Chapter 401: Brothers are insulted outside the wall

February 13, the 27th year of the Republic of China (1938).

Late at night, the black clouds on the original land are overwhelming, there is no moon in the sky, and although the night wind is not strong, it can still blow the leaves "whoosh".

At this moment, all the officers and men of the 59th Army of the Fifth Theater of the Kuomintang Party were on the road from Xinyang to Luoshan in Henan, and the infantry was divided into eight road corps, the cavalry was divided into four road corps, and the artillery convoy was advancing in three columns, and several trucks and trolleys from the military headquarters were walking in the middle of the troops. The whole road roared with cars, neighed horses, and was full of people and dust.

"Hey, hey, dodge, dodge, dodge!" A war horse galloped on the crowded highway, and the soldiers on horseback shouted loudly and hoarsely, and the officers and soldiers on the highway had to let him go first. Because in front of his horse was written the four big characters 'Military Department Communication Corps'. Whether it is a division commander or a brigade commander, who would dare to offend the signal corps of the military headquarters? You must know that if the military situation is delayed, it will be dealt with by military law!

"Damn, is there something big up ahead?" Zhang Zongheng, commander of the 26th Brigade of the 180th Division, rode on horseback, looked at the anxious expression of the signal soldiers, and said to himself.

Zhang Zizhong, the former commander of the 38th Division, who had just been promoted to commander of the 59th Army, was riding a war horse and walking in the regimental column of Chen Fangzhi, commander of the 715th Regiment of the 26th Brigade.

"Gunza, how did you get out of the car? What a bump on a horse! A voice sounded behind Zhang Zizhong.

Zhang Zhi looked back and saw that it was Huang Weigang, the commander of the 38th Division. Zhang Zizhong smiled: "No way, I always feel uncomfortable sitting in the car, or it is convenient to ride a horse, it is good for the body to bump." ”

"Hahaha" Huang Weigang laughed, "It seems that you are really born without a happy life!" Chief Su sent you a lot of cars, you don't even sit on them, they are all distributed to his brothers, but he can only ride a horse, if Chief Su sees it, he is so angry that he wants to scold his mother. ”

Zhang Zizhong also smiled bitterly: "No way, who made me born without this blessing, sitting in the car always feels like a layer of separation from my brothers, or riding a horse comfortably!" After saying that, the two looked at each other and laughed.

Suddenly, a war horse rushed in front of Zhang Zizhong from the front, and more than a dozen guards around Zhang Zizhong raised the Suomi submachine gun in their hands and aimed it at the war horse and the soldiers on horseback. When they saw the words 'Military Signal Corps' on horseback, they slowly put down their guns.

The soldiers on horseback came to Zhang Zizhong, hurriedly jumped off their horses, came to Zhang Zizhong, and saluted: "Report to the military seat, Commander Li in the theater of operations is in an emergency!" ”

"Zhang Zizhong opened the telegram and looked at it, and there was only one line on it: 'To the headquarters of the commander of the war zone!' ”

Seven words were like seven bombshells, and Zhang Zizhong immediately rushed to General Li Zongren's Fifth Theater Headquarters without saying a word.......

Since the beginning of February 1938, the troops of the Fifth Theater of Operations in China, the North China Front Army and the Chinese Dispatch Army of the Japanese Army have been engaged in a large-scale defensive campaign in the Jinpu (Tianjin-Pukou) and Longhai (Baoji-Lianyungang) railway areas with Xuzhou in Jiangsu Province as the center. In this battle, the Japanese army mobilized about 300,000 people with eight divisions and five brigades, and the Chinese troops participated in the war with 70 divisions of about 1 million people, and the two sides launched a large-scale battle on an unprecedented scale in the area with Xuzhou as the center.

In early February, the 5th Division of the Japanese Army's East Road, under the leadership of Banheng Zhengshiro, moved south from Weixian County, Shandong, and captured Yishui, Juxian, and Rizhao in succession, and went straight to Linyi. The 3rd Army Corps, the 40th Army and other units resisted step by step. Li Zongren dispatched Pang Bingxun's troops to establish a defensive position in Linyi first to lure the enemy deep and block the frontal attack of the Japanese 5th Division, but due to the poor equipment of the Chinese army, it suffered heavy casualties under the bombardment of Japanese aircraft and artillery, and had to frequently ask for help from the headquarters of the commander of the Fifth Theater.

Now that Li Zongren is in a late-night emergency, does he have another task?

When Zhang Zizhong rushed to Li Zongren's commander's department, Colonel Wu Kangpeng, the commander's combat staff officer, was explaining something to a major general, and when he saw Zhang Zizhong arriving in the dust, he hurriedly greeted him and said loudly: "Commander Zhang, Commander Li is waiting for you!" ”

"Staff Officer Wu!" The major general hurriedly walked over and said, "I'm leaving!" ”

"Okay, please make sure your cavalry is on the front line within fourteen hours!"

"Please tell Chief Li that if I, Xu Jianan, don't block the Japanese army, please ask Chief Li to hand over to the Judge Advocate General like Commander Yang Junchang!"

"Good!" Wu Kangpeng hurriedly said: "Then I will wish you success here first!" ”

Zhang Zizhong followed Staff Officer Wu to Li Zongren's operational headquarters, thinking about the matter of Division Commander Yang Junchang.

Division Commander Yang Junchang was a subordinate of Liao Kai of the 21st Group Army, and some time ago, when Li Zongren's commander's department retreated to Xuzhou, Liao Kai's department, as the commander-in-chief of the 21st Group Army, was ordered to cover the commander's department as a rearguard force.

Liao Kai found Yang Junchang, the division commander, and strictly ordered him to defend Suxian, and only after all the commanders' headquarters withdrew from Suxian could he give up the Suxian position. However, the Japanese army used the air force, armored vehicle units, and artillery as the vanguard to storm the Suxian position in an attempt to cut off the rear route of Li Zongren's commander's headquarters, which was extremely unfavorable to Commander Yang.

When he was talking to Liao Kai on the phone to ask for instructions, the Japanese army attacked his headquarters before the phone was finished, and Commander Yang had no choice but to withdraw while fighting and giving up Suxian, Liao Kai was furious and petitioned Chairman Jiang to be punished severely, and afterwards Yang Junchang was escorted to Wuhan and sentenced to ten years in prison for a military trial.

"Staff Officer Wu." Zhang Zizhong thought about the predicament of Commander Yang Junchang and suddenly stopped, "Commander Yang Junchang withdrew from Su County, and he also tried his best to retreat, and I think it is a little wronged to be strict with him!" ”

Staff Officer Wu sighed and said, "How many officers from Huangpu have made much more serious mistakes on the battlefield than Division Commander Yang, but they take care of each other, and the big things are small, and the small things are turned into small things, what can we people do?" ”

"Then what does Chief Li think?"

"Division Commander Yang also sent a letter to Chief Li, and Chief Li asked me to reply that I could not bend the law for personal gain, and asked Master Yang to serve his sentence patiently and wait for the day."

"Okay!" Zhang Zizhong sighed, "When I have the opportunity, I will ask the chairman for intercession!" ”

"Don't! Other! Staff Officer Wu hurriedly stopped: "Anyone can ask the chairman of the committee to intercede with Division Commander Yang, but Chief Li and you can't, you have harmed Division Commander Yang by doing this!" ”

Zhang Zizhong was stunned and asked, "Why?" ”

Staff Officer Wu smiled bitterly and pointed to the west and said, "Don't forget you and the ...... in the west."

Zhang Zizhong sighed after hearing this, and then stopped talking. Now the relationship between Zhang Zizhong and Su Tong is well known in China, who is Zhang Zizhong? The sworn eldest brother of the 'King of the Northwest', Su Tong is well known to this sworn elder brother, and now the equipment of Zhang Zizhong's 59th Army is the only one in the Fifth War Zone.

Su Tong's strength in supporting Zhang Zizhong is not spared, and now the nearly 40,000 horses of the 59th Army are all Mauser guns, if it were not for the inconvenience of Zhang Zizhong's ammunition supply in the Fifth War Zone, he would have changed to a Garand rifle long ago, although the submachine guns are not as good as Su Tong's troops in the Seventh War Zone, there are still hundreds of them in each regiment, and there are five Makqin heavy machine guns that each company is equipped with, and the Czech light machine guns are even equipped with squad-level units. There were also four twenty-shot box guns that each squad could equip with, and each division was armed with a regiment of seventy-millimeter infantry guns and a large number of mortars for easy movement. This equipment is even the eyes of the central army.

With this family background, Zhang Zizhong's 59th Army is now the first main force in the Fifth War Zone, and the relationship between Zhang Zizhong and Su Tong has already aroused the suspicion of the chairman, and if Zhang Zizhong intercedes with Chairman Jiang for Yang Junchang, the consequences can be imagined.

After entering the door, he saw Li Zongren lying on the combat map pondering, and Zhang Zizhong came in, he said unceremoniously: "Brother Xinchen, come and see, the Japanese army is attacking Linyi now, and now Pang Bingxun's troops will not be able to support it, and if Pang Bingxun's troops are defeated, the consequences will be unimaginable." Brother Xinchen, the combat strength of your 59th Army is well known in my Fifth War Zone, and you are the only one to relieve the siege of Linyi, Pang Bingxun is now fighting a bloody war in front of you, I hope you will put the country first, suffer a little grievance, and urgently lead your troops to Linyi to fight? ”

There is also a reason why Li Zongren is so polite to Zhang Zizhong, Zhang and Pang are both the old troops of Feng Yuxiang of the Northwest Army, and during the original war, Pang Bingxun secretly surrendered to Chiang Kai-shek and defected to the battle, causing great losses to Zhang's department, and Zhang Zizhong was also seriously injured. From the day he was transferred to the Fifth War Zone, Zhang Zizhong privately told the chief of staff of the Fifth War Zone: He can fight to the death on any battlefield, but he does not want to be on the same battlefield as Pang Bingxun. Linyi was in danger this time, but Li Zongren had no troops to adjust, so he could only ask Zhang Zizhong to go to the rescue.

Zhang Zizhong took a deep breath and said solemnly: "'Brother is outside the wall to resist his insult', lowly duty and Pang Bingxun are old grudges, but now they are fighting together for the country, and it is incumbent on them to rescue Pang Bingxun, and they absolutely obey orders." ”

"Good!" Li Zongren was overjoyed, "Brother Xinchen really understands the righteousness, since this is the case, then please rush to Linyi as soon as possible to relieve the siege of Pang Bingxun's army!" ”

"Yes! Go now! Zhang Zizhong saluted solemnly and left.

At this time, Staff Officer Wu came over and said to Li Zongren: "Chief Li, now that the situation in my Fifth War Zone is critical, why don't you ask Chief Su of the Seventh War Zone to send a plane over to help?" ”

Li Zongren shook his head, "No, now the chairman is already very suspicious of Jianming, if he knows that our two war zones support each other without asking for instructions, then the consequences will ......."

Staff Officer Wu immediately understood that if Chairman Chiang knew that the cooperation between the Fifth and Seventh Theaters was so close, Li Zongren's position as commander of the Fifth Theater would probably be difficult to secure.

"Alas" looking at the dark and oppressive sky, Li Zongren's mood at this time was also worried about the soldiers who were fighting bloody battles on the front line. R