The press group stayed in Suxian for three days, and then went to Guzhen, where they were received by the deputy chief of staff of the Second Army, and spent two days interviewing the Guzhen People's Support Team, and visiting a nearby position.

After the failure of the 13th Division's forced crossing, the battlefield of the Xianghe River temporarily fell into calm, Haneda urgently sent a request for help to Shunroku Hatata, asking for reinforcement of air support, often succeeding in the front, the follow-up troops were fiercely attacked by the Chinese Air Force, unable to reinforce, and ultimately failed, if no air support was increased, even if the troops crossed the river, the casualties would be unbearable.

After receiving the telegram, Shunroku Hahata immediately summoned the commander of the air force, Inada, and asked him to immediately find a way to provide cover for Haneda, otherwise the air force would bear the responsibility for the defeat of the battle. At the beginning of the war, the Japanese Air Force looked down on the Chinese Air Force, which had only two or three hundred old aircraft, but at the beginning of the war, it was discovered that the Chinese Air Force was a wolf in sheep's clothing. From the beginning of the war to the present, the Japanese air force has always been at a disadvantage, and the addition of the navy was not obvious during the Battle of Songhu, but by the time of the Battle of Xuzhou, this disadvantage was very obvious.

In fact, they also know the magic weapon radar of the Chinese Air Force, and they have succeeded in cracking the radar, and even imitated a radar station, but the combination of radar and the air force is very poor, and the radar stations in Jiangsu and Zhejiang have just begun to be built, and the number is very small, and they cannot control the Huainan sky.

However, if the Air Force is unable to provide air cover and leads to the defeat of the campaign, this responsibility is a rice field and cannot be borne by the Air Force. Daotian returned to the headquarters to convene staff officers to discuss countermeasures, and finally decided to increase the frequency of air raids, using the airfield near Jinan, Jiading, Nanjing, as a land airfield, and the navy sending more than three aircraft carriers to assemble in the waters off Haizhou to carry out shuttle bombing to provide cover for the army, and to speed up the construction of airfields and radar stations in the Huainan area.

These two measures were very effective, especially the first one, the Japanese planes in the sky were significantly strengthened, and the planes taking off from Jiangsu and Zhejiang turned to the aircraft carriers outside Haizhou after the Huainan sky; After the bombing, the planes that took off from the aircraft carrier turned to Nanjing and Shanghai.

The battle in the sky became obviously fierce, and nearly 100 planes were fighting in the sky for several days, and at this critical moment, a serious incident occurred in the First War Zone, and the Japanese army occupied Puyang. In order to stop the Japanese attack, Qian Dajun transferred half of the air power from the Fifth Theater to support the First Theater, and the threat of the Chinese Air Force dropped greatly.

The 9th Division took this opportunity to successfully force a crossing in the lower reaches of the Huai River, and the 51st Army counterattack failed, Li Pinxian immediately ordered to retreat to the north bank of the Lan River, and the 46th Army was responsible for blocking and covering, and the Japanese army fought fiercely in Cao Laoji and Mopanzhang to prevent the 9th Division's attack, and then crossed the Lan River at Xinma Bridge. Just when Fan Songfu, Yu Xuezhong and others thought that the Japanese army would take advantage of the victory to pursue, Haneda ordered the Japanese army to stop on the south bank of the river.

The order to stop the offensive was given from time to time by Haneda, but directly from Nanking Hata Shunroku. Ye Sufei's intelligence quickly spread to Shanghai, and then to Nanjing, where Shunroku Hata convened staff officers for analysis, and finally came to the conclusion that the purpose of the ** Army was to encircle and annihilate the 9th and 13th Divisions in the north in Suxian.

"..., the flank ** 21st Group Army has not been fighting, dragging the 3rd Division to the west, the 11th Group Army in Mengcheng did not resist fiercely, obviously trying to attract our army to the west, but they gathered a large number of troops near Suxian, seeing that the imperial army broke through the vortex river and the river without the slightest sign of reinforcements, indicating that the purpose of the ** general is to let us go north, just like he was in Nanjing, but we will not be fooled." A sneer appeared on Shunroku Hata's face: "In this case, I will give General ** a way to govern his people, order the Ninth Division and the Thirteenth Division to stop the attack, and order Gu Shoufu to take Mengcheng within two days, and then cross the Vortex River, attack north, occupy Yongcheng, and complete the battle plan of the military headquarters." ”

After giving the order, Shunroku Hata looked up at the officers around him, and said very confidently: "This deployment of the ** general is conducive to our army to complete the battle plan formulated by the military department, and it also shows that they have not yet noticed our battle plan. ”

"I want to serve the Emperor! The Imperial Army's military luck is long! The officers replied in unison.

Gu Shoufu was reluctant to go north, which made Zhuang Jihua a little anxious, he didn't know whether the Japanese army had discovered his arrangement, so he discussed with Xu Zuyi whether to let the troops on the northern front gradually retreat, abandon Tai'an, Laiwu, and Juxian, and retreat to the second blocking line.

"..., if we do this, will the Japanese think that we have discovered their intentions, and Tani will go north?" Zhuang Jihua asked Xu Zuyi suspiciously.

"Will Shunroku Hata do this?" Xu Zuyi smiled bitterly in his heart, he couldn't be sure, however, the battle on the northern front was currently going well, although the Japanese army was attacking fiercely and our army was retreating step by step, but the entire front remained stable, and both sides suffered heavy casualties.

"Commander, I think it's still steady, don't retreat for the time being, once you abandon the mountains in the north, there will be a flat river behind you, and there is almost no danger to defend." Xu Zuyi thought about it and said slowly: "I think wait a minute, like the 49th Group Army and the 24th Group Army, not only to support the northern front, but also to invest in the southern front to counterattack when needed. ”

After Zhuang Jihua heard this, he nodded slightly for a long time, he deployed his troops in this way, and he also had such a thought, and there was a lot of room for maneuver in the troops, especially the 49th Group Army, which could be both south and north, and there was a huge room for maneuver.

At this moment, Gong Chu, the new chief of operations, came in to report that a call came from the First War Zone, Puyang had been lost, and four divisions of the Japanese army were approaching the north bank of the Yellow River.

Gong Chu had just taken office as the chief of operations in the theater, and this appointment was not only unexpected by him but also by his recommender Yang Yuchun; At the beginning, Yang Yuchun just said it casually, but he didn't expect Zhuang Jihua to really adopt it, which made Yang Yuchun and Gong Chu both feel like they had met.

But the news reported by Gong Chu at this moment made Zhuang Jihua feel a little surprised, he did not expect the First War Zone to put the Japanese army into Shandong so quickly, he immediately ordered the First Army to strengthen the defense of the Yellow River crossings, and at the same time ordered the 78th to immediately reinforce Heze.

Soon after his order was issued, Bai Chongxi sent him a telegram from Kaifeng, ordering the Japanese army to cross the river, and attached a plan for the first war zone.

"It seems that Bai Jiansheng and Commander Li's appetites are not small," Zhuang Jihua said helplessly after reading the telegram, and Xu Zuyi took the telegram and read it carefully.

The Japanese army attacking the first theater of operations was also divided into two routes, the main force of four divisions marched east to attack Puyang, and the two divisions on the flank attacked Xinxiang along the Pinghan line, Bai Chongxi formulated a battle plan accordingly, intending to use the First Group Army, the 32nd Army and other troops to entangle the Japanese army attacking Xinxiang, while the main force of the Central Army 71st, 72nd, 74th, and 22nd Group Armies composed of the Eastern Henan Corps was led by Xue Yue, when the Japanese army crossed the Yellow River, it killed from the flank, cutting the Japanese army in half in one fell swoop, and the fifth theater was responsible for annihilating the enemy on the south bank. The First Theater of Operations was responsible for destroying the enemy on the North Shore.

This plan can be described as grandiose, and it will wipe out four divisions of Japanese troops in one fell swoop.

"Chief Bai did this, didn't he put my five war zones on the stove and roast them?" Xu Zuyi almost jumped up after reading it. In order to block the 500,000 Japanese troops in the north and south in the five theaters, the use of troops is close to the limit, and even if two more are released, it may become the last straw that breaks the camel's back.

Zhuang Jihua was silent, Xu Zuyi was a little anxious: "Commander, we have also formulated a plan to annihilate Gu Shoufu, if we want to implement this plan, what should Gu Shoufu on the southern line do?" Do we still have enough troops to annihilate Tani Shofu? Besides, what if Xue Yue couldn't cut off the follow-up forces of the Japanese army? Four divisions and 100,000 horses rushed into our flank, and the rear of our 500,000-strong army was about to be cut off. ”

This remark made Zhuang Jihua a little frightened, Xu Zuyi's worries were unreasonable from time to time, if Xue Yue's attack failed, after 100,000 Japanese troops broke into the flank of the Fifth War Zone, it would be dangerous for the northern front troops who were blocking the Japanese army in the Yimeng Mountains.

"What do you think?" Zhuang Jihua asked Gong Chu a little casually.

"It's a deadly game, and the slightest mistake on either side will be doomed." Gong Chu replied simply. For Zhuang Jihua, he didn't know that he had never had a chance to make friends. He was in Guangzhou during the Great Revolution, but he served as a major communications officer in the Guangzhou Communications Office of Cheng Qian's Attack on Hubei Army, participated in the Youth Army Association, and was sent by the party organization to Beijiang in 1925 to engage in agricultural activities. At this moment, he was a little strange, how could he not see this with Xiao Zhuge Bai Chongxi's military literacy: "Does Chief Bai have other plans?" ”

"What are you going to do?" Zhuang Jihua frowned and asked.

"I don't know." Gong Chu replied honestly: "However, the difficulties in our war zone, Chief Bai should understand. ”

"You will send a telegram to tell him about our difficulties, and at the same time tell him that our plan is going well," Zhuang Jihua snorted lightly in his nostrils and said very dissatisfiedly: "He understands our plan." ”

Zhuang Jihua suspected in his heart that Bai Chongxi deliberately put the Japanese army into the Fifth War Zone in order to reduce the pressure on the First War Zone, but why did he do this? The task of the First Theater of Operations is to cover the flanks of the Fifth Theater, and if the Japanese army fights, the task of the First Theater will not be completed, and even if he is defeated, the First Theater will have to bear the main responsibility.

While waiting for Bai Chongxi's telegram, he waited for the result that Zhuang Jihua wanted very much, Gu Shoufu launched a fierce attack on Mengcheng, this news could have made Zhuang Jihua and Xu Zuyi excited for a long time if they had come earlier, but now they came, but it made them difficult.

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