The reason why Song Zhewu is like this is because the shadow in the history of his previous life has always existed in his heart, and he has always had no confidence in holding Fanzhi in his heart, and Daixian is his last line of defense. However, Song Zhewu did not object to putting tanks in Fanzhi, at least when the Jin Sui army suddenly appeared, there was this tank unit, and his troops would have a greater grasp if they wanted to safely withdraw to Daixian.

Song Zhewu nodded in agreement and said, "Yes, I will hand over the command of the troops of Suiyuan, Laiyuan, and Jingcheng to you, so that you can really take responsibility." The military situation is urgent, and there is no need to ask for advice on everything. ”

Tao Rong, who was relieved, continued to report: "In the direction of Niangzi Pass, Commander Li has occupied Niangzi Pass, and the defenders of Niangzi Pass have been successfully disarmed by our army. Commander Li sent a telegram to report that the Fourth Army was deploying second-line defensive positions based on Niangzi Pass. In accordance with the commander's order, the mountain division had stopped moving south and began to assemble towards Yangquan. ”

"This morning, the whole army arrived in Taiyuan and is now stationed in Quyang, Xiaodian and other places; All the trucks have been transferred to the Second Army, and the Second Army can reach Taigu and Pingyao before midnight today. The Seventh Army began to search for Ma Liang and Liu Fengji in the direction of Linxian this morning, and no further reports have been received so far; The Sixth Army arrived in Changzhi at 13 o'clock today, and is moving towards Liaoxian and Yushe. ”

Jing Yuexiu called back, saying that he resolutely obeyed the commander's orders, and he set out for Suiyuan with his troops, and his troops could reach Suiyuan in about six days. However, his cavalry regiment has now arrived in Shenmu, and it will be able to reach Suiyuan the day after tomorrow at the latest. ”

"The guard division has officially taken over the defense of Taiyuan City, and all the planes of the Air Force Corps have been transferred to Wusu at noon today. The only thing that was still a little troublesome was the Third Army, which was still entangled with Pang Bingxun in Changping except for one regiment after the break, and two divisions were surrounding the Jin Sui army that was monitoring Jincheng and Changzhi, and only more than half of the division was rushing to Qinyuan's defensive position. ”

Song Zhewu was basically satisfied with the progress of the various units of the Fourth Route Army, and it seemed that the exercises in Laiyuan were still very effective, and the sweat was not in vain. But he was still a little strange, why was the guard regiment of the three armies still entangled with Pang Bingxun? If the rearguard regiment does not withdraw, the two divisions of the Third Army that surround and monitor Jincheng and Changzhi will not be able to leave, otherwise the rearguard regiment will have to let the Jin Sui army of Jincheng and Changzhi block Jinnan in Jinnan.

"The planes of the Air Corps did not go to assist the evacuation of the Guards Regiment today?" Song Zhewu asked with a little dissatisfaction.

Tao Rong said a little apologetically: "Commander, this is my responsibility, and it has nothing to do with Commander Wu." After receiving the commander's order, Chief of Staff Xiao urgently arranged for trucks to pick up ammunition, which had just been sent to Wusu to assist in the evacuation of the Third Army's rearguard regiment. I sent a telegram to Commander Zhang, asking him to order the rearguard regiment, which was gradually blocking the attack, not to retreat to the Jinmiao shop before 8 o'clock tomorrow morning. ”

Tao Rong said with some concern: "Jinmiaopu is only more than forty miles away from Jincheng, and the south of Jinmiaopu is a plain, if you can't get rid of Pang Bingxun here, it will be easy to even surround and monitor the three armies and one division of Jincheng to defend the enemy by Pang Bingxun, and the consequences will be unimaginable." Therefore, I have ordered Commander Wu that at 8 o'clock tomorrow, his bombers will take the squadron as a unit and attack Pang Bingxun's troops in waves, cover the rearguard regiment to disengage from Pang Bingxun's troops as soon as possible, and after joining up with the 1st division besieging Jincheng, and then quickly retreat in the direction of Changzhi. ”

The staff officers at all levels of the Fourth Route Army, and even most of the senior officers, were very young and lacked practical combat experience, and it was inevitable that Tao Rong would not be considered enough to rely on Tao Rong for everything. Moreover, not to mention that Xiao Guodong and Song Zhewu did not have the experience of commanding hundreds of thousands of troops in military operations at one time, even Tao Rong did not have it, it is normal for some small mistakes to occur, not to mention that remedial measures have been taken in time. Therefore, Song Zhewu did not have the slightest sense of blame for this matter.

However, Song Zhewu was a little unbearable to the plane bombing Pang Bingxun's department, and thought for a while: "Tell Wu Jin that the purpose of the bombing is to cover the safe evacuation of the guard regiment, and don't kill and injure Pang Bingxun's department too much, after all, it is a civil war now, and everyone is Chinese." ”

Song Zhewu did not continue to dwell on this issue, looked at the map and asked, "How is the situation of the Jin Sui Army and the Northwest Army?" What's new? ”

"According to Commander Wu's aircraft reconnaissance report, both Datong and Shang'an had a large number of Jinsui troops arriving via the Pingsui and Jinpu railways, and the specific numbers of the troops arriving were unknown, and there were troops constantly arriving by rail; In the direction of Zhengzhou, in addition to Pang Bingxun's 14th Division of the Northwest Army, which was tightly biting our rearguard regiment, there was also a Northwest Army with a number of about 8,000 people who also crossed the Yellow River through the Yellow River Iron Bridge and was rushing towards Jinnan, and the number was Zhang Zizhong's Sixth Division. ”

In addition, a large force of the Jin Sui Army and the Northwest Army were also found in Xinxiang, the troops of the Jin Sui Army included Sun Chu's First Army, Yang Xiaoou's Second Army and Guan Fu'an's Seventh Army, and with them was Sun Dianying's troops, who were appointed by Feng Yuxiang as the commander-in-chief of the Fifth Route Army. It is estimated that they crossed the Yellow River from Kaifeng, and are now marching in the direction of Lingchuan, and their goal should be Changzhi, where they are to intercept the Third Army. ”

Seeing that Song Zhewu frowned slightly, Tao Rong pointed to the map and added: "The Sixth Army left a regiment in Liuquan, and I ordered Commander Liang that this regiment must wait until all the troops of the Third Army have withdrawn from Gaoping before it can be retreated back to construction." ”

"Good!"

Song Zhewu's sentence was very good, and it also made Tao Rong and Xiao Guodong completely relieved.

Xiao Guodong said with a smile: "Wen Ge, Zhang Xueliang called. ”

"Oh, what did he say?"

Whether the Fourth Route Army could suffer fewer losses under the siege of the Jin Sui Army and the remnants of the Northwest Army was the speed at which Zhang Xueliang's Northeast Army marched to Shanxi, so Song Zhewu attached great importance to Zhang Xueliang's telegram.

"Zhang Xueliang said that he is very happy to join forces with you again, he understands that we are in a difficult situation now, and has ordered the Northeast Army to enter the customs as soon as possible, and now in Shenyang, a military column will be sent every three hours, which is already the fastest speed he can do. It's just that the matter started in a hurry, the Northeast Army is not well prepared, and it will take time to rush to Shanxi, so he asks for your forgiveness. ”

Don't say that an army of 100,000 people is the army of a division, if you want to rush thousands of miles away, it is not possible to do it in a short time with all the personnel and weapons in place, Song Zhewu knew that Zhang Xueliang was telling the truth.

Although Song Zhewu was a little dissatisfied with Zhang Xueliang's entry into the customs to pick peaches at this time, he was really difficult to deal with without Zhang Xueliang's Northeast Army now. Song Zhewu knew that with Zhang Xueliang's surname, as long as he clearly agreed to something, he would definitely work hard to do it. Therefore, after receiving this telegram from Zhang Xueliang, Song Zhewu was still very happy, and the losses of the Fourth Route Army would not be too large, which was the fundamental issue he was most concerned about.

Xiao Guodong continued: "Zhang Xueliang, please rest assured, he has detained Jia Jingde and Xue Dubi according to your request, and he guarantees that not a single hair will be missing from these two people. ”

"Good!" Song Zhewu said excitedly.

"Call Zhang Xueliang back and tell him that the situation in Shanxi is very chaotic now, and these two people don't need to rush to send them, and they will be sent to Taiyuan after the situation is stable."

Xiao Guodong said with a smile: "Wen Ge, Zhang Xueliang should still remember that you helped him a lot in Manchuria, you are not in a hurry, he is very anxious, he wants to send these two people by plane." ”

Song Zhewu also smiled and said: "Zhang Xueliang is a chivalrous man who just wants to be kind to others, he can't stand the favors given to him by others, he wants to repay my affection, so let him send a plane to Wusu." ”

Tao Rong thought about it and reminded Song Zhewu: "The Northeast Army enters the customs, there should be no problems in the section from Shenyang to Beiping, but Yan Xishan will not easily let the Northeast Army enter the customs, at least if his Jin Sui Army does not return to Shanxi, Yan Xishan will not give up Beiping, what I am worried about is the time when the Northeast Army will arrive in Shanxi!" If it takes too long, we will be under a lot of pressure. ”

Song Zhewu pursed his lips contemptuously and said: "Yan Xishan is bent on recapturing Shanxi, Hebei has no meaning to him now, he will only fight to the death with us, he will not fight with Zhang Xueliang, as long as the Jin Sui army passes Beiping, he will never prevent the Northeast Army from entering the customs." As long as Zhang Xueliang's Northeast Army approached Shanxi, Yan Xishan and Feng Yuxiang could only obediently go into the field, otherwise their troops would not be able to be saved, and they would lose their last hope. In half a month at most, Yan Xishan will have to leave Shanxi, don't worry about this. ”

"But Chiang Kai-shek has already handed over Shanxi to Zhang Xueliang, we ......" Xiao Guodong asked uneasily.

Song Zhewu smiled indifferently and said: "If Shanxi is in the hands of Yan Xishan, Zhang Xueliang will try his best to rob it, but in the hands of my Song Zhewu, Zhang Xueliang will not be kind, you don't know Zhang Xueliang's personality, he is a person who cares about face, after all, I Song Zhewu helped him a lot in Manchuria, and the Chinese know this." Therefore, as long as it is in the hands of my Song Zhewu, Zhang Xueliang will never rob it openly. ”

Song Zhewu put away his smile and said: "However, Chief of Staff Tao's worries are not unreasonable, we can't expect the Northeast Army to come to Shanxi to clean up the mess, everything has to rely on ourselves." First of all, we must actively prepare for the war, we must gain a firm foothold in Shanxi, and we must not let Yan Xishan drive us out, which is particularly important. ”

Song Zhewu took a deep breath and said: "It can be said that we have a foothold in Shanxi, we can keep Outer Mongolia, whether Shanxi can be in our hands, is related to the gains and losses of Outer Mongolia, therefore, Shanxi must be under our control." ”

"Given the importance of Shanxi's position, we can't count on the Northeast Army, we can only rely on ourselves."

Song Zhewu saw that many staff officers were pricking up their ears to listen to their analysis of the situation, Song Zhewu deliberately said loudly: "The strength of Yan Xishan and Feng Yuxiang seems to be very strong, but in fact, there is no need to worry at all, Chairman Jiang has already set his sights on Feng Yuxiang and his Northwest Army, and no one has been able to escape from all those who have been focused on by Chairman Jiang, and it is still difficult to say how many troops of the Northwest Army will be able to enter Shanxi in the end, and I estimate that 100,000 is the best result......

(To be continued)