Datong, the headquarters of the 36th Army.

Knowing that Tangshan was successfully recovered, everyone was confident and encouraged, and the mood was very relaxed and happy.

In the command hall, all the high-ranking members of the 36th Group Army were also happy, and with the recovery of Tangshan, the next battle would be much easier.

Now, everyone has a great choice, either to recover Beiping and Tianjin, or to attack Shijiazhuang and force the Beijing-Tianjin region from the south.

It stands to reason that there are now a large number of troops of the 36th Group Army on the periphery of Beiping and Tianjin, and they should attack Beiping or Tianjin first, but Zhang Yunfei has his own ideas.

Zhang Yunfei is going to hit Shijiazhuang first this time.

With a plan in mind, Zhang Yunfei smiled slightly and said: "Comrades, we have now recovered Tangshan, and the next goal is to fight Shijiazhuang." ”

"Oh! The next target: are we going to hit Shijiazhuang? ”

Many people were surprised, everyone didn't expect that Zhang Yunfei would fight Shijiazhuang.

Zhang Yunfei looked around, and seeing that everyone was puzzled, he couldn't help but patiently explain: "Comrades! Beiping and Tianjin are the two largest cities in North China, and if we recover these two cities in the next stage, according to our strength, there will certainly be no problem. ”

After a slight pause and clearing his throat, Zhang Yunfei immediately continued: "However, because these two places are important places in North China, the resistance of the little devils will be quite fierce, and maybe our losses will be relatively large." ”

"If we recover Shijiazhuang first, it will be much easier to fight, according to intelligence, the little devil is currently only two and a half divisions in Shijiazhuang and its vicinity, and the 54th Division, which was disabled by us before, can only be regarded as half a division at best."

"And we have more than 30,000 people in the 1st Column on the periphery of Shijiazhuang, and more than 10,000 people in the 7th Column, in addition, the Eighth Route Army in North China can also cooperate with us in combat, so if we fight Shijiazhuang, we will be much easier."

After listening to Zhang Yunfei's words, everyone slowly gave up their plan to fight Beiping or Tianjin immediately, and decided to fight Shijiazhuang in the next step.

So, everyone expressed their support for Zhang Yunfei's decision, and in the next stage, they will fight Shijiazhuang.

Seeing that everyone agreed on the same opinion, Zhang Yunfei immediately said with a straight face: "Send a report to Yan'an immediately, explain the situation, and in the next stage, we will recover Shijiazhuang and ask the Eighth Route Army to cooperate with us in the battle." ”

The 36 th Group Army has more than 50,000 troops outside Shijiazhuang, and the air force can still cooperate in the operation, and is fully capable of cleaning up the little devils in Shijiazhuang.

Now, as the 36th Group Army has become stronger and stronger, and has successively established outstanding military exploits, in order to reassure the central authorities, Zhang Yunfei has generally lowered his posture.

Not long after, a telegram was sent to Yan'an, and on the same day, Yan'an replied, agreeing with the decision of the 36th Group Army.

In fact, Zhang Yunfei first wants to recover Shijiazhuang, and he still has his own ideas, but the time is not yet ripe to tell everyone.

First of all, after recovering Shijiazhuang, Zhang Yunfei could lead the Eighth Route Army all the way to the north, and at present, the Eighth Route Army also has more than 300,000 regular troops, and the weapon situation is also greatly improved and improved compared with before.

Zhang Yunfei planned to lead the Eighth Route Army to advance northward, and then recover Beiping and Tianjin, the important places in North China, and the 36th Group Army only needed to grasp a few large cities, and some small and medium-sized cities could be handed over to the Eighth Route Army.

In this way, the entire North China will be recovered, and the big cities in North China will be controlled by Zhang Yunfei, and more than half of the small and medium-sized cities should be controlled by the Eighth Route Army.

At present, [***] in North China is also attacking the little devils, and has also recovered several small county towns.

Zhang Yunfei predicts that with his victory all the way, as long as the little devils are defeated, this kind of tentative attack will soon become an active attack, and [***] will immediately seize the territory.

Therefore, Zhang Yunfei must control the area and quantity of land occupied by [***], preferably the recovery of North China, which is basically the same as the small and medium-sized cities controlled by the Eighth Route Army.

However, without his own help, the 300,000 Eighth Route Army would definitely not be able to grab nearly one million [***], so Zhang Yunfei must contribute to keep the two sides in a basic balance, preferably equal.

This is not only the case in North China, but it is best to do the same in the process of recovering the whole country in the future, and only by maintaining this balance can we avoid civil war after the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan.

At that time, the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, [***] and the area controlled by the Eighth Route Army were basically the same, and the strength of the two armies was almost the same. At that time, even if some people want to fight a civil war, they must look at their own attitude and see whether the vast number of officers and men of the 36 th Group Army agree or not.

As a traversing person, Zhang Yunfei does not want a civil war, so from now on, Zhang Yunfei must work hard to maintain this balance and form a three-legged situation of the Eighth Route Army, [***], and the 36th Group Army.

Of course, these are just the thoughts in Zhang Yunfei's heart, and at present, I can't tell you about it, but when the time is ripe in the future, if there is a chance, Zhang Yunfei will communicate with several high-level members of the 36th Group Army.

On the third day after the recovery of Tangshan, the battle for the recovery of Shijiazhuang also began.

The first column has been besieging Shijiazhuang for some time, and everyone has long been ready for everything, and everyone has long wanted to try it.

Some time ago, I saw that the various columns had recovered Chengde and Qinhuangdao, and severely damaged the reinforcements of the little devil Kwantung Army, and the day before yesterday, Tangshan was recovered.

Seeing that the various columns were fighting vigorously, but the 1st column had been standing still, just confronting the little devils stationed in Shijiazhuang from afar, whether it was the soldiers or the commanders of the various units, everyone could not hold back for a long time.

Today, as soon as each regiment received the battle order from the 1st Column, the soldiers cheered and happily made the final preparations before the attack.

Comrade Wang Haiyang, commander of the 1st Column, also had a ruddy complexion and was full of energy with a telescope in his hand, looking at the advancing ranks of soldiers in the distance.

Farther away, Wang Haiyang could even faintly see a large number of fortifications built by the little devils, there was no natural danger outside Shijiazhuang City, and all around were endless, very flat North China Plain.

In order to be able to defend the big city of Shijiazhuang, the little devils built a large number of fortifications, long trenches, strong cement strongholds, and even barbed wire in some places within dozens of kilometers outside Shijiazhuang.

In the past few days, the little devils have seen that a large number of troops of the 36th Group have shown signs of attacking Shijiazhuang on a large scale, and the little devils have hurried to build some fortifications, and they have seen that the 36th Group Army has a large number of combat vehicles, and the little devils have also temporarily dug some anti-tank trenches.

This time, the policy adopted by everyone was the tactic of encircling Shijiazhuang, with the entire 1st Column, a part of the 7th Column of more than 10,000 people, and more than a dozen regiments of the Eighth Route Army that had rushed to participate in the battle in the past two days.

With so many troops, they will slowly advance to Shijiazhuang from all directions, and will break through the defense lines built by the little devils, and finally achieve the goal of completely annihilating the little devils and recovering Shijiazhuang.

As for the little devils' reinforcements, don't worry for the time being, the little devils' troops in the Beijing-Tianjin area can only protect themselves at present, and they can't be sent south to reinforce Shijiazhuang for the time being.

Even if the little devil wants to mobilize troops from these areas for reinforcements, the distance is too far, and the second is to attack a lot of the Eighth Route Army and [***] defense areas, as long as the little devil's troops come to reinforce, they will definitely be blocked by the Eighth Route Army and [***], not ten days and half a month, I am afraid that they will not reach Shijiazhuang.

Because of this, Zhang Yunfei dared to adopt such a bold offensive strategy, pressing all the troops outside Shijiazhuang and attacking the little devils from all sides at the same time, without thinking about his own back.

In order to adopt such tactics, Zhang Yunfei also waited for two days until all the dozen or so regiments of the Eighth Route Army had reached the periphery of Shijiazhuang before he began to order the troops to attack.

Putting down the binoculars, Wang Haiyang, the commander of the 1st column, looked at his watch, it was almost eight o'clock, and the time for the general attack was coming soon.

Sure enough, a signal flare rose into the sky in the distance, emitting a dazzling light, and many soldiers saw this signal flare, as you know, the general offensive began.

The first thing to be attacked by the soldiers was the outermost line of defense of the little devils, which was at least a dozen kilometers away from Shijiazhuang, and many little devils were stationed in the defense line.

Many little devils also saw the signal flares launched by the 36th Group Army, and many little devils thought, is the 36th Group Army on the opposite side going to attack?

Sure enough, the offensive of the 36th Army began immediately.

Led by tanks, armored vehicles and off-road vehicles, tens of thousands of soldiers slowly approached the outer defense line of the little devils.

This attack was the outermost defense line of Shijiazhuang, most of the soldiers participated in the battle, in order to cope with the huge attack of the [***] team, the little devils also showed 30,000 or 40,000 soldiers on the outer defense line.

With tens of thousands of troops of the 36th Group Army and more than a dozen regiments of the Eighth Route Army attacking the little devils together, the battle immediately entered a white heat.

(To be continued)