On the afternoon of 14 May, the equipment He Jianye brought back to the regiment was distributed to the battalions and companies to replenish consumption, and ammunition was temporarily stored.

"507 in the first battalion, 484 in the second battalion, and 386 in the third battalion; 653 men in the artillery battalion, 50 82-mm mortars remaining, and 223 in the baggage company; 184 engineers in the company; transport company 123 people; reconnaissance company 203 people; 1 regimental headquarters guard company with 242 people; ”

"Deputy Head Xia, look at the more than 5,700 brothers who came out of Hankou! Now there are only 3,000 people left. He Jianye sighed,

"Regiment commander, we still have more than 1,800 wounded soldiers transported back to Hankou, and we should be able to come back a lot!" Deputy Head Xia reminded,

"Yes! But now there is no personnel to remediate, and I don't know what to do next! He Jianye said,

"Commander, the situation of our regiment is settled; Many regiments have fewer than 800 people left. Deputy Head Xia reminded,

"yes!" He Jianye was silent after speaking,

After being silent for a long time, He Jianye shouted towards the door,

"Come on, inform the battalion company commander to come to the regiment headquarters for a meeting!"

"Yes" the guard at the gate ran away,

Fifteen minutes later, the temporary regiment headquarters of the 16th regiment, there were not so many chairs, He Jianye directly asked everyone to stand in the room and said to everyone,

"I just looked at the list of personnel, to be honest, the personnel situation of the three battalions is bad, but now it is impossible for the division headquarters and the theater of operations to reorganize our personnel, you should hurry up and do recovery training these days, the amount of training is not too large, we can't rest for a few days! The engineer company was trained with the 1st battalion, the baggage company was assigned to the 2nd battalion, and the transport company was assigned to the 3rd battalion; A few of you should get a good grasp of the run-in training, and the establishment should be separated separately first, and if there are combat missions in the line, they will be merged. Do you understand? ”

"Yes, Captain." All the battalion and company commanders went out and took the troops to train as soon as possible......

The 8th Brigade and the 9th Brigade faced the attack of the Japanese Imada detachment, and in the trench battle, they were bombarded by the Japanese artillery day and night, and they were miserable......

On May 15, news came from the division headquarters that the 18th Brigade of the Japanese Army occupied Nanpingji yesterday, that is, on the 14th. Liu Ruming's Jixing Cultural Tourism launched a counterattack at night, but was repulsed. The rapid advance team of the 13th Division (1 brigade of combat vehicles, 1 squadron of light armored vehicles, 2 squadrons of infantry in vehicles, and 1 squadron of engineers) advanced to the area east of Wangge at 15 o'clock on the 14th and blew up the Longhai Railway. The Longhai line from Xuzhou to Kaifeng was cut off.

The 20th Army Corps of the National Revolutionary Army, Tang Enbo, issued an order ordering the 3rd Division to assemble in Xin'an.

On the afternoon of May 15, the phone of the "Ding, Ding, Ding......" regiment headquarters was ringing, and Deputy Commander Xia, who was on duty at the regiment headquarters, grabbed the receiver.

"This is the Sixteenth Regiment."

"Yes, Chief of Staff, wait a minute."

Deputy Head Xia put down the phone and shouted to the guard at the door,

"Go and call the regiment commander to come to the regiment headquarters, the chief of staff will call."

In less than five minutes, He Jianye ran into the regiment headquarters, Deputy Commander Xia handed over the receiver of the phone, He Jianye said into the phone,

"Chief of Staff, I'm He Jianye."

"He Jianye, the division commander ordered, your sixteenth regiment is ready to be pulled, straighten out materials and equipment, and wait for orders; In addition, you will come to the division headquarters immediately. Ruan Yongqi ordered on the phone,

"Yes, Chief of Staff, I'll go to the division headquarters right away." He Jianye put down the phone and said to Deputy Head Xia,

"Tell the cooking class that now cook at once, the meat is cooked, and prepare more multigrain cakes and dry food for the brothers to eat on the road, and we may be ready to go at any time; In addition, the troops were immediately called upon to put in order materials and equipment; Get ready for unplugging. I'll go to the division headquarters first. ”

After speaking, He Jianye didn't ask Zeng Da to get up and live with him, and took two guards and went straight to the division headquarters......

"Report, He Jianye was ordered to report." He Jianye stood at the entrance of the division department and shouted,

"Come in!" Li Yutang's voice sounded,

"He Jianye, come here, take a look. In the current situation in the theater, the Sakamoto detachment (the 6th Brigade of the 11th Division) also advanced north on May 11, repelled Xu Yuanquan's troops, and occupied Hefei on the 14th. Li Yutang pulled He Jianye to the side of the combat map, pointed to Hefei and said, with the movement of his fingers,

"The 10th Division was replaced by the 114th Division, assembled in Lincheng on the 14th, crossed Weishan Lake on the 15th, and prepared to attack Xuzhou from the northwest;"

Li Yutang paused, turned his fingers, and then said, "The 14th Division of the 1st Army sent the 28th Brigade to cover the crossing of the river, transported Jining by car, crossed the canal to the west, and after a fierce battle with the 23rd Division of the 20th Group Army guarding Yuncheng, it captured Yuncheng on the 11th. ”

"The main force of the 14th Division crossed the Yellow River in the area of Pucheng and Yangji on the 12th, and after fierce fighting on the 2nd, repelled the 23rd Division and captured Heze on the 14th."

"After the Japanese army cut off the Longhai Railway, now 6 divisions are deployed north of Xuzhou, and about 3 and a half divisions are deployed south of Xuzhou, attracting and suppressing the Chinese army in the Xuzhou area with continuous attacks, trying to advance north and south, cut off the Longhai Road, and advance 7 routes in parallel to Xuzhou for a centripetal attack. In the battle, Xuzhou has formed a situation of encirclement on all sides. ”

He Jianye looked at the division commander's hand on the map, frowned, and clearly felt that the Japanese army was pointing directly at Xiao County, wanting to encircle Xuzhou from the west. After the 13th Division blew up the Longhai Railway, the rapid support line from Xuzhou to Kaifeng was cut off, and Suxian was not on the verge of ......

"Now the 74th Army is deployed west of Xiao County, along the Longhai Railway, and our division has just received an order to assemble troops and deploy defenses in the area west of Xuzhou and east of Xiao County to prevent the main force of the Japanese army from encircling Xuzhou from the west." Li Yutang paused here to see He Jianye looking at the map intently, and then said,

"I have ordered the Eighth Brigade and the Eighteenth Regiment of the Ninth Brigade to withdraw to Xin'an tonight, but they have been fighting on the south bank of Yishui for several days, and I estimate that the losses are not small.

"Yes, Commander." He Jianye saluted,

"Go back and prepare! Now that the Longhai line is broken, it is estimated that the supplies and equipment will not come up, relying on the materials of the few wagons at the Xuzhou Railway Station, I estimate that it is a drop in the bucket. Li Yutang said,

"Yes, Commander. Then I'll go back and get ready. He Jianye saluted and returned to the temporary barracks of the 16th Regiment......

On May 16, the Japanese 9th Division had advanced to the vicinity of Xiao County and was engaged in a fierce battle with the 139th Division, which was rushing to block the attack; The Japanese 16th Division was also close to the end of the field, and Xuzhou was directly threatened. In order to avoid a decisive battle in an unfavorable situation, Li Zongren decided to abandon Xuzhou for a strategic transfer, and then ordered Zhang Zizhong to command the 59th Army, the 21st Division and the 27th Division of the 92nd Army in the northwest of Xuzhou to reinforce the 139th Division, block the enemy in Xiaoxian and Haozhai, and cover the assembly of the main force.

On May 16, the headquarters of the 3rd Division of Xin'an, the 3rd Division that had been assembled, held an operational meeting at the division headquarters, Li Yutang sat in the middle, and the chief of staff was explaining to everyone the current attack posture of the Japanese army......