Since then, for two days, Yuwang Mountain has never suffered a large-scale attack by the Japanese army, and the Japanese artillery fire is not concentrated bombardment of Yuwang Mountain, it has become a harassing and confusing bombardment, and occasionally there are sporadic battles, but it is only a sporadic exchange of fire between a small number of 100 people. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

After discussion, Zhang Chong and Xue Zizheng came to these three conclusions: (1) The Japanese army may carry out a great detour from Luxi like our army, encircle and cut off the supply line of our army's rear; (2) The Japanese army used artillery fire to confuse our army and prepare to carry out a sneak attack at night; (3) The main forces of the enemy have been diverted, and they are being pinned down by artillery fire to attract the attention of our troops.

For this reason, after the two discussed, they decided to send Lu Hai and them out to carefully investigate information to prevent a sneak attack by the Japanese army. So Lu Hai and the others were transferred out again and formed four temporary teams to go out to inquire about the news and harass the Japanese army.

The course of events was the same as Zhang Chong expected, the Japanese artillery fire was just to confuse them, the two divisions of the Banyuan Division and the Isogu Division had quietly withdrawn, and the Japanese army's attempt to capture Taierzhuang and go straight to Xuzhou was declared bankrupt under the arduous resistance of Yuwang Mountain for more than 20 days, and the Banyuan Division also suffered the most heavy losses, but at this time the Japanese army was already missing, or as Zhang Chong expected, the Japanese army had begun to implement a big detour, preparing to encircle them and cut off their supply lines.

When Zhang Chong reported this information to Li Zongren, Li Zongren was already full of gloom, and even the chairman of the committee was also anxious at this time, the Japanese army had already abandoned the original plan and surrounded Xuzhou from the north and south sections of the Tianjin-Pudong Railway, like Xuzhou to carry out a great detour, trying to annihilate hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops in Xuzhou in one fell swoop.

On May 17 and 18, 1938, Liuquan Station in the northern section of Jingpu Road, Suzhou in the southern section, and Huapu Station in the eastern section of the Longhai Line were captured by the Japanese army, and the situation had become very critical.

This day is May 18th, Yuwang Mountain! The Japanese army has not launched a large-scale attack, and the defenders on the mountain have finally breathed a sigh of relief, many soldiers are thinking in their hearts that the Japanese army has suffered heavy casualties and cannot launch a large-scale attack, as long as they hold on, this battle will definitely be won, maybe they will start to regain lost territory in the future, if they don't die, they can return to their homeland or something.

But after coming down in front of a paper order, the entire Yuwang Mountain shook.

"Why retreat?"

"We have been holding on for so long, and we are about to win, why are we retreating now"?

"If you want to withdraw, you will withdraw, and Lao Tzu will not leave if he dies"!

"Lao Tzu is not leaving, there are still so many of our brothers lying here! It is impossible to withdraw if you say withdraw"!

The whole Yuwang Mountain suddenly exploded, a dark face full of anger and sadness, is some veterans of a hundred battles, at this time are red eyes left tears, this battle killed too many brothers, this battle they changed the style of many years ago, for the survival of the nation to fight, they in the Japanese artillery fire, never flinched half a minute, they braved the Japanese bombing and dense bullet rain singing the March of the Volunteers fearless charge, but seeing that victory is just around the corner, they want to retreat, to retreat the whole army!

Are all these brothers dying here in vain?

Many soldiers couldn't control it anymore, they climbed up the trenches and shouted, some soldiers looked at Yuwang Mountain with moist eyes, looked at this scorched earth-like trench, looked at the wheat field where thousands of brothers were buried, and looked at this battlefield where they had fought for more than 20 days, unconsciously, they couldn't help but raise their hands and salute and bow from afar.

When this news reached Lu Hai's ears, Lu Hai, who had always been calm, also stood up and said: "The Japanese army is no longer here, we know that we were right when we withdrew, but what happened to the retreat of the whole army?" Have all the 700,000 troops withdrawn? We fought for so many days, died so many brothers, and then withdrew"?

Wang Kaiyu on the side also looked sad, but Wang Kaiyu was the head of the regiment after all, and he also knew some insiders of the big retreat and said: "The Japanese army changed its tactics and outflanked our 700,000 troops near Xuzhou in two ways, trying to annihilate us in one sentence, and now the situation is not in our favor, we must withdraw"!

"How is it possible that their 250,000 Japanese soldiers want to eat our 700,000 in one bite? This is obviously the high-level greed for life and fear of death, just like back then, when 20,000 Japanese troops chased 400,000 Northeast Army, as long as we unite as one, even if we can't annihilate them completely, we can still fight them with heavy losses, so that we can afford to withdraw the dead brothers"? Lu Hai yelled.

Wang Kaiyu sighed and said: "I'm sorry, but we are soldiers, and soldiers take obedience as their duty, and we can only obey from above, whether you want to or not, you must obey!"

Lu Hai's eyes gradually became wet, and after being silent for a while, he said almost choked: "Obedience? What are we fighting this battle for? Died so much for what? Just to retreat now? If you want to withdraw, I won't withdraw!"

At this moment, Zhang Chong walked in and said, "Either retreat, or I will shoot you in the name of disobeying the order"!

Lu Hai admired Zhang Chong, and when he saw that Zhang Chong didn't speak for a while, but tears quietly crossed his cheeks, he was sad, yes; The soldiers of the whole army were sad, they had paid too much price here, too many brothers had died, and they had achieved proud results, but the victory was in sight, but the situation was critical, and the whole army had to retreat, and no one could stand it.

"The Japanese army has excellent equipment, they have a large number of tanks, planes, artillery and well-trained soldiers, we can stop it, can the brother troops stop it? Do you let the Sichuan army block them with spears and broadswords? Now the situation is already very critical, once the Japanese army encircles and forms, how many people will we die by then, if we are suffering heavy casualties like the Battle of Songhu, and the Japanese army attacks again, will we still be able to resist"? Zhang Chong roared.

At this moment, Xue Zizheng also spoke: "Our retreat is also to preserve our strength, the Commander's Department is not wrong, it is the strength of our country, and in the case that the battle situation is no longer conducive to us, the fight is just to make more soldiers unable to return home, meaningless death, after the fist is withdrawn, it is powerful to fight out, you think about it, at 7 o'clock this evening, the whole army will withdraw from Yuwang Mountain"!

......

At the theater headquarters, everyone was packing up their things and preparing to retreat, Li Zongren rubbed his somewhat swollen head and glanced at the already empty headquarters and said, "Withdraw"!

At this moment, Bai Chongxi said: "We are all retreating now, and we need a force to protect the rear, otherwise the Japanese army will catch up and stay with us, what should we do?"

Li Zongren nodded and said: "It's really negligent that there have been too many things in the past few days, you can tell me that force to cover us?"

"Let the Sixty Army cover, they have strong combat effectiveness, it will take a long time for the Japanese army to have a chance for them, and it will be conducive to our retreat, and even if they block the Japanese army, they will inevitably fall into a heavy encirclement, and the enemy of the year...

A sneer appeared on Bai Chongxi's face, and Li Zongren on the side barely hesitated to speak: "Okay! Let the 60th Army defend Xuzhou and cover the retreat of our large army"!

Soon after, Lu Han received an order from Li Zongren to let the 60th Army assemble in Wangzhuang, 40 miles of Xuzhou, to cover the retreat of the large army, and to carry out guerrilla warfare when Xuzhou was not defended!

Lu Han looked at the telegram in his hand, and immediately became furious, slapped his palm on the table and said angrily: "Li Zongren, Li Zongren, you want to borrow the hand of the Japanese to avenge the revenge of the year"!

At this moment, Zhao Jinwen happened to come in with a book, and saw Lu Han angrily and said, "Commander, what's wrong"?

Lu Han handed out the telegram and said angrily: "Everyone is withdrawing, Li Zongren just left us to cover, and it is still near Xuzhou, doesn't he know that the Japanese army is encircling Xuzhou?" This is to borrow the hands of the Japanese in addition to our 60th Army"!

Zhao Jinwen looked at the telegram and frowned: "If we don't carry out the order, Li Zongren will get us in the name of disobeying the order, and then we will also be unable to escape death, and now we can only assemble in Xuzhou, and after the retreat of the Governor's Department, we are questioning them, if we can send a telegram to the chairman of the committee, it is expected that he will have to agree to us to break through"!

"That's all it can be now," Luhan sighed.

Zhao Jinwen handed the book in her hand to Lu Han and said: "The casualty reports of the troops have basically come out, and we can only downsize the current state"!

I saw that the book wrote the attrition of the 60th Army since the beginning of the war, which was roughly as follows: "The 60th Army was about 40,000 people, the actual number of participants was 35,123, and the number of casualties was 18,844, of which 13,869 were killed and more than 5,000 were wounded. The brigade commander suffered more than 10 casualties, and the company battalion platoon commander suffered more than half of the casualties"!

Lu Han sighed and said, "I can't help the brothers!"

"Victory and defeat are a common thing in soldiers, what we have to do now is to preserve our strength and count this enmity for them in the future! Blood debts will be paid in blood," Zhao Jinwen said.

"What about the casualties on the Japanese side"? Luhan asked.

Zhao Jinwen said: "The Japanese army is not comfortable either, and according to rough statistics, the Japanese casualties are 12,000 and more than 8,000 people were killed directly"!

Only then did Lu Han speak: "What about Zhang Chongren"?

"He is still directing the troops to cross the river, and it is expected that he will be able to cross the canal on time at eight o'clock tonight"!

"Tell him to come over for a meeting after crossing the canal, we have to think carefully about how to break out, and prepare enough dry food and ammunition for the soldiers, and after the Xuzhou Governor's Headquarters retreats, we will question Li Zongren, ready to break through at any time!" Luján said.