After Liu Zhiyuan said a few opening remarks, Han Xing spoke, and Han Xing said:

"This time, I was mainly responsible for the failure. At the pre-war meeting, Director Wang Qiankun and Director Zhang Zuogan had already made it clear that it was best not to participate in the pumpkin shop battle this time, but I didn't listen. After the practical test of the battle, this time the battle was still lost, and our Southern Expeditionary Army suffered such great losses. I asked the command to report the details of the battle and asked for a disciplinary action. ”

Zhang Xiaosan is the commander of the guard battalion of Hanhang and a loyal fan of Hanhang. As soon as he heard these words, he was a little anxious, and hurriedly said: "In fact, I don't blame Commander Han for this matter, I am firmly advocating fighting this battle." I'm all responsible, punish me if you want to punish me! ”

This Zhang Xiaosan, he wants to take the responsibility on himself as much as possible, so as to reduce the punishment of Han Xing as much as possible. It's a bit overdone, though.

Liu Zhiyuan mocked him and said: "Battalion Commander Zhang, I clearly remember that when you first held a meeting last time, you did not advocate fighting this battle. Why did he change his tune again at this time, and he became a resolute advocate of fighting this battle again. If you don't tell the truth, that's not big, right? ”

Zhang Xiaosan saw that his lie had been exposed, and touched his head embarrassedly. He simply came drunk and didn't admit half a pot of wine, and came to know that he was wrong, and he said the wrong thing, he stubbornly said: "I was a strong supporter of fighting this battle last time, isn't it!?" ”

Another shameless one came up. Hou Dashan thinks that he is the eighth elder of Han Xing, and when Han Xing is about to be punished, Hou Dashan is also trying his best to play the role of the eighth child. He said: "I instigated Han Xing to fight this battle, and the responsibility lies with me, so punish me if you want to punish it." Fortunately, I'm not a party member, so my level is almost a little bit, and I almost have to make mistakes. Just look at it! ”

Hou Dashan's meaning is to save Han Xing as much as possible. Knowing the grace of the report, this is his style, as soon as the words come out of his stinky mouth, it is a little bit of a broken jar.

Liu Zhiyuan snorted calmly and said, "Another one came up." Commander Hou, I listen to the meaning of your words, it seems that under your instigation, Commander Han won this battle. Then I don't understand, as soon as you instigate like this, Commander Han will listen to you and fight this battle. Your wisdom is obviously above Commander Han, not below Commander Han? When this regiment commander loses points, you should be the commander. ”

Everyone couldn't hold it back, and a few people wanted to laugh.

When Hou Dashan heard this, the savior could not succeed, anyway, Liu Zhiyuan caught the shortcomings, so he just tried to be ruthless. He said: "Actually, you don't know, I secretly gave Commander Han eye medicine and told him to fight this battle. Who knows how to defeat it, go to the source, it's not all my bad idea, if you want to punish me, punish me! ”

Liu Zhiyuan said of him: "Don't paint more and more black, take the responsibility on yourself." You call this irresponsible to the facts! ”

Under Liu Zhiyuan's criticism, Hou Dashan stopped talking.

Wang Qiankun, director of the logistics department, said: "At the last meeting, I was against not being able to fight this battle, of course, I don't understand, I know that it is a defeat, why do I have to fight!" But since this is already the case, I am also a member of the Southern Expeditionary Army, and when I am punished, I will be counted as one! It is everyone's fault for not being able to have merit, and it is Commander Han alone who has made mistakes. That's not fair. ”

Zhang Xiaosan said casually: "It's not a loss for the old Red Army, it depends on the level of others." ”

Zhang Zuogan also said: "I also opposed this battle in the past, but now that I have pondered it, I have failed militarily, but I have not failed politically. How to say it, first, covering part of the 33rd Army to withdraw from the pumpkin shop battle, it can be regarded as helping our allies. Second, it has resolutely proved that our Southern Expeditionary Army fought shoulder to shoulder with the 33rd Group Army at the most difficult time and made great sacrifices together. I also have a word for the organization, if you want to talk about punishment, I also have my share, and I can't call Commander Han alone. ”

Zhang Zuogan's words won the applause of Hou Dashan, Zhang Xiaosan, You Xiangqian, Fan Shuyu and others.

In the end, it was Liu Zhiyuan's turn to be static. Liu Zhiyuan said: "The report must be written, and the process of this failure and the losses suffered must be explained to the organization in its original place, and the organization must be punished." However, when it comes to the specific punishment of the person, I think that it should mainly be borne by me and Commander Han Xing, and others should not mix it indiscriminately. I am the chief of staff, and I insisted on supporting Han Xing in this battle, as evidenced by the meeting records. ”

"That's not good," Hou Dashan said, "there must be me, and there can't be good things that are your own, and bad things that are someone else's." ”

"I don't agree either," Zhang Xiaosan said, "who is Commander Han for!" Isn't it just to take care of the overall situation, I am the commander of his guard battalion, and of course the punishment will be counted as me. ”

Wang Qiankun said: "I am also the one who is punished, and I am also the leader of the Southern Expeditionary Army!" Regardless of whether the Southern Expeditionary Army won the battle or suffered a defeat, it has something to do with me! ”

Zhang Zuogan said: "I am the chief of operations, and I am directly in charge of the war, can I have nothing to do with the defeat of the battle?" Impossible. ”

Everyone expressed their stance that they wanted to add their own names to be punished.

Liu Zhiyuan had no choice but to wave his hand and said, "Okay, okay, let's discuss this matter when I have time!" The most important thing now is that the war is not over yet, so please ask Commander Han to talk about the development trend of the war, how will we fight it next? ”

Everyone stopped talking, and they were all waiting for Han Xing to talk about the development of the war situation between the two sides.

Han Xing is a person who has come over, and of course he has an overall grasp of the situation of this battle of Zaoyi. Han Xing said unhurriedly:

"Zhang Zizhong's martyrdom and the annihilation of the 74th Division by the Japanese army did not change the situation of the Battle of Zaoyi. At present, the rear transportation line of the Japanese army is still unstable, and the 26th Brigade of the 3rd Division has been encircled and severely attacked by the national army. However, the 38th Division and other units of the 33rd Group Army still attacked the Japanese army's lines of communication west of Hanshui and achieved good results.

In view of the grim situation, the commander of the 11th Army, Kazuichiro Sonobe, believed that the first phase of the Battle of Zaoyi had failed, and instead of annihilating the main force of the National Army in the Fifth Theater, he lost his troops and lost his troops. Now be sure to start the second phase of the strategy Yichang.

At present, the 3rd Division is barely breaking through, if all units flock across the river, the national army will definitely follow and pursue, and the Jiang Defense Army, which has just gone north, will definitely take advantage of the situation to return to defense, then the attack on Yichang will naturally fail.

Kazuichiro Sonobe, who was born in the saber group, was really powerful, and after careful consideration, he thought that the next step was to continue a counterattack whether he retreated or continued to attack. As a result, the Japanese army suddenly stopped retreating, and the whole army attacked the Nationalist army to the west and north.

Large-scale fierce battles broke out between the main forces of the Fifth Theater and the Japanese army, and both sides suffered heavy casualties.

In view of the fierce attack of the Japanese army, at this time, the top management of the 5th Theater believed that it should not be confronted head-on in order to lose its own vital forces and let the Japanese army get its wish. Therefore, Li Zongren ordered the national army to dodge the front and carry out a flank attack, and one part remained behind the enemy to contain the enemy. On May 21, the 3rd Division advanced to Dengxian, the 13th Division to the east of Laohekou, and the 39th Division to Fancheng.

The Japanese army still wanted to continue to advance westward, but at this time it had been fighting for nearly a month, lacking ammunition and supplies, and was extremely exhausted from top to bottom, and its combat effectiveness was sharply reduced. The Nationalist Army, on the other hand, retreated to some areas conducive to defense and continued its operations.

The 39th Division, which annihilated Zhang Zizhong's 74th Division, attacked northward and soon reached the vicinity of Liangjiazui, about 20 kilometers northeast of Fancheng. The 233rd Wing, which was at the forefront, was ordered to cross the river first on the night of the 20th, and then go north. The division commander, Keisaku Murakami, told the 233rd Wing to be careful, especially when crossing the river.

At this time, the Japanese army was careless, and the 233rd Wing only sent 3 scouts on the evening of the 20th to reconnoiter indiscriminately by the river. These people thought that the national army had run away a long time ago and certainly did not resist. Moreover, the reeds on the opposite side were indeed unusually calm at that time, and they did not look like people at all.

They immediately checked the current, returned to the wing headquarters, and reported: there is no enemy on the other side! In fact, when they were stupidly observing, the scouts of the 31st Army of Tang Enbo had already seen them and reported to their superiors.

Tang Enbo believed that it was very likely that the Japanese army would cross the river at night, and immediately ordered the main force to lurk on the other side of the river, and used a large number of light and heavy machine guns, grenadiers, mortars, and even a small number of Surothong small-caliber machine guns.

And here the 233rd Wing swaggered to the river, set up a rubber boat and crossed the river. The commander of the 233rd Wing, Tetsujiro Kanzaki, saw that the water was not deep and the current speed was slow, so he ordered some officers and men to wade across the river. So, more than 1,000 people of the wing, half by boat, half wading through the water, slowly approached the opposite shore.

The Nationalist army waited quietly for them to reach the center of the river, and then suddenly opened fire. The firepower of the 31st Group Army can be said to be the strongest of the national army, and the Japanese army could not carry heavy weapons when crossing the river, and it was completely in the open, and they were only beaten, and they had no power to fight back.

After just 20 minutes of fierce fighting, more than 300 Japanese soldiers were killed in the river, countless people were wounded, and even the captain of the wing, Tetsujiro Kanzaki, was also killed by stray bullets.

The 233rd Wing suffered heavy casualties and had to be defeated.

The command of the 11th Army Corps of the Japanese Army judged from this that although the 5th Theater had lost the 173rd and 74th Divisions, the main force had not suffered a fatal blow, and on the evening of the same day, the 11th Army Corps ordered all divisions and regiments to stop the pursuit, and the battle in the Zaoyang area east of the Xianghe River ended here.

The situation on the battlefield is like this, that is, the battle in the Zaoyang area is over, and the next step is that the Japanese army will start the second phase, which is also said to be the battle to attack Yichang. What do we do? This is also the focus of our meeting, they all say that it is to fight snakes and hit seven inches, where is the seven inches of devils, let's discuss it! ”

Some said that the Japanese army's transportation line was seven inches, some said that together with the national army, concentrated forces to destroy the enemy all the way, some said that it was to strike at the enemy's rear, and some said that it was to say anything.