As soon as these risk factors came out, Mr. Zhu immediately said: "When did our Eighth Route Army have logistics in the war, and it wasn't it taken from where it went?" If you think that two divisions are not enough, we can increase it to five divisions or even ten divisions in the later stage, not to mention anything else in our Eighth Route Army, and the rapid march has never served anyone, in short, it is not to confront the island army in Datong head-on, and to turn a tough battle into an encirclement point to send reinforcements. ”

As soon as Mr. Zhu's voice fell, Mr. Xu, who had not spoken, got up and said: "I think it's okay, as long as we can have enough troops to block the enemy's reinforcements, we can free up our hands to flank Datong. ”

"Yes, so that we can completely avoid Datong's offensive battles, and become the main attack in the rear and assist in the front. I ask for help, and I will go up to the first echelon this time. Mr. He said.

"Huh!" Mr. Zhu said with a smile: "He Huzi, you have no problem fighting bravely, but this kind of sports war still has to go to Lao Su, as for you, of course, you also have a share, but it is the second echelon." ”

Mr. He replied very happily: "The second echelon is the second echelon, as long as there is a battle." ”

There was a burst of laughter in the room, and then Mr. Lin said: "By the way, boss, do you want to ask for the above meaning in this matter?" ”

"Above? I will naturally say where the chairman is, as for Bai Chongxi, it is still counted, and when he arrives, maybe he will have to study and weigh the pros and cons, and the fighters will be fleeting if they come and go, and it will be too late if they don't get it right, so let's talk about it. ”

Mr. Lin hesitated for a few seconds and said, "I mean where is Jiang Haoran?" ”

In the entire high-level of Yan'an, there are very few people who know the relationship between Jiang Haoran and Yan'an, Lin is finally one, and he is the only one among these people at present, when the situation has not yet reached the decisive moment, Jiang Haoran's identity cannot be made public, after all, the influence of the Chongqing government is still there, and it is a big event if it is not good to cause a mutiny in the troops, so this news has to be blocked. And Mr. Lin raised this question at this time, because he felt that Jiang Haoran did have an extraordinary vision in tactics, and if this matter could be approved by him, then there would be absolutely no problem.

Mr. Zhu waved his hand and said, "I don't think there is any need for this, doesn't Jiang Haoran always don't care about how the front-line commander fights and only looks at the result?" So, there's no need to waste this time, so it's decided, and we'll get to work tonight! ”

……

The next day, Kaiping.

Kaiping is located in the south-central part of Guangdong Province, southwest of the Pearl River Delta, adjacent to Hong Kong and Macao, 110 kilometers away from Guangzhou City in the north, Xinhui in the northeast, Heshan in the north, near Taishan in the southeast, Enping in the southwest, Xinxing in the northwest, Tanjiang River and Cangjiang River meet, passing through, the water is deep and the river is wide, known as "Little Wuhan", it has always been an important commercial port and a distribution place for goods. But strategically, Kaiping is not a place to rush.

But there are exceptions to everything, because the 42nd Group Army of the National Army is going all out in the direction of Hainan, Kaiping has become the only way, and the enemy must occupy Kaiping in order to prevent the tactical action of the 42nd Group Army, so Kaiping at this time has become a battleground for the two armies, and it has also become a flesh and blood mill.

When it comes to the battle of Kaiping, we have to talk about the watchtowers of Kaiping first.

Kaiping is a famous hometown of overseas Chinese, but also the hometown of architecture, the reason why it is said to be the hometown of architecture is because Kaiping has thousands of watchtowers.

Since the Ming Dynasty, Kaiping is located between Xinhui, Taishan, Enping, Xinxing four counties, for the "four regardless" place, bandits are rampant, social security is chaotic, plus there are many rivers, every typhoon and rain, floods occur frequently, the local people are forced to build watchtowers in the village in order to protect themselves.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, social turmoil, bandits often harassed the people, in order to protect the safety of the villagers, the fourth son of Lu'an Gong, Guan Zirui built a Ruiyun Tower in Jingtouli Village, which is also the first watchtower in Kaiping. The building is very sturdy, with two functions of flood prevention and anti-theft, and when there is a flood or banditry disturbance, the villagers of Jingtouli Village and the adjacent Sanmenli Village take refuge in Ruiyun Tower.

In 1884, the Tanjiang River was flooded, and many houses in the vicinity were flooded, and the villagers of Kaiping Chikan Sanmenli all survived because they climbed the watchtower in time.

In 1912, the Situ people built the South Building to prevent thieves. The building is 7 floors and 19 meters, covering an area of 29 square meters, with a reinforced concrete structure, each floor is equipped with rectangular gun holes, and the sixth floor is a lookout, equipped with machine guns and searchlights.

At the beginning of the Republic of China, bandits were rampant, repeatedly looting schools, and abducting more than 100 teachers and students. However, when the bandits robbed Kaiping Middle School in Chikan area, they were illuminated by the searchlight of the watchtower in Yingcun Village, and the four township regiments intercepted them in time and intercepted the principal and 17 students. This incident caused a sensation in the county, overseas Chinese were also very surprised when they heard the news, felt that the watchtower played a role in preventing banditry, therefore, they cut down on food and clothing outside, and invited someone to design the blueprint of the watchtower in the country of residence, and brought it back to their hometown to build, and raised funds to remit it to their hometown to build the watchtower. Later, for the safety of their families and the protection of their property, some overseas Chinese built all kinds of watchtower-style buildings when they returned to their hometowns to build new houses, up to more than 3,000 at most.

Because of the existence of these watchtowers, there is no systematic defensive position in the entire Kaiping, and the battle is carried out around these watchtowers.

When the national army attacked Kaiping with two divisions, because the little devils were defenseless at all, and the defenders of Kaiping were only a brigade, the national army was able to easily succeed.

After the two divisions succeeded, they continued to advance towards Enping, and a division of the second echelon took over the task of Kaiping's defense, who knew that the island army's reaction was also quite fast, and a few hours later, about a division of the island army was killed.

The officers and men of the 233rd Division of the 42nd Group Army, who were responsible for the broken rear, relied on the watchtowers along the line to fight the enemy to the death.

The 21st Army of the Island Army belongs to the veteran army, and the divisions and regiments under its jurisdiction are basically all B and C divisions, with a staffing of 18,000 to 28,000, compared with the 233rd Division B Division, the personnel establishment is only more than 11,000, and the disparity in strength is too great, and the actual combat experience of the Youth Army is too far from these veteran divisions of the Island Army, so from the very beginning of the campaign, the 233rd Division has completely fallen into the disadvantage, and the watchtower strongholds have been uprooted and occupied by the island army, and in less than two hours, half of Kaiping's area has fallen into the hands of the enemy.

But the nightmare did not end there, the island army actually put a division into Kaiping at this time, with two divisions advancing in parallel to crush the heavy troops, the 233rd Division was outnumbered, forced to retreat to the west corner of Kaiping City to wait for reinforcements, at this time their casualties have been more than half.

At this critical moment, the 232nd Division, which had already driven to Enping, returned to reinforcement in time, and finally solved their current urgent need, but the two B divisions were unable to attack head-on with the two divisions of the island army, one B division and one C division, and the slightly alleviated situation fell into trouble again as the island army continued to increase troops and attack the front.