behavior of "just set the fire yourself and don't allow others to light the lamp" actually exposed the timid and weak side of these British nations.  .  Domestically, the Chinese Communist Party also quickly expressed congratulations; Chiang Kai-shek, the highest authority, and the Nationalist Government, who were in an embarrassing situation, continued to maintain a "silent no comment" attitude; Feng Yuxiang, leader of the Northwest Army of the Kuomintang, and other passionate generals sent congratulations in private.  According to the telegram, public opinion inside and outside the country was also celebrating and encouraging.  However, while congratulating each other, they also implicitly hinted that Zhang Xueliang would not be too "bold" to provoke an all-out war between China and Japan.

    When the supreme commander wore a mask of hypocrisy and issued an official declaration of "never expanding the war," on May 3, the Northeastern Army's 7th and 4th Army, which took a short break, cleared the remaining sporadic Japanese and Korean troops in the occupied areas.  On the other hand, several elite armored and motorized units such as the 107th Division and the 120th Division were the vanguard and continued to advance southward. On the same day, the Northeastern Army's 1st Army (Commander Wang Shuchang), whose main force was the ace troops 101st Armored Division and 110th Division, was also ordered to  Entering Korea to fight.

    South Korea, which is still under the control of the Japanese army, is already in chaos, and most of the main force of the Japanese dispatched troops to Korea has been lost.  The Japanese government and opposition parties were shocked by the tragic defeat in North Korea. The Japanese military accelerated the transport of troops to North Korea through the Korean Strait. Emperor Hirohito and the Japanese Military Ministry ordered Juichi Terauchi to "recover the lost territory of North Korea as soon as possible."  Juichi Terauchi understood that at this time, he had to find a scapegoat to take responsibility for the war in North Korea, and at the same time, he also wanted to allow the Japanese government to save face in the world and boost low morale before regaining North Korea.  Under his secret control, the major media and newspapers in Japan and South Korea were full of descriptions of the Japanese military operations such as "prefer to die rather than surrender", "brave and tenacious", "seeing death as home", etc.; while the descriptions of the Korean troops assisting the Japanese military operations were all  Examples of belittling its low combat effectiveness: words such as "collapsed at a touch", "panicked", and "rabble" were used repeatedly.  The Japanese and Korean media under the control of the Japanese are trying their best to convey a hint to the Japanese people: the loss of North Korea is not the fault of the imperial army, but is entirely caused by the poor combat effectiveness of the South Korean army responsible for assisting and defending important places. The report even said this  The sentence appeared - "In fighting with the same enemy as the Imperial Army, the Korean Army repeatedly abandoned the flanks of the Imperial Army, which was fighting hard against the elite troops of the Northeastern Army, and exposed them to the Northeastern Army, causing the Imperial Army to fail in several important battles." "Han  The number of soldiers who surrendered was several times the number who fled. The important reasons why the Northeastern Army slowed down its offensive were firstly the tenacious resistance of the imperial army, and secondly because too many Korean prisoners had to be resettled."  The majority of Korean military generals and upper echelons believed that the only way for the Japanese to escape responsibility was to slander the Korean military's incompetence, and expressed anger about this.  The Japanese and Korean troops on the same front began to be at odds with each other.

    At this time, South Korea was in urgent need of a positive image to promote and boost the morale of the Japanese and Korean people, and the 3,000 officers and soldiers of the Japanese independent mixed brigade guarding Ryongwon-ri at the last moment immediately became a popular example.  "The besieged iron-barrel 2nd Brigade still fought tenaciously in the face of the siege of the Northeast Army, which had heavy artillery aircraft and more than 30 times its own strength." "Their heroic performance allowed more than 100,000 imperial and Korean troops to evacuate safely.  "We were surrounded by the Northeast Army" and "killed and wounded more than 10,000 enemy troops, causing the Northeast Army to pay a heavy price and fought until all of them died for the country."

    When Emperor Hirohito issued an edict declaring "three days of national mourning for the 3,000 Imperial Army soldiers in Ry¨±genri," the Japanese royal family, Prince Hatohiko of Asaka Palace (history was the one who directly ordered the massacre of Nanjing, but this war butcher escaped punishment in the end)  lived peacefully until the age of 93) personally "brought the Emperor to the front"Citizens allowed Japanese nationals to get on the bus first. Seoul citizens who had no way to get on the bus used bicycles or even walked to escape south. More than 100,000 residents were unable to escape overnight.  At this time, Seoul and the entire southern Korea fell into unprecedented chaos.

    Koiso Kuniaki, who was lucky enough not to be killed in the bombing, replaced Juichi Terauchi.  Facing the turmoil of broken troops and refugees, he understood: Seoul cannot be defended!  After making up his mind to abandon Seoul, he issued a series of retreat orders: he ordered the frontline troops to shrink and retreat, take away all supplies, and burn everything that could not be taken away; he also ordered the Han River Bridge to be blown up eight hours later.

    The Han River Bridge is the only channel from Seoul to the south. When a large number of refugees and troops evacuated south, the bridge was simply a lifeline.  When he learned that the bridge was going to be blown up, Park Heon-yong, the chief of staff of the South Korean Army, could not believe his ears. He argued desperately: "General Xiaoji, the Han River Bridge cannot be blown up! More than half of the remaining main force of our army is still there.  There are also a large number of refugees fighting against the Northeastern Army in Beicheng. If the bridge is bombed, then they will all fall into the hands of the Northeastern Army!" Eight hours were left for the main force of the Japanese army in northern Seoul to evacuate.  Park Hyun-yong also knew that the Japanese would not care about the Korean army and the North Korean people. Although Koiso's indifferent attitude made Park Hyeon-yong almost beg for mercy to slow down the time limit for bombing the bridge. After begging in every possible way, Koiso Kuniaki reluctantly agreed to postpone it for another four  Hour.  Because he had lost contact with the Japanese squadron guarding the bridge in the chaos, thinking that the extra four hours could save the lives of many Koreans, Park Hyun-yong immediately rushed to the bridge in person in an attempt to convey Koiso's new order.  However, his military vehicle was so crowded in the tidal flow of refugees that it was difficult to move forward. Some people even tried to rob his vehicle. The accompanying guards had to shoot them away. In a hurry, Pu Xianyong simply got out of the car and ran towards the bridge.

    At this time, in the headquarters of the Japan-Korean Expeditionary Force in Seoul, Koiso Kuniaki received reports one by one that the Japanese garrison troops in the north of Seoul were gradually withdrawing. In the end, the 4th Regiment of the 2nd Division and some sporadic troops were still left fighting against the Northeast.  The troops infiltrated by the army are fighting and bonding.  When ordering Captain Sakurada Masato to leave the battle and evacuate immediately, Sakurada said decisively: "Your Excellency, Commander! Our troops are determined to stop the Northeast Army's advance with death. Please leave us alone! Let us be loyal to the Emperor and the Empire!"

    Koiso Kuniaki's hands were shaking and he said dryly: "Sakurada-kun, you are the heroes of the Yamato nation!" After that, he hung up the phone and looked at his watch. It was already around 9 pm on May 18th.

    At this time, Pu Xianyong was squeezed into a place less than 200 meters away from the bridge and could not move.  He suddenly saw a huge orange fireball soaring into the sky from the middle of the Han River Bridge. The night sky was brightly illuminated for an instant, followed by an earth-shattering explosion. Suddenly his heart felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.  In the terrifying light of the fire, the vehicles, refugees, and Korean soldiers on the bridge flew into the fiery red night sky together with the bridge fragments.  The huge air waves lifted the crowds on the side of the bridge and scattered them into the air. When Park Xianyong staggered over, he saw that the broken bridge was full of mutilated corpses.

    The premature blowing up of the Han River Bridge brought disastrous consequences to the Korean army who fled south, and even more psychologically shocked the Korean army.  After the bridge was bombed, the defeated Korean troops continued to cross the river on rafts. Some even had difficulty escaping by swimming. A large number of soldiers and weapons and equipment were swallowed by the river.  The desperate Korean soldiers threatened the boatmen on the river with guns. In order to squeeze in, they even drove the refugees off the boat. The fleeing Korean soldiers and refugees even shot and killed the refugees when they snatched the boat.  At the beginning of the war, there were about 100,000 Korean National Defense Forces, but only more than 10,000 people crossed the river.  At this point, the servant army that the Japanese had painstakingly established in Korea collapsed at an alarming speed.  Large numbers of abandoned Korean troops were captured by the Northeast Army or surrendered on their own initiative.

    Three hours after the Han River Bridge was blasted, the 620th Regiment of the 107th Division of the 4th Northeastern Army broke into Seoul and arrived at the bank of the Han River five hours later.  The blowing up of the Han River Bridge only delayed the escape of the Japanese and Korean troops for less than ten hours. The Northeastern Army's advance troops quickly set up a pontoon bridge at around 5 a.m., and under the cover of the air force, they forcibly crossed the river and continued their march south.  (Remember the website address: www.hlnovel.com
Didn't finish reading? Add this book to your favoritesI'm a member and bookmarked this chapterCopy the address of this book and recommend it to your friends for pointsChapter error? Click here to report