readx; "General Zhang Zizhong, commander-in-chief of the 33rd Group Army, has been martyred!"

When he heard the news, Gao Fei's body shook for a moment, and then he slowly sat down, his face turned pale, and he muttered, "After all, it's still not too late?" ”

has done his best, he knows that Zhang Zizhong will be surrounded, and he also knows that Zhang Zizhong will be martyred. Gao Fei, the pen "Fun", www.biquge.info desperately wants to change this history, so that a famous general of the Anti-Japanese War like Zhang Zizhong can survive until the day of the victory of the Anti-Japanese War.

The 26th Division and the newly formed 37th Division, which had just been pulled down from the front-line battlefield, were pulled up again and moved to the area from Pumpkin Shop to Changshan to rescue Zhang Zizhong, just like when they rescued Liu Yuqing.

However, this time Goofy did not succeed.

Zhang Zizhong, after all, was martyred, and his life lived up to the word "loyalty" in his name!

"Where's the old black?" Goofy asked, pursing his lips.

"I have already moved to the Changshan area, and it is only less than thirty miles away from the pumpkin shop, but it's a pity," Cao Yuyi sighed softly.

Gao Fei stood up suddenly, and there was no room for negotiation in his tone: "Telegraph Lao Hei, snatch back Commander Zhang's remains for me!" ”

"Yes, telegraph to the old black division commander to snatch out the remains of Commander Zhang!"

Nandaokou, the 26th Division of the National Revolutionary Army, the new 37th Division.

Cai Yuanfei and his brothers were full of great curiosity about the 26th Division of the friendly neighbor army next door.

I had long heard of the prestige of this unit, but I never imagined that I would one day be able to fight side by side with such a unit.

These small soldiers did not know the true purpose of this operation, and it was not until the afternoon that news came one after another, saying that General Zhang Zizhong, commander-in-chief of the 33rd Group Army, had died a heroic martyr, and that their purpose this time was originally to rescue Commander Zhang.

The brothers were sorry, but what could be done?

"Go see, look." Xiao Changxing, who was together, rushed over: "The 26th Division has begun to assemble!" It seems that there is a big military operation! ”

Cai Yuanfei and his brothers jumped up from the ground and rushed towards the heights, and instead of stopping them, the officers rushed behind their subordinates.

A large number of officers and soldiers of the 26th Division were assembling there, and Cai Yuanfei swore that he would never forget what he saw

"Assemble, assemble! Death squads assemble! ”

"The turtle son's, the death squad, assembled!"

A thick Sichuan dialect sounded in the ears of the 37th brothers who watched the excitement.

Immediately afterwards, three hundred daredevils of the 26th Division quickly gathered. These three hundred men, all shirtless, wearing only a pair of large trousers. In the front row of fifty brothers, each with a light machine gun in his hand, and in the back, with submachine guns, rifles, broadswords, and five grenades hanging from his chest.

The brothers of the 39th Division were dumbfounded, they had never seen such a battle before!

Shirtless and wearing pants, the three hundred daredevils screamed one by one, as if they wanted to rush to the battlefield immediately and play with the little devils!

I have long heard that the 26th Division is the old unit of Gao Fei, the commander of the Fourth Theater of Operations, and even Commander Gao came out of this unit. I have long heard that the 26th Division is the most capable and least afraid of death in the entire Fourth Theater of Operations, and even in the entire [***] team, and today I finally have my eyes widened!

When the three hundred daredevils had just finished gathering, they saw a man who was also shirtless, wearing only a pair of big pants, a leg that was a little inconvenient, and he was limping when he walked, and he was also holding a light machine gun in his hand, appeared in front of the daredevils.

"Old black, old black!" Xiao Chang shouted excitedly: "The division elder of the 26th Division is black! ”

Old black? That old black with too many legendary stories on his body!

There are too many legends related to Lao Hei that have been circulated.

Many people say that the famous work of the 26th Division, the large-scale defense battle, was actually commanded by Gao Fei and Lao Hei; Some people say that Lao Hei alone killed a brigade of the Yue Army in the defense of Guanzi Village; Some people say that Lao Hei is actually the reincarnation of Tie Guan Li in the Eight Immortals, don't look at his lame leg, but this lame leg is his biggest magic weapon

And now, Cai Yuanfei really saw this legend!

Lao Hei stood in front of the death squad, stationed on the ground with a machine gun, reducing the pressure on his legs, his face was pale, and his voice was loud:

"Brothers, Gao Fei, Gao Fei, this dog is going to let Lao Tzu die again!"

"Boom", the brothers of the 37th Division laughed, how can anyone in the world say this about their superiors? What's more, it is a high-ranking officer of Gao Fei's level, such a legendary hero who is called the "God of War" by the people? But then, Lao Hei's words below made these 37th brothers who were watching the excitement unable to laugh.

"Brothers, Gao Fei is a dog, as soon as there is a bitter battle, he always lets Lao Tzu's 26th Division charge, and the brothers of the 26th Division have changed one after another from the big field, how many brothers are left? It's all gone, it's all dying, it's all dying! Lao Tzu hated, Lao Tzu swore that he would beat the Oriental people away, and Lao Tzu would never wear this skin again! But this time it's different, it's different! This time, Gao Fei asked Lao Tzu to organize a death squad, and Lao Tzu was willing!

Just yesterday, Zhang Zizhong, commander-in-chief of the 33rd Group Army, died and was martyred! He and his brothers are really playing with the Orientals! He didn't even take a step back when he died! Man, what a good man! But now, his body is still in his hands, in the pumpkin shop! Gao Fei asked Lao Tzu to take the death squad to take back the body of Commander-in-Chief Zhang! Lao Tzu is willing, Lao Tzu is obedient! The body of Commander-in-Chief Zhang cannot be left to the Orientals, can't! He was buried, and he had to be buried in his own home! Now, Lao Tzu is the captain of the death squad, and Lao Tzu will take you to charge and snatch back the body of Commander-in-Chief Zhang! Lao Tzu's group of death squads is dead, and the second group of death squads is on! The second set is dead, and the third set is up! Even if the entire 26th Division is wiped out, the body of Commander-in-Chief Zhang must be snatched back! ”

The three hundred daredevils were silent, and the whole area was quiet, and not a single person spoke.

Lao Hei took a deep breath: "26 Division Training: Those who should die and the undead, kill!" Those who retreat, kill! Kill! ”

"Those who deserve to die and the undead, kill! Those who retreat, kill! Kill! The three hundred daredevils shouted in a moving voice.

The brothers of the 37th division watched and listened, and there was no sound at all among them, so they listened and watched quietly. They have never seen such a unit, and they have never seen such brave officers and soldiers!

The brothers of the 37th Division saw that the glory of their division leader appeared next to Lao Hei, and they knew that the division seat also came out of the 26th Division, and at this moment, the brothers of the 37th Division suddenly had a sense of pride. I can be regarded as a member of the 26th Division!

"Glory!" Old Black shouted.

"Here!"

"37th Division, cover with all your might, I'm going to die, you go!"

"Yes!" Glory's answer was so sonorous and powerful: "My 37th Division concentrates all its firepower to cover, you are dead, I will go!" ”

Lao Hei saluted to Glory with a military salute that was never standard, and then raised his machine gun:

"Death squad, follow Lao Tzu!"

On the night of May 17, 1940, the elder of the 26th Division of the National Revolutionary Army, Hei, personally served as the captain of the death squad, and led 300 warriors to launch a decisive charge to the pumpkin shop, with only one goal:

Recapture the body of General Zhang Zizhong!

Goofy is watching them, Chiang Kai-shek is watching them, the whole country is watching them!

Cai Yuanfei will never forget everything he saw that night in his life:

On the night of that day, the artillery shells of the Yue army were whistling, frantically smashing towards the opposite side, and on the opposite side of them, there was a group of shirtless, wearing big pants, and barefoot Zhong [***] people, braving the artillery fire of the Yue army, completely desperate to charge!

The brothers of the 26th division are desperate, and the brothers of the 37th division are also desperate!

Spirits can be used to infect each other!

Everyone in the 37th Division swore in their hearts at this time that as long as they could join a unit like the 26th Division, even if they could only join for one day, they would die without regrets!

Shells whistled all around, and clumps of flames engulfed and exploded, threatening the lives of the daredevils.

However, those daredevils didn't seem to notice any of this at all, completely ignoring the flames that kept exploding around them, and under the guidance of the blood-colored battle flag, they rushed and rushed

The firepower organized by fifty light machine guns weaved a dense network of fire, frantically harvesting the lives of the Yue army, and frantically trying to kill a bloody road on the way forward!

Rush in! The brothers of the death squad rushed in in such a deadly charge!

The machine guns and submachine guns in their hands spewed out tongues of fire from their muzzles, sweeping through every enemy they could see in their line of sight!

The grenades hanging from their waists were thrown out of their hands by them and thrown at the enemy line like a storm!

I was completely stunned by this life-for-life style of play, and they didn't know why the [***] team suddenly launched an attack on the pumpkin shop!

They would never have thought that these [***] people were just trying to recapture the body of a Chinese general!

In this night's battle, the death squad of the 26th Division entered and exited the pumpkin shop three times, fighting to the death, and finally, they finally found the body of General Zhang Zizhong in the Fangjiaji Temple

General Zhang's body was snatched back! In this battle, 300 daredevils of the 26th Division were killed, and 38 people were killed. But it's worth it, it's all worth it!

When the body of General Zhang Zizhong, who was wrapped in a white cloth, was brought back, the officers and men of the 26th and 37th Divisions stood up from their positions.

Escorting General Zhang's body were Lao Hei and his brothers.

They walked silently, accompanying General Zhang on the last journey of the general's heroic spirit, maybe they were watching from the sky at this time

"Salute!"

"Salute!"

The officers and soldiers raised their hands and saluted the most respectful military salute to the body of General Zhang Zizhong!

The Heroic Spirits are here, and the spirit is eternal!

That military flag is hunting and flying

After General Zhang's bones were transported back to the rear, upon examination, it was found that General Zhang Zizhong had eight wounds on his body, including two from a cannonball, one from a bayonet, and five from a gunshot. When the coffin passed through Yichang, the flag was lowered at half-mast throughout the city, and more than 100,000 people went to pay their respects. The whole city was enveloped in a tragic and solemn atmosphere.

Enemy planes circled and roared overhead, but no one evaded, and no one fled. On the morning of May 28, 1910, when the coffin was transported to the Chaotianmen Wharf in Yucheng, Chiang Kai-shek, Feng Yuxiang and other political and political dignitaries of the political axe army wore black yarn on their arms, stood solemnly on the wharf to welcome the spirit, and boarded the ship to circle the coffin to mourn. Chiang Kai-shek "mourned the coffin" on the ship, which moved everyone present.

Chiang Kai-shek personally helped the coffin to carry it, and then climbed the stairs to escort the coffin through the whole city of Chongqing. The National Government issued a state funeral order and issued a certificate of honor and condolences to the "Rong Zi No. 1". The tablet of Zhang Zizhong was enshrined in the Martyrs' Shrine and tied for the first place. On the afternoon of the 28th, Chiang Kai-shek, military and political dignitaries, and people from all walks of life held a grand and solemn memorial ceremony for Zhang Zizhong at Chuqimen. The atmosphere was solemn and full of mourning.

Chiang Kai-shek personally officiated at the ceremony, and at the same time, in the name of the chairman of the Military Commission, sent a telegram to the whole army, commending Zhang Zizhong's lifelong achievements. Subsequently, the national political axe held a burial ceremony for Zhang Zizhong in Yutai Mountain, Beibei, Yucheng.

Chiang Kai-shek's inscription "Xun Lie Changzhao", Li Zongren's inscription "Heroic Style", and Feng Yuxiang's inscription "Xun Chen is immortal".

Li Zongren, who was at the mouth of the old river at the time, sighed, if He Jifeng was here, there would be no defeat at Xianghe, and Zhang Zizhong would not have died. The officers and men of the 59th Army who escorted the coffin said to He Jifeng with deep sorrow: "If you had been in the army at that time, the troops would not have been deployed like that, Commander-in-Chief Zhang and the 59th Army would not have been isolated, and Commander-in-Chief Zhang would not have been killed. ”

When Zhang Zizhong was martyred, he was only 49 years old, and his wife, Ms. Li Minhui, died of grief and hunger strike, and the husband and wife were buried together at the foot of Meihua Mountain in Yucheng.

Zhou Enlai once personally wrote an article praising Zhang Zizhong, "whose loyalty and heroic spirit can be the soul of the Chinese Anti-Japanese War soldiers."

On November 16, Zhang Zizhong was confined to Yutai Mountain in Yucheng as a state funeral. Later, Feng Yuxiang planted plum blossoms beside the tomb, and modeled after the Ming Dynasty Shi Kefa's burial of Yangzhou Meihua Ridge, and renamed this mountain Meihua Mountain.

China is also deeply shocked and deplored by the sacrifice of General Zhang Zizhong. On August 15, more than 1,000 people from all walks of life in Yan'an held a grand memorial meeting, and [***], Zhu De, and Zhou Enlai respectively inscribed the elegy of "serving the country with loyalty", "taking righteousness and becoming benevolent", and "sacrificing one's life for the country" for General Zhang Zizhong.

After Zhang Zizhong's death, the officers and men of the 33rd Group of his subordinates were filled with grief and indignation, determined to fight to the death with the enemy, and repeatedly launched fierce counterattacks against the Yue army, and also achieved some partial victories. However, soon the Northern Corps of the Chinese Army suspended its attack on the Left Wing Corps of the Fifth Theater and moved south with the main force to join forces with the Southern Corps to deal with the Right Wing Corps of the Fifth Theater.

After a bitter battle, the 33rd Army could not stand on the east of the Xiang River and had to retreat to the west of the Xiang River one by one.

During this period, the movement of the army gradually became obvious, and the 39th Division and the 11th Brigade of the 6th Division passed through the Xianghua Highway, returned to Suixian, and moved south along the east bank of the Han River one by one, and stopped a large number of troops near Dongjin Bay, Shangxiawangjiaji, and Fangjiaji on the east bank of the Han River between Xiangyang and Yicheng, and prepared equipment for crossing the river, and there was a great possibility of crossing the river near Xiangyang. In order to contain the Yue army from crossing the river and restore Zaoyang, Li Zongren ordered Tang Enbo to lead the 31st Army and the 92nd Army to advance rapidly from southern Henan to Zaoyang, counterattack Zaoyang City, and order the troops behind the enemy to attack the communications behind the enemy, and the central and left wing corps departments to advance.

When Tang Enbo's troops attacked Zaoyang, the army suddenly crossed the Han River between Yicheng and Xiangyang, and the situation in the theater changed dramatically. On May 19, more than 10,000 troops stranded in the upper and lower Wangjiaji and Fangjiaji areas suddenly forcibly crossed the Han River near Xiaohe and Oujiamiao.

The defenders of the Fifth Theater there, the four garrison brigades of the 22nd Army on the right and the 41st Army on the left, are all poorly equipped, under-manned, and fragile in combat effectiveness. When the army crossed the river, the troops at the front actually used the rafts and rubber boats pulled by the devils to cross the river with motors as amphibious tanks, panicked, and urgently reported to the commander's department.

The Fifth Theater Commander's Department did not take a closer look, but drew a scoop according to the gourd, and accordingly sent an urgent telegram to Yucheng and requested that the air force be dispatched to assist in the war. Early the next morning, the Aviation Committee sent nine mosquito bombers to fly over Xiaohe and Oujiamiao to carry out a bombing campaign.

At this time, the four garrison brigades had fled long before the army crossed the river, and there was no defender resistance to the 41st Army's position. The vanguard of the army marched north along the road from Xiangyang to Shashi, and the follow-up army was still in the process of crossing the river. The bombing of the planes could not stop the rapid advance of the Japanese army.

By the end of the month, in the area east of the Xianghe River and the Tangbai River, there was almost no trace of the [***] team, except for Tang Enbo and other large armies who were forced to flee into the Dahong Mountains to fight guerrillas. Therefore, the army rushed directly to the east bank of the Xiang River between the other side of Yicheng and the old camp, preparing to cross the river and march west.

The 22nd Army was responsible for the garrison of Xiangyang, Fancheng and Xianghe. But the commander-in-chief Sun Zhen took leave to return to his hometown in Sichuan before the battle of Zaoyi. When a new battle was about to take place, Li Zongren assigned Huang Qixiang, commander-in-chief of the 11th Army, to temporarily replace Sun Zhen in command of the 22nd Army. Huang Qixiang took his own group of staff, guards, and communications directly under the command to set up a command post in Xiangyang City, but did not go to the headquarters of the 22nd Group Army.

The General Headquarters of the 22nd Group Army was led by Chief of Staff Chen Zongjin and was stationed in Nizui Town, 30 miles west of Xiangyang. The 22nd Army was under the jurisdiction of the 41st and 45th armies. The commander of the 41st Army is concurrently served by Sun Zhen, with jurisdiction over the 122nd, 123rd, and 124th divisions and a reading regiment directly under the army; The commander of the 45th Army was Chen Dingxun, with jurisdiction over the 125th and 127th Divisions. However, the entire army of the 45th Army and the 123rd Division of the 41st Army had been separated by the devils east of the Xiang River and could not return, and were forced to fight guerrillas in Dahong Mountain; The main force of the 22nd Army that retreated to the vicinity of Xiangfan consisted only the two divisions of the 41st Army and the 124th Division and the Reading Regiment directly under the army. These two broken divisions, and they are still half recruited, where is there any combat effectiveness? When the army rushed to the left bank of the Xianghe River and was about to cross the river, Huang Qixiang hurriedly ordered the 41st Army to take up the task of connecting the troops of Wang Zhangxu's 29th Group Army from Xiaohe on the right to the right and defending the river 60 miles along the right bank of the Xianghe River from Xiangyang City on the left, and garrisoning Xiangfan.

At this time, the situation of the 41st Army, in addition to the soldiers below, there were also problems with the generals above.

The whole army didn't even have a family member. Originally, the army commander was concurrently served by Sun Zhen, commander-in-chief of the group army, but in the past, all affairs of the military headquarters were handled concurrently by the general headquarters of the group army, and there was neither a military headquarters nor a deputy commander, and before Commander-in-Chief Sun returned to Sichuan, Zeng Yuan, commander of the 124th Division, was temporarily appointed as the temporary acting commander of the army.

When Zeng Yuan received Huang Qixiang's defense order, he immediately ordered the 122nd Division to serve as the river defense from Xiaohe Liuji and Oujiamiao to the right bank of the Xianghe River at the south gate of Xiangyang City, and the 124th Division served as the city defense of Xiangfan.

The commander of the 122nd Division was named Wang Zhiyuan, and after receiving the task, he immediately ordered Hu Jianmen, deputy division commander and commander of the 365th Regiment, to command the 365th and 366th regiments to serve as river defense; Because the 364th Regiment was a two-battalion recruit, it was placed in Xiangyang Nanguan as the division reserve; The division command post is located in the Zhou Gong Temple outside the south gate of Xiangyang!

(To be continued)