On the one hand, he continued to order the First Army of the Descendant Line to "reorganize and fight" in Xi'an (in fact, it was to prepare for the New Year), and ordered the 76th Army, which had already gone north, to stay in Wuhai to observe the situation and wait for an opportunity to go north; On the other hand, Dong Zhao and Kong Lingsui were ordered to intensify their offensive and constantly exert pressure.

Obviously, Hu Zongnan's plan is still the same as before, that is, to continue to kill people with a knife, and he must get rid of Dong Zhao and Kong Lingsui. And he can still justify himself: "According to the order of the chairman, I am very restrained, and I have ordered the 1st Army and the 76th Army to rest and recuperate, is this still not restrained?" Only the 16th Army and the 80th Army continued to attack, and that was also in accordance with the order of the chairman, who did not order our 34th Army to stop the offensive! ”

All in all, Hu Zongnan, who stayed in Xi'an, was very comfortable, preparing to have a comfortable and good year, and the program of Chinese New Year's Eve to accompany wine and cheer was to watch Dong Zhao and Kong Lingxian being abused into dogs by the Outer Mongolian cavalry, how interesting it is!

Dong Zhao and Kong Lingsui naturally knew Hu Zongnan's wishful thinking, how could they be boring? Therefore, their investment in the battle is also quite limited, and the five divisions are far away from Baotou, and as long as the Outer Mongolian cavalry moves a little, they will immediately cry out in the wind.

Konev was baffled by the passive response of the scraping army, and when he learned that the enemy's reinforcements were on the way, he was really a little anxious, and he kept urging the 53rd Army to speed up the pace of the march.

When the 107th Division of the 53rd Army and the 14th Cavalry of Outer Mongolia arrived in Guyang, the 36th Army, reinforced by the Scraping Army, had just arrived in Wuyuan. And the 76th Army is still in Wuhai. The First Army is still celebrating the festival in Xi'an.

At this time. The situation on the battlefield turned into a confrontation between eight divisions of the Nationalist Army and four divisions of Outer Mongolia and the Soviet Red Army. Of course, there have been some subtle changes in the situation, such as the arrival of the 36th Army, which put Dong Zhao and Kong Ling's wishful thinking into trouble.

The reason is that Zhao Xiguang is very special, let's briefly talk about Zhao Xiguang and his person, like Kong Lingsui, Zhao Xiguang is not a Huangpu system but a local system. He graduated from the Shaoguan branch of Yunnan Jiangwutang, and worked from lieutenant platoon commander to lieutenant general. After liberation, he ran Xinjiang on the side of the Turkish Communist Party and made significant contributions.

Because Zhao Xiguang belonged to the local forces, he was also unpopular on Hu Zongnan's side, and initially when Zhao Xiguang was the commander of the 167th Division, Hu Zongnan made it clear that he did not want Zhao Xiguang and his 167th Division. Later, after He Yingqin carefully explained and did his work, Hu Zongnan reluctantly accepted.

However, Hu Zongnan only said that he accepted it at that time, but in fact he still didn't want Zhao Xiguang, and when the 14th Corps was defeated and retreated to Shaanxi. Hu Zongnan (then commander of the 14th Corps) deliberately let Zhao Xiguang and the 167th Division block the Japanese army, preparing to use the hands of the Japanese army to get rid of the 167th Division that he did not like. At that time, Hu Zongnan gave Zhao Xiguang a death order, requiring him to hold on for 24 hours before retreating.

Miscellaneous units like the 167th Division held the Japanese army for 24 hours. How easy is it to say? Anyway, Hu Zongnan thinks that there are no more than two results: either Zhao Xiguang's department will be annihilated by the Japanese army. Either Zhao Xiguang didn't hold out for 24 hours and was defeated. Needless to say, the former possibility is to borrow a knife to kill someone; And the latter possibility is also simple, continue to hold Zhao Xiguang responsible! Anyway, no matter what the possibility was, he could easily eliminate Zhao Xiguang and this nasty 167th Division.

However, what Hu Zongnan didn't expect was that Zhao Xiguang was still very capable and capable of fighting, with the 167th Division of the Miscellaneous Army, he not only held on for 24 hours, but even lasted one more night. After that, Zhao Xiguang led the troops to march rapidly for two days and two nights before catching up with Hu Zongnan's main force (it can be seen how fast Hu ran someone).

At this time, a big oolong appeared, and Hu Zongnan reported to his head on the second day of running away that the new 167th Division had been wiped out. Well, this oolong made Hu Zongnan look like a big man, and he had no choice but to "appease" and "commend" Zhao Xiguang's merits, and promoted Zhao Xiguang to be the commander of the 36th Army.

Naturally, Hu Zongnan was probably quite reluctant at that time, and there was no way out. Therefore, it can also be seen from the deployment of Suiyuan this time that in the 34th Group Army, in addition to Kaikong Lingsui and Dong Zhao, Zhao Xiguang is the third person Hu Zongnan does not welcome, so the 36th Army is also arranged in the third place.

In this regard, Zhao Xiguang also knows it, but people have to bow their heads under the eaves, and the miscellaneous army wants to survive under the suppression of the Central Army, which is nothing more than three ways, either like Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi, who are as powerful as Bai Chongxi, so that the Central Army does not dare to speak easily, or like Sun Dianying, he uses money to open the way and kneel and lick Lao Jiang, or he dares to fight with his life.

Let's not talk about the first two, it has nothing to do with Zhao Xiguang, Zhao Xiguang is the third way to go, proving his strength through battle, which indirectly makes Hu Zongnan and others feel that he is still a little useful, so as to protect himself.

Of course, Zhao Xiguang is not the most powerful general of the Scraping Army, there is another person who is even more fierce than him, and he takes the time to mention him, this person is Huang Baitao. Yes, it is the commander of the Seventh Corps who was destroyed in the Huaihai Campaign, and he is really an out-and-out ragtag background.

After graduating from the Faculty of Engineering of Hebei Institute of Technology, Huang Baitao joined Rong and served as a herald under Li Chun, a Beiyang warlord and Jiangsu overseer. Because of Li Chun's appreciation, he was able to enter the Jinling Officer Education Corps sponsored by Li Chun to study. Since then, he has served as a platoon commander. Company commander, battalion commander, and regiment commander, because Zhang Zongchang (the famous Sanzhi General) used to be an instructor of the Jinling Officer Education Corps, and he had an old relationship with Huang Baitao, and took good care of Huang Baitao.

In 1928, Huang Baitao followed Xu Yuanquan, commander of the 6th Army under Zhang Zongchang, to defect to Chiang Kai-shek and was promoted to division commander. However, at that time, the bald head didn't know what Huang Baitao was, and in order to control and annex these miscellaneous armies, he adopted the method of escorting the miscellaneous army generals to the Army University for further study.

However, losing military power is not a bad thing for Huang Baitao, because when he entered the Army University for further study, he met two classmates. One Feng Yuxiang and the other Lu Zhonglin. Therefore, after graduation, he was able to serve as the chief of staff of the 6th Theater Commander's Department and the chief of staff of the Jincha Theater. Later, he entered the Military Commission as a lieutenant general and was appreciated by He Yingqin, and was recommended to Gu Zhutong as chief of staff.

The famous Southern Anhui Incident, Huang Baitao is one of the masterminds! And after trapping Ye Ting, he was very awesome to persuade him to surrender, and he said to Ye Ting at that time: "I will draw up a statement for the army commander (explaining that the incident was provoked by the Turkish Communist Party), and if you agree, you will publish it, and if you don't agree, you will publish it." It's just that Huang Baitao found the wrong object at that time, which provoked Ye Ting to shoot the case on the spot and want to die with Huang Baitao.

By 1944. Gu Zhutong had a better candidate for chief of staff, so he promoted Huang Baitao to be the commander of the 25th Army. At that time, Huang Baitao knew very well that he was not a Whampoa department, and he had no effective backer, so if he wanted to get ahead, he could only compete for the first place when attacking, be cautious when retreating, and show the characteristics of a lackey who was willing to work hard.

Objectively speaking, Huang Baitao fought very fiercely, in the Battle of Nanma Linqu. Regardless of casualties and desperate reinforcements, after the rescue area was surrounded in the Battle of Eastern Henan. He also contracted his troops to resist desperately, and once ordered the burning of documents and the shooting of prisoners, shouting: "If you don't succeed, you will become benevolent, this is my will!" ”。 Finally, when Huang Baitao was surrounded and on the verge of despair, he was even more ferocious, for the positions that were attacked, regardless of the enemy and me, they would concentrate artillery fire to carry out devastating bombardment, and the people of Nian Zhuang would rather watch them starve to death than order not to let one go, and at the last moment he still did not forget to order all the prisoners of war to be shot, which shows how stubborn and ferocious this person is.

Why mention this Huang Huanran? The reason is very simple, as mentioned earlier, Zhao Xiguang is very similar to him, they are all miscellaneous cards, and they dare to work hard, but the difference is that one is knowledgeable and practical, and the other is extremely cruel and inhumane.

Zhao Xiguang was reluctant to fight this battle from the bottom of his heart, and when the country was in danger, he wanted to save the country and save the people, rather than being an outsider in a foreign war like Hu Zongnan and others, but what made him very painful was that he couldn't help himself in the group of the People's Party. So after arriving in Wuyuan, Zhao Xiguang was in a contradictory psychology.

On the one hand, he was very sympathetic to the situation of Kong Lingsui and Dong Zhao, and he was clear about Hu Zongnan's small actions of killing people with a knife; On the other hand, he was speechless about the various calculations of these two people. The reason why the People's Party performed badly in the stalemate stage of the War of Resistance is the fundamental reason for this practice of preserving strength and killing teammates!

How Zhao Xiguang hopes that the whole army and the whole country can work together to fight against the invaders!

So he preached to Kong Lingsui: "I know the situation of Brother Zhengzhai deeply. My generation joined the army in order to protect the family and defend the country, and today's aggressive facts are embarrassing. However, it is the duty of a soldier to obey orders, and I ask my brother not to embarrass me in this battle......"

What Zhao Xiguang said not to embarrass him is very simple, that is, it implies that Kong Lingsui should be beaten or has to be beaten, as long as Kong Lingsui really fights, then he will be fair and straightforward. He even told Kong Lingsui: "The 36th Army will fight side by side with the 80th Army and will never break its promise!" ”

This result naturally did not satisfy Kong Lingsui, but he also understood Zhao Xiguang's situation, everyone is a miscellaneous brand, who can't not know whose suffering? If Zhao Xiguang does not truthfully report the situation on the battlefield, then his honest and hard-working characteristics will be greatly reduced, and it will be a miscellaneous card with a slippery head, and at that time, he Hu Zongnan can naturally let go and beat the 36th Army.

Now, Zhao Xiguang can promise that the 36th Army will fight side by side with the 80th Army, which is quite rare. If you don't believe it, if you look at Dong Zhao, he rejected Zhao Xiguang's proposal to fight side by side with the three armies, and the 16th Army under his command stayed in Wuyuan and refused to take a step forward.

Anyway, Kong Lingsui saw through the hypocrisy of the Huangpu Department of the Central Army, and said with great emotion: "If you really have a advantage, you will take advantage of it, and you won't suffer any loss!" ”

But the matter has come to this point, it is useless to say anything, and the next day, Kong Lingsui's 80th Army and Zhao Xiguang's 36th Army marched hand in hand, moving closer to Baotou, and a completely meaningless battle began.

At this time, the 13th Outer Mongolian Cavalry Division was responsible for garrisoning Baotou, and the 15th Cavalry Division only left a 150th Regiment in Baotou as a reserve, while the 151st and 152nd Regiments moved in the direction of Tuoketuo. Isolate the Japanese army from the main battle area.

Of course. Two cavalry regiments alone were still too few. In order to share the pressure on the cavalry units of Outer Mongolia, the 115th and 120th Divisions of the Eighth Route Army also mobilized part of the main forces to attack and harass the Japanese army in the northern Jin region, containing a considerable part of the Japanese puppet forces.

In this case, the attack on Baotou of the 80th Army and the 36th Army began, with field artillery units opening fire first, shelling the outer positions of the 13th Outer Mongolian Cavalry Division, after a short fire strike. The 165th Division launched an attack along the banks of the Yellow River, while the provisional 15th Division, which was part of the 36th Army in the north, also attacked the northern area of Baotou under the leadership of division commander Liu Zongkuan.

Speaking of this Liu Zongkuan, he is also a cow, but Yang Hucheng's department of the Northwest Army (Yang Hucheng's adjutant), and was sent by Yang Hucheng to the second phase of the special class of the Army University in 1934. The day after the outbreak of the Xi'an Incident, he was taken hostage by the Central Army. After that, in 1937, he graduated with the first place in the Army University.

Originally, Liu Zongkuan would have a better future, when Lao Chiang appointed him as a major general of the Military Commission, Gao Staff and a liaison officer of Tang Enbo's department. However, Liu Zongkuan was very dissatisfied with the despicable behavior of the bald head to detain Zhang Shaomarshal and force Yang Hucheng to go abroad, and categorically refused to accept the appointment, and still returned to serve in the Northwest Army.

In 1941, Liu Zongkuan served as the commander of the provisional 15th Division. But his relationship with Hu Zongnan is really incompatible. I especially can't get used to Hu Zongnan's practice of installing cronies to exclude dissidents.

Hu Zongnan is very good-natured, not to mention a major general and division commander, even military commanders like Kong Lingsui, Dong Zhao and Zhao Xiguang are not in the corner of the eyes of this protégé of the Son of Heaven. At that time, Liu Zongkuan found out that Hu Zongnan's cronies in the provisional 15th Division were smuggling and selling opium, and in order to rectify military discipline, he arrested a regiment commander headed by him. But Hu Zongnan didn't care about so much, but instead framed Liu Zongkuan on a smuggling charge and sent him to Chongqing for review.

What did you find out and didn't find out? At that time, the Law Enforcement Directorate of the Kuomintang Military Commission believed that Liu Zongkuan's smuggling was unwarranted, but it did not dare to offend Hu Zongnan, so it arbitrarily sentenced Liu Zongkuan to several years in prison and prepared to conclude the case hastily.

However, Hu Zongnan was not so easy to deal with, and gave Liu Zongkuan a bad dose in front of the bald head, saying that Liu Zongkuan was Yang Hucheng's nephew. hated Yang Hucheng Lao Jiang from the bottom of his heart, and without saying a word, he changed the sentence to shooting with a stroke of the pen. Fortunately, Liu Zongkuan's teacher Han Zhao'e ran in many ways and asked Feng Yuxiang to come out to help speak, so Liu Zongkuan escaped death and his sentence was commuted to 13 years in prison.

Look, this is the reality of the Scraping People's Party, and it is really the ugliest and dirtiest play. But God said well, evil will be rewarded, but the time has not yet come. In prison, Liu Zongkuan was completely awakened, and resolutely devoted himself to the just cause of anti-Chiang and anti-civil war (after being released from prison, he became a senior undercover agent), and later contributed a lot to the liberation of the southwest.

Of course, these are the afterthoughts, back to the topic. Liu Zongkuan also has a set of battles, under his deployment, the temporary 15th Division immediately made the 13th Outer Mongolian Cavalry Division feel the pressure, compared with the appearance of the scraping of the people a few days ago, the current national army is a little bit of a look!

In the morning of the same day, Zhao Xiguang gathered dozens of field artillery and mountain artillery of the whole army and bombarded the positions of the Outer Mongolian cavalry, according to Wang Baoguo, an artillery lieutenant of the 36th Army: "Dozens of artillery pieces fired at once, like ten thousand cannons firing in unison." At first, it was a rapid fire, followed by a salvo, and after about ten seconds, the enemy's position exploded into a bright spot and smoke clusters, and then the bright spots turned into a sea of fire, and the smoke clusters formed smoke, which was indeed spectacular like a rain of bullets! ”

Another officer, Song Zhiheng, also recalled that when the infantry launched a fierce battle to seize the enemy's position, the artillery fire was also the most intense and intense, and the coordination with the infantry was also more close. In particular, it is necessary to carefully observe the course of the battle and the dynamics of the infantry attacking the enemy's positions with artillery mirrors and telescopes. It is necessary to maintain close ties and provide close support in a timely manner according to the needs of friendly forces and changes on the battlefield.

During this period, the artillery had a particularly heavy task, and the firing was also very violent, often firing continuously for more than 10 minutes. Song Zhiheng observed the firing effect of the whole company in the observation post, and constantly corrected the firing elements according to the impact point. At that time, Song Zhiheng was most happy to watch the infantry brothers capture the enemy's position step by step under the cover of artillery fire.

However, this kind of joy is not a long time, because compared with the Outer Mongolian army, the firepower of the 36th Army is weak, and at the beginning it was just a surprise to the Outer Mongolian cavalry, and it achieved certain results. Soon, the situation completely changed when the enemy's artillery began to conduct counter-battery fire.

According to Song Zhiheng's recollection, after two hours of fierce fighting, when they were about to rest for a while, he suddenly saw a dazzling flash in the artillery mirror. It was clear that it was enemy artillery firing, and he immediately shouted: "Shelling, find cover!" ”

At that time, Song Zhiheng had just entered the hole, and there were two clicks outside, and several shells in a row fell on the position where the artillery had gathered just now, and then dozens of shells fell down in succession, all within a radius of 30 meters. When Song Zhiheng walked out of the anti-artillery hole again, he found that his position had been blown up beyond recognition.

This is just the beginning, in the next battle, Song Zhiheng and the soldiers of the national army will face more and more powerful artillery strikes, especially after the main force of the Soviet Red Army arrived on the battlefield, it is even more one-sided and overwhelming artillery strikes...... (To be continued......)

PS: I can't help but complain about scraping the army, please understand!

Bow and thank you for a piece of snow 1, the glorious charter, hzwangdd and comrade Juventus!