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Chapter 553: The Great War Breaks Out

On 21 March, when the long-brewing Central Plains War broke out, Yan Xishan's troops of the Beiping Garrison Headquarters surrounded the headquarters camp, telegraph office, and telephone office, and announced that they would take over and close the North China Daily Newspaper. The armies appointed by Feng Yuxiang launched an overall oppression on the Central Army, among which Zhang Weixi, commander of the First Route Army, had 30,000 horses and horses, and drove mightily to the northwest line of Hubei Province. www.biquge.info Shi Yousan, Sun Dianying in eastern Henan, Wan Xuancai in Zhengzhou, and Liu Chunrong in northern Henan, sent a telegram to Feng Yuxiang and expressed their willingness to accept the command of Lu Zhonglin, commander-in-chief of the Second Front Army, appointed by Feng Yuxiang.

The Central Army was-for-tat, the third division Chen Jiji led his troops to attack Ma Muji in eastern Henan, and the tenth division of Yang Shengzhi attacked Wuyang in northern Anhui, and there was a fierce battle with Sun Dianying's department.

The day after Yan Xishan announced his appointment as commander-in-chief of the army, navy, and air force of the National Revolutionary Army, Wang Zhaoming telegraphed Yan Xishan to organize the Nationalist Government as soon as possible and assume the chairmanship of the national government. However, Yan Xishan, who was cautious and scheming by nature, did not express his stance on this, and Wang Jingwei, who was so anxious to jump up and down, had no choice but to instruct Chen Gongbo, Wang Faqin, Xie Zhi, Zou Lu, Zhao Pilian, and Jia Jingde to hold a meeting in Shijiehai, Beiping, to discuss the organization of an enlarged Central Committee by members of the First, Second, and Third Central Committees to resolve the party and government issues.

With the Northwest Army pressing the border, a military meeting of the Fifth Army Corps at the brigade commander level and above was held in Yichang on the afternoon of the next day.

On the rostrum, He Guoguang, director of the battalion, read out three operational orders, mobilization orders, and crusade declarations from the central authorities one after another; the secretary general Zeng Guangqing, on behalf of the central party department, made an impassioned report on war agitation; the director of the camp office, the chief officer of the first division in charge of political ideology, and the chief officer of the second division in charge of intelligence and anti-traitors briefed the participating generals on the progress and current situation of work in their respective fields.

Fan Shisheng, Zhu Shigui, and other senior generals have participated in such meetings many times over the past few years, and this is the first time that they have seen the officials of the camp who are under the dual management of the Central Military Commission and the Central Party Department and who hold the sword of Shang Fang so politely, and they have shown their due diligence and cooperation from top to bottom.

Immediately afterwards, Zhao Rui, chief of staff of the Fifth Army Corps, gave a detailed introduction to the surrounding situation of the theater, the position of the enemy and us, and the logistical supply to the participating generals.

"In accordance with the enemy situation and strategic requirements faced by our corps, the operational plan for the theater drawn up by the corps headquarters is submitted to the General Headquarters for approval, and the operational orders of each division are hereby announced as follows:

The 1st and 51st Divisions were to move north from their stations in Jingzhou and Shashi within three days, and before 12 o'clock at noon on 5 April, they had to be stationed on the Zaoyang line in Suizhou and build fortifications on the spot, with the headquarters of the Fan Division set up in Suizhou; 2. From now on, on the basis of the original defensive positions and fortifications on the front line of Xiangfan, the main force of the 17th Division will advance about 5 kilometers to the periphery, and build a fan-shaped defensive battlefield with a length of not less than 20 kilometers on the spot, and the defense of Xiangyang and Fancheng will be temporarily handed over to the garrison troops, and the original Xiangyang Command will be maintained; Within three days, the 44th Division must be driven to the front line of Nanzhang and Baokang, and at any time to respond to the battle of the 17th Division, the headquarters of the Gu Division was set up in Baokang; Within 4 and 3 days, the 16th Division was all driven to Fangxian and Zhushan on the western front, and closely coordinated with the 17th and 44th divisions on the middle route, and the headquarters of the Yin Division was set up in Zhushan.

In addition, the officers and men of the nine regiments of the Yichang Garrison Command and the Water Garrison Brigade were temporarily handed over to the command of the Military Police Brigade of the Corps Headquarters, and the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd regiments stationed in Yichang formed the 1st Garrison Brigade, which left for Changyang within 12 hours to take over the defense of the 47th Brigade of the 16th Division, and the rest of the regiments maintained the status quo unchanged; The defense and maintenance of law and order in Yichang City will be handed over to the newly established Military Police Headquarters of the Yichang Xingying Camp from noon tomorrow. ”

Zhao Rui put down the document, glanced at the full number of generals and colonels, and picked up another copy again to read out: "According to the latest order of the headquarters, starting from noon tomorrow, all divisions under the corps will stop using the existing radio frequencies and radio passwords, and the newly activated communication frequencies and passwords will be delivered by a special team composed of the intelligence department and the political training department of the headquarters, and they will be stationed in each division before the end of the battle to assist in the communication operations and personnel training of all departments. Complete! ”

After all, this is a natural arrangement in front of the divisions, but there are a few people who are not so comfortable with the corps headquarters sending special teams to the divisions in the name of assisting in communications and training personnel, taking Fan Shisheng's 51st Division as an example, nearly half of the officers and men of the whole division are smoking opium, and the officers and men who have been recruited from all over the country are sloppy in military discipline and sometimes have conflicts. I'm afraid that there will be internal strife within myself before the battle is engaged, not to mention that a division of my own good and good will suddenly come in a group of supervising troops, and he will not be comfortable in his heart no matter what, and he will not be trusted and lose face for the time being, but if all the within him is clearly seen by the Fifth Army Corps Command, it will not be beneficial to anyone's future.

Seeing this reaction of the generals, An Yi smiled faintly, discussed with Zhang Hongluan, the deputy commander beside him, in a low voice for a moment, waved his hand and commanded solemnly, his shining eyes glanced at the generals and colonies, and said with a pleasant face:

"Ladies and gentlemen, there is a question that I am afraid everyone is not clear, in the previous stage of large-scale rectification, the military police brigade of the headquarters and the battalion detective department have successively cracked several cases of enemy special forces, among which the three seized code books are the current communication codes of our army, and among the several groups of enemy special elements are the spies of the Northwest Army who have been lurking for a long time, and there are also Chinese traitors and lackeys who are willing to be the eagle dogs of the Japanese, and these spies cover their espionage activities in our war zone in various capacities, and the shortest time is half a year, and the situation is shocking! The emergency change in the mode of radio communication by the Central Committee seven days ago, and the adoption of command document transmission instead of radio issuance by our regiments, are targeted changes made in response to this serious incident.

Let's think about it, if we really want to start a war, every move of our army is under the nose of the opponent, as long as our army moves the opponent and makes arrangements in advance, there are traps and ambushes waiting for us everywhere, how can this battle be fought?

It is precisely because of this that the headquarters has to urgently transfer a group of communications scientists from the Central Army Non-commissioned Officer School who still have two and a half months to graduate to join our Fifth Theater Intelligence Office. Each group will carry a state-of-the-art American-made high-power radio, which will be reserved for the divisions in the future.

After the end of the battle, the special task force immediately left, except for eating and sleeping, military salaries and all subsidies were distributed by the headquarters, there is no need for everyone to be taboo at all, let alone any resistance, this is the only way to ensure the smooth operation of our corps divisions at present, is a mandatory order that has been repeatedly discussed by the headquarters and reported to the general headquarters for approval, I hope you will take it seriously. ”

The generals listened to An Yi's explanation and stopped talking, and the commanders of the divisions also expressed their obedience.

An Yi asked the generals what their opinions and requirements were, and everyone discussed for a while but failed to put forward any constructive suggestions, the military salaries that should have been paid in full in the past week, and all the ammunition and materials that should have been given have been received, except for Fan Shisheng's 51st Division, which still wears old-fashioned military uniforms and uses the same weapons as the local troops, the other divisions are all the same as Yin Jinan's 16th Division, and they have completed the replacement of new military uniforms and new equipment a month ago, and all the weapons and equipment that have been replaced have been sent to the ever-expanding scale. The Xiangxi Arsenal with continuous technological progress has been remelted and transformed.

At the end of the meeting, the generals and colonels of each division immediately returned to their stations and began to dispatch troops to prepare for the deployment, and last night they had a detailed discussion with An Yi and others, Gu Changfeng, who had been talking in detail for most of the night, said goodbye to An Yiyi, pulled Yin Jinan and Ding Zhicheng, and went to the headquarters of the 16th Division to discuss the coordination and intelligence exchange between the two divisions.

He Guoguang and Zeng Guangqing, who had successfully taken over the military police security, public security control, investigation, and civil administration of Yichang City from An Yi, also resigned and left with satisfaction, but only Deputy Commander Zhang Hongluan and Chief of Staff of the 44th Army Zhang Cunzhuang and others stayed behind and continued to conduct secret discussions with An Yi on preparations for war.

At the emergency military meeting just now, all the orders did not do anything with the 44th Army stationed in Xiangxi and the northwest Hunan region, and all the generals and colonels thought that the 44th Army would not be transferred from the Xiangxi region for reinforcements until it was a critical moment, and they did not know that An Yi had a series of secret plans in addition to the public plan.

Zhang Hongluan, commander of the 44 th Army, who had more than 70,000 troops and as many as five main divisions of the first type alone, was very calm; after more than two years of lying on his back and trying his courage, his 44 th Army had quietly grown to the strength of a corps of the Central Army.

Thanks to the natural advantages of the people in Xiangxi, who are brave and martial, as well as the relocation of a large number of hard-working victims who survived the catastrophe in Gansu, Shaanxi, Henan and other places, Zhang Hongluan's 44th Army will not be short of people even if it is short of money, but has become the region with the largest number of soldiers and the best quality of recruits in the country. The 44th Army has become a powerful and powerful military force, and it can already stand firm and stand proudly in all directions. Therefore, the 44th Army naturally became a strong backing for An Yi, and was able to test and demonstrate its strength in this great battle that decided the fate of China.

After an in-depth discussion of the entire battle situation, Zhang Hongluan already understood An Yi's plan, and he generously smiled at Chief of Staff Zhao Rui: "Xiangyun, what is the dispatch to our army Although it is said that the officers and men of our army have been training hard for many years, they can't wait to show it." ”

Zhao Rui said politely: "There is really a place to rely on the seniors, please look here...... The commander and the juniors all believed that after the Fan Division and the Gu Division left Jingzhou, this area would face an embarrassing situation of empty troops and unsustainable, and if the war at the front was tight and then the reinforcements were deployed, I was afraid that they would be in a hurry, so they wanted to ask the seniors to send a division to quietly enter Jingzhou and station it in the new barracks of the 44th Division. In addition, please ask the seniors to order this division to change into gray-blue old-style military uniforms, and call it a temporary Xiangbei reserve to the outside world, without carrying heavy weapons, the headquarters will transfer 24 successful Bu-style artillery pieces from the Jiangnan Arsenal to this division of the predecessors, and it is completely possible to form an artillery regiment, and then transfer a regiment of mortars and corresponding artillery shells to supplement, and it will become a well-known A division as soon as it goes into battle. ”

Zhang Hongluan laughed happily, and Zhang Cunzhuang also said with a smile: "I understand what you mean, then, transfer our first division over, I personally serve as the acting commander of this division, and fortunately I have learned something new in this battle." ”

"I agree! Cun Zhuang, you should also accumulate some experience in the war, in the northeast of Guizhou and southwest Sichuan, there are always small fights, two or three opponent kittens and dogs, you all say that the fight is not enjoyable, this all-** valve melee, the scale is unprecedented, just let you have a good time! Zhang Hongluan readily agreed.

An Yi looked at Zhang Cunzhuang and said earnestly: "Brother Zhang, don't look at the second line, your task is by no means easy, Suizhou, as the northwest gateway of Wuhan, is likely to become the direction of the Northwest Army's key attack, in my estimation, Fan Xiaoquan's 51st Division is difficult to stop the wolf-like Northwest Army, and it can only rely on you." In addition, the newly formed Ninth Division led by Deng Bin needed to be stationed in Changyang in advance, and as soon as the fighting on the side of Jinan and Hutou became tight, Deng Bin had to rush to reinforce him.

Deng Bin's new 9th Division is quite consistent with the style of the 16th Division of Jinan and the 44th Division of Hutou, and its combat effectiveness and rapid reaction capability are good. ”

"Understood! If this doesn't work, it's no problem for our 44th Army to have one more division. Zhang Cunzhuang said proudly.

An Yi replied with a serious face: "I don't need it in the early stage, but I will definitely use it in the later stage, if Brother Zhang is interested at that time, I will go to Tongguan with my younger brother." ”

"What ......"

Zhang Cunzhuang was taken aback, and the rest of the people were also shocked.