As soon as Qiao Anbang's words came out, everyone, including Li Pinxian, was taken aback, and Li Pinxian asked confusedly, "What does General Qiao mean by this?" ”

"General Li is a veteran of the party-state and has been fighting horses for decades, and the battle of Xuzhou is not a crime of war, let alone the fault of General Li and the officers and men of the 11th Group Army. Although Qiao Anbang's words seem to be humble, he is also telling the truth, Li Pinxian first participated in the Nanchang Uprising in his early years, and later graduated from the first phase of Baoding Military Academy.

After graduation, Tang Shengzhi, who followed his old classmate and boss, started from platoon commander to now become the commander-in-chief of the general group army of the National Revolutionary Army.

At that time, on the battlefield of Xuzhou, due to the secret preservation of the strength of the Tang Enbo Department of the Central Army to eliminate dissent, and the fact that the army was indeed in full swing, when the 20th Division of the Yue Army landed in Haizhou, the defeat of Xuzhou was a foregone conclusion.

Although Li Pinxian's troops were superior, they were affected by the defeat at the front, and finally fled after being defeated by the 20th Division of the Yue Army, which was in full swing.

Speaking of this, Qiao Anbang said: "Fortunately, after the bloody struggle of the majority of soldiers, now the battle situation in Xuzhou has taken a once-in-a-lifetime turn, which is a great opportunity to annihilate the enemy and make meritorious contributions. ”

"However, after the commission, Heling has been removed from the post of commander-in-chief of the group army." Li Pinxian said a little gloomily.

"This General Li doesn't have to worry, if General Li is willing, I will ask General Li to stay and serve as the deputy commander-in-chief of my 11th Army!" Qiao Anbang said and stepped forward to Li Pinxian and said: "Brother Heling, in fact, what is the right and the secondary, but whenever there is a battle, you and my brother will discuss and decide!" ”

After Qiao Anbang finished speaking, Li Pinxian was stunned, and kept looking Qiao Anbang up and down, as if he wanted to see something from Qiao Anbang's face.

However, what he saw was the sincerity of Qiao Anbang's face, without the slightest hypocrisy.

"Brother Heling, now that the national crisis is at hand, please take the overall situation first and work together to fight together!" Qiao Anbang was afraid that Li Pinxian would not be able to save face, so he spoke again.

Li Pinxian took a deep breath, and finally stood up and respectfully saluted Qiao Anbang with a standard military salute and said loudly: "Humble Li Pinxian, welcome to the general seat!" ”

Historically, Li Pinxian was able to maneuver between Jiang Gong, Wang and the various forces of the Gui family, and finally became a second-level general, what did he rely on? It depends on his ability to be a man and do things.

Qiao Anbang has already said this part, if he doesn't accept Qiao Anbang's retention, then he is not Li Pinxian.

Now that he has been relieved of his post as commander-in-chief of the 11th Army, and his future is uncertain, Qiao Anbang suddenly threw an olive branch to him at this time, undoubtedly giving him a chance to start over.

Although he gave Qiao Anbang a hand, Li Pinxian did not feel wronged, and he would not have any second thoughts for the time being, because as long as Qiao Anbang was here, as long as the Tiger Ben Army was strong enough, he would not stand on the wrong team, and his future would definitely soar in the future.

However, Li Pinxian did not consider Qiao Anbang's intention to retain himself, it is very likely that Qiao Anbang wanted to use his own hands to integrate the old department of the original 11th Group Army, which Li Pinxian has sufficient self-confidence, and his self-confidence comes from his mastery of the old department.

Now almost all of the 30,000 junior and senior officers of the 30,000 troops under his command were raised by himself, so he was confident that he would absolutely control these 30,000 old troops, so that he would not be afraid of Qiao Anbang's possible infiltration.

Seeing that Li Pinxian took the lead in saluting, several subordinates behind him did not dare to lag behind, and they all stepped forward to salute Qiao Anbang.

Because Qiao Anbang took the initiative to keep Li Pinxian, several people's impression of Qiao Anbang changed slightly.

However, Qiao Anbang knew several generals behind Li Pinxian, and in the face of Qiao Anbang's inquiring gaze, Li Pinxian hurriedly introduced a lieutenant general officer on the left behind him and said: "General seat, this is General Zhang Yichun, the lieutenant general of the 48th Army of my 11th Group Army." ”

"Oh!" Qiao Anbang nodded and saluted Zhang Yichun in return: "General Zhang is famous, Qiao has already heard of it!" In the Battle of Songhu, the general led tens of thousands of soldiers of the 48th Army to form a 10,000-person death squad to fight to the death with flesh and blood, which is really admirable! Qiao Anbang was very calm, but he was very shocked in his heart, this Zhang Yichun was a famous tiger general in the Gui family, and he was called Xiao Zhang Fei at that time.

As he spoke, Li Pinxian pointed to an officer beside Zhang Yichun and said, "This is Wei Yunsong, the general of my 31st Army!" (Note: General General and Army General are not the same, Wei Yunsong's military rank at this time is Army Lieutenant General and General Commander) "General Qiao is good! Wei Yunsong saluted Qiao Anbang very kindly.

Qiao Anbang nodded in return, but he was more and more happy in his heart, this Wei Yunsong is also a famous Gui general in history, in the original warlord melee period, he once relied on 3,000 Guangxi soldiers to hold Nanning alone for more than three months, which eventually led to the return of the 30,000 troops of the Yunnan army Longyun!

Then, Li Pinxian introduced several division commanders to Qiao Anbang one by one, and after greeting them, Li Pinxian, Wei Yunsong and others welcomed Qiao Anbang into the city.

On the way into the city, Qiao Anbang was happy and sad in his heart, happy that these generals were all famous anti-Japanese generals in history, and the Guangxi army was brave and good at fighting, especially good at hand-to-hand combat, climbing mountains, and very able to bear hardships and stand hard work, which will be an indispensable source of soldiers for the formation of mountain troops in the future.

The most important thing is that whether it is Li Pinxian, Zhang Yichun, and Wei Yunsong, all of them are experienced in a hundred battles and have rich experience in leading troops; as long as their troops are equipped with advanced German-style equipment and supplemented by some advanced tactical and theoretical guidance, they and their 30,000 old units can be quickly reborn and display their amazing combat effectiveness.

What is worrying is that the remnants of the 11th Group Army are all the Guangxi Army and the Gui Army, and now Qiao Anbang has just woken up, and Chairman Jiang is really well-intentioned in merging the Tiger Ben Army with the old headquarters of the former 11th Group Army into the 11th Group Army.

On the surface, the 11th Army experienced the defeat of Xuzhou, suffered heavy losses, and its strength was seriously reduced, and it was nothing wrong to rebuild the 11th Army with the Tiger Army.

But in fact, the 31st Army and the 48th Army of the 11th Group Army were both the troops of the Gui Department Li and Bai, and now although the name of the 11th Group Army has not changed, the military commander has been replaced by Qiao Anbang.

Thinking of this, Qiao Anbang couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat, once Li Bai and the others held a grudge and did not cooperate with themselves to besiege the main force of the North China Army, the strategic goal of gathering and annihilating the main force of the North China Army and south of Xuzhou would be completely defeated.

Fortunately, Qiao Anbang had a whim to keep Li Pinxian, as long as Li Pinxian was there, Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi would not worry about their starting troops being swallowed by Qiao Anbang.

After entering the headquarters of the 11th Group Army in the city, Qiao Anbang immediately asked Yali to draft a telegram and send it to Chairman Chiang, who was far away in Wuhan, to the effect that Li Pinxian should be retained as the deputy commander-in-chief of the 11th Group Army, so that Qiao Anbang could command the troops to fight.

At the same time that Qiao Anbang was sending electricity to Wuhan, Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi, who were far away in Kaifeng, were also discussing the news that the Tiger Ben Army was reorganized into the 11th Group Army.

Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi had no opinion on the expansion of the Tiger Army, but Chairman Chiang sent a telegram to transfer the 31st and 48th armies of the Gui faction to the Tiger Ben Army to reorganize the 11th Group Army, which infringed on the vital interests of the Gui faction.

"Jiansheng, what do you think about this?" In the Fifth Theater Headquarters, Li Zongren asked Bai Chongxi with a frown.

"This is a very good move by Jiang someone, not to mention that we and the Tiger Ben Army are now fighting together, and we and the Tiger Ben Army are well water and do not violate the river water, everyone stands under the banner of the national united front and joins forces to resist, which is understandable, but now Jiang does not want to see us and the Tiger Ben Army in peace, or even an alliance."

Li Zongren agreed with Bai Chongxi's remarks, although it is now a period of resistance, but the open and secret struggle within the national political axe and the mutual exclusion of various factions in the army have never stopped.

After saying this, Bai Chongxi said again: "Now, Jiang has sent a telegram to the main forces of the two armies of our Gui family under the command of Qiao Anbang, if we turn against the Tiger Ben Army, this is what he is willing to see." ”

"So what are we going to do?" Li Zongren asked.

"Wait and see!" Bai Chongxi looked at the sky outside the courtyard and said thoughtfully.

……………………………… Nanjing, the headquarters of the Central China Front Army.

In the war room of the headquarters, the atmosphere was solemn, and the current commander Shunroku Hata had a very ugly face, just now they received a message of reproach from the base camp, Prime Minister Fumima Konoe and several ministers of war sprayed the blood of Shunroku Hata in the telegram, and strictly ordered him to rearm as soon as possible to wait for another battle.

Before this attack, he had suggested that the offensive be postponed and that the occupied areas that had been occupied should be fixed with the existing forces, but the base camp ignored his suggestion and still forcibly crossed the river and headed north under the condition that the Third Flying Corps directly under the Central China Front Army lost its combat capability.

In the end, the Central China Front, which had no air supremacy, was suppressed by the Tiger Ben Army and fell into passivity, and the logistics supply lines and its own artillery units were destroyed and suppressed, which ultimately led to the complete failure of this strategic offensive.

Shunroku Hata was pondering, when suddenly, a chief of communications staff suddenly walked in quickly: "Your Excellency Commander, the Ninth Division is calling!" ”

"Huh? The Ninth Division? Haven't they already withdrawn to Hefei? What's the matter? Shunroku Hata asked, looking up.

"Yes, the main force of the 9th Division has retreated to the outskirts of Hefei, but they have lost contact with the 7th Infantry Wing, the main force led by the division commander Ji Jia Liangfu." Communications Staff Officer.

"Lost contact? How's Ryosuke Yoshika doing now? Shunroku Hata became worried.

"Today, the search troops sent by the Ninth Division rescued two soldiers of the 7th Infantry Wing who were lucky enough to escape from northern Anhui, and these two soldiers confirmed that the commander of the 9th Division, Lieutenant General Ji Jia Liangsuke, and the 7th Infantry Wing led by him were heavily surrounded by the Zhina Army in the area of Yangqiao Town, west of Yingzhou, and General Ji Jia Liangfu cut his own abdomen, and the entire 7th Infantry Wing was wiped out!" The communications staff officer replied.

"What? Ji Jiajun has a seppuku? Hata Junroku was shocked when he heard this, and then said with a look of regret: "Ji Jiajun is an excellent emperor [***] person, and his death will cause immeasurable losses to the empire!" ”

(To be continued)