 During the breakout from the Japanese attack, he lost touch with his Army headquarters and was forced to hide in a cave.General Sun Dianying, commander of 5th corps of Chinese puppet forces and a Japanese lieutenant captured him and forced him to surrender to Japan.General Pang was taken to the Japanese corps headquarters and on May 23, 1943, President Wang Jingwei of the Nanjing regime appointed him as commander-in-chief of the 24th Army Group.