readx;

Seven o'clock in the morning. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 info Xuzhou. Pengcheng camp. General Headquarters of the Central Army. Chiang Kai-shek and a group of generals stood in front of the map for a long time to review the battle plan, and their words were calm and methodical, seemingly calm and unhurried, but in fact they were extremely worried in their hearts.

Jinyin battlefield Jinan lost, Han Fuqu's main force escaped to the Jiaodong line, the door of Luzhong was opened, the morale of the Jin Sui army was like a rainbow to advance on the whole line, and after occupying Jinan, it did not stop, and the first army and the supporting central army units were driven to the front line of Tai'an and Quzhuo; On the battlefield of Lanfeng, the northern front of the Central Army was defeated and retreated for hundreds of miles. Among them, Xu Tingyao, the commander of the first division, personally led his soldiers to raid the position of the fortress of Guide, Xie Ji succeeded but was seriously wounded, Feng Yan's coalition army transferred more than 420 artillery pieces to bombard the three sections fiercely, and sent eight divisions to counterattack the two wings of the roundabout encirclement, Liu Zhi's corps nine divisions were defeated and retreated one after another, only the first division that occupied the fortress gritted its teeth to block the encirclement, and the deputy division commander Hu Zongnan, who was ordered to be in danger, commanded well, and led the officers and soldiers of the first division to break through the encirclement and retreat ten miles to hold on to the same place, so as to avoid the destruction of the whole division and turn the danger into a disaster. However, the entire front was already in chaos and full of holes, if it weren't for the fact that Feng Yan's coalition forces secretly preserved their strength, they only needed to work together to pursue the victory instead of stopping and watching and resting. The crumbling defensive line of the Central Army would collapse completely.

On the battlefield in Henan, the Third Army gritted its teeth and resisted. The pressure is increasing, and the independent division and the 1st cavalry division are in motion, and they are intensively preparing for the war. If the boundary is attacked, the pressure of the Third Army will be greatly reduced and it will enter the counteroffensive, and if the attack is frustrated or even failed, the battlefield on the southern front will also follow in the footsteps of the rout on the eastern and northern fronts.

On the Hunan battlefield, He Jian's five divisions were defeated by Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi, and Zhang Ben's first front army of five catties, and the division's brave and flexible blows, one fled into Xiangxi, and the second division withdrew to Xiangdong.

Ge Jingen pinched the battle report from the Fifth Army in his hand for a long time, and he couldn't bear to tell Chiang Kai-shek, who was under great pressure, the news that Xinye had lost and that Lijiagang, the main road at the junction of Dengzhou City and Hubei and Henan, was violently attacked by three and a half divisions of the Northwest Army.

The water cup that Chiang Kai-shek handed to his lips froze, his lips trembled a few times, he slowly handed the cup to the attendant, took the damp battle report in Ge Jingen's hand and opened it to look at it carefully.

After learning that the five and a half divisions of the Northwest Army had quickly captured Xinye, and the troops were divided into two routes to storm Lijiagang and Nazhou, and all units of the Fifth Army Corps were plunged into all-out fierce battles, and Liu Ruming's two divisions were about to drive less than 65 kilometers away from Nanyang, Chiang Kai-shek was suddenly shocked by the sudden gathering of powerful forces and clear combat intentions of the Northwest Army on the Nanyang Jingxiang line, and hurriedly turned around and walked to the map to gaze at the Nanyang Jingxiang battlefield.

Seeing that Chiang Kai-shek's expression was different, and his eyes showed a look of pain, the generals hurriedly stopped talking and stood quietly and solemnly, feeling uneasy in their hearts.

Ten minutes passed, and Chiang Kai-shek turned around: "Emergency telegram An Yi: Defend Lijiagang on the Jingxiang barrier at any cost, and never let the enemy take a step forward!" The troops were not shrugged, and immediately all the local garrison troops were transferred to the battlefield, preferring to give up Nazhou to resist step by step. It is also necessary to ensure the stability of the defense line of the old estuary of Lijiagang, even if it is fought to the point of a single soldier, it is necessary to withstand the attack of the enemy's seven divisions! ”

The generals were shocked, only then did they know that Xinye had been lost, Lijiagang was in danger, and if Lijiagang was broken by the Northwest Army, Jingxiang would not be guaranteed. Wuhan, with its empty troops, will be lost. The generals didn't care about Chiang Kai-shek, who was pale. They all turned to the map and watched nervously.

At 10:30 a.m., a major general hurried to the oppressive command room, not yet at the door. And he opened his throat and shouted:

"Good news, good news! General An's good news "Commander-in-Chief, General An's good news of the Fifth Army..."

When the exhausted Chiang Kai-shek heard the word "good news", he was stunned at first, and then Huo Ran stood up. After receiving the telegram presented by the major general's staff officer's hands, he hurriedly watched it, and all the more than ten generals around him surrounded him, Chiang Kai-shek's hands trembled slightly, and he suddenly smashed his fist on the table with excitement:

"Well played, well played! Everyone, it must be that the enemy army in Nanyang learned that Liu Ruming's troops were in the inner countryside west of Nanyang, and were attacked head-on by An Yi's two divisions, and then they immediately went out to attack Lijiagang and Nazhou, trying to encircle Wei and save Zhao, forcing the Fifth Army to shrink the defense on all fronts, and give Liu Ruming's reinforcements strong support, so that they could smoothly reach the battlefield, as a result, An Yi expected the enemy's opportunity, the soldiers were noble, and the soldiers used their lives, and the 16th and 44th divisions that moved westward in advance began to attack fiercely at 5:40 a.m., Annihilation of the early arrival of Ma Zhiren division in the inner countryside through the north road, artillery fire destroyed the enemy's division headquarters, killed the enemy general Ma Zhiren and other more than ten people, captured more than 2,000 enemies, at the end of the battle, Liu Ruming's division of the west road was still ten kilometers away from the west, was stubbornly blocked by our small force, and it was not able to move and fight beautifully! This battle was of great significance, completely disrupting the Northwest Army's plan to quietly gather troops and attempt to suddenly storm Jingxiang and coerce Wuhan, "smashing the huge conspiracy of the Northwest Army in one fell swoop." Perhaps, the turning point of the entire battle situation is the An Yi Army on the Western Front. It's in

At 11 o'clock in the morning, Henan Neixiang.

Liu Ruming's troops belatedly arrived under the harassment and obstruction of the special brigades of the 16th and 44th Divisions, and learned that the Ma Zhiren Division of the Inner Countryside had been completely annihilated, and had just set up an assault formation in the west of the county town with bitter hatred. The Fifth Army's more than 1,000 strong blocking troops suddenly withdrew, Liu Ruming was not aware at first, so he urgently ordered all units to be on guard against the opponent's conspiracy and tricks, and then came to his senses and commanded the whole army to rush to the inner countryside, and the road was indeed smooth and unhindered.

After the headquarters took control of the county seat in Neixiang, Liu Ruming and more than 10 other generals and colonels learned that more than 10,000 men and horses of the Fifth Army had hurriedly retreated to the southeast more than an hour ago, shouting and shouting, and the more than 2,000 officers and men who had thrown down their prisoners turned a blind eye, and in addition to plundering light machine guns and flower machine guns, the enemy troops had completely abandoned all the 12 artillery pieces, more than 70 heavy machine guns, thousands of rifles, and a large amount of ammunition and materials that they had captured.

After a little contemplation, Liu Ruming's spirits were greatly lifted. The generals and colonels on the left and right also judged that it must be the five divisions led by Cao Haosen, deputy chief of the general staff, who broke through the defense lines of Xinye and Dengzhou and attacked Jingxiang, and Liu Ruming ordered more than 2,000 stragglers to immediately take up arms, disperse and attack all units of the army, and the whole army should eat dry food and be ready to go to the Nanyang battlefield at any time.

Liu Ruming, who was cautious and suspicious by nature, took advantage of the interval to call Nanyang to inquire about the progress of the current battle situation, and ten minutes later Cao Haosen personally replied that the main force of the Fifth Division had recovered Xinye, and was now going all out to attack Lijiagang and Nazhou, urging Liu Ruming's troops to move east quickly and rush to the battlefield. At this moment, Ru Ming no longer hesitated. Resolutely give orders to the whole army

Guanzhang Town, which is only eight kilometers away from the county seat of Neixiang in the west. More than 500 households were persuaded to leave by the friendly officers and men of the 16 th Division, and men, women, and children moved eastward in a panic, shoulder to shoulder, and the officers and men began to clean up and inspect in an orderly manner, not daring to miss a single person, and soon this place would become an ambush battlefield full of artillery fire.

Gu Changfeng, the commanders of the 44th Division, Yin Jinan, and others climbed the stone hill in the west of the city, looked at the surrounding terrain from afar, and issued orders to their respective heralds.

After a while, Deng Bin, who had been lurking 30 kilometers west of Nanyang City to serve as a cover and guard task, led the generals of the New Ninth Division to arrive on horseback, and the 12,000 officers and men of the New Ninth Division, who had a high fighting spirit, also arrived from the east and south, and more than 10 generals of the three main divisions nervously discussed the resumption, and a huge circle composed of 32,000 soldiers quietly unfolded, and 16 artillery pieces were placed in the Dongyue Temple in the south of the town, and more than 400 81 and 6 guns. Caliber mortars and thousands of light and heavy machine guns were stationed in their own positions, while more than 1,000 brothers of the special brigade remained in the barren mountains and mountains on both sides of the Heling Mountains to the west, waiting for the battle to start and immediately dispatch. Tighten the narrow mouth of the bag, use mines and powerful automatic fire to stop the remnants of the army from fleeing north.

At 12:40 p.m., Nazhou City, the headquarters of the Fifth Army Corps.

The 11,000 officers and men of the 1st Temporary Division led by Ding Zhicheng, the two artillery regiments left behind by the 16th and 44th Divisions, and the officers and men of Zhao Dong's entire brigade who led the 1st Brigade of the New 14th Division from the city to the aid of the north of the city were separated by a trench nine kilometers long, five meters wide, and two meters deep. The two divisions of the enemy army under the personal command of Cao Haosen had been fighting fiercely for three and a half hours.

The defenders benefited from the advantage of powerful artillery fire. Inflict great damage on the surging enemy forces from the very beginning. A large number of light and heavy machine guns were equipped to form a dense firepower network, Cao Haosen's three charges of 20,000 men were all repulsed, and more than 3,000 corpses of the Northwest Army were left on the north side of the nine-kilometer-long trench that was forced to wind.

"Report to the commander: Liu Ruming's troops have entered the ambush circle of the officers and men of the three divisions of the Left Route Army, and the battle has begun!" Liu Qing suppressed the excitement in his heart and sent a message.

All the generals and colonels in the command cheered in unison, and after a long period of depression and waiting, some even hugged their companions tightly and jumped together, and it took a while to calm down.

An Yi was unmoved, took the message and glanced at it, and sighed softly: "It's still Jinan and Hutou who are careful!" In addition to accurately calculating the fatigue of the enemy's overall march and paralyzing the enemy's troops, the ambush point was to let the enemy's artillery be placed in an open area of five kilometers without concealment, and to take advantage of the strong firepower of their three divisions to wait for work and tighten the encirclement little by little. As long as Deng Bin's artillery regiment crushes the enemy's defenseless artillery, there will be no suspense in this battle, and if it is not good, even Liu Ruming, a general in the Northwest Army, will be captured or killed in the chaos. ”

"Thanks to the commander who came up with a clever plan to plan the generals, he suggested that the Left Route Army deliberately show the enemy weakness and lure Liu Ruming's troops to relax their vigilance against Gao Donglai. Now the enemy has indeed become a turtle in an urn. The commander reacts quickly and adapts to changes, and we have benefited a lot! Zhao Rui sighed.

"Senior brother, how can you learn to show them to slap horses? That's a shame, and I'm counting on you to keep me alert and don't make mistakes! An Yi rolled his eyes at Zhao Rui, and motioned to a group of smiling generals to come up:

"Ladies and gentlemen, don't worry about Jinan's Left Route Army. Good news will come within four hours. In the direction of Lijiagang, two divisions of General Zhang Cunzhuang and General Zhu Shigui are holding on, and there is also the first division of the teaching division as a backup, and the two brigades of General Fan Xiaoquan helping to transport ammunition and being responsible for logistical affairs, and the narrow fan terrain north of the pass restricts the scale of the enemy's attack, and the strength of the enemy's three divisions cannot be fully displayed, but the three divisions attacking are the main divisions in the Northwest Army, and the artillery is complete. The ammunition is sufficient, and the soldiers are brave and persevering. I am very worried that the casualties of the 17th Division and the New 10th Division will continue to increase. ”

"Commander, please rest assured, his subordinates have inspected the six-kilometer defensive position on the front line of Lijiagang three times, and the fortifications are of excellent quality, and the more than 60 pillboxes and hidden forts separated by more than 100 meters between two and two are all made of reinforced concrete, and it is difficult to destroy them if it is not for the direct hit of the artillery shells, and the three artillery arrays of each division are all erected on the high ground of the southern half slope of the fortified position, which can completely suppress the enemy's artillery fire, and are equipped with many six at the platoon level. Mortars can be so powerful that it is extremely difficult for the enemy to reach the first 300 meters of the position, let alone penetrate our defensive line.

If the enemy army blindly attacked the fortification, the consumption of troops would definitely be more than five times higher than that of our defenders, and the enemy troops came in a hurry and the transportation route was long, so our army's supplies were in the south of the front, and ammunition and supplies were at hand. The replenishment of troops is coming in a blink of an eye, and in contrast, the victory or defeat has been decided, and the enemy army can only retreat in addition to needless attrition. Li Fuqiang, the chief of operations, said confidently.

Zhao Rui smiled slightly and pointed to Nanyang on the map: "Everyone, the ultimate goal of our battle is here, and the key is not in Lijiagang." And in British State!

The commander and his subordinates suggested that when the next wave of enemy troops attacked, all units of our central front line could take advantage of the fierce fighting and the smoke of gunpowder to limit their field of vision, and withdraw their positions south of the long trench in batches with regiments, so that the enemy could cross the long trench and enter and our army would hold on to the city. Maximize the attraction of the enemy's main force to attack the city.

Our side only needs to hold on until midnight, if Cao Haosen does not order the main force of the siege to withdraw and retreat to Nanyang, and when the 16th Division of Jinan, the 44th Division of Changfeng, and the New 9th Division of Deng Bin end the battle and turn around, they will be annihilated by the officers and men of our five divisions under the Jiancheng of Nazhou. ”

"Agreed! I can't bear to let the child catch the wolf. It's worth the risk! An Yi spoke loudly.