Zhang Cheng's choice surprised all the Kuomintang generals present, and even Wei Lihuang was surprised, he thought that Zhang Cheng did not understand the situation on the Xinkou battlefield, so he hurriedly advised: "Division Commander Zhang, the Middle Route Theater will face the strongest Fifth Division of the Japanese Army and the Second Brigade of the mixed army, the battle situation is the most fierce and dangerous, do you want to stop thinking about it?" ”

Zhang Cheng resolutely said: "Our instructor is fighting a strong enemy, Chief Wei doesn't need to persuade me anymore, I have made up my mind!" ”

Hearing Zhang Cheng's categorical reply, Wei Lihuang knew that it was useless to say more, but he had a happy attitude towards Zhang Cheng's instructor taking the initiative to join the middle war zone. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

In fact, Chang Kaishen was extremely dissatisfied with Wei Lihuang crossing him to invite the instructor to join the Xinkou Campaign, and the call faintly hinted that Wei Lihuang had found an opportunity to kill the mentor, and now that Zhang Cheng chose to join the middle war zone where the battle situation was most dangerous, he could also have an explanation with Old Man Chang.

The reason why Zhang Cheng chose to join the Central Theater was not only to save the life of Hao Mengling, a patriotic general who resisted Japan, but also because he wanted to find the right opportunity to annihilate the Fifth Division, known as the "Steel Army."

Of course, Zhang Cheng's idea was too appalling at the time, and no one would believe it at all, but would only think that he was unrealistic and delusional, so Zhang Cheng was also silent and never exposed this idea.

However, Zhang Cheng, as a traverser, has the advantage of a prophet in the Battle of Xinkou, even if there is a change in the victory of Yuanping, but the overall situation of the Battle of Xinkou has not changed very much.

According to the inertia of history, starting on 13 October, the Fifth Division will launch a fierce attack on the Nanhuaihua position in the middle route theater, and Zhang Cheng decided to continue to play the role of pigs and eat tigers in the initial stage of the campaign, and send only one brigade of troops to participate in the battle, and when the fierce fighting between the Fifth Division and the 9th Army of the Kuomintang reached a fever pitch, the whole army will be dispatched to defeat the 5th Division in one fell swoop.

Of course, this plan will undoubtedly bring some casualties to the 9th Army, but compared with the results of most of the casualties of the 9th Army and the death of Commander Hao Mengling in history, Zhang Cheng has a clear conscience.

At the same time, Zhang Cheng's hidden strength also has the meaning of preventing the discovery of accidental mutations, after all, with the chaotic entry of Zhang Cheng's butterfly wings, he is not absolutely sure whether the Battle of Xinkou will be carried out as it is in history.

After the meeting was dismissed, Zhang Cheng came to the garrison of the 9th Army at the invitation of Hao Mengling, and agreed with Hao Mengling, commander-in-chief of the Central Route Theater and commander of the 9th Army, to divide the defensive scope of the two sides.

Hao Mengling, a native of Zhuanghe Village, Gaocheng, Hebei Province, and the commander of the 9th Army of the Revolutionary Army of the Republic of China.

Before going to the battlefield of resistance against Japan, Hao Mengling said to his wife: "I am a soldier, I have fought the civil war for half my life, and I have no interests in the country. Now that the Japanese invaders are going to destroy China, our country has reached the last moment of life and death, I should go to the war of resistance and fight with the enemy. ”

When he led his troops through Wuhan to say goodbye to his family, he said to his children: "I love you, but I love our country even more." Now the enemy is slaughtering our compatriots every day, everyone should go and kill the enemy, if the country dies, you will not have a good life. ”

He couldn't bear to see his family crying before leaving, so he quietly wrote a suicide note for the children to open in the future. He wrote: "This time I went north to resist Japan, and I was determined to sacrifice. In case of death, you must listen to your mother's teachings and be filial to your grandmother. As for you waiting to go to school, I personally don't have the money. In the future, when the country is victorious, you can enter the school for the bereaved people. ”

For such a patriotic soldier, Zhang Cheng naturally did not dare to be disrespectful in the slightest. After some in-depth exchanges, both sides had a good impression of each other's determination to resolutely resist Japan, and although the parties were different, it did not prevent the two from falling into each other's hearts, and the two decided to cooperate closely on the battlefield of Nanhuaihua to fight the Japanese invaders together.

In a friendly atmosphere of exchange, Zhang Cheng and Hao Mengling each divided the defensive areas of the two troops. When they were separated, Hao Mengling specially sent a Bekning pistol to Zhang Cheng to commemorate the friendship between the two, and Zhang Cheng also returned with a Chinese-style pistol produced by Yulin Arsenal.

Bidding farewell to General Hao Mengling, in the afternoon of the same day, Zhang Cheng led the instructor into Henan Village, and the reason why Zhang Cheng chose this place as the instructor's residence was because the Japanese army caused the Henan Village tragedy here on the 13th in history.

Historical record: At dawn on October 13, 1937, the Japanese invaders stepped into Henan Village. After they broke into the village, they killed people and robbed things when they saw them, and slaughtered more than 500 innocent people on the same day.

In the following more than 20 days from October 13 to November 8, the Japanese army killed more than 700 villagers in Henan Village, burned down more than 1,000 houses, and plundered more than 200 large livestock, more than 700 pigs, and more than 600 sheep in the village.

The details of the tragedy will not be described by the author here, anyway, it is miserable, which makes people angry and crying, and they can't kill all the Japanese beasts.

As soon as he returned to the division headquarters, after the radio station was arranged, the commander sent a long telegram to Zhang Cheng, reminding Zhang Cheng to pay attention to preserving his strength and analyzing the current overall situation of resistance against Japan, especially pointing out that although the Xinkou Battle was important, it was not decisive, and asked Zhang Cheng to keep a clear mind, not to be swayed by fanatical emotions, and to protect the instructor as the first priority.

Finally, the commander-in-chief encouraged Zhang Cheng to have the courage to seize the opportunity to resolutely eliminate the Japanese devils after the appearance of the fighter planes, so as to make greater contributions to the Eighth Route Army, the Workers' and Peasants' Party, and the people of the whole country who were looking forward to the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and set an example for the whole people to resist the war.

After receiving the call from the commander-in-chief, Zhang Cheng was greatly excited, and he was even more determined to give the old devil Itagaki a big surprise in this battle, and send his fifth division into the arms of Amaterasu.

On the morning of October 13, Itagaki Seishiro led 100,000 Japanese troops to Laoxian and Harapei, and when they found that the cities in the two places had long since become empty, the embarrassed and angry Japanese army, led by Itagaki Seishiro, began to storm Xinkou, 20 kilometers away.

Without fire reconnaissance, the first engagement between China and Japan tended to be white-hot.

On the afternoon of the 13th, under the cover of more than 20 planes and heavy artillery fire, the Japanese army concentrated tens of thousands of troops to launch a fierce attack on the Huaihua position in the south. Its tactical intention was to first break through to Nanhuaihua, capture the main position of Xinkou, and surprise the defenders on the other two flanks.

The 9th Army, which was stationed in the main central position of Nanhuaihua, under the leadership of army commander Hao Mengling, fought with artillery and infantry, charged hand-to-hand, put up stubborn resistance, and inflicted a large number of casualties on the invading Japanese troops.

For a time, the positions of the two sides changed hands several times, and the battle fell into a stalemate.