Han Xing said: "It's just to destroy your 31st Group Army!" ”

Tang Enbo looked at Han Xing with a little mockery and said, "It's really a fantasy, why are so many troops in the 5th Theater of Operations our 31st Group Army?"

Han Xing said unhurriedly: "There are a lot of troops in the 5th theater, including the 11th Group Army, the 21st Group Army, the 22nd Group Army, the 29th Group Army, the 33rd Group Army, the Jiangfang Army and other 6 group armies, as well as your 31st Group Army, which was transferred later, with a total of 13 armies, 34 infantry divisions, 1 cavalry division, 1 cavalry brigade and 2 guerrilla columns. Theoretically, if it is full, the Fifth Theater should have 300,000 troops!

Among them, the relatively strong combat effectiveness is Li Pinxian's Gui army, which is Li Zongren's descendant troops. There is also Zhang Zizhong's Northwest Army, which can fight tough battles. In addition, there are the Sichuan Army, Wang Zan Xu Group Army, and Sun Zhen Group Army, which have weak combat effectiveness. As for the Jiang Defense Army, the Guo Confession Department is the Central Army, and its combat effectiveness is stronger than that of the Sichuan Army, but its strength is insufficient, and it cannot be transferred at will.

At present, however, more than one-half of the theater troops are currently only half of their troops and equipment, and their ranks are incomplete. Originally, there should have been 300,000 troops in the Fifth Theater at full strength, but at this time there were only more than 100,000 troops, and they needed a long rest to recuperate before they could fight.

At present, the Fifth Theater of Operations, to be honest, counts your 31st Group Army with the largest number of people, tenacious fighting spirit, and the best equipment. Therefore, as long as the Japanese army destroys your 31st Army, they will also eliminate the core forces of the national army, and they will also defeat the 5th theater.

Therefore, the ultimate goal of Okamura Ninji this time is to destroy your 31st Army! ”

Tang Enbo listened for a long time without words, and was pondering.

At this time, a staff officer of the 31st Army came to report: "Report to the commander-in-chief that the 14th Cavalry Brigade of the Japanese Army has occupied Zaoyang County and is maneuvering around Sanhedian. ”

Towneburgh immediately asked the staff officer to open the map and look at it.

Looking at the map, Tang Enbo's heart was half cold. The area around Zaoyang and Sanhedian was occupied by the Japanese army, so Li Zongren's order to retreat to Xinye could not be carried out, because the retreat route had been cut off by the Japanese army.

At this time, Li Zongren came with a new order, that is, to ask the Tang Enbo Group Army and the Gui Army to take the Tongbai Mountains as a sustenance and gradually move north to break away from the encirclement of the Japanese army.

Tang Enbo looked at Han Xing and said, "It seems that my brother's words are right, the Japanese army is indeed deploying two encirclements. It seems that they want to surround all the troops in our 5th theater of operations. It seems that our 31st Group Army can only withdraw to the Tongbai Mountains. ”

At this time, another staff officer came to report, and he whispered to Tang Enbo: "According to our internal report, Commander Li sent another identical telegram and telegraphed directly to the chairman of the committee, the general content of the telegram was that the Japanese army on the left flank broke through our army's defense line and tried to outflank our army's retreat, so he ordered Tang Enbo's group army and Gui's army to use the Tongbai Mountains as a sustenance, and gradually move northward to get out of the encirclement of the Japanese army. ”

Hearing the staff officer's report, Tang Enbo pondered again: "Since Commander Li has already given me an order, why do you bother the chairman about this matter?" What does this mean, Sir? ”

Tang Enbo turned his head and said directly to Han Xing: "Commander Han, tell me, what does this Chief Li mean?" ”

Han Xingxin said, can't you see this thing! If I can't see this, I'll be the commander in vain. But how could he say this to Tang Enbo, if he didn't say it, he couldn't do it, Han Xing had to say euphemistically:

"The current situation is quite critical, and Chief Li has given the order to retreat. He was afraid that you would not obey the order to retreat, so he telegraphed the chairman again. If you really don't retreat, if the 31st Army suffers heavy losses and is annihilated, you can't blame Chief Li. ”

Tang Enbo listened to Han Xing's words and said hatefully, "At this time, can I not retreat." ”

Another staff officer came to report: "Report to Commander Tang, all units of the Gui army have begun to retreat on all fronts. ”

"What!" Tang Enbo was furious when he heard this, "If you retreat, you can't withdraw like this, you have to cover each other." If you retreat like this, you have to retreat. ”

Tang Enbo immediately said to another staff officer: "Immediately contact Commander Tan Lianfang of the 84th Army of the Gui Army, and I want to talk to him directly." ”

After a while, the phone was connected, and Tang Enbo said to Tan Lianfang: "Commander Tan, isn't this interesting enough?" If you retreat, you'll have to say hello. Who goes first, who goes later, who acts as the main cover. Where to retreat, you have to discuss whether it is or not, it can't be a father and a mother who marry, everyone is in charge of everyone. ”

Tan Lianfang listened to Tang Enbo's words, and seemed to be a little embarrassed, and said apologetically: "I'm sorry, Commander Tang, we also received an order from Chief Li to retreat immediately." The specific who withdrew first, who retreated, and whose main cover, really didn't think of such a detail. Our situation was not good, there was confusion in the retreat, I only contacted the 173rd Division, and the 174th and 175th Divisions lost contact. ”

Tang Enbo put down the phone and scolded fiercely: "You deserve it!" This is called an orderly retreat, this is called a rout. Hmph—"

Tang Enbo knew that now there was only his 31st Group Army in this vast Suizao area, and it was impossible to defend it any longer. He immediately called a meeting of senior officers to study the question of retreat, where exactly should be withdrawn.

At this time, Tang Enbo received information that after the left flank of the Japanese army, that is, the 13th and 16th divisions of the Japanese army, tore open the gap in Changshoudian, the 14th Cavalry Brigade advanced at high speed to avoid the real situation, except for the blow and harassment of the Southern Expeditionary Army, and suffered great losses, the 14th Brigade was no longer subjected to strong resistance by the main force of the National Army.

Most of the subsequent attacks encountered by the 14th Brigade were those of the battalion-level national army. The cavalry brigade has nearly 10,000 troops, and it still doesn't care about the resistance of the national army of several hundred people.

Therefore, the cavalry brigade advanced extremely fast, even exceeding Okamura Ninji's expectations.

At this time, the cavalry brigade was still advancing vigorously, approaching the Miyang Expressway 100 kilometers northeast of Xinye.

Miyang is the turn point of the left and right flanks of the Japanese army, and once the Japanese army occupies Miyang, this encirclement is formed.

The other was the left flank of the Japanese army.

The 29th Brigade of the 3rd Division, under the cover of heavy weapons, set out from Xinyang and advanced along the entire line of the North Road, where the national army was not strong and the Sichuan army was the mainstay.

After several days of hard fighting, the Japanese occupied Tongbai County on the 12th.

At this time, the left-wing Japanese army had occupied Huyang Town, which was only 50 kilometers away from Tongbai County, and the right-wing Japanese army occupied Tongbai, so that the inner encirclement was roughly formed, and only the 50-kilometer distance in the Tongbai Mountain area was still a gap.

The Japanese occupation of Tongbai County is located in the hinterland of the Tongbai Mountains, and although the Japanese occupation of Tongbai County cannot completely blockade the Tongbai Mountains, it is also more difficult for the Nationalist Army to retreat on a large scale in the mountainous areas.

Since it was difficult to completely blockade the Tongbai Mountains, the Japanese army was still working on an outer encirclement.

At this time, the Japanese cavalry brigade in the outer encirclement of the left flank had advanced to the Tang River, only 25 kilometers away from Miyang, and the Japanese army in Tongbai also began to move north, and the county seat of Tongbai was only 25 kilometers away from Miyang.

If the Nationalist army does not have strong forces to block these two Japanese forces, under normal circumstances, it only takes one more day for the two flanks of Japanese troops to complete the encirclement.

The Japanese troops on both flanks are rushing towards Miyang, and once the two Japanese armies meet at Miyang, then the outer encirclement will all be formed, and even the slightest gap will not exist.

In this way, not only Tang Enbo's 31st Group Army will be annihilated, but even the Gui Army, Li Pinxian Group Army, Zhang Zizhong Group Army, and Sichuan Army in the encirclement may not be able to escape the catastrophe.

After studying with the senior officers of the 31st Group Army, Tang Enbo decided that the 31st Group Army must retreat to the north of Miyang, so that it could jump out of the encirclement of the Japanese army, and then retreat to defend and advance to counterattack the Japanese army.

So, Tang Enbo sent a telegram to Li Zongren, asking him to retreat to the north of Miyang, not to the Tongbai Mountains.

However, Li Zongren disagreed, and he asked Tang Enbo's main force to stay in the Tongbai Mountains, as long as they held out for two to three weeks, the Japanese army would naturally retreat.

By the 9th, Tang Enbo had received information that Tongbai, only 20 kilometers northeast of him, had been attacked by the 26th Brigade of the 3rd Division of the Japanese Army, and it was estimated that it would soon be lost.

Tang Enbo was taken aback, he finally understood that the main purpose of the Japanese army was his 31st Army, and he was trying to encircle and annihilate himself.

On the one hand, Tang ordered the troops to begin to shrink northward, and on the other hand, urgently asked the Fifth Theater Command for confirmation.

And at this time, the Fifth Theater Command suddenly could not be contacted. This situation, also known as Town, was greatly frightened.

The original headquarters was located in Pancheng, 30 kilometers north of Zaoyang. The Japanese army suddenly occupied Zaoyang, and this city was not safe, and there was always the possibility of being surrounded and annihilated by the Japanese army.

Li Zongren's headquarters could only continue to retreat from the 9th and retreat to Shihua Street in Gucheng, which was further behind.

This practice of moving the command headquarters on the spot led to a one- to two-day interruption in the command of the Fifth Theater.

At such a critical juncture, it is unthinkable that the command will be interrupted. As a result, there has been a certain degree of confusion across the jujube!

At this time, Cheng Qian temporarily took over the command of the overall operation.

Previously, Li Zongren concealed from Tang Enbo the information that the Japanese army launched the Battle of Suizao in order to annihilate the 31st Group Army, and did not inform Tang Enbo of the entire situation of the battle in Suizao.

But Cheng Qian did not have any contradiction with Tang Enbo, and he did not hesitate to inform Tang Enbo of all the circumstances.

At that time, it was already the 10th, and Zaoyang, which was on the route of Tang Enbo's western retreat, had been occupied by the Japanese army as early as the 8th, and Tongbai County, an important passage for the northward retreat on the 10th, was also occupied by the Japanese army.

After Tang Enbo heard Cheng Qian's information, he didn't feel anger rising from his heart, and evil was born to his guts. He immediately ordered the 31st Army to immediately abandon the frontal struggle with Suizao, and except for one unit to continue to block the Japanese army, the rest of the divisions made every effort to break through to the north.

Because the Tongbai Mountain area had been occupied by the Japanese army at that time, fortunately, the terrain in the mountain area was extremely complicated, and there were still about 50 kilometers of mountainous areas to break through, and the Japanese army had no time to seal it for a while.

Although the 31st Group Army of the National Army has a large number of troops, it is well equipped, and there are no heavy weapons, all of which are lightly armed, so it is estimated that it is still feasible to break through from the mountainous areas.

But Tang Enbo was still quite frightened, because the Japanese army was attacking Miyang on the periphery, and once Miyang was occupied, the 31st Army would be completely surrounded.

Therefore, while ordering the 31st Group Army to break through the encirclement, Tang Enbo immediately rushed to Li Zongren's headquarters Gucheng in the tank car of the tank battalion of the Southern Expeditionary Army, to "rejuvenate the division and ask him for guilt" and to discuss the next military action.