Mr. Peng's attack also began with heavy artillery. Ferocious shells were fired from eight artillery positions, flew a distance of six or seven kilometers, and smashed fiercely into the city of Xinyang, on the positions of the defenders, and on the heads of the soldiers of the Northeast Army.

The targets of the bombardment were first concentrated on the artillery positions of the Northeast Army, and the artillery of the Northeast Army was not incompetent, and soon fought back.

However, because the Northeast Army not only had a small number of artillery, a small mouth, and a short firing range, their counterattack had no effect at all, and the only effect was to make it easier for the Red Army to judge the effect of the artillery bombardment: the Northeast Army's counterattack was getting weaker and weaker, which naturally showed that the Red Army's artillery bombardment effect was very good.

After a few minutes, the artillery fire of the Northeast Army stopped, and even if a few artillery guns survived, the frightened artillery did not dare to fire again, otherwise it would only attract more shells.

The cessation of artillery fire of the Northeast Army did not mean that the artillery fire of the Red Army weakened, but only allowed the artillery of the Red Army to divert the target.

The targets of artillery attacks began to turn to the trenches, fortifications and their assembly areas of the Northeast Army, and almost every barracks suffered several rounds of artillery fire, and the only way for the soldiers who stayed in the barracks to save their lives was to flee from the barracks, as far as they could.

After the bombardment of barracks, positions, and fortifications, the artillery fire of the Red Army began to plow through the wide streets, especially the streets where bunkers had been built, almost all of which were lifted up by dense shells. Even if there are only a few sandbags piled up in those machine gun bunkers, the bones will be blown away by shells, and the machine guns and bullets in the bunkers will be blown into parts, or blown into scrap steel and scrap copper......

Miao Zhengliu, commander of the 57th Group Army of the Northeast Army, was already quite mentally prepared for the firepower of the Red Army. However, this intensity of bombardment still stunned him. He was not only surprised by the ferocity of the Red Army's artillery fire, but also lamented that the Red Army was too damn loser, how could there be such a bombardment, isn't this a waste of money? A small machine-gun bunker can be used for such bombing, and the cost of one shell is not much less than the cost of a machine gun, which can be used to drop four or five shells at once? Is it necessary to tear those sandbags to shreds and then smash a deep crater there?

As the shelling prolonged, Miao Zhengliu became more and more weak, and his inner confidence disappeared little by little.

Arguably. Seeing a cannonball smashing on the street, and his ears were filled with the piercing scream of the cannonball crossing the sky, Miao Zhengliu shuddered once, and his heart was a little less confident. He originally thought that the 57th Army's huge number of troops would be enough to support the belly of the Red Army, but he had already ceased to exist with the drop of shells, and now he was thinking about how to break through the encirclement and whether the tens of thousands of troops under his command could protect themselves and rush out.

He did not know that it was the second and third armies of the Red Army that surrounded Xinyang this time. What was concentrated was the artillery fire of the two armies, and what they didn't know was that General Peng and Guo Zhuocheng wanted to give the Northeast Army a dismount, in order to let the Northeast Army know that the Red Army was invincible, and it would be easy for the Red Army to destroy them.

Whether it was Mr. Peng, Guo Zhuocheng or their generals, they all knew that the bombardment was too much and the waste was great. It can be said that there is no need for a third or even half of the shells to be fired at all, if only to attack Xinyang.

But they know that it is very necessary to waste so many shells, which can cause fear in the hearts of the Northeast Army, and can make the Northeast Army more courageous, as long as it cleans up the 57th Army faster and cleanerly. Then the Red Army will attack the Northeast Army, the Northwest Army, and the Jin Army. It's easier, it can cause its military morale to collapse more quickly, and it can also speed up the capture of Nanjing.

In this way, the waste of the present can save the shells of the future for the future, and on the contrary, it can achieve greater results for the future.

Seeing so many shells falling, and seeing that the Red Army had been bombing for so long and not stopping, the army commander Miao Zhengliu was really frightened, and the officers and soldiers under him trembled even more.

They feel like the end of the world now. Before the shelling took place, they thought that the more partners around them the safer they were, and that as long as they had more troops, the more they would be able to resist the attack of the Red Army, and the more they would be able to hold on for more time, but after the shelling, especially when they saw that the more officers and soldiers gathered, the more shelling they suffered, they knew that they were wrong, and the more companions brought not safety but death, and the officers and soldiers who had gathered together before began to disperse involuntarily, and many soldiers began to break away from the large army and began to look for a place to hide alone, intentionally or unintentionally.

As everyone knows, this feeling of fear will not be reduced because of the small number of people around, and when the number of people is small, they feel another kind of fear, that is, when the Red Army artillery fire is reduced and the charge is launched, isn't it easier for them to be killed if they hide here?

Staying in a crowded place for fear of attracting more artillery fire and being killed by artillery fire, staying in a crowded place and fearing that when the Red Army attacked, they would die lightly because they did not have their companions to cover each other, because they did not know what to do, and fear always lingered in their minds.

At this moment, different rumors began to circulate among the officers and soldiers: Jiang Jieshi's Central Army was no worse than the Northeast Army, but the Central Army was lightly beaten by the Red Army, Xue Yue's troops only held out for a few dozen minutes before collapsing, most of the troops surrendered, and the Red Army treated them very favorably; The more than 30,000 troops of the Tax Police Corps were surrounded by the Red Army in less than half an hour, and after they surrendered, they all joined the Red Army, and they all had allowances, and they had better food and weapons than in the Central Army, and many of the officers who surrendered were still officers in the Red Army;

However, the Northeast Army and the Red Army had no enmity before, the Northeast Army had never attacked the central Soviet region in the west of the Yangtze River, nor had it massacre the Red Army. Anyway, if you can't win, it's best to surrender. Zhang Xueliang is a runaway general, who gave the good land of Northeast China to the Japanese, it is not worth everyone's life at all, it is impossible to recover Northeast China with him, only by following the Red Army can he defeat the Japanese invaders, and can he return to his hometown to see his father and fellow villagers......

This rumor spread like a plague among the middle and lower officers and low-level officers and soldiers, except for a few people who could still hold on and thought that they could resist the attack of the Red Army, most of them thought in their hearts that the Red Army was invincible, and also agreed from the bottom of their hearts that it was impossible to follow Zhang Xueliang to lead everyone back to the Northeast and drive away the Japanese devils:

In the past, the Northeast Army was so strong, and it was fighting in his hometown, but it was driven away by the Japanese devils like ducks, and he didn't dare to let go of a shot, and now the Northeast Army has left his hometown and is a guest army in a different place, and his strength is several levels worse than before, how can he fight back again, he would not have run away if he had such a big guts.

The hope of returning to his hometown to see his parents and siblings is simply impossible to put on him, although it is not yet possible to conclude whether the Red Army can defeat the Japanese devils, but at least it is much more reliable than Zhang Xueliang, and with the Red Army that can defeat Jiang Jiaoshi's Central Army, maybe he can really return to his hometown to see his parents.

It has to be said that before the Red Army began to attack, the morale of the 57th Army began to collapse, and many officers and men began to wait for the Red Army to come and receive them, and many soldiers were ready to surrender.

However, the Red Army did not immediately attack, and even the artillery fire was somewhat weaker than at the beginning. This made Miao Zhengliu in Xinyang City nervous and happy, and he immediately ordered the troops to immediately build the city fortifications, immediately repair the collapsed trenches and fortifications, and at the same time transport the troops to the fortifications.

Although he also knew that these soldiers had been frightened, and after letting them see those corpses and broken limbs in the fortifications that had been bombed, these soldiers would be even more timid, but he really had no choice, as the supreme commander, as Zhang Xueliang's cronies, he couldn't just leave it alone, anyway, now Zhang Xueliang is the vice president above 10,000 people under one person, and the highest armed commander in the country, and his own promotion and fortune are just around the corner, as long as this battle is barely passable, Won't you have more military power right away?

Of course, he no longer foolishly thought that his own army could block the Red Army, since the moment the Red Army's shells fell in Xinyang City, he did not stop asking Zhang Xueliang for help, he did not stop asking his superiors to send reinforcements, and he did not stop asking the surrounding troops to move closer to him.

He didn't know that the commanders of the Red Army, Mr. Peng and Guo Zhuocheng, hoped that he would ask his superiors for help, that is, they hoped that more Northeast Army, Northwest Army, and Jin Army would come, and their tactic was simply "encircling the point to send reinforcements"!

Mr. Peng and Guo Zhuocheng both knew that neither Yan Xishan nor Zhang Xueliang could abandon the 57th Group Army, not only because this force was large in number, with six or seven troops, but more importantly, the strategic location of Xinyang was too important, as a coup d'état, their hometown was not in Nanjing, and they had not yet been recognized by a generation of wealthy businessmen in Jiangsu and Zhejiang at this time, and it was impossible for them to get supplies from other places, and their supply sources were still He-Nan, He-Bei, Shan-Xi, Shaanxi-West, Beijing-Tianjin and other places. The Nanjing, which they occupied, not only could not provide them with food, but demanded that they take food from other places to supplement it.

Once the Red Army really cut off the connection between Nanjing and He-Nan and He-Bei, it will cut off their food routes and their supply of weapons and ammunition, and they will become fish without roots and water, and sooner or later they will be eaten by others, and there will even be internal strife and killing each other.

Therefore, even if Miao Zhengliu was not so "enthusiastic" in sending telegrams, Yan Xishan, Zhang Xueliang and others would do their best to save this army.

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