readx; The nightclub "Big World" in Hankou is still brightly lit, and street advertisements of singers, dancers and stars are flying all over the sky. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 It was only when the war was approaching that the city defense regiments with loaded guns and ammunition erected sandbags and built fortifications on the streets of Wuhan, which reminded people that peace was not long in time, and the footsteps of the invaders were already faintly audible.

The most pressing problem brought about by the expansion of the population is food.

In 1938, when there was a severe drought in the south, the provinces of central China, which were originally called "rice granaries", were thousands of miles away, and the victims left their hometowns one after another to flee the famine and ask for food. If the disaster occurs in peacetime, political axes at all levels can organize people to fight the disaster and save themselves, or mobilize food to rich provinces to call for disaster relief, or appeal to the international community for relief, and so on. However, at this time of war and chaos, the invaders were pressing forward step by step to try to destroy China, and they needed food for war in front and disaster relief in the rear. Officials and businessmen in some provinces colluded to take advantage of the opportunity to hoard grain and raise prices; on the one hand, the victims of the disaster were starving everywhere, and on the other hand, the merchants were hoarding and making money.

It was a rainy day on the day of the accident in Hankow, the streets were full of standing water, pedestrians were hurrying with oil-paper umbrellas and bowing their heads, and most of the people on the road were rickshaws, and occasionally a small car drove by, splashing dirty muddy water on both sides of the road. When my father was out of school, he saw a lot of people running from the direction of Jianghan Pass, including men, women, old people and children, all of them shouting excitedly, making people's hearts beat faster. He ran after running for a while, only to understand that they were all rushing to the "Hengchang Rice Shop" to buy rice.

There is news that the rice shop has brought several boatloads of rice from Sichuan at night, but the door of the rice shop is closed, and there is no sign of opening for business. As more and more people gathered to buy rice, some people began to get impatient, yelling and pounding on the door, but there was still no movement in the store. Then some of the more frantic young men began to slam on the door, and brought in a thick log, which actually knocked a thick gate loose. At that moment, a squad of batons-wielding police officers ran to disperse the crowd, and people were on fire and engaged in physical altercations with the police. As a result of the intensification, the enraged crowd not only disarmed the police, but also threw a policeman into the river. When people smashed open the rice shop, they saw a mountain of rice in the warehouse, so the rice snatching incident naturally happened.

As soon as the news spread, more people rushed to join the ranks of rice grabbers, and the rice rush affected many rice shops in Wuhan. Soon the heavily armed army came to suppress it, and as soon as the gunshots rang out, the originally chaotic scene immediately exploded. Those who had been hit by the bullets fell to the ground, blood and drizzling rain, and the terrified crowd trampled on each other as they fled, killing and wounding countless people.

During the eight years of the Anti-Japanese War, China's natural disasters continued, and it was difficult to count the people who had lost their lives from hunger and disease. Some scholars estimate this figure to be close to the number of war deaths, while others believe that it is higher than the number of war deaths.

At the end of the Anti-Japanese War, the Chinese population was about 50 million less than in 1937 before the Anti-Japanese War, and together with the population that should have grown normally during the eight-year period, the two numbers added up to about 100 million.

This astronomical blood debt must be credited to the head of the aggressor, who has still pleaded not guilty.

Chiang Kai-shek mobilized elite soldiers and strong generals, determined to annihilate the Tufeiyuan Division sent to his door at any cost. He sent two chiefs of general staff to the Kaifeng front, and Chiang Kai-shek's warrant to Xue Yue was only six words:

If you don't succeed, you will become a benevolent!

In the eyes of outsiders, the Central Army should be all Chiang Kai-shek's descendants, and there is no distinction between distant relatives and internal and external differences, but in fact, it is not. For example, the four major families of the Kuomintang, Chiang, Song, Kong, and Chen, respectively control the Dai Li's military unification faction, the Fuxing Society, the Chen (Lifu) clan's "Zhongtong faction", the "faction", the He (Yingqin) faction, the Chen (Cheng) faction, the Song (Ziwen) tax police faction, the Kong (Xiangxi) faction, and so on, and these party organizations are inextricably linked with the army. For example, Chen Cheng, the "Jiangsu-Zhejiang Gang", is far more powerful than other generals, because most of the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Gangs are from Chiang Kai-shek's hometown, and many of them are still related to Chiang's family, so it is not surprising that they have naturally become cronies among cronies and the core of the core.

At the beginning of the Battle of Eastern Henan, Gao Fei, commander of the 26th Division, known as the "First Division of the Sichuan Army," suddenly received an order from Wuhan, asking him to "temporarily break away from the 71st Army and be placed under the command of the 27th Army."

In the eyes of those who don't know the inside story, this is just a temporary change in the chain of command, not to mention that the order comes from the base camp, and there is absolutely no room for bargaining.

However, Gao Fei, who gradually became familiar with the inside story of officialdom, was secretly surprised, and he was very clear about the background of these two factions that were also the ace armies of the Kuomintang, the 71st Army was recognized as the "He Yingqin faction", while the 27th Army belonged to the "Chen Cheng faction", and the "He" and "Chen" factions fought fiercely, so why did the base camp assign the 26th Division to the command of the 27th Army?

Of course, Chen Cheng has always valued himself very much.

It turned out that long before the meeting in Zhengzhou, Gui Yongqing, commander of the 27th Army, asked the chairman of the committee in person; The iron army under its jurisdiction has been vigorously armed, gearing up for its hands, and the officers and men are enthusiastic and enthusiastic to annihilate the main force of the Tufeiyuan Division in one fell swoop, which should be the sacred mission of the students. Yunyun.

Chiang Kai-shek was deeply praised and encouraged. Unexpectedly, Chen Cheng, Minister of Military Affairs, suggested that the 71st Army of Song Xilian, which had arrived in advance, be assigned to Gui Yongqing for unified command on the grounds of concentrating troops to fight, so that the matter became a little delicate. Song and Gui are both graduates of the first phase of Huangpu, both are the main force of the Central Army and the ace commander, and the two are also the core figures of the spy organization Blue Coat Society, and together with He Jinhan, Kang Ze, Dai Li, and others, they are called the "Thirteen Taibao", and they are all rising stars in the Kuomintang military circles. In terms of combat power, the two troops are equal, and both of them are red and purple young Zhuang favorite generals, but the current situation of the two is slightly different, after the loss of Nanjing, Song Xilian was reprimanded by Chiang Kai-shek and once suffered a cold reception; Gui Yongqing, on the other hand, vigorously reorganized and trained his troops in Hunan, carried out a new-style military training campaign, and built a modern army, which was deeply appreciated and valued by Chiang Kai-shek.

Chiang Kai-shek's suggestion worked, and Chiang Kai-shek finally decided to have the 27th Army take charge of the main attack, but in order to maintain the structure of the 71st Army, he issued an order from Wuhan and only temporarily placed the 26th Division, the most elite of it, under the command of Gui Yongqing. In this way, Gui Yongqing not only completely surpassed his competitors, but also got Song Xilian a main division. If this battle is won and the Tufeiyuan Division is wiped out in one fell swoop, the 27th Army will naturally be famous all over the world, and the number one hero of China's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression will be Gui Yongqing. In contrast, the 71st Army was drawn from the bottom of the kettle, and only two divisions were left in the third division.

The army is advancing eastward, 100,000 are urgent, and the enemy situation is reported, and there is no time to delay. The 26th Division moved into Lanfeng County overnight, and the advance guard troops immediately encountered the Yue army outside the city.

The magnificent Great War in Eastern Henan broke out in an all-round way.

As soon as the battle began, the two sides fought to the death, and the battlefield immediately became white-hot. The division commander Gao Fei personally rushed to the front line, and he saw through the binoculars that hundreds of enemies were already rushing towards our troops under the cover of tanks. The enemy was very arrogant, and they charged with the sun flag without even bending their waists, believing that they had tanks to open the way. Seeing this, Gao Fei couldn't help but secretly congratulate himself on the wise decision of the leader's call, if the 26th Division hadn't arrived in time, the consequences would have been unimaginable once the enemy had driven straight in.

The chief of staff reported that the artillery had arrived and was ready to shoot at any moment.

With a wave of his hand, Goofy ordered all to fire a salvo and resolutely destroy this group of enemies.

How do the arrogant enemies know that at this moment their opponents are no longer those fragile local motley armies, but the well-equipped and battle-hardened "First Division of the Sichuan Army".

Our artillery roared angrily, hail shells flew towards the enemy, and soon one tank was paralyzed by a bullet, and the other tanks turned around and retreated. At the same time, the light and heavy machine guns of our infantry fired at the same time, and a powerful storm of fire swept over the enemy infantry in an instant, and the enemy suffered heavy losses, and the offensive quickly collapsed, leaving a large number of corpses and rushing to the wolves.

How could our officers and men easily let go of the enemy, and as soon as the commander gave the order, the commandos who had already moved to the flank quickly attacked and outflanked, and they opened up like a big net to catch rabbits, and they were about to put into the net all those devils who were slow to escape or who did not have time to flee for their lives.

At this time, an enemy tank suddenly turned around and rushed to the rescue, and the machine guns and small guns on the vehicle opened fire at the same time, and many commando officers and men could not dodge and fell down one after another. Gao Fei couldn't help but breathe fire in his eyes, because the two armies were in close proximity, and the artillery was no longer effective, and if we could not knock out the enemy's tanks, our army would inevitably suffer greater losses. At the critical moment, a figure suddenly jumped up from the side of the enemy tank, and threw a bundle of cluster grenades with wit and composure, and as the smoke rose, the enemy tank was blown up into the fuel tank, and a raging fire suddenly ignited.

The first battle was won, and the enemy was defeated and fled. The 26th Division won a major victory in killing more than 100 enemy personnel and destroying and damaging many tanks. Goofy was in a high mood and in high spirits, he personally went into the trenches to meet the heroes who blew up the enemy's tanks, accompanied by the commander of the avant-garde regiment.

To the young major general's surprise, the brave and fearless soldier standing in front of him turned out to be a baby-faced shy soldier named Gao Jingyuan, a probationary platoon commander who had graduated from the military academy for less than three months.

Gao Fei couldn't help but praise and encourage.

Gao Jingyuan's composure and calmness fully showed that the enemy's tanks were not terrible, and that as long as the tactics were properly applied, they could be completely destroyed, and if all the officers and men of the division could be like this midshipman platoon commander, then the destruction of the Tufeiyuan Division and even the defeat of the aggressors would not be empty words. Gao Fei immediately ordered Gao Jingyuan to be promoted to official platoon commander, received awards for meritorious service, and his military salary was raised by one level.

After suffering the defeat, he was annoyed and angry, and frequently mobilized troops to attack, and the enemy and us started a tug-of-war outside the city of Lanfeng. Soon, the main forces of our army arrived one after another, and the large army of the eastern Henan battlefield gathered and the battle clouds were dense, and they only waited for the deployment to launch a general attack on the enemy. At this time, a military three-wheeled motorcycle from the military headquarters drove up to the position and delivered a military commander's order to Gao Fei.

The 27th Army, China's ace of military prestige, was formerly known as the Nanjing Central Teaching Corps, with four "German-style divisions" and directly subordinate troops, nearly 50,000 people, both in terms of size and equipment.

In 1937, Chiang Kai-shek held a military parade in Nanjing, and Gui Yongqing, who had returned from studying in Germany, personally drove a German three-wheeled motorcycle to open the way and led the troops through the parade platform. Chinese officers and men all wore German-style steel helmets, German submachine guns on their chests, and German-standard cowhide bullet boxes on their waists, and their invincible might was exactly the same as that of the German armies in Europe.

But China is not Germany after all, and the black-haired Chinese are not blonde and blue-eyed Germans, not to mention that these equipment are greatly discounted. For example, in addition to the fact that the units directly under the army are equipped with motorcycles and automobiles, the officers and men of the troops mainly rely on walking on their feet, so the "mechanized division" proclaimed to the outside world is of course somewhat unworthy of its name. Another example is that the base camp was originally equipped with a radio station for the "German-style division" at the request of German advisers, but at that time, radio stations were far from being popularized even in Western armies, and most of China's armed forces and even corps-level units did not have a single radio station; in 1937, the two group armies of the Sichuan Army went out of Sichuan to resist the war, but there was no news for half a year, and the reason for this was the lack of advanced communication tools.

However, the radio station of the "German-style division" was quickly shelved, due to the lack of imported batteries, so the transmission of orders mainly relied on traditional manual methods.

The 27th Army sent a three-wheeled motorcycle to the 26th Division to transmit an urgent order from Army Commander Gui Yongqing. The order, written on the back of a paper cigarette case, stated that the 26th Division would immediately abandon the county seat of Lanfeng and move to the Hongmiao position in the northeast. Because this order is very important and has a bearing on the success or failure of the entire army's operational deployment, the military headquarters specially assigned a communications staff officer surnamed Qin to carry out the task. Staff Officer Qin put the order into a briefcase, the motorcyclist started the motor, and the three-wheeled motorcycle drove out of the military headquarters like an arrow.

The order was successfully delivered to the headquarters of the 26th Division at noon that day, and Staff Officer Qin received Gao Fei's signature as a receipt, and many witnesses saw the German-made three-wheeled motorcycle drive out of the position in a puff of smoke, and then disappear into the sea of ripening wheat on both sides of the road. However, the motorcycle never returned to the military headquarters, and the Qin staff officer disappeared along with the motorcyclist, and later people found the wreckage of the motorcycle and two charred corpses in the field, so it was speculated that they may have been killed in an air raid.

This order from the military headquarters made Gao Fei, who was commanding the battle, frown and hesitate.

Originally, it was natural for subordinates to obey their superiors, and there was no room for bargaining, not to mention that the situation on the battlefield was changing rapidly, who would dare to take the commander's order as the wind in his ears? However, the problem is that the transfer of the 26th Division to Lanfeng was a telephone instruction given by the leader himself, and the stern Zhejiang accent is still in his ears, which makes Gao Fei still have palpitations when he thinks about it.

Goofy stood in front of the battle map and thought.

Intelligence shows that the attacking Tufeiyuan Division is very cunning, and its main force is entrenched on the front line of Kaocheng on the bank of the Yellow River, and this position is not conducive to the movement of our superior army to encircle and annihilate it, indicating that Tufeiyuan still has some scruples about pressing on the whole line. The purpose of Gui Yongqing's order to abandon Lanfeng was precisely to mobilize the enemy, using Lanfeng City as a bait to lure the enemy into the depths, and the Hongmiao position that the 26th Division was about to transfer was the mouth of this pocket.

To be fair, this was a rather courageous operational deployment, and even if he had a grudge in his heart, he had to admire Gui Yongqing's demeanor as a general, and dared to take the initiative to put the enemy into the city for a decisive battle.

However, Lan Feng is a strategic location, and he is not sure what the attitude of the leader will be. Since he is a student trusted by the leader, he should guard Lanfeng County for the leader, what if the leader does not agree?

This is the mystery of Chinese officialdom. Now that the 26th Division is no longer under the command of Song Xilian, he can only be vague and ambiguous, otherwise his hand is too long and he has committed a taboo in officialdom, so Gao Fei has to make his own decisions about what to do.

Gao Fei convened his staff to discuss, and the chief of staff admonished Commander Gui is now the commander of the division commander, who dares to disobey the commander's orders? Besides, the commander of the army is ordered to command with full authority, "the general is outside, and the king's order is not subject to it", his order is equivalent to the leader's order, and if the leader blames it in the future, it should be based on the commander's order.

Goofy stopped hesitating and was determined to carry out the orders of the military headquarters. He instructed his adjutant to record in detail the time, place, heralds, content and execution time of the military department's orders in the "Operational Chronicles of the 26th Army Division," which is now preserved in the Second National Archives in Nanjing.

On the day the order arrived, the 26th Division abandoned the county seat of Lanfeng and moved to the Hongmiao position to prepare for battle. It was found that Lanfeng County was in an undefended vacuum for at least 24 hours, indicating that the cunning Tu Feiyuan was suspicious and refused to take the bait easily. It was not until the following afternoon that the enemy cautiously marched into the city, and immediately raised the sun flag symbolizing the occupation at the head of the city and at the railway station.

When the Tufeiyuan Division occupied Lanfeng, a key place in eastern Henan, Commander-in-Chief Terauchi Shouichi, who had been waiting in the war room, breathed a sigh of relief, and he immediately sent a telegram to the 14th Division instructing: Your unit must hold the county seat of Lanfeng at all costs, especially to ensure that the railway station is not occupied by the enemy until the main force of the dispatched army arrives.

The commander of the First Army, Kazuki Kiyoji, also instructed Tu Feiyuan to say: You should send strong and powerful troops to reinforce the Luowangzhai Railway Station, so that the enemy's attempt to open up the Longhai Railway will not succeed.

Kenji Dohihara, a suspicious former spy chief, has always been worried about this adventurous operation deep into the hinterland of the Central Plains, so he has always gathered his main hedgehogs along the Yellow River in the area of Kaocheng and Dongbatou, and his pace is slow and cautious. The dispatch army was very dissatisfied with the progress of the 14th Division's battle, and repeatedly called to urge Tufeiyuan to resolutely attack. The commander-in-chief of the temple was even more furious, denouncing Tohihara as an "incompetent soldier" and even warning that he would be responsible for the serious consequences if the fighter plane was delayed.

(To be continued)