Zhengzhou, located in the hinterland of China, has always been the thoroughfare of Kyushu. It is bordered by the Yellow River in the north and Songshan Mountain in the west, which is the hometown of Xuanyuan Yellow Emperor, the founder of Chinese humanities, and the Bo capital of Shang Tang, the founding monarch of the Shang Dynasty, and is a famous historical and cultural city in China and one of the eight ancient capitals of China.

Zhengzhou has a long history. As early as 3600 years ago, it was the capital of the Shang Dynasty, Xia, Shang, Guan, Zheng and Han were the capitals for 5 times, and the Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties, Song, Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasty set up states here. 3,600 years ago, it was one of the important capitals of the Shang Dynasty. There are 8,000-year-old Peiligang culture, 5,000-year-old Dahe Village, Qinwangzhai and other types of Yangshao culture and Longshan cultural sites found in the jurisdiction. According to historical records, the Yellow Emperor, the ancestor of the Chinese nation, was born in Xuanyuan Hill for the "Youxiong Clan", and some scholars believe that Xuanyuan Hill refers to Xinzheng City, which is now under the jurisdiction of Zhengzhou. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Zheng and Han successively built their capitals in Xinzheng for more than 500 years. During the Qin and Han dynasties, Zhengzhou began to place Xingyang, Gong, Beijing, Xinzheng and other counties. After that, successive dynasties successively set up Xingyang County, Beiyu Prefecture, Xingzhou and so on in the Zhengzhou area. In the third year of Emperor Kaihuang of Sui (583 AD), Xingzhou was changed to Zhengzhou. In the sixteenth year of Emperor Kaihuang of Sui (596 AD), he placed the state administration, and the state administration was located in today's Guancheng District. After the Northern Song Dynasty built the capital of Bianjing, Zhengzhou belonged to Jinggi Road (now Kaifeng City), and in the fourth year of Chongning (1105 AD), it was built as Xifu and became one of the four auxiliary counties in the Song Dynasty. Jin Dynasty, under Nanjing Road (now Kaifeng City). In the fourth year of Jin Zhenyou (1216), Guancheng was renamed Gushi City, and later renamed Guancheng County. In the second year of Yongzheng of the Qing Dynasty (1724), Zhengzhou was promoted to Zhili Prefecture and Henan Province. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Zhengzhou was assigned to Kaifeng Prefecture. In the Qing Dynasty, Zhengzhou was promoted to Zhili Prefecture twice.

The long history of Zhengzhou has left a rich cultural accumulation, and there are more than 1,400 cultural relics and historic sites in the city, including 26 national cultural relics protection units. "The world's first temple" Shaolin Temple is located at the foot of Song Mountain, and the Shaolin Kung Fu at home and abroad goes to the world from here. There are also the earliest astronomical buildings in China, the Zhou Public Survey Observatory and the Yuan Dynasty Stargazing Platform, the Songyang Academy, one of the four major academies of the Song Dynasty in China, and the Zhongyue Temple, the largest existing Taoist building complex in China. Around Zhengzhou, there are also dotted with ancient cities, ancient cultures, ancient tombs, ancient buildings, ancient passes and ancient battlefield sites. Because of the long history and profound cultural heritage, it has always been a place where celebrities have come out in large numbers, and famous historical figures such as Xuanyuan Yellow Emperor, Liezi, Zichan, Shen Buxi, Han Feizi, Zheng Guo, Chen Sheng, Zhang Liang, Pan An, Du Fu, Bai Juyi, Li Shangyin, Gao Gong, Li Jie, Li Chihang, etc., were all born in Zhengzhou.

At the beginning of the 20th century, due to the intersection of the Pinghan and Longhai railways in Zhengzhou, the economy of Zheng County developed rapidly. In 1913, Zhengzhou was changed to Zheng County. In 1928, Zheng County was changed to Zhengzhou City.

After the Fourth Route Army arrived in Zhengzhou, it was not ready to leave, not only not to leave, but also to deploy on the spot and prepare for a conflict with the Northwest Army. So on the car from Xinyang to Zhengzhou, Tao Rong and Mengxi reported the specific combat deployment to Song Zhewu.

This plan was: The first regiment of the first division, the units directly under the division and the cavalry brigade were a group, and Zhang Yafei personally led and stationed at Huayuankou (this garden is not Xiaogan Garden, but Zhengzhou Huayuankou, that is, in 38 years, the Yellow River Huayuankou was bombed and released to block the Yellow River Huayuankou. Deploy and garrison, control and protect the Yellow River Iron Bridge; Song Zhewu led the 1st Division, 2nd Regiment, 3rd Regiment, Guard Brigade, Artillery Regiment, and Baggage Regiment to be stationed in Zhengzhou.

The Northwest Army is now retreating in the direction of Tongguan in western Henan, and according to the information from the staff headquarters of the Hankou Rebel Army, there is now only Pang Bingxun's 14th Provisional Division in Henan, which is stationed in Zhengzhou. Then there is the Sun Liangcheng ministry in Shandong, which has reportedly also shown signs of a recent westward shift. The purpose of Pang Bingxun's provisional 14th Division stationed in Zhengzhou was probably to wait for Sun Liangcheng to retreat westward together.

Tao Rong and Mengxi's opinion was that Song Zhewu led the 1st Division, 2nd Regiment, 3rd Regiment, Guard Brigade, Artillery Regiment, and Baggage Regiment to be forcibly stationed in Zhengzhou, waiting for Li Xingzhong and Wei Fenglou to retreat westward. Once Pang Bingxun was dissatisfied, or there was friction between the two forces, there was an excuse to solve Pang Bingxun's department immediately, and the whole division would block Sun Liangcheng east of the Jinghan line, from Kaifeng to Lankao, and solve Sun's department in one fell swoop.

Song Zhewu couldn't help but smile bitterly when he looked at this plan, there was another militant in the Fourth Route Army.

With the 2nd Regiment, the 3rd Regiment, the Guard Brigade, the Artillery Regiment, and the Baggage Regiment, these troops were forcibly stationed in Zhengzhou, and if they suddenly attacked, it would definitely be a knife to solve Pang Bingxun's provisional formation. Occupying Zhengzhou, the strategic point of the intersection of the Pinghan Line and the Longhai Line, and then advancing eastward with most of its forces to meet Sun Liangcheng, the Northwest Army did not have any reinforcements east of the Jinghan Line, and there was a 100% chance of defeating Sun Liangcheng.

But in this way, Feng Yuxiang will definitely not care about Sun Liangcheng's life and death, and must stop the Northwest Army's westward retreat, and turn east to relieve Sun Liangcheng's siege, and even the Fourth Route Army is not enough to relieve his hatred.

In this way, the happiest person was none other than Chiang Kai-shek, whose actions not only weakened the strength of the Northwest Army, but also provoked a melee with the Northwest Army, and Chiang Kai-shek's long-sought excuse appeared. He would immediately order Tang Shengzhi's Fifth Route Army to go south to Henan, and then he would urge the Central Army's troops in Shandong, Anhui, and Hubei to go north to Henan.

It's just that in this way, he, Song Zhewu, will soon bear the charge of provoking a civil war that Chiang Kai-shek and Feng Yuxiang have avoided, and the Fourth Route Army will also bear the brunt of the angry Northwest Army, and huge casualties are inevitable. The most important thing is that if he does this, it will inevitably arouse the vigilance of Yan Xishan, who will decide that he Song Zhewu has completely fallen to Chiang Kai-shek, and if he wants to seize Shanxi again, it will add a lot of difficulty. Without a bloody battle, he would not have been able to get Shanxi.

Song Zhewu does not blame Tao Rong and Mengxi, after all, they are only staff officers, they are only responsible for formulating the battle plan that can achieve the greatest victory, according to this plan, there is no problem for the Fourth Route Army to win two battles and two battles, the key is the sequelae of this plan, which Song Zhewu absolutely does not want to see.

It's just that Song Zhewu is a little strange, a person like Tao Rong is actually a militant, and the plan he agreed to attack is getting stronger and stronger!

In fact, it is no wonder that Tao Rong, after Tao Rong joined the Fourth Route Army, the more he learned about the Fourth Route Army, the stronger his confidence in the Fourth Route Army. If he had known the Fourth Route Army as he did now when he was chief of staff of the Nineteenth Army, he would have been the first to suggest that Hu Zongduo accept Chiang Kai-shek's conditions when he was in Zhujiahe, and that he would not have to fight that battle with the Fourth Route Army at all. At Zhujiahe, the 19th Army fought only in the same 3rd Regiment.

Regarding the idea of seizing Shanxi, Song Zhewu can't tell Tao Rong and Mengxi now, it's not that he doesn't believe Tao Rong and Mengxi, it's just that the fewer people who know about this kind of thing, the better, otherwise once it leaks out, if he wants to seize Shanxi, he can't do it without a bloody battle. Now all the officers and soldiers of the Fourth Route Army will be the backbone of his anti-Japanese war in Shanxi in the future, unless it is necessary, he Song Zhewu has no right to let them lose their lives in the civil war!

Song Zhewu had no choice but to find Tao Rong and Mengxi, and under the pretext that it was not easy for the Fourth Route Army to provoke a civil war first, he said that he should not be stationed in the urban area of Zhengzhou. Finally, the plan was changed.

It was still a group of the First Regiment of the First Division, the units directly under the division, and the cavalry brigade, which was personally led by Zhang Yafei and stationed at Huayuankou; Song Zhewu led the 1st Division, 2nd Regiment, 3rd Regiment, Guard Brigade, Artillery Regiment, and Baggage Regiment to be stationed in the north of Zhengzhou and on both sides of the Jinghan Line in Yuanyuan Village, Liulin Town, and Beianzhuang. This arrangement has two advantages: First, the troops in both places are relatively strong, and the two regiments at Huayuankou have more than 16,000 people, almost one and a half divisions. The troops led by Song Zhewu numbered more than 20,000 people, more than the two divisions of the reorganized Northwest Army, and had more powerful artillery fire. Second, the two groups are only a dozen miles apart, and they can communicate with each other to provide support. Such a close distance can almost be counted as a group in a large corps operation.

However, Song Zhewu was still a little uneasy, in his memory, the People's Liberation Army in later generations could divide the enemy within a distance of five kilometers.

Song Zhewu instructed Liang Bi to find Sun Sicheng, the commander of the engineer battalion of the 23rd Division, and his cousin Sun Sirong.

Sun Sicheng and Sun Sirong are both from Zhengzhou, Sun Sicheng joined the Northwest Army and served as a company commander in his early years because his family background was not very good. In the past, the Northwest Army did not have a separate engineering unit, but in this reorganization, in order to retain as many personnel as possible, the Northwest Army also set up an engineer unit compared with the Central Army, but no one knew the engineer unit, so Sun Sicheng, who had worked as a carpenter at home in his early years, was transferred to be the battalion commander. Sun Sicheng was still a dead eye, thinking to himself, since the chief believed in himself, he had to do a good job, but he was also black-eyed, and when he was in trouble, his cousin Sun Sirong came to see him, and when he saw him full of sorrow, he couldn't help but be overjoyed when he asked. Tell Sun Sicheng: "Don't forget what your cousin is studying?" ”

It turned out that Sun Sirong studied mining in France, and after returning to China last year, he wanted to do something, but the main task of the central political axe now is to prepare for war, and there is no development plan at all. And Sun Sirong's family background is very good, his family runs the largest pharmacy in Zhengzhou in Zhengzhou, and he doesn't need to make money to support his family. Now that I have nothing to do, I ran to my cousin.

So Sun Sirong temporarily stayed in the engineer battalion and became an instructor for them. Although Sun Sirong is not a professional, the task of the sappers of this era is nothing more than to build bridges and pave roads, which is difficult for Sun Sirong, a graduate of mining engineering.

(To be continued)