readx; After the war, the Tokyo Military Department issued a eulogy, posthumously presenting Yamaki as a major general of the army, and the whole country paid tribute. On April 30, in Yichang's front finger, Lieutenant General Okamura Ningji sat in his wide leather chair, staring at the map on the wall, and remained motionless for a long time. The attack arrow on the diagram was plotted 10 days ago. But it's been 10 days, and the arrow hasn't advanced. However, the daily staggering casualty reports of the front-line troops were delivered on time.

Okamura Ninji has been fighting in the south and north for decades, and he has never been so anxious and confused as he is today. After the 37th Division's Wangfu Bridge reached a stalemate, he simultaneously dispatched the 13th Division and the Yantian Detachment, which had been invincible since the beginning of the war. But at this moment, he only had the feeling of a vicious tiger being put into a wolf pack. The 13th Division was entangled and unable to get out, and Yantian seemed to have lost the blessing of Lady Luck. As soon as they landed at the northeastern port of Duanchang, they were pressed to the beachhead by the fierce counterattack of the Chinese Sun Tongxuan group, and if it were not for the full support of the navy's naval guns, the more than 8,000 people in Yantian would have been driven into the Yangtze River.

He couldn't figure out how Sun Tongxuan's group, which was still driven around by Tufeiyuan at the beginning of the year, could be reborn overnight, like a new army.

Okamura Ningji didn't know that there was a difference between heaven and earth between Han Fuyu and Sun Tongxuan after all.

In the afternoon, Tian Junliu, commander of the Central China Army, sent a telegram urging Okamura's Ningji Army to step up its attack.

This is the third telegram in 2 days. Although Tian Junroku didn't accuse him of anything, he still felt uneasy and ashamed, Okamura Ninji has always been resolute and fierce, and what he can't stand the most is this kind of wordless accusation, whether it comes from his superiors or subordinates. He gritted his teeth and threw himself into the 4th of the 5 divisions in his hands. And his last 1 division is still on the way to Yichang at the moment.

On 30 April, dozens of warships and troop carriers carrying the 9th Division galloped toward the Ruichang River. At the same time, the main force of the 9th Division advanced west and attacked the front-line position of the 2nd Corps in Ruichang. In this new army, the Maruyama detachment, consisting of the 6th Brigade of Major General Maruyama, moved quickly and made a surprise attack on the Guanshan position defended by the Wangling Kigawa Army. Wang's army was caught off guard, coupled with inferior equipment, and lost Liyu Mountain, Bijia Mountain, and Xintangpu in succession, and the commanding heights fell into the hands of the Yue army in a blink of an eye, and the important rear areas were lost, so that the positions of the Chinese defenders were shaken on all fronts.

Seeing this, Gao Fei shouted that it was not good, and urgently transferred the first section of the elite New 9th Brigade to block the Maruyama detachment from detouring and infiltrating, so as to cover the left back of the Chinese defenders on the front line of Wangfu Bridge.

On May 1, Goofy hurriedly asked the friendly 74th Army to rush to the front.

However, Yu Jishi, the commander of the 74th Army, regarded himself as a descendant of the Central Army, supported the troops and respected himself, and did not look down on the young general Gao Fei, so he still did not send the main force, and was defeated again.

At this time, the main force of Lieutenant General Yoshizumi Ryosuke's division rushed to the front line of the Wangfu Bridge with all its might, and there was a great tendency to cut off the rear road of the main Chinese army on the first line of the Wangfu Bridge. The situation has taken a turn for the worse and is critical.

Goofy couldn't help but get angry. On the one hand, he ordered the defenders on the front line of Wangfu Bridge to move to the rear line of Guanshan-Qingtianmen-Shishan Mountain, and on the other hand, he called Yu Jishi's 74th Army, and after the phone was about to be connected, Gao Fei shouted in a fierce voice: "Commander Yu, what is the reason why your troops have repeatedly reinforced unfavorably? I now order the entire 74th Army to go to Guanshan, leaving not a single one behind. Listen, if you go back so that the troops at the front can't retreat, I'll take the case to the commission! ”

After thinking about it, Yu Jishi was a little scared. In the past, he relied on the fact that he was Chiang Kai-shek's fellow countryman, and served as a guard officer for Chiang Kai-shek, and was deeply favored by Chiang Kai-shek, so he often grinded hard against the orders of his superiors. But today, if the reinforcements are unfavorable, so that several main forces are eaten by himself, and the whole war is lost, then Chiang Kai-shek will not give him this face no matter what.

In desperation, he threw away the phone stupidly, scolded Gao Fei a few words, and personally led the whole army to Guanshan.

The offensive momentum of the Maruyama detachment was blocked. The defenders on the front line of Wangfu Bridge finally withdrew safely. Although Gao Fei lost the position he had held for more than a month, he was relieved to see that the troops were fine, and began to deploy defenses on a new position.

In early May, Goofy's main forces reoccupied the front-line positions. Gao Fei was obviously very satisfied with this anti-"eight" position. He said to his subordinates:

"This position is like a bag to catch mice, like flying tongs and cutting objects, the enemy should respond to the right on the left and center, the left and right should respond to the left, and the left and right should respond to the attack."

Goofy was right. Okamura Ninji's divisions temporarily abandoned the offensive after occupying the front-line position at the Wangfu Bridge.

And in late April, when Okamura Ninji was fighting Gao Fei in the dark and the offensive was difficult to progress, the army Dongjiu quietly ordered his troops to set off and attack westward.

On April 26, the 10th Division of Shinozuka and the 13th Division of Ogishu defeated the armies of Yu Xuezhong and Feng Zhi'an respectively. On the 28th, Lieutenant General Shinozuka stepped into Lu'an City, and the defenders were driven out of the city after fierce street fighting.

On the 29th, the Houzhou Division occupied Huoshan City, which was advancing faster than the Shinozuka Division. After taking Huoshan, he led his troops to march non-stop, ignoring the Chinese defenders in Lihuang County, and made a detour to Yejiaji.

On May 2, after a day of fierce fighting, Ye Jiaji was taken.

Then forcibly crossed the Shi River and approached the main position of [***] in the palace of the mouth of the Dabie Mountain Gorge.

Just when the two divisions of Shinozuka and Ogishu were attacking westward like iron hoops with a wide mouth open, the 3rd Division, in addition to leaving a guard to guard the rear line of communication, pounced on the rear of Okamura Ningji's 6th Division on the north bank of the Yangtze River to strengthen the auxiliary force in the secondary direction. Fujie's 16th Division followed the two divisions of Shinozuka and Ogishu as the main offensive reserve force.

At this time, Bai Chongxi woke up from a big dream. It turned out that Dong Jiu Er put the main direction of attack at the foot of Dabie Mountain, trying to detour to Xinyang and Wusheng Pass, and then attack south, this accident made Bai Chongxi feel both sudden and guilty. An error in judging the direction of the enemy's main attack will inevitably lead to a mistake in the direction of the main defense. At present, among the 300,000 defenders in the 5th Theater, there are about 150,000 at the southern foot of Dabie Mountain, 670,000 in the Central Corps, but less than 100,000 in the key Left Corps. Sun Lianzhong used less than 100,000 people against the elite 100,000 people of the Yue army, and he knew the disparity in strength.

Bai Chongxi, who had served as the training director at that time, knew that a Chinese division with strong combat effectiveness could only reach a tie with a wing of the Yue Army if its tactics were completely correct. At present, on the front line of Gushi, Sun Lianzhong can mobilize only seven or eight divisions, while the two divisions of Ogishu and Shinozuka together have more than 10 wings. The disparity made the "little Zhuge who has always been calm and calm" a little flustered.

On the same day, he called the headquarters of the 3rd Corps in the mall and called the commander, Lieutenant General Sun Lianzhong: "Commander-in-Chief Sun, I know the situation. Time is tight, you hurry up to adjust the deployment, and the main force should be placed on the right flank pass. You can transfer the Tian and Song armies to the front-line positions. Yes, don't worry about the reserves, I will immediately draw troops from the Central Liao Corps to support you, and order Chen Dingxun's army to move closer to your department. ”

As he spoke, he sighed and added: "Brother Fanglu, the success or failure of the defense of the Left Corps this time is related to the overall situation in the theater, and you must block the two divisions of the Yue Army from the Dabie Pass." If they are allowed to rush in and the rear defense cannot be adjusted, the defense of the theater will be shaken on all fronts, and the consequences will be unimaginable. Now that the safety of the war zone is at stake, you are in vain. As long as you can resist it, you can decide for yourself before reporting it. I wish you to show the prestige of Taierzhuang again."

At the critical moment of the war, Lieutenant General Sun Lianzhong was pushed into the gladiatorial arena to fight with a vicious beast. Putting down the phone, he was in a heavy mood. He now doesn't want to hear the word "Taierzhuang" anymore, and he doesn't want people to put him with these three words.

Every time in the dead of night, whenever he closes his eyes, one familiar face after another, and one after another tragic scenes of dead bodies stacking pillows will appear in front of his eyes. After the battle of Taierzhuang, his state of mind has never been calm. There was not much left of his old department, and even a few staff officers and adjutants who had followed him for many years and a few brothers who were casually like family members with him also blended into the scorched earth of Taierzhuang. He is also an old soldier who crawled out of the pile of dead people, and he is used to the scene of death.

But the tragedy of Taierzhuang still deeply shocked his soul. When Chiang Kai-shek promoted him from the commander of the group army to the commander of the corps, he did not have the joy and complacency that he had when he was promoted in the past. He didn't want to fight this kind of war of attrition anymore, although Taierzhuang made him a famous anti-Japanese general.

But fate seemed to play tricks on him. For Sun Bu, who was disabled in Taierzhuang, Bai Chongxi also intended to take care of him at first, so that he could contain Yue himself in the direction of secondary defense. But the change in the face of the battle caught "Little Zhuge off guard". Sun Lian Zhongci's secondary defensive direction became the main direction, and the number of troops was small, and in the blink of an eye, it was placed on the tip of the knife and the muzzle of the gun.

Among the four corps of the Kuomintang Army on the frontal battlefield, the 3rd Corps had the smallest number of soldiers, the largest number of recruits, and the worst equipment. What made Sun Lianzhong even more angry was that among his six or seven armies, after the two armies of Yu Xuezhong and Feng Zhi'an were lost in Lu'an and Huoshan, they were pinned down by the two wings of the Yue army near Lu'an and Huoshan and could not return to help. The two armies of Zhang Zizhong and Feng Anbang were transferred by Bai Chongxi to the southern foot of Dabie Mountain to prepare for a counterattack in the war zone.

The equipment of Chen Dingxun of the Sichuan army is extremely poor, and the guns in the hands of many soldiers are only made in Sichuan, and this army is difficult to count on.

In this way, the only ones who really had combat effectiveness in his hands were Song Xilian's 71st Army and Tian Zhennan's 30th Army. And what about the army? The Ogishu Division has been in battle for a long time and is the trump card in the army. Shinozuka's 10th Division is also a model for the modernization of the army, with as many as 8 infantry, artillery, cavalry, engineer and other arms wings. It is difficult for him to be sure of winning against anyone.

Sun Lianzhong knew that it was impossible to avoid it at this time, and he had to face another desperate bloody and vicious battle. The Wuhan Military Commission, Chiang Kai-shek's solemn face when he swore and reaffirmed military law, was still floating in front of him. Taking a step back, as a professional soldier and a high-ranking general of the Kuomintang army, in the national liberation war to protect the species and the country, he had to risk his life, so where could the troops take care of it?

Having made up his mind, he convened a corps operations meeting in the mall. At the meeting, it was announced that the 30th Army of Tian Zhennan would defend the Mall area. Song Xilian's 71st Army, which was also attached to Zhong Song's 61st Division, blocked the Yue Army in the area of Shihe and Gushi, thwarting its attempt to attack westward.

Sun Lianzhong did not put all the troops in his hands into the front line, and he had a way to defend the war. At that time, almost everyone in the Kuomintang army knew Sun Lianzhong's nickname of "Steel Head".

Although his strength is limited today, he is also unwilling to lose the trump card of stubborn counterattack in defense, which is where the tenacity of defense lies. But he knew that on the front-line positions, troops who could fight tough battles must be equipped. In this way, Song Xilian's 71st Army, which had 4 elite divisions, was put on the front line.

He did everything that Sun Lianzhong could do, and all the troops he could use were also used without reservation. In terms of arranging troops, he is worthy of Bai Chongxi, and he can only look at the soldiers in front below.

The 71st and 30th armies on the front line seem to have been infected by him and have developed a fighting power that they had never had before. From May 2 to May 11, the cannon roared on the first line of Gushi, and the night did not stop. Dongjiu also returned the 2nd Army to the vanguard of the main attack, and the 13th Division and the 10th Division fought desperately. A ** charge detoured, pressing the defenders out of breath, but in the end, the army abandoned nearly a thousand corpses in front of the position, and failed to cross the position a step.

At the headquarters of the 5th theater, Bai Chongxi took a long breath, and even said that there was finally sunshine on his cloudy face. In the past 10 days, the crisis caused by Bai Chongxi's miscalculation in the 5th War Zone has finally passed without danger

There is another thing that makes Sun Lianzhong feel very gratified. In the battle of Taierzhuang, it was the 2nd Army of the Yue Army that caused his Northwest Army to suffer unprecedented losses. He had already made a wish to those souls of the Central Plains in his heart: in the future battles, he must let the little devils of the 2nd Army sacrifice with blood and repay with their lives. Now that the Song and Tian armies have lost more than half of the main offensive force of the 2nd Army, and there have been countless casualties, this cannot but make him feel comforted from the bottom of his heart. Of course, he didn't say this to anyone.

In the early morning of September 2, the sky was bright, and Major General Song Xilian, commander of the 71st Army, walked out of a small courtyard that was used as a military headquarters in Wumiao. Sun Lianzhong was forced to be helpless, and put all the burden of the front-line resistance against the Northern Route Army on his shoulders.

He was nervous. and excited, so that he could not sleep all night. He was thinking about his deployment over and over again, thinking about the strengths and weaknesses of the entire defense line of the 71st Army. He wanted to know where his opponent would throw his main force and to which position he would launch the main assault. But everything can only be thought of by himself.

The ground is a defender, militarily speaking, he is passive. The time of the attack, the direction of the attack, can only be decided by the opponent. He said that wherever he hits, he has to guard against it. And it must be integrated into the big picture.

The calm earth was awakened by the sound of hurried footsteps and the neighing of chariots and horses. In the low-lying areas, among the small trees, and in the private houses and villages, the figure of the soldiers who were busy mobilizing in the earthy color was clearly pulled in front of him by the high-powered telescope in his hand

Based on his more than 10 years of experience on the battlefield, he concluded that he was by no means an ordinary mobilization and assembly. He said that he would launch an all-out attack today.

When he returned to the military headquarters, he didn't eat or wash his face, so he first asked for the phone to the headquarters of the 36th Division of Chen Ruihe on the left flank.

"Master Chen? How's the preparation? Song Xilian suppressed his words and asked first.

"Junzao, don't worry, everything is ready, just wait for the little devil to come and die!"

"Good! What's going on in front of your position?"

"Not yet. The search team that can be sent back said that the little devil is tossing around in the back, and I don't know what tricks he is doing? I always felt that this battle wouldn't be going to wait long. ”

Song Xilian saw that the military general under him seemed to have been aware, and he felt a little comforted in his heart. He raised his voice and said, "Division Commander Chen, now that the devils are frequently mobilized, they are gathering troops. Today, I said that I might launch an attack, and the troops must be ready. The combination between your department and the Zhong Shi must not be sloppy, the important thing is that it must be after the devil attacks. Determine the direction of his main attack. ”

"Got it! Military seat. I would like to ask, how many days are we going to be here? ”

Division Commander Chen Ruihe seems to want to get to the bottom of it, so he can be prepared.

"The longer, the better. You can prepare for 10 days and half a month! ”

Hanging up the phone, he asked for the 88th Army commanded by Major General Zhong Bin on the right flank. After the explanation, he put down the phone, breathed a sigh of relief, and shouted: "Herald, wash your face and eat." ”

At about 10 o'clock in the morning, a black press machine flew first. Like a flock of crows that have found their prey, the 24 planes circled and swooped over the position. Piles of bombs and machine guns spewing flames blew up the [***] position in the middle of Fujin Mountain in the blink of an eye, and the flames soared into the sky.

On the ground, the commander of the Ogisu Division concentrated all the artillery of the 13th Division, accompanied by the raging machine, to join in the indiscriminate bombardment of the 71st Army, and the position was in a sea of fire. The roar of the machine alarmed Song Xilian, the army commander who was thinking hard in front of the map. After the staff officer on duty reacted, he shouted: "Enemy plane, hide quickly!" Enemy aircraft, hide quickly! ”

Song Xilian let the guards urge, but he didn't move. He believed that the phone on the desk must have called him first, not his plane.

Before the plane arrived, a few shells exploded near the military headquarters. Seeing this, the guards became even more anxious and urged him to go out and take refuge. He glared angrily: "What's the panic, can't you hear that this is a cannonball?" He said that he could not see us, and this shell was a flying shell, and it would not have landed on our heads so coincidentally. ”

The guards rarely saw the commander get angry, a little frightened, and retreated to the side to stop talking, at this time, the phone on the table rang, it was Chen Ruihe, the commander of the 36th Division, calling.

"How's it going?" Song Xilian asked anxiously.

"His grandmother's, said that his planes and cannons were fierce. The brothers were crushed to the ground and could not lift their heads. There were some casualties among the troops, but they were not significant. The main forces are all on the anticline of the ridge, and the devils can't hit it. Chen Ruihe seemed to be more relaxed than the army commander, and said scolding.

"Has the ground offensive begun?"

"Hmm. There were about two or three thousand devils attacking the mountain in front of our division, and there were more than 1,000 people in the distance. It is estimated that this attack is a bit tentative, and the troops dispatched are about 1 wing! ”

(To be continued)