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On 7 February, the Mu army began to attack the Great Wall line, garrisoning the 32nd Army of Wenzhen, the 67th Army of Wang Yizhe stationed at Gubeikou, and the 29th Army of Song Zheyuan stationed at Xifengkou engaged in fierce battles with the enemy. Zhang Xueliang, commander of the Northeast Army, also publicly telegraphed on this day www.biquge.info announced that he had left the field.

In the two consecutive days of fighting, Wang Yizhebu, who occupied the solid defense of the highlands around Gubeikou, fought very hard, and several highlands successively gave rise to repeated battles of attrition; Yan Xishan's ten years of painstaking management finally showed results, and the Jin Sui army, which was equipped with a large number of self-made artillery and large-caliber mortars, fought easily and steadily, and the Japanese army paid more than 300 casualties, and it was difficult to get close to the defenders' positions after three charges; Under the command of Song Zheyuan and Liu Ruming, the soldiers were fearlessly pulled out to fight, always thinking that the defenders would retreat from the Japanese army, and were beaten back again and again by the brothers of the 29th Army. Angry. When the Japanese army brought in the artillery team, the defenders who took the initiative to attack had already retreated, and the angry Japanese army set up a large-scale attack, and the defenders' hidden artillery fire suddenly roared, and the Japanese army was overwhelmed, and retreated again and again, and the brothers of the 29th Army suddenly rushed out to cover up and kill, and the previous battle achieved excellent results of destroying more than 400 enemies.

In the Miyun Frontline Headquarters, Xu Tingyao, commander of the 17th Army, Hu Jialin, deputy commander of the army, Yang Guan, chief of staff of the Independent Division, Huang Jie, commander of the Second Division, Guan Linzheng, commander of the 25th Division, and Du Xingming, deputy commander of the 25th Division, faced the sand table and had a heated discussion.

In the face of the Japanese ground artillery fire and the repeated bombardment of aircraft, Wang Yizhebu, who had suffered more and more battle losses, estimated that it would be difficult for him to support more than three days. Although the brothers of the Northeast Army fought very bravely under the leadership of Wang Yizhe, there was really not much room to fight back in the face of the superior artillery fire of the Japanese army, and the eighteen mortars sent by An Yi were half bombed by the Japanese army in the battle.

Looking at the map, Xu Tingyao and his generals were very clear, even if their two divisions were on top. can only be beaten passively like Wang Yizhebu. Although at the moment, the whole army is gearing up. The morale was unprecedentedly high, and all regiments and battalions submitted letters of request for blood one after another, and frequently asked for battle with the intention of dying, but courage alone was far from enough, and there was no room for maneuver in the passive defensive position. Due to the limitations of the terrain, the defenders had a rare chance to charge. But the strategic location of Gubeikou is too important. It must be resolutely defended, and no matter what the cost, the invaders will not be allowed to step into the Great Wall. Therefore, the difficult problem facing Xu Tingyao and the generals is how to strike at the enemy to the greatest extent and reduce consumption.

After discussing for a long time, no one could come up with a better way, Guan Linzheng thought for a long time and couldn't figure it out, turned to Hu Jialin and asked, "Chief Hu, if Senior Brother An is here, how will he fight?" ”

"That's right! Senior Brother An, this cunning guy. Always able to come up with ways that others can't think of. Huang Jie also leaned over. Echo softly.

Hu Jialin shook his head slightly: "It is estimated that he has no good way here, under such terrain conditions, no matter how much the whole army comes up, he can only defend one place." Passive defense, fighting is attrition, fighting is will, and there is almost no room for choice. ”

"Or does the beard know the little brother best, so many experienced brothers are at a loss, what good can the little brother do? Haha". Before An Yiren arrived, the voice had already come in.

The generals looked up, and now An Yi led Gu Changfeng, Yang Jiuxiao, and Fang Pengxiang, the chief of operations, and other generals and colonels were already standing in the door and raising their hands to salute, Xu Tingyao and others hurriedly returned the salute and hurriedly greeted them.

Guan Linzheng glanced up and down, and sighed: "Xiao Yi, our brothers all thought that you were either visiting the wounded soldiers in Baoding Hospital, or you were in the Langfang camp with a big temper and refused to see guests. I didn't expect you to come here. How? Want to open it? ”

An Yi shouted loudly: "The senior brothers also look down on the little brother too much, right?" Could it be that the An Yi you know is just that? With the heart of a villain, the ancients did not deceive me".

Everyone laughed and scolded, and they all fought back verbally against An Yi, and the originally tense room was immediately filled with laughter.

Xu Tingyao politely shook hands with Gu Changfeng and Yang Jiuxiao, knowing that An Yi was coming, and when he came back from Liaoxi with two nets, he must have come to help him, and he was happy, so he invited everyone to sit down at the conference table without commanding. The clever staff officers had already brought the tea.

"Don't say it, I really think you're busy with the aftermath of the various departments, General Ji Kuan and General Geng Guang are either having meetings or inspecting the front line these days. I can't see them. Xu Tingyao is still so calm, not arrogant or impatient.

An Yi nodded, sighed and said: My brother has not been easy these days, condolences to the soldiers to comfort the wounded, and he is very busy" Yesterday, I heard that the two generals Shang Zhen and Song Zheyuan fought beautifully in Lengkou and Xifengkou, and the younger brother felt that he couldn't chill the hearts of the front-line soldiers, so he immediately distributed a batch of ammunition, food and medicine from the Langfang camp to the front-line military station of the two armies, which can be regarded as expressing the heart of the younger brother.

"I was busy until today, so I sent the last batch of supplies here, and I took the opportunity to come and see my brothers and sisters, and it is estimated that the transport convoy will arrive in two more hours.

Since one-third of the wounded brothers had already been sent to Hankou by special train to return to the old Nanchang Hospital by boat to recuperate, the two field hospitals in Langfang and Baoding were more relaxed. This time, Hu Tou brought his 80-member medical team from the field hospital of the 44th Division and some first-aid medicines, hoping to help. ”

The generals thanked Gu Changfeng one after another, and faced An Yi's mind of letting go of grievances and taking the overall situation into account. Very much admired.

Huang Jie said with some regret: "In the past two days, General Wang Yizhe led his troops to fight very hard, especially the bombing of Japanese planes, which caused heavy casualties to the brothers of the 67th Army, and it was only a bombing this morning. Let their three regiments withdraw from their positions in disgrace. I heard that there were only about 300 men left when the regiment was withdrawn. And most of them are wounded.

"The highlands inside and outside the Gubei Pass are hard stones. It was impossible to dig trench bunkers at all, let alone use small stones to build positions, for fear that the shells would not kill people when they hit a shell, but the stones that rushed up would kill people, so the 67th Army suffered heavy casualties but was helpless to hold on to the present. It's not easy for them anymore.

"Let's weigh the mind and think that it is the same for our two divisions to go up, in addition to the dead shoulder, Zong Zaoshuang, other methods, a few of our brothers and sisters have also discussed in private, if your two aviation groups still have a third of the fighters left, it is estimated that things will be much easier."

Xu Tingyao saw the hesitation flashing in An Yi's eyes, and immediately understood that An Yi and his staff team must have had a special discussion about this, based on Xu Tingyao's familiarity with An Yi and their deep friendship with each other. Xu Tingyao didn't need to be polite to An Yi at all: Xiao Yi, there is a way, right? ”

An Yi smiled bitterly: "Where is there any way?" I can only say that I have some ideas, but they are very immature. Before coming, the younger brother and the brothers discussed the defense of Gubeikou, all along, the former enemy command has been paying close attention to the situation of each army, after summarizing the battle situation of the two days, senior brother Zhao Rui believes that the key points of this battle are Xifengkou and Gubeikou, these two passes are the gateway to Beiping, and the Japanese army can only capture these two passes. In order to cross the Yanshan Mountains and drive into the Beiping line on a large scale, it is relatively easy to go from Lengkou to Shanhaiguan in the east.

The younger brother agreed with Senior Brother Zhao's opinion, and the younger brother insisted that Xifengkou was compared with Gubeikou. Gubeikou is much more difficult to defend. The reason is exactly the same as what Senior Brother Guan just said. Under the present extremely difficult conditions, there is almost no other way than to increase firepower and reduce the consumption of troops, and the most effective way to reduce the consumption can only be to increase the anti-aircraft firepower on the ground, because the bombing of Japanese planes poses the greatest threat to us. Judging from the situation in these two days, most of the casualties of the 67th Army were caused by aircraft. There is no cover on the heights, there is nowhere to hide, so each bombardment brings serious attrition.

For this reason, the younger brother asked the air defense brigade commander Tu Zhirong's opinion, and Zhirong came up with a way that surprised the younger brother and all the brothers, but if it can be done, it will effectively curb the air superiority of the Japanese army and greatly reduce the casualties of our army, and the younger brother is not polite "Zhirong, you come to the front and talk about it well, it's all your own brother, don't be embarrassed." ”

Xu Tingyao and all the generals and colonels looked behind An Yi, Tu Zhirong, who had led the air defense unit to shoot down 31 Japanese planes in the past few months, had become a well-known anti-Japanese general throughout the country, and had been commended three times by the Central Military Commission and Chairman Chiang, and his air defense brigade had been awarded the glorious title of "Meritorious Brigade" by the Central Military Commission, and had won the fifth Flying Tiger Banner of the whole army.

Tu Zhirong hurriedly stood up amid the smiles of more than twenty generals, blushing and quite restrained. walked up to An Yi and said to everyone:

"In fact, the method is very simple, that is, to dismantle the anti-aircraft artillery on our combat vehicles, disassemble them and carry them to the four positions around the pass. However, in order to wield the maximum power of anti-aircraft artillery, the most important thing is to protect the artillery from being so easily destroyed by Japanese artillery fire and aircraft, which is the most basic condition, otherwise the plan cannot be implemented, and even if it is forcibly implemented, it will not survive, and it will not be able to play its due role. If "if you could give me three nights to build a position, I'd do it." ”

The generals were extremely excited, and Huang Jie said excitedly: "If we can successfully contain the Japanese planes, let alone three days, let's fight for Zhirong for six days!" ”

Everyone responded, and they all asked the army commander Xu Tingyao and the deputy army commander Hu Jialin to start it as soon as possible, and Xu Tingyao and Hu Jialin also thought that this was one. Very bold, very innovative ideas, if they can be implemented smoothly. It will certainly play a huge role, not to mention how many enemy planes can be defeated, as long as the Japanese planes cannot calmly come over and drop bombs under the resistance of anti-aircraft fire from all sides, the defensive battle will be won for the most part. The ground troops fought hard for firepower and will, and they were by no means under the rampant Japanese invaders. What's more, it still has a condescending terrain advantage, and if you count the artillery regiment of Hujialin's independent division and the mortars of the two machine gun battalions, if the Japanese invaders launch a large-scale attack. It can only be sent to death.

An Yi saw the expressions on the faces of the brothers, but Du Xingming, who seemed to show a little worry in his smile, made An Yi's heart move: "Senior Brother Du, junior brother wants to hear your opinion." ”

Du Xingming, who was unprepared, was stunned. The brothers who were talking enthusiastically immediately closed their mouths and looked at Du Xingming curiously.

Du Xingming rubbed his beard, which had not been shaved for five days, and glanced around, as if he was worried.

Xu Tingyao Lixuan understood what Du Xingming's concerns were, and immediately called the adjutant, whispered a few words in his ear, and the adjutant strode out, and soon arranged a strict cordon on the periphery of the command headquarters This is a large military camp shared by all departments, since the two divisions of the 17th Army were stationed, Wang Yizhe, the general of the 67th Army Reserve and the logistics department often came to visit and chat.

Du Xingming nodded gratefully to Xu Tingyao, stood up calmly and said, "Brother Zhirong's plan is admirable and very thoughtful. The younger brother thought about it for a while, and knew what Brother Zhirong's concerns were, although it was not clear how Brother Zhirong could build four positions of anti-aircraft artillery bunkers in just three nights, but judging from the engineering operation ability of Chief Hu's independent division, Chief Gu's 44th Division, and Senior Brother Lu's 17th Division, I absolutely believe that Brother Zhirong can do it.

"The reason why I am worried is not because I have doubts about the ability of Brother Zhirong and the brothers in the Air Defense Brigade, but because I am not worried about General Wang Yizhe's headquarters. I don't know if you've noticed? The mood of the Northeast Army brothers in this camp today has changed greatly. From the moment the news of the young marshal's announcement of the lower field arrived. I didn't hear laughter anymore, and in the afternoon, the younger brother went to their wounded barracks and walked around, and now he complained***, and his morale was worried! ”

The generals suddenly came to their senses, and the smiles on their faces were suddenly replaced by deep worry.

Seeing everyone looking at him, An Yi sighed and shook his head, and patted Gu Changfeng beside him: "Tiger head, come on." This question was the first one you raised, and now Senior Brother Du agrees with you, which shows that the hero sees the same thing. If we do not attach great importance to this issue, I am afraid that this battle will not be easy to fight. ”

Gu Changfeng said coldly: "You may all know what happened to me Gu, I don't want to say much, just two sentences: first, eat a trench and grow wise; Second, there are many more people in this world who are afraid of death than those who are not afraid of death. ”

The generals looked grim and silent, and they couldn't help but feel deeply worried about Gubeikou, who was fighting fiercely.

Xu Tingyao stood up and called Hu Jialin out. Ten minutes back and immediately a barrage of orders. The two brigades of Huang Jie and Guan Linzheng quickly moved into action and were ready to go.