If you are not afraid of an opponent like a wolf, you are afraid of a teammate like a pig. For the incompetence of the friendly army, Wu Ming had no choice but to grit his teeth and hate it.

After pondering for a while, Wu Ming said to Dai Ziran: "Fortunately, with a buffer of two days and two nights, Jin Shanwei's supplies are almost gone, it's time to retreat Ziran, you now immediately notify Luo Yuming of the First Brigade and Yang Sixian of the Second Brigade, let them withdraw as soon as possible, complete the arrangement, and wait for the battle situation to change——"

The New 2nd Division annihilated the 114th Division and the 6th Field Heavy Artillery Brigade and regained a large amount of lost territory.

Dai Ziran was a little reluctant to let the soldiers exchange their blood for the results, and said hurriedly: "Master, retreat now, isn't it meaningless for us to pay before?" ”

Wu Ming also lamented the abandonment of the vested results. But the situation was like this, and Wu Ming had to break his wrist

"Judging from the current situation, retracement is the best option. According to the strength of the Eighth and Tenth Armies on the Southern Front, Jiaxing will not be able to hold on for long, and if it does not shrink at this time, once the Japanese army occupies Jiaxing and moves south along the Shanghai-Hangzhou Railway to occupy Haining, we will fall into the middle attack of the Sixth and Eighteenth Divisions and the Guoqi Detachment. At that point, we can't retreat even if we want to."

Those who do not seek victory will first seek defeat before they can be invincible

At this time, the battle situation in Hangzhou Bay had rapidly eroded with the collapse of the Pingwang defensive line, and although the new second division still had the strength to fight, Wu Ming always felt that a huge danger was coming.

Although this feeling is indescribable, Wu Ming did not dare to be careless, and after thinking twice, he still decided to retreat.

Dai Ziran saw that Wu Ming had made up his mind, so he had to obey: "Since this is the case, I will immediately send a telegram to Luo Yuming and Yang Sixian to get them ready." ”

Wu Ming nodded: "Now that the materials are almost transferred, the top priority is to let the four main regiments of the first brigade and the second brigade recover their combat strength as soon as possible, otherwise everything will be impossible to talk about." ”

After Dai Ziran finished recording the order, after Wu Ming signed it, he turned around and went out to send a report.

Zhang Ying, who was deducing the battle situation in front of the sand table, suddenly remembered that Zhang Dongning and Chen Yanhua had gathered the rout, and said: "Division, now the chief of staff and the head of the supplementary regiment Chen Yanhua have gathered a large number of routs. The defeat of the national army on the front line is by no means the responsibility of ordinary soldiers. In my opinion, we can pick a group from the rout to replenish the attrition of this battle. ”

"That's a good idea"

Wu Ming praised it, and then said: "The battle situation in Songhu has been completely eroded, the 700,000 army has retreated, and the number of defeated troops is not very large, we must increase the scale of containment, set up shelters in Nanxun, Wuzhen, Tongxiang and other places, and collect the troops defeated from the front line." After the reorganization of the defeated troops, they will first be transferred to the supplementary brigade to make up for the shortage after the supplementary brigade transfers most of the soldiers to the first and second brigades."

Now that there is only half of the new Second Division left, Wu Ming's biggest headache is the problem of replenishing soldiers.

Although the combat effectiveness of the defeated troops is not good, but in the end, they have seen blood on the battlefield and fought with devils, as long as they go through political and ideological education, and then a little training, the new Second Division can get a large number of qualified soldiers out of thin air.

However, such a blatant rein in the rout will inevitably be hated by the original troops to which the rout belongs. Zhang Ying was a little worried, and asked, "Shizao, will this cause a strong backlash from other troops?" If the Theater Command and the Nanjing Military Commission intervene, we won't be able to deal with it."

Wu Ming sneered and said: "Now is the time of trouble, and there are ways to survive in troubled times. If they dare to come to the New Second Division to discuss the explanation, let them not worry even if they come to the Nanjing Military Committee and the Theater Command, because our New Second Division has made such great military exploits, the radio and newspapers have been noisy, the whole country has praised each other, and a basket of congratulatory telegrams have been received at home and abroad, but there are no actual rewards such as cash, food, ammunition, military uniforms, and weapons and equipment. In this case, shouldn't we be fought? ”

After sending the report, Dai Ziran, who returned to the house and stood next to listen to the conversation, squeaked: "Shizuo, have you forgotten those puppet army captives from Taiwan and Northeast China? ”

"Where can I forget?"

Wu Ming smiled bitterly: "After those North Korean puppet soldiers were deported to Nanjing by train, it is said that it caused a huge sensation, and Chairman Jiang specially held a press conference for this purpose to expose the brutality of the Japanese army to his own people. ”

Dai Ziran said: "Many of those puppet soldiers are strong men who have been forcibly pulled, and they are ordinary people who know their roots. I think that if we can go through the ideological transformation of the intelligence and propaganda departments, and then receive a period of training in the militia groups, many of them can be incorporated into the supplementary brigade. ”

The Sino-Japanese War has only broken out for more than four months, and the Japanese army from top to bottom does not pay attention to the puppet army with weak combat strength, and the puppet army in Northeast China and Taiwan left their homeland and came to Shanghai to serve as cannon fodder.

Dai Ziran felt that he could take advantage of these contradictions, and through ideological transformation and military training, he could transform these puppet troops into supplementary soldiers of the new Second Division.

Wu Ming pondered for a moment and asked, "Aren't those puppet armies making trouble now?" ”

Dai Ziran replied: "We have eliminated the die-hard elements in the puppet army who have been brainwashed by the Japanese, and the rest of the puppet army has long been frightened by us.

Wu Ming suddenly thought of a serious problem - it would not be long before the new Second Division would withdraw from the defense line, and the ordinary soldiers were fine, but the transfer of the wounded and sick in the field hospital was very difficult.

Wu Ming thought about it for a while, and suddenly said: "You see that this is good, these puppet soldiers are not busy issuing weapons first, and organize them as people's strongmen to transport the wounded and sick in our hospital to the rear." In this process, our guards and wounded soldiers are vigilant, observe every word and deed of the puppet army at any time, and if there is anything wrong, they can be screened out in time, so as not to let a mouse poop spoil a pot of soup. ”

Wu Ming's suggestion made Dai Ziran feel a bit risky, after all, people's hearts are separated from their stomachs, who knows how many people in those puppet armies harbor evil intentions?

Thinking of this, Dai Ziran asked uneasily: "Master, what if there is an accident during the transfer."

"It's up to the intelligence and propaganda services to work hard during this time."

Wu Ming waved his hand and said indifferently: "In Japan, the national flag, the military flag and the portrait of the emperor are extremely sacred objects, since those puppet soldiers dare to insult the country and people of Japan in front of our cameras, they have no way out, plus we are bribed and divided, even if there is any move, we can get the news in advance." Besides, each of the two field hospitals has a guard platoon, and then we draw two more platoons from the guard battalion and one regiment from the militia regiment, I don't believe that there will be problems under such close surveillance."

Dai Ziran suddenly understood, and had no objection to Wu Ming's decision.

Wu Ming raised a fox-like smile and continued: "The intelligence and propaganda departments must cooperate well this time, and it will be regarded as a large-scale training of political propaganda work. ”

"It is estimated that Deputy Chief of Staff Jiang will not stay long in our new Second Division, after all, his status is different, if he serves in the army for a long time, it is not conducive to future promotion, I decided to wait for the troops to return to Maoliangwu, let him be in charge of local civil affairs, and warm up for future work."

When Chiang Ching-kuo had just arrived at the New Second Division, in order to facilitate Chiang Ching-kuo's work, Wu Ming not only appointed him as the deputy director of the General Staff Office, but also set up a special propaganda section under the General Staff Office, with Chiang Ching-kuo concurrently serving as the section chief to carry out political propaganda for the army and the people. After Chiang Ching-kuo took office, he did things in a hurry, and adopted many advanced brainwashing methods from the Soviet Union in his work. At present, the people in the propaganda department have learned Chiang Ching-kuo's skills to the fullest, and Zhang Dongning's cousin Zhang Dongchun has learned the best.

Dai Ziran thought for a while: "I think that some officers and veterans can be transferred from the supplementary brigade to serve as the backbone and backbone of the Minzhuang army reorganized from the puppet army, so that in the process of transferring the field hospital, we can appropriately add some training, on the one hand, to examine the military quality of these puppet troops, and on the other hand, to educate them ideologically." I believe that after a thousand miles of trekking, after arriving in western Zhejiang, we can sweep the sand in the big waves and select a group of qualified talents from it."

"Exactly as I thought it would be"

Wu Mingha smiled, and then clapped: "Ziran, you draw up another order, and then send it to all departments."

In the rainy day, on the defensive line position from Kunshan to Zhitang, there was artillery fire and smoke screens, a scene of the coming of the end.

The Japanese offensive began at 6 o'clock on the morning of 16 July, and after more than four hours of continuous artillery bombardment by the navy and army, the fortifications outside Kunshan that had been crumbling for three days were finally destroyed by the Japanese army.

In the thick smoke, the Japanese army began to erect pontoon bridges on the Liuhe River, facing the rain of bullets of the Chinese army, and a large number of charging Japanese troops fell into the water, but the swarming devils still broke into the defenders' positions and soon occupied the first and second lines.

The officers and men of the 51st Division of the 74th Army, which guarded the positions of the fourth line of the third line, fought bravely and fought fiercely with the Japanese army for most of the day, and the Japanese army could not advance an inch.

When night fell, the rain became heavier and heavier, the commander of the 74th Army, Yu Jishi, ordered the troops to counterattack on all fronts, driving the Japanese army down the Liuhe River, and the two divisions of the department launched a decisive charge to the Japanese army, but just at this time the Japanese reinforcements arrived, and the two sides repeatedly fought over the position.

The charge and counter-charge were like the ebb and flow of the tide, the Chinese army captured the second-line position three times, and was repelled by the Japanese army three times, until the east turned white, only to see the front and back of the position, corpses all over the field, the Liuhe River was almost stained red with blood, and the river was full of floating soaked corpses.

Inside the trenches, blood and rain flowed like small rivers, and every patch of stagnant water was bright red.

At this time, the Japanese army increased its troops again, and the 51st Division led by Wang Yaowu had been fighting the Kun branch line for more than 90 hours in a row, and the officers and men were exhausted, and many soldiers had lost consciousness in both legs after soaking in muddy water for several days, and gradually began to lose strength in the face of the Japanese army's crazy offensive.

In the face of her husband's tragic situation, she lifted a severed leg of her husband and led the remaining officers and soldiers of the company to rush to kill, the morale of the officers and soldiers of the whole company was greatly boosted, and they rushed to the Japanese army without fear of death.

In the face of the devils who bravely rushed to cross the river, the 74th Army stubbornly resisted it with mines, barbed wire, and 37 anti-aircraft artillery, but it still could not resist the torrent of Japanese rafts, boats, and tanks.

Just when Yu Jishi was very anxious in the face of the predicament, he received a report from the theater headquarters that Pingwang County was occupied by the Japanese army, the Sujia Railway was officially cut off by the Japanese army, and Wujiang and Suzhou on the south bank of Taihu Lake had been placed under the Japanese army.

Therefore, Gu Zhutong suggested that Yu Jishi retreat to the Wufu line, take Fushan, Changshu, Suzhou and Wujiang as support points, rearm and fight a decisive battle with the Japanese army.

At this point, it was no longer necessary to insist on the Kun branch line, and Yu Jishi issued an order for the whole army to retreat.

On the morning of 17 November, four days later than the original history, the Chinese army crossed cover, evacuated the Kun branch line, which was strewn with corpses, and retreated to the Wufu line. However, due to the fall of the Pingwang defensive line, the Chinese army, as in history, was divided into two strategic clusters, one south and one north, each fighting its own battle.