After the Japanese occupied Nanjing, they then began to use troops in the surrounding areas of Xuzhou, with a very clear intention, that is, to open up Xuzhou and connect the two major Japanese forces in Central China and North China.

It is also possible to take the coastal area along the line from southern Shandong to Jiangsu to Shanghai, and after taking this rich land, it can support the next move of the Japanese army by fighting to support the war.

At the same time, the Chinese army gathered in the surrounding area of Xuzhou (after the Battle of Songhu and the Battle of Nanjing, a large number of Chinese troops fled to the Xuzhou area for rectification) were annihilated in one fell swoop, forcing China to surrender and ending the China Incident ahead of schedule.

If it doesn't work, this area can also be taken, so that the Japanese army can continue to go up the Yangtze River in the future and attack Wuhan, the provisional government of China, to relieve their worries.

Before the Battle of Songhu, the Chinese Military Commission set up the Fifth Theater, with Xuzhou as the center, and governed the strategic points in southern Shandong, northern Jiangsu, and eastern Henan.

The main task was to protect the smooth flow of the southern section of the Jinpu Line (the railway line from Tianjin to Nanjing Pukou, which at that time was an important communication line between the north and south of China) and the safety of the areas on both sides.

The commander of the Fifth Theater was first concurrently served by the chairman of the National Committee, and after the Battle of Songhu began, General Li Zongren, a bigwig of the Gui family, served as the commander.

Commander Li was a little better than General Tang who was guarding Nanjing, and had his own 11th Army under Li Pinxian, who was originally a capable general under General Tang, and later joined the Gui Army after Tang's Hunan army was dismantled.

There is also the 21st Group Army that retreated from the Battle of Songhu, the most authentic Gui Army, in which General Liao Lei, the commander of the Group Army, is also the commander of the Seventh Army, known as the Jiagang Eel.

Coincidentally, this General Liao, like General Li, is also a native of Guangxi, under General Tang, who started from the Hunan Army and returned to the Gui Army.

In addition to these two Gui troops, there are also the 24th Group Army of the Central Army, Gu Zhutong's troops. But it is obviously not enough for such a small number of people to guard so many places.

So, Chief Li learned from Han Xin to order soldiers, the more the merrier, as long as it was a soldier, he wanted it.

Therefore, the Northeast Army of General Yu Xuezhong of the 3rd Group Army, the Sichuan Army of Deng Xihou of the 22nd Group Army and Yang Shen of the 27th Group Army, the Northwest Army of Pang Bingxun of the Third Army, and later the Northwest Army of Zhang Zizhong of the 33rd Group Army were all coming.

The Fifth Theater was almost a hodgepodge of miscellaneous armies across the country, with the Northeast Army, the Northwest Army, the Sichuan Army, and the Gui Army all coming.

You must know that more than 700,000 of the most elite central and local armies have just been beaten by the Japanese Central China Front in Shanghai and Nanjing.

At present, there are only more than 300,000 miscellaneous troops in the Fifth Theater, and in the face of the Japanese Central China Front Army, plus the North China Front, the north and the south are facing each other, and the two sides are flanking, and the tremendous pressure can be imagined.

In the past few months, the Central Army had the responsibility to defend the territory and took turns to fight with the Japanese army, but now, it is the turn of our miscellaneous army to take the stage, not to bite the Japanese army hard, and not to serve in the army in South China for decades.

The Japanese army was also ready at the end of February this year, and the original 10th Army, the Shanghai Dispatch Army, and the Central China Front Army were merged into the Central China Dispatch Army, with General Shunroku Hata under the command and six elite divisions of the 3rd, 6th, 9th, 13th, 18th, and 101st divisions.

The North China Front was commanded by General Terauchi Shouichi and had jurisdiction over the 1st Army (14th, 20th, 108th, and 109th Divisions) of Kiyoshi Kazuki, the 2nd Army (5th and 10th Divisions) of Nishio Shouzo, as well as the 16th and 114th Divisions and several mixed brigades.

On the Chinese side, in addition to the Fifth Theater, preparations were also in full swing, including the Loyal Salvation Army (Loyal and Righteous National Salvation Army) of Niu Gu, who received an order from the headquarters to get in touch with the Fifth Theater and assist the regular army in combat.

Long before, Niu Gu sent Shan Hongpei to the area north of Baohua Mountain, from Longtan to Jiangbei, to develop the base area.

Lao Shan took a platoon of people such as Mu Xiaodong, and then selected a few locals from Longtan and Jiangbei, and with the help of Qi Yongqing's intelligence officers, infiltrated these areas and developed the masses in full swing.

Lao Shan even developed a team of fishermen, operating in a section of water from Longtan to Jiangbei, and currently has no strength to compete with the devil warship, mainly to collect intelligence and transport supplies.

Niu Gu organized them into the water squad of the Baohuashan Brigade of the Loyal Salvation Army, which was controlled by Shan Hongpei, the leader of the Jiangbei squad, and the captain of the water squad was Xiao Dong, a local.

Now Lao Shan is cooperating with Qi Yongqing's informants to continuously collect and send information from Jiangbei, and Niu Gu has also contacted the intelligence department of the Fifth War Zone through the Loyal Salvation Army Corps, and asked Qi Yongqing to send this information to the Fifth War Zone.

At present, the Japanese army crossed the river from Zhenjiang to the north on the east road, attacked Yangzhou and Gaoyou along the Grand Canal, and approached Huai'an, and the west road went up the river from Nanjing, joined the Japanese army that had captured Wuhu before, and entered Chaoxian along the Huainan Railway.

Niu Gu has always suggested that the Loyal Salvation Army Corps send people to fortify Pukou, Pukou is a strategic place, since ancient times it is a place where soldiers must fight, when Han Xin and Xiang Yu fought here, in one fell swoop laid the foundation of the Han Dynasty for hundreds of years.

Pukou Mountain is surrounded by water, the terrain is complex, and there are dangerous places everywhere, if there are heavy troops guarding this place, it is difficult for the Japanese army to attack it, even if it is a small number of defenders, it will let the Japanese attack for a period of time.

I don't know why? In such a dangerous place, there was no one to defend it, and the headquarters of the Loyal Salvation Army did not defend against the regular army, and they did not send people to defend it.

They believed that the Loyalist Salvation Army was originally a guerrilla force, operating behind enemy lines, and did not have the ability and strength to fight the Japanese army head-on.

Niu Gu regretted this point, so easily surrendered the dangerous place, and had to pay for it in the future, and sure enough, now the Japanese army swaggered through Pukou, and there was an open land in front of it, and there was no danger to defend until Chuzhou.

Due to the rapid progress of the Japanese army, the Fifth Theater was in a hurry, so it had to withdraw its troops from Chuzhou and retreat northward, while the Japanese army was overjoyed and took Chuzhou, an important town in Jiangbei, without a single shot.

The Japanese army continued to march north of Chuzhou, pointing directly at Bengbu, preparing to join the Japanese army on the west road, and then kill together to Suzhou, until Xuzhou.

Lao Dan's base in Jiangbei is in the middle of Liuhe and Yizheng, and now because of the contact with the Fifth War Zone, he is developing in the direction of Liuhe, hoping to harass the Japanese army while collecting intelligence.

This harassment is not ordinary, the tiger's ass can't be touched, there used to be no tigers in the mountains in Baohua Mountain, the monkey is called the king, and now this side is the main force of the Japanese army.

Lao Shan didn't dare to assert it without authorization, and reported it to Niu Gu, who considered things that were not the same as Lao Dan, thinking that now he was going to touch the tiger's buttocks.

Whether it is harassment, delay, or warning, anyway, we can't let the devils march north too easily, and we should also delay a little time to give the main force of the Fifth Theater more time to prepare.

Moreover, the loyal salvation army also has to publicize itself in order to become stronger, and how to publicize itself during the war years, it is useless to just shout slogans, everyone will shout, everyone will shout.

The key is to make achievements, let the people see, give the villagers confidence, they will support and participate, with the support and cover of the local villagers, the loyal salvation army will be like a fish in water.