[The Iron Blood King of the Anti-Japanese Army] Chapter 440: Military Meeting (Ask for subscriptions, ask for monthly passes, ask for everything!) ）

Although the epidemic was extinguished, Ma Zheng did not report it to the national government as soon as possible, let alone the people in the province, and strictly ordered those who knew it to keep it secret. However, the buses transporting corpses outside the city in Zhangjiakou and other epidemic areas are still busy every day, and the frequency of transporting "corpses" outside the city is increasing every day, and the plague in Suicha seems to be getting more and more serious in the eyes of the outside world.

In addition, telegrams requesting material reinforcements from the Suicha Military Region were sent to Wuhan one after another, demanding that the Nationalist Government provide food, medicine, and other materials to the Suicha Military Region as soon as possible.

Of course, this is intended to paralyze the Japanese army, but more importantly, because of this plague crisis, the Suicha Military Region has lowered its stockpile of medicines and food to the warning line, and it must be replenished immediately, otherwise once the Japanese army realizes that they have eliminated the plague and launches an attack, the consequences will be unimaginable.

The Nationalist Government obviously attached great importance to the plague, and although the high-level leaders of the Nationalist Government also hoped that the plague could weaken or even eliminate the increasingly large Ma Zheng Department on his behalf, they also knew the terrible nature of the plague, and once the plague got out of control, the first to suffer would be the Shanxi area, followed by Qinghai, Ningxia, Gansu and other places in the rear, and even threaten Sichuan, Xikang, Chongqing, and other places.

Therefore, after receiving the telegram sent by Ma Zheng's department, the Nationalist Government did not dare to slack off, and immediately instructed the Second Theater and the Eighth Theater to immediately provide food and medicine to the Suicha Military Region, and the Ministry of Finance even allocated 300,000 yuan of special funds for epidemic control, which was directly transferred to Ma Zheng's department through Yan'an.

Such a generous Nationalist government had only one condition, that is, no matter how heavy the price was, it must ensure that the plague did not spread, let alone to Shaanxi and Shanxi, otherwise Ma Zheng would be held responsible for this matter.

In this regard, Ma Zheng naturally patted his chest and promised that as long as he Ma Zheng was alive, he would definitely ensure that the plague would not spread, even if all the patients in the epidemic area were hunted and killed.

Although Zhangjiakou, Fengzhen, and Tianzhen are still under lockdown and are still only allowed to enter but not leave, other places are not as strict as before, and residents have returned to normal life.

On 8 June, Ma Zheng convened a military sub-district military work conference in Jining.

Now that the threat of the plague has been lifted, the next thing is how to settle accounts. Ma Zheng was extremely angry at the Japanese army's wanton use of chemical weapons on civilians and deliberately created a plague, and this behavior must be severely punished, otherwise it will not be enough to anger the civilians and deter the enemy.

If you have a grudge, you don't have a grudge overnight, this is Ma Zheng's most direct idea, and now that you have your hands free, you have to teach the little devil a good lesson.

So at the beginning of the meeting, Ma Zheng said loudly: "There is only one thing that summons you here this time, and that is revenge." Since the Japanese dared to use chemical weapons in our defense zone and created a plague, they had to have the courage to withstand the retaliation of our army. ”

"Commander, how do you say how to fight, our reorganized second division is willing to be the vanguard of the whole army." Yang Chengwu said loudly.

It's no wonder that Yang Chengwu is so tough, this plague directly led to the loss of more than 2,000 people in the Second Division, which is equivalent to the strength of a whole regiment, it can be said that this is the most battle Yang Chengwu has fought in his life, and he has lost a regiment before he meets the enemy, and he feels breathless when he thinks about it.

As soon as Yang Chengwu's words fell, Huang Sicheng, who was also angry, also said loudly: "Commander, this battle must be fought, if you don't fight, I'm sorry for the people who died, and I'm even more sorry for the soldiers who died of the plague." Our reorganized 1st Division is ready to wait for the commander's orders at any time. ”

In just one month, more than 4,000 people died in Fengzhen County, in addition to those ordinary people and prisoners of war who were exchanged, a total of 812 soldiers died of the plague in the first division this time, including a regiment commander and four company platoon commanders, which made Huang Sicheng, the division commander, very sad, and vowed to avenge the unjust death of the soldiers.

"This battle must be fought, but how to fight it back is planned carefully. Chief of Staff, tell me about the current movements of the Japanese army! Ma Zheng said coldly.

Xu Yinghui said with a cold expression: "Now the Japanese army took advantage of the fact that we were busy dealing with the plague, concentrated the North China Front Army and the Central China Dispatch Army, two elite 150,000 troops, launched an attack on southern Henan and northern Hubei, and launched the Second Battle of Wuhan. Attempted to seize the three towns of Wuhan and force the Nationalist Government to surrender. In addition, our old adversary, the North China Front, has also assembled four divisions and regiments of heavy troops on the Xuanhua, Tianzhen, and Datong fronts, and the front of the troops is directed at our military region, and as long as we have a tendency to eliminate the plague, they will inevitably launch an all-out offensive to solve the threat to our troops. ”

Ma Zheng thought for a while and said: "The three towns of Wuhan, the water and land points of the nine provinces in the Central Plains, are an important strategic location. Especially after the loss of the provinces in North China and East China, Wuhan was particularly important as the support center of China's War of Resistance and the distribution center of war materials. Therefore, Wuhan at that time was a major focus that China and Japan had to fight for and defend. ”

"In the First Battle of Wuhan, China and Japan gathered nearly a million troops in the Wuhan area, and launched a fierce battle within a radius of thousands of miles, but the stalemate was broken due to the sudden appearance of our army, and finally the Japanese army chose to retreat on all fronts after three and a half months of hard fighting. However, the first battle of Wuhan of the Japanese army was not for nothing, at least it captured Anqing, Tongling, Huangmei and other strategic points, and set up artillery at the gate of Wuhan, as long as the Japanese army was free, it could attack Wuhan at any time, so it was not surprising that the Japanese army attacked Wuhan this time. ”

Speaking of this, Ma Zheng's voice changed, and he said in a deep voice: "Especially in the past Battle of Nanchang some time ago, the Japanese army took the Nanchang area in one fell swoop, not only the fall of Nanchang made the contact between the 3rd Theater and the rear in a difficult situation, and the military replenishment could only rely on the highway lines of Zhejiang and Jiangxi provinces, which made the situation of the unoccupied areas of the southeastern provinces more difficult, and at the same time allowed the Japanese army to clear the obstacles to attacking Wuhan. ”

"Commander, do you mean that you are not optimistic about the national government?" Yun Jian asked in a deep voice.

"Well, I'm not optimistic!" Ma Zheng said without hesitation.

"But as far as I know, Lao Jiang made a lot of money to defend Wuhan, not only to straighten Xue Yue, but also to serve as the commander of the Ninth Theater. At the same time, nearly 500,000 troops in the two theaters were mobilized for direct use, and a large number of troops in the rear were being assembled on the periphery of Wuhan, and it was probably not easy for the Japanese army to defeat the Nationalist Government! Yun Jian seemed to have some confidence in the national government, and immediately said.

Ma Zheng shook his head and said: "On the surface, it seems that this is indeed the case, but judging from the results of the Battle of Nanchang, the shortcomings of the strategy and tactics of the Kuomintang army's War of Resistance have been seriously exposed. ”

"More importantly, with the foundation laid by the first Battle of Wuhan, although the Japanese army has not yet launched an offensive, it has already occupied a large number of military points on the periphery of Wuhan, and once the war starts, it will inevitably go straight to the heart of Wuhan. Moreover, the Japanese army attacked with victory this time, and the Nationalist Government had just experienced a major defeat, and the morale of the two sides was definitely not at the same level, so the possibility that the Nationalist Government could hold Wuhan this time was very small. ”

"So what to do, are we watching Wuhan fall?" Yun Jian said with a frown.

"Naturally not, but there is not much we can do, and I have the heart to go south again to defend Wuhan. But Lao Jiang may not dare to use our troops from the plague area, and secondly, there are still a group of hungry wolves around our own door, and we are too busy to take care of ourselves! Ma Zheng said.

Everyone knew that what Ma Zheng said was true, and Lao Jiang really might not dare to use them, Ma Zheng's words suddenly made the conference room fall silent. (To be continued.) )