readx; "Now, read out Chairman Chiang's speech at the Provisional National Congress on the Program for the Founding of the People's Republic of China in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression!"

With Li Zongren's voice, all the officers stood up together. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

"This War of Resistance is related to the survival of the country and the nation, and everyone should sacrifice their lives to fight for the life of the country and the nation", expressing the determination of the whole nation to resist the war to the end, and politically, organizing the national political participation organs and uniting the strength of the whole country; To improve and improve the self-defence organizations of the population, to train and strengthen their capacities, and to accelerate the fulfillment of the conditions for local self-government; Improving local political institutions to meet the needs of wartime.

Militarily, the political training of the army was stepped up, so that the officers and soldiers of the whole country understood the significance of the founding of the country during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and unanimously served the country. train the strong men of the country, enrich the people's armed forces, and replenish the anti-war troops; To guide and assist the armed people in all localities, to cooperate with the regular army under the command of the commanders of the various theaters, so as to give full play to the effectiveness of defending the homeland and defending against foreign aggression, and to launch a general guerrilla war in the enemy's rear to sabotage and contain the enemy's forces.

In terms of the mass movement, mobilize the people of the whole country, organize various professional groups of agriculture and industry, improve and enrich it, so that those who have money will contribute and those who can do it will contribute to mobilize for the war of resistance for the survival of the nation; During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, within the scope of not violating the supreme principles of Sanming Cooking Righteousness and laws and regulations, speech, publication, assembly, and association should be fully protected in accordance with the law.

Diplomatically, unite all forces opposing the aggression of imperialism, put an end to the aggression of the Lord, and deny and cancel all political organizations and their internal and external acts by force in the territory of China."

In the conference room, there was silence, and when the reading was finished, Li Zongren asked everyone to sit down: "Next, please ask the chief of staff to introduce the target situation!" ”

Xu Zuyi, chief of staff of the Fifth Theater of Operations, stood up:

"Although our 23rd Army won the victory in the siege of Kouziling before, this was only a partial victory, and it was not enough to change the current critical situation!

After the loss of Nanjing, on the basis of the temporary victories in the southern and northern battlefields, he reformulated his political strategy and strategy toward China, and decided to further strengthen his military strength and foster a puppet regime, in an attempt to use both military and political forces to force China's political axe to submit.

Politically, on November 22, 1937, after merging the three puppet regimes of the 'Chanan Autonomous Political Axe', the 'Jinbei Autonomous Political Axe', and the 'Mongolian Union Autonomous Political Axe', and establishing the 'Mongolian-Xinjiang Joint Committee' in Zhangjiakou, on December 14, 1937, the day after the fall of Nanjing, the four puppet regimes of the 'Beiping Public Security Maintenance Association', the 'Tianjin Local Public Security Maintenance Association', the 'Henan Provincial Autonomous Political Axe' and the 'Shanxi Provincial Provisional Political Axe' were merged to establish the 'Provisional Political Axe of the Republic of China' in Beiping. This is a political attempt to force the collapse of our civil administration.

Militarily, the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression has developed into two battlefields, the southern and the northern.

In order to prevent the army from landing on the southeast coast, occupying Xuzhou, and cutting off the connection between the northern and southern battlefields, the Supreme Military Authority of the Kuomintang announced the establishment of the Fifth Theater by Order No. 1 of the base camp, which was responsible for directing the war in southern Shandong and northern Jiangsu. The combat mission and guiding essence assigned by the base camp to the Fifth Theater are:

The special surname of operations in this theater is to force the enemy to land, so it is necessary to take the initiative and take advantage of the initiative to fundamentally break the enemy's attempt to land, and this is the first important meaning in operational guidance. Even if the enemy army landed first, it was necessary to quickly besiege and annihilate it, so that the follow-up corps would not use this as a cover for a safe landing. This is the second most important point in operational guidance. If necessary, we should hold on to the designated area, absolutely limit the enemy's advance, and annihilate it by using mobile forces, so as to ensure that we are the center of the operational connection between the north and the south. ”

After a pause, Xu Zuyi continued:

"The Battle of Xuzhou has now entered the first stage!

The main tasks of the first phase are:

The first-line corps garrisoning the south bank of the Yellow River should directly garrison both sides of the Yellow River, with the focus on Jinan and the areas west of it, and place strong reserves near Jinan and Tai'an, and hold the banks of the Yellow River as a last resort.

The first-line corps of the garrison coast connects the key points of the garrison coast to prevent the enemy's landing, and places a strong reserve in the area between Zhucheng, Yuezhao, and the East China Sea to respond to the direct garrison on the coast with mobile tactics and thwart the enemy's landing attempt. When the enemy has landed, it is necessary to hold on to the existing fortification line and do everything possible to stop the enemy's development!

It is the second line corps located near Xuzhou, adding defense fortifications near Xuzhou, and preparing to use the two lines of Jinpu and Longhai to support the operations of the first line corps."

As a hero of the great victory in Kouziling, Gao Fei was also fortunate to participate in this meeting of the highest-ranking military commanders in the Fifth War Zone. Listening to Xu Zuyi making operational deployments on it, Gao Fei's heart was very clear about the future trend.

At this time, although the General Staff Headquarters formulated the strategic principle of "passive and protracted war against China" and was prepared to launch a large-scale offensive after rectifying, replenishing, and expanding its military strength, it "then turned into a posture of complete contraction" and laid down the limits on the areas to be occupied:

"In North China, north of the Yellow River and most of Shandong; In Central China, Wuhu and Jiangnan to the east of Hangzhou".

However, the invading army had a blind pride in victory. In particular, the high-ranking generals of the military authorities who invaded China because of the rapid capture of Nanjing and the occupation of Shandong without a fight, believed that with their existing forces, they could defeat the [***] team and force the national political axe to submit. At the same time, dissatisfied with the decision of the General Staff Headquarters. For example, after capturing Nanjing, the Central China Front still occupied Chuxian, Lai'an, Quanjiao, and Yangzhou in accordance with the instructions it received during the attack on Nanjing, "one can fight in important places on the left bank of the Yangtze River," and attempted to advance north along the Jinpu Road with the strength of two divisions and regiments to cooperate with the operations of the North China Army in Shandong.

It was said that the base camp did not approve the expansion of the battlefield because it believed that the preparations were not sufficient, that the troops were already insufficient, and that if the battlefield was expanded, the troops would be even more dispersed, which would be detrimental to the subsequent operations.

However, the invading military authorities ignored the instructions of the base camp, and the Shanghai Dispatch Army still ordered the 13th Division to attack Fengyang and Bengbu.

Since the end of 1937, "since the end of 1937, the North China Front has repeatedly proposed to the base camp that it is important to carry out the Xuzhou operation and to exert coercion on the enemy in Wuhan in order to link North China and Central China and thus occupy the strongholds on the south bank of the Yellow River (Zhengzhou, Kaifeng, etc.)"; At the beginning of February 1938, "from the point of view of military self-defense", he put forward a request to attack in the direction of Xuzhou.

For the same reasons mentioned above, the base camp replied in a telegram pointing out: "Do not let the enemy lure the enemy, lead to the expansion of the war situation, the containment of troops, and hinder the country's comprehensive reorganization and rectification. ”

However, the 2nd Army still gave the order to attack the Grand Canal.

Both the Central China Front and the North China Front tried to force the base camp to agree to their actions with a fait accompli. By February 1938, the southern front army had captured Bengbu and was attempting to cross the Huai River to the north; The northern front army has captured Qingdao and Zou County, and is in fierce battles with the [***] team near Zhucheng and Liangxiadian.

At this time, the 21st Group Army of the Central [***] team had been transferred from Jiangnan to Hefei and joined the battle sequence of the Fifth Theater. The headquarters of the commander of the Fifth Theater issued a new operational order on 3 February 1938 in accordance with the military commission's telegram order on 23 January to take a defensive position on the southern front, and in light of the specific situation that the 13th Division of the Army was attacking in the direction of Bengbu and the Huai River blocking battle had begun. The main contents are:

The theater of operations will face the enemy in the southern section of Jinpu, refuse to stop in the area south of the Huai River, and attack it continuously from its flank, gradually drive out and clear it, and at the same time consolidate the Lunan Mountains. Take a flank attack on the northern section of Jinpu and the eastern section of Longhai, contain the enemy's southward or westward movement, and defend Xuzhou. The battle territory with the first theater is the line of Yuncheng, Zhoujiakou, Luyi, Shangqiu, Chengwu, Yuncheng and Zhangqiuzhen, and the line belongs to the first theater

"The Central China Front is located in the following places: the headquarters of the Front Army is located in Nanjing, the headquarters of the 10th Army and the 18th Division are in the Hangzhou area, the 14th Division is in the Huzhou area, and the 6th Division is in the Wuhu area; The Shanghai Dispatch Army Headquarters and the 16th Division are in the Nanjing area, the 3rd Division is in Zhenjiang, Changzhou, and Wuxi, the 9th Division is in Suzhou, Kunshan, and Taicang, the 101st Division is in the Shanghai area, the 13th Division is in Chuxian, Lai'an, and Quanjiao, and the 10th Brigade of the 11th Division is in the Yangzhou area. Xu Zuyi's face gradually became solemn:

"Therefore, in front of us, the army has spread out more than 100,000 troops, counting the arrival of reinforcements one after another, our budget will be more than 200,000 troops in the Xuzhou battlefield. It also has the absolute superiority of sea, land and air support, therefore, our side is at a disadvantage! ”

After the chief of staff finished briefing on the situation, Li Zongren said slowly:

"Ladies and gentlemen, the situation is serious, extremely serious!

Just a few days ago, when our 23rd Group Army won a great victory at Kouziling, more than 20 planes bombed Xiaobengbu, and immediately prepared artillery fire to destroy all the fortifications on the riverbank. Under the cover of artillery fire, more than 1,000 troops took civilian boats and motorboats to carry out forced crossings.

Our defenders resisted stubbornly and twice repelled the army that crossed the river. That night, the army carried out a night forced crossing, once landed on the north bank, and captured Xiaobengbu. Zhou Xianlie, commander of the 113th Division, ordered the 337th Brigade to counterattack and restore its position. Subsequently, the Yue army once again launched a large-scale forcible attack and captured Xiaobengbu. The 113th Division counterattacked with all its might. The two sides fought repeatedly many times, and Xiaobengbu was finally occupied by the Yue army.

On February 10, at the same time as the invasion of Bengbu, the army that invaded and occupied Linhuai Pass also launched a forcible attack, first breaking through the coastal positions of Yangongmiao around 6 o'clock, and soon occupied Meiyuanzi, Qianbanzi, Xinzhuang and other places. Mu Zhongheng, commander of the 114th Division, ordered the 340th Brigade to organize a counterattack, and fought hand-to-hand for a whole day, recapturing some positions such as Xinzhuang and Meiyuanzi. However, on the 11th, the follow-up troops of the Yue army crossed the Huai River, and the 114th Division suffered more than 2,000 casualties.

Due to the fact that the coastal positions were broken through in many places, many of the defending units lost their command due to the death of officers! ”

(To be continued)