By the time the commander of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, General Wang Mingyuan, returned to the Vinnitsa Command, the Polish campaign carefully planned by the Germans had already yielded fruitful results. The heavily reinforced 11th Army launched an offensive from the direction of Krakow on the southern route, tearing apart the joint forces of the 7th and 11th armies of the Russian Southwestern Front, and the Germans continued to pour into this opening, one of which broke through to Kielce, threatening the left flank of the Russian Western Front, the other forcibly crossing the Vistula River and capturing Tarnof, threatening the rear security of the Russian 11th Army, and the main force breaking through to Starova Walla-Lublin.

The Germans also moved at the same time on 26 November, when the reinforced German 8th Army broke into Poland from the junction of the Russian Western Front and the Northwest Front, and pointed its troops at Grujonz, a junction in northern Poland, with the obvious target of Warsaw. And in front of the Russian Western Front, the German 12th Army launched a diversionary attack.

The German strategy was now fully revealed, and they aimed at the huge Western Front. But the danger is mainly in the south.

The breakthrough of the German troops in southern Poland was refreshing. First of all, the Germans chose a very clever breakthrough, there were several roads leading from Krakow to Poland and Ukraine, and the German army was relatively free to follow-up. Secondly, the concealment of the German build-up was unprecedented, and all the reconnaissance of the Russian Southwestern Front was concealed, and the Russian army did not judge at all that the German army had assembled a heavy group in the direction of Krakow. The third is the way of breakthrough, a counter-artillery preparation, which is completely a copy of the Battle of Xiongxun Ploiesti, but on a larger scale. More clever organization. After completing the breakthrough, the German army was not obsessed with annihilating the enemy in front of them, but threw the follow-up corps into the breakthrough in a steady stream, and rushed into the depth regardless of a single thing. Finally, there was the use of aviation, and the Germans concentrated more than 500 aircraft in the Krakow direction, which effectively supported the advance on the ground.

The inferior combat effectiveness of the Russian army was another major reason for the collapse of the Karakow direction. General Kostenko's measures to block the breakthrough were ineffective, and the second line of the Russian army moved slowly and demoralized, and was quickly routed by the advancing German army, leading to the collapse of the Russian southwestern front.

On 29 November, Starlova Walla fell into German hands. The 7th division of the Russian army quickly collapsed after the Germans broke through into their rear. Between Starova Walla and Kielce, the Germans formed a large encirclement. About 100,000 Russian troops were caught in a net, and the headquarters of the 7th Army was also among them, only the remnants of about 5 divisions escaped from the encirclement, and the Russian troops who fled to Lublin were no longer an army. Many of the soldiers lost even their rifles.

General Wang Mingyuan entered the building of the headquarters of the expeditionary force in Vinnytsia. didn't care about greeting Ye Yanbing who greeted him. "Let's go to the war room first and tell me the details."

"Let's start with the Russians." Ye Yanbing personally explained the battle situation he controlled, "The Southwest Front Army is finished. The 7th Army no longer exists. The 11th Army is trying to break through. North......"

"There is no need to talk about the north, let's talk about the deployment of our army." Wang Mingyuan took off his coat and threw it to the adjutant.

"The 21st Army has entered Lublin, and Shi Dashou has led the organs of the 2nd Army Headquarters to act together with the 3rd Army. The 3rd Army was about a day and a half away from Lublin. The 7th, 12th and 15th armies are in the Lviv direction, and the 7th Army has already entered Lviv. During the movement of the 10th Army and the 2nd Heavy Artillery Division towards Lviv, the 16th Army was located west of Zhytomyr, and the traffic was very poor, which affected the speed of the advance......"

You did it on purpose, but now you find that the time is a little out of the way. Wang Mingyuan stared at Ye Yanbing, "What is your determination?" ”

"It is possible to place an encirclement around Lublin, but it may not be able to catch the main forces of the German army. So I want to abandon Lublin and let the Germans continue to break through to Warsaw. We took the opportunity to calmly strike his flank. ”

"Several of our corps appeared south of Lviv, where did the Germans dare to rush to Warsaw with impunity! What about the 5th and 9th armies? ”

"I don't think we need these two armies. It was necessary to prevent the Germans from entering Romania and thus threatening the security of our army's rear routes. Ye Yanbing said calmly.

"Commander Ye and Xue Xiaocai stayed, and the rest of the people went out first." Wang Mingyuan waved his hand.

A group of officers silently exited the war room.

"Yan Bing! You've gone overboard this time! Wang Mingyuan said sharply, "Why don't you act in advance as I requested?" Why wait for the Germans to move? How can Lublin give up? Losing Lublin, a transport hub, how will the logistics of the Great Army be transported? Can the 21st Army 3 divisions hold back the Germans? You're going to let the Germans wipe out even the 21st Army? ”

"Why not!" Ye Yanbing's face turned red instantly, "The overall strategy is approved by the president!" If we had entered Poland earlier, the Germans would most likely not have done this! The assembly position of the 21st Army determines that they will inevitably act as the vanguard, what did Zhang Zuoxiang tell you? ”

Xue Xiaocai watched the dispute between the two generals nervously. They are all commanders who the president absolutely trusts, and Commander Wang did send a military order from Petersburg, asking the troops to advance westward, but Commander Ye detained the troops and did not let them move......

"Xue Xiaocai!" Wang Mingyuan blushed, "Why don't you carry out my order?!" ”

"You don't have to ask him, it's up to me." Ye Yanbing rushed and waved his hand at Xue Xiaocai, "You go out first!" ”

Xue Xiaocai walked out of the door and wiped the cold sweat on his head. Now it's Hades fighting and the imps are suffering, and he can't afford to provoke any of the two Wehrmacht giants. Obviously, there is a huge contradiction on the strategic issue between the chief and deputy commanders.

Seeing the officers of the headquarters gathered by the door, "What are you doing?" Hurry back to your posts! ”

The officers of the Operations Department of the 1st Army looked at each other and said in their hearts that our post is here, where do you let us go? Commander Wang's expeditionary force headquarters was an empty shelf, except for a few of his personal adjutant staff officers, the headquarters organs were not formed, but the headquarters of the two group armies were relatively perfect, General Shi Dashou led the 2nd Group Army to catch up with the 21st Army, and it was the 1st Group Army that remained in Vinnitsa to command the whole army.

"Communications Office!" Xue Xiaocai shouted.

"In!" Li Yongchun, chief of communications of the 1st Group Army, ran over.

"Liaise with the armies and confirm the detailed location of the divisions."

"Yes."

"Zhang Luo."

Wang Mingyuan's adjutant Zhang Luo took two steps closer. "Yes."

"You stay here, and no one is allowed to go in and disturb the two commanders. Tell me any instructions immediately, I'm at the communications office. ”

"Yes."

Zhang Luo turned around and looked at the closed door, but couldn't hear the sound inside. He knew why Commander Wang was angry, but he couldn't say anything to anyone......

“…… Military reasons are never as great as those on politics, not to mention that military and political affairs have never been separated! Maybe your posture is not unreasonable in military terms, but it is absolutely untenable in politics! Petersburg was angry and decided that we were the devil. The south does not reinforce Romania, the west does not get closer to the front, and hundreds of thousands of troops squat behind to watch people's jokes. Those difficult people don't believe you at all! Your troops have a liaison group. Saying that 100,000 casualties will be believed? Artemyev said to me. You have bad intentions, you're looking at Russian jokes! The point is that the British and French military delegations also think so, they are very worried that the Russian army will not be able to withstand it, you know this. The French were angrier than the Russians. Fortunately, the tsar was calmer. It's good now. The French stabbed the matter to the commander. What do you let the commander do? I can only call to comfort people. Can the president turn his face with the Entente at this time...... The so-called over-the-top is exactly what you are talking about! ”

After listening to Ye Yanbing's explanation, Wang Mingyuan was not relieved. Although his voice was lowered, the content was still aggressive, contrary to his usual generosity.

"Politics? That's what I'm thinking about in politics! I don't believe it, the Russians dare to turn their faces against us! ”

"Yan Bing! Why can't you get this truth over! I'm not reproaching you for not saving the Russians, but I'm saying that you don't care about face! How many telegrams did Brusilov send you? The soft and hard ones are all said, you are stunned not to give people a minimum of face! Even if you let the two armies in front of you move. The president promised that the expeditionary force would be under the command of the Southwestern Front. Do you think people don't know about your relationship with the president? Moreover, the appearance of the result of the complete annihilation of the Russian army on both fronts by the Germans did not benefit us at all. In a word, you've passed. ”

"Mingyuan, this measure is difficult to grasp. Don't you think that if we had moved early, the battle might have been different? Am I not carrying out the commander's intentions? ”

"I know this! But the problem is that the situation is too strict, right? You didn't expect the Germans to attack so hard, did you? That's why a series of stern orders were issued, including letting Shi Dashou go up to preside over the overall situation, right? Da Shou didn't dissuade you? ”

"Why not? Originally, I was going to go up in person. But that's not fair to Daiju. ”

"yes, yes. Now I'm afraid you'll fall prey! A proper marshal can't run away from you, and the victory of Romania is not under the Shandong campaign. But you've played it. Does the Commander have a message for you? ”

"Nope."

"That's not a good thing. In this way, I will take care of the aftermath, you still focus on the military, you are better than me in this regard. The military plan is still going according to your arrangement, but Lublin must stick to it and let Dashou rush over! The headquarters of the 2nd Army was located in Lublin to show the Russians our attitude. ”

"If you don't give up Lublin, the campaign plan will have to be adjusted......"

"The adjustment is adjusted. You take 1 episode of the headquarters forward, and leave me the necessary personnel. Someone from Petersburg will soon come, at least Admiral Alekschev. Come! ”

Major Zhang Luo pushed the door in.

"Immediately let the Operations Division draw up an order to mobilize the whole army to work for the defeat of the Polish offensive of the Germans. It is clear that the command of the campaign will be handed over to Deputy Commander Ye. ”

"Yes."

"Mingyuan ......"

"Let's go. I'm worried that this battle will not be easy to fight. By the way, I sent a telegram to Zhang Zuoxiang in my tone, and ordered him to stick to Lublin at any cost. ”

Wang Mingyuan's worries were fulfilled. On the evening of November 30, Wang Mingyuan received a telegram signed by Long Qian, revoking Ye Yanbing from his post in the expeditionary force and ordering him to return to China immediately. The post of commander of the 1st Army was given to Lieutenant General Xiong Xun.

Wang Mingyuan immediately called back to China, retaining him on the grounds that his military command depended on Ye Yanbing, but Long Qian replied and refused. Helpless, Wang Mingyuan had no choice but to give Ye Yanbing, who was leading the commander of the 1st episode to Lviv, and asked him to temporarily hand over the command of the 1st episode to Xue Xiaocai and set off to return to China.

General Ye Yanbing, who had made great contributions in Romania, left the European battlefield in this way. He fell victim to the Sino-Russian game. But the result of Ye Yanbing's disobedience was that the Chinese expeditionary force avoided the German offensive edge, and there was no disadvantage in the position of the expeditionary force - if China ignored the fate of the Russian army in Poland.

Xue Xiaocai, who was transferred from the chief of staff of the Central Military Region to the chief of staff of the 1st Group Army of the Expeditionary Force, was Ye Yanbing's old department, and he didn't know how to comfort him when he saw the old commander's demeanor, he thought that Wang Mingyuan had done a ghost in it, but he didn't dare to publicly scold the high-ranking former Minister of National Defense and the current commander of the Expeditionary Force, so he could only bother to arrange for Ye Yanbing's security and security matters when he returned home.

"You don't care about these trifles. Moreover, Commander Wang will never pit me. It's the president's army. It's just a pity that I can't fight with you. By the way, pay attention to find Chen Hao's whereabouts, he was sent by me and provided us with two extremely important pieces of information, but there has been no news for almost two days, and eighty percent of the radio station is broken. Send a report to Lublin and tell them to pay attention to it. ”

Ye Yanbing only took his adjutant back to China, and did not even get off in Vinnitsa. He had to explain what to Wang Mingyuan in military affairs, the plan was discussed, and many senior officers participated in the formulation of the plan. On the train back to China, Ye Yanbing didn't think too much about himself except for some regrets, regretting that he couldn't command the army to fight, and there were not many such opportunities. He asked himself with a clear conscience, every qiē was for the country, and he did not feel sorry for anyone, except the Russians. In Romania, countless expeditionary officers and soldiers died on foreign soil, and their bodies could not be brought back to their homeland, so they had to be cremated on the spot and their ashes brought back, or given to their families, or buried in a cemetery. And the Polish campaign, which is about to kick off, I don't know how many young officers and soldiers have fallen in the flames of war. If his own end is also a kind of sacrifice, it is nothing compared to those officers and soldiers who lost their lives. This is an era with sacrifice as the theme, and since the expedition to Gyeonggi during the Gengzi period, many comrades-in-arms have fallen in front of them. The Battle of Texas under his command was really full of corpses. But the sacrifice is valuable, and everyone sees the value of Mengshanjun's sacrifice, as long as he is not blind! As Long Qian has said many times, with the sacrifice of one or even two generations, we will create a great and bright future for the Chinese nation.

But he remembered Chen Hao, who had lost contact, and among the hundreds of thousands of troops he commanded, only this young man had some kind of personal relationship with him. He regretted sending him to the front line, but in fact, it was not impossible for him to go down to become the regiment commander, and with his qualifications, no one would say that he was seeking personal gain. That's his own words, there are dozens of regiments in the expeditionary force under his command. (To be continued......)