After listening to Chen Cheng's analysis, Chairman Jiang finally calmed down.

Bai Chongxi also made a euphemistic suggestion, hoping that Lao Jiang could transfer the command of the Battle of Lanfeng to Xue Yue, instead of continuing to command remotely in Wuhan, Lao Jiang agreed, and He Yingqin took the opportunity to propose to give Gui Yongqing a chance to atone for his crimes, so that he could command the army to counterattack Lanfeng, and Lao Jiang also agreed.

After Xue Yue received a telegram from the headquarters in Kaifeng, he immediately drew up a five-way siege operation.

On the first road, Li Han's Soul Army and Yu Jishi's 74th Army attacked and advanced from Shangqiu from east to west, blocking the road of Tufeiyuan Division's escape to the east;

On the second road, Sun Tongxuan's army marched westward from the Netherlands, while Shang Zhen's army crossed the Yellow River eastward, cutting off the northward retreat of the Tufeiyuan Division;

On the third route, Hu Zongnan's 17th Army Corps attacked from west to east from Kaifeng;

On the fourth road, Song Xilian's 71st Army went from south to north from Qixian County;

On the fifth road, Gui Yongqing's army, Long Muhan's RR division, and the first column of Qiu Qingquan's assault army were directly transferred to the counteroffensive from Luowang Station.

Suddenly, 18 whole divisions of the Fifth Route Army plus an independent cavalry brigade with 200,000 men swooped down on the Tufeiyuan Division that had just captured Lanfeng, but Tohihara Kenji was ignorant of this, and in the good news sent to the headquarters of the L Army and the North China Front Army, he even shouted unashamedly that Kaifeng would be captured within two days

Chairman Chiang was a man of his word this time, and he did not give Xue Yue's command again, and even sent warrants to more than a dozen army commanders, army commanders, and division commanders who participated in the Battle of Lanfeng: The Battle of Lanfeng was related to the entire situation of the War of Resistance Against Japan, and the armies of Hu, Li, Yu, Gui, and Song should strictly follow the tasks indicated by Commander-in-Chief Xue Yue, and completely annihilate the enemy of Lanfeng.

When Song Xilian received Lao Jiang's warrant, he had just led the main force of the 71st Army to Qixian.

Zhang Zhizhong's three major tiger generals, Sun Yuanliang was sent to the military court because he abandoned his division and fled in the defense of Nanjing, Wang Jingjiu was also removed from his post because of his misdeeds during the training in Luoyang, Song Xilian has now become the only surviving Zhang general, because Song Xilian fought bravely and decisively in Nanjing, and was quite valued by Jiang, Zhang Zhizhong's three major imperial forest divisions, 36th Division, 87th Division and RR Division, were all assigned to Song Xilian's 71st Army sequence by Lao Jiang.

However, the RR division is not under Song Xilian now, but was temporarily assigned to Gui Yongqing's army by He Yingqin, which is also a common phenomenon in the national army, and even Lao Jiang often does this, first, because of the difference between relatives and relatives, and then for the sake of checks and balances, as a result, many contradictions were created out of thin air, and objectively aggravated the infestation between various factions.

Because of the fact that the RR division was assigned to the army, Song Xilian had a very good opinion of Gui Yongqing, when the Tufeiyuan division had just captured Heze and seriously threatened the flank of Shangqiu, Xue Yue originally intended to Song Xilian's 71st Army to guard Lanfeng, and Song Xilian also transferred Long Muhan's dR division first, but Gui Yongqing just escaped from Dangshan, and out of the consideration of atonement, he "volunteered" to assume the responsibility of garrisoning Lanfeng, Xue Yue of course did not allow it, and as a result, the Military Commission directly ordered it down, Even the RR Division of Long Mu Han, which had just opened from Qixian to Lanfeng, was temporarily assigned to Gui Yongqing's Army.

In Song Xilian's view, Gui Yongqing is simply a cowardly and soft egg who picks fat and picks up thin, bullies the soft and is afraid of the hard, the army lost face after suffering defeat in Dangshan, and wanted to save his reputation in Lanfeng, so he put on an "impassioned" jiashi in Lanfeng and took the initiative to ask Ying, but he had to go to guard Lanfeng, what was the result? As a result, as soon as Little Japan came over, he ran away again.

According to Song Xilian's original intention, he really didn't want to go to Lanfeng to wipe Gui Yongqing's buttocks, but Chairman Jiang had just sent him a private warrant, and the title of the warrant was directly the word Yin Guo, Yin Guo was Song Xilian's expression, and when Chairman Jiang commensurate his subordinates with the expression, there were generally only two situations.

One is the situation like Han Fuqu, Lao Jiang is commensurate with the words in front of him, and when he turns around, he asks people to handle Han Fuqu.

The other is to show that the subordinates who appreciate themselves are usually commensurate with the words, and there are two situations here, one is pure appreciation, and does not carry others, and the other is that you need to make sacrifices, Song Xilian understands that he belongs to the second situation, not the first.

Lao Jiang's meaning is already obvious, the 71st Army must participate in the Battle of Lanfeng this time, and it must be fought well

However, for the upcoming Battle of Lanfeng, Song Xilian is not optimistic, don't look at the Lanfeng Japanese army has only one division, but he is one of the seventeen permanent divisions of small Japan, although the national army besieging the Japanese army has eighteen divisions, the combat effectiveness is uneven, and the command system is even more disordered, especially Gui Yongqing, the black sheep.

Jiang Fusheng, the commander of the 36th Division, had the same worries as Song Xilian, and said: "Military seat, I'm not afraid of other lowly positions, I'm afraid that Gui Yongqing, a long-legged guy, will slip away at a critical moment, there is someone in his center, He Yingqin and Chen Cheng will speak for him, but who will we go to when the time comes?" When the time comes, the battle of Lanfeng will not be able to play well, and the board will have to fall on our heads. ”

Shen Fazao, commander of the 87th Division, also echoed: "That's it, if you want me to say, don't go to Yu Crisp." ”

"The old man has already spoken, and the wording has never been harsh, you dare not go?" Song Xilian glared at Jiang Fusheng and Shen Fazao coldly, and said, "Okay, hurry back and gather the troops and start overnight."

When the 71st Army was drawn from Qixian overnight, the 74th Army had also been drawn from the Dangshan front.

After a night of rapid marching, most of the 74th Army arrived at a market town near Shangqiu, people were sleepy and horses were lacking, Yu Jishi ordered the troops to rest on the spot, and then leave after breakfast, the common people in eastern Henan were still very enthusiastic, and every household opened their doors to welcome the national army to their homes to make fires and cook, and many peasant households with surplus grain also took the initiative to donate their home grain storage.

Of course, the 74 officers and soldiers did not enter the market town to disturb the people, but just stayed quietly outside the market town.

Gao Shenxing sat down beside Xu Shijiu, and said in a suppressed voice: "Captain, do you think we can really wipe out the 14th Division of Little Japan in Lan Feng this time?" ”

Xu Shijiu broke off a piece of bread and chewed vigorously with cold water without making a sound.

Gao Shenxing said to himself: "If you want me to say, it's no fun at all, don't look at our superiority, and in fact, the Tufeiyuan Division has formed a four-sided encirclement situation, but it is difficult for all the departments participating in the war to work together, especially that Gui Yongqing, as long as everything is mixed with him, it will be over, I really don't know what Commander-in-Chief Xue thinks." ”

Xu Shijiu didn't speak, but Shu Tongwen took over the conversation and said: "Xue Yue is only afraid and unwilling to Gui Yongqing to come in and mix, but he can't stand that he is a protégé of the Son of Heaven, there are people in the center, and Xue Yue is afraid that he can't help himself." ”

Gao Shenxing sighed and said gloomily: "That's why I said that the national army has no hope." ”

Li Zihan walked over with porridge, and while sitting on the other side of Xu Shijiu, he asked Gao Shenxing: "You mean that if China wants to win the War of Resistance, it can only hope for the Communist Party?" ”

Since Li Zihan returned from injury, he has become a different person and has become active.

Gao Shenxing and Shu Tongwen often get together to discuss some issues, such as whether China will lag behind in modern times, for example, the national army will repeat the mistakes of the Beiyang Army, and there will also be factional rebellion, Xu Shijiu generally does not comment much, but after Li Zihan returned from injury, he quickly joined the discussion between the two.

Sometimes, Hu Jie, the commander of the artillery company, would also join the discussion.

Gao Shenxing and Shu Tongwen believe that the most fundamental reason why the national army has been repeatedly defeated is that the national government has been completely corrupted, and the army has been seriously militarized, even if the war of resistance against Japan is won, as long as Chairman Chiang has three longs and two shorts, China will immediately return to the dark age of warlord melee, just like more than 20 years ago, when the Beiyang Army boss Yuan Shikai died, the Beiyang Army was immediately divided.

Li Zihan and Hu Jie have another opinion, the two believe that there is an essential difference between the national army and the Beiyang army, and that there are indeed factions in the national army, but they are far from the level of warlordization, and both of them highly respect Chairman Chiang, firmly believing that Chairman Chiang will definitely lead the Chinese army and people to win the war of resistance and give China a new future.

A small 19th Brigade has almost become the epitome of factional rivalry in the national army.

Xu Shijiu generally does not get involved in such discussions, but he does not suppress them.

Li Zihan then asked: "Lao Gao, do you really think that only the Communist Party can save China?" ”

Only the Communist Party can save China is put forward by Shu Tongwen in a certain "ideological confrontation", which is also the conclusion that Shu Tongwen came to after a few months of thinking, which was very appalling at the time, although Xu Shijiu did not say anything on the surface, but in his heart he actually did not agree, because the Liliang of the Communist Party was very weak at that time, and even the most optimistic strategic master did not dare to assert that the Communist Party could save China.

Gao Shenxing also does not believe that the Communist Party is capable of saving China.

"Not really." Gao Shenxing shook his head and said, "Although the tactics of the communist guerrillas are flexible, their liliang is still very weak after all, and for the Japanese army, it is just a disease of scabies. ”

Li Zihan said: "In other words, the War of Resistance can only rely on the national army? ”

"At this stage, we can only rely on the national army, but do you think the national army can withstand the attack of little Japan?" Gao Shenxing asked rhetorically, and sighed again, "Actually, if the national army hadn't had so many factions, and Lao Jiang hadn't liked to command blindly, this war could have been fought more hode, and the situation would have collapsed like it is now." ”

"I don't agree with that." Li Zihan disagreed, "The reason why the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression was like this, and the reason why a large area of land in Northeast China, North China, and East China fell, was not because of a certain person, nor simply because of military reasons, but because China lost to Little Japan in terms of comprehensive national strength, especially on an industrial basis." ”

Gao Shenxing closed his mouth and stopped talking, he knew that he couldn't convince Li Zihan, just like Li Zihan couldn't convince him and Shu Tongwen, fortunately, such an argument did not affect the unity of the 19th Brigade, although there were only more than 100 people left, but the military spirit of the 19th Brigade was not weakened, as long as they needed, they could still pull out.