readx; With the reading and explanation of the outline of the battle of the base camp by General Chief He, the mystery in people's hearts was gradually solved, and it turned out that this was an overall defensive battle that connected the north and the south. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 infoIf the Battle of Wuhan is compared to a dike, then the key point of this dike, is precisely not in Central China but in the Central Plains, because once Zhengzhou is lost, the northern army will drive along the Jinghan Railway to attack Wuhan, so ensuring that the Central Plains is not lost is the primary premise for defending Wuhan. To this end, Chief He issued a sternly worded order; The first theater of operations must take the strategically important Kaifeng and Zhengzhou as the center, carry out defense along the Longhai Railway, resist the enemy on the Guide (Shangqiu) and Luxi lines, and ensure that the flank of Wuhan is not threatened.

Chiang Kai-shek's face was solemn, and his eyes were like torches.

It is precisely because the strategic position of the Central Plains is so important that the national political axe mobilized heavy troops to deploy defenses, and the troops of the First Theater alone reached 50 divisions, and the main force of the Central Army, Xue Yue's Corps, was 300,000 horses, building multiple impregnable steel defense lines. The problem was that the Central Plains region was unobstructed, which was conducive to the movement of the enemy's mechanized troops, so Chiang Kai-shek was deeply worried about this. On this day, the chairman of the committee did not reprimand anyone in a loud voice, but patiently told two stories to his subordinates.

One is the Battle of Taierzhuang that occurred not long ago, in which the elite divisions of the Yue Army were severely damaged, in addition to the Central Army and the Gui Army, which had relatively strong combat effectiveness, there was also the Sichuan Army, which was the most backward in weapons and equipment. At the beginning of the Sichuan Army's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression in Sichuan, the reputation of lax military discipline was very poor, and they were called "straw shoe soldiers" or "double spear soldiers" (, so that many war zones were reluctant to accept them. However, after the Sichuan army was ashamed, it finally played the military and national prestige, which impressed the people.

The second story is that during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, the Japanese pirates repeatedly invaded the coast, these Japanese pirates fought very bravely, good at using double swords, and their tactics were a team of 30 people, covering each other back to back, and often defeated the Ming army. General Qi Jiguang summed up the method of breaking the enemy and created a kind of "mandarin duck battle array"; A team of twelve, three teams for a sentry, each team has four pikemen and four rattan players

This kind of battle formation requires every soldier to have a brave spirit, obey iron discipline, and closely cooperate with the advance and retreat in an orderly manner. Later, this kind of "mandarin duck battle array" really won a complete victory, and the Japanese invaders did not dare to commit it again.

The chairman's face gradually became stern, and he said:

"Even the backward Sichuan army can still win the battle, at least it shows that first, it is not impossible to defeat myself; Second, all of you can do the same. Let me tell you, this time I am here to be General Qi, you are all my 'mandarin duck battle array', General Qi set an iron law back then, soldiers retreat, there is no forgiveness for killing, officers retreat, soldiers can be punished. lost positions, the general was dismissed; Kill the enemy with your life, and the whole team will be rewarded. You should regard this discipline as my pre-war instruction from Chiang Zhongzheng. ”

The generals all stood solemnly, and they were all shocked in their hearts, and they had no doubt that this was a military order and a life and death certificate issued by the chairman of the committee. A few months ago, Han Fuyu, known as the "King of Shandong", was removed from his post and brought to justice, and then he was publicly executed on the charge of "failing to defend the territory in the War of Resistance", which is the power of an iron fist.

A guard officer hurried to ask the chairman to answer the phone.

When Chiang Kai-shek returned to the venue, there was a hint of joyful sunshine on his originally cloudy face. The generals speculated one after another, maybe there should be some good news, otherwise the chairman of the committee, who has always been unpredictable, would never be so happy.

Sure enough, Chiang Kai-shek announced to the meeting an exciting piece of good news, Sun Ke and Yang Jie, plenipotentiaries of the Nationalist Political Axe, called from Moscow, and the Soviet Political Axe announced that it would provide the first loan of $50 million to the Nationalist Political Axe, all of which would be used to purchase Soviet-made munitions, including combat aircraft, tanks, artillery, light and heavy machine guns, and so on, which China urgently needed. This was the largest amount of international aid received by the Chinese political axe since the war, and the Soviets also generously accepted the Chinese political axe to repay the loan with agricultural products and ore raw materials. For the Chinese political axe, the military and the people who fought hard in the war of resistance, this important aid was tantamount to sending charcoal in the snow, and it is no wonder that even the chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, who was accustomed to smiling, could not help but be overjoyed by this.

In fact, the Soviet government soon increased the loan amount to $250 million, and until the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the Soviet Union was China's largest arms lender and economic donor to the war of resistance. Statistics show that before the outbreak of the Pacific War, China received a total of $500 million in foreign loans (excluding Lend-Lease materials), and the Soviet Union accounted for half of the loans to China, ranking first among all countries. Moreover, the Soviet Union gave China all arms loans, while most of the 17 loans from Western countries were limited to civilian and non-military uses. With loans from the Soviet Union, the Nationalist Government purchased 536 Soviet-made combat planes, 82 tanks, 20 antiaircraft guns, 130 anti-tank guns, 340 field guns, 3,920 machine guns, 722 automobiles, 1,050,000 shells of various types, and 40,360,000 rounds of ammunition. The above-mentioned arms do not include the gratuitous military assistance provided by the Soviet political axe.

The participants were all in high spirits, and they saw a glimmer of hope in the international aid of the Soviet Union for the defeat of the aggressors. In any case, China has a vast territory and a large population, and its small military strength is limited, and with Chinese human resources and a steady stream of international aid, it is difficult for China's aggressive ambitions to succeed.

But Chiang Kai-shek did not let his generals be overly optimistic, pointing to the northern Henan region, which is only a river away from Zhengzhou, where there is a blue arrow representing the attack of the Yue army. The chairman of the committee warned: You must not forget that the enemy will not die and that they may attack at any time. For example, this enemy occupying Puyang is very dangerous once it enters the Central Plains, and you must closely monitor its movements.

He Yingqin whispered on the side: "That's the 14th Division of Tu Fei Yuan Xian. ”

Chiang Kai-shek nodded and said: Although this enemy has only one division, he may threaten the flank of our army at any time and disrupt the deployment of our army, so you must not take it lightly.

After the meeting, Chiang Kai-shek returned to Wuhan on the same day.

Before boarding the plane, the chairman repeatedly instructed his subordinates: The Longhai Railway is the lifeline of our army's defense, and once it is cut off, Zhengzhou will be in danger, and if Zhengzhou is lost, Wuhan will inevitably not be protected. Please keep this in mind.

The plane flew away in the blink of an eye, leaving behind an empty airport and a crowd of people waving on the ground.

In the spring of 1938, Tu Feiyuan commanded the 14th Division to hurriedly end the sweep in northern Henan and began to force the crossing of the Yellow River.

"VII. In the year when the "Seven Incidents" broke out, judging from the so-called "achievements" announced by the military, the "winner" of the army that invaded China should have been none other than the 14th Division of Tufeiyuan. This invading army, composed mainly of students, townspeople, and peasants, penetrated the furthest into the heart of China, captured the largest number of Chinese cities, defeated more than ten times the number of enemy troops, but suffered the lowest casualties, and so on, creating a series of battlefield miracles.

For this reason, some fanatical newspapers touted the division as the "nemesis of China," and some people called Kenji Dohihara a "model division leader," and so on. In fact, since the landing in Tanggu, the 14th Division has captured dozens of large and small cities such as Tianjin, Yanjing, Shijiazhuang, Baoding, Yuncheng, Taiyuan, Changzhi, and Xinxiang, and swept through Hebei, Shanxi, and Henan provinces.

Tufeiyuan's achievements aroused the jealousy of many division commanders, and some blamed his victory on good luck or victory without a fight, because when the 14th Division was in a no-man's land in the North China Battlefield, the famous Sakagaki 5th Division fell into a tragic ambush at Pingxingguan, and the 2nd Army also unfortunately encountered strong resistance like Taierzhuang, and the two main divisions and regiments suffered heavy casualties and retreated for a time. But in the end, the above statement is unfair, after all, the 14th Division fought thousands of miles, attacked cities and plundered land, and achieved a lot of results, is it all because of good luck?

The secret is known only to Tu Feiyuan himself, that is, his spy career in China for most of his life came in handy. Tu Feiyuan, known as the "China expert", considered himself a political soldier, unlike most generals who were simple-minded and knew nothing about the enemy except for fighting. For example, Wan Fulin, the general of the Northeast Army stationed in Hebei, had been in a slump since the "Xi'an Incident" and had no intention of fighting at all.

So Wan Fulin really gave up the Baoding and Yongqing areas according to the agreement, and retreated to the Jinghan Railway without incident. The same example can be seen in Shi Yousan, commander of the security forces in northern Hebei, Shang Zhen, commander-in-chief of the 20th Group Army, and so on. This is the main reason why at the beginning of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, several provinces in North China quickly fell to the enemy without fierce resistance. Tu Feiyuan fought and pulled these miscellaneous troops who were squeezed out, and many of them later openly surrendered and became the "Imperial Cooperative Army" that aided and abetted the abuse, all of which had nothing to do with the secret plot of this former spy leader.

However, the commander-in-chief of the temple changed the direction of the 14th Division's march by a stern order, and Tu Feiyuan had to set foot on Shandong soil on the other side of the Yellow River instead. As for the intentions of the dispatched troops and the future tasks of the division, he and his staff made various speculations, and unanimously agreed that the greatest possibility was to capture Heze, so as to maintain the operational posture of responding to Xuzhou and protecting the security of the flanks of the dispatched troops, that is, to continue to carry out the task of containing the surname of the operation.

The dry period of the Yellow River greatly facilitated the crossing of the river, and the defenders on the opposite bank retreated in a hurry after only a short resistance, so Hezecheng, an important town in southwest Shandong, was exposed to the invaders. Heze is rich in peonies, known as the "Peony City" in Luxi, but this thousand-year-old city is the baggage base and material transfer station of the [***] team. Intelligence showed that the 23rd Division of the 20th Army was already in a tight position outside the city, and when Dohihara ordered the tank brigade to advance with the search group in full force to defeat the enemy and seize the city, the chief of staff was worried that the follow-up troops might not be able to keep up, resulting in a weak attack and increased casualties. But Tu Feiyuan was not worried, he said contemptuously: To deal with these people, I think two brigades are enough.

The chief of staff reminded him: However, air intelligence shows that there are still three divisions of the Northeast Army south of Heze.

Tu Feiyuan laughed, and he said: I bet that Wan Fulin will not do anything but retreat, please carry out the order.

It is said that the army is under the city of Heze.

Doihara ordered a telegram to be sent to the dispatch army.

Originally, once the city of Heze was occupied, the 14th Division would have successfully completed its mission, because according to the regulations, the ground in Shandong was the operational scope of the Second Army, and Tufeiyuan was only temporarily crossing the river to support. But before he could catch his breath, the phone rang loudly in the headquarters.

Tu Feiyuan picked up the microphone and immediately straightened his body with a "hi", and the surprised expression on his face rounded up a pair of goldfish eyes. He could tell that the other party was not the pretentious staff members of the Dispatch Army, or even his direct superior, Lieutenant General Kiyoji Kazuki, commander of the First Army, but the commander-in-chief of the North China Dispatch Army, General Terauchi Shouichi, who was known for his arbitrariness.

The commander-in-chief of the temple is a very big superior, he was born in the noble Terauchi family, his father Terauchi Masashi was the 18th cabinet prime minister, he himself was the minister of the Cabinet of the Army, and even the prime minister of the current dynasty Konoe wanted to give him three points, so he often made the subordinates dare not speak out. The Commander-in-Chief's voice sounded very arrogant at this moment, and he did not need to consult his subordinates to give another unexpectedly short order; Abandon Heze, immediately turn south, and cut off the Longhai Railway.

According to the latest information, the Xue Yue Corps in front of Xuzhou is building multiple fronts along the Longhai Railway to confront the Yue army, and behind them are Kaifeng and Zhengzhou, which are known as the "battleground for soldiers", where more squadrons are ready to support at any time. At this point, Tu Feiyuan woke up like a dream, and he understood that the commander-in-chief's intention was obviously to use the 14th Division as a surprise army to attack the Central Plains region from the flank for a long time, cut off the Longhai Railway, and block the retreat of Xue Yue's corps.

Tu Feiyuan couldn't help but feel a tightness of breath. Because if the above objectives are achieved, the enemy's northern defense line will exist in name only, and the capture of Kaifeng and Zhengzhou will be like probing for something, and the problem is that the 14th Division must go hundreds of miles deep alone and fight against more than ten times the Chinese army alone. More importantly, the enemy he will face in the Central Plains is no longer those fragile and motley armies, but the elite corps of the Central Army, which is known for its bravery and good fighting. What a crazy and incredible bet! But he did not dare to resist the will of the commander-in-chief, so he had to cautiously ask: Is my division transferred alone?

The commander-in-chief immediately replied in the affirmative.

Tu Feiyuan's body shook, and he couldn't stand still, he knew that the Tokyo base camp had ordered that the North China Dispatch Army was not allowed to cross the front west of Xuzhou, but the commander-in-chief ordered him to run a long distance to attack the Longhai Railway, which was hundreds of miles away, and it was necessary to know that it was a great risk to attack beyond the authority. So he had no choice but to tactfully say: As far as the humble post knows, there are at least hundreds of thousands of enemy troops in the Central Plains!

The commander-in-chief immediately and mercilessly struck the former head of the secret service, and he said coldly: Are you afraid of the people? No wonder Your Excellency is slow, I don't think that's the reason.

Cold sweat immediately oozed from Tohihara's back.

He heard a hint of threat in the commander-in-chief's words. In the North China Dispatch Army, the sharp contradiction between the commander of the First Army, Kiyoshi Kazuki, and the commander-in-chief, Toshiichi Terauchi, is an open secret, the 14th Division is subordinate to the First Army, and Tohihara is an old subordinate of Kiyoji Kazuki and is recognized as the "Kazuki faction". Now that the 14th Division has not gained a firm foothold in crossing the Yellow River, if it fails to achieve its goal or suffers an unexpected defeat, it will not be tantamount to giving someone a handle, and the responsibility for "attacking without authorization" will inevitably fall on his head. So Dohihara desperately defended: Please allow me to ask the commander of the First Army for advice.

The commander-in-chief was furious, and rebuked on that side: Bastard! Is this an order from the Commander-in-Chief of the Dispatch Army? Listen, if the 14th Division fails to complete its mission, Your Excellency will be recalled to Tokyo at once.

The phone hangs up.

The commander of the First Army, Kiyoji Kazuki, soon learned of this, and he twice protested to the Dispatch Army, both of which were rejected. At this time, the power of the army commander had been elevated, and he could not even command his own subordinates, and the soil fertilizer principle wisely chose to obey.

The land fell, the enemy was murderous, and Heze was drowned in a pool of blood.

Hundreds of captured officers and soldiers were driven by the enemy to a clearing to gather, and a man with a sword on his shoulder came over with an interpreter, shouting and shouting, but unfortunately those [***] prisoners could not understand it. The interpreter, a monkey-faced Taiwanese who spoke broken Chinese, translated Dazuo's words to the effect that the imperial army would set off at dawn to attack the Shina army stationed in Shandong. The great prince said, "All of you captives must be moved out of the city."

As soon as the captives heard this, they exploded, and the diversion that the devil said was to drive them out of the city to be slaughtered, and the enemy had committed countless such atrocities. The captives protested loudly: "We are not leaving!" Death will also die in the city! ”

The translator muttered for a while, and Dazuo became angry, and the interpreter hurriedly translated: Dataijun said, you bastards! What qualifications do you have to die in the city? If you are like a real soldier, why don't you die on the battlefield?

The captives were immediately deflated, and they understood that the officer's words contained at least two meanings, the first was that those who died in the city must be warriors, not prisoners. The second is that the captives do not deserve respect, they will be slaughtered arbitrarily like cattle. The soldiers rushed up, stabbed with bright bayonets, and forcibly drove the captives out of the dark city.

It was the beginning of summer, and the wheat that had grown after a winter was entering the filling and ripening stage, and the air was filled with the smell of wheat as sweet as milk. Soon the captives found that there were not too many escorts, and the guards were not very strict, and the sky was dark without moonlight, which made people rekindle their hope of survival. Instead of waiting to be killed, it is better to run away desperately, and the opportunity must not be lost, and time is not waiting. As long as you break free from the shackles of the rope and swim into the dark sea like a fish, it is in vain to say that no matter how vicious you are. Some of the captives were the first to act, quietly breaking free from their bondage, and in the blink of an eye they were burrowing into the crops by the roadside and disappearing.

More captives were encouraged, scrambling to untie the ropes, and then quickly disappeared into the endless night. By the time he found that the captives had melted as quickly as ice on a stove, the lucky fugitives were gone. The brutal man himself shot the captives who had no time to escape, and when the terrible gunfire and the curses and screams of the victims gradually subsided, a strange and satisfied smile appeared on the face of the officer Osa, and then ordered the troops to be collected and returned to the city.

It is a miracle that some of the captives finally escaped back to their positions, and more importantly, the captives brought back important information for the squadron, that is, the enemy was about to launch a large-scale attack on the Twentieth Army in Shandong. This information was highly valued by the front-line commanders, who immediately reported it to their superiors and the theater headquarters.

A few hours later, the Wuhan base camp learned of this important movement of the army, and in addition to ordering the 20 th Group Army to be on high alert and ready to stand by in battle, it also ordered the Zhengzhou First Theater to move troops in the direction of Shandong and be ready to support the 20 th Group Army in its operations at any time.

(To be continued)