The independent brigade was stationed in Dingyuan, and after the commander of the 135th Division heard about it, he also rushed to talk to Chen Qingyi.

The commander of the 135th Division is named Su Zuxin, who is a capable general under Liu Shiyi, who is fierce in battle, and is known for daring to fight in the 31st Army.

Su Zuxin was also full of joy when she learned of Chen Qingzhi's arrival, and entertained Chen Qingzhi in Dingyuan that night, as a catch to the wind and wash the dust, because of the wartime, so the reception was simple, coarse tea and light rice, but Chen Qingzhi didn't mind, and Su Zuxin exchanged greetings.

On the second day, the two discussed the defense of Dingyuan, and at the beginning, Su Zuxin did not agree with Chen Qingzhi pulling the troops outside the city to build a defensive front, but after Chen Qingzhi pulled the troops out, Su Zuxin was speechless.

A specific defense plan has just been formulated!

Su Zuxin's 135th Division was stationed in Dingyuan City, while Chen Qingzhi's Independent Brigade was pulled outside the south of the city, with the city wall as the core direction, and pushed outward for one mile to build a defensive position under the city.

The Independent Brigade is on a defensive mission right outside the city!

In fact, at the beginning, Fang Xiaodong also put forward the significance of this battle plan, thinking that although the independent brigade was well equipped, the troops were all new recruits after all, and if they were suddenly pulled out, the casualties at the beginning were likely to be a bit heavy.

However, for this concern, Chen Qingzhi shook his head and refused.

Although it is indeed possible to cause relatively large losses to the troops, Chen Qingzhi also has his own plans!

Pulling the troops outside the city, his independent brigade will have great operability, and there is no need to be confined to Dingyuan County!

If there are any fighters or opportunities, Chen Qingzhi can directly draw out troops and go to reinforce or strike at the enemy.

And if it is confined to Dingyuan, it can only passively defend Dingyuan, and the entire independent brigade will be firmly contained in the city, and it will not be able to move.

If they fight in the back, it is easy to achieve a stalemate, a war of attrition, and even if they are attacked by the Japanese army, once the superiors let them hold on to Dingyuan, this Dingyuan will become the burial place of the independent brigade!

This is definitely not what Chen Qingzhi wants to see!

And pulling the troops outside the city, although it seems that once the Japanese army attacks, it will suffer a lot of losses, but in the long run, the advantages still outweigh the disadvantages!

After all, movement warfare, guerrilla warfare is much better than positional warfare!

After considering these considerations and careful consideration, Chen Qingzhi made such a decision!

And after telling Fang Xiaodong and the others these ideas, Fang Xiaodong and the others also had no opinion, and nodded in agreement.

In this way, the Independent Brigade began to build defensive positions outside the city, and Su Zuxin also sent people from the 135th Division to help the Independent Brigade build together.

In view of the firepower of the independent brigade, Chen Qingzhi conscientiously built a defensive position, and built large and small firepower points on the position to ensure sufficient firepower, and the three regiments Chen Qingzhi only put Fang Xiaodong's regiment on the defensive position in the south of the city, and the other two regiments were temporarily on standby in Dingyuan City as a reserve.

As for Zhu Xiaocheng's artillery regiment, it was divided into two by Chen Qingyi, one part of which was to build a defensive position in the city, and the other part was placed in the left rear of a regiment's position outside the city as artillery support for a regiment.

And another battalion of troops was sent to guard the artillery positions of the artillery regiment outside the city.

This part of the cannon placed outside the city is basically 61mm caliber mortars and 80mm caliber mortars, light weight, once there is any emergency, can respond quickly.

With such an arrangement, soon, the entire independent brigade was already ready for the war!

And Dingyuan has also become impregnable and impregnable under the protection of the 135th Division and the Independent Brigade.

At least, that's what the fighters of the 135 Division and the Separate Brigade think!

Is it just really that unbreakable?

Chen Qingzhi has no bottom in his heart, and Su Zuxin's psychology is also bottomless!

They are all people who have fought countless battles with the Japanese army, and they have a deep understanding of the combat effectiveness of the Japanese army.

According to their previous combat experience, before the start of the war, they thought that the impregnable defensive line would often melt like ice and snow when they encountered the Japanese army, and soon collapsed.

This time, no one knows whether they will be able to hold on to the Japanese attack!

Just when everyone was waiting, as time went by, the time had come to February 1938, that is, February of the 27th year of the Republic of China!

In order to open up the Jinpu line and connect the northern and southern battlefields, the base camp of the Japanese army successively mobilized eight divisions and regiments, plus three brigades and two detachments, with about 240,000 people, and brazenly launched an attack!

The commander of the Japanese Central China Army, Shunroku Hatata, and the commander of the North China Front, Toshiichi Terauchi, commanded the army and carried out an attack from the north and south.

To the north of Xuzhou, the Japanese Second Army was divided into two routes, and the Fifth Division of the East Road went south from Weixian and went straight to Linyi.

On the other hand, the Eighth Division went south through Weixian, wanting to go straight to Linyi through Yishui and Juxian. The 40th Division of the 3rd Army Corps of our defenders was ordered to be stationed north of Yishui to block the Japanese troops moving south.

On the other hand, the Japanese First Division went south from Weixian, bypassed the defense line of the 40th Division of the Third Army Corps, and went straight to Mengyin, but it was blocked by the First Division of our Third Army in Mengyin, and it was temporarily unable to advance an inch.

On the battlefield south of Xuzhou, the Japanese army was also divided into two routes, one was the Japanese army's third and ninth divisions wanted to attack through Tianshui, but the defenders of our 89th Army built a defensive front south of Tianchang, Lai'an and Jiangdu, blocking the Japanese army's previous approach.

As a last resort, the 3rd and 9th Divisions of the Japanese Army had to make a detour and pounce on Chuxian, and the 13th Division of the Japanese Army also approached Chuxian through Nanjing.

The defenders of Chuxian County, the 7th Army was ordered to resist the Japanese army, and a bloody battle broke out!

However, Chuxian was not a place to die, and after a period of resistance from the defenders, they began to retreat towards the Chihe area.

Naturally, the Japanese army was pressing step by step, attacking towards the Chi River, and gathering heavy troops to force the Chi River.

In view of this attitude of the Japanese army, Li Zongren, commander of the Fifth Theater of Operations, feared that the southern front would be lost, so he urgently transferred the main force of the 31st Army from Dangshan to the south to reinforce and consolidate the defensive strength of the southern front.

The Battle of Xuzhou officially broke out!

The Battle of Xuzhou, in a strict sense, was the first large-scale battle in the real sense of the Republic of China in the War of Resistance Against Japan!

The Battle of Songhu was a fiasco, and the defenders' will to resist was not very strong, it was more of a rout than a battle!

In the first battle of Songhu, tens of thousands of troops of the Central Army were chased and beaten by the Japanese army! It's a shame to be thrown to grandma's house!

Strictly speaking, the Battle of Nanjing was not a battle, because in the Battle of Nanjing, the high-level leaders of Nanjing at that time were not determined to fight to the death with the Japanese army!

And in this battle of Xuzhou, because of adequate preparations, the forces participating in the battle controlled by the Central Army have a great advantage, and because the geographical location of Xuzhou is too important to be missed, the will of the Central Army to resist is still very strong!

You must know that once Xuzhou falls, the Japanese army will be able to connect the northern and southern battlefields, and can go straight to Wuhan, and most of the Republic of China will fall into the hands of the Japanese army, which is definitely not what the upper echelons want to see!

That's why so many armies were gathered and a large-scale battle with the Japanese army was organized in Xuzhou!