However, it was indeed a difficult task for a 20,000-strong army to cross the Yangtze River north. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

After several comrades in the division unified their thinking, they immediately discussed what should be done next. According to the opinion of the military headquarters, the crossing of the river was from Zhenjiang to Jiangyin through the base area in southern Jiangsu, so everyone decided to first send reconnaissance personnel to conduct a detailed reconnaissance of the terrain and the enemy situation in that area.

In order to ensure the smooth crossing of the river by the main force, Liu Tianshu proposed that Sun Xuexuan personally lead his troops to the area along the river east of Zhenjiang to reconnoiter the enemy situation there. At the same time, the New Seventh Brigade was secretly transferred.

The main force of the new Seventh Brigade is still on the front line of Wukang, and once the army is mobilized, it will inevitably pay attention to the speed of the soldiers.

After seeing off Sun Xuexuan and his entourage, Jiang Jinyong and Liu Tianshu quietly rushed to an inconspicuous village near Yixing, met with the head of the Sixth Division, and discussed the transfer of the Tianmu Mountain base area after the independent division crossed the river.

The commander of the Sixth Division naturally knew that the Independent Division was about to cross the river and head north, so he fully cooperated at this time, and one of its main regiments had received an order to complete the assembly and was ready to go south to Wukang at any time to take over the defense of the New Seventh Brigade.

Of course, after the independent division crossed the river and went north, the Sixth Division was short of troops, so it naturally would not defend Wukang, Changxing, and other county seats, but was ready to establish a solid anti-Japanese base in the countryside.

Besides, the independent division was in the Tianmu Mountain base area, but it had established a local armed force of more than 8,000 people, and these troops naturally stayed in the base area to persist in the struggle.

According to the plan discussed by Liu Tianshu and several people, the 22 nd Brigade was the first to cross the river, and with the cooperation of the New Fourth Army in the north of the Yangtze River, it controlled the north bank of the river crossing area, and then the 21 st Brigade and the division directly crossed the river again, and finally the New Seventh Brigade crossed the river.

The defense in the Guangde direction has been quietly handed over to a regiment of the Sixth Division, three regiments under the jurisdiction of the 22nd Brigade, under the brigade commander Xie Pingcai. Under the command of political commissar Jiang Xianhe and deputy brigade commander Shi Qiang, they quietly passed through the southern Jiangsu base area and arrived near the canal in the east of the southern Jiangsu base area.

At this time, the officers and men of the 22nd Brigade knew that as the vanguard of the independent division, they would be the first to cross the river and go north.

In order not to let the enemy detect the movements of the New Fourth Army, the 22 nd Brigade marched day and night, and after leaving the base area in southern Jiangsu, it joined up with Deputy Chief of Staff Sun, who had arrived earlier, and then sent troops to monitor the surrounding enemy.

"Brigade Commander Xie, Deputy Brigade Commander Shi, Political Commissar Jiang, we have figured out the situation on the riverside, Jiangbei is controlled by our troops, and the devil's patrol boat generally does not approach the north bank, and the patrol time on the river is two hours. The fraternal troops prepared for us fifty wooden boats and experienced boatmen, one wooden boat could transport sixty people at a time, and the fleet could carry about three thousand people at a time. Sun Xuexuan looked at Xie Pingcai and introduced.

"Deputy Chief of Staff Sun, you have worked hard." Hearing that Deputy Chief of Staff Sun had prepared fifty wooden boats, Xie Ping said sincerely.

Subsequently, at Xie Pingcai's brigade headquarters, several people discussed the details of crossing the river. The 21st Brigade and the New 7th Brigade of the Independent Division, as well as the troops directly under the division, are quietly moving north.

In addition to bringing the necessary food, weapons and ammunition, the independent division only took away the field hospital, and the rest of the logistics department was left to the Sixth Division, including the intelligence network established by the independent division in the surrounding enemy-occupied areas.

As for the special service brigade directly under the division headquarters that was dispatched, one company was left for the Sixth Division, and the rest were all taken back and taken by Zhou Aiguo to the Yangtze River to closely monitor the surrounding enemy and puppet strongholds.

Liu Tianshu received the plan to cross the river from Xie Pingcai, and after studying it with Jiang Jinyong, Xiang Luoquan and Zhang Zhouhong, he agreed to Xie Pingcai's plan to cross the river.

Although Jiangbei also had brother troops to respond, Liu Tianshu still decided to let the 22nd Brigade cross the river first, control the Jiangbei coast, and prepare for the response.

At the same time, the New Seventh Brigade was asked to rush to the riverside to monitor the enemy in the direction of Jiangyin and Zhenjiang, and prepare for the forced crossing of the Yangtze River.

Such a large-scale operation to cross the Yangtze River could hardly be guaranteed not to be detected by the Japanese intelligence department, and Liu Tianshu had to make preparations in advance for the failure of the smuggling and forced crossing of the Yangtze River.

Anyway, at present, the devils only have some armed river defense patrol boats on the Yangtze River, and there are no naval warships.

This kind of river defense patrol boat, which is equipped with a 75-centimeter caliber field artillery, although it poses some threat to the boats crossing the river, can be modified into wooden boats for armed escort, even if the devils find out, it is easy to deal with at night.

In addition, Liu Tianshu was also thinking about whether he could let the people of the special service brigade try to rob the devil of one or two river defense patrol boats, but this plan was extremely risky.

The time for the 22nd Brigade to cross the river was 10 o'clock in the evening, and the troops waiting to cross the river in the bay by the river were all sitting quietly on wooden boats, and the boatmen were already ready, and the four modified wooden boats responsible for dealing with emergencies were ready to attack on the riverside.

After the monitoring post guarding the riverside confirmed that the devil's patrol boat had left the river-crossing area, it immediately issued a river-crossing signal, and Xie Pingcai held Shi Qiang's hand and said solemnly: "Comrade Shi Qiang, I wish you a smooth crossing of the river." ”

Shi Qiang shook Xie Pingcai's hand vigorously, shouted in a low voice and set off, and countless wooden boats quietly slid out of the river bay and sailed quickly towards the other side of the river.

Because the 22nd Brigade was very successful in its secrecy work, the first echelon successfully crossed the Yangtze River and landed on the riverside an hour later.

Shi Qiang ordered the first battalion of the 67th Regiment and the 68th Regiment, the artillery battalion directly under the brigade, and the special service battalion directly under the brigade to immediately make preparations for battle in the predetermined area after disembarking.

When the 67th Regiment and the artillery battalion directly under the brigade were nervously doing what they were doing to meet the main force of the brigade crossing the river, the devil's river defense patrol boat came as promised, but the river was calm at this time, and there was nothing unusual at all, and the devil's patrol boat did not stop and continued to sail downstream.

Seeing the devil's patrol boat leave, the boatmen quickly set up the empty boat and headed for the south shore.

At 4 o'clock in the morning, more than 6,000 troops of the 22nd Brigade successfully crossed the Yangtze River and joined up with the fraternal units of the New Fourth Army operating in Jiangbei, and then immediately took control of the planned crossing area in Jiangbei.

Liu Tianshu was very happy to learn that the 22 nd Brigade had successfully crossed the river, and he and Jiang Jinyong jointly sent a telegram of praise to the 22 nd Brigade, and at the same time instructed them to establish good relations with the fraternal units in Jiangbei and strictly abide by the discipline of the New Fourth Army.

The next day, for a whole day, Liu Tianshu was paying attention to the movements of the devils around him, that is, the mouth of the Yangtze River, and Liu Tianshu also sent a special team to monitor.

After confirming that there were no Japanese warships going up the river at the mouth of the Yangtze River and that there was nothing unusual about the devils around, the 21st Brigade and the troops directly under the division began to cross the river that night.

When they crossed the river, they did not expect that a thick fog would rise on the Yangtze River, and although the devil's patrol was patrolling on the river, their sight was extremely poor, and with the New Fourth Army monitoring along the way, they did not find that in the interval between their patrols, thousands of the New Fourth Army crossed from Jiangnan to Jiangbei.

Stepping on the land of Jiangbei, Liu Tianshu had a cordial feeling, Song Yujie saw him looking back at the Yangtze River, and couldn't help standing beside Liu Tianshu, stretching out his little hand to hold Liu Tianshu's thick big hand.

"Yujie, I didn't expect me to return to Jiangbei again."

"yes, it's been almost three years in the blink of an eye." Song Yujie was also emotional.

The division headquarters crossed the Yangtze River, which means that more than half of the operation of crossing the river has been successful, and the remaining New Seventh Brigade is now also by the river.

Thinking that there were still thousands of officers and soldiers waiting to cross the river, Liu Tianshu was still a little worried.

"Political commissar, you and Deputy Division Commander Zhang will go to the military headquarters to report first, and I will wait here for the comrades of the New Seventh Brigade." When Liu Tianshu saw Jiang Jinyong coming over, he looked at him and whispered.

To tell the truth, since the establishment of the independent division, only Political Commissar Jiang and Deputy Division Commander Zhang have attended meetings at the military headquarters, and Liu Tianshu and Xiang Luoquan have not yet been to the military headquarters.

Of course, Su Lan, director of the Political Department, has never had the opportunity to go to the Military Department to report to the chief.

Knowing that Liu Tianshu was worried about the troops still in Jiangnan, Political Commissar Jiang nodded and said, "Okay, Lao Zhang and I will report to the military headquarters, and you will come over after the new Seventh Brigade crosses the river." ”

"Okay, once the new Seventh Brigade crosses the river, we will go to the military headquarters immediately." Liu Tianshu nodded.

As a division commander, he has not gone to the military headquarters to report his work in person, and Liu Tianshu himself feels ashamed.

After seeing Political Commissar Jiang leave, Liu Tianshu immediately studied the information sent by Sun Xuexuan in the temporary headquarters.

At this time, he didn't dare to guarantee that the devils did not discover the New Fourth Army's river-crossing operation, after all, it was impossible for such a large number of troops to cross the river without a trace.

Liu Tianshu's conjecture was actually correct, as early as when the independent division rushed to the riverside, Fujita Jin, the commander of the 13th Army of the Japanese Army, noticed something unusual.

Although there were still activities of the New Fourth Army in Wukang City, and on the opposite side of Huzhou, the New Fourth Army did not seem to be unusual, but the Japanese still found that these New Fourth Army did not seem to be the troops of an independent division.

Subsequently, the spies of the Mei organ of the Japanese army and the agents of Wang Puppet No. 76 also noticed the strangeness of the independent division of the New Fourth Army.

The nose of the spy has always been very sensitive, and once he found that the smell was wrong, he immediately carried out an all-out investigation, and then the information that the independent division of the New Fourth Army crossed the river to the north was sent to Fujita Jin.

"The independent division is going north, yo west." When Fujita saw this information, he suddenly frowned, which is really good. When the independent division left Tianmu Mountain, the pressure on the Thirteenth Army was greatly reduced.

You must know that it is precisely because of the existence of independent divisions that the 22nd Division and the 144th Division must be cautious in every action. Now that the independent division is gone, the 13th Army will only be able to deal with the troops of the 6th Division of the New Fourth Army in southern Jiangsu and the 3rd Theater of the Nationalist Government in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

After all, the independent division contained too many imperial forces in Tianmu Mountain, and more importantly, the previous commander launched two military operations, both of which ended in failure, so that Fujita Jin did not dare to launch a new military attack on the independent division easily. (To be continued.) )