In the battle of Fujin Mountain, the army encountered hard stubble, and after half a month, only more than 10,000 corpses were lost, which made the 13th Division, which had suffered heavy losses, hang its head and be depressed.

The Ogizhou troops couldn't figure out when Chiang Kai-shek's troops were so able to fight, and they fought to the death under the bombardment of aircraft and artillery, causing such a big loss to the elite 13th Division.

As soon as he thought of the whole vehicle of the vigorous soldiers replaced by the corpses of the whole vehicle and the urn of the whole vehicle, the face of the soldiers of Ogisu became extremely hideous, and the gray beard was stained with some dots of eye droppings, snot and dust, and he was an old gambler who had just gambled off his pants.

The Ogizhou troops were eager to march quickly, open the westward passage as soon as possible, and join the other troops of the Japanese army in Wuhan. Therefore, although the 13th Division suffered heavy losses, it was replenished quickly, and the Ogisu Standing Army still waved its army to the west. However, he was unlucky, crossing Fujin Mountain is not the same as crossing Xiaojieling, Sun Lianzhong in front of him has already been in battle, ready to join hands with Song Xilian to stick to the line of Xiaojieling, and resolutely block the westward march of the Dizhou army. The arrogant Ogizhou Libing would never have thought that not only Fujin Mountain was the sad place for him and the 13th Division, but Xiaojieling was still a lingering sad place in his life.

Compared with the situation of the 13th Division, the progress of the other units of the Yue Army was generally smooth, but compared with the history, the ammunition consumption of the Yue Army was a little larger, and the number of dead people was a little more.

The most worrying thing is the Central Plains battlefield.

After the 5th and 14th Divisions returned to the battlefield in eastern Henan, they immediately launched an offensive. At this time, Xue Yue's corps had already been transferred southward, and although the First Theater had already judged that the army would inevitably relaunch the eastern Henan operation, and had already made preparations and carried out full mobilization, it was unable to rely on the steel crush of the Fifth Division, the most elite mechanized division of the Yue Army, and the 14th Division, which had been basically mechanized, and could only rely on the position to resist and retreat step by step. The army not only captured Kaifeng, but also formed a flanking attack on Zhengzhou, and Cheng Qian, the commander of the first theater of operations, had a string of bright blisters on the side of his mouth, and kept reporting to Chiang Kai-shek, asking for additional reinforcements to turn the tide of the war in the Central Plains. It's a pity that Chiang Kai-shek had no reinforcements to send, and he didn't want to replace the troops with water, so he could only keep encouraging Cheng Qian to lift his spirits, hold on to the crisis, grasp the strong walls and clear the wilderness, and transfer materials to Luoyang and Nanyang, in order to fight for a long time.

In fact, it was not that Chiang Kai-shek did not want to pick up the Yellow River and block the army with surging yellow water. The key is that after Chiang Kai-shek met Liu Yimin in Xuzhou, he saw the prospects of the war more clearly, unlike in history, when he was frightened by the offensive of the Yue army during the Battle of Lanfeng, he felt that if he did not pick up the Yellow River, the army would directly attack and occupy Luoyang in the west, and then march west to the south, threatening not only Wuhan but also the rear, so he ordered to blow up the Huayuankou. Although the Battle of Wuhan was now more fierce than in history, and the army invested more troops, two factors prompted Chiang Kai-shek not to replace his troops with water.

One factor is that due to the arrival of Liu Yimin, the butterfly wings were instigated, so that the army lost its troops and lost its generals, and the fear of the Chinese people towards the army was greatly weakened. Chiang Kai-shek, as the commander-in-chief, also basically saw through the Yue army, thinking that the Yue army was nothing more than Erer, and it was undoubtedly a fool's dream to occupy the whole of China with just a few troops. Even if the army occupies Wuhan, Kaifeng, Zhengzhou, and Luoyang, what can it do? China is so big and has a lot of strategic room for maneuver, as long as it insists on not surrendering, there is a way. If you can be like Liu Yimin, and wipe out a part of the Yue army in every battle, the little devil is destined to perish, it's just a matter of time. Now that Chiang Kai-shek has believed in Liu Yimin's argument that the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression will be won, he will see the future of the Battle of Wuhan clearly, and he will no longer risk leaving an infamy in history because of a battle to pick up the Yellow River.

Of course, the reason why Chiang Kai-shek believed in the victory of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression at this time was mainly because Liu Yimin told him that there would inevitably be a conflict between the fundamental interests of the United States and that in the end, there would inevitably be a direct fight between the little one and the Americans. This is a very popular saying, as long as you think about it, you know that it is possible. If the Americans had entered the war, Xiao Yue would have been defeated. Don't talk about the United States, it is the Soviet Union, which vigorously supported China's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, directly participated in the war, and Xiao Yueben was also bound to lose. Chiang Kai-shek saw this very clearly, and he had the same idea as Liu Yimin, and he wished that the fairy would want the United States or the Soviet Union to go to war directly with him. However, the difference between Chiang Kai-shek and Liu Yimin was that he pinned all his hopes on a big fight with the United States or the Soviet Union.

Another factor is that now and unlike in history, the whole province of Shaanxi has been occupied by [***] and has become the base camp of [***]. Without the past warlords forcing the common people to plant poppies extensively, without so many bandits, without so many harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes, [***] and the common people were given land, and after a few years of recuperation, Shaanxi actually changed the situation of disasters in the past and gradually regained its vitality. Last year's famine in Sichuan starved so many people to death, dozens of people starved to death every day in Chongqing, and many people fled to Shaanxi, but there was no large-scale starvation death in Shaanxi as in the past. It seems that this Shaanxi will recover in a few years.

Chiang Kai-shek naturally knew the situation in Shaanxi. Historically, the population of Shaanxi peaked during the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, with a population of 12 million. In the first year of the Republic of China, the population was more than 9.1 million. By the seventeenth year of the Republic of China, that is, in 1928, the population of Shaanxi finally reached 11.8 million again. Later, due to the great famine in the 18th year of the Republic of China, 800 miles of Qinchuan starved to death, and by 1931, the population of Shaanxi Province had plummeted to 8.9 million, of which 5 million people were victims. Since then, epidemics have been rampant, there have been major disasters every year, many people have died every year, and the population has not been able to go up. However, in 1935, when Shaanxi was occupied, Shaanxi's population began to rebound, and by the end of last year, it had risen to 12 million, and it was basically self-sufficient in grain. If this continues, won't [***] ask for money and money, grain and food, and strong men and strong men? That's terrible, isn't it?

In this case, will Xiao Yue Ben continue to advance westward, attack Shaanxi, and do his business?

In fact, Chiang Kai-shek did not have no reinforcements, he knew that there were still two old Red Army units in Shaanxi, the garrison division and the security division, and he could completely order the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army to send these two troops to the Central Plains battlefield and let them fight with the army. However, Chiang Kai-shek was very jealous of the [***] and the Eighth Route Army's base areas, not to mention the Eighth Route Army in Shanxi, not to mention the Eighth Route Army in central Hebei, southern Hebei, and eastern Hebei. If it weren't for the fact that the army regarded Shandong as a forbidden country and sent heavy troops to clean up on a large scale, which greatly reduced Liu Yimin's base area, I am afraid that Shandong would have become a [***] world. Therefore, Chiang Kai-shek preferred to let the Eighth Route Army cross the river east to reinforce the Shanxi battlefield than to return to Henan.

Cheng Qian did not have so many ways in Chiang Kai-shek's heart, he was anxious to see that Kaifeng was lost, Zhengzhou was not guaranteed, and the offensive of the army had not yet stopped. Kaifeng, the capital of Henan Province, the most prosperous city in the Central Plains, and a big city with a population of 300,000! It is Zhengzhou, which is also a commercial port city with a population of more than 100,000, and it is also the transportation hub of Pinghan Road and Longhai Road.

In desperation, Cheng Qian thought of the Eighth Route Army, and he asked Chiang Kai-shek for instructions on whether he could order the Shaanxi Anti-Japanese Zone Political Axe to transfer Shaanxi garrison troops to reinforce the Henan battlefield. As a result, Chiang Kai-shek's telegram consisted of only two words: "Dumb! ”

However, Cheng Qian's telegram reminded Chiang Kai-shek that not allowing the Eighth Route Army to send troops to Henan did not mean that the Eighth Route Army was not allowed to go to the battlefield of Wuhan to defend the war. The troops don't want it, but the planes and pilots of the Eighth Route Army really need it.

Chiang Kai-shek raised this issue before Zhou Enlai and Wang Ming left Wuhan and returned to Shaanxi for a meeting. At that time, Zhou and Wang came to pay a visit, and after greetings, Chiang Kai-shek inquired about the bombing of the Eighth Route Army airfield in Shaanxi. According to Zhou En, the airfield of the Eighth Route Army had been completely destroyed, and if the air force was to be rebuilt, it was necessary to recapture the planes of the army.

As a matter of fact, after a sneak attack by the Eighth Route Army Air Force, all the fighters were lost, and only bombers and trainers remained. Last time, Liu Yimin sent a report to the chairman, requesting that aviation troops be sent to support the anti-sweeping operation, but the result was in vain. The main reason is that the military aviation has been keeping a close eye on the airfield of the Eighth Route Army, and after the successful sneak attack, it has successively sent planes to the Mianxian Ordnance Base and airfield for large-scale bombing, which not only completely bombed the arsenal into ruins, but also completely destroyed the airfield. Later, the Eighth Route Army was afraid that the Eighth Route Army would build a permanent hangar and hide the planes, so they sent planes to reconnoiter and bomb every day, and the Eighth Route Army Air Force once tried to repair the airfield at night and push the planes out into battle, but the results were unsuccessful, so they could only let the planes stay in the hangar honestly.

Recently, due to the launching of the Battle of Wuhan and the deliberate concealment of the strategic intentions of the instructors of the Eighth Route Army in Shandong, most of the fighters of the North China Air Force were used in the Wuhan Raid Battle, and the intensity of reconnaissance and surveillance of the Eighth Route Army airfield in Shaanxi was weakened. Feng Dafei made a special report to the central authorities, saying that he wanted all units of the Eighth Route Army to attack the airfield of the North China Front Army of the Chinese Army, divert the attention of the military air force, and make them stop reconnaissance and surveillance of our airfield, so that the air force would have the opportunity to push out the planes and move them to the new airfield so that they could participate in the battle.

[***] Liu Yimin had this idea when he asked to send an air force to participate in the war, and Feng Dafei's suggestion was equivalent to the hero's vision. He immediately called Feng Dafei, inquired in detail about the construction of the new airfield and the feasible surnames of the air force to enter the battle, and issued orders to all units on the front line of the Eighth Route Army, demanding that attention be paid to attacking the military airfield and creating conditions for the air force to safely transfer planes.

Zhou Enlai and Wang Ming all knew about these situations.

At this time, Wang Ming enthusiastically threw himself into the propaganda work of defending Great Wuhan, and witnessed the tragic situation of the bombing of Wuhan by the Chinese army, and in addition to the fact that he regarded himself as a representative of the Comintern, he was accustomed to expressing his position without consulting others, so without waiting for Zhou Enlai to finish speaking, Wang Ming told Chiang Kai-shek that defending Great Wuhan was to defend the united front of resistance against Japan and to defend the overall situation of the War of Resistance. After returning home, he will discuss with the comrades of the Central Committee that everything will be subordinated to the united front, and as long as it is necessary to defend Great Wuhan, the Eighth Route Army Air Force is duty-bound, and he will go to the battlefield in Wuhan to defend Great Wuhan to the death.

Of course, Wang Ming was not so stupid, and he went on to add that although the Eighth Route Army Air Force now only has pilots and no aircraft, as long as the Nationalist Axe provides planes, the Eighth Route Army Air Force will be able to enter the battle immediately.

Now Chiang Kai-shek remembered the words of Zhou Enlai and Wang Ming, although the propaganda of the army said that the air force of the Eighth Route Army was completely destroyed, and Zhou Enlai and Wang Ming also said so, but Chiang Kai-shek did not believe it, he felt that with the ability of [***], he would not let the army destroy all the planes, and they must have saved some of the planes.

Therefore, Chiang Kai-shek sent telegrams to [***], Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, and Wang Ming, respectively, informing them of the bombing of Wuhan by the Chinese army and the air battle between the two sides, and ordering the Eighth Route Army Air Force to dispatch all planes to Luoyang, to wait for dispatch, and undertake the combat mission of supporting the First and Fifth Theaters.

At the end of the telegram, Chiang Kai-shek resorted to radical tactics, saying that your party has always advocated resisting and saving the country, and that all units of the Eighth Route Army have also established special honors in the battlefield behind enemy lines, and that the battle of Wuhan has now reached a critical moment, and the officers and men of the air force have suffered heavy losses in several battles. Even the Soviet volunteers flew together with our air force to meet the enemy, and the blue sky was stained with blood, did the Eighth Route Army Air Force still want to preserve its strength at this time and sit back and watch the people of Wuhan and the front-line soldiers being ravaged by the plane?

At this time, no matter how difficult and impossible it is, the Eighth Route Army Air Force has to think of pushing the planes out of the hangar.

The central government's order to Feng Dafei and Chang Qiankun is very clear: "We are not afraid of bloodshed and sacrifice, do our best to let the planes out of the warehouse, and a large group will be transferred to Luoyang, participate in the battle of Wuhan, and undertake the combat mission of covering the first and fifth theaters." After arriving at the new airport, the second brigade launched a sneak attack on the Shanxi military airfield to cover our army's operations. ”

At the same time, [***] sent a telegram to Liu Yimin, asking him to try by all means to capture the military airfield and seize the military planes, gasoline, and aviation ammunition during the operation. If possible, it would be better to build a concealed airfield in Shandong to facilitate the combat use of the air force.

After receiving the order, Feng Dafei thought that he had seen it wrong, how did the chairman do it, how could he let such a precious plane fight with the Kuomintang troops? I looked at it carefully, and the order was very clear and not wrong.

After all, Feng Dafei is a senior commander, has a strong sense of the overall situation, and knows that in front of the devils, whether the Kuomintang is [***], they are all Chinese, and there is no party affiliation in fighting small devils. He asked Chang Qiankun to study it carefully, and decided to use the evening to clean up the bombed-out airport and build an improvised runway. During the day, they were camouflaged with wood, paper, and cloth so that they could not be discovered by the army. Once the improvised runway is completed, the planes will be used to reconnoiter and divert the planes from the air raids, and strive to complete the transfer task as soon as possible.

(To be continued)