Sort out your excitement.

After discussing with General Xue Boling and General Hu Shoushan, he said to the adjutants around him: "Now the battle of Lanfeng is basically over with the victory of our army.

The next step was to make every effort to block the 14th Division of the Japanese Army and the two divisions of the Japanese Army in Central China that invaded from the northern Anhui region.

The telegram ordered the forward troops to hand over the Sanyi Village to the Tiger Ben Regiment to be responsible for guarding.

The other divisions immediately withdrew, and joined up with several other armies of our Eastern Henan Corps to build defensive lines in Minquan and other areas to resist the Japanese invaders in the west, and to respond to the transfer of the main force of the Fifth Theater to the west! ”

With the order of General Xue Boling, all the armies involved in the siege of the Japanese 16th Division retreated.

Only the Tiger Ben Regiment remained in Sanyi Village to clean up the battlefield.

……

On the other side, the commander of the 14th Division of the Japanese Army, Kenji Dohihara, an old devil, received a telegram from the headquarters, learning that the 16th Division was besieged in Sanyi Village, and the situation was extremely critical, and he was ordering the three armies to march at full speed.

At the same time, he ordered the cavalry wing under his command to form a vanguard force and rush to the direction of Sanyi Village at the speed of a rapid march.

However, not long after the order was given, Kenji Dohihara got the news again.

The 16th Division has been wiped out!

When he learned that the coalition forces led by the Tiger Ben Regiment had completely annihilated the 16th Division, Kenji Dohihara immediately ordered the 14th Division under his command to stop advancing and retreat decisively.

Even the cavalry wing, which was the vanguard, was called back.

Kenji Dohihara hated Yang Chen, and even hated not being able to eat his flesh and drink his blood.

But the key problem is that he is very clear about his own strength.

With the current strength of the 14th Division, it is by no means the opponent of the Tiger Regiment.

What's more, in the Sanyizhai area, in addition to the Tiger Ben Regiment, there are hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops.

If you dive headlong into it, what's the difference between it and looking for death?

……

At this time, the two divisions of the Japanese army in Central China, which had invaded from northern Anhui, were also jointly blocked by the troops of the First Theater and the Eastern Henan Army in the southeast area of Shangqiu.

Under the resistance of more than 100,000 elite troops of the Central Army, it is difficult for these devils to advance an inch at all.

At the same time, the Fifth Theater Command and the troops directly under the command of General Li Delin and General Bai Jiansheng have also withdrawn from Xuzhou.

Taking advantage of the situation, he jumped out of the encirclement of the Japanese army and entered a safe area.

Pang Gengchen, Zhang Zizhong and Tang Keqin's corps also broke through and moved to the junction of Henan, Anhui and Suzhou mountains respectively.

Sun Fanglu's subordinates and Liu Ruming's subordinates also gave up the outer defense lines such as Taierzhuang and Nianzhuang respectively and retreated to Xuzhou.

And after dark, he took the initiative to give up Xuzhou City, gave the devil a golden cicada shell, and successfully broke through.

In addition, because of the victory in the Battle of Lanfeng, the 16th Division of the Japanese Army was completely annihilated.

Therefore, the main forces of the Chinese army on the battlefield in Xuzhou were able to retreat smoothly.

Moreover, all the units are organized in a disorderly and orderly manner.

In this way, the defense force of the Longhai railway line has also been greatly strengthened.

The Nationalist Government was able to calmly mobilize its forces to stop the Japanese army from advancing westward.

The Japanese army, which suffered a lot of losses in the Battle of Xuzhou, failed to attack, and finally had to suspend the offensive.

At this point, the front was temporarily stabilized on the Shangqiu line.

……

The picture pulls to the city of Nanjing.

Headquarters of the Central China Front of the Japanese Army.

Its commander, Shunroku Hatata, and Shozo Kawabe, chief of staff, are hatching a sinister plan.

After capturing Xuzhou, successfully joining forces with the North China Front, and advancing westward along the Longhai Railway was strongly blocked by the Chinese defenders, and attacked several times in succession, but finally failed to achieve success.

The two old devils, Shunroku Hata and Shozo Kawabe, knew that if they did not send more troops, they would be unable to make effective progress in a short period of time if they wanted to attack from the front.

Therefore, adopting a strategic detour is the only feasible way.

However, there is a natural danger of the Yellow River on the north side of the Longhai Railway, which is not conducive to the implementation of the roundabout plan.

Then the southern front has become the only and best direction for the Japanese army to implement a strategic detour.

Therefore, the plan hatched by Hata Shunroku and Kawabe Shozo was to transfer elite divisions from northern Anhui to attack Zhoukou from the west of Bo County.

After taking Zhoukou, it will go straight to the Luohe River and completely cut off the north-south connection of the Pinghan Railway.

After that, he moved north along the Pinghan Railway and flanked the flanks of the Chinese defenders deployed on the Kaifeng, Zhengzhou, and Luoyang lines.

In order to cover the main forces of the Japanese army in Central China and the Japanese army in North China, they advanced westward along the Longhai Railway.

The ultimate goal is to occupy Lanfeng, Zhengzhou, Luoyang, Xuchang and other important towns in the Central Plains.

The First Theater and part of the main forces of the Fifth Theater that had withdrawn into the Central Plains were completely annihilated in the area south of the Yellow River, at the intersection of the Longhai Railway and the Pinghan Railway.

As long as this goal is achieved, the Japanese army will not only be able to destroy a large number of Chinese living forces and occupy the Central Plains; It was also possible to go south along the Pinghan Railway, cross the Dabie Mountain through Wusheng Pass, and directly attack Wuhan, the military, political and economic center of the Nationalist Government at that time.

At this time, the two old devils, Shunroku Hata and Shozo Kawabe, were discussing, mainly because it was more appropriate to send those troops to carry out this mission.

"Your Excellency, according to reliable information from the front, there is no large-scale Chinese regular army stationed in the Zhoukou area.

Therefore, I believe that the strength of a wing, or even a brigade, is enough to take Zhoukou lightly.

To be on the safe side, we only need to send one division, which is enough to complete this roundabout mission and smoothly deal with possible unexpected situations!" Shozo Kawabe expressed his opinion.

However, Hata Shunroku was more sophisticated and sinister than him, and muttered: "There are not many Chinese defenders stationed in Zhoukou, but once Zhoukou is lost, the Chinese side will definitely send many elite troops to help Xuchang and Luohe, so as to ensure the safety of the Pinghan Railway."

In that case, the strength of a brigade may be somewhat insufficient.

After all, this army has to carry out a strategic roundabout operation, not a simple capture of Zhoukou.

If it could not create an absolute flanking threat to the Chinese defenders, then it would be of no use to the main imperial army of the Longhai Railway advancing westward.

Therefore, I believe that the total strength of this roundabout force should remain at least one division, with more than 25,000 men

Only in this way can you be sure that nothing goes wrong! ”

"A division?25,000 people? Wouldn't this be a bit of a knife to kill chickens? Kawabe Shozo looked shocked.

"That's right, it's a division! More than 25,000 troops!

Only in this way can this roundabout force have the absolute strength to attack and retreat.

Only in this way can we achieve the ultimate goal of our strategic detour and prevent even a little accident from happening!" Shunroku Hata nodded solemnly.

"Your Excellency, Commander, I don't know what you think is the right way to send that division?" Kawabe Shozo asked.

……

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