After some hysterical venting, Itagaki Seishiro's mood stabilized slightly, and at the same time, he also deeply remembered the unit of the Eighth Route Army Instructor in his heart, and vowed that in the subsequent battle of Xinkou, he must exterminate them all and avenge the blood hatred of the 15th Brigade. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

After that, Itagaki Seishiro put away his emotions, calmly arranged the troop mobilization of Xinkou and Taiyuan, and was determined to take Xinkou and Taiyuan in one go, completely wash away the two defeats of Pingxingguan and Yuanping, and redeem the impact.

At the same time, in order not to shake the morale of the army, Seishiro Itagaki strictly ordered to block the news of the defeat of the 15th Brigade of the Mixed Brigade, so as not to destroy the glorious image of the invincibility of the Imperial Japanese Army and seriously dampen morale.

In the monstrous anger of Seishiro Itagaki , nearly 100,000 troops of the Japanese army moved south from Dai County to Harahira and Lao County, where the instructor was stationed.

In Taiyuan, after urgent consultations, Yan Laoxi decided that Wei Lihuang's 14th Group Army would take on the important task of defending Xinkou on the northern front, and at the same time, the two also jointly called the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army and strongly asked Mr. Zhu to participate in the Battle of Xinkou.

After urgent consultations at the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army, the commander and the boss also deeply felt that the Eighth Route Army needed a unit to participate in the frontal war of resistance, so as to dispel the slander of Chang Kaishen of the Kuomintang against the Eighth Route Army and publicize the Eighth Route Army's anti-Japanese achievements.

At this time, a large number of Japanese troops from Dai County to the south, Yuanping, Laoxian County bear the brunt of the Japanese front, although the instructor strength has 40,000 people, but with 100,000 Japanese troops hard top is undoubtedly a very stupid behavior, after receiving the order of the Eighth Route Army Headquarters, the instructor immediately abandoned the Yuanping, Laoxian position, 40,000 troops on October 11 to withdraw to Xinkou South Huaihua around the rest.

At this time, the successive battles at Laoxian and Yuanping had completely exposed the Japanese army's troop deployment and operational intentions, enabling the Chinese army to have a correct assessment of the Japanese army's offensive posture in a relatively short period of time and make timely adjustments and deployments, thus gaining time for the assembly of the main forces of the Second Theater in the Xinkou area.

By the 11th, as the instructor retreated to Nanhuaihua, the Chinese army had completely occupied the Xinkou position, blocked the Japanese army from Xinkou, and cut off the Japanese army's passage south to Taiyuan.

On the afternoon of 12 July, at the invitation of Wei Lihuang, deputy commander of the Second Theater and commander-in-chief of the 14th Group Army, Zhang Cheng came to the former enemy headquarters in Xinkou to attend an operational meeting.

As soon as Zhang Cheng arrived, the honest-looking Wei Lihuang waited for Zhang Cheng to salute, then he took a step forward with a salute, held Zhang Cheng's hands tightly and exclaimed: "When I first heard that Master Zhang defeated Chen Cheng and Jiang Dingwen's elite troops in Jiangxi Province, I asserted that Master Zhang's future is unlimited, and three years later, I saw Master Zhang again, Master Zhang is already a famous anti-Japanese general who moves the world, and it is really the back waves of the Yangtze River pushing the front waves, and in a few years, I will be willing to bow to the wind!" ”

Zhang Cheng did not have the idea of having a deep friendship with Wei Lihuang, and the parties of the two sides were different, so it was really not appropriate to get too close, so he quietly withdrew his hands and said straight to the point: "Chief Wei's words are serious, the previous achievements are already fleeting and not worth mentioning, and the top priority now is to quickly arrange the Xinkou defense line to block the footsteps of the Japanese army moving south." ”

Hearing Zhang Cheng's words, Wei Lihuang looked up to the young man in front of him, the other party can achieve such a great achievement and reputation at the age of twenty-five, but still maintain a normal heart, without pride and self-restraint, it can be said that it is very rare.

After Zhang Cheng exchanged false greetings with the KMT generals present, Wei Lihuang divided the 25 to 30 km frontal defense line held by the Central Army into three operational areas, on which the Central Army was divided into three corps, which were stationed separately. At the same time, Fu Zuoyi of the Jin Sui Army led the general reserve to join the Central Army to fight.

The commander-in-chief is still Wei Lihuang, and Fu Zuoyi is the deputy commander-in-chief, and its specific deployment is as follows:

Right road area: from Longwangtang in the east, to Jiehepu in the west, the main combat area is Nanguoxia, East and West Ronghua, and East and West South Guan are the main combat areas. The Right Wing Corps was responsible for the defense of the area, with the 15th Army as the main body, and the headquarters of the army commander Liu Maoen was located in Shoulu Village.

The main task of the right-wing corps is to occupy the line of the barracks in Shangshe Village and Lingshan, focusing on the left rear, to get in touch with the Central Corps, and to deploy alerts with the key points of Xiazhuangzi, Dongxinzhuang, and Dongxicha Village; In addition, the first part of the area south of Daixian County should be moved forward as much as possible to cover the flank, and occupy the high ground east of Nanshentou and Xiangzitou with a small force, and establish a support point for the subsequent offensive transfer.

Middle Road area: from Jiehepu in the east, to Xinlianzhuang in the west, among which Xiawangzhuang, Gongjiazhuang, Jiuhebeidi and other villages and Jiehepu, Guanzi and Nanhuaihua in Yunzhong Henan are the main combat areas.

The Central Corps is responsible for defensive operations in the region. It has jurisdiction over the 9th Army, the 21st Division, the 23rd Artillery Regiment, a battalion of the 26th Artillery Regiment, and the 2nd Armored Team of the Combat Defense Artillery Battalion.

The Central Corps still occupied the line of Hepu, Nanhuaihua, and Xinlianzhuang north of Sanjiazhuang, focusing on the right rear of the Central Committee, making contact with the left and right corps, and occupying positions in Banshi and Xiawangzhuang.

Left Road Area: From Xinlianzhuang in the east to Nanyu in the west, of which Dabaishui, Miseng, Nanyu and other villages are the main combat areas. The Left Wing Corps was responsible for operations in the area. It has jurisdiction over 15 regiments of the 14th Army, 4 regiments of the 94th Division, 3 regiments of the 33rd Army, and 4 regiments of the 34th Army.

The main task is to occupy the battles of Qinjiazhuang, Dabaishui, and Nanyu, focusing on the rear of the central government, getting in touch with the central corps, and arranging a guard on the line of Houchengtou and the 1482 heights, and moving to the area south of Mount Kinabalu with small units to cover the left side of the troops.

After the Xinkou defense line was arranged, Wei Lihuang paused, then turned his eyes to Zhang Cheng, and said: "Division Commander Zhang's instructor is a friendly soldier who was invited by Wei to participate in the battle. ”

Wei Lihuang is worthy of being a general of the Kuomintang with a firm anti-Japanese stance, and he did not dig a pit for Zhang Cheng to jump, and after arranging a three-way defense line, he let Zhang Cheng choose a war zone to participate in the war, and his sincerity can be said to be full.

Zhang Cheng recalled the Xinkou Battle in history, and the middle road area was the most fierce and dangerous in the three-way theater, and Hao Mengling, commander of the 9th Army, even martyred the country in this battle, becoming the first commander of our army to die in the line of duty since the all-out war of resistance, and the title "China's first army commander" was described in the primary school Chinese textbook in 1938

Thinking of this, Zhang Cheng immediately made a decision and resolutely said: "I chose the road war zone. ”