readx; "This battle of Xuzhou is related to the survival of the party-state and the survival of the Chinese nation.

Before leaving Xuzhou, Chiang Kai-shek summoned the military and political leaders of Xuzhou for the last time and bowed deeply. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The significance of the entire Battle of Xuzhou is too important, and any slight negligence may lead to irreparable losses.

After the meeting, Chiang Kai-shek left Gao Fei alone for the second time, which was very rare, and he was silent there for a while: "Gao Fei, do you really like to fight so much?" ”

"Yes, Chairman!" Goofy's answer was categorical.

"You're a good soldier, a good soldier." Chiang Kai-shek nodded slightly: "Some of us who lead troops only want to preserve our strength, why?" If you have the army, you will have strength, if you have strength, you will have territory, and if you have territory, you can compete with the central government. But you are not like them, you are a soldier, you just need to do a good job in military affairs, and you don't want to get involved in politics

Goofy, I gave you the arms you wanted, and I satisfied you with the supplies you wanted, and now it's your turn. I have already told Delin that I want to use you, not only to use you, but also to use you in the hardest places! You are not a Whampoa student, but you have to beat the Whampoa student, and you have to play the demeanor of a person that I Jiang has a fancy! ”

"Please rest assured that Gao Fei will use the spirit of Whampoa to inspire himself, encourage himself, live up to the expectations of the chairman, swear to fight to the death, and never retreat!" Goofy replied loudly.

Chiang Kai-shek was very satisfied: "I have heard that your home was destroyed in the flames of war."

Gao Fei knew that this was the "information" that Chiang Kai-shek had already seen about himself submitted by Dai Li, and there was no interface, so he only listened to Chiang Kai-shek say:

"Therefore, warlord melee is not shallow and harmful. Lingfu killed his wife, the Anti-Japanese War broke out, in order to serve the country, he changed his mind and changed his name, renamed 'Lingfu', Gao Fei, I will also give you a table word, what do you think? ”

"Thank you, Chairman!" Goofy said with a straight chest.

Table? I never thought about this myself

Chiang Kai-shek groaned: "The kettle sinks!" High cauldron sinks! Do you know what that means? ”

"Break the cauldron and fight to the death!" Goofy replied loudly.

"Yes, break the cauldron and fight to the death!" Chiang Kai-shek's voice also raised slightly: "As a soldier, when you are on the front line, you will break the cauldron and fight to the death!" You're not my student, but from now on, you're better than my student! The kettle sinks, do a good job, and make a show to the whole people! ”

Gao Fei didn't say anything, just gave a military salute dignifiedly.

I have to say that Chiang Kai-shek's hand is more lethal and co-optive than any amount of gold and silver treasures. Chiang Kai-shek helped Gao Fei take the word, which was tantamount to putting himself in the position of Gao Fei's elders, and easily pulled Gao Fei to his side unconsciously

Gao Fei also knows this very well in his heart, but for Gao Fei, as long as he can eliminate every stumbling block on the road of the Anti-Japanese War, he is acceptable no matter what

The big war has officially begun!

In late February, the enemy had already assembled the 5th and 10th divisions in Jinan and Tai'an, and the 114th division was constantly replenished. In addition, the landing of marines to capture Qingdao and other places, and the southwest along the southern shore of the Jiaodong Peninsula to cope with the offensive of the army on the Jinpu Road.

In the face of this aggressive situation of the Yue Army, the Theater Commander's Department drew up a decisive battle plan and prepared to mobilize troops to launch a decisive battle in the areas of Qufu and Zou County.

To this end, first of all, a strong force fighting in the Huaihe area in the southern section of Jinpu Road, the famous general Zhang Zizhong's 59th Army came to the north to Teng County, under the command of the 22nd Group Army. At this time, Deng Xihou, the former commander-in-chief of the 22nd Group Army, returned to Sichuan to replace Liu Xiang and was appointed as the director of Sichuan Province's appeasement. The commander-in-chief of the group army has been promoted from former deputy commander-in-chief Sun Zhen to the post.

The highly mechanized armed forces often hold the initiative and the first opportunity on the battlefield. When Zhang Zizhong arrived in Teng County, the Fifth Division of the Yue Army had already turned east and then south along the Jiaoji Railway, and its vanguard had launched a fierce attack on Linyi with the Marines from Qingdao!

Garrisoned in Linyi is another miscellaneous army of more than 10,000 people, Pang Bingxun's department, who has been fighting for a long time, and has gradually lost its support. Linyi is an important town leading to Xuzhou, where a number of highways intersect, and it is only a few dozen kilometers away from Taierzhuang. If Linyi is not protected, the army can quickly occupy Taierzhuang and go straight to Xuzhou.

At this time, the Taiwan and Xu regions of the Fifth War Zone were still empty cities, and all the troops that could be reinforced, were still on the way hundreds of kilometers away. Li Zongren thought about it again and again, but he had no choice but to dig up the flesh and mend the sores, and then transferred Zhang Zizhong's 59th Army from Tengxian to the east to rush to Linyi.

On March 1, Zhang Zizhong, who had not gained a firm foothold in Teng County, drove eastward. The front of the Jinpu Road returned to its original state a few days ago, leaving only more than 20,000 men of the 22nd Group Army to defend to the north.

Opposite to the 22nd Army was the enemy's 10th Division, which was eyeing it closely.

The 10th Division of the Japanese Army is a veteran division that participated in the Russo-Japanese War, with Hyogo Prefecture in the south of Honshu as the main source of troops, so it is also named after Himeji, a famous historical city in Hyogo Prefecture, and is called Himeji Division. The division is stationed on the Korean Peninsula and is a brave and ruthless combat unit.

On February 6, 1936, Tokyo launched the "II. Most of the radical soldiers in the 26th "military coup d'état came from this division and regiment. This division is a first-class division, with a standing force of 28,000 men, more than 50 artillery pieces, and more than 7,000 horses.

In the confrontation on the northern line of Jinpu Road at this time, our army was obviously at a disadvantage.

Lieutenant General Ryosuke Isoya was the division commander of the 10th Division. This person is a well-known China expert, who once served as the military attache in China, jumped up and down for the army to expand its aggression in North China, did all kinds of bandit deeds, and claimed to inherit the will of his father-in-law, former military attache in China, and a giant leader Aoki Xuanjun, a spy for the invasion of China, to devote himself to the development of North China.

This person is also a hard-line element among the militarists, who graduated from the 15th class of the 15th class of the Army Noncommissioned Officer School in 1930 and is one of the best among them. This man is arrogant, cruel and ferocious.

On March 9, 1938, when the army was ready for offensive operations, the General Staff of the Second Army of the North China Front orally conveyed to the 10th Division its intention to prepare for the offensive. The 10th Division immediately intensified the spy activities of our troops and the fire reconnaissance of small units, and also attacked the salient parts of our position.

On March 13, the 2nd Army of the Yue Army officially issued an order to move south to occupy Tengxian and Lincheng. At this time, the commander of the Isogu Lianjie Division in Zou County was full of ambition and eager to try, and he couldn't hold back the excitement of wanting to take the lead in attacking Xuzhou: those poorly equipped Sichuan troops in front of him were not the opponents of my 10th Division at all, and they only needed to kick him and make his defense collapse in an instant!

Looking at the steel-like team he led, rows of flashing bayonets, high muzzles and four-hooved war horses, Ryosuke Isoya was proud.

Taking advantage of the fact that the 5th Division was fighting fiercely with Zhang Zizhong and Pang Bingxun in Linyi, Ryosuke Isoya immediately issued an order to attack.

Finally, at dawn on March 14, the 10th Division, with more than 7,000 men of the Seya Detachment as the main force, launched a general attack on our 22nd Group Army from Liangxiadian and other places.

In the south-central part of Shandong Province is a vast Yimeng Mountainous Area, in the southwest of the Yimeng Mountainous Area, is the north-west direction of Weishan Lake, Weishan Lake is 150 kilometers long, the famous Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal passes through it. Teng County is located on the lakeside plain between Weishan Lake and Yimeng Mountain.

Twenty kilometers north of Teng County, a branch vein stretches out from Yimeng Mountain, reaching directly to Weishan Lake. This branch vein crosses the east and west, and has become a natural barrier for Teng County. Geshan and other positions, which had already exchanged fire with the Japanese army many times, were several hills at the eastern end of this natural barrier.

In terms of administrative division, this branch belongs to the southern edge of Zou County. The forward positions of the 22nd Army were set up here. The Jinpu Railway runs through the north and south from it, and is the second and third line positions of in-depth defense such as the Jiehe River and the Beisha River behind the forward positions.

The 22nd Army made the following arrangements: the forward position on the left side of the Tianjin-Pudong Railway was defended by the 45th Division of the 125th Army; The right side of the railway was defended by a regiment of the 41st Division of the 124th Army. The 45th Division of the 127th Army was equipped in the second and third line positions, and Chen Li, the commander of the 127th Division, was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the front.

Fierce battles began on the forward positions.

At dawn on March 14, the army divided into four routes and attacked me at the same time. In an instant, the fierce artillery bombardment and the bombardment of more than a dozen planes began, and the position suddenly rose with smoke and flames.

Xiangcheng is the most prominent position on the right wing. This place, whose name resembles a behemoth, is in fact just a village in a ravine, defended by a battalion of our army. Before the full-scale assault began, it had been fighting for three days with the enemy's vanguard small forces. After the general offensive began, the enemy bombarded the Xiangcheng position with dense artillery fire, and then used tanks along the road as the lead to cover the cavalry and infantry to charge. After three hours of fierce fighting, the defender Yang Yiying suffered heavy casualties and was outnumbered, so he had to abandon Xiangcheng and retreat to the left to defend the main position of Puyang Mountain.

The Puyang Mountain position is the main position of the front, the location of the command post of the 745 Yao Chaolun Regiment, through which the Tianjin-Pudong Railway passes. If Puyang Mountain is lost, the army can go straight to Jiehe Town along the railway. In addition to heavy machine guns and mortars, the soldiers also have trenches and individual bunkers, the regimental command post has a wide field of vision, and there are telephone lines connecting with the position and the rear of the position. At that time, such a configuration was quite good for the 22nd Army.

As Yang Yiying retreated to Puyang Mountain, the army followed. The Huangshan position in front of the left side of Puyang Mountain was also captured by the enemy almost at the same time, and all the companies guarding Huangshan were martyred. The army occupying the position on Huangshan did not stagnate for a moment, and immediately came directly to Puyang Mountain.

The two armies, with about two squadrons of devils, quickly attacked the main position under the cover of artillery fire.

The regiment commander Yao Chaolun was not in a hurry, and when he saw the enemy swarming in, he ordered to bombard it with mortars first. Seeing the charging devil rushing out of the smoke of the explosion, he ordered the heavy machine gun to open fire.

The disadvantage is that there are too few heavy machine guns, there are only four in a regiment in total, and the firing surface is too wide to form a dense fire net, and a large number of devils still leak out of the fire net and bend down to charge the position. None of our soldiers used rifles to shoot, because the rifles were so worn out that they would sound in the air, just like a gunpowder gun, and they would not be able to shoot at a slightly longer distance. Everyone simply put the gun next to it and only used it for close quarters.

The soldiers clenched their grenades in their hands and stared at their running panting opponents.

At a close enough distance, at the sound of an order, frets flew out of the position, and the attacking enemy was completely drowned in the fire and smoke from the explosion. Some soldiers rushed close with grenades and threw them at the enemy, and one of them rushed back and forth in front of the enemy line and threw them eight times, and finally died a glorious death.

The devil was blown up to the point where the devil cried wolf, and the slightest leakage from the smoke was fired at close range by heavy machine guns, and the enemy was completely unable to organize an effective attack, leaving behind a large number of corpses and retreating downward.

Charging several times, although under the crazy bombardment of the devils and the bombardment of aircraft that continued to increase the density of artillery fire, the casualties of our army continued to increase, but the Yao regiment still held on. The enemy is still unable to break through the Puyang Mountain position from the front.

In the afternoon, another more intense shelling began, shells continued to explode near the regimental command post, and the regiment commander Yao Chaolun felt that the situation was different, and hurriedly took two guards out of the shelter to observe. Just ten or so steps out of the shelter, a shell exploded behind him, and both guards were knocked over, one lightly and one severely, and the seriously injured one had his leg broken, and later became a cripple.

Commander Yao was splashed all over his body with dirt and stones raised by the explosion, and he was bruised in many places. Yao Chaolun didn't care about the pain all over his body, and held a telescope to search carefully.

Sure enough, the frontal enemy was only feinting, and the other two armies bypassed Xiangcheng from the right, first opening the way with tanks and cavalry, and then the infantry followed up with marching columns, and there were planes flying low in the sky to reconnoitre, and the commander sat in a jeep, about 1,000 enemy troops, interspersed with the depth of our rear and the direction of Tengxian.

The enemy's route was far beyond the range of our mortars and heavy machine guns and could not be intercepted at all. The enemy bullied our army for not having artillery and marched with a swagger. Seeing this kind of deceptive appearance from the telescope, Yao Chaolun's teeth were gritted so loudly that he couldn't wait to tear apart this group of dogs who were showing off their might.

Obviously, the army is not only betting on a frontal breakthrough, but also taking out the roundabout outflanking tactics that have been applied many times! It should be admitted that for our army in the passive defense, it is said that his own hand has done quite effectively.

Yao Chaolun immediately returned to the command office and reported to the rear. After a while, even if the telephone line was cut off, an even more tragic battle unfolded on the front line of the Boundary River and the Beisha River in the rear!

At the same time as the right flank position was attacked, the position of Dashiqiang Village, which was defended by the 740th Regiment on the left flank, was also under heavy attack by the enemy. The attack on this place was the 106th Division stationed in Jining, with a total of more than 3,000 people!

(To be continued)