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Chapter 827—The Witness of Ice and Fire (17)

At 5:40 a.m. on March 3, the 22nd year of the Republic of China, the squadron launched a fierce artillery bombardment on the Dalonggou defense line eight kilometers north of Kuancheng, Liujiazhuang eight kilometers northeast of Liujiazhuang, and Houjiayu seven kilometers east of the defense line, and the positions of the 5th Infantry Wing and the 10th Cavalry Wing of the Japanese Eighth Division stationed in Dalonggou due north, and the positions of the 36th Brigade of the 6th Division of the Japanese Army stationed in Liujiazhuang and Houjiayu. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

The Japanese were well-trained, and after a brief period of panic, they quickly stabilized their position, and fifteen minutes later the Japanese troops returned fire one after another.

The weather conditions in the remnant winter season outside the gate are very bad, although the snowflakes that often float in the sky have long disappeared, but with the gradual rise of temperature, the snow all over the mountains, the ice on the small rivers and streams began to melt, the wet and cold weather and the muddy ground with the snow and water thawed, making the trenches dug out in a hurry soft and abnormal, the hot surface after the explosion of dense shells and the hot air flow in the air, easily melted the ice and snow, and the water in the trenches flowed instantly. The officers and men of both warring sides have undergone the most severe tests since the beginning of the war.

The 20,000 soldiers of the 1st Independent Brigade of the Hu Jialin Independent Division of the Central Army Corps, the 50th Brigade of the 17th Lu Yixuan Division, the Yu Zhaolin Brigade of the Fourth Army Corps, and the Zhao Tingfang Brigade of the Fifth Army Corps were prostrate on the snow about two kilometers in front of their positions.

The 4,000 soldiers of Zhao Tingfang's brigade were even more red-faced, their hearts were beating faster, and their hearts were extremely nervous, seeing the position behind them splashing mud and rocks and thick smoke billowing under the Japanese artillery fire, and they couldn't help but admire the wisdom of Hu Jialin, who temporarily served as the commander-in-chief of the front line -- two hours ago, the officers and men of Zhao Tingfang's brigade, who had received an urgent order from the front-line headquarters, were severely reprimanded by the commander and forced by the murderous gaze of the military police supervision team of a company of the Central Army. It took two hours to avoid the surveillance of the Japanese outpost and quietly climb to the current position, at least half of the officers and soldiers at that time were panting for breath while worrying about the Central Army and Hu Jialin's mother.

But now, in the deafening screams of artillery shells and explosions, the officers and men of Zhao Tingfang's brigade have understood that the continuous violent shaking from the ground has not only touched their bodies, but also touched a weak part of their hearts.

For the Kwantung Army, which is determined to forge ahead and strive to achieve greater results on the front line of the Great Wall, the active counterattack of the defenders of Kuancheng is expected, for which the Kwantung Army has full ideological preparations and a series of response plans, and the Japanese army is only quite uncomfortable with the greatly increased number of defenders of Kuancheng who once again use the kind of active attack that may be launched at any time 24 hours a day. This strong army does not seem to be affected by any weather at all, as long as they want to fight, even if it is a knife in the sky, they will do it desperately, this kind of strong and almost barbaric style, so that the Kwantung Army up and down is very headache, but also very admirable, although they know that the An Jia Army needs to overcome many unimaginable difficulties for this, and even a lot of non-combat attrition because of this, but at least this spirit is admirable.

Compared with the rational analysis and close attention to the development of the war situation that the generals of the Kwantung Army Command were urgently carrying out, the generals and commanders of the North China General Headquarters in Beiping City lacked a lot; more than 20 generals of various armies sat around a wide long table covered with thick blue flannel, while enjoying the best fragrant tea, and casually listening to Yang Jie, commander-in-chief of the Central Army Corps, report on the battle situation and state the operational objectives of the "Kuancheng Campaign," while pondering in their hearts what impact this battle would have on their troops. Why did the Central Staff Committee suddenly summon the generals of all ministries to an emergency meeting at three o'clock in the morning? Why didn't you inform yourself of the battle plan and launch time of the so-called "Battle of Kuancheng" before? As a result, a lot of negative thoughts naturally arose, which also made the generals of the various ministries who were united under the banner of anti-Japanese resistance and did not have much self-cultivation and overall view face the problem more emotionally.

Young Marshal Zhang Xueliang sat in the main position in the north, sitting with Huang Shaohong, head of the Central Staff and Minister of the Interior, he was a little cramped and uneasy, and quietly looked at Yang Jie in the first place in the left row twice and An Yi in the second place, Yang Jie calmly read out the report, stating many matters of the "Battle of Kuancheng", An Yi smoked silently, his eyes looked at the void above him, as if he was thinking calmly, and as if he didn't care about anything, there was no smile on the serious Jun face, and there was even a trace of uncomfortable indifference.

In addition to Huang Shaohong and Yang Jie, I am afraid that only the young marshal Zhang Xueliang understands that the plan of the "Kuancheng Campaign" was formulated by An Yi, and only he can understand An Yi's bitterness of being so meticulous about secrecy, because before this, the actions and military secrets of the armies in North China will be mastered by the Japanese army in advance, and the Japanese army's pervasive intelligence system is chilling, but there is nothing to be done, you must know that the Northeast Army was originally developed and strengthened with the strong support of the Japanese. Coupled with the pessimism and disappointment that prevailed among the Chinese people after 918, it is conceivable that there will be many renegades and traitors, at least now the young marshal has a sense of despair that the situation is almost out of control. If An Yi hadn't decisively launched the "Anti-Rape Operation" some time ago, which severely damaged the intelligence agencies of the Japanese army throughout the Pingjin area, the current situation may be even worse.

After Yang Jie finished speaking, he nodded to the young marshal Zhang Xueliang and Huang Shaohong on the main seat, Huang Shaohong and Zhang Xueliang discussed in a low voice for a moment, facing the generals who were talking to each other, pressing their hands to signal quiet, and then said loudly:

"Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to ask General An Yi to talk about the specific steps of this battle."

An Yi just finished reading the battle report that Shen Fengdao had just handed over, and returned it to Shen Fengdao who was waiting on the side after closing the folder, stood up and raised his wrist to look at his watch, nodded politely to everyone, and began to report the latest battle situation:

"It's 6:32 a.m., and the ground offensive on the front line in Kuancheng has been going on for twenty-two minutes. Let me tell you another piece of news, General Zhang Zuoxiang, auxiliary commander of the Northeast Army, and General Wan Fulin, commander-in-chief of the Fourth Army Corps, are now in Kuancheng, together with General Hu Jialin, commander-in-chief of the front, commanding various units to fight against Japan. ”

The generals in the room were restless again, didn't this assistant marshal still inspect the defense in Chengde yesterday? Is it that this battle has been prepared for a long time and we are not qualified to know, otherwise how could the auxiliary commander suddenly appear in Kuancheng? The discussion is getting louder and louder, and some people's mentality is gradually unbalanced, and their emotions become agitated.

Seeing this, An Yi smiled faintly, did not speak, and sat down silently, very patiently waiting for everyone to automatically calm down.

Peng Zhenguo, commander of the First Army of the Anti-Japanese Volunteer Army in the three eastern provinces, who led his troops to retreat to the front line of Longhua, asked loudly: "General An, I have a question I want to ask General An, why didn't you tell these people in advance about such a big military operation?" Do you not believe us, or do you think that only the Central Army is the main force in the War of Resistance? ”

An Yi smiled bitterly and shook his head: "Originally, I didn't want to ask this question, let alone make some explanations, but since General Peng asked, I had to tell the truth." Everyone guessed correctly, the battle plan for the 'Battle of Kuancheng' was formulated by me under my leadership, but it was not a plan that had been prepared and premeditated in advance, but it was only started yesterday afternoon and perfected at 12 o'clock last night, during which this battle plan was approved by Commander Huang Jikuan and Commander Yang Gengguang, and was corrected by the two commanders on the key issues. Here, allow me to apologize to all of you, apologize to the young marshal, and apologize to General Fu Zuoyi, the commander-in-chief of the Seventh Army Corps, who was kept by me but didn't know what was going on. ”

Speaking of this, An Yi stood up respectfully, bowed to the generals, then raised his head and said with a heavy face: "The reason why I didn't tell you is entirely because in the past two months or so, there have been such and such leaks in all departments of our army in North China.

"In Ningcheng on the Eastern Front alone, we captured seven Japanese spies in a row, searched out three radio stations, and also captured two Japanese spies hidden in the army from the Eighth Brigade and the Provisional Fourth Division, one of whom was also the confidential section chief of the Provisional Fourth Division, and it was precisely because of this person's leakage that the two battalions of the Air Defense Force of the Central Army suffered a catastrophe, but fortunately, the two battalion commanders strictly followed the orders of their superiors to run after the fight, and fortunately received air support from the Eleventh Air Brigade, Only then did they retreat from the indiscriminate bombardment of three Japanese fighters.

"It is precisely because of this painful lesson that we have to keep the important battle plan of the 'Kuancheng Campaign' strictly secret, and the battle situation is changing rapidly, and the plan is also hastily formulated...... If you think about it, it took less than seven hours to complete the plan, and I would like to ask for your understanding that we could not notify you in advance. ”

The generals had nothing to say at this time, and the conference room fell silent all of a sudden.

What An Yi said was the truth, in fact, even if he couldn't believe this explanation, there was no way, An Yi's reasons were very sufficient, even the dignified young marshal and Fu Zuoyi, the general of the Jin Sui Army who came to Beiping for a meeting on behalf of Yan Xishan, didn't know the battle plan of this "Kuancheng Campaign", and others didn't dare to worry about their identities and continued to challenge An Yi.

An Yi nodded gratefully to the young marshal who was smiling and silently encouraging and Fu Zuoyi, who was deeply impressed by the Japanese army's pervasive intelligence system, and began to get down to business:

"Ladies and gentlemen, just now Chief Yang Gengguang has given a detailed introduction to the situation and purpose of the 'Kuancheng Campaign', and what I will report to you next is the progress that has been made and the requirements for the next operation.

"Before stating these circumstances, I would like to answer the discussion of several colleagues just now, why do you call this counterattack the 'Battle of Kuancheng'? This is not because I am rejoicing in my success and grandstanding, but because the Japanese army facing Kuancheng has undergone great changes, and Dalonggou, eight kilometers north of Kuancheng, is the 5th Infantry Wing and the 10th Cavalry Wing of the 8th Division of the Japanese Army, with a total strength of more than 9,000 people; In the direction of Liujiazhuang and Houjiayu, the 23rd Infantry Wing and the 45th Infantry Wing of the 36th Brigade of the 6th Division of the Japanese Army were respectively, with a total strength of more than 17,000 troops. To the east of the Sixth Division, there is also the 14th Independent Mixed Brigade of the Japanese Army, the brigade commander is called the Ministry Service Bingjiro, which is the most elite unit of the Kwantung Army, with one more artillery wing and one tank brigade than ordinary brigades, with a total strength of 11,500 people, and it is very likely that they will suddenly join the battlefield in the middle and late stages of the operation and turn the battlefield situation in one fell swoop. ”

The generals were in an uproar, their faces were all stunned, and at this time they realized that the original small Kuancheng had become the focus of confrontation between China and Japan, not counting the still unknown subordinate service brigades, just the Japanese army faced by the defenders of Kuancheng was as high as more than 26,000 people, almost equal to the pressure on the direction of Chengde, or even greater. The generals also woke up to the fact that An Yi was very correct and objective in calling this counterattack a "battle", and if it was someone else, I am afraid that the word "Armageddon" would have to be used.

After that, as An Yi answered everyone's questions and introduced the battle situation one by one in simple terms, everyone finally understood An Yi's good intentions, and they also deeply admired him for stepping forward at such a critical time and sending the most elite and the only two divisions that can be mobilized to meet the battle.

An Yi did not stop, glanced at the watch on his wrist, and once again announced a bombshell news: "Ladies and gentlemen, it is now 7:03, and the sixty-nine fighters of the 11th and 12th Air Brigades of the Central Army have probably reached the sky over Kuancheng and launched a fierce bombing and air attack on the Japanese army to cooperate with the offensive launched by our ground forces.

"If this battle is done well, under the command of the auxiliary commander and commander-in-chief Wan and deputy commander Hu Jialin, the 16,000 soldiers of the independent division may be able to inflict heavy losses on the 5th Infantry Wing and the 10th Cavalry Wing of the 8th Division, and contain this Japanese army on the Dalonggou line, forcing the 8th Division to draw reinforcements, thereby reducing the pressure on the 5th Army in the Chengde direction. The battle is ongoing, and I will keep you informed. ”

The audience was full of emotions and discussions, and many people looked at An Yi, who had already sat down, their eyes full of surprise and doubt, and they all seemed to have the same question: Is this possible?