Zhangji Town, deep in the Dahong Mountains, is a large town with nearly 1,000 households, located at the junction of Jingshan, Zhongxiang and Suixian counties, surrounded by mountains, and the Sand River flows through the town and flows into the Han River to the south. But more than ten days ago, a large number of soldiers poured in here, they occupied the town office in the east of the town, set up dozens of tents in the small square of the town, and the only primary school in the town was also requisitioned. The mayor and the National Salvation Association issued a mobilization order to organize the men and women of the town, with the men carrying stretchers and the iron rows to the front line, while the women took care of the wounded in the makeshift hospital in the school and the square.

From time to time, the rumbling of artillery could be heard, countless antennas and telephone lines were erected at the town office in the east of the town, the sound of telephones and telegrams was continuous, the soldiers were hurrying, the horses were neighing on the road, and the troops were driving to the front line one after another. The whole town was enveloped in wartime tensions, and the townspeople were privately inquiring about the news ahead, ready to flee into the mountains to the north.

In the small town office, a group of soldiers were gathered in front of the huge map hanging on the wall, and a few small arrows under the huge red arrows on the map were pointing south,-for-tat with several blue arrows.

"Chengtian actually adopted an offensive and defensive strategy, which looked quite fierce, but in fact, after entering the mountainous area, their offensive had gradually slowed down, and only the 231st and 232nd Wings were found on the battlefield, and the 233rd Wing was never put into the offensive and remained near the inn town."

"This dog is quite careful, Yizhi, the commander's request is that once the battle is launched, Annihilate Sumida within three days, otherwise Kanda is likely to run away." Sun Zhen's expression was a little serious, he rushed to Zhangji Town yesterday, Zhangji Town was in the central area of the battle, and it was here to coordinate and command the left and right wings. Guo Xunqi's military headquarters was originally here, but when he arrived, Guo Xunqi could only press forward, and now Guo Xunqi's military headquarters has set off, but he was left behind by Sun Zhen.

Zhuang Jihua's requirements are very high, three days to annihilate a division of the army, this has never been done before, the 39th division and Zaoyang counterattack of the army is completely different, this is a mountainous area, the army has built fortifications, with the tenacity of the army, to annihilate within three days, has never been done before.

But neither Sun Zhen nor Guo Xunqi complained, Zhuang Jihua had already told them the concept of the entire campaign, and what made them proud was that they were the key to the entire campaign - to annihilate the 39th Division and outflank Kanda's back road.

"Brother De Ying, when will the Seventy-Eighth Army arrive at Niangniang Temple?" Guo Xunqi asked.

"Before three o'clock this afternoon." Sun Zhen replied that the 41st Army had already arrived at Huashan yesterday, the 45th Army was also rushing to Wenxia, the 78th Army was a little farther away, and their designated starting point was Niangniangmiao, and Zhong Bin, deputy commander of the group army and commander of the 78th Army, had already set up a headquarters in Niangniangmiao.

"Haven't arrived yet? How? Guo Xunqi muttered a little dissatisfied, from the beginning of the battle to the present, the 102nd Army has been holding its breath, they are fighting with one hand tied to the army, with the strength of the 102nd Army, there is no need to retreat so far.

"They are farther away, and they have time, and the time set by the commander to start the battle is four o'clock in the morning the day after tomorrow, and they still have two days." Sun Zhen excused the 78th Army, but it was actually not an excuse, Zhuang Jihua's order came a little suddenly, and it was supposed to take another two days before they began to move south, but a telegram came down, the time was advanced, and their movements were already very fast.

"It's not possible to launch an attack as soon as you get there, the tasks of the 78th Army are interspersed, and the farthest is Yangji." Guo Xunqi was a little anxious, but what he said was also the truth, and any battle must first find out the situation of the enemy in front of him, and he will definitely suffer losses if he goes into battle in a hurry.

In the counteroffensive on the southern front, the 102nd Army counterattacked from the front, and the two armies of the 22nd Army attacked from Huashan and Wenxia on the right flank, attacking the left flank of the 39th Division.

At the same time, the 78th Army on the left flank faced the junction of the 39th and 58th Divisions, but this junction was very loose, with only two brigades, one each of the 39th and 58th Divisions. These two brigades were to be tasked with guarding an area of ten miles long, and there must have been plenty of gaps in it that could be exploited. The task of the 78th Army was to defeat these two brigades, sever the connection between the two divisions of the Japanese Army, and then the main force penetrated southward, directly took Yangji, and closed the door for the 39th Division to flee to Jingshan.

"It's a tight day, but the main thing is you and us." Sun Zhen's expression was relatively relaxed, and he couldn't see the tension before the big war at all. However, he had reason to be relaxed, in this direction, the squadron [***] concentrated four armies, nearly 200,000 troops, and the target was only more than 10,000 people, close to a twenty-fold advantage.

This is also where Guo Xunqi is depressed, his 102nd Army has 50,000 people, and it can completely clean up more than 10,000 devils, even if it can't be completely annihilated, it can be defeated, and there is no need for so many troops. According to his plan, he used his 102nd Army to launch a counteroffensive, and the 22nd Army directly pounced on Kanda on the west bank of the Han River, and would annihilate Kanda with the 01st Army and the 86th Army and the 94th Army.

"Report!" A report came from the door, Sun Zhen turned his head to look, and saw Zhao Hanjie standing at the door, Zhao Hanjie walked in front of Sun Zhen in a few steps: "The special combat team in the theater was ordered to come to receive the task. ”

"Captain Zhao, you're moving so fast, I thought you wouldn't arrive tomorrow at the earliest." Sun Zhen affectionately recruited Zhao Hanjie in front of him, Sun Zhen and Guo Xunqi all knew that the special forces led by Zhao Hanjie were Zhuang Jihua's top hats, and he had always been his henchmen in command, and he would take them wherever he went, and would never hand them over to others.

"The humble post was set off yesterday, the war is urgent, the commander will assign the task." Zhao Hanjie put down his hand and replied simply. Not long after Zhao Hanjie got married, his honeymoon was not over, so he hurried back to the army and finally caught up with this battle. The special forces are on first-class alert 24 hours a day, and they can set off within an hour after receiving an order, and the special forces can set off immediately without heavy weapons.

"Okay, you come here," Sun Zhen didn't talk nonsense, and brought Zhao Hanjie to the map: "The 39th Division is here, and the town of Kedian is the support point of his entire battle situation, and we estimate that the logistics point of Chengtian is here, and your task is to insert here before the war, blow up the Kedian Bridge on the Bazhi River behind the town, and then go south, disturbing the transportation line of the army." ”

"That's it?" Zhao Hanjie was a little surprised, Sun Zhen laughed and said, "Why do you think it's simple?" Let me tell you, the inn is defended by at least one brigade of troops, and there is also about a brigade of troops stationed in the nearby Monkey King Village. There are 2,000 troops around here, and you have to get into the belly of the little devil and blow up the devil's lifeline. ”

The corners of Zhao Hanjie's mouth showed a hint of mockery, he looked at the map carefully, looked up and asked, "How deep is the Bazhi River?" Can you wade in vain this season? ”

"The river in the south is completely different from the north, the Bazhu River does not look wide, only about ten meters, but the deepest place is about two meters and four, and it is also two meters in this season, so it is impossible to wade in vain." Guo Xunqi only retreated from the inn town to Zhangji five or six days ago, and he knows the inn very well.

"When?" Zhao Hanjie asked again.

"The counterattack will start at four o'clock in the morning the day after tomorrow," Sun Zhen said solemnly, "so the bridge must be blown up before six o'clock in the morning the day after tomorrow." ”

"This bridge is a stone arch bridge, and all the residents of the inn have been evacuated, this is the only way to evacuate the inn, and the devils are very vigilant." Guo Xunqi also said that Zhao Hanjie understood, and it was difficult for them to approach the bridge by blending into the ranks of migrant workers.

"Don't worry, there's no problem." Zhao Hanjie doesn't care, they have all completed tasks that are more difficult than this, isn't it just a small bridge. He turned around and saluted Sun Zhen and Guo Xunqi, and Sun Zhen and Guo Xunqi raised their hands together to return the salute.

After Zhao Hanjie left, Guo Xunqi also said goodbye to Sun Zhen, Sun Zhen did not stay, the battle was about to start soon, Guo Xunqi had to appear in his troops and appear in front of his subordinates.

On the entire southern front, the [***] team is still in a tense movement, and the counterattack is about to begin. The counterattack on the northern front had already begun, and the 7th and 31st armies of the 21st Group Army split into two routes to attack Xinyang from the southwest. The Fifth Army appeared north of Xinyang, quickly conquered Xingji, and approached Xin'andian.

In the southwest, the Eighty-sixth and Ninety-fourth Armies assembled at Jingmen, and the forward quietly moved northward, and the counterattack in this direction was a day later than Sun Zhen's counterattack on the central line.

Isamu Kinoshita, who was paying close attention to the front line, was worried about the changes in the middle [***] team, especially the attack of the Fifth Army and the Twenty-first Army, which surprised him very much, and a question surged in his heart, why not the Twenty-second Army? North of Xinyang, although it is not a lofty mountain, but it is also a mountain undulating, since Zhuang Jihua was reluctant to let the Fifth Army into the attack on Xinyang, why did he send the Fifth Army out this time?

Another question came to mind at the same time, Kanda commanded the troops to storm the 101st Army, and the 101st Army retreated step by step, but never gave up contact, forcing Kanda to fall into the hills northwest of Yicheng step by step, and the distance between the 39th Division and the 58th Division on the central front was getting bigger and bigger, and a gap of more than 20 miles appeared between them.

This gap made the entire staff department worried, the 39th Division and the 58th Division were only B divisions, and the 102nd Army and the 60th Army they faced were the elite of the [***] team, with a total strength of up to 100,000. It is strange in itself that there is no counterattack with superior forces.

When Anan Weiji heard Kinoshita's concern, Anan Weiji disagreed: "Kinoshita-kun, you are too worried, General Shina is still luring us north, and he has now made a bigger bet." As for the gap of twenty miles, Kinoshita-kun, we didn't have a gap in that battle? The Reich is underarmed, and we can only fight in such a situation. ”

(To be continued)