readx; Wang Mingzhang pondered for a moment and said: "Our reinforcements can only arrive at night at the earliest, if we can't hold for more than a day, then we might as well fight outside the city!" ”

After finishing speaking, he glanced at the divisions and brigade commanders attending the meeting and asked:

"What do you think?"

The actual situation is very clear, and everyone understands in their hearts that defending the city means that the whole army is facing the prospect of the city being destroyed and destroyed. Pen, Fun, Pavilion www.biquge.info everyone at the meeting agreed with Wang Mingzhang's last opinion. So, Wang Mingzhang immediately called Sun Zhen, the commander-in-chief of Lincheng, to report the situation. Everyone gathered over and listened nervously to the sound coming from the telephone.

These people know very well that Sun Zhen trusts Wang Mingzhang very much, they are classmates of Chengdu Army Primary School, they have been involved in the revolution since the Xinhai Revolution, and they have always been deeply friendly and sincere, and in addition to the relationship between superiors and subordinates, they are still brothers and sisters. As early as the civil war in central Sichuan, Liu Wenhui sent someone to tell Wang Mingzhang about the item, and asked Wang Mingzhang to fall to Liu Wenhui with the bait of sponsoring him as the commander of the 29th Army to the central government.

Unexpectedly, Wang Mingzhang was unmoved, and scolded the human: "How can I be the one who betrayed my friends, if it weren't for the old acquaintance, I would definitely shoot you!" ”

Then the people were blasted out of the camp gate. Such a historical origin makes Wang Mingzhang's opinion have considerable weight in Sun Zhen's eyes, and at this time, everyone has such hopes in their hearts. Finally, a voice came back from the other end of the telephone.

Sun Zhen couldn't wait to ask, "Where are you now?" ”

Wang Mingzhang said loudly: "In the city, the 124th Division headquarters. ”

"Where's your command post?"

"At the Xiguan Electric Light Factory."

There was silence on the other end of the phone, and then he said: "The chairman of the committee called and asked us to defend Tengxian County and wait for the Tang Enbo Army to come and relieve the siege." Wang Zhonglian's army, the vanguard of the Tang Department, arrived in Lincheng yesterday afternoon, and his follow-up troops came at the same time, so I immediately urged Commander Wang to hurry north. It is expected to arrive in Teng County in a few hours. You should make sure that Teng County is ready for reinforcements. Your command post should be moved immediately into the city so that you can personally direct the defense of the city. ”

"Although there are three division headquarters, one brigade headquarters, and one regimental headquarters in the city, the combat unit only has ten infantry companies, how can it withstand a strong enemy of tens of thousands of people." Wang Mingzhang euphemistically expressed his suffering.

"So, what about your opinion?"

"Our main forces are fighting fiercely with the enemy outside the city, and several high-level command structures should not be inside the city and lose their commanding role. At the same time, with only a small force of ten infantry companies, the city could not be defended. My opinion is that it is better to leave one battalion in the city, and the rest to withdraw to the outside for mobile operations. ”

"The chairman's order wants us to ensure that Tengxian County is on standby for help, and I can't disobey the order. My order is that you should enter the city at once and defend it. If it is considered that the strength of the army is insufficient, all the troops of the 41st Army outside the city can be transferred into the city. What other comments do you have? ”

"Outside the city, all units of our army are fighting with the enemy and cannot break away from the enemy during the day. Shangfeng must let us defend Teng County, anyway, there are only ten infantry companies in the city under the command of Regiment Commander Zhang Xuanwu alone, so why put so many divisions and brigade headquarters in the city? Wang Mingzhang insisted on his opinion.

"Teng County is a strategic place, a famous city, and the troops outside the city are about to be transferred into the city, and a regiment commander cannot bear this heavy responsibility. My determination is that several of you division commanders will be in the city and waiting for help. ”

"Troops outside the city must be mobilized after nightfall, so when will the friendly forces arrive, and how long will we have to hold out?"

Sun Zhen also had a hard grasp of this issue, because the telegram of the chairman and the chief minister's department was to "defend the city three times", that is, until the morning of the 17th. But he pondered for a moment, and then said, "You only need to wait four hours for reinforcements to arrive." ”

Just four hours to keep watching! Wang Mingzhang felt relieved in his heart, but he still turned around and asked Zhang Xuanwu: "Commander Zhang, are you sure about guarding for four hours?" ”

The conversation on the phone lasted only about ten minutes, and everyone could hear it clearly. Zhang Xuanwu, the city defense commander who had fought many tough battles in the old Northwest Army, said without hesitation: "Be sure!" ”

He thought that even if we didn't do anything, I wouldn't be able to capture this county town in four hours, that is, before 12 o'clock at noon today.

Wang Mingzhang was still not very relieved, he was worried about whether the reinforcements would arrive on time, but what he had to say had already been said. So he handed the microphone to Shui Tiqing: "Please talk to the commander-in-chief again, it's best to put a few division headquarters outside the city." "The 124th Division is the descendant of Sun Zhen's lineage, and Shui Tiqing is only the acting division commander.

"Or maybe the tax collector's words can make some difference." Wang Mingzhang thought so.

Shui Tiqing picked up the microphone and just said: "Report to the commander-in-chief" A stern voice immediately came from the other end of the phone, and his expression was extremely impatient: "If you have anything to say, say it quickly!" ”

The commander of the tax acting division was taken aback by the commander-in-chief's stern attitude, but he still said cautiously: "The troops of the 124th Division are all outside the city, can I go outside the city to command?" ”

"No! Your troops will soon be moved into the city. You have to defend the city! After saying this, there was a "collapse", and the phone on the other end had been hung up. The commander-in-chief was even more strict with this unit because he was the commander of the 124th Division, and his grim face suddenly appeared in everyone's hearts.

Seeing this, Wang Mingzhang knew that the commander-in-chief's determination was unshakable, and the soldiers took obedience as their duty, and the sound of guns and cannons outside the city became tighter and tighter, and there was no longer any hesitation and hesitation, and the commander's determination was the determination of the whole army! So he immediately ordered Zhang Xuanwu:

"Commander Zhang, you immediately sent an order to all the officers and soldiers in the city to defend Tengxian County! I am with you to survive and survive, and to perish and perish. Immediately block the north and south gates, and leave the east and west gates in the passage, and prepare materials to close them at any time. Without this commander-in-chief's warrant, no one is allowed to leave the city, and violators will be punished on the spot! ”

Then he ordered the adjutant Luo Jiaxin: "Immediately move my command post and all the troops directly under me into the city, and the two divisions of the 41st Army will be combined!" ”

At this time, Chen Li, the commander of the 127th Division, was in a rather awkward situation. His troops were all fighting in the area of Jiehe and Beishahe, and Sun Zhen did not order him to transfer troops into the city, if he did not go out of the city, the troops outside the city could not be commanded, and he only had a guard company in the city, which would not play much role.

So he wanted to call Sun Zhen and report the situation, Sun Zhen thought about it for a while, and then said: "You can go out of the city to command your troops, but only your division personnel and your direct troops are allowed to go out of the city." ”

Here, Sun Zhen obviously pinned too much hope on reinforcements and ignored another problem, he did not tell Chen Li in time that he should make every effort to contain and sort out the ranks of the 45th Army outside the city, and support the defending troops at any time as a second line

Chen Li received the order to go out of the city, and immediately shook hands with everyone to say goodbye, and cherished each other. When shaking hands with Wang Mingzhang, both sides clenched hard, as if they had some expectations, and they knew in each other's hearts that if they parted before the decisive battle, the future would be difficult to reverse.

Not long ago, when Zhang Zizhong had not yet aided Linyi, Zhang, Wang, and Chen met in Tengxian every day to discuss strategies against the enemy, and had quite a personal exchange.

After saying goodbye, Chen Li hurriedly left the city from the west gate with his guard company and the personnel directly under the division headquarters, but the situation here was already extremely grim. There were still gunshots in Beisha River and Jiehe River, and some units that were divided and surrounded by the enemy were still fighting fiercely with the enemy, and the gunfire continued to sound until noon that day.

At this time, the plain dam between the Beisha River and the county town had been mostly controlled by the enemy and had become a battlefield, and it was an extremely tragic battlefield for our army. The tanks and cavalry of the Yue army galloped freely here, killing the stragglers who had been scattered and retreated in the areas of the Jiehe River and the Beisha River; on the roads and in the wheat fields, there were traces of the tanks running over by the tanks, and from time to time you could see the corpses of our soldiers who had been stabbed to death with bayonets and the corpses that had been crushed into meatloaf by tanks.

These tanks and cavalry had hidden in villages or woods, and at the sight of a retreating contingent, they swooped out and wiped out those who were close to running out of ammunition.

More than 200 people of the Qu Liancheng Regiment of the 125th Division, who had been blocked in a village overnight by the Yue army on the east side of the Jiehe River, disengaged from the enemy at dawn and moved westward across the railway to the southwest, with the Zhou Gongfu Company as the lead. When everyone saw the dense tank ruts on the road, they already felt bad, so they cautiously sent sharp soldiers to search and advance. I didn't think that when I was passing through a village, four tanks suddenly rushed out from the west end of the village and rushed straight at the team. The four tank machine guns fired fiercely, and the exhausted team was caught off guard, too late to deploy, and was disrupted at once!

Qu Liancheng ordered to return fire, and the machine gun company opened fire with heavy machine guns, and the bullets hit the steel armor only sparks and splashed wildly, and it did not work at all. In an instant, the tanks rushed to their front, and the soldiers lost their grip and fled in all directions in the wheat fields. The tanks chased at full speed, machine guns kept strafing, and many soldiers were killed in the wheat fields. Wang Chengjun, the commander of the 2nd Battalion, tried to organize resistance, but unfortunately was shot and died; Huang Yongwei, attached to the regiment of the major, and Zhang Peng, commander of the mortar company, were wounded

Zhou Gongfu and five soldiers desperately rescued Huang Yongwei to a cemetery to hide, until the devil's tank drove away, and then helped Huang Yongwei to a nearby village to hide in the villager's house, and moved to the direction of Guanqiao after dusk.

After Wang Shaoyou fell to the ground, a tank truck drove up to him. Two devils jumped out of the car and forced him with a gun, and one of the devils took out a quick candy from his pocket and stuffed it into Wang Shaoyou's mouth, then tied him up and tied him to the tank. The tank jolted all the way, shaking him so much that he almost passed out, and he thought it was over. Unexpectedly, the rope that tied him was shaking and grinding, and when he walked near a village where he had been stationed, Wang Shaoyou jumped off the tank, ran into this familiar village, and hid in a vegetable cellar. Seeing that the bound people were lost, the devil drove around the village in a tank, and after searching for a few circles, he did not find it, so he drove away. A few days later, Wang Shaoyou touched back the troops, and everyone saw that he had lost and recovered, and he would not die, and they couldn't help but be surprised and happy.

After Chen Li left the city, what happened was similar to that of Qu Liancheng's group.

As soon as Division Commander Chen Li and one of his spy companies and a pistol company left the West Gate for four miles, they encountered the same team of devils. The soldiers of the two companies rushed forward desperately, and the devils were beaten and fled, and the soldiers of the two companies chased the devils to the vicinity of the railway. As everyone knows, the devil has repaired the iron bridge of the Baisha River, and the ironclad cars of the army driving from the railway have long been waiting here. At this time, the light and heavy machine guns and steel cannons on the ironclad car opened fire together, and the bullets hit like flying locusts, causing Chen Li's surroundings to splash sparks, and the shells continued to explode all around, and seven guards and a division commander were killed on the spot. Seeing that the situation was not good, the guards immediately protected Chen Lihui and turned south, heading towards the Nansha River.

When they reached the land of Yorixu on the Nansha River, they encountered the enemy's tanks and cavalry. Chen Li retreated into a village with his soldiers, and as soon as he entered the village, the enemy, who occupied a high ground to the east, condescended and began to attack us, and had to resist while retreating outside the village. As soon as he left the village, Chen Li fell to the ground, a machine gun bullet passed through Chen Li's right leg, and blood bubbled out like a fountain.

The terrain here is flat and open, unable to hide, more than half of the officers and men of the two companies were killed or wounded, Chen Li was supported by Wu Zhaoxiang and Luo Kun to run in the wheat field, and at the most dangerous time, he was only 150 meters away from the enemy. The remaining officers and soldiers resisted desperately, covering Chen Li and a dozen or so personal guards to retreat to a cemetery, and began to bind Chen Li's wounds. Chen Li saw that he was in a desperate situation, and immediately ordered a few soldiers to use the grave as a fortification, and the rest lay in a small ditch, ready to fight the enemy here for the last time, strive to kill a few more devils, and then kill themselves.

At this time, the enemy soldiers scattered to search, and those who were lying in the ditch could clearly hear the sound of the enemy's horses' hooves and shouts. Chen Li was close to a coma due to excessive bleeding, dizzy, and in the fog, he knew that he was surrounded by enemies, and he would sit and wait to die, and he would have no physiology. The shadow of his old friend Yang Xiangrong loomed in his eyes, thinking that he had died to suppress bandits in the past, and he had died to resist now.

I lay in ambush until three or four o'clock in the afternoon, when I heard the sound of gunfire and motors fading away. The devils began to move north, but they never found the group hiding in the cemetery. Chen Li, acting commander of our 45th Army, commander of the 127th Division, and commander-in-chief of the front, survived and finally brushed shoulders with death.

When the sun set, everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief. Chen Li was seriously injured and unable to move, and he didn't know where he was now, how to get out, and the devil could appear here at any time, so he ordered the soldiers to flee. But none of the soldiers were willing to go, and they all said that they wanted to die with the division commander, and they wanted to go with the division commander.

Fortunately, after dark, two fellow villagers happened to pass by here, and when they saw that it was my wounded Sichuan army, they immediately led the way to the south and took a safe path, and did not encounter a single devil along the way. Later, a trolley was found, and then a stretcher was found. In this way, Chen Li was safely carried to Lincheng, and then transferred to Hankou for treatment.

And where are the reinforcements on which the 22 Army had high hopes now?

As early as 14 March, Wang Zhonglian, commander of the 85th Army of the 20th Army Corps, received a telegram from the commander of the army, Tang Enbo, who had transferred the command of the theater commander: Due to the urgency of Teng County, the military affairs were ordered to be completed in Lincheng, south of Teng County, on 17 March.

However, on March 14, the Tang army did not move, and only sent an advance force to attack the front station. It was not until 8 o'clock in the morning of March 15 that Wang Zhonglian received a telegram from Tang Enbo: The army immediately took a car from Guide (Shangqiu) to Lincheng to concentrate, and the camera planned to fight with the 22nd Group Army.

At the time of Tang Enbo's order, the time for Wang Zhonglianjun's "immediate departure from Guide (Shangqiu)" had been postponed from 14 to 15 days. Compared with Li Zongren's request, the time was one day late. What a precious day!

If the Tang army seized the time of this day, it could arrive before the roundabout troops of the Yue army surrounded Tengxian. What's more, Tang Sibo's order has become a "camera response".

"Response" itself is not a positive attitude, coupled with the "camera", that is, it can be planned, it can not be measured, and it can even be watched from the wall!

But this was not the case with Li Zongren's order, and he insisted that Tang Enbo's army move north quickly and arrive before the roundabout troops of the Yue army surrounded Tengxian. At 9 a.m. on March 15, he ordered Tang Enbo to send the 4th Division of his Wang Zhonglian Army to the vicinity of Tengxian with a vanguard.

The military situation is urgent, the soldiers are fast, and the battlefield situation is changing rapidly!

However, after Wang Zhonglian received Tang Enbo's third telegram order at 11 a.m. on the 15th, that is, Li Zongren's order at 9 a.m., his 89th Division troops were slowly transported from Shangqiu to Lincheng on the night of the 15th.

At this time, the roundabout troops of the Yue army had already appeared in the area of the Nansha River in the south of Tengxian County, forming an encirclement of Tengxian County.

Moreover, he was not satisfied with including Teng County, and their appetite was much greater. His vanguard was heading south to Guanqiao Town, twenty kilometers south of Teng County. Guanqiao is a strategic place in the south of the Tengxian Plain, and it is the bottleneck of Lincheng in the south.

The strategy of reinforcing Teng County was the first to lose.

That night, Tang Enbo arrived in Xuzhou and summoned Wang Zhonglian, who was in Shangqiu, to Xuzhou for a face-to-face meeting.

Wang Zhonglian was a famous general in the Anti-Japanese War, and his hometown was in Xiao County, near Xuzhou. Throughout his life, he was grateful to Tang Enbo for knowing him, and in his memoirs he always called Tang Enbo "Tang Gong", and his heart of fist jumped on the page.

At this time, just as Zhang Xuanwu rushed back to the county seat from the front line of the Baisha River to take up the post of city defense commander, Wang Zhonglian, who had been summoned from Shangqiu, was having dinner with Tang Enbo upstairs in the Bank of China, where Tang was staying. Tang Enbo seemed to be confident, everything was carried out in an unhurried manner, and the tense scene of the battle in Tengxian County was like heaven and earth.

When Tang Enbo drove to Xuzhou, he passed through Wang Zhonglian's hometown, and he started his family routine for this: "This road passes through the Wang Village of Guixiao County, only a few miles away from the house, and asked the villagers about the situation of the house, according to the cloud, there are only a few thatched huts and dozens of acres of thin fields. Why don't you buy any possessions? ”

Regarding Tang Enbo's concern, Wang Zhonglian smiled.

"It's enough to prove that you are really a person who does not care about your family for the revolution."

In such an atmosphere, Wang Zhonglian knew from Tang Enbo the battle situation on the front line:

The frontal enemy had more than 10,000 men, and its main force besieged Teng County, and the other part made a detour to the vicinity of the Nansha River in the southeast of Teng County, and was in contact with the vanguard of the Fourth Division. There were still four or five battalions of the remnants of the 22nd Army trapped in the county seat, but all positions outside the city were broken through by the enemy. Three or four thousand of the enemy's southward marching along the railway advanced to the Nansha River in the south of Dateng County, and rushed to Lincheng. In addition, the enemy's main force of 5 to 6,000 people seems to be near Sang Village in the east of Tengxian County, and there is an attempt to spy on Zaozhuang and attack Tangbu with a flank.

Therefore, according to this situation, Tang Enbo decided: Since the 89th Division had not yet been concentrated, our army's plan for a decisive battle with the enemy between Teng and Zou had to be changed, so as to achieve a decisive battle with the enemy near Lincheng. Wang Zhonglian ordered the vanguard of the division to occupy the Guanqiao and hold the front of the railway to cover the concentration of the main force.

That is to say, Tang Enbo has taken it upon himself not to carry out the order for reinforcements to Teng County.

The 22nd Army was betrayed in this way! The time was on the night of March 15th, and all this, Sun Zhen was kept in the dark, and the defenders of Teng County who fought bloodily were even more kept in the dark!

When Tang Enbo bypassed Teng County, the front of Lincheng was fully exposed, how could Sun Zhen's company of pistols resist the attack of thousands of enemies. As a result, the General Headquarters of the 22nd Army withdrew from Lincheng and retreated to the south bank of the canal

The army's attack on Tengxian began at 6 a.m. on March 15, and the all-day battle was concentrated at Dongguan.

Dongguan was guarded by the Yan Yi battalion, which was deployed here after arriving at the county seat yesterday afternoon. Yan Yi placed two companies behind the wall, and one company as a battalion reserve. After entering the position, the whole battalion stayed up all night and dug fortifications for the night. Zhang Xuanwu and Yan Yi both knew very well that the main force of the Yue army was in the east of the city, attacking the county seat, and Dongguan was the first to bear the brunt.

At this moment, Yan Yi was opening his eyes wide, staring through the pre-dawn darkness at a pile of wriggling black shadows in the distance. The sentry in the forward position outside the wall reported: The enemy has touched.

"To fight or not?" Zhu Hanxiang, the commander of a company lying next to him, asked.

"Don't panic, have grenades ready and wait for the enemy to enter the trench." Yan Yi was not in a hurry and said confidently.

At around 8 o'clock, the devils began test firing at the Dongshahe artillery position, raised the balloon, and unhurriedly corrected the impact point. After a few shells from the left and right, the salvo began, from 8 o'clock to 10 o'clock, a full two hours, and more than 3,000 shells fell at Dongguan, Chengnai, and Xiguan stations. At the same time, several enemy planes flew over the air, dive-bombing and strafing, and the main point of impact was at Dongguan. It hit Dongguan and the whole city in smoke. At ten o'clock, the shelling suddenly stopped, and the plane flew away.

The land fell silent, and the army seemed to be waiting and observing the effects of the shelling. In the binoculars of their commander, Major General Seya, in addition to some houses burning and gunpowder smoke rising upwards in the cold air, forming columns of smoke, there are also some old and weak people who have not fled and are evacuating outside the city; On the city walls, the defenders were busy filling the fortifications damaged by the shelling with sandbags, and there was no movement to escape, and the whole city stood still!

A reporter accompanying the Yomiuri Shimbun later reported that the commander of the devil was surprised by this: How could these poorly equipped Sichuan soldiers treat death as if they were at home? Unlike Han Fuyu, as long as the cannon bombarded, he abandoned the city and fled?

Not only did the officers and soldiers defending the city not move, but some Tengxian people who took up arms were also there to defend their homeland!

(To be continued)