readx; In April, it is the season when the spring flowers are blooming, the grass grows and the warbler flies, and the climate should be very pleasant, but there is such a group of people, one by one, sweating profusely, digging something underground.

This is not a tomb robbery, the leader is Liu Junsheng, who divided the troops into three squads, and now he is digging tunnels himself.

Three days ago, when he talked about the sneak attack on the Three Realms Military Station, everyone thought he was crazy, and one company commander even said that he had to fly through the sky unless he flew over.

His reply was: "We can't fly, we burrow through the ground." ”

The establishment of the Japanese military station is quite skillful, this place is unobstructed at both ends, which is convenient for the transfer of materials, but there are high ground on both sides, which can be well defended, whether it is to sneak attack or strong attack, it is extremely difficult to get hands.

But Liu Junsheng discovered that there was a characteristic here in the Three Realms, the soil was very soft, and he immediately remembered that there was room for use, and now they had been "drilling" underground for 3 days.

Xu Ming didn't know what the 1st Battalion was doing, the division headquarters command post in Dahengshan, Xu Ming was holding a telegram in his hand, and all the officers above the battalion commander were all there.

Everyone's faces were very dim, and Zhao Ren said in a trembling voice: "Master, is it true?" ”

Xu Ming nodded heavily.

The telegram was sent by Qin Lieping, telling Xu Ming that the 41st Division had been defeated, and that he had led his troops from Dingyuan to Mingguang, preparing to block the Japanese army attacking Mingguang.

The telegram did not say what the defeat of the 41st Division would be, nor did it say what the current battle situation in Dingyuan was, which was exactly what Xu Ming and the officers present were worried about, and if Qin Lieping, as a party concerned, did not know the specific situation, the situation would be in great trouble.

"Go back and prepare, I'm afraid the Japanese attack is about to begin."

Xu Ming's prediction was accurate, and the Japanese immediately launched an extremely fierce attack on the positions of the 107th Division, and they advanced all the mountain artillery to the first line, and cooperated with the infantry to launch a strong attack on the various positions of the defenders.

Ogisu Libing knew what was happening in Dingyuan better than Xu Ming, and Numata Tokushige had already sent him a telegram: "The defenders of Dingyuan have been defeated. After receiving the telegram, he immediately changed the original plan of the Numata Brigade to march from Shangyao and Fengyang, and ordered the main force of the 58th Wing and the cavalry No. The team is the backbone, forming a Canglin detachment, which is directly inserted from Dingyuan into the flank of the Mingguang defenders.

While storming the position of the Mingguang defenders head-on, Ogishu Libing also ordered the formation of various advance teams on the scale of squads to counter the center. The team's positions and flanks infiltrate, and Ogisu has realized that the opponent in front of him is an underage milk tiger that must be strangled before he grows up.

Xu Ming walked to the Hospital for Wounded Soldiers, where the entire wounded soldiers of the 107th Division were treated, and more than 2,000 wounded soldiers were here. An injury analyst at the door saw Xu Ming coming, and immediately stood up and saluted, Xu Ming waved his hand, signaling him to continue working.

The injury analyst was a recent graduate of Shanghai Medical College, and he pointed out two ways for all the wounded soldiers, one was the way to live, and judged that the soldiers could still be rescued, so they were carried to the field hospital; Judging that the injuries were too serious, they were carried into another road, in a deep alley, where the seriously wounded were waiting for death.

Xu Ming walked into that dead end, a seriously wounded man with a face covered in blood and a bullet piercing his chest.

Xu Ming carefully wiped the wounded man's face with a handkerchief, a gift from his wife, and after wiping the bloodstains, he carefully arranged the soldier's collar.

The soldier closed his eyes forever and shed his last tears.

Xie Jinyuan, who was following beside him, knew why Xu Ming was here, and Xu Ming wanted to retreat.

However, the retreat of the wounded is a big problem, and the reason why it is said that it is more difficult to lose the battle than to win the battle is that the retreat is not easy to organize, especially the wounded cannot be transferred smoothly. If you don't retreat well, it becomes a rout.

Xu Ming was determined to hand over this task to Zhang Shaofang, Zhang Shaofang was a steady and cautious person, and he had won Xu Ming's trust during the days of managing the staff office and the logistics office.

The baggage can be burned, but what about the mountain artillery, Xu Ming was helpless and had a headache when he thought of this.

The mountain artillery hasn't fired a few cannons so far, and it hasn't played much role at all, so they really shouldn't be allowed to come to Mingguang to participate in the war! Moreover, the Bofors mountain cannon is still very heavy, the Japanese mountain cannon of the same caliber is only more than 500 kilograms, which can be dismantled and taken away by people, while the Bofors weighs 800 kilograms and needs to be pulled by mules and horses. With them to retreat, the speed of the troops will be greatly reduced, and the march will be separated, and the emphasis is on speed and agility, and there will be big problems if you are reluctant to do so.

Could it be that the mountain artillery can only be destroyed, the firepower of the 107th Division will be seriously reduced, and Xu Ming is also very painful.

Xu Ming decided to take away the mountain artillery, but after all, he was reluctant, this is the biggest capital of the army.

After the break, Xu Ming planned to personally command the troops, and the most difficult thing to retreat since ancient times was that people's hearts were fluctuating, and after he was the commander of the highest army, the soldiers' hearts would be stable.

"Division commander, there is no need for this, I, Xie Jinyuan, promise to complete the task after the break, I have been interrupted once in the battle of Songhu, and I have sufficient experience." Xie Jinyuan was telling the truth, but he almost lost his life that time.

Chen Huizhi, Zhao Ren and other Qiyang officers also resolutely disagreed, "Master, don't do this, after you personally break it, how can we deal with ourselves, please leave this task to us." ”

Xu Ming's face was expressionless, "Needless to say, I have made up my mind, the wounded soldiers will be the first to break away at 10 o'clock tonight, escorted by Zhang Zhenzhong's third battalion, and the baggage troops and artillery will also retreat later; The engineer battalion, the 2nd battalion of the 641st regiment, the 3rd battalion of the 642nd regiment, and the headquarters of the 643rd regiment are the second echelon of retreat; The first battalion and the special service company of the 642nd Regiment were led by me to block the enemy's advance; The communications unit must ensure that the communications of all units are unimpeded. ”

Xu Ming wanted to retreat, but the Japanese troops on the opposite side seemed to know the defenders' thoughts, and changed the practice of not moving at night. The team burned the heavy flames, and there was also the fire of Japanese artillery fire.

Retreat is by no means an easy task, especially when the two armies are deadlocked. The Japanese army bit the broken troops to the death, and in the dim night, the devil soldiers with steel helmets and bayonets looked hideous and ferocious under the falling artillery fire, even if they did not have heavy artillery cover, they still continued to attack the defenders' rearguard troops.

A shell fell not far away, Xu Ming dusted off the dust that fell on his body, just now he personally led the spy company to repel an attack by the Japanese army, but he didn't expect that just 5 minutes later, the little devil came again.

There were still Japanese troops trying to outflank them on both flanks, and Xu Ming had to let the battalion commander Tao Jurong lead a company to block the attack, although he repelled the attack of the devils, but the pace of the retreat of the troops was also slowed down.

The good news was that the retreat of the troops was orderly and the communication between the troops was smooth, and the bad news was that the retreat of the troops was as slow as expected.

It took less than 30 kilometers to walk all night, just half of the way to Linhuai Pass, and 50 kilometers away from Bengbu, and this was carried out on a night when the pursuit force of the devils was in difficulty.

Sure enough, the next day, Xu Ming's retreat was much more difficult, and the Japanese army used a large number of aviation units to bomb the retreat route fiercely, and a bridge over Xiaoxi River was blown up five times in a row.

Xu Ming scolded when he found out, "Where did the plane that Lao Tzu spent so much money buy dead!" Didn't you promise me to send the Air Force? "The Air Force promised to send planes a few days ago, and asked Xu Ming not to have too high hopes, but he really couldn't give back hopes, and so far Xu Ming has not even seen the shadow of his own Air Force.

"Look, Master," Staff Officer Cheng pointed to the sky, and a group of planes flew to the southwest, which was the Hawk 75 that had just been purchased from the United States and the I-16 supported by the Soviet Union.

The support of the air force could only let Xu Ming take a breath, and the Japanese army seemed to be determined to leave Xu Ming's troops, and the pursuers launched an attack all the time, and even some little devils only had a few dozen people, and they dared to attack the entire battalion of broken troops, which made Xu Ming have a headache. The most terrifying thing is the small force of the Japanese army, these people are not many in number, but they often take small roads to advance, just now the division headquarters and a company in charge of the defense of the left flank lost contact, sent people over to take a look, there are actually more than a dozen devils inserted between the two armies!

After killing all these bold Japanese soldiers, Xu Ming realized the danger, his retreat route was too fixed, and the devil was still so unscrupulous, he did not have the idea of counterattacking, but the specific situation and actions of the Japanese army were not clear, and it was difficult to implement a counterattack. Just now, the spy company also caught a group of suspicious-looking soldiers, who were dressed in . 's gendarme uniform, swaggering on the road, ran over and said that he was looking for the headquarters of the 107th Division, and his attitude was very arrogant, and the guards were slapped twice as soon as they asked a thousand questions.

Fortunately, the staff officer Cheng Ziyuan is very clever, he understands. The relationship between the gendarmerie and Xu Ming, since the gendarmerie was rescued by Xu Ming in Nanjing, since Xiao Shanling and Gu Zhenglun and below, they have been extremely polite to Xu Ming, and it is impossible for any guard who dares to slap Xu Ming without long eyes.

Cheng Ziyuan took this group of guys to one place, and then gave an order, took them all, and checked, it was actually the advance team of the Japanese army.

Xu Ming now understands why the 41st Division was defeated so quickly and so badly, the Japanese army is usually in . When we are in chaos, we can surprise the command of our army in this way, and once we succeed, the consequences will be extremely serious.

Fortunately, the retreat of the troops was still orderly, and fortunately, Cheng Ziyuan was clever. But the situation is so critical, there are other ways to keep the devil from being able to keep it.

"Division, the troops must speed up their retreat!" Xu Ming saw that it was Zhao Ren who came in a hurry.

"Zhao Ren, why are you here?" Zhao Ren should be in the second echelon of retreat, even if there is news, he doesn't have to come in person.

Zhao Ren came to persuade Xu Ming, "Master, we must speed up the retreat and destroy the mountain artillery!" With that, he picked up a telegram.

The telegram was sent by Qin Lieping, and the Japanese entrapment force left a part of the troops entangled with him, and the rest of the Japanese army marched along the path to Bengbu. There is no doubt that this force is here to cut off the retreat of the 107th Division, but they are advancing lightly, once they are allowed to insert themselves in front of the retreat of the defenders, the whole army is worried about annihilation!

Seeing that Xu Ming was still hesitating, Zhao Ren said heavily, "Qianli, if Seiichi Kawashita hadn't dropped the mountain artillery at the beginning, would they have been able to escape the pursuit of our army?" ”

Zhao Ren's statement is reasonable, this is probably the consensus of the other officers, and they sent Zhao Ren, who has the best relationship with Xu Ming, to convince him.

Xu Ming felt very uncomfortable, and asked rhetorically, "If Liangjiao Yezuo ambushes a biao man on the road I pursue, the victory or defeat is not yet known." ”

This is a complete strong argument, if the two-cornered detachment knew that Xu Ming would ambush him, they would not have risked marching in the middle of the night.

After Xu Ming finished speaking, he suddenly understood something, and asked Zhao Ren.

"Will the Japanese think of us retreating?"

"Of course!" Zhao Ren couldn't understand why Xu Ming asked like this.

"What will the Japanese do if we drop or burn the mountain artillery?"

"That naturally shows that our army has retreated on all fronts, and the Japanese army will definitely concentrate all its forces in pursuit, and even order each unit to divide into small units to pursue." This answer Zhao Ren also had no doubt, in another place, he Zhao Ren and Xu Ming would do the same.

"Zhao Ren, don't we all understand the actions of such a devil?"

"Master, but what's the use of this?" Zhao Ren really doesn't understand, even if you know about the actions of the Japanese army, what can you do? ”

Xu Ming smiled, "Zhao Ren, let me tell you, whether you are playing chess or fighting, you must not let the opponent know what you are going to do!" ”