Written by Xiaxi
On April 15, 1942, the British First Division sent a rescue telegram to the British Army Headquarters in Burma, claiming that it had more than 7,000 people in Ren. The Anqiang Oilfield was surrounded by the Japanese army, and there was no more fighting strength. It was about to run out of water and food. He asked to send troops to rescue him quickly, or he would surrender immediately.
General Shlim, the commander of the British First Army, was very anxious and quickly reported the telegram to General Harold Alexander at the headquarters. But Alexander had nothing to do, and he was still preparing to withdraw all British troops to India at this time.
On the 16th, the British Army headquarters held a military meeting in Meimiao, inviting Sun Liren, commander of the New 38th Division of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, to participate. At the meeting, Alexander took out a distress message from the British First Division.
After reading, Sun Liren said firmly: "You cannot surrender. Surrender is the shame of the Allies."
Alexander asked: "Then what shall we do?"
Sun Liren said affirmatively: "We must save them!"
Alexander looked around, and then asked: "Who is going to save them?"
Sun Liren thought for a while, and said categorically: "I will save, but I have two conditions. First, you guys will save them within two hours." Prepare 80 cars for me; second, I hope you will tell them that they are not allowed to surrender within 48 hours."
Actually, the British First Division’s siege was entirely on their own account.
As early as April 8, Chiang Kai-shek had flown to Mandalay, an important town in central Burma, calling on Chinese soldiers to fight the enemy to the death, and formulating a joint combat plan with the British army.
In the Mandalay area, China and Britain have assembled a total of 250,000 troops, which can organize a big battle. But the British did not want to work hard in the tropical jungle. They only wanted the Chinese army to block the Japanese army so that they could withdraw to India safely.
On the 14th, the British First Division evacuated its position alone without warning or warning, and withdrew towards the Ren'an Qiang Oilfield, completely disregarding the Chinese friendly forces.
Unexpectedly, people are not as good as heaven. Just as the First Division retreated, the 33rd Japanese Division took the opportunity to push up and broke through the British defense line with a force of more than 3,000 men, went around behind them, and occupied the Binhe Bridge. At this time, the British army was still in the dark, thinking that it was a strategy.
It wasn't until Scott, the commander of the British First Division, saw the Japanese sun flag floating on the bridge that he understood that he had been surrounded by more than 7,000 men from the 33rd Division of the Japanese Army.
Although Scott was extremely frightened, he didn't want to desperately break through the siege. Instead, he contracted for help and pinned his hopes on the British headquarters in Mandalay. He immediately sent them a distress telegram.
On the 17th, Sun Liren ordered the 113th regiment of the 38th Division to immediately go to Ren'anqiang to rescue the trapped British army. Under the leadership of regiment leader Liu Fangwu, the 113 regiment arrived at the north bank of Binhe at dusk.
On the other side of them is the Ren'an Qiang Oilfield, with smoke billowing in the sky. The 33rd Division of the Japanese Army is launching a fierce attack on the First Division of the British Army to force them to surrender.
And on the north bank of Binhe, everything is quiet. Although the sun is falling, the 43-degree high temperature still makes people breathless.
Liu Fangwu looked at the exhausted soldiers, told them to rest on the spot and prepare to accept the offensive instructions from Commander Sun Liren.
In the early morning of the 18th, under the order of Sun Liren, Liu Fangwu led the 113th regiment and began a fierce attack on the Japanese north shore position.
The battle was very intense. The Japanese army relied on its air superiority and heavy weapons, using aircraft and heavy artillery to continuously bombard the position of the 113 regiment. However, the 113th Regiment relied on its own flesh and blood, and continuously madly launched a frontal charge against the Japanese army on the north bank of the Binhe.
The combat effectiveness of the 33rd Division of the Japanese Army is very powerful. In the Japanese military sequence, although it is only a second-class division, it is not a second-rate commodity.On the contrary, when it entered Burma to fight, it was completely configured according to the first-class division, once equipped with 8 wings.
When dawn broke on the 19th, the left-wing troops of the 113 regiment completely captured the forward positions of the Japanese. The Japanese army could not figure out the truth and falsity of the Chinese army. After being hit hard, the rest of the army crossed the river and retreated to the south bank position.
At this time, General Shlim, the commander of the British First Army, came to meet with Sun Liren and begged him to immediately order the 113th regiment to cross the river. However, Sun Liren believed that the Chinese army had insufficient strength, and a rash attack would expose its strength prematurely, so he asked Liu Fangwu to do more preparations and continued to attack the Japanese army with a small number of troops, making them think they were attacked by a large Chinese army.
However, General Schlim was very anxious and said to Sun Liren: "The first division has persisted for two days, and it may surrender in the next minute!"
Sun Liren's attitude is very firm, saying: "First division" Since it has been supported for two days, let it support it for another day! However, since I promised to rescue the First Division, even if the 113 regiment is only left with me, I will rescue it!"
Sure enough, under the command of Sun Liren and Liu Fangwu, the Japanese army never discovered that the Chinese army on the other side was actually only a few hundred people, and they had not rushed to divide their forces. They tried their best to cross the river to fight the Chinese army to the death.
At the beginning of the day, Sun Liren ordered the 113th regiment to cross the river with all its strength and launch a fierce attack on the Japanese army. With mountain cannons, light and heavy mortars and light and heavy machine guns as cover, they repeatedly fought and killed, and soon broke through the Japanese defense.
During the charge, Zhang Qi, commander of the 3rd Battalion of the Strong5strong 113th Regiment, was shot and killed. The brothers watched their chief fall down, griefed with tears, and rushed forward like crazy, and fought a hand-to-hand battle with the Japanese army.
Sun Liren stood on the other side, watching his subordinates fall one by one, tears in his eyes, with deep emotion. He was originally a civil engineering student at Tsinghua University,If it weren't for the war, the 42-year-old would probably be a civil engineering bridge expert like Mao Yisheng.
But now, he is standing by a river with a bridge that cannot be crossed, commanding the Chinese army to fight to the death with the Japanese invading army.
The fighting in the south bank position was extremely fierce. The Japanese army counterattacked with all their strength. The Chinese army changed hands three times and was retaken three times. The oil fields were full of corpses.
At 17 o'clock in the afternoon, the sound of guns gradually became thinner. Fearing that the 33rd Division would be encircled and eaten by the Chinese and British troops, it began to accelerate its retreat across the board.
After Liu Fangwu led the 113th regiment into the besieged British army, he first covered the withdrawal of more than 500 American missionaries and journalists. Then, it covered more than 7,000 cavalry, infantry, artillery and more than 1,000 horses of the British First Division, crossing the river from the left flank, and evacuated to the north bank of the Pianqiang River.
Suddenly, the slogan "Long live China" came out from the British army, and then the voice of "Long live China" resounded throughout the river beach.
Liu Fangwu heard the call and stood there, tears streaming down uncontrollably. The 34-year-old commander of the major came from Guiyang, Hunan. He was accustomed to the cruelty of war. Since the "December 28" Shanghai War, he has been fighting with the Japanese army. In this battle, he led more than 800 people to kill more than 1,200 Japanese soldiers, but his brothers also killed more than 500 people.
After the battle was over, Sun Liren gave an order to send people to immediately interrogate the prisoners of the 33rd Division of the Japanese Army. Strong5strong, who participated in the combat into China, will be executed on the spot once it is verified.
In the early morning of the 20th, Sun Liren wanted to transfer the 112th and 114th regiments of the new 38th Division to Ren'an Qiang and launched another large-scale attack on the Japanese.
However, at this time, the 33rd Division of the Japanese Army also urgently dispatched the 213th Wing and the direct units of the division to Ren'an Qiang, and also sent 215 Wings to participate in the battle, and the force once increased to more than 13,000. It was just that the two sides were exhausted due to days of fighting, and at the time of the hot weather and lack of water, they were unable to organize a large-scale offensive, forming a state of confrontation between the two armies.
Sun Liren saw that the fighter had been lost,Had to cancel the combat plan and ordered the main force to be withdrawn to Chok Bodang. In order to prevent the Japanese army from waiting for an opportunity to counterattack, he decisively ordered the 112th Regiment of reinforcements to lie in ambush in the Ren'an Qiang Oilfield and Pianqiang River, monitor the Japanese army, and cover the 113th Regiment to withdraw to Choke Bodang first. Afterwards, all divisions evacuated safely, and the Ren'an Qiang battle ended victoriously.
The victory of Ren'an and Qiang is a miracle. The new 38th Division, with less victory and more, anti-offensive, achieved . The Chinese army has defeated the Japanese army for the first time since the middle of the Qing Dynasty. It has also promoted the Chinese soldiers' virtues of saving lives and not betraying the faith of the alliance.
In April 1992, in Chicago, USA, an 84-year-old Chinese man was discovered by the media. He was Liu Fangwu, head of the 113th regiment of the 38th Division 50 years ago.
On April 11th, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Great Victory of Ren'an and Qiang, the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who visited the United States, cordially met with the elderly Liu Fangwu at the Carlton Hotel in Chicago, personally thanking him and his team In a bloody battle 50 years ago, more than 7,000 British soldiers were rescued in one fell swoop.
In 2009, a TV series was broadcasted successively by David TV across the country. It was adapted from the novel of the same name and based on the Chinese Expeditionary Force’s entry into Burma. It sang a song composed by the Chinese expeditionary army with flesh and blood. A tragic battle song. This TV series is called "My Team Leader, My Team".
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