In mid-May, the Sakai Detachment of the Sixth Division of the Japanese Army set out from Hanshan and Chaoxian to attack Hefei, and only one and a half divisions of Xu Yuanquan were near Hefei, which was quickly lost. Hefei's status at that time was not as good as Bengbu and Anqing, but it was also an important town in Anhui, and the Japanese army took Hefei, whether it was relying on the Huai River water system, attacking Wuhan from the north, or attacking Wuhan along both sides of the Yangtze River, which was very convenient.

In the headquarters of the 107th Division, there was a lot of people, and after Xu Ming received the report of the loss of Hefei, he quickly convened a military meeting to discuss countermeasures. After staff officer Cheng Ziyuan finished giving a briefing on the war situation, Xu Ming thought that the people below would be nervous and worried, but he didn't expect to see a group of excited and enthusiastic eyes.

Half a month ago, Xu Ming judged that the troops were about to enter the war before mid-June, and asked to complete combat preparations before that, most people did not believe it at that time, but now the facts are in front of them, the Japanese army occupies Hefei, and the next target is very likely to point to Anqing.

Because the opponent's actions were predicted in advance, and the preparations had been made for a long time, the commanders of the battalions were not worried. Yang Ruifu, deputy commander of the 643rd Regiment, joked, "Last time, the division and regiment seats both won the Blue Sky and White Sun Medal, is it not our time this time." ”

Yang Ruifu received the Order of Baoding in the last battle, which is an honor second only to the Order of National Light and the Order of the Blue Sky and White Sun, and it seems that he is quite optimistic about the upcoming big battle.

"I think it's best to prepare the medals, bonuses, and merit books on it, and you'll be able to use it soon!" Leng Guangqian is now super confident in his sniper troops, not afraid of the Japanese army coming, afraid that they will not come!

There may be some troops who will be nervous and even afraid when they see the Japanese approaching, but the 107th Division is different, continuous victories are their reason for optimism, before the battle of Mingguang, they were all apprehensive, but now, Xu Ming found that in everyone's eyes, there is reverence, trust, and fanaticism, that is, there is no timidity, doubt and panic.

These are people who can be entrusted with their lives, at the meeting, Xu Ming issued a pre-war preparation order, let the troops enter a wartime state, and complete all preparations by June 5.

First of all, the pre-war mobilization, the platoon commanders of each company mobilized the soldiers, last time Xu Ming also gave a big speech and did a lot of work, now there is no need for this, continuous victory is the best morale guarantee.

equipment began to be overhauled, especially artillery and infantry heavy weapons; The lack of weapons and ammunition is also contacted by the theater command, and it must be guaranteed that the collection will be completed at the end of the month, especially the hand * grenades, which have shown great effect in the battle of Mingguang, and after repeated requests, the theater finally agreed to allocate 50,000 pieces; Xu Ming also through his old friend Kerbert, from the concession to get a large number of special drugs for the treatment of malaria and dysentery, Xu Ming remembers, during the Battle of Wuhan, both China and Japan paid a very heavy price for this, the number of sick soldiers in the Japanese army is said to be more than 100,000, ** also because of the unclean diet produced by malaria and dysentery caused by mosquito bites caused countless soldiers to die, once the war turns into a protracted war, medicine will be a heavy weight on the balance of victory.

Everything is being carried out in an orderly manner, the most important thing is the construction of fortifications, and now the troops have realized how important strong fortifications are, and the division commander Xu Ming personally took the lead and picked up sapper shovels to dig field fortifications, and countless ordinary people near Anqing were organized to dig trenches and create obstacles.

"Hey, hey, hey! A group of local people used thick sticks and ropes to carry a stone of hundreds of kilograms up the mountain, and when they heard that the troops needed stones to build fortifications, people worked tirelessly to transport the boulders from the Baizishan quarry more than ten miles away.

There is no car transportation, they first use a large board car (a kind of manual dragging transport) to transport the green bricks from the outside, and then use their shoulders to carry the bricks one by one to the mountain, each green brick is mixed with sweat, mixed with cement, and becomes a fortification on the mountain.

Speaking of cement, Xu Ming's Jiujiang Cement Plant, which produces 10,000 tons a year, has finally made a difference. Well, it seems to be a lot, which is equivalent to the output of a production line in later generations for about one day. Xu Ming managed to make more than 1,000 tons of cement, and finally was able to build the steel reinforced cement fortifications that Xu Ming had been waiting for for a long time.

Li Shunqing today on behalf of the National Anhui University to carry out the labor army, saw such a warm scene, and said with emotion: "The people are so supportive, why worry about the indestructibility of the Japanese invaders." ”

Xu Ming also saw this moving picture, he put down the shovel in his hand, stood up, pointed to the sweaty and willing to contribute, but never slackened the people of Anqing, and said loudly: "This is the home we want to protect, this is the father and old folks we want to protect." Today, Xu Ming swears that no matter how difficult the process, no matter how bad the conditions, no matter how heavy the casualties, we will achieve victory, and we will achieve victory at all costs. ”

Xu Ming's expression was extremely solemn, everyone was infected, and the girl who snatched the saber of the Japanese chief of staff left tears of emotion.

The construction site of the fortifications revolves around Jixian Pass, since ancient times, the attack on Anqing must take Jixian Pass, similarly, Jixian Pass is lost, Anqing is also extremely difficult to hold.

Why Jixian Pass is so important, this starts from the topography of Anqing. To the south of Anqing is the Yangtze River, and to the east there are many rivers from Zongyang to Anqing, such as Baize Lake and Shitang River. To the north is Dalong Mountain, and to the west there are countless mountains such as Baizi Mountain, and between these two mountains, stands Jixian Pass. This is the traffic pass of Anqing to central and western Anhui, and it is also the starting point of Anhe Highway and Anqing to Hefei at that time.

In the past, the battle of Anqing of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom revolved around Jixian Pass, and the leaders of both sides, Zeng Guofan and Chen Yucheng, each led hundreds of thousands of horses to launch a bloody battle for more than a year.

The fortifications were based on the Battle of Mingguang, but they were adjusted in actual construction, the concealment and mutual protection of the firing points were greatly enhanced, the number of communication trenches and skirmishers was expanded, and tunnels were set up in Xuming where possible.

The biggest change was the arrangement of the machine gun unit in the exclusive area, Xu Ming set up the mortar and machine gun positions in the recesses and colts on the mountainside, and measured the shooting data. The operation on the paper and the actual offensive and defensive drills showed that this would bring great difficulties to the attacking side, and Lieutenant Colonel Fuji Muhua Teng was now very frightened when he looked at Xu Ming, and he said to Xu Ming flatteringly: "It is Japan's sorrow to choose China as the opponent, and it is the tragedy of the Japanese Sixth Division to choose the 107th Division as the opponent." ”

Everyone laughed, this old man has now cut himself off from Japan, playing the role of a clown and adviser here, and how to transform depends on Xu Ming's needs.

Just as he was joking, a guard hurriedly walked over and whispered beside Xu Ming, Xu Ming heard the words and immediately walked off the position.

The division headquarters received a notice to let him and the chief of staff go to the mall, which was located at the junction of Henan, Anhui, and Hubei provinces, and was the location of the headquarters of the Fifth Theater at that time. The original commander was Li Zongren, but Li Zongren suffered a recurrence of the gunshot wound he suffered in the battle against Long Jiguang in the past, and the post of commander was handed over to Bai Chongxi, who was also a Gui giant, which showed that the ** Command tried to maintain the stability and continuity of the command system in the theater.

On June 2, Xu Ming rushed to the mall. This is the first time Xu Ming has participated in such a high-level meeting. Commander Bai Chongxi, Deputy Commander Li Pinxian, Chief of Staff Xu Zuyi, as well as commanders of various group armies and army commanders and division commanders, Zhang Shaofang, the chief of staff of this division, could only move a stool to observe at the outermost level.

Xu Ming is okay, on the left is Liao Lei, the commander of the 48th Army, and on the right is Xu Yuanquan, the commander of the 26th Group Army and the 10th Army, and Liao Lei is separated from Bai Chongxi's main seat. The seating arrangements for this meeting were not based on seniority or rank, but according to combat missions, and it was clear that the tasks accepted by Xu Ming's 107th Division were quite important.

“… The retreat of our army is by no means a defeat, nor is it a victory for the enemy, in fact, I am getting stronger and stronger, the enemy is getting weaker and weaker, their contradictions and difficulties have been exposed one by one, first, the enemy has lost more than 400,000 troops ... Second, politically, the whole world is supporting us, and US President Roosevelt is already condemning the Japanese..."Bai Chongxi's eloquence is obviously good, and this encouragement swept away the atmosphere of the failure of the Battle of Xuzhou.

Subsequently, Chief of Staff Xu Zuyi made a briefing on the enemy situation, focusing on the assembly of the Japanese 3rd Division in the direction of Shouxian and Zhengyangguan and the process of the Japanese 6th Division capturing Hefei.

Next came the main play, the distribution of combat missions.

Sure enough, as expected, this troop deployment put the 7th, 31st, 48th, and 84th armies of the Gui system on the second line; Yang Sen's 20th Army, Xu Yuanquan's 10th Army, and Xu Ming's 107th Division were on the front line; The rest of Wang Xuzan's 44th Army, Xu Shaozong's 67th Army and other Sichuan Army troops were on the third line.

"The 27th Group Army (Yang Sen) is to control and place in Zongyang, Tongcheng and their eastern areas, delay the enemy's southward advance and prevent the enemy's landing, and must maintain Huaining (Anqing), Tongcheng and the areas east of them for a long time, and retreat near Qianshan when necessary."

"The 26th Group Army is assembled in the Lu'an, Huoshan, Shucheng, and Tongcheng areas to block the enemy's advance, and to secure Qianshan, Huoshan, and Huangmei Mountains as a last resort."

"The 107th Division, deployed in Huaining (Anqing), secures Huaining and its vicinity."

……

Xu Yuanquan and the officers present in the Yang Sen system turned pale one by one, obviously, they would be at the forefront of the Japanese attack, Xu Ming's expression was as usual, he was already mentally prepared for this kind of deployment.

He secretly made an evaluation of this deployment, it is decent, it is not like it came from the hands of Xiao Zhuge , the 10th Army and the 20th Army have poor combat effectiveness, put the front head first, delay and consume the enemy, but there must be a slightly stronger force as a support, and their 107th Division will perform the most difficult task. The four armies of the Gui family are all the capital of Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi, and they will never be easily taken out, placed on the second line, and can be attacked, retreated, and defended; As for Wang Xuzan and Xu Shaozong's troops, I am afraid that Bai Chongxi can not command them.

As early as the beginning of 1938, the Japanese Central China Dispatch Army and the Third Fleet of the Navy proposed to capture Anqing in preparation for the Battle of Wuhan.

In late May, the Japanese base camp issued a mainland order: "The commander of the Central China Dispatch Army should occupy the vicinity of Anqing with a unit." "On June 1, the Central China Dispatch Army of the Japanese Army officially issued a combat order, with the 6th Division as the main force, and the Potian Detachment and the Navy jointly attacked Anqing.

At the beginning of June, the Japanese army formed a new 11th Army with unprecedented strength for the Battle of Wuhan, and the commander of the army was none other than Okamura Ninji, who became famous in later generations.

The Battle of Wuhan and the Battle of Anqing are about to break out!