After the Yue army in Henan turned to rest and recuperate, the Yue army at the southern foot of the Dabie Mountain in the south of the Yangtze River was still attacking, and after the two divisions of the 11th Army succeeded in the assault on Qianshan, they turned to Taihu Lake, and the 70th Army did not support after five days of stubborn resistance in Taihu Lake, and then retreated to Susong to join the reserve second division and continue to block the Yue army.

The stubborn resistance of the 70th Army and the 2nd Division won time for the 2nd Army in Huangmei, the Huangmei resistance battle was extremely fierce, Li Yannian did not give an inch, and the army fought hard, the fierce battle for a whole week, the blood of both sides flowed like a river, the army did not make the slightest progress, the battle gradually fell into a stalemate, Okamura Ningji immediately ordered the transfer of the 101st Division to the Huangmei battlefield, and at the same time transferred two brigades and marines from the Jiujiang army to form a task force, landed behind the Huangmei flank, Li Yannian was caught off guard, and the important support point behind the flank Kong Ridge was lost, In a hurry, the Seventy Army was ordered to hold its position, and the Second Army quickly retreated to Guangji, and the Seventy Army was already exhausted, and after only one day of resistance, it hurriedly caught up with the footsteps of the Second Army.

The loss of Huangmei shook Bai Chongxi, Bai Chongxi immediately made adjustments, and strictly ordered Li Yannian to hold Tianjia Town and Fuchikou, Li Yannian had no choice but to hold Guangji with the 70th Army and the 2nd Division, and he led the Second Army to hold Tianjia Town and Fuchikou. Bai Chongxi also discovered the weakness of the Yue Army at this time, and urgently dispatched the 103rd Army to Huoshan, and launched a counterattack against the Yue Army together with the 47th Army under the command of Sun Zhen.

These two well-equipped and trained troops of Zhuang Jihua did not disgrace him, and they crushed the 106th Division in front with a ferocious attack, forcing it to retreat to Shucheng, and then the two armies marched south together to recover Qianshan Taihu Lake, cutting off the supply line of the army under Guangji City.

Chiang Kai-shek was very dissatisfied with the operation on the north bank of the Yangtze River, and ordered the Ou Zhen Fourth Army to be transferred from the Ninth Theater to join the battlefield on the north bank of the Yangtze River, and at the same time ordered the 86th Army He Zhizhong to guard Fuchikou, and the Second Army to defend Tianjia Town.

Tianjiazhen Fortress is the gateway to Wuhan, where the terrain is dangerous, the river is narrow, and the shape is like a throat. As early as in the planning of the defense plan along the Yangtze River by German advisers, this was the key fortress to defend Wuhan. For several years, fortifications and batteries were built here, and after the start of the Anti-Japanese War, the Fortress Command was established, and the navy sank the few remaining warships here to block the shipping lanes. More than thirty 150mm guns and five 210mm guns imported from Germany were installed in more than a dozen batteries, and in addition to the garrison troops, there was a garrison of more than 3,000 people.

Collectively known as Tianjiazhen Fortress is not only Tianjia Town, but also includes Fuchikou Fortress, Fuchikou Fortress and Tianjiazhen Fortress across the river, but the danger is worse than Tianjia Town, but it is an important wing of Tianjiazhen Fortress, once Fuchikou Fortress is lost, the army can turn the gun port to bombard Tianjia Town, so these two fortresses are one and two, support each other, rely on each other.

The Fourth Army crossed the river upstream of Tianjia Town and was transferred to the Guangji battlefield, and launched a counterattack against the Yue army from the north, with the 101st Division guarding Guangji and the other two divisions guarding Huangmei.

The Chinese and Chinese sides launched a fierce battle around Huangmei, and the Chinese army, with the support of the air force, resisted desperately, and the Chinese army used the superiority of the navy to establish a logistics and transportation line on the Yangtze River. Although the 103rd Army and the 47th Army killed and wounded a large number of Yue troops, they were never able to conquer Huangmei, and Tada Jun ordered the 6th Division, the 3rd Division, and the 106th Division to form a southward corps, and Commander Gu Shoufu quickly went south to relieve the siege of Huangmei.

When Bai Chongxi saw that Huangmei was difficult, he decided to take Guangji first, and ordered the 103rd Army to attack Guangji, and the 47th Army to contain Huangmei's enemy. Sun Liren led the 103rd Army westward and joined the battle to attack Guangji.

The addition of the 103rd Army quickly changed the situation on the Guangji battlefield, and the outer positions of Guangji were lost one after another, and the army abandoned Guangji to retreat to Huangmei when the situation was not good, and Sun Liren, Ou Zhen, and Li Yannian immediately chased Huangmei and besieged Huangmei from three sides.

Under the fierce attack of the squadron, the outer positions of Huangmei were gradually lost, and the army retreated to the south of Huangmei, retreated to the edge of the Yangtze River, and continued to hold on with the support of naval and air force artillery.

The situation during the Songhu War of Resistance was repeated again, and the navy assisted the army in blocking the attack of the [***] squadron with heavy artillery fire, and each attack of the [***] squadron was repelled by artillery fire from the Yangtze River and bombardment from the sky, and the attack failed and incurred a large number of losses.

At the beginning of the Anti-Japanese War, Le Yiqin, who was known as one of the Four Heavenly Kings, was killed, Li Guidan was seriously injured, and nearly 100 planes of various kinds were lost, and the Chinese Air Force was injured.

The tenacity of the army won them time, the reinforcements led by Gu Shoufu captured Qianshan, and the middle [***] team besieging Huangmei faced the situation of being flanked before and after, Bai Chongxi issued a retreat order with great regret, Li Yannian led the second army and the fourth army to form the Tianjiazhen garrison, and Sun Zhen commanded the 103rd Army and the 47th Army to be responsible for guarding Guangji.

After Gu Shoufu led the reinforcements to Huangmei, he did not attack immediately, but rested for a week, and only continued to attack Guangji after replenishment. Guangji is the gateway to Tianjia Town, and if you want to capture Tianjia Town, you must conquer Guangji.

Although the 103rd Army and the 47th Army were strong armies of the first class, at this moment both armies were tired from a long battle, especially the 47th Army, which held Huoshan alone, defeated the 106th Division, counterattacked Qianshan Taihu Lake, and stormed Huangmei, fighting continuously for more than two months, and the losses reached 60 percent, but only half of the weapons and ammunition were replenished, and the personnel were only 30 percent, and the original 50,000 troops were less than 30,000 left.

Gu Shoufu took his 6th Division as the front and attacked Guangji from the front, and the 3rd Division and the 106th Division formed a right-wing attack group, storming Maoershan and Dafengzhai on the right flank, and detouring to the rear of Guangji.

China's elite 103rd Army and the elite 6th Division of the Chinese Army collided head-on, and the two sides started a major battle with Meichuan as the center. Each day begins with the roar of heavy aircraft artillery and ends with the blood-red remnant sun; Soldiers fighting in muddy water, in artillery pits, and fighting with knives when they run out of bullets, this scene is played out every day.

The river was red with blood, and corpses were covered with hills. Positions lost during the day are recaptured at night. Every inch of land has to be fought over and over again, and every inch of land is soaked in blood.

Gu Shoufu was forced to stop the offensive under heavy casualties, Tada Jun and Okamura Ningji once again transferred the seventh division from Jiangnan to reinforce, and after the movement of the army was detected by the [***] team, Bai Chongxi drew up a plan, absolutely relying on the Tianjiazhen fortress to consume the army first, and the main force retreated to Macheng Songbu to rest first.

In the 10-day battle, both the 103rd Army and the 47th Army also suffered heavy casualties, two of the five brigade commanders of the New 38th Division were killed and two were seriously wounded, one of the three brigade commanders of the New 22nd Division was killed and one was slightly wounded, the army commander Sun Liren and the division commander Liao Yaoxiang were both slightly wounded, the 47th Army suffered even greater casualties, and there were less than 10,000 people left in the whole army. Immediately it was heavily bombed, but fortunately Li Jiayu hid quickly and was not injured, but the casualties of the military headquarters were not small, and the deputy chief of staff Wang Shushi was killed, and the staff officers suffered more than a dozen casualties.

Tianjiazhen was in danger, the north bank of the Yangtze River was in an emergency, Bai Chongxi hurriedly rushed to Macheng to personally command the battle, and when he arrived in Guangji to see the situation of the two armies, he also knew that the two armies were no longer able to fight, so he had to order the 34th Group Army Hu Zongnan to rush south to support, and asked that the 84th Army of the Gui family, which belonged to the Ninth Theater, be assigned to the Fifth Theater, and immediately transport Wuhan by train and car to the Guangji front line to fight.

The front was so critical, but the Tibetan province began to expel the British on a large scale, and how could the protest of the British ambassador not irritate Chiang Kai-shek.

"Mother, Xipi! Niang Xipi! Liu Wenhui is bold! What exactly does Zhuang Wenge want to do! Chiang Kai-shek knocked on the table and scolded, Tianjiazhen was in danger, Bai Chongxi was already a little panicked, the 84th Army was far away on the border of Hunan and Jiangxi, and he actually asked for a transfer, and he didn't want to think about whether it was too late.

The defense of Wuhan has not seen the light of day, which made Chiang Kai-shek, who was bent on winning a big victory in this battle, very disappointed, and more importantly, in the advance arrangement of troops, too much attention was paid to the Ninth Theater, and the deployment of troops tended to be here, ignoring the enemy situation faced by the Fifth Theater, as a result, the Fifth Theater was heavily attacked by the army, and was always in passive defense, and the troops repeatedly retreated, although the troops performed bravely and paid a heavy price, they were never able to get rid of the passive situation, which made him even more anxious.

"Chairman of the committee is angry," Chen Bui persuaded softly, although Chiang Kai-shek was anxious, he was still not confused, Liu Wenhui dared to make such a big move in Lhasa, it was impossible without Zhuang Jihua's support behind him. Zhuang Jihua mentioned in his telegram to Chiang Kai-shek that he thought that it was the best time to solve the problem of Tibetan Province, and Chiang Kai-shek was immersed in the joy of victory in the Battle of Mahuiling.

"Chairman, why don't you call the Cultural Revolution and ask him why he did this?" At first, Lin Wei also felt that Zhuang Jihua's move was too reckless, but now that he angered the British, the country's situation will be even more difficult. can think about it, with his understanding of Zhuang Jihua, Zhuang Jihua is not a reckless person, this person has always been far-sighted, and he is by no means an impulsive person, and now he is provoking such a big turmoil, there must be a reason in it.

"He's a man," at this time, Chiang Kai-shek had a headache when he mentioned Zhuang Jihua, this person can make achievements there, and he can also cause trouble: "He has always looked down on the British, and now that Britain and France are fighting with Germany in Europe, he thought that the time had come, but he didn't think that our situation was not good, you see, the British have been threatening to close the Yunnan-Burma Highway, and Kong Xiangxi has always wanted to get a loan from the British. ”

Chen Bui and Lin Wei suddenly couldn't say anything, Chiang Kai-shek began to worry about the loan again, the installment loan that the United States had promised should have arrived in March this year, but for some reason it has not yet arrived, Song Ziwen called and said that the American political circles are worried about the future of China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and believe that after the fall of Wuhan, China's political axe may negotiate peace with Yueben, so the loan cannot be issued.

(To be continued)