Entering October, the guns of the whole earth were sparse, the German army stopped, and Hitler transferred the main German forces from the Eastern Front to the Western Front at the same time as he issued a peace initiative. In the Asian theater, the main force of the Yue Army, which swept through North China, hurriedly moved south, quickly entered Henan, Shandong, and Anhui, and formed three attack groups north of the Yangtze River, targeting the Henan attack group in the first theater, the Xuzhou attack group in the fifth theater, and the Bengbu Dingyuan attack group. South of the Yangtze River, General Okamura moved his headquarters to Wuhu, and the 106th Division and the 3rd Division captured Xuancheng Ningguo and cleared the flanks.

As the war clouds settled, the air in Wuhan became tense, military transportation became more frequent, a new round of factory relocation quietly began, important factories in the Lianghu area were demolished one after another, and workers' families set foot on the road to the west. Behind them are nearly 200,000 migrant workers building fortifications along the Yangtze River.

The air raids on Wuhan became more frequent, and air battles broke out almost every day, but the citizens still maintained a high degree of enthusiasm, and the high slopes of the roofs were always piled up with crowds to cheer for the officers and men of the air force whenever the two armies fought.

On 11 October, 47 P40 and I-16 planes fought a big battle over Wuhan, with the result that the Chinese Air Force was defeated, 17 were shot down, 14 were damaged, and none of the Zero planes were lost.

In the face of the crisis, Air Force Commander Qian Dajun (the previous text is wrong, the Air Force has been formed into a separate army, and is no longer an aviation committee) summoned Wang Shuming, Zhou Zhirou, and Soviet and Russian adviser Vasilevsky (fabricated, no real name found) to discuss countermeasures. Gao Zhihang proposed to change tactics, judging from several air battles, this kind of aircraft has a small turning radius and is flexible, and the only drawback is that the dive speed is not enough.

After hearing this, Qian Dajun decided that Gao Zhihang would preside over the reformulation of the air combat code, and Gao Zhihang summoned Li Guidan and dozens of others to discuss more than 30 tactical principles, 20 of which were aimed at the Zero fighter.

On 18 October, the two sides once again launched a decisive battle with their main air forces, with the Chinese army investing more than 220 Zero fighters and Type 96 and 97 fighters to cover the assault on Wuhan by covering 130 bombers, and the Chinese Air Force took off with 200 P40 and I-16 planes to meet the enemy, and the two sides fought fiercely outside Wuhan.

The sky was full of flying planes, from high altitude to low altitude, covered with planes, and the citizens watching the battle on the rooftop avoided in terror and crashed with a long whistle. Hankou Railway Station and Hanyang Arsenal were shot one after another, the house was burning, the fire truck pulled the alarm to put out the fire under the bombardment, in the sky, the P40 swooped down with artillery fire, and a Type 98 exploded in the air, and then continued to dive, until more than 300 meters above the ground before leveling the fuselage and breaking away along the Yangtze River.

The bombing did not frighten away a small number of enthusiastic Wuhan citizens, who still held out on the hillsides and rooftops, cheering for the air force, and the streets were chaotic, and a Ford sedan dodged all kinds of oncoming vehicles and drove out of the city and into the office of the Eighth Route Army outside the city.

Zhou EN came out of the car and walked into the office quickly, most of the people in the office were evacuated and looked empty, the secretary Huang Shaobai hurriedly dissuaded Zhou EN from coming, Zhou EN came to shake his head, insisted on walking into the office, lost his eyes, and the guard turned around and ran towards the direction of the air raid shelter.

After a while, Dong Bwu hurriedly came in: "EN come, why are you still here?" Walk, walk, go to the bomb shelter. ”

Zhou EN shook his head and said, "This plane is not coming at us, besides, isn't our air force resisting, and they have no chance to trouble us." ”

Dong Bwu sighed and shook his head, pulled a chair and sat opposite Zhou EN, Zhou EN was stunned for a moment, and then said: "Dong Lao, you should go to the air-raid shelter, I'll stay." ”

"Didn't you say that the little devil still can't take care of us." Dong Bwu smiled indifferently. Zhou EN shook his head with a wry smile, stood up and took off his hat, Dong Bwu also stood up with a smile and followed him out.

Zhou EN's steps were unhurried, taking care of Dong Bwu's footsteps, and he said as he walked: "Dong Lao, does the central government have a briefing on the situation in North China?" ”

"Here we are." Dong Bwu's tone was a little low, with the withdrawal of the army, the war in North China temporarily calmed down, and all localities began to rectify the troops and organizations, summing up the lessons and lessons of this anti-encirclement and suppression, this war situation report is still relatively rough, even if it is rough, it can be seen that the situation is very bad.

"Jizhong has fallen, all county towns have been occupied by the army, the troops have been forced to disperse guerrillas, the local political axe and party organizations have suffered very large losses, a large number of party members and backbone masses have been sacrificed, and the party organizations in the entire base area have been basically paralyzed."

Zhou EN came to frown deeply, although there was intelligence support, but the gap in strength was too big, and the losses were still so big: "What about the troops? ”

"Lu Zhengying's division has been reduced by one-third, and the 115th Division has been reduced by one-quarter." Dong Bwu said solemnly: "The central government is considering whether to let Lu Zhengying's troops withdraw to Taihang Mountain for rest, and only a small part of the troops in Jizhong will hold on. ”

It is said that the main force of the army withdrew from Jizhong, but left a division to sit in the garrison of the division, and the entire Jizhong began to build roads, the Han annihilation was almost everywhere, the room for maneuver of the troops was getting smaller and smaller, the troops were almost without fighting, the wounded were difficult to be fortified, and it was difficult to obtain food supplements. The temporary withdrawal from Jizhong is a good way to preserve its strength.

"What about southern Hebei and Hebei, Luyu?" Zhou Enlai asked again, although he was prepared, he still couldn't help but be a little disappointed, since the originally seemingly grand Jizhong base area was so vulnerable, the 100,000 army was able to succeed in a month, what was the reason? ZHOU EN CAME TO FALL INTO DEEP THOUGHT.

"EN, there is another thing," Dong Bwu didn't notice Zhou EN's demeanor and continued: "Comrade Kenong reported that the two comrades of the Southwest Development Team have not defected, but they have both been exposed, and it is recommended that they be withdrawn. The screening of the Yucheng Municipal Party Committee and the East Sichuan Special Committee is still continuing, and no mutineers have been found so far, but most of the people in the entire special commission should have been mastered by Zhuang Jihua, which is the intelligence of the blade. ”

Zhou EN came to a sudden stop, Dong BWU paused and almost hit him, Zhou EN quickly turned around and held Dong Bwu, Dong BWU stood firm and looked at him with some wonder, Zhou EN rarely had such a gaffe.

"Immediately let Comrade Kenong go to Chengdu to contact Zhuang Jihua to see if he can support us with a batch of weapons and ammunition, especially bazookas."

Dong Bwu was silent, and Zhuang Jihua made it very clear last time that arms would no longer be provided. Based on his understanding of Zhuang Jihua's actions, he is a man who counts his words. A plane streaked past with a long whistling sound, and a violent explosion was heard not far away. At the same time, he came to his senses and immediately quickened his pace and walked towards the bomb shelter.

The air-raid shelter was relatively small, crowded with office staff, and when people saw the two of them coming in, they immediately dodged a way, and when they reached the innermost, Bogu and Kaifeng were there, but Ye Jying was not there. Bogu and Kaifeng apparently also directed the central briefing, but the environment was not suitable for discussion.

Half an hour later, the air raid sirens were lifted, people came out of the bomb shelter, Zhou En came and others returned to the office, and Bo Gu and Kaifeng also followed Zhou En to the office.

"EN, have you seen the central government's propaganda slogan about the defense of Wuhan?" Bogu asked as soon as he entered the door.

"Look, I'm about to talk to you about this, the Xinhua newspaper's propaganda tone is going to decline, and it is necessary to publicize the defense of Wuhan from the perspective of a long-term war of resistance, and the chairman's "On Protracted War" makes it very clear that it is still a stage of strategic defense, and it does not care about the gains and losses of one city or one place, and the purpose of defending Wuhan is to eliminate the effective force of the Yue army." Zhou EN said calmly.

"However, if such remarks are made before the battle to defend Wuhan has begun, will it be regarded as defeatism and pessimism, the tone of the central newspaper is very high." Bogu was a little puzzled.

Perhaps sensing that the fierce battle was about to begin again, the tone of the Central Committee's newspaper suddenly became higher, declaring that it would defend Wuhan, and that Wuhan would be the Verdun of the Sino-Chinese War, a turning point in this war, and that Wuhan would never be lost as easily as North China.

"Chiang Kai-shek has already begun to retreat from the factory, I'm afraid this tune is just propaganda." Zhou ENLAI said calmly that Bogu was very optimistic about the defense of Wuhan, believing that the Kuomintang had completed the reorganization of 400,000 troops, and after two years of war, it had defeated the Yue army several times, and the army's morale was high and full of confidence, and it was completely possible to engage the Yue army head-on and thwart the attack of the Yue army. Based on this, he expressed his dissatisfaction with such a low-key propaganda by the central government.

"But we are low-key, they are high-profile, what will the people think of our party?" Kaifeng was also a little dissatisfied, but his psychology was different from Bogu's, and the development of the war proved that MZD's ideas were correct, but because of this, he lost to the Kuomintang in propaganda, which made him very uncomfortable, and he sang high-pitched and did not pay.

Zhou EN's sharp eyes stared at him, Kaifeng's voice suddenly became smaller, and he wandered away from Zhou EN's gaze. Zhou EN's gaze softened suddenly.

"We don't care what others do, stick to our own opinions, and the facts will tell the people that we are right."

"EN is right, we do ours, regardless of the short and long of others," Dong Bwu also spoke out in support: "Hitler's peace trick will not work, the war in Europe will not stop in a short time, and the War of Resistance is the same, we do not have the strength to fight a head-on battle with Yu himself, and Chiang Kai-shek will not really fight a decisive battle in Wuhan." ”

After Bogu and Kaifeng left, Zhou EN came and said: "All our people in the Southwest Development Team have withdrawn, including the military commander agent, and all of them have been evacuated, except for Chi Jinming and the others, all the others have been sent to Yan'an." ”

Dong Bwu smiled slightly, and said in his heart that this is definitely a wonderful move, the military commander's spies must contact the local spies when they go to Yan'an, so that they can follow the vine and completely eliminate the general's organization in Yan'an.

(To be continued)