Chen Cheng pointed to the huge military map hanging on the wall of the conference room and said: "At present, our army's deployment is as follows: In the area on the south bank of the Yangtze River, our Ninth Theater is stationed in the area on the west bank of Poyang Lake with the First Corps, and the Second Corps is organizing defense on the front line from Xingzi, Jiujiang to Wharf Town, Jiangxi. The enemy in front of the 1st Corps and the 2nd Corps was the main force of the 11th Group Army, which attacked along the south bank of the Yangtze River and confronted the two corps of our army on the south bank of the Yangtze River. Then Chen Cheng spoke again: "In the area on the north bank of the Yangtze River, the main force of our army's defense is mainly the troops withdrawn from the Fifth War Zone, of which the main force is the Fourth Corps. The enemy in front of the Fourth Corps was the 16th Division of the Chinese Army, which had now attacked from Qianshan in Anhui to Taihu Lake. At the same time, the Botian detachment, the vanguard of the Chinese army, under the cover of dozens of warships and planes from more than a dozen airfields, quickly moved deep into Wuhan. This is the case, and our task at hand is to get to Madang Fortress in the shortest possible time, to support the defenders there, and to station heavy troops on the front line of Hukou, and to form several solid lines of defense on the periphery of Wuhan. ”

Xue Yue and Luo Zhuoying are both famous generals in the Ninth War Zone, especially Luo Zhuoying, who is the first of the four King Kongs of Chen Cheng's civil engineering department, and an absolute fierce general. For the defense of Wuhan, Luo Zhuoying is very confident, as early as before the war, Luo Zhuoying is confident that with the national political axe, the millions of troops deployed on the periphery of Wuhan are fully capable of resisting the attack of the army. However, the waterway aspect is very difficult, and the Chinese navy can no longer be called a reading force, and the flag of the Chinese navy has not been restored since the Sino-Japanese War. Until now, the navy of the national political axe is only a few dozen large and small ships, with a total displacement of less than 100,000 tons.

However, the navy of the Yue army at the same time had a total displacement of several hundred thousand tons, and there were four strategic weapons such as aircraft carriers alone, and the battleships were incomparable to China, so China's navy could only be reduced to inland waterway shipping vessels, and China lost all its coastal cities at the beginning of the war. Wuhan, a city with developed water and land transportation, has extremely convenient inland waterway shipping, which not only facilitates the transportation of China's anti-Japanese war materials, but also leaves an opportunity for the Japanese army to take advantage of.

Now Luo Zhuoying and some far-sighted senior Kuomintang generals are extremely worried that the navy of the Yue army will go all the way up the Yangtze River, and it will not only be the crisis in Wuhan, but even the current capital of the national political axe, Yucheng, will be directly threatened by the Yue army.

Luo Zhuoying got up and said: "Chief Chen, now we are fully capable of resisting the attack of the Yue army on the land side, but we are not slacking off on the water side, I don't know how our army should deal with the ships of the Yue army?" ”

Chen Cheng said: "I don't say that everyone knows the current strength of our navy, and it is impossible to compete with the Yue army for sea supremacy on the sea surface, so our navy can only see the high ground in the inland river and the Yue army." However, our ships on the Yangtze River are no match for the Japanese army, and in desperation, we have no choice but to blockade the entire Yangtze River! ”

"Feng Jiang?"

"Yes, Admiral Chen Shaokuan, in accordance with the order of the chairman of the National People's Congress, together with the troops of the Ninth and Fifth Theaters, will build more than a dozen fortress batteries between Madang and Hankou, and set up a Jiangfang Fortress Headquarters, with Xie Gangzhe as the commander. The Fortress Command will subordinate warships, gunboats, and marines into three corps. The first corps: stationed in Tianjia Town and Gedian in the upper reaches of the Jiujiang River; The Second Corps: garrisoned Madang Fortress; The 3rd Corps: Garrisoned at Hukou Fortress. In order to facilitate coordinated operations by sea and land and air, the waters of the Yangtze River should be defended. On top of the Madang and Hukou Fortress Headquarters, the Mahu Fortress Headquarters was set up, which was commanded by Li Yunheng, commander of the 16th Army of the Army. Madang Fortress was commanded by Wang Xitao of the Army; The Hukou Fortress was commanded by Peng Weiren, commander of the 7th Division of the Army. At the same time, the first part of our navy fortified along the Yangtze River, mainly setting up minefields along the Yangtze River. Chen Cheng explained.

Then Chen Cheng said: "Ten days ago, Chen Shaokuan, commander-in-chief of the navy, took a warship and went straight down the river from Wuhan to the front line to direct the navy's operations. The two sides fought an unusually fierce water battle on the Yangtze River, and both sides suffered heavy casualties at dusk, and then withdrew from the battle, and Admiral Chen Shaokuan led the main force of the navy to return from Anqing. He ordered the ship's artillery fire to destroy all the buoys in the middle of the river and on the shore one by one. When he came to Jiujiang, he ordered to lay mines in the waters below Jiujiang and seal the river. According to a telegram from the Navy Bureau, naval ships laid more than 1,600 mines (more than 600 in history) before and after Madang Fortress; More than 700 Gabe (more than 100 in history); There are more than 3,000 in the lake mouth (more than 1,000 in history). So far, this section of the Yangtze River is full of mines, there are thousands of dangers, and the waterway is obstructed. ”

When Chen Cheng finished speaking, the conference room was dull. Everyone knows that although the closure of the Yangtze River can delay the attack of the Chinese army to a certain extent, the harm to China is also huge. You must know that most of the railways in the country have been cut off by the Chinese army, and more than half of the traffic along the Yangtze River is maintained by the Yangtze River; if the blockade of the Yangtze River is used as a military means, then the restrictions and harm to China will not be less than that of the Chinese army, and it can be said that this is a lose-lose style of fighting.

Not only for the weak Chinese navy, but also can only use this ostrich tactics to deal with the strong navy. In fact, the closure of the river is still very effective, at least it has played a lot of positive roles at the moment. The Navy's powerful 3rd Fleet was unable to operate before the blockade of the Yangtze River, so it had to hold back and feel extremely annoyed. I had no choice but to send a large number of troops down the river to "touch the mines". On the other hand, the Chinese army also used the air force to deal with the Chinese navy, and the planes of the Chinese army searched at low altitudes along the river and strafed and bombed the Chinese navy's mine-laying ships. The Chinese Navy officers and men risked their lives to lay mines, and their sacrifice was rare in the history of naval warfare in various countries in the world.

Speaking of the Yangtze River mine area, Han Yunhua's heart couldn't help but tremble, Han Yunhua had read a book about the Chinese Navy's related battles during the Anti-Japanese War before, the title of the book Han Yunhua has forgotten until now, but the battles recorded in the book Han Yunhua is still difficult to forget: The navy's Weining gunboat, which was on a mission near Madang, was on a mission, and nine enemy planes suddenly flew down the river and bombed in turn. The river is several zhang high, and the smoke is billowing all over the river, and it is impossible to distinguish between north and south. The hull was shot in several places, and flames soared into the air. All the officers and men under Captain Li Mengyuan struggled in the flames until they sank in the river with the gunboat. The Xianning warship laid mines in the northern port of Jiujiang, and after completing its mission, sailed to Tianjia Town through Jiujiang and sailed to the vicinity of Huoshan Mountain. Seven enemy planes caught up and swooped and strafed and dropped bombs; While continuing to rush back upstream at full speed, the Chinese naval officers and men calmly responded to the battle, using naval guns and anti-aircraft machine guns to fire back at enemy planes. At this time, the powder compartment, the leader compartment, and the soldier's compartment were all hit by bullets and caught fire, choking on thick smoke. There were also many holes in the middle section of the machine pot and other cabins, and the water leakage was very fierce, and the officers and men bravely rescued and used their bodies to plug the loopholes. On the deck, the officers and men were dead and wounded, and flesh and blood were flying. Filled with vengeful fury, the soldiers risked their lives to resist and shot down two enemy planes with anti-aircraft machine guns on the ship. The ship struggled to return to Wuxue, and temporarily docked at the dock of Yueqing Company to put out the fire and plug the leak. Unexpectedly, 16 more enemy planes arrived, pouring bombs like rain. The Xianning warship was finally shot and dismembered, and together with the unpaid ambition and righteous indignation of all the officers and men of the ship, it disappeared in the rolling river! When the gunboat Changning was laying mines in Wuxue, it was suddenly besieged by seven enemy planes. The officers and men on board did not shoot and risked laying the mines, but the boat was hit by enemy planes, and all the officers and men died heroically. The gunboat Chongning was ordered to lay mines in Tianjia Town, but it was bombed by enemy planes several times in the past few years. The officers and men used anti-aircraft machine guns on the boats to confront the enemy planes while evading the bombing and strafing fire. Although there were many casualties among the crew on board, they were all lucky to get out of danger. At noon that day, five enemy planes tightly clung to the Chongning, which was laying mines in the middle of the river, and successively dropped incendiary bombs, and the gunboats rushed to the left and right in a sea of blood-red fire. However, the hull of the boat was unfortunately hit by a bomb, suffered heavy damage, malfunctioned, sank under the water in the surging fire, and died a heroic martyrdom for the dignity of the Chinese nation!

Han Yunhua knew what a heavy price the Chinese Navy had paid for the closure of the Yangtze River this time, and while feeling sorry for the sailors who had sunk into the rolling Yangtze River with the ships one after another, Han Yunhua also felt sorry for the fact that China was forced by the Oriental Japanese to the point that it was necessary to cut off the main stream of life with human lives to resist the attack of the enemy. The sorrow of the country, the sorrow of the nation!

Chen Cheng thought for a while and said: "Since everyone thinks that Commander Han's troops can't be allowed to support Madang Fortress, then Xue Yue will transfer a brigade from the First Corps, Luo Zhuoying's department will transfer a brigade, and Zhang Fakui's Second Corps will transfer an artillery regiment to urgently support the Second Corps of Commander Xie Gangzhe of the Jiangfang Fortress Command. At the same time, Commander Han's troops, together with the three divisions directly under the Theater Command, rushed to the Hukou fortress to garrison it, and it was imperative to form a solid blocking line along the Hukou line. Once the prevention and control army breaks through the Madang fortress, it will pose a fatal threat to Wuhan. ”

All the officers in the conference room did not object to Chen Cheng's order, and everyone knew that today's meeting was actually a formality, which was for this [***] senior general. But Han Yunhua is not stupid, such a large military conference ended so quickly, not because of how fast the Kuomintang army was in doing things, but because all this was clearly aimed at him, or at his troops.

Han Yunhua still sees himself very clearly, although he Han Yunhua is also a well-known general, and he is a well-known anti-Japanese hero in China, but in the eyes of the real senior generals of the Kuomintang, this general of the Eighth Route Army, who was born in [***] and has not attended a regular military school, is still a mud leg in the end, and is not worthy of their high esteem.

(To be continued)