Just when the Tiger Ben Army was in full swing with the Fifth Theater and the two major strategic front armies of the Yue Army, North China and Central China, the news of the great victory of the Tiger Ben Army in annihilating the 20th and 108th Grand Regiments of the Yue Army in this battle swept the entire land of China like a hurricane.

The people of Guangzhou, Wuhan, Changsha, Nanning, Yucheng, Chengdu, Luoyang, Zhengzhou, Jiujiang and other large and medium-sized cities in the national control area once again broke out large-scale rallies and marches, and thousands of citizens spontaneously poured into the streets to cheer and celebrate the brilliant victory achieved again.

Some time ago, when Xuzhou was lost and the Fifth War Zone was defeated, the whole country was in an uproar, and the confidence and hope for victory that the Tiger Ben Army had achieved before were shattered in an instant by the news of the loss of Xuzhou.

Anyone with a little vision can see how much of a blow the anti-Japanese situation that had just improved after the fall of Xuzhou was there.

Just when the whole people and people from all walks of life were in a state of panic, an exciting news came from the front again, Qiao Anbang, the commander of the Tiger Ben Army, led 100,000 troops to block hundreds of thousands of troops in Huainan and northern Anhui in Huainan and northern Anhui respectively.

For a time, the defense of northern Anhui became the focus of attention of all parties in the country and even the world about the situation of the war.

The whole country of the Chinese nation is paying close attention to the war situation in northern Anhui, perhaps at this time, they can only pin their hopes on Qiao Anbang, a great national hero, and the elite of a hundred battles under his command, and everyone hopes that Qiao Anbang can lead the tiger army to turn the tide again and create miracles.

Britain, the United States, France, Germany and other European and American powers are also very curious about whether this legendary figure from the East can achieve another reversal and save the unfavorable situation of China's resistance.

In the end, Qiao Anbang and the Tiger Army did not disappoint them, Suxian won a great victory, and the Tiger Ben Army completely annihilated the two master regiments of the Yue Army, reversing the situation on the battlefield in one fell swoop, and quickly waved their troops north, trying to eat the main force of the North China Army in one fell swoop.

As soon as the news came out, the whole country was boiling, and so many Chinese people gathered to celebrate and run to tell each other.

The Western countries that had been paying close attention to the situation of the Sino-Chinese war were also shocked, and some high-ranking French generals even marveled at the birth of a Napoleonic national hero in the East, the newborn Chinese god of war.

As for the Ben, when it was learned that the 20th and 108th Divisions were surrounded and annihilated by the Tiger Army, and that the main force of the entire North China Front Army might also fall into the encirclement of the [***] team, or even the whole army, the entire government and the opposition were shaken, and the whole country was left in mourning.

Enraged, Emperor Komoto ordered the base camp headed by the Konoe Fumima cabinet to ensure the safe withdrawal of the main forces of the North China Front to North China, and if necessary, the army could even give up the territories south of the Yellow River and north of the Yangtze River that had already been captured, so as to shrink its forces and consolidate the occupied areas.

At this time, the high-level leaders of the base camp remembered the suggestion made by Ishihara Wan'er, the deputy chief of staff before the war, and the thinking of some high-ranking members of the army began to change subtly.

If the Xuzhou Campaign is won, the Konoe Bunma Cabinet may be able to continue to maintain, and the fanatical army main battle faction in the base camp of the Yue Army will continue to influence the decision-making of the top management, on the contrary, if the Xuzhou Battle and the army fail, the consequences will be absolutely disastrous for the entire Konoe Bunma Cabinet.

In fact, if Xuzhou is lost, and the main force of the North China Front Army also encounters an accident, the whole of North China may be recovered by the [***] team, and at that time, the army will have two choices, one is to mobilize the Kwantung Army to move south, and the other is to retreat outside the pass, no matter which one the army chooses, it will have an unimaginable impact on the high-level political circles of the army, and there will be a reshuffle between the forces of various factions.

For China, if Xuzhou wins, the entire situation of the War of Resistance will be reversed in one fell swoop, and in the north, the situation is likely to return to the situation before the July 7 Incident and even the Great Wall War of Resistance.

In this way, Qiao Anbang's Tiger Army will have absolutely enough time to bury its head in development, at least within three years, the army will not want to recover the strength of another large-scale attack, three years later, even if the army recovers some strength, whether it can attack North China again, and invade the Central Plains has to be said, because during these times, the Central Army and the Jin Sui Army will not be stagnant.

One thing is certain, give Qiao Anbang three years, the Tiger Ben army will be powerful and invincible, three years is enough for Qiao Anbang to expand the army several times or even ten times, then Qiao Anbang will have hundreds of thousands of elite divisions, with a strong and perfect logistics supply, just ask the world, who will compete? Sweeping away the Kou will never talk about it again.

However, the premise of all this is that Qiao Anbang must win the battle of Xuzhou, and the Tiger Ben army must capture Xuzhou before the Yue army, and then gather and annihilate the main force of the North China Front of the Yue army.

When the focus of the world gathered in Xuzhou again, outside Xuzhou, the Tiger Army finally launched an attack on Xuzhou.

In order to take Xuzhou City as soon as possible, Qiao Anbang transferred all the bombers of the flight regiment to Xuzhou, and even temporarily interrupted the bombing of the logistics supply line of the Central China Army, with the escalation of the war, the scale of the Tiger Ben Army Flying Regiment has also expanded, the number of HE111 bombers has increased from the original 30 to 60, and the number of Skathu dive bombers has also increased from the initial 20 to 50.

Due to the inaction of the air force, most of the pilots who flew the fighters of the Huben Army Flying Regiment turned to flying bombers to carry out bombing missions, after all, the number of pilots was still too small at this time.

In a former enemy headquarters outside the city, Li Yifeng, commander of the 1st Division, who was responsible for directing the attack on the front line, accompanied by Chief of Staff Sun Hai and several other subordinates, as well as Chi Fengcheng, commander of the 31st Division, was holding a telescope to watch the battlefield.

At this time, the bomber group of the Tiger Ben Army and the artillery regiments on the ground were carrying out a joint bombardment of the field defense positions of the Yue Army outside Xuzhou City.

Chi Fengcheng, who was standing next to Li Yifeng, held up the binoculars and exclaimed while watching: "Damn, under such a ground-to-air firepower, the little devil has to die in the whole nest even if he is a rat that burrows into the ground, right?" "The Tiger Ben Army is well-equipped, Chi Fengcheng has heard of it for a long time, and in the past few days of fighting, he has personally experienced the advanced weapons and equipment of the Tiger Ben Army.

However, it was the first time he had seen such a fierce joint destruction of air and ground firepower, and this scale could not even be compared with the army that attacked Taierzhuang on a large scale, and the combined strike of nearly 100 bombers and hundreds of artillery pieces of various calibers produced an extremely amazing effect and scene.

While lamenting the strength of the Tiger Army, Chi Fengcheng also understood one thing, in the past, [***] fought with the Yue Army, but because of the inferior equipment, it could not defeat the Yue Army, but now the situation is the other way around, aside from the ordinary individual weapons and equipment, the ground artillery and air power alone The Tiger Ben Army is far stronger than the Yue Army, and Qiao Anbang is also the best commander Chi Fengcheng has seen since Rong for many years, in this case, it is not surprising that the Tiger Ben Army can win victories one after another, and win battles and victories, and repeatedly win more with less.

Listening to Chi Fengcheng's shocked exclamation, Li Yifeng smiled proudly and said, "Master Chi, the best is yet to come." ”

"Oh?" Chi Fengcheng turned his head to look at Li Yifeng in surprise, and subconsciously asked, "With such firepower, isn't it easy to capture Xuzhou?" What other killer features does Division Commander Li have? ”

"Little brother, I'll sell it first, and I'll know it when I wait for the division commander to go down." Li Yifeng said with a smile, and then turned his head to Sun Hai, the chief of staff beside him, and bowed his head and commanded.

Sun Hai nodded silently, and then turned around and took the order.

It didn't take long for the bomber group in the sky to run out of ammunition and begin to return under the escort of fighters, and the artillery of the Tiger Army stopped shelling.

In the headquarters, Chi Fengcheng saw that the shelling and bombardment were over, and hurriedly said to Li Yifeng: "Division Commander Li, the shelling and bombardment have ended, why haven't you ordered the troops to attack?" Now is a great opportunity to capture the position outside the city of the Yue Army in one fell swoop! ”

Li Yifeng smiled indifferently and said: "Commander Chi don't worry, as far as I know, the fortifications outside Xuzhou City are permanent fortifications built with reinforced concrete, which are extremely strong, although our ground-to-air firepower is strong, but it is not enough to make the devils lose their combat effectiveness, rashly attacking, even if the position is captured, it will cause great casualties to our department, as a commander, I must cherish the surnames of the officers and soldiers." ”

Hearing this, Chi Fengcheng was in a hurry, and said puzzledly: "Senior Commander Li, how can there be immortals in war?" If you don't seize this great opportunity, wait for the devil reinforcements to come out of the city to reinforce, and then attack at that time, and the casualties will be greater. ”

Li Yifeng pretended to smile mysteriously, and said in a deep voice: "I just want them to get out of the city, and it is best that we can wipe out all the Yue troops outside the city, so as to reduce the casualties of the people in the city as much as possible." ”

Chi Fengcheng looked puzzled, but seeing Li Yifeng's confident expression, he didn't ask more, but raised the telescope in his hand again with some helplessness, and with the passage of time, the smoke on the army position gradually dissipated, and the remnants of the devils who survived the artillery fire came out of the bunker one after another, and at the same time, the devils in the city also rushed to reinforce.

Just when Chi Fengcheng was anxious and was about to persuade Li Yifeng again, a dull shelling suddenly sounded again in the direction of the artillery position not far from the headquarters.

Hearing this, Chi Fengcheng hurriedly held the telescope and looked over, and a sharp shelling sound sounded one after another, through the telescope, Chi Fengcheng was surprised to find that those shells fell into the devil's position and did not explode.

I couldn't help but ask suspiciously, "Master Li, what's going on?" How can the artillery shoot all the squibs? ”

Li Yifeng didn't answer, but pointed ahead with a smile, signaling Chi Fengcheng to continue looking, only to see that the army position was already filled with gray-brown smoke, which was spreading everywhere, seeing this, Chi Fengcheng suddenly understood, and said with a surprised face: "This, this is poisonous gas?" ”

(To be continued)