De'an, the squadron retreating from the Mahuiling and Pass roads has turned into a rout, the Japanese planes in the sky are frantically bombing the squadron on the road, and the elite detachments organized by the Japanese army are infiltrating from all directions, which has aggravated the degree of chaos. Although Xue Yue tried his best to retract it, the troops that had just retreated were in shambles, both in terms of military morale and ammunition and food.

On September 25, the Japanese army pursued by victory completed the encirclement of the northwest, southeast and northeast of De'an, and the main force of the 106th Division took advantage of the opportunity of the retreat of the squadron ** to take the bird stone gate in one fell swoop and occupy the commanding heights in the northwest of De'an; The 27th Division followed the mountains in the southeast and successively captured Puting in Jiguan Mountain; The 101st Division cooperated with the Japanese 6th Field Heavy Artillery Brigade and armored units to launch a frontal attack on De'an along the northeast, and the 116th Division crossed the Boyang River from the east side of the 101st Division.

Inside the city, the rumbling cannons on the periphery can already be heard, and test firing is being carried out intermittently; In the sky, groups of planes continued to drop bombs and strafe, and the entire city of De'an was shrouded in smoke and fire.

The headquarters of De'an's Second Corps was also a gloomy fog, the commander-in-chief Xue Yue was smoking cigarettes one after another, and his face also showed an expression of embarrassment.

Fan Songfu, commander of the 46th Army, stood up and said excitedly: "Commander-in-chief, De'an must not give up, otherwise, the chairman will not spare us, and the public opinion of the whole country will not let us go."

Chief of Staff Zhao Zili retorted: "Commander Fan, everyone knows that De'an is important, but our army is newly defeated and its morale is degenerating, how can we hold it?" ”

"Zhao Shenzao, De'an doesn't defend it, if the Japanese army continues to move south, won't Xiushui Nanchang also defend it."

"Commander Fan, you can't say that, the Japanese army will definitely not go south, it should be to return to besiege Jiujiang, so that our army will have a chance to breathe."

"Haha, if Jiujiang can't hold it, the above will never blame Xu Ming, it's us who are unlucky, but don't follow in the footsteps of Han Xiangfang and Xue Cangsan, the chairman of the committee will kill a few to remind the other people who escaped from the battle, I'm afraid I won't blink an eye."

"We're not running away..."

Xue Yue saw that his subordinates were arguing, and his heart was even more depressed, and he waved his hand to interrupt the argument between the two.

"Don't say it again, send a telegram to Commander-in-Chief Xu, and ask if De'an can hold on to Jiujiang if he gives up."

Everyone looked at each other, and Zhao Zili said hesitantly: "Commander-in-Chief Xu is probably not happy that we give up Jiujiang, if he sues us in front of the chairman..."

Xue Yue shook his head, "Xu Ming is not such a person," and turned his head to Li Yutang and said, "Brother Yaojie, you and Xu Ming are more familiar, see if you can talk to him." ”

Li Yutang disagreed with this suggestion in his heart, but he now knew Xue Yue's attitude, Xue Yue didn't want to fight this battle at all, but once he abandoned De'an, Xu Ming would sue again, all the senior generals here would not be able to stand it, not to mention the shooting, at least a considerable number of people would lose their positions and be dismissed.

Thinking of this, Li Yutang tapped the corner of the table with his fingers and said slowly: "I'll try it, but I don't have a deep relationship with Qianli after all, hey, it would be much easier to say if Wang Yaowu was here." ”

Xue Yue smiled bitterly, even if Wang Yaowu is here, he will never persuade Xu Ming to do such a thing, you Li Yutang and Xu Ming have a normal relationship, just to fool around.

Of course, Xu Ming was not a three-year-old child, and he received the telegram from Li Yutang as soon as possible, so he sneered and threw the telegram to Chief of Staff Zhang Shaofang.

Zhang Shaofang was furious when he saw it, "He, Li Yaojie, is really embarrassed, and so is Commander-in-Chief Xue, I don't want to keep De'an, go and talk to Chairman Jiang, and the chairman agrees, isn't it?" Let's talk about it, Chisato, this is fooling you for a fool."

"They said that the old man would definitely not agree, anyway, I will say it, it doesn't matter if it is wrong."

Zhang Shaofang thought about it, Xu Ming fought a lot of victories, the Battle of Meishan annihilated more than 4,000 Japanese soldiers, and captured more than 1,000 prisoners, although insiders know that this is Korean laborers, but the propaganda can say that they are regular Japanese soldiers, and also make a "20,000 killed enemies, 3,000 prisoners." There is no doubt that in the hearts of the people at that time, Xu Ming once again achieved a brilliant victory. Just now, Hu Lian sent another telegram that the Ikeda detachment, which had come to the rescue of the Japanese baggage troops, was discovered by the sniper battalion before they arrived at Meishan. Hu Lian immediately mobilized the main force, surrounded it by regiments, and beat it violently, and the results of the battle have not yet been counted, but it is obvious that even if this Japanese army cannot be annihilated, it can still achieve great results.

Indeed, what Xu Ming says now, even if Lao Jiang disagrees, he will not trouble him, if Xue Yue, who has just lost the battle, runs to talk about it, don't say that there is no door, and there is no window.

Thinking of this, Zhang Shaofang said, "Otherwise, Commander-in-Chief, you will sell them a favor." ”

Xu Ming smiled quietly, and went to help Xue Yue explain that he didn't do it, that was to treat him as Yue Fei's envoy, he would only send a telegram to the bald brother to show his determination to stick to Jiujiang, in this way, Jiujiang will be defended, Xue Yue and the others will naturally not be punished too severely, Jiujiang can't be defended, let's talk about things in the future.

Okamura Ninji stood in the basement of the Central Bank of Dean, which, not so long ago, was the headquarters of the enemy, and now, has been occupied by his troops.

It's just that Okamura Ninji's face did not show the slightest smugness of the victor, but a serious expression, and occasionally a deep gaze showed his worry.

"Did Ikeda really die in battle?" Okamura Ninji frowned and asked.

"Yes, the adjutant of the wing, Kozuki Youshu, saw with his own eyes that Ikeda Osa was surrounded by the Shina people, slashed dozens of Shina soldiers with a knife, and was hit by more than ten bullets in his body, and after bowing to the east, he died with a smile..."

Of course, the facts cannot be said explicitly, Ikeda Naoyama with thousands of tired and half-dead Japanese troops, just rushed to Beidashan, more than 10 miles away from Meishan, from the grass and mountains next to it drilled out of countless squadrons, Ikeda's wing was annihilated in a short period of time, and wing leader Naozo Ikeda was accidentally wounded and killed by the Japanese army's own people

Okamura Ninji didn't mean to investigate the truth, he walked into the depths of the command room, the retreat of the squadron was obviously very hasty, there were quite a lot of documents left on the ground and on the table, and the military map on the wall even forgot to take it away.

Okamura stooped down and picked up a fountain pen, which in China was only accessible to the upper class.

The commander of the 101st Division, Ito Masaki, looked at the pen and said, "Your Excellency Commander, the Chinese army is retreating, please allow me to lead the troops to pursue alone." ”

Chief of Staff Miyamoto Sadachi objected in a deep voice: "Your Highness Ito, a division pursuit is ineffective, what the Chinese army is best at is to escape, now is the time to turn our eyes to Jiujiang, we must not be attracted by the immediate interests, we must follow the original plan, turn to Jiujiang to fight"

Like Xue Yue's side to defend or not to defend, there was also a debate on Okamura Ningji's side about whether to pursue or not to pursue, and now, the subordinate division commander advocated pursuing Xue Yue's 2nd Corps, while the staff of the 11th Army advocated turning his forces in time to the direction of Jiujiang.

As soon as Miyamoto finished speaking, Miyazaki echoed, "In this battle, Jiujiang is the focus, and the battle of De'an is just to relieve the flank protection of the Jiujiang defenders, and our army has perfectly achieved the pre-war effect." If our army continues to put the main forces on the De'an front, it will only put the cart before the horse, division commanders, does the empire still have the strength to launch the Battle of Nanchang and the Battle of Wuhan at the same time? ”

Miyazaki has always been Okamura Ninji's mouthpiece on Monday, and his words also represent Okamura Ninji's opinion, and several division commanders looked at each other and said no more.

Okamura Ninji saw Miyamoto and Miyazaki convince the division commander and ordered: "The 116th Division will defend De'an and the surrounding areas, and the rest of the troops and the heavy artillery, engineers, and armored units will be divided into two columns and transferred to Jiujiang."

On September 26, China and Japan announced the results of the Battle of Nanxun almost simultaneously, and both sides boasted about a great victory.

"The Imperial Japanese Alliance Telegraph, the saber of our invincible imperial army once again cut off the claws of the tyrannical branch, and marched forward and saluted in unison, and the mighty troops of the empire walked on the important town of De'an in China. The military flag is fluttering, the military song is loud, the military uniform is shining... 500 words are omitted here, as of yesterday, 32,355 corpses of Chinese soldiers, 2,163 prisoners, and seized..."

"The latest battle report of the Central News Agency of the Republic of China, the heroic and loyal ** soldiers have won another victory, why do you say it again, it is because we have the supreme instructions of Chairman Chiang, under the wise guidance of the supreme leader... 550 words are omitted here, in this battle of Nanxun, ** killed more than 35,000 enemy Kou, captured 3,123 people below the enemy Mitsui Shaoza, killed the enemy wing captain Naozo Ikeda and more than 50 other colonel-level officers, captured more than 60 artillery pieces of various types, and more than 300 light and heavy machine guns..."