"That's not all like that, men were born quite strong, but wine and wealth ruined a man's body. Otherwise, wine is the poison of enema, color is the steel knife that scrapes the bones, wealth is the tiger that goes down the mountain, and qi is the root and seedling of trouble. If a man abstains from these things, his body will be strong. Li Lu said.

Li Dazhong took Bai Huoshui Mayor and quipped: "I heard that Mayor Li is quite willing to do his homework, and he would rather work overtime than be idle, Han Xing couldn't help but ask Li Lu: "But why are men so weak, are they born weak?" ”

, but with his body, he can't be blown down by a gust of wind, can the body stand it! He's seventy this year, right? ”

Even Li Dazhong knew what it meant to do "homework".

Li Lu looked at no one next to him, and then whispered: "With Mayor Bai's small body, where can I still do my homework!" He has a hobby, he can't do his homework, he is willing to watch others do their homework, and he pays for it. He is seventy years old, and he is only fifty-one years old this year. ”

Han Xing was taken aback, Bai Huoshui was only fifty-one years old, and he actually ruined his body like this.

On the morning of the 25th, the "Yichang Defense Pledge Conference" was held in the center of Yichang City, and according to the layout of Yichang City, representatives of various rural regimes, representatives of various groups, representatives of factories and businesses, representatives of health and schools, and spontaneous masses came to the stage for a meeting.

At present, more and more people have gathered under the stage, including the local gentry, the common people, the owners and apprentices of various shops, and the nearby peasants, who have crowded the stage to the brim. Of course, there are people sitting on the stage, including the mayor, the captain of the police squadron, the leaders of the Southern Expeditionary Army, and the bigwigs.

The presiding officer was Mayor Bai Huoshui, who walked up to the stage tremblingly and said to the people in the audience: "Dear fathers, fellow villagers, brothers and sisters, our good days are coming to an end, and the Japanese are about to call. Although the Yichang government has not received an order from the central government, if the Japanese really come, then all the people will have to resist and assist the relevant national government troops to repel the Japanese and defend our Yichang. Now I would like to invite the commander of the Southern Expeditionary Army to speak, everyone is welcome! ”

The meeting hall burst into warm applause.

Han walked up to the stage and said enthusiastically and emotionally to everyone: "Dear Chinese compatriots, dear fathers and fellow villagers, we have lived and grown up here since we were children, but now, the Japanese have called. You don't know what kind of goods the Japanese are, they kill people and set fires, rape women, rob my property, burn down my house, and do all kinds of evil. What should we do, we can only mobilize, all the people are soldiers, and fight with the Japanese devils! ”

At this time, a group of women dressed up in flamboyant clothes were chirping in the audience, and they introduced a particularly beautiful woman. This woman smiled when she saw someone, and she was drunk with a smile, and she said to Han Xing charmingly: "What about us women, can you also give us guns, can you let us fight devils with the army?" ”

Han Xing wanted this kind of scene, and he said to the woman: "Okay, women can also organize and train, they can also issue you guns, and you can also fight devils." May I ask this woman's surname! ”

This beautiful girl twisted her buttocks, bent her right hand, made a shy gesture, and said coquettishly to Han Xing: "The concubine is noble, her name is Xiao Diao Chan." ”

Her provocative action made her group of accomplices laugh.

At this time, a few angry prodigal sons were pointing fingers and giggling and said, "Some of you meat sellers still beat devils!" When the time comes, I am afraid that it will disturb the morale of the national army. When the devil saw you, I was afraid that it would give them morale, and they would fight more and more. ”

These women were not convinced, raised their heads and chests, and said: "What's the matter with the meat sellers, the meat sellers are also earning hard money, and we are also taxpayers!" Don't underestimate us women, give us guns, we can kill devils too. ”

Han Xing encouraged them and said, "Well said! Chairman Chiang said that if the war breaks out, there will be no distinction between the north and the south, and there will be no distinction between the old and the young, and no matter who they are, they will all have the responsibility to defend the territory and resist the war, and they will all have the determination to sacrifice everything. Only by sacrificing to the end, fighting to the end, and only with the determination to sacrifice can we win the final victory!"

After the swearing-in meeting, it was followed by the formation of the militia group. Han Xing organized the people of Yichang into two regiments, the first of which was made up of veterans, students, workers, and local farmers. The second regiment consisted entirely of women, including young women farmers from the neighborhood, students at school, young women workers in factories, prostitutes and some housewives.

The Southern Expeditionary Army was responsible for sending military instructors to conduct rapid military training for them, because the time was too short, they could only teach them some simple military regulations, stand upright, take a break, and then carry out tactical drills such as shooting, stabbing training, digging trenches, and actual combat.

For a while, Han Xing was also urgently observing the current battle situation between the two sides through the intelligence department.

Due to the serious shortage of supplies for the Japanese army at this time, the 11th Army Corps transferred all the vehicles that could be used from the Wuhan area, and rushed to the front line with 6 automobile squadrons to urgently transfer more than 1,000 tons of military supplies. This part of the car transport team encountered scattered interceptions by the national army along the way, but most of them successfully reached the front line.

At the same time, 3 reinforced infantry brigades and 1 mountain artillery brigade of Japanese troops also rushed to the front.

As a result, the Japanese army, with the strength of 3 divisions, suddenly abandoned the Suizao line, and abandoned the fortifications to the north, and the whole army turned to the west. In addition to the 40th Division, the Japanese army included the 13th Division, the 39th Division, the 3rd Division, and the 5th Division, all of which attacked westward.

Since this line of Hanshui defense line is hundreds of kilometers long, it is difficult for the national army to successfully defend without heavy troops.

Originally, there were quite a few troops in this line of defense, and the Jiang Defense Army alone had more than 80,000 troops in 4 armies and 12 divisions. However, due to the tight situation of the war, there were only 3 armies left at the beginning of the battle, and during the first stage, because Li Zongren and Chiang Kai-shek both judged that the Japanese army would not attack Yichang, they forcibly ordered the 94th Army and the 75th Army of the Jiang Defense Army to go north to reinforce the Xinye line.

As a result, only one division of Xiao Zhichu's 26th Army and the 94th Army remained in the original position, and the strength of the army was sharply reduced to four divisions, with only more than 20,000 people.

Therefore, in addition to the four divisions of the Jiang Defense Army, only the 22nd Group Army of the Sichuan Army and one of the 41st Army were responsible for the defense of this line, and the only 77th Army of Zhang Zizhong's 33rd Group Army that did not cross the Han River was responsible for defense.

The 41st Army of the Sichuan Army was Sun Zhen's troops, and its combat effectiveness was very weak, and its combat effectiveness was not as good as that of 1 division of the Jiang Defense Army.

As for the division of the 77th Army, because Zhang Zizhong had just been martyred, its morale was relatively weakened.

On May 31, the Japanese army forcibly crossed the Han River from three places more than 200 kilometers long.

The northernmost 3rd Division forced its way across the Han River between Zhengjiagang and Oumiao south of Xiangyang. Sun Zhen's 41st Army of the Sichuan Army was originally the weakest unit in the national army, and at this time there were only four garrison brigades under its jurisdiction, all of which were newly formed units. Not to mention the lack of troops, some recruits have just learned to fire their guns.

They were able to resist stubbornly at the beginning of the Japanese crossing, but after several hours of fierce fighting, the Japanese suddenly attacked with a large number of motorboats.

The officers and men of Sichuan had never seen this kind of armored motorboat before, and mistakenly thought that the Japanese army had used amphibious tanks. Seeing that the bullet had no effect on it, and did not know how to destroy it, the Sichuan officers and soldiers on some positions retreated spontaneously in panic.

The Japanese army soon crossed the Han River, and Chiang Kai-shek Li Zongren saw the collapse of the Sichuan army's position, and there was no available force to support it, so he was forced to mobilize the air force.

Nine bombers of the Nationalist Air Force risked great danger (at that time, the air supremacy in Hubei was the Japanese army), and repeatedly dropped bombs and strafed on the Hanshui line, causing some casualties to the Japanese army, but they were powerless to stop the Japanese army's forced crossing.

At 18 o'clock on June 1, the Japanese army occupied Xiangyang after fierce fighting, occupied Nanzhang with empty defense at 15 o'clock on the 2nd, and occupied Yuan'an on the 8th. In 8 days, more than 100 kilometers were advanced,

Here, the 39th Division crossed the Hanshui from the area of Wangji and Xiaohe Town, north of Yicheng. Sun Zhen's 41st Army had a strong defensive strength on this line, and after three days and three nights of fierce fighting, the division occupied Yicheng at 9:45 on June 3.

Subsequently, the Japanese army continued to advance westward, and after several days of bitter fighting with Zhang Zizhong's 33rd Division of the 56th Group Army, they occupied Jingmen on the evening of the 6th.

At this time, Chiang Kai-shek and Li Zongren were all taken aback. None of them judged that the Japanese army might attack Yichang at that time, so they slowed down a beat at this time. Li Zongren immediately adjusted his deployment, and the main force of the Nationalist army from the north immediately pounced to the west.

However, the Japanese had already expected that they would leave a force behind the palace to block the reinforcements of the Nationalist army.

Taking the 94th Army of the Jiangfang Army, which returned to defense after going north, as an example, although its 185th and 121st divisions were only two days away from the Japanese army, it was difficult to catch up. Along the way, they were intercepted by the Japanese blocking forces. Although the number of Japanese troops was small, they held on to one place and did not retreat, and the national army had to bypass it as much as possible.

Although the Jiang Defense Army was the elite of the Central Army, the whole army did not have any mountain artillery and field artillery at all, only some mortars left, and could not attack the fortifications, so it took a lot of time to defeat the Japanese army's resistance.

At the same time, the 75th Army of the Jiang Defense Army, which returned to defense, was the same, the army's combat effectiveness was relatively strong, and its 6th, 13th, and 4th Cavalry Divisions caught up with the Japanese rearguard troops and some baggage troops, killing these Japanese troops in a mess. The corpses left by the Japanese soldiers were left unburied for a long time, and until a month later, they still stinking and the local villagers took a detour.

However, the Japanese army did not care whether the rear guard troops lived or died, and just blindly went south, so that the national army could not catch up and was always left behind by the Japanese army.

At this time, Chiang Kai-shek also immediately ordered the elite of the Central Army such as the 18th Army, the 2nd Army, and the 11th Army in the rear to immediately rush to Yichang for reinforcements. But these troops are far away from Yichang, and it seems that the Japanese army will arrive a few days earlier than them.

At the same time, Chiang Kai-shek ordered Chen Cheng to rush to Yichang immediately, and Chen Cheng urgently arrived at Wanxian County in eastern Sichuan on the evening of June 3, and then rushed to Yichang on the 4th!