Chapter 1118: Planning for Operations

Qiao Youhua and Zuo Quan rushed to Xuzhou with follow-up troops, including elite troops such as the guard regiment directly under the Corps, from Shandong along the Jiaoji Railway to Xuzhou by train, military trucks and other means of transportation.

Because in the period since the recovery of Shandong, with the joint efforts of the local garrison, the government and a large number of people, the Jiaoji Railway, which was originally destroyed in the war, has now been restored to unimpeded.

Qiao Youhua and the others were able to save the foot and choose the most economical way to march to Xuzhou.

The vanguard of the 4th Column consisted of two regiments of the first type, which were originally stationed in Shandong, and after receiving the assembly order for the southern expedition, they quickly marched south in accordance with the orders of Qiao Youhua, Zuo Quan, Li Yunlong, and others.

On the way, they received orders from Qiao and Zuo to change lanes to Xuzhou, and the commanders of the two regiments led their subordinates to change their routes to the east and arrived at Xuzhou, an important town in East China.

After resting in Xuzhou for a morning, Qiao Youhua's order was sent again, instructing the vanguard of the two regiments to leave Xuzhou immediately and move south along the Tianjin-Pudong Railway, aiming directly at Nanjing.

After receiving the order to march towards Nanjing, the morale of the more than 6,000 soldiers of the vanguard was greatly boosted, and they all quickened their pace and started a rapid march south along the railway line.

When Qiao Youhua and Zuo Quan and others arrived in Xuzhou with the follow-up army, the vanguard of these two regiments had already passed through the Huaibei boundary and arrived in Guzhen County, south of today's Suzhou, Guzhen is also called Guyang, which is an important intermediate station of the Jinpu Railway on the north bank of the middle reaches of the Huai River.

Because from the north, if you take Guzhen, you can cross the Huai River and go straight to Bengbu. From the south, the capture of Guyang is equivalent to opening an important gateway to attack Huaibei and even Xuzhou.

Fortunately, Guyang had been jointly recovered by the southbound troops of the New Fourth Army and the Eighth Route Army more than half a year ago, and the vanguard of the two regiments could easily pass through, cross Guyang, cross the Huai River, and stop at Bengbu to rest.

In the south of Xuzhou, Qiao Tianyou, Zuo Quan and others bid farewell to some local officials and garrison commanders, and led the guard regiment as the last group of troops to leave Xuzhou, and continued to start southward.

After all, after passing Bengbu, it is basically the sphere of influence of the Japanese puppet army. This is also the reason why the two vanguard troops have temporarily advanced and stayed in Bengbu to rest and recuperate, this time the Dragon Tooth Corps has a large southward march, with an absolute local superiority in strength, and there is absolutely no need to do a lone in-depth adventure.

Three days later, Qiao Youhua, Zuo Quan and others led the guard regiment and arrived at Bengbu by train, at this time, the vanguard of the fourth column had already left and entered the Huainan territory under the command of Li Yunlong.

The more than 100,000 troops of the Dragon Tooth Corps marched south, and naturally they couldn't hide the eyes of the Japanese puppet army, of course, this was also related to Qiao Youhua's lack of planning to conceal his whereabouts at all.

The main direction of the Japanese army's operations today is Southeast Asia and South China, and it knows that it is not the opponent of the Dragon's Tooth Corps, so it takes the initiative to shrink its forces, abandoning all the county towns north of Hefei and Chuzhou, and shrinking the sphere of influence of the Japanese theater to Hefei, Chuzhou and other areas along the river.

The main purpose of the Japanese army was not to stop the Longya Corps at Hefei and Chuzhou, but during the period when the Longya Corps was moving south, they were busy withdrawing all kinds of war resources from Jiangbei, preparing to give up immediately and retreat to the south bank of the Yangtze River once the war in Jiangbei was unfavorable.

At the same time, in order to strengthen their own chances of victory, the Japanese high-level also sent the river defense fleet left by the navy into the Yangtze River, ready to support the Japanese army in Nanjing and other places at any time, and if necessary, to cover the southward retreat of the Japanese army in Jiangbei.

Qiao Youhua and Zuo Quan's headquarters were located in Bengbu, which was not far from the front line.

In the command headquarters, Li Yunlong, the commander of the fourth column, and two division commanders who also served as political commissars, all gathered to wait for Qiao Youhua's combat orders.

Zuo Quan stood in front of the giant combat map that had been laid out by the orderlies, glanced at everyone, and finally his eyes fell on Qiao Youhua and said: "Commander, there are three specific routes of march in front of our army now, first, attack Hefei in the southwest direction, attack Chuzhou along the railway line, and attack Yangzhou along Hongze Lake!" I don't know, what are your plans? ”

Qiao Youhua pondered for a moment, for this question, in fact, he had considered it long before arriving in Bengbu, and made a decision: "Order the vanguard of the fourth column to advance in the direction of Hefei through Huainan, this way is a partial division, and strategically feint to attack Hefei to divide the momentum of the Japanese army!"

After the breakthrough of our other main forces, the Japanese troops in the Hefei area will surely retreat without a fight and retreat to the south of the Yangtze River, at which time they can take the opportunity to recover this area, and then wait for my orders to act. ”

"Concentrate the forces of two divisions, go south along the Jinpu Railway, knock directly on Chuzhou, attack Pukou, and coerce Nanjing! This route is led by Li Yunlong, you personally! ”

"In addition, a division was sent to attack Yangzhou along Hongze Lake, and after seizing it, it waited for an opportunity to cross the river to attack Zhenjiang, cut off the communication between the Japanese army in Nanjing and Changzhou, Suzhou and other places, and cooperate with the frontal attacking troops to cut off the rear route of the Japanese army, and strive to encircle and annihilate all the devils in the Nanjing area in the area from Nanjing to Wuhu."

After Li Yunlong and others agreed, Zuo Quan asked: "What if the Japanese army evacuates from Nanjing to Wuhu, and then to Huzhou through Wuhu, and Hangzhou and Jiaxing?" Or if the Japanese army rushed to Nanjing, Wuhu and other places along the above-mentioned areas to support, it could also have a rather negative impact on us! ”

Li Yunlong and the others seemed to have the same feeling about Zuo Quan's question, and they all looked at Qiao Youhua.

Qiao Youhua smiled slightly: "Chief of Staff, have you forgotten the ultimate purpose of our southern expedition this time?" ”

"Oh? Would you like to hear more? I really can't keep up with your jumping thinking for a while! Zuo Quan said curiously.

"Isn't the ultimate goal of our southern expedition to Burma? And the marching route we chose earlier was to take the junction of the Japanese theater and the national control zone! Xuancheng and other places in the west of Wuhu are the national control area! Just imagine, if Yangzhou and Zhenjiang are captured by us, and the Japanese army will be cut off along the Beijing-Shanghai Railway to the south!

When Nanjing can't hold it, do they only have Wuhu and Huzhou to go? ”

Seeing that Zuo Quan and the others nodded as if they didn't understand, Qiao Youhua continued: "As for the Japanese troops in Shanghai, Hangzhou and other places will rush to reinforce, don't worry at all, the little devil is now moving southward, and everyone knows that Nanjing is a strategic dead land, so once the war doesn't go well, they are likely to quickly take the initiative to abandon it, after all, this is not Tokyo!" Instead of taking the risk of sending valuable troops to reinforce the Nanjing battlefield.

At that time, we will follow the devils, go to Wuhu, Huzhou, and then bypass Hangzhou all the way to the west, there are devils defeated in front of us to open the way, don't worry about any trouble, right? ”