South of Laiwu, on the side of the main peak of the female mountain, the atmosphere in the headquarters covered by layers of tree branches was heavy, and the sound of gunfire and artillery in the distance made all the hearts tightened, everyone was busy, the phone kept ringing, and the staff officers kept marking on the map. Zhang Zizhong was wearing a gray coat, his black and thin face did not have a trace of expression, his hands were propped up on the wall of the trench, and his eyes looked straight at the fire coming out of Lotus Mountain.

Abandoning Laiwu was the original plan, but it was the result of the breakthrough of the defensive line, Nishio Shouzo quietly transferred the 4th Brigade of the Independent Mixed Brigade that stayed in Jiaodong to encircle and suppress the local anti-Japanese armed forces and the 38th Division between Jinan, Dezhou, to the front line, and accurately hit the flank of the 40th Army, the 40th Army was originally one of the weakest troops in the 5th theater, and it was already the best effort to block the attack of a division, Nishio Shouzo's vision was very poisonous, and the 38th Division and the 4th Mixed Brigade joined to immediately break through the left flank of the 40th Army, Pang Bingxun personally led the army guard battalion to counterattack but failed to block the breakthrough, the battle line collapsed, Zhang Zizhong urgently sent the reserve 114 Brigade reinforcements, but the Japanese army had become a momentum, and the 114 Brigade was unable to recover its position, but the counterattack of the 114 Brigade won Zhang Zizhong time to retreat.

Zhang Zizhong abandoned the defense line north of Laiwu, crossed Laiwu, and formed a second line of defense at Bijia Mountain, Wangjiayu, and Mutou Mountain, which was all held by the 59th Army, and the 40th Army was reorganized in the second line of defense with Lianhua Mountain as the core.

The 40th Army should be regarded as a new army, most of the casualties in the last battle of Linyi, most of the troops were recruits, as soon as the battle line was broken, these recruits were a little panicked, and when they retreated, the troops were scattered, and Pang Bingxun took a lot of effort to gather the troops.

The danger still did not pass, the Japanese attack succeeded, after occupying Laiwu, continued the pursuit, and soon launched an attack on Beacon Hill, the first line of fierce battles on the whole front, the casualties of the 59th Army rose sharply, the commander of the 112th Brigade Li Jinzhen was seriously wounded, the commanders of the three main regiments were killed, and they could only be taken over by Li Jiusi, the commander of the new regiment, two of the three regiment commanders of the 113th Brigade were killed and one was seriously wounded, one regiment commander was killed and two were wounded, and the battalion commander and below suffered numerous casualties, and almost all the officers at the platoon level were replaced.

On the afternoon of the third day of the battle, the defense line of Beacon Hill was finally broken through, and the whole army of the 59th Army retreated to the second line of defense and joined forces with the 40th Army.

"Don't retreat! I repeat, no retreat! If you lose your position, Lao Tzu will shoot you! Chief of Staff Zhang Kexia yelled at the phone, and then slammed the phone on the landline, the battle was not smooth, and everyone was very angry.

Footsteps sounded, and Deputy Army Commander Li Wentian rushed into the headquarters from the outside, and shouted as soon as he entered the door: "Army Commander!" Did the command call back? When will the reinforcements arrive? ”

Zhang Zizhong didn't answer, Li Wentian was a little anxious, grabbed the cup on the table, no matter who it was, he took a big sip with a sip, and then slammed the cup on the table.

"Why haven't you heard yet?" Li Wentian didn't hear Zhang Zizhong's words, so he found Zhang Kexia, Zhang Kexia smiled bitterly and handed over a telegram, and Li Wentian hesitantly took the telegram.

"The new 22nd Division has been ordered to come for reinforcements, and it can reach Laiwu within a day. At present, fierce fighting is going on all fronts, and 60 has increased its troops on several fronts, adding three divisions on the northern front, two divisions on the southern front, and one division here. The encirclement and annihilation of Honma on the northern front is about to begin, you must hold out until after the annihilation of Honma, I hope you will improve your tactics, the new 22nd Division is the last force I can send to the eastern front, I hope you are careful. ”

Li Wentian took a heavy breath and scolded with some annoyance: "What can finally send troops, hold on, hold on, the little devil has nearly doubled, we are only preparing to deal with two divisions here, he has to be capable, why don't you come and try!" ”

"Deputy Commander Li!" Zhang Zizhong turned around and said in a very stern tone: "Let's do our own thing, the others didn't lose the defense line, it's me Zhang Zizhong, it's my 59th Army who lost the defense line, don't complain about others." ”

"Deputy Army Commander, don't get excited, Commander Zhuang is helpless in this way," Zhang Kexia persuaded: "Besides, it's not that there are no reinforcements, and the combat effectiveness of the new 22nd Division is not weak." ”

Li Wentian spewed out a wisp of rough air from his nostrils, he was very dissatisfied in his heart, before the war, he let the 59th Army and the 40th Army independently block the two divisions of the Japanese army, he had objections, yes, the number of the two armies has increased, and the 59th Army has also obtained a reorganized division, but in the last battle of Linyi, only one-third of the two armies remained, and the 40th Army did not even have one-third, and the two armies supplemented a large number of new soldiers, so that even the low-level cadres were insufficient, and the entire army was reorganized, and the combat effectiveness did not increase but declined; Speaking of the reorganized division, the three brigades of the reorganized division actually only received the equipment of two brigades, and the equipment of the remaining brigade did not arrive, and it would take three months to wait. It's not that Zhang Zizhong doesn't know about this, and the theater command doesn't know either, but when the task is assigned, they still let them block the two divisions, Zhang Zizhong agreed without saying anything, and he came down to complain to him for a while.

"I went to the 40th Army to take a look, Pang Cripple is enough to choke, the casualties of the 40th Army are close to half, and Ma Fawu personally guards the main peak of Lotus Mountain." Li Wentian took a sharp breath, suppressed the unhappiness in his heart, and reported to Zhang Zizhong the results of the 40th Army.

Zhang Zizhong still didn't say anything, he walked to the table, grabbed the map, the current situation is worse than Linyi, at that time the comparison of the strength of the enemy and us was about the same, now the Japanese army is obviously superior, they must block the Japanese army under the disadvantage of the force.

"You see, I'm going to have the Ninth Cavalry Division counterattack from here." Zhang Zizhong drew a line on the map, which started from the north of Jiangshan and followed the south bank of the Muwen River to Laiwu County.

"The Ninth Cavalry Division?" Zhang Kexia hesitated, after a long fierce battle, the Ninth Division was not idle, several times dismounted to participate in the defense, and the casualties of the troops also reached thirty percent, at this time using them to counterattack, not only will weaken the frontal defense, but also the counterattack effect is difficult to say.

"Yes, only a counterattack can weaken the pressure on the front and buy time." Zhang Zizhong said calmly, his eyes still fixed on the map.

"Xun Chen, Zhang Deshun's losses are also not small, besides, the Japanese army also has cavalry, three divisions, and at least two wings of cavalry, Zhang Deshun's strength is insufficient, I'm afraid it will be difficult to have an effect." Li Wentian had no worries, and immediately raised objections, but only took into account Zhang Zizhong's face, so he did not directly refute it.

"Brother Canxuan, Brother Kexia, passive defense, the devil can calmly mobilize troops, not to mention, we can't find out the truth of the devil, it's better to break the kettle and sink the boat, fight to the death, it's decided." Zhang Zizhong did not hesitate at all, and his expression was firm.

"Order Zhang Deshun to lead the Ninth Cavalry Division to carry out a counterattack," Zhang Zizhong said: "After the Ninth Cavalry Division counterattacks, the front should also be adjusted, the 38th Division is based on the quail brother Lou Mountain, Nanling, Wanzhang Cliff, the 180th Division is responsible for the first Ningpu Peak, Baiyun Ridge, the right flank is connected with the 39th Division of the 40th Army of the main peak of Lotus Mountain, and the 40th Army is responsible for defending the main peak of Lotus Mountain, 18 Pan, Xiaobei Peak, and Weng Shanzi. ”

"I went to the 38th Division to supervise the battle, the deputy army commander stayed at the military headquarters to command the overall situation, the chief of staff assisted, the commander of the 180th Division Liu Zhensan must go to the front line to supervise the battle, the commander of the 39th Division Ma Fawu must go to Lianhuafeng to supervise the battle, and the commander of the Pang Army must go to Wengshanzi to supervise the battle. In this battle, we must not retreat a single step, and we must hold out until the new 22nd Division arrives. ”

The squadron launched a counterattack, and Zhang Deshun led the 9th Cavalry Division out of Chongshan, bypassing Niuquan Town, and encountering the 26th Cavalry Wing of the Japanese Army east of Niuquan Town.

The horse's hooves hit the ground heavily, the saber glittered in the cold wind, the galloping horses rolled up repeated yellow dust, forming a yellow cloud in the sky, thousands of war horses spread their hooves on the river valley, and rushed to the opposite side wildly, the knight on the horse raised his war knife high, staring at the front, and the hideous face on the opposite side was getting closer and closer.

"Click." Strings of bullets flew out of the herd, the horses neighed, and the blood began to spread in the air, "Kill! The two warbands slammed together, the cold blades clashing against each other, and screams rang out from the crowd from time to time, and the blood became thick.

Suddenly, all fronts became tense, on the eastern front, Zhang Zizhong was forced to give up Laiwu, Sun Lianzhong also retreated step by step in Tai'an, after Laiwu was lost, Tang Enbo couldn't stay in Ju County, Tang Enbo gave up Ju County and retreated westward.

Haneda commanded the 9th and 13th Divisions to force the crossing of the River again, and the inferior firepower of the Chinese defenders, who lacked air support, was completely exposed, and the 9th Division concentrated its forces opposite the 68th Army on the left flank, while the 13th Division attacked with all its might on the center line and the right flank, attracting the attention of the 46th Army and the 51st Army; Li Pinxian saw through Haneda's purpose, with the 51st Army and the 92nd Division to resist the 13th Division, the 27th Division and the 49th Division went all out to the west, and cooperated with the 68th Army to intercept the 9th Division.

As soon as the 110th Division arrived at the front line, it launched an attack on the 51st Army non-stop, breaking through the defense line of the 51st Army on the left flank of the 51st Army, occupying the town of Xiaohu, and losing the defense line of the River.

The 21st Army and the 2nd Army continued to put pressure on Fujita, but Shunroku Hahata was unmoved, Fujita retreated step by step, abandoned Huainan and retreated to Dingyuan, while the 106th Division of the Southern Front broke away from Li Xianzhou and retreated to Dingyuan.

Gu Shoufu fought fiercely with Lu Han and Deng Xihou across the river, and the 58th and 45th armies blocked the Japanese army to the south of the river.

The only good news is probably that the 49th Army rushed to Heze and began to attack Honma.

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