Gu Shoufu chose Xinxiang as the battlefield, mainly because of the topography here, Xinxiang has two rivers, the Dasha River, the Wei River and the Mengjiangnu River, although these three rivers are not as dangerous as the Yellow River, but they are the only defensive barriers in northern Henan.

Just as China understands the state of its forces, Gu Shoufu also understands the state of China's forces on the south bank of the Yellow River; On the south bank of the Yellow River, the total strength of the [***] team was close to 400,000. He knew that on the south bank of the Yellow River there were two of China's strongest armies: the 49th Army and the Fifth Army. These two group armies were the Chinese troops that he was most concerned about, and there was also a 31st group army, which had a total strength of 140,000 troops, and a total of four armies, all of which were central armies, well-equipped and strong in combat.

Gu Shoufu learned the lessons of the Battle of Northern Hubei and the Battle of Shandong, and decided to lead the Central [***] team to the vicinity of Xinxiang, and personally led the main force to line up here and fight a decisive battle with the Chinese army on the existing positions.

In order to realize this plan, he requisitioned all the residents of Xinxiang and the surrounding area, turned the vicinity of Xinxiang into a large construction site, and within a month, turned Xinxiang into a hedgehog with dense bunkers, trenches, and sharp thorns.

The outer defense line is centered on Qiliying, and the forward defense line is from Baliushu south of Qiliying to Nanwangzhuang and then to Niutun on the east side of the Pinghan line, where the 64th Division is responsible for defense.

On the west side of the Pinghan Line, from Guosi to Shawo to Guanzhuang, this section was defended by the 125th Division, and the core was located in Taishan.

To the east of Baliushu, along the north bank of the East Mengjiang Nu River to Xiaotai, this section was defended by the 110th Division.

Gu Shoufu placed three divisions on the periphery, and the city was defended by 7,000 men of the 15th Mixed Brigade.

The 27th Division, which had the strongest combat effectiveness, was placed by him in Zhaipo, on the north bank of the Jiangnu River in West Meng, a position that could protect the rear of the whole army on the one hand, and at the same time act as a campaign reserve.

Farther north, the 1st Mixed Brigade was placed in Anyang, and Gu Shoufu felt that Anyang was still a little farther away from Xinxiang, so he asked Okamura Ninji to move the 1st Mixed Brigade forward to Qi County, while the main force was placed in Tangyin.

Before Okamura could reply, the middle [***] team began to attack, and Tani Shofu quickly abandoned most of the north shore in the first battle, retreated to the established positions, and waited for the battle.

The speed of the squadron was not slow, and on the day of the resumption of the offensive, it searched for the outer defense line of the Yue Army, and at the time of the fall, the troops did not attack, but retreated, and the 107th Division, the vanguard of the eastern road (the previous text is wrong, the 106th Division was in the 101st Army) took advantage of the night to build fortifications. On the contrary, the 23rd Division of the 85th Army, the vanguard of the Western Road, was somewhat lax, and was attacked by the Yue Army at night, half of the regiment was scattered, and by dawn the troops were found to have lost 300 men. Tang Enbo was furious when he received the report, and ordered the front-line regiment commander to be shot, and the division commander Li Chuying was removed from his post and retained.

The next day, Tang Enbo was about to give the order to attack, when Zhuang Jihua's telegram arrived, ordering him to stop the attack, build fortifications on the spot, and confront the Yue army.

"Gu Shoufu put up a dignified formation, and he thought that I would play according to his routine, so that I was not so stupid." Zhuang Jihua took the information of Ligao Zhisuke and said to Xu Zuyi and He Wei: "Okamura Ningji's hand is still bigger, and he has some strategic ideas. ”

Tatetakanosuke's information didn't come in time, the battle became more and more intense, and he had less and less time to leave the headquarters, and the number of times the intelligence lagged behind was also increasing.

In his latest intelligence, Gu Shoufu's plan was explained in detail, and Okamura Ningji expanded this plan, he secretly ordered the Shanxi First Army to gather two divisions and a mixed brigade in Jincheng, 40,000 people, for which he did not hesitate to hand over all the northwest, south, and central Jin to the puppet army, and only one division and one mixed brigade remained in Suiyuan, Shanxi, with a total strength of less than 20,000 people.

Okamura Ningji's plan was to let Gu Shoufu attract the attack of the [***] team, and then kill out of Jincheng, cross the narrow area between Wangwu Mountain and Taihang Mountain, pass through Jiaozuo, and attack the flank of Tang Enbo's troops, defeat the river-crossing troops in one fell swoop, and then take advantage of the situation to cross the river and completely eliminate the attack of the [***] team on Shandong.

"The assembly of the army in Jincheng has not yet been completed, and our army will fight it, and it seems that it will be ....... if it does not move like this" Xu Zuyi frowned, and he wanted to stop talking.

"It's not that it can't be attacked, it's just that attacking the devil's existing position like this is too big a casualty and not cost-effective, Gu Shoufu put up a dignified formation, just want us to have a dignified battle with him, think beautifully, I think of a way, swallow this military group in one bite, so that the North China problem is basically solved." Zhuang Jihua thought about it and said.

The capture of Jining and Xuzhou gave Zhuang Jihua great confidence, and now unlike a few days ago, the troops were scattered on various fronts, and the forces of the 50th Group Army and the 2nd Group Army were also liberated, in addition, the 22nd Group Army led by Sun Zhen had arrived on the battlefield, and the 24th Group Army led by Yang Sen could also arrive in Xuzhou tomorrow, so that the 800,000 troops were all assembled in the area from the bank of the Yellow River to Linyi. By the way, the 47th Army and the newly formed 12th Army led by Guan Linzheng captured Linyi and completely annihilated the defenders before attacking Xuzhou.

"Bang dang!" Zhuang Jihua and Xu Zuyi turned their heads a little unexpectedly, but Cai Tingkai excitedly pushed the door in, after entering the door, Cai Tingkai did not disturb the apology of the three of them at all, and opened his voice and shouted: "This devil is not as good as before, twelve years ago, in Shanghai, after a few months of fighting, not even a single prisoner was caught, this little devil has to resist to the end even if there is only one person left; Now, the Cultural Revolution, I went to see it just now, more than 3,000 captives, never before, more than 3,000 captives, a full 3,726 people. ”

Looking at Cai Tingkai's excited appearance, Zhuang Jihua and Xu Zuyi couldn't help but be happy, Cai Tingkai went to see the prisoners of war just now. The prisoners of war captured in Jining and Xuzhou did not dare to stay in the local area, and they had to stay in the local area, especially Xuzhou, and they had to be beaten to death by the local people. Therefore, Zhuang Jihua ordered Song Xilian and Du Yuming to send all the captives to Shangqiu for exhibition, so that reporters from all over the world could take a look.

After conquering Yanzhou, Xuzhou, Zhuang Jihua did not continue the offensive, on the contrary, let the troops transfer to repair, what bothered him was not the strength of the troops, nor the morale, on the contrary, the morale was high, and both officers and soldiers demanded to continue the offensive. What bothered him was logistics, the troops were advancing wildly, from south to north, from west to east, fighting hundreds of miles, recovering most of the Huai River Valley, and the ammunition and materials in reserve were almost bottoming out, in addition, Zhuang Jihua didn't want to gnaw on the Taishan defense line, so he ordered the troops to stop first, repair and repair, sum up lessons and lessons, and the commanders at all levels of the troops returned to the battlefield to summarize the battlefield, with the exception of the 22nd Group Army and the 24th Group Army.

"Cultural Revolution, I have an idea, last time we attacked the north, this time we will attack the north, and transfer the 22nd Group Army and the 24th Group Army to the north of the Yellow River, you see," Xu Zuyi grabbed the map, pointed to Puyang and said: "Cross the river from Heze, attack Puyang, and then go straight to Tangyin and Anyang." ”

As he spoke, Xu Zuyi put his hands together on the map, and the center point was Xinxiang.

"I'll see it." He Wei immediately expressed his support: "Gu Shoufu is a madman, 80,000 troops gathered together, thinking that this will force our army to fight a decisive battle with him, what a joke, how did he rise to lieutenant general?" What happened when there was no one? Okamura Ninji actually approved it? I don't think this guy is very capable. ”

Zhuang Jihua shook his head: "I'm afraid you underestimate Okamura Ningji and Gu Shoufu." This is actually a last resort. They are not strong enough, and if they defend everywhere, it will be equivalent to being empty everywhere and broken by our army. So just get together. Okamura Ninji and Tani Toshio believed that our army was not capable of annihilating their heavy group. ”

"But in the Battle of Northern Hubei, we annihilated four of their divisions." Xu Zuyi was a little unconvinced, after the Northern Hubei Campaign, Okamura Ningji still didn't believe that the [***] team was capable of annihilating its heavy army group.

"It won't be wrong," Zhuang Jihua shook his head, feeling a little funny: "The Northern Hubei Campaign is also a single break, Okamura Ningji must have analyzed our battle examples, except for the Battle of Northern Hubei, the largest group we defeated was the Yucheng counterattack, three divisions, and the others were eaten one bite at a time." That's why Okamura Ningji has such a judgment. ”

"However, he was wrong." Zhuang Jihua's tone turned cold, and the smile on his face was still the same: "Now we are fully capable of annihilating his heavy army group." ”

"However, Chief of Staff Xu's plan is still not feasible," Hearing this, Xu Zuyi and He Wei were a little puzzled and felt incomprehensible, Zhuang Jihua added: "Anyang has a mixed brigade of the army, and even if our army surrounds Xinxiang, Gu Shoufu can completely hold on to Xinxiang, and Okamura Ningji can also implement his plan." ”

Xu Zuyi thought about it and nodded, Gu Shoufu was fortified on all sides, obviously he had made up his mind to defend it, He Wei thought about it and proposed: "Since this is the case, then we will simply attack Shandong according to the original plan." Or cross the river, first crush the troops of the Yue army on the north bank of the Yellow River, bypass the Taishan defense line, and attack Jinan from the north. In addition, Guan Linzheng can attack the cities of Juxian County and detour to the Jiaodong Peninsula. This road is the base of the Eighth Route Army, and the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army and the 1st Division of the New Fourth Army are active in this area. ”

"I think so, although the army advocated a Taishan defense line, in fact, after Matsui Shigen lost the 17th Division and the 60th Division, his confidence was not as good as Gu Shoufu." Cai Tingkai said.

This is very practical, Matsui Shigen is now weak, and he has one division and three mixed brigades, and he can only hold the defense line from Pingyin, Tai'an to Laiwu, and the defense south of Laiwu is relatively empty, with only one mixed brigade.

Zhuang Jihua didn't answer, turned around and looked at the map, Xu Zuyi glanced at He Wei when he saw this, and the three of them quietly left Zhuang Jihua's office.

After a while, Gong Xiuhua pushed the door in, saw Zhuang Jihua staring intently at the map, took Zhuang Jihua's teacup, replaced the tea in it, and then tidied up Zhuang Jihua's table.

"The Cultural Revolution, Hua Chun's report, said that Weber, Forman, and Bai Xiude hope to have a joint interview with you."

Zhuang Jihua nodded slowly, and then shook his head resolutely: "Forget it, there is no need for an exclusive interview, and invite them to have tea at that time." ”

"Okay." Gong Xiuhua agreed and turned around to go out, but Zhuang Jihua said again: "That Ye Sufei won't let her participate." ”

(To be continued)