Mengxi thought for a while and said: "Commander, although the Soviet army's offensive coincides with our second set of battle plans, there is also a big difference, that is, our plan is based on the Soviet army's main force attacking Manchuria, and the troops attacking Zalainuoer are just a partial division outflanking Manchuria. However, the current situation is that the Soviets' attack on Zhalainor is their main force, and the Soviets' intention is obviously to quickly solve the defenders of Zarainuoer with absolute superiority, and then turn back and eat Liang Zhongjia's troops in Manchuria. Therefore, our battle plan must also be adjusted accordingly according to the plan of the Soviet army. ”

In Li Wentian's absence, Mengxi, the chief of operations, assumed the responsibility of chief of staff, and Mengxi, who was rigorous and meticulous, made Song Zhewu very satisfied with him.

Although Mengxi was a student of several founders of the Fourth Route Army, including him Song Zhewu, and was taught by them, after all, he had not studied in a regular military school, so he could only be regarded as a graduate of a crash military study class. However, Mengxi, a college student, is very talented in military affairs, and he has a very fast understanding of military knowledge, almost a little at all. And he himself is also very hard-working, for all the military books he can find, he will study hard, now Mengxi is not only handy with campaign planning and deployment, but also accurate and timely for fighter planes, if after a period of training, he must be an outstanding military talent.

"Tell me what you think." Song Zhewu walked to the map as he spoke.

Mengxi followed Song Zhewu to the map, pointed to Manchuria and Zhainuoer and said: "Our second set of battle plans was formulated against the background of the Soviet army's simultaneous attack on Manchuria and Zhainuoer. We did not expect that the Soviets would ignore Manchuria, which we had heavily defended, and devote most of their forces to Zhalaunor. In this way, the forces we plan to encircle and annihilate Zalainorr are somewhat insufficient. ”

"I think we have to make some adjustments to the battle plan, the second group under the command of Deputy Chief of Staff Li should encircle and attack the Soviet troops in Manchuria with three regiments of the first supplementary division, a mortar regiment and one regiment of the second supplementary division; The rest of the 2nd Division and most of the cavalry brigade were used to encircle the Soviet troops attacking Zalainor. According to the information we have, the Soviet army now has only more than 5,000 people left in the Veliky Uri area, and the cavalry units are good at attacking but not defending, and it is not difficult for the first group commanded by Division Commander Xu to completely annihilate them. After the elimination of the Soviet army in the Great Uri area, the first group should quickly move south to Manchuria with the main force and cooperate with the second group to encircle and annihilate the Soviet army in Manchuria; Commander Zhang's 1st Division did not have to wait for the whole army to assemble before launching an attack, and the 2nd Regiment now marching towards Zhaigang should quickly break through the enemy at Zhaigang and join the siege and annihilation of Zhainuoer. ”

Song Zhewu looked at the map and thought for a while and said, "Very good! I agree with your plan, but I would like to add a few points: First, send a telegram to all ministries and strictly order them to rush to the designated area for launching an attack before 8 o'clock tomorrow; Second, since the First Group has already crossed the border, it is easy to leak out of its whereabouts after a long time, and if the Soviets discover our intentions, they will shrink their forces, and it will be difficult to solve them again. Also, considering that Liang Zhongjia and their ammunition are low, we also need to launch a general offensive as soon as possible. So, I think it's important to advance the total attack time to 9 o'clock; The third, first, and second groups did not have mountain artillery, and the maximum caliber of the mortar was only 82mm, so not only did the 1st Division and the 2nd Regiment first engage in the attack on the Soviet Army in Zhalainur, but also ordered Zhang Yafei to organize the 1st Brigade of the Northeast Army stationed in Hailar and other units to march to Zhaigang overnight, and join the attack sequence to Zhainuoer with the 2nd Regiment; Fourth, in the telegram to the ministry, it was necessary to tell them that we were invincible in this battle, that we must rush, fight, and pursue, and that we must resolutely and completely destroy all Soviet troops on the Western Front. ”

Meng Xi prepared the order, and after Song Zhewu signed it, he went out to convey the order, Song Zhewu stood in front of the map and did not leave, but his eyes no longer looked at the Manzhouli region, but moved down to Hailar, Harbin, Changchun, Shenyang, Dalian......

Although Song Zhewu had been away from Laiyuan for several months, and the two places were thousands of miles apart, there was still a steady stream of information about Guannai sent to his desk, some of which was public, and some of which was secretly obtained by his intelligence bureau. Therefore, he was very clear about the situation of the various forces in the Guannai.

Tang Shengzhi was successively appointed president of the Nanjing Military Senate, director of the organization department of the Reorganization Committee, member of the Capital Construction Committee, member of the Examination Committee of the Establishment Group, member of the Standing Committee of the Deployment Conference, member of the Standing Committee of the Deployment Committee, member of the Standing Committee of the Deployment Committee, member of the First Deployment Sub-district Office directly under the Central Army, member of the Central Army Military Academy, and member of the Central Special Committee. From these positions, it can be seen that Chiang Kai-shek can be said to have invested a lot of money in order to win over Tang Shengzhi, and Tang Shengzhi had to leave the Fifth Route Army to serve in Nanjing.

On October 10, the Northwest Army under the leadership of Song Zheyuan sent a telegram to fight against Chiang, on the 11th it was said that Sun Liangcheng's army broke through to the east, and Gong Hao's division of the 51st Division of the Fifth Route Army retreated to the east of Luoyang. 15 Sun Liangcheng's army marched east across Gong County, and the Fifth Route Army retreated to Zhengzhou.

As soon as Tang Shengzhi arrived in Zhengzhou, he led his troops to participate in the active crusade against the Northwest Army, and fought fiercely with Liu Ruming, Ji Hongchang and other troops attacking Zhengzhou for three days and nights, forcing Liu Ruming and Ji Hongchang to retreat, and Tang Shengzhi ordered Liu Xingbu and Pang Bingxun of the Eighth Army to fight fiercely at Heishi Pass, resist Pang Bingxun's attack, and stabilize the battle line.

On the 27th, Liang Guanying and Cheng Xinming stormed Dengfeng and fought fiercely with the Ninth Army, and on the 28th, Tang Shengzhi led the Fifth Route Army and other units of the Central Army to begin a general attack on the Northwest Army, fought with the Northwest Army, and reversed the entire battle situation. On November 3, Chiang Kai-shek went to Xuchang and ordered all troops in Henan to be under the command of Tang Shengzhi, and 4 Tang Shengzhi personally led his troops to fight with Pang Bingxun of the Northwest Army in Gongxian. Finally, the Northwest Army was forced to switch from offensive to defensive and gradually retreat westward.

While actively fighting against the Northwest Army, Tang Shengzhi began to actively and secretly contact the reorganization faction headed by Wang Jingwei and the forces of Yan Xishan and Li Zongren, and actively prepared for the overthrow of Chiang.

On September 27, at the instigation of Chen Gongbo, a cadre of Wang Jingwei, Yu Zuobai and Li Mingrui, who had already assumed the post of chairman of the Guangxi Provincial Political Axe, publicly issued an anti-Chiang telegram, announcing that they would take office as "deputy commander-in-chief and deputy commander-in-chief of the South Road to protect the party and save [***], and on October 1, they would swear in Nanning and join Zhang Fakui in the attack on Guangdong. On October 2, Nanjing Political Axe ordered the dismissal of Yu Zuobai and Li Mingrui from their respective posts, and appointed Lu Huanyan as chairman of Guangxi Provincial Political Axe, and Yang Tenghui as director of the Guangxi Dispatch District. At the same time, Chen Jitang was ordered to attack Guangxi.

When Feng Yuxiang first arrived in Shanxi, Yan Xishan treated Feng Yuxiang as a guest and arranged for him to live in the famous Jin Temple 'Jianghan Garden' near Taiyuan, but after meeting with Chiang Kai-shek in Beiping, he was very indifferent to Feng Yuxiang and had begun to blatantly impose de facto house arrest on Feng Yuxiang. In September, after Yan Xishan's telecommunications office deciphered a telegram from Chiang Kai-shek's plot to rob Feng Yuxiang from the Jin Ancestral Hall, Yan Xishan placed Feng Yuxiang in the Zijin Building, a villa in Xihui, near his hometown, and sent a battalion of Jin Sui troops to "protect" Feng Yuxiang's safety.

In order to protect himself, Feng Yuxiang secretly ordered Song Zheyuan to bypass Yan Xishan and contact Chiang Kai-shek, Yan Xishan was afraid that Chiang Kai-shek would deal with him after winning over Song Zheyuan and other generals, and instigated Feng Yuxiang to instruct Song Zheyuan and Jin Suijun to jointly openly oppose Chiang. However, after Song Zheyuan sent troops on October 10, Yan Xishan was reluctant to send troops, intending to weaken the Northwest Army by Chiang Kai-shek, so that he could take the opportunity to annex the remnants of Feng Yuxiang.

There is also Lu Linglin himself; Pan Yizhi, the representative of Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi; Liu Xizhong, Han Fuyu's representative; Sun Dianying's representative Gao Mengqin; He Jian's representative Huang Yiou; Wan Xuancai's representative Wan Dianzun; Tang Shengzhi's representative Yuan Huaxuan; Liu Juemin, Ren Yingqi's representative; Liu Shaoting, the representative of Jing Yuexiu; Ma Hongkui's representative Kang Yushu; Liu Xiang's representative Hongji and others, as well as Li Xingzhong and others appointed by Song Zheyuan, came to Laiyuan one after another, and these people either came to contact Song Zhewu to overthrow Chiang, or came to establish relations with Song Zhewu, so as to get the support of Song Zhewu's strong reinforcement in the coming chaos.

For these people, Xiao Guodong followed Song Zhewu's telegram, shirked everything, and waited for Song Zhewu to return to Laiyuan.

Song Zhewu did not remember very well the specific time of some events of the upcoming Central Plains War, but he remembered one thing very clearly, that is, in the history of the previous life, the Northwest Army would soon retreat to Shaanxi, just when Chiang Kai-shek was about to take advantage of the victory to solve the Northwest Army in one fell swoop, on December 1, Tang Shengzhi sent a telegram in Zhengzhou, listing 75 local generals to announce that they would seek out Chiang and take up the post of commander-in-chief appointed by Wang Jingwei to protect the party and save [***], and announced Yan Xishan as deputy commander-in-chief. On December 3, Tang issued a telegram entitled "Supporting Wang Lianzhang (Fa Kui)", and when he took up the post of commander-in-chief in Zhengzhou, he united with Shi Yousan and sent troops to fight against Chiang. This completely frustrated Chiang Kai-shek's plan to completely solve the problem of the Northwest Army.

Chiang Kai-shek had no choice but to accept the Northwest Army's request for reorganization again, and contacted Yan Xishan to jointly crusade against Tang Shengzhi. And early next year, probably in March, the prelude to the Central Plains War will officially begin. This is the reason why his troops and himself must rush back to Laiyuan. However, before the Sino-Soviet border war was resolved, he could not withdraw in advance in any case, because the northeast was too important to him Song Zhewu.

If Shanxi was the base of his War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, then the Northeast was the place of his planned rise, and the starting point of the Chinese nation's rise to the world decades earlier.

(To be continued)