In fact, in addition to the Fifth Army, only one division of the remaining four armies has completed the refitting of several copies, and all the TB-26 light tanks that arrived in Wuhan have been strengthened to the 200th Division of the Fifth Army.

It can be said that the number of troops deployed on the front line is as many as 13 divisions and regiments, five brigades, and four other brigades, mixed brigades, and three chariot wings.

The five brigades and regiments even include three field heavy artillery brigades, which are only offensive units deployed by the army on the first line, and troops with at least ten divisions and regiments on the second line can be put into battle at any time.

In front of the huge combat map, Zhang Xuewu frowned and looked at the entire situation of Xuzhou, although the strength of Li Zongren's department in the Fifth Theater has increased, and the five Central Army lineages that failed to participate in the Battle of Xuzhou in history have all been incorporated into the Fifth Theater, so that Li Zongren has two troops that can maneuver in a roundabout way, which is good news for Li Zongren, especially the 200th Division of the Fifth Army from Wuhan, Li Zongren heard that this unit is also mechanized, The rush of the 200th Division to Xuzhou is undoubtedly equivalent to an injection and a booster for the entire theater.

The power of Zhang Xuewu's mechanized troops has been seen by many people, and some people have heard and witnessed it, so at this moment, Li Zongren's grasp of facing the Yue army and holding Xuzhou is still relatively sufficient, but the unprecedented strengthening of [***] strength has also made Li Zongren have certain changes in his tactical deployment.

In the battle of Xuzhou in history, the [***] team has been carrying out strategic defense and tactical defense, including the victory of Taierzhuang, [***] are all in the defense, Taierzhuang is the last support point in the front of Xuzhou, a battle of life and death, but at this moment, Li Zongren, who is full of troops and has elite in hand, will focus on the defense of Linyi, Suzhou, and Heze, in order to consolidate the defense of Xuzhou at the same time, the internal and external lines of mobile and flexible deployment of defensive troops, the main force of the army's five-way attack and encirclement are blocked separately, Except for Zhang Xuewu of the 10th Theater, none of the various units has formed a battle to annihilate the coalition of the Yue Army, so Li Zongren, who is in the elite at the moment, also has this plan, and inflicted heavy losses on the first part of the Yue Army in the Battle of Xuzhou, in order to report all kinds of insults and difficulties from the other side in the Shanghai negotiations, so Li Zongren set up the headquarters of the commander of the Fifth Theater in Xuzhou City, and he has a posture of vowing to live and die with Xuzhou.

Li Zongren commanded Pang Bingxun's 3rd Army, Tang Enbo's 20th Army, Sun Lianzhong's 2nd Army, Sun Zhen's 22nd Army, Liu Shiyi's 31st Army, Yu Xuezhong's 51st Army, Zhang Zizhong's 59th Army, Du Yuming's 5th Army, Wang Yaowu's 74th Army, Deng Longguang's 83rd Army, Liu Yinggu's 87th Army, Han Deqin's 89th Army, Li Xianzhou's 92nd Army, Feng Qinya's 98th Army, Shi Zhongcheng's 100th Army, and the 2 Heavy Artillery Brigades with the 9th and 10th Artillery Regiments allocated to Li ZongrenIn addition, Qiu Qingquan's armored brigade was placed under the command of the Fifth Theater.

Li Zongren also knew very well that the battle of Xuzhou was a matter of life and death, but Xuzhou was a plain area with no danger to defend, and the Yue army was attacking from the north and south, so he only wanted to be able to inflict heavy damage on the Yue army, strike at its vital forces and annihilate part of it, consume its strategic material reserves, and prepare for the Supreme Military Commission to gain time to deploy the Battle of Wuhan.

Li Zongren was naturally overjoyed with the two heavy artillery brigades and the 9th and 10th artillery regiments given by the Military Commission, and only after personally going down to the troops to understand them did he realize that these two artillery brigades were originally under Zhang Xuewu's department, and after the Nanjing Defense War, the heavy artillery was left to Hu Zongnan's department, and all the personnel were withdrawn; at this moment, the two heavy artillery brigades were not only facing a shortage of professional personnel, the troops lacked training, and there were pitiful few artillery shells, but also a 105-millimeter howitzer battalion under the jurisdiction of each brigade was given kickbacks by Hu Zongnan, and there was no artillery left. Dead and missing?

Li Zongren had no choice but to send a telegram to the Tenth Theater of Operations, requesting some artillery shells and supplies, because although the Fifth Theater had many troops, the equipment was extremely different, Du Yuming's Fifth Army, Wang Yaowu's 74th Army, Deng Longguang's 83rd Army, Liu Yinggu's 87th Army, Han Deqin's 89th Army, Li Xianzhou's 92nd Army, Feng Qinzai's 98th Army, and Shi Zhongcheng's 100th Army were all fully equipped elite units, while Pang Bingxun's Third Army only had five regiments of troops, and the guns and ammunition were still insufficient. The number of people is less than one division of Tang Enbo, not to mention the combat effectiveness, not to mention Sun Zhen's 22nd Group Army, it is simply nothing, and the Sichuan Army is like a beggar after leaving Sichuan.

Let such troops also follow a regiment? Or an army group to use? Li Zongren couldn't bear it and didn't dare to make such a deployment, in order to reflect the wise decision of the Supreme Command? Deploy the third-rate miscellaneous cards at the forefront to consume the edge of the army, deploy the main force of the faction in the middle to fight with the army, and put the elite troops at the end to pick the fruit?

In fact, from the perspective of strategy and protracted warfare, Li Zongren also agreed with Chiang Kai-shek's deployment and such a tactical arrangement, which can last the war for a longer time, but for those cannon fodder troops who were placed in front, it was just crying dad and shouting mother's scolding, this is the reality, otherwise the elite troops will be exhausted? How can the battle be fought? The life of a veteran soldier is much more expensive than that of a recruit, and only about five percent of the recruits who can survive for three months are sometimes willing to send ten recruits to test the firepower rather than send a veteran to take risks, because at the critical moment, the veteran can rush out with a dynamite bag, and the recruits will only cry for their fathers and mothers.

Li Zongren wanted to deploy the troops under the jurisdiction of Pang Bingxun's Third Army and Sun Lianzhong's Second Army along the Huai River, but the headquarters of the Second Group Army only had troops of the 27th, 30th, and 31st, and three divisions, each of which had only about 6 or 7,000 combatants, plus the 44th Brigade of Reading Force, which was really a little reluctant, so he had no choice but to put Liu Shiyi's 31st Army and Yu Xuezhong's 51st Army along the Huai River, and Sun Lianzhong's 2nd Army and Sun Zhen's 22nd Army in Linyi to hold on.

Concentrate Du Yuming's Fifth Army, Wang Yaowu's 74th Army, Deng Longguang's 83rd Army, Liu Yinggu's 87th Army, Han Deqin's 89th Army, Li Xianzhou's 92nd Army, Feng Qinya's 98th Army, Shi Zhongcheng's 100th Army, and Qiu Qingquan's Armored Brigade, with the 10th Heavy Artillery Brigade and the 10th Artillery Regiment directly under the Military Commission, to first meet the main force of the Yue Army that is still far away and attacking Suzhou.

However, the two sides tore their faces in Shanghai, and Li Zongren was also busy but not chaotic in addition to the deployment of troops, because there were still three whole divisions of Han Fuyu's Third Group Army in front of him, and the Supreme Military Council also supported the Fifth Artillery Brigade equipped with the Third Group Army, and Han Fuqu's three whole divisions were all masters of the Third Brigade and Six Regiments, which had been in operation for many years, with more than 12,000 people.

Li Zongren planned to first stop the Yue army on the south bank of the Huai River on the southern front to break his attempt to join the Yue army on the northern front, and then defeat the Yue army on the eastern route in the Linyi area on the northern front, and then stop the right wing of the Yue army on the west route in the Jiaxiang area, so as to smash the plan of the Yue army to join forces in Taierzhuang. Adopting an active defensive tactic, with one part serving as the inner line of defense and the other part fighting on the outer line, combining offense and defense, and being flexible and mobile, the Chinese army did not give a chance to superior ground-to-air firepower, and the internal and external lines were entangled, so that the Chinese army was tired of coping.

Li Zongren knew that it was already the middle of November, and it would be difficult for such a large-scale battle to directly engage in a strategic decisive battle without a few months of preparation and mutual testing, and only when the opportunity for a decisive battle appeared, the generals on both sides of the battle would really devote all their strength to give the opponent the final blow, otherwise the overall battle situation should be stable and undisturbed before that, and it would probably be better if the 10th Theater could give itself a certain amount of cooperation.

Li Zongren has no bad impression of Zhang Xuewu in the Tenth War Zone, thinking that he is far stronger than his big brother who is a loser, at least he has run a world for the old Zhang family, Zhang Xueliang applied to go to the Tenth War Zone several times for research, but was stopped by Chiang Kai-shek, and his purpose is obvious, but with Zhang Xuewu, the rafter who came out, Li Zongren's words seem to be much better?

Chairman Chiang also seemed to be relieved to send the military power, which was much better than commanding a large number of miscellaneous armies to fight a desperate battle.

However, what Li Zongren was most concerned about was the actions of the 10th War Zone, and he only glanced at the 10th War Zone battle plan sent to him by the General Staff Headquarters and then threw it away and burned it, because it was formulated by the General Staff Headquarters for Zhang Xuewu. Li Zongren can only sigh that the future is terrifying, what makes him envious is Zhang Xuewu's huge amount of funding from unknown sources, if he had such funding back then, I am afraid that the comeback after Jiang Gong went into the wild can only be a sweet dream, what is the war? It is the industrial base of the comprehensive national strength of the country that is built with money and the country.

Li Zongren believes that Zhang Xuewu's personality is definitely not a person who ignores the overall situation of the Anti-Japanese War, and if there is a response from the 10th War Zone, the pressure from the North China side will be reduced, and Li Zongren hopes that Zhang Xuewu can give him help in terms of weapons, ammunition and materials, after all, as the commander of the theater, what do you want, how can you ask the people below to sell their lives for themselves?

(To be continued)