More than ten kilometers west of Loutang, there is a small village called Penglang, here is less than ten kilometers away from Taicang in the northeast, less than 15 kilometers away from Jiading in the southwest, Taicang, Penglang, Jiading, Loutang four places, forming an isosceles trapezoidal and a few kilometers behind Penglang, is the Beijing-Shanghai Railway

Penglang is a small village with about 100 households, and there is only one main street running north-south through the village, although the village used to be very unremarkable, but today it is very different

At the north and south entrances of the village, sandbag fortifications were piled up, and light and heavy machine guns were erected on the fortifications and on the roofs and courtyard walls around the village, and a large group of guards with loaded guns stood nervously behind the fortifications and on the roofs, listening to the dense sound of artillery in the distance, and talking to each other quietly

Around a relatively neat farmhouse courtyard in the west of the village, there are more than a dozen soldiers with submachine guns, including people from the 19th Route Army in gray military uniforms and Central Army soldiers in khaki military uniforms

Judging from the walls of the courtyard and the buildings inside, the people who originally lived here should have been small landowners

In the courtyard wall made of blue bricks, there are three main houses with bright glass windows and three adobe wing rooms on each side, and on the roofs of the main house and the left wing room, there are more than a dozen towering antennas, and in each room, there are constantly some officers coming in and out, even if you don't look at the guards around the courtyard, just look at these antennas on the roof of the courtyard, you can guess that this courtyard is extraordinary

Yes, this is the joint headquarters of the 19th Route Army and the Fifth Army, which had just moved here from Zhenru last night

The spacious living room of the main house has now been turned into a war room, and the original furniture in it has long been removed, except for the wall with the map on the front, there is nothing left, and the other walls are full of tables and chairs, and on the table are more than a dozen Zhongtian telephones made in Taiyuan

Because the area controlled by Song Zhewu vigorously encourages and supports the development of national industry and commerce, Zhongtian Electric Machinery Factory in Taiyuan sufficient funds and the Fourth Route Army scientific research units and strong technical support of universities, the development of extremely fast, the annual output of telephones has reached an annual output of 100,000 units, because of good quality and low price, now Zhongtian telephones not only occupy all the domestic market, but also with Taiyuan North Machinery and Equipment Manufacturing Company, the United States Calvin Company, the United Kingdom Marconi Company to carry out active cooperation, the formation of a joint venture company to jointly develop and produce telephones now, With the help of Calvin and Marconi, Zhongtian's telephones have now begun to be exported in large quantities to Europe and the United States

At home, He Yingqin personally ordered that since China can produce its own telephones and the quality of telephones is higher than that of foreign countries, then the squadron must naturally support the national industry, and all the telephones purchased by the Ministry of Military Affairs must be made by the state

With He Yingqin's words, the Zhongtian brand telephone is naturally unimpeded inside, and now all units under the Central Army have been issued with Zhongtian brand military telephones

At this moment, more than a dozen staff officers of the Central Army and the 19th Route Army were busy nervously indoors

Some of these staff officers stayed in front of the telephone, kept answering and answering the phone, learned about the situation at the front line through these telephones, and promptly reported these situations to Huang Qiang, chief of staff of the 19th Route Army, and Zhu Shaozhou, chief of staff of the Fifth Army, who were sitting on the sidelines, and then they gave orders and gave instructions to the front-line troops, and the staff officers then used telephone or telegram to convey the orders issued by the headquarters to all units in a timely manner

There were also a few staff officers who kept running back and forth in front of the telephone and the large military map of the Shanghai area hung on the wall, marking the positions of the various units on both sides of the front line with small red and blue flags on the map in a timely manner

In front of a table of eight immortals in the corner of the room, the four people sitting were the quietest, one of the four people was a major of the Central Army with a snow-white bandage on his hand, and the other three were a person from the Fourth Route Army in a grass-green military uniform, a lieutenant colonel and two lieutenants staring at the phone on the table of the eight immortals...,

The major of the Central Army is called Zhu Guangda, and he is a liaison officer sent by the Central Army Air Force in Hangzhou

With the arrival of the Second Air Force of the Central Army Air Force and the seven bombers sent by Guangzhou, there are now 32 planes in the Qiao Yard in Hangzhou, and in order to protect the aircraft carrier and to guard the air force of the Central Army, the planes of the Japanese naval air force have to fly to the vicinity of Suzhou and Hangzhou in several batches every day to patrol and bomb in order to monitor the movements of the Central Army Air Force

Once the Japanese planes came to Hangzhou, in most cases, the Central Air Force had to take off to meet the battle, at most once, Qiao drove the field to take off 15 fighters to meet the battle

In Hangzhou, over the past half a month, there have been many air battles between the two sides, and the two sides have suffered damage to each other, but they have not taken advantage of anything, and the Central Air Force has shot down two Japanese planes, damaged many planes, and the Central Army Air Force itself has also shot down one plane, and injured four Zhu Guangda's hands, which were wounded in the air battle

The pilot of the downed Central Army Air Force plane is more special, not a member of the Central Army Air Force, but an American pilot named Robert? Short

To be precise, not only was the pilot of the downed plane not a member of the Central Air Force, but even the plane did not belong to the Central Air Force

Short was a lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserve, and after retiring from the army, he had been working as a test pilot for Boeing, and this time Short was employed by an American businessman who had close ties to the Nationalist government. E. Geller, the plane that Schott flew was a Boeing XP925A aircraft with the purpose of introducing this advanced aircraft to the Aviation Administration of the National Government, and the Aviation Administration of the National Government was also very interested in purchasing this aircraft and wanted to accumulate experience in developing its own aircraft in the future

On the 22nd, Schott flew alone and encountered six Japanese planes over Suzhou, and the high-tech Schott took the initiative to attack, and after shooting down and damaging one Japanese plane, he was finally shot down and killed by the Japanese planes because he was outnumbered

Nomura Kichizaburo, commander of the Japanese Third Fleet, posthumously presented a certificate of merit to Captain Susumu Kotani, the pilot of the Japanese plane who died on the flagship "Izumo," on the 22nd, and the Japanese Ministry of the Navy also issued a so-called commendation communiqué to Kotani on the 23rd

The three people of the Fourth Route Army were the liaison group sent by Gao Zhihang from Changshu Airport, and the lieutenant colonel was called Gao Cheng

Because the air force and the army of the Central Army have always done their own work and have never paid attention to air-ground coordination, Gao Zhihang specially contacted Zhang Zhizhong and sent this liaison group for the sake of the upcoming big war, so as to coordinate timely and accurate air support for the ground troops

Zhu Guangda, on the other hand, was sent from Hangzhou at the strong request of Zhang Zhizhong, who was inspired by Gao Zhihang

Jiang Guangding and Zhang Zhizhong, commanders-in-chief of the 19th Route Army, were standing in front of the military map hanging on the wall at this time, nervously watching the battle situation in Loutang

On the map, the small red flags representing the squadron were constantly pulled down one after another, and their positions were replaced by small blue flags representing the Japanese army

It's just that in the vicinity of Loutang, the salient of the first line of Taicang and Jiading, the red and blue sides are particularly fiercely contested there, the red and blue flags are intertwined, the positions of the flags on both sides are constantly changing repeatedly, and the red flag is replaced by the blue flag for a while, but only twenty or thirty minutes later, the blue flag was pulled out again, but in general, the blue flag near Loutang is obviously superior, and the red flag has surrounded the Loutang area

In the periphery of the struggle between the red and blue sides around Loutang, a large number of red and blue flags approached both sides of Loutang from the east, west, north, south, and all directions, so that the flags of the red and blue sides gathered more and more around Loutang

Although this is only a picture of the situation, it can also be seen that people with a little military common sense can see that the battle on the front line in Loutang is thrilling, and the 517th Regiment, which was surrounded by the Japanese army in Loutang, is in danger of being "crushed" by the superior Japanese army at any time...,

Jiang Guangding couldn't help but sigh, and said to Zhang Zhizhong, who looked solemn: "Wen Bai, it's better to make up your mind to let the 517th Regiment break through, otherwise if this situation continues, not only the 517th Regiment may not be protected, but it may even force our army to fight a decisive battle against the enemy near Loutang too early."

Seeing that Zhang Zhizhong was silent, Jiang Guangding let out a sigh of relief and said: "Once the decisive battle with the Japanese army in Loutang is premature, we will have to withdraw the 60th Division in Zhabei to Zhenru, otherwise our troops in Jiading and Taicang will not be in place, and the troops will be insufficient, and the 60th Division will still be in danger of being surrounded by the Japanese army in Zhabei."

"Although our army is slightly more numerically than the Japanese army, it can be seen from the situation of fighting with the Japanese army these days that the combat effectiveness of these permanent divisions and regiments of the Japanese army is very strong, and it is by no means that the firepower of our ordinary troops in our country is comparable to the fierce firepower of the Japanese army, and in terms of combat effectiveness, the whole army of our 19th Route Army is still reluctant to resist the Japanese army of a division, and according to my estimate, the time will not be very long."

"Although the Fifth Army is stronger in personnel and equipment than the Nineteenth Route Army, in my opinion, I am afraid it will be difficult to block the attack of the two divisions of the Japanese army."

Jiang Guangding almost brought up the fact that the 88th Division was tired of dealing with the attack of a brigade of the Japanese army, but fortunately, he endured this incident in time and made many generals of the 19th Route Army look down on the Fifth Army

Jiang Guangding is still very confident in his 19th Route Army, his 19th Route Army is an authentic descendant of the Iron Army, and Jiang Guangding believes that even if the 19th Route Army is used to deal with the strong Fifth Army, the 19th Route Army is not far behind

Jiang Guangding believes that fighting a war is not all about weapons and equipment, and whether a unit can fight a tough and vicious battle depends on its momentum, and the most important thing is to look at the grassroots officers below the regimental level, as long as these people have a ruthless spirit that is not afraid of death, this army is a good unit that dares to fight and dare to rush, and the 19th Route Army is such a force, not only many of its senior officers were born in the Iron Army of that year, but the vast majority of the officers below the regimental level are the grassroots officers and soldiers of the Iron Army of that year, and they are all the old foundations left by the Iron Army of that year. The style of the Iron Army has been preserved and inherited in the 19th Route Army

Zhang Zhizhong, who was staring at the map and thinking about countermeasures, was startled when he heard that Jiang Guangding wanted the 60th Division to withdraw from Zhabei and immediately expressed his resolute opposition (to be continued)