Jiujiang, known as Chaisang Xunyangjiangzhou in ancient times, was established in the Western Han Dynasty, and the county name was Chaisang; During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Xunyang County moved to Jiujiang, which is the origin of Jiujiang's ancient name Xunyang, and in the eighth year of Yixi (412 AD), Xunyang was renamed Jiangzhou; In the third year of the Sui Dynasty (607 AD), Jiangzhou was renamed Jiujiang.

Jiujiang is the confluence of Poyang Lake and the Yangtze River, the largest freshwater lake in China, and the end point of the Nanxun line, the strategic location is extremely important, there have been many major wars in history, in the summer of 1938, because the battle of Wuhan was in full swing, the strategic location of Jiujiang was raised to an unprecedented level, inside and outside the ancient city, filled with the tense air of the wind and rain.

It was in this serious situation that Xu Ming came to Jiujiang, speaking of which he had a very close relationship with Jiujiang, and the Jiujiang Cement Plant and Mine Factory of the Yuming Group were set up in Jiujiang, especially when the Jiujiang Cement Plant opened, Xu Ming also personally organized a very grand ceremony.

"The deputy commander has arrived!" The two guards at the door heard the call and immediately raised their hands to salute, Xu Ming nodded, did not make any stops, and walked directly into the conference room of the headquarters.

Commander-in-Chief Zhang Fakui, Deputy Commander Xu Ming, Commander of the Fourth Army Ou Zhen, Commander of the Eighth Army Li Yutang, Commander of the 64th Army Li Hansoul, Commander of the Ninth Group Army Wu Qiwei, Commander of the 70th Army under its jurisdiction Li Jue, Commander of the 25th Army Wang Jingjiu, and various division commanders under their jurisdiction were present one after another.

Xu Ming looked at the generals present, Ou Zhen had a square face and elegant manners, ordinary people would not have imagined that he was famous for his bravery, the Northern Expedition to Wuchang, when he was the battalion commander, he was the first to climb the city wall; Li Yutang is the first phase of Huangpu, with bright eyes, two very curved and very beautiful eyebrows, known as "dignified appearance", which is indeed true; Li Hansoul is a small man with a long face and a thin face, with a typical Cantonese appearance, and he also speaks in Cantonese; Li Jue Xu Ming once had a relationship, he was the son-in-law of He Jian, the former chairman of Hunan Province, and it was said that he was born as a shoemaker, but he couldn't see it in appearance; Wang Jingjiu, born in the first phase of Huangpu, has handsome eyebrows and a strong figure, and the generals present are the most like soldiers.

"The Commander-in-Chief has arrived!" When the generals present saw Zhang Fakui coming, they stood up one after another.

Zhang Fakui said with a smile: "Everyone is a brother, so there is no need to be polite." After speaking, he looked at Xu Ming again, this is a young and excessively young deputy commander, with a delicate demeanor and a gentle demeanor, if it is the first time I see it outside, it is difficult to imagine that it is a general, but like a student or a civilian in the army.

Zhang Fakui said to Xu Ming again: "It's a thousand miles, the little devil is coming soon, I'm so worried that I don't know what to do, the chairman sent you, haha, with Xu Xian, Jiujiang can be guaranteed to be worry-free." ”

These words were half greeting and half ridiculing, and Xu Ming also smiled, "It is a thousand miles of luck to be able to work with all your colleagues under the commander-in-chief." ”

After some pleasantries, everyone began to discuss the topic.

The main thing, of course, is the military deployment and pre-war arrangements in Jiujiang. As early as the beginning of the year, the Chinese side began to establish fortifications near Jiujiang, after the Battle of Xuzhou, the Chinese side officially organized the first corps of Zhang Fakui in Jiangnan, with 4 armies under its jurisdiction at the beginning, and on August 14, Li Jue's 70th Army was transferred to the theater.

Zhang Fakui first gave Xu Ming a briefing on the deployment of the theater.

"Thousands of miles, our army is now deployed like this, the 64th Army is deployed along the line of the Yangtze River, among them, Zhang Yanchuan pre-9th Division defends the line from Jiujiang to Balipo, the 187th Division of Kongkouquan and the 3rd Security Regiment of the 2nd Jiangxi Security Regiment guard the line from Balipo to Wuxia, and Chen Gongxia's 155th Division is the reserve, which is controlled and placed on the Shilipu line south of Jiujiang. Wuxia to Gutang, in the waterway of Poyang Lake into the Yangtze River, is in charge of the 8th Army, of which, Wuxia to Xilin, guarded by Zhao Xitian's 3rd Division; Xilin to Shangxia Temple, guarded by Wang Zhibin's 15th Division; Shangxia Temple to Gutang, including Gutang, guarded by Zhao Dingchang's 11th Division; Chen Mingren's pre-2nd division was placed in the area of Qili Lake as a reserve. From Gutang to Xingzi, the 70th Army was responsible, of which the 19th Division was directly under the direct jurisdiction of Commander Li Jue, and was deployed on the front line of Shell Mountain; The 128th Division was placed on the front line of Tading Mountain. Including Xingzi and the defense to the south, the 25th Army was responsible, of which, Xiaoguling to Xingzi was guarded by Leng Xin's 52nd Division, and Liang Huasheng's 190th Division, which was placed between the 19th and 52nd Divisions, and planned to fight between the two armies. The 4th Army, as a strategic reserve of the group, was placed in the area of Huanglao Liuma Huiling, ready to reinforce various battlefields at any time. ”

After talking about the basic deployment, Zhang Fakui asked: "Qianli, you have always been good at arranging formations, let's see if there are any problems with this formation?" ”

Xu Ming looked at the map, the first line of the Yangtze River, Zhang Fakui only put 2 divisions, the first line of Poyang Lake, arranged 8 divisions, obviously the Poyang Lake river is the focus, he considered the strength of each division and the terrain conditions, and was speechless for a while.

Zhang Fakui didn't ask, and the other army commanders and division commanders also looked at Xu Ming one after another, seeing what this famous general who jumped up like a rocket had to say.

Xu Ming thought for about a quarter of an hour and asked, "Commander-in-Chief Zhang, what is the logistics and transportation route of our army?" ”

Ou Zhen replied on the side: "Deputy Commander Xu, at present, our army's transportation is from De'an to Jiujiang via Mahuiling, and there is only this one transportation line. ”

Xu Ming continued to ask, "When I came, I found that this road had been destroyed, and I arrived from the path. ”

"That's right, Deputy Commander Xu, this was done by the civil affairs department, and as early as June, they destroyed the nearby railways and highways as soon as possible to prevent the enemy from taking advantage of them."

Xu Ming sighed in his heart, the one who did this was simply a pig teammate. Only now did he turn his head to Zhang Fakui and said: "Commander-in-chief, now our army's 100,000 troops rely on this unreliable route for supply, once the front line fights the Japanese army, do you need a certain amount of food and ammunition every day?" How many other munitions? Will this trail meet the needs? ”

Xu Ming's question really stopped Zhang Fakui, and he also realized that this was indeed a big problem, the military deployment near Jiujiang was painstakingly formulated by Zhang Fakui, and he thought that he was quite thorough, but he didn't expect to leave a back door.

He asked, "Chisato, what do you have in mind?" ”

Xu Ming smiled bitterly: "What do I have in mind about this, the road has been damaged, and it will be difficult to recover again, and the current situation can only be repaired a little." ”

Zhang Fakui knew that this was a tricky job, he looked at Xu Ming, and decided to hand over this tricky job to Xu Ming.

"Deputy Commander Xu is very right, so let's entrust this matter to the deputy commander, and the other armies must obey the command and transfer of the deputy commander."

Xu Ming didn't refuse, "Okay, I accept the commander-in-chief's arrangement." ”

Zhang Fakui's deployment in Jiujiang can be said to have been thinking for a long time, he just asked Xu Ming if he found that the problem was smug, and the subtext was "You kid is optimistic, see how Lao Tzu arranges the army." Unexpectedly, Xu Ming hit the spot and pointed out the loopholes at once.

However, Zhang Fakui was not convinced, anyone who arrived in Jiujiang felt this way, and he continued to ask: "Qianli, about the deployment of our army and the possible direction of attack of the little devils, you can give me your opinion." ”

Xu Ming nodded, picked up the baton, walked to the large military map hanging on the wall, and said while pointing: "I personally think that the main force of the Japanese army will choose the line of Poyang Lake as the breakthrough point, along the Yangtze River, if the Japanese army lands, first, it will be shot by our army's Jiangbei battery, but even if the breakthrough is completed, it will be attacked by our army's troops from all over Ruiwu Nanxun." Second, the waterway of the Yangtze River is relatively narrow and easily blocked by mines, and the Poyang Lake is relatively wide, making it difficult to lay mines in an all-round way. Third, if we land at Poyang Lake, we can cut off our army's Nanxun line to the west, thinking that it will be easy to capture Jiujiang.

Ou Zhen stood up and reminded: "Deputy Commander Xu, the commander-in-chief also thinks so. ”

Zhang Fakui saw that Xu Ming could explain the reason for his military deployment, but he looked up to Xu Ming a little, and said secretly in his heart: "His grandmother's, you kid is a bit of a doorway." ”

As soon as Ou Zhen's words fell, a person next to him said, "Deputy Commander Xu, the line along Poyang Lake is so long, where do you think the little devil will attack?" ”

This is a bit of a strong rhetoric, who has such a great ability to know the specific location of the main attack of the Japanese army. Xu Ming regarded it as Zhang Deneng, the commander of the 59th Division, and it was rumored that he was Zhang Fakui's nephew, but Xu Ming knew that this was not true, but there was no doubt that Zhang Deneng had always been Zhang Fakui's confidant.

Zhang Fakui frowned, Zhang Deneng's question was a little unreasonable, he was about to shout, Xu Ming had already spoken, "Division Commander Zhang, the main attack location of the Japanese army, I personally think it is the Gutang line." ”

Zhang Fakui was stunned, "Qianli, what is the basis?" ”

Xu Ming pointed from Gutang Xingzi to De'an with his baton, "Since the Japanese army wants to cut off our Nanxun line, it is very likely that it will land from Gutang and Xingzi, and the main attack from Gutang can outflank our Jiujiang defenders from the flank and rear, and then cooperate with the frontal attack on Jiujiang to complete the attempt to capture Jiujiang and annihilate our field troops; Then one part will capture Xingzi, enter and exit the line of Mahuiling Pass, and cut off the connection between De'an and Jiujiang of our army. On the contrary, if the Japanese army chooses to land from the north of Gutang, it will form a trend of flat pushing, and even if it occupies Jiujiang, it will be difficult to annihilate the main force of our army. ”

After Xu Ming finished speaking, he gently placed the baton on the side of the wall, and then walked back to his seat.

Dozens of people in the conference room did not say a word, Zhang Fakui frowned even more, he understood that Xu Ming had just answered his question vaguely by replying to Zhang Deneng's words, Jiujiang deployment was problematic, and the problem was in Gutang.

Zhang Fakui held his head with his left hand, and kept slapping the table with his right hand, obviously having something difficult to solve, and after a while, he turned his head and asked Li Yutang, the commander of the 8th Army: "Yaojie, can the 11th Division take on the heavy task of blocking the main force of the Japanese army?" ”

Li Yutang's mouth was bitter, his 8th Army's combat strength was not bad, but it showed a polarized trend, the 3rd Division and the 15th Division were old powerhouses, and they performed well in the Battle of Songhu, but the 2nd Division and the 11th Division had just been formed, and it was absolutely impossible to resist the main force of the Japanese army.

Li Yutang shook his head and said nothing.

The entire conference room was cold