The former enemy's general headquarters.

Itachi Seisishiro, Kenji Tsuchihara, Yamagang Houzhong and other division commanders were sitting in danger, there were less than five hours left before dawn, and the imperial army had not yet broken through the defense line of the [***] team, and the more time dragged on, it would be extremely unfavorable for the army.

Ban Hengzheng and a few old devils seem to be calm, but in fact, they are all up and down in their hearts.

Just when a few old devils were sitting on pins and needles and were anxious, a devil communication soldier ran over with a hurried look, suddenly gathered his feet and saluted to Ban Hengzheng and the others: "Generals, a branch of the Fifth Division suddenly appeared in the rear of the Fifth Division, and they are storming the sortie position of the Fifth Division. ”

"What? The Chinese Army? How many of them are there? Itasun Seishiro jumped up in surprise and hurriedly asked.

"The offensive of the Chinese army is very fast, and the strength of the army is unknown!" The Devil Messenger replied with a bowed head.

"Bagaya Road, could it be that reinforcements from the China Army have arrived?" Kenji Dohihara stood up and said.

Ban Heng Zhengshiro thought for a while and waved his hand: "Impossible, from Huainan to here, even if the Tiger Ben Army is a fully mechanized marching speed, it is impossible to arrive in such a short time!" It is expected that it will be possible to arrive after dawn at the earliest! ”

"And who is this branch of the branch that suddenly appeared?" Shan Gang also stood up and asked with a frown.

"It is very likely that it is the first part of the Tiger Ben Army that confronted our division in Guanqiao Town before! Because in terms of geographical location, only they can rush to Xuzhou so quickly. Itachi Seisishiro analyzed.

"Ban Hengjun, what can you do?" Kenji Dohihara nodded and asked.

"I immediately order the 9th Brigade to withdraw from the attack, and I will personally command and be responsible for blocking this branch of the army, and the task of attacking Xuzhou will be handed over to you Tufeijun and Shangangjun!"

"Yo Xi, Ban Hengjun, as long as you block the reinforcements of the China Army, we will definitely go all out and break through the defense line of the China Army at all costs!" Kenji Tsuchihara and Yamagang nodded one after another.

"Oh, by the way, Tu Feijun, you immediately send a telegram to the reinforcements in the north of Xuzhou City, and inform them to immediately launch an attack on Xuzhou at all costs, in order to plan for the main force of our imperial army to break through!" Itahiro Seishiro suddenly thought of two reinforcements from Zaozhuang and Linyi in the north of the city.

It's just that what he didn't know was that because of the continuous infiltration and destruction of the special operations battalion of the Tiger Ben Army in the areas of Linyi and Zaozhuang, Shouichi Terauchi, who had already become a frightened bird, ordered the Fifth Division to return to its original garrison as soon as he ordered them to stay put.

So now the devils who remain north of Xuzhou are just some vigilant troops, and they have no ability to attack Xuzhou at all.

However, Qiao Anbang didn't know too much about this, because he had gone to Yingzhou before, and the attention of Xie Jinyuan, Li Yifeng and others was also focused on the main force of the hundreds of thousands of Yue troops in the encirclement.

Otherwise, Qiao Anbang did not need to place Xie Jinyuan's reading force garrison brigade in the north of the city, and directly put it into the fierce offensive and defensive battle on the southern front, which was enough to stabilize the Xuzhou defense line until dawn.

"Well, I'll let them know right away!" Kenji Dohihara nodded in agreement.

…………………… Beiping, the compound of the headquarters of the North China Front Army.

The current commander of the North China Front, General Terauchi Shouichi, was sleeping soundly in his bedroom, and the whole bedroom was snoring like thunder, and there was a snow-white skinned lady lying next to Terauchi Shouyi.

Just when Terauchi Shouichi gradually fell into a sweet dream, a sharp knock on the door sounded in vain, and the lady who slept next to him woke up when he heard the sound, but Terauchi Shouichi did not move, and he was already sleeping soundly.

Obviously, Terauchi Shouichi was very consumed before going to bed, so he slept so deeply.

The knock on the door became more and more urgent, and the girls had to push the temple Shouichi and shouted: "Your Excellency General, Your Excellency General, wake up!" ”

"Huh?" After a while, Shouichi Terauchi woke up from his drowsy sleep, and reprimanded him quite unhappily: "Cangzi, what are you going to do?" ”

Terauchi Shouyi's voice fell, and the knock on the door outside sounded again, and at the same time, a voice that was extremely familiar to Terauchi Shouichi came: "Your Excellency General, please open the door, there is an urgent matter to report!" ”

"It's Okabe-kun!" Shouichi Terauchi knew that if Naosaburo Okabe didn't have anything important, he would definitely not come to him at this time, so he suddenly fell asleep, quickly got dressed and got out of bed and walked towards the door.

Opening the door, Terauchi Shouichi saw Okabe Naosaburo pacing back and forth at the door anxiously, and immediately asked, "Okabe-kun, what's wrong?" ”

"Your Excellency General, according to the report of the Special High Division, Itasun Seishiro and Kenji Dohihara and others have concentrated all their forces without authorization, and they are now attacking Xuzhou City overnight!" Okabe Naosaburo saw Shouichi Terauchi and hurriedly stepped forward and replied.

"What? Ban Heng, this bastard, Baga Yalu, dared to disobey the military order and died! Terauchi Shouichi roared angrily when he heard this.

"General, please calm your anger! Now that it has happened, the immediate priority is not to hold accountable! We should make a good deployment to deal with what may happen next, once Banheng and they successfully break through, then the Zhina Army will inevitably follow and pursue, should we urge the Kwantung Army to go south as soon as possible, in addition, if we can, we feel that we should abandon the occupied areas south of the Yellow River, shrink our forces, and rely on the natural danger of the Yellow River to block the Zhina Army from going north! Okabe Naosaburo hurriedly persuaded.

Terauchi Shouichi snorted angrily, and then said: "Even if the Kwantung Army sets off now, it won't be able to arrive in a few days, Ban Hengzheng these idiots!" How dare you openly disobey my orders, causing the Empire to lose the territory it has already conquered! What a sin deserves death! ”

"General, the matter has come to this, you better send an urgent telegram to the Kwantung Army Headquarters, asking them to send reinforcements into the customs as soon as possible!" Naosaburo Okabe said.

"We have sent a telegram to the base camp asking for help, without the permission of the base camp, will the Kwantung Army agree to go south?" Shouichi in the temple said worriedly.

"Now I can only try my best." Naosaburo Okabe said.

Terauchi Shouichi nodded silently and said, "Okay, Okabe-kun, immediately send a telegram to the Kwantung Army Headquarters in my name, asking them to send reinforcements south as soon as possible!" ”

"Hay!" Okabe Naosaburo stepped forward in salute in response, and then turned around with his saber on his shoulder and strode away.

…………………… Outside Xuzhou, with the addition of 2,000 veterans of the 31st Division, coupled with the arrival of Zhang Zizhong's troops, the forces of the devils were dispersed, and the frontal defense line of the first division was consolidated, and the battle between the two sides fell into a white-hot fierce battle.

I don't know how long it took, Qiao Anbang, who had been standing at the head of the city to supervise the battle, was pleasantly surprised to find that the originally dark night sky had begun to gradually brighten, and he looked down at his watch, it was already half past five in the morning, and it was summer, and in northern Anhui for more than half an hour, the sky would be completely bright.

Qiao Anbang instantly became energetic, and said to Liang Jiahan, who was slightly tired from standing with him all night: "Adjutant Liang, it's already dark, immediately send a telegram to the flying regiment, asking them to take off immediately to help the battle, and order the artillery regiment to concentrate all the artillery fire and bombard those Oriental miscellaneous pieces for me!" "The Tiger Ben Army defended aggrievedly all night, and finally survived the most difficult period and ushered in the light.

Next is the time for the Tiger Ben Army to counterattack on all fronts and annihilate the enemy in front of them!

"Yes!" Liang Jiahan also cheered up his spirits, happily responded, and immediately went straight to the city.

………………………… The atmosphere was solemn at the joint command headquarters of the army, and as the sky gradually brightened, the faces of Kenji Dohihara and Seishiro Itako became more and more heavy.

"Your Excellency General, no, the scouts found that in the southwest, the pursuit force of the Fifth Theater of the Zhina Army has reached Xiao County, and its forward troops are advancing rapidly towards Xuzhou, and in the southeast of Xuzhou, the Imperial Army has also found a Zhina Army with a strength of no less than tens of thousands, and they are also rushing towards Xuzhou!" The chief of staff of the 14th Division, Tadayoshi Sano, hurriedly walked up to everyone and reported to Kenji Dohihara.

"What? So, reinforcements from the Shina Army are about to arrive? Kenji Dohihara said with a pale face.

His words fell, and another communications staff officer hurriedly ran in, and before he could stand up, he reported to Ban Hengzheng and the others: "Generals, it's not good, a large number of Zhina troops are coming from the direction of Guanqiao Town, and the strength is at least about two divisions!" "This devil staff officer obviously misjudged the specific number of the Tiger Ben Army that drove from Guanqiao Town.

It's normal to think about it, but in that situation, it was impossible for the devil's scouts to figure out the specific numbers, so they could only make a rough judgment based on the size of the enemy's march.

"This should be the defenders of Genxiang City!" Itachi Seishiro hit the nail on the head.

"Ban Hengjun, now that it's over, do you have any good solutions? What are we going to do? If the color is about to light up today, if nothing else, soon the air force of the Chinese army will be able to arrive, and their powerful artillery, most of the artillery of our artillery wing has turned into scrap metal because of the lack of ammunition, and without the cover of night, the soldiers of the imperial army will be fully exposed to the artillery fire of the Chinese people! "The commander of the 109th Division, Shan Gang, was anxious.

"The most critical thing is not only that, now that the reinforcements are swarming from all directions, we don't want to find a way to break through in time, the consequences are unimaginable!" Kenji Dohihara said with a depressed expression.

Banheng Zhengshiro pondered for a long time before he said slowly: "Gentlemen, now, this defeat has been decided, and it is beyond our ability to reverse it, but I have two decisions, please choose!" ”

"Speak quickly!" Shan Gang and the others urged urgently.

"First, the whole army immediately turned from offensive to defensive, held on the spot, fought bloody battles with the people of China to the end, and was loyal to His Majesty the Emperor! Second, the divisions and regiments immediately dispersed and broke through along the path, but if they did so, the imperial army was likely to be broken by the branch army, and it would be difficult to reorganize and form combat effectiveness in a short time! It is likely that the people of China will be in full pursuit, and at that time, we will no longer be able to resist and retreat, and it is very likely that it will turn into a rout! Itachi Seishiro said his thoughts expressionlessly.

(To be continued)