Happy New Year! Happy New Year, all book friends!

Anqing, located in the southwest of Anhui Province, borders the Yangtze River in the southeast, is at the intersection of Anhui, Hubei and Jiangxi provinces, and is the throat of Wuhan.

During the period of the Republic of China, Anqing had a very profound cultural heritage, which was not only the birthplace of Tongcheng School, Huangmei Opera and Hui School culture, but also the birthplace of the first modern enterprise in China's modern history - Anqing Ordnance Institute. If it weren't for Xiao Yueben's invasion and according to Sun Yat-sen's plan for the founding of the country, Anqing would probably have been built into a metropolis that spans both sides of the Yangtze River and is comparable to Shanghai and Nanjing. It's a pity that Xiao Yueben's invasion interrupted Anqing's dream of development.

At this time, the Anhui Provincial Political Axe and the Provincial Party Department had already evacuated Anqing. Garrisoned in Anqing was the 20th Army of the Sichuan Army Yang Sen.

Yang Sen's 20th Army was notorious during the warlord melee in Sichuan, and when the Red Army's Long March reached northern Sichuan, it was attacked by the Red Fourth Front Army and the Red Third and Fifth Army Corps under Peng Dehuai's command. As a result, after the Sichuan resistance, the warlord troops that used to harm the people and disturb the people were reborn and showed the bravery and loyalty of the Sichuan army.

This Yang Sen, the word Zihui, formerly known as Shuze, also known as Bojian, is a native of Longtai Temple in Guang'an, Sichuan. Because his father was born in Yiwu, Yang Sen was interested in martial arts since he was a child, and he became a helmsman of the Pao Brothers' Association very early. After graduating from middle school, Yang Sen joined the Sichuan Army Benmu Team, and later went to the Sichuan Army Accelerated School to study, where he was classmates with Liu Xiang, Tang Shizun, and Pan Wenhua, all of whom were the core of the Sichuan Army's accelerated training department.

Yang Sen's life is quite legendary, and there are several records in history that no one in China has been able to break so far, one is that he learned to fly an airplane at the age of 70, the second is that he married a 17-year-old middle school student as a concubine at the age of 90, and the third is that he gave birth to a child with a newly married concubine in his 90s. Of course, these records were all made after he went to Taiwan, and now that history has changed due to the arrival of Liu Yimin, it is unknown whether he still has these records.

Of course, Yang Sen's legend is by no means limited to these, and the most popular thing is that he has many wives and concubines and many children. The warlords during the Republic of China, the one with the most women was Ma Bufang, the second was Zhang Zongchang, and the third was none other than Yang Sen. He has 12 nominal wives and concubines, and the rest is difficult to study. It is said that Chiang Kai-shek once went to Yang Sen's mansion and saw that there were many women in the courtyard, so he asked Yang Sen, "These are all your women?" Yang Sen put his feet together and immediately reported: "The subordinates are in good health!" It made Chiang Kai-shek cry and laugh.

With so many women, Yang Sen implements militarized management, and the wives have to wear military uniforms every day to go out in the morning, and whoever makes a mistake has to be dealt with by military law, usually stripping off his pants and letting the adjutant spank. At the same time, Yang Sen is also a bowl of water, not only which wife to spend the night in the order of equal, but also each wife is also assigned tasks, some are in charge of general affairs, some are in charge of cashiers, some are in charge of servants, some are in charge of socializing, some are in charge of children's education, not to mention, basically everyone has a job. When Yang Sen introduced his experience to the other warlords, he shamelessly said, "I practice militarized management, otherwise the people in that house will not be able to live in a town!" ”

In 1928, Yang Sen and Liu Xiang went to war, but the result was naturally beaten and hidden. At this time, the Sichuan people who love to set up the dragon gate array have exposed all the affairs of Yang Sen, and even his crime of killing two beautiful concubines in a row has been completely exposed. One of them, Jiangnan Yiye, was a down-and-out literati who perfunctory Yang Sen's romance and wrote a novel, which was simply a new version of "Golden Vase Plum" and a new version of "Meat Futon", which was widely spread for a while. Of course, although Jiangnan Yiye used a vulgar pen and wrote Yang Sen as the reincarnation of the Silver Devil, he also wrote about Yang Sen's cultural and martial arts and eloquent talents, which belonged to the category of scolding and helping. Yang Sen's subordinates were unwilling to arrest this Jiangnan Yiye and shoot him, but Yang Sen disagreed, he told the officers that the common people have the psychology of obeying and advocating power, and the emperor has seventy-two concubines in three palaces and six courts, everyone is envious, and no one thinks that the emperor is doing something wrong. Yuan Shikai also has more than a dozen wives, and two are Korean goods. Zhang Zongchang has so many women, among which there are twenty blonde and blue-eyed European women. My old Yang is not as good as a hero, what is the matter with marrying a dozen wives! It is better for the common people to know, which shows that I am not only a hero on the battlefield, but also a hero in the fat powder pile. In this way, it will be harder to fight with our soldiers. Because they see the role model, if they do it well, they will be like me, with good fields and beautiful houses, and groups of wives and concubines.

Not to mention, Yang Sen's words have some truth for those old soldiers who do not have the right ideals and goals in life.

Of course, from today's point of view, Yang Sen has done some things really well, such as his support for the Chinese film industry. In 1935, film pioneer Zheng Yongzhi founded a film factory in Hankou, preparing to use film propaganda to resist the war, but suffered from lack of funds, equipment and venues. After reporting the results to Zhang Xueliang, Zhang Xueliang allocated 5,000 oceans per month from his personal special funds for the construction of the film factory, and Zheng Yongzhi used the money to buy sound film shooting and production equipment from abroad. Everything is ready, only the space is owed.

At this time, someone proposed to Zheng Yongzhi to rent Janssen Garden in Hankou. Zheng Yongzhi flew to see Yang Sen with the attitude of giving it a try, but Yang Sen agreed and only charged a piece of ocean rent. It is equivalent to giving Janssen Garden White to the film studio.

Later, Yang Sen led the 20th Army out of Sichuan to resist passing through Hankou, Zheng Yongzhi specially invited Yang Sen to visit the film studio, and Yang Sen made an impromptu speech full of passion, which attracted thunderous applause from the employees of the film studio. In order to thank Yang Sen, Zheng Yongzhi specially filmed a news documentary about the 20th Army's expedition to resist the Japanese, which played an encouraging role in encouraging the 20th Army to bravely kill the enemy on the Songhu battlefield.

In fact, this Yang Sen is just a microcosm of the powerful people in that special era of the Republic of China, and it can't be said how good or bad it is. The main reason is that they do not have a correct goal of struggle, and in such an era of great social change, it is normal for them to do some unbelievable things for the sake of their own interests and those of small groups. In this way, Janssen degenerated from a young man who pursued revolution to a warlord. Of course, he is not the same as Ma Bufang and Zhang Zongchang, this person has other merits in addition to greed. In particular, the Chinese people recognize the point of resolute resistance.

The period of the Anti-Japanese War was also an era of great enlightenment for the Chinese people. In order to resist the invasion, bandits can also resist with guns, let alone Yang Sen?

After leaving Sichuan, the 20th Army went to Shanghai to participate in the Songhu War of Resistance, and the whole army fought bloody battles for 20 days and nights in Jiading Luodian and Taicang Liuhe Town between Shanghai and Suzhou City, destroying more than 4,000 enemies, which was one of the troops that destroyed the most enemies on the Songhu battlefield. However, this battle also greatly damaged the vitality of the 20th Army, and most of the 18,000 people who left Sichuan were buried on the Songhu battlefield and became the martyrs of the Chinese nation. The commander of the 804th Regiment, Xiang Wenbin, was ordered to recapture the lost position on October 15, and after a night of fierce fighting, the position was regained, but only one regiment commander, one battalion commander, four platoon commanders and 120 soldiers remained in the 804th Regiment. Xiang Wenbin was "promoted from lieutenant colonel to colonel and from colonel to major general within three hours of a day", and was considered to be an outstanding representative of the Sichuan army's courage to accept orders in danger and swear to defend the country to the death.

After the Battle of Songhu, the 20th Army was reluctantly reduced to two regiments, and Yang Sen was received by Chiang Kai-shek and appointed commander of the 27th Group Army and commander of the 20th Army, plus the rank of general. The troops went to Anqing for training.

In Anqing, the Twentieth Army received additional soldiers from Sichuan, as well as several hundred young intellectuals, and the Twentieth Army restored the establishment of two divisions, namely Yang Hanyu's 133rd Division and Yang Hanzhong's 134th Division. Priority was also given to replenishing the equipment of the troops, with the command being equipped with a Czech-style one-color, with an additional heavy machine-gun company per battalion and a mortar company per regiment. Some people have weapons, and after a period of training, the combat effectiveness of the 20th Army has been improved on the surface, but in fact, because there are too few veterans, the combat effectiveness may not be comparable to that before the war.

At this time, in addition to the 133rd and 134th Divisions, there were also two brigades of the 146th Division sent by Tang Shizun.

Historically, the Botian detachment of the Yue Army successfully attacked Anqing on the night of June 11. But the current situation is very different, due to Liu Yimin's agitation, the army did not launch the Battle of Wuhan so early, and the Botian detachment has been stationed in Wuhu since it was transferred to Central China. After the army opened the Jinpu Road for the Battle of Xuzhou, the main force immediately went north to participate in the battle of encircling and suppressing the main force of the instructor, and had no time to advance westward. However, in order to mobilize the heavy army group of the Shandong Yue Army to the south, Liu Yimin sent Liu Jianli to carry out a series of fake moves, which can be regarded as attracting all the main forces of the Yue Army to Anhui.

When military planes bombed Wuhan, they could bomb Anqing by the way. Yang Sen had no choice, and also organized a part of the anti-aircraft machine guns to guard the Anqing airport. It's a pity that the anti-aircraft units are all novices, and the ammunition is not sufficient, so they can't always hit enemy aircraft. Yang Sen's chief of staff, Xian Guangjun, proposed a method, which was to make a model of an airplane out of wood, attract planes to attack, and use anti-aircraft fire to destroy it.

Not to mention, this trick worked, the plane found the plane on the airfield, and really began to dive and bomb, and the defenders grabbed the fighter plane and destroyed one. Unfortunately, people were so happy and sad that they were only concerned about celebrating, and they were unprepared, and when the planes came to bomb for the second time, they killed and injured many people.

Anqing was already alarmed at this time, and there were alarms of the army coming on the north and south lines, so Yang Sen had no choice but to deploy the troops separately, and the 133rd Division drove to Chaoxian, Wuwei, and Lujiang to intercept the army moving south; The 134th Division was also deployed along the river from Zongyang to Anqing to prevent the army from advancing westward. Two brigades of the 146th Division sent by Tang Shizun guarded Anqing.

However, the Sichuan army at this time was slightly different from the Sichuan army during the Battle of Songhu and the Battle of Tengxian. This difference is embodied in two points: One point is positive, that is, the Sichuan army has been tempered by vicious warfare, and the fighting skills and command ability of soldiers and middle- and lower-level officers have been further enhanced, and the weaponry of some units has also been markedly strengthened. The other point is the opposite, the cause is the death of Liu Xiang, the leader of the Sichuan army.

Liu Xiang led the Sichuan army out of Sichuan, firstly, based on the national righteousness, in the face of the invasion of a strong enemy, and went to the national disaster together. Second, it is because after the main force entered Sichuan to pursue the Red Army, the political situation in Sichuan changed greatly, especially after the negotiations between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, Chiang Kai-shek had no worries for the time being, and wanted to build the southwest into a rear area of the Anti-Japanese War, so he had to draw and divide the various departments of the Sichuan Army, weaken the strength of local factions, and strengthen the central position. As a result, Liu Xiang's position is in jeopardy. In desperation, Liu Xiang organized the establishment of the Wude Advancement Association to strengthen control over the army and strictly prevent the division and collapse of the central forces. Later, Liu Xiang had close contacts with Zhang Xueliang and Song Zheyuan, which caused great dissatisfaction with Chiang Kai-shek. In order to resolve the political crisis, Liu Xiang had to take the initiative to ask for help.

After the Sichuan army left Sichuan, Chiang Kai-shek appointed Liu Xiang as the commander of the Seventh Theater of Operations, with Chen Cheng as his deputy. After the Battle of Songhu, Chiang Kai-shek was very cold to Liu Xiang for a while, but he was courteous to Yang Sen and others, and his heart was self-evident. After Liu Xiang died of illness in Hankou in January, Chiang Kai-shek successively planned to let He Guoguang and Zhang Qun preside over the overall situation of Sichuan, but they were all disturbed by the powerful factions in Sichuan. Chiang Kai-shek asked Gu Zhutong to dominate Sichuan again, but Wang Lingji said: "If Gu Zhutong dares to come to Rong, he will be welcomed at the airport with machine guns and artillery." Chiang Kai-shek had no choice but to think about it, and the political situation in Sichuan had to be temporarily presided over by Wang Zhanxu.

As soon as Liu Xiang died, the Sichuan army was leaderless, and the troops that had been scattered and used were even more dispersed now, and all of them were deployed on the front line. Like Sun Zhen's 22nd Group Army, which defended Teng County, fought so fiercely, although it made great achievements and became famous all over the world, but those generals who commanded the army were not ordinary soldiers, and it was difficult to say what they thought in their hearts.

In response to the problem of the division and use of the troops, Deng Xihou, who was the most popular after Liu Xiang, raised the issue of centralized command of the Sichuan army, and said that as soon as he left Sichuan, he knew that the big guys were very close, and they wanted to die together even if they died. Deng Xihou's words actually reflected the voices of the generals of the Sichuan army, that is, the fear of being divided and weakened. This involves a complex political struggle between the central and local governments, which is what later generations often call internal friction.

Janssen was one of the giants of the Sichuan army, and it was impossible not to be affected by this situation. was in a bad mood, but Liu Yimin lured the enemy south again, pushing Anqing to the cusp, Yang Sen figured out the map every day, scolded while watching, and scolded Xiao Yue was not a good thing, it was not enough to occupy Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Beiping, Tianjin, Jinan, and Taiyuan, and he wanted to occupy Wuhan, which was too deceitful; On the other hand, he scolded Liu Yimin for not being a good thing, where he couldn't go, but he led the devil to southern Jiangsu and eastern Anhui, which is good, the situation in Shandong is stable, but the southern Anhui, central Anhui, eastern Anhui, western Anhui, and northern Anhui are tense, and it is simply a disaster to move eastward!

Scolding and scolding, the actual problem still has to be solved. Xiao said that the soldiers were heading, pointing directly at Anqing, whether Anqing was defended or abandoned, and it was necessary to make a decision immediately.

Two months earlier, Chiang Kai-shek had sent a telegram to Yang Sen, asking him to stick to Anqing no matter what, and ensure that Anqing was not lost. In the past two days, the high command has sent several telegrams a day, either inquiring about the enemy's situation or giving instructions on deployment, with one purpose: to ensure Anqing.

If this is left in the Songhu Anti-Japanese War, what Yang Sen did not say, it is to resolutely hold the position, without an order, that is, the whole army will fight hard and he will not retreat. But now it is different, the heavy casualties of the Sichuan army since it left Sichuan have made him think a lot, not only about the future of the Sichuan army and the future of the 27th Group Army and the 20th Army, but also about how this war of resistance should be fought. Whether to defend and fight hard or to move the main force to the flank of the Yue Army like the Eighth Route Army, and constantly attack the Yue Army.

On the morning of September 3, Janssen received two telegrams. One was a telegram from the 133rd Division, reporting that they had sent death squads to raid Chaoxian County last night and blow up four artillery pieces of the Yue Army. The second was a telegram from Tang Shizun, informing us that our army had blown up a Japanese warship yesterday.

Yang Sen did not hesitate at all, and directly sent a commendation telegram to the 133rd Division to commend the warriors of the death squad. Then he sent a congratulatory telegram to Tang Shizun, congratulating our artillery on its great victory.

After sending the telegram, the more Yang Sen thought about it, the more strange he felt, this Tang Shizun in the Sichuan Civil War, the performance was mediocre, and people gave the nickname Tang Plague Pig, but as a result, he was in high spirits and fought impressively on the battlefield. Yang Sen couldn't help muttering: "Even the melon baby can become a hero!" ”

But the next news became worse and worse, first the military planes wantonly bombed the Anqing River fortifications, and then received information that the army set out from Wuhu and formed a fleet of 40 warships, more than a dozen merchant ships, and hundreds of wooden ships and rushed towards Anqing. Then there was the report of the 133rd Division, the army launched a large-scale attack, and a large army was found in the direction of Wuwei and Lujiang, with planes in the sky, warships in the river, and tanks on the ground, and the enemy in front of it was the Sixth Division of the Yue Army.

Although Yang Sen lived a dissolute life, he was definitely a good person, and immediately realized that the Yue army was going to attack Wuhan on a large scale, and hurriedly reported the enemy situation to the high command, and at the same time ordered the 133rd Division to shrink the defensive line, ordered the two brigades of the 146th Division remaining in Anqing to strengthen the defense, and ordered the 134th Division to closely monitor the movements of the Yue army on the river.

It should be said that Yang Sen did a lot of work in the beginning to hold on to Anqing, and he gathered together several hundred intellectuals from Sichuan, set up a training team, and after graduation, they were assigned to various units and played a backbone role. In Anqing, a full mobilization was made, and the anti-Japanese enthusiasm of the people in Anqing was greatly mobilized, and every day there were marches in the city, and merchants and manufacturers were mobilized to support the anti-Japanese war. At the same time, a vigorous hoeing and annihilation campaign was also launched, and the whole of Anqing was surrounded by a fiery pre-war atmosphere.

On 4 September, the Botian detachment and the marines of the army, under the cover of the army and naval aviation, began to attack Anqing.

The first to attack were several squadrons of the Marine Corps. The little devils got off the warships and wooden boats, approached the river bank by landing craft in the area of Zongyang Town, and began to seize the beachhead. But they were unlucky, the 134th Division had already been in good gear, and the artillery fire was also very intensive, beating the devils to the ground. After receiving the report, Yang Sen was in a good mood and said "Okay!" three times in a row. Good! Good! ”

After being attacked, the little devils called in planes and bombed our defenders' positions indiscriminately, in an attempt to destroy the shore fire and cover the landing of the devils. Thick smoke billowed from the position, and the defenders stood still in blood and fire, repulsing several attacks by devils in succession.

The little devils are bound to win Anqing, especially the airport in Anqing, which is only 300 kilometers away from Wuhan, and is the airfield for the advance of the air force that the army is eager to get. Therefore, after the Devil's strong attack was repulsed, seeing that the defense line of the 134th Division was stable and could not be attacked, he immediately changed his tactics, leaving a part of the troops to contain the defenders, and the main force of the Hatian detachment quickly turned around, turned around and went north, with Akiyama, Nishikawa, Takemitsu, Katayama and other divisions as the right flank (Kamada engineer troops coordinated), Tanaka, Harada, and Takeuchi as the left flank (Tokuhiro engineering troops coordinated), under the cover of many ships on the river, they landed on the banks of the Mawozi in the east of the city and Dawangmiao in the west of the city in the early morning.

If the 133rd Division is also there at this time, it is very likely that the 133rd, 134th, and 146th Divisions will be able to drive the landing force of the Potian Detachment down the Yangtze River. The problem was that the 133rd Division was dealing with the troops moving south from Hefei, the main force of the 134th Division was deployed along the river in Zongyang, and it could not be concentrated for a while and a half, and the two brigades of the 146th Division still had to fight against the 133rd and 134th Divisions, and only one regiment and the security regiment remained in Anqing City, and the 146th Division deployed on the riverbank was only one regiment.

At this time, the military headquarters of the 20th Army was already in chaos, and telephone calls and noises came and went.

At this time, Yang Sen was still thinking about transferring the main forces of the two brigades of the 146th Division deployed in the north of the city to the south and resolutely repel the attack of the little devils. Therefore, he kept urging Chief of Staff Xian Guangjun, asking him to strictly order the main force of the 146th Division to quickly move south, and strictly ordered the main force of the 134th Division to leave part of the troops to defend the riverbank, and the main force to quickly move closer to Anqing and prepare to fight the landing force of the little devils.

As soon as Xian Guangjun gave the order, the 146th Division reported that the flank Xu Yuanquan Group Army had been defeated by the Sixth Division of the Yue Army and had retreated. The flanks of the Twentieth Army were completely exposed, and it was likely to fall into the encirclement of the Japanese army.

By this time, Yang Sen had already understood that Anqing was about to become an isolated city, and the 20th Army was likely to fall into the encirclement of the heavy army. Whether to defend or to withdraw, the time has come to make a decision.

Yang Sen himself rolled out of the warlord melee, and the reason why he was able to get up after falling into the trough several times was that his eyes were fast. This time was different from the Battle of Songhu, although the battle was fierce at that time, it must be dangerous, but our army was gathered and the defense line was thick, Yang Sen did not have to consider the problem of being copied by the army, it was a problem for the higher commanders to consider. Now that the Twentieth Army is in charge, this issue needs to be considered by Yang Sen.

The situation on the battlefield changed rapidly, and after the landing of the army, it completely broke through the defensive line of the defenders, advanced in several ways, and began to attack the city defense of Anqing.

Such a big Anqing will definitely not be able to hold it by relying on a regiment of the 146th Division and a security regiment. Yang Sen knew this, and if he didn't leave, he would either die in Anqing or be captured.

Under the critical situation, Yang Sen remembered his creed during the warlord melee: the green mountains left behind, and there is no worry about no firewood. As a result, the 20th Army, which was defending Anqing, began to quickly withdraw and retreated in the direction of Qianshan.

At six o'clock in the afternoon, the army attacked the city of Anqing from the Linghu Gate, Zongyang Gate, Jixian Gate, Yuhong Gate and the gap in the city wall. Anqing, a famous city in China, the seat of the political axe of Anhui Province, and the key to Wuhan's defense, fell, and the prelude to the Battle of Wuhan was completely opened.

(To be continued)