In the southwest of Huoqiu, the Fujin Mountain not far from Yejiaji at the junction of Henan and Anhui is like a lock that locks the throat road leading to Dabie Mountain, and the Shangliu Highway passes through at the foot of the mountain, and the road under the mountain can be blocked by occupying the mountain.

At this moment, the artillery fire of Fujin Mountain continued to be in the sky, and the fierce battle lasted for more than ten days, and the artillery fire had destroyed the green pines all over the mountain, the mountain became bare, and the scorched black land was emitting smoke of gunpowder, and the planes in the sky were whizzing and swooping down, and the fuselage shook and dropped a string of bombs, leaving a string of craters on the soft land.

The corpses of the dead on the hillside stained the surrounding soil red, then smoked black, thick with blood, faintly audible even in the heavy bombardment.

The position was also littered with corpses, almost all the fortifications were destroyed, the machine guns and bunkers that had been turned over, the soft ground, the deep sinking when stepped on, and the blown up weapon parts were everywhere.

After the machine wreaked out, it staggered to the east, but the sharp whistle fell from the sky, and the soldiers hid in the remaining trenches, curling their bodies desperately and covering their ears.

Under a protruding rock on the back of the mountain, Wang Mingzhang's headquarters is located here, and there are only three staff officers and two radio stations left in the headquarters. Wang Mingzhang's eyes were bloodshot, and the gunpowder smoke stained his already somewhat dark face even darker, and the lieutenant general's uniform had been torn in several places.

"What did Commander Sun say?" Wang Mingzhang's tone was hurried, his expression was anxious, and the chief of the communications department said loudly amid the sound of artillery: "Commander Sun ordered us to hold on, and has ordered Commander Lan to lead the 101st Army to come to reinforcements, and the 10th Army is assembling in Xinyang. The Theater Command command asked us to hold at least three more days. ”

"Fuck the fart, it's three days away! Lao Tzu has been guarding for twelve days. Chief of Staff Zhao Weibin couldn't help but scold.

After Jiang Dingwen transferred the 21st Group Army on the southern front to the north, the Yue Army launched an attack on the southern front, and the spearhead of the attack was directly aimed at Lu'an, which was defended by the 102nd Army, while Li Jiayu's 47th Army, which was stationed in Huoshan, was also attacked by the 106th Division and the 101st Division of the Yue Army.

The Yue Army knew very well that the defenders of Lu'an were the powerful 102nd Army, and their strategy was also very simple, to transfer all the elites of the Yue Army on the southern front, and all the elites of the 9th Division, the 6th Division, and the 3rd Division to deal with the 102nd Army.

The 102nd Army had won great victories in Guangde, Jining, and Yucheng, and the officers and men had no fear at all, and just as they were gearing up to do a great job, Sun Zhen received a telegram from Zhuang Jihua, suggesting that they abandon Lu'an, retreat to Fujin Mountain, and use the terrain here to kill and injure the Yue army and consume the vitality of the Yue army.

Zhuang Jihua was not the commander of the theater of operations, Sun Zhen did not dare to retreat directly, he sent a telegram to the Wuhan base camp and the theater headquarters for help, and at the same time changed Zhuang Jihua's proposal to his own name, Jiang Dingwen had not yet made a decision, Bai Chongxi persuaded Chiang Kai-shek to accept, but asked the 102nd Army to leave a division to intercept the army for three days, frustrating the army's spirit.

Sun Zhen left Guo Xunqi and took Wang Mingzhang and Rao Guohua to retreat to Fujin Mountain. Guo Xunqi's predecessor was the model division of Liu Xiang's 21st Army, Liu Xiang originally wanted to build this unit into a model unit, officers and soldiers have been carefully selected, and after three years of baptism in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the officers are experienced and the soldiers' tactical skills are mature. After the equipment was replaced, although it was nominally a miscellaneous unit, it was not weaker than the German armorer in actual combat, and it was no worse than the 101st Army trained by Zhuang Jihua himself.

Guo Xunqi did not shirk, and led the 15,000 troops of the division to stick to Lu'an alone, and fought a bloody battle with the 60,000 Yue army. In the face of the 49th Group this year, there is a sense of hatred and fear from top to bottom, and this army in Nanjing, Jining, and Yucheng has left unimpeded memories for the army, which makes the army grit its teeth and hate it.

The battle was very cruel from the beginning, the army completely ignored the casualties and attacked wildly, and the officers and men of the Sichuan army fought to the death and did not retreat, braved the artillery fire of the army to fight bravely, the city wall was broken through several times, and was beaten down several times, the casualties were very heavy, to the third day, even Guo Xunqi went into battle, after withdrawing from the battle, there were less than 5,000 people left in the whole army, and the wounded included their division commander Guo Xunqi.

After conquering Lu'an, the army attacked westward along the Shangliu Highway and crashed headlong into Fujin Mountain, Sun Zhen's preset position. Sun Zhen placed Wang Mingzhang's division on the left wing of the main peak of Fujin Mountain, and Rao Guohua's division on the right wing.

This battle and the previous Lu'an Resistance Battle were called the Northern Foot Resistance Battle of Dabie Mountain in the later history of the Anti-Japanese War, and in this battle, the prestige of the Sichuan Army was completely played. For twelve days, the Yue army failed to advance a single step at Fujin Mountain, and no matter what method they adopted, they were all defeated by the Sichuan soldiers.

The continuous bombing and artillery bombardment of the Yue army caused heavy losses to the defenders guarding the main peak, and in 12 days plus three days in Lu'an, the 102nd Army was completely disabled, and Sun Zhen asked the theater headquarters for help as soon as he found out the enemy's situation, and he knew very well that it was impossible to completely block the attack of the Yue army with only two divisions in his hands.

Sun Zhen's request for help was delayed in getting a response from Jiang Dingwen, because the Henan battlefield was also in crisis, and after the Yue army from the north and south occupied Zhengzhou, the main force continued to move west along the Longhai Road to sweep the middle [***] team in western Henan, and with more than 30,000 people from two divisions, they went south along the Pinghan Road to attack Guodian Xuchang and threaten the flank of the Fifth Theater.

In addition to the flanks, the front of the Fifth Theater continued to deteriorate, under the impact of the army, Jiang Dingwen was unable to form a defensive line, and retreated again and again, and Chiang Kai-shek in Wuhan was extremely disappointed in him, and sent Bai Chongxi as the representative of the base camp to guide the work in the Fifth Theater, so that Bai Chongxi could obtain the actual command.

Bai Chongxi deserved to be Xiao Zhuge and quickly adjusted his deployment, asking Li Zongren to strictly order Sun Tongxuan's Third Army to defend Xuchang, and Tang Shizun's 23rd Army to hold Linying, blocking the First Army of North China from the north; The frontal units of the Fifth Theater retreated across the Shang River in great strides and used the Shang River to block the Yue army.

However, Bai Chongxi also faced another difficulty, the troops retreating from the east gradually fell into chaos under the pursuit of the army, some troops in the headquarters of each group army lost contact, and the only one who could completely control the troops was Du Yuming's 50th Group Army, Bai Chongxi urgently ordered Du Yuming to lead his troops to establish a defensive position on the west bank of the Shang River, and ordered the 36th Division of the 36th Group Army to hold Huaidian, and the 128th Division of the 22nd Group Army to defend Zhoujiakou.

Taking advantage of these two days, the 50th Group Army established a defensive position on the west bank of the Shang River, and the 101st Army, reinforced from Xincai, also arrived on the battlefield, and the confusion of the troops was controlled, and the 36th Group Army and the Second Group Army also crossed the Shang River one after another.

But at this time, the southern front army began to act, Sun Zhen's emergency telegram flew to Xincai like snowflakes, a total of 100,000 troops rushed to Lu'an and Huoshan, Bai Chongxi agreed to Sun Zhen's retreat to Fujin Mountain, relying on the terrain of Fujin Mountain to block the army, but at this moment the frontal chaos has not ended, and the southern part of Hu Zong of the 31st Group Army and Liao Lei of the 21st Group Army were entangled by the Yue Army led by Zhongdao Kangjian, and they were unable to go south for reinforcements.

Bai Chongxi drew a terrifying judgment from the movement of the army, if the southern army passed through the Dabie Mountain, conquered Huangchuan and Luoshan, went straight to Xinyang, and then either went south to Wushengguan to attack Wuhan, or went north to outflank the main force of the Fifth Theater, it would be terrifying.

It was at this time that the intelligence of Ligao Zhisuke also arrived, in addition to the two divisions of the Second Army attacking Lu'an and the Eleventh Army attacking Huoshan, two divisions of the Eleventh Army would raid Qianshan in Taihu Lake, and then assault Huangmei Guangji, seize Tianjia Town, and open the door to Wuhan in one fell swoop.

After receiving this telegram, Chiang Kai-shek also urgently transferred the 10th Group Army to the Fifth Theater, the 10th Group Army was originally composed of Hunan Army units, after the Songhu War of Resistance, the casualties were too large, the entire group army was reorganized, this group army is now a mixture of the Central Army and the Hunan Army, under the jurisdiction of the Second Army Li Yannian Department and the 70th Army Li Jue, the commander of the group army is Li Yannian.

In view of the impending danger, Bai Chongxi resolutely ordered the deployment to be adjusted again, and the new 38th and 22nd Divisions of the 49th Group Army were transferred to Luoshan, Huangchuan, and Sun Zhen was strictly ordered to hold on for 12 days to cover the adjustment of the theater of operations and to send troops for reinforcements.

Now Wang Mingzhang has been defending Fujin Mountain for 12 days at a huge cost, with more than 15,000 people in the division, nearly two-thirds of the casualties, and all the forward positions have been lost.

Wang Mingzhang's face was heavy, he looked at the telegram in his hand repeatedly, and then said slowly: "Call back, I will die and the country will survive, and the ministry will decide to fight to the point of one soldier and one soldier and resolutely complete the task." ”

Zhao Weibin's eyes were red: "Division commander, we have more than nine thousand casualties, and all the shells have been exhausted, and for three more days, Bai Chongxi, this little Zhuge , what is he going to eat!" What the hell is this fighting, if Commander Zhuang is here, how can it be like this! ”

"Boom!" "Boom!" The cannonballs exploded at the top of the mountain, the whole hill shook, the rock walls trembled, and the stones covering the top seemed to be about to collapse.

Wang Mingzhang ignored the falling dust, and grabbed the map: "The commander knows our difficulties, but still let us hold for another three days, indicating that the situation in the north is already very bad, Commander Zhuang said that someone must gnaw bones in a battle, and we are gnawing bones now, Chief of Staff Zhao, I order, shrink the two wings, and telegraph to Chief Sun, asking him to send someone to evacuate all the wounded in the field hospital, and the heavy artillery regiment has no shells, and the artillery also retreats." ”

Saying this, he sighed softly, after Zhuang Jihua left, the supply of the Sichuan army was not as good as before, almost not reaching 100 percent, and now the war is burning in five or six provinces, and there are 1.45 million troops participating in the war, and the replenishment is even more insufficient.

"Boom!" As if the last explosion sounded, the shaking of the hill suddenly stopped, the position became quiet, the whistle sounded all over the position, and the soldiers hiding in the anti-slash quickly rushed towards the hill.

"X fuck, the little devil has been fighting for two years, and his tactics haven't changed." Zhao Weibin scolded resentfully: "If Commander Zhuang is here, Lao Tzu must teach them a good lesson!" ”

The fierce battle began again in Fujin Mountain.

(To be continued)