Zhao Dahu saw that the troops were caught in a melee, and hurriedly mobilized the special forces column resting in the Xishan base area to rush to help.

Seeing that his two divisions and one brigade still had no advantage, he telegraphed the 6th and 12th independent mixed brigades in Shandong to go south to reinforce them, while at the same time, the 11th and 12th brigades and regiments in Jiangbei and the guerrillas were fighting separately and went north to flank the enemy in Yancheng, while the 2nd and 3rd Flying Regiments dispatched planes to give tactical guidance to the enemy in Yancheng. The navy blockaded the lower reaches of the Yangtze River east of Nanjing to prevent reinforcements from the Wumu army's base area.

On the Yangtze River waterway, the devils gathered 3 light cruisers, 9 frigates, 7 minesweepers, and more than 20 gunboats to carry out a cruising blockade at any cost, making it impossible for the heavy artillery and tanks of the Wumu army to cross the river.

Zhao Dahu also telegraphed all the guerrillas in Jiangbei to move closer to Yancheng for reinforcements. At this time, He Laifu was commanding the guerrilla columns of Feng Jiuzhong and Zhao Da'er to frantically plunder the devil's grain depot along the line of Gaoyou Lake and Hongze Lake.

When Liu Chenghai received the order, he had already arranged the spoils of war, and immediately ordered the troops to follow the 11th and 12th Brigades of the devil to pursue northward.

He Laifu received Zhao Dahu's order, immediately assembled the troops, but the troops were too scattered, it was very difficult to collect, and finally gathered troops on the front line of Jinhu, crossed the Huai River connecting Hongze Lake and Gaoyou Lake and the surrounding water network and took a lot of twists and turns, but it contained a group of stragglers, routs, and puppet troops, and gathered nearly 30,000 people to advance to Yancheng.

At this time, the devils rushed to the combat area under the mechanized and semi-mechanized march of a large number of trucks, carts, and sea transportation, and Wan Zixiong, Liu Qinghe's troops' ammunition and supplies had already been seriously consumed.

Zhao Dahu had no choice but to order Wan Zixiong and Liu Qinghe to withdraw from the battle and retreat to the west, and the Huai'an and Suqian areas in the west were the base areas of the New Fourth Army, and Zhao Dahu had already contacted Chen Yi, and the New Fourth Army would take over the troops of the Wumu Army.

However, Wan Zixiong and Liu Qinghe disagreed with Zhao Dahu's opinion, because the territory of the New Fourth Army was covered with water networks, and it was inconvenient for them to march with heavy equipment, so they wanted to meet the attack of the 11th and 12th brigades of the devils going north and return to their Jiangbei guerrilla base areas.

Zhao Dahu replied: In view of the shortage of ammunition and the exhaustion of the soldiers, they cannot fight, so they should quickly abandon their heavy equipment and retreat westward, and they must not disobey their orders!

Wan and Liu had no choice but to unwillingly order their troops: launch a heavy fire attack on the enemy in front of them, destroy or hide the heavy equipment on the spot after running out of ammunition, and then turn westward.

In the early morning, the rumbling cannon sound sounded in the northern Jiangsu Plain, and the mountain artillery and field artillery of the Wu Mu army bombarded the enemy in front of them together, blowing up the devils and ghosts and howling wolves, and then pushed the heavy artillery and trucks into the nearby lake.

Wan Zixiong and Liu Qinghe's thought was delayed for several hours, bringing disaster to Wu Mujun.

The flying regiments in North China and East China mobilized by the devils just arrived, and hundreds of planes flew densely over the Wumu Army's troops.

More than half of the ammunition of the two air defense battalions of the Wumu Army has been consumed, and most of the ammunition of the anti-aircraft guns has been used to destroy the devil's firepower point.

The air defense battalion commanded all units to light large stacks of straw and cover their whereabouts with billowing smoke, but the dense bombs and strafing still caused a large number of casualties to the troops, and a large number of equipment was also damaged.

The Wumu army had never been subjected to such heavy firepower, and the regular troops of the Wumu army were fine, but the newly recruited stragglers and routs had long since collapsed.

According to the battle plan already designed, the devils launched a ground attack after bombing piece by piece, and immediately after the plane bombing, the artillery bombarded the old road of the infantry rush, which brought great casualties to the Wumu army.

At this moment, something even worse happened---- the high-power radio station that was in contact with the headquarters was blown up, and Wan Zixiong and Liu Qinghe were seriously injured!

Just when the Wumu Army was in chaos, one New Fourth Army detachment after another risked their lives to break into the melee area, leading groups of ordinary people to take the soldiers and wounded of the Wumu Army out of the melee area and into the base area of the New Fourth Army.

The devil was unforgiving, and continued to chase and fight, and the New Fourth Army and the Wu Mu Army had no choice but to fight side by side, and fought and retreated.

A typhoon saved the Wu Mu Army and the New Fourth Army. The storm made it difficult for the devil's air force and infantry to move, giving the New Fourth Army and the Wumu Army a chance to breathe.

After the typhoon, Wan Zixiong and Liu Qinghe, who came to their senses, were already in the humble rear hospital in the base area of the New Fourth Army, and their beds were full of Japanese canned food, ginseng, deer antler velvet and other nutritional products, which were all sent by Liang Zisheng and He Shixin, who had defected to the New Fourth Army some time ago, and many life-saving medicines had been consumed by Wan and Liu, and the life-saving doctor was also a puppet military doctor captured by Liang Zisheng.

Liang Zisheng specially arranged for He Shixin to lead a squad to guard Wan and Liu to be guards in case of transfer. After Wan and Liu woke up, Liang Zisheng rushed to the hospital after receiving the news.

When Liang Zisheng rushed to the hospital, Chen Yi, Su Yu and others were already in the ward of Wan and Liu, so they had to wait outside.

Chen Yi and Su Yu came out of the ward and saw Liang Zisheng waiting outside, so they called him over: "Comrade Liang Zisheng, see the old chief is here?" ”

"Yes, Commander Chen!" Liang Zisheng saluted.

"Let's go in and see, talk less, they're still weak!" After Chen Yi finished speaking, he left in a hurry.

It turned out that Wan Zixiong and Liu Qinghe were blown down by a bombshell, and because the guards pounced on them, they were not injured, but their cranial cavity and viscera were strongly concussed, and they were in a coma for several days. Fortunately, Liang Zisheng captured a famous doctor of the puppet army some time ago and gave them an overdose of hemostatic drugs, which temporarily saved the lives of the two.

Liang Zisheng sent people to search all the pharmacies within a radius of 100 miles, and obtained 100 bottles of Yunnan Baiyao, all of which were taken by the two people who temporarily saved their lives, and finally completely saved their lives.

Liang Zisheng walked into the ward and saluted the two of them: "Report to Commander Wan and Commander Liu, Wu Mujun rebelled Liang Zisheng to see you!" Don't be surprised, two chiefs! ”

Wan Liu and the others turned their faces away and ignored Liang Zisheng.

"Don't get angry and hurt your body, two chiefs, I know that the two chiefs are thinking about their subordinates, so I'm here to report!" Liang Zisheng made a respectful report.

"According to my contact statistics, the departments of the New Fourth Army have received a total of more than 33,457 officers and soldiers of Wumu, including more than 16,851 lightly wounded, more than 10,531 seriously wounded, and a total of 6,075 uninjured officers and soldiers, including 3,971 veterans of the Wumu Army, 2,104 recruits, and other separated officers and soldiers are being searched and rescued.

Wan Zixiong listened to the report and nodded slightly, Liu Qinghe wanted to speak but the wound was involved, Liang Zisheng hurriedly added: "Two chiefs, don't speak, so as not to damage the wound, I just reported to the two chiefs, please rest assured!" ”

According to Zhao Dahu's order, He Laifu and Liu Chenghai led their troops to rush to the aid of Yancheng's Wanliu Second Division, which was delayed by the storm brought by the typhoon, and escaped the indiscriminate bombardment of the devils.

Chen Yi commanded the first and second divisions of the Jiangbei New Fourth Army to cover the retreat of the wounded to the west, and the large number of wounded overwhelmed the New Fourth Army, with insufficient transportation capacity, a shortage of medicines, and a lack of medical personnel, but Chen Yi issued a death order not to discard a wounded! Fortunately, the New Fourth Army had a strong mass base in Jiangbei, a large number of ordinary people joined the rescue team, and the wounded of the Wu Mu Army were transported to safe areas. The New Fourth Army's humble hospital could not accommodate so many wounded, so they were arranged in the homes of ordinary people and taken care of by ordinary people.

On the other hand, Zhao Dahu was very grateful to the New Fourth Army for its help, mobilized all the forces that could be used in Jiangbei to rush to the aid of the New Fourth Army, and at the same time gave a death order to the rear hospital in the south of the Yangtze River, and to transport ambulance personnel and medicines across the Yangtze River no matter what.

As a result, the Baohua Mountain River Defense Brigade, Ke Hua's Heavy Artillery Brigade, and Niu Daojia's Anti-Tank Battalion launched a fierce artillery attack on the Devil Navy on the Yangtze River in the Zhenjiang section, and the dense anti-aircraft armor-piercing shells illuminated the northern foot of Baohua Mountain like a huge furnace.

Shunroku Hata believed that Wu Mu's army was going to force the Yangtze River in the Zhenjiang section, so he ordered the navy to prevent Wu Mu's army from crossing the river at all costs. As a result, a large number of ships of the devils gathered on the front line of Zhenjiang and launched a firepower exchange with Wu Mujun.

While Wu Mujun and the devils were shelling each other on the front line of the Zhenjiang River, eight motorized speedboats of the sailor brigade carrying medicines crossed the Yangtze River in Yangzhong and sailed upstreams along the Huai River to Gaoyou Lake, while the other eight motorized speedboats went back and forth to both sides of the Yangtze River overnight, escorting hundreds of ambulance personnel across the river.

Although the devils in Jiangbei suffered heavy losses to the Wu Mu army, their own life was not easy: the food was looted by the Wu Mu army and the New Fourth Army, the supply of supplies was not enough, a large number of wounded people needed treatment, and the ammunition was excessively consumed, making it difficult to maintain a large-scale battle......

As a result, Shunroku Hata hatched an even more vicious plan.

The devils in Jiangbei began to evacuate, and the devils' forces almost became a vacuum.

Zhao Dahu personally visited Chen Yi and expressed his gratitude to the New Fourth Army for their helpers, and at the same time arranged for Jiangbei troops and personnel to quickly carry out rescue.

Chen Yi put forward a very pragmatic proposal to set up a temporary joint headquarters of the New Fourth Army and the Wumu Army to make unified arrangements for military activities in Jiangbei.

Zhao Dahu admired Chen Yi and the New Fourth Army very much, mainly because he admired GCD's broad-mindedness, unlike the Military Commission, which excluded dissidents and took advantage of the fire to rob. As a result, it was reported to the dog on Tuesday to set up a joint command with the New Fourth Army, with Chen Yi as the commander-in-chief and himself as the deputy commander-in-chief.

After discussion, Chen Yi and Zhao Dahu, Su Yu, Zhang Yunyi, He Laifu, Liu Chenghai and others decided: Liu Chenghai led the Wu Mu Army eastward guerrilla column to the south, commanded the Wu Mu Army and the New Fourth Army on the north bank of the Yangtze River, and consolidated the original base areas of the New Fourth Army and the Wu Mu Army in the north of the Yangtze River; Su Yu led the First Division of the New Fourth Army to the east to occupy the Yancheng line; Zhang Yunyi led the Second Division of the New Fourth Army to the north to occupy the Huai'an line; He Laifu led the northern guerrilla column of the Wumu Army and the Jiangwan guerrilla column to garrison Baoying and Xinghua in the northeast of Gaoyou Lake, serving as a reserve, and was responsible for setting up a rear hospital to accommodate and ambulate the wounded; All veterans and recruits of the Wumu Army who were accommodated by the New Fourth Army will not return to the establishment for the time being, and will coordinate with all units of the New Fourth Army to act on the spot; All ministries should take out a large amount of seized grain and organize disaster relief agencies to provide relief to the people who lack food due to the war; At the same time, the New Fourth Army and the Wu Mu Army sent capable personnel to form a procurement team to purchase urgently needed medicines and rescue the wounded.

He Laifu commanded the reserves stationed in Baoying and Xinghua to build a large number of lime kilns and brick kilns, which were supplied to the people everywhere to repair the houses damaged by the war on the one hand, and used as fortifications for the garrison on the other hand. The local people were first looted by devils, and then relieved by the New Fourth Army and the Wumu Army, and the people's will was highly cohesive, production and construction were quickly restored, and the mass organization was extremely easy.

Due to the combination of the New Fourth Army and the Wumu Army, the squadron in Jiangbei quickly regained its vitality, and the military presence of the devils was compressed into only a few strategic points, and a large number of puppet troops who surrendered to the devils were also stepping on a few boats: the devils, the **, the New Fourth Army, and the Wumu Army.

In this battle, the two field army columns of the Wumu Army advancing into Jiangbei were disabled, nearly 60,000 people at the peak (including the newly formed troops contained), more than 18,000 people were killed, more than 22,000 people were injured (more than 27,000 people were originally killed, and nearly 5,000 people died later, which is counted in the death data), more than 10,000 people lost contact, only less than 5,000 veterans remained, and more than 3,000 new soldiers; Nearly 30,000 people in the three guerrilla columns were also temporarily sheltered and expanded, and nearly 30,000 were temporarily contained, and after fierce fighting, only more than 20,000 people remained in combat, and most of the stragglers and routs were dispersed again; lost all heavy equipment such as heavy guns over 75mm and most of the trucks; At the same time, the results were equally brilliant: the devil's plan to seize military rations in Jiangbei was crushed, so that the devils lost their troops but gained nothing; disabled a division and a brigade of devils, severely damaged two brigades, killed and injured more than 20,000 devils, and defeated most of the puppet army in Jiangbei; help friendly New Fourth Army capture large swaths of territory; Establish strong alliances of mutual trust with friendly forces; The guerrilla base areas in Jiangbei have been consolidated and expanded.

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